13 Days and Counting ... Alaska Here We Come

Yes, we are only 13 days away from departing our condo and hitting the road for seven months.  We have two weeks to get to the Sacramento area, with quick visits in Arkansas, a day trip up to Missouri to see Ryan, and in Phoenix.  After a month or so visiting family in Sacramento (including both mom and dad’s birthdays), then we are off to Utah for a few days to see Stephanie, and then we start our trip up north.

The last time we were in the Tetons, in 2012, the smoke from all the fires in Oregon, Idaho and other Western States did not make it the scenic, pleasant trip we had expected. 


After a few days in this area, we plan to move north east to visit the western portion of North Dakota, specifically Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  North Dakota is one of the three states which I have never been to…the other two are Alaska and Hawaii.  I will wait until they build that highway to Hawaii…

From there we plan to head to the Banff and Jasper National Parks in Canada.  This are is one of the most scenic areas of Canada.  It is very busy in July and August.  It can be a bit cold at night in May, but the mountains will be full of snow, and the crowds will be small...can't wait to get some pictures 

              

Assuming all goes well, by late May we plan to be in Dawson Creek.  The town has a population of just over 11,000 people.  The “Creek” was named Dawson Creek in 1879, and it soon became a farming community.  By 1912 homesteads were being issued, and by 1921 the community was incorporated.  Today Dawson Creek is known as “mile zero” of the Alaska Highway.  If all goes well, by June 1st we will be on the Alaska Highway.


By the time we have reached “Mile Zero”, we will have already driven nearly 6,000 miles…and we have around 1,200 miles to go before we enter Alaska.  Once in Alaska, well, it will be another 4,000 miles before we are back in the lower 48 where we will spend more time in Sacramento, then across I-80 to see Stephanie in Utah, Ryan in Missouri, and my Doctor in Arkansas. By the time we make it back to our Condo in Florida, we will have driven between 14,000 to 15,000 motorhome miles.

 “IF” we traveled every day, that is only 70 miles a day.  In reality, we will have some long travel days, and some short travel days.  It is a lot of miles but as they say, it is a trip of a lifetime.

The Alaska Highway started in 1942 shortly after Pearl Harbor was bombed. February of 2017 will be the 75th anniversary of when they started…so this is the 75th year of the highway.  (If you have trouble with the math as it comes to the year, think of a baby's first year starting the day they are born.)  This is our third year in a row that we have planned this trip…and I feel real good that this is the year it will happen.  With the 75th year of the highway, with gas prices at the lowest in 16 years, and a favorable exchange rate…I think the stars have aligned for a wonderful trip this year.

Valentines Day, Countdown to Alaska Begins...again

Last year 18 Roses and a box of chocolate, this year 24 Roses…and both times Marcia was surprised as heck.  Like last year, I had the flowers delivered a few days early.  This time it was a Thursday delivery.  I was headed out the door to see about getting our HHR interior and exterior its annual super cleaning on Friday and a quick stop at the store.  At the door was a delivery of some of her vitamins, and then I see the Fedex truck drive by.  Sometimes they deliver things to our neighbor by mistake, but he breaks, turns around, and drives back.  The lady three doors down had a flower delivery too, and he did not realize our place was so close.  So I walk in with the flowers, and the only thing that makes her face look happier is holding that new Great Grand-baby…

Love 1800flowers…their flowers are fresh, last a long time, and delivered quick.  Wednesday night they left Miami, and about 18 hours later they are delivered to our door.

Well, there is the recipient right there…wondering why I am taking so many pictures of the flowers, and just realizing that she is in the picture too. 

  

Someone else gets her feelings hurt as she looks over at the flowers, and then refuses to look at me.  A nice rib bone from Longhorn Restaurant would make her happy…but we go out last night to Mama Maria's, so that didn’t help (until she got some leftovers this morning for breakfast.)

I hate the look…where is Bubba when you need him??

The Countdown Begins..
	We leave on our next trip in 32 days … heading out after church on Wednesday, March 16th.
It will be nice to be back out on the road, seeing friends and family, and seeing some wonderful parts of God’s Green Earth, put here for our use and enjoyment.

And for the third year…yes, we are putting Alaska at the top of our agenda.  Plan to cross into Canada in late May after a month in California, and some time in Utah, Wyoming, North Dakota, etc.   And this time I feel we are going to make it there and back…after all, what could go wrong????

Alaska 2015

We planned on doing Alaska in 2014, but the RV Storage Fire destroyed that plan.  If you missed that, you can read about here:  Post One  |  Post Two   We were able to find a replacement motorhome, and we tested it out last year, made some improvements and had maintenance performed, and we still have one major repair to the slide out floor, and a few improvements which I have been working on, and it will be ready before we head out from California where we will be for a month or so due to my oldest son’s graduation from the University of California, Berkeley in May.

