Roaming Grammy

SEPT.3RD, 2009, ALMOST HOME

2009-09-03T19:21:00.003-05:00

Well, here we are, just 49 miles from Birmingham and 166 miles from Auburn, Al., sitting in a campground in Cullman, Al. I am looking out the window at a Crepe Myrtle with blooms on it, watching So. Carolina on ESPN and I feel like I am sitting in my den at home looking out the window. It feels great to be back in Alabama. As we crossed the state line, I told Denny,"Thank goodness-now we have health insurance again". We have been so blessed with good health, the MH has run like a top and thanks to my husband's ingenuity, we haven't had any problems with broken windshields, etc. Thank you Lord!!!!

It is hard to believe that this time last week, we were at our farewell dinner in Prince George, BC. Boy, the time and miles have flown by. Since then, we have spent the night in a different province or state every night. We have stayed in British Columbia, Alberta, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, and tonight the GREAT state of ALABAMA on our way home. What a great trip we have had. The last two nights, we did dry camping at HARRAH'S casino's. We shouldn't have :-(

It is hard to believe tomorrow we will pass within 3 miles of our home without stopping. However, tomorrow starts football season as we head straight to Auburn and tonight marks the end of our great Alaska/Canada adventure. It will be good to be back at Auburn to see our friends and cheer on Auburn. They surely need us to do so. Last year was a bust for football due to my health problems, but we are excited about this year.

Sunday should find us home and unloading the RV. What a chore that will be as we will have to re-load it for football week-ends. Should be a busy, fun week. Labor day picnic at Debbie's, Dr. appts., hair appts .for all of us and re-stocking the refrig at home, plus laundry and cleaning the Rv and refreshing the house. All this before we head back to Auburn on Thursday. Gosh I love my life!!!

AUGUST 29TH AND 30TH, 2009, WE HEAD HOME

2009-08-31T06:19:00.002-05:00

I was not so sure going back the way we came was such a good idea. It brought back all the anticipation and excitement we experienced at the beginning of our adventure and reenforced the fact that it was all over. However, it was nice to be back in a comfort zone.

Our border crossing was a little eventful. We had gone in the duty free shop and splurged on their Absolute vodka. Three litres for $33.00 plus if you buy 12, you get another 10%. We never can resist a sale and while we knew we could only have one litre a piece, we still decided to take advantage of the deal. Sure enough, when we told them about our purchase, we had to go in and pay an additional $30. It was still much cheaper than what we would pay at home. The border patrolman said he goes over and does it all the time as do a group of his friends.

Other than that our trip was pretty uneventful and we arrived at Dick's RV park and immediately started washing the RV and car (Denny) and I started cleaning the inside, washing clothes and preparing dinner. We were pooped by the time we finished after 2 long travel days.

On our trip, the most miles we drove was 308 miles and that was only one day, we now must do at least 400 miles per day in order to get back home for Auburn's first football game. It may sound crazy, but after missing the entire season last year due to my health problems, we are really anticipating this fall. Plus, it helps with the inevitable let-down after such a wonderful vacation.

Today we made it to Buffalo, Wyoming. We are staying at Indian campground about 1 mile off I90 on I25. It is lovely, with really large old trees, flat sites, and free cable and Wifi that actually work. Oh the joy of being back in the lower 48. At least where these creature comforts are available and work. We met another couple here that have a chocolate Havanese. She is 7 yrs. old and half the size of Rudy. They were also on their way home from spending the summer in Alaska and their dog looked as much like a wooly bear as Rudy. We enjoyed sitting outside under the shade trees and being out of the RV and Rudy like meeting his new friend. I don't think he can understand why his old friends aren't around when we stop..

Tomorrow we will be in Murdo, SD. I am not sure whether I will have any more WiFi and so this may be my last post.

My spelling and writing skills have not been the best on this blog as I usually do them in a hurry and late in the evening or early morning. I do hope you have had at least a glimmer of the wonder, excitement and over all awe we experienced this summer and I hope you have the opportunity to do the same.

AUGUST 28TH, 2009, TRAVEL DAY TO COCHRAN, ALBERTA

2009-08-28T22:57:00.002-05:00

We left around 7 this morning with Dave, Maddie, Bob and Nora. On the way out, we had a few more good-byes with our WM's. TG's and other friends. Lots more tears.

Denny and I were trying to make it to Cochran (north of Calgary), Dave and Maddie were headed to Edmonton and Bob and Nora are headed south to Eureka, Mt. We left Dave and Maddie at the Columbia Icefields /Jasper junction. It was very hard. Maddie and I have become very good friends. She has such a sweet, funny and upbeat personality. Hopefully, we can keep in touch. Later on the other side of the ice fields (which were beautiful on a bright sunny day-it was raining and cloudy the first time) we lost Bob and Nora. They added so much fun to our travel days. Bob was the WM of our little mini-caravan and Nora can do anything. They actually use to be TG's for a tour company. The Canadian Rockies are spectacular and not to be missed.

So Denny and I were on our own for the first time in 2 months. It seems strange. We stayed at the Bow River RV Park where we stayed when we were here for the stampede. It is such a nice park. Rudy had a long river walk and then Denny and I went out for a nice dinner. We traveled 453 miles today, but tonight we have TV, WiFi and on yeah-we are on Mountain time. Tomorrow our goal is Great Falls, Mt and Dick's RV Park where this adventure began. It is still hard to believe its over.

AUGUST 27TH, 2009, FINAL DAY IN PRINCE GEORGE, BC

2009-08-28T22:37:00.002-05:00

Our drive to Prince George was uneventful. Lots of farm country, good roads and sunshine. Our campground was the same one we had on the way up. Before we arrived at the camground, we stopped at the Canadian Superstore for a few groceries and filled our tank with gas. By the time we arrived at the campground, we barely had time to unhitch, bathe and get ready for our farewell dinner at the Coast Hotel.

We car pooled to the dinner with Dave, Maddie, Bruce and Marion riding with us. Everyone looked really nice and for the first time in at least a month, we came out of our cold weather clothes. Dinner was prime rib for me and Denny and the other choice was chicken. The prime rib was very good. After dinner, everyone took turns telling their favorite places or events on the trip. Needless to say, it was very hard to just name 2 or 3 places. Everyone also complimented our leaders. They were great and always had smiles and were upbeat. We also agreed that the comraderie with our group was great. Lots of fun, good-natured ribbing and laughter.

There were lots of good-bye tears. This is the biggest negative on these long caravans-you have so much time to get to know people and it makes you very sad to know that you may never see them again. Hopefully, we will keep in touch. Denny and I keep in touch with several old friends from our Mexico and Maritime trips and plan to do so with our new Alaska caravan friends as well. Some stayed up for a late night get together, but frankly we have a long, early day tomorrow and I also couldn't go thru the sad good-byes again.

A word about this adventure-you usually have high expectations at the beginning of such an adventure that rarely lives up to what you expected. We have been planning and wanting to do this for 19 years, even canceling one planned trip. I have to say and I truly mean it-this trip far exceeded our expectations. Alaska, BC, Alberta and the Yukon are so vast and so diversified and beautiful, it truly boggles the mind. I have over 1700 pictures which do not begin to do it justice. You just must go see it for yourself!!!

AUGUST 26TH, 2009, TRAVEL DAY TO SMITHERS, BC

2009-08-28T22:21:00.002-05:00

While we enjoyed Stewart and Hyder, it was really nice to get up and head our for Smithers and hopefully get away from the rain.

We were all so pleasantly surprised that the weather cleared and the town of Smithers was so nice. We felt like we had come out of the woods and were back in civilization. we noticed where they were having their fall fair, but unfortunately, it started the next day and we wouldn't be around.

Our campground was the Riverside Golf and RV Park. The guys were sick they didn't have time to play golf as the fee was $12.00 for 18 holes. Unbelievable. However, we all had such fun visiting that afternoon, sitting outside in the warm air and just enjoying t he sun after 13 days of rain. Whew!

Tonight we had a LEO (Let's eat out) at the RV Park restaurant. We were offered a choice of hamburger or chicken grilled sandwiches with a mixed vegetable salad, a caesar salad and a Thai salad that was great! Dessert was strawberry shortcake. Our spirits were so high. Its amazing what a little sunshine will do for you.

Sue (WM) and Betty(TG) passed out journals which we had all participated in making, but they put them together with each one having a personal picture on the front. Our picture was of Denny and I holding up some of our halibut catch (I looked like I was in pain and I was) and the cutest picture of Rudy with his Alaska hat. They put a lot of work in them and it is probably the best souvenir we could have. A few people told stories of some funny and embarrassing situations they got into on the trip.

Afterwards about 14 of us gathered at one of the picnic tables, had more wine and just laughed and told jokes. It will be so hard to tell this group good-bye tomorrow night. We have really had fun together.

AUGUST 24th AND 25TH,2009, STEWART, BC

2009-08-26T07:13:00.006-05:00

Our travel day to Stewart, turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The roads with the exception of 2 areas, where really great! I suppose because we are going south, the frost heaves are diminishing. However, the rain continues. Not only were the roads better, but as we drew closer to Stewart, once again we had some breath-taking beautiful scenery. Bear Glacier was one of the prettiest glaciers we have seen and we have seen a lot of glaciers. Our campground, Bear River Lake, had a large enclosed tent for our social this evening which was welcomed. After the social, some went to Fish Creek in Hyder and some of us went out to eat. Seward is in British Columbia, while Hyder is in Alaska and is only 2 miles away. Hyder doesn't observe Alaska time, however. Both are very small and I do mean small communities that due to their proximity, interact with each other. Of course this means, the Hyder community of 70 have to show passports everytime they go over to Stewart for supplies, etc.

Going thru customs has not been a problem. Going into Canada, they are more concerned with how much alcohol you have (1 litre per person), firearms and alcohol, and how long you are staying. Coming back into the US, they usually ask about alcohol, firearms, and maybe beef and potatoes and citrus fruits. At some of the borders, they didn't even ask anything but you never know.

We went out to dinner in Seward and found this delightful cafe called the Bitter Creek Cafe. The building dated back at least 90-100 years. One side was a coffee and bakery shop and the other side was a DR with may 5 or 6 tables. The food was delicious. They didn't serve any fried foods. Denny had a baked halibut sandwich which he said was the best he has had and I had baked halibut with puttnesca sauce. We just really loved the ambiance and food. Coming out, we ran into some of our group who had been next door having pizza.

This morning, our WM and TG had a pancake breakfast for us and then we were off to see the bears catching salmon at Fish Creek. Not only is it raining, it is pouring down!

Fish Creek is in the Tongas National Forest and they have a boardwalk erected high above the creek for safety purposes. When we got there a huge grizzly was feeding and we followed her all the way down the stream. She seemed totally oblivious to the people above her. Of course, we were quiet as church mice. Bob, Nora, Dave and Maddie were with us and we stopped at a couple of shops-one being the general store. The owner told us some of his stories about living there and I must say, he really seems to love it. One winter they had 42 inches of snow with drifts up to the bottom of his second floor. Bears are really plentiful in this area and he has had 2 on the porch of his store. As a matter of fact, our campground discourages anyone being out after dark as they have bears and wolves in the campground. Denny walks Rudy around 9 before it gets dark.

The days are getting shorter and the residence have resigned their selves that summer is over. Our trip is also coming to an end in a couple of days.

Tonight, we had a pot-luck supper and played some games. Lots of laughter and good food. Surely this rain will let up as we head further from the coast and back towards the center of BC. When we are all looking forward to drier, warmer weather as we head to Smithers tomorrow and our final destination, Prince George, day after tomorrow.

AUGUST 22ND AND 23RD, TRAVEL DAYS TO NORTH BEAVER POST, YUKON AND DEASE LAKE, BC

2009-08-23T16:44:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was a long day. We did 308 miles and while that doesn't sound like much, on these narrow, windy, frost heave roads, it takes a while. Our friends did get their hitch from Blue Ox yesterday and were so relieved. As we pulled out and started our ascent up that 11.5 mile, 11% grade, the clouds poured in and it was maybe 20' of visibility. Of course I was relieved not to have to look at the steep drop offs,but it was rough on the drivers. Customs was easy. We are getting to be such pros at going thru customs. The rest of the day was pretty much backtracking back towards Whitehorse although we took a short cut and avoided going all the way back to Whitehorse. When we arrived at our campground, we had a brief social at 7 to celebrate Lynn's birthday and Jon and Lynn's anniversary. Afterwards Lynn gave us some pointers on using our washer/dryers. I wish I had this about 50 days ago. Great lessons.

This morning-guess what? Rain!!!! Not only is it raining but the wind is blowing and it is cold. I told our friend Lucy, at least we were getting out of it. For the people who live here,it will only get worse. We took the Cassair Hwy today and it has lived up to its reputation. We left North Beaver Post (15 miles south of Watson Lake) at 8:30 this morning, made maybe 3 stops totaling 1 hour and arrive here at 1:45 after driving only 146 miles. That means 4 hours to drive 146 miles. Does that tell you how slow we had to go on these roads? When we arrived at our campground, our poor WM found out his spring mount had fallen off his MH at the last campground and he had to take his truck and go all the way back. Fortunately, the cg. manager found it and was keeping it for him. No telling when he will get back, but he is going in his truck and can travel faster. We weren't suppose to have WiFi tonight but the owner is letting us use his since we have for the most part, not had any the last week. In Skagway, the last night, we had 1 hr. of Wifi time.

I am not sure what the evening holds since things have changed. We are hoping to see the Northern Lights at 2 in the morning if the sky has cleared. May still have a social tonight as believe it or not it has quit raining. We can only hope it is over.

AUGUST 19, 20, and 21ST, SKAGWAY, ALASKA

2009-08-22T00:43:00.001-05:00

Our first day in Skagway started slow and picked up steam from there. Around 10AM, we car-pooled to the historic town of Dyea and the Chilkoot Trail. For those who haven’t read James Michener’s book Alaska, I hardily endorse it before visiting Alaska and especially the towns along the inside passage. In 1898, Skagway and Dyea (9 miles from Skagway) were booming towns where gold rushers who had come up to Alaska by steamers, came to make their way across the Chilkoot trail to Whitehorse and on to Dawson City where they would make their fortunes in the gold fields. Skagway had a population of 20,000 and Dyea had app. 10,000. The Chilkoot trail started at Dyea and went straight up and over to Lake Bennett. I believe it was around 35 miles. Each man had to bring into Canada 2000 lbs. or enough supplies to last him a year. This meant several trips back and forth over the trail.

We climbed 500’ and decided we weren’t that gold hungry. It was narrow, straight up, full of tree roots and rocks. Did I mention bears? These men and women had to be desperate to perform such a feat. Many lost their lives. On the other side, they had to build boats or sleds (depending on the time of year) to get to Whitehorse via the Yukon River.

After huffing and puffing up the trail a ways, we visited where the town of Dyea stood. Nothing left but a few boards from old buildings. If you didn’t see the pictures, you couldn’t believe what a thriving town it was for a couple of years before the gold fever rush went bust.

Back in town, we canvassed the shops for our main shopping day on Friday, had a light dinner in town and went back to the RV’s for the night to rest our weary bones.

Thursday morning, we were up at 5:30 to board the boat for our trip to Juneau. It was cold and rainy and so we had a lot of clothes on. Dress in layers is the fashion up here. On the way, we were served the best blueberry muffins any of us had while here and hot chocolate. Our captain was a girl and so was the deck hand. She said she had done this for 16 years. She didn’t look much older than that. We traveled thru a deep fjord that was carved by glaciers thousands of years ago. Where the water meets the trees is 300’ deep and the water gets to a depth of 2000’. I didn’t really need to know that. It is called Glacier Bay because you are surrounded on both sides with mountains and glaciers. Breathtakingly beautiful. Pictures just can’t do it justice. When we arrived at Juneau, a gray line bus took us around the city, which is very hilly with tight roads and bustling. A couple of cruise ships were in port so that added to the crowd and the fun. We had a great lunch at the Hangar and then did some serious shopping before boarding the bus and heading out to the Mendenhall Glacier. On the way, we passed by the governor’s mansion.

