On the Alaska Highway, At Last At last, we are on the Alaska Highway, headed north to Alaska. We departed Saturday morning about 7 AM, and stopped for fuel about 20 miles into the day to top off our tanks. This particular section of the highway is similar to good two-lane highways at home, except with wider shoulders. There were some rough spots, but again, not to dissimilar from home. We drove by the visitor center at Fort St. John, but it was not open, so we continued driving, stopping up the road for HUGE cinnamon rolls—and they were good! It was an uneventful travel day, for the most part, but we did see two solo black bears and a sow with two cubs. We were so close to the sow and two cubs that Kay was ready to roll her window up to avoid personal contact! This part of British Columbia is marked by oil, gas, and timber resources, and there are oil and gas businesses everywhere. Just before arriving in Fort Nelson, we crossed the Muskwa River, lowest point on the Alaska Highway at an elevation of 1000 feet. Arriving in a warm, sunny Fort Nelson, we again filled-up with gasoline, drove to the West End Campground, and then toured the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum. As an aside, we’re now on Pacific Daylight Savings Time.

Our Recommendations for Fort Nelson, BC The Fort Nelson Heritage Museum was definitely worth seeing; otherwise, Fort Nelson doesn’t offer much for the tourist.

Kay’s Take For the most part I included my take in the other journal entry for this leg. One aside, the mosquitoes here are definitely competitors with the ‘East AR mosquito population’. Danger to be outside without Off Defense! We did find another rig from AR as we were walking the campground. Of course, I stopped and talked to them. They were from the Russellville area.

Campground West End Camp Ground, Fort Nelson, BC. Electric, water, sewer, cable, and wi-fi. Tight, austere parking, but adequate. There were better sites, but our caravan was parked in back-to-back spaces, forcing most of us to unhook our tow vehicles. Wi-fi wasn’t good. We would stay here again, IF facilities were not available at Muncho Lake, a bit farther north.

Driving Statistics
Beginning Mileage: 12,014.4
Beginning Time: 7:00 AM PDST
Ending Mileage: 12,295.7
Ending Time: 1:30 PM PDST
TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 281.3
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE: 2,902.

Rain, You Gotta Love It Because of the constant downpour, I never left the motorhome from the time we filled with gasoline in Jasper on Tuesday, cloudy but no rain, until stopping for a rest break this morning, Wednesday, some 24 hours later, and Kay only exited once to make sure we didn’t hit anything pulling out of the tight camping space—one of the advantages of a self-contained motorhome. It continued raining until just before we pulled into Northern Lights RV Park in Dawson Creek, BC. The drive today had the most ascents and descents yet, with some long 8% grades, and among the most severe we’ll experience the entire trip. Consequently, our speed was about 50 mph, and the resulting mileage pretty good at about 10 mpg. I spotted a black bear on the north side of the highway just after passing through Grand Cache, one of our few animal sitings for the day. On the drive, a front-end loader was in front of us for a short distance, and we were wondering what he was doing on the highway. We passed him and in the next mile we knew. There was a pretty big slide off the mountain because they had had such a huge amount of rain—over a foot of mud, rock, and debris on the road. They had an emergency crew on the road and we drove over the mess. The water was still raging down the mountain after we passed.

We stopped in Grand Prairie, a city of about 50,000, to top off the gasoline tank, and find Costco. The Costco adventure included driving through town, not finding Costco, finding a place to turn around, and driving back out of town towards Alaska. As luck would have it, on the highway towards Alaska, we spotted the Costco but did not stop, filled the gasoline tank, and returned going south to shop at Costco, only to find they didn’t have any of the items we wanted, then headed back north. After leaving Grand Prairie, we saw several elk ranches, and either a caribou or reindeer ran across the road in front of us, as we entered into British Columbia. The rest of the drive into Dawson Creek was uneventful, except that the rain stopped just before we arrived! Several of the other caravaners had washed or were washing their motor homes, but we opted not to—it’s just going to get dirty again! Our site was relatively level, we hooked up electric, water, and sewer, and Kay washed clothes while I cleaned the inside of the motorhome after several days of rain and cold. The RV Park had great wi-fi, so we read emails, caught up on the news, and posted the last 3 legs of the pre-rally trip. We had our introductory “Explore the Yukon and Alaska, 2009, Caravan” meeting in the evening, which included a pretty decent dinner. Five new folks attended that had not been on the pre-rally trip. As a side note, one of the couples, in fact the one we followed the first day or so, broke down near Grand Cache with a water-logged filter, and their diesel pusher was pouring smoke with little power. They limped in to an Esso plant, called a mechanic who was supposed to show up at 4:30 PM, with the intentions of ordering and having over-nighted a new filter since one could not be obtained locally, including Edmonton. When it arrives and is installed, they will catch up to us in Dawson City tomorrow afternoon. The “tail gunner” motorhome stayed with them.

Day 2 in Dawson Creek, BC (Thursday) It rained again last night, hard, and temperatures cooled considerably—highs today were only in the 60s. Our day started with yet another meeting, this time to hear a spiel from a representative of the Dawson Creek tourism group. She did a great job introducing the area, and especially the Alaska Highway. We heard from the stranded couple; the mechanic never showed up! They were too late in ordering the new filter, so will order it this AM, hoping to arrive tomorrow. After the meeting, we had an early lunch of leftovers, and took off to see the sights in Dawson City.

