Travelin' Sho

The Alaskan Adventure Has Ended

2018-08-29T08:02:00.002-07:00

The Alaskan Adventure has finally ended.

We left Grand Teton National Park on Friday and stayed at A.B. Campground in Cheyenne, Wyoming that night. A.B. Campground also has a BBQ Restaurant and it is delicious! Worth a trip to Cheyenne!

We woke up Saturday morning and celebrated Play Music On The Porch Day by playing "What Do You Do With A Drunken Sailor?" on the steps of the AHouse and shared it with the world.

We spent Saturday night at Windmill State Recreation Area in Gibbon, Nebraska, where there was no BBQ or pirate songs. We also had to start using the air conditioning instead of the furnace. As it was the end of August, it seemed like the right thing.

Sunday we camped in Hannibal, Missouri at the Mark Twain Cave Campground, just on the west side of the Mississippi River. We saw a Copperhead snake outside of the camper that evening, and that was about as exciting as it got.

On Monday we finished up the trip, stopping at MOD Pizza for dinner 5 miles before we got home. Tom cut his hair and trimmed his beard so the only thing left to do is get the Jeep fixed and plan the next trip!

Total days on the road: 105
Total miles traveled: 15,390
Total fuel cost: $3,250.94
Average fuel cost: $3.51 per gallon

Other than the Jeep getting hit, everything went great, and even that didn't slow us down or change anything. We highly recommend everyone making this trip!!

Grand Teton National Park

2018-08-24T13:56:00.000-07:00

We spent seven nights at Yellowstone National Park and then travelled down to Grand Teton National Park for three nights and camped at Colter Bay Campground in the park.

The Grand Tetons are lovely but unfortunately it is very smoky here right now, as it was our last few days at Yellowstone due to all of the fires.

We were still able to get out and do some nice hikes and enjoy Huckleberry Jam, Huckleberry licorice, Huckleberry suckers and Huckleberry ice cream.

We also made it into Jackson for lunch at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, sitting at the bar on saddles. (which the cowgirls found extremely uncomfortable...)

After 100 consecutive nights in the AHouse we are now back on the road and heading east!

Yellowstone

2018-08-17T15:00:00.000-07:00

We crossed into Idaho and camped in Fruitland at the Exit 3 RV Park behind a Chevron/A&W Root beer. Not bad for $20, we had electric and water hookups. (I might have preferred there were bathrooms, but the walk to the gas station wasn't too far)

We spent one night in West Yellowstone and had some delicious pizza at the Wild West Pizzeria and Saloon.

We got up bright and early and made it into Yellowstone National Park by 7:00 and stood in line for about an hour and a half at Norris Campground and luckily were able to secure a campsite. Not everyone in line was so lucky. The line started forming at 5:00. Hopefully that will be the last of the summer that Leslie wears gloves. We paid for five nights but we will likely stay longer.

We have been checking out the geysers and mud pots and steam vents and every stinky sulpher smelling blow hole in the park.

There are beautiful falls and the Yellowstone River and Yellowstone Lake are incredible.

Lamar Valley and Hayden Valley are full of wildlife and so far we have seen hundreds of buffalo, antelope and some mountain goats. Lots of birds too like pelicans, cranes and Jays. We have hundreds of pictures that we can hopefully upload one day.

We no longer have two cracks in the windshield. We only have one now. One really long crack...

Oregon

2018-08-11T18:13:00.000-07:00

We have spent about 12 days in Oregon. Our first stop was on the coast, camping at Nehalem State Park.

We got up early everyday and checked out tide pools at Arcadia Beach State Recreation Site and Hug Point State Recreation Site.

We saw lots of Sea Anemones, Starfish, Crabs, Sea Cucumbers and little fish.

We tried to visit the Tillamook Cheese Factory but everyone in Oregon was there, so we left... We also visited the Goodwill Store to buy some clothes for a wedding we found out about along the way...

We went to the Sand Dune Pub in Manzanita two nights in a row since Tom loved their Oyster Po' Boy so much.

After the coast we spent a night camping in the Willamette National Forest in Detroit, Oregon camping next to the North Fork Santiam River at the Riverside Campground.

We headed next to Bend, Oregon where we have been camping for a week in the street in front of our friends' house.

While in Bend we have checked out lots of cool spots like Sahalie Falls and the Dee Wright Observatory at the summit of McKenzie Pass in the Cascade Mountains.

We have also spent a lot of time just hanging out and playing music in their backyard and enjoying the free showers, free laundry, free food, free WiFi and indoor plumbing.

