Heading Home

Tuesday, Oct 4^th

We left this morning to head south. The colors were just as beautiful as ever all the way over Dallas Divide and into the San Miguel Valley by Telluride. Then we headed south over Lizard Head Pass into Delores and then Cortez. We drove south from Cortez…a different route for us. We made great time and drove straight through to Phoenix. We made it just in the nick of time. Just east of us on Wolf Creek Pass they got 2 feet of snow Wednesday. It’s always a crap shoot this time of year timing the drive over the high passes. Not bad in a car or truck but snow and ice are no fun in the motor coach. Link for pictures More fall colors

Wednesday, Oct 5^th through Monday Oct, 10th

We had a great time visiting the kids and catching up with friends. Little Jack has grown up so much in just a few months! He will be 1 year old on Nov. 3^rd. I can’t believe it. The heat broke just as we got to Phoenix and we enjoyed the weather. But soon the heat was back and we decided we’d rather be hot down in Mexico. So we did some last minute stocking up on supplies and headed south.

Tuesday, Oct. 11^th

We got into San Carlos about 8 pm and yes; it was a long drive. When crossing the border into Mexico after being gone awhile you hope the rules have remained unchanged. They seem to change them at will and one never knows what’s up. Plus it seems that the officials all have a different way of interpreting the rules. This time was no exception. At the first check point they wanted to see proof of registration for both vehicles and our passports. Not a problem -- until I could not find the registration on the jeep. In what was a minor stroke of genius I gave them our state insurance card which looks like the registration. Apparently they can’t read English any better than I read Spanish cause it worked and we were allowed to proceed. At the next check point approximately 20 klicks down the road they wanted importation papers on the Jeep. Apparently there’s a problem with people towing vehicles into Mexico, selling them and not paying any taxes or they might be stolen. But the rule is that you don’t need importation documents until you travel south of San Carlos. But I think they are trying to get around this by having you get a permit on your towed vehicle. So the government has decided to charge an importation fee or duty to get their share. This was a new one on us and the scene was kinda comical. The official telling us over and over that we needed permiso which I guess was the extent of his English. Then envision us trying to explain in our best “spanglish” that we had a valid registration which I found (thank goodness) and had been allowed to proceed at the first check point. No, no, no senora permiso, permiso and back and forth we went. After about ten minutes of “argumentative” discussion the guys finally gave up and let us pass. We found out later that they really are requiring a for towed vehicles costing up to $400.00 U.S. Needless to say we’ve no doubt the Lord was looking out for us.

There is a lot of road construction between the border and Hermosillo and onto San Carlos with lots of  detours which really slowed us down. But those of you who know San Carlos will appreciate this…. the boulevard is newly paved all the way from the exit off the main highway through town….incredible! Now if they’ll just pave the road out to the Ranchitos.

We moved into the apartment and had 1 day to get settled before we were diving. Wow, it was great to be home! We will send out some underwater pictures later but wanted to get this out to everyone before too much more time passed. We have been very busy getting our visas renewed (Jim is getting his work visa), getting settled and catching up with friends. Almost everyone is back in town as of this posting and it has been fun. The weather is awesome and the diving has been great. Not to mention our Orca and dolphin encounter. Hope you all enjoyed the videos. What an amazing experience! If you missed the email here are the links to You Tube:

Here is the 1^st link http://youtu.be/xqc9KOBBs4g

Here is the 2^nd video http://youtu.be/8kegA3R81sQ

 Pictures of San Carlos

So this is the end of the road for now. We  plan to spend the winter season here diving and working on Abigail (she’s our sailboat) so we’ll be busy! We hope you’ve enjoyed our travels as much as we enjoyed sharing them with you. Thanks to everyone who shared their hospitality and know that our hatch is always open. Until next time in the words of our favorite pirate and songwriter, Jimmy B., “some never find it, some only pretend, I just want to live my life happily ever after, now and then.” Vaya con Dios…. Jim and Becky   

Part 6: Back in Colorado

Saturday Sept. 10^th

We drove home a totally different way. We drove south on I-25 to Casper and then took Hwy 220 over Muddy Gap Pass to Rawlins. Then we picked up Hwy 130 to Saratoga Springs. This little town has a hot springs and Shively Field …. There are more private jets there then anywhere I’ve ever seen. It’s unreal. It must be all the gas and oil production going on in the area. There are some amazing ranches in that area, too. One ranch seemed to be thousands of acres and continued over the border into Colorado. Absolutely beautiful country. Wyoming and Granby

Once we crossed into Colorado we picked up Hwy 125 through Walden and on south to Granby. By the time we got south of Walden it was really dark. We had the impression of heavily wooded slopes and a curvy canyon as it was 35 mph the whole way. It’s a good thing that we going so slow as the deer were all over the place. One decided to hop right in front of us for quite a ways. She was hopping on all four feet like a rabbit… she had the funniest looking gait.  She kept looking over her shoulder, like she was checking to see if we were coming along. We finally got through the curves and drove into Granby and parked at our church, Lord of the Valley.

Sunday Sept 11^th

It was wonderful to spend Sunday with our church family. We hadn’t been there since after Easter. It was especially meaningful to be there on the anniversary of 9/11. It was great to see old friends and visit.