There are at least three Mile “0” mileposts, and we had photos taken at all of them. Of course, the original was run over and destroyed by a drunk driver. The 1,500 mile Alaska Highway was constructed under the auspices of the US Army Corps of Engineers in only 8 months through wilderness, muskeg, tundra, with many river crossings, and in temperatures ranging from -70 to 90F during 1942. I was and remain quite proud of a wonderful 31+ years with the Corps, and commented that they could still do work like this if all their encumbrances were removed. We visited the Alaska House, viewing quite well-done displays regarding building the Alaska Highway, and saw a great PBS video chronicling the construction. With lots of daylight left, we drove the first few miles of the Highway to an old original section of the Alaska Highway, crossing the historic curved (9%) wooden Kiskatinaw River Bridge (531-feet long, about 100 feet above the water surface, and a carrying capacity of 20 tons); this bridge is the only original timber bridge built along the Alaska Highway that is still in use today. It is a civil engineering landmark, recognized by both ASCE and their Canadian counterpart. Kay commented that she didn’t realize that the ALCAN highway was built during those first few months/first year of WW II when we were getting our seats kicked by the Japanese. They had even invaded the Aleutians where her Dad served. So the push to build the highway was for national security but also a way to boost morale for the war effort—we were winning in the wilderness against all odds. Quite a story! Also 3 black battalions distinguished themselves on this gruesome front. It’s a very impressive story. We wandered around downtown after visiting the Alaska House and found many murals depicting former days in B.C. and in Dawson Creek. They were huge, fitting entire building walls, and were wonderfully done. Kay thinks the Arts Council sponsored them. We really enjoyed them and will be including several pictures/videos in our log.  Richard and Virginia (our tail gunner), and Ron and Hazel (the stranded folks) finally limped in late this afternoon. This could make a great story in and of itself. Suffice it to say, a trucker stopped by on each of two different runs with offers to help, and the last time made a stopgap filter using a T-shirt and duct tape, allowing them to limp in to Dawson Creek; “duck tape” the greatest invention known to man!

Day 3 in Dawson Creek, BC (Friday) There was no rain last night, but it is in the forecast. We saw everything in the Dawson Creek area we wanted to see yesterday, so today was a “catch-up” day for us. Kay washed clothes and made a huge pot of chicken spaghetti. The Riffels got the parts to repair their motorhome, repaired it themselves, and are now ready to head north to Alaska. We had a group picture made at the Visitor Centre Milepost “0”; we’ll get a digital copy from someone. After a brief stop at Walmart, we returned to the campsite, had lunch, and readied the motorhome and car for tomorrow’s (Saturday’s) trip to Fort St. John. We will have another meeting tonight at 9 PM to discuss our travel day tomorrow. Oh no, it’s started raining, thundering, and lightening, and the forecast calls for rain the next several days.

Our Recommendations for Dawson Creek, BC We may not have done everything there was to do in Dawson Creek, but we pretty much covered the town. First and foremost among our recommendations is the Alaska House, and while there, the PBS video on building the Alaska Highway. We also recommend a walking tour of the City Centre. This area is the location of one of the historic mileposts, and contains many historic buildings, including the Alaska House. Most of the alleys have recently painted murals on the building walls which are really neat, and there are interpretive signs at various locations in the area explaining the historic sites. Also worth a stop is the Visitor’s Centre, for photographs of the other historic Mile “0” marker. While staying in Dawson Creek, it’s definitely worth a 17.3-mile drive up the “new” Alaska Highway to see the wooden Kiskatinaw River Bridge on a section of the “old” Alaska Highway.

Campground Northern Lights RV Park, Dawson Creek, BC. Electric, water, sewer, cable, and wi-fi. Tight parking, but adequate. We would stay here again.

Driving Statistics
Beginning Mileage: 11,786.1
Beginning Time: 6:30 AM MDST
Ending Mileage: 12,014.4
Ending Time: 12:00 Noon MDST
TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 228.3
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE: 2,622.9

