June 12th

THE DETAILS:

WEATHER: The day started mild but cloudy. The temp. was 55 to start. An improvement over the last couple of days. We didn’t have to sleep with the electric blanket last night!

DISTANCE: We left Pink Mountain at 10:30 this morning and pulled into Toad River Campground at 4:30. 6 hours of driving and 260 miles of driving. When we pulled over to take a picture of the beautiful scenery we met people from Colorado and Kansas…. Guess which one was most impressed with the mountain view?


Good to have you aboard Heather! There’s always room for one more. I would stay away from the wine cabinet though… Tim has been in there since the beginning of the trip and I don’t know what condition you’ll find him in.

The campground we stayed at last night included in their information: “Black bears are a fact of life. Do Not Become Alarmed. Do not approach and scare the bears.”! They are worried about US scaring the BEARS! LOL! When we began our travels this morning there was a large moose lying dead on the southbound side of the road. That one was black like we see in NH.

The terrain is once again beautiful. Miles upon miles of straight-as-an-arrow scrubby pines and mountains looming in the distance. There are points that the road will have a steep 9 percent descent into a beautiful portion of water and cliffs. BTW, thanks Dan for posting the information on the dangers of the Alaskan Hwy. so that mom has reason to worry! It was actually interesting and informative, thanks. You were right about the adventure just beginning. It was absolutely stunning driving through the mountains today. The kind of beauty that takes your breath away. Pictures (though we took many) does not do it justice. Besides the scenery we also ran across our first black bear. He was just off the southbound lane of traffic eating dandelions. We were so close to him that we could hear him munching on his dinner!! Gary estimates that he weighed around 200 to 250 pounds. Mom, we stayed in the car! Amazing. We also saw one in the distance. Though the “Milepost” magazine warned us of possible caribou and rock sheep being in the road we, unfortunately, did not catch a glimpse of them.

I think I have finally adjusted to the 2 hour time change… just before heading into another one! It’s difficult when you go to bed at 10:30 and it’s still light outside. We used a cardboard cover over the roof vent over our bed last night in order to darken the area. Gary made it before we left with slits in it allowing venting but giving us the greatest degree of darkness. He should have been an engineer.

The campground we are staying at is the prettiest so far. There is a huge river right outside out side our back door! There’s moose droppings along the shoreline and a good sized mountain on the other side. We will sleep well tonight.

June 11th

THE DETAILS:

WEATHER: Gorgeous. When we pulled out of Valley View it was 63 degrees and clear skies. The high today was 83 and other than a few rain showers (that we could see from miles away) we drove in dry clear weather.

DISTANCE: We left Valley View Alberta at 10:00 today and arrived at Pink Mountain, British Columbia at 6 pm. We drove 290 miles in 8 hours.


So it’s interesting to watch the campgrounds fill up with people all heading in the same direction. It’s like a huge funnel. People from Canada and the States all converging on one road…. The Alaska Highway. We will begin our journey on the legendary road today. It begins in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. We have a magazine called, “The Milepost”. It is supposedly the “bible” for Alaskan travel. I spent hours last night studying the guide to figure out how to use it. Gary, on the other hand, poured over his Alaskan fishing books getting ready for the BIG CATCH!

60 miles south of Dawson Creek we caught our first glimpse of the Rockies to our west. Awesome! I have a feeling I’m going to be saying that a lot from this point on. The Rockies tower over the prairie that we are now traveling on and though the mountains are many miles away (about 170) you can see the snow covered peaks.

Well, we did it! We are now on the Alaskan Highway making our way towards Alaska. We are seeing more and more US license plates now that we’re on this road also. It was an interesting drive…. Beautiful scenery, miles upon miles of forest, and bridges that span large rivers. The road is great to travel on (so far). They cut a large birth of trees back away from the road so you can see about 30 yards on both sides of the road. It gives you time to see and then brake for animals you might see…. Like the moose with her calf that almost ran out in front of us. There was a couple from Virginia that were following us in their RV who then pulled into the same campground that we are in and they were amazed at the sight! They were disappointed that they weren’t able to get any pictures. We also saw a very healthy, large red fox and a couple of deer. It’s interesting that the color of the deer and moose are greyer than at home. The moose at home are blacker and the deer are more brown.

We would have crossed another time zone today b/c it runs along the BC & AB provincial line, except for the towns of Dawson Creek, Charlie Lake, Taylor and Fort St. John, which are on Mountain time and do not observe daylight savings time. They are definitely nonconformists up here… and they can get away with it!

