Tuesday, July 8, 2008

58 degrees when we woke up…it won’t be this cool again in Kansas until October!  If only there was a way to bottle up this cool weather and bring it with us.

 

We got on the road at 8:15 Topeka time and began the final push home.  It was a beautiful day, but the miles seemed to roll by very slowly.  We passed through Casper and had some Burger King at Cheyenne and entered the very wide state of Nebraska. 

 

Chris drove a large portion today, and did a great job.  The traffic on Highway 80 was pretty heavy, and Chris found an 18-wheeler that he followed for nearly 300 miles, drafting off him for the best gas mileage of the trip!

 

By this time of the trip, everyone was very anxious to get home.  We had cell phone coverage, so we made some calls home. Travis is the Youth Minister at our church, and he had been staying at our house while we were gone, so we called him to warn him we were heading his direction (just in case he needed to do any last minute cleaning).

 

Supper was Wendy’s, and it feels like all we have done the last several days is sit and eat fast food.  YUM! 

 

Lincoln is a frustrating city to get through, because you have to drive through city streets even though you are supposedly on interstate.  We pulled into Lincoln a little after 9, hoping we could make it home around midnight.

 

Many have asked us what portion of the trip was the roughest driving, and I would have to say it was the last 30 miles from Holton to Topeka.  Tuesday night it had rained, and the fog was thick!

 

We pulled into our driveway at 12:15; overjoyed with the realization we would be sleeping in our own beds.

 

Total Mileage:  8, 530 miles.  That computes to about 170 hours of driving at various speeds.  In other words, we spent over 4 work weeks just driving!

 

Mileage for the day: 970

Temperature high: 80’s

Camping fee: $0

Price for gasoline: $3.95/gallon

 

Final Word:  We thank God for an amazing adventure.  He was with us every mile of our journey, and we pray we will never forget all the amazing things His Son created for us to enjoy.

Monday, July 7, 2008

 

We had Chris’ favorite breakfast—cereal and then packed up to get back on the road.  Taking I-90 east, we had lunch at Pizza Hut’s buffet in Missoula, ID.  This was a big driving day so we just drove and drove and drove. 

 

We had a flat tire on the passenger’s side of the camper outside of Bozeman, MT so we stopped to change the tire.  The really amazing thing about this is that the flat occurred at a break in the road construction.  There were many miles of road construction so there was only one lane of traffic going east.   In the middle of this construction there was a break where it went back to two lanes again and that is where we broke down.  Then the construction began again so the road went back to one lane. Thank you God for letting us breakdown where we could pull over to a shoulder!!!  Tim and Chris are getting fast at changing a tire so in no time at all we were back on the road.

 

We stayed the night with Tim’s cousin Randy in Buffalo, WY.  It was a pretty short night as we didn’t get to Randy’s until 10:00pm and we want to drive all the way home tomorrow so we need to get on the road very early.  We lost an hour today when we changed time zones and we will lose another one tomorrow.  Randy and his family have the gift of hospitality and we were blessed to get to stay with them.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

 

After our usual breakfast of cereal, we headed down the road to see if we could find a church or if we should just have our own service in the car.  We didn’t find a church until 11:15 so we decided to just have our own church in the vehicle as we drove through the Cascade Mountains.  What a beautiful setting for spending some time with God and his Word.  Chris did the reading for today.

 

All along the side of the road were large raspberry bushes with very large berries so we stopped at a roadside turnout and picked some.  The berries were so big and red and juicy but not sweet or good tasting.  We had some that were bright red, some that were dark red, some that were orangish-red so it seems we would have found the ripe ones in that much selection but none of them tasted very good.  We tried several with many being so bitter tasting that we spit them out.  How could they look so good and taste so bad???

 

The Cascade Mountains are in a wetland, maybe even a rain forest so the ground is lush green with lots of trees, bushes and flowers.  There are many waterfalls that we could see from the road along the highway.  The river and lakes are a blue-greenish color (more green than Alaska’s blue-green colored waters) with a little milky look to them probably from the glaciers around Washington.  As soon as we left Cascade National Park the scenery changed; more like desert.  What a contrast.  There were not as many mountains and the mountains were not as tall.  There was not as much water and the lush green was gone.

 

The sky looks like home. It is blue with high light fluffy clouds.  In Canada, Alaska and the coast of Washington, the sky has low clouds.  Sometimes we could see blue sky somewhere but we didn’t have any days where there were no clouds.  In this part of Washington, the sky is blue with a few clouds like many days at home.  The kids say that it smells more like home.  I think they aren’t smelling the fishy smell anymore.

 

We stopped at Winthrop, Washington for a picnic lunch and to check out the town.  It is an old western town with many of the old building turned into western and souvenir shops.  There was a glass blower making a hummingbird feeder so we stopped to watch.  It is amazing how the glass looks when it is got enough to melt and it doesn’t take very long before it cools to be hard again.  Chris found a treasure he couldn’t live without; some special cowboy boots.  I think he has been looking for these since he was about three but at last he has found them.  The lady at the store said all of her family members have their own pair of these cowboy boots and they love them.  Way to go Chris.  He has a good eye for treasures.  We also found an outdoor ice cream shop with homemade ice cream in many flavors so what could we do but support them and get a treat.  I had pumpkin ice cream; Tim had chocolate, coconut, almond; Aleesha had peanut butter chocolate and Sarah had homemade chocolate; Chris didn’t want any ice cream.  I can’t imagine passing up ice cream.

 

At one point in our driving today, we got pretty warm.  The thermometer in the car said the temperature was 91.  We are not ready for the 90+ degree heat.  Thankfully today, we drove out of the heat in just a few minutes and returned to the 80 degree temps but we know the heat will be upon us again soon.

 

We left Winthrop and headed south and east on highway 2 to Okanogan where we took highway 97 south to 174 east and on to the Grand Coulee Dam where we stopped for a visit. Built during Roosevelt’s administration, it is the largest dam in North America. There are enough hydroelectric generators in the dam to power all of Seattle and Portland.  They used as much concrete in building the dam, as it would take to make a 4-foot wide sidewalk around the world twice.  Quite impressive.  There is a laser light show at dark each evening but we couldn’t stay there that long.  Singing “On the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again” we left the Grand Coulee Dam going south to get highway 2 east to Spokane where we got on highway I-90 east.  We had supper just east of Spokane at our choice of Subway or Panda Express. 

 

Just before we stopped for the night, we crossed the border into Idaho.  We stayed the night at Post Falls, ID at the SunTree RV Park.  They had a swimming pool with pretty cold water but Sarah didn’t mind and Tim and Deaune joined her.  The teenagers weren’t tough enough for the frigid water temperatures. ;-)  Actually Deaune wasn’t either but she tried.  We showered and went to bed knowing that tomorrow we have a lot of driving to do.  It is nice to have beautiful weather and temperatures cool enough that covers feel nice one more night because we know we will be driving into the summer heat very soon.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

 

Today we went on a boat ride so we could go to see whales close up.  This boat holds 40 people max so it is much smaller than the Alaskan Marine Ferry that we had been on yesterday.  This boat had three levels; the top one is an observation deck half open, half covered with a canopy.  The second level is where the captain (driver) and his dog have the front area roped off from the passengers.  There is also a snack bar, dining room, sitting room and two bathrooms called heads.  The bottom level is where the motors are located.  There are also 5-6 staterooms, which are really small bedrooms and a bathroom.  The trip was to last from 10am to 4pm so we took lunch with us to eat during the trip.

