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Published: June 29th 2009
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Liam & the Mounties
Both boys bought a stuffed Mountie at the RCMP Heritage Centre. Liam takes very good care of them. Today was all about the driving. We left the truck stop shortly after 0700 and spent a few extra minutes trying to get a picture of the Edmonton sign. (The first time we noticed it, I only got a blurry picture.) Why did I want a picture of the Edmonton sign? Because it’s the hometown of Kael Mouillierat, of course. He will be a senior at MSU-Mankato this fall. Jeff bought his jersey his freshman year because we thought he had a cool name, but it turns out he’s a great hockey player.
Anyway, after leaving Edmonton, we took a picture of the Spruce Grove sign (hometown of Shane Joseph, first All-American for MSU). Then we drove, and drove, and drove. There were small showers, and it’s still windy, but it’s beautiful—big fluffy clouds and lots of blue sky. I took many, many pictures from the passenger seat. Occasionally, we even put down the window! My younger brother Jason is a semi-professional photographer who can spend hours prepping for one shot; he just doesn’t understand.
Since the fuel tax goes up 9¢ between Alberta and British Columbia, Jeff wanted to top off before the border. We stopped at Shell
CNR Rochford Bridge trestle
This is the longest wooden railway trestle in the world, according to Milepost. in Beaverlodge, after taking a picture of the giant beaver, of course. Jeff had a nice conversation with the attendant about our truck. He noticed we were going camping and Jeff mentioned we were headed to Alaska. He said his Chevy with its Duramax engine/Alison transmission had taken him many places and thought we’d do just fine. He then noticed ours was the same: “Nice!”
We also stopped in Dawson Creek, of course, to take a picture of milepost 0 and the sign for the Alaska Highway. We stopped briefly at Alaska Highway House which has displays about the building of the highway. The boys were greeted outside by a moose in an RCMP uniform, which they thought was cool. When we got back to our truck, though, we discovered that Jeff’s cell phone was missing. Oh, oh. Jeff retraced his steps, couldn’t find it, but then remembered that he had dug the tripod out of the camper, and found the phone in there. So off we went. I turned my computer back on and it said windows couldn’t start. Day 4 and I have no laptop? AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! Thankfully, it started a few minutes later in safe mode. I’m
just hoping it lasts long enough to back up my new scrapbook pages and the text for the travelblog before it crashes for good. I definitely won’t finish this scrapbook before getting home.
The rest of the trip was pretty easy. There’s hardly anyone else on the road. We stopped at Sasquatch Crossing to eat supper, but they only had 3 items on the menu (priced at $14.99 for a roast beef sandwich!) and nothing for kids, so we cooked pizza in the parking lot. We then thought about staying at Blue Bird Inn, advertised in
Milepost, but it was a parking lot. We are staying instead at West End Camp Ground, which is wooded (but wet) and has laundry, a diner, and wi-fi. I think the boys may even already be asleep.
Before we left home, Jeff thought that Canada was one big forest. Actually, he “thought of Canada as heavily forested.” Most of Saskatchewan and eastern Alberta was prairie. We were happy to see, today, that there are indeed evergreen forests here and mountains, which we mostly saw from a distance. As I said, it was a beautiful drive.
Conversation of the Day:
Cole loves puffcorn
His great-grandpa Beecher game him this bag last weekend. We finished it today. (while driving on 43 westbound out of Whitecourt, Alberta)
J: Do you think this was all trees before they built the road through here?
K: No, I think there was a completely straight clearing. (with an eye roll for effect)
License Plates Noticed: AB, MN, BC, TX, IA, KS, MS, OK, AK, AZ, MT, CA, ON, GA, WA, NJ, NT, SD (is it cheating to drive through a campground on the Alaska Highway?)
Animals Noticed (unique to the trip):
Coyote
Snowshoe hare
Deer
Crows (I’m including only birds we can accurately identify. It won’t be many)
High Temperature: 62o (northwest of Taylor, BC)
Low Temperature: 51o (west of Spruce Grove, AB)
Miles: 679.4
Total Time on the Road: 14:34
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Lorrin
non-member comment
Good Idea.
Good idea for Jeff to fill up whenever possible. We all know how easy it is to run out of fuel on a 500 gallon tank. JUST KIDDING JEFF! talk to you later!