Wednesday 9th April, Stony PLains, Alberta. 9pm

So this is Canada. It took a while to get here.

We set off from the motel early, again: 6.20am, but without any breakfast on offer. We thought we might find some on the road, but few places were open (then again, most fuel places were closed by 8pm last night, too). We got coffee and rice crispy bars when we filled up with gas. We made good progress against the sat-nav (GPS) predictions, shaving an hour or so off the ETA for Edmonton.

Then we hit the queue for the Canadian border. This had been a big concern: having to unpack and re-pack the trailer would be a serious problem. The queue took us about 1h45 to get to the head of the line. Then, after a little banter with the border guard (he said the kids should be taught to cheer for the Gunners :-) ), we were into Canada: no real hassle at all!

Canadian roads are similar, but different somehow. The main road goes through the middle of many of the towns along the way. That slows you down. There seemed to be fewer significant hills north of the border: that's good, because the trailer really slows you down on the hills. We were playing cat and mouse with other vehicles all day: we'd pass them, then they'd overtake us on the uphills, and so on. But despite fewer hills, the fuel economy didn't improve...

The sat-nav didn't really like the road to Edmonton: it kept suggesting we were in the fields beside the road. And then it took us around some building sites instead of the Edmonton ring-road. Hey ho. Now we've found a motel on the westward route we will take in the morning.

Tomorrow, we should reach the famous Alaska Highway.

Stats of the day:

Miles covered: 641 1895 to go.

Gasoline purchased: 95.1 gallons, costing around $422.

Listening: Acapella Worship, Delirious, Matt Redman, Fat and Frantic, The Automatic, Phillips,Craig&Dean.