The rain has stopped. We have not floated away. But the weather certainly got more interesting before the sun returned. I think it was Wednesday that I was alarmed to see “white stuff” on the truck -

So imagine our surprise when we woke up to this on Friday morning -

Now THAT’S some “white stuff”!

It continued to snow and rain for the rest of the day

and I just kept repeating to myself – Southern California….Southern California….

But Saturday dawned bright and clear. Ah, sunshine! Even though the temps were still in the low 40′s it still seemed like a beautiful day! I took an early morning drive to check out the snow in the area. I drove just a couple of blocks south to get a clear view of the mountains to the north (does that make any sense?). And it was quite a view!

Those mountains look like they’ve been covered with powdered sugar, don’t they.
I drove back to the school, but continued north for just a little bit. Seems where we are parked was right on the snow/rain “line”, since just up the road a piece the scenery was quite wintery!


I think those palm trees were also saying …Southern California….Southern California……
This shot is looking south again – no snow on those mountains!

So it was quite a week, weather-wise. The coming week looks much calmer. Not a whole lot warmer, but temps in the 50′s and more sun than rain. Sounds good to me!

We’re on the road again, after a delayed departure from Nampa as we waited (and waited) for the return of my computer. Getting on the road at 5PM is not really our idea of a good start, but start we did. We are headed to Southern California – Jordan Outreach Ministries in Coachella, CA. (I understand it was 75 there today. It’s going to be 14 here tonight.)

Since we wanted to stop and see my niece near Salt Lake City, we were heading SE across the lower part of Idaho. I gotta tell you – there is not much to see!


We obviously didn’t get too far (trying to find a place to park in the dark is really not fun), but we were on our way bright and early the next morning. We were hoping to get to Salt Lake City by noon.




We did finally hit some traffic just as we were coming to the The Great Salt Lake -

And this is pretty much all we saw of the lake (as we sat in traffic!)


We did manage to hook up with Bethany just after noon, and she and I took a tour of Salt Lake City (while Gary kicked back, took a nap and did some reading.). She was a great tour guide – and I’ll do a separate post of that! (I promise!).

This morning we were on the road a little after 6AM – hoping to beat some of the Salt Lake City traffic (we were pretty much driving from one side of the city to the other on the interstate). Pretty much all we managed to do is join in all the traffic in the dark. We made it through and eventually left the traffic behind us.

What we didn’t leave behind us was the snow, and although there were stretches without any of the white stuff,

we could tell by the white stuff hanging on the distant mountains, that there was indeed more snow in dem dar mountains.
When we stopped for fuel at around 9AM we learned that the mountain passes (our route) were requiring chains so we figured we better stay put. As the day wore on we kept seeing lots of other RVs and trucks heading south on I15 and we finally decided that we would give it a shot. We had a full tank of diesel and a full tank of propane, so we figured we were set. Oh, and we also talked with someone who had come from that direction and he said the roads weren’t too bad. The sky even seemed to be clearing some, so off we went.

Looks OK so far…..

Alright, so it’s starting to snow pretty good, but the road is still pretty clear.

Hmmmmm…the mountains are beginning to disappear in the snow…….

Oh, man, I AM NOT feeling good about this. Slow down!!!!!!

The lanes are getting pretty narrow, and now everyone is going at a snails pace as we climb to the final (I hope) summit.


It was bumper to bumper all the way to the top (apparently a LOT of folks paid no attention to the winter weather warning!), things lightened up a little as we crawled down that “hill”, and after another couple of hours of off and on again snow, we did finally make it to the Walmart in Cedar City. It’s still snowing lightly, and it really is going to be in the mid-high teens tonight, but we made it over the pass and we are VERY THANKFUL!

Time to get snuggled under that wonderful down comforter.
(as soon as the Phillies win, right?)

