Day 6: May 22, 2006

today opened with a discussion of the flaws of bras and the unpleasant uniboob created by sports bras.

Porcupine! I just saw my first porcupine. It was attempting to cross the road. It changed its mind and we did not kill it or a tire. Woot!

Gas is expensive. Very expensive. Just thought I would share that with ya’ll.

We are back to green highways. It is very pretty. And now to the gravel. I hate gravel. I really hate gravel. It is such a pain in the ass.

There is something Tracy and I have been chuckling about for some time and I think I will share it with you. While in Watson Lake. We saw a sign in our hotel’s lobby. It said "Attention: water will be flushed Tuesday, May 23rd. Water will be discolored– do not drink." We have mocked Watson’s icky water for some time.

We also mocked Watson’s hotel lobby bathroom. As far as the "Gah!" factor goes it outdid even the outhouses– with one very notable exception I am desperately trying to forget. The floor was so uneven it is best described as rippling with the occasional divet. The stall door was covered with linoleum. There was a gaping hole in the wall over by the mirrors. We could see one of the pipes– fully exposed. It was green and had some padding. There was a full sized closet door covering the supply cupboard. It wasn’t locked. Tracy checked.

The road here is rather bumpy. It sorta rollercoasters. Tracy called it the bouncy road cause we were bouncin’ a lot. We got air time a couple of times. Air time in a Suburban, a loaded Suburban.

We just crossed into Alaska. It was interesting. The Canadian border crossing was 30Km back. There was a rest stop between the two.

OMG! WE JUST SAW A WOLF! HE CAME UP TO US! A WOLF! OMG!

It was young, judging by its size. And it was black. It had black fur. We saw it, stopped, it got onto the highway and trotted after us. We turned around to get a look, he stayed and watched and came closer. We turned again and he followed and watched and waited beside the car. He looked like he was hoping for food. We didn’t give him any as we both knew enough about wild animals to know that doing that never ends well for the animal. We snapped photos and drove off. Wow. (Sorry for any incoherance I wrote this shortly after the sighting and was still in awe)

The road is now pink/orange. The power lines here are very old school. They are short, they are use insulator caps. The frost heave has caused them to fall in every direction they can. Some have sunk into the swamp. It is cool. Not black wolf cool, but still cool.

And we are here. I am tired and I am going to crash. I will write more at some point. Ta.

Lists we have made:

alternate road-trip titles: ridin’ the pink highway, ask and ye shall receive, why we hate tourists on horses, maybe Alberta’s just wack, riddin’ the rainbow road (the colors of the highway which we saw– pink, orange, green, black, mud, grey, white-ish, mauve, yellow, almost purple)

misread sign: goat-lick park as goat lick"ing" park

cities we’ve had issues with: Calgary– scary traffic, Jasper– disturbingly touristy (quote from Tracy), Kitwanga– invites mispronunciation, we saw it as both kittywanga and kitangwa.

Wild animals spotted: elk– too many to count, insects– plenty on the windshield, bear– 5, otter– 1, birds– lots, ginormous ravens of doom (GRD)– 7 or 8, fox– 2, moose– 9, porcupine– 2, carribou– 1, gopher– 1, wolf– 1, rabbit– 1.