The Great Alaskan Adventure

One more final trip to the soothing pools and then loaded up and headed for Fairbanks. We arrived at the River View RV Park and started parking the trailers. Frnaces and I sat at the picnic table to check some of the brochures we received at check in. Ed came over and decided we needed to move the picnic table to make room for him to pull in. Little did we know that the table had been painted not that long ago and when Ed moved it he got paint all over his hands and his shorts....Frances and I check out each other’s behinds and sure enough they were red to match the table. Great! Off to the office to see what could be done. The staff was very apoligetic and immeditely offered to pay for our stained clothing. Frances and I each got $30.00 to replace our pants and Ed got $20.00 to replace his shorts. There were no question asked and I was very impressed with how they handled it.

Colin headed out to get the truck serviced and I headed out with my laundry buggy to do some serious cleaning. We were both done at about the same time.

We loaded everyone in Ed’s truck and made a quick run to Sam’s Club so Frances could get sausages and Colin could return his pants that didn’t fit. Cort’s envelope was in so we picked that up as well.

A quick stop at Walmart for a birthday present and then back to the park.

We went to the Springs three times today....we are so relaxed I think we are comatose. I wasn't feeling well to Colin took Splash to the beaver pond for a swim. the beaver apparently put on quite a show and so did Splash. She decided she would rather fetch sticks from the water than balls.











We had a campfire and cooked dinner , we packed everything up because we had to leave reasonable in the morning as Colin had an appointment to get the truck serviced and I had a serious date with the laundry room.

We had planned that Colin and I would leave the campsite early as Colin wanted to backwash the black water tank. The dump station was at the entrance to the park so we agreed that we would wait there for Ed and Frances to join us. They were going to take their dog swimming. We were all done and waiting just outside the park when we get a call for help from Frances. They had tried to put their slide in and something clunked %&$#@!!....next thing the slide won't go all the way in and the whole thing is sitting off alignment. We asked nicely to go back into the park and found Edward under the trailer trying to adjust the slide. After some fiddling they finally did get it to go in. We figure there was a little rock or something in it that was setting the whole thing off level.

We were late getting away but we headed up to the Chena Hot Springs Resort. We found two spots fairly quickly and then set up camp. Everyone quickly got changed and headed for the Hot Springs........Ahhhhhhh! There is one man made pond surrounded by rocks with a gravel bottom, the water comes directly from the Hot Spring and is not treated. There is a large fiberglass hot tub outside which is chlorinated. Inside there is a swimming pool and two more hot tubs, all treated. It was $10.00 each to get in but that was from 7:00 AM to noon the next day. We took full advantage and went in again just before bed time. These hot springs are great but they are so relaxing you have a hard time walking back to the trailer without falling asleep.....Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z

We had to go into Fairbanks to find a place to have Cort send us some papers. The UPS Store did the job so with that done we went to see what else Fairbanks had to offer. We found a good grocery store and stocked up on some food and we found the Walmart and the Sam's Club. It appears that they have had some disagreement in this town about RV's parking at the Walmart.....not supposeD to but everyone does.

We ended up back at the campsite in time to have a fire and cook our dinner.

We got away reasonably early as we had quite a drive to reach our destination just outside of Fairbanks. It was raining when we left but things soon got better.

We stopped in Delta Junction to photograph the end of the Alaska Highway Marker and to take on fresh water and do a gray water dump.






We stopped for lunch at “Rika’s Road House and Landing”. We walked around the place first and saw the diferent buildings set up with displays of historical stuff. Splash exchanged nose rubs with a little goat and barked at the turkeys. We took the dogs back to the trailer and then went to have lunch in the restaurant. After lunch Frances and I checked out the gift shop....lots of neat goodies.






Back on the road we stopped at the “Notty Shop” A place that has all kinds of Creatures and things made out of Burls. They also had a rather extensive gift shop and Ice cream. If you presented your advertisement out of the Mile Post Book (our guide book that tells where and what everything is) you got a free one scoop ice cream cone. Colin was all over that.






