Arctic Circle at 66 degrees 34 minutes north

Went to the Arctic Circle. Traveled five hours each way just for this picture.

The Dalton Hwy, the road to the top of the world, stretches from north of Fairbanks to Deadhorse at Prudhoe Bay. Over 400 miles of mostly gravel road. It was built mainly to haul construction supplies for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in 1974. The pipeline follows the highway for the northern half of its journey. This road crosses the only bridge over the Yukon River. It also has only 3 places to buy gas and 2 places to get tires repaired. We traveled with a 10 gallon gas can in our trunk and a spare.

The terrain changed and became more tundra like. But the temperature was still 63 degrees. We expected it to be colder. Altho, Fairbanks temperature has been real warm 80-82 degrees. No sun was seen today, mainly because of the area fires. The radio called it "smoke covered sun" and the sky was hazy all day. I guess this is common to have fires thru out the season. It smells like a huge camp fire.

It took a lot of photos of the pipeline. It is so amazing. Of course the question becomes, how many pictures do you need of a long pipe??? I now have over 60!

Fairbanks, Alaska!!!

Finally here! Set up camp in Pioneer Park, a smaller version of Greenfield Village. We toured the village and then went and saw a small portion of the 800 mile pipeline. Very impressive. It took 3 years to build starting in 1974 and finished in 1977. The pipeline goes thru 3 mountain ranges and crosses over 800 rivers and streams. The pink and magenta flower (fireweed)along the side of the pipeline were also abundant along the Alaska Hwy. They bloom in late summer and fall. Legend is once the fireweed reaches full bloom, winter is 6 weeks away! They looked pretty full bloom to us.

Alaska has the longest stretch of coastline, has more mountains then buildings and is celebrating 50 years of statehood (1959-2009).

Rode our bikes to the ball field to watch the semipro baseball team, the Goldpanners, play tonight. They won 6-5. They play every June 21st at midnight without lights. We were there until 10:30 and still can see the sun. It is unbelievable. Didn't see the northern lights and probably won't because of the long days of sun light.

We also saw a glimpse of Denali and Mt McKinley. The Athabasca Indians refer to Mt McKinley as Denali "the high one". Most of the mountain is covered by snow and ice all year. We are going to spend an entire day there on Friday or Saturday and have a much closer look.

Alaska has a term BEAR FOOTING, which is a verb meaning having a good time on the road. Also it is a state of mind, when your journey becomes more important than your destination. You know your BEAR FOOTING when you find yourself standing beside a mountain or river and can't remember the day of the week. Whats more, you don't care. Andy and I are BEAR FOOTING!

Tok, Alaska population 1,393

The morning started off normal.
Andy went and got an oil change in
town, I went to Starbucks for some
good coffee. I haven't had a cup
since I left Michigan and they had
free Internet (which I couldn't get
to work).

We have arrived in Alaska after 3 long days of driving on the Alaska Hwy...the highway of nothingness. Our drives have lasted between 9 to 11 hours each day. These long hours of looking out the window have given us a greater appreciation of the hard times the earlier settlers must have had: no roads, rough terrain, vast open land. Tok is about 93 miles west of the Canadian/US boarder. Cute little town. Some say the name derives from the native word meaning "peace crossing", others say it was the name of a survey crew's dog. The town claims the title "Dog Capital of Alaska". It is a center for breeding, training and mushing. We haven't seen a dog yet. By the way, the temperature is 84 degrees!

Going to try and stay up late tonight to see the aurora borealis, Northern Lights. A road worker told us they are hard to see since it never gets dark enough. They are always there, but we are in the summer solstice and it stays light until sometimes 2 AM!!! And last night I thought it was light because of the Walmart parking lot lights.

Tomorrow onto Fairbanks, which is only about a 3 hour drive. Andy is hoping to play golf, me just relaxing while he is gone. Being here is his dream. And we probably won't ever get back here again.

Alaska Hi Way

Alaska Hwy: day one, two and three on the road.

Three days of nothingness. Altho the road and scenery do change.

