July 11 & 12, heading to the lower 48

We left Hyder and had to stop in Stewart BC to dump.  These cities are very close.  We weren't to stressed going across the border here as we had done it yesterday on the motorcycle and they don't have much room to park motorhomes for extended delays.

Met some nice folks that pulled into the dump ahead of us.  They were pulling a beautiful 3 axle Raptor (toyhauler) 5th wheel.  The guy was amazing how he maneuvered it, making a multi-step u-turn into the spot.  Made me really glad we had a short mh and no trailer.  We just pulled in and out with no maneuvering issues.  

Just as we left the town, we saw an idiot driving a Jeep wagon coming the other way at a stupid speed, kicking up lots of dust.  The road was clean, so he had to be driving on the shoulder for no apparent reason.  Unfortunately he was kicking up rocks too we found.  On hit our windshield a couple inches above the bottom edge on the passenger side.  Big noise, big star, now a foot long and growing crack.  And that was the new glass (replaced just before we bought it).  The driver's side has taken some nicks, but no cracks.  Good in that it doesn't impair my visibility, but bad in that there are a couple bad spots on the driver's side & I'd like that one replaced.  Anyhow, after all the gravel roads we've been on, it was such a surprise to have it happen where it did...I thought we were going to make the trip without the replacement expense.  We saw a black bear and cub a short while later, which was a mood lifter.

I had forgotten to fuel up in Teslin (my pre-mapped spot).  We intended to go to a station we were told about on the First Nations (native), but my stress response to driving on low fuel alerts (there are THREE of them) was interfering with my enjoyment of the drive.  We tried to fill up, but the credit card I use in Canada cut us off at $125. At the station, they told me it was a "Chevron" security deal, and I didn't realize it was the mastercard fraud alert.   We didn't get a full tank, but it got us to Prince George, where we had credit card issues again.  We like that card as it doesn't charge us a foreign transaction fee like our Visa and AMEX.  

We stayed in another beautiful provincial park, so no wifi or other hook-ups.  It was so quiet; I slept late.  Prince George was our "supply" stop.  Filled our fuel tank then parked at the Canadian Tire store to spend the $11 in coupons they gave us at the gas station for our fill-up.   The prices on most things seem so very high.  We needed to get food, so Costco was the next stop.  Thought we'd do the pizza, but they won't let you pay for it at the register like at home.  Cash only and I'd used almost all our Canadian cash buying the diesel.  Besides it was 50% higher than at home too. 

We had a picnic lunch in their parking lot and I was able to get emails on my phone before the service cut out.  At least I could check for some messages to make sure there was nothing urgent.  Since we've been paying for the data service in Canada, this was the first time I'd gotten it to work at all.  No voice service, which really makes me glad I didn't pay for that service too.  Maybe the fact they don't really have the coverage they claim on their service availability maps is why we couldn't get a consistent answer when I tried to add the Canada phone coverage. 

July 12th is day 75 of the trip.  We didn't stop at single museum/visitor center.  We had to decide the route home while in Prince George.  We figured the way I had planned to go is 100 miles further than doing some back tracking.  We got a welcoming invitation from friends in Arlington Washington to come visit, and so decided the social aspects were more appealing than another 100 miles of beautiful scenery, museums on local history, mining, First Nations culture, or horses wearing snowshoes.  Basically, we both feel it is time to go home. 

We did see some fantastic scenery.  The rain was keeping the windshield clean early in the day, but by afternoon to many bugs to try to take pictures through it.  We had to detour onto a dirt road yesterday evening and decided it was time to find a place to stop.  When we got into the campground, the owner said there was an accident south of him too.   Early in the day, we went by a car-deer accident.  The deer was still in our lane and someone who had just passed us stopped to deal with it.  We saw a beautiful live deer shortly after this evening's detour, unknown if an animal was part of the problem or not.  We could see something that looked like a vehicle on it's side in the n/b lane, but we couldn't see enough to identify anything.  It was enough to make me very thankful that we were not involved.  and I hope we make the rest of the trip without that experience.

Just wanted to check in.  The Internet keeps cutting out, so won't try to mess with pictures today.  Check back later...we'll be in Washington about a week.