alaska adventure

2008-07-08T08:51:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-07-07T19:32:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-07-06T19:31:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-07-05T19:30:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-04T23:09:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-07-03T10:04:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-07-02T10:04:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-07-01T10:03:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-06-30T10:03:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-06-29T10:02:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-06-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-27T20:44:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-06-26T20:43:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-06-25T20:42:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-06-24T20:41:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-06-23T20:40:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-06-22T20:39:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-06-22T13:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-21T20:37:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-06-20T13:02:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-06-19T13:01:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-06-18T18:01:00.000-07:00

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.!

2008-06-17T17:59:00.000-07:00

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…

2008-06-16T17:58:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-06-15T17:57:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-14T17:56:00.001-07:00

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.

2008-06-14T17:56:00.000-07:00

Saturday, June 14, 2008

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.

2008-06-13T10:41:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 13, 2008

Tim and Doug cooked pancakes while Deaune and Becky ran. It is always nice to have a warm meal. The temperature this morning is 53 degrees according to the thermometer in the suburban so it was perfect weather for a run. The younger kids went to the playground this morning after eating breakfast while the older kids helped with clean up and breaking down camp. They have motivation this morning as we told them they could get on-line after they were done. They can really get their work done fast when they want to.

Our Internet access seems to be pretty sporadic. Sometimes we find a campground with Internet but it isn’t a strong signal so we can get online but can’t stay connected very long.

Our drive today (Lord willing) is planned to be from the Continental Divide, YT (between Watson Lake and Whitehorse) to Dawson City, YT.

Our Milepost book says the Continental Divide where we stayed last night divides 2 of the largest drainage systems in North America—the Yukon River and Mackenzie River watersheds. Water draining west from this point drain into the Yukon River and continue a northwest journey of 2,300 miles to the Bering Sea (Pacific Ocean). Water that drains to the east forms the Rancheria River which flows into the Liard River (the Hot Springs river) and then the Mackenzie River. These waters flow northward and empty in the Beaufort Sea (Artic Ocean) after a journey of 2,650 miles.

The drive leaving from the Continental Divide to Teslin, YT was very dusty. The road was so dusty that when a semi (going the opposite direction) passed us we could not see for a little while. We couldn’t even see the lines on the road; it was a little scary. Then there was a street sweeper that was cleaning the opposite lane. Again we could not see anything at all. Several of the campsites have advertised that they have RV washes and now we see why.

The scenery today has been beautiful and the weather has been very nice. We have driven into a few sprinkles along the way but most of the day we have been in sunshine. At Whitehorse, we found the first Wal-Mart and chain stores/restaurants since Dawson Creek (almost 900 miles and two day of driving). Wow that is a lot of area without a real grocery store or fast food restaurant.

At Whitehorse we took the Klondike Loop north to Dawson City. This road had permafrost heaves (or at least what we think were permafrost heaves)

The only wildlife we have seen today has been about a dozen bunnies running for their lives to get off the road.

2008-06-12T10:23:00.000-07:00

Thursday, June 12, 2008

We started the day at the Northern Rockies Lodge and Campground. It is right on the shore of the Muncho Lake. The Muncho Lake is known for its fishing and blue-green waters. The weather is beautiful today and the sun came up very early. I am not sure how early because our clock’s battery is dead. There are two floatplanes at the campground and they both took off before 9:00 this morning so we got to see them take off. Deaune got to run and oh was it nice after sitting in the car for so many days. Sarah fished with her cousins and they got some bites but the fish got away before they could get a fish to the shore. They said it was great to get to fish even if they didn’t catch anything.

We have gone 3000 miles since we left home as of 10:00 am PST today. Not all of those miles have been on the highway driving to Alaska but most of them are. WOW, we have never been this far away from home. It really doesn’t seem like we could be that far from home.

After a delicious breakfast of Corn Flakes and juice we went to Liard River Hot Springs. It was only about 15 minutes from our campground where we stayed. Chris saw a little bear in the ditch beside the road right after we left the campground but we didn’t stop and the rest of us didn’t see him.

The water at Liard River Hot Springs is very warm so we got out our swimming suits and went for a dip in the springs. We had to walk ½ mile on a boardwalk to the hot springs. The boardwalk went over some marshy land with very clear shallow water, which reminded us of Yellowstone. There were little minnow-sized fish in the shallow marshy waters. After we got to the springs everyone got in but the water was so hot that it took some time getting used to it. Aleesha wasn’t too sure she wanted to be in the spring water because it is a sulfur spring and smelled like it. She didn’t want to smell like that for the rest of the day and they didn’t have showers. She finally got in and had a good time with her family. There were three different pools each had water a different temperature but all were hot. The hot springs had water that was about waist deep and had gravel on the bottom. The length of the springs was probably less than 50 yards and the width was less than 20 yards. It had the hottest water on one end and a little creek that was cold on the other end. I don’t know how there could be such extreme water temperature changes in that small area. There was a log that spanned the width of the hot springs and we took turns playing “king of the log.” One area of hot springs was so hot that it was hard to stand in it. The tradition of these springs is that you get a rock from the spring’s floor and place it on a rock pile on the far side of the hottest area. You have to cross the hottest area to accomplish this great feat. Everyone in our group put a rock on the pile except Aleesha. Sarah swam in the coolest pool like it was a swimming pool. We all had a great time.

