Event Coverage North to alaska living the dream

great read and fantastic pictures you two!
Stay safe and have a wonderful adventure!!
maybe see you at the salt..

 

Here is a song a local girl wrote and sings about her time in Alaska. She saiys it was a great time in her life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGUSq87fR6I

 

Holy Smoke Bob !! I will be traveling along with ya ( in my mind !) My spirit animal is the Bison and a traveling spirit is the Raven,,,, when ya see them know that Crow is watching over your trip with GOOOOOOOOD prayers ! You two ENJOY !

 

The amount of Mercury trucks Sid has (EVEN COEs) is amazing.

 

Did someone say Seattle? When you gonna be around here?

 

Depends on your definition of Seattle????

We went through there last night and are now in Bellingham to catch the ferry tomorrow. It was about 6:30 pm.

So we are closer than Antigo Wi but not as close as Everett.

Come on up. We will buy a beer or twelve.

BB

 

I looked for ya BTT50's, didn't see you or the car. Good luck on your trip. I'll be watching.

 

Tom, we left Saturday morning right from the hotel.

Sorry we missed you.

BB

 

We left Baker City Or early Thursday morning headed for Portland Or. Time to get one more destination off of the bucket list, that being the Colombia River Gorge.

Hell of a down grade in the eastern Oregon desert. Notice that Buddy Christ is on the job protecting us.




Is this really traditional with all of this electronic shit???? Prolly not but I don't give a shit as long as it helps with the travels.




Or first view of the mighty Colombia river just above one of the dams at the Dalles.




The information center for the Gorge, really neat place with a great view and cool exhibits.







Back on the 2 laners, US 30, the old road, gotta love them twisty byways.








Half way up to the overlook, neat view.




Spectacular view from the top of the overlook.




We just came up this way, when we got to the top there was a bunch of tourists waiting for us, they had been watching and listening to us coming up. Had a crowd around the car for awhile, it was kinda cool.




All of the crowd left, there were a bunch of cyclist's amoung them, can't imagine pedaling up to the top.





Quite a view, those poor folks on the interstate don't even realize what they are missing.





Saw this on the way down, way back in a canyon, can't imagine what the driveway must look like, really neat house though.




That's it for now, gotta go and UPS the CCW to Alaska, can't take it through Canada.

BB

 

I'm envious Bob. Enjoy the adventure!

 

Ah hell. Day late and a dollar short. Story of my life. I'll take ya up on that beer in Joplin though. (You don't need to check on the office!) Enjoy them Canucks, eh!

 

Bob, Has your itinerary changed? I thought you were riding the ferry all the way to Homer... Latest comment it appears you are getting off in Haines and driving up via Haines Jct? If so, you have good road conditions all the way to Destruction Bay on the ALCAN. You'll pick up rough road from Burwash Landing all the way to the border. Then you have relatively smooth road to Tok. If you're headed to Anchorage from Tok, the 1st half of the Tok cutoff is rough, road construction in Glennallen (on the Glenn Hwy going through town), and relatively good road until you arrive in Palmer. The Glenn is then divided 4 lane hwy (from where it meets the Parks Hwy) all the way to Anchorage. It's the closest thing to a freeway AK has.

 

Party at Bobs place!!!!

 

Great trip and thanks for posting about it and the updates!!! I'm beyond green with envy but happy for you both!! This is just too cool!!!

TMan....I LOVE that house and shop of yours!! i didn't know that you had one of those straw houses!! AWESOME!!!!

 

If you search my thread history I posted about it here before Ryan got the Garage Journal. Quite a few pictures.

 

'muricans do not need a passport to enter Canada. You do need a passport to get back in to USA.
If you are driving back in to BC, stop at a little museum in Fort Nelson. The old guy there has a 1908? Brush and tons of pictures of the Alaska Hiway being built in '42.
Gas will be about $6.00 a gallon up there. (but it's a bigger gallon)

 

I think I found your alternator problem.
Be safe out there and hope you can make it to Joplin.

Tim

 

Nope, no change going from Tok to Valdez, Valdez on another ferry and then to Whittier to Kodiak, to Homer and then heading north.

BB

 

Ah, that explains it...

 

Tok had one Tesoro Gas station in 1979
I bet it's grown
Dawson City had a fourth of July parade too
Then - any excuse to get out I guess.

 

Tok has a Tesoro, and a Chevron with a quick stop in it.

Dawson City has a 4th of July parade every year. It has the distinction of being (originally) an American town in a foreign country. Almost everyone there during the Klondike Gold Rush (1898) and afterwards was an American.

Until the narrow gage railroad was built from Skagway to Whitehorse people traveling to the gold fields took the Chilkoot Trail http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilkoot_Trail

For a while Dawson City was practically a ghost town... Dyea AK is indeed a ghost town, it's being taken over by spruce forest.

 

mmmmmmmmmmmmm, Whittier, interesting place.......hard to describe
it

There is a lengthy "one way" tunnel there.

 

Time for a quick few photo's while waiting for the Plane to take us to Glacier Bay.

The last picture we posted was of a house we saw on the way down to the river in a canyon. About a half mile further down we saw this.




The cherries were damn near as big as the ones shown here, we bought 2 pounds and they were outstanding.

We had never seen a fish ladder so a stop at the Bonneville dam was mandatory. Of course I will stop anyplace that has BONNEVILLE in the name.




It's cool how they guide the fish to where they want them to go.



The actually have folks who sit by these big windows and count the fish and identify them by species, what a job that must be. All I know is that these are Salmon.



This has got to be one of the uglyiest creatures on the planet. The Sea Lamprey. The attach that round mouth to the fish and suck the life right out of it.




That is a hell of a lot of water.




Proof that I was really there. And some flowers for the less adventerous of you folks out there.








I wanna get one of these propellers for my fishing boat. Actually that is one of the impellers use to generate electric power.




Gotta go get the car into storage and get to the airport. More on Friday

BB

 

Yes, they widened the rail tunnel, mods completed 6/2000, for one way automobile traffic. Every half hour the direction of traffic flow reverses. The tunnel is 11.59 miles long, the longest in North America.

Whittier has the distinction of being the fartherest north ice free port in the US. During WW II the port was predominately invisible from the air due to cloud cover. The city gets 25 foot of snow during the winter. Until recently, everyone in the city lived in a single building called the Begich Tower. The US Army and Navy terminal and garrison being long closed.

Another access to Kenai Fjords, most local glacier boat tours begin in Whittier whereas the wildlife tours depart from Seward. That and either a boat launch for hunting and/or fishing there's not much to do in Whittier.

 

The PNW and Alaska (what little I've seen) are so outstanding . . . Magnificent Mother Nature in the raw. Glad we can follow along, thanks.

 

Go easy on those cherries if you're stuck in a car for a long period of time

 

Mr. Bob,,, Have you noticed the Ravens alont the trip so far ?? Crow.

 

Go Bob Go! Love ya man but not in a gay sorta way ! Be safe my friend!