And the testing continues...

  Wow, today was an experience, to say the least.  We woke up at 5:30 this morning and were on the road from Dawson Creek by 7:15.  The first 250 miles were fabulous.  Gorgeous scenery, wonderful roads, where was all the drama we'd been hearing about?

 We found out.
  Construction is prevalent along the Alaska Highway.  As one of my FaceBook friends put it.  "Canada has two seasons, winter, and construction."  That was hitting the nail on the head!  The first traffic stop for construction wasn't that bad, they were only removing part of the mountain that threatened to fall down on all of us unsuspecting motorists.

  Some of the construction sites were as calm as the one pictured above.  Then we hit one that emitted clouds of ash colored dust so thick you could barely see the car in front of you.  Seeing the road was impossible so I just trusted that the driver in front of me was not suicidal and aiming for a  drop off.

  The next one had us wait in the que for 20 minutes.  This site was larger by far encompassing several miles of potted pavement, gravel, potted soil, and any other impediment to driving you could imagine.

  As the miles rolled on, we chanced an encounter with a fuel tanker.  He seemed to be always just ahead of us as we waited in one queue after another.  Now came the hard part, narrow road, steep incline, heavy traffic, no passing zone, and just ahead of me?  The tanker going 10 mph.  

My soon to be headache with one car between us

  Now, I've pulled trailers with Goliath in the Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana Rockies before without any difficulty, as long as I can get a fair running start at the hill.  Today, thanks to my tanker blocker ahead of me, I had a bit of difficulty going up a couple of hills, but now, the nightmare was starting. 

  I've dropped to second gear and holding my own, when he suddenly drops to 8 mph and I lose my momentum (what little I had).  Suddenly, an alarm goes off.  A red warning signal TRANS TEMP appears on my dash.  I look over at my TRANS TEMP gauge and it's reading 220!  Egads!!! My transmission is gonna melt on me!

  I start pulling off toward the narrow shoulder headed for the slightly wider shoulder ahead and all I can hear is John behind me in Trooper yelling into the radio "GET OVER, GET OVER, GET OVER"  (he says this faster than I can type it)  I yell back "My transmission is overheating!  I have to stop now!"

  I do get safely off to the side and sit there for at least 20 minutes with the engine idling while I slowly watch the temperature gauge slowly drop to 180.  I put the truck in gear and PRAISE THE LORD, the truck moves!!!

  Luckily, that was the last "bad" incline for the day.  Others were there, but I wasn't blocked by the tanker, so no problema!

  We still hadn't seen any wildlife so far, unless you want to count ravens, until we were just 30 kilometers from where we've stopped, when a young bull caribou stepped to the side of the road and stood there looking at my truck approach, trying to decide if he wanted to cross the road or not.  He decided not.

  We are currently at a little road side RV Park and Lodge called Toad River. www.toadriverlodge.com

The cabins are cute, the RV sites are spacious enough, but best of all, there is a restaurant.  I didn't have to cook!.  

 Here are some glamour shots of where we are tonight.

Miles today 422.  Plan to make Whitehorse tomorrow 480 miles down the road.  We should be in Alaska day after tomorrow.  YEAH!!!