Bear country

So many Bears along the way today. We counted 14. The funniest thing though was when a couple from the Australian caravan we met the other day passed us, honked and waved when we were pulled over to adjust something in the back of my truck. The other Aussies in their group had all seen bears on the trip except the couple we spoke with and when we told them how many we seen that day the others in the group looked at them and just shook their heads with sympathetic smiles. So back to the story. After they passed us we got back on the road and about a half hour later we spy their RV on the side of the road and a very large black bear walked out of the woods behind it and crossed the road in front of us. After the bear disappeared into the woods we continued and slowed down when we got abreast of their RV and noticed that they hadn't even know the bear was there as they were sitting at a table having their lunch at an angle where they were unable to see the bear.

 We stopped in Ft. Nelson for lunch at a fantastic vegetarian/organic restaurant and stocked up on some good food. We had lunch with one of the owners /cooks out on their deck and it sounds like the restaurant is quite successful in this small town.

Early evening we pulled over and are camping right off the banks of a beautiful fast flowing river. Played cards listening to Sinatra by candlelight overlooking the river. She mixed some Bahama Mama drinks and insisted I had one even though I'm not crazy about them. Very suspicious and a possible reason why the card game went so badly for me.

Morning had a light rain. Enjoyed coffee watching a beaver on the other side of the river.

Alaskan Highway

We've finally made it to mile zero of the Alaskan Hwy in Dawson Creek, BC and had our pictures taken in front of the official beginning of the highway.  A big milestone in this trip.  After driving about 5,500 miles we still have another thousand miles to get to Alaska !  That's what we get for taking the scenic route up the California Coast.  However I will admit I am getting a little burned out by driving.  From here on out there will be more days camped out and relaxing than just driving. 

Last night we boondocked in a designated RV parking area for RV's at a Casino.  They allow RV overnight parking for free.  So we decided to go in the casino and try our luck.  We came out ahead by $1.10 so it really did pay to stop there for the night.

This morning we met a caravan of 14 RV's traveling together.  They were all from Australia and had picked up their Class "C" motor homes in Seattle to shuttle to Alaska.  They especially liked the model name of our RV - OUTBACK ... Sydney Edition.

We saw three Black Bears today and numerous deer. 

British Columbia

Today we made the border crossing into Canada. We were prepared with all the required documents … cat vaccination, detailed qty's of booze and all vegetables/fruits we were bringing in. The only thing the crossing guard was interested in was our passports and asking if we had any guns or pepper spray/bear spray. It only took a few minutes and then I was able to ask him a few questions about the roads as we were still somewhat undecided on the best choices. And he was quite helpful.

The scenery keeps changing and today we were driving in snow capped mountains where we even passed frozen lakes in the higher elevations. The traffic was much less than what we've seen since we left. And one remarkable fact about our trip is we have not driven through or experienced a drop of rain since we left other than one big storm in the night on day 2 or 3. And the weather continues to be beautiful.

Technology wise, we will be more out of touch since our mobile data interface from the iphone will start getting very expensive while roaming in Canada. Just adding 80 minutes of roam free talking in Canada/Mexico is another $30 per month. Not sure about the data roaming charges and not eager to see the bill at the end of the month.

So we rolled into a nice campground around 4:00 with a view from our campsite of a waterfall spilling off a mountain. Good day for a couple mojitos and some relaxing.

Seattle

After getting through California and seeing the beautiful Redwood forests and seashores, we decided against driving the Oregon and Washington coasts and instead headed through the middle of the state.  Partially for time issues and also because we had a pretty significant problem with the 5'er that we needed to resolve.

Just about to have dinner outside

When we boondock (camp without water or electric hookups) we must use propane for the refrigerator and the water heater.  In the redwoods we had no hookups and the propane would not work for the water heater.  It fired up but wouldn't stay lit.

The problem was the circuit board that determines if the flame is lit went bad and we had to find a new one.  So until we got to Seattle, we called many RV parts and service places to locate the part.

