Summer 2011 Travel Alaskan Adventures

Dear friends and blog followers,

Link to our pictures with descriptive captions.

This is a special blog entry, our son, Jay spent a few minutes pounding the keyboard.  His entry was finished up beside the campfire at our Seward AK, campsite.  I wish he had more time to help with these entries as he is much faster on the keyboard and a much better writer.  If I had these skills in the past, they have diminished in past few years.
I'll try to retrace our southern adventure trail from Denali National Park where we spent a wonderful 10 day adventure to Seward AK.  At this time we have Jay and Rahel, John and Barbara, Brad and Beverly in our little caravan. Jerry and June Bauler will meet up with us in Seward.

I will insert Jay's blog first, and then mine after that.
From Dallas to Denali was a blur, replacing a kitchen sink and getting ahead with work.  Rahel and I spent less than 12 hours in Anchorage before catching the Denali Star train to the park (highly recommended) and a campsite at Riley Creek.  Didn't even have time to seal the leaky seams on my tent so we got the full rain experience!  July is the wettest month in Alaska, I'm told.  Backcountry hiking in the tundra is a spongy thing, taking a lot of effort to walk, and a bit of planning to bush-whack through the willows and alder bushes.  Upper Teklanika River was too wide to cross comfortably (ask the wet kid from NYC we spoke to after his fall with backpack into the main braid) so we made camp on the west side, content to do day hikes in the rain and eat mostly rehydrated backpacker food.  Other that the glacier view and mountain scenery, finding just-ripe wild blueberries was my highlight.  Push forward to Saturday, Rahel and I climbed back to the park road, thumbed down a camper bus, and got back to the park entrance for a rendezvous with ma and pa Harris.  Luxury!! 

Flashback three years (to the week) when I was camped at Wonder Lake, Denali, and missed a chance to hop a plane around Mt. McKinley, aka Mt. Denali.  This time, we booked a two hour summit tour out of Talkeetna, with our fingers crossed for good weather.  Lucky us with the blue skies, and lucky for my dad Talkeetna Aero had one extra seat (copilot spot, naturally) for my dad.  Dave was a great pilot and the trip was something we agree will be a highlight for the rest of our lives.  Look for the photos to come.  Hard to compare, but imagine circling Mt Everest, seemingly close enough to touch the face outside your window, then down the glaciers and crevices to the base camp. 

Forget Anchorage, let's push south to the Kenai Peninsula for royal RV camping, hot meals, and cold IPAs (ok, and Alaskan White ales for Rahel).  We stayed two nights at Williwaw campground, which was situated below a series of glaciers, south of the spur road to Whittier, AK.    Short hikes, dense understory vegetation, lingering snowpack, and superb mountain views there.  Up early with my dad!  Want coffee?  Start the generator!  :)  

Sitting at the table under the rain-sheltering canopy here in Seward for the third night.  Dying fire is giving in to the rain drops but we've had our lucky fill of sunny days while here.  Rahel and mom played cowgirls for the day, taking a horseback ride around Resurrection Bay, across braided rivers and up the forest for a true adventure experience.  Dad and I hiked up Marathon Mtn for several hours, making almost 3000 feet of elevation gain before the snow-laden bowl above town.  Good sleep awaits tonight.  I'd vote for sleeping in tomorrow but we're dropping them at the port in the morning for a day-long boat ride out to the bay and Prince William Sound. 

Ten days can fly.  Vacation is winding down and brutal Texas heat await.  Maybe I'll quit my job and come here to work on a fishing boat.  Train for a ranger position at the park.  Or brew IPAs in the forest.  Rahel will work on a horse farm, specializing in Friesian horses and Border Collies.  Probably not, but everything has been as amazing as one could hope, and we'll come back.  Check for more later.....

