Tuesday 9/4
We're coaxed awake by rays of sunshine poking into the Admiral. It’s a beautifully bright sunny day! Nancy heads out to do laundry and she comes back ebullient—the washers and dryers are immaculate, they work flawlessly, and there is no vermin in the laundry room! Meanwhile, I am flushed with felicity—we have super-high-speed wireless internet connectivity! Dave’s RV Park turns out to be the best commercial place we’ve stayed. Dave’s has ALL the amenities including putt-putt golf, a croquet court, and an English Garden overflowing with autumn blooms.
At 12:30 we reluctantly leave Dave and his lovely wife Davette. We’re on the road with a mission. Our goal is the town of 100 Mile House—260 miles from here. We stopped in this town on the way north to watch birds at the city lake and were able to add several new species to our life list. Now, during the fall migration, we expect we’ll add some more. Near 100 Mile House, there’s also a possible side trip that would take us to a series of lakes where we might be able to raft and fish.
First we drive to and through Prince George—the dominant and “capital” city of northern British Columbia. In Prince George we turn straight south and begin retracing our route from earlier in the summer. Frankly, the scenery isn’t much better than yesterday but our spirits are better. Maybe it’s the sunshine, but I also think yesterday was a cold-turkey return to civilization, and now that we know we’re in the final lap, we’re beginning to focus on getting home to the kids and grandkids.
We do our first meaningful look back at the miles we’ve traveled. We’ve racked up over 6,000 on the Admiral and when we get home the total will be over 8K. More surprisingly, we’ve driven CJ almost 3,000 miles! We’re reminiscing about the great places we’ve seen, the scores of bears and moose and other animals. We’re also remembering the incredible scenery and the great discoveries. We recall the first moose, the first black bear, the first caribou, the first fish we landed, the plane crash, the Dempster Highway, the first Grizzly, the awesome empty mountains, the night in the foggy rain, the first glacier, the many glaciers, the trip to Kodiak, the salmon, the BIG bears, the days and nights alone, Denali, Haines, Skagway, and just a few days ago, Stewart & Hyder…so many incredible experiences. We’re feeling warm and fuzzy in the blanket of our memories.
As we near 100 Mile House, we’re finding it difficult to locate a suitable turn-out where we can spend the night. Finally we decide to join a bunch of trucks parked at the side of the road next to a small lake—there are a bunch of ducks in the lake, but we’ll work on identifying them tomorrow. Tonight we’re more worried about the many high-speed trucks that are passing by--as they pass, the Admiral shudders in the roar. It could be a long night.
One final thing—trust me, it will be important. Canadians have a nickname for their $1 coin. The coin has a loon (bird) on one side and it’s come to be known as a “Loonie”. Takes a while to get used to being asked for a “Loonie” or told that something is affordable because it’s “less than a Loonie”. They also have a $2 coin. Frankly I have no idea what images are on it, but, you guessed it, they call it a “Twonie”.
