Alaska

Top of the World Highway is not a road to fear but it sure is one to take your time with. Of the 65 miles on the Yukon side, about 10 miles are paved and most all of the journey has magnificent scenery. Of the 45 miles on the Alaska side none is paved and several areas have hairpin turns with no shoulders. As I came around the last hairpin about 10 miles out of Chicken, Alaska, suddenly in front of me is a tandem tanker tractor-trailer at a full stop. Apparently he saw my white RV through the trees and I never saw his dark grey form. If he had gone just a few feet further into the turn, one of us would have been backing up on this steep, narrow turn. ... and it wouldn't have been him. I stopped along side to thank him. He makes this run almost every day and has long ago learned to be on the look out for us nutty RV'ers. There are some nice views on the Alaska side, very different from the Yukon side. I had about 8 miles to go on a fairly steep uphill section just before the end of the Top of the World road when I saw what at first looked like a biker down on the side of the road. As I slowed I saw a very strange sight. A guy who looked like a left over from the hippie 60's with peace signs all over him pulling a modified wheel chair with a horse-like harness that he slung over his shoulders. I stopped to make sure he was okay and asked if he wanted me to pull him up the hill. He said he was fine, appreciated my offer, but his journey wouldn't count if he accepted a lift. We chatted for a few moments and I continued on to Chicken, Alaska. In the morning, as I walked out to explore this very "large" town, there was the walker, just getting up to continue his journey. Scott is from Vancouver. He set out several months ago and is on his way to Fairbanks. He just turned 60 and has already walked about 1,500 miles of his more than 2,200 journey. We chatted for quite awhile as we marveled at each others journeys. Chicken has basically three little shops: a bar (but of course), a small café, and a great gift shop run by Cindy. The touristy things to do are check out the gold dredge (much smaller than the huge one near Dawson), mail at least one post card from the post office (I mailed a few and chatted with the post mistress a bit), and of course see the chickens (the sign says they're attack chickens but I doubt it). As I was heading out, there was Scott already a couple of miles out of town. I stopped to wish him a safe journey. One of his wheel chair wheels was a little loose. He asked if I had any rope. I gave him some bungee cords and lashings. We chatted a bit more. It's amazing how some folks won't drive off the beaten path and here's a 60 year old guy not only walking but dragging a wheel chair. There are lots of amazing folks out there.


Tok, Alaska is a lot smaller than I expected. I only stayed overnight and didn't bother to unhook. I did walk around, exploring the two visitor centers and local grocery. The drive to Fairbanks felt like I was on an interstate. The road was my first fully paved one in a while. The campground I had wanted to go to in Fairbanks was booked solid. My second choice was okay but kind of tight sites. In fact I couldn't even fit in the first site they gave me. The cg was very friendly and moved some reservations around to find me a larger site. Fairbanks isn't a pretty city but there sure are lots of things to do and see. While in the area I; took a flight above the Artic Circle, enjoyed the 4th of July festivities, roamed lots of museums, took a paddlewheel cruise, and enjoyed the Chena Hot Springs. The Artic Flight was interesting. We flew to the town of Coldfoot and then drove to Wiseman (population 12) in the foothills of the Brooks Mountain Range, one of the most remote places on earth. Jack, who was born and grew up in Wiseman, gave a tour and talk about living in such a remote place. It's really amazing especially when you compare how you and I live. The views from the air are incredible. There's no way to take photos of these views. They are far to vast to capture. Thousands of miles of emptiness. On the way up we had to taxi back to the boarding area when our pilot couldn't get an indicator light to go off. I'm not sure why I had faith in this Alaskan bush pilot, somehow I wasn't as concerned as a couple of the other passengers. On the flight back the wind and clouds picked up and the little plane was buffeted all over the sky. One gal needed her barf bag and a few others were holding theirs in their hands. I must admit I was a little queasy and was glad I hadn't eaten since early morning. One of highlights for me was chatting with a former force recon marine. He pointed to my airborne bracelet and said he also had one. We hugged each other with only his wife understanding. We chatted a little and hugged again when we parted. Our meeting seemed to put me in the right mood for the upcoming 4th of July festivities. When the plane landed my stomach was still a little queasy. I skipped lunch and went to the Auto Museum to walk around and let my stomach settle. The museum was amazing! They have about 80 vehicles from the late 1800's to the very early 1900's. This was the age of cars with beautiful wood and brass fittings. Back then cars were works of art. Almost every car in the collection is maintained in running condition. Throughout the year they actually rotate the cars, driving them around Fairbanks. I was amazed at the technical innovations present over 100 years ago. Did you know that many of the cars back then got 30, 40, and even 50 mpg? One car engine had a post combustion cylinder that burned the exhaust a second time substantially lowering emissions. Another car had a switch on the drivers armrest such that if your arm fell off, the car would automatically stop. The museum is well worth the time if you're ever up this way.


Pioneer Park had a moving celebration for the 4th. The US Army Artic Warrior Band played the patriotic music I was hoping for. One unique ceremony they did that I'd never seen before was a salute to the 50 states. They had a color guard holding each of the 50 state flags. As a guy and gal alternated naming the states and saying the state motto, the individual flags were held high and a three gun salute given. They presented the flags in the order the states joined the union but saving Alaska for last (instead of Hawaii). Of course Alaska got a rousing cheer. The whole event only took only a few minutes and was quite moving, At one point while some politicians were talking, the entire crowd began yelling "look, look an eagle". Just over our heads a bald eagle was slowing circling. This was the second time I've seen an eagle fly into 4th of July ceremonies. It is definitely moving. While at Pioneer Park I also visited the Alaska Air Museum, Pioneer Museum, and about 20 original old trapper cabins that had been relocated to the park. The day was a perfect 4th, in the low 70's with not a cloud in the sky. The next day I took the paddlewheel cruise up and down the Chena River. It was way to touristy for me but still interesting and a nice day. The cruise included almost non-stop narrative about Fairbanks, the Chena River, Paddle Boats, and the Athabascen First Nation Indians. As part of the cruise a float plane takes off and lands next to the boat. The pilot is piped through the ships loudspeakers giving information on planes and Alaskan bush pilots. The ship stops next to the Susan Butcher dog sled area while Susan Butchers daughter, Tekla, is piped through and gives a talk and demonstration of the famous dogs that have won the Iditarod four times! The ship then docks at a replica of an Athabascen village where we get off and are given a series of lectures about First Nation life. Lots of interesting info on a beautiful sunny day that hit 93 degrees, yes 93 in Fairbanks! My day at the Chena Hot Springs was great. It began with a scenic drive and several moose along the way including one very large bull. The springs are managed as a resort with lots of activities going on. I took two tours, one of the Ice Palace and another of their power plant. The Ice Palace is incredible with ice sculptures that are hard to believe are hand carved. They even have four themed rooms that can be rented as hotel rooms (not heated or the rooms would melt). My appletini served in a hand carved glass made of ice was delicious. The ice chapel conducts a couple dozen weddings throughout the year. The power plant is interesting, a combination of geothermal and solar supplies most of the resorts power needs. They also claim to have the largest, most northern greenhouse where they grow all the vegetables and herbs for their restaurant. After the tours I took an ATV ride through the nearby forest. It's so pretty up here. Didn't see any animals, I guess the ATV noise kept them away. I did stop at the largest beaver dam I've ever seen, more like a beaver hotel. The indoor naturally heated swimming pool was nice, the Jacuzzi hot tubs were great, and the natural outdoor hot spring was fantastic. After a few hours of alternating between the hot spring and Jacuzzi I was so loose and relaxed I could barely stand. A long hot shower and a leisurely walk around the grounds completed a great day.


The drive to Denali was pretty and easy. The first campground I stopped at near Denali National Park was full so I drove a little further to Cantwell, just south of Denali. Dennis, a workcamper, and Eileen, the owner, were great. The site was a little tight but it was a full hookup pull through so I'm not complaining. The cg set me up with several tours including; about 15 miles of white water river rafting down the Nenana River, ATVing, and a ski plane on my next stop which circles Denali and lands on a glacier. The river rafting was fun and pretty as we paddled through canyons on icy water that barely 14 hours earlier had been part of a frozen glacier. I got to chatting with three college kids, two gals and a guy. Turns out they are going to school in Colorado, the same one my oldest son teaches at. When I told them my sons name, coincidence of coincidences, they all know him, have taken his classes, and spoke highly of him. It's said this is a small world but it's stuff like this that proves it. On the ATV's we rode along the sandy, gravel ground left by the retreating glaciers. Very scenic and lots of fun driving through the mud holes (lol).


It was a fairly short scenic drive to Talkeetna. On the way I stopped at the Alaska Military Memorial. It was very moving as I read the citations for the four Medal of Honor winners from Alaska. Trevor, the owner of the Talkeetna cg was very helpful. As I was checking in I asked him about stuff to do in the area. He said if I hurry and park there is a train tour leaving in a few moments. Within about 10 minutes of first pulling into the cg I was checked in, parked and walking toward the train. This is said to be the last "whistle stop" train in the entire United States. When rural trains first began running they didn't have scheduled stops. They would instead stop where ever someone wanted to get off. If you were travelling in a remote area you could flag down a train and they would stop for you. While I was waiting for the train I struck up a conversation with Nathan. He looked like a typical woodsman, long hair, long scruffy beard, and obviously dressed for outdoor work. Turns out he is a marine biologist with Alaska Fish & Wildlife. He lives outside of Fairbanks and works manning fish wheels along the Susitna River. He and his crew work two weeks on and two weeks off, catching, tagging, releasing, and monitoring the salmon runs. We chatted for about an hour till he got off at the ghost town of Curry where they have their camp. Fascinating to hear about his work. The train rode about three hours out to Hurricane Gulch and then back. The train goes through canyons and along the Susitna River for views that are not accessible by any other means. Along the route we had great views of Denali in all her glory. We also saw a family of trumpeter swans. Did you know that trumpeter swans mate for life? Also, when one swan dies the other usually dies within a few weeks. The next day, for my glacier ski plane ride, I was given rubber over boots to wear when walking on the glacier. The little plane took off in a drizzle, flew to 10,000 feet and headed right for Denali. The clouds kept shifting back and forth and we only saw bits and pieces of "the high one" which is what Denali means in the First Nation Athabascan language. Denali may only be 20,073 feet high as compared to Mount Everest at 29,029. However, Everest starts in the Himalaya's with its base already at about 15,000 feet above sea level. Denali has its base at only about 2,000 feet above sea level. That makes the actual climb of Mount Everest about 14,000 feet and a climb of Denali about 18,000 feet. Denali is said to be the highest mountain on earth to climb. Go know, I never knew! By the way, landing in a ski plane on a glacier is a very smooth, very cool landing. When checking in for the glacier plane I met Paris. At first she looked to be barely a teenager. She was actually born and grew up in Talkeetna, one of the few native Alaskans I've met As we chatted she mentioned she was starting her second masters degree this coming fall. Paris speaks most romance languages, has travelled quite a bit and lived in several countries. She will be living in China for the next three years while in an immersion course in Chinese. Like me she is a vagabond, only at a much younger age. Who knows, maybe she'll become one of the younger RV'ers around. Talkeetna is a very cute little town with lots of shops and walking paths. They were having an open air craft market with lots of interesting "stuff". I chatted for a while with Dave who does really pretty pen and ink drawings. Dave is retired navy, having served mostly on destroyers. We chatted about life for quite awhile. Monica was selling homemade peanut brittle in the adjacent stall. She's from Tempe Arizona, visiting her sister who lives in Talkeetna. I don't know what kept her interested and talking with me but I couldn't stop looking at her and her twinkling blue eyes. By the way, both the cayenne cashew and the jalapeno peanut brittle were great too. Maybe I'll stay around here a little longer (lol). The next day I took a five hour Jet boat tour up the Susitna River to Devils Canyon. Devils Canyon is a class 6 rapids that people have twice tried to raft and so far has never been successfully ridden. Our jet boat comes up to the canyon from down stream and the 1,000 hp motors are then able to hold it in an eddy for us tourists to take photos. I've rafted the 26 miles of class 5 rapids on the Gauley River and can tell you Devils Canyon makes those class 5's look like a calm stream! Awesome!! While riding the jet boat up stream the captain drifts past the various fish wheels so as not to disturb them with a wake. There at the second fish wheel I spot Nathan and yell "hey" to him. He points me out to his girlfriend who was in the skiff with him. The captain of the jet boat found it amazing that anyone would meet someone one day and then see them again 50 miles up river in this wilderness.
It was a very short, easy ride to Anchorage. That is except for going through the town of Wassila which seems to have all the stop lights in the entire state on the main road through town (lol). I hadn't heard anything good about the campground; very tight sites, dirty, unfriendly, etc. The cg seemed clean with sites no tighter than most others I've encountered so far in Alaska. The work campers in the office were very friendly and in fact we chatted a bit before I parked. Once parked I drove off to find a Ford dealer to get my normal 5,000 mile service. The dealer had a wait of several hours so I made an appointment for a few days later. Anchorage may be the largest Alaskan city, but at about 300,000 population it's still small enough to get around pretty easy. During the few days in Anchorage I; toured the Native Heritage Center, the Anchorage Museum, took the trolley tour of the city, saw the shows at the Tap Root, Sourdough Mining Restaurant, & Northern Lights Theater, got my truck serviced, and even roamed the weekly outdoor market. The Native Heritage Center was great. It's more like a village with representative dwellings of many types of houses constructed throughout Alaska. They had music and native dancing, and about an hours tour talking about native life from the tundra, to coastal areas, to inland living. They spoke of migration patterns, and life before and after the "white" man's arrival. The Anchorage Museum is huge encompassing about four floors on almost a full city block. They gave over an hour's tour with lots of details of Alaska which also included a lot on the 1964 earthquake. The trolley tour was conducted by a very interesting young guy, the grandson of the first federal judge of Alaska and a native Alaskan him self. The hour tour was non-stop information in a light hearted, joking manner that was very enjoyable to listen to. The Sourdough Mining Restaurant was interesting. The food was good but the real hit is Dusty Sourdough, a character right out of an old western novel who played music and told great stories. The Tap Root is a one of a kind, not to be missed adventure. There is no way to describe the hysterically funny show. It's called "Whale Fat Follies" and is a roaring musical spoof on anything and everything Alaskan. There was a great bass player, incredible drummer, the leader and narrator on keyboard, a guy providing hysteric visuals on flatscreens visible throughout the darkened, packed restaurant, and the stars, a guy and gal in more costumes than I could count, dancing and playacting non stop. Everyone was laughing, loudly applauding and cheering. I had tears in my eyes from laughing so much. This is a not to be missed show when in Anchorage. The Northern Lights production of "Aurora" was a high definition presentation and narration of the Aurora Borealis. The light show is definitely beautiful and mysterious. It makes me almost want to come to Alaska in winter. Than again, rather than endure 40 to 50 degree below zero temperatures I think I'll stick to the presentation in high def.!! I was pleasantly surprised at both the cost of servicing my truck and the service details. For only $48 they changed the 7 quarts of oil, filters, rotated the tires, topped off the washer fluid, changed the wipers, and inspected the entire vehicle. I was very surprised that the air filter wasn't totally filthy after well over 500 miles of dirt and gravel roads. I love my Ford (lol)!! Since I was in Anchorage on Saturday I walked over to their combination farmers market and craft show. It's incredible the size of the vegetables!! Squash and zucchini that were well over a foot long. They say it's the length of the days', the amount of sun light. The vegetables are beautiful.


