So there will be future soon post with more pics!!!!!  3 hours to home!!!

Well can’t bore ya with mountains for a while !!!  Haha oh and look at my new find while on vacation!!! A green tea frap from Starbucks. Stella’s favorite and it became mine also!!!  Refreshing!!!  Don’t get the latte I did by default ughhhh.  Oh and I can gave a mojito now and drive even!!!  Haha

The Columbia River!!   So that makes the next scenes in Oregon

Seattle a new love for me!  Beautiful town, busy but beautiful!  You’d know where we were by the first picture it doesn’t need a description.  Got a tour of the ‘market’ that’s a fun expierence!!  Oakley took on my cousins into her trust, she wanted up onto Lorelea’s lap and wanted a belly rub and then a while later was next to Skye in the chair and then was totally relaxed on the arm!!!  Mt. Rainier wow from town even!!!  Actually after we got going east hills got big and fence with trees and that’s only sighting I got of it!!!  Last mtn. Is Helena from about Yakima WA view!!  Throw back Thursday two days early.  And so happy to connect with my cousins and my aunt!!!! Whose not in picture, shucks!  😘 G.

Wow hot now we are into summer I guess where have we been????   Haha.  See ya soon all!!!

Well waking up in the lower 48 feels like we are home! Don’t get me wrong, Canadians are very nice……no frownie clerk, sour puss face of not liking their job………yea I see that here at home…….But shopping at a store soon after we crossed the border was a comforting feeling, products looked familiar prices were normal, I didn’t have to calculate in my mind the difference in the price of their dollar/ours.

Cliff and I noticed in northern B.C. there weren’t any birds around at our camp spots…..not even in town at Stewart, AL. And now here in northern Washington there still isn’t many birds flittering around. Two woodpeckers showed up working on a nearby tree. Nothing deterred them from pecking away and tearing off stuff from a dead tree. I have to get out my bird book because they look like a kingfisher with the same coloring, but they had white spots under their wings.

On road to Haines, AL

Lakes in British Columbia are gigantic!!!! really

Got my husband to STOP and

I got real picture of these two signs!!!!

Green, green, green, road to Hyder.

Cool alley of trees!!

its a steep climb, didn’t do it this time, but….

People as we know were tough back then, whoa what bindings!!!!

Cliff was floored, the barrel had been plug

Something even Cliff hadn’t seen!! yep snowshoes for horsed…was in museum at Stewart, BC next to Hyder AL.

New to both of us a corner pot belly fireplace!

We were overwhelmed with the scenery on our trip the whole time!!! Someone wrote in a tourist book about driving the Alcan hwy. and they said the ‘top of the world’ road was blah…boring….. no not to us. South of Grand Prairie the trucking on the road was very, very busy, and the scenery was a bit industrialized but that didn’t last long. Getting back into the fast world Friday when we got closer and closer to Prince George was a bit of a reality check….and a big one when we hit Komloops and Kowlena in southern B.C. whoa they need to coordinate their lights in that town…from when we started into that town on the northern end and by the time we were out of the town limits 1 1/2hrs.   YES, they had a stop light at every block and when ours turned green and you got to the next one it was turning red………only twice did we get through the next light before it turned…..Cliff kept his cool, well there was no tedious technical driving involved, just straight through driving but his knee was very sore from clutching. we don’t have an automatic truck, but our next one is going to be. And that decision was made long before this trip……..

Oh Canada had signs along the road esp. on our return route, that stated when this forest was prepped, mulched, and planted, whether it was from a forest fire they replanted, or from the logging up here, they are taking care of their forest….Another thing at our (and only a few at that) stop for lunch at a A&W they had a poster that said “good food makes good food” it was about how their beef doesn’t have hormones….etc….

J J J

Oh so our alternate route because of the fires was an awesome road, and the scenery didn’t disappoint either, we saw a sign at their information center ( we call them visitor centers) evacuee station b/c of the fire, but we didn’t want to camp in their parking lot, but we decided to camp in a parking lot of this rest area just a tad up the road……ha go figure, guess it was better because it had trees ahahahaha first day we had driven over 10 hours, it had been 12.5 hr. this day Thursday the 20^th.,  we were on a mission to get back, but Oakley and Henri had a ball running around, Cliff decided to not put them on the leash and they ran in circles, growl at each other chase each other, FREEDOMMMMMMMM they were saying I bet!!!!!   J Oh there happened to be two other campers there and when we woke up four more came in after us, safety in numbers esp. when your breadking the rules, but we all guessed that it was fine because of the closure of 97!! and all us campers needed a place to park for the night.