June 10th

THE DETAILS:

WEATHER:
We woke up under a blanket of clouds and rain showers. As we continued west and north it got brighter but again, there is no real sun…. just brightness through the clouds. We used our heater for the first time yesterday and this morning just to get the 47 degree chill out of the air. The high was only 68 today. By the time we got to our campground we had absolutely beautiful weather, cobalt blue skies and full sun!


DISTANCE:
We left Vermillion, AB around 9:30! We couldn’t walk this morning due to the rain so we got on the road a little earlier. We arrived at Valley View, AB around 5:30. We drove 336 miles today.


Well we’ve definitely pushed through the flatlands and we’re back in bush country. Lots of trees, lots of pines. It reminds us of home. It’s been interesting to see what kind of stores are familiar to us as we go through some of the bigger towns. I see Rexall Drug, Home Depot IGA, Howard Johnson’s, Quality Inn, Best Western, Motel 8, Staples, Lots of Subways, McDonald’s, Arby’s and…. Of course…. Walmart!! The one that both Gary & I laughed at is A & W’s! That brought back memories. If you’re younger than 50 you probably don’t remember them! Gary had to get a picture. Of course there are lots of stores that we don’t recognize but our favorite has become “Husky’s”. They have the best gas prices and lots of room to park.

Those who are familiar with Pittsburg, NH and the famous “moose alley”, well we passed a sign today that informed us that we were in “moose row”!!! Different name…. same warning.

So I was able to get on the internet enough last night to read some of the comments on the blog. Gary & I have decided that you guys are a bunch of blog-junkies!! We are under such pressure to post EVERY night or we get nasty comments!! My brother-in-law (a farmer) said that when he comes in from the fields at the end of the day he’s hungry for….. A blog post! Not dinner, but a new post! There was a joke going around before we left that many of you planned to stow away in our RV and once we were well on our trip you were going to pop out of the compartments to join us. Well, we kinda’ feel like that’s what’s happened! We have 18 “stowaways” that are taking the trip right along with us! We love you guys! And we will continue to post as we can. It is PAINFULLY slow internet.

June 9th

THE DETAILS:

WEATHER: C---O---L---D !!! It was only 45 degrees this morning when I got up with a slight wind. Why are we driving north??? Okay, enough whining! It warmed up quickly, it’s partly sunny and a good day to travel. The high today was 60 with mostly cloud cover with the sun permeating through.


DISTANCE: We left Colonsay, Saskatchewan at 10:30. We arrived Vermillion, AB at 5:30. 7 hours of driving and 252 miles.


Okay, so last night our “Prairie Schooner” got a good washing. It took Gary from 9:00 pm to 10:30 to get it back looking white again. Can you believe that he worked the whole time in daylight?? The sun set as he came in for dinner. The area is so flat and full of farm land that you can see a campground a mile away! Whenever you see a clump of trees in the middle of a field…. Yep…. There’s the campground!

After we got on our way this morning we stopped by a “Husky’s” trucker stop in Saskatoon. Gary deserved a good breakfast after all his work last night and they had a good internet connection. Dan, you are awesome!! That map is sooo cool. Now if we get lost we can refer to your thumbtacks!! LOL. BTW, can I hear 2 thumbs up from you because I now know how to post pictures to the blog! It was a little tedious and I needed a nap after the ordeal but I think I got the hang of it. Now I need to figure out how to correct that side way’s picture. Hmmm. WIFI is getting a little harder to find as we drive north so if you don’t hear from us, you’ll know why.

Saskatoon got it’s name from a Cree Indian who brought a colonist leader, John Lake, a handful of purple berries that grew in abundance alongside the Saskatchewan River. Lake was so taken by the fruit that he named the city after them. So today, before leaving the area we treated ourselves to a slice of traditional Saskatoon pie! It looked a bit like blueberries but tasted more like elderberries. It didn’t have much taste. Nothing to…. “write home to mother about”, as my dad would say.

Rick, I wish you were right about the 8 mpg. The times I record are including stops along the way and we’re only traveling at 50-55 mph. It is Gary’s “thorn in the flesh”. He has tried multiple ways to achieve better gas mileage much to his dismay. One time we actually did get 8 mpg but mostly we get an average of 7. He is ready to dump the water out of our reserve tank to, “lighten the load”!! I reminded him that we are heading into British Columbia and then the Yukon Territories where there will be nothing for miles!!

