Sunday, June 22, 2003

I was up at 5 and watched a couple of the cruise ships dock. Then I slept until 7 on couch. Donna got up at 8:30. We all loaded up about 9:30, drove around town, shopped some, then Donna and I went to Red Onion. The guy we had met on Friday nite, Don, was working, and gave us coffee and coke, on the house.

We met back up with Mac and Lena, and went back to the RV park to get ready for train ride, which was some awesome scenery. The train was no smoking (which I expected) but I figured the smokers could smoke on the platform between the cars.. Wrong !! So, then I figured it would be ok to smoke at the summit, I figured we would get off for few minutes. Wrong, Again! No one was allowed to get off while we were stopped switching the engines around. So old yours truly went almost 4 hours without a cigarette!!

The trip back down was the same scenery, but since I was not taking as many pictures this time, I could see everything better.

After we got back we drove Mac and Lena to Old Skagway Cemetery, then drove around town more. Donna and Lena bought a few things at the grocery store.

Donna cooked supper tonite, then we drove over to the Ferry Dock to watch up close the departure of the Massdam at 9pm. While sitting in the truck watching the activities, a policeman stopped right behind us, and spoke on his radio. I figured he was checking to see who we were. I got out to go talk to him, and it turned out to be a guy we had met in Teslin about 3-4 weeks ago, who had given us advice about where to stay. Small world, as always.

One bit of information about Skagway and the cruise ships. From May through September, 34 different ships will make 440 calls to this port, with potential cruise visitors of 640,000.

Monday, June 23, 2003

Happy Birthday to Lena !! I guess it's ok to say she turned 70 today!!

Anyway we left Skagway this morning as two cruise ships were tying up at the docks. Another busy day for the merchants of Skagway, since a total of 4 ships were expected today. This little town of about 1300 people will have 5,000 visitors today. Another reason to head on down the road.

We had quite a day of driving ahead of us today. The first challenge being the 11 mile long hill to take us over the pass out of Skagway. As most folks tend to exaggerate things, so had they exaggerated about the climb out of Skagway. It was a piece of cake. Old Henry didn't even get to breathing hard (Old Henry is Mac's Ford Diesel).

We stopped in Carcross to visit an old store that just happened to have some really good Blueberry Muffins. I think everybody got a taste :). Right after leaving Carcross we hit 7,000 miles for the trip so far, with a long way to go to get home.

At Jake's Corner we got back on the Alaskan Highway, this time east bound, and traveled to Junction 37, which is the junction with the Cassier Highway, where we headed southbound. The Cassiar is about 450 miles long to where it joins the Yellowhead Highway to Prince George. We will spend several days on this highway, seeing the sights, and taking a few side road trips.

About 50 miles down the Cassier we stopped in a little Provincial Park on Boya Lake. Really nice little campground with no hook-ups, but we are all right on the water with a nice table and fire pit.

Almost forgot.. first 42 game in nearly a week, and the Guys won 2-1, with DONNA getting the Widow.

Tuesday, June 24, 2003

Even though we had a pretty short drive ahead for today, we left the Boya Lake Park at about the same time as usual. The Cassiar Highway has a reputation of being extremely bad road. In fact, back at Junction 37, where we got fuel, a guy that had just come north on the Cassiar told Mac it was 450 miles of gravel. We hoped it was another exaggeration, like so many things we have heard.

Being the brave trouper that we are set out anyway, for the first 50 miles to get to the campground that we stayed in last night. And, actually the road was really very good, no gravel, and very few Dips or Bumps. Our eventual destination for this segment of the trip is Hyder, Ak, a little town on the far south part of Alaska. Our plans are to stay in a Provincial Park near the cut-off road that leads to Hyder. That park is about 300 miles from where we were last night, so we decided to split that drive into two parts.

Today we traveled 174 miles to Kinaskan Provincial Park, a beautiful park right on the banks of the Kinaskan Lake. Again we are parked right on the water, and enjoying a nice little fire, and watching a beautiful sunset. It is kinda windy, and about 58 degrees, but bearable.

Speaking of bears, that is the reason for going to Hyder. It is famous for it's bear watching areas, IF the Salmon are running in the rivers and creeks. Hopefully, we won't be too early, cause Donna has told everybody she is staying until she sees some more bears!!! We did a lot of looking today, but we only saw a couple of moose, and no bears.

The road today was not quite as good as yesterday. We went through 2 gravel segment, one of 16 miles, and one of 12 miles, and they weren't all that bad. We could easily drive 35 to 40 mph, which was only a bit slower than the pave portions. The worst part was where there would be 50 to 100 yards of broken up pavement, with washboard surface, requiring a real slow pace.

