WOW, what great experiences we had in
2014. We are in our eighth year of living in a house on wheels and
have now been to all 50 states and 11 Canadian provinces in that
time. This year we put 13,085 miles on Opus while traveling north from Arizona
to Alaska, then south across Canada and the northern US to WashPA, on
to Betty's RV Park in Louisiana and finally ending the year in South
Florida. We stayed in 65 places, a third of those were just for one
night as we covered a lot of miles on the Alaska trip. On average we
traveled 200 miles per travel day, the most we have done since going
on the road. Alaska is far. We also put 10,459 miles on the CRV.
Our RV park expenses were a bit higher than usual with several parks
in Alaska being over $40.00 a night, far more than we normally pay.
The cost of fuel ranged from a high of $5.96 a gallon in British
Columbia to a low of $2.79 this month in Florida, the least we have
paid since 2009. That said, it was worth every penny.
We started the year in Mesa and spent
the remainder of the winter in Lake Havasu and Yuma, Arizona and
Desert Hot Springs, California. Overall, the weather was very good
(one of our winter goals) with typical warm desert days and cool
nights. We did experience a SoCal earthquake and bad winds but it
was still one of the warmest areas of the country. We crossed paths
with many RV friends while exploring the area. Our friends Allan and Sharon joined us with their RV for a few days and Tom and Georgie did a
personal mail delivery to California where we had a great time hanging
out in Palm Springs with the upper crust. In early April we stopped
in Tehachapi to see the famous railway loop that lets the trains climb over the
mountains. We spent a week in Las Vegas to have Opus serviced and to
buy a few needed items for our trip to Alaska. There we had the last
warm weather we would have until August on our way back from Alaska.
We left Vegas on April 17th and took a
month to drive the 1300 miles to the Canadian border. We knew we
were pushing it weather wise traveling in the mountains this early in
the year and we had many cold days, but no snow. We added three
national parks, Great Basin, Craters of the Moon and Glacier, to our
visited list and explored historic Arco, ID and Butte, MT. In Butte
we had a fun, fun time when we crossed paths with Dan and Merlene. In
Twin Falls we put new shoes on the CRV and did a much needed clutch
replacement. In a couple of places we just hung out waiting for the
weather to improve before starting our trek to Alaska.
After crossing into Alberta on May 14th
we were north of the lower 48 for 87 days while driving 6687 miles
before crossing back into the lower 48 in North Dakota on one of the
greatest adventures we have ever experienced. (That statement does not
come lightly from a couple who bicycled across North America and also for six weeks in
Europe.) On our first stop in Alberta we added Waterton
National Park to our visited list. We then took a week to travel the
720 miles to Dawson Creek, BC and Milepost zero of the Alaska
Highway.
Heading north on the highway is a trip
through history and nature unlike anything we have experienced. The
mountains were spectacular and we saw many bears, coyotes, moose,
caribou, Stone sheep, fox, swans, eagles and bison right along the
road. We soaked our bones in Liard Hot Springs, roamed the sign
forest in Watson Lake and learned about the sourdoughs who rushed to
the Klondike in search of gold in Whitehorse. On our first day in
Alaska we visited with SKP friends John & Lori, Wallace & Wanda and Bennett & Bea. What a small world it is even when you
are off in far away places.
1477 miles and 12 days after leaving
Dawson Creek we arrived in Fairbanks for a week of exploring. With
Fairbanks as our base we took an excursion to the Arctic Circle and
drove to Chena Hot Springs for more bone soaking. We learned more
Alaska history at the Museum of the North, the Morris Thompson
Culture Center and on the riverboat Discovery. After Fairbanks we then traveled 275 mile to three different locations around Denali National
Park. Yes, Denali is so large that it is possible to view it from several vistas along the route, if it is not hidden by its own clouds. We
were very happy to be part of the only 30% of Alaska visitors who get
to see the mountain. We actually saw it several days. In Denali we
took an excursion into the park's interior and, in addition to seeing
the beautiful mountains, we saw the big five of wildlife; moose,
caribou, wolf, Dall Sheep and grizzly bears. The real high point
though was taking a flight and landing on a snow covered glacier high
on the side of the mountains. From Denali it was about 100 miles to
the Anchorage Wasilla area where we had Class of 07 mates, Alaskans
John and Lori, as guides to give us a personal look at the area. We
went to the Iditarod Museum, Independence Mine and hiked on Hatcher
Pass. In Anchorage we went to Potter Marsh, Earthquake Park and the
Native Alaska Heritage Center. We had a real downer there when we
had to replace the head gasket on Opus. Bad news we had to have it
done, good news we were not hundreds of miles from a repair facility
when it happened so the repair was one day and out.
