Alaska Rally in Seffner, FL, 2011

We're here in Florida!

This is the Rally Center at Lazydays in Seffner, Florida.  The past two days have been sunny and warm, but I never had my camera.  The day I remember to take pictures, it's overcast and rainy (but 65 degrees).  As some of you know, we came for the reunion rally from our Alaska RV Tour last summer, but we also came down to look for a new Home on Wheels.  

We found one!  Not only did we find one, but it had everything on our "wish list" and more plus it fit into our budget.  We won't have it for another week due to some cabinet work we're having done on the interior, but it's not too bad hanging out here for awhile longer.  As it turns out, a couple of the people on our tour will be staying longer, too, so we'll have people to visit with.

Here's some pictures of the interior, prior to how we're going to revamp it:

We are anxious to take delivery and start moving into it -- but we'll wait patiently . . . well, maybe not so patiently.  I'm excited about having everything on one level and being able to "set up" from inside the coach.  Wayne is happy about it being 40 feet long and a Cat 330 diesel engine.  It's a 2004 Alfa See Ya' and only has 31,000 miles on it.  They're prepping it and getting it all ready for us.  The main reason we came back to Lazydays to look for a coach is because of their thoroughness in making sure everything works when they turn it over to you. 

Our first function is this evening for the Rally and we'll take more pictures and post them.  Keep watching!

Hello Atlanta in January!

We arrived in Atlanta after the snowfall (thankfully), but there is still a lot of snow and ice on the ground.  We had cold temperatures the whole way out, but no snow and no wind, which was great!  We're here to visit with Walter, Jennifer, Jake, Hayley, and Zoe through Monday.  The weather was so bad this past week there was no school, so kids were home all week and then Monday is a holiday!

On Tuesday we head to Seffner, Florida, outside of Tampa for the Alaska Tour Reunion Rally to see some people we met on the tour and meet new people.  We'll be there a few days before heading to Louisiana.

Our big news is that while in Louisiana we are going with Ron, Kathy, John, & Hedy on a 14-day cruise to Hawaii!  I AM SO EXCITED!  We fly from New Orleans to Los Angeles on February 15th, board the ship on the 16th, and head to sea.  We'll be on the ocean four nights, we'll see all four islands while in Hawaii, and then four nights back with a stop in Ensanada, Mexico, before returning to Los Angeles and flying back to New Orleans.  Ziva will be in the loving care of Karen while we're gone (thank you, Karen!). 

My plans are to post more frequently now that we're back on the road.  We will keep in touch!

Last Week of the Decade!

It may seem like we fell off the face of the earth, but we didn't.  We arrived in New Mexico on October 1st, after our Alaskan adventure and working our way back.  We went to Gorham Scout Ranch near Chimayo, New Mexico, to help them out.  Below is a picture of the new site we chose to camp while at Gorham.

The fall weather was rather mild and we enjoyed our new home.  That is, until two weeks ago when we woke up to this:

Eight inches of wet, cold snow.  The snow didn't really last that long because the weather was warm and the sun melted most of it.  We debated when to leave the mountain area to lower climates and decided yesterday was the day.  This decision was partially based on the fact that the next storm coming in (due to arrive today) was supposed to drop "feet" instead of "inches."  Getting stuck up there until late April wasn't in our game plan, so we broke camp (after 2-1/2 months) and headed to Albuquerque.

It appears we left just in time, because the mud up there is almost worse than snow and/or ice.  Wayne got stuck trying to pull the rig out of the clay mud and worked with a shovel and some gravel for over half an hour before he finally dislodged the rig and made it down the hill.  It was a little scary watching him try to pull it out and it kept going sideways instead of forward! 

While at Gorham, we were in the mountains and down in a hole, so internet and phone reception were nil.  I managed to find a spot up on a hillside where I could walk and face southwest under a specific tree and get one signal bar on my phone -- unless the wind blew.  So we were off the grid while there.  Now we're back in civilization and getting ready to head to Atlanta and then Florida for the Alaska Rally in Tampa.  On our way back from there, we'll wind our way through Louisiana and Texas to visit with everyone.

Hope everyone had  great Christmas and we wish you all a healthy and happy New Year!

Roughing It

Some people might think we "rough it" when we're out, but I'm here to tell you . . . we don't! 

After waiting until September to find some really nice, warm weather, it seemed a shame to sit inside and watch football, no matter how much we love football.  Wayne decided the best solution was to upgrade our 5th wheel to have it's own outdoor entertainment system.

The only real distraction was the squirrel that kept teasing Ziva while we were out there.  People driving by would slow down to ask what the score was (as if they knew what game we were watching). 

This turned out to be a  perfect solution for football on a nice day.

Geaux Saints!

Triple Treat

We are back in the "lower 48!"  We decided to leave Canada and all its smoke and head for the border.  We drove through Banff National Park on the Icefields Highway, which is supposed to be spectacular scenery -- it may have been, but with the rain, clouds, fog, and smoke, we didn't see much of anything.  About the last 20 miles of the highway, the smoke started clearing and there were a few breaks in the clouds and what we saw was amazing.  Too bad we were unable to see the rest of it.

