May 27, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time in Alaska

We decided to bypass Whitehorse in the morning for a couple of reasons. First, it looks like a cool town and not the place you want to blow through, and second, we were trying to catch up with our friends Kelly and Bill (BKamerican Odyssey) who we thought were about 200 miles north of us in Destruction Bay. This is where lack of Internet is challenging. At stops at night IF you have wifi you can check in on folks. We knew Jim and Barb were 1 day ahead of us, but they were headed down to Skagway on a side route, so we were missing them. Kelly and Bill were still on the Alaska Hwy though and we knew the name of the campground they were staying, but weren’t sure for how long. They had internet two days ago and we didn’t, then we had internet last night and they didn’t. So we were playing the internet version of phone tag. Kelly has a Verizon data and phone plan, but it only works in some of the towns due to coverage, and since travel plans on a huge trip like this are often “soft” we were all doing the best we could to keep track of each other. So different in the US where we all have mostly instant access to each other’s locations. I get why people caravan now, because it is entirely possible we drove right past Jim and Barb and wouldn’t have known it. Anyway, since we knew the campground they were at we decided to hit the road early and see if we got lucky and caught them.

We stopped at a Fas gas on the way out and paid 1.09 a liter. Lots of gas options in Whitehorse, and it even has a real airport, albeit a tiny one. The gas station overhang had seen better days though, and someone had posted the height in feet and inches on it. Check out the pic and you can see why. This canopy has been hit many times.

It doesn’t help that the overhang is on a slant and had three different measurements. The one on the end said it was tall enough for us, but I think our AC would have hit it so we backed out. Keep in mind this is a gas station near a major town. This scenario is NOT uncommon up here.

The road north of Whitehorse was paved but had lots of frost heaves. Some were marked and some were not, and we ended up going around 50 or slower on the route. Then around MM 936 we saw a sign saying we were leaving the 911 serving zone. Woah, that was new and a little sobering. Not that we could necessarily have called 911 anyway with our phone issues, but we were out there. Around MM 960 though we started to see these beautiful views of the Kluane Mountain range and stopped at a wonderful pull out at MM 977. On a clear day you can see Canada’s highest mountain range behind the Kluane range (which we could see) and they had a great sign explaining it. Plus Lee got an excellent “rig porn shot” (trademark pending on the name lol).

The left pointed snow covered peak is Kennedy which is must farther behind the range in the front. The rounded peak that looks like a volcano top with snow on it is Hubbard peak. Beautiful view

“Rig Porn”

After the stop we started to get some low air warnings on the tires. Nothing too scary, but we definitely wanted to get a little air in one tire. Most regular gas stations here don’t have air. Most are just a couple of pumps in front of a little store, but in Haines Junction we were told there was a place called Source Motors that did have a compressor. Two different people at two stops recommended it to us, but neither mentioned they weren’t open on Saturdays. Again, weird, you wouldn’t know that about the only mechanic in a 50 mile radius? Thankfully though they had a large parking area and we pulled in and Lee dragged out the compressor. He turned on our generator then plugged it in and added about 6 pounds to one of the rear dually tires. I didn’t mind the stop because the view of the glaciers in Haines Junction were really beautiful. Here we were in this little spit of a town with a view to die for. I wondered how people ever got anything done, but I am sure after a while it just fades into the background.

Next we hit the Jarvis River bridge and according to the Milepost book we were 1,000 miles from Dawson Creek. In the lower 48, traveling 1,000 miles is generally no big deal, but up here it felt momentous. After Haines Junction the roads improved again and we were able to go between 55 and 60. That was great because we were getting close to Destruction Bay and even though it was nearing 11am we thought maybe we would get lucky and catch Kelly and Bill. It was hard not to stop at every scenic turnout there, but I did get some decent pics out the side window as we wound our way around the bay.

One large section of the bay was completely dry

One large section of the bay was almost completely dry. I know this picture looks doctored but it wasn’t. The rocks really looked like that…crazy

The side that was filled with water was beautiful

At the far end of the bay was a government campground right on the water called Congdon Creek where Kelly and Bill had stayed. We drove all through the campground and it was really nice. On a Saturday it was about 2/3 full, mostly with families, but there were several spots a big rig could fit into. The lakeside section is relatively small and fills first, but the wooded section was also nice. Keep in mind all of these government campgrounds are on prime real estate, but only have hand pump water and no other services. They really are great places to stay, but you need to plan accordingly. Based on what we saw here and Muncho Lake, Lee and I want to try mainly boondocking in them on our way back down to the lower 48. This particular campground is also closed in July and August for bear activity and since there are no online reservations, it fills fast. At $12 a night I can see why. Oh, and they have free unsplit firewood at most of these. Just don’t try to take that wood across to the US because it will get confiscated at the border. Unfortunately we missed Kelly and Bill (we found out later they left at 9am), so we headed onto Tok. Oh, and top off your gas on the far side of Destruction Bay. It was $1.21 a liter, but there aren’t a lot of places to fill up between there and the border.

Also the road got really poor from that point on. There were lots of construction projects. I took a turn driving and drove with no issue, because the road was very torn up (requiring a pilot car in one point) and I can drive slow on gravel. The worst part of that drive was when I was passed by two big trucks who threw up so much dust I literally could not see. I understand why people get rock damage through here, because the grit was flying. Luckily we passed through unscathed, but it took forever to get through those areas. We did have an interesting encounter when we were waiting on the pilot car, which took about 10 minutes. A woman walked back and talked to us, apologizing for passing us on the dirt road. I said that was nothing compared to the big trucks and she shared with us she was headed towards North Pole, Alaska. She had left West Virginia 6 days ago. Wow, I thought we were going fast!! She also said we would like Glenallen. She said it was boring, but a nice town. After this road trip I am totally fine with a little boring!!

The Canadian border crossing comes up first in the little town of Beaver Creek then there is a loooong 15 mile stretch until the American border crosing. At this point we were anxious to get back to the land of internet and cell service so the drive seemed much longer than it probably was. The Canadian road was pretty torn up in this “no man’s land” with precious few of those rough road warnings we had grown to depend on, but it did improve dramatically (at least initially) when we crossed the American border. We pulled up to our border crossing at 2:44 (lost an hour to a time change) and had to go through commercial trucks and buses entrance because at 13 feet we were too tall to go through the other side. This is confusing because it says RV’s go in the 12.10 lane but no way we would fit. The border officer came out and said we were in the right place and asked us a series of questions. Mainly, did we have anything from Canada? (no) and did we have firearms? (no). He did make Lee sign his passport though, which was funny. I got a gold star for already signing mine lol. Then he saw the little bit of wood we had. At the Canada crossing they didn’t say a word, but he brought a wheel barrow over and made Lee take it all out. We apologized and he said ,”You aren’t the first today, and won’t be the last.” and we found out later Bill had the same thing happen to him! Even with all that it only took us 15 minutes to get through and we were on our way. He didn’t say welcome home though, which bugged Lee a little bit, but I was just happy to be back in the US.

More rig porn 🙂

Of course we immediately turned our cell phones back on, but there was no service for quite a while. I got a teeny bit of Verizon first, just enough to establish that Kelly was in Tok and where she was. Hooray!! Finally at US Milepost 1272 (these are a different color in the Milepost book) I got decent internet service (Lee got AT&T 15 miles from Tok) and it was hard to not want to just pull over somewhere and start talking to people. The road in comparison to the gravel and dirt road certainly improved for us. There were many frost heaves but in a fifth wheel those aren’t as big of a deal for us. I will say though that it is a huge issue for Class A’s, especially older ones. They bounce a lot on those frost heaves and they are very difficult to see. But we cruised along, traveling between 45 and 55 mph depending the number of patches we were seeing on the road. We did miss the patched road markers though that they have in Canada. Our highway system should start using those.

We made our way to the Chevron Truck Stop that Kelly and Bill were staying at with their traveling partners Linda and Steven. Bill walked out to the road and once I saw him and we pulled in to get gas I jumped out and gave him a huge hug. I was so so glad to see him. Cool story about how they all met. Kelly was on an RVillage Alaska group and saw Linda and Steven were heading on a similar route. After several virtual communications, they met in person and talked in detail about how they traveled. Not only do you need to like the people, you also need to travel in similar ways. What time do you get up? When do you like to leave? How long do you travel each day? How comfortable are you with boondocking? These are all questions that must be answered. So after some discussion they felt they had “travel compatibility” (I am just making up new catch phrases here) and headed off together. It was clear upon meeting them, they had all become very close in a short period of time and definitely had a rhythm going. Linda was also kind enough to give us time with Kelly and Bill after the initial meeting with them which was incredibly sweet. I felt as if I had been “rode hard and put up wet” as they say and I was totally done in. Kelly knew this though, and made us some amazing Instant Pot beef stew and let us literally put our feet up in their camper. We caught up until 9pm when I crashed hard, so we went off to bed to get ready for the last day.

Yeah Bill!!

The next day we formed a caravan three vehicles long and started on the last push to Glenallen. It was a new experience for us traveling in a group and luckily our walkie talkies worked with the set they had been using. Steve is a professional photographer (I adore his landscape pictures) and keeps the windshield of their Class A very clean. Linda is their primary driver and he takes some beautiful pictures out the window. They also write a blog where he posts many of his amazing pictures which you should definitely check out. Since Kelly (who was navigating in the lead car) knew we loved pictures so much we stopped every hour or so at a picturesque spot for pictures. I got some great advice from Steven on landscape photos and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know him and Linda better on our breaks.

Taking up the rear in the caravan. Our windshield was not so clean

Things were going great until we hit the Tok Cutoff. The road was the worst at this point as we have seen it, and since the constant frost heaves effected Linda and Steven in their Class A the most they set the pace. They kept apologizing for going so slow, but I could see how much their rig was bouncing in those little valleys and didn’t blame them at all. It ended up taking us about 4 hours to travel that road though, and we were all happy when we pulled into Northern Nights in Glenallen. Lee and I introduced ourselves to Marc and Darlene (our bosses for the summer) and then let the others get settled. Our site was still being worked on, so we took a site next to them for the night. It was a great night of steak dinner and drinks, and Kelly even invited some other folks from RVillage that were in the campground to hang out as well. We really enjoyed the conversation that night, especially because it went beyond the superficial, and as all full timers who started in 2014 we shared our joys and challenges from our time thus far on the road. Really great meeting them and I was sorry to see Linda and Steven leave the next day, but they said they would stop back on their way back out!

Bill and Kelly spent another day and we had a wonderful shrimp dinner and just really enjoyed our time together. Since we started work on Tuesday, they went ahead and left and headed for their job near Seward, but we know we will see them at least once more this summer. Loved, loved being with them for our first few days in Alaska and I truly feel blessed to be friends with such special people!

Kelly and Linda

Hanging around our campfire at Northern Nights

Kelly, Bill, Linda, and Steven. They had their happy hours down to a science at this point lol

The boys eating some Tilamook ice cream. They are VERY serious about their deserts

Kelly, Bill, me, and Lee

Lessons Learned

Have I mentioned it’s hard to be without internet 🙂
When traveling with people to Alaska make sure you have a detailed conversation about how you travel. It’s not enough to like each other, you also need travel compatibility to make it work.
Use walkie talkies when caravaning. Makes things so much easier.
Make sure you carry an air compressor.

