June 18th

THE DETAILS:

THE WEATHER: It started out cloudy today and 54. Gary was able to get his first TV station and watched the weather last night. It’s suppose to be showers today. But instead we ended up with partly sunny skies and a high of 72 degrees!

THE DISTANCE: We left the campground in the North Pole at noon! Yeah, you got that right, and only drove 15 miles to Fairbanks. We are currently staying at Riverview Campgrounds.


Well, it was a slow start today. I think the last time zone caught up to us. We were in bed for 10:00 pm and didn’t wake up until 8 am!! We put tin foil on the roof vent and that gave us the added darkness we needed. So now that we are refreshed we’ll hit the town of North Pole. It was interesting to drive around and the whole town gets into the festivities. The hardware store had 2 huge candy canes that supported their sign and a dental office called North Pole Dental, looked very Bavarian. There were stores called Polar Espresso and the Santa Claus House. We spent some time at the Santa Claus House because it is a Christmas shop. Gary sent his grandkids each a postcard that will be stamped from the North Pole! We did find our Christmas ornament.

From there we moved on to Fairbanks which we realized was only 15 miles away! Ha! Big miles today! Now we see signs like Mt. McKinley Bank, Klondike Korner, and Kodiak Jack‘s Saloon. We didn’t realize we were going to be here for the weekend of Summer Solstice! They celebrate the longest day of the year which is June 21st!! They close off 3 blocks and have a huge block party festival and we could even take in the 105th annual softball game played… you guessed it…. Under the midnight sun from 10pm till midnight! We were told about the University of Alaska’s amazing museum so we took the scooter out for a ride to check it out. Well, it was interesting but not as spectacular as everyone made it out to be. There was an interesting documentary about the Aurora Borealis. Of course I don’t know how much a small town like this can offer. I am really surprised that these “cities” you hear about ie; Fairbanks and Anchorage are really just big towns. I would say Fairbanks isn’t much bigger than Manchester’s west side. From the University we drove to Brewster’s for dinner where I once again got the halibut fingers. They are delicious. From there we went for a ride over to Pioneer Park where they have a walk through a Gold Rush Town, a narrow, winding street of authentic old buildings that once graced downtown Fairbanks. The houses now are set up to be used by local shops selling food and crafts. We got there after the shops were closed but could walk through the town and read about the houses. Gary was very interested in the structure, I was interested in the history of the building. We took a ride through town after that and got “home” around 10 pm. The picture that will be posted of the sun setting over a river is just a few steps out of our door and the sun setting is at 10:30 pm. As you can see it still has a way to go.

So we have settled down at our site in RV City once again. Summer has certainly begun up here. Everything is crowded. At least we were able to get a corner lot facing the river. Not bad!


PS: Tim: stop your wineing. Gerry & Gayle: it’s good to have you aboard, if you can find room you are welcome to stay but that webcam has GOT TO GO!! If you heard the conversation about ME actually catching all those fish yesterday it’s a lie!! Really! One more condition on you staying is: you cannot heckle the fishermen or women. BTW, when we run low on Bolivia’s Best, are you up to taking a trip out west?? Dan: TMI

June 17th

THE DETAILS:

WEATHER: Woke up to cloud cover and 54 degrees. Showers began shortly after 9:00 am. But it became partly cloudy for the rest of the day around noon time. The high today was around 75.


DISTANCE: We left Delta Junction at 10:00 am. And arrived in the North Pole around 8 pm. We only drove 94 miles today.



Well, Gary was right, the campground this morning came alive at 5 am. A little early but with how bright it was outside I had a hard time getting back to sleep. What’s interesting about it being light most of the day is not that it is bright most of the time - we expected that, but when the sun is still in the sky and just as it begins to set there is a still that comes over the campgrounds. You can hear a pin drop, there is little to no traffic on the road. It’s a weird feeling to see everything shut down and look kinda’ like a ghost town when it is as bright as 7:00 pm at home.

So we got on our way further west but not far! We were in pursuit of dinner…. A fish dinner. We stopped at one state park and they were charging $20.00 for 2 hours of a boat rental on a pond plus $10.00 for every hour after that. Gary refused to pay that kind of price, so we continued on down the road. We got to another state park and there were no boat rentals at all and the pond was difficult to access. We were getting ready to pull out of the parking lot and one of the rangers asked us what part of New Hampshire we were from. He was an older guy named Paul, but as sharp and strong as a 30 year old! It turns out that he is from East Portland and has been spending his summers up here for the past 8 to 9 years running different state parks. What an interesting guy! I told him we were looking for good fishing spots along the Richardson Highway and he said, “right here is good!” We told him we didn’t have a boat and he said, “I do”. So, “only because we were from New Hampshire“, he lent us his boat and we spent 4 hours fishing on the most beautiful, peaceful pond. (Steve & Cheryl…. It looked like 3rd lake in Pittsburg). And yes, we have more than 1 fish dinner, we have 2!! Gary caught 2 and I caught 2. There were 2 at 14 inches, 1 at 13 inches and 1 at 12. Steve,Gerry & Mark; they were all rainbows. They were a lot of fun to pull in and we were even able to give Paul one for dinner! It was a good day.

