Haines Junction, Yukon Territory

We loaded the car this morning in a cold rain.  The temperature was around 50 degrees.  I can’t get accustomed to Celsius.  The rain was actually good because it washed some of the dirt off, especially of the running boards.  We drove out of the rain in about an hour and had a sunny but cool day. Too bad we had to drive through another construction project that they had wet down to keep the dust down and the car got muddy again.

Though we drove through some mountains, it was not nearly as mountainous as yesterday.  We didn't see any wildlife today. 

Places to stop for a meal are rare and with long distances between.  Yesterday we lucked upon a deli style place, Jake’s Place.  I asked Jake if he would fix two ham and cheese sandwiches to go but wrap each part separately.  He said sure and started pulling out the ingredients.  He had loaves of bread that had been baked there that were twice the size of what we buy at the store.  He sliced off four big slices and wrapped them in plastic wrap.  Then he pulled out a baked ham and started cutting slices until he had a pile of ham.  This was followed by the long rectangle of cheese like they have at the deli at Walmart.  He sliced off eight slices of cheese.  The ham and cheese were each wrapped in foil followed by plastic wrap.  The ham and cheese went in the cooler with our drinks and water.  This morning we stopped at a little grocery store and got a small jar of mayo and a small jar of pickles.  For lunch today, we had our sandwiches.  The bread was so big we only used one slice each.  Two slices of ham and one slice of cheese went on the sandwich with mayo and pickles.  I had brought some chips and soft drinks with us.  There is enough of everything for at least one more sandwich each, maybe two.  We had our picnic at one of the “rest areas.”  It was so cool and the mosquitoes were so bad, we had to sit in the car to eat.

Our motel tonight is a small, new motel built in the style of an old 50s motel.  It is immaculately clean and has the best view of any yet.  There is also a restaurant and laundromat across the street.  We put clothes in to wash and went to order dinner.  Again the prices were high but the portions were large so we split an order and had all we could eat.  Since it is much cooler here, we switched out our hot weather clothes for warmer clothes.

At the hotel at Dawson Creek, we were going to share breakfast.  This hotel had a restaurant attached and did not offer complimentary breakfast.  We ordered the meal that had two eggs, four strips of bacon, a large serving of fresh hash browns, two slices of Texas toast, a wedge of watermelon and an orange wedge.  That screamed share to me.  I told the waitress we would be sharing and ordered two drinks.  When the food was delivered, it was on a 12 inch dinner plate and the plate was full.  She sat it down in front of Danny, looked at me and said, “Oh.  Did you want another plate?”  I said,” Uh, yea.”  I really wanted to say, “Duh!”

The rest area facilities - no running water, no hand sanitizer, just a hole in the ground. 

The Teslin River and the village of Teslin. 

The view from our hotel.  This is the Kluane range which is part of the St. Elias Mountains.

The Canadian money looks like monopoly money.  The denominations are like ours but the look is different.  There is a $5 bill but I don't have one right now.  There are no $1 bills.  The bottom coin is a $2 coin (toonie); it is a gold coin with a silver band.  The $1 coin (loonie) is gold.  From bottom to top, there is $2, $1, 25 cents, 10 cents, and 5 cents.  If change would require pennies, it is rounded either up or down.

Watson Lake, Yukon, Canada

OH MY GOSH!  We were on a Rocky Mountain high today.  I’ll get to that in a minute.  We started the day at the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum.  They have historical items to the area about everything, including a fair amount from the Alaska Highway.  We saw bulldozers, heavy equipment, and trucks from then.  We spent way too much time there; Danny was in mechanics heaven.  We had our first run-in with the mosquitoes there.  From there on, everywhere we stopped, we were greeted by mosquitoes.

From the museum, we started up the Highway and went over the Rocky Mountains.  There were short pieces of the original highway.  I have never seen such views in my life.  There were three fairly long stretches of construction where we had to wait for guide trucks to lead us through the construction.  My car is NASTY.  Most of this post is just going to be pictures.  No words can describe the majesty.  There were more of the out-house rest areas and we were glad to get to one of them.  There are miles and miles of road with no buildings and no power lines.  We have thoroughly enjoyed SiriusXM radio but on top of the mountains, there was no reception.  There was no cell reception and even Onstar didn’t work.  Usually if the phone doesn’t work, we can still call with the car phone.  Not today.

