THE JOYS OF HOME

I had a wonderful suprise in the mail today. A flag was sent to us by a soldier from our church whom Stephanie and I have sent CARE PACKAGES to while he is in Iraq. I never believed we would receive something as wonderful as this, with the certificate. (I covered his name, just for his family's privacy) Home is a wonderful place...in great part d/t the selfless soldiers we have who protect us and keep this country free. In case you can't read the certificate:

"To All Whom May View This Flag Greetings:

Know that on the 27th Day of August 2008 this

flag was flown in the face of the enemy to

protect liberty and freedom for all man kind."

Being home has brought other wonderful benefits:

1. Hugs from grandkids


2. Not having to pay for a shower, nor worrying that it will shut off and leave me with conditioner in my hair.


3. Not having to use a crank flashlight to read my book at night


4. Don't have to empty the porta-potty.


5. Don't have to use a laundromat


6. Can leave Tommie out the back door without worrying if a grizzley or wolf will have her for a snack


7. It's not raining 1/2 of the time!

Things we miss about being on the road:

1. Meeting all the new folks we met on the journey


2. Experiencing the beauty of the wonderful state of Alaska....and then only touched 1/3rd of it! There's still so much to see!

HOME SWEET HOME...3 MONTHS LATER...

We're home!!!!!!! Yup, we chugged in yesterday about noonish. We were ready to be home. Once we turned east and set our target destination as "HOME", we just wanted to get here. There was not much to be seen in the MN, WI, and IL. We stopped to see friends, but other than that, we had traveled and been tourists in these states before. So, 14, 758 miles later,
we do believe we have seen a lot, but not ALL of Alaska. Going back is a definite wish for me.
We talked about what we thought was the biggest animal that we saw. It was a toss up between the bison and the moose. We figured the bison probably weighed more than the moose.This little critter decided to land on our windshield and was holding on for dear life...so I think he qualifies as the "smallest" critter that we saw. (not counting the mosquitos....didn't take pictures of them, just squashed them.

Our statistics on the rain we experienced: 15 days in June; 18 days in July; 7 in Aug.; Total: 40 days. That's 1/3 of our trip it rained; but if we only count June & July, it rained half of the time!

We had scarey moments, like when a cow moose charged across the road merely feet in front of our truck. We read books in the evenings: Chris is on his second book (but it's a huge book) and I'm on my fifth. The inverter in our camper was not working so we had no lights. No problem in Alaska with 24 hours day light, but once we were back in the lower 48, we used crank flashlights.

We don't miss the "pay as you go" showers or roughing it with NO showers. A flat tire, broken windshield and over-heating going over Wild Bird Pass in Idaho (which was 106 degrees!) were some blips on the radar.

We are very glad to be home and we hope you all enjoyed following us along our epic journey of a lifetime.

CHEESE COUNTRY...YIPEE!

This morning, Chris & I bid farewell after a tasty breakfast, to our friends, Ron & Rosanne in St. Joseph, MN. The evening spent with them was loads of fun. Ron cooked up some killer hallibut from Alaska; Rosanne put wonderful fixin's with the hallibut topped off with home made apple pie. Yummy. It had been funny how we had met these folks in Alaska; it seemed as if our sightseeing spots paralleled each others in an uncanny way.
Then we headed out for Green Bay to visit a friend of mine from college over 40 years ago.
We had a fun evening of dinner and remeniscing with Dianna. Our lives sure have gone in different paths....does she look like a karate black belt????

Tomorrow we hope to do some touring of the cheese areas of Wisconsin. Home is beconning to us. Until we "connect" again...

TODAY IS TUESDAY, SO IT MUST BE MINNESOTA

This is not the best picture of one of Minnesota's lakes, but it is the best one that I have right now. They do have a lot of lakes...
It’s getting difficult to remember what day of the week it is…duh…have we been on the road too long? It’s a good thing I have a calendar on the dash in front of me. The road beckoned us at 8 o’clock this morning. Once again the clear blue sky is in front of us on I 94. We finished listening to the Lewis & Clark book. Too bad it’s done; we enjoyed it.We’re going to stop in St. Cloud, MN today to visit the folks we met in the Copper River area of AK, Ron & Rosanne.
Later: We got here early afternoon and have enjoyed the afternoon with our friends. Once again Ron showed how he is a master of deep frying hallibut (Alaskan, of course). Rosanne put the fixins together for a totally wonderful dinner topped off with home made apple pie. Yummy.
So, until we "connect" again....