At the glacier, they had a wooden nature trail that was built up several feet off the ground. From it you could view salmon (Sockeye and Coho’s) spawning in the creek below. Bears frequently come there to feed and quite a few of our group got to see one. It was a smaller black bear that are more common in this area. Back on the bus, we headed back to our boar and the trip home. We did look for whales but of course none were to be found. The high light of the trip home was the smoked salmon chowder we were served. It was cold and raining and the hot chowder was perfect.

Our day lasted 12.5 hrs. and when we got back to the RV everyone silently went back to their rv’s, pulled the curtains and collapsed. Very tiring but another great day. This being a tourist is not for sissies!!!

Friday morning-guess what? Rain!!! Denny and I had the day off as we had done the White Pass and Yukon railroad when we were here in 1994. It was an unforgettable experience, but not one we needed to do again. The group said they couldn’t see a lot because of the fog and rain clouds but still enjoyed it.

Denny and I cleaned the RV, washed clothes, went to the grocery store and did some last minute souvenir shopping. We finished the afternoon off at the Red Onion Saloon. An authentic 1898 saloon and bordello. Oh the stories it could tell. We had drinks and appetizers and went back to the RV for an ice cream social and drivers meeting. Its sad to think our trip will be over in less than a week, but we are also looking forward to being home and seeing everyone. Tomorrow is 308 miles. Whew! Lights out!

AUGUST 18TH, 2009, TRAVEL DAY TO SKAGWAY, AK

2009-08-22T00:40:00.001-05:00

I forgot to say yesterday that we crossed the border back into the Yukon and lost an hour, That made getting up early this morning and being at breakfast by 7 very hard. Lauren had prepared pancakes, eggs and sausage with strawberries and maple syrup for us, so it wasn’t too hard to get there.

We still left around 8:00 as today we cross back into Alaska and have almost 260 miles to go. That doesn’t sound like much, but on these roads it is quite a day. But even as I say that, the roads while they had some bad areas were not as bad as yesterdays. We had not been on this part of the Alaska highway so enjoyed all the new scenery. The Kluane lake was beautiful. In the winter they use snowmobiles on it to go places rather than drive cars.

Everyone stopped at Whitehorse and fueled up with that 3 cents a litre discount on gas. At this point in our trip, every penny counts J

The drive down to Skagway was so different. We passed an area that looked like a desert with all cream colored sand and sparse vegetation. About 11 miles outside of Skagway, we started a 11.5 mile descent with an ll% downgrade. I am told the scenery was beautiful---I couldn’t look. There were some great viewpoints across the lake of the White Pass/Yukon railroad as it churned up the mountain.

About 5 miles outside of Skagway, we re-entered Alaska and got our hour back. Skagway is at the end of a fjord and is surrounded by mountains. After getting set-up, we drove into town with Jack and Alice (we could have walked) but it was drizzling rain. Grabbed a light supper and headed back to the RV for a boring night. No cable TV or WiFi.

AUGUST 17TH, 2009, TRAVEL DAY TO DESTRUCTION BAY, YUKON

2009-08-22T00:35:00.001-05:00

This was another early morning departure and rough, rough roads. Lots of gravel, frost heaves and road construction. But, as usual, beautiful scenery!

We arrived at our campground which was the Destruction Bay Lodge and RV park in the early afternoon. It didn’t look like a whole lot, but we had a really nice time. Our host Lauren had prepared quite an afternoon and evening for us.

A lot of the group bought diamond willow sticks from him to make walking sticks. His friend showed everyone how to take the bark off and finish them. He had a work-shop where he does bowls and other items from wood whic

the guys really enjoyed. After that, we had our driver’s meeting before dinner.

Dinner was delicious. Lauren had prepared smoked potato salad, tossed salad with his special vinagrette dressing, homemade rolls, prime rib with horseradish sauce and au jus. Dessert was bumble berry pie and whipped cream. Delicious.

For our dinner entertainment, Lauren had his friend Tim Naylor play the guitar and sing some songs for us, then Lauren joined him for a couple of duets and did a poem he wrote about the Kluane. What really topped off the evening was as we were walking back to our rigs, the biggest rainbow I have ever seen came out and it looked so close almost like you could reach out and touch it.

AUGUST 16TH, 2009 TRAVEL DAY TO TOK

2009-08-17T17:36:00.001-05:00

Guess what? It is still pouring down rain. Not much fun walking Rudy or hooking up the RV this morning. Denny is soaking wet when he comes in to leave. We have not had one minute of dry weather in Valdez, so we are not sorry to leave, even if it is 7:30AM.

The trip back was almost uneventful and for the most part, backtracking to where we took the Tok cut-off road. Road conditions were terrible. Frost heaves every mile or so it seemed. The temperature when we left Valdez was 60 degrees and was 40 degrees when we went over Thompson Pass. Because of all the rain, the waterfalls were spectacular, especially Bridal Veil Falls. Thompson Pass gets more snowfall than any place in Alaska.

About 39 miles south of Tok, Dave radioed he had trouble with his tow bar. That turned out to be an understatement. The main part of his hitch for his tow car had literally broke in half, causing his car to ride up the ball hitch and hit the back of his RV. Denny stopped and got out to help him and it was quite a feat getting the car loose so Maddie could drive it on into Tok. It was bad enough, but could have been a whole lot worse with them losing the whole car. They are hoping Blue Ox can over-night them one to Whitehorse or Skagway. Poor Maddie has to drive the car behind the RV to Destruction Bay, Yukon tomorrow.

We had our drivers meeting and it doesn’t sound like the road will be any better tomorrow. We do cross back into Canada tomorrow and then day after tomorrow back into Alaska. We should have a lot of practice.

Oh by the way, when we got to Tok, the rain stopped and the sun has come out. The campground worker said they had snow in the mountains yesterday, which the locals call “termination dust”. That means summer is terminating and fall is here. It sure feels a lot cooler than the first time we were here.

AUGUST 15TH, 2009, FREE DAY IN VALDEZ

2009-08-17T17:34:00.000-05:00

This morning started out like yesterday with rain, rain and more rain. It also ended the same way with rain, rain and more rain.

It was great having a rainy morning to sleep in and be lazy. Very few stirred except us poor souls who had to walk our dogs. To be honest, Rudy really would have just as soon stayed inside.

Around noon, we noticed several cars leaving for various activities such as going to look at glaciers, museums, trying to find town. We thought with such a large civic and convention center, there must be a downtown somewhere. NOT!

After a really neat lunch at the Alaska Halibut Café where we dined with a room full of locals on halibut, we ventured off to Annie’s Place where we saw the films on the Alaska Pipeline construction and the earthquake. There we ran into our fearless leaders, Phil and Sue, along with several other couples.

This completed our day on the town, so we headed back to the RV to nap, print pictures, eat, etc. Our drivers meeting was held at 6 and we were so excited when Reverend Roy pointed out we could see across the bay. However, the rain continues. Maybe tomorrow the sun will be back. It just makes it difficult getting around—it sure doesn’t dampen our spirits.

AUGUST 14TH, 2009, GLACIER BOAT CRUISE

2009-08-14T23:46:00.002-05:00

It was really hard to get up and get started this AM. It was raining and cold and we were all going on a glacier cruise in Prince William Sound. Oh and did I mention it was foggy. Not much reason to be excited and a nice day to just take it easy. But, we made ourselves ready with all the warm, wet weather clothes we could fit into and headed out. Boy, were we glad we did.

Our cruise was 9 hours long and included both the Columbia and Meirs glacier as well as sea life and the Alaska pipeline terminal. Our boat was the Stan Stephens and was a 52'catamaran and really nice. As we started out, we couldn't see a whole lot but the fog did lift a little bit. Our first stop was of the Columbia glacier and we saw lots of icebergs but were unable to get closer than 9 miles to the glacier due to the icebergs. As a result of the fog, we were unable to get a view of the Columbia Glacier, but the icebergs were spectacular. I just fell in love with the little sea otters just floating around on their backs like they didn't have a care in the world. From there we preceded on a 2 hour trip to the Meirs glacier. On the way, we were served a delightful lunch of baked chicken with a cream sauce, rice, veggies and oreo cookies. Very nice. It was raining outside but we were warm and dry inside. The Meirs glacier was spectacular. It was 250-300' high. It was a half mile wide and 50 square miles in area. To see that large a mass of ice bordered by green trees and mountains was really neat. This glacier is actually progressing where the Columbia is regressing. The Columbia is at least 2x as big -they say.

We saw harbor seals floating on icebergs at the base of the glacier and sea otters and sea lions, eagles, puffins and many other types of birds as well as a Minke whale and a humpback whale. Not bad for a day that started out so dismal.

On the way back, we saw an oil tanker being escorted out (they do this since the Exxon Valdez incident), the Alaska pipeline terminal and a cove where the pilot boats for the tankers anchor. All this while we enjoyed a cup of clam chowder that was very good and warming. Did I say it was still raining. We ran in and out when we spotted something for pictures, but I won't kid you -it was cold!!!

We got back to the harbor at 7 PM and headed back to our RV's and no one has emerged except to walk their dogs. Tomorrow is a free day and as the rain is expected to increase tonight, I can guarantee there will be some late risers in the morning.

AUGUST 13TH,2009, TRAVEL DAY TO VALDEZ

2009-08-13T19:38:00.003-05:00

This was an incredible drive. Very scenic and like a roller coaster. The mountains are referred to as the Alaska Alps and they are beautiful. We saw waterfalls that fell 250 to 300 ft. and the Worthington glacier as well as other smaller glaciers. Very few services, so you want to make sure you have a full tank of gas. We went 79 miles on the Richardson highway before we saw another gas station. The road has multiple frost heaves and travel is slow. We left at 7:30, drove 265 miles and didn't arrive in Valdez until 2:30. We did make some stops but they were brief to make pictures as it was drizzling rain and the temperature has dropped from the mid 60's in Palmer to the mid-50's here. Also, had several long stops due to road construction.

Our campground is right on the harbor and we have a gorgeous view or rather we will have when the fog lifts :-) Tonight is a free night and I have spent most of my time catching up this blog as I have not had WiFi since Sunday night. It is still drizzling rain, so I have a pot of chili on the stove and we have cable tv (yay) so after a hard day at the wheel :-), we are just kicking back tonight. Tomorrow we have an all day cruise of Prince William sound, the Columbia glacier and it includes lunch and dinner. Should be a fun day. We have a meeting with the dog walker at 7 to take care of Rudy while we are gone. Should be another great day!!!

AUGUST 12TH, PALMER AK

2009-08-13T19:23:00.003-05:00

This morning, we car-pooled to town and visited the Visitor center and Colony house. Palmer was a New Deal town that was created in 1935. App. 200 families were selected from a draw and given the opportunity to move to Alaska and receive 40 acres of land and a loan of $3500 to build a home to homestead this valley. Of course they suffered many hardships and some left but those who stayed started what became the agriculture center of Alaska. This is in the Matanuska Valley and with all the sunshine and fertile ground, they grow most of the vegetables and a lot of beautiful flowers for Alaska. There is also one dairy here. The Matanuska creamery. We had a delightful lunch at the Colony House and then a free afternoon.

Denny and I went into Wasilla to the Wal-mart for supplies and to get me a new pillow. It is the largest one in the state. After that, we drove around Wasilla to check the area out. We lucked up and found where Sarah Palin's house was but of course, we wouldn't think of invading their privacy, also we value our lives and could get shot if we trespassed ( you know she can shoot :-). Wasilla is very spread out, but pretty large, especially for Alaska. Palmer and Wasilla are only about 10 miles apart.

Back at the campground, we had a fish fry that was to die for. All the salmon and halibut fishermen donated some fish and others brought side dishes. Our WM fried the fish with a beer batter his wife made that was scrumptious. She shared the recipe and I can't wait to use it when I get home. Denny made some barbecue baked beans that didn't last long. They were gobbled up fast and I made some hush puppies that also seemed popular although I thought I cooked them a little long.

It was another fun day but tomorrow we leave again at 7:30 to travel 265 miles to Valdez, so its another early night :-) No problem, we are so busy we are ready for early nights.

AUGUST 10TH AND 11TH, TRAVEL DAYS TO KENAI AND PALMER, AK

2009-08-13T19:17:00.001-05:00

We didn’t have our drivers meeting until 10 this morning and didn’t have to leave until 12:30; so about 10 of us went back to the spit to have lunch at Capt. Pattie’s to pass the time. Our drive to Kenai only took a little over an hour and was backtracking except for about 20 miles. The campground was really primitive with only electrical hook-ups. We had a social at 5 and then at 7:30, after everyone had dinner, there was a campfire and smores and another drivers meeting. I missed the 7:30 affair as I had been taking Ibuprophen all day for my neck and shoulder. Denny went and had a nice time. Miserable night for me as I couldn’t sleep for the pain and finally got up and put ice on it and sat in the recliner.

Feeling about 90% better this AM as we leave at 7:30 for Palmer, Ak. Again, we were backtracking except when we got on the Glenn Highway where you either go to Wasilla or Palmer, this time, we chose Palmer. Our campground is on the outskirts of town. After a much needed nap, We went to a social at 5 but didn’t stay long as a major wind came up and we all scurried back to our rv’s,

AUGUST 7TH-9TH, HOMER, AK

2009-08-13T19:13:00.001-05:00

The road to Homer, like all the roads we have traveled was beautiful. We traveled along side the turquoise Kenai River and saw many, many salmon fishermen. This area had mountains on both sides with the river running along side of it. We stopped in Soldotna for lunch in our rigs and continued on the way to Homer. Passing Anchor Point, there was an old Russian Orthodox Church sitting up on the hill as Russians originally settled this area. Several of our group saw Eagles, but we didn’t. There was a large turnout just before entering Homer, where you could see the spit. The spit is a long, thin strip of land that juts out into the Ketchemak Bay and where all the fishing boats are harbored. It is also full of souvenir shops and restaurants and is a fun place to spend the day.

Our first night in Homer, the staff had a Margarita and Mexican party for us. It brought back good memories of our Mexico trip however; it was early to bed as 16 of us were carpooling at 6 AM to go Halibut fishing.

Even though we left very early to go fishing, we were all in high spirits. Only Phil, our wagon master had done halibut fishing before and we were really anticipating this event and had talked about it our whole trip. Our captain’s name was Captain Dave and his deck hands were Manny and Samantha. Samantha was 18 and had just finished high school. Her father was a cook in the Coast Guard. She proved to be every bit as capable as Manny and Captain Dave. I should know, I needed her more than anyone. She really liked my polka dot galoshes and because of them, Manny said I had to kiss a halibut for luck. I think they were picking on me J After a 2-½ hr. trip out to the mouth of the Gulf of Alaska, we settled down to fish. It wasn’t long before everyone was catching fish, except meL Finally, I pulled in my first halibut, which took Samantha and me both to reel in. He weighed about 25 lbs. I was very proud and exhausted!!! My next 2 catches were equally exhausting, but had to be thrown back. One was called a dogfish shark because it wasn’t good to eat and the other was a 15 lb. halibut. Denny had caught one good halibut and was working on another. Halibut are bottom fish and we were worn out from reeling in and re-baiting. When I say worn-out, I really mean it-the last time I tried to reel in, four guys were holding the reel while I reeled the hook in L Four of the guys caught Lingcod, which is a great eating fish and the crew was so excited, they made pictures with their cameras as well. One was even what they called a trophy fish. Since we were only legally allowed 2 fish a piece, everyone had their limit by noon, but yours truly. I had a staff of 5 trying to catch a halibut that I could snatch up and secure it to the hook, and then I could claim I caught it and they would reel it in. It took a while, but finally we had one and after much picture taking of all our fish, we headed back in. Manny cleaned the fish on the way back and after we docked, we took them to a fish processing plant to have them filleted, packaged and frozen to pick up the next morning.

Back at the campground, we had a lot of fish tales. Stuart won our pot by catching the largest fish, which was the Ling Cod. He and the other 3 cod catchers shared their catches with us. We had a nice evening of grilling out steaks with Maddie and Dave but were so ready to fall into bed.