Jay & Rahel
 
7/19/2011
Our destination is Seward, AK, but first, lets stop in Talkeetna.  Talkeetna is a historic small town near the base of Mount McKinley.  It is located on a 15 mile spur road that spurs from the Parks Highway, the main highway from Anchorage to Fairbanks.
We have spent time in Talkeetna in 2009 and Jay in 2008.  It is a laid back place with roadhouses, museums, gift shops and adventure air flights to the summit of Mount  McKinley.  Jay and Rahel had researched reviews on the charter services and booked a flight on Talkeetna Aero Service.  The night before the flight we had a hard rain and the prospects didn't look good for a sight seeing flight. As most everything works out, the skies cleared and we had a "perfect 10" weather day.  Jay asked if there was a single seat available and the pilot said the copilot seat was.  Jay asked if I wanted to go and that was all it took, the three of us were in the air headed for the summit for a 11/2 hour flight.  Jay treated and that made it even better. What a day to remember.  The flight was spectacular and Dave the pilot was the best in the business.  I don't have the space to show all the photos but flying directly into the snow capped mountains was a big "WOW".  This year 9 climbers have lost their lives on this mountain, a little more than the normal average of 4 per year. At the 14000 foot camp we saw a small plane stuck in the snow.  Inexperienced pilots fly in and get stuck in fresh snow.  They have to walk a path before the plane can get up on the new snow.  Our pilot was a first responder with updates to the emergency responders.


7/19/2011 - 7/20/2011
Our travel south took us to Anchorage and then around the Turnagain Arm to the spur road toward Whittter, a port and an old army base back in WWII days.  We were going to camp at the US Forest Service Williwaw campground.  Very nice scenic spot at the base of the Portage Glacier.  Lots of hiking trails filled with beautiful wild flowers at their peak time.  Good weather and a day hike to the USFS visitor center was nice.  Camp fires and camp ground talk made the day pass quickly.

7/21/2011 - 7/24/2011
Today we welcome Jerry and June Bauler, our neighbors across the street on 79th street. They have driven up from Lubbock to fish the Kenai.  We will visit with them here in Seward and Soldotna.  He is booking fishing charters for salmon and halibut.
Seward AK years ago was the ice free deep port that most of the freight for the state came through.  It had a large Alaskan State Railroad switch yard and that took the trains north past Anchorage to Fairbanks.  It also carried tourist from the large ocean going cruise ships.  In 1964, that changed somewhat.  The largest earthquake recorded caused much damage to Seward and especially it's rail system.  The town recovered and the Alaskan State Railroad survived, but tourism became number 1 business in Seward.
We had been to Seward in 2009 and marked it as a must return.  It is a great place with the small boat harbor, the enormous fishing attraction, and the daily excursion boats out into the Gulf of Alaska.  We like this place and it did not disappoint.  We hiked, rode horses, took day trips to study geography wildlife, flowers and people. 

Summer 2011 Travel Alaskan Adventures

To our friends and blog followers,

Up date number 5, I think

Time is really moving along and I am posting this a few minutes before leaving Denali.  In a few minutes, Jay and Rahel should come from their back country camp and we will head to Talkeetna, about 150 miles away.  I guess I will call it a travel day.

I am putting up our Denali pictures and hope you will read the captions and look at the wildlife shots.  Click here for the picture link
Look at the pictures and give names to the ones with no names.  I will revise the caption after you name that flower.

Our stay in Denali has reminded us that we will have to return in a few years, one just can't get enought of Denali and the state of Alaska.  We camped in the Teknilia camp ground and traveled all over the park via the bus pass that we purcahsed.  It is a bargain and I don't have to drive.

I am cutting this short because of time and the fact I want to catch up with my blog. When Jay and Rahel join us, maybe they will blog their experience here.  I'm sure that they have had a good time in the few days that could squeeze into their busy lifes. Jay and Rahel few into Anchorage and rode the Alaskan Railroad to the park.  Although we were in the park at the same time we have not seen them. 

We leave the park for Talketna and there Jay and Rahel will take a scenic flight tomorrow for a view of the park and Mount McKinly, if the weather permits.

