RV Stuff

RV Shows and Rallies

2012-02-05T17:45:00.000-06:00

RV Shows and Rallies…

Tampa SuperShow
We were invited in to present our Alaska seminar at this show mid-January. We did and chose not to have a vendor booth. So we gave our seminar each day, sold books at the end of the seminar, and otherwise, took it easy.

Atlanta RV Show
We have done this show for several years and it is really a good crowd for a smaller show. We present "mini" seminars (they last about 15–20 minutes) every hour on the hour. There are different topics all day. This apparently pleases the attendees and the dealers, too.

SEA Brooksville FMCA Rally

We have also done this Rally several years and this year, had six seminars to present. Good turnout overall but sales were down about 30% from last year (and from the Atlanta Show, too).

Visit our website at... aboutrving.com

Read this First—Then Everything Else Will Make Sense...

2011-11-29T23:30:00.000-06:00

Greetings!
This is my most recent attempt at a blog. It's not a personal journal where I share my feelings or a daily thing—there are lots of days I don't do anything plus I may not have enough feelings that day to share. Go get your own.

I will add some things here when something is worth saying. I won't promise daily but do promise often. I trade e-mails with several RVers that want to know what I am doing and what's going on so I will try to address that and more.

Mixing in some serious and useful RV information, at the conclusion of each blog, I will add a brief section entitled, "Thinking About RVing…" where I will also suggest RV tips, tricks, and suggestions to make your RVing life easier, cleaner, more efficient, safer, and more fun without spending extra money. I don't do gadgets so don't depend on me to promote what I consider to be useless trinkets and a waste of money. If my tips help you, great. If not, check back for the next one.

I'd appreciate it if you would tell your friends about the blog.

Send me a comment. Let me know I'm getting through to someone.

A Quickie Blog History...

I've been screwing around with this blog, off and on, since 2005. I used to use this blog as a test for articles and a travelogue back when I was writing for the magazines. I would rough out an article and photos on the blog before I polished it. I also used it to rough out sections of my books.

I have written for all the major RV magazines including Motorhome, Highways, FMCA, Escapees, and was a columnist for Coast to Coast RV magazine for a few years. The Good Sam website used my Tips on their website plus articles in their RV Community and CyberSam newsletter. The magazines lost a lot of ad revenue during the recession and had to cut back, so an article might sit in their files for several months. So, I quit submitting stuff to them a couple of years ago. We all parted on good terms.

I enjoy the writing. It's fun. I don't do this for a living.

Enjoy the trip. Be safe.

Ron Jones
ron@aboutrving.com
aboutrving.com

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Back in Texas

2011-11-02T14:47:00.001-05:00

We are back in Texas (near Denton) to take care of several things. We need some maintenance on the coach. We need to get some medical and dental stuff done. We need to visit the daughter, three grown grandkids (and respective spouses), and three little great-grandkids (at 5 years, almost 3 years, and 4 months old). This is really early for us to arrive here. We usually get here around Thanksgiving and stay through Christmas.

Thinking About RVing…

Maintenance #1
Our first maintenance was handled by MCD in McKinney. We use their indoor sunshades on side windows and have a single, powered, privacy shade on the inside of our windshield. The powered shade totally stopped working when we were in Ruidoso, NM and we literally had to manually roll it up and Velcro it in the stored position in order to see to drive. This worked just fine but then we didn't have any front privacy screen. I called their tech support and was guided to check for a fuse but could not find one. So, we had to get to McKinney—luckily, close to Denton.

That is their production facility so they have everything there. We had made an appointment. They determined that there was an electrical short resulting from two bare wires occasionally touching (nothing dangerous here but just a functioning problem).

What made it almost funny was that when we pulled in and the tech finally came out. The first thing he did was to try the switch. It worked just fine! We had tried it many times over many days with no luck. Oh, well, they checked it thoroughly, fixed the wiring, tested it, reinstalled, and off we went to our campground in Lincoln Park.

Maintenance #2
I found a new RV service facility (new to me) in Lewisville, TX. Called the National Indoor RV Center it is a combination storage, detailing (wash/wax), and service facility. The place was spotless, people seemed really on the ball, we stayed one night (plugged into 50 amp only), and they tackled our coach in the morning. We had a problem with our air levelers (we don't have jacks). Something seemed to be leaking. Luckily, they did not find a leak and a total reset of the system (an easy fix) did the job. I was told by their general manager that they had the "best of the best" of the techs from the closing of the Buddy Gregg Dealership (also here in Lewisville last year). Everything was great except their labor rate. It was $120.00 per hour. That's on the high side of what I have been paying nationwide.

(By the way, the lowest I have paid is $68.00 per hour at All 4 One Service in Elkhart, IN. This business is owned by two former Monaco techs and they do excellent work. I've been there every year.)

Visit our website at... aboutrving.com

A Visit to OKC

2011-11-01T11:34:00.000-05:00

We have been hanging around the north Dallas area as I said in my last post, getting our annual medical and dental stuff done and visiting with family. We are the type of fulltimer that needs to meander. It is difficult for us to set in one place for very long. For us, a week is "very long!"

So we decided to visit Oklahoma City and be our normal "touristy" self, play a bit, see the city, eat some good food, and have a good time. Hey, it's what we do. We left Texas and came up to OKC planning to spend 4-5-6 days but with no agenda—we are not big on agendas.

I am retired military and, therefore, have the ID card privileges. One of those privileges is the use of the military FamCamps. These military-run RV parks, while not on every base, are scattered around nationwide. Like the private campgrounds, some are wonderful, pristine, and resort-like and others are the pits. For the most part, they are cheap. And, just like the base exchange and commissary, there are profit centers and do not use tax dollars.

We found a FamCamp on Tinker AFB in the edge of OKC and luckily, this is one that falls in the category of "wonderful, pristine, and resort-like." Plus, they have killer-speed WiFi here. Out our front window is a small lake and the sunrises are spectacular (as told to me by Sandy). Located 9 miles from the middle of OKC, we have access to everything.

It had been years since I had visited Bricktown, an entertainment district just east of downtown. Bricktown is full of shops, restaurants, pubs, and clubs, plus a baseball stadium. You can go to dinner here from cheap to expensive. We ate at the Bricktown Brewery (a local microbrewery) and another night had dinner at "Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill" (yes, that is the name of the place). One night we went to the Cattleman's Restaurant (not in Bricktown but next door in Stockyards City). This restaurant is one of the oldest around, has been featured on "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" and serves a great steak for not much money. I recommend it. I recommend all of them.

The first thing we toured was the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum and it was very well done, quite large, and enjoyable. From the cowboys in the movies to western art (including numerous works by Remington and Russell) to rodeo fame, you can meander the halls, rooms, and galleries for several hours. We did.

In the edge of Bricktown, we visited the American Banjo Museum. The museum contains more than 300instruments including replicas of early banjosdeveloped by African slaves in the Old South, Minstrel Age instruments, post WWII instruments used in bluegrass, folk, and world music,and an array of ornately decorated banjos made in Americaduring the Jazz Age of the 1920’s and 30's. On Saturday afternoons, they offer free entertainment on the 2nd floor and you can come and go as you want. The banjo player was excellent. I don't play an instrument but have always been fascinated by the banjo. This was fun.

The 45th Infantry Division Museum was also well done. The Division was formed in 1920 and disbanded in 1969. The 45th Infantry Division served with General George S. Patton’s U.S. 7th Army during the WWII Sicilian campaign, and when the fighting was done, the commander had this to say about the division, “Your division is one of the best, if not the best division in the history of American arms.”

The 45th Infantry Division was primarily in Italy, parts of France, and into Germany nearing the conclusion of the war. The 45th was also the Division that was first into Dachau—one of the more "famous" concentration camps.

The Museum houses a large collection of cartoons produced by Bill Mauldin, famous for his depiction of the lowly GI slogging his way through the war. His two most famous characters, Willy and Joe, were outspoken on any subject related to the war. Mauldinwas a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist from the United States.

This museum also displays one of the largest collections of memorabilia owned an used by Adolf Hitler. It was a fascinating display. The museum has a few acres of larger military equipment displayed outside ranging from helicopters to tanks to various vehicles. This was thoroughly enjoyable and free.

The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum was definitely on my list as I had never seen this. Like most of us, I remember that morning's news very well. On April 19, 1995, this country changed. At 9:02 AM, Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was destroyed with an explosion of an estimated 4,200 lbs. of homemade explosive. Ultimately, 168 men, women, and children were killed.

The Museum is excellent and presents this gut-wrenching story in a professional manner. One important note here… their website says that the "average visit lasts an hour and a half." That may be true but I would allow about 2.5 hours. We did not make it completely through in our two-hour effort. Do this. Take an extra handkerchief.

Thinking About RVing…
Canadians commonly use two coins that have replaced certain denominations of their paper money. The two coins are commonly called the “loonie.” and “toonie.” There is no paper money equivalent.

The $1.00 coin has a picture of a loon on it and became known as the “loonie.” The loonie is one color— brass/copper colored—sort of like our penny. The $2.00 coin was nicknamed “toonie”—short for “two loonies.” The toonie has a silver outer ring and a penny-sized brass insert in the center (the coin is two colors).

Keep the “T’s” together—Toonie and Two colors = TWO dollars—and you will keep them straight.

If you use a laundromat in Canada, it will typically take loonies.

Every time you hand someone a bill ($5.00 is the smallest denomination of paper money) and get change back, these coins will accumulate and they can weigh quite a bit—enough to start to pull your pants down or to make a purse very heavy. Spend them.

Visit our website at... aboutrving.com

Billy the Kid Museum, Fort Sumner, NM

2011-10-17T00:22:00.000-05:00

We are headed back to Texas to take care of some dental stuff and since we were coming out of Albuquerque, decided to take a somewhat direct route east. We are not in a big hurry but this route is one of the shorter ones so it cuts down on mileage. As usual, we will boondock for 3-4 nights to get to Lincoln Park (north of Dallas).

We planned to stay the first night out in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. This was about a 150-mile drive and Fort Sumner is the home of the Billy the Kid Museum—my kind of place. I called a friend who had recently visited here and he told me that the Museum apparently owned a tiny RV park located a few blocks from the Museum. This park had no on-site management but you picked your spot, put your money in one of their envelopes with your information, and tucked it in one of those "Iron Rangers." It was $20.00/night for full (3-way) hookups (50 amp, water, and sewer). The sites were flat, gravel, large, easy in and out, and no problem at all.

Okay, one problem, lots of trains not too far away. We have come to believe that an RV park is not authentic unless you can hear a train.

The Billy the Kid Museum is a pleasant surprise. First, it is large with lots of stuff to see. It is at least four times larger than I had guessed. It took us nearly four hours to meander through it.

It is not all "Billy the Kid" stuff. The portion focusing on him was well done and displays ranged from the newspaper accounts to his actual Winchester rifle. There was plenty of reading as well as items to look at.

The other portion was western artifacts ranging from mining to household goods to handguns to bear traps to buggies to a dozen or so antique cars. All well done, displayed well, and explained.

Thinking About RVing…
Here was a small town (or Museum) that operated a tiny (about 6 sites) RV park where you could stay pretty cheap and have all the utilities. That's a good thing. There are a few places that do this but they seem to be pretty hard to locate (look up). After all, what do you search for to find these?

Here's another good one… Brownfield, Texas (next to the New Mexico border on US 380) operates a town-owned RV park with about 8 sites. It's called Coleman Park and has 30 amp and water (and a dump station) but it was free! Free is pretty good these days. You just pull in, find your spot (first come, first served), and hook up. There is no registration. You can stay for four days. Thank them at the Chamber of Commerce (806-637-2564) before you leave.

If you know of free or really low-cost places, drop me an e-mail at ron@aboutrving.com and I will pass them along. They will be appreciated. No, I'm not trying to compile some nationwide list here. Sorry.

Enjoy.

Ron

Chuckwagon Cooking Competition

2011-10-13T10:13:00.000-05:00

We left the Albuquerque Balloon Festival half way through it to go to Ruidoso, NM for the "22nd Annual Lincoln County Cowboy Symposium." The Symposium is held the last weekend of the Balloon Festival. We had an old friend who is a competitor in the Chuckwagon Cooking Competition and we had never seen him in action. Three other couples (two were RVers and all were friends) met us for this unusual weekend.

The Symposium was held at Ruidoso Downs (racetrack) and there were a number of vendors there offering various western art, books, clothing, food, and even a shoeshine. It was a kid-friendly environment with plenty to do and see.

For the cook-off, you must purchase a ticket. This allows you to eat. About twenty chuckwagons were set up and food preparation took place on Friday. Our friend, Wayne Calk, had about eight helpers and everyone was working on some aspect of preparing the food. Note that no cooking took place on Friday.

Saturday (early), the cooking started. From open flame, to charcoal with the Dutch Ovens, to a small portable stove used to cook the meat, each cooksite was busy, busy, busy! The menu was the same for all the chuckwagons since this is a competition. It included chicken-fried steak, beans, a potato dish, biscuits, and apricot cobbler for dessert. Water, tea, and soft drinks were available but not part of the competition.

About 1130 hrs Saturday, the cooks were selecting the best looking portions of everything, these went into styrofoam containers, and were delivered to the judges—out of sight from us normal humans. Then, the cooking pots were lifted onto tables and a serving line was set up. Everything was furnished.

At 1200 hrs—high noon—the Chuckwagon "Dinner Bell" was rung. All ticket holders lined up and the cooks became servers. Before the serving started, the head cook (ours was Wayne) offered an explanation of each dish, the ingredients, how it was cooked, and the level of spiceyness. There was plenty of food, the line moved quickly, and our friend's chuckwagon served about 30-40 people. Everything went very smooth, the food was served hot, and everything got quiet when everyone was eating.

After everyone was served, there was plenty of food left so you could go back for seconds or, many people wandered to another chuckwagon just to sample their food. It worked.

We had an excellent meal, cooked in a unique method, and served hot. The weather was perfect, too. The only thing lacking was a good glass of Merlot.

Thinking About RVing…
Driving around New Mexico like we have been doing for a few weeks can be a real treat. Wind—lots of wind. It may attempt to blow you off the highway. Yes, you occasionally will see a real tumbleweed blow across the road and no, it's not a leftover Hollywood movie prop from some Western!

One of the tricks when driving a motorhome in a heavy cross wind is to drive with one hand. This will generally keep you from oversteering when hit from the side with a wind gust. Keep the other hand very close to or resting slightly on the steering wheel but loose. You may want to change hands pretty often as fighting crosswinds will be tiring on the driver. Plus, don't forget to trade drivers, too. Be safe.

Balloon Fiesta (Festival)

2011-10-05T14:21:00.000-05:00

For years, we have been trying to attend the Albuquerque Balloon Festival but it just never "fit" our travels. If you plan to go with the RV caravans, you have to sign up many months in advance—it's a popular trip. My experience was that by mid-February, most of the groups were filled! So, our trying to plan for this trip was a hassle and always inconvenient to our lifestyle.

Last year, we visited an old friend as we passed through El Paso, Texas. He is a competitive "Chuckwagon Cook" and has been on Food TV. We learned that he would be cooking in a national competition held in Ruidoso, NM the same weekend that the Balloon Festival ends (it's a 10-day show). So, we signed up for a caravan to attend the first half (5 days) of the Festival and then headed to Ruidoso.

[Author's Note… More on the cooking competition next on the blog.]

Trying to get a reservation meant contacting several caravan companies. I'm a believer that some venues are better to visit with a caravan and some are better on your own. Those big gatherings where you need some "local" information or where there are a gazillion RVs are easier when you go with a group that has been there before and knows the ins and outs. Not to belabor this but the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena is the perfect venue for an RV caravan. The Balloon Festival is doable on your own as we learned but the first time was a bit easier using a caravan.

We went with Yankee RV Tours. I had met the owner of Yankee a few months earlier and he allowed me to customized the trip to fit my needs. I wanted the first five days. None of the other caravan companies could offer me that option. They did offer the last five days but that wouldn't work for me as we planned to visit the cooking competition.

We Arrive in Albuquerque
This was one of those caravans were we did not drive together but simply met in a designated location. That location was the official RV parking for the Balloon Festival. We pulled in on Friday (the designated day we were supposed to arrive) one day before the official start of the Festival.

We got in a double line that moved pretty fast. At registration, we simple tell them we are with Yankee RV Tours (we have no paperwork) and they tell us to follow this golf cart. We do. He takes us to the Yankee sites where we are met by the Wagonmaster and he shows us our site. It is an easy back-in like you find in a larger campground. We meet and greet those that are here and everything is good.

