Today, Friday, we drove to a Laundromat to do our laundry. Nothing too excited there, but while our clothes where washing and drying, we went and had a breakfast bagel at a smoothie and espresso joint down the street here in Skagway. After that we drove up and down streets until we could connect to the internet on Amy’s laptop. We paid $7 for a days worth of internet connection. There we blogged and checked out Erica Quessenberry’s latest blog. We went and finished our laundry and took it back to the hotel.

With that out of the way, Amy took up a half hour of reading while Ernest walked down to the ferry dock and obtained the tickets home. We then decided to take a bike tour around some of Skagway. Our bikes took us to the Gold Rush Cemetery. We proceeded on to a trail there and found a beautiful waterfall called Reid’s Falls. Mom, those pictures are especially for Grandma Doris. We rode back into town and drove to Dyea, a ghost town 9 miles outside Skagway. All that is left of the town is ruins of a warehouse and a false front of a real estate company’s building. See the pictures in the photo album on the right.

As we were heading back down the road, we spotted a sign for Slide Cemetery. A small walk down a path found us at the cemetery where the victims of the April 3, 1898 snow slide of were buried. In all, the sign said there were 70 known victims. The cemetery held a large majority of them.

Our next adventure and history chase was the Chilkoot Trail. We only hiked up about 5 minutes one way, just to see what the trail is like. Our ultimate goal is to one day hike the entire trail, possibly even making it to Dawson City. But baby steps…

Back in town, we stopped at the first super market we came to, although we wouldn’t call it “super”. It was very small, and pretty expensive. We bought some more orange juice (stepping out of our comfort zone, we upgraded to pineapple-orange juice), milk for cereal on the ferry, and two huge ice cream sandwiches made with tollhouse cookies. No one needs to know each one was 520 calories. They were so good on such a hot, sunny day!

Our real goal in finding a market was ice. We needed two bags of ice to fill the cooler for our three day trip back to Bellingham on the ferry. But the market was out of ice, so we drove around, searching for an ice box outside of a store, but to no avail. We ended up taking advantage of the hotel’s ice machine (ssshhh… don’t tell!) and filled our cooler. We then walked around town and shopped for Christmas gifts. As we thought about dinner, we realized that the ice cream cookie sandwich would probably hold us over until morning. It was decided not to search for food.

Let us just say the mountains are spectacular over here in Skagway area! We highly recommend if anyone wants a great place to relax and have some fun with picture taking, this is the place to do just that! Another on our list of recommendations would be the Seward area. Same kind of spectacular scenery and some fun with history exploration. The hiking is abundant as well.
We leave on Saturday morning on the ferry for Bellingham. We’ll be at sea for three days, and dock on Tuesday morning. Our next blog will most likely be at home on Tuesday. We have very much enjoyed our trip, and consider it the most fantastic trip we have ever been on. We do plan on coming back soon (can’t say how soon) as there is still much more to see and do. Next time we hope there will be many others coming with us! Have a great weekend everyone!

Monday we packed up everything and checked out of our hotel room in Fairbanks. We drove down the road to find gas. It ended up being $2.92 per gallon. We headed north on highway 2, passing many gold mining attractions until we reached El Dorado Mine. Our tour began at 9:45 on a small “kids” train. The guide pulled out his fiddle and played a number of tunes for us. He told everyone that his father had played that same fiddle in the Grand Ole Opre. As the small green and white train chugged along, they had on display an old cabin just as it would have looked back in the late 1800s. Next, a gold panning operation as they did it back then. We then entered into a permafrost tunnel to learn about what miners look for under the ground to identify gold deposits. They even dig up bones that are thousands of years old. He, the presenter, held up a mammoth tusk to display one of their findings. Alaska is so rich in ancient bone discoveries by miners that the universities and such have indicated they cannot accommodate for all the bone discoveries being made. He also explained that because the ground is so hard from always being frozen, they had to blast the underground with steam to melt the permafrost. Then they could dig.