We had lunch at the Hot Springs and put our wet things on the picnic tables to dry. The humidity level here is so low that our things dried quite a bit while we ate our lunch.

Just outside the gate of Laird Hot Springs we encountered a problem with the camper’s tire. Some of the lug nuts were loose. The weather was beautiful so it was a good day to be broke down for a bit. We have had some rainy days that would have made changing a tire a mess with all the traffic passing us and throwing up dirty water. An old mechanic named Homer helped us out fixing the lug nuts so they were tight against the tire and he only charged us $20. We were so blessed today that our breakdown was not serious. It did make us think about how bad a breakdown could be out here in the middle of no-where. When we broke down, the next repair shop was 150 miles away and that is only a town with a population of 1,500. Our Milepost recommends getting repairs down in Whitehorse, which is, a bigger town but it is 410 miles away.

Since there are not any towns on this section of the Alaska Highway, we are paying a small fortune for gasoline. In a stretch of highway maybe 100 miles or more long there might only be two or three places along the side of the road to get gas. These are little spots in the road where you could camp, lodge, gas up, and get a bite to eat. The costs for any of their services are very high, as they know that they have no competition and can charge what they want.

It is interesting to note that we have seven children in our two families and we have not seen hardly any other children in since Calgary, Alberta. We have seen a few people with little toddlers and babies but the school-aged and teenagers have not been in the areas where we have been. Canada’s schools are in session until the end of June but we thought we would see children from other areas traveling in Canada.

The Alaska Highway is about as wide as 24 Highway and it is mostly asphalt with gravel on top like our street back home but the scenery is very different. We have been driving the last two days in the Northern Rocky Mountains of Canada and they are beautiful. We have seen 4 black bears and 1 cub, 1 brown bear, 4 horses, and several buffalo as we drove today.

The drive from Dawson Creek to Watson Lake has been so pretty. We have driven through the Rocky Mountains some covered in snow. We have seen beautiful lakes, creeks, and rivers along the side of the road. The area is heavily treed which we would call forests but we haven’t seen signs saying that we are in a forest. And of course we have seen animals that we don’t usually get to see except at a zoo. Most days we have had both rain and sun. It has been nice that when we have had rain it hasn’t caused us too much problem.

We stopped at the Sign Post Forrest, which is also the Visitor’s Center in the town of Watson Lake. The Sign Post Forrest is an area where there are thousands of signposts from all over the world. Anyone can put up a sign from his or her hometown. The Sign Post Forrest began in 1942 during WW II and the construction of the Alaska Highway. The American Army posted directions for the soldiers to various points of interest in the Yukon and then added signs for New York, Chicago and Tokyo. A homesick soldier added his own signpost with the distance to his hometown. Since then thousands have added their signpost naming places all over the world.

We ate supper at Watson Lake at a little restaurant/convenience store across the street from the Sign Post Forrest. Their hamburgers were $9 or $10 so we had chicken which was a little less expensive for our family, $32 for all of us. We had fried chicken and mojos. Mojos are potato wedges that are deep fat fried and seasoned. They were very good. Since we are no longer around any sizable grocery stores, our food expenses are very high. When we do find a grocery store, the prices are about twice what they would be at home. The store we went to last night had dusty boxes and cans of food on the shelves. It made us wonder how long they had been on the shelves. We are all healthy and eating pretty well. No one is complaining about the food which is nice because everyday it is cereal for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. As we try to travel and see as much as we can, there is just not time for preparing hot food.

The road north of Watson Lake is lined with hundreds of stone messages on the sides of the road. There are people’s names and messages like “Will you marry me?” made out of stones for many miles down the road.

We drove a little more than an hour down the road to Continental Divide Campground where we stayed the night. They had a place where we could was our vehicles so Tim and Doug took advantage of that. Even though we are driving on pavement, it has gravel patches in places and sometimes it is very dusty so our vehicles were covered in dust.

The campground was nice and had a playground that our kids enjoyed. They also had free firewood but we were ready to call it a night so we showered and then went to bed in daylight.

Driving today was from Muncho Lake, BC to Continental Divide, Yukon

Mileage for the day: 261

Temperature high: 70

Camping fee: $25.00

Price for gasoline: $1.42.9/liter to 1.66.9/liter

2008-06-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Tim went to the auto parts store early this morning to get some oil for the vehicle and found out the time was one hour earlier than we expected. I guess we crossed into Pacific Time zone yesterday and didn’t even know it. We had cereal and juice for breakfast.

Today we get on the Alaskan Highway as it begins here in Dawson Creek, British Colombia. There is a place in town at the official beginning of the Alaskan Highway called Mile 0 so we had to get our picture taken there. There were many people getting their picture taken so we asked someone to take a picture of our whole group.

The Alaskan Highway was built in 1942 to be a military highway.

The Alaskan Highway is a two-lane road and so far it have been paved with some areas very nice with a shoulder and other places there is no shoulder. We went through one area that didn’t have any markings on the road for the centerline or the edges of the road. There has been a little bit of construction. Of course since this is only a two-lane road, any construction reduces the road to one lane and means we have to stop and wait for our turn. Some parts of the road are gravel and we are not sure whether that is temporary until it can be fixed or if it is fixed. We are currently stopped at a construction site and they told us it would be a five to ten minute wait. They are filling a very large chuckhole with gravel. We are actually waiting for the work to be done not waiting for our turn with the traffic. The chuckhole is one lane wide and the equipment is in the other lane so we will wait until they are finished before we proceed.

