August 6&7, 2010

August 6 & 7, 2010

On our final stretch home! Spent the nite on the 6th in Adrian, MN. Another nice campground with a pool and a fire pit for the girls!!! Finished off the marshmallows and hotdogs! Met some really nice full-timers camping next to us. The were originally from Spokane WA. They had a nice 5th-wheel with 4 slide-outs and let us tour it! Very nice, fireplace, flatscreen tv, an island in the kitchen, nice big closet in bedroom. I could really travel well in that!!!

We are now back to the flat land with corn and beans, not much wildlife to see, maybe dead along side the road!

So I guess this is the end of our adventure! At the moment we are somewhere in Iowa and have travelled around 9700 miles when we get home! Haven’t figured out the total dollars spent in gas yet! I have to say this has been a trip of a lifetime. Seeing Alaska and Canada wouldn’t have been the same had we not journeyed there on the Alaskan Highway! The sights were amazing as well as educational. The time spent together as a family is beyond words! At least for me! The girls seem to enjoy themselves too and haven’t seem to have missed summer at home, hopefully they will have extraordinary memories that they can look back on. They keep asking Dad where we are going next year! He hasn’t really responded yet. I’m sure he is planning a something great.....just hope it includes US!

The end to a perfect vacation: Dinner at Rips in Ladd with Leslie, Howard, and TREVOR!!! And a wonderful welcome home from Josh!

August 6&7, 20101

August 6 & 7, 2010

On our final stretch home! Spent the nite on the 6th in Adrian, MN. Another nice campground with a pool and a fire pit for the girls!!! Finished off the marshmallows and hotdogs! Met some really nice full-timers camping next to us. The were originally from Spokane WA. They had a nice 5th-wheel with 4 slide-outs and let us tour it! Very nice, fireplace, flatscreen tv, an island in the kitchen, nice big closet in bedroom. I could really travel well in that!!!

We are now back to the flat land with corn and beans, not much wildlife to see, maybe dead along side the road!

So I guess this is the end of our adventure! At the moment we are somewhere in Iowa and have travelled around 9700 miles when we get home! Haven’t figured out the total dollars spent in gas yet! I have to say this has been a trip of a lifetime. Seeing Alaska and Canada wouldn’t have been the same had we not journeyed there on the Alaskan Highway! The sights were amazing as well as educational. The time spent together as a family is beyond words! At least for me! The girls seem to enjoy themselves too and haven’t seem to have missed summer at home, hopefully they will have extraordinary memories that they can look back on. They keep asking Dad where we are going next year! He hasn’t really responded yet. I’m sure he is planning a something great.....just hope it includes US!

The end to a perfect vacation: Dinner at Rips in Ladd with Leslie, Howard, and TREVOR!!! And a wonderful welcome home from Josh!

August 5, 2010

Aug 5, 2010

What a relaxing morning. Arrived into Keystone pretty late last nite, so everyone enjoyed sleeping in and just hanging out in the campground. We had stayed at the campground a couple years back when we went on our Yellowstone trip. Nice place deep in the woods. To our surprise, it is the beginning of the Sturgis Bike thing, so the town and surrounding areas are filling up with bikers, even our campground had quite a few and next week is suppose to be worse! We were lucky to get a spot! Anyway, the girls spent the morning swimming, first time this whole trip I think! After lunch we went to Rushmore Cave. There we had an hour tour of the cave. It was very intersting. Next we went downtown Keystone and shopped, while Paul was able to sit outside on the boardwalk and have a few beers, and then had a family portrait done in the western saloon setting of the olden days!!! I think the alcohol may have influenced Paul just a bit on that! The girls and I dressed as showgirls and Dad was the cowboy! Had a gun and a hat! I really think he enjoyed it. I told him that was going to be our Christmas card this year! After that we tried buffalo burgers for dinner, at least Paul and I did. I thought they were very dry, much rather have our own beef! Then we went to Mt. Rushmore for the light ceremony. How moving! They honored the veterans at the end and sang the Nat’l Anthem. Very much worth the stop! Drove back to our campsite on a windy road that took us through three tunnels that had perfect views of Mt. Rushmore as you drove through, just one more amazing thing to see.

August 4, 2010

Aug 4, 2010

Quote of the day! Abby: "You know Daddy's much happier with beer!" I don't think I need to say much more about our day of pretty much just driving!

Going back to yesterday, I ended my blog way too early. When we arrived at our campground in Harlowton MT,around 8pm. We pulled in and only 2 other RVs were there. It turned out to be a great site in some sort of city park, but we got to have a campfire and cooked hotdogs and had s'mores over an open fire. And of course Paul made fast friends with the other campers! They were from Canada and they were farmers, he was in heaven. We sat for hours and talked and compared farming stories. Then just when I didn't think I'd have anything to tell you all, they told us that the movie BrokeBack Mountain was filmed in part on their farm!!! They used one of their cabins on their property! I wanted their picture, but they didn't seem to hip on it!!!!

