Hot springs

Rob started the day with fixing the hitch so it was getting late in the morning when we were finished packing up. When we had gotten to the site the night before we had been told that if we wanted to stay a little later to use the hot springs that would be alright so we took advantage of the situation and went for it.  

Dad walking the very long board walk. That is just the first section. 

Hot springs. Patience is the short one in pink. 

Evander really liked the hot springs. 

After the hot springs and a quick stop at the play ground we headed back to the vans and started to Watson. Today was the day we would cross into the Yukon. 

Because it has been a long trip and we didn't have too far to get we stopped at points of interest. This one I think was called Whirlpool something. 

There was a big pile of logs on the side that had been hurled up when the water was higher. It was a great place for skipping stones because the way the rocks had broken off left many very flat pieces. Xavier got one to skip about 20 times. It went so far. We spent a fair amount of time there because it was enjoyable to walk across the rocks and throw things. 

Look at the technique. 

My arms just aren't long enough. Maybe I need a stupid stick. 

Watson Lake is home to the sign forest. It also has a very nice information centre and is home to a northern lights centre. 

We lost Rob for a moment in the sign forest but we did manage to meet up again.

 There are over 76000 signs in the sign forest. 

I still have a short arm problem. 

And someone brought a piece of home for us. (Not from us). 

We found the Watson Lake campsite just out of town and got set up. I was excited because there were lots of sites and they were only $12 a night. Rob was very excited because it was real camping, in trees, with fire. Yes, no fire ban. We made real camping food, potato packets and roasted smokies, popped popcorn and played at the nearby playground. I sent Patience to bed at 9:30. She wasn't tired and really it wasn't dark at all so I could understand but we were planning on going to church in the morning so she still had to go. 

Mom got a nice picture of the birds that came to eat the blueberries that fell. 

Niles Fell Down A Mountain

I started the day with laundry at 7. Might as well take advantage of the situation. Honestly the part of the camp ground was the laundry and the kids liked the play ground. Evander really liked the play ground. He was waiting by the gate in the morning for it to open. And there was toast because we could plug in the toaster. 

It was smokey in the morning. You can hardly see the mountains in the distance.

We had planned on a long day. We left early and went to Fort Nelson. Again the kids were super travellers. Not that excited about Fort Nelson we stopped at Subway for lunch, and decided that the kids were being so good that we would keep going to Liard and have time to go to the hot springs before bed. 

We were making good time and the view was nice. Xavier took about 200 of the same picture for me.

Here is one version. 

Here is another. 

We had just passed a sign saying that Liard was 200 or so kilometres away ( I can't remember), going downhill in a no passing zone when we went over a bump, then a big BUMP and a BANG, SCRAPE! Rob pulled over very fast. The trailer had come off the hitch. Mom said it looked scary but really the chains worked and it was all so fast that I didn't worry. 

There was the trailer, on the ground, no ball on the hitch and we are in the middle of nowhere. I started walking down the way we had just come to find parts because we weren't going anywhere without a hitch. I managed to find the front of the battery cover and a bolt. A particularly useless bolt, as it was stripped and flattened but our bolt.

 In that time mom had gotten the other kids out of the vans and away from the vehicles. They had found wild strawberries. Delicious. "Staberry, mmm," says Evander. 

A highway worker, Gordon Grove, stopped to help. He had a very useful jack and everything was going swimmingly. Rob had a ball and they were getting things put back together.  Suddenly Patience started crying because Evander had dropped a big rock on her foot and Evander was crying because Patience was crying so I went there to calm everyone. (Her foot is fine). Niles was helping look for strawberries because Evander needed staberries. I looked down for a second for a strawberry and then I saw Niles slipping down the side of the slope.  I was holding 

"Niles! Niles! GRAB A TREE! A TREE!"   

I heard jumping a running and Rob was at the slope side and Gordon had jumped down the slope to Niles. Dad had a piece of tie down and was sending it down the side. Niles got up the side again and so did his sandals no worse for wear. He is a bit more cautious about edges now. Rob didn't like that situation at all and refuses to wear his sandals at all now because when"Niles fell down the  side I was wearing these shoes and I couldn't move fast enough,". 

We hooked everything up again and got ready to go. Rob still needed a part but was sure it would hold until we got somewhere. 

Somewhere was Toad River. Not that things fell apart but we stopped to check and get gas because it was there.  I also got ice cream because ice cream makes things better. It was terrible ice cream but it was the only ice cream around.  There were also many hats and photo ops. 

From there we kept going on to Liard. We saw some animals,

(Rob yells, "Camera! Camera!") 

But we finally made it to Liard.  Being on vacation we had forgotten that it was Friday and had not planned ahead for camping so the provincial parks all had campsite full signs. There was a private RV park and lodge so we stopped in there to see if they had spots.Sometimes just having a spot is worth much money. 

We took their spots and made supper around 8:30. Evander got tired with Dad and Rob after supper so they decided to clean up and put the small to bed. The rest of us wanted to go swimming at the hot springs so off we went. 

The park is really nice. It has a play ground before the hot springs so the kids had a quick play before we went in. It is about a kilometre walk into the hot springs on the boardwalk. After swimming a bit we went back to bed. It might have been 11:30. Patience can't even tell.