 

Our boat ride took us from Bellingham southwest to the San Juan Islands, Orca Islands, past Victoria Island where we got to see bald eagles, a bald eagle nest, boulder seals and their pups, sea lions, minke whales, puffins, sea gulls, and terns (the last three were similar to ducks; they could fly and swim).  We were guaranteed to see Orca whales but they had moved to a new location several hours farther than a day trip so we returned to shore with the promise that we could use our tickets to go free on a different day which doesn’t do Kansans very much good when we only have one day in Bellingham.  Oh well, we did have great time and get to see some marine animals close up even 20+ foot minke whales. 

 

We got off the boat at 5:30 and went to Wal-Mart to pack up the camper and get down the road.  We had supper at McDonald’s and shared a ½ gallon of Edy’s chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream from Wal-Mart.  It was delicious. 

 

We left Bellingham, Washington and went south on I-5 a few miles to highway 20, which is supposed to be a beautiful drive through Washington Cascade Mountains and through a little historic western town called Winthrop.

 

We camped for the night at Concrete, Washington at a campground that had showers.  It was a campground between the highway and the river.  There was just one bathroom for the whole campground and it had both the toilet and shower in it so we started taking turns.  Those who weren’t showering played dominoes.  Feeling nice and clean, we went to bed.

 

Mileage for the day: 200?

Temperature high: 70’s

Camping fee: $34.00

Price for gasoline: $4.42/gal

Friday, July 4th, 2008

 

We arrived in Bellingham at 8:00 and drove off, waving to Michael, the Chief Purser who was so nice to us.  We had misplaced some of our papers early on, and without them, it makes it difficult to get off and back on the boat.  He always joked w/us and we really enjoyed his humor and kindness.

 

Once off the boat, we drove around and found an IHOP and had breakfast.  This was a real treat after several “microwave days”.  I (tim) even had coffee.  YUM!!

 

We drove around awhile, checking out the town.  It was a cloudy day, but the town was very colorful with lots of flowers.  It is a beautiful city, with many different parts that add to it’s charm.  There is the port section of the city, an old part of the city called Fairhaven that would comparable to our Potwin section of town, mountains, and even an area just outside of town that is farmland, just as flat and productive as our river bottoms.

 

After driving around a bit, we discovered we would not be able to find any campsites since it is a holiday, so we did what any creative camper w/do…we found a Walmart and  set up camp!  We were not alone; it was like a little gypsy city, with 13 other units set up.  Walmart allows campers to stay in their parking lots, which is good for everyone.

We went for a hike in the afternoon and looked at a fish hatchery.  Then we took a drive out on Old Fairhaven Highway (Hiway 11) which was very scenic, overlooking the bay, then out onto farmlands.  On the map it showed we would only go 10 miles out of town, but in reality we ended up 25 miles outside of town…kind of a “twilight zone” moment.

 

We killed some time later in the afternoon by stopping at a mall, then a Barnes and Noble before heading to the harbor to watch a fireworks display.  We had a supper of  peanut butter sandwiches and chips then took our blankets and waited for the show.  We  got a good spot and waited…and waited…it finally began at 10:30 and while it was pretty cool, it didn’t compare to the fireworks show our friend Marty F. puts on every 4^th of July in Topeka.

 

 

 

 

Thursday, July 3^rd, 2008

 

This was a quiet day, so there is not much to write about.  We never docked at any ports, so we sailed all day. 

 

The kids slept in (we will be well rested by the time we get to Bellingham tomorrow morning).  During the night we passed through some incredibly narrow areas, and the ship tossed a little, yet we slept right through it.  Chris was sleeping on the floor, and ended up several feet from where he started.

 

Deaune and I got up to watch for wildlife, and didn’t see a whole lot.  After lunch we saw some porpoises and possibly some small killer whales, but overall it was an uneventful viewing day (but Sarah did see the Bee Movie, if that counts).

 

Deaune and Aleesha played a lot of card games sitting on the floor of our cabin, and Deaune is feeling like an old lady, her legs go to sleep and then she can't stand up.

 

We made another famous microwave supper, this one being chicken enchiladas.  We have just about perfected this way of cooking.  We are not the only ones doing this, and it sure looks better than the cafeteria food (though tonight I did splurge and everyone had a pop).

 

Our evening was spent on the back of the ship watching the sunset.  We are in much more populated areas now, and have left Alaska and are now in British Columbia.  It makes us a little sad to leave Alaska.  It is such a distant place from Kansas; only God knows if we will ever revisit this incredible and wild land.

 

We wrapped up our evening doing the mundane things that counterbalance the fun:  we did laundry and began packing our stuff for our early morning departure.  At 8:00 we are supposed to drive off the boat. 

 

We are looking forward to seeing Bellingham.  It is supposedly a beautiful city, and none of us have been to Washington.  Our plans for the day are not firm, but since it will be the 4^th, we may spend the day here and enjoy the fireworks.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

During the night we slept thru stops at Petersburg and Wrangell.  I hope we don’t do the same thing when we dock at Bellingham on Friday!  Fog surrounded us when we awoke, but it soon burned off and the day was beautiful; in the 70’s and a light breeze.

 

We docked at Ketchikan, and spent 5 hours there.  Even though our vehicle is on board, we can’t use it so we got off the boat and looked for a city bus to take us the 2 miles to the city center.  The line for the bus was long, and we decided to hike it.  We went through primarily dock areas and businesses that were fishing related, and the smells were at times quite interesting.

 

We passed a Safeway and a Godfather’s Pizza on the way, so we felt at home.  As we were walking into town and looking over the dock, we saw hundreds of jellyfish and starfish.  But much to our dismay, Spongebob Squarepants was nowhere to be seen.  Even more disappointing was an absence of salmon.  It has been a cool spring and summer, so they are a month behind in their spawning run.

 

Ketchikan is a town of 7,500 and is heavily influenced by both native and Russian cultures.  We saw numerous totem poles, and they each tell a story.  We took a walking tour of the city and saw an Episcopalian Church that was the oldest building in the city, an old “red light” district, had some delicious caramel corn, then decided it was time for lunch.  We found a Subway then did some more looking around.  Deaune and Sarah found some ripe blueberries while we were walking, as well as some of the biggest raspberries we had ever seen – as big as your thumb!  They were delicious.

 

There were 4 large cruise ships in dock, and they were HUGE!  I can’t even begin to guess how many people they can hold, but they are at least 3 to 4 football fields long and who knows how many stories high.  Amazing! 

 

The city is built on pilings, or stilts, because the terrain is so steep, and some of their streets are made of wooden planks on pilings because of the tide.

 

We hoofed it back to our ship, which seemed quite small now.  We figured that we walked at least 6 miles on this little outing, and our feet were sore!

 

We have internet on board, even when we are not in port, so our kids got online to check their facebook and catch up on the latest with life back home.

 

Supper was microwaved again, and we played cards and ate popcorn until the kids went to watch a movie (such a rough life at sea; this sure beats driving!  Any way we can do this all the way back to Kansas?  I haven’t seen many boats this size in our rivers, but let’s try it!)

 

It was another unbelievable sunset this evening.  At one point, the sun was setting over a lighthouse…very nice!

