Return to the Lower 48

Cherri and I made a very special friend while in Alaska, Vanessa.   Vanessa worked for the kayak vendor at Eklutna Lake who often visited us after getting off work at our campsite.  Saying goodbye to friends like this is hard.

Our trip south only included one flat tire just north of Whitehorse, Yukon Territories.   Our first planned stop was not until Liard Hot Springs and I was surprised that it was still open and collecting day use fees once in the day use area they were also renovating the decking around the springs.  It will be nice once finished but now the men's changing area is a small make shift enclosure off the compost toilets.  The construction did not stop us from having a nice relaxing soak.

Last year I took the Cassiar highway south, this year I will turn south at Edmonton  and through Jasper National Park.  This was an awesome  route with a couple days spent around Jasper and a couple more exploring around the Top of The World Canadian National Park.

Our drive through Idaho was interesting with the smoke so thick from all the forest fires in Washington.

Next stop was Mt. Rushmore.

Continuing east we went through upper Michigan visiting Fayette State Park which was a former iron smelting company a interesting historic sight.

Tahquamenon Falls State Park had some awesome color.

Our last stop on the trip was just outside Traverse City to visit a friend that I have not seen since high school.

The next entry will give an overview of our preparations for our next trip

 

Eklutna Lake, Chugach State Park 2012

Arriving on May 14th which is about the same as I arrived last year but they had a bit more winter and it was still a bit cool and some snow on the ground in some areas so the water was not turned on yet in the campground which I was really counting on getting some more water here, so Plan "B".  I had enough water for a couple days but decided to drive into the maintenance area and get some water in my water bag.  My water bag is just what is sounds like it is a bladder that can be rolled up to about less than half the size of a folding chair, you know the kind you can pick up almost everywhere for a few bucks.  Actually I use one of those chair holders to keep my water bag in.  Once I fold out that bag on the bed of my truck it will hold 60 gallons of water.  I picked mine up from BayTec Containers.   http://www.bayteccontainers.com/waterbags.html  Once I filled up in Eagle River transferring the water to the trailer fresh water tank is accomplished with a small 12 volt water pump.

Over the next few days we met the new assistant rangers which the term implies much more than the title implies, intern rangers would be a more suitable title in my opinion.   The two assistants will remain nameless for reasons I will try to articulate later.  This year we will also have another campground host, I met her last year before I left the park she remained on as the winter host at Potter House which is the park headquarters for Chugach State Park.

The next week or so is training time which includes policy and procedures for driving state vehicles and ATV's which I previously had and then the full day where all the VIP's (Volunteers in Parks) attend where several subjects are taught during the day.  Lunch is put on by the park and then after lunch we have bear training and mace training.

The remainder of the summer consisted of taking care of the campground and backcountry campsites and cabins.  I had to start with the host site, the fire pit was full and trash laying around.   Other tasks may be assigned but this being my second year I had a good idea of not only what was expected but what just needed to be done.  My routine was simple, every morning I would record the vehicles that entered the park in the past 24 hours, check and clean the latrines.  This of course was the worst part of the job but honestly not the worst job I have ever done in my life.  The remainder of the day was mostly just being around and available to answer questions or to help find the occasional overdue hiker and then there was the part where you had to remind an Alaskan resident that there are bears in these woods and if they do not take care of their food those bears will be in the campground.

Not really included in my job description but other accomplishments would be to repair and/or paint several picnic tables, repaired a section of the lake trail, repaired park benches along the Lake Trail and Twin Peaks Trail.  So my summer consisted of a few projects around the park, travels around Alaska to do a bit of fishing, little bit of hiking and sightseeing.

Wow last blog entry was last May!  So much has happened between then and now, my last entry ended with a burnt wheel bearing and we needed to replace the entire axel.  I'm happy to say that we didn't have any more problems on the way up to Anchorage but some issues on the way home but nothing too serious. 

I followed the same route as last year north on the Alaskan Highway to Dawson Creek which is mile zero of the Alaskan Highway.  As with the previous year the weather was cool and most stores are still closed so after a brief stop at the visitors center we continued north.

We saw quite a bit of wildlife along the highway but once we arrived at Liard Hot Springs we started to see herds of buffalo.  We stopped at the hot springs for the night but this year I elected not to pay for the camping and just used the day use area to visit the springs then use the parking area across the street as our camping site for the night.  Liard Springs campground is a little expensive considering they have no hookups at all.

