Un-official Research Study

As we continued our journey, I started thinking about the exact same U-Haul pulling up behind us when we stopped to take pictures of the waterfall.....and it prompted me to conduct an unofficial research study. The numbers of U-Hauls on this road were just unbelievable! Here are the results of the study. There are 3 main types of vehicles on the Alaskan highway:
1. Semi Trucks
2. Recreational Vehicles---campers of all sizes and makes. There are very few places to stay. If you want to travel here, you need to bring your bed with you.
3. U-Haul trucks and cars pulling U-Haul trailers. Since U-Haul is the only moving company that allows moves into Canada and Alaska, they are a much needed commodity. Yea for U-Haul!

Day 4

Day 4---We slowed down and stopped along the way to see the sights. We pushed hard for three days so that we could enjoy this part of the journey. Our first stop was just a few miles out of town, the Kiskatinaw River Bridge. One can see the elevation by looking at this picture although the mountains don't look that big. Before the day is over, we will see really big mountains! We began a fast decline, dropping over 1,000 feet within just a less than a kilometer then crossed another bridge. The transition was beautiful, but I couldn’t catch a picture of it. We quickly climbed back to 2137 feet (GPS tracks this for us).

We began seeing more signs warning us to slow down because of different animals...and we captured a few....

Here come the mountains....

As soon as we began traveling the Alaskan highway, the farm lands and oil wells ended. Vast prairie lands (as one British Columbian native described it) surrounded the road. The adventure came in looking for the wild animals.

On this photo stop to catch the waterfalls, once again I was amazed. A couple pulled in right behind us. They were driving the exact same U-Haul as us. They were retiring to Alaska and had been unable to move all of their furniture at one time. Their journey wasn’t quite 4,000, but almost—they were logging over 3,500. See what I mean about how there is someone out there who’s life parallel’s yours?

During this photo shoot, we talked with another group of people too. They actually ran up to us when we got out of the truck and started telling us about their near fatal experience with a rock slide. We were not sure of their ethnicity. Although they spoke English, they were very difficult to understand. They explained they were taking photos of the waterfall. One person in their group had climbed up a little on the mountain, trying to get her picture taken near the waterfall, when rocks started falling all around her. She ran as fast as she could across the road to safety. They apparently were very shaken by this experience and ran up to everyone who stopped and shared this story. They also told us they had seen White Mountain goats with horns climbing on the mountains. We looked for them, but never saw them.

More pictures from Day 3--Mile Marker Zero of Alaskan Highway

Here are some of our pictures from Mile Marker Zero, Dawson Creek. We loved this place! Definitely a place to visit if you are planning to make this journey on the Alaskan Highway.

More pictures from Day 2-3 and

Being a south Georgia girl and having a father who spent his career working in the agriculture chemical industry, I thought I knew a little bit about farming. I learned a big lesson on this trip. Georgia is just a wee little spot in the farming industry map. There are lots of large farm equipment companies in the northern states and in Canada. Farming is one of the largest industries. It was absolutely amazing to me.

I mentioned in one of my previous posts noticing a train...here's another one....going right through a large piece of farm land.

We saw one windmill.....and we weren't sure if we'd see others or not....

Not quite sure what this was.....some time of mining (we think).

I was thankful my dad taught me how to read a map when I was a little girl....

Although we had a GPS, the Atlas was a great help to us and we used it throughout the day, every day.

Road Trip Continued--Day 3 Farm land and oil

Day 3--Since we arrived in the middle of the night, we slept until about 8:30 and left Maidstone about 9:30AM. Within an hour we entered into Alberta.