 

We were going to stay up this evening and look for whales and porpoise, but a fog rolled in so we just caught up on blogging and hanging out.

 

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

 

Awoke to fair skies.  Tim and Deaune got up and had a bowl of cereal, and the kids slept in.  We went to the front of the boat to see what we could see.  There was a man with the National Park service who spoke occasionally about where we were and other interesting details. 

 

We went through Narrows Strait on our way to Sitka.  We were there for about 2.5 hours because we entered and were able to depart at a point when the tide was neither going in or out – they said the current is tricky if you try to maneuver in at any other time.

 

We got off and went for a hike.  It was in a rain forest, and was very beautiful…lot’s of moss and large, leafy foliage.  We expected trolls or dwarves to appear at any moment.  It was quite pleasant with temperatures probably around 70.

 

We got back on the boat and fixed fajitas for supper.  The cafeteria has a microwave, and a number of passengers bring food on with them.  Our fajitas smelled better than anything they were serving!

 

The sunset this evening was so great that Deaune and Chris about wore out their cameras taking pictures of it.  It changed appearance numerous times, and sunsets up here last much longer than in Kansas.  Being around the mountains up until now, we had not seen many beautiful sunsets since leaving Kansas.

 

Late in the evening we were all hanging out in the cabin when we spotted a whale…then another!  We saw a couple more, none real close, but well enough to see them come up, spout, and raise their tails before they went under.  What an amazing way to end our day!  This was also the first night in a long time that it actually got dark.

 

We said our “thank you” to God for another great day, and asked Him again to bless and watch over our family and friends back in Topeka and especially our church family.  We miss them very much and they are always in our thoughts and prayers. 

 

Any time you are away from home for very long, you gain a whole new appreciation for your family and friends.  And it never fails, while you are gone, good things happen as well as things that are heartbreaking.  But God is faithful, and he has His family, the church, that pours out His love and healing in amazing ways.  We are so blessed to be a part of a tremendous church, full of imperfect yet very forgiven and redeemed folk who are living life with one another in the daily grind and pleasing God in the process.  What a joy it is to live life out among folks who love God and love people….sorry for the preaching, but it is what I do!

 

Monday, June 30^th, 2008

 

Today we will board the ferry that will take us to Bellingham, Washington.  Being Kansans, this will be something very exciting for us.  We will be on board from a Monday afternoon thru a Friday morning.

 

We had a big breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and sausage.  Then we spent the rest of the morning packing for the ferry ride.  There is food service available on the ferry, but we have spent enough money on tires, so we will be creative.  The ferry has a microwave, so we have purchased meals that we can heat up on our own.

 

We got everything packed, broke down the camper, and spent some time walking around the town of Skagway.  It is a pretty cool town, really catering to travelers.  While we were sleeping last night, a couple of very large cruise ships docked just yards from our campground.

 

We found a great place to pick us some t-shirts and trinkets, had a pretty good pizza for lunch, and went to the Marine Highway office to straighten things out about our reservation.  We dealt with a really nice guy, but he was unable to do much for us, so we appealed to a supervisor who was able to go back over our reservation and discover we had talked to someone who was inexperienced and had not communicated well with us.  The end result was we had to pay the right amount for the vehicles, but they gave us a break on the cabin, so all was good.

 

We drove aboard the ship Columbia around 4:45 and finally found our cabin after trying to figure out the different levels of the ship.  Our room has two sets of bunk beds, so each night one of the kids has to sleep on the floor.  It is about 10 by 10, but it does have a bathroom with a shower.  They provide linens and towels.

 

We bought some motion sickness medicine, and Tim and Sarah took some before we left port, but it was unnecessary.  The ride is smooth since we are traveling the inner passage.

We had Ramen noodles for supper, microwave popcorn for a snack, and spent much of our evening looking out the windows, walking the decks, and checking out the ship.  It has an area where people can set up their tents, and two levels on the front of the ship that are enclosed and have comfortable chairs for viewing scenery.  It even has a large room that is used as a theater for showing videos occasionally, laundry, gift shop, cafeteria, and a dining room that serves steaks and seafood for the wealthy – we will be sticking to our “cheap” menu.

 

You see all types of travelers, from the wealthy who drive on their 35 foot RV’s to those on a tight budget who sleep in a sleeping bag on a plastic lounge chair on he deck.

 

We caught some glimpses of dolphins as well as some eagles, and even saw a whale spouting off in the distance.  Quite a treat for folks who live so far from the sea!

 

We went to bed late and slept right through a middle of the night docking at Juneau.  The boat stopped just long enough to let off and take on passengers.

 

Sunday, June 29^th, 2008

 

We awoke to frozen toes but tires that are still full of air!  We promised the kids we would stop somewhere down the road for breakfast, and hit the road.   We did devotions on Proverbs 13, and prayed for a great day of travel, and that God would bless all our church family this morning as they gathered to worship.

 

 10 miles from where we camped we saw a grizzly right out on the road; Deaune took some good pics, but was a little concerned he had been so close to where we had camped…

 

The road was greatly improved, and we made good time to Haines Junction.  We stopped in at the Village Bakery for a $30 breakfast of cinnamon rolls – very pricy, but their sign said “get your buns in here!!” so we had to stop.  We all looked like we had been, in cowboy lingo, “rode hard and put up wet” – no showers for a couple of days can do that.

 

The Kluane Ice Fields were pretty cool, but not as impressive as the ones near Jasper, early on in our trip.  At mile marker 931 we saw bear #2 of the day, a big grizzly that was in a hurry to get in the woods.  This was near Takhini.  Mt. Logan is the 2^nd highest mountain in North America, and we viewed it as well.

 

We were praising God as we pulled into Whitehorse, and made a beeline for the Wal-Mart.  We bought a gallon of milk for $5.83, gas for $4.33 a gallon, and decided the cheese was out of our price range - $8 for 8 ounces.  We were able to get the tire on the Suburban repaired, and went to check out the “fish ladder”.  The Yukon River is dammed at this town, and in order for the salmon to make their way upstream past the dam; they have installed a wooden fish ladder that bypasses the dam for the salmon to take – sort of a detour!

 

Lunch was at the city park where the S.S. Klondike is on display – a sternwheeler that ran the Yukon for many years.  Built in 1929, ran aground in 1936; rebuilt and operated until 1955.

 

We jumped back in the Suburban and made our last leg of our journey to Skagway.  This was a beautiful stretch of highway heading south, called the South Klondike Highway.  We ran alongside the White Pass and Yukon Railway all that time, and passed some beautiful lakes.  During this stretch of less than 100 miles we went from Yukon to British Columbia to United States!

 

This portion of our drive has to rank as some of the most beautiful scenery.  Emerald Lake, Carcross Desert (worlds smallest dune area), Chilkoot Pass, Summit Lake, Bernard Lake, and Tormented Valley, a “moonscape of stunted trees and small lakes” – very cool!

 

The descent into Skagway was impressive, dropping thousands of feet over the course of 11.5 miles with an 11% grade.

 

Great rejoicing!  We entered Skagway around 5:30 and camped at Pullen Creek Campground - $42 and you still have to pay for showers!!  We did some laundry, had a supper of hamburgers and fried potatoes, and looked around town a little.