Back above the ground, he showed us what the operations look like above the ground. During the winter, they dug and brought up the dirt in buckets where they then had the bucket attached to a cable that ran above the pile of dirt above the ground. The bucket emptied the earthly contents into a pile where it was sifted and panned during the summer.

We were then led to an area where they showed us what they do today when they placer mine for gold. Basically water to separate the gold. Since gold is so much heavier than all the rock and sediment in the water, the gold falls to the bottom and the water runs the rocks and sediment away, revealing the gold that fell to the bottom. We have video that shows the process and it is very interesting. Lastly, they gave us a handful of dirt from a dirt pile and let us pan for gold. And yes, we did get some gold from those handfuls so ya’ll can see it when we get home!

After that fun, we headed back into Fairbanks and exchanged American money for Canadian. We then headed east for Dawson City, the final destination of the Klondike Gold Rush! We ended up driving highway 5 which climbed up and down over mountains. We even passed a forest fire on the next mountain over from the road. There where hardly any cars on the road. We stopped and camped at a campsite (cannot remember the name) that overlooked Johna’s Lake. There were bear warning signs everywhere. There was not running water and no garbage bins. Probably a campground that is not used much since it’s out in the middle of nowhere on a road not many people use.

Tuesday morning we walked around the campgrounds a bit and then took off for Dawson City. Not too long after hitting the road, it turned to dirt and gravel. Our first place of interest was the booming metropolis of Chicken. There we saw the Pedro Dredge that they were in the process of setting up for tours. There was a camp ground, RV park, café, and a gift shop. That was the town of Chicken! Oh, and they had a post office. We wanted to mail something from Chicken so badly, but we had nothing to mail and no stamps. Sad days in Alaska…

As we kept driving, we noticed that there were piles of rocks and dirt everywhere. We concluded it must have been the result of the dredge dredging the area. We eventually passed another dredge in a sad state of disrepair. It had been abandoned and was deteriorating. We could easily see the path it had taken and the new waterways it had created.

We eventually came to the Canadian border. The lady was nice and asked all kinds of questions but let us through with a smile and a “have fun you guys!” Within an hour we were at the ferry crossing to Dawson City (a free ferry, I might add). The ferry was very small, much like the Lummi Island ferry but much smaller. They could fit about 4 RVs on this ferry, and it doesn’t dock, it runs up on the beach. It runs against the current of the Yukon River. We read somewhere that there are future plans to have a bridge built across the river instead. When we came off the ferry, there was a huge line of RVs waiting to cross on the ferry. Best guess is some would be waiting an hour or more.

There was a river side park that we stopped at and ate a lunch of chicken left over from a few nights ago. We then walked along the main drag of the town. We stopped at an ice cream shop and each bought a scoop of ice cream. We walked down a few other streets before heading back to the car to find out where the museum was. I have to note here the appearance of the buildings. They restored them to look much like they would have in the early 1900s before the gold rush died.

Once at the museum, we looked at train locomotives that were restored. We then went and viewed displays explaining why the land looks the way it does (glacier influenced) and some information on area natives. We watched a short film created by a man who grew up in Dawson City. It was about what it was like growing up in a ghost town and a bit about the history of the short lived gold rush that made that town “boom”. The film is called Gold City and is very much worth watching. After the film, we looked at the rest of the gold rush displays and then headed back on the road. Before we left this quaint town, we stopped for gas and paid the highest price yet: $1.32 per liter. Ouch! We only filled about a 1/3 a tank and it cost us $50. I feel bad for the locals!

The drive to our camp site, Moose Creek, was uneventful and even dull. But we stopped about 270 miles from Whitehorse so we would have less of a drive on Wednesday. At our campsite, we made friends with a local squirrel who kept coming back for more bread crumbs. We also want to mention the temperature in Fairbanks was around 80 during our stay, and in Dawson City around 70.

