Day 36 - Wednesday July 13th - Coming Home

Our flight leaves at 21.45 tonight arriving in Heathrow at 13.40 tomorrow the up to Edinburgh for 16.40 to be met by Andrew. So no more entries unless something happens between then and now!!

Day 35 - Tuesday 12th July - At the Stampede

After a late breakfast at the excellent EasyOver restaurant Martin & I took the Silver Bullet to the GM garage to get a problem engine warning light sorted out. He is having a big problem with GM's warranty as they seem to ignore the conditions of his warranty. We then chilled out for a bit before setting off for The Stampede. The weather at this stage was great. The Stampede is an enormous event that takes place here annually lasting for 10 days. Each day the crowd can exceed 100,000! We visited an enormous tented area called Nashville North which has live country bands and beer. Most of the crowd dress in western/cowboy style and the atmosphere is electric - great fun. We had a burger then slowly made our way down Midway which is full of fairground type stalls.

We stopped at a few to bet on the various spinning wheels and bouncing balls and we were all quite lucky especially Heather who is on a very lucky streak. Martin had booked great seats for us in the giant stand and we settled down to watch the Chuck Wagon racing. Teams of 4 horses attached to a small wagon race around the showground. The start is an outrider throwing a stove into the back of the wagon then they're off! It is an amazing sight and full of colour.

While we were watching a friend of Heather had spotted us and invited us to their V.I.P. table before the entertainment show started. We managed this after no help from security but a bit of persistence on our part, their maxim seems to be if you have to ask you shouldn't be there! Our hosts were Randy & Holly and we had a great time there. Randy arranged for us to get some luxury outside seats under cover for the spectacular show. This was most fortunate as the heavens opened up with a spectacular show of it's own - we would have been soaked. We felt sorry for the poor folk! The show was absolutely fantastic and on an enormous scale.

On our way home we called into the Stampede Casino which was jumping - Heather, as usual, scooped some bucks! It was great fun watching her playing dice as she, like the rest of us, didn't have much of an idea what was going on however appeared to keep on winning! Don't ask about me! We got back to Heather & Martin's at 02.45 absolutely shattered but we had all had a brilliant day out!

Day 34 - Monday July 11th - Calgary

Went to visit Eileen B's daughter, Elaine and her 6 month old baby, Kieran. We programmed the sat nav to assist in this journey and after leaving late, because I couldn't find my driving glasses, we drove the 20kM across town and arrived safely at her house xxxx Bowglen Rd. Eileen tried, unsuccessfully, to get access by knocking on the front door, the back door and even the basement windows! No reply! We were by this time a bit concerned, and on getting no response from her neighbours decided to go back to Martin's to phone again - no mobile phone. As we reset the sat nav for the return journey Eileen noticed that we were in Bowness Road and not Bowglen Road which was only 200 yards away. We corrected our error and arrived even later and shame faced. Sheer fluke that the house number was the same in both streets as they are usually of a fairly random nature.

It was great to see Elaine again, last time was 13 years ago. Kieran is a super wee lad and the splitting image of his Dad when he was the same age. Unfortunately we didn't get to meet Guy as he is a fireman and on a training course. Their house is lovely, much better than the first one we were trying to get in!! Guy has done an enormous amount of work building garages, recladding etc.

After a short visit we set of for the Elbow Falls which was about 45 minutes away. A really super looking place with a decent trail for us to walk before it started to rain when we were furthest from the car. On arriving back in Calgary the sun was belting down and it must have been twice as warm as Elbow Falls.


After I had posted this yesterday Michael, Eileen's other son, called round with his girlfriend to take us out for an ice-cream. We went to a shop with so many flavours the mind boggled - there was even liquorice Fern! We took the ice-creams to a park besides the same River Elbow and once they were finished we played a Spanish version of boules. It is just the same rules but is played with larger boules - typical Spanish!! No need to report who the winner was but suffice it to say that Eileen is on a roll just now - we have to get her to the Stampede Casino somehow! When we arrived back at the house Martin & Heather had returned after having driven close to 1000Km that day. Heather was shattered and had gone to bed but Martin bravely stayed up for a while and we had a great chat.

