Getting ready to leave North Pole - Oct 15, 2009

Lots to do before we could leave this morning. While I got thinks buttoned down in the trailer Derek took the dogs and went to get the propane tanks filled, go to the bank and pick up a few other things we needed.

Left the RV park later than we had planned as the bank did not open till 11:00 am. We finally pulled out at 12:35 pm and it was 21 degrees.

Got to the Canadian Customs at 7:30 pm it was 25 degrees. Crossing was completely painless. Gave the guy our paperwork (passports, health certificates and rabies paperwork on the dogs)

answered a couple easy questions and we were back on the road.

VERY rough road, hit a bump so hard it felt like your bones were gonna snap. No warning for that one. Road was same color as gravel around it and it was starting to get dark so hard to see the bumps. Started looking for a campground as the milepost magazine said camping at the rest stops could be unsafe and was also illegal unless posted otherwise.

Only campground we found was closed for the season. It just kept getting darker and the road was still pretty rough. Tried a few places and they were not big enough to get the fifth wheel turned around in. Finally found a larger rest area around 8:30 or so. Posted for no overnight, but couldn't find anything else so we did anyway. There was already a motor home there and by morning there was also a semi with a sleeper on the back.

Seems that first big bump was worse than we thought. We have these little lock things for the cabinet doors to keep the doors shut, plus the little adjustable tension bars that are supposed to keep things on the shelves.

Well, the lock was in three pieces, at least what we found of it was. The bars had come out as well. There were canned goods everywhere. Several badly dented from the fall and/or having everything else land on them. A couple of jars of stuff can out too. Luckily nothing broke open and no broken glass. Where we stayed was just a few kilometres past Beaver Creek and about 239.7 miles from Delta Junction. Made decent time considering how slow we had to drive for the rough roads.