The Cassiar Highway is 450 miles long from its junction with the Alaskan Highway to its junction with the Yellowhead highway that will take on further south and into Prince George.

The 42 game today -- We only played 2 games because of the wind, and it was fairly cold, and it turned out to be a Tie 1-1, with the widow going to Donna again.

Wednesday, June 25, 2003

Not a big long drive today, either. Only about 130 miles to Meziadin Junction and the Meziadin Provincial Park, another great park on the banks of the Meziadin Lake. The road, again, was not near as bad as we had heard, and very few gravel areas, but again, we could drive 35 to 40 on those. And, the many of the paved areas we could drive 55 or 60.

Right after leaving the park from last night, we spotted a BIG Black Bear on the side of the road. We, of course, stopped right there, took several pictures, and a minute or so of video. This one was the biggest we have seen on the whole trip.

We actually arrived at the campground about 11am, so most of the folks that stayed here last nite were gone and we had pretty much the pick of the sites. After getting set-up we headed to Stewart, BC and then Hyder, Ak. Stewart is mostly a logging town, where logs are hauled into the port, loaded on ships, and shipped out. It seems the logging business is really down right now, partly because of high tariffs and partly because of the US and Canadian economy in general.

Then on over to Hyder, a tiny little hamlet whose main (ONLY?) claim to fame is the famous salmon run and associated bear viewing. The city (or somebody) spent 1.8 million building a wooden walk-way along the most prolific bear viewing area. Unfortunately, we are here about a week or two early, because the salmon are not running yet.

We did, however, drive up Fish Creek Road, past the viewing area, and saw a couple of bears. One crossed the road right in front of us, just lumbering along. The other was up on a rock out-cropping, appearing to be watching the river. We assumed he was checking for the salmon run.

We had to go through Canadian customs when we left Hyder, since we were returning into Canada (British Columbia). Although the U. S. does not have a customs stop when entering Hyder. The only bank in the area is in Stewart, so all the prices in Hyder are in Canadian Dollars, because they have to bank in Stewart, B.C.

Thursday, June 26, 2003

Quite a nice day today, except for one thing which I will mention later. Was real foggy this morning as we left the park back up on the Cassiar Highway. But, it didn't last long, and started clearing up not far down the road. This part of the Cassiar was even better that previous parts, and later we joined the Yellowhead Highway, which was even better.

We followed the Skeena River for quite a way, and this highway was even better, we made good time on in to Smithers and Houston. We got to Houston about 11:30, and stopped at their Visitor's Center next to a really nice park. There was a huge replica of a fly fishing rod, claiming to be the biggest in the world. This area is know for its Steelhead Trout, and there was also a fountain depicting the fish.

Alway in the park was a spruce tree about 25 feet tall, that was planted in memory of the 100th million tree planted in that area. Another 8 foot tree honored the 200th million tree planted, and was planted in 1985.

This entire area is a big timber producing area, with many large lumber mills along the entire route that we took today. We did, however, pass one mill that was totally shut down and idle. A half dozen protestors (strikers) were blocking the entrance and milling about. We were told later they were protesting the closing of the mill, which the company was blaming on a decrease in demand, caused by recent increase in U.S. Tariffs. Don't know if that's true or not.

We also stopped in a little town named Endako, where a family builds custom log homes. They cut the logs, trim them to fit, erect them on their site, label every piece, then disassemble the entire house, load it on trucks and deliver to the purchaser. I think there is a good possibility that Mac is gonna buy or build a log house, somewhere on his place, for Parker and Kay-Kay.

Tonite we are in Vanderhoof, BC, about 60 miles or so west of Prince George. We will go through Prince George tomorrow, then turn toward the south headed for Washington in a few days.

Oh, the one thing that was not so good... The Ladies won tonite, 3-0, with Mac getting the Widow (again).

Friday, June 27, 2003

Man, did Donna and I really mess up this morning. I am always up early, having my coffee and a cigarette or two, then waking up Donna just in time to leave at our normal 7am (she's on vacation, remember?). Well, today I didn't wake up until 7am exactly, and Mac and Lena were sitting in their truck ready to go!! How embarrassing !!! Anyway, it took about 30 minutes for us to get dressed, dump the tanks, unhook everything, get the 'cute little white truck' ready, and get gone. Maybe the 'cute' part about the truck in no longer appropriate, it is bad dirty from the dusty roads.

