June 22 thru June 28, 2014

Sunday June 22 thru June 28, 2014

We had a lazy morning in Whitehorse Yukon and decided  around 10:30 am to go and purchase tickets for the Frantic Follies for the evening performance and  then check out the town.

Checked out the Visitors Center, used their WiFi and then continued on to several museums.   The Yukon is having a contest for some Gold.   You have to visit at least 10 of the museums, sites of interest and get stamped to enter.   Linda and I are having a great time getting the stamps.  The contest is until August so we have time to try and finish getting our stamps.  We have 13 so far and hope to get 20 of them for a better chance of winning more gold.

At one of the museums we actually panned for gold and we both got several little flakes.   They put them in a little vile of water for you.

Last evening we went to the Frantic Follies  here in Whitehorse.   It was about the life during the gold rush here in the Yukon.   Lots of great young talent in the show.

Monday 6/23/14

We left Whitehorse around 9:30 am and immediately started running into some gravel road, construction and frost heaves.   Slow travel.

We have now seen 22 bears and 4 of them have been Grizzly, 2 of which were t oday.We stopped in another Visitors information center to get another stamp, watch a movie and use wi fi.   After lunch Larry went back inside to use wifi and found that Linda had left her purse.   When he took it to her she was not even aware she had left it.    Man that would have been a MESS…. We have stopped for the evening at a pull off.  It is really strange with so much daylight.

Here is a grizzly and the another picture is the scene outside   our window tonight .

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

We have now been in Canada for 14 days and the good Lord willing we will be back in the USA in a little while.  We are having lots of bad road at this point with stretches of gravel anywhere from ½ mile to 7 or 8 miles plus one point we were lead by a Pilot Car due to one side being worked on.

We arrived at the Border at 10:34 Alaska time. We traveled on to Tok and got a campsite for the night and Larry proceeded to WASH the motorhome and car.,     They were both MUDDY!!!!!!!

Wednesday 6/25   we traveled on down to Valdez Ak, which I am sure all of you remember about the oil spill.   We are at Bayside RV Park right on the Prince William Sound is it is so pretty.  Only problem it has been raining and it is colder than I would like. 

Thursday 6/26 we just visited around this little town watching people fish, checked out a fish hatchery.  Had lunch at a rally neat place called the Fat Mermaid. We got to talk to Karen , the owner really a great time. The food was good too.  It was still just misting rain and damp but we are still having a great time. We are planning to leave here on Saturday heading over to Anchorage and then places further south. Glacier outside of Valdez I forgot to mention that the guys here in the RV Park feed the Eagles every afternoon.    They stand out and wave a fish and then throw it on the ground and the eagles swoop down and pick it up. 

Friday we woke up to SUNSHINE, still chilly but at least not raining, we checked out another museum and as Linda says they  focus  more on the 1964 Earthquake that destroyed the town.  32 people were killed and they eventually moved the town and lots of houses to another location.  They don’t talk much about the oil spill as I think there are still a lot of hard feelings with that one.  We met a guy who was fishing yesterday and he told us he plays on Friday night at the Fat Mermaid so we went to listen to him for a while last night.   He is from Hawaii and is really good. We had a great time.  We are leaving this morning and just taking our time heading down to Homer to do some fishing along the way and just enjoy more beautiful scenery .

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June 16 thru June 21, 2014

 

Today is Monday I think.   I really can’t keep up with what day it is.   We left Jasper National Park in Alberta Canada this morning around 8:30 and headed to Grand Prairie Alberta.  We saw some wildlife along the way several mule deer, a couple of fox and a deer.   The landscape has changed from the majestic mountains to mountains with forest on them.   It is a totally different look.

It has been raining and so we are taking our time.   We actually crossed the Smoky River which had a wooden bridge over it then we  drove through the top of the clouds at 4344 feet. That was a little scary.  It was pretty, then all fog and then we realized we had come through a cloud and now have blue sky and it went from 43 to 58 degrees.

We have fueled up twice today as the guys want to be sure we don’t fun out of fuel.   Now them finding a Flying J is another story.   They like to drive 5 to 10 miles out of the way to save a penny.   Linda and I are giving them a very hard time about that.

We have stopped and shopped at a Wal Mart and are spending the night here.   Tomorrow we travel on to Dawson Creek and  this is the beginning of the Alaska Highway. 

