Hello and Welcome.
The following begins the documentation of our 2014 summer Alaskan Journey. I will be documenting the trip in stages. We are on the trip as this journal begins. I will most likely finish the last stages of this trip journal after we return.
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| The winding roads of the southern Ozarks are leading us north. |
June 3
On this day we began an approximately 90-day bucket list journey to Alaska and back via Canada. We had been planning this trip for some time and were anxious to get on the road. Daisy and I had been studying maps and reading travel books from others to make sure we were prepared for the upcoming adventure. The truck's engine and running gear had been inspected and serviced. Tires were purchased and brake pads replaced. The truck camper received its share of maintenance as well. I inspected the external caulking seals and resealed. I even replaced a faulty exhaust fan in the refrigerator. I serviced the A/C system as well as the heating system so we would be ready for all eventualities.
This past winter we did a shelving modification in the truck camper bedroom to better handle the layered clothing needs we would need to be able to adjust for the wide range of weather conditions we expected to encounter. Temps from high 30s to low 90s, rain, and wet, muddy conditions were to be expected. And the one thing we especially planned for was to leave Alaska before the first snow fall.
Our tentative route was to make our way to Great Falls, Montana and cross the border into Alberta, Canada. Then we would travel through British Columbia and the Yukon territory of Canada, and cross the border again into Alaska.
This journal will share the first phase of this trip from Arkansas to the Canadian border.
Day 1
75°
Holiday Island, Arkansas
Our first stop was to visit friends near Scranton, Kansas. It was 273 miles on the odometer when we reached their RV park. At the 110 mile mark en route, the truck's A/C decided to take a vacation. The temperature was 88°.
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| Home is where you park it, especially if friends are nearby! |
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| Kansas was our first overnight stop. |
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| Brenda is part of our winter Texas family. She and husband Les are managing the park we stopped at. |
They extended an invitation for Daisy and me to drop by and visit them on our way north. So we did. Over a potluck meal, we enjoyed seeing Steve and Sue, who also spend winters in our Texas park. In addition, we met the friends that they often talk about back in Texas, and found out they had been sharing like stories about us with them. I like these connections. We promised to visit them there again and stay longer on another adventure. Besides, they are not that far from our house in Arkansas.
Day 2
190 miles
Lincoln, Nebraska
The first thing we did when leaving the Kansas campground was turn the wrong way and get our first experience of mid western gravel roads. I wondered if this was an harbinger of things to come.
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| Knee high by 4th of July is the saying. |
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| Our first taste of much gravel to come |
Corn fields and dusty gravel roads beckoned as we made our way across Kansas rural roads heading for our next stop and a friendly face in Nebraska.
After 190 miles we arrived in Lincoln, Nebraska. We had the truck A/C recharged before we settled in with Daisy's friend Marge.
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| Daisy's friend Marge now lives in Lincoln. |
We spent the night parked in Marge's driveway and did more exploring of her town. Because her driveway is kind of steep to sleep on, we stayed in her new house on this trip. There were four 7- 8 year old neighborhood girls who thought that our unit would make a great playhouse and vowed to get one when they grew up. Or, right now-- all we had to do was to keep the doors open. Daisy smiled as I locked the door!
Of course we found some interesting places to visit that we had not visited before. Pizza, beer, and dessert all go together.
Did I mention there is a lot of corn in Nebraska...
..along with old barns of all shapes and conditions.
But let us not forget the red map roads of Nebraska. Some of these stretches are quite isolated as well as being peaceful and comforting. How one feels about them depends on your state of mind.
Day 3
148 miles
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| What is around the next bend? |
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| Where does it go? |
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| There are a few cows so there must be people. |
I like traveling the red roads. You have a paved lane in each direction and a decent shoulder. I often get passed as I do 55-60 mph, but we are in no hurry. It seemed to me that there was a lack of vehicle traffic this day. The occasional farm truck gives you the steering wheel one finger wave and smile which you return. Now and then a stray pronghorn antelope lopes across the hillside, or a red fox is seen stalking its prey in the ditch line. My mind wanders and I see myself riding the range as a drifter or horsing a 4-team wagon over the grassy range.
Then there was a loud noise and all was quiet.
