LEFT ALASKA/ NOW IN YUKON

July 31, 2009 Tok, Alaska
So much has happened and I am so behind with the blog. We have not wanted to cut into the time with the Shrigleys, and since then we have been driving and seeing a great deal of Alaska. This is our last day in Alaska and we will cross the boarder into Canada by about 10 am tomorrow. This way we can say we left Alaska in August. Tok, Alaska is just 90 miles north of the boarder and it is the only way to get back on the Alaska Highway going south.

Valdez, Alaska is where we were last night after driving from Anchorage. Valdez is where the Alaska pipeline ends going south from Prudhoe Bay. It is the northern most ice free port year round in the U.S. at 61 degrees, 7 min. north. Annual snow fall is 300 to 530 inches, population 4,043. The trip from Anchorage was dotted with glaciers and even more amazing sights of mountains and rivers and quirky Alaskan people than we have already seen.

We stopped at a very unusual bar and restaurant that had a statue of a horse on the roof and talked with Jason who has lived in Hollywood with his fiancée for several years. He was raised in this bar/restaurant and is pure Alaskan. We learned Alaskans pay no state, sales, or income taxes..with some exceptions and for those living there three years there is a payment of some $2,000 per year from the oil taxes…..the main source for funding the state budget. His family also has some native Alaskan relations in its past and has inherited shares in the Indian corporation connected with those natives. There are no reservations in Alaska for some reason…..and I presume this prevents them from having Casinos as in California.

The most amazing this we saw today in Valdez was to see pink Salmon swimming up stream to span. We were able to watch them from just a few feet away as see dozens of them at the same time. Also, we went into a ranger’s office 50 feet away and could watch their underwater camera showing the same salmon from a below water. Fascinating to see all of the so close at hand!

We have learned there is no cell phone capability in Canada. Apparently AT&T has no agreement with any Canadian carrier, so even in fairly good size town we will be out of phone contact for the next four or so days it takes us to reach the U.S. We will be heading for Seattle so that is where we should pop up next, hopefully by August 3rd or 4th. There is WIFI in this RV park in Tok so hopefully I can get this out on the blog before we go into to abyss of no cell phone contact.

GLACIER WATCHING/SALMON FISHING/FINAL GOODBY TO THE SHIGLEY’S
If you live in Anchorage as Vince Shrigley does, your biggest and closet playground is the peninsula south of there where three main cities lie on the coast, Whittier, Seward, and Homer.

In Whittier we took an all day boat trip to see 26 glaciers, abundant sea life and birds and even have drinks with a piece of glacier fished out of the water that was hundreds of years old. Boy were this sea otters cute all ‘rafted’ together laying on their backs looking and us and eating lunch. A sea otter pelt was passed around to get a first hand understanding as to why these creatures were hunted to near extinction by first the Russians and then the Americans. They have over a million strands of hair per square inch and are reported to be the warmest protection against the cold of any animal. Otters live their entire lives in the water, never coming to shore and even in these freezing cold conditions are as happy as can be because of their fur.

We saw all three of these towns earlier this week and somewhere along the route it suddenly struck me that Alaska is very unique as a place to visit because every square inch of every road and waterway is really stunning. The driving has been a lot of course, but none of it boring. In fact seeing this country by road has been probably more impressive than some of the places we had as destinations.

Seward is the town where I went salmon fishing. It was raining on an off most of the week so we decided I would go fishing for just a half a day and Marga would stay in the RV and read her book. I bundled up in the light rain jacket and pants, Misa’s boots and Marga’s new ear covering hat and joined eleven other guys on the charter boat.. As we set out it was pea soup fog where visibility was down to nothing. The skipper immediately sped up to 19 knots as we roared into nothingness with only radar to show us if there was something out there we might hit.. We sailed 26 miles due south which is about the same distance as Catalina from Long Beach in a fraction of the time. The fog lifted about a third of the way there and numerous islands with sharp hills rising straight up from the water really surprised me. None of these islands or mainland areas had any shoreline area you could pull into to dock any boat….not even a dingy. My impression was you could go for hundreds of miles without finding anywhere to pull into.. The skipper did drop an anchor very close to shore and told me we were in 83 feet of water. Even then, our anchor dragged and had to be reset. I was thrilled to be one of two “fisherman” who actually caught to maximum of six fish quota allowed on a given day. Hopefully you will see the big smile on my face holding one of those salmon. They have all been cleaned and cut into fillets and will be shipped to us when we get back and tell them to send them. The all in cost for charter, fishing license, tip, and shipping was calculated to be $25 per pound……but it was worth it. The salmon were “silver” salmon.