We did a 5 mile hike on the Tam McArthur Rim Trail near Sisters, Oregon one morning before the temperature reached nearly 100 degrees later in the afternoon. Yes, Leslie is finally done wearing gloves for the summer. (hopefully)

After the hike we treated ourselves to lunch at the Rainwater Cafe in Sisters and found some more black licorice ice cream!

Most importantly, we found out while we were in Alaska that our friends Markay and Glen were going to be getting married! So we were honored to attend a beautiful morning wedding in their front yard. Best wishes to the bride and groom!

Olympic National Park

2018-07-31T11:23:00.000-07:00

We spent several days exploring Olympic National Park on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.

We camped at Mora Campground, just outside of Forks, WA where Stephenie Meyer based her Twilight novels.

The campground is right by Rialto Beach, so we set an alarm one morning to walk a mile and a half up the beach to Hole In The Rock to check out the tide pools at Low Tide.

We saw lots of starfish, sea anemones, crabs and other stuff.

We also visited the Hoh Rain Forest and did some hiking. And it didn't rain on us!

It was very chilly at Mora Campground and Leslie hopes that July 29th will be the last day of this summer that she has to wear gloves.

Seattle, Washington

2018-07-25T19:14:00.000-07:00

After a couple of months spent living on the land, foraging for food and being off the grid, we decided to spend a day being tourists in Seattle and living like city folks.

First up was the Space Needle where we went into space 502 feet to the Observation Deck for great views of Seattle, Mount Rainier and the Cascade Mountains.

Our next stop was Chihuly Garden and Glass, which was Tom's favorite part of the day. It is an exhibit at the Seattle Center of Dale Chihuly's glass sculptures and works. And it is amazing. If you go to Seattle, you don't want to miss this.

Our last stop was Leslie's favorite: The Museum of Pop Culture. It is a non-profit museum for pop culture, including music, science fiction, video games, fantasy and horror movies. There were exhibits about Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix and a Sound Lab where you could play instruments if you wish. Of course we wished.

We camped at Saltwater State Park in Des Moines, WA. If you need a place to camp that is close to downtown Seattle, it will do. Otherwise, you will probably want to just pass on by this place. (although you can pick delicious blackberries at your campsite...)

We will pack up in the morning and head back to the wilderness and hope to see you there!

The Cassiar Highway

2018-07-23T17:52:00.001-07:00

For our return trip, we chose to take the Cassiar Highway which we picked up near Watson Lake, Yukon and took to the Yellowhead Highway in British Columbia. The highway is 450 miles long, packed with outstanding scenery and some occasional wildlife.

It is a long, lonesome narrow road with some steep grades but the road is generally in good condition and most of it has no shoulder or center line.

We stopped and camped at Boya Lake Provincial Campground one night and took a couple of hikes and saw a beaver dam and and a beaver swimming across the beautiful lake.

We spent two nights camping at Meziadin Lake Provincial Campground where we were eaten alive by gnats and one of us has large welts and a swollen eye from it. We will never go back.

From the Meziadin Junction we did a day trip to Stewart, B.C. and Hyder, Alaska. The Stewart-Hyder Access Road takes you to Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Area, run by the U.S. Forest Service, where you can watch bears fishing for salmon in the creek...if there is salmon...there wasn't.... But it was real pretty!

We continued down the road, which turned into a gravel road filled with potholes, to see Salmon Glacier. On that road we met a man who was on his third trip to Alaska in his 1950 Ford. (the car in the picture is not his car)

We crossed the border back into Canada and had lunch in Stewart at the Toastworks Toaster Museum and Cafe. If you go to Stewart, this is a great place for lunch. Especially if you are into looking at old toasters, and who isn't? Delicious Fish Tacos and Reuben Sandwiches. Make sure you get some cookies to go! (and eat them all in the car before you make it back to camp)

Along the way we saw black bears and a porcupine crossing the road.

We are driving south through British Columbia now and should be back in the U.S.A. soon.

Number of Moose Sightings: 17 (last moose seen was in Denali)
Number of Days since Leslie has needed gloves: 2
Number of miles Driven: 9,911.

Alaska Highway Travel Tip

2018-07-16T12:11:00.002-07:00

Travel Tip: If you ever leave Alaska...and you are driving down the Alaskan Highway through the Yukon Territory... and you stop to fill up the gas tank..... and you get back on the road ....and notice that the dust from the gravel is blowing the exact opposite direction...and somebody says "Hey! There is another one of those native memorial things that we saw back there on the other side of the road"... and later somebody says "Another Copper Joe Creek! They must have really liked Copper Joe to have named two Creeks after him!"... Check the compass and turn around or you will end up back in Alaska!

But if we hadn't driven the extra twenty miles, we wouldn't have gotten another chip in the window, so there is always a silver lining.

