Link to the pictures with informative captions
We truly had a wonderful time, and adventure of a lifetime in Alaska, "The Last Frontier". It's hard to describe, but we felt some of the magic in the land of the "midnight sun" and the "northern lights". We originally had planned for just the scenic value and the Denali adventure, but we found out quickly that their was much more than that. We found history, geography, geology, really good restaurants, museums, visitor centers, glaciers, flowers, fish, birds, planes, trains, bears, moose, caribou, reindeer, wolves, but I think that the best were the many people that we met along the way from all parts of the world. Many showed interest in us and we of course, were interested in their stories and lives. Never before have I seen the number of tourist and RVs heading to all parts of a state as I saw in Alaska. They walked, rode bikes, motorcycles, RVs, buses, trains, small boats, ferries, big ships, and airplanes. We drove for days on the Alaskan Highway, also called the ALCAN because of the construction during WW2. Each day, around every bend in the road, was another bonus or a WOW. It was truly a pleasure and an honor to live in a country where we could travel like we did. Other than fuel we were able to control costs most of the time. The usual for a campsite was $15 or less, except the night we were in Prince Rupert, and that was $27 with full hook ups. Some nights were free and yes, we had unbelievable nice campsites. The National Park System and the US forest service was usually around $5 to $8 with our half price senior discount.
We traveled in 10 US states and 3 Canadian Provinces during the last 100 days. We logged ~12,400 miles on the truck. The trailer was about 300 less than the truck. I think that Barbara and I walked about 50 miles on the many trails, just a guess. We felt that on some of the trails we walked the footsteps of some of the Goldrushers of the late 1800s. We had mostly perfect weather with little rain. We had very few bugs and almost no mosquitoes. We had no mechanical problems other than a windshield wiper motor control board and a balky heater in the trailer, both of which I repaired on the road with no expense. No flats or broken glass. Not too many wrong turns, but than there are not many roads up there.. And the roads for the most part were just fine if you took it slow.
You might enjoy these two Youtube links. We had a short cut on the desktop for easy access to these mp3 files. We would play them many times before our adventure ended.
Springtime in Alaska Johnny Horton
North to Alaska Johnny Horton
Thanks to all the friends that wrote and followed along on this blog as we traveled those many miles. Thanks for the many friends we met along the way. I am still getting a few email asking questions about the Texans.
Much has happened since my last posting. On Tuesday the 6th my trusty laptop booted and then went dark. It was dead and remained dead for the rest of the trip. We rely on the laptop for mapping, blogging, and it also serves as the display for the rear camera on the travel trailer. I will try to update you.
We spent 4 days in the Arches national park and the Moab, UT area. Moab is a tourist city and We traveled US 191 south toward the Canyonland Needles National park. The Needles park is about 30 miles west of US191 at the junction of State road 211. We stayed in the Needles park for 2 nights in the Squaw flat camping area that has 26 sites. The first night was in a group area because the park was full when we arrived. The next day we did a self guided tour of the park. We walked several of the trails and spent some time at the visitor center where we watched a video about the park. We attended a ranger program that was about the different early ranchers that were the pioneers in the area. One of those persons was a interesting woman named Marie Ogden. She took over the local newspaper called the San Juan Record and also established a cult following called the Home of Truth. Many of the buildings are still standing on the road 211 going toward the Needles park entrance. You can read about Marie here. This area was the also the center of the uranium mining boom of the 1950s.
On wednesday the 7th We left Needles and drove back to US191 and south to Monticello and then to southwest on 491 to Cortez. Purchase propane at Cortez and drove east on US 160 to Mesa Verde National Park. We arrived at Mesa Verde national park in the southwest corner of Colorado just west of Cortez on US6. We spent the night of the 7th in the park at Morefield camping area that has 435 sites managed by Aramark. It is located 15 miles into the park. We went to to the Far View visitor center at and did some of the self guided things. Barbara and I have been to Mesa Verde back about 1981. We woke up on Thursday with the temp of 29 degrees. This was to be our last camping of our Alaskan Adventure for our next stop would be in Eldorado, New Mexico at the lovely home of Brad and Beverly Cottingham. We left Mesa Verde on thursday and drove through Durango and on to Alamosa where we would turn south on US 84 toward Santa Fe. In the high mountain passes the temp would drop into the 30s and while driving through Chama, NM we got into a blinding snow and ice storm. That didn't last long and the weather on to Santa fe was good. we arrived at Brad's about 5:PM.
Oct 8th 9th and 10th
We camped out at Brad and Bev's in their driveway. Only the second time we had been hooked up to electricity since July 1. We visited and caught up on a lot of things. Barbara and Beverly cooked some nice meals in the big fully equipped kitchen. Remember, we have not been in a real kitchen since the end of June. I helped Brad move his satellite dish up on the roof. It was a 15 minute job, but it took us about 3 hours. We drove 10 miles to Lamy, NM and ate lunch at the Lamy Station Cafe. It is also featured in this youtube video. Enjoyed it very much. After lunch, some of the local historians gave us a personal tour of the Rail and Hotel museum. Lamy is a historic town that was the rail center of Santa Fe and is the rail stop for Amtrack service. The location is a few mile east of US 285 on highway 33.
Oct 11th
The long 300 miles home after 110 days on the road. We had a uneventful drive back to back to Lubbock and some realities. Monday was a holiday, then on tuesday a trip to the post office for over 3 months of mail.
John and Barbara back in Lubbock
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