Then we continued on the Yellowhead Highway toward Prince George, got to Prince George about 9:30, and lo and behold one of the first things we saw - a BRAND NEW WAL-MART!! And it had a McDonalds! Now you have to understand I have been out of frozen sausage-egg-biscuits for about 2 weeks. Talk about withdrawals! So we just had to stop. My first stop was the McDonalds, I ordered Sausage-Egg-Biscuit. When I got it, it was actually a Sausage-Egg-Muffin. I took it back to the young lady, and she explained they don't have biscuits, just muffins. So, Ok, I figured, this is better than none at all. Mac and Lena came in about that time and they had a McGridle breakfast Sandwich.

I asked them what that was, they said a 2 sandwich size pancakes with sausage, egg and cheese in the middle. It sounded and looked so good, I had to have one, too.... cut the cheese, please. Who ever heard of cheese with a pancake. Not my favorite, and won't bother again.

Then on down the road to Quesnel, a really nice town with FREE RV parking near a park, so we stopped and did a little exploring. There is an old one-lane road bridge across the Fraser River, at least 500 ft long, and going to another part of the town. Mac and Lena walked across and went into a few shops. Donna and I explored the walking trail along the river, and checked out a shop or two on the side we were on.

Officially, Quesnel is about 12,000 population, but it seems as if it were bigger than that. In talking to a local shop owner, she said there were 4 larger timber related mills there, one plywood mill, one pulp mill, and the other lumber mills. We saw truck after truck hauling trees into town, and a lot of trucks hauling lumber south, I suppose to the United States.

We stopped in Williams Lake, and Mac tried to get in touch with some folks named Currie. Scott roomed with Russ Currie at A & M, and they became very good friends, but with both of them moving several times since A & M days, they had lost touch. Russ's parents either did or still do live in Williams Lake, but Mac was unable to locate a Currie that was acquainted with the family.

Then on down the Cariboo highway, through several nice towns, to a town named Clinton. Now I have found no evidence of any relationship between the town and our infamous president, so we stopped at a nice little RV park called Willow Creek. There is no creek that we have found, but they do have a nice little lake (pond) with a Duck family, with 6 little ducklings. Not sure what kind of ducks, but they have a brown, fuzzy looking head, with a white beak, and grayish dappled body color.

The guys won tonite by a score of 2-1, with Donna getting the widow.

Saturday, June 28, 2003

BACK IN THE GOOD OLE USA !!! Well, we are out of Canada, and now back in the US, even thought we're not more than 5 miles inside Washington.

We left this morning about as usual, and decided to take a scenic route, rather than making a "run for the border". From Cache Creek, we followed the Thompson River through some beautiful mountain scenery, with very curvy and narrow roads, but with lots of interesting things. At one point we were just 20 to 30 feet above the river in some fairly strong rapid, when we say a young guy standing on the concrete railing right above the river. Just as we go even with him, he JUMPED! Right into the river. As we rounded the curve more, Donna said she could see a ladder there, but we never saw him again. Guess he just wanted to try it.

After the Thompson River joined the Fraser river, we stopped at an attraction called Hell's Gate. This is the site of a big rock slide that created a real narrow spot in the river. During normal flow, over 200 Million Gallons of water per Second pass through these narrows, more than over Niagra Falls. After the rock slide, the Salmon could not negotiate the swift water, so in the 40's and 80's 'fish ladders' were installed to assist the salmon. These are mostly underwater, and run from the 'eddy type water' below the narrows to the slower water above the narrows.

From there on in to Hope, BC where we turned back to the east toward Osoyoos, BC, where we planned to cross the border. This part was some steep, narrow, and curvy mountain roads also. The temperature was really rising, up to about 95, and the steep climb began to cause a heating problem with the coach. Engine temperature got up to about 200, which is not all that bad, but higher than normal driving of 185 or so in the cooler weather. We stopped a couple of times to cool down, just so we could avoid any potential problem.

We stopped at a little fruit stand in Cremeo, BC, bought a little fruit, had a little ice cream, and then continued on to the border about 30 miles away. The entire area within 30 miles either side of Creameo is what would be called 'High Mountain Desert', nothing but sage brush and dead grass. Except, where they were irrigating, and then it was all sorts of fruits, vegetable, and hay being grown.

We saw acre after acre of orchards of apple, peaches, cherries, grapes for wine, and all sorts of other fruits, etc. It almost seemed if we were in Florida or the Texas Valley. Actually, it seemed like Texas because by this time the temperature was 99 degrees.

Tonite we are in Oroville, Wa. in a nice campground overlooking Osoyoos Lake, a lake that is partly in the US and partly in Canada. It cooled down considerably after the sun went down, but I expect it will be a hot tomorrow.

Mac and I were on a roll tonite, and beat the Gals 3 - Zip.. Only bad thing was I got the widow.