Why Fort St. John??

 June 2-11, 2022

So why did we backtrack 90 miles from Pink Mountain to Fort St. John instead of continuing our slow, merry way north on the Alaska Highway? Herein lies a sad tale; but then, you all would expect nothing less from us, would you?

Departing from Dawson Creek midmorning on June 1, we only had about 140 miles to go. It was an uneventful journey north, up and down several short grades, down one not-so-gentle grade of 10 percent -- reminiscent of our harrowing drive towing the rig up and over Teton Pass back in 2015. Pink Mountain is the halfway point between Dawson Creek and Fort Nelson, the next major - and I use that word very loosely - town along the Alaska Highway. I think for the sake of brevity I'll refer to the Alaska Highway as "AH" from here on out. As it's a pretty remote area, I fully expected to be out of any cell signal range, but was quite pleasantly surprised that due to a recently installed cell tower in the campground, my AT&T was working wonderfully! This turned into an exceeding good thing as we were very soon to discover.

Being so early in the season, the campsites had no water or sewer operating, just electricity. So we headed over to the water/dump station to dump the waste tanks and fill up with fresh water. We don't like to travel with fully loaded water tanks, especially on up and down roads and the price of fuel. We just carry a few gallons to use the toilet if needed. As Al went to the side of the trailer to open up the control panel, he noticed a crack in the outer skin of the front of the trailer. He also noticed the molding along the edge was pulling downwards. In his succinct words to me after pulling into our campsite, " You need to come and look at this. We have a serious problem." These are not words you want to hear!

As you all can imagine, we were really at a loss for several moments. The only thing we could think of was that something had broken inside, welds or whatever. My mind immediately flashed to the issues our friends Linda and Howard Payne of RV-Dreams had with their fiver a few years ago. There's definitely an element of shock that takes place, and it takes a while for your brain to unscramble, come out of panic mode, and try to figure out what to do. 

First, deciding it was not safe to tow was probably the easiest step. But then we had to find a place that we could get it to that might have a reasonable chance of being able to deal with the issue. And realize that we are really not close to any large, urban area at all! Here is where the helpfulness of having cell service came in extremely helpful as we were able to jump on the internet and start researching. Do we look north, in the direction we are ultimately headed, to Fort Nelson? Do we backtrack to Dawson Creek, Fort St. John? So we started in Fort Nelson. Found a place that does RV work and called them. Nope, can't handle it. They do not have any certified welders. Gave us names of welding companies. There are quite a few as the area is all oil and pipeline workers. The places we called did not answer their phone, so we left messages, which, I might add, we never had a single call returned to us.

Then we turned to Dawson Creek. Didn't see anything there, but did find a place in Fort St. John. Called them, and stated the problem as we thought it may be, and they said sure, we can deal with it. We just have to get it to them. So that's the next problem. These folks recommended someone, but when we called them they were very hesitant about the prospect. You see, it can't be towed normally; otherwise, we'd be able to do it ourselves. It needed to go on a flatbed. So after thinking and reading a bit more, we decided first thing in the morning we would call our roadside assistance through Good Sam.

Now, I know a lot of people don't like them and diss them something terrible; but the three times in the last 12 years that we've needed assistance, they've come through. And this time is no different. We called, told the gentleman our situation and what was needed, and he was back on the line in about 15 minutes with a semi and a flatbed lined up for us. It wouldn't be coming for about 6 hours, but, hey, I was just happy that someone was coming!

So by about 6 p.m. we were down at Fort St. John, had the rig dropped off at the repair shop, and we moved into what would be our home for the next week or so at Pomeroy Inn and Suites. I booked this as the rooms have full kitchens because we would need to move our food into the refrigerator and we wouldn't have to eat out. And we've been very happy with it. It's clean and tidy, quiet, with free breakfast every morning, free dinner on Wednesdays, and free laundry!