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May 25, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time in the Yukon

There was something momentous about crossing into the Yukon for me. This was a place I had heard so much about, and it conjured images of snowy tundra, vast space, gold rush fever, and of course Yukon Cornelius from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I mean seriously, the Yukon!!

It turns out that in the summer the section of the Alaska Highway that rolls through the Yukon is long, sometimes boring, and has tons of amazing mountain scenery. The roads were also the worst we have seen (in places), and because the road is usually farther away from water, we didn’t have many animal sightings. Still, it was majestic, and now I always get to say I drove in the Yukon, because the roads finally leveled out on the second day to the point where I felt like I could take a turn driving. Not as much as in Alberta, but I managed a couple hours each day, which did a lot for my confidence. I tried to choose the sections where they were mostly “go slow for animals or construction”. I can go slow!!

Anyway, let me go back a bit. The Downtown RV Park in Watson Lake was by far the worst we stayed in on the entire route. At $52 for a gravel parking lot where the Wifi absolutely did not work even at the office, I felt gouged. The prices were on the high side everywhere, but that was ridiculous. It was especially depressing because we had passed up that beautiful government campground in Muncho Lake. Despite the crappy setting though, I slept great, and we got out around 8am. Since we aren’t unhitching the outside jobs are much reduced and without me asking Lee has started helping with inside stuff. And something good about moving this much is our packing up routine is getting pretty seamless. If we get distracted things can still go a little wonky, but we are really starting to feel comfortable.

I had looked at the Milepost book the night before and decided to take a little side trip off the Alaskan Highway. The route only added an additional 26 miles and according to Milepost was well paved. I will give Milepost credit for doing a good job documenting side trips. The mile marker indicators get a little weird since you are off the main road, but they do tell you where and where not to try taking a big rig, which I appreciated. The main reason I wanted to try it, was I picked up this great pamphlet at a visitors center that talked about the Caribou Crossing Trading Post that had a Wildlife Museum.

Initially the quality of the Yukon road was very good, well marked, patched and no major issues. We were traveling about 55 mph and enjoying the sights. Plus about 45 minutes into the trip we saw our best to date bear sighting. It was a brown and a black bear, relatively close to the road and we sat for quite some time and watched them. I am really glad we took the time to enjoy that animal encounter, because we didn’t have another one the rest of the drive to Glemnallen. It was very special though.

Even though we didn’t see animals the views were pretty spectacular. I do want to mention at this point to keep your windows as clean as possible. There are many sections in the Yukon with great views but nowhere to pull over for a picture. A clean windshield really makes a huge difference in the experience.

Picture with slightly dirty windshield

Picture with clean windshield

We stopped at a rest area after a couple of hours and I took a turn driving. I drove for the next 70 miles (Lee said it was a boring stretch of highway…perfect!!) and aside from a steep downgrade that was pretty easy I drove fine the whole way. I planned on stopping at MM 775 for a rest area and scenic view and there was one last steep downgrade right before. This one was not so easy because it had a curve on the end and I let the speed get a little to high going into that curve and Lee had to pretty sharply tell me to slow down. I didn’t mind what he said, but it did scare me a little and immediately at the bottom I stopped at the rest area and walked away from the truck. The scenery helped calm me and Lee wisely gave me my space, but I was a little shaken. I ended up not driving again for the rest of that day. The rest area was a great place to take pictures and have lunch though. (On a side note all the Milepost book said about this hill was it descends northbound and drops to 30mph at the end for a bridge. No mention of the grade on the descent which was around 8% and no mention of the curve…shame on them).

After Lee drove across the bridge, we stopped at the Nisutlin Trading Post ( don’t let the name fool you, it’s a convenience store) and got gas since we were at half a tank. The price was $1.12 per liter and they took American Express and that is the best exchange rate for us. They also have a nice heritage center but unfortunately it doesn’t open until June. The roads definitely got rougher from that point. Lots of patched and rough areas which were well marked and a long section of gravel starting at MM 797. Again, well marked, but if you are going much above 50mph it’s tough to slow down in time for them. In many places we were going 40-45mph. At MM 835 we turned off onto onto Tagish road. At this point you should reset your trip odometer because the distances are from that junction. The road was paved, but a little on the rough side, and totally OK for our big rig. Plus it was exciting getting off the main road, we felt like adventurers. OK that is definitely an overstatement because the road was well populated and totally paved, but still a little brave getting off the main highway lol.

The first thing was saw was Tagish, which is a tiny little town set on the huge Tagish River. We saw a big boat launch for the first time and lots of people live along this river. They also have a small school there, and it’s definitely more residential than the main highway. Next up was Caribou Crossing. This was confusing because there is the highway town and historic town. To get to the historic section you make a right off the highway at a big metal sculpture of a Caribou and then you are in a small little village. This was a major cross point during the Gold Rush era and is a cruise ship and train destination today. It’s a little touristy, but kind of fun and I was glad we stumbled across it.

We asked at a couple of the shops if they knew where Caribou Crossing Trading Post was, and no one had heard of it. I have seen this phenomenon several times though and find it odd. These towns are super tiny, but people don’t know stuff about the businesses right down the street. I don’t know if they are just playing dumb or truly don’t know, but you would think if you lived in that small of an area everyone would know everything. Or maybe the workers were like us and only here for the summer? Anyway, the visitors centers are definitely the places to find things out. They know stuff, and if they don’t know they will help you find out. So by talking to them we learned Caribou Crossing was back on the main highway. The directions are always fun though. Go back to the main highway, make a left, drive past “the smallest desert in the world” (I thought that was in Maine, but OK, there are also sand dunes in Caribou Crossing) and it’s on your right. Normally I find directions like this fun, but when you are pulling a big trailer not so much. Keep in mind big trailers up here are still not the norm like in the lower 48. You are seeing more of them, but most people have older rigs, travel trailers, or truck campers, so always ask the question if your rig will fit into where you are going. Anyway, we made it and the parking lot was big enough, because this was another cruise ship destination. Caribou Crossing offers dog sled rides from an Iditarod team so people come in the summer to see the facility. I guess these are a very popular attraction if you are a fan of the sport, and some people tour several facilities as they make their way across Alaska. I was interested in the museum though, and for $8.50 we got tickets to the museum and the animal area which includes a small petting zoo, a sled dog viewing area, and best of all. a place you can pet husky puppies. Score!! I thought it was totally worth the price, but Lee not so much. Really depends on where your interests lie, but here’s the pictures so judge for yourself.

Historic Caribou Crossing sculpture

Entrance sign

Multiple building facility

Nice gift shop

And they sold Moose poo!!

Got our pic in a Caribou sleigh and a very nice staff member took several for us. Lee humored me 🙂

The Wildlife Museum started with a giant stuff grizzly

Check out the paws on this guy

Then a display about the gold prospectors who flocked to the area

Real bear skin rug in the tent

HEee's a list of the supplies for a 4 man team they were encouraged to take

Here’s a list of the supplies for a 4 man team they were encouraged to take

What I was excited about was the animals though. I have been to the Natural History Museum in Washington D.C and New York City and have to say the quality of the taxidermy in these animals was on par with what I saw there. It started as a private collection that was donated to the museum and it was wonderful to see the animals from the area, both current and prehistoric. Yes the placement of the displays was a bit of a hodge-podge, but I didn’t care. I loved it.

The building

Bears and wolverines

Gigantic polar bear!

Lee put his hand next to this paw …crazy big

A baby polar bear versus an adult Alaskan Brown Bear

I liked the little animals as well which you rarely see. This is an Albino Red Squirrel

And a short tailed weasel

Mountain Goats

Berengia Lions used to roam this area. They found this bison carcass frozen and well preserved in the tundra

Berengia Lions used to roam this area. They found this bison carcass frozen and well preserved (and partially eaten) in the tundra

I think these were musk oxen

My two favorites were the Wooly Mammoth

And the Saiga Antelope which is extinct here but still exists in Katzakstan, They believe the unusual nose helps them filter the cold air

After seeing the animals, we went and wandered through the small petting zoo. Nothing too special but they sled dog area was interesting and the puppies were the best!!

Spirit the horse

The sled dogs didn’t look anything like I expected

Very lean and rangy

This sign explained why

Puppies!! They were very snuggly

Goats

Ponies which Lee does NOT like. He had a very mean one when he was a kid

He did enjoy the alpaca though

They were called Thelma and Louise and looked very funny shaved

So for us it was a fun little side trip and allowed us some time out of the car. You can just keep driving and not stop at places, but your body starts to get a little tired from the road after awhile. I think it’s important that you stop for awhile somewhere every day if you can, and every other day if you can’t. If you are driving shorter days it’s not such a big deal, but our days were running around 8-9 hours and we just weren’t used to spending that much time in the car. We saw many more beautiful vistas after that and eventually pulled into Hi Country RV Park outside of Whitehorse. This was the nicest park we had stayed at yet, with a beautiful gift store and decent sites. They also offered free internet for 30 minutes and then a pay service for $7.95 a day. I paid the money and gladly did as the internet was very strong and by far the best signal we had along the way. Since the sites ran $37 with our discount it was still cheaper than the previous night with paying for internet and more importantly it worked. I really liked this place.

Lessons Learned

Keep your windshields clean
Just because a park says they have wifi, it does NOT mean it will work.
It might be worth it to pay for internet if the signal is strong.
Try to stop at least once a day to see a local attraction and stretch your legs.

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May 21, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Seeing Hot Springs, Caribou, and Bison!!

Finally, the day we have been waiting for. A day that was exactly like what we thought it would be in our heads. Beautiful vistas, so many animal sightings, and a major check off the bucket list that exceeded expectations. So let me jump right in. We started Day 4 at 7am with an overcast rainy day for our 200 mile trek into the Canadian Rockies. The signs said bison on road at Muncho lake which was promising, and the milepost book said vistas where you could see for 100 miles. We knew with the weather those vistas might be obscured, and we decided instead of making a concrete plan we would drive till we were tired and stop when we were done.

Right off the bat things were great. At 7:30am and roughly MM 305 we saw our first bear on the left side coming down a long hill. Couldn’t get a picture but it was an auspicious start. Then 3 miles later we saw a young bear on my side of the road. I always have the camera ready, by the way, with the long lens on it, and when we see something Lee pulls over, puts the blinkers on and whoever is on the right side of the vehicle gets to take the pics. So far it’s mainly been on straightaways and has been perfectly safe to pull over.

Around MM 323 we started to climb and the rain had some sleet elements in it, which eventually turned in a steep windy climb with some 8 percent grades . The milepost called for challenging weather conditions on this stretch and was very specific, so Lee drove carefully at around 40 mph. The sleet turned into light snow and some fog, but the roads weren’t terrible and the scenery was pretty with a light dusting of snow. One thing they don’t have many of here are scenic turnouts like in the states, although there were a couple of southbound places to pull off, but it was too foggy to see anything anyway.

