Bishops Adventures

 June 30th, 2024 Beautiful clear, dry, warm day. No smoke today! 0 miles/0 distance  Tok River State Recreational Park  So last night as I was getting ready for bed and thinking how peacefully perfect this little campground is we heard a very loud shout, ALASKA STATE P0LICE, anybody in there”!! Gary answered the door quickly and it turns out they were looking for two females, mid thirties and Native American. Not too long after we watched them arrest and cuff the two and drove away. So much for a quaint little camping spot! Today was spent listening to church this morning and thanking God for this incredible blessing of a trip He has given us and then Gary found multiple places that had shaken loose from the rough Yukon roads which he repaired.  We have killed some time by continuing our cribbage contest but it’s not looking good for me so far! I thought the new board would bring me some luck but not so much. 

 June 29th, 2024 Major tactical error on our part! We assumed (a.k.a. Makes an ‘ass out of u and me’) that the post office would be open Saturday morning until noon as it is in the lower 48. Never assume. They are closed until Monday morning. Our guns have been mailed to this post office so… we sit… and wait. We awoke to warm temperatures this morning but the sun is obscured. It looks cloudy but it’s not the clouds, it’s the smoke. There’s only about a mile visibility on the roads. We’ve learned that there are two fires close by. One just north of us but the more serious one is between us and Fairbanks. It has already consumed 100,000 acres and is 0% contained. I hope by Monday we are able to make it through to Fairbanks. The difference between Canada and the US (among other things) is the cost of living, or in our case, the cost of traveling through. In Canada gas prices range from 4.05-5.10 per gallon. In Alaska we paid 3.93 in Tok. In Canada, on average, we paid 30.00 per night for

 June 28th, 2024 THE DETAILS:  sunny, windy, quite warm until the typical afternoon rain showers. 245 miles/ 7 hours staying in Tok RV Village Campground, Tok ALASKA! We were not intending on crossing the border today. We wanted to spend another night dry camping but we ran out of water and needed a few things charged so decided to go to the next campground that offered full hookups. Wellll.... we kept driving, and driving, and got closer and closer to the US border and only found one campground that was already full for the night. So we crossed the border. There is something about your own country. It is a relief to return to the red, white and blue no matter how far gone she is! America, America, God shed His grace on thee.... There was no one at customs so we breezed right through and after 13 days and 4,297 miles we have arrived! So we are now in Alaskan time which is 4 hours difference from the East coast. The last 200 miles between Kulane Lake and Tok was horrific. Even though th

 June 27th, 2024 THE DETAILS: Sunny, warm, dry, breezy 4.5 hours/ 145 miles dry camping along the shores of Kluane Lake, Yukon We set out today from Whitehorse intending to find a nice place to dry-camp. It took driving 145 miles and through some gorgeous scenery but when we rounded a bend and saw Kluane Lake we knew we had found the spot. We got our first glimpse of glaciers and a whole chain of icefields that towered over us.  Though the beauty above us was hard to take our eyes off of, there are these delicate, aromatic purple flowers everywhere along the roadside and they line themselves up along the road as if  it was a runway. (side note: as I was out of the truck taking this picture on the side of the road a car pulled up and said, "just to let you know there's a grizzly with 2 cubs just up the road"! We never did see them) We pulled into a nice big paved turnout off the road which overlooked the lake and is surrounded by mountains and glaciers and thought, yep, th

A BLAST FROM THE PAST! And it really works. Located here in the campsite.   June 26th, 2024 THE DETAILS: Maintenance Day! 0 miles! 0 hours! Cool start, very warm, dry, partly cloudy day. Still in Whitehorse Yukon Gary has had a name change. He is now Jack, yes, for Jack-of-all-trades. We decided to spend an extra day here in Whitehorse due to the water pump problem. Whitehorse is the capital of Yukon so has all kinds of shops, stores and restaurants. Our morning was spent in town gathering supplies and groceries from Walmart, an RV shop and a plumbing store. And then the work began. It took about 2 hours to take out the old one and put the new one in. Not a difficult job but the small, cramped space was a challenge. It’s crazy how many tools are needed for one job! He also checked the hot water tank and sured it up with joint compound.  It was strange to drive the truck without the trailer. It felt so light and free! Gary kept thinking he had to push the button for “tow haul” but would