It's a pretty drive from Anchorage down the Kenai toward Homer. As I got close to Ninilchik I could see three of the four active volcanos; Mount Redoubt last erupted 3/23/2009, Mount Spurr last erupted in 12/1992 to 1/1993, and Mount Iliamna whose last eruption was prior to Europeans arrival but does produce constant plumes of sulfuric gases. These three snow capped volcanic mountains, along with Mount St. Augustine which last erupted 3/27/1986 are part of what is known as the "ring of fire" and four of the 130 active volcanos in Alaska. May they hold off blowing their tops for another few months (lol). My stay at Country Boy cg in Ninilchik was a little hectic. Over the few days I went on a float plane salmon fishing trip, halibut fishing, sea kayaking, a play "The Odd Couple", and exploring the towns of Homer, Soldotna, and Kenai. The two fishing trips were experiences but for very different reasons. The float plane salmon trip had an incredible bush pilot who seemed to enjoy showing us his flying abilities. When we saw some moose he immediately swooped down at almost the level of the bulls huge rack so we could see them "up close". When we saw a brown bear with three cubs he again swooped down. The bear and cubs seemed to enjoy us as they reared up on their hind legs staring at us. Surrounding the area are several glaciers which of course our pilot swooped so low I thought he was landing on them! Once landed on the lake we were met by a skiff and it's pilot who took us to the mouth of a stream where the salmon are spawning. The salmon are so thick we were able to see them from the plane. In the little skiff it seemed we could just reach in and grab them which is exactly what the bears were doing not 30 feet from us. There is a three fish limit and the three of us in my boat hit the limit within 30 minutes, incredible! The plane wasn't coming back for a couple of hours so our skipper took us around for some bear and waterfall viewing. We went into this one bowl-like lake that was the result of an extinct volcano. Beautiful clear water with only us and some bears enjoying it. My halibut trip was quite different going out about 15 miles in a 28 foot boat and 5am! The seas got real rough real quick hitting 6 to 8 foot swells. My stomach couldn't take it as I gave back my light breakfast of a few strawberry's and raspberry's (a very colorful sight). With my stomach in a knot I still managed to get the first halibut. After reeling it in I went back to my spot on the rail heaving what was left of my innards. About the time everyone else got their limit of two, I pulled in the last fish of the day for my limit. About all I could manage when we finally got back on shore was a tiny smile and "...well, that was fun"! It gave everyone a nice laugh. I think that's enough ocean fishing for me for quite awhile. The three little towns on the west side of the Kenai are cute and about 75 miles apart in total. they all have lots of restaurants and "junk" shops which seem to do great business even at incredible prices. A fish plate that in most of the lower 48 would go for about $12 to $15 cost $30 and that didn't include the Moose Drool beer at $7 (still, I couldn't resist trying a beer called Moose Drool. It was a thick, dark brew that was great). Chuck, the cg owner, said there were two art gallery's just down the road that weren't to be missed. He was right! The first one, the smaller of the two, was started by a guy, Ben Firth, originally from Pennsylvania. He, his wife, and eight kids are now all artists. Most of the art is pen and ink but they also have some beautiful cravings. The middle daughter, Sara, shared many family stories with me. The second and larger gallery is truly incredible. Norman Lowell and his wife Libby began homesteading in the area in 1958 having moved up from Iowa. Norman hand built his first log cabin which is still on the site of the quite large gallery. He has been a prolific artist for well over 50 years. Even since being declared legally blind two years ago, he has continued to paint scenes of the Alaska he obviously loves. Libby showed me her beautiful garden around their home. They are a very cute couple. When she and I returned after about 20 minutes of her showing me around the gardens, he said he missed her and obviously meant it. She calls him "father". After my extreme sea sickness a couple of days ago I can't believe I'm now going sea kayaking for six hours. I must be nuts! Marie, who was born and grew up here in Homer and is now a junior at Vasser was our guide. While this is only her second season as a kayak guide she obviously knows this area very well as she provided lots of info to the six of us. There was a young couple from Seattle who kayak lots when back home. Robin and her sister Kay are up from Arizona. Robin is an avid kayaker who reluctantly convinced her sister to give it a try. Alan couldn't convince his wife to go so he and I were the only ones in single kayaks. A humpback whale breached about 30 yards from us. Lots of sea otters and harbor seals were playing all around us and seemed as curious about us as we were about them. There were lots of bald eagles with one grabbing a fish just in front of us. This is only my second time kayaking on the open sea. The first time was in Bar Harbour, Maine so I guess I have officially kayaked from the Atlantic to the Pacific (lol). It was a beautiful day and a great adventure. Before leaving Homer I attended the local playhouse and saw "The Odd Couple". I saw this play on Broadway almost 40 years ago with the leads played by Walter Matthau and Art Carney. There was no way the Homer version would match those two actors but it was still a fun evening.
The town cg in Seward is right on the waterfront and has electric and water. This is a cute little town in a snug little harbor. After setting up I went into town to book the Kenai Fjords cruise. I'd heard lots of great things about the 8 hour cruise and wanted to see for myself. As I was booking the cruise, next to me is Alan from my kayaking out of Homer a few days ago. He and his wife are going on the same cruise. It surely is a small world. The cruise really is great and I highly recommend it to anyone travelling through Seward. The captain and crew were friendly and had great eyes spotting lots of wildlife. We saw many humpback whales, orca's, porpoise, sea loins, seals, sea otters, and more types of birds then I can remember. The boat came within about 1,000 feet of a huge, calving glacier. I've seen lots of glaciers on this trip and even landed on one, but I'd never before watched them crack and slide into the water. The sounds of the glacier were eerie. The cruise included a light lunch, I had a salad anticipating the dinner buffet. For dinner we stopped on an island where the cruise line maintained a lodge. We had a fabulous buffet included salmon and sirloin, all cooked to perfection. I sat with Alan and his wife with two young couples at the table next to us. One of the young couples, Matt and Donna, are high school teachers from outside of Denver. This is one of several bicycle vacation they have taken over the years. They enjoy packing up tent, sleeping bags, and camping gear, loading it on their bikes about spending their summer's riding around. This trip is 50 days of biking the Kenai peninsular. Back home, whenever Matt has the time, he hikes the 14k'ers throughout Colorado. He has done all 53 of them, an incredible feat! I can't believe how fast the 8 hours flew by. The Sea Life Center was also a great visit. They have what they claim to be the largest aviary with the deepest pool for the sea birds to dive in. Most of the birds were born at the sea life center and so aren't afraid of people. They come right up to you. I'd never seen so many different varieties of puffins.
I had thought to stop overnight in Palmer, AK on my way to Valdez. It was still so light out and I wasn't tired so I drove on. As I came into a winding valley with magnificent snow capped peaks on my right and green mountains on my left with mountain sheep on them, I see a huge glacier between the snow capped peaks. As I'm admiring the view a pretty little cg appears as if by magic. Stopping for the night it was still light enough to use their telescope to enjoy watching the sheep roam the high peaks. They are Dall Sheep, the ones with the big, curved horns. They are sort of easy to spot on the mostly green mountain but were too high up to get any good photos. Fascinating to watch as they climb along narrow crevices so high up. The Matanuska Glacier at 27 miles long and 4 miles wide is the largest glacier accessible by road. It is expanding by about a foot a day and gives an incredible view from the cg. The next morning, almost immediately after turning onto the Richardson Highway heading into Valdez, the scenery was incredible. High, snow capped mountains on both side with water falls all along the 117 mile road. The entire length of the road seemed to go down hill, pretty steep in some parts. I must have appeared to be drunk winding through Keystone Canyon barely able to stay in my lane. The views are spectacular! Valdez is a nice little town about 10 to 12 blocks square. I happened to arrive during their annual Gold Rush Days celebration, a full four days of music and events. It was kind of funny walking around town carrying a commemorative glass wine goblet, people watching lots of others doing the same thing with many in Mardi Gras get ups that rival New Orleans. There were 19 places in town serving many different wines, most pretty nice, plus munchies and lots of music. I was amazed at how many people in town I recognized and who remembered me. There were the three gals from Radio Shack where I bought a cable, the guy and gal who were ahead of me in line the day before signing up for the wine tasting, the gal from the visitor center who I chatted with two days earlier, two gals from the sea kayaking adventure I went on a couple of days before, and a coast guard guy and his family who just moved to Valdez and I got to talking with a few days earlier. All these folks don't even count the half dozen from the cg I'm staying at. Small towns are amazing. The sea kayaking was interesting. Not as much wild life as I saw kayaking in Homer. The water was murky and there is a definite smell of petroleum, very mild, but definitely there. Two of the three museums in town have large exhibits on the March 1964 earthquake and the March 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. The people of Valdez probably aren't fans of the month of March (lol). The earthquake destroyed the old town, now a tourist attraction a couple of miles around the harbor from the newly rebuilt town. The oil spill is a real sore topic. Only two of ten animal species almost wiped out from the oil spill have recovered in the 25 years since the ship went aground. Exxon didn't settle easy with anyone. Even after the court settlements, Exxon continued appealing. There are still cases in court after all this time. I was told if I ever went to the nearby town of Cordova not to even mention the word "Exxon". Old time residents may shoot anyone even associated with the company. The approximate 120 miles of the Richardson Highway, the only way in and out of Valdez, is both picturesque and the worst paved road I've ever driven. Parts of the Top of the World road seemed smoother than this one. The next 120 miles of the same road heading into Tok wasn't much better. The views sort of make up for the horrible road. It seemed strange that the worst parts were the lower portions and not the parts through the canyons where rock slides and avalanches do occur. It was kind of melancholy heading into Tok, knowing that this was where my Alaska adventure began about 5 weeks ago. About 30 of my RV neighbors are all on an Adventure Caravan. I had met several of them in Valdez and at various rest stops over the past week or so. A couple of them are members of Escapees and I got some hugs. About a dozen of us sat out for a happy hour of sorts. This caravan also came over Top of the World and all agreed that the road is not as bad as some say. Most of the caravan is made up of some pretty big motorhomes, including two 45' Prevost's (these things start at $1.2 million). There is even one couple pulling a 43' 5th wheel with a Freightliner tractor!! I was going to use the cg's power washing on my rig and truck but it was raining in the morning. I guess I get a free wash instead. As I drove through all the construction between Tok, Alaska and Beaver Creek, Yukon I was glad I didn't bother using the Tok cg power wash. My RV and truck are again covered with dirt and mud. Oh well, they look like they've been doing lots of travelling, which they have. The Beaver Creek visitor center stamped my Yukon Gold Passport and saw I already had over 20 stamps. That qualifies me for the 5 oz gold drawing so they took my form and entered it. I haven't heard back from my Northwest Territory diamond entry yet but I did win $250 from the Alaska North magazine drawing :=)!! That pays about 1/4 of one months gas expense, lol.


