Josh likes to give me more gray hair…getting WAY too close to edges of things.

This was Jeff’s Sasquatch impression…or rather his signal that it was time to get back on the road.

And when we pulled out, this guy watched us go from across the road.

I snapped this with my phone as we drove through Portland, Oregon.

When we arrived at our destination (On The River Golf & RV Resort) we were greeted by the sweetest lady. When she found out that we were Army, she was so tickled! She gave us a huge hug, thanking us for being an Army family. She walked us to our site, and was so happy we had come through. I seriously about choked up, she was so incredibly adorable.

And we were doubly glad we picked this particular place. It is a beautiful location, with a stocked fishing pond for the kids, a 6 hole golf mini-course and a lovely setting in the countryside.

And as the name suggests, it is right on a river.

Looking at fish and crawdads. They’ve missed those.

I love seeing green things and wildflowers. Today, it snowed in Fairbanks. I don’t know if they are even going to get a summer this year!

Despite his serious face, Hickory actually really likes the camper now. I doubt he will ever like the truck, though he seems to finally be used to the routine now after over a week on the road. However, tolerating it and liking it are definitely two different animals all together. But in the camper, he gets to enjoy the fresh air, sunshine (when we have it) and lots of windows to look out, with other things he has missed…squirrels, birds and other moving things.

Our next leg of the trip will take us through the Redwood Forest, and into California!

In Cache Creek, we stayed at a place called the “Brookside Campground.” It was a nice place, though a little crowded. The sites were close together, and the area was very dusty. I can’t fault the park for that though, as this was a desert region – hot and dry. It couldn’t compare to the last place we stayed , but it was decent. The morning view as we drove away from Cache Creek.

A wildfire over on the mountain to the east.

A train tunnel along the side of the Fraser Canyon.

The fast moving, rough Fraser River.

One of 7 tunnels the highway passes through in this area.

And now for our stop! Hell’s Gate is a section of the Fraser River. This area is so dangerous and so violent, that an explorer said it was like facing the gates of Hell. And that is where the name came from. A Tram takes you a thousand feet across the canyon and river to a little tourist spot. Café, coffee shop, museum and more.

Way. Down. There.

Bye honey!!!! – He stayed with the pets at the truck.

Looking down from the tram.

Standing on this bridge, you could feel the wind coming off the rapids below. It was pretty amazing.

I could not imagine the horror that this water must have brought to early explorers. We stood here and watched whole, massive trees swirl around, standing on end in this water, like an invisible giant stirring coffee.

Heading back up in the tram, looking down through the window. This water was 187 feet deep!

This bridge below, was rebuilt after a high water (you can see the marker there) washed out the original bridge.

The bridge leads across to the other mountain, where a trail leads all the way up to the top. The guy who ran the tram, told us that his aunt use to work there, and each day she would take that hike all the way back to her car. That is serious business there!

And on down the road we go!

We crossed over the border at Sumas, and headed south on I-5. Right after we saw the classic Seattle symbol, we were greeted with the nightmare traffic of the area. It took over 3 hours to go only 35 miles.

We finally made it to Fort Lewis, our stop in Washington, and I saw this beautiful rainbow outside the commissary when I went to get supplies.

Today we head south into Oregon. Our next exciting part of the trip will be seeing the amazing Redwoods. We can’t wait!

Along this leg of the trip, we made a few stops for the guys to do some fishing. Or tree climbing.

Along this stretch, we saw several deer, 3 black bears, and a grizzly bear!

Then we came to Bijoux Falls. We found a couple geocaches nearby, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

Passing through Prince George, I saw this vehicle. Geocachers!

Just south of Prince George, we stayed in the beautiful Canyon Creek RV Park. This is what all rv parks should be like. The hosts were super friendly, the park was natural, woodsy, with grassy areas to play, firepits, walking paths and more. Gorgeous!!

Another fishing stop.

Here we made a quick detour to a canyon.

If you can make them out, there are Stone sheep down on the side of the canyon wall.

It was a lovely day. Up next Cache Creek.

The next morning, we got up and got on the road to Dawson Creek. We spent the night there at the “Mile 0 RV Park.” I wasn’t impressed with that place. The park itself looked nice enough, grassy, some trees, etc. But the bathrooms/showers/laundry smelled and looked like an old city park public bathroom. One of those bathrooms you never want to use. I can handle old facilities, but not yucky, dirty ones. Needless to say, we didn’t do our laundry there, and held off to the next place we stopped.

