The American West

Date: 7/15/13                                    Time Zone: CDT

Location: Paducah KY

Travel Leg of journey: 38                        Day of journey: 73

Miles traveled today:  485                        Miles traveled since departure: 11,136

Percentage of travel completed: 101%

U.S. states visited today: KS, MO, IL, KY

Critters observed today: 1 fox [four legged]

Nancy & I have always loved to travel. And traveling by car or our motor home has been a frequent mode of ours. We have ventured to the most distant parts of all four corners of the US, and virtually everywhere in between. And on this trip we went to the very end of the westernmost numbered road in the US, a road in Homer Alaska that is very nearly on the same latitude as the Hawaii Islands! 

Homer AK nearly due north of Hawaii

After all this travel in our great country, I have reflected on it, and have an opinion [imagine that] that I would like to share: there is not much of our land east of the Mississippi River that is worthy of visiting more than once. Out West is where it’s at! For there, you have towering mountains, many that are snow covered year-round. There are raging rivers, high plains, the Grand Canyon, deserts, vast forests, mysterious rock formations and even rumbling volcanoes. And then Out West there is the western flavor to good old Americana: cowboys and, yes, Indians, what is left of Route 66, gold mines, ghost towns and old Spanish architecture. Just consider our last jaunt through The West. We crossed the border into Washington and passed over the bridge at the majestic Grand Coulee Dam. The road opened into a vast expanse of farmland, wheat fields as far as the eye could see, more wheat fields than Iowa cornfields. But this may not be fair to Iowa, for out here there are rolling hills. And once at the crest of a hill, someone has moved the horizon back, and you can actually see a much greater distance. The wheat fields of Washington soon became the fields of future McDonald’s French fries, as the vastness was now filled with endless potato plants in Idaho. We spent the night in Coure D’Alene ID and started east on

I-90. This mountainous road leading toward Missoula MT may be the loveliest stretch of highway that we have traveled in the US. [This is interesting, since the previous highway to be so characterized by us is also in Idaho, US 93 from Butte to Sun Valley]. Montana brought us more open space views, big sky, with fields of cattle, not crops. Farther on we entered Utah with its Great Salt Lake off to the west, and traveling eastward from Salt Lake City we passed through the mining region and into high desert, then open dry deserts near the fabulous canyon lands and Moab. Eastward still into Colorado, we passed through towering rock canyons formed eons ago by the Colorado River alongside I-70. Then onward and upward into the Rocky Mountains, where our 400 HP engine had her tongue hanging out by the time we crested the 11,000 foot pass at the Eisenhower tunnel entrance. And down we drove into the flat lands of eastern Colorado and Kansas with still more farmland. It is about here every time that I start getting bored as I drive, as the terrain remains essentially unchanged and uninspiring for hundreds of miles. But then, there is something really weird about I-35, which we recently crossed, the Interstate highway running north-south and dissecting the country. We have crossed it many times and it is nearly the same effect wherever we have crossed it, whether near Dallas, Kansas City or Minneapolis. It is as if the Master Artist has painted the landscapes on the west side of I-35 in brown tones [all the way to the west coast], but then on the east side, has chosen a green palette for His works for the remainder of the travel. But, entering the land of green trees and grass is very nice indeed. So, if you have not yet driven much Out West, you should surely put it on your bucket list. And enjoy the ride.

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Out of Canada

Date: 7/14/13                                    Time Zone: CDT

Location: Topeka KS

Travel Leg of journey: 37                        Day of journey: 72

Miles traveled today:            495                        Miles traveled since departure: 10,651

Percentage of travel completed: 96.8% [we are exceeding our estimated milage]

U.S. states visited today: CO, KS

Critters observed today: eagles, bison, 1 lot lizard [truck stop hooker]

Our Recent Travel

The beautiful scenery that we have observed on this journey exceeded our wildest imaginations. In Alaska we traveled the Seward Hwy from Glennallen to Palmer, said to be the most scenic in Alaska. It was gorgeous, following a glacier fed river at the base of snow-covered mountains that held several glaciers. And in British Columbia, we found, by accident, beautiful Stewart BC. We had targeted Stewart as a convenient stopover on our way south, and had never heard of it before. Stewart lies at the head of a 90 mile long fiord right across the river from southern Alaska. The area has very steep mountains and 20 glaciers, many feeding the river that empties into the fiord. Resident black and grizzly bears were said to await the annual salmon run to gorge themselves, though we saw none while there. The next day we traveled Rt. 37 south toward Vernon BC, which is considered by many the most scenic road in BC. In my opinion, BC wins this beauty contest hands down. We passed more snow covered mountains and dozens of lakes. Many of these outrageously blue lakes were over 20 miles long with no houses, cabins or piers on their shores, or boats plying their waters. Absolutely pristine in their unspoiled solitude. As we moved farther south we encountered high desert regions surrounded by more mountains, surprising to us this far north. Then more, longer lakes and quiet, upscale communities that blended into the landscape quite well. The road along the lake south of Vernon was built up on the mountainside, allowing travelers great views of the lake and surrounding areas. This design also permitted campgrounds and recreational facilities to be sited along the lake edges, away from the traffic noise of the road, a win-win situation for travelers and recreational enthusiasts alike. Nearer the US border we passed through beautiful wine and fruit growing areas. My favorite winery name: Dirty Laundry Vineyards. When we finally reached the US border, we were challenged by US Customs officials as to what articles we may be bringing back into the US. They boarded our motor home for inspection. Their own cupboards must have been bare, for the female agent went straight for the refrigerator. She confiscated our only lemon, and a lone plum. She had the audacity to tell Nancy that she needed to clean out her crisper! Another agent confiscated our firewood, no doubt for their campfire later that night. So off we went, back into the “lower 48” as Alaskans refer to it. It was a great feeling to be back. We rejoiced in the facts that we had cell phone service almost continuously as we rode on, and in the smooth roads of our first encounters with Interstate highways in weeks, which made our travel so much easier.