Our daughter Alisha and son-in-law Billy spent the weekend at Grand Lake (just up the road) so they came by on the way back to Golden. We had great hugs all around and told them we’d be in Golden in a couple of days because we were going to do some fishin’ before heading down the hill.

Sunday afternoon we drove over to Hot Sulphur Springs to check out the river and go to soak in the hot springs. It was wonderful just to kick back and soak and enjoy the mountains. The river looked really nice so we decided to come back on Monday to fish.

Monday Sept 12^th

We had a great time fishing on the Colorado River headwaters. I got skunked (as usual) but Jim caught a couple and boy was the water cold….I fell in and got pretty wet. But it was fun. We decided to head back to Golden on Tuesday.

Tuesday Sept 13^th to Thursday Sept 22^nd

Well, we are back where we started from, 8800 miles later!

We spent a very busy time in Golden catching up with our kids and grandkids. We had 3 months of mail to deal with, errands and shopping to do and lots of opportunities to babysit. Kalyn is in 5^th grade this year. I can hardly believe it! Ethan is in 2^nd grade and Allie is going to preschool 4 days a week and 1 day in ballet. She’ll be 5 in December ….they grow up so fast! And we have more family to see in Phoenix…. Can’t wait to see how they’ve grown; especially our newest grandchildren, Jack (10 months) and Daisy

(9 months).

Friday Sept 23^rd

I’m sitting here in the motorhome at Tarryall Reservoir looking out on one of the most beautiful sunsets we’ve had this summer. And the fishing has been great, too. Only now we are fly fishing so I have a whole new set of rules to fish by. Thank goodness there are no trees or bushes along the shore to grab hold of my fly! When spin casting I only had to cast out once and slowly reel the lure in. Now I have to cast out a totally different way at least 3 times, putting out more line each time, pull the line in slowly and do it all over again while standing in cold water up to my waist while my boots sink into quicksand muck that will never let me go. Thank goodness there aren’t any mosquitoes! I love fishing …I really do! I actually had a fish on my line today but he escaped before I could get him into my net. Jim caught his limit of 4 and my limit of 4 so we are having fresh trout for dinner and for breakfast. It has been a great day of fishing! Our son, Jeremy is supposed to come up tomorrow with his boy Ethan and my granddaughter Allie, to spend the night and fish. Should be fun.

Saturday Sept 24^th

It’s Jeremy’s turn to learn to fly fish! I get to babysit. Of course, Jeremy is a natural, catching his first fish practically on the first cast. He and Jim both caught 2 in the afternoon and again in the evening. Hey, as long as they clean them, I’ll cook them. Allie and Ethan are having a great time playing in the willows and on the beach, scooping up fish heads and snails and other great treasures! Tarryall is a beautiful lake, with little beaches along the shore and plenty of campsites … and no fees. I wrote about it in our 1^st blog 2 years ago. Can you believe it…. On Monday we’ll be married 2 years.  It seems like just yesterday! We have had some amazing adventures in such a short time. Pictures of Tarryall

Sunday, Sept 25^th

We’ve met some great guys here at the lake. Jim is retired air force and spends most of the summer up here fishing. He had great tips about where to fish in the area and recommended we try out Antero Reservoir about 30 miles south on Hwy 285. So after the kids leave today, I think we’ll pack up and go into Fairplay for some beer and aluminum foil and try our hand down there.

Later in the day:

Antero is a lot starker than Tarryall with absolutely no trees or willows or vegetation at all except for grass. Our friend Jim said that there were lots bigger fish in this reservoir, but not as numerous, so it is more of a challenge. We got all set up and were out on the lake just in time for a storm to move in…the wind was really whipping up the lake and it felt like we were fishing in the ocean surf! We waded back in to wait out the storm and Jim went out later. He should have listened when Jim told him to put 8# test tippet on his reel because he had a big one and it flipped over and took his line, hook, fly and all!

Needless to say, when he got back to the coach, the one that got away was the topic of conversation and we re-rigged our line with 8# test!

Monday, Sept 26^th

Jim finally caught a nice fish today, but it has been a challenge. I think we will be going back to Tarryall tomorrow, as it is more fun there. Pictures of Antero

Tuesday, Sept 27^th

We drove back to Tarryall and pretty much have the entire lake to ourselves. It is really hard to describe just how beautiful and relaxing this lake is. Jim was out fishing until way past dark and having a great time.

Wednesday, Sept 28^th

Boy, what an adventure today. We drove around to the other side of the lake and hiked around to the inlet on the west side of the lake. Before you can get to the inlet, you have to negotiate marshy areas and mud flats. We tried to take a shortcut and I got stuck in the mud on those flats. I sunk pretty deep, I guess because I wasn’t moving as fast as Jim (all that mud on the bottom of your boots weighs a ton!). I finally had to pull my foot out of my boot and crawl up onto the flats…..then get in mud to my elbows and finally pull my boot out. I finally had to pull my foot out of my boot and crawl up onto the flats…..then get in mud up to my elbows and finally pull my boot out. YUCK! We decided to go farther into the reeds and try and find some more solid ground.

We finally made it across to the inlet and the hike was definitely worth it. I actually caught fish! On a fly rod! All the way into the net! (of course several got away) We still brought home 6 really nice big rainbows.

