Day 9 - Sunday, August 16

Day 9 was quite eventful. An hour into our drive we left Alberta and entered British Columbia, which has declared itself "The Best Place on Earth" (I wonder what Alberta thinks about that):

Twenty miles into British Columbia, we arrived in Dawson Creek, which is where the Alaska Highway starts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Highway):

As we drove into and through town, we listened to a mixtape of songs from the TV show "Dawson's Creek," which our friend Betsy created and gave to us at the beginning of our trip. Most of you probably don't know that "Dawson's Creek" was my favorite show back in the day (which makes sense, because it is the best show ever made). Our trip was delayed by an hour as I sat in the driver's seat and sobbed to "Never Saw Blue Like That" by Shawn Colvin.

We couldn't find anyone to take our picture at the "Mile 0" sign, so we took pictures of each other standing in the positions we would have been in if we had found someone:

Just outside of Dawson Creek, our tripometer hit 3000 miles:

Shortly thereafter, we reached Sasquatch Crossing:

Coincidence? You tell me (you don't really have to tell me; I just like asking "Coincidence?" after saying "Sasquatch Crossing").

Our guidebook, The Milepost ("SINCE 1949, THE BIBLE OF NORTH COUNTRY TRAVEL"), says, "Black bear are commonly sighted along the Alaska Highway in British Columbia." Well, we didn't see any black bear along the Alaska Highway in British Columbia, but, for your viewing pleasure, we took a picture of the picture in The Milepost:

A self-portrait at Summit Lake - Summit Pass is the highest summit on the Alaska Highway (surprisingly, only 4,250 feet):

We came across a couple of stone sheep on the highway (eating gravel?):

Here is a blurry picture of the next animal we encountered:

At the time, we came to the conclusion that it was either a young caribou or a young reindeer; turns out they are the same species (reindeer are basically domesticated caribou). Lindsay Spielberg captured this stunning video footage as it ran away from us:

It didn't have a red nose, so it must have been Cupid or Blitzen or one of the other reindeer.

Racing River:

A rainbow right outside of Toad River:

We stopped for the night at the Toad River Lodge. Again, we couldn't find anyone to take a picture of us together . . . well, you know the routine:

Yeah, that's right, Lindsay's the mommy toad and I'm the daddy toad. In hindsight, I would have happily endured a 12-day car ride with our cat Molly just to have a picture of her as the daughter toad.

The Toad River Lodge's claim to fame is its collection of hats. They have more than 7000 hanging from the ceiling and walls. In this picture, you can see one from the 1992 Indy 500:

By Toad River, we had driven almost seven Indy 500s.

Grande Prairie, Alberta, to Toad River, British Columbia - 480 miles