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Hi Folks,

The trip has taken another turn and we are headed home a week early.  We left Alaska on August 1st, and sped through Canada as fast as we could down the Cassier Hwy.  Their idea of highway is my idea of unimproved road.  The first 350 miles were the most exciting.  They were frequently gravel, unmarked without guardrails while climbing & descending steep peaks.  The last 100 were a relief! They were paved and marked winding, hilly miles.  We were relieved to finally get to the “real” road only to find more curves and hills with 7 percent grades for up to 17 kilometers.

Washington state greeted us with long, steep, hilly miles of her own. 6 to 8 percent grades up and down for up to 7 miles.  We may need new brakes by the time we get home. We stopped in Everett, WA on the 5th to have dinner with my Denver cousin David, not to be confused with my Duncannon cousin David.  It was great to catch up.  Even after all these years we are still family and chatted away about our lives over the last umpteen (Mom loved that word) years.  There is something to that blood connection. After dinner Bob and I followed David home to meet his husband Mark.  What a delight! He fits right into the family.

Saturday morning we hit the 5 again to Goldhill, OR were we stayed the night in a lovely RV park.  The scenery was beautiful.  The next trip out this way will include more time out of the RV.  Through a FB post I discovered I have a bunch of friends out that way who I need to visit.  Maybe next year.

From Goldhill we came down to Walnut Grove, CA near Sacremento to meet with the folks behind one of Bob’s investments, Mexus Gold.  They were kind enough to let us park in their driveway and treated us to fresh plums and pears.  The best treat was news that the mine is making headway.  Fingers crossed the investment pays off.

We are now sitting in traffic (That is something we did not miss!) on I 80 headed toward Fallon, NV.  Bob’s grandson Tyler is stationed at the Naval Air Station there.  It will be nice to see him this evening and catch up with him too.  He is recently back from a tour in Korea.

Alaska is beautiful and I would like to go back.  Now that we have been once, we better know what we would like to see and do they next time.  We cannot thank Don and Sandy Marohl enough for all of the effort they put into getting this trip together.  They are terrific traveling companions.

As this is a working vacation, it is nice to be back among cell towers and the internet.  Even when I knew I could not check my email I worried about work.  Thanks to Mark for catching the calls for me. Next time I will have a better plan in place to spare him the aggravation of doing my job too.

Apparently my internet connection is not good enough to post pictures. Maybe next time.

I love and miss you all!

Cora

I am having a hard time getting back into the swing of the trip.  After the weekend back east for my Pop’s funeral, my enthusiasm to post has waned.  I wanted a blog so that he could experience the trip with me.  I miss him.   Here are some pictures I think he would have liked.

Hello from Talkeetna!

Talkeetna is located about 60 miles south east of Denali at the confluence of 3 rivers, the Chilutna, Susitna and Talkeetna, with the Alaska Range to the west and the Talkeetna Range to the east.  It was originally settled as a temporary supply camp for the building of the Alaska railroad.  When the railroad was completed the town continued to support trappers and traders who worked the area.  Today it is a bustling little town full of local color, flavor and tourists.  It provides land, air and water sightseeing opportunities and is also a staging area for those crazies who want to climb “the mountain” as Denali is affectionately referred to here.  We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay.  Next time I would like to have the kids come along.  I might lose David to the place.  I think he could find his niche here.

Here are some pictures from our adventures here.

These are from our first leg on the Alaska Hwy between Dawson Creek and Ft. Nelson.  It was an exciting day!

Feel better Pop!

Love, Cora

 

Hi All,

I am sorry I have not  posted any pictures.  Internet is at a premium here.  We have been making good time across Canada.  The Alaska Highway is magnificent!  My only complaint is the forest is so thick and tall it is hard to capture the grandeur of the scenery.  We have spotted some animal wildlife.  I spotted a wolf.  At first I thought it was a dead tree stump, then I saw the face.  I did not get a picture.  Next we saw 3 female moose licking the yellow line in the middle of the road.  We chastised mom for teaching her young ones such dangerous behavior.  After the moose we saw 2 herds of goat/sheep. I am not sure which; I have to ask someone.  We saw 3 young black bear and 5 bison.  Bob was focused on managing the RV through the Canadian Rockies so he did not get to ogle as much as I did.  I got some good pictures for him.  Yesterday was an exciting day.

Today’s drive was much tamer.  No wildlife, shorter rises and falls and fewer curves to negotiate.  We are settled in Whitehorse for the next two days.  We are taking a bus/narrow gauge train trip to Skagway tomorrow.  Even though we will be moving, we will be happy to leave the driving to someone else. Back on the road to TOK, AK on Wednesday, then meet up with Don  & Sandy Marohl on Thursday the 7th.

I miss all of you!

