Day 72 (8-11-12 - Seattle)

Space Needle

We took the bus downtown today to see the sights.  It was a gorgeous day.

We went to Pike's Fish Market and watched the guys throw fish. It was hilarious.

We ate lunch at the Tom Douglas rub with love Shack.  We had fabulous BBQ chicken and pork sandwiches outside while watching the people walk by on the street.

We took a walk to the Space Needle.  We had to wait an hour  to go up.  It was worth the wait, the views were breathtaking. 

When we left the Space Needle, we took the Monorail back.   It was my first mono rail ride.  It was short and sweet.   It that took us 20 minutes to walk up to the space needle.  It took over an hour to wait for our turn to go up in the space needle.  It took only 2 minutes to travel on the Monorail back down to the street where we started walking.  I loved it.

We stopped at Hard Rock Cafe and went to the terrace bar and had a beer.  We had another gorgeous view of the city from the rooftop.

Our trip to Seattle was very enjoyable.  I was really amused at all of us waiting for the okay to walk signal and everbody walking across the road together.  The song, Walk this way, kept playing through my head.

We are not sure it was worth all the hassels of yesterday, but we are glad we made it to Seattle. 

We are exhausted and won't be sleepless in Seattle tonight.

Young Rabbit Eating Clover At Our Campsite

Pictures    https://goo.gl/photos/uAGt6Saj7YSzBXWz9

Day 71 (8-10-12 - Back to the USA or a better name, Suprise, Suprise!!)

The scenery changed quickly after leaving Clinton, BC.  All the sudden, the landscape changed from meadows and forrest to desert.  We were pleasantly suprised. 

This was a day of suprises.  We kept getting one suprise after another.

We drove a little further and drove through Frasier Canyon for miles.  We had curves, uphills, downhills, switchbacks, and tunnels as we drove above and through the canyon.   The scenery was gorgeous.  We were suprised when we realized that we had been on the road for 2 hours.  Yesterday the scenery was serene. Today,  the scenery changed.  All the sudden, the drive was exciting.  A nice suprise.

The truck trip odometer turned over at 10,000 miles today in Yale, BC at 11:35 am. We have quite a few miles before we get back to Crossroads.

We got to the border at Sumas, Wa. in 4 hours.  We sat in traffic for an hour to get to a customs officer.  As we were approaching, we heard one officer say to another, "I got this."  Another suprise was in the making.

After answering every question honestly, we were told to pull over and go inside.  We had to fill out a form with our signature, again we answered every question honestly.  We were told to have a seat.  At that time, I asked, may I please go to the bathroom.  He allowed it.  He had to go back to the desk to open the restroom door for me. Another suprise, that I could not just walk into the restroom without the officer's okay.  Thirty minutes later, after checking our camper and truck, we were cleared.  For a while, it looked like we were going to be deported to Canada.  It is amazing that we saw only one other vehicle tag from the USA in this hour of waiting to go through customs and suprise, this happened. 

I started calling campgrounds to find a place for the night shortly after entering the good ole' USA.  .  No luck.  We even tried to park overnight  at Walmart, it was  not allowed.  After about 120 more miles, 30 calls, 5 pm traffic in Seattle,  and being totally wore out, we found a campground. 

We are staying at Snoqualmie River RV Park in Fall City, Wa.  Our campsite in on the river.  It is a fantastic campground.  We are planning to stay here at least a couple of days and rest up from this
9 1/2 hour travel day where we covered 323 hard tiring miles.

We saw 3 deer and a coyote on the ride here. 

After crossing the border between the USA and Canada 6 times during the last 71 days,  I am suprised that today was this big of a hastle.  As I said , "Suprise, Suprise!!"

Pictures  https://goo.gl/photos/t1S1qnBEgndyQhrN6

Day 70 (8-9-12 - Another Canadian Travel Day)

We are in Clinton, BC.  We are staying at Gold Trail RV Park.  The campground is on Highway 97, a very busy road. The campground has thick green mowed grass and a lot of character.  Especially, the owner/chef.  He is cooking a buffet dinner tonight and has assured us that the food will be the best that we've had since we left Mississippi.  He also told us you can trust a fat cook as he patted his belly.  We traveled 327 miles to stay at this unique campground.

Lauren cooked the Saskatoon pancakes this morning.  They were pretty good, but I think I will stick with blueberry pancakes.

