Alaska or Bust - Day 11

Day 11 – Edmonton, AB to Dawson Creek, BC (Canada)

“We’re on the road again!” I think that’s a song by someone, but I’m not sure who or if that’s even the title. Oh well… we really are back in the truck again and we have 6 travel days left. We are due into Anchorage, Alaska this coming Friday afternoon. That’s only 1,936 more miles to go! Go Team Heck! :)

We figured out what all those bright, beautiful, yellow fields are that we have seen for the last few 100s of miles – canola flowers. It is a major crop in these regions of Canada and their seeds are what make Canola Oil that we cook with. Huh… didn’t know that. Admittedly, I just thought that they were well manicured fields of yellow weeds. Don’t I feel silly stupid.
No sign of mountains yet. But I think later today we will be getting into more elevated hills and their valleys. Not sure why I’m so anxious to see the mountains because they may be a pain in the butt or even a little nerve racking to drive over. I guess I’m just excited to see the massive Rocky Mts! What a change that will be to the Gulf of Mexico, although both amazing in their own right. By the way, it’s almost lunch time and temps haven’t even made it up to 60 degrees; it’s officially time to pull out the sweatshirts and possibly even the sweatpants (for the kids).

Now that we have begun our westward trip out of Edmonton and things are indeed more remote, we have begun to use The Milepost. It is an annual publication of the mile-by-mile highways logs that stretch across the Northwest Territories, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon Territory and Alaska. The Milepost is considered to be the Bible of North Country Travel; it includes listings of accommodations, camping & fishing, wildlife viewing, road conditions, and sightseeing for over 30 major routes and 100+ maps. Needless to say, I imagine we will become quiet dependent on this “Bible.”

On a different note, something that has become extremely clear to me on this journey is that my son will talk to anyone. That means he has talked to A LOT of strangers. Sometimes it happens while we are waiting in line, but often times while we are in the elevator at the hotels. He initiates conversation usually opening with an introduction of who he is (“Hi, I’m Thomas and I’m 4-years old”). This is quickly followed with “we’re moving to Alaska” and “this is my sister Marilyn and also Abby.” Although I’m happy that Thomas is such a friendly and confident young little boy, this is now starting to worry me. I don’t want him THIS comfortable with strangers. I’m going to have to take action and start talking to him about “stranger danger.” Matter of fact, we have a Bernstein Bears book titled Talking to Strangers which I think we need to start reading in conjunction with a family discussion about being safe with people we don’t know. I don’t want to squish his friendliness and even his curiosity, but I want him to grow up with some street smarts and wariness of “bad people.”

Day 10 = 364 miles
Total trip = 2,789 miles