fourteenth2alaska

Back to the USA

2008-07-04T18:35:00.000-07:00

Alaska Highway/Yellowhead Highway

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Departing Fort Nelson we were both sad not only because we were leaving the Alaska Highway soon, but also because Fort Nelson’s the end of the mountains. As we’re gassing in Fort Nelson, we recognized the minivan with a kayak on top as people we had been following (or they were following us) for the last day or so. The kayak was enclosed with a protective covering. When we talked with them, we found out they had done the Whitehorse to Dawson City kayak race on the Yukon River. This older couple from Bellingham, Washington, came in second place for their age group on the 48 hour, non-stop, 450 mile race!! We read about in the Whitehorse paper when they had a story about a 50+ year old woman who, even though she had had a heart attack and hip surgery, completed the race in her best time ever. Just two more encounters or stories of old people staying active and going for it.

We got to Dawson Creek for the required picture of the beginning of the Alaska Highway. We traded picture-taking duties with Ed and his wife, from Bay City, MI, who were northbound. They asked questions about road conditions and we gave a few tips about what we had done. The rest of the day was spent in a fairly arduous drive through increasingly dense forest. We tried to camp at Fox Creek but it was full with mostly Canadians camping for their Canada Day holiday. We drove for another hour to Whitecourt where we stayed at the Sagitawah RV Park, owned by Hank Vos. Along with red, white and blue wooden shoe slippers, Hank had a variety of Dutch products for sale in the gift shop. We enjoyed the usual routine of grilled something (pork), Canadian Cabernet/ Merlot from Niagara, etc. Gary avoided a potentially dire situation when, without looking, he pushed the five minute light switch button instead of the ten minute light switch button, and in the middle of his shower everything went black. It was a touch and go moment until by touch and feel, he found the switch without opening the door (for all the world to see!!).

Stats: 549 miles; 53 gal; 10.4 mpg; 55 mph

Thursday, July 3, 2008

We headed out at 6:30 a.m. After fairly sparce traffic, we hit rush hour in Edmonton, Alberta. Edmonton isn’t a particularly attractive city, but you can tell its economy is going great from all the gas and oil activity. It was relief to get to the east side and back to light traffic and pretty good road. We both had the same feeling that even though there wasn’t a mountain in sight, the rich green fields interspurced with bright yellow fields of canola were in a different way as beautiful as the mountains. We stopped for breakfast at 9:30 in Vegreville. The diner was called Bamboo Chopstiks, a Chinese Canadian establishment. The young waitress who seated us asked if we wanted coffee. When we said yes, she asked if we wanted anything else. Mickey said yes, breakfast, so a menu please. As we looked around, her wondering if we needed anything else was apparent. The place was full of retirees having just coffee. The conversation among the retirees was loud and animated. Gary was reminded of the old guys having coffee at South Side Inn, telling their stories to each other just like here in Vegreville. No matter where you go, what people want to do is tell their stories, and for the most part (remember one-way Bob from Montana?) listen to your story. When we get back, and start sounding like one-way Bob with our Alaska trip stories, be blunt, tell us to shut-up, and tell us your story!

Back to Vegrevill, it is the home of the Pysanka Festival, which is this week. Neither one of us had ever heard of a pysanka, but we figured it had something to do Ukraine because from the signs we knew this was a Ukrainian area. The waitress at the restaurant enlightened us that it’s the painted egg that is part of the Ukrainian culture. Vegreville boasts that it is the home of the largest pysanka in the world.

Gary said to hi to Gerry and her son Richard, later joined by husband Elmer in the parking lot. We traded “where are you froms and what do you dos” and found out Gerry had worked for Air Canada, the last five years as a tour guide. They have a son in Whitehorse and were intimately familiar with Mom’s Bakery on the Klondyke Highway with the big cinnamon buns, which we enjoyed it seems like forever ago. Elmer was a retired school caretaker and Gerry told us about the Ukrainian connection with Vegreville and how they are known for being very close-knit families. This was borne out earlier when Mickey went to take a picture of the mural representing the founding of the town by Fr. Thomas Vegreville. While she’s taking pictures, there were a couple of young teens sitting on the park bench in the gazebo. He was on the bench and she was on he, facing he. They saw the camera and were visibly nervous that their “she on he” was going to be recorded for posterity’s sake. It was quite evident that teenagers in Vegreville are closely knit along with the Ukrainian families…which is, of course, how you become a Ukranian family! (Of course, if Gary had had the camera, he would have a picture to show you!) Elmer and Gerry wished us well and we got back on the Yellowhead.

After Vegreville’s Pysanka Festival, we noticed that almost every town is the home of or festival of something. In this part of Canada, that something is usually related to pioneering or farming. In fact, our lunch stop at Battleford, Saskatuwan, they had a whole museum that was made up of old cabins, barns and farm equipment. When we passed through Weyburn, its claim to fame is the home of the world’s largest inland grain terminal; i.e., they grow a lot of wheat up here. Oh well, I guess we better not make too much fun of towns trying to come up with an angle, after all Borculo has its Dandelion Festival and we have Tulip Time. Next to the grain elevator and train station in Weyburn were 50 feet high iron wheat stalks, Padnos-like sculputures, only, in our opinion, classier!

Mostly the day consisted of driving, sleeping (not when driving), potty breaks, breakfast and lunch breaks and looking at the GPS too often to see how far we have to go! Our end goal was an off-the-beaten-path campground called Mainprize Regional Park in Midale, Saskatuwan. We had a late arrival (10:00 p.m.), late dinner (11:00 p.m.) and a welcoming bed at the end our day.

Stats: 727 miles; 70.5 gal; 10.3 mph; 59 mph

Back to the good ole U.S. of A.!

Friday, July 4

Towards the end of our drive yesterday, we saw a lot of iron horses and drilling rigs. Several of the wells were recently drilled. With oil being the focus of so much of the news and the where-with-all of us being able to drive this trip, it was appropriate to get off the road and get up close and personal with one of the iron horses. Not that we’re going to make an offering to it like the Israelites did to Baal, but it was encouraging to see and we were grateful for production of this needed resource here in the U.S. and Canada. Pump on, Iron Horse!

There are probably over a thousand ports of entry in the U.S. For the third time we entered at the most appropriately named one: North Portal, Canada/Portal, ND. In our four border crossings (the first three were perfunctionary), this one was more thorough—they went in and inspected the camper. Gary’s concern was the Canadian cigars that we failed to mention; Mickey’s concern was the dirty laundry all over the bed. They must not have found any contraband and we were waived through. XM10 had non-stop patriotic country songs on all day and that, along with getting back to our own country, filled us with patriotic ferver. There’s nothing like hearing Toby Keith shouting out, “We’ll put a boot in your a__, it’s the American way!” (This one’s for you, Anna!)

Right after the patriotic ferver feeling, there was great sadness in the house. Two grouse flushed from the ditch along side the road, and the one smacked right into the middle of the windshield, bounced off the camper and ended up between the two windows. It’s these kinds of incidences that bring to light the difference between men and women. Gary’s concern was for damage to the truck or camper. Mickey’s concern was, if they mate for life, one of the birds is very sad. We pulled over, grabbed the broom and slid out the now-dead grouse. One of us experienced some sadness—which one do you think it was? Mickey is looking at it and saying, “You poor thing; I’m sorry!”

This is the third time that we’ve come down Highway 52 where we come through the Des Lacs River Valley. The gentle low hills on either side of the road and the clear water of the Des Lacs River make for one of the prettiest drives in all of the U.S. About half way down, we pulled over for breakfast, enjoying the scenery and the trains going by. We gassed up in Minot, ND and angled down to 94 at Jamestown. We had lunch here in Mallory Park. It was warm, quiet and relaxing. Mickey had lunch in the sun to catch a few rays. Gary had his picture taken by the All Veterans Memorial Bridge in the park. To illustrate the paradym shift, we both got real excited when we bought gas for $3.99 gal!

Our second sadness for the day was I94. The flavor, feel, smells and up-close sights of non-expressway travel are a joy to behold. We both talked about replicating Charles Kuralt’s Sunday Morning when we retire. Like him, the joy of this trip has been the common people of the U.S. and Canada who we’ve been privileged to see short snippets of their lives. For the most part, people are willing, interested and eager to tell you their stories. We found their stories for the most part to be imminently interesting. From Piper super cub, wolf-shooting rancher Melvin and his wife Helen to Gerry and Elmer in Vegreville, we have Mom’s (Tracie) Bakery on the Klondyk and so many others who have enriched our trip greatly. If there’s one sermon Gary would like to preach to you, it is: walk up to someone, introduce yourself, ask “where you from and what do you do?”, then take quick notes so you don’t forget!!! It’s really fun!

Stay tuned. In about six years you might be able to tune in on “Sunday Morning with Gary and Mickey” – we will need a bigger rig by then!

We have landed (7:10 p.m.) at St. Cloud Campground and RV Park in St. Cloud, MN. It’s a wonderful place, clean and neat, Good Sam highly approved. We were concerned about getting a spot on this 4^th of July night and were happy when the owner said (when Mickey called) that he had a spot just for us. Very nice people! We stopped at Panera Bread to pick up dinner and have enjoyed it on our picnic table in 80 degrees. We can see fireworks from the yard (if we make it that long!) Home tomorrow…we are both very excited to get back!