Prince William Sound

2018-07-13T23:42:00.002-07:00

We took a cruise on the Lu-Lu Belle, out of Valdez on Friday the 13th. Luckily disaster did not strike. (Warning: This blog contains an excessive amount of otter pictures)

The trip lasted about eight hours. Captain Fred took us all the way to Columbia Glacier, the second-largest tidewater glacier in North America, and we stopped along the way to see all kinds of cool wildlife.

We saw Sea Otters, Stellar Sea Lions, Dall Porpoises, Eagles, Puffins and tons of other sea birds.

It was a great trip and worth nearly freezing to death. Who knew that glaciers could be so cold? Canada, here we come!

Oh, and the Captain let Leslie pilot the boat when he had to go down into the engine room. (and apparently she did better than the Captain of the Exxon Valdez)

Seward

2018-07-10T22:05:00.002-07:00

Three days in Seward, Alaska are plenty. We had plans to do a boat trip in the Kenai Fjords National Park. We did a trip about six years ago and the sea was rough and the tiny ship was tossed and it was a complete barf-o-rama. We had a blast though and saw tons of wildlife.

We booked the trip for Tuesday, thinking that the rain would stop by then, and went to the Alaska Sea Life Center on Monday. It is a really nice aquarium and we saw tons of cool ocean life, including seals and sea lions and an adorable sea otter pup in the I.Sea.U. which had been rescued.

But it rained and rained and rained..

Things looked better on Tuesday morning so we headed to the harbor to board the ship and they advised that there was a rough seas warning and we could cancel, book for another day, or take our chances and go out and have rough seas and possibly have to turn back. So we cancelled without booking for another day. One can only spend so many days in the dreary rain soaked town of Seward.

Later in the afternoon we hiked to Exit Glacier which is also in the Kenai Fjords National Park. Even in the rain it was beautiful, although receding.

So we are leaving Seward and heading to Valdez with hopes of enjoying a boat trip in The Prince William Sound, in between the rain.

If you visit Seward, Ray's Waterfront is a nice place to eat dinner and watch sea otters playing in the harbor. (okay, they probably aren't playing, but it looks like they are)

Firewood Forest Fair

2018-07-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

Girdwood, Alaska, a small town about 30 miles south of Anchorage, has their annual Forest Fair on Fourth of July weekend so we headed back that way so we could check it out. We were glad we did.

Three days of free live bands, vendors and “exotic foods.” We ate exotic foods like Spinach Bread and French Fries. I am not sure how exotic the food was, but it was delicious.

There is a main stage where we watched a wide array of different types of music and two side stages with performers in between.

The vendors have everything from smelly soaps and hand carved spoons to Tarot Cards and raccoon tails. There are also artist booths with some incredible artwork.

Days since we have seen a Moose: 17

Days since we have seen rain: 9 (but we see it coming..)

Kachemak Bay Tour

2018-07-03T11:05:00.000-07:00

Take unlimited sunshine and add tons of Sea Otters, eagles and a couple of Humpback whales and you have a perfect day in Kachemak Bay!

We took a seven hour tour aboard the Discovery with Rainbow Tours and loved every minute of it.

First we stopped at Gull Island to see many thousands of seabirds. They typically nest there and lay their eggs, but too many eagles are there now scaring them so they are afraid that they wont have any babies this year.

We also went around Eldred's Passage where we saw sea otters and eagles, including an eagle's nest where she was feeding two babies. (Zoom in on the pics and you can see the babies) We also saw three volcanoes which are part of the ring of fire. (and I aplogize if the Johnny Cash song is now in your head)

We were also lucky enough to see two Humpback whales and our boat stayed with them for a long time.

We eventually arrived in the little town of Seldovia, a little late due to all the wildlife we were stopping to see, and enjoyed a delightful lunch.

A large group of Amish people from Ohio joined us on our adventure. If only Tom had a straw hat he would have fit right in with them.

Otters

2018-07-01T18:36:00.002-07:00

I know that my mom would say that I otter make an otter pun in this blog, but I don't plan to do so.

We have been lucky to see this cute little guy floating around out in the Kachemak Bay from our campsite several times. (might not be the same little guy...might be a girl...)

Whichever it is, it is sure adorable!

We are really enjoying Homer and could end up staying here for as long as we stayed in South Dakota. We've done some cool hiking and enjoyed some delicious halibut... And tacos... And ice cream... we might run out of money here...

The Diamond Creek Trail is a cool hike down to the beach where you can spend forever looking in the tide pools, not Tide Pods, Bob.

The Alpine Meadow Loop at Eveline Recreation Area has beautiful views of mountains and glaciers and tons of wild flowers.