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| And on this segment, we broke down, not once but twice. |
We were just about to the top of a blind grade when we first backfired and all got quiet. With the help of a DOT dump truck and my tow strap we were pulled 60 yards to a graveled pull off. Using our cell phone (and thankful for a signal), we called our roadside assistance company to arrange for a tow truck. The nearest Ford dealer was 20 miles back. The nearest tow truck to handle us was 40 miles back. So we waited. But remember we had our house with us. We did not suffer.
After an hour we got a call from the 1st tow provider saying he was having difficulty with our towing service authorizing the proper unit to come get us, just hang on. I called the towing service and they told us they had to get someone else, and to hang on. I got a call from the 2nd tow provider 30 minutes later with an ETA of 1 hour more.
Frustrated, I turned the key in the truck and it started. Really, it started. I looked at Daisy and we started down the grade toward the Ford dealer. We got 1 mile and it quit again. I coasted onto a side road and we waited.
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| This is where your state of mind enters the equation. Are you a happy camper or not? |
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| Up we go? |
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| We made it to the dealership at quitting time. |
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| 11,000 pounds is a heavy load. |
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| Notice where we are off loaded. |
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| Can I help? |
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| The culprit: cam position sensor |
We spent that night at the dealership in St. Paul, Nebraska. They got us up and going by installing a non-Ford part which they got from NAPA down the street. After a test run around town we got on our way.
Day 4
Herreid, SD 52°
419 miles
The NAPA replacement was important because a few hundred miles and another state later, we got that noise again, but at least the truck kept running at a reduced speed. Fifty miles and 2 dealer contacts later, we were at the Ford dealership in Onida, SD. I told them of the part replacement, and they smiled. To make a long story short, they immediately replaced the offending part, at my cost of course, with the proper redesigned and improved Ford replacement. We departed to get some more miles in before stopping.
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| On the road again |
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| 338 miles later... |
It was near dark so we did not go much farther before we stopped for the night.
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| Sounds fancy? |
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| Prairie campground. Plain but functional. |
Day 5, 52°138 miles
Bismarck, North Dakota
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| North Dakota roads are straighter. |
Daisy and I sure were glad that we were having these issues before we were in more isolated areas. We might have had to express more patience! Center, ND was our next designated stop. Our friends Arlene and Shirley are there.
We camped in Shirley's driveway and shared a great BBQ rib meal.
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| Arlene and Shirley and I: The Three Musketeers. |
While there I took Daisy to meet my in-laws from a previous life: brother-in-law Rick, his wife Mary, niece Tristen, and nephew Michael. We had a brief and joyous visit. But we forgot to take a picture! Next time we will. I have lots of great memories that were embedded in ND. And I have some loving, caring relationships that I will always cherish.
Day 6
52°
235 miles
Glendive, Montana
We were on the road again as soon as we refueled at the first available stop.
As I pumped the fuel, I saw 2 familiar sites across the road.
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| Funny, I spent my first marriage wedding night across the way. |
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| She is called New Salem Sue. Yes, a cow. |
Back on the road and headed west on I-94, we encountered a roadside landmark new to Daisy.
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| This is the beginning of "The Enchanted Highway." |
This part of SW North Dakota is touted as the world's largest collection of metal artwork sculptures. On 32 miles of rural highway are scattered 8 sites featuring themes of various sections of the state. Why was it done? Some say it was to help prevent the town of Regent, which is at the terminus of the sculpture sites, from dying. Daisy and I had an appointment to meet our friend Fran in Glendive, Montana. But in accordance with our policy that nothing is cast in stone, we diverted to see some of these roadside structures.
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| OK, a curving road in ND. |
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| "Deer crossing" |
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| "Grasshoppers in the field" |
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| "Fisherman's dream"
We only saw half of the roadside art structures, and will
go back on another trip to see the remainder. I hear that a new one is
being created at this moment. So we returned to our original route and noticed the older structures that have been abandoned on the land.
A special kind of resourceful, resilient people farmed this country. It
is evident in the types of structures they built that are still standing.
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There was a change in the landscape and the vegetation. The terrain west was rapidly changing from green, rolling, flat, farming land to hilly, knobby, and pocketed arid uplands. We were entering the harsh badlands of western North Dakota.
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| The badlands of North Dakota |
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| Approaching Theodore Roosevelt National Park in ND |
But it wasn't long before the plains and equally arid terrain of Montana appeared. Our nightly destination was soon to come.
