Please do not copy or distribute any part of this book.
Thank you
Annie
What a Ride!
By Annie and Frank
2003
With special and deep thanks to Frank for the most amazing adventure.
We dreamed and now………………………
Here we go . . .North to Alaska!
9th June 2003
We left Chattanooga, Tennessee at 4.30pm for the trip we had dreamed of for a long time. We had originally planned to leave tomorrow, but saw no reason to hang around. Steven, Joleen, Lisa (the U3’s), Kate and Mom all the kids came to say goodbye. I needed to leave – wanted to go. I was getting way too emotional. So we hugged them, kissed them and shooed them off. We did the final checking and packing, trying desperately to think if we had enough or too much of everything. Finally we pulled out with Steven driving behind us for the first mile or so with me waving and taking photos of him following. What a feeling – totally mixed emotions. It was madly exciting to be going on a trip like this and yet it was a scary thought – being away for over two months and traveling so many miles.
I had spent the previous months tying up all our loose ends, wills, photos, important papers, kid’s papers etc. Some out of pure necessity – others out of concern if we did not make it back, trying to cover all potential scenarios. Now it was all done and we were on our way. Unbelievably wonderful!
The first miles up to the I40 were kind of a blur, neither of us quite believing that this was actually happening. I was trying to believe that the motor home would actually get us where we wanted to go, and that we could do this. Frank and I had not been together too long at this stage – about a year and had only been married for a few months. We were still ‘learning each other’, as they say, so this was going to be an all round experience for us both. A totally amazing feeling.
We drove the first miles not talking much, just savoring the feeling and idea of heading North, and with me still trying to get used to the idea of being away from by children for this length of time. I don’t think they had a problem with it – it was me that was having the difficult time with the idea – they seemed quite at ease with it. I was getting used to the feel and movement of the motor home and all its various sounds. The seatbelt almost got worn out with me putting it on and taking it off each time I got up to check yet another noise in the back of the motor home/house or to put yet another pot, pan or can of food in a more secure place.
We live full time in the motor home and call it ‘the house’ or Skilpad. We are pulling a little red truck behind us and this is also known as the “bakkie” or little Skilpad. She towed beautifully and gave this rig a total length of just over 50 feet. It took me, as the passenger, a while to get used to this length of vehicle. I was very glad to see that Frank handles it all with no problem. I never have been a good passenger, always looking for the break pedal on my side, holding my breath till I almost turn blue and at times letting out squeaks that really don’t help the driver at all!
When we stopped for the night, we noticed that the big computer had crashed for some reason and at 12.50 in the middle of the night, Frank was formatting it while I was sending my first email from the laptop. We snacked on hot poppers – these are chili peppers filled with melted cheese. Neither of us felt like ‘proper food’ and we were both still quite hyped from the first days run.
We are in Peducha Kentucky at KOA camp right in front of a dam with gently floating geese all around. It was wonderful to be out on the road today even though the sun was in our eyes most of the time. It was a lovely ride and after a few hours I forgot to worry about anything and just enjoyed it all the way!
Thinking of you all and having a ball . . . .
Lotsalove
U3, please stay safe
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Into Illinois
10th June 2003
We drove up through Illinois - straight up the 57, planning to West to go across to Yellowstone National Park on Interstate 90. Driving through a place called Matoon, we saw oil wells pumping like huge remote controlled lungs, and farmlands all over the place - I am truly blessed to be able to type and look elsewhere at the same time. Typing on this small keyboard is not the easiest thing to do, and then add the movement of the motor home and you will get emails that you have to decipher at times.
Cruising down the interstate at about 55 miles per hour, Frank spotted a cell phone along the side of the road. He brought the house to a screeching halt and I ran back to pick it up. Why? I have no idea, and can only assume that we did because we could. I looked up some numbers in the phone and tried calling the owner or someone who would know how to get in touch with them. Some very surprised people at the other end of the line! It’s was funny when someone called and they were all surprised when I answer the phone and not someone they expect – can’t say I blame them. We had got hold of the daughter of the owner and she said that her mother had left it on top of her car and driven off, losing the phone. We were going to send it back to them as soon as we could get to a post office or campground.
Frank and I have sore throats – Frank’s voice is all hoarse and sexy, I just have swollen glands - but that too will pass. Wendy your/our compass is firmly stuck to the navigator’s side of the windshield, and is working great. The little bakkie is still bouncing along behind, covered in road dirt and spray, but still there. Franks driving is great - even through thunderstorms and madly blowing wind. My stomach muscles are firmly clenched – I am not fond of driving in the rain at all.
We left the disks for the big main computer at the shop, so we now have only this laptop for emails and processing photos and such stuff - send “computer prayers" for it, please. We will have to find a computer place soon to try and get parts or software for it. We do have the cell phones for contact, but I think we would both go a tad dilly with no computers at all.
We took our watches off yesterday already – we will go by the sun and our gut - we want to get up early and be on the road fairly early, which will get us to camp sites and bike riding place still in daylight. Going West means that we are changing time zones, and by the time we are in Alaska there will be a four hour time difference between the kids in Chattanooga and us. It is absolutely amazing to think that we are actually on the way to Alaska.
Steven, did I leave my camera on one of the desks in the front office? Can’t find it anywhere here, I would like to know if I must stop pulling stuff out from under the bed and from in the cupboards like a mad rodent. Steven, Lisa, Joleen - Your lovely photos all up on my board, and I see you every day. Thanks so much, especially for the ones of you all three together.
We had a front tire go pop on the motor home – we put on the new tire or "tahres" as Frank says, along side the Interstate. It was not comfortable standing out there on the side of the interstate, waving the trucks and other traffic over and out of the way. It is amazing how small one feels and how fast those enormous trucks go. Let alone the cars. All is well now and we are in a place just north of Peoria Illinois. There is a squeaking and scratching noise coming from the front wheel, not sure whether it is the brakes or something to do with that tire we changed. It is very irritating, but everything else seems to be working well . . .
Frank has now lost his voice almost totally - so all is very peaceful and quiet - until he sees what I have written!
We are looking forward to getting out a tad more West, we both feel that we are too close to Chicago right now and the idea of all that traffic does neither of us any good. Only problem going directly west is that the sun is straight in our eyes from about 4pm onwards. Moral of this story? Stop driving before 4pm! No problem at all.
Love to all
Especially U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Cedar Rapids
11 June 2003
I wrote a nice long email just now while driving through Cedar Rapids and the computer went into standby and lost my email - ah well. Here goes again. We are heading up towards Waterloo, Iowa right now – and the sun is coming out, Frank is feeling much better, my foot doing better too (I twisted it yesterday). The motor home doing great and this is really still happening!
We started out fairly early this morning. The wheel on the motor home is still squeaking quite a bit, which is amazingly irritating. So we blasted it with WD40 but it insists on getting our attention all the time. There are lovely red barns on the horizon, saw stacks of "Steven cars" – 1960 specials - going to a show or something.
It seems that the whole of Illinois and Iowa is farming and more farming, this part of it anyway. We are going across west later today on the I90 – will pick that road up in Minnesota in a few hours from now.
We had bad, bumpy, noisy roads all day long – otherwise a good, nice and easy day. We stopped at a rest stop along the way to re-wire the connection to the motor home – there were black, heavy, sticky flies everywhere! The ones that hit us while we were driving smeared the front of the motor home in a sticky mess and now plenty of them buzzed slowly but insistently around our heads. Feels yucky.
At about 5pm we stopped for the day in a park in Minnesota. The electric plug to the bakkie from the motor home still keeps pulling out disconnecting the break lights on the back of the bakkie, and the tire of motor home still squeaking. Frank went to find parts and I am cooking, or rather, heating canned stuff. And making coffee. It’s a lovely place about 15 miles past “Blue Earth” on the I90 in Minnesota. We handed over the cell phone we picked up to the folks here – they said they would send it to the owners who we had traced down through the numerous incoming calls.
Love to you all
And to U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Big Sky – South Dakota
12th June 2003
We are driving through South Dakota now on our way to Rapid City and going to see Mount Rushmore - probably tomorrow though. I have heard that it is awesome and can’t wait to see it firsthand. The countryside is lovely - farm lands all over, but nice, rolling hills and the road not too busy at all. This is really good!
Now we are in South Dakota and have a beautiful wide open skyline given to us. I drove today but only for about 2 hours – was nice to be behind the wheel again. Frank cannot sit still while I am driving so it appears as if he will be doing most of the driving. I see all the things one could photograph and he sits trying to find something to do. Ah well. I had nice phone call with Joleen today and spoke to Wendy too. Now we are at Rapid City, South Dakota - about 15 minutes away from Mount Rushmore. It’s a nice, clean camp and Frank is cooking supper. There is now 2 hours time difference from Chattanooga. This campground is right in the Black Hills of the Rocky Mountains and has a lovely cool breeze and gentle blue sky all around. Really relaxing and the food smells good too!
We drove up to Mt Rushmore, and around some lovely little winding roads, through tunnels and up and down steep hills – so beautiful. This is a little tourist town – all pretty and sparkly in the rain with all its lights on. But it was way too misty and rainy to see the Faces on the mountain properly and blooming cold too. So we headed back home. The folks up at the entrance gate were also concerned about the weather – the sky seemed terribly ominous. Frank went off to sleep while I wrote emails. His voice is still rough and sexy, although it is bugging him now. It rained all night but it was beautiful. The sunlight through the drops of rain on the motor home windows made for some interesting photos – especially with the Black Hills in the background.
There was pouring rain, thunderstorm, lightening, rainbows and sunshine all in one sky. The countryside is so beautiful – rolling green hills, so lush and lovely. Mt Rushmore is phenomenal and we are both looking forward to seeing it tomorrow without the rain tomorrow.
Again, Love to all
And U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Mt Rushmore!
13th June 2003
WOW! What a day. We went to see Mt Rushmore last night - wanted to see the lighting ceremony, but the storm was too bad and we were not dressed for the cold up there either. Howling winds and driving rain. This morning we arrived there early - it is absolutely amazing! I got some good close ups and normal pictures - just lots of them - will try to get online to post some photos today and will send you the link. I picked up some nice shiny stones from the base of the Faces for you, Kieran, and some for you too mom.
The size of those carvings are just stunning. You stand at the base of these looming faces with your head all the way back on your neck and peer right up the nostrils of the ex presidents! It almost looked as if they knew that I was laughing, as their eyes are so realistic and seem to be peering down at one. Weird. There are paths all around the base of the carvings through the trees and one can even take a helicopter ride. We chose to stay on the ground.
In the visitor’s office, there is the original ‘mock-up’ of the carving. The office is a lovely wooden building with all the history of the carving of this mountain and the folks that worked so hard to get it to look the way it does now. Just inches to the left of those originals, we could see the mountain in all its glory through an enormous window. It was totally amazing. It was almost like seeing the mountain in stereo.
It was terribly hot there so we bought a chocolate ice cream each. They were so big that Frank cut half of each one off with his penknife. We still could not finish them, but the ice cream was so good and we tried so hard! Sadly we ended up throwing much of them away. I only picked up a few stones around there – obviously many folks do, as there were not many lying around at all. The trails around are easy to walk and there is plenty of shade. It’s a gentle, amazing and awesome place.
We drove around the mountains and the parks here for hours on tiny, winding little roads - bison and buck all over, really lovely. You can see the faces on the mountain through all the tunnels on this tiny little road. Apparently this was taken into consideration when building the road – and at one can see that the trees have to be trimmed in places to keep the view open. The mountains are beautiful, and there are so many little valleys and just plain lovely places. It looks like the pine beetle has wreaked havoc around here as so many of the pine trees are dead.
Then it started to rain again and Franks cough picked up, so we headed back home. He is now tucked into bed, vicks vapor rub rubbed thoroughly into his chest and he downed a dose of cough medicine. Hopefully he will get better soon - the coughing is driving him nuts and we are hoping it gets better before having to go to a doctor somewhere.
The motor home is parked up on a hill where we have a clear view of the Black Hills of the Rockies, and right now another storm is coming in. The big computer still out of business, but the laptop is coping quite well so far.
Ok – I am going to try to send this in a little while.
Lotsalove to you all
and an extra touch for U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Into Yellowstone National Park
14th June 2003
We are now tootling along just inside Montana, after coming through a bit of Wyoming this morning already. We are on the way to Yellowstone National Park - wanting to go in the North or East entrance. The countryside is so beautiful around here, and seems to change from state to state. It is green and lush, yet there are also places that look like another planet in its barrenness. In the distance are the Rocky Mountains, capped with ice, looking absolutely stunning. There are many buck along the road, fortunately they are staying off the roads right now, although there are the unfortunate ones dead alongside the highway.
Wyoming is totally full of lovely scenery. It’s a really beautiful state, what we saw of it anyway. At midday we were near Buffalo, looking at the Rocky Mountains which were capped with snow and brightly reflecting the sunlight – so lovely. I took photos of the mountains and of a buck up on the hill next to where we parked. We had stopped for a ‘bathroom break’ alongside the freeway, and to heat coffee and also to let Frank drive for a while again. We are looking at ice on the mountain and putting on shorts – it seems crazy. I am itching to phone all you folks and share – but must reserve cell phone time for getting online and loading pictures.
Lisa’s balloon (my Happy Birthday balloon) flew out of the window just about 40 miles ago – into the big Montana sky. Wonder how many folks will think it is a UFO? We stopped for taco salad which was great. There seem to be many Mexicans business and people up here. We watched a military convoy going through town and then Lisa called and we had a nice chat. I drove through Billings Montana – the long way to Yellowstone – but I guess that would be part of the whole experience, or something. It says nothing (or maybe a whole lot) about my navigation skills!
Mt Rushmore was amazing yesterday, and Custer State Park beautiful. The sunsets in South Dakota are stunning. Yesterday, all at the same time there was thunder and lightening, a double rainbow, sunshine, hail and deep purple clouds! Somehow the sky here seems big enough to hold it all and not seem crowded.
We are climbing up through the Rocky Mountains right now while I am typing this - the views are amazing, stunning, and just beautiful!
Frank is much better today and full of jokes again, so he is headed in the right direction. The motor home is doing really great too, but both the house and the bakkie desperately need a wash - Minnesota muck is still stuck to them both.
The road into Yellowstone National Park is amazingly beautiful. I took so many photos that I am sure the camera got hot. No words can describe it at all. The sun was setting as we came in and the road was narrow with snow and ice all over the place. It’s like a fairyland. The folks at the entrance said there was place in one of the campgrounds inside the park, so in we went. What an amazing place.
We finally got to the campground, but were told that it was full and that there was no place for us to stay, unless we drove another 50 miles to the opposite end of the park and stayed there. The short part of this story is that we left there in a bit of a huff (we were told at the gate that there was place for us, and it had been a 49 mile drive to get there!). We started up the motor home to leave, and discovered that we had no brakes. After madly pumping the brake pedal, Frank managed to get a little pressure, so before it went away we coasted down the road for about a mile into a pullover place. We were warned that the rangers would chase us off but we were not concerned about this (I had my piece of paper ready for him to sign that he had chased us off with no brakes). So we made a pot of coffee ate something inane and lay our weary heads down for the night enjoying the quiet outside.
We were not visited by any wild animals or game rangers - maybe they got the word that I don’t do mornings. I woke up at 6am this morning to Frank warming the motor home up - the brakes working (caliper unfroze), the coffee perking, and a beautiful sunrise in middle of Yellowstone National Park. What a start to yet another wonderful day. The field right outside our window was filled with an array of gently grazing beasts all puffing white clouds of mist with the sun rising over the trees – an unforgettable view.
That’s it for right now.
Love to all
Especially U3. (Steven, Lisa, Joleen)
Anne and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Old Faithful at Old Faithful
15th June 2003
What a few days this has been. Last when I wrote, we were heading towards Billings, Montana. We then went south and went into Yellowstone on the East Entrance. I have never seen such amazing beauty before, it just went on and on and one did not know which way to turn our heads. Frank had strict instructions to watch the road, as it was a very narrow, very steep, very winding, very icy, very high road! 8334 feet above sea level. He did a star job, even with me making those muffled little squeaking noises every now and again and frantically hunting my brake pedal.
We came through mountains that just seemed to go on forever - up and around, they were packed with ice that was slowly melting sending little pure white streams racing down the mountain sides and all over the road as well. Lake Yellowstone is "God it is beautiful!" (Franks words) - miles long, just like an ocean. I took some lovely sunset photos through the trees. Because of the different mountain ranges and heights, we were able to see at least 5 full sunsets - each over a different area of Yellowstone Park. I was very grateful for the extra camera battery.
The Bison were all over the place in the most amazing green valleys. Little rivers ran winding their way next to the roads almost everywhere we went. There were bison, moose, buck and birds all over the place. Frank saw a big bear shortly after coming into Yellowstone, but my head was swinging in the opposite direction at that point and I missed it. Yellowstone National Park is the most beautiful place I have seen yet.
We went to Old Faithful, the geyser, and yes – I got my photo of my "Old Faithful" in front of Old Faithful – Frank in front of the geyser. That geyser is amazing . We were walking around it on the walkway when it started spewing its steam with a loud ‘woosh’. There were numerous interesting and beautiful little crystal clear, blue pools of water with bones in them dotted along the walkway around Old Faithful. They all have steam steadily rising from them and we were not too keen to get really close – those bones in there mean something! It’s quite a different sort of place all in all. We took many, many photos of everything around there. It was cold and raining while Old Faithful blew which ensured that I did not get the well contrasted photos I would have liked, but we did get some good ones. I have the details on how high and how much water it spews out, but not at my fingertips right now, so will leave it for you all to look up. It’s truly amazing!
We saw geysers all over the place throughout Yellowstone. We also went to The Mammoth Hot Springs area. The geysers created acres and acres of sulfur ground that stinks really badly like rotten eggs. There are many walking paths between them and Frank was walking on one when it let off its steam and stink - he moved really fast to get out of there! I think it cured his cold though. It would be lovely to be able to stay here for a few days and hike around all the paths and places, but right now we both want to head up to Alaska.
We saw the falls at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, the plains, the mountains, the valleys, the roads – it’s all just too beautiful to describe. I wish I could send you all photos to see.
It was a totally awesome experience - totally amazing. Maybe one day we will go back there and spend some time, when it is not raining, quietly fish and just generally take in the peace and awesome-ness of this place.
We left Yellowstone via the North entrance and are heading up to Missoula, Montana. We may go through Glacier Park but are still deciding and plan on resting up here for a few days for starters. Then we want to head up to British Columbia and onto Dawson Creek and then into Alaska - but that is another day.
Frank is much better now - maybe the stinky geyser did him some good – sadly his sexy voice is fast disappearing. Driving the motor home is so comfy, although I still don’t like driving it through heavy traffic at all. We washed little Skilpad - she really got dirty and grubby! I still have a million photos to sort out, but I can guarantee that that will not happen in the next day or two. To make sure that I don’t accidentally lose any photos, I burn them to disc every day - I could not bear to lose any of them.
That’s all for tonight - going to get some rest. Thanks for all your emails - we love checking them. Thanks for yours too Lisa, I got it. And yours too Joleen - Steven, thanks for getting offline so I could get on!
Love to all
And love U3 lotsa!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Missoula Montana – Just hanging out
16th June 2003
We are still in Missoula Montana – had lovely pancake breakfast at the office – going to piddle around today – do washing, a trip to Wally world and Radio Shack. We need a new point and click camera. The other camera died taking with it some film and photos. Thankfully we did not totally rely on it at all. The weather was fantastic today – shorts and t-shirts worn by us both. Big blue sky.
We did all of the above and bought an adapter for the laptop so that we can play music all the time without the batteries dying – also bought new point and click camera.. Now we are all set for next step. I miss the kids today – lots. We bought new TV card for the big computer today too – we like to keep in touch with latest news along the way. Many campers are using Wal-Mart parking lots to stay overnight – now we know we can do that too with all the power adapters and chargers we have.
I sorted through some photos and tried to upload some of them with no luck at all. The cell phone signal is just not strong enough to handle the photographs. A big bonus: I found Lisa online and chatted for a while . Now we are sitting quietly watching TV for a change. Frank had to format big computer and reload everything, but he got it right – yet again.