The morning in Dawson City, my daughter and I got up before everyone else, and did a little sight-seeing and geocaching around town.

In Dawson Creek, there are murals all over the place. It was pretty net to see them.

This particular mural had something interesting embedded in it.

The mural was painted on the outside of the Alaska House museum. A little museum dedicated to the story of the building of the Alaska Highway. It was really cool!

The geocache was actually hidden somewhere in the museum. You had to search for it and find it, but the people that worked there would give you a hint if you needed it. We found it in minutes though with our trained geocache-seeking eyes!

There it is!

The next leg of the trip took us to Prince George,, BC. We saw some more critters along this stretch!

I first began making this dish when we lived in Germany. It has remained a family favorite ever since.

To begin, you will need round steaks that have been sliced very thin. I find these already done in the meat department, and even labeled “for rouladen.”  When I buy them, they are normally about 9 or 10 inches long. I cut them all in half and make two of these out of each. In addition, you will need whole grain Dijon mustard, salt & pepper, sliced onion, and bacon – a half slice for each piece of the steak – and toothpicks.

To put these together, start with a slice of the steak. Salt & pepper one side, and then smear on some mustard. About a teaspoon or 2 – just eyeball it.

Lay some sliced onion on one end of the steak.

Lay a slice of bacon over that.

Starting from the end with the onion and bacon, roll the steak up and secure it with a couple toothpicks.

Repeat the process with all of the steak slices.

In a large skillet (that has a lid) heat a tablespoon of oil over medium high heat. Place all of the rouladen in the skillet and brown them as best you can, on all of the sides that you can – the toothpicks make this a challenge.

When you have done this, pour in a quart of beef broth.

Bring the broth to a boil, and then lower the heat to a very gently simmer. Put the lid on the skillet and let it cook for at least an hour – I normally go with an an hour and a half. Turn the rouladen over half way through.

After they have cooked, move the rouladen to a platter. Remove the toothpicks, and keep the platter warm – cover with foil and place in an oven on “warm.”

Pour the broth from the skillet through a sieve, into a saucepan. (How’s that for prepositional phrases?)

Give your husband a look while he takes a random, awful photo of you. “I said, take of picture of me pouring the skillet – the skillet!”

Bring the broth to a boil over medium heat. While it is heating back up, whisk together some cold water and some “forkfuls” of corn starch. I seriously never measure this. It’s about “half a coffee cup” and 2 heaping forks of corn starch.

When the broth is boiling, pour half of the cup into the broth. Stir it together and let it come to a boil again. If the gravy isn’t thick enough, add a little more of the liquid. Bring it to a boil again. Done.

Now – you will serve the rouladen topped with the gravy. Today I chose to serve this with golden couscous. The couscous simply drinks up this gravy and it is so stinking delicious! You could of course, also do this with some mashed potatoes. Whatever floats your boat.

Enjoy!

10 minutes later, we saw a couple wild horses.

Wild horses and…what is that back there?

BISON!!!!!

Lots and lots of bison!

Look what’s up ahead!

There’s babies!!!

Oh my goodness!!!

I know these photos are a little fuzzy, but we were driving, and with a mama that big, you don’t want to stop and seem a threat in any way to these babies.

Then we came around a curve and saw this.

You could see the truck and another car had stopped. This parade had marched across the bridge. They always have the right of way.

Yo.

Oh. My. Goodness.

And all of this awesomeness, surround by beauty like this.

Moosie!

And another!

Muncho Lake with its stunningly blue water – even blue when it is frozen.

One of the dangers we faced, were caribou in the roads. They come to the road to lick the salts from it.

More caribou ahead!

You can tell it has been a long winter. Look at the ribs on this poor thing.

Another wild horse.

More caribou in the road!

Hey there!

And then we came around a tight corner on a steep hill and WAM. I mean…RAM!!!!!! In the middle of the road!

He pranced up that mountain like it was nothing.

Indian Head Mountain

It has been 400 miles today of breath-taking views like this!

What is that up ahead???

What a pretty bear! We were hoping we’d see one of these!

And something we hadn’t seen in three years…deer! These were just outside of Fort Nelson. We saw a dozen or so of them munching grass on the side of the road.