Day 33 - July 10th - Calgary

Eileen caught up on the washing and ironing while I brushed out the debris of Alaska, Yukon, British Columbia and a wee bit of Alberta from the Silver Bullet.
Next on the agenda(?) we walked to downtown Calgary to stretch our cramped legs and have a look around - as it is Sunday nothing much was happening but it was good to walk some distance again in pleasant weather. It was a bit of a struggle walking back uphill to Martin & Heather's and we arrived back fairly knackered. BBQed steak and some salad, an excellent bottle of Oyster Bay then I taught Eileen how to play Cribbage. She must have been cheating as she won the second game! No photos today. Off to Kananaskis tomorrow so hope weather holds up.

Day 32 - 9th July - Jasper to Calgary (the end)!

5369Km - 3336Mls
We've made it! The Silver Bullet purred on 'til the end.

We had a super stay at Becker's Chalets outside Jasper despite the absolutely rubbish weather. To console ourselves we decided to eat at Becker's Restaurant and we certainly wern't disappointed. Eileen had Sockeye salmon and I had half a cow! Walking back to our chalet we saw some Elk on a nearby hillside and within a few minutes one of them had arrived amongst the chalets. Great viewing and so close. A little while later this Elk and her two sisters made their way to the central grassy area and were much admired and not in the least put out by the enthralled campers. Then the Elk settled down for the night and so did we.

In the morning they had all gone at 06.00 (according to Eileen) however they had returned + 1 before we left at 07.30. The morning was really bad with very low cloud and heavy rain. Our first stop of the day was at Athabasca Falls which were a brilliant sight especially as the heavy rain had swollen the river. Eileen says (from all her reading of interpretive plaques!!) that the rivers are milky in colour at this time of year because  of "Rock Flour" which is finely ground rock carried by glacial water. Every day's a school day! We motored on until we reached the Columbia Icefields - very cold and windy although the rain had stopped. Had a look at the Athabasca Glacier then a coffee and bun and it was time to resume the journey. Martin had suggested a hike along Parker Ridge but as it was raining hard again and with low cloud we decided to carry on with the journey. On reaching Bow Summit the weather had improved and we walked to the viewing area and were rewarded with magnificent views of Bow Glacier and Lake which has the bluest water in the Rockies.

A little later we saw a Black Bear very close up, he was munching the grass at the side of the road and didn't pay any attention to the very close viewers. Then we turned off the highway into Louise Village making our way to Moraine Lake. We had been there with the children 13 years ago and it still looked great despite the RV traffic jam and parking problems. At Lake Louise Lake, the big difference we noticed was that the number of visitors, mostly oriental, had increased enormously. When we were there last the children had "enjoyed" canoeing - ask them about it! In all the hustle and bustle we witnessed a wedding ceremony taking place on the lake shore in front of the massive Fairmont hotel! The photographer was getting really shirty with the spectators - a most bizarre scene. More interpretive data from herself! "The Louise Creek flows into the Bow River which joins other rivers then flows for 4000 Kms across Canada to the Hudson Bay".

We finally descended from the Rockies and arrived in Calgary at Martin & Heather's super house. We are both very weary but safe and sound.

Day 31 - 8th July - Becker's Chalets, Jasper

Eileen blogging today!
Well, they say we are in the Rockies but we haven't been able to see them!  The weather has been horrid and the clouds have been really low that we've had to imagine how spectacular the views are when it's sunny.  We are terribly disappointed as the Rockies were part of our 'must sees' . Matthew said it was like a March day in Glencoe and the temp dropped to 5 degrees!! Now, no laughing!!  Just hope the weather improves for a long drive to Calgary tomorrow and hopefully some great mountain views!

We went for a drive in the pouring rain to beautiful  Maligne Lake - it is the largest lake in the Rockies, 22km (14miles)long. No point in taking a lake cruise as visibility so poor and boats were all docked! Anyway the coffee shop was excellent; I can vouch for the Danish pastry and the planet-size muffin that M. had!! Saw some lovely picnic spots as well but actual picnic was eaten in the van! (it was good too, but still raining!)