Thursday, Sept 29^th

We would love to stay several more days and fish but we are out of toilet paper and fresh water, so we are heading down the road to Phoenix. We are going to stop in Montrose on the way to Ouray, so Jim can see a part of Colorado that is my absolute favorite spot. The fall colors are really beautiful and we are really lucky to have hit them at their peak … the weather has been wonderful, also.

Monday, Oct 3^rd

We are in Ouray for a couple of days to do some jeeping and to enjoy the colors. I lived in Montrose for 18 years and I love this whole area. We moved away in 1998, but I love to come and visit. Unfortunately rain has cut our stay short and snow is in the forecast so we are off tomorrow. We did get some great fall colors pictures on the road to Yankee Boy Basin. One of my favorite places to visit is closed on Mondays, but I’m including a link to the historical museum of Ouray. It is an amazing place where history is both preserved and brought to life. Their website is really cool: Ouray Historical Museum

Pictures of the fall colors 

Part 5: Heading south

Tuesday, Aug 23^rd

We arrived in Gull Lake, Alberta this afternoon. We have sailing friends from San Carlos who live here, Andy and Deb. We had a great time visiting there for a few days. Andy has a small sailboat that is docked here. Of course, the weather was perfectly calm, so we had to settle for a bike ride along the lake and some sightseeing. Gull Lake was founded in 1913. The houses along the lake are unique, to say the least. Some are real old little summer cottages. And some are new “old” looking. And some are just big and new. Definitely a variety in styles.

We visited the nearby town of LaCombe. Thy have preserved their history in a unique way. The backs of the old buildings in the downtown area are painted with murals depicting what the buildings were originally. These pictures don’t do them justice.  The artist was able to portray the everyday images with an amazing 3D effect. There are many beautiful old houses and buildings on the main street and in the downtown shopping area. 

 Pictures of Gull Lake and LaCombe

Friday, Aug 26^th

We traveled south through Calgary. Off the highway I saw the most unique building of
the trip yet. It was a restaurant called Ric’s Grill and it looked like a miniature space needle with the restaurant on the top.  Pictures of Calgary

We crossed the border into Montana south of Lethbridge and picked up Interstate 15 into Great Falls.

Saturday Aug 27^th

We continued on Hwy 87 to Billings. We stopped at Sam’s and then headed on south to Buffalo, WY. When we called Jimmy and Nadine to let them know we were on the way, we had a pleasant surprise! Friends from Anacortes, WA, Vicky and Ole, were there visiting.  We knew we were in for a great visit.

Sunday Aug 28^th thru Friday Sept. 9^th

We have had a great time in Wyoming with Jimmy and Nadine (and Vicky and Ole). We went up to their cabin a couple of times and had a great time on a Poker Run over Labor Day weekend in the mountains.  Having never been on a poker run, I had to be educated. Basically, you buy one or more poker hands for X amount of dollars and you draw cards from the pile at each stop. So I bought several dollar hands and 2 $5 hands, and got absolutely nothing at the end. But it was a lot of fun. We did a lot of off-roading and celebrated Jimmy’s retirement. 

Pictures of Wyoming

 Jim even found time to do some more stone and stucco work on the house. We saw hundreds of antelope making pigs of themselves in the hayfields along with a lot of deer. Oh, and it’s official …. Wyoming has definitely rubbed off on Jim. He has a beautiful black Stetson and some lizard skin pointy toed boots….I do love a cowboy. In the immortal words of Big n Rich “Save a horse, ride a cowboy”…..Yee Haw!

Part 5: Canada

July 9 – 11^th  

Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada

We arrived back in Whitehorse on Tuesday afternoon and parked at Wal-Mart once again....thank-you Sam Walton. I worked on the blog and pictures during the drive here and tried all evening to get online at Starbucks to post it. Many lattes later I simply gave up....it was so incredibly slow.  I hate that my internet and phone won’t work in Canada. While in Alaska I'd gotten used to being able to get online whenever and not have to go find somewhere to log on. Funny how things that are supposed to make life simpler can be so frustrating at times....

Wednesday we went sightseeing. We stopped at the “world’s longest fish ladder” first. This is very cool. Whitehorse is on the banks of the Yukon River. In 1958 a hydroelectric dam was built across the river. Thousands of Chinook salmon were born upstream of the dam and were no longer able to return to their natal stream to spawn. So a wooden and concrete “fishway” was built on the north side of the river. This trough or ladder rises, in steps, about 60 feet in height over a distance of 1182 feet.

There is a visitor center with 3 observation windows in the side of the fishway so you can see salmon swimming upstream. The salmon runs that happen on the west coast of Alaska in early June are the same salmon that will travel over 2000 miles to return to where they were hatched to spawn and die. It is the longest salmon migration in the world. Their life-cycle takes 5-7 years. 

Link for: Underwater fish cams

Link for: Pictures of the fishway and Whitehorse

The Whitehorse fish hatchery is located about 1 km downstream from the fishway. In 1984 they began collecting eggs and sperm from wild salmon to incubate over the winter to hatch into fry. They release 150,000 fry into the streams each spring, significantly improving the population of salmon. Before being released they are tagged, so their survival rate and other vital stats can be tracked. In 1996 they began to raise other species of freshwater fish to enhance those populations and also to improve the recreational fishery. 

