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Published: August 19th 2017
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We made it to Smithers, BC on July 30th and stayed at the Fort Telkwa RV Park which was a little bit outside the city limits of Smithers. It was a very nice RV park that sat right on the river with every amenity that you would need PLUS they had FREE RV washing (which we were in dire need of). We ended up staying here 2 nights to get ourselves a plan as to how to proceed from here since the roads we needed to take were still closed due to the wildfires. We ended up having to go about 300 miles out of our way to get back to the States which took an extra day. It wasn't a big deal considering the devastation that the Canadians were facing. As we were traveling through the Kamloops and Merritt area, the smoke was so thick it was like fog. It was bad. Thank goodness we didn't have to stay in it for long.
My biggest fear the whole trip was having some kind of RV trouble in Alaska or Canada and not having anyone around to fix it. We managed to get through the entire trip without any problems
then when we got within 90 miles of the Marathon plant a car drove up beside us and pointed down mouthing"tire"! Don told me we needed to pull off and check our tires so I looked ahead for an off ramp. Luckily there was one close so we turned off. Of course it wasn't ideal as it was very busy with small shopping centers on all sides. As luck would have it though there seemed to be some kind of truck fuel down the road so I told him to follow those semi's! We ended up finding a place to pull off on the side of the road. I jumped out and found that we had a flat tag. No problem. That's what we have insurance for. I called them up and someone was there within an hour. This is where the trouble starts. Unfortunately the guy put the jack in the wrong place and he cracked a rod and bent the frame. Not good. Long story short, we spent the night in a CampingWorld parking lot before being put on a low boy who took us the 90 miles to Marathon. The Service Manager, Chris, arranged EVERYTHING for us
We were the entertainment that night. ?
Everyone came flying out of their coaches, cameras in hand when we pulled into Camp Marathon. It was quite hilarious. We did have several invitations to come over & have cocktails as they all said it looked like we needed a drink. Thanks to Alice & Gary Nelson for indulging us that evening. They were wonderful hosts. ? and we can't thank him enough. Monday morning our coach was taken to a place to be fixed and it was done on Wednesday. We had to stay 2 nights in a hotel, where we found out Karlie doesn't like elevators but other than that everything couldn't have gone better. Chris took care of making sure that the company took care of ALL the bills, even our hotel, and I must say they have been great to work with never questioning anything just wanting to make everything right. All in all what could have been a horrible situation turned out to be ok.
We got home Tuesday, August 15th after being gone 64 days and traveling over 7100 miles. Stayed at 19 RV parks, 3 parking lots, and 1 roadside turn out. Had my credit card hacked, only used the back slide after day 12, met some wonderful people (a couple whom we hope to meet up with again sometime, Tom & Dorothy!), became members of the 30% club, saw more bears and wild animals than I can count, cooked more than I ever have on a vacation and liked it, wore my raincoat more than I ever have and learned how to sleep when it's still light.
It was a fascinating trip. One that we have wanted to do for years and finally were able to accomplish. It was challenging at times but well worth it. We can now proudly say we drove Alaska and survived! ??
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