There were a few squirrels that were hanging around the house wanting to be fed, so we put nuts down inside on the floor and they came right on in, grabbed the nuts and ran out to store or eat them. They kept coming so eventually we moved outside and sat on the picnic table feeding them from there. They were literally eating out of our hands by this time. Eventually Frank decides that enough is enough and puts out an empty hand to show ‘squiggle’ that there is no more. I guess the squirrel did not like that idea, because it grabbed Frank’s finger and hung on for the ensuing flying lesson as Frank frantically tried to get it off his finger. Oh heck, where is the camera when I really need it? No blood was drawn, and squiggles went off to try somewhere else, as did Frank.
And now Frank sits inside glaring at the squirrel sitting outside and the squirrel sits in its tree trying to outstare Frank. What a day!
Love to all
Especially U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Glacier Park – Montana
17th June 2003
We took a couple of day’s break in Missoula. We rested so well that did not even get the washing done. And then we went up towards Glacier Park. What a place!
This morning we drove up the 93N past Flathead Lake – it is incredibly beautiful and I took many more pictures. The laptop is playing music from the extra hard drive hooked to it and it’s a lovely warm day. The drive was spectacular, and snow topped mountains were all along the way. It is such a beautiful area. We stopped at a campsite in a little town called Whitefish, which is just above Kalispell, Montana, which is on the South West Side of Glacier Park. The campsite was down a gently winding dirt road, with trees forming a tunnel over it. At the entrance to the camp was an enclosure with Llamas. We hooked the house up to power and water and watched the little ground squirrels for a while – then went riding around on the bicycles.
We had heard about the road called "Road to the Sun" at Glacier Park and wanted to go and take a look – it sounded fascinating.
Wow - what a place! There are just absolutely no words that will do this place any justice at all– it’s so stunningly amazing and beautiful. Regal. Wonderful waterfalls, amazing valleys and rivers. The views brought tears to my eyes at times. The roads were tiny, narrow ribbons winding through the most amazing mountain views. There was ice and snow up to 8 foot thick alongside the roads and still and no barriers next to my side! The road was wet most of the way from the water running off the mountains, and at places chunks of ice lay scattered across areas of it where the ice had broken away. It was a totally scary and truly amazing experience. No photo can do this place any justice either. You are all going to have to come and see it for yourselves!
There were areas where I just knew that the ice was going to come off in a massive chunk and push us right off the road into the never ending valley below! It was all just so beautiful. We stopped at the one rest center right at the top of the mountain – on the “Road to the Sun”, got out and walked on the ice for a few minutes. Sandals and shorts did not quite make it warm or easy walking and we both had a few very interesting moments there! But the view…
No photograph can get the massiveness or the beauty of this place - it is indescribable, totally awesome, and a place everyone should visit. I hope that there are some "boring places" along the way, my jaws just cannot stand being dropped so low for so long, and I am about to wear the cameras out taking gazillions of photos. We got home around 10 pm. Long, lovely, amazing, stunning drive - unforgettable!
There were quite a few motorbikes going through Glacier Park and at a few places they all got thoroughly wet as the water slid down off the mountains as the ice melted, splattering itself onto the road and the bikers. Everyone drove slowly and was considerate of everyone else. We were all totally in awe of the absolute beauty of this place.
That was today – a lovely day – totally awesome. Totally.
Lots of loveAnd to U3 too
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Goodbye, Little Skilpad
18th June, 2003
Driving in the motor home, which has been our home for the past year now, is quite a different sort of experience. Little things get me every day. Like going to the bathroom, which is towards the back of the motor home. It is a very small little room, and if you leave the door open it closes the front section of the motor home off and just leaves you, the bathroom and the bedroom. So, there you sit with the door open, looking out of the bedroom window (which is on the side of the road that other cars don’t drive), watching the countryside go by - quite amazing and one does not get to miss any of the view! Talk about feeling spoilt.
When we pull out of a camping place, there is always quite a long list of things to remember and check. One is to make sure that all the drawers and cupboards are properly latched shut, or else the first corner one gets to, everything goes haywire. The amount of noise created by the cutlery when the drawers are rattled open is stunning – it’s also interesting to see what a pot or pan can do in midair when it escapes….
One of the other things to remember, which is very important, is to put the bakkie/truck, which is being towed behind us, into neutral - take it out of gear. This we did not do this morning. When Frank pulled away from the campsite, I saw a frown on his face, but it did not stay long. Then we pulled very slowly up the dirt road to the main road again. I saw that Frank was bugged about something, but he kept going slowly, listening hard. About a mile down the road we saw very interesting plumes of blue smoke through the back window of the motor home. And then the motor home stopped wanting to go forward too well. The rear wheels of little Skilpad had locked up solidly and she was creating some serious drag on the house. I thought that it was the motor home that was done for. Trip over and all that. Frank had barely switched Skilpad off and I was outside looking to see what was going on. The smoke poured thick and heavy out of the little truck, and for a moment it looked like we needed to unhook it in case it caught fire. But it just sat there and smoked thoroughly. She spat engine parts out on the road, which made little clinking sounds when they landed. She also created quite a puddle of very sad fluid on the side of the road. We did a good job of burning up that motor, but were thankful that it was the bakkie and not the motor home giving out all that smoke!
So "little Skilpad" did not survive. We sat and thought for a while, decided to keep driving north, head for Canada as planned and find somewhere to replace the motor up there – we could tow her around for a while, dead or not. We stopped at one place that said it would take 3 weeks to get a new motor to us and the price was astronomical. We phoned around to a few other places but had no luck at all. So we headed back down to Whitefish, found a Chevy dealership and replaced little Skilpad with a new one. We bought an S-10 club cab bakkie and are trying to sort out the paperwork, registration and insurance before heading into Canada. We also now have a "checklist" firmly pasted onto the steering wheel of the motor home with “take bakkie out of gear” written 4 times on it!
That was an expensive lesson, but I have learned that there is always a reason for something like this. So, neither of us is totally freaked about it and just want to sort it out so we can go north!
It is now 2pm our time - 4pm your time, and I am sitting in the motor home in the car lot of the dealership, waiting for Frank to get back from having the tow hitch welded to the new truck/bakkie/new Skilpad. It’s hot, but there is plenty of cold water, nice folks and food around! I was able to use the computer here at the dealership to upload quite a few more photos. The laptop with the connection through the cell phone just does not handle the page I needed to get to. So now, at last, you should all be able to see some of our photos.
It was sad to say goodbye to the little burned out Skilpad – we cleaned out all the papers and our personal stuff – and wished her well. And left her there.
Ok - gotta go now - going to find campground for tonight - it will take some time to get the tow bar put on the new truck, and wiring done and all.
Love you all,
Especially U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Into Canada!
20th June 2003
Here I am sitting in the motor home at 11am, with Frank gone to get the truck/bakkie's tow bar put on and wiring done. I am bored, been for a walk, done some letter writing, sorted out more pictures, and started cleaning the kitchen area with a toothbrush. That’s when I called it quits and came to type some more. Those that know me, know that I just don’t clean kitchens with a toothbrush!
It is getting cold up here now, but the rain has stopped for a while anyway. Frank got the other computer and the TV up and running again, so we have both computers again - its a little more comfortable knowing that there is a backup.
Some little things that I have been wanting to share. It costs only $20 to get into Yellowstone National Park - that is a 7-day pass, and does not include any camping fees. But one can go in and out of the park for a week on this small amount. Also, Glacier Park has a fee of $10 - also for a full week. It’s well worth coming up this way and sticking around for a while to do some camping, hiking etc. in either or both of these stunning places. We are thinking of doing this some time - maybe next time around this way, or even on the way back.
It only gets dark up here around 11pm at night and has been light for a long time by the time I wake up, which totally confuses the heck out of the body system. We keep watching for the Northern Lights, as they say one can see them from here too. But it has been cloudy for the past few days - one can keep wishing though.
We stopped at a chocolate factory nearby here, and were VERY strong! We only bought one small bar of chocolate and a little bag full that look like stones, and are very addictive. They are almost too pretty to eat, and look just like the stones lying everywhere outside.
The computer monitor - the big flat screen one, fell off the top shelf only just missing Frank's head yesterday. We checked it a few days later, and it still works very well - the monitor, I mean. (Frank’s head too.) Slowly we are learning, and the checklist (still firmly on the dashboard) is getting longer as we think of things to do before pulling out.
Many, many folks are traveling in motor homes with pets, mostly dogs, and mostly very big dogs, although they are not guard dog types. I find this difficult to understand because none of the owners look too happy when they are being pulled along by a desperate animal to the nearest piece of grass or tree, nor do the animals seems very keen to go back inside when they are done. Maybe there is something about traveling with an animal that I am missing, but am quite happy to keep on missing it.
It is going to be weird going into Canada today (hopefully), as it will be the first time that I have left the USA since arriving here 10 years ago.
I have just been outside - it’s cold! Everything is crisp with a lovely pine smell to it. No one is around in the park right now, so everything is quiet except for the rain dripping from the trees onto the roof of the motor home. Sounds like a rain stick.
Later: We are now sitting at the "wiring guy's" place while he wires up the two vehicles for towing lights, etc. Nice and quiet except when the airplanes go over - it shakes the leaves off the trees and makes the local donkey bray. Kalispell Airport is about a mile from here, and is a busy one too. Finally all the wiring got done and we hit the road again - what a good feeling. At 5.15pm we left USA and went into Canada!
At the border they did not check anything inside the motor home, just wanted to register the shotgun we have with us (bear protection). It was an amazing feeling to be out of the USA – I am the first of the family to leave the United States after arriving here nine and a half years ago! Wow. It’s like thumbing my nose at the INS for a change - I can (and did) leave, and can (and will) come back into the country and there is NOTHING they can do about it – I am a legal Permanent Resident with newly issued Green Card. For so long the system literally kept me inside the USA, now it’s a nice feeling to be able to come and go like this.
I phoned all three kids, Mom and Wendy once we were in Canada – just had to share the feeling. We drove straight up the 93 through Kootenay National Park, into Banff National Park. It was already 10pm by this time, still light, but the rain and mist starting to settle in earnest. On the way up there were gazillions of deer, some moose and a genuine Big Black Wild Bear (notice all the Upper Case Letters - he earned them!) He was ambling along the side of the road, and Frank brought the motor home and bakkie to a screaming stop while I grabbed the camera more firmly and hung ‘bravely’ out of a back window of the motor home filming him from a very safe distance and height. I was not about to go any closer and neither was Frank - we were both quite happy to stay inside the house.
The clouds were so heavy with rain that they sagged into the mountain sides and valleys in big white splots, leaving much of the snow and ice capped peaks visible. A lot of the time we were above the clouds and below the snow - lovely, cold, and crisp! The mountains are all so regal, imposing and at times intimidating here - but always utterly beautiful. At time we were so high that we could not see the tops of the mountains while sitting in the motor home.
At about 10pm we pulled over into a little "viewing area" to spend the night. It was right next to a river, right near where we saw the bear. We had that sound of water all night together with the rain and the coffee brewing - it was pitch black dark outside, what with the cloud cover and absolutely miles from any civilization. Totally wonderful. At one point, while Frank was cooking, we remembered that the truck was not locked, so I looked around very carefully for Big Black Bear or any of his Friends and Family, dashed outside and locked the doors and scrambled back inside the house. I must admit that this was all done in record time!
Frank had done all the driving today and it was a long day. It took me a while to get used to seeing the new white Skilpad behind us instead of the little red one. It was a great day all in all! We should both sleep well tonight.
Lots of love to all
Especially U3
Annie and Frank - XXXXxxxx
Deep into British Columbia
21st June 2003
We woke up with rain still dripping heavily on the roof and it was cold. We fired up the generator, made some coffee and left our rest stop early. Now it’s still overcast and really beautiful. We saw another bear and a few more buck/deer. There were many beautiful waterfalls and rivers of melting ice and snow – all starting waaaay up high at the ice peaks. We went to see the “Natural Bridge” which is quite phenomenal. The power of that water rushing under those rocks – you definitely don’t want to be caught in that water!
It’s now 9.15am and Frank making us scrambled eggs for breakfast. We are now up on the mountain somewhere North of Yoho National Park and Banff National Park. It’s absolutely lovely here – so quiet.
We are heading off the mountains because it’s raining and overcast and we cannot see many of the amazing views we just know are all around us. The weather forecast says it’s going to stay this way over the next few days. So we plan on heading the other way around – through Kamloops, out of Canada’s Glacier Park area and up to Dawson Creek, which is the start of the Alcan Highway. It’s very pretty here and we are now getting used to the absolute beauty of snow capped mountains. 10.30am – just got bottles of wonderfully fresh mountain water from a waterfall on the side of the road. Delicious.
I should start controlling my 'photo finger' because I think I have photographed every piece of water since leaving Chattanooga. Even Frank now yells: "Water, Annie, Water!" every time he sees a trickle running over some rocks, daring me to take yet more water pictures. Ah well. It just is too beautiful to miss.
Ok, we are finally at a campsite for the night - Cache Creek just north of Kamloops, Canada. Frank did all of the driving again today - I am still nervous about driving this rig on small roads and in the rain as well. There is a big pond just below our camp spot, with little ducks and other water fowl having great fun. It’s a quiet and gentle place with big willow trees hanging sadly over the water.
We drained the water tank on the house – the water was really yucky – and filled it with this good tasting stuff. And it’s still raining. We have both been for a nice warm shower – squeaky-clean hair and all again. I sorted out some more photos and tried to get online – no cell phone signal and no internet at the office either – ah well.
Just a few things left for today’s email. We are in an area that gives us no cell phone coverage at all - so we will be out of touch till Sunday when we leave here - hopefully then we will be on more flat lands and be back in contact. Mom, the meringues are delicious – thanks! Wendy, your compass not only tells us which direction we are going, but also the plug into the lighter holds our coffee cup in place – thank you too. U3 chilluns of mine - the photos are the reason for at least two daily smiles, every day. Thanks for all the posing, and the developing you guys did for me - greatly appreciated! And it was lovely talking to you all today - Love U3 very much and miss you lotsa. It is windy here now, and looks like more rain. It’s been another amazing day.
Love to you all, and thanks again for sharing
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Start of the Alcan Highway
22 June 2003
They call them "black holes" here where no cell phone works and one has to dial up to 100 times to get an internet connection and then your chances are almost zero. And people live there? Ok – we are heading north right now towards Dawson Creek. We might hit more 'black holes' along the way, but if they last for more than three days, we will contact you, Steven.
It was a gentle non eventful drive from Cache Creek to Dawson Creek, lovely to watch the green countryside go by – feet propped up on the dashboard of the house, steadily heading North.
We finally got a cell phone signal on the top of a hill just outside some town that smelled of something not so nice. Frank brought us to a screaming stop alongside the road and I quickly sent some emails while the signal lasted. It’s raining again but all is going well with music playing on the laptop. Lovely scenery, but the countryside is very unremarkable – just farmlands and horses, cows and trees. Peaceful and quiet.
We arrived at Dawson Creek about 6.30pm. We are finally at the start of the road we had done so much dreaming of and so much reading about – The Alcan Highway.
We got the Skilpads settled in the campsite and drove into town to look around. There is a marker site that is the official point where the Alcan Highway starts and we took lots photos there and also of the other marker in the center of the town main road. I am not quite sure why there would be two marker points, but it makes for good photos anyway.
We are finally at the start of the Alcan Highway, but I think we are both too tired to really appreciate the idea. We have been traveling for a couple of weeks now, pushing the Skilpads and ourselves harder than we thought we had. We went out to eat - delicious ribs - and got to bed early. We had a cell phone signal so I chatted to my girls for a little too .
It does not get dark here! It rained on and off every 40 minutes all day long – we even had an ice storm! Tomorrow we will be rested up and feeling better I hope.
That’s me for now
Love to you all
Especially U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Alcan Highway and Forever Light
23rd June 2003
The sun does not set here so we are in almost perpetual daylight. It’s a tad disconcerting to say the least, but I do manage to sleep. Here are some details: "From the middle of May through the end of July the sun never officially sets in places above the 64th parallel. In Fairbanks and Dawson City 20 -21 hours of sunlight are the norms in June and July. Most of the daylight hours are officially recognized as twilight - it occurs when the sun dips below the horizon, but by less than 6 degrees, so early morning brightness at 6am still occurs." That I gleaned from a local info paper.
I don’t get to see much in the early morning hours under any circumstances, that has been part of me for many years, and I have never done mornings too well at all. Don’t laugh Steven Lisa and Joleen! But this 'always light’ scheme of things does have an effect on ones sleeping pattern. When I get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and it is broad daylight outside, ones first reaction is "Oh Shoot, we have slept too late! So I fumble to the lounge (terribly long way – all 3 steps), try to prize my eyes open to see the clock, only to discover that I have only been asleep for an hour or two! And so the cycle starts again. I hope we get used to this.
We spent last night in Dawson Creek - the official 0 mile marker of the Alcan Highway. It is not a very big town at all, and has many things related to the Alcan that are historical and interesting, it has the nice gentle atmosphere of a little town of approximately 5000 people. They have some gorgeous old buildings, done up very beautifully and artistically. The streetlights have interesting iron pictures on them of animals, Indians and other things – lovely. One thing that surprised us is just how dry it is here - there is almost a permanent dust cloud, and a dust taste to the air.
It’s close to South West Africa (Namibia) in its dryness and almost barren look in places, yet much of the countryside is covered with green, green trees. Very strange and lovely in a different way.
We found smarties, crunchies and yesss.... real tomato sauce chips too, as well as many other South African type candies, Aero, Bar One etc. - but the ketchup/tomato chips are gooooooood! Another discovery, a very nice one, was dill pickle chips - they are delicious!
So - we are now driving down this long Alcan Highway, eating USA jerky, dill pickle chips, mom’s meringues, trail mix, and drinking coffee and water. Then Frank cooks the most delicious suppers, which we sit down and enjoy with a glass of wine an orange juice. Life is tough! But we are learning to handle it very well indeed.
The Alcan Highway is a two lane (one this way, one that way) road most of the time. There is a trick to driving this road - watch the vehicle ahead of you, and if you see dust coming out from behind or underneath it, slow down. That means that there is a bad stretch of road, or no road. It is not as bad, so far, as we anticipated, nor as wild yet. We did see moose, deer, bear, an owl and some other birds. The moose was dead, so I guess that does not count? I am hunting a set of antlers - big moose antlers. I want to find a pair along the side of the road. The ones we have seen in the tourist shops with carvings sell for $1400! I can carve too - or learn really fast…
We are still adjusting to the Canadian money and kilometers instead of miles. It does not help when we pass a sign that reads "16 km to 100 Mile House". The house/Skilpad/motor home is still traveling like a dream, although this road does rather rattle her around. Sometimes it feels like those old exercise machines that had the vibrating belt. But she is going great, and little white (or not so white) Skilpad behind us is towing well – and definitely out of gear.
We are now in Fort Nelson in British Columbia, about 300 km's into the Alcan Hwy. We might get to Watson Lake in the Yukon Territory tomorrow - there certainly are enough daylight hours to travel in and the countryside is not as awesome as Yellowstone, Glacier or other parts of the USA.
We both want to get to Alaska and find a place to get the house level and stay for a few weeks. It seems as though it will still take at least 3 full days to drive to the Alaska border. But we are not in a rush - just want to get there sometime, and unless this road becomes a whole lot more interesting, we are going to drive it as if we really want to get to the other side. It has been a fantastic experience all the way so far - much more than I could ever have dreamed of. It is so nice going to new places for both of us, and just being out here.
This has been another wonderful day. We have had no cell phone signal at all, but we are told that we should get that back in Whitehorse which is about 250 miles from here, and where I will probably be able to send this from.
U3 of mine - love you so much, and miss you PLENTY! You’re always on my mind.
Lotsalove
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Into Yukon Territory
24th June 2003
Last night we parked sort of under a bridge just into Yukon Territory and just outside of Watson Lake. It is lovely here. This was the most awesome day! The countryside changed dramatically from yesterday and we "wow-ed" our way all through the day. The mountains and rivers, the avalanche areas, the plains, the different colors, the drops off alongside the road, and the wildlife – it was all just too amazing. We saw Moose, bison, buck, owls, lots and lots of bears! And yes, I got a million pictures of them all and also lots of river and water ones too!
