Apparently there was no big deal about yesterday's earthquake. David was talking to a man from Anchorage and he said the quake would have to be a lot bigger to be even mentioned on the news.

I was in the laundry room, and all the machines were running since the laundry was just opened for the season earlier in the day. I felt a couple of vibrations, but I just figured it was someone's laundry shifting in the washer. Guess not. Interesting though.

Earthquake in Central Alaska

When the wind blows the camper rocks back and forth. A few minutes ago I (David) was sitting there reading and it started rocking. Problem was, the wind was calm.

Check out:

http://www.aeic.alaska.edu/Seis/recent/sub/quakes/2009150_evid106962/evid106962.html#prefor

This is the first quake our family has experienced in about 25 years. The previous one was in Knoxville. It woke Eric and me up. Chris and Betty, of course, slept through it.

White Pass railroad pictures

Fairbanks, stuffed chicken toys

Hi Melissa- Sorry Sydney chewed up the toys. For such a sweet little dog, she has 2 approaches to toys: the ones she likes, she destroys; and the others, she ignores. SO- if she shredded what you bought her, she liked them. Odd, I know.

We are in Fairbanks, and are planning to go to a museum at the University of Alaska Fairbanks this morning. For the first time last night, it was almost impossible to sleep in the daylight all night long. Maybe because we are the furthest north yet.

White Pass + Yukon Railroad

We've been in Whitehorse 3 nights, and it's getting time to move on. This morning we will head towards Fairbanks. Might be a 1 day trip, or maybe 2.

We stayed here an extra night to take a train ride down to Skagway.
http://www.wpyr.com/index.html
The trip followed one of the trails over the mountains that the 1898 gold stampeders followed. Quite a story.

Skagway is a cruise ship stop, so there were a lot of folks in town, but not excessive. Still a nice visit to an historic time from that era. Unlike many similar towns, Skagway has not had a fire, so a lot of the original buildings remain.

Leave comments- I'd love to know who's following, or occasionally visiting.

Animals out the truck window

Places

Canadian Rockies out the left window from Denver to Yukon Territory

Mile 0, Alaska Highway. Dawson Creek, BC. Turned out to be in the middle of a busy intersection. Took a picture anyway.Muncho Lake Provincial Park. Campsite was right on the edge of the lake. Tetsa Lake

dinner in Whitehorse

Klondike Ribs and Salmon was the name of the place. David had caribou stew and I had musk-ox stroganoff. no lie. Tasted a lot like beef though.

Taking a narrow gauge railroad ride through gold rush areas tomorrow. To Skagway, Alaska.

Pictures? No pictures lately? I need to do something about that, I know.

Yukon Territory

We are in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. It's 11:00 at night, and it's still light out. I knew it would be, but how odd! We got here tonight after a few days away from ian internet connection. I will update in a day or 2.

Comment on the picture of the little red car

FYI, that's not us- we are still in the truck and pulling the camper. The red car was ahead of us.

North of the Border

Well, we got in to Canada about 4:30 yesterday afternoon. We have not left the US for a number of years, since 9/11 anyway, and my goodness was it more complicated than it used to be. We pulled up to a booth first:

We showed our passports, answered questions about whether or not we were planning to leave something in Canada when we left, if we were carrying firewood (some disease is in bark...), if we were carrying more than 10,000 dollars in cash, if we'd ever been refused entry, etc. Then she tells us to pull around and park, and come inside. So we went inside and answered the same questions and many more. Twice. Although nothing about fresh produce. Go figure. About the time I was expecting to get arrested, we were told to have a nice visit, and we were done. Apparently all of this is standard procedure, bullet-proof vests and all. So- we're in Alberta.

We are in Lethbridge Alberta, at a little campground. getting ready to leave. It's 600 miles to the start of the Alaska highway, so we'll get there tomorrow.

