Day 11

Fort Nelson, BC to Whitehorse, YT!

Our best day for animal viewing. We saw several groups of Buffalo, Bears and Stone Sheep.

The Buffalo were just grazing by the highway and didn't bother looking up when we stopped to take their pictures. You can tell by the hair that they are beginning to shed their winter coats.



We saw several bears. One group was a mother and her baby cub. We watched them for some time and they didn't seem to mind us watching. This mother and her cub were busy with the flowers by the highway.

This male bear was a different story. He was on a small hill over-looking the highway when we spotted him. We stopped to take pictures and he immediately started walking towards our truck. A loud motorcycle came by and he ran back up the hill. I thought it would be safe to get out and get a better shot. I walked about 30 feet from the truck and bent down to get a better shot. This bear immediately started running towards me. I grabbed my camera and headed to the truck. He was coming pretty fast when another car skidded it's tires to get his attention. The bear changed his direction and headed towards the car that had made the noise. Only after additional horn honking did the bear decide to go back in the grass.


There were several areas on the highway that had cars and RV's at a standstill as there were Stone Sheep just walking down the mountainside and along the road. They did not seemed phased by all the cars traveling along side them. The would pop up from areas that seemed to be a shear cliff, walk down the road for a ways and disappear as fast as they came.

Day 10

We left Grande Prairie this morning for our drive to Fort Nelson British Columbia. We hit Dawson Creek at lunch time and started the "Famed Al-Can Hightway" at mile marker zero.

The drive through the Rocky Mountain National Forest was beautiful. The weather could have been nicer which would have made the view that much better. While driving Ed spotted something in a tree so we turned around to see what it was. As you can see by the pictures.. It was a mother bear with her cub. You have to look for the baby... he is hiding above mom between the split in the trunk.

By late afternoon the rain was coming down pretty hard and we had to make a mental note that it has been 10 days in a row that we have had rain if not all day at least part of it.



We are planning a long day tomorrow in order to make up some of our lost time from Calgary. We have also been told that for the next few days we will have limited internet service and no cell phone service.

Day 9

Well, after our unexpected visit to Calgary, we are back on the road again. We made a stop in Edmonton for lunch and then continued to Grande Prairie.

Maggie made the trip pretty good considering. She still has tender joints from all the tests and is still very stiff and tired. She was diagnosed with meningitis/polyarthritis along with a few autoimmune items. We will have to wait and see what the medication brings and she will have a visit with her new vet in Anchorage once we get there and we will have to go from there.

We have new pics of her with all her shaved 'test areas'. The next few days will be longer due to our delay in Calgary and the roads (we are told) will be getting more 'backwoods' which slows you down as well.

We are just anxious to get there now with all our unexpected surprises :)

Day 8

Another day waiting in Calgary, Alberta. We spoke to Maggie's doctor this morning and she seemed positive that they were on the right track to figuring out what she has. We hope to be able to get on our way tomorrow.

It has done nothing but rain the last 7 days, which proved fatal to one of our suitcases. I checked it yesterday morning and it was soaked. I had it in what I thought was a waterproof bag. In reality the bag was water resisitant ; but with the amount of rain we have had the last 7 days, the bag leaked around the seams and no one caught it until everything in it was soaked. The colors bled onto the other items and many things had to be thrown away.

Tomorrow is another day and the sun has to come out sometime. We are planning to drive from Calgary, Alberta to Grande Pararie, BC. Will update the blog tomorrow night.

Day 7

Ms. Maggie

We spent the day waiting on word from the doctors treating Maggie. They ran a series of tests today that included; a spinal tap, bone marrow, joint tap from both front and back paws, lymph node biopsy and skin grafts. The picture shows Maggie after her spinal tap. As you can see, she is still somewhat drugged. She was snoring hard.

While we were waiting we hung out at the hotel and the boys got some down time at the pool.

Day 6

OK, we need to update everyone about Maggie. We spent several hours at the Emergency Animal Care facility in Calgary where they are taking great care of Maggie; however, they still do not know what is wrong with her. They are narrowing things down as they continue to do tests on her, but they have nothing concrete.
All the doctors have agreed that she is very sick and it was a good thing we stopped in. Since yesterday Maggie has been on an I.V. with much needed nutrients and pain softening drugs. She was not doing well last night; however, she seems to be showing a little improvement today. The doctors still have more tests to run this evening and tomorrow morning and we are hoping they will have the problem narrowed down. Today they did an ultrasound on her liver, spleen, kidney etc and since her liver/spleen were large they took samples to be tested. They also did radiology exams on her chest to check her lungs and said all was clear. They sent everything from today to a lab and several of the results should be back by noon. If those tests do not tell them anything they have a spinal tap and a bone marrow test due at 4:00 in the afternoon. We are hoping by the end of the day they will have some kind of news for us. We definitely have a good group of people taking care of her.

Day 5

We rushed out of the Fleabag Motel as fast as the sun came up. I was afraid we would have visitors if we waited for breakfast (bugs).

Maggie is worse today. She is almost non-responsive and as we were driving through Calgary, Nancy spotted a 24-hour emergency vet hospital. We pulled a U-e and took her in for an exam. The doctor immediately said he didn't like the way she looked. He took her temperature and it was 40.5 degrees c. We had to change our plans as they wanted to keep her overnight and run a series of blood tests. Their first thought is that she may have "Lyme Disease". The have put her on IV's to try and build up her immune system. As I type this, we are awaiting the blood test results.

So instead of Edmonton, we are overnighting in Calgary until we find out what is going on. We were able to find a hotel with an indoor water slide and the boys are relaxing after being in the car for 5 days.

Will update the blog as soon as we get Maggie's test results.

Day 4

Happy Birthday Spencer

This morning we left Billings, MT after having a awesome coffee drink at the "City Brew". If you ever see one definitely stop in (they are better than Starbucks). The only event to speak of was crossing of the US/Canada Border. We waited about 20 minutes and when it was our turn, it took all of 30 seconds. Nancy was disappointed she didn't bring more plants along considering the agent didn't even ask about that sort of stuff.

The day ended in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada at a Motel that Spencer suggested we continue for 3 more hours to Edmonton. Nancy waited in the car for 30 minutes before she would come in. She waited for me to round up all the critters and get them out of sight. Mark this off your lists as possible places to overnight.

Maggie is not looking too good. She seems to have taken a turn for the worse. We hope she looks better in the morning.