Another
Chapter Begins
April
28,2019
Well on
April 12, 2019 Paula and I packed up our little tiny house and left Las Cruces
New Mexico headed for the last frontier and the unknown of our 49th
state in these great United State of America. As usual when leaving one of our
locations we hated to say good bye to Toni, Chris, Leah and the gang at the Las
Cruses KOA, but we are eager to see what is in store for us in this next
chapter.
Before we
could even get started Mother Nature had a few things to say about our route.
We had planned to leave Las Cruses and head straight up I 25 to Denver and into
Wyoming and catch I-90 into Montana but an unusually strong winter storm with
blizzard warnings came storming right into our planned route of travel, so we
had to back up and punt and take an alternative route. This route took us
across North Western New Mexico and South West Colorado where we spent the
first night in Cortez Colorado.
Cortez Colorado
From Cortez we cut across southern Utah red rock
country of Moab and onto I-15 through Salt Lake City and to Idaho Falls for
night two. This was a much longer day than we generally like to do but another
storm was brewing and had us in her sites so we tried to cover as much ground
as we could. Day three we left early from Idaho Falls headed to Bozeman Montana
on Rt 20 to West Yellowstone and then Rt 191 to Bozeman. We were trying to time
our travel with the projections of the weather man who was calling for snow on
this brisk April morning. So, as we left Idaho Falls weather was good but we
knew the elevation and mountain passes could be a challenge if we hit it wrong.
You know my thought-on weathermen, they are the only occupation that never has
to be right but never gets fired. So, as we begin to climb in elevation headed
toward the Gallatin Mountains of course it began to snow. Only one or two spots
were bad and we were able to make it over the mountains and into Bozeman with
out incident. This area is always beautiful this time of year with all the
snow-covered mountain peaks.
Rt. 20 Island Park Idaho
Oh, yea
and Mother Nature did catch up with us in Bozeman and she dumped 3 inches of
snow on us Monday morning.
Once in Bozeman we took care of shopping to load up
on supplies for the coming months as Montana doesn’t have a state sale tax we
loaded up on enough soaps, washing powder, toothpaste, etc. etc. etc. as we
will be a long distance from real shopping until we leave Skagway the end
of July. On Monday night we had dinner with my cousin Darcy and her husband
Mark at Outback. We had a real nice visit for about 2 1/1 hours which has
become a regular occurrence when we are in Bozeman. On Tuesday Paula and I took off for
Yellowstone for a day adventure before having a late lunch with Jan Howard who has
been our manager in Yellowstone the past two seasons. We traveled out to the
Lamar Valley of Yellowstone which is the only road open year-round in the park
as it leads to Cooke City Montana on the eastern edge of the park. We saw as
expected huge herds of Bison, Elk, Deer in the drive out and as we began to
turn around along the thermal feature know as Soda Butte, I noticed some large
animals in the Soda Butte Creek and upon closer inspection it was four Moose 3
adults and one juvenile. This was huge as since the big fire of 1988 in
Yellowstone Moose have been rare to see in Yellowstone but in the last few
years more and more have been seen in the park. We saw two last year and these
four beauties this year. After about a 3 hour visit with Jan we headed back to
Bozeman for the night. On Wednesday morning after taking care of some business
we hooked up the tiny house and head north. We stopped in Great Falls, Montana
for the night.
On
Thursday April 18 we left Great Falls and headed toward the Canadian border. I
have been in this region before and it always amazed me that this land is
fairly flat farm land, for some reason not what I thought far northern Montana
and Southern Alberta would be like. We crossed the border at Coutts, Alberta
Canada after about an hour wait in line. Fortunately, we didn’t get pulled for
inspection and we continued to Red Lodge Alberta where we spent the night. Red
Lodge is located half way between Calgary and Edmonton. That night would be our last in civilization
as we know it until at least the first of August. The next morning, we got up
and passed through Edmonton, where we headed west to Dawson Creek British
Columbia. We spent the night in Dawson Creek for the night. Dawson Creek is the
official start of the Alaskan Highway milepost 0. The Alaska Highway was built
in 1942 after the Japanese attack on Peral Harbor to provide the US and Canada
a road to move military equipment to Alaska to prevent further Japanese
expansion into the northern Pacific Ocean.
