We've arrived in Alaska!

The RV park we contacted near Edmonton was the Kinsmen RV Park in St Albert Canada.  We stayed four nights and planned to spend some time at the West Edmonton Mall (also called West Ed Mall).  We arrived Thursday 07.26.12 after quite a rain and thunder storm, so the ground was a bit wet and muddy.  We had some rain in Calgary as well as enroute to Edmonton.  It seemed that the rain followed us!

On Friday, we made our way to West Ed for a look around.  The West Ed is the largest mall that we’ve seen, the largest on North America.  The mall in Minnesota is very large as well, and about to be expanded, but still smaller than the West Ed.  We were there about 3-1/2 hours … which was more than enough for Jerry!  I looked forward to going back on Saturday!



 Follows are a couple of pictures of the inside of the mall. 

 

An amusement park ride with lots of loops on this rollercoaster. 

Near the 2^nd floor entrance 23 is a platform above a garden below.  Quite unexpected!

It was interesting to see that a time capsule was done … can you imagine the differences between 1983 and 2033? 

On Saturday, Jerry took me to the mall and he did some errands.  He dropped me off at 11 am (at entrance 23 since we knew how to get there easily) and picked me up at 3:30 pm.  I had a wonderful time browsing all of the stores, so many different from the stores in the US, as well as many of the different “legs” of the mall.  I swear you could get lost very easily in this mall!  I didn’t buy much, but it was very fun to look at all the stores and watch all of the people!

On Sunday, we took Paco with us to do some geocaching.  We’ve worked out a system where I drive, Jerry navigates, and Paco gets on whatever lap he can until we get to the cache.  Once we arrive, I take Paco on his leash and we follow Jerry.  I use my iTouch for the geocache details to help us locate the cache.  We were able to get several caches, but the mosquitoes were out in force.  We were swatting like crazy (we forgot to get the spray on) and finally could take no more.

While we were caching, we passed this sign on the St Albert River.  We don’t see signs like this in the Southwest, that’s for sure!

On our last day, we happened to see this balloon near the campground.   

Our next stop was at Sherk’s RV Park in Valleyview Alberta.  I thought the name was a take on Shrek, but found that it was the last name of the owner … oops!  It was a lovely park, not many amenities (not that we would be taking advantage of them for one night), but quiet.

  We arrived in Dawson Creek and found our park.  We took a drive through town and found the Mile 0 marker.

We discovered that this was the 70^th anniversary of the building of the Alaska Highway.   There was a historic military convoy planned through Canada and Alaska for 4100 miles and 27 days, leaving Saturday, 08.04.12.  We wanted to be sure and be on the road before they got started!  Jerry talked with someone who would be participating; they said they came of the East Coast in their vehicle at 35 mph!  I can’t imagine driving 35 mph for thousands of miles!

We were locating a geocache in Dawson Creek and were surprised to find it inside the Alaska House Museum.  When I asked if we could look inside, the lady at the desk said sure.  I went out to get Jerry, and when we got inside and went toward the cache, there was another geocacher just finishing up.  It was nice to see other geocachers in this area!  They had a great display and history of the building of the Alaska Highway.  

Fuel in Canada is decidely more expensive than in the US.  The conversion is confusing to me, although Jerry can do it in his head.  We saw one station, that was advertising $1.859 per liter … that converts to $7.05 per gallon!  The most we have paid is $5.50 per gallon in Fort Nelson, British Columbia.

From Dawson Creek we traveled to Pink Mountain British Columbia for one night at the Buckinghorse River Wayside Provencial Park (like a state park).  When we arrived, there was one car parked and a camper that was leaving.  I think there were about 30 campsites.  We saw someone painting the picnic tables and asked who we paid for the night.  He indicated he didn’t think it would be a problem if we didn’t pay, so we tossed the pay envelope in the trash.  Then, after dinner, a ranger came by; he took US dollars and we were OK for the night.  Here’s our campsite at Buckinghorse Wayside Provencial Park.  It was really quiet; we could hear the river just behind us bubbling along. 

  

We find that it’s fun to camp in State or Provencial parks occasionally; you get to see some really beautiful country and it’s usually away from towns and a lot of traffic.  In one park, at Muncho Lake, the campground was very difficult to find.  We stopped at the Museum and asked for directions.  The lady there said she could give us directions, but didn’t think anyone was there or taking care of the park.  Well, we found the park, the gates were open, and so we went in.  She was right; it was in a state of such disrepair, that we had a difficult time finding a space that would work, i.e. a pull-through. 

On our way to the next stop, we were warned that there might be bison on or near the road … they were certainly right!  This one was just meandering across the road!

We were able to get a picture of a calf.  His coat is a light brown color, but looks like he will be as big as the rest very soon!

 

We noticed that the trees showed signs of disease … here you can see the brown among the green.  We also signs of reforestation and some of the trees were the same height which made me think the area had been harvested and replanted.

A little further along the road we saw this strand of unblemished trees.  Yes, they really do exist!

I enjoyed looking at the cloud formations and took a lot of pictures from the rig as we were traveling.  There are too many to include here, but I wanted to share one or two.

Here we are at a rest stop alongside a big rig … we are just a little rig with the car towed behind! 

Our next stop was Northern Rockies Motel and RV Park at Muncho Lake, BC.  We’d been having cloudy weather for several days, but the clouds were really low here.  We had rain starting and stopping several times during the evening.

I wondered who was responsible for the upkeep of the Alaska Highway … this sign provides some of the answer!

We have decided it is a VERY LONG road to Dawson Creek from the US border.  It seemed to take forever to get somewhere as the road was usually 2-lane undivided.  In some instances the roads were in the process of being repaired.  I do understand that the only time the repairs can be done is in the summer, but it can make traveling difficult.

The worst road was through the Yukon.  We learned that during the winter these roads can wash out so they have to be practically rebuilt every year.  This produces a patchy, uneven, gravelly surface that is difficult to travel.  And we have to look forward to this road on the return trip!  Ugh!

From Muncho Lake, we traveled to Teslin Lake Government Campground, then to Burwash Landing (Dalan Government Campground).

With all of the road construction, the motorhome and car were an absolute mess!  The car was so muddy when we arrived at Tok AK it looked brown instead of green; Jerry had to take it to a car wash!  We found that there is now a crack in the windshield and one of the headlights is out.  Just a bit of maintenance to look forward to! 

Tok was much smaller than I anticipated … the population is only about 1700.  There were several RV parks, gas stations, one larger food market, and one restaurant.  There were other businesses, but not many!  Even the independent laundry was closed so we had to use the facilities at the Tok Village RV park.  It worked out OK … the machines were really efficient.

We headed toward Fairbanks and stopped in Delta Junction.  We have officially completed the Alaska Highway! 

We opted to stay at the Chena River Campground near the center of Fairbanks.  We have water and electricity, and there’s a sanitary dump available.  We even have access to WIFI.  We’ve done some geocaching and driving around getting to know the area.  We’ll be here for several days, then it’s toward Denali National Monument and Anchorage.