When we reached the summit several trucks were pulled over. No profile sign on this one with descriptions of grade so Lee had to wing it. Going down the fog was very thick and visibility was about 200 yards with 8-10 percent grades. Lee took it slow at 30 mph and it went OK . It curves to the left a couple of times at the end of the grade though so please slow down on this one. The roads were also slick at this point so not one to mess with. What I did find interesting was that the Milepost book has this paragraph long description of the local trapper the creek was named after (including what jeans he wore and what kind of pipe he smoked), but no mention of the 2 mile long 8 percent grade starting at MM 343. I read later in the book that the field editors make these trips in Truck Campers. We really need one of them driving one of these beasts for some perspective!!

Then around MM 355 (8:40am) we saw two bears a black one and a brown one. This was the best bear sighting we have had so far. We sat for a long time and took pictures since it was a long, safe section of road, there was no traffic, and they were very active. Really awesome. I loved the brown ones, which it turns out are black bears just brown in color.

Two bears!!

Seriously how cute is that. Yes I know they can kill you but wow

Right after that we started seeing small signs for hot cinnamon roll signs, so to celebrate our awesome bear moment we stopped for a cinnamon roll and bathroom break. The Tesla River RV Park was a tiny little gem tucked into this river valley and we got 2 coffee and 2 cinnamon buns for $15. All of their T-Shirts were also half off so I picked up my first Alaska Highway T-Shirt for $12.50 Canadian . We also talked to two couples we are now pacing. One was next to us in the campground in Fort Nelson and the other had seen us along side the road yesterday looking at a bear. I had heard that you will start to see the same folks over and over again along the Alaska highway and that was starting to be the case.

Really cute gift shop and tiny cafe

The washroom/Shower Trailer was very interesting

Shower to the right, stalls to the left. It was clean

They even squeezed a changing table in there

The giftstore/cafe had lots of cool stuff in it

Oh yeah that was the size of a cinnamon bun and really good. That’s Lee’s hand for scale

After our stop the weather pattern started to change. Pretty quickly the sun was coming out in patches and the road was totally dry! We had another long , curvy 8 percent grade around MM 376 and because of the possibility of sheep in the road you need to really go slow. We stopped and got gas at the bottom of the grade (that seems to be a pattern with us, stop and get gas and catch our breath). It was $1.36 liter CD (one gas pump had a handwritten sign that said “No Sniveling” and we enjoyed the pretty view. Stone Mountain Provincial Park is really beautiful. This is definitely an area I can see coming back to and exploring more. Oh, and there is a large pullout right before MM 401 where you can get out and walk down to the Racing River. I read about this in the Milepost Book (it is helpful with showing where some cool pictures can be taken) and if you wanted you could park a big rig in their for the night. Beautiful views.

Lee calls these shots “Rig Porn” which cracks me up

There is room down this trail for a big rig but walk it first

The water was crystal clear, I drank some and it was better than bottled water

So many cool rocks. I picked up a few!!

After spending some time there, I had Lee reset the mileage calculator. I was off by about 7 miles and doing the math was making me nuts, so from that point forward I would pick a spot close to one of the hundreds (500 MM, 600MM etc) and reset the trip odomoter from there. Made the math easier. I wasn’t taking any driving turns because I just wasn’t comfortable, so I took my navigator job seriously. Had the book open on my lap and was reading ahead every 10 miles or so and seeing what was coming up. Plus I was animal spotting, I am happy to say I am getting pretty good at that. We saw another first for us at MM 417 (10:53am)we saw a young caribou in the water trying to climb the bank. He couldn’t get up and finally gave up and crossed back across the stream and got on the road. My series of pics on this one was amazing as it happened on my side, so neat.

Couldn’t make it

Swimming back across

Shaking off on the other side

Heading back down the road

We stopped at 419 and ate with a beautiful view of the river, and next up was was Muncho Lake. There is a campground big rigs can fit in called McDonald campground, our friends Kelly and Bill stayed there and loved it. It has no services but hand pumped water (like all the government campgrounds we have seen, so you need to boondock, but if you can swing it it’s worth it. It was a beautiful glacier lake with bright green water. The light wasn’t quite right for me to get that perfect reflection picture, but it was still amazing. We stopped at two large turnouts to take pictures and don’t miss the second one on the left side of the road at the end of the lake because there is a fantastic view from there. It was only 12pm our time so we decided to keep going, but definitely worth a stay if you time it right.

Lee’s pic from the second turnout

Next up was Lairds springs. Both Kelly and Barb has stopped for a soak and I had to do it!! But first we stopped at a large gravel turnout with rocks around MM460. This may be the most beautiful site I have ever seen and there was even a campfire ring there. Walk down to the water and look to the right…wow!! We stopped and stayed for awhile and what a beautiful place to boondock in. Absolutely amazing!!

And if that wasn’t enough less than a mile down the road we finally saw a a huge group of rock sheep. They were right on the road (it was 12:48pm) and we stopped and Lee got out of the truck to take pictures. He even captured a truck slowing down coming the other way to let the sheep move.

Sheep in the road

Truck coming

They got out of the way pretty quick

Chilling for a few minutes

Then back in the road. Check out how his back hoof grips the wall. Really neat

Then right before Laird Springs we saw our first bison. They are huge and kind of mangy since we think they are still shedding their winter coats. Completely unconcerned by us though. I can see why there are so many warning signs though. Would NOT want to hit one of these.

Lee’s pics

Then we turned in Laird River campground. You can park across the street and walk over (which I recommend) or pull in and try to find parking. We got lucky because it wasn’t that crowded and they let us park in there, but usually there would not be room as it is a very popular place. It was $5 per person cash (so worth it) and you walk about 10 minutes down a nice boardwalk to get there. I have been wanting to do Hot Springs forever, but have been waiting for the right moment. This was definitely it and the experience was fantastic. The water temperature changes the farther you are from the hot springs area and this was a nice clear and clean swimming hole with a changing area. Fair warning though the changing rooms are one large one per sex, so if you are shy wear your suit under. The water was clear and it does move as you swim in it. Loved loved it. Big check off the bucket list.

Boardwalk

Great views as you walked

The hot part was up where the stones are.

Next we saw lots more Bison and a Native Canadian (or First Person) woman running holding a totem pole. She we being followed by a truck that said Peace Journeys on the side. According to their website ” Peace and Dignity Journeys are spiritual runs that embody the prophecy of the Eagle and Condor.This prophecy mandates that at this time all Indigenous Peoples in the Western Hemisphere shall be reunited in a spiritual way in order to heal our nations so we can begin to work towards a better future for our children and generations to come. Through the Journeys, participant runners and supporters work to accomplish this goal by helping each other reconnect to their respective spiritual practices and traditions; by helping each other relearn our role in the world as Indigenous Peoples; and by reminding each other of our responsibilities to Mother Earth, Father Sky, our communities, and ourselves. That was neat. staying peace journeys pm the side.” Very glad we saw that.

MM 355

MM 550

After a long and beautiful day we made it to Watson Lake. We stopped and bought gas at Contact Creek Lodge for 99 cents a liter (cheaper than Watson Lake) and Lee has a great conversation with a local about how nuts the guy thought Donald Trump was. Ah…political discussions in the middle of nowhere. Sure why not. Another steep downgrade at 570, this one had a bison in the middle of the road, but no problem we were on high alert and stopped and allowed him to wander of the road. The we saw the flags leading into town and we were there. What an absolutely amazing day. On of the best of our enter time on the road and we were both very happy. Exhausted, but happy. Next up Caribou Crossing!!

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May 20, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time on a 10% grade

Wednesday morning we got up and I finished my blog post. We then took advantage of the free Wifi and Lee geocached a little, finding his second trackable!! We both were going slow for us, and took some time to talk about what the pace would look like over the next few days. We had seen what lie ahead from Kelly and Bills blog bkamerican odyssey and Jim and Barbs blog because they were both just a few days ahead of us. We knew there would be beautiful sites to see and wanted to slow our pace way down. So we talked about what we would do, and did a little research and decided that we would drive until we wanted to stop and then stop. In order to use the Milepost book to its capacity we would reset the trip odometer to zero. Lee wasn’t crazy about that but no other way I could see to do it, and we would take it step by step. I also had picked up some free info at the Whitecourt visitors center including a magazine of BC campgrounds which I hoped would be helpful.

We stopped and dumped on the way out, (donations accepted at the box there for folks who want to stay in the Dawson Creek Walmart like Bill and Kelly did) and we were on our way. My plan was to read Lee the info out of the milepost while we were driving so we would see how well that worked. At MM 20.9 it does mention there is a bridge with strong cross winds. What it does not tell you is there is a steep downgrade with a curve leading into the bridge. OK, so it’s going to be like that. There was a brake check area, and in that area was a profile sign for the grade, with detailed info on the 10 percent grade hill with a 43 mph curve. We stopped at the top and let the traffic go by then stopped after the short 10 percent grade to rest the brakes and I took a picture, then we slowly coasted the rest of the way with Lee using the brakes as sparingly as possible. Very intense, and I was glad to see they are adding more turnouts and another lane going down. Lee did awesome, and I am super glad I didn’t need to drive that. No way I’m ready for that yet.

Pictures I took halfway down

After the 10% grade I decided to drive the next section because the book didn’t mention any steep grades and that was stressful. First there was smoldering fires along the road, although since there were warning signs and we had experienced this in glacier not so bad. And tons of wildlife signs , no problem I wanted to go slow, unfortunately it is two lane highway and you can’t totally poke along. I started to get in my head a little bit when we saw a dead bison on the side of the road. And then right before we were going to stop for lunch the dreaded steep grade sign. No place to turn off so I was committed and it really wasn’t that bad as it was a long straight one, I was more worried about the long straightaways leading into blind curves which there were plenty of. Had to continuously monitor what gear we were in to make sure we didn’t over stress the engine and after an hour I needed a break. Let me just say it gave me a new appreciation for the pressure the regular driver is often under and a realization I definitely needed more practice. That being said I switched after lunch back with Lee. I need to take this in small chunks. Lee also stopped and picked up a carton of DEF based what our friend Jim posted. Not every place has DEF and that is definitely not something you want to be hunting for.

After my one hour of driving Lee drove the rest of the way. The lack of good instructions in the Milepost and my inexperience with driving the grades, combined with animal warning signs was too much for me. Lee did spend some time as he was driving explaining what he was doing though, which really helped. He sets the cruise control to whatever speed is appropriate for the road conditions. When going down a hill that isn’t too steep or too long, and he can see the bottom of, he flips off cruise control and lets the truck pick up a little bit of speed to help on the climb back up. For the climb he “feathers” the gas pedal to keep the speed close to where it’s supposed to be, instead of letting cruise control do it. With the “Tow/Haul” feature the truck always wants to jump quickly from 6th to 4th gear on climbs, and it’s too much RPM. It’s better if he does it manually, keeping it in 5th. With constant “drop and climb” driving, the cruise will always try to down shift too quickly to keep the truck from picking up too much speed, and then it will downshift again on the climb. It’s a lot of back and forth between 4th, 5th and 6th gear, and terrible for gas mileage and vehicle control. For steeper, or longer grades, or if he can’t see where the road goes during the grade, he puts on the blinkers and goes as slowly down as possible, only using the brakes as a last resort. He keeps the RPMs between 2500 and 3000, to give himself a margin of safety if the grade gets steeper, or goes longer than he thinks it will. Oh and by the way there is a long steep grade that is curvy at MM 124. Although the cut in the rocks is mentioned in the milepost book (with the year the cut in the mountain was made) it doesn’t mention the 6 percent grade for 1 mile with an S curve.