What a change from yesterday - this is sooooo beautiful! We picked some big sticks to make into walking sticks and have about 10 of them in the bakkie/truck to carve. Also went for a walk down a little path just across the river from where we saw a bear. We did make lots of noise, saw no bear while walking but did see caribou or moose droppings. A sign I bought reads: There is not a single mosquito on the Alcan Highway. They are all legally married with VERY big families! How true. They did not like our anti-mozzie spray much, so we were not eaten alive, but we did have our own personal following in the shape of a big black swarm of them.
It is now 9.30 at night. It is broad daylight outside with fluffy white clouds. The traffic has died down totally and it is just so still here. We are used to about one or two vehicles per hour and now even that has stopped. We are hoping to get some wildlife around the motor home tonight, and we are planning on taking photos at midnight or thereabouts to remember just how light it is at that time. Maybe we will even videotape "sunrise" at 3am which is when they say it is more-or-less anyway.
11.30pm still light outside – I wrote long email to Lisa, chatted with Joleen and took photo at midnight with no lighting problem for the camera at all. Sometimes there are so many rivers running from all angles in the same valley, and some of them seem to be running uphill, or flowing in the wrong direction - they all wander around so much that it is difficult to keep track of which one is which. I wish I could explain how lovely this place is - there just are no words for it, and looking at the photos, they don’t help much either – although I certainly try to capture it. You will all just have to come up here to see for yourselves. It is really an awesome trip so far!
There was a constant light rain again today – we are really looking forward to some sunshine for a change. I think I am suffering from “lack of kids” – I miss them so much!
I had a couple of glasses of wine and am now feeling much better, no longer tearful (dang - I missed the kids today!) We are about to have game of scrabble.
A day later:
We are now at a Fort Nelson Campground. This place is just a dust area behind a gas station. There is nothing here and we had to pay extra to have a shower too! Once you are done with the shower, you walk back to the motor home with the wind blowing a new layer of dust all over everything – this does not encourage us to sit outside and enjoy a bit of outside air at all!
We slept great – now on the road again, bumpy road but good to be moving again. Good breakfast – good coffee – we will hopefully make it as far as Watson Lake, Yukon today. We found two wooden chairs at the campground. We don’t exactly need them but one never knows so they are now in the back of the truck.
The Alcan Highway was beautiful today – now 11am and we are almost at Summit Lake. We saw four bears so far, a buck, groundhog - it’s lovely here! It is totally impossible to describe the feeling of sitting in the motor home, driving down this road and seeing all the things we are seeing. I try to capture it with the camera, but I know that will never be enough to explain it all, and the camera definitely cannot capture the feeling. The feelings of wonder, freedom, amazement and peace are truly awesome.
Today we have driven 4200 miles since Chattanooga. It has been a wonderful day! Now we are waiting at a road works place for the escort car – about 15 minutes wait they say. It’s raining, sun is shining and Frank is making coffee. I wish we had cell phone signal – it would be nice to call the kids. I really missed them yesterday and was quite the misery at times.
Everything makes such a noise driving on this road, and the only choice is to laugh insanely at times, turn the music up louder and believe with all ones heart that it will stop sometime.
5pm – Made the Alaska Border!
I called Steven , called Kate , and got a message from Joleen .
So that’s me for tonight. With an enormous smile.
Love to you all - Especially U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Alaska!
27 June 2003
Hello from Alaska!
The last two days have been wonderful, amazing, all those words I have been typing for weeks now. Yesterday we went to the “Sign Post Forest” in Watson Lake – that is an absolutely amazing place– just so many signs, thousands and thousands of them stuck up on poles in many acres of space – so many stories on there too – some sad and others just there. Someone put up a rack of antlers, and another put up a plate with a message. Mostly there are signs from all over the world – just so people can say they have been here. We are going to add the “old Skilpad” tag there with our names on it on if we stop here on the way back. I read somewhere that it all started when one guy was leaving Alaska and put a sign up on a pole promising that he would be back – and others, many others, followed his idea. There was even a Chattanooga City Limit sign. It was wonderful – another one that no words can adequately describe. A place I would love to revisit sometime.
We crossed the Continental Divide yesterday – another thing I learned in school that I was fortunate enough to see and experience. We saw no animals today at all and the scenery seems to have calmed down a bit – it’s not as dramatic as other days so far. It was good to take a break - our jaws were aching from all the involuntary ooh-ing and aah-ing over the past weeks. We stayed in a camp last night, and I managed to get online for a short while and also chatted with Joleen .
At 10pm we were sitting talking and had to pull the curtains closed in the house to keep the sun out of our eyes. I am sitting here again tonight, with the blinds pulled down while typing this and its 10.30pm here now. We have stopped right next to a wonderful river – it’s big, flowing fast and we are again parked in a pull over almost under a bridge. Nice and peaceful with the gentle sound of the river with virtually no traffic going by at all.
This morning we left camp at about 7.30am – it was a lovely morning and the wind had died down somewhat. It was good to be on the road early and most of the other motor homes were still sleeping which added to the general peace all around. When some of the bigger motor homes start up, they sound like earthquakes! We stopped a few times along the road to heat coffee or just to stretch our legs. The road was so bad at times that we just had to stop and walk around so that our internal organs could re-align themselves after being shaken around for so long and we could take a break from the noise! The roads really are much better than we expected and we have also not had any flying stones hitting us either.
We took a wrong turn earlier this morning in an area of road works and could not make the turnaround to get out of there in the small place we had available, so we had to break the bakkie/truck loose and turn them around separately. Everything was covered with dust, including us - everything, and Frank intensely dislikes dust. The guy from the water truck helped us unhook and get on our way again – nice person.
In places the road just falls away, not so that you cannot see it, but the holes are not the type you want your wheels to visit. Then in other places they just put in little red flags to warn you that there is a hole there – it takes some concentrating to drive this section, but at least they give you warning of the bad places and we were driving slow enough to see most of the holes ahead of time. They are rebuilding a lot of the road and we had quite a bit of today’s travel in “construction zones”. Very slow. And very dusty, and as I said, Frank does not like dust. At all.
We stopped at the most amazing lake – Kluane Lake – it was a mixture of turquoise and blue in different places, and just went on for miles and miles long. I picked up a few stones of interest there and Frank picked me yet another little bunch of flowers and we picked some flowers and are pressing them for you too, Mom. It was so peaceful – an amazing place. It felt like an Ancient Area, if that makes any sense. It had a reverence about it. A peace.
Sometimes when the going got rough on the road surface, or the road just became a dust track with a rub-board type ‘surface’, we would just burst out laughing – it was either that or give up! Either the house and bakkie were going to make it or we were going to end up in little pieces spread all along the Alcan Hwy. We made it.
At one stage, I made some sandwiches while Frank was driving, and laid the slices of bread on the table - they literally bounced and vibrated their way across the table and I caught them in midair on their way to the floor! Trying to balance myself, the butter, cheese and ham was worse than doing it at sea in a storm. It is impossible to describe this feeling, and the sounds that go with it. I tried taping it, and hope that gives a sense of what it felt like. It sounds like everything in the house has suddenly got a life its own, and none of them like each other. The wheels sound like they are going to fall off, and the bakkie behind us keeps tugging at the tow bar. It’s just a pure cacophony. A land yacht- yes! That’s a good description. One has to loosen ones knees and all other joints too, but not too much, just enough to stop the jarring and still hold one up, like letting yourself literally roll with each direction change. After driving like this, particularly over the road surface of the Alcan, for almost 7 hours, it takes a little while to get ones "land legs" back again. The other aspect of all this bouncing is that when we stopped for the night and started looking for something to make for supper, we did not have to look far – everything just came tumbling out of each cupboard we opened! I had long since given up closing cutlery drawers, and others, but did not consider that the contents of the cupboards would be waiting to jump on us as well.
Well, we made Alaska at last today at 5pm Alaska time. We stopped to get out and savor the idea of actually being in Alaska and took many pictures at the border, international line etc. There are only 2 other cars here. What a feeling! The bakkie and the motor home are terribly dusty, and Frank wrote our names in the dust on the bakkie. It was lovely standing there, being in Alaska, and seeing the Yukon sign right next to us. The feelings were amazing – this was a place we had both read and dreamed about, and now we were actually experiencing it – quite mind-boggling and we could not stop grinning.
We went through the USA Customs without a hitch and I got my passport stamped by a very dour looking official – I am going to ask the next INS officer we come across to smile for a photo. I swear I am going to do this – they have got to have some memory of how to smile. We’ll see.
We pulled into a place alongside the road near Tok, Alaska. We are staying overnight under yet another bridge. Its so lovely here – just the sound of a light wind in the trees, the river cruising by and full daylight all night long. I wish I could stay awake all night and still function properly – I just don’t want to miss any of this!
We are only a few hours into Alaska and it is beautiful. Snow peaked mountains, green trees, winding rivers, birds chirping, and absolute perpetual daylight. We plan to head down to Anchorage in the morning – hopefully. We need to get the registration plates and papers for the new bakkie at an insurance company in the center of Anchorage. We are hoping to find a nice camp, with lots of hot water, a car and house wash, internet connection and we will stay there for a few days while exploring around just with the bakkie.
I have not been able to check any emails from any of you for the past 4 days or so, but will do when sending this. I am tired now, and find myself babbling. Frank is already gently snoring, and I must go catch up on shut-eye time. It is lovely and quiet here now, and almost 11pm, and pure daylight.
U3 of mine – Gosh I miss you – and love you lotsa
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
WOW, WOW, and WOW again! Glaciers!
29th June 2003
Remember those Discovery Channel movies where they show ice breaking off glaciers, the BOOM/CRACK! it makes just as the ice breaks loose and the wave and noise it makes when it hits the water? We were there today and it was AWESOME!
We started today early, just wanting to drive down towards downtown Anchorage and see what there was to see. We drove through Anchorage, and kept going south to a small town called Whittier. It is not a simple thing to get there - the road around the mountain is beautiful, which calls for constant stops to take the required pictures. Then we entered a National Park (you have to drive with your headlights on) and came to a tollbooth where they wanted us to pay $12 to drive through to Whittier. We figured that it must be an amazing place for them to charge that price, so we gladly paid and headed on.
There, ahead of us was this small little gap in the mountain that we were expected to drive through. This was not just a mountain, it was a Mountain. It was too high to get in one frame of a photo and I had to get it from the other side of this tunnel once we were a little way away from it. It was also topped with its own glacier - yes, blue ice and all - tons of it! Not only that, it had a train line running through it which was the road. This Whittier town was one that was started by the USA in W.W.II and the two and a half mile tunnel was made so that they could bring in goods to and from Anchorage. The road is literally a train track and cars are let through, very widely spaced, with the train waiting at the other end. It is not a very comfortable feeling driving under that mountain on such a narrow and dark road, but apart from a ferry that will take you and your car to Valdez there is no other way back to Anchorage. So. We did it both ways, and survived.
When we got to the other side, we saw that there were various cruises available, so we picked the Glacier Cruise in Prince William Sound. If any of you ever get here – do this cruise. It is absolutely amazing. It was freezing cold out near the glaciers and the wind blew over the glaciers making an eerie howling noise. I stayed on the bow of the boat for most of the time, not wanting to miss a second and nearly froze my fingers off, but just could not sit inside with so much to see and feel outside. There were beautiful waterfalls all around, sea otters, kayak-ers and the most amazing views of the glaciers. They took us right up close to the glaciers and we literally just hung out there for a while waiting for ice to fall, everyone hustling for the best place hoping that the ice would fall when the camera was ready. I got some lovely pictures of the ice falling and some really nice photos of Frank too. We were taken right up to a waterfall that was just stunning and the captain took the boat right up under it, so close we could almost touch the rocks. The water was an amazing blue/green – just lovely.
There was a film crew working in the area and a big boat with a helicopter on top of it with lots of people milling around doing their thing. The captain gave a running commentary on the history of the area as well as pointing out some of the wildlife around there. It was very interesting. It was all just totally amazing and we both got wind-burned, sunburned, cold-burned and were bone tired when we got back to the bakkie for the long drive back home.
Thank goodness for digital cameras - I took over 400 photos. Have to label them all now, and many will no doubt be deleted but there are some really beautiful photographs!
Now it is Sunday and we are totally laid back today. We slept late, went to the grocery store and just generally piddled around. I got to speak to all three "kids" and Kate and Mom too. It is another lovely blue sky day here, with little airplanes flying around and a gentle breeze. We are both a tad tired, and are really enjoying the "day off". The washing is waiting to be done too, but I have this feeling that it might have a better chance much later - maybe after it gets dark? (it does not get dark here this time of year, remember!).
That’s all for now - full from wonderful Frank-made stew, and feeling very lazy.
Love to you all
Especially U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Anchorage, Seward and Earthquake Park
1st July 2003
Wow, time really flies while having fun! Saturday was "Glacier Day" and still wonderfully fresh in our minds. I have not sorted any pictures from then yet, or any taken since. Sunday was a very lazy day. I think we were both exhausted - we only woke up at 9.30am Alaska time, which is four hours behind Chattanooga time. We spent the rest of the day piddling around, achieving nothing and going nowhere. We waited and waited for it to get dark so we could go and do the laundry, but that never happened - so? It was still there two days later.
By Monday morning we both had 'ants in our pants' and had to get out and do something again. We were still waiting for the car dealership in Montana to send our license tags and paperwork to us, and had to hang around in the Anchorage area for a few days. So on Monday we drove down to Seward. It was a good couple of hundred miles, but lovely coastline, more amazing glaciers, humungous, stunning mountains and incredible forests. Seward is a small fishing village that is being turned over to the tourists as fast as they can do it, it seems. One thing that is stopping it from being totally tourist, in my opinion, is a very shabby, and rattling road one has to drive to get there. There lives one extremely large, amazingly big ferry! It is a stunningly beautiful little place with many wonderful places to eat - we spoiled ourselves to some very good teriyaki.
Cook Inlet, around Anchorage, is very interesting place. Firstly the Beluga Whales come there every year, and then it is the only place in the world that has a 'bore tide' twice every day. A bore tide is caused when the inlet of the inlet (sorry, don’t know how else to describe it now - going over a rough patch of road and my brain is rattling and I am looking at the scenery too) is smaller than the rest of the inlet. A wave, up to 6 foot high sweeps into the inlet and apparently many fish, the Beluga whales and birds play along this wave. It is fascinating to see how the glacier silt has formed canyon looking gullies along the inlet too. The glacier silt is a brown gray color and feels like wet cement. I picked some up of course and it dried into a hard rock.
The views are just stunning – beautiful crystal clear, shiny water and snow and ice capped mountains reflecting in the total stillness of the water, creating duplicates of stunning beauty. And the glaciers everywhere with the green trees and shrubs filling in between - how does one describe all this beauty?
On our way back from Seward, we decided to get off the main road for a change. If any of you look at a map, you will see very few roads listed in Alaska - that is about it, there just are no other roads to speak of at all. Yes, the obvious ones inside the little towns, and to the few residential areas (we wonder at times if these folks live underground), but there are just not many roads here.
So we tried to head off the main road, as I was saying, and hit the town center, which consisted mainly of airports, some houses, space to put airplanes, 4x4 bakkie/truck sales places, and some more airplane storage place. (Still on the KERCHUNK road as Frank calls it - that is the sound (the main sound) the house makes as we rattle down this road). Anyway, here we are tootling around downtown Anchorage, longing for a lonely, kerchunk road - anything but this busy road - when I see a little patch of green on the map. So I started directing my driver to 'hang a left' at the next red light. He dutifully followed my “destructions” and we ended up at a place called Earthquake Park.
It was wonderful! A lovely place with a very sad story. In 1964 when that big earthquake hit, a bunch of houses in this area were washed down into the Cook Inlet. There was nothing left. It is near downtown Anchorage that was also largely destroyed. One can see parts of the houses in Cook Inlet when the tide is out. Now it is a memorial to all that is no longer there, and they have made a wonderful walking and bike track all along the Inlet and through the trees. We had our bikes in the bakkie, so we unfolded them and took off for about 15 miles. It was wonderful - so nice to race down those hills. There were many people walking, riding etc and all very friendly too. Lovely till we discovered that even bike trails have to go up after going downhill! But we made it.
We felt really good after that. Got a few strange looks when we were finished and we folded the bikes up to pack them away again - they look a bit like wheelchairs all folded up.
After driving home, about 40 miles from Anchorage, we changed into shorts, had the rest of the wonderful Frank-made stew, a cold beer and went to lie down for a few minutes (it was only 9pm). I woke up at 1am with it still light outside and Frank woke up a few hours later. This morning both of us felt much rested after both going back to sleep again after looking around outside for a while. There is nothing quite like lying in bed at 1am and just looking outside – no stars, no moon, so quiet and no desire to get up either.
This morning we called the folks from the motor dealer again to try to find our papers - they had not sent them yet! So we told him to send it to our Tennessee address so we could get on with life and stop waiting around for them. So now we are on the road again - lovely feeling. The roads are terrible and right now we are only doing 15 miles an hour. At times one cannot even see where the road is, there are just orange markers along the side of a very rough gravel ribbon. We drove through the Denali mountain range in this mist and rain. The entrance of Denali National Park was blocked up with people and tourist shops and tour busses etc, so we just smiled and passed by. We have seen awesome mountains, we have seen awesome glaciers, awesome views in so many combinations. We just could not fight all those tourists for another viewpoint. So we passed by. Well - we cannot stop and see everything or we would never get back to Chattanooga! So now we are driving up to Fairbanks and going to find a place there for a day or two.
I got my feet in the Cook Outlet, in Prince William Sound and Gulf of Alaska waters - not too bad. To get to the Bering Straight would take a very expensive air or ferry ride, so we bypassed that one too. But we are going up to the Arctic Circle - which is only about 200 miles north of Fairbanks.
We would love to find some antlers, but are told that it is not the season to find them and will have to pay an arm and a leg to buy a set or even one moose or caribou rack - ah well. I can still wish...
U3 - I miss you and love you guys tremendously! Love the emails - keep them coming, puleeze!
with love from us both
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Way, Way North - Arctic Circle, Prudoe Bay
5th July 2003
It’s Saturday already. I spoke to Joleen and Lisa this morning and they confirmed the day for us. Tuesday we left Anchorage area and headed north again towards Denali National Park. The day was cloudy and the road scenery "quite normal" - getting really spoiled?! We saw no animals on the way at all - just a few fat crows hopping around. We drove until we found a little pull off alongside the road, and parked there for the night - many folks do this and the trick is to find a nice level pull off that is not already taken by some other motor home. We went for a walk across to a little river that was there, but the mozzies found us and we headed back home swatting at them buzzing determinedly around our heads. We both had a good sound sleep and headed out again early in the morning.
Wednesday we passed the Denali National Park entrance. The mountains were covered in clouds so we could not see much of the Alaska Range at all. Coming into Fairbanks we had a ripped tire on the motor home, again on the drivers side, but one of the rear tires this time. We think it has to do with the house standing so long in one place in Tennessee, and the sun baking the tires. Moral of that story? Don’t stay in one place for too long! There are double tires on the back wheels, so we drove slowly to the next exit, which was not far away, and found a repair place. They are all over the place here, so we did not have to drive very far at all. While we were there, we were talking to some folks who told us about a campground nearby that had a car and motor home wash place - that’s where we are now - house and bakkie all clean, not quite shiny, but a whole lot cleaner than before. When they were all dirty, it looked like we had done some traveling - now she does not have that "badge" to wear anymore. I am sure that we will get them very dirty again on the way down, but for now it’s a good feeling to have them clean.
We went to the little town of North Pole. It is a small town on the South East side of Fairbanks, and its main attraction seems to be its name and main road. There are candy canes for lampposts, a very large Santa that stands reading a list in the main road (About 36 foot tall!), and the visitors center with a grass sod roof. There was not much else to see there at that time of day so we headed home for an early night, as we wanted to go and see the Alyeska Pipeline in the morning.
We did! We saw it all the way to Prudoe Bay! Mile after mile after mile - the pipe went curling its way north - and we kept driving until we reached the point that we could not turn around because we did not have enough gas to get us back. At that point we would have paid any price for gas and turned around, but no such luck.