We thought we'd have one by Portland but it was not easy to source.  Finally in Tacoma we found the part at a camping world and I installed it in the parking lot in case I broke anything while installing the circuit board.  The installation was fairly easy and we were on our way with a functional water heater once again.

We planned to take a couple days in Seattle to restock our supplies and see the town.  First thing on the list was to find a car wash for the truck.  Then we went downtown to Pike's Market and do some touring.

One very interesting tour was a walking tour of underground Seattle.  After a fire back in the 1800's, they rebuilt the town 20 feet higher than what it was.  The catch was it would take years to add 20-30 feet of fill dirt before building so they rebuilt the town and slowly started raising the levels of the dirt eventually closing off the first level of the town.  And many of those areas are still visible with sidewalks and doors and windows of the original town.  We even got to see one of the first flush toilets ever made.

The 19th century history of the town was pretty corrupt and not a place we'd like to live.  However one historic place we did stop and see was the original Starbucks.  Everywhere you look in this city people are walking around with coffee and seems to be a coffee shop on every corner.  I noticed our tour guide sipping two separate brands of coffee just before the tour began.  It's a way of life around here it seems.  Maybe that's why they recently legalized marijuana in Washington state.  To counteract all the caffeine buzz going around.

Tomorrow we'll be glad to get away from the Seattle traffic and head into Canada.  Finally starting to get somewhat close to the destination.  We hoped to do some more tours and go on a Ferry ride in Puget Sound but just not enough time.  Oh and while walking Pike's market we even noticed a sign "gateway to Alaska".

We did the last of our Trader Joe's shopping and stocked up on some new favorite items.  We'll miss that store.  And hit the last of those excellent vegetarian restaurants that the West Coast of the US is loaded with. 

Bigfoot and the Redwoods

Yvonne standing INSIDE a burned out Redwood tree

We took our time leaving SeaBiscuit's ranch as we had a few minor repairs/modifications to make besides just wanting to enjoy a beautiful morning. This would be a good campground to come back and spend a couple weeks.

As we made our way north, we entered the beautiful Redwood Forest. These trees were magnificent and kept us in awe. 

And of course we had to make a stop at the BigFoot visitor center to note all the sightings of Bigfoot along our route north. The center had all kinds of BigFoot memorabilia and books on the subject.

 After that we stopped by the side of the road in a pull off and had lunch in the forest. 

Lunch spot

 After lunch we stopped at the State Park visitor center and walked on a path with a bunch of noisy tourists. One idiot family gave their kids a whistle and told them to blow it every 30 seconds to scare off bears. Complete idiots. So we found a different less traveled path in the words of Robert Frost.

There is something magical about this place … absolutely enchanting. So much so we decided to make it a short day and pull into a State park Campground. Our campsite and this park are completely surrounded with giant redwood trees. The road through the campground was very close to the trees and winding through here with our rig was a bit of a challenge. Once we set up I talked with a retired guy camping close to us who was biking south from Washington State to California hoping to eventually end up in Yosemite. These hills (mountains) are very steep and there are many of them so that's not something I could envision doing. By morning there were about a dozen different bikers camping in our campground. I noticed most of them quickly made camp, grabbed something quick to eat and then went directly to sleep.

Tree Hugger

The only priority was to build a big campfire and enjoy our time here. It was so nice out by the fire we didn't even make dinner other than a bag of kettle corn from Trader Joe's and a few crackers. The ground in the campground is soft from all the needles from the Redwoods. Despite our best efforts, the site is not very level but we still slept well. After waking and having a cup of coffee we headed out into the woods on a 2-3 mile hike. A great way to start the day.

SeaBiscuit

morning walk Monterrey Beach

We started our morning with a nice walk to Monterrey Beach which wasn't far from our campground. Then another day navigating the expressways of California. We opted to go around San Francisco and cut through Oakland and Berkley which really wasn't too bad. Took the bridge over the Bay and was could even see the Golden Gate bridge. Toll was $20.00 !!!