We had good roads to travel and pretty weather today.  We are no longer seeing snow topped mountains in the horizon. We had pretty views of rivers, hills, and country side.  One minute we were in the country and the next minute we were driving through a busy town.  We miss the primitive, isolation, of the North but realize that we have to go back to civilization eventually.

We  saw 4 deer and 1 bear today.  We were suprised to see this much wildlife.

campground/resturant office

pictures   https://goo.gl/photos/YrDZEjaJsL5VXvwHA

Day 69 (8-8-12 another Canadian Traveling Day)

When we left Meziadin Campground this morning, we heard thunder.  We had not heard thunder in a couple of months.  The last time we heard thunder was the night before we crossed the border in Montana.  We realized that we were getting closer to home, although we have a long way to go. 

We traveled 304 miles today to Beaumont Lake Provincial Park.  We are about 550 miles to the USA border.

We moved from the wild and exciting North Canada area where we had glaciers, waterfalls, and bear country and went to South Canada and found hayfields, cattle, and horses.  It is totally different scenery.  Thank goodness, the snow topped mountains are still in the distant horizon.

Canada's road signs are very different from the USA.  I got a little bored today and started taking pictures of the road signs.  I am trying to get as many as I can before I get to the USA border.  It helps to pass the time on this long journey back to the lower 48s.

This is the first day that we had a good radio station (notice the a).  We listened to a country music station for about 30 minutes before we lost it.  We are almost back to civilization. 

When we rode through Smithers, BC, I noticed an advertisement for McDonalds. I told Lauren that I would love a hamburger from McDonalds.  We ate a hamburger and fries from McDonalds. Our 2 combos cost almost $20. It was worth it. When you have been away from the lower 48 as long as we have, this is comfort food. 

We traveled about 7 hours.  We decided to do a ride through Beaumont Lake Provincial Park and see if we wanted to camp here.  After riding through, we realized that there were no campsites on the lake.  Lauren was ready to continue the ride.  I decided it was time to stop.  He looked tired, it looked like we would be having a thunderstorm shortly, and we had a really nice campground to stay at, Why not stay here? 

Lauren built a nice campfire and we grilled sausage.  It was a nice and quiet place to camp for the night.

The camp host came by and told us of the Saskatoon Berries and advised us to pick some.  We did.  They look like blueberries, but taste a more tart than a blueberry.  We picked them and are going to make Saskatoon Berry pancakes in the morning.  We are still living off the land.

Pictures   https://goo.gl/photos/sNSLYztDFTg9Tgav8

Day 68 (8-7-12 – Hyder, AK)

Bear Glacier

We took the day off from the rough traveling to sight see.  We thought we would take it easy and piddle around and relax and see the sights.  WRONG. 

We did a little piddling, we did see the sights, but the drive was not as relaxing as we expected.

We had an 8 hour day of sight seeing and traveled 143 miles.  We left camp this morning and headed toward Hyder, AK.  We saw plenty of waterfalls, glaciers, and snow, and not to mention, the beautiful trees, canyons, and mountains.  Bear Glacier was awesome on the way to Hyder.

Our first stop, (after we kept stopping to take pictures of the numerous glaciers), was at the Bear Viewing Platform in Hyder.  There is a platform that is supposed to keep you safe, while you are viewing bears eating salmon.  All the supposes were correct, except we saw no bears eating fish. 

While we were waiting on the bears, we learned some more things about those salmon.  The ranger pointed out a male and female in the water.  The female laid her eggs and the male salmon fertilized the eggs.  The male continued to run off any male that tried to get around his woman.  The salmon must take their vows seriously.

There were no bears, just a bunch of salmon to watch from the boardwalk.  We took a ride for about 20 miles to Salmon Glacier.  The ride to Salmon Glacier took us about an hour and a half.  The ride back down to the viewing platform took about an hour.  It was a dust you out, bounce around, and hug the shoulder kind of ride.  We were so glad that the year round avalanche warnings were not today.

We went back to the so called Bear Viewing Area.  Still no bears.

We stopped in Stewart, BC at a wonderful café named Temptations Bakery and Deli.  We had the best macaroni/tomato soup and a ham sandwich on home cooked bread that I have ever eaten.  Unfortunately, they sold all kinds of temptations.  We had to have some cinnamon rolls for breakfast tomorrow.  I hope they are as good as they look.