Wednesday we walked down a trail that was to take us to Moose Creek. We walked along a ridge, singing and making chatter as to be very visible to any obnoxious bears that might be in the area. We passed a man walking two dogs: one was a german shepherd and the other a small kick-mutt (an Amy-ism for a small dog that has a high-pitched yap). The kick-mutt had a rather large bell on its collar that jingled upon every step. That’s one way to keep track of your dog! When we reached a junction in the trail, we turned around and walked back to the car. We headed down the highway for Whitehorse. The drive was very boring. There wasn’t much to look at but trees everywhere. To keep ourselves occupied while driving, we listened to the Bible on CD. We drove a total of 4-5 hours before reaching Whitehorse. Our only agenda in Whitehorse this time was half a tank of gas and some ice for the cooler. We found gas prices just as we had left them a week prior: $1.19. We spent a total of $40 for half a tank. We were also able to buy a bag of ice at the gas station. We then headed back to the highway and drove 2 miles before reaching our campground. It was raining quite a lot when we reached our campsite. We grabbed our waterproof jackets, unpacked everything into the tent, and pumped up the air mattress in the car. We then stacked two of our tubs of supplies next to the car and grilled our hamburgers from the back of the car. It wasn’t easy trying to stay dry!

While Ernest was in the outhouse, Amy decided to empty the water from the cooler. After doing so on the outskirt of the campsite, Ernest suggested it may have been a better idea to do so farther away from the campsite as to not attract curious bears. Tears burst forth from Amy’s eyes as she realized that what she thought was being helpful could be more of a problem (Ernest: What did I do now?!). After she explained that it wasn’t Ernest’s words that opened the floodgates but it was one of 12 emotional outbursts that happen a year, we started grilling our burgers. After dinner we hung out in the car until bedtime. Securing the campsite, we tried to get some rest.

The next morning, during yet more rain, we packed up the campsite and headed to Skagway. We stopped about 45 minutes south of our campsite at a small restaurant in Carcross. The restaurant was called “Montana Restaurant”. Our goal was to spend a bit of the Canadian money left since we were leaving Canada that day. As soon as the waiter brought the omelets, Amy’s stomach started getting queasy, so she only had two pieces of toast and three bites of the omelet. Ernest finished his plus most of Amy’s breakfast. Now on to White Pass.

The topography of White Pass consists of large snow-capped peaks, large rock outcroppings, and deep valleys. The lakes are the most pastel shade of blue turquoise and green. This is the spectacle that would our eyes would have beheld. Unfortunately it was completely obscured by fog and rain.

The road wound around alternately climbing and descending with three sections with dire warnings about stopping in avalanche zones. The summit was fairly obvious as the road started to plunge down the West slope of White Pass. At the US border the signs change from Metric to miles, markers line the highway so it can be located in deep snow, and due to the intensely curvy road and stiff grade the speed limit drops to 40mph.

There were two groups of bicyclists that some tour company must have driven to the top of the pass and released onto the highway. They looked wet. The border crossing was very interesting in that the officer was a grandpop-type character who had a jolly-good time at his job (although one would question if perhaps he was actually retired). He asked one meaningful question. The rest of the time he was asking us about our lives and even commented that Amy had a good passport photo. If you have seen it one would question the old fellow’s eyesight. He then stamped our passports with a Skagway, Alaska stamp and let us pass.

Soon the vehicle followed the highway down from the clouds and onto State Street in Skagway. We found the main street (Broadway), found our hotel and parked. We then walked up and back down the street, buying a few things in the tourist gift shops, and walked back to the car. We deposited our findings there and walked to the train station. We bought our tickets for the White Pass train ride at 4:30pm and went to check into our hotel. Needing some rest, we hung out at the hotel until 4:00 and walked down to the train station. The train ride was an exciting one, full of picturesque views and history. Check out our photo album for pictures of the ride! After the train ride, we walked to the harbor and ate dinner at a small restaurant called “Stowaway”. Their main theme was mermaid. It was a semi fancy meal in a casual setting. Amy had Mediterranean pasta and Ernest had a halibut dish. We walked back to the hotel in the coolness of the evening and both took showers (we didn’t realize how much one could stink after three days with no shower!). Friday we plan to find history and adventure in Skagway and Dyea. Until then…

