5th day
We have had a challenging couple days which I will talk about in this post and the next post as I get caught up this morning. We had a slow start on our way to Dawson Creek. The main hold up was lodging. Dawson creek has a large number of hotels. My best guess would be approaching or us over 40 hotels, motels, inns, and B&B's. They were all full except for the big expensive rooms ($250-300 a night). The town has some very large hotels so we were kind of caught off guard with the difficulty of finding a room for the night. My suggestion to anyone traveling this route is to plan on going through Dawson Creek to any town up or down the highway. Evidently the same good problem we experienced in North Dakota also infected Dawson Creek. Oil and gas has brought a boom to the economy there and the rooms are full of truckers, rough necks, engineers and every other kind of professional to see that the gas and oil follows. The problem is travelers will have a tough time getting a room depending on the time of year. We did find one place with a 3 rooms and I snapped one of them up. 
As we drove we went through a number of small towns. One had a big beaver on the main highway and the town was called beaver lodge. We did not stop but with no traffic behind us we pulled over for a quick 20 second shot of this guy. It dwarfs the houses and the flags.
As I drove down the road I began to wonder why they had any rooms left and everyone else was sold out. At our lunch stop in Grande Prairie I did a little research and found that the hotel had and continues to have issues with bed bugs.
I asked Michelle, my beloved nurse and Haiti traveler what she thought because the only thing I know about bed bugs is the stupid thing I say sometimes to my kids at night: Don't let the bed bugs bite!". I would not know a bed bug if it bit me!!
She put the breaks on that quicker than I hit the breaks for the deer that ran in front of me today! I knew not to ask further questions, especially in front of the kids. I guess I will have to get the low down on bed bugs later. Here is a picture of one I took off the internet. The bed bug bite pictures are gross and I think I will refrain from using that old saying any longer!!!!
We settled for dinner in Dawson Creek and having David snap some photos as we drove. We moved on to Fort St. John while the sun was setting. Fort St. John is in the province of British Columbia where we had a good nights rest in a Ho Jo (Howard Johnson's). The photo of the statue below points the way as you enter a round-a-bout to the start of the Alaskan highway in Dawson Creek.
The drive this 5th day was again a day of rolling hills. Mountains were really not visible until later in the day way off in the distance. It is a beautiful area but Michelle and I agree we lean toward enjoying heavy woods like we had up north in Minnesota. We cannot wait until we get into the mountains! As we drove toward our resting place for the night I did get really my first taste of what was to come as far as driving through the "hills". There was a sign that said reduce speed and check brakes. It was barely light now. As I came around a corner it seemed like the road dropped off the face of the earth. the sign said 10% slope. That does not seem like much but let me tell you 10% seems vertical at night! It was not a simple straight drop to the Peace river valley and the town of Taylor. This road wound back and forth and had banked curves so as it leveled off in the town of Taylor and I took both hands off the steering wheel to get blood back into them, I thanks God and told Michelle via the radio- "no more night driving!" She spouted something about Haiti roads being worse and me being a wimp! This was the 1st of many roads that make my stomach do flip flops. I can drive it but I don't have to like it!!!!
6th day
On the 6th day as the drive out of Fort St. John's progressed we saw a dead moose along the road as well as 3-4 deer. I came up to a doe standing in the middle of the road. As I approached she ran off and looked back over her shoulder. I hit the breaks more and it was a good thing because a really nice buck in velvet still came running out in front of me. I was surprised to see the buck for I thought it might have been a yearling that she was looking back at. We did not see much other wild life that day and planned on stopping at Fort Nelson for the night.
Part way through the mountains really began to become close and clear. We drove though the Pink Mountain and I thought it was because of all the pinkish fauna that lined the highway. (see photos below) but it really is because of the rock having a pinkish hue to it. These flowing plants are at the end of their season but they have a brilliant pink flower and red stem that grown in large beds along the road side. There is also in the other photo a red "grass of some kind that adds to the road side color. The trees are slightly beginning to change. Most color change is able to be seen in the soft woods or the bushes.
We stopped for lunch at the nice little cafe called Bucking Horse River Lodge. The place is for sale. 65 acres, horses, gas station, rooms, and cafe but I bet you have to be a pretty tough hombre to make it up here! A word about prices along the Alaska Highway. Figure everything will be about 25% higher than before you get on the the road. These little restaurants make a lot of the stuff themselves which makes for good food but it is not cheap. Michelle had the best homemade mushroom soup and liver she ever had. I treated myself to steak and eggs and you can tell there was a side of beef hanging in the back somewhere that was feeding on natural grass not corn and special feed to fatten them up. It was good food but I almost choked up that steak when I got the bill! We are watching what we eat here now and trying to split meals especially with the kids and eat the snacks we brought if we are still hungry.
Pay the extra $20 or $30 and stay at the Super 8 or other hotels in the area. Here is the catch as I close out this two day catch up blog. This entire time Michelle has been getting sicker and sicker. She is in a bad way and so as we talked about staying in Ft. Nelson another night she said "no way". I called ahead and found a nice looking place at Toad River about 2 hours away. We are going there and will stop for the day. With Michelle being sick and we as a family being on the road and"homeless" for 25 days we are doing a long day and will evaluate how Michelle feels from there.
Psalm 127: Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.
This is a tough journey in some ways and a joyful one in some ways. It is a lot to ask of the kids and when your spouse is sick it just adds to not just the difficulty of the trip but steals the joy of the trip. Michelle has been pretty sad that she is so sick because she so looked forward to the drive and seeing new things. But we keep things in perspective as we both know we are blessed with each other and three great kids. Tempers flare, the kids get short with each other and us, yet it is a great time of working, living, and bonding together for us all even if things are not going as we hoped and planned- they are going!
Blessings to you all! Andy and Michelle and the kids!
