OUR EPIC JOURNEY from FINLAND to ALASKA has startedy...

[Spinner1]

A bit further down we saw another building with nice art painted on it.

Wonderful painting....

The next night was spent a bit North of Prince George in this campground.

Beautiful bears...

This campground was very clean and the bathroom was very pretty with wallpaper etc...

They had nothing big enough available at the time, but they got us hooked up to the electric next to this building.
It worked fine for us.

The Gentleman owner had a good sense of humor. Here he is.

 

[Spinner1]

The next morning was Monday. I wanted to get more Canadian money. I had two choices...keep on going to a small town ahead or
go back to Prince George. I decided Prince George. The first bank was closed on Monday. I continued further into town...
the second bank was also closed, so I pulled to the third bank. When I left there, Cass and I heard a shhh sound every
time our tires turned.
I asked a woman in the parking lot, -where the nearest tire place is... She kindly had us follow her to the tire place.

This is where we went...

There was a new development on the tire...

Tire got off in no time...Service with a smile....

Checking....

...bubbles rising....

Looking for a new tire...

Looking around while waiting... Never seen one of these...

OK, a tire was found. The man behind a counter did some figuring and told me a new tire will cost $380... I was floored....
That kind of money for one tire. I was used to getting tires for about a €100 each.
I talked with the man at the register and he was looking for a used tire for us. He found one that had comparable thread to ours
and the cost was going to be $50.
Then he said, let me look at one thing more and he found a brand new, ten ply "Toy" tire for a REALLY, REALLY good price.

I bought that one and I was really happy and satisfied.

I felt that, as we talked, this man had seen me as a person, -a woman traveling a LONG distance journey with her daughter...
instead of seeing dollar signs. I felt I had been in good hands.

 

[Spinner1]

We left happy and counted our blessings that this "unfortunate" tire incident happened where it did.
(-Not somewhere down the road...far from a tire store...on a steep hill....where you can't pull over....or some such situation...)
Interesting side note is that had the first couple of banks been open, it might not have been such a happy occurrence...

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We headed for Dawson Creek and Ian's Family. Ian is a member of the Wooden Boat Forum.
We had never met him or his family in person, but they had kindly invited us to stay with them on our way through...
This was going to be the last stop to rest with friends before the real remote AL-CAN hwy.
We looked forward to meeting them...



The scenery started to change.

The beetle kill was everywhere... It was sad to see such destruction of a forest, which made it a great fire hazard...

As we continued, we got into lush areas again.

Caught this peeking out from behind the trees and looked for a moment in passing where we could get a shot... Here it is...

Through the bug splattered window we saw the mountains again....Lovely to see them...

 

[Spinner1]

Behind the next curve someone was eating. The photo is not clear because we were moving at a pretty good clip...

Wow, what power lines...You could feel them humming...

The mountain pass was getting closer...It was wonderful to see snow....

This is where we stopped to stretch legs and have lunch....The view was breathtaking...

The more rugged, -the more appealing and beautiful...

 

[Spinner1]

...and down the hill we go...

Pretty little pond reflecting....

See the "fire hose" sign...

 

[Spinner1]

I forgot the name of this little town, but never forget the beautiful wood carvings there....


Wolf Howling @ the Full Moon....

The Dragon....

Momma Bear Watching Over Her Cub....

The eagle plane and salmon bontones......

 

[Spinner1]

Finally we arrived in Dawson Creek.

Knocked on the door of Ian's Family's house.

What a wonderful family. Ian gave us a bear hug. We met his Wife and kids... A Daughter and Son.

Erna, Ian's wife had a wonderful dinner waiting for us. We sat down on their back porch which opened up to a lovely garden, complete with multiple bird condominiums. Birds were singing and flying in and out feeding their chicks.

Just a bit about their children. Neomi is sweet and brilliant 17 year old. She is well mannered and well spoken. She is also a ballet dancer.

Aaron is quiet....but under the quiet demeanor lives a child prodigy who is performing on a piano at the level of a highly trained adult. Hi's classical music skills are amazing.

Both children are surprisingly highly focussed at a young age....

Erna, Ian, Cass and I talked the evening away. Time went by quickly and Erna and Cass retired for the night.

Ian and I staid up and chewed the fat until past midnight. We talked about everything and anything and found we are kindred spirits. We could have staid up talking till dawn but said goodnight as morning would come quickly.

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The next day, Ian offered to do an oil change in my truck. We went to a big store and bought all we needed. I went in the house and Ian changed the oil.

As he was looking around and inspecting the roadworthiness of the truck for the next leg of the journey, he touched a valve stem of a tire and it came into his hand. He came inside with the news and told me all the valve stems were bad.
He took me to his workshop and showed me all the cracked valve stems.

He took the tire and wheel to his favorite tire store. In no time they had a new valve stem installed and Ian was back.

We took my truck there. Ian was very privileged...lol...as he got to drive the truck...(The only person who can drive my vehicles, is usually my husband.)

Here is Ian driving my truck...

...to his favorite Dawson Creek tire store. Here it is...

At the tire store was one person who had a skill of replacing the valve stems without taking the tire off the wheel.

Here he is...

Then I asked if they would do a rotation on the tires as the worn shocks and the weight of the trailer had wore the front tires to have little ridges.

They did that...

