Days 5 and 6 were largely travel days for our clan, but we did see some interesting and exciting things along the way! On Day 5, Wednesday, we moved from Johnson’s Crossing, BC to Toad River, BC. We had a nice stay at Johnson’s Crossing, where we had a properly sized cinnamon bun and enjoyed some good coffee at the local roadhouse. After hitting the road pretty early, we had a nice drive into Watson Lake, where we stopped, of course, to look at the famous Watson Lake signpost forest. After taking some pictures and regretting the fact that, even though Char and I had seen this forest at a previous time, we forgot to bring a sign with us, proceeded to make our own mark on the signpost forest. We scribbled our names and destination onto an “Alaska Grown” bumper sticker, and slapped it right on the back of someone else’s sign. Eli, after all, is about 99% Alaska grown at this point.

After Watson Lake, on our drive to stop for the night, we encountered a bison on the side of the road. Of course, he was a ways away, but we photographed him endlessly anyway. Then, we saw two bison on the side of the road that were much closer. So, we photographed them. Not but a half hour later, we saw an entire herd of 150 or so bison on either side of, and crossing, the road. The herd had quite a few calves and yearlings, so this made for a few more pictures. Needless to say, we have approximately 3,457 pictures of bison, of which you will see 0.02%. Believe me, you’re getting the best shots. I’ve been through them all.

We were going to stop for the night at Muncho Lake, but the roadhouse there, albeit a nice place, wanted $49 for an RV spot (really -- $50 for a parking space with a plug??), so we moved on to Toad River. Toad River was quite nice, with clean, free showers and a nice view of the river.
The next day, we again got a decent start at it, and mostly had a driving day. We travelled through the Northern Rockies as we made our way past Fort St. John toward Ft. Nelson. We ended up Day 6 at Lake Charlie. We are at one of the same stops Char and I made over three years ago on our trip up to Alaska from Oklahoma.

We settled in for the evening at about 5:00 PM. I started putting the camper together while Char and Carol made a quick run to the grocery store for some pretzels and sandwich supplies. Lake Charlie (the town) is a good sized town—they have a pretty large Safeway Grocery (so I’m told). Carol cooked stuffed bell peppers in the camper, and they were quite good. Eli enjoyed a good round of play before he sacked out for the evening. Now, I’m going through pictures and looking forward to retiring a little early.

--Mike