Neales on Wheels

Back in Dothan, AL

2011-10-09T20:46:00.000-05:00

We slept in this morning, so we left the Supercenter just before 11:00 and drove south on I-65. We stopped at the Flying J at Exit 264 to get gas (29 gal @ $3.179 gal). We decided to have a late breakfast at the Denney's there.

Mike ordered their Lumberjack Slam (pancakes, ham, bacon, sausage, eggs, hash browns and toast) and I had the Ultimate Omelette with hash browns and toast. We were back on the road by noon.

We stopped at the Sam's Club at 4:00 in Dothan to fill up the RV gas tank one last time (27.38 gal @ $3.139 gal) before we go to The Willows RV Lots for the winter.

We arrived here at The Willows at 4:45. The owner and our friend, W. T., helped Mike with setting up the RV in our site. We are in site F which is the one we've stayed in before.

From Dothan, AL

It is so good to see W. T. and Glenda, his wife, again. We had a great trip this year, but it will be nice to stay put for a while.

I don't have any photos to post for today's travels because it was raining a good part of today. It was 214 miles from Gardendale to The Willows.

We will be spending the winter here in Dothan. It is time for our annual doctors and dentist visits and we both need to have an eye exam. So the first thing on our agenda will be to make the appointments with our doctors.

We need to have the windshield replaced on the Saturn Vue and Mike is going to be working on removing the tar on the RV and car that we drove through on our trip down to Haines, AK.

Traveling from Paducah to Gardendale, AL

2011-10-08T19:12:00.000-05:00

We left the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Paducah this morning at 9:30 and headed south on I-24 and crossed into Tennessee a little before 11:00.

From Traveling from Paducah to Gardendale, AL

A few miles north of Nashville we changed from I-24 to I-65 south. We drove through Nashville at noon and drove past the Union Station Hotel.

From Traveling from Paducah to Gardendale, AL

When we reached Franklin, Tennessee we saw that the traffic heading north on I-65 was backed up for several miles.

From Traveling from Paducah to Gardendale, AL

We stopped at a Travel America station at Exit 61 to get gas in the RV (44.12 gal @ $3.179 gal). We've noticed that the gas prices are getting lower the farther south we're travel. We found an out of the way place to park the RV so we could fix lunch before getting back on I-65.

We crossed the state line into Alabama at 2:20 and drove past the Alabama Welcome Station where a Saturn 1B rocket is on display.

From Traveling from Paducah to Gardendale, AL

We began to see cotton fields when we got around the Decatur area.

From Traveling from Paducah to Gardendale, AL

Shortly after that we crossed the Tennessee River.

From Traveling from Paducah to Gardendale, AL

When we reached Gardendale, we exited the interstate at Exit 271 and drove east to the Wal-Mart Supercenter where we are spending the night. We drove 320 miles today and got in here at the Supercenter at 4:00.

Driving from Carlock to Paducah

2011-10-07T20:08:00.000-05:00

We got up at our usual time of 8:00 and after our morning coffee and breakfast, we broke camp. The trees here are turning a glorious gold color.

From Driving from Carlock to Paducah

We left Kamp Komfort about 9:15 and I snapped a photo of the office before we left the campground.

From Driving from Carlock to Paducah

We headed back down the road to connect with I-74 South and saw these Canadian geese feeding alongside a pond.

From Driving from Carlock to Paducah

We stopped at a rest area near Farmer City and saw this Adams Leaning Wheel Grader.

From Driving from Carlock to Paducah

We connected with I-57 at Champaign and drove south until we stopped at a rest area near Green Creek to fix lunch at noon.

Around 2:00 we stopped at a Travel America station at Exit 95 on I-57 to get gas in the RV (54.479 gal @ $3.359 gal).

We drove another 50 miles before we exited I-57 at Exit 44 to get on to I-24 south. We passed by the exit to Metropolis and saw this sign advertising the giant Superman statue in Metropolis. We always seem to be in a hurry when we go by here or it's too late in the day to stop, but Metropolis is on our list of places to visit.

From Driving from Carlock to Paducah

We crossed the Ohio River and entered Kentucky at 3:45.

From Driving from Carlock to Paducah

We arrived here at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Paducah around 4:00 after driving 299 miles today. After we got the RV parked I went in to do some shopping at the Supercenter.

Antique Archaeology & Buffalo Bill Museum, LeClaire, IA

2011-10-06T21:58:00.000-05:00

We got up at our regular time this morning and left Wal-Mart at 9:45 and drove east on I-80.
We stopped at the BP station at Exit 292 in Davenport just before 11:00 to get gas in the RV (39.87 gal for $3.349 a gal).

At the I-80 Exit 306 we drove north on US-67 to LeClaire, Iowa. We found a place to park the RV in front of this beautiful home which was a block away from Antique Archaeology.

From Antique Archaeology & LeClaire, IA

We walked back to Antique Archaeology to look around their shop. We enjoy watching their show, American Pickers, on the History Channel. Since we were in Iowa we decided to plan our route so we could stop in LeClaire.

From Antique Archaeology & LeClaire, IA

We browsed around the shop and recognized several items we had seen on the TV show like this Philip Morris bellhop.

From Antique Archaeology & LeClaire, IA

We had hoped to see Mike & Frank and found out that they were in West Virginia "picking". We learned that Danielle generally comes in to the shop in the evening since so many fans want to talk with her & take photos with her that it's hard for her to get any work done. After looking around and buying some souvenirs, we headed back to the RV.

We drove through downtown LeClaire and over to the riverfront to visit the Buffalo Bill Museum. We found a place to park the RV and since it was a little after 12:00, we decided to fix lunch before walking over to the museum.

We walked over to the museum at 1:00 and paid the $4.00 senior admission.

From Buffalo Bill Museum in LeClaire, IA

We saw exhibits showing the history of LeClaire, antique household items and tools and a desk that belonged to Abraham Lincoln according to a letter found in the desk.

From Buffalo Bill Museum in LeClaire, IA

There was an exhibit of William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody's memorabilia. He was born on a homestead near LeClaire.

From Buffalo Bill Museum in LeClaire, IA

We walked through some doors to view The Lone Star Sternwheeler that was in service on the Mississippi River from 1869 to 1968. She is the last running and only intact wooden-hull paddlewheel to travel the Mississippi.

From Buffalo Bill Museum in LeClaire, IA

We left LeClaire around 2:00 and headed east on I-80 and crossed the Mississippi River

From Driving from Coralville, IA to Carlock, IL

and then we entered Illinois.

Then at the I-80 Exit 46A we connected with I-74 South to Peoria. We stopped at the Five Guys Burgers in Peoria at Exit 88 for an early dinner at 3:45.

After dinner we drove south on I-74 to Carlock. We took Exit 120 to CR-53 west and then north on N 600 East Road to Kamp Komfort RV Park and Campground. We arrived here at 5:00 and checked in at the office. We paid $14 with our Passport America membership. We are in site #69 with full hookups (50 amp elec) and free wi-fi. We drove a total of 191 miles today.

From Driving from Coralville, IA to Carlock, IL

Forest City to Coralville, IA

2011-10-05T20:44:00.000-05:00

This morning we got up at our regular time of 8:00 and after the last 2 days when we were getting up at 6:00, it felt like we had "slept in". After breakfast we got the RV ready to leave Forest City.

Before we left the Winnebago Service Center, Mike walked back over and bought 2 Audiovox walkie talkies which cost $124.31 after our 10% Winnebago customer discount. Of the 4 Audiovox walkie talkies that came with the Adventurer, 2 of them had quit working. Mike opted to get a newer model walkie because it had the weather channel which the older model doesn't have and they only cost a few dollars more.

After leaving the Service Center at 10:00, we drove to the Winnebago Rally Park just down the road and stopped at one of the dump stations to empty our tanks and to get some water for our fresh water tank.

Our next stop was at Sid's Gas station south of Forest City to get gas in the RV (31 gallons @$3.339 a gal).

We drove south on US-69 to Garner, IA and then east on US-18 to Floyd, IA and then south on US 218. We drove through Waterloo, IA.

From Forest City to Coralville, IA

At Evansdale, IA we got on to I-380 and stopped at 12:30 the Flying J at Exit 68. We only stopped here long enough to fix and eat lunch.

An hour later we crossed the Cedar River at Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

From Forest City to Coralville, IA

Just west of Coralville we took Exit 0A on I-380 to I-80 east and then exited at Exit 240 to go to the Wal-mart Supercenter at Coralville where we're spending the night. We arrived here at the Supercenter at 2:15 and had driven 194 miles from Forest City.

We normally don't stop this early in the day when we're spending the night at Wal-Mart. Tomorrow we're going to be stopping to do some sightseeing and this is the most convenient
Wal-Mart on our route that allows overnight parking.

After settling in here, I went in to the Supercenter to do some shopping.

Visit with Charles in Algona & Winnebago repair bill

2011-10-04T21:00:00.000-05:00

We had another early rise this morning at 6:00. By 7:00 we had the RV ready when the technician, Mike, came over to take it to the service area.

Before we started on our trip this year W. T., our friend and landlord in Dothan, asked that we visit a former college professor of his, Charles, who lives near Forest City. Mike called Charles last night and he invited us over for a visit this morning.

We left the Winnebago plant about 8:00 and headed south on US-69 to US-18 and then west to Algona, IA which is a little over 40 miles from Forest City. We called Charles when we were close to his apartment building and he met us outside and then led us up to his apartment.

From Winnebago & Forest City, Iowa

Charles & his wife, Mary Ellen, had lived on some acreage near Bode before selling it and moving to the apartment in Algona. Charles just recently became a widower when Mary Ellen died in August.

Charles had coffee and pastries waiting for us when we got upstairs to his apartment. We had a great time visiting with Charles and before we left, he showed us around his home. He showed us this marquetry picture that W. T. had given him years ago and had been done by W. T.'s father.

From Winnebago & Forest City, Iowa

We stopped outside to take some photos

From Winnebago & Forest City, Iowa

and Charles showed us the church he attends which is just across the street.

From Winnebago & Forest City, Iowa

A few minutes later Charles' daughter, Becky, stopped by to say hello while she was on her lunch hour.

From Winnebago & Forest City, Iowa

We said goodbye to Charles and thanked him for his hospitality and headed back towards Forest City.

On our way through Algona we passed by the Snap-On Tools factory there.

From Winnebago & Forest City, Iowa

We saw a sign for the Hobo Museum in Britt and we decided to go check it out. Unfortunately, the museum was closed and is only open during the summer months.

From Winnebago & Forest City, Iowa

We arrived back in Forest City about noon and decided to go to Hardee's for lunch before returning to the factory to wait for the RV to come back from the service department.

From Winnebago & Forest City, Iowa

We got back to the Winnebago Customer Service Center a little before 1:30. We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting with the some of the other Winnebago customers and talking about the repairs we all were having done. Winnebago is pet friendly and there were several dogs on leashes and even a couple of cats in their carriers in the waiting room. There is so much going on in the service center that Tinker hasn't been able to get any of his daily naps in, so tonight he'll be trying to catch up on them.

More customers came in just before 3:00 which is the time Winnebago requested so the owners would be there when their RV came back from the service area.

After the technician brought our RV back to the service center, Mike met with him and he went over the repairs. They resealed around the clearance lights over the windshield, replaced the Energy Management Module, replaced the seals around the bedroom slide, replaced the living room slide topper torsion assemblies that allowed the material to roll up and adjusted the living slide. They also raised the Hi-Temp Sensor for our Norcold refrigerator (which had been installed too low) and re-insulated the flue. We had had the recall work for the Norcold done back in January at Camping World in Dothan and they had placed the sensor too low and hadn't put the insulation back correctly.

The total bill for the repairs came to $1,844.12. Our extended warranty company, FreedomCare now Camping World Care, paid $996.20 on the living room slide topper repair and the leak in the bedroom slide. Our share of the repair bill for the rest of the repairs was $847.92, which included the sales tax on the warranty work and our $50 deductible.

We parked the RV back in our campsite and will spend tonight here. Tomorrow we'll stop at the Winnebago Rally Park to dump our tanks and get some water for our fresh water tank before leaving Forest City.

2011-10-03T20:30:00.000-05:00

We got up this morning at 6:00 and after a quick breakfast, we put the slides in, raised the jacks and disconnected the electric to prepare the RV for its move to the service area here at the Winnebago factory.

Mike walked over to the Customer Service Center at 7:00 to check-in for our service appointment for today. He took our extended warranty paperwork and the serial number for the RV and the current mileage. Winnebago has to call our extended warranty company and get authorization before they can start the work.

We had made our appointment in mid-August and Winnebago e-mailed us letter comfirming our appointment along with a map of Forest City, a map of the Winnebago complex with camping sites marked and a sign to put in the RV window with the dates for our appointment.

While Mike was checking-in, I made sure we had everything that we would need for today since we won't have access to the RV until after 3:30 when it is returned to the Customer Service Center. We had packed up Tinker's food, treats and water along with his bowls and we're taking a laptop so we use the free wi-fi in the waiting room at the Customer Service Center. We also needed our jackets this morning, since it was 35° when we got up this morning.
After Mike returned from the Service Center, we waited in the RV for the technician to come out to the RV and go over our work order for the repairs. A little while later, Mike (a technician), came and we showed him our problem areas.

We have a leak above the passenger side windshield and whenever it rains (even a light rain) the bedroom slide leaks on the sides and the water runs out on to the hall rug. The Energy Management System panel doesn't always indicate that we are connected to 50 amp electric when we are and it shows 30 amp. The last thing on our list is the slide topper for the living room slide. It is binding when we put the slide out and in. The last few days it has gotten worse and the slide isn't going out as smoothly as it should.

After going over our work order, Mike (the technician) drove the RV over to the service area and we walked over to the waiting room in the Service Center.