On Our Way North It rained most of the night, with a wind blowing directly at us off the glacier. We awoke Tuesday morning to 40 degrees, and a cold motorhome. After coffee, and nothing else planned at the Icefield Centre, we quickly made the bed (yes, we make it every day), withdrew the slides, pulled off the leveling blocks, and headed towards Jasper, AB. We saw three deer along this stretch of road. Clouds hung on the mountains, creating beautiful scenes, particularly reflecting off the many lakes along the highway.
Athabasca Falls, at about 100 feet high, was roaring, and the “pot hole” formed by the falls over time was ground smooth. We saw a cow elk just before our next stop, the town of Jasper.
Jasper is a small, RV-friendly town with lots of parking along the highway. It could have been the early hour, and perhaps these were workers for the shops and cafes, but all we saw were twenty year olds; very few people older than 30. After lattes and pastry, we filled up with gas ($1.022/liter) and headed towards our campground for the night, Pierre Grey Lakes Provincial Park (PP). It began raining shortly after leaving Jasper, and we opted to stop at Safeway at Hinton, AB, for some groceries, including makings for chili. On the way, we spotted a coyote jump up under a tree for a bird and begin eating it, and a big horn ram just running alongside the road. The road from the turn-off near Hinton to Pierre Grey Lakes PP was a somewhat remote, two-lane highway; parts had been recently paved while the remainder was pretty rough—preparing us for the Alaska Highway. Just after getting on this road, we made the longest and steepest ascent yet. Despite this road being a wildlife corridor, with elk and caribou both inhabiting the area, all we saw was a single whitetail deer. We missed the turn into our campground loop, but were able to drive to the end of the campground road and make a turnaround. Fortunately, our site was a rugged pull-thru, because it continued raining thru the afternoon and evening. We never exited the motorhome.
Kay’s Take I made homemade chili when we got to our campsite, though there was no Rotel to be found in Safeway in Alberta, Canada—what’s the world coming to! Donald uploaded photos taken during the day. I also bought a roasted chicken and deboned it so I could prepare Carolyn King’s Chicken Spaghetti in a day or two – probably at Dawson Creek as we will be there three days. The rain on our motorhome is quite similar to rain on a tent. It is very comforting and soothing. Imagine, we’ve been without TV, phones ringing, etc. for almost 10 days. What do we do in the evenings? Donald works on his computer; I read; we walk when it’s not bad weather. Tonight, I gave myself a pedicure and painted my toenails and performed some other feminine care necessities not to be mentioned. Ha! Well, tomorrow we all gather at the ‘real’ starting point of the Alaskan Highway, Dawson Creek, British Columbia. That’s Mile “0”! We will have traveled approx. 3,000 miles just to get to that point. Incredible, huh? And besides, we’ll stop at a Costco in Grand Prairie, Alberta, for food items, and in honor of our friends, the Simanks! It was fun being in Jasper today. That was my favorite place we stayed on our honeymoon. It’s just a great little town with lots of shops, quaint, western, more like the real Canada with a gorgeous river running beside it. We saw the little chalets (cabins) we stayed in when we were here. Good memories!
Campground Pierre Lakes Provincial Park, AB. This was a fairly rugged campground, with pull-thru sites, no hook-ups, and free firewood (too bad it was raining).
Driving Statistics
Beginning Mileage: 11,615.7
Beginning Time: 6:50 AM MDST
Ending Mileage: 11,786.1
Ending Time: 2:00 PM MDST
TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 170.4
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE: 2,394.6

One of Our Most Scenic Drives The Icefields Parkway has special meaning to us as we spent our honeymoon here in 2000. The scenery is breathtaking the entire route. Much has changed though; seems like lots more people and traffic, and the consequential effects. We departed Lake Louise Campground at 7:30 AM for an early start, hoping to increase our odds of seeing animals along the Parkway route. We’re not sure it worked, as we saw one male deer, in velvet, and a black bear, our first for the trip; regrettably, we were unable to take photos of either. We arrived at the Icefield Centre, parked and somewhat leveled our rig, and headed for the building housing the interpretive center, ticket sales, and shop. Despite rain, we took the bus, then the special “Ice Explorer” to Athabasca Glacier; amazing!

Though still early afternoon, we “retired” to the motorhome for the day, catching up on journal writing, downloading photos and videos, and copying files to the external hard drive.

Kay’s Take Thank goodness Donald knows how to ‘dry camp’. There’s a large parking lot with about 25 RVs spending the night here at the Columbia Icefield Center. No electricity, just battery power (inverter) and/or the generator. I had cooked some meat last night to use in a casserole after we grilled some burgers. Ray Minardi had given me a recipe. It is kind of like a jambalaya but it also has cabbage in it. I mixed it all up and cooked it this evening after ‘my nap’. A hot supper is just the ticket for a cold, rainy day. Donald thinks we may get close to freezing weather up here tonight. Donald went to the RV group evening meeting to go over the next day’s travel to Grande Cache, Alberta. That will be our last night in Alberta. The next day we travel to Dawson Creek, BC, the official start of the ALCAN Highway. The further north we go, the longer we have daylight. I am staying up much later than my usual 9:00 p.m. these days! Hehehehe! Oh, yes, out of 18 motorhomes, only about 5 of us are dog-free. All the rest of these folks have/are traveling with their dogs – big ones and small ones. One RV has two dogs!

Campground Columbia Icefield Centre (RV Parking Lot) This was dry camping on a sloping parking lot, and the cost was $10.80 Canadian. We were comfortable and able to test our equipment (batteries, propane appliances, etc.)

