Our caravan comes to an end

Friday morning August 5, we awoke to clear and cool weather ~ about 58°F. The campground had no sewer or even a dump station, so we drove separately to “town” and dumped the grey tank, got 235.96 liters of diesel (costing $500 Canadian) which got Acey up to ¾ full. We hooked up Thor and left Stewart, BC at 9:20 with Acey’s mileage at 91,350.5 and Thor’s at 104,982. (Acey hold 473 liters) It was another scenic drive. There was a layer of fog on the river!

It was nice to have smooth pavement! So many of the roads we have been on have been quite rough!

We passed by Bear Glacier again.

Two cyclists taking a break…

And two more…

We reached the end of Route 37 – the Cassiar Highway – and turned onto Route 16 , the Yellowhead Trail, also referred to as the Trans-Canada Highway, which will take us to Prince George and beyond.

There are actually 2 highways that run East to West across Canada – Route 16 and further south is Route 1 which is considered the MAIN Trans-Canada Highway

The mountains and the sky are nearly the same color – really strange sight!

After missing our turn and going 5 miles down the road before we found a place to make a U-turn, we arrived at Witset RV Park, near Smithers, BC at 1:30. We have full hookups and free laundry in this park with spacious sites, and they are level too!

We were pretty much caught up on laundry, but we took the big rug from the front to the laundromat – it won’t fit in our tiny washer! The laundromat had only 2 washers, so we didn’t wash the bedspread; it will have to wait!

We had noticed a water feature on the way into the park, so we walked over to get a good look! The water must be glacial  – the color was blue-green.

There’s Jim down closer to the waterfall to get some photos.

There were people fishing with nets – trying to catch some salmon.

This fella netted 3 nice sized salmon! Notice the stairs behind him –they lead up to the RV park.

The Widzin Kwah Canyon is so colorful – and the building on the hill – WOW!

For dinner, we went to The Roadhouse in Smithers with several of our friends. We were enjoying our time together and talking with our waitress and one another – we didn’t get but one photo: here’s Carol!

“God found the strongest women and made them nurses”

Saturday we left Witset RV Park just before 9am with Acey’s mileage at 91,556.4 and Thor’s still at 104,982 since we did not need to disconnect. Thanks to Morrie and Keron for driving us to dinner last evening 🙂 Back on the Yellowhead Trail again!

This was the first evidence of farming we recall seeing during the time we have been on caravan. (This was near Telkwa)

A construction zone – we hadn’t seen one in a few days…

At 1:45 we were welcomed to Prince George.

Costco was on the way to the RV Park, so we stopped for diesel and some groceries. At 3:30 we arrived at Mamayeh RV Park in Prince George, BC. This is perhaps the best park we have stayed at on the caravan. Spacious level sites with full hookups and 50amp electric! On our way to dinner, we passed this sculpture and it kind of reminded Linda of the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital logo.

We had dinner at 54 North – one last meal together – everyone was there except Lee – unfortunately he has not been feeling well ☹

After dinner, we said our goodbyes – we had been together for just over 7 weeks and enjoyed spending time together seeing so many wonderful places!

Sunday morning, we joined our Sunday School class via Zoom at 7:30 since we are now on Pacific Time.

Most of our fellow caravanners are leaving today, so we said our goodbyes again and we hope to meet up again someday. What an awesome adventure thru Canada and Alaska!

On the caravan, we drove Acey 5,515.8 miles (With sun, rain, fog and snow, good roads and bad!) over 51 days and drove Thor 1006 miles (once we got to our destinations). We had little time or appropriate weather to ride our bikes, so we only went 23 miles on them. We drove through 3 Canadian Provinces and crossed the border into Alaska 3 times, driving on roads ranging from nearly undrivable to ok-ish. We learned about loonies and toonies. How many currencies have such silly names?

So many places had been affected by the 1964 Good Friday earthquake which neither of us had any recollection of (of course we were only 7 years old at the time!). The subject of oil and the Alaska pipeline as well as the Klondike Gold rush – or other aspects of gold mining were subjects that came up at many of our Canadian and Alaskan stops.

We saw spectacular scenery and lots of wildlife; enjoying God’s spectacular creation and wonders! We took a ferry, rode on trains and boats and made new friends – it was a great experience! Our travels of course are not over! Stay tuned as we continue on through 2 more provinces in Canada and finally hit our 50th state – North Dakota — and more! (Well Acey’s 49th state – she won’t go to Hawaii!)

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6 thoughts on “Our caravan comes to an end”

    1. As I mentioned, we knew nothing about the earthquake before this trip. In Valdez, they had to move the town site after it hit, Anchorage had only a few casualties as most folks were at Good Friday Services, Stewart has a problem with the street flooding at high tide, but the ground shifted and after the earthquake, the flooding no longer happened!

  1. Linda, you are a great storyteller. I like the tie-ins with past trips and recognitions, like how the sculpture in St George reminded you of the logo of the Vanderbilt Children’s’ Hospital. There must be a name for that ‘gumbo ‘stickman’ way of representing the human figure. Keep on RVing and blogging!

    1. Well Ted, that is quite a compliment from a published author! I was really surprised that we did the rafting in Skagway back in 2009 – we was just young ‘uns then!! Neither Jim nor I could remember what we did, but I found the photos…

  2. Linda,
    I’m sorry that we could not see a picture after the Rt 37 one…just icons for thumbprints that couldn’t open. I’d love to see them if you can send another way.
    I’ve been offline for a month; the reason you haven’t seen many posts. We have moved, to:
    207 Longwood Ct. W
    Lancaster PA 17603

    Cell phones are still the same!

    1. Diane, you may need to re-boot your computer! If you are looking at the blog on your phone, it often takes time for the photos to download. Don’t know what else to tell you! Try again 🙂

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