Sunday, 6/23/2019 Minneapolis, MN to Valley City, ND
Stopped for the night at the Municipal Tourist RV Park. Very small and you help yourself! But it was more than sufficient for the price of $27 per night.
Valley View has the tallest, longest railroad bridge in the U.S. It was built in 1908 and is still used by trains today.
Monday, 6/24/19 Valley City, ND to Medora, ND
Arrived in Medora in time to briefly drive thru the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We saw some deer, bison, prairie dogs and then there was a sudden rain downpour. How quickly the water creates flooding in the plains.
We went to the Pitchfork Steak Fondue at Medora Musical complex. They cook steaks on a pitch fork and they certainly provided all the fixings. Who did we run into but Theodore Roosevelt and some of his family members.
We decided to go to that evenings performance of their musical in the outdoor ampitheatre. The downpour at the Park made us a bit leary of purchasing the tickets until closer to show time. As you would know we bought them 15 minutes before showtime and then it rained. The show was delayed an hour but we saw a full rainbow.
The show had a country theme, since, we were in the west. They had singers and dancers that were excellent. They told the story of the town and how Roosevelt fell in love with it after a visit in his early years. One of the entertainers was Todd Oliver and his Talking Dog, Irving. He was excellent.
The Beggs were able to rejoin us in Medora.
Tuesday, 6/25/19 Travel to Billings Montana
Time to do some laundry. After we had clean clothes we found a little place called Tiny’s Patio for a bite to eat.
We drove around and saw this statue in front of the Billings Chamber of Commerce. Right next door in the grass were someone’s pet bunnies.
Wednesday, 6/26/19 Travel to Butte, MT
We crossed the Continental Divide. Now all the rivers run a different direction than the rivers in the east.
Thursday, 6/27/19 Butte, MT to Shelby, MT
We circled (literally) up at a campground called Lewis & Clark. This was our staging campground for the Canadian border crossing. Here another caravan member joined us for another group dinner. It was raining so we were inside the Hittinger’s unit.
Friday, 6/28/19 Cross the border into Canada to Nanton, Alberta.
Seems like all we have been doing is driving. We have a deadline to get to Dawson Creek, BC by 7/1/19. We explored Nanton and High River. Lots of RVs on the road since this is a holiday weekend for the Canadians. Monday, July 1, is Canada Day.
Saturday, 6/29/19 Spruce Grove, Alberta,
The cats are tired out from a day of travel!
Sunday, 6/30/19 Spruce Grove, AB to Valleyview, AB
The group had a spaghetti dinner at the campground that night.
Bob Beggs had an injury to his eye. So after a run to the emergency room and some contemplation the Beggs decided not to continue on the trip. We were very sorry that they had come this far but understood all the problems they had on the trip west with their rig.
Monday, 7/1/19 Dawson Creek, AB
We made it! We joined the caravan at the Mile 0 Campground. It is the beginning point for the AlCan Highway. (Alaska Highway)
We had our 1st group dinner and travel meeting. We learned how to use the Milepost book to follow the route through Canada and Alaska. It has post it notes everywhere.
Tuesday, 7/2/19 day at Dawson Creek
We had a group breakfast and then a group photo at the Alaska Highway sign. There are 16 units in the caravan. Ahlmeyers are the wagonmasters and Murnanes are the tailgunners.
We went to the Alaska Highway House Visitor Center. We saw a film about the building of the highway in 1942. Did you know that the Japanese actually occupied 2 of the southern most Aleutian Islands? That is what caused Canada and Alaska to join together to build a supply route highway in case the Japanese invaded. It was built through rough mountains, rivers and just tough terrain by the armies.
The Kiskatinaw River bridge is a wooden curved bridge that you can still drive on today.
Wednesday, 7/3/19 Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson, BC
Beautiful views of the Canadian Rockies as we drove.
Had dinner at the campground restaurant. Interesting decorations in the restaurant. Observation about Western Canada – lot less people, very rural, lot less of the things that we take for granted – Walmart, McDonalds, just stores in general. Metric distances and litres of gas need to be calculated.
Thursday, 7/4/19 Fort
Nelson to Toad River
The bumpy roads begin. Beautiful scenery but winter reeks havoc on their roads. You learn to look for the bumpy road sign and the sticks with flags to warn you to slow down. You can’t drive more than maybe 50 mph or the RV will shake apart. You have to check the screws in everything at night to make sure they don’t work there way loose.
We saw elk, bear, deer, beaver and wild horses as we drove.
Friday, 7/5 & Saturday, 7/6/19 Travel to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory
Small town with minimal stores, gas stations and people. We visited the only grocery store in town and it was quite impressive.
On the way there we had to wait for some stone sheep to cross the road!
We also stopped at Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park. Rick had a dip in the springs. I only got my feet wet. It was hot water!
Saw bison along the road. Lots of them!
Watson Lake is known for its Sign Post Forest. Of course the group sign was posted and we have one for Bart, PA. Even though our address is Quarryville it was too long to put on the sign so we opted for Bart!
At the Watson Lake Visitor Center we all picked up a “Yukon Passport”. It is a book that encourages you to get stamps at several places in the Yukon Territory. After you have 10 or 20 stamps you turn the book in for a chance to win gold jewelry. 20 stamps is a bigger prize than the 10 stamp. Everyone gets a pin for participating.
One of the places was the Yukon Airport. It was quite interesting.
Sunday, 7/7/19 travel to Whitehorse the province Capital
This was a much bigger town but still not as big as maybe Willow Street or Strasburg. They did have a Walmart and a Sav-On Grocery store. The lady at the visitor center said that the province has a population of 40,000 people and 30,000 live near Whitehorse.
Along this drive we started to see the haze from the forest fires north of us.
This is also the drive where we picked up a chip in our motor home windshield. The roads are coated with a fresh layer of crushed stone and dirt. All it takes is a passing tractor trailer and flying stones. A speeding truck passed us and the stones hit the windshield. 2 small chips and a pretty good one. This is a common thing on these roads. Several other units in our group got them from the same truck. One couple got a chip in their motor home and the car they were towing. We all figured we were initiated and will get the chips fixed later. There will probably be more.
This is an interesting weather vane – a full size airplane at the Whitehorse International Airport.
That’s it for now. We will post more later.
Rick & Elaine's Alaska Caravan 