Driving Statistics

Beginning Mileage: 11,527.7
Beginning Time: 7:30 AM MDST
Ending Mileage: 11,615.7
Ending Time: 10:30 AM MDST
TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 88.0
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE: 2,136.2

A Travel Day Departing Lethbridge at 7:30 AM Saturday found us traveling through Fort McLeod, home of the founding of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, driving for Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre, a UNESCO world heritage site where Indians chased buffalo off a cliff, butchering them for food, clothing, etc. This site has reportedly been used for some 5,000 years. The center was very nice, and the exhibits were outstanding; we consider this a must see if in southern Alberta. We are still traveling in a group of 4 motorhomes, and this can sometimes prove cumbersome. It certainly tests one’s flexibility as different couples want to stop at different places. In this regard, the group stopped at an aviation museum, and we opted to wait in the motor home for the 2 hours, have lunch, and visit with another couple who chose to do the same. Traveling north, we drove through Calgary on perhaps its busiest weekend of the year; the Stampede had just begun! We purchased our first Canadian gasoline at Canmore for 99.9 cents/liter. It takes 3.78533 liters to equal a gallon.
Finally, Some Mountains We began to see the Canadian Rockies at Canmore, making the rest of the drive a very scenic one. When we finally arrived at Lake Louise Campground, we had to wait in line for about 45 minutes to be assigned a site, a reminder of our wait at the border. After dinner, we did a brief hike along the Bow River, with the snow-covered peaks of the mountains in the background. We’re not supposed to be out after dark because of the bears, so we headed in and called it a night.
Day 2 (Sunday) Day 2 in Lake Louise found us up early, hiking the Bow River Loop, a loop around the hard-sided vehicle campground and the electrified, fenced-in tent camp on the other side of the river. To our surprise, many wild flowers were in bloom, with Indian paintbrush everywhere. As we traveled the trail, we didn’t spot any fish in the Bow River.  Upon returning to the motorhome, we had a great breakfast of eggs, sausage, and English muffin—enough to get us through mid-afternoon.
We drove to Lake Louise for the mandatory photos; Lake Louise is one of the most photographed lakes in the world! Foreign tourists, i.e. non-Canadians and non-Americans, were everywhere, especially Asians. The poor economy apparently doesn’t extend to the Far East or Europe.  After fighting the crowd at Lake Louise, we drove to Moraine Lake, as pretty as Lake Louise, and hiked almost to its end. Again, there were lots of foreign tourists.

After a brief rest, we drove to Banff, one of Donald’s favorite places—just kidding; way too many people for him. He agreed to go to attempt to access the internet and read email, and found success at Starbucks, plus a good latte, while Kay had a quick coffee and left to shop for groceries. When we were here in 2000, there were several elk frequenting the golf course, but we were under the impression they had been removed. We did find two lying near one of the greens, and saw either a coyote or wolf in a clearing near the Bow River in Banff. On our return trip from Banff to Jasper, traffic in the opposite lane, southbound, was backed up for over 15 miles—Canadians returning to Calgary and other places after a long weekend. Thank goodness we were going in a different direction. Tomorrow, Monday, we head up the Icefields Parkway, one of the most scenic drives in the world.
Kay’s Take I forgot to mention that one of the couples in the trip is English and he is a ‘hoot’! He offered a suggestion for us while traveling, especially thru Alaska. He said ‘get you some boiled sweets to hand out to the flaggers or road crew workers as you pass thru—it makes their day and really cheers them up’. We all said, “What’s boiled sweets?” It’s hard candy, wrapped if possible. We went hiking several times the second day. We hiked a great trail that circled the river that ran thru our campground. We crossed the river two times on bridges and the walks in the woods were beautiful. Donald took pictures of many wildflowers. I did sing and whistle – didn’t want to scare any bears! We were on bear alert, I think the berries were coming in. We did drive to Lake Louise and hiked; then to Lake Moraine and hiked. We ran across another couple in our caravan on that hike. We went back to “Mellie” our RV and rested a bit. Then we drove the Bow River Valley Drive to Banff. Some of our group took the gondola to the top of the mountain and ate at the restaurant up there but we did not. We went to the Starbucks and hooked on to free wi-fi and enjoyed some lattes. Listen up, ladies! I was people watching thru the Starbucks window and a bald-headed, muscular, short guy walked by and our eyes locked for a moment. He kind of smirked and I realized that he was Bruce Willis and he thought I wasn’t going to recognize him. He was dressed very casually – faded t-shirt, sleeveless, and shorts. He looked older than he does in films and definitely shorter than I had imagined. But, I’m absolutely positive it was him and why not? Banff is a very popular spot to escape the heat of summer. Then I went to the local Safeway to get some basic supplies. Needless to say, in a resort town and in Canada, this was an unusual experience. The store was somewhat ‘gourmet and definitely organic’. I didn’t recognize many brands at all, especially in the canned goods. We drove thru the Banff golf course to see if any elk were there and we did see several. We came to this area on our honeymoon. At that time they had two herds of elk spread all over the courses and the golfers were having to ‘dodge’ the elk as they played and rode in their carts. We had read that they had relocated the elk herd but we wondered if some had returned. We also saw another animal that was either a wolf or a coyote. We have a picture of it as it was running off. It seemed too large to be a coyote, but its ears are pointed. I think it’s a wolf and Donald’s still deciding. In the visitors’ center was a large grizzly bear, mounted. The story behind it was very interesting. She was a mother bear with two cubs that raided a campsite and garbage bin at Lake Louise. They relocated her and the cubs to another park over 30 miles away. She and the cubs came back within 30 days and did it again. They relocated them again, this time to a park over 100 miles away. Within 3 months they were back. The mother was put down and the cubs were relocated to another province several hundred miles away and were also put on tracking bands. Unfortunately, the male cub has shown back up in the area and was raiding a garbage bin. He’s been relocated, but the officials aren’t hopeful. The female cub hasn’t been seen again. Early learned behavior is hard to break in bears and humans, I think. The Canadian park system is very strict on their campers keeping ‘bare’ campsites to keep bears out and away from humans. The entire country seems to be very eco-smart and eco-sensitive. I guess that is one benefit to a socialistic government.
Campground Lake Louise Campground (Trailer), Lake Louise, AB. This is a Parks Canada campground, electric only. Because of bears, it is limited to hard-sided RVs only. Tent campers have an area across the Bow River with an electric fence around it to keep the bears out.





