Sunday, April 26, 2009

DAY 11 OF OUR ALASKAN ADVENTURES

We woke up at 4:45 to sprinkles on the roof and the temperature outside was 46° and 54° inside the trailer. We're having a heat wave here!!! Birds are chirping - it's going to be a great day. We had our first experience with Canadian money last evening when Bob paid the RV site fee with Canadian Dollars. The price was $36.75 and he gave the clerk 2 $20 dollar bills and she gave him back 3 coins. I almost said she had shorted me but put the money in my pocket. When we got all settled in I took it out and looked and she had given me a $2 & a $1 coin and a quarter. Now we understand how foreigners coming to the US get confused by our customs etc. We were totally lost by that transaction until we had time to check it. We learn something new every day.
We got on the road at 7:45 AM. We got lost just getting out of the park. Took us 10 minutes to get to the gate after a couple of dog walkers gave us directions . We were hoping it wouldn't start raining. We didn't want to have to drive the mountains in the rain. The day wasn't starting well. Just as we started rolling, I remembered my coffee in the M/W so we pulled over and Judy went back an got it. Of course, it had slopped all over the M/W. Finally got rolling up Trans-Canada Hwy 1 traveling 100 km/h. Boy the speed limits are hard to figure out. Even though the Ford's speedometer has both, the Metric is in red letters so it's real hard to read. I had gotten on the internet the night before and printed a chart in BIG letters so we could figure it out easier. Hwy 1 goes through the Fraser River Canyon and what a beautiful drive. At Cashe Creek we turned North on Hwy 97. The road for the most part is a good wide two lane but with lots of hills and down grades. After a couple hours Judy volunteered to drive but I decided she'd probably be nervous and drive too slow so I did all the driving today. There are 7 tunnels including the longest mountain tunnel in North America on this road so it was very a interesting
drive. This road is known as the "Gold Rush Trail" and was used for travel to the BC gold fields beginning in 1858 by mostly foreigners coming here to strike it rich. There's lots of little towns with names like Hope, Yale, Spuzzum, Boston Bar, Lytton, Lilloout, 50 Mile House, 100 Mile House & 150 Mile House. The towns with house names were actually supply stops when the US Military built the Alaskan Highway during WWII. We were seeing snow in the trees along the road and when we reached Lac la Hache, there was a lake there that was still covered with ice (NOT GOOD). We decided to refuel so we stoped at Cariboo Husky in 100 Mile House. This was our first experience filling up in Metric. Diesel was 90.9 cents Canadian/liter. We got 118.818 @$108.00. We'll have Randy tell us what that is in US when we get to Quesnel. About 11:45, we decided to stop for lunch at "Big Bar Rest Stop" at 3457 feet elevation. I had seen snow flakes hitting the windshield for a few miles but thought NAUGH "It's just rain" and didn't say anything to Judy. When we got out of the truck at the rest stop the wind and the SNOW hit us blowing sideways and it was COLD. We took a picture which looks like fog but is really snow. Judy made lunch and we ate in the truck with the heater running. We then headed out on the last 120 miles (193 klm) to Quesnel, BC. Once we started down the mountain the weather started to clear and the sun came out in patches. The snow and rain quit but it was still cold. We saw lots of deer in the fields along the road. This is a cattle and farming area so there were many green fields but obviously not a lot of rain here because there was rolling irrigation systems like seen in Arizona. We finally reached Quesnel about 3:50 PM and pulled into the WalMart parking lot and called Randy. He had told me to call him for "Escort Service" when we got there, which I did, but he and Chris were the only ones who showed. Oh well, I was too tired after the long drive for anything else anyway. We finally got parked in their driveway and set up. We met their son (Adam) and daughter-in-law (Dawn) and their three children. Adam and Dawn had just returned from Yuma and were "thrilled" to be back in the cold country. Chris had a nice dinner of BBQ'd ribs, beans and cole slaw. One thing I've learned from my friend Nick Russel is don't pass a free meal! After dinner we sat around visiting and solved all the US's political problems. We finally hit the sack about 10:00 after a long day.

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