(Actual date – 5/28 – and we’re just 14 miles from our destination. We’re at North Pole, Alaska – where Christmas is always in the air! Here are the posts I’ve been writing, but have been unable to actually upload. Pour yourself another cup of coffee – this could take awhile!)
5/24/09
I don’t know when I’ll have a chance to post anything, so I’ll just keep writing, and hopefully it won’t be too confusing when it comes time to post.

More about Saturday May 23 – Day 13
Let’s be honest. For a girl who doesn’t like to spend more than $10.00 on a museum ticket, taking a day long cruise from Skagway to Juneau was a little outside of my thrifty comfort zone. But everyone that we spoke to highly recommended the cruise and after all, it included not only a comfortable 2 1/2 hour cruise (filled with promised wildlife) to Juneau, our only chance to actually see Juneau, a trip to a famous glacier PLUS a blueberry muffin and apple on the way down and smoked salmon chowder and a roll on the way back (another lengthy boat ride, but a little more direct since we wouldn’t be stopping to view known seal rookeries). My more traveled companions assured me that it was really a good value, so I agreed, figuring it really was a once in a lifetime excursion. And truly it was! I know I gave you a quick rundown of the day in an earlier post – but just to rehash (and with a couple more pictures…..)
The drive down to Skagway was breathtaking. It was especially so as we neared the Alaskan border, but even as we set out (like at 6AM), the nearby lake was beautiful in the morning light.

And as the drive continued south

and we began the climb into the mountains

It was like we were in a winter wonderland

We made it across the border (it’s so much simpler when you are in a car instead of a motor home!)

And started down a loooonnnnnnggggg 11% grade hill (another thing so much simpler in a car than a motor home)

Until we reached Skagway – (population 834- except when there is a cruise ship in port!)

(it’s pretty quiet there at 7AM on a Saturday!)

Our boat departed at 8AM – and right away we had a taste of how beautiful the day would be.

We saw probably a dozen eagles, sea lions and harbor seals – too many to count, had dolphins swimming along side our boat as she clipped along at 30 knots, spotted at least 4 whales and enjoyed scenery that was breathtaking.

Juneau was “touristy”, though we did get to see the capital building and the governor’s home (Hi, Sarah!) during our bus tour. I didn’t know what to expect at the glacier (not having one in the neighborhood and all), but it was very interesting. I don’t know if you can see how blue the ice is, but it was quite beautiful.

The cruise back to Skagway as just as beautiful, though a little shorter. We had no planned wildlife stops (like the rookeries), but when anyone spotted a whale or a dolphin, we did a thorough investigation. Here we are departing from our dock outside of Juneau –

We didn’t arrive back home in Carcross until almost 11PM. It was a very long day and we were all tired puppies. But it is a day that we certainly won’t forget anytime soon!
More Day 13 Photos (yes, there are more!)
Sunday, May 24, 2009 – Day 14
We left our campground in time for us to get to church in Whitehorse. We had scoped out a church that had adequate parking (or parking nearby) for our three big houses, and were blessed to worship with folks at the Whitehorse Baptist Church. I think they were pretty used to having travelers visit, but I also think we were the first of the season. We soon were on our way, hoping to get as far as Kluane Lake north of Haines Junction.
The drive, as always, was beautiful (though there were some patches of road that weren’t so “beautiful”.)

We were driving along the Wrangell-St. Elias Mountain ranges, home to Mt. Logan the tallest peak in Canada. We never saw Mt. Logan, but the mountains all around us were (I’m sorry to keep using this word) spectacular.


We were all feeling quite weary after our long day on Saturday and in all honesty, I think the guys were all getting a little tired of driving, driving, driving. While we didn’t have a particular camping spot in mind, Gary was hoping to find a pull-off with a view of Lake Kluane (and that didn’t have a “no overnight parking” sign).
Here is where we ended up –

Isn’t our God good to us????
The view out our front window around 10:45

And then around 1:45-

It almost made that middle of the night trip to the john worth it!
More Day 14 Pictures
Memorial Day – Monday, 5/25 – Day 15
It was a beautiful day – starting with prayer along the shore of the beautiful Lake Kluane.