Stats: 611 miles; 63.3 gals; 9.6 mpg (high winds today); 57 mph

Hail Canada

2008-07-01T20:32:00.000-07:00

Hail, Canada!

Monday, June 30

This morning when we crossed the border, the Canadian customs guy asked the usual questions, one of them being, Are you bringing any large amounts of cash into the country? He probably didn’t know why we laughed, but we found Canadian gas prices drained cash quickly. The weather was good, allowing us views of the St. Elias part of the Wrangell-St. Elias U.S./Canadian Park. We did this stretch four years ago, and it was refreshing to not have to do it in smoke-reducing visibility. What was the same, however, was the terrible road conditions from the border to Burwash Landing. The road was a checker board of gravel and asphalt with pot holes thrown in for good measure. It’s also the part of our travels where you plan well for your gas stops.

Other than the views, the hightligh of the day was Mukluk Annie’s. The initial attraction of their ad was “free,” free camping, free boat ride, free RV wash. Their ad also had at the top “Jesus Is Lord.” With it being free and Christ-centered it was a natural stop. We had a beautiful view of Teslin Lake and our dinner of smoked salmon and ribs cooked on a wood stove in the center of the restaurant with a hole in the roof for the vent. We both like to eat, and eating at unique places like Mukluk Annie’s is one of the high points of the trip. When you come over, we’ll show you the unique/classy Mukluk Annie coffee mugs we bought. The free boat trip is captained by Mukluk Chuck!. We’d been riding all day and instead of riding on the boat, had wine, cigar (Gary), and skeeters on the camper porch. Gary’s carefully positioned cigar kept the skeeters of Mickey while she did her Sudoku and crossword puzzle.

Stats: 411.6 miles; 37.1 gal; 11.1 mpg; 50 mph

Tuesday, July 1

Couldn’t sleep, so went for a 5:50 a.m. road show with coffee and glazed donut for a kick start. No traffic at first and good road made it easy. Throughout the day, however, a whole lot of RV’s – big ones – headed north. Stopped in Watson Lake and had another picture taken for JP’s at the Signpost Forest. Mickey made bacon, eggs and pancakes. Gary got on line to check email. Dishes were even done before we headed out of Watson Lake. Our mid-day goal was Liard Hot Springs, which we met at 12:45. On our way to the hot springs, we were in woodland buffalo country when Mickey (who was driving) thought she spotted some. The buffalo turned out to be a large brown/grizzly bear with her two cubs, right on the side of the road. She woke up Gary and hollered, “grizzlies!” It was fun watching them eat and play while we clicked away.

The 120F degree hot spring water at Liard Hot Springs was just the cure for stiff necks and lower backs. It stinks a little bit, but we still came out smelling better. There was a boy about 8 or 9 who was the spittin’ image of Mitchiel deBoer at that same age. He had red hair, fair skin with freckles on his face and mannerisms that screamed “Mitchiel!!” Sorry to say, we didn’t have a camera or we would have taken his picture! Brought back lots of memories! This was definitely critter day! We saw a moose, black bear, several buffalo, two eagles, stone sheep, grizzly family and a dead moose long the side of the road that stunk to high heaven! Mickey saw one more black bear on the side of the highway which would have been fun to watch and capture on “film” but as usual Gary was going too fast! Ugh! We are now settled into another parking lot in Fort Nelson, at the Blue Bell Inn & RV. At least it has internet! Still no phone service, though. It has been a long day. We are about to sit down to steak, rice (with mushrooms, garlic and onions that Mickey added) and baked beans…with wine, of course. It’s finally hot here…84 degrees! We might even use the air conditioner tonight!

Stats: 501 miles; 46.1 gal; 10.9 mpg; 52 mph

Denali Highway and Denali

2008-06-29T21:31:00.000-07:00

Friday, 6/27 – On to Denali - Pictures to follow - bad internet connection

We woke up to a light rain at the Lake 14th Street Campground. There were some concerns that the motor homes would have trouble making it up the slick hill, but it worked out o.k. Took a break a much-needed outhouse break (there are not many along the highway and our campground site suffered as a result) at Clearwater Creek where we saw swallows’ nests under the creek bridge peeking out of their little mud nests. The rain continued, causing mud, which resulted in our average speed being about 20 mph because of the potholes. The potholes and washboard road was particularly hard on the motor homes because they are sitting in their kitchens with rattling pots and pans and everything else. At one of the stops, they discovered the usefulness of a bed pan in that they (the pans) all went on the bed, resulting in a more pleasant ride. The low ceilings cancelled out any spectacular views for the whole day. The rugged terrain and desolate country still gave our travels a thrill. We spotted a bald eagle that launched off a tree and flew parallel with us for about a ½ mile at a steady speed of 23 mph. The motor homes stopped at Gracious House, a lodge and restaurant for wonderful homemade pie. It turns out the friendly owners wanted to sell the place and retire a mile down the road. Lodge, restaurant, airplane and the recipe for the pie crust were included in the price. Bill and Di briefly thought about new career opportunities, but decided to press on.

The sense of accomplishment and relief of mastering the Denali Highway was palatable when we hit the pavement at Cantwell. We arrived in Denali’s commercial strip and camped at one of those famous over-priced Alaska gravel parking lot campgrounds, the Denali Rainbow and Village RV Park. After three days of no showers for most of us, token-pay showers were priceless. It was also an opportunity for everyone to get laundry done. Mickey finished hers up at 11:30 p.m., as there were only two washers for the whole park. We did dinner at the Salmon Bake, where Mickey and Sandy finally got their Alaskan King crab dinners. (It was fabulous, by the way!) Some of us made arrangements for a jeep safari the next day. The really brave made arrangements for a raft trip on the Class 4 Ninana River.

Stats: 119 miles; 9.3 gal; 12.8 mpg; 24 mph

Saturday, we checked into Denali National Park, Riley Creek Campground. We went on the Savage River hike right away. We say caribou and several small critters, but no brown bears. The Jeep tour was a drive-it-yourself tour along the same road that Chris McCanlis from Into the Wild took to his Alaskan desolate experience and eventual death. The road was rugged, and they weren’t pot holes, they were mini lakes that we traversed. Nathaniel, our guide, told us that the last people from Michigan named the big one Lake Superior. We couldn’t go too fast through Lake Superior or the others because your bow wave would flood the engine. At the end of the road, we were hosted by the cook, Scott, a Wisconsin native. Nathaniel said that Scott has lived in Alaska for 19 years, half of it in a tent! Scott lives in the bush six days a week and cooks for three tour groups a day. His peppery Alaskan stew and fried bread were fabulous. He told us he doesn’t walk from the tent to the kitchen area (a distance of 10 feet) without his two pepper spray canisters on the ready in case of a bear. In addition to the pepper spray he always has two air horns handy. One of the first things he did when he set up came was build a homemade ladder into a tree to escape the brown bears (Grizzlies can’t climb). Black bears can climb, but they’re not nearly as aggressive as the bigger browns and are easily scared away by the air horns. We asked him what he did on his day off and he said, go to town, buy supplies, do laundry and go to the bar.

Scott, along with other stories we’ve heard and read, leads us to believe that Alaska is a home for lower 48 adventurers, characters, a few misfits and others with colorful pasts. Nathaniel says that he heard when Federal marshals find out wanted lover 48 people are in the bush in Alaska, they make minimal effort to find them. They are hard to find and as long as they stay, why spent $35,000 a year to incarcerate them? We switched drivers for the trip back, crossed “Lake Superior,” survived the “Bobble Head” and were doing pretty good when Nathaniel said we had to stop for a moment. The motion got to one of the ladies in his jeep and she need to relieve herself. Afterward, Gary complemented Nathaniel on the professional and delicate way he handled the passenger with motion sickness. Gary also suggested they carry barf bags because getting in and out of the back seat of a Jeep at all, much less quick, is challenging for us old people. Nathaniel thought it was a good idea and would bring it up at the next management meeting.

Vander Veens (helped by no sightings of Denali and the continued forecast for dismal weather) decided to head back on Sunday morning. This was reason enough for a wine and cheese and cracker going away party with our friends who would be going on to Talkeetna and down to the Turnagain Arm. On Sunday morning, one more goodbye to the rafters who had a 7:30 a.m. date with cold, rough, silted-gray river water and gray skies. We did the campground cancellation paperwork and got ready to head out. Because it was Sunday and a new phase (home-going), it was appropriate to take time to remember to Whom we belong. We got the pictures out of Ike and Nan and her card and we gave thanks for their life together.

The shorter way back was up to Fairbanks instead of Anchorage. It’s shorter and much better road conditions. Like we did four years ago, we stopped at the North Pole for lunch and sign pictures. Mickey heard from Sandy that there’s $50 for a picture of you and your JP’s cup at different places. We were going to do this with Sandy, but we split up sooner than we thought. We might have to split the money, Sandy! Weather has improved considerably and the view of the Alaskan Range to the south was spectacular. Once again, Laurel, shortly after Delta Junction, we spotted a moose. And once again, Gary promised he’d stop for the next one!!! (It was right by the road, bigger than life…and he drives by!!!)

Stopped in Border City Lodge and RV Park for the night. Actually have grass on our site!