Sunday morning, we watched church service on TV and then headed out to the Caribou Family restaurant for sourdough pancakes and omelets. Delicious. Phil picked up our fish for us and we had 28-1 lb. packages. We will eat well this fall. Our group had a total of 316 lbs. of dressed fish . I had an appt. to get my hair cut at 1 and then we walked around the spit. I was so excited to see Captain Jonathan of the Time Bandit on Deadliest Catch had a souvenir shop there and was signing autographs. He captains the Time Bandit during the King Crab season and his brother Andy does it during the Opilio crab season. They both were raised and live in Homer. He was very gracious and signed a book and tee shirt and had 3 pictures made. The last one he asked me if I wanted a picture with Rudy and of course, I said yes!!! Thrill, thrill, I have never met a celebrity in my life and in one month I have met two! We also made some pictures at the Salty Dog Saloon, a landmark consisting of 3 historical buildings put together. Very old and interesting. Inside is covered top to bottom with $1.00 bills.

Back at the campground, we had a hot dog cookout. The weekend was catching up with me and I had stirred up my osteoarthritis in my neck fishing, so it was another early evening. We aren’t having our drivers meeting till in the morning as we have a really short drive. As I have said before this being a tourist is hard work!

AUGUST 5th and 6TH, 2009, SEWARD, AK

2009-08-07T00:36:00.004-05:00

This has been two busy, full days. We started out car-pooling to the Sealife Center for a behind the scenes tour. They do some studies regarding the wildlife in Anarctica, but the majority are the sea life surrounding Alaska and northern Canada, with an emphasis on the sea life found here in the Kenai Fjords. They had some really large viewing tanks where we saw octopus, harbor seals and sea lions swimming underwater with every sea creature imaginable. Really neat to see these huge mammals swim so gracefully underwater.

After the sea life, Denny took the other 4 dog owners back to the campground to walk the dogs as we were going on a 6 hour boat cruise around the fjords. Our boat was called the Star of the Northwest. As soon as we set sail, we had a buffet lunch of salmon, prime rib and all the sides. The food was amazing for such a small boat. The nice thing about being in a caravan as we went thru the line first and had reserved seating on the best deck. Along the way, we saw sea otters, harbor seals, sea lions, about 15 bald eagles, some Dall sheep and the Bear glacier. The morning had started out foggy but cleared up beautifully for our trip. Several people took dramamine in case they got sick and were so sleepy they couldn't stay awake and took naps. Denny did fine until we got back to the rv and then he passed out.

Back at the campground, we had an impromptu social hour and campfire with s'mores. We had fun laughing at all the zombies that had dramamine. They all still looked spacie, including Denny :-) It was another day of adventure.

This morning, we took our time because after Denny got up and had 2 cups of coffee, he went back to sleep for 2 hours! After that, he was fine and we decided to go see the Exit glacier as this was a free day. When we got there, I made the mistake of asking a 20 year old if the 1.4 mile hike was steep and he said no. I should have known better.

The first half was easy and beautiful, the second half was beautiful and straight up!!!!

It was really neat to see the glacier's edge. You could see the blue reflected from the sunlight on the ice crystals and the view of the valley and mountains was breath-taking. When we got about 50' from the glacier, the wind off the ice changed the temperature dramatically! I couldn't believe I had made that narrow, winding, steep climb but it was worth it! Going down wasn't any easier. At the bottom, we saw 2 other couples in our group just starting the climb. I was sure glad we were not just starting.

We went into town for lunch at Ray's and had a nice lunch of chowder, halibut and crab cakes then went to the store for a few items before returning to the cg.

Denny decided to wash the RV and I made a buffalo chicken appetizer for our campfire and drivers meeting.

Tomorrow we head out for Homer. We may not have Wifi there but I will be in touch as soon as possible. Our trip ends 3 weeks from tonight in Prince George, BC and I am already feeling sad. This has been amazing!!!

AUGUST 4TH, 2009 TRAVEL DAY TO SEWARD

2009-08-04T22:50:00.002-05:00

Today we only had 122 miles to travel to Seward but we still left around 8:15. We had been told in our drivers meeting about the morning traffic and how the roads could be in bad shape in several areas. So off we went following Dave and Maddie as was our usual travel method.

The scenery was awesome. We traveled with Turnagain Arm on our right side and snow capped mountains on the side and in front of us. Traffic was heavy but we were able to pull over on occasion to allow people to pass. In 1994 when we were here, we saw dall sheep on the mountains along the side of the road and beluga whales in Turnagain, but this time the tide was low and the sheep were hiding.

When we turned off the road to our campground, it was on a dirt road that winded way back into the woods by a creek called Stoney Creek. We were told that a grizzly had been in the campground before and moose were very common. The campground itself was in a large cleared area and we have all the amenities. Wifi, cable tv and phone service:-) I don't know how they ever found this place but it is nice back here and the creek is more like a river and has fast moving glacial water full of silt.

It started raining, so we did what comes naturally-took a nap and had a nice dinner of chicken casserole. Afterwards, we decided to ride around the little town. We found an ice cream parlor and then drove back to the RV. Rudy was with us and sure enjoyed getting out of the RV. It was raining pretty hard when we got back (thank goodness for GPS) so we have pulled the curtains. Of course as luck would have it, the cable tv is out because of the rain, so I am going to enjoy a good book!!!

AUGUST 2ND AND 3RD 2009, ANCHORAGE

2009-08-04T15:57:00.002-05:00

This is a really nice campground, but the Wifi is terrible and we only get 2 tv stations. However, we have found plenty to do here since the Gold Prospectors Association of Alaska were here.

First, we had a morning bus tour of Anchorage, where we visited the ULU factory, earthquake park, the largest bush plane airport and water air strips in the world, and the different historical sites and government buildings. Denny and I were here in 1994 and we didn't recognize hardly anything. The visitor center and cook inlet were familiar. Time marches on and Anchorage is a really thriving town with a population of over 275,000.

Back at the campground after a hurried lunch, Denny practically ran to the pavilion to take part in all the festivities. He entered the men's gold panning contest. After much coaching from me, he almost came in second. The rules were: 3 nice size nuggets are placed in sand in each pan. The contestants did it one at a time and the minute they picked up the pan, the time started. They were to find the 3 nuggets in the fastest time. Denny had the second shortest time, but couldn't find one nugget therefore he had 30 seconds added to his time. That knocked him out of second place. Not bad for a beginner (nearly all the contestants were seasoned gold planners). For $5 a bag or $20 for 5 bags, you could pan for gold. We both did it and had so much fun as did others in our group. Lynn found 3 large nuggets and won 2 door prizes. She can't play with us anymore :-) Anyway, a good time was had by all and afterwards we went to see a movie about Alaska and had dinner out at the Wild Berry Theatre. We also got up close and personal with a huge bald eagle.

Monday was a free day which started off with bkfst. in a bag done by our WM and TG's. Then Denny and I headed to Petco for supplies for Rudy and Costco for supplies for us! We stopped at a store called Red Apple that must have been in a Hispanice community as it was full of Mexicans. Dropping off our groceries, we headed off to visit the Alaska Native Heritage Center where we ran into several of our group. We watched some Alaskan teenagers demonstrate their games and looked at all the exhibits. The main thing were mini camps set out of the 5 tribes in the different regions of Alaska. All but one had subterranean houses. Tlinglit community had enormous cedar houses for the individual clans. I think I would have preferred that to living underground.

We hurried back to the RV to fix my chicken and dumplings for a potluck dinner we were having. I must say we have some great cooks in this group. Afterwards, we had short seminars on geocaching, Skype and a really neat talk from our Hawaiian coffee farmer. Phil had a short drivers meeting and we all retired to get ready to head our to Seward in the AM.

AUGUST 1ST, TRAVEL DAY TO ANCHORAGE

2009-08-04T15:51:00.001-05:00

Since there was another Adventure caravan leaving the campground today, we heard they were having their drivers meeting this morning, so we thought to avoid congestion, we would leave during that time. However, they thought for some reason, we were trying to one up them and they left really early. People are so funny!

The Parks Highway to Anchorage had several areas where we could see Mt. McKinley, but the sky was still too overcast. We have one last chance in Anchorage. Here’s hoping. We decided to unhook the car and take a side spur road to the little town of Talkeetna. The tv series Northern Exposure was modeled after this little town. There is only one main street and with the exception of 3 or 4 buildings, the rest are fairly new and filled with really unique souvenirs and bush pilots offering trips to Denali. Talkeetna is also where the Mt. McKinley climbers are flown up to the base camps. We had a neat lunch in an original building called West Rib. There were 4 climbers from Talkeetna who climbed the West Rib of McKinley and were personal friends of the owner. The inside dining area was really small with a pool table and several small dining tables. The walls were covered with old pictures of Talkeetna and the 4 climbers pictures on McKinley. Very quaint and we could just imagine it being the center of the town social life during the winter with the pool table and saloon. Very neat little town that only has 845 year round residents and had that many tourists in town. They have to make it while they can during their short summers.

After spending 3 hrs. in a 2 block, one street town, we headed on down to Anchorage. Not too much to see on the way, except for salmon fishermen in Willow Creek and the town of Wasilla. Wasilla is about 11/2 miles long with most of the establishments being on the east side of the road. Unlike other small towns along the way, it is pretty developed with a lot of major name brand stores. And-no darn it-we didn’t see the Palins again.

About 35-40 miles down the road is Anchorage. We actually had very heavy traffic and 4- 6 lanes of road. Pretty nerve-wracking since we hadn’t faced that since Calgary. Arriving at our campground, we were excited to see the Gold Prospector’s Association of Alaska was holding a rally there, so after our group’s daily social hour, we all went over for free hot dogs, hamburgers and musical entertainment. We were too late to do any gold panning, but they were going to be there Sunday as well.

Nice evening.

JULY 31ST, FLOAT? DOWN THE NENANA RIVER

2009-08-01T09:34:00.002-05:00

After a really nice morning of going slow and phone calls home, we prepared for our

"scenic float" down the Nenana. What a blast we had. The first thing we did was pour ourselves into these wet suits, which had some of us feeling rather claustrophobic.

Then looking like something from out of space, we boarded a bus and headed for our departure point. Did I say the wind was again blowing constantly.

Our instructor gave us some lessons on what to do if we ended up in the water, which gave some of us pause since this was suppose to be a "float" down the river. Ha!

The Nenana is glacier fed and the water we were on was 37 degrees and flowing very swift. The rocks provided some level 2's on a scale of 5 rapids and it was extremely choppy. The scenery was beautiful and really made you feel like you were in Alaska. As we flew (not float) down the canyon, we couldn't help but almost have our breath taken away by the mountains and trees that just surrounded us. The Nenana river itself was muddy because it was full of silt from the glacier it flowed from just 12 hrs before. Our trip on the river was 2 hrs. long and we did get hit by waves which just added to the fun. When we arrived at the end, we were exhausted even though we didn't even have a paddle. Our guide was Stacy, an oriental from California, who was teeny tiny but rowed that raft like an Olympian.

Back at the RV, we dried off and headed off to a dinner at the Salmon Bake. I had salmon and Denny had the halibut. I am really learning to like salmon and of course the halibut is outstanding every time.

We did a little shopping and headed back for our drivers meeting where we learned we need to leave by 8Am, so I am headed to bed early again for another early departure. I am not joking when I say everyday is really an adventure. Can't wait for tomorrow as we head to Anchorage.

JULY30TH, WILDERNESS WILDLIFE TOUR OF DENALI

2009-07-30T22:26:00.003-05:00

This morning started with the alarm going off at 4:15AM. We were car-pooling to the Denali lodge to board a bus for tour thru the Denali National Park. Lots of sleepy-eyed but eager people all ready for a fun day.

We boarded a modernized school bus and headed out. Our bus driver was a naturalist and majored in biology. He really was knowledgeable and spent a lot of time exhorting the beautiful, untamed and unpopulated by humans, virtues of the parks. Only one road. You must come out the way you go in. No power lines-a true wilderness, unspoiled by man. The road is 93 miles long and unpaved, but we only went to mile 62. The mountain ranges are awesome with miles of tundra at their base. The permafrost in this area is 1000' deep, consequently, the vegetation does not attain great heights and the higher up you go trees are nonexistent. Along the way, we saw a total of 3 grizzlies, 2 bull moose, a wolf, 10-20 Caribous, dall sheep and numeous birds and smaller animals (I can't remember all the names) . We caught a brief glimpse of the summit of the mt. on the way to the viewing point, which was a good thing because the smoke started coming in and obscured the view later. Our box lunch contained reindeer sausage which was very spicy and good. At the 62 mile point, we were offered hot chocolate and /or coffee. On the ride back, we continued to see Caribou and Moose. There are no Elk in the park. A large number of our group was seen napping but I won't call out any names:-)

After browsing the gift shop, we went with Dave, Maddie and Dottie for an ice cream and headed back to our rigs.

Tonight we had a combined social with another Adventure group. Their trip is only 37 days long and they were all tired. We are too but we have days to rest between stops. This being a tourist is hard work :-)

Denny and I decided not to eat dinner as we had lots of snacks at our social. Tomorrow, we and eight other couples are going on a float trip down the Nenana. They aren't picking us up until 12:30. We might browse around the shops for a while or we might decide to just be lazy. Stay tuned!

JULY 29TH, TRAVEL DAY TO DENALI

2009-07-30T22:09:00.002-05:00

Today was pretty uneventful until we got to our RV site. The ride to Denali was great. Good roads and beautiful scenery. We only had 111 miles, so we didn't leave Fairbanks until after a lazy morning. Our group that flew to the Arctic Circle didn't get back until 1:45AM. Unfortunately, they didn't see much because of the smoke from forest fires. It has really been bad, with ash falling on all our rigs and cars. It has me coughing some but not bad yet. There has been over 1 million acres of forest fires this year. They don't even try to put them out unless they pose a threat to people. This fire is over 50 miles SW of Fairbanks.

We still had smoke most of the way. For a few minutes, we had a great view of Mt. McKinley (Denali) from the road. By the way, Denali is the real name and what Alaskans call it. The name means "the great one" and it is. On a clear day, you can see it from Fairbanks (111 miles) or Anchorage ( 226 miles). We have seen it from Anchorage on a prior trip.

About 20 miles from our campground, the wind became unbelievable thru the passes. We were having 25 mph winds with gusts (which came regularly of up to 50mph. It was really hard to walk. The MH was rocking and rolling. I can't imagine these winds with cold and snow. Brrrr!

When we got set-up, we decided not to put out our slides until the winds subsided. We didn't really need them and we enjoyed some homemade spaghetti with marinara sauce and Italian sausage in our rig. About 9 PM, the winds subsided and we were able to put out the slides.

Decided to go to bed early as we had to be up at 4:00 to go on the wildlife tour thru the park.

JULY 28TH, POTPOURI

2009-07-29T17:30:00.002-05:00

The excitement of the last 2 days caught up with us and we had a really lazy morning. I started printing out copies of our Palin pictures from the internet and of course ran into all kind of problems with the printer. After changing the cartridges, realigning it and cleaning it, finally it would print correctly. It did this on the Maritime trip-I guess these terrible roads and not being used for a while got to it. Anyway, while doing that, I washed some clothes again. We both cleaned the inside of the unit and decided to go the University of Alaska museum. It has a great reputation and we had missed it the other day.

The museum was really nice. I particularly liked all the stuffed animals. You wouldn't believe how huge this grizzly was. He was on his hind legs and measured 8'9". They say the coastal grizzlies are much larger than the inland ones . While we were there, we took in 2 documentary films; one on Winter and the other on the Aurora. I liked the Winter one best as it had citizens describing the winters and how they cope. Not for me although I would like to experience it for maybe 1 week. The Aurora movie was too technical for me. I think it would be great in an Imax theatre. We ran into 2 other couples and made plans to eat at the Alaska Salmon Bake at Pioneer Park later.

After the museum, Denny and I went to Fred Meyer's. Wow! It is a super nice store with most of the brands we have at home and a HUGE deli. It is similar to Canadian Superstores in that it sells everything from food to furniture.

Back at the RV park, we had an impromptu social before heading out to the Salmon Bake. While it was pricey ($31 PP), it was DELICIOUS! We had about 12 of us and no one had any complaints. The salmon was out of this world and I don't usually like salmon. Before we left, Denny and I ran into Larry and Evelyn Stark (our tail gunners in the Maritime) and the Taylors who were also with us there. Small, small world.

