Hope you enjoyed our blog Sept. 2016

Sept 25  Day 56
We sure enjoyed keeping you posted, and thanks for all the great comments.
Went from Ft Macleod Alberta Canada, to Shelby Montana, then Wolf Point Montana and tonight East of Bismarck North Dakota. Couple more days and we will be home.  10,000 miles and Dom drove the whole way, with a sore hip that he got from falling on Sept 20th.
Would we do it again??? We sure would, and we are now planning our next adventure.
This is probably our final Blog since we have come full circle.  We stopped at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park North Dakota.  We heard that we missed a great place on our way to Alaska (we only stayed the night) so we had to make another stop and have to admit we saw more animals in that Park then in all of Alaska, well maybe not, but these animal pose for photos. Judge for yourself..
Arrived home on Sept 27th.  7PM   2016

Going over the boarded, they took all our tomatoes and clementines, we had the labels taken off and we told them we bought them in Alaska but NO they did not believe us. 

No citrus goes over the boarder.  Bugs

Finished the second blanket, I can't just sit and look out the window, especially if it is flat and boring.

The trains across the plains are over 100 cars long, 2 engines in the back and 2 in the front.

Cheerful ranger, have to admit rangers must love their jobs they are always pleasant.

This Bison was 10 ft away  He was looking at Dom's motorhome with it's little eye and I was yelling "he looks like he doesn't like us"  STOP  you have to see the movies.

Also saw Moose Head Dear and wild horses

Don't these animals look like they're posing.

Literary update

Literary update, this can get wordy so if your not a reader forget this post.
On this journey I have read about 5 books and I can only say one of them, The Racketeer by John Grisham is a good mystery read. A little slow getting into but lots of angels and surprises at the end.

2 Alaska reads that I have more info on:

The first-- Into the Wild-- by Jon Krakauer is a true story about a young man who goes to Alaska to find himself and dies.  He dies in Denali Park but that was kept from the book for some reason, bad publicity perhaps.  If you read the book you might have wondered how the bus he lived in got out in the middle of nowhere??? Well the bus driver on our tour of Denali Park was a fount of info.  They used these old buses years ago to transport workers to the mines and if a bus broke down they just left it where it stopped. Also this guy in the book was not far from help, he had a river to cross that was too high to cross when he came upon it and there was a hill on the other side.  Well if this guy had climbed the hill and waved his arms these bus drivers are trained to stop and get help for anyone that looks needy.  The bus driver showed us the hill the guy could have climbed.  Of course the time of year is crucial,  the buses only run from April to Oct. but that's a big window.  Also he could have seen the road.  Sad story but true, also they auctioned off the bus dash board on eBay. It sold for $10,000 You might have seen the movie too.???

The second book--My cousin Barb recommended about a couple and their 2 dogs that go to Alaska in an Air Stream camper.  The Longest Road --by Phillip Caputo.  They travel from Florida to Alaska in search of 3 things, "What do you like about America and how do you feel about our country," and----  Also in search of the world's best Cinnamon roll.  Well in his book he found it (the roll anyway) on highway 1 Alaska at the Tetsa river LO mile marker 375 Alaska HWY UNI Fort Nelson BC.  Below is a photo of the lady with her roll ( her husband does the baking)  the same lady that is in the book.  We bought a roll and ate it, and it was great not too sugary but very cinnamony.  What fun to find this famous stop. If you think you can't find this place don't worry it's the only place on the highway in a 50 mile radius.

Gail the lady with the great Cinnamon rolls

Her cute roadside stop.

Highway 1 Canada Signpost Forest

Sept 21 Day 52
This is close to our final post, when we reach Calgary our journey from Chicago to Alaska will connect this big circle, and we are going straight home.
From Fairbanks we traveled Highway 2 until we met the famous Alcan Highway in Beaver Creek Yukon. We traveled highway 1, this great highway, until Mile marker 1 at Dawson Creek.  This highway was built during WWII to get to Alaska and defend the US from Japan.  Canada and the US agreed to work together to build it and then when it was complete the US gave it to Canada to maintain, smart move because no one travels this highway and all the Canadians do is repair it.  I guess the 75 year anniversary is coming up and they hope people will travel. Fat chance of that because there is nothing there, no gas, food or lodging.  But lots of wildlife, not the kind we see, dead on the side of the road, of course no people ---the wildlife love it.  We did lots of dry camping in off road rest areas. We have traveled 7800 miles and Bev because of the cold and rain no mosquitos, we sure had a black cloud following us, not even the mosquitos came our way. Now that we are heading home sun every day.
The Raven, a big black bird, it is the bird of the Yukon because it's the only bird that stays all year, it is one big bird. Picture a bird that is so tall it's head reaches the bottom of your chair.

all the posts from everyone every year the numbers go up

the original sign

the original guy then and below 50  years later.

came back 50 years later, he is dead now

The Sign Post Forest was started by this guy that was working on the highway during the war and he put a sign up to say how far he was from home, so now everyone does it. We left this sign.

