Another day in the car??

VERY foggy today with a high around 34 degrees. We had 8 hours and 36 min of daylight.

On with the travels....

In the middle of Dawson Creek there is a sign post listing distances. Dawson Creek is mile 0 and Delta Junction (the end of the highway) is only 1398 miles away with Anchorage and home just 335 miles further. The AlCan was a project between Canada and the US for an overland supply route to Alaska during World War II. If I remember correctly, they started and finished construction in 1942 taking just over 8 months to complete. While traveling the highway, I am constantly amazed at the engineering feat the soldiers accomplished in the time frame and weather conditions.

It is brisk Wednesday morning when we get up and head down the road. Not much traffic but the scenery is very pretty fall colors are really coming out. Lots and lots of yellows and oranges. The road is a little bumpy here and there and we had to stop for about 30 minutes for road construction. Somewhere along the way we spotted Dall sheep on the side of a mountain. Destination for to day – Watson Lake, Yukon Territory. Not much occurs during the drive which is fortunate as we still don’t have cell phone coverage. (Ok – the book said it was spotty.) We do seem to go South a lot on the road heading to Anchorage. Interestingly enough, the GPS tries to send us off onto some dirt roads. Remember – there is only one paved road to Alaska. Why is that thing trying to get me to turn left? Must be another setting somewhere. (Btw - I would argue whether the entire road is paved. I believe some of the paving as worn off and needs to be repaved.)

Coming into Watson Lake I ask for the address of the hotel. It is milepost something or other. Many places don’t have street addresses like we are used to. It is a mile marker. Mile markers work except road construction and improvements over the years have shortened the highway. This means the mile markers aren’t always exactly where they started. But luck is riding with us and we find the hotel, get checked in and unload the car. Squirt is SO happy to get out for what appears to be the evening.

Once we get settled, we decide to look for a restaurant. There is one in the hotel but we want to see what our options are before opting to stay inside. Hopping back in the car (Squirt is so disappointed) we get back on the highway and drive to the other end of town - about ¾ mile away. Looks like we will eat at the hotel. We did see the gas station and decided to fill up before they closed. Gas is HOW MUCH per litre? I don’t remember exactly but at one point we were paying well over $4.50 a gallon. And what are these pesky black nasty flies that won’t leave us alone.

We hurry back to the hotel to eat dinner before they close. Food was good but I did notice they didn’t have any sugar substitute for my coffee. Forced to use real sugar – what a treat! After dinner, it is time to take Squirt for a stroll to the other end of town. We meander outside, start down the path - oh no - here come the flies – big black clouds of them. EGAD – hurry up Squirt we are going back inside. (Hey – any chance you have cell phone coverage?)

Due to the early evening we are up and about before dawn Thursday morning (days are still fairly long right now) and head downstairs to the café for breakfast. These people serve LOTS of food. Pack up the car and we are off – destination Beaver Creek. Thursday ended up a lot like Wednesday except the road was extraordinarily bumpy. Bumpy enough I was able to wake Robert up by just driving on the road like I am supposed to. :) I hope the Canadian/Yukon Territory government got a good deal on the bumpy road indicator signs. If there were red flags by the road, you were in for a treat. That was where you had better SLOW DOWN or there was a chance of becoming airborne. No need for a radar detector here. I don’t think the Camaro would have made it or it would have taken an extra day. I also noticed there were some spots that I would have probably put a guard rail. But then I tend to be a little tense next to drop offs when there is nothing there to help stop you. Today was a day for Elk and Buffalo right by the side of the road. Squirt was fascinated by them and wanted to get out and play. I was trying to take pictures. (Unfortunately, the camera was broken and we didn’t know it until later.)

We arrived at Beaver Creek at about dinner time. It looks very similar to Watson Lake in size and number of buildings. We found our hotel which again had a café and souvenir shop in the check in area. The hotel was very, very rustic and I look forward to getting to Anchorage. Once again, we unload, eat dinner and start off for a stroll the highway always watching for bears but never saw any. (Good grief - what is happened to the front of the car it is totally black. Oh - little black fly bodies. We should be rewarded for taking out so many.) Back to the hotel to watch the football game – and still no cell coverage.

Friday is almost here! The home stretch - we will be in Anchorage tomorrow if we get through customs successfully.

OK – if anyone noticed, the days did change. I realized we actually left on Sunday – not Monday. I took creative liberty and changed yesterday’s posting! Good catch if you noticed!