Our destination for the day was a small town called “The North Pole”....that’s right Santa lives here. Back in the 40's the man who owned the homestead where the town is now located decided to change it’s name to The North Pole to attract toy manufacturers who would in turn advertise their goods as being produced in the North Pole. Although the toy manufacturers never materialized, the town did succeed as a theme town where Christmas lives all year round.

We arrived at the Chenna Lakes Recreation area and prepared to pull into our spot.....I guess the previous campers here were on horseback and the horses left a nice pile of road apples right where the steps to the trailer were going to be. We shovelled them into the bush and then finished parking. We had a fire and cooked dinner and called it a day.

Today was an uneventful drive.....although it was on a paved road. We drove through miles and miles of devastation caused by last years forest fires, black hills as far as you could see. We discovered that after a forest fire goes through, Morel Mushrooms grow and it is a big thing here to go and collect them. There are tents set up all over the place to buy the mushrooms from the people that pick them. We wanted to get some but apparently they are very expensive in the stores.



Another Dredge!







We arrived in the town of Tok shortly after lunch and checked out the information centre. This place had pamphlets and booklets with information on anything you would want to know about Alaska...very informative. We did hear however that they were closing this office down, quite a shame as they were very helpful and had a lot of useful information.



Campground host


We carried on and ended up at the Moon Lake State Recreation Area. We got a spot right on the water and it was very pretty. The dogs had a swim in the afternoon and then we started the fire to cook dinner. Suddenly it started to pour....great for washing the “Top of the World” Hwy. Dust off the truck and trailer but not so good for keeping a fire going. Colin devised a cover for the fire and our steak and salmon, although cooked in the pouring rain was done to perfection. It did clear up later on.

We were undecided as to when we should leave to avoid a line up at the ferry crossing over the Yukon River. We decided on 9:00AM and only had to wait about 20 minutes.





Now to tackle the “Top of the World Hwy.” A good portion is not paved, very bumpy, narrow and no guards to speak of.....generally not a very good road and dusty as all get out. The summit which reaches an elevation 4,515 feet was where we stopped for lunch. I built a rock man here.

















The US Customs office located in Poker (population 2) is within site of the summit.





Then further on was a small town called “Border” the location of a gas station, airstrip and gift shop. There only claim to fame is that they have the best coffee in Border....(no competition???)






We drove on to the high point of the trip....Chicken, so named because the Goldminers of the day who settled here wanted to call it Ptarmigan after the abundance of the birds found here, so instead they called it Chicken. Downtown Chicken sports a Gift shop, Liquor Store, Saloon and Restaurant....that’s it! In another location there is also an outpost, Gold Panning, an old dredge and a Post office. Population of Chicken??? 37.

We carried on to the Bureau of Land Management campground and pulled in for the night. The fellow that looks after the park is I’m sure a brother of Moses’ and still living. Very nice man. They had not delivered his firewood so he managed to scrounge up a few pieces for us. Fire to cook dinner and then a nice relaxing evening......inside.....mosquitoes.....outside!!

We had a lazy morning and then headed out to check out some sights and shops. We also had to go to the library and post office to run some errands. We arrived at the museum just in time to take in a gold panning demonstration. Very interesting....now we know the technique! After the museum we did some shopping....a few little gold trinkets and such and a gold panning pan for Colin to try his luck with.














We then went to the Grand Theatre and dance hall (Has been reconstructed from the original which was sinking into the ground and was basically destroyed. ) It would have been neat if it had been the original building but it was still interesting.

We decided to take a trailerless run on the ferry across the Yukon River to check it out for the morning. There was suppose to be a stern wheeler grave yard over there but we never found it. We decided to go up the first 20 KM of the "Top of the World Highway" so we would know what we would be up against in the morning. You are way up there and there are no guard rails and it's straight down.







The trailer "park"



Mechanical gold panner







Back to town for dinner and get ready for departure tomorrow.