More later….I need to get some rest and it is late here and we leave early in the morning.

Nice Catch

Clark showing off one of his six salmon from his Alaskan fishing expidition!

ARCTIC CIRCLE / FAIRBANKS / MARGA THE WINNER / ADVENTURING

July 19, 2009 Denali State Park area



ARCTIC CIRCLE
Since Whitehorse, Yukon we have covered much territory, and the Arctic Circle was the most profound. We hooked up our dog sled with Dasher and Prancer and Sarah and Nixon and with a loud yelling of “Mush” we headed north for what would be a twelve hour day up and back from Fairbanks. Some two hundred miles each way does not seem a lot, but half of that was on dirt roads and much of the so called paved roads are in such poor condition they are sometimes even worse than the dirt. That location is of course where one day a year the sun never sets and another day of the year it is dark for 24 hours straight. It is located at Latitude 66 degrees, 33 minutes north. The Arctic Circle is at that same latitude all the way around the World. You will find no major city that far north for very good reason….impossible conditions to live in. If you ever want to go to the “…ends of the earth…” this could be said to be one of those ends. You will probably never meet anyone in your life who has traveled this far away from the equator. So for those of us who have made this trip it is a pretty neat thing to have done. Also, even though the longest day of the year, when the sun did not set, was June 21st, when we were there the sun came up at 3:15 am and set at 12:45 pm according to our GPS. Of course it was light out well before sunrise and after sunset.

Pine trees become fewer and more sickly as we treked north. Anorexic is what these pine trees looked like. Then more and more were completely dead trees, and then no trees at all. The brilliantly pink plants, Fire Weeds, that grow everywhere along highways in Alaska strangely become more abundant the more north we drove until there were whole fields of pink color to belie the harshness that kills almost everything in 40 degrees below zero in the winter. How do these flowers thrive where so much vegetation can not?

Our cars were bouncing up and down like hobby horses on the poor roads as mud and dust covered everything…..hour after hour after hour. We sure know how to have fun…right. “Why are we doing this?”…we asked. The Alaska pipeline paralleled our route and we could see it almost all of the time. This is the four foot diameter pipeline that links the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay to the port of Valdez for shipping south. It represents 17% of all oil needs of the U.S. Very impressive! Shipping out of Prudhoe Bay is not possible year round because of the harshness of the weather.

Amazingly we once again drove across the Yukon River going to the Arctic Circle. That river was next to us in Whitehorse in Canada and after days and days of driving here it was again. It flows north for hundreds of miles before turning west to cross our path on its way to Alaska’s west coast

After such an abundance of wild animal life in northern Canada we have seen almost none in Alaska….so far. This was especially so on the harrowing ride to the Arctic Circle.

No doubt there is rationale as to why the road are the way they are. The very harsh winter conditions and limited year round daylight time to maintain the roads probably have a lot to do with their condition. But then there seems to be little usage of the road that is probably part of the reason as well. We counted every vehicle that passed us going the other way for three hours and there were only 30 vehicles of all kinds….not a lot.

I have found it fascinating to see many solo motorcycle riders on this trip and we saw several again going to the Circle. Who are these people who undertake these major trips with very few possessions and tent and sleeping bag tied to their bikes? What are they looking for? Will they find it? We even saw a few solo bicyclers, loaded down with their camping gear doing this trip. Are they crazy? Are we also crazy…but just in a little better style?