Stats: 422 miles; 35.3 gal; 12 mpg; 50 mph

Chitna, Liberty Falls, and Denali Highway

2008-06-27T16:59:00.000-07:00

Chitina and the Liberty Falls hike; Start of Denali Highway

After leaving Valdez on Tuesday, we stopped for more picture taking at the Thompson Pass, had lunch at the Worthington Glacier, and proceeded to Chitina. Chitina is half way to the Kennicot Copper mine at McCarthy. The last portion of the road is over an abandoned railroad track, and as a result a lot of flat tires from the railroad spikes. We had hoped to take a rental van in but none was available, so instead on Wednesday we did the Liberty Falls hike.

A description of our Copper River campsite: The spots that were treed and had fire pits were owned by Ahtna Indians and they charged $40.00 per night. So, being Dutch, we went to the flood plain along the river for free. We had a beautiful view of the river, eagles catching salmon, and the numerous fish wheels that Alaskan’s use to try to get their fill of up to 500 salmon. These are strictly for personal use and the way the guy talked, for a lot of families a necessity to put bread and fish on the table. In the morning a rafting company set up for a trip down the Copper River with six customers for seven days – maybe next time.

Gary’s been reading a book on the Civil War by Bruce Caton where he describes the challenge that the army of the Potomac had in conquering Richmond. General Grant was hard-pressed to get his four top commanders to do all those things that are required to conquer a city, as in supplies, pencing movements, where to put the Calvary, what to do with the infantry and in a General-ly sort of way, keep the politicians happy. Well, with that lead-in, the 14^th Street Brigade set about conquering Liberty Falls trail. Campground departure time slipped from 9:00 until 10:00. And a quick visitor stop for information turned into an hour long shopping stop at a Chitina local art store. Of course, we also had the usual morning post coffee potty stops, but we finally got going toward the trail. We passed the park entrance and it said closed. But the persistent efforts and observations of one of the Generals noticed that the trail was open. This required a complex outflank and reversal of men and women and equipment. The three pig pieces of equipment were corralled at a scenic lookout and all crowded into the smaller scout vehicle which, because of it’s nimbleness, could penetrate deeper towards the goal. After preparations, hiking poles (homemade and store bought), cameras, canteens, field glasses and bodily sustinence, we set out to conquer Liberty Falls.

Like Grant’s generals, we found the unexpected to be the norm. We expected horizontal; what we got was vertical. Our concerns for enemy carnivour were unfounded. There was, however, signs of their passing on the trail, similar to previous pictures you’ve seen. The view from above of the Copper River Valley, Mount Drum, Mt. Sanford and the active volcano, Mt. Wrangell, was inspiring. Inspiring enough for several to burst out in “Jesus is Lord!” “Halleluah!” and “Awesome God!” praises. After reaching the summit with almost all of our troup in tact, we rested up for the downhill campaign. As is always the case, downhill’s harder on 50 and some 60 year old knees. The hike once again proved that listening to suggestions from all the troops has great value. It also confirms that telling people where to go and how to get there is not gender-specific. However, there are some genders who do it better than other genders.

After a short drive up the Richardson Highway and a change of plans that dry camping, i.e., no showers, really wasn’t appropriate, we went for the high class, $15 a night campground at Sourdough Roadhouse. Along with the campground, the restaurant provided great blueberry and apple crisp pies that we bought whole for our dessert. It being Wednesday, we had a 14^th Street potluck. Everyone brought their meal to the community picnic tables between the Ryckbost and Vander Veen campers. A good time was had by all. The excitement after dinner was provided by Mama Moose and her baby ripping through the campground. The baby did a 180 around Frieswyk’s picnic table, knocking off their gas grill, sprinted through the narrow opening between Frieswyk’s and Day’s campers, rejoined Mama, who then feinted toward Vander Veen’s, slid left toward the outhouse and exited out the back. The showers were cold, so some did and some didn’t, and it’s easy to determine who is whom! The other campground across the bridge that we turned down because it didn’t offer showers was a much prettier campground. However, we would have missed Mama moose and her baby, so it was worth the $15 fee.

Stats: 106 miles; 9.1 gals; 11.7 mpg; 36 mph

Thursday, June 26

We planned for a 9:00 am departure, and we were off at 9:05! We stopped in Paxon, the beginning of the Denali Highway, for supplies: water, beer and bread (and a cup of coffee). The café owner reported the road conditions as being dusty, go slow, which we found to be true. Our post lunch hike was the Maclaren Trail, two hours round trip. It was a valley walk between snow-capped peaks and on the way back, Lois met her first caribou. It had a small rack and a white butt, just like a white tail deer. We also saw a ptarmagon, male and female and chicks. Great colors and it was fun watching the male sneeking along, trying to hide in the bushes.

Our next pull-off was crossing the Maclaren River, where we toured the Crazy Dog Kennels. These are dogs who run the Ididerod. They breed one pair a year. The puppies were 25 days old and we each got to hold one. The dogs need to be held by humans if they’re going to make good sled dogs. At six months old they put the harnesses on them and see how they respond. If they are eager to run, they’ll make good sled dogs. If not, then the owners put them up for adoption. The kennel is also a rescue place. They take dogs from the Humane Society and from people who don’t want them anymore or are going to put them down. We talked to Lucas Peterson, who just moved here two months ago from Wisconson. He had gone to school with the woman owner and she had been wanting him to come work for them for some time. He finally came and loves it. He took his two dogs with him and lives in a little cabin on the property.

We dry-camped at Milepost 46.9, a large area between two unnamed lakes. After spending twenty minutes getting te motor homes level (because if they’re not, the refrigerators will “blow up”), we grabbed our chairs and started serious scenery watching by the lake we have not named Lake 14^th Street. The lake on the other side also provided sightings of a wide range of water fowl. Trout were rising for the numerous bugs. Suddenly there was a strange sound and we looked to the south and there a water spout swirled into the air! It started with pulling water up into it, but it progressed across the lake in a circle (no water in the air) all the way to the other side. The ducks that were in the way of it moved or went under water. It was incredible!! Later, Bill was glassing into the distance when he spotted the moose. Even though it was long way away, we all were able to observe its beautiful rack as it bathed in the lake. It was a huge moose! After dinner we gathered at the Frieswyk RV to review the last couple day’s pictures. Instead of popcorn we had leftover pie from the Sourdough Roadhouse. It was just as good the second time around. We were even able to gather some brush for a fire that night. Didn’t see any more wildlife.

Stats: 85.9 miles; 7.6 gal; 10.7 mpg; 19 mph

Cruising Prince William Sound

2008-06-24T08:17:00.000-07:00

After enjoying the Saturday night salmon fish fry and pot luck, we went to church Sunday morning at the Epiphany Lutheran/Episcopal Church. Jean the Episcopal Pastor warmly greeted us and we heard a great message from Lutheran Pastor Phil. After church we did a drive up Mineral Creek and as Gary took a nap, the gang showed up. After warm greetings and refreshments and war stories, we read a note from Nan Vanden Berg, causing us to remember Ike. Nan, it was a Sunday....Great is Thy Faithfulness/Amazing Grace!
On Monday morning we did the Stan Stephens cruise of Prince William Sound. We all agreed it's the best money spent so far. We saw humpback whales, sea otters, harbor seals, bald eagles, horned puffins, steller sea lions, black bear and amazing glacier shots. It was nine hours long but a great lunch was provided. If you're going to do Alaska glacier cruising, this was better than Seward or anything else we've been on. Long learned personality characteristics are being displayed along with the joshing and joking that goes with a fun group of funny people - with that lead in can you spot the picture of the "two queens and a princess," and who's who?
It was cool at the end of the day, so we jammed into Rykbost's RV for the cheese and wine post picture review. First Gary's computer pictures of the day and then Bill's. It was great fun and a little old people crazy - good thing our kids weren't there. After the morning hike we're headed up to Chitna today to do the bush. Next p[ost in a couple of days.

Anchorage, Seward and back to Valdez

2008-06-21T17:46:00.000-07:00

Anchorage, Seward, and back to Valdez

Thursday/Friday, June 19/20

On Thursday morning, we had breakfast at our campground and Mickey got to talk country /bluegrass with both waitresses, comparing the merits of Vince Gill, Carrie Underwood, Trace Adkins. But according to the bluegrass waitress and Mickey, the best groups are Nickel Creek and Bela Fleck! (Ahh, someone speaks my language!) We hit the Glenn Highway (there are only five of them in Alaska—highways, that is) and proceeded to the big city. We had about a twenty minute wait for construction - at night they close the Glenn altogether for blasting.The incongruity of Anchorage with its traffic, commercial, not-very-pretty setting versus the rest that we’ve seen of Alaska made us hurry on through. We did stop at a Fred Meyer (think Walmart, but three times more upscale) and bought some staples: caulking gun, putty knife, tripod and the wine was10% off if you got six. The Turnagain Pass, also known as the Turnagain Arm, was named by Captain Cook when he had to turn again because this wasn’t the right passage to wherever he was going. The Turnagain Arm is noteworthy in that if you walk out on the tidal flats, the glacier sand and silt has a quicksand quality and over the years several tourists have been lost to a terrifying drowning death as the tide comes back in. The local rescue department has developed a device that pumps air down around the legs to break the terrific suction. Like with so many things in Alaska, it’s beautiful but also potentially dangerous. We saw several mountain goats along the cliffs and had lunch at a beautiful turnout setting.