Friday we had a hearty breakfast at the Country Kitchen. It was a breakfast all-you-can-eat buffet. Very good and very filling! Soon after, we headed down the Seward Highway to see Seward. The drive had to be one of the best drives we’ve been on yet. The scenery was amazing despite the cloudy day. We passed by many hiking trails, noting which ones we were going to try out next time we come here. We ended up stopping at Portage at the Alaskian Wildlife Conservation Center. There one could walk up to a fenced-in moose and pet his nose. And, being a HUGE moose fan, I was delighted! We also saw elk, caribou, deer, bison, black bear (they are soooo cute!), brown bears (they were posing for us), and musk ox. They had a very nice gift shop with exceptionally reasonable prices (of course we took advantage of that!). We very much enjoyed this stop on our way down to Seward.

Once in Seward, we stopped at the visitor center (after battling a large section of construction) which had much information about the town. As we drove down the waterfront, it was very apparent that the town is a tourist trap. We later read that the town was a thriving port with many goods exported from there. When the 1964 earthquake struck Alaska, the town never regained itself again. So they took advantage of the fact that it was a major stop for the Alaskan ferry and cruise ships and became a tourist hub. Despite it being touristy (kind of like Cannon Beach, except the beach is not the main attraction), it has been my favorite little town thus far. We stopped by the museum and discovered a bit about this quaint town. I was amazed at the vast history this little community enjoyed. For instance, the town (and highway coming into the town) is named after President Lincoln’s Secretary of State (who was later also President Johnson’s Secretary of State), William H. Seward. He negotiated the deal between Russia and the US for the purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million in 1864 (?). These people seem very proud of this man. Also, Nellie Campbell resided here in the Seward area. I’m looking forward to reading more about her some time soon.

After the museum, we went to the famed Alaska Sealife Center. There they take injured sea life and rehabilitate them and release them back into the wild. There were quite a few sea lions and seals there! Also, it serves to teach people about marine life in Alaska. It was fun, but it would have been much more fun with children.

We then headed back up the Seward Highway back to Anchorage to get gas and find camping near Palmer. In Palmer we stopped and I got some first-aid stuff for my sore blister and some Delsym medicine for my cough. We ended up staying at another state park called Finger Lake. There were a bunch of kids riding bikes everywhere and running through other people’s campsites. They were still up to that when we went to bed at 11pm. I took the cough medicine and we went to bed (after a game of Scrabble of which Ernest won). It was the first good night sleep Amy had since her cold began four days previous.

In the morning, we had a big breakfast of eggs, bacon, and a fruit cup. We headed up highway 3 until Willow, at which time we remembered we were going to stop at the Independence mine. So we took a dirt road up over Hatcher Pass, which boasted some of the most beautiful views we’ve ever seen (more so than on the Seward Highway). Amy drove this stretch and claimed it as her first off-road drive. The road was smooth until right before Summit Lake (which contained a sign stating not suitable for RVs or campers) when potholes the size of the state tried to swallow our car. But despite potholes and large ledges, we made it to Independence mine without incident. Both dads and Casey: you would have a BLAST at the mine site! We have many pictures to show in the photo album so take a look. Several buildings are being maintained by the state parks department. They have interpretive signs everywhere and trails that lead to beautiful areas. So much of the mining site is still there. It was very much worth the extra 4 hours it took to get there and see it and get back to Willow. Ernest was our driver back down the mountains. We were almost down when Ernest heard a “hisssssssss” sound. You guessed it: a flat tire! We stopped in the road and checked out the damage. There was a 7 inch spike hanging out of the side of the rear passenger-side tire. We could not begin to image how it lodged itself in the side of the tire. Ernest pulled it out and started changing the tire. Luckily we had a full spare under the car. Ernest swapped the tire and we were on our way within 20 minutes. We called Nathan, Amy’s brother, to ask it he could find online the nearest Les Schwab. The answer: Juneau. We had no plans to head to Juneau so we decided to look for a tire place in Fairbanks on Sunday.

