Day 26- To Dawson Creek and beyond

We woke up refreshed this morning. Turns out the rest area was a great place to stop for the night and no one bothered us. We heard a couple of trucks in the night come or go but not much else. Our trip through Alberta continued under gray and threatening skies but so far, we are dry. We continue to see those beautiful canola fields and mixed in are oil pumps. I never thought of Alberta as being an oil producer although after we drive a bit further, to Grande Prairie, we see several collection plants where the crude is put into tractor trailers and taken elsewhere to be refined. I’m bouncing back and forth between the AAA directions we received and the book, Mileposts which is very detailed about mileage, gas stations, turn outs, places of interest and even tells where there are internet signals you can grab. No one should attempt this trip without a current copy of this book. It’s considered the traveler’s bible for information about Alaska and the many routes to get there. We saw two very large owls today although I couldn’t say what kind they were. I suspect they were out hunting for the little ones because we didn’t see any more. Our gas stop in Grande Prairie was a “we serve” station, they have an attendant pump your gas and wash your windows. Another person filled our propane for us. It’s strange to be in a county where gas is sold by the liter but propane is sold by the pound. We crossed into British Columbia at Tomslake and were expecting to move into mountain time but we’re told there are a few communities that do not change to Daylight Savings Time so while I sit here in Dawson Creek, BC, it’s an hour earlier than I thought it would be. Oh, and the Mosquitoes are a force to be reckoned with here. They usually are very aggressive but with the amount of rain and flooding that has been going on in British Columbia and Alberta, they are thicker than usual. We have seen much evidence of flooding, bank erosion and construction jobs that have been put on hold. Pumps are working overtime and many local streets are washed out. North to Alaska ( without the gold rush ).