We got off the pond late in the afternoon and then Gary had to put the boat away with Paul, and clean the fish and then they had to swap stories from back home. By the time we got on our way we were turned away from the first campground so went to another and here we are in the North Pole! Yes, they actually have a town called the North Pole and all the street light poles are painted like candy canes. There’s Santa’s and Christmas shops everywhere. We will try to get our Christmas ornament from here tomorrow.

The moose were on the move today. We saw 2 of them, and Northway even lost their one week old ambulance to a collision with a moose last night. All along the road here there are these beautiful purple flowers that smell like hyacinth. We found out that they are called fire weed.

PS: Dan, sorry about taking letters A thru P to get here. Maybe we should try to make our return trip in 10 stops!! Ha! The way we’re going we may go through the alphabet twice. I think it’s time to find out what google maps can do for us. To answer your question, we are probably going to move most nights because we have to break camp every morning anyway just to get around so we might as well continue to move forward rather than come back to the same camp. It will be different when we reach a place we want to spend more time and get around with the scooter or do a bus tour, like Fairbanks, Anchorage and Denali State Park. We’ll see where the road takes us!

June 16th

THE DETAILS:

THE WEATHER: Partly sunny and 64 today. The high was only 77. There’s a steady wind.


DISTANCE: We left Northway, AL at 10:30 and arrived Delta Junction around 7:30!! Yah, things have slowed down considerably. We drove 160 miles.


We broke camp and got on our way at a leisurely pace because we are now in Alaska. We want to be able to stop where ever we find something interesting and more importantly begin a new adventure… fishing Alaska!! The first town we got to was Tok. It took about an hour to get there. We had decided to treat ourselves and eat out for lunch. We were pleasantly surprised with a very nice restaurant right in town. The food was excellent… especially the halibut! We have found that the restaurants and gift shops and even gas stations are nicer here on the American side.

From there we went to the post office to pick up the packages Gary had sent to himself by “general delivery”. We now feel more prepared and protected from any rogue wildlife. 2 days ago while in Canada, you’ll remember, Gary & I took a 30 minute hike. While we were there we met a nice Canadian couple who took our picture by a waterfall. They walked back with us and we talked about our trips and where we were from, etc. Well, when we went to walk out of a gift shop in the town of Tok… who walks in? Yep, that same couple. We compared notes on where we had been and what we had seen. They had seen 2 elk and we had seen the herd of wild horses. We were both jealous of each others sightings!

As we continued on down the road we crossed a bridge that spanned the Robertson River. It was interesting that even though much of the river was not flowing there were still large chunks of ice left over from the winter. We also saw a large area of one of the wild fires that burned an area right outside of Tok. While we were in the gift shop they were all excitedly talking about the fire T’s that they were expecting to be delivered tomorrow. I asked what they were and she explained that whenever there are firefighters from the lower 48 and Canada that come to help put out wild fires they design a T-shirt before going home. When they are delivered the store sends them out to the crews that came to help. She said there are some guys that have a hundred shirts! Pretty cool.

We traveled on toward Delta Junction and had 3 fishing spots picked out. The first required a hike in and Gary wasn’t interested in doing that for the first time out so we continued to the next one, Jan Lake. It really wasn’t much of a lake… more like a pond, but it promised trout and there was no one else there so Gary pulled out all the equipment. I decided to let him have a go at it first and I would join him depending on the catch. Besides, I’m the bear spotter so I took my place in the RV overlooking the pond with my 44 close by my side…. Just in case! I had just settled down to work on this blog and I had a book in mind that I wanted to read when I heard Gary yell, “HEY”!! I threw the computer on the chair facing me and jumped up, grabbing the gun and…. Well, the camera! I figured either I’m going to shoot the bear or get a shot of Gary running from the bear. When I got down to the waters edge I found him “fighting” a fish! Hey, dinner! Sure enough he pulled in a little 12 inch rainbow. It did not take long to catch dinner tonight, just 30 minutes. He caught another 10 incher and we left to go have dinner. Fresh trout and salad…. Yum! (and Alaskan beer)

We are at a Good Sam’s campground tonight where a lot of the road workers are staying. They will most likely be up early tomorrow morning and leave. I met another woman from Germany today while I was checking in! Do the Germans vacation (woops, holiday) in Canada & Alaska a lot Rick (or Judy)? We are in a site that lines up all the RV’s but at least there are some trees around and in between us. Not exactly wilderness camping but nice.