So first thing in the morning, Al headed over to the repair shop to see what was going on. They had told us it would be midweek before they could deal with it but would take a look at it to see what would need to be done. He was gone quite a while. Long story short, they couldn't do it. They thought it was just a welding problem and weren't going to be able to deal with taking it apart and putting it together. They called another place that did RV repair, but they couldn't do it, or didn't want to anyway. At this point, he was feeling back to square one and we were possibly going to have to get it back to Grande Prairie or possibly even Edmonton. Then he remembered as we came into town, our tow-truck driver, Sam - who was excellent! took great care with getting the rig on the flatbed, making sure it didn't scrape anywhere - pointed out an RV repair shop and said it was fairly new but he's heard they do excellent work. So Al drove down there and talked with them. They were pretty confident they could repair it, and, based on what Al saw going on in the shop, he said it definitely looked like they were capable. So Saturday the two owners came up to the lot of the first shop and took a look at it and said to bring it on by Monday morning. They were going to finish up the work on a rig they had in one of the bays and pull us right in, take off the outer skin of the front and see exactly what we're dealing with and how long it's going to take. Awesome. Now we just have to tow it about 3 miles, slowly, on flat roads. We can do this.

Monday morning came and the ride over was uneventful, thank goodness! We backed it into the bay, and the one gentleman that we would be dealing with from that point on and who did the bulk of the work said to come on back after lunch. He would have it taken apart and would be able to see what happened and decide the best course of action. The pictures that follow will show what all happened.

So once the skin that is on the front of the trailer was removed, we started to look for the damage. When you are looking at the front of the trailer right where it makes the bend from the part that hangs over the truck when it's hooked to the hitch, there is a beam that goes from side to side. On that beam, the main frame forms the front of the trailer and also connects to the kingpin. I call it the neck of the trailer. Right where these all come together it looks like the welds have broken. But upon closer inspection, the beam that goes side to side is actually tearing. The same is happening on the other side also. So, instead of having a welding repair, we now have to replace the beam.

This is a picture of the passenger-side damage.

A picture of the front of the trailer with the "skin" removed. At the very top of the opening, you can see the beam that was damaged. 

The driver's side damage.

So after assessing the damage a plan was made. The bad news first. We have to get access to all of the welds and steel. That means everything in the front compartment must be removed. The floor in the bedroom has to come up. Then the old beam must be cut out and replaced and then the whole thing has to be put back together again. No small job. The good news is that the front cap does not have to be removed as all of the frame and kingpin have no damage.  As he was telling me this, I was trying to figure out my next move. Do we sit here for the weeks that it's going to take? Should we rent a trailer and continue on with our trip and we will pick our rig up on the way back? So I asked how long he thought it would take. And the answer surprised me. He said he should have it ready by the end of the week. 5 days, not what I was expecting. He said that he wanted to help out his neighbors to the south and I thanked him for helping me out. 

The work begins.

By day 2, he had the old beam cut out and the new one in place ready for welding. When I went to check on their progress, he handed me a piece of the damaged beam. He told me to look at the thickness of the steel. As you can see it's very thin, about 1/8 of an inch. He feels that it's not nearly strong enough for what it needs to do. He also suspects that the beam was put in by mistake as all of the other beams in the camper are 1/4 inch thick. Why would all the others be 1/4 inch and a beam that is under considerable stress is only 1/8 inch. A question that I will ask Grand Design. 

So the beam has been replaced with a 1/4 inch thick steel. 

Not only did they replace the beam with a thicker, stronger one, they placed several additional reinforcing pieces, gussets, I think they're called, to help strengthen things overall. They replaced the plywood flooring in the bedroom, screwing it down rather than nailing it down as it had been, and also placed additional supports underneath in between the framing. Now the floor even feels better when we walk on it.

After 50 hours, 5 10-hour days, our home is back together and better than new. We're even sporting a shiny diamond-plate base in the front now. It was the easiest and nicest-looking option of fixing the crack in the skin. It also offers protection from rock and gravel spray as well. Best of all, upon lowering the pin into the hitch, everything stayed where it's supposed to! It's filthy dirty, but no washing allowed until all the silicone has time to set up and cure on all the seams. 

As final thoughts, this was a totally unexpected bump in our plans. We knew things would not go perfectly seamless; they never do! But this was actually a huge issue, both the damage to the rig and the fact of where we were when it happened. I have nothing but words of praise for how well Good Sam took care of getting us the suitable equipment for the tow. The tow company, Eisenkrein Services, and their driver, Sam, were exceptional in keeping in touch with us on the ETA, and took great care to secure our rig safely and with no damage to anything. 

Lastly, huge thanks to the whole crew at Golden Value RV in Fort St. John, British Columbia. They were slammed with work, but were still so very kind and accommodating to slip us in and basically work nonstop for the week to get us back on the road and continue our plans. I don't feel lucky in that the broken beam occurred, but I really do feel incredibly lucky to have it happen here and found such an amazing place willing to get it done for us.