Next we stopped at Pink Mountain (pop 99) for gas but the pumps were closed. We were prepared for this by things we had been told so had started looking for gas when the tank was half full. We also reduced our speed down to 55 because the road was getting rougher. Still no animal sightings , except for the dead bison, but that was probably time of day. The animals are supposed to be the most active around dusk. Some beautiful vistas though from the top of the mountain.

At Skianni Hill there was another turn out with a sign explaining the 8 percent grade (which our truck said was 9) Those are super helpful and this was mentioned in the Milepost book. I really do recommend stopping at this hill before going down and read the sign if nothing else. This grade was long and straight but very steep, Lee had to squeeze the brakes a few times to control speeds. He only held the breaks for a count of 2-3 and then there was a place to pull over half way down. No shame in pulling over, especially to let others pass you. Then the road got very curvy and our GPS gave us a roll over warning. The speed limit sign said 50 kpm and Lee was doing about 25 mph but the big left turn was coming up. That is by far the scariest hill I have ever been on and Lee (who drove a Class B truck cross country and through the Rockies) said, “That was about as ugly as I ever want to deal with.” Alright then.

No fooling on the grades

Truck getting ready to start down the hil as you can see no visibility as to what is ahead

Truck getting ready to start down the hill as you can see no visibility as to what is ahead

When we got to the bottom of the hill we turned into the Skinanni Rv park to get gas, but that pump was also out of order. So Lee got out and talked to a very nice guy who said 20 miles up the road there was gas. Have I mentioned The Alaska Highway is not for sissies? We stopped at Buckinghorse lodge and talked to a very nice guy there who said that was the worst north bound steep grade on the Highway. He said at least two truckers die on it every winter. The gas was a cardlock fuel stop. This one was open to the public (not all of them are) and that was a good thing because the next gas was Fort Nelson and that would have been too close for comfort. We could always drop the trailer in a pinch but who wants to do that? The machine only takes Visa or Master card though and our Visa debit has not been working (turns out that Visa had been trying to contact us for suspicious activity but no Lee couldn’t get phone calls so they shut the card off. Luckily Lee got an incoming call from them when we had WiFi and was able to select the prompts to remedy the problem) . Thankfully we have a emergency Visa we rarely use and that one worked. By this time, Fort Nelson was 110 miles away and that was now our goal for the night. Muncho Lake which we had really been looking forward to was just too far away.

Finally there was a little glimmer of sunshine in the day. We saw a bear at Mile Marker 207, pulled over and took tons of pics. Then we saw another bear at MM 261 around 4:02 pm, but the angle wasn’t right to get a pic. Still finally something cool to see.

Lee got this great shot of the first bear eating grass

We hit Fort Nelson at 4:20 and there was one last 7 percent grade leading into town. They also had construction so the traffic was stopped at the top of the hill. It was curvy but short and really not that bad. So I guess we getting are getting used to the grades a bit. This is a great way to get over your fear of steep grades. We stopped at an ESSO to fill up. $1.18 a liter… I miss my gas buddy, not that there are tons of gas options but it would allow us to plan out a little bit. We stayed at a campground called Triple G Hideaway. It was $40 Canadian but I liked it. The people were nice and it was a bit wooded plus they had a cute gift shop and restaurant. Full hookups and since we were close to the front the wifi worked some.

The next morning I woke up at 4 am feeling vaguely guilty. I wrote the following on my IPad because the wifi at the campground wasn’t strong enough to bring up WordPress even at 4 am. Here’s what I had to say.

I feel somehow as if I am letting you all down. I don’t want to keep writing about road conditions, steep grades, what its like to navigate without our electronic tools but that has been the reality of the last three days. Aside from a couple of cool moments like the bear sighting and the giant beaver statue (yes the jokes write themselves), it has been a largely unpleasant three days. I want to be writing the blog you all want to read. Everyone , myself included, was so excited about this trip, but I absolutely refuse to gloss over the unpleasant and just show the pretty pictures, so this is where I am at.

But before I assume my truth is everyone else’s who has made this trip let’s break this down. Why is this trip different from what I have seen or read about? Aside from the fact that we just aren’t that good at doing things for the first time. You should have seen us at the first childbirth…not pretty ) You know I like the bullet points to organize my thoughts so here goes.

I didn’t do enough research. Ok, that’s true I tend to gloss over the negative and just see the pretty pictures myself so for all I know everyone has this experience and I just wasn’t paying attention. And I get seriously ticked off when my interpretation of conventional wisdom lets me down and this Milepost book which I thought would give me what I needed just doesn’t.
I underestimated my reliance on the Internet. My desire to save money put me and Lee in a tough situation. It goes beyond Facebook. The lack of Internet has cut me off from my support system when I arguably need it the most and all of the tools I have learned to use to help manage this roving lifestyle. If I had to do it over again I would have upgraded my phone and bought the $2 a day Verizon plan, cost be damned.
We picked the most expedient route. We did this to save time and money and I don’t really regret that, but we also missed out on the spectacular views. Couple that with the time pressure we are under and it’s not a great mix. We keep telling ourselves this is not our only trip, but it’s hard not to think that way.
We brought the big rig. Ok this one I knew. Lots of people talk about how they will only do Alaska in a small rig. Jim and Barb bought a truck trailer just for the trip and Jo and Ben only travel that way. I thought it was because they were more outdoorsy than us and wanted the freedom to explore the smaller trails which is true, but what I didn’t understand is how much the big rig limits you and adds stress. We have lost an engine, broke our suspension, and had weight issues all before we got here. We are babying our rig and our truck as much as possible, because we know what those repairs look like and don’t want to experience that here. That’s why lots of people won’t bring their rigs up here. Never got it before, but I get it now.
We aren’t boondocking and that limits our stays to traditional private campgrounds. These aren’t awful and it’s certainly nice to have full hookups, but they are not located along the pretty. You want to stay at a campground with a gorgeous view? Thus far you need to leave the main highway, travel down a side road, and live with limited services. That includes no potable water in many cases by the way. I totally get the truck camper thing now. Much easier to pop down a side road and “check out” a campground if you know you can turn around at the end of it. We were leery about that in the lower 48 but used google satellite to explore options which we don’t have now. And the Milepost book gives little information on these parks. Heck the park websites themselves barely tell you anything. I took advantage of wifi yesterday to try to research Muncho Lake and the website was terrible.
We don’t have unlimited time. That’s on us 100 percent , but we can’t just take a few days to hunker down somewhere and figure this out. We need to be at our work kamping job before Memorial Day weekend at the latest, and every day costs us money and we aren’t making money so there is a budget impact. We have a couple of extra days but aren’t sure where the best place to use them is and shame on us really for not researching more.

What’s all this mean in reality? Here is a perfect example. We saw great pictures from Kelly & Bill and Jim & Barb. They stayed at Macdonalds campground and it looked great. I know from FB messenger they have no services, but we can fit. OK great, we can take on water in the visitors center in Fort Nelson. So we drive a couple hundred miles with a full water tank (an extra 700 lbs) over a section of road the milepost says has “numerous steep grades.” Should we do that? The picture is really pretty. That would be a short day for us, but we have been hoofing it and can give the extra day. Is that the best place to take the extra day? We know there is no wifi at the campground but the cost is good at $16 a day and there is a lodge nearby that has wifi I think. Do we need wifi or just blow it off? Will the place be pretty enough it won’t matter? Here’s the thing, I have absolutely no idea, which takes me back to number one…we should have researched this trip. We really thought the pretty was sort of everywhere and we couldn’t mess it up. That is obviously not true. We thought our experience as full timers the last couple of years would give us a leg up, that is not really true. This is a situation when the more camping experience you have the better off you are. We thought we could wing it and demonstrably we cannot. So, sorry, really I am. These are not the blogs I want to write just like these are not the moments I want to be having on this trip, but at the very least I can write about the experience and if it helps anyone in a small way its worth it. Not really, but it sucks less. In a nutshell are the views and animal sightings the last three days worth the cost and stress? Nope. But we are hopeful as we head into tomorrow that things will improve and if not …well it’s not the end of the world. There are certainly less appealing things we could be doing.

Spoiler alert: Things get a ton better on Day 4, but I left this post as I wrote it because I want to protect the integrity of the moment. I promise the pretty pictures are coming.

Lesson Learned

Call your credit card companies and tell them where you are going if you will be without cell service. They text or call now for suspicious activity and you will not be able to answer the call. Carry a backup just in case, because even if you call they still may shut you off if they can’t talk to you.
Research your campgrounds in advance. Check RV Park Reviews. Know what others have to say about WiFi, conditions, power, water etc. If you plan on boondocking research where you will get water and dump because the government campgrounds do not have these options. Keep in mind the information is mostly anecdotal so have a backup plan and contingencies.
Don’t underestimate the impact not having internet will have. If you can get a reasonably priced internet option do it. Save yourself major headaches.
Don’t underestimate the challenge of driving on steep grades even if you are an experienced RV driver. Think about taking some trips on steep grades to work up to it before coming. Always stop before the signed grades and think it through. Don’t let people drive you from behind!!
My opinion the really beautiful stuff doesn’t start until you enter Stone Sheep Provincial Park pas Fort Nelson. Yes it is all relative and if you can take side trips that may not be the case, but don’t expect the wow factor day 1

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May 18, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Crossing into Canada with the RV

We headed towards Canada for the first time with our rig with some trepidation. We double and triple checked our cell phones, my fi, and iPad to make sure everything was turned off. We ate the last of our eggs , worried about the chicken in our freezer, and put our first stop in the GPS. Luckily our GPS worked in Canada when we popped over for the day this summer, but I also had the Milepost book and a map the woman at the campground had given us. I think we were so nervous largely because of anecdotes we kept hearing. “They will take your chicken at the border” (not true), they are price gouging in Muncho Lake it costs $100 for breakfast (I doubt this and we have breakfast stuff.) Still all the “people say” was making us nuts, because for the first time in a really long time we were going without technology. My phone won’t work at all internationally (Verizon said texting would work but that turned out to not be true) and AT&T was charging a ton of money, so we were relying solely on Wi-Fi if we could find it, the Milepost book, GPS, and the kindness of strangers. Oh yeah…that’s going to go well!

We left the campground at 8:30 and arrived at the Sweetwater border crossing at 9:00 on the dot. There was a small camper and car in front of us, and we sat and waited our turn for just a couple of minutes. It took 2 minutes to get us through customs but it was an intense 2 minutes. Lee did tell them we were full timers (I don’t really recommend this but the guy didn’t blink an eye and asked where our mailing address was). He asked about tobacco and alcohol and we said we had some for personal use, downplayed what we had, and the customs agent asked if we were were planning on selling anything and when we said no he moved on. He never asked about eggs (which we ate in the morning) or chicken and when he asked about fruits and veggies (we had a little for personal use), Lee said no and we moved on. The most time was spent on guns. Numerous questions about guns and ammo but since we aren’t gun owners those were easy. I think it’s a little harder if you are a gun owner and you left them at home. He said “If we check your rig will we find any of these things and Lee emphatically said “No” which is true. Lee said he was staring right into his soul, so that must be in the job description. Anyway it was only two minutes (I timed it), but Lee said it felt a lot longer, and we were through.