Last Tuesay we had called American Home Base to have our mail sent to General Delivery here in Forest City. So while Mike and Tinker stayed at Winnebago, I drove to the post office and picked up our mail. We spent the rest of the morning going through our mail and watching TV in the waiting room.

We decided to go to the Pizza Hut here for lunch for their buffet. We took Tinker with us and left him in the car while we ate lunch. Since it was still in the upper 60's, we just left the windows cracked for him. After lunch we returned to the Winnebago factory and waited until our RV was finished.

When Mike talked with the technician this afternoon he was told that after contacting our extended warranty company they pressurized the RV and located the leak above the windshield. The rain is coming in from the clearance lights above the windshield and they will repair that tomorrow along with the other items on our list.

Mike drove the RV back over to our campsite while Tinker and I walked back over so I could guide Mike as he backed in to our spot. After we got the RV set up again, Mike took a photo of the camping area here.

From Winnebago & Forest City, Iowa

Tomorrow we will have another early wake up and spend another day in the service waiting room.

Sioux Falls, SD to Forest City, IA

2011-10-02T19:54:00.000-05:00

We left the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Sioux Falls, SD at 8:45 and drove east on I-90. We entered Minnesota a little after 9:00. I wanted to get a photo of the "Welcome to Minnesota" sign (made in the shape of Minnesota), but as we pulled into the rest area there the sign disappeared behind a berm between I-90 and the rest area. So I'll just have to use the sign for the Minnesota Rest Area.

From Sioux Falls to Forest City

We saw a lot of wind turbines along this part of I-90

From Sioux Falls to Forest City

and we saw this herd of longhorns near Fairmont, MN.

From Sioux Falls to Forest City

We stopped at the Blue Earth Rest Area and there was a historic marker there commemorating the completion of the last 4 miles of I-90 in 1978.

From Sioux Falls to Forest City

The reverse side of the historic marker told about the early exploration of southwestern Minnesota.

From Sioux Falls to Forest City

Right after leaving the rest area, we took Exit 119 south on US-169. We passed by the town of Blue Earth which has the world's tallest Jolly Green Giant, but we weren't able to see it from the highway.

From Sioux Falls to Forest City

We crossed the state line into Iowa a little before noon.

At Lakota, IA we took SR-9 east to US-69 and then south to Forest City.

From Sioux Falls to Forest City

We arrived here at the Winnebago factory at 12:45. There were already a lot of RVs here, but we did find a spot to park the RV next to the factory offices. We do have 30 amp electric hookup, but the site slopes downhill to the front so we had to put blocks under the front wheels to get the RV level.

Our service appointment for tomorrow is at 7 a.m., so we have to be up early and have the RV ready to be moved to the service area by that time.

Driving from Rapid City to Sioux Falls

2011-10-01T20:43:00.000-05:00

We didn't do much yesterday, but I did wash several loads of laundry at the laundromat across from our campsite. It is one of the small laundromats that are located throughout the campground, so there are only 2 washers and 2 dryers in it.

We got up at 7:00 this morning and left the campground about 8:20. We stopped at the Flying J on I-90 east of Rapid City to get gas in the RV (25 gal @ $3.479 a gal after $.02 discount).

We passed by Wall, SD which is home to the famous roadside stop "Wall Drug Store" (one of the places we haven't visited yet) and saw their 80' dinosaur alongside the interstate.

From Trip from Rapid City to Sioux Falls

We stopped for an early lunch at a parking area on I-90 just west of Murdo, SD. No sooner were we back on the road when we saw this "town" which is a roadside attraction called "1880 Town" that is a collection of historic buildings from South Dakota.

From Trip from Rapid City to Sioux Falls

A little later we crossed into the Central Time Zone and I-90 wound through rolling hills.

From Trip from Rapid City to Sioux Falls

We crossed the Missouri River about noon. We stopped at a rest area on the east side of the Missouri River at Chamberlain, SD and I took photos of the river and the bridge we drove over.

From Trip from Rapid City to Sioux Falls

Just west of Montrose, SD we saw this huge head of a bull sitting on a hill on the south side of I-90. The sun was really bright when I took the photo, so the head is mostly shadowed.

From Trip from Rapid City to Sioux Falls

There were more sculptures and I couldn't take photos fast enough. I searched the internet tonight and found out that the sculptures are in Porter Sculpture Park.

From Trip from Rapid City to Sioux Falls

We arrived at Sioux Falls around 5:00 and stopped at the Flying J to get gas (54.3 gal @$3.379 a gal after our $.02 discount). There were several semi trucks parked at the Flying J that were hauling wind turbine blades. I managed to get a photo as we were leaving the Flying J. You realize how large the blades are when they are compared to the truck cab.

From Trip from Rapid City to Sioux Falls

We are spending the night here in Sioux Falls at the Wal-Mart Supercenter on the east side of town.

It would have been nice to stop at some of the roadside attractions we saw today, but we had 360 miles to travel and there just wasn't time. Tomorrow we will be driving to Forest City, IA to the Winnebago plant. We have an appointment for Monday morning to have some repairs done.

Hart Ranch Resort & Shopping in Rapid City

2011-09-29T20:22:00.000-05:00

We spent yesterday working at the RV and catching up on some things.

We spent today shopping and running errands. We stopped first at Flying J to get gas in the Vue ($3.629 gal after our $.02 discount).

We stopped at a Scheel's sporting goods store to look around. We don't have them in the East and it reminded us of the Cabela's stores. I did buy a nice pair of winter gloves there.

We stopped for lunch at an Olive Garden and had their never-ending pasta bowl special for lunch. I had seen a commercial on TV yesterday that said the special would be ending shortly and we wanted to have it at least one more time.

Our next stop was at Bed Bath & Beyond to get a coffee pod holder for our Keurig coffee and we found some tall coffee cups that would hold the larger brew size that our Keurig makes.

Our final stop was at the Wal-Mart Supercenter for some groceries before returning to the RV.

Mike took some photos of the campground after we got back from our shopping trip.

From Hart Ranch Resort, Rapid City, SD

We had talked about going to visit the Crazy Horse Memorial while we are here, but we decided to save it for another trip.

Driving from Gillette, WY to Rapid City, SD

2011-09-27T21:06:00.000-05:00

We left the Wal-Mart in Gillette at 9:00 and headed east on I-90. We hadn't driven very long when we saw this antelope standing near the interstate.

From Driving from Gillette to Rapid City

We were about 37 miles east of Gillette when I realized that we could see Devils Tower which was around 25 miles north of I-90. We pulled over and stopped on the shoulder long enough to take some photos; this is the only one that was a "keeper".

From Driving from Gillette to Rapid City

We saw more trees that were getting their fall colors

From Driving from Gillette to Rapid City

and saw these red buttes at the Wyoming and South Dakota state lines. We entered South Dakota a little before 11:00.

From Driving from Gillette to Rapid City

We arrived in Rapid City just before noon.

We took Exit 61 south on US-61 and passed by this Mobil station and saw these sculptures.

From Driving from Gillette to Rapid City

We then drove south on SR-79 to Upper Spring Creek Road and then west until we reached the entrance to Hart Ranch Resort around 12:30.

From Driving from Gillette to Rapid City

We are in site #316, a back-in, with full hookups (50 amp elec) and free wi-fi and we are just a few steps away from one of the laundromats here. We are staying here with our Coast to Coast membership. We did have to pay a $23.21 resort fee for the 4 days that we will be here.

We had a short driving day today - only 154 miles. After we leveled the RV, put our slides out and hooked up to the electric, we stopped to eat lunch before we finished setting up the RV. Mike set up our portable satellite dish because it's quite windy here and our rooftop dish flops and looses the signal.

Later this afternoon we called American Home Base in Pensacola and told them to send our mail to General Delivery in Forest City, IA.

We were so busy settling in here, that we forgot to take photos of the campground. We'll put it on our to do list for tomorrow.

Visit at Buffalo Bill Historical Center on the way to Gillette, WY

2011-09-27T02:07:00.000-05:00

We got up at 7:00 (early for us) this morning and saw a beautiful sunrise over the desert. Mike went out and took photos of the campground since we didn't take any yesterday and got some of the sunrise.

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

We left Yellowstone Valley RV Park at 8:30 and headed east on US-14 to Cody. We passed Old Trail Town where several historic buildings from around the west can be visited. It will have to wait for another time, since we only have time today to stop at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody.

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

We stopped to get gas in the RV at a Shell station on the west side of Cody (37.5 gallons at $3.839 gal). We passed by several sculptures on the way to the museum including this one of a cowboy lassoing a deer.

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

We arrived at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center a little after 9:00 and parked the RV in the RV parking lot. We saw several more sculptures on our walk to the museum entrance.

From Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

The admission for seniors is $16 each and is good for 2 consecutive day's visits. There are 5 galleries in the Center - Buffalo Bill, Cody Firearms, Greater Yellowstone Natural History, Whitney Museum of Western Art, and Plains Indians. We only had a few hours to visit there, so we didn't get to see all of the museums (that's a good reason to come back another time).

We started first with the Buffalo Bill Museum. We saw exhibits depicting life in the old west,

From Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

exhibits about Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show,

From Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

household items belonging to William F. and Louisa Cody.

Our next stop was at the Natural History Museum where we saw wildlife exhibits

From Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

and this sculpture depicting a buffalo jump.

From Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

Our next stop was at the Cody Firearms Museum which has 1,500 firearms on display.

From Cody Firearms Museum at Buffalo Bill Historical Center 9/26/11

We first saw displays of firearms from 50's and 60's western TV shows such as Gunsmoke,

From Cody Firearms Museum at Buffalo Bill Historical Center 9/26/11

Annie Oakley, and Bonanza (just to name a few).

From Cody Firearms Museum at Buffalo Bill Historical Center 9/26/11

We saw firearms dating from Colonial times up to the present time. The Cody Firearms Museum has the most comprehensive collection of American firearms in the world. We saw displays of Winchesters, Colts, Rugers and Smith & Wessons just to name a few.

From Cody Firearms Museum at Buffalo Bill Historical Center 9/26/11

Our last stop was at the Western Art Museum where we saw art by early western and modern artists.

From Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

We stopped at the Gift Shop to purchase a few souvenirs, before leaving the museum. Since it was now 11:30 we decided to fix lunch while we were parked at the museum.

When we left the museum parking lot, we passed the Foundation for Wild Sheep and I saw this deer standing near these Big Horn Sheep sculptures.

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

After leaving Cody we headed east on US-14 and passed by the Museum of Flight & Aerial Firefighting near Greybull.

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

This part of US-14 is the Big Horn Scenic Byway and we drove through the Big Horn Mountains

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

and the Big Horn National Forest where the aspens were getting their fall colors.

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

We connected with I-90 at Ranchester, WY and took it east to Gillette. We stopped for gas at the Flying J (41.8 gal at $3.549 gal after our $.02 a gallon discount). We were only a couple of blocks away from the Wal-Mart Supercenter where we're spending the night.

We arrived here at the Supercenter about 5:30 after driving 274 miles from Cody. After discussing what we wanted to have for dinner, I suggested that we walk over to the Perkins Restaurant near us since Mike had been wanting to eat pancakes. Mike had pancakes, eggs, hash browns, sausage and toast. I ordered the French Dip sandwich. After the long day we had had sightseeing and then traveling, it was nice to have someone else cook dinner, serve it and then clean up!

After dinner and before returning to the RV, we went shopping in Wal-Mart to get a few things we needed. Tomorrow we'll be heading to Rapid City where we're going to stay for 4 days.

Driving through Yellowstone National Park on the way to Cody, WY

2011-09-26T01:00:00.000-05:00

We left the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Idaho Falls this morning around 9:00 and drove north on US-20 and entered the Targhee National Forest where the trees are beginning to get their fall colors.

From Idaho Falls to Cody

We entered Montana about 11:30 and drove through the town of West Yellowstone about 10 minutes later. West Yellowstone began as a terminus for the Union Pacific Railroad line built in the early 1900's to bring tourists to Yellowstone National Park.

From Idaho Falls to Cody

Right after leaving West Yellowstone we crossed entered Yellowstone National Park at 11:45. The entrance fee for Yellowstone is $25, but since we have a Senior Pass we didn't have to pay the entrance fee.

About 10 minutes after entering Yellowstone National Park, we found a parking area alongside the Madison River where we stopped to have lunch. While I fixed our sandwiches, Mike got our folding chairs out and we carried them down to the river bank. We set up our chairs and ate our lunch sitting by the Madison River.

From Yellowstone National Park

After lunch we continued east on Riverside Drive (US-191) and then north on Grand Loop Road (US-89). Because of our travel schedule, we only had time to drive through Yellowstone National Park. We did see Beryl Spring (one of the many hot springs)

From Yellowstone National Park

and then we turned east on Norris Canyon Road which took us through the Central Plateau and then we connected back up with the Grand Loop Road. Shortly after crossing the Yellowstone River, we saw a herd of bison in the distance. We stopped long enough to take a few photos.

From Yellowstone National Park

We saw these 2 RVs from Germany that had stopped to take photos of the bison. We have seen a few of these RVs in our travels,

From Yellowstone National Park

but we haven't seen one of these before.

From Yellowstone National Park

A little farther on we had to stop because of the cars ahead of us that had stopped to take photos of the bison that were alongside the road. Tinker could smell the bison and he stood up so he could look out Mike's window and bark at the bison.

From Yellowstone National Park

I even got a movie of one bison crossing the road in front of the RV. We crossed over the Yellowstone River again and saw more bison before we drove around Yellowstone Lake. Yellowstone Lake (elevation 7,733 ft) is the second largest fresh water lake in the world that is above 7,000 ft.

From Yellowstone National Park

We passed by a section of the road that had been washed out.

From Yellowstone National Park

Shortly after that we drove through Sylvan Pass (elevation 8,350 ft) and there were sections where I wished the guard rail/wall was taller - especially where there was a sheer drop down to the floor of the canyon.

