The Yukon

This is the first time in a week that we've got to stay in one place for more that one night. We are in Whitehorse, YT. We've been very busy here for the two whole days we've been able to explore. But let me start with the road to get here.

We drove 285 miles from Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson We rode over several frost heaves on the way. At least most are marked so we could slow way down to get over them. We got to see the Heritage Museum that was next to the RV park. That was about all we did that day.

On Tuesday we headed out for Liard (Lee-ard) Provential park. We saw at least three caribou and a wild ram. We stopped for lunch at a roadside place that has a gift shop. We saw a sign that said, " I drove the Alaska Highway both ways, Dammit!"The park is a beautiful place. We dry camped again, but the scenery was outstanding. the trip that day was 185 miles. We went over to the hot springs thatare very famous up here for the "cures" the water is suppose to do. All we saw was steam rising from the water. It's said to be about 105 or 108 degrees. We didn't partake. We got a lot of mud and bug "guts" on the windshield.But that's an everyday occurence up here.

We went to Watson Lake next to put our sign up at the Sign Post Forest. I couldn't believe how many signs there were. We got overload looking at them. That night we went to a theater to see a show called the Northern Lights. It was wonderful. And it's probably the only way I'll see them since they can only be seen at night.

Here in Whitehorse, that is 289 miles from the last place we've seen an old stern wheeler, a museum about the ice age up here, and a vaudville show. It's eleven o'clock and the sun is still up. This about like it was in Scotland.

So far we've only been in three provences in Canada, and we've seen all kinds of flora and fauna. There are wild roses everywhere and some blue flowers as well as some sweet white ones close to the ground. We saw them on our walk to a waterfall. And we saw our moose finally. In fact we saw three that day. One was out in the middle of a river and another was a mother and her calf crossing the road. Both times the moose way there and then gone, so no pictures. But I saw them.

hat's all for now. Love, Mom and Dad PS I was having trouble with the pictures, so they are mixed up. It's mid-night and I'm done...

Going to the Alaska Highway

We stayed one night in Valemount, BC where I got some laundry done before we had a staff prepared supper. It was good and everyone had a good time. The pulled pork was great. We left there the next morning for Prince George, BC.

The scenery on the way up here was fantastic. And we saw three bears. Two were smallblack ones. One was running across the road like his mother was calling him, and the other was just munching away in the field. It was a good trip. We spent two days there and met our new travelers. There are five new couples. And they are just as nice as the old eleven couples. We had a free day so we went to the Costco to get some necessities to last a while and then we went wandering. We went into a Canada Tire Store, and they don't have many tires for sale. But they have sporting goods like hockey sticks and camping gear as well as car supplies, bikes, container store type stuff, paint, plumbing stuff like a Wal*Mart without the clothes. It was different to say the least. We left there on Saturday morning.

We drove up to Dawson Creek, BC. It was a long trip with not much scenery to look at. Then we started to cross the Rockies again. The mountains are magnificent. We stopped a couple of times just to watch. We saw a couple of bears along the way, but still no moose. One couple, the Beavers saw two mose on the same trip. We did stop at Chetwynd where they have a chainsaw carving contest every year. The town folks display the carvings along the main road. They were amazing to look at. We got here in Dawson Creek in time to listen to a lady, Keltie, from the chamber of commerce give a talk. It was interesting to hear how the Alaska Highway was built. It seems that in 1942 30,000 or so Army men came up and built he darn thing all 1450 miles of it in about ten months.

We went to the Mile Zero post and had our picture made this morning as a group. That was the official start of the highway. Then we got our picture at the original maker post that has been moved into the center of an intersection. After that we drove out to see an original bridge over a river. The new bridge is on the new part of the highway. Tonight we went to dinner at a game farm and had a hayride around the farm to see a herd of bison,up close and personal. We also saw elk,mountain goats,deer, wild boar, and Dahl sheep. We ate wild boar, Bison, and venison with all kinds of salads. The desserts were fantastic. Yum.

We leave in the morning for Ft. Nelson. It's a longer trip so good night for now.

Canadian Rockies

I'm going to try this for the third time tonight. I keep getting kicked off or I make sutpid mistakes. So here goes.

You all probably read all about our day in Oliver, so I won't bore you except to say we had a fun time.

We drove on up the valley to a place called Revelstoke. We camped in a canyon surrounded by mountains. The only problem was we had no WiFi signal, but the scenery was georgous. We only stayed there the one night and we were on to the next place.

We went to Canmore, Alberta and stayed in a very nice park except that it rained almost the whole time there. We had a bus tour of Banff and Lake Louise. Wow, as you can see from the photos the palce is amazing. The national parks here have little towns in them unlike in the states. A person can't own the land they live on only lease it. It seems to work for them up here. The rain stopped for the most part when we got off the bus to take pictures. The bus driver said we had good karma going with us that day, but in the morning we left the campground with overcast skies and a promise of more rain to come.

We drove on up the the Columbia Icefields. Now that was fantastic. We got snowed on as we traveled, but only for a while. We saw a black bear and a light colored bear along the way. Most of the way up there we could see several glaciers. We got to the visitors center in time to eat lunch and head over to the museum before our trip out to the Athabasca Glacier. We took a huge bus/snocat thing out onto the glacier. We got to stop and get out and look around for a while. It was great. We tasted the water from the melted ice and climbed up a snow bank and looked around while some of us had a snowball fight. I on the other hand decided to fall on my way down the mound and slid down on my bottom. I got very wet, but it was fun. I was a kid again. We dry-camped at the visitors center so I got changed and we ate supper. We sat there for a while and it rained yet again so our leader had a CB meeting for our trip the next day. During the meeting it began to snow and snowed for about an hour. The ground temperature was to high for it to stick, it didn't stick. But it sure was pretty. It got down to 34 degrees last night. Brrr

We drove west today and we are back in BC. The weather was beautiful. We saw a waterfall and more mountains. Tomorrow we leave for Prince George, BC and will pick up the rest our our tour group, five more couples.

That's all for tonight. Now I have to try and up load the photos. Wish me luck

Pictures

Now I can send pictures. The top three are from Grand Coulee Dam. It was a nice place. The next one is from the Dry Falls. It was a waterfall that happened after the last iceage. The glacier "dam" broke and the ensuing raging flood came over the cliffs for about six miles and 400 feet down. It was huge. The last picture is the view from our RV park in Oliver, BC. It is the wine country of this part of Canada.

Our group is doing a blog as a group. We each have a day,and our first day is tomorrow. The address to the blog is http//www.awaywego2.blogspot.com. More next week. Love, Mom and Dad

Washington

We can't get a signal on Verison, and the WiFi is slooow here in the back woods ( really the desert)so no pictures this week. We're in Soap Lake Wash. We got here Sunday and everyone in our tour group is here already as well. So we've been getting to know every one thus far.
Last night we drove up to the Grand Coulee Dam. We saw a few films about the dam and one about the geology of the area. Very interesting. At 10:00 last night the dam had a laser show that they did on the water coming over the dam. It was complete with music. It was really nice. The only problem was we had to drive back the fifty miles on very dark roads. Thank goodness we have the GPS.
We go into Canada on Thursday. We have to got to a meeting tomorrow afternoon to get the latest info about crossing the border. Things like no fresh produce, two bottles of wine per person, and the most important is no firearms. We have no problems with either of those things. And we have our passports and the dog's medical stuff all in order. This is going to be sooo much fun. I hope we get better service ahead,or I'm not going to be able to send many pictures this year.
I send more next week. Love, Mom and Dad