August 24; What Day Is This??? It Must Be North Dakota

Since we just went to church and then traveled today, I thought I'd throw in another of the beautiful pictures from the EAST side of Glacier National Park. Isn't this just positively glorious?
Got up at 6 a.m. and went to work out in hotel exercise room. Felt really super. I miss going to exercise at the Y. After church we headed down to the Ft. Peck Dam where Dean is going hunting in a couple of weeks. It’s the second largest dam in the U.S. Huge reservoir and recreational area. Then headed East, once again, on U.S. #2. (oops…made an error in my last blog entry. We are traveling on U.S. #2 and NOT on U.S. #12. Sorry folks.) There’s blue sky for as far as we can see; rolling hills and bluffs in the distance by the Missouri River.
Entering North Dakota today. Traveling is flying by as we continue listening to our audio-book on Lewis & Clark expidetion. It’s extremely interesting. We just traveled the rest of the time. No pictures, because there was nothing to take pictures of...make sense? So, we got about 285 miles under our belt today.
Stopped at another very nice campground and we're just chillin' here.
So, until we "connect" again....

August 23;Big Sky Country

Sunday, August 17
We bid goodbye to our friends, Pat & Wayne Stutzman in Peyette, Idaho, with blue skies and 62 degrees. We went a couple miles down the road to pick up some necessities from WalMart, gas up, and go to Mass. We then headed north, through desert (92 degrees), up into the mountains & evergreen trees, following the Snake River (103 degrees), and began the loooooong climb to the White Bird Hill Summit of 4200 feet. Later learning that that climb was the second longest and highest climb in the U.S., it almost became our undoing. With the outside temperature at 104, and being ¾ of the way to the summit, our engine temperature almost went to “critical”!!! Pulling off the road, we removed the tire from the front grill guard, where it has been for the past 12,000 miles and causing no problems. But we haven’t been in this kind of heat, either! Problem easily solved. It was so hot that our shoes made footprints on the asphalt of the pull-off.
Continuing on toward Elk City, we found a beautiful camp-site beside the Red Horse Creek, dumping into the Clearwater River, across the roads. It was still warm, but lacking the humidity of Indiana, as soon as the sun went behind the trees, it cooled right down. We felt like we were really out of the way, but we were surprised with the amount of traffic that road actually had! There was intermittent but parade of pick-ups, with and without horse trailers, government vehicles, etc. In any event, the country was beautiful. Tommie and I took along walk along the river. She kept sticking her nose under every bush looking for a bunny.
Monday, August 18, 2008Awakening to 50 degrees with blue skies, we traveled the short distance to Elk City, a picturesque former gold mining, then lumbering community (also “former”) nestled in a valley between pine covered mountains.

This town is at the end of a road that is 50 mile from anywhere; one would think that it would be a ghost town. Au la contrer! It’s a hunting destination, recreational pit stop, retirement community, etc. Enjoyed breakfast in the restaurant where all locals have coffee and catch up on news, stopped in a store to shop, and took some pictures around town. Chris had been here twice before with Dean when they came out hunting. I had often heard about Elk City.After enjoying Elk City, we continued north towards Montana. At 2 p.m. it was 99 degrees! Two hours later, while crossing the historic Lolo Pass into Montana, it was 86 degrees. (The pass is historic in that, among other reasons, the Lewis & Clark Expedition passed this way.)

Arriving in Missoula, Montana, we easily found Chris’ cousin, Steve VanderHorst. It was again stiflingly hot (97) and we enjoyed an enjoyable evening of reminiscing and laughs. I had not seen Steve since we left Colorado in 1978, so we had lots of years to cover. He really impressed me for as busy and creative that he is, even though he has huge health issues. A good time was had by all. About noon we headed north to drive through the National Bison Refuge. There were several fires in the forests surrounding Missoula, so the air was quite smoky. While we were driving through the refuge it rained hard, and that cleared the skies and we could see the mountains again. On the drive through the refuge we saw a few bison, many mule deer and antelope.

When we left the Bison Preserve we saw these cows. Had never seen them before. Found out that they were Beulingo c ows. Took this picture for David. they were developed in the U. of S.D. and are raised for beef.

