Our First Full Day on the Road with Alaska Excursion Caravan - Friday, July 22, 2022

After all of our excitement in Dawson Creek yesterday, we are hitting the road to Alaska today! We will travel 346 miles from Tumbler Ridge, BC, to Fort Nelson, BC. Our route bypasses Dawson Creek to the west. We will hook up with the Alcan Hwy. north of Dawson Creek. 

Every day we travel, we have to make sure we stop for our third family member, Sunnie (our love sponge cat). Today's major rest stop was in Taylor, British Columbia, a small town located north of the Peace River. The Alcan Highway through town has frontage roads on both sides. We pulled off the Alcan and parked on a frontage road in a neighborhood. 

Once we put food and water out for Sunnie, we locked the 5th wheel and truck and walked a couple of blocks south to the Visitor Center. We like to stretch our legs a bit when we stop. 

The Visitor Center was a wealth of information about Sir Alexander Mackenzie and his quest for the Northwest Passage in May of 1793, the history of the Peace River Bridge and the Alcan Ferry, the first natural gas pipeline, and gold fever in the region.

History of Sir Alexander Mackenzie.

A replica of Sir Alexander
Mackenzie's canoe.

Heritage Auto Tour signboard
at the Visitor Center.

U.S. Ferry, the M.V. Alcan.

The Peace River.

Pipe dreams.

I'd like to get my hands on
some of that gold!

The ladies at the Taylor Visitor Center were very friendly and helpful. One came out and took our photo at the Gold Prospector statue. She wanted us to stay in Taylor for a few days so we could sightsee.

Bob and I at the Gold Panner statue.

Visitor Center in Taylor, B.C.

From Taylor, we kept cruising north on the Alcan Highway. We passed through the larger town of Saint John just north of Taylor. There are a lot of agricultural 

fields and we were surprised by how much canola is grown in this region.

We were blessed with long, straight
highways and good roads. 

The weather was lovely, but pretty
windy.

There were a couple of hills.

The hills weren't too bad.

We are in the Northern Rockies.

There were many pastoral scenes like 
this one today.

A very nice river with a beach.

The roads were flat and easy to drive today. We arrived in Fort Nelson with no problems to report. We will spend the night at the Triple G Campground. Check-in was quick, easy, and well organized. After we settled into our campsites, we had dinner at the campground's saloon. This is a great little place. In the bar, the barstools are saddles. Giddy 'up!

Our 5th wheel is on the right.

We were on an end site. That was
great!

All the motorhomes are tucked in 
for the night.

We enjoyed this campground. It's cute and has fun things to check out, like the gift shop and the restaurant. For dinner at the saloon, we had the buffet which was exceptionally good!

Bob and the bear.

The Saloon at the RV park.

Ellen, Lowell, and their fur
kids, along with Margret & Matt.

Nice carved furniture in the RV park.

And pretty posies, too.

Giddy 'up! I'm in one of 
the saddle seats at the bar.

We had dinner with 
Charlene and Rick.

Me, Bob, Charlene, and Rick.

After dinner, I hung out in the RV while Bob went on a walkabout around the north side of town. He was gone for a while, but not as long as usual. There were pesky mosquitoes around! When he returned, he told me he found something and he wanted me to go with him to see it. He said it was very close by.

Fort Nelson Heritage Museum.

He wasn't kidding. The Fort Nelson Heritage Museum was right next door to the RV park. The museum had closed earlier, but there were things to see outside. I wasn't happy about the mosquitoes, but there were enough interesting things to see, that I kept on taking photos!

Burls of wood are prevalent here.

Bob pointing things
out to me.

I'm pointing out the bighorn sheep
statue to Bob.

I'm sure there's an interesting
story in the museum about this vehicle!

This cool old car made me feel like
a mob moll.

More wood burls.

The Alcan "Historic
Mile 300."

Old vehicles on display.

See the photo below
for a picture of this.

Crankshaft, camshaft, and
cylinder head.

Silhouette statue
of a highway surveyor.

Yep, this is where we are.

Old equipment from building the
Alcan Highway.

Bob wants to experience building
a highway.

The purpose of the tower in
the background is a mystery.

An old tractor.

When we were finished looking around outside the museum, we quickly walked back to the RV park. Supposedly there are bears around and we weren't interested in an encounter tonight! And the mosquitoes were still annoying.

Wildlife we saw today: three deer, one bunny, one moose, a black bear cub, a coyote, and a beaver

Time to rest up for our long drive day tomorrow. We have 318 miles to Watson Lake, British Columbia. Good night, all.

A Day of Rest and a Day of Getting Ready to Go - Wednesday-Thursday, July 20-21, 2022

Wednesday, July 20: It's not often you'll hear us say, "A day of rest"! But today we did that, although Bob worked quite a bit. I wrote blogs to catch up.

Our group had their first dinner together tonight at the Western Steakhouse in Tumbler Ridge. The ribeye steak was wünderbar! Bob's red snapper was deep fried, overcooked, and dried out. He had a third of my steak and half of my mashed potatoes. But the camaraderie was good and we laughed at each other's stories. 

Western Steakhouse - Charlene, Rick,
Margret, Russ, Matt, Cathy, waitress,
Bob, Mary Jane, David, Ellen & Lowell.

Tom and Fred at Western Steakhouse.

Pat, Kevin, & Tom at Western Steakhouse.

Lorraine and John.

We had a nice time getting to know people better. Tomorrow, we'll be off to Dawson Creek for a welcome breakfast. 

While there, we'll get any last-minute provisions while we have a Walmart, Kal Tire, Canadian Tire, and other stores in town.

Thursday, July 21: Dawson Creek is where we had our caravan's "Welcome Breakfast" at Mercer Hall Co-op. We had a good breakfast buffet and no one went away hungry. 

B.C. Tourism gave a presentation about Tumbler Ridge and Dawson Creek. The Centre where we met had a gallery upstairs with guitars and posters signed by artists who had performed in the arena. They graciously invited us up for a look.

Randy Bachman and 
Burton Cummings (2008).

The Beach Boys (2008)

Theory of a Deadman/Big
Wreck, Miranda Lambert,
and Alice Cooper (all 2012).

Alice in Chains (2014) and
Godsmack (2019).

Judas Priest (2019)

The OVINTIV Events Centre.

Art in the OVINTIV Events Centre.

Bob checking out the leaf springs 
and axle.

After our welcome presentation, we regrouped at the Alaska Highway "0" Mile Marker in Dawson Creek. The place where we took the photos had a large parking lot that accommodated RVs. Individual and group photos were taken. From the same parking lot, you could visit an art gallery and a visitor centre. Very handy.

 

Photo op.

The Surveyor sculpture at the 
roundabout at Mile Marker "0". (I
don't think the beer bottle is part of
the original sculpture.)

Our Alaska caravan group.

When we finished with group photos, Bob and I had more errands to run. We went to the No Frills grocery store, Bob withdrew Canadian dollars from an ATM, and while he did that, I walked around historic downtown Dawson Creek and took photos of murals.

The four murals above and the one of the kids below were all done by this team of artists.

The artistic team.

The real "0" Mile Marker is in
the middle of an intersection.

The Meat Market (now the Butcher Block)
is the oldest building in Dawson Creek.

The Aspol Ford Motors Mural.

After the shopping was done, Bob washed the pickup truck at the do-it-yourself place in Dawson Creek. It got very dirty while chasing waterfalls in Tumbler Ridge Global GeoPark during the eight days we were there.

Tomorrow morning, we're off on our journey.