And the best part is that the rain has ended and we have been seeing nothing but sunshine!

Eagles, Eagles Everywhere

2018-06-29T19:18:00.001-07:00

It rained all night and was still raining when we got up, but we decided to head to Anchor Point to try fishing anyway. It didn't stop raining and we didn't do any fishing, but we rain into a convocation of bald eagles instead!

After we walked around on the beach in the rain with them for awhile, we headed back to Homer and visited the Pratt Museum which was a nice rainy day thing to do. (it would be cool on a sunny day too)

But the sun is out now and shining down on our camper home and we are hoping that it might even hit 60 degrees tomorrow!

Tom tried to make the best of things on another rainy day with a couple Alaskan beers at the Salty Dawg Saloon.

Homer Spit

2018-06-28T20:58:00.003-07:00

We left Soldotna and are now camping at The Homer Spit in Homer, Alaska. We are right next to the water and the views are incredible.

Soldotna was nice, and we enjoyed Music In the Park with The Resonant Rouges and food trucks, but we weren’t catching any fish so we thought it was time to move on...

I know that Anita is expecting a blog about the trip to the laundromat but surprisingly there are no good stories to tell. It was the nicest and cleanest laundromat we had ever been to. So nice, in fact, that we will probably go back later to buy a shower.

But that doesn’t mean that nothing exciting has happened yet in Homer. Tom held the door for Jane Kilcher as she walked into a little local shop.

He also bought some XTRATUF boots so that he can look like a real Alaskan.

The weather forecasters tell us the rain should be ending soon so we are ready for some sun and plan to hang out here for awhile.

And the Photos

2018-06-26T18:01:00.002-07:00

Turnagain

2018-06-26T11:30:00.003-07:00

No Sunday drive would be complete without a stop at the Turnagain Arm Pit BBQ when you are on the Seward Highway driving along the shore of Turnagain Arm. (Order the cornbread)

If you need to stock up on Reindeer Hotdogs and Reindeer Sausage like we did, Indian Valley Meats is your store. We also bought some delicious salmon to grill at our campsite since we haven’t been able to catch any fish.

We camped at the Willawaw USFS Campground on the Whittier/Portage Glacier Road for a couple of nights. We saw the Porter Glacier and hiked to the Byron Glacier and hiked along the Trail of Blue Ice.

Other than mosquitoes, the only wildlife we have been seeing are beautiful bald eagles.

We have photos but are not able to upload them. It will be surprising if the blog even uploads....

Turnagain

2018-06-26T11:30:00.001-07:00

No Sunday drive would be complete without a stop at the Turnagain Arm Pit BBQ when you are on the Seward Highway driving along the shore of Turnagain Arm. (Order the cornbread)

We camped at the Willawaw USFS Campground on the Whittier/Portage Glacier Road for a couple of nights. We saw the Porter Glacier and hiked to the Byron Glacier and hiked along the Trail of Blue Ice.

Other than mosquitoes, the only wildlife we have been seeing are beautiful bald eagles.

We have photos but are not able to upload them. It will be surprising if the blog even uploads....

Anchorage

2018-06-23T21:47:00.000-07:00

Saturday finds us with some fellow Ohioans in Anchorage, Alaska.

We met at the Anchorage Summer Solstice Festival where I first found a taco, and then our friends.

They also sold long licorice ropes in a multitude of delicious flavors like sour mango and sour blue raspberry, and the traditional black. We bought $20 worth. (4 ropes)

Then the real fun began when when got out the dulcimers and jammed until our fingers got too cold.

Number of verified Buckeye Fans in Campground: 5

Number of times we have been chased out of a campground by mosquitoes at 9:30 PM: 1

Number of times someone has hit our Jeep in a parking lot and run and left our license plate lying on the pavement: 1

Denali National Park

2018-06-20T23:46:00.001-07:00

Denali National Park and Preserve was established in 1917 as a place to protect wild animals and the place where they live. It has since been enlarged to six million acres and includes Denali, the mountain formerly known as Mt. McKinley.

There is only one road into the park and only the first 15 miles of the road is accessible to private vehicles.

We took the Wilderness Tundra Tour into the park which goes about 60 miles into the park and takes about 7 hours.

On our tour we saw tons of Caribou and Dall Sheep, a ptarmigan and four grizzly bears. The three in the top photo are a mother and two nearly three year old cubs. Two very large three year old cubs. In Denali the grizzly cubs stay with their mom for the first 3 years because the summer season is so short.

We would highly recommend doing this tour if you are in the Park. The driver looks for wildlife and stops when you see something and if the animal is far away they have cameras with monitors so that you can see them better. And they also provided a box of tasty snacks!