From Yellowstone National Park

We left Yellowstone through the East Entrance at little before 3:00.

From Yellowstone National Park

We drove east on US-14 through the Shoshone National Forest and the Absaroka Mountain Range with great rugged mountain views.

From Idaho Falls to Cody

We now started to see more ranches and houses

From Idaho Falls to Cody

and then we passed by this HUGE pile of antlers.

From Idaho Falls to Cody

We arrived here at Yellowstone Valley Inn & RV Park at 4:00. We are in site #3 and have full hook-ups (50 amp elec) and free wifi. This is a Good Sam Park and with our discount, we paid $27 for tonight. The sites here are gravel and fairly level and we do have a partial view of the Shoshone River.

From Idaho Falls to Cody

We didn't take any photos of the campground today, we'll have to get some in the morning.

We enjoyed our drive through Yellowstone National Park today and look forward to coming back and having more time to visit and explore the park.

Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

2011-09-25T00:30:00.000-05:00

We've had a great time visiting with Merilee and Matt, but it's time for us to leave and head east. We said goodbye to Merilee and Matt this morning and thanked them again for their hospitality and told them what a great time we had visiting with them.

We headed south to I-84 and then east on the interstate until we reached the town of Bliss. Matt had told us about the Thousand Springs Scenic Byway (US-30), so we left I-84 at Bliss and drove south on US-30. We stopped at a rest area near Hagerman where there is a large fossil bed.

From Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

A portion of US-30 follows alongside the Snake River and we had great views of numerous waterfalls.

From Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

We stopped at the visitor center in Twin Falls to look at the Snake River Canyon

From Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

and there is a monument for Evel Knievel's attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon. We didn't get to see the actual location of his jump attempt since is was about 2 miles east of the visitor center.

From Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

We got back on to I-84 at Twin Falls and headed east until we got to I-86 and took it north.

We stopped at a rest area at Coldwater Hill and walked over to see the historic marker for the California and Oregon Trails that came up the bluff.

From Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

Tinker was so happy to see the grass at the rest area, he had to roll around on it.

From Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

Then 6 miles east of the rest area we saw signs for Register Rock. We decided to detour off the interstate to see Register Rock. We had to backtrack west about 2 miles to get to Register Rock. Register Rock is surrounded by a high fence and is under a covered shelter.

From Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

We were able to make out signatures dating from 1849 up to the 1880's.

From Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

After leaving Register Rock we got back on I-86 and drove east until we connected with I-15 and took it north to Idaho Falls.

From Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

We exited I-15 at exit 118 and stopped at an Exxon station to fill the RV's tank ($3.779 a gal) before driving to the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Idaho Falls where we're spending tonight.

Oh yes - I forgot to mention that today is my 65th birthday - I not only now have Medicare, but qualify for the "over 65 senior discounts"!!

Visiting with Matt & Merilee

2011-09-24T00:19:00.000-05:00

We've been having a great time visiting with Matt and Merliee this week.

Matt is a terrific cook and we have eaten well this week - spaghetti with his special sauce, lamb chops, bell peppers stuffed with ground turkey, grilled tri-tip steak, and tonight fried turkey breast with all the trimmings - just great!

From Visiting with Matt & Merilee

Monday Mike went with Matt to go shopping at Harbor Freight and to pick up Matt's new executive pickup truck with eco-boost engine.

From Visiting with Matt & Merilee

Wednesday Matt took us to see Merilee at their store, Idaho Bag Lady. It's a really neat boutique that specializes in handbags with exchangeable exteriors (Miche Bag), Lindsay Phillips sandals and shoes with exchangeable snaps and straps, and interchangeable watches and jewelry just to mention some items there.

From Visiting with Matt & Merilee

Matt showed us a marker showing where the Oregon Trail went through their property.

From Visiting with Matt & Merilee

Yesterday Mike and Matt watched feed corn being harvested and mulched in the field across the street from Matt and Merilee's house. It was really interesting to see the corn being cut and then ground all in one operation. Mike took a movie of the operation and you definitely wouldn't want to get in the way of the harvester.

Then Matt took us to lunch at the Spurwing Country Club where we had a great lunch. Matt had the Dagwood sandwich and Mike and I had a chef salad - it was huge and very good.

From Visiting with Matt & Merilee

Matt and Merilee have a Keurig coffee maker and we had decided that whenever our current coffee maker died, we would get a Keurig coffee maker. Well - we decided today to retire our coffee maker and we went to Costco and bought a Keurig B70 coffee maker. I cleaned our old coffee maker and we're donating it to the organization Matt and Merilee donate to - The Arc in Boise.

Today is our last day here and the time has gone by so fast. The last couple of nights we've shown Matt and Merilee some of the photos we took on our trip to Alaska.

We're hoping to be able to have Merilee and Matt join us sometime on a trip - what a great time we would have together!

Unity Lake State Park to Meridian, ID

2011-09-19T00:28:00.000-05:00

We got up this morning at our usual 8:00. Since we only have 125 miles to drive today, we took our time this morning getting ready to leave Unity Lake State Park.

Mike took a few more photos of the campground this morning.

From Unity State Park to Meridian, ID

We stopped at the campground's dump station to empty our holding tanks before driving south on SR-245 and then east on US-26.

We had driven about 20 miles from Unity Lake State Park and stopped at a pull-off on US-26 at 10:45 to have an early lunch. Once we cross the state line into Idaho, we will be in the Mountain Time Zone and we wanted to get our bodies used to a new schedule.

From Unity State Park to Meridian, ID

We're now again driving through the high desert

From Unity State Park to Meridian, ID

with the occasional farm or ranch.

From Unity State Park to Meridian, ID

We saw this sign for Oregon Trail Murals in the town of Vale, but the highway detoured around the downtown area so we didn't see many murals.

From Unity State Park to Meridian, ID

When we were just a few miles from the Idaho state line, we saw fields of onions near Ontario, Oregon.

From Unity State Park to Meridian, ID

We got onto I-84 at Ontario and drove south and crossed into Idaho about 1:30. I wasn't able to zoom the camera out fast enough to get the whole "Welcome to Idaho" sign.

From Unity State Park to Meridian, ID

We exited I-84 at Caldwell and stopped at the Flying J to get gas in the RV and after our 2¢ a gallon discount, we paid $3.619 a gallon. Before leaving the Flying J we called our friend, Matt, and told him we were only a few minutes away from his house.

After leaving Flying J, we drove east on US-26 about 10 miles before driving north to our friends' house here in Meridian.

When we got to Matt and Merilee's house at 3:00, Matt was outside using his leaf blower to blow off the driveway where we're parking the RV while we stay here. We disconnected the Vue before Mike backed the RV up near Matt's barn. We leveled the RV and put the bedroom slide out. Mike plugged our electric cord into an outlet inside the barn, so we can run the refrigerator on electricity.

From Visiting with Matt & Merilee

Merilee had been out shopping when we arrived and she came home a little while later. It is so good to see them, we had visited with Merilee 2 years ago when we stopped here with our friends Al and Symphony, but Matt had been away on business then.

Matt is a terrific cook and for dinner tonight we had spaghetti with Matt's delicious meat and clam sauce with duck and lamb sausage he had made and wine, of course.

From Visiting with Matt & Merilee

We spent the rest of the evening catching up with each other's news. Matt told us about his new job and how much he enjoys being able to work from home. Merilee told us about her new business, Idaho Bag Lady, which she's had since last year.

Prineville to Unity Lake State Park, OR

2011-09-17T23:40:00.000-05:00

We didn't take any photos yesterday of the campground, so I took photos while Mike was breaking camp.

From Prineville to Unity Lake State Park, OR

We stopped at the Shell gas station in Prineville and got gas in the RV ($3.899 gal). On our way out of town we passed by the Crook County Courthouse.

From Prineville to Unity Lake State Park, OR

The terrain changed from prairie

From Prineville to Unity Lake State Park, OR

to mountains.

From Prineville to Unity Lake State Park, OR

We drove through Picture Gorge (here's a short movie)

From Prineville to Unity Lake State Park, OR

and then back on to prairies and farms.

From Prineville to Unity Lake State Park, OR

We drove through the town of Dayville and took a photo of the post office there that had been a stop for the Pony Express.

From Prineville to Unity Lake State Park, OR

We next drove through the town of John Day and passed by the Saturday Farmers' Market.

From Prineville to Unity Lake State Park, OR

There are towns named Dayville and John Day, the John Day River and the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument named after the early frontiersman John Day.

When we were about 2 miles west of the town of Unity, we turned north onto SR-245 and drove about 2 miles out to the Unity Lake State Park.

From Prineville to Unity Lake State Park, OR

We arrived at the campground around 12:30 after driving 167 miles from Prineville. We chose campsite #17 which is a pull-through and parked the RV. We filled out a registration form and wrote a check for $22 for 1 night's stay.

From Prineville to Unity Lake State Park, OR

After we leveled the RV and put out the slides, I fixed lunch. There are several RVs here and there is a group of people having a family reunion here this weekend.

We have electric (30 amp) and water hook-ups and we're on a paved pad that is level and grass on both sides of the RV - Tinker REALLY appreciates that.

We are able to see Unity Lake from our RV.

From Prineville to Unity Lake State Park, OR

The state park is a pleasant break after driving through the high desert that we've seen most of today.

The Dalles to Prineville

2011-09-17T00:28:00.000-05:00

Since we only had about 140 miles to drive today, we took our time breaking camp at Memaloose State Park this morning.

We stopped at the Safeway in The Dalles to get gas in the RV and to get our 10¢ a gallon discount which we had earned yesterday after buying groceries. Of course, the 10¢ discount is only good for 30 gallons but we still got our 3¢ a gallon discount for the rest of the fill-up. However, the pump cut off at $100 so we got 26.889 gallons for $3.719 (our 10¢ discount) and we got 7.984 gallons for $3.789 (our 3¢ discount).

We left The Dalles at 11:30 and headed east on US-30 through downtown.

From The Dalles, OR

After about a mile we connected with US-197 and headed south through farmland and rolling hills.

From The Dalles to Prineville

A little after 12:00 we found a large pull-off and stopped there to fix lunch.

From The Dalles to Prineville

We drove through the town of Maupin and crossed the Deschutes River.

From The Dalles to Prineville

About 20 minutes south of Maupin we were able to see Mt. Hood to the northwest of us - it was real hazy, but I did manage to get a photo of it.

From The Dalles to Prineville

We arrived at the Crook County RV Park at 3:00. When we went in to register, we also took Tinker. Mike had talked with Karen when he made our reservation and told her we had a Bichon and she said to be sure to bring Tinker in to the office when we registered. Karen has 2 Bichons (the standard Bichon size) and she wanted to see Tinker (who isn't standard Bichon size).

We are in site #68 with full hook-ups (50 amp), wi-fi and basic cable - with tax our site is costing us $29.57 for tonight. I cranked up the satellite dish and found a spot through the trees where we could receive satellite TV reception.

Sightseeing in The Dalles, Oregon

2011-09-16T00:20:00.000-05:00

We ate an early lunch today and left the campground at 11:30 to go sightseeing in The Dalles. We pulled over onto the shoulder on I-84 to take some photos of the RV and the Memaloose State Park.

From Ft. Lewis to Memaloose State Park

We arrived at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and Wasco County Historical Museum a little before noon.

From Columbia Gorge Discovery Center

The cost of admission for seniors is $10 each. One of the first sights we saw was Pearl, a female American Kestrel or sometimes called a Sparrow Hawk. The American Kestrel is the only kestrel found in the Americas.

From Columbia Gorge Discovery Center

The first exhibit we entered was the one for the Lewis & Clark Expedition. We saw a display of weapons

From Columbia Gorge Discovery Center

and one of navigation tools - sextants, compasses and telescopes.

From Columbia Gorge Discovery Center

The next exhibit was on the Ice Age on the Columbian Plateau. We saw a painting of a Giant Short Faced Bear

From Columbia Gorge Discovery Center

and a comparison between a Giant Short Faced Bear skull and a Black Bear skull. I REALLY wouldn't want to meet up with a Giant Short Faced Bear!!

From Columbia Gorge Discovery Center

We saw exhibits on the Oregon Trail

From Columbia Gorge Discovery Center

and on the history of Wasco County.

From Columbia Gorge Discovery Center

We stopped in at the Basalt Rock Cafe for some coffee while we waited for the Live Raptor Exhibition at 2:00. We sat outside of the cafe on the patio to drink our coffee and Mike noticed these ants that had crawled into the salt shaker and died.

From Columbia Gorge Discovery Center

At 2:00 we walked back into the River Gallery to watch one of the volunteers with "Killer", a female Red-tailed Hawk,

From Columbia Gorge Discovery Center

and "Junior", a Great Horned Owl.

From Columbia Gorge Discovery Center

Both raptors had suffered injuries as young birds and are unable to fend for themselves in the wild. We learned about their different life habits and styles of hunting.

After leaving the Discovery Center, we drove into town to go to the Fort Dalles Museum. On our way to the museum we took some photos of some houses

From The Dalles, OR

and of old St. Peter's (Catholic Church 1897-1970) Landmark which was built in 1897 and can now be rented for weddings.

From The Dalles, OR

From St. Peter's Landmark we drove up some fairly steep hills until we reached the Fort Dalles Museum, which is Oregon's oldest historical museum.

From Fort Dalles Museum

After paying the $4 senior admission for each of us, one of the volunteers gave us a short orientation on the exhibits in the museum.

One of the first things I noticed was this custom-made Hoosier cabinet with all of the compartments and drawers labeled sitting in what had been the kitchen in the Surgeon's Quarters.

From Fort Dalles Museum

We walked through the first floor rooms with exhibits of period furniture and clothing.

From Fort Dalles Museum

We next went upstairs and saw exhibits of more furniture, clothing,

From Fort Dalles Museum

saddles, and this beautiful window.

