There wasn't really much to take pictures of today, so I thought I would feature some more of our traveling companions.

 







Dot and Mel Bolton are from San Francisco. Mel is a real cut-up; Dot got flag day changed to flag month in California.
 






Chris & Mary Chris was a nuclear engineer and Mary was a nurse. They are from Ontario, Canada but live in Arizona for 4-5 months every year.
 






Bert & Carol are from Florida. Bert was a drummer in a rock band in his former life and Carol was a nurse.
 






Leslie & Janis are from Alabama. I don't know what they did, but they are "friends."
 







Dick and Diane Hall (no relation) are from Washington state but they live in Arizona most of the year.
Behind Dick and Ciane are Dick and Beverly.
 






Bruce and Roni are from Rockford, Illinois. Bruce was an electrician for Chrysler. They have traveled the world and are so much fun to be with.
 






Bruce, Roni and I at the Ft. Nelson Heritage Museum

Day 12,
June 20, 2011
On the road to Fort Nelson


Heavy rain last night gave way to cloudy skies but no rain - for a little while anyway. Robert, Bet, Jenna and I pulled out of Dawson Creek about 8:00 on our way to Fort Nelson. Jenna drove the first 70 miles to somewhere north of Fort St. John. Her drive included a downhill run 4 miles long on a 10% grade. For those of you who are not aware of road grades, 10% is very steep. We got behind a fuel tanker truck who had geared down and was only going about 15 mph. There was no way to pass so she geared down to 1st gear and followed him down. We had a string of cars and motorhomes a mile long behind us, but there was nothing she could do but go slow down the hill.

The Alaska Highway is a little over 1500 miles long and was built in 9 months. Obviously it has been upgraded tremendously over the years. The roadside pullout where we stopped for lunch had a sign that said the next 33 miles originally had 55 curves in the road. Different theories were offered for as to why so many curves were there. Some said it was so that the Japanese couldn't strafe the military convoys on the road. Other speculated that part of the curriculum for engineers was to show how to build a curve and they all demonstrated their ability on this leg of the road. Still another opinion was that the road simply followed an old moose trail. The truch was that they had to build the road very fast and they took the path of least resistance. Today there are fewer than 5 turns on that section of the road. Actually, we made better time on that portion of the road than most of the rest.

One thing you have to look out for as you are driving are little sign that look like ^^^^. This indicates a frost heave in the road. That is where the permafrost has melted and caused the the road to desinigrate. We passed over two sections about 100 yds long that were just all potholes and cracks. You literally had to slow to a crawl to get past these areas. We have been foewarned to watch for these places. When we stopped for lunch, I opened the trailer door to find boxes of food from the pantry all over the floor. Drawers in the desk and cabinet doors above the desk were also open. I guess we will need to tie doors shut from now on. Fortunately nothing was broken or spilled.

It was pouring down rain when we got to Fort Nelson. Robert & Bet went to the automotive store for an air filter and Jenna and I went to the local IGA for a few provisions. Strawberries were .99 for one pound. We got lots of fruit for the next several days. We then went to get diesel and had to wait in line for 30 minutes. Every gas station in town got slammed when our caravan got into town, and those motorhomes take a lot of fuel. After setting up the trailer we walked with Bruce and Roni over to the museum next to the campground. It was a muselum mainly related to the building of the Alaska Highway, but they also had lots of memorabilia from long ago. Especially interesting was the old car exhibit. There was one 1908 Buick that the curator of the museum drove to Whitehorse and back - 675 miles - in 2008. This old boy must be atleast 80 years old too.

We had our travel briefing this evening about our next day's journey - Liard Hot Springs. It is apparently an oasis on our trip to Alaska, and is supposedly quite tropial. We will be staying at a provential park so there will be no hookups; hence, no internet. Therefore, my next post will be after we get to Watson Lake the day after tomorrow. So till next time, Happy Trails!!

P.S. We saw another black bear today but too late to get a picture.