Great Christmas in Whitehorse! Christmas Eve Midnight Mass at 7 pm followed by a house party at Steve and Laura's house. Of course, lots to eat especially old fashioned pate!!
We all went up to Takhinni hot springs today for an awesome soak in the hot springs in -28 C. degree outside temp. You needed to duck in the water to rid the buildup of frosty hair!!
Today being Faye and Lynn's birthday, we also went to Earl's for dinner (Jeanette/Jamie treat)!

Paul spent a couple hours Friday blocking up 80 ft. Yukon spruce for firewood, very refreshing exercise but awesome lumber to be used for fuel wood?
Friday evening Paul/Faye decided to go for an evening out into Whitehorse Legion for steak and baked potatoes with all trimmings with live country & western music by Hank Karr & Co. The bbq'ed steaks were done in a back shed so we had to line up outside in -35 degrees! Dinner and live band dance music for $15.00!!!
Incredible music with pretty fancy electric guitar string picking with the lead singer putting Johnny Cash to shame. We were welcomed by the lead guy which resulted in Paul being offered free drinks at the bar by some very friendly local patrons. One of the singers hailed from Kentville, N.S. who had played in Windsor years ago.
Music began at 8:30 with the last waltz at 11:30 and home by midnight having picked up a drive through Tim Hortons coffee. Impossible to be tipsy getting into a vehicle in those temperatures!
Paul purchased some fish in town today for a chowder to complement what Jamie supplied, halibut, Dungenese crab, and shrimp he caught last fall in Haines, Alaska. A frozen 600 gm pack of scallops were priced at $23.99 so decided to forgo that and opted for bay scallops at $5.89 for the same weight pack instead. A large can of BC clam nectar (juice) was available also so we are all set to go.
Tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon, friends and neighbors will be here for a get together and bon fire celebrating the beginning of Christmas week and the "longest night" of the year... approx. 5 hours daylight. Amazing!!
They don't plow the streets in Whitehorse... the little bit of snow gets beaten into hard packed snow and keeps building up into bumpy roadways making for careful driving and watching out the the other guy. Incredible!
Later......

Whitehorse bitter Yukon cold at -35 degrees C. most mornings. Full daylight doesn't start until 10 am while darkness begins about 4 pm and it will gradually shorten until Dec. 21st.
Faye is keeping busy with her paints, cooking and watching Kaden with the occasional shopping/swimming trip into Whitehorse (15 km).
Paul introduced himself to the Whitehorse Legion, nice place with very friendly people. The elderly bar tender who works two days a week to "get out of the house" grew up in Pictou. His name is Joe English and his mother was a Cheverie from Souris! Joe recently retired from owning a bar in Whitehorse for 27 years called "Joe's Redneck Bar" so he is a well known character, and a character he is. They don't measure the booze... just pour into the glass and stop when they think it's ok, then add a little to make sure it's enough. Also, I was quickly (courteously)told to remove my stocking cap (Legion respect)the first time there.
Paul and Faye are going to a Legion steak dinner Friday evening with live music following the meal. A great chance to mingle with the local oldies and experience local culture, should be lots of stories as a lot of Whitehorse folk originally hail from the Maritimes.
Paul continues to spend a couple hours each day on the fire wood detail. Jamie has lots of trees surrounding the lot and desires to have the selected ones harvested for firewood. He has all the equipment needed but Paul needs to come in often to warm up his gloves!
Tree decorating took place Monday night after supper with Kaden all hands to help and looking forward to Christmas and Santa!
Later.....

Woke up this morning to -40 C but house nice and cosy with heat from the central fireplace. It only gets full daylight at 9 am and twilight sets in at 3:30 pm so makes for a short day... no problem sleeping in on a Sunday morning!
We are all recovering (except Kaden) from Jeanette's teacher staff party last night which was at the home of another teacher. Here in Whitehorse you can purchase liquor from an off sales outlet which would be something like a convenience store. Something akin to a legal bootlegger with the same expensive markup ($18.75 for a pint of whiskey!).
Yesterday afternoon we went trekking through the back trail behind the house and found a nice pine Christmas tree for the living room.
Faye, Jeanette and Kaden are gone to a Christmas party for Kaden.. then we are off to the Canada Games Center swimming pool for some healthy exercise.
Paul will be calling St. Mary's Hall in Souris at 9 pm Atlantic to see how the 28th Souris Annual Wildlife Dinner went.