This huge field is/will be filled with RVs of every description. There are lots of sites with water and electric (30 amp) and lots of boondocking sites. We are on mostly sand, there's very little dust, the water trucks are spraying the driving lanes, it is crowded, and more RVs (large and small) are arriving constantly.

Day One
Let me preface this section by saying that I hate to get up in the morning—HATE it. I've been this way forever, I don't apologize for it, it's me, it's the way I am. I am definitely a night person.

When do they launch the first balloons? Pre-dawn! I always thought that was normally called "night." Okay, I have to get up—at least once.

What happens is this... They first launch the "Dawn Patrol." That is about six balloons that will check on everything from up in the sky—wind conditions, etc. They make sure everything is safe for the major launch.

With the "thumbs-up" from the Dawn Patrol that everything is safe, the "Pre-Dawn Launch" is a number (my guess is about 25 balloons) that do what they called a "Morning Glow." This is where the pilots fire up the balloons but hold them on the ground. The balloons are being lit from the inside with the flame. When this group launches (note that it is still dark but bordering on daybreak as shown in the photo), as they fire the balloons to gain altitude, the sky is filled with balloons giving off this intermittent "glow"—an amazing sight like no other.

Sidebar... Here's how it works! This valley and surrounding mountains just happen to be situated so that they create a "box"—made up of wind currents. The "box" (prevailing winds) allows the balloons to take off, flying low in one direction for some distance, they fire the balloons to gain altitude, then travel back the opposite direction! It is odd to stand here and watch balloons passing each other going in opposite directions. Most of them head out of town to land.

Then, daybreak. At 0700 hrs, they release the first of the balloons for what they call the "Mass Ascension" and will continue to do this constantly for two hours. There were 550 balloons waiting to launch one day. The first day they set a record launching 350 balloons in one hour. The result... the sky is filled with balloons—a magnificent site. You will be impressed. The top photo shows a tiny portion of the "Mass Ascension."

Day Two
I'm up again thanks to Sandy (wife) who rolls me out of bed. Like yesterday, we grab a cup of coffee and step outside. Twenty feet in front of our coach we can see the tops of the balloons as they get ready to lift off. When they do, this morning they head directly for us. These things are huge. Hundreds pass overhead. Wow!

There is a fenced-off area (about an acre) just a short distance from our coach (about 20 coaches away). Some balloons are landing there. When they do, some deflate and pack up while others take off again. We assume this landing is part of a competition (balloon race?). From our perspective, we can see every detail of how they operate.

Days Three and Four
I'm up again and outside. This is fascinating. The difference from day to day is that their direction changes slightly but always in our general direction.

The fourth day there are some wind gusts and a storm is moving in. The 0700 hrs launch is delayed. Finally, about 0830 hrs the wind gusts decrease and about 250 balloons go up. Due to the winds, some are having a hard time gaining altitude and pass overhead (what seems to me to be) really low—only about 20 feet up. We can easily carry on a conversation with the balloonists. Many of them land and deflate in the fenced-off area close by. It is an interesting sight.

Although we will be gone, Day 6 they are scheduled to launch the "specialty" balloons. We really wanted to see that but just couldn't work it out. However, a number of specialty balloons launch every day so we got to see a variety of them. They are fun and interesting.

Wrap Up
This was a great trip. It is certainly best in an RV. The sights were wonderful, fascinating, and unique. While you can purchase a balloon ride, we did not for medical reasons (me). It looks like fun.

It has to be pretty special for me to roll out of bed. I'm glad I did for this event.

Thinking About RVing…
You will occasionally end up in venues like the Balloon Festival where you have to do what I call "forced boondocking." We had 30 amp but no water or sewer. The classic "honey wagon" (sewage pumper) and water truck are nearly always available but they are expensive and often in the $30–$40 range for each.

If you have 40+ gallon tanks on your RV, you can survive 5-6 days easily without this expense. If you are simply running water down the drain, you will run out of fresh water and your grey tank will definitely fill.

Click here to read/review my articles on boondocking and how to live normally. We don't deprive ourselves of anything (we are definitely NOT roughing it with our RVing lifestyle) but can easily survive for 9–10 days when boondocking. This, of course, comes with practice. With the larger tank capacity of a motorhome or 5th wheel, you can do this, too. Read, learn how, practice before you need to do it, have some fun, and save some money. That sounds like a plan.

A Couple of Rallies

2011-09-01T00:47:00.000-05:00

When you read this, I don't want you to think that we are charging around the USA sort of scampering from one rally to the next. That's not our style at all. These two rallies just happened to be on our way from the east coast to Texas, the timing was right, and one of them uses our products. Read on…

Thinking of RVing…

To North Carolina
We were coming out of Canada, down the east coast, visiting family and friends, and ended up in Marion, NC, at Tom Johnson Camping Center, for their annual rally. This rally is for their customers, however, we are not a customer, but they asked us to come by and present seminars to the rally attendees.

Tom Johnson has two sales locations and they are in Marion and Concord, NC. When a customer purchases an RV from them, Tom Johnson gives them one of our books. The book entitled, "All the Stuff You Need to Know About RVing" is an excellent gift to new or (what I call) "used" RVers. It helps them understand the various systems on the RV and how to operate them. After all, "You don't know what you don't know!"

The people involved in putting on this rally invited us and Rob Lowe (my co-author) in and both of us presented various seminars. This was the first time for "educational-type" seminars in addition to the normal "vender" seminars. We were not there selling some specific RV-associated product.

While the seminar turnout could have been better, it was a good start for the first time. The followup comments were excellent and the attendees said they would be back. Next year will be better.

To Alabama
We went from there to a totally different type of rally called the "Eastern Come Home Rally" at Prattville, Alabama. This one was sponsored by Monaco and Navistar (their parent company). What was unusual was that everyone—including ANY type or brand of RV—was invited to this rally! What was even more unusual was that everything was free, yes, FREE!!!

The rally was held at a huge golf resort. All attendees were invited to attend the LPGA Golf Tournament that weekend—totally free. There was a free shuttle bus to the tournament. There was plenty of excellent food and drink with breakfast each morning, and happy hour followed by a catered dinner each night. With the free passes and shuttle to the golf tournament, it was hard to beat. Alliance Coach (Wildwood, FL) was there with their big parts trailer and to offer on-site service at a really good labor rate of $50.00/hour!

This rally was all boondocking, about 150 coaches were there. I really don't remember if they had a water truck or "honey wagon" available because we don't use them. I also don't believe they had a dump station.

I was totally impressed with Prattville. It was my first time there. The whole area was definitely upscale, clean, with tons of restaurants and shopping.

Visit my website at... aboutrving.com

RVing To Newfoundland

2011-08-31T13:13:00.000-05:00

For RVers, there are a few places left where, if you make the trip, you can truly say it was a unique destination. You could say, for example, Quartzsite, Arizona or Acadia National Park in Maine or Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada are unique destinations. While all are unique to some degree, I’m suggesting there are a few places for RVers to go that isn’t conveniently done in a car, take an extended length of time, and traveling by RV is the perfect method for getting to and visiting those destinations. Alaska is #1 among those.

Newfoundland is another. This easternmost Canadian province is remote, not easily accessed, and is the perfect RV trip. We did this and spent 35 days in Newfoundland.

The cliffs around the entrance to St. John's harbor are spectacular.

We had considered going to Newfoundland for several years and got close one time. We’ve had the good fortune to visit the Canadian Maritimes on four occasions. A few years ago—we tried to visit Newfoundland in our car and planned to stay a week. We parked our RV near North Sydney, Nova Scotia, had reservations to put our car on the ferry, but was cancelled due to extreme fog. We sat around for three days and never got on the ferry, so we cancelled and didn’t go.

Last year, on a Princess cruise from England to New York City, one of the ports was St. John’s, Newfoundland. We were there one day, toured the city, met some nice people, and I visited the local Visitor Information Centre where I got to ask lots of questions specifically about RVing up there. I got lots of good information, advice, and left there with all kinds of reading material. This information and help was the impetus that launched our trip-planning to Newfoundland by RV. My sincere thanks to them.

Late last year, a friend asked me if I was still interested in going. I was.

Our Trip and Our Group
A friend and I decided to do this trip together. As it turned out, six RVs made the trip together.

This became sort of a non-organized get-together that instantly created a caravan—but we weren’t a caravan in the formal or commercial sense. We were just traveling together for convenience, companionship, and could help each other if needed.

I am not suggesting that your trip must be or even should be a group effort. Initially, my wife and I were actually planning on doing it alone and would have done so if no one else had shown any interest. As we soon learned, there is a lot of interest in RVing to Newfoundland.

Our Plan
We planned to go from North Sydney, Nova Scotia over to Newfoundland on the long ferry (disembark at Argentia, NL) and return to the same port on the short ferry (board at Port aux Basques, NL). While these are different ports in Newfoundland, they both end up back in North Sydney, Nova Scotia. Routing in this manner through these two Newfoundland ports meant that we would be meandering predominately westbound in our RVs across the island of Newfoundland.

During the original planning, we came to the conclusion that we wanted to start our time on Newfoundland in its largest city. This would give us the opportunity to learn local driving habits, become acclimated to the customs, meet some locals, test our skill with the language (every place has its local idioms) and learn about local foods before we head out into the less populated areas. It would also provide some of our group an opportunity to say goodbye to Wal-Mart—at least for a couple of weeks.

On a more serious note, even if one our our RVs experienced some medium-serious problems during our time on the island, if drivable, we would be on the shortest return route back to Nova Scotia. We learned that this plan was opposite what many commercial caravans do but never found out why.

Note that our route is a bit different from the rest of the group. We drove the Kittiwake Coast (C to E) to experience some coastal driving. I believe this was definitely worthwhile.

The "direct" drive across the island between our two ports (A and O) is roughly 500 miles. Our planned route on the island indicated we would drive 1,383 miles from port-to-port since we would be meandering over much of the province—not taking a direct route. For our 35 days on the island, that is about a 40-mile-per-day average so we have plenty of time to stop and visit. That’s our goal—NOT to rush and see what we want.

Routes

Fishing is a way of life.

The short route is 4–6 hours and goes between North Sydney to Port aux Basques, Newfoundland. Port aux Basques is located on the southwest coast of the province.

The long route is approximately 15 hours and goes from North Sydney to Argentia, Newfoundland. Argentia is located near the southeast coast of the province. This area is littered with coastline villages due to numerous peninsulas so you will have to Google the map location.

Our decision was to go to Newfoundland via the long route, disembark at Argentia, immediately drive to St. John’s, and get a campground. This drive was about 80 miles on good highway. Our plan and thinking was to start our Newfoundland tour in St. John’s (the capital and it’s largest city). Our RVs would be parked and we we be in our cars for local touring.

We Did It
We completed this trip (all six RVs made it just fine) and had a wonderful time. The sights are spectacular, the icebergs are indescribable, moose are everywhere, and the people are among the finest I have ever had the pleasure to meet.

As a result, I put all that information—the full details on how you can plan and make this fantastic trip—in my latest book entitled, "RVing To Newfoundland"—on sale now... Click here! It's 140 pages of current information and pictures on how make this trip and where to go.

[Author Note… I've had a few people ask why I just put in this Newfoundland "teaser" instead of a blog about the whole trip more like I did the Alaska trip. Easy answer… I wrote the Alaskan blog before I wrote that book. It was actually a "test" for the book. I wrote the "RVing to Newfoundland" book first, then I created this blog page and wasn't trying to recreate the book here.]

The cliffs in Gros Morne National Park were great. Our boat tour took us in where we could view numerous waterfalls.

Thinking About RVing…
Unfortunately, in many National Parks both in the US and Canada, their campgrounds were built years (decades) ago and campsites simply will not fit some of the large motorhomes and 5th wheels on the road today. We thoroughly enjoy those parks, have been to many of them over the years, and early on, we tried staying in several including major parks like Yellowstone NP and Jasper NP (north of Banff) in Alberta, Canada. We just didn't or couldn't fit in their spaces. The final "straw" was the time we were assured that the site would accommodate us but we had to pull in headed the wrong way, could only put out two of our slides, and had to have the camp host stop all traffic while I backed the rig out of that campsite and then back down a one-way lane (the wrong way) to be able to exit the campground (in Yellowstone).

So, we have stopped camping IN the National Park campgrounds.

Now, we simply look for a commercial campground near one of the entrances to these parks. There are always plenty of choices. This has worked well and saved lots of anxiety and frustration.

International Fireworks Competition—Montreal

2011-06-25T16:16:00.000-05:00

I am a fireworks fan. I love to watch them, hear them, and thoroughly enjoy straining, trying to look up and see everything. I have also had the good fortune to see several world-famous fireworks. One of the most memorable was sitting on a blanket, on the Mall, in Washington, DC, on a July 4th. They did a great show there.

I had the good fortune years ago to be on a flight that was scheduled to land in Dayton, Ohio on July 4th. We arrived and were on approach just at dark and the city (I assume) started their big fireworks. Our pilot got permission to circle the airport a couple of times so we could enjoy the fireworks from up above—a fascinating sight.

In preparation for our trip to Newfoundland (read about this trip above), our group of friends agreed to meet in Montreal. The reason… we had the chance to see one night of the Montreal International Fireworks Competition.

As the name implies, this is an "international competition" comprised (in 2011) of eight countries presenting their display over eight Saturday nights starting late June. Each display is judged and ultimately winners are announced.

But I was just there to see some outstanding fireworks. I really didn't know anything about the competition and wasn't interested from a competitive aspect. I wanted a great show.

And I got it! We had tickets for the first display (first night) of the competition and China was the country. I admit, if someone had asked me what country in the world I thought might lead the way for fireworks, I would have said China. What was interesting was that after the summer and competition was over, China didn't even place among the winners. Italy was the big winner!

However, I was not disappointed and all of our group was simply astounded at the display. It is inconceivable to try to describe it here—sorry. These few pictures will help. What I can say is that while many, many towns in the USA will offer 20–30 minutes of fireworks, you have probably seen them as one or two or three "boomers" going off, just enough to keep you interested, and ending with maybe one minute of multiple shots for the heart-thumping end.

This was not like that at all. What we had was 30 minutes of constant fireworks, boomers, some low (literally on the water and shot from small barges), some with just a bit of height (about 30° off the horizon), and the rest about 45–90°—almost straight up—all going off simultaneously and constantly, and set to music. My guess is that there were never less than 20–50 individual fireworks going off at any one moment! It was a 30-minute constant barrage of light and noise that overwhelmed you and your senses.

Simply, it was wonderful. I'm ready to do it again.

I recommend you do it, too.

To do this, you will have to make your reservations (buy your tickets) as early as possible. Sorry, but I can't offer much help with this as one of our group is from Montreal. They were already up there and got the tickets for us. Keep and eye on this site… Montreal International Fireworks Competition as this seems to be the "official" site for tickets. However, start checking early February for the first June show.

Why The TWO-YEAR Hole in this Blog?

2011-05-01T16:31:00.000-05:00

Yes, there was nearly a two-year period when I did not add anything to this blog. The reason… I really didn't want to write a blog. Most are incredibly boring, many are self serving, and they take a lot of work. I don't want to work!!!

Plus, during those two years, I wrote two books…
"Fultiming for New and Used RVers" was published in December 2010 and "RVing to Newfoundland" was published in December 2011. Click here for my bookstore.

I also set up my new (at the time) website aboutrving.com and filled it with content including over 100 full-blown magazine articles all with a "How to" focus.

Those projects were plenty of work so, I didn't mess with the blog. Okay, the books are finished, the website is doing very well, and I decided that maybe this was a good time to attempt a blog—maybe not a "normal" one but that would be normal for me.

I recommend you read "Read this First—Then Everything Else Will Make Sense..." (should be the newest blog entry.)

Keep in mind that all entries prior to this one are at least two years old but there is a ton of information on them about various unique RV trips and even a very different cruise. Take a look. Let me know what you think.

Enjoy.

Ron Jones

Our Polar Bear Trip

2009-10-22T22:56:00.075-05:00

Think about this... International Falls, Minnesota is considered the coldest place in the the "Lower 48." So why would a person who really hates cold plan a trip 1,000± miles roughly due north of International Falls? And in October? Easy answer... To see the polar bears that naturally gather there. But let's start at the beginning.

