June 4 to June 9, 2012

Today, June 4th is our 35th anniversary, it's been a great 35 years and more to come....
We left Watson Lake and will stop in Whitehorse, Yukon for 3 nights.  We had planned on only 2 nights but the Frantic Follies Vaudville Revue was not open on Monday, we decided we wanted to see it so we stayed.  We ate out on our anniversary at The Klondike BBQ and Salmon Restaurant.  Joe had reindeer stew over garlic mashed potatoes.  I had salmon, of course.  Everyone else had fish and chips except Larry had BBQ ribs.  It was very good and the employees made it lot of fun.

The next night we all went to the Frantic Follies

On Wednesday we drove in our cars to Skagway, Alaska.  We would not be going in our motorhomes but wanted to go there.  The town of Skagway is a National Historic Monument.  There were four cruise ships docked and the town was full of people.  We had brought our lunch and between shopping in the stores had our lunch in our cars, then did more shopping and looking around.  I took a lot of pictures on the road going and coming back but not any in town.  Joe did some video but it would take too long to upload here.

Thursday, June 7th we left Whitehorse and drove to Destruction Bay overnight.  It was rainy all day and night.  The RV Park was not even really open, his water pump was broken and the ground was too frozen to even have water to the sites but he did have electricity.  He gave us a break on the price and he had some really pretty hand made wooden folding tables for sale.  He said if we all bought two he would give us $10.00 off them too so we did.  The next morning we heard on the news that the road had washed out in two places during the night.  If we had not left we would have been in the Yukon even now or gone around through Dawson City through Chicken to Tok.  The road is still closed today (June 10th).  It was a dirty, wet, nasty drive to Destruction Bay and I only took pictures or our rigs.  The pics don't do justice to how really dirty they were.



RV park office

We arrived in Tok June 8th, the RV Park we chose had a RV and car wash so we lined up and did some major cleaning during a brief rain storm before going to our spaces, not perfect but so much better. The next day we drove our cars to Chicken, Alaska, I will report on that in the next installment.









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May 27-June 4, 2012

We drove to Prince George on the 27th, planned to stay 2 nights but stayed 3 because they had a Walmart and Costco, we also needed to do laundry and house cleaning and have a day off (kinda).
I didn't take many pictures while we were there.  On the 29th we all came back to our rigs around three o'clock and there was a beautiful Winnebago Journey parked next to the Batty's, Larry said when they came in they were looking at our rigs so I went over and it was the W.I.T. Western Regional Rep's, Jeannie and Andy Bienvenue.  Hope I spelled her name correctly.  We had planned to cook out that night so we invited them and being from Louisiana they brought smoked Louisiana sausages and dirty rice to add to our grilled pork tenderloin, baked yams and salad with angel food/strawberry shortcake with whipped cream. YUM!!!!

May 30 we left, going to Dawson Creek, B.C.  We had planned to stay one night but decided to stay two.  We were late getting there (around 4 PM) and didn't get to do all we wanted.  Next day we went in all different directions, found the mile marker 0 downtown.  We had agreed to meet at 2:30 for a group picture at mile marker 0 (A very busy intersection downtown).  We met a man there on the corner (dressed VERY casually in a Homeland Security T-Shirt) he was a city councilman.  He told us to just go out and DO it, every one in town was used to it, then proceeded to go into some kind of museum and brought out an employee to do the photographs.....people are friendly without fail!

There is Darlene...all by herself having
her picture made...getting braver by the day
Go Darlene!




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The gang

For dinner we had left over pork tenderloin, baked yams, cesaer salad and strawberry shortcake.  Larry and Judy went to see a car show in town.  Enjoyed the extra night stay and feel more rested.

We left at 8AM (6/1/12) heading for Ft. Nelson, B.C., gased up (painful) and empty holding tanks.
First stop was 17 miles down the road.  Kiskatinaw River Bridge.  The only timber bridge on the Alaka Highway still in use today.  I chose to walk across it.  :-)

We stayed at Triple G Hideaway Campground in Ft. Nelson.  There was a museum next door with various exhibits of old cars, trucks, machinery, wildlife, pioneer homes and much more.  We watched an old movie from the mid 1940's about the Alaska Highway construction.  I also met my first 'character'.  His name is Marl Brown.  He was the engine behind the formation of the museum.  He had such a collection of 'stuff' it gave him a place to store it, made his wife happy.  There was a news article we read showing a picture of him bearded and less the beard.  The community had a fund raiser for the museum and Marl put his beard up for auction.  He has always hated to shave so this
was a big deal.  They raised over $10,000. and he had to shave it off 

The man on the right is my character.
He offered me a chew, I declined but
was happy I did when I learned later
he recycles, including his chewing
tobacco.

