7/31/1991 - Wednesday

John:  We started the day thinking that we would be in Glenwood Springs with lots of time to kill... but we ran into a lot of road construction along the way that really slowed us down.  Another thing that slowed us up was that somewhere in Flaming Gorge our roof carrier top blew off!!  We discovered this when we decided to stop under this nice big shady tree in a small town in Flaming Gorge... I got out of the truck and looked up and couldn't believe my eye balls!!  The whole top half of the carrier ripped off and was gone into outer space.  All our stuff inside the carrier was still sitting there nice and neat.  (The lid to the box with our bathing suits and towels blew away and the bathing suits were ready to fly off next...) so we had to re-shuffle everything and pack everything into the truck.  What a sight... I wish I would have seen that thing fly off... Guess it didn't make it all the way home like I thought it would.  The Flaming Gorge area was pretty.  We saw lots of antelope in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado...  We also saw a mother moose with a baby in the north/east corner of Utah... so close to Colorado, that I think there must be some moose in Colorado.  We saw a lot (25-30) of deer also.  Our original plan was to camp somewhere in Colorado around the White Nat’l Forest, but because it took so long to get out of Wyoming, our schedule was blown... We got to Rangley and there was nothing, to Meeker... still nothing and getting later... to Rifle, nothing... so decided to go in to Glenwood Springs.  We got a camp spot at the “Hideout” which is out by the new Pizza Hut (where we ate supper).  We drove 358 miles.

ODOM:  31984

Roof carrier lid gone!

Flaming Gorge

Flaming Gorge

Moose & Baby

7/30/1991 - Tuesday

John:  Woke up to another beautiful sunny day.  We drove to Jackson Hole and did our laundry for the last time... that took a big chunk of time.  After that we drove to Teton Village and went to some more shops.  I bought a T-Shirt from the Mangy Moose Saloon.  We ate lunch, gassed up the truck and hit the road.  We followed the Snake and Hoback Rivers.  They look like great canoeing rivers... After we drove out of this nice area, we reached the “waste lands” of Wyoming... Tons of sage brush and rabbits.  We saw some antelope at the place we’re camped at (which came up out of the sage brush like a mirage).  It’s called Fontenelle Creek Campground.  Our spot is next to the Fontenelle Reservoir... it’s pretty nice compared to visions of camping in tons of sage brush... (we’re still surrounded by sage brush, but at least there’s a reservoir here!!)  Before leaving Teton Village, we spotted a huge stick nest on top of an abandoned telephone pole.  It had three large babies in it.  We waited for a while, then saw the big mother bird fly over with a fish in her talons and fed the babies.  The babies were quite large.  Not sure what kind of birds they were, but I think they might be Osprey (gotta look in our bird book when we get home).  We drove 164 miles today... After supper I noticed the roof carrier hung different.  So I climbed up to check it and found that one of the hinges on the front was cracking off... I couldn't climb onto the roof without breaking my neck, so I tried putting duct tape all around it, but couldn't reach the badly broken part.  So with a little Yankee ingenuity and Kansan ingenuity we were able to get a rope tied around the stupid carrier and tied to the camper rack.  Hopefully this will help hold it together for a few more days.

ODOM:  31626

Stick nest

Antelope

7/12/1991 - Friday

John:  We only drove 38 miles today.  But we did get new freon put in our air conditioner as it was not cooling so good anymore.  Found a guy, charged us $21.00 (Not bad).  We also did our laundry and got groceries in Whitehorse.  (Laundry was $12.00).  Doing laundry is really yucky, but getting that and groceries done gives you the same kind of good feeling as cleaning your chimney.  We went on a free tour of the SS Klondike River Boat, great tour!  That boat cost $145,000 to build in 1938 and over $5 million to restore it!  It only displaces 4 feet of water.  It used to run from Whitehorse to Dawson City.  It used wood as fuel and would require 30 cords of wood to get to Dawson, and 140 cords to come back!!  We camped at the Wolf Creek Yukon Government Campground again (in the same spot even)...  A very nice young gal that works for the Yukon Government that collects the camp fees gave the kids an official Yukon pin.  The campground host also came around and gave the kids a “Be Aware of Bears” coloring book.  We also went to view a video and look at furs from the Yukon Fur Trappers Association.  It was very informative.