We were joined that evening with one other couple in a motorhome which we met during the morning dog walk.  Len and Barbara were on their first trip to Alaska, traveling north from Georgia.  We ended up traveling with this couple the remainder of the way north, not so much during the day but staying at the same campground that evening.

Our "spare" time was kind of used up when we were having our axel repaired so we were driving more than we really planned on.  We met again at the Walmart parking lot in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory and I sear some of those campers were there last year.  Later that day we crossed the border into Alaska and stayed just outside Tok, Alaska.  A long drive the next day but we made it to Chena Hot Springs north of Fairbanks with a quick stop off at the North Pole, city not the actual North Pole.

Chena HOT springs is true to its name, it might feel really nice in the dead of winter but even on a cool day the water is too hot for me to stay in for more than 10-15 minutes.

The next day we camped along the road in a rest area with designated camping area which is south of Denali National Park only a few miles north of the south viewing area.  Even being right along the road it was a very quiet night.  The next morning we woke up to a beautiful day and after driving a few miles we stopped at the south viewing are of Denali and was rewarded with a fantastic view of Denali!  This was about my fifth visit here and every time the weather prevented even a so-so view of Denali.

 

Later that day we pulled into Eklutna State Park just north of Anchorage which would be our home until fall.  I will break this up a bit until I catch up on my blog so next entry will cover the entire summer of adventure at Eklutna!

Another bulk update, sorry just not finding any good internet sources.  I had one at the Phoenix RV resort/campground that gave me four hours free, what I didn't know that once you signed on the clock was ticking.  I tested the connection and then signed off then later I went to write my blog only to find out that I had used all my time.........  Other times I tend to visit those places that are more remote maybe someday I will start using that wifi hotspot on my Droid.

So what has happened in the past couple weeks?  Well in Phoenix I was able to spend some time with my Aunt Loretta, her daughter and her family, Sunday was spent at the zoo.  I have not seen them for years!  It was a great visit!!

 The zoo was awesome but this guy convinced Cherri she probably does not want to pick up a rattle snake.

From Phoenix we went over to Quartzite which is a huge snowbird RV area.  Sorry I do not see the attraction.    There are lots of free camping places to go to, this one is close to the expressway and noisy.  If you need water it costs you five cents a gallon, I'm not sure what the dumping fee is.  We spent the night but I did not sleep well at all with all the noise.

Lake Havasu, AZ which is the home to the original London Bridge is really nice and we had a great campsite at the State Park but a little expensive, twenty bucks got us a dry camping spot on the water.  I got in the water a few time at least up to my waist.  Not sure if the water was that cold or I was just that hot.  Temp in the sun was at 137 and inside the camper 91.

Next stop was the Grand Canyon, AWESOME but not much time by the time we arrived so we drove back out of the park to BLM land just south of the park entrance.  The BLM land is off North Long Jim Loop Road where there are dozens of spots on both sides of the road some very accessible to larger RV's others for tents only.  No maintenance is done here and it is apparent by the amount of trash and fire pits that are clogged up with ashes.  Knowing what I know now I would have went to the BLM land mid way through the park and made this our base camp and not towed the trailer all over the park today.

After a couple days at the Canyon it was time to start North but to go north from the South Rim is a days drive!  We stayed at Coral Pink State Park just inside Utah this would be a great place if it were not a weekend.  But because it was a weekend we took the last site and the only person in the park without an ATV.  The biggest drawback here was not the ATV's but how close the sites were to each other.

The next day we went up to Bryce Canyon National Park for a couple days, another awesome park!

We spent two days here exploring in and around the park and could have spent a week or two easily!

Only a 150 or so miles north of Bryce Canyon is Yuba State Park which like Pink Coral is an ATV campground but mid week this time we only shared the entire campground with three others so we hosted a campground campfire but this was cut short due to high winds.

We also had another guest but he/she did not stay long.

Moving a bit further north to Salt Lake City, Antelope Island State Park.  We arrived early afternoon and while registering I asked the elderly gentleman attendant for his recommendation for auto repairs so as soon as we set up the camper we were off getting estimates on a new serpentine belt and the sway bar links.  I checked with two places and went with the shop that was recommended, only a few dollars more but best to go with the recommendation.  I also decided to put some new tires on the truck, these still had some life in them, if I were at home doing normal driving but even at that I would only get another three to five thousand out of them.  So off to Costco for some new tires too.