And Oh yea wash the dog

After breakfast and a quick tidy up, we headed out to do some exploring. We drove up Dome mountain to check out the view......amazing. Dome Mountian is where they hold the Solstice celebrations but judging by the beer and liquor bottles remaining we didn't miss a whole lot the night before.






Next stop was the "#4 Gold Dredge. This is a Gold dredge that ran till around 1956 and then was taken out of service. It sunk into the perma frost and was partially buried in the muck. A project was devised to free the dredge from it's mucky icy pond and restore it for people to see. They found a complete set of scoops lying in the marsh, a full blacksmith shop with tools and parts as well as other maintenance items used on the dredge. It was quite an amazing piece of machinery. Although I wouldn't want to have worked on one for the noise and cold.









We continued up the road and checked out some free gold panning sites as well as some other claims that were still actively working.








A real working gold mine







We got back to the trailer and had dinner and I did the laundry. At 10:45 we went over to "Diamond Tooth Girties" to take in the show of Can Can girls and singing. There was also a casino there......no nobody won anything. Edward disgraced the group by getting his head stuck up one of the Can Can Girl's skirts.......yes we have photographic evidence. In the second show the male singer decided to pick on me and sing to me.......it got really hot in there for a few minutes.....was my face red???








Ed!!! What are you doing?









It's 12:36 AM. Will it ever get dark??

We had only a short drive today to reach Dawson City. We did however hit a lot of sections of road that were just gravel and then believe it or not we actually fit a detour.......which I think the guy on the grader was still building as we got there. It was a little unnerving to go up and down some of those hills, no guard rails, loose gravel and soft shoulders.......but we made it.






Dawson City has a flavor all it's own as you enter the town all you see is huge piles of gravel from where the Gold Dredges have been operating. It kind of looks like the entire town has been infested by giant worms. The town itself is very rough and tumble and I imagine it looks very similar to what it did back in the day of the Gold Rush. There are no paved streets and it is mostly all wood buildings due to the perma- frost.









We parked the trailer and then made a quick tour around town to see what we wanted to get a closer look at tomorrow. Today is the summer solstice, the longest day light hours. There is a big thing going on at the top of Dome mountain but apparently there is limited parking and it has been known to get rather rowdy so we plan to stay in town.

We did go to the Eldorado Hotel for dinner Halibut and chips.....very good.

We will stay up till midnight to make sure the sun does not go down.

We left the camp site at 8:00 and continued on up the highway. Our first stop was at the old Montague Road house was a place where trappers and prospectors stopped on their way to and from Dawson City. All that remained was the old log shell and an old rusted out wood stove. You could still see the remnants of old cheese cloth that was hung along the walls to keeping the mud chinking from falling out on the people in the room.








Next on the root were the five finger rapids accessible by 229 steps down a hillside plus about a 1 km. hike. They were very scenic , although I can't imagine taking a paddle wheeler down then......which they did regularly during the Gold Rush Days. They actually had cables attached to shore which guided the boats through.











We ended up for the day at the Moose Creek Yukon Campground. Colin, Frances and Ed went for a walk down by the Creek and almost got carried away by the mosquitoes. I knew there was a reason I didn't want to go......and when Ed and Frances showed up back at the campsite in their bug suits , I was very glad I stayed behind.












We took a short run out to Moose Creek Lodge to check out what was there......not much inside but they had cute mosquitos and moose sculptures outside






We had pork chops B.B. Q'd over the open fire but we opted to eat inside because of the bugs. We did sit around the fire for a short while but eventually it started to rain a bit so that put an end to that.

Since we were unable to call out and no one could call in, Colin was on his own for Father's Day. I kind of felt sorry for him so I pampered him a little to make up for the fact his kids couldn't. It poured rain all day so needless to say the dingy did not get launched and there was no boat ride. It did clear up before the end of the day and we were able to have a fire.