Link for: Hatchery

Then we went to see the stern paddlewheeler, Klondike. She traveled the Yukon River from Whitehorse to Dawson City during the goldrush. 

Link for SS Klondike , Alaska Sternwheelers

We did not tour the inside as tickets were $12 each …no thanks. We ran into the same thing with every museum in town …every one charged admission and it was a lot. One of the historic museums that I really wanted to see was real expensive and no photography was allowed. How can you remember everything if you don’t have reminders?

Thursday was pouring rain and we postponed leaving until Friday, hoping the rain would let up.

Part 5

The Cassiar highway

Friday, Aug 12^th

It was cloudy Friday but not raining so we headed south for Junction 37 just west of Watson Lake. This is the turnoff for Highway 37, the Cassiar Highway. It runs from the Alaskan Highway south to Highway 16. 

Link for: Cassiar Highway

Link  for: British Columbia towns along the Cassiar 

It is 450 miles long. Highway 16 - the Yellowhead Highway  - runs east and west from Prince Rupert on the Pacific coast to Winnepeg, Manitoba.

We decided to spend the night there at the crossroads and talked with the lady running the gas station there. We asked her about the road south and she said it was mostly in good shape with only 1 section under construction. We talked about our drive north and how we had to detour through Jasper and she said we were lucky… within a week that road was closed also! Saturday morning we headed “South to Alaska”! 

Link for pictures Jct 37

Saturday, Aug 13^th

We had sunshine on the way south! Our first stop was Dease Lake where we purchased 8 day BC fishing licenses. We saw from the map that there were a bunch of streams and rivers that we would cross on the way south. However, the Cassiar Highway is a pretty primitive road, especially the northern part. The bridges for the most part are one lane and there aren’t many places to pull off the road; definitely never close to a stream. BC does not encourage roadside fishing at all! There was a campground south of Dease Lake on the Tanzilla River but it was too fast to fish or wade. (We tried) We passed lots of lakes though. They were totally unfishable unless you had some sort of boat. We finally spent the night at Kinaskan Provincial Park because we could find no other place to pull off. The road got considerably better, asphalt with center lines and shoulders.

Sunday, Aug 14^th

Sunday we continued on south to Bell 2, named that because it was where the bridge crossed the Bell River for a second time. And get this…. You can get gas there and stay in a 4 star lodge and ride in a helicopter to flightsee or heli-hike or heli-ski in the winter! The cost is $375-$945, for 1-3 people, each additional person is $125. Mind you this is for a 15 – 45 min flight! And that’s all there is in this spot in the middle of nowhere! Obviously they must have quite a few takers …… 

Link for pictures: Cassiar Highway

As the fishing wasn’t boding well on this stretch of the highway, we decided to take a side trip to Stewart, BC along the Glacier Highway. You turn west at Meziadin Junction. Wow, what a great idea! The guidebook says there are over 20 hanging glaciers visible from the highway and we saw most of them. Not to mention the waterfalls and bears …. 11 all told on the day; including a mama and 2 little cubs. They were so cute. (and of course they ran into the bushes as soon as I got my window rolled down). It was some of the most spectacular scenery we have seen on the entire trip. 

Link for pictures: Glacier Highway

Monday Aug 15^th

After spending the night in a very nice, level pull-off we continued south towards Kitwanga and Gitanyow.  The whole area is traditional Gitxsan 1^st nation lands and all 5 clans have reserves in the area along the Cassiar and west to the Pacific coast and east past Telkwa. 

Info on the 1st Nations:  Gitxsan clans, The Gitxsan 1st nations

We finally found a rest stop about 10 miles north of Kitwanga that was next to a stream. I have no idea which one it was as there was no name, not even on the bridge. That makes it hard to interpret the fishing regulations when you don’t know where you are. But it was a sweet stream and Jim caught a beautiful 18”rainbow. (I however continued to practice my casting)

Jim was really tempted to head west to Kitamat and go Steelhead fishing on the Skeena but from what we could gather it was still a week or so too early and a Steelhead stamp cost an additional $75; plus you had to buy a classified water stamp by the day. For those of you, like me, who don’t know what a Steehead is; they are fresh water trout that migrate to the ocean and return to their natal river to spawn like salmon. The big difference is they don’t die after spawning and can spawn several times in their lives. We realized once we got farther south we should have waited to get our fishing licenses, too. So we decided to head east and fish the rivers that were the tributaries of the Skeena.

That turned out to be a really good choice. We came to a group of small communities called The Hazeltons. These were the District of New Hazelton, the Village of Hazelton and several unincorporated areas. There was a visitor center at I think New Hazelton (I’m still not sure).It was fantastic. It had a free dump, water and WiFi and tons of information on the area. There was also a small farmer’s market and I got fresh raspberries, summer squash and peppers.  Yum!  We filled up with water and parked at the edge of the lot and took showers…. Hallelujah! The volunteers were so helpful and nice. They told us of a couple of places where we could park for free. Of course we got lost trying to find the 1^st one and backtracked to the 2^nd one.