I would like to say we were able to explore Antelope island but the wind had followed us as we drove over the causeway the wind was pushing the truck sideways a bit.  We picked up two people walking along the road once on the island we all squeezed into the front seat of the truck, turns out that they were our camp neighbors.  Their tent was laying down sideways, another neighbor was just taking their tent down due to the wind and she decided to just sleep in her car.  The wind was hitting the side of the trailer so hard that it was really rocking, rocking so bad I went out and moved the truck to help block the wind.

Really moving north now to Craters of the Moon National Monument.  The quote of the day, speaking of all the lava rock laying around "This place is sure a mess".   Love the campground here, most the sites are blocking other sites with lava rock, yea Cherri thought this was a mess too. :)

This picture was taken inside one of the lava tubes.

Yellowstone National Park was next, unfortunately most of the park is closed this time of year but we were able to see Old Faithfull, timing it perfectly.  As we walked up Old Faithfull started erupting. The campground here is also still closed so I found a spot in town at one of the RV campgrounds, this was probably the most I have ever paid for a site then the next day when we left I found a half dozen fantastic and free sites just out of town.

From Yellowstone we went north and crossed into Canada at Sweet Grass passing through customs without being searched this year and the day went without incident or so I thought.  As I came to a stop light just outside Strathmore, Alberta Canada I heard a squeaking noise.  Concerned, I rolled down my window to listen better but all was quiet.  A short distance down the road we pulled into Walmart because this was going to be a camping at Walmart night.  It was raining but I did my walk around the trailer as I always do anytime I stop only this time I saw my passenger side front tire ready to fall off.  Apparently the wheel bearing went which overheated and killed the axel.

Well trying to keep to the positive side of things, if this was going to happen this is a great place for it to happen.  A RV repair shop is right around the corner and I have already made arrangements to limp the trailer in first thing in the morning.  For this to happen north of Dawson City not only would be a lot more expensive but I'm sure not fixed as fast.

Well that was yesterday, apparently this axel will take more time, maybe tomorrow but we will probably be here until Friday.

San Antinio, TX to Pheonix, AZ

It has been a while since my last blog entry so I will try and give a quick synopsis of where we have been after leaving Austin.

First stop San Antonio where my Uncle Art and cousins Kyle and Lynette live.  Friday night Uncle Art took us all out to a local dinner where I had some very good chicken fried steak and Cherri had some Tilapia it was a short evening but it was good visiting.  The next morning I called Uncle Art and arranged for them all to come out to the campground and we could fry up some burgers on the grill.  With that arrangement made we got on the bus to tour the River Walk area.  I was here one other time back in 1975 when I graduated from Air Force boot camp but really did not have much time to enjoy the river walk.  First thing we did was to take the boat cruise, for $16 you can't beat the deal to get a feel for what is on the river walk.  Lunch was at Joe's crab shack, pricy but what isn't.  The highlight was the Alamo, I like that history stuff.

Leaving San Antonio the next morning and heading for Big Bend National Park.  We divided the trip up into really two nights with the first night just outside Del Rio at a National Park campground and then the second night just before entering the Big Bend NP I had read about the Stilwater Ranch so I thought it was worth checking out.  OK, I was wrong.  The Stillwater ranch may have some history there but the campground was overpriced at $20 even though it included electrical hookup.  The camping area was a dirt patch no picnic tables, no shade the only good point was no neighbors this time of year.  I would recommend that if anyone is in the area to continue on into the park.  For $8 a night you don't have hookups but lots of shade trees and a picnic table.  There is also lots of backcountry camping available if you have a smaller trailer, van, pick-up camper or tenting.

Picture of Stillwater Ranch

Highlight of Big Bend has to be the hot springs.  When we arrived at the springs we were greeted by 35 7th graders from Austin on a school trip, that is 35 students and about 10 more teachers and parents.  We sat off to the side to wait while another couple stomped back to the parking lot all upset.  Within a few minutes one of the leaders came over and told us that they would be getting out in a few minutes and within ten minutes we had the place to ourselves.  Temperature at the entrance point is about 130 degrees but about mid pool it was a very comfortable temperature

Moving north (what other direction could we possibly go at this point) heading for Fort Davis National Monument.  Fort Davis was one of the stops along the wagon train west, it's mission to keep the road open for the settlers.  Much of the fort has gone to ruins, they only restored buildings that were 70% intact.  This was well worth the stop.

