Day 9...Wednesday, July23, 2008...Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson

Today was an absolutely perfect day for driving...bright, sunny and hardly a cloud in the sky.
I'm not quite "in" the Canadian Rockies yet, but the drive was spectacular nonetheless. I finally felt like I was "out there". At around 11:00AM, just south of Pink Lake, British Columbia, I saw the mountains for the first time (see photos)...awesome!
Just north of Pink Lake, I learned the meaning of the term "loose gravel patch"...saw a lot of those signs today between Pink Lake and Fort Nelson. Because of "frost heaves" and the like, the road (Route 97...the Alaskan Highway) breaks up a lot, and they fill in the "holes", indeed, whole stretches of highway with loose gravel. Driving on that, particularly down some really, really steep roads made for some "interesting" driving. Loose gravel patches+steep descents=Thank God I got a "brake job" on the Escape before I left.
Except for the stretches of gravel, Route 97 was a great section of highway, and I was able to travel at a consistent 65mph, even 70-80mph at times.
Terrain was hilly and mountainous with large valleys and millions upon millions of trees (pine, birch, etc.). We may run out of oil, but Canada will never, repeat never run out of trees! I must have seen over a hundred logging trucks today.
More geat music selections today. Heading out of Dawson Creek, I listened to "Walk, Don't Run...The Best of the Ventures"...excellent. I also listened to the 2nd and 3rd symphonies of Sergei Rachmaninoff, conducted by Sir Georg Solti with the Chicago Philharmonic...very "uplifting" with all of those stirring Russian folk melodies. It got me thinking about Rachmaninoff, the man, and how he had to flee Soviet Russia for the U.S...and how lonely he was there...and how much he missed Russia...and how you can hear that in his music.
I also listened to Gustav Holst's "The Planets"...that piece of music (particularly the section called "Venus") always reminds me of my college girlfriend, Maureen Jarvis. I was thinking about our one and only "big date" during Christmas break of my junior year at Michigan. My parents were vacationing in Florida, I had the house to myself, and I invited Maureen over for dinner. I was so excited about that date, I could hardly sit still. I decided to make my then-"specialty", stuffed Italian shells with sausage and marinara sauce. I spent all afternoon working on the shells...ricotta cheese, a little mozzarella and parmesan, an egg, and a little oregano and parsley...then the marinara...olive oil, garlic, tomatoes. All that was left was the sausage...so, I put the sausage in a saucepan with about an inch of water, turned on the heat, and went upstairs to take a shower. Fifteen or twenty minutes into the shower, I smelled smoke...rushed out of the shower downstairs...and found all the sausage burned black and the house filled with smoke. Panicking, I opened every window and door in the house to "air it out". Fifteen minutes later, Maureen arrived, and the house was as cold as a tomb. I forget my excuse, but the house eventually warmed up, I cooked more sausage, and my date was a great success. Regrettably, that was my last date with Maureen. A few months later, she was married and, a few months after that, she had a son...but that's another story.

Tomorrow is going to be a big! driving day. I stopped in for a snack and a few beers at Dan's Neighborhood Pub here in Fort Nelson, and everyone told me the biggest risk driving tomorrow was looking out for tourists stopped in the middle of the highway looking at the scenery. My original plan was to drive to Watson Lake tomorrow but, if I can get a cabin for the night, I'm thinking about staying at a lodge at a place called Muncho Lake...everybody said that was a cool place to stay.

I have no cell service here, and I suspect that I won't get a signal again until I cross the border from the Yukon Territory into Alaska...that should be sometime Sunday afternoon (July 27th)...so...if you call and can't get me, don't worry. I may be out of touch for a day or two, but I'll be just fine.

Daily Wound Report
No change from yesterday...still healing up and no signs of infection.

More later...tomorrow...Into the Wild!