After the Refuge we headed north again to the beautiful Indian Mission of St. Ignatius. The beautiful and inspiring church was built in 1891.Continuing on to Kalispell to see Chris’ brother Mike’s daughter, Cassandra. We had a delightful visit and dinner with Cassy, her husband, Bob, his parents and their two boys. The visit was too brief because we needed to forge ahead for a campground before dark. We found a beautiful place, in Columbia Falls, about 20 miles from the Park. Good night.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Surprise, surprise…we heard raindrops on the camper as we were getting ready. Haven’t heard that sound since July 31st in Hyder, Alaska. But…just like Boy Scouts, “be prepared”…and we are. Hauled out the rain suits and water-proof hiking boots…again. It was 55 degrees when we started; a welcome change from the 99 degrees in Missoula.
We made a quick stop for Espresso and then on to the Glacier National Park. Receiving a call from Cassy, we both remembered that we had not taken family pictures. As they were coming to the Park today, we met at the Visitor Center for pictures and another good-bye. Chris & I continued on along the “Going To The Sun Road” and saw a beautiful falls and took some pictures. Arriving at the “Avalanche Campground” we set up camp and plan on using this as base-camp until Saturday when we continue on over the highest point (9,642 feet). We’re going to wait out the rain for the next couple of days because we want to really see the views of all the tall mountains. We went for a beautiful walk on the “Trail of the Cedars”; absolutely stunning creek, water fall, huge cedars that are hundreds of years old. Totally beautiful. Chris looked at one of the downed cedars and mused that it could make 30,000 cedar shafts (arrows for archery, for those of you non-archer folks).
Rained all evening. We have it figured out how to get lights (since our inverter in the camper hasn’t been working): we plug the battery charger cable of our trusty little Honda generator right onto the battery. That way we get lights without running down the battery. It wasn’t a problem when we were in Alaska, where it is daylight most of the day; but it has become a challenge since we actually get dusk and dark now.

Thursday, August 21, 2008
Rained hard all night. Going to stay right where we are and take hikes in these beautiful Cedar & Hemlock woods. It will stop eventually or we may need to begin building an arc!
We took another nice walk on the Trail of the Cedars, only from the other direction…new look to everything. Then we packed a little lunch and went to catch the Shuttle to Logan Pass. These shuttles were added last year in order to decrease the traffic congestion in different areas. We took the most beautiful ride…in the rain…to about 6,000 feet at Logan Pass.
There we ventured out on the hike to Hidden Lake. It was a beautiful hike…but the rain was coming in buckets. I do believe that there was some hail or snow in it. We stopped about ½ to the top because folks on the way down said we couldn’t see anything up there because it was totally socked in by the fog/rain. Today we probably hiked about 3 miles, and now we’re just trying to dry out and warm up. The picture above was taken on that trek to Hidden Lake.

Friday, August 22
Rained HARD all night. Got up about 6:30; cleaned up the camper the best we could with all the rain and things wet, and then decided we weren’t going to stay here any longer waiting for the rain to stop. Packed up and got out of Dodge!
When we got to the road we decided to make a break for it and drive to Logan Pass ourselves. It was very foggy and when we reached the top, the visibility was about 5 feet; couldn’t even see the parking lot.

We had planned on stopping to view the mountains, but we cand into the sunshine! It was breath-taking. We figured we ended up seeing the most beautiful part of the Park. Looking back on the majestic mountains we were leaving, we could see the top still socked in by a dense cloud.Picking up U.S. 12, which we plan on taking across the country to home. We were in the high prairie of Montana; lots of cattle, wheat, railroads through small towns that have sprouted with grain elevators, and blue sky with a few puffy clouds for as far as we could see.

We stopped about 1:30 in Shelby, MN at the Louis & Clark RV Park; not a tree to be seen, other than a few put in for landscaping. We camped right out in the heat of the day. It was wonderful hot sun. We needed it to dry us out! We opened up all the windows welcoming and drying breezes, laid out the rain suits and Chris’ boots across the picnic table, hung the down comforter that has kept us comfy all these weeks over a chair. (Thanks Char & Yvonne J ) It got damp on the edges next to the precipitation on our windows when we were so closed up d/t the heavy down-pours we suffered in Glacier Park.We so enjoyed relaxing and reading our books. Tommie really wanted to chase the many bunnies in the area. The RV Park owner feeds them…so they were plentiful.There was a beautiful sunset last night that brought several campers out to take pictures. Saturday, August 23, 2008 It was wonderful waking up at 7 a.m. to a blue, cloudless sky far as far as we could see. Chris put our souvenir Alaskan license plate on the back of the camper.

