Great White North bugs on our windshield!

The majestic mountains are now behind us.  Sad to see them go as we head southeast… into the prairie land of British Columbia.  My favorite color…green…is spread out all over in front of us, as we cruise down a smoother highway.  It’s amazing how much faster you can get places when you can put that cruise control on.

We reached Dawson Creek, which means the end of the Alaskan Highway.  Actually, it’s the beginning if you’re going north because it is where the highway started construction in 1942.  We have seen the sites in the past; but this site I saw in the back end of a truck…will also stick in my memory bank.  I was snapping his picture and the dog turned around as if to say… “if you’re going to take a picture of me…get my best side.”

Bill washes the front windows of the motor home every time we fill up with Canadian gas, which can be as high as $4.56 a gallon. Within a half hour… the windshield was splattered with a numerous variety of Canadian bugs! The rest of the photos I’m sharing will be seen through the bodies of unfortunate bugs of the Great White North.  

Days ago, when we were in the mountain, we had haze as a result of smoke from fires or sand blowing around or just plain fog. We are now in the plains of Canada and still see a haze on the horizon.  We think it is due to all the dust from the side roads.  As far as we have seen, only the main highways & streets in town are paved.  I guess the sand mine down the road from our house…

could be worse!

After the Alaskan Highway, we took Highway #2 towards Alberta.  There are so many industries along that highway that include oil, forestry, and sand mining.  With that said…there has to be a means of transportation.  There are trucks everywhere moving these products to market.  

So no cruising through here, especially when we came upon this truck transporting something that took up both sides of the highway! We were on a 4 lane highway and they drove it on the other two lanes for awhile so we could get through.  Then there was more gigantic cargo coming from the other way!   How do you even plan to move something like that through a good-sized town?

Oxymoron?

Shorter day today, only 340 miles…with about 1,500 to go until we see the tall grass of our Tomah home.  We’re camping about 100 miles west of Edmonton, outside the town of Whitecourt.  It’s hot; but we're not complaining because we have full services and our air conditioning is working fine. Oh…and we each have a bag of peanut M&M’s too.  Awww…life is good!

Share size; but no sharing here.

Heading home

This is what it looks like at 11 0’clock at night in Alaska… when you can’t sleep.  Both Bill and I had a restless night.  Too many hours on the road, over-tired and thinking about heading home.

I guess we didn’t learn our lesson because we ended up driving 541 miles today.  When the road home has to be the same route for the majority of the miles, you tend to move a little faster.  However, the construction and lumber and oil tankers slowed us down somewhat.   That’s alright because it gave us a chance to see the views from the other side of the highway.

The lakes and streams, with the turquoise water, has to be posted again from the other side of the highway too.  No matter what angle the camera was pointed, the photos of these were spectacular. 

I mentioned on the way up that Canada clears back both sides of the roads of trees and bushes.  The newly cut grass that goes on for miles and miles… makes you feel like you’re driving down a parkway.  It’s so beautiful.   The bears were out in numbers today… grazing on the, green sprouts of spring grass along the highway.  They were too interested in filling their empty, winter bellies to notice some tourists gawking at them.  As we traveled on, we saw other wildlife enjoying the sweet grasses along the highway too.

Just heard on the news that Homer, AK had an 5.8 earthquake on the 27th., yesterday!   The epicenter was 60 miles away, so I guess it wasn’t too noticeable.  Besides, it was at 2:52 in the morning.  We were just there on the 22^nd!  We were in a 6.0 earthquake years ago while vacationing in Yellowstone.  That was a scary experience.  I’m not sure that camping on a little peninsula of land in Homer would have been the safest place to be… during an earthquake.  

    There are two reasons why we left for Alaska in early May.  Both pictures explain both reasons, I think.  After Memorial Day…the stream of camping vehicles start heading north and... the bugs aren’t far behind!

Sand drift ahead!

We woke up to a sunny; but still windy morning in Congdon Creek Park, which is on the north side of Kluane Lake.  As we traveled south, we noticed a thick haze in the distance.  We figured it was sand because it was so windy.  As we got closer, we were amazed at how much sand was blowing across the road.  It looked like a snow blizzard and was even making a drift across the highway.  Before we knew it, we went over the sand drift.  In a snow drift, you just plow through it.  A sand drift feels like you went over a gigantic speed bump.  Scary when you don’t expect it and 

you’re traveling at highway speed.

After many miles, we finally saw those clear, snow-capped mountains again.  The skies improved and so did the highway, as we drove further into the Yukon Territory.  We’re still on the Alaskan Highway.  

We’re heading toward the village of Teslin.  The name of the village is taken from the native Tingit word “Teslintoo” which means “long, narrow waters.”  They are referring to the lake that is called Teslin Lake that runs 78 miles long.  It is beautiful… with its sparking blue waters, sandy and rocky beaches, marshland, and pine and birch trees climbing the slopes of the 

mountains that rise in the background. 