June 15th

THE DETAILS:

WEATHER: Woke up to beautiful blue skies and sun! The temp was 47 to start out this morning and would climb to 80 before it was all over with. There were a lot of clouds in the afternoon… as usual. We’re getting use to the afternoon cloud cover and sometimes showers. No rain today though!


DISTANCE: We left Whitehorse at 10:00 am. And arrived in Northway, Alaska at 6:30. We drove 343 miles today and 8 and a 1/2 hours. Can you tell we were anxious to get back onto American soil??


The drive today has been varied. Just outside of Whitehorse it was about 100 miles of prairie. There were lots of signs of elk everywhere but we never saw one. We did come across a herd of wild horses which were beautiful. I’ve never seen horses get spooked before because of a car stopping. These did. The beauty of today’s trip were in the Kluane mountains near Haines Junction, YT. They loomed ahead of us with snow capped peaks and clouds that hung around their midsection like a belt. It is the most impressive mountain range we’ve seen yet. They are Canada’s highest and the world’s largest non-polar alpine ice field. We followed them for quite awhile. The Alaskan Highway wraps around these huge giants. On the east side of the road was the huge Kluane Lake, which is Yukon’s largest lake. The colors were absolutely beautiful. It went from a turquoise green on one end of the lake to a deep blue on the other end.

The last 100 miles or so of Canada was horrendous road conditions. They are repairing parts of the road which means construction and unpaved roadways, but where they hadn’t gotten to the repairs, it was like being in one of those jumping houses for kids. Up and down and up and down and….. Yeah, for 100 miles! It’s a good thing we had Bert weld on that hitch. It got a work out today. We had been told by other campers who were going in the opposite direction than us that the roads in the Yukon are unforgiving. Now we know what they mean and we agree. Unfortunately, it’s the only way out of here so we’ll be doing it again in another month or so.

It was actually exciting to cross the border into America again. There’s just something about seeing your own countries flag flying high that makes you feel welcomed. Everything was once again familiar; The road signs were in miles, not kilometers. The gas was in gallons rather than liters, and measurements were in feet rather than! Ahhhh, home sweet home. Crossing into Alaska also crossed our last time zone change. We are now 4 hours behind you. It is 10:30 here, as I type this and 2:30 am there!! Can you imagine staying up until 2:30 in the morning! Ridiculous!

So the road got better and we are now looking at another mountain range that is bigger than life out in the distance. I’ll probably learn more about them tomorrow as I read my way through the Milepost magazine. When we stopped for a campsite in Northway we were surprised when we went into the campground that there was no one else there. I mean NO ONE!! We are the only RV parked in this pretty large parking lot. We’re not too far off the road and the state troopers headquarters is across the street, but I have to say, it’s a little creepy. But there’s some unfinished business that Gary & I had to attend to this evening. When Adam went to Israel 4 years ago he had brought back gifts for many of us. He had brought us a bottle of wine. Kim knew about it and had taken it out of Adam’s bags when they arrived and hid it from us until our anniversary that year. We discussed when we would open it; maybe our 25 anniversary, maybe his one year anniversary of moving to heaven. We decided that when we arrived in Alaska that would be the appropriate time. The trip that he wanted his father to take so badly, we would open it and toast to our son. So here we are, four years later, fulfilling Gary’s dream of visiting Alaska and Adam’s desire for him to do it.
I made spaghetti with meat sauce, a salad and to Michael W. Smith playing in the background Gary opened the bottle of wine and we toasted to Adam and the inspiration for our trip. We cried all the way through dinner. Thank you Lord for a campground that is empty, a campsite all to ourselves to reflect and grieve.
Gary decided that we would finish the bottle this Sunday….. Father’s Day.

June 14th

THE DETAILS:

WEATHER: I woke up to a temperature of 39!! Where are my mittens?? Though the rest of the day stayed cloudy we were able to climb into the low 60’s today. Short spurts of rain here and there. By the time it was time to go to bed…. It was 66 degrees and very comfortable. The sun is even shinning… And it’s 9:30


DISTANCE: We left Ranchereo, BC at 9:30 and arrived Whitehorse, Yukon at 2:30. 5 hours driving and
195 miles.