We saw some wind farms yesterday. None of the pictures really show how big they are, but anyway:

We saw one arm flat on the ground, and it was immense. David says about 40 feet.

Almost to Canada

We are about an hour from the Montana-Canada border. Seriously desolate plains. Internet access with the Verizon mobile thing is pretty spotty here, so I'll be brief. We spent 2 nights in Billings. Went out to a movie, and found a fine Montana steak house for dinner. Now on the road- and a mighty windy road it is. Most of the houses out here on the plains have rows of trees planted along their west side as a windbreak, so I guess the wind is pretty common.

I made potato salad last night with the remaining potatoes so they don't get confiscated at the Canadian border. All I have left is a head of lettuce, and I am guessing that will be taken. Apparently the Canadians do not want American fruit flies. Or something.

Bruce- Take care of yourself; I'm glad you're feeling better.

We are at a campground along the Yellowstone River in Billings Montana tonight. Sometime today we passed the 2000 mile point since we left home.

Yellowstone Park was only a bit west of today's route, but our plans are to go there with Jenifer and John in a couple of years, so we bypassed it this trip.

We have done a lot of interstate driving, so when we leave here we are going to try local roads north through Montana towards the Canadian border. We are staying here in Billings 2 nights though. A little touristing planned for tomorrow.

Wyoming to Montana

We left Denver yesterday, and headed up to Casper Wyoming to see Jenifer and her family.

This first picture was supposed to be of the Welcome to Wyoming sign, but the time lag on the digital camera meant it's only a picture of the landscape, the rear view mirror, and my right arm.



Then the rest area. Check out those neat rock formations behind the parking lot. We passed hundreds of miles of that kind of terrain.
Since I never got a picture of the prairie dogs in Denver, here's a substitute: Then eventually we got to Casper:

Home repairs in Denver

We are with Bud and Chloe in Denver. Our plans were to spend maybe a week here, so I am not sure when we will hit the road again. David is tiling the bathrooms, and Chloe and I are getting ready to paint the family room and the one bathroom that has not recently been painted. Got a wonderful green for the bathroom, but not sure about the kitchen/family room/hall area yet. Still working to pick the right off-white. We're all 4 of us working hard.

Safe and sound in Denver. Although the inside of the camper got a bit bounced around over the last stretch of road. We went through towns that were posted as being at 6250 ft elevation, and they were as flat as could be. That's even higher than Denver, which they call the mile-high city. In NC that kind of terrain is about 8 ft elevation or so. Very different, but that's what road trips are all about. We are enjoying ourselves.

We are a couple of hours away from Denver. So far we've seen antelopes, tumbleweed, oil wells, and wind farms. We are over a mile high, yet the terrain is flat. Clearly this is what they mean by the high plains. Beautiful morning.

Night 3

We made out better with our third tank of gas for the day- back up to 10 mpg. I guess the prairie wind had stopped blowing at us by then.

We are stopped for the night at a rest area- Kansas allows overnighting. It's a nice grassy area, birds singing, cool and dry out. Although flat, very flat, as you can see from the picture of David and Syd.

Day 3

We spent our first night in a small campground in Paducah Kansas, and went to a big fabric store I have ordered from over the internet- Hancock's of Paducah. Had a good time browsing and watching all the folks running around filling internet orders. Bought a few things too.

Second night we were in Lawrence Kansas, home of the University of Kansas. Really pretty town.

But: Our mileage had been 10-11 mpg when we first started out, but since we got out here in the headwinds of the Kansas plains and long gradual hills up, the truck is straining and we are only getting 6-7 mpg. We stopped and David took a look at the trailer brakes and the truck engine, but everything seems to be ok.

David hooked the camper to the truck this afternoon, and we cruised the neighborhood a bit, including backing into a side road and turning back onto the main road. It went well.

Also- David checking the tires. One of many chores to get ready.

This is the small camper we will be pulling. We leave North Carolina on Tuesday next week, heading for Denver to visit David's sister and her husband.