The drive to Seward is spectacular and special for us in that it’s our fourth time traveling to Seward. We stayed in the same campground that we did eleven years ago, right along the water, with sea otters eating lunch right outside our back door. The first time we came, we camped in a small tent and the wind was so bad and the tent was so small, we both got beat up. Tonight, after a wonderful crab and halibut dinner at the Crab Pot, we enjoyed the small boat harbor walk around and saw the results of the returning fishing boats. Seward is home of the Mt. Marathon, where a marathon is held every 4^th of July. It’s a climb up a steep slope of 3,000+ feet and back, and the record is 42 minutes. Look closely at the one picture and you can see the thin outline of the trail. In the past we’ve seen a movie of the race and when they come down, they’re not running but doing 15 foot leaps from spot to spot. We saw our first bald eagle on our way to Seward! He was flying and so graceful.

Stats: 238 miles; 20.6 gal; ll.4 mpg; 46 mph

Friday morning Gary tried unsuccessfully for an oil change while Mickey slept in. Keep in mind, sleeping in meant 7:00. Six am wake-ups have been the norm for our entire trip. The Alaskans refer to it as “you can sleep in the winter time; play in the summer.” We experienced the usual construction traffic stop of twenty minutes for road paving, waiting for the pilot car. We buzzed through Anchorage again and found a Midas in Palmer for an oil change. While driving up the Mat-Su Valley, Gary missed a fantastic show of a mountain because he wouldn’t stop…he was too busy composing this journal entry. Even with Mickey typing for him, she was able to see the beautiful possible-picture and was looking for places to stop. She told him to stop in a driveway, for crying out sideways (Kristina’s favorite saying), but his brain was totally focused on dictating his journal!!! As is often the case, we’re on the road going to “we don’t know where!” Rough planning, but not exact “where are we going to stay tonight” has served us very well. We were especially happy to hear from our friends last night, that they have arrived safely, and we look forward to meeting them in Valdez Sunday. And for you 14^th Streeters, we were excited to hear about the apartment building vote. For us especially, the email voting option was much appreciated.

You know you’re in Alaska when:

· There are bullet-riddled road signs

· Classifieds have more airplanes than RV’s

· Fishing report is front page news

· High prices for everything

· Frost-heave roads

· Friendly people

· Constant road construction

· Big Beauty

· The lady governor’s as good-looking as our lady governor

Our evening stay was Squirrel Creek Campground…unbenounced to us, the same place that our friends had stayed at four years ago. It had the usual: rushing water sound, mountain views, even a pond outside the door. Just a normal Alaska camp sight for only $12.00. Actually, Mickey picked this spot. Gary had picked the RV place just across the Creek because it had WiFi, but it was a dusty parking lot! Nuts to WiFi!

Stats: 370 miles; 32.5 gal; 11.4 mpg; 42 mph

Saturday morning we departed for our shortest travel day yet. First stop was the Worthington Glacier. The beauty’s a given. What is noticeably different for this spot and most of our trip compared to four years ago, hardly anyone is here. During our 40 minute glacier observation walk, there was one other soul hiking the glacier. Excitement for the morning was Gary getting dive-bombed by a seagall; must have gotten too close to the nest. Education for the morning was on types of glaciers: cirques, inside and outside crevasses, moraines and other interesting facts. We did see a moose and her calf, having just crossed the highway and entering the woods. The calf was bigger than we would have thought.

Thompson Pass and this whole section of the Richardson Highway is the most beautiful drive we’ve been on, so far. Shortly after the Pass, we passed through Keystone Canyon, home of Bridal Veil Falls. We’ve seen several bicyclists tackling incredible hills on this trip, but the first one we got to meet was Fuzzy Mitch, a 60+ year old classic Alaskan. Fuzzy lives in Homer, but over here to kayak the Copper River. He drove to Valdez and dropped off his bike, then went back to Cordova. He then did the 60-some mile Copper River run. At one point he said he was thirty miles away from any civilization and was concerned because he was in a side channel and the water was getting shallower and shallower. Fortunately he made it all the way to Valdez and we saw him biking from Valdez, sea level, to Thompson Pass, 2,160 feet and the rest or the way to Cordova. He let us know he was originally from Colorado, but continued the theme that we’ve heard so often on this trip ” it’s too close” in Colorado so he moved up here six or eight years ago because it’s more open. We’ll add “open” to “clean air” and “more air” as reasons for moving up north.

We are in the Eagle’s Rest RV Park in Valdez for the next three days. The "look up to the Heavens sign" was at the local Catholic Church. We did our short afternoon hike on Mineral Creek. It was somewhat disappointing, so we’re back at the camp, typing and drinking. We’re looking forward to the campground-sponsored fish fry tonight, king salmon they caught just this morning. We bring a dish to pass. Having a wealth of experience on church potlucks, I’m sure we’ll come up with a possible dish (meaning Mickey will). They're preparing the gas grill for the fish right ouside our camper. Mickey over heard the two employees talking about a camper who was complaining about somebody's dog stealing his sirloin right off his grill. The complaining camper was obviously not a dog lover. The employee and pointed out to the Raven with a satisfied look on his face as the real thief- watch out for those birds. Once again, we ran into Hollanders, as in The Netherlands, Michel (a guy’s name in The Netherlands. Mickey liked it because it was spelled with one “l”! She told him that was her name, too!) and Cindy. We told them about Holland, Michigan, and when they get back from their cruise, we’ll show them Tulip Time pictures. Just can’t get away from those Hollanders! It was a beautiful day for traveling today. We had sunshine the whole day and the views were spectacular. We haven’t had this good of a day since we left. However, the weather hasn’t stopped us from doing anything we had planned to do. Our God is an Awesome God!

Stats: 85.6 miles; 6.9 gals; 12.4 mpg; 46 mph

Top of the World, Chicken, and Nebesna Road

2008-06-18T21:51:00.000-07:00

We left Dawson City on Tuesday and took the ferry across the Yukon River. At six in the morning we were the only ones on board. The Yukon was running about 12 knots of glacier gray water. On the far side it's a rough gravel road that goes up and up. The one up being the furtherest point north that we've traveled, and the other in elevation - pictures of both. Rough road, slow going, and a little eerie feeling of being out of touch with civilization, but just beautiful scenery. Chicken Alaska was colorful. The name came when the locals couldn't spell or pronounce the local bird -Ptarmigan, so the gave up and called the town Chicken - close enough. We traveled through a hundred miles plus burn area from 2004 when we were up here last. I know it's nature taking it's course, but it sure looks bad.
We did our first dry camp next to Kettle Lake on the dead end Nebesna road. After dinner we watched and listened to "just us and God" nature. The quiet was loud. The mountain is Mt Sanford, part of the Wrangel St. Elias National Park. The four hour hike up Caribou Creek was easy to begin with but hard at the end. We crossed the creek on two foot of frozen snow/ice, with some amount of trepidation. Mickey had a CRS moment when as she was doing her thing she referred to swatting the skeeters away from her pearly whites. O well pasty white or pearly white, the skeeters love it just the same. We saw a snowshoe hare but no other critters. The two pictures are evidences of them though, one from a eatee and one from a eater. Karis look up that book that Mickey gave you and tell us which is which.
We're overnighting close to the Mantanuska Glacier, and have decided to do Seward tomorrow.
We're anxiously looking forward to seeing our friends on Sunday, for the obvious reasons but here's one we've discovered. After being on the road for a couple of weeks with just the two of us, it's apparent that that Miss Manners wouldn't approve of certain habits. Nothing really gross, just things like hair care (no problem with me - Mickey shaved it off), paper towel face baths, and certain other niceties of life. Anyway I'll clean up my act when you get here Lois.

Outhouses, Cinnamon rolls, Keno City, and Dawson City

2008-06-16T20:20:00.000-07:00

Outhouses, Cinnamon Rolls, Keno City and Dawson City

Sunday – First outhouses…The ones in the states at “bladder flatter” stops were often times prefab plastic or concrete blocks, screens to keep the bugs out and specially designed venting systems to prevent stink. Most of the times they still stunk. In BC, they were plywood and more basic, but still screened. Once we got to Yukon, small sheets of plywood, no screens and doors, maybe. If you gotta go, bring your hat, not for sun protection but for the skeeters. Skeeters are particularly fond of pasty white flesh. Pasty white, for them, is the same as Grade A, prime choice sirloin for us. I don’t know how they tell their buddies that there’s some of that prime pasty white available, but they do and they all come humming. That’s why you need your hat…to protect your pasty whites. In spite of the skeeters, there’s a benefit to open outhouses…they don’t stink. So keep an open mind about open outhouses and don’t forget your hat. (Please keep in mind…this is Gary’s blog!)

Not far onto the Klondike Highway, we stopped at Mom’s Bakery, a place recommended by Guideposts. We weren’t sure it was still opened when we drove up, but we stopped anyway, and we’re glad we did. Tracie Harris (Mom) is a one-woman band…she lives, bakes, serves, feeds chickens, birds, chipmunks, flying squirrels, and people to the most fabulous cinnamon buns anywhere, all in the same place! She’s been at this place for 30 years, but lived in the Yukon all her life. She has her own garden of herbs. She puts a little of her mint in the frosting on the buns. It’s her grandmother’s recipe. And she uses sweet bread for the bun. They are as big as a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut! Tracie’s grandfather had come up during the gold rush, but was a year too late. Look at the picture of Tracie. Guess her age. You won’t believe how old she is! She said it’s the air up north. Gary told her she’s the second person to tell her about the air up north. The other one was John from Tatogga. She knows John! She said there are only 30,000 people in all of Yukon…that’s less than Holland! It’s not the fountain of youth, it’s the air of youth…up north air.

