August 26th

We woke up yesterday morning in Dawson City to a wonderful breakfast. The hostess/owner of the B & B was origninally an actress/dancer that came to Dawson to do theatre/entertainment as it was done during the gold rush. Her and her husband bought the B & B about 10 years ago and it has been thriving ever since.

The In-Transit license from Alberta expired so I got a new in-transit from the motor vehicle branch that was actually housed in the town liquor store!

Gas in Dawson was $1.40. We heard there was cheaper gas ($1.30) just outside of town at a makeshift station where there was no attendant. You just needed to use a credit card. I filled up the truck and the 25 L jerry can. I attempted to strap the can to the roof with adjustable straps bought from Canadian Tire. These straps did not come with instructions; getting the straps out from the packaging was even difficult. With some help from a stanger and an hour and a half later, the jerry can was safely affixed to the top of the vehicle. It was lunchtime so we headed back to Dawson.

We finally left for the Dempster at 1:30pm with a passport designed by the NWT as a travelling contest. If a person reached all the designated checkpoints and got their "passport" stamped then you could enter a contest to win prizes: 1st prize - diamond 2nd prize a waffer of gold.
We didn't complete the passport but had fun trying.

The Dempster was breathtaking and even more colorful than in pictures that I had previously seen. The road conditions were amazingly good considering there was some rainfall the night before. We made many stops for bathroom breaks and for photo opps. Our good fortune seemed to run out after Eagle Plains which is about a 3 hour drive from Ft. McPherson. The first hour was fine as we reached the Arctic Circle. However, shortly after we ran into some thick fog and stopped at a resting site where a small motor home was parked. It turns out they Christians from Australia who were waiting for the fog to lift. They invited us to stay the night in their motor home but we decided to follow another couple of trucks at a slow pace down the road. The fog was interspersed with rain making the roads extreemly slick in some areas. There was road construction still going on at midnight! In the end we reached McPherson at about 1:30 am.

Ruth was was amazingly well behaved not only on this final leg of the trip but throughout then entire trek! She is a true adventurer and traveler.

Our whole family attended today's school meetings; the staff is great.

Heather and I helped to set up the classroom. Tomorrow is Ruth's first day of school and she's very excited; Heather will be taking pictures.

I met Wayne this evening, Lynn Hanthorn's dad who is helping to finish the new church building. He invited us to stay at the Hanthorn house until the Hanthorn's return from a vacation next week.