We left the motor home at about 10am this morning to go and see the pipeline and maybe go to the Arctic Circle. We did not pack much to eat or drink at all – we were not going to be gone too long. We saw the ‘tourist part’ of the pipeline and headed further north to the Arctic Circle 230 miles away. This was 230 miles of narrow, very interesting road, surrounded with forests, some burned, some green and some burning.
At the Arctic Circle there is just a pull off place with a signboard - like the one that welcomes one to Alaska, with a picture of the world and a line around the world, showing the space that we were standing in. There are other information boards giving some history of the area and information about the wildlife around there. The feeling was quite weird. Here we were in a place that I had only imagined, read about and thought I would never get to experience - it was quite amazing. Of course there is no visible line to see - and no-one has thought of painting one there either. The mosquitoes were incredible too and we quickly took some photographs, and headed further north. It seems like the mosquitoes are immune to the spray stuff we were using, and quickly became a cloud around each of us biting as they fought each other for a place to land. They obviously make good use of any blood that walks into their world.
What a road! It was definitely not designed to take tourists or the average person on a gentle drive. The countryside was amazingly beautiful. There were many thousands of acres of burned forests all the way up with that burned wood smell everywhere and beautiful flowers blooming brightly in the burned scrub. We looked for burlwood all the way up but found none. We stopped at quite a few places along the way and took photos of us on the Alyeska Pipeline – quite a feeling to stand on that enormous pipe. The mountains were stunningly beautiful and the scenery was different at every turn.
The road was terrible. "Kerchunk" just did not describe it anymore – and we were thankful that we were in the bakkie and not the house. It was a "kaboom" ribbon of space that some folks had thrown some rock, some stone, some mud and some sand towards. Some of that stuff stuck - most did not. We will not call it a road – rather a functional ribbon of stuff heading north. Most of the way anyway. It rattled us so hard and continuously that some of the screws in the bicycles that were in the back of the bakkie came out and my teeth ached. My eyes also stayed out of focus for two days after that – I never thought that could happen!
The country side was incredibly lovely with trees everywhere, and thankfully very little tourist stuff at all - one almost got worried about how long it would take for help to arrive if we got stuck - cell phones did not even come on, let alone get a signal. The "road" was straight upward and then straight downwards, only to do that again and again and again etc, endlessly. Then things started to change, the mountains changed from being green and full of trees to being incredibly stark bare stone. They were amazing - totally amazing. The sun was shining on them and they seemed to come from some imaginary storybook, quite an intimidating sight. We drove over these unreal but real mountains with ice packed on the sides of the roads and very many large stones just waiting to tumble down on us. The road barriers had obviously taken quite some punishment from rocks and some vehicles had obviously connected with them too.
Going across this mountain range, the Brooks Range, the clouds were all around us. Visibility was very low, and it was amazing to see how the mountains loomed above us at times when we could catch a glimpse of them. It was breathtaking and totally eerie! And then we hit the down section of Atigun Pass. I don’t know what percentage down slope it was, but it was down! It did not take long to get to the bottom of that mountain at all - not that part of it anyway - from the top, we could see the road and the pipeline snaking out across the tundra. The pipeline is not, in our opinion, obtrusive at all. It does not make the scenery ugly and it is almost comforting in a way when out there all alone...like following a river if lost.
The countryside had now changed from trees everywhere, blocking every really good photo, to totally tree-less tundra. It was phenomenal – this is how we had imagined much of Alaska to be. We stopped and went to walk on the tundra, and immediately 10 billion mosquitoes per square inch swarmed up to remove a quart of blood each! And here we thought the mozzies were bad at the Arctic Circle. We did not have a long walk at all.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is absolutely wild. Of course the pipeline is everywhere, and the occasional pump station, but very little else, hardly any vehicles, no homes - just nothing. There was ice on the bluffs and rivers everywhere. Lovely.
The tundra is full of places where the ground just pushed its way up because of the permafrost. It even pushes trees out of the ground. It looks like the ground has boiled up, leaving big gaps all over the place. It’s difficult to describe, and is very strange looking, and very disturbing to walk on as you sink down every step you take.
The pipeline follows the road, or vice versa, all the way up to Prudoe Bay, except for the short parts that it runs buried underground. It zig zags tremendously to allow for expansion. Wait for the photographs and you will see. You might have to wait a while though – I have not sorted them out yet.
We saw musk oxen on the road and lots and lots of caribou, ground squirrels, and I saw something that had four legs but was unidentifiable beyond that. The musk oxen were on the road as we came around a corner. A few of them came galloping straight towards us, upping my heartbeat by a good percentage - they are definitely heavier than we were! Then they left the road and headed off onto the tundra in a solid group, framed by the most incredible double rainbows! The light was exquisite – quite a picture.
The road closer the Prudoe Bay just got worse and worse, it was 11pm, not enough gas to go back, no pull-offs, and perpetual sunshine. One could spend an entire day there photographing sunsets/sunrises - the sun just goes around and around close to the horizon and behind the mountain ranges. Very lovely, but strange to be shielding your eyes from the sun at 3am.
The names of the places we drove through on the way up here were straight out of the geography books of my school days, and the Discovery TV channels - Brooks Mountain Range, Endicott Mountains, Arctic Plains, Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, and the Yukon River to mention just a few. There is so much to absorb and see - and to believe that all this was actually happening. Just incredible!
We got into Prudoe Bay at 1am - had a perfect cell phone signal - and no one to call at that time of the morning! Terribly frustrating. I knew that Joleen and Lisa would probably have their phones off, or should have anyway and Steven would kill me if I called, and Wendy - you were very close to getting that call! But I was good, and put the cell phone away. I did have the thought that I could plead ignorance of the time difference, but I just knew that would come flying back to me sometime in the near future – payback can be rough! Frank says we should have called someone.
Prudoe Bay is a very different sort of place – it has to be, I guess. The buildings seem to be purely functional and it would take a special type of person to live here long term, I think. There were enormous pieces of ice all over in the water, grinding up against each other creating strange and eerie sounds. At that time of the morning it was a very bleak place, and overcast too. There was an unconcerned caribou grazing at the edge of town, which is also the edge of the Beaufort Sea/Arctic Ocean.
So now we are sitting in the furthermost point that we could drive to in the USA (without flying in to some other place first), no one to call that would not kill me for doing so, looking for place to lay our heads down for the night. The hotel wanted $180 for a room - bearing in mind that it was already 1am and checkout time was 10am, we both thought that ridiculous to say the least. By now we were a bit more pumped up from getting out and walking around in freezing temperatures, so we gassed up the bakkie and headed south again. We left Fairbanks at 10am this morning and have now driven for 15 hours. Actually, one does not 'drive' to Prudoe Bay, one gets shaken and rattled all the way there and then all the way back again.
Frank drove for a few hours and then pulled over so both of us could catch a few hours sleep. The bakkie is definitely not comfortable to sleep in at all, in any way shape or form. I heard the gentle snores and dozed off myself for a short while. Up there the cold does not creep into one, it hits you like a hammer. We both woke up frantically reaching for the ignition key and the heater knob!
A little while later we started to see the mountains in the far distance again. From this side, we could see much more of the mountains, and almost all were covered in snow. The sun gave a pink and gold tinge to it all, and they looked like something from a fairytale. I tried to get pictures, but the road was so bad and the mozzies still flocked through the windows even if they were only open a crack. I might have a few good photos - hopefully. At times the clouds came right down to the roadway and totally covered us, at other times they hung just above us, and moved with the disturbance of the bakkie moving under them. I reached up out of the window, waved my hands around and saw the clouds move. Awesome! I moved the clouds at the top of the world… Wow. And then in an instant they were gone again.
So, over the mountain pass we go again, again in the clouds. We find rocks that were not there when we passed through a few hours before, but thankfully I was now in the inside lane and could not see the edge as easily - actually the mountain side became more interesting as the road barriers disappeared.
We were getting hungry by now and had eaten almost all the dry bread we had with us. We had had way too many of the chocolates that we brought along, and had long since run out of coffee. We were both very tired and tired of the feeling and the noise the "road" created. Not good all in all. We stopped off in the little town of Coldfoot and got a wonderfully good breakfast and lots of coffee – some for the rest of the trip too. We gratefully filled up with gas, blinked hard a good few times, and headed south with mouths feeling like cotton.
We found some burlwood (it’s a knob of wood that grows on some of the trees, some of the time) in a burned section of the forests. By this time we both needed a serious break from the bakkie, so we stopped, and strode off into the burned forest, creating plumes of black dust around us. I was determined to get some of this wood, but we had left the saw at home. Fortunately the trees were not too difficult to break off, but our jeans changed from blue to black, as did our shoes, faces, hands and shirts. Now we were totally filthy, in the middle of nowhere with big tired, red eyes peering out of our black soot smeared faces. I know that Frank looked hilarious, and was not about to look at myself. I just know we would have scared any bears away! We got a good few pieces of this wood, threw it in the bakkie and jumped in trying to get away from the mosquitoes. Only when we were firmly implanted back inside, did we realize that there were no mozzies - don’t they like burned forest? Well, it was a good find, a good break, and no mozzies. And a really good laugh when we looked at each other!
And then someone did something nasty. They took the road back to Fairbanks and stretched it further and further and further away. The last 60 miles of travel was actually on a very good road but stretching it out like they did, made it feel like 600 miles! It felt like we were creeping along, not getting anywhere at all. It’s always like that at the end of a long run, especially when we are tired.
We got into Fairbanks at around 4pm. I tried calling my kids, but the phone kept on cutting out - don’t know if you guys got my messages. We got home, cleaned off the burned bark of the burlwood, took the bakkie through the car wash and made her clean again. Then took ourselves through a good shower each, ate something and crashed at 5.30pm yesterday afternoon.
We were woken up at 7am this morning by Joleen calling! Lovely call, my girl, thanks! . Also got to speak to Lisa right after that - so good! And had half a conversation (reception bad) with Steven, hope you got parked ok!
Today has been a recovery day - slow start, and a long gentle bike ride through Fairbanks - about 5 hours. They really have lovely bike trails with no serious up or down hills - a true blessing. There were some fascinating shops along the way and we even found an ice cream store. Downtown Fairbanks is pretty and interesting too with many stores to explore and interesting statues in the main area. I only took two photos today - must be a record, but the camera is heaving a sigh of relief. It was a shorts and t-shirts day and was hot. We had plenty iced water on the ride with us and collected quite a tan too.
When we left Prudoe Bay heading back down towards Fairbanks, there was a definite feeling of a change in the direction of the trip. Up to this point it had all been about ‘going north’. Now we could only go South from here. It was strange in a way, sad – almost an end to something, yet we knew it was the beginning of so much more too.
Tomorrow we are headed out of Fairbanks, south some more. Not sure how far or where to, but we are going in the general direction of Canada again. This time we will go through Chicken, Alaska and into Canada on the "Top of the World" road. It sounds fascinating.
Our cell phones do not allow us to send emails from Alaska or most of the Yukon Territory, so I have to rely on getting into a camp that has a phone line available and works and that is still open when we get in. So don’t worry if you don’t hear from us in a few days. I will call when I get a phone signal. You can leave messages on the cell phone, I love collecting them when we get the signal back.
There are so many other things to tell. "Heaving" is what the road and the tundra does because of the permafrost. It really makes a mess of the roads – and also creates a certain amount of heaving inside too! Just thought of that now, and could not find the appropriate place in the email to put it, so you get that info here.
I was chatting to a lady in the camp and one of the things she shared was something she used to ask her kids. “If there is a question, then there is a question – now, is there a question?” Makes for some thought about many things.
Lotsalove to all - Especially U3!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Top of the World Road and Canada Again
6th July 2003
We are parked on the side of the road at the very top of a whole range of mountains. This is the “The Top of the World Road” just over the Canadian border, somewhere between Chicken, Alaska, and Dawson, in the Yukon, Canada.
We left Fairbanks this morning fairly early - keen to be on the road again with the amazing trip to Prudoe Bay still fresh in our minds. The view from the motor home is much better than from the bakkie, one sits up higher. Most folks are still heading north, so road is fairly open for us – it’s still weird going south! We started our trip about two weeks ahead of the busy season, so have had relatively uncluttered roads so far.
Most of the cars in Alaska have a power cord with a plug sticking out from under the hood of the car. This is to plug it in and keep it warm in the winter when you have to use the car despite the cold and “white stuff” (snow and ice). All the shopping parking areas have power boxes, so when you go shopping, you park your car, plug it in and then do your shopping and get back to a car that will still work and is not frozen solid. Its obviously a very different kind of life here in the winter. As one lady at the laundromat said that one has 9 months to make a list and three months to do it in! Quite a thought - no wonder manyt people around here seem to be in such a hurry.
We saw another female moose grazing casually along the side of the road today near Fairbanks - strange looking animals, rather like a big mule. We stopped off at Delta Junction and went to the tourist store there - got a few things to take back to the kids. They had a bakery but no fresh bread though. We are missing that fresh Panera bread badly! It was good to walk around for a while too. It rained on and off all the way along the road today, and the trees are rather like that game "pick up sticks" - all lying across each other all over the place. At times it looks like another planet, especially when lots of the trees have died off.
We just had to go and see the little town called Chicken in Alaska. This place has a main road that seems to consist of only three little shops that are connected together. One is a store with all the normal tourist things – some really cute, the other is a bar, and the third is a restaurant that gets $11.95 for a hamburger! Typing this now, after driving this road, I can understand the need for the bar. But hang on a moment, I'll get to that in a minute. The other things that Chicken has, that one can see, is a post office, and an RV park. That’s it - oh yes, and a moose in a pond, a live one at that too and a billboard thingy that you stick your head through the hole, take a photo and bingo – you look like a chicken on a billboard! That’s all we could see. But I am sure it has a lot of character – the folks that live there must have an incredible sense of humor…
We left Chicken just as a bus full of tourists arrived. We did not even take a photo at the Chicken sign and by that time were not too keen to stay there very long. If only we had known. We hit the road, happy to get out of there with no knowledge that the road would be hitting us for the next three or four hours. It was a road so bad, that we were driving at only 15 miles per hour and that was pushing it at times. Frank had previously described the roads as ker-chunk roads, this gave no warning "ker", this was just an endless "CHUNK-CHUNK" road, jarring everything in the motor home and in us. The house sounded like it was coming apart at the seams, and the poor bakkie just pulled a veil of dust over its head and let us do the pulling. I lost my sense of humor early on that strip of road. I did not even take photographs.
The road was only just more than a single lane and there were many times that we had to be really, I mean REALLY close to the side of this ribbon of dust and mud. My side being the side that had the endless drop-off with no barriers of course! There was one time that the drop was so deep and so close that I actually felt sick to my stomach when I looked out of the window. This is a terrible, terrible place to be, and everyone coming into Alaska this way should be warned. I hated every inch of the way on that road. And it rained too. Franks words: "It's the worst damn road I have ever been on in my whole stinkin’ life!" Get the picture? Even the ribbon to Prudoe Bay was judged better and that says something! I remember a river waaaaaaay down the side of the road, and some purple flowers and the rain. One other motor home went speeding past us at about 20 miles an hour – we saw them about three hours later with a broken rear axle.
We went through the Customs again, and there, on the Canadian side was an enormous wonderful rainbow and I just knew things could only get better. I had my passport stamped again, and got a photograph of a friendly and smiling INS officer – they do exist! A really nice lady - almost made the road worth it.
As I said in the beginning of the email, we are parked on the side of the road just inside Canada. The wind is howling, rocking the house around quite nicely, the clouds are building up, the rainbow has disappeared and its getting cold enough to snow, but we have enough propane to keep us warm, enough food and enough water, so we are not concerned at all. Apart from the wind, it is so peaceful up here. There is no traffic around as the border is closed from 8pm - 8am, so no one comes up here this late. We only just made it through the border in time tonight!
We walked a short distance – its too cold to be out too long, stretching our legs and just enjoying the total peace and quiet. The mountains were layered all over the horizon – each just a shade different from the next – really beautiful blue tinge all over!
We did not quite intend to leave Alaska today, but once one gets on that awful road, there is no turn around place at all, and we had no choice but to follow the road. So we are definitely headed south now, going towards Death Valley, Painted Desert, Redwood Forests, Canyons and any other place that comes in front of us. But through beautiful Yukon and British Columbia again first!
Again, cell phone connection is really poor here, and most times non-existent, and will be all the way till we reach USA no doubt.
Off to try to get some sleep - the sun is still shining brightly and it is nearly 11pm. The blinds/shades don’t quite keep out the light, and we are both looking forward to the dark and being able to see the stars again.
Love to you all
Especially U3 of mine
Annie and Frank - XXXXxxxx
Back in Yukon, Canada
8th July 2003
We came down a really steep road this morning right into a dead end onto the Yukon River! There one has to make use of the ferry or turn around and go back to Chicken and Alaska – no way! By the time we stopped to wait for the ferry, the brakes of the house were not liking life too well at all. They were smoking a horrible blue smoke that put a bad taste in our mouths and a niggle of worry in my mind. Eventually they cooled off, stopped smoking and were fine again by the time we got to the other side of the river. Dawson is a greatly historic town with old buildings, museums and things to see alongside the roads. It’s a really pretty town. We stopped along the banks of the Yukon to have some lunch and just relax for a while. It was lovely and quiet and quite amazing to see the speed of the water in the river. The water was two-tone, a line separating the light and dark – interesting.
This is the Klondike Highway and we drove through Stewart Crossing and Pelly Crossing on the way down to Whitehorse.
We are now sitting in yet another tire place, this time in Whitehorse Yukon. We had a blowout on the front drivers side (left) about 200 miles north of here, but fortunately had one spare left. Boy! I did not know that the tire would make that big a noise when it popped! I got a big fright, but fortunately Frank stopped the house really quickly before any damage was done to the wheel or much to my nerves. The road was a narrow road with no shoulder to speak of at all, but at least it was flat with no drop off on the side and a clear view of any other traffic.
We put the new spare tire on the front driver’s side, only to discover that it had no air in it at all. Our generator did not want to start, but fortunately a guy had stopped to see that all was ok, and he had a little tire pump thingamabob. After a long time and much chatting we got the tire pumped up and headed on our way again. It was so quiet there and the road was level for miles and almost no traffic – very peaceful all in all.
A little while later we came across an ice cream shop and stopped - we deserved it and they had samosas too! If you don’t know what a samosa is, it is a pastry thing that is folded into a triangle with the most delicious curry meat and stuff inside. We sat in the house eating the ice cream while waiting for the samosas to get done – it was too cold outside! Both were excellent and well enjoyed indeed.
So we headed south again, wanting to buy another spare tire, as we now had none, which is a decidedly uncomfortable feeling for us! We decided after a while to just pull off the road and rest up for the night, so we heated some water and had an on-board shower for a change. The house was parked at a bit of an angle, as the pull off was not the best we had ever picked. First thing we noticed this morning was that the house was now level! This meant that the tire was flat - again! Sure as nuts is nuts, it was, flatter than any pancake I have ever cooked. So out came the tools, the generator was fine-tuned, and the converter was charged, and the tire was pumped. Frank then found out that the valve core was not tightened when we bought the tire after our first flat tire in Minnesota or somewhere thereabouts.
Once the tire was pumped up again we tried starting the motor home up. Dead battery. Thank goodness for backup equipment! We finally got everything working right and headed south towards Whitehorse. On the way we once again came across a burned section of forest that had a lot of burlwood in the trees. Operative word there is "had". We got out our dirty jeans and shirts, the saw, and plodded into the woods. The ground around here is still that permafrost and it sinks down about 6 - 12 inches with each step one takes. We chopped down some dead trees and got a good few really nice pieces of wood with burls, and looked like little grubby puppies once again. Only after the wood was safely in the bakkie, did we think of bears and moose and suchlike - but we were making well enough noise to scare them off anyway. Again, no mosquitoes
We bought yet another new tire in Whitehorse and have now linked back up with the Alcan South. Only going on the Alcan as far as Watson Lake and then heading directly south on the Cassiar Highway and will get back to Kamloops area somewhere on that road. I think.
Wendy, the compass you gave us has only just recovered from the Arctic visit! Until this morning we had to read it as the exact opposite of what direction it said we were going in - almost like it went over the top of the world all on its own! I fiddled with it, turned it around and around, and took its battery out – did everything but read the instructions! But now it is reading correctly again, we think - it kept on showing us E90 degrees. no matter which way the road takes us, so we will see tomorrow if it is working properly when we head directly south. Still a good coffee cup holder if it quits working. I really should get the instruction booklet out.
