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After flying to Washington, DC, area to see
Robin, Shawn, Kennedy and Keira (almost 5) and then spending a few days in
Kansas City with Mindy, Jeff, Luke (7) and Noah (4), and celebrating Mindy’s 36th
birthday, Larry and I left Kansas City Sunday morning May 2 northbound on
I-29. We spent the first night in Sioux Falls, SD, stopped in Fargo, ND, 30
minutes to buy Monk’s Cloth for two summer afghan projects, and overnighted the
second night in Grand Forks, ND. A minor blip on the radar screen occurred in
Grand Forks Tuesday morning when the coach started bucking and snorting and the
Road Relay sounded with Engine Fault. Forty five minutes later we’re back on
the road again after Larry changed the fuel filter. Last US fuel at $2.939 a
gallon.
We crossed the Canadian border into
Manitoba about noon. After playing “20 Questions” for three to four minutes
{citizen of, address, bound for, how long in Canada, alcohol and tobacco on
board, how made living (what business was that of theirs?), last time and
location in Canada} we were on our way. Bypassing Winnipeg we traveled west
on Hwy 16 into Saskatchewan where small lakes dotted either side of the
highway—Little Quill Lakes Bird Sanctuaries, and there were frequent grain
elevators and potash plants. Wednesday morning we awoke to 2-3 inches of snow
and had a tedious couple of hours driving and light flurries periodically. We
reached Edmonton, Alberta, on Thursday. Six travel days=1890 miles
(not even halfway yet;) boondocked 4 nights; nightly lows in mid-20s to low
30s; now on Mountain Time.
We stayed two nights at an Edmonton campground
that didn’t rank high on our list of places to go back to, but it was close to
THE mall. The West Edmonton Mall was
huge—said to be the largest in the world! [A wave pool, multiple waterslides,
mini golf, a seal show, an ice skating rink, 2 hotels, hundreds of shops and
kiosks, 25 restaurants and pubs, 45 fast food outlets, 22 coffee/sweets shops, a
multiple screen theater w/IMAX, and even a large Chinese supermarket with tanks
of live tilapia, cod, lobster and crabs, and many foreign foods beyond our
imagination as to the origin or food category.]
5/08 As we traveled Hwy 43
between Edmonton and Dawson Creek, British Columbia, the signs indicating
frost heaves became more numerous--think of rumble bumps in a parking
lot! The moose caution signs were frequent. Humorous reminders
that towns are a far distance apart and the kids are bussed into schools in town
were old car/bus seats and park benches at the highway where driveways
intersected so the students could sit while awaiting school busses.
5/09 Traveling north of Fort St
John, BC, we saw our first wildlife since leaving KC area: a deer bounded
across the highway and then 70 miles later a large black bear was grazing in the
ditch alongside the highway. We've yet to see a moose. And we've not
stayed up late enough to see when it really becomes dark--it's after 10 p.m. for
sure!
Fuel
in Canada is priced by the liter: 3.8 liters = 1US gallon $0.98 per liter
Stations became fewer and farther apart the farther west we traveled. Seminar
“Alaska 101” at Albuquerque FMCA Rally suggested driving on the top half of the
tank!
Dawson
Creek, BC, is Mile Zero—the beginning
of the Alcan or Alaska Hwy. We’re on Pacific Time now, daylight increases
daily by 7 minutes.
History
Lesson: The
Alaska Hwy: precipitated by Pearl Harbor and Japanese threats to the western US
coast, the project was approved by the US Army and authorized in just five days
(how's that for "getting it done") by the US Senate and President
Franklin D. Roosevelt. Canada agreed to allow the construction if the US would
bear the full cost and agree that the road and other facilities in Canada would
be turned over to Canada at the war's end.
11,000 military and 16,000
civilians, starting at both ends, built a 1500 mile road between Dawson Creek,
British Columbia, and Fairbanks, AK, in just 8 months 12 days: building 8000
culverts and 133 bridges, and crossing eight mountain ranges (March to November,
1942.) The ALCAN (renamed The Alaska Hwy in 1943) was solely military during
WWII with a 24 hour checkpoint at milepost 101. The highway was taken over by
Canada in 1946 and opened to the public in 1948.
Our trip is now dictated by the MILEPOST,
bible of a trip to AK. Larry had purchased one in 1964 when he traveled to
Anchorage to spend a year at Elmendorf Air Force Base. Size-wise it’s 5½ by 8½
and a half inch thick, compared with 2010’s version at 8½ by 11 and over 1½
inches thick.
Monday, May 10 we started seeing WILDLIFE.
First a moose, then stone sheep, next caribou, buffalo, black bear, more
buffalo, another black bear, a Grizzly Bear!, another black bear—you get
the drift? By late afternoon we’d seen 4 moose, 2 deer, 7 black bears, 1
Grizzly Bear (all these individually,) 11 Stone sheep (three groups,) 3
caribou (two groups,) and 18 buffalo (three groups.) We’re still looking for
Sergeant Preston of the Yukon and his trusty dog King!
The farther north we proceeded, the more areas
of highway that had been patched/needed patching. Many places advertise in the
Milepost that they’re open all year but actually aren’t open until mid-May or
later—so we ended up going farther many days than we’d intended. Winter lasts
longer the farther north you go. There are beautiful snow capped mountains
everywhere. Nightime temps have been mid20s to 30, daytime low 40s.
At Watson Lake, BC, (Historic Milepost 635) we
stopped for pictures of the world famous Signpost Forest which started
with one sign posted by a lonely US soldier working on the AK Hwy in 1942 to
show how far he was from home. Today there are over 61,000 street signs,
license plates, city limit signs and homemade family signs.
May 12, 2010 EUREKA,
we have arrived! Springfield, MO, to Alaska border: 3405
miles in 11 travel days!!
Signs of “Welcome to Alaska” and “Road
Construction next 14 miles” greeted us. THEN the first half mile, up to the US
Border Inspection area, was bare dirt!
To give you an idea of the highway conditions
today between Haines Junction, Yukon Territory, and the Alaska border, our
average driving speed was 35.2 mph. Two of the last six miles were literally
washboard road and gravel.
The US agreed to fund reconstruction for this
section of highway in 1997 since 85% of the traffic volume was American in
origin—the target completion date is 2010—they may or may not be on time/on
target/on budget here! In their defense, the soil is of glacial origin and
prone to a vicious thawing/refreezing cycle—researchers are frantically working
on a fix.
At the Alaska Border, Inspection Agent Young
asked the traditional questions and I breathed a sigh of relief when my apples
passed inspection because they had a USDA sticker of origin on them. Then he
wanted to know what part of Missouri we were from (MO is state of birth on our
Passports.) At our response of Springfield, he told us he’s from Willard
(just 10 miles northwest.) We had Dr. Johnnie Creighton as a common
acquaintance—Johnnie was a boyhood friend of Larry’s uncle and had done our
daughter Mindy’s appendectomy as a fourth grader 25 years ago! Small World!
To be continued next month.
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American Coach Association