D-38, Monday, May 18, 2009 No trip preparations today.

D-37, Tuesday, May 19, 2009 While not exactly pre-trip preparations, we spent the morning working on our property, getting it ready for an extended absence trimming low-hanging limbs that were chigger and tick havens. Donald finished adding the eye bolts to the Saturn for attaching the Protect-a-Tow; it’s ready to install now each time we need it. Enough for one day, time to rest as the tree trimming wore us out.

D-36, Wednesday, May 20, 2009 Once again, our great friend, Wayne, bailed us out by installing an inverter-on receptacle in the bedroom for Donald’s CPAP. Donald can now use his CPAP when we’re boon docking (dry camping without hook-ups) without having to run an extension cord from the only other outlet wired for inverter use, all the way in the front of the coach. The inverter converts 12 volt battery power to 110 volt power, what we have in our houses. Our motorhome has an inverter, but the only thing hooked up to it was the TV and surround sound in the living area of the coach. We’re limited to 400 watts, but that’s more than sufficient for what we’ll plug in while boon docking. This extra outlet will also let us use the crock pot while underway.

D-35, Thursday, May 21, 2009 No pre-trip work today.

D-34, Friday, May 22, 2009 We made our first trip reservations today, reserving a site at Custer State Park for July 27, 28, and 29. The campground we preferred had already filled, but we have a site in another campground adjacent to a blue ribbon trout stream—all the planning in the world can’t beat dumb luck. Kay is sick in bed today with the CRUD and a severe back ache—rare for her.

D-33, Saturday, May 23, 2009 Donald maneuvered his way under the motorhome this afternoon to inspect the wiring on the fresh water tank gage. Sure enough, one of the wires was severed. After attaching a wire connector, we are back to normal and can monitor the status (extent of fullness) of the fresh water tank. This was a dreaded chore that took no more than 30 minutes to do. We have accumulated a number of documents and email messages regarding the trip. This afternoon we collected and assembled those in a common folder on the computer. Kay is still sick in bed; back ache is worse.

D-32, Sunday, May 24, 2009 We spent the day getting our paperwork and computer files in order, along with making sure our bills will be paid. Kay is beginning to recover; back ache is slowly disappearing.

D-45, Monday, May 11, 2009  Trip preparations are beginning. Lane from street to house was cleared of low hanging limbs.

D-44, Tuesday, May 12, 2009  Pre-trip chores were in full swing today. We began the by making copies of important papers, licenses, credit cards, health cards, etc.; copying serial numbers of our "toys" such as cameras, binoculars, and computers, and VINs and licenses for the motorhome and Saturn; and cleaning out the "little" garage, and grouping RVing things for the great Alaska trip; we could actually walk thru the garage when we finished. Then, our great friend, mentor, and neighbor, Wayne, ran the break-away cable thru the Saturn firewall, and we attached it to the front bumper. When traveling a cable will connect between the Saturn and the motorhome, and an electrical cable connects from there to the auxiliary brake. After getting all the tools together, we decided to attach the eye bolts to the motorhome for connecting the Protect-a-Tow between the motorhome and the Saturn, hopefully preventing paint chipping and windshield breakage. Enough for one day, time to rest.

D-43, Wednesday, May 13, 2009  No pre-trip work today.

D-42, Thursday, May 14, 2009  No pre-trip work today.

D-41, Friday, May 15, 2009  We received our CB radio today, and, as expected, it has limited range. Except for some clothes, fly line, and food, this just about wraps up our purchases specifically for this trip.

D-40, Saturday, May 16, 2009  No pre-trip work today.

D-39, Sunday, May 17, 2009  We waxed the front of the motorhome, and finalized our pre-trip rally calendar. The pre-trip rally consists of meeting everyone traveling in our caravan in Great Falls, MT on July 1, 2009, and traveling together to Dawson Creek, Yukon Territory, Canada, aka the beginning of the Alaska Highway, arriving there on July 8, 2009, the official start of our trip to Alaska.

While the idea of traveling to the Yukon and Alaska by RV has been at the back of our minds for some time, we made a decision in 2005 not to buy an RV, obviously putting an end to such a trip. How things change with time. After much thought and deliberation, we bought our first RV, a 30-foot long travel trailer, in 2006, and immediately resurrected the idea again. Our plans were to take a fairly long shakedown trip to Glacier National Park in the summer of 2007, followed by travel to Alaska in the summer of 2008 with close friends who bought a travel trailer at the same time.

We did travel to Glacier National Park in 2007 via Buffalo, Wyoming. After 4 weeks and 4,000 miles, we were ready for Alaska. As fate would have it, the husband of the couple who were to accompany us to Alaska became ill, and doctors strongly advised him not to travel to Alaska by RV.

In the fall of 2007, we traded the travel trailer for a new 29-foot motor home with specific plans to drive it to Alaska solo. We continued to seriously plan, developing several itineraries, routes, and spreadsheets with pertinent data for the trip to be made in the summer of 2008. We purchased a slightly used 2007 Saturn Ion, with tow plate and lights already installed, to serve as our tow-behind vehicle (a.k.a. toad, short for towed vehicle). Once again fate intervened. Gasoline prices soared, and Dad fell early in the summer, breaking his leg. We postponed the trip, staying behind to assist with his care; regrettably, he passed away a few months later.

We got really serious about the trip in the ensuing months, planning a July 2009 start. A route was chosen, a detailed itinerary was developed, and information regarding RV parks and activities were meticulously identified on a spreadsheet; we were ready to go. While posting on an RV forum in March, we received a response inviting us to join a Gulf Stream sponsored caravan. Our response was basically that we had no plans to participate in a caravan because first, we had never heard of the Gulf Stream brand of RVs, and second, we had read unflattering stories regarding caravans. After a couple of personal emails, we decided to at least look at their itinerary and cost, and were surprised to find the itinerary practically matched ours, in terms of dates, locations, and activities. We communicated with Gulf Stream, and found their company representative to be both friendly and helpful, and the price was reasonable. After serious deliberations and prayer, we felt God was providing us direction to join the caravan; we paid the deposit, thereby making a substantial financial commitment. This jumps us from the planning phase to the trip preparation phase which we will begin in earnest tomorrow.