We are tanked up with gas (petrol), gas (propane) and a new tire (tahr) - in other words, we are tanked up and tahred! We are heading "general south" on a much smoother road than we have been on for over two weeks. Blue sky with gray clouds looming. Saw another bear, but no other wildlife, apart from some golfers.
It feels almost as though we were spat out of Alaska, what with that awful road, but now are looking forward to getting to some new places again. We want to get to a grocery store and stock up on Ketchup chips before leaving British Columbia. Then we will be ready for the "lower 48's" again and some starry nights! Also sometime, somehow need a "kid fix"! I miss being able to at least talk to all three of you! Hopefully in the next 3 - 4 days the cell phones will be in range again.
It is nearly 8pm our time (now 3 hours difference from Chattanooga!) and we are in a little camp, charging all the cameras, battery chargers, getting the fridge nice and cold again (it still wont work while we drive), and just had good long hot shower. The camp is on the continental divide but there is really nothing around us. There are forests with trees of every shade and shapes, but one type always makes me think of you, Tilda - tall and elegant!
It is much less dusty down here, which makes Frank very happy! There is still snow and ice on the mountains. I thought that coming down the same road as we went up on would be just a tad boring, but find my photo-finger snapping away once again at the sights, and my mouth hanging open at the sheer beauty of this place! The sunlight really makes for wonderful pictures and it often rains or sprinkles which makes all the trees just that bit greener, if that’s possible. There are little log cabins in the strangest and remotest of places - it’s just a lovely place. Not that we would like to live here - especially in the winter! It’s raining again now, Frank is checking the washing at the laundromat and I must send this off. We will be out of cell phone contact for at least the next day or two - I will make contact whenever I can find a signal again.
Love U3 lots and miss you tremendously,
love to all
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
New Roads going South
9th July 2003
You all know the advert about Kentucky Fried Chicken being finger-lickin’-good? Well the scenery around here is "finger-clicking" good! We left our campsite on the continental divide this morning and headed further down the Alcan Highway till "37 Junction" - they actually named a little dot on the map this! It is right before one gets to Watson Lake. We were a little worried about the state of this road as we had heard conflicting stories about it but headed down on it anyway. We both wanted to get onto a "new" road, one unseen by us as yet. The scenery is just plain beautiful!
So we took the 37 South off the Alcan Highway, just before getting to Watson Lake, at Meziadan Crossing. We are once again in British Columbia and are now at Dease Lake and the Arctic Pacific Divide. What is this? This is the dividing line where the waters to the North drain into the Arctic Oceans and the water to the South drains into the Pacific Ocean. Another geography lesson I got to live!
The mountains are still decked with ice and snow, and hang way up in the sky. In some places the clouds were hanging low, well into the valley with the peaks of the mountains jutting out way above everything in a world of their own. The road is narrow, some places good some bad, but around each corner is a new amazing view. There are marshy lands all over, enormous tall green trees, and then right around the bend is "toothpick valley" where all the trees are dead and its all barren. It changes like this constantly, with amazing lakes with emerald green water, looking like an alien land, humongous mounds of stone, lakes that look like oceans with waves breaking, all in the same 10 minutes! There are little blue and pink flowers growing out of solid rock everywhere. Green Jade rock is littered all over the place and the river is totally beautiful with millions of lakes all over the place – lovely!
Needless to say, I have been taking many photos while Frank has been wrestling with the potholes in the bad parts of the road all day. We saw quite a few bear, black and a grizzly, a couple of moose, and some odd little birds whose name I am not even going to try to spell right, but they look rather like bantam chickens and I do believe that their name starts with a 'pt'.
We are now stopped alongside the road again in bear territory - definite bear territory. We saw a bear really near here, and when we filled up with gas, folks there told us about them too. We went for a little walk up the hill behind the creek where we are parked, and almost got eaten up by the mozzies! They are everywhere - not biting too badly, but buzzing the daylights (and sense of humor) out of us. We both carried big sticks, and made sure that we were creating lots of noise - neither of us want to be surprised by any make of bear! They are definitely larger than us, and have a serious attitude on them!
This trip has been absolutely amazing so far! It surprised us how dry and dusty Alaska was, as well as Canada, especially the Yukon. The views and vistas all over have been mind boggling and I hope that I have enough photos to remember them. I still have to sort through photos taken as far back as the Glacier boat ride, but have them all generally categorized in their own folders, and burned to c.d., just in case. I could not bear to lose them! Hopefully I will find the time to stop oooh-ing and aaah-ing long enough to sort and post them online for you all to see. Putting photos online depends on the connection I get, but I think we will find a library or some such thing back in the USA to do that. Maybe.
The sun is going behind the mountain outside here - not setting, just travelling behind it for a little while - and the clouds are the most amazing orange, red, and yellows, with silver and white all mixed in together!
But now is time for some sleep - its been another absolutely wonderful day.
Steven, Lisa, Joleen: What can I say? Hi! I love you!
Lotsa Love to all
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Bear Evidence
10th July 2003
There we were driving down the road yesterday saying, "look - there is more! and there! and there is some more! " This went on for miles and miles, and we knew that what we were seeing did not once belong to horses, deer or caribou. It was only later that evening when we had pulled off for the night and gone for a walk that we discovered that it was bear poop! The bears must have a thing about pooping on the road, or there are way too many bears around. We saw many, many black bears today. They are mostly shy of the cars and run away as soon as you stop. They normally look at one as they shamble off, making sure you understand that they are bigger than you are and would not hesitate to come back and chase you.
This morning we slept late and only woke up around 10am. We both feel very rested now, and are heading for St George further down in BC, today.
Alaska, otherwise known as Alyeska (I love that spelling!) was wonderful, it was just not exactly as either of us had thought it would be and now I am not even sure of what our minds picture of Alaska was! If you look at a map of Alaska, and see the roads marked - that is exactly what roads are there. We had hoped to be able to find some little non-tourist village, or at least some non-tourist people. But that did not take away from the absolute wonder of the place, the friendliness of the folks there or simply the wonderful feeling of just being there. Everyone must go there even if it’s just to see the amazing beauty.
It has always been my dream to go and see Alaska, and Franks dream too. We have been very fortunate to get to go. As I have said, it is an amazing place, mind-boggling, awesome, fantastic and all those other words that can only describe a truly amazing place. Be aware of the endless dusty roads, the stunning scenery, and most of all - the lovely endless light (in the summertime anyway) and snow capped mountains. I loved taking photos at 2am and looking outside at any time and seeing the gentle hazy light or yet another sunset/sunrise as the sun went around on the horizon. It’s truly an amazing place.
In my mind, a big part of the trip is over, from heading North, from dreaming for years of heading "North to Alaska!" to seeing the compass pointing us South now is quite a change, an emotional adjustment too. We are both looking forward to getting to Arizona and Colorado, yet its still a change from the "almost need" to go North. Frank promises that there is much beauty South of us too - and we will criss-cross the USA after seeing the Oregon Coast. I feel a very strong need to put my feet in salty water again, especially the type that is above freezing!
British Columbia is gently beautiful. There are little log cabins stuck away inside endless forests. One wonders how and why they survive the winters out here in the middle of nothing - or what appears to be nothing. Most of the roofs on the buildings have very high peaks to keep the snow from building up on them. Others have ladders permanently up on the roofs, so one can get up there and shovel the snow off before it becomes too heavy. The lakes here are beautiful, some of them are clear with clear green spots in them, others are dark blue, and yet others are just dark, black and almost menacing looking - but all of them stunning. There are little ponds of stagnant waters all over the place too where beavers have made enormous dams - these are normally filled with broken trees and a few ducks swimming mindlessly.
I miss my kids very much, and at the same time I am happier than I can remember being in an awfully long time! I love this travelling, and find myself really at home up front in the house with wheels turning! Frank loves driving and is not the type to sit still for any length of time, so he does most of the driving and I get to do the photos and the emails! Good deal, methinks!
Frank is yelling "water, Annie, water!" so I stop typing, reach for the camera, only to find trees in my way - again! So many excellent photos just turned into blurry trees. Sometimes when I get the camera in time and the trees are not out to get me, the camera has switched off! But I do think I have been able to get some really nice pictures.
I feel really spoiled right now sitting here in the passenger seat, typing this email, just finished eating a crunchie (yes! we found a shop and bought a stack of crunchies, aero's and ketchup chips), drinking fantastic tasting Frank-made coffee, listening to music, and watching the world go past me at an average speed of 50 miles per hour! What more could one wish for?
I could never have dreamed of such fun and adventure. And on that very happy and blessed note, I will say goodbye for today.
Love to all
Especially U3!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Last Day in Canada
11th July 2003
Just around Williams Lake in BC, about 45 kilometers north of "100 Mile House" (yes, it is a place!) there is a crossroad that if you turn left it takes one to "Horsefly" and turning right will take you to "Likely". Needless to say, we are still heading south on the 97, not wanting to find out more about either of those places right now! We were not ready to take the Skilpads in there – it did not sound as if there would be turnaround place for us. It gets tight sometimes when turning around, we are about 50 foot in total length and have to be careful where we put the snout of this rig!
We are now in farming land and there are some changes that snuck up on us. Firstly most of the lands have fences around them and tame bison, cows and sheep - no more bears and moose, then there are telephone and power lines everywhere. I used to have to dodge the trees to get the good photos, now it’s the trees and the inevitable power lines too. We both miss the "open road" the roads with less traffic and more chance of seeing wildlife. Ah well, things do change. Besides we are on the way to Vancouver today and hopefully we will have our feet in the Pacific waters on the weekend! They say Oregon is beautiful - can’t wait!
Last night was the first time in weeks that it actually got dark! We closed the blinds and everything disappeared! It was quite strange and we both burst out laughing! At 1am this morning it was actually dark enough to see stars - wonderful! I had trouble sleeping so I just lay there looking at the stars hoping against hope to see the northern lights. Just saw stars... It was good, I had missed them.
Oh, before I forget - Wendy our compass is back on track again working beautifully! I took its battery out and spoke to it nicely, dusted it off, checked the wiring, plugged it back in and she is just a-humming along again. (The instruction manual still where I have not looked yet.)
The scenery changed dramatically in just a few minutes. One minute we were driving through farmlands and the next we were in the middle of enormous, bald, barren sandy looking mountains. There were no trees at all growing on any of them and they looked like they belonged in the movie "Neverending Story". The road was a good one, but Canada does not use many barriers on the outside of the road! The river was miles below and the road wound itself around the mountains endlessly, going steeply up and then straight down, only to go straight back up again. Anyone that says you get no exercise while being a passenger has not driven these roads. On the up hills my stomach muscles clench hoping that the house won’t overheat, and looking over the edge or clenching my eyes tightly shut – ok, so I do peep, a lot! And on the downhills my arm and leg muscles are working overtime treading on non-existent brake pedals. The jaw muscles are clenched most of the time on roads like this, but I have actually been relatively relaxed and not squeaked or squawked too much at all.
There is so much mud caked on the motor home and the bakkie that Frank had to take a hammer to knock some of it off before we could open the step on the house tonight. The mud has become like rock stuck to the underside of the house. We had another flat tire today, which we only discovered after we had stopped for the night. It was the inside back wheel, and it was only flat because the valve stem is broken. So we will have a new one put in tomorrow and be on our way back into the USA, and down to Oregon. Hopefully we will catch a good friendly Immigration officer and get another photo too - worth a try anyway and the worst they can do is say no! I think.
We are in a little camp that has enormous redwood trees, some about 100 foot high! It is beautiful, green and has this swishing sound as the wind blows - lovely! We went for a gentle bike ride through the park – unwinding and breathing in the lovely smell of all the different plants and trees around there. There were many people with little campfires, kids hunched up around them burning their marshmallows and I wondered at all the memories being created there.
We put our Alaska sticker on the bumper of the motor home today – it looks like Skilpad earned it what with all the dust and dirt stuck to her again!
That’s all for me now, I am going to get an early night tonight.
Love to you all especially U3!
Annie and Frank - XXXXxxxx
Back in the U.S.A.!
Washington State
12th July 2003
Where are we? In Washington State, in an Indian reservation, 40 miles from a rain forest, 5 miles from the Pacific Coast, and 53 miles from the town called Forks, along side the road for the night. Now you know exactly where we are! And it’s raining.
We stayed in Hope last night about 80 miles north of the USA border. It really got dark last night! No stars even, it was cloudy. Lovely sleeping weather with the gentle rain on the roof and the sound of the gently singing trees.
Many of the mountains around here are made up of what looks like slate and they have to put a wire netting curtain down the side of the mountain to stop the mountain falling onto the roads when it breaks off. This happens all along the roads and train tracks, and some of the train tracks are actually built with a roof over them. The mountain looks as if it is continuously falling in, and one wonders if "the big piece" will come down right in front of us!
The traffic from Hope down to the border was incredible! It was almost worse than Atlanta traffic but on only two lanes, and that was going both ways too. We stopped just north of the border to have the spare (ex-flat one) tire fixed and have given up the thought of no more flats - what will be will be.
There was a looooooooooong line of cars to go through the customs/immigration line this morning. As we moved slowly forward, I found my stomach clenching, my jaws tightening and caught myself sitting bolt upright as if I had something to be worried about. I had my green card clenched in my hand, my passport too and many quick words just waiting on my tongue to zap any Immigration official that was going to give me a hassle! Needless to say, all went well, apart from Frank quietly laughing at my 'slightly' sweaty palms! We even got an agent that smiled! I could not get him on camera, but will remember him for life! They CAN smile and even joke! I went into the office to ask them in there to stamp my passport - which he did, after trying to remove a piece of paper I have stapled in there. He said I did not need it anymore, and I told him it was part of "my battle" and if it was not illegal, to leave it in there, please. I did get a VERY puzzled, and half-sad look and a good ‘ole stamp saying that I have, once again, been admitted into the USA! And then he smiled too - what a day!
After being cleared by the INS officer, we had to pull over and be cleared by "The Agricultural Officer" (All capitol letters/upper case and NO smile!) He wanted to know if we had any meat, fruit or veggies bought in Canada. After inspecting our canned food (?) he grudgingly accepted that we had no "illegal substances" and strutted off in his important uniform to hand in his finds from the previous vehicle. This was the really funny part - he had confiscated one potato and a small piece of salami from the other motor home! Frank quickly pulled me into our house where I just about collapsed at the whole scene! And the poor man was so serious about his job! I am honestly glad that going through the borders is taken so seriously by these folks – its just that I have been dealing with immigration for years and refusing entry to a potato just caught my ‘tickle bone’.
I did relax after pulling away and being safely in the USA again.
We traveled along tiny little farmland roads, flat ground with no mountains except for those waaaaaaaaaaay in the distance - it was really good to be on a 'non-tourist' and relatively quiet road for a change. There is moss growing on all the trees – fences and houses which seem to be falling in from the weight of the moss. Looks crazy. We crossed over to the Olympic National Park near Mount Vernon, and had to go on a ferry ride to get across there. What a joy! We drove the house up into the belly of this beeeeeg boat along with what seemed like a million other cars. We were so closely packed that we had to turn our rear view mirrors in so they would not get knocked around. The ride was just over half an hour, but so beautiful! The sea smelled like the sea and there was wonderful smelly seaweed all over the place! We had picked up some stones from the beach before we got onto the ferry, and my hands still smelled and tasted like the real ocean - salty! I stood outside on the bows of the ferry just enjoying and taking photos for about 20 minutes before realizing that I could not feel my legs anymore. Frank and I were both in shorts and barefoot, but he had gone in a few minutes before me and bought coffee and the most delicious bowl of clam chowder. What a treat to come in out of that cold and be handed these! The ferry took us over a piece of water that is just off the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Wendy, I wanted to call you - but your phone just rang and rang. Ah well. A wonderful ‘float’ all in all.
We then drove directly west towards Port Angeles and the Olympic Mountains in the Olympic National Park. The most awesome scenery! The trees! They are just huge, but as Frank says, tiny by comparison to what we are still going to be seeing. The burlwood on these redwood trees is absolutely stunning and mind-blowing. I am determined to find a piece of redwood burl that is small enough to put in the bakkie.
We saw the beach - the Pacific - the real sea! We stood on top of a cliff, (again with no barriers) and listened to the surf breaking a few hundred feet below. The enormous boulders - the sun setting over the water - the smell, it’s got that 'proper sea' smell! I just soaked it up. It was amazing. I know the sea is in my blood and it really re-charges my soul and batteries when I even just hear it! There is the lovely ocean view all along the road. Cliffs, bashing waves, sea smell, big rocks, turning wheels, open windows, blowing hair, lots of laughs – beautiful!
We will probably head into Oregon tomorrow, find a camp near the beach and park there for a few days. We are both really looking forward to going past Mt St Helen’s – I hear it is quite amazing to see and that it can be seen from many, many miles away.
This part of the country is awesome. Yesterday I was feeling a little as if all the amazing part of the trip was over, but it is definitely not. The camera worked overtime again today and captured some wonderful memories, our jaws dropped just like they have done all the way so far, and the absolute wonder and the beauty still stuns us both.
I am discovering that the kids can cope very well without me. It’s a good and a sad feeling – mostly good though.
Time to get some sleep again - its pitch dark out here - not a single light in sight, virtually no traffic at all, gentle rain on the roof again, and the sounds of Frank 'delicately' snoring in the back. Wow
Love to you all - Especially U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
The Beach!
14th July 2003
We have just come back from yet another amazing walk along the beach. The coast is beautiful here, with the waves crashing in and the seaweed all over the place. Not many shells, but some lovely stones. I have picked up so many that it is starting to weigh the motor home down! They are better than that stuff one buys at all those tourist shops - all made in China or Mexico - these are each unique!
We have slowed down for two days, walking, metal detecting, and sleeping late. The foghorn in the bay - Yoquina Bay, keeps blowing and has this eerie sound, especially when the mist is thick over the water.
So, not much to tell at all this time, except that the coast is wonderfully amazing, and you will have to wait for me to post my pictures to see what I mean. Tomorrow, Tuesday, we will be heading for California - how far down we go depends on how we feel.
Love to you all - Especially U3 of mine!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Oregon Coast
15th July
And where are we now? At yet another tire place! Yes, we blew yet another one - well we are having the last two replaced now, which makes six brand new tires, and a really good spare. Now for the bakkie?
Yesterday was wonderful and also a first for me - I did not take a single photograph! We both got sunburned and are like little (or not so little) red crayfish. It’s not too bad and might just turn into a tan. It was wonderful walking down the beach, splashing in the water and hunting through the driftwood - some of them massive trees sprinkled all along the coastline. It was just a good relaxing day, and we even got a good bike ride in and around the park we stayed in.
The day before, we had taken the bikes to the beach because it looked like the little road over the dunes was all solid road. Well, they had us fooled. Just as you got over the top of one dune, just past "the point of no return", the road went to straight deep, soft, sand! The only way to get the bikes to the beach was to pick up the front tire and drag them through the soft dunes till we got to the harder, wet sand. Riding on the beach was wonderful! Just felt so free and becomes very interesting when one hits a soft spot every now and again. The mist came in thick and fast, and it was impossible to see very far at all - just wonderful. We found a great bakery too, and finally got hold of some bread that is not just fluff.
The roads on this route are just incredible. They go up so high and only have an occasional stone to act as a barrier on the outside. But the view is stunning which makes it well worth it. They have areas of roads that are "safe passages" in case of a tsunami. My nightmare.
Now heading south towards California. We took a wrong turn near Coos Bay and ended up going through the narrowest of roads one could imagine. Past play parks, tiny houses, uphill and then straight down to impossible curves. I found myself holding my breath for longer and longer periods, but Frank just stayed cool and got us back onto the main road again. We don’t have area specific maps at all, and the roads are not always clearly marked so we look at the general direction and hope like heck that we are taking the right turn. It’s been interesting at times to say the least.