We passed into Canada, and initially it looked a bit like Iowa. Lots of farms,straight and well maintained roads, and small towns. We stopped at the first major town, Lethbridge at the Visitor’s Center and I highly recommend that. The woman working there gave us TONS of good information all the way up to Edmonton and we used it all. Her advice about bypassing Calgary and Edmonton was better than anything else we saw so I definitely recommend a few minutes there. Seriously, I really want to go back and thank her for the help. We were also looking for a bank, but no luck there. When you ask for help, most folks don’t understand how big your RV is and will direct you to places that you simply cannot get into. Lethbridge is full of lots of strip malls, jammed with cars, and our rig was not fitting in there. So we kept going towards Ft. MacLeod and did not switch drivers like we usually do. I was still trying to figure out navigating, now I had too much conflicting information and driving through the small towns was not super easy in the big rig.

This is where the Milepost book , the self proclaimed “bible” of Northern travel really let us down. Everyone, and I mean everyone, said use this book and you will be OK. Well I absolutely do not agree. Yes, it gives you tons of info on things to see, but the info is sketchy on everything else unless the company advertises with them. Coming up on a small town, it says diesel is available, but doesn’t say if your big rig can fit. It lists campgrounds, but usually no address, just a phone number and cross street, which may or many not work on the GPS. Yes they give you phone numbers or a website, but guess what, phone calls cost me a $1 a minute here and I had no data unless I stop at the campsite I cannot find. Seriously, not cool. We are spoiled by our apps for sure, but it’s not just us. When we found our first Pilot, Lee went in and got a paper listing of sites which the woman said they give away tons of in Canada because everyone is used to the My Pilot app. (Oh and by the way, the listing for Dawson Creek in that Pilot book was totally wrong and no longer exists.) There is a reason we don’t use paper anymore!! The Milepost map also uses mile markers from a particular location like Sweet Grass, so you are supposed to change your trip odometer and use that going on their route. Well guess what? Their routes are not the best to get around Edmonton and Calgary and once you go off the route the MM numbers are all screwed up. Just use what’s on the road you say? Well we didn’t see one kilometer marker on our route. Use exit numbers instead? Well that would be great if the Milepost book included exit numbers. Seriously, it’s really stupid. When I was a kid going to Florida I learned to navigate using AAA trip ticks. That was my “job” on those trips and it kept me entertained and useful, so I know how to navigate, but this book seriously upset me. Ok I am done, but I know Lee has a few things to say.

(Uh, yeah, this book is the biggest piece of crap I have ever seen. It’s completely worthless. I can’t even think of enough bad things to say about it. The layout makes no sense, and follows no intuitive system. There’s no logic involved whatsoever. In this day and age, this kind of information is not that complicated to gather and compile. It MIGHT be useful if you were stopping in places to sightsee and spend some time there. But for finding fuel and campgrounds, it’s completely worthless. I seriously can’t say that enough. It reads like a tour book, but without any useful details. “Canadaville has many restaurants and fuel stops.” is about all there is. And then there several lines of local history and other useless information. It’s clear that the publishers simply don’t want to bother updating the book every year, so they don’t include information that might change. When you’re pulling a 40′ fifth wheel it’s nice to know if you can get in and out of places. GPS coordinates would do the trick, I would have paid four times as much money for a book that simply listed the locations of truck stops and campgrounds, and nothing else. -Lee)

Thank heavens for our RV specific GPS which not only worked but worked well. It automatically converted speed limits to kmph for us and knew our height and length in meters as well. It also didn’t always pick the route recommended by the woman at the visitors center, but it was at least close enough for us to figure it out. Personally I would never try this without one. It directed us to a bypass of Fort McLeod and we followed it stopping at a small gas station in the teeny town of Granum. The switch on the pumps was broken so no gas, according to the attendant, but they had an ATB financial next door. I walked over and exchanged my $1,000 cash. I got $1270 then paid back a $10 Canadian fee. That ended up being 1.26 Canadian for every US dollar, and most importantly we had enough cash for the trip up and back. Plus the girl was super sweet and let me use their restroom. Whew, that was one less thing to worry about , although Lee still wanted to get gas but we were pleased to see the small town gas station could not only fit us and the diesel there was .83 a liter. Not a bad price. One of the reasons we had chosen the Eastern route was because we had been told gas prices were much cheaper than the western route and we definitely found that to be true. Prices started at 99 cents a liter once we hit the Alaska Highway, but for the first two days we paid under .89 cents and once we started using Pilots we also got around 3 cents a liter off with our Pilot Gas card.

Our first gas stop was in the town of Claresholm at a Shell station. The diesel was 89 cents a liter and the station took American Express. That’s great because with our Amex Gold card we have no transaction fees of any kind in Canada. Our Visa has a 3 percent transaction fee so we are going to try to use that as little as possible. The visitors center was right down the road but at half full no way we were getting in there. We wanted to stop at the visitors center and eat lunch but the parking lot was very tight for a big rig. The Milepost will tell you if there is big rig parking, but if it says nothing assume it might be a tight fit. So, we ended up stopping next to a defunct truck inspection station right out of town, ate some quick lunch and switched drivers.

The roads here in my estimation have been fine by the way. They are like the secondary highways in northern Minnesota, Maine, and Vermont. No big pot holes, and signs showing frost heaves so you can slow down for them. The route was boring, with only tantalizing glimpses of Candian Glacier in the distance, but it was a relatively easy drive. The closer you were to a town better they were but even the more remote section were OK and mainly we went 62-64 mph all the way to Grand Prairie. I did get to practice another steep grade at one point which was NOT marked by a steep downgrade sign. I took it a little fast because the GPS notified me on the late side, but Lee talked me through it though and it went OK. Right before the hill I saw a pulloff for trucks to put on chains and should have known. Going forward I will slow down when I see those. We also completely bypassed both Calgary and Edmonton using South Trail 201 (the outerbelt) for Calgary and 216 Anthony Henday for Edmonton. Both routes were wonderful, with minimal traffic and multiple lanes and I HIGHLY recommend them despite what the Milepost book and GPS may say. They are easy to find and your GPS will self correct once you are on them.

The only nightly stop planning I had done was a Passport America site in Edmonton for $19 a night, which was too far for us to drive the first day. This turned out to be a huge mistake. Only a few of the Milepost entries included prices, so without the internet it was impossible to comparison shop. Boondocking was even more problematic, since we weren’t sure where we could take on water for the night. Since we are still concerned about the weight issue, we didn’t want to drive the roads with full water tanks and not all campgrounds here have potable water, you really need to check. Plus we were traveling long days and the last thing we needed at our stops was complications. This is where the Milepost really let us down. The campgrounds that advertise with them have good information (including exit numbers and addresses usually), but the others (if even mentioned) have minimal info. We stopped at Red Deer the first night and were looking for a Lions Club campground and got completely lost. We couldn’t find the visitors center, the campground signs directional signs were unclear and no address. Finally we put the Pilot address in and through sheer dumb luck (or providence, God does watch out for idiots) we stumbled across the park I wanted to try. Thankfully they had sites available and although they are pretty tight they at least have full hookup with 30 amp. What they didn’t have was Wifi, and at $40 Canadian ($32 for us) it wasn’t a bargain. But we had a place to stay and since I was still pretty sick, we set up quickly and I collpased. Oh yes, I dealt with all that and was super sick on top of it, but we powered through. Overall Day 1 was was pretty disappointing. No great views, lots of hurdles navigating, and on the expensive side. Still we learned a lot and I was hoping with more Nyquil I would start to feel better the next day.

We got out on Tuesday by 8:30 and the cold had moved into my chest. A double dose of NyQuil and 10 hours sleep had helped but still feeling kind of rough. I looked at my cold medicine but was nervous about taking anything in the day time because of driving, so I put tons of Vicks on my chest instead. Going north towards Edmonton the landscape started to change. More rolling hills with some water and trees and more woods. Still it wasn’t the stunning vistas we were expecting, so at this point we are just trying to get to the Alaskan highway as expediently as possible. (As a side note if you have the time you could try The Rocky Mountain route. Just research the driving because it is more challenging.)

At 11:30 we stopped at a little trading post. They didn’t have any information and the small museum was closed. We did go ahead an eat in this huge empty gravel parking lot despite my concerns about the etiquette. Next, we stopped at the visitors center at Whitecourt and that was very nice. Going northbound the visitors center is before the town on the left side. Again, the signage isn’t great, but look for a large building up in the trees. There is no exit, just a left hand turn. It had a little museum that we wandered through and we picked up some info from the nice girl working there. Right across from the visitors center is also Lions Club campground that looked decent. And I finally got to take my first pictures of the trip so that cheered me up some.

Nice visitors center in Whitecourt with plenty of parking and a campground next door

Parked right next to a few pioneer buildings

Grrr

We kept going and found the flying J on the west side of town, again on the left side of the highway. Our GPS was telling us to go Hwy 32 but all the maps said Hwy 43 so Lee asked a trucker. Turns out the guy runs Anchorage to LA three times a month and was super helpful. He said definitely take 43, the road gets prettier after Dawson Creek, and watch out for bison because they do wander in the road. Alright then 😄 Super nice guy so once more we were on our way feeling a bit better, plus the weather was absolutely beautiful…sunny and 70 and finally my cold was easing a bit.

Next up was Grand Prairie, a pretty big town in this area biggish town that 43 runs right through. They really should build a bypass on that one since it was tiring driving the rig through town and I ended up doing it towards the end of my shift. Still I did OK and about 15 Minutes later found a giant parking lot to pull into with a giant Beaver statue. Oh yes, now I was excited, good to know we can find roadside attractions even without an app!!

Giant Beaver!!

We switched drivers and even though it was 4:30 decided to push on to Dawson’s Creek. I wanted to get some pictures there and Lee said he had another shift in him. Plus we had lost another hour to time zone change. Three time changes in a few days, yikes. We landed at Dawson’s Creek and found the Mile O’ campground on the far side of town. For the first time in days we unhitched the truck and then drove into town and got our pictures. We also stopped at WalMart and even got some Canadian Pizza Hut, which was yummy. Two medium pizzas for $20.60 (our price) was so worth it.

We made it!!

This visitors center looks nice from the things I have read but still on short hours until May 19th so we didn’t go in

Loved this statue pointing to Alaska. Since a sign asked not to cross I respected it

Loved this statue pointing to Alaska. Since a sign asked not to cross the busy traffic circle I respected it

I did scurry over to this point though which is one block over from the visitors center. HAd to ask for directions

I did scurry over to this point in the downtown which is one block over from the visitors center. Had to ask for directions, but worth finding it

Sometimes you just have to get the pic!!

Next up the Alaska Highway. We slow the pace, reset our trip odometer to zero to try to take advantage of the Milepost book, and see what happens.

Lessons Learned

Have an game plan for the border crossing and be on the same page
Listen to what folks say but unless it is a credible, first hand account don’t give the information to much credence
The Milepost Book is not the end all, be all of northern travel navigation
Make sure your GPS works in Canada!!
Get a Pilot paper book with gas stops and use it, but be aware it might not be 100% accurate.
If you see a pull off for trucks to put on chains slow down, a steep downgrade is coming up and it won’t necessarily be marked.
Take South Trail 201 to bypass Calgary!!
Take 216 Anthony Henday to bypass Edmonton!!
Comparison shop on campgrounds prior to going into Canada. Have a general idea of where you will stop at night and have a couple of campgrounds in the towns that are in your price range.

