Mini Test Page!

 Well, it's been awhile since I've logged into this little blog page! I'm thinking that I may use this again for our upcoming North American Adventure! here's a pic from our last outing in Squamish during March break 2022. Fisherman Beach day trip to shake off the cabin fever from COVID.

Day 34: Sat Aug 6 th "Leeches, Kitwanga, Smithers and a boondock at Helen Lake, and Fish!"

Amelia had her usual early morning snuggles with me and then we all rolled out of our "beds" around 9:30am and had cereal for breakie. Daddy had already pumped up the boat last night, so we figured a paddle around Bonus Lake was in order before we left our little boondock. Ollie dragged his makeshift net through the water looking for fish and Amelia mostly snuggled her soo-see blanket and wiggled around. 

When we pulled up the shore to deflate the dingy I spied a couple of hitch-hikers... two very strong leeches were suctioned to the bottom of the boat. Oliver was quite intrigued by them. We managed to get them off the boat and into a tub of water. Man, leeches are weird. Ugh.  Both kids were fascinated by them and by the time daddy had packed up the dingy, we were still watching them. It was very challenging to get the leeches out of the container and into the lake again! Those suckers are tricky!

At 11:30am we were on the road again and headed for Kitwanga. About 45min into our trip we saw a mama bear with three tiny cubs about the cross the highway. She crossed over and two of the cubs scurried with her, but the third hesitated and kind of panicked a bit. Mama and the other two were already down the other bank when the last little one finally braved the crossing and scampered across the road to meet them. Very cute. 

We pulled over in Kitwanga to check out the site where Gitwangak tribe had built cedar lodgings atop a steep hill some 200+ years ago and fiercely protected their fishing access and land from other tribes. It was a neat historical stop, and was interesting enough for the kids to enjoy the climb down and up again to the "battlement". Amelia Wren climbed every step herself "meemee do IT!!", save the last set of steps up back to the vehicle.  Quite a work out.

We stopped at the 37 Grille - a kind of biker bar/restaurant - in Kitwanga. Ollie and Amelia liked the motorcycle and car paraphernalia. We had a yummy meal and left there just after 2pm to change course and join up with Highway 16, The Yellowhead (or Highway of Tears).  It was a little un-settling driving along it at first, thinking of the girls that have disappeared along this stretch of highway. Very sad.   The landscape changed rapidly. We were seeing farms, fields, many rolls of hay bundled up, which Amelia pointed out as "marshmallows!" (giggle giggle).  Very different views than we have had over the past few weeks... much more signs of human population!

We reached Smithers at 3:30pm and parked the RV on the main street near Oscar's fishing store. Jonathan wanted to pick up some lures and ask about fishing in the local lakes. Oliver was set on buying himself a real dip net to catch minnows (or butterflies, or any bug) and they didn't have anything suitable there. He was also set on spending some of his money in general. It was my suggestion of a dip net that got him focused on something affordable. We had counted out his money ("I have hundreds of monies, Mama! The ones with boats on them are a dollar" - um, yeah, sorry kid) and he had $4.25.   On of the sales people at Oscar's suggested that we might find one across the road at the Toy Store and so I headed over there with Ollie and Amelia while daddy got the digs on fishing lures and lakes. It was a gorgeous little toystore full of fabulous finds... and DIP NETS!  They were $1.99 each and Ollie very sweetly wanted to buy one for his little sister, too.  He also wanted to buy a little parachute man. He ended up buying his dip net and two parachuters - one for him and one for Meemer. I bought Amelia her dip net, and that way he could still afford his gifts, and have a little bit of change left over. The experience at the toy store was lovely and made up for the very ugly toy section experience we had at Dease Lake! (although Amelia did walk out of the store with a "wild nature call" machine that she was infatuated with and was not pleased when we had to remove it from her little fists and return it to the shop! She was MUCH more easily appeased though).

Daddy had come to meet us at the toy store when he was done at the fishing shop. He had news of a couple of lakes to try, and suggestions of lures to use. Apparently we were "guaranteed fish" at these lakes. Hmmmmm. We shall see. 

