Day 35 - Wednesday, July 17
Today is the official first day of our caravan. We are making the final preparations as we get ready to take off on the Alaska Highway on Thursday morning. 
The motorhomes are all lined up, stickers and numbers assigned, tires checked, rock guards in place, and maps/directions ready. We are all free to leave whenever we want to take off in the morning—we don’t travel as a caravan…just end up at the same place. The wagon master will leave around 7:30 am, and the tail gunner will leave when the last coach has departed. They are the last ones through the route, and act as a safety net in case someone has problems, since there is limited phone coverage along the route.
Today we watched a PBS documentary about the building of the Alaska Highway at the Alaska Highway House—a kind of a museum and information center downtown. Building the highway was truly an incredible engineering feat. We liked the movie so much we bought it to share with others contemplating a trip to Alaska. It’s quite an amazing story.
We had a caravan briefing, then all jumped into cars and traveled to Mile 0 Post for a group photo (and some individual ones too). 
Then we returned to the campground for our Farewell Dinner, and a talk from someone from the Dawson Creek Tourist Bureau. 
They gave us Mile 0 pins, and personalized certificates indicating we have travelled to Dawson Creek Mile Zero.
We learned that Dawson Creek is named for Mr. Dawson, who did the surveying for the highway. A statute of him stands at the roundabout, pointing toward Alaska.
We are now on Pacific time…3 hours different than Indianapolis. We are still getting up early in the morning, mainly because it gets light so early! It isn’t getting dark until after 10:30 at night, but I stayed up late enough to get a picture of the sunset over the canola fields last night. 
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