Tuesday, Aug 16^th

After looking at all the handouts we got from them, we decided to stay an extra day and explore.  The area of Hazelton had quite a history with pioneers and miners. The historic downtown area had a great museum in the library. In order to get to downtown you have to cross the Hagwilget Bridge; one of the highest suspension bridges in North America. This whole area is quite a mixture of 1^st Nation and pioneer heritage. All in all, there are over 50Totems in the area. Then there is the ‘Ksan Historical Village which is world famous for its museum and being able to tour the Long Houses and see traditional dances and carvers. We walked amongst the Totems but chose not to do the tours because again, no photography allowed! And I’m sad to say, it was just a little too commercial for our tastes. 

Link to 'Ksan: 'Ksan , The peoples of 'Ksan 

Link for pictures: The Hazeltons and 'Ksan

The true treasure in Hazelton was the Skeena Bakery! Amazing bread made with organic whole grain flours for less than $3 a loaf ….. we ate bread and bought bread and ate bread…..yum. What a great experience all around. Link to area information

Wednesday, Aug 17^th

We continued east towards Smithers. (Link to information about Smithers)This looked like a good place to base ourselves to fish in the area. We only had our licenses until Saturday and wanted to fish as much as we could.  What a cool town. We found a Canadian Tire that had a dump, fresh water and propane and free parking for as long as we wanted to stay. You can also park overnight at the Safeway and it had screaming fast WiFi. But they had no electricity for computers so I had to sit in the jeep and plug into the 12 volt. It was my best experience with internet in all of Canada.

There were 2 very nice sporting goods stores downtown and both were very helpful. The salmon (both Pinks and Silvers) were starting to run so we decided to go ahead and get Jim a salmon stamp. I didn’t bother with one for me. I figured there was little chance I would catch one and if I did, we’d pretend he caught it. The Steelhead would not be in the rivers until around the 1^st of September. Evidently this area is world famous for Steelhead (along with the Kitamat, only it is earlier there). They told us of several good places to go and we had a ton of fun over the next few days.

Thursday, Aug 18^th

Jim caught his first Coho on the Bulkley River at the confluence with the Telkwa River. Link to information about Telkwa What a sweet honey hole. He also caught a big Pink but it was humped up (male, ready to spawn, not good eating) so he let him go.  I continued to perfect my casting and lose many lures to the rocks. It’s very frustrating to watch the fish just swim right by you! I’ve figured out that my main role is to keep Jim company, help him land his fish and help him untangle his line! This is on the condition that he is not allowed to roll his eyes at me when I get hung up in the rocks.

Friday, Aug 19^th

It was raining…..again! We went back to the Telkwa and got skunked and decided to take a drive along the Telkwa High Road to see if we could access the Bulkley at another point. Evidently the river travels through lots of farms and ranches because we could not get back to it until the bridge at Moricetown where it is on Gitxsan land. There is a Wet’suwet’un 1^st Nation village there and fish it in the traditional manner. It rushes through a canyon there and you can fish with a special permit from them. We had fun getting the jeep all muddy and then we went back to where you can fish the river in town and watched the salmon swim merrily by! Phooey on that.

Saturday, Aug 20^th

We got up for the 3^rd morning in a row at 5 am …. Just to go fishing. This is our last opportunity so we went back to Telkwa and Jim finally caught a real nice Pink. I figure between licenses, stamps and lures each fish we caught was worth about $60. LOL. But you can’t put a price on the experience, fun or scenery. I can’t wait to go fishing in Wyoming and Colorado where the fish actually bite on flies and bait. 

Link for pictures: Smithers and Telkwa

Sunday, Aug 21^st

We left Smithers, BC and headed towards Jasper Provincial Park. We will spend the night along the way and continue on to Hinton and Edmonton, Alberta on Monday. We were going to visit friends in Kimberly, BC and make the rounds of the hot springs in the area but they have moved to Calgary, Alberta. So instead we are going to visit sailing friends from San Carlos. Andy and Deb live south of Edmonton and northwest of Red Deer in Gull Lake. As much as I’d like to see more of the Canadian Rockies, we are ready to head home.

Monday, Aug 22^nd.

We spent the night in a lovely town park in McBride, BC just west of Jasper and drove into Robson Park and then on to Jasper, BC. We crossed over and traveled along the Fraser River a lot of the way. The Fraser along with the Columbia are 2 of the biggest rivers in North America and they have their headwaters in Canada. The Fraser River is one of the premier salmon habitats, also. Link to Jasper National Park

Once we left Hinton, Alberta, we had 4 lane all the way. Wow, what a change. And it is very flat with lots of hay and alfalfa fields; and horses and cows. Jim says this is they way we are coming back up when we return …. straight up through Montana to Edmonton, Alberta and west to the Cassiar Highway. He’s forgetting about those hot springs and mountains around Kimberly and Lake Louise that I forego. And wanting to take the ferry from Washington to Vancouver Island and up to Valdez………

At this point in the journey we were beginning to feel that the adventure was coming to an end, after all we were returning to where we started from. But then we realized that life is more than just one journey. Each day is an adventure and the journey goes on. To quote the lyrics from a song made famous by the immortal Chris Ladoux;

“Life’s like a road that you travel on

When there’s one day here and  the next day gone

Sometimes you bend, sometimes you stand

Sometimes you turn your back to the wind

There’s a world outside ev’ry darkened door

Where blues won’t haunt you anymore

Where brave are free and lovers soar

Come ride with me to the distant shore

We won’t hesitate

To break down the garden gate

There’s not much time left today

Life is a highway

I wanna ride it all night long 

If you're going my way

I wanna drive it all  night long"

Until next time...