We decided that since we have lots of time, we would stop at the “Takhini Hot Springs” even though it was only 25 km. away from Whitehorse. We had made a reservation the day before so checking in should not be a problem. When we went in Colin noticed a sign that mentioned an admission fee for the use of the Hot pools. $7.00 per use!!! We figured that if you were staying in the park it would be included in your site fee......NOT! We decided that $7.00 a dip was a little on the rich side so we opted to carry on and see if we could find a Yukon Camp ground. After consulting our parks guide we decided on “Fox Lake Campground” a very pretty spot right on a crystal clear lake. We found two nice spots and settled in for the day. We started our fire and cooked some sausages ......very good! We took the dogs for a swim.......Splash didn’t last too long as the water was very cold.





We cooked ribs on the fire and Ed and Frances brought their food over and joined us at our sight for dinner. After dinner Frances and I had a game of Scrabble while we were waiting for the water to heat up for dishes. We decided that it was so nice here that we would stay an extra day and weather permitting we would launch the boats and tour the lake tomorrow.

We drove out to the Miles Canyon area for some sightseeing.








After that we went into town, fuelled up the truck and ran a few errands. We had to be back at the camp site in time to cook dinner, clean up and then Frances and I drove back into town to take in the “Frantic Follies” Show. There was an skit done to the recitation of Robert Service's Poem, the Cremation of Sam McGee. Very well done. They had Can Can dancers and singers all done in the style of the Klondike era. It was an excellent show and well worth the admission. When we got back Colin was working on the computer because we had internet.

Before leaving the Walmart parking Lot we walked downtown to get our free parking pass for the time we will be here. We then went and settled into the Pioneer RV Park. After setting up we went back into town to check out some sights. The first stop was the fish ladder located at the Yukon Hydroelectric dam located on the Yukon River. Unfortunately we were a little early for the Salmon run which takes place in August some time. Next we walked around the S.S. Klondike Stern Wheeler. This paddle wheeler has been painstakingly restored and permanently perched at the side of the Yukon River.










We made a quick tour around the farmers market downtown but it was mostly jewellery and souvenirs, not too interesting.
We went back to the trailer, did some cleaning and then got ready to cook some nice fresh Pacific Salmon over the fire. We split it with Ed and Frances and ate together when it was cooked......delicious!! The only problem was the bugs. We did sit outside at the fire for a while but eventually the flying critters drove us in . It is midnight now and the sky is still blue .....weird. You just don’t feel like going to be because it is so light out.

It was pouring when we started to make our way back up the hill. There was not much point in stopping on the way up as we were very shortly in the clouds and could not see anything. White Pass Summit was totally socked in with fog.

Shortly after passing Car Cross we came across a mini desert. Colin Ed and Frances made their way through the dunes and up the hill the view the lake at the top.












I made it!


Next we stopped a Caribou Crossing.... which turned out to be nothing more than a big tourist trap.....didn’t stay here long.

We stopped for lunch overlooking Emerald Lake a amazing green lake.



The lens is pulling him over

Arrived in White horse shortly after noon and made reservations for the next day at the Pioneer Campground and then moved on to spend one night at the Wal Mart. We had to get groceries and stuff so it was handier to stay there than in the camp ground. There were over 50 buses, trailers and campers parked for the night....quite a site.
We parked at the grocery store while we stocked up.....when we came out we discovered that we had had some serious rain while we were inside......our truck and trailer were sitting in about a foot of water. Colin had to take his socks and shoes off to move the truck out of the mini lake. Where’s the camera when you need one.




The Wal-mart RV Park?

This morning I had a date with the Laundry room and then Frances and I walked back downtown and checked out the other side of the street when we got back we walked to the other end of town and checked out the Skagway cemetery, Soapy Smith and the man who shot him, Mr. Reed are both buried here. A short walk up the hillside took us to a beautiful water fall, coming down 300 feet out of the rocks. We then went back to wash the trucks, then talk about tomorrows trip and clean up to prepare for the morning.

