if you're going my way

yesterday i had my first flight into canada not ridiculously delayed by thunderstorms. then i was confronted by a polite and efficient rental vehicle company. still reeling from this.



they gave us a really nice, almost brand-new (13k km) camper van, which we have yet to find fault with. altho i'm sure we will sometime in the next few weeks :) it seems to get about 25mpg! (YEEHAAA!)



we drove to red deer, about 1.5 hours north of calgary last night, mostly to test out the wheels. the weather was not great in spots on the way up, but cleared up by the time we got there. found a nice rv park and a beautiful sunset to look at while we settled in.

today was the first real road day, about 450 miles across the alberta plains. it was a gorgeous day, and much more interesting scenery that i would have thought. we stopped for lunch at some random rest stop. while we ate our turkey sandwiches sitting in our leather couches, we had to gloat a little after noticing the people eating with their sedan's trunk as the table. (SUCKERS)



i was thinking we wouldn't see much wildlife for a few days yet, but we did spot a black bear mama and her cubs just east of grande prarie. we also saw enough "farm stock" of exotic origin to fill my brother's wild thing plate at la fondue - bison, llama, caribou....

so when we reached dawson creek, we discovered that the traffic circle that marks the grand entrance to the alaska highway has succumbed to orange cone season and so was closed to vehicle traffic. (you can see the construction behind us in the first two pictures.) but that's okay. we found a nice rv park with free wi-fi, then took a walk to the mile 0 marker to take the cheesy tourist pics. then we wandered back for popcorn and a movie. all in all, a terrific day.



(COMMENTS by mark)