The end is near, maybe, if nothing else happens.

  July 17:  We left Toad River at 7:15 am.  As we drove onto the highway I spied something unusual for this latent Texan girl.  In Texas people usually toss tennis shoes or baby shoes tied together by the laces and wrap them around the electric/phone wires crossing the street.  In Canada I spied a pair of ladies ice skates treated in the same fashion.  They looked rather clean, so I surmise they were hung there this past winter.
  Today was a day for wild life.  Just outside the city limits, a young bull caribou was advancing toward the road, but saw me and darted back in.  Probably thought I wanted to take his picture.  then just 8 km out of Toad River, a yearling black bear sat along side the road just watching the traffic go by.  He seemed totally unfazed by the people whizzing by.  I didn't see him in time to stop to get a pic, but take my word for it, he was a cutie.
  A bit further down the road were 2 wood bison.  They young bulls were just resting on the west side of the road, very relaxed and unconcerned at all the paparazzi stopping to take pics of them.  They are probably used to it.  The wood bison are an endangered species in Canada.  According to one source, there are only 250 - 350 left in the wild.

   Just a few miles after passing these two magnificent gentlemen, we hit the gravel and pot holes we'd been warned about.  Lots of bouncing, dust, gravel pings off the truck and RV, and slipping on the loose stuff.  Canadians use a mixture of loose gravel and thin tar called SEALCOAT to place on their roadways, filling in areas that have been ravaged by the extreme cold.  It works to a degree, but is not at all fun to drive on.  I feel for the multitude of motorcyclists we've seen on the Alaska Highway "going up" and "coming down"
  A good while later, I noticed the oncoming traffic was flashing their headlights.  A sure sign of trouble ahead.  Sure enough, as I topped the next hill, there was a herd of about 30 bison cows and calves.  The patriarch of this herd was magnificent to behold.  He kept a sharp eye out at all the stopped traffic, making sure no one threatened his family.

  The herd meandered south grazing on the lush grasses growing in the roadway easements.  Several of the calves stopped a bit to nurse, and one little fellow (yearling) decided to explore the trucks that were stopped.  The problem was that his exploration took place in the middle of the road way and no one could move.

The herd (part of it)

 Nursing calf

  A bit further in our journey, we began to see black bear.  We counted  7 on this leg of the journey.  I took pics of only two of them. This first little guy, was sitting on his fanny scratching his belly when I first spotted him.  He'd moved before I could get my camera ready though.  All the bears we saw were grazing on the succulent grasses and had no concerns for the traffic.

One of our little black bears.

  John has discovered that Sassy and  Snickers have learned to roll down the windows (electric), so he had to lock them to prevent escapes.  The only real frustration on this leg of the journey was a 49 minute wait at a construction site.  Traffic was down to a single lane, and we had to wait on the pilot car to guide us through.  Fresh tar and gravel.  Billious clouds of dust.  The RV will never come clean!  John and I sure wasted our time washing it the day before we left on this trip.

  I talked to our contractor this afternoon.  He's getting the electric hooked up and turned on.  We should be ready to pull up and plug in, except, he says our water smells moldy.  I'll need to check out how to decontaminate the well, after all, it's been out of use since 2011.

  We stopped early in the day to spend some time at Wilson Lake and to explore the Sign Post Forest.  It started back in 1942, when one of the army engenieers building the Alaska Highway, posted a sign indicating how far it was to his home town.  Since then, visitors from all over the world post their signs, adding to the emense collection.  We posted ours also.  Found several from Pearland, one from Pasadena, and one from League City (though someone has stuck a WOODSTOCK bumper sticker over the "city" portion of the sign.  Met a lot of wonderful people, and everyone took turns taking pictures of each other.

  July 18:  I woke up at 4:30 and could not get back to sleep, so I sat and knitted for a while letting John and the pups sleep in.  He's up by 5:30, and we are ready to hit the road.  Our initial plan was to try for Haines Junction, but the first 1/3 of the trip was great so we extended our goal to Tok, AK.

  Our goal would not be met.  We hit rain that made the road slick.  Not heavy but enough to stir up the SealCoat of tar and gravel.  Then we hit bad roads that caused us to slow to 40 mph or less.  Some of the bumps were so bad it jolted your spine at even a mere 10 - 20 mph.

  The scariest encounter today though, happened after a lunch rest.  I was going up a steep incline when suddenly a brown bear (grizzlie) ran across the road right in front of me.  I had to hit the brakes, he didn't, he just kept on keeping on.  I hadn't even seen him run out of the grasses on my right.  John hollered "bear" just as he ran in front of the truck.  John did congratulate me for missing him.

  On a comical note, as we were headed north today I saw a sign indicating the I should slow down a to 50 km/hr and that the bridge ahead had a clearance of 600m.  (5.2m is 71ft.)  I thought it odd, until I got to the bridge.  There was no overhead structure at all.  So, I guess the Canadian government is paying someone to make signs whether they are needed or not.

  John had a scare with Trooper.  He was coming up an incline, and his engine tached to 3500, and didn't downshift when he completed the climb.  We pulled into a rest area and let his vehicle cool down.  Even though it is only 3:30 pm, we've decided to stop for the night in Haines Junction after all.
  Tomorrow, we will make it back to the USA and reasonable prices.  Would you believe $7.98 for a 4 pack of Pepsi?  Outrageous.  Eggs are $3.98 a dozen, bread is $3.49 for generic white bread.  Diesel has ranged from $1.37/liter to $4.15/liter.  The exchange rate is $1.00 US to $1.10 Canadian.  Not that far apart.  One fill-up in Goliath cost me $168.89.  I'd go broke living here.  John just had to have a pack of cigarettes today and paid $16.50 + tax for a pack of generic smokes.  (He really needs to quit)