Home 14,506 miles

We are home--John in Abiquiu and me in Rio Rancho...the mileage is really 14,746 from my house.   A wonderful trip and my top 10:

1.  Athabasca Glacier and Icefield Center--why do they have ten toilet paper dispensers and only one extra roll of tp?

2.  John Wells, trapper in Fort Nelson BC who has trapped on 500 square miles for over 40 years.

3  Midnight baseball

4.  Pizza at Mountain High Pizza Pie in Talkeetna

5.  King Crab burgers at Soapy Smith's

6.  Fishing all day for halibut, in the rain

7.  The Olympic Rain Forest

8.  Water, water everywhere, all colors--clear, turquoise, aqua, chocolate, green

9.  A brother who starts the generator so I can grind coffee beans

10.  Home, safe and sound

Thanks to everyone who has followed the blog, commented via phone, email and on the blog.  We enjoyed the comments and, although it took quite a bit of time, the blog was a great opportunity to share our adventure with others. 

I'll encourage everyone to step out of their daily comfort zone and explore.  "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the  moments that take our breath away" is a saying on a box my dear friend Rhonda Matthews gave me.  True, we had our breath taken away many times.

Linda

August 4-6

The 4th and 5th we had to pay our dues and drive 951 miles to arrive in Moab, Utah--home of Canyonlands National Park and Arches National Park.  John and I spent the first night on our trip, way back on June 1 in Moab at the Spanish Trail RV Park and then visited both national parks.

Yesterday afternoon, on the way into Moab, we stopped at the Arches Visitor Center so Evan could learn a bit about the area and the history.  This morning we arrived at Arches at 7 am.  Below are some of the images

John captured this while we were walking up to the North Window

Is the boy wearing a dunce hat?  John captured this in front of the Turret Arc

We walked up the lower viewpoint of the Delicate Arch, which you can see behind Evan 

In Canyonlands, we hiked to the Mesa Arch, which John really likes and he captured Evan and then I got a quick shot of both of them....not easy with lots and lots of people around!

Last shot of the day--we were at this overlook at Canyonlands and I looked at Evan - saw John's reflection in his sunglasses and motioned to Evan to move his head up and down and he thought I was crazy, until I showed him what was happening.  Great to have such a good helper!

Tomorrow morning we will head back to Abiquiu and the last 330 miles of our trip.

August 2 and 3

Yesterday we left early in the morning to drive the 250+ miles to Crescent, Oregon and the Big Pines RV Park.  We arrived shortly after noon and John and Evan took off fishing, but they came home empty handed.

This morning we left early for Crater Lake National Park which is the deepest lake in the US, fed by rain and snow, but not rivers or streams.  It is considered to be the cleanest large body of water in the world and is a intense blue color.  The lake rests within a caldera formed over 7,700 years ago when a 12,000 foot tall volcano collapsed.  Here's an image John captured of the western side of the caldera--Wizard Island.  The Island is 6940 ft tall and is one of four volcanos within the lake.

I captured another view of Wizard Island just as we were leaving the park.

Here is the lake from the opposite side, showing part of the caldera.

We spent the day driving the 33 mile rim and stopping at all the pullouts.  Here are a few of the wonders:

John and Evan when we first arrived with Wizard Island in the background.

This is around Grotto Cove--the rocks are covered with moss in some areas like the trees in the rain forest, as evidence in the background

It snows over 500 inches a year at the lake and the roads were 100 %  opened on July 9!  Can you imagine?  On the way to our picnic lunch the boys filled the cooler from this snowbank right beside the road.  John is over 6 foot tall, so there you have it.

Vidae Falls is a cascading waterfall fed by spring creeks and it drops over 100 feet.  John got ole Evan in his shades here.

The valleys have "Pinnacles" which are spires which are described as "Fossil Fumaroles" which marked spots where volcanic gas rose up through hot ash deposits, cementing the ash into solid rock.  In NM we have Tent Rocks which are formed from sandstone and they are very smooth on the surface.  These are very rough and rocky.

We stopped for a picnic lunch and this little guy, and many of his/her friends, tried their best to share!

