Days 2-4

Day two was very much like day 1; we got thru Saskatchewan and most of Alberta. It was mostly flat farmland, and most of it looked like Wisconsin. (Visit Canada, the bigger, sometimes bumpier Wisconsin!) I came down with a cold during day two, and by the end of the day was feeling pretty rough. This meant we stayed in a hotel in a little town called Sexsmith. Of course, hotels aren't in our budget, so we're scrambling to figure out money, but what are you going to do?

Day three was prettier, and had a ton of wildlife! Most of day three was spent in British Columbia, and it was beautiful. Hopefully we'll get to a faster internet connection sometime soon so I can upload pictures. Lots of animals - black bears, elk, moose, and an entire herd of buffalo. One of the cutest moments was a momma bear and her two cubs (they looked like yearlings? Maybe?) Momma and one cub got across the road, the other was too scared, but eventually listened to mom and got across as well. Oh, and moose really aren't scared of you. They'll stand next to the road and look you straight in the eye... and not care at all. The mountains were amazing and beautiful. We camped that night at Watson Lake campground - I was feeling pretty ill but got some sleep thanks to my eyemask.

Day four got interesting. When we got up to break camp we discovered that when we had driven thru some "gravel on tar" the day before, our front tires got coated in tar. It was still dripping off the tires onto the ground. The car was driving fine tho, so we kept going. The tar picked up lots of stones from the gravel camp road, and suddenly there was a horrible squealing from the area of the right front tire. It stopped soon after, but kept going on and off, and then it happened to the left front tire as well. The left front stopped very quickly, but the right got worse, so we pulled off to the side and took the tire off. A couple of little stones had wedged between (and I don't know the real names here so bear with me) the guard behind the brake plates. We jogged them loose and put the tire back on, and no more squealing! YAY!

After that little adventure the day was uneventful; we continued on into the Yukon, thru Whitehorse, and up the Klondike highway to the foot of the Dempster. I was feeling pretty awful again, so we stayed in the hotel. Now I'm trying not to panic about money and the Dempster. I'm sure we'll be fine, and it'll be fine, but I'm a worrywart. Wish us luck, we're off!