And with that, tomorrow we should be back to our regular scheduled programming! We hope to catch up with our friends Dan and Jonell on Tuesday and continue on to Alaska. 

British Columbia and the Beginning of the Alaskan Highway

 May 30 to June 8

After our four-day stay in Grande Prairie, the weather cleared up and we headed down the road to Dawson Creek, the start of the Alaskan Highway. It was a short, 68-mile trip, so we were in no rush to leave early, and we had a roadside attraction to stop and visit: the Giant Beaver in the town of Beaverlodge. 

After a nice, relaxing drive, we settled into the Mile 0 RV Park for 2 nights. Of course, the first thing we did once we got settled was head into the center of town and take the obligatory picture at the most popular photo spot, the historic Milepost 2.

These signs here at the Northern Alberta Railways (NAR) Park give a succinct history. Remember, you can click on any photo to enlarge it.

We then walked about 3 minutes west to the Historic Milepost 0 marked by a cairn and post in the middle of the main intersection in the historic town area.

While there, we visited the Dawson Creek Station Museum. 

George Dawson was a geologist/explorer and two areas are named after him: Dawson Creek here in British Columbia, and Dawson City farther north in The Yukon. 

I found this amusing. Laundry was hard work. Guess I shouldn't complain about doing it now in modern times.

The following pictures are taken as we did a self-guided walking tour around the historic district. There are many murals on the buildings. 

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Okay. We are going to flash-forward a few days now. We did depart Dawson Creek on Wednesday, June 1, and headed 140 miles up the Alaska Highway to Pink Mountain. For reasons that I will detail in the next post, we're going to skip a few days and backtrack 90 miles to Fort St. John, where we've been since Thursday, June 3. 

From Fort St. John, we did a drive one day to the towns of Hudson's Hope and Chetwynd. It was a drizzly day, but we really needed to get out and just chill out for a bit.

Hudson's Hope is a very small town that you take a very windy, up-and-down road to visit. Not a road I would be happy to take my rig on.  It's very early in the season, and not much was open, especially since it was Sunday. But the major attraction in the area is the W.A.C. Bennett Dam. This is a large hydroelectric dam on the Peace River, creating the massive Williston Reservoir. The dam is one of the world's largest earth-filled dams at 610 feet, and the reservoir is the third-largest in North America.

We then drove south along Highway 29, along the shoreline of Moberly Lake. We saw our first black bear along here. No pictures, though; we went by too fast and there were vehicles behind us. We reached the town of Chetwynd, known for its collection of over 150 chainsaw carvings throughout the public areas. The chainsaw carvings project started in 1992 as an event to draw visitors to the town for its 50th-anniversary celebration of the start of the Alaska Highway (the Alcan back then). The Welcome sign was commissioned and made for the celebration. Local fundraising started to bring more carvings to town. Then in 2005, Chetwynd hosted the first annual International Chainsaw Carving Championship, with 7 carvers attending from British Columbia and the United States. It is now grown into an annual event on the second weekend of every June with carvers coming from all over the world to participate. 

The detail in the carvings makes it hard to believe it's been done with a chainsaw. 

These two carvings are on either end of a picnic table in a rest area along the road. It's beautiful.

It would be really neat to see the event, and whereas it is occurring this coming weekend, we are really hoping to have our issues resolved and be back on the road north to meet back up with our fellow travelers. But that story will be told in the next blog. Stay tuned!

Province of Alberta, Canada

 May 17, 2022 - May 30, 2022

Our first full day in Canada. We spent five nights in High River, Alberta, on the outskirts of Calgary. It’s a small town that’s known for many different shows and movies filmed in the area, including two shows we watch currently, Yellowstone and Joe Pickett. The Heartland series on Netflix is also filmed here which is on our to-watch list.

The next two days we are supposed to have pretty crummy weather, so we’ll see what we can find to do.

Jonell and I are perusing the menu of the local diner. It looked good, but we never did make it back there.

There were several murals throughout the town depicting different historical scenes or influential citizens.

The weather has not been very good, rather cold and rainy. So rather than outdoor activities, we spent our time in various museums. The first one is the Bomber Command Museum of Canada which told all about the history of what's called the "bomber command" units during World War II. The museum is a labor of love of many volunteers, finding, refurbishing the aircraft, and donating them to the museum. The second day was the Military Museum in Calgary. I myself did not visit that museum, but Al said it was very interesting.

