Dawson Creek, Mile Zero of the Alaska Highway. This road has quite a history as it was built by the Army Corps of Engineers during early WWII as a means to defend Alaska from invasion by the Japanese. They actually did attack the Aleutian Islands on the SW area of Alaska (the Japanese, not the Corps of Engineers). At that time, roads were not really part of this world (nor are they a big part, even today. Most towns/villages can only be reached by air or dogsled, even Juneau, the state's capital.) Hillary and I visited a little but very informative museum about the building of the highway. A huge feat amidst bitter cold and harsh conditions. It used to be that you needed at least 2 spare tires to even begin traveling the AK Highway, but the entire road is now paved (though paved does not mean SMOOTH...a few areas were so full of frost heaves that we thought we may take flight at best or lose a tire, the muffler or whatever else lives underneath a car, at worst. But that was less than 200 miles of the 1500+ miles we drove on it. At this point we were just happy to be out of the car and moving around.
Notice the 5 destinations on the mile marker here. These are the ONLY towns in the next 1500 miles. Really. Fort Nelson was our stopping point that night.
Dawson Creek loves artists! The buildings weren't anything unique, but the exteriors of many were covered with amazing paintings, like these...
and this one in an alley. The side walls were designed to look like storefronts from back in the 1800's. Hillary got quite attached to this lovely lady and invited her to walk with us.
And I wanted to do a little shopping in this variety store. Too bad it was all fake!
Fortunately Hug A Mug was real and we ate a yummy lunch here. This churned up Hill's old dreams of her "Internet Cafe" and she considered just getting off here in Dawson Creek and buying Hug A Mug (it was for sale). She viewed all the angles and decided maybe Drew wouldn't be crazy about living in the middle of nowhere. Figured she'd return to NJ and discuss it with him before giving the owners her offer. I haven't heard the last word on that yet.
Please note that winning smile, probably due to thoughts of owning this place.
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