ODOM:  28718

Susan, John & Kari.

Susan making pancakes.

Susan & Kari in front of the SS Klondike.

SS Klondike

7/9/1991 - Tuesday

John:  We drove158 miles on the Top of the World Highway to Dawson City.  It rained and snowed on us along the way.  The rain eliminated any dust problem, but created muddy roads for 200 miles.  The truck was very muddy.  We ran out of propane and waited for almost an hour for the guy who does propane to wake up in Chicken, Alaska population = 25!  He never woke up, so we put our stuff into our ice chest and split.  We didn't get the full effect of the scenery due to the clouds, fog, rain & snow.  We had to take a free ferry to cross the Yukon River to get to Dawson City.  Dawson City is all dirt roads with old old buildings.  We arrived after the bank closed, so we had to find a place to stay, as we need to convert some money.  We had just enough Canadian money left over to get the camp spot (lovely parking lot), wash the main mud off the truck, and to have a pizza in town.  While at the pizza joint, Peter and Betty walked in!  We didn't have a chance to talk much as they couldn't get in the restaurant because it was so crowded... maybe we’ll catch up with them tomorrow.

ODOM:  28358

Kari:  I found a pair of moose antlers today, but I could not keep them.  That ferry boat ride we went on today was barely any fun because it was so short.

On board the Hwy 9 Ferry.

Hwy 9 Ferry.

7/8/1991 - Monday

John:  We slept in this morning.  I first woke up at 5am to the sound of mosquitoes flying around inside the camper.  Karen and I killed them and went back to sleep until 9:00.  When we stepped outside, we got attacked by millions of killer mosquitoes!  They were crazy!  Even with every known repellent for mosquitoes on, they attacked you.  They would fly into your nose, ears between your glasses and eyeballs, everywhere.  They didn't bite (due to all the toxic substances all over your body), but they were awful!  We hurried to get our stuff together and hit the road.  The myth about how big they are is false... but there are zillions of them.  This place is the worst mosquito area we've run into.  We saw the ex-prize fighter  Harlin cruisin' down the road.  He was headed towards Anchorage, us to Tok.  I couldn't get him on the CB (don’t know if he even had one.)  We have lost Peter and Betty for good I think.  Haven’t seen them for days (since Denali).  Today at Tok I forgot to load our stool and our 5 gallon bucket and I ran over them with the truck.  (Ooooops!).  I hammered the stool back in shape and tightened it up, our bucket has a permanent crease in it... the truck was unscathed.  We bought some more  goodies at Tok.  I bought a grizzly bear that’s made out of glacier silt and clay (made in Palmer, Alaska).  We just haven’t found any nice wooden carved bears, so figured I’d better swoop on this as we will be leaving Alaska tomorrow.  (How sad, just don’t want to leave)... We are camped at a pull out somewhere on Route 5 (a dirt road that turns into the “Top of the World Highway”).  This road is something else... it is not maintained.  Top speed has been about 30 MPH.  Most of the time it’s around 15-20.  It hailed on us up here and the road turned into mud.  (My kind of road).  Our camp spot overlooks some beautiful mountains (I can’t determine any type of direction in Alaska... only between Fairbanks & Anchorage I was ok).  Not a soul has driven by since we ate supper, so will probably be very quiet here tonight.  It rained most of the day (except in Tok).  We even had to crank up the heater in the camper tonight as it’s pretty cold up here.  Total miles driven today was 198.

ODOM:  28200

Route 5.

Susan, Karen & Kari in front of the dirty truck.

John smiling about the really dirty camper!

6/29/1991 - Saturday

John:  Today we drove to Fairbanks...  A total of 269 miles.  The Alaskan Highway was pretty good today, only a couple bad spots.  We viewed the Alaskan Pipeline for the first time.  We met Peter & Betty (from the ferry) in Tok.  They were also headed to Fairbanks.  I found out from Peter that the ‘miniature forest’ is caused by the permafrost... seems like the trees have very shallow root systems and don’t develop like normal.  We caught up on our laundry today at the campground - the campground has all the facilities but the spot is pretty basic.  We saw our first moose today!  It sure is weird having daylight for 24 hours... last night Karen or I woke up nearly every hour and it never got dark!  The local birds must have it figured out, although at 3:30 AM last night one bird was singing it’s morning song,  The roof carrier is disintegrating each day.  I hope it holds together till it’s empty.  I may need to duct tape the whole thing to help hold it together.