Then on to toward Anchorage area, where we will make updates to this blog.
Stay tuned for more as we have many miles to go.

John, Barbara, Beverly and Brad caravaning on the Parks highway

Summer 2011 Travel Alaskan Adventures

Dear friends and blog followers,

To view pictures with descriptive captions
click this link

This starts our 4th week of our 2011 Alaskan adventure.  This will cover the return to the ALCAN highway and on north toward Fairbanks.  Our plans call for a few days at Fairbanks, but as it turned out we extended a few more days.

6/26/2011
We will miss the Haines AK area, because we had settled in Chilkoot State Park.  We liked what we saw each day.  Simply spectacular scenery and the abundance of wildlife makes this a must see. 
So today becomes a travel day that over the next few days will take us 640 miles north along state highway 3 and the ALCAN highway 1, through Haines Junction, Kluane National Park and Preserve, Destruction Bay, Burwash Landing, Beaver Creek.  All of these historic places are in the Yukon Territory.  All of these places had their beginnings during the building of the Alaskan Highway.  We will cross the border back into Alaska just north of Beaver Creek.
We found a really nice pullout on Kluane Lake and decided that was far enough for the day, therefore we would spend the night there.  What a nice view of the lake and Soldier Summit.

6/27/2011
Today is a travel day that will take us to the Yukon Terrority and Alaska border.  This was the day for bad road, over a hundred miles of it.  Active construction caused many delays and then rain on top of that.  We stopped at the Beaver Creek information and had a nice visit with the man in charge.  Very nice and knowledge guy.  We pushed on the 35 miles to the border and stopped for the night at the pull out under the border signs on the Canadian side.  Good view of the border and all the signage.

6/28/2011
Today, after crossing north of Beaver Creek, we are back in Alaska and driving toward Delta Junction, the end of the Alaskan Highway, historic mile 1422.  We spent an hour there visiting the museum and seeing the sights at the junction.  Then we take state highway 2 due north to North Pole and Fairbanks.  When we cross the border we lost the road construction, gained an hour time, and got cell phone service.  We spent about 3 hours at North Pole having a late lunch and shopping at the gift shop. Just another 30 miles to Fairbanks where we will spend the rest of the week.

6/29/2011
We are in Fairbanks and have several days of activities planned.  First we head for the University of Alaska Museum of the North at Fairbanks. This is a world class museum. We bought a Toursaver coupon book that gives us half price on several tourist adventures in Alaska, and the museum was one of them.  We spent most of the day at the museum that also includes a botanical gardens and a wildlife research center.

6/29/2011
It is time for tire rotation on the Suburban and I purchased the tires at Sams Club so that is the place that i will take it.  It would be a few hours  before they would finish so we had a few hours to shop at Sams. It is always costly when we go there and that was no different today.  Brad purchased a Sony camcorder so he could do some video recording along the way. 

6/30/2011
Barbara and Beverly did some shopping at Fred Meyers and Brad and I did some work on the rigs.  We met up with a friend of Brads that owns 600 storage units in Fairbanks.  Ken and his wife Anna are also world wide game hunters and have a very nice trophy room that we were invited to see.  Trophies from all around the world and many from Alaska also.  After a nice visit in their lovely home, we went to eat prime rib at the Turtle Club.

6/31/2011
We are finding a lot more to do in Fairbanks than we planed, so it looks as if our stay will be extended a few days.  More visiting around the campground and more places to go. 
The girls decided that it was a good time to do the laundry.  Here in Fairbanks you have to wait in line for the washing machines as this is a busy place.

7/01/2011
It is raining here so we are confined to our RV.  We watch movies and do some card playing.  Also a few trips to the Super Walmart.
 It is time for tire rotation on the Suburban and I purchased the tires at Sams Club so that is the place that i will take it.  It would be a few hours  before they would finish so we had a few hours to shop at Sams. It is always costly when we go there and that was no different today. 