I had heard about this gathering of the polar bears, did some research, and found that in northern Manitoba (the province of Canada that stretches north from North Dakota and Minnesota) the polar bears naturally gather there during October near a town called Churchill. They are waiting for Hudson Bay to freeze over. (Hudson Bay is a huge body of salt water—1,000± miles across—and early explorers thought it may be the access to China from Europe, i.e., the Northwest Passage.)

When Hudson Bay freezes, the polar bears go out onto the ice and find seals (mostly baby seals—sorry) and feed. Apparently, the small seals are not mature enough to go far out into the Bay and must stay somewhat close to shore. Therefore, when they surface to breathe, the polar bears may be waiting. The seals know this, the bears know this, and it is the natural progression of life in this part of the north.

Hudson Bay freezes here first due to the numerous rivers (fresh water) flowing into it relatively close to Churchill. The fresh water freezes first, before the salt water, and allows the bears to be on the ice at the earliest possible time.

Back in the 1800s, fur traders found that they could ship their furs direct to England by sailing across Hudson Bay. The historical land route was south, toward the St. Lawrence river (through Toronto or Montreal). However, if the furs were shipped south, they were also subject to tax by the French. If they were shipped directly to England, they were not taxed.

So the town of Churchill started as a meeting place where the trappers would bring their furs, sell them to the fur traders, who would ship them to England.

But the polar bears had been gathering there for eons... and they still do. Apparently, they happen to put Churchill where the bears gather and the bears still gather there. We will catch up with the bears a bit later. First, getting there.

Sandy and I have been in Canada numerous times and go about every year. We have taken our motorhome across the border numerous time and have had good and bad luck at the border—going both north and south. We don't carry anything—nothing whatsoever—that could be considered contraband, we try to stay up with any changing policy and any of what we call "the item of the day" that is not allowed to cross the border.

An Overiew of Our Plan
For this trip, we plan to start at Grand Forks, ND, park the coach, take the car to Winnipeg, hotel one night, then an overnight train to Churchill, Manitoba (on the shore of Hudson Bay). We spend four days there including one all-nighter out on the tundra in a Tundra Buggy (Google this for a look). We will be viewing the gathering of the polar bears. They sort of collect here waiting for Hudson Bay to freeze over so they can feed. We fly back to Winnipeg, on Oct. 21st, drive the car to Grand Forks, and head south toward Texas and out of the cold. It should be a wonderful trip. Adventure Caravans is the tour operator. I will elaborate...

Okay, we parked our coach at Grand Forks, North Dakota AFB, spent the night, and drove our car to Winnipeg, Manitoba. Only 150 miles, it was an easy drive due north but that's because it's pretty flat. There's not much to hold you back!

We arrived at the Fort Garry Hotel on time and was supposed to meet the group on this Caravan for lunch. We pulled in the front of the hotel and the group was walking out. We quickly got with the valet parking, left our car there, and went to lunch with the group.

What's a Caravan?
For you non-RVers, there are a fews companies that put together caravans for RVers. On one type of caravan, you meet and then drive your RV as part of the group to some destination—like a tour. Another type of caravan you meet (generally with the RVs) but simply tour from a fixed site. We did this one time to see the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena. On that caravan, about 30 coaches converged on a campground in Pamona and we were parked there for the week. The caravan company bussed the 60 of us everywhere including great seats for the Rose Parade.

This caravan was like that. We met in Winnipeg. Some chose to drive their RV, some (like us) did not.

But our group is actually made up of two groups. There are 38 people (all RVers) total. Most of us signed up for the caravan through a Monaco club called "Monacos in Motion." But this club partnered with Adventure Caravans for this trip since Adventure had all the northern reservations sort of locked up. Anyway, it worked.

Here's the group. We are the two in the upper left.

Sidebar... What will happen is that we stay a couple of nights in Winnipeg, and spend the equivalent of two days on the bus and train (Churchill is about 1,000 miles north of Winnipeg). There are no roads north of Thompson, MB so the only way to get to Churchill is by air or train.

We had packed lightly because we had driven our car to Winnipeg. Our plan was to carry "Winnipeg" clothes only while we were there. The morning of the bus ride, we left the Winnipeg dirty clothes in the car and packed our "Churchill" clothes in our roll-ons. On the return, we would fly from Churchill to Winnipeg, spend the night, and depart for our coach the next morning. We carried as few clothes as possible to Churchill—that's good.

The two first days were in Winnipeg—a nice city of about 750,000 (over half of the total population of Manitoba). The Fort Garry Hotel was one of those classy, older hotels that has been there forever. We stayed two nights here, had an extensive city tour, good dinners, fine lunches, and met our bus for the trip north.

We had tours (all day) of several places—museums, mansions, churches, gardens, etc. and all were well done. They hauled us around in a typical bus so there was very little walking. It was a classic city tour.

As always, one of the group cannot wait to purchase those special souveniers! This one was precious.

An 8/9-hour bus ride from Winnipeg to "The Pas" (yes, that is the correct spelling of the town's name but it's pronounced "The Paw") got us to the train station about 1100 hrs. Interestingly, the train was parked close by. Originally, we were supposed to take the train from Winnipeg but there was some glitch. Oh well, it all worked out just fine.

We had received our train tickets in a standard business envelope (back at the hotel). I tucked ours in our "carry-on" type of canvas bag. When everyone got off the bus, we all went into the train station to wait and I discovered our tickets were gone. Just gone. We obviously searched the bags thoroughly, searched around the bags, outside (where we walked from the bus to the station). No tickets. Nada.

The group leader, Don, and I talked with the person working the desk in the train station. She informed us that a whole set of new rules had just been put into effect and was attempting to look them up. Initially, she came up with a cost to me of a new train ticket ($400.00) plus a $40.00 penalty (now, double that for both Sandy and I). Finally, I said that they just had to be on the bus—the bag was in the overhead and the envelope had to fall out when I pulled the bag down to get off. Everyone's assumption was that the bus driver was heading back for Winnipeg. An employee of the railway (the only other one in the station) happen to overhear us talking about the bus driver and said that he lived locally. This guy also volunteered to drive to the bus driver's house and check the bus (for some reason, he did not phone). He did and came back with our tickets! They were in the overhead compartment of the bus. I am at least $840.00 grateful!!!

The Train

So, they brought the train to us, we boarded, got to bed about midnight, and the train pulled out about 0200.

We were on the train all the next day and night until after breakfast—nearly 36 hours. It was an experience. We were traveling through 400 miles of wilderness. We saw beaver dams, lots of landscape, and a really neat looking tree—the tamarack. This tree is among the few conifers that changes colors and ultimately lose their leaves in the Fall.

There were all types of accommodations on that train—cabins for one, for two, cabins up and down. Sandy and I were each assigned a "cabinette" across the isle from each other. This was a cabin for one person, period, one seat (reasonably comfortable), one sink, one toilet, one bed, one towel, and one window (large). There was a common shower down the hall. Everything (all luggage) had to fit inside your cabin.

The cabin was perfectly functional with no wasted space. As you can see here, my roll-on and camera bag are sitting on the toilet (this will help you judge the room size). The sink is folded into the left wall. My bed is sort of tucked under the next cabin. I am sitting on the seat (you can see my left knee and how close it is to the toilet. My pillow is on the bed (pushed forward).

When my bed was opened (my bunk-style bed was on rollers, it rolled forward, and locked under the next person's cabin during the day—a close fit just tall enough for the pillow). At night, the bed had to be pulled out and it locked in place over the one seat in the cabin. The padded back of my seat became my headboard for the bed—as I said... functional. If there was bad news it was that when the bed was open, ready to use, my TOTAL floor space to stand up was the size of a large shoe box—seriously. The first night, I managed (on one foot) to open the bed, got in it, and undressed. Interesting.

The second night proved I was up to the challenge. For some reason, the bed would lock in 3-4 positions (I guess with a child you could have more room this way.) So, I brought the bed out part way, undressed, got on the bed, and pulled it (and me) forward to the lock position. In the morning, I did the reverse. It worked. By the way, if you needed to go to the bathroom during the night, you had to get up and put the bed away first.

Train food was freshly cooked, we had a nice choice of entrees, and everything we had was excellent. One interesting side note was that approximately 15% of Manitoba has a Ukrainian heritage. One of the entrees offered was Pierogi.Pierogi are a dish consisting of boiled or baked dumplings of unleavened dough stuffed with varying ingredients—mine were stuffed with a mixture of cheese and potato and typically served with sour cream—they were excellent.

Arrive at Churchill

Winnipeg was breezy and about 40° F but no snow. The Pas was colder and windier but no snow. Churchill was really cold (to us)—in the 20s°—but the wind was unrelenting. We had a constant wind of 30–35 mph, snow on the ground (not much—it blew away), and a mixture of sleet (instantly freezing but not sticking) and snow—all blowing sideways.

"Bill" was our tour guide in Churchill (except out on the Tundra Buggy) and met our train in his school bus—not much heat but okay transportation. As expected, Bill was a character, had lived in Churchill for a number of years, and knew everything about the place—just what you want in a tour guide.

A brief tour of the town ended at the "Eskimo Museum." This was a nice collection of northern art, carvings, kayaks, and some weapons.

Then, to lunch at the Gyspy Bakery (and Restaurant) where we had an excellent meal (with the locals). The baked goods looked wonderful and were baked fresh. It was a busy place. There were three restaurants in Churchill and we were told that one stays open until mid-November and then they are all closed. I guess you cook at home!

The bus tour continued around the town (Remember, this town is not very big.). With Bill at the wheel, we ended up on Hudson Bay beach where the 10-12-foot waves were crashing in (helped, I'm sure, by the 30 mph winds). The wind creates lots of foam on the beach—it simply blows it from the surface of the water onto the beach. Bill told us this foam could get 6-feet deep! He also told us this foam was a type of "natural soap." You could actually wash in it.

There were rocks everywhere and many were covered by lichen. We were told that lichen only grows in conditions where there is no pollution. They had black, green, and this particularly striking color of red lichen everywhere.

Polar Bear Warnings
I haven't mentioned the polar bears yet. But, during the town tour and as you can see from the sign, they take their bears seriously—and rightfully so. We were told (several times and with the sternest of warnings) to be aware of where we are (if we were walking in town) and ALWAYS be looking for polar bears that meander into town. And there's always some coming in.

The polar bear is huge. The average weight of an adult male bear is around 1,000 lbs. A female is about 500 lbs. That's a lot of bear. They make no noise. They do not growl and are absolutely silent when they walk. The polar bear is the only know bear to actually track and hunt humans.

So Churchill has a polar bear patrol (several of them) on duty 24/7 during the gathering season. If they find a bear in town (and they do quite often), they capture it. The set off a siren and you can hear shotguns firing occasionally (to scare off the bears in town). They put the captured bears in "Polar Bear Jail." This is a holding place (with cells) in a building. They have no contact with humans and only given water for 3 months. They want the bears to remember this unpleasant experience so that they will not return to town. Eventually, they are taken away and turned loose.

This is serious business to keep both locals and tourists safe. Last year they captured 170 bears in town and had 17 in jail when we were there.

So (we were warned several times), if we were walking back from a restaurant or gift shop especially after dark, don't walk close to any object when you go around a corner of a building or a sign or a car... take the corner wide—just in case a bear is there. It makes you think and it is something so foreign to our normal style of living that it gets your attention.

Our First Bear

Bill took us out to a property where one of the locals (an apparently eccentric one) had the Churchill equivalent to a dog kennel or pound. They have the dogs chained up around water holes. They are bred with wolves and kept isolated out in the open to maintain their natural instincts. These dogs are meant to carry on the breeding stock of the Canadian sled dogs. Some dogs were left off the leash to protect their pack from predators (bears).

That's when we saw our first bear. Bill told us this bear had found the dog pound and manages to get some of the scraps the dogs miss. The bear meandered around and the 2-3 unchained dogs were slowly trying to maneuver the bear away. Apparently the bear and the dogs know exactly what distance to stay from each other. Fascinating.

The Hotel Finally
After our town tour, we checked into our hotel and a little free time. Dinner was on our own. Sandy and I ate next door (the food was fine and we got a glass of wine plus we didn't have to deal with any bears during our short-but-straight walk across the street). That evening, we attended an excellent talk by Myrtle de Meulles—a local artist. She was born in 1941, one of 12 Metis children (a person of mixed Indian and Euro-American ancestry). She was the daughter of a trapper and spent most of her life on the trap line in Cumberland House, Saskatchewan, Canada. Her orginal language is Cree. She grew up on the trap line primarily eating bannock (indian fry bread) and fried moose meat until she attended the convent school.

The second night in town we we on our own for dinner again. We were scheduled to gather at a local church where Bill talked us through a history of Churchill and the area. Very interesting.

Out on the Tundra
We are in the bus early after the second night in the hotel and Bill takes us to load into the Tundra Buggy. Our extra baggage is being stored for us until we actually go to the airport tomorrow afternoon. It is cold and blowing those biting snow crystals. Our buggy will seat 40 people on school bus-type seats—there are 38 of us so it works. We only have cameras and small packs with us. Our roll-ons are being taken to the "Tundra Buggy Lodge." Bill turns us over to Kevin who gets everyone aboard efficiently and will be our driver/guide for the next two days.

This is a no-frills, large (twice the size of a school bus in width and height), sort of lumbering vehicle that we take across the tundra. There is a "deck" on the rear so you can stand outside. We are in sub-arctic conditions so there are no trees (other than a very short species known as the flag tree), lots of water (ponds large and small everywhere that are mostly frozen), and snow. This is a protected area and we're confined to the trails. We slowly (5± mph max) make our way toward the coast (Hudson Bay) and the Lodge. The buggy contains one large gas furnace for heat, one "head" (toilet) that is just a basic one-holer, seats, and large windows all around—but no frills.

We learn that Kevin was born about 1,000 miles north of Churchill across Hudson Bay. He is a Canadian Ranger, helps test arctic gear for cold weather survival, and can live off the land efficiently. He turns out to be a great tour guide.

The Lodge is simply multiple Tundra Buggies hooked together. They comprise two cars for bunks (we will stay overnight out here), one cooking/eating car, one meeting/lounge car, and one car for the 3-person staff who live out there and take care of us plus Kevin who also overnights with them.

You can take day trips out here to see the bears (by the way, the local advertised price for a one-day trip was $299.00). The primary difference in the one-day trip and us (staying out there one night) was really exemplified later that day but more on that later.

More Bear

It was about a one-hour trip out to the Lodge. As we approached the Lodge, we saw three other Tundra Buggies close by the lodge. They were sort of surrounding a big male bear. Kevin did a strange thing... he announced that we were going to let those other tourists visit with the bear and we would go and look elsewhere. So, off we went.

While we learned a lot about the tundra, we did not see any other wildlife at all. Even at 5 mph, you can cover a lot of territory in 4-5 hours. We had food containers with us and of course, lunch was served. Hot soup and a make your own cold-cut sandwich hit the spot. Finally, late that afternoon, we made our way back toward the lodge.

As we were approaching, Kevin announced that the advantage of the overnight stay was that the other buggies had already left to return to town. We were alone and the bear was still on site so it was just us and the bear. Obviously, the bear thinks we are a food source, can very likely smell our lunch leftovers (and us), can smell cooking aromas from the lodge, and all of that holds his interest.

Sidebar... Our Tundra Buggy is quite tall. It is about 9-feet from the ground to the bottom of the windows. The fat wheels are about 5-feet in diameter. Our windows open from the top down so only the top half is open—enough to stick your head out. The outside deck is floor height and on some, is surrounded by heavy bars that reach to the roof. There plenty of room to take a picture between the bars.

So, the bear entertained us for well over an hour. We were only a couple hundred yards from the Lodge and in no hurry. The bear would walk around the buggy, raise himself up on his rear legs to be able to see in, sit a while, come back, and was just generally curious. It was an outstanding time.

Finally, happy hour called and we left the bear and drove to the lodge. Our roll-ons were sitting next to our bunks (one up/one down). We got the packs off the floor and headed for wine and cheese in the lounge car. It should be noted that alcohol is not sold on the Tundra Buggy (no license) but wine was provided at no cost. Some of the group brought their own drink. There was always plenty of tea, coffee, water.

They seated all but about eight of us for dinner. We waited—that was fine as there was nothing else to do. Finally, we were fed a lasagna made with bison. It was excellent. There was a vegetarian alternative, too. There was plenty of good, hot, freshly prepared food.