 

We stopped at the Marine Highway office to check on our tickets, only to learn they wanted to charge us another $480 bucks!  When we had made the reservation over the phone, the lady has said we could detach the popup camper from the Suburban and it would save us quite a bit – the folks at Skagway said this couldn’t be done.  We will take it up with a manager tomorrow…

 

We had only been in bed for 30 minutes when someone went tearing thru the campground…twice!  They stopped just across from us, and Deaune opened the camper door and stared them down; that must have done the trick, since they peeled out and didn’t come back!  I (Tim) had been on the receiving end of this look, and believe me, it is effective!

 

Saturday, June 28, 2008

 

Deaune spent most of last night trying to kill a pesky mosquito, one time even smacking me in the head in her attempt…I think it was just her way of hitting me and having an excuse.

 

Woke to mostly sun and cool temps.  We were hoping today would be a big mileage day, but 14 miles down the road we stopped to take a picture and discovered a leak in a tire on the camper.  This was an ordeal to repair due to the maneuvering we had to do way back on June 12^th (we had made repairs with what we had available, but now our “repair job” made it difficult to remove the tire – stripped lug nuts. 

 

While we were waiting on the tire repair, the repairman’s wife told us about the time she had to shoot/kill two grizzly bears in two consecutive days because the grizzlies were living in the brush right behind their house which was right beside the repair shop where we were.  The grizzly bears were a male and female.  The bears became aggressive by trying to get into their house one night and the people couldn’t get the grizzlies to go away.  I guess the grizzlies thought that it was their home too.  This couple had lived at Fort Riley for a time 20 plus years ago when the man was in the military.  They moved to Alaska with the military and then retired and stayed here.  They really like the pace of life in Alaska, all the wildlife they get to see and owning their own business.  They said they like to garden but it doesn’t work well at their house because the ground is silt not dirt and plants don’t grow much in silt.  They have plenty of rain and sunshine but the ground just doesn’t have the nutrients that plants need to thrive.

 

Three hours later we were on the road with

 

 

Friday, June 27, 2008

 

We woke up to a light rain again today so breakfast in bed again.  Hope this breakfast in bed thing doesn’t become a new trend in the family.

 

This morning we packed up the camper but before we left town we went to the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward where scientists study the sea life in that area.  They rehabilitate marine wildlife and then return them to their natural habitat. There were several gigantic aquariums with glass sides so we could see stellar sea lions, sea otters, seals, shrimp, jelly fish, octopus and all kinds of fish and sea floor wildlife.  One area was a swallow aquarium where we could touch many kinds of ocean bottom dwellers like starfish, crabs, sea urchins, and sea anemones.  The sea anemones would suck on our fingers a little bit and sometimes not want to let go.  There were live videos of sea life around Seward of areas and animals that the scientists were studying and they had large monitors so we could see the animals too.  Today harbor seals were on the live video.  They were having babies and the scientists were monitoring their lives.  We got to see male, female and baby harbor seals at their rockery.  This SeaLife Center was worth the stop and price to see and learn about Alaska marine life.  The Exxon Valdez Oil as part of their restoration project funded the SeaLife Center after their major oil spill. 

 

Going to the SeaLife Center was the last thing we were going to do with our cousins before going our separate ways.  Our cousins will stay in Alaska for a while longer and we are making our way to the ferry ride back to the lower 48 states.  We said our goodbyes in the lobby of the SeaLife Center.  It was much like a Walton’s TV show moment; you know goodbye John boy, goodbye Maryellen...we gave lots of hugs and kisses to our cousins.  After Chris finished giving hugs to all the cousins and his aunt and uncle, he grabbed what he thought was his little sister Sarah and gave her a big hug.  “Sarah” looked up at Chris just as Chris realized that it wasn’t Sarah; no it was the girl at the front gift counter and she was looking at him like what in the world are you doing.  He quickly apologized and tried to explain that he thought she was his sister.  Luckily for Chris, Sarah was there and the girl could see that Sarah had the same hair color, same hair length and was about her height but she was probably Chris’ age. Chris doesn’t very often get embarrassed but today he did.  We all laughed hysterically; some even cried they were laughing so hard…so glad the cousins were there and got to have a good laugh before we parted ways. The girl told Chris that made her day.  

 

On the way to Anchorage we got to drive by Turnagain Arm and the water was much higher than it had been a few days ago.  When we were almost to Anchorage (we could see the first highway exit for Anchorage), we had a flat tire on the trailer so Tim and Chris got out and changed the tire while the girls prayed for their safety.  The road was only a two lane road with a lot of traffic both directions.  They got the tire changed safely and off we went to Anchorage to get the spare tire fixed.  The Wal-Mart’s in Alaska are not as big as the Wal-Mart’s we are used to and they don’t sell tires or do any repairs so we went looking for a tire store.  Of course it was about closing time and one store would sell the tire but the part of their shop that would put the tire on the wheel was closed so we went on a search to find someone who had the tools to help us out.  We finally found a Chevron service center that could do the work and we were back on the road ready for more sights.

 

From Anchorage we drove Alaska Highway 1 to Palmer thru the Mat-su Valley and then into the wild North Country on the Glenn Highway.  Once again, we were amazed at the scenery.  We never get tired of the snow and tree covered mountains and huge valleys with raging streams. 

 

As we were driving between Palmer and Glenallen, we had a great view of Matanuska Glacier.  It is 23 miles long and up to 4 miles wide at some points.  The land it had carved was almost as impressive as the glacier itself.  At this point we are driving through the glaciated Chugach Mountains

 

We were delayed a little while some dynamiting work was taking place.  A sign said the road was closed every day between 6 a.m. and noon.  We were glad we were making our way through when we did; a 6-hour delay would be no fun, but we rarely are driving that early!

 

As I am writing this, Deaune is tracking down a mosquito near where I am laying.  She has become quite good at this.  Where we are staying tonight there are only a few mosquitoes, and overall they have not been as bad as anticipated.  The place we stayed on Wednesday and Thursday nights they were bad, and loved to check us out when we were preparing food.

 

Tonight we traveled until 10:30, and are staying at the nicest little spot yet.  It is called Slide Mtn. RV Park.  It is spotless, grassy, and surrounded by mountains.  The gentleman running the place said last night it got down to 23 degrees!  We have electricity, so we w/stay warm.  The shower is nicer than ours at home, and they even provide towels at no additional charge.  We wish we had found a place like this when we were traveling w/our relatives, but maybe next time….

 

Tomorrow it looks like we w/be traveling through more gorgeous landscapes as we head into the Wrangell Mountains.  The guy here at the campground said it is the second highest mountain in North America, and is constantly wrapped in clouds – he has lived here over 40 years and has only seen it clearly once!  Interesting side note – this gentleman lives in Alaska May thru August, and then spends the rest of the year in Thailand.  He and his wife own a resort area there, so he splits his time between the two.  He was fun to talk to, and very hospitable.

 

Thursday, June 26, 2008

 

Today we had breakfast in bed.  Of course it was cereal like we have most mornings but it was raining outside so we brought all the breakfast fixings into the camper and everyone ate breakfast in their bed.  Surprisingly no one spilled so no one had to wear his or her breakfast.  After breakfast we packed up camp in the rain. This was the first day during our entire trip that we had to pack camp in the rain and we are very grateful that there haven’t been more times.  We headed south to Seward, AK. 