I spied a very lovely kitchen store close by and remarked how nice it would be to just go into a shop like that, on my own, and have a gander... not having the kidlets with you shopping is sooooo much more relaxing! Jonathan had the genius idea to leave me on the main street and take the RV and the kids up the road to the grocery store and get the food items we needed while I wandered the shops at my leisure. It was heaven!  I especially loved the clothing store, SALT. Gorgeous stuff and beautifully displayed. (no, I didn't buy anything).  I had my fill of shop moseying and walked to the grocery store to meet up with Jonathan. The Extra Foods was closing and selling everything off... which meant great deals on some things and lots of things we did want were not available. We managed to scrounge enough off our list to manage. 

It was when we drove a little ways farther down to get gas that was saw the big new Safeway! Doh! Got our milk (and two mocha frappachinos) while Jonathan filled the RV.

Not too far out of Smithers, we were looking for Summit Lake Road... Jonathan thought he saw it, but missed it and we ended up driving back to where he thought it was... and he was right. This was a road that would lead to Helen Lake where, apparently, the fishing was fabulous.  Around 7:15pm we drove over the cattle guards through farm land (past cows) along a road that led to a lovely lake and recreation site (no camping). The main area had been cleared of trees and lots of very shallow stumps  were left behind. We found a place to park the beast and the kids were instantly out of the RV and running to the water to try out their new dip nets!  No little minnows here. Ollie found a fair sized dead trout in the water and pretended he caught it in his net and showed daddy.  Jonathan was busy getting his fishing lures set up on his lines, and the kids played with rocks and sticks for awhile. They were busy making rock "birthday cakes"... they were pretty sweet with one they made for daddy... Ollie asked me to stand beside him and Amelia to block the view of the "cake" they made and called daddy over. When Jonathan walked over, Ollie shouted "happy birthday" and we all moved aside so he could see his surprise rock creation. Daddy gave the appropriate oohs and aws and the kids were very pleased. Cute. We just love seeing the two of them playing cooperatively, and especially with nothing but stuff they find around them on the ground. Pretty awesome games they come up with.

We pumped up the dingy and loaded up the fishing rods and headed out onto the water. It was getting a bit late and the evening was lovely.  Ollie had two hits on his little "cars" fishing rod! very exciting!!!   At one point I had both kids wiggling on my lap trying to get comfy ,and a fishing rod in each hand while Jonathan was steering us with the motor to a different part of the lake. I was still overseeing Jonathan's fly rod when we got a hit on the line. I expertly (ha ha) reeled it in and Jonathan madly tried to catch a very flighty and feisty little cut-throat trout in our net (Jonathan bought a real net at Oscars).   Jonathan bonked it and hooked it to our fish chain so we could cook it up for dinner.   Before we came back to shore we had seen a couple of loons and a beaver!

The kids were curious about the fish, and Amelia was even more curious about eating it. Man, she loves fish. Jonathan panfried it on our campstove griddle and we had a lovely little fish feast (again, Amelia ate most of it - you had to be quick to get a bite!).

We boondocked that night on site (cheekily)... just us. Jonathan went out to the lake's edge a little farther down and tried out some fishing from the shore after the kids were in bed. Had a very serene time listening to the loons calling. No fish to be hooked, but still a lovely, relaxing time by the water. 

Day 33: Friday Aug 5th "salmon glacier and a boondock at Bonus Lake"

Amelia woke this morning at 7am and crawled into bed with me for snuggles. "Meemee OUT!"   We all woke up around 8:30am for the start of our day. Daddy's specialty: sausages and pancakes were on the menu again for breakfast. We chatted with Anne and Don in the morning while we packed up and snapped a "group photo" using my wonderful phone camera technology. Say Cheeeeeeese! :) We left Bear Creek RV site around 11am and drove back across the "border" to Hyder Alaska to check out the Salmon Glacier. Anne and Don had been already and gave us a copy of the the route information that tells you about all the different things you pass along the way up the long dirt road to the top of the glacier viewing area.  When we crossed into Alaska (you would not know it except for the friendly sign hanging above the road, "Welcome to Hyder, Alaska") we saw some young entrepreneurs that we had seen the previous day. They had a super cool chopped up bike with a lemonade stand built into it, and they were also selling baked goods. They were the cutest boys and had HUGE grins and waved as we drove by. They looked like they set up shop every day for the summer (and probably made some good coin!). 

We drove past the fish viewing area where we had seen the grizzly yesterday evening and made our way up the VERY DUSTY, bumpy gravel road that was carved out of the mountainside along the river and toe of the glacier. It was a slow drive with the old beast, but she made it up! Pretty amazing views along the way. I read out loud the information as we drove past each posted number sign. I dare say we will not remember any of it, except that it was stunning... and it gave us a new respect for the mining companies that started up around here so many years ago.  Brave folks.