The Arctic Circle is the northern extreme of our trip from L.A. We have driven over 4,000 miles to get there, helping to confirm my original estimate of some 8,000 miles expected driving for the full trip. Anyway, you can say that we are now on our way back to L.A…..still many more days and adventures in front of us.

MARGA WON!!
The town of Tok was the first town we stayed at in Alaska, most memorable because Marga and I won a pancake throwing contest that earned us a free pancake breakfast. I had to stand on stage with a bucket I held on my head. Marga had to throw the pancakes and try to get them in the bucket. I could move as much as I wanted to catch what she was throwing. Marga got seven pancakes in the bucket and our competition, another couple, got none in their bucket. It was lots of fun and the breakfast was really good. This all happened a few days before Fairbanks and the Arctic Circle, but I did not want to leave it out.

FAIRBANKS
Fairbanks was our home for two days, including the time we went to the Arctic Circle. It was also where we visited a museum about Alaska at the University of Alaska, and had a fabulous dinner at the Pump House Restaurant to celebrate my birthday. Considered one of the best restaurants in the city it is on the river that goes through the town. As we left close to 11 pm it was still light and a wonderful summer evening. Small boats of all kinds were rowed and motored up and down the river next to our table and a tourist river boat also went by during the meal.

One really fun thing to me and I think the rest of us was an F 16 jet that took off going the same direction we were with its runway a short distance from us. The noise was deafening, he was right next to the RV as he went by and almost immediately hit his afterburners and went almost straight up into the sky. What a sight/sound! Eigland Airbase.

ADVENTURING

To recap our adventuring so far; we have driven over 4,000 miles, more than I like to remember on back country-type roads and almost all on two lane streets; gone to one of he northern most corners of the world; crossed hundreds of bridges; passed through mountains most of the voyage; seen lakes and pine trees and plants and flowers of immense beauty; had large wild life to marvel at: bears, both black and grisly, caribou, elk, moose, bison, wolves; seen endless small critters; beaver, lots of rabbits, and chip monks, arctic ground squirrels; and birds: golden eagle, up close, ravens, magpies; a large family of fat, quail-looking ptarmigan in the bushes, swan, etc.; seen the highest mountain in North America, Mt. McKinley …..Ones specific adventure…The Savage River Expedition. All six of us drove our vehicles to the base camp staging area in the heart of Denali National Park. All equipment was checked and double checked. Three of the six of us were armed with heavy duty bear spray [Mace] we called “beer spray”; extra clothing was put on and carried to guard against the cold; rain gear was also carried or worn; camera/binoculars, some supplemental rations and of course substantial amounts of water was all carried; bug protection spray, UV creams and sprays; one emergency GPS “SPOT” system; and various other personal items so dear to each of us. The expedition set out at down the river at 1:41 pm with partly cloudy weather in the 60’s. We followed the trail next to the river going down river with the wind at our backs. With a slight downhill trek with a well laid out trail we forged on to the very end. At that point we crossed over the river on a first quality foot bridge and marched up the trail back from where we started with the wind in our face going up river. A well deserved rest stop along the way was had by all on a park bench made of logs. Everyone in the expedition survived and we all returned to the safety of our vehicles some hour and a half hours later…….we had covered about two miles. The Savage River Expedition had survived to adventure another day, thanks to the bravery of the party, new technology and equipment, and of course luck.

July 23, 2009, in the area of Anchorage

MARGA UPDATE ON INJURY

We arrived in Eagle River, a town right outside of Anchorage last night. We took Marga to one of these emergency clinics where she was checked and determined she has two broken ribs. She was given various prescriptions to deal with the pain which will replace what she had been using. The medical person expected she should have substantial relief from the pain within a week and therefore only gave medication for five days. He did not think we needed to curtail our plans to continue seeing Alaska which we hope to start up again on Friday. We are staying at Vince Shrigley’s home. He is the son of our friends Ralph and Trudy.

Meanwhile or RV is in the shop today for some needed servicing and repair work.