Alberta is beautiful. The land continues to be fairly flat, with areas of rolling hills. Farm land, grain bins, and oil wells dress the scenery. The elevation increased to about 2700 ft. A couple of times we saw small creatures running across the road. They would stop and pause long enough for us to catch a glimpse of them and figure out that they were foxes. We saw lots of signs warning us to look out for moose, but so far, we haven’t noticed one yet, we've only seen evidence of moose presence with droppings on the road side. We continued all the way across Alberta and crossed into British Colombia before stopping to rest in Dawson Creek. Dawson Creek is considered mile marker zero for the Alaskan Highway. We met a nice couple who took some pictures of us and we in turn did the same for them. They were from British Columbia and were just completing their own 4,000 mile journey. They had made a large loop around British Columbia and up the Alaskan Highway and were on their way home. It’s interesting how there’s someone who’s life in some ways parallels yours out there some place.

Journey Continues--Day 2 of our road trip

I'm very behind on my blogs about our trip. We traveled long days and had limited services. For those who are following our journey:

We left South Dakota at 5:48AM the next morning with the intent of riding hard and long just as we did Day 1. It was very windy. We had seen a few large windmills the day before. We began thinking since it was so windy, we would probably see more. And we did.
At our next stop for gas, the lady who ran the station explained the grades of Ethanol. She said, “You see, we grow a lot of corn here in North Dakota”. We had noticed there was a lot of corn.

It seemed North Dakotans were politically active. On the sides of a couple of barns I noticed large signs advocating certain rights. One said—“Protect What’s Right—Hunting and Fishing”. I had hoped to capture a picture, but I couldn’t get it.

Rule Number 5—After cleaning out all the trash, the co-pilot washes the windows. Another responsibility of the co-pilot is taking the initiative to wash the windshield, driver and passenger windows, and the mirrors. Thousands of bugs hit the windshield on a long journey. Even with using the windshield wipers and the cleaning fluid in the truck between gas stops, it’s not enough to keep a clean windshield.

P. S. The most important aspect of this rule --take care of this quickly, take initiative. Let the driver know that when stopping for gas, you would like to do your part by cleaning the windshield. Don’t wait.

Canada--We crossed the border into Canada in the Providence of Saskatchewan. We had planned on stopping in Regina, Saskatchewan, but we weren’t tired so we headed on to Saskatoon. The hotels in Saskatoon were located in the inner city and many young “punky” attired people were clustered on every corner, in every alley way, and parking lot. We rode around the city searching for an area we thought might be safe to leave our U-Haul parked overnight and decided to continue heading northwest.

We went to North Battleford and found groups of men clustered in the hotel parking lots—so we continued to the next town. We finally stopped in Maidstone—at a very small motel. No one was lurking in the parking lot. It was so late, everyone was probably asleep.

Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota

Illinois, Land of Lincoln. Flat land. Fields and fields of corn, grain bins, barns, houses, and an occasional church steeple.

Missouri. The Gateway to the Mid-West greeted us with a spectacular skyline. Large casinos lined the riverbanks. As we crossed a bridge, I saw the river water flowing throughout many of the buildings. High river waters ran into President’s Casino, an enormous building, causing it’s closing. We went west along Interstate 70 from St. Louis to Kansas City. Road construction sent us on a few detours, but we quickly rerouted and headed north on Interstate 29. Nebraska was to our west and we traveled up the border of Iowa. Corn. Corn. And more corn. Rain makes corn. There has been a lot of rain. Water soaked fields and high rivers banks stretched for miles.

The winds increased and the terrain changed in South Dakota. It is beautiful. Rolling hills and leveled terraces. Green as far as you can see. When we pulled into Sioux Falls for the night, we turned by a gas station and I noticed the price of gas—E $1.89. E for Ethanol.

We were off to an early start, once again trying to get over 1,000 miles behind us today. Corn. Corn. And more corn. I saw a small billboard containing a large picture of corn with the words—Ethanol, saving America. I hope to see another one. I want a picture of it.

Entering North Dakota, the winds continued to blow. A large casino sat on the state line with a sign that said, North Dakota, the valley region.

I’m learning a few more things about being a co-pilot.

Rule Number 4: One responsibility of the co-pilot is to research eating establishments. Estimate the approximate location and timing for the next meal and determine what types of eating establishments are available….the driver will gladly let you select the locations....wow, how nice!