Fran also worked for me at Cross Ranch State Park in another season. She travels alone pulling her RV all across the country, birding and doing docent activities. She is one determined, adventurous lady. She spends her winters near us in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Last year she was workamping in Wyoming, this time she is a campground host for the Montana State Park service. Her location is just off of our route to the north.
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| No hookups |
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| We have a generator and are self contained. |
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| We stayed here for one night. |
Fran took us on a tour of the area explaining that the many different layers of color that we saw are the mineral layers of iron and vegetation sediments that have been nurtured over time. Wind and water have done the sculpturing. The dark coloring is the coal that resulted from compressed moist tropical vegetation. The grey is the evidence of ancient sea beds, and the reds and yellows are the iron deposits.
The area is covered with the remains of fossilized plants and animals. One particular trail accesses the remains of a dinosaur. I was tempted to take it until I heard of the distance involved and one hiker warned us to be extremely cautious. She had just encountered several rattlesnakes in that area. I decided that I would not take Daisy on that trail.
Wind and water have removed the soft rock leaving the harder rock ground structures that remain, often in a spectacular fashion.
The flowers that cling to life here are also jewels to behold.
Our friend Fran's job is to help the visitors behold these joys as a host.
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| My friend Cindy calls Fran one of her heroes. Daisy likes that statement. |
Fran took us to other areas to view the vegetation and landforms.
Wind erosion causes these formations, which are still forming.
Below is an amphitheater where church services are held on Sunday mornings.
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| Awesome spiritual experience to be had here. |
The last stop was a view of the valley where we were camping for the night. Look closely and you can see the truck camper at the bottom center.
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| This is our unit taken from the top of our tour. |
It is special when you can share your first joys with those you care about. Fran had only been at Makoshika State Park a few days and her excitement of these discoveries was evident as she shared them with us. We had met one other couple as we started out touring. They were going to take a hike up to a viewpoint above our campsite to watch the sunset. See the next picture. They made it.
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| This is a shot of a bench-sitting couple taken from our campground at sunset. |
Day 7
57° at departure
350 miles
Fort Benton, Montana, 80° at arrival
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| The back road to Great Falls, Mt. |
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| The Northern Rockies call us. |
We took the road less traveled toward Great Falls and the border. I wondered why we seemed to encounter streams of traffic, miles of nothing, and then a traffic stream again. We soon discovered why--landslide rerouting, road construction, and oversize rigs. We encountered two rigs, one coming toward us and one going in the same direction we were. They was no room to pass and no reasonable alternative routes. You either waited at the designated parking areas for the oncoming oversize rig to pass or you followed behind at 25 to 30 mph for miles and miles. We are retired, so we were patient.
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| We followed this one-way traffic for miles. |
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| We practiced driving gravel roads... |
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| ...and following pilot cars. |
Even though we had an early start, we did not arrive in Fort Benton until after 6 pm. Our original ETA was 4. But we found a nice campground whose owner told us to say hello to his sister who manages the Elks Lodge in Fairbanks. He also offered to sell the campground if we were interested. We weren't.
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| The Missouri at Fort Benton |
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| Fort Benton Campground |
The campground was next to the Missouri River, in which I have a Lewis and Clark historical interest. Daisy and I went for a peaceful walk along its banks and I told her stories of the river travelers.
June 10
Day 8
55°
135 miles
Sweetwater, Montana
One can almost spit at the border crossing from here, but that would not be a good idea. We had stopped in Shelby, MT to exchange US dollars for Canadian. $200 Canadian cost $191.77 US. We also filled up with diesel. This we expected to be the cheapest we would see for some time.
We crossed over and waited for our turn to be examined by the Canadian border officials.
The car ahead of us was pulled into the further examination area. Oh, shucks. I told Daisy that I would answer the questions for us. I had heard horror stories and had researched the laws about Canadian border requirements and restrictions. I was ready to respond quickly and properly without giving them a recourse to have us turn in for a more exhaustive inspection. After we handed over our passports, the official wanted to know: our destination, how long we would be in Canada, when where we last in Canada, how much alcohol we had, how much tobacco we had, and if we had any firearms or ammunition.
It took all of 2 minutes and we were off. I kept looking in the rear view mirror watching for flashing blue lights before I realized we were OK. Again, I had heard too many horror tales.
We had taken 8 days and 1,888 miles to travel from Arkansas to the border crossing. We were now in Canada and on our way to our first overnight near Calgary, Alberta.
Yea!