The most interesting was the bison who wouldn't move out of the road. We are about 4 hours from the Alaska state line now. Yeah!

We had our first flat tire yesterday. Luckily it was only a bulge (huge bulge!) on one of our camper tires that we noticed after we had already set up camp. Lucky we didn't have a blow out coming down the mountains. It's 9 pm at night and our jack is not big enough to lift our camper. A couple spending the night at the hotel had a 8 ton jack and changed the tire for us. They worked for beer only,which we have none, and wouldn't take any money from us. Very nice people and a real life saver at 10 pm at night. I am sure AAA wouldn't have come out to where
we were staying....about 60 miles from nowhere!

Spending another night at Walmart in the capital city of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.

Write more when we are back in the states.

Mile Zero. Day 15 of this Journey

Here's the mile marker representing the start of the Alaska Hi Way. As the sign indicates, Fairbanks is 1500 plus miles away! This is alot of driving! And this is really far from home!



Alaska Hi Way was initiated by President Roosevelt in agreement with the Canadian gov't. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US wanted a road to connect with Alaska to send military there (my dad was stationed in Alaska during WW II). They thought that Japan might try to invade the US thru Alaska and at that time, there were no roads. Today, there are still very few roads. Many cities are traveled to by plane or boat only. The road took only 8 months to connect Dawson Creek to Fairbanks. It has over 100 bridges. And was not fully paved until the 1970's. The highway has the status of International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, only one of 16 projects to be recognized to date.



We have a map that indicates where gas is on the way. No big cities until we get to the capital of the Yukon Territory which is Whitehorse. And we pass over the Continental Divide 3 times.



Just a little bit of history for you all. I've done alot of reading in the car.

Alaska Highway tomorrow!

Sorry, no pictures. We spent the day traveling to Dawsons Creek, British Columbia, Canada. This city is the start of the Alaska Highway. The middle of town is Mile Marker 0. So tomorrow we begin our journey thru Yukon Territory and on to Fairbanks. This drive has been real boring. Miles and miles of nothingness. Even the Rockies aren't as attractive.

We are spending another free night in the Walmart parking lot. Altho, we doubt it is really free because you go into the store and spend money. Walmart has a real good thing going here. The lot is again full of expensive motor homes. But tonight there are some smaller then us.

Hopefully tomorrow will be more exciting. We did see another black bear crossing the street and stopping traffic at noon time today.

Until the next time....

Lake Morain, Banff Nat'l Park

Lake Louise and Lake Morain have beautiful blue green water, unlike the chalky white river water around the mountains. The water gets this color from the rock flour from the glaciers. Many people were swimming in it, but the temperature rarely gets warmer the 39 degrees. So Andy and I passed. Altho, with the temperature being 90 degrees it may have felt good.

We are off towards the Yukon after one more day in the Banff area and Jasper Park. One more day closer to Alaska.

Banff Nat'l Park, Alberta, Canada... Thursday July 24

Today we went to the Columbia

Ice fields outside of Lake Louise and

Jasper Nat'l Park. This glacier is 4

miles long and 1/2 mile wide and

they transport you out there in these "government Arctic trucks". We were able to walk on it, drink true mountain spring water and throw snow balls. The temperature with the wind chill was about 40-45 degrees up there. In our car the thermometer said 78!!! It was a real cooool experience.

Here are some highlights: Saw a black bear finally and a bighorn sheep, right on the side of the road. Pretty exciting. We have done a lot of hiking, and not on flat terrain. Also we met a couple from Mass who have been on the road for 51 days after retiring. This is encouraging, they are still speaking to each other! They were in the BIG RV next to us in the over flow camping area, which was free. We camped there for 2 days....can't beat the price. The couple on the other side helped us figure out how to roll out our awning. We had no idea how to do it and asked them, but they spoke french, and minimal english!! But sign language is universal. Some great people we have been meeting. This is truely a life experience.

Glacier National Park July 21, Tuesday

NOW THIS IS RETIREMENT!