Glacier Hwy near Stewart AK

                                               

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Out of Alaska

Date: 7/9/13                                    Time Zone: PDT

Location: Vernon BC

Travel Leg of journey: 30                        Day of journey: 64

Miles traveled today:            381                        Miles traveled since departure: 8513

Percentage of travel completed: 77.4%

U.S. states visited today: BC

Critters observed today: [since last post] too numerous to count

Our Recent Travel

Greetings. It has been almost a month since my last post. A lot has happened, and a lot of miles traveled since Anchorage on 6/15. This post will attempt to catch up on some of the happenings. Our daughter Jessica, husband Joe, Declan and Cormac arrived and visited some attractions around Anchorage. We then went south into the Kenai peninsula, Alaska’s playground. We stayed a few nights in Seward where we went on a whale watching boat tour and saw a humpback whale, along with otters, seals, eagles and Nancy’s favorite, puffins.  We visited Exit Glacier near the coast. We then traveled to the town of Kenai and stayed at a park overlooking Cook Inlet. Jessica and Joe went Salmon fishing and caught 7 nice fish that all enjoyed for our dinners. These are NOT farm raised salmon!

We also took a flighseeing trip on a 7-seat airplane to an island noted for grizzly bears. As we approached, we could see bears on the shore and in fields beyond the trees. Our pilot landed right on the sand/gravel on the beach and we walked a couple of hundred mosquito-infested yards to a broad meadow. We saw a total of 10 grizzly bears while on the ground, not counting cubs. At one time we observed 8 bears from a distance of 200 to 400 yards away, playing and eating the grass and roots from the soft ground. We also flew over a recently active volcano and an adjoining glacier before returning.

Flightseeing for Grizzlies

                                           

The Daly’s ended their visit with us in Cooper Landing [CL] to the north. Flash forward to the tag team match. Our son Stephen, his wife Dona, Ramsey and Oliver joined us in CL for a few days there. We took a raft trip down the Kenai River and saw numerous eagles and jumping salmon. We then went to the southernmost part of the Peninsula, to Homer. The road there is the most western numbered highway in the U.S. We took a water taxi to an island to go on a hike. This didn’t work out as intended, however. After leaving the beach and entering the woods, we were absolutely swarmed by mosquitoes. And, please don’t tell this, but not one of us carried insect spray that day. On a hike. In Alaska. We all thought that the others had some, but did not.  Nancy didn’t go because she knew she would be a whimp. The young boys could not cope with this problem, so Stephen took them back to the beach while Dona and I trudged on, swatting all the way. We were rewarded by coming to a beautiful lake at the foot of a massive glacier. The lake was filled with icebergs that had either calved from the glacier, or were left over from the winter’s freeze and floating free. We re-entered mosquito country to return to another beach for pickup by the water taxi. Later that day, Dona and Stephen left on a 2-night kayak excursion to a remote island and stayed in relatively mosquito-free yurts both nights.

Swatting Mosquitoes

                                              

Icebergs on glacier lake

We then all left in the motorhome for more exploring. For Nancy and me, this was the start of our return journey as we were moving northeastward, then south in the direction from which we came. We spent a night in Glennallen in a wilderness RV park and suffered with no electrical power available from the park. In the summer in Alaska however, you do not need lights to see at night, so we made out ok. We then spent a night in Tok AK.  The boys were treated there to a wonderful ride in a dogsled, they were so thrilled! Then 2 nights near Whitehorse. There we were surprised to find that the park did not offer any water to the camp sites. But with 60 gallons of water on board, I thought we could make it. Wrong. We ran completely out of drinking water the last morning. I carried water from a faucet near the office to use for flushing. We then left to spend 2 nights in Skagway AK. There we enjoyed the quaint little town and the 4^th of July. All but me went on a train excursion on the White Pass railway and enjoyed spectacular views of the pass and some mountain goats. I took the opportunity to take a short walk on the Chilkoot Trail which was used by the gold mine seekers looking for the Klondike gold strike in 1897. The Manns caught a ferry from Skagway to Juneau for their return flight home. While in Juneau, they did a bear flightseeing tour of their own and got to see grizzlies catching dinner. These were NOT farm raised salmon. Nancy & I stayed an additional night in Skagway before really getting started on the long trek home.

Mush!

                                              

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