Day 12

Now this was an interesting day today!!! We left the High Country RV Park in Whitehorse this morning at 11am!!! I had gotten cold last night & had to turn on the furnace. I got this enlightened idea that I would run out this morning and buy and electric blanket!!!! Most of the places that I am staying have electricity and WiFi...so I can stay in touch. I also was concerned about Red Fred. Last night before we went to bed he jumped out of the Sprinter for his last chance to pee & caught his toe nail on the step. He yelped quietly & danced around on 3 feet for a few minutes & then went out to pee. When he came in he was bleeding & licking his back right hind foot. He was no longer limping so I cleaned up the blood, gave him an aspirin & we all went to bed.

So this morning when I had this plan to find an electric blanket I also decided I'd best look for a Vet to check out Fred's foot. I did not find a blanket....but did a lot of looking. Whitehorse is the capital of the Yukon Territory & has a number of shops. I found a Vet, in fact I found two vets, but neither one of them could see Red Fred until 4pm!!!! I thought about just leaving for Dawson City, as I had planned and seeing the Vet there. The only vet in Dawson City is having some medical emergency himself, I learned, and is in Vancouver, so the next vet wasn't until Fairbanks, which will take me a couple of days of driving. So........................we stayed and waited until Red Fred could see the Vet at 4pm. The vet cut off his toe nail and rapped his foot two times and the rap is off now. He did giving him a 10 day course of antibiotics, so I'm sure we did the right thing.

However, we left Whitehorse at 4:30p and only drove until 7:30p. We are now on the Klondike Highway halfway between Whitehorse and Dawson City. Tomorrow ought to be a great trip. Dawson City is full of Gold Field folk lore. After we leave Dawson City we travel across a lesser highway called Top of The World Highway which is supposed to be very scenic. We then go thru the town of Chicken and then Tok on the Taylor Highway before we get back onto the Alaskan Highway to head towards Fairbanks. We have driven more than 3,000 miles so far!!!

Only a couple of pictures today. I was too busy shopping!!! The mushrooms are for my special friends Glenn and Sherri, who were kind enough to show me the movie "Into the Wild" before I left on my trip. No I didn't eat any of these mushrooms that I found in Whitehorse!!!

Day 11

What a GREAT day!!! We slept in at this great campground east of Watson Lake. We had breakfast, the dogs went for a run....Once we got on the road at 11:30am we got gas and oil and propane and drove a short distance to Watson Lake. The Sign Post Forest is what this little town in know for & it is AMAZING!!!! I took scads of pictures & finally decided that we needed to add our sign to this forest. So we went to the hardware store to buy supplies, then came back to the forest to paint and create our sign and then nailed it up on a post that had little space for us. Now all will know that we were there. What a BLAST!!!!

The rest of the day was fun, but marking our adventure seemed important!!!

Day 10

From Dawson Creek, BC to Watson Lake, YK. Got a good night sleep last night, after spending some time with and drinking some wine with Jean Pierre an Elisabeth (here are their pictures). We didn’t leave until 9:30am. The drive was beautiful!!! Some road repairs, but plenty of signage warning about gravel in the road, or high dust areas. It was a great day for animal sightings. When I was a little girl and would vacation with my family, my Dad would offer a penny for the first one to see a wild animal (the offering increased as I grew older.) I would have cleaned up today, Dad would have been delighted!!! There wasn’t much traffic on the Alaskan Highway today so that when I sited my first critter, I was able to come to a full stop next to him and back up to get this picture!!! It is a young caribou! The next were two buffaloes then two moose, then a herd of some sort of big horn sheep (not like the ones in Colorado) then a herd of buffalo!!! Quite a day. I also stopped at the Laird River Hot Springs, left Red Fred and Gracey in the motor home in a cool shady spot, and wandered down a long board walk to a natural hot springs & took a dip…………..it was great!

Tonight we are in a campground in Watson Lake, Yukon Territory. It is a great campground & we may stay another night, depending on what we find to do tomorrow. Unfortunately I don’t seem to have a WiFi connection, so I can’t post this until I do. The young man who took my registration said they had internet connection, so I will check with him in the morning,

All in all, another great day!!! I finished listening to “A New Earth” by Eckhart Tolle this afternoon. This is a fine adventure to have while I listen to him read!