Spent the entire day in Glacier National Park. Entered the east entrance and road to Logans Pass where we hiked for about 3 hours. This one trail took us to the pictures above. The hike was 3 miles in which we climbed up 1000 feet, to an elevation of 7,700. As you see, we hiked thru snow to a glacier lake. Along the trail we encountered numerous mountain goats, some as close as 10 feet. The scenary was breathtaking! If you click on the pictures, they enlarge so you can see all the details.

After we hiked this trail, we decided to go and see the Grinnell Glacier further inside the park. We wanted to see Sperry Glacier, in which you can walk out onto, but it was closed due to heavy bear sitings. So we get on the narrow trail about 0.3 miles when Andy gets nervous because we don't have bells or pepper spray, as recommended, and we return to the car. We drive about 1 mile down the road and spot a brown grizzly walking across the road into those same woods!!

It was a great day. Tomorrow we head to Calgary, then on to Banff. Alaska is getting closer!

Monday July 20th

Today was a MUCH better day for us. Took the day off, so to speak. Had just a little way to travel...only 100 miles, up to Glacier Nat'l Park at a camp site there. Slept in, then did our "errands". Got the jack fixed (had to buy a new one), shopped at Walmarts (!!!), and I got brave and got my hair cut. Its really SHORT! I told her exactly what I wanted, but she had something else in mind. The only good thing is I can go longer between cuts and save some money and it'll take less time getting ready. It also was laundry day. Andy and I did it together. But these days, we do everything together!!

This town just east of the park entrance is very small, but seems to have it all. The 6 site campground we are staying in is also a Dollar car rental, motel and general store. Possibly some other business on the side. But all the campers are staying in huge RV's....again, we are the smallest. Across the street is an ice cream store, spoon shop (they make wooden spoons), and the laundry mat. Next to us are some rental cabins. I see no local housing. And that is the town of East Glacier Park. There is a train station, too. Seems it is the highlight of the day when the train comes through.

The picture above is taken at Devil's Tower just west of Yellowstone. Looks like a huge tree stump. This is the place that "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" was filmed.

Getting up earlier for some hiking thru the glaciers and mountains. Will write more and hopefully have some great pictures to share....

Sunday....Day 8 (seems like day 80)

Left Yellowstone today and on the way to Glacier Nat'l Park in northern Montana. The pictures above are Old Faithful erupting, a grizzly bear who refused to look at the camera, and Mammoth Hot Springs (no, that isn't snow).

We have no pictures from today since we were in the car all day. Today was the day from HELL.

It started at 4 am with the CO2 sensor alarming.....waking up the entire campground around us. Stumbling in the dark trying to quiet it by turning off the propane tank and disconnecting the RV battery. We weren't sure if we had a gas leak, so crawled in the truck with the down comforter to finish sleeping. We thought our battery was pretty much drained and that is why it was alarming. We have spent 3 days with no electricity (or reliable phone or Internet service). Yellowstone is pretty rustic camping unless you have a large, fancy RV with a generator back up. Some of you now aren't so envious of us, right?? Then on the interstate, we ran over a block of wood and it broke our back jack/leveler. On the way up to Glacier, we traveled thru 54 miles of road construction on bumpy dirt and loose gravel. Our black truck now is white and most of the cabinet contents were displaced on the floor!!

We are hoping to walk on some glaciers tomorrow and look forward to a much better day.

The animals of the wild west

These are the wild creatures we saw:

Most of these were up close and personal. Very exciting for us!! Having trouble receiving Internet service, phone service and we have no electricity! So this is being down on the side of the road in the car connected to our battery. When we are in civilization, I will write more and have more pictures. I am up to 900 plus on my digital.

Day ??? 5

Stayed an extra day in the Black Hills so we could catch up with Carol and Keith from MI. Only had one day with them, but it was fun!! Went to the ceremony at Mt Rushmore at night but expected more. Altho, those faces are really big!

We had a very relaxing morning. Stayed "home" and relaxed until it was time to met up with our friends. Caught up on reading emails, surfing the net, and watching Kelly and Regis!!!