(Pardon yesterday’s bugs on the windshield.)

From there on it was pretty much push on to Tok. We made it through customs with no problem – and arrived in Tok around 2PM Alaskan time. It was a long day, with lots of bumpy road, so we’re all BEAT! But still the beauty continues!





(eewww – gravel!)

We were all pretty glad to settle into a campground and call it a day. It wasn’t our farthest day of travel (about 250 miles), but it was over 8 hours behind the wheel. This last stretch of road was particularly full of frost heaves, and boy when ol’ Lizzie hits one of those heaves – all kinds of things heave in here! I finally tied my little dashboard plant to one of the stationary fans on the dash just to keep it from continually tipping over! We were glad to arrive in Tok in one piece (more or less) and just in need of a nap!

Off to bed – sweet dreams!
Steph
More Day 15 Pictures….

Tuesday, May 26, 2009 Day 16
Today was a good day because
1. We were able to hook up with some Sower friends, Pete and Ellen, who were also traveling in Alaska. Turns out we were all in Tok at the same time, just in different campgrounds! They have joined our little caravan for a couple of days – what fun!
2. We came to the end of the Alaska Highway. All 1422 miles of it. No band was there to congratulate us on the accomplishment, but we did get (for the bargain price of $1.00) a certificate recognizing our accomplishment. Now we’ve driven 2175 miles all together (and still have about 100 to go), but somehow driving the whole length of the Alaska Highway (especially without any broken windshields or flat tires) seemed like a reason to celebrate. Fortunately the local IGA (and the closest thing we’ve seen to a real supermarket in the last 500 miles or so) had a nice ice cream stand so we were able to celebrate properly. And, it was a sunny 75 degrees. Here we are with our expanded group -

3. We found a great place to park – Rika’s Roadhouse State Historical Site. They offer dry camping for $5.00/night which was music to our ears. We settled in, had a great dinner of burgers on the grill and then sat around a campfire with folks from the other two RV’s parked there. It’s been fun to meet folks along the way, and we had seen one of the RV’s all along the way in our travels. (It’s not as if there are lots of places to turn off!) It was good to finally meet them and hear their story.
4. I knew we weren’t going anywhere on Wednesday. We were all ready for a no-driving day!

So here are just a couple of shots from our short (110) mile day.

Lots of long straight road –

Without too much break in the scenery.
And even though it was quite warm , there was still plenty of ice on the rivers –

No exciting wildlife sightings along the way. The only interesting thing we saw was a HUGE rabbit at the campground in the morning.

Trust me, this baby was BIG!

And of course we couldn’t resist a stop for some Yak Sausage (among other delights) at the Delta Meat and Sausage Company.

(We do kinda take up the parking lot, don’t we?)

Finally, a lovely Alaskan wildflower we spotted at the campground. I thinks it’s a Pasque Flower.

(It’s true, I’m still working on my macro technique!)

A good day in sooo many ways!
More Day 17 Pictures

Wednesday, May 27, 2009 Day 17

Today was a lovely quiet day. We all walked over to checkout Rika’s Roadhouse – an historic compound where travelers could stop and rest along their journey up and down the Tanana River.

It also gave us our first view of the Alaskan Pipeline as it crosses the Tanana River.

We did a little driving around and spotted a moose. But as is often the case, this is what I managed to get a picture of –

Trust me, there’s a big il’ mama moose in there! No, look – she’s even looking at the camera!

The day started with sunshine, turned cold and windy and kicked up a huge dust storm, and then started to rain. We must be in Alaska!

And that brings us up to Today (well, yesterday by the time I got this all put together!) – Thursday, May 28 – Day 18. For the first time since we left Washington we were not the lead RV! Pete and Ellen had a campground all scoped out for our last night on the road, so we let them lead the way and we pulled up the rear.