This morning we left none to early and drove to the Little Bighorn Battlefield!! Paul was in heaven. The girls and I teased him as he stood looking out over the field that he could just envision himself out there fighting the fight!! Thus we dubbed him "Chief Wannabe". It was a pretty interesting place. The girls really liked the tepee and costumes of the Indians and the memorial field with the markers of the men who had fought the battle! A nice little side trip.

We then continued on to South Dakota! Arrived at the campground we stayed at a couple years ago around 8pm had dinner and went to bed, we were exhausted!!!

August 2 & 3, 2010

August 2 & 3, 2010

Yeah!! We’re back in the lower 48!!! The past two days has been ALOT of driving! Once again made it through customs with no problem!! Spent last night in Red Deer, AB. One of the nicest campgrounds we’ve stayed at this whole trip!

Driving really brings us sooo much closer as a family, especially since there is usually no radio station that comes in!! But I now finally realized that Paul doesn’t usually listen to me????? I would get mad cuz I would know that I had read something to him, like directions, and he would act like I never told him! I was thinking I was going nuts, but I just realized that he just uses selective hearing....most of the time selecting not to hear me!!!! He did admit that I have been real good at reading the maps! Decided to take that as a compliment and not remind him in Canada and Alaska, there aren’t too many roads on the map, it’s easy to follow one or two lines!!! I’ll just let him be proud of me!!

We are now in Montana on a great interstate, tooling along at around 65mph!! Fastest we’ve gone in a long time? We are coming home a different way than we came. We decided that we would stop and visit Mt. Rushmore. We were there a couple years ago, but Mallory doesn’t remember, so to add to all the history they’ve gotten this trip we’ve decided to stop! Should be fun. Sorry I have no pictures to post, nothing tooo exciting!

August 1, 2010

August 1, 2010

Pretty low key day. Although I was the first up this morning, we still didn't get off real early. Paul finally figured out the camper brake problem and yes it is fixed! Think it was rather important since we will be doing alot of mountain climbing the next couple of days! Once again he is sooo knowledgeable, capable, and resourceful!! We are still pushing him on the new camper!!! We told him since he didn't get a souvenir in Alaska, that maybe the camper should be it!!!

Anyway, pretty much are going the same route home as we came at least for today, then we are taking a different route with new sights! Nothing new to report. Canada is beautiful, but expensive. Travelled about 450 miles today, was really glad to stop for the nite. Ended in Fort St. John. We stayed in this town on the way but are at a different campground this time, very nice and homey!

When we left this morning the smoke from the forrest fires had pretty much cleared! When we went to bed last nite it was pretty smokey and smelly. Apparently the fire was still out there, just hadn't got that far yet. Glad we are headed away from it and has been a clear beautiful day. Has gotten much warmer too. I need a tan really bad! Paul would stop to do my nails this trip, but I'm not going to push for him stopping at a tanner!!! Oh well.

We did see some wildlife today and very up close and personal. First a couple herd of Buffalo. They were grazing right along side the road, they are just slow moving and lazy looking. But a beautiful site. Next we stopped right on the road to view a Stone mountain sheep. He had the horns and all, and just stood eating along the side of the road! We could have just reached out and touched him, he never did run off, even when we had the windows down and the girls were talking to him. Awesome!

July 31, 2010

July 31, 2010

OMG! This pretty much sums up the day! Left the cute little campground owned by the German lady fairly late, but Paul seemed ok with it since we had a great stay there. Had gone a little over an hour, tooling along at a good pace, pretty good road, and nice weather conditions. Came up to a bridge that had quite a big bump! and low and behold, we broke another spring, on the opposite side of the last one! There we were, along side the road pondering our next move, yet we really couldn’t move! Luckily for us just up a little ways was a picnic area pull-off, the Morely River recreation site. I’m not thinking camper repair was the recreation it was referring to but it worked for Paul. Decided a picture of the sign was sufficient, thought a better would be of Paul under the camper making the repair, but decided against it for obvious reasons!! Paul managed to move the truck and camper that far so that he had space to work. Since my husband is a smart, level-headed man, he had bought an extra spring at the last place when we had the repair done the first time. Now all we had to hope was that he had the tools, or at least some of them for the job! Apparently he had enough of what he needed, and about 2 hours later we were back out on the road! A new spring in place and a new tire, since the other one was pretty much ruined in the process of the spring breaking. Yeah Paul, he is my Hero!!!

This road is the same we travelled on on the way up so many of the sites we had already seen, however we did spot a black bear eating alongside the road. We stopped and were able to pull very close to him without him running away, about 10 feet from the truck, mind you my window was up! But it still was amazing!! The girls and I are planning on returning home thru Indiana so we can go to the camper dealers and pick out our new, and improved camper!!!

On the way up we contended with rain and road washing out, but it seems a new problem is at hand on the return trip. There seems to be a lot of forest fires causing roads to be closed! We are driving through smoke as I speak, guess we’ll keep driving hoping not to get stuck! Yikes, shouldn’t say this, but whats next?!!!

July 30, 2010

Awoke to a beautiful sunny and fairly warm day in Skagway. Paul spent most of the morning working on yet another mechanical problem with the truck and camper. This time the trailer brakes weren’t working. We have truck brakes, but not trailer brakes! Yikes, he’s not sure what’s going on, and we (the girls and I) left him alone while we shopped Skagway. I think we should be shopping for a new camper!!!!