After dinner, we gathered in the lounge car and Kevin gave an excellent talk about the tundra, northern Canada, Hudson Bay, and some of his background. We had fun and learned something. That's good.

Finally, to bed. We found there was room to store the bags under the bottom bunk. Some couples chose to store their bags on one bunk and sleep in the other. The bunks are limited size. I could not totally stretch out. But the sleeping was fine.

Sidebar... The Northern Lights (aurora borealis) are visible from Churchill. The best viewing is during February when the sky is perfectly clear. There was a standing rule in that if the lights happen to be visible, they would wake up everyone to see them. Sorry, but they did not wake us up... too much overcast and snow.

In each bunk car, there are three lavatories and one central shower. I don't think anyone showered. Oh, well, as they say... "Nobody stinks until the first person showers!" It worked just fine.

We were fed a fine breakfast, packed our stuff, and we went one way with Kevin and our bags went the other way. Those bags would meet us and the bags from the hotel, at the airport. We spent the second day on the tundra but did not see any additional bears. Our bear from yesterday was still there and was excellent entertainment so no one was truly disappointed.

Heading Back
Kevin got us back to our starting point and turned us over to Bill and his trusty bus. With some quick stops for souvenirs and things, we were taken directly to the Churchill airport where we met our bags. Everyone was checked in just fine and after a two-hour flight, we landed in Winnipeg. We were whisked to a local hotel for the night.

The next morning was our "departure breakfast" and about 0900, most of us were gathered in a conference room with a continental breakfast spread and, of course, coffee and drinks. This was an informal gathering and many offered their comments and good-byes.

Overall, Monacos-in-Motion did a good job. We got the info they promised us, answered our questions, and everything seemed to work as it should have. This is our second caravan with Adventure Caravans. They, too, did what they said they would do. We know there were alternatives and compromises but everything worked from our perspective as a participant. With the exception of one lost bag (not ours), if anyone got upset with anything, we were not aware of it—and they found the bag. The fact that this was our second trip with Adventure means that the first one was fine. I would go with them again.

Wrap Up
The chance to see polar bears in their natural setting is a rare treat, indeed. My not-normal perspective always has a brief thought of how many people have not seen this phenomenon.

I don't have a "bucket list" because they don't make a large enough bucket. But trips like this one would float near the top. Interestingly, I thought this as a "one time visit" place. It is sort of like basic training in the military... I'm glad I did it but wouldn't want to do it again.

If you read this, don't consider that a negative statement. I strongly recommend this trip if you have not been.

Thanks for reading and take a look at my new book, "RVing Alaska."

Ron

Alaska Trip - 2008

2008-07-17T13:13:00.000-05:00

We have planned for and tried to take this Alaska trip for four years. Our being a vendor at RV shows/rallies and presenting seminars always got in the way. This year, everything fell into place with only one of the big rallies scheduled for August. So we decided to skip that one leaving the summer open and Alaska calling us. It was a go. Our friends could not join us but we decided to go anyway. You have to do this stuff while you are healthy!

We spent our normal January-April time in Florida and Georgia and departed there late April and headed to Texas. There, we visited family and friends for about three weeks and departed northbound on May 17th. We followed David and Lana Greer about 300 miles to the Texas panhandle (Clarendon, near Amarillo) and stayed the night there after a tour of their ranch and to meet their cow. We continued the drive up through Denver, then Wyoming, and finally arrived in Bigfork, Montana to visit relatives. Had a great time there for about three days and then it was time for Canada. We left Bigfork on May 26th and had an easy border crossing—for a change, no one searched the coach!

We were just driving up through Banff and Jasper parks and did very little stopping since we had spent about 6 weeks in that area last year. It is gorgeous country but we are headed for gorgeous country. North of Jasper was new country but not much to see so most days were in the 300-mile range. Here, we are passing a still-frozen lake!

Dawson Creek, BC

We got to our first “real” on-the-way-to-Alaska city—Dawson Creek, British Columbia—also “Mile 0” of the ALCAN highway. Dawson Creek is where many of the caravans meet for the first time. The towns we go through are small and it's a long way between them. I was on one stretch of highway that had a sign warning drivers that it was 103 miles to the next services.

The ALCAN was one of the significant accomplishments in early WWII when the US Army built the 1,500 mile road from Dawson Creek, BC to (almost) Fairbanks, Alaska in EIGHT MONTHS!!! This was an impressive accomplishment by any standard. There are many things lost in history and the significance of the ALCAN Highway project was rapidly overshadowed by other war news.

One of the unusual aspects of the highway project is called the Kiskatinaw Bridge. It is one of the very few curved bridges in the world. There is one short section of the ALCAN Highway that is preserved in a park but you can drive it. We were just passing through this area so, we actually drove the motorhome with the car in tow over this section. It was a bit rough but we were going slow. Yes, we drove across the bridge.

Civilians were being recruited for the road-building job and even servicemen were being asked to volunteer to go north for the project. It was definitely into the unknown as the land had not been explored and no one actually knew what was there. This is an actual recruiting poster used at the time. I thought it was a real eye-opener!

The initial road was completed in September 1942 (the month/year I was born) and allowed supplies to be trucked into Alaska. During construction, the Japanese attacked the island of Attu (part of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska). This was the site of the only World War II battle on United States soil. The news of that battle spurred the construction.

There is lots of driving up here! That ALCAN is a bit shorter now (they have straightened it out in many places over the years). So when you leave Dawson Creek, BC, you are just driving. We were planning on a maximum of 300 miles daily so definitely not rushing. But it's a long trip up here!

One of the best do-not-leave-home-without-it books to have is "The Milepost." Get a new copy (it comes out about March each year). Starting at Dawson Creek (Mile "0"), The Milepost guides you along the ALCAN highway and provides information down to the tenth-of-a-mile—including every turn-out, restaurant, service station, bridge/stream/river/lake, and other stuff including an occasional beaver dam, too. You will definitely use it!

One of the problems is that there are numerous mile markers. There are Historic Markers (the original ones) and these are actually used as addresses in some locations. There are newer mile markers as a result of shortening the ALCAN about 130± miles. Then there are the kilometer markers since you are in Canada—it's their highway—part of the original deal was that we had to give the highway to them. The Milepost book will show you how to distinguish.

The Yukon Territory

Like many other places on this planet, for years I have wanted to visit the Yukon [Territory] every since Sergeant Preston and his faithful dog, Yukon King, were on TV back in the 1950s. I don't think I ever saw his Canadian Mountie uniform in full color since we only had black-and-white reception on our TV then. But what the heck, we all get our incentive from somewhere!

The phrase “North of 60” on the sign is referring to the 60th parallel (latitude). I find it interesting that Antarctica starts at 60° south—but when we were down there last February/March (2008), it was all ice and snow. Read about that trip here.

Visited the Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake, YT (Yukon Territory). Unusual! This started in 1942 when a couple of GIs (working on the ALCAN) put up signs to their hometown. They now have about 55,000 signs.

Yesterday, we saw a road sign that said “Extreme dust. Gravel areas for next 60 km” It was where they were patching. The gravel was smooth but dusty. We ran all three roof ACs and it definitely helped keep the dust out (by creating a positive air pressure inside the coach). Really glad I learned that trick. Got into several 6-10 mile-long gravel stretches so dust was definitely a factor. Road was washboarding in some places so just slowed down to 25 mph or so. No major holes, just vibration. We only see another car every five miles or so. Roads are good and the ALCAN is paved all the way. Any gravel areas are the result of construction. They have such a short time to work on the roads (due to weather) that they jump right in.

Spent the night at Mukluk Annies (about 8 miles north of Teslin, YT). For $18.00, you get fresh grilled salmon (or a nice looking steak), salad bar, baked potato, beans, bread, and a brownie AND free boondocking next to the lake. What a deal! Salmon was just fine. There were about 30 rigs there for the night.

Just outside of Teslin, we passed the US 37 turnoff (Cassiar Highway) that goes south. That is our route going back—it goes to Prince Rupert where we get the ferry to Port Hardy on the north tip of Vancouver Island. So from that turnoff to Tok, AK (650 miles) is just going to be driving and not being a tourist. We will have to backtrack that 650 miles on the return trip and have plenty of time then to play tourist.

I can't use my satellite dish most places. The elevation goes to 85° and from a level coach, that's pointing the dish slightly downward!!! So any tall bush blocks the signal. Luckily, lots of these campgrounds have free WIFI.

We stayed at the Wal-Mart in Whitehorse, YT. It's a relatively small parking lot and there were about 25 rigs here all night. We got here early (1400) and got a good spot. Walked over to a decent restaurant for dinner. It's a looooong way to anywhere up here. Been driving steadily for six days from Bigfork and still have 1,000 miles to go to Valdez!

The next night we stayed free at a restaurant parking lot in Burwash Landing. Dinner was good. It seems fairly common for businesses (restaurants IF you eat and fuel stops IF you fill up) to trade a boondock site for the night. We stopped and toured their museum (very good) and asked about boondocking. We were told to go to the restaurant at the bottom of the hill and we could park overnight if we ate dinner there. We did.

Have seen LOTS of wildlife—not off in the distance but roadside. Sometimes we can stop, many times we can't. Have seen deer, caribou, elk (lots of velvet on those antlers), turkeys, porcupines, coyote, fox, wolf, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, black bear, and grizzly. We had to stop and the car coming toward us also had to stop to let a moose (cow) run across the highway between us. No chance for a picture. Also saw a nice bull moose on roadside but again, no picture. A fair-size rack—very impressive. Topped a hill and three full grown bison bulls were grazing ten feet away from the pavement. Up here they call them “Yukon Speed Bumps.” I didn’t make that up.

The last 100 miles of the Yukon were the poorest roads of any on the entire trip from Texas. We were warned that the frost heaves would make the highway full of ruts (oriented parallel to the highway) and frost heaves (sunken areas and tiny hills perpendicular to the highway). There were plenty of both and we encountered them immediately. It was a real test of the shocks and air bags!

The ruts were 2-3 inches deep and 6-36 inches wide running for a few foot or up to maybe 40-50 feet down the surface of the road. If you miss seeing them (allowing you to steer around it) these ruts would pull your tires/vehicle into the “groove” and you just had to fight it until the rut ended. On three occasions, my tow car started an “oscillation” back and forth and the only way to stop it was to quickly stop the coach right in the highway. Then, everything was fine again. Thankfully, there was little traffic.

You couldn't take your eyes off the road. If you missed slowing down for a frost heave, it would nearly launch the front wheels of the coach off the ground—even driving about 35-45 mph. There were small orange flags marking lots of them but hundreds had no warning. There were literally thousands of them in the 100 or so miles. Hitting these at some given speed will cause “porpoising” where the vehicle is sort of floundering up and down.

We Made it to Alaska and on to Valdez

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Because of the road conditions, this has been a tough driving day. We left Burwash Landing, YT with about 215 miles to drive to Tok, AK. The border crossing was about half way. With a two-man crossing station, we encountered a few questions and were sent on our way. Easy. I'm a huge fan of Canada and have been there many times but always enjoy coming back to the USA.

It's hard to wrap your mind around the fact that you are driving over permanently frozen ground (permafrost) because the landscape looks normal with trees, plants, rocks, lakes, streams, etc. But that upper surface (don't know how deep) is simply insulating the permafrost—the permanently frozen ground underneath. If you scrape away the top, the permafrost melts and turns to mush. The highways are built on top and the freezing/thawing underneath creates the frost heaves in the highway. They've tried to solve the problem since 1942 when they built the ALCAN highway. It's still not solved.

We stopped at Buckshot Betties for lunch (a tiny place but one of the few that was open) and shared one of the three tables with a man who was in the area helping set up a research facility to test the highway/permafrost situation. It is ongoing research funded by the US, Canada, and private companies. Interesting to talk with him.

Arrived in Tok, AK, got a campground and did some laundry. With two restaurants (Fast Eddy's and the Grumpy Grizz) in Tok (1,400 people) and only one serving wine, we decided not to unhook and just cooked in the coach.

We left Tok the next day and headed for Valdez—our first major, lengthy stop—and drove more than half the 270 miles. We stopped along the way and parked in a rest area, high on a cliff, overlooking a gorgeous lake. Alaska has many highway rest areas and pull-offs—many, many—it's not uncommon to have more than one per mile! I called the Alaska State Trooper main information number and asked. It is legal to pull off the highway and spend the night. You NEVER set a bag of trash outside or put one in your car or you will be visited by a bear who WILL get to that bag. With views like this outside our window, who could resist an overnight stay!

Approaching Valdez, you go through spectacular canyons and with the snow melt, waterfalls are everywhere.

Arrive in Valdez

Our original plan was to pull in to the campground at Valdez and do a major cleaning on the coach and car before parking it for the week. We spent the night in that great rest area and woke up to 42° and rain! Everything was in a mud-coated mess. Every cavity (diesel engine, generator, car engine, battery compartment, others) and dry surface has at least a 1/4-1/2 inch of fine dust/dirt on it including under the hood on the car. My plan was to blow everything out first and then do a thorough exterior wash. I even planned to pull into that campground about noon to beat the others so we could take our time at the wash area.

I decided to blow out the dust at the rest area (they would probably have tossed us out of the campground if we blew it out there) since it was a mess. It helped that there was a good wind blowing, too. Finally, we left the rest area and got to the campground in Valdez. Nice site, big campground (200 sites), well done. We can wash the coach at the site—all we want—a really rare treat! It’s Saturday and we will wash on Monday as it will be the warmest day this week—it may get to 60°—and no rain predicted. Took the car to a local car wash and it did a pretty good job.

Pulled into the Eagle's Rest campground in Valdez for 6 nights.

There are things to see and do here. Interesting, we saw the Alaska Pipeline several times since it follows this highway to Valdez. I certainly remember the controversy over building that—both the environmental concerns and the economic factors. It was a big deal in the late 1970s following those gas shortages. Actually, the first barrel of oil was brought from the North Slope on dog sled—not pipeline.

I think that history may repeat itself on the pipeline experience and the next administration will open up ANWR for new drilling. Just my personal speculation. We shall see.

We are now officially hanging out in Valdez for six nights—but it was too long—four would have been plenty. Three good-but-small museums here. One of them specializes in ivory carving—really well done. Another had a section on the big earthquake in 1964 and the building of the pipeline. We saw a 1970s-era bumper sticker that said, “Happiness is 10,000 Okies going south with a Texan under each arm.”

Lots of fishing going on for Halibut and charters go out daily. There are fish cleaning stations everywhere. This halibut weighted in at 145 pounds.

Interestingly, we have taken a drive every night (at dusk) but NO wildlife at all except some ducks. Salmon are not running. Streams are full of glacial silt so all the water is grey/green and as they clear, the salmon should increase. That, in turn, brings out the bears. We will wait and see. We have driven around the bay to the oil storage facility (the end of the pipeline) and there are lots of boondocking sites on the way. The city even put in drinking water for the campers out there.

It’s been overcast all week in Valdez but they tell me that's normal. Last Sunday was clear and sunny but that's the last sun we have seen. Tackled washing the coach (with the high at 52° and a brisk breeze)! Not sure I was gonna survive that brisk effort. A ton of work! About two hours later, we quit. Mud layer was just caked on and took lots of scrubbing. Bug layer on front was welded on—lots of rubbing. Washing at the site is really convenient. We were both whipped!

Ferry to Whittier and Drive to Homer

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We are in line to board the ferry at Valdez for the trip to Whittier on this rather cool and rainy morning. They had us unhook the car so Sandy is driving that. I'm parked over to the side and watch them.

The coach fits but there isn't a lot of room to spare. I'm tucked into the space with no flex room. Driving out will be a challenge.

Taking this ferry saves me backtracking from Valdez halfway back to Tok, then over to Anchorage, and down the Turnagain Arm (a long body of water) to intersect with the cutoff to Whittier. I’m not sure it was less expensive but we had a good ferry ride and we definitely saved about 650 miles of driving.

Our trip today is somewhat rushed in that we arrive/dock at Whittier at 1530 and will drive direct to Homer (180 miles). There is only one road in and out of Whittier—a 2.5 mile tunnel that was something to drive! They took the working railroad tunnel, filled in along the tracks, and you drive the tracks—seriously. Cars are released outbound on the hour and inbound on the half-hour. If they get a train, all the cars wait in the parking lots, and then the schedule restarts. The tunnel seems really narrow (just big enough for the train). It works.