Ok, this is much later in the day and we are parked along side the road again for tonight. We are in California. After driving all day, we came around this bend in the road and saw miles and miles of motor homes next to the most fantastic beach. It took us only a minute to realize that they were parked there for the night - so we quickly found ourselves a spot and have been for a walk, watched the seals play in the surf, and seen the most fantastic sunset in California. All the folks parked here are very respectful of each other. It’s like there is a bubble around each motor home and only when one crosses that boundary will the others "encroach" on your privacy. It’s very nice, and most folks are friendly and talkative. Everyone is keen to know where everyone has been, and pass on advice re road works and conditions.
We drove through the most awesome Redwood forests. The forests are so thick at times that you have to drive with your lights on! The stumps of the old dead trees were way bigger diameter than the motor home, and the living ones were awesomely big and as tall as the sky. We are driving on the US 101, which is the scenic highway all the way down the coast. The views are stunning, the cliffs and the rocks in the ocean and that ocean wind all the time just sings to my soul. Sometimes the road takes us so high that the clouds swirl around us as we drive, just an amazing drive - excellent for the stomach muscles too! Every now and again we get a stretch of "plain road" when I can recharge the camera battery - but that only lasts for a short while.
I have taken so many pictures of the ocean and the rocks in the sea, that I can see myself naming them ‘rocks in sea’, ‘rocks in sea #1’, ‘rocks in sea #2’, ‘more blooming rocks’! Will have to do some serious sorting out sometime soon.
Ending this email for now – We are in Sacramento and going swimming, I think.
Lotsalove to you all
Especially U3 - I miss you so much!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Yosemite & Death Valley
18th July 2003
Well, we made it through Sacramento – it felt smaller than I had anticipated. Maybe I am getting used to big town traffic? On the other side we had yet another tire that was down, so Frank pulled out the trusty machinery and pumped her up - faulty valve core, or some such thing. The day improved dramatically after that.
We did some gold panning on the Trinity River - it is a lovely river - the water was is clear and you can see the gold particles shining in the water. They are so small though that it was difficult to pick them up, so we just took photos and enjoyed playing in the water. Frank put three tiny pieces of gold in his shoe, but now we cannot find them. Such is life, and we have not become millionaires either - yet! Those pans work great, Kate - just did not catch the big piece yet.
When we left the West Coast of California, we headed east on a road that took us through the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, which was lovely and through a town called Whiskeytown. The road went straight, no! I mean STRAIGHT up and then down all curvy with, once again, no barriers on my side of the road. Interesting.
Seeing that I am the navigator, I then voluntarily navigated us all the way to the freeway - and did so with pleasure too! I normally hate the interstates, but this time I was extremely happy to see it. We headed south after connecting with the Interstate at Redding and stayed overnight just north of Sacramento.
The scenery along this road is extremely unexciting. It is flat, dry, dry, dry, and burned in places. Then there are the green, green farms stretching for miles upon miles, scattered between the dry flatness. It looks in a way like South West African terrain. They farm everything out here, and then some more too. It seems so dry, though. The camera rested.
We decided to drive through Yosemite National Park, so off we headed east towards more high mountains! We put in some gas just before heading up to the main mountains. We decided to take the Tioga Pass through Yosemite National Park. Always make sure that your air filter is good and clean before climbing these roads. We learned the hard way.
The views were totally stunning, beautiful, big pine trees and some very impressive Redwood trees. I picked up some very large pinecones - they are full of resin so are relegated to underneath the house in a separate compartment. The roads took us so high that when we went over a bridge that told us there was a river underneath the road, we could not see the river, it was too far down! Totally amazing! The trees were so high in places that the sky disappeared, the roads were once again very steep, very narrow, no barriers, and gave one the most awesome views.
Our problem was that apparently we had got some bad gas at the last fill up, and the house did not like the hills or the altitude – dirty filter? We chugged up those hills at about 15 miles per hour, with this incredible engine noise of Skilpad trying so hard to get us to the top! Not a quiet or peaceful drive when you find yourself screaming uphill at slow speed with the engine winding itself to the limit. The only good it does is for the stomach muscles - and my right arm where I was frantically clutching the camera!
One good thing about this slow climb is that we had quite a few lovely stops along the way. On one such stop I stood listening to the pinecones falling from miles above in the treetops. They seemed to come down so slowly, but hit with a good thud at the bottom. It was so incredibly quiet when there were no cars passing and old Skilpad was quietly cooling off under the enormous trees. We drove past Tuolume Meadow near the end of the road in Yosemite – endless green pasture – so lovely!
Well, after spluttering up many miles of mountains, we finally reached the top, Skilpad doing a tad better by now, and we left the park at 9945 feet! We were only half way! Like in the center of a hurricane, one knew what was coming now! Steep winding, narrow road, no barrier, down hills - ALL the way! Frank says "It was wonderful" and I have slept since then so don’t quite feel as tense as I did then. Before, one could smell the pine trees, now all we smelt was the brakes from the cars in front of us and the air turned a hazy blue with the smoke of hot brakes on every vehicle! Skilpad did very well. For miles we heard the house motor winding uphill and now for miles, in low gear, she wound her way, screaming, downhill. Good house this one, very good house.
We found a place called Lone Pine to stay in are here for a few days. Today I slept criminally late - but it was wonderful. We ambled off into town, and then decided to go to Death Valley. We left the motor home at the campground and explored in the bakkie for a change.
It was (are there no new words to describe the absolute wonder?) awesome. It was Hot, it was Hot, it was HOT! The signs tell you to switch the car air conditioner off when going up the mountains, so you open the windows and the air burns your ears, without even the sun shining on them. It was so hot at times that it felt like you had just climbed into an oven. I have been in hot places (No - Kate!), and have felt what hot temperatures are like, but this was just incredible!
We went from about 6000 feet above sea level, to 283 feet below sea level in about one hour. The temperature change was probably about 40-50 degrees, but felt like 120 degrees outside at any time. We picked up and looked at many rocks. There are full mountains of pumice - red pumice - they are not as hot to pick up and definitely don’t hold the heat as much as the other rocks. The black lava rocks are impossible to pick up and hold, waaaaay too hot. One learns how to pick them up and toss them around until cool enough to throw in the bakkie door to cool off so one can look at them. We went all the way to Furnace Creek where there is a golf course and RV park - some people really are suckers for punishment! We walked on that big dry lake there that they call the Racetrack where the stones move by themselves. It is amazing and the lakebed just goes on forever. We did not see those stones that had moved, as they are way across the other side of the lake, and it was far too hot to walk and no cars allowed either. But we were there!
The colors in the mountains are amazing, and the scenery changes from one minute to the next. One moment it is just pumice, then you have hundreds of acres of black burned looking stone, and white plants, then it changes to Joshua Trees and a bit more greenery, then just barren mountainside again. There are sand dunes there that are the second largest in the USA - they sit right below a barren mountain, and are quite amazing. We could see them way in the distance with the heat waves shimmering all around them. Really amazing.
There were a few traces of animal life, and we wondered at the ability of anything to survive in there in that heat. We drank over 10 bottles of water during the drive, got out a few times, baked ourselves into a tan and were simply in awe of the place. We are still trying to cool off now.
We plan to go across the mountains to go and see that Giant Sequoia tree in the morning. Everything involves mountains here - but they are lovely!
Thanks for all your emails - we do enjoy them tremendously!
Love to U3 - miss you LOTSA
and love from us both
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Las Vegas
20th July
We stayed in Lone Pine for a couple of days. The lone pine tree has long since disappeared but it is a lovely little town with plenty to do around it.
We did go and see the giant tree - General Sherman, its called - and is amazing - there is just no way at all to describe it and no way to get it all in with one camera shot however hard one tries!
The Sequoia National Park is geographically directly across the mountain range with Mt Whitney in the range (grammatically incorrect sentence, but it is v e r y hot here and my brain is frying today - eyeballs fried in Death Valley yesterday - today the brain in Las Vegas), so one has to drive a million miles all the way around and over the mountains, again, to get to “The Trees”. It was SO worth it. We had a choice of two ways, north via Yosemite back the way we came over, or south over the other range of mountains. I picked south. The views were stunning, I don’t know how many times I could look right over the edge of the mountain and see nothing there for hundreds of miles down, or so it seemed. The corners were so tight that they had 10 miles per hour speed limits on them, with nothing to catch you if you went faster. Ah well, you all get the picture - some more of my type of road. But once again, totally breathtaking (in more ways than one).
The scenery again changed from minute to minute - bland barrenness, to amazing mountains to scrub with Joshua trees all over. Then around the next corner, the most amazing greenery and farming happening for miles and miles. Sometimes in the middle of some or other type landscape, we would come across a sand dune - a natural one high on the side of a mountain - totally weird.
The redwood trees just stunned me. We went on the "Walk of 100 Giants" and once again the camera worked overtime, snapping endless pictures. Many times I had to take as 4 or 5 separate shots to get the complete tree in, and that with the camera turned sideways to get the maximum height in each picture! Oh the sorting of those photos is going to be a royal pain - any volunteers?
I just cannot even begin to explain how totally awesome those trees are, and some of the pines too - they are just too amazing. The peace in the forest is wonderful and the knowledge that one is standing in a place of great age adds a different dimension to the feeling. There were many sounds, squirrel sounds, falling branches sounds and pinecones meeting the earth sounds – but they all add to the gentleness of the forest. Some of the big trees have survived many fires, and have a large part of their base burned, but they keep on climbing higher and higher. It made me wonder at all the people way back in history that have felt sat or walked around the bases of these giants.
It took us nearly 9 hours to drive to General Sherman, and we only got there at about 6.30pm. Taking those narrow roads back home were just too much, so I navigated Frank along the freeways, which we did in approximately 5 hours. They do have speed limits, and apparently the roads are patrolled by aircraft, or so they say. One wonders where the traffic cop would come from? There is just nothing around and certainly no policeman sitting waiting to catch you.
Driving at night around there, each car is an island. You can see this little space of light travelling along the road ahead of you or behind, but absolutely nothing else. The stars were brilliant, but the moon hid from us for some reason. There are no street lights like we are all used to, or the big lit up signs, one can see that they try to save on power/electricity around here. I tried to get some shots of nightlights of the little towns we drove through, but the lights are all so dim, that the camera would not/could not pick up them up. Ah well, I tried.
We got back from the trees around 11pm, totally exhausted and fell into bed - half asleep already. This morning we woke up slowly with the absolute knowledge that our front tire had gone somewhat flat again. It’s getting very boring, and although I have spoken sternly to each one of them, this front one just will not co-operate! Frank tiredly tightened that thingy again, the valve core or stem or the generally known "leaky thing", and pumped it up, yet again. Then we took Skilpad loose and took her for a bath. The dirt that came off this house was incredible, and the spraying water was wonderful. It was already very hot at 10am this morning, and we all three enjoyed the cooling spray. We then took her back to camp, cooled her insides off with the air conditioner, had a shower and hit the road again.
We are now in Las Vegas, in a camp right on "The Strip". We have amazing buildings, lights, and stuff that is just mind-boggling going on all around us. Gone is the peace of the forests! We are waiting for it to cool down a bit and then going to take a ride along The Strip as they call it. We will go to the Bellagio water fountain - Wendy says its stunning and it sounds cool (as in temperature) too.
It was very interesting driving through this town. We took a wrong turn off the freeway, and had to head through the main streets of town. So many cars, all wanting to go in different directions, and we had no clue which way we needed to go. We stopped for a gas fill up and a kind gentleman at the store pointed us in the right direction.
We are booked in here for 3 nights. We want to "do the Strip" (not literally), as I have said, go to Hoover dam, to Lake Mead, and then go and drive up towards Area 51 and see what we cannot see - it does not exist, remember? Yes, we will be careful where we go and won’t go on private roads. There is a road up there that I just HAVE to go to - its called Extraterrestrial Blvd. If we don’t get back, we are shooting around the universe in a UFO!
Then we plan on going south to the Grand Canyon, but that is another day.
It’s hot but very interesting here.
Hey U3! Miss you! and love you LOTSA
Now going to get yet another bottle of ice water out of the freezer
Love from us both
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Did The Strip!
21st July 2003
"At the red light, you must turn right. OK. So why are you in this lane? ‘Cause you said I must turn right. No, but you've gotta turn RIGHT! (me pointing left) Oh, your right or the other right?"
That is an example of me navigating and Frank desperately trying to follow my directions! Needless to say, we had to turn right (normal persons right) to hunt a turnaround place in a busy traffic rush section. After that I pointed out my directions in silence... Wendy, I know you will remember these types of directions too. Ah well, perfection is still a way to go.
We walked the Las Vegas strip last night - for about 4 hours. It’s amazing, it’s dirty, it’s stunning, it’s noisy, bright, sleazy, and very beautiful. Many of the folks walking around here were either high or drunk, and the rest of us just amazed. A very interesting mixture to say the least. There were millions of people walking around, shoving at each other to get by on fairly narrow sidewalks. The construction going on is mind boggling - they were working all night through it seemed. They had places along the sidewalks that blew out cool mist and we all went out of our way to walk under these wonderful places.
There are some places of amazing quiet and peace and beauty in amongst the hectic pace. The gondolas, floating around and under bridges at the Venetian Hotel, while the folks sat in them looking mildly embarrassed at being looked at by so many people. There was a volcano erupting with flames and realistic sounds and lava flows. The art in some of their structures and shows are amazing. But nothing came close to the Bellagio Fountain Dance for us. This was stunning, and the main reason why we walked so far. Thanks Wendy!
We got there when one performance was ending and the next only started in 10 minutes time - we waited. I sat up on the wall around the fountain and got some really good pictures and video and was gently cooled off by the spray and mist blowing off the fountains. Whoever managed to organize this show must have an amazing brain.
They have stretch Hummer Limo's that seem to be 30 foot long and stretch bakkies too - also at least 30 foot in length! You can rent almost any type of car you want, dream cars, electric corvettes, Lamborghini, and many others too. Bicycle taxis that work only on tips - just so much it would take an awful lot of time to take it all in. We did do a little bit of ‘putting the coins in those machines’ that just did not want to do anything for us at all! Hopefully others do better than we did.
It was a long walk back home, and it was still very hot. We bought a glass of beer, but it did not stay cool enough for long enough so we tossed that away and got some cold water instead – much better. We got back home and fell exhausted into bed. We are staying in a camp to the north end of the strip - right near the Sahara Hotel and all its shining glory - everything is quite a site.
This morning we went to Hoover Dam. It is not far from here, but is as hot as one can imagine. Quite amazing what has been done there and Lake Mead is beautiful! Once again, though, it was so hot that as soon as one got out of air conditioning it felt like someone was blasting you with a flame-thrower. The water level was quite low, but there were many people having a great amount of fun all around. Many boats, wind surfers and swimmers at Lake Mead - nice to see. At Hoover Dam there are enormous Brass Statues – biggest “all in all” brass statues in USA – they are lovely! It’s deathly hot here. They have fine water spraying from umbrellas and other places to keep the tourists cooled off. There are pockets of people all hanging around the sprays – all red faced and panting and definitely not giving up their space!
We are now sitting in the motor home, and Frank has just taken the filters off the air conditioner to get more cool air flowing through - the air conditioner is doing all it can do to keep cool, but not really getting close at all. The heat from the tarmac under the motor home is blasting upwards, and the sun is beating us from above not making for a good temperature at all.
Tomorrow we will probably go up to Extraterrestrial Blvd - hopefully it will be a tad cooler there. It’s just too hot to think straight and the heat rules the days around here.
That’s all for now
Love to all
Especially U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Almost at Grand Canyon
23rd July 2003
Ok so now we are in a campground at the North Rim, or nearly, of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. It is beautiful and cool up here at nearly 7000 feet! We are parked under a forest of pine trees with the wind gently winding its way into all the hot spots of the house. SOOOOOOOOOO good!
We went up to ET Hwy yesterday. It was a very interesting drive mostly through the shimmering hot desert. There are mountains all around one, all the time, and the sun-baked ground can only just support little scrubby looking bushes and some Joshua Trees. I thought Joshua Trees looked different, but we were told that these were them. So. They grow as if they were not sure which way they wanted to go - all over the place and then some. They have very prickly stuff all over them - I mean all over them - I tried touching one and came out second best. But did get a seedpod.
ET Highway is just a road, but maybe it is because so much has been written and spoken about the area, that it has a strange feel to it. It literally looks like a different planet there. One cannot see Groom Lake or Area 51 from this road, and it would take some very determined folks to get to the top of the mountains to look over into that area. But the weather there is strange, the rocks seems to absorb the heat more than other places, and it felt like 140 degrees there - almost like Death Valley. There was just a strange feel to it. It’s difficult to explain, and it might all just be in my head. We did go a little way up one little dust road, got out and walked for a short way - the only thing that there is more of than rocks, is cow poop. Very dry. Did pick up some stones that were a little different (petrified cow poop?), and headed back to the house to try and find some "coolth". It was almost too hot to wear sunglasses. The parts that go over ones ears create quite a hot point. Apart from one store/inn there were no tourist shops, no gift shops, not even gas/petrol stations nearby - we were quite surprised, but then maybe the aliens got them?!
It was strange being here after reading so much about this area and one can easily imagine the unimaginable. Even the weather seemed strange to the partly fried brain in my head. It was not a totally comfortable place to be, but then that may just be because of its remoteness, reputation and heat.
After cooling off for a little back at the motor home, we went to Circus Circus, the nearest hotel to us. We gambled a bit - the small stuff, and then Frank won $109 so we cashed it out and went walk-about to see what else was in the hotel. There is a full amusement park inside the hotel, complete with roller coasters, water rides, merry-go-rounds and everything else that comes at any normal amusement park - even a McDonalds. It was stunning to see just how much could fit into a relatively small place, and this did not seem take up much of the hotel at all. And this was just ONE hotel! Quite fascinating.
This morning we headed out towards lands of cooler climate - or hoped to anyway - and it seems as if we got it right. We had another blowout on a tire - rear inside, and had to buy yet another. I am not going to say anything else regarding the tires or how long they should last, or even whether they will last. Each will do what it is going to do - and all we know is that if we have two more flats at the same time, that’s where we will stay for a while as long as it’s cool! When changing the tire today - the ground was so hot that it burned my feet right through my shoes. When the tire popped, it ripped out a piece of the underside of the house, fortunately nothing serious, and can be fixed easily once we are back in TN. It also flipped the mudguard over, and a piece of tire hit the bakkie on its way to the center of the road - quite an impressive POP it was!
The scenery today was filled with lots of red mountains. Very red and very regal. There are mesas all over the place and once again, the scrub changes from hilltop to hilltop. We drove through a section of road that was cut out of the rock, high rock walls on either side which went on for about 15 miles. Being spat out on the other side was interesting - totally different views again.
Skilpad is still suffering from a rotten load of watered gas, and splutters a bit when we go to the higher elevations or take one of those roads that just keep going up. Hopefully that will work itself out soon, but it looks as though most of our travel will be more level or downhill from here on. We are at almost 7000ft now, so will have to go down some at least. Frank has changed Skilpads air filter, her oil filter, put in some gas treatment, some carburetor cleaner, topped up the water and oil and now she is resting for a few days – hopefully she will go well after this much deserved rest.
So here we are still, in this lovely park with the cool breeze. Frank made a delicious steak and baked potato and veggies, and an ice-cold glass of wine and orange juice with goodly sized ice blocks - what a cook - what a guy – what a life!
We are going to go for a walk or bike ride, and tomorrow plan to drive out to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
Today we were in Nevada, Utah and are now in Arizona. Three in one day. Catching up on States we are, Wendy!
It is lovely and quiet, slightly overcast, gentle breeze, no engine noise or planes flying overhead (Las Vegas was noisy) - lovely here.
Love to you all
Especially U3 - and again, well done on your job, Steven!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
North Rim Grand Canyon
24th July 2003
If someone could capture, along with an image, the smell, warmth/'coolth' and feelings that one experiences at the wonders we have seen, they will be the richest person on earth - and I am not only talking financially! Just imagine getting a picture/video sent to you on your computer, with sound attached, and to be able to feel the experience too - like a beam of sunlight coming out of your computer, or the cool breeze from the Canyon - wow.
The North Rim of the Canyon is just totally amazing! There is just no way that a camera or video could capture the
magnificence of this place. We tried, and kept trying, and have a camera FULL of pictures. Some of them will tell a small part of the awesome-ness of this place. It is colorful, plain, barren, green, red, white, steep, gentle slopes, harsh, kind in places, flat, round, just plain mind boggling! It just goes on forever, and the signs say that one would have to go up into space a long way to be able to see the whole canyon. This is just amazing. I am definitely running out of words to describe all we are seeing, so please excuse the repetitiveness, or send some "reasonable and generally understandable" substitutes, please!