Our last day we visited the Heritage Village Park, another museum dedicated to the history of the province of Alberta, denoted in several different villages showing different time periods. We learned about coal mining and oil drilling, the pioneer era, the Dust Bowl and Depression eras, even some interesting facts about trapping and trading. Gasoline Alley Museum, a new section, had beautifully restored automobiles, trucks, gas pumps and paraphernalia related to service stations.

Al and Jonell bellying up to the bar in the Saloon. 

In Edmonton, Alberta, the weather had improved a bit, and on our first day of sightseeing we decided to visit the Alberta Legislature Building. Monday was a national holiday, Victoria Day, here in Canada. Because of this, tours were available to the public. We landed spots on the 11 a.m. tour, which was about 45 minutes long. We were given a short history of the building and shown several areas: the Rotundra, the marble stairs rising to the chambers, the upstairs galleries for the public to watch the proceedings, and a special visit to the Premier's office and the cabinet meeting room. Afterward, there was a memorial service on the grounds with a military band and symbolic firing of the cannons. It struck me, listening to the music that was played, how closely aligned the countries of Great Britain, Canada, and the U.S. are. Much of the music is similar, if not identical. We then walked over to the Visitor Center where we watched a short film presentation on the history of the Alberta Province, and an exhibit hall that laid out the history of the legislature. It was very interesting.

There is reno work going on to the outside of the Legislature building. 

 

Marble stairs leading up to the Legislature chamber.

The Premier's Cabinet meeting room

View from the patio balcony of the Premier's office.

The Rotundra

A quote from one of the "Famous 5," a group of women who led the cause for women's rights in Canada and secured the right for women to vote once they were declared "persons."

The hall where the Legislature meets. We are in the viewing gallery above.

Being Victoria Day, there was a memorial service on the grounds at noon, with the military band playing patriotic music and a cannon salute. 

A plaque I found inspiring in the Parliamentary exhibit hall.

Our last day in Edmonton, we visited the Muttart Conservatory. Composed of 4 distinct biosphere pyramids, they had exhibits on tropical, temperate, and arid climates, and the fourth one is a changing feature which is hydrangeas this month. We really enjoyed wandering through the conservatory.

Walking up to the conservatory

Orchids in the tropic zone

Sculpture named "The Proposal" in the temperate zone.

Two scenes in the temperate zone

Hydrangeas in the rotating exhibit

Two scenes from the arid zone.

Thursday we had departed Edmonton and headed about 240 miles further northwest, settling in Grande Prairie, Alberta. This is our last stop in Alberta. We stayed here 4 nights mainly because the weather was supposed to be cold and rainy all weekend. They were not wrong! But we did manage to do a few things. We first visited the Visitor's Center where we saw the giant sundial- although it was cloudy out so we couldn't tell the time - and there was a very interesting museum on the history of "Peace Country" as they call it - due to the Peace River running through the prairie. We went to a year-round Farmer's Market that had lots of yummy baked goods. It's a tad too early for much locally grown produce.

The big sundial on a sunless day

Grande Prairie Visitor Center

The area is also known for an abundance of dinosaur fossils, some unique to the area, and a world-class palaeontological institution, the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum. It was a good way to spend a very rainy day.

The Pachyrhinosaurus is exclusive to the Peace Country area. A huge pocket of fossilized bones was found in the Pipestone Creek area. It is believed an environmental cataclysmic event such as flooding occurred, killing the herd. An abundance of various other scavenger dinosaur bones were found in the area, believed to have been drawn by the corpses of the pachyrhinosauruses.

The lab where teams work on the fossils that are recovered in the area.

A trackway of prints recovered at the Pipestone Creek site.

On our last day here, today, Al and I went to the Grande Prairie "Stompede," billed as the Peace Country's Greatest Show of the Year. It was going on all weekend, but this afternoon the rain finally stopped and was the best afternoon for us to go. And it was a lot of fun. Tomorrow we drive another 90 miles northwest where we will finally reach Dawson Creek and Mile 0 of the Alaskan Highway.

Bronc riding

Singles calf roping. They have to lasso the calf and secure its feet by hogtying it. The winner did it in just over 8 seconds.

Team calf roping. One lassos the head, the other lassos a back foot.

This was a loop of balloon targets that they had to ride in a circle around and shoot out the balloons. It was timed with 5 seconds added for each balloon that remained intact.

The last and seemingly most popular event was steer riding. 

And for the Yellowstone fans out there....it wasn't Jimmy!