 June 25th, 2024 THE DETAILS: Cool night and very warm day. 42 overnight and 80 today. 260 miles/8 hours  Staying at Pioneer RV park just south of Whitehorse in Yukon Punctuation is important, eh? When we stopped to look at a possible dry camping site that overlooked a beautiful teal blue  river we noticed a handwritten note secured with duct tape to a picnic table. It read !!problem bear in area!! Gary read the note as “problem, bear in area”. He laughed and said, no kidding. I, on the other hand, read it as saying, “problem-bear in the area.” And I immediately went back to the truck for some bear spray!! Thank goodness we never encountered the problem bear.  Today’s journey was a gorgeous drive through the Cassier Mountain range with heavy white clouds hanging above them. It was picture perfect. I know some people find the beach to be their happy place (Deb Clark) but I have to say, I am most inspired by snow capped mountains! We saw 3 black bear today but couldn’t get their picture.

  June 24 th , 2024     THE DETAILS: Cool, rainy raw morning progressing to a rainy drive and back to low clouds and 50’s 320 miles/ 8 hours Staying at Downtown RV Park, Watson Lake, BC.   I have concluded that Gary is a drive-aholic. He just can’t help himself. He gets behind the wheel and he just doesn’t stop. So we put another 300 miles today… but… we have transitioned to the wild side of BC! The scenery is spectacular and the wildlife is abundant. We were warned of moose, bear, bison, wild horses and caribou. We saw 3 of the 5.   A total of 3 moose, 2 bear and about 75 bison! It was amazing.   The roads were windy and steep at some points and then straight with mountains looming over us at other times. It got so cloudy at one point we were actually driving through the clouds. We reached an elevation of 4,143 feet. Due to the rain the mountains looked like they were crying with all the waterfalls spouting tons of water down the cliffs.     The campgro

  June 23 rd , 2024     THE DETAILS: The day started rather warm and sunny but as we progressed north it has become cloudy, and for the first time since leaving we drove in rain for the better part of the day. Temps in the 50’s 250 miles/5 hours Staying at the 3 G Hideaway RV Park in Fort Nelson, BC   Last night our campground was located in more of a gravel parking lot that was close to the road. It became very quiet after 9 pm though and was rather pleasant. But tonight we are parked under trees surrounded by woods but a very popular place for big rigs. It’s laundry day so we were pleased to find a nice cabin with laundry facilities attached to a nice gift shop and a restaurant! Yes, we decided to treat ourselves to the all-you-can-eat buffet while waiting for the laundry to wash & then dry. It was truly a ‘day of rest’. We started the day with watching our California church service at 8 while drinking our coffee and then hit the road. By the time we arrived a

 June 22nd, 2024 THE DETAILS: Dry, clear, perfect weather for traveling. Warmer and cloudy this afternoon.  290 miles/ 8 hours We’re staying at Peace River campground in Taylor BC Yes! We have crossed over the border to British Columbia and have also crossed  into pacific coast time. We are now 3 hours behind the East coast.  It was a long day of driving (so much for slowing our pace aye?) (see what I did there? I’m even speaking like a Canadian!!) on wide open straight roads where we could see about 5 miles ahead of us. It was boring so to break up the day we decided to stop and have breakfast at a nice cafe on the side of the road. Aptly named for someone we are praying for who is struggling with late stages of Alzheimer’s. It caused us to pause and remember.  I love Canada for its beauty and wildlife but most of all I love the people. Everyone we meet is so kind and friendly. The waitresses were funny and so cute as they would say “aye” after almost every sentence.  The road to Daws

 June 21st, 2024 THE DETAILS: Beautiful cool morning progressing into a warm dry day. High in the 80's. 75 in the shade 250 miles/6 hours Staying in Sagitawah RV Park, Whitecourt, Alberta The landscape is changing as we move westward. We've gone from agricultural fields to horses and beef cattle farms. It comes complete with cowboys rounding up their herd! I felt like we were driving through scenes from Heartland. We even drove by a herd of buffalo which was part of a National Park. Our journey took us straight through the city of Edmonton today and if you are up on your hockey history you would know that tonight the Edmonton Oilers are facing the Florida Panthers for the 6th game in the Stanley Cup finals. We were hoping we wouldn't get caught in any traffic, which we didn't, but found the whole place is rocking with flags and Tshirts and their cars are decorated. They love their Oilers! Good luck tonight Edmonton! We are slowing down our gait for the next 9 days for a