Traffic today is very busy. I swear that on this Mother’s Day (BTW, Happy Mother’s Day to all of your who are a mom) the populations of Calgary and Edmonton must swap places as traffic was nearly bumper to bumper going both north and south.
Most of the land is still agricultural, farming and ranching, but you can tell there are transitions. We are finding larger and larger stands of trees, both birch and pine, and more lakes mixed in with farming. The Canadian shield is spreading out before us.
The Milepost, an annual periodical, routed us around Edmonton. It was a good find. Am glad that Peggy is attentive to the little details as going south of, and then west of Edmonton was a traffic saver!
West of Edmonton we get on the Yellowhead Hwy for about 30 miles. We then took Hwy 43 north. As I told Peggy we no longer have to worry about getting lost from this point on as there is really only 1 highway in Alberta and 1 highway in British Columbia and the Yukon taking us into Alaska.
Speaking of getting lost. The Canadians are very friendly people. But their signage leaves a lot to be desired. I’m a coffee drinker...OK...heavy coffee drinker even when I’m driving. So after a while nature comes a calling and I need a pit stop. No pits can be found to stop at. So after what seemed a VERY long time a Rest Area sign! Whew!
I pull off on the ramp per directed. At the stop sign turn left which takes us back over Hwy 2. Another sign- turn left...we are now on the southbound ramp to Hwy 2! Off to the right we can see the Rest Area but we are committed to going south. About 1.5 km on Hwy 2 is an exit ramp which takes us to the little town of Bowden. Bowden came to my rescue as there in the middle of town is a gas/diesel station...with REST ROOMS!! Of course if it were needed we do have a bathroom in tow with us.
Back to our journey. We begin heading north and northwest on Hwy 43. Very nice scenery with lots of trees and small lakes and occasional farms and ranches. We go about 150 km and come to the town of Whitecourt, AB.
Peggy finds info on another Lions Club campground on the south edge of town. Very nice with electricity and water hookups...and wifi! Now we can upload 2 days worth of information along with photos to our Picasa account.
We set up camp and then go into town so that Peggy can get a Mother’s Day ice cream. We find “Granny’s” in town and have a double dip bowl! YUM! We then drive down to a park along the confluence of the Macleod and Athabaska Rivers. It was a bit windy with cold rain drops falling so we didn’t stay there long.
Hopefully the wind will die down so we can have a campfire tonight!
1799 miles to Wasilla!! Yup...we’re still enjoying every mile of it!
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