Mile Zero

We are in Dawson Creek, BC... not the quaint little frontier town I'd pictured but a passerby took our pictures at the mile 0 monument downtown. The information center served us well once again... guided us to the trifecta: cheap (relatively) motel, wireless internet, and a cafe next door with beer. We even got a private parking space for the bikes next to the first floor room. And to top it all the motel is called 'The Lodge' (of special signicicance to Loretta, Pat, Rosy and Joanne).

This was by far our shortest day mile-wise, only 140 or so. Just after we had our coffee in camp (Williamson Provincial Park on Sturgeon Lake Near Valleyview, AB) the rain started and we didn't get away until 11, then in a drizzle with occasional downpours. Had lunch in our first Canadian McDonalds... no dollar menu here, in Grand Prairie, AB. There so many bustling towns on our route, we had a long wait to be served at Mickey D's just like the one at Tim Horton's in Whitecourt yesterday. Not so many people in Canada but they all take lunch at the same time.

In addition to finding the perfect room for us the young woman at the info center here gave us a list if all the gas stations on the AK Highway with distances between and hours of operations, pure gold! Tomorrow the long road begins, info girls says the weather looks good for the next week, let's hope.

We exchanged some more of our plain old USA dollars for the very colorful Canadian currency. Didn't get any of the very cool one and two dollar coins because the exchange rate was even today. BTW, the Canadians call the one and two dollar coins loonies and toonies (I've actually seen the words printed on a sign in front of a car wash). The loonies are named for the loon pictured on the back of the one dollar coin and the toonies are called that because they are worth two dollars (seems like they should be twonies, eh?).

To backtrack a bit... We stopped for breakfast in Allan, AB or SK (can't remember which) the other day. Tiny town but a cafe with several pickup trucks parked in front, always agood sign. The place was called The Family Tree and when we entered the place seemed to be empty... no workmen, miners (there was a huge potash mine outside town) or farmers. Just empty tables and a young woman who said she was working alone and that we could get our own coffee refills while she fixed our bacon and eggs. After we ordered we could hear laughter and card talk coming from a room off the main dining room. Soon a rather rotund older man came out of the room carrying a pot of coffee he explained the daily cribbage game in the next room and offered refills and we struck up a conversation. Seems everyone knows we are 'not from around here' because we are dressed in our Aerostitch armor and probably look more like Michelin Men than we'd like to admit. The conversation turned to hail storms, there had been one in the area the day before, and our new friend had formerly been an insurance adjuster. He told of a man who had been riding his horse out on the open prairie when a 'sheet' hail storm cam up. As he explained it sheet hail is formed in layers in the atmophere and when the sheets break up they form big chunks of ice that fall to earth as softball sized hail stones. Anyway, the horseback rider could find no cover so he decided to get off the horse, take his saddle for cover and let the horse fend or itself. The horse had other ideas and as soon as the rider dismounted, headed for the barn using the saddle for his own cover. The man covered his head under a small bush but his back was black and blue for weeks. There are dozens of stories in Allan (note the spelling Rees Allan Heigle) and this just one of them.

Finally, the Alaska Highway. Tomorrow.