Writing this evening from Fort Nelson, British Columbia, Canada where we arrived at approximately 5:15 pm local time (PDT). Today was a shorter driving day than yesterday as we made our hotel here in about 11 hours from our starting point in Prince George this morning. Although the day started out sunny and clear by mid-morning we hit rain and later in the afternoon we even ran into some snow. The terrain was fairly smooth and the speed limit was mostly 100 kph along the way (about 62 mph) so we made pretty good time even in the rain and snow.
We started the day with another visit to Tim Hortons in Prince George where I got coffee and a couple of donuts and Debra got a toasted sesame bagel with cream cheese. We stopped for 2nd breakfast in Chetwynd when we stumbled across that lovely town with its chainsaw carvings. If we come back to Canada we would definitely want to come by there for its annual International Chainsaw Carving Championships. This year it is being held on June 7th so we were just a few days early. The sculptures are amazing and we have a number of photos to share. I did post some on Facebook earlier today. Check out our Chetwynd photo album.
The town is small (pop. 2503) but the main street is lined with carvings from previous years. Please take a moment to browse the photos posted in the album. These are probably only a 6th of all the carvings around the town. Also take a close look at the sign for the churches listed in the city. See if you can guess which one cracked us up. A good chuckle is always good for the soul.
Another stop on our day was in Dawson Creek, BC. As you can see from the photo below, this is mile marker 0 (zero) for the Alaska Highway. So we are getting closer to our goal of visiting Alaska. Only tonight and tomorrow night in Canada, then the next ten or so will be in Alaska.
Our weather today went from beautiful sunshine to pouring rain and even some snow. We had to stop for gas sooner than planned, due to the lack of available gas stations along the route. So we stopped at Buckinghorse River, in the rain/sleet and experienced a new type of gas pump. It's an above ground tanker. Back door to pay with credit card. Front of tanker has the hose. You kids all know how well Dad handles frustration --- enjoy the pictures.
The last couple of comments for today is that the scenery is wonderful. The photos of the trees and lakes and rivers and farm land just don't do them justice. So many different kinds of trees, I want to take individual pictures of them all. The interesting thing is that the towns are not overly abundant with them. But then the towns aren't overly abundant with people either. It's along the highway were the beauty is. And the only wild critter we saw today was a brown crane or some such bird along the road side. It was about 2 feet tall.
One more tidbit - did you know that there are only 35.15 million people in Canada? Pull out an atlas and check the size of this country. Just for comparison, there are 311.6 million in the US. (info from 2016 census) 39 million in Los Angeles alone.
Our adventure continues but for now - sleep well
Tom and Debra
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