7/02/2011
Ken and Anna come by our campsite and we visited with them for a time.  It is raining again.

7/04/2011
July 4th is active in Fairbanks.  We were planning on attending the 4th celebration at the town park.  This is a large park called Pioneer Park.  Instead, we decided to drive to the Arctic Circle.  It is about 240 miles round trip for us and that will take all day.  This historic road is called the Haul Road or Dalton Highway and is about 75 percent gravel. We get an early start so we can take our time with so many stops along the way.   The name Haul road name was derived from the role it played in the 18 wheelers during construction of the pipeline.  It is the road that follows the  oil pipeline to Prudhoe Bay. AK. Common sites along the route are freight haulers, grizzly bear, moose, caribou, Dall sheep, musk ox, and many birds.  It also home for many mosquitoes.
Services are few and far between along the Haul road, therefore we must be prepared before we start this adventure.  We  stopped at the Yukon crossing BLM visitor and enjoyed the visit with the host.  Nice place.
Our day was long, but we are glad we made it to the Arctic Circle.

7/05/2011
This is the day that we visit Pioneer Park.  It has a aviation museum of the planes that have been used in the building of Alaska.  A lot of bush pilots and what they did in the early days.  Many are called heroes because they did so much, some gave their life for the betterment of the small communities. 
The park has also dry docked a restored stern-wheeler called the Nenana. She carried freight and passengers on the Nenana river and Yukon rivers in the '40 and '50s.
We spent most of the day at Pioneer Park.  Very nice place and no entrance fee, so free is good.

7/06/2011
This is the day that Brad and Bev strike out for the El Dorado Gold Mine tour and the stern-wheeler Riverboat Discovery cruise down the Chena  river.  We did the same adventure in 2009 so we op out on this one.  Nice, but costly.
Barbara and I spent the afternoon at the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum.  This is a "five star" auto museum that showcases the best of the best before 1930.  Truly an unbelievable auto museum.  Many autos displayed are one of a kind and all are American made. 

7/07/2011
Today is a travel day to Denali National Park, about 4 to 5  hours south on the Parks highway.  On our way out of Fairbanks we again stopped at Sams for a few last minute items and fuel.  Brad purchased a Sony video camera so he could record some video along the way. 
We stopped along the way at the Nenana visitor center. We are actually a day ahead of our reservations in Riley Creek campground,  we spent the night at the Denali visitor center parking lot and then to the campground the next day.

That's all for now... Next report will be from our activities in Denali.

Summer 2011 Travel Alaskan Adventures

Dear friends and blog followers,

This is week 3 of our travels... Yes I know that I am about 3 wks behind, but maybe I will catch up next week.  We are presently at Denali

For recent pictures with descriptive subtitles click here.

We arrived in Whitehorse, YT on the 18th in need of groceries, fuel, and propane for the RV. 

We had several activities in Whitehorse that would take us two days.  Whitehorse is a busy town and a crossroad for the ALCAN (highway 1) and the Skagway to Dawson City highway (highway 2). 


6/19/2011
Our plans were to go north to Dawson City and west on the Top of the World road to Chicken and back to the ALCAN via TOK junction.  That changed on Monday morning because of the Top of the World road became impassable.  We call the Dawson City visitor center and they called the border crossing to get the latest conditions.  Rain had been falling for days and was not expected not let up.  Roads were soft, washed out, and dangerous.  At this time we decided not to go to Dawson and would continue on to Haines junction and turn south on YT 3 toward Haines, AK, a popular scenic coastal town on the Lynn Canal near the Chilkoot inlet. We missed Haines during our 09 trip.  This turned out to be a good move and led us to a week of new adventure.  The distance from Whitehorse to Haines Junction  was about 120 miles and then to Haines another 130 miles.  We would have to return to the ALCAN via the Haines leg, but that was not a problem.

This was out last night in Whitehorse.

