Triple G Hideaway RV Park, Fort Nelson, BC

Roadwork

Sunday, June 21, 2015, Triple G Hideaway RV Park, Fort Nelson, BC, 224 Miles Today, (Mile 275 of the AK Highway) 2916.9 Miles for the Trip

Two weeks into the trip! A pretty day wit just a touch of rain, the second on the Alaska Highway (97). We did hit the first of what will probably be many construction stops for road repaving. About a 10 minute wait, but unlike my last trip out west, I didn't have to drive on fresh oil. It took lots of elbow grease to get the oil out of the wheel wells after that trip.

The fuel stations are far between, so I stopped early. There are some stations that do not have operators, and just take credit cards. That is a problem since they don't like my unchipped US card. I pulled into Fort Nelson with about 3 gallons in the tank. It is probably time to fill my 2 1/2 gallon extra gas can.

We stopped for the night at the Triple G Hideaway RV Park & are in sites 4 & 5. $42.00 for full hookups, including cable. Very good free WiFi which somewhat makes up for the price. We met a couple in a Scamp 13 returning from Alaska, and they mentioned that the Fort Nelson gas station was the most expensive of the trip. I hope so - it was 1.429/L or $62.35 to fill the tank with 11.5 US Gallons.

Dinner was at the campground's restaurant. Veal Cutlet with vegetables & potato for Don and me and a fish basket for Anne. Huge quantiles - the veal cutlet included two large pieces, a pile of vegetables & a large baked potato. We skipped desert! Anne requested a photo sitting in one of the saddles at the bar. Site & Anne's photos at today's LakeshoreImages page.

Until the next internet connection -

Rotary RV Park, Fort St John, BC & Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway

Mile 0, the Alaskan Highway

Saturday, June 20, 2015, Rotary RV Park, Fort St John, BC, 136.1 Miles Today, 2692.9 Miles for the Trip

It rained most of the night, light & heavy, tapering to a very light mist in the morning. Since I had unhooked the trailer to get the RAV4's oil change, I decided to re hook things while it was only misting at 7:00AM. Of course it only got better, but the sky looked like it might start pouring any time. We left Happy Trails around 10:00 & drove to Dawson Creek, the official start of the Alaskan Highway.

We stopped at the Visitor Centre, picked up a fuel & campground list that covers most of the locations between Dawson Creek & Tok. I also bought a sweatshirt, my first clothing purchase of the trip. For those that followed some of my past trips, "T" shirt purchases are central to my travels, but I held off until now! Of course I had to take some photos of the sign at the start of the highway as well as the trailers.  The photos will be available at the June 20th link on the Alaska Trip index at LakeshoreImages once I am able to post them.

We spent a fair amount of time in Dawson Creek, then headed north on 97 (again, the Alaskan Highway). We stopped for the afternoon at Charlie Lake, BC and the Rotary RV Park. #31.20 (with a Good Sam's discount) for Water & Electric. No picnic table - we are basically in a parking lot with hookups. Charlie Lake is just behind out sites - I took a few photos of a memorial to some of the soldiers that drown building the highway.

We spent the afternoon reading & goofing off. I still can't post my pages via Dreamweaver, and suspect the campground WiFi is blocking FTP. I hope so - I've had uploading problems before with Dreamweaver, but not with the more recent cloud based versions (Dreamweaver CC).

Dinner will be some kind of shrimp dish Anne is putting together.

Until the next internet connection that works!

Happy Trails Campground, Grande Prairie, AB

The View at Valleyview

Friday, June 19, 2015, Happy Trails Campground, Grande Prairie, AB, 165.3 Miles Today, 2556.8 Miles for the Trip

We continued along AB 43, stopping a couple of times for gas & bathrooms (oops, Washrooms!). The first photo below is the view from the rest stop at Valleyview. The plan was to make it a short day so that we could do laundry & get an oil change on the RAV4 & a 5000 mile check up on the Sienna. I suspect I could have gone a bit longer, but I'm not sure what will be available further along the way, and there was a Toyota dealer in Grande Prairie.