Tuesday 6/1714

From Grand Prairie we crossed into British Columbia and arrived in Dawson Creek, which is the beginning of the Alaska Highway.   I have pictures of the 0 mile marker for the highway .  We spent several hours at the Visitors Center in Dawson Creek and then traveled onto Fort St. Johns where we found a Wal Mart to stay in.   After getting set up, now this was early in the day, we went to the North Peace River Museum, which was very interesting. We watched a video about the upcoming things we are going to see.   Of course we have changed time zones again so here we go.

 

Wednesday 6/18 /14

Jim had said let’s start out about 8 am so I am thinking get up around 7 am and off we will go.   Now I have my phone on airplane mode so I won’t use cell signals in Canada but I use it as a clock.  WRONG, it did not change time zones so I am up at 6 am making coffee and getting on the move, I think, then I realize it is only 6 am, however both Jim and Linda woke early so off we go a little early.  Found a dump station that was FREE, took advantage of that, and headed out to Fort Nelson.   It was uneventful for a while and then we saw a mule deer, female moose and then our first Black Bear .    Jim kept saying on the CB, tell Mem to get out and take a picture.   I will not tell you what I said to Jim.  I did actually open a window and hang out as he crossed to our side of the road and got several good pictures.  After leaving Fort Nelson and getting ready to find a pull off site for the night we have seen 3 more bears. One was actually trying to get into the garbage bin at one of the pull offs.   We are now overlooking the Muskwa River Valley with a mountain on one side and the valley on the other. There is a little water fall coming down off the mountain.

Oh I forgot we have been to our last Flying J for a while.   They got fuel  today at a Fast Gas.

Thursday 6/19/14

When we left our campsite, which was just a pull out on the highway we saw 6 bears, 1 moose, 2 mountain goats, 2 herds of stone Mt. Sheep and 1 Buffalo herd. We traveled thru the Tetsa River Area, Stone Mt. Prov. Park, Summit Lake, Toad River, Muncho Lake and then to Liard Springs.

When we got to the campground at Liard Springs, there was a bear, then another buffalo .

We then went to the Provincial Park to the Liard Hot Springs.   That was WONDERFUL!!!!!

 Buffalo.   Four “old” people  in the hot springs.  Mountain Goats   Linda and Mem on walkway to Hot Springs,     Black Bear.  Found out today that the picture of the Lady Slippers are very rare .  It takes up to 15 years for these to bloom and if you see one of a color they are extremely  rare.

 

Yellow Lady Slipper.

Friday June 20, 2014

We left early again in hopes of seeing more wildlife.  At this point we have seen a total of 20 bears, 2 of which have been grizzly. We also saw moose and buffalo.

We stopped in Watson Lake and put up our sign with our name on it in the Signpost  Forest.

We are now traveling on some gravel roads and that certainly slows us down. Today I think we hit 13 miles of gravel and Jim got another ding in his windshield.   Glad he is leading the pack and is getting the major hits.  LOL.

Saturday June 21, 2014:

Not  much wildlife this day.   We left early again in order to see them feeding along the road but all we saw was rabbits, chipmunks and a pore pine.(spelling).  We did go to a couple of museums that were very informative about this region.   The George Johnston at Teslin Yukon was very interesting about his life and how the Tinglet people lived.     We also learned that the term Eskimo is somewhat of a slang term for people who  were “raw flesh eating”.  We traveled on into Whitehorse and got a campsite for a couple of nights then we are heading on to Tok, Alaska.

 

 

 

 

Sunday, June 15, 2014

 

Yesterday we traveled to the Columbia Icefields and took a bus out onto the Glacier. The first glacier we saw on the drive from Banff to Jasper  was Cowfoot Glacier which was 6451 ft high. We rode out on the Athabasca Glacier which will be gone in another 70 years.   The water from this follows into 3 different bodies of water. The Pacific, and the Atlantic, which by the way takes 3 years to reach, and the other I can't remember.

The Bow Lake that we saw was somewhat frozen over.

After the Glacier we went to the Glacier Skywalk, which by the way just opened this May 2014.  It took over 2 years to build.   It is 918 ft high over the Sunwapta Valley.   There is a glass floor over part of it and it was a little creepy walking on that and looking down.

We are staying in a campground in the Jasper National Park for a couple of nights and then heading on up the road. First picture of Jim and Larry by the bur we rode on, then people walking on Glacier.The skywalk and then the first vehicle they used to ride up on the glacier.

 

 

 

June 13, 2014

I am going to try

and post some pictures but not having too much luck.Jim, Linda and Mem at Lake Louise. I think I need to rotate this but having trouble.

Jim crossing border.