We also spent a day hiking on several of the trails in the park that were very nice too.

On the Mountain Vista tour we got to see the rarely seen peak of Denali!

The Savage River trail and Horseshoe Lake trail are very cool too.

We saw Moose also. We see Moose all the time. We can barely keep track of all the Moose.

We are done with Denali and will be heading off in the morning to places unknown... but somewhere south of here. Happy Summer Solstice from the Land of the Midnight Sun!

Moose in Denali!

2018-06-18T18:05:00.002-07:00

We have a moose and her baby hanging out at our campground here outside of Denali which is really cool. And we took at least a million pictures of them, but we wont post them all. But here are a few...

Number of Moose Sightings: 15 Number of cracks in Windshield: 2 Number of holes in bug guard: 1

Riverboat Discovery

2018-06-17T22:42:00.000-07:00

Riverboat Discovery is a three hour tour. A three hour tour. It takes you up the Chena River where you first watch a Bush pilot take off from and land on the river in his vintage Sandpiper.

Next you meet the daughter of Iditaron winner, Susan Butcher, and her Alaskan husky sled dogs. Puppies too! But you just get to look at them from the boat... But she tells you all about them and then you get to see a team pull her around in an ATV and those

dogs go crazy for it.

The last stop is at a replica of a native village. Guides take you around and teach you about their culture, show you reindeer, and there is a lady dog musher whose sled dogs you can see and pet and watch go crazy.

Free blueberry donuts and salmon spread is included.

On a recommendation from a complete stranger on Facebook, we went to the Alaska Salmon Bake in Fairbanks for dinner. It was a good buffet, but I don't think either of us ate $34 worth of salmon.

Nipper has had enough of the North Pole mosquitoes and is ready to head to Denali!

Chena Hot Springs Road

2018-06-16T14:08:00.000-07:00

The Chena Hot Sorings Road is a relaxing way to spend an afternoon.

The road is about 56 miles long from Faibanks to the Hot Springs.

Along the way there are places to fish, camp, hike and look at stuff.

We stopped to fish in the river and in two different ponds, but had no luck.

We hiked 3.5 miles on the Angel Rocks Trail which started along the river and then went up and up to a bunch of cool rock outcrops.

Ok, so what about that relaxing part? Well at the end of the road we got to the hot springs. For $15 we got to soak in the wonderful hot springs, swim in the indoor pool and soak in the hot tub. AND we got to take a shower! (Towels will set you back $5)

Gold Fever

2018-06-16T10:30:00.000-07:00

If you make it Fairbanks, you definitely want to try your luck with a pan at Gold Daughters. They set you up with a gold pan and a good bag of guaranteed dirt, teach you how to pan for gold, and then let you spend as much time as you want sifting through large mounds of non-guaranteed dirt to try to make your fortune.

It is kind of too much hard work to really ever catch gold fever...

But we did end up striking it rich, mainly with the flakes from the bag of guaranteed dirt, but we did find some in the regular dirt which we had dig out with a shovel..

Make sure that you check out Tacos Al Pastor on Old Steese Hwy and order Tacos Al Pastor. Delicioso!

The Large Animal Research Station is a cool place to check out after you are filled up on Mexican food. They research Muskoxen and reindeer and they have presentations and will take you around and teach about them or you can just stop and view them from the entrance.

North Pole

2018-06-14T22:53:00.002-07:00

North Pole is a town about 15 miles southwest of Fairbanks. The town started when a company bought the land and named it North Pole to try to attract a toy manufacturer who could advertise that its toys were made there. Later the city's light poles were painted to look like candy canes.

Santa Claus House was built in 1952 and is the big attraction there. It is a huge gift shop filled with Christmas decorations, ornaments,and other Christmassy stuff.
Next door is the Antler Academy of Flying & Reindeer Games where you can feed and hang out with the Reindeer.

The big draw is the big man himself, of course. The only reason any one drives down St.Nicholas drive is to see Santa! Unless of course it is Monday or Tuesday...the days that Santa doesn't show up at his own house. And small children and grown men from Ohio are all standing around crying...

So by all means, if you head to North Pole Alaska, call ahead to make sure that Santa is there.

We were able to make a return trip to see Santa and Tom got to sit on his lap and Santa Facetimed with Gracie, who of course let Santa know that she needed more Elsa and Ana stuff.

Another fun thing to see in Fairbanks is The University of Alaska Museum of the North. There are a bunch of exhibits about the people and wildlife of Alaska. There is a wonderful art gallery on the second floor where you get to sit in one of the exhibits. Thanks for the suggestion, Betsy!