Driving through a beautiful valley with the Kluane mountains all around is an incredible route. The Destruction Bay cg sits above Kluane Lake, the largest lake in the Yukon. From the cg you see these magnificent snow capped mountains all around. The cg water well goes down 165 feet to get the pure glacial water beneath the 160 foot thick permafrost. The water is delicious, cold and pure! The same group of Adventure Caravan'ers are in this park tonight also. They had a prearranged dinner buffet followed by entertainment and I was able to join them. Our host, Loren, played guitar, sang and told great stories. He kind of sang a poem he wrote about the Kluane region of the Yukon. His love for the area really came through. He was a terrific host, the home made roast, salad, and several sauces and dressings were delicious. Lots of hugs and goodbyes' from the caravan'ers. They are driving to Skagway in the morning and I'm heading to Haines. I'll eventually take the ferry from Haines to Skagway and may catch up with them there. It seemed kind of strange that the US border crossing is several miles past the actual border. Seemed weird to cross an international border with absolutely no one caring. The road to Haines is another very nice drive, both the road and the views. The Wrangell-St. Elias Mountains are just to the right of the Haines road. This mountain range includes Mt. Logan, the highest mountain in Canada at 19,551 feel. It also includes Mt. St. Elias, the second highest mountain in both Canada and the United States at 18,008 plus 19 additional mountains over 14,000 feet including Mt. Bona which, at 16,521, is the highest volcano in the United States. This mountain range straddles the US and Canadian border and is way beyond my ability to adequately describe it's beauty!!! The town of Haines is really cute with lots of well kept, old buildings. The cg is the prettiest I've seen in all of Alaska with lots of flowers planted all around the cg, nice large grassy sites, and right in town so no need to drive. Three very interesting museums in town; the Hammer Museum, the Sheldon Museum, and the American Bald Eagle Foundation. Can you imagine a museum devoted solely to hammers? They have about 2,000 hammers, some really strange and some really old. One hammer is claimed to have been used to build an Egyptian pyramid. The Sheldon Museum is a collection of "stuff" collected through a fascinating lifetime by Steve Sheldon. Born in Ohio in 1885 he traveled extensively from age 16. He worked at darn near any occupation you could think of and collected "stuff" from all his adventures. His wife Beth joined in his collecting focusing mainly one First Nation artifacts. The museum is quite eclectic and interesting. The Bald Eagle Foundation nurtures and cares for dozens of injured birds, mainly raptors like eagles, hawks, falcons, and even some owls. It was amazing to see and interact with several live birds. Did you know that bald eagles can take a baby lamb?  During my few days in Haines I also took a raft trip through the Bald Eagle Preserve and a jet boat to Juneau. All five of us on my raft tried to count the bald eagles. After only a few minutes into a three hour trip we had already passed 50 and gave up counting. Bald eagles were all over the river, in trees, on the river bank, standing in the shallows. It's amazing to see so many in the wild. The salmon spawn in the very shallow river where the eagles are able to grab them as they swim by. It was like being in a National Geographic Film, incredible!! I couldn't leave Alaska without visiting the capital, Juneau.  When I went to book the jet boat to Juneau I was told I got the last seat. Apparently a caravan from Skagway, the first stop on the boat, booked almost the seats. Turns out it was the folks I'd sort of been following the past several days. It is a small world! The jet boat takes about 2 1/2 hours to get to Juneau where the cruise ships take all night. The jet boat also takes lots of detours to see humpback whales, orcas, sea lions, seals, and lots of glaciers and waterfalls from the glacial run off. Once at Juneau, we were met by a tour bus which took us around the town and out to the Mendenhall Glacier. This is one huge glacier! the visitor center provided a short film and lots of information on glacial life cycles. By the end of the day I was happy and tired. The sea air blowing for about five hours helped provide a great nights sleep (lol). The ferry to Skagway is the size of a small cruise ship. They directed me and my rig into a full "U" turn on the vehicle deck. That's almost 50' of truck and RV going in a full circle, to give you a sense of the size of the ship. At the RV park there were my new friends in the Adventure Caravan. It's strange that I've now camped with them, unintentionally, at four cg's plus shared the jet boat cruise to Juneau. I've spent almost as much time with them as with the group I started out with. We sat around sharing stories about nutty RV drivers we've seen along the way. From the stories told there seem to have been three rigs that went over the side on the Top of the World Highway this season. Two were coming into Alaska and one was going into the Yukon. No one apparently was seriously injured although all three rigs were pretty much destroyed. No one seemed to know much about the rig leaving Alaska. Both of the ones coming in were large motorhomes. Both of them were in caravans. Both were driven by guys. One was apparently going between 40 and 50 mph when most of us only go about 20 mph on that road. He tried to pass another RV and slid off the road. The guy in the other rig, also going much to fast, apparently slammed on his brakes to swat a fly and slid over the side on the muddy dirt and gravel road. A few of us went to the Soapy Smith "Days of 1898" stage show together. The show tells the story of Soapy Smith, a con artist who kind of ruled Skagway for about 9 months between 1898 and 1899. They tell the story by reenacting with music, can-can dancing. It was very nice and became a real hoot when they took one of the caravan'ers I was with up on stage, got him into a dress and basically embarrassed the heck out of him. While I was laughing I was also glad it wasn't me, lol. I drove out the Dyea road, about 10 miles out of Skagway on a winding, hilly, narrow dirt road. Dyea was once a gold town of about 30,000. Today it isn't even a ghost town. About all you see are remnants of where the town had been. People go to see the brown bears feeding on the streams and boggy flats around the area. It was a pretty day with lots of fresh air and a nice stroll but no bears (boo, hoo, hoo). Oh well, I've seen lots of bears. Skagway, while a cute town, is way to touristy for me. This is a regular stop for the cruise ships and there were three in port while I was camping here. This little town seemed more like Times Square at New Year's Eve! The locals have trouble driving through town with people crowding the boardwalk sidewalks and the streets. It's almost comical! Other than a couple of museums and the Soapy Smith show, the rest of the town is restaurants and "junk" shops. I'm glad I came and saw Skagway but am also glad to be heading out.


When I first planned this trip I thought of it as a "once in a lifetime" experience. Now I've kind of fell under the spell of Alaska. While I've been here almost six weeks and almost 5,000 (just in Alaska), I've only seen a small portion of this state. It's incredibly beautiful here. Neither words nor pictures do it justice. Who knows, I may return one day.

Yukon Territory

The last of the Liard Highway wasn't too bad, about 25 or 30 miles after leaving Ft. Liard I came to the border with British Columbia and a nicely paved road the next 110 miles to the Alaskan Highway. I turned east for several miles to get to Ft. Nelson which of course I'll have to retrace when I head out in a few days. Having seen the town on google maps with Jacques in Ft. Simpson a few days ago I felt almost like I knew this town. I pulled into the visitor center to check it out and ask where a tire place was. The two gals were very friendly and we ended get chatting a little. The tire store is about a half mile further, down a side road (this isn't the biggest town you'll ever see, lol). Kal's Tires is doing a booming business with RV'ers and several trucking firms. The good news is they have some pretty good tires in stock. The bad news is I can't just leave the RV and it will be about two hours before they have a bay open for me to get into. No problem, with the RV trailing behind me I drove to the airport to return the tire Jacques had lent me. The hanger he directed me to was down a narrow dirt road that I wasn't sure had a way back out. No problem again, I drove to where he asked me to leave the tire and backed all the way back down the road. I can't believe how easy the 5th wheel has gotten to handle. I took a different road back to the tire store, checking out the town. Upon arriving I settled in to read a book while I waited. Lucky me, they already had an open bay and they took me almost immediately. I had thought to stay two nights at the Triple G cg, get some wash done and chill out a bit. The gal checking me in told me there were 49 rigs in three caravans scheduled to leave the same day I was thinking. She suggested maybe I wanted to leave a day before them to get ahead. It took me only a moment to ask for three nights and let the road jam get ahead of me.


After setting up and starting a wash load I went back to the visitor center to use their WiFi. While chatting with the gals at the desk, two couples asked the staff about the Liard Highway. The staff didn't know much about it so I chimed in. Next thing I knew I was sharing my experience with the Mackenzie and Liard highways with a small group of fellow RV'ers. When they finally left the staff jokingly asked if I wanted a job at the center, lol. The next morning I walked over to the Historic Society Museum which is just down the road from the campground. I didn't know what time they opened but saw lots of "stuff" outdoors so I got there about 8am. Turns out they don't open until 10am but I decided to wander around the grounds to see what there was to see. Lots of very cool old cars and trucks plus two interesting monuments; one noting the 300 mile marker of the AlCan and a second simply says "Least We Forget". As I was taking some pictures and admiring the exhibits I suddenly noticed a strange old guy coming up behind me. He's about 5"10', wearing coveralls and baseball cap from the museum, and he has a very long scraggly beard. With a smile he says "hi" and we introduce ourselves. Marl Brown is the owner of the museum and he came in early driving his 1961 Morris Minor. I share my amazement at his outdoor collection and that seemed to get him going. It's still almost two hours before the museum opens but he gives me a private, very detailed tour. We enter his auto barn and the sight almost literally blows my mind. There are about 20 antique vehicles, all in running condition. Plus, everywhere you look, even the ceiling of the barn, has tons of other interesting stuff. Marl took the full two hours to show me every vehicle and tell me lots of fantastic stories. When his staff finally arrived about 1 minute before 10am, he and I joked about today's generation, heaven forbid they would arrive to early but leaving before quitting time is okay, lol. He said he's be back in a bit but had to run an errand. I thanked him and said good by but he joked that I'd probably still be there when he got back. I went into the main building of the museum thinking it was just the office where I'd pay the admission now that his staff had arrived. Wow, was I wrong!! The building is packed with tons more antique artifacts. One of the kids set me up with my now third video of the AlCan construction. Marl has the video set up in a make shift airplane hanger. This was the best video by far. It had the oldest, most original film footage plus it also added the story of the civilian widening and straightening of the highway after the original military construction. The video lasted for a good 40 minutes but never got boring. Marl showed up a few minutes after the video ended. He and I went through his main museum which I found fascinating. He told me very few of the RV'ers staying in the cg visit his museum. Of those that do stroll over, most never see the video or rarely stay for the entire length. Most glance around the room, look at their watch and run back to their RV. As we're talking, the people who went into the next video showing after mine leave after only about 15 minutes. Marl says "hi" to another museum visitor who, as if choreographed, looks at his watch and says he has to leave to catch his caravan. Marl and I laugh at the foolishness of most people looking at a destination rather than the journey. I ended up at the museum and out buildings for about 4 hours. If you ever get to Ft. Nelson, you gotta stop in and see Marl Brown. If you do, be sure to ask him about the time he auctioned off his beard to raise money for the town Historical Society and his beard sold for over $10,000!! He is a certified character!
The Alaskan Highway heading west into the Yukon Territory has some pretty views, lots of black bear, bison, and some mountain sheep by the side of the road, and several steep grades! I took a break at Muncho Lake. While there I looked for either a lake cruise or a float plane sightseeing. Neither was available. I got lucky at the Liard Hot Springs and snagged the last site. There was nothing to do to set up, I didn't even unhook the rig, simply backed in and set the brake. About a 10 minute stroll through the woods over a boardwalk brought me to the hot springs and hanging gardens. The gardens consist of some wild flowers growing around a lovely little waterfall which flows to the hot springs. I've been to about a half dozen different hot springs but all the others flowed into a constructed pool or large hot tub. The Liard Hot Springs have been kept as natural as possible. The park constructed steps to help you walk in and a few benches under the clear hot pool. There is barely any order, just a mild sulfur smell. If you prefer to soak in water a bit hotter simple stroll closer to where the water enter the pool. If you prefer your soak a bit cooler simply stroll in the other direction. I thoroughly enjoyed about an hour in the pool, then a walk up the hill to see the hanging gardens, and then back for yet another hour in the spring. What a great place.
Archie, at the Downtown RV Park in Watson Lake seemed to enjoy that I immediately recognized his Scottish accent and have even traveled and knew something of Scotland. The RV park is across the street from the Northern Lights Center and one block away from the Signpost Forest. After setting up, I walked to the forest and hung the sign I had made back in Great Falls, MT. The approximately 18 by 12, white metal sign simply says "Our dad drove all the way to Alaska and all we got was our name on this sign"! At the bottom it has the names of my sons. My challenge to them is to someday find "their" sign!! The Northern Lights Center is actually a planetarium. They show a double feature; Black Holes, and Aurora. Both are very interesting films, the first obviously about the black holes of outer space, the second about the Aurora Borealis. I know the aurora is mostly seen in the winter months but I sure hope to at least get a glimpse. The visitor center was again very helpful. They were really interested in my route plans and provided lots of info on things to do and see along the way. Anyone heading this way should definitely stop in and collect booklets with discount coupons on fuel offering .03 to .05 cents off per liter (that's about .15 per gallon!!). The campground is across the street from a little lake that has a walk going all the, the approximate 1 1/2 miles around. Along the walk it has several interpretative signs and view areas. The lake and marsh area are home to lots of birds, butterflys, and colorful dragonflies. It was a pretty walk. I also drove about 12 miles up the Campbell Highway. This was the route I had intended to take when leaving here. The folks in two visitor centers, plus some other RV'ers have all advised not to. The road is apparently not only very rough gravel, but also very narrow with lots of logging trucks. In addition, the forest is said to come almost to the edge of the road and so there aren't any pretty views. The short stretch I drove with just the truck was paved but did have several logging trucks barreling toward me. Okay, I've been talked out of heading up the Campbell. Also, the visitor center showed me a way I can go on my return so as not to retrace the path all the way from Whitehorse to Watson Lake. While checking out the Campbell I stopped at the Watson Lake airfield. It's right by the lake and it's a big, beautiful lake at that.