Driving Statistics
Beginning Mileage: 11,256.0
Beginning Time: 7:15 AM MDST
Ending Mileage: 11,527.7
Ending Time: 1:30 PM MDST
TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 271.7
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE: 2,136.2

The First Beginning This marks the official beginning to the unofficial pre-rally trip to Dawson Creek, BC, where the caravan formally begins on July 8. Along with three other motor homes, we departed this Friday morning at 8:15 AM, perhaps being the first subgroup to depart. After a “top-off” fuel stop in Shelby, MT, where we purchased our last USA-priced gasoline for the next 20 days, we reached the US-Canada border at 10:46 AM, and waited in line about 50 minutes to cross. Two vehicles in our caravan were detained, one to go through immigration, and the other for a random search; otherwise, the crossing was about as smooth as could be expected. We anticipated all kinds of questions with respect to guns, beef, fresh fruits and vegetables, and pets and dog food, but all we got were questions regarding where we were from, how long were we going to be in Canada, did we have guns, and what was our license number. After all the big ‘hype’, we didn’t even have to show them our passports; amazing.
Another stop followed in Lethbridge, AB, for a visit to the tourist office, then to the campground, Bridgeview RV Park, and our parking site for the evening. The RV Park was crowded for the holiday weekend, and every site was occupied. Tired from 9 days of travel, we walked the grounds, took long afternoon naps, and met other caravan members at 7 PM to discuss tomorrow’s travel to Lake Louise in Banff National Park.

Kay’s Take BTW, we did see a motorhome from AR on our walk, and of course, I had to knock on their door to say ‘hello’. It was a very nice couple who used to call Cabot home. They were up here to go to the Calgary Stampede. Donald wants to do that some day.
Campground Bridgeview RV Park, Lethbridge, AB. Expensive, big, clean, but with pay showers and no internet, though wi-fi was advertised as being available; this park is part of a resort system.
Driving Statistics
Beginning Mileage: 11,068.9
Beginning Time: 7:15 AM MDST
Ending Mileage: 11,256.0
Ending Time: 1:30 PM MDST TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 187.1
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE: 1,864.5

The End and The Beginning This leg marked the end of our solo trip to join the caravan with us driving our last leg from Garryowen, MT, to Great Falls, MT, where we met up with all but one other RVs in our journey to Alaska. We departed Garryowen at 7:15 AM on a cool Wednesday morning, but we still dressed in shorts and T-shirts. A 25 mph northwest wind hit us head on most of the trip, bringing even cooler weather. We stopped about 2 hours southeast of Great Falls and switched to jeans and long sleeves, arriving in Great Falls about 1:30 PM. After checking in at the campground office, we set up and were immediately greeted by several caravan members who had already arrived. After introductions, large decals were applied to front and rear driver’s side of the motorhome and rear driver’s side of the Saturn. Our first caravan meeting was at 7 PM, and included basic information about the trip, and some do’s and don’ts based on lessons learned from past caravans. If you remember the old television show, Wagon Train, or have read or seen many historical accounts about wagon trains, this is a modern day equivalent. There are all kinds of folks from many different walks of life, and at various income levels. As of this writing, there doesn’t seem to be any bad “eggs”, though one couple was weeded out just before meeting in Great Falls.
Day 2  The falls from which the name “Great Falls” was derived have now been converted to hydroelectric facilities, and lack the visual appeal they must have had when first observed by Meriwether Lewis. On our way to Walmart for some last minute shopping in the US, we opted to tour the Charles M. Russell Art Museum, Studio, and House. It was awesome, with many of his great paintings and sculptures, and lots of artifacts he acquired through gift or purchase dating in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This is a must see if you’re in the Great Falls area. We completed last minute shopping, ate some pre-contraband soup (we’re not sure if we can take it into Canada), and hooked-up the Saturn, ready to depart tomorrow. We had a “stand-up” meeting again tonight to briefly discuss our travel plans from Great Falls to Lethbridge, AB, Canada. We will be traveling in a group with Ron and Hazel, Don and Joyce, and Charles and Julie. Within the caravan, for the remainder of the trip, our motorhome and/or car will be known as Alaska 7.
Kay’s Take We are very pleased with the warm reception we have received from the other RVers in our caravan. The wagon master has done an incredible job of organizing for this trip and planning every leg of our journey. We were invited to travel with 3 other couples and they all seem as excited as we are about this journey. We will be able to communicate with each other via CB radios also as we travel.
SADLY as we were not able to add Canada to our North American Freedom Plan (Alltel and Verizon haven’t ‘officially merged’ many areas), we will be turning our phones off tomorrow before we cross the border and leaving them off for 20 days as we travel thru Canada to the Border of Alaska. We will have wi-fi at several of our campgrounds as we travel and hope to check our e-mail every 2-3 days. If you need to communicate with us, send us an e-mail to our normal e-addresses and we’ll reply as soon as we get service.
I want to add to our earlier write-up — in addition to the Charles M. Russell Art Musem — the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center here in Great Falls is a Do Not Miss activity.
The highs have been in the 80’s but dry and the lows in the 40s & 50s. There was a beautiful sunset tonight – pink and purple and the aspen tree next to our RV is ‘quaking’. God is good.
Campground Dick’s RV Park, Great Falls, MT. Not exceptional, but more than adequate and probably the best in the area.
Driving Statistics
Beginning Mileage: 10,781.7
Beginning Time: 7:15 AM MDST
Ending Mileage: 11,068.9
Ending Time: 1:30 PM MDST
TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 287.2
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE: 1677.4