Part 4 Continued: Back to the Lower 48

Monday, Aug 8^th

Birch Lake to the Yukon

As we started our trip this morning I was looking forward to seeing the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. You can see it up close where it crosses the Tanana River just west of Delta Junction.  It is 800 miles long from the north slope of Alaska to Valdez, Ak. Here is a link to the history and facts of the pipeline. (Pipeline Facts)  

There is also an historic site here, Rika’s Roadhouse. Roadhouses were like stage stops. They were usually on the bank of a river. They were about a days travel distance apart (about 15-20 miles) and spanned the Valdez-to-Fairbanks trail. The trail was 380 miles long. Some roadhouses were just lean-tos or tents.  Not only were they an overnight accommodation for travelers but a lot were the center of the small rural communities that grew up around them. Rika’s was located at the ferry landing to cross the Tanana River. This roadhouse was in operation from 1909-1947. Rika Wallen, a Swede managed the roadhouse for the builder John Hajdukovich. She bought it from him in 1923 for $10. The trail was gradually improved and by 1932 the trip only took 2 days. The roadhouses that survived did so by providing extra services, such as a post office or trading post. Her ranching and farming methods were so successful that the Cooperative Extension Service at the University of Alaska studied them.  Alaska State Parks have preserved the entire site and it is furnished in 1920-1930’s style. It is a fascinating history lesson and the grounds are really beautiful. 

(Virtual tour of Rika's Roadhouse) 

(History of Rika's Roadhouse)

(Link to pictures)

Delta Junction is the “official” end of the Alaska Highway but we did not go this way when coming up. Instead we took the Tok cut-off and went south west to Anchorage so now we’ve come full circle!

(Information about Delta Junction) 

Late afternoon found us back in Tok. We decided to go on to the border and drive as far as we could. This is the absolute worst stretch of road on the Alcan and we wanted to get past it and into Whitehorse. Even though it was still light well past midnight, when the shadows fall driving can become quite hazardous. We saw our 1^st bear in Alaska just as we were leaving…about 10 miles from the border... hanging out in the bushes. Finally seeing a bear in Alaska made my trip complete! The border crossing into Canada was a piece of cake compared to the third degree and search we went through the 1^st time east of Vancouver! We found a nice rest area to park in for the night with a beautiful view of the Kluane ice fields to the south of us. We had a fantastic sunset and a moon rise (even though it did not get dark)!

(Link to pictures of Kluane Icefield)

We were in Alaska, traveling for over a month. We did not get to see nearly as much as we wanted of this incredible state. I don’t know how people that come on tours or with schedules and itineraries can do it. They see what the tour operators have scheduled them to see but there is so much more. Ahh, but to each their own. The people we met here were for the most part very friendly and open-hearted, even total strangers. At times it felt like they were just tolerating our presence as tourists but that goes with the territory. Yet I’m sure there is more of that when traveling en masse then as we did on the cuff.

As I said before, we are already planning our return trip. Next time we’re thinking of just taking the jeep and riding the ferry up the inside passage from Bellingham, Washington to Valdez,Alaska. No motor coach…way to expensive on the ferry…will mean sleeping in a tent (yes, I’m willing to sleep on the ground – as long as I have an air mattress) and once a week showers. Not to mention the rain, cooking on a camp stove and limiting my wardrobe. But this will allow us to see an entirely different part of the state and you can bet we will time it better to coincide with the salmon runs…..we were just about a week to 10 days too early or 2 weeks too late.

So I’ll leave you with some observations on Alaska:

The wildflowers and views are amazing! Hands down, period, without a doubt ….spectacular! Being from Colorado I’ve grown up with some pretty spectacular scenery but this is all of that and more....on “steroids”….enhanced by the lack of people running amuck. Believe it or not there are almost as many people in Denver as there are in the entire state of Alaska and metropolitan areas such as Phoenix have twice as many. No urban sprawl up here…

Did you know Alaska has it’s own time zone? …yep … it is an hour earlier than pacific time. 

Here are some fun links for facts and trivia about Alaska

Alaska Facts

Other Alaska Facts

Alaska Trivia

I read somewhere that Alaskans eat more ice cream per capita than anywhere else. My favorite name for an ice cream store was “Hot Licks” featuring homemade Alaskan blueberry ice cream….yummm.

Wild natural things like berries and of course fish…especially salmon are treasured up here and everyone seems to have a garden. Most also have a greenhouse of sorts because the growing season is so short.

They must have more drive thru coffee kiosks per capita than even Seattle. What great names they come up with….Java da Hutt and The Daily Grind to name 2 in Fairbanks.

Some other fun names: Giver a Tug Towing, Blindgunner Paintball …..

Another oddity, most every laundromat I went in had tanning booths attached. I’m guessing here but maybe you put your clothes in and go and get your weekly dose of UV rays? (especially in the winter). But judging from how cloudy and cool it was the whole time we were here, maybe they do just want to work on their tans?

