Catching Up From Last Week - Part Two

back to our regularly scheduled blog post...had to 'jump ahead' to post those bear pix from yesterday!  :)  From Smithers BC we continued west and north for the Yukon Territory, specifically to a place called "Watson Lake".  It was very exciting seeing this sign:

I'd been told to fill up with gas whenever I had the chance, so I was always carefully checking the map to determine how far we had to go from one town to the next...the challenge being the uncertainty of exactly how MUCH of a town we would find.  This leg of the trip I was a LITTLE nervous as there were some pretty far stretches and old Murphy did not get super great mileage with the trailer...

 This is the gas station/convenience store/restaurant at one stop, pretty much the whole town right here...my car is parked in front of the gas pump...

This kind of view never gets old!

 It's always exciting when you start seeing signs for where you want to go ~ for one, you know you're going in the right direction...and two, it means you're getting closer...although 'closer' is RELATIVE in this case! :)

Amy and I had spent time earlier in the day discussing the Royal Canadian Mounted Police...both of our 'knowledge' of them came from the Janette Oke Canadian West series about a school teacher who moves to the Canadian West and ends up falling in love with her RCMP officer, red coat and all.  So we were both excited to come across one of their buildings...

unfortunately, the romantic idea of seeing a RCMP officer in his red coat, tall hat and riding his horse was deflated when we saw one of them come out in jeans and a t-shirt and open the door to his RCMP Dodge pick-up truck.  I guess they have to keep up with the times just like everyone else... :)

We made it to Watson Lake - the 'nice' motel was all full ~ it was advertised as the 'newest' motel in town...and while TECHNICALLY that may be true, we wondered exactly how many years ago it was constructed...our hotel was called the "Belvedere" and we thought maybe it was constructed back in the day when that old t.v. sitcom, "Mr. Belvedere" was popular (circa 1985).  The halls were dark, painted a lovely teal and fuschia pink with a mallard duck border separating the 2 paint colors down the middle of the hall...the hall furniture was painted a matching teal color as well.

In this room, we had the privilege of each having a bed again, however, we were informed that one of the bed frames was broken, but it would be 'perfect' for us.  The man at the front said he needed to replace the frame, but we weren't sure if that meant before we went IN to the room or just at some point in the future...turns out it was some time in the future...neither of us wanted to dwell on HOW the frame was broken...we decided a REALLY heavy suitcase must have been tossed on the corner of the frame...sounds feasible, right?!? :)  We also had no air conditioning and were told to use the fan...we informed them we had no fan and requested one...twice...but it never showed...oh well...let's just say that customer service is apparently NOT the #1 priority around here...

The street was lined with various international flags and pretty flower baskets and was slightly larger than some of the other towns we passed earlier in the day.

There was one pretty cool thing in Watson Lake that apparently others who have done their research knew about before coming here...it's called the "Sign Post Forest"

 a tradition that started in 1942 ~ people add hometown signs, homemade signs, and license plates from all over the world...

 it doesn't seem that big when you first drive by, but after getting out and wandering around, it is really a pretty impressive size...

 Amy found a Wheaton, IL sign ~ rather appropriate since that is where we met and became friends...

 there were many Colorado signs...Estes Park, Loveland, Denver etc...

It quickly became less about the locations and more about people's sign creativity...you could tel some people just improvised / made something on the spot...

 toilet seat cover (didn't lift the lid to see if it was clean)

 a very well-used cutting board

 a bed pan?!?

 a hubcap (and NO, that did not come from MY car...surprisingly...) :)

seriously, WHERE do people get used toilet seats?

 slightly more planning...a trash can lid with stickers

 folks from Georgia, carved their state shape into a piece of wood

 carved motorcylist

 visitors from South Africa...the next place I want to visit...

 a punched tin baking sheet

a fancy schmancy sign...I think they planned their sign...

and my favorite... :)