Kodiak Island

Homer is on the south end of the Kenai Peninsula. We have a campground reserved on the 2/3-mile long piece of narrow land—called Homer Spit—extending from Homer out into Kachemak Bay. From Whittier, we arrived at the Homer Spit Campground about 2000, checked in, plugged in the coach, went out for dinner, and got ready to leave early the next morning. We had packed the day before.

We left the coach plugged in, kissed it goodbye, and got in line for the ferry to Kodiak Island—just us and the car. We had to be in line at 0730 so everyone is there and ready as soon as they unload the ferry. We finally depart at about 1045 (45 minutes late) for a loooooooong ferry ride (about 10 hours) to Kodiak Island.

There is a lengthy and strange ferry-loading process that includes an elevator for the vehicles. They are loading two normal vehicles at once, first bringing them onto a big elevator, then lowering them into the hold of the ferry.

Down in the hold, the cars are then backed into their place on the deck. It's a strange but efficient operation. For those drivers that confess they cannot back a vehicle, the ferry crew takes over. It works.

Getting off is the reverse process. You drive onto the elevator and up you go!

What's odd is that if you look on a map, the distance from Homer to Kodiak doesn't seem very far. When I first called for a reservation on the ferry, I thought I was quoted an exorbitant price for such a short trip. I was wrong. This was a great trip.

There was a US Forest Service naturalist on board and we saw several whales and other wildlife.

These three shots were from a pod of humpback wales close to our ferry. They were just playing. It was simply good luck to get the shot of the blow. The others you can (somewhat) anticipate by being poised and ready with the camera but you just have to be pointed in the right direction for the blow shot—it's just a click and hope. There were lots of blows farther out but nothing good for a picture. Fascinating!

Andy Brumbaugh, a Monaco e-mail group friend, had offered me plenty of Alaska advice over the last couple of years (he summers on Kodiak) and promised to show us around. He did more that that! He even met the ferry, guided us to our Bed and Breakfast, met us the next day, we had brunch (Sunday), and then Andy and Vivian played tour guide for us all day long. It was a great way to see the area. It was a wonderful gesture on their part. A sincere “Thanks!” to them.

We arrived on Kodiak Saturday night, after a leisurely brunch, ran around with them on Sunday. On Monday, Sandy and I visited the three museums and did more driving around including the Coast Guard Base (largest in the world).

The churches are a result of the early Russian influence in Alaska. Remember your history... the Russians settled/owned the land but never fully colonized Alaska so the colony was never very profitable. William H. Seward, the U.S. Secretary of State, engineered the Alaskan purchase in 1867 for $7.2 million. It was called "Seward's Folly" by the critics.

We were told that the strip of Alaska that stretches south, along the inside passage (the land that sits between the water and Canada) was "tacked on" to the original deal of $7.1 million. Doing so added another $100,000 to the total sale making it $7.2 million. Doing that gave us Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, and other towns. Not a bad deal for all that gold and oil and scenery, too!

All our running around was balanced by an excellent Bed and Breakfast run by Marion and Marty Owen. Marty is the Harbormaster of Kodiak. It is the second busiest harbor in the state. Marion is like a whirlwind—she never stops. She is a gourmet cook, published author, professional photographer, radio personality, avid gardener, and, don't forget, runs the Bed and Breakfast. Whew! You can read about them here. I shot the picture of their new house/B&B as we were actually leaving Kodiak on the ferry. (Theirs is the center house.) The next shot is our view, out the bedroom window in the house. Not bad!

We were in line for the ferry back to Homer at 1600 and departed at 1800. The return trip makes a stop at Port Lion and the total trip is overnight, getting in at 0730 on Tuesday. We had a cabin (no-frills two-bunk room with a sink—the toilet and shower are down the hall).

Back To Homer

We have a full day (Tuesday, the 16th) in Homer and all the next day to run around. A local tells us that for the best view of the bay, we should drive Skyline Drive—but definitely not in the motorhome. We do. It is a spectacular view and we are weaving through a residential area high above Homer.

We even find that Homer has a microbrewery and give it a try. But, there’s only carry out and you can bring your own jug—seriously. The guy “loaned” us a couple of liter bottles and suggested that we go outside and use their picnic tables. We did. The tables, the view, the resident cat, and the beer all were fine. Homer Brewing Company really does exist.

But Homer is about fishing and we don’t fish. Someone has to balance all that fish-catching with fish eating and that’s what we do well. There are several fine restaurants in Homer and we tried a couple with good success.

Homer has one of the most unique visitor's centers called the "Oceans and Islands Visitor's Center" and it is located on the main highway through town headed for the Spit. They created huge dioramas inside showing the coastal regions and wildlife. It is really well done.

Leaving Homer, we stumble across a huge woodcarving business and stop for a visit. It was fascinating.

On and Off the Kenai Peninsula - Homer/Seward/Palmer

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We left Homer on Wednesday, June 18th, drove to Soldotna (60 miles), and spent the night at an unusual location—behind a laundromat—that had free WIFI. I had heard about this place, searched Google for the laundromats, called, and the first one told me to come on in. It worked just fine and we did a massive laundry, too! There were lots of RVs overnighting in the local Fred Meyer grocery as well.

Soldotna is famous for two things… The first is fish. The Kenai River runs through town and has bragging rights for producing the largest salmon caught on record (90+ pounds). The second is the "Moose is Loose" bakery! I am now another convert and spreading the word. It’s a big place with plenty of parking for the motorhome. Everyone is familiar with the normal glazed donut, right? They had glazed donuts and the chocolate-covered-glazed that one would barely fit on a normal dinner plate! Seriously! They also had taken caramel rolls, flattened them (so they were about a foot long and 8 inches across), baked them again to make them crispy, and named them "Road Kill Caramel Rolls!" Good stuff.

We departed Soldotna for a leisurely 50-60 mile drive to Seward—back on the coast—and arrived June 19th.

Seward

We stayed in Seward Military Resort RV park on the edge of town. Nice park but water and electric only. This one is run by the Army and interestingly, it is across the street from another one run by the Air Force. This one is definitely nicer. Free WIFI but only at the lodge.

We docked in Seward on a couple of cruises up here but did not spend any time in the area back then. At the time, Princess took us on into Anchorage on busses. Cruise ships still dock here so the town expands and contracts with people (tourists). Since we have our car, we can bypass the main crowds from the ships and do our thing. After all, we don’t want to mess with tourists!

The original start of the Iditarod Race was in Seward. Now it has a commemorative start in Anchorage and a “restart” in Wasilla (remember me mentioning those giant vegetables in the Matanuska Valley—that’s Wasilla). I’m not sure why they have the restart.

From south central Alaska to Nome (on the western coast on the Bering Sea), each team of 12 to 16 dogs and their musher cover over 1,150 miles in 10 to 17 days. The Iditarod began in 1925 when part of the current Trail became a life-saving highway for epidemic-stricken Nome. Diphtheria threatened and serum had to be brought in. The only way to get it there was dog mushers and their hard-driving dogs.

The Seward museum is a great place to start your visit and we learned that this was the first city in Alaska where ships could dock. It was a natural site for a city.

There is information about the native Alaskans everywhere including a number of museums and, of course, in most other museums, too. One of the fascinating things we learned was due to the extreme cold and being forced to fish, how they brave the icy water and survive. Over time—and a long time ago—they learned to make a type of parka out of seal gut (seriously). This was sewn together in a special way that made it waterproof (we had the chance to view a video of them sewing so it is not a lost art). This parka is so waterproof that they can actually carry water in it!

Seward has a large “public” campground along the bay (every site has a view of the bay and about half are on the water’s edge). These are boondocking only (no hookups). The city charges $15.00 per night to park there. It is a good deal and rigs were constantly moving in and out. You just put your money in the “Iron Ranger” and move in—two weeks max. A great view!

The Alaska SeaLife Center is a non-profit marine science operation that is the only project authorized to rescue and rehabilitate animals. It was funded, in part, by the Exxon-Valdez oil spill funds. We had a behind-the-scenes tour that was excellent and spent some time feeding the birds, learning how they take care of them, and what they do with the data collected. The puffins are wonderful!

Cooper Landing

This tiny town is located between Seward and Soldotna and is known for… fish. The Kenai River runs through town before it gets to Soldotna and fishing is the primary activity. We stayed here because Princess Cruises owns five lodges in Alaska (and we are confirmed Princess customers with 22 cruises now). The lodge here in Cooper Landing also has an RV park. We just wanted to see/experience the facility and had no other agenda for coming here.

The RV park was nice, clean, with 3-way hookups (30 amp), but no frills (okay with us). It is about 100 yards from the lodge—a large log structure with the expected rooms, views, and amenities. There was a small, but busy, bar with a huge deck out back with an excellent view overlooking the Kenai River. They have a great restaurant in the lodge (as expected). But, there was nothing else there (for us) since we were not fishing.

Palmer

Going to Palmer meant leaving the Kenai Peninsula. Palmer is in the Matanuska Valley—the “growing region” known for its abundance and literally, huge vegetables. They grow rapidly due to the short season and long days. Due partially to a fine mix of glacial silt and loam, giant vegetables grow to an unearthly size in this Alaskan flood plain. Try to visualize broccoli 3 feet tall and 7 feet wide, celery so large you can't wrap your arms around a single bunch, 98-pound cabbages, and 25-pound mushrooms. We did not see any (too early in the year). Palmer is the home of the state fairgrounds and they show the veggies at the State Fair.

I had stumbled across the Alaska Samboree (for the non-RV readers, a Samboree is a gathering of RVs whose members belong to the Good Sam Club—a popular RV organization—with every state having a chapter). It was held at the state fairgrounds, we signed up, and offered to do some seminars for their attendees. So our first four days in Palmer was with this group of RVers.

Palmer had several interesting tourist places to visit so we stayed an additional four days by just moving into a campground across the street from the fairgrounds. It worked. We visited the Reindeer Farm. The reindeer and the caribou are the same animal—called caribou in the wild and reindeer in captivity.

We also visited a Musk Ox farm. This huge (1,000 pounds) animal is one ugly dude but they have two claims to fame. First, they shed one of the world’s finest, softest, and most expensive “wools” called “Qiviut.” How expensive? One ball of the Qiviut (just like a normal ball of yarn) was priced at $90.00! It’s woven just like yarn but is eight times warmer than sheep’s wool, lighter weight, and won’t shrink. The second claim is that although the Musk Ox is a hoofed animal, they are the northernmost species in the world. They can live and survive in –70° (that’s 70-BELOW-zero) weather.

We were also able to wash our coach at the campsite in this campground. A 3-4 hour job but luckily, the weather is wonderful. It was near 65° that day!

Northbound—Anchorage/Talkeetna/Denali

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The amount of daylight up here is great—I love it. We are in about 20 hours of sunshine. You can see what it looks like here in the campground at 1030 at "night" ("night" is somewhat misleading when used here). Even after the sun goes down, it is not really dark for a while. It looks like you are in a heavy overcast, stormy day. Sandy made blackout curtains for our bedroom windows and they work well. Without them, we would be going to bed in full daylight and being blasted out by the sun at some ungodly early hour. I'm not an "early" person.

Anchorage

From Palmer to Anchorage is a whopping 30-mile drive. We stayed at the Fort Richardson RV Park. This is an Army base and shares a common border with Elmendorf AFB. Both are large and we learned they are transitioning them into a single joint base—for efficiency. Makes sense to me.

Both have an RV park with 30-amp sites but Elmendorf does not have sewer. Fort Rich has mostly 3-way sites (electric, water, and sewer) but some are “shared” sites—a new concept to me! Shared sites are pull-thrus where two rigs face opposite directions. Both hook up to water and electric but the first rig on the site “owns” the sewer. Then, the second rig simply asks the first rig for occasional use of the sewer when they need to empty their tanks. The first rig pays an extra $2.00 per day for the privilege of staying hooked up to the sewer. Interesting concept. It works.

We were told that Elmendorf had a dining facility open to anyone with an ID card and were encouraged to try it. We did. It was a very nice dining area with large windows looking into thick woods. Set up like a food court, there were individual areas (lines) for dinner entrees, pizza, burgers/grilled foods, salads, desserts, and drinks (no alcohol) with each area as a cafeteria line—you point, they serve. Each item is charged separately so you can take any variety and quantity you want. I had a chopped steak, couple of vegetables, salad, and drink and Sandy had sauerbraten, couple of veggies, salad, and drink—both full meals. When we checked out, the total charge for everything was $9.85! I had long forgotten about the food costs in the government facilities but that was a pleasant surprise. We went back the next night for another good but inexpensive meal.

Anchorage is a major city and we stayed here a week to run around and do some “normal” things (see a movie, get the car serviced, shop, talk to a non-RVer, etc.). Remember, we have been in (really) small towns and no towns for over a month now—certainly no cities. One odd thing is that I did almost no shooting in Anchorage. I guess it was because it is like any other city in many respects. The Anchorage Museum is an excellent facility and well worth the visit.

In addition to its International Airport, Anchorage has Merrill Field, one whole airport dedicated to accommodating small aircraft. Lake Hood is another airport in Anchorage dedicated solely to float planes. We were told that Lake Hood has more take offs and landings per day than Chicago’s O’Hare—if so, that’s a bunch.

We visited an unusual museum dedicated to the Alaskan bush pilot and their role in the development of the territory and later, the state. You simply could not survive without the bush pilots up here. Interesting is that the small planes are no longer made and the older ones were perfect. So they just keep rebuilding them. A flight in a 40-year-old small aircraft is common.

Talkeetna

This is a little town (850 pop. normally) that was (supposedly) the town used for that wacky TV show about 15 years ago called "Northern Exposure." I do not know if that is true but it makes a good story. It definitely has its share of characters. Talkeetna is 13 miles off the Parks Highway and is essentially a dead end. You cannot get here by accident.

Talkeetna is overrun with people for the Moose Dropping Festival. Our RV park is pretty low key except for the bagpiper who occasionally plays here in the park. As part of the festival, they sell moose turds for $5.00 (with a number painted on it) and then drop a bag full of them (with corresponding numbers) onto the blacktop. These bounce, scatter, and ricochet but the numbers (moose turds) landing closest to the "X" bulls eye wins various cash ($1,500 top prize). The leftover money goes to charity. VFW handles the drop—the member I talked to certainly seemed qualified to handle moose turds. One guy told me that a couple of years ago PETA sent in a team to make sure they were not actually dropping a moose!

Our campground is owned by David Greer's lifelong friend's daughter and her husband. So, we had a slight "in" when we called for a reservation—especially during the festival weekend. Like the other campgrounds up here, this one is a no-frills park. It works.

The campground is situated next to the Alaska Railroad Depot and the tour busses are all here (Princess, Holland America, etc.). They drop off and pick up LOTS of passengers/tourists every day. The train horn does blow but not in the middle of the night—thankfully!

Talkeetna is the main "jumping off" place for Denali climbers - and there are many of them. Also, there are lots of bush pilots here and services to drop you on the glacier near the base camp or just about anywhere on the mountain. Then it takes about 17 days for the climb to the summit if they don't mess around. Not my cup of tea!

From Talkeetna, we did a flightseeing tour of Denali and landed on a glacier. Great trip. It was the only clear day in four so we lucked out. We had a reservation for the first afternoon of the day we arrived in Talkeetna but kept calling and talking with them about going or not. We put it off, called Friday, and then put it off again until Saturday. Then we went. Perfect!

They landed on one of the glaciers. The owner of Talkeetna Air Taxi specializes in finding glaciers to land on so they can take climbers into different areas. Sounds nuts to me! With the safe glacier and landing marked, the other pilots can follow the markers and land, too—just like we did!

Denali

The Parks Highway goes through part of Denali National Park so the area where we are staying is (I think) actually in the park. This is not like a “normal” town but is a large commercial area set up to accommodate the multitude of tourists with RV parks, lodges, a number of the ubiquitous “gift shops,” and a gas station. This is where the cruises bring their people for a tour of the park. There are several major, first class lodges owned by Princess, Holland America, etc.

We drove up from Talkeetna on July 15th, parked the coach, and saw a show (dinner theater) called “Cabin Nite” the first evening we were here. There were about twenty tables. Ten people are seated at a large, log picnic table, dinner was all-you-can-eat ribs and salmon with plenty of veggies and salad. Your ticket is for the dinner and show. The show consists of lots of funny skits and music but centers around Alaskan history and settlement. It’s really well done. That was actually our third time at Cabin Nite. The first time was from a cruise in 1990. It’s definitely worthwhile. No pictures, sorry.