There are hundreds of these Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrels around.  We stopped and Evan was having some nuts and John captured him sharing.

Tomorrow we leave for Idaho en route to Utah.

August 1

Well, we have been on the road for two months and today marks the beginning of the third--a day with some great highlights.  We went to Mount St. Helen's National Volcanic Monument and then took a helicopter ride!

The image above, taken by Evan, was in the early morning at an educational center.  Little did we imagine, we would be riding on it in the afternoon!

When Mt. St. Helen blew on May 18, 1980, over 90% of the mountain blew out on a horizontal basis creating a valley full of trees, ash, rocks and water. Evan took this image at the Visitor's Center, check out the huge crater--there is still a lot of activity in that region of the mountain.

John took this image of the valley from the helicopter and you can see the white cliffs--that is actually ash which got to several thousand feet in depth as the blast created a new valley and several new lakes like the one in the top of the image.

John and Evan at the Visitor's Center

As we walked on a trail, this tree was splintered by the blast--the mountain was over 5 miles away and it is estimated that this tree was over 150 years old, which equates to very big.  Looks like a toothpick was split in half by some guy.  Evan's image.

The helicopter ride was great--and we all got a free tee shirt when it was over, "I Flew the Blast Zone!"  Wonder how many questions we'll get when wearing those.

Tomorrow morning we will pack up and head to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon.

July 28-30

Evan arrived on Wednesday afternoon on a flight from Denver to Seattle and it has been a few days of “firsts.”

First flight by himself, first ride on both the light rail and the monorail, first time at the Space Needle and first crab dinner by the Pacific Ocean…

“I ate so much, I had a stomach ache!,” said Evan.  And, we had the first flat tire on the29th on the truck as we drove up to Olympic National Rain Forest.

We camped in La Push, Washington, about 40 miles NW of the Hoh Rain Forest for two nights—right on the Pacific—lots of huge trees. Visiting the rain forest and getting in a little fishing were highlights of Friday.

John took this image of Evan on the beach.

These are the boys in front of a Sitka Cedar which grows to over 270 feet tall with a diameter of over 12 feet and below in front of a duncan Cedar which is 178 feet tall and 19.4 in diameter.

Saturday we drove down to Castle Rock, WA and John and Evan went to Mount St. Helen Volcanic Monument.

July 26

Today John took me to see his ole Navy digs on Whidbey Island.  It was exciting to see where he spent time on two different occasions, even if it was over 40 years ago.  We had several interesting stops, first at Deception Pass Bridge.  The bridge was completed in 1935 at a cost of $450,000.  In the 1990s it costs more than that just to paint it!

In Vancouver we saw logs floating on the waterways.  Today we saw a mass of logs being moved in the bay by two tug boats.  We probably watched them for 20 minutes.  The lead tug has a "v" shaped ropes tied to the logs and they were pulling them.  The second tug would move around keeping the mass in order and moving them to stay in a pretty straight line.  There are several lumber and paper mills in this area, so who knows where they ended up.  Looking down from the bridge it looked like a flat game of pick up sticks.

We hiked down to the park along side of the bay and this is an image of the bridge--note the fishing pole in the lower right hand corner.

After leaving the Deception Pass Park, we went into the community of Oak Harbor where the Naval Air Station is located.  That is where John went to school to learn how to work on the A-3 aircraft, and then stationed there assigned to VAH-10. The squadron's mission was to basically be an airborne gas station, refueling the aircraft that were awaiting their turn to land on board the carriers.  I made one cruise on the USS Forrestal and another one on the USS J F Kennedy.

We found his old watering hole, the Oak Harbor Tavern and went in for a beer.  Here he is holding the squadron sign for his unit.  The joint hasn't changed much in 42 years!

Had another great seafood lunch at a place called Flyers--Navy guys own it and the food and service was great.  It was really nice being able to see where he spend a lot of time.  Of course all the businesses there now weren't around when I was here. 

Oh, the surprise---On Wednesday afternoon we will be picking up John's oldest grandchild, Evan Sawyer, at the Seattle airport.  He'll be joining us while we visit the Space Needle, Olympic National Park, Mount St. Helens and then into Oregon for Crater Lake National Park, sequoia and red wood trees, and making our way back via Nevada and Utah.