Just as we reached the Happy Trails Campground, the heavy, black clouds that followed up all the way from Whitecourt broke loose. It has been raining since, with thunder & lightning, and very heavy rain at times. We are in sites 2 & 3 in the overflow area with 20 amp electric only hookups. Not much for $36.75, particularly since the overflow area is about as far as you can get from the showers and still be in the park. I'm glad we all had showers last night or this morning!

We did get the oil changed at Toyota while Anne did the laundry at the campground. Both together took most of the afternoon. I'm now sitting in the trailer to get out of the rain.

Dinner will be leftovers from last night - pork loin sandwiches, chips & salad. While we could cook inside, we decided to just do a cold dinner. Since my trailer is 1' longer, we will eat in here!

Unless things change, there won't be a post today - while the campground has a usable WiFi signal, my diagnostics program tells me it is very overloaded & won't allow me to sign on.

I'm now at Charlie Lake & have internet, so I'll post this & add today's post a little later.  I can't load my LakeshoreImages pages - I believe they are blocking FTP, but the Blogger pages seem to be working.

Until Later -

Sagitawah RV Park, Whitecourt, AB

Sites 2 & 3

Thursday, June 18, 2015, Sagitawah RV Park, Whitecourt, AB, 221.6 Miles Today, 2391.5 Miles for the Trip

We continued northwest on CA 16, then switched to 43 in Edmonton. Both similar to US interstates with 110KMH speed limits. We stopped for the afternoon at Whitecourt, Alberta. After setting up in adjoining sites (and they are close to each other, in fact our doors face each other) we headed to Walmart to buy "stuff", IGA for food & a liquor store for some beer & wine (they don't sell it in grocery stores). Labatts Blue here in Canada is expensive (as is both other beers & non Canadian wine). A 15 pack was $28.32!

We are in sites 2 & 3. After pulling into my site the guy in the sunblocker next to me said I should move my car since when he puts out his slide I wouldn't be able to open my car door. Rather than telling him to keep his slide on his own site, I moved over to the edge of mine. He is only a foot or two into my site. While the WiFi is great, the bathrooms clean & up to date, and the laundry looks good, it is a typical commercial campground with the sites packed in a little space as possible.

We were planning to do laundry, but by the time we got back from shopping it was late enough that we are going to put it off until tomorrow.

Dinner will be a pork loin with a salad & southwest corn.

Until Later -

Vermillion Provincial Park, Vermillion, AB

Sites Next to Each Other?

Wednesday, June 17, 2015, Vermillion Provincial Park, Vermillion, AB, 191.9 Miles Today, 2169.9 Miles for the Trip

We spent most of the day driving northwest on CA 16, a four lane equivalent of a US interstate. Very flat for the first part, becoming a bit hilly as we got towards Alberta. We stopped to do a bit of food shopping in Lloydminster, then continued to the campground. They were a bit surprised by the spelling of my last name at the Vermillion Provincial Park! We asked for 2 sites next to each other, and technically they are, (sites 37 & 38) but as you can see from the photograph, they are about as far apart as you can get and stay in the same loop. Since we each carry part of each night's dinner, and like to set up our chairs together & eat at the same table, "next to each other" works best when we are close. The sites are close to the washrooms, however a hike to the showers.

The showers, but the way, are "interesting". You need to use an old "Toonie" (a Canadian 2 dollar coin) for five minutes. Seems that they redesigned the coin and the new ones don't work in the shower coin boxes. While the showers run for quite awhile, they start out ice cold, get nice & warm, and 2 minutes into showering fade to barely lukewarm. Still, I'm clean.

Dinner was the last of the Bubba Burgers, and asparagus. I hope we can find replacement Bubba Burgers - they are the best frozen hamburgers I've found.

Another late post - no WiFi at Vermillion Provincial Park.

Until Later -