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As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Search Amazon Here
You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on Itunes.

May 16, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time at Wall Drug

As many of you know, we love roadside attractions, and arguably none is more famous than Wall Drug in South Dakota (except perhaps for that Giant Ball of String I keep hearing so much about). So I was VERY excited to learn we would be passing right by it. This was another place Lee visited when he used to drive cross country and I have been hearing about it for 20 years now so it was definitely time for me to see it for myself!! Before I get to that though, let me back up just a teeny bit.

We left Minnesota under not the best of circumstances. It was pouring rain, 40 degrees, we were behind schedule a bit, and I got sick. And we both knew that despite all that we needed to pull a couple more long days to get back on schedule. We also knew that if we didn’t want to completely implode we needed to get back to our basics. We had lost the joy in the trip itself somewhere along the way (I think for me it was Indianapolis) and grinding out a trip to Alaska like this wasn’t of interest to either of us. Yes, we have a commitment to meet that necessitated longer drive days, but it didn’t mean that we couldn’t do that our way. So despite my horrendous cold we both agreed to frequent breaks and switching drivers every time. This way we could each drive for shorter periods and hopefully we could find something fun along the way to look at. Lee being the sweetie that he is found the first place and surprised me with a lunch stop at a giant statue of The Jolly Green Giant in Blue Earth, MN. You have to eat somewhere so why not at the feet of this cheerful character!

Getting a little wet to take the picture was so worth it

Green Giant aside though it was a rough day. I haven’t been this sick in a while and the long days, and cold, rainy weather were not helping. It did end on a more positive note though when we found a nice Passport America campground (Hill’s RV Campground) for $20 a night and we finally saw some sun towards the end of the day.

Love the self register

Lee was having a good time with the homemade signs

And the next day was Wall Drug!! Not only did I want to see it but I actually needed a drugstore at this point! Well, Wall Drug did NOT disappoint. It started as a very small pharmacy in the middle of nowhere, and when they were on the brink of closing the business, the pharmacist’s wife came up with the idea to offer free ice water to travelers on their way to see Mount Rushmore, and the rest is history. You really have to see this place. It is absolutely huge, so huge in fact, that it has a map, which we actually needed to use.

It takes up the whole side of the Main Street

Loved the front door

Sure it’s a gift shop

But also a soda fountain

A couple of restaurants with an amazing art collection

Neat wood statues

And a jackalope you can ride on. Really what more could you ask for?

I really liked it. We stayed for an hour and a half, ate a good lunch, and I finally got some Nyquil, which I desperately needed.

Gotta love the 5 cent cup of coffee which was excellent by the way

Waiting for our lunch to be done

Here’s my kids meal hamburger only $6

The place just went on and on

They even had some nice animatronics. Lee tried Dr. Feel Good and he talked us into buying a bottle for $1.50 🙂

Loved this statue of Wild Bill

Allergy eye drops, a new toothbrush (I always switch when I get sick) and glorious NyQuil

I wish the drugstore museum would have been open

A really nice travel chapel

Oh and did I mention a really HUGE Wild West bookstore? Lee enjoyed that!

After lunch we drove for many hours through South Dakota and into Wyoming. The views were beautiful and we saw several herds of pronghorn antelope, a first for me, but it was past 6pm when we finally rolled into Indian Campground and RV PArk in Buffalo Wyoming (our first 13 hour drive day since the first weekend we went full time). Plus, there were no Passport America’s anywhere along our drive and we couldn’t find anything with 50 amp for our heaters and I wasn’t up for boondocking, so we were forced to pay $40 here. The staff was super gracious when we arrived and the pull through sites were long but they were right on top of each other side-to-side. We ate something, watched a Game of Thrones and then I took some Nyquil and crashed. The next day we left at 8am and drove until 6pm landing in Shelby, MT right at the border. I felt much better today though and even got to practice driving on some steep grades with long straight roads, which is great preparation for driving through Canada. Tonight we are at Lewis & Clark Rv Park which is $34.75 with our Good Sam. Overpriced for what we are getting but it’s quiet and the people at the front desk gave us lots of great Canada driving information.

My first antelope pic

So tomorrow we cross over and will have no cell phones (except texting on mine) until we hit Alaska. I will be taking pictures and notes as we go, but have no idea if I will be able to get out a blog. But if you are missing Camper Chronicles over the next several days, I put together a new page called Beautiful Places To See which has our blog posts from the most beautiful spots we have visited. These are great posts to just skim the pictures if you are so inclined. Looking for something meatier? Check out Lee’s DIY Mods Page (Outside) for those interested in all those cool changes he has made to the outside of the rig. Take care and see you on the other side!

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May 14, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Being Overweight

Just to clarify I don’t mean overweight personally (we have both certainly experienced that), but overweight on our trailer. On Mother’s Day morning we left the rally and on the way out took advantage of an opportunity to get weighed. This is the third time we have done it and at $60 it is a bargain. The previous two times Lee was darn near perfect, so it was a bit of a shock when we discovered we were 300 pounds over on the rear axle. We also discovered that all of our tires (truck and trailer) were under-inflated. The good news is that overall we were fine on weight and Trey suggested we could lower the hitch one notch to shift some weight forward. The bad news was this was not something we could do immediately and then be re-weighed so we aren’t 100% sure how effective that was. 300 pounds isn’t a lot in the grand scheme of things but the tanks were also completely empty. We try to travel with empty tanks, but we carry some fresh water for bathroom breaks and if we are boondocking a lot we do drive short distances with stuff in the tanks. So hopefully lowering the hitch did the trick because we both like to run under weight for those instances.

Trey and Susan guiding us in

Each Tire on the truck and trailer is weighed

The there are tons of math calculations specific to your vehicle. At the end you get your results verbally. Then they are double checked by the home office and emailed to you

Then there are tons of math calculations specific to your vehicle. At the end you get your results verbally. Then they are double checked by the home office and emailed to you

We are not sure what has changed. The ladder box was added before we were weighed although I believe it was empty because we didn’t have the locks yet. So it could simply be adding the ladder itself and Lee hard-wiring the surge protector and voltage regulator in which shifted the weight of those from the front to the back. Lee says it’s my shoes, but I have not bought one pair since we were weighed last and I vehemently deny this!! Either way it’s good to know and as soon as we have an opportunity we will get weighed again. Unfortunately you really need a team who specializes in weighing RV since trying to do it yourself on a CAT Scales is less than accurate. If you have never had it done I highly recommend it and you can check out the RVSEF weighing schedule to see what’s available near you.

We completed the weighing at 8am and since breakfast wasn’t until 8:30 decided to go ahead and get started. Lee really wanted to see his Mom on Mother’s Day and this involved a very long travel day for us. Boy I am glad we got started early since once we hit Kentucky it started to rain and didn’t really stop. I took my driving turn an hour south of Cincinnati and then it really started pouring. That in and of itself was OK, but then the outer-belt was closed. When I saw the rest areas were packed with trucks I should have been cautioned, but we kept going and it turned out that a semi was overturned on the outer-belt and it was entirely closed. This forced me to drive through Cincinnati in heavy traffic and heavy rain. and oh yeah, did I mention the steep grade? One of the things I have been wanting to practice was driving on 6% or higher grades, but not under these circumstances. But there was no way to switch drivers and Lee was wonderful talking me through it. At his direction I slowed down until the truck was in 2nd gear, turned on my flashers, and started to cruise down the very steep incline. The hardest thing for me was to not hit my brakes but instead trust the engine to do the braking for me. By having him tell me when to brake and then counting to “3 Mississippi” for each brake I felt very in control. It worked beautifully and I used the brakes minimally as we went down the hill. So I don’t recommend learning steep grades this way, but keep in mind you never know what’s going to happen when driving and you should practice it in a controlled setting.

After we got through Cincy and out the other side we switched drivers again and Lee took us to his mom’s house on the north side of Columbus. We arrived at 4:30pm (long day), but it was great to see them. When we are seeing them we park on their street and then sleep in their house so no unhitching needed and then they took us to the Golden Corral for dinner which was actually really good. The next day we bought Donato’s for lunch (I was in heaven with my Big Don sub) and then Lee’s dad came over to visit. Lee always says he is the tallest one in his family, but I don’t think anyone believes him so I got them all to take a picture together to prove it.

My yummy lunch!!

Lee’s Dad Ron, Lee, and Lee’s Mom DeDe

Not the tallest when you throw his stepdad Denny into the mix!!

We caught up with Ron who we haven’t seen in over a year and then my brother came over and brought my nephew Lex and my niece Elise. I haven’t seen Lex since he was little and it took awhile for him to warm up, but then we had tons of fun. I also found out Elise collects rocks like me so I gave her three from my collection and promised to send her one from Alaska!

Ron, DeDe, and Denny hanging out and talking

Lex was warming up

Elise

DeDe's house is amazing for any 7 year old. She had a terrific time checking out all the cool stuff

DeDe’s house is amazing for any 7-year-old. Elise had a terrific time checking out all the cool stuff

Lex’s first encounter with a bean bag chair was a huge success

Lex with Eddie showing us how he can play Ipad games. IT's really amazing for an 18 month old

Lex with Eddie showing us how he can play Ipad games. It’s really amazing what an 18 month old can do

I should also mention that DeDe and Denny always have the coolest stuff. My two favorites were a robot lawn mower (think Roomba but for lawns) and this cute random sock collector. Every time I visit their house there is something new and neat to see and Lee was fascinated by the robot mower. They also took us out to dinner again at the Hickory House and Lee had a really good steak. It was very sweet of them to keep our budgets in mind during the visit and we certainly appreciated the dinners!!

Tuesday we were up bright and early and on the road again. The only way to make the stops work with the overall schedule was to drive long days on either side of them and we wanted to see Kat in Minnesota. Once we saw Kat we would have seen all of our parents, all of our kids, and my brother and sister, nieces, and nephews prior to going to Alaska. Since we know we are staying out west next winter, it will be a while before we see everyone again. We drove until 5:45 est (we lost an hour when we hit Illinois) and stayed at a Passport America campground called Hickory Hollow right off the freeway. The park was OK, and they offered $20 a night Sun-Thurs for full hookups. The only downside was they had a ton of rules and weren’t that friendly. I was pretty cranky because my drive turn was through Indianapolis and once again it was pouring rain. No steep downgrades this time thankfully, but I was exhausted. Since it was just an overnight stay it wasn’t a big deal, but a little friendly courtesy would have gone a long way.

