Today we left the Glowing Embers Campground on the west side of Edmonton and directed the nose of the Tundra toward Dawson Creek. The sky was blue and, after starting out in the mid 50s, the temperature rose to the mid 80s by late this afternoon. Not a drop of rain anywhere along the way.
After approximately 375 miles, we pulled into the Mile "0" Campground on Highway 97 North in Dawson Creek.
We had hoped against luck to get into the Northern Lights Campground on Highway 97 South from which our Good Sam Caraventure will depart on Wednesday, but they were totally booked for the weekend.
The ride up Highway 43 was uneventful. We did pass one deer farm (none were visible in the pens although we spotted a few along the highway) and one elk farm (lots of the big critters lounging in the sun), but there were no moose visible despite some very moosey looking territory. Lots of huge beaver lodges in the ponds along side the road and one very large, very angry looking statue of a beaver in the town of Beaverlodge.
It seemed that half the ride was along a very slight ridge on a very large plateau that afforded miles and miles of views.
The highway itself was, for the most part, a divided four-lane structure. Only when it entered into a larger town did it become undivided. Speed limits were in the 100-110 kph range for much of the way and, although I kept the Tundra's speedometer right around that range (translates to 62 to 67 mph) I was still getting passed like I was parked.
The price of gasoline rose from a low of 97 cents per litre in Edmonton to $1.05 in Dawson Creek. But we did get full service at our last fill up. Yep. Someone pumped my gas and I wasn't in NJ or Oregon. He even washed my windshield!
I can't be sure yet, but the alignment of the trailer's axles may have boosted by mpg. I only ran two tanks of gas through the Tundra today and the ride was anything but flat with lots of ups and downs but the mpg average after each fill-up was between 0.5 and 0.75 mpg higher than the last few fill-ups heading into Edmonton.
[On a side note: Why is it that it takes so long to grind your way up a slope with mpg readings of 4.5 and 5.5 and so short a time to go down the same slope when the readings are 85 and 99 mpg? Your kinetic energy and potential energy are the same either way. No? Must be an awful lot of air resistance and drag on the vehicle.]
Tomorrow we will be go into over to the Northern Lights Campground to register with our wagon master and introduce ourselves to those who are already on hand. Dick (our wagon master) says they will have a cake to celebrate Fathers' Day.
[It is currently 10 PM local--that is Mountain--Time, and the sun has just set. This is going to be tougher than I thought.]
1 comment:
Enjoying the photos you have been posting. Keep up the good work.
JDP
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