 

When we got to Seward we looked around for a campground and since Seward is a pretty small town, we also saw much of the town during our campground hunting. We found a place called Resurrection Bay North Campground that is right on the beach of Resurrection Bay.  There were sea otters playing in the bay while we were setting up camp.  It is a working bay so there are fishing boats and cruise ships going in and out of the bay.  One man told us he saw dolphins, sea otters, and whales in the bay this morning.

 

Seward is a nice little town with a population of 2,600.  The boat harbor is the main business in the town but there are some nice restaurants and shops for tourists along the downtown strip.  There were a couple of chain stores like Safeway and Subway and the rest of the shops/restaurants were locally owned. 

 

This town is surrounded on three sides by mountains and the other side has Resurrection Bay that flows out to the Gulf of Alaska.  The mountains have glaciers in them and some of the glaciers have minerals and silt that have turned a blue-green color making them really pretty.  The salmon don’t run here until mid-July and early August so we won’t see salmon in the creeks but there are many black bears around. 

 

We wanted to see a glacier close up so we went to Exit Glacier.  There is a visitor’s center and a walking trail that leads right up to the bottom of the glacier so we could see it and touch it.  Most of the glaciers we have seen have a lake at the base or they are so far away we can’t walk to them.  This was really a treat to see the glacier and hear all the water dripping/running from it.  There were streams of water coming out from several places on the bottom of the glacier.  We had to cross several streams to get to the glacier.  Some of the streams had rocks strategically placed as stepping-stones.  The water was rushing over some of the stepping-stones and there were many streams to cross so I think everyone got wet somewhere on our walk to the glacier.  It was comical to see some of the kids try to jump streams and almost make it.  It was also comical to see someone stay dry over a few streams only to fall in another stream.  We had a good laugh trying to get to the base of the Exit Glacier.  When we got to the base of Exit Glacier, we walked around as much of it as possible.  Chris and Cameron decided to try to jump across a stream that had a mound of land humped up on both sides about twice their height.  Cameron went first and cleared the stream but crashed into the other bank with a thud.  He said the icy bank was really hard.  Chris decided to take the jump at an angle so that he would land on the flatter area of the bank.  We got some great pictures of both boys getting some air.  They loved the pictures.  Exit Glacier is blue-green colored, 3 miles long, descends 2,500 feet and is receding at a rate of a few feet per year.   There are many shale colored rocks that are round and flat, perfect for using as skipping rocks so we spent a bit of time trying them out.  We could skip them 10-20 times in a pond formed by the streams.  I think the boys could have stayed there for a long time.  We climbed up to see the glacier from a lookout point and when we got back to the visitor’s center, we were told there were two black bears on the trail to the bottom of the glacier.  We were sad that we didn’t see them but glad that we weren’t too close.  We have been told to make lots of noise and the bears to give the bears a warning and they will probably not bother you.  I think our group of eleven is probably pretty safe as loud as we are without even trying to be loud.

Since this is our last night together, we decided to splurge for supper and try their local restaurant’s fish.  We each ordered something different so we could share and taste many different kinds of fish.  We had salmon, halibut, rockfish and shrimp.  It was delicious.

 

The last thing on our agenda was to get a shower.  I have never seen a group so enthusiastic about getting a shower.  Of course, I don’t think we have ever gone this long without one.  We each had to pay $2.00 for 10 minutes and the showers were in a drafty, public restroom that anyone in town could use but we were thrilled.

 

Cameron spent the night with us in our camper and Sarah spent the night with the cousins.  They got to stay up late talking and enjoying each other’s company one more night. 

 

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

 

Awoke to rain…again.  Soggy morning and soggy cereal.  Deaune got up earlier than the rest and went for a drive to see the bore tide again.  She said it was cool.

 

We got going and headed to Whittier.  Begish Boggs Visitor Center at Portage Glacier was just up the road from where we camped and had a lot of information about the glaciers and Portage Lake had a number of very large, bluish chunks of ice floating in it.  We spent at least an hour there before we headed out to the tunnel that connected to Whittier.

 

The tunnel cost us $12 to drive thru, and it is the longest tunnel in North America that is shared by both vehicles and trains.  There is only room for traffic one way, so you could only enter the tunnel every half hour.

 

Whittier only has a population of 117, and most of them live in a high-rise building that looks like a Veterans hospital…sort of depressing!  Aleesha wanted to go to the post office and Tim had read in the Alaska magazine that it was located in that building so we checked it out.  Aleesha thought it would be too weird to live in this town.

 

The town is a port, and as far as scenery goes, it is fantastic.  Mountains surround it, and we counted well over 20 waterfalls.  There was a cruise ship docked, and our kids had never seen one up close; it was monstrous.

The tunnel timetable was thrown off due to some train issue, so we were held up for a while.  We hiked up a trail to see a glacier, and had not been on the trail very long before we saw fresh “evidence” that a bear was nearby.  We hiked the trail anyway with a watchful eye and making lots of noise.

 

There were several large areas of snowfall, and the kids attempted to slide down the snow on their ponchos, but the snow was not cooperative; all we got out of it was one ripped jacket and some bruised buns and a good time.

 

Supper tonight was incredible.  We were going to have kabobs but since it was raining and we couldn’t have a campfire we decided that it would be easier to cook in skillets on the stoves.  We had thickly cut and cubed London broil round steak seasoned and cooked with onions, green peppers and mushrooms.  We also cooked potatoes and onions to go with it.  It was so good.  Since we are in bear country, we have to be careful not to leave anything food related around our campsite.  Every time after we eat, we take our trash to the dumpster which has special handles that bears cannot use.  We also need to properly dispose of our dishwater so that the bears aren’t attracted to it but at this campground there is not a place for that kind of garbage so we are just dumping it over by the water pump, which is away from all the campsites.

Tuesday, June 24^th, 2008

 

Moving day again and the weather is beautiful today.  While Tim and Doug went to pick up repaired vehicles, the rest of the crew packed up the campers and got things ready for travel.  We said goodbye to our Wasilla friends and headed south through and past Anchorage.  We stopped at a grocery store called Three Bears to get groceries for the next few days.  Milk was $4.00/gallon; apples were $3.49/pound; bananas were $2.45/pound and not worth buying.  At home these bananas would have been wrapped with tap and on clearance.  My sister-in-law said that she didn’t really like apples and tomatoes when she lived in Anchorage and maybe it was because they were so expensive that she didn’t get them very often and when she did get them they were not at their best.  It must be very expensive for the stores to get fresh produce in Alaska.  We have been to several Wal-Mart’s in Alaska and none of them have a fresh produce section although some of them did have a food store.  Even Wal-Mart has a hard time getting fresh produce in Alaska.  We haven’t had a banana, apple, or any other fresh fruit since we left home.  We have purchased a head of lettuce for $1.29 and a clearance bag of spinach leaves for $0.99.  Baby carrots in a bag are less than $2.00 so we have had some salads.  But we haven’t had any tomatoes because they are $4.00/pound and like our tomatoes in the winter. 

 

On the way thru Anchorage, a vent cover came off Doug’s camper, and it was destroyed (we ran over it, and it busted into little bitty pieces).  We stopped for a cheap bite at Taco Bell, and there was a RV place right across the street that had just what he needed.  (God moment #1).  After lunch, we headed down the road, and had not gone very far when our sister in law Becky told us over the walkie talkies that a childhood friend of hers had just pulled up beside them and recognized her (Becky lived in Anchorage for until she was 10 years old).  We followed her to her house and hung out there for a few minutes (God moment #2).  Our kids thought that was the weirdest thing, running into an old friend in Anchorage, 4,000 miles from home in a city of 230,000.