On the Road Again We were up and away by 7 AM, heading northwest to 7^th Ranch RV Camp on the Crow Indian Reservation at Garryowen, MT—near the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. We stayed here two years ago on our return from Glacier National Park. It remains one of the cleanest RV parks in which we’ve stayed. Our original plans had us taking US Hwy 212 out of Belle Fourche, SD, through the northeast corner of Wyoming into southeastern Montana, but road construction on this route was reported to be causing substantial delays. We opted for I-90 west where Kay took her turn driving the motorhome for the first time. She did great; actually better than me. We traveled through Buffalo, then Sheridan, Wyoming, very near where our friends, Dick and Carolyn Todd were spending the summer. We phoned and arranged lunch together in Sheridan. It was great seeing them.
We arrived at our evening stopover at 3:30 PM MDST, to a very hot afternoon—high 90s. This was our first laundry day; the machines were small, and it cost $2 per load to wash, and $2 per load to dry. A summer storm brought cooler temperatures, a beautiful broad rainbow, and gorgeous skies. Tomorrow, we meet up with the caravan.
Kay’s Take We did have another ‘glitch’ this time with the brake alert system between the car and the motorhome. We called “Brake Buddy” and after trying a different kind of test, it still wasn’t working. I sent the ‘alert’ system into the company via UPS on Wednesday. Our brakes on both the RV and the toad (tow car) work fine, but there is a receiver and a transmitter that are supposed to communicate with each other – the transmitter in the car and the receiver in the RV that light up and let the driver know every time the toad brakes come on. It’s just a secondary precaution. We hope to have them ‘fixed’ and mailed to us in Fairbanks near the end of July.
Campground 7^TH Ranch RV Camp, Garryowen, MT This campground rates among our top 5 RV parks with immaculate restrooms, fairly level sites, and necessary amenities.
Driving Statistics
Beginning Mileage: 10,434.6
Beginning Time: 7:00 am
Ending Mileage: 10,781.7
Ending Time: 2:30 PM (Mountain Daylight Savings Time)
TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 347.1
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE: 1390.2

Lots of Wildlife After last night’s storm, temps cooled considerably, and provided a 15 to 30 mph northwest wind. The storm did no damage to either the motorhome or car, though the car did get a fairly good, and much needed, washing. Kay worked on “Kay’s Take” for the journal, and when finished, walked around the campground visiting with “neighbors”; I formatted the journal for mytripjournal.com, added pictures, and sent it out.

We departed Saturday morning, and opted to travel north, hit I-90, stop at Cabela’s in Rapid City, and head south to the campground. We were buffeted by wind the entire drive, with a substantial decrease in gas mileage (from our 9+ mpg to 8+ mpg). Our first “new” animal sighting was about 10 miles south of Murdo, SD, where I spotted a lone pronghorn. Traveling north and west, we saw several more, then saw a white-tailed doe and her newborn fawn, the first of several we saw during the day. In fact, another doe ran out in front of us, leaving her fawn behind, and I had to almost stop to avoid hitting her.
Arriving at Grace Coolidge campground in Custer State Park, we set up, had lunch, and drove the Game Loop Road, one of the most awesome drives ever, for wildlife watching—almost comparable to Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park. Topography varies from forested valleys to high plains to rocky crags. We saw many pronghorns, prairie dogs, white-tailed deer, bison, elk, burros, and big horn sheep.

We attended the 9 PM interpretive program at an adjacent campground, and it included an overview of the park; it was good, but not the same standard as one sees in national parks.

Day 2, Custer State Park, Wind Cave National Park, and Fly Fishing (Sunday) We opted to eat breakfast at the Game Lodge restaurant, known for good food, and especially for wild game entrees at the evening meal. We were really disappointed with their breakfast buffet.

We drove the Game Loop road again, heading south, and saw bison, pronghorn, and burros.As we approached the south exit towards Wind Cave National Park, we saw our largest herd of bison. We did a 1+ hour tour in Wind Cave, and though it is unique, neither of us found it to be comparable to Blanchard Springs Caverns, despite it being the 7th oldest national park! After the tour, we drove through Custer, SD, then the Needles highway to our site. The Needles highway was pretty awesome, with several tunnels just wide enough and tall enough for a normal size automobile.

