Only two days to HOME SWEET HOME!! From Newport we continued south along the Oregon coast and across the California border to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, just south of Crescent City. This was a wonderful, peaceful drive through the towering redwoods. You know you are in California when you see redwoods. It is a beautiful, sunny day and there is ‘no place like home’.
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park has no amenities. There is a bathroom and even a shower. But we had no electricity or water at our camp site. This is really camping. No TV, no microwave and no laptops! So we did a nice late afternoon hike. Only about two miles. We strolled through the redwoods and ferns and watched a lone male elk grazing in a meadow.
A very nice ending to a wonderful adventure. We went to bed early and got up early the next morning and headed home. As we were leaving Prairie Creek we stopped alongside this meadow where the elk always graze and watched two young elk running and frolicking amongst some high fern that was growing at the edge of this meadow. Then we saw two more younger and smaller elk pop their heads out of the fern. There was also a low lying mist covering this meadow.
A nice, peaceful scene. Cotati here we come. We got home just in time for lunch!
Trip Facts
1. We traveled for 65 days
2. We traveled a total of 10,090 miles;
7,402 miles on the trailer (towing the trailer)
2,277 additional miles on the Ford (without the trailer-sightseeing)
411 miles over water (ferries)
3. Visited 2 countries
4. Visited 3 provinces
5. Visited 4 states
6. Visited 50 cities, towns, villages
7. Visited 3 Zoos,
8. Visited 3 Botanical gardens
9. Visited 1 Aquarium
10. Visited 13 Museums
11. Visited 11 National Parks, Monuments, etc
12. Visited 22 Other Attractions
13. Attended 6 events
14. Most favorite place: Kenai Peninsula
15. Least favorite place: None
16. Best attraction: Denali National Park, Alaska
17. Worst attraction: None
Observations
1. The major cities are small and spread out with no tall buildings.
2. There are some housing tracts in the bigger cities. In the smaller towns, the residential areas are spread out with lots of space between the homes.
3. The shopping malls are very small and older....nothing like what we have back home.
4. There is a lot of barren mountain scenery in Alaska. Right now those treeless mountains are covered in green, and Fireweed. All is very scenic.
5. The trees that cover the hills and mountains in Alaska are BLACK SPRUCE, DOGWOOD & BIRCH. There is no pine, noble fir or redwood trees.
6. Wildlife roams freely. Lots of bear warning signs in the towns.
Here is a map of our routes in Alaska and the Yukon
Click on picture to enlarge.Things of Interest and Fun Sights
During our travels through Alaska, Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta and the Pacific Northwest, we came across interesting sites as well as Alaskan and Canadian humor. We would like to share those pictures with you. Some of this info has already been shared (this will be a review) and some are new. So enjoy:
IN ALASKA
I saw this at the Historical Museum in Ketchikan. For those who know me and my ‘turtle’ collection; I would love to add this to my collection.
Ketchikan has a little humor. This is a dumpster that was at one of the worst RV parks we stayed at.
In Skagway there was a memorial to the mules that lost their lives during the gold rush.
Giant Mosquitoes at Delta Junction in Alaska.
Mile 1422 and the END of the Alaskan Highway in Delta Junction. For us it was the beginning of the Alaskan Highway as this is where we entered the highway.
It was a cold day in Fairbanks, Alaska in January 1989. This T-shirt was on display at the Fairbanks Community Museum.
An interesting sculpture at the University of Alaska State Museum in Fairbanks. Raven made with nails.
Another interesting sculpture at the University of Alaska State Museum. A life size horse made with Alder wood, steel and wire.
When we talked about driving to the Arctic Circle in Vol 5; we were driving to one point of this circle that is in Alaska. The Arctic Circle is the top of the world as you can see on this map.
We saw these vehicles in several places throughout Alaska. It’s a camping tour group from Germany. These ‘tanks’ where shipped over to Alaska from Germany with the tour group.
On the Kenai Peninsula we came across these black hillsides along the highway that had names and words written with white stones.
We saw this at the entrance of someone’s home in Anchor Point on the Kenai Peninsula. There were two of them on either side of the driveway. You know how we are about cats. It looks like they were once buoys’.
