Canada

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This morning we left Grande Prairie and drove toward Beverlodge, Alberta. The country between these towns is mostly farm ground. I kept noticing a crop growing in Alberta and I also saw it in Montana. At first I thought it was soybeans but the leaves were bigger. I also saw some fields with these leaves that had yellow flowers. I asked someone and they told me it was Canola. They make Canola oil out of this. This was new to me and interesting. We stopped and took this picture with the giant bever in Beverlodge. This area is highly agricultural. Then we headed to Dawson Creek. It was misting rain and very chilly. I even put on my winter coat. This is where the Alaskan Highway begins. It is about 1500 miles long to Fairbanks, Alaska. This road was started in March of 1942. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Dec. of 1941, our government felt we needed a road to Alaska because Alaska was the closest shoreline on the West Coast to Japan and we needed a road for the troops and equipment to get there. The first road was built by the American military in just eight months. But it was only passable by military vehicles. Between 1942 and 1943, more than 30,000 military and civilian construction personnel worded to complete the road. We are now in Ft. St. John, British Columbia. We had a nice picnic dinner tonight. It is around 66 degrees. It doesn't get dark until around 11 and is light around 5. Short nights.

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