This was a long day for us. Before departing Edmonton the kids needed to go visit Elk Island National Park with their Nan. It was funny as we had been to that park four years ago so we knew where to look for the bison. Yep, you go to Elk Island to see bison and not elk. Also, there is no island. Regardless it is a great park and the wildlife is easy to spot from the highway. We had brought the bikes to the park too for the kids to hone their skills. Fortunately, they did not crash into any buffalo. We spent a couple hours at the park and then really needed to be on our way as we had a 7+ hour drive ahead of us. The kids said goodbye to their nan (who had planned to meet up with us in the Yukon in a few days) and off we went.
For lunch, we took the kids to Wendy’s for their first “chain” fast-food of the trip. They got happy meals and for some reason, we substituted their drinks for Frostys. Paige then bought us a medium Frosty to share. Needless to say, I ended up eating half a medium frosty and 3/4 of a kid’s frosty twice. If my math is done correctly, that is enough calories to run a marathon.
I was not feeling great after, so I handed the keys to Paige to take over the driving. However as will be a recurring theme, whenever Paige gets behind the wheel, something out of the ordinary happens. In this case, it was no different as we watched a bear jump the guardrail and cross right in front of us. Good thing Paige had been scanning far down the road as we had to slow down or we would definitely have hit it. She really does get the most hectic driving conditions.
Finally, we got into Fort St. John and the kids were excited as we were trying a different hotel chain this night. We were booked into the home 2 suites by Hilton. The parking lot was completely full of Pickup trucks with industrial equipment in the cabs. The Jeep was the smallest vehicle in the parking lot by a couple feet. The kids were excited as for some reason my room was just full of snacks and the “kids” (I mean me and Paige) pigged out on the cookies, chips, Perrier and Swedish berries that were for our consumption)! The kids are now torn between the best western and the home 2 suites.
By the Numbers:
- Total Kilometres: 6139km
- Depart 10:00 (St Albert) – Arrive 21:00 (Fort St. John)
- Ice Creams: 1 Frosty (which is frankly too much Frosty)
- IPad viewing – 3 hours (the kids earned it, was a monster day on the road – they watched like 10 episodes of Full House)
Animals Seen:
- 1 Black Bear (we saw it too close)
- 20+ Bison (we knew where to look for them)
Other Random things:
- I think in kilometres, it was our biggest chunk so far.
- We passed by mile marker 0 of the Alaskan highway in Dawson creek and took the obligatory picture.
- We passed some real big gas/oil infrastructure and was blown away at the scale.
- We saw a large roadside attraction of a beaver. Julie screamed at us to stop.
- We crossed into BC which was a new province for kids
Ciao for now,
Mike
Family Travel Countdown 