We made it back and checked on Ferny.   I had this thought that Ferny was worried if we were ever coming home.  My worries were over, when I opened the door, and she was yawning.  We obviously woke her up and she didn’t have a care in the world.

We took a ride to find another fish ladder. We were unsuccessful.  We were in the middle of no where in Canada driving around a huge gravel pit on roads that are dead ending and are not on the map.  Not to mention, the roads were rough.  We gave up and went back to camp.

We have enjoyed our stay at the Meziadin Lake Provincial Campground.  It is the first campground that we have stayed at that has internet, but no other hookups. 

It got up to 80 degrees today.  It won’t be long until these wonderful campgrounds with no hookups are over and we need electricity.  We love these places.  We have seen a lot of beautiful scenery at our campsite that we would not have seen with the modern conveniences. We are going to hold out as long as we can. 

We cheated and ate some of the cinammon rolls for supper tonight (instead of waiting for breakfast).  I am glad we are headed South and not going back to Temptations Bakery.

Salmon Glacier

Snowball!!!!!

Pictures are here   https://goo.gl/photos/LAKjNikPp49499vk9

Day 67 (8-6-12 - MeziadinLake ProvincialPark)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHEILA!!!!

Our hopes that the road and the scenery would get better were answered.  We drove 295 miles on the Cassiar Highway to Meziadin Lake Provincial Park today.  The road got smoother, the scenery got prettier, the weather got prettier, and it was a great ride.   It was a great day to cover some ground.

We stopped for a picnic lunch on one of the lakes along the way.  Usually, Ferny has no interest in coming outside for a lunch break.  This was not a usual day.  She demanded to come out with us, and of course, she got her wishes.  She was so happy to get out in the sunshine and enjoy the scenery; we ate ham sandwiches while she ate grass.  It was the perfect picnic spot.

At the first rest area that we stopped, I noticed bear poop by the trash can.  I panicked; my bear spray was in the truck.  Lauren laughed at the next stop as I grabbed my bear spray for our picnic lunch. 

We saw our first bear shortly after leaving the picnic area.  We saw a total of 3 fox and 2 bears today.  

We are camped close to the Meziadin Lake.  We were told that we might not get a spot because of the salmon runs.  We got a site with a view of the lake and Ferny has some greenery to hide in.  We are all happy,

The Texans caught up with us again today, (the same ones that went on the glacier cruise with us).  They got here a few minutes after we arrived.

We are going to stay here for a couple of nights.  We plan to go to Hyder. AK tomorrow and see the bears.  And yes, I will have my bear spray.

Dang it is hot.  It is bikini weather.  Lauren got to see another bikini today, (It was beyond his expectations, LOL).

We saw the temps climb to 75 degrees today.We are in a primitive campground without electricity.  I could use some A/C right now.

We heard someone cut our yard, Thanks whoever you are!!!

Pictures   https://goo.gl/photos/PGJ8k3jJM3jk7bFJ6

Day 66 (8-5-12 - Farewell Alaska Highway, Hello Cassiar Highway)

Lauren said that today was a traveling day, and it was.  We traveled the Tagish Road for 34 miles to the Alaska Highway.  We rode 203 miles on the Alaska Highway to Cassiar Highway.  We traveled 53 miles To Boya Lake Provincial Park.  We traveled a total of 290 miles today.  We covered some ground.

We heard a familiar sound this morning before leaving our campsite at Carcross that reminded us of our camp on the Ross Barnett.  It was the sound of geese.  We have always heard that they are from Canada.  They must be, because we saw them as we were leaving the campground.  Dang they fly a long ways to avoid these cold winters.

The Alaska Highway was not very exciting today.  We had been there and done that.  We got on the Cassiar Highway. It was not very exciting, except for the rough road.  We are in hopes that it will get smoother and have better scenery since we have 450 miles of this road to travel.  Everyone that we have talked to has told us this highway is very beautiful.  We are hoping that it will be beautiful and smooth.

We had a cloudy, dreary, off and on light shower day, with the highs in the 50’s.  It was a good day to travel. 

We have another fantastic campsite on the water’s edge of Boya Lake.  Lauren was glad that he didn’t have to ride around the whole campground, (as he usually does), for me to pick a campsite. It was love at first site.

Pics  https://goo.gl/photos/gheyav9dHo9neomt9