That night we stayed at the Lawrence E. Wood Picnic Area about 15 miles away what a beautiful setting but we were at almost 6000 feet so the morning was a little cool.

On to Guadalupe Mountains NP on April 5th....  the campground here is a parking lot transformed into an RV parking lot for camping.  Normally I wouldn't stay here but there are only six RV's including ours and I was able to get a corner space looking at the mountains.  Not bad for $8.00 oh yea, no hookups, dry camp only.

The next morning we visited Carlsbad Caverns which was free with the National Park pass that I purchased last year but it cost $12 to board the dogs while we toured the caverns.  A couple pictures will better describe the caverns.

What trip to New Mexico would be complete without a stop in Roswell, NM the home of the space craft crash in 1947.  Personally I believe that a crash did happen after all there HAS to be somebody smarter than us humans out there!

On Easter Sunday we went through White Sands National Monument, probably would have spent more time there but the park was filled with locals out for the day having an  Easter picnic.  That evening we drove up to Cherry Creek campground which is about an hour south of the Gila Cliff Dwellings.  The campground was a little tight for my trailer later I read that there is a 17' restriction so I was only 9' too long.  This is one of those times I wished I had a little smaller trailer.

The next morning we drove to Gila Cliff Dwellings, these caves were occupied approximately 700 years ago.  It is a shame that most of the caves were vandalized first during the time of the Indian wars then by looters before the National Parks was able to step in and protect the dwellings.

On April 9th we visited Chiricalnua National Monument, there is some great hiking to be done here, I have to come back someday when I can hike it.  After a drive through of the park and some lunch we drove down to the Silverado Ranch near Douglas.  Star Belle is the owner of the ranch who is in her upper 80's and confined to a wheelchair due to MS.  She opens up the ranch to boondockers and only asks for either $10 a day or help out with a few chores on the ranch.  After talking to Star Belle we found out that she really needed some grooming services for her dogs, one dog in particular really needed a cutting down so Cherri volunteered to groom her dog and trip the nails on another dog.  This turned out to be quite a undertaking.  The next morning while I was filling our water tank I noticed a roll of blue masking tape that was being used to try (stressing the word try) and stop a leak in a garden hose that was being used to fill a fountain so while the tank was filling I cut off all the tape and lacking a female hose fitting I re-tapped the hose using some duct tape.  She had also told us that we could use her wifi if we wanted but did not tell us that it had not been setup yet so I set that up for her too before we left.

The Silverado Ranch is an interesting place and has potential but will require a considerable amount of money, labor and construction equipment to make it happen.  Until that happens her doors are open to those that would like to stop in and camp for a few days.

Friday the 13th we are in Phoenix, AZ to visit my Aunt and her family some of which I have not seen since I was in high school.

Saturday (today) was spent taking care of some maintenance issues, groceries, laundry typing this blog and a little time spent in the parks hot tub. I would like to say that I will keep up on the blog a bit more but it is difficult some days it is hard to find cell reception so finding a wifi spot is next to impossible.

A week in Austin Texas

We spent a week in Austin Texas visiting two of my sisters and so we could watch Chris (my daughter) run her first 10k race.  It was exciting to see the changes in her in the past year she has had weight issues all her life but she has found the way to a new and healthy lifestyle.  Kudos to her!!

The week in Austin was filled with lots of good food we visited the Oasis restaurant on lake Travis for a great meal and beautiful sunset then there was the shrimp and chicken stir fry with the side of crab legs that my sister Linda brought over one night that we barbequed and let's not forget the steak and Alaskan Salmon dinner.  Jan provided the steaks and I had the Alaskan Salmon.  Yes we did eat good last week.

The week was great but then we had to move on to San Antonio.....  