This is also the entrance to Denali National Park. You can only drive 15 miles into the park in private vehicles. However, park tours are available ranging from about 3 hours to 13 hours long. You board buses (some are school buses put to use in the summer) and get an excellent narrated tour. There is lots of wildlife and, depending on the weather, you may get a closer view of Denali (it's officially Mt. McKinley but everyone up here uses "Denali"—the native name meaning "the tall one"). At 20,320 feet, it is the highest peak in North America—impressive!

Just stopped in at the only (as far as I know) tiny grocery up here in this area. Ground beef and bacon were both $4.95/lb. It's not cheap up here. A decent dinner for two, equivalent to say, Outback or Dead Lobster, would cost $75-80 without drinks (beer or wine). In one restaurant, I ran across a nightly special that sounded great (salmon, topped with crab meat, and wrapped in a pastry) and had the presence to ask the price before ordering. Would you believe $42.00!!! It is common to find entrees priced from high $20s to mid $30s.

Burgers are regularly $8.95-$10.95. These are not elaborate, you get a good burger, but everything is pricey. A 4-item pizza (18") would be in the $22.00 range. Beer is $4.50/pint and house wine is $6.00/glass. Interestingly, wine by the bottle is priced all over the place and we have found it from a low of $16.00 on up. Probably the average is in the mid-$20 range.

In Anchorage, unleaded was $4.96. As soon as we left Palmer/Wasilla and headed north, unleaded was $5.16. Diesel is hanging in there at about $5.30/gallon.

Fairbanks—Lots of Stuff To See and Do

2008-07-17T13:08:00.032-05:00

A great place to start your visit in Fairbanks is at the University of Alaska’s Museum of the North. This structure actually looks a bit out of place with it’s ultra modern styling but I am so used to the museums up here being in old log buildings, new log buildings, small log buildings, and ugly log buildings that I may be a tad prejudiced.

It’s a big one, too. Sandy and I both do lots of reading at the individual displays and spent nearly five hours going through everything. We also got an audio device with headphones that provided extra information at various exhibits. There was a nice auditorium where 30-minute videos were running every hour and each had a different title. You could sit a while and learn something—not bad!

Fairbanks is actually a pretty small city. The local data said the city was about 32,000 people! I assumed it was larger. There is a ton of stuff to do in and around Fairbanks—I believe more so than any other place we have visited on this trip. The Chena River runs though the city so there are great restaurants located on the banks and they all have really nice decks. You can have a beer or a full dinner at numerous excellent places.

The city hosts the Fairbanks Winter Carnival during winter. Since the winter temperature will normally reach a MINUS 30° F. (that’s BELOW zero) and easily reach a MINUS 50° F., the main feature is the ice carving competition. Also, since I will never be here in the winter, pictures of the pictures of the ice carvings will have to suffice. However, Fairbanks has an Ice Museum. You see a movie about the Winter Carnival, the Ice Carving Competition, a chance to walk into a 0° F. freezer that contains numerous real ice carvings, and watch (through a window) a real person carve an elaborate ice sculpture while you wait. It was well worth the visit.

Speaking of those cold winter temperatures…
• We were told that at 30° below zero… they stopped all school field trips but classes continue.
• At 50° below zero, classes continue but if your child is absent, it is not counted against them.
• Residents outside of Anchorage may pay upwards of $1,000 per month for heat in the winter. (Apparently Anchorage residents are subsidized in some manner.)
• There are lots of receptacles where you can plug in your car.
• Wolverine fur should be sewn on your parka close to your mouth. It won’t hold condensation from your breath and freeze.
• As you can see from the sign, residents actually drive on the river at some point.
• Yes, the snowmobile sign is real and posted for a reason!

We found our first mosquitoes here. There were lots of them buzzing around the coach and you would notice them on the screens with the windows open—some pretty big, too. You would also notice them on you, too, if you stood outside for a while. Apparently, Fairbanks did have some form of primitive mosquito control as shown here in my pictures. Also, luckily, I was able to capture a picture of a real Alaskan mosquito.

We became perfect tourists in the Fairbanks area and actually started north of the city where there was/is a huge (many square miles) gold mining area. Fox is a “town” about 10 miles north of Fairbanks (I use the word “town” loosely because we couldn’t find two buildings even setting close together).

This is important because Fox is in the middle of this gold mining district and is the home of the Silver Gulch Brewery—America’s most northern brewery/brewpub. Being a beer fan, I always try to sample a local brewski. The beer was good, the food was good, and the inside was very nice—not just another “bar.” It’s one of the very few places in North America that offers a “scotch egg” as an appetizer. If you are in “town,” I recommend the Silver Gulch Brewery and a scotch egg.

Gold was discovered about 100 years ago and this area was inundated with miners ranging from individuals to companies with industrial equipment. They literally stripped the top of the land down to the bedrock since the gold (over a gazillion-years old) works its way down through the soil and settles on the bedrock.

Some companies used water cannons (like a fire hose on steroids) to sort of wash/melt/blow off the topsoil and gravel layer (sometimes many feet thick). The resulting mud would be washed down a “placer” where the gold would settle to the bottom while the rocks and dirt would wash away. The placer is a ribbed trough designed to force the mud and water to run down an incline while any gold is captured in between the ribs. It works.

We wanted to tour the gold fields and started with the El Dorado Gold Mine. This was an excellent two-hour tour consisting of a short narrow-gage train ride, good explanations of the gold field mining operation and equipment, and concluded with a demonstration of placer mining. You can see part of the long placer in the pictures—the guy sitting and panning gold is actually in the middle of the placer just so we all can see the demonstration. Water would run where he is sitting.

They use a LOT of water! Enough so that rocks the size of tennis balls would be washed away. You wonder why the gold doesn’t wash away but it is 8-10 times heavier than the rocks so as the gold is shaken up with the water, rocks, and dirt, it sinks to the bottom where they trap it. Now, in this operation, they actually trapped the gold in (I swear this is the truth) Astroturf (that fake, green, grass-like product). The “grass blades” on the Astroturf somehow trap the gold plus some of the really fine dirt that didn’t wash away.

The residual gold and dirt is then hand-panned just like the early miners did it 100 years ago—yes, using a traditional gold pan (check the pictures). The result is gold—lots of small flakes and sometimes (with a lot of luck) a nugget.

The El Dorado Gold Mine is a tourist attraction but also a working gold mine run by two people and a lot of high-school help. Thier operation is actually going through the “tailings”—the leftover dirt that the previous mining attempts left piled up. There are huge piles of tailings that seem to stretch for miles. With gold currently at over $900 per ounce, you can make some money.

The tour ended with a chance to actually pan for gold. They give you a “poke” (small bag with dirt and, hopefully, gold), demonstrate how to use the pan, and you do the work. At the El Dorado Gold Mine, their guarantee is that everyone will find at least eight pieces of gold or they will give you another poke. If you don’t have eight pieces when you finish with the second poke, they will give you a third poke but this time, they keep an eye on you! You get to keep what you find and they give you a small plastic container to keep it in.

Then you take your new-found gold inside the gift shop and they will weigh it and give you an estimated value at the current gold market price. Our combined effort was worth $21.00. No, they don’t buy this gold from you—it’s yours. You can have it put into a locket.

On another day, we visited Gold Dredge No. 8. This was a former industrial gold mining operation that had five of these huge dredges working together at one time. The dredge would continuously scoop up the dirt and dumped it inside the dredge and, just like the smaller placer operation, lots of water would initially separate it. The gold (even gold dust) would end up being caught with mercury. The amalgamation of the gold and mercury would solidify. Later, they would fire the pellets, melt it, recapture the mercury, and the gold would be poured into ingots (gold bars at about 27 pounds each). Just think, at today’s gold prices, one ingot would be worth about $350,000! Amazing operation. Good tour.

Still another touristy thing we did is sail on the Riverboat Discovery. This is a sternwheeler (paddle boat) and the 3.5-hour tour in on the Chena River. This was also a good tour. Luckily, the weather was great for our entire stay in Fairbanks.

Part of that boat trip was a stop at a dog kennel. Since the kennel was on the riverfront, we all stayed on the boat and everyone could see really well. Dog teams are a serious sport up here and professional “mushers” are nearly the equivalent of sports superstars. The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race (1,150 miles) and the Yukon Quest (1,000 miles) are the two big races, lasting many days, and are considered some of the toughest competitive events in the world.

The sled dogs are smaller than I thought. They are actually somewhat lean and muscular. They have one goal in life—to pull that sled! We were told that’s all they want to do.

Here is a short video showing what happens when they are given the command to go. For the demo, the dog team was harnessed to an ATV—remember, it was summer so no snow and no sleds. The video will be brief and may seem like it’s on fast-forward—but it’s real. You will be amazed at how fast those dogs can go from a dead stop.

In driving around outside of Fairbanks, we saw a nice pull-off next to the pipeline and gave us a chance to walk right up and touch it. I mentioned seeing the pipeline in an earlier blog but this visit was worthwhile since it was up close and personal.

Heading South out of Fairbanks

2008-07-17T12:06:00.000-05:00

We left Fairbanks on Friday, July 25th and headed to Tok. That’s about 200 miles and we boondocked two nights en route—we are in no hurry.

I'm always amazed by the early pictures and the fact that people walked up here—and had to take their goods with them! They were truly amazing people.

Tok (rhymes with poke, joke, and Coke) is where we completed our Alaskan “circle.” We first arrived in Tok going north on June 5th and started wending our way around Alaska from there. We went south to Valdez, ferried to Whittier, then the Kenai, back up to Anchorage, through Denali to Fairbanks, and here we are again. For anyone visiting Alaska by vehicle, Tok is frequently mentioned in the tourist magazines and online as the only city you will have to visit twice. It is the first city/town in Alaska after you cross the US/Canadian border and the last one you visit on your way back. There is no other driving route. It’s about 90 miles from Tok to the international border.

Also, Tok is where we start to backtrack over the same route that we drove north (ALCAN Highway)—Note: the ALCAN is officially called the Alaskan Highway now. We will backtrack to just before Watson Lake (about 650 miles) where we turn off the Alaskan Highway to go south on the Cassiar Highway. The Cassiar will be a new route back for us.

We finally crossed the border on July 30th meandering south. As is our usual luck, we got searched again at the Canadian crossing. Two Canadian Customs women went through my underwear drawers and about everything else—even looking BEHIND drawers. No, there was nothing for them to find. Must be my sinister looks.

You may recall from my earlier northbound blog that the 127-mile stretch of highway from the border to Burwash Landing, YT is famous for being miserable due to the frost heaves. I don’t know if we were imagining it but it seemed a lot rougher on this return trip. It could be that the increased summer traffic negatively affects them. I had my cruise control set at 45 mph and slowed for every frost heave I could spot—there were thousands of them. Luckily, we weren’t concerned with making time!

Here is a photo of some frost heaves. I didn't know if I could get a shot or not. The light had to be just so-so, I had to actually be able to see them, and have time to stop the coach. They are often virtually invisible.

There was no traffic when I spotted these frost heaves so I stopped in the road and took the shot through the windshield. I added the arrows so you can better see what I’m talking about. The single flag means this is the worst side—often, an axle-breaking dip. Flags on both sides means it stretches across and is equally bad in both lanes. You quickly learn to watch for and have absolute faith that these flags mean something! Many of these smooth-little-humps will launch a car at about 60+ mph so it really shakes up a motorhome. Your front end sure seems like it is coming off the highway! Slow is the only answer and slow is defined at about 25-35 mph when you cross the frost heaves.

In the picture, you actually see three of the humps. If humps happen to be spaced out just right, your speed is just right, and your wheelbase is just right, then multiple humps will actually increase the negative effects with successively higher launches of your vehicle. Think of it like warming up on a trampoline with successively higher bounces!

Whitehorse, BC

In Whitehorse, we got a campground and were packed in tight with three caravans. The caravans pulled out the next morning so the place was mostly deserted. My satellite dish worked so we have Internet, the cell service was nonexistent, and cable TV brings in some Seattle stations.

This was an unusual campground about 3-4 miles outside of the city. They had a lower portion where they packed in the RVs. It was really tight side-to-side, no frills, and open—no trees on site. They had an upper area (we drove it and easy to maneuver) where the sites were private, treed, and quiet. Interestingly, almost no one was up there (same cost).

We stayed here for five nights. There’s lots of stuff to see in Whitehorse with several museums. Two unique things are the weathervane at the airport (seriously). It is a full-size DC-3 aircraft, mounted so that it turns and faces into the wind. Impressive!

They have what is supposed to be the longest fish ladder in the world here. We visited it the first day (6 days ago) but no salmon (they even have video under water). Went back today and they told us there were a few gathering but had not attempted the ladder yet. I heard from another RVer that they were catching some in the Kenai. At this point, I just want to see some!!!

We were just driving around and followed the river some distance out of Whitehorse. There are some spectacular views but no salmon.

Whitehorse is a small city, it's easy to get around, everything is relatively close, and (of course) they cater to tourists—RVers are definitely tourists. We discovered that if you go to the city administration building, they will give you (the tourist) a three-day parking pass. It's good at all parking meters and city parking lots and was really handy for us.

There are lots of things to see in the area and one unique one was the Old Log Church. It was actually a museum inside.

We both love any wild game—both to view it in the wild and to have it on the table. A deli (called, "The Deli") in Whitehorse was suggested for lunch and we went. This was also the home of the Yukon Meat Company. We had a great lunch and then purchased some reindeer sausage and bison when we have dinner on the road later. We will eat this before we cross the USA border as I do not know if they will allow it across.

We also got tickets for the "Frantic Follies"—a vaudeville production that was fun and certainly entertaining. It took place in a small "showroom" in one of the hotels. Worthwhile. It is a common stop for the caravans.

Sure enough, I get chosen to go up on stage (I get chosen all the time.) Most of the time it just happens. Why, I don't know. But occasionally, I do know... Once, we were on a cruise, and my friend David Greer, shoved my arm into the air when they asked for volunteers for a cooking demo. (I cooked.) I don't want to be a spoilsport but would rather see the show than be in it!

The Steamship Klondike was also a great tour. Owned by Parks Canada (their equivalent to our National Park Service), they have a guided tour throughout the steamship. It was really well done. This boat was the largest on the Klondike River and was 230-feet long. It only required 6 feet of water to maneuver!

Sailing on the Klondike was either first class or no class. You didn't want no-class since this required you to sleep with whatever stores they were carrying.

Driving the Cassiar Highway

We pulled out of Whitehorse and headed east toward Watson Lake. Our next route turns south about 12 miles west of Watson Lake so we actually did not go all the way back into the tiny town. We turned onto the Cassiar Highway about 12 miles west of Watson Lake.

There was an instant change in highway. The first 25 miles was with the cruise control set at 40 mph and LOTS of 15-20 mph driving due to LOTS of gravel from LOTS of patching and resurfacing—sometimes 6-7 patches per mile! Some were long 300–400 yards but most were short stretches of gravel (100–200 feet). The frequent short pieces of "good" (untouched) highway would not provide enough space/distance for you to pick up speed. We thought, oh well, it's only a 375-mile drive to Stewart/Hyder!!!

Got through the rough stuff and found that this highway is like one notch lower on the highway scale than the previous one. It is two-lane, no guardrails, no shoulder, with 6-50-foot drop-offs, with occasional lane lines painted on the highway. The RCMP had a travel trailer stopped for something but since there was no shoulder, they simply took up the right lane. But, there was little or no traffic.

About 75 miles down the Cassiar, we stopped at a tiny place called Jade City (two small buildings) to look at the jade (they mine 75% of the world's jade here). Chatting with the workers, I asked where they bought their groceries. They didn't bat an eye and simply said, "Watson Lake!" This means two things... they have to drive 87 miles one way to the grocery in a town of 1,200 (and don't forget about that 25-mile stretch I described above)! And second, they are nuts. The good news is that Jade City has free overnight RV parking. We didn’t stay there but it looked nice enough.

We drove 120 miles the first day on the Cassiar. Nice scenery—much like Yellowstone—with a bit of snow on the fairly short mountains that sort of close in on the highway. We are next to a lake and the loons are looning. Mosquitoes, too. For the last few days, they have come out—in droves. Open the window and 100 will be on the screen. Two or three seem to be getting in the coach at night—must have a hole somewhere.

We spray the bedroom, close the door, then the bathroom, and close the door about an hour before we go to bed. Then, when we go to bed, we spray the front. This has helped. Think of it as living with "Raid."