We achieved 2 milestones today on making our way north. (1) We left Saskatchewan and crossed into Alberta and (2) we crossed another time zone. We are now in Mountain Standard Time which puts us 2 hours behind you. As we pulled into the town we are staying in tonight we were pleasantly surprised that it is a modern looking place. Our campground is in a provincial park which we are finding to be pretty well kept camps. They are a little pricier though. Our site is on a hill with little room between RV’s but the terrain is green, not farmland, and there are trees, not forest but definitely greener than we’ve seen for the past couple of days. There’s actually a college about a mile from where we’re staying but….. NO INTERNET!!! Can you believe it??

June 8th

THE DETAILS:

THE WEATHER: We woke up at 4 am to raindrops… falling on our head! So… we slept in! Of course. It’s about 60 degrees and rain showers. This flat country doesn’t have the same beauty as the wet forest, but we’re moving on anyway. Due to this area being agricultural they depend on the rain! As we drove further north we drove out of the rain but a thick cloud cover blankets the sky. The kind that allows the sun to permeate so you can’t make up your mind whether to wear your sunglasses or not! The high today reached only 68. As we drove into Saskatchewan it began to rain and the wind picked up. Gary had a hard time keeping the RV steady through some of it. The day ended with a beautiful sunset and cool temperatures.

DESTINATION: We left Portage la Prairie, MB at 10:30 and arrived in Colonsay, SK at 9 pm. Much later than intended. The sun did not set until 10:30 tonight!! SOOO weird. We drove 10 hours and covered 405 miles today!



It is hard to believe that 3 weeks ago today I was laying in a hospital bed waking up from surgery!!! God has been incredibly good to me. Not only the miracle of dancing at Kim’s wedding but now almost half way to the Alaskan border!

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits - …. Who satisfies [my] mouth with good so that [my] youth, renewed, is like the eagle’s ((strong, overcoming, soaring).” Psalm 103: 2 & 5

So we continue our journey westward… again we see nothing but miles upon miles of farm land. Lots of cows, horses, steer, etc. We saw one coyote who looked pretty well fed. He was probably around 60 pounds. Gary wants me to tell you that we also saw our first ground squirrel. Oooh, if he only had a gun!

So we ran into a slight problem… I had calculated a good distance to drive to our next campground but when we arrived much of it was flooded and there were only 15 amp service available (we need 30 to run everything comfortably) and there was no water hook ups. We decided to drive the next 30 miles to the next campground that I saw on the map. It was worse than the last one! First we had to drive 1.6 miles down a muddy road which was a little scary and then we got to the site and there was no office, there were just a couple of sites that were also in the mud and there was NO ONE else camping there. Hmmmm, what do they know that we don’t?? Do we want to hang around and find out? The answer is … NOOOO!!! Gary could tell I was a little uneasy (just a little!!!) so he went to pull out of the site and it was a bit slippery. He got out to check out the situation and we found our RV was covered in mud! It looks like we went 4 wheeling with a motor home! I did get a picture and when I get good internet access I may be able to post the pictures. Don’t worry, Gary got us out of the mud and we were able to get back on paved road heading further west. Not sure what time dinner will be tonight… dinner out sounds good!

Tim, to answer some of your questions about RV camping. The sites are not very attractive. They do not have the campsite feel of tenting at all. Usually you pull your rig into a line of other rigs right next to yours. Most of the time it just looks like one big parking lot! Of course for us, we aren’t looking to stay long and so the location doesn’t matter much. It will when we get to Alaska where we want to spend a week or so in one area. We’ll see what those sites look like. The best campground we’ve been in so far was in Sudbury where the guy left a lot of trees between the lots so you felt like you had a little privacy. NOTHING has been crowded! Much to our liking we only have a handful of campers at any site. I finally asked one of the camp owners when their season would pick up and he said not until the end of June/ first of July! Yippee!



CRIBBAGE COUNT: Gary 3 Debbie 2 (He almost had to sleep on the picnic table when he was ahead by 2 games! I think he may have let me win the last game.)

June 7th

THE DETAILS:

WEATHER: Absolutely gorgeous… do I need to say any more?? We woke up to sunny skies, a cool breeze off the lake and 62 degrees. It warmed to 78 before we left the campground. We drove through a few showers today but for the most part it was sunny and mild.

