Yesterday was the first day we have had internet or phone service for about seven days. The trip from Valdez to our current location of Telkwa, British Columbia has been a long hard grueling trip with the worst roads we have traveled. Granted part of the way was a repeat of our trip to Alaska but two new routes, the Glenn Highway and the Cassiar Highway, were big disappointments. We were under the impression that those two routes were easy traveling with beautiful scenery but that was not the case. Not only were there numerous frost heaves with broken pavement, pot holes, long dusty or muddy stretches of gravel and construction, the weather robbed us of any vistas that might have compensated for the drudgery. We are glad we had this once in a life time experience of driving to Alaska and back, but any future visits will be via plane or cruise ship. Never again will we submit our own vehicles to the abuse required to travel to Alaska.

Here are some photos of our vehicles as they appeared on the second day of travel on the Cassiar. The first photo is what the car looked like after we washed the windows so we could see to drive it. The second photo is what the motorhome looked like.

Our car

Our motorhome

The first morning on the Cassiar did offer up some rewards for our travel. This photo is the sunrise we were greeted to behind our motorhome while camping at Boya Lake Provincial Park.

Sunrise at Boya Lake

We don't think our vehicles will ever be the same after this trip and we will probably need to spend a month cleaning them after arriving home. Imagine driving an accumulated mileage of over 400 miles on roads so dusty that sometimes you could not see where you were going. There is dust in every compartment and many of the cabinets. The windshields on both vehicles have rock chips and new squeaks and rattles appear frequently. Not only are the sections of dirt and gravel dusty or muddy, they often have a washboard surface.

We are now back in the populated area of Canada and conditions are significantly improved. Today we will spend some time cleaning the vehicles and tomorrow continue our travel toward Jasper and Banff. Those are the two main areas we plan to visit as a group and then we will separate and  start our individual journeys home.