It was only a couple of hours drive to Teslin. This is a nice stop. The campground is right on the lake, has great fuel prices, a nice restaurant, and even a little museum. A short walk across the Alaskan Highway is the George Johnston Museum. Laura gave me a private tour as I enjoyed listening to her lilting voice, an enjoyable mix of Canadian and Scottish. I learned of this little known man, a native Tlingit Indian who took he liked the name George Johnston and also liked taking pictures. He developed his own photos, not much choice back in the 1920's. One day he was visiting Whitehorse and decided he liked and wanted a brand new model T. His friends, and apparently even the car dealership, thought it a bit strange since there weren't any roads even near his village in Teslin. George bought the car anyway. He and some friends then cleared a few miles of forest so he could drive his car. He then charged folks $2 for a ride. He used the money he collected to pay the same folks to help clear more forest to lengthen his ever growing road. The road build by George is now the stretch of Alaskan Highway that runs through this area of the Yukon. The photos he took over a 20 year period document and really give one a feel for what life was like before there were roads. It's a great little museum. A couple of miles down the road is a Tlingit Heritage Center. They had just made a fresh batch of bannock and a pot of coffee. I'd been wanting to try this northern Canada dish for several weeks now since I first heard of it. It was very tasty, warm and golden brown. It looks like a puffed up muffin. It's basically fried dough, lol. The Tlingit Indians trace their heritage back about 3,500 years. It is believed when the first people migrated across the Bearing Sea from what is now Russia they split into two groups. One headed inland across the Yukon, Northwest Territory, and eventually further south into the Americas. The other group, the Tlingit, followed the shoreline of the Pacific Ocean and settled along what is today the Alaskan Panhandle. Sometime in only the last couple of hundred years they began expanding their traditional hunting grounds, exploring rivers further inland, and trading with the first "white" trappers and eventually the Hudson Bay Company. I find it fascinating to learn about human migration, other cultures, and changing patterns of society. I watched a movie in the heritage center about the season of "two winters". The Tlingit oral history tells of a year that had two winters and no spring. Geologists and archeologists have now shown that this corresponded to the volcanic eruption in the Philippines in 1816. The ash cloud was so huge it apparently blanketed the sky as far east and north as Alaska and the Yukon.


Since leaving Dawson Creek almost a month ago and the RV'ers I started with, I've not only been on my own but have not been making any reservations at any campgrounds. Upon getting into Whitehorse, the first campground I stopped at was full. Not a single open site. However, the second campground I tried did have a site and discount fuel for campers. Whitehorse is the capital of the Yukon and a huge city of about 25,000. They even have traffic lights, lol. I happened to arrive on Aboriginal Day with the Heritage Center having lots of events and free food. The elk stew was delicious! As the capital, there is lots to do here. Several museums, an original paddlewheeler, the SS Klondike. a wildlife preserve, and the nearby Takhini Hot Springs. While in Whitehorse you must see the Frantic Follies. This show is an absolute hoot. They mimic an old vaudeville show from the 1890's; girls in fishnet stockings prancing around and high kicking their long legs, another gal in a beautiful 1890's gown singing some old songs, plus the gals and guys doing really corny skits. They picked a few people from the audience, dragged them on stage and embarrassed the heck out of them. Thank you, thank you for not picking me!! While in Whitehorse I also explored the SS Klondike, a paddlewheel of the type that used to carry passengers and freight up and down the Yukon River. The copper mine museum was also interesting, it played an oral history of the Yukon mining operations as I rode on a train going past various restorations. Do you know the word "Beringia"? I didn't until I went to the Beringia Museum. That is the name for the subcontinent that existed during the last ice age. The huge glaciers that covered much of North America caused the waters to recede. This is what created the land bridge between Siberia and Alaska, called Beringia. The museum was quite interesting, documenting the various mammals, fauna, and geography that existed both during the ice age and since. It was interesting to discover the relationship between miners and archaeologists. Lots of fossils were discovered during the mining operations. There is also a great transportation museum next door to the Beringia Museum. They have lots of neat planes, cars, and trucks from the early days of Yukon exploration. Many of the cars and trucks were found wrecked and abandoned and have now been restored. While in the area I "had" to go soak in the Takhini Hot Springs and tour the nearby Yukon Wildlife Preserve. The wildlife preserve is on 750 acres and includes most of the animals found in the Yukon (no bears). This was my first sight of a muskox herd and artic fox. The preserve takes in injured animals and try's to restore them to the wild. Many of the animals become so dependent on humans due to their injuries that they remain in the preserve.
The drive to Dawson City began on a great road, one of the best of far. That quickly changed into one with lots of "whoop dee doo's". I wanted to stay overnight in Pelly Crossing but the campground appeared deserted, run down and no one around. I toured the First Nation Heritage Center, filled the fuel, and kept heading toward Dawson City. The Gold Rush cg is right in town and did have a site. Wow, are these sites tight. As I pulled in my new neighbor gave me a compliment in that they usually enjoy laughing as they watch 5th wheels pull in these narrow sites. I didn't even give them a chuckle when I pulled right in first shot :=)! I guess three years on the road helped with something. The roads must have been even worse than I thought! The sliding draw under my sofa had broken the tracks. No way to fix it! Oh well, the draw still fits under the sofa but will no longer slide in and out, such is life. Dawson City has lots to do and see. More museums than can be toured in the few days I'm here. The showing of "A Klondike Home Companion" was nice. It had three different musical acts, intermixed with lots of funny skits preformed my two local radio DJ's that many in the audience knew. The playhouse was the Palace Grand Theater which is a fully restored historic building from the late 1890's. The Midnight Dome is actually a long, winding road that leads to the top of a hill overlooking the city. It is said that the sun doesn't set from this vantage at this time of year. I didn't stay all night to find out but enjoyed the vistas. Dredge #4 was about 12 miles down Bonanza Creek Road. This is where all the gold fever started in 1896. The dredge is the largest in the world and the tour is well worth the drive. The town has lots of interesting shops and is fun to just stroll around. Other than the one main street, none of the other streets have been paved. You walk on sidewalk board walks and cross the muddy corners carefully just as was done in the 1890's. There are still about 40 active gold mines in the area. One of the miners periodically donates a bucket of his "pay dirt" to the city museum for their mining demonstrations. At the one I went to they mined, melted and showed us nearly two ounces of gold!! At today's prices the museum got about $2,700 from just this one demonstration. That's a generous miner! Anyone coming up this way has got to stop in at Diamond Tooth Gerties for a show and a drink or two. The shows consist of a really great singer alternating between four can-can dancers. The singer and dancers come into the audience and interact. If you embarrass easy, better not sit up front, lol. I went to two of the three different shows they had and found my head inside one of the can-can dancers dresses at both shows (;=} Two guys found themselves on stages wearing dresses and dancing with the girls. You'll get exhausted just watching these very energetic girls dance. At one of the shows I sat with a couple, Jocelyn and Al, who just completed the Yukon Canoe Challenge. They paddled from Whitehorse to Dawson City in a mere 57 hours. Now that's incredible! Years ago I did the "General Clinton Canoe Race", 70 miles on the Susquehanna River from Otsego to Bainbridge, New York. I could barely stand after only a few hours of paddling. I can't imagine what these guys must be feeling after 57 hours, really remarkable!  I spent a few hours with a local First Nation Indian, touring the Yukon and Klondike Rivers in his skiff. We went to the local village of Mooseslide, we toured his winter camp a few miles down river, and we toured his cabin on an Dog Island in the middle of the Yukon River. He showed me his "fishwheel" from which he can catch over 1,000 salmon in a season. He needs so much fish just to feed his sled dogs! My guide began pointed out a series of caves across the river from Dawson City when a guy emerged from one of the caves and waved to us. It was "Dawson Bill"! He's been living in the caves for about 18 years. He fishes, hunts, or grows almost 100% of his own food, trading the excess of what he gets for other things he may need. Now that's a simple life, strange, but simple! The day before I was heading out I walked over to check out the ferry crossing the Yukon to get to the "Top of the World Highway". The RV line up was over four hours long. The day I left I packed up and got to the line at 6am! There were a couple of cars there but I was the only RV and got right on. The drive to the Canada/US border crossing was 3 hours and I got there just as they opened the border. Still, I had almost and hour's wait with the vehicles already there. Once across, it was another two hours to get to Chicken, Alaska. It took about 5 hours of total drive time to go the 110 miles. I've heard almost every RV'er who has been brave enough to drive this road talk of busted windshield and blown tires. It was pouring rain for the last part of my drive on the winding, narrow, steep, dirt, and gravel road. I stopped several times to take pictures and marvel at the incredible views. Going slow and easy and didn't have any problems as I left the Yukon Territory.

Northwest Territory

A new sticker for my RV map of states and provinces visited, Northwest Territory! I arrived about 5 minutes before closing. The managers of the 60th Parallel cg and visitor center, Eric and Vi, are fantastic people! they gave me a quickie tour and some literature on the territory, told me to feel free to park for free in front of the center, and invited me into their house! We sat around having coffee, telling stories, and looking at pictures of their home further north and their annual vacations to the Baja Peninsula of Mexico. In the morning they had fresh coffee waiting for me and a more thorough tour of the museum. They are a great introduction to the Northwest Territory. As I drove further north I stopped at the twin waterfalls of Louisa and Alexandria. It's amazing the volume of water that cascades over every minute of every day. Absolutely beautiful! The young kid at the Hay River visitor center had the door locked and was napping. He heard my knock and sleepily opened the door. It doesn't seem that there is much to do in this little town but I guess I'll have to wander around and see for myself. The cg is at the southern end of The Great Slave Lake. It's a huge lake, one of the largest and deepest in the world. It's June and the lake is still frozen with what appear to be icebergs floating a ways out. The local museum is a long walk from the cg but didn't have any signs facing the road I came down so I missed it and ended up at a dead end with some municipal workers taking road measurement. I worker I asked where the museum was turned out to be the museum docent's dad. The two teenagers staffing the museum gave me a very detailed, personal tour. They were obviously proud of knowing many of the local artists who paint, carve, create some very beautiful art work. I found a father/son who are establishing a private cg (as opposed to the territorial one I camped at). Their location is down a rough road which is off a dirt and gravel one. We chatted a bit and the son agreed to take me out ATV'ing along the lake shore and into the woods. He wanted to see the results of a major fire which burned several acres of the forest. It was lots of fun driving the ATV, equipped with larger tires than I was used to, over the many logs which accumulate along the lake shore. At times the logs were so huge the only way around was to break through the shore ice on our ATV's and go around. This was a very cool ride and different from other ATV'ing I've done. I went to the nearby Dene First Nation village to check it out. The young girl was very friendly and began showing me their various artifacts. When I asked a few questions she wasn't sure about she got the museum direct, Raymond Sonnafrere. He and I seemed to hit it off and we spent about two hours just chatting about life. Turns out he's the son of the current Chief of the Dene. He then took me for a ride around their village and gave me the names of the local chief's in the villages I was planning to visit. What a great afternoon I enjoyed.


The ride to Ft. Providence was only a couple of hours. On the way I took a short dirt road to the village of Kakisha where I met Chief George Simpson. He and another resident of this small village were working by a very pretty lake. The three of us stood around chatting a little. He shared with me that the village does have a gas pump but it's broken and they're waiting for parts. He also told me that they would normally be out fishing for the great pickerel in the lake but unfortunately the ice machine is broken so they wouldn't be able to keep the fish they would catch. Ahhh, the problems of a remote village (lol). I stopped again at the Lady Evelyn Falls. They are yet another waterfall along this route which is called "The Waterfall Route", lol! These falls were equally as impressive as the twin falls of Alexandria and Lousia earlier on this route. I caught a photo of them with a rainbow as well ;=)! The ferry across the MacKenzie to Ft. Providence is now gone, replaced by a bridge. Incredible views from the height of the suspension bridge, ice floes moving up the mighty MacKenzie. Just over the bridge I saw my first bison, three of them grazing by the river. The Ft. Providence Territorial cg is pretty sitting right along the river. Peter and his sister manage the cg but unfortunately told me they were completely full due to a bicycle race in the area. He was going to let me stay in an overflow area when another camper suddenly had to leave a day early. I got the site for free ;=)!! The drive to Yellowknife was absolutely incredible with bison along the road most of the 200 mile drive. At one point I saw a cloud of dust coming toward me and began to slow down. As I got closer I saw that it was a mini-stampede of about 25 to 30 bison. I came to a full stop as they roared from one side of the road to the other. I managed to get from photos of them as they charged past on my driver side. Absolutely magnificent! The road to Yellowknife is mostly a pretty good one, until the last 40 to 50 miles when the "whoop dee doos" began in earnest. Whoop dee doos are dips in the road that play havoc on cars and trucks and can darn near wreck an RV if you are going to fast. I slowed to about 30 mph on the 55 mph road. When I set up at the cg "stuff" was all over the floor of my RV. Fortunately, nothing broke. The Yellowknife cg was again by a little lake which even has a beach. Many locals play volleyball on the beach along with picnics and some fishing. The visitor center had a nice museum and video about the area and also let me use their WiFi. The center sits next to another lake with a trail around it and a large First Nation Cultural Center on the other side. Yellowknife is a fair sized city of just under 30,000. I discovered I've gotten less fond of cities and actually felt crowded. Kind of funny for a kid who grew up in New York City, lol! While in the area I drove to the end of the Ingram Trail. This is a very rough dirt and gravel road which leads about 20 miles or so, basically into a wilderness. At first I was surprised by the number of vehicles on this road, especially the number pulling row boats and other small craft. Over the 20 or so miles I bet I passed almost 50 lakes!


