We left Thredbo and went to Melbourne to find a place to live. We located a retirement village in Lilydale, N.E. of Melbourne and are in the process of buying a place there, hopefully settling in September.
We left Australia and arrive in Canada on the 21st of March in order to have Easter with my sisters and father in Kamloops. We then made our way to Prince George where Lee's brother Rick lives and traveled with him to Redwater Alberta, north of Edmonton to have an 80th birthday for Lee's mom. We spent the time since then in the Redwater area at Shari and Blaines place (Lee's sister) buying a stonkin big truck and a 5th wheel so that we could travel in Canada. During that time our niece Kelly became ill in her pregnancy and soon had a 2.5 pound baby girl called Tayten approximately 2 months premature. Mother and daughter were doing well when we left Redwater 2 days ago. During this trying time for Kelly and Jeff we parked our fifth wheel at their farm and tried to be useful doing the chores and building fences.
And finally today came and we began our trip up the Alaska highway. We spent last night with my sister Barb and husband Gordon in Edmonton and set out about 10 this morning for Grande Prairie. The day was rainy at first but turned sunny with partial cloud by about 2 PM.
The journey began on hwy 16, the Yellowhead, but soon we turned north on highway 43. Most of today was on good twinned highway, with only a bit of frost heave bumpyness starting about 50 km out of G.P. Geographically the land is rolling farm land around Edmonton, transitioning into forest by Whitecourt and then back into farm land by Little Smokey. Overall, our first day on the road was quite beautiful and anyone who does not have the time to go to Alaska should consider doing a loop from Edmonton to G.P., down to Hinton and back.
We had lunch at Tim Horton's in Whitecourt and are staying tonight at a nice RV park called the Tamarack RV park in Grande Prairie. The wireless network here is $6/hr, so I'm waiting for a free connection tomorrow in Dawson Creek at the tourist center!