Marl, using his wood splitter he made

On June 2 we left Ft. Nelson, stopped at Tetsa River Campground to buy cinnamon rolls, advertised on the highway.  They were soooo good and worth the stop.  We stayed at Liard Hot Springs Provencial Campground and Judy and I took a dip in the hot springs.  It was a cold, rainy, dreary day but we hiked about a quarter mile to the springs and it was WONDERFUL.  The closer to mouth of the springs, the hotter it got.  Very relaxing.  The campground was really pretty, no hook ups but I think it was worth it.

June 3 we arrived at Watson Lake around noon.  We had lunch and started working on our signs to leave in the Sign Forest.  With Judy and Larry's help we completed them, took a ladder over and hung them on a post.  At 7 we walked across the road and watch the Northern Lights show which lasted about 1 hour.  It was very good.



Larry hanging our signs



Northern Lights Auditorium

small part of sign forest

More shots from the road

May 25-27, 2012

A lot of miles have gone by since my last post, we left Banff and drove to Jasper, stayed in Whistler's Campground in the Jasper National Park for 2 nights (May 25 and 26).  Judy baked me a mini bundt cake with 7 candles for my birthday and we grilled fish and ate outside, toasted champagne and really enjoyed the evening.  It was a great birthday.  Judy is amazing, Martha Stewart could learn things from her about creativity and being a much nicer person.

7 x 10 = 70

Standing on the glacier

While we were here we drove our cars to the Columbia Ice Fields
and toured the glacier up close and personal.  We saw 4-6 guys who had hiked up on the Glacier the night before, spent the night and skied down the day we were there.  They were hiking back to their cars in ski boots, it was quite a climb getting out of there.  Then there were the 20 somethings, stripping down to their bikini underwear and boxers to get in the melting ice.

Tough walking on rocks in ski boots

Our tour bus

20 somethings, stripped down for their
photo op.

We stopped on our way to the ice fields to view Athabasca Falls and have a picnic lunch, this time we ate it outside.  The water was moving so fast.  Wish we had some of that water in Bakersfield...but not the cold to go with it.

More random shots from the road.

Interesting, huh?  If that smart car is so
smart, how did it end up here?

We will leave and travel to Prince George from here.....more to come later.  I will try to get current, it takes FOREVER to upload pictures with weak wifi.

Radium Hot Springs RV Park

We think they were female mountain goats, our first wildlife sightings

It has been one week since we left Sandpoint, Idaho...and six days without wi fi but we have it now.  We spent our first night in Radium Hot Springs, B. C. The campsites and park were very nice but we headed out the next morning for Banff, B.C.

Tunnel Mountain Campground in Banff
National Park

The animals above, we think they were female mountain goats, were the first sightings of wildlife upon entering the Banff National Forest.  They slowed us down roaming out on the road in front of Larry & Judy who were leading us.  We stopped for a while to hike to the Paint Pots on the way to Banff.  The first day Judy, Larry, Joe and I went for a gondola ride to view the town of Banff.  We coudn't get Roy and Darlene to get their feet that far off the ground so they waited for us at the Starbucks with wifi and Darlene was happy.

We stopped on our way to Banff to see
the Paint Pots. Luckily there was enough
room for all 3 RV's to park

Ochre color collects, the Indians used for body paint
and for pottery.

View of Banff from the gondola

Joe and me at the top

A cute little goat at the Gondola peak

Larry and Judy at the top

We did some shopping in Banff after the Gondola ride and I caught a picture of Roy & Darlene at a candy store.

The next day we drove to Lake Louise.  We took a picnic lunch but it was too cold for a picnic outdoors so we ate in our car.  Enjoyed the day even if it was cold.

Fairmont Lake Louise Chateau

Judy & Larry

Harpist in the hotel lobby

Joe & Lee Ann

Lake Louise minus people

Darlene and Roy

Here are some random shots I made while traveling down the road, just some beautiful scenery.

I am going to publish this for now, I'm still a week behind or more but getting a little better on this blogging bit.

A little out of focus bumping down
the road in a motorhome