6/20/2011

We traveled to Haines Junction and visited the visitors center where we watched a video and gathered information.   We turned south and the adventure  began.
 The wonderful views from the windows of our rig last just about all night long as we are still in the land of the Midnight Sun.  On toward Haines... Our destination would be about 10 miles north of Haines on Kathleen Lake in the Chilkoot State Park.  This would also be in Alaska to we would see the border crossing about 60 miles north of Haines.  That meant that our cell service would again work and we would be 3 hour earlier that our CST time. 
Because of our no hurry pace we stopped at a scenic pullout and spent the night.

This adventure trail would take us through some of the best mountain views with snow caps and spectacular windshield vistas we have encountered.   Along the way we would see many wildlife and now we would also see many bald eagle checking us out while perched from the tree limbs.


6/21/2011
We arrived at Haines and stopped at the visitor center for local information and guidance.  We traveled the 10 miles along the Lynn Canal to the  Chilkoot State Park and found it to be wonderful, just right for our needs.  Just 10 dollars per night for great scenic sites. 

We booked a day ferry trip  to Skagway AK, therefore that would use a full day on Wednesday the 22nd.  We thought that 3 days in the park would be enough, but because of more activities that we planed we extended our stay to  5 days in Haines.

6/22/2011
Today was our trip to Skagway on the Skagway Fast Ferry, we had to depart early, so we set the alarm.  The trip is about 20 miles in the Lynn Canal and will take nearly an hour each way.  Nice day and nice comfortable boat.  Skagway is a shopping town and is the orginial gateway to the Gold rushers of the 1890s.  So much history and so many shops.  Skagway is also the port to many of the very large cruise ship that travel the Alaskan inland water way routes.
It is not uncommon to have 3 or 4 of these ships in port and that means that over 10 thousand  may walk the streets of Skagway.  Brad and I did the National Park museum and film presentation and the girls shopped.  Brad and I did some historic sites and the girls shopped.  Must be 25 jewelery stores mostly owned by the cruise ships that sell a good selection of almost any stone from anywhere in the world.  Lot of tanzanite and diamonds.  This is also a destination for honeymooners from European countries.  Skagway is the headquarter of the Whitepass and Yukon rail that gives a sighseeing adventure over the famous White Pass gold rusher route of 1897.
So much history, so much to see.  We like this place.  The four of us attended the National Park narrative tour of the town led by a park ranger.  Nice day but we have to get back on the ferry back to Haines.

6/23/2011
Today was a sight seeing day around the park.  We watched the bald eagles and hunted for bear.  We hiked a trail in the forest and walked the shoreline at Kathleen lake.  The eagles put on a show as they will swoop down and capture fish and other prey from the water a few feet away. One fisherman had a close call with an eagle as it tried to snatch the fish from his line.  Even with the daylight so long (about 21 hrs) the days just fly by.  

6/24/2011
Today we spend some time in the town of Haines.  We visit some of the local shop and eat at the Fireweed sandwich shop, good place to eat. The building dates back to WWII and served as a quarter master depot.  We went back to the visitor center and got more information.  We booked a seat on the Fjord Express to Juneau, AK. 
Brad and I visited the Hammer Museum and the girls went shopping.
The rest of the day was spent viewing the sights around the Chilkoot inlet and the State Park.

6/25/2011
 We booked a seat on the Fjordland Juneau Express.  This would be all day wildlife site-seeing trip starting at the Haines small boat harbor early in the morning. At Juneau, we would dock and have about 4 hours in Juneau for us to do about anything we wanted to.  We took the Mount Roberts Tramway ride up the Roberts mountain where we could look over the city. We also saw a live Bald Eagle that had been injured and was being  rehabilitated. We walked the old town area and ate at the Twisted Fish Company.  The tour also included a trip to the Mendenhal Glacier just a few miles from Juneau. 
While at Mendenhal Glacier, I met up with Jack Weatherly and his wife, a co-worker that I worked with for 30 years. They were on a cruise ship docked at Juneau.
This is also a port to many large cruise liner that bring in thousands of travelers from all over.
The Fjord Express was the highpoint of the day.  This was a very nice trip on the Lynn Canal to the whale watching areas.  The Captain and his assistant did everything that was possible to make it enjoyable.  The captain did a narrative along the way.  The Fjord Express is a family run and staffed business that started in 2001.  Just getting glimpse into how all this works is worth the trip.  The deck hands name is Iris and she is a hard working 23 year old deck hand that works on the boat during the summer and is a school teacher during winter.  She grew up in Haines and has lived in Haines year around.
Back on board and headed back to Haines. This would be our last night at Haines.  Nice place.

