Sunday, June 20, 2004- FATHERS DAY - Revised
In my rush to post before departing Fort Nelson, I inadvertently posted a draft that had not been edited. My mother warned me, “haste makes waste”. She was right.
Our first night in Canada was spent in Lethbridge at a nice RV park on the river. The next morning Ken visited a local bank and returned chuckling. The "teller" wanted to know where we were headed. When he responded Alaska, she said she was taking a poll as to who the Alaska bound travelers were supporting in the US election. After Ken gave his response, she said you have two choices, a "war monger" or a "sissy". She went on to say that Canada's choice was much simpler. They just try to choose the least "crooked" from all of the crooks on the ballot.
It was raining when we drove through Calgary and that prompted us to alter our plans for an overnight stay. We drove on to Pine Lake half way between Calgary and Edmonton. The RV Resort was a beautiful spacious park with a lovely golf course and clubhouse. We enjoyed dinner at the club house where Ken had fish and chips which he said were very good while I enjoyed poached salmon with garlic mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables.
In Edmonton, we visited the West Edmonton Mall, billed as the largest mall in the world. I thought the mall in Minnesota was the largest but if it is, the Canadian brochures overlooked that fact. This mall complex has an ice skating rink large enough for hockey games (in fact the Edmonton Oilers regularly train there), a galaxy of amusement park type rides, a major theater complex including a motion based theater (Ken thinks one of the McFadden units that his company built was installed here but we felt too pressed for time to pursue a further "look"), a major food court, bourbon street restaurant complex (Hooters, Old Spaghetti Factory, Boston Pizza and several other major restaurant chains), two hotels and a giant water world with beaches, waves etc. This amazing complex covers 48 city blocks, and allegedly will fit 115 football fields inside. I couldn't believe that we were visiting a mall as a sightseeing event but it was billed as one of the top ten attractions for this area and it turned out that it is interesting, large and impressive. We enjoyed a scenic view of Edmonton, the capital of Alberta with a population 666,000. Calgary is the largest city in Alberta and the province has a total population of 3 million. Alberta seemed advanced in its planning and affluent in appearance. Their roads seem better designed to handle heavy traffic than some in Los Angeles.
On Thursday, we stopped overnight in Edson Alberta for a visit with old friends from our past, Dick and Vi Jackson. Dick welcomed us and proved to be a most gracious host. Unfortunately, Vi was attending a political event in connection with the elections and was on the road. We were disappointed but inasmuch as her boss is a candidate for reelection, we certainly understood the importance of her presence on the campaign trail. Dick kept us in stitches with his "story telling" talents. Dick has an uncanny way of merging fiction with threads of truth that entertains as well as stimulates curiosity.
Our stop over in Edson launched our second week on the road. We departed Edson for Dawson Creek where we spent Friday night. We traveled from Edson via Highway 32 into Highway 2 and continued a sightseers delight of visual beauty as portrayed by the many large affluent appearing farms and ranches along the road. Farming, logging and gas and oil exploration is the primary source of economic support for this area.
In Dawson Creek we visited the visitors Center and a pioneer village consisting of early homes and business buildings pre Alaskan highway. The Dawson Creek area has a population of 12,000. The Alaskan Highway, built in 1942 when Canadian and American leaders realized that the North American borders needed to be secured, starts here. With the outbreak of World War II, America and Canada realized that a highway needed to be built into Alaska to protect our North American borders. The Alcan (as it was known until 1943) was renamed the Alaskan Highway. It comprises some 1,500 miles and was built at a cost of approximately 140 million USD. It has undergone a constant improvement process since completion and is "allegedly" paved all the way, a fact that we shall confirm during our progress the next few weeks.
A businessman that we visited with told us that he comes to Dawson Creek the first of June and spends two months and one week selling his wares (antler carvings). He said that after the first week of August, it is over. Everyone going North has gone and those who are returning have completed their explorations. He lives on Vancouver Island and he returns there to enjoy the rest of his summer. He has been doing the Dawson Creek pilgrimage for eight years so it must be economically justified. Whether it is or not may be moot, it is a beautiful area.
From Dawson Creek we entered the Alaskan Highway and proceed through the Yukon into Alaska. Our trip thus far has been full of visual beauty and wide open spaces. We have completed one full week on the road and now look forward to entering the Yukon Territory.
We drove from Dawson Creek into Fort Nelson (approximately300 miles) where we spent Saturday, June 19. We are learning the wisdom of advice that we received. If you are an outdoor person, this land is God's land. If you are a "people" person, it is “no man’s land”, beauty not withstanding. The weather and temperatures have combined to give us a near perfect trip climatically speaking. Clear blue skies with temperatures in the mid to high 80’s have accompanied us throughout the trip. We hope that our good fortune will continue’
We send our love and best wishes for a very happy birthday to our son, Gary, who will be celebrating a major birthday on June 23.