From Fort Dalles Museum

We walked outside to view the antique vehicles that are stored in a separate building. Unlike the WAAAM museum we visited in Hood River, the autos and wagons here are not restored.

From Fort Dalles Museum

The Anderson Homestead is just across the street from the Fort Dalles Museum, but because it was now 4:00 and the museum was closing we just took photos of the 1895 Swedish log house.

From Fort Dalles Museum

We stopped a couple of more times to take photos of houses we saw on our way back downtown.

From The Dalles, OR

We stopped at the Safeway in town to buy some groceries before we drove back to the campground.

Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum

2011-09-15T01:00:00.000-05:00

We both slept well last night and the traffic noise from I-84 didn’t bother us. This morning after breakfast we walked around the campground and took photos. It’s still windy and pleasantly cool.

After lunch we drove west to Hood River to visit the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum – WAAAM.

From Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum 1

We were greeted by museum volunteers Perry and Don.

From Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum 1

We paid the $10 each (senior tickets) and were given a diagram of the museum. We walked through a door into the first display area called Hangar M1 which covers pre-WW II and is 37,500 square feet.

From Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum 1

There were antique tractors, automobiles and airplanes. This is a photo of just ONE row of antique autos.

From Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum 1

The best way to describe Hangar M1 is WOW! I’ll just let the photos Mike took speak for themselves.

From Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum 1

We saw these 2 airplanes that had appeared in the movie "The Tarnished Angles" with Rock Hudson, Robert Taylor and Dorothy Malone.

From Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum 2

There was a small section devoted to women aviators.

From Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum 2

We next went into Hangar M2 which contains vehicles from WW II and later and is 45,000 square feet. Again another WOW!

From Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum 1

There were classic autos, more motorcycles, military vehicles and airplanes and a play area for children with a motorcycle and helicopter for them to get on.

From Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum 1

He took so many photos that I’ve divided them into 2 web albums – one album for autos, motorcycles and other vehicles, and one album for airplanes.

I am so glad that I picked up a brochure for the museum at the campground last night. We wouldn’t have known about it and we would have missed a great museum.

We even had a good view of Mt. Hood from the museum. We learned that there is a huge forest fire near Mt. Hood and that is smoke not haze that we see.

We drove through the downtown are of Hood River and it is very attractive and a LOT of coffee shops.

Along the Columbia River to Memaloose State Park

2011-09-14T01:39:00.000-05:00

We set the alarm clock last night for 7 a.m. so we could get an early start today even though we only had about 200 miles to drive. It was cloudy and in the low 60's this morning.

I think I forgot to mention in an earlier post that we had to check out a Comcast Digital Transport Adapter in order to receive all of the cable channels at Ft. Lewis RV Park. We do have a digital converter for the local antenna, but this is different from that. So while Mike was driving the RV to where we could hook up the car, I went to the campground office to turn the adapter in.

This was our first time hitching up the car with our new Roadmaster All Terrain Tow Bar and all went well. We left the campground at 9:16 and headed south on I-5. We made a quick stop at a rest area near Maytown and while I walked Tinker, Mike did his walk-around the RV and car.

From Ft. Lewis to Memaloose State Park

We stopped at 11:30 for an early lunch at a rest area about 12 miles north of Vancouver. Shortly after leaving the rest area, we connected with I-205 south and crossed the Columbia River into Oregon at 12:15.

From Ft. Lewis to Memaloose State Park

Shortly after entering Oregon we exited I-205 to I-84 east along the Columbia River. It had been cloudy and in the low 60's most of today, so we weren't able to see the tops of the mountains.

From Ft. Lewis to Memaloose State Park

A little before 1:00 the sun came out and the haze cleared up. We passed by the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River and this is all we got to see of it.

From Ft. Lewis to Memaloose State Park

Eventually I-84 was close enough to get some great views of the Columbia River.

From Ft. Lewis to Memaloose State Park

The Memaloose State Park is located on the Columbia River 10 miles west of The Dalles. The only way to get to Memaloose State Park is through the rest area located on the north side of I-84.

From Ft. Lewis to Memaloose State Park

We exited I-84 East at exit 76 and got back on I-84 heading west for 3 miles to the rest area. We drove through the rest area to the entrance to Memaloose State Park.

From Ft. Lewis to Memaloose State Park

We located our campsite and stopped to disconnect the Vue. Mike then backed the motorhome into our campsite. We are in site #A-13 with full hook-ups (30 amp elec).

It is so windy here that Mike set up our portable satellite dish (the one on the rooftop would "flop" in the wind and we would lose our signal). After setting up the RV and watching a little TV, we all ended up taking a nap - Tinker on the sofa with me and Mike in the recliner.

Our campsite backs up next to I-84 and there is a lot of traffic noise, but it didn't seem to bother our naps and I doubt it'll keep us awake tonight.

We didn't get any photos of our campsite this afternoon, we'll do that in the morning. We're going to be here for

Sue's new Smartphone

2011-09-12T23:09:00.001-05:00

Today is our last day here at Ft. Lewis and we're trying to finish up some things.

When we were in Canada on our way back south, we were having trouble using our cell phones. When Mike was talking with a Verizon tech, he told Mike that he needed to take his cell phone in to a Verizon corporate store and have the software updated.

This morning we drove into Lakewood to a Verizon store and had his phone's software updated. Mike's also had problems with the battery in his cell phone running down a lot quicker than my phone. We were told it was probably because the phone's firmware hadn't been updated and the phone kept trying to connect.

While we were there we updated to a Verizon MiFi broadband aircard that is 4G where the one we have is 3G. It works out that with rebates and discounts, the new aircard will cost us $20.

Then we were told we could $100 off on a Smartphone and we started looking at them. Long story short, I am now a proud owner of a Motorola DROID Bionic Phone. Of course, we also had to purchase a car charger and a cover for it.

Mike really likes the Droid commercials and picked out the Motorola phone. He doesn't want a smartphone for himself - says it's too complicated for him. But I'm sure he'll be playing around with this one. Mike is usually the cell phone person in our household - I do the computers so it will be fun using the Bionic phone.

From Ft. Lewis RV Park

We didn't get back to the RV until almost 2:00. After a quick lunch, I went down to the laundry here to wash a few loads before we leave.

I took my laptop to the laundry and I used the campground's wi-fi while I was waiting on the laundry. I worked on getting our blog and web albums update.

Mike got our new Verizon MiFi working and played around with my new phone while I was doing laundry.

I haven't had much time to get acquainted with my phone yet, but I did get my contacts downloaded and few things set-up.

I am REALLY happy to say that our blog is caught up and so are our photo albums. I've had a problem with our 2011 Travel Map showing the last few places we've stayed and I hope to get it fixed shortly

Camping World, Olive Garden and photos of new tow bar

2011-09-10T23:21:00.000-05:00

This morning Mike took photos of the campground and our new tow bar.

From Ft. Lewis RV Park

This afternoon we drove up to Camping World in Fife for a new air filter and oil filter for our Onan generator and some cleaning supplies.

We then drove up to a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Federal Way to get a new Wal-Mart Road Atlas. Of course, we bought some other items, but no Wal-Mart Road Atlas. They didn't have any atlases, just maps.

Since we were only a couple of blocks from an Olive Garden and it was almost 5:00, we went there for dinner.

We decided to sit a table in bar area and ordered Sam Adams Octoberfest on tap. For dinner we both ordered the Never Ending Pasta Bowl. Mike had the whole wheat linguine with Pizzaiola Meat Sauce and meatballs. I ordered the fettuccine with Pizzaiola Meat Sauce. We both really like the Pizzaiola Meat Sauce and will definitely order it again.

After dinner we came back to the RV and I worked on our blog and photos. Mike worked on planning our trip when we leave here and head east.

New Roadmaster Tow Bar

2011-09-08T01:00:00.000-05:00

On August 25 Mike had ordered a Roadmaster Falcon All Terrain tow bar, a tow bar cover and an electrical cord from HitchFinder in Minnesota and we would be able to pick them up at the factory in Vancouver.

The tow bar was on back order for internet orders and it was going to be mid-September before we could get it. Mike talked with Deanna on yesterday and she was going to talk with the warehouse supervisor to see if they could pull a tow bar from production so we could get it earlier.

We got a call this morning from Roadmaster that we could come down to their factory in Vancouver and pick up our new tow bar. So after breakfast we headed down to the Roadmaster factory in Vancouver which is 120 miles south of here.

When we were about 20 miles north of Vancouver, we stopped at a McDonald's at Woodland for lunch and since we were near a Safeway, I went in to look for a couple of items I hadn't been able to find at the commissary.

When we got to Roadmaster we went to the office and we were directed to go the Installation section where we picked up the tow bar, cover and electric cable.

On the way back to Ft. Lewis we stopped at the Safeway at Woodland again to get gas in the Vue ($3.769 a gal).

After we got back to the campground, Mike took our old tow bar off the receiver hitch and put our new tow bar on.

We still haven't taken any photos here at the campground, we'll have to do that tomorrow.

New Koni shocks installed

2011-09-07T00:30:00.000-05:00

We got up at 7:00 this morning and Mike walked over to the office here at Brazel's a little after 8:00 to let them know we are here for our 10:00 appointment to have new shocks installed.

We stowed the slides and Mike had disconnected the water and we waited for a technician to walk over to drive the motorhome into one of the bays.

While we were waiting for our appointment, Mike called the Ft. Lewis RV Park office and made a reservation for us for a week starting today when we leave Brazel's.

Tinker couldn't understand why we were just sitting around on the sofa and not going anywhere since the RV was all ready to start driving.

From Trip to Brazel's RV Performance

Since we weren't going anywhere, Tinker decided to go sit up on the dash or "the sun porch" as we call it.

From Trip to Brazel's RV Performance

A little after 10:30 a technician came over with an armload of plastic sheets that he laid down on the steps and carpet for him to walk on. He then did a walk-around to be sure everything was disconnected (Mike had already disconnected the electric cord) and that he wouldn't drive over anything.

We left Tinker in his crate in the RV and Mike and I went into the office to sit in the waiting room there. Mike went out to take photos of Rob installing the Koni FSD shocks.

From Trip to Brazel's RV Performance

It took about an hour to have the old shocks removed and the new ones installed. Our bill for the new shocks came to $1105.00.

Before we left Brazel's we had our on-board and 2 portable propane tanks filled for $2.75 a gallon. We left Brazel's at 12:15 and passed by the Great Wolf Lodge on the way to I-5.

From Trip to Brazel's RV Performance

We stopped at a rest area near Sunnydale at 12:30 to fix lunch and were back on the road by 1:00.

We got back to McChord AFB at 2:00 and stopped at the gas station to get gas in the RV ($3.839 a gal) before driving out to the FamCamp to get the car. We then drove south on I-5 to the Ft. Lewis North Gate.

We checked in at the office and were assigned site #102 on Loop 100. We have full hook-ups (50 amp) and we are 2 sites over from The Commons which houses the bathrooms/showers, laundry and wireless internet station.

We're paying $22.50 a day here at Ft. Lewis RV Park.

Trip to Brazel's RV Performance

2011-09-06T00:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning Mike and I drove to the BX to wi-fi in the Food Court. We got a couple of cinnamon rolls and coffee from Starbuck's to have for breakfast.

This morning we left the FamCamp at 10:25 to go down to Brazel's RV Performance in Centralia where we have an appointment for tomorrow to have new shocks installed on the RV.

We left the Vue at the FamCamp where we had the RV parked. Since the car is technically in storage, all we had to pay is $1 for a day's storage.

We parked at the Commissary and I went in to buy a few groceries that we needed and then we ate lunch before we left. We left McChord AFB at 11:30 and drove south on I-5 to Brazel's RV Performance in Centralia.

From Trip to Brazel's RV Performance

Brazel's RV Performance also has a campground on the premises with electric and water hook-ups and a dump station. We arrived at Brazel's at 2:00 and picked out campsite #8.

From Trip to Brazel's RV Performance

We have 50 amp electric and free wi-fi. When Mike called to set up our appointment here, he forgot to ask about logging in to the wi-fi and it turns out we needed a password. We do have the Verizon MiFi aircard, but I had a lot of photos to upload to our web albums and we wanted to use their wi-fi here instead of using up a lot of our 5GB allotment.

There are a few RVs here in the campground, but we haven't found anyone at home. Later this afternoon a guy drove up to one of the RVs and Mike asked him about the password for the wi-fi. He gave Mike a phone number to call and we were able to get the password.

We spent the rest of today watching TV and I worked on catching up on our blog and web albums.

Five Guys Burgers, Museum of Flight & Space Needle

2011-09-03T23:50:00.000-05:00

We've spent the last 2 days catching up on things around the RV and paying bills and grocery shopping. I've also been going over to the Food Court at the BX to wi-fi because the Verizon broadband signal is very weak at the campground. Our cell phone service is also weak out there.

We left the campground around 10:30 and stopped at the base gas station to get gas in the Vue ($3.839 a gal) before heading up to Seattle to visit the Museum of Flight and the Space Needle.

In addition to programming our Garmin gps for the Museum of Flight and the Space Needle, I had also entered the address for the Five Guys Burgers in Renton. We've been craving a hamburger from Five Guys since we crossed the border into Washington. The address for Five Guys is on N. 10th Place in Renton and when we got there all we saw was an industrial area and no Five Guys. We wandered around a bit before stopping at a Brown Bear car wash to have the car washed.

We asked one of the workers where Five Guys was located and he gave us directions. It turns out that there are 2 N. 10th Places and Garmin sent us to the wrong one! We found Five Guys in The Landings (a really neat shopping complex) and thoroughly enjoyed our bacon cheese burgers and fries.

After lunch we drove over to the Museum of Flight which is located next to Boeing Field-King County International Airport. The museum is housed in a very impressive glass building.

From Museum of Flight

After paying the senior admittance of $14 each and receiving a map of the museum, we entered the Great Gallery which is a 6-story glass and steel exhibit area just full of aircraft that shows the history of flight.

