May 11, 2010 - Whitehorse, Yukon Territory

First I would like to say thank you to all of you that wished me a Happy Birthday on Facebook - I was able to read all the messages this afternoon and I do appreciate all the good wishes. Dan and I spent my birthday evening in Watson Lake, British Columbia. The picture above is my birthday dinner. Yep, we had a hamburger and french fries at Kathy's Kitchen in Watson Lake. Dan took me to the best place in town - doesn't matter that it was the ONLY place in town! Actually it was pretty good and we had a good time.



One of the things that we did yesterday after we got the camper set up at the Downtown RV Park (the only place in town), we walked down to the Sign Post Forest where there were over 61,000 sign posts from all the world. We walked around and saw all kinds of signs - from very professional looking ones to ones that were done on the tops of Tupperware. There were signs talking about people's pets to ones that people added to every year when they came back to the "forest". It was pretty cool.

This is a picture of just one small section of the forest - as you can probably see there is a little bit of everything here.

This is part of the scenery we looked at and rode through yesterday - we had been snowed on everyday for over a week (since before we left the states). However, we were not snowed on today, but it is suppose to snow/rain tonight - so the pattern will hold for another day.

Actually the scenery is beautiful, and the roads are clear and continue to be good - much better than we thought they would be. Today we probably had the worst roads of the trip so far - we actually ran into construction on the road for the first time. I can't explain to you how dirty the unit and truck are. Dan is even talking about getting the unit washed. Between the snow and rain and today's construction the truck looks more brown than white and the unit - well, you can still see the Montana on the front, but just barely! I told him that we just need to wait until we get to Juneau because it's just going to get dirty again, but I'm starting to think that maybe we need to wash the unit too! It is getting pretty bad.

I guess one of the things that happened yesterday that was really pretty cool was we saw a lot of wildlife. Actually, on Sunday we saw our first bear, but I was so excited about seeing it I forgot to take pictures! Then yesterday morning, probably about 20 minutes after hitting the road, there it was - another bear. It was pretty far away in an open field and started to run away from the road. Once again, I was so excited about seeing a bear (and this one was pretty big) that I just forgot to take any pictures.

About an hour later we saw these caribou - actually there were about a half dozen, but I got this picture of these two as they were heading back into the woods.


Then it happened -------------------------------------------

another bear - right next to the road. Isn't it beautiful!!!! I don't know if you can see it's front pay and the claws - but let's just say I'm really glad I was in the truck. (Oh, in case I forgot to tell you earlier - all of these pictures are taken as we are driving down the road - no stopping on this trip!)

A little while later we got this picture of a bison that was just laying beside the road. There are signs everywhere to be cautious of bison on the road - thank goodness they were not. The only really good thing about the wildlife - while they may be on the road (or right next to the road) you are able to see them from a good distance away and slow down. So far, we have not had any trouble - if there are any animals in the road they run off as soon as we get close.



A little while later - look what we saw!!!!

Another bear - actually this guy was eating the grass right next to the highway - I was so excited about seeing these bears - this was number three for yesterday (and that was all for the day - and didn't see any today).






One of the things that the Mile Post talked about yesterday was the Stone Sheep - I have never heard of this type of sheep and I was beginning to think that we would not be able to see one - but about three o'clock in the afternoon - there they were.

This is a Stone Sheep - I think this is a pretty neat picture - this little guy just turned around and looked at me and I was able to get this shot. Pretty cool!!


And, before any of my children get upset, yes there were moose - actually lots of moose - but I'm only going to post one picture today------------------------------

Notice the back legs - all of the moose we have seen here in Canada have had white back legs - I don't know if that has to do with the species of moose here - or what, but it's a little different.

It's really sorta funny - we saw all this wildlife on my birthday - and only saw a couple of caribou and two moose today - but that's okay - I'm sure that we will see many more in the next couple of months.

I hope that you guys are doing okay - I haven't heard from anyone on the blog - so I just have to assume you guys are checking in and reading what is happening. I think that we are going to go ahead and go into the interior - we should make Tok, Alaska tomorrow (finally back in the states for a while!). We have eleven days before we catch the ferry - so we might as well see what we can do in the next week. (Although I told Dan yesterday that I am getting tired of all the moving everyday - I'm just about ready to get set up and stay for awhile. I don't know if it's because I'm still not feeling well - this cold just won't go away - but I guess I can handle another week.) I will be excited to get back into the states tomorrow - you just don't know how much you miss "home" until you have been gone for awhile. Well, at least I should be able to blog every night for awhile! So, I close for tonight and -------------------------------

I'll talk to you tomorrow (hopefully)!!!!