Our first stop this morning was at the Shepherd Inn where they specialize in fresh baked items. Their baked goods were very big so we decided there would be enough for everyone to have a taste. We bought a cinnamon roll, a blueberry muffin, a raspberry bar, and a no bake cookie. They were delicious and worth the stop.

There are signs all along the highway warning us to watch out for wildlife but most of the way the signs have seemed like they were teasing us. We have heard that there are bears, caribou, deer, stone sheep, elk, and moose. We got to see stone sheep, deer and a moose. The moose was actually in the road in front of the vehicle ahead of us. Once the moose decided to move, he tried to run and it appears that God didn’t make them for running quickly or for great distances like horses. The moose ran like he was pretty uncoordinated.

Becky remembered Muncho Lake as a place her family went to when she was a child. They also went to Liard River Hot Springs so we are planning to go there tomorrow.

We have been driving most of the evening in beautiful sunshine but when we got the our final destination (our campground) it started raining and the temperature was cold so we were sad that we would have to set up camp in the rain. After we registered and pulled the campers around to the campsite the rain quit and we got to set up camp without rain. Thank you God.

We cooked spaghetti over our camp stoves and had French bread, corn, salad, carrot and celery sticks and it was the best meal we have had for a few days.

Driving today was from Dawson Creek to Muncho Lake.

Mileage for the day: 457

Temperature high: 60’s

Camping fee: $34.00

Price for gasoline: $1.66.9/liter

2008-06-10T23:11:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

This morning on the way to the wash room (that’s what it is called up here), we got to see an elk sitting not far from our campsite. It stayed there for a few hours chewing the cud. When it got up to leave, we could see there was a baby with it. It wasn’t long before another momma elk and her baby joined them to walk around the campground. The babies were eating grass but stayed very close to their moms. We feel very blessed to have seen so many animals in the last 24 hours. The campground staff told us it is calving season. I don’t think these babies were very old.

We stayed at a very nice campground last night. There was a small creek running at the side of our campsite. We had a cross a little bridge to get to the washrooms. After breakfast we showered and then packed up to get on the road again. We stopped in Jasper to get gas and a few groceries. Gas was 136.9/liter and milk was almost $5.00/gal. Ouch!!

We left Jasper on highway 16 to go to Hinton and then north to Great Prairie and Dawson Creek. Not far from Jasper we saw several elk in a grassy area and then a few more miles down the road we got to see a moose and then a momma moose and her baby. The baby was so cute. It stayed very close to its mom and followed wherever she went. It would be great to know how old the baby was. It didn’t appear to be very old.

It was rainy today with a few periods of sunshine. We are so glad that if it was going to rain it rained today instead of yesterday when we were driving through the ice fields. We wouldn’t have been able to see the mountaintops and the glaciers if it had been very cloudy. We still can’t believe the blessing yesterday of seeing so many animals roaming wild by the roadside.

We stopped today for a picnic lunch in the Rocky Mountains at the Pierre Grey’s Lake Provincial Recreation Area. There was a pit toilet and a picnic table. We had our usual sandwiches. Each day we get different chips to give us some variety. How did those Israelites eat manna every day for 40 years? It quit raining for a little while so we could have lunch.

When we got to Grande Prairie, Alberta we found a Wal-Mart. We were so excited and we all went inside. We hadn’t seen a Wal-Mart since we left the USA. It looked just like an old Wal-Mart in the US.

Most of today was driving and the scenery was pretty driving through the Rocky Mountains. After we got out of the Rocky Mountains, there were rolling hills with trees on them.

We stopped for the night at Dawson Creek. Again we stopped late enough that everyone was starved so we had McDonalds, as they are much quicker than cooking over a campfire. We stayed the night at Mile 0 Campground. It is in Dawson Creek that we get on the Alaskan Highway. Of course we have many miles to go to actually get to Alaska but we are enjoying the scenery on the way.

Mileage for the day: 360

Temperature high: 50’s

Camping fee: $23.00

Price for gasoline: $1.38.9/liter

2008-06-09T23:09:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 9, 2008

It was really cold last night here in Banff. We could see our breath when we exhaled. After our scrambled egg and toast breakfast, we took a hike around the lake at the campground. We got to see a bald eagle flying over the lake and then land in a pine tree near the shore. When we got back to camp, we packed up to leave the Banff area and head toward Alaska.

We made a few stops in Banff so Doug’s family could see the Banff Springs Hotel (the princess castle) and the Cascade Falls. We made sandwiches for lunch at Cascade Falls and then went north on Highways 1 and 93, which is also called the Icefields Parkway to Lake Louise and then to Jasper for the night.