We reached the "summit" point around 1:15pm and made lunch which we ate at a picnic table overlooking the STUNNING view of the Salmon Glacier. We were so far up! There were quite a few people up there, and we even saw this very adorable young couple that Jonathan met last night at the RV park. We had a small chat with them, too.  There were a few folks with large cameras taking some pretty serious shots of the glacier. One older fellow was stood close to the edge of the main rock area that a steep bank below it followed by more outcropped rocks at the side (large enough for people to go down and walk along for a closer view -- I did not, but Jonathan checked out one of them). The guy was just folding up his tripod and his camera was not fastened to it securely and it fell off the tripod and over the cliff edge and bounced a long ways down.  Everyone felt so bad for him. He shrugged it off, "I didn't like that camera anyway", but obviously it was such a bummer to lose the camera, but more so the photos he took on it. Jonathan scooted down to the lower rock ledges and was able to peek with his binoculars to try and get sight of the lost camera. He figured it was possible to pick a path down the other bank very slowly and probably retrieve it, but it would be risky (not of falling off a cliff, but of possibly injuring oneself by accident climbing over rocks). It took a lot of will power not to go get it. Just not worth the risk. 

We made our way back down the gravel road around 2:15pm, and on the way down, Amelia started howling and covering her head with her hands. I was in the front seat at this point and turned around to see what happened. Ollie looked guilty, and Amelia quickly finger pointed that her darling brother was the cause of the red mark on her forehead. After "discussion" it came out that Ollie had thrown his wooden "axe" (stick that looked remarkably like a little hatchet) at his sister and managed to hit her. He vaguely admitted to throwing it saying he didn't want it anymore. Jonathan and I agreed that the axe had to be taken away, What followed resulted in a full-on Ollie meltdown/tantrum/rage. And a fair bit of guilt from the parents about throwing the prized axe out the window. We knew the axe incident would come up again over the next few days!

Near the fish viewing area, we saw a little black bear cross the road (just as the posted signs had indicated).  We got back through the little border line up (again declaring our weapons - 2 cans of bear spray) and were in Stewart sometime after 4pm. We stopped at the local playground - as you do when you have a 4 year old and a 2 year old as your travel companions - and had a great play in the sunshine. Man, kids love playgrounds. Our kids especially. Especially on this trip. They can spy them from the RV window like hawks can find a field mouse. "Nay-nound!!!!" screams Amelia every time she sees one.

After a couple of hours we managed to drag them off the playground and head up the road to have some food. We found a funky little place on the main drag (there is not much more than a main drag in Stewart! so tiny!) called Dash Bistro.  When you opened the doors, you realized it was actually a food truck inside a tented space! so neat. The service was great and the food delicious... they had a selection of homemade organic burgers, and pizzas. Oh, and these yummy little spicy sauteed snap peas... mmmm. The kids were great and enjoyed their food. Amelia sits on the big seats these days... kneeling up to reach the table. Perhaps her high chair at home will be put away?   After dinner, we walked up the the icecream/video/candystore/pool table hang out store and got ice cream for dessert. 

Jonathan went ahead of us and took the RV to the Gas station to fill up while the kids and I sauntered down main street just a block or so away. Ollie needed to pee and took a discreet "tree pee" by a vacant building, and then we wandered over to the large gravel filled lot across from the gas station. It was there that we saw Anne and Don pass by in their big rig where we waved good bye again! Then we wandered over to see Daddy, and the kids oversaw him replenishing the fluids in the engine and checking the tire pressure, etc. All seemed fine after being topped up.  We hit the road sometime around 6:45pm and we were maybe 15-20min down the road when Jonathan grabbed the receipt off the centre console to peek at the number of litres the attendant had put in. 

That was when he cursed under his breath.   "Diesel!!!!!!!!" he blurted. "Did that kid put Diesel in our RV?!!!!!"    oh snap.   Sure enough, the receipt read, "92L Diesel"... crap.  Jonathan was fuming, and convinced that our RV engine was going to get ruined. We immediately decided that the best thing to do was to turn around and drive back to the gas station and check. Perhaps it was a mistake on the receipt. Fingers crossed it was a mistake on the receipt. It better be a damn mistake on the receipt.

