Day Five

On the road after a hearty breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express at 6:00 a.m. Gavin was rearing to go, the kids were a bit whiny, and I was groggy because I stayed up until 1:00 a.m. doing laundry. I had to keep getting up and adding loonies ( Canadian dollars) to the dryer because it was not drying. The last time I was up was 3:00 a.m. When the alarm went off at 5 a.m. I wanted to cry like a little girl. Instead I got everyone around and repacked the bags with clean clothing.

It was cold when we began this morning, and the dreary rain was still coming down. The wet roads on 10% grades were not fun. Gavin looked calm, but I was tense. I felt like it was the worst roller coaster ride I've ever been on. Not being able to see because you are in the clouds, going down a steep grade on a very curvy road is a bit scary. However, hauling a heavy trailer only added to my trepidation. Nevertheless, Gavin is a very good driver and he handled all the issues like a pro.

I fell asleep shortly after getting into the truck, and was awakened because the people in my dream were talking funny. In reality, Gavin was listening to French radio. He really seemed to enjoy it, even though he couldn't understand a single word. However, the weirdest thing happened from his new found interest in foreign music; he suddenly developed a fake French accent. It was hilarious, though when we went into the store I was a bit worried some French speaking Canadian would be offended and want to cause physical pain. Then again they are not very big individuals as we have discussed before so maybe we would have faired all right. Lol! The accent disappeared as they day went on, but has been replaced with, "Eh."

We stopped for fuel and changed clothes. We all dressed in warm clothing due to the last few days of cold conditions and temperatures in the low 50's. However, the further NW we traveled the warmer it became. It was up to 74 degrees F/ 24 degrees C. So, we changed into shorts and t-shirts.

We ran into a construction zone and had to wait with a road construction flagger. She was very nice, and extremely talkative. In five minutes we learned that the water trucks come by and cool the flaggers down, her sister was the flagger on the other side, she had never been married, just got engaged two weeks ago, her fiancé has been married and divorced twice, and she was dripping with sweat. The Canadians know no strangers. They are very friendly, and I thought Evelyn would fit in well in Canada.

We were able to see lots of wildlife today. We saw our first moose of the trip, a wolf, deer, elk, Dahl sheep, wild horses, mountain goats, a herd of buffalo and 8 black bears.

Lilyan kept begging to see more wildlife. After we stopped for a picture of a bear and her cub Lilyan was excited. We asked if she thought it was scary and she surprised us with her answer. She laughed and said,"No when I get a Barbie gun I will kill it and eat it. " Wow, she is definitely Alaskan... And maybe the next Sarah Palin lol! The older two were more fascinated with how big the bison dung piles were. Yeah they are kids.

The views are breathtaking and the scenery just seems painted it is so pretty. It is hard to describe the rocky mountain terrain, that smells like the pine trees everywhere. The little creeks or lakes pop up on both sides of the highway and makes us feel so blessed to just be a part of such an amazing work of the Lord.

There are very seldom any signs of

man off the highway, and the stops are very spaced out. We stopped at Muncho Lake to get fuel. Then we wandered down the trail to the lake, and decided a gorgeous place such as this had to be remembered. So, this is the place we decided to renew our vows. The kids snapped pictures, and the dog was running in and out of the water biting at her reflection. Standing in the beautiful surroundings with our kids by our sides only reaffirmed the love we have for one another, but also the love Christ has for us. Because of His love we are lucky to have found the one we are willing to marry again and again! We now have three countries! Canada, Jamaica and the U.S.A.

Our truck was acclimated to the Alaskan way of travel today. We are now on the Alaskan highway, and we were hit with rocks as another vehicle went by. Now, the truck has a large rock chip in the windshield. This is normal up here because the road crews use gravel and dirt instead of salt to help with winter driving conditions. This is in part so the wildlife do not continually cause delays because they are too busy licking the salt. The roads are also made differently here. They spread a layer of tar down and then rocks. Then drivers finish the rest by driving over the rock and tar until it is fairly smooth. So, rock chips are a part of life here.

We have switched time zones again and gained another hour. This helps add to the time we can travel, but our bodies are letting us know when we need to stop. Today has been a long 15 hours of traveling, and we are ready for bed. We have yet to eat dinner, just munched on snacks and the children are asking about dinner. These long pushes between towns can be very taxing.

We had hoped to stay in Watson Lake, but there was only one smoking room available. The owner of the little hotel let me go smell the room first. It smelled like a diner filled with chain smokers suffering from COPD. We passed on the room, and decided the next town was 3 hours away, and we would try our luck there. However, we did grab burgers and took some pictures of the Sign Post. It was rather unique.

As we settled ourselves in for what would be a VERY long night we passed a little group of cabins in the middle of nowhere. It was called the Northern Beaver Post. They had one cabin left, and it was $210 a night. We had already been driving for 15 hours by this point and needed sleep so we bit the bullet and took it.

After baths the kids fell asleep within minutes. There was no Internet so I could not post this blog. So sorry to our followers, but hopefully we will find service tomorrow.

Good night and God Blezzzzzzzzzzz