Day 86 and 87

Today, we are dry camped at Tetsa River Regional Park somewhere between Fort Nelson and Toad River. There isn't much on this stretch of highway except for trees, rivers and mountains. At least the heavy truck traffic we were seeing this morning died off south of Fort Nelson. I guess oil and gas development sort of dies off as you head further north. I think the only stop today was to fill up in Fort Nelson and have lunch in the visitors center parking lot. BTW, it is a very nice visitors center. The Testa River can be seen through the trees. There were a lot of warning signs about the steep bank down to the water. It looked like a pretty fast moving river. 

The campsite is well shaded and there are a lot of mosquitoes. So far on this trip we've not needed bug spray very often. But it is nice to be able to sit outside and enjoy the blue skies and moderate temperatures. I don't think it got above 70°F (21°C) anytime today. 

I filled up the fresh water tank again this morning. We'll see how long it lasts before running dry. The notoriously unreliable led gauge says that the tank is only 3/4 full even though water was running out of the tank overflow. 

I'm not sure when this post will get uploaded. Probably in Watson Lake at the visitors center. They have free wifi. 

Day 87 - Day 86 post never got uploaded. The stretch of road between Fort Nelson and Watson Lake has very few services available. It would have been right at the limit of our fuel range so I opted to top up the tank at Toad River, BC. Diesel was $1.60CAD/liter. We have stopped at Nugget City, YT, which is just past the Cassiar Hwy junction. I've stopped here before. BTW, the picture is Coal River where we stopped for lunch. It had been raining lightly for most of the morning. Hopefully we drove through the weather and it'll be clear and sunny for the rest of the trip. 

Day 85 - Alaska Hwy Mile 62

This morning, we went through Dawson Creek, BC,  which is the start of the Alaska Hwy. The GPS said that our next turn was in 1383 km which is our turn into the RV park in Whitehorse. This is the grain elevator that has been turned into an art studio. The visitor's center is just on the other side. The "official" mile 0 marker is about a block south though they placed one in this parking lot for pictures. There were a lot of vehicles here waiting for their turn in front of the Alaska Hwy sign.

We kept going for a few more miles, actually 62, until we passed Fort St. John. Today being Saturday, many of the RV parks and campgrounds near town were pretty crowded. We stopped at a new place. Pretty barren but it has full hookups. That is the first place that had full hookups since Corbett, OR. We don't really need electricity any more since air conditioning is not needed (yay!!!). We are finding that we go through the fresh water tank in only a couple of days.

After getting used to the fuel prices in the lower-48, the Canadian prices are a shock again. It's already up to $1.10CAD/litre which translates to $3.34 USD/gallon which isn't really that high but it seems much higher at the pump. Even with our modest driving days a daily fill up is still over $100 CAD. Diesel has been around $2.50USD/gal occasionally dipping down to $2/gal. 

Day 84 - Williamson Provincial Park, AB

Last night, there was a lightning and thunderstorm including one "boom" that felt like it was right over the campground. A couple of dogs were not very happy. Today, we stopped at Williamson Provincial Park located between Whiteside and Grand Prairie, AB. No amenities at this site so we are dry camping. No wi-fi so we'll have to stop at Tim Horton's to use their free wi-fi to upload this post. And maybe have a donut. The high temperature today was only 75°F so power at the campsite is no longer essential. Tomorrow, we will actually hit the beginning of the Alaska Hwy at Dawson Creek. 

Day 83 - Leduc, AB

We went about 270 miles today to a small town called Leduc in Alberta. We are still about an hour south of Edmonton. We opted for another small RV park so there would be power for the air conditioner. It is still pretty warm and there seems to be a lot of haze or smoke to the north and west. I was originally wary of this route due to the traffic. But the gps routed us on a nice bypass around Calgary and it looks like there is a beltway around Edmonton. It's been a while since I was on this route. I think it's been over 15 years. 

The wifi here at the RV park is barely functional due to another poor IT company. They came and took down their access points (to be examined back at the office) then they went on vacation for a couple of weeks without a word. Why am I not surprised. They contracted another company to put in all new radios that are about $80 each (sounds like Ubiquity gear) next Monday.