Drove to Punchbowl Falls past Pochohantas but it was the only river not in spate!! Lucky White Heather!! It cleared up late afternoon and we managed a nice walk along the Athabasca River bank here.  It is flowing very fast and we saw some rafters whizzing by. We're looking forward to dinner in the restaurant here tonight. These chalets are lovely and beautifully situated overlooking the river.

Day 30 - July 7th - Prince George to Jasper

After our luxurious nights sleep we pointed the Silver Bullet(Brick) East by South East and headed for Jasper. Very low cloud to start changed to slightly lower cloud and some showers. Nothing much to report but we stopped at McBride for lunch. The railway station is the place to go for lunch and it was excellent - Bacon & Bean Soup (!) + Meatloaf salad sandwich - yum. While we were having lunch a goods (freight) train pulled into the siding, it just went on and on. I asked one of the old boys outside the station about the trains, he told me that the train that had just pulled in was 1500 yards! They are planning to extend the siding to accommodate 2500 yard trains.

Later on we stopped at Rearguard Falls which is the highest point in the Fraser River that salmon swim up to spawn - 800Km from the sea. The falls were spectacular as you will see in the photos. It had started to rain there and continued as we crossed into Alberta and a new time zone - just like going to Kirkaldy!

Before you get to Jasper you enter the National Park which you have to pay a toll. Fortunately for us Martin has a yearly subscription for the Silver Bullet. On arriving at Jasper the weather really closed down with torrential rain, thunder & lightening! Eileen had to be pulled from under the bed. We are staying at Becker Chalets and it is very comfortable. Our chalet is half the top floor of a chalet over looking a large grassy area. If we could see more than 100 metres I'm sure that the views would be great.

Don't think that I'll manage to upload photos from here but I'll give it a try.



Phew that was a struggle, took over 1 hour to upload 5 pics.

Day 29th - July 6th - Smithers to Prince George

Woke after a great sleep. We had a super breakfast made by Tina - very continental as Tina is Austrian, delicious! After leaving the guesthouse E & I went for an explore of Smithers. It is a very Dutch/Swiss sort of place, the only thing missing was David Lynch. All very orderly and clean and deserted. Popped into the museum as I had read about a US bomber + atomic weapon that had crashed near here in mysterious circumstances in 1947 or thereabouts. The museum director Fergus (new best friend) gave a us personal talk about the incident. What a superb guy, he left Dublin at 19 and now at 62 seems very settled in Smithers, anyway he is doing a great job and has a new museum in the pipeline. The other interesting(!) thing we found out there is that egg boxes were invented in Smithers (personally sceptical) - every day a school day!

Weather was pretty bad on the drive with torrential rain and difficult driving conditions but all coped extremely well with by one of Europe's finest. Can you tell in these entries where the Jack and ice starts to take effect?

Arrived safely in Prince George. Martin's advice was that it was best to arrive in PG in darkness and he may have a point! The hotel we are in, Sandman Signature, is unbelievably luxurious and only $95 per night. We have decided to eat here as it is still raining, hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow for the journey to Jasper.

Day 28 - July 5th - Iskut to Smithers

A 09.00 start after some of Janice's excellent pancakes and words of wisdom from Mitch. A cloudy/sunny sort of day with an OK drive. Soon after we started we spotted a grizzly bear at the side of the road, he ran before photos could be taken. We had decided to go to Stewart/Hydra to see if the salmon were running and therefore getting caught by bears & eagles. So at the Mezien Junction we went off the 37 and onto the 37A for a 90 mile detour. We crossed the border back into the very southern tip of Alaka and onto the roughest road in the world - 6 miles to the observation platforms. Unfortunately no one had told the salmon or the bears or the eagles who all failed to turn up! Bugger! The only bright point was that when we got back to the 37 we saw a mother black bear with three cubs at the roadside and a few miles later another mother with two cubs. These are magical sightings.