That is all for now, end of week 3 on our Alaskan adventure.

Summer 2011 Travel Alaskan Adventures

Dear friends and blog followers,

update for the week of 6/12/2011

Our last entry took us to the border and into Calgary.  This will chronicle another week of adventures along the ALCAN highway.  This is really where the historical travel starts, but we'll need to get to Dawson Creek, BC.
For pictures and descriptive subcaptions  click here

6/12/2011
We traveled from Calgary to Edmonton, AB, then to the West Edmonton Mall the largest in North America.  It lives up to big as it has a theme park and almost anything else inside.  The girls shopped and shopped and the hours got away from us.  Brad and I had some maintenance and other projects to do and that filled our day. We decided to just spend the night in the parking lot after the security people said it would be OK. 

6/13/2011
A travel day from Edmonton to Grande Prairie.  The day light is now getting much longer.  We don't see the sunrise or the sunset.  Sun is about 20 hours a day and with twilight, there is not a real darkness.  Brad bought some material at the hardware store to darken his windows for sleep time.  Grand Prairie is a busy town with lots of stuff going on.  We stayed at the  WM with a petty much a full parking area.

6/14/2011
Another travel day except now we are experiencing the beauty of the spring along the ALCAN.  Miles of wild flowers adorn the highway and high lite the vistas seen through our windshield.  And then the wild life such as bear, wolf, wood  bison, moose, birds, and people.  The humans may be the most interesting.  Each evening we select that special place along the road to make camp.  The view in the evening is with the sun high in the west and in the morning the sun will be high in the east.  Just can't describe some of the views.
We spent the night a  historic provincial  park called Kiskatinaw at the 21 mile post where the curved wooden bridge spans the Piece river.  This was an original work  camp in 1943.

6/15/2011
Another travel day north and west.  We drove to Fort Nelson and went to the visitor center.  This is another boom town from mining and oil related activities.  Lot of new construction and hotels.  We finished the day by driving about 30 miles north to a large pull-out where we would spend the night. 
The cars and the trailers were very dirty and needed washing.  We used river water to bucket wash everything. The river was running hard and fast with big snow chunks floating by from the snow melt. 
I went outside at 0300 hrs and took some pictures.  See this link for the picture made in "land of the midnight sun". 

6/16/2011
Our target destination for today is Laird Hot Spring provincial park.  It is a popular place with a natural hot springs.  We enjoyed it in 2009.  After setting up at the camp site and eating, we walked the quarter mile to the spring and got in the very hot water.  This is a wide spot in the river and has been in service for a long time. I think it was close to midnight and had plenty of day light to return about 0130 hours.  Read about it here.

6/17/2011
Another travel day and today is the Watson lake visit.  Watson Lake is known world wide because of the Sign Post Forest.  Started with a sign painter during the highway construction and continues today with about 70 thousand sign from all around the world.  Read the Wiki about the Sign Post Forest here.  Enjoyed a few hours there and drove about 30 miles north where we spent the night in a pull out along with one other traveler.

6/18/2011
Today we are heading for Whitehorse, YT and to the Walmart to stock up with stuff.  Plan to spend a couple of days there to visit the local attractions. I pick up with that on the next addition of our travel blog.

