June 12
Another night in an Ontario Provincial Park - while they are quite nice, clean and almost empty, they have one major drawback; around 2am each morning a man comes around with a large flashlight and checks your car and your camper looking for the paid pass. You would think that once you paid for a spot and was assigned a spot that no further checking is needed. Needless to say when the camper is flooded with unexpected light at 2am you wonder - am I about to meet my maker or being robbed?
The Ontario campgrounds are fairly expensive -- $30.50 (Canadian - all dollar amounts are in the currency of the country - it will be US dollars when I get to Alaska). Since most of the campground is empty, many of the facilities are closed - so you have to hunt around to find a toilet that's open - not too easy with a full bladder.
This was a full day of driving with many stops for gas - generally about $25 - 35 per stop plus coffee. The Ontario roads are okay but all two lanes with periodic passing lanes - I usually had a line of trucks behind me when the passing lane opened up.
Every town along the way that as over 5,000 people had a Wal-Mart so I stopped at the first one looking for the 15 amp electrical cord. I found one - the only one left at $45. I ended up getting another sleeping bag to use as a blanket - as I head north the nights are getting cooler. Since I don't want to get in a confining sleeping bag, I figure one unfolded on the bottom and one on the top makes a bed.
Manitoba sets the standard for flat - the roads are straight and the ground for as far as you can see is FLAT. They have had a very wet June so far so everything is very green with a lot of standing water - perfect for mosquitoes.
Against the recommendation of the Manitoba welcome person, I went through Winnipeg rather than going around the city. Winnipeg is interesting but lots of traffic - beautiful day, everyone out walking. You always know that there are large cities north of the US but actually seeing them and driving through them brings home the fact that there is quite a civilized society north of the US - and a peaceful one at that.
At 6pm and almost at the 2,000 mile mark, I called it a day and pulled into the first campground I saw - a very nice one but a habitat for mosquitoes. The rate at $22 was reasonable (even if the printed guide said it would be $15).
Set up of the T@B is now down to a quick 5 minutes. The T@B has been great - easy to pull behind the car - hardly know it was behind me except when you look in the rear view mirror and see a white wall. Unfortunately, when I opened the door to the T@B, I spent the next 15 minutes killing mosquitoes. I found that putting the ceiling fan on high sucks all of them to a screen in front of the fan -- ready to be killed with the press of a hand.
When I checked in, the woman at the desk said, "so, are you headed for Alaska?". I asked how she knew and she said that almost everyone in the campground was headed for Alaska....hmmm.
I pulled into my assigned spot and got a few comments of "cute" directed at the T@B. I gave one brief (because of the mosquitoes) tour (just a quick look in the door) to a Dutch guy who said the T@B looked German. He was not surprised when I said the original one was built in Germany.
Hopefully, tomorrow will bring an Internet connection.
June 13
A long day of driving across open prairie full of growing wheat fields. This is certainly the land of plenty - large grain elevators every 5 miles or so. Driving through Saskatchewan toward Saskatoon was a long, straight drive with very little traffic except for huge double long trucks that carry potash, which support the very large potash mines with slag piles reaching 10 or 20 stores and a mile or two long. The farms are huge - no family farmers in this area unless they farm thousands of acres. The farming equipment is also huge - like large earth moving equipment. The local radio stations talk of crops, fertilizer and pesticides. In Ontario the radio stations called themselves "The Bear" or "The Moose", in Saskatchewan it's called "The Farm" - they are frequently punctuated with moooo, oooink, and baaaa.
Saskatoon is like many Canadian large cities with a built up core and farm equipment dealers on the outside. It's interesting to see the city then abruptly have the built up area stop and the farms stop.
I had two interesting experiences with the T@B today - both of them I don't want to repeat. The first one was the wheel on the front of the T@B came down while I was traveling 70 miles per hour. Apparently, going over the rough roads loosened the lock and it gradually came down. It made quite a noise so I was able to stop and fix it. I then checked it several times to make sure it was holding and it was. In reading the instructions, you are advised that you can take the wheel assembly off during long trips. I am not sure how to get it off but I will check.
The second problem happened when I uncoupled the T@B, lowered the stabilizer supports and got ready to go to dinner - only to find that the chains and brake cable were still connected. Lucky for me I stopped - another lesson learned.
I stopped just outside of Saskatoon at a "country" RV park surrounded by farm equipment dealers - it's all part of the experience. The park says they have Wi-Fi Internet access.. "you have to be near a window". I guess my window and the Wi-Fi transmitter were not in sync. The park is almost full at 8pm - many people going to Alaska.
June 14
Sitting down for most of the day is getting to me. I have to stop and walk a little every hour or two. Today it's Saskatoon to Edmonton - not exactly sure how far but I called it a day at 4pm after going through the Edmonton rush hour - quite an experience.
At each stop I get at least one comment of "quite a cute camper" - never did like the word "cute". I did see another T@B going east - I think we were both shocked to see one of our own.