Also, I should say that about 8 couples took the round-trip air flight to the Arctic Circle. They left at 6 and were due back around mid-night. We decided not to do that trip for several reasons; 1- we have already crossed the arctic circle, 2- it was $398 PP and 3- I didn't want to fly. Enough said.

Needless to say. no ice cream for this bunch tonight.

JULY 27TH, NORTH POLE, AK

2009-07-29T17:12:00.002-05:00

This morning we dropped Rudy off at Noah's Ark Veternarian and Groomer. He really needed a little tidying up and a pedicure. He looked so sad being left in a strange place, I felt really guilty. However, we went back to the RV park to pick up Maddie, Dave and their daughter Dottie to head out to the North Pole. Dottie flew in from Mass. to caravan with us until we leave Anchorage. She is lots of fun and adds some spark to this aging group.

At the North Pole, we purchased some Christmas ornaments and did some paper work for later on this year :-) and decided to drive back to downtown Fairbanks for lunch. We had sandwiches at Soapy Smith's and visited the Yukon Quest (a sled dog race of 1000 miles from Fairbanks to Whitehorse. Fairbanks is larger than Whitehorse in the Yukon, but still relatively small. After lunch, we went back to the RV park, where Denny and I both took naps. I had been up since 4 and needed it bad.

After a supper of left-overs, we went to Pioneer Park for square dancing. Our new Fairbanks friend that helped us out at the ceremony, had arranged for our square dancers to meet with their square dance club and several of us went to watch. However, they got us all out there for a couple of dances and we had lots of fun. In between Tips(2 consecutive dances), they take breaks and tell stories and jokes. We had a lot of laughs and it was fun to meet the locals. We all got our Fartherest North Square Dance pins. Of course, this particular group can't go anywhere without stopping for ice cream on the way home. Nice evening

JULY 26TH, WE MEET SARAH AND TODD PALIN

2009-07-27T08:05:00.006-05:00

This morning 8 of us played hooky and skipped the caravan activities to head out to Pioneer Park where Sarah Palin was giving her farewell address and Parnell was being sworn in as the new governor. We had high hopes of getting pictures and maybe autographs.

After a hearty breakfast at Denny's restaurant, we headed out. She wasn't due there until noon, but we knew they were expecting a crowd and we wanted good seats. Wow did things change. The first person we met when we went in was Shirley, a volunteer all dressed up in red, white and blue. She showed us where all the action was going to be and pointed out where the Sarah souvenirs were. The four ladies headed for the souvenirs and we soon emerged with neat Sarah tee shirts. When we caught back up, Shirley had signed all the guys and us up as volunteers and from then on, we were busy as bees. Had the greatest time. Because we had on the tee shirts (everyone wanted them, but the guy had only brought a few and soon sold out) and our volunteer badges, they thought we were celebrities. I bet we had our pictures made and I'm not exaggerating around 200x. A lot of people wanted their pictures made with us. So funny!! We were also interviewed by a lot of media-have no idea why.

The guys were put to work setting up barriers for the food lines and the ladies were put to work guarding the reserved and handicapped seating areas. This assured us of great seats :-)

When Sarah arrived, it was pandemonium. I was about 4-5' directly in front of her and gave her a shout out that "Alabama loves you". She looked directly at me and said "Thank You, I love your shirt". Be still my heart! Afterwards, I got in line to meet her for a hot dog. Of course, she had on gloves and was serving hot dogs, but when I got up to her she said " Hi Patsy(my name tag), I saw you standing over there". I like a babbling nut, said again "We love you in Alabama, please come visit us" and she and her assistant smiled and said "We would love too". End of conversation. I was really star struck!!! Her staff was making pictures and said I could download my picture from the web-site. Can't wait. Denny met Todd and had his new white shirt autographed by Todd. I made some great pictures of him. He is really a cutie. Sarah is much prettier and smaller than appears on tv. Very gracious.

After that we went back to work and were really tired when the ceremony started. We had great seats and the crowd loved her. One or two hecklers, but she put them in their place. I believe now that she doesn't have to be so politically correct, she will come out swinging. The crowd sure encouraged her to do so.

Also saw her children and they were precious, especially Piper. She looks like so much fun and mischief. Beautiful family-it just boggles the mind how the press has so maligned them.

Back at the RV, we were exhausted but all of us were giddy. When our friends returned from sight-seeing, we were surrounded with questions. Most wanted to go with us and were sorry they didn't.

There is a major forest fire about 50 miles from here and ash was falling in the campground. So sad because even those the fires are out in the wilderness, because of the permafrost, it takes 30 -40 years for a tree to grow 1-2ft.

Not your usual tourist day, but one of the best days yet and lots of memories.

GO SARAH!!!!

JULY 25TH, BUS, RIVERBOAT AND TRAIN

2009-07-25T22:14:00.001-05:00

DAY 27 of our Caravan
Where do you start with a day packed with so much fun! Pulling out of the campground at 8:15 this morning, we were all excited about being in Fairbanks for 4 more days and having a chance to catch our breaths. Little did we know how wide open we would be this day!

Our first boat was the Riverboat Discovery lll; one hundred years and 4 generations of the Binkley family have run riverboats up the Chena River. It has literally been their back yard. Along the way, we saw a bush plane demonstration, several historical homes with interesting histories and reindeer (which we found out or domesticated Caribou). Two of the really neat demonstrations we saw were at the home of the late Susan Butcher. She is a local hero, the first woman to win the Iditarod. She dedicated her life to raising sled dogs and racing and was quite a frontier lady in this area. Her husband and two daughters carry on the tradition. We saw a team of 14 dogs pull a tractor (no snow of course). Verbal commands are very important and the care and feeding along with the relationship developed with the dogs is of the utmost importance. Our next stop was at an Athabascan Indian Fish Camp, where native Athabascans from Fort Yukon

Demonstrated the clothing, housing and fish drying techniques that were used. The log dwellings only have been used for the last 150 years since the Westerners arrived. Also, Dan Munson arrived with one of his daughters and some of the sled dogs for us to see up close. He autographed a book called Granite, which Susan wrote about her first dog Granite who overcame a lot of problems in his puppy years to go on and win the Iditarod. Susan died in Aug. Of 2005, but has remained quite a legend in these parts.

After leaving the riverboat and spending lots of money in the gift shop, where Denny and I did the -40F experience, we enjoyed a great buffet at the Pumphouse Restaurant which had all kinds of relics related to the Gold Rush Days. They also have a garden outside the restaurant with HUGE cabbages. As Sue said, “one leaf would feed a whole family”. Back on the bus, we were all ready for a nap, but oh no, more fun was ahead.

We went to the El Dorado Gold Mine. It is a working gold mine today but also offers tours and gold –panning. We boarded a train and had a neat ride that depicted the stages and different types of gold mining. Denny and Lynn were especially interested, as they seem to have “gold fever” since panning for gold in Chicken. The train dropped us off where Yukon Yonda gave us one of the most interesting and detailed explanations of how gold mining with a sluice is done. THEN the fun began, we were each given pans and a bag of dirt to go panning. We had so much fun. We were so scared to follow their instructions to keep washing the rocks and dirt out even though they kept reassuring us that the gold was so much heavier than water that it would sink to the bottom of the pan. After all, what did they know J Finally, with a little help, Denny and I finished our pans and to our surprise there was gold. We combined it for a total of 14 grams or $43.00. Not bad for 20 minutes work. Off we went inside where they weighed it and I had it made into a necklace and earrings. That free pan of dirt ended up costing Denny quite a bit, but what a neat souvenir and what memories are with it.

On the way back to the campground, we stopped to view the pipeline. It is 4’ in diameter and is built in a zigzag fashion to withstand an earthquake measuring up to an 8. It is also built off the ground to protect it from the elements. Along the path of the pipeline, there are bridges and areas where the Caribou can cross under or over it.

Well, as I said, we had a full, fun day. However, we had to get back to our RV’s because in the morning we start all over. How great is that!!!

JULY 24TH, THE ROAD TO FAIRBANKS

2009-07-25T21:58:00.002-05:00

This morning, we pulled out of the campground, anxious to get to Fairbanks and spend 5 nights in one place. The last few days have been quite busy and strenuous in spots.

The road to Fairbanks out of Tok was great! Only a few short gravel areas and/or frost heaves-piece of cake compared to the past. Our first stop was at Delta Junction, where we made pictures of the end of the Alaska Highway sign. We would have more of it on our return home, but by now we felt like pros. A few miles down the road, we stopped at the Rika Roadhouse. A really neat historic roadhouse. Of course our major reason was we were told it was a neat place for lunch-and it was. Denny had the halibut sandwich and I had crab bisque. Delicious!

We finished walking around and admiring the grounds and headed back to our RV's to finish our trip. Pretty soon, we were on a four-lane road. Heaven! Haven't seen that since Great Falls, MT. We found our campground and with the WM's assistance parked our rigs. We are staying at the Rivers Edge Campground right on the Chena River. Very nice, we have 50 amps, free Wifi and cable tv. Life is good!

As soon as we settled in, we had a social hour which lasted more like 3 hrs. Everyone was in high spirits and so glad to be there. However, one rig about 20 miles outside of Tok had a fuel pump go bad on their RV and had to turn back. However, even though they wouldn't have their rig repaired until Monday (they had to order the fuel pump), they drove their car to Fairbanks (209 miles) and are staying in a cabin at our campground so they can participate with us. They will have to drive back to Tok to get their rig, but I would have wanted to do the same thing. We are just glad they are back with us.

Big day tomorrow-time to pull the curtains and pretend its dark outside-crazy!

JULY 23RD, TOK, ALASKA

2009-07-24T01:11:00.002-05:00

Nice lazy start to the day. We had no electrical hook-ups, so we had no air conditioning, but it didn't really matter. We were so tired we fell sound asleep around 9 and slept until almost 8 this morning. What a treat! I did wake up when Rudy jumped off the bed. He was so cute laying on the tile floor on his back with all 4 paws up. Even he was exhausted.

The staff had a pancake and sausage bkfst. for us and we all just chowed down. Denny, Stuart, Bev and I walked across the street to "Beautiful Downtown Chicken", which consists of a gift shop, saloon and small cafe. The Post Office (which receives mail by air on Tuesday and Fridays) was 1/4 mile down the highway. After that, we pulled out of Chicken for our 78 mile trip to Tok. We still had 2 miles of rough road, but not the steep drop-offs and small, soft shoulders. Our friend Dave let out a big Hee-Haw on the CB when we hit pavement. Man we felt like we were on an Interstate.

When we arrived at Tok, our WM said if we filled up with gas at the station across from the RV Village, we got free car washes. Was that a deal!. After a week of dust and gravel, we couldn't wait. It was a lot of fun because we all lined up and the guys and some ladies, all descended on the RV's and helped wash each others. We all got wet but had so much fun. Anyway, we couldn't believe the RV's were different colors, they had all looked alike with all the dust!!!

After settling in at the campground, Richard and Karen walked over to Fast Eddie's for dinner with us. I had Halibut (my favorite fish) and Denny had a hamburger. I couldn't believe it. It was a short walk back to the campground where we enjoyed the local talent of Dave Stancliff. He sang and played the guitar and was really good. Had a lot of cute songs about Alaska. We purchased 2 CD's to use as background music for our pictures (If I can figure out how to do it). After that we had our usual drivers meeting. At 9 o'clock, I started cleaning the inside of the RV and boy did it need it. Of course it was still broad daylight outside. I just can't get use to that.

Tomorrow, we head out for Fairbanks. We will be there 5 days counting our travel day. I made Rudy a grooming appt., he looks like a wooly bear. It will be nice to have several days in one place although the first 2 whole days are spent on tours. Sarah Palin is going to be there at a picnic Saturday to swear in the new governor and I am going to be stuck on a boat. Just my luck! So close but yet so far! Must close out. We leave at 8:30 in the morning and that comes fast!!!

JULY 22ND, NEVER, EVER AGAIN!!!!!

2009-07-23T10:49:00.002-05:00

We started out early this AM. The ferry (which looked like a glorified row boat and only carried one RV and 2-3 cars) was under maintenance until 7, but we decided we would get there early and be the first in line. We pulled out of the campground at 6 and was there by 6:15. You have to take the ferry across the Yukon to get to the Top of the World and the trip takes 20 mins. round trip. Had I known what was ahead, I would have hi-jacked it to Fairbanks!! At any rate, they finished maintenance at 6:30 and we were able to board early. We all elected, at the suggestion of our WM, to unhitch the cars. The trip across was uneventful. The rest of our group had followed us and we were all across and at our meeting place 10 miles up the road by 8 AM. The group that went the night before were a little disappointed because they had to pull out at 8. Some were still asleep and in their PJ's as they thought it would take us much longer to get across.

So, our trip started. Let me say at the outset, the day was beautiful and the scenery was breathtaking (when I had the nerve to look). The roads on the Canada side were paved in SHORT stretches with the longest pavement leading to the boundary. That said, let me tell you that from that point on, it was gravel, soft shoulders (we were told to stay 3' from the edges or we would flip our MH's) ruts, washboards, switchback curves, 3000-4000'ft drop-offs and VERY narrow roads (especially on the Alaska side). It literally made me physically sick. I don't like height and especially when its on my side of the coach. Our border crossing was easy. We met a large MH coming toward us at the narrowest point in the road, neither of us wanting to move over, but just turning the wheels enough that we cleared our rearview mirrors. Horrendous! I guess we would be there now, if our mirrors hadn't cleared. No way to back up and turn around. Of course, the trip was only 109 miles and it took us 4 hrs!!! When we finally made it into Chicken, Alaska, there were stories to tell. I had resorted to sitting behind Denny in the middle of the RV. Our WM's wife also did the same thing and this was her 4th trip. She said it never got any better. For our friends who read this that we drove the Baja with in Mexico, my comparison is for the most part, the Baja road conditions were better-no gravel and washboards, just occasional topes. The drop offs were just as bad. Also, the hairpin curves on the Baja were worse, but while on the Alaska side, the roads were much narrower and harrowing to me. I would NEVER so either one again. That said, if you are an adventurer, you have to do it at least once.

Our campground at Chicken (named because they couldn't spell Ptarmigan) was a delightful place. We stayed at the Chicken Gold campground. Our hosts were so nice. We had a really neat lunch (everyone was drinking wine or beer after that ride)!!!

Denny and I walked down to the campground below us and bought a Top of the World tee shirt and then went back to do some gold panning. It was free and they furnished the pans, etc. I had the best find. It was what they call a "picker-upper", large enough to pick up with your fingers and it made a clunking sound. The rest of our fine was mostly slivers, but there was a man there who did this everyday and he said he saved every sliver and he said he averaged an ounce about every 20 days. It was HARD work. We had a chili supper by the staff and the hosts of the campground came and brought us blueberry streusel with ice cream. They told us the history of Chicken (pop.6 in the winter) but it is too lengthy to go into now. We had some trivia questions and Denny won a Chicken baseball hat for guessing how long the Yukon is. He said 2000 miles and it is 1980. I was proud!

Finally retired at 9. I have never been so physically and mentally exhausted. Oh by the way, several in our group found a tee shirt they said I needed and one couple went to the "saloon" and brought it back for me and the TG's wife found a cute postcard and gave me. The tee shirt says "I drove the Top of the World and Survived". I said the Alaska Highway with its frost heaves and washboard gravel would be a piece of cake after this.

JULY 21ST, LAST DAY IN DAWSON CITY

2009-07-23T10:26:00.003-05:00

Another lazy morning. Its amazing how fast the time passes when you just piddle. If I had really known what tomorrow would bring, I would have enjoyed it even more.

We had a walking tour of town at 1 PM. Our tour guide was dressed in period clothes and was really cute and funny.

Dawson City's boom only really lasted a few years before it started its decline. When most of the prospectors who made the Chilkoot Trail alive and then came down the Yukon river to Dawson City, the gold miners who were already here had pretty much mined out the gold. So, they tried to establish a town using the professions they had before they contracted "gold fever". Some of the original buildings still exist with the fronts being restored. The most interesting was the morgue. They tried to estimate how many would die during the winters and pre-dig the graves during the summer. If they ran out of graves, they just stored the bodies until next summer. With the winters being on average -40C (-50F), it wasn't a problem.