 

The drive through Anchorage was much different that we expected. There are a lot of mountains around Anchorage and it is a very pretty city.  Before this trip, we were advised that we should just skip Anchorage because it is just like any other big city.  I am sure it is just like it in many ways too.  Anchorage has water around part of it and Turnagain Arm intrigued us.  It is on the south side (I think I have my directions straight) of Anchorage and it is a narrow area where ocean water comes in and out with the tides.  We saw it first at low tide when the mud flats are visible.  Mud flats are just the land under the water but it is mud and silt from the mountains so it looks like sand but it is gray like shale.  The Milepost (our Alaska guide book) advised us that it is dangerous to walk out on the mud flats because the sand there can act like quick sand.  The Milepost also told us about something called a bore tide.  Because the tide comes in and out in such a narrow area and there is 33 feet difference in the water depth between low tide and high tide, the water comes in and out very quickly.  A couple hours after low tide, the water comes back into Turnagain Arm as a wave that can be as big as 6 feet tall and then it curls around like a wave that could be surfed.  Of course this wave is not as big as a surf wave but I guess people have been known to try to surf this wave. We didn’t see anyone trying it. Beluga whales can be seen with the bore tides. Also at low tide eagles visit the mud flats and we got to see several eagles, some bald eagles and some American eagles.  Since we were driving by during low tide we decided to find a campsite and then come back to see if we could see a bore tide.  They had a visitor’s center along Turnagain Arm so we checked the Internet for the time of the bore tide.

 

We have graduated to a new level of camping status.  There was a campground that had flush toilets and showers but the campsites were in a parking lot so we went on.  We chose a campground because it is beautiful but it doesn’t have flush toilets or showers and we might stay two nights.  We have never done that before (and might not ever do it again).  As a matter of fact, we didn’t think we would ever choose a campground that didn’t have flush toilets when we began this trip.  We (us girls) were a bit worried that we might not have any choice but to have to stay in one of those campgrounds with pit toilets.  Now here we are and no one has complained a bit.  We have used many pit toilets on this trip at rest stops and when we are sight seeing but only when we are desperate and nothing else is available.  The campground we stayed at was Williwaw USFS Campground and it was in the Portage Glacier valley with glaciers all around us.  The creeks are blue green colored from the glacier runoff that has minerals and silt in it.  Some of the glaciers have a blue green color to them and others are white like snow.  There is a blue green glacier just above our campsite. It is beautiful. 

 

Monday, June 23, 2008

 

My brother in law and I got up early and made arrangements through a friend of our host family to get our vehicles checked out.  While we waited to get them in, we fixed a big breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and sausage.  We had bought the sausage w/out reading the fine print – it was sweet Italian sausage – very lean, but it would have tasted much better on a pizza than for breakfast.  O well…

 

Both vehicles are Chevy’s, and both had their “check engine soon” lights come on.  The guy who ran the diagnostics on the vehicles was a minister whose shop was right at the church he ministered at!  His name was Jayme, and he had a gun strapped to his hip…a pistol packing preacher/mechanic.  He was able to get both vehicles up and running (catalytic converters – probably bad gas in Canada).

 

In the afternoon, the kids took a break from 4-wheeling and we headed to the Iditarod headquarters a few miles away; the official starting point for the Iditarod, a dogsled race that runs in March every year and covers well over 2,000 miles from Wasilla to Nome.  The history behind the race is back in the 1920’s Nome was on the verge of being wiped out by diphtheria, and the village was so isolated the only way to get serum to them was by dogsled.  The movie “Balto” is about this as well. 

 

They had a good video, and some dogs were outside that would pull you around for $10.  They looked pretty skinny, not much like the dogs in the video. 

 

We grabbed some Papa Murphy’s pizza and stopped by a store to get a few 2-liter bottles of pop.  The pop was on sale for $2.00/bottle for all Pepsi, Coke and RC products so we had the Big K brand for $1.39/bottle.  We had a fun evening playing Guesstures (boys won) before hitting the bed around 12:30. 

 

Sunday, June 22, 2008

This was a traveling day, so after breakfast we packed up and headed south towards Anchorage. The family we are traveling with have friends in Wasilla, a small town north of Anchorage. They had room for both campers in their driveway, so we unhooked there and enjoyed their hospitality for a couple of days, catching up on laundry and getting things checked out on our vehicles. The kids went 4-wheeling while the parents talked about life on the road.

Our host family was former Kansans, and 5 years ago they took off on a great adventure of their own. They traveled several months across 22 states, and ended up in Alaska, where they have put down some shallow roots.

After a great supper of burgers, brats, and even some steak, we hit the hay.

Our email is down, so we are not able to receive any email messages right now. One of the joys of being in Alaska.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

 

Sort of a lazy morning with good weather, so we had a larger breakfast then went on a hike to Horseshoe Lake.  It was a short hike that was not too difficult, and once we got to the lake, we enjoyed the view.  We had walked to a point of the trail that dead-ended at one end of the lake, and were surprised by a very large moose and her calf that came up behind us, cutting across to the lake.  These animals are huge, and kill more people than bears – and the momma’s are especially aggressive if they feel their young are in danger.  We moved slowly away, and then watched them as they grazed in the lake.  We got some great pictures. 

 

We had an early supper of chicken and noodles along w/mashed potatoes.  You would have thought we were cooking for a small army, but nothing was wasted and we were well fed before our journey down the Nanana on our rafts.

The trip was 11 miles long.  Becky and the smaller kids took the McKinley run that went down a tamer section of the river w/ class I, II, &III rapids.  The scenery was great and they had a great time.  The older kids and the other adults went on the Canyon run that took rapids up to class IV.  It was good stuff, but if you have rafted in Colorado, this was a little tamer.  We all wore dry suits that were a hoot to put on- they have rubberized gaskets around wrist, ankle, and neck openings to prevent any water from getting in – which is important since the temperature of the water is 34 degrees!

 

When we finished rafting, everyone was hungry so we stopped in at a pizza joint called Lynx Creek Pizza right across from the rafting office.  A young couple that was on their honeymoon that rafted w/us recommended it.  It was very good, and since it was a fairly clear evening we headed up the road to hopefully get a final peek at McKinley, but we were disappointed once again; did I mention it is only visible about 20% of the time?

 

Bedtime was very late, well after midnight.  We are getting very good at staying up way too late!

Friday, June 20, 2008

 

Brilliant sunshine, a rarity around here, started off our day, so we got up and headed out to see McKinley after a pancake breakfast.  We drove in as far as we could, and finally had some good glimpses of the mountain.  It is so huge it looks unreal.  We also saw some other critters, and a caribou that came so close to the vehicle that Deaune, who was taking pictures, scrambled back in quickly.

 

During the winter months, the only way the park is patrolled is by dogsled, and we visited a dogsled demonstration.  The dogs love to run, so they were all barking as the ranger described what they do.  The dogs have been a part of the park since it’s inception, so it was interesting hearing the history.  There were 8 puppies as well, so the kid’s really enjoyed holding them.

 

Today was kind of a lazy day around camp, but we made reservations to raft tomorrow.  The rapids are categorized from mild (class 1) to wild (class 5), and the trip we are on will encounter class 4 rapids.  Did I mention the water w/be 34 degrees?