After driving a couple hours on highway 3, we decided to look at the map and find a campground to stay in Saturday night. After passing the viewpoints of Mt McKinley, there was one campground (or so we thought) before Fairbanks. So we stopped there and found a nice site overlooking Nanada River. As we attempted to sleep in broad daylight (10pm), the mosquitoes kept trying to get into the small crack of the open windows. Amy quickly rolled hers all the way up, swearing they were looking specifically for her. Perhaps a bit of insanity settling in?

In the morning we headed up highway 3 to Fairbanks. The scenery was good, but not as good as the southern portion of the state. We tried to spot Mt McKinley, but the clouds refused to part. Once in Fairbanks, we attempted to drive up to the visitor’s center. We soon found out the parking lot (the only parking for the visitor’s center) was across the river, about a 5 minute walk. Quite strange they don’t have parking closer. We found some brochures on the town and went off to find a hotel. After many wrong turns, we finally found the Comfort Inn. There we rented a room for $170. Anyone else hate hot tourist seasons?

We then went to look touristy things to do. We succeeded and made reservations for Monday to see the El Dorado Gold Mine attraction. We also stopped at Gold Dredge #8 Historic District. There we saw a gold dredge (see photo album for pictures) and were given a tour of it. It was pretty cool!

Back in Fairbanks, we found a Walmart and got a new tire for the truck. We then went down to North Pole, about 15 minutes south of Fairbanks. We were expecting to see a tourist town with shops and restaurants, but it is nothing like that. There is not a lot to do in North Pole, but we took pictures of Santa and the north pole. At the visitor’s center, they told us someone actually took that pole to the north pole and left if there for some time before bringing it back to North Pole, Alaska. So there is sits currently (see photo album). We found a nice diner and ate dinner. We then went back to Fairbanks and hung out at the pool until it was time to blog. So here we sit, Ernest reading over Amy’s shoulder as she types. We shall be heading southeast to Tok (again) and camp there. Tuesday we’ll be arriving in Dawson City (gold rush history capital!) and then head down the Klondike Highway to Whitehorse (again) to finally arrive in Skagway on Thursday. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be blogging again Thursday night. Our ferry leaves on Saturday morning from Skagway. Keep following us through our journeys! Oh, and we miss our cats! :o)

First off, I’d like to comment how I hate mosquitoes. No, not hate, LOTHE! I think mosquitoes are a curse from God upon me. Yes, upon me because I am one large mosquito bite right now! Every time I apply OFF® , I’m okay unless I miss a spot. That spot could be as small as a pin point and a mosquito always finds it! Someday, when God takes me home to heaven, the first thing I will ask Him is “Why? Why mosquitoes?!” Okay, I’m done ranting and raving now.

Monday night was a tough one for me. I took Nyquil to help me sleep and to relieve my cold symptoms. It relieved everything but the congestion. I was in and out of sleep all night. So needless to say I was not feeling all that great again in the morning. We packed everything up and drove up the road to Tim Horton’s for breakfast. After spending what we did on a few bagels and coffee, I made a vow never to complain about the cost of things in the states again. The price of everything up here is absolutely absurd! Even gas: take for instance the tank of gas we purchased the other day. It cost $80 to fill the tank (more than we’ve ever spent on a tank before) and the receipt claimed we paid $14.41 in gas taxes. Ugh!