The drive was incredible. We drove through the Canadian Rocky Mountains and got to see lots of sites and animals. The skies were blue with some beautiful white fluffy clouds so we could see the tops of the mountains. Every few miles we got to see animals beside the road. We saw black bears, mountains goats, elk, beavers, and big horn sheep. All these animals were close to the road so that we got to see them very well. There were five different places that we saw black bears and cubs, one lying beside the road eating grass so we just watched him for a while. We were on the other side of the road in our vehicle. If we had been going the other direction, it would have been too dangerous to even stop because the bear was right by the edge of the road and the shoulders of the road are not very big. Each time we got to see an animal, we were able to stop the vehicles and watch them for a little while. God must have had a good time making all the different kinds, shapes and sizes of animals. The kids tallied up how many animals we saw. There were 8 black bears, too many elk to count, 1 mountain goat, 7 big horn sheep, and 2 beavers. We also saw beautiful mountains some with glaciers in them. The lakes are bluish green colored waters because of the glacial melt and run off. There is silt from the glaciers in the rivers so some of the rivers and creeks have a bluish milky look to them. The photographers in our family were having a great time trying to capture some of God’s wonderful creation in pictures.

We stopped at Lake Louise for a while. It is a lake surrounded by snow-covered mountains with glaciers. The lake is the beautiful turquoise color and they have boats you can rent and a hotel at the lake. The hotel is run by Fairway, which also runs the Banff Springs hotel. There was a woman playing a harp in the lobby. The hotel was very elegant so we walked through it just to see what was like. We went to the top of the hotel (all 11 of us in one small elevator), which was the 9th floor to try to see out over the lake, but there were no windows in the hallway and we couldn’t see in any of the rooms.

At one stop to see a glacier, Tim was sitting in the vehicle when some people with a French accent came up to him. They said they were trying to figure out what that was behind our vehicle (the pop up camper). They said does it come up. Tim said yes and the ends even come out. They were fascinated and walked around the camper looking at it trying to figure it out.

It snowed on us several times as we were driving through the mountains and we got to through snowballs at several of the places we stopped to see glaciers or scenery.

About 8:30 we got to Jasper, which is the end of the National Park, and we were really hungry so we found an A&W restaurant. What a great way to end a good day with a glass of A&W Root beer. The restaurant closed not long after we got our food and they had hot apple pies leftover from their day. They gave them to us and we sure enjoyed them.

We found a campground that had hookups so we stopped there. Of course all the hookup sites were taken so we stayed in the primitive campsites and God really blessed us the next morning. We set up camp before it got dark. The extra hours of daylight are sure helpful when traveling all day and then setting up camp in the evenings. We had a campfire before we went to bed. It seemed a little warmer this evening.

Mileage for the day: 450 miles

Temperature high: 50’s

Camping fee: $36.00

Price for gasoline: $1.36.9/liter

2008-06-08T23:02:00.000-07:00

Sunday, June 8, 2008

It rained quite a bit during the night and was still drizzling in the morning when we got up. We had scrambled eggs and pancakes for breakfast. Tim is quite the breakfast chef cooking with cast iron skillets over the camp stove.

We went to church at a Presbyterian church in Banff. It was a small church; probably 50 people attending but they were very nice and welcoming to us. It is good to be visitors to think about what new people coming to our church would need to know and what would make them feel welcome. The service at this church was what Tim called “high church.” The pastor wore a black robe and did some responsive reading where the pastor would read something in the bulletin and then the congregation would read in unison a response. We sang hymns (some we knew and some we didn’t) accompanied by a pianist. We missed getting to go to our church but we got to have communion with them. It was neat to know that even though we are far from home our church family was also worshipping our Savior. When the church service was over, we weren’t sure what to do so we looked for a place to have pizza. We had to look a long time to find a pizza place and it wasn’t Gambino’s but it was delicious pizza.

After lunch we got online and updated our blogspot and email Grandma and Grandpa to wish them a well as 50 years ago today they got married. We got an email from Doug and Becky saying they would be in Banff around 5 or 6 this evening. They left their house yesterday morning and were driving two long days to meet up with us in Banff. We will travel to Alaska with them and then stay with them until we get tired of each other or until it is time for us to head home. They are staying a few weeks longer than we are. We were so excited that they were actually going to be joining us today that we decided we should go hiking or something so the time would go faster.

We spent some time shopping and walking around the town of Banff. Then we stopped at the grocery store to get a little more ice and food.

We went hiking at Cirque at Upper Bankhead near Lake Minnewanka. It was only a mile round trip but we got to get up high and look out over Lake Minnewanka and the mountains. It looked like it could rain so we took our rain gear with us and it was a good thing because it did rain on us. The hike was a pretty good uphill climb. Sarah told us she likes to hike but she wanted it to be flatter which was rather funny since she has wanted to climb a steep waterfall. We walked to some old coalmines and then to the area overlooking the lake. It was beautiful. Aleesha wanted to take a picture of the clouds/fog coming into the valley but the camera battery went dead. We are thankful that God gave us a memory so that we can remember the sight even though we won’t see it again in the photographs of the trip.

We are hearing many different languages spoken around us everywhere we go. Most street signs and information signs have words in both English and French. It would make learning two languages a little easier to see both languages written on everything you see. So far every shop/restaurant worker has spoke to us in English but English sounds different up here. We haven’t heard anyone with an accent that sounded like they were from home.

While waiting for our family to arrive, we made a good fire, had supper of leftovers heated on the campfire. We also had leftover cherry turnovers and hot cocoa. After eating too much, Tim and Deaune took a walk around the lake. The skies cleared and it was beautiful to see the mountains reflecting in the lake. We got to see 2 elk that walked close to the water’s edge. They were apparently getting too close to a loon’s nest because the adult loon started squawking and throwing itself into the water to splash the elk. It was amazing to see this little waterfowl take on the big elk.