On my ride back toward Ft. Providence I again saw lots of bison, even though none stampeding. This time I actually had to pay for my site, oh well. The cg had a free barbecue for everyone which was great. I never did find out what the event was. Based on the number of bikers I guess it had something to do with their race. I thought the MacKenzie Highway was all dirt and gravel but it was actually paved and some of the best road I've been on. That is for the first 20 miles of so, then it got real rough, living up to its reputation. As rough as the road is I just slowed down and made sure to pull as far over as possible, coming almost to a full stop, whenever another vehicle passed in either direction. Most other drivers do likewise. Sambaa Da Falls Territorial Park is managed by Raymond and his wife Mavios. They came out to greet me as I drove in. Mavios gave me a tour of their little museum and Raymond let me pull into the park the wrong way so his water hose could reach my RV fill port. I marveled at all the knowledge Raymond has of the territory, rivers, falls, and especially wildlife. Mavios shared that outside of Northwest Territory he is referred to as "Rain Man" instead of Raymond. I took the two short hikes along the river to the two waterfalls, one upstream and the other downstream. This is yet another spectacular area! After another almost hour of rough road I came to the even rougher side road to Jean Marie River, a Dene village about 17 miles off the tough MacKenzie Highway. As I started down the road I realized it was barely more than a bull dozer track covered over by poured gravel mixed with a liquid calcium. At times the road was so soft my truck and RV would literally slide. The ruts and dips and bumps were incredible. Two small bridges over creeks were nothing more than planks and scared the heck out of me as I drove my combined nine tons over them. The 17 miles took about an hour. When I arrived my truck and RV looked like someone had intentionally caked them in dirt and mud! The village people are all Dene First Nation. It's a quaint little village right on the MacKenzie River. You can access Jean Marie by small boat, a short dirt airstrip, or the road I came down. They did have fuel (thank you, thank you) which is actually much less expensive than the rest of the territory since the First Nation is exempt from some fuel taxes. Their campground is a grassy field near the river with some picnic tables but no hook ups. Coming down the "road" (if you can call it that) I got a flat on the RV. The Dene road crew workers, without my even asking, showed up with a heavy duty jack and helped me change the tire. They came by later with some fresh caught pickerel and we had a picnic. It was very interesting to chat with them, that is until the bugs were enjoying us more than we were enjoying the great outdoors (lol).
The drive back out the Jean Marie road wasn't any better than the drive in but at least no second flat tire. After my side trip the MacKenzie Highway seemed like a super highway. I was surprised to find that the road is paved from the junction with the Liard Highway to the Ft. Simpson ferry. It was a pleasant change. The ferry crosses the Liard River going to the Ft. Simpson Island. I was the only one out of my vehicle chatting with the deck hand. He told me a little about the rivers, the island, the town, and where I should be able to get another spare tire. Once off the steep ferry embankment, the few miles into town was paved road. The cg is again right on the river, near the confluence of the Liard and MacKenzie Rivers. The are awesome rivers, almost a mile wide with very swift currents. Immediately after setting up the RV I went to the visitor center. They were very friendly, calling the tire shop and one of the two float plane operators in town. Simpson Air had a charter leaving for the Nahanni Park Preserve in a couple of hours, but they wanted "a lot" for the couple of hours flights. I also really needed to take care of getting a new spare tire before getting back to perhaps the roughest part of the MacKenzie Highway, heading to Ft. Liard. The tire shop didn't have any in stock but could get some if I ordered it in the next couple of hours. They could then order from Hay River and a truck could arrive by the next mid-day. On my way back to my RV to get the exact tire specifications I passed the second float plane operator, Wolverine Air. On a chance I stopped in. François and I were discussing possibilities for a flight when Jacques, the owner arrived. He is a 6' 4" gregarious, very friendly guy. He and I seemed to hit it off immediately. In minutes, we were sitting at his computer looking at google maps and telling each other stories of the many places we have travelled to. He and his wife enjoy RV'ing to the Las Vegas area. Jacques himself has truly travelled the world. He and I were in the Far East within a few years of each other. We have both also travelled extensively through Central and South America. We both have broken our right collar bone on motorcycle spills. It was incredible the number of coincidences we had. Lots of stories of people, places, and especially food. After a couple of hours I said I had to get to the tire store on time to order my tire. This of course prompted the story of the flat. I finally left and went to the tire store. As I was ordering the tire Jacques shows up. Of course as one of the major business owners in town everyone knew him. He asked the store not to place my order, telling me he had lots of trailer tires he could lend me. He has an airplane hanger operation in Ft. Nelson, where I'll be going in a few days, and I can drop off his tire there. I follow him back to his float plane operation, we load a tire in his truck, he drives me back to my RV to make sure it's the right size (it was). We left the brand new tire with the sticker still on it at my RV. While driving back to his shop he gets a call from François that they have a flight to Wrigley about to leave. Jacques asks me if I'd like to go (did he really need to ask?). In minutes I'm aboard with François at the controls and we're flying over the immense wilderness of the Northwest Territory. We fly up the MacKenzie River for about an hour, with a side detour over some incredible buttes. In every direction, as far as you can see from 3,000 feet in the air, there is wilderness, no town, roads, nothing right to the curve of the earth. There are so many lakes I doubt that they've all been explored or named. After landing at Wrigley for the errand we fly back along the eastern edge of the Nahanni Preserve. The preserve is over 11,600 square miles, that's larger than the entire state of Massachusetts!!! The mountains, called "The Unclimbables" are spectacular. The huge waterfall, the Virginia Falls, are about 300 feet high! This is an absolutely incredible land. When we get back, I find Jacques short handed in his effort to move two river docks about a half mile downstream. I insist on helping him. Five of us spent the rest of the afternoon moving and resetting the two docks he uses for his float planes. Two of his employees were on land using a truck to hold the docks in place. Another employee was on the docks, one at a time, throwing and securing rope lines. Jacques drove and maneuvered his boat while I threw, caught, and secured the rope lines from the docks. It was a beautiful day with a light breeze. Everyone else was working and I was having a great time (even if they said I was also working) :=))) After all our efforts, Jacques invited everyone back to his home for drinks and a barbecue. Tor already had a date. François was late for a baseball game. That left only Adrian and me. Jacques wife is just as incredibly nice as he is. It stays light out almost all night so it was after midnight before I realized what time it was. Before leaving Ft. Simpson I stopped by to say good by. Jacques insisted that I use his power washer to clean my truck and RV. I truly hope we cross paths again. I've met some great people in the Northwest Territory.
The ferry ride back was still a cool experience. As I got closer to the Liard Highway I began thinking that it couldn't be too bad after the MacKenzie Highway and especially the crazy road of sorts to Jean Marie River. My first concern as I turned onto the Liard Highway was the big sign and warned against any vehicle over 4,500 kg. For those not familiar with the conversion, that's a little less than 10,000 lbs. My truck and rig combined are over 18,000 lbs!! The RV by itself is about 12,000 lbs! Just when I'm wondering about the mess I'm getting into, a tandem fuel tractor/trailer approaches coming off the Liard. Oh well, if he can do it, so can I. Anyhow, the only road around adds about 1,000 miles. What the heck, here goes! The first several miles weren't to bad going about 40 mph. Just when I thought it would be okay, if a little slow, the road went to washboard and I dropped my speed to 20 mph. This is going to be a long drive. The scenery is very pretty and I passed lots of black bear. After only about 5 hours I finally got to the town of Ft. Liard. During the entire time only one truck passed me from the other direction and no one passed me from behind. Also, there wasn't a single cross road. This is real wilderness! The town is a small First Nation Dene village right on the river. The visitor center had a little museum of sorts and lots of local crafts. They had fuel (thank you, thank you), a small grocery store (I treated myself to an ice cream), and the campground on the river is actually free!! I was somewhat tired from the long drive on dirt and gravel. A little reading and an early last night in the Northwest Territories. Tomorrow I'll re enter British Colombia at Ft. Nelson.

Alberta Canada

We're on our way! I first began planning this trip almost two years ago and now I'm actually on my way. The drive from Great Falls to the border crossing was pretty and easy. The border crossing into Canada was uneventful. There are 6 RV's plus me. Our group consists of: Bobbie & Linda sharing a MH, Ken & Karen sharing a "C", Marge in her MH, Daryl in her's, Roger in his "C", and Tom in his MH, plus me in my 5'er. All the others have opted to go directly to Alaska via the AlCan. We'll only be together until Dawson Creek when I will begin the more adventurous route on the Deh Cho MacKenzie Highway, through the Northwest Territory. We all made it to Lethbridge  and the only event seems to have been Daryl held up for about an hour at the border crossing. She had some problems at Canadian customs last fall and she must be on their "S*** list". The Bridgeview cg is very nice with friendly staff. During our two days we managed to see the: Nikka Yuko Japanese Gardens, the Bird of Prey Center, and Fort Whoop Up Interpretative Center. Lots to do and see in a short time. On our drive from Lethbridge to Calgary we stopped at the "Head Smashed-In Buffalo Jump". Prior to the native Americans having horses and guns, they would stampede buffalo off cliffs. The process was very ritualistic with several tribes cooperating to insure everyone had sufficient food, hides, and bones to get them through the winters. The native Americans would cull the number of buffalo they needed from the larger herd to avoid killing indiscriminately. The "white man" was awed by these magnificent animals and viewed them as trophy's, killing for sport and eventually wiping the endless herds from the land. The visitor center itself was an engineering marvel. It was a multi-story building built into the side of the mountain to avoid disturbing the view. From the top of the buffalo jump you seemed to be able to see the curve of the earth. The story is awesome and sad!


Calgary is one of the largest cities in Canada with a population of about 1.2 million. As with most cities, campgrounds are few and expensive. We stayed at Mountain View cg which had an okay location but very tight sites and more of a trailer park feel. As soon as we arrived I found a dinner theater with tickets for the evening we arrived. Linda and Daryl joined me for an incredible evening. The buffet was worth the ticket price by itself. The play, Fiddler on the Roof, was absolutely first rate. It was a great evening. The next day most of our group opted to take a tour of the city on a "hop on, hop off" bus. The process of getting the tickets was the most interesting part of the tour for me. We drove to the area where we thought the bus left from arriving with about 15 minutes to spare for the tour time. We walked up and down the street looking for some indication of the bus stop. Roger finally noticed the "hop on, hop off" sign on a post with several other bus signs but no one around to buy tickets from. We went into the Calgary Tower ticket center to ask and they directed us to the adjoining information center. The information center didn't seem to know what we were talking about but finally directed us across the street to a hotel concierge. The concierge was off today due to the Canadian National holiday so we spoke with a reservation clerk who had no idea what we were referring to. He went to his manager who said we could use the hotel's one available lobby computer to book the tour and print our tickets. By the time we all finished getting our tickets we just made the second bus almost 1 1/2 hours after we first arrived. After all of this, I fell asleep on the overly warm bus (lol)! Another day, Marge, Daryl and I went to the Calgary Zoo. This is definitely worth a visit for anyone in the Calgary area. The exhibits are done in an interesting way with some very pretty indoor botanical sights as well.


I had heard that the Icefields Parkway is one of the most beautiful, most scenic drives in the world. The road did not disappoint me! I was driving down the road in a zig zag manner almost driving off the road gawking at the snow capped mountains all around me. The Banff campground was another great surprise with easy pull thru spots and more incredible views of the mountains. The town of Banff is like a little Swiss village, very pretty with lots of little shops and restaurants. In the couple of days we were there we managed to; enjoy a few hours in the hot springs, a great lunch at the Lake Louise Fairmont Hotel, a short walk to the Takkakaw Falls, and took the Gondola about a mile up the mountain. On our way driving to Jasper we stopped at the Icefields Visitor Center. They had recently opened a glass floored walkway which extended out over the glacial canyon. The walkway included a self guided audio tour of the construction of the walk and the Columbia Glacier. It was a very interesting, awesome place. From the center we boarded these special buses which had glass skylights and tires almost six feet high. The bus drove us out onto the Columbia Glacier where we were able to walk around and even scoop up a hand full of glacial melt. I seem to keep using the word "awesome" to describe these sights but it really is "awesome".


