DOWN and DIRTY
Up here, this time of year, the first question that you hear in any RV park is "which
way you heading, up or down?". Well we are heading DOWN the AlCan and there is
a lot of construction going on with water trucks all over the place. The towed
gets so coated with red mud that you don't want to even touch it. That's the
DIRTY part! The coach gets its share also.
Along the way down it is not uncommon to see stone sheep. Here are some gals and guys
HERITAGE MUSEUM
The Fort Nelson Heritage Museum is next to the Westend RV Park. It is a very
interesting place to visit where you will see all kinds of stuff from the history
of the area. Worth a visit if you come up this way.
It has one of the largest engines that I have seen. The photo at the right is
the crank shaft from the engine compared to one from a automobile engine.
FORT LIARD, NWT
Fort Liard is a small town in the Northwest Territories. It is 125 miles up the
Liard Highway from Fort Nelson. Since we had not been to the Northwest Territories
before, we decided to take the drive and see what was there. It turned out to be a
small town primarily populated by Acho Dene natives. The lady at the visitor information
center and craft shop was very friendly and told us a lot about her people's history here
and elsewhere in North America. Had a good lunch at the only restaurant in town which is
in a single wide trailer.
The road is mostly paved, but with lots of construction and water trucks. Probably
only saw half a dozen vehicles on the road other than the construction related
traffic. The picture is of the Fort Nelson River bridge. It is the longest
Acrow bridge in the world at 1,410 feet. The Acrow style of bridge construction
was formerly called a Bailey bridge and is designed of interchangeable steel panels
coupled with pins for rapid construction.
