WEAVER FAMILY: Another Night of Camping at the Airport.

July 16 (Fort Nelson)

Today was a bit more eventful. Travis went into town to try and get a place to fix the wheel stud. They got it knocked out, but none of the ones in the junk pile of stuff he had there fit, so he didn’t get it fixed yet. He came back to camp, we packed everything up and he dropped Roger and I off at the airport again. We were planning to have a shorter day today and meet each other at Laird River where there were some hot springs Travis and Alana were interested in going to. Roger & I would have been interested too, but we didn’t have our swim suits along. L Anyway, we spent longer at the airport getting ready than usual, and somehow missed seeing Travis and Alana on the road. Every day so far we’ve flown along the road and see the truck as it’s driving along, fly low, and we both know the other is ok and where they’re supposed to be. Anyway, we didn’t see them on the road – we went up high and cut some corners because it was later until we got going. We got to the airstrip we were planning to land at and the airstrip was closed with X’s on it, and some bushes growing in the middle, so it hadn’t been used in a while. Roger had called someone about it before and was told it was ok to land there. We circled around there at the hot springs, hoping to see the truck there – we thought they must be there already since we didn’t see them on the road at all, but they had stopped for a leisurely lunch, and hadn’t gotten there yet.

Since we couldn’t land, we went on to Toad River, landed there, and thought we’d wait there till they showed up. We had agreed to use that as a backup meeting place, and Fort Nelson as a second backup. One never knows what will be found at these airstrips. We had planned to sleep at Laird River, but had said if that doesn’t work out we’d go on to Fort Nelson, maybe stopping at Toad River first. Anyway, we ate at a diner there across from the airport and waited about four hours. It was an interesting little place and had over 8000 caps on the ceiling that people autograph with their name and the year, and tack up. The story is that in 1979 one of the owners tacked his hat onto the ceiling and then they just kept adding caps. When we were there a young guy came in with a cap and put it on the ceiling. They gave him a card that said his was the 8000 and something (don’t remember the exact number)

Travis and Alana never showed up, and we weren’t sure what do to. Were they ahead of us somehow? So we finally took off, and turns out they showed up there about a half hour after we left.

We got to Fort Nelson where we had stayed on the way up to Alaska, set up our tent, and waited for T and A to arrive. They had texted when they were leaving Toad River that they were leaving and should get there about 11 pm, but it turned out to be closer to 12 when they drove in. It was the first night of driving after dark – it’s definitely getting dark earlier and before long we’re going to have to think more about that and stop a bit earlier. We’ve been sleeping in a bit in the morning and then going till pretty late, but maybe we need to get going in the morning so we can stop earlier! We have not needed any flashlights or lanterns or anything for camping at all, and we don’t have any along. Rather nice in that regard.

I think we were all a bit stressed after this long day, and not meeting up when we planned. There is no phone service a lot of places, so we need to make a plan in the morning in case things don’t work out like we planned. They actually made it to Toad River about 30 minutes after we left, so it was too bad we didn't wait a bit longer. It made a long day of driving for them. JOLENE