A special hug to Pop and one to Judi for taking care of him. XOXOXOXO

Love, Cora

Hi Loved Ones,

We traveled across Saskatchewan, Alberta and a good ways through British Columbia.  Alaska is looking like a reality.  We are meeting more and more folks headed that way too.  Tonight we are camped with 5 couples we camped with last night as well.  It seems we are lucky to be between group caravan tours.  Traffic has been very light and the roads are in better condition than I expected.  When I consider the vastness of the highway and the long distances between outcroppings  of civilization I am amazed the roads exist at all.  Internet here is minimal and will not let me post a picture.  I will try again later. I have a bunch that I want to share.

Since leaving Dawson Creek, the 0 mile marker of the Alaska Highway, we seem to be skirting the eastern edge of Canadian Rockies, but have had some long slow climbs along with the inevitable descent.    According to The Milepost Alaska Travel Planner, one section we drove today used to be called “Suicide Hill” because it was one of the most treacherous hills on the original highway. Today it is still precipitous at 6% and 9% grade.  I take my hat off to Bob for his managing of the descent.  We stopped at the brake check area before starting down.  The turn into the pull off was sharper than it looked so the brakes got a good test.  After have a bit of lunch we set off down the mountain.  As we pulled out it started to rain. OK, deep breath. At first it was just steep and winding, then, close to the bottom, there was road construction and the road surface was a mixture of mud and loose gravel.  I held my breath.  We made it safe and sound and no burning brake smell.

The scenery is spectacular, lush green in varying shades with white birch interspersed.  We drove through two areas that had burned, the first looked like a controlled burn because there was still growth on some of the trees.  The second was the result of a forest fire last year that jumped the highway.  Over 8000 acres were burned and at one point the highway was closed due to smoke.  There are still signs up informing drives of the fire area and warning us that we enter at out own risk.

There are also game crossing warnings everywhere.  Bob saw 3 deer and I saw a moose/elk carcass. I could not tell which.  I did see 2 reddish brown crane like birds.  I have looked through field guide and have not found anything close in appearance whose range is in this area.  I will have to try another guidebook.

It is a lovely, cool evening and I should take a walk to burn off the Saskatoon berry crisp I made for dessert.

Until the next time.

I love you all!

Cora

We are finally on the road again!  We would not be had it not been for the hard work and determination of Brad Kimball of Pine Plaza RV.  He has been our saving grace from the start.  Always positive, always helpful.

When he was all done with the slide repair, he reattached the door closer, then caulked anywhere it needed it.  At his suggestion we are using shims to brace the slide when it is closed to reduce wear from road vibration.  Thanks for all of your help Brad! It has been a pleasure working with you!  We also got a tour of his pet projects.  Brad sells and repairs RV’s to earn a living, he remodels old RV’s for fun.  We got a tour of 3 of his projects.  The first is his mobile office, a converted Pace Arrow in which he has designed a fold-a-way bed to give access to his printer and file cabinets and added a geared slide out system along the lines of the one we have.  The differences are it has steel rather than aluminum tracks and is chain driven rather than 2 little motors like ours. Here is a picture of the old 6 inch motor.

The power source on Brad’s is a Genie garage door opener.  He has another screw drive slide that uses a 3/4in drill to move the slide.

Brad managed to get one of the new slide rails installed yesterday and plans to finish tomorrow.  With any luck we will be on the road in the afternoon.  With 9:00pm sunsets we could get a couple hours travel time in.  We are trying to get to Talkeetna, AK by the evening of July 7 so we can make our flight over Denali on the 8th.  Almost 3100 miles between now and then. We do not plan on any sightseeing on our way across Canada.   (Kayla, we are going through Edmonton now, not Calgary.  I will keep you posted.)

We spent the morning hoping Brad would feel like finishing today.  Since that did not happen we toured parts of town we had not visited before then went to see “Central Intelligence”.  It is a silly movie.  My favorite line was in the outtakes. I am glad we went. It will be a good Red Box choice.

That’s all for now.

XO Cora

 

It does not look like much, but those pieces of metal are a sight for our sore eyes.  They are the 3 rail slide system we need to fix the long slide in the RV and get us back on the road to Alaska.  We hope to meet up with our friends Don and Sandy Marohl by July 8th in Talkeetna, AK.  Brad, our mechanic is almost as excited as we are to have them so we will bring them and the RV to his shop tomorrow so he can get started.  We are sooooooo happy.

To put a little fun in our day we took a quick detour to Mall of America and rode the FlyoverAmerica ride there.  It was very cool!  You sit in a roller coaster like seat, surrounded by a concave screen with mist and wind effects making you feel like you are soaring above the countryside.  Thanks for the recommendation John.  We really enjoyed it.  Rick has a great job!

We are heading back to the RV in Ottertail to pack up for an early morning departure back to Fergus Falls.  I am not getting excited yet, I do not want to jinx repair success.  Mr. Murphy and I are all too well acquainted to get my hopes up.

I will keep you posted.

 

Love and hugs to all,  Cora