We saw the first wildlife other than deer, which Danny says don’t count since they are everywhere at home.  We saw several buffalo and two bears.  Unfortunately, one of the bears was on the side of the road dead.  The other was walking along the tree line.  We were moving too fast and by the bear before we could get a picture.  We’re in a little town called Watson Lake tonight.  I assume there is a lake nearby but I haven’t seen it yet.  This place is old-fashioned but very clean.  I hope it leads to a good nights rest.

We know Dad drove a bulldozer.  It was probably a D8 like this one.

These mountain pictures are all of the Rocky Mountains.

Muncho Lake

Snow on top of the mountain

Lots of buffalo

This old guy was just walking up the side of the road.  He didn't seem in any hurry.

August 3, 2014 Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada

This morning started out foggy and gray but ended with the sun out.  We saw some interesting sights and some beautiful scenery between Edmonton and Dawson Creek.  Edmonton is in Alberta and Dawson Creek is in British Columbia.  We gained another hour when we left Alberta and entered British Columbia; so now we are 3 hours behind Eden.  The girls get in a tizzy when I am late checking in but, when they are ready for bed, we still have light and are doing something.

Along the highway in Montana and in Canada, there are not many billboards.  I don’t remember if this was the same in Wyoming.  Instead of billboards, there are old trailers (as in tractor-trailer) with printed signs down the side.  These fields are so huge, Danny is guessing the farmers use the trailer for storage and rent the side for advertising.  We don’t know that as fact but it sounds reasonable to me.  We saw more horses, more fields of some kind of grain, we were told it is mostly barley in this area, and lots of hills.  Most of the road today was a lot rougher than what we had been driving on with lots of bumps.

There are a lot of miles from one town to another out here so we were glad to see a sign for a rest area.  This particular “rest area” turned out to be a glorified outhouse with no running water.  The toilet was over a hole in the ground.  There were big containers of hand sanitizer at the door of each little room.  Thankfully, we only had to stop at one of these though we saw several of them.

In one area, several deer were playing along the edge of the road.  I told Danny to slow down and he said deer are nothing, we see them all the time at home.  I was worried about them running across the highway. 

We saw beautiful patches of wild flowers all along the road.  I think one of the purple flowers was just thistle but it sure had a nice aroma.

We reached Dawson Creek around 3:30 this afternoon.  We checked in to the hotel then went to the historic area.  We saw the milepost signs.  The newer one where we are standing is about 2 blocks from the original 0 mile marker.   The road does not follow the exact layout as the original.  As it is improved, curves are taken out and the road gets shorter.

Today we toured the old Northern Alberta Railway Station.  The original building is now a museum.  The station masters residence has been kept pretty much as the last station master left it.  Tomorrow we go to the museum for the Highway and then start driving on it.

Trailer billboard

Fancy outhouse they call a "rest area."  Restrooms here are called washrooms.

Thistle?  It smells good.

Another couple came along and took our picture.  Then we took theirs.

The actual 0 mile marker.

August 4, 2014 Ft. Nelson, British Columbia

This morning we went to the museum to the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek.  It was not as large as I expected it to be but was interesting.  When we left the museum, we started driving on the Alaska Highway or Highway 97.  About 20km outside Dawson Creek, there is some of the original road which you can drive on.  I was driving so I could say I had driven on the road Dad helped construct.  This piece of road goes for about 20km (about 15 miles.)  The original Kiskatinaw Bridge is part of this section of the Alaska Highway.  This bridge curves 9 degrees along its 534 ft length.  It is constructed of three spans of timber trusses and is 100 feet above the stream.  There are wooden planks forming the road part of the bridge.  Some knucklehead has defaced the marker for the bridge by spraying graffiti on it.  Why do people feel it necessary to do something like that?  In a section of the old road, we could see where the side of the mountain had been blasted away.  A video we watched (and I bought) at the museum explained that when the engineers reached a marshy or muskeg area, they simply went around it.  That explains a lot of the curves in the road.  As we drove on Hwy 97, occasionally pieces of the old road could be seen but that 15 miles section is all that seemed to be left to drive on.  I don’t know what I expected but the Alaska Highway is a fairly good, two-lane highway going through miles of forest land.  We saw more beautiful wild flowers and lots of trees.  Again, in parts of these forests, something seems to be killing the evergreens.

In every city we have been in since we got in Canada, there have been beautiful plantings.  Petunias seem to be particularly popular.  We have seen some of the most beautiful hanging baskets of petunias I have ever seen.  Guess what I will be planting next summer.