As we head north, there are plenty of beautiful Redwoods to look at along the rolling hills. Quite scenic and much more laid back. Rolled into a nice little campground at around 4:00 after a couple hundred miles. But this wasn't an ordinary campground. Besides being very beautiful, it was on the ranch where SeaBiscuit and his owner lived. SeaBiscuit is buried here and there is a statue of SeaBiscuit on the property. If you ever saw the movie, this is the homestead where Charles Howard and his family lived when they owned SeaBiscuit. Sadly, their 15 year old son died on this homestead in a vehicle accident on the property. SeaBiscuit resided here with Mr. and Mrs Howard until his death in 1947. When the ranch estate was sold in 1951, one of the bidders that lost out on the sale was Roy Rogers (my childhood hero but that's another story).

Cold beer with chips and salsa

There is quite a bit of wildlife on this ranch and on a 2.5 mile hike we took, there were wild turkeys and Jack Rabbits (Although we're thinking they could be the elusive Jack-a-Lopes). We met a couple on our hike that said there were also white Deer on the land (imported from India with big horns) as well as many coyote which will keep out cat occupied in her perches by the windows. 

Big Sur and Elephant Seals

Quite a long day making our way down route one through Big Sur.  The scenery couldn't be better and the pictures we took did not capture the enormity of Big Sur.  The highway was very high up and quite narrow in a lot of spots.   A lot of it was 20 - 30 mph which was fine with me.  The exhaust brake really was sweet and kept the rig at a nice steady speed going down steep grades.

At one point we pulled off and had lunch with our window overlooking the Pacific ocean from very high up.  Nice place to take it easy before navigating those tight turns with the 5'er.  Only problem was all the people on bicycles on these tight winding roads.  You start going around a curve and there's a bike in your lane and zero room because another car or truck is coming at you.  Or if you decide to get over and pass the bicyclist on a curve, the chances of another car being there is quite high.  No easy choices sometimes.  Especially pulling a trailer that takes almost the entire lane.

Later in the day we pulled off at a spot that was full with hundreds of elephant seals.  They were quite entertaining.  Also saw quite a few Redwood trees along parts of our route today.

Now we're camped in North Monterey just off the beach.  Tomorrow we'll head around San Francisco and head into northern California.  We were going to spend the day there but decided against it.

Pismo Beach

It seems like today is the actual first day of our trip.  Going through the Southwest didn't feel much like camping but today we're camped in a pretty nice State Park on Pismo Beach.  The views and dunes to the beach are fantastic.  Especially glad to be here after driving the 5'er through the dense traffic and tangle of Los Angeles expressways.

After leaving LA there were some beautiful hills of yellow flowers and views of the pacific from the truck.

We got here early enough where we could walk on the beach and watch the kite surfers.  One of the kite surfers showed us how to use the kite and gave us a mini lesson  just before he took off.

Only other news was our cat was mad at us this morning.  She would not look at us and put her back to us while we were getting the 5'er ready to travel.  Fortunately the cat attitude went away when we set up at Pismo.  I guess she just didn't want to leave Anaheim.

Campsite #10

Traveling companion

Southern Cal

Other than the traffic, southern California has been a real treat.  One nice thing is the great vegetarian restaurants that are abundant in this area. Our new world wide favorite restaurant is a California chain called the Veggie Grill.  The food is beyond delicious.

We spent time in Anaheim, went to Long Beach and took a drive to spend the day in the beautiful city of San Diego. Also we planned to go to Disney one day. As it turns out this wasn't very good timing.  We wanted to see how it compared to the Orlando park. After we got in the park, we kept running into rides that were closed. A great many of them were closed for renovation. More so than I had seen in Orlando. And then the ones that were opened started to break down. People were walking around just trying to find an attraction that worked. It was almost comical. Even the workers seemed apologetic explaining that they were trying to get the park ready for the summer rush. Yvonne mentioned a refund a few times and at first I thought it was a crazy idea. But after walking for another couple hours trying to find something we wanted to go on that was opened, I finally agreed. We made our way to the customer service booth and there was a long line of others who felt the same way we did. They were also in line to get a refund which is strictly against Disney policy. But policies can have exceptions. After a slight go around with a very nice Disney rep we got a refund.