View after looking at Salmon Glacier

Salmon Glacier, north of Hyder!!!

road to Salmon Glacier

The mosquitoes were bad, they were really bad in northern B.C. Alaska I bet I didn’t have 10 on me the whole time we were up there. Here in Washington they are normal and its dry here……

Now in Seattle none!!!! Temperature is lovely, and if it wasn’t so so expensive I could live here. Think it will be a wonderful place to come tour soon!!

We thought Denver was big…….ha

thought these were trumpeter swans another kind can’t remember

At million dollar falls campground

On road to Haines, AL

Onward to Haines

So that is Cliff standing by the tree and at our camp Saturday night those trees are THAT big!!!  

Poor Henri has had it with traveling.  Hyder has their own saloon with dollar bills on the walls, a tad neater job than the Salty Dog in Homer!!!  And their post office is very comfortable that ‘bear’ stuff decorated the inside!!!    Oh and I didn’t know that clover was this beautiful and smelled heavenly!!!

Eclectic and quaint!  Quiet and lots to do in Haines!  Laundry matt moose antlers lady of the business shot it!  Their inside door comes down at night and a timer opens it up bright and early to make early birds happy!!  A fish fence artwork with plastic bottle caps/lids!  The old set at their fairgrounds from the movie ‘White Fang’.  Oh houses st the top of a hill that originally part of Ft. Seward most looked like they were converted into condos! They were huge!  Easily 3000 sq. ft.  Went to a hammer museum few thousand hammers there cliff loved it!  It was very very interesting!!  

So our day was ending yesterday, July 12, 2017 coming to the last Yukon campground before the border, which was still 40 some miles away at least and Cliff saw a bull moose to the left.  We turned around and he was out my window now and I got the camera clickin’.  He was happy just standing eating his curds and whey or whatever it is in that water that does supply sodium, we saw a great show on tv about what they eat and its only in ponds…..think my memory is correct in all that!!!

Boy the drive from Tok, AL was beautiful, but was very hazy, probably smoke from fires we were sure, and today we found out, yep, there are some and a road we were hoping to come down on is closed because of that fire!  😦   97…..

Now we have another favorite road to drive on and it’s from Haines Junction to Haines AL………words can’t say enough even though it was cloudy yesterday and totally foggy today and broke away some today and lifted a tad here and there also today,,,,,,it was beautiful…….I need a Thesaurus to find another word, I’m sure you all are getting tired of ‘beautiful’ ahahahahaha     A gal in the store in Haines Junction when she found out we were heading this way, she said it just gets prettier, and the trees get bigger and she was correct.

My husband isn’t feeling well at all today, I think we just aren’t eating right/enough…. We splurged here in Haines got a room for two nights, its rainy again and I figured sometime in our travels we’d like a bit more room, or a very dry space.  Not horrible price either for being wayyyyyy up here!!!   We’ve gotten more expensive rooms during summer travels in the main part of USA!!!

This is the view from

our camp spot at

McCarthy earlier in the week!

The sun came out Wednesday morning and I had to take more pictures of the scene above!!!!

Entertainment while waiting

to fish the next day for

Only 12 hours they get.

At Valdez.

Captions on picture above if you click on them!!!!

Tok!!!! real sod!! haha

Cliff got some gold here south of Tok!

huge timbers solids poles!!1

Family on drive to Chitina close to McCarthy!!

Wrangell NP awesome and we are miles and miles away!!!

One of the big ones in Wrangell 16,000 maybe!!!

More captions on pics above also!!!!

Oh and I sprained my ankle two evenings ago….I even fell, Cliff thought I’d dropped something in the camper, he opened the door and I was there on the floor.  I’m thankful I didn’t hit my head on a cabinet, or a ledge that sticks out too!!!!  So I can walk, he can eat, held down two sandwiches, so we are fine basically!!!!!!   🙂

Before

After with dish soap and my conditioner!!!