We got back to the gas station and Jonathan checked the pump that he had pulled up to and showed the young attendant the receipt and asked where the diesel pumps were. They were over on the other side of the station, away from the regular pumps. When Jonathan went in to pay, they must have given him the wrong receipt.  It was for sure gasoline in the RV.   Catastrophe diverted. Whew!!!!!

Back on the road and it was not long past our original turn around point that we saw some skid marks on the road and Jonathan spotted an overturned truck in the opposite ditch. We pulled over right away and Jonathan ran back down the road to see if anyone was in the truck or needing help. There was no one in the vehicle or around the truck. Another car had pulled up when they saw the truck and he had told Jonathan that he'd heard a call come in earlier that afternoon about an overturned vehicle. Seems that the scene had already been taken care of, thank goodness. Hopefully no one was badly injured. 

It was 9:30pm when we decided that it was too late to keep pushing onwards and we pulled over at a recreation site off the side of the road. Turned out to be called Bonus Lake. There was a truck and camper trailer already pulled into the small parking area and they were all leveled up and settled for the night. We hoped that they would not mind having company! We parked the RV at the opposite corner of the lot (still only about a 100ft away?) and went for a short walk down an adventurous path that Ollie wanted to check out. I was acutely aware that this was not an ideal time for walk down a forested dirt road... even though I was armed with bear spray, I didn't want the opportunity to use it!  Jonathan and Ollie were quite far ahead and turned around and came back to me and Amelia before I got too worried.  We got the RV ready for "sleep mode" and tucked the kids into bed. I think we had to kill about a hundred mosquitoes inside the RV before we could even consider sleeping.  We had heard fish jumping when we arrived and Jonathan was pretty pumped to try fishing here. Seemed like a great place for pike to hang out. Ollie and I had heard a HUGE splash a little earlier and that got J convinced that the pike must be big. He pumped up the dingy and went out into the dark along the edge of the marshy lake and tried his luck at pike fishing. He was not out there too long before he had to come in. He had a harrowing experience (no boat danger), just surrounded by huge splashes that he imagined were made by GIANT pike. Heck... what the hell was he going to do if he CAUGHT one of these monster pikes? they have rows of razor sharp teeth that slice and sting (seriously). He only had a net made of a mesh laundry bag and a stick, for goodness sake. It was after chasing about half a dozen splashes around the little lake that he realized he had been chasing a beaver. He clued in and recognized the slap of the beaver's tail in the water. That poor beaver was probably wondering what the heck was chasing him around all night.  

Day 32: Thursday Aug 4 "Bell II and on to Stewart and Hyder Alaska"

Day 32: Thursday, August 4 “Bell II Lodge lunch, then Stewart & Hyder and connecting with friends”

Another gorgeous morning view. The kids had cereal and I went for a shower. I was very excited about the prospect of a good shower and was a little disappointed when I got there. It was a small plywood room in the “wash building” (which was totally fine!), but the shower didn’t have a curtain (which could have been fine, if the shower head wasn’t pointed directly OUT of the shower). When I turned on the water, it came out in a decent enough spray but basically sprayed right out of the shower on onto my clothes hanging on the wall, and into my boots. Oh dear. So, I tried immediately to move the shower head carefully so it aimed inside the basin, at which point the entire shower head fell off into my hand. This, of course, resulted in a full garden hose stream of water spurting out of the pipe.  The entire plywood floor of the room was soaked, but I had managed to move my boots and clothes back slightly to avoid much further water “damage”. I washed my hair under the garden hose (great pressure!) and then turned the shower off and replaced the cheap showerhead. Finished with a final rinse (spray still exiting the shower, due to the lack of curtain) and turned it off. Well, that was not quite how I had hoped things would go… showers are few and far between… but I was clean and my hair was washed. Call it good.  And, when we were chatting with the owner later when popping onto the wifi at the office before leaving, I dared not say anything about possibly getting a curtain for the ladies’ shower, or the fact that the shower head was cheap and fell off. He just wasn’t the kind of guy you mention stuff like that to.

