Day 44

What a great day to be on the road! The sun was shining, there weren’t any clouds, and it wasn’t cold. I haven’t given a weather report in a while because it’s been mostly sunny since last Friday. It has been a welcome change.

We left the RV park at 9-ish. We’ve driven this part of the Alaska Highway previously but this time we turned off on the Cassiar Highway to make our way to Stewart. The road was narrow in some parts, kind of rough, and it “rolls”. You look ahead and all you see is rolling highway – an E-ticket ride. Yesterday we met a couple from Texas who told us we needed to stop at Boya Lake because it was so beautiful. It is one of the Canadian Provincial Parks. We stopped there for lunch and had it not been so early, we would have camped there. It was beautiful.

We also stopped at the Cassiar Mountain Jade Store (jade is the official Alaska State gem). The family who mines the jade also owns the store. We got to learn how the jade is mined, cut & polished; then they send it out to artists, jewelry makers & sculptors to be designed. They have everything “jade” that you can imagine or you can buy raw stones. We bought some wind chimes and a raw stone for Joshua. Are we the best grandparents or what? We went to Alaska and bought our grandson a rock. Believe it or not, he’ll like it.

Remember the big bus style RV that went off the shoulder on the Chicken Highway (Top of the World)? We heard that another one went off and ended up in the river. After that, there was a rainstorm that washed out part of the road and it is now closed.

We’ve seen a lot of people travelling on motorcycles. A group of Harleys passed us yesterday, all in proper formation. It made Jan smile (and I think he was a little jealous). A few motorcyclists camped by us last night - Jan and his friends stay in hotels. I don’t think their bodies could take sleeping on the ground not to mention the fact there’s no Jacuzzi in an RV park.

We stayed at Dease Lake Campground (it’s not on the lake). It was nice but not nearly as nice as Boya Lake.