++-+Alaska.JPG)
Anchor Point, AK, “North America’s most Westerly Highway Point”.
Homer, Alaska “Halibut Fishing Capital Of the World”.
A group of motorcycles traveling the “Top of the World Highway”. Notice the spare tires.
In Yukon
Parked car we saw in Dawson City, Yukon. This is what happens when you travel on a gravel highway after a rain.
We were lucky. The day we drove the gravel “Top of the World” Highway, it was a beautiful, sunny day.
I don’t quite know what this is, but we saw it alongside a road, next to a gas station as we drove through Haines Junction in the Yukon.
In British Columbia
A 2,850 pound slab of British Columbia Jade in Cache Creek, BC.
World’s largest gold pan in Quesnel, BC
This was in the garden of the RV park we stayed at in Quesnel. Robert’s Roost Campground.
This car was under the city ‘welcome’ sign for Burns Lake, in the Lake District in BC. We stopped here for gas on our way to another city.
World’s Largest Fly Rod in Houston, BC
In Alberta
The “Beaver Project” in Beaverlodge, Alberta
Our Home on Wheels
The day we purchased our Trailblazer
‘Setting up Camp’
We do our cross country traveling in a 26 foot, 2004 Trailblazer. It has two entrances and one ‘slide out’ (where the couch is).
We have a nice size refrigerator and a microwave. We also have an air conditioner and a heater. But we use table top fans and heaters. They make a lot less noise. On extremely hot days, we do leave the air conditioner on for the animals if we are gone for several hours. There is a radio and c/d player built into the trailer and we bring along a 15” flat screen TV with a built in DVD player.
Relaxing with a good book and Pepper takes over the couch.Of course, we always bring our laptops. This is the best tool to have when traveling. With our laptops we can communicate with family and friends. We can pay our bills online. We can research RV parks and make reservations and also research destinations and attractions at those destinations. These days most RV parks now offer wireless connections and most often they are free. If there is no connection, there are always coffee shops downtown that offer WiFi and usually the town library will also have free WiFi. There have been times where we are able to park next to a shop that has WiFi and sit in our car and get a connection.
However, when we stay in places with no hook-ups such as some national and state parks, we have to really ‘rough’ it and do without our gadgets and toys. Without power we cannot use our TV, microwave, table top heaters and fans and our laptops after the batteries die.
Under the head of the queen size bed there is a large storage area that also has access doors outside on both sides of the trailer. We have converted ½ of that storage space into a cat area where we have the litter box and cat food. The outside access door is blocked with a grill and screen so fresh air can enter and the cats can look out. The cats can enter this area through a cat door that we installed on the inside. The cats love it and sometimes spend a lot of time in that area which makes it less crowded inside of the trailer. The best part is the litter box is out of sight and out of the way.
Dave cleaning the cat area and litter box.There are two skylights which let a lot of light into the trailer. This is really great except for at night. The early morning light will wake us up too early and some RV parks have lights at each site that are just too bright and fill the trailer with too much light during the night. So we have cushions to insert into the sky lights that blocks out any light. All the windows have mini blinds in them, but that is not enough to block out any unwanted light at night, so we’ve added insulated thick curtains to all of the windows and that takes care of all the unwanted light during the night.
Traveling with our dog, Pepper and 2 cats; Disney & Dandy can be a challenge. We have to be very careful that they do not escape the trailer and it is amazing how the cats will manage to squeeze into a hiding place inside the trailer and it takes forever to find them. We do a ‘pet count’ every time we leave the trailer.
When we are on the road, the animals are contained in crates inside the car. They are never left inside the trailer when it is moving.
Living in this trailer is very comfortable and cozy. It does sometimes feel crowded with five of us. But we try to be nice to each other and find our own space and we do all manage to survive and live in harmony.
Our Next Trip
We are already making plans for our next Trailer Tripping in 2010. This will be a four month trip from March thru June. We will be tripping across central US starting from home to LA, then across the US on Interstate 40 to the East Coast. Then up to Washington DC and returning home on Interstate 70. With this trip we will cover the central US states we have not been to yet.
So stay tune for the 2010 Charleston’s Trailer Tripping blog, starting March 2010.
