We made it to Alaska and finally have a good internet connection. Here's what's been going on for the last week.
June 15 - We decided to stay in the US one more night and leave for Canada the next morning. The commissary was closed so we stopped at the next Wal-Mart we came to and stocked up. We spent the night at a Home Depot and left first thing in the morning. The roads in Canada are in pretty good condition so far. There is a lot of construction but it doesn’t slow you down too much. We drove 386 miles today and ended up stopping at a place called Quesnel, British Columbia. Before you ask, yes they have Wal-marts up here and yes we stayed there.
June 16 – We drove another day in Beautiful British Columbia. We saw waterfalls and lots of small lakes and ponds along the roadside. We stopped in Chetwynd, the chainsaw woodcarving capital of the world. The town was full of carved statues. They just had a world-wide competition last weekend with the top candidate’s sculptures outside the chamber of commerce. I included a picture of my favorite. Oh, and I included a photo of the most expensive thing we’ve purchased in Canada so far; gas. Gas is averaging $1.20 per liter up here; $5 per gallon. I put $310 in the tank at one time; YIKES! At least we’re getting good mileage with the MH. We’re averaging 7.5 mpg. For those of you who just screamed, how many mpg does your house get?
June 17 – We drove another full day through the woods but made it to Tok, Alaska. Saw lots of snow covered mountains peaks in the distance. We have seen deer, bears, moose (one was standing chest deep in a lake sticking its head under water eating vegetation from the bottom of the lake) small herds of buffalo, big horned sheep and huge white swans tending their nest.
The roads in the Yukon were pretty bad. The frozen ground in the winter creates what they call frost heaves. These are places where the ground/road has moved. Sometimes the road surface raises, sometimes it sinks: sometimes it’s cross-wise and others it goes diagonal to the road. Makes for a slow and rough ride. Most everything in the coach compartments and storage areas have moved. It’s always fun to open a cupboard inside just to see what falls out on you.
We’ve changed our minds a bit and are headed toward Fairbanks today with hopes of staying a night or two at Eielson AFB. Afterwards we’ll head south and stop at Denali National Park. First we have to wash the MH and car; both are very dirty after driving for 4 days on dusty, muddy, gravel roads.
June 23 – Got to Fairbanks on the 20th and were happy to see better roads. The rough roads/gravel had knocked an electrical connector off the tow dolly. Once it fell off it dragged on the pavement until we found it the next day. Half the connector is gone. One of the fenders was loose too so had to do some repair work.
There was a Summer Solstice Festival going on in Fairbanks. Lots of music, dance groups and food booths. It went on til midnight. We had fun but it’s kind of weird being at an outdoor street party at 11:30 at night and it’s not dark. And you probably wouldn’t believe that we watched street kids having a break-dancing contest until 11:00. Not our typical thing but it was fun to watch. We couldn’t believe what some of those kids do to their bodies; Ouch.
Arrived at Denali yesterday and Gary did a white water river raft trip. He had a ball. One person actually got tossed out on one of the big rapids but they got her back in after about 15 seconds. We all went to the National Park today and took one of their bus trips 65 miles into the park. We saw eagles, moose, caribou, dahl sheep, black and grizzly bears and a couple of grey wolves. We’re all tired now and are looking forward to a good night's sleep and going to Anchorage tomorrow.
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