Communication in the "Middle of Nowhere"

Another title for this entry to the blog should be "What do you do when Onstar fails you?"

One thing we have not been very happy about is the fact that Onstar cancelled our service as of January 08 because our truck is outfitted with an analog software (or hardware....don't know which) for Onstar, and they are now digital. There's no arguing the point....can't do a thing about it; can't even put an updated one in. Burns us! This is when we would really have liked to have it, if just for safety.

However, the oldie but goodie CB comes to the rescue. When we are on the Dalton Highway, between Fairbanks, AK and Prudeau Bay, we will truly be in the middle of nowhere. But the road is made for truckers since that is the only way for supplies to get to the oil fields in Prudeau Bay. So....we should be able to contact truckers if there is a situation in which we would need assistance. We are prepared for this because of our son-in-law, David Deihl. He always has such handy things.
This is the sign for the Watson Lake Sign Forest that I told you about. And as you can see....at that point we will be 2891 miles away from home! And we won't even be in Alaska yet!

That poor lonely truck and camper...

"all dressed up and nowhere to go"? Not on your life. She's just sitting there, gassed up, cleaned out, shined up, loaded with everything that we could possible need in the next three months....for daily life, or in case of any necessity that we have had the forthought to plan for. Note that extra tire on the front....we have two...that's right, TWO spare tires. The Dalton Highway is 900 miles (round trip) of gravel road...and not a lot of "road service". It's funny....different friends and/or family members have mentioned as the time passes..."Have you thought of......?", or "What will you do if such-and-such happens?" etc., etc., etc. They are all trying to help us be totally prepared for this fabulous trek. Many have given us good ideas, for which we are grateful....like David suggested we take along some stuff that fixes rock chips in the windshield, for example. Good idea! We will miss our family and friends. But this is going to be a trip of a lifetime! And, it starts in less than four days!

...Lest We Forget....where home is!

In less than 5 days we will be well on our way! We are oooooooooh soooo very ready to hit the road. Chris wanted a scrapbook page of all the kids to put up in the camper. Could be so we don't forget where home is? These wonderful grandkids will be missed on the road. So, the only place big enough to hold a 12 x 12 scrapbook page is the refrigerator door; so that's where I'll put it up.

Have a little bit of "refrigerator" shopping to do on Saturday, along with the final cloths packing. It's rough to have to pack cloths for the heat, cold, and in between. Just heard from our friend in Anchorage that it's in the low 50's during the day now and just above freezing at night. But it will be a month before we get there. Should be warmer than that.

Another step taken to update BLOG

No pictures this time....I'm in the car going to Charolette's in Granger.
I'm just testing now by writing up an e-mail on my Outlook and sending it to
my blog. It won't go out until I connect to the internet at her house.
We'll see if it actually works. This way I can attach pictures (which I
have none on this 'puter...saving all my space for the mega number of
pictures I'm going to take on the trek) just like I would attach one to any
e-mail. We'll know soon if this works. See ya.

Two Weeks to D-Day!

Sixty four years ago D-day was June 6, 1944....this year it's on June 1st.
"Debarkation Day" Yup...that's what June 1st is for us. No wonder it is a
symbol of our wonderful country. If it weren't for the fact that we live in
this wonderful country, we would never be able to take this fantastic trip.
Look at this magnificent bird. Another stolen photo, off of the web site of
the Good Sam Club (which we now belong to) was taken near Homer, AK, on the
Kenai Penninsula. That is where Chris is going to go halibut fishing. He
wants to take me along just to watch....but if I'm out of sight of
land...well....not a good thing. Just leave me at the camp site with a book
and I'll be happy. I'll even go hunting with my camera.

18 Days to Go!

I hope that you can see this....might be a bit small. But it is a small portion of the "Sign Post Forest" that is in Watson Lake, Yukon Territory. This was begun by an American GI who was helping construct the Alaskan Hwy (AKA Alcan Hwy) in 1942. Travelers have continued to add signs to the "forest" as they travel the Alaskan Hwy. In 2006 there were over 61,000 signs! This picture isn't the greatest since I "stole" it off of the internet and it wasn't very big. I'll have better ones of my own soon!

Our sign is ready....can ya imagine?....I haven't taken a picture of it and it's packed somewhere (?) in the truck already. It is made of redwood and therefore won't rotand will last forever. It says: "Waterloo, IN 2784 miles".

There's also a nice hot springs in Watson Lake, too. So, contrary to my goal of not staying in formal campgrounds, we'll be staying in one of the campgrounds that are close to the hot springs. Can't wait for that. Should be beautiful and enjoyable.

One Month to Go!!!

WOW! I can't believe that one month from now we'll actually be on our way! It's May 1st.

We'll be seeing vistas like this one.

I can only imagine the beauty that is waiting for us. I can't think of anything else we have to do to get ready, other than a little bit of grocery shopping, a little bit of cloths packing and taking Tommy to the vet. The gas prices are making me swallow twice. (perhaps we could tap the pipeline as we travel along side of it???? Oooops, need a refinery for it to be of any use to us.)

Stay tuned...it's going to be a fun ride!