Evan is 14, loves to fish and is his Papa's pal.  It'll be a fun few days!

July 25 back in the lower 48

We left the Canadian campground about 11 am and headed south.  It really wasn't far to the US border.  There are two entry points just a few miles apart and the digital sign said one had over an hour wait and the other was unknown.  We went to the "unknown" at the Peace Bridge crossover. 

Waited 1 hour 32 minutes to get to the border patrol agent.  She asked what food we had and we told her.  Next thing we were pulled over for an agriculture check.  I had a Costco receipt from Anchorage where we bought tomatoes and oranges.  Went into the building, gave them all the keys and waited 33 minutes.  Guy comes back with one apple, the box of tomatoes and several oranges.  Said they were not legal to come into the US.  I showed him the receipt from ALASKA--the US.  "Items loose their citizenship in Canada."
Got our passports back, went to the truck, relocked the trailer and off we go.

Stopped for lunch and found:

Half of the SACK of oranges that didn't fit into the refrigerator drawer in the cabinet right next to where the tomatoes were located.  An apple in the refrigerator drawer, right where the other one was located.  Put off to put it mildly.

So, if Obama wants to put some of the unemployed to work I suggest:

1. Hire more border agents.
2. Put up signs with the restricted items you can't bring back into the US since things "loose their citizenship in Canada."  If you wait for over an hour, you could easily dispose of the items and thus save patrol time in searching and disposing of items you can't bring in--or do they eat it on the job?
3. Buy signs from a printing company that isn't working at capacity to list all items you can't bring in.
4. Hire a company to install such signs.
5. Buy trash containers from a small business to collect all the items listed on the list as per number 2 above.
6. Buy plastic bags from another small business to put into the trash containers in number 5.
7. Hire someone to install the signs and the trash containers.
8. Buy some port-a-potties to put in the miles leading up to the border crossing.  Several people had to get out of their cars, go to their trailers or walk to the duty free shop to potty, buy food, change diapers or whatever else one does with at least an hour wait at the border.  (The minimum of an hour was information provided in conversation while we were getting ready to leave.)

John said I needed an attitude adjustment, that the agents were just doing their job.  I say if they are doing their job, then do it right--what crap!

There was an elderly man (not a WASP) who parked his van on the north side of the road, in Canada.  He got out a cart, put in some ice cream bars and cold bottled water.  Made his way across 4 lanes of traffic, lifted the cart over the Jersey Dividers and was walking between the two lanes of traffic selling refreshments.  That guy will retire a millionaire while the rest of us put up with total governmental inefficiency.  Maybe an urgent care facility for those whose blood pressure goes up too high...that would employ more people.

Anyway, good to be back in the lower 48.  John was stationed at Widbey Island, just a few miles from here when he was in the Navy.  We're going to tour his old haunts tomorrow, Tuesday it's to Seattle where we'll announce a surprise tomorrow.

July 23-24

On Friday we drove through the south central part of British Columbia, stopping at the 108 Heritage Site. There are about 20 historic buildings like this one of a house with the Clydesdale barn in the background.

After looking more closely at maps and travel times, we decided that we really couldn’t stay at a Provincial Park so we found a campground in Burnaby which is a 45 minute drive to the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal.

Saturday we left on the 8 am ferry to Swartz Bay, Victoria--good diversion for me since it would have been Bill's 65th birthday.  It was a beautiful 90 minute ferry ride – we caught a taxi to the Victoria International Airport and picked up a rental car for the day. John and Rae had visited Victoria before and he wanted to show me around the city. Our first stop was at Butchart Gardens which was created over 100 years ago by Jennie and Robert Butchart. He had a limestone quarry and she wanted to see something other than huge holes where rocks had been excavated, thus the development of Butchart Gardens was started and the historical site is still owned by the family, managed by a great granddaughter. This is an image John took in the Sunken Garden, the first development of the project.