ARRIVED IN THE YUKON!!

MARGA INJURED!! // SHOT BEARS // BLOW OUT

July 14, 2009, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada
The Liard Hot Springs early this morning had a heavy steam mist, like some kind of mysterious fog in a horror movie. The temperature was some 106 degrees and is an all natural mix of cold mountain river water mixed with hot water from the earths crust. The water fall, some three feet high, provided a gentle massaging of my back, and the minerals provided a softening of our skin. The water was about waist deep so kneeling down was a normal posture unless you found the underwater bench allowing the full experience while sitting down. It was just 7:15 in the morning and it had been daylight already for several hours. The gentle breeze and sulfur smell of the hot spring caressed the body and the soul. Sulfur is a rotten egg smell that can stay with you if you don’t shower after the hot springs, but I did not care about that and no one else did.

Marga especially liked the hot springs, both last night and this morning. She badly hurt her ribs and shoulder when I had to stop suddenly for a red light while she was standing up in the RV.. My speed was quite slow, but nonetheless she flew crashing on top of the dashboard of the RV in severe pain. For some time we were concerned she had broken one or more ribs. This all happened on July 12th , Jennifer’s birthday, and over the last two days she has been managing the pain with pain killers, slowly feeling somewhat better. This pain is likely to still be with her long after we have returned to L.A., a real bummer for our vacation.

Bolstering her spirits have been endless wildlife along our trail. She has shot many pictures of black bears, a wild herd of some 50 to 100 bison crossing the road; moose, caribou, and deer. One very large black bear we saw some 100 feet up a hill actually ambled down the hill toward us to within 50 feet as both still pictures and movie pictures were taken nonstop.

Let me give you a sense of our voyaging through Canada on the 1,500 mile Alaska highway. It is a two lane road, almost all paved and of good quality for any kind of vehicle. Pine trees boarder the road on both sides, but some 100 feet or more from the road on each side. We have been speculating as to why all trees have been cleared away from the road for such a wide swath away from the road. Is it to create a large fire barrier between trees on one side of the road to the other? Or is it to allow us to see wild life long before they want to cross the road? Or is it to provide a very wide area to allow small planes or helicopters to land on the highway? Or is it to allow snow plows in the winter to plow major amounts of snow to keep the highway open in the winter? Or is it all of the above? Anyway, since we are mostly traveling though the pristine Canadian Rockies, with snow capped mountains, and pure invigorating air, we can fully appreciate the fabulous scenery every moment and not stress over road conditions.

Of course RVing does have its challenges. Some 45 miles after we left Ft. Nelson day before yesterday, Ralph and Trudy’s motor home had a blow out on their right inside real wheel. Since there are two wheels on each side of their RV we were able to turn around and travel back to Ft. Nelson at a very slow 40 mph. Fortunately, in this really small town there was just one left of exactly the tire that was needed and we were on our way the next morning.

I can not emphasize enough how much we have continued to be in the wilderness. There are almost no towns. Then we have lost all cell phone use, even in the mall towns. Today we have even begun to loose our Serius radio. Consider if this blow out took place 100 or 200 miles from no where. Yes there is a spare, but who wants to try to change a tire, that is the inside tire, on a vehicle as big as a city bus? Not any of us.

Rain, rain, and more rain has been with us for most of the last week. Our elevation in the Rockies has varied from 4,000 to 7,000 feet and at the higher elevation the rain was like a car wash. No water spots on the windows. A beautiful clean RV at all time. There seem to be no impurities at those elevations. However, below 3,000 feet it is a different story. Our vehicles look like they have been in the dirt road Paris to Dakar road race. Millions of bugs cover the full front of our machines, heavy dirt blocks off our ability to see out of the back window and we are constantly scraping and cleaning windshields to carry on the next segment of the trip.

