Day 4 and 5- Pink Mountain to Calgary then home

We got up around 7 in the morning and headed to Ft. St. John. There we had breakfast and filled up with gas ($5.10 a gallon). This would be our last McDonalds breakfast meal. Heading south the area becomes more farm land and forest and the mountains are left behind. We reached Dawson Creek which is the end point for the Alaskan highway when heading south and the beginning when heading north.




For all this trip Cindy had her back seat cave. We would take turns driving each day but most of the time Cindy was in the back in her little cave.

We had lunch in Grand Prairie and then continued on. Another fill up in Fox Creek ($4.65 a gallon= $1.23 a liter) and we continued on heading for Edmonton and the West Edmonton Mall for dinner.



We had talked about it and Cindy wanted to see this mall which is one of the largest malls in the world. We got there around 7 in the evening and looked around at the various indoor sights such as the mini golf, the pirate ship, the pool, ice rink and kids carnival area as well as the stores. We then sat down to eat at one of the food courts.

We made it to Calgary around 10 at night. That day we traveled 697 miles.  We were staying at a Marriott that night. Cindy thanked me because it was so nice and comfortable. The strange thing about it was that it was $10 more than each of the other places we stayed at but so much better. Isolation can demand a higher price is the name of that game.

The next morning was Saturday and was the final drive before we reached home. We had a nice breakfast which was included with the room ( So this was really less than the other places we stayed when you figure the cost of McDonalds in Canada.) We filled up in Calgary ($4.50 a gallon) and then we were off.














We stopped to get gas in Lethbridge and get something to eat on the go.

We pushed on to the boarder. The road became I-15 so all we had to do was stay on it. We got some gas in Helena at $3.72 a gallon and kept moving. As we got closer to Butte and then all the way to Idaho Falls the sky was filled with the smoke from wild fires that we had experienced when we left Ogden 5 days ago.

Maddie was starting to realize we do live in a desert because there really was no green colors around. We arrived home after traveling 821 miles that day and 13 hours of driving. We were welcomed by a sign that Shannon and the kids had made. It was nice to have everyone together again after five days and 3195 miles.