We went all the way to Cape Royal lookout point - totally wonderful. This point seems to be way out there in the canyon. Everywhere you look are stunning views, stunning colors and stuff that just cannot be explained. I loved Theodore Roosevelt’s words: "Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. What you can do is keep it for your children, your children’s children and for all that come after you, as the one great site that every American should see." I say that every person should see this - not just every American.
We then backtracked along that road (there is no other road out), stopping at most of the viewpoints, and went on to the North Rim Visitor center and Viewpoint. There is a walk along there of nearly a mile long that takes one to "Bright Angel Point". The little walkway is narrow, two of us could not always walk next to each other, and it is steep uphill both ways! This walk takes one out on a narrow ledge of the canyon and the drops down are sheer in most places. I hugged the inner wall – tightly at times. There were many folks there with kids who were running and jumping off the rocks and generally giving me the "heebie geebies." They don’t allow dogs on the path - they should not allow running or yelling or jumping kids either.
While we were out on Bright Angel Point, the thunderclouds started rolling in. So, now we are out on this little rim of ground, high up in the air, and the thunder is thundering and the lightening (still far away, thank goodness) is doing its thing. Some of the folks out there were waiting to see the lightening hit the rim of the canyon, they say it can get quite spectacular. I felt that it was not what we really wanted to do right at that very moment, so we headed for more solid, dry ground. Many trees out there near the edge especially, have been hit by lightening and there are warnings all over the place as to what to do if a storm comes up – get inside! The blackened, burned trees make for wonderful props in photographs giving much needed depth to the photos. It was also interesting to see the crinoid and marine fossils in the rocks along the path and there is a Juniper tree there that is over 600 years old.
The views were just phenomenal - one really needed a fish-eye lens on a camera to even get part of it in. A fully "surround lens" would have a better chance of capturing some of the beauty - but I guess we will have to wait for that one for a while still. The different colors, and shapes, and shades, and just how big and awesome it is, made me feel very small, and very vulnerable. One could sit up there and just soak it in for days on end - it could only fill one up, make one even more amazed!
To get to the North Rim of the Canyon, we had to drive through wonderful pine and birch forests. They just seem to go on forever, and then suddenly you get handed this amazing, endless meadow with little lakes and wild turkeys all over the place, and crows - lots of crows. If you blink, the forest comes back again and so it goes all along the way. Some of the places the road took us was right up against the canyon rim, so that when I looked out of my window, there were just a few trees, making a show at being a barrier and then the canyon - same on Franks side of the car. I think I am now becoming immune to heights - either that or my brain has over-processed the 'height thing', and fried that part of itself.
On the way back from the canyons was a turnoff to ruins - we just had to stop. These are ruins of folks that lived up here 900 years ago. It was fascinating to see how they built their houses - not much was left standing but the brochure gave the full picture. They built the houses of solid rock with the entrance on top, and had ladders to get up there and inside. The ruins still had very good outline walls left, and even the fire pits that the folks used. They say its all the original.
We are camped at a little place called Jacobs Lake in the Kaibab National Forest, and right now it is pouring with rain, thundering and lightening too - and actually heading towards being cold at times. This morning Frank put the heat on in the house for a little bit till we had the first cup of coffee to warm us up. What a change from just two days ago!
It is just totally amazingly awesome out here. The storm is passing and water dripping on the house roof is quite soothing, thunder is still rumbling but waaaaay in the distance, bouncing off the canyon walls and the blue sky is showing through the trees again. And the pine smell!
We went for a lovely bike ride through the camp and down the dirt road. Its lovely to just amble past the fields and dams, passing few folks along the way. Its so quiet up here. We emptied out the water tank and filled it with this water - nice and crisp and clean and many bottles were refilled and put in the freezer for warmer days.
We sent emails, read Readers Digest, Played o’s and x’s and dots. Nice and cool. We sat outside enjoying the evening and savoring the total lack of mosquitoes!
The camp is very quiet although many people have already come back from the canyons today - they say its the thin air that tires folks out and most go to sleep in the afternoon if they are not used to the elevation.
Tomorrow we will probably head out towards the Vermillion Cliffs and the Painted Desert. We want to go and see the South Rim of the Canyon too, and the Petrified Forest. There is just so much to see and we know that we cannot possibly see it all, but we are certainly giving it a good try while we are out here! Roswell (the alien crash site) is also on the agenda as we head further East again. Any requests from there Wendy?
Ok, that’s us for the day again.
Love to all
Especially, especially to U3!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Arizona
25th July 2003
We are now just outside Flagstaff, Arizona. It was a nice slow, lazy, relaxed drive down from the North Rim of the Canyons this morning, through part of the Painted Desert, which is awesome. We stopped at all the little places of interest and the big ones too. There is a tremendous amount of interesting information and sites along the way. The Vermilion Cliffs are an amazing array of colors, seems impossible that sand and rock can be naturally so beautiful.
At one point of the drive, one could see where the glaciers traveled so many millions of years ago and driving right in that area was quite an amazing feeling. The cliffs change color and shades constantly as the sun moves around and as the road wound its way through desert and between the hills. When we make the stops to just stretch or take a good photo, or just because, it is wonderful to just listen and hear almost nothing. The peace out here is amazing. There is a feeling of age and reverence and just a beauty that is so different and deep.
The house is going beautifully today - so something we cleaned, treated or changed, or spoke to especially nicely, must have worked. She hums along quietly, doing her job uphill and downhill with no more complaining at all. Obviously the rest did us all some good. Nice and relaxing. The weather has been fantastic too, and we have been driving with all the windows open and a fantastic breeze all day long. Even the bedroom windows are open as we drive down these amazing roads.
We found this lovely park about 25 miles East of Flagstaff. It has wonderful long pull through sites, fantastic showers, a good laundry, really nice shop with good ice creams, and an internet connection as well. We will probably stay here for a good few days. We are going to see the Meteor crater tomorrow, and also want to see the Petrified Forest, go to the Painted Desert National Park, and so many other places around here. Also planning a trip up to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
We went to drive past the crater this evening, and took a small dirt road, not a private one, that snaked past it and on to some other places further south. About two minutes onto the road we noticed another little bakkie behind us, it had arrived out of nowhere and really fast too. We decided that we really did not want to go too far down the road anyway and were a bit surprised and uncomfortable at the arrival of the other car. We turned around and the other car did so too - in exactly the same place. He shadowed us back to the start of the road, passed really close to where we had stopped, glaring at us through the window, and then drove up to the main section of the meteor. We both got the distinct impression that whoever it was did not want us on that road. Now we wonder why we were followed - very strange indeed, and not a comfortable feeling at all.
So we went driving up onto another road and we have solid proof that the Little Colorado River is "dust devil dry". Not a drop of water in it - at least not in the part we were at. There were two little dust devils doing a jig in the middle of the riverbed - and I could almost hear them laughing!
We are somewhere on the famous Route 66 that runs from California up to Chicago (I believe). There is plenty stuff to buy around here with Route 66 marked all over it.
The Colorado River itself is beautiful! We did not get much chance to see it, but crossed over on a goodly sized bridge. A good powerful river, that one!
It has been a really good day.
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
Lotsalove
Especially to U3 – I so wish you could see all this!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Meteors, Paint and Old Giants
26th July 2003
At about 2am this morning we lay watching the most amazing lightening lighting up the sky far away in the distance for as far as we could see. They were thick bright orange rods crackling their way down, but they stayed in the distance, which made for good, restful sleeping.
This morning we headed back to see the Meteor Crater. It is truly an amazing site - 550 foot deep and nearly 3 miles in circumference. When the meteor hit, it threw debris 7 miles from the impact site. It is strictly forbidden to pick up any piece of rock or stuff there, but it happens they say. It was terribly hot there again and the sun seriously punished all of us out there. It was lovely and cool inside and they had many interesting things to look at, buy and learn about. Most folks dragged themselves inside at short intervals to cool off before venturing outside again for another view of the hole in the ground.
Then we headed out to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Parks. You go in through the Painted Desert National Park, and drive all the way through to the Petrified Forest side. The colors are stunning. It looks as if a kid has been playing with red and white food coloring in places. Gentle little hills with sometimes harsh craggy rocks all over the place. Wide open spaces with a neat narrow road winding through it all. There are some ruins there of folks who lived there many ages ago, rock drawings, and "watchdogs" making sure no one picks up any rocks or stuff. It is a pity that so much history is carried away in the pockets of the tourists.
The Petrified Forest was totally amazing. The colors in the ‘once-wood’ are spectacular at times, and one quickly becomes used to seeing all the different shades and colorings. At times it looks like millions of gems all joined together. The trees lie all over the place, sometimes crowding a valley and other times seemingly alone out in a field. Apparently there are more trees under the ground than above. The size of them are amazing and it is quite something to have to walk on one, as the paths dictate at times, and know that you are walking on something so incredibly ancient. We all know that there are really old, ancient things around us all the time, but this kind of put it in your face and really makes one wonder.
Once again, there are people watching to make sure that stones are not picked up, and once again, we know it happens – we are told that literally tons of stones/wood are carried away each year. Those trees really are totally fascinating. We stopped at a roadside place outside of the National Park, and bought two fairly large, lovely pieces. You don’t find any of them along the road to be picked up - many hands have been there before us!
I nearly collapsed in laughter (that is difficult to do when sitting in the bakkie with the seatbelt on, but hey!) when we were leaving the Park. There is a sign that says, "vehicle inspection is ahead". This is to see if people are picking up the wood or stones. Well, I wish I had looked to see how big the pile of little pieces was just past that sign! I bet there have been many people getting rid of their "finds" before being inspected! The conservation folks here are really serious about keeping their stuff and the fines are rather stiff. Good for them.
We got home at about 6pm and were gently pottering around, getting ready to have a shower and maybe have something gentle to eat when Frank said he thought he saw lightening. I looked out of the door, and the sky was red - like a dragon’s eye! It was pink, red and very dark, all at the same time. Definitely weird. We stood outside taking photos - Frank stood on the picnic table doing some video taping of the lightening which was totally amazing. After a minute or two the wind got up so we came inside. Just as well as we then saw the dust coming across the field. We dashed around closing windows and the door, and then the rest of the world disappeared! I mean totally disappeared.
There was nothing outside, just the howling of the wind, the sound of the house being sandblasted and the most incredible bouncing of the house. It got so bad that I actually put the camera and the computer on the floor - I did not want them to fall off the table. The lightening just zapped all around and the trees slapped the house and the dust finally got thinner. It was great to see that the other campers were still there. I don’t remember if there were any tents before the wind arrived, but there were definitely none after.
The thunder was not so bad, but I think it was muffled because of the rain and the wind. But the lightening was awesome! It was so bright that it hurt my eyes at times and we closed the one shade. The power had gone out at the beginning of the storm and we decided not to put on our other lights, but to enjoy the light from the storm. For me to want to see the lightening is something new too. I have always been afraid of it, but now I find it beautiful, awesome and very powerful. I think I have become unafraid of so many things lately. Its difficult to feel too important in the "big picture" after seeing so many awesome things, so many things that are beyond understanding and comprehension and control. I am learning to enjoy things without the "afraid" that went along with it for so long. It’s an amazing experience for me.
Anyway, back to the storm. The house rocked for hours and hours, the lightening lit the sky - way into the early morning. I know - I watched it! Frank sleeps like a baby during a storm, and he first made sure that I was really enjoying it before heading off to his “netherland". The power went back on at about 3am, but neither of us felt like anything to eat at that time, and I was by then very tired. Some folks in their RV's kept their lights on all night and were ready to turn their motor homes into the wind if it got any worse. It was an amazing storm and we have some of the lightening on video. What we do have more of is dust. Everything, totally everything is covered in a layer of dust. We wiped surfaces this morning (Sunday), and the dust just kept coming back in. And Frank does not like dust….
One of my daughters (I love her anyway.) says that the emails are so looooooooooooooong Mom! so I am going to sign off this one and start another email on today’s happenings.
Lots of love to you all
VERY Especially U3 - I miss you all so much.
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Canyons and Cliffs
27th July 2003
Ok, I left off at the dust on the last email. This morning I woke up with much difficulty after last night’s storm. It was quiet around the camp and I gathered that everyone else slept late too. Everything seemed to be in its place, which is surprising as the wind really howled. Those very big trucks all stopped on the sides of the road, and we could hear the trains stopping too while the storm was at its worst.
The dust from the storm has settled a bit during the night, so the wiping started all over again. There is only one thing worse than dust on a table when you put a plate on it, and that is dust on the plate. So we dusted for a little, and then left. Dust was still around all over and we wanted to go to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and the dust would wait anyway. (It did).
The Canyon from the south is awesome too! Frank got out of the car. Looks at the canyon, points and says: “look that that hole there!” He was referring to a cave in the Grand Canyon, but my mind took it differently and we had a wonderful, screaming laugh! We could see the Colorado River waaaaaaaaaaaay down there, and could see some parts of the canyon that we saw from the North side. I am having difficulty in describing all this wonder. It just goes on and on and one can keep soaking it in, its just so difficult to keep on describing it when there really is no way to do that properly. I thought I was oooh-ed and ah-ed out, but evidently I am not - this stuff still stuns me into taking a million pictures!
There were a lot of people up there by the time we got there and the South Rim is much more tourist orientated than the North Rim. I enjoyed both in different ways, but it was especially lovely to see the river so far down.
We then left and came across a place that said "Cliff Dwellers". It was a place called Walnut Canyon, and is where the people lived up high in the cliffs many, many years ago – I think they said about 800 years ago. It was amazing to see just where and how they lived. Frank said it would have been a nightmare to have little kids up there and I would hate a babysitting job under those conditions.
We went for a walk that was about 1.5 miles long. It went literally straight down - right along the edges of these cliffs. Many places we could not walk next to each other and there were no railings at all. Once again, many people let their kids run ahead and jump and do all sorts of crazy things that made my skin crawl. The views were stunning. The lifestyle must have been incredible - hard to imagine. These were rooms dug out of the sheer side of the mountain, and rocks then cemented into place to make storage rooms as well. There are about 300 such "houses" all around the cliffs.
It was quite a walk to get back up the hill again, and with the air so thin up there - nearly 8500 foot, many people were huffing and puffing. We could have made a fortune selling cold water at the halfway mark!
We got home to yet another storm that put the power out for a short time. It was still dusty everywhere - I am sure it will take a year to get it all out. Maybe Joleen and Lisa want a job when we get back? There will be the house and the bakkie to clean - how about it, girls?
Had nice chat to Steven today, Joleen yesterday, and Lisa on instant messaging tonight - what a bonus day!
And love to you all too
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
From Cliffs to Caves
30th July 2003
We are on our way to New Mexico for a while, looking for a place just to hang out for a week or so. So nice to be on the road again! How are we ever going to adjust again to staying in one place for longer than three days? Its going to be very difficult. I love this – just miss the kids and mom and Kate.
We are now heading towards Roswell, the UFO crash site place. The scenery changes so often that it feels as if we are being picked up and transported to other places at regular intervals. The rock is so red at times then changes to orange-orange - and the formations are just amazing. Sometimes it seems impossible that they keep standing. There are "Indian" crafts all over the place and they all sell the same kind of stuff, some very nice goodies too. We read that it is not a good idea to buy their silver jewelry though as the silver generally comes off on your skin after a day or so - ah well. Some of these places have ostriches to try to draw the tourists, another one claimed to have a genuine white buffalo - lots of bleach went into, or onto, that one!
Anyway, the day got long, and the road got longer and the sun started to set, so we stopped at a pull off along the road, about 40 miles north of Roswell. It was lovely. The sky stretched out around us endlessly, and the mountains were deep blue tiny shadows, waaaaay in the distance. Once the sunset left us and the stars arrived, we just stood outside with our heads rotating like fools! It just got more beautiful as time went on. When our necks could stand no more star gazing, we went in and made a fantastic, and very big, fruit salad. We sat looking out side and enjoying until a very loud, very noisy tractor-trailer pulled in next to us and sat there humming its engine till the wee hours of the morning.
There was a storm way in the distance, and the lightening popped in balls of light - it was fantastic. It was difficult to get to sleep - we were both kinda hoping for something weird to appear - UFO crash site and all. But it did not happen. Every strange sound we heard could be explained and most of the lights too. Such is life... Needless to say, we were both tired the next morning from sleeping with only half an ear all night!
We drove on through Roswell, nothing odd to see except their streetlights have aliens for the light shades, and there are a gazillion places to buy the "alien t-shirt" or little green man. Even Wal-Mart has a big UFO painted on its building. Somehow neither of us was in the mood to try to find parking in the center of town and so we just ambled right on through. On the other side of town we stopped to put in gas, and the guy there said that we could see aliens if we just went down the road a few miles to the chili fields. He said they generally work quite hard! Hmmmmmmmmm - I was NOT going there!
We drove on through Roswell, as I was saying, to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. It was a short driving day, but lovely with windows open all the way. We got ourselves settled into the park there, spent an hour or so cleaning house. We broke down and bought a small vacuum cleaner earlier the day before - right before having yet another tire fixed (no comment on that). After cleaning, we both decided that we needed to catch up on some sleep we had missed the night before. After a lovely long nap, we headed off to the cavern to see the "Bat Flight". That was quite amazing - a gazillion bats all rushing out of the cave, anti clockwise (dunno), and heading off into the distance in a solid black streak across the sunset sky.
This morning we were up bright and early and headed back to the caves to do our walk through. People had said that the caves were wonderful, but their descriptions did not even come close! It was amazing, totally awesome, and utterly indescribable. They made magnificent use of lighting, but the formations are incredible anyway. The water still drips and many of the areas of the cave are still growing. It was lovely and cool down there and we walked down to the bottom, which was at 750 feet below the surface. They have a cafeteria and t-shirt and postcard shop right at the bottom. Then they put you in an elevator back to the top. Quite a ride, all in all. We were there really early, and were of the first people in the cave for the day, so it was lovely and peaceful with pockets of total silence, no crowds or screaming little babies. It is a self guided walk through. Yet another totally awesome experience.
We got back to the motor home and immediately decided to leave and head down towards the coast in Texas. So now, while I am writing this, we are driving south in Texas. We have gone over and through the Guadeloupe National Park and mountain range, and are now in the Diablo Mountains, hunting a town with ice cream!
Love to all
Especially U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Big Bend, Texas
31st July 2003
Have not yet found the good ice cream - but still looking and have tried a few different brands in an attempt to find the good stuff. We were not abducted by aliens either, just had no cell phone or email signal for the past few days.
Yet again - WOW! The mountains in this place are amazing and they seem to go so high up they look like dark hovering clouds!
The road from Carlsbad Caverns to here was sprinkled with dust devils - some just little attempts at swirling - and others huge, tightly wound up, stretching high up into the sky. There were storms to the right and left of us, ahead and behind, but all we got was a few drops of rain on the windscreen. At times the sky was picture-blue with fluffy white clouds. We went over the Sierra Diablo Mountains, with a deep blue storm and stunning lightening to our left.
I found some other wood that fascinated me. It is the wood from the Charro Cactus. We stopped to look at it, and decided that we should find a piece that is dead and hopefully has less "spikes" on it. About 100 miles later we found some dead plants, stopped alongside the road and headed off into the field to collect. Frank had found his thick gloves but I did not have time to warn him that there were still spikes all over the dead wood - he got a handful! We found some really nice pieces of this thin-ish tube shaped piece of wood, with oblong, stretched holes all over it. Really pretty and dainty too. We also took a walk along the railroad track and found some discarded spikes and some interesting stones of course. It was fun standing in the middle of nowhere next to the train track waving at the driver as they whistled by.
There is very little of America that is not fenced off, and it is good to take advantage of the places that appear open, or are at least unfenced. Almost everywhere has a fence around it, sometimes a serious "don’t you dare enter" fence, and other times one that can only just be called a fence. Some are high and others we have seen were only about a foot high.
Some of the little towns we drive through are just amazing. I can only imagine that when the kids in that town get to a 'thinking age' there is only one thing they can say: "Mom, Dad - you GOTTA be kidding!" U3 - count yourselves amongst the very fortunate!