Arriving in the Yukon Territory today was a major milestone. We are now in Whitehorse if you want to look at map to see where that is. Also, if anyone want to Google why the some parts of Canada are called Territories and others are called Provences I would appreciate it. The Yukon Territory begins at Latitude 60 degrees north and so this has been an amazing event to have reached this far north. To reach the Arctic Circle we will just be going another 7 or so degrees north.. Tomorrow we cross over into Alaska….with many exciting places in front of us.

Tonight we ate at the Klondike Restaurant and had musk ox meat and lots of fine beer. Our 400 miles today took 9 hours and we were ready for this treat. Jim and Nancy were celebrating their 43 wedding anniversary and treated us all to this feast. It is now 11 pm and my cigar has long ago gone out and the mosquitoes are eating me alive outside our RV. It is still daylight of course, even this late….lord know when dark will come.

I miss all of you so much and only wish I had a big enough rig to take you all aboard like I do on the boat. I love you all.

The adventure continues……

Some numbers: Driven so far from L.A. – 3,225 miles;
Driven so far from Ralph & Trudy’s house – 1,979
Driven so far from Canadian/U.S. boarder – 1,885
Most recent cost of diesel - $3.48 per gallon
Cost of fabulous RV park in Whitehorse - $20.00 with full hookups and services: showers, computer room with WIFI, etc.

Personal thoughts - Many new experiences

On the way to the Yukon and Arctic Circle in day 12 of our voyage, I woke up at 3 am and could not get back to sleep ‘till after 4:30. In the next week we will reach Anchorage and I was thinking of the last time I was there. I flew in on a Pan Am flight from Tokyo and I was a high school student on a journey that would change my life. I was in route from the Philippines to Washington D.C. and chasing after the ‘love of my life’ who I desperately had to be with, who had moved back to the States with her parents. Anchorage was about half of the voyage then of a trip with no lay overs and all done on prop planes and my time in the Anchorage airport was only several hours between planes. None of that mattered of course since be reunited with my gal was all I wanted.

It was from that experience I came to understand and appreciate opera and the ultimate tragedy that defines opera, and especially Puccini operas. In La Boheme the writer’s woman is freezing to death in the middle of the winter and as she is more important to him than life itself her burns his novel to give her just the smallest amount of warmth before she dies. He has committed his entire existence to that love and when she dies he has nothing. So too was it with me that committing everything I know to my love was lost forever when she broke up with me the day I arrived at her house in Virginia.

Those emotions have stayed with me my whole life and can be triggered by any number of ‘chick flicks’ where love is lost or won. I become very moved and once again find myself thinking of this as I get closer to Anchorage and that fateful voyage.

“Pretty Woman,” at the end of the movies and the Puccini music that was playing as he races to “save her” so she could “…save him back..” gets to me every time no matter how many times I see it. And that of course was a very happy ending. So what I have come to get over all of these years and so, so many voyages, is that the Puccini opera music is not tragedy, but rather an eternal celebration of the capacity to love, and be passionate, and to commit all that I have to love, and to be completely bold an unafraid to express that love and let the outcome be whatever it is.

What I now realize is this ‘tragedy’ has actually been a good thing to give me a deeper appreciation of life. I now get that my ability to love is realizing no one and nothing is ‘perfect’ and it is ‘perfect’ none of us and nothing is ‘perfect’. Deep love is to accept you [and myself] just as you are, and to embrace all aspect of you. There is nothing more you need to do to be 100% okay to me. I accept you exactly as you are and exactly as you are not. This was the premise of the movie “Pretty Woman” and it is why it was not a tragedy but rather a celebration of true deep love. Lots of years have passed since my last time in Anchorage and hopefully I have gotten some better understanding of life and love and what is important in the interim. I hope so.

So what else is new? We saw 18 deer and one moose yesterday. Last night and tonight we are in Grand Prarie a short distance south of Dawson Creek the beginning of the Alaska Highway. [formally the ALCAN Highway] At the beginning of the Second World War concern about a possible invasion by Japan of Alaska led to the urgent building of a road to link Canada with Alaska. This 1,500 + mile road was built in eight months and remains today as the key road between Alaska and the “..lower 48.” We will start on that highway tomorrow if plans go as we think they will. Our friend Ralph is flying back today from his father’s funeral in Ohio. He should arrive in Edmonton around 5 pm and may then drive the 5 or so hours today to join us or if he is to tired do that drive tomorrow morning.