We drove into town to see check our cell phone for a message from Doug and Becky and on the way into town, we got to see many elk. Apparently the best time for viewing elk was after 10pm. It was so wonderful to see the elk.

It took Doug and Becky longer to get to Banff than they expected but they arrived safely at 11:00 pm. They had estimated their arrival time to be how long it would take to get to the Canadian border instead of to Banff, which is why the time was different. It was still a little light when Doug and Becky arrived. We helped them set up their camp, sat for a little while around the campfire and then went to bed. The sky was clear so the temperature seemed to drop and it was really cold this evening. We went to be about 12:30 and we were ready to snuggle down into the blankets and get some sleep.

Mileage for the day: 0

Temperature high: 50’s after the snow

Camping fee: $36.20

Price for gasoline: $1.30.9/liter

2008-06-07T16:36:00.001-07:00

Saturday, June 7, 2008

We woke this morning about 7:30 to the sound of raindrops on the camper. It was pretty cold in the camper so we decided to have pancakes for breakfast so we could use the stove and get a little heat. All our food was out in the vehicle (campground rules) and so Tim braved the cold and wet to get the stuff we needed. Breakfast was delicious. After breakfast, we looked outside to see that the rain had changed to snow. These had to be some of the largest snowflakes that God has ever made. If they were any bigger, they couldn't be called snowflakes; they would have to be called snowballs. Actually these looked like snowballs dropping from the sky. The snow is very wet so it doesn’t hurt when it hits you; it just splats where it hits. We were pretty cold this morning so we took showers to warm up and then we headed into town to do laundry in hopes that the rain/snow would let up by the time laundry was done. It is 34 degrees this morning.

God is so nice. After laundry, the rain/snow had quit so we went to the Banff Hot Springs. These springs are sulfur springs so the smell was strong enough that we walked around them quickly. There is an endangered snail that lives in the springs so we couldn’t feel the water with our hands or anything else. There was a cave that also had a hot spring in it. The water in the springs was bluish-green and so clear that we could see the bottom.

We went the Banff Springs Hotel that looked like a huge castle in a fairy-tale. There was a wedding party getting pictures taken at different places in the Hotel and we all thought the pictures would be beautiful. This hotel was probably the fanciest hotel that I have ever seen. It has a balcony overlooking the Cascade Falls on Bow River. The view was incredible so we decided we needed to get a closer look at those falls. Before we left the hotel we stopped at the bathrooms and instead of having a women or men’s sign on the door; these bathrooms had signs with pictures of a princess or prince. What a fun place that was.

Next stop was Cascade Falls on Bow River. The thing that made these falls so cools is that the river is quite wide where the falls are so the water churns and boils like when the tubes at Tuttle Creek are wide open. It almost makes you dizzy to look down into the waters. We enjoyed spending time at the falls.

When we got back to the campground we fixed grilled stuffed burritos. We didn’t have shredded cheese but we did have a block of cheddar cheese so Aleesha used a sharp knife and cut thin slices of cheese and then cut the slices into small pieces so it resembled shredded cheese. What a patient girl. Chris cut wood with the ax so we could have a fire. The air here is pretty dry when it is not raining so the wood wasn’t as wet as it would have been at home. Chris chopped the wood into small pieces so we could start the fire easier. For dessert we had cherry tarts, which are crescent rolls with cherry pie filling in them (one of Chris’ specialties over the fire) cooked in our sandwich cookers. Chris has his own special way of cooking his cherry tart and he found a great log to cook it with. He spends time shaping one end of the log into a point and then he puts foil over the point. Then he shapes the crescent roll over the foil and cooks it over the fire rotating it slowly like a rotisserie. When it is golden brown, he takes it off the fire and fills it with cherry pie filling. It is delicious.

We sat around the campfire until it was dark (which is probably around 11:00) since it was so nice and warm around the fire.

Mileage for the day: 0

Temperature high: 50’s

Camping fee: $36.20

Price for gasoline: $1.30.9/liter

2008-06-06T16:32:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 6, 2008

It rained during the night, but we stayed dry and warm. We woke up at 7, but it was still drizzling, so we dozed off for a while then got up and had a hearty breakfast with the sun shining down on us.

The showers at the hippy campground were cool…too cool for the girls! Aleesha was the first to shower in the frigid water. She reported to Sarah and mom how cold the water was so the girls improvised. They took turns showering, one in the shower; one getting cupfuls of warm water from the sink. It worked very well and they were pleased to have a warm “shower.”

We spent some time in Canmore getting groceries, getting online, checking messages, etc. Lunch was the value menu at McDonalds – everything tasted the same except for the ketchup, which was very sweet. The girl who took our order was French, and had some difficulty understanding our “eastern” accent.

After lunch we made our way to Banff National Park, which is beautiful but pricey! It costs $20 a day to travel in the park. Add on the cost for camping, which is $36, and it seems a little steep, but they cut the firewood for you and you can burn all you want. Our campsite is right beside Two Jack Lake (Lakeside), and it is breathtaking! The showers are great, but there are no electrical or water hookups. We will camp here until we meet up with the rest of our family who are leaving Kansas tomorrow morning.

The temperature today is in the 50’s, and hardly a bug to bug us. We saw several elk in the park.