We stopped at Stewart Crossing information center before heading up the Silver Trail to Keno City. The woman at the desk was a BIG woman, eating her lunch. We asked her for information about Silver Trail and she pointed us to a rack of brochures. I bet she didn’t say more that a dozen words to us. We laughed about her being a “wealth of information.” We stayed in Keno City, the end of the road! What a great place! There are 17 people in the whole town. We met Mike from Yugoslavia, who’s been there about thirty-plus years. We met Ralph and Norma Meese, and their dog, Jesse. Ralph road truck for the mine for 35 years. We asked where the people came from to work the mine. Ralph said that when he started in the 50’s they were from all over the world. When he did lunch in the common dinning hall, it was two weeks before he heard English spoken – and then it was an Irishman which according to Ralph is barely English. Ralph drove truck hauling ore, and when we commented on how hard the life was, he said “that was back when men were men.” They own a farm down by the Junction, all organic. We saw it coming up and commented on it then…it seemed out of place from everything else we’d seen. They took two weeks off to travel last year because they had what are called “WWOOF-ers” (World Wide Organnization of Organic Farmers) to stay at their farm. These are international people who are interested in learning about other people’s way of organic farming. So for room and board, they come and work the ranch. It’s a win/win situation for the farmer and for the WWOOF-ers. We went through the museum at Keno City and Ralph guided us through, explaining a lot about the mining, shipping, tools, etc. Such wonderful people! The campground was secluded down by the river. Just a handful of people there. There was a couple from Switzerland who shipped their camper to Halifax and are touring for six months. Another camper had two sisters and their husbands, on their way to a party (can’t remember the name) that the First Nations have for the departed. One year after the death of a loved one, everyone meets at a place and they have a party in the departed’s honor. This family had their sister-in-law’s ashes with them, placed in a beautiful leather bag with Indian beading. At the end of the party, they will bury the ashes in a ceremony. Imagine!

Stats: 300.6 miles; 25 gal; 12 mph; 47 mpg

Monday, June 16, 2008 – We slept in this morning (6:45)! We stopped at a rest stop on the Stewart River and Mickey made breakfast, bacon and eggs. It was good…Mickey was sick of cereal! The Klondike Highway has lupine all along the way. We stopped to take a picture because it reminds us of tulip lane in Holland. We saw our second moose, up close. He was in the middle of the highway! We took pictures as he kept running from our truck…down the middle of the highway! We made it to Dawson City before 1:00 p.m. We are staying downtown at Gold Rush Campground. We walked around downtown, did the Museum and continued to appreciate the hard life of Klondyker’s, came back for a while, then walked back to Kate’s Cabins and Restaurant for dinner. Mickey had her first crab legs! Headed to the Top of the World Highway tomorrow!

Stats: 189miles; 16.3 gal; 12mpg; 41 mph

Cassier Highway and on to Whitehorse

2008-06-14T20:19:00.000-07:00

Why people go up north

The answer will be later, but first some details. We left Glacier View Campground in Smithers on Friday morning. Mickey met the Seavoys from the U.P. in this campground. They were headed to Alaska for the 14^th year in a row…their son lives there. She’s a retired school teacher; not sure what he’s retired from. Turns out that Woodall’s didn’t have anything on the U.P., or wherever they were headed one year, so she called them and they hired them! They travelled for Woodall’s for twelve years. After about an hour drive we reached the start of the Cassiar, filled up with gas and found that the first third had been recently paved and was very pleasant driving. The scenery is similar to the Icefields Parkway in that we were running river valleys with great, but smaller, mountains on either side. There was an incredible amount of bear scat in the road, which brings to mind another mystery question for this trip: Why do bears scat in the road? Because it’s warmer, they don’t get tickled by brush or Mickey’s answer, because they can. The totem pole pictures are of a display at Gitanyow. Gary thought they were religious objects, but Mickey corrected him and said that they are symbols of their tribes. We did see three bear on our trip today. Mickey saw one that was lying down in the meadow, chewing on breakfast, looking totally comfortable. At one point, we drove for about an hour without seeing another vehicle. The gas stop was at Tatogga Lake, where the only occupant appeared to be John the gas man. John said to Gary, “you need gas?” Gary said, “Ya, how much is it?” John said, “$1.50L.” Gary didn’t respond right away and John said, “Are you sure you want some?” The dynamics being, it’s expensive gas, but when you’re in the middle of nowhere you have no choice. John commented on traffic being really slow. He’s still working off his first 12,000 tank load this year, when last summer, at it’s peak, he’d get a load a week. He said he’s not seeing the big rigs, motor homes, big fifth wheels this year. He then made us feel good by saying, “You have a sensible rig for this kind of traveling.” His nice comment helped offset the $1.50L. Gary asked John where he’s from. He said he moved up from the big city. Gary asked what big city, and he said Vancouver. He asked him why he moved and he said (and this is the answer to the question above), “There’s not enough air there.” I don’t think John was speaking physiologically but psychologically. If what John says is true, that there’s more air up north, it would help explain a lot of things. It’s why we go to Young State Park, Makanawa Island, the U.P. or, in our case, Alaska. The affects of there being more air on our up north trip are already apparent…better sleeping, closer relationship, we’re laughing more, meeting interesting people, eating simple foods that taste good in the open air. And of course, there’s the great one, a confirmation that God, with His general revelation, did a little extra up north! So, when you start to feel like those people in Tokyo who put a quarter or whatever in a machine to breathe two minute’s worth of “up north air,” think about going up north. And thank you, John, for the best “one” (sorry, Bethany Keeley) so far. I did ask John if he had a family. He said yup, back in the big city. I said they must miss you. He said ya, they’re coming up to visit. I said, well, they must love you. He said they love me to be up here. I didn’t know quite where to go with that one, so we just let it lay and we proceeded on. We spent the night at the Water’s Edge Campground on Deese Lake. Fifteen dollars a night, pit toilet, no showers, but a view that was well-worth it. Skeeters were free. The benefit of the mosquitos being the size of a small bird is that you can feel their weight when they land on you; makes for easy brush-offs!

Stats: 383 mi; 32.4 gal; 11.8 mpg; 46mph

Our first stop of the day for Saturday was a moose-shoot. He was having breakfast. (We thought about you, Laurel!) We stopped at Jade City, population 12. We were here four years ago where Mickey bought jade earrings. That store is no longer open. Apparently, there are a lot of rumors going around about the former owners, but no one really knows why it closed. So we went across the street to Cassiar Mountain Jade Store, where Mickey dropped a small wad. Gary met Emmet, a 60+ year old Bosnian Muslim. He’s been in Canada about four years and he talked about the incongruity of so much of the world hating America but they all want to move here. I think he called them a bunch of idiots, but with a heavy Slovic accent it may have been more duragatory yet. This illustrates the slow pace of life and news up here: Emmet wanted to know why those Democrats couldn’t settle the Michigan and Florida primary issues and get on with picking that woman or the black guy. Gary explained to him that that was a done deal as of about a week ago. Emmet said if they chose the black guy, wouldn’t that be something. What he said was, “There’s no place in the world except in America where something like that would happen.” It gave me kind of a warm patriotic feeling and we ended the conversation with me telling him, McCain’s a good guy too, Emmet. On the way out of the store, we met Peter and Vera Fischer from Halifax, Nova Scotia. They’ve been on the road for 25 days and Mickey noticed that Peter was wearing an S.S. Badger hat, acquired when they took the ferry across. In the course of the conversation, Vera referred to how long they’ve been gone and how long they’ve got to go at least three times. She even came right out and said, “I’m ready to go home.” He thought we were pretty brave by planning on taking the Top of the World Highway. Peter was obviously excited to be going even further north on the Dempster Highway. Look at your map; we’re talking serious Arctic Circle-plus driving. Vera kindda shook her head and again said she wanted to go home. We did notice that in the cab of their truck camper they had a little “foofoo” dog; hope that keeps Vera company and happy.

We got gas at the Junction and turned left on the Alaskan Highway. We stopped for lunch at Rancheria Falls Recreation Site and did a pleasant walk to the falls. They were very similar to Tequanaman in that the water had the same burned brown color, probably from the tannins. We met the Finners from Wildwood, Alberta, who were on a journey north, not sure where they were going. They winter in the States and we think were on their way back home, the long way. Shortly after we pulled out, we saw Peter and Vera at a rest stop, blew our horn and waived.

A little about our XM Satellite radio. The normal daily drill is to start out with CNN or Fox and get the news. After being sufficiently depressed, we switch to, if Gary’s driving, 34-Gospel, or if Mickey’s driving, 14-Bluegrass Junction. Occasionally we’ll do the laugh channel. For 100k we laughed with Bill Crosby, Bob Newhart, Ray Ramano, Jeff Allen, Henny Youngman, Jonathan Winters, and many others. They were doing a “father’s stuff” in light of Father’s Day coming up. Jeff Allen told two stories that we’d (Gary) like to share that were about teenagers. The first one was he said he has a teenage son who knows everything, questions his authority and doesn’t want to acknowledge his existence. He then said that teenagers were God’s revenge for rejecting His authority and denying His existence. He said he the Bible didn’t say how old Satan was when he rebelled against God, but I’m pretty sure he was 15. O.K., here’s your astronomy and geography lesson: XM Radio receives its signal from a west coast satellite off California. The further north we go, the flatter the angle; and when we’re on the lee side of a mounting, no signal. Gary’s hoping we find a flat spot in Dawson City on Sunday to hear Boston beat Kobe.

