12 June. Grande Prairie, Alberta.

It's Sunday, the 12th of June. For the past week internet has been non-existent, so the blog suffers. No photos today. We departed our campsite at Canada's Jasper National Park for the 225 mile drive to Grande Prairie, Alberta.  Jasper NP extends far to the north, so we saw plenty of memorable views of rugged mountains.  But as if on cue, the park exit came and the scenery changed almost immediately.  We can say that Canada has no shortage of trees.  We saw some signage that warned of infrequent stops for gasoline, a feature of the trip that will stay with for the duration.  Then we saw trees.  And trees.  And trees. As far as the eye could in all directions for some 150 miles were trees, all in apparent excellent health.  Then, arriving in Grande Prairie we saw a saw mill stacked with cut trees. My conservative guess was 1,000,000 cut trees.  Think a million telephone poles.  Like that.  Canada has trees. Grande Prairie has civilization. I type this from a Starbucks.  We stopped at WalMart earlier and saw a Costco nearby.  There is Home Depot and Pet Smart, and Safeway.  A town of over 85,000 it is populated by people supporting Lumber and Oil (the nearby pipeline) and Farming and Ranching. We will be in Grande Prairie for two nights, then off to the north.  The plan is laundry and cleaning.  There will not be much civilization, or internet until we arrive in Fairbanks, AK on 27 June.  But, if I can, I will post for the few faithful who are looking.