Canada

There was snow overnight, and when I went to leave Stewart, I quickly found that I couldn't. About 16 miles down the road, I was driving up a relatively steep incline, and my car kept losing traction. I knew I was slipping a lot, and the "slipping" indicator on my dashboard kept lighting up as well.

I stopped on the road for a little while -- there is no traffic here -- and thought about what to do. I decided I couldn't try to drive any farther; that was almost suicidal. So I did a three-point turn in the road, and drove back to Stewart.

I thought I'd enjoy this day off, so I drove over to Hyder, Alaska, which is about a mile or two west of Stewart. There's only one road into Hyder, and there's no U.S. border guards as you drive into Hyder, though there is a Canadian customs stop on the way back into Stewart.

In my eyes, Stewart, British Columbia has turned from a town that scared the heck of out me when I first landed there in May of 2007 into one of the prettiest places I've ever been to on Earth.

I landed in Stewart tonight, a drive of 699 km (about 440 miles) from Prince George. The apple and blueberry fritters were so good at Tim Horton's that I stopped at two different locations today, about 30 minutes apart, lol. Nobody should eat that much sugar in a day, but wow, were they good!

Today was a short drive of about 260 miles (444 km), and I landed at a much better-looking Sandman hotel here in Prince George. The short drive was intentional; I want to take care of some business in this relatively large city -- laundry, oil change, gas cans, etc. -- and then take off to Prince Rupert or perhaps Stewart tomorrow for a little sight-seeing. I'm a little road weary, and a day of fooling around sounds like a good break.

Sitting here at the hotel in Kearney, Nebraska, I just found two Canadian websites that may help on my drive through British Columbia and the Yukon Territory in a few days.

The DriveBC.ca website shows road information in British Columbia, and 511Yukon.ca shows road conditions in the Yukon Territory.