The Gardens cover over 55 acres and they employ over 500 gardeners, they must work all night because we saw only one and the fireworks crew which was preparing for a Saturday night display—this sequoia tree was started as a seedling in 1934 and it is the first sequoia I've ever seen, so I had to capture it.

John took these images at the garden:
These Azure Sea roses are lavender color and one of Rae’s favorites

He is becoming an artistic photographer in his own right!

In the Japanese Garden

Through the window of the patio

After spending several hours at the gardens, John drove us into downtown Victoria where we enjoyed a great seafood lunch overlooking the harbor and then went to the Empress Hotel, built in the late 1800s. Wow, it was lovely!

The harbor walk called – it was a great place, entertainment, (this kid was playing with his Dad) an official seaport for airplanes and water taxis.

We took a historic harbor tour and saw this draw bridge, which is operated by counter weights on one end…just radio up to the tower and they will sound the horn and open the bridge for you, free of charge!

This morning we are headed for Washington State.

July 17 – 22nd

It was a very cool 48 degrees when we packed up and left the Kenai Peninsula on Saturday about noon. Before leaving we stocked up on cases of canned king salmon which we were able to stow in the trailer. After a stop at Costco in Anchorage we were back in the Mat-Su Region and camped at Matanuska Glacier State Recreation Site. We had visited this site before when we were based in Palmer but it was not nearly as nice, from a weather perspective as Saturday.   John captured this-

On Sunday morning we left camp about 6 am and headed to Tok, the first town when you come into Alaska from Canada. John found a campground, Tok River Recreation Site, just a few miles outside of town, but more importantly, close to the Taylor Highway which leads to Chicken. Our goal was to get to Chicken in time for lunch and we had to cover about 350 miles from our starting point. On the drive up the Tok Cutoff road we saw this pair of trumpeter swans which John captured on his camera.

It only took about 10 minutes to set up camp and leave at noon for Chicken. On the drive up the Taylor Highway the road was washed out last Saturday when over 10 inches of rain fell between the communities of Chicken and Eagle. It actually washed away one car and the driver hasn’t been found and about 35 campers, motor coaches, trailers and cars were stuck, with the latest 40 foot motor coach getting out yesterday. That caused us not to be able to go back into Canada over the “Top of the World” road.

On Monday we knew we had a hard week of driving before us if we wanted to be in Victoria Island over the weekend, so we decided to leave every day by 6 am and stay in the Yukon Government Campgrounds and the British Columbia Provincial Parks.

As we left Alaska on the Alcon Highway, four moose bid us farewell –a bull, 2 cows and a yearling. They were too far away to photograph, but we watch through the binoculars and John saw one cow chase the others away from the water. Of course, I missed that because I was trying to find my binoculars…

In the Yukon Territory, we drove through Destruction Bay and just had to capture this image of their police car. There are only 55 people who live there and it is just s beautiful area by Kluane Lake, which is the largest lake in the Yukon Territory, so I’m sure there are a lot of speeders, and no police. What a hoot!

We have been traveling on the Cassiar Highway, or as John refers to it, “the highway from hell” from Watson Lake south through the western part of British Columbia. It is a 463 mile road—half of it in terrible shape and half in just above poor shape. The interesting thing is there are no communities in this part of the province that are more than a couple hundred people, but there are tons of lakes, streams and beautiful scenery. We got to the Yellowhead Highway yesterday and today got onto the West Access Route to Alaska which will be our route until we get back into the US.

As we left the Yukon Territory, John captured this one last photo of a black bear eating the flowers on the side of the road. Haven’t seen any more bears since this one.

On the 20th we stayed at Boya Lake which was beautiful, but it started to rain and that weather system has been with us through our stay on the 21st at Seeley Lake Provincial Park and even some today.

We have seen foxes, red and black. John says the black ones are very rare. There were two at this gravel pit, but of course, never close enough together to get a decent shot.

This morning we passed through a little community, Burns Lake, with about 10,000 population throughout the area and at both ends of town they have what John refers to as the “Flower power slug bugs” and he captured this one.

We’ll leave tomorrow and be in the Vancouver area until Monday, and we plan to stay in the Provincial Parks so there will be no more internet postings until Monday.

Mileage to date 10,939.