ODOM:  27225

Kari:  We saw a big fat moose on the loose finally!  We saw another brown bunny.  We fed some chickens at the campground.

SUMMARY: After two weeks, we have spent a total of $961 cash, plus 343 on gas credit cards total.  It’s very warm & sunny today.  It’s after 10PM and the sun is still 2-3 inches over the horizon!  Pretty weird!  Total miles driven = 3363.

Alaskan Pipeline

Kari, John & Susan in Tok, Alaska

6/28/1991 - Friday

John:  We drove 335 miles today.  I washed the last five layers of mud off the truck in Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory.  The truck stayed clean for about an hour.  We drove for miles & miles of this miniature forest.  The Alaskan Highway was pretty slow traveling... Due to the frost heaves... Some times 20MPH was too fast.  I gave the brakes & suspension on the truck a real work out today.  We are back in Alaska and staying in a wild life preserve called Dead Man’s Lake.  Very private spot.  We haven’t seen any moose or bears yet!

ODOM:  26956

Note:  Broke the wind shield.

Kari:  We saw a brown bunny rabbit and I spilled my pop in the truck ‘cause of the bumpy road.

Karen:  The weather here is warmer than I thought it would be.  It doesn’t get as cool in the evenings as Colorado.  There’s so much daylight.  It’s light at 3:30 A.M.

Susan & Kari leaning on a totem pole in Sitka, AK

"Miniature Forest"

6/20/1991 - Thursday

Karen:  We left camp about 7:30 A.M.  It had rained on us all night.  And has been raining all day.  We toured the Olympia Brewery.  There wasn’t much to that.  We are camped at a private campground tonight.  Did our laundry today for the first time.  Called mom & dad from there (just north of Everett, Washington).  We are camped in Mt. Vernon, Wash.  It’s still raining so the kids are playing  cards.  Ate dinner at a pizza place.

John:  We drove 223 miles today in the rain all day.  Saw a lot of big logging trucks around Randle, Wash... The back door on the camper leaked with all that rain.  I’m gonna try to make a little gutter out of duct tape to correct this.  The Olympia Brewery tour was short.  We had a brew afterwards and I bought a “Hamms Beer” bank (no Olympia banks).

ODOM:  25536

6/19/1991 - Wednedsay

John:  Low mileage day today... only drove 148 miles.  We stopped in Vancouver, Washington at an RV place to check out the “lean” in the truck... Most likely cause by all the weight in the roof carrier on that side.  Guy said it was still safe & shouldn't be any problem.  Our main attraction today was Mount Saint Helens.  The weather was cloudy...  Like major fog when we were leaving.  You couldn’t see more than 20 feet ahead of you.  The narrow twisty road (with no guard rails) was pretty spooky.  Had to drive very slow (in 1st gear) cause you just couldn’t see where you were going.  Lucky for us, it wasn’t that bad when we first got there, although we didn’t have a clear view of the volcano.  The devastation was unbelievable (even after seeing it!!), it’s hard to imagine the force that came out of that volcano.  You can’t believe what you see!  The literature states the initial blast blew over or left standing dead 230 square miles of what used to be deep dark forest.  At “miner’s car” which is 8 1/2 miles away, the blast reached there in less than a minute.  We got to view Spirit Lake and there’s still hundreds of thousands of huge trees still floating at the end of the lake.  The destruction was so awesome!  We left Mt. St. Helens Mountain to Iron Creek only a few miles away.  The spot is real nice.  It’s got huge trees (150-200 ft tall) all around.  It  started raining right after I BBQ’d hamburgers & it’s still raining.  There’s a lot of great camp spots here. 

ODOM: 25313

Kari says:  the trees left standing on Mt. St. Helens are skeleton trees.  Kari found a 6 in long slug.  She had a lot of trouble washing the slime off her hands.

Susan, Joe, Helen & Kari the morning we left Portland.

Skeleton Trees

Logs In Lake

Logs in lake & felled trees on hillside.

Miner's Car

Kari & Susan in front of the destruction.

Susan, Karen & Kari in front of the truck & camper.

Kari & Susan on large tree stump.

Kari & her Slug.