The group had some lengthy "discussion" over which campground to go to in the Edmonton area. In the end, they opted for the less expensive one I had listed that was further away. "Further away" was over an hours drive from town! We left about 2:30pm to go into town to take a 3:40pm trolley ride and didn't even find parking until well after the time the trolley was to leave. As it turned out the trolley had been discontinued anyway. We ended up walking around a quaint section of the city which seemed to have lots of college-age people. The shops were interesting and one shopkeeper suggested a neighborhood restaurant called "Just Eat Meat"! I wonder what type of food they serve (lol). The next day we went to the West Edmonton Mall, billed as the largest mall in the world. We walked around for awhile, checked out lots of shops, had some lunch, watched the seal show practice (yes, a live seal show), looked at the bathers in the full sized water park/wave pool with zip lines going overhead, saw the amusement park, looked at the full sized ice rink, and even saw the full sized replica of a pirate shop in a water lagoon. This is one huge mall.
I can't believe I drove 327 miles from Edmonton straight thru to Dawson Creek! The drive was relatively easy but long and horrible roads. The roads were like a roller coaster for over 100 miles. When I opened the rig, nothing was broken but two cabinets were open with "stuff" all over the floor and the sofa was on the opposite side from where it belongs. The Northern Lights campground seems nice with a friendly staff. Bobbie. Linda, and Roger also drove straight thru. Daryl, Marge, Ken & Karen, and Tom decided to stay at the Walmart in Grand Prairie.
Linda, Bobbie, Roger, and I checked out the Dawson Creek visitor center and took pictures at the Milepost Zero sign. The Alaskan Museum had a great video about the construction of the 1,500 mile highway plus lots of interesting exhibits. While in Dawson Creek I took a circuit tour of six towns: Taylor (the gold panning capital of the world), Fort St. John (with a great memorial dedicated to 12 US Army Engineers who lost their lives during the construction of the highway), Hudson's Hope and the Bennett Dam (the tour of the dam was incredible), Chetwynd (the chainsaw capital of the world), and Tumbler Ridge (known for its many dinosaur bones and tracks), Pouce Coupe (the town that almost was the hub instead of Dawson Creek). Taylor had a little library and the most talkative person manning it. At Fort St. John they had a museum with great artifacts of earlier times. The memorial was at the southern end of Lake Charlie with a great view of a pretty lake. Hudson's Hope also had a little museum plus a few short hikes to and along the river. The Bennett Dam is the second largest earthen dam in the world. I got butterfly's in my stomach driving over it! The tour took us by bus to the generating plant where we rode an elevator about 500 feet underground, walking through where the ten, 400 ton, turbines spin producing more than 13,000 gigawatts of power, supplying about 25% of British Columbia's total needs plus selling off some power to Alberta and the United States. At Tumblers Ridge I took a hike along a dinosaur trail. The town created a path along the tracks and added phosphorus to the prints. After dark you can follow the glowing dino tracks for a great experience. At Pouce Coupe, Jodi, the docent and I chatted for well over an hour about life and the ever changing values our kids are now experiencing. Six interesting towns and lots of great people.
I took my time driving to Manning taking time to stop at Fairview and Grimshaw. Unfortunately, it was a Sunday so the little museums were closed. Still, there were a couple of outdoor exhibits about the area. In Manning I stopped at the municipal cg. It had a short walking trail along the river and was next to the visitor information center. At the cg I saw an elderly guy trying to take something from the rear of his van. I asked if he needed any help. We chatted a bit. His name is Russell, he's 95 years old, and he has been planting trees in the area for many years. At 95 he drives around digging holes and planting trees!!! Instead of driving directly to High Level, I took a detour to the two old communities of La Crete and Ft. Vermilion. Getting to La Crete required the coolest ferry ride I've ever had. The ferry travels sideways turning to pick up and discharge vehicles. The ride is only about 15 minutes across the Peace River. At first I was a little concerned about my rigs weight on the ferry. That is until I saw a tandem tractor trailer loaded with lumber! La Crete is a small village which started as a Mennonite community. The Mennonite Heritage Center consists of a museum and a town of about 20 houses. Many of the houses are original to the site. Several other have been relocated to their little village to recreate an old town feel. Ft. Vermilion is the oldest settlement in Alberta. Their museum was fascinating with lots of artifacts illustrating what the area was like a couple of hundred years ago during the trapping era as well as lots of prehistoric items of native peoples dating back over 3,000 years. The High Level visitor center and museum was very interesting. They had a giant totem pole out front and a fully stocked general store from the early 1900's. I found it amazing how many of the items looked familiar to me from the late 1940's and into the 1950's. I guess change happened at a much slower pace back then. The High Level cg didn't have anyone in the office and the phone number on the door went to a voicemail. I left a message as a drove my rig around the cg. The sites were very tight, no one called me back, and it was still early especially considering that it doesn't get dark around here until about 11 pm! I began driving north along the MacKenzie thinking I'd find a cg within a few miles. The scenery was great, the driving was easy, and before I knew it I was at the Northwest Territory visitor center at the 60th parallel.

Arizona to Montana

It was a longer drive to the SKP park in Casa Grande, Arizona then I thought. With a few stretch stops it took just over five hours. However, the drive was an easy one with all but a few miles on I-10. My first sight of saguaro cacti brought a big smile to my face. They both look funny to me and bring back nice memories of other times I've been to Arizona. The cg is the oldest in the SKP park system, created in 1981. I was told that the sites were tight with no pull-thrus but I didn't find them to be overly tight. My neighbors, Herb and Ann are from Calgary, Alberta. We sat out and had some conversations on differences between Canada and the United States. The conversation seemed to focus on health care. The Canadian system requires it's citizens to remain in their resident province a certain number of days each year, as well as within Canada or lose coverage. Herb and Ann weren't happy with their costs of about $2,000 a year. The new US system now requires people to pay for coverage they will never use and costs many folks far more than what Herb and Ann are paying. Neither system seems great. For most of my life I never realized or appreciated how great my VA coverage is. I guess the best thing to do regarding health care is to stay healthy! This SKP park seems to use the identical printed agenda for their happy hour as the park outside of Carlsbad. They celebrate birthday's, anniversary's, have new arrivals stand and say a few words, they wish those leaving safe travels, make general announcements, tell a few jokes and maybe a story or two. All in all the 30 or so folks who show up each afternoon chat and enjoy each others company. Of the five SKP/Rainbow parks I've stayed at, Livingston, TX remains the only one that was down right rude and poorly run. While Pecos, TX and Deming, NM seem to cater more to one and two night transients without much else going on, they are friendly and accommodating enough. Lakewood, NM is definitely the most friendly and welcoming with Wauchula, FL and Casa Grande, NM close behind. It seems strange that the park managers supposedly all get the same training yet there is very little consistency among the parks.


The campgrounds in New Mexico and Arizona definitely have way more solar equipped rigs than I've seen anywhere else. I've chatted with several RV'ers who claim to rarely, if ever, require electric hook ups. I'm still not boondocking much and feel I really need to be utilizing my solar setup much more.


I spent a day checking out the town of Casa Grande and the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. The ruins are an interesting place to visit. The National Park Service has protected this prehistoric village that had a population estimated to be over 2,000 and lasted over 1,000 years. The native people created an extensive canal system they used to irrigate their farm lands. They wove beautiful, intricate baskets, made pretty pottery, and built a four story adobe building. The remains of this large house was referred to as the Great House, "Casa Grande" by early Spanish explorers and became  way station on the Butterfield Stagecoach route. The large house has two interesting windows on the top floor. Through one window the sun shines clearly on an inside wall only on the summer solstice while the full moon fully shines through the other window only when it is full. I find it amazing how much ancient people new of astronomy, time, and construction. Another day I spent about 4 hours ATV'ing through the desert with Adventure Tours. We went about 20 miles into the desert, over ridges and through the Box Canyon. The desert really is a beautiful, amazing place.


The drive to Lake Havasue was another easy pretty drive. Most of the ride was beautiful desert scenery with incredible mountains in the distance on both sides of me. Once my ride started heading north, the route went through some gently winding hills, along the Colorado River, the boundary between Arizona and California. I find it amazing how much this area has grown since I was last here. This is a major tourist area! The Lake Havasue State Park was easy to find, get to and setup at. Almost as soon as I began walking around the park I met Joe and Carol. They offered me a pina colada, how could I refuse. We sat out by their rig enjoying the view of the lake and mountains. What a tough life I have ;=) There are lots of tours and adventures here, but it's also real hot this week hitting 97!!! one day. I took a walking tour of the beach area and bridge. Imagine buying 26,000 acres at less than $100 each and selling at almost $600,000 each!!! John McCulloch, the founder of McCulloch chainsaws, bought London Bridge for just under $2.5 million. He sold off some excess granite for about the same amount and has gotten an estimated $7.5 million in free advertising because of his purchase. Absolutely incredible!! I repeated a delightful afternoon I had here almost 35 years ago by sitting in a pub overlooking the bridge enjoying a light lunch and a Corona. This is a tough life. An Indian tribe built a casino on the California side of the lake and has a cruise boat to shuttle the many people looking to "donate" to their cause across the lake. I enjoyed the 1/2 round trip cruise but passed on the smoke filled casino. There was an outdoor kind of festival set up at the park with vendors selling little stuff like fishing poles and gear and big stuff like ATV's and boats. I actually looked semi-seriously at a Polaris 550, camouflaged ATV. I could probably have a platform rigged and welded to the rear bumper of my rig. My truck could handle the extra 1,000 or so of the ATV and welded platform. Oh well, something to think about. I have enjoyed ATV'ing. Maybe after returning from Alaska.


The drive to Las Vegas was pleasant and interesting looking across the vast desert views. It's amazing how much open land there is in this big, beautiful country. Even with the temperature in the mid-90's, with the windows open there was a nice breeze. Las Vegas is clearly seen from a distance, what with the tall building and observation spire. The campground is inside the city but was easy to get. The pull-thru site was easy enough to get into but I'm not sure it's going to be so easy to get out of, what with how tight the sites are. I arrived on my birthday and treated myself to a nice steak dinner out, even included a couple of Corona's which is very unusual for me. On my way back I picked up some beer and wine as my contribution to Pat & Paul's barbecue at their RV park tomorrow. It was great seeing the Recore's, it had been about 1 1/2 years since we met at the Country Music RV park in New York. I very much enjoyed sharing dinner and some relaxing time in their RV parks Jacuzzi. We do lead a tough life. Next day I spent about 4 hours ATV'ing through the desert dunes just north of Nellis Air Force Base. This was my first time driving in actual sand dunes. Our group began with about 10 of us but quickly dropped to eight when two gals weren't able to handle their ATV in the sand. After about a half hour the guides split us into two groups of four when some of us were clearly enjoying zooming around the dunes and the others were barely keeping up. I may have been the oldest but I wasn't the most daring. One guy accidently zoomed over a dune that had a big drop on the other side. I thought sure we would find him buried in the sand but somehow he managed to stay on his ATV. Needless to say the rest of us took a different route. I wanted to see a doo wop show that was playing at the Riviera and stopped by to get tickets on my way back from the ATV'ing. First problem was their indoor parking with a six foot clearance. My truck is about 1 1/2 feet to tall. I was directed to some outdoor parking a little ways away used by construction and service folks. Second problem was as soon as I entered the hotel and could barely get a breath of air. I guess smoking is much more prevalent in Vegas. No way would I be able to survive a couple of hours in there with a show. Although disappointed I spent the next day in the pool and hot tub. It's a tough life I live but someone has to do it ;=)


What a pretty ride to Panguitch, Utah. The ride on I-15 just a little north of Las Vegas goes through magnificent canyons, crossing the Virgin River several times. Once in Utah the drive is on a flat plane with snow capped mountains off in the distance on both sides, beautiful! I was a little worried about a posted 8% down hill grade running for about 7 1/2 miles. I stayed in 3rd gear, kept the rig around 30 mph, and it wasn't bad at all. Lots of fun as I finished setting up. With the water, sewer, and electric all done I went inside to get the slides open. As soon as I opened the rig door there's a cute little gray mouse sitting on my desk. I tried throwing a slipper at him but he easily scooted between the sofa and desk. After setting everything up I ran across the street to a hardware store and picked up three different types of traps. As I finished setting them up with some delicious blue cheese added to each, I turn around and the little guy is on top of the kitchen counter, nibbling the cheese that had dropped in the sink. Unfortunately for him my slipper was real close. Splat and one mouse down!  I thought that was it and walked out to toss the no longer cute little guy. When I walked back in there was another one now caught in the sticky trap and the cheese was gone from one of the spring loaded ones. I tossed the second mouse, put out another sticky trap and added more cheese to the traps. A few minutes later I jumped a few feet into the air when the silence was broken by a loud "snap" and a third mouse was smashed in a spring trap. Tossed this third one and replaced the trap. I didn't sleep much, listening closely for any movement. In the morning I found a fourth mouse stuck in a sticky trap. I left the traps out for a couple more days but word must have gotten out to mouse community and no more came around. Should this happen to any of you I definitely recommend the sticky traps over the spring loaded. Both work but the sticky ones are much easier to clean out (lol). So much for my weeks wildlife experiences!


Pat & Paul drove up from Zion to meet me and do some hiking at Bryce. Their drive was the better part of two hours each way and they had to plan it around the Zion tunnel where they required an escort. I've been to many of our magnificent National Parks from Acadia to Big Bend to Glacier. While all the parks are beautiful in their own way, Bryce is my personal favorite. Pictures don't really do it justice, you have to see the unique spires, called hoo doo's, and all the colors, and vistas. Pat, Paul, and I saw the video at the visitor center and then took the combined hike called Sunset to Sunrise including the Queens Garden. The hike goes about 320 feet deep into the canyon over a total round trip length of about 2.8 miles. It's considered the easiest trail into the canyon. We made it down with no problems and enjoyed the magnificent sights. Climbing out was another story! For a while I thought Pat & Paul would need to get a helicopter for me (lol). I was totally pooped! We also saw one of my favorite sights in Bryce called Fairland. Walt Disney himself couldn't top this creation. The three of us had a great, late lunch at Ruby's, a hysterical, I mean historical landmark. It was getting late and Pat & Paul had to head back to make the last escorted ride through the Zion Tunnel. I took one more short hike called Mossy Cave. This trail was about 8/10 of a mile (round trip), with an additional 2/10 (round trip) on a side trail to see a waterfall. The cave is more of an overhang and the waterfall is not huge. Still, it was a pretty end to a very enjoyable day. The horseback ride into Bryce was fantastic! My horse was a mule named Geraldine. She was very sure footed and very responsive to me and boy was I glad for both. I was able to keep her from the very edge of the narrow trails. For some reason most of the other horses and mules seemed to like walking right at the edge and it caused some nervousness among a few others along on my ride. We rode for about four hours through the very bottom of the canyon and along several narrow paths and passes. On our ride we saw some bristlecone pine, believed to be some of the oldest trees on earth. Some are estimated to be thousands of years old. This is incredible country, very beautiful and very interesting. My ATV ride was shorter than I would have liked. They don't start the longer rides until mid-May. Still, it was also interesting seeing the canyon and forest from yet another perspective. There is a great little museum on the Bryce Canyon road. They have hundreds, perhaps thousands of taxidermy items plus many local Indian relics, thousand of butterflies, and other interesting items the owner collected over about 50 years. A very interesting place well worth a stop.