Tonight I stopped at an RV campground factory - one camper next to the other but a pretty congenial group of people who said hello. The people next to me really wanted to see the T@B because they had seen a piece on teardrops on the Discovery Channel. I thought I had come a long ways - they were from Florida.
Since last nights RV park was next to the road and we had a thunderstorm, I did not sleep past 2:30am. I am pretty sure I will sleep tonight even though we are having another thunderstorm.
I see that my laptop has detected a "wireless network" so I will give it a try.
June 15
Edmonton to Dawson Creek - there are two Dawson towns "Creek" at mile 0 and Dawson City near the end of the Alaska Highway. The day has been pretty uneventful - driving through beautiful country - farms, herds of cattle, bison, elk (all raised for food). Now I know what they mean by "big sky". When driving along the ridge lines of Alberta it seems as though you can see for hundreds of miles - rain storms coming and going - sunshine on the right - black sky and lightening on the left - amazing. Canada is truly an amazing country, in some ways, like the US, yet very different.
Reading the NY Times every day, I got caught up in the war, the suicide attacks in Iraq, the loss of lives - I hear nothing of it here - is the war over or is it our war, not Canada's war?
Canada has a large "Indian" population. Their lands are called the First Nation. Road signs point to First Nation this and that. There are news reports on the radio about "racist" comments made by people about aboriginal peoples (Indian) and how deplorable this is and how this behavior must stop.
Dawson Creek is a new age frontier town - rough and ready people mixed with McDonalds, Wal-Mart and scores of businesses named Mile Zero - Mile Zero Cafe, Mile Zero Motel, Mile Zero Laundry - this, after all, is the mile zero of the Alaska Highway. It really is a tourist town with lots of motels and four RV parks - the two I saw were pretty low end, basic types. I stayed at the Northern Lights RV Park. My T@B is by far the smallest "RV" in the park - most are $250,000+ road yachts - 45 feet of RV with a car in tow. I know I would not want one, be able to drive one, nor would I want to buy the gas to keep it moving.
June 16
The trip from Dawson Creek up the Alaska Highway was an interesting drive. I had always thought that the Alaska Highway would be pretty rough going - lots of ruts, gravel, wash outs, etc. No more, the Alaska Highway could now be called the Alaska Parkway or Boulevard - it is beautifully maintained, paved, well marked with wide shoulders (ditches) at least 200 ft. wide, which is great so you can watch out for animals.
At mile 300 or so, the views of the Northern Rockies were spectacular. Wonderful vistas of mountains, meadows, clouds and the highway continuing to lead north.
On the downhill side of the mountain, traffic was stopped by road work. The road work continued for an hour while all vehicles were stopped in both directions so they could do their work without getting hit by trucks and RVs. Once the road opened up, the entire lane of traffic tried to make up for lost time. I had an 18 wheeler on my back bumper trying to find a spot to pass me and kick up a little gravel that would almost certainly break the windshield - so I kept speeding up to keep in front of him, which I managed to do until the next gas station.
The RV stop for the night was a welcome end to the day.
June 17
A day of rest and a chance to relax rather than adding another 450 miles. I stopped at the Laird Hot Springs Provincial Park. The RV portion is great but it's "dry" camping - no electricity, which is all I generally get but for the big rigs they miss the sewer hook up, water, cable, etc. So it's not very popular or full.
The hot springs are very interesting - two springs, Alpha and Beta. Alpha is about 3 feet deep and 104F degrees, Beta is about 9ft. deep and about 140F. Everyone was in Alpha. Very relaxing even if it is a bit shallow and swimming pool-like. Ive been in twice today and expect one more mid-evening soak.
The rest of the day gave me a chance to relax, take a nap, read, get some sun and go for a hike. The evening should be interesting - there are all sorts of warnings about bears - "a fed bear is a dead bear" they say. All food must be stored in the car or in one of the bear-proof lockers placed near the campsites. I saw one of these lockers at a road stop today with all kinds of bear prints, claw marks, etc. Tonight will be an interesting test of the T@B - is it bear proof? All the food is going in the car - the food/trash is already in the bear proof trash.
The weather was perfcect today - sunny and warm. It's 6pm and the sun is almost directly overhead - it should be a sunny night.
June 18
A 400 mile trip from Laird Hot Springs to the Yukon. Staying at Whitehorse tonight. Whitehorse is a legionary town I remember from radio programs when I was a kid. Every Sunday night a story from the Yukon.
The mountains and scenery continue to be spectacular. It's a huge, vast land full of trees and wildlife. This morning when I started my trip, I saw and photographed a herd of buffalo, then two elk along the road followed by two black bear and a fox bringing breakfast home - some sort of small animal in his mouth.
I have passed the 4,000 mile mark. According to AAA, I should be nearing Fairbanks but still have 1,200 km to go.
to continue to week 3, roll over Alaska on the left and click on "week 3"...
|