Later....

Settled in Whitehorse...stewing meats for Christmas meat pie etc.
Paul has made a couple runs into Whitehorse to shop and check out the town. Washed the truck yesterday at a car wash.
We are really enjoying our grandson Kaden with Jeanette and Jamie who does all the cooking and what a cook as, so far, we had moose, halibut and tonight Alaskan crab!!
The house is built on a R2000 standard, electric heat but with a Finnish Tulikivi which is a soap stone central fireplace. Jamie fires it up every evening before supper and it heats up the soapstone thermal mass which keeps the house warm and cosy until the next evening even when it is -20 outside!
We will only be posting into the blog on an intermittent basis until we hit the road again around January 15th. Take care.
Later...........

We arrived at 43 Dawson Road in Whitehorse this afternoon at 3:30 pm local time!
The whole driving trip from Souris, PEI to Whitehorse took us through eight provinces and twelve states for twenty-three days and 9922 kms visiting along the way in Dartmouth (Joanne,Charlie,Ben); Windsor (Faye's Mom Ruby and siblings); Truro (George, Donna, Rob and Janet, baby Georgia) Fredericton(Joe,Julie,Michelle)Arlington, Boston (Nicolle,Zubin,Julia,Kaiyan); Wakefield, Boston (Ed and Pat); Calgary (Stephen, Jaime, Pedro,Laurence and Judy, Estelle, Ian, Ed and Ruth, Matthew, Bianca,Jamie, Corrine and baby Dylan,Bob and Lisa, Samantha,Jesse, Betty); Red Deer (Deneen,Rowan,Betty) St. Albert, Edmonton (Paul and Natalie,Christian, Tyler, Isabelle and Jacques) Spruce Grove (Henry and Cora); Ft.Liard (Mel and Verna and all Yvonne/Charlie's friends) and finally Whitehorse!
It was great driving today from Watson Lake. Paul was a little under the weather as he joined some truckers in the bar at Belvedere Hotel in Watson Lake last night while Faye did the smart thing and went to bed. Oh well, it was a tense drive from Ft. Liard yesterday and Paul needed to unwind while Faye needed to sleep.

No particular happenings during the drive today, except we came upon a wolverine running down the road in front of us and managed to get a picture before it ran over the snow bank into the woods.

We found our way into Jeanette/Jame/Kaden's house and immediately unpacked while the adrenalin was still pumping! They arrived home shortly before 5 pm, a happy reunion having not seen them since late July, 2007.

Later........

Finally arrived last evening in Watson Lake, the only town since Ft. Liard, slightly over 700 km. The scenery was awesome, however the road was snow and ice covered with only the steep grades and curves sanded providing for some tense driving conditions! Faye kept herself busy taking pictures of the spectacular mountain ranges. Along the way there were plenty of buffalo caution signs and eventually we came across herds of various numbers grazing along the roadsides.
Paul filled up in Ft. Liard along with a 2.5 gallon can. We had to pull over about 140 km out as the gas guage was showing empty and the gas light on. We poured in the 2.5 gallons and proceeded hoping that would do, and wonders of all wonders, a service area was open about 35 km from Watson Lake.... that was close and we were thinking that CAA would have to be called! We had been told that a sevice area midway at Toad Lake would be open, but they were closed.
We settled into a hotel here, called Jeanette on Skype to give her the news..... one more day to Whitehorse!!
Later..........

