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hours to cover the approximately 240 miles to Fort St. John, BC. The scenery was attractive but not photogenic and the temperature varied on whether we were climbing to 3,000 or 3,500 feet or if we were in a valley. Part of the Alaska Highway was reconstructed in the late 1980's to take out what would have been the second highest pass and an associated curve called "Suicide Hill." I was glad to know we had missed that piece of excitement but we still had numerous 8-9% grades, either going up or down into river valleys.

The Model T ran very well today, taking the hills a little slowly but moving right along on the straight-aways. We got a little rain but not enough to wash off the dirt from our trip over the gravel road to the Northwest Territory. By the way, between yesterday and today, we drove over 500 miles, and have now exceeded 2,000 miles since we left Anchorage.

We have learned on this trip that just because a place advertises itself in Mileposts as a lodge or motel, it may not want to be a place you would want to stay. We stopped at or drove by about at least five different lodges that claimed to have lodging when what they had was a metal portable building broken up into tiny rooms renting for $100/night. There is an oil and gas boom going on in British Columbia that is extending up into the Yukon and Northwest Territories. The lovely motel we stayed in in Fort Nelson, the Woodlands Inn, was filled with workers from the larger, already prosperous companies. The smaller, or maybe newer, companies are filling up these instant lodges with their people.

A city like Fort St. John, where we are tonight, has at least 15 identified motels so, for practically our first time on this trip, we did not make a reservation but waited to see what they looked like. It took us four stops to find a motel with one remaining room. The oil and gas people (and those who HAD made reservations) had filled up the rest. So, excuse me while I look for a place to stay tomorrow.