June 8th to 13th - Alberta & NWT

June 8th - Sun - 100 Mile House
After breakfast & chores which included more injured lamb doctoring (while Marg had an assistant), Marg, Terry & I went to town to get groceries. We had depleted our fridge and used some other staples so had to restock before hitting the road.
After lunch, we put dinner in the crock pot, made dessert and then went to help Dad make turtle legs, head & tail for the planter. Francis & Nicole (good friends) came for dinner.

June 9th - Mon - On the road again!
We left Marg’s about 9 and dumped our holding tanks in town before heading for Little Fort and the Yellowhead highway. Terry had thought to go to Prince George & Dawson Creek but I did some checking and that route was 200 miles longer than going through Alberta so we changed our minds. We went into Jasper National Park and thought we might stay there a couple of nights and do some sightseeing. That plan was changed when we discovered there were no sites with power in the only open campground with electrical services. (We do like our comforts!) We continued on to Hinton where we didn’t find anything we liked. Then to Edson where the first park did not have a site large enough for us so we ended up at a large, sparsely occupied campground on the other side of town. It rained on & off all day today but cleared enough that we could take a walk around the park. Then we got to watch the single TV channel which had the Simpsons and a couple episodes of “Coronation Street” - a British sit-com.
I had a nice long chat with sister-in-law Kathy. She told me that Terry’s Mom is in an assisted living facility. Don was exhausted trying to look after her and she was not getting enough therapy.

June 10th - Tues - in Alberta
Shortly after leaving Edson, we turned north. We could have taken a shorter route but I did not know what the road was like and it appeared as if we would have been driving longer than we wanted yesterday. We saw a billboard advertising $4.99 breakfasts at a casino so decided to stop when we saw the casino down the road. We gambled a bit and then decided the breakfast offering wasn’t appealing so carried on.
North of Peace River the rain really came down. We saw a section of the road ahead of us that was white and could not figure out what it was until we hit the rain. It was bouncing up and just flooding the road. Luckily it did not last too many miles.
We stopped at an info center and I cooked breakfast/lunch. We stayed at a campground that is part of the golf course in Manning with the thought that we will stay tomorrow and golf if the weather is nice. Lots of mosquitoes.
We had tried to call Terry’s mom several times today to wish her Happy Birthday and kept getting a busy signal. Just as we were arriving at the RV park, Skip (brother) called so Terry could talk to his Mom. He said she sounded good and her voice was stronger than previously.

June 11th - Wed - to Hay River, NWT
To all non-Canadians and non-travelers, the NWT above stands for Northwest Territory. The weather did not look nice enough to stay for golf in Manning.
Part of the drive today was slightly boring. Straight highway through miles of small trees with some farming. I made the mistake of saying that it would almost be nice to get a downpour like yesterday just for a break - and sure enough we got one!
We stopped at an info center as we crossed into the NWT and talked to a very knowledgeable, nice staffer. I made lunch while we were there. We stopped to view a large waterfall - Alexandra Falls. There was a second falls that was about a mile walk away but rain was threatening so we skipped it.
We are in a large campground on the shore of Great Slave Lake - again with few campers. It is treed with large, drive-through, widely spaced spots. We bought an armload of firewood and augmented it with scavenged wood so we could enjoy the fire for a long time.
Terry was tired from driving so after we took a walk around the park, we went to bed at 10 with the sun still well up in the sky.

June 12th - Thurs - Hay River
Today is a housekeeping day. We went into town to get some Canadian money and washed the truck. But there was just a pressure washer (no brush), so Terry got out the waterless wash to complete the truck while I washed the 5th wheel. There is no water hookup here - just a tap down the road- so I did the whole thing with a bucket, cloth and extension pole. Another trip to town for some tire cleaner for Terry.
I caught up our expenses in the computer, vacuumed and we went to a beach for firewood instead of paying for another armload. The beach out from the RV park has been obviously cleared. We found out on a walk that there was a large flood this year so the beach was covered with logs and smaller driftwood which the city is cleaning up.
Rain yet again today after we washed the rigs but then it cleared and I actually had to move into the shade for a while as we were sitting outside.

June 13th - Fri - to Yellowknife NWT
We got hit with a bit of the “Friday the 13th” luck today. There is a small ferry to cross the McKenzie River about halfway between Hay River & Yellowknife. As we were driving off the ferry on the “ramp onto the riverbank” method of access, one of our rear stabilizers dragged and bent. The highway got a lot bouncier (frost heaves) past the ferry for the last 150 miles into Yellowknife. And we continued with the intermittent rain.
When we arrived at the only campsite in Yellowknife with electric service, we were asked if we had a reservation (no) and told there were no sites with power that we could fit into. We pulled into an overflow site near the shower house and then went back to the office to see what else could be done. The employees were wonderful. One park officer drove us around looking for unoccupied sites and then made phone calls to see if the people who reserved them were actually still coming. No luck so they moved us to another overflow area in the maintenance yard and hooked us up to 110 power inside a shed. Most people are only here for the weekend so we will move to another site on Sunday.
Our phones do not work here. Apparently Verizon does not work here even though they worked in Hay River which is 100 miles away across the lake (BIG lake!) but 335 miles by road.