From Museum of Flight

We next visited the Space Gallery chronicling the history of space flight.

From Museum of Flight

We stopped at the Boeing Red Barn which was the Boeing Company's original manufacturing plant. In the Red Barn we saw a re-created factory workshop and artifacts from the earliest days of aviation including a copy of Orville and Wilbur Wright's Letter of Patent for their Flying Machine.

From Museum of Flight

The next exhibit was the J. Elroy McCaw Personal Courage Wing which has exhibits covering World War I

From Museum of Flight

and World War II.

From Museum of Flight

We walked across the T. Evans Wyckoff Memorial Bridge over to the Airpark.

From Museum of Flight

At the Airpark we were able to walk through a Concorde

From Museum of Flight

and then we boarded the first Presidential jet plane "Air Force One" for Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.

From Museum of Flight

We've visited a number of aviation museums and we both agreed that the Museum of Flight has to be one of the best museums we've visited.

We had a great view of Mt. Rainier when we left the museum.

From Seattle

We then drove up to the Space Needle and the area was packed with people. We drove around looking for a place to park and found place on the street a few blocks away from the Space Needle. The rate for parking was $2 a hour and after feeding in all of our change (we didn't want to use a credit card), we had 1 hour 25 minutes.

From Seattle

We walked up to the Space Needle and got in the ticket line a little after 3:30 and found out the wait to go up the Space Needle was 40 minutes and that didn't include the wait in line to buy a ticket. The price for senior tickets is $16 each. Since it was so late in the afternoon, we decided to pass on riding up to the Observation Deck today since we still had an hour's drive back to McChord.

From Seattle

We did visit the Gift Shop and bought some postcards and a couple of souvenirs. There are so many things to see and visit here in Seattle that we'll just have to come back another time and spend more time here.

We got back to the FamCamp at 5:00 and Mike took photos of the dry camping area where we're staying. It is also the storage area and you just pick a vacant spot and park. There are a few sites with numbers but the majority of the area has no campsite numbers.

From McChord AFB

You can see by this photo how tall the trees are here at the FamCamp. The RVs look like toys next to the trees.

From McChord AFB

Ferndale to McChord AFB

2011-09-01T00:02:00.000-05:00

We got up at 7 a.am. and after breakfast prepared to leave The Cedars RV Resort. Just as we started to hitch up the car, it started sprinkling. We left the campground at 8:35 and headed south on I-5 driving in a light rain.

We stopped at a rest area about 10 miles north of Burlington a little after 9:00 to walk Tinker and for Mike to do his walk-around of the RV. The rain had quit by the time we left the rest area.

We drove through Seattle

From Ferndale to McChord AFB

and saw the Space Needle

From Ferndale to McChord AFB

and the Museum of Flight.

From Ferndale to McChord AFB

We arrived at the Bridgeport Road gate to McChord AFB at 11:20. Our Ft. Rucker vehicle registration decals had expired this summer and the security guard wouldn’t let us continue to the FamCamp until we had new decals. Mike got our vehicle registrations and insurance cards and walked back to the Visitor Center next to the gate to get new decals. When we were at Elmendorf AFB we inquired about getting new decals, but they didn’t issue vehicle decals since everyone has to show their ID card to get on base. We didn’t think anymore about having expired decals until we got here.

Mike forgot that he had to scrape off the old decals and turn them in when he went to get the new decals. So Mike came back to the RV and scraped the decals off of the RV and the Vue and then went back to the Visitor Center to get our new decals.

We stopped at the base gas station and got gas in the RV (26.533 gal @ $3.769 a gal) before driving out to Holiday Park FamCamp.

We had decided to stay in the dry-camping area so we could receive satellite TV. We had heard there was no satellite TV reception in the area with hook-ups because of all the trees.

The dry camping area is also the RV storage area. It is a large open field that is surrounded by trees. We found a spot to park and set up the RV. We are paying $5 a day to stay here and we’ll be here for 5 days.

Mike called the Post Office in Lakewood to see if our mail had come in to General Delivery. It turns out that General Delivery mail goes to the main Tacoma Post Office. We had chosen Lakewood because it’s the closest town near here. We normally call the local post office and check to make sure that they receive General Deliver mail, but Mike forgot to call the one in Lakewood to see if they take General Delivery.

The lady at the Lakewood Post Office wasn’t sure what would happen when our mail came in – if it would be sent back to Pensacola or if it would be forwarded to the main Tacoma Post Office. She called us back and told Mike that our mail was at the Tacoma Post Office. Thank Goodness!

We put the Tacoma post office address in our Garmin and drove into Tacoma to pick up our mail.

From Ferndale to McChord AFB

The last time we had gotten mail sent to us was when we were in Anchorage a month ago. We got the checks from our insurance company for the RV windshield repair we had done in Whitehorse and for the new receiver hitch we had put on in Haines.

We stopped at the commissary on our way back to the RV to buy groceries. I have been only buying a few groceries up to now because I was waiting to stock up when we got here.

The FamCamp is near the airfield and on the way back to the RV from the commissary, we saw this C-17 cargo plane practicing touch-and-go landings.

From McChord AFB

New Tires on RV

2011-08-31T01:55:00.000-05:00

We were up at 7 a.m. and broke camp to head over to Les Schwab Tires here in Ferndale. Wouldn’t you know it would start raining just as we were getting ready to leave.

We arrived at Les Schwab about 8:30 and they were working on 2 trucks and it would be a while before they could get to us. Mike had a tech unload the RV flat tire from inside the Vue. We looked at the flat tire and found that it had a 2½" cut in the sidewall which caused it to go flat. We had just under 55,000 miles on the old tires.

Since we replaced the flat tire with our new tire we had as a spare, we're only having to buy 5 tires today. We're going to keep one of the old tires to have as a spare.

Mike asked where a good place to eat breakfast was and we were directed to the Hilltop Restaurant near Bellingham. The rain had quit while we were at Les Schwab’s, but we rain into some heavy rain on our way to the Hilltop Restaurant.

Mike ordered pancakes with sausage and a biscuit and gravy. I had the Denver Omelet with bacon and toast and we both had coffee to drink. The folks at Les Schwab were right when they recommended the Hilltop for breakfast.

From Ferndale

It had quit raining by the time we finished breakfast and since we were so close to Bellingham, we decided to go back to Wal-Mart to get a couple of things we forgot when we were there a few days ago.

We also stopped at Petco to buy K9 Advantix for Tinker. It was on sale there for $10 off and I had a $2 coupon because I had completed one of Petco’s surveys from the last time we had shopped there.

We returned to Les Schwab a little after 10:30 and they were finished with mounting the new tires. We had a tech load one of the old RV tires that we're going to use as a spare into the Vue. Our bill for the new tires (Michelin XRV 235/80R X 22.5) and installation came to $2780.

I stopped at Costcutter grocery to pick up a couple of things we needed and Mike headed on back to the campground with the RV.

We set up the RV and discovered that our Energy Management panel is now registering the 50 amp service correctly!

After lunch I washed a couple of loads of clothes and spent the rest of the afternoon organizing our photos. Mike cleaned the new RV tires and put 303 Aerospace Protectant on them.

Tomorrow we leave here and head south to McChord AFB and the Holiday Park FamCamp there. From what we’ve heard there are so many trees in the section of the campground with hook-ups that it isn’t possible to get satellite TV reception. We’re considering staying in the dry camping section where satellite TV reception is possible.

Lunch in Ferndale

2011-08-30T00:41:00.000-05:00

This morning we took Tinker to Pooch Palace for his 11:00 grooming appointment.

From Ferndale

Then we drove to downtown Ferndale to look around and to find someplace to eat lunch. We passed by the Chihuahua Family Mexican Restaurant and immediately decided to come back a little later for lunch.

From Ferndale

We stopped at the Post Office to buy some stamps and to mail a Thank You note to Rena, Sonja & Edie at the Watson Lake Visitor Center for helping us when we had the flat tire on our RV.

We drove around taking photos of some of the houses in Ferndale.

From Ferndale

We found the Centennial Riverwalk Park and saw these beautiful hanging flower baskets on the Nooksack River Bridge.

From Ferndale

We saw beautiful hanging baskets everywhere in Ferndale.

From Ferndale

After driving around town for a while, we drove back to the Chihuahua Family Mexican Restaurant for lunch.

Mike ordered their Cancun Steak and I had the Burrito Manadero. Our food was served on huge heavy plates and the servings were so large, I thought we would be bringing some home with us. The food was so good that before we realized it, we had eaten it all! Our bill came to $26.00 (we just had water today). We have eaten some really good Mexican food on our trip this summer.

From Ferndale

We passed a couple of roadside coffee shops on our way back to the campground to wait for the call from the groomer that Tinker was ready to be picked up.

From Ferndale

We got a call from Pooch Palace at 2:45 that Tinker was ready and we drove there to pick him up. They did a really good job in grooming Tinker and we were very pleased. Our bill today was $61.00 before we tipped the groomer.

Tomorrow we drive down to Les Schwab to have the new tires put on the RV.

Olive Garden & Shopping in Bellingham

2011-08-28T00:13:00.000-05:00

We drove down to Burlington this morning to go to the Camping World there. We needed a new sediment filter and a filter for under the kitchen sink and some other items.

We then drove up to Bellingham to have lunch at the Olive Garden there. Mike had won a $25 gift card at his high school reunion back in May. We both ordered the Never Ending Pasta Bowl. Mike had the whole wheat linguine with the 5 Cheese Sauce and I had spaghetti with the 5 Cheese Sauce. It was very good and we only had 1 bowl each – no refills. Next time I would like to try the Pizzaiola Meat Sauce. Our bill came to $28.53, so we paid $3.53 plus our tip.

We stopped at Wal-Mart to buy a few things we had forgotten when we were staying here. We drove back to where the RVs park to see how many are there and there were about a dozen RVs.

I needed a new lap desk because the one I have now is filled with plastic beads and the beads are coming out. We’ve tried gluing it, but the beads are coming out from somewhere else.

We had checked at Wal-Mart and they didn’t have any – that is where I bought the one I have now. We went to Office Depot and they only had small lap desks and I need one that will hold my 17” laptop.

We tried Best Buy next and found a couple of lap desks and ended up choosing the one for $35. It doesn’t have any beads that will come out and it has a pull-out mouse shelf which I like.

Our last stop was at Petco to look for some new bowls for Tinker. We have a stainless steel double bowl feeder that is rusting and the rubber cushions that cover the sharp edges have split and you can get a nasty cut from them (I know, because I have gotten cut cleaning his bowls).

We found a stainless steel double bowl feeder that cost $13.03 (inc tax) and I had a $12 refund card from Novartis when I bought Tinker's Interceptor for heartworms. So his bowls ended up costing us $1.03 - a good deal!

After completing our shopping in Bellingham, we drove back north to Ferndale.

Bellingham to Ferndale

2011-08-27T01:14:00.000-05:00

This morning we watched a lot of the RVs that spent the night here leave . There are still at least a dozen still here in the parking lot at Wal-Mart. We left the Wal-Mart in Bellingham at 11:00 and drove 9 miles north on I-5 to The Cedars RV Resort in Ferndale and arrived there at 11:30.

From Ferndale

Mike had called Coast to Coast 3 days ago to make a reservation for 5 days here. We are using the Coast to Coast points we “purchased” with the points we had earned on our Good Sam Club credit card, so our stay here is free.

Mike went in to the office to check-in and I went in to the laundry to check it out. Mike paid $16.25 for the cable hook-up even though we should be able to receive Dish Network here.

From Ferndale

There were a couple of little girls with a lemonade stand next to the office and we went over to buy some lemonade. I was busy checking my change and didn’t notice the concrete car stop in front of me. I tripped and fell and landed on my left knee – Mike said he tried to keep me from falling, but couldn’t. I scraped my knee and right hand, but didn’t break anything. We did buy 2 lemonade drinks from the little girls for 30¢ each. Mike, who doesn’t particularly like lemonade, said it was pretty good.

We got back in the RV and while Mike drove us the little distance to our campsite, I put a cold pack on my knee and elevated it for a few minutes.

We are in site #138 (a pull-through) with full hook-ups (50 amp elec). The Cedars is owned by Holiday Trails Resorts who also owns Camperland RV Resort in Rosedale. There are hedges here separating the campsites, but they aren’t as thick or as tall as the ones at Camperland.

From Ferndale

We called American Home Base to have our mail sent to General Delivery in Lakewood, WA near McChord Air Force Base where we’re heading when we leave here.

Mike called Les Schwab Tires here in Ferndale to set up and appointment to have 5 new tires put on the RV next week. Mike had called them just before we left Alaska to inquire about new tires for the RV to be sure they had the tires in stock. We have an appointment for next Tuesday at 9 a.m. for the new tires.

We also called Pooch Palace here in Ferndale just north of the campground to get an appointment for Tinker to be groomed while we are here. Tinker has an appointment for Monday for the works – clipping, bath, ears plucked, and toe nails ground.

Crossing the Canada/US border into Washington

2011-08-26T01:17:00.000-05:00

We got up at 8:00 and Mike took some photos of the campground this morning.

From Rosedale to Bellingham

Then we walked up to the campground restaurant, Country Kitchen, to eat breakfast. Mike had pancakes and sausage and I had eggs with bacon and sausage and toast for $17 - a very good breakfast.

From Rosedale to Bellingham

We went back to the RV and took our time getting ready to leave the campground. Check-out is at noon and we only have about 55 miles to drive today, so it was 11:15 when we left Camperland RV Resort.

We stopped at the Shell station just down the road to get gas in the RV. We got 209.01 liters at $1.269 a liter (55.231 gal at $4.886 a gal). I reminded Mike that we were only a few miles from the Canada/US border and we should wait to get gas there – but he wanted to get gas before we got on the road.

From Rosedale to Bellingham

We drove through Abbotsford where the houses and apartments were built up on the surrounding hills.

