Here we are, on the road: Finally on the way

Tuesday, June 09, 2009 Lorraine’s Report

Well, here we are on the road again, after the week from hell. After all the doctor’s appointments, tests, procedures, prodding and waiting, Chuck heard from his prostrate doctor that he DID NOT have cancer, late Thursday evening after the doctor’s office closed. We were so expecting it to be cancer, since the doc said there was a 60% chance that it was. His gastro doctor also gave him a clean bill on health on Thursday, good news from both of them. I think both of us thought that we would not be going to Alaska. We both tried to steel our mind so we wouldn’t be disappointed if we couldn’t go to Alaska with the group. Imagine our shock and surprise to find out that it wasn’t cancer and that we could go. I had to call a ton of people and let them know we would be leaving on our trip to Alaska. I cried many tears of joy, telling everyone our good news. The relief that Chuck did not have the awful C word was incredible for me.

Since we weren’t sure we were going, we had not finished all our gearing up, so after checking with Rob and Norma, we decided to leave on Saturday morning instead of Friday.

Friday was spent running errands and we finished gearing up. Rob and Norma also did the same. I have to say that Rob and Norma bought a camping lot at Beachwood RV Park and said we could use it for the summer. WOW-that was so great of them. But I think they are happier that we could go with them to Alaska.

Friday night we went over to my sister, Thelma’s for a last family dinner together for a while. All my nieces and nephews and their children were there. We had a great time together and I will surely miss these great family dinners. Thank you Thelma and John, Kerri, Paul, Carl, Ashley, Rose, Patrick, and Joshua for the great time we had. I appreciate all of you!

Saturday morning, June 6, 2009, we set off for our Alaska Adventure. I don’t think I slept too much Friday night, trying to remember everything and so excited. We left Beachwood RV Park by 9:00 am and headed for the Sumas border with Rob leading the way in his fifth wheel. Chuck declared his shot gun, had to go in and fill out some forms and pay his money, and they let us through.

We hit enough sprinkles by Chilliwack to get our clean car and coach dirty. After that, we were in the sun up to 100 Mile House. That is where we parked the first night. We dry camped in a grocery store parking lot. We were all so exhausted we all slept soundly.

Sunday we set off again up the road by 9:00 am. We drove to Prince George and stopped for the night at Treasure Cove Casino, another night of dry camping. Of course Norma and I wanted to try our luck at the casino, but alas, none of us had any luck to speak of. It was fun and the back parking lot was quiet.

Monday we left Prince George and headed north then northeast for Dawson Creek. We arrived around 2:30 and met up with our group. We are here at Northern Lights RV Park with all six rigs, Bob and Vicky coming in around 6 pm. We all went to dinner at a local tavern for all you can eat halibut. We all had the halibut and boy did a bunch of us get a bad tummy ache. Norma is still not feeling well, but Dorothy and I are ok after a rough night.

Today we went into town for groceries, and met the group for a picture at Mile 0 of the Alaska Canada highway. We will be having a pot luck dinner and then figure out the rest of the trip.

I have to say the trip so far through BC has been spectacular. While I have driven the highway back and forth many times while I was in college in WA, it has been since the 80’s since Chuck and I drove it. There has been so much growth; but the mountains, the fast flowing rivers and streams, the trees, and the beautiful scenery has remained constant. I am looking forward to the rest of the trip and all the adventures we will have on the road and with all our traveling companions.

Until next time, see you down the road. Lorraine

6/9/09 Chuck’s Report

Blaine to 100 Mile House

We made plans with Rob/Norma to leave the campground at 9:00 and head for the border crossing at Sumas. We had some anxiety about crossing into Canada as we were going to declare our shotgun. I had asked at the border last week and they said just to declare it, they would direct us to a parking spot, go inside to complete the paperwork, hand over $25 and we would be good to go. We sort of figured if we declared a shotgun we would get the full meal deal search, you know, take everything apart and then let us repack. As it turned out, once we stated we wanted to declare, they didn’t ask any more questions and the rest worked out fine. All in all, it only took us about 45 minutes to cross the border, better that we thought it would be.

We figured to break the trip to Dawson Creek into three days, first day to 100 Mile house, second day to Prince George and third day we would meet with the rest of our group in Dawson Creek. It has been over a month since we have hooked up the car and got the coach ready for a full day’s travel but we were ready just a few minutes past 9, ready to start our trip.

Lorraine used to drive from Bellingham to Prince George then cut over to Prince Rupert to catch the ferry to SE Alaska quite a few times when she was going to college. We also made the trip, I think three time, after we were married, to go visit her family. So this part of the trip wasn’t new to us but we haven’t traveled it since the late 70s so there are lots of changes, just like everywhere else.

The first part of the trip was through the Frazer River Canyon, pretty much like traveling through the mountains in Washington with all the trees. This part of the trip was a bit slow due to the hills and curves but it sure is a pretty trip. I would recommend this section to anyone just for the scenery.