Hello, John!!!
It was a short drive to North Pole, AK. The Visitor Center was very cute -

and very informative.

---

Tomorrow we head into our June project, Camp Li-Wa , just 15 miles up the road. As amazing as this trip has been (with more delights in store for us as the summer progresses), it will be very nice to settle in and get to work next week. All this playing is exhausting.

Thursday, May 21, 2009
Hi!
I figured I’d do an update tonight even though it was a quiet day for us. We had already decided that it would be mostly a chore day – Jay and Naomi had that dental problem to take care of up in Whitehorse and we certainly could find plenty to do to once we got settled at the campground. We’ve positioned ourselves so we can make an easy trip to Skagway where we are taking a one day “cruise” to Juneau. We had planned to do it tomorrow (Friday), but turns out they only go out on the weekend. Good thing we called! So tomorrow I think we’ll take in some of the local sights – maybe even driving up to Whitehorse. But today was definatly doing stuff that needed to be done! The 120 mile ride from our campground to Carcross was as beautiful as always, but I’m thinking you are getting a little tired of pictures of “the road.” So in an effort to spare you (for at least a day), here are some pictures of water that we crossed over. These are all from different bridges, and taken from a moving RV, so sometimes the angle is a little weird. But the sun was great – and the ice was really interesting. And let’s remember – there are no roads in these pictures!

The Nisultin River

The Teslin River

The Tagish River

It’s almost 10:30PM and the sun is finally going down behind the mountains. And since it will be coming up at 5:06 – I think I’d better call it a night!
Thanks for stopping by, friends!

(You might want to pour yourself a cup of tea and get comfy! This is my first internet connection in three days……)

May 19, 2009, Tuesday, day Nine
Fort Nelson to Laird Hot Springs
What a spectacular day! After the guys fueled up, John got his windshield ding fixed and Naomi figured out what to do about the dentist, we headed to the local Pioneer Museum. It’s amazing to me how much stuff can be collected for an area that was relatively unpopulated until 1942 when the 2000 soldiers arrived to begin construction of the Alaska Highway.

Fort Nelson was originally Mile 0 for the highway until the stretch from Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson was completed and then it became Mile 300. Even today the population is just over 5000. But this museum was pretty extensive and seemed to include a little bit of everything historical about the town and the area. It was a good way to start the day.

Official departure was around 10:30, we made two stops for a total of about 40 minutes and made it to Laird Hot Springs Provincial Park by 3:30. That might not seem like a lot of driving time, but oh where that highway took us! Up and down (and up and down and up and down), around mountains, alongside beautiful lakes, over rivers and then along side the rivers. I was bouncing from the front seat to the sofa to try and get shot after shot of some of the most breathtaking scenery I have ever seen. We saw caribou, stone sheep, bison and a glimpse of a bear. The sky was a perfect backdrop for the stunning white crowned mountain tops, the mountain tops were the perfect background for the spectacular lakes and rivers we drove by. Honestly, I took close to 500 pictures. It’s embarrassing, but I just couldn’t stop myself. (Plus it distracts me from getting too involved in all of the 8%-9% grades that we were either going up or going down). I’ve tried to pick just one (ok, sometimes two…maybe three) pictures from each hour of the day’s drive. Here goes –
The day started out pretty cold, but we were so pleased with the sunshine that we didn’t even care as the hills gradually became more and more covered with the white stuff.
Setting out –
10:30 -11.30

Before too long -

the snow was all around us!
11:30 – 12:30
We did stop for a photo op at Steamboat Mountain Summit –

And then just to be silly –

(Can you see we’re a little bundled up? I think it was still below freezing at this point.)


12:30 – 1:30
We stopped for lunch at Summit Lake – the highest point on the Alaska Highway. (We were at the lowest point just that morning when we were at Fort Nelson).


Peanut butter and Jelly have rarely been set to such lovely surroundings!