Arrived safely at Smithers and staying in the Smithers Guesthouse which is run by friends of Martin's, Tina and Hans. Hans wasn't there as he had gone to pick up his 70 year old Dad who had been cometing in a huge canoe race fto Whitehorse, it lasts a couple of days and the old guy was third! Anyway a wheel fell off their car on the way back so he was held up. Went out for an evening meal and have returned to chat to some Aussies who are travelling North so of course we could regale them with all sorts of advice and knowledge - poor souls! I'm typing this into a document so that I can copy and paste when internet services are resumed.

Day 27 - July 4th - Red Goat Lodge Iskut

A really lazy day mooching about around the great amazing Red Goat Lodge. Janice, the cook, made us the most delicious pancakes for breakfast. Mitch , the boss, gave us his personal view on how to run BC - he is very amusing and quite a character. On his advice we went to the Iskut Airstrip to get a good view of the lakes. Unfortunately it must have been years since he was there as trees complely obscured the views however it was fun walking about the airstrip. The weather was freezing and windy so we spent some time just sitting around reading.

Day 26 - 3rd July - Teslin to Iskut - Red Goat Lodge

At Dawson Peak Resort the lakeside cabin turned out to be a motel type room which was fine but had no cooking facilities not even a coffee maker - almost unbearable! But stiff upper lip and we managed through. Had an evening meal in the "resort" restaurant - homemade chilli with garlic toast and Bumbleberry Pie and ice cream, it was all absolutely delicious, thank God there were no cooking facilies in the room! Bumbleberry pie is a pie mix, we had to ask, of rhubarb, apple and some berries (yum, yum). Have I already posted this - never mind?

We went to bed early because we are very old, we used to go to bed early because we were young so nothing much changes, or does it? The owner had cryptically warned us that a young family were moving in next door but he would sort them out if we let him know if the kids were running around or hollering etc. Anyway they didn't get in until 23.00 and we were asleep only to be woken by crying babies, hollering kids and Mom & Pop having a domestic! This lasted until 00.00. then all was quiet. We were awake before them in the morning but plans of revenge were thwarted when they all awoke shortly after us. Had brekkies at the restaurant which again was brilliant then a quick walk round the area then all aboard and we're off.

Again another good drive with changing scenery, getting more mountainous, you could say Rocky! Visited a Jade Shop which is next to a jade mine which produces 90% of world's jade. We think that the carving is all or mostly done in various Chinese villages, however there were some interesting looking stuff but very expensive. The drive today is 350 miles along the Alaska Highway then turn right after 150 miles for Highway 37 until we reached Red Goat Lodge in Iskut. Our wee cabin is one of three and is very backwoodish but cosy and quaint. We are overlooking Lake Eddonenajon and Mount Loons Peak 2276m, which still has lots of snow on it. It's all very good and should be a good rest as we are here for 2 nights. Janice , the owner, tod us that there is a gold prospecting crew staying and they eat breakfast about 08.00 so we would be best to turn up later which suits us fine. She was telling us that she had a flight in the prospectors helicopter today - a bit different from Spitz and Buck (Call of the Wild)! Outside it is blowing a hooley and is freezing so we only had a very short walk beside Lake Eddonenajon before Eileen rustled up some grub on the one ring tabletop cooker!!! Hopefully the wind will have dropped tomorrow and we can go out in a canoe, Eileen is hoping that the wind gets up to even more ferocious levels!

Having very slow upload speed here so I'm afraid no pics. I'll add them as soon as we get decent speed.

Day 25 - July 2nd - Whitehorse to Teslin Lake

A sad day today as Fern & Eileen are going home. We had all had a great nights sleep at the Sundog Retreat which was super accommodation, we were in Cranberry Cottage and it was very clean, comfortable and very well appointed with beautiful views to the mountains. Breakfast was had in glorious sunshine on the deck.

First thing we all drove into Whitehorse and had a look around. It is the capital of the Yukon with a population of about 40,000 which, believe it or not, is 2/3rds the entire population of the whole of Yukon! It was an interesting city, laid out much like Dawson but bigger and more modern - not possible to see from one end to the other. The Yukon River flows down one side of the city - I estimated that it flows at around 6mph which is pretty fast considering that it still has about a million miles to go before it reached the Pacific. About mid-day we drove Fern & Eileen to the airport and said our fond farewells.