We are now camped in Whitehorse, where there is no cell phone signal. So we are out of touch with reality! However, we have a weak WIFI here at the campground, thus the new blog. We had dinner at the Yukon Mining Co., which was Gary’s Father’s Day dinner. The skeeters are persistent here as well! For you pilots the DC-3 is the wind tee at Whitehorse Airport.

Stats: 415 mi; 36.6 gal; 11.4 mpg; 51 mph

Kawasaki's and Glaciers

2008-06-12T19:15:00.000-07:00

We're on the Yellow head Highway and stopped at a bladder flatter stop just west of Burnes Lake, where we ran into Paul Short on his 2007 Kawasaki KLR 650 (the kind that Gary wants to buy) on his way back from Alaska. After confirming that Paul thought that this was a great bike for touring, gas mileage (50 MPG vs 10 for us), and reliability Gary called Mickey over to show her the answer to prayer in Paul. Paul was from Ozark Mo. and moved around a lot as a construction worker. We got to talking about churches (as in we're meeting a group from church in Alaska) and he said he'd been a Baptist, Missouri Lutheran, First Christian Church, and a Free Methodist something. It kind of depended on where he lived, Missouri - Lutheran, Oklahoma - Baptist, etc. We explained what CRC was and he said that he believed "no other truth than the Bible". We said amen brother and after getting more details on the KLR (he said the Corbin seat is a must have), wished each other Godspeed and pressed on.
We're overnight in Smithers at the Glacier view campground and in townn saw signs for several Reformed Churches and a lot of First Nation People (the correct Canadian term for Indians). The picture is of Hudson Bay Mountain at 8450', right across from our campground. Mickey's calling that the pasta is done, so until the next one.

Kawasaki's and Glaciers

2008-06-12T19:14:00.001-07:00

Goodby Montana, Hello Canada

2008-06-12T18:29:00.000-07:00

Goodbye Montana, Hello Canada!

Sorry - This is out of sequence by one

On Monday, Anna drove us to the Swift Dam where we had a beautiful hike. On the way, though, we observed that local custom of waiving at everyone who drives by you. In fact, when we drove by a local ranch, two guys working outside on the tractor waved at us, too. We concluded Montanans like to wave and hug. It certainly does make you feel right to home. The old Swift Dam failed in the early ‘60s, wiped out Dupuyer and went all the way to Valier, about thirty miles. Several people were killed. The new dam looks in pretty good shape (see picture). The hike was about 400’ vertical to get around the dam and back to the lake. The most fun of all was had by Camas, their dog. Anna’s going to be a good parent, though, because she wasn’t afraid to discipline Camas with the shocker when he went too far away. This might work good for their kids, too. The reason Anna wanted to keep Camas close was because last year a mountain lion got a little kid on the trail. He was bringing up the rear, instead of being in the middle. He didn’t die, but he was severely wounded. Anna tells Mickey this after the walk! We experienced several old people revelations. The first for Gary being that Andy Kuipers at Lokers Shoes is a God-send. If you need inserts, he’s the one to go to. Plantar fasciitis no more. Anna was very gracious and not condescending when she would regularly ask how we’re doing. We were doing fine, once we started going back downhill. After a picnic lunch and a faux paux by Gary when he, thinking a pear core would add to the environment, was reminded by the girls to “pack it in and pack it out.” Camas packed it in; he got his ear twisted by Anna.

That evening we enjoyed a roast beef dinner that Kurt’s and Anna’s cow friends regularly give them. Anna suggested Mom take a shower that night, because it sounded like dad was going to be up at the “butt-crack of dawn.” (She was right, by the way!)

Tuesday morning we said our goodbyes, which is always hard to do. Anna was planning to go to Great Falls to get her yellow fever shot for her trip to Argentina. When she went to get her immunization record, she found out her yellow fever shot she got in 1999 has one more year to go. She was so happy to have a whole new day to stay home and work in the yard. And she didn’t have to spend $103 either. However, her car was full of recycle, as they take their recycle to GF because there is no recycle in Conrad…yet! We crossed the border at Sweet Grass on the way to Calgary. We passed on Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump Monument because we’d been there before. Probably one of the most descriptive named monuments that we know of. Ask Di the story of it. Between the GPS, recommendations from Julie at the visitor center and Mickey’s map reading, we got lost in Calgary. Not really lost, just undecided I guess…undecided where to go next. We arrived in Banff mid afternoon and took our afternoon nap (Gary had been driving the whole way (7:30-3:00). We arrived at Tunnel Mountain Campground, Banff, where we stayed with 14^th Streeters (and Jacob deBoer) in 1996. The views are still spectacular, even though cloudy and rainy, but no elk in the campground this time (however, elk dodo!). Banff is pricey but the Spaghetti Factory was an all-inclusive meal and it’s where we ate with Zach and Ren four years ago. Memories were everywhere! The only sadness of the day was listening to Boston lose on XM Radio!

Wednesday, being an odd day, we took our showers and headed out to Icefield Parkway. The Parkway extends from Banff to Jasper for about 120 miles. It parallels the spine of the Rockies and is the most beautiful North American mountain drive there is. Our views were slightly diminished by rain and low ceilings but it was still spectacular. We saw our first bear (see picture) and mountain goats. We drove down to the Columbia Glacier, which, because of the retreat of the glacier as evidenced by markers indicating position and year, prompted a discussion on global warming. Global warming being a reality, how much of it is a result of us versus a natural cycle. Mickey, in her wisdom, said it doesn’t matter; we still need to do our part to decrease it. It was easy to pass up the restaurants in Jasper in favor of a tortilla sandwich lunch. The camper lunch was healthy and economical, which is needed to offset the “we haven’t hit $5 per gallon yet gas but we’re close.” And it’s worth every penny!! We heard more comments from some of you. Thanks and keep them coming, even though our internet connections won’t be as regular from now on.

We camped at Mt. Robson Prov. Park and started with a hike to Kinney Lake. It was about three hours round trip, but with only about 500 vertical feet, it was a beautiful walk, paralleling the Robson River. Gary got to try out his new hiking stick and would recommend one highly. Our campsite was right next to the river and after a great pork rib dinner and a bottle of Canadian Shiraz (oaky, with hints of currant berries), we introduced ourselves to our neighbors. After shaking hands, I asked where they were from. With a familiar brogue, they said they were the DeGroots from Holland. I said we’re Vander Veens from Holland. He said, “Ya, vell, all long time ago, maybe.” I said, “no, Holland, Michigan,” and they had a good laugh. We showed them the Tulip Time parade pictures on the computer as an introduction to and education about Holland, Michigan. We learned that Dutch dancing in wooden shoes isn’t very common anymore in The Netherlands. But their flowers and tulips are something they are very proud of. The DeGroots are members of the “freer denomination of Dutch Reformed.” We had an opportunity to educate them about Christian Reformed and that, unlike the strict Dutch Reformed denomination, we don’t wear black socks on Sunday, in fact some of us don’t even wear socks.

After a good night’s sleep, we hit the Yellow Head Highway and did breakfast at a rest stop on the Fraser River. Breakfast was bacon and eggs and fresh coffee made by Mickey, while Gary took pictures! Our goal today is to reach the Cassiar Highway, about 130 miles fom Prince Rupert on the Pacific. The Cassiar is the alternative route to Alaska, hooking up with the AlCan at Watson Lake. It’s about 1/3 gravel, but the gravel can be better to drive on than the frost-heaved AlCan, sometimes. Stop the presses!! We just saw our first grizzly! The distinctive brown fur with silver tips on its back and its massive size confirmed this was not a black bear. It was attempting to cross the highway, but quickly disappeared into the bush when we drove closer. Mickey decided not to get out and try to take a picture! Immediately thereafter, while still typing the info about the grizzly, we saw two black bears having breakfast. They also disappeared before we could get a picture. Now back to the Cassiar… fuel stops are few so good planning is required. Stop the presses again!!! Found another black bear having breakfast right next to the road. Gary got some fantastic pictures!! From the first sighting of bear to now was about five minutes. This is a whole lot more fun than John Ball Zoo! Back to the Cassiar again…Mickey’s looking forward to stopping at Jade City again, where the local industry is jade mining. Four years ago, when we stopped, they had just (and I mean that day) gotten phone service! So our next blog will probably be from Watson Lake in three days. Truck’s running great; the camper is feeling like home. We’re even getting used to the thinner mattress. However, we miss Tuck! We’re still planning on trying to sell our “little house on the freeway” in Alaska, but like with any home seller, there’s always some remorse involved. So if we end up driving back, that’s o.k., too.