After packing up, I had walked up to the office to see if I could get on wifi and post a few days of the blog. He came out and chatted a bit. He was kind of a Norman Bates type of guy. The password he had written down on a scrap of paper last night was not the same one that he told me this morning. I did manage to get on wifi by the time Jonathan drove up with the kids and did the sani-dump and water refill. We made small talk while the kids avoided the dogs (big friendly black dog named Goofy kept trying to take Ollie’s new stick that looked like an axe). We found out lots of background on the guy and his hardships. Also his opinions about the locals. Hmmmm. We kept neutral and congenial. Oh, and I made sure that I paid him the $3 for the shower I took.   After chatting, we realized he was nice enough… a little odd, but had some tough times. We wished him well, thanked him for the hospitality, and complimented him on his beautiful property before we hopped in the ol’ Mobile Traveler and hit the road again by 11am.

At 12:20pm we saw a Black Bear at the side of the highway. An hour later we reached Bell II Lodge at 1:30pm and stopped in to get gas (124L) and decided to go into the nice restaurant for some good food. The menu had lots of very delicious sounding meals… and not much pricier than some of the greasy spoon meals we have had in the past. The kids were great in the restaurant and Amelia insisted on sitting on a grown up chair beside Ollie (no high chairs). She did very well until near the end of the meal. She was standing up and not paying attention and she toppled off the chair to the floor with a thud. The thud was followed by us scooping her up in our arms and seeing the silent scream that precedes the “that hurt like heck” scream. Poor bubba. There was only one other couple in the restaurant, but I took Amelia outside to calm her down and stop the screaming. She answered my questions with her usual “yell replies”… but managed to calm down with some snuggles.  We left Bell II at 2:50pm and saw another small Black Bear about 40min later.

4pm we had reached Meziadin Junction and took the 37A west to Stewart and Hyder. This was a lovely drive along a gravel road that boasted amazing glacier views.  We decided to drive through Stewart (I popped into the Post Office quickly to buy stamps and mail our postcards!) and go directly to Hyder Alaska to check out the Fish Viewing Area and see if we could spot any Grizzlies.  The border crossing into Alaska is just like driving down a road. No stops or border control to get into the USA. It’s a dead end road. They only have a border patrol on the Canadian side when you come back. It’s very small.

5:30pm we were at the Fish Viewing platforms that overlook a river where hundreds of salmon were struggling up river on their final days of spawning. It was quite a sight. There were lots of people poised with cameras waiting for bears to meander down the river for a feast. When we paid our $5 to enter the platform and walkway area, the guide said that we’d have to wait a bit, but that we would likely see a bear soon… the evening viewing was fairly predictable.  There were signs in the parking lot advising to walk along the fenced boardwalks from the parking lot to the viewing area, as bears commonly cross the road to get to the river. Yikes.

We waited and waited. The Kids were surprisingly patient. Then just as Amelia got fed up in the Ergo on my back and started wailing, a grizzly appeared down the river.  As I was walking quickly away from the crowd with a crying toddler, people were whispering and rushing to the opposite end of the boardwalk preparing their cameras for their photo ops.  I got Amelia to the entrance area where it was away from the crown and quiet and I gave her snuggles and calmed her down. I was sooooo sad not to have seen the bear. People were still entering the boardwalk at this time and were excitedly, but quietly, advising that there was a Grizzly down in the river and pointing in that direction.  Luckily, Meemer finally calmed enough that I could put her in the front of the Ergo carrier and hustle back along the boardwalk to try and catch a glimpse of the bear. I handed Jonathan the big camera (he had no idea that I had to abort mission and remove Amelia from the scene). Luckily the bear was still there and Amelia and I both managed to see it before it moved on down the river. I even got a few pics snapped on my phone through the fence. Yay! All was not lost J    Just before 7:30pm we were leaving the bear viewing area and we bumped into our “Muncho Lake Neighbours” Anne and Don!!!!!   So great to see them again! They advised that they were staying in Stewart at the Bear Creek RV park in site #26. We decided we would stay there too and catch up with them about each other’s adventures since we saw them last in Watson Lake when our RV had broken down.

We cleared the border inspection (a very nice border patrol woman at the little white patrol station) after declaring our weapons (2 cans bear spray) and drove back through the mainstreet of Stewart towards the Bear Creek RV Park. We got stopped at an intersection by some flaggers. Ahead we saw these huge, long semi trucks with enormous (120ft?) long white blades on board. I guessed windmill blades and the flagger confirmed I was right! They were really neat to see. There were three blades and three huge tubes each on extended and custom flat bed type trailers. We waited until all were through the intersection. It seemed impossible for them to make the turn, but they did!

We got to Bear Creek and the site next to Anne and Don was free, so we parked and got set up. At 8:30pm we were making tacos and got the kids into bed after having a great little visit with Anne and Don. They were so happy that our RV got fixed and that we got back onto the road since we last saw them.