Tomorrowed we will be back on the road again. Of course, headed west. Planning to see Devils Tower in Wyoming and then on to Cody, WY.

Until the next time....

Day 4 in SouthDakota/Mt Rushmore

Again, the internal clock wakes me up at 6:38 am. So our days begin early. Nice campground we stayed in last night and will be here for a total of 3 nights. Only 3 miles from the "4 Faces". As we drove down to Custer State Park and thru Needles HWY, we saw the stone faces many times. I got some great photos. We are waiting to see the laser light show tomorrow night when Carol and her husband Keith arrive. We hope to spend atleast a day with them. Yeah, some company. Still did not see any bison, but saw some elk and mule deer very close to the road. Also many burrows that come right up to you and your cars.

This campground has full hook up and no public showers, so for the first time we were force to use our own shower. It worked great. My new responsibility is to empty the crapper because the rubber gloves I brought are too small for Andy. Its like emptying a 10 gallon bed pan! But all that shower water will help flush the system all out. Also, we have the smallest camper. These 5th wheels and motor homes are HUGE! We look real punnie.

Andy got his hair cut at Walmart. I chickened out, but need a cut and color badly. Time for that hat to be put to good use.

Until tomorrow.....you know this is hard work keeping up with this blog, facebook and my journal. Also I am trying to organize my pictures so I can keep track of where I've taken them. I've only taken 558 photos so far!

Day 3 South Dakota

Made it to the Badlands. This is what we have been driving for, the the Great Plains attractions.

Getting here was boring, flat and really green. We had to stop at the Corn Palace in Mitchel which is all decorating in corn, wheat and other grains. Actually they were still decorating while we were there. The murals on the outside of the building are changed yearly, based on a theme.

The Badlands are huge! And breath taking! Didn't see any Bison or coyotes only a rabbit and many prairie dogs. And we have those in Michigan. Altho we did see a herd of Bison on the side of I-90 on the way to the National Park. Go figure.

Staying a few nights in the Black Hills to visit Mt Rushmore and Custer State Park. Tried to see the laser light show at the "four faces" but had a bad storm come through just as we were setting up camp. Instead spent a quiet evening at "home".

Until tomorrow....

Day 2 Seems like Saturday, but I guess it is really Sunday

Pretty boring drive thru Wisconsin and Minnesota. Miles and miles and miles of hilly green farmland. Interesting tho there are areas that have hundreds of "wind turbines" in the middle of those farms. Crossed the great Mississippi near the beginning at La Crosse, WI. So different from what the mouth of the river looks like in New Orleans.

We established roots at Walmart today. We had to transfer all of our prescriptions so we could have them filled any where in the US. Now this could led to future employment possibly for both of us! The highlight today was eating lunch in the camper, in the Walmart parking lot while waiting for those pills to be filled.

We did arrive in South Dakota for the night. But tomorrow we have about another 5 hours to drive before we get to the Bad Lands and Mt Rushmore. Today we drove 450 plus miles. Time seems to go by pretty fast; Andy and I just talk and talk while in the car. Lets see if that continues in another few months.

Until next time....

We are finally off! Retirement begins....

The day has finally arrived. Even the morning rain didn't dampen our spirits. Altho we left later then we wanted (11 AM), we made pretty good time. Arrived in Milton, Wisconsin just south of Madison. We are following I-90 across to the Bad Lands in South Dakota. We had some white knuckle moments thru construction outside of Chicago. The truck and camper rides good, but we are having problems passing the gas stations...only getting 10 miles to the gallon! And Andy almost took out the gas pump on his first tour thru the gas station.
Our first night entertainment is watching fire works from our dining room table over the nearby cornfields and smelling the camp fires. Tomorrow we hope to get to the South Dakota state line and the next night to Mt Rushmore. We need to make it to Fairbanks, Alaska by Aug 3rd when my sister, Crazy Aunt Sue, will fly in to join us for a week, pending vacation approval from her supervisor.
Until we check in tomorrow....