From Rosedale to Bellingham

We reached the Canadian/U.S. border at 12:20 and there were only a few cars ahead of us.

From Rosedale to Bellingham

After answering the standard questions at U.S. customs, we were on our way south to Bellingham.

A few minutes after crossing the border into Washington, we passed this USA gas station where regular gas was $3.779 a gallon and we paid $4.886 a gallon in Rosedale! Did I say "I told you so" - Noooo, but there was definite clinching of teeth to keep from saying it. I figure Mike can beat himself up enough for not waiting to buy gas without me saying it.

From Rosedale to Bellingham

We passed by a car dealer in Lynden where we saw this colorful truck parked on the lot.

From Rosedale to Bellingham

We also saw these vintage cars

From Rosedale to Bellingham

and this ‘71 Willys Jeepster.

From Rosedale to Bellingham

We drove south on SR-539 and stopped at the Safeway in Lynden at 12:45 to buy some groceries and we had lunch while we were parked there.

After lunch we drove south on SR-539 to I-5 South to the Wal-Mart in Bellingham where we’re spending the night.

We arrived at Wal-Mart at 2:00 and were surprised to see how many RVs were already parked there. We found a place to park the RV and unhitched the Vue. Then we went into Wal-Mart (not a Supercenter) and did a little shopping.

Mike drove the car over to a car wash across from Wal-Mart to wash the road grime off before we went to dinner.

There is a Taco Time near the Wal-Mart and we drove over there for dinner tonight. Rena at the Watson Lake Visitor Center told me that Taco Time was so much better than Taco Bell and we decided to try it tonight. We don’t eat often at Taco Bell, so I really couldn’t tell much difference.
As the afternoon and evening progressed more and more RVs came in to spend the night at Wal-Mart. There must be at least 25 RVs here and a few of the ones near us look like they have been living here for a while.

Mike talked with a couple who are near us that are from British Columbia and they drive down to Bellingham every few months to go shopping. They had come down and bought a stove among other things. They said they save a lot of money coming down here where the taxes aren’t as high as in Canada.

Tomorrow we are driving north up to Ferndale where we’ll be staying for 5 days and getting new tires on the RV.

Our last day in British Columbia

2011-08-25T01:18:00.000-05:00

We left Wal-Mart at 7:30 and stopped at the Petro-Canada gas station across the street from Wal-Mart to get gas. We got 199.141 liters at $1.269 a liter (52.623 gal at $4.862 a gal). We left the gas station at 8:00 and headed south on Highway 97.

We drove through Williams Lake and saw some sculptures for the Williams Lake Stampede and the British Columbia Cowboy Hall of Fame is in Williams Lake.

From Quesnel to Rosedale

We’ve seen a lot of stone or rock inukshuks, but this is the first wooden one we’ve seen.

From Quesnel to Rosedale

Then we saw this animal crossing sign which is different from all the other wildlife crossing signs we’ve seen. We thought maybe a badger or wolverine, but they have longer tails than this. We’re still puzzled.

From Quesnel to Rosedale

Since leaving Williams Lake we have driven through small towns with the names 150 Mile House, 140 Mile House and we drove through 100 Mile House where we saw these giant cross-country skis.

From Quesnel to Rosedale

These towns were on the Cariboo Wagon Road and they were named according to the distance they were from Lillooet which was Mile 0 where gold had been discovered.

Once we passed through Cache Creek the terrain changed again and we are driving through the Fraser Canyon.

From Quesnel to Rosedale

We could see railroad tunnels across the Fraser River from us that had been built in the Fraser Canyon for the Canadian Pacific Railway.

From Quesnel to Rosedale

We drove through the China Bar Tunnel that was built in 1960 and is one of the longest tunnels (almost 2,300 ft.) in North America. This is one of seven tunnels we will drive through in the Fraser Canyon.

From Quesnel to Rosedale

We passed by Hell’s Gate Airtram where 2 25-passenger airtrams take people down 500 feet across the Fraser River to view the narrowest point. It was the most difficult terrain for construction of the highway and railroad and earned it’s name Hell’s Gate.

From Quesnel to Rosedale

When we were just south of Cache Creek when we had to pull over and change from our long-sleeve shirts to short sleeves. We were now far enough south that the temperature had warmed up into the mid-70's. We even turned the generator on so we could run the air conditioner.

We stopped at a rest area next to Lake of the Woods just north of Hope – what a beautiful place to stop! The Lake of the Woods is just gorgeous.

From Quesnel to Rosedale

We arrived at Camperland RV Resort just after 4:00.

From Quesnel to Rosedale

We are staying here under our Adventures Outdoor Resorts (AOR) membership. Our campsite fee is $9 and we paid extra for cable TV and wi-fi for tonight, so our total for tonight is $16.35. The standard rate here for full hook-ups is $52 a night – that’s why we like our campground memberships.

We are in campsite #43, a pull-through, with full hook-ups (50-amp elec). The campsites are separated by tall hedges and the whole campground is very attractive – it actually looks like a resort! We didn’t take any photos today of the campground, but get some tomorrow before we leave.

We are right next to the laundry and I gathered up a few loads of clothes. There were standard dryers and a few larger ones and I chose to use the smaller one for $1.50 for 45 minutes – bad choice! Our clothes were still damp when the 45 minutes were up and I transferred them over to the larger dryers where a quarter got you 4 minutes of drying time. Yes, that was 4 minutes for $.25 – that was the main reason I didn’t choose the larger dryers in the first place.

World's Largest Fly Rod & Tintagel Cairn

2011-08-23T23:58:00.000-05:00

We got up this morning at 7:00 and prepared to leave Riverside Park. Before leaving this morning, Mike called our roadside service, Coach-Net, to complain to a supervisor about the problems we had when we called from Watson Lake about our flat tire on the RV. We were given an address where we can mail the receipt for the tire change so we are reimbursed for the expense.

We left the campground at 8:30 and drove south on Hwy 16. We actually had sunshine this morning – a welcome change from the rain we’ve had the last few days.

We stopped in Houston to take a photo of the World’s Largest Fly Rod.

From Smithers to Quesnel

The topography has changed and we are now driving through farm land.

From Smithers to Quesnel

An hour after driving through Houston we drove through Burns Lake and took a few photos as we were driving through.

From Smithers to Quesnel

We stopped at a rest area about 12 miles south of Burns Lake to see the Tintagel Cairn.

From Smithers to Quesnel

According to the information in the 2011 The Milepost (we use it to help us find interesting places to take photos), the center stone in the cairn once formed part of the Norman walls of Tintagel Castle which is reputed to be the birthplace of King Arthur.

From Smithers to Quesnel

We stopped for lunch at noon at a rest area east of Fort Fraser. There was a historic marker at the rest area commemorating the last spike being driven for Canada’s second trans-continental railroad.

From Smithers to Quesnel

We drove through Vanderhoof which is the geographic center of British Columbia on the Alaska Circle Route.

From Smithers to Quesnel

We passed through Prince George at 2:00 and left the Yellowhead Highway and turned south onto Highway 97 or the West Access Route.

From Smithers to Quesnel

We arrived at Wal-Mart in Quesnel a little after 3:30 and there were already a few RVs parked here. We drove 307 miles today.

Since we are close to the US/Canada border, I cranked up our satellite dish to see if we could get any TV reception. I had a pretty good signal and was able to receive Dish Network. But our programming was messed up (it said we needed to subscribe to the networks which we already subscribe to) and I tried calling Dish, but all I got was a busy signal. Apparently their 800 number doesn’t work in Canada – how frustrating!

Mike called Coast to Coast to make a reservation for Aug 26 – Sept 1 at Ferndale. He also called the FamCamp at Ft. Lewis for the Labor Day weekend, but they are already full. He then called the FamCamp for McCord AFB and they don’t take reservations. Since we’re going to be arriving on Thursday, Sept 1, it shouldn’t be a problem for us to find a campsite.

After a little while I went into Wal-Mart to buy a couple of things we needed and then later we ate dinner and settled in for the night.

Since we’re not able to watch satellite TV, we watched some of our Babylon 5 DVDs.

Black bears & our last day on the Cassiar Highway

2011-08-23T02:30:00.000-05:00

It was raining this morning when we got up, but had quit by the time we stopped at the dump station to empty our holding tanks. We stopped to take a couple of photos of the Tatogga Lake Resort office.

From Iskut to Smithers

We were on the road by 9:15 and heading south again on the Cassiar Highway. We had been driving for about 30 minutes when it started raining again. Then a little later this black bear cub ran across the highway in front of us and I tried to time my photo so as not to photo the windshield wiper blades – it didn’t work. I bet Mama black bear (we didn’t see her) got after him for dawdling about before crossing the highway!

From Iskut to Smithers

The Cassiar Highway is known for its scenery and mountain views, but with the low clouds and rain we've only had these views of the mountains - still pretty though.

From Iskut to Smithers

We stopped for lunch at noon at a pull-out alongside the road.

After lunch we saw this black bear near the side of the road. He was standing up and I did get a photo of him (it’s not the best), but he ran off before I could get another photo.

From Iskut to Smithers

We’ve seen about 6 black bears alongside the highway, but they were either too quick or we saw them too late to get a photo.

We had planned on staying at Hazelton tonight, but we saw a billboard for a Boston Pizza at Smithers and decided to stop there for tonight. I looked through our Trailer Life Directory and the British Columbia Campground Directory we got at the Watson Lake Visitors Information Center to find a campground in Smithers. There is a municipal campground in Smithers and it sounds nice, so we’re going to stay there.

We stopped for gas at an Esso station at the Moricetown Indian Reserve and who should pull in next to us, but Merla & Steve who we met in Skagway. They had been behind us on the highway and recognized the RV and car. They said they had passed by our RV when it was parked on the Cassiar Highway and saw our note in the window about the flat tire. We had already gone back to Watson Lake when they drove by, so we missed seeing them.

Steve and Merla had also stayed at Tatogga Lake Resort, but they were there the night before we got there. It turns out they had 2 flat tires on their trailer since we had seen them in Skagway. They were going to drive another 4 or 5 hours before stopping for the night. We exchanged cards and e-mail addresses before they left to continue on south on the Yellowhead Highway.

We got 201.526 liters at $1.24 a liter which equals 53.253 gallons at $4.736 a gallon at the Esso station. They had a strange way of pre-paying for gas. You told them how much gas you expected to get and they would charge your card for that amount and then when you finished fueling up, they would put the correct charge on your card. Very strange - if we had known about this, we wouldn't have stopped here for gas.

When we reached Smithers we turned on to Main Street (we saw this Alpine Man statue at Main Street)

From Iskut to Smithers

and drove out to Riverside Park. It’s right by the Bulkley River and is a very attractive campground. We chose site #28 and have full hook-ups with 50 amp electric and there is LOTS of grass. We arrived here at the campground at 5:13 and had driven 312 miles today.

By the time we got the RV setup and ready to leave to dinner, the sun was shining – a welcome sight. Before we left the campground, we saw the campground attendant coming around collecting the camping fees and we stopped to pay him the $26 CAD for tonight’s stay.

From Iskut to Smithers

We drove back into town and stopped at Boston Pizza for dinner. We got an order of Cactus Cut Potatoes ($8.45) and ordered a medium Rustic Italian pizza ($25.25). We really enjoyed the Cactus Cut Potatoes and the pizza was OK – I don’t know if it was our choice or just not as good as we remembered one we had at a different Boston Pizza.

Before returning to the RV we stopped at Safeway to get a few groceries and then stopped at Tim Horton’s to buy some donuts and fritters. Smithers is a pretty town and we wish we had more time to explore it, but we are ready to get back to the lower 48.

When we got back to Riverside Park we took Tinker for a walk down along the Bulkley River which flows alongside the RV park. Tinker hasn’t seen this much grass in a very long time – a couple of months, I think. He really liked running around or doing the “Bichon Buzz” in the grass.

From Iskut to Smithers

Flat tire fixed & heading south to Iskut

2011-08-22T02:11:00.000-05:00

Mike took photos of our campsite at Watson Lake this morning.

From Nugget City to Watson Lake

We drove over to the Visitor Center at 9:00 and Mike called Verizon again and have the Canadian calling plan added to our phones. Tech support said our phones may work once we get into an area with stronger cell service.

After thanking Rena at the Visitor Center for her help yesterday, we left Watson Lake at 10:45 and headed back west along the Alaska Highway and then south down the Cassiar Highway.

Yesterday (and again today) we drove through a large burn area that just went for miles and miles and it looked fairly new.

From Watson Lake to Iskut, BC

I asked Sonja at the Visitor Center this morning about it and she said the fire occurred last year and burned from April through November and burned 450,000 hectares (over 111,000 acres) and it even flared up for a short time earlier this year. Sonja said that there was also mud slides at the same time as the fire last year and the highways were closed. She said if they had had to evacuate, which way could they go – towards the fires or the mud slides?

We stopped for lunch at 12:15 at the Beaverdam Rest Area – didn’t see a beaver dam anywhere. We have been driving on the Yukon Plateau and now are entering the Cassiar Mountains.

From Watson Lake to Iskut, BC

We saw this German RV parked beside Simmons Lake and had seen the RV back in Watson Lake yesterday – they sure picked a beautiful spot to stop!

From Watson Lake to Iskut, BC

We stopped at Super A Foods in Dease Lake to get gas in the RV and got 107.936 liters at $1.449 a liter (28.522 gal at $5.532 a gal).

We drove by the Lower Gnat Lake and then the Upper Gnat Lake where we saw a few RVs dry camping.

From Watson Lake to Iskut, BC

We arrived at Tatogga Lake Resort at 5:10 after driving 220 miles from Watson Lake. Just as we stopped at the campground, that’s when it decided to rain! I went in to the restaurant/office and registered for the campground. I was given a map of the campground and shown where the pull-throughs are located and told we could just pick one.