So Ernest did all the driving yet again today. What a wonderful man he is! I was thankful to be able to rest and sleep at times. So during our travels on Tuesday we drove and drove and drove and drove some more. During one stretch of driving, two moose came out of the woods and skipped along the side of the road before darting across in front of us and another vehicle. Luckily all saw them and had nearly stopped before they ran across the road. As we started to go again, we came to a screeching halt as a large grizzly bear darted in front of the car. He looked quite confused when he saw us, not knowing whether to continue pursuing the moose or stop. He continued huffing and puffing across the road until he was out of sight. We came to the conclusion that the moose must have been teasing the bear and they could easily outrun him. The bear seemed to be quite tired of the chase when we saw him. So that was the excitement of the day. And I fulfilled a lifelong desire: to see a moose out in the wild. I can’t say I wish to see another bear though!

We came to the Canadian/US border where we had a whopping one RV in front of us. We got through without any delays. We stayed at Tok River camping grounds. It is a nice place, although not much different from any other campground I’ve been to.

On Wednesday, I was still not feeling all that great, though better than the past two days. Ernest insisted on driving again so I could get some rest. I didn’t argue much with that. As we turned off on the Tok Cutoff (Glenn Highway), the road turned to dirt and there was construction everywhere. We drove for a long time in the construction zone, periodically being escorted by a pilot car. When we finally hit paved road again, there were bumps and heaves everywhere. That’s what permafrost does to the pavement. So I venture to guess that the people who live out here in the middle of nowhere probably work on the construction crews that repair those roads every year. The only other thing worth mentioning about the day was this incredible glacier we saw while driving. It was found in this little community called Glacier View. No kidding! Even the school had a perfect view of this amazing glacier covering this valley. And, Jan will like this, there were two churches in this little community. Haven’t come across many churches on this trip.

Today, Thursday, we camped outside of Palmer at a campground overlooking King Mountain. It was beautiful and private and right on a river. When I woke up this morning, my nose was clear but my cold had gone down to my lungs. So I’ve been coughing up my lungs and stomach and everything else possible. We had a pretty uneventful drive into Anchorage. My first thoughts on Anchorage are “BIG BIG BIG!” Supposedly there are somewhere around 200,000 people residing here. That’s more than twice the size of B’ham. We had fun driving through traffic and ended up at Earthquake Park. We took out the bikes and peddled around the park. We discovered a moose off the trail eating trees and weeds (Ernest got pictures!) and wondering why the heck all these people (tourists) were pointing cameras at it. After all, this is Alaska, home to many a moose! After my lungs couldn’t take the exertion any longer, we headed back to the car. We then proceeded to try to find a hotel along the highway, but came across pretty much NOTHING. Imagine, a large city with no hotels along the highway! We went downtown and found a Best Western (only smoking rooms left), a Red Roof Inn (again, only smoking rooms left), and finally a Days Inn (by now we were so ready to be out of traffic) of which we spent a whopping $150 for the night. Ugh! Our max if $120. But we splurged. We age dinner at a nice diner called County Kitchen which was directly across the street from the hotel. That’s about as far as I could walk, not because of my lack of lung capacity due to the cold, but because my mosquito bite on my foot had been agitated by my sandals worn during our bike ride and the small bump of a bite turned into a blister which popped and was very sore. So what will happen to me next?? Since dinner, we have been relaxing and watching the History Channel and writing our past two day adventures. Is the sun ever going to go down? Probably not until about 1am, and will rise again at 3am. Lovely for us who like to sleep in darkness (but I’m really not complaining… honest, I’m not). So tomorrow we are heading south to possibly see a wildlife reserve and a marine rehab. place. I look forward to sharing with you again! Check out the pictures at the far left link titled “photo album”.

So here we are once again! We made it to Whitehorse, Yukon by 5pm today. Let me tell you a little about our trip thus far:

After leaving 100 Mile House on Saturday morning, I drove us through some of the most beautiful country we have seen in a long time. It was amazing to me how many abandoned houses and mini towns there were along the highway. We stopped for gas at Williams Lake, which was a very busy and bustling town. That’s when we switched drivers and Ernest took over driving. We made our way pretty uneventfully to Prince George where we stopped for supplies. We bought grapes, carrots, bananas, and toothpaste since we forgot that at home. As we departed Prince George, we noticed the gas prices were the same at EVERY gas station we saw! $1.179 per liter. Price fixing perhaps? As we found ourselves further north, prices quickly changed to $1.199 per liter. Again, price fixing perhaps? Or a freak coincidence? You be the judge.