Although the route will be adjustable depending upon the weather, there is not much one can do once you leave the Prince Rupert area in British Columbia.  We will either head out to to Dawson Creek and hit the Alaska Highway, or we will go up the Cassiar / Haines Highway along the west and meet up with the Alaska Highway at Haines Junction.  Plan is we will go up one way, and come down the other.  If we come back along the west route, we will have a chance to see bears feeding in Stewart / Hyder area if there is a late Salmon run and if we head back in August.  I do know that I want to enter Canada by June 1st, and exit Canada no later than the end of September.

Estimated miles from Citrus Heights to Alaska and back to Citrus Heights, visiting the areas we plan to visit, is going to be around 8,000 miles.  This does not account for the 3,000 miles to California and 3,000 miles back.  Plan to head out around April 1st, no jokes please, and be back by mid-December.  Of course, plans are just plans….as we remember last year’s post about the motorhome fire, Man Plans, God Laughs.   Next post I will show off a major change I did in the motorhome pantry area….

Countdown Adjustment

May 1st has now become April 28th, a Monday.  To be honest, May 1st was just a “goal”, which a few weeks ago I realized that we were going to leave just a little before that.  But first, I wanted to be sure we had everything done here, especially Doctor Appointments.  

Yesterday Marcia met her new primary care doctor, her fourth or fifth one in the past six years.  Seems like every time she gets use to a doctor, they up and leave the area, their practice, or no longer take her insurance.  With one doctor a few years ago with us it was like, “we are glad you no longer take our insurance, we were not coming back to you anyways.”  She tried to get Marcia interested in “healing crystals”, and I am sure would have been more than happy to sell us some, through another person of course.  I think Marcia said something like, “Jesus needs no crystals to heal….”, just to let her know that she could take her voodoo somewhere else.  Upon our return in 2012 we got the notice that they no longer took her insurance.  So last year we broke in another doctor…who while we were gone in 2013 decided to stop her private practice and go to work for the County, at least that is the latest story we were told.  Who knows what the truth was on that.  So before we got back to Florida she had lined up another doctor within the same network….and when we got back in January she made an appointment, with the earliest date being March 11th.  When we got there yesterday, we found out that the other lady in the practice, we will call her Brooke, was going to be her new doctor.  Well, sometimes we play the lottery….and in this case our “lottery doctor” came through!  Dr. Brooke was very nice, very accommodating, and assured us she had no plans to “go away” anytime soon.  We hope we don’t go “bust” on this lottery win…

We have also been tackling the various items on our “to do lists”.  We have a list of items for the condo, and list of items for the RV/Car.  Some of these are easy, some will need to be done by “experts”.  So far, we have conquered most of the “to do ourselves” items, outside of giving the RV a good shine and packing it up to go. 

Monday I flushed out our hot water tank, something that looked like it had not been done for a decade or two.  We are lucky that it is so close to the walk-in shower, and the sand and sediment was pretty thick, that’s for sure.  At first water would not come out except for a slight dribble.  So I turned the water valve, and I opened the pressure valve…both a big mistake.  Finally, after opening and closing the drain valve a few times, water and gunk pour out with a flurry.  After letting it flush out for a good 5 minutes, I closed it up, turned on the hot water power again, and walked away.  About an hour later Marcia goes, “got a leak in here”.  First the high pressure valve, now that the water was hot, was allowing water to flow down to the drain pan, which was full.  A few knocks with my fist fixed that…but the cold water valve was dripping too.  Grrrr….   So I turned off the water, turned off the electricity, and the next day we asked her brother Mike (who is watching Bubba) to look at it.  It turned out to be an easy fix…one I could have done had I thought of it.  Luckily he was in the area doing a house inspection, so he did not care.

Before we leave, we are thinking of having our “patio” enclosed with glass windows instead of the vinyl windows above.  By doing this, the patio can be turned into more living space when we return.  We will get a bid for this on Monday.  We have seen other condos around here that have done this change, and we really like the results.

As for the car and the RV….  Due to the age of the RV, I am going to have all of the heater hoses changed out, and have them look at the transmission fluid/filter and the radiator fluid.  I doubt anything besides the hoses will need to changed, but I’d rather find out now than half way up to or from Alaska.  I also want to seal around the back tire wells and gas cap area where there are some signs of paint cracking.  Then I want to give the entire vehicle a good clean/polish.  I also got some RainX to do the outside windows….from everything I read, the trip up to Alaska and back will be a dirty one, any protection before the dirt and grime will just make it easier when we do find places to wash it down.  As for the car, I am going to have the breaks done.  It went over the 100,000 mark this last year, and the breaks seem to be the only thing which is wrong with it right now.

And now you know what I have been doing for the past hour.