Instead of the interstate I took Utah 89 up to Salt Lake City. It took a few extra minutes but is a very pretty ride basically through a valley with snow capped mountains on both sides off in the distance. The cg a next to I-15 which didn't look to promising for a quiet night. I asked for a site as far away from the highway as possible and they obliged with a pull through on the last row. I never heard any road noises the whole week. The site had a tree but it didn't seem to bother the sat. service. After setting up I treated myself to a steak dinner and beer at the nearby Texas Roadhouse Steakhouse. Over the week in the area I went to the Morman Family History Library several times. The Church campus is beyond beautiful, it's magnificent. The volunteer church brothers & sisters are very friendly and very helpful and never try to preach in any way. Still, I was a little disappointed. I think my expectations about finding new genealogy records was too high. I did find some new material but not any of the major finds I was hoping for. Oh well, genealogy research is not something you can finish. It's a lifetime hobby and my treasure hunt will continue. I saw two plays while in the area. Man of La Mancha was playing at the Centerpoint Theater which has a fair sized Morman Church endowment. The theater is beautiful, inside and out, definitely rivaling Broadway. The players were good, with the male and female leads having the strong vocals needed for the songs. This is probably my most favorite play and I've seen it on Broadway plus many other times. I think my familiarity with it got in the way of totally enjoying this particular production. I thought they put to much comedy into a show that should have had more serious moments. Still, it was a very enjoyable evening. The second show I saw was at the Off Broadway Theater (OBT) right on Main Street in Salt Lake City. The playhouse was old, small, and definitely in need of some renovations. The play was a comedy called "America Captain" and I had no idea what it would be about. Turns out it was a farce on "Captain America". It was hilarious!! I, plus several others, almost fell out of out seats laughing. All the players were great but the main villain was incredible. He was obviously having as much fun, or more, than the audience. What a great evening!! I also spent several mornings playing pool with Al, Keith, and Kevin. Three great guys who know how to have fun and not take life, or pool games too seriously.


The drive to Shelly, ID was pretty and easy, that is until the GPS said I had arrived. I was in front of a closed church on a two lane farm road with farms and ranches as far as I could see. I tried calling the park on the two phone numbers I had but no one answered either phone. Walking up and down the road I found three people, none of whom knew of any RV park anywhere in the area. The park manager finally answered hos phone, but said that he and his wife were new to the area and didn't know where I was nor were they able to give me any better directions. It was lots of fun turning my rig around on the narrow road (lol). I kept a close look out for the park as I drove the 8 miles back toward I-15 but with no luck. It was only about two hours more to my next stop in Montana and it was still only 2:30pm so off I go. Lots more of the beautiful Idaho and Montana views. The cg owner was very friendly, we chatted awhile before I got set up. The cg is clean, open, and quiet, what else could ya want! It's still below freezing most nights and the cg turns their water off each evening. The cg also has a spotless shower room so really no need to hook up my water or sewer. Went to the ghost town of Bannack, the first territorial capital of Montana. The town began in 1862 when gold was found in the nearby Grasshopper Creek. The gold is said to be the most pure ore ever found at 99.5%. Most gold ore is only around 80%. About a year ago a woman panning at the state park found a nugget valued at almost $150,000! I toured the town of about 60 structures but didn't get to pan for any gold since about 60 seventh graders on a field trip were enjoying the panning area. Looking at the school desks from the 1860's left me nostalgic and feeling old. The little wooden desks with holes for ink wells were identical to the ones I sat at all through grade school (lol). The Beaverhead County museum in Dillon had an interesting and extensive collection of artifacts mostly from 1862 through the 1950's. Several local family's lend their family heirlooms which the museum rotates a few times a year to keep it interesting. It really is amazing to see and read how our parents and grand-parents lived in what at times seems such  a short while ago.


I had the most relaxing day at the Jackson Hot Springs. The almost 50 mile drive is through magnificent scenery, huge cattle ranches stretched across endless, rolling ranges with incredible snow capped mountains off in the distance. The hot springs were originally pointed out to Lewis & Clark by Sacagawea as they crossed the continental divide near here. Lewis & Clark measured how hot these natural springs are by how long it took various meats to cook and how long they could keep their hands in the waters. The geothermal forces heat the water to about 260 degrees when beneath the ground. The water bubbles to the top at around 140 degrees. They use a naturally flowing spring to cool the waters to a very enjoyable 104 degrees. I sat and soaked, chatting with a couple of outdoor enthusiasts for about two hours. After a leisurely drive back and a long hot shower I felt incredible! Over my few days at this park the owners and I had been chatting about everything and nothing. When I went to say thanks and good-by they gave me a card for two free nights whenever I return. Nice folks and a clean, quiet cg.


A magnificent drive to Great Falls through the western Montana mountains. It was hard to focus on the road with the incredible scenery all around. I kept repeating out loud, to myself "wow, wow, and wow" (I won't speculate what talking to myself indicates)!! The cg is next to I-15 but doesn't seem to noisy. Friendly folks at check in. Marge Smith is already here and the cg seemed to have everyone I know is coming for our Alaska trip expected in the next few days. The cg even reserved a group of sites in the same area just for us. As I set up I got to chatting with the retired submariner across from me (he didn't know you Dave). He, his wife and another couple are also headed to Alaska. Over the next few days Marge and I went to the CM Russell Museum, Bert & Ernie's Tavern, the "world famous" Sip n Dip Mermaid Lounge and Tiki Bar, the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center. The CM Russell Museum was an incredible collection of early cowboy and Indian artifacts and Russell's art. You gotta look this guy up! He has been called the authentic cowboy artist. The museum collection of bronze sculptures, paintings, and artifacts is extensive and well worth a trip. The Bert & Ernie Tavern was a local eatery with pleasant live folk music. The Sip n Dip Mermaid Bar was definitely unique. Marge and I sat at the bar with a glass wall behind the bar. Two "mermaids" were swimming around, waving at us and blowing kisses. Behind us was a woman "..as old as the hills" playing an organ and singing (very nicely). The place was a real hoot! A young couple had moved over one bar stool to make room for Marge and I. I pointed to my airborne bracelet and asked if his was real or decorative. His was real also which started some great conversation. Marge had been a nurse and his wife was also a nurse. It was difficult to talk with the noise of the bar but we managed some enjoyable conversation for the better part of two hours. As with so many museums before, I learned more about Lewis & Clark from a few hours at the interpretative center than years of school.


Rodger and Daryl arrived. I hadn't seen them since the Northeast Rally at Lake George last September. A little chit chat during a happy hour and then off to the Celtic Cowboy. By the name I had a vision of the Marlboro Man doing a Celtic dance, maybe in a kilt. The image was hilarious to me. The Irish sports bar was great, it was perfect! On one side was a nice bar with lots of twenty and thirty something year olds. There were a few tables with seniors and lots of family's with young kids. The menu was creative, delicious Irish comfort food. I had a perfect Irish stew with an ice cold Guinness. Daryl had a bison burger, topped with corned beef that was so thick she couldn't get her mouth around it. Rodger had perfect fish and chips, and Marge had a great shepherds pie. The guitarist played fantastic and had a very nice voice. One of the young mothers began dancing with her two little toddlers and about four or five little girls almost immediately joined in. The music was great, the atmosphere was great, the food was great, and the company was great. What a fabulous evening! Sunday morning brought light snow and a quiet down day. Monday was a few errands; changing my Verizon plan to include international calls, finally ordered a sign to put up at the Watson Lake Signpost Forest, got a couple of gas cans and a gas siphon, and a few fill in food stuffs. Karen and Ken pulled in and we sat in Daryl's rig chatting a little. On Tuesday, Tom pulled in and told us that Bobbie was only a few hours behind him. What a great surprise when Bobbie arrived, she was in Linda's rig with Linda at the wheel. We are now up to seven RV's and nine people. Most of us went to the Buffalo Jump just outside of town. The state park ranger was very informative and provided lots of interesting facts. The site is believed to be about 6,000 years old but no one knows for sure since only one archeological dig has been done and it was done over a dozen years ago. The description of how the various local Indian tribes cooperated in the ritual of the buffalo hunt prior to the advent of horses and guns was fascinating. Over the couple of days the nine of us were together in Great Falls we enjoyed a second dinner at Bert & Ernie's, a second viewing of the mermaids, and got lots of little errands done. Tomorrow we head out on our Alaskan Adventure.

West Texas and New Mexico

Wow, what a pleasant change the Triple T campground in Kerrville, TX is after the horrible SKP Livingston mess. Friendly staff and fellow campers, beautiful views of the Texas Hill Country, large pull-thru sites, exercise room, library, sparkling pool, and even a hot tub! The club house is nice from the outside and very pretty inside with stone arches and floors and a 60" TV with a very comfortable lounge area. Way more to do in this area than I originally thought. I extended my stay to 8 days in order to check out the historic and walking areas of Kerrville, Fredericksburg, and Bandera. The Kerrville winery was a nice surprise. I didn't realize Texas wines would be so good. They have live music at the winery on Saturday's and offer us vets free wine sampling (;=)! Admiral Nimitz grew up in the Fredericksburg area which now hosts a huge museum dedicated to him and the Pacific Theater of WWII. It would take several hours to go through the entire museum in detail, but well worth at least some time for anyone interested in WWII. The town is larger than I thought with lots of shops and restaurants. The Fredericksburg Theater presentation of the Little Shop of Horrors was first class as was the Point Theaters, just outside of Kerrville, presentation of the Big Five-O. Bandera is another neat town in the area, billed as the Cowboy Capital of Texas. They were having their annual Madri Gras festival while I was in the area with lots of quaint shops, music, and a parade about a mile long; lots of floats loaded with folks in Madri Gras costumes, ATV's, tractors, horses, a couple of long horn steers, and even a camel, all decked out for the parade. Several other folks from the campground were also at the parade. I was looking for a good Texas steak and they sure "steered (lol)" me to the right place. The Old Spanish Trail restaurant had great Texas fried steak. I got to chatting with the owner while waiting for a seat. A crazy old lady (nice kind of crazy) who the owner knew well was also a single. I should have known it was going to be fun when he asked me, rather than the gal, if I minded sharing a table. She and I ended up sharing the table with two other gals and a guy as well. This ole' gal Mary was a real hoot who kept us laughing all through our meal. We were looking for a place with music and dance and Mary suggested a nearby bar which we all strolled over to. The 11th Street Cowboy Bar is a hoot. They had a costume contest which was definitely a "ya gotta see it to believe it" event. I was pulled out to dance by several gals I'd never met. What a great time!! This turned out to be a great area to visit. At the cg I also met Art and Yolanda from Anchorage. Art hauls along a beautiful classic Harley Sportster which he fully restored. They promised some good fishing when I get up their way in Alaska.


I wanted to go directly from the Bandera area to Carlsbad, NM but at 9 hours it was to far for me to take my rig in a single day. Pecos, TX was on the way and a SKP park. The managers and workcampers were friendly. Unfortunately, the park has taken on a trailer park feel with all the oil workers staying there. I spent the afternoon and early evening sitting out and chatting with my neighbors. Lots of nice folks at the park but with nothing to do at the park, very little in the area, and the crowded trailer park feel I just stayed the one day. It was an easy drive to The Ranch, the SKP park just outside of Carlsbad, NM. This has got to be the friendliest cg around. They ring a bell as RV'ers arrive and folks seem to come from every direction with smiles and hugs. The cg is in a little oasis in the middle of the desert and the middle of a working cattle ranch. It is nicely laid out with large sites, most with concrete pads, and a large clubhouse. They let me use their maintenance shack to work on my fifth wheel hitch. The hitch had been giving me some trouble when hooking up. While at the campground I took the hitch off, scraped and sanded all the exposed areas, cleaned it off, sprayed it with a silicone coating, oiled and greased it and reinstalled it. The hitch is a fairly simple gadget but if it fails it could cause all kinds of problems (lol). I drove up to Roswell to find the aliens (lol). If you're ever in the area and check out the UFO museum in Roswell, you'll either be convinced "they" landed or at least begin to wonder if they did. It's amazing how many notarized affidavits they have from both eye witnesses and military personal who supposedly had first hand knowledge of the incident. The last time I had been to Carlsbad Caverns was about 35 years ago. They say they have been discovering a new cave within the caverns about once a year. There definitely are lots of new areas since the last time I was here. It took a little over an hour to walk to the bottom of the cavern and about two hours to hike out. The same afternoon I went back into the cavern taking their new adventure tour. On this tour we wore helmets with lights, special gripping gloves and descended on ropes and ladders beneath the lowest cave on the normal tour. There was some climbing and scrambling on our bellies but it wasn't very difficult. It was amazing to see areas that are still being explored. Another day I visited the Living Desert State Park & Zoo. I heartily recommend a long afternoon at this park. It's on a ridge line overlooking the Chihuahua Desert where, on a clear day you can literally see to the Earths horizon. The park is almost completely outdoors and has several desert plantings in their natural settings. They also have many animals, reptiles, and even bald and golden eagles. It was a very pleasant and informative afternoon stroll. This was a great RV cg to stay at. I enjoyed their daily fun and enthusiastic happy hours as well as their weekly men's only breakfast. At the MEWS (Men Excluding Women Supervision, lol), about a dozen of us drove to a great breakfast joint in a town that isn't a town. The oil workers have so much work and people that they created an area in the desert with lots of shops to buy and repair equipment. Among the shops are several restaurants, our breakfast joint is one of them.