This all happened it Watson Lake Yukon.

Photo at the beginning of Highway 1 in Dawson Creek British Columbia

We have seen Bear, grizzly and black, caribou (above) porcupine, stone sheep, bison, its a zoo out here on the road. I have a movie of this caribou mom looking both ways as she tries to cross the road.

tons of animals on the side of the road, this bison decides to feed her baby on the road.

Hot mineral spring in Liard Hot springs British Columbia

Big sign saying Moose love mineral water so if they come to drink leave them alone.

Homeward bound, into the Yukon

Sept 15 Day 46
Well we said a sad farewell to Alaska today we are on our way home.  We do miss home, but we will also miss our adventure.
Although we saw the northern lights once in Hatcher Pass and again in Fairbanks, we will never forget the awesome beauty when they light up the whole sky, your eyes and mind can't comprehend the beauty and the movement.  Dom got a poor photo because he didn't quite figure out his camera and I think we were so excited about seeing them that we couldn't stop looking.  It's the moving across the whole sky that is the wonder of the world.  If you look up the site --gi.alaska.edu--- you will see the forecast for the lights in Alaska.  We followed it till our last night here hoping to see more.  but alas more cloudy rainy days.  The forecast tells us that they are there, but the weather predicts if you will see them.
We also met lots of wonderful people here but because of the weather people did not hang outside of their RVs as much as we would have liked.  I would have liked to ask them where they were from and what they saw and what they would like to see.  The people we did find were very helpful and caring.  They wanted us to have the time of our lives and I would like to have told people what we did and what we saw too.  I have lots of thank you to write and people I hope to hear from again.  If you asked did you come at the right time?  Yes we wanted to see those light so our chances were better at this time, the RV parks are closing for the season as we drive out their doors.  But no if you want to have sunny warm days.

although the iPhone takes some awesome photos nighttime is a failure

This is the envelope you put 5 of 10 dollars in to spend the night at a state campground

you put the stub in your windshield and the money in a box, the ranger comes and checks it out

there are a zillion perfect Xmass trees in Alaska, I wanted to take one home and put it in the freezer

Our last day we went to this antique park with lots of old memories some too old for me like this cash register

one of our last photos of Alaska love that blue water

It says The Yukon- Larger then life (and it is)

This is the Yukon

The story of the history of the Yukon

these picnic tables are designed so a wheelchair could fit under one side, these people love their old people.

this would look cute on my patio

Cora, a native Athabaskan welcoming us to the Yukon

In the yukon when there is road construction you get an escort

The border patrol

The mountain range of Denali National park runs from the Aleutian Islands to the Yukon

A moving target, I think our motorhome scared the whole herd of elk on the side of the road.

Fairbanks

Sept 13 Day 45
We are freezing our asses off up here in Fairbanks and we want another look at the northern light,   with the rain it doesn't look good.  45 degrees but with the rain feels like 0.  Many of the campgrounds have their water turned off and are closing for the season, all going to AZ for the winter.  We have one more thing to do tomorrow, Pioneer park and then I think we have seen everything we are ever going to see.  Today we saw Dredge #8 and the Alaskan Pipeline. On the way to Fairbanks we went through the North Pole and Nenana (had to see that town, sounded like a Nana kind of town), also the Tenana river.

Sorry to leave Denali

Nenana Valley Visitor center (closed)

Santa is 42 ft tall

Reindeer are fat getting ready to fly

On the way to Fairbanks the North Pole.  --- Nenana Valley visitor center,

this is a ghost town 

The office of this campground looked like a troll house, had to bend down to get in the door, in Fairbanks

Lots of these little fast service houses we stopped for Tai food in this one, it was good.

Fairbanks from a lookout

in the museum, how would you like this in your living room??

The University Alaska museum

the pipeline 

Dom is holding a 75,000 dollar gold nugget 

Dredge #8

the gold we panned for was worth 21 dollars