Sorry that it's been QUITE a while, peeps! We been going non-stop since getting back into the USA in July.
BEFORE I GET INTO WHAT ALL WE'VE BEEN DOING I WANTED TO EXHORT YOU TO CLICK ON THE 'OUR SOJOURNS' BUTTON ON JITREKKING.COM. WE HAVE OUR 2017 SOJOURN SCHEDULE POSTED THERE. It takes us from Southern Texas to California to the Pacific Northwest to Alaska to West Virginia, Pennsylvania to New York to Indiana to Texas again. This time we are flying to Alaska and renting an RV to do the sojourn there.
ANYWAY, We got back into the USA and had to fly back to Indiana from Montana so I could attend a Shults-Lewis Child and Family Services Board of Trustees meeting. Following that we drove down to Rupert, ID where we would have a sojourn at the end of July, but just to park the rig to drive down to Salt Lake City where we got one of our grand daughters, Phoebe, so she could visit with us while we went over to Yellowstone National Park with her for about 10 days. That was loads of fun.
After shipping her back home we actually had the Sojourn in Rupert. It was terrific. We had 2 baptisms and taught a VBS.
Following that we beat feet down to Olathe, Kansas to spend the day with Larry and Jan Long (who taught me the gospel when I was in Minot, North Dakota in the Air Force). That was while we were on our way to Marshall, TX for the Camp Bee workshop in October (10th-20th). Where we dropped off the Trekker and spend a good chunk of the month of August flying to visit our kids and grandkids in Durham, North Carolina and then Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We just didn't have the available time to drive from TX to NC to Canada and back to TX again. Flying was our only option).
Coming back to Texas we took ONE WEEKEND and drove our Flex down to our house in Mission, TX to apply for our absentee ballots for this moronic election we are about to have. I'd say we were going to pick the lesser of 2 evils here, but they both seem to be trying to outdo one another on the "lesser scale."
Heading back to Marshall we had to fly to Indiana for the Shults-Lewis ANNUAL day -- the big festival fundraising day complete with Garage Sale; Food; Inflatable kids play areas and Food, and another Board Meeting and more Food and....
Coming back to Camp Bee we had to really lock into getting all of the "I"s dotted and "T"s crossed for the 2016 Workshop that Irene and I were in charge of this year. So, the month of October was an absolute blur.
The day after the Workshop ended on 10/20 we had to be in Jackson, MS to close on the house we were selling. Joel, Brenda and Phoebe lived there until they moved to Texas in 2013. Since then it was rented to the people that just purchased it from us.
The next day we drove to Red Bay, Alabama where we sit now awaiting getting our year Trekker repair and tune-up.
For my birthday, Irene bought us tickets to the New Orleans Saints - Seattle Seahawks. That game was this past weekend. The Saints won. It was a really great game -- close all the way and had numerous lead changes.
We should get into the repair bays by the end of next week. We've got a list of 15 items that need repaired. Some of it is body work (if you remember the grass disguised tree stump that bit the Trekker in Oregon). So, we will be in repairs about 10 days I imagine.
Over the weekend of November 11-13, we fly to Indiana for another Board Meeting and the Staff Appreciation Dinner. The next weekend we drive to southern Illinois for a wedding (Ty McFarland's) and the following week is Thanksgiving, so we will drive down to Florida to spend it with Kazumi, Steve and Neo. The weekend of December 2-4, I am teaching a seminar on "Covenant and Scripture" at a congregation just over in Mississippi from here. Then we head for the house (Mission, TX) for about 3 weeks before we fly back to Florida for Xmas with the family at Kazumi's.
I just read through this and I'm tired all over again and trying to catch my breath.
Friday, November 4, 2016
Sunday, July 3, 2016
From Jasper, Alberta to Calgary, AB via the Icefields Parkway
We are currently in Cochrane, Alberta just north of Calgary at the Spring Hill RV campground. We drove down from the Hinton/Jasper KOA last Wednesday. Along the way we drove the Icefields Parkway, Alberta Provincial Highway 93. It is regarded as one of the most beautiful drives in the world and possibly the most beautiful drive in North America. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Center. We were welcomed to the highway by some bighorn ewes and babies:
Not long after that, some elk showed up to welcome us to the park:
Above: This Buck's Horns are in "Velvet" meaning they are still growing and have their blood supplying covering on them
Above: This Doe walked across the highway right in front of the Trekker!