It’s good to meet friends on the road.
1:30 – 2:30
Views from the side windows -


2:30-3:30
Muncho Lake. This was absolutely stunning. It’s seven miles long and for a good part of it we were driving right along the edge (with a stone wall beside us). The color was amazing – even with it mostly covered with ice it was dazzling.



(That our little caravan coming around the corner)

So beautiful! I couldn’t resist going over my allotment of pictures on that one
And here is a moose – making it’s way (rapidly) down the river –

Did you know that moose can swim continuously for several hours, dive to depths of 20 feet, and can remain submerged for up to a minute? Well, now you do!
He’s just a dot in this picture (toward the right) – I think he was in the express lane!

By 3:30 we were at our campground for the night – Laird Hot Springs Provincial Park. No hook-ups, but two wonderful hot (and I mean HOT) springs.

Here are John and Rosie and Gary and I enjoying a relaxing dip in the spring –

Ahhhhhhhhh………….
It was a lovely way to end a beautiful day. (Not to mention a great dinner and fellowship around a campfire!)

Wednesday, May 20, 2009 Day 10 – Entering the YUKON!
Laird Hot Springs to Continental Divide Campground

Another gorgeous day! The early daylight is making early risers out of us, and Gary and I were out for a walk (after breakfast!) by 6:30. (scary, isn’t it?).
We walked out to the hot springs to check out the second pool – it was just as lovely as the one we had taken our dip in, but much deeper. And so beautiful in the morning light –

We pulled out right on scheduled and continued our trek North and West. We had seen several signs warning about Bison herds, but had only spotted a couple along the road. We weren’t too far down the road when we finally came upon a herd (ok, so it’s not a Dancing with Wolves size herd, but we felt it was pretty sizable!).

And imagine our delight to find several young ones in the group – and one even nursing.

We continued to keep our eyes peeled for wildlife along the side of the road and a couple of time spotted a black bear grazing near a tree line. We finally hit the jackpot though –

Made my day!
The road was pretty much winding through forested hills

as it followed the Laird River west.

I was excited to see the snowcapped mountains on the horizon

but wasn’t so excited about the fact that I couldn’t see any more of the road. Gulp.

We made it to Watson Lake and the Signpost Forest just before noon.

Travelers from all around the world stop there and nail a sign to one of the posts in the “forest”. We came prepared –


And were glad that we had joined in the tradition.

A quick lunch and on to the last bit of our trip for the day.



We did hit a couple stretches of gravel – not a real problem to drive on, but boy does it kick up the dust. It’s one of the good times to be the one out front!

As we were approaching our destination for the day -

And finally the view out of our picture window here at our resting place for the night.

Snow notwithstanding, we ate dinner outside and enjoyed a lovely campfire with some neighbors from Austria.

Tomorrow we will be splitting up for a bit. We’ll leave together, but Jay and Naomi will be heading into Whitehorse for a dentist appointment (yea!!!) while the rest of us head to Carcross. Once they’re finished at the dentist they’ll come down and join us. We are planning on camping in Carcross and then driving down to Skagway for the day on Friday.
Map of Days 9 &10

Map of Day 11 (Jay and Naomi’s route is the little blue line!)

(OK, I’m back to the present! The Carpers did indeed head to Whitehorse for the dentist (and Naomi did get her tooth fixed enough so she’ll be comfortable for the rest of the trip) and we are settled in at a little campground in Carcross. The guys have just finished up washing the rigs and cars – boy, were they dirty! I’ve finished up some laundry, worked on getting this post ready to go and now I need to get the vacuuming done. I do have some pictures of the drive today – but I’ll spare you right now. I mean, really – how much of this road stuff can you take! We won’t be heading into Skagway until Saturday, so tomorrow is a little up in the air. But with all the tourism information we have, I’m sure we’ll find something to do!)

Oh – I almost forgot –
More Day 9 Pictures HERE
More Day 10 Pictures HERE