Today is Saturday, Dec. 6th and we need to catch up on things... We were treated like royalty at Natalie and Paul's in St. Albert, then proceeded to Spruce Grove Wednesday afternoon to visit with Cora and Henry. We had a great visit, roast deer for supper with mashed potatoes and carrots from Henry's garden. Henry and Cora have a house in the country full of books and works of art and we spent the evening sharing news. Henry has a shop where he does leather work and used to make custom saddles. Cora keeps busy hand sewing quilts, reading and collecting art works.
Thursday morning we left Spruce Grove and headed up towards Ft. Liard but stopped at Dawson Creek overnight staying at Day's Inn. We proceeded next morning heading for Ft. Liard and finallhy made it there about 5 pm.
Along the way we were amazed to see the extensive farming activity and remarkable landscapes. Between Ft. Nelson and the turnoff to Ft. Liard we saw substantial farms, grain, beef and even a bison ranch! So much for remote northern wilderness!! We did see three huge moose crossing the road at the bottom of a long grade..... plenty of warning for us.
Actually the last 200 km into Ft. Liard was wilderness forest. Amazing trees.... the tractor trailer loads we met, with one of them with enough board ft. to build a decent home.
Our arrival in Ft. Liard was greeted by Vern and Mal who had supper ready... pineapple ham and potatoes!
Today, Mal and I and a neighbor Brad who hails from Truro, N.S. went "chicken" (grouse) hunting while Faye and Vern went "shopping" in Ft. Liard!! Paul managed to bag a chicken, knocking it out of a tree. On this hunt trip we saw ptarmingan, a black wolf, marten, and grouse! Faye and Vern went to brunch at the nursing station hosted by Joan and John Peddle who hail from Corner Brook, NFLD. Then they went shopping at the general store, the Northern Store and the local craft shop "where Faye didn't buy anything for herself but did buy a nice long long sleeve sweat shirt for Paul" Gotta like that!!
We finished the evening at Steve and Phillis Malesku's home for a house party! We found out that Steve knew brother Gerry when he was up north in Yellowknife with Indian and Northern Affairs. Also a young tall off duty RCMP Officer was there who was in training in Regina with Terrance Dunphy! As they say.... small world!
Later.....

Headed out from Calgary Tuesday morning after Steve's fine breakfast, heading for Lisa's to pick up Betty and then onward to Red Deer. At Red Deer we had a great visit and lunch with Deneen and little baby Rowan before leaving for Edmonton. Baby Rowan is now a healthy 8 lbs., 12 ounces and doing well!
We arrived in Edmonton early afternoon so spent time at the West Edmonton Mall. Faye has a good idea what heaven is like!
Paul and Natalie are great hosts, putting on a bbq. They have a great house, extremely well built. Amazing couple with their two boys Christian and Tyler, family husky Kiera. A pleasure to visit. Isabelle and Jacques showed up making the event doubly pleasent giving us an opportunity to catch up on their news. Isabelle is working for CBC Radio as an associate producer in an afternoon talkshow along with other duties. Jacques is now studying for his Master's degree in voice at University of Edmonton.... an opera singer in the making!
Paul is now working as a military security planner for the upcoming Olympics while Natalie is busy with the provincial government.
We are slowly working our way to Whitehorse, our final northern destination but will be visiting Henry and Cora this afternoon, and spending the weekend in Ft. Liard before making the final leg, and a mandatory stop at West Edmonton Mall prior to leaving Edmonton.
Later............

Today, Monday December 1st sees us making preparations to depart Calgary for Red Deer and Edmonton on Tuesday. Paul went down to Kal Tire and got the wheel nuts retorqued on the new tires as requested.
We had a great Sunday afternoon and evening here with Calgary family and friends having meat pie for dinner.
We were also happy to see Ian McInnis who we invited to attend as Sunday was the 39th anniversary of Ian's dramatic rescue from the waters between Newfoundland and Cape Breton after his dad's boat sunk. Ian was picked up by an oil tanker and the only survivor out of six sailors.
We are all looking forward to a home cooked dinner this evening at Cindy and Dan Lauber's place.
Sister in law Betty will be hitching a ride with us tomorrow to Red Deer to Deneen's after which we will be going on to Edmonton to spend the evening with Natalie, Paul, Tyler and Christian.
Our objective is to be in Ft. Liard on Friday to spend the weekend with Vern and Mal Decker, Yvonne and Charlie's friends before heading to Whitehorse.
Later...........