Check out my pictures by clicking on http://picasaweb.google.com/annsplas/10FortNelsonToWatsonLake

Let me know what you think!!

Day 8

This morning was a lot more relaxed. We all got up about 6:30 am, but we had things to do. Shower, make breakfast & eat it. Do the laundry!!! Take the dogs for a walk. Pick up, fill the water tank, drain the water tank. It was 11am before we left the campground "Mile Post 0" in Dawson Creek. We drove down town to see the Hotel Alaska, the museum and the Arch for "mile 0" of the Alaskan Highway.

I drove until 6:30pm and checked in to a campground in Fort Nelson. Next door to me are a couple from Quebec, who camped in the same campground as we did last night!!!. Jean Pierre Cote and Elisabeth Morin will be traveling to the same places as Red Fred, Gracey and I!!! We visited and drank wine together & will talk in the morning about where to meet tomorrow nite.

This WiFi connection is so poor, I can't load any photos....so I'll post them tomorrow.

Pictures for the last entry

Day 7

My pictures are out of order again!!

It was one week ago I left home on this adventure. I have driven a bit more than 2,000 miles & just we drove into Dawson Creek, British Columbia, we finally drove into a new time zone!!! It is now Pacific Standard Time, (whew!)

It was brisk this morning & I was glad that I packed my winter coat!!! I’m also glad that I packed an extra wool blanket and a sleeping bag, just in case. The dogs love the cold weather.

The drive today was long & more beauty everywhere! From the glacier we drove to Jasper & wandered about this cute little town with a train and depot. At the recommendation of a clerk in a sporting goods shop, I changed my route and took a shorter and more scenic route to Dawson Creek. Seemed like a good choice!

We made it to Dawson Creek about 6:30 pm mountain time, so I guess it was only 5:30 pm Pacific time. We are staying in a private campground next to mile one of the Alaskan Highway!!! We have water and electricity tonight, but no WiFi, so you won’t see these until later. Oops..I just found out...I do have WiFi....it's good that I have that extra hour!!!!

Friday, Day 6

Friday was another wonderful day. The first two pictures I took while driving thru Calgary. From there weheaded to Canmore, Alberta (the town where Mystery Alaska was filmed.) It is much bigger than it looked in the movie, but it is at least as beautiful. Mountains surround the town of 4,000, and a river runs thru it!! I had my first meal of this vacation at a restaurant in Canmore & it was worth waiting for. I sat out on the patio and ate steamed mussels in a Thai curry sauce served with pita bread, and it was excellent!

After lunch we drove into Banff and thru Lake Louise, taking pictures at a furious rate. The mountains continued to be breathtaking & we stopped frequently to sight see. About midway between the town of Banff and Jasper I had all the driving and beauty that I could take in for one day, so we parked in an overflow camping lot directly across from
Athabasca Glacier, and next to a tiny lake. WOW!!! I was so inspired; I cooked shrimp gumbo to celebrate.

Day 6

From Glacier to Calgary!!! Another beautiful, but long drive. We had a real breakfast this morning, so didn't get started until 9:39am. Glacier is splendid!!! The Sprinter is 1 foot too long and 1 foot too tall to make the entire trip thru the center of Glacier!!! The 16 miles that we traveled next to Lake McDonald were lovely!!! While in the park, I did take a road that kept getting smaller and smaller, so I got great practice backing up (it seemed like a mile.)

No trouble getting thru Customs. I must not look evil or rowdy enough (I'm a bit disappointed about the not rowdy look!!) I'm not sure what the yellow flowers are in the fields, but they are everywhere in Alberta. I saw them first when we crossed into Canada & they are everywhere. Tonight we are in Calgary at another Flying J's. Again I'm in the ladies bathroom posting my blogs!!! I have had several interesting conversations with women who were surprised to see what I was up to. It seems like a pretty safe place to meet people!!