The Alaska Highway House - a small museum to the Alaska Highway located at the 0 mile marker.

In every city, we have seen beautiful plantings of petunias.

Part of the original highway.  Did Dad push the trees down in this section?  I wish I knew.

What an amazing bit of engineering to have lasted 72 years and still be usable.

You can see the wooden planks forming the driving surface.  Heavy vehicles are not allowed to drive across the bridge.

The graffiti made me angry.

On the original highway.  You can see where the side of the mountain was blasted away.  There was one accident with dynamite that killed five men.

Lots of road with the same view.

Slightly different view.

Edmonton, Alberta

We slept in this morning and got more rest than we have been getting.  The drive from Lethbridge to Edmonton was uneventful.  We saw some beautiful horse farms, lots of cattle, barley fields, and beautiful fields of yellow blooms.  I asked at a rest area what the yellow was.  It’s canola – used to make cooking oil.  I’ve used it many times and never knew what it looked like.  The hotel we’re staying in was hosting a wedding tonight.  We saw the bride and her bridesmaids.  Their bouquets were very colorful and beautiful.  This is short because nothing really happened today.

The canola fields were beautiful.  I'm going to have to look up the processing of the plant into the oil.

Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Most of today was spent in Montana.  Some of it was flat and had wheat fields and windmills.  But some of it was WONDERFUL!  We started out with some rough road under construction but it got better.  I really can’t get over the speed limits on roads that are not fabulous.  We went through the Lewis & Clark National Forest.  At the highest point, we were at around 7500 feet elevation.  I’m not going to put much about it here but will explain some of the pictures.  Today at another rest area, we bumped in to the couple we met yesterday.  Wonder how many more times we will see them.  We entered Canada at around 3:00 this afternoon.  We pulled up to a window and the man said, “Take off your sunglasses and lower the back window.”  This was after he had our passports. He wanted to know why we were going to Canada.  Then he wanted to know why we were going to Alaska.  He asked if we would be visiting anyone in Canada.  He asked if we had any guns with us.  When we said no, he asked if we owned any guns.  When told yes, he asked if we ever took our guns with us.  When told no, he handed the passports back and told us to enjoy our trip.  We drove on to Lethbridge where we had a reservation for tonight.  At first Alberta was flat with many wheat fields.  Then the rolling hills started again.  All in all, it was a good day.  Oh, we did laundry at the hotel tonight so we can start with clean clothes tomorrow.

A lake in the Lewis & Clark National Forest

Sluice boxes in the L & C forest

At the Canadian border

I went out to walk in the parking lot just as a train started across the trestle at sunset.  I like this picture a lot.

Harlowton, Montana - July 31, 2014

Today was exhausting. My insomnia was at work last night so I have been tired all day. Danny and I have been switching off driving. Whoever drives after lunch drives the next morning. I had to drive this morning. Anyone who knows me well, knows I enjoy driving fast. The speed limit has been being between 70 and 80. Several times in construction areas on the interstate, all traffic has switched to two lanes going in opposite directions. It's about like driving on 135 except the speed limit has been 70. Wild! Thankfully, traffic has not been terribly heavy. We drove through Wyoming and are now in Montana. The topography is very different in broad areas. In much of Wyoming, there were mountains, or what we would call mountains. Most of them were barren. Some may have had some scrub on them.  We saw more wheat fields and started seeing oil wells pumping.  As we neared Sheridan, WY, we could see two different ranges of mountains. The nearer one was fairly barren but the ones farther away had growth. We could also see spots of white. I asked the attendant at a rest area what the white was. She said, "Snow." What? Today is July 31 and there is snow on those mountains!  At a rest area, a couple came up to us and he asked where we were from.  When we said North Carolina, he said that's what he thought.  They are from Blowing Rock and are doing almost the same trip we are.  Billings, MT looked like a fairly large city but Danny thought it was too early to stop so kept driving. We ended up on a long, two lane road (speed limit 70 mph) through "Nowhere, MT." I was beginning to think we were going to have to drive all the way to Great Falls. I kept searching on my phone and found the Countryside Inn in Harlowton. It is a neat little motel with a good sized bedroom and a huge bathroom. I wish I had a bathroom like that at home. The reviews I read were really good and we are glad we found this little motel; however, their internet is not working so this will be posted sometime tomorrow.

Snow on July 31.  I don't know when it actually fell.

High above Billings, MT