Jan 26, 2015 - Freezing the "Hitchhikers"

Arrived home at 2am yesterday morning -- left Hawaii at 80+ degrees, arrived in Fairbanks at 30 below. 110 degrees difference and a loss of 7 hours of daylight between Sydney and Fairbanks -- what a swift change it is! We took out any items that would be harmed by freezing and then put everything outside on the back patio. Hopefully 24 hours at 30 below will freeze any little bugs or critters that have stowed away. After seeing the Honolulu news article about bed bugs, and after seeing all the insects in our hotel room at Nadi, Fiji, plus...

Jan 24, 2015 - Flying to Alaska - ending the Grand Adventure

November 15, 2014 to January 25, 2015 --- we arrive back in Fairbanks at 2am on the 25th after leaving HNL at 1:30 pm on the 24th.....HNL to SEA to FAI. We learned so much on this grand adventure - especially about how different parts of the world interact with America, how different cultures have very different parenting styles and norms, how different it is to live in large cities of millions of people, what a plus a great publc transportation system is, and how many more thngs we all have in common than we have that separates us. We...

Nov 9, 2014 - Getting Ready to Leave - Countdown 6 days til take off

Today I searched for a travel journal that would chronicle our trip including pictures and allow our family and close friends to see where we are and what we are doing if they wanted to do so. I decided on the MyTrip Journal and hope it will work out okay for everyone to access. I'll try and add a photo and a little summary each day. We are almost finished packing and instead of four suittcases, two backpacks, two totes (like we packed for our Panama trip last year) we are going with one suitcase each and one backpack. It should be a lot...

Oct 12, 2014 - Ready to roll

Getting ready to head south. My last day at work was October 10th. I will be on the road by first light Monday, October 13th. The plan is to drive the Toyota pickup to Spokane, Washington and arrive there on Thursday October 16th. I am attending a class reunion in Spokane that weekend then I will head to Seattle to get the mothership (Winnebago) out of storage and ready for the arrival of Julie on October 21st. Julie is no fan of 12 hour driving days in the tiny Toyota pick up. I would rather spend 4 long days on the road than 4 longer...

Sep 4, 2014 - Denali National Park - bus ride to Wonder Lake

On our second day to ride the bus we went to the second farthest point by bus, Wonder Lake. Right after passing through the Igloo Forest we saw a light colored grizzly bear Next in the hiking restricted area where many of Denali animals have migration activity we saw 2 grizzly bears. We saw 3 bears near the high point of Polychome Pass. We were able to view Denali, Mt McKinley at Sable Pass and near the Toklat River. Since the mountain creates it own weather it is visible about 30% to 40% of the time. And usually for short periods of...

Sep 3, 2014 - Jasper to U. S. Border

Spent a few days at Jasper National Park in Alberta. Wanted to visit Banff but it was a 3 day weekend in Canada. And no campsites were available so we spent our last night in a Walmart parking lot. We crossed the border in Montana and headed for Glacier National Park for a couple of days.

Sep 1, 2014 - Anchorage to Denali National Park

After picking up the RV and stopping at Walmart in Wassilla for groceries we arrived in Denali National Park about 5pm. In Denali we were unable to drive the 29 miles out the park road to Teklanika Camp Ground since the park road was closed due to being snow covered. Thankfully, the snow had stopped falling and the park's road crew were out all day clearing the road. We stayed in the Riley Creek Campground the first night since this campground in near the entrance of the park and was open and accessible.

Aug 27, 2014 - Day 68 Ketchikan

Hi blog readers, as this is being written, we are on the Alaskan Ferry Columbia, making our way to Ketchikan today. So far it has been an enjoyable journey-a good alternative to making the 2000-mile trip in the motorhome. We are on the M/V Columbia, built in 1974. It is 418' long with a crew of 66. There are 103 "staterooms" although a good number make a nest on lounge chairs or in tents pitched on the deck. The ferry is comfortable and our stateroom is a good size. I think we left off this blog in Haines, AK. The departure time from Haines...

Aug 24, 2014 - Valdez, Seward, Kenai, Homer

Been a little busy and distracted. We are in Phoenix AZ now. Had to return unexpectedly. We will be getting back on the road sometime in November and looking forward to it! This is the last of the Alaskan portion of our trip. We spent a lot of time in Valdez around the fourth of July. Valdez has 3 days of events and we partook of them all. BBQ's, Fish Fry's, Parades and daylight fireworks. We left Valdez via the Ferry to Whittier. Tremendous views of Mountains and Glaciers. Also some whale spouts and Sea Lions. It was cold and clear the...

Aug 24, 2014 - Day 65 Haines,AK

Saturday and Sunday were both filled with great outdoor activities here in Haines. Saturday we rode Kawasaki 4x4 "mules" up a trail on the side of a mountain. The Takshanuk Mountains sit between the Chilkat River and the Chilkoot Inlet. The trail went up to a point 1200ft above sea level on the 4500' mountain. We stopped at a meadow overlooking the inlet/Lynne canal which leads to Skagway. The drive through the forest looks very much like some of the scenes from Jurassic Park...large trees with a lot of moss, heavy undergrowth covering the...

Aug 23, 2014 - Wrangell & Ketchikan

Wrangell is a very small city nestled on the mouth of the Stikine River where we managed to get lost several times while trying to find our campsite and a laundry. We took a couple hikes, one up Mt Dewey for a nice view of the city and one up Rainbow Falls. Both of these trails had a lot of wooden steps. We had to walk up a few blocks of very steep roads and steps just to get to the trailhead of Mt Dewey. Our bike ride was especially enjoyable. We made several stops for views of the bay and mountains as well as taking a close look at...

Aug 23, 2014 - Day 64 Haines, AK The valley of the Eagles!!

Yesterday we finally arrived in Haines, AK, also known as the Valley of the Eagles...the last leg of our journey in Alaska before boarding the ferry on Monday and sailing to Washington state, arriving there next Friday. During the journey from Haines Junction, YT to Haines, AK we passed a most beautiful lake, Lake Dezadeash. This particular morning it had some very beautiful low lying fog at the south end. Their topographic interaction with this lake allows storms to develop quickly, but on this day, it was nothing short of spectacular and...