We thought we were done with this blog, but “bear” with us. When we went to load the pictures on the computer, the Type II media was in the USB card reader, i.e., no bear pictures! The tech problem being we’ve got the GPS plugged, the computer charging, two cell phones, a USB card reader all going at the same time! How did our forefathers make it? (Mothers didn’t [don’t] need all these gadgets!) We “bearly” started shutting the computer down when, lo and behold, another bear!! Mickey quickly grabbed the Type II media, removed it from the USB card reader, holstered it into the camera, turned it on, gave it to Gary and he clicked away, “bearly” keeping the truck on the road as he backed up to get a better shot. That’s all for now, unless we come across a moose!

Breakfast and bears

2008-06-12T11:17:00.000-07:00

Screwed up the dates - new blog at the bottom
Sorry

Sunday in Conrad

2008-06-08T17:52:00.000-07:00

Sunday in Conrad

We went to Conrad Christian Reformed Church this morning. It being our second time and the fact that our kids go there, we were warmly received. Walking in, I met Jim Morren for the second time and expressed my condolences on the recent loss of his father, the Reverend John Morren. Jim is from Michigan and connected to Conrad because his father used to be the preacher here. Way back when Reverend John was going to Calvin Seminary, he worked summers for my dad doing concrete work. Jim told me that they recently replaced the concrete sidewalk at the parsonage here and it was real tough to remove. His dad had poured it back when he preached here (preachers do leave lasting legacies in a lot of ways, you know). Jim said his dad had learned how to do good six-bag concrete from my dad. So I told him that when my dad died, I made the comment at his funeral that Henry Vander Veen’s up in heaven complaining to the building and grounds angel about those streets of gold, and that six-bag concrete would be harder, last longer, and be a whole lot cheaper. It’s good to tell stories when your dad dies.

The prayer requests consisted of thanksgiving for successful knee surgery, condolences to Jim Morren, a grandfather dying of Alzheimer’s, and somebody with a bowel problem. The thing that struck me is that the requests were pretty similar to what I could have heard back at Fourteenth Street Church. But to God there’s no déjà vu. Mr. ?”s knees in Conrad are u-knee-kly special to God just like Linda’s are back at Fourteenth Street. Kind of a comforting thought, isn’t it?

The lead-in song was “Lord Our Lord, Thy Glorious Name” out of the blue songbook. The words really set the tone for worship, but I have to confess the tempo was pretty slow and it made me miss Gus from the Branding Iron more than a little. Reverend Reese then went on to tackle that tough issue in Colossians about Headship and Respect. I’m probably guilty of picking and choosing what to get from the sermon (along with my mind wondering – can I get the broken furnace fixed in the camper tomorrow), but here’s what I walked away with. Reese said that husbands should respect their wives because they are a suitable helper, critical, essential, necessary, rescuer, savior, perfect counterpart, without whom I’d be lost (kind of like a hand held GPS for life issues). And here’s the best – the other half - who makes me whole. Mickey is all that and more. After reading that, gentlemen, you better go give her a hug, along with some appropriate words, and when she asks “what’s up?” tell her it came from Reverend Vander Veen. Oh, and back to wondering minds, along with good sermons to keep your marriage close, forty degrees last night and a broken furnace also helps stay close.

Last Names

After dinner at the local café, we read the newspaper and then on to that time honored tradition of a Sunday afternoon nap (when I was little I always wondered why my parents had to go take a nap on Sunday, now that I’m older I know – to sleep).

The Great Falls Tribune listed the names and schools of local graduates and for some small town schools, there weren’t very many. Hinsdale and Brady each had five, Denton eleven, and Heart Butte eight. Browning, next to Glacier National Park and home of the Blackfoot Indian Reservation, appeared to be holding their own with about 100.

Here’s the names of some of them; Rowdy Cole Bird Rattler, Misty Autumn Dawn Burdeau, Summer Rose Gobert, Brandon Cole Heavy Runner, Jordan Evart Longtime Sleeping, Kati Hannah Rides At The Door, Edward Skunk Cap, Tyler James StillSmoking, and so on. Now being Dutch, I was always kind of proud that my name had meaning , and I’m sure my mom and dad would have applauded just as hard when I graduated (SCHC 1967), if they would have called out congratulations to Gary From The Swamp. However, it just doesn’t have the same ring as Misty Autumn Dawn Burdeau. Perhaps you younger couples and my kids can do something about this when naming time comes.

From Mickey:

As I proof Gary’s entry, he is in the kitchen helping Anna put together dinner, spinach triangles. He’s stuffing the spinach filling into the dough and folding them! What a sight! Good father/daughter time, eh? The boys are looking forward to watching the NBA Finals; the girls will do…I don’t know what. Tomorrow we’ll just “hang” with the kids, do some wash, some shopping. Gary was able to fix the furnace in the camper easier than thought…it just needed a new fuse! But last night, when it was soooo cold and we were tired, he didn’t have the patience to figure it out. I was already half asleep, buried under blankets. But once we warmed up, we stayed warm all night…and it rained all night! The sun is shining right now, but it’s cool because of the blasted wind! It’s always windy here! Looking forward to one more day with the kids; time goes so fast. But Tuesday morning we’ll continue on our journey. I’m thankful for Camas, getting my dog fix. And at the parade yesterday, I found the dog I want to get. Has anyone ever heard of a miniature Australian Shepherd? Just adorable!!! Gary said no more pets, and I think I have to agree. But I’m going to research the Mini Aussie and can’t wait to bring one home!

Bars, Churches, and Whoop Up

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

Bars, Churches, and Whoop Up

We arrived in Conrad on Friday afternoon after hugs with our kids, doing dinner and catch up, we went to the Branding Iron Bar and Bowling Alley to hear Eric (fingers Ray) Gustafson provide the entertainment for the evening. Gus, as he’s known, has a day job as a math teacher at Conrad High School where Anna teaches Spanish. Anna says he’s a great teacher but what impressed me most was that he’s a five man band all in one, as in Gus playing a drum, cymbal, harmonica, guitar, accordion, as well as singing. Kurt told me musical talent runs in the family, Gus’s brother does the YAHOOOO for Yahoo ( So what do you do for a living? I yodel yahoo for Yahoo. Who? Yahoo that’s who and that’s no hooey) Whew.

Anyway Gus and the Branding Iron Bar made me think of some similarities with church and some pointers churches could learn from bars. Now understand, Conrad has a population of about 2,000 so when you go to a bar, like church, you’re going to see a lot of people you know. In fact, I even saw somebody I knew in the person of Darrel who I’d met at church when we were out here for Easter. Darrel was in the majority - looking normal and savory, but there were several others that I’ll just say looked like real characters. Of course our church and maybe yours also has some “real characters.” This not being a bad thing in that I’m of the opinion that real characters (like Jim, Bill, and those others – you know who I’m talking about) give a church or a bar character.

And then there’s the young cowboys whom Gus told us were competing in the Conrad Whoop Up Rodeo. Broad shouldered, big belt buckles, a slightly bow legged gait, plus a disgusting example of dipping immediately followed by a long pull on a long neck, and hats that were big enough to be used as a drag chute on a Jet. I tried not to stare but you just don’t see real cowboys in Holland.

And just like Church, people there greeted each other with a hug, handshake or backslap. Now granted some of the bar hugs were a little more demonstrative than church hugs, but remember there’s nothing like a good hug to help thaw out some of the frozen chosen at church. Of course do your church hugs in moderation and in good order.

Another observation was that most everybody was pretty happy, as exhibited by a whole lot of smiling going on. The main source of their happiness was not the refreshments but the fellowship that was going on – see there’s a church phrase that applies to bars as well as vice versa. There was a whole lot of happiness and rhythm going on on the dance floor as well. I don’t know about you but I’m impressed when a couple can do a great two-step while they’re holding each other’s hands, and they’re hands are each holding a can of Busch. They didn’t even spill a drop – as Larry would say “now that there’s real talent.” Made me smile.

But back to multi-instrumented, -talented, -tasking Gus. You probably really can’t compare him to a preacher, but he did lead us in singing, and his rendition of Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues has confession (shot a man in Reno), remorse (I hung my head and cried), recognition of his sin and misery (I knew I had it coming) but not much hope in the end other than a lonesome whistle blowing his blues away.

So we had a good time at the Branding Iron Bar and Bowling Alley but as I write this on a Saturday night, I’m looking forward to hearing Q&A1 and whatever else Reverend Reese has to preach about tomorrow. I know it will affirm that He came, He died, and He rose again so that my joy and my hope and my comfort may be made complete. Or with a little help from Johnny Cash - He blew my blues away. And you can’t get that at a bar.

Whoop Up Days in Conrad

First of all, how did the Whoop Up get its name? Elementary - Tulip Time has Tulips and Whoop Up Days has people whooping it up at a parade, rodeo, golf scramble, pancake breakfast and the Branding Iron. That’s my definition; the one in the brochure said that Conrad was on the trail that whiskey traders took from Fort Benton to Canada. With a substantial amount of 180 proof grain alcohol as part of the cargo, the trader was admonished not to let the Indians “whoop you up.” Thus began the Whoop Up Trail and now Whoop Up Days. A kids parade is first and then the main event consisting of horses, tractors, semis, Shriners in little cars, old cars, motorcycles, Whoop Up Queen wanna bees, and all of them throwing out candy to the crowd.