Day 31: Wed Aug 3 " Jade City, Cassiar, Iskut & We've Got Company!

DAY 31: Wednesday, Aug 3 “ Jade City, Cassiar Mine, and Iskut – we’ve got company”

We woke early at our beautiful Boya Lakeside campsite and had a sausage and pancake breakfast (cooked by daddy, of course! – will this continue on when we get home? Hmmmmm). We were up and at ‘em at 8am. The kids toodled around the site and by the water while we got packed up. Ollie was quite excited about the gray-jays that came yesterday and this morning to steal food from our picnic table.  Jonathan took the kids on a little bike ride (ollie on his pedal bike and amelia in the kangaroo seat on Jsy’s bike) and then went to the playground for a last play while I finished packing up the RV. We managed a record-breaking departure time of 10:30am and were high-fiving each other as we left.

Our first stop was Jade City… touristy little place but a neat stop. It was cool to see the huge boulders of Jade getting sliced up on all the wet saws. Ollie was curious about all the different things for sale in the well stocked gift shop, and asked lots of questions (as usual) about all the different stones and gems he saw. Amelia was probably most excited about the cat she saw walking beside a motorbike.  I took their obligatory photo beside the big bear statue under the JADE CITY sign (both kids decided to peek out from between the bear’s legs, rather than stand beside it, which makes for a rather funny photo).

Around 12:15pm we left Jade City and drove back a couple of kilometres up the highway to the road that leads to the Cassiar Mine.  We drove up a dirt/gravel road past some deserted looking buildings, and a huge green slag pile (?). It was so huge! Kind of eerie. Along the back side of the huge pile of rocks was a carved out road for big working vehicles to drive up and dump the rocks. It was quite a sight.  At the top of the road that we were able to access (there was a gate that was closed to the public) there was a car junk yard with lots of neat old cars rusting away. Beside the gate was a big building that had sign reading Cassiar Crystalite.  We pulled over near the old cars (hoping not to be mistaken for a junker! Ha) and had some bagels and apples and cheese assortments. We explored a little bit before loading up and heading back down the dirt road to the highway. On the road back down, we saw a bit of strange sight… a horse walking down the road quite slowly. It looked like it was injured at first, but as we got closer behind it, we saw that it had a chain connecting its two front fetlocks (ankles?) that made it able to walk, but not to run. It also had a leather collar with a large bear bell attached to it up high around its neck. Beautiful horse. It didn’t seem concerned with us, or the fact that it was only able to walk along with smallish steps. Really strange and caught us a bit off guard.

We drove on to Dease Lake (Ollie and Amelia slept along the way) and when we arrived, we stopped in at a little supermarket to pick up supplies. Jonathan had gone in first to ask around and see if anyone knew his friend Wendy (whom he had met back in his BCIT days and had been in touch with on and off… we heard last that she was living in Dease Lake). No one had heard of her. He did report in to Ollie that there was a great toy section in the supermarket/café/liquor store/fishing store. We got the kids out and went in to get supplies (fishing tackle, beer, groceries, but NO toys). Ollie and Amelia were very interested in the toys available in the crammed little toy section. It was quite a selection!!  Oliver fell in love with a dragon/transformer toy, but was not allowed to buy it. This created quite a problem, which turned into a full meal deal meltdown in the store and daddy had to remove him physically while Amelia and I finished getting the last things and paying for everything. Amelia seemed unruffled and was quite happy to pull the little plastic wheelie basket of groceries around for me and stood on the case of beer while I paid for the food. When we came out, Daddy had Ollie in a very strong bear hug. Oliver was still in full meltdown mode, and kept trying to escape to run back into the store to get this very special (and very overpriced) plastic toy.  An older local with his little one eyed dog, Popeye, tried to cheer Ollie up to no avail. We managed to get him back to the RV and after much crying (and strapping him into his carseat) he managed to settle down. Yowzer. That was a doozie. We’ll be hearing about the toy again later I can guarantee!

At this point it had started to rain, and the Stewart-Cassiar Highway is basically a dirt/gravel road with no road lines. It is hard to consider it as a “highway”…  So our short stop at 3pm turned into a longer stop due to the meltdown, but we were on the road again around 4:30pm.