Route 37A or Turning West to Hyder/Stewart

This highway takes you off the Cassiar and toward the coast where the two towns of Hyder, Alaska and Stewart, BC are situated side-by-side. Neither is a metropolis with Hyder at about 100 residents and Stewart about 500.

This route is about 35 miles long and is considered one of the most beautiful and spectacular in all of British Columbia—and that's saying a lot! The Bear Glacier, waterfalls, beaver dams, mountains, and streams mark your way. It is one great drive.

The ground here (in many places) is solid rock. So the drilling or placement of poles for electricity is virtually impossible or cost prohibitive. Rock is everywhere—big and small. They solved their power pole installation problem with the local rock. These piles were 15-feet tall and some of the rocks were half the size of a car! Hey, it works.

Interestingly, this stretch of highway is good—even better than much of the Cassiar. My assumption is that it is maintained for the tourists (RVers).

Stewart is the first tiny town you come to going west. Laid out in a grid, it is easy to get through. You will see a couple of restaurants and gift shops while driving through. If you are a shopper/browser, this is not going to be your best day.

Stewart also has a free dump station fully accessible to all. It is easy to get to, plenty of room to maneuver the biggest rig, and was clean. I believe there was potable water available, too. We didn't need it so I'm just not sure.

This huge snow mass was impressive in August! It had to be from some earlier avalanche but whatever the source, it dropped a lot of snow here! Notice the small, black, cave-like hole in the bottom center of the snow. This is where the melted snow is actually running out into the stream. To help you gain a little perspective on the size of this giant pile, I could easily fit my coach inside this cave!

Here's the Bear Glacier. There was some road construction along here but we still had plenty of space to pull off and take the shot. Spectacular! Years ago, the glacier reached across where we are parked. The highway could not be built until it had melted back some.

Hyder, Alaska

Hyder is one of the very few places where you can enter the USA from Canada and there are no border guards. None whatsoever. But, if you intend to drive out of here, you will have to backtrack on this same highway where there is a Canadian border checkpoint. Also, there are no paved streets in Hyder—all the streets are gravel. Interesting.

We stayed in Hyder at Camp Run-A-Muck (seriously). You have to understand, Hyder ain't all that exciting... we had a beer in the ONLY bar in town and then ate at the ONLY restaurant in town. (There used to be two but the other cook took a motorcycle trip—seriously—and the kitchen closed.) Camp Run-A-Muck was busy with a caravan, had 30-amp, water, and just a few sewer-hook-up sites on a septic system. The manager asked if we could get by without sewer and we said sure. She said we could dump in Stewart. Everything worked out fine.

The restaurant was named "The Bus" because the woman who runs it (her husband is a fisherman) cooks in an old school bus (seriously) and then brings the food out the door. There were two seating areas—outside and inside. We both had fish and chips. The fresh halibut was wonderful. It’s amazing what you can do in a school bus.

There’s only two steady, fulltime jobs in town—the postmaster and the teacher. Hyder, Alaska is so close to Stewart, BC (3 kilometers) that the only clock in town on the official Alaskan time is the post office. Everything else just functions on Pacific time to match with Stewart.

Like Stewart, Hyder is situated on the water. There was even a boat out there!

A Note About Bears and Salmon... We finally saw some salmon—just a few but I hated the thought of doing this whole trip without seeing any. The problem was the late summer and the resulting late snow melt. This caused the streams to be thick with glacial silt and several degrees colder than normal for the salmon run. So, we did not see one. When we were here in Hyder, we talked to a man whose friend was in the Kenai and they were having a great run. The problem was that it was about 5 weeks late.

The main purpose for us coming to Hyder was the Fish Creek area. This is a built-up wooden, deck-like area where tourists can walk out and see the grizzly bears catch and eat fish. You are protected from them. They are protected from you. Everything is as it should be. We have seen at least 15 TV shows about how the bears do it and we just wanted to see it. So, we came to Hyder.

Luckily, we saw a grizzly chase down one salmon and catch it. The bear spent some time on shore in front of us just eating away! Just like on TV. Fascinating.

All in all, we saw maybe 20 salmon. That's it, for the entire trip. It was the single negative thing on this great trip!

We left Hyder after two nights. It's about 475 miles to Prince George and we will spend three nights on the road getting there. Since we have been on the Cassiar Highway, my cruise control has been set to about 45 since we don't know what kind of highway is ahead of us. No hurry anyway. Lots of wildlife on the road around here so there's plenty of reasons to go slower. We see black bears frequently.

Winding Down?

We are not tired of the trip at all but we are both pretty tired of no TV. We brought a tub full of movies (borrowed) and had about 30 shows recorded on the Tivo but we have gone through everything two or three times. We also brought a bunch of books because we read every day/night. We generally plan on getting back to the coach (or finishing with dinner) about 2100, watch some show/movie (kill a couple of hours), and Sandy hits the bed. She's been sleeping in (rare for her but no morning TV to watch) and we both get up by 0800. We get our news at abcnews.com.

Antarctica Cruise

2008-03-23T15:17:00.002-05:00

You can be maxed out, burned out, and coffeed out but I am truly overwhelmed... out!!! I've been overwhelmed so many times by what I saw on this trip that there's none left. Even with my experience from using those 26 letters to communicate, I find it difficult to put what I have seen into words. Magnificent, awesome, spectacular, and wonderful are simply too ordinary to describe all of this. Everything— everything you see takes your breath away. I am talking about our recent cruise to Antarctica.

Actually, we flew the long 10-hour overnight to Buenos Aires, Argentina and boarded a Princess cruise there. Sixteen days later, we returned to Buenos Aires for the flight home. We left our coach in a small campground in Perry, Georgia, drove the car to the Atlanta airport, and flew direct from there.

The coach was plugged in, parking is cheap at the Airport Marriott ($6.70 per day), and everything is easy to get to. We met up with my cousin Donna and an elderly Aunt (Betty Jane) in Atlanta. That overnight flight took us to South America.

Buenos Aires was okay—we did not think it required more than the three days we spent there. We did a city tour—a classic bus tour with a guide talking us through the sites. One thing that caught our attention was that two different people (one worked for the hotel and one for Princess but was at the hotel) mentioned specifically that we should not wear any gold out on the streets. These were two unsolicited pieces of advice so we took them seriously.

Donna, because of her association with the wine industry (she owns a liquor store), had some first hand recommendations for restaurants. So the first night we went to a first class place called "La Brigada."

They specialize in beef as do many of the restaurants down here. Absolutely wonderful. The Argentine beef is world famous and outstanding. Four dinners with all the trimmings - appetizer, salad, entree, sides, dessert, and three bottles of Argentinean (not cheap) wine, including tip was $462 pesos—or $36.00 US each!!! The exchange that day was 3.2. Interestingly, they operate on the "Spanish" schedule of a two-hour siesta during the afternoon. The restaurants do not open until 8:00 pm and peak dining is around 10:00 to 11:00 pm. Our body clock was so screwed up that we made reservations for 8:00 and were the first customers of the evening.

Part of the city tour was the cemetery and it was most interesting... Yes, Evita is really buried there so you can disregard those rumors. Mausoleums are everywhere and inside these individual doors are a set of steps that go down two stories. If you own a mausoleum, your entire family is buried here. You can sell your mausoleum but the ground is leased for 99 years.

The cemetery was divided by these strange trees (don't remember what kind) but there were over 600 of the trees throughout. The "perfect" look is apparently constant as we were told they only have to be trimmed once per year.

The second night we had purchased a package that included dinner (steaks were one of the choices but all very nice selections)—champagne, wines, appetizers, and desserts and then walked across the street to a theater where we saw a Tango Show. Excellent! The show lasted about an hour. Ten musicians, eight dancers—all very professional—that went through the history of the Tango. Actually, it started as a "dance" or fight between two men.

Another area that was intriguing was the "artist's" village. One of the local famous artists talked one of the big paint companies into donating their excess paint to various neighborhoods. This is the result. Whatever works.

Finally, the four of us plus the other 2396 people got on the Star Princess cruise ship and, after three sea days, get to the first port of Stanley, capital of the Falkland Islands.

This is a pretty bleak and barren place and it is home to fierce winds. They have recorded winds here at 200 mph—much more than typical hurricanes! No natural trees at all—this is one unusual place. Several penguin colonies are close to the city. Actually, "city" is misleading. Our cruise ship more than doubled the population of Stanley (2,000 people)! Donna and Betty stopped in for lunch at the local tavern between two tours. I don't know the exact conversion rate but the English pound is their currency. Their sandwich and beer cost them $30.00 US!

The most intriguing thing is the numerous leftover minefields from the UK and Argentinean war back in 1982. The minefields are still active but well marked. They start teaching little children what to look for and what to do if they see anything "unexplained" that could be leftover unexploded ordinance. There has never been an accidental explosion and no one has been hurt since that war even though there are literally thousands of mines and shells there.

We headed south for two days crossing the Drake Passage (it is the waterway between Cape Horn and Antarctica) and our first sighting of the continent was the South Shetland Islands—specifically Elephant Island. Here, all this sea freezes over in the winter to form what is called "pack ice" at 4-30 feet thick. It was here that Ernest Shackleton's ship, the Endurance, was crushed by the pack ice in 1915. They dragged their lifeboats to Elephant Island and survived for four months on seal and penguin meat!

A word about weather... we have been told time and again that good weather is rare in Antarctica. Overcast, fog, rain, storms, etc. are the common situation. We lucked out, period. Our weather was perfect—clear, sunshine, occasional puffy clouds, wonderful. The weather we experienced was extremely rare and literally happens only a few times every year.

From here on, there is the good possibility of sighting whales. I watched two humpbacks blow and dive with that fluke in the air but just a bit too far for a decent picture. Sandy saw Minke whales—pretty common here. Pods of Orca whales are common here, too, but we did not see any. Throughout the trip we saw lots of penguins (they can't fly) and cormorants (they look similar to penguins but can fly). We cruised for three days close in to the Antarctica Peninsula. From Elephant Island we crossed the Branfield Strait and that was where rough seas typically happen. Ours were not bad at all. The seas were reported at 5–12 feet. This is one place in the world where heavy seas are normal. We were perfectly comfortable on the ship.

On a side note, the Antarctica Treaty was signed in 1959 by 12 nations that were active here at the time. Antarctica officially starts at 60° south (look at your globe) and this is where the treaty comes into force. Essentially, it prevents any military use and sets strict guidelines for environmental compliance. An interesting side note to this is that for the three days we were south of 60°, there was a smoking ban OUTSIDE and that included your own balcony!

We had the good fortune to have on board Dr. Jerri Nielsen—the American physician, who, in 1999, was serving her year as the only doctor in the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station on Antarctica. You will remember her because she ultimately discovered a lump in her breast and then, through a video link with U.S. physicians, she performed a biopsy upon herself. With no possibility of a rescue for several months, a highly risky July (that is mid-winter in Antarctica) cargo drop was made and she began self-administered chemotherapy treatments to ensure her survival until conditions permitted her rescue several months later. She was ultimately rescued in an equally dangerous mid-October landing. She gave two different presentations and was absolutely excellent.

We awoke the next morning to spectacular views. Simply spectacular.

Sandy got up, peeked out the balcony, and literally screamed at me to come and look quick! With this once-in-a-lifetime balcony view this morning, the day started and was filled with wonderful sights. My first iceberg—a childhood dream to see one. This particular iceberg was about 300 yards long and about 1/4 mile from the ship. Wow! That's the top of another one in back. The pictures will speak for themselves. It's why we came...

We continued west on through the Gerlache Straight with islands (large and small) on our starboard (right) and the Antarctica Peninsula on the port (left) side and made our way through thousands—literally thousands—of icebergs.

Here's your 1-minute iceberg lesson... The huge ones (like the ones above) are called "tabular icebergs" and are formed when some portion of the ice shelf breaks away. One of the largest in the world was estimated to be the size of Rhode Island! Then, other icebergs frequently break off the large tabular iceberg. These are the size of a huge house/small building and called "bergie bits" (think about it and you will understand the name).

The bergie bits (above) break up and form others the size of a car/truck. These are called "growlers" (not sure why they picked this name). With the iceberg, what you see is definitely not what you get. Approximately 6/7 of the total ice is underwater with 1/7 being visible. To visualize this, take one ice cube, put it in a glass of water, and look through the side of the glass to see how much is underwater. Pretty amazing. So, if you see a bergie bit, the building-sized chunk you actually see is hiding about 6 more building-sized chunks underwater.

There was an "ice pilot" brought on board to help navigate the ship along the Antarctica Peninsula. His background was that he served 20 years in the Coast Guard and was captain of their largest ice breaker. What a job!

There are also "Antarctic Explorers" around. We would find these two characters climbing—exploring—all over the ship. They looked and acted the part.

At Lion Island, we headed south to go clockwise around Wiencke Island. This dip to the south put us at our most southern point in the voyage—64°56.8'—and also takes us to the mouth of the Neumaier Channel.

This is the most spectacular portion of the cruise and where we will see the true Antarctica continent in its natural state. Again, descriptions fail me. All the following landscape shots were taken in the Nuimaier Channel.

This channel is very narrow and lies between Wiencke Island and Anvers Island. The views were, again, spectacular through the Neumaier Channel and gave us a chance to truly see the "landscape" since we were so close to the shore on both sides. A strange fact... we were told that the Neumaier Channel contains more actual glaciers than the entire state of Alaska! Here's more Neumaier Channel shots.

Note the small cruise ship in the shot above. There are apparently several of these mostly made up of Russian research vessels (no longer doing research). They hold 20 to 200 passengers and can, of course, get in closer than our ship.

If you can detect the "knobby" look of this iceberg (it looks like it was wrapped in plastic bubble wrap), it recently rolled over and this side was under water. They do that normally at some point. We were not lucky enough to see one roll.

Antarctica is a strange place. It is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent. It is considered the largest desert in the world due to literally no rainfall. We were told that the winds were so strong that they would literally peel up the surface of the ice and turn it into blowing crystals - like snow. Dr. Jerri Nielsen said that you actually get used to the cold. She showed pictures of her sleeping quarters (small room) that had balls of ice in the upper corners that would grow and shrink based on the humidity. If you set a drink on her floor, it would freeze. But she said about chest high, the temp was perfect. Amazing. Winter temperature averages between –112°F and –130°F at the interior of the continent! Snow is common near the coast. Their record snowfall was 48 inches in 48 hours! It snowed on our cruise ship. First time that's ever happened to us in 22 cruises.

There were plenty of normal "cruise" things going on during the days here but we were mostly on deck. It was cold.

For the first time ever on a cruise, it snowed on the ship. Here's our balcony floor with the big flakes coming down!

At night, we all transformed back into more normal "tourists" on a cruise. We have been on 22 cruises now and with 19 of them on Princess, we obviously prefer them.

Moving along, we back track through the Bransfield Strait to Deception Island. The island is actually a caldera, a collapsed volcano, and what you see is the giant ring made up of the top of the volcano. There is one opening through the ring and it seems to form a natural harbor.

Here's where we leave Antarctica.

We head to Cape Horn—the southern tip of South America and located in the country of Chile—it is part of the Tierra del Fuego region. Here, we also entered the Pacific Ocean as we rounded Cape Horn.

We cruised the Beagle Channel—named for the ship that carried Darwin through here. Our next port is Ushuaia, Argentina and we have to take the tenders in here.

Chile and Argentina borders are somewhat confusing through here. The Argentineans consider Ushuaia the southernmost city in the world. All of this is part of the Straits of Magellan. He found the route in 1520. We took a boat tour and visited the cormorants and sea lions.

On board, I'm selected (it seems I'm always selected) as the volunteer for the Gaucho show. This performer is twirling heavy balls on leather thongs (like bolos) and he uses me as the centerpiece. I sit very still.

Our next port is Punta Arenas, Chile—what the Chileans consider to be the southernmost city in the world. Actually Ushuaia is on an island and Punta Arenas is on the continent. Who knows? To cover everything politically, we are in both! Punta Arenas is not connected by road to northern Chile. We took the city tour with lots of colorful buildings and the requisite cemetery.

We leave Punta Arenas for three sea days on our way back around Argentina to Montevideo, Uruguay. We dock in Montevideo in the rain and it does not quit all day. A bus tour around the city was done in the afternoon but we only got off the bus three times and actually skipped three usual tour stops because of the rain.

Betty and Donna both celebrated birthdays on this trip. Donna was 54 and Betty was more difficult because we had to count those rings (sort of like dating a tree).

