Another Time on the ALCAN - 3. Ft. Nelson & Dawson Creek

Saturday, September 26 - 204 Miles Today. We are very conscious that many Road Houses are closed, some not to open again, so I am reluctant to let the gas tank go much below the half way mark. We stopped at the Northern Rockies Lodge to gas. The place is a high-end hunting and fishing lodge on the shores of Muncho Lake. Well healed tourists are flown in by small float-planes for a week or two, and then carried out the same way - no dusty long road for them. There is a large lodge made of logs and a sprinkling of picturesque chalets along the shore. Gas cost $6 a gallon, the most expensive along the highway, but we had stopped at a couple other places only to discover they had no gasoline, so I wasn’t about to pass the opportunity.
We rolled into Fort Nelson at four in the afternoon looking for a place to stay. We had camped on the west end of town in 2006, but didn’t care much for it, so we thought to try one described in the Milepost that lay five miles on the other side. It was closed, maybe for a year or two, so we turned back to town. Found an RV Park in town hidden behind the Blueberry Motel. It was a fenced, open, graveled lot that we had failed to notice on earlier trips, but it had good Wi-Fi, so we were happy.
Once we unhitched and set up the trailer it was time for dinner. On other trips we had dined at Dixie lee’s, a small, popular place with the locals, so it seemed a logical choice. Dixie Lee’s specialized in deep fried chicken and fish. We noticed there were no customers when we went in, and it was dinner time. Only one other couple came in while we were there - weary travelers from Oklahoma on their way to Alaska . I ordered three pieces of chicken woth fires. I got a small leg, a small wing, and a small thigh - over cooked and dry. The place had probably been sold - new owners, new personnel. Don’t need to go there any more.
Sunday, September 27 - 283 Miles Today. We left Fort Nelson just after 11PM, and arrived in Dawson Creek about 5PM. I spent another paranoid day of driving while watching the gas gauge go toward the half way mark. We stopped at three places in the Pink Mountain area even though I probably had enough gas to get to Fort. St Johns - I wanted insurance. The Buckinghorse River Roadhouse had a sign on the pump, “Sorry no Gas”, so we went across the road to what looked like a large road crew camp. There was a restaurant with gas pumps out front and an RV sitting at them - nobody around. We waited several minutes and then went on into the Provincial Campground for a break. The campground has a large parking area with camp sites along its river side. We have camped there several times and always enjoy stopping. The RV was still there as we left the campground so we drove on again. The gas gauge was slipping under the quarter-tank mark when we were finally able to get gas. GO TO: Part 4