Our destination today is a return stayover in Watson Lake again.  No, we’re not going to check and see if our sign is still there on the post in the town square.  By this afternoon, we’ll be tired of driving and want full hookups and Watson Lake is a good place.   Until then…we’ll be making our way through all those little towns... gathering bits of history to carry with us forever.

Smoke in Delta Junction (Sunday-26th)

Just south of Fairbanks is the “North Pole.”  Seriously…the town is called that!  The streets have names like…“Candy Cane Lane.”  The street lights look like candy canes.  Of course there is a shop called the North Pole where Santa is.  You can sit on his lap year round and give him your wish list…as early as you like.

On our way to Delta Junction, we crossed a neat bridge and found the Alaskan pipeline again.  The mountains on the horizon, towards Delta Junction are very hazy.  Not a fog haze; but a smoke haze.  Almost 20,000 acres have burned since April. The high winds are hampering the control.

 Onto Tok again from there.  Not to camp;  but to get gasoline and propane for the motor home  and some fuel for Bill and I at Fast Eddie’s.  The parking lot is always full.  It may be a combination of having good food and being 

the only restaurant in town. 

It’s amazing when you’re traveling in places which seem to be in the middle of nowhere.  Then…all of a sudden you see a person riding a bike or riding a horse.  You wonder…where in the world did they come from and where are they going?   This guy seemed to be bringing a lost horse back home, wherever that may be. 

 Bye to Alaska and hello again to Canada.  Trees and plants have blossomed out a lot since we were through here just a few weeks ago.  Wildflowers are painting their colors along the edges of the highway. Even though spring is in the air, there is still evidence of winter hanging onto some of the mountains and rivers.  

We’re in the Yukon again and camping at that campground we stayed at on our way up to Alaska.  It is the one we took our selfie by the lake with the ice near the shoreline.  No ice today with all the nice, warm weather they have had the past few weeks.  A nice thing at this park is that there is an “unlimited” amount of firewood provided for campers to burn.  So we burned our share while consuming some 

Old Fashions…which “are limited.”

Breakfast ....then bike riding

It was breakfast….then biking.  The bike trail... conveniently started right by the campground we were staying at.  The trail was blacktopped and eventually lead us back to the campground, after a 10 mile trek around Fairbanks.  We were both pretty tired out after that bike ride.  It was a beautiful day to get some activity in though. I managed to get in a little nap and Bill started working out our plans for the 

trip back to Wisconsin.

Being in one place for two days gave us some time to grill outside.  I don’t know if that bike trip enhanced our appetite; but those New York Strip steaks tasted exceptionally good today!  I didn’t even have time to take a picture before all you see here... are the traces of a great dinner.

Tomorrow we take off again and will be in Canada before the end of the day.  We will be going through that tiny, town of Tok again; stopping but not staying.  We have miles of bumpy roads ahead of us again to attack.  Hopefully, we make it home this time from Alaska without cracks in our front windshield.  We have little choice... when there are only limited roads to use up here.  

Finally.....fair weather in Fairbanks!

Weather not off to a good start; but we’ll see what happens in these mountains today.  Drove to Talkeetan, expecting masses of people all over the streets of this little town.  It is Friday, early in the morning, drizzling and the vendors seem to be getting off to a later start than we planned on.  With not many stores open and the rain factor…that made up our minds quickly to move on down the road to Fairbanks, 

the second largest city in Alaska.

Riding down the road we spotted this place we couldn’t pass up.  OMG!  There was so much “stuff” inside and outside.  A great collections of a little bit of everything.  Interesting old guy running the place.  He has lived in Alaska since 1958; but has been flying to Kansas every two years lately to keep in touch with family.  A short discussion concerning our country’s leaders found its way into our conversation.  We both had our say and I went on my way.   

Traffic started building up as we headed towards Denali.  So many rental motor homes from all over the country.  I talked to a lady from California and she said they flew into Anchorage and rented a motor home to travel to different places in Alaska.  We enjoy having our motor home to go and stay when and where we want.  There are even places out in the middle of nowhere to spend the night.  We have gotten spoiled with full hookups and try to look for those campgrounds.  Usually you find other people there that have something in common with you.  We met someone from Monroe, WI and they were doing their dream trip to Alaska.  They were golfers and wanted to golf at midnight because it is still light at that time.  Lots of interesting conversations come up.

As we got closer to Fairbanks, the weather start to clear up more and more.  We found a campground that is in town.  Alaska has some great bike trails, so we decided to spend a couple days here to check them out.  Being in town, with bike trails, will lead us to some of the historical sites of Fairbanks.  The weather is supposed to be sunny and in the 70’s tomorrow.  We have lots of miles to put on... riding in the car back to Wisconsin.  We thought we needed to get some exercise before that long journey home. 

I wish I could say I took this picture.  It was taken by a "Sherman;" but not a "Sue Sherman."  Beside seeing whales, the Northern Lights would be the the greatest event for me to see in Alaska.  The month of May is not the best time to see them, unfortunately.