This was not an inexpensive cruise but continues to verify that old adage, "You get what you pay for." In this case, it was a once-in-a-lifetime trip for us - by far, the most spectacular and unusual of the many, many places we have been. Of our 22 cruises, this one tops my list. With the stringent environmental controls on the continent of Antarctica, these trips could easily end without warning. Princess only offered two trips there this year, period and the ship was full.

READ THIS ONE FIRST If You Are New To This Site!!!...

2007-07-03T15:56:00.002-05:00

I started this Blog in 2005 but was just messing around—sort of "testing" how to do it. Then, I forgot about it until our Canadian trip in 2007.

With our many travels, I ended up trying to send a variety of pictures to so many different people that it became a chore to communicate with everyone effectively. Therefore, this blog made sense.

For those of you that don't know, "blog" is a contraction of "web log"—I didn't make up that word. I will, of course, continue to write and call you but posting the pictures this way is significantly faster than customizing them for everyone.

Enjoy the pictures and maybe this will be a memento of our travels. My purpose is not to chronicle daily travels and events—I could never do a "diary" or a "journal." I do want those who are interested to see some of the sites we have been lucky enough to visit during our fulltiming ventures.

Hints on Using this Blog

For pictures or maps, click on them to get a larger view. Just click the "back" button on your browser to go back to where you were.

This is Wes (Wesley) at 7 months—our great grandson—he will be two in October. No, he doesn't travel with us. He's pretty cute so I gave him some space here.

And here he was about April 2008—looking good!

Ron

Vancouver, BC

2007-06-30T20:55:00.000-05:00

This is a great city! We've been through here three times and during one of those, spent a few days (prior to an Alaskan cruise) with Lillie and Mom. Always wanted to return. This was the last stop in Canada during our venture north this year.

There's only one campground (that I could find) that was even close to the city. Capilano RV Park is really close to downtown (easy 10 minutes). In the first picture, you see what almost looks like a large, wooded, island. That land is literally connected to downtown Vancouver and is called Stanley Park—a 1,000-acre park—i.e., huge.

Follow the bridge from Stanley Park toward where I am standing and that's where Capilano RV Park is located—under the north end of the bridge. A bit pricey at $44.00 CN per night but definitely saves you tons of driving time around the city. It was worth it.

Vancouver is a great restaurant city—my kind of town. We had Hungarian food (cabbage rolls), Ukranian food (sausages and veal), and Chinese food (Peking duck). Vancouver has the second largest Chinese population in North America.

Just north of the campground was one of the famous sites in the area—the Capilano Suspension Bridge. It's real and it's shaky but worth the effort.

After crossing the bridge, you are in a rainforest that has been (pretty well) preserved. The unusual thing is that they have constructed walkways up in and through the trees. It's a very different perspective from 50-feet up. These did not shake and were very well done. It was an easy climb.

Driving a bit farther north from the Suspension bridge, you end up at Grouse Mountain. This mountain literally drops into this part of North Vancouver, is a ski run, and tourist destination. We took the tram up. You can walk around the top. I was on top Grouse Mountain when I took the picture of the city (the first shot above).

One thing to see was the lumberjack show. With log rolling, axe throwing, and pole climbing, it was a fun show (all included in the one ticket price).

An unusual feature on Grouse Mountain were the woodcarvings. These were huge, excellent, and a lot of them. Here's just one to give you an idea. All of them are about the same size—this one is about 18-feet tall and 4-feet in diameter—just huge. The detail is spectacular.

Jasper National Park and Southwest

2007-06-30T16:58:00.000-05:00

Driving from the Ice Fields north to Jasper, we passed through some great country. The mountains are a bit less rugged up here but continue to be majestic.

Waterfalls everywhere!

There's lots of wildlife, too.

We paid for our most expensive boondocking site (no hookups) just outside of the town of Jasper. It was in Whistler Campground (run by the Canadian Parks) and the cost was $25.75 per night. That's expensive parking but it's the only option.

Jasper (town) is small and we didn't find much to do there. Lots of trails and ski areas but not for us. So we left. We headed west out of the Park and then turned south. Our ultimate goal now is Vancouver but no hurry.

We found a campground (one that actually had 50-amp) in Valemount, BC and stopped there. This was really a one-horse tiny town with 3-4 tourist motels. We were driving around and found that they were full of Japanese tourists.

The good news... The "Caribou Grill"—a really nice steak house. But, the Really Good News is that they specialized in Caribou steaks. We had been looking to try these all the way through the park. Finally! They were great!!! They were even better than the Muskox stew I had in Jasper.

A Piece of the Rock

2007-06-30T15:30:00.000-05:00

“Alcatraz rocks!“ was the comment from one of the children on our tour boat. We were headed to Alcatraz—the former federal prison and now national park—for a tour of the facility and island. The boat ride is the only way to get there. We departed from the San Francisco wharf next to the infamous Pier 39—itself, a major tourist destination. Alcatraz was made a part of the Golden Gate National Recreational Area in 1972. The National Park Service (NPS) operates the facility.

Infamously known as “The Rock,“ Alcatraz was the ultimate destination for prisoners deemed incorrigible or a troublemaker. A few prisoners whose names you may recognize include Al Capone, Alvin Karpis, George “Machine Gun“ Kelly, and Robert Stroud, the “Birdman of Alcatraz.“

After stepping off the boat, the walking tour of Alcatraz is at your own pace. Numerous departure times for the return boat are posted so you can stay on the island as long as you want. There is a steep walk (12% grade) up to the main Cellhouse building and a tram is available for those unable to make the climb.

An audio tour is the recommended way to hear the information. You get a comfortable set of earphones and a simple-to-operate player that allows you to stop the narrative at any time, replay when needed, and there are clear directions pointing you to the next point of interest. The information is excellent and the stories and comments by former prisoners are interesting.

Alcatraz was a real prison specially designed to hold some of the toughest and meanest prisoners this nation had incarcerated at that time. The tour walks you through the cell blocks where you have a close-up view of the real cells where prisoners lived.

During the tour, viewing the individual cells, “segregation,“ and “isolation“ is an eye-opening experience. Rule Number 5, Alcatraz Prison Rules and Regulations, 1934, stated that, “You are entitled to food, clothing, shelter, and medical attention. Anything else you get is a privilege.“

When a prisoner was placed in “segregation,“ it was not considered additional punishment. This move was designed to simply separate prisoners and prevent contact. Interestingly, the “segregation “ cell is actually larger than the normal cell.

Special cells called “Isolation“ were designed for the highest level of punishment. Inmates referred to the isolation cells as the “Hole.“ When the outer door to the cell was closed, the interior of the cell was in total darkness. Listening to the audio tour, one prisoner described his time in isolation as follows…

"He stated that to pass the time and keep from going crazy, he would rip a button off his clothes, then flip that button up in the air, he would turn around three times, and then search the floor for the button—by feel—by crawling around. Simply, it gave him something he could do in total darkness."

Prisoners were kept in the isolation cell 23 hours per day. This punishment was, in effect, the total loss of all privileges.
Visitation with the immediate family was also a privilege (remember Rule #5) and, as with all activities (privileges), was regulated by a set of rigid rules. These visitation rules were designed to control the visitation and prevent potential problems. The inmate and his visitor were separated by a window of thick glass and conversation was by phone. All conversations were monitored.

Occasionally, prisoners would be able to see across the bay. There, San Francisco beckoned them. One Alcatraz myth is that it is impossible to survive the swim to the mainland because of sharks. However, there are no “man-eating” sharks in San Francisco Bay. The cold water (averaging 50–55 degrees), strong currents, and 1-1/4 miles to shore were excellent deterrents.

In 1934, prior opening Alcztraz, a teenage girl swam to the island to prove it was possible. The fitness guru Jack LaLanne once swam to the island pulling a rowboat, and two 10-year-old children also made the swim.

Thirty-six men (two who tried twice) were involved in fourteen escape attempts from 1934–1963. Twenty-three were caught, six shot and killed, and two drowned. Officially, no prisoners succeeded in escaping from Alcatraz, however, five prisoners are listed as “missing and presumed drowned.“

Frank Morris, with John and Clarence Anglin (brothers ) escaped from their cells and never seen again. Another inmate, Allen West, believed to have been the mastermind, was involved but was still in his cell the next morning after the escape. “Escape from Alcatraz,” the movie starring Clint Eastwood as Frank Morris, was the story of this escape. The men used prison-issue raincoats to make crude life vests and a pontoon-type raft to help them survive the swim. The three men were never found.

Columbia Ice Fields, Banff/Jasper, Alberta

2007-06-29T13:03:00.000-05:00

Banff and Jasper National Parks border each other. As you travel (north or south), you cross from one to the other. The middle is the Columbia Ice Fields—a huge area of glaciers (and ice fields). These ice fields provide much of the water to western North America including the Columbia River. That's a lot of water!

The major experience there is to tour one of the glaciers by riding on the Ice Explorer—a special vehicle designed to travel on the ice.

The glacier is, of course, huge and spectacular. The Ice Explorers have a designated route to follow and (in theory) they are not detrimental to the glacier itself. It does seem that the Canadians are taking special care of the environment.

This shot is actually taken from across the highway—at the Visitor's Center. Even with a telephoto, you can barely see the Ice Explorers making their way back down from the glacier. Those two black dots are the Ice Explorers.

Cold, it was! (I sound like Yoda now.) That wind starts someplace in the Pacific Ocean, makes it across British Columbia, and whips over and down on top of this glacier. I have no idea what the windchill was standing here.

There is a nice visitor center there but not much else. The large parking areas can hold about any size crowd. It was not crowded but we were there before the major tourist influx. Notice our coach in the far right parking lot. This lot is designated for overnight parking, too. Fill out the form, put your $9.90 in the envelope, and you are good for the night. There are no hookups or dumps here. Just a place to park overnight. The evening lights were fantastic. Quiet, too.

Here's another look at the Visitor's Center from the glacier. That's our coach in the lot to the left—looking lonely.

Canadian Rockies

2007-06-25T13:36:00.001-05:00

Western Canada
Empty! That’s what this country is. Wow! After touring the Tunnels in Moose Jaw, SK, we drove to Swift Current, SK today—about 100 miles. This is the area where they grow the wheat and when you have seen pictures of the huge number of combines on those wheat fields, well, we drove through a bunch of those fields today. The combines aren’t there now. This is, without question, the flattest country I’ve ever been in. Miles without so much as a hump in the road. Laid out T-square straight. Reminds me of the movie years ago entitled “Amber Waves” (Dennis Weaver)—worth seeing.

By the way, they call Moose Jaw the “Buckle on the Wheat Belt”—appropriate.

Here’s some proof—unretouched!

Frank Slide
West from Lethbridge, AB, we drive across Crowsnest Pass. There, in 1903, "Frank Slide," the greatest landslide in North American history wiped out the town of Frank in 100 seconds! It literally could not be cleaned up and it quite spectacular to visit. You can see some of the result of the whole side of the mountain sliding down. Sandy is standing in the debris field.

Fort Steele
We stayed south of the Park for a few days not knowing how primitive the area was we were headed into. We shouldn't have been concerned—everything was fine in the Park—not primitive at all and only had two nights where we boondocked.

However, the campground at Fort Steele was a pleasant surprise. Take a look at these views...

Banff National Park
I’m sitting here at the table, facing forward, writing this. It’s raining gently. About 30-40 yards out front (kind of open-woodsy), four elk are playing (1 bull, 2 cows, and—I think—one calf). Fascinating! Can’t get a picture of them as it will focus on the sunshade material on our windshield. Continue to see LOTs of wildlife—deer and elk literally walking the side streets in town. Sandy saw two grizzlys yesterday as we were driving. Plus, we have seen several black bears, big horn sheep, mountain goats, and even one grey wolf!

Visited Lake Louise yesterday—REALLY COLD!!! Wind coming down off that glacier and across the lake was hitting us in the face. Gorgeous area but cold.

Still plenty of snow here! This was from the cleared parking lot.

Driving back, we are on a one-lane (passing through a former landslide area) and up popped these sheep. The lamb could not make it over the barrier in one hop so would perch on top and then hop down. He went back and forth a couple of times. There is eight sheep in this herd.

This continues to be one of the most spectacular campsites we were ever in!!!

Another view...

Temperature hovers around 50 degrees (except near the lake) and rain every day—not much but consistent. They had nearly record snows here this winter. They have had record rains lately. The rains causes a faster snow melt so the rivers are maximum. They all are grey/green with glacier silt and fast moving.

It’s time to move on and we are headed into the first “wild” area tomorrow—the Columbia Ice fields (find it on Google). There are two “campgrounds” there with no hookups, period. We were told there may not even be a restaurant—that’s really roughing it! Then on north into Jasper but was told not to plan on any towns there either. We shall see.

Milestone in My Life

2007-06-23T12:26:00.001-05:00

I definitely passed through another milestone in my life today. Here's the proof...

Map of Canada Trip 2007

2007-06-02T17:41:00.000-05:00

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The End of the Journey

2005-12-17T10:30:00.000-06:00

With sadness, I must announce that we have ended a continuous, approximately 12,740-mile, trip that started last Dec. 26th (2004) and ended early November 2005. Grab your US atlas and with no more than your finger, trace along with us - you may need to use one of your stronger fingers! Leaving out volumes of details, our trip took us from Denton, Texas east to Georgia, south to Florida, north to Indiana, south to Tennessee, north to Ohio, west to Indiana, north to Michigan, west to Montana, southwest to Oregon, north up the Oregon/Washington coast to the ferry and then to the northern parts of Vancouver Island, B.C., Canada, back south via the ferry and then through Seattle and south to the middle of Oregon,
west back to the coast, south to San Francisco, southeast to Gilroy, CA, over to Yosemite NP, north through Sacramento, northeast to Lake Tahoe and Reno, south to Carson City, southeast to Las Vegas, east to Flagstaff, east to Albuquerque, south to Carlsbad, south to Pecos, TX, east to Ft. Worth, and back to Denton. Whew!!! We did not track the miles on the car. We are constantly asked which place we liked best and the answer is we liked them all - okay, a couple were iffy.

Would leave again in the morning if possible. But first, we will spend the holidays in Denton, getting our annual checkups done, and visiting. So, we will park for a couple of months and have a good time here, too.

Even with paying as much as $3.49 per gallon for fuel (our record price), this style of living is still considerably less expensive than owning a home - plus it's a lot more fun.

When traveling, part of what we do is continue to chase my lifelong dream of eating/dining in great unique local restaurants - every one in the nation. For example, Duran Central Pharmacy (in Old Town Albuquerque) is a real pharmacy with a small dining area. It's a small adobe building that almost sits on the street and they serve breakfast and lunch - there will likely be a line for lunch. Duran's has been around since 1945 and they serve authentic New Mexican dishes with world-famous red and green chile. New Mexican food is different than the normal Tex-Mex. One word of warning... New Mexican food is hot and spicy - not for the wimpy and it may stop you in your tracks even if you like hot foods but only have them occasionally.

I think David Greer (he and Lana traveled with us for the northwest portion of the trip) learned about real clam chowder. He and I probably had chowder for lunch or dinner 30, 40, 50 days in a row - always at a different place. We even found the restaurants that won the Oregon Chowder Cookoff for the last couple of years. They were great! David is still complaining that we blew away his "eating out" budget - but he also talks about that great chowder, too.

We also visited many, many museums (Flight, Atomic, Liberace, Texas, Railroad, Petroleum, Rattlesnake, many more). We toured mansions, will go in any Park that seems interesting, and any other place that is offbeat, unusual, educational, or just seems like fun. For example, we drove by the TeePee Motel (Route 66, New Mexico) where you spend the night in teepees (seriously), visited the "West of the Pecos" Museum (Pecos, TX) where Judge Roy Bean dispensed frontier justice, learned how and cooked fresh oysters on the grill in Canada, watched wild turkeys feed in front of our coach in Montana, saw the costumes that Liberace wore, watched sea lions sun themselves in front of our coach in Canada, stood in awe at the base of some of the biggest trees in the world, learned how they find oil, saw one of the finest car collections in the world, looked up under and down onto the Golden Gate bridge, learned about and tried Dim Sum, had a private tour of a Napa Valley winery, met Stan Dishong who designed, built, and rode some of the world's fastest motorcycles, visited the "Peanuts" museum, went deep into Carlsbad Caverns, and even made it to the "Rock" - Alcatraz Prison.

Not trying to be maudlin here but it was a lifetime experience.

What a lifestyle! We, obviously, recommend it.