Skagway is a very quaint town. Reminds me alot of Dawson City. A gold mining town that has the oldtime feel. They wooden store fronts, wooden sidewalks, and saloons. Very cute, but extremely busy. Apparently there are at least 5-6 cruise ships a day that stop here for the day, so the town is filled with tourists. A lot of the stores are very expensive jewelry stores.

We booked a 3 hour train ride on the Klondike Gold Rush train on the scenic White Pass and Yukon Route railway. We went from downtown Skagway, which is at sea level to White Pass Summit which is at an elevation of 2,865 ft. All along the trip up they told the story of how the railway came to be and the story of the gold rushers journey up the mountain and of the gangster “Soapy” Smith who was a Skagway resident and the hero who shot him dead, Frank Reid. There was awesome scenery, waterfalls, granite rocks, wildflowers, tunnels, bridges, and the cemetery where the “Soapy” and Frank were put to rest after their infamous shootout. We all really enjoyed this.

After the railroad trip we set out of Skagway, heading north on the Klondike. Paul thought we should probably fill up before we left town, the problem was we couldn’t find a gas station. Surely there had to be gas here. After scoping out most of the town, we finally inquired, only to find there was only one gas station in the whole town, for that matter for quite some ways out of town too, and that gas station only had 2 pumps!! The diesel wasn’t too overly priced though.

Once again we had to cross the border, back into Alaska and we headed for Carcross, which was about 70 miles. Scenery was beautiful along the way, but when we got there , the campground was nothing but a parking lot, with not one camper in it. We decided to move on. We ended up in Tagish. Not really much here either, in fact at this campground we are also the only ones, but how cute it is here. Actually has trees and grass. It isn’t a full hook-up, just electric. I told Paul that basically tonite he could classify this my “dry” camping experience, since there is no internet service!! The owner is a nice woman from Germany. She told me her whole life story and how she ended up here, very pleasant! It was a beautiful evening and we cooked out, some of Paul’s halibut, and it was warm enough out to eat outside, closet thing to camping we’ve had in a while!! I guess one could say today was our first day of heading home.

July 28 &29, 2010

July 28 & 29, 2010

Since the past two days have pretty much been driving, I decided to combine them. Left early, but not as early as the previous day. Drove and drove and drove. Made it to Tok by early afternoon. Finally reached the border and crossed without incident! The road really started to get rough. Was only able to go 35-40 mph. We had decided to go to Haines and take the ferry to Skagway and then leave out of Skagway and head toward home. We got a ferry booked for Thursday nite at 10 pm so that at least gave us some time to get there. We ended the day yesterday in Destruction Bay finally around 8pm. The road was awful so I think Paul was ready to call it a nite! The one thing we’ve noticed this trip is that although there are many campgrounds, none of them are tooo pretty. Not alot of grass and trees, basically just parking lots with hookups. This one was none too pretty.

Awoke around 8am. Don’t know what got into Paul but we slept in. Had about 300 miles to travel today in order to get to Haines for the Ferry. We weren’t too sure the road condition so we got started. The drive was very scenic. I thought Seward area was my favorite, but I have to say I’m leaning toward Haines more and more. We saw a black bear walking right across the road in front of us today....beautiful! Paul laughs at me, but the bears really do scare me. He wants to just pull over on the road side in a beautiful spot and dry camp for a nite. Sounds fun, and is legal to do, but I am seriously afraid of bear! He says I’m being crazy, but we’ve been hearing alot of stories about how the bear are becoming bolder and bolder and have been reported attacking people! I really don’t want to take the chance!

Got into Haines in the early afternoon, so we had time to stroll around that town and check out what it had to offer! Cute little shops (of course) and The American Bald Eagle Foundation. A really neat place. Had actual a wildlife that had been stuffed and all sorts of information and facts about them. Also had two live owls that the kids got to get their pictures taken with them. All their live animals are animals that have be wounded. The owls were beautiful. It was a nice little informative tour.

Before going to the ferry we went to Chilkoot Lake State Park. What a beautiful area. Apparently the bears are seen frequently at the river there collecting salmon. Today, however, we missed it. While we were exiting, Paul felt something unusual with the camper, one of the brakes seemed to be stuck? Anyway, he ended up taking one of the tires off, right on the side of the road. Although that wasn’t what the problem was. Apparently the emergency break away safety brake had snagged and activated, so the problem was resolved and we made it to the ferry in time.

Boarding the truck and camper on the ferry was another great adventure. I have to say, I’ve never seen Paul that apprehensive about something. He had to drive the camper and truck down a steep docking plank, then make an incredibly sharp turn at the bottom. Then they had him pull forward, then back up, then reposition, then backup, etc. Finally we came to rest in our parking spot, only to wonder for the next hour on our ferry ride over, how and what we would have to do to disembark. By the time the ferry was loaded and set sail we were at least 45 min late, which made for an after midnight arrival into Skagway, where it actually was dark at night! But which also mean’t parking the camper at the campgrounds in the dark. But with all Paul’s experience ( he is the best backer-upper) and patience everything went just fine!