 

We took an evening trip back up the park road and it was worth the drive.  A caribou was strolling down the center of the road, and then two huge moose came up and crossed the road right in front of the caribou.  It was a true Kodak moment!

 

We made it back to the campsite and had a late (but that is normal now) supper of hamburgers and brats around 10:30.  Someone commented that we have not spent any time playing cards or games before we go to bed, but that is hard to squeeze in when you don’t finish cleaning up much before midnight!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

 

Woke up to a light rain, ate a quick bowl of cereal, and made our way to the bus that will take us 87 miles into the park.   We can only drive about 15 miles into Denali and then you have to be on a bus shuttle or tour to go farther.  When we arrived in the park last night, we were charged $20 for the entrance fee for a week.  Considering we paid $20/day entrance fee at Banff National Park, Denali seemed like a great deal.  After we stopped at the Visitor’s Center and found out the price for a bus ride through the park, we realized why the entrance fee is not too high. 

 

We boarded the bus at the Wilderness Activity Center in Denali National Park at 9:00 in the morning and we were all on time thanks to Tim’s prodding.  About half the riders are from Germany, so there was a definite language barrier.  Our driver was from Ohio, and this is her 8^th year to come to Denali to drive bus tours.  She was very good at giving info, and stopped when we saw wildlife.

 

11 hours on a school bus is one long day, but we did see some really great sights. We got to see 5 grizzly bears (two were cubs), lots of snowshoe hare, a bull moose, a white-tailed red fox catching something (a squirrel or snowshoe hare), some caribou, many dall sheep, a male and female ptarmigan, a wolf, golden eagles, and artic ground squirrels.  Our bus took us from our campground area to Wonder Lake. We got to see Mt. McKinley briefly before the clouds covered it.  Our trip through the park was mostly in the sunshine but there were clouds in the sky and they covered Mt. McKinley.  Now that we know where to look for Mt. McKinley, we can look for it on our own the next few days. 

 

We got back to our campers around 9, ate spaghetti for supper, and fell into bed.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

This was our last morning in Fairbanks, and our host family provided breakfast for us and they really outdid themselves – sausage and egg casserole, coffee cake, mixed fruit, juices, milk, coffee, hot chocolate…yum! After hugs and goodbyes, we hit the road, but we didn’t get very far. Fairbanks is the only large city we will see for days, so we stocked up on provisions and gas.

Heading south to Denali National Park, we came to a town called Nenana. This little town is made famous for a ice festival celebrating the thaw of the Nenana River. They place a wooden tripod (quite large) out on the frozen river, and a cable is attached to a clock tower. People bet on the precise day and time the river will thaw enough to topple the tripod – last year it paid $303,000 to the winner! People bet $2.50 per guess.

We arrived at Denali late afternoon, and were very fortunate to find two camping spots close to each other – we won’t have to move out of the park for 5 days! The sites are great, but don’t have water or electricity, but for $4, you can take a shower for as long as you want! They also have bear concerns here, so we need to stow anything food related in the vehicle.

After a supper of sloppy joes and salad (Chris has cereal – he had not had cereal for a long time and was missing it), we called it a day and headed for bed. It is 11:40 and still light enough to read a book outside.

It is cloudy, and we are praying for sunshine tomorrow as we are taking a long all-day bus tour into the furthest reaches of the park. We will leave at 9:15 a.m. and get back at 8:15 p.m.!

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

 

This morning we woke to rain but a pleasant temperature.  We had biscuits and gravy for breakfast.  The dutch oven cooked over a low heat warmed our biscuits from Sam’s another dutch oven warmed our gravy from Sam’s.  It was great. 

 

After breakfast we drove about an hour north on Chena Hot Springs Road to Angel Rock trailhead which was near Chena Hot Springs.  This hike was recommended by our host family and some of the locals who visited with us yesterday at Pioneer Village.  Our MilePost book called the hike strenuous but we decided to trust the locals and try it.  It had been rain off and on most of the morning.  We were hoping that the rain was just in Fairbanks and we would drive out of it going to the trailhead but that was not the case.  We saw quite a few moose on the drive to Angel Rock.  Some of the moose were by the side of the road and some were standing in a shallow pond eating.  They are interesting animals looking like they belong in a comic book.

 

The hike to Angel Rocks was a 3.5 mile hike, and our family has never taken a hike that was not adventurous.  The first half of the hike was pretty routine, except that Sarah kept wondering why this particular hike just went up and not down, and the mosquitoes were having a feast. 

 

The goal of our hike was some amazing rock formations, and of course the kids wanted to climb up them.  The result was some pretty scary stuff; mom’s yelling at kids to sit down before they fell, etc.  We all discovered that while climbing up the steep rocks is a challenge, it is nothing compared to climbing back down.  But the best was yet to come…

 

Once off the cliffs, we began our downward descent, which by this point was very slippery, compounded by a trail that was incredibly steep.  Most everyone fell down at some point, but we all eventually made it down, some of us covered in mud.  The mosquitoes were waiting for us in the parking lot, so we dove into our rides and headed out.  On the drive back to Fairbanks, we saw several more moose.  They love boggy areas, and spend quite a bit of their time with their heads underwater munching on veggies.

 

We got back late, like usual, so the mom’s made a quick trip to Taco Bell (way to go, moms!!)  We ate in our screen tent; all of us can fit in, and we are entertained by watching the bugs line up on the screen waiting for victims to come out. 

 

Went to bed around 11:30 with the sun still setting…

Monday, June 16, 2008 - Tim’s birthday.

 

We cooked breakfast burritos then headed into town to check things out.  Fairbanks is a good town to catch your breath, but not a huge tourist town.  Being cheap, we checked out a place called Pioneer Town – it was primarily a place for the locals to sell their homemade creations, but is housed in buildings w/historic value.  They had a great museum (the kid’s loved that part!!), a train that circled the village, and a paddleboat that had ran the rivers in that part of Alaska for years.

 

We got some information on a Salmon bake, and since the kids were more interested in seeing a movie than eating salmon, we fed them Sam’s pizza and they watched Kung Fu Panda while we ate at the Fairbanks Salmon Bake across the street.  It was definitely not cheap, but it was good!  Grilled salmon, fried cod and halibut, prime rib, salad, desert, drink – all you could eat.  Since most of the items were new to us, we sampled them all…several times!  It was the kind of meal that makes you so full you think you won’t need to eat again for days.

 

We went back to Living Water, and the kids played ball, went to the petting zoo, and just had a great time taking advantage of the endless Alaska evenings.  Made it to bed in daylight at midnight.

 

 

Sunday, June 15^th – Father’s Day (my kids forgot to get me anything…o well…)

 

Woke up at 9:30 and we all took quick showers before heading to church with our “host family” at Bethel Church in Fairbanks.  It was a great church to attend; good worship, lot’s of families and kids. 

 

Lunch was provided by our host family, and it was scrumptious!  Burgers, hot dogs, sausage, chicken, chips, beans, peach tea…and followed up with warm homemade rhubarb and raisin pie and ice cream…sorry, I think I just drooled on the laptop…there, I wiped it off.  It was the best meal we have had for days and days! 

 

After lunch they showed us around the camp.  It has been in existence for 50 years and is very cool.  It specializes in horses, but also has a petting zoo (Sarah and cousins were able to bottle feed baby goats) rock climbing wall, archery, rifle range…and best of all???  Free showers and flush toilets! 