We finally reached Dawson Creek, which is famous for being the Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway.
We again stopped for gas, took pictures of the famous Mile 0 marker, and headed out of town to find our camp site. The camp grounds was in a provincial park, lending itself to the conveniences of outhouses (that needed some attention by the outhouse cleaners) and a spigot sticking out of the ground that sucked yellow-brown water out of the ground. Not to mention that from the spigot there was a lovely view of a swamp. Mmmm… Yummy! We set up our tent and put mostly everything from the car inside the tent. Then we set up the air mattress in the car. I know… roughing it, eh? We ate polish dogs, salad, and such and departed for bed after a nice evening of Bible Study. It was about 11pm and the sun had set itself behind a mountain, but still gave us some light to maneuver with.

Sunday we departed and Amy drove about 3.5 hours down highway 97. We drove through Fort St. John and kept going through a bunch of nothing (more ghost towns and abandoned houses) until we reached Fort Nelson. Fort Nelson is one of the most established towns in the northern BC province, and that’s not saying much. I would venture a guess that the town housed around 500 if that. We gassed up in Fort Nelson, stopped to see the museum (a GREAT museum at that… see the photoalbum link on the left of the page), and headed on our way. Along the way we saw a couple black bears, some caribou, and elk. Along a mountain side we saw a mountain goat as well. As we neared the campgrounds at Muncho Lake, we were stopped by an accident on the Alaska Highway. A motorcyclist lost track on some gravel and was hurt. We watched as the Medic Helicopter came in and took him away (all the while I was thinking “good luck getting the hospital to code that correctly on your medical claim.” My coworkers will understand). After traffic was stopped a good hour, we were on our way to Muncho Lake. When we arrived it was close to 7pm and the sun was starting to set. As we ate and got ready for bed, we did some Bible study, I did some cross stitching, and we took a nice walk along the shore of the blue-green lake (and the alluvial fan). By 11pm we couldn’t wait for darkness any longer and went to bed with the sky still as bright as it had been at 9pm when the sun first set.

We headed out by 9am. I started to feel quite sick as my nose and eyes burned, and my throat starting to sting at every swallow. My eyes would not stay open so I found myself in and out of sleep the entire day. Poor Ernest did all the driving himself! Anyway, we stopped at an overlook of some animal mineral licks [picture]. After that we stopped at the famed Laird Hot Springs. This is the one place where mosquitoes are not afraid of the anti-mosquito product OFF. We walked down a board walk through a swamp, all the way smacking our skin and batting the air. There were changing rooms (NOT mosquito free) and we lowered ourselves into the nice hot springs. After about 30 minutes of floating around in the sulfur-perfumed bathwaters, we got out and changed and went on our way. Ernest came out with no mosquito bites, but I almost needed a blood transfusion!

Not long after leaving the park, we came across a herd of buffalo, just hanging out around an abandoned homestead. Next came a herd of wild horses just chillin’ in the middle of the road. They didn’t seem to care if anyone hit them.

After long stretches of nothing, we arrived in Whitehorse. It is the biggest town we’ve seen since Prince George. We’ll rest tonight at this nice hotel and head out tomorrow for another camping adventure. Hopefully we will not take my cold with us! We’ll see ya’ll in cyberspace on Thursday (hopefully!).

After a frantic night of packing and going over lists, we were all packed and ready to go by 11:30pm on Thursday night. Friday morning at 5:45am the alarm woke us. We packed the cooler and headed to work for our last 8 hours before a 2.5 week vacation.

By noon, the day seemed to crawl for Amy. At that point productivity ceased. When 3:30 finally rolled around, Amy was out the door with the “good-byes” and “have fun”’s at her back. By 3:35pm we were on the road. Amy had a headache and was drinking water as fast as she could (her headaches come from dehydration). We made it through the Sumas/Huntingdon border crossing with only 5 minute wait. Peacharch was a 90 minute wait!