People in Alaska are also serious about their partying.... after all there’s only so many days of  really feel good weather. They’ve been known to party all day & night….remember the day doesn’t end during the summer months which kinda adds new meaning to the phrase” party till the cows come home”. I wonder if it is the same in the winter…do they party all night long when the nights don’t end?  Makes me laugh when I think about the gringos in Mexico who complain about the locals partying until all hours of the morning. As mentioned earlier….. to each their own and that together with tolerance seemed to be a common thread amongst the people throughout the far north …live and let live and together one can survive even the harshest conditions.

I really am in awe of the people we saw bicycling along the highway. It rained a lot while we were there and these cyclists were riding rain or shine. Their bikes were so loaded with equipment; at times it seemed they were barely moving and yet had so far to go. They did not have any support vehicles either, sometimes not even a buddy. The thought of having to pitch a tent in the rain when you are  wet, cold and tired does not appeal to me at all….perhaps we should rethink our future plans….much less taking your life in your hands riding along the highways. In many places there is no shoulder and as often as not it is loose gravel. Between the RVs and the large trucks there is not much room left over to move over! 

  

We used Google maps on our tablet to find stores, RV dumps, restaurants and other locations. It is really cool because once you find where you want to go, you get driving directions and then it will navigate like the Tom-Tom. You can overlay with the satellite view and see a lot of detail.  It didn’t work too well out on the open road. We used the Tom-Tom for the road trips, not because we were worried about taking a wrong turn (after all there is only 1 Alcan highway and only a few “main” paved highways in the whole state!) but to calculate mileages to the next gas station …. very important!

Alaskans also get very creative with street names, i.e.: Dead End Alley, Bill Smith Road (he lives at the end) or mile 153.2 road. You go by the mile markers on the highway rather than street address and the city limits actually start way out in the woods long before you ever see any sign of civilization.

We did not see a lot of landfills or junkyards. Of course they could have been hidden behind all the trees but we saw a lot of real old rusted out cars, tractors, and machinery being used as lawn ornaments and planters. Seems that when they wear out you just park em out front for the world to enjoy and let the prolific ground cover take over.  And then of course, you can keep buying the same kind of car and use the old one for spare parts.

The same kinda sorta applies to the building too. There doesn’t appear to be a standard “Alaskan” architectural style except the classic log cabin look. The older original cabins are rough hewn logs with sod roofs but many have replaced them with metal or shingled roofs. More recent construction is pretty plain and flat; leaning more towards function than appearance. Many look like they were built out of pre-fab sections. Many buildings have just a few small windows and minimal ingress. After all, 8 months of the year it is dark 20 hours a day and can get down to 40’ below zero or colder. People build out of what they can find and afford including the lots mobile homes in various states of decay with unfinished hand made additions. The asthetics come from the beautiful flowers and gardens that everyone seems to nurture and take great pride in….

Alaskans love where they live …. Summer or winter they are outdoors, enjoying and exploring… making the most of the daylight hours.  And wow!…winter…. 40 below zero is the norm and they get out in it…dog mushing, snowmachining, ice fishing. Many places are only accessible when there is snow on the ground and the rivers are frozen. They take great pride in their state and their hardiness.

Alaska and Canada are really clean. The roadsides seem to sparkle …. there is no trash to speak of along the way. The only places I really saw any trash was where people were fishing….I guess they can carry out their fish but not their beer cans and tackle packages….go figure.

  

Our cat Yaqui has become quite the traveling cat.  As soon as you start the engine she goes over the back of the couch and sleeps under there as long as we are moving. Soon after we stop, she claws her way up the back of the couch and rejoins the world. (I’m glad that the couch is permanently attached to the wall and I never have to see the back of it). She did venture outdoors some and survived. However, she does not like fresh salmon, raw or cooked, she took it out of her bowl and put it on the floor.  But she loves Sunchips, especially the jalapeno flavor, along with whole grain bread and Veggie Stix. Go figure….cats! It must be her Hispanic heritage. You’ll recall we found her as a stray kitten in Mexico and she has since become the well traveled feline.

And on a final note, no matter what you believe in we know that the Holy Spirit has been our guide along the way; allowing us to be well, happy and express our freedom. To quote a favorite daily devotion we read,” Let’s consciously recognize our freedom-not just as a wave of the flag ideal, but as a moment to moment conscious choice of how to live. Life expands through us eternally, an unstoppable force, so let’s release the tethers of the past and enjoy the ride.” Until next time, we love and wish you all the utmost happiness….

Part 4 Continued: Fairbanks

Monday, Aug 1^st

Fairbanks, AK

Well, we survived the weekend and are headed to Fairbanks. One of our new friends, Gary, grew up in western Colorado and goes to the Country Jam in Grand Junction each summer. He is also a scuba diver. So we already had a lot in common. We made plans to scuba dive at Birch Lake, where he has a cabin, next weekend. So that left us plenty of time to visit Fairbanks and Chena Hot Springs.