The Rodeo was out of town aways and was great fun as well. Check out the pictures. The caption contest requires one for the upside down cowboy - what did he say, as well as one for the horse. Coffee on me at JP's for the prize winner. It was very windy and cold, but we stayed for two hours. It finally started to rain, so we headed back “to the ranch.” After some people took little naps, Anna made gnoccis (it’s a potato pasta), which was good. A bottle of red wine and discussions about politics and religion, and we got warmed up from the two hours in the damp wind. We are all now pretty worn out, and with church tomorrow we need to get some sleep. Anna just told us we have to go early because we have to set up for the snacks (that Anna made) after church. Gary is right now reading the local weather, and it’s wet and cold for the next three days!!! Ugh!! Until next time…

2008-06-06T15:34:00.000-07:00

Day 1, 2 and 3

June 4, 5, and 6

Day 1

From Mickey:

We are finally on our way! It was hard to say goodbye to Tucker. Gary (a/k/a Pilot) was gracious to let Mickey (a/k/a Co-Pilot) go at her own pace this morning, thus the 9:15 a.m. departure, unlike four years ago (5:15 a.m. departure)! We had lunch on the road and dinner NW of Minneapolis at Perkins. Stayed at Sinclair Lewis (public) RV park. Backed the camper up to the edge of the water and went right to bed! It was 9:30, but 10:30 Michigan time.

Stats: 677 mi; 59 gal; 11.5 mpg; aver 60 mph

Day 2

From Mickey:

Pulled out of campground at 6:15…neither one of us could sleep any longer. Pilot has Co-Pilot doing all the secretarial work when he’s driving…and some math! This is a quote from the Pilot: “So here we are, Thursday morning, and the Pilot gets the idea to figure out how much money we’re saving on our better gas mileage (yesterday, 11.5 vs. four years ago, 9.1; 65 mph, no headwind vs. 70 mph). We were both feeling really good about this until we do the math and find out on a 900 mile trip, we saved 10 gal, i.e., $40. Upon this revelation, the Pilot puts the pedal to the metal!” Had breakfast at a rest stop an hour into our drive. Had a little excitement already. Pilot saw a deer in the median of the highway and was pointing it out to me. For some reason he didn’t slow down until he realized the deer was spooking and going to run across the road in front of us. This is no exaggeration: The deer crossed in front of us within inches…Mickey could see its eyelashes and terrified eyes! Had lunch just outside Bismark. Took MT 24 to Fort Peck, where we would spend the night. It’s a two lane road in the middle of nowhere with no cars. Saw red tail hawk and took pictures. One the pictures of the road is on this blog. Stopped at the scenic overlook at Fort Peck Dam. Didn’t expect to see the world’s largest earthen dam. It was amazing. Fort Peck Lake has 1,500 miles of shoreline! Arrived at Downstream Campground in Fort Peck at 6:00. It was nice to relax after the day of driving. Gary had a beer and cigar while we waited for the coals to heat up for our brats. Wine, salad, guagamole and beans with the brats outside on our picnic table. We even had a fire. Met Melvin and Helen from eastern MT. Melvin flies a super Cub for his ranch. He bought it new in 1986 and he’s the only who’s only flown it and still flies it daily, herding cattle and hunting wolves. He and Helen are taking their first get away from the ranch, but their boys are already putting a guilt grip on him for leaving. We told him about our motto, “Don’t wait until you’re in a walker.” Melvin, like Gary, got a jury notice just before he left. He said, “They’ll have to come and get me; I’m leaving.” Gary liked the sound of that.

Stats: 678 mi; 61 gal; 11 mpg; 60 mph

Day 3

From Mickey:

We left the campground at 8:00 this morning, headed to Anna’s and Kurt’s. Driving through Saco, MT (pop.362), along Milk River (that’s the color), listening to CNN’s Candi Crowley interviewing Obama about political stuff, Mickey was listening to her MP3 player (bluegrass, of course). Looking at the town, the Co-Pilot breaks forth with a trueism, “Those people in Washington do not have a clue about these people here, and vise versa.” We had lunch in Hingham, MT, in a city park. We headed straight for Kurt and Anna. Arrived at 3:13 p.m. Anna was running an errand when we got here, but she’s here now! And Camas was very happy to see us, too!

We will be downloading this before our day is over because the Saturday guys want a report before JP’s.

Stats: 313 mi; 31.7 gal; 9.9 mpg; 53 mph

Now for the creative half of this couple: Gary:

Revelations and Mysteries:

First of all, thanks to all who made this trip possible: my boss, fellow employees picking up the slack, backup pilots, Leah and Derek house and pet-sitting, HC getting out a week early, and, of course, the Big One – Thanks, God! Yesterday’s Common Lectionary had the great Ecclesiastes passage in chapter 3: for everything there is a season. After the Simon and Garfunkle parts it says: moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in their toil. Now, I know you have to be careful about reading into the passage. After all, some people use that New Testament passage about “wearing the marks of Christ” as justification for bodily disfiguration (Q&A One). But, along with enjoying food and drink, it feels pretty good to travel. What a blessing for me that I have pleasure in my job as well as I-94 through North Dakota!

The mystery of the day is, why do they call them “rest stops?” I hardly ever see anybody resting there. [Co-Pilot did, at the last stop!] In fact, at the end of the day, we passed on resting at one of the rest stops and instead paid $20 to stay at the Sauk Centre Sinclair Lewis campground. This generated a discussion by two old people [Co-Pilot says, speak for yourself, Pilot!] with CRS disease (Can’t Remember Stuff) [Co-Pilot agrees, we both have this disease], wondering who is Sinclair Lewis? Is he the Chicago stockyard guy, or was that Upton Sinclair, or maybe Huey Lewis? Can anyone out there help us on this one? But, we had a good rest at the park. Back to rest stops, the question of the day is, when do we stop? Can we make it to the next one? Quick, Co-Pilot, look at the map and see how far it is. To help us with this critical decision, we need to go with that crusty old fart and advice giver, Jack Nicholson. He said there are three things he’s learned about getting old, one of them being “never pass up a restroom.” (Ask Bill and Di about the other two!) And as to the name, “rest stops,” we’ll have to go with Co-Pilot’s favorite, bladder flatter stop, 28 miles.

Songs of the Day: Rejoice in the Lord Always. Co-Pilot sang lead, Pilot sang echo. This is from our devotional, The Joy of Prayer, by Al Vander Griend. Note that it’s ISO 9000, as well as good operating practices, to require the Pilot, while driving, unlike in the airplane, to pray with eyes open! The other song was hard for the Co-Pilot to remember [because she’d never heard it before, so it’s not CRS disease], especially with the Pilot singing the one phrase he could remember! The phrase is, “I want to ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh…” Providentially, XM Radio Nashville played it this morning (second day). It’s Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettels (sp) singing, “I just want to ooh, ooh….love you.”

We ended the second day taking great pleasure with a bottle of merlot and nicely turned brats. We both slept real good.

Friday morning we met PA Bob, a retired school teacher who, along with his wife, are also headed to Alaska. We determined that when you meet people on the road, there are “one-ways” and “two-ways.” Bob was a one-way. We heard a lot about Bob (“what about Bob?), but Bob didn’t hear much about us. Nancy, on the other hand, was a two-way. She’s from Gallatin, MT, riding her Yamaha Virago by herself with all her camping gear. We traded “where we’re froms and what we dos” after I complimented her on her bike adventure. She told me that she works in a gas station and the reason she got into biking was that every time bikers came in to pay for their gas, they always had smiles on their faces. So last year she learned how to ride and this year she’s on the road. I told her we sold our Yamaha V-Star for gas money to Alaska, but we’ll be smiling again soon. After pulling out of Fort Peck, we hit the road, the road being US 2. US 2 is one of America’s classic roads. It’s not an expressway, but you can go 70 mph most of the time. You do have to slow down for the myriad of small towns you go through. One of them was Hingham, MT, where we had lunch at their beautiful park. The center of the park was almost filled up with a big white tent for an impending wedding. While we were eating, several young men came and went, obviously part of tonight’s celebrations. The wind was a steady 30, gusting to 40+ and we both thought of an upcoming Funniest Home Videos where not the bride falls down but the tent falls down. We said a little prayer and moved on. We’ll be at Anna’s and Kurt’s in a couple hours. We’re looking forward to the rodeo tomorrow and church at Conrad CRC, which we have to go to because the Dalmans are in charge of treats. Another good reason for going is to worship with God’s people and hear Vander Veen preach. Rev. Reese Vander Veen, that is. Stay tuned for the next update on this adventure.

2008-05-28T18:30:00.000-07:00

2008-05-28T17:30:00.000-07:00

We are Gary and Mickey Vander Veen, Dan and Lois Day. Bill and Dianne Ryckbost, John and Laurel Freiswyk, and Sandy Brewer. We're all members of 14th Street Church and except for the Days it's our second trip to Alaska, the first being four years ago. As was the case the last time Gary and Mickey are driving their truck with camper up leaving about June 6 and the rest will be flying up to rent RV's arriving at Anchorage on June 19. So for the first part of the blog you'll read about the Vander Veen's eating beans and rice generating cheap gas to help pay for $4.00 plus expensive gas. Our theme for the trip is "don't wait until you're in a walker," "remember Ike," and a new one "do it before it hits $8.00 a gallon."
Our goal is to enjoy God's general revelation in a beautiful part of the world and the exhilaration of discovering new things with old friends. Your comments and news of "back home" are appreciated.