Jasper-Grand Prairie-Fort St. John (officially on the Alaskan hwy)

June 27,

Well, we're a couple of days behind on our updates.  Mostly cuz there's nothing exciting that we have done. We took care of routine things in Jasper, weather was not that great. As promised, there were elk all over the campground and Mac had fun trying to hunt groundhogs outside the trailer. Twice he has escaped the trailer or car and we were lucky to see him in time and get him back.

 After leaving Jasper we made it all the way to Grand Prairie in a day. (about 250 miles)  Had some rough patches  in the road and drove the last hundred miles through the rolling foothills in a torrential downpour.  Other than  the normal leaks we're still high and dry.

I had a couple of little potential problems to take care of in Grand Prairie.  First, I had noticed some grease outside of the hub on the left front tire. I feared that the bearings were going out on us.  So, a special shout out and thanks to the guys at City Center Automotive for getting me in this morning to have a look.  Andy says the bearings are just fine and what I saw was probably just a little grease that had squeezed out around the cap.  He also said the front brakes looked good and pronounced us fit for the Alaska Highway.  Whew!

I had also noticed that we seemed to have a lot of play in the pin box (the hitch arm on the trailer) So, yesterday afternoon Gail and I took the outside panel off up under the bedroom so we could inspect the welds.  All looked good and were told by an RV place that there is a certain amount of give in the pin box.  Got that all back together and did a little extra caulking to keep out the rain and we're good to go.  I'll still avoid the big bumps.

Grand Prairie visitors center and some local sponsors, along with a local Buffalo Rancher put on a "Buffalo BBQ" every Wednesday afternoon.  We learned about it in the Milepost Guide and were actually kind of surprised that it was still going on. (Ya see, our Milepost is from 2008)  However, not being a person to pass on free food we had a very nice meal.  So, all in all, we had a really nice 2 day stay in Grand Prairie. And the people at Tamarack RV were very helpful and patient with our situation. They were booked solid and we could only have 2 days, but if needed we would've been able to stay.

Mile 0

But all is well and we headed out for Dawson Creek and on to Fort St. John. Dawson being only 88 miles away would've made a waste of most of the day. We did stop and take an obligatory photo of the Mile 0 post and official start of the Alaskan highway. All we've been doing to this point is get to the beginning! We continued on to Fort St. John and a little campground by a lake for the night. Since leaving Grand Prairie, we have been driving through a big prairie and agriculture area. And all the little towns are booming with gas and oil  companies and support. Plus, lots of mud everywhere.

 Boy are the days long up here. We have room darkening shades for the windows and it's a good thing. Even though we've been going to bed around 11 or 11:30, depending when the movie ends, it's still pretty light out. And I think it will stay up longer as we get to Alaska. Since TV has been limited and we can't pick up the satellite, we are going through our movie collection, working through the Bond series now. All fun and adapting.
Big 3 day weekend coming up, Canada day, so will find a spot for the weekend and avoid the driving crowds.