We are in site #23 with water and 30-amp electric hook-up. There is wi-fi here up in the restaurant and I don’t feel like walking through the rain and the mud to go there.

From Watson Lake to Iskut, BC

There is also a Man Camp here for loggers that work in the forests here. We could hear helicopters landing at one end of the campground and then we would see men walking up to the Man Camp carrying their bags. Then we would see different men carrying their bags and walking out to where the helicopter was waiting to take them out to the logging camps.

Flat Tire on Cassiar Highway

2011-08-21T02:00:00.000-05:00

It was cloudy but not raining when we got up this morning. We left Baby Nugget RV Park at 9:30 and stopped long enough to take photos of the entrance and office and restaurant at the campground.

From Skagway to Nugget City

We headed east on the Alaska Highway for about ½ mile before turning south on the Cassiar Highway and after driving for 2 miles we crossed into British Columbia.

From Nugget City to Watson Lake

The Cassiar Highway is a 2 lane paved road with no shoulder and is narrow is some places. This section looked more like a roller coaster

From Nugget City to Watson Lake

and then there were long almost straight sections.

From Nugget City to Watson Lake

We had driven about 21 miles on the Cassiar Highway when I heard a “pop” and then “whoosh”. I told Mike that we “have a flat tire” and it sounded like it came from the right rear tires. Mike pulled over to the left lane and put the left wheels just off the road – remember, there are no shoulders to pull off on.

From Nugget City to Watson Lake

We got out and checked the rear tires and it was the inside right rear tire that had blown. Mike put out our orange cones and road hazard flashers. Of course, there is no cell phone service here and no OnStar service either – we have OnStar in the Vue. We disconnected the Vue and I put a sign in one of the windows saying we had a flat tire and had gone back to Watson Lake.
We hadn’t seen much traffic on the road but a couple of RVs came by and stopped to see if we needed any help and a couple of cars also stopped to offer help.

We drove the car back north to Watson Lake which is 34 miles from where we had the flat. It was 11:30 when we got into Watson Lake and we decided to eat lunch at Kathy’s Kitchen and call our roadside service. We both had the bacon cheeseburger and fries and it was really good.

From Nugget City to Watson Lake

We had had cell phone service when we stayed in Watson Lake on our trip north and now we couldn’t make a call! We had added the Canadian calling plan on our Verizon phones on the trip up and decided to save the extra cost this time – bad choice!

We drove over the Visitor Center and told Rena about our problem and she used the Visitor Center phone to call our roadside service (we have a calling card, but went off without it). When Mike tried to explain to the girl at Coach-Net that we were calling from the Yukon and the RV was in British Columbia, she had a hard time understanding it. Then she couldn’t locate Watson Lake on her map & finally Rena got on the phone to see if she could help and gave the girl the phone numbers of 3 tire businesses in Watson Lake. This was Saturday just before 1 p.m. and Rena said some of the businesses were closed on Saturday afternoon.

The girl from Coach-Net was supposed to call us back on the Visitor Center phone, but when it was 12:45 and we hadn’t heard from her, we called her back. She hadn’t had any success in getting hold of any of the businesses and then told Mike that changing a flat tire was labor and they don’t pay for labor. Mike told her the contract said they would pay for changing our mounted spare tire, but she was adamant about it being labor.

We drove across the street from the Visitor Center to Watson Lake Motors and spoke with Pat about sending someone out to change our tire. His truck was out on a call and wouldn’t be back until late tonight. Pat said the only solution would be for us to drive the RV slowly back up to Watson Lake and have it changed there.

We drove back out the Cassiar Highway to where we had left the RV and got there about 1:40. Since there is no shoulder and the road is very narrow, we were lucky that a few hundred feet from the RV was a place where we could back up the RV and get it turned around. Mike drove the RV and I followed in the Vue so I could watch the back tires in case the outside tire on the right went flat. We drove the 34 miles to Watson Lake at 20 mph and got there around 3:30.

From Nugget City to Watson Lake

It cost us $36.75 CAD to have the tire changed and Mike tipped Gordon $5 because he knew to torque the lug nuts at 450 ft. lbs. There is so much mud on the tire that went flat that we haven’t been able to see what the cause was.

From Nugget City to Watson Lake

We stopped at Watson Lake Tags Gas, Convenience Store and RV Park and got gas in the car (24.974 liters) & RV (93.499 liters) at $1.349 a liter CAD or $5.15 a gallon.

While Mike was getting gas in the RV, I went inside and checked us in for the campground. We are in site #5 with full hook-ups (30 amp) for $26.25 for the night.

It was 5:30 by the time we got to our campsite and we are 14 miles from where we spent last night.

After dinner we went back over to the Visitor Center to use the pay phone (we have our phone card with us now) there to call Verizon to see if we can get our cell phones to work here. After spending about 30 minutes talking with tech support we still can’t make calls on our cell phones.

Skagway to Nugget City, Yukon

2011-08-20T01:30:00.000-05:00

We left Garden City RV Park a little before 8:00 drove north on the Klondike Highway. The drive north up the Klondike Highway is supposed to have great mountain views through the White Pass. But it started drizzling rain shortly after we left Skagway and there are low clouds over the mountains, so we’re going to miss a a lot of the views we had hoped to see.

From Skagway to Nugget City

We arrived at the U.S.-Canada border at 8:30 and stopped to take some photos. The Kiwanis had erected an inukshuk and we wanted to get some photos of it.

From Skagway to Nugget City

We passed through Canadian Customs a little before 9:00 and after answering the usual questions, we were on our way.

From Skagway to Nugget City

We stopped for lunch at a turnout near Johnsons Crossing.at 11:30. We crossed the Continental Divide at one of its lowest points.

From Skagway to Nugget City

We had light rain for most of the day and temperatures in the upper 40’s.

From Skagway to Nugget City

We arrived at Baby Nugget RV Park at 3:30 and got almost 36 gallons of gas at the gas station there. We paid $1.429 Liter (CAD) or $5.408 US a gallon.

There is a restaurant here and I went in to look at the menu. We were wanting a nice hamburger, but it wasn’t on the menu. We could have had a hamburger steak dinner for about $18 and most of the other dinner items were in the same price range – waaaaay too much.

We paid $10 to use their wi-fi and $34.52 for our campsite. We are in site #2 which is a pull-through with 50 amp electric and water.

From Skagway to Nugget City

We didn’t get any photos of the campground entrance today – will have to get the photos tomorrow.

Red Onion Saloon & Brothel Museum Tour and Days of ‘98 Show

2011-08-19T02:30:00.000-05:00

This morning I walked over to the Laundromat here at the campground to wash a few loads of clothes. The laundry at the campground is also the public Laundromat for Skagway, so it is often busy.

After finishing the laundry, we drove to town to eat lunch at the Red Onion Saloon. We sat at the bar to wait for a table and ordered 2 Kodiak Brown beers. We both ordered the Trollop sandwich ($9.50 ea.)– a turkey & provolone on a deli roll - & 2 Kodiak Brown beers ($5.50 ea.) from Jess. Our sandwiches and beers were excellent.

From Red Onion Saloon

We waited around to go on the Brothel Tour of the upstairs at 1:00.

From Red Onion Saloon

We paid $5 each to our guide, Miss DeFlowers, and she explained about the procedures in the brothel.

From Red Onion Saloon

Down in the saloon were dolls that represented each of the girls and the men would chose the girl from the dolls. The bartender would lay the doll down and that meant she was occupied until the customer left. When a new girl came in to the brothel, she could “remodel” her crib and chose new wallpaper. Several layers of different wallpaper has been uncovered during the restoration of the upstairs.

Afterwards we walked around town and stopped at Corrington’s Ivory Museum. This Mammoth Hunters carving took the artist almost 2 years to complete and was so intricate that Mike made a movie of it showing all the detail.

From More Skagway Photos

Our nest stop was at the Days of ‘98 Show with Soapy Smith to watch the 2:30 show – a MUST See in Skagway. The show is in its’ 87th season and after paying $36.00 (after AAA discount for both of us), we went into the theater.

The play is about local outlaw Jefferson R. “Soapy” Smith and Belle Davenport and her “soiled doves”, Squirrel-Tooth Annie and Phewclothes Mollie. Soapy Smith started out selling soap – hence the name. He was a con man, saloon keeper, leader of a gang and tried to establish himself as a solid citizen.

From Days of '98 Show

The cast always chooses a couple of audience members to participate in the show and this fellow, Dick, was chosen by Alice & Mollie.

From Days of '98 Show

The next audience member participation was to dance the Can-Can. Alice chose someone and Mollie chose ME. After we were given a quick Can-Can lesson, we did it for real. Of course, Mike was filming it the whole time – I’ve put a clip of the movie in our album. It was a great show and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Our next stop was at the Skagway Museum and Archives where we saw antiques and photos from Skagway’s history.

From Skagway Museum & Archives

We even saw Soapy Smith’s Derringer in a case.

From Skagway Museum & Archives

Our last stop for the day was at the Gold Rush Cemetery to see Jefferson R. “Soapy" Smith’s grave.

From Gold Rush Cemetery

There is a marked difference between Soapy Smith’s grave stone and the one for Frank Reid who headed up the Committee of 101 that wanted to rid Skagway of Soapy Smith.

From Gold Rush Cemetery

We had a lot of fun visiting here in Skagway and I’m proud to say that we did our own little part in helping the town’s economy. Skagway may be a town that caters to tourists, but unlike some tourist towns that are not kept up or are cheesy everything here was attractive and well-kept.

Tomorrow we leave and head north and eventually south back to the lower 48.

Sightseeing & Shopping in Skagway

2011-08-18T02:00:00.000-05:00

This morning after breakfast I walked over to the campground office and paid $109.50 for 3 days here at Garden City RV Park. Last night when we arrived here we just did the minimum to set up the RV, so this morning Mike connected our sewer hose and I finished setting up the inside.

After lunch we drove around Skagway looking at some of the houses. We saw this house being built on a bluff overlooking Skagway – what a view they will have!

From Houses in Skagway

We saw this house being remodeled and I’m sure they will add siding to the exterior. But we had seen a lot of homes here in Alaska that we started referring to as “Tyvek” homes because it was obvious that the homes had been left like that for years.

From Houses in Skagway

We drove downtown and found a place on a side street to park the car – notice the wooden sidewalk.

From Skagway

We walked around and looked at the shops and did a little shopping. We enjoyed looking at the quaint architecture and walking on the wooden sidewalks. Skagway is a tourist town and as many as 20 cruise ships stop here during a week’s time.

From Skagway

We walked down to the docks to look at the cruise ships and discovered that there were 4 cruise ships docking here today – no wonder the streets and shops were so busy! Also we noticed that the closer we got to the docks, the more jewelry stores we walked past – they obviously cater to the tourists from the cruise ships.

From Skagway

We saw a crowd of people watching the water near one of the cruise ships and saw this harbor seal trying to catch some fish. We watched for a while and Mike took a movie of him, but we never saw him catch a fish.

From Skagway

We stopped at the White Pass & Yukon Depot and did a little shopping in The Train Shoppe.

From White Pass & Yukon Railroad

We walked back to our car and shopped in a few stores along the way. It was after 5:00 when we got back to the RV and we took a few photos of the campground.

From Skagway

We saw Steve and Merla who have a travel trailer in the row behind us and they told us that in a little while they were going to drive north of Skagway on the Dyea road to a spot where bears come to catch fish that are spawning. We told them we might drive out there later after we had dinner.

After dinner we took Tinker and drove north out of town and passed by the White Pass & Yukon Maintenance Yard.

From White Pass & Yukon Railroad

We stopped at a scenic lookout on Dyea Road and took a few photos of Skagway.

From Skagway

Dyea Road goes out to where the town of Dyea used to exist. During the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-98 Dyea had a population of 10,000 and now very little remains of the town. This was the start of the 33-mile long Chilkoot Trail up to the gold fields Klondike Gold Fields.

From Skagway

We continued out on Dyea Road and found the turnoff to the Dyea Historic Site. The road was now a narrow gravel road surrounded by a dense forest.

From Skagway

We drove out to the Dyea Flats and did see salmon spawning and gulls hoping to catch some fish, but no bears.

From Skagway

We headed back to Skagway and this rabbit ran in front of the car on Dyea Road

From Skagway

and we saw some buildings that looked like they belonged to an old tourist stop.

From Skagway

We made one last stop at the scenic overlook and took this photo of a cruise ship docked at Skagway.

From Skagway

Haines to Skagway on the Alaska Ferry

2011-08-17T02:30:00.000-05:00

According to the instructions for boarding the ferry, everyone was to be at the ferry terminal by 6:30 p.m. and as the afternoon progressed more and more RVs, cars and trucks started to arrive.

From Alaska Ferry from Haines to Skagway

We saw the ferry, Malaspina, coming up the Chilkoot Inlet about 8:15 and it docked at 8:30.

From Alaska Ferry from Haines to Skagway

Once all of the passengers and vehicles had departed the ferry, the crew started directing the RVs on to the ferry first. A crew member checked each person’s ticket and ID before allowing the vehicles on the ferry.

From Alaska Ferry from Haines to Skagway

We were impressed with the care they took in making sure each RV was not damaged driving on the ramp and entering the ferry. A crew member even squatted down to make sure the undercarriage of each RV cleared the ramp leaving the parking lot and entering the ferry.

Then the crew had the other vehicles start loading and as I drove on the ferry, I saw Mike taking a movie of me driving the car.

I passed by our RV

From Alaska Ferry from Haines to Skagway

and was directed to the other side of the ferry where I parked the car. I met up with Mike near the vehicle entrance and we went up to the forward observation lounge on the boat deck.

We left Haines and headed north up the Taiya Inlet toward Skagway. In the distance we could see a couple of cruise ships leaving Skagway and heading south towards us. We went out onto the outer deck and took photos of the cruise ships.

