We struck out in the morning passing through some serious country roads and heading north and west towards the link up to the famed Al-Can or Alaskan Highway. We got to mile zero after crossing some great rolling hills, farms, rivers and the like. Everything is in bloom up here, so it feels like spring all over again. Flowering fields of marigolds and buttercup are everywhere. We high-fived as we negotiated the little traffic circle in Dawson Creek and officially onto the Alaskan Highway. This stretch of road would be our humble home (or battleground) for the next couple of days and we were looking forward to the adventure. Sarah was ever conscious about gas and mileage, as you must be on these remote, sparsely populated roads. If you miss a gas stop, or worse, it is closed, you could really jeopardize your trip. We drove with the mountains looming ten miles or so to the west, the peaks glistening with white snow and glaciers. The closer we got to them, the farther the civilized world was fading behind us. Cell phones and internet were not an option. We made sure the truck was ship shape before embarking and kept a good weather eye towards which towns we would be staying in.
We decided we could make it to Fort Nelson, which seemed to be the next biggest stop en route. It was a good 600 or more miles away and we were still skirting along just east of the Rockies. It was awesome seeing them in the distance all the time and the road became wild and surrounded by nothing but pine trees and logging roads. This is the sticks. We had to laugh at the amount of insect carnage slapping into our windshield. It was a messy situation. We stopped to clean it as often as possible, which wasn't often enough. We noticed that Sarah had the ill fortune of always having a huge streak of guts right in her field of vision almost every time she was at the helm. She kept saying, "Look at this! They know I'm behind the wheel! Every time.... the same spot!" It was funny. We saw our very first Moose Crossing sign, but didn't see any moose. We did however see a bear briefly on the side of the road. The scenery was great and we were making great time, pushing 80mph on the straight stretches.
When we pulled into Ft. Nelson we found out that the room rates were definitely in tune with "supply and demand" theory. Sarah couldn't believe the rate for a Super 8, but we had to take it, there weren't many better options. We grabbed a bottle of rum from the liquor store/ restaurant across the street after having a nice pizza and sipped away until passing out much later that night.
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