We drove into the town of Banff to look around. It is a very nice tourist town with a beautiful view of the mountains. We saw a movie in the Visitor’s Center about Elk and they come into town of Banff to eat the grass and bushes in the parks and around homes. That would be amazing to see although we would probably not respond as the movie suggested. We are to back away slowly and quietly. I don’t think the chances of that happening are very good. The elk we have seen so far have been beside the highways and a good distance from us so that we could see them pretty well but we were not in their space.

Back at the campground for chicken and noodles cooked over the fire. We even had mashed potatoes mashed with a fork. It was delicious and very fun to cook over the open fire. We cooked s’mores for dessert, which is always a hit with our family. After sitting around the campfire for a while, we turned in for bed about 10:30 and it still looked like 7:00 in Kansas. We had no trouble sleeping. God has given the Maddocks the gift of sleeping. Hopefully we will be able to sleep in Alaska just as well.

2008-06-05T16:26:00.000-07:00

Thursday, June 5, 2008

We woke in the night to water dripping on our faces. Apparently it was cold enough outside and warm enough inside that condensation had formed on the canvas over the beds and it was forming droplets large enough to fall from the ceiling. It was only “raining” on the beds at the ends of the camper so Chris didn’t get wet at all. It didn’t get us very wet; it was just a surprise when a drop landed on our faces. Other than that we slept very well. I am amazed how toasty warm it is under all those covers.

We got up at 7:30am. Breakfast this morning was cereal, milk and juice. The sun was out and the temperature was very pleasant with a jacket. As we were packing up our things, it got warm enough to shed the jackets. It still takes us quite a while to get ready to leave a campsite. We left the campsite 9:30 and went to a grocery store to get food for going to Canada. A clerk at the store told us that we might not be able to take produce or meat across the border so we didn’t buy those things.

We headed north out of Great Falls on I-15 towards Canada. Montana north of Great Falls is flat like western Kansas. There are even large fields of prairie dog mounds. It was a beautiful day for driving. There is sunshine and clouds and big open skies.

At 1:15 pm we reached the US/Canadian border. We were ready with our passports, notarized note from the Keens giving us permission to have their vehicle and camper, driver’s licenses, everything we have heard that they would ask for. It only took about 5 minutes until we were on our way into Canada. The man at the border booth asked for our car tag number and he looked over Tim’s license and our passports. He asked us our reason for going into Canada and if we had any firearms, drugs or alcohol. Satisfied with our answers of going to Alaska and no to the second question, he wished us a good trip and let us proceed. Thank you God for such a nice man at the booth. Tim’s cousin Randy told us he spend 7 hours at the border trying to get to Canada to work at a job a Canadian company wanted his company to do.

Just across the border was a sign welcoming us to Alberta. We stopped there to have our picture taken and have a picnic lunch. Right beside us was an elk farm with lots of young elk. What a treat it was to have a picnic while watching the elk. They watched us too. Some people from Nebraska on their way to Alaska took our picture by the Welcome to Alberta sign.

I-15 becomes highway 4 in Canada so we took highway 4 north to Lethbridge, Alberta where we found another A&W. It was so good the other day that we couldn’t help but stop again. Chris wanted some ice cream instead of root beer so they sold us a little package of ice cream that they would normally put in a glass for a root beer float. Chris said it tasted pretty good even though it looked a little different.

We are still trying to figure out the liters vs. gallons and kilometers vs. mile; almost have it. The speed limit sign says 110, which makes one think they could go pretty fast but 110 is about 68 mph, which is fast enough when pulling a camper.

The speed limit signs along the road in Canada are very small (and easy to miss) compared to ours in the US and of course they have kilometers per hour.

From Lethbridge we took highway 2 to Calgary. In Calgary we saw the place where the 1988 Olympic were held. The ski jumps were humongous.

This evening someone asked us if we were from the east because we had an accent they didn’t recognize for this area. I guess Kansas is a little east (and a whole lot south) of Alberta, Canada.

We stayed at Canmore, AB at the Rundle campground with the hippies. Canmore is a resort town and the only place we could find after Calvary that had a campground with showers. We really like showers. We cooked hamburgers for supper; it was the first hot meal we have fixed on the trip and it was delicious.

We turned the heater on in the camper to see if that would keep the condensation from forming on the ceiling. It kept us warm and dry! Did I mention that there were railroad tracks just a stones throw away, and the trains kept coming all night? We have developed quite a habit of picking spots that are very loud…so much for getting away from it all!

It was still light at 10:30, so Sarah, Tim and Deaune took a little walk and enjoyed looking at the mountains; they surround Canmore, and they are beautiful. Lights out at 11.

Mileage for the day: 409

Temperature high: 60’s

Camping fee: $28.00

Price for gasoline: $1.28/liter

2008-06-04T10:36:00.000-07:00

June 4, 2008

Barb fixed us a delicious breakfast casserole and served homemade sweet bread and fruit. WOW it was so good we filled our tummies and then some. We said goodbye to the Hartley’s about 9:00 and headed north on I-90. The mountains to our left are the Big Horn Mountains and they have snow on them. Barb said if the mountains still have snow on them July 4^th then they should have enough moisture to sustain the valley until next winter.

About 10:30 am we crossed the border into Montana.

