At the small Provincial Park we stayed in last night we met some new friends. Best to start when we pulled into a tiny gas station minutes before we arrived at the campground. The pumps were old likely dating back to the 1950s. Soon an older fella comes out from another building saying, “hold on, let me turn on the pump.” He ducks into a building and shortly the pump comes to life. I start pumping and the guy comes out simply to chat. Another car pulls up and asks if he can use it debit card to get cash since he needs $20 cash to pay at the Provincial campground. T urns out the gas station accepts credit and debit cards only for purchases. There is no ATM so the attendant explains it can’t be used to obtain cash. The 3 of us head into the building for me to pay for the gas I say to the guy needing the cash that Marsha and I will be pulling into the same campground in a few minutes and we can give you the $20 to pay. The campground is self-pay with no attendant there. One fills out an envelope and includes cash.
We head out to the campground and find only two others there. It has a pit toilet and picnic tables, but it’s off the highway and nice. Marsha goes for a walk while I putter at our site when the cashless guy, comes over and thanks for my offer but he solved his problem. Sebastien, from near Montreal. He’s driving to Alaska where his wife if flying out. She has less vacation time, so this maximizes their time to explore Alaska. The solution to his cash issue was the attendant decided to sell him twenty dollars plus TAX and it was paid for by a debit card. Crazy, that the twenty-dollar bill sale required the necessary tax.
Soon we settle into a discussion when Marsha arrives back at the site with a new friend Kathy. She and her husband are from northwestern Ohio. The five of us chatted for a few hours then headed back to our respective campers.
In the morning we give our goodbyes but expect to meet again down the road.
Traveling the highway one can see plenty of wildlife. The key is to be able to safely pull off the road and attempt to photograph the various animals. Not always an easy task. We pass several bears not willing to stick around as a photographic model. C’est la vie! As we scan the roadsides for bears a large male moose jumps into the road not far in front of us. Step one – STOP, Step 2 – Grab the camera, Step 3 – Admire the majestic large male moose as it leaves the highway and trots into the woods, Step 4 – Wonder how all the above could happen so quickly as not to capture a photo!
Seeing North America 