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[Spinner1]

The men in this tire place were kind and more than fair. They made me feel that they cared about us and our safety during our travels. Again we were in good hands.

They also took one trailer tire off and checked to see if it had a leak as it was 20 pounds lower than the others... It was OK and put back under the Coachman...

Thank you Gents.

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As the gents were working on the tires, this little bike kept catching my eye...


Though not a Harley, it looked so streamlined....and it shone like silver....

 

[Spinner1]

It was time to say goodbye and start the last leg of our journey.

Ian took us to the Mile Zero of Al-Can Highway.

I snapped one of Cass & Ian...

I took one more picture before taking Ian back to his house.

This building was moved into this place in two parts. What a feat as it is really TALL....

 

[Ed Gordon]

Spinner, I am still following along and enjoying your pictures and story. You have seen more of this country than I have. I look forward to more posts and wish you safe travels!

 

[Spinner1]

Now we are on the go again.

The first picture Cass took after we left Dawson Creek...

This rig was lit up like "Madame Rouge's Pinball Machine"

We got to Fort ST. John and stopped here to have the torque checked on all the tires, including the one trailer tire.

The torques were right, but as I walked by and checked the trailer tires, I noticed that the tire I had bought on the East Coast was all chewed up and worn strangely in the back side of the tire.

The shop mechanic and manager came and looked at the tire and I was told that the tire that had been sold to me, was not a trailer tire and not rated for trailers.

Again I counted my fortune as I could have had a flat fairly soon. One thing for sure, -the tire would have not made it to Alaska...

Here are the two nice gents at the Fort St. John tire place.

The manager went to look for a replacement tire for me. He found one and it was going to cost $100 plus labor.

We looked for other alternatives and lo-and-behold, he found me a used tire that still had all it's thread and the price was a mere fraction of $100.

I was elated that this gentleman too saw me as a person, not as dollar signs walking in.

How fortunate can I get. Again the problem was found and fixed at a good place and I ended up getting good service and a great deal.

They also fixed the original tire for me. Here it is getting repaired by the man with fine, wild eyes.

Job is done and I have just shown the gents where to find our journey threads on the WBF.....

Nice people... It amazes me how everyone we deal with is so nice...

 

[Spinner1]

On the road again....This time on the REMOTE, LONELY and long AL-CAN (Alaska-Canada) highway...


The road ahead was still long...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TD_pSeNelU&feature=related

On some intersections we saw tens of signs. They had sprung up like mushrooms after a rain... These were not the regular kind of signs we see in the States...

These seemed more like signs of the companies that either are on that road or worked on that road or...?????

We drove until late and stopped at Sasquatch Crossing. This is where we spent the night.

The nice man of the place we stopped at. There was no RV parking available, so he let us park near the front door and arranged for us to get en electric hookup, which was wonderful as it allowed me to use the microwave to cook with and real lights and computer for entertainment.

As Cass and I sat there talking about our trip, I felt we were really fortunate and blessed that everyone we met on our journey turned out to be so nice to us.

...and Ian, bless his heart. It was so nice and caring of him to do our oil change, run around for parts and the tire, and to check for any potential problems.


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Here are some pictures up to Liard.

Momma & Baby...

They stopped to look at us...

Where ever you'd look, the scenery was beautiful and there were no houses, towns or anything at all....just nature at it's finest...

If you look at the mountain/hill on top right, you see where the road was taking us.

 

[Spinner1]

Then we saw a bear.....<3

It turned out to be a sow.

...and hiding it the grass by the tree line was....

...her sweet little baby.



This picture is not clear, but it is cute so I like to share it with you...

 

[Spinner1]

Spinner, I am still following along and enjoying your pictures and story. You have seen more of this country than I have. I look forward to more posts and wish you safe travels!

Thanks Ed. I love to travel and drive on small out of the way roads rather that freeways or highways. Thanks for the good wishes...

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I'll be leaving Alaska again in around mid May to drive back to California and then sail our boat from there to Alaska...and go to California again to pick up my truck after our boat is here....I'll be on the road or on the ocean all of this summer....

Maybe I'll post a thread about that trip too.....

 

[HSG]

I hope you will post that thread also!
I had a blast reading throught this one and have a longing for a road trip even more than I have ever had. Thanks so much for sharing your pictures and your trip. I hope one day to be able to see and do half of the things that you have been able to share in this thread....one can always dream!

 

[Spinner1]

I hope you will post that thread also!
I had a blast reading throught this one and have a longing for a road trip even more than I have ever had. Thanks so much for sharing your pictures and your trip. I hope one day to be able to see and do half of the things that you have been able to share in this thread....one can always dream!

Thank you kindly. Glad you've enjoyed the trip.

It's not over yet.


More to come in a moment...

 

[Spinner1]

Further down the road and what looked like absolutely in the middle of nowhere....

....a little church...

 

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Remote, bumpy road...

This huge load made the truck look so small...lol...

The loooong road ahead....and NO traffic....

 

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More road work...-believe me, it was and is needed....

Top speed for miles....and miles....

Starting to look for sheep on the highway...

BEAUTIFUL...

 

[Spinner1]

Looks like a likely "goat mountain" ahead on the right....

.....and it was... I got out of the car and walked a bit closer...

Whoa, how MANY goats do you see here????

How beautiful and peaceful they are....They were aware of me and kept an eye on me...

Seven goats here...