Upon return to camp, I strung the 6 weight fly rod at Kay’s urging, and we headed up the Grace Coolidge Walk-In Fishing Area. Grace Coolidge Creek is only about 3 or 4 feet wide and maybe a foot or so deep, with lots of small riffles and pools. However, there are several weirs across the stream, forming lakes about ¼ acre in size. I chose the third one up, and blind cast a #20 Kay’s Grey. On the third cast, a small rainbow struck the dry fly. Seeing a caddis hatch, a #18 caddis was tied on the tippet, and another fish struck. I missed a couple of fish, and had several refusals. Switching to a Dunn’s Dun, another 3 fish were caught rising to the artificial insect. The Dunn’s Dun has worked everywhere it’s been tried!

We made a great skillet dinner with cabbage, bacon, brats, onions, and jalapenos, adding frozen peas and carrots at the end since we were hungry for veggies. Very Tasty! The rest of the day was spent downloading and cataloguing photos and videos.

Day 3, Custer State Park (Monday) Our first priority today was cleaning up the batteries and battery compartment in the coach from the debacle on the first day of the trip. Surprisingly, the baking soda did a great job of neutralizing the battery acid. The batteries checked out at 13.7 volts, so no harm. When reinstalling one of the batteries, I accidentally touched the negative ground to the positive terminal and got quite a spark! We checked all the electrical appliances and the batteries themselves, and did not observe any damage. It’s time to take a rest and get our heads clear, too many mistakes.

After this maintenance work, we drove to Center Lake and hiked about 2 miles of the Grace Coolidge Walk-In Fishing Area, for a total of 4 miles roundtrip, crossing Grace Coolidge Creek 8 times. Though temps were in the low 80s, we had a great time hiking.

We drove by Mount Rushmore, through Keystone, SD, to Sylvan Lake, and back the Needles Highway, arriving at our site late afternoon.

A late lunch of homemade soup and sandwiches was followed by a nap, and a quiet evening. We depart tomorrow AM, Tuesday, for Garryowen, MT, near the site of the battle of Little Big Horn. Our next stop after that will be to meet up with the other caravan members at Great Falls, MT.

Kay’s Take Burros in this park used to be used to transport guests and supplies over a 100 yrs. ago. When they stopped using them, the concessionaire left the burros in the park to ‘run wild’. They are nuisances and beggars – hehehehe! They hang out by the road, often near naturalist programs that are regularly scheduled each week – who said these creatures were stupid. They walk directly up to your car, stick their heads in the windows, etc. I stepped out to film a strangely cute burro baby who was a mottled white and brown color, and the next thing I know I AM being ‘herded’ by two adult burros looking for a handout. It was quite disconcerting. I jumped into the car at my earliest opportunity. Donald, of course, was snickering in the car, watching the whole charade.

The weather here has been warmer than we would have liked. During the day it has warmed up to the 80’s but has cooled down enough at night that we would have the windows open or the vent fans (kind of like an attic fan) in use at night. We can tell more and more people are in the park because this is 4th of July week, and so it’s a good time to be heading out – too many folks. One downside has been no cellular service or internet service. We’ve actually been forced to read and listen to music! No television reception either. It’s been quite nice and relaxing, especially in the evenings.

Campground Grace Coolidge Campground, Custer State Park, SD This is pretty much a typical state park campground, with electric sites only. It is small, with only 27 sites; our site does not have shade. It is across the highway from a walk-in fishing area.

Other Information Game Loop Road and Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park, SD; Wind Cave National Park; and Needles Highway are must sees in the Rapid City area. We had already been to Mount Rushmore, but every American should see it!

Driving Statistics
Beginning Mileage: 10,197.4
Beginning Time: 10:00 am
Ending Mileage: 10,434.6
Ending Time: 2:30 PM (Mountain Daylight Savings Time)
TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 237.2

CUMULATIVE MILEAGE: 1043.1

More Problems, A Raging Storm, and Cool Weather We were up at daybreak, and neither of us slept well. As it became daylight, I crawled under the motorhome to inspect the freshwater tank and wiring to see if either was causing the pump to run without producing water. The wiring for the freshwater tank was loose, again, and I repaired it, and also noticed the tank was below the “1/3” level. We filled the tank to about one half its capacity, thinking it would resolve the pump problem. No such luck. It seems to be getting worse, and we need it fixed before Saturday when we camp at Custer State Park, (without water), having to use the freshwater tank for our needs. We departed shortly after 7 am, and Kay hurriedly made several calls to our emergency road service, our dealer, the motorhome manufacturer, and an RV dealership in Grand Island. We were able to get an impromptu appointment at the dealership to check out the water pump as it is still under warranty. The technician discovered the screen on one of the faucets had become stopped up with a calcium deposit after checking the pump and connections. Seems like all new motor homes come with “water saver” screens which are really a plastic washer with about a 1/8 inch hole to allow water to come out. Can you believe it? He removed these, and we gladly paid for the ½ hour of labor, and continued on our way. Shortly out of Grand Island, we were detoured onto a farm road around an entire section of land so the main highway (Husker Highway) could be repaved. We made it despite our length, mud, and tight turns. Alaska roads may not have anything on this road.
We drove the remainder of the way to Valentine, with cloudy skies and lower temperatures most of the way, arriving at Fishberry RV Park just north of Valentine, Nebraska, at 4:30 PM. After setting up, we showered, ate a salad, and headed to Rosebud Casino where Kay won a few dollars; the casino was really smoky so I opted to stay in the car.
On the way, we saw a group of storm chasers, awaiting a possible tornado.

