June 6 Dawson Creek

We splurged on breakfast with bacon and eggs instead of the normal cereal. When everything was ready, I went looking for Gerry, who had just stepped outside, or so I thought. No, not around the MH, so I went to the Tookers’ rig. Apparently what I said was something to the effect of. “Breakfast is ready…DOG!!!!!!!!!” All of a sudden I had a vision of Gypsy sitting at the table with clean plates in front of her and a “food, what food?” look on her innocent little face. But no, she was a better dog than I’d thought and hadn’t touched the plates. What a gooooood puppy! Everyone else just thought it was really funny.

Dawson Creek was only 60 miles up the road, so we got here in time to go to the Farmers’ Market. It’s too early for much in the way of fresh produce here, but there were certainly lots of flowers and young tomato plants, jams and loaves of bread and cinnamon rolls for sale.


We took the mandatory pictures at the Mile 0 marker of the Alaska Highway, toured the art gallery and visitors center, and checked out old town. The engineering accomplishment was really impressive. We will think about the men slogging through the mud and throwing bridges across angry, muddy rivers as we travel up the road in comfort.



After we’d contemplated the road and seen what the town had to offer, well, there wasn’t a whole lot more, so we went on an excursion out to a bird refuge called McQueen Slough, where we spent an hour watching the tree swallows and loads of water birds. And we even caught a glimpse of a moose with a tiny baby. It was so nice that after dinner the Tookers joined us and we went back to the slough and watched the birds and a solitary muskrat. Alan’s career was as a Fish and Wildlife ranger, so he was good at pointing out all the different types of ducks and geese, and two swans, in the slough. It’s nice to have an expert along. We stayed there until the sun went down. At 10pm. And oh, yes, the sky starts to get light about 3:45 in the morning. It’s time for the blackout curtains, because night’s only going to get shorter.