Today is a non-travel day. Yeah!!! We all leave the campground at 9am to go to town to take our pictures at the Mile 0 post in the ground. This is where the Alaska Highway began or back then it was called the Al-Can Highway. We have begun to see and experience some frost heaves. One guy, Barry and Monique, have a 5th wheel and so it bounces more. He hit one of these and they broke a bottle of wine and balsamic vinegar which they then had to clean up once they got to camp.
After the pictures, the four of us are going to church followed by lunch somewhere and then a short drive out to a stretch of the original and still intact Al-Can Hwy. which still has an original wooden bridge. The group picture was under an arch not at the post in the road so we went down there afterwards and had ours taken there. It was really nice to go to church--we hadn't been in a couple of weeks. We went to George Dawson Inn for lunch and Barry and Monique joined us. The food was nothing to write home about but the fellowship was fun. Barry told us about a movie about the road being built that they showed at the Chamber of Commerce and we finally found it and it was very informative. How these Army Corp of Engineers did this job in 9 months is beyond me.It cost $138 million in war time dollars--today it would be $1389 billion. It was 1523 miles long at the time but they have changed the road some and it is now only 1422 miles long and it was completed Oct. 29, 1942. These guys were just young recruits and there were regiments of blacks also and very few had any experience building roads or working in severe cold or running the big dozers and cranes, etc. or repairing them. It was called on the job training. This was a PBS special so I suggest you watch it or read up on it on the internet some time. Very interesting. We did drive on the old Al-Can Highway which was the same one my family drove on when my Dad pulled our trailer up here to work in the 50's. It was really neat to think about. We went across the same wooden bridge that is still there today and is being used. We also saw a grey fox right at the side of the road.
We got back to the RV park just in time to change our clothes and take a deep breath before our school bus arrived and we boarded to go to the Sewell Valley Game Farm. It took us about an hour to get there and after eating their scrumptous spread they had prepared outside near a pond with mosquitoes we went to see the animals. We ate wild boar and buffalo roast,a sweet and sour meat dish made from fallow deer and
lasagna made from venison and lots of salads and lots of desserts. It was wonderful.He has 1200 acres and approx. 1400 animals and approx. 140 of them are buffalo. After taking a walking tour to see the wild boar and some of their babies, a Texas long horn,2 full grown minature donkeys, 2 musk ox, 2 different breeds of elk, Rocky Mt. sheep and mountain goats, fallow deer with lots of young, and 3 horses he put us on a wagon with hay bales to go see the buffalo out in the back 40. It was great fun even with the mosquitoes which we went prepared to deal with. On the way home we did get to see some wild deer but that was all.
We have the sides all brought in and our car is hooked up and we are ready to hit the sack because tomorrow is a long drive and it is starting for us very early again--about 6am. So good night for now.
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