The highway goes through some of the
roughest and rugged country in British Columbia and Yukon Territories and
Alaska. Once we left Dawson Creek, we
began to enter the true wilderness and back country. We climbed up and over the
northern Rockies and villages and towns got smaller and further apart. We even
bought fuel at one location called Pink Mountain which was merely two shipping
containers in a dirt lot sitting above ground with a hose and nozzle attached
to pump fuel from and between the two containers was a booth you entered and
ran your credit card to pay for the fuel.
one stop fueling 1.59 per liter
This day we stopped at the Toad River
lodge which is one of only three places in Canada that stays open year round on
the Alaska Highway. Now the lodge we would think of is some large grand
structure but not on the Alaska Highway. Here a lodge is a combination
restaurant, gas station, campground and a few cabins for rent. We checked in and only had electricity on our
site as the water had not been turned on to the camp ground or cabins. Paula
asked if there were showers available and all she got in response from the young
Asian women working was “no water same price 17.50 same price.
Canadian Caribou
So welcome to the wilderness of the Alaska Highway. We did find that from this point on you had to plan your fuel stops and never pass a station with less than half a tank, cause you never know when you will find another open station this time of year. Just because the GPS says there was a fuel stop in 300 kilometers that did not mean it was open for the summer season yet. And yes, the kilometers vs miles thing is interesting as I was always having to convert my mileage for kilometers to miles so I would know how far I could go on a tank of fuel.
We left Toad River on Easter Sunday and we had another storm bearing down on us so we made a long day of it and drove a 13-hour day from Toad River to Skagway Alaska.
This was a fairly smooth day until the last hour and a half as we traveled from Whitehorse, Yukon to Skagway.
As we got about half way to Skagway we began to climb into the abyss of snow covered mountains, fog and snow showers. The higher we went the lower the ceiling got and then it began to snow. We made it to the Canadian customs at Frazier with no problem and then started down to Skagway. Those of you familiar with lover’s leap mountain on Rt 58 in Patrick County VA will know what I speak of when I say this decent was like lover’s leap on steroids winding steep, snowing and fog we could see the road in front of us and nothing left or right. Thankfully we made it to the US Customs and through without incident and arrived at the Corrington Employee Campground where we will spend the next 3 months.
Home Sweet Home
sites along the highway
So welcome to the wilderness of the Alaska Highway. We did find that from this point on you had to plan your fuel stops and never pass a station with less than half a tank, cause you never know when you will find another open station this time of year. Just because the GPS says there was a fuel stop in 300 kilometers that did not mean it was open for the summer season yet. And yes, the kilometers vs miles thing is interesting as I was always having to convert my mileage for kilometers to miles so I would know how far I could go on a tank of fuel.
We left Toad River on Easter Sunday and we had another storm bearing down on us so we made a long day of it and drove a 13-hour day from Toad River to Skagway Alaska.
This was a fairly smooth day until the last hour and a half as we traveled from Whitehorse, Yukon to Skagway.
As we got about half way to Skagway we began to climb into the abyss of snow covered mountains, fog and snow showers. The higher we went the lower the ceiling got and then it began to snow. We made it to the Canadian customs at Frazier with no problem and then started down to Skagway. Those of you familiar with lover’s leap mountain on Rt 58 in Patrick County VA will know what I speak of when I say this decent was like lover’s leap on steroids winding steep, snowing and fog we could see the road in front of us and nothing left or right. Thankfully we made it to the US Customs and through without incident and arrived at the Corrington Employee Campground where we will spend the next 3 months.
After a
day of setting up our trailer and giving it a full clean up on Monday. We will
be working for the Corrington retail stores for the summer here in Skagway so
we started to work on Tuesday morning in the one of the souvenir stores, with
stocking, pricing and getting the store ready to open for the first cruise ship
of the season on Monday April 29. We are
just getting to know folks but it seems we have a very nice group of
experienced work campers to work with.
Knife Mountain Skagway
We are
looking forward to seeing new things and making new friends here this summer and
will try and update this blog when we can and as often as we can.
Some of our neighbors out for a evening swim
We hope
all is well with you and yours.
So, until
next time I will leave you with this thought attributed to our 16th
President Abraham Lincoln,
“In the
end, it’s not the years in your life that count.
It’s the
life in your years.”
Ramblin
Ruis
Allen and
Paula
