Not only was it raining, we had a lot of one-lane construction to drive through in the mountains. The road was muddy. Soon, the car was muddy. It seemed like the day was going to be a challenge. Despite our 'easy' tourist day on Day 4, Day 5 found us all tired of traveling, and really tired of getting up and hitting the road before the sun rose. The heavy gray skies and intermittent fog didn't help.
Our route took us to Grand Prairie, Alberta. Since we'd pretty much eaten up, the day before, all the snacks and lunch food we'd brought with us from home, Grand Prairie became a restocking point. DD2 and I hit the grocery store while DH hit the gas station to fill the tank. You'd think that a grocery store is a grocery store, and basically, it is. For the most part, we found Canadian grocery stores to be identical to the ones here in Michigan. The name might be different, but the offerings are the same. A big difference we noticed is that the candy offerings (because we were looking to replace the bag of assorted bite sized candy bars we'd consumed since leaving home) are not nearly as vast as they are in the U.S. Which is good news for Canadians (apparently they don't eat any where near the amount of candy as Americans) but was kind of frustrating for us chocoholics who were hoping to stock up on our happy pills for getting through the remainder of our journey. Even the trail mix offerings were markedly lacking in sweets. Two out of three of us don't really care for raisins, so that narrowed the choices further.
What we did manage to find though, was something definitely unseen in the US:
We didn't let the fact that we're not Canadian stop us from buying (and eating) these.
The other huge difference in the grocery stores is that they discourage the use of plastic bags, offering paper bags (for a fee) and encouraging shoppers to bring their own reusable bags. Good for Canada! This is something I really wish more stores in the US would do.
Gas tank full, cooler and 'food bag' refilled, we got back on the road, heading for the Alberta/British Columbia line, and soon after that, Dawson Creek where the Alaska Highway begins. Once we hit the Alaska Highway, we needn't worry about turns until we were actually in Alaska, more than 1700 miles away.
What we found in British Columbia was more prairie, then more mountains, trees changing colors, several steel bridges with metal grating for the deck (which were all preceded by a warning sign for motorcyclists about the bridge surface), more bears(!!) and some elk.
warning sign before bridges with metal grating;
we came to refer to these as "vibrating motorcycle" signs
As we traveled further into British Columbia (which, it seemed to DD2 and I, had an enjoyable 'spicy' scent we never could quite place--probably whatever flora was in season), towns became few and far between. Gas stops, bathroom breaks, and even lodging had to be thought out hours in advance. A far cry from the travels we've done in the U.S. DD2's first choice of a stopping point for the night turned out to be booked full up when we called that morning, and we ended up having to drive nearly an hour further to get to a place with a vacancy.
Boy, was it a nice place, though. So peaceful, and quiet. We just might plan a future vacation in order to return there, the Northern Rockies Lodge in Muncho Lake, and spend more than just a night. The on site restaurant had a varied and delicious breakfast buffet.
Gonna come back here someday
Day 6, on the road again. Drizzly at first, but no real rain. It didn't take us long to see our first wildlife of the day. Coming around a curve, we saw up ahead what sort of looked like a bear, but sort of didn't.
As we slowed down and got closer, it definitely was not a bear. It was a bison! Just out for breakfast on the shoulder of the road.
That sighting turned into more, and more, and more. If Saskatchewan had shown us lots of antelope, British Columbia was all about the bison! That day we saw more than 125 of them along the highway.
DH was so excited every time we spotted some
Yes, I think someday DH and I will make a trip back to British Columbia to explore some more.
But, that day, we couldn't stay. Our goal was to cross into the Yukon before dinner time. And we did.
Even so, it was far from time to stop for the night. We pit stopped in Whitehorse for dinner, then continued on. The scenery got wilder. We were definitely getting more remote. Even the detour for construction was a bit surreal; let's just throw some gravel down through several miles of wilderness and make that a temporary road.
detour
We finally got to our stopping point as the sun was going down. It was a small town, and the only town within hours. Our resources said it had a handful of hotels and motels. We found, however, that only one had vacancies. DH paid for a room, but things were a bit, well, odd. Starting with the note affixed to the inside of the door.
The bathroom, which was well stocked with towels, had a similar sign, complete with a list of towels and replacement prices should any of them go missing or become soiled by wiping vehicles. I mean, it was a clean motel, just kind of old (decor reminiscent of the 70s) and just a little different from any place we'd slept thus far. What was also odd was that the door to our room only locked from the outside. That, and the owner didn't seem to have anything good to say about the locals.
We went to bed exhausted, but sort of wondering if we'd wake up alive in the morning!
(How's that for a cliff hanger? Stay tuned, there's more to come. . . )
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