It was a bad day weather wise so Frances and I went shopping for the morning and the guys stayed back at the trailer. We also took in a show that has been running for 80 years, called the “Days of 98 Show” It depicts with a comedic twist the life and death of a man by the name of “Soapy Smith “ one of the biggest scam artist to fight for the control of Skagway. The show is a musical with Can Can Girls and is done quite well. When we came out of the theatre the sun had come out so we decided to take a drive around the Skagway valley. We drove to Dyea a small village that was in competition with Skagway but was wiped out in an avalanche in 1899, the town at it’s heyday had a population of about 10,000, today nothing much remains except a small piece of a store front, the lumber strewn remains of a warehouse and a graveyard.

First stop this morning was Annies to load up on breakfast....bacon, eggs, sausage and terrific blueberry pancakes, a good start to the day. The highway to Skagway was a wonderful surprise. Each bend in the road provides a new and beautiful vista to behold. Waterfalls abound, green crystal lakes and snow covered mountain tops. One of our first stops on the Klondike highway was a spectacular view of Bove island. The dogs decided to have a little sit on the bench here. Further along we drove through what is know as “Tormented Valley”, filled with stunted trees, rocks and small lakes, interesting but not a very inviting place. We found a remaining snow bank at the road side so naturally everyone had to get out and act silly in the snow....WOW it’s cold out here!
There were so many wonderful places to view that it took forever for us to reach the White Pass Summit at 3,292 feet elevation. Then naturally we had to go through customs......, no problems. Now for the ride down to Skagway at ocean level. Boy I’m glad our brakes were working well, although they did smell kind of ugly.

We found the trailer park and unhooked the trailer. Next a walk into Skagway to see what the town had to offer. LOTS!!! They average 5 cruise ships coming in every day, and when they come in and flood out into the streets look out. Unfortunately it’s a little tourist oriented but still very interesting. Since we had the dogs with us we really didn’t go in anywhere.

In the summer time there is a population of about 2500 people winter however there are only about 250.

Skagway is rich in history as it was a provisioning point for those brave souls heading to the Klondike Gold Rush. In order to move men and supplies they built a narrow gauge railway that runs from Whitehorse to Skagway. Today it is used only for tourists to ride.

We decided to drive into town and restock our propane as well as use the internet café.......big mistake! We got to the café at 1:30 and remained there till 4:45....so much to do, and having to pay for it is even worse. You realise just how important those services are that you normally take for granted.

It was a nice night so we decided to have dinner again at Mukluk Annies and then enjoy the boat cruise around the lake. After the cruise we had a fire and had a little meeting to decide where we would go to tomorrow. We changed form the original plan and decided to go to Skagway.

Our first stop was at Rancheria Falls. It was a short walk into a beautiful water falls....however the weather was getting nasty, very wet....although the trucks did get washed off.







A short drive further along brought us to the little community of Teslin on Teslin Lake, mile 804 on the Alaska highway. This town had a brief boom as a stop over on the way to the Klondike. For a short time there was a Hudson’s Bay Company Trading Post but this was short lived and closed in 1903. Teslin continued to grow with the arrival of the North West Mounted Police. Today it has a population of 450 people. The Nisutlin Bridge which brings you into Teslin is the longest span on the entire Alaska highway.


It was decided that we would take advantage of free RV parking at the infamous Mukluk Annies Salmon Bake Restaurant. In return for eating in the Restaurant you receive free parking, a free RV wash, free water and free dump. Not only that the food is delicious.....ribs and salmon, salad bar, baked potatoes, baked beans, coffee and tea and dessert all inclusive. And you get a free boat ride around the lake as well.
Oh No!! They have an all you can eat breakfast too!

One more Sit in the Hot Springs and then off on our days travel to Watson Lake. The first order of business was to get through the construction Section. We only had to wait for a few minutes for the Pilot Truck to let us through. Next on the side of the road was a huge Bison.....kind of scruffy looking but definitely a bison.



I thought it was a Buffalo?




We didn’t have far to go to reach Watson Lake. We drove past the choices of RV Parks and decided on the one on the edge of town. First get the laundry done, then go into town to get some groceries and then to the library to use the internet.....unfortunately we have had minimal to zero cell phone service.

After getting all that out of the way Colin started work on the installation of his rock guard on the front of the truck. I think we could probably run into a moose and not hurt the truck.