After the Frazer River section we drove through the Gold Country, much drier and has pine trees vs. fir and cedar through the Canyon. I was surprised there wasn’t much traffic through here, this is a popular area to go camping. There are lots of dead and dying pine trees through hear because of an bad infestation of Pine Beatles. Rob said it takes a month of cold weather (-40 F) to kill them and it hasn’t been/stayed that cold for a few years. I bet Al Gore could make some headlines with that statement, huh.

We pulled over into a rest area for a break, took the dogs for a walk and had some lunch a bit after noon. After not driving the coach for over a month, it was nice to take a break and stretch, I need to get back into driving shape I guess.

The third section of this trip was into the Caribou Country. This is drier still and in places it is mostly grass on the hills.

All in all, we liked this part of the trip very much, Rob was in the lead and he drove about the same speed as we normally would if traveling by ourselves. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “If you aint’ the lead dog, the view never changes” but we still saw lots of country today.

Miles traveled today 223

Fuel purchased 107 Liters for $97

Parked overnight @ shopping center on North end of town

Wildlife spotted One moose swimming in a lake, five ground hogs, about 7 bald eagles, one deer “sleeping” in the middle of the road

Crossing the border at Sumas

Yea, we made it though once again!

Town just inside Canada, Abbotsford.

Scenery pictures of the first day’s trip.

Stopped for lunch at a rest area.

Resting in our coach, watching a movie with Rob and Norma

100 Mile House to Prince George

Once again we decided to leave at 9:00 and we traveled about 230 miles. This part of the trip was through the Caribou Country once again. This area had less dead/dying pine trees however and fewer open, grassy areas. Lorraine mentioned a couple of times that it seemed we were higher but a quick check on the GPS said we were under 3000’ each time I checked. There were a few areas where we had to climb/drop on 7degree hills, slow going up and engine brake coming down.

We are noticing the difference in daylight already, it gets brighter a bit earlier and stays light a bit later. We should be quite a bit North of here on the longest day of the year but I don’t think we will see 24 hours of sunshine, we aren’t going that far North. But it is nice to have good black out type curtains on the windows of the coach.

Once again, Rob led us through the day. We pulled into a fuel station around noon but I couldn’t get to a pump so I drove around and waited in a parking lot. Rob drove into the parking lot, turned around and went back to the only open diesel pump. I’m not sure how it happened but all four of us missed the small signs saying the canopy was only 11’ high. Both Rob’s 5th wheel and our MH are above 12’ high and we wouldn’t fit. Just by luck, Rob had to pull into his outside pump spot at an angle and he stopped just in time to avoid hitting the canopy, missed by inches. Whew were we lucky, me because there wasn’t an open spot and he because he pulled in at an angle.

The rest of the day was uneventful and once we got to Prince George both of us topped off our fuel tanks, this time under a much higher canopy you can bet. A couple of blocks away, we pulled into a Casino parking lot for the night and set up camp. Once we got set up it wasn’t long before at least 5 other rigs pulled in beside us, at least two of them heading for Alaska too. We sure have talked to lots of folks heading up there this year.

No for those who haven’t spent the night in a Casino parking lot here is a bit of new, IT AIN’T FREE! This time we would have been money ahead to stay at a campground. This is our first time to gamble at a Casino in British Columbia and so far our thoughts are the slots are looser in the USA. These machines just didn’t want to pay off but they did take our money.

Miles traveled today 230

Fuel purchased 145 Liters for $119

Parked overnight @ Treasure Cove Casino

Wildlife spotted Two rabbits, a couple of hawks, not much moving today.

Check out the RV sales place, called Chemo RV ???

Quesnel, a town along the way.

Prince George to Dawson Creek

Once again we were on the road by 9:00. The first part of the day was through high mountain prairie without too many large hills. We made excellent time with great mileage through this part. A large part of time we followed rivers through here, very pretty scenery.

The second part of the day was through the Western Rocky Mountains. Now we are back in the real mountains, lots of climbing and going down big hills, some with 7% grades, sure glad we have an engine brake to help while coming down these hills. A couple of times we had to slow down to 15 MPH due to switchbacks or very sharp corners.

So far the roads are in pretty decent shape, only encountered three frost heaves but I hear we will find them everywhere from here on up. Of course we did have a few waits for construction but didn’t have any gravel roads to speak of.

Once we got close to Prince George, I called Mark on his cell phone and found out where they were staying. We pulled into the Northern Lights RV Park. Our plans have us staying here for two days then head Northwest to Alaska. We have been hearing about a large, fast growing, forest fire North of here that closed the Alaska Highway for awhile. Now we hear they have a pilot car to guide folks through the worst of the smoky part. We want to stay at Laird Hot Springs but if the smoke is too bad there we will just bypass it until next time.

Our plans now are to leave here on Wednesday and meander through the rest of British Columbia and part of the Yukon. Tonight the ladies are fixing a dinner for all of us, if it’s anything like our dinner last night, there will be lots of fun and laughter.

Here are more scenery pictures of the drive here.