Henri he still hates the ride!!

He does have fun when the truck stops!!

Have seen lots of Trumpeter Swans

So hope to see some bears here in Haines guess they are big on a river here!!  Actually I saw one yesterday but we didn’t stop for reasons!!!  😦   grizzly that is even!!!

Paid for internet here at hotel……took a chance!  Karen!!!!

So good bye McCarthy. Onward into Canada no service there I know unless at a coffee shop.   Hike with cliff and dogs had to walk in a grey sloppymud. Yep finally found real mud!!!!

So we are about 90 miles off of the Richardson highway east into the biggest national park Wrangell-Elias and I have LTE service which means here up north I can DO stuff on my phone.  I found out in the Kenai Penensulia 3G and 4-5 bars of service didn’t mean a thing! 😢😏. Calls I could make and receive and robo texts I received but nada else!   

The reason we are in the boondocks is Kennecott mine!  Cliff loves history and old mine stuff,  I love old buildings and scenery!  So a 60 mile dirt road trip @ 15-25 mph later we made it!!!  Yes that fast only and we mean it!  Being a well seasoned back country driver from Colorado we know what we are talking about!!  Haha. Sorry about the bragging!!  But some of you remember the Letoux creek road before the turns it into a dirt/ gravel highway!!  We know rough!!  So it was worth the slow drive they have mile post so you can see you progress!!!  And sometimes you didn’t want to know ‘ that’s all we’ve gone?!!’  Haha.   The scenery was great even tho it was cloudy ‘again’.   We crossed over an old rr bridge 248 ft. Above a river. The railroad bed was used for parts of the road into McCarthy!  

The road stops at a foot bridge that’s crossed over a roaring river, that we are camped by.  A shuttle runs ever 30 min. Into town and or to the mine site 5 miles away!  We walked to town 1/2 to 3/4 mile away. Read two opinions in brochures and info signs so…….  haha. Lovely little old town laid back atmosphere!  Neat but eclectic fun town!!  

Walked by a community garden.  Old vehicles flowers planted in discarded wheelbarrows truck beds pics on other camera I’ll post later. Sorry!   The view here is spectacular Root Glacier looks like it’s spilling out and over from the mountains north of us!!!  Hope to hike to and on it with a guide.  

   Today started out light rain but forecast says partly sunny this afternoon 😊👍. But am very comfy hanging inside our space !  

I’ll post pics of our ‘space’ so you know what I’m talking about!! We don’t live ESP. In these small/tight quarters like Martha Steward so…….  haha. But I loved it because we used to sleep in the truck bed with a camper shell on inflatable single air mattress 3″.  Now I have a kitchen, dinning room, bedroom!!!!  And a cabinet for a porta potty so a bathroom too!!! Shower is outside, got a flip open easy tent for that!! Our bed is a queen size on that slides into a double so we can sit at the table!!! 

I’ve had moments of unbelievably ‘I can’t believe I’m seeing/doing this!!’  I have not missed tv!!   Oh did I tell ya in Canada they have the same gossip mags at the store check out stands with our movie star crap!!!  I saw, cause I had to buy groceries that George’s twins were born, someone else had a major health problem. Etc blah blah……..   I haven’t paid attention here in AL cause I use self check out where they usually aren’t !!!

So gonna get a few pics on! 

Oh I forgot I went on a boat Glacier ride!  It’s a mile across. Mears Glacier ! 

A 238 ft. Tall rr bridge now a one lane car bridge!!  Over the Strelna creek spelled correct I check map!!!  That huge river pic is the Chitina (chit nah) River. It was huge!!!!   

I mailed postcards at this post office cutest little one ever! Lady was a sweetheart!! I’m keeping my grandchildren informed of our travels buying postcards and got an app it lets you do your pics on a postcard and a message they print and mail it all only $1.99 each!!!   

Pics are posting opposite of what I pick out whoops!!!!  

The sun came out late last night glad I peeked out and got a pic!  The mtns here are enormous!!  The is Root Glacier our view from camp spot!  The big pic is from the walking bridge.  

Karen 😊