running caribou

Day 17: You Say It’s Your Birthday…

rock sheepStart: Muncho Lake, BC
Finish: Dawson Creek, BC
Miles today: 411
Miles total: 5038

Caribou: 22
Stone Sheep: 1

Today is the birthday of my children’s grandmother. For the genealogically challenged, that is my Mom and my Dad’s spouse. Mom, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

rock sheep on roadAnd in celebration of my Mom’s birthday and her diversity, I spent some time on the Genographic project. This is The National Geographic and IBM’s project to trace lines of man’s Y chromosomes back to their origins. One of the cool things the Y chromosome test is showing is that the further back we look to our past the more we are all related. Celebrating our differences really becomes an acceptance of the commonality in our past.

Toad River Restaurant hatToday’s music choice also celebrated Mom’s birthday. We set aside Jimmy and plugged in the music of my people… Los Lobos!

Last night put us in the Rockies… And as you would expect wild life and water abounds. On this adventure we drove to the ancient grounds of the caribou herds (Deadhorse and Inuvik) where tens of thousands of animals come together on their annual migration. Our time in the tundra did yield caribou spottings; One here two there but we saw many more hunters than caribou while in the Arctic Circle. 1,500 miles south in the northern Rocky Mountains we found our caribou herd, remember seven makes a herd, there were 14 and they acted as one, moving in unison.hats collection

On the big game count front, we saw a rare stone sheep. It was very cool. Seems like the caribou and stone sheep were grazing along the road edge for salts.

Did you see the Oklahoma score? Oklahoma 51, Miami 13. Although Dad and I are not big Duck fans, a number of the folks following our adventure are huge Duck fanatics and we were very excited to hear that Oregon bashed Michigan: Ducks 39, Wolverines 7. Go Ducks. That should make the trip to Michigan worth it for Carla, Ray, Pat, Brad, Chris and Joey! Have a safe trip home.

caribou side of the roadDay 16’s post went up this morning from a cafe in Toad while Dad and I had breakfast. The reason we were there is Dad read about their hat collection. The Toad River Restaurant, Gas and Hotel has 7,325 hats on display. If you figure $5 a hat, that means there is $36,625 worth of hats tacked up to the ceiling.

Mention the Alaskan Canadian Highway (ALCAN) and most people think frontier, gold rush, rouged landscapes and dangerous wild life. Most of the our time on this adventure we have lived and experienced some of Jack London’s northern adventures. Today we reached the end of the ALCAN. The ALCAN ends (or begins depending on your viewpoint) at Dawson Creek, British Columbia. We entered the city limits of Dawson Creek and the first thing we saw was a Walmart! We have eased back into civilization. We still have close to 1,000 miles remaining and will continue to find new chapters for our adventure in the remaining concrete jungles between here and Poulsbo, WA.caribou running away

Joyce: I liked “Where is Joe Merchant?” and “Tales From Margarita Ville”. If you or anyone else wants to drop Diane a post card just send it to: Diane Jimmy, P.O. Box 134, Watson Lake, YT. Y0A 1C0. And who know the housing market was sluggish…

John: Thanks for the scores, you’re my life line. You’ll have to take up the laundry question with Dad… But I would be careful… He may write down the instructions, show you how it is done and than you’re on the hook for doing laundry from now on. Teach a man to fish.caribou crossing the road

Loretta: I see that you are taking the X chromosomes side here… We’ll see about the slide show… Get an adventure slide show with every t-shirt sale.

Maura: World meet Maura. Maura is the most beautiful, loving woman in the world who let me go off with my Dad on this adventure while she held the home front together. I could not have done this without you… and NO we are not getting more furniture… unless you want to discuss Antigua 2008.caribou roadside

Mary: what will you do with the new information in the chart?

Shelia: Do you think we should do posts on tape for Jim? maybe podcast them… or even set up a phone in hot line. We may need to put Jim on a twelve step program if he is needing a Last Great Road Trip fix while driving. Antigua 2008 or bust.

2 thoughts on “Day 17: You Say It’s Your Birthday…”

  1. I loved the perspective photos of out the window looking at the rare animal and how the heck to do you actually know what animal it is and that it is rare???? Way too much time on your hands.. Are you gearing up to be back to the choas that is life. Any strategy for keeping the euphoric feeling that you’ve been able to achieve on this journey.

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