We headed out at 9 a.m. with 55 degrees. Following U.S. 12 the plains stretched for as far as we could see. The audio book of “Undaunted Courage” by Stephen Ambrose, the story of the Lewis & Clark expedition to open the American west, we are listening to on the road. It’s enthralling and tremendously interesting. Much of the roads we’ve been taking are along the Lewis & Clark Trail. It’s fun learning history when we’re not doing it for a test on Friday.

Antelope and deer are the Montana wildlife on this road…along with grasshoppers; road traffic includes huge convoys of combines, their field offices and campers for living accommodations traveling from farm to farm harvesting the wheat.

We stopped for the evening in Glasgow, MN. It's a beautiful little grain-belt town. Love the blue sky and no rain.

Continuing on east tomorrow. So...until we "connect" again...

August 14; ALONG THE OREGON TRAIL

August 14; leaving Mike’s and heading to the mountains. Supposed to be in the 90’s today here; heading on out at grees7:30 am at 66 degrees, and blue sky. Good-bye to the Pacific and cool breezes, and hello high-country.

We drove through the stunning Columbia River Gorge, past the hydro-electric dams along the way and eventually left the lush green rain forest behind to make way for the desert, and (today) 94 degrees. Deserts have their own beauty; maybe I can say that since we lived in the high desert of western Colorado, and the sagebrush reminds me of the years there.

We won’t camp for the evening until we are further into the mountains and the temperature drops. Just while typing this it has dropped to 88 degrees as we climb. Can ya feel it getting cooler????We pulled off the road not far after Pendleton, OR, where the terrain turned once again to beautiful, lush pine forest that is right through where the Oregon Trail crossed this territory.

This campground is called Emigrant Springs because this is the exact place where the emigrants traveling over the Oregon Trail stopped to replenish their water and rest. These pine forests were so thick that they had to cut down pine trees in order to get the wagons through; the trees were so dense that it was dark in the day time. From the looks of some of these pines around our campground, we figure that some of these pines could have been here when the oxen pulled the wagons through.
Isn’t this beautiful??? We stopped, made camp, and by 2 p.m.

we were chillin’ in our reclining chairs. We haven’t had these chairs out a hand full of times because of both the rain and mosquitoes along the way in Canada & Alaska. Even Tommy got to digging a hole so that she could chill out. It’s not hot, but I suppose with her fur coat, it could be a bit uncomfortable. She had to get a wet-wipe down before bed tonight with all that dust.

We had the pleasure of grilling Chris’ salmon outside and enjoying dinner outside. Perfectly fabulous evening.

August 15, 2008

We left the beautiful Emigrant Springs State Campground and headed to the desert. Doesn’t sound like fun; but it was. It was 54 degrees when we left at 7:30, with a perfectly cloudless blue sky. Crossing the 45th parallel (which is ½ way between the equator & the North Pole) we were squarely in the land of the sagebrush and brown grasses. Our first stop of the day was at the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. It was very interesting learning more about these 300,000 stalwart folks who braved the unknown in the mid 19th century. The most enjoyable thing was a presentation by a living historian putting on a show similar to the traveling medicine men of that era. Loads of fun, interactive, and good for many a laugh.

As we left, we observed the actual ruts that the wagons made over the desert/prairie (or whatever they call this dry stuff. There’s only about 300 miles of this trail still visible; look just like a “two track” into the bush. Early cars used them before the onset of real roads. We continued eastward to Hell’s Canyon. We wound up and down hills & mountains, all the while the temperature outside got hotter and hotter. When we finally wound ourselves around and along the Snake River, past the Oxbow Dam and further up the reservoir, the canyon got more and more rugged.

The temperature inched to 106 degrees as we reached the Hell’s Canyon Dam. We now know how this place got its name!
Traveling on, we reached Peyette, Idaho; a beautiful little area in the arid zone of Idaho. There we spent the evening with Chris’ friends, Wayne & Pat. When we set up our camper, we wondered what was all over the side of our camper, by the vicinity of the water-intake hole. It looked like we might have hit something, or something was dead there. Going inside it was easy to diagnose: (ta dah!) a previously unopened bottle of soy sauce, stored under the bed, had EXPLODED! We surmised that it was because of the 106 degrees outside…which was much higher inside the camper. It was everywhere! Could have been a worse smell, I suppose.
So, until we “connect” again…