Category: 2015-Alaska

We reunited Trouble with his owner today.  Trouble’s owner Dennis was without a cell phone or computer so it made it hard to communicate and we missed him yesterday at the airport as we were later than anticipated and he had waited for 4 hours for us and finally left.  He tried to find out where we were from the airport but they couldn’t tell him anything.  We missed him by 5 minutes and wound up taking Trouble home with us as we didn’t know where Dennis was.  He managed to call us this morning and found out where we were and came to get his cat.

Trouble’s brother came along and it was great to see the two cats reunited, along with his owner.  This was the whole point of the trip was to bring this cat home.  I was so thankful that nothing happened to Trouble on the trip here, no heart attacks or escaping, we got him here in one piece thankfully!

It was another hot day, 34 degrees Celcius, too hot for this mama!  We took the car for a drive south to Keremeus and Oyosoos and stopped at an antique store along the way, poked around and played an old violin and saw a neat old stove that would have cost over $2,000 in the 1980’s.  Not too sure what that would be in today’s dollars!

We toured an old flour mill site, ate at a vineyard for lunch, an amazing model train display.

The Grist Mill had a fellow explaining the old flour mill and told a few stories about the place and how everything worked.  There was a big garden at the top of the hill that the restaurant on site used for their lunches.  We always like exploring gardens and pretending they are ours.  There were prickly pear cactus and sure enough Abby stepped on one, we had to pull all the needles out of her foot!

We are taking Trouble the cat to Homer, Alaska to be reunited with his owner.  I was trying to find a place to stay in Homer for a few nights so we could check out the area, and emailed someone on AirBnB to see if their suite was available.  I told her we were flying this cat home and she emailed back and said that she had just rented out the suite, but she offered us the use of her Winnebago motor home for free!  So we said we would love to do that.  It’s tourist season now and everything is pretty expensive in Homer, plus the Canadian dollar is the lowest it’s been since 2002, $0.75 American for every $1.00 Canadian!

We made it to Watson Lake last night around 7:00, it was a long day of flying.  Flew from Candle Lake to Bonnyville, AB and there Abby and I borrowed the airport manager’s truck and went to town and picked up groceries while Paul furled up the plane and Ben hung out at the airport.  From there we went to Fairview, AB and fueled up there and then to Fort Nelson for one last fuel up.  I was beat by the time we got to Watson Lake!

We landed and taxied to the airport campground which was just a big patch of grass by a lake, with a gazebo with a wood stove, and some sketchy porta potties.  We walked over to the aim building and used the washrooms there and came back and had supper and set up camp.  

No one else was around but then a Cessna 210 showed up and they camped with us as well.  It was a 80-year old grandfather taking his two grandsons in his plane to Alaska from Washington & California, and a pilot that was flying them there.  A nice bunch of guys, they played football with Ben and showed him their small remote helicopter with a camera in it.  Now Ben wants one of those for his birthday, along with a scooter!

Trouble the cat is doing pretty well and  finally went potty today!  I had a box lined with a ga

After spending the night at Candle Lake we loaded the plane up to the max, including Trouble the cat, and took off from the grass runway.  There were a few people at their cabins along the airstrip watching us and waving as we took off.  We flew over Torch River which flows into Candle Lake, we have never flown that way before but we have skidooed that way so it was awesome to see it from above!  

  On the way we flew near Elk Ridge and Waskesiu!

  
We plan to stop at Bonneville, Alberta, 1.5 hours from Candle Lake.  Paul called the airport this morning to see if they have a courtesy car that we can use, and the fellow working there offered his the use of his truck so I can run into town and grab food for supper, as we plan to camp at Watson Lake tonight!  
There’s a campground at Watson Lake, and we have packed our tents and sleeping bags in the plane.  It’s 9 km to town from the airport, which is a $35 cab ride one way.  We figured we would save the $ and try camping tonight.  I sure hope the bugs aren’t bad!!  I was also hoping to see the sign post forest but we may have to pass it up this time.  The campsite is near the lake so I’m looking forward to camping there.