The last several days have been spend in the Canadian Rockies and no amount of description can adequately describe how massive and spectacular this area is. People from Switzerland we met along the way say it is bigger and more breathtaking than their country. Snow capped mountains, glaciers, endless lakes, and rivers, and streams, and white water rapids and water falls, and thick pine forest and alpine trees and abundant flowers and wild life continuously delights us every mile of the trip. We have taken countless pictures and never are they enough and never can they capture the reality of first hand experience.

White water rafting companies are everywhere and I know Marga has been chomping at the bits to relive a sport she has so loved in the past.

We have driven 2,177 miles since we left the house June 30th. Taking 12 days to do this means we may return back to L.A. by Christmans. This ‘slow dance’ time in Idaho and the Rockies has been the best however, and it is the only way to really appreciate this very special area. No doubt as early August comes creaping up on us and we feel more of an urgency to be heading south, we will realize, if we don’t already, we should have planned on a lot more time for this trip. Maybe three months….or more.

According to our GPS sunrise at our current location is 5;29 am and sunset is 10:30 pm. Considering I had perfect daylight vision at 4:20 this morning and it did not get dark last night until 11 pm, we essentially have 19 hours or so of daylight right now. Daylight will get longer as we head north. Hard to believe, but true..

Other surprises: all signs are in both English and French; distance is measured in kilometers and speeds limits are in kph’s; trailers, RV’s, motor homes, in every variety known to man are everywhere. We stay in RV parks every night for about $33 U.S. and that price is for “full hookup” meaning water, electricity, and wast [sewage] water. With a space to park without any hookups it is about $10 cheaper.

RV parks are of a very high quality with showers, convenience store, washing machines, etc. In the national park they call them “Campgrounds”. If you want to come with just a tent the rate is far less.

Cocktail hour is always special each evening. A very good beer called Moose Drool was a real treat at the Linger Longer Lounge in Spirit Lake Idaho. Also, Jim and Nance brought several bottles of Jack Daniels’ Single Barrel burbon….the best high end liquor from that part of the world. In addition, I contributed to the merriment with a Canadian “cultural experience” Crown Royal Special Reserve. All of it fabulous!!

Another surprise was to see many bridges over the highway that are designed for the wild life to get from one side to the other without being run down. Also, we leaned tunnels have been build under the highways for bears, lions and other critters that prefer a cave like way of migrating.

So much more to tell…but enough for now. We have been frustrated finding WIFI ;with high speed internet capability and our Air Card approach has also been very slow, frustrating and expensive. Over the next week it will likely be no better.

Day two, three, four and five

We are now in Spirit Lake, Idaho and are being treated royally buy our hosts Ralf and Trudy Shrigley. Trudy’s brother Jim and his wife Nancy from Ohio are also here and joining us on the voyage. Non stop laughs with great humor always. Ralph and Trudy have built a beautiful log home in the middle of their eleven acre lot. Moose cross the property from time to time we are told and we keep looking for one. But none so far. No less than 40 tons of logs went into building this fortress of a home. The main beams are as big around as an adult body and extend up two floors to the top of the vaulted second floor. Peach and quiet is very calming to be here. Also, we have very much enjoyed playing bridge with Ralph and Trudy in the past and hope to on this trip. [what lengths we go to for a good game of bridge]

We sailed on a Ralph’s son’s Corsair 27 trimeran sailboat on Lake Pen d’Oreille, some 40 miles long, pine trees several hundred feet up everywhere from water’s edge, water depth 30+ feet near shore and some 1,100 feet in the middle of the lake. This is very unusual for a lake to be this deep and the main reason the U.S. Navy has submarine sound testing equipment and identical submarine models a third the size of real subs here. The beauty of this lake is astounding.