Day 5

What a beautiful part of Montana I drove thru today. From just West of Bozeman I followed I 90 all the way to Missoula. Then I turned north to Polsen and the Flathead Indian Reservoirs. It’s huge and surrounded by mountains & 60+ miles of lake front properties.

By the time I reached Kalispell I was weary & began looking for a pretty place to spend the night. We are camped in Hungry Horse, MT at a campground with electricity and water, but no WiFi. So I am writing this Wednesday nite, but will have to send it when I reach and internet connection.

It has been raining for the last few hours, so Red Fred in hiding in the bath tub\shower since he heard a clap of thunder. Gracey sat with me while I watched Under the Tuscan Sun ate popcorn and knitted. It feels like a night off. Oops, I guess that I am on vacation, so they are all nights off.

I’ll attach some pictures when ever I can post this. Ta ta for now!

Day four

We drove a lot today. The weather was much cooler, and the Sprinter had no mechanical troubles today. The Tetons were breathtaking!!! We pulled over at a wide spot in the road, directly across from a lovely view and had lunch. It is pretty neat that I get to pick my view, my company and the food I want to eat.

Then we drove thru Yellowstone. WOW!!! I parked at the Yellowstone lodge, and bought a dish of huckleberry ice cream. I walked up to the second floor on the lodge, sat down with many others and with in ten minutes watched Old Faithful erupt!!!

Tonight we are staying in the parking lot of another Flying J service station. This time we are in Montana in a town called Belgrade. It's kinda noisy, but it has WiFi, and it is free!!!

Day three

What a beautiful morning. Yesterday was very hot, but this morning there was a light cloud cover & it was cool!!! The campground was pretty sparsely populated, so we has lots of space to our selves. Gracey and Red Fred are adjusting to the travel all day schedule.

We chose to take another scenic route thru the Flaming Gorge Rec area & got so great photos. About noon, headed north on Wyo HWY 530 about 8 miles south of Green River I heard a funny (not ha ha) kind of noise. Soon, my power steering quit and I pulled off the hwy while the contents of my radiator flowed onto the pavement below!!

62 year old Merle R. Brown, arrived just minutes after I pulled over. A very friendly and helpful gentleman. He found that one of the 3 belts under the hood had broken and pulled the other two off their wheels. He apologized for not have his tools with him!!! I reassured him that I had roadside assistance with Allstate and that my cell phone had a connection. Just in case, he took my number and said that he would check later to see that I was ok. He drove off to Green River. After many calls to Allstate, to discover that the Sprinter is not covered, the Subaru is. I finally got ahold of my agent & I will be insured tomorrow...she said she would make some calls to see about having me towed. Merle called back to discover I was still stuck on the roadside.

About 2pm (it is getting hot now) Merle returned with his son's pick-up....FILLED with tools. He popped open the hood and started to work. Five minutes later two more pick-ups pulled up behind the Sprinter, and Wa La 3 more auto mechanically inclined helpful gentlemen!! Thy tossed the torn hose and put on the two that were still good. After about an hour I was ready to drive into Green River with Merle following me for good luck.

I made it, found a "mechanic" with belts, had all the belts replaced and at 5pm I headed out from Green River. We spent the night At the Flying Something in their parking lot for free!! The have WiFi for a fee, so here I am. Safe, and grateful to all that helped me get here. What an adventure!!!

Day number 2

We left Grand Lake at 9 am this morning & headed west. We drove thru Steamboat Springs and Dinosaur National Monument. The day was HOT!!! For some reason I chose not to use the air conditioning & just have all the window cranked open. Gracey and Red Fred got quite uncomfortable, so we stopped frequently & all drank LOTS of water.

Tonight we are parked in a campground in Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area in the northeast corner of Utah. We have gone for a short walk, but the dogs were still very hot from the drive. So now we are inside the Sprinter with the generator going and the air conditioning on!!! As soon as it cools off, we will go back outside and enjoy the spectacular views.

Tomorrow we head north toward Jackson Hole, WY, and Yellowstone. If it’s hot, I will use the air conditioner!!!