After the tour, a group went to lunch at the Triple J Hotel. Very nice. The walking tour of town was pretty exhausting, so we went back to the RV to rest before having our drivers meeting and going to Diamond Tooth Gertie's. At the drivers meeting, it was decided that about half would go on over on the ferry tonight and the rest would follow in the AM. That was fine with about half the group as they thought they would get to sleep in the next day. At 11:15, we heard the WM say there were still 5 to board the ferry. More on the ferry later (we stayed in the campground).

Diamond Tooth Gerties's was singing and some dancing. It was fun but we all agreed the Frantic Follies in Whitehorse was better as it had more variety. Gertie's was a casino with a few slots and table games. I lost my $20.00 in the penny machine and Denny lost his at roulette. It was a non-profit casino where the money went back into the town and was owned by Parc Canada, so we felt like we helped the economy there, which really needed it.

Back at the RV, we watched some of our friends pull out, before we retired at 11 to get ready for the big day. Little did we know!!!

JULY 20TH, DAWSON CITY, YUKON TERRITORY

2009-07-21T12:17:00.003-05:00

So nice to have a lazy morning to get caught up on e-mails and blog. I have not been as good this trip on printing pictures. Hopefully, in the morning I can start doing a few at a time. That will actually be a good thing to do in Chicken, although the staff has some activities planned , but more on that later.

A large group of the caravan went to see the historic gold mine dredge #4 around 12:30. It is suppose to be the largest in North America. When they said we had to climb 150 steps, several of the ladies including yours truly declined. Denny went with some others. I decided to take Rudy in his stroller for a trip to town. Town starts 2 blocks from our RV. He loved his ride and had his picture made by 4 different people-one guy was from Australia. I met up with Bev walking around, which was a good thing. All of the stores welcomed Rudy inside but they were 3-5 steps up from the sidewalk, so it was a little difficult. But "Aunt Bev" came along and up we went. It is a neat town that looks like little country towns back in the 20's or 30's must have looked. They don't do a lot of maintenance around here due probably to having little access to supplies and also the cost. However, the hardware store covers half a block and has just about everything. Bev bought couple pair of earrings but I decided to wait for Denny to shop with me tomorrow.

Back at the RV, Rudy passed out. He was exhausted from his day of being a celebrity.

I again did a few e-mails to the kids, and some of our friends, took Rudy for another walk and was just literally laid back. It felt so good. Denny returned about 3:30 and was very impressed with the size of the dredge. He prefers his metal detector :-)

We ate dinner in our rig and took Rudy for a walk. On the way, we stopped to talk to a couple of friends and before we knew it, our circle had about 20-30 people in it. An impromptu social hour (with all the dogs playing with each other and getting treats from everyone)that lasted until we all loaded up at 11pm to ride up to Midnight Dome. It was a nice time as these type of gatherings usually are.

We rode with Joe and Alice and Jon and Lynn. The ride up was very curvy and a little scary but when we reached the top-beautiful. We were looking down on the city (which looks much bigger from the Mt.) and saw where the Klondike merges with the Yukon rivers. We also got a glimpse of part of the Top of the World Highway. We all took our chairs to watch the sun go down, which was a few minutes before mid-night. However, it was still very much daylight even after the sun went behind the mts. It doesn't really get dark until around 1AM then comes back up in a few hrs. We laughed and said we could turn our chairs around and watch it come up. Dave and Saul were celebrating birthdays, so the staff had chocolate cupcakes and milk for everyone. Even though everyone was grumbling good-naturedly about staying up so late. I don't think anyone would have wanted to miss it.

Back at the RV, Rudy was waiting up for us and when we came in, pulled the curtains and went to bed, he passed out! Thank goodness, we were afraid he would be ready to play. We have another late morning so we can all sleep in. Good night!

JULY 19TH, WOW-WHAT A DAY

2009-07-20T11:55:00.002-05:00

Knowing how many miles we had to cover today and knowing how slow we would be traveling under normal conditions, we pulled out at 7:30. Thank goodness we didn't know what was ahead of us. After a little over an hour, we pulled into Braeburn Lodge, a place the Milepost had really bragged on their cinnamon buns. They were more the size of a cake. Pretty tasty, but a little stale. The microwave, however, brought them back to life. Everyone in the caravan had one, some bought 2. From that point on, it was down-hill. There were multiple episodes of long stretches of washboard gravel roads. We traveled very slow and moved over when we saw approaching traffic. When we got to the campground, we had rocks all over the top of our car and hood. THANK GOODNESS FOR DENNY'S INGENUITY!!! Five members of our caravan suffered broken windshields and one guy's driver's side window was shattered. All of this and we haven't even started the Top of the World yet. Our WM said that it was an example of what we have ahead of us. Did I tell you that before we left Whitehorse, about 3 guys went out and bought some vinyl floor runners to put across their windshields on their cars Denny style. He has really become admired for his forethought and ingenuity. Of course, we are still susceptible on the MH, but hopefully the car will stay protected.

I received an e-mail from Bob and Glenda Spears who are traveling up here with another couple. They made a side trip in Bob's truck on the Elliot Highway and he had 2 flat tires out in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, a kind Alaskan with a flat bed truck came by and hauled them in saying he couldn't leave them out there. Got to love those Alaskans! I believe the survival mode is so strong up here that people are just prone to help someone in need with the hope that if they need help, someone will help them. The good old Golden Rule!!!

Dave and Maddie asked us to join them in their rig for dinner. Maddie had cooked a pork roast while driving down the road. I carried a salad and some field peas and we had quite a feast. A little about Dave and Maddie: he retired from Verizon and she is a retired RN. She does have Parkinson's (early stages) and uses a scooter, but for the most part she is pretty mobile, very upbeat and funny. She loves to sew and has several sewing machines. They are from the outskirts of Boston. Denny said we seem to gravitate town people from Boston. We are enjoying their company. Dave leads and we follow. Their daughter is joining the caravan in Fairbanks for 2 weeks.

After dinner, we walked thru the town. Our campground is right in town and very convenient. Great WiFi! The town has dirt streets and is just what I thought a town up here would be like. Larger than some of the other little places we have been but considerably smaller than Whitehorse. I try to imagine what it would be like here with -40C. When we drove in, there were an awful lot of young people walking around and we found out they were having a music festival and it was the last day. A street dance was being held later. Most of the stores were closed so Monday we will explore more.

The weather is comfortable. Mid 70's and dry. They really need a rain on these gravel roads. We hope we have a shower before we hit Top of the World. Just a shower to settle the dust-we don't want mud. Mud dries like concrete here. We have only tv by antenna. I hate to say it, but they really need to work on their CBC broadcasting. Yuck!

Our satellite radio works after it has been on a while. It takes it a while to find the satellite and when it does, we leave it on. I listened to Rick and Bubba on the internet this AM. Nice to hear voices from home :-) Also read some of the B'ham News on al.com. The internet is wonderful when it works and you have access. My Verizon phone service has been much better than those with AT&T. While no one has service on these VERY remote roads, even those with Onstar, when we reach the towns, those of us with Verizon have service while those with AT& T don't. They are pretty hacked off about it. The OnStar people are really mad. Another reason to travel in Caravans. Somehow, the WM and TG always can communicate-kind of like Jack Baur :-)

We have several activities planned for the next 2 days before we cross over into Alaska and back in the good ole USA on Wednesday. We spend a month in Alaska before we cross back over into Canada. Its hard to believe we have only been on this caravan for 3 weeks. We have done so much it seems longer.

MORE WHITEHORSE, YUKON TERRITORY

2009-07-18T17:31:00.006-05:00

July 17th, A nice easy day is in store for us. The weather today and tomorrow is suppose to be near perfect--comfortable days and cool nights. We are on our own to tour the Klondike and roam around the area on our own until we meet at 8 to go to the Frantic Follies at 8. YAY! Stu and Bev had a terrible thing happen to their 5th wheeler. The tow company had the truck up on the dolly and a hitch for the 5th wheeler. However, as they drove off, Stu and Bev who where in our WM's truck, saw the 5th wheel drop. It was not attached securely to the hitch. This resulted in the jacks getting jammed up inside the fifth wheel and multiple cracks in the under-carriage. They were able to tow it on to Whitehorse and Stu, along with all the other guys in our group worked on it most of yesterday and this morning, but all is well. The jacks are fixed, his truck is back with the clutch repaired ($1900.00) and the cracks are semi-repaired enough till he gets back home to Iowa. Whew! I will say this, the mechanics in this area sure do work in a hurry to accommodate travelers. We are so glad the Blythes can continue with us. Three or four had the glass man come to repair their car and RV windshields. Everyone was bragging on Denny's cover. One guy tried to copy but didn't have near the right equipment. Here's hoping it continues to hold out.

Anyway, we left around 11 with Dave and Maddie and toured the Klondike. We ran in to Jim and Betty (TG's) and a Parc Canada employee gave us a tour after a short film on its history. It was the flagship paddle steamboat at the time and served to deliver both goods and passengers between Whitehorse and Dawson City on the Yukon. By the way, we saw the headwaters of the Yukon before entering Whitehorse yesterday. Pretty insignificant looking considering how long and mighty it becomes- but I digress. After the Klondike, we went into town which is quite a metropolis for this area. They have a population of 15,000. Quite a bit larger than the other town we have been thru that averaged around 800 to 1000. Our Parc Canada tour guide recommended the Klondike Rib and Salmon restaurant and boy was it good. We ran into several of our group there. Each couple ordered one fish and chips to split. The fish was halibut, so the order was huge. It melted in your mouth. Two got bumbleberry pie (rhubarb, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries combined) and we got the brownie. They served huge portions with ice cream and Denny was a happy man.

We were so full we drove back to the RV to do some catch up washing and maintenance, but mainly to nap. At 8 we car-pooled to the Frantic Follies, which was back in town. A very corny but funny throwback to Vaudeville with a tribute to Robert Service, who was the bard of the Yukon. Everyone enjoyed it very much. When we came out of the theatre, it was 10:30 and still broad daylight. Back at the RV, we pulled the old blackout curtains and slept soundly.

July 18th, Today is a free day. After sleeping until 7:20 in our cave like bedroom, Rudy and I reluctantly got up. I don't know when I have slept this late. Several in the group took an optional river float, but we chose to just hang out here and in town. I washed again and then we took off back to town for lunch at the same place we ate yesterday. This time I had ribs that looked like baby-backs and Denny had the halibut fish sandwich. We shared an enormous piece of bread pudding with ice cream and caramel icing. Our WM and TG's walked in and ate with us. We had a lot of fun. Pretty soon, about 6 couples in our group showed up. We all recognize a good thing when we eat it :-) We left to walk around town where I purchased a couple of books and we went in the cutest corner grocery store. It looked so small on the outside but was really well-stocked on the inside. Back at the RV-washing my last load, straightening up and finishing this blog. I need to print some pictures -I hope I stay in the mood to do so. I know I will take Rudy for a long walk in a few minutes. Denny bathed him last night and he looks so cute. When I say everyone has fallen in love with him, I am not just bragging. As soon as we walk outside with him, several come out to see him. He is really learning to be sociable. There are 4 other dogs in our group, but none as cute as Rudy. Well, I am signing off until Dawson City. We have our drivers meeting at 7. Dawson City is our last stop in the Yukon and Canada before the Top of the World Highway. That drive is very anticipated and dreaded at the same time.

JULY 18TH, DAWSON CREEK, BC TO WHITEHORSE, YUKON

2009-07-18T12:32:00.003-05:00

First chance I've had to catch up since Dawson Creek. We have landed in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory for 3 nights and it has given us all a chance to catch our breaths after 4 straight travel days. I am going to try and give a brief summary in this one blog of each day.

On July 13th, we headed out to Fort Nelson, which was a RCMP outpost. Our trip was fairly uneventful and we saw a couple of bears on the way up. Road conditions were average. Our campground had been changed from The Ft. Nelson RV and Truck Stop (it closed without notifying Adventure) to a campground on the other end of town called the West End campground. We didn't have sewer and the campground was not very well maintained and was host to a lot of mosquitos, but we were only there one night, so we managed fine. The Fort Nelson Heritage museum was next store and it was really full of antique cars, trucks, farm machinary, etc and there was a gentleman there who helped found and preserved all of the aritifacts that looked as old as they were. However, everything there still worked. I wish we could take him with us to keep us all up and running. When we first got there, Denny went into town? and did a money exchange. We need to shop a lot in Canada-good exchange rates now. Dinner was on our own and we had our drivers meeting inside a saloon/restaurant owned by the campground. Thank goodness we were out of the mosquitos.

July 14th, we left early for Laird Hot Springs. This was only 198 mile trip, but took us almost 6 hrs. We had 2 long stretches of road construction. Here they usually have a pilot car that leads one group at a time. Sometimes if you are unlucky enough to be the one left behind, you can sit there awhile. We had that pleasure one day and just decided to eat our lunch. HOWEVER, that was not the big delay. We started seeing animals like you wouldn't believe. Herds of Stone Sheep on the sides of mountains, in fields and on the roads (we had to just stop for a while for them to pass) they liked to lick the pavement for the minerals, 6 or 7 buffalo on the side of the road and we almost lost count of all the bears. We did see a couple of grizzlies and one sow with 2 cubs. I hope you realize this was all inside the car, but right in front of us. Amazing!! Rudy barked his head off but they didn't even acknowledge him. From that point on, he rode on the dash that day. He was such a good little look out!!! When we arrived at our campground, we hurriedly put on swimsuits and OFF and headed for a dip in the Hot Springs at Liard. They were great! Really hot (Denny didn't last long) but so soothing. Would have stayed longer but Maddie rode her scooter over with us and she was getting eaten alive even though she used spray. We went back to the RV and prepared to eat Fish and Chips at the lodge with some of our new friends. In just a few minutes, we looked out the window and the biggest buffalo anyone has ever seen, just walked past our window. The waitress said his name was Henry and he hangs around the lodge because his herd kicked him out because of his advanced age. The next morning when we pulled out, he was sitting by the exit like he was telling us good-bye. We had our drivers meeting inside the RV's by CB's. So glad not to have to fight the mosquitos.

July 15th, we still left early to drive to Watson Lake. This was a short day (supposedly) as we only drove 120 miles. On the way, we passed Stuart and Bev on the side of the road. He was pulling a fifth wheel and the clutch on his truck went out. This is when you are soooooo glad you are in a MH. Within 2 hrs, a tow truck had arrived to tow his truck in and one of our caravan had dropped off his fifth wheel and gone back to tow the Blythes 5th wheel into the next campground. No one had phone service but the word was passed forward with CB's and our WM had help on the way pronto.KUDOS!

At the campground, we all car pooled to the Sign Village where people from everywhere leave their signs on posts. There are over 65,000 signs. Denny made us one and we hung it over our group sign. Our group sign was the best one there. Allen and Don Spigler made one with all our individual pictures and Adventure Caravan sign. It was on some kind of thick board and laminated. We will be there for a while.

We returned for a heavy appetizer get together and played some cute games and had door prizes. Would have been a great day if not for Stu and Bev's problems. They were there with us and tomorrow they were having their truck and rv towed to Whitehorse where we are spending 3 nights

July 16th, we were ready to pull out and head for Whitehorse, everyone was ready for a few days in one spot. However, we knew that the road to Whitehorse from Dawson Creek was not necessarily where we would have wanted to tarry. Very remote with few services. We stopped at the Robert Johnson museum. He was a Tinglit Indian and one of the early pioneers in this area in the early 20th century. Saw a film with original footage from the 20's and 30's. Boy, if we thought it was remote now---they would think it was a metropolis. Very interesting the way they survived, played and really strived to continue their First Nation traditions. We traveled on some of the old Alaska Highway that has since been by-passed. We could see why :-) Arriving at the Pioneer Campground, we are delighted to have cable tv and Wifi and a lot fewer mosquitos. Today was a rest-up day and we ate in the RV. More later on the rest of our stay. This got quite lengthy. Sorry-no time to proof.

