Long Haul Chicks Tour - Safe in Dawson Creek, BC

And on a free, high-speed internet connection - finally, one night that I'm not paying long distance to check email.

Today was just about putting miles behind us. We stopped first thing at Tim Horton's (Canada's answer to Dunkin Donuts) to fuel up and then hit the road for Edmonton. [Note: While I'm sorry that NHL hockey star Tim Horton did not survive to see his restaurant chain reach its full level of success, I'm kind of glad he didn't survive to see the advent of the horridly named donut seeds called Timbits. That's just...gross. Of course, we called them Bits of Tim, so can hardly judge.]

We drove through the Edmonton city center just to get a look at the heart of things up close, then headed west and north through miles and miles of Alberta prairie. Montana may be the Big Sky, but Alberta is the Big Sky's Bigger Brother, and we pushed on through a gorgeous sunny day with squadrons of small puffy clouds lined up in formation as far to our south as we could see. Alberta is the province which receives the most sun yearly, and we stopped at a nice visitor center in Valleyview to plant a letterbox with a bright-sun stamp in honor of this fact and our own beautiful drive.

On these longest driving days, the books on tape help pass the time - so far we've enjoyed 'The Birth of Venus' by Sarah Dunant, 'Mrs. Kimble' by Jennifer Haigh, 'Life Sentence' by David Ellis, and are almost finished with 'Something Rising: Light & Swift' by Haven Kimmel.

Our backs are holding up pretty well. Not sure what we'll do tomorrow - last year I did the distance Dawson to Whitehorse (in the other direction obviously) in a day, but that's 900 miles and I know we aren't going to do that. So we'll probably try to get to either Muncho Lake or Watson Lake tomorrow night, Whitehorse the next. Weather is supposed to be scattered clouds and some minor rain. If that schedule holds we'll be in Palmer by late Sunday night, but we're not tied to it.

Peg and Phyllis

[Postscript: And now the journey...begins.]

-----

Phyllis remembers:

Now we're talking! Tim Horton's (despite Peg's not being impressed, I insisted on this treat. I would not be denied). I consider the sheer quantity of drive through donut places to be one of the best aspects of Canadian culture.