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

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"