DISTANCE: We left Kenora, ON at noon!! Okay Dad, I can hear you from hear, “fool around fool around!” No, we weren’t wasting time we took advantage of the noon check out time (it’s usually 10) and cleaned the “house”! Gary did some minor work on the outside of the RV and I did all the “Saturday chores” on Monday. We’ll be doing grocery shopping and laundry later today. We finally arrived in Portage La Prairie at 6 pm.


The campground that we stayed in last night was right on a lake called “Lake of the Woods”. It is so big that it extends down into Minnesota. When we registered into the campground they told us not to leave any food laying around because they had seen bear tracks on the beach that morning. We fell asleep last night to the beautiful haunting sound of loons calling to each other from across the lake and a young deer walked into our camp this morning while we were cleaning and meandered through to the other side. This is probably the prettiest town we have been through yet. The people are especially friendly.

So Gary feels I missed my calling in life. He says I make an excellent stewardess. When I prepare lunch, snacks or drinks I’m able to keep my balance while he continues to drive. Yes, I have served peanuts, but no pretzels. I actually feel like a stewardess when we go to break down camp. I go through the “cabin” making sure the doors to the upper bins are all securely locked down, I check windows and blinds, etc. before I lower myself into the “cockpit” to also be co-pilot or navigator!

We have finally said good-bye to Ontario and said hello to Manitoba. Not only the Province but also the terrain has changed. We stopped at a fruit stand and the man there spent about 15 minutes with us explaining where we were headed and what to expect. He said, “you’ve been driving through bush country, now you will drive the flatlands where you can watch your dog run for 3 days”!! He was right. We are now west of Winnipeg and Gary says this place makes Kansas look like hill country!

June 6th

THE DETAILS:

WEATHER: We woke up to sunshine!! Still only 51 degrees but the sun through the wet forest is beautiful. The high today was 68, partly cloudy and absolutely beautiful!


DISTANCE: We left Thunder Bay at 10:30 this morning and headed once again west & north on the Canadian Highway. Arrived Kenora, ON at 5 pm (CT). That is 6 ½ hours and 285 miles. Gary has found that driving at 50 mph rather than 55 he has increased the gas miles from 7 to 8.4 mpg!!! Don’t you wish you had a vehicle like this!!


So we have traveled Rte. 17 for hundreds of miles now and for much of it we keep seeing a pile of rocks placed in a certain order any where the road cuts through rock. We thought maybe there were a lot of Buddhists or some other kind of religious rite, but last night we learned what it’s all about. It’s actually an Indian tradition to place these stones in a formation that resembles the form of a man and it is to wish travelers a safe journey. We took a picture and if I can figure out how to post a picture You’ll get to see one! Thanks Dan for the “on-line tutorial”!!

It wasn’t too far after leaving Thunder Bay that we came across a sign that informed us that we were now crossing into the Central Time Zone!! We are now one hour different than home. I can’t believe how light it stays here. The sun does not go down until around 10 to 10:30 pm! It doesn’t prevent us from getting a good night sleep though, the bed is inviting after a full day of driving no matter how bright it is outside. I wonder if that will be the case when we get to Alaska where there is no “night”!

That same sign also informed us that from this point on all the rivers flow North to the Arctic Ocean verses south to the Atlantic. We are making progress! BTW we have been over some rough roads in the past 2 days due to construction and Bert’s welding job has held up well!! PTL! Blueberry bushes are prevalent around here and should attract bear but we haven’t seen one yet…. BUT! We saw our first sign of wildlife… a deer. A young one that didn’t know enough to stay in the woods at noon time.

Sue, in honor of you, when we pulled into Dryden and came across the first store… Tim Horton’s, we stopped and I got a medium coffee & Gary got a frozen cappachino and we toasted to you. Hey! They have great donuts too (just like Krispy Kreme)… yes, we splurged & it was delicious.

So we reached Kenora, ON… it’s 6:00 pm central time, Gary just finished cooking a steak that’s been marinating for 2 days over an open campfire. There’s 2 glasses of a good Shiraz sitting on the picnic table and….. Why am I on this computer??? Good night! Tim & Sue, we're missing you!


PS: Thanks for the advice David (W), after Gary skunked me on the first game I was getting ready to toss him out of the RV until the second game I was able to skunk him!! All is now peaceful in the Bishop RV ….. For now. We’ve been getting to the campsites too late to play another game since then. Of course, using your advice, maybe we should keep it that way!