Kay was at the casino only a few minutes, and we returned to the campground to find darkening skies. We watched the storm build and got hit with the brunt of it on the passenger side. With winds estimated at 70 miles per hour, we put the slides in to keep the awnings from tearing away, said prayers, and watched as the storm battered us for about 30 minutes. This was the most fearsome storm in which either of us has ever been. After the storm passed, sun broke through the clouds, and we went to bed with it still being daylight.
Kay’s Take Friday morning I woke up almost before the crack of dawn, made the cappuccino and coffee and went out to check out the world. There was an amazing, incredible sunrise – salmon colored sky, streaks of pink, purple, blue, and salmon. It was still pretty muggy, not having cooled down much over night, but the birds in the resort were cavorting like crazy – a dance for the dawn perhaps. We both kept noticing that the water pump came on before we ever turned on the water and it ran way too long after we turned any water off. This was not normal and as we traveled we discussed what to do. We didn’t want our water pump to ‘die’ but it was definitely stressing about something. Donald said it was maintaining pressure in the lines. We decided to call the mechanical concierge with Family Motorcoach Assoc. He couldn’t figure it out either, but recommended some RV centers in Grand Island, Neb. or in Rapid City, Neb. Since it was the weekend before July 4th doings, we decided to stop in Grand Island at Rich’s RV Center. It was a huge RV place right off of Hwy. 281, where we were turning to go to Valentine, Neb. They were super nice and got us in right away. Calcium build up in the screens behind the faucet heads. Donald had just decided to start using a water filter from the outside faucets into the RV.
Well, we were back and running heading west and north. We did have an intimate encounter with a corn field on a muddy dirt farm road due to a construction ‘detour’ on a county road. Garmina (our GPS system) sometimes takes us on some back roads in a mission to find the straightest, shortest route from point A to point B. Hehehehe! We drove a scenic road Hwy. 2 that is called the ‘Sandhills Scenic Route’. It was beautiful and there were quaint little towns and farms along it. We turned north and finally drove into those sandhills and I thought that was even more scenic. We climbed about 1500 ft. in elevation and the wind picked up too. We were both getting tired and were glad when we pulled in at Fishberry Campground in Valentine, Neb. We had discussed early about going into town and eating but we were too tired. I made a salad and we had chicken salad in the refrigerator. So we ate those. The veggies were just what we needed. We both showered and cleaned up. Donald drove the 5 miles north just across the border into S. Dakota to the Rosebud Casino. Unfortunately, it was all ‘smoking’. He stayed outside because he is so allergic to smoke while I gambled. Forgive me Lord! I was thru after 30 min. – I played with $25 and came out of there with $37.25. Donald in the meantime drove back to the RV to get his camera because we had seen a line of storm chasers on a dirt road as we were going to the casino. He got a picture of them. Yes, bad weather was brewing, and it began raining as we came back to Mellie (our RV). Yes, I have has pet names for many things! Enough said! Well, the wind picked up, the rain came down hard, and we sat in our motorhome as darkness from the storms increased. Here we were on a Nebraska plain with about 10 other RV travelers exposed to whatever elements mother nature could muster. Let me tell you, it was the worst storm either of us has sat out. I bet the winds were more than 70 miles per hour; we had hail, hard rain, and wall clouds all around us, plus lightening. We pulled in two of our slideouts to be more heavy and compact as we were rocking pretty good in the midst of the worst of the storm. Every one survived, don’t know if any tornadoes touched down near us, but we saw the radar after the storm went by and it was red and ugly! Unbelievably, as soon as the storm moved on, the sun came shining thru (it was 8:45) and there was a beautiful sunset.
I crawled into bed and passed out. Enough excitement! Boredom is underrated!
One plus Saturday morning is that the temperatures are in the low 70’s – Praise the Lord! We’re kinda being slugs this morning – well, at least I AM – and taking our time before we head out to Custer State Park just south of Rapid City, S. Dakota. We’ll be staying there 3 nights before we head into Montana. Lots of animals and hopefully some fishing. Cool weather to boot! Yahoo!
Campground Fishberry RV Park in Valentine, NE. We stayed here in 2007, and it’s still just as nice. It sits in the middle of a working ranch. The pull-thru sites are gravel, and above average, and restrooms and showers are very clean. We’d definitely stay here again.

Other Information Rosebud Casino, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, SD, is a short drive north from Fishberry RV Park.
This day was not without problems, either. The water pump was not working properly; we stopped at Rich’s RV Sales & Service, Grand Island, NE, for a quick fix. Seems the screen on one of the faucets had become stopped up with a calcium deposit, and removing the screen solved the problem.
Driving Statistics
Beginning Mileage: 9,834.5
Beginning Time: 7:15 am
Ending Mileage: 10,197.4
Ending Time: 4:30 PM
TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 362.9
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE: 805.9