We then did some grocery shopping in Whitehorse then turned the "Silver Bullet" towards Teslin Lake and the Dawson Peaks Resort. This was a very good drive with interesting countryside comprising great lake views and a few serious mountains hoving into sight. It was only 120 miles from Whitehorse so was reached in about 3 hours with a couple of stops - remember that the Silver Brick cruises at around the 50-55mph mark otherwise you would need to be a sheik to run it!

We are in a sort of motel type room which had swarms of mosquitoes now hopefully eliminated. Ate in the restaurant after we went back to Teslin to do some laundry. The meal was great and the owner Dave is very welcoming and friendly.

No photos today - as only a couple taken. Heading on tomorrow for Iskut and the Red Goat Resort for a couple of days stay.

Day 24 - Friday 1st July - Dawson City to Whitehorse

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

As it is a public holiday and we had a really, really boring journey today there will be stuff today. I'm just going to drink wine instead.
By the way the place we are staying is called Sundog Retreat and is great. Look it up. (Getting lazy)

Day 23 - Thursday 30th - Dawson City

No internet connection/time in Dawson City  - this is written on the go between Dawson and Whitehorse.

Dawson is an amazing small "city". There are only 8 avenues and about 12 side streets. You can see from one end of the city to the other at any of the intersection. All the houses, shops and other building are wooden. Even some that look like brick or stone are wooden with tin fake "stone" facings! Lots of colour has been used and it is a great looking place. We set off for the information centre and were advised there o visit Number 4 Dredge up the Bonanza Creek - who could resist. Thre Dredge is an absolutely briliant, giant, gold mining machine. It has a displacement of 3300 tons and floats in a pond. Ithas a huge digging mechanism of linked buckets and gouges out the washed out and defrosted rocks in front of it. Insidfe the Dredge the gold is separated from thye rocks in a giant rotating drum and the rocks are dumped out of the back of the Dredge. In this way it digs it own way through the countryside. Dredge No. 4 had moved 12 miles in 18 years and dug huge amounts of gold. This visit was one of our many tour highlights.

After some lunch Eileen B. had a sleep as she wasn't feeling well so other one Eileen, Fern and I went back to the info centre to join a Murder Walk around the town. This was conducted by a guy dressed up as aa Mountie giving us various clues and telling us the actual background to the murder which had actually taken place in 1902. It was great fun as we were allowed into some of the oldest reconstructed building and trying to solve the crrime. It turned out it was the 2 Frenchmen!

At the end of the Murder walk we were outside the Govenors House so paid it a visit. It has been painstakingly restored and was very interesting - Google Martha Black + Dawson for a great story. On the way back we went into a saloon with swing doors for a beer. Inside - of course it was like any other pub with sport on the TV and loud music!

We ate at the Triple J then went across the road to Diamond Tooth Gerties to take in the 20.30 show. Gertie sang and there were some can-can dancers. Gertie's is also a casino run by the local community which benefits from all the profits so you don't mind loosing a few bucks, which I did!

Day 22 - Wednesday 29th - Fairbanks to Dawson City

Earlyish start for a longish journey about 380 miles but some very rough terrain. First place we came to was a tiny town called North Pole. The locals had the whole place decorated in a Christmas theme, even the street lights resembled candy sticks. Street names like St Nicholas Way etc. -- very amusing.
This was a mostly boring first part to the drive with very long (8 mile) straights and tree lined so no views just the excitement of the next corner coming up. We crossed the Tanana River and saw the Trans_Alaskan oil pipeline - major excitement. Next stop was Tok, pronounced Toke, this is a crossroads for highways 1 & 4. Picnic lunch, fuel and onwards. A short distance later we changed highway, more excitement, onto highway 5, there are 9 altogether. This took us towards Boundary and the border crossing there. The nornal paved road stopped and we were on dirt track, fortunatley Fern was driving this stint so I could relax. We stopped at Chicken, allegedly called this because the locals couldn't spell Ptarmigan (can I?). Eileen said "Hi" to Bronco at the gas station as he knows her son Martin. The stretch of road, next 40 miles plus, is called "The Top of the World Highway" still dirt track but offering some truly magnificent views in panorama.