By 5:45pm we had made it to Iskut and decided to stop for the night here before we pressed our luck with cranky kids.  We randomly pulled over at a very nice wooden sign carved with the name “RedGoat Lodge” and pulled into a long sweeping gravel driveway that led to a neat log cabin house/office. To the left were some “cabins” in a row, motel style. To the right was a building clad with offcuts from a mill (the bark slices) that housed showers, two bathrooms and a laundry room. Further down the slope were several camping sites at a most gorgeous lakeside, with some trees between each site. Perfect.   They had wifi, and water and electricity hookups at the sites… even better! 

Jonathan went to pay for the site and ask for an extension cord so we could plug in properly, and also ask about laundry. He came back with an old extension cord, and reports that the guy running the place was a slightly “odd duck”.  He paid for two loads of laundry and was given the key to the laundry room to use as we liked. Ollie found a big elastic band and made some various sling-shot style contraptions on the picnic table. Amelia loves climbing around under the tables like they are forts. To each his/her own. We all spent some time at the lake (just steps from our RV) throwing rocks and admiring the AMAZING view. So gorgeous… a vast, misty lake with treed mountains in the background. Stunning. Ollie and Amelia LOVED throwing rocks into the water, and we walked down the beach slightly to cross over to a small rock spit along a wooden plank. In the water beside the plank was a tire, which seemed out of place, and Amelia was quite taken by it… repeating to us that there was “tire in der” .

We cheated and made pizzas in our oven (yes! In our oven!) and even baked some cookies in there! Pretty novel and fun. At 8:30pm we dosed the monkeys up with Melatonin, and by 9:30pm they were asleep. Wuhoooo!  

I also had run up earlier and put the laundry in. Such a nice new washer/dryer set! They were 2 years old and still had the plastic on the fronts. Very satisfying to clean our clothes in this nice big laundry machine. Ah, the little things in life.  I finished the second load after the kids were asleep and went to return the key to the office. It was just before 10pm when I peeked at the office door which was all closed up. Then a face appeared behind the glass door. I held up the key and looked with a questioning gesture of where to put the key. He just shook his head slowly and made the gesture with his hands of going to sleep. I put the key on the table beside the door and smiled and left. It was a little strange he wouldn’t open the door to take the key, since I was right there, but I didn’t bother questioning it, knowing that Jonathan had a bit of a strange interaction with him, too.

In the darkness of the quiet RV, I typed out some journal days on the laptop in hopes of uploading a bunch of days through the wifi at the office in the morning.  It was by the dim light of my laptop and reading light that I saw IT. I sat bolt upright and said to Jonathan, “Oh --------! I just saw a mouse. No joke!”    A little furry ball with a tail had scurried across our bathroom floor and darted behind the toilet. We had known that this was a possibility. That mice often find little entry ways into campers and RVs and make themselves at home. This was the first sighting and sign of any such hitchhiker. Damn.   Brave Jonathan (he hates mice) turned on the light in the bathroom and looked to see if there was any escape route for the mouse. There was a hole behind the toilet basin where a pipe when in and there appeared to be room for the mouse to dart in (and out?). He plugged the hole with crumpled up aluminum foil and we used Amelia’s old welly boots with rocks in them to try and block either side of it a little bit. I pulled the bathroom door across (kind of a folding accordion style door, with magnet closure) and piled some pop and beer can boxes in front of it to try and block the gap underneath. I also piled Jonathan’s shoes on top as an extra defence or at least an alarm if the mouse jumped up onto them and knocked them over).  I also pulled the table across the “entrance” to our sleeping area like a wall so that at least it might deter it from joining us while we snoozed.  

Needless to say, it was a little hard to sleep knowing there was a critter in with us. A few hours into the night, I woke to the sound of Jonathan’s shoe falling to the floor. I turned on my flashlight and sure enough, the culprit had escaped the bathroom. I very bravely crossed the table barricade into the war zone and tried to find out where it went. It darted out at me unexpectedly and fearing that it would try to get past me into the “sleeping zone”, I waved my flashlight at it and kicked my feet and sent it scurrying back towards the pop can box wall. I couldn’t get to the door to redirect it in my flurry, and it ended up in the bathroom again and disappeared. The tinfoil seemed untouched, so who knows where it actually escaped to. Jonathan woke up during this commotion, and remembered that we had a couple of traps under one of the seats. He had seen them when we bought the RV. We set some traps in the bathroom and kept up the table barricade. No further luck removing the little rascal that night.