Until next time

John and Barbara on the road
 


 
  

Summer 2011 Travel Alaskan Adventures

Dear friends and blog followers,

update for the week of 6/05/2011

Click here for link to pictures with descriptive captions

It's been a while since I have put up a update as to our travel plans and other activites. This summer of 2011 found us making plans to return to Alaska and western Canada. In February 2009 we traveled to the "Last Frontier" and enjoyed it so much that we decided to return. This time we would travel with our good friends from Santa Fe, Brad and Beverly Cottingham. Plans were made to do this in 2009, but at that time, due to unexpected events they could not travel with us.

In early 2011 we made plans early, worked hard getting ready, and marked the calendar for a June 5th leave date. This turned out to be a great time to flee the extreme heat and drought conditions in the Texas Panhandle area. In addition, our friends Lowell and Vickie from McAllen, Texas were planing travel to Washington, Oregon, and the north west US as part of their summer escape from the hot south Texas heat. They would travel through Lubbock and stay at out house and then we would caravan to Palo Duro State Park where we would attend the presentation of the Pioneer outdoor amphitheater musical drama "Texas" . They would accompany us as far as Billings, Mt. At time we would go north into Canada at the Sweetgrass port of entry and they would continue to the west into Glacier National Park.

We left Lubbock with Lowell and Vickie following behind. Because The Silent Wings Museum on the north side of Lubbock had a special events day, we stopped there on the way north and enjoyed several hours looking at all of the exhibits. Then the drive to Palo Duro where we enjoyed the evening and the next day at the Panhandle Plains Historic Museum in nearby Canyon, TX. Also enjoyed the wildlife and spent time exploring the area. We spent two nights at Palo Duro.

We joined up Brad and Beverly at Trinidad, CO on I25, the afternoon of the 7th where we would spend the night. We were early enough to enjoy the free welcome to Trinidad and ride the historical tour bus around town. The driver is a history buff and does a good job explaing the early days of colorful Trinidad. Trinidad is a early railroad town with a interesting past. Very informative tour about town.

6/8/2011
Left Trinidad, Co and drove to Wheatland, Wy where we spent the night in the city park in the RV area. It was part of a large sports complex and was very nice. We were glad to find it as the weather had turned bad and the storm clouds were growing. Just got rain but no other problems. On our way up I25, we stopped at a Camping World near Thorton Co, for Brad to get a recall done on his refrigerator.

6/9/2011
Travel day north on I25 along the Bighorn National Forest. Beautiful drive in the very green rocky mountains. They have had a lot of rain and everything is greed. Lots of wind generators and livestock grazing. On into Sheridan for fuel and then I90 to Billings, Montana.
This is where we say goodbye to Lowell and Vicki as they go west and we go east. We will meet up with them next year at the annual Blue Bonnet rally in Bandera. We spent the night in the Cracker Barrel parking lot.

6/10/2011
Another travel day toward the US Canada border
Lot of rain has fallen and we had to detour because of a washed out highway (US87) just to the north of Billings near Lavina on 87. Not a big problem as the detour took us through some nice country roads. Lots of water but we continue to Great Falls, do some sight seeing and shopping. On toward the boarder to a pull out to spend the night, just a few miles south of the port of entry at Sweetgrass, Mt/Coutts, AB, Canada.

6/11/2011
Another travel day north into AB Canada
Entered the port of entry with no problem and continued the short drive to Calgary where we spent the night at the Flying J. We wanted to get a early start to Edmonton, AB and to the big mall there.

Just a little review...
We don't plan on more than 2 to 3 hundred miles per day. This keeps us busy and active with sight seeing and visits to area attractions. We drive slow so we don't miss anything. We try to use the internet to check out the "must see" attractions along the way. We limit our expenses by using free or low cost overnight spots. No reason to purchase expensive camp grounds just for a few hours of rest time. Much of our saving goes in the fuel tank as fuel is expensive and will get more expensive as we go into Canada.

Stay tuned for more updates