Toad River, BC June 30, 2007

Today we are in a very nice campground at a place called Toad River, British Columbia. We are about 400 miles out of Dawson Creek and are on our third day of our trip. This campground is on a small pond in the middle of the Canadian Rockies. – a beautiful setting. We will probably stay here a day or two to enjoy the scenery.

So far, while traveling we have seen two bears, a deer, a young caribou, and a large herd of Stone’s sheep. (I think the Stone’s Sheep are a small version of Big Horn Sheep, but probably a different species.)

We could not see the bears long enough to get a picture. They seem to be foraging for berries along the cleared space on the side of the road. One bear stood on his hind feet to look at us as we passed. However, if we stop, the bears disappear, so I think they are shy of human contact.

The herd of sheep was on the side of a mountain road on a steep bank. I think they come to this spot for minerals, as they seem to be nibbling the rocks on the ground. I do know from my nutrition days that animals will crave phosphorous and will go great distances for licks. The same thing with salt, but I think sheep in particular seem to crave high phosphorous licks.

When we got to our campground last night, we found we were camped on a pond, partially backed up by a beaver dam (See photo of pond and beaver hut against mountain backdrop.) Then Madeline spotted a young moose wallowing in the water, ducking its head completely in the water to eat water plants. Across the pond, on the shore Mother Moose was watching to be sure young moose was safe.

June 27, 2007 Dawson,City, BC

We are in Dawson Creek, British Columbia at the southern end of the Alaskan Highway. This is the official Mile Zero. We are just catching upon stuff today – minor repairs, laundry, car washing, bug-on-windshield removal and exciting stuff like that. We will start moving north tomorrow or perhaps the next day. There is a museum we want to see, as well as a pioneer village, with lots of information on the local agriculture.

The trip up here was interesting. We went over prairie in Montana and southern Alberta, with the Rocky Mountains off on the west often showing up. One night we stayed at an awful campground outside of Calgary with the fanciful name of “Whispering Spruce’. The campground was crowded with older trailers and motor homes of semi-permanent residents, with not a tree in sight --- no spruce to whisper to.

As we continued north, the landscape stayed mostly flat, but instead of prairie, became heavily forested with spruce, white birches, alders and poplar trees. Dawson Creek is a little more open and seems to be an agricultural area with many farms.

As we get farther north, the nights become shorter.—about five to six hours.

We are having lots of fun. We are meeting lots of people like us on the same type of trip. Of course, as always, every one has a story to tell.

Merry Widow Gold and Health Mine June 22, 2007

We are now residents of South Dakota. The move was not too bad --- not too many boxes to pack, or appliances to install! We will still get our mail in Texas for a while. When we return from our northern sojourn into Canada and Alaska, we will make arrangements to get the mail situation straightened out.

We had a pleasant trip from Spearfish, South Dakota to here, Basin, Montana. We are north of Butte and south of Helena. We saw elk and deer beside the road on the way o here. We passed the Custer Battlefield on the Little Bighorn, but we did not stop, as we had spent a full day there several years ago. This is pretty country, especially now before everything is dried up. It is difficult to believe this part of the country was occupied only by Indians 150 years ago -- not so long ago to a man (me) who is nearly 75 year old. Sitting Bull was a chief of the Dakota Sioux at that time, and used to regularly war with the invading white man. Later on, after he was forcefully settled on a reservation, he had a chance to visit the cities in the East. He said, he had had no idea there were so many White people, and if had known, he would have realized there was no way they could win their wars. Parenthetically, I wonder what Sitting Bull would have thought about immigration. I guess by his actions, you would have to say he was opposed. This all raises an interesting question about the rights of inhabitants living in a stone age civilization versus settlers with much higher level of technology, and a more developed sense of government and infrastructure. It is pretty obvious how it is going to end!

We are staying at a campground that has an old gold mine (The Merry Widow Mine) on its site. It is up the hill about a quarter of a mile from the campground. What is noteworthy is that there is significant level of radon gas about 500 feet into the mine. Somehow, people have decided that the radon gas helps cure a number of ill such as arthritis, rheumatism, allergies and the like. People come here and pay to be allowed to stay in the mine for several hours. They claim this gives them relief from their ills and pains. There is also a lady living in an RV here who prepare meals for those campers who wish them. Thus at meal time, there is a kind of social hour down where the meals are served, where we can learn about how successful the radon treatment were. It is interesting that folks pay money to breath radon, while other folks pay money to keep radon out of their basements.

Go figure!

On the Road Again, June 18, 2007

Finally, we have hit the road, after an extended stay in Colorado. We spent a lot of time getting ready for our summer trip to Dawson City in the Yukon Territory. We have spent considerable time shopping for an assistive hearing device, and after looking at several versions, settled on one from Williams Sound, a later version of the one we have had, which is getting beaten up. We also had to get glasses replaced for Madeline, some RV repairs, and teeth cleaned and checked, Anyway – finally we are done and we hit the road yesterday, Monday.

Tomorrow, we get South Dakota drivers license, and that will be the final step of our changing our residence to South Dakota. We will still receive mail at both our old Texas address and our new South Dakota address. When we get back from our summer trip, we will give you all our new address.

Not much else to report for now,

Colorado Days, June 3, 2007

We arrived in Colorado before Memorial Day. We are staying in a city campground in Lyons. It is quite pleasant with a creek bubbling and gurgling behind us --- of course, I can’t hear it, but I have been assured that it is pleasant. Madeline says it lulls her to sleep.

We are visiting my daughter, Debbie, who lives in Boulder. Over Memorial Day weekend, my daughter, Diana, who lives in Los Vegas, flew out to visit us and her sister. So all in all we has a festive weekend, and a chance to do a lot of family visiting.

In Boulder, there is an annual 10-kilometer race walk on Memorial Day. There were 50,000 people participating in the event this year, so as you can guess, this was a pretty big thing. It was lots of fun. This year, Debbie, Diana, Madeline and I walked, while Debbie’s husband, who likes to run, ran the event. Along the course, there were people playing in little bands –there was an Elvis impersonator and belly dancers. Some people set their lawn sprinklers along the road, so you could get cooled off. Every mile or two there were people handing out water and Gator-Aid.

The “race” finishes in the University of Colorado football stadium. There, a box of snacks (power bars, cookies made from organic foodstuffs, etc) and a bottle of soda or a can of beer are handed out. Then two real races are started inside the stadium with several teams of women and then men from countries such as China, Japan, Kenya, and Mexico race a 10 kilometer race. The race starts and ends in the stadium, with the main course outside in the streets. At the mid-point, the runners come into the stadium and circle the track once. The whole race is televised on to two screens in the stadium, so it is possible to sit there and watch the entire race start, develop and finish! Lots of fun.

There is also a 3-day Craft Fair in Boulder, which we went to on the day preceding Memorial Day. In addition to crafts, there is a small midway, also lots of music, and venders selling lots of stuff, but also handing out enough free food samples, to feed you for a day!

We are getting lots of chores done, in preparation for our trip to the Klondike and the Alaskan panhandle. Not very exciting stuff to talk about.