Day 14: Fort St. John to Fort Nelson

M Gets a Bath and Bob & Lisa Take a Long Boring Drive To Nowhere (and Visit a Great Quirky Museum).

The Fort Nelson Heritage Museum-- Mile Marker 300 on the Alaska Highway
(and the ONLY worthwhile thing in Fort Nelson)

We began our day in Fort St. John, and while Lisa ate breakfast Bob took M to the brush-less car wash next door for a very well deserved bath.  It did a fantastic job washing away 13 hard days of driving, and you wouldn't guess that just moments before she was covered in squashed bugs and other road deposits.  She was very happy indeed, and you can see the drips from her bath in the picture below.

Day 14: M Gets a Well Deserved (and needed) Bath

Cleaned up and ready to go, Bob, Lisa, and M headed back onto the Alaska Highway and began our 270+ mile drive to Fort Nelson, where we stopped for the night.  This was one long boring drive-- not much scenery (with a few exceptions), lots of road construction and flaggers (I think we sat stopped 4 different times as we waited for the Pilot car to lead us through a single lane stretch.)

Here's a video of snippets, with the only notable moment being the brief unexpected appearance of Sasquatch.



We arrived in Fort Nelson about 5 hours later (happily without needing to stop for outrageously overpriced gas), and to our dismay there was absolutely nothing to the town: Several seen-their-better-days-hotels (one of which we're staying in), and a sparse spattering of totally forgettable restaurants. (I think we ate in the best one, and I'd love to forget all about it!)

However, the town does have one gem--The Fort Nelson Heritage Museum. To call it quirky would be an understatement.  To call it crazy fun is right on the money.  It had everything from stuffed animals to old kitchen equipment to old telephone/telegraph equipment to pipe organs, silver service found at the bottom of a well, advertising signs, a massive retired power generator, tractors, chainsaws, and Bob's personal favorite a car barn. Here are some highlights:

This is the only time this trip that Lisa wants to be this close to bears:

Lisa with the Bears

This water truck was just parked at the museum along with dozens of other retired work vehicles:

Water Truck

Special for Bob's Uncle Denny, these are just a few of the many tractors at the museum.  For my family, see the caption for color coding of what is what.

McCormick Deering tractor (red) and John Deer combine (green)

Here is Bob admiring the chainsaw collection.  (Luckily we visited the 14th day of the trip and not the 13th.)

Bob admires (fantasizes about?) the chainsaws

We were totally amazed to find a bedpan collection to rival the one Bob's mother had.  He swears that this collection is larger than hers. (She was a nurse-- so a bedpan collection is not as strange as it sounds.)

The Biggest Bedpan Collection Ever

And finally, this is a Studebaker State President from the late 1950s, which was Bob's favorite car in the auto barn.  It was a great collection, and it turned out the old guy manning the exhibit owned most of the cars in the barn-- and actually drove most of them.  We had a fun chat with him, and as we were leaving he imparted some sage advice to Bob (which had me shuddering)-- "When you build your own car barn, build it twice as big as you think you need."

Late 1950s Studebaker State President

The bottom line:  Don't miss the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum (and a stop at the Interpretive Center across the street), and after you see them get out of town as quickly as you can.  There is nothing else worth stopping for here.

We'll be glad to hit the road bright and early tomorrow morning.  Our next destination is Watson Lake, which promises to be a more interesting town.

I'll let you know...

--Lisa