Just can’t get over having day light till midnight, it just seems like you can get so much more done in a day. You go to sit down and you realise its still light out so you go do some more stuff. I woke up at 3:00 AM and figured it was time to start thinking about getting up because it was starting to get light out




Watson lake Signs

Today was definitely one of the more relaxing ones. We walked to the hot springs shortly after 8:00 and then came back and had breakfast.

Colin spent the day doing paper work and I set up my sewing machine on the picnic table and made a new dog bed for Splash.

Ed and Frances went to check out some hiking spots with their dog. When they came back we had crackers and cheese and vegies at the picnic table. Then it was of course time for another sit in the hot springs.

We had a fire and cooked some steaks and then sat around for a while. Everything is packed up for the morning. Colin Ed and Frances are going for another sit in the Springs before bed.

We left Fort Nelson at 8:00 and made our way along another stretch of the Alaska Highway. We decided to stop at this one place for breakfast but they wanted $8.95 for bacon and eggs and the place didn’t impress me all that much so we carried on.

We are definitely in the mountains now snow covered peeks and all. There was an abundance of wild life on the road sides today, including Moose, Caribou, Sheep, Mountain goats, deer and believe it or not a herd of wild Horses. There were endless views of beautiful mountain stream and Muncho Lake with it’s turquoise water .... breath taking.

We stopped for lunch at the “Toad River Lodge” famous for it’s display of over 6000 ball caps stapled to the ceiling. There were hats there from all over the place. The meal of choice was Buffalo burgers.....quite tasty.

We had to endure a few sections of construction today but other than that the highway was good. Summit Lake Pass was a little scary......actually a lot scary......straight down drops with a real scarcity of guardrails....a good place not to be nodding off at the wheel.

We pulled into Liard Hot Springs Provincial Park ......they had only 7 spaces left but we managed to find two spots side by side which worked out nicely.

The first order of business was to check out the Hot Springs. The hot pools were discovered by trappers and prospectors and the first recorded notes of there existence were made by Robert Campbell, part of the Hudson’s Bay Company. When the highway came through in 1942 the American Army built the first access board walks which opened the area to visitors. In 1957 the provincial park was created to help preserve the area. There are two pools one shallow one about 3 feet deep at about 53 degrees C and the second one about 9 feet deep at about 42 degrees C.
We took a nice long dip .....the only problem is it makes you want to go to sleep. It was a goo relaxer after our drive.


















What the heck is a Dodge Ram?



I' m outa here






Muncho Lake

We left for Fort Nelson at 8:00 and headed down our first section of the Alaska Highway. We made a small detour which took us onto a section of the original road which had the only remaining original curved trestle bridge still in use.
It was kind of scary but the view from the top of the bridge was well worth it. As we travelled today we could see the landscape changing from flatter treed areas to very large hills. The peace River Valley was beautiful and I’m glad they got that little bridge problem worked out before we got there.

We stopped in at “The Honey Place” where they have a working glass hive. You can see all the honey combs and the bees working away inside.

We travelled most of the day with a caravan of about 10 other motor homes and trailers. We arrived in Fort Nelson later on in the afternoon to find a line up going into the trailer park where we were going.....no problem though, lots of room.

After parking and getting hooked up we walked over to the museum next door. It was quite large with outside as well as inside displays. They had a large building with about 25 restored vehicles in it , even one my age... a 1955 “President Studebaker” There were several buildings set up as homes and a trapper cabin which was quite interesting.

Very strange thing......at 11:30 at night it looks like it is only dusk....I guess that is just going to get worse as we make our way to Alaska.



Old Alaska Highway Bridge




Big Country

Today there was suppose to be a rodeo on in town so Ed, Frances and Me (Margaret) decided to check it out. Colin stayed back to work on some tax stuff. We drove out to where we thought it was but there was nothing happening there so we decided to head back to the information office in town. Okay the rodeo got cancelled so we walked around the Art Gallery and then took in the 1 hour documentary about the building of the Alaska Highway. It was built in 1942 as a means to connect military bases within BC and Alaska. Starting out as basically a mud trail it did the job and was improved upon as time went by. They built as many as 4 miles of the trail a day in some places. There were many river that had to be bridged including the Peace River. For this a used bridge was purchased from the US and hastily reconstructed on the site. It was such a poor job that it only lasted for 5 years before in came crashing down and had to be replaced. Today the highway is almost all paved and some sections have been rerouted to take advantage of better topography.