From Alaska Ferry from Haines to Skagway

It's about 14 miles from Haines to Skagway by ferry and since the ferry's speed is about 14 mph, it takes an hour which is better than driving the over 300 miles by land from Haines to Skagway.

We spent a little time out on the deck and then went back inside the lounge to get warm. We went back outside when we were close to Skagway.

From Alaska Ferry from Haines to Skagway

The crew did an excellent job when we docked at 9:40. Normally you fell a "bump" when the boat touches up against the dock, but there was none. After a few minutes we heard the announcement that drivers could now go below decks and get in their vehicles.

From Alaska Ferry from Haines to Skagway

We were instructed not to start the engine until we were told to and I had just gotten in the car when the cars in front of me started to move. We offloaded in the opposite order we boarded the ferry, so I was off the ferry before Mike was. I found a place near the exit gate where I could pull over and wait for Mike to catch up with me.

Mike told me later that because the first ramp off the dock had such a steep angle, the ferry crew added some portable ramps to reduce the angle so the back of the RV wouldn't drag on the dock and be damaged.

Once we met up again, I took the lead and we headed through town to the Garden City RV Park. I had the Garmin gps and we kept in touch with our CB radios. We arrived at the campground at 10:00 and there was no one in the office. When Mike had called to make our reservation here, John (the owner) said he would probably be here when we got off the ferry and if not, just to find a campsite. A couple of men came out of the RVs and said the same thing, just find a campsite and hook-up.

We found a pull-through near the office and parked the RV there. We leveled the RV, put out our slides and Mike hooked up the electric and water. Some more RVers came in after us and Mike told them just to find a site and park.

This is the latest we've ever gotten in at a campground. Hopefully this is our one and only time to come in this late.

Tomorrow we'll register and pay for our campsite for the 3 nights we're here. We're both tired and ready for bed, so I'll say goodnight.

Hammer Museum & Waiting for the ferry to Skagway

2011-08-17T02:00:00.000-05:00

Before we left the campground to go to the Alaska Ferry Terminal, we moved the RV to a 50 amp campsite and plugged in to the electric at it. Our Energy Management Panel worked correctly, so the problem we had yesterday seems to occur when we are plugged in to 30 amp service.

When we arrived at the Ferry Terminal, we parked the RV in our assigned lane (lane 9) and then went in to the Terminal and checked in for the 8:30 p.m. ferry.

We then drove out to Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Site in the car and stopped to look at the lake.

From More Haines Photos

We saw this bald eagle land in a tree across from us.

From More Haines Photos

We met this couple from the Netherlands at Chilkoot Lake and we compared photos we had taken of the bald eagle.

From More Haines Photos

We walked down to the boat ramp and Tinker dipped his paws in the lake and took a drink.

From More Haines Photos

After driving through the campground (we found a couple of sites that our motorhome would fit in) at Chilkoot Lake, we drove back along the Chilkoot River and took photos of some of the houses there.

From More Haines Photos

We returned to the RV and had lunch before driving back into Haines to visit the Hammer Museum.

From Hammer Museum

We entered the museum and paid the $3 admission for each of us and saw every wall was covered with hammers. The hammers were organized by type or by the industry they were used in.

From Hammer Museum

Mike was especially interested to see this one - the Bell Helicopter Rotor-Blade Tapping Handle. Mike said when he was in the Army they used to use a nickel to tap on the rotor blades to locate bonding voids since they didn't have this hammer in the tool room.

From Hammer Museum

There are over 1500 hammers in the museum and 2 more came by mail while we were there.

We stopped in at the Rusty Compass Coffeehouse for some coffee before heading back to the RV.

From More Haines Photos

We bought some cinnamon rolls and ate 2 with our coffee and brought the rest back with us to eat later. The cinnamon rolls we had here were smaller than the ones we got from the Bear Den yesterday, but were much better.

When we got back to the Ferry Terminal, we parked the car in Lane 2 – our assigned lane for the ferry. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening sitting in the RV watching DVDs until it was time to get ready to board the ferry.

See my next post about our ferry ride to Skagway.

New receiver hitch installed

2011-08-16T00:21:00.000-05:00

It was 48° and cloudy when we got up this morning. We were up early this morning since we had a 9:00 appointment at John’s Tires to have a new receiver hitch installed. I drove the Vue and Mike followed in the RV and we arrived at John’s Tires a few minutes before 9:00.

While Mike waited for John to open up, I went to the post office to buy some stamps for our post cards. Before going back to John’s Tires, I stopped at the Bear Den Bakery and got a couple of their huge cinnamon rolls to take back to the RV for a late breakfast.

By 10:00 it had started to rain and the temp was still around 48°. Since the bolt holes on the new hitch didn’t line up with the old ones on the chassis for the old hitch, John had to fabricate a plate and bolt and weld it to the chassis and then mount the new receiver hitch to the plate. Mike helped John with the measuring, alignment and lifting of the new receiver hitch.

In addition to having a new receiver hitch installed, we had John weld a support on our steps that had broken. We had had our steps repaired last year in Fort Myers and the steps broke in the same place again.

Since we have a decreasing deductible on our RV insurance, our insurance company will reimburse us for the full amount of our bill.

We left John’s Tires a little before 3:00 and stopped at the Tesoro station and filled up the tanks in the RV and Vue before returning to the campground. We paid $4.629 a gallon for regular.

When we returned to the campground we saw that most of the RVs staying in the campground had left while we had been gone.

When we plugged back in to the campground’s electric, we discovered a problem with our Energy Management Panel. It’s malfunctioning and not allowing full use of our 50 amp system.

It’s been steadily raining all day and the temp has stayed around 48° all day. Hopefully, it won’t be raining tomorrow when we leave here and go to the ferry terminal.

Sheldon Museum & Cultural Center

2011-08-15T00:30:00.000-05:00

This morning I went up to the laundry here in the campground and washed 4 loads. The washers cost $3 for a top loader and $3.50 for a front load washer and the dryers cost 25¢ for 3 minutes. The total cost for doing laundry today was $19.00.

After lunch we drove to the Sheldon Museum and Cultural Center. We spent about an hour looking at exhibits and displays of Tlinglit and Chilkat history and culture.

From Sheldon Museum & Cultural Center

We saw displays of the early settlers and of Fort Seward.

From Sheldon Museum & Cultural Center

We even saw this dogsled that was in the 1991 movie "White Fang" which was filmed in Haines and Skagway.

From Sheldon Museum & Cultural Center

After leaving the Sheldon Museum, we drove around Haines some more and then north of Haines for a little distance. We had seen this cemetery on our way down to Haines and stopped today to take a photo of it. We found the railings around some of the graves to be interesting and different from any we'd seen before.

From More Haines Photos

We passed by one of the gas stations here in Haine and saw that the price of regular was $4.629.

From More Haines Photos

We saw this RV parked near the Visitor Center. It's a military vehicle that has been converted into a RV and is owned by a Belgian man. I was curious about the vehicle and found a photo of it on a website for military vehicles.

From More Haines Photos

Tomorrow we have a 9 a.m. appointment at John's Tires to have a new receiver hitch put on the RV.

American Bald Eagle Foundation

2011-08-14T01:00:00.000-05:00

This morning I went grocery shopping at Howser's IGA here in Haines. A lot of items were priced about the same as what I've paid in the lower 48 states, but a number of items were a lot higher. For example, Ranch Wheat Thins are $4.49 a box ($1 higher) and Weight Watchers Ice Cream Bars are $6.59 ($1 higher), but the REAL surprise was the price of Pepsi or Coke 12-packs of cans - $9.99. I'm really glad I stocked up on our root beer sodas at the commissary at Elmendorf and don't need to buy any here.

After lunch we drove over to the American Bald Eagle Foundation to view the displays there.

From American Bald Eagle Foundation

We had hoped to see a live demonstration, but we did see this Barred Owl who stood so still we thought he was one of the displays until he moved!.

From American Bald Eagle Foundation

We enjoyed looking at the displays and were surprised to see the museum had so many displays of other animals besides the ones of bald eagles.

From American Bald Eagle Foundation

We even saw this black bear which is the same size as the black bear that walked through our campsite at Valdez Glacier Campground.

From American Bald Eagle Foundation

After leaving the Bald Eagle Foundation, we stopped by the Haines Visitor Center for some brochures.

From Haines

We then drove out to the Alaska Ferry Terminal to check on the best way to drive there and to see what it looked like. Mike went in to the Terminal to check on the procedure when we come here on Tuesday to board the Ferry. He was able to get our tickets today and Tinker even has a ticket - it just says "pet", but it is his "boarding pass".

From Haines

We drove back into town and drove past the Oceanside RV Park and are so glad that we're staying at the Hitch-Up. We had called the Oceanside about staying there, but they were full for the days that we were going to be in Haines. Their campsites are soooo close together - we much prefer where we are!

From Haines

We stopped by the Hammer Museum because the sign said "open", but the museum was closed. Their brochure said the museum was closed on the weekends, but we thought today could be an exception. Here is Mike standing by this really HUGE hammer.

From Haines

We drove back through town and took a few more photos before going back to the RV.

From Haines

We went to dinner at Mosey's Cantina - we had seen the restaurant yesterday when we were driving around Haines after we had eaten at the Lighthouse.

From Haines

Mike ordered the Smothered Burrito with shredded beef and both the red and green chile sauce. I ordered the Quesadilla with grilled chicken and rice and beans. The servings were so big that we just ate half of our dinners and brought the other half home to have tomorrow. We both had iced tea and the waitress also brought a carafe of ice water to the table. Our dinner came to $45.89 (before tip). Again we have found great Mexican food in Alaska.

Dinner & driving around Haines

2011-08-13T00:30:00.000-05:00

We drove down to the Harbor Bar and Lighthouse Restaurant near the Haines Harbor on Portage Cove to have dinner. Joan, one of the work campers at Hitch-Up Rv Park, had recommended the Lighthouse Restaurant.

From Haines

Mike ordered the Lynn Canal burger and fries. I ordered the Seared Halibut with Jasmine rice and vegetables. Mike said his dinner was good and I really enjoyed the Seared Halibut. We both had iced tea and the bill for our dinner (before the tip) was $45.87.

After dinner we drove along Front Street and Beach Road and stopped at Lookout Point to take some photos.

From Haines

We drove around looking at some of the houses in Haines. Haines isn't a large town and has a population of about 1700.

From Haines

We enjoyed looking at the homes that were quarters for the officers' who were assigned to Fort Seward. Fort Seward was established on December 31, 1898 and was first named Haines Mission. The fort was founded to preserve law and order during the gold rush. Fort Seward was the only active military post in Alaska from 1925 to 1940 and was closed at the end of World War II.

From Fort Seward, Haines

Fort Seward was designated a National Historic Landmark on June 2, 1978. The homes are now vacation condos and the Commanding Officer's quarters is now the Hotel Halsingland.

From Fort Seward, Haines

After driving around and getting to know a little about Haines, we drove back to the RV park. We stopped by the laundry to check it out before going back to the RV. Mike then took some photos of our campsite here.

From Haines

We are in site #18 with full hook-ups (30 amp), cable TV and wi-fi. The campsites are well-spaced and is separated by grass. We were asked to not put out any mats on the grass, since the grass was starting to grow back.

From Haines

Kluane Lake to Haines & Locating a Welder

2011-08-13T00:20:00.041-05:00

When we got up this morning at 7:00, the semi trucks and their escort vehicles had already left. The 3 RVs and 1 truck that spent the night were still here. Before leaving this morning Mike set the CB radios in our RV and car to Channel 20, so we could communicate with each other instead of using the walkie-talkies which we used yesterday.

We left Kluane Lake a little after 8:00 and headed south on AK-1 with Mike leading in the RV and me following in the car. We hadn't gone very far when I saw this grizzly bear walking near the highway and just as I stopped to take a photo, he walked behind a bush.

From Kluane Lake to Haines

Then 40 minutes later I saw another grizzly walking near the highway and just as I stopped the car, the bear started rolling around and playing with a tree branch. I also shot a movie of him walking near the highway.

From Kluane Lake to Haines

Not too long after seeing the bears, it started raining again and the temperature has stayed around 48°.

We stopped at a Petro Express in Haines Junction to get gas in the RV (41.54 gal @ $5.258 gal) and the car (6.35 gal).

We turned south onto Hwy-3 and drove on the smoothest road we had been on in a long time. Unfortunately, it only lasted about 45 miles and then we were back on gravel roads and it was still raining.

We saw this herd of horses just after we crossed the Yukon border into British Columbia.

From Kluane Lake to Haines

We stopped at Haines Highway Summit at 11:30 to fix lunch. We were at 3510' and the temp was 36° - Brrrrrr!

From Kluane Lake to Haines

We crossed the Alaska border about an hour later and were now back in the Alaska time zone, so we gained an hour.

From Kluane Lake to Haines

We passed by this fish wheel in the Chilkat River just north of Haines and I stopped to take a photo and movie of it in operation. The wheel scoops up fish in the baskets and then the fish slide down a shoot and deposited in a holding tank.

From Kluane Lake to Haines

We arrived at Haines Hitch-Up RV Park at 12:30 and checked in.

From Haines

We asked if they could recommend a good welder in town and the owner gave us a name and phone number. Long story short - the 1st welder had just left to work for 2 weeks on the Alaska Ferry and the 2nd welder recommended was out working on a crab boat.

The third recommendation was John's Tires. John did have a receiver hitch, but he was going to have to make some adjustments because of some differences and it would be Monday before he could work on it. We made an appointment for 9 a.m. Monday and then drove back over to the campground and set up the RV.

Mike called the Alaska Ferry office and explained the situation and changed our ferry reservation from Monday to Tuesday. Then he called the campground in Skagway to change our reservation there. Then we went down to the campground office and extended our stay here for one more day.

After getting settled in we left the campground to explore Haines and find a place to eat dinner. I've made a separate post because we saw a lot and it'll make this a REALLY long post if I include it here.