Our first stop for the day was at Crow Agency Montana site of Custer’s Last Stand and the Battle of Little Bighorn. This is the site where on June 25^th and 26^th of 1876 Lt. Col. George A. Custer leading the 7^th Calvary unwisely attacked several thousand Cheyenne, Lakota, Arapaho and other Indian tribes. Custer underestimated the size of the Indian forces he would be battling. Chief Sitting Bull was the Lakota Indian’s leader. Custer and his men killed their own horses to hide behind their dead carcasses during the battle. More than 260 U.S. soldiers met defeat and death including Custer and every member of his immediate command. There was a nice visitor’s center with pictures and lots of information about the battle. We all agreed the pictures of Lt. Col. Custer reminded us of our friend Craig Percival (although Craig looks much wiser). Outside of the visitor’s center we walked the trails around the battleground. There are markers indicating the location where the soldiers’ fell in the battle and even where the horses died.

We wore jackets because it was quite cool. Aleesha wrapped a KSU blanket around her as it was warmer than the little jacket she had with her in the car. Our heavier jackets were packed away where we couldn’t get to them. We didn’t expect to find such cool temperatures until farther north. We were quite the K-State fans as everyone except Chris was sporting the beautiful KSU purple.

After leaving the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn, I-90 took us west for a while to Billings where we stopped for lunch and changed a tire on the camper. It didn’t go flat but was looking worn so Tim and Chris changed the tire. We got to briefly access the internet as we ate lunch at Subway so we updated our blogspot and called our parents.

The weather was cloudy with occasional sprinkles or rain. We continued on I-90 west to highway 89 where we went north to Great Falls, Montana. We drove through varying terrains during this stretch of out trip. The Yellowstone River followed part of I-90 and was so full it was out of its banks at places and flowing very fast. Sometimes the lay of the land reminded us of the valley between Westcliffe, CO and Horn Creek Ranch; lush green grass with full to overflowing creeks running through the grasses. Other times it was arid and dessert-like with buttes. There were areas that looked like the flint hills of Kansas with rolling hills and not a tree in site.

Highway 89 was a small highway and it seemed at times that God was giving us a private tour of this area. We saw lots of wildlife on highway 89 including mule deer, white geese, horses, cows, prong horn antelope, and 2 moose. This road also took us by Snowshoe ski and through Lewis and Clark National Forest. There was a lot of snow on the ground but not on the road or coming from the sky. It was raining and occasionally there was a little ice in the rain drops. A creek followed the highway meandering from one side of the road to the other. It was beautiful even though it was cloudy and rainy. When we drove out of the forest there was a stark contrast because right after the sign saying we were leaving the national forest, there were not hardly any trees.

About 8:30 pm we pulled into Great Falls, Montana and camped at Dick’s Campground. It looked clean and the only campground available other than KOA which would cost more than $60 for our family to camp there. We chose a primitive campsite with no services since we were going to go eat supper, shower and then go to sleep. We set up the camper and then went to Taco Bell for supper.

Our campsite was right next to a stoplight on the highway. During the night we thought maybe they were having semi-truck drag races as many, many big loud trucks accelerated just outside our camper. There must have been a airport of some kind close by too because we also heard a helicopter that sounded like it was landing beside us. We didn’t feel any wind so it must not have landed as close as it sounded.

Mileage for the day: 450 miles

Temperature high: 38 degrees in Lewis and Clark National Forest; 50’s elsewhere

Camping fee: $22.00

Price for gasoline: $3.89

2008-06-03T12:15:00.000-07:00

June 3, 2008

We got up this morning at 7:15am to birds singing and the sun shining. Breakfast consisted of Chris’ favorite: cereal and orange juice. Packing the camper was easier today since we have done it once before. I imagine by the time we get to Alaska we will be very good at packing and knowing the order of packing and where to pack things. Right now it is a challenge to remember where things are and which things to put in the camper and what to put in or on the suburban.

Devotions for today are Proverbs 1 about wisdom calling to us and will we choose to listen. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

The scenery in Nebraska is nice with the grass so green and the sky so blue. Not far from our campground, we went under the Great Platt River Road Archway Monument. It was impressive so we took a picture of it. I-80 follows the Platt River with many lakes/ponds beside the highway in Nebraska, which reminds us of South Dakota. Nebraska along I-80 is pretty flat with some small hills, very pleasant to look at.

Lunch today was at the nicest Pizza Hut I have ever been to. It seemed clean and large and since we hadn’t been in the mountain timezone for very long, we were some of Pizza Hut’s first lunch customers. They were just getting the pizza out on the buffet. It was delicious. The Pizza Hut in Sidney, Nebraska was right across the street from Cabella’s World Headquarters. The Hartley’s told us that Cabella’s started as a small mom and pop store in downtown Sidney and it has grown to what it is today with huge stores all over the world.

We entered the Mountain Time Zone at mile marker 149 at 11:00 am (CST)

We continued on I-80 to Cheyenne where we took I-25 north to Buffalo. Cheyenne had memories for us as we stayed in the smallest camping spot when we went to Yellowstone a few years ago. I am sure there was less than one foot clearance on either side of our camper and we were between two other campers. Our door couldn’t open completely. We didn’t need to find a campsite this time we were just passing through.