Did anyone notice our Blog is titled from LA to AL, and wondered if we were driving to Alabama? Alaska is of course abbreviated AK not AL. Oh well. What do you think Jen?

Our whole trip here from L.A. was 1,246 miles. The trip to Anchorage from here is expected to be double that distance. When I woke up at 3:30 this morning it was already becoming daylight. We are now at almost 48 degrees North latitude, and just 90 miles or so from the Canadian boarder. The Arctic Circle will be as far as we go north and I suggest you Google Arctic Circle to learn why it is significant. It is over 60 degrees North latitude, a few thousand miles south of the North Pole. If living you life is ‘..to live cool, or die uncool’ then going to the Arctic Circle is cool…..or so I declare.

On Wednesday (Day Two) we started early and were amazed to find a Dutch bakery (Eric Schats Bakkery) in the town of Bishop, opened in 1939, with wooden shoes hanging from the ceiling, ornate Dutch tiles and gifts of all kinds, and hundreds of fine breads and rolls, larger than any bakery in our areas in L.A. The 631 miles we drove that day had us in four states, California, Nevada, Oregon and Idaho, and two time zones. Strangely southern Idaho is in Mountain time and northern Idaho is on Pacific time. Our ever reliable Garmin GPS has a female voice we call our Garmin Girl to tell us where to turn or turn around when we mess up. Marga wanted to take an alternate route in Idaho for a section of the trip to allow us to go very close to Boise and then north requiring that we go east for some twenty miles. There was a fabulous river gorge Marga wanted to see taking us alongside the Payette river for some 30 miles. Anyway, our faithful Garmin did not like this and insisted on adding miles to our destination, 421 miles up to 458, without a peep from our Garmin Girl. Yes she became very passive aggressive until we were well up into the gorge and we reset the damn thing before she started to speak to us again.

But it was all worth it as Marga was drooling for over 30 miles as the road took us 100% of the time next to white water and we were able to find a park campsite just 20 feet or so from the river. We could hear the river running all nigh long and river-loving Marga was in pure heaven. Meanwhile, I was paranoid about a couple of guys who parked their truck a short distance from us in the next camp site over, and led me to organize all of the RV’s defenses…..just in case. I guess I am a real city guy.

Most of our trip has been on two lane highways, no traffic problems, at elevations between 4,000 and 8,000 feet. Every inch has been scenic with lots of lakes and rivers and mountains. At one point on the road Marga noticed the entire road was moving. As we slowed down to inspect we saw every square inch was covered with locus all marching in the same direction we were going. The road had turned an icky brown/red color from cars having run over so many of them, which we did too to the sound of popping and crackling sounds as our tires added to the carnage.

The northern boarder of the U.S. is 49 degrees North. We are right now at 47 degrees 57.190 minutes North. It is now July 4th and tomorrow we cross over into Canada and begin what we understand will be a 12 trip to the area of Anchorage. The Alcan Highway begins in the area of Dawson, Alberta if you want to take a look at a map of Canada. I suspect we will be on that highway in the next week or more. Once we start on it we will be in wilderness with almost no signs of humanity, except for gas/RV parks, for over a long time. Most of this trip will be in Canada with just the last little bit actually going into Alaska. After entering into Alaska we are thinking of first going to the Arctic Circle via Fairbanks, then go to Denali Park, and then Anchorage. While on the Alcan Highway I am not sure how easy it will be to do Blog postings. Our reservation in Denali is for July 20th and 21st. We will likely arrive in Anchorage on July 22nd.

Ralph’s father is close to death in Ohio and Ralph will likely leave us to fly back for the funeral if this happens. Since their big RV will be towing a car he will use the car to drive to the nearest big city to catch a flight as we continue heading North. He will then catch up to us using the car. Just got word his dad passed away today.

We talk all of the time about all of you and L.A. and our business and all that is going on with the house….and most importantly about the expected arrival of our first grandchild Liam. We are really missing Jen and Jorge and Bobby and Alexandra and Tiffany and all of the rest of you. We have a bunch of pictures now we will try to upload too.