From Anchorage we headed to the Kenai
Peninsula for several stops in towns along the beautiful Alaskan
coast. Our first stop was in Seward where we hiked to a glacier,
toured the Alaska Sealife Center and did a cruise to see sea animals.
We then went to Ninilchik for two weeks of fishing and fun with many
new friends. We did a couple of day trips to Homer and Kenai, saw
many eagles, checked out the Norman Lowell Art Gallery and I got the
chance to catch a 71 pound halibut, very neat. The next stop, two
days and 500 miles later, was Valdez where we took another cruise for
a up close look at the Columbia Glacier and saw a humpback whale. We
also saw Wallace and Wanda one last time and I caught my six fish
limit of pink salmon in about an hour.
Next was a 700 mile, three day drive to
Haines where we met Germans, Bjorn and Britta, for the first time, saw
many more eagles, visited three local museums and hiked to the top of
Mt. Riley for a beautiful 360 degree view of mountains, glaciers and
the Inside Passage. From Haines we put Opus on the ferry for a one
hour trip to Skagway, a neat old
Kondike gold-rush town. This saved us 350 miles of driving. While there we took a day trip on the White
Pass & Yukon Route and experienced an earthquake. We did a day
cruise to Juneau where we toured the capitol building and saw
Mendenhall Glacier. On the return to Skagway we experienced another
real highlight when we got to see Humpback whales bubble feeding,
which is the most incredible wildlife event we have ever seen. From
Skagway it was another 700 mile, three day trip to our last Alaska
destination, Hyder, where we saw Salmon Glacier, the largest in Canada
and got very close to grizzlies and black bears feeding on salmon.
Another of our great wildlife experiences.
From Hyder it was a 3200 mile, two week
sprint back to WashPA with stops in Winnipeg to see Gary & Anita
whom we met several years ago at Betty's and Marcel & Sonya whom we
met in Alaska. While there our "Nevercold" fridge started to die so we
detoured to Shipshewana, IN to have a new Amish cooling unit
installed. We sure hope this is the last time dealing with the
fridge.
We then spent two months in WashPA
doing our annual personal maintenance at the doctors and dentist.
We had a great time with family, our many old friends, and had visits
from RV friends Bill & Gisela and also Richard & Valerie with whom we visited Frank Lloyd Wright's, Kentuck Knob. We
helped the local economy with many visits to our favorite local
eateries and enjoyed many evenings of great local music. We took in a
Pirate baseball and Pitt football game and had a fun time in the
city. We played euchre with the old card club, attended the Brown
Jamieson wedding and had John's wonderful wood-fired pizza, always
a real treat. Nanc ran the Washington Labor Day and the Pittsburgh
Great Race and I took a sightseeing flight over WashPA.
We headed for warmer climes in mid-October but first went north to Cleveland for the wedding of the last
of six Yanni children, Liz. It was a great weekend seeing the whole
family and many other friends. Next it was further north to Michigan
for Opus' service at Spartan Chassis. Even after a trip to
Alaska and being ten years old, they found him to be in good shape.
From there it was a quick 1200 mile, four day drive to Betty's RV Park
in Louisiana, our favorite stop. Even though we have been there many
times to see our good friend Betty we still find new things to do
every time we visit Acadiana. At Betty's it is all about the people
and it was great seeing many old friends and many new ones
during our six week stay. As always, we enjoyed the music and the
food which is a big part of our stay in Abbeville. We also did a tour and learned how sugarcane is grown and harvested.
From Betty's we did 1,000 miles in
five days of easy driving while checking out some gulf coast areas
and visiting friends and family. In Biloxi we saw Class of 07 mates, Ron and Linda, who gave us an up close tour of the Mississippi
Sandhill Crane NWR where they were volunteering. Next we checked out
the Panama City area as a possible destination for a longer stay in
the future. We then spent three days with Nanc's sister Judy and her
husband Bill in Apopka. It was a chance to get caught up with them
since it had been a while since we have had an extended visit. We
are ending 2014 in Jupiter where we are celebrating the holidays with
our friend Mary Lou. We had a chance to see my brother Rick and his
wife Denise, who were returning to Florida after a cruise. South
Florida has become our favorite winter spot with its great weather and so many great things to do.
1 comment:
"Alaska is Far", well put.
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