We stopped at a rest area to bring the snacks to the front: beef jerky and a snack bag of cheetos (so healthy *sarcasm*). As we drove through the Frasier Canyon, Amy’s headache continued and motion sickness formed. She fell asleep for some time. Somewhere near the end of the canyon (east of Lytton) we stopped at a rest area and popped a couple Tylenol. Ernest had also developed a headache.

When we reached Cache Creek, we stopped at a Dairy Queen for a blizzard and some dinner. To our surprise their Blizzard flavors only consisted of 5 flavors! What do you do in a situation where you don’t like most of the flavors? Choose Oreo. So that’s what we did. An hour after we ate our dessert, we ate our dinner.

At 9pm we reached 100 Mile House and pulled into a Super 8 Motel. Surprisingly enough, it was the nicest motel/hotel in the town! We reserved the very last room (handicapped even, with the big bathroom). A minute after we had pulled in, another family pulled in to find we had reserved the last room. Funny how that works.

Tomorrow we will drive 500 miles to Dawson Creek where we’ll camp and explore Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway. Sunday we’ll drive about 400 miles to Laird Hot Springs or Muncho (or Mucho??) Lake where we’ll also camp. Monday night we’ll be staying in a hotel near Hanes Junction. That’s when we’ll be updating you on Saturday through Monday’s fun and hopefully download some pictures into the photo album (link is on the left side of this entry).

Pat—we have a few train pictures in the video camera we took in the Canyon for you.

If anyone sees Linda, please let her know the hand held vacuum is in the laundry room on the wall above the dryer. Just in case she needs it.
Have a wonderful weekend ya’ll!

I really have nothing to say, but I'm here anyway typing away. Spent the day at work, frustrated as anything. I'm trying to complete everything that needs it before I leave on Friday for Alaska. Ugh! So much to do and yet only one of me! Everyone wants or needs something. But that's okay. I must remember that I'm doing my best, and that's the best I can do ;o)

After work, I drove to the eye doctor to have him tell me the fate of my right eye. Everytime I put my contact in, it would create a red spot on my eye. The final word: Dry eyes. No joke! Evidentally the contact was sufficating the O2 from my eye. So he gave me a trial pair of a different kind of contact. I told Ernest I'm getting lazer eye surgery next year!

I packed three boxes of stuff today for the trip. Food, misc stuff, and dishes. I hope we aren't packing too much!

We dressed and grabbed our helmets for an evening bike ride. We walked outside and it was raining... same fate as Saturday's bike ride: rained out. And not just any kind of rain: a HUMID rain! The kind you can smell the humidity! Ugh! How frustrating!
Oh well... cheers to a good night sleep!

Strange thing, really, when you realize for the first time all your friends have turned into aquantances. For a bit over a year, I worked 40-50 hours a week and went to school. Now granted it was an online school, but I was still tied up from dawn until after dusk. So slowly my friends pulled away and stopped calling. Now that I'm done studying (I passed the state test... Hurray!), I'm finding myself a tad bit lonely. I have one friend, and yes I still call her a friend, whom I was visiting today. Someone else I called friend came over as well, but she would not look at me much. She even directed invitations to my friend and not to me. I now call her aquantance. As confusing as this sounds, I'm rolling it around in my head and seeing that I'm pretty friendless these days! I have an aquantance in Europe, one 45 minutes away in Canada, and many more here in the Northern part of WA, but whom shall I call friend? Ah, but my husband is still here. He calls me friend ;o) Perhaps I'll call someone right now...

So everyone out there is talking about this place you go to and write a public journal. My initial thought was "how weird... why would you want others to see your journal?" But I've been reading my dear friend Erica's blogs and have often wanted to post a reply to it. So I found myself signing up today in order to start replying to her blog. So thanks Erica for the inspiration! I'm finally out there doing this think they call "blogging".