Wet night on Mustang Island

Well last night got interesting about 1am, Cherri got up and was worried about the storm.  There was still quite a bit of wind blowing still and I tried to reassure her that the weather radio was on that would alert us if the weather service issued any warnings and was certain that the local police would come down the beach on the loud speaker telling us to get off the beach.  I was just about to get out of bed and look for myself when I heard a horn honking, going to the door I was surprised to see that the water was up to the trailer and the person honking the horn was the local police.  I told Cherri to get things packed and how to bring in the slide out, I went outside and started lifting the stabilizer jacks and getting the trailer hooked up.   Starting the truck, throwing it in reverse and it will not move!  All the tires are about an inch from the rim in sand, four wheel drive and a little effort it finally moves.  I pull it to the front of the trailer and get it in position but should have made sure I was ready to hook things up because by the time I was ready which couldn't have been more than a couple minutes the water that was coming up to the truck made it difficult to line the truck up because the tires wanted to stay in that rut.

I finally hooked up and attempted to move forward, not going to happen.  I was able to backup a few inches but I didn't want to back up very much because the trailer tires were on my leveling boards giving me about five feet to get a little momentum.  Moving forward this time in four wheel drive low range and we are on the move to higher ground.  Once on stable ground I stop to thank the officer for coming down the beach and he advised us of a safe location.  He also told us that anytime this area gets a heavy rain this section of beach floods out, sometimes right up to the dunes so he wanted to check and make sure the area was clear.

The remainder of the night it was rainy and windy but we were high and mostly dry.

New Orleans

I have only been to New Orleans twice, yesterday and right after hurricane Katrina in 2005, I enjoyed yesterday a lot more.  I am sure there is still a lot of work to be done but from what I can see the city is looking good.  We were able to get a campsite at Bayou Segnette State Park just outside the city in Jefferson Parish.  This is a good campground especially for the area but you also get full electrical, water, wifi and free laundry all for $24.00 but we were only able to get one night here.  After we set the camper up and the air conditioning running to keep the dogs cool while we are gone.

The campground also gave me directions to the Algiers Ferry so for $5.00 parking you can take the free ferry service across the Mississippi directly to the downtown area of New Orleans.  The ferry runs every thirty minutes and we could watch the 4:30 ferry pull away from the dock as we walked up.  Once downtown it lets you off in the Riverwalk area which is only a few blocks away from the French Quarter or Burbon Street.  We walked Burbon Street sat in a overprice bar and had a drink, watched the street performers and then as we neared the end of the street I saw the spot where I had my picture taken in 2005 when the streets had to be patrolled carrying an assault weapon.  Now I had my picture re-taken only wearing shorts and a t-shirt.  Shortly after we found a cafe that had second story balcony so we could watch the street activities as we ate dinner.

We made an early evening taking the 8pm ferry back across the Mississippi

New Year, New Adventure!!

Finally finished with the Taxes, with the services from Eric Sloan and Business Accounting Group in Howell I was able to walk away with my shirt still on!!  Ahhh life is good.

So we were now ready to start a new adventure and travel a bit so with the trailer packed and on Monday March 5th 2012 we were doing the final preps which included turning off the water.  Who would know that by turning that valve it would delay us another day.  That brass valve which was only a few years old broke right off in my hand.  A trip to the hardware store and then make the repair.  By the time I was done I decide it was better to start on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday 9:30 am and ready to start everything is done and traveled to Nashville, Tennessee where we pulled into a Cracker Barrel to first adjust the hitch on the truck and then go eat dinner but it was then that I noticed that one of my tires were ready to fall apart, quite literally.  This was one of the original tires and it had some damage from when I had to have the axel replaced in Washington so it was not totally unexpected.  Tire changed, hitch adjusted and a good chicken dinner then with the permission of the manager we walked out to our trailer and went to bed.  Cracker Barrel is good to travelers and will let them stay in their lots, same as Walmart and a few other chains.

Thursday we made it down to Juniper Springs which is just north of Oralando, FL where we kicked back for three nights.  Very nice campground but I did locate two other campgrounds for half the price in the National Forest for half the price, as long as you are able to dry camp that is.  No hookups.  Next stop is a couple nights in the Everglades.  The highlight of this trip was one of the volunteers gave a talk about her 30 day paddle trip to Florida City and back to the Everglades that she does every year, solo and she is in her 60's.

Today we left the Everglades and met my sister and brother-in-law in Fort Myers, FL and had a late lunch, it was a nice visit.  Tonight we are at Oscar Scherer State Park in Osprey, FL heading West and making our way to Texas.  Lots of family to visit.