June 12, 2014

Since I last posted we have traveled to the site of Custers last stand at Little Big Horn.  It was quite the sobering experience just thinking about the treatment of the Indians and the loss of life on both sides.
We traveled on to a little RV park , called Old West RV Park.   The town was quite interesting with its little OLD buildings.  After this we traveled on to Great Falls Mt and spent the night in a Wal Mart and then next day on to Glacier National Park and were going to travel the Road Going to the Sun but due to the heavy snow this winter it was closed. We stayed in Johnson St Marys RV Park and had a beautiful view of the Glacier.

The next day we decided to go on into Canada. The boys were a little worried about getting thru the border because they were taking a "long gun" with them but we had absolutely no trouble.   The border patrol could not have been nicer. They didn't ask us about anything as far as food or booze.

 

Next we traveled thru Calgary and saw where they held the winter Olympics.

Now we are in Banff  National Park and have a great campsite.   Larry saw two mule deer this morning.  We drove over to Lake Louise today and plan to take a gondola ride up the mountain and enjoy some more scenery.  Then it is on towards Alaska.. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Building in Point Reed Mt.

  

Glacier National Park

Point Reed Mt.

Adventures of the Week Friday June 6, 2014

It has been a most interesting week for us on this adventure to Alaska.

I can't remember my last post so I am going to start with leaving Elkhart In last Saturday morning May 31st.
We traveled from Elkhart In to Amana Iowa , had dinner at a German restaurant and then on Sunday we traveled to Sioux City Iowa.   Lots of wind, rain and a very tiring day for all.   I may not drive but trust me my eyes are on the road with Larry most of the time.
Monday we left Sioux City and traveled on to Mitchell SD to the Corn Palace.   It was very interesting and we had a great little visit.   Then things really started to happen.   We still had lots of wind and not long after we left Mitchell and were back on the Interstate we had an experience.   Jim and Linda Matheny have correction HAD a canoe on their truck.  I am reading, all of a sudden I feel Larry slow down very quickly and hear him say, Jim you lost the canoe.   I look up and sure enough the canoe is flying down the side of the road fortunately on the outside of the right lane  . We get stopped, Larry and I go and start to drag the canoe back up to the motorhomes. Long story short there is no where to put the canoe as the rack that was holding it on the truck is broken.   Left the canoe on the side of the road.  Also at this point Jim has no signal lights on the back of his truck so I get busy trying to find a welding shop close to the campground(New Frontier in Presho, SD) we are staying at for the night.    Got that done and fixed and he was a happy camper.

Tuesday we traveled thru the badlands and on to Wall Drug. Arrived in the Sturgis SD area at the No Name Campground for the next 3 nights.  Wednesday we went to Keystone SD to see Mt. Rushmore.   Learned the complete story of the person who did the carvings and also that he first started the carvings on Stone Mountain but had a difference of opinion with the Daughters of the Confederacy which is not surprising and destroyed his work after he was fired., His name was Gutzon Borglum.
It is just something amazing to see.

Thursday we went into Sturgis, had to make a stop at the Harley store.  Guess who for???Saw lots of places where things really happen when the bike rally is going on.
One to Deadwood to see where Wild Bill Hickok was killed and buried along with Calamity Jane.   Went into Saloon No 10 where he was killed and saw the chair he was sitting in,.   Larry and I both played the slots a little and between us we won 7.25. That almost paid for our lunch.We then rode thru Spearfish Canyon saw the Bridal Falls and on to the town of Spearfish to the Wal Mart, of course.

Friday we traveled on to Devils Tower National Monument but do to fog it was very had to see most of the tower. We are now in Sheridan Wy at a Wal Mart for the night. We are going to the Battlefield of Little Big Horn tomorrow and then heading on to Gracier National Park hoping to arrive there on Sunday for a couple of days and then into Canada.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

After spending a couple of days in Elkhart In . enjoying the RV Motorhome Museum we had a travel day.    Larry and Jim had struggled over what route we were taking, northern or southern and after looking at the weather channel on tv we decided to do the southern route thru Illinois and Iowa and try and miss some of the storms.   GOOD choice.   We made it to Amana Iowa around 3 pm and got settled for the night.   After showers and a little R&R we went to a German Restaurant for dinner.   Now German food is quite heavy so both couples decided to split something.   Good thing we did as it was PLENTY.  The history of the Amana Colonies is very interesting.

Today we are traveling on to Sioux City, Iowa and then into South Dakota on Monday. Hopefully the storm system has moved on east.