Having a great visit in Calgary with Stephen, Jaime, Pedro.
Paul had new front tires installed at Kal Tire yesterday where the manager is a buddy of Steve's playing on the same defense line in their hockey league. While waiting for the tire change Paul picked up the supplies for the Christmas meat pies to be made tomorrow and found meat here to be quite expensive!
Saturday night we all went out to dinner at Ric's Grill in downtown Calgary, Steve/Jaime treat (whew!!).
Today Paul and Faye had lunch at Valley View Lodge with Estelle. She is very very lucky to be there and seems to be quite content. Then we drove to Ed's place to see the new granddaughter Bianca, their new home and of course Ed, Ruth and Matthew! Bianca is a beautiful baby girl, a real treasure. She was born two days ago and weighed nine lbs, one oz. Matthew is quite taken by the new addition to the family with Ed being the benevolent father, proud and protective!
We are looking forward to the meat pie cook up tomorrow afternoon and get together here tomorrow evening (Sunday)
Later............

First day at Stephen and Jaime`s in Calgary. Paul woke up at 4:00 am Calgary time because he is still on PEI time.....so spent the next few hours reading author Wilber Smith`s ¨Birds of Prey¨ which he started two weeks ago.... awesome book and recommend it to all readers!
Faye has acclimatised to Calgary time.............. no problem sleeping until 9:30!!
We finalized the sale of the Fun Finder RV, made arrangements to pick it up when we return from Whitehorse sometime around the middle of January. The dealer will store it for us until then. The Fun Finder is everything we hoped for and are looking forward to traveling with it in tow this coming winter.
Faye and Paul had a great visit with Estelle this afternoon.... thanks to the GPS unit we could get to her place with no problem. Paul was able to show her some issues with the computer email setup. Estelle seems to be happy with her living accommodations at Valley View Lodge. She has Edward, Ruth, grandson Matthew and new grand daughter Bianca living here in Calgary also. We have arranged to have lunch with Estelle on Saturday and to go visit Ed`s house on Saturday.
We really appreciate Jamie McKinnon`s assistance regards the RV purchase!... what a guy!!!
Arrangements are now set to make Christmas meat pies on Sunday afternoon to be followed with a get together Sunday evening. Looking forward to it.
Later..................

Headed out from Weyburn, Sask. at 6:30 this morning. Daylight seemed to be a long time coming but we made good time passing through Swift Current, Medicine Hat and numerous towns along the way. Once again the weather was in our favor giving us moderate cloud cover and dry driving for most of the way except some wet flurries east of the Alberta border. We had lunch in Swift Current, then reached the Alberta border around 12 noon when the sun came out giving an Alberta greeting. We saw lots of cattle, horses and small herds of white tailed deer. Faye took a beautiful picture of the sun rising in the east from behind and even got a fantastic shot through the rear view passenger window. We were enthralled by a cargo train which was about 1 km in length heading in the same direction, with double decker containers being hauled by three locomotives, two at the front and one in the middle. Paul found a suitable place to pull over so Faye could take a picture of the train. It was was traveling about 100 km per hour.
The Canadian prairies stretched off in all directions and the road seemed to go on forever ahead and behind us. We saw a number of what looked like refineries, grain elevators and gas wells some of which had burn offs much the same as in North Dakota. We made it to Calgary around 3:30 and due to traffic conditions opted not to head straight to Novak RV to see the Fun Finder RV and instead drove to Steve & Jaime's place. Happy to finally arrive in Calgary, enjoying some Delwinnie with Steve and catching up on local news. Jaimie is quite busy with her Kub7 (www.kub7.com) business which is smoking with success. We called Estelle and Lisa to make plans for a get together with all the Calgary folks this weekend, then heading north towards Red Deer, Edmonton, Ft. Liard and finally Whitehorse hoping to arrive there around December 9th. pending weather and travel conditions.
Later.........