We turned the heat on this morning. I felt bad for the guys who were breaking camp next to us, they were getting ready to ride their motorcycles further north! Gary was thinking of bringing them some hot coffee before they left. Well we drove into the Yukon… again… but for the last time. We now stay in the Yukon Territories until we cross over to American soil! The drive today was fairly level and we had some great views of mountain peaks that are covered in snow. Many of them have cloud covered peaks. We didn’t see any wild life today, unfortunately. We didn’t drive too far today because it is maintenance day! Gary changed the oil, I did laundry, we went grocery shopping and I cleaned the “house”. A relatively relaxing day. We thought we would drive the short 5 hour distance to Whitehorse where we will find everything we need.

BTW: We crossed the Continental Divide yesterday. That’s where all the rivers on the east flow either toward the Arctic Ocean or the Atlantic Ocean. And the rivers on the west flow to the Pacific or the Bering Sea. I knew you’d be interested in that Dad!

We are no longer wilderness camping! Whitehorse, being a “large” city and a place where many of the different routes converge, is a camping “city”. We are packed in here like sardines! The guy on one side of us is about 8 feet away and the guy on the other side is about 10 feet from us. We woke up to the sound of large planes flying overhead We’re looking forward to getting back into the “bush” country!



PS: Dan, it's hard to figure out which Province we are in considering we crossed the border 6 times! Thanks for correcting.

June 13th

THE DETAILS:

WEATHER: It’s windy today. Started out at 51 and the sun rising over the mountains making the river look golden this morning! Most of the day we were in and out of clouds with occasional rain. We even found ourselves in a snow mix again. It is so dry here that even when the roads get wet they don’t stay that way long. I noticed my dishes get dry faster and a shirt that I got wet was dry within 30 minutes. The high today was only 58. I think it will be electric blanket weather tonight!


DISTANCE: Left Toad River BC at 9:00 am and arrived in Rancheria, BC around 6:00. There were a LOT of stops today. A lot of photo opportunities and we took a 30 minute hike to see some water falls just before getting to our camp. It felt good to walk. Sooooo, that’s 286 miles in 9 hours! HA! What terrible time we made… but what fun! We found ourselves in out of the Yukon Territory at least 3 times today. The Alaskan Hwy. just weaves between British Columbia & the Yukon Territory. Tomorrow we will make it more permanent.


Last night as Gary and I sat down to eat we noticed 2 bull moose across the river in water up to their bellies eating off the bottom. Their heads would dive down deep and then would raise their heads and chew as the water ran off their antlers. Amazing sight. Later when we sat down for a game of cribbage there was another moose down river even closer to our camp. This place is beautiful! BTW, I forgot to mention that yesterday we crossed the Pacific Time Zone… that puts us 3 hours behind you guys now. Soon we will cross our final time zone…. Alaska time! I also forgot to mention yesterday that we drove through a mixture or rain & snow showers!! You never know what you’re going to find in these mountains!

Well we found a lot in the mountains we traveled through today!! We’ve seen 2 big bull moose and at least 9 or 10 bison!! They are not spooked at all when you pull over and take a picture… they just continue to eat. At one point there was a large wildlife viewing pull off that we figured we wouldn’t see anything but to our enjoyment we saw two rock sheep in the distance. They were both females and they meandered amongst the rocks until they were finally right down next to the road and we were able to get some close up shots of them!! If that wasn’t enough we got our first sight of a cinnamon bear! That’s right, thanks to Rick we know the difference between a grizzly & a cinnamon bear. Grizzlies have the hump on their back. He was young & small but intriguing non-the-less. This has been, by far, the best driving day we have had yet. Starting out in a beautiful campsite and then driving through some spectacular scenery and topped off by all the wild life. all on a Sunday! Thank you Lord!

Once we left the beautiful drive through Muncho Lake Provincial Park we continued to descend into a more flat area between mountain peaks. It would have been a much easier drive for Gary except the wind continues to blow and it’s difficult sometimes with gusts up to 25 to 30 miles per hour to keep the RV steady.

We have now settled down for the night in another nice campground. Nothing like last night though. We have run into so many nice people. Last night we spent about 45 minutes talking to some people who live north and east of Baltimore, today we took a hike with some people from Canada and tonight there is a couple of guys on motorcycles from Arizona setting up right next to us. Camping is interesting.


CRIBBAGE COUNT: Gary 3 Debbie 4

PS: Dave, get out of there while you still have time! And the answer is, "NO", we are not stopping to support your habits!