Wyoming is arid in the southern area that we drove through. As we traveled north, the land became more lush with green grass and rolling hills. Antelope are on many hillsides and don’t seem to mind us being within sight of them. Apparently they are not as skiddish as deer. Sarah tried to count antelope for a while until she had more than 50 then she found something else to do.

We read some of the Little Britches story today in the car. Chris read all of a book about finances that the McKinley’s gave him for graduation. Aleesha is reading a book Lindsey loaned her. There was less sleeping in the car so we must have slept well last night.

Supper was at a rest area on I-25 around Douglas, Wyoming. There were lilac bushes in bloom. They smelled so good. We had sandwiches, chips, and fruit. Tim and Sarah were fixing sandwiches but they needed to know if Chris wanted mayo on his ham sandwich. We thought we had the place to ourselves. Without looking up Sarah saw someone walk by our picnic table and said “Do you like mayonnaise?” The person was not Chris it was an older man on his way to the bathroom. We laughed and laughed. He must have wondered why this little girl wanted to know if he likes mayo. Our ice cooler is keeping things so cold it is hard to put your hand into the water in the bottom of the cooler.

We stayed the night in Buffalo, Wyoming with our cousins Randy, Barb, Lynn and Lee Hartley. Tim and Randy reminisced about family get-togethers when they were kids as the rest of us laughed and laughed at picturing these two grown men with grey in their hair and beards as children riding their bikes, playing in the creek behind Randy’s house and getting into all sorts of trouble. The writers of the Dennis the Menace series could use their stories to make many more cartoons. Our children found out the stories Tim tells about his cousins really are true. We sure enjoyed our time with the Hartley’s. They have a very nice place with the Big Horn Mountains visible from their living room window and a creek beside the house. We didn’t let the kids go outside after hearing their dad’s stories about rolling boulders and a car down the creek banks ; -)

The temperature in Buffalo was much cooler than we have felt for a while, probably around 50 degrees when we arrived. It was cool enough in the camper that we used an extra blanket and pulled it up around our necks. We were toasty warm in our beds. I wonder how cool the temperatures will get on this trip. We didn’t use any sort of heater in the camper. It rained a little thoughout the night.

Mileage for the day: 650

Temperature high: 80 in Nebraska; 60 in Wyoming

Camping fee: $0

Price for gasoline: $3.79

2008-06-02T12:12:00.000-07:00

June 2, 2008

Monday morning we woke up in Topeka, Kansas to storms. The weather report called for softball-sized hail and high winds. Since we had to pack the suburban and go to the store, we waited until after the storms to leave town. It was a good thing too because our downspout was clogged and had come apart. We had just cleaned it out a few days ago but the whirlybirds that come off our tree in the backyard had filled the gutters and downspout again. The worst of the storm (softball-sized hail) didn’t come through our area but we did have high winds and over 2 inches of rain in an hour or so. We ate lunch at home thanks to the youth group burrito fundraiser.

We finally got out of town at 2:45pm. We headed north out of Topeka on highway 75 and then I-80 west through Nebraska. After all the morning storms in Topeka, it was amazing but we traveled under blue skies. The suburban seems very comfortable and big compared to our truck. Chris slept much of the trip, Sarah watched movies, Aleesha played games, Deaune read and Tim drove. What a time we live in that so much can happen in one vehicle. We ate supper at a McDonalds on I-80 around York, Nebraska.

We stopped around 8:00pm at Windmill State Park near Kearney Nebraska for the night. It was a campground around a lake with electric hookups, showers and flush toilets. YEA! We set up the camper but didn’t have electricity in our campsite so Tim went to pay and ask if they had to turn on the electricity. A very nice man at the campground office said the electricity should be on and he would come help us. He checked things out with some kind of electricity checker and discovered that we had flipped the breaker on the camper. Just a little switch of the breaker and we had electricity and air-conditioning. It was rather muggy and a little warm so the air was very nice. Chris flopped on the bed and enjoyed the cool air so much that he fell asleep. After we got camp set up, Aleesha read her book and Sarah, Tim and I went to the playground and played on the swings until the mosquitoes found us. I think the mosquitoes were very hungry and glad to have some people around so they could have supper. I got to run around the campground before getting a shower and turning in for the night. We saw a bunny and many frogs. I think I stepped on a dead frog when I was running. It was dark enough that I am not sure and I didn’t stop to find out. It sure felt good to stretch out on a soft bed.

At 3:00am Tim woke and wanted us to prepare for rain and possibly a storm. After getting everything set for rain and wind, we turned on the radio and didn’t find any stations talking about the weather so we decided it must just be a spring rain and went to sleep. It did rain and storm a bit in the night but the Keen’s camper kept us dry.

Mileage for the day: approximately 300 miles

Temperature: 80 degrees

Camping fee: $15

Gas prices: $3.83

2008-05-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

We will be heading for Alaska on Monday, June 2nd! This trip has been in the works for over a year, and now that it is only a few days away, WE ARE STRESSING OUT!

This year is our 25th anniversary (Tim and Deaune) and our son Chris just graduated from high school. We are a family that loves to travel and camp, and we wanted to take this trip while all our kids are still at home.

We will be driving a Chevy Suburban and be pulling a pop-up camper, all loaned to us by some friends at the church where we minister. We will be posting pictures of cool stuff we see and we will try to post new pics and comments every day.

Enough for now! This is all new to me (Tim) so more than likely our teenagers will take over this blog and make it more "user friendly."