Headed out from Fergus Falls, Minnesota early this morning to try and make time to be early in Calgary on Wednsday. We drove through unbelieveable praire vistas... rolling hills and flat wheat fields "as far as the eye can see". We drove into North Dakota early in the morning climbing higher into the Dakota hills heading west. Along the way we saw cattle herds, horses, outcrops, sloughes filled with water. One can imagine the time it took for the early settlers to traverse this landscape with wagon trains or on foot. Our route took us into middle North Dakota before turning north for Canada, very remote country with very little traffic. The stark reality of seeing the odd old abandoned house suggested hardship, hard honest work to eke a living from this apparent rich landscape. After turning north on route 93 we saw a couple wind farms with windmills looking much like the ones at East Point. We also saw familiar place names along the way.... Annandale, Seven Mile Road, Monticello, Souris Valley Community Centre, and Souris Wildlife Refuge Park!! What's with all that? Makes one wonder.
We met two vehicles for the last fifty miles before getting to the border. After turning north towards Canada we saw a lot of gas wells pumping away with the occasional well burning off sulpher(?). It seemed like an awful waste of energy.
Along the way and closer to the Canadian border we saw a lot of deer and plenty of pheasants....a virtual hunters paradise!!
Because of the remoteness we assumed that there would be no duty free liquor available at the border...wrong! Since we had a half bottle of unfinished Crown Royal and Faye had purchased some Irish Creame in New Hampshire we only purchased a 40 oz duty free because we (Paul) were nervous with all the gear packed away in the truck.
The border outpost with one officer was no problem because Faye's cherubic honest face and frank answers to his questions won him over and he waved us on wishing safe travel.
Once into Canada we drove for an hour reaching Weyburn, Sask. shortly before 7 pm. checking into a motel and making our Skype phone calls.
We travelled approximately 800 km today. Gas prices steadidly increased as we progressed towards Canada but we only paid $1.66/us gallon early this morning with a high of $2.09 this afternoon.
We have 820 km to Calgary tomorrow so must get up early.
Later.......

Headed out from Milwaukee about 7:30 this morning with 2 inches of fresh wet snow, the first for us this year! We drove out of the snow belt an hour later and proceeded west through the rest of Wisconsin bypassing the twin cities of Minneapplis/St.Paul then driving through Minnesota to our destination tonight at Fergus Falls near the border of North Dakota. We rolled through mostly farmland, flat prairies and rolling hills. It is unbelievable the number of huge shopping malls in every town we passed through. Walmart is prominent everywhere.
We noticed about 8 deer roadkill between Madison and St. Paul's. Very unfortunate for the deer and hopefully not with the people involved.
We are now about 1600 km from Calgary and expect to reach there late Wednsday afternoon.
We check our emails every day and use Skype for our phone calls so don't be surprised if your phone rings. Later.............

Headed out from Clearfield, PA yesterday morning about 7:30 am. Weather conditions perfect for travelling on a cold dry Sunday. We drove through Pennyslvannia on interstate route 90 heading into Ohio through miles and miles of farmland, mostly cornfields with the odd orchard dotting the landscape. Two fillups for gas with the lowest price so far at $1.75/gallon. We were hoping on driving the 1000 km today and managed to do so finally checking in an Econo Lodge on the outskirts of Milwaukee after passing through Ohio, Indianna and Illinois bypassing Cleveland.
Driving through the Chicago skyway late Sunday afternoon was an experience! Awesome city but tense driving through the city.
Paul was hoping to catch some of the Grey Cup but talking to Stephen on Skype (computer generated phone calls through high speed) was advised that the game had just ended with Calgary taking the honors!
We managed to drive without snow worries, however the weather outlook here in Milwaukee looks like we will experience a taste today.