July 12th, DAWSON CREEK

2009-07-13T08:07:00.004-05:00

It was nice this morning to sleep until 6:45. This was a real treat for me as I usually rise around 5. The time changes are starting to catch up with me I guess.

We all car-pooled (we rode with the Collins) to the start of the Alaska Highway sign to have a group picture. Everyone was in a really fun mood. Allen and Dan Spigler made the picture for us and they did a great job and at our drivers meeting last night, we all got an 8x10 copy which was great of everyone. Our WM's were impressed as normally they have a 5x7 which is hard to make out with that many people. Kudos to Allen and Don (they are brothers).

Afterwards, we were free to roam around town for the antique car show. There were over 300 entries and really were fun to see. We laughed as we thought a lot of us had driven these cars or our parents had, so we guess we were also antiques.

After a stop at the Dairy Queen for a sandwich and blizzard :-), we headed back to the RV. This time we didn't get lost. However, when we got back, we remembered we needed some items from Wal-Mart, so we took off again.

Finally back at the RV, we had a couple of hours before we left for the Wild Game Farm and dinner. Denny decided to go ahead and put on the tow car cover while we had fair weather and he could take his time. Besides we wanted to know how well it would hold up in case we needed to make adjustments before we got in situations where we really needed it.

Our school bus showed up and off we went to the Game Farm. We felt like Dawson Creek was in the middle of nowhere, but we drove about 40 miles out of town, with some of it being on dirt roads. On our way, we passed miles and miles and miles of canola fields. Their blooms are bright yellow and the blooms turn into pods. The seeds from the pods are what is harvested for the canola oil . Finally arriving at the Game Farm, which is privately owned, the first sight we saw were about 6 Mountain Goats standing on this really large mound of dirt. We all left the bus to walk down this really dense wooded path (fortunately we all sprayed for mosquitos, but really didn't see any) and emerged to this clearing where there were picnic tables and what appeared to be a large wooded hut where we smelled the most delicious aromas.

Our host wife and daughter had prepared a meal of fallow deer stew, buffalo sausage, buffalo roast, and bar-be-cued wild boar, along with 4 different varieties of salads , veggies and 6 or 7 homemade desserts. Everything was delicious. My least favorite was the buffalo sausage. It was too mild. We were all surprised at how delicious everything was. The Buffalo roast was so tender and the fallow deer stew was great!

The weather became very threatening so we hurried to tour the farm. We saw wild boars, the mountain goats, reindeer, 2 bull elks and their harem along with an 8 day old baby elk. The bull elk were beautiful and very regal. They lose their gorgeous racks every March and it is amazing how fast they grow back. We were suppose to take a hayride out to see his buffalo herd which this year was 100 but has been up to 300, but we started having thunder and lightening and we all headed back to our bus. Most of us made it before the rain started . We were sorry we wouldn't have the hayride as it was a real hay wagon but at least we saw some of his wild game. He takes great care of all his animals.

When we returned we had our drivers meeting and afterwards, several came over to see Denny's car cover. He took a lot of good-natured ribbing, but everyone seemed impressed. It would look ok if he hadn't added rope across several areas because he was afraid it might blow away. Several laughed and said they would sneak out during the night and decorate it with Bruce threatening a big Orange UT. I told him that was just mean and threatened a big orange AU on his $500 Coastline cover. All this was in good humor with lots of laughing. Tomorrow is the big test. I hope it works as Denny worked very hard. If we make it without a ding or broken windshield, he will get the last and best laugh :-)

Speaking of tomorrow, we have another long day (280) miles so we are starting out around 8. Our Directv service comes and goes, so this might be the last area we receive TV :-( We are the only RV in the caravan that still receives a signal anyway and are the envy of the group. This campground did offer cable tv for a relief to many of our group.

PRINCE GEORGE TO DAWSON CREEK, BC

2009-07-11T22:58:00.004-05:00

This morning we left the campground around 8 AM. For us, this was going to be a long day-248 miles. The drive was pretty uneventful, but we saw 2 bears. One was directly in front of us walking across the street. He was huge !! His color was black, but others behind us that saw him said he was the biggest they had ever seen as well. Of course, by the time I got my camera ready, he decided to lope the rest of the way across and I missed the picture, but what a memory!! The second one was in a ditch on the side of the road eating. Denny saw him, but I missed that one. We also stopped at Bijou Falls which were very pretty but too many mosquitos to tarry very long. Actually, the first mosquitos we have encountered that we felt we needed to run.

About 60 miles outside of Dawson Creek, we stopped for lunch in the town of Chatwynd. Our WM had told us about this place. Its claim to fame are all the unbelievable chain saw carvings. Way too expensive and too large to bring home.

We passed one of our group that was in a 5 th wheeler and thought he had just pulled over in a rest area. When we arrived, we found out he had a problem in his truck fuel line and had to be towed. That made us so glad we were in a caravan. The TG took them to town (if you can call it that) found a mechanic and stayed with them until it was ready to roll again. They finally got here about 9:15 tonight. They were prepared to spend the night with them if needed. The reason it was so nice, is no one's cell phones, on-star, or any other communication worked where we were. Had they been traveling alone, they would have really been at the mercy of complete strangers in a very remote place. Sure is nice knowing someone you know will be along to help you.

We had a meeting on our arrival at the campground by a tour agency. She gave us the history of Dawson Creek. It really became prominent in 1942 when the US needed a road built for the military. Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway starts here. The town is Very small and Main Street doesn't look much different than it did many years ago. Anyone traveling the Alaska Highway, must start here.

The Collins went with us to drive around town (took maybe 10 mins.), got some KFC and tried to find our way back to the campground. Of course, in this little town, with one of those darn round-abouts, we took the wrong one 2x. We got so tickled and vowed not to tell a soul.

Well, it is 9:30 and Denny is back in from washing the car and the front of the RV. He put the bug cover he made for the RV on and had several people inquiring about it (several compliments). Wait till they see the car. The tow cover goes on tomorrow after our day in town. I have no idea what we will do in town after getting our picture made, but check back in, there may be some real surprises :-) Every day truly is an Adventure!

VALEMONT, BC TO PRINCE GEORGE, BC

2009-07-10T09:50:00.004-05:00

A post-script to last night's blog. Our cookout was so much fun. Tons of food and afterwards several played games but most of us tried to learn to square dance. Notice I said "tried". We have a professional SD caller in our group. We had so much fun we may have some more lessons. Great exercise if we could only remember our right from our left.

This morning we were able to take our time and not leave the campground until 10. We are on Pacific time now and when we get to Alaska will be on Alaska time. Prince George is fairly large and has some mechanics on duty. One of the great things about caravanning is having the help of your WM and TG when you have problems. Several of our group have had some mechanical problems and the WM has called ahead for appts. with mechanics for them. One guy blew a gasket just as he got parked at our last campground in Valemont. The mechanic here promised to work overnight on it and said the part would be in this AM and he would be ready to roll about 1 this afternoon. Talk about good timing. I am writing this in parts, with the first half started before we leave Valemont and have WiFi, so hopefully this all works out for us.

Did I tell you we have an 89 year old traveling with her daughter and son-in-law. She can walk a little and goes up and down the RV steps with help. Uses a wheelchair for other activities and is still very bright. We all just love her. She loved the icefields but didn't try to walk on them (thank goodness). We all laugh and say we have a hard time keeping up with her. I would love to think I can be that active and alert at 89! That's all the news for this morning. More later when we get to Dawson Creek as we won't have free WiFi till then.

Arrived at Prince George around 4 after stopping in the little town of McBride. It was like most of these towns--about 4 blocks square. It did have an old train terminal that had the neatest local arts and crafts and a little coffee shop. Our little mini-caravan (Carlisles, Adams and Collins) ate lunch there. Afterwards, across the street some of the Mennonite community had a small Farmer's market. Bruce walked off with 2 sacks full of baked goods. Thank goodness we had just eaten and while it looked great, we behaved. One of the few times. After that we headed straight to the campground.

I took Rudy to the dog walk the owner was so proud of and Rudy and I both were nervous wrecks. He had taken his tractor and made a track about 5'wide and it made a complete circle. The problem was it was in the woods and we didn't know how long it was. I kept thinking I surely had to be getting close to the end and was afraid if I turned back, I would have been almost at the end and not known it. Anyway, I just knew there were bears, moose, whatever. Rudy was practically running and so was I. Lesson learned--don't go down wooded paths by yourself !!!

Finally back at the campground, we had our driver's meeting. All of our people finally arrived and we were all clapping and saying "Yay" Maddie Adams, Bruce Collins and Denny and I did a quick trip to the Canadian Superstore and boy was it. I could have spent 2 hrs there. The biggest grocery dept. I have ever seen! We stocked up on some steaks, chicken and fish to grill out.

This time change and so much daylight, has my body so out of whack. We close our curtains at 10 PM. It is still fully daylight and we are not even close to Alaska yet.

I have been so tired that I haven't even pulled the extra blackout curtains yet. OH by the way, when we went to bed we had a rude awakening. There was a wet spot that went thru the blanket, sheets, foam mattress and left a wet spot about 24" in diameter. Bother! We had to get up and stip the bed and lay everything all over the floors to dry. It appears the a/c over our bed froze up and leaked somehow. I just knew Rudy had done it, but if he did an area that big, he is a mighty dog :-)

JULY 9TH, COLUMBIA ICEFIELDS TO VALEMONT, BC

2009-07-09T16:57:00.003-05:00

This morning, we had a break for a little while in the weather and had a spectacular view of the mountains surrounding the ice fields. I know I use that word a lot, but I just can't think of a better one. Today is the most scenic part of the trip we were told and it certainly has turned out to be that way. We pulled out around 8 to make our way to Valemount, BC. While it is only 129 miles away, we had some downhill grades that were nail biters and such beautiful scenery that it required a lot of oohing and aahing. I have made so many pictures. Oh by the way, I forgot to mention that on the way to the icefields we saw a huge black bear right on the side of the road. I did get his picture but he was so busy eating he didn't even look up when we slowed down. Thank goodness Rudy didn't see him or that would have been a different story. We left Alberta and entered British Columbia about half way into the trip. We are also now on Pacific Time. Had a few little delays with road construction, but not for very long.

Made it into the campground and did a load of laundry and made a peach cobbler for our cook-out tonight. First time since Calgary we have had WIFI. Also have 50 amps. We have really stayed in some nice campgrounds and I know we will have some as we travel further north that aren't quite as nice as what we have become accustom to, but that is part of the charm of this area.

Our WM's and TG's are cooking hamburgers and all the trimmings for us and we are bringing desserts. This is our fourth of July party since we were at the rodeo that day and didn't celebrate it properly. It has been raining for the last 2 hrs and I have had a chance to catch up on my blogging. The RV smells really good with the cobbler cooking. Thank goodness, our cookout is in a covered pavilion. We saw the manager putting tarps up around the sides, so we should be nice and dry. This will be a fun evening.

JULY 8TH, TRAVEL DAY TO COLUMBIA ICEFIELDS

2009-07-09T16:34:00.003-05:00

What a great day! The drive was gorgeous. I made a a lot of pictures but this was something you have to see with your own eyes. The Canadian Rockies are so spectacular. Your drive down this valley with snow-covered mountains on each side and around very curve it just beautiful. They are so big and massive, it is like you can almost reach out and touch them. There is the Bow River that is turquoise in color and has a very swift current that almost runs parallel with the road the majority of the time. Beautiful with the mountains and river. I just can't do it justice. As we entered Jasper National Park, we started a very long, steep grade. The MH did great but we were a little nervous after our problems outside of Big Timber, MT. We had a major change in weather. Drizzling rain, windy and very cold.

We all pulled into the campground at the icefields, which was a dry camp for the night. Bundled up with all the warm clothes and rain gear we could get on and headed for our tour. We hardly recognized each other. This place is very popular and their were a lot of people. They run tours every 30 minutes up to the ice fields. First we boarded a bus and drove up the mountain about 3/4 of a mile. Even though you can see the cup of the ice field from the Visitor center, that is just the beginning. We then transferred to our ice mobiles or glacier buses. They have wheels 5'tall and are made for ice travel. We descended down about a 45 degree road (I am not kidding) and onto an ice road. This icefield is about 2.5 miles wide and 3.5 miles long. The ice is 1000 to 1500' deep. There are 2 glaciers above it (Columbia and Athabasca) After a short ride, we got out and walked over it. Pretty amazing. We could only walk in a certain area that was deemed safe as there are huge crevices. Some of them are hidden by a thin layer of ice and they can be as deep as 100'. Next to the Arctic, it is the largest ice field in the world.

What I liked about it was I didn't have to take a helicopter ride to see it. The weather lightened up and there was no wind or rain but still cold. Very nice. However, when we went back down, it had started raining and the wind was really blowing. We have really been blessed with good luck on the weather. The rain hasn't been a problem on any of our excursions. In these mountains, they say this is very typical weather.

Some of our group stayed at the visitor center and had dinner, but we went back to our RV, got out of all those clothes and had a nice salad and some Brunswick stew. After watching Clear and Present Danger, we slept soundly. It got pretty cold and some of our group had to borrow blankets from others, but we were great! This lived up to my expectations and is a must see for anyone heading this direction.

JULY 7TH, DAY TRIP INTO BANFF NATIONAL PARK

2009-07-09T16:10:00.003-05:00

Our WM advised us to leave early if we wanted to see any wildlife, so at 8:00, Denny, Rudy and I headed out. We had left Rudy behind so many days we decided to take him and this was a great day to do it. We planned on touring Lake Louise and Lake Moraine in the park and then bring Rudy back to the RV before heading into Banff. It worked out great. Lake Louise is beautiful. The Fairmont hotel is right in front of it and it is just picture perfect! The water is turquoise and the mountains are huge and snow-capped. Amazingly gorgeous. Lake Moraine was pretty, but very rustic and had lots of logs floating around the front of it. We walked around each lake for a while until we decided we better not go too far. There were many people there from all over the world. Lots of dogs, which Rudy had to say hello to in his special way-if you know what I mean :-) After the lakes, we drove back to the RV and left Rudy for his afternoon nap while we drove into Banff for lunch and a walk around town.

Lunch at the Grizzly House was a huge buffalo burger. We have learned to like them. They are drier-not as much fat- so if we would leave off the mayo, they would be much healthier!! We were stuffed when we walked out. The restaurant was really old (I can't remember how old but enough that we were impressed). This is a very upscale town and has a lot of nice designer shops. Of course, I had to buy a light fleece jacket with Banff on it as a souvenir. This required going in and out of a lot of shops to find just the right jacket at just the right price. Then we drove up to see the Banff Springs Fairmont hotel. A really, really nice resort.

We arrived back at the campground around 5 and were so stuffed from lunch, we decided to forego dinner. Had our drivers meeting at 8. The Columbia icefields are tomorrow and that is a real highlight of this trip. Can't wait! Oh by the way, even though we left early, we didn't see any wildlife except Rudy.

JULY 6TH, CANMORE, ALBERTA

2009-07-09T15:44:00.003-05:00

Our leaders said we were all so good and well-behaved that they treated us to coffee and doughnuts this morning at nine for our drivers meeting. Even though we weren't leaving until noon, Denny and I still woke up early. However, we didn't function very much. We just had a 60 mile drive today. Our campground is very nice and only about 15 miles from Banff and 50 miles from Lake Louise. When we pulled in and got set up, within 20 minutes we had a huge rainstorm. That was perfectly ok with all of us as everyone was planning naps today. We were all woke up with the loudest clap of thunder and lightening. Denny said that hit something close by and sure enough it did. Fortunately for us, none of our group was hit. However, 2 very large expensive motor homes about 200' behind us were. Lightening hit a spruce tree behind their campsite, traveled thru the ground and up their tow chain into where their house batteries and inverter was. It totally destroyed their electrical systems. Major, major damage. One of the coaches was totally electric. Needless to say it was the talk of the campground with some saying they saw what they thought was a fire ball when it happened. No more chains on the ground around the RV! The storm soon passed but left those poor people in a mess.