The highway parallels the Continental Divide of the Rocky mountains in Canada. The Divide is the boundary between the British Columbia Province and the Province of Alberta. The Parkway passes through numerous Provincial Parks that are contiguous to one another. The major 2 are Jasper Provincial Park and Banff Provincial Park. The mountain and glacier views are the "money shots" in these parks. I'm going to finish this with just a bunch of pictures of both:
Above: A FOX sighting along the way!!!!!
Below: Mountain Scenery Pictures
Below: Glacier Pictures
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Hey Man, How about another Tok? OR What a trip man, that last one lasted 2 days
We finished our sojourn in Homer, Alaska on the 16th of June and left that day for Palmer just north of Anchorage. To see portions of Alaska that we hadn't already seen we decided to take the "Tok Cutoff" out of Palmer. This highway means you don't have to go back up through Denali and Fairbanks before you head kind of toward Tok and the Canadian Border you just head EAST-NORTH-EAST straight for Tok and the border.
Over the first 35 miles we came to the conclusion that what they "cutoff" of the "Tok Cutoff" must have been the shoulders on the road. It was a N-A-R-R-O-W two lane road and on both sides there were some very precipitous drop-offs (as in 100 feet down into the Matanuska River) with NO, NADA, ZILCH, NEGATIVE BUPKIS in the way of guardrails on either side. It was easily the worst road we took our RV on in Alaska. The Milepost book has it spot on when it describes it as "A patchwork of good highway going bad."
As I mentioned much of the Southern portion lacked shoulders. In the northern portion what good will it gains by having shoulders it uterly destroys by having miles of "frost heaves" that make you feel like you are trying to ride a bucking bronch or rodeo bull to the 8 second mark!
About 50 miles south of Tok the road widened out, got shoulders and for Alaska became a pretty good highway. But that was just in time to have an 8 mile - NO asphalt, bumpy, pilot-car-led construction zone.
The scenery along the road all the way from Palmer to Tok made all of this bad road "worth the price of admission," however. It was breathtaking. For the shoulderless portion you are following the Matanuska River through a beautiful Alpen valley.
Rivers have "headwaters" - A place where they begin. Typically its a lake (Lake Victoria for the Nile for instance). As we were driving up the Matanuska River we realized that the origin, the "headwater" for the Matanuska River is the Matanuska Glacier. It is a magnificent looking glacier.
After passing the Matanuska Glacier we began to see the mountains of the Wrangell-St Elias National Park beginning to come into view toward the north. What an amazing site. This range of mountains (which straddles the border with Canada) is home to the 2nd highest peak in North America - Mt. Logan. It is also generally regarded at the largest mountain (by VOLUME, not height) in the world. The Canadian Portion of the range is in Kluane National Park and Reserve of Canada.
Mt. Wrangell is the largest active volcano in Alaska. It last erupted in 1900. Mt. Saint Elias is 18,002 feet tall (and yet it STILL can't dunk a basketball).
We stopped for the night in Gakona, Alaska and stayed at the Gakona RV park about 20 miles north of Glenallen. Still, no DirecTV of course, in fact we were much farther north of Homer now. Irene began taking pictures at night to show that we were now in the perpetual twilight area of Alaska. The sun did "SET" for 4 hours at night, but we were so far north that it never got far enough below the horizon that it would get dark. You could read books outside at night at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. Gakona is famed in Alaska History for its lodge.
Glenallen is where the Tok cutoff officially begins. Up to that point Highway 1 is called the Glenn Highway.
The next morning we set out for Tok, the Canadian Border and WiFi hell. We would spend the night in Beaver Creek Yukon Discovery Lodging in British Columbia, Canada. We followed the Wrangell-St Elias Mountains now to the right of us to Tok. The last "town" in Alaska before we would get to Canada.
Along the Tok Cutoff you are passing through a huge area of permafrost with its grotesquely stunted often"drunken" trees (many are leaning at a 30-60 degree angle because they have been "frost heaved" out of place). This area of permafrost is home to the Trumpeter and Tundra Swans which became a common sight for us on many of the ponds. These ponds are the result of snow melt that can not penetrate the soil because it is frozen (i.e. - permafrost). These are called Thermokarst Lakes.
Below are two maps - the first is from Alaska Geographic map.
The second is a picture from the Apple Maps on Irene's Cell Phone of
the "Satellite View" of the Glenn Highway-Tok Cutoff Route.
Over the first 35 miles we came to the conclusion that what they "cutoff" of the "Tok Cutoff" must have been the shoulders on the road. It was a N-A-R-R-O-W two lane road and on both sides there were some very precipitous drop-offs (as in 100 feet down into the Matanuska River) with NO, NADA, ZILCH, NEGATIVE BUPKIS in the way of guardrails on either side. It was easily the worst road we took our RV on in Alaska. The Milepost book has it spot on when it describes it as "A patchwork of good highway going bad."