Saturday, Nov 22nd, staying over in Clearfield, PA. after leaving Ludlow, MA about 8:30 this morning travelling 780 kms. We have about 3200 kms to Calgary. The weather has been sunny and moderately cold so we missed all the stormy weather experienced in Atlantic Canada.
Leaving Ludlow we travelled through the Bershire Hills area, then turned south towards New York City circling the Catskills range and then west through the Ponoco hills. That is where we met a few flurries while Faye was driving and Paul taking a much deserved power nap. Traffic was heavy around New York but lightened up as we went westward. Tractor trailers were in evidence but very courteous and fast going downhill and slow going up so we played tag for awhile with a number of them.
Paul, being frugal in his mellow years, has kept the cruise control at 100 km which seems to be working as we are getting about 700 km to the tankfull. The last two fillups were in the $32-35 range from a quarter full with gas in this area costing $2.08/gallon. which is about 0.53/litre.
We are going to try for early rise to get all the daytime driving we can plus a few hours into darkness to try and get 1000 km.
Hoping to get Grey Cup on the radio tomorrow as we travel.... would be better with TV but not going to happen for us this year unless we get snowed in somewhere!! That's it for now.

Friday, November 21st, checked into Comfort Inn in Ludlow, MA, which is about 200 km west of Boston, at 10 pm local time after spending two days in Boston having stayed two nights with Nicolle, Zubin, Julia and Kaiyan. Faye had a wonderful time shopping on Thursday with Nicolle chauffeuring about the numerous malls in Arlington area suburbs with Paul sitting in the passenger side scared breathless with Nicolle's very confident driving maneuvers in and about the freeways!!
Paul volunteered to cook supper on Thursday evening so the chef's choice was salmon. Paul did notice that the price of lobsters in the super stores were $7.99 for chicks (canners?) and $11.99 for selects (markets?). Not a bad markup from $2.00-2.50 being paid to the fishermen in Maine! He also noted the price of frozen wild blueberries at $5.99 /lb.
We were invited to visit Pat and Ed Campbell so made our way over there today and had take out Chinese for supper. Pat's Mom is in total care in a beautiful addition to their home (bedridden and blind) with nursing aides and Pat herself doing most of the care at home while working 3 days a week as a nurse in a medical clinic with doctors and a number of nurse practioners. Ed is doing great assisting Pat with her Mom when requested. We turned down their request to stay overnight as we wanted to get started heading west.
It took us awhile to get on route 90 west even with the GPS turned on. However we made it as far as Ludlow and are looking forward to the Bershire Hills heading towards Butte, Montana and then north to Calgary.

PaulFayeAdventure

Saturday, November 15th a wonderful evening with Joanne, Charlie, Ben, and Coco. Then off to Windsor on Sunday visiting Faye's Mom and sisters. Faye's Mom Ruby is in fine form and quite alert with her wit and humor in place.
Stayed overnight with Ella and Maurice and off up the road on Monday on our way to Boston. We stayed overnight at friend's George and Donna in their beautiful log home on the MacNeill homestead in Onslow Mt. outside Truro. Their son Rob, Janet and new 4 month daughter Georgia dropped in after we had Donna's very tasty pork roast dinner! Of course George and Paul becamce a bit tipsy over some "Famous Grouse" fortified with some of George's special brand.
Next day we stopped in Fredericton to visit with Joe, Julie and daughter Michelle who stopped in on her way home from work. Julie had a wonderful home made stew and we caught up with news.
Then off to Bangor where we booked a room (Tuesday night) at Travel Lodge using our CAA discount.
On the road again on Wednsday, the GPS in the vehicle worked wonders giving us the confidence to side trip to Old Orchard Beach where we had lunch. Afterwards we pulled into the New Hampshire Liquor Store to pick up something anticipating supper with Nicolle, Zubin, Julia and Kaiyan.
Along the way, Paul finished negotiating the price we wanted for the Fun Finder RV Trailer. The dealer in Calgary agreed to almost match the Michigan dealer's price. No Canadian border issues!!
A wonderful chicken dinner on Wednsday evening with Nicolle, Zubin, Julia and Kyle... my those children are beautiful and gifted with childish intelligence! Of course, Zubin and Paul had a wee dram of that wonderful "Famous Grouse" Paul had picked up in NH.

day 1

heading out on sat.