After that rude awakening, we all went into town to dinner at Craig's Roadhouse. We had chosen our selections several days before as we usually do on these caravans. It makes it easier when there is a large group coming in. Denny and I had Salisbury steak,potatoes and gravy and veggies, topped off with Bumble berry pie. Very good. We decided to ride around town after dinner and see what all was there. Canmore is a neat little town that is filled up with condos and lots more construction going on. You couldn't tell there is a recession here. It offers, as do all these little mountain towns, skiing, snowmobiling, white water rafting, horseback riding, hiking, etc. Very quaint and touristy.

Back at the RV, we had an early night as we have a free day tomorrow to explore the area.

JULY 5TH, MORE CALGARY STAMPEDE AND RODEO

2009-07-09T14:57:00.002-05:00

I am going to break up the next few days so my e-mails won't be so long. We have seen and done so much but I didn't have WiFi to do the blog, so I have a lot to catch up on.

This morning we were so glad for a late start even though the day didn't end till 1 AM! I took Rudy for a long walk , got the RV straightened up a little and did some laundry. We boarded the bus around 10 to go into the stampede. Skies were threatening but we kept our fingers crossed and prayed. The campground has dog sitters and Rudy has been well taken care of while we are gone. He gets long walks and they bring him treats. The manager's son and daughter come around and meet each dog before they start taking care of them. There are 3 Adventure caravans, one Good Sam and 2 Canadians caravans in here, so they have quite a large group to walk. Their mother said the money is going into their college funds.

Denny and I, along with a few other couples decided to spend the few hrs before the rodeo touring the Native Indian Village. It was quite large with about 25 or so tipi's. They were each decorated as the owner saw fit and were very creative. Lots of demonstrations on baking, cooking, weaving and beading. So resourceful. After that we went to lunch and the rodeo. We had so much fun at the rodeo. Since we were there the day before and knew what the judges were looking for and also recognized some of the cowboys, it was a lot of fun. After the rodeo, we had another couple of hours to kill so we ambled off to some of the exhibits. Several of the men, including Denny, wanted to watch the tractor pull---BORING!!! It was like watching paint dry. We did watch the cowboys do cattle penning and that was neat. There were several groups of 3 cowboys or girls and a herd of 30 cattle. The cows were numbered in groups of 3, 1 thru 10. Then when the flag was dropped, one group of cowboys would go after which ever number the announcer called out and they would try and round up all 3 cows with that number and herd them into a pen within 5 minutes. It was fun and exciting. After that, we just went back to join our group for the evening's festivities.

Our dinner that night in the Clubhouse was a buffet of Prime Rib, baked chicken, pork chops, salmon and meatballs with a huge vegetable, salad and dessert bar. We all ate till we were sick. No time to sit back however, as we were off to the chuck wagon races. Talk about fast paced and exciting. There were 9 heats with 4 wagons in each heat. Besides the wagon and driver, each had 4 outriders. When the whistle blew, the outriders had to throw a barrel into the back of the wagon, mount their horses and make sure they came in at least 150' behind their particular wagon . The track was about 1 1/4 miles long. After that, we saw the most amazing grandstand act EVER!!! It was bigger and better than any act we have ever seen in Las Vegas. Over 195 Canadians plus several big named Canadian stars. We didn't recognize them, but the crowd did and they were good. There were magicians, tumblers, high wire acts (I didn't watch), motor cyclers jumping and flipping over ramps and singers and dancers. One act was 2 large wheels rotating over and over and this nut inside walking on top , skipping rope and doing a lot of other tricks I couldn't watch. The finale with the fireworks was spectacular. They were all in red and white (Canada's colors) and went on and on and on. They had every type imaginable and were stretched out the length of the track. Spectacular. When it was over, no one realized it was midnight. We were all so afraid we would be tired but were so pumped after that show we forgot how late it was.

By the time we got back to the bus and the RV park, it was 12:45. Within 5 mins of getting back, the rain started. Perfect sleeping weather and our WM said we didn't have to leave until noon. Yay! Calgary has been great and our campground was so nice. We will probably stay here again on our way home.

CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA

2009-07-04T21:53:00.002-05:00

HAPPY 4^TH OF JULY!

We were a little quieter on our ride into Calgary this morning. This was our 2^nd early morning and while we were anticipating a fun day, most of us were not use to functioning this early (7:30 am) two mornings in a row. However, as we approached the town, we became more energetic and excited to start our day.

Our first stop was the Calgary Tower. It rose high in the sky in what appeared mid-town. Swallowing my fear, we rode the elevator up to the viewing tower along with everyone else. The elevator took us 525 ft. in the air and gave a fantastic panoramic view of Calgary. It also had a glass platform that extended out above the street. Only the brave at heart walked out and looked down at the street below there feet. Not me!!

A pancake and bacon breakfast was anticipated by many, especially those who had no breakfast, so off we went. After a short walk, we came upon several different areas where mini-kitchens were set up to serve hot pancakes and bacon. As soon as one was eaten, most of us returned to the back of the line and had another and another and another. Pretty tasty and we were hungry!

The town had a street fair atmosphere, with lots of vendors and a fiddling family entertaining at one end of the street and square dancing at the other end. Very festive!

We were also able to tour the Glenbow Museum and many took advantage of the opportunity. Inside, there was one floor with beautiful art work, which were separated into 3 large areas: Historical, Asian and Vistas. Impressive and the only disappointment were there were no prints of some of the paintings to purchase. On the third floor, was a really neat display of First Nation Heritage. A great deal of information on the way they built and lived in their tipi’s, their clothing, food, daily activities and some of the most beautiful bead work. Very innovative and practical applications were applied to the basic fundamentals of daily living.

After the museum, we boarded our bus for a short ride to Calgary Stampede Park and the rodeo. It reminded us of the way our State Fair use to be when we were much, much younger. The mid-way was full of rides, games and some neat eating areas. Lunch was on our own, and I enjoyed a Cowboy Beef Sundae, which sounded intriguing. It was a cup of creamed potatoes, barbecue beef topped with cheddar cheese and a cherry tomato. Pretty good and different from anything I have had for a while. Denny enjoyed a sausage sandwich with peppers and onions. It was time to make our way to the grandstand and the rodeo!

We had great seats and really enjoyed the different rodeo events: bucking broncos, calf roping, steer wrestling, barrel racing and the cutest of all, little children doing the wild pony rides. It gave us an orientation for tomorrow’s events.

After the rodeo, we had some time before we were to meet back at the bus and we all scattered in different directions. Because the clouds looked very threatening and the wind was blowing pretty hard, we elected to head back to the bus. Fortunately, we made it back before we had a short shower. Soon everyone returned and we made our way back to the campground with several people observed napping J

Back at the campground, everyone went his or her separate ways. We had our first really strong thunderstorm with heavy rain and lightening. It was a good time to rest and get ready for a really full day tomorrow.

A day that was fun, exhausting, interesting and informative. In other words-- quite an Adventure!

HILLSPRINGS, ALBERTA TO CALGARY, ALBERTA

2009-07-03T22:03:00.003-05:00

So much to catch up on. So far this trip has greatly exceeded our expectations. We have such a fun group and our leaders are so much fun and really work at making sure everything goes well.

The night before we left Great Falls was a little bit of a downer, but things always work out for the best. Denny worked until 10:30 Monday night on our plumbing and finally got it where it was not going to be a big problem. We were afraid for a long time we might have to stay behind and have it serviced in Great Falls. It wasn't a major problem, but had the potential to become one. At any rate, it was semi-fixed and so far so good.

We were all asked to break up into mini-caravans going down the road so we wouldn't back up traffic. With 22 rigs, 80% of them 40' or more, we stretched out quite a distance on the highways. We were asked by Bruce Collins and Dave Adams to join them and so off we went on Tuesday morning around 8:30 to finally cross the border into Canada.

The landscape from Great Falls, really even up to just outside Calgary, was indeed, wide open spaces for as far as you could see. However, I digress. Let me first take you thru our border crossing. Of course, we had more alcohol than we were allowed and resigned ourselves to the fact we would have to declare it, but decided to adopt a "don't ask, don't tell policy". When we finally reached the border, we were ready with all our passports , etc. However, he only asked for our MH tag # and never even looked at our passports. Then he proceeded to ask us how long before we crossed into Alaska. Denny said "Well, we are on a 60 day Canada/Alaska caravan" At which point, he very hatefully said "Sir if you tell me that, you will have to come inside." I panicked and quickly got out our itinerary and said "3 weeks".Then he said "any alcohol or tobacco?Dad said "2 bottles of Absolut-one opened and one closed". He said "any firearms or tobacco?" and we said "No" and he said "have a good day." With that, I started to go get into that bottle of Absolut. When we reached the info center, several people said he was really hateful to them as well. I guess he heard our accents and thought we were a bunch of country bumpkins. Anyway we were in Canada and after stopping in the little town of Milk River and exchanging some money, we were off.

We went thru some sure enough country roads. When we arrived at our campground, which was very nice, I told our Wagon master I had always wanted to know where the middle of nowhere was and we had surely found it. That night we grilled steaks out and had a really quiet, restful night. The campground had nice level grassy sites around a pond and the weather was cool and pleasant, with snow-capped mts. in the background. Just perfect!

Wednesday was a really busy day-we all boarded a bus for a city tour. We couldn't imagine where it was as we had only passed miles and miles and miles of farm land. However, our first stop was to the Remington Carriage Museum in Cardston(I think). Don Remmington had started a carriage collection and there are now over 250 carriages in there of every size and type imaginable. It proved to be really interesting and provided us with a great history lesson.

From there we drove thru the town of Ft. McLeod, which we would return to the next day on our way to Head Smashed Buffalo Jump. VERY interesting. The Blackfoot Indian nation maintains this site and it is very well done. We had a lunch of buffalo burgers, which were very good and you wouldn't know it was buffalo meat if someone hadn't told you. Then our tour started with a demonstration of different Indian dances and costumes. From there we toured the facility and learned the history of the way Indians use to kill buffalo before bows and arrows and guns. This was a very primitive but effective way. They would cause a stampede and force them over a cliff-killing at least 300 at a time. It really wasn't over-kill because at that time the nation consisted of several tribes number 8-10,000 Indians. Too much to explain here but we enjoyed and hearing about it. Back at the campground, our campground hosts had a huge buffet of Alberta Beef roast, roasted chicken and all the sides set up for us. They also provided some musical entertainment during dinner. It is a family affair and was lots of fun. They do this in an old barn which is over 100 years old. After we ate, we went upstairs and they had a dance. We learned the Electric slide (again) and the Foxey. Had a great time but were absolutely exhausted by the time we got back to our RV's.

Thursday morning, we pulled out and headed toward Calgary after a couple of hours spent in the town of Ft. McLeod. This was one of the first outposts were the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were trained and/or sent. After the tour, we saw a musical dance presentation by the horses, ate lunch in our RV's and headed out for Calgary. This time we traveled by convoy as the road was 4 lanes the majority of the way.

When we got to our campground where we ever surprised. It is only 4 years old and is super nice with paved roads, shrubs around each site and of course for Rudy, a really , really long dog walk along the Bow River. So pleasant.

We had our usual group social hour,then those with dogs, made arrangements for dog sitters for Friday and settled in for the night.

Friday started off early-boarded the bus at 7:30 to head into Calgary for the Stampede Parade. Calgary is a huge city. It is about the size of Atlanta and spreads way out. Very clean. We had assigned bleacher seats to watch the parade. It was one of the best parades I have ever seen. Over 750 horses, lots of floats, cowboys, dancers (even some belly dancers), religious groups, and just over all fun! It lasted 2.5 hours. The crowd was huge. This is a major deal for Canada and every province was represented in the parade and in attendance. After the parade, we boarded our bus and headed out to the Olympic Park Village where we had a nice lunch and toured the facilities. They had the Olympics here in 1988 and have really made good use of the park since that time. They still train athletes here for future Olympics and have what they call an Ice House, where they have an indoor luge and bobsled tracks. They keep it around -2 or 3 degrees celsius. After that we drove up to the 90 meter ski jump. What a view! Denny and a majority of the others went up the elevator and were able to walk outside. I sent the camera. From there, we went back down from the mountain and a lot of us ladies went into the gift shop and bought cowgirl hats for the rodeo the next couple of days. We had fun shopping. Back at the campground, we all gathered and discussed the day and are looking forward to boarding the bus at 7:30 again in the morning. As I write this, it is 9:50 MT and it is still daylight outside. We haven't even gotten that far north yet. I know we are going to be glad we have the blackout curtains,

Oh by the way-Rudy is adorable. He loves this. When we take him outside, we have to drag him in. He acts like an outside dog. He makes friends with every dog here and there are a ton of them. Also, everyone on the caravan makes his picture and gives him treats. He sits on the dash and barks at everybody that goes by. We are really enjoying having him and are so lucky that our Wagon master makes arrangements for someone to walk him while we are gone everyday. We think about home and family and miss everyone, but feel so blessed to have this opportunity. I must go to bed and get rested for another day of fun and laughter and good times with all our new friends. Sorry to be so long. Please excuse grammar and spelling--too tired to proof.

GREAT FALLS PART 2

2009-06-29T21:26:00.002-05:00

Our first sight of the mountains in Montana Our rig with our #7 decal-Lucky 7!

Our leaders prepare for our Get Acquainted party (the official one).

Bear with me on these photos--I'm just learning :-)

Sunday morning we went to a local Southern Baptist Church. It was very small, but the people were very nice and welcoming. We sang patriotic music and had a great sermon. After church, we went to On the Boarder Mexican restaurant and then to Home Depot to get a piece of cedar to carve our names to leave at Milepost 0. It is traditional to leave a sign there. Even though it is several days off, we got the materials to work on it and have it ready. We also went over to Michael's to get a wood-burner tool. Quite a project! Back at the RV, Denny worked on our sign and I worked on trying to get the laundry done. I believe the washing machine is finally working. Around 5 we all started assembling again for another social hour. We look forward to these everyday. Afterwards, we came back to the RV and had quite a surprise. Bob and Glenda Spears were here with their brother and family. They are also on their way to Alaska. Bob and Glenda are some of our Auburn friends and we had a great time comparing the trip to Great Falls. They also had some situations similar to ours. While we were meeting and greeting them, Rudy escaped and we spent 15 mins. trying to catch him. It was our fault because we were so excited to see the Spears, we left the door open too long and so off he went. He was filthy and had to have a bath at 10PM. His 3rd in 6 days. He is such a rascal!!

Today, Monday, is our first official day and it has been really busy. We started the morning off with coffee and sweet rolls. Afterwards, we came back and rode to Wal-Mart's to get some last minute food items and I needed to refill my sleeping pills. Back at the RV, I put away the groceries, ironed some clothes and cleaned the RV. We went back for our "get acquainted" party where we had some instructions on driving, parking, crossing the border, etc. Everyone introduced themselves and we have quite an impressive group--2 Drs (cardiologist and family practitioner), numerous engineers, several teachers, an airline pilot and flight attendant and 3 or 4 mega farmers (2000-4000 acres). After a brief recess around 5, we returned for our first of many driver's meeting. These are held each day before we leave a campground. Our WM gives us instructions and updates to our travel logs. We are also going to be doing a journal. Each day someone will write up the day's events depending on your rig #. Which means as long as this trip is, we will probably be doing more than one day. We have 22 total rigs. We left after our meeting to pick up my prescription at Walgreen's and returned home to do last minute preparations for our departure. Unfortunately, Denny found a leak in our shower. Fortunately, it is leaking to the outside, but will have to wait till Calgary to try and repair. I wonder what that will cost? I think our rig is getting a little tired of all these long trips :-)

In the morning, we pull out around 8:30 MT and should cross the border around 11. Keeping our fingers crossed for an uneventful crossing.

Finally the time has arrived.

MORE FROM GREAT FALLS

2009-06-28T07:17:00.002-05:00

Our last 2 days have been busy. Denny washed the rv and I cleaned the inside. Our wagon master (Phil and Sue Schaaf) and tail gunner (Jim and Betty Lenneman) came over and introduced themselves and pretty soon were busy putting decals on the front and back of the rv and the car. They are so personable and cracked a lot of jokes. Also, our car had a squeak in it where the tow bar attaches and they helped him tighten some bolts up. They made a suggestion to put some wire behind the vent opening for the radiator to keep rocks from flying in and knocking a hole in the radiator. So that PM, off we went to Home Depot. A place Denny was hoping not to see for a while. We took Rudy and of course everyone had to stop and pet him.