 

This has been a very relaxing day; the first day we have been able to unpack the trailer and put overflow stuff in the tent (provided by the Keen’s, of course).  The kids are playing soccer, and everyone is glad to be in one spot for a few days.

 

We heard Manhattan had a bad tornado and the weather has been bad in Topeka; we have been praying for you all every day.  I spoke w/my folks today for the first time since we left, and they told us things are going well at church – good sermons by Randy and Eric.  The pressure is on for Terry and Travis!  It is good to know the church is not dependent on me, and God has blessed us with tremendous leaders, teachers, and servants!

 

As I close this day, it is 11:50 and it is still light enough outside you can take a walk w/out a flashlight.  If we had known it was going to be like this (we had read it, but didn’t believe it) we would have left the lantern at home!

 

Mileage for the day: 0

Temperature high: 75

Camping fee: $0

Price for gasoline: $4.23/gal

Saturday, June 14, 2008

 

We woke up to sunshine in Dawson City (pop. 1,500). Dawson City is different from Dawson Creek which is the beginning of the Alaska Highway.  This was our warmest day yet starting out at 67 degrees.  Dawson City is a gold mining town.  The city is sitting on gravel and dust that was dredged up from the Yukon River bed when dredging for gold.  Dredging is the commercial way of panning for gold. 

 

We looked aound at the town of Dawson City for a little while today.  We saw the SS Keno which was the last steamer to run on the Yukon from Whitehorse to Dawson City where it is located now.   We also read about a boat called the Princess Sophia that sank in 1918 with 345 people on after running into a reef in the ocean.

 

Leaving Dawson City we took a free ferry ride across the Yukon River.  It was a little eerie after just reading about the Princess Sophia boat sinking.  Our ferry ride was great.  We drove our vehicles and campers onto the ferry.  We stayed inside our vehicles and attendants put blocks around our tires.  They ferry was long enough that our two vehicles and campers filled one lane and there were two lanes.  No one was in the other lane so we had our own private ferry ride across the river.  The river was flowing very fast so the ferry couldn’t go straight across the river.  We floated across and then the boat motored us into the current to the bank where we drove off the ferry.  It felt very strange to be sitting in our vehicle but moving sideways.  What a great experience for all of us.

 

We left Dawson City and took the Top of the World Highway to the Canada/US border.  The highway was in the worst condition of any highway we have been on so far.  It is correctly named,  and has some of the most beautiful views we have ever seen.  There were a number of times when Deaune would lean towards me while we were driving – there were no guard rails and the cliffs were scary.  (Tim is writing a few paragraphs while Deaune is doing laundry – she gave me a break since it is Father’s Day…)

 

We finally crossed the border into Alaska at 1:10 Saturday afternoon; so good to be back in the U.S.A.!  No more metrics, kilometers, or incredibly high gas prices.  The view at the crossing was unbelievable; you could probably see over 50 miles; mountain range after mountain range.  We got out and had our traditional road lunch of sandwiches and chips and walked on the tundra (we were above tree line).  It was like walking on a moon bounce or a sponge, according to Aleesha (she got tundra in her toes, but she doesn’t want me to mention that…when you see her ask her if she recovered from “tundra toe”.)

 

After lunch we drove to Chicken Alaska.  Not sure why it is famous, but it was a true tourist trap, for the few tourists that make it that far.  Late afternoon, we reconnected back onto the Alaska Highway (the last 3 days had been an alternate route for viewing pleasure) and were finally able to drive 60 mph.  Yes!

 

We arrived at Fairbanks at 10:15 and are staying at a camp called Living Water Ranch.  It is a church camp, and they have made us very welcome.  The folks who run the camp are friends of friends, and have Kansas connections.  It’s good to know people!  We dropped the campers and went into town to eat, and found a McDonalds that was still serving thru the drivethru.  The super value menu is our friend!  We were eating at midnite in the parking lot, and the sun was just setting…but it really doesn’t set, it just slides over and comes up around 4.  Amazing! 

 

I could handle summers here, but winter’s would be a bear with sunlight only a few hours a day.  When we go to sleep, it is still quite light out, and it never gets dark. 

 

Saturday, June 14, 2008

 

We woke up to sunshine in Dawson City (pop. 1,500). Dawson City is different from Dawson Creek which is the beginning of the Alaska Highway.  This was our warmest day yet starting out at 67 degrees.  Dawson City is a gold mining town.  The city is sitting on gravel and dust that was dredged up from the Yukon River bed when dredging for gold.  Dredging is the commercial way of panning for gold. 

 

We looked aound at the town of Dawson City for a little while today.  We saw the SS Keno which was the last steamer to run on the Yukon from Whitehorse to Dawson City where it is located now.   We also read about a boat called the Princess Sophia that sank in 1918 with 345 people on after running into a reef in the ocean.

 

Leaving Dawson City we took a free ferry ride across the Yukon River.  It was a little eerie after just reading about the Princess Sophia boat sinking.  Our ferry ride was great.  We drove our vehicles and campers onto the ferry.  We stayed inside our vehicles and attendants put blocks around our tires.  They ferry was long enough that our two vehicles and campers filled one lane and there were two lanes.  No one was in the other lane so we had our own private ferry ride across the river.  The river was flowing very fast so the ferry couldn’t go straight across the river.  We floated across and then the boat motored us into the current to the bank where we drove off the ferry.  It felt very strange to be sitting in our vehicle but moving sideways.  What a great experience for all of us.

 

We left Dawson City and took the Top of the World Highway to the Canada/US border.  The highway was in the worst condition of any highway we have been on so far.  It is correctly named,  and has some of the most beautiful views we have ever seen.  There were a number of times when Deaune would lean towards me while we were driving – there were no guard rails and the cliffs were scary.  (Tim is writing a few paragraphs while Deaune is doing laundry – she gave me a break since it is Father’s Day…)

 

We finally crossed the border into Alaska at 1:10 Saturday afternoon; so good to be back in the U.S.A.!  No more metrics, kilometers, or incredibly high gas prices.  The view at the crossing was unbelievable; you could probably see over 50 miles; mountain range after mountain range.  We got out and had our traditional road lunch of sandwiches and chips and walked on the tundra (we were above tree line).  It was like walking on a moon bounce or a sponge, according to Aleesha (she got tundra in her toes, but she doesn’t want me to mention that…when you see her ask her if she recovered from “tundra toe”.)

 

After lunch we drove to Chicken Alaska.  Not sure why it is famous, but it was a true tourist trap, for the few tourists that make it that far.  Late afternoon, we reconnected back onto the Alaska Highway (the last 3 days had been an alternate route for viewing pleasure) and were finally able to drive 60 mph.  Yes!

 

We arrived at Fairbanks at 10:15 and are staying at a camp called Living Water Ranch.  It is a church camp, and they have made us very welcome.  The folks who run the camp are friends of friends, and have Kansas connections.  It’s good to know people!  We dropped the campers and went into town to eat, and found a McDonalds that was still serving thru the drivethru.  The super value menu is our friend!  We were eating at midnite in the parking lot, and the sun was just setting…but it really doesn’t set, it just slides over and comes up around 4.  Amazing! 

 

I could handle summers here, but winter’s would be a bear with sunlight only a few hours a day.  When we go to sleep, it is still quite light out, and it never gets dark.