Tuesday, 9/21/10

Up at 8 a.m. to the sound of a helicopter next to us picking up workers to transport to construction sites. Had breakfast at the restaurant at Burwash Landing.  Yes, we had problems starting the RV again.  It seems to stay running once it's warm, but that doesn't make any sense to us so we decide to find a mechanic in one of the larger cities we travel thru in Canada.  We got on the road at 9:45 am.

The weather is good and the scenery is beautiful around Destruction Bay, heading to Whitehorse.  If we stopped along the way we left the RV running.  After asking around, we found a mechanic in Whitehorse (New North Truck & Equipment) to look at the RV.  He invited us to park next to his shop for the night and he would look at it first thing in the morning.  We only managed 183 miles today since we didn't want to travel any further past Whitehorse without fixing the RV.

Monday, 9/20/10

Headed to the Canadian border today. It's about 90 miles from Tok, Alaska. We used electric heaters at our campsite last night. Although it was 22 degrees, we were warm and toasty and didn't have to use any propane.  We realized when we woke up this morning that we forgot to turn on the fridge yesterday afternoon after getting propane! Our discussion: "I'm not opening it" "you open it".  Thankfully everything inside the fridge was still good.  We must have a really good one huh?

We got dressed, unplugged our rig, checked and double checked everything, buckled up, started the RV to warm up and it died.  It wouldn't stay running. Here we were in Tok, Alaska, all packed for our long trip on the road and the RV wouldn't stay running.  After several attempts we called AAA and asked for a tow truck but before I got off the phone, Mike managed to keep the RV running.  Cancel the tow truck but keep AAA on speed dial!

Finally got on the road at 10:00 a.m. Concerned that the RV might not start again, we found a mechanic in Tok at Willards RV and Auto to take a look.  The mechanic (very nice fellow by the name of Mike) took his meters and ran a bunch of tests but nothing showed problems. So he replaced our headlights and charged us $185.98 for his services. 

Finally, we're back on the road at 1:00 p.m. and praying that the RV gives us no further problems.  Came up on our first road construction at Tanana River Bridge. We prepared ourselves for bad roads and lots of construction through the Yukon.  We stopped for lunch along the highway, relaxed, walked the dogs, enjoyed the scenery, and went to leave and the RV wouldn't stay running.  Prayer, coaxing, more prayer and finally she stayed running and we're on the road again.

Crossed the Canadian Customs at 4:45 pm Alaska time, which was 5:45 Canadian.  The roads were terrible with heaves, dust, gravel broken pavement, etc. We slowly made our way to Beaver Creek for gas and a short break.  The weather was beautiful so we planned to drive to Burwash Landing before stopping for the night.  Stayed at Burwash Landing Resort & RV Park for the night.

9/19/10 - on to Tok

Sunday
RV Mileage: 16,895

We've only made 245 miles. This will take a while. Left King Mountain campsite at 8:30 am. We decided to have breakfast at a restaurant and had to drive to Euerka to find a lodge open.  Apparently this late in the season most places close down for winter already.  We had great views of the Matanuska River and Chugach Mountains along the way and of course the Matanuska Glacier.  The weather was beautiful and sunny.  Roads however, are narrow, frost heaves, and broken pavement.  Breakfast at Eureka Summit (elevation 3,322 feet) was nice. Eureka Summit is the highest point on the Glenn Highway.  Stopped for gas in Glennallen. The RV managed to peak at 5.05 mpg through the mountains. Wrangell Mountains. Several areas along the route to Tok had views of the  Finally made it to Tok at 4:10 pm.  Only one RV park left that had their water on still...the Tundra Lodge and RV Park. Good to get a shower and do a little laundry. We were told that it got down to 24 degrees last night! Still, there were a few tough Alaskans tent camping!

9/18/10 Finally traveling

9/18/10 Saturday
Headed to town to get lights fixed. No one in town can help. Stopped at Moose River RV Auto parts. They had windshield wipers ($82.40). On the road finally at 10:15 a.m. Got to A&M RV Center to find a fix for the lights and the mechanics don’t work on Saturdays, of course. So, we kept going, stopping in Wasilla for shopping. Found our Milepost (can’t travel thru Canada without one) at Target in Wasilla. While I was shopping Mike had a brainstorm about the highbeams: disconnect the high beam light and drive with one set...now we have low beams! An old school Jerry-Rigger my DH is. I found a shop where I purchased another camera. Can’t make a trip like this without documenting with photos! We found out while we were in Wasilla that our friend who was picking up the remaining “stuff” from our house fell and suffered some pretty serious injuries...mild concussion, cracked rib, chipped hip bone and gash in her head that required stitches. The weather is holding out for us, sunny but cold at nights. We drove to King Mountain State Park, Milepost 76.1 on the Glenn Highway, stopping at about 9:45 pm. Roads were too narrow and too dark for just low beams to continue driving. Parked next to the Matanuska River.

9/17/10 Friday...on the road

RV mileage: 16,650
Said goodby to friends, locked up the house at 4:30 pm and started into town for wiper blades and dinner with our son Tim before getting on the road to Anchorage. The RV packed to the gills, every possible space taken up with some necessity or treasure we had to keep. Shucks hardware had no wiper blades to fit, so let’s have dinner. Transferred title to our truck we sold to our son, and started down the road only to realize that we did not have low beams, only high beam headlights. So, the search begins to find a mechanic who can fix the headlights, in Soldotna, Alaska at 6:30 on a Friday night. There’s no one. We pulled the rig back into the driveway at the house and stayed our first night in our driveway! Our Pom, Gracie, finally got the message that she can no longer sleep on our bed. There was absolutely no space left for her steps so she was delegated to sleeping on the floor, with our other Pom, Maggie. Before getting ready for bed I found my camera in a bowl of water in the sink. Apparently I left it on the counter after taking photos and while moving, it slid off the counter into the sink. Good start so far!

Moving...finally

Moving back to Virginia. I’ve been wanting to do this for years and the time has finally come. We are moving in a 31’ RV, downsizing from a 1400 sq ft house. We started the sorting and packing around March. I was still working full time and trying to sort through nearly 28 years of “stuff”, deciding what things I absolutely cannot live without (like my great-grandmother’s china) and what can be sold or given away. So, the most logical place to start of course is with my children’s boxes. What mother has not saved every little picture your child drew even before Kindergarten? And I had four children, so needless to say, the sorting took weeks and grew into months. I packed the children’s “stuff” in boxes to mail to them first, then my favorites, then finally the necessities. Let’s not forget Mike’s books. We had over 1,000 books to go through and pick out the ones that we couldn’t live without. These were not small novels, these were anything from text books to gardening to health and healing...big, heavy books! But over several more weeks we managed to pull our favorites and packed for shipping (media mail). Then the garages sales, selling all the rest of our things that we could live without or was too heavy to carry. After another several months, and the help of some very special friends (thank you Linda, Alice and Murray), we were finally on the road on September 17^th. And so the journey begins...