We followed Gary to town so he could show us some of the sights along the way. Our 1^st stop was Nenana for propane. Nenana has a lot of important pioneer history and native Athabascan history. (Link to information about Nenana)

Then we stopped at Skinny Dick’s Halfway Inn. It is a bar halfway between Nenana and Fairbanks and Dick was a tall, skinny guy. Perfectly innocent,and yes, they sell naughty novelties and have a lot of fun with the name. (R-rated pictures, viewer discretion is advised)

Gary gave us directions to Wal-Mart and we set up camp there for the week. Tuesday afternoon we went to Test the Waters scuba shop in North Pole, AK and made arrangements to pick up tanks and weights so we can dive on Saturday. (Link to Test the Waters dive shop...North Pole, AK)  We also did laundry; $37 later, and washed the jeep; $15 later, and had dinner at the Loose Moose Cafe. Our friend Rick cooks there nights so we had a chance to visit with Janet and him again. We also bought caribou steaks and reindeer hotdogs from there to bring “outside” as Alaskans call the lower 48.

Fairbanks is a beautiful city, very friendly and unique. With mining, the military and the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline just to name a few, much of people’s work schedules are 24/7. In the summer it is very intense, trying to work and play as much as possible. There is a midnight sun baseball game played on June 21^st, the only one in the world. There are 2 more hours of daylight in Fairbanks than in Anchorage, 200 miles to the south. So everyone boats, golfs and plays late into the night, only it isn’t dark! And they are very proud to have:

The northernmost Denny’s in the world;

Big Daddy’s BBQ, the northernmost southern BBQ;

The northernmost Girl Scout council….well you get the idea.

Fairbanks is also the home of the World Eskimo Indian Olympics, which we missed by 2 weeks. 

Link to the Eskimo Olympics

Link to Alaska 101 webpage on Fairbanks

Link to Explore Fairbanks

Link to a History of Fairbanks 

Wednesday we went to Pioneer Park, a beautiful park on the Chena River that is part theme park and mostly preserved historic cabins. There is a pioneer air museum and a museum focusing on pioneer gold miners, settlers, their artifacts and how they shaped the territory and later the state. There are lots of displays and dioramas on how they mined for gold, from placer mining to huge dredges. They have also preserved and are restoring the paddle boat Nenana which steamed 24 hours a day during the summer months to the coast of Alaska, a trip of over 770 miles. (link for pictures of Pioneer Park). (Link to information on The Nenana)

Thursday we went to Chena Hot Springs. (Link to Chena Hot Springs) This is an amazing place….the way up there …60 miles NE of Fairbanks, is a beautiful forested area crossing the Chena River and many forks. We saw 4 moose on the way up there. The resort itself is very unique. They are completely off the grid. They use geothermal energy for everything, including a special cooling system to maintain an ice museum year round. (Renwable energy information on the Ice Museum)  “The museum features a gallery and ice bar, overhead chandeliers made of individually carved ice crystals which change color every six seconds mimicing the northern lights, countless sculptures including a gigantic chess set, life sized jousting knights, an ice fireplace and four galleries with varying themes." Everything is made of ice,icluding special martini glasses. Here is a link to the photo gallery with pictures of the museum, renewable energy fair, the resort and 100 years of history. These are really great (Chena Hot Springs Photo Gallery)

The outdoor hot springs pool is a huge rock pool with a sand bottom and a water chute that you stand under for massages.   The grounds are landscaped with antique machinery and lots of flowers. Jim was waiting for me to shower and change and got a ring side seat as 3 moose walked right thru the resort and stood in the pond, just as calm as can  be. Of  course I had the camera with me  (Link to pictures of Chena Hot Springs)  

Friday we went to the Morris Thompson Cultural Center at the visitor center downtown. (Link to the Morris Thompson Cultural Center) This is a truly remarkable exhibit documenting rural and native Athabascan and Alaskan lifestyles throughout the four seasons in Alaska. They show how native tribes still maintain their culture and subsistence lifestyle today and show how it was a 100 years ago. It is an interactive media display with beautiful photos and dioramas. Their displays of beadwork, baskets, clothing and scrimshaw are breathtaking. 
(Link to pictures at the Morris Thompson cultural center)

Friday afternoon we met Gary at Test the waters and picked up our tanks and weights. Then we drove a little farther east and visited Santa in North Pole, AK (Link to information about North Pole, AK )(Link to pictures of Test the Waters and Santa's Shop).

Then Gary said we have to visit the Knotty Shop. Jim said, “the naughty shop?” No, the Knotty Shop. Wow, what beautiful examples of burl wood. Really creative statues, too.  
(Link to pictures of the Knotty Shop)

We got to Gary’s great little cabin in the woods at Birch Lake and had a wonderful weekend. He has an icehouse that they put on the lake in winter. Mitch, the owner of Test the Waters worked with the History Channel on Ice Road Truckers. They used Gary’s icehouse and filmed the intro to the program on Birch Lake. Can you imagine a full size semi-truck on a frozen lake? I guess 4 feet thick ice is strong enough to support it.  (Link to Ice Road Truckers)

We dove Saturday. Of course there is nothing really to see in a lake, but now we can say we dove in Alaska… with moose ... in the interior. (We wanted to dive in Homer but there wasn't a dive shop). We got to 31 feet and our computers said the water temperature was 50 degrees but it sure felt colder! My face felt like I had just plunged it into a bowl of ice cubes and water! 

(Link to pictures at Birch Lake) 

We are leaving Monday to go to Canada and continue back south. We are already planning our next trip to this incredible place. We hope to be able to return the generous, open-hearted hospitality of our friends in Alaska  when they visit us in Mexico.