Below is a picture of the narrow Glenn highway with minimal shoulders on both sides.
Trust me when I say it would NOT be a pretty site to see an RV go
over one of these shoulders. Also, notice NO guardrails.
Above: A picture of the raging Matanuska River with only a sloped
rocky sand berm between it and us.
As I mentioned much of the Southern portion lacked shoulders. In the northern portion what good will it gains by having shoulders it uterly destroys by having miles of "frost heaves" that make you feel like you are trying to ride a bucking bronch or rodeo bull to the 8 second mark!
Below: Two pictures of the frost heaved road. You can REALLY see it if you look at the white lines along the edge of the road. Do you see how the don't look straight but look like they are going "up, down, up, down, up, down." Each one of those indicates a place where the RV is GOING to bounce up and down. "YEEEE-HAAA ride 'em cowboy!"
About 50 miles south of Tok the road widened out, got shoulders and for Alaska became a pretty good highway. But that was just in time to have an 8 mile - NO asphalt, bumpy, pilot-car-led construction zone.
Above: Two pictures of the road construction right before arriving in Tok, Alaska.
The scenery along the road all the way from Palmer to Tok made all of this bad road "worth the price of admission," however. It was breathtaking. For the shoulderless portion you are following the Matanuska River through a beautiful Alpen valley.
Below: Four Pictures of Lovely Scenery along the Glenn Highway on the way to Gakona
Rivers have "headwaters" - A place where they begin. Typically its a lake (Lake Victoria for the Nile for instance). As we were driving up the Matanuska River we realized that the origin, the "headwater" for the Matanuska River is the Matanuska Glacier. It is a magnificent looking glacier.
Below: Six pictures of the Matanuska Glacier as seen from the Glenn Highway
on the way to Gakona for the night and Tok the next day.
After passing the Matanuska Glacier we began to see the mountains of the Wrangell-St Elias National Park beginning to come into view toward the north. What an amazing site. This range of mountains (which straddles the border with Canada) is home to the 2nd highest peak in North America - Mt. Logan. It is also generally regarded at the largest mountain (by VOLUME, not height) in the world. The Canadian Portion of the range is in Kluane National Park and Reserve of Canada.
Mt. Wrangell is the largest active volcano in Alaska. It last erupted in 1900. Mt. Saint Elias is 18,002 feet tall (and yet it STILL can't dunk a basketball).
We stopped for the night in Gakona, Alaska and stayed at the Gakona RV park about 20 miles north of Glenallen. Still, no DirecTV of course, in fact we were much farther north of Homer now. Irene began taking pictures at night to show that we were now in the perpetual twilight area of Alaska. The sun did "SET" for 4 hours at night, but we were so far north that it never got far enough below the horizon that it would get dark. You could read books outside at night at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. Gakona is famed in Alaska History for its lodge.
Below: Four Pictures highlighting the Gakona Roadhouse Lodge.
Glenallen is where the Tok cutoff officially begins. Up to that point Highway 1 is called the Glenn Highway.
The next morning we set out for Tok, the Canadian Border and WiFi hell. We would spend the night in Beaver Creek Yukon Discovery Lodging in British Columbia, Canada. We followed the Wrangell-St Elias Mountains now to the right of us to Tok. The last "town" in Alaska before we would get to Canada.
Along the Tok Cutoff you are passing through a huge area of permafrost with its grotesquely stunted often"drunken" trees (many are leaning at a 30-60 degree angle because they have been "frost heaved" out of place). This area of permafrost is home to the Trumpeter and Tundra Swans which became a common sight for us on many of the ponds. These ponds are the result of snow melt that can not penetrate the soil because it is frozen (i.e. - permafrost). These are called Thermokarst Lakes.
Above: Notice the trees. Many are at angles. You can see one in the first "row" with its top bent down toward the ground. They look spindly and most are only a foot or 2 across. This is due to the lack of available nutrients in the frozen ground. Since the tree's roots can't penetrate the frozen ground the roots don't grow very deep which make them very prone to tipping as the ground heaves around them.
Above: see all the tiny thermokarst "lakes" in the picture. This is the result of the water
unable to be absorbed into the frozen ground beneath them.
At ABSOLUTELY NO additional expense to you, below are just 5 other random pictures to show you some of the beauty that made the trip on this road MORE than worth all the tales of "horror" documented in this post:
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