After the movie we went to the Walter Wright Pioneer Village and checked out the old buildings set up for viewing. We all were a little unnerved by the number of items that were familiar to us. Things that we actually had in our homes when we were growing up. Just as we were leaving it started to pour ran and we made it back to the trailer park just in time.

Colin, Ed and Frances took off after that to go to a bird sanctuary and while they were gone and went and did the laundry.



Large Section of Tree With Burls on it





Retirement School???






Bird

We left the campground in Edmonton bright and early to head on our way to Dawson Creek....no not the Dawson Creek from the TV series. We rolled into town in the early afternoon and found our way to Tubbies Camp Ground. Basically a gravel parking lot with a few trees and hook ups. No wonder we didn’t need reservations. Anyway we were booked in for two nights.

After unhooking we took the walking tour into town and then followed the map around to all the historic sites in town. Dawson Creek is the start of the Alaska highway and therefore a huge sign post in the town with “Mile 0" on it.

After our huge walk we went back to the trailer and decided to go out for dinner at the White Spot restaurant....very good.



Which Way??







Where do we go now??




OH! that way

Today was quiet day. Colin worked on some paper work and I cleaned the trailer and gave the dog a bath.

Later on we went to the recreation hall to do some computer stuff and then took off to get some groceries before we head for Dawson's Creek tomorrow.

We arrived at the "Glowing Embers" campground a little early but we were planning to wash the rigs before we pulled into our spots. Ed got there first only to discover that there was a bus pulled apart in pieces in the bay. We missed the driveway and decided to go to the new RV & Truck wash about 5 minutes away. On arrival we checked the prices and decided it would be worth the $35.95 to have them do it for us...truck and trailer. We pulled in and the guy went to work. About 1/2 an hour later we were on our way....big mistake....should have gotten out to check for a job well done...or otherwise. When we arrived back at the campground we discovered that only the front half of the truck had been wash and the trailer was a pitiful mess.

After we were settled, Colin took the truck back to show them what a good job they did....not! They ended up rewashing the truck and refunding the entire amount for truck and trailer. The truck looked much better and Colin was much happier.

I did some laundry and when Ed and Frances got back from their errands we decided to head to the West Edmonton Mall for the rest of the day. It is truly huge but the store part of it was like any mall. They did however have a Huge Wave Pool and 4 different water slides. A sea lion and penguin show which was so cute. They had a huge amusement park area complete with roller coaster, but it was $24.00 for the day to get in. There was mini golf, a huge restaurant area and also several food courts, a casino,movie theatre and I'm sure lots more that we missed.

We went back to the trailers and had dinner and then Colin,Ed and Frances went back to the big theatre to go see Star Wars. I had a headache so Splash and I stayed home.



Scary Guy




Just plain scary!

Up at the crack of dawn and everything stowed away for the days trip. We left the parking lot at 8:00 sharp. I was very smart today and filled our stainless steel thermos with extra coffee for the driver...Unfortunately by the time we opened it, the coffee was cold. The seal had gone and the thing was useless. Driver not happy!
We crossed the Saskatchewan/Alberta border later in the afternoon. That was exciting. Big red posts all down the road!

Since we did not stop in Edmonton till later on in the day we decided to do the Wal-Mart thing one more night and head to the campground in the morning. Besides we need to buy a new thermos.

We had received a coupon from one of the gas station good for 5.00 in the grocery store there so we loaded up on some veggies and stuff. Colin was thrilled, as they were selling dungeones Crabs for $4.60 a lb. Guess what he had for dinner...

Again, we packed up ready to leave in the morning.. but this time not till 10:00.







Big egg