Tomorrow we head up the coast toward San Francisco and Big Sur.  Looks like we're almost half way to Alaska  (Last night I incorrectly posted 1/3).

Hot Hot Hot

The last couple days in Arizona have been pretty good. Plus it was nice seeing my brother Jerry and his wife Nancy in Tucson.  All of us got in some sightseeing and good mexican food. Plus Yvonne loved climbing the ladder to get into my brother's 18 wheeler truck to see what they are like inside. 

Today we are boondocking out in the desert on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land.  We just drove into the desert a half mile and picked a level spot.  It is 102 degrees and our air conditioning is barely keeping up.  Generators are working very well though.

 The wind is quite strong and these dust tornado things keep sweeping through here. While we were driving on the interstate we kept seeing very large dust tornadoes flying across the desert everywhere. We even remarked how we wondered what it would be like to be hit by one. Well we found out. We were getting dinner ready and one hit us direct to our side and the 5'er rocked violently for a few seconds. So much so that I went out and deployed the stabilizers. No way it would have flipped us but it felt like a giant was rocking the trailer. And now we know.

Our campsite out in the desert

Even though this desert is pretty harsh, we prefer wilderness camping over the manicured RV resorts in most respects. There's nobody around, no artificial lights and we have everything we need. KOA or private campgrounds are ok to stop and sleep but this is what I consider camping. Still, the desert is not really our thing so we'll be glad to get to Anaheim CA tomorrow and in a few days begin the trip north into cooler temps and out of the desert dryness.

Blending in with the Locals

Making our way through Texas and New Mexico has been nice and smooth. Great roads and an 80 mile an hour speed limit keeps traffic moving even though our rig doesn't usually get pushed faster than 65. One thing I liked about Texas is all the big ranches with their large signs overhanging the entrance to the homestead with Texan names like “The back 40” or “The Ponderosa”.   Something I've wanted for years. As we got further into Texas it started to look like how I envisioned Texas to be with the trees gradually getting smaller and smaller and long flat hills everywhere. One section had at least a hundred giant windmills.

New Mexico is pretty good for traveling through also. One thing I didn't expect was to be stopped by the border patrol. They were pulling all cars over and asked us if anyone was in our RV as they walked around it with a large dog. Our cat isn't particularly fond of German Shepard's so I'm glad they waved us on.  

Border Patrol in New Mexico

We're in a KOA in Lordsburg, NM tonight and should get into Tucson early tomorrow to hook up with my brother and sister in law and do some sightseeing. Last couple days we've pushed our mileage somewhat to get through Texas and have some time to kick back. Also may alter plans in the next couple days to go through Joshua tree National Park. We have plans in San Diego but might end up camping in Anaheim and just take a day to drive down the coast to San Diego for lunch without the rig. Then a day or two with the mouse.

For some reason our Son asked us to pick him up some cow horns as a souvenir. However, they look pretty darned good on our truck and will help us to blend in with the locals. Jeff  just might have to spend some time scraping the bugs off these when we get back. Then again they cover up that beautiful GMC Logo so I guess the horns will have to go.

Just trying to blend with the Locals

Famous characters seen so far …. roadrunner in Texas and a scraggly Wiley looking Coyote in Mississippi. Also all the swirling dust tornadoes made us think the Tasmanian devil could be out there too.

Double Mojito night

Yesterday we stayed at Buccaneer State Park in Waveland, Mississippi. Quite an interesting State Park Campground that isn't typical at all. It was recently rebuilt after being destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and this campground has a water park as well as a wave pool and is directly on the Gulf of Mexico. It appears most of the 200+ campsites have full hookups too.