Friday PM we had an impromptu social for those who had already arrived. This is going to be a GREAT BUNCH! Lots of laughter and stories. Just about everyone had some kind of incident on the way up. There are only about 3 0r 4 of us who have not made a trip with Adventure before. The average is around 3 with 2 couples having 5 and 10 adventures. Speaks well.

Yesterday, Sue and Betty came and gave us all our info and a brief orientation. I must say we were impressed with the first class way everything was organized. They started by giving us lightweight windbreaker jackets with Adventure on them and then a really nice Adventure backpack which will really come in handy. We also received our name tags (including Rudy), our trip logs (which detail the routes we will be taking each day along with good places to stop and rest, buy gas or eat lunch. Behind each day is a blank sheet of paper for notes or a journal. Nice touch. They also gave us the bible for this trip-THE MILEPOST! This is a tool that everyone who goes to Alaska knows is a must have for details on what to expect at every mile. It even starts in Great Falls. We filled out our medical and personal info as well. Very good meeting.

After that meeting, Denny and I ran to Wal-Mart for a few groceries, came back and he put some more antifreeze in the radiator and installed his wire mesh, while I put away the groceries and started washing clothes.

Jim, our TG(tail gunner) stopped by again and did another inspection of the RV. The most complete inspection we have had on any previous caravans I must say. This group is very professional, but a LOT of fun. They are very upbeat. It is going to be a fun trip.

My washing machine is acting up like it did last year at the start of the Maritime trip. I think in the morning we will flip a breaker and try and reset it. That worked last time.

Another impromptu social this PM and had a chance to meet new people who came in today. Interesting group.

Sunday morning, Denny and I are going to Church. We found a Southern Baptist church not too far from the campground. It may be our last chance for a while depending on where we are.

GREAT FALLS, MT.

2009-06-25T16:57:00.002-05:00

The past week has been fun and an adventure itself.

Had a great time with the Haynies in St. Louis, but boy was it hot. Nice place to park the rv and the casino was awesome. I also left there with extra money in my pocket. That was nice for a change. It rained really hard during the night and we left around 7:30 on our way to Council Bluffs, Iowa via Kansas City. Uneventful trip. Landscape was rolling but nothing bad.

Stayed in the parking lot at Ameristar casino. Had dinner in the casino and played for a few minutes. I won $90 and was so excited but later thought I lost my ticket. However, my sweet husband found it in my secret compartment I had forgotten about. Still up in the money dept. Those penny machines have really been fun. Off early to head to Rapid City, SD. A long, long day --over 500 miles.

Our trip to Rapid City, while long and tiring, was really nice. Drizzling rain on leaving Council Bluffs, but turned really pretty by the time we hit Sioux Falls and turned west.

The plains are incredible. I wasn't bored at all. You can see forever . There was a lot of familiar sightings that we remembered from our trip in 1985. Saw Wall's drugstore signs all the way across the state. We didn't pull in there as we had seen it before and had a lot of miles to cover. Our campground is the Lazy J in Rapid City. Very friendly host and nice site. We found it to be very conveniently located as well.

After arriving and setting up, we met out neighbors, Bob and Audrey from California. We really enjoyed meeting them and having happy hour every afternoon. They had lots of stories. We thought they were a lot older than us, but found out they are about our age. Audrey plays tennis regularly and in tournaments. Bob is a retired logger and tax assessor in a little northern California town of Red Bluff. We had chicken casserole for dinner and hit the sack. So tired. Will spend 2 full days in Rapid City.

Our first day, we did Mt. Rushmore. Even though we had seen it before, it was still impressive. They did renovations in 1989 on the visitor center, gift shop and information center. It really was impressive. After that we took the wildlife loop in Custer State Park. It was beautiful. Lots of one lane, low tunnels and winding roads at first and then just rolling meadows everywhere. We were so lucky to see buffalo, pronghorns, prairie dogs and burros. The burros were so cute. They stood in the middle of the road and people were feeding them bread and pancakes. We saw one car where the burros were sticking their head thru the windows on both sides. We ate a buffet lunch at the Game lodge and had buffalo stew. VERY GOOD!

After leaving the park, we drove over to the Crazy Horse Monument, which is owned by a private family that has taken on finishing carving Crazy Horse on his horse into the side of a mountain--similar to Mt. Rushmore, that their father had started in 1948. They are still working on it. This sculptor is MUCH larger than Mt. Rushmore. You can put all four presidents heads into Crazy Horse's head. They also had one of the largest Indian museums in the US. Very nice. Then back to the RV camp, where we grilled out and had a restful evening.

The next morning, we were off to visit the town of Deadwood. This was an old mining camp where Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed. It is an old town, but other than the saloon where he was shot and the cemetery where he and Calamity Jane are buried, there is nothing there but casinos and gift shops. The casinos were all just storefront types and we didn't linger in any of them. We did have a really good lunch at the Gold Rush casino. I bought a book about Pioneer women and a souvenir. Back to the RV for a nice afternoon.

At the RV park, a couple of RV's parked in front of us that we had been passing back and forth and stopping with at the same rest areas. One had a Shelby County tag on it. Last year, in North Sydney, NS, we met a couple from Pelham who had signed up for this trip and so I decided to just embarass myself and ask them if they were headed to Alaska. I couldn't believe it when they said yes. We found out that Dan and Janice Spigler from Pelham and Allen and Norma Spigler (they are brothers) from Cape Giradeau, MO were the ones we had met in Nova Scotia. Can you believe all those miles, campgrounds, etc. and we ended up in the same one in Rapid City. They were also leaving out the next day, but were going to Deadwood on the way to Montana.

The next morning, we pulled out. Denny spoke to Allen and found out after Deadwood, he and Dan were taking different routes towards Billings. Allen was taking the route 212 that we took, while Dan was staying on the I90. More rolling plains all the way and we went thru the Little Bighorn Battlefield. Passing thru the Cheyenne and Crow reservations, we saw about 50 Indians on horseback. They had 2 flags representing their tribes and the US flag. Pick-up trucks and lots of Indian spectators were on the road watching them. We don't know what the occasion was. As luck would have it, we were watching The Battle of Little Bighorn-the Untold Story on the history channel. Found out the battle was fought on June 25th, about 133 years ago. What a coincidence. Got gas in Billings, but decided to go on to Big Timber for the night as it was early. Half way there, we started seeing the Rockies off in the distance with snow on the mountain tops.

We arrived at Big Timber and sat outside our RV and just relaxed. Had no Sat. tv because of the huge trees and really bad cable. It didn't matter, we were tired and excited about what the next day would bring.

Left around 9:30 headed to Great Falls on a back road . About 50 miles up the road, out engine ran hot. Not a good place as there was no where to pull over. We were forced to stop in the middle of the road. Fortunately, traffic was very sparse and we were still in the plains, so we were able to see from a distance. Denny put some water in the radiator and we took off again. We saw a herd of buffalo. Fortunately, they were on the other side of a fence :-) Made it to Lazy J in Great Falls to fill our tank for the start of our trip on Tuesday. Then, when we got ready to leave Lazy J, the ignition switch was loose and we like to have never got the motor started. But it did and we made it to the RV park and our rendezvous site.

The majority of our group is already here. Our friends from Al. haven't made it yet. We met the couple next to us and I have already forgotten their names. Thank goodness we will all have on name tags.

Just finished cleaning the inside of the RV and Denny is tightening the ignition switch. He seems to have fixed it. WHEW!

Pray that we have no more troubles with the car or RV. It can sure take the fun out of a day. We have been fortunate that so far, nothing too serious has happened, although the engine running hot was a scare. Denny had checked the water level in SD, but we have really been climbing and it has been unbelievably hot!

I haven't worked on my pictures yet, but that is on my agenda before we leave.

I hope this made sense-trying to go back and catch up is hard.

OFF WE GO

2009-06-17T22:01:00.002-05:00

Finally, the day arrived. After much preparation and lots of last minute snafus, we pulled out of our driveway around 1:10 this PM. We are spending the night at Hollywood casino RV park tonight and tomorrow night. In the morning, they have a breakfast buffet for $.55. Not too bad. I hope I can sleep past 4:30.

Friday we leave for St. Louis and will meeting Frank and Jan at Harrah's Casino. They have rooms--we'll be in the parking lot. We will be very happy in the parking lot in our room on wheels. They are staying until Sunday, but we are heading to Omaha early Saturday morning, so it will just be for a few hrs. Friday night, but it will still be fun.

Pretty tired tonight. Lots of emotions on leaving home for so long. Denny came over and made a picture of us departing and Debbie also called to say good-bye. I called and talked to Kalie, my caller ID said Sharon called, but I guess we were out of range. I am already missing everybody. I feel like when we leave here Friday morning, we will be rested from getting ready for the trip and will really be ready to start our adventure. We are so blessed!!

OH NO!!

2009-06-12T14:59:00.003-05:00

Can't believe it. We can't get in the MH. We have the keys and can hear them clicking but the door won't budge. We have been going in and out all day-sure glad it didn't happen on our trip. Bummer. The RV service dept. said they take out the vent and lower a real skinny person down. That sure lets me and Denny out. Dennis is working on that now and then we will go looking for a skinny kid. Ours are all at the beach-wouldn't you just know it.

I finally got a picture of the tow cover Denny made. I think he did a great job.

He made it out of outdoor carpet with the backing facing the outside. Used some heavy duty velcro to keep the windshield separate so he can take it off and leave the hood cover on.

I guess I better go give moral support. I feel so bad for Denny but he is so industrious I am sure he will work this out. It is just sooo hot outside.

ONE WEEK TO GO

2009-06-11T05:34:00.003-05:00

We are in high gear! Dennis has finished his tow covers and made a bra for the front of the RV. I have all the blackout curtains for the Bedroom, sky light and vent openings made and hung and have finished all my cooking and freezing, so now its time to really start packing.

We spent a few hours yesterday unpacking all of our Auburn football gear and moving it into the house. Of course, I had to keep a few items out as we will be coming home via the first football game at Auburn on labor day week-end.

Today we will be wide open. I need to go thru my cabinets and take out some old food items and do some rearranging before I start repacking. Since we don't usually make but one extended trip a year and spend most of our RV time on week-end football excursions, I have had to make room for laptop and printer, camcorder, digital camera and printer and all the accessories they need. I like to keep a journal and blog:-) as well as print out my pictures in the evenings after all the events of the day.

Speaking of which, my old trusty camera that I literally wore out last year on the Maritime trip, finally played out during our Memorial Day beach trip. The focus became very unreliable and for some reason, it only centered every other picture. Of course, when you take it in for repair, they always tell you its cheaper to buy another one. So I did. Now I have a major learning curve ahead of me. I hope to add pictures to this blog as I go (if I can figure out how to do it).

Today and tomorrow will be rearranging, caring out as many clothes as possible and taking inventory. This week-end will include shopping for pantry items and packing some non-perishable items. Sunday will be church and family. Monday will be clean up the house, RV and car. Tuesday is a trip to the dentist for my permanent crown and shopping for and packing perishable items from the store and our house. Also, Tuesday evening, we are having an early Father's day dinner with our children at Denny's favorite little sea food restaurant (my kitchen is CLOSED :-)!! Wednesday, Rudy and I head out for our grooming appts. and as soon as we get home-OFF WE GO!

Lots To Do

2009-05-29T14:21:00.000-05:00

Well, the last few weeks have been pretty busy. Did some Alaska prep work, but spent most of the time doing work around the house and lying on the beach in Florida over Memorial Day. I did make 4 chicken casseroles and 4 meat loaves before leaving so I did a little.

One of our granddaughters (Kalie) came back with us to spend a few days. I am not sure how much fun she is having, since Dennis and I have spent the last few days going to the Dentist (crown for me :-( , Eye Dr. and Internist.

This is the first trip we have made since we started Medicare. We asked our Dr. to write prescriptions for 3 mos. to get us back home. Last year before our Maritime trip, we found out that Canada, won't let you get scripts re-filled without going to a Canadian Dr.. That sounds like a bummer. We had no problems last year on private insurance, but were told by our pharmacist that BC Advantage said we had to fax them a letter saying we were going to Canada. Crazy.

So many things to think about----new tires for the tow car, MH serviced, stocking up on toilet tissue, chemicals, fuses and light bulbs. Also, my camera quit on me in Florida; so I had to order a new camera for all the pictures no one looks at. I went to Office Max and bought several ink cartridges, photo paper, etc. for the computer printer and photo printer and got some new blue jeans :-)!!!!! Well, I guess I have done more than I realized.

We pull out in 3 weeks, so I guess I better quit shopping and go back to cooking and freezing as well as cleaning. Need to get the house ready to be vacant for 3 months and make arrangements for mail and bills. Oh yeah- I got to finish those black-out curtains as well.

We received a phone call while we were in Florida that our Wagon master had to cancel because of severe family medical problems. So sad! Our new Wagon master called and e-mailed us, so we are good to go. They sound like a lot of fun and have made this trip 4 or 5 times. We will be in good hands.

Next week more housework (why is cleaning the MH, so much more fun than cleaning my house?). Then it will be crunch time. Can't wait!!!

Making progress

2009-05-07T06:39:00.000-05:00

Preparations are finally under way. Denny started the tow cover yesterday and I must say it looks pretty good. He is making it out of outdoor carpet with the carpet side next to the car. Has made slits in it and glued them down with some industrial glue he has been testing. The fit is perfect. He also made it in 2 pieces-one to go over the windshield and sunroof and the other to cover the hood. He plans on putting heavy duty clear vinyl over the headlights. Right now he is working on a way too secure it to the car. He is so industrious I know he will find a way.

I made spaghetti sauce and froze 6 qts. of it in individual bags. I just think it is so much nicer after a fun day to come back to the RV with dinner at least half done. A lot of our meals are included in the caravan and that makes it really nice. Gives us a chance to taste the local cuisine. I plan on making some casseroles and meat loaves and some chili and soups also.

I did get my blackout curtains cut out. I don't know for sure when I will get back to them. Have some business and house duties to do for the next few days. We are going to Panama City Beach in 2 weeks for 5-6 days, but will be staying in a condo. It is a traditional trip with our extended families and will be lots of fun.

Will try and post a picture of our tow cover when it is finished. It may be a while.

Yay! I did it

2009-05-04T17:04:00.001-05:00

It appears I am off and running, so I decided I would give you a little info about us. My husband Denny and I have been RVing sinc 1985. We have a little companion named Rudy who is a Havanese. This trip to Alaska will be his first big trip and I can tell he is going to love it. Denny hasn't retired completely so we only do one or two big trips a year. We travel in a 40' Holiday Rambler Scepter and our toad is a Honda Odyssey minivan.

We have made 2 caravan trips with Fantasy RV tours to Copper Canyon, Mexico 2 years ago and also to the Maritime and Newfoundland with an overnight in Labrador last summer. We enjoyed them both so much, we have signed up with Adventure for a 60 day caravan to Alaska this summer. Adventure includes the Calgary stampede.

I know there are a lot of bloggers who travel without caravans, so I thought you might enjoy hearing how our adventures progress with a caravan.

I'm not sure how often I will have WiFi on the way up thru Alberta, BC and the Yukon or even Alaska, but I will post as often as possible.

I think preparations are a lot of fun, so bear with me and I will keep you posted as to how that progresses. So far this blog is the only thing I have done and since we haven't used our RV that much, there is LOTS to do.

Patsy

Getting ready for Alaska trip

2009-05-04T14:20:00.000-05:00

May 4th, 2009

Well, this is going to be interesting. I am trying to be a blogger. Since we are not leaving for our Alaska adventure until June 18th, maybe I can figure out how to do this by then.
It seems like the time will never get here. But since we have so much to do, that is probably a good thing. Denny keeps wanting to work on our toad cover but can't seem to catch a break from household duties. Big problems with sewer and now our sat. tv is out of line due to recent storms, so at some point we have to deal with that :-(
I am suppose to be making black-out curtains for our MH bedroom, but have more fun playing with the computer.
Well, I am going to try and get back to the curtains--I sure will be glad I have them when that midnight sun tries to peep thru our curtains.