The Deming SKP park is similar in many ways to the one in Pecos, TX. The managers and workcampers are friendly enough but not much going on. The sites are nice big pull thrus but the park is right off the I-10 with some constant road noise. My fifth wheel hitch is still not working right. In addition, it's time for the regular 5k maintenance on the truck and I need new tires on the truck as well. Lots of stuff to get done. The cg recommended a truck service place that would work on my hitch. They spent over an hour working on it and finally said, yes, it's broken, but no they couldn't fix it. I called the manufacturer, Reese, and they had me send them photos of the top and underside of the hitch. After viewing the photos they said they'd send me a new hitch head! I've used the hitch for about three years but they said it has a lifetime guarantee. It make it even better, since they didn't have in stock a replacement for my 18,000 lb hitch, they would send me a 25,000 lb one at no charge. Wow!! :=) The local Ford dealer took my truck in, changed the oil and filters and did the usual dealer inspection on the overall vehicle. They also included a free wash. Of course within just a few days with the desert winds blowing you'd never know the truck had been washed (lol). In preparation for the upcoming trip to Alaska, and the couple of thousand miles of dirt and gravel roads, I opted for a set of all terrain tires. That set me back a little but will hopefully pay off in the longer run. While in the Deming SKP cg I managed to get all the service "stuff" done and also met my site neighbors, Dick and Bernice who invited me to stay and hook up at their place in the Upper Peninsular of Michigan whenever I next get up that way.


My drive from the Deming SKP park to the Hi-LoW Ranch also in Deming took a loooong time, it was about 5 miles down the road (lol). This is the national headquarters of Loners on Wheels. It was incredible how welcome I felt as soon as I arrived. If you want to be busy doing things, this is the place. You don't have to be a LoW to camp here and they even accept Passport America!! We had a weekly Saturday night dance to 50's and 60's music. Wow, did that bring back memories. From about my 12th birthday to my 16th, we had a Saturday night dance at my friend Jeff's house. Kids don't have dances anymore and that's a shame. They were great at the time and remain fantastic memories. The cg also has a weekly luncheon at the Pink Store in Mexico, another great time. The owner and staff at the Pink Store really cater to the LoW's. The food is great and the live music was also. The first time at the Pink Store one of the LoW gals grabbed me and we danced to the live Mexican music. The second time there about a dozen of us formed a dance chain bopping all around the restaurant inviting all patrons to join in. It was lots of fun. The daily active happy hour, card games most evenings, and of course hanging out enjoying each others company and the beautiful New Mexico evenings really made this a great stop. The night of the first full moon about a dozen of us sat out drinking and howling at the raising moon. It was beautiful as it rose over the mountains. One day a few of us took a hike in the desert to an old spring along what was the Butterfield Stage Coach trail, about a mile from an Apache ambush site. Another day a few of us sampled wine at a local winery and still another day, another hike looking for the three ghost towns of Cooke, Hadley, and Jose. The desert is very pretty though I'd not want to be walking around here in July or August (lol). Of course all of this was in addition to the Fiesta Rally events. The rally was lots of fun. We divided into four teams of about 10 people each and put on skits. My team did a farce take off on Cinderella. I played one of the ugly step sisters, wearing a huge green wig, beaded necklace, and a dress. Yes, I wore a dress over my jeans rolled up to my knees to expose my sexy legs (lol). We had a rally trip to the City of Rocks State Park and even included a side trip to the Faywood Hot Springs. The City of Rocks is a fascinating park made up of these huge boulders, 40 to 50 feet high, that are scattered in one small site in the middle of an otherwise flat desert. They seem to be out of place like someone just dumped them there. The park rangers say a volcano some 30 miles away in distance and hundreds of thousands of years away in time deposited them here. Still, it's strange that they all would have landed in one relatively small area and not be spaced around the surrounding desert. The hot springs was a fantastic way to end this day. The rally group brought lots of wine which we enjoyed while soaking in the natural water from the springs. They actually have to cool the water before running it into the soak area. The natural water flows from the ground at about 139 degrees. This was a great rally and a very friendly park. I'd like to come back here again.

Heading West into Texas

Well, while I'm still in Florida, my westward wandering has officially begun. I'm back in Marianna, FL where I entered the state a couple of months ago. Cousin Bobbie told me about the Florida Caverns State Park where they have tours of the only dry caves in the state. This is a big park. It was about 3 1/2 miles from the entrance to the camp site. Three nice surprises at the site; it's got full hookups not just the electric & water I expected, the electric box is new and has a built in surge protector, and best of all I'm getting a satellite feed even parked among the trees. The forecast is for near or below freezing the next couple of days so I left the water and sewer connections in. The park has several hiking trails among two main ecosystems; the most southern hardwoods and, a typical cypress-bayou-like area. There are canoe & kayak launch areas to explore the river/bayou. The cave tour was interesting and one of the larger caverns I've seen. Although not as extensive as Carlsbad, Howe, or Luray, there are many rooms and lots of pretty sights.


Continuing west along the I-10 my next stop was Biloxi. I haven't been in this area for about 30 years. In some ways the area has changed and in others it's still the same. I remember pretty beach and bay areas, small towns, lots of fishing, and unfortunately lots of poverty. Now I see huge casinos lining the gulf waters. The small towns have lost much of their charm and in place have many Good Will, Salvation Army, and other second hand stores. The casinos were originally only to be along the gulf. They seem to have either changed the law or allowed lots of waivers 'cause now they also line the bay waters. Many of the beach areas are gone as are much of the fishing areas. I guess the casinos provide some employment, but at what cost? At every highway entrance ramp I see homeless people holding signs and begging. It seems the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I guess this is progress but I liked it better 30 years ago. The cg has a trailer park feel yet is considered a local resort of sorts. They have a nice little lake with fishing, a sandy beach area, and paddle boats to rent. The beach is funny when coupled with the signs in the area reminding people to be watchful for poisonous snakes and gators. I think I'll pass on the swimming (lol)!


I stopped at the Louisiana welcome center along the I-10 and picked up a few brochures on "stuff" to see and do around the New Orleans area. The staff were very friendly and I got into a conversation about camp grounds in the area. The staff seemed very against my choice located on Chef Matuer Highway. They all said this was an area of the city that people really don't want to roam let alone camp. The cg reviews had been really bad also so I took the welcome center staff's suggestion and drove to the Pontchartrain Landing RV Resort. As I neared the cg it was far from impressive, driving down a rough road in an industrial area. Upon entering the cg all the roads are hard packed dirt with some gravel mixed in and there is lots of construction. I thought about leaving. The staff are friendly, they offered a Passport rate of $41 rather than the $60 noted on their web site and they also gave me a pull-though with a view of the harbor. It was nice to simply pull in, have all hook ups right where I need them, on a perfectly level open site, that is nicely landscaped. It had been raining for most of my ride to New Orleans. With a break in the rain, I strolled around the cg. They rent interesting house boats that are luxuriously appointed. They also have what they call the presidential RV site which is huge, comes with a thatched roof cabana, full outdoor cooking area with a large stainless steel grill and refrigerator, and even a private hot tub. The cg swimming pool is an affinity pool with a waterfall and Jacuzzi, and a bar & grill next to the pool. The cg even has a shuttle service back and forth to the French Quarter several times a day. The shuttle bus took about 10 minutes and dropped me near the riverfront in the middle of the French Quarter. I had a brochure about a WWII museum and went to check it out. This is an incredible place, it's huge! The movie they show, "Beyond all Boundaries", produced and narrated by Tom Hanks, was amazing. They call it a 4D movie because it; has the usual 3D pictures, adds three dimensional attributes like a real front part of a plane and multiple see-though screens, also snow & smoke which comes into the theater, and even has the chairs rigged to vibrate. It was a very powerful presentation. The museum also had an interactive exhibit recreating the final mission of the USS Tang, the most decorated submarine of WWII (hey, Dave Irons, pay attention to this). This museum was well worth the visit. One afternoon I cruised the Mississippi on the last authentic steam powered paddle wheeler. They had a chef on board, prepared a great shrimp creole buffet, bars on two of the three decks which served delicious Bloody Mary's, had a five piece live jazz band, and played their steam powered calliope between the band breaks. What a great afternoon! On the one cold, wet day I had in New Orleans I went to see an iMax about penguins and walk around the adjacent aquarium.  The movie was soooo popular there were actually three of us in this huge theater (lol). Penguins are fun to see and on the giant 3D iMax they were definitely cute. I asked around for a good place to have a typical New Orleans brunch and had several people suggest The Court of the Two Sisters. This is absolutely the best restaurant I have ever eaten at, hands down! The waiter was perfect, the Bloody Mary couldn't have been better, the three piece jazz band were great. The restaurant offers about 80 items in their brunch buffet and will also prepare additional items at their omelet station at no added charge. If you're ever in the New Orleans area I heartily recommend trying this place. There are a lot of homeless people throughout the French Quarter. Most carry cardboard signs asking for handouts. A few just come up and ask for money. I was sitting by the riverfront enjoying the views and doing some people watching when a homeless guy points to my airborne bracelet and shows me his. He said he served with the 101st Airborne around the same time I was in Vietnam. We sat and chatted, telling stories to each other for over a half hour. He never asked for a hand out and we actually hugged when we parted. A second homeless guy was walking past me while I was waiting for the camp ground shuttle. He was obviously a little tipsy as he pointed to my hiking boots and says ".. I bet I can tell you the city and state where you got those shoes from ". We got to talking a little and he got me to shake hands agreeing to be honest when he guessed. He then said "You got those shoes on your feet in New Orleans, LA"! He got me laughing as I never saw that one coming. I had to give him a few bucks just for giving me a smile. The camp ground had a movie they showed one afternoon called "Hurricane on the Bayou". It gave a lot of information about the disappearing wetlands and how they effect the way storms hit and damage the New Orleans area. It was very informative and enjoyable to see while sitting in the bar enjoying yet another Bloody Mary. I stayed in town late one evening, walking up and down Bourbon Street. This place is a zoo and it wasn't even a Friday or Saturday night and definitely wasn't during Madri Gras. It seems that every store is either a bar or a craft/junk shop. The bars were in competition with each other for who could offer the most beer. Several bars offered two for one, a few offered three for one, and I saw one offering five for one. As expected, there were lots of people staggering along the street. I was reminded of when I lived in Greenwich Village in the mid-1960's. Back then you could find me half walking and half crawling most any Friday or Saturday night. Different times and a whole lot younger (lol).


My original plan was to drive about half way from New Orleans to Livingston and stop for a few days. However, the only cg I could find which was close to half way had horrible reviews so I opted to take my longest drive ever pulling my rig. The night before leaving I closed the rig down so I was ready to leave early. I was on the way at first light about 7 am. With several breaks every hour and a half or so I arrived seven hours later about 2 pm. The ride was longer than I'd normally like but, it wasn't that bad, that is until I arrived at the SKP park in Livingston. I had asked for an open site in order to get the sat. dish working since I was planning to stay for about a month. The first site I was sent to seemed to be the most heavily treed in the park. I left my rig in the site and walked over to ask for a different site. The park manager said they didn't have many open sites but reluctantly gave me a different one. When I got to this second site it was just as heavily treed. This went on for TWO more sites, four in total. After my seven hour drive I was now spending another hour making "U" turns and backing into four different sites while dealing with the park staff that were far from helpful. I considered leaving when they finally pointed to a clear site. I must admit I was extremely disappointed at the rudeness of the park managers. We are all members of the same RV travel club, The Escapees. This is one of the rudest treatments I'd ever experienced. The next day I walked to the other side of the campground where they have a clubhouse and activity center. I met lots of folks, all of whom were very friendly and helpful. Over the next few days I took a tour of the campground given in an old trolley and a tour of the Care Center. I got involved with a three time a week pinochle game, the genealogy club, and the twice a week movie. All the clubs and activities were on the opposite side of the campground where I was parked so I asked to move to one of the many open sites closer to the activities. The park managers said I couldn't since I had already paid for 20 days on this side. I later found out that they were in the process of learning a new computer system and didn't know how to switch the site in the system and didn't bother to ask anyone for help. The park tour included a tour of the mail center. This is an amazing facility. The town of Livingston has about 5,000 residents while the SKP mail center handles mail for close to 15,000 people! The Livingston post office couldn't handle the SKP volume so the post office assigned SKP its own zip code and delivers directly from a distribution point. The SKP facility recently acquired an optical reader that sorts the mail at an incredible speed. This isn't a little place with volunteers manual sorting our mail into little cubby holes. The tour of the care center kind of tugged at my heart. I not only gave a donation but agreed to volunteer when they asked. They seemed to have had some volunteers that changed their mind and needed some extra help for the month of February. It meant extending my stay for a little over two weeks. The care center gave me a site across the street from the center which is much nicer than the regular camp ground sites. The camp ground wouldn't refund any of my prepaid fees. I didn't expect any consideration from them. The day of my moving my rig to the care center area I did the SmartWeigh at the park. I have gotten in the habit of getting my rig weighed about once a year at CAT scales for $9. The SmartWeigh is $55 but very thorough. They weigh each wheel of each axil separately, the truck is weighed both hooked up and by itself, they check the tire ratings, RV load capacities and truck ratings. It was very informative and nice to know that I am under all weights. I wish I was personally under weight as well (lol). Over my time in the park I met lots of nice folks and enjoyed lots of activities. I managed to change my primary health care from the NJ VA to Texas and get my annual physical. The hours and work as a volunteer were fine and personally rewarding. However, the volunteers are treated like "dirt" by the head cook. I bit my tongue the first few times I heard her yell "...these dam volunteers", but eventually tried to remind her that we are volunteers. As soon as I said the word "volunteer" she literally flipped out. That's when I called it quits. I managed to stay for two weeks and really did enjoy helping the residents. However, I would never return to this SKP park as a camper or a volunteer. I've rated each and every camp ground I've ever stayed at on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being worst), hundreds of them, and this is the first one I have ever given a ZERO. It's a shame to have such great potential to help folks and have volunteers treated in such a shabby manner.