Finally we made it to Minnesota around 4pm on Wednesday and got set up at Lake Elmo Lake Reserve. There aren’t many campgrounds near Minneapolis and Kat and Micah live right downtown so we decided on Lake Elmo which was about 30 minutes away from them. Washington County Parks are really nice with huge sites and they always have lakes and hiking trails but they have a very strict no pet policy. We don’t have a pet so it’s no issue for us, but it’s a shame since more full timers can’t use them. They also have a $15 a year annual park pass, but since we stayed in one during the wedding it was still valid and I was VERY happy to get some more out of that pass before it expired. At $25 it’s not cheap for electric only, but thankfully they had 50 amp since it was very cold. Kat and Micah came to visit and I made Chicken and Stuffing in the Instant Pot for the first time (recipe below). It was easy and took less than 25 minutes all in to prepare. Plus Kat had made me a wonderful Mother’s Day present. She embroidered a beautiful saying for me and since she couldn’t find a pattern she liked she made one herself!! So talented and it meant so very much to me. It’s been a whirlwind the last few days, but family is always worth it. Next up our long trek to Glenallen, Alaska!!

I think this is particularly appropriate since we are traveling for the first time to Alaska. Hopefully we won’t actually get lost!!

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Recipe

Instant Pot Chicken and Stuffing

4 chicken thighs or breasts
14 oz bag of stuffing or 2 6 oz boxes
1 large (or 2 small) cans of cream of chicken soup
1 cup chicken broth
seasoning salt

Place 4 frozen chicken pieces in instant pot with 1 cup chicken broth
Sprinkle lightly with seasoning salt
Cook for 15 minutes on Manual with
Use quick release to release steam and open lid; there should be liquid in the bottom
Place stuffing on top of chicken
Spreads soup on stuffing
Cook on Manual setting for 4 minutes
Use Quick Release to release steam and open lid
Serve

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Search Amazon Here
You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on Itunes.

May 10, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

What is an RV-Dreams Rally Like? (Part 2)

On Thursday of the rally I got up bright and early and was prepared to be in charge!! Linda was taking the morning off (a really vote of confidence) and I was determined that nothing would go wrong. Well…let’s see. Right off the bat the toilet that should have been fixed the night before was “fixed” at 7:45am and then I saw it was still broken. I was not happy. Then one of the big coffee containers was being filled and completely overflowed all over the place back in the kitchen. Ok not the best start, but I have an MBA for heavens sakes I can handle morning coffee…then again maybe not 🙂 Thankfully the catering company rep that day was a very sweet girl named Crystal and she helped me get back on track. Truly, I would have been really lost without her.

The seminars that day were some of my favorites and I was really looking forward to the Financial Aspects of full-timing among others so I settled in and started taking notes. Things were going very well until we hit Healthcare. Hey I know this is super important topic, and there were lots of good questions, but we went over by 5 minutes, then 10 and finally I had to whisper loudly to Howard he was going to get me in trouble with Linda! That worked and the session wrapped up. The rest of the morning was pretty smooth but doing all of it was intense. Plus I was running the potluck that night and there were a lot of last-minute questions on what to bring.

Potlucks make me crazy, because without people to pull away the empties, the later you are in the line the worse the table looks. I had an idea that if we had one volunteer per table to watch over it, this problem could be solved. My volunteers Nicky (sides), Laura (apps and salads), Bobbi (entrees) and Phyllis (deserts) did a fantastic job and I stood by the door and directed folks who to talk to. The only problem (and it’s a good one to have) is so many people brought food we started to run out of table space. That worked beautifully, but we had so much participation that pretty early we started to run out of table space. This is where my wonderful husband came in. He noticed the problem while he was filming and he stopped and worked with catering to quickly setup two more tables. Awesome!! So everything went off without a hitch and I felt like it was a super successful pot luck.

Nicky

Bobbi

Laura

Phyllis, who was smart to pick the desert table!

Voila

After the potluck they played Road Tested the RV version of the Newlywed Game. This is one of my favorite moments from the rally two years ago because Cori and I both played it together. This time Lee videotaped and I took pictures, but I kept leaning over and asking him how he would have answered questions. Let me just say we would not have won lol. They do it in three rounds, Experienced RV owners, New RV owners, and Wannabee RV owners. Then those three winners compete in the finals. Linda made up all the questions and it is absolutely hilarious. What a great night.

The experienced group

Guys went outside while girls answered the questions

Linda calling the guys back in

The look on George’s face when he heard Valerie’s answer was priceless

The new RV owners, less than 6 months

The look on Red’s face says it all. Howard backed up after Ed’s answer lol

The Wannabees

Pam’s reaction to the question she would have to answer

Really enjoyed meeting Greg and Pam and getting to know them. Greg has read all the blog posts!

My favorite answer of the night to “What do you want to do more of in your RV.” Andy got it right when he said Stacey wanted to Sleep!!

The finals had questions from the real newleywed game

The finals had questions from the real newlywed game

More great moments from Ed and Red

Our Winners!!!

Friday seminars were all about basic maintenance and since this is not my favorite subject Linda gave me the morning off. I spent the morning cleaning my house and relaxing a bit. Since it was another half day we were on our own for dinner and I was making some ziti when Linda came back. I was showing her my spruced up house and since we are good friends she started mentioning a few things she saw. Finally she just started dusting, apparently I did a lousy job of looking up and then had me laughing when she removed the AC filter and vacuumed it. I hadn’t touched the thing in two years (should be done every couple of months) so it needed it. Lee wandered by and quietly said he wasn’t comfortable but I said “Linda’s going to do what she’s going to do,” plus real friends can clean for each other. I did give her some ziti for all her hard work!

Linda dusting

Cleaning off the filter

This is where the filter comes from

Saturday was the last day of seminars including some of my favorites like Finding Campgrounds and Working on the Road. Then we all broke for lunch and the first session of rig tours started at 1pm. Since we were right next to Linda and Howard we knew we would get some traffic and we had pre-staged to rig (doors open) for everyone to come in and look around. I also made home-made dog biscuits and gave them away and gave our cards and cards for RV Solar Solutions, the company (owned by our full timer friends Greg and Cori) that did our solar install. IT was really a fantastic experience. Everyone loved Lee’s modification and we both had a blast showing off the rig. Also, I pointed a lot of people to our DIY Mods page which has the step-by-step instructions on how to make their own similar modifications. The cargo netting was the biggest interest, probably because that idea can be used in any RV. It was so much fun and all the positive comments were great. After our session both Lee and I walked around and had a list of ideas of our own. Truly it is one of the best parts of the rally and I always walk away with new ideas.

Terry checking out our rig

Lee showing off our solar setup

Snuck over and took a pictuire of Linda doing her tour

Snuck over and took a picture of Linda doing her tour

Love this idea in Penn’s rig so you always know where you are in case of emergency. It’s a dry erase board

This homemade dog bed between the wall and couch was fantastic!!

Chris bought an unfinished pantry, bolted it in and then stained it to match. Since I am pantryless I was very interested

Another of my favorites were these handle baskets from the container store for high shelves. Need these!!

The tours were great but we still had dinner and the Derby party. Everyone was invited to wear a derby hat and prizes were given out in several categories. Then we watched the derby, finished the horse race, and had dancing. It was a busy night for Lee and I (although I did get to dance The Electric Slide a little bit) and we were totally tired at the end of the night. Still what a wonderful end to a terrific week.

All I can say is whether you are and experienced RVer, a newbie, or a wannabee this rally offers something for everyone. And I really, really hope some of my fellow Class of 2014ers can make it to a rally. Paying it forward to the next group is so rewarding and there is absolutely still stuff to learn. Now I understand why Nancy and Bill got back so frequently. What a great experience. We met so many special people and we are very excited to see them on the road! Go Class of 2016…you got this!!!!!!

Winner of the best hat made from recycled material…Dave from my hometown of Columbus, Ohio

Joe and Teresa won best humorous hat!!

Linda and Howard

Rosita and Frank were a hoot and I loved their rig

Andy was the horse and Peg was the jockey

Watching the race on the big screen

Linda announcing the betting pool winners

Judy (who was also at the 2014 rally was a $200 winner. She was so excited!!!)

The $400 winners!!

My absolute favorite hat from either rally. It takes a real man to wear a hat like that and see how it is color coordinate with his shirt. For the first time ever a man won most glamorous hat! WTG Doug.

Mikki and Jay are other readers of the blog so great to meet them in person

Linda and Nicky cracking up

Chris and Cherie were cracking up at the hat judging

The winner in the finals of the horse race

Lu and Linda dancing to YMCA

Linda and Howard leading the electric slide. Did you know Linda fell in love with Howard in high school because he could dance 🙂

Andy and Stacey so cute and what a great couple.

Bert and Kat talked Howard into trying Moonshine. That was fun!!

So many great groups of people bonded at the rally just like our groups. They have just met friends they will hopefully keep forever just like our gang

So many great groups of people bonded at the rally just like our group of friends. Made me so happy to see it. Hopefully like us they have met friends they will keep forever…just like our gang. ———————————————————————————————————————————

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We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Search Amazon Here
You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on Itunes.

May 9, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

What is an RV-Dreams Rally Like? (Part 1)

Whenever I talk about the RV-Dream rally’s one of the first questions I often get is what is the rally like. The educational rally itself was basically the same, but the experience was quite different. Not unlike the experience of attending high school as a freshmen versus attending high school as a junior. I wrote several posts about the first experience two years ago and this time around I wanted to share what it was like coming back. Plus hopefully there will be enough detail to give you a feeling of what the week is like.

We arrived on Saturday at the River Plantation RV Resort and checked into our campsite. This is a very nice, large campground and they host rallies frequently. A block of campsites was set aside for the RV dreamers so most of our neighbors were attending the rally. Howard and Linda our hosts understand that folks arrive Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (the rally officially starts Monday morning) and have a campfire every night as a meet and greet. We attended Saturday night and Sunday night and it’s a great way to meet folks in smaller groups. This particular rally also encourages folks without RV’s to attend and many people are staying at nearby resorts of hotels. Those folks are encouraged to drive in for the campfires and those of us who have RV’s are encouraged to make them feel welcome. This is VERY different from most other rally’s as having an RV is sort of a prerequisite, but Howard and Linda understand many people who are interested in the full timing lifestyle do not have RV’s and want to be as inclusive as possible.

Our site was next to Howard and Linda…no pressure!! LOL

Linda showing off her new haircut at the rally

Nice big circle of folks

One of my favorite things H&L do is go around the circle and name everyone. No small feat with 80 plus people. They only missed a few this year, it was pretty impressive.

One of my favorite things Howard and Linda (H&L) do is go around the circle and name everyone. No small feat with 80 plus people. They only missed a few this year, it was pretty impressive.

The main difference for us this year is we are friends with H&L and Lee was videotaping the rally. Linda made us some chili on Saturday night and we caught up with each other. Sunday morning though was all business as we walked through the agenda, video deliverables, and other technical logistics for the event. After that, Linda and I talked about my role. I had volunteered to be her personal assistant for the week, because they had done so much for me over the last couple of years and I really wanted to pay her back in some way. Linda ran with that and named me her “Executive Assistant” in the agenda which cracked me up and we talked about where I could be helpful.

Let me say upfront I had no idea what I was getting into. I knew she worked hard but damn. I have no idea how she does all this by herself normally. We started at 8 am every day, didn’t stop until after 9pm every day but Friday and it was go go go the entire time. Wow, I am out of practice with working the long days and I actually think I lost a few pounds this week from all the walking. Linda was actually really fun to work for. She keeps a really tight grip on all the details, but thankfully gave me tasks and just let me do them which made it a lot more fun and rewarding. She said I spoiled her and I certainly hope I did, but I was tired at the end of the week.

