I immediately found myself in a familiar situation as I left Jasper on
Highway 16. Gazing on the rear of a big RV as it drives toward a mountain
is something I've been doing a lot of lately.
Although the RV in to previous panel went straight when I turned onto
Highway 40, the familiar RV & mountain scene soon returned. A small
bridge is being replaced several kilometers east of Grande Cache and
traffic is diverted onto a dirt substitute while the work goes on. What
looks like muddy ruts are, in fact, muddy ruts. They were quite shallow
but I'm thinking that more rain and traffic could make this crossing a
little more interesting.
In Grande Cache, the RV I was following turned into a gas station and I
turned into the one just beyond. Taking advantage of every opportunity to
fill the tank is a good thing to do in these parts and it will only be
getting more important as I drive on. I bought 46.582 litres at $1.109 per
litre which is something like 12.3 gallons at $3.275 per gallon. My last
US fill-up was at $2.299.
On the other side of Grande Cache I got an RVless view of this old
through truss bridge, complete with wooden deck, over the Smoky River.
I've actually had plenty of RVless views and by no means are my comments
serious grumbling. Here are some more RVless views including a couple
showing the friendly relationship between road and railroad.
I had encountered short periods of rain and short stretches of
construction but both sort of settled in fifty of sixty kilometers beyond
that wooden decked bridge. Asphalt laden trucks, flagger induced stops,
and sometimes heavy rain filled some 20+ kilometers of my drive to Grande
Prairie.