Tomorrow we will head through the less mountainous stretch from Fort Nelson – to somewhere near the end of the official “Alaska Highway.” What might we see tomorrow?

Upon arriving in Watson lake, we found that the little RV park that we stayed at last time was gone! Thankfully we found another park just down the road, and right around the corner from the famous Watson Lake Signpost Forest. You may remember this place from when we came through and visited it in 2010 on the way to Alaska.

There are thousands upon thousands of signs here in the signpost forest. You can find signs from all over the world. Some are signs, some are license plates, some are signs people made just for this purpose.

The forest was started in 1942 by a homesick U.S. Army G.I., Carl K. Lindley of Danville, Il., Company D, 341st Engineers. While working on the Alaska Highway, he erected a sign here pointing the way and stating the mileage to his hometown. Others followed his lead and are still doing so to this day. On July 20, 1990, Olen and Anita Walker of Bryan, Ohio placed the 10,000th sign. Carl K. Lindley and his wife visited the site in 1992, 50 years after his first post was erected.

Today, the Town of Watson Lake maintains the site, erecting more posts as they are needed through the Adopt-A-Post Program. Located near the forest is the Alaska Highway Interpretive Centre. This is often the first Yukon stop for northbound travellers. Besides providing information on the territory, the centre interprets the remarkable history of the highway through photo murals, realistic displays and dioramas, a three projector audio-visual presentation and a unique winter night scene illuminated by northern lights.

There are currently over 70,000 signs!

Back in 2010, we hung our own sign on the way North. We searched and found it and took another photo by it. Look how much they have changed in 3 years! You can see how many more signs and posts have squeezed into that little area in such a short amount of time.

The yellow sign here comes from the city in Germany that we used to live in.

The boys had to take a minute and play on the equipment that is there on display.

We also found the sticker my husband stuck on a light post in honor of his unit back at Fort Bragg.

You could spend hours here looking at all of the signs and notes that people have shared here. It is quite a neat place to stop!

Next stop – Fort Nelson!

A few weeks ago, I cooked up a pulled pork lunch for “the guys” in our troop. I had intended to make a certain kind of cupcakes that morning to take to them, but realized that I was missing a key ingredient, and didn’t have time to run to the store. So I headed to the pantry, and saw that I had a couple cans of organic Sweet Potatoes that I had snatched up when they went on sale at the holidays. Right away, I knew just what I was going to do. As I started making the batter, I decided that since these were sweet potato muffins, they needed a topping like sweet potato casserole. I ended up making these muffins 2 more times in the next couple weeks, as my family inhaled them.

To begin, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 standard muffin pans with papers.

In a bowl, combine 3 c flour, 2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp allspice, and 1/2 tsp nutmeg. Stir it all together and set it aside.

In your mixing bowl beat together 4 eggs.

Mix in 2 cups sugar, 1/2 c apple sauce, 1/2 c extra virgin olive oil (or vegetable oil) and 14 ounces of pureed Sweet Potato.

When it is all combined, stir in your dry ingredients, and mix until just combined.

Once it is mixed, scoop the batter into the muffin cups. Now for the topping.

In a food processor, combine 1 cup of pecans, 1/4 c flour, 1/4 c cold butter, 3/4 c brown sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon. Pulse them together until combined.

Sprinkle some of the lovely mixture over the top of each muffin.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until they test done with a toothpick. Cool for a few minutes on a rack.

Enjoy!

There was still ice and snow everywhere, but the weather was good and warm – practically t-shirt weather!

After our first night in Tok, Alaska – we got up and headed towards the Canadian border.  I know over the years, I have shared MANY Alaskan adventures with you. It has been very clear that I love Alaska and will miss it terribly. So we stopped and took a final family photo in Alaska.

Have I mentioned that I am going to miss Alaska?

We crossed over the border with no trouble at all, and headed out on the lovely Canadian highway. I say that with utter sarcasm, because the road between the Canadian border and Whitehorse was a NIGHTMARE 3 years ago. They have much improved the roads, but they are still a force to be reckoned with.

But can you beat this scenery?

Passing along the massive and frozen Kluane Lake.

And up on the mountain? gobs of Dall Sheep!

We’ve also seen numerous eagles, several moose and even a whole herd of caribou crossing a still frozen lake!

Down the road we go!