We started on Monday by checking people in. Linda had asked for volunteers to run the tables at the campfires and we setup the rooms and she trained everyone on the stations. Since I am an efficiency expert by trade, I made sure the process flow made sense and then worked to keep the line moving and avoid “log jams” along the way. Linda and Howard greeted everyone personally and then they got name tags, their welcome bags, and T-Shirts if they had purchased them. They could also buy cups and hats if they wanted and then they paid for the rally. Next they had a picture taken which H&L used in their email program so when people emailed them later they would know who they were. That little extra touch was really great and allows them to maintain relationships with people well after the rally. Finally people who have an RV could sign up for the open house. One of the most popular events is the rig walk through, where you can walk around and see other people’s rigs. It’s 100% voluntary so we needed a list of who was interested.

Volunteers putting together name tags

Folding T-Shirts

Our greeter table was fantastic.

Rede took all the couple pictures!!

And afterwards Linda taught T-Shirt braiding

Dinner that night was provided and people are welcome to stay and hang out or leave and come back but almost everyone stayed. It was wonderful walking around and talking to folks and especially gratifying for me when some people who had read my blog came up and said hi. I cannot even express how much it touched me when a person would say what I had written had an impact on them. Beyond words seriously.

At 6pm Linda got up and introduced them and made some announcements and then introduced Lee, gave people the option to not be videotaped (thankfully no one cared) and then said to ignore him! Lee asked for this since it’s much easier to get great footage if he just blends into the background. Dinner was really good and then Linda had an icebreaker scheduled.

Linda showing some pictures from their life on the road

Ribs and BBQ chicken …yummy

The icebreaker split people into tables based on a random number on their name tag and they had to come up with a horse name and lineage . Very funny and a little naughty in some cases 🙂

Afterwards there were horse races and the winners would get to come back on Saturday for the finals

The first day was so much fun and Lee and I kept thinking about our first time. Lots of folks were very nervous (totally normal) and we just kept saying, let’s see how you feel at the end of the week. We experienced a big emotional arc during our week there and saw that occurrence in many others as the week went on.

It was all dinners and social time though. The rally is jam-packed with educational seminars, most lasting 45 minutes in length. Linda starts on time and ends on time (a practice I completely approve of), but it was a little tough at times wrangling Howard. He does the bulk of the seminars (with the notable exception of The Emotional Aspects of Full Timing which Linda does) and he is so passionate about the topics that could run long if he isn’t prompted for breaks. He was a great sport about it though, and Linda and I both queued him when he was getting close to running out of time. What was new for me this time around was what happened on the breaks. We always went outside before, but lots of questions are answered during the breaks and many people came up to me when Linda was busy with other folks. I also was checking coffee, checking restrooms, and taking notes. I learned something new from every single seminar. Not only has Howard updated many of the slides, but I also took different things from the materials this second time around.

Loved the Question and Answer portion of every seminar. Really good

And if a full day of seminars wasn’t enough, Tuesday night we had another catered dinner, gadget night and the drawing for door prizes. There were some NICE door prizes donated by Howard’s business partners (way better than two years ago) and I was seriously bummed we weren’t eligible! Gadget night is fantastic where people bring in their favorite RV gadgets and get up and talk briefly about them. I saw several things that are going on my wish list.

The big table of door prizes

As people were called up they got their pick of item which was a nice way to hanld it

Very excited about her sewer hose!!

Cliff and Laura showed off their collapsible bowls. I have these.

Loved this night reading light. On my wish list

And this collapsible reading light. On my wish list

Valerie showed these really cool bags that let you make grilled cheese in the toaster. Must have!!

Valerie showed these really cool toaster bagsthat let you make grilled cheese in the toaster. Must have!!

Some were funny like the rubber gloves

Howard showing off their light-able emergency cones

I showed off my Instant Pot

And Lee showed off his remote controlled macerator pump

And Lee showed off his FIMCO remote controller for the macerator pump

Wednesday was a short day for most folks and since everyone’s heads were full it was well needed. We took some of the free time and went to lunch with this great couple Teresa and Joe. Teresa is a blog reader and had sent me an email prior to the rally. As soon as she checked in she found me and I gave her a huge hug…it was so great meeting her in person. Joe was excited about the rally as well, but Wednesday morning he came up and told me he was a bit on overload. This is not that uncommon by the way. I hit that point on Tuesday night personally, the first time we came. Listening to the seminars and meeting the people makes it very real and it’s not uncommon to have strong feelings. So the four of us went to Panda Express and talked. Teresa bought us lunch, which was not expected but so nice of her, and we talked for a full hour. Joe retired from a 40 year career at GM a few days prior, they had sold their house, talked to their kids, and were dealing with some elder care issues. Basically they had a ton of life stuff thrown at them in a very short period of time. When I repeated all that back to him and said of course your stressed he seemed to feel a lot better. For many people it is an incredible amount of change in a VERY short period of time and truly I think a lot of the pressure in the beginning falls on the guy. They are the ones that initially often have to learn how to drive and deal with the mechanical issues and if you aren’t experienced RVers there is quite the learning curve. I told Joe if he wasn’t a little worried I would think there was a problem and Lee also validated it by saying he had felt the same way. It was a terrific lunch with some very special people and I and I am so glad we squeezed in the time to do it.

Sorry Teresa this was the best pic I had without the hat!! I took better ones I promise!

After lunch there was a tire safety seminar and then everyone was on their own for dinner. I had brought the pieces of a gumbo dinner from Bridget and offered to make it for H&L. I called Bridget for some last-minute instructions (they are doing great by the way) and dinner came off thankfully without a hitch. It was delicious! Then we all sat up and talked until 9:30 or so when I called it a night because I was totally pooped out at that point. One thing that really made me feel great though was Linda felt so comfortable with how things were going that she took the morning off on Thursday. She is never able to do that normally and the fact she trusted me enough was really great. So I am going to stop here.. and continue this in the next post. You’ll have to wait and see if I totally screwed it up!!

They loved the gumbo!!

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May 5, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

April 2016 Budget

So before we get into the numbers we knew this month would be rough. For those of you who are new to the blog this is in no way a normal month for us and I really recommend you take a look at our First Year Budget Summary. Also keep in mind there is a learning curve and according to everyone who has done this longer, costs tend to go down over time. That being said, it can be expensive as this month shows, which is why we have contingency money.

So what happened? We did a ton of stocking up for Alaska and had to replace 4 dually tires on the truck. Thankfully I got an extra paycheck with unused vacation days I wasn’t counting on that helped covered the overages, but as you will see it was a doozy and not really representative of what has become our standard month. Overall we spent $5831.90 with an overage of budget of $1763. 15 The tires accounted for $988.01 of the overage. For a detailed accounting by category please see below.

Campground Fees – Despite traveling frequently and our last-minute change of campgrounds for the repair we only spent $467.62 and were under in this category $132.48. Definitely a win and special thanks to Guy and Sue for letting us stay in their place for a week. That really helped.

Groceries – In total we ran about $400 over in this category. This was all about stocking up for Alaska and several trips to Costco, which came at the very beginning of the month. This is the second highest month we have ever had and not representative of a normal month at all.

Dining Out – Despite numerous travel days we only spent $63 in Dining Out – Fuel (fast food etc) this month which is by far the best month we have ever had in this category and its one we really focused on!!! We did completely blow the Dining out experience category though with an overage of $157. This was a conscious choice and was driven by our day in New Orleans, The Whistle Stop Cafe, Lunch with Bridget and Pat, and dinner in Atlanta with our friend Brian. We discussed it before we spent the money, knew it was going to happen. Some things in life are more important than money.

Entertainment – Since we ate out so much we really watched this category to help offset and were under by $57. That may not sound like much but we didn’t go on a train ride or go zip lining in the mountains of Georgia (both of which we wanted to do). Instead we chose a the free activity of seeing the waterfall so I feel really good about this category.

Cell/Internet – We were over by $30 in this category because we hit our data limit, went over, and were charged $15 twice for two extra gigs in March. I am not going to go on a big rant about how ridiculous $15 a gig is but instead say we have made a commitment that when we hit 75% of our data usage going forward we are going to seriously adjust our behavior at that point. This budget amount is crazy high for us in comparison to others anyways and we simply can’t afford to go over in this anymore.

Memberships – We bought a premium Costco membership and at the end of the year get 3% back on all purchases made with a guarantee of at least $55 back the first year. We also paid the $10 and got the Gold version of RVillage. We will have to see this year if either is worth the money.

Truck Fuel – Ok this one is pretty scary so lets break it down. About $300 of this are trailing costs from March that came in on the Pilot gas card. Since March we have moved rapidly across the country, from Arizona to South Carolina. Gas prices were as low as $1.60 in some states and as high as $2.10 as we got closer to the east. When traveling we are spending at least $50 a day (sometimes more if we take an excursion) and all of those add up. I expect this will be even worse in May since we are traveling from Tennessee to Alaska. To some extent it is what it is. We knew it made no financial sense to drive from the West Coast to the East Coast and then back to Alaska, but we made a business commitment and intended to honor it. The costs will be offset by the additional revenue we are generating, but we zig zagging the country is pricey! We knew that in theory, but now having experienced it first hand will do what we can to minimize this going forward. That being said, we need to follow the revenue and if it involves higher travel costs, so be it.

Truck Maintenance – Four new tires on the truck because the tread was too low for Alaska. I wish I would have known about this in advance to factor that extra costs into our decision to go to Alaska. We definitely would have still gone, but we could have absorbed these costs earlier when I was still working. We ordered then and had them put on at Costco and the service was good and price was fair.

Storage – Starting this month two of our kids were going to share the cost of the storage unit. I gave them an extra month since I got paid into April and that should start going down to $25 starting May.

Cigarettes – We bought several months worth for Alaska which is why we went over in this category. Because we bought in bulk we got an excellent price and this will definitely help us on our annual budget in this category. Again this was a planned monthly overage.

Gifts – As part of my sisters adoption party she asked for people to bring items they could use to prepare welcome bags for foster kids to get when they were taken from their homes. With those poor kids in mind I went over on gifts. Wish I could have spent more, but I did get good bang for my buck by shopping at Big Lots and the clearance section of Walgreens.

Home Repair – Considering how many mods Lee did this month we did great in this category by staying close to budget. Consistently this is a problem area for us, but if you check out our DIY Modifications page you judge for yourself if the money spent is worth it.

So the month was a rough one but we planned for it. We were only truly surprised by the fuel costs. At least I was, Lee probably not so much. Our plan is to live frugally in Alaska, hopefully make extra money with RV Repair, and hit the Beet Harvest on the way out to replenish any deficits we may have. It’s a balancing act, and certainly we know others can live on less. The question continues to be what can we live on?

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Camper Chronicles

Travel Tales from Working Full Time RVers

Lakeside

First Time in Alaska

First Time in the Yukon

First Time Seeing Hot Springs, Caribou, and Bison!!

First Time on a 10% grade

Lesson Learned

First Time Crossing into Canada with the RV

Lessons Learned

First Time at Wall Drug

First Time Being Overweight

Recipe

Instant Pot Chicken and Stuffing

What is an RV-Dreams Rally Like? (Part 2)

What is an RV-Dreams Rally Like? (Part 1)

April 2016 Budget