We crossed into Montana at Eureka about 9:15 in the morning and headed to Columbia Falls, which is right outside Glacier National Park.  Out of the week that we spent there, we had maybe two days of rain and the rest were nice days.  We had a gorgeous sunny day for our drive through Glacier National Park.  Road to the Sun is exactly that, you start climbing and keep climbing and the road narrows (and there was construction) and you finally get to the top which is Logan's Pass and it was beautiful.  

After Columbia Falls we headed towards Yellowstone and spent three nights there.  It was raining when we arrived there (imagine that -- rain), but the next two days were sunny and warm.  I almost forgot what a blue sky looks like!

We saw more wildlife in Yellowstone than we saw our whole trip through Canada and Alaska!

This guy decided a shortcut through the parking lot was easier than walking along the road!  We didn't get any closer and were staying close to the truck in case he decided to get closer.

After Yellowstone we headed west to Idaho and I was able to visit with some long-time family friends, which was a treat.  Then we headed west of there and took a turn into

the moon?  Actually it's Craters of the Moon National Monument, which was interesting. 

Tomorrow we head for Declo, Idaho, which is where we'll stop for a few days to watch the opening night of the new football season when the Saints play the Vikings.  We're slowly winding our way south to Lake Powell, which is where we'll meet up with the RV club for a few nights at Lake Powell and then the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  We will stop at Bryce Canyon on our way down, which I'm looking forward to seeing again.

So that brings us up to date.  We're still enjoying what we're doing and after the Grand Canyon trip we're headed back to the Albuquerque area for a while to plan where we'll head next!

Another Canadian Fire?

We left Dawson Creek yesterday and after driving 400 miles we were still unable to get out of the smoke from the forest fire that's to the southwest (Williams Lake -- there's another one a little northwest on the Cassiar Highway).  We stopped in a little town called McBride at a very nice RV park that is all grass and it's right beside Fraser River.  This valley is situated between the Cariboo Mountains and northern tip of the Rocky Mountains.  The views are supposed to be gorgeous, but with all the smoke it's a little hard to tell.  We just listened to some CBC news and this smokes goes all the way east to Calgary, Alberta, so it doesn't look like we'll be driving out of it for a few days.

We opted to spend another night here after the long drive yesterday -- we like to keep it under 300 miles, but out here you have to go with what's available, too.  Twice yesterday we turned around and went back for gas when we read how far it was to the next "services available" and we're both glad we did!

So I may be relaxing and taking it easy, but Wayne is in the process of rewiring the TV and all it's various antennas.  There are local channels available where we are, but we are unable to receive them -- so he's troubleshooting the problem.

When we had Ziva groomed in Anchorage, I didn't notice at the time that they left the hair on her front legs longer and I think it looks like she's wearing legwarmers!

Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway

We are in Dawson Creek, British Columbia!  We have been unable to post as frequently as we would like due to sporadic internet service (or no service).    This is the signpost stating that this is Mile 0 of the Alaskan Highway!  It's actually 1.5 miles away from where it used to be located, but vandals tore the other one down.  At that point, local government/businesses decided to place it a little more strategically so that guests to the area could also see their downtown.

We have managed to drive the whole of the Alaskan Highway, albeit backwards.  Wayne wasn't able to drive from Chicken, Alaska, to the Top of the World Highway in Yukon Territory because once again it was washed out by rains.  A few of the people in our tour group were able to travel back that way.

After the tour was over, we went back to Anchorage for a couple of days, then we headed to Valdez at Prince William Sound for eight nights.  It was relaxing and we actually had sun for two of the days.  After that we drove to Tok, Alaska, hoping to find out that the highway had been reopened, but it wasn't, so we headed back to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.  

While in Whitehorse, we discovered the water heater wasn't functioning - so we got it worked on there.  A part was installed, a wire replaced, and we were good to go.  We headed towards Watson Lake, but the smoke from the Cassiar Highway fire was so thick in town we decided to drive further.  After another 100 miles of travel, we were still in smoke and tired, so we stopped for the night. We saw more wildlife on this day of the trip than we have the whole trip so far!

The next day while winding our way towards Dawson Creek, we noticed that there was a crack in the rim of our right front tire -- not a good thing.  We drove a little slower to the campground we were staying at for the night and had Good Sam roadside assistance come out and change the tires for us.  

Once we got into Dawson Creek, we headed for a Ford dealer.  The rim was covered under warranty, they ordered one from Edmonton, it came this morning and we went back to get them switched out and the spare put back where it was supposed to be.

After this, we're headed towards Prince George and on towards Calgary.  We're not in any particular hurry, so we'll just drive to where we want for the day and spend a day or two when we find an interesting place.

We enjoyed the tour, and are now enjoying our trip back home!