The other interesting fact about this campground is it is built on the site for the confederate command forces during the civil war during the battle of New Orleans. And it's also the site of Andrew Jackson's homestead where he lived after the war.

We practically had the campground to ourselves and the dozen or so campers staying here are not to be seen. We were guessing that they're probably at the local casinos making their fortunes. During the night we had some pretty good thunderstorms come through. Looking at the positive, the heavy rain washed off most of the love bugs while we slept.

It was a long day today and we put in quite a few miles and made it into Texas. Roads in Louisiana were pretty beat up but the real fun started when we felt the excitement of driving through Houston during rush hour traffic. It was without a doubt the longest traffic jam I have ever been in through my entire life. The 12 lane road was backed up for 50 miles through the city. I don't know how anyone in Houston could possibly live in this town. I'm just glad we opted to fight our way through the city and camp on the western side so tomorrow will be clear sailing. The traffic jam is what effected our double mojito night.

We're in a private RV park tonight. Very neat and quiet. Good place for drinking Mojitos and relaxing. 

The cat with ESP

It was a relief to finally hit the road after months of planning and checking the 5'er to make sure we brought everything we might need for the trip. First night is at Torreya State Park in the panhandle of Florida. Went about 340 miles which seemed like a decent day. Lots of love bugs were plastered to the truck and 5'er when we pulled in. Washed them off as soon as we set up.

We never did get everything organized before pulling out so there is still a pile of stuff that needs to be put away. We have at least 2-3 times more things that what we normally take camping. That plus the extra tools, a half tank of fresh water and the generators has the rig feeling somewhat heavier going down the road. Nothing the new diesel engine can't handle though.

Big hills in this State park reminds me of the mountains of Georgia in some ways. We did a little hiking after dinner and got a good workout. Mosquitoes were extremely thick which made for a brisk walking pace.

Our Cat has ESP and without a doubt knew what was up when we woke up this morning. We closed off her usual routes of escape to hide out and when it was time to go, she went limp when I picked her up and let me take her out to the 5'er with no complaints. Any other time I try to pick her up she starts with constant meowing to let me know she doesn't like being picked up. So she just knew what was coming and resigned herself to just get on with it.

Very little planning

Just about every spare moment since February has been spent renovating a new house we bought with our son, so there has been little time devoted to planning this Alaska trip.   Doing things impulsively and flying by the seat of your pants as they say is more fun anyways.  In fact the only reservations we had were for the Alaskan Marine Hwy and we cancelled those to save money and instead travel the Alaskan Hwy back.

But I have been taking time maintaining the Fiver to be in top condition to travel.  It now has a new set of top quality wheel bearings and grease and I've been going through all the systems to update what needs attention.  Although that was going well, just before we went camping last week to test  modifications several problems were discovered.  First, a water connection that I changed out started leaking like crazy.  This in turn got the carpet inside wet which somehow caused our slideout to malfunction.  It would not go all the way back in and a plastic piece that is part of the sliding mechanism came unattached.  Talk about a panic situation.

The slideout is a number one worry because it can cause big headaches if it fails.  Fortunately we have some top notch RV mechanics (RV's R Us, Pinellas Park, Fl) in our area and what I thought was a major issue turned out to be a quick fix to these guys.  Plus they noticed the other end of the slideout had the same issue so they fixed both of them.  Apparently the pieces never did get screwed down at the factory ... the screws were just laying next to both pieces under the slide room.  Somehow the slide still worked just fine without the screws since 2006.  And it's good that it failed now instead of in some remote area of the Yukon.

One of our good friends who also has a fifth wheel and helped us plan this trip to Alaska passed away unexpectedly this week.  I got a lot of good advice from him and it highlights the fact that we need to savor and enjoy life while we can because you never know when your time here will end.  Bob loved driving on the Alaskan Hwy so I'm sure he will join us in spirit on this trip.

Only a couple weeks left to departure so we're finally starting to pack and get ready.