We saw a real, genuine roadrunner, Mom! They are beautiful, and we now have pictures of it for you too. They run just like the comics depict, and are quite funny. Also have seen a few peccaries – they look like wild pigs but are not. They are all around the camp we are in, and hopefully they stay at a distance – they look like they could be really mean!
We are in "Rio Grande Village" in Big Bend National Park. There are only two other campers here and it is lovely and peaceful. A kid riding his bike nearly came off when he saw “The Pig". He cycled back to his dad so fast one could hardly see his feet going around, shouting at the top of his lungs. But he came back shortly afterwards acting like he should at about 11 years old -big and brave and invincible but at a safe distance from “The Pig” and highly alert!
The cicadas make and incredible noise, but it is way better than traffic noise anytime.
We drove through the park today, to Elena Canyon and Boquilla Canyon, and met the muddy Rio Grande. It is not as wide or big as I thought it would be at all. It is narrow, muddy and yucky, but the sides are lush and green – beautiful! We walked along the riverbed for a long way where it had washed out in the floods – both of us finding interesting stones and even petrified wood. It was fantastic to splash through the cool shallow water with no worries about time at all. It was a strange feeling having a different country just a few steps away from where we were walking.
There were no people floating across the river northwards, actually very few people at all. There has been a lot of rain and many of the roads and walkways are closed due to rain damage. The scenery here changes by the minute. There are total sandy desert places which are replaced by thick green shrubs in a minute, then comes the "volcano lands" filled with lava, and when you get to the top of the next little hill, the river winds below and all is beautiful green. Except the river of course, which looks like a long muddy snake. Everything is shadowed by the most incredible mountains, which are all totally different and just begging to be photographed.
We stopped and walked around quite a few places, looking at the rocks and stones and cacti. Some still have beautiful flowers and others are all shriveled up. The mosquitoes are almost as bad as Alaska, and the yellow flies bite blooming hard! We ate some prickly pear after Frank speared it off the bush with his penknife and beat the spikes off it. It was really good. We spotted a lovely multicolor gecko close up, he stood on a rock alternating his feet to cool two of them off at a time. Really funny and beautiful.
It’s really hot around here right now, and most of the animals are in cooler places till later. We also saw a snake, and some little geckos, roadrunners, many, many doves, jackass x3, buck, horses, centipedes, and some REALLY big spiders - tarantulas!
Now we are sitting, drooping from the heat in the house waiting for another peccary, that pig thingy, to come around again. Looking out of the house window, we can see two mountain ranges, one behind the other. One is in USA and one in Mexico with the river running between them, which we cannot see, of course. The range behind looks like ominous clouds - so high!
After the sun sets a bit, we want to go riding on the bikes for a while. Our legs felt the walk down into Carlsbad Caves and we should keep them going some more.
So, that’s us for now. We will probably head towards the coast after this, but exactly where, we don’t know yet.
Love to all of you
Especially U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Later: It rained a beautiful rain and cooled everything off - made lovely big bubbles on the asphalt. We are probably the only people (that we are aware of!) within 5 miles of here, and it is beautiful and quiet. The vultures ate the rest of the fruit salad and the 'pig things' have not come back tonight yet. I have to admit that I keep waiting to see a pair of Mexican eyes peering from behind a bush! We are right next to the Rio Grande, but there is no border post – nothing, just the river and mountains and desert on both sides. Hot deserts and big mountains. There are quite a number of little paths all over the place, and it makes one wonder. I do hope that anyone trying to cross this desert does it in cooler temperatures - it’s terribly hot here right now.
We are probably heading for the Texas coast - a place called Padre Island. It sounds absolutely beautiful and will probably take us two days or so to get there. We want to just sit on the beach, and clean our burlwood and other stuff off, just relax and get used to being in one place for longer than three days.
Frank says we had better get back to Tennessee soon, because if we have another flat tire, the jack will still be able to lift the house to change the wheel, but if we are away much longer and I (we - he is collecting now too!) collect many more stones, the jack will not be able to lift us up! Hmmmmmm.
Ok – that’s really it for tonight!
Steven, Lisa and Joleen - I REALLY miss you – it’s been months now!
Bye for now
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Padre Island, Texas
2nd August 2003
Many of the roads and hiking trails at Big Bend NP were closed due to the unusually heavy rains they had been getting. We could see many, many places that had been washed out and it was obvious that the road that we were driving had also been quite seriously flooded in places.
We were sorry that we had missed the rains, it could have been exciting and would have been cooler too! Big Bend is very nicely un-tourist. Maybe that’s why it is the least visited National Park in USA. It is beautiful, and serene, and they encourage one to get out and walk around, not like some of the others that have to keep you on the path to preserve the park itself. It was just too hot to do much walking, but we did a good few miles in short walks here and there. We went into one place that had these mountains towering above us, smaller than the big ranges, but big enough to make me feel really small! I could just picture the mountain lion crouching on the ledge above and imagined that the birds were yelling out warnings - but Frank just kept walking with his stick in hand and whistling away as he pointed out stuff. The lion really was not there, and the birds were just ticked that we were frightening their food away! Once I relaxed with the feel of the place, it was great too.
There are humongous boulders that have fallen off some big mountain, strewn all over the place. Some have other rocks imbedded in them and others just crumble as you pick them up. All makes one think about long ago.
It was wonderful and it was hot and we both had ants to get to the beach. So we left. Early yesterday morning we hooked up little Skilpad again, and got back on the road. It was hot, hot, hot all the way. We each drank about 8 bottles of ice water on the way. We drove back up to Marathon, Texas and then headed east on the 90 towards Corpus Christi (got your map, Mom?) There were many roadrunners and it really is quite amazing just how the cartoons correctly depict its movement. I did get some on tape and also managed to get a few more photos of them.
We drove and sweated, drove and sweated, counted the miles, looked for a pull off place to stay the night, drove some more and sweated some more too. It was generally a good road, but there was just no rest stop that we could spend the night in. The little towns were either dead, or should be, or looked a bit unsavory, so we ambled right on through them. The sun started setting, and it got just a tiny little bit cooler, but we drove on and drank yet more water. It is very fortunate that we carry our bathroom with us or we would have been in somewhat of a pickle what with drinking all that water.
Eventually Corpus Christi did not look that far away anymore and the time on the clock showed that it was not that late (sometimes it helps to change the clock when one goes through time changes!), and still there was no place to pull off for the night. If you look at the map of the area, you will see only little towns, those "You gotta be kidding!" towns. Anyway we drove on into Corpus Christi. It did not look too dramatic a town on the map. (Remind me to write to those map-making people!). We hit the one road and for the next hour were either on major detours or on roads covered with orange barrels making the lanes very narrow. This is normally not too bad in the daytime, or if you have even the vaguest idea where you should be or be going, but definitely not recommended for "lets find a place" night time driving!
We knew we wanted to go to Padre Island, but there were not many signs telling us the way, especially after a detour. So we drove, looking for a gas station as by now we did not want to add to the confusion of a Friday night in Corpus Christi, by running out of gas in the middle of all of this! We found a gas station, with more ice water, and a guy who knew the parks around here. He pointed us to one that was a bit more north of the one we wanted, but he said that our first choice park would be closed. So, off we trundled again, both desperately needing a rest by now, back in between the orange barrels. Finally we were spat out at a traffic light/red light, and we turned off the main drag. Five miles up the road we found a park - looked like the equivalent of a sardine can, totally filled with RV's tents, awnings, and people. We did not even look at each other, we just left! Further north was a similar place, but they had no available spaces - apparently a busy time of the year. So we decided to head down south to our first choice anyway, the camp at the National Sea Shore. The office was closed, but we drove through anyway and pulled up into a spot in the camp there. Many National and State parks allow one to go in, set up and book in the next day – thankfully!
It was fascinating driving down the island roads. It was pitch black outside, stars shining, but only a crescent moon, and the lights would appear and disappear all over the place - rather like a UFO world, with only us driving in our own little island of light. Occasionally we could see lights reflecting on the water but then that would also disappear. It was the undulating dunes that were taking away and giving us the lights as they dipped and rose along the side of the beach! It was wonderful. By the time we stopped for the night we were both very tired and really ready to stop. When the motor stopped, a new sound filled us - the waves! We were apparently right next to the beach, but could see nothing - again dunes in the way. But the smell, the sound, and the feel was amazing. We literally fell into bed after opening all the windows and vents to get the full benefit of the ocean breeze. It was then that we realized that it was 11.45pm! We had left Big Bend at 8am that morning! Wow.
This morning I woke up with the wind still blowing, the smell and the sound of the sea - indescribable! We needed more ice - the fridge stubbornly just wont work on gas and we don’t feel like starting the generator - so we went down looking for the local store. We found a road that went further south on the island, but it is a beach road. You literally drive on the beach for about 5 miles, right next to the surf. There are motor homes and tents all along the beach, considerately spaced, and we found out that it is free to camp here! So, guess what? We are going to move onto the beach on Sunday for a few days. Its like it used to be - open, really and truly camping on the beach. Where we are now is a nicely leveled spot with showers (we have one in the house), toilets (have that too) and running water (have big water tank). We are close to the beach now, and I am sitting here typing this and watching the breakers while I do. But that other beach looks just perfect! We are waiting for the weekend crowd to leave and will then move down there.
We have the National Parks Pass, so we get into all the National Parks free, and then the cost of camping averages about $8 per night. And the open beach is free! What more can one ask?
I piddled around with the computer for a while and Frank had a well deserved nap. Its warm but with the wind blowing its lovely and quite decent. We have the awning out on the motor home and its rocking the house ever so pleasantly. Frank is tied the awning to the picnic table – planning on staying? The generator is humming loudly charging batteries, cameras and computers up again.
We went for a long walk and found 4 floats and a really nice piece of corral on the beach this morning. And my best find was a complete beautiful sand dollar! I carried it home so carefully for miles! And then went to wash my legs off under the tap/faucet, laid it down on a wooden table and it cracked right (as Frank would say) 'half in two'! I think the table was too hot or something, but I had my fun in finding it and was not about to super glue it back together. It was just such a nice find, especially as there are not that many shells here at the moment. We walked for about 4 hours, and our legs are definitely feeling it. Katie, those sunglasses I schmucked off you before we left are lifesavers! We walked down the beach with our Florida hats on and me with my schmucked sunglasses and ice water of course. It was just wonderful!
I really wish that U3 could join us here for a few days - you would love this place, be able to unwind, relax and just enjoy.
Tomorrow we are going to explore the intercoastal section of the island. Apparently that is amazing too. We did drive past it last night, but it was just a dark blot to our tired eyes then.
I hope to have cell phone connection all the time - my internet connection is giving some problems from here, but should be able to get and make phone calls.
Well, that’s all from me right now.
U3: I hear you all. Take it easy - all your stuff will work out. Know that you are doing great and I am proud of you all. I love you tremendously and miss you lots!
Love to you all
and again to U3
Frank and Annie
XXXXxxxx
Spiders and Alligators
4th August 2003
Ok, so we are not always where we say we are going to be. We left Padre Island on Sunday morning. We woke up with no breeze to speak of, had no power for air conditioning and the fridge still stubbornly refused to work off gas - we had no power connection there. At 8am folks were walking around with towels over their heads to keep cool and we decided that this was just not fun - so we left. The walls of the motor home felt sticky and were literally dripping salty water. I love the ocean, but not when it’s that hot!
It literally took us a few minutes to pack up and leave, and we managed to get through Corpus Christi without too much traffic being Sunday morning and all. It looked a whole lot better in the daytime and with us now having a vague idea of which direction to travel in – easy! We were still not sure exactly where we wanted to go but our list of what we wanted at the next place was loooooong. It went something like this: trees, shade, a breeze, grass, place to ride the bikes, water - to swim and to fish and just to sit and enjoy, peace, a beach, electricity and water and sewer hookups, showers, and a cell phone signal. Impossible! But its what we wanted.
So we drove towards Houston, Texas. One of the freeways there had what we deemed a confusing signboard, and we were unceremoniously dumped right in the center of Houston downtown, on tiny little roads with the only map being one that had the whole of Texas on two pages. Not good. Frank maneuvered the two Skilpads around impossible bends and corners, in and out of tiny and dubious sections of town, until we found a freeway again. Then we had to hunt the entrance onto the darn thing. We found it - only to discover that we were now, once again, chasing off to the South end of town - we needed (desperately, by now!) the North end of town - and OUT! So we hopped off the freeway - me having stated that as navigator, I officially resign as of immediately - to try again. Let me shorten this story by an hour or so - we found the road out. Both of us were sweating profusely from stress and heat and the house was also a tad overheated. The temperature outside was 'only' 97 degrees!
We called the Big Thicket State Park, which was North of Houston, and they said that they had space. So we headed north east through Beaumont to Jasper and then out to the park. What was amazing was that the trees seemed to grow up as we got out of Houston, there were more and more of them, and there were even tree farms along the way. It was wonderful and green - such a change and definitely something we had both been missing.
So, we turn into the park, green trees, shady - to be met by a sign that said "Alligators in park - do not annoy or feed!" Our response? NAH! Not alligators, surely? But then we saw the swamps and it looks almost like the Everglades in Florida. The office was closed so we drove on in and met with the park host who told us to pick a site and register in the morning. We were good and thankful and did just what he suggested. It was simply wonderful to be in a shady area again.
By now we had the trees, shade, a breeze, grass in places, place to ride the bikes, water - to swim and to fish and just to sit and enjoy, peace, electricity and water and showers, and a cell phone signal! So, we took the bikes out for a ride. Going up one little road that was particularly peaceful I commented that it would be lovely to have a beach just over the rise. Feeling a tad silly for even thinking that we could get everything we asked for I rode on - only to find a little beach on the other side! Not the ocean - but a clear, clean water beach with sand and all! Quite amazing.
We spent a few minutes there, enjoying the water, building drip-castles and generally just unwinding. It is part of a big reservoir. It is just lovely here - there are buck and rabbits, armadillos, squiggles (squirrels). There is amazing forest all around us with pine trees, oak trees, magnolias, maple trees - all wonderful big shady trees!
We went for another bike ride this morning through the "jungle trail" where we were supposed to see alligators. Our bikes are not mountain bikes, but managed to get us through. It was amazing - swamp land, and then dry for long stretches, with wooden bridges that hummmmmmmmm as we rode over them. The spiders were incredible colors, and their webs were all over the ground and the trees. Steven, you would have had a thrommy! Frank rode in front, and picked a piece of branch with leaves still on it and rode holding it up in front of him to catch the spider webs. The idea of one of those big spiders in his face just did not sit too well with him, or me. And it was good to have him riding like this in front of me.
Talking of spiders. Last night we both headed off to the showers, desperately wanting to wash some heat away. We took the bikes to the shower block - it’s not far from the house at all but nice to ride anyway. So off we head into our respective blocks. I turned on the shower to get some warm water and out creeps a BEEEEG spider crawling out of the drain plug. Instinct won, and he quickly became history, with his legs one side and the rest of him kicked out under the shower curtain. After checking carefully, I proceed with my shower peacefully until the face cloth slipped quietly off its place and gently brushed my ankle on its way down. I did say a few words that my mother definitely would not approve of, but I am sure she would have laughed out loud too! So, I finish my shower, silently threatening any other spiders, with the facecloth firmly gripped in my hand!
Next step: To get home. Frank had long finished his shower (I had to shave my legs) and had gone back to the house - not far, remember. It was pitch black outside - remember I asked for peace and quiet and a forest and all that. I find my bike, climb onto it hoping there are not nightlife spiders around, but cannot see where to go at all. I mean, at all. Waaaaaay in the distance I could vaguely see dim lights that looked like they were in the right direction of home, so I decide to head towards the road that should take me there. I found a big parking area that I did not remember from earlier. Facing the wrong direction by now and confidently starting to pick up speed I fortunately put on my brakes only to find a very big pine tree kissing my front tire! I had run out of road. Trying to refocus ones eyes in pitch dark is just not easy at all. I trundled alongside the trees that I could see as long as they were close enough together. I figured that I was either going to find home, or Frank would come looking for me - eventually. I made it, but not before hitting a serious dip in the road right next to the house and bouncing madly off the seat. I was very glad to hear that Frank also had difficulty in seeing where to go, and was busy putting on lights in the house when I got back to guide me back home. He had no lights to follow at all.
Tonight we showered earlier and left some lights on just in case. I did check for spiders first though, but was so intent on doing this that I forgot to get my clothes off first and was totally soaked! All makes for good laughing once its over.
We are checked in here for a week - so far. We have cleaned some of the burlwood, and walking sticks, have cleaned out the back of the bakkie - even washed it out - it was quite amazing just how much dirt it picked up along the way. We did laundry today and shopping too now that we have a working fridge again.
We are both quite happy to stay put for a few days, but it is early still - only the end of day one here. But it is restful and we both feel like we need to “park off" for a while. Maybe we will head back down to the coast again once we leave here, but we will definitely want power connections in this heat.
I will probably spend some time sorting through photos - saw today that we had taken over 8300 photos! Many of them will be discarded though - maybe. And tomorrow we will go alligator hunting again - with the camera of course! There are canoes to rent here, which we want to do for a day - just gently float around for a while - sounds good to us.
So that’s us - till next time
Love to you all
Especially U3 - as always
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Drifting
6th August 2003
The idea of swimming here fast lost its appeal. We were told that one big alligator regularly patrols the swimming area. So. We will stick to the canoe.
This morning we went for another looooong bike ride. The tires on our bikes are the type that are for smooth road riding and they are only 16 inch wheels too - have to be small because of being fold up bikes. Very comfortable to ride, but definitely not good for off road riding. I should not call it off road 'riding' as on these bikes it is definitely not. It’s more like simply struggling to get from one point to another on what feels like square wheels. Frank rode in front again and I rode fairly close behind him so that he can catch the spider webs and also so that I can see where his wheels have been and judge whether to go there or not. Sometimes this works well, other times it comes close to being a disaster.
There are big gnarly roots sticking up all over the trail and most of these are covered with leaves, mostly magnolia leaves, as are the many squirrel and armadillo holes. So when Frank hits a bad patch, his rear wheel leaves the ground and swivels either to the left or right hitting another root and so it goes on and on, this ridiculous bouncing dance along what seems like miles and miles of trail. It is also an ongoing battle to try to dodge tree branches as we go and spider webs that are absolutely everywhere so there is a constant litany of ooh’s and aah’s and aaargh’s along the way from both of us.
I try to avoid the places that look too bad and end up hitting worse or diving into a hole or sandy patch. When Frank comes to a grinding halt, I end up either crashing into him or racing past him, narrowly missing him, into the trees, bumping along and laughing out loud for lack of anything else - even control! One feels rather like the modern day Hansel and Gretel, being led deep into the forest, with no apparent way out, and no bread trail either. The trails are lovely and there is an incredible amount of swamp around, but no sign yet of alligators - maybe they are all nesting. Or maybe they hear us coming and hide!
We saw an armadillo today - strange looking creature indeed. He hung around for quite a while so we tried to get him to curl up into a ball - no go - he just ran away. Also saw a red headed wood pecker - they sound like they have a heavy duty drill in them and I would really not enjoy getting into a fight with one of them. They are pretty though.
The trails are not a circle - they start at one point and end up at a very different place in the park. This becomes interesting, as we have to try to figure out which way to go when we are spat out of the wild onto a proper road. This is actually important as we feel like we have "shakin’ baby syndrome" when we get out of there. By that time our water is finished (its HOT and humid with no wind in the forest), and all we want to do is sit still for a while and catch our breath. Sitting on the ground is generally not a good idea as we have found out. We are still counting the number of different types of biting insects that hide at ground level and just wait for us!
Went back to the shops today and took in some film for developing - yes, ordinary film as well as digital. Well, I have to make sure that we have enough photos of this amazing trip! Also bought two books to add to the weight of the house.
Frank cooked an amazing supper for us again. This time he cooked on the gas stove outside and had to keep an eye on the crows that were hovering around just waiting for a chance to get at the food. I can’t say I blame them - it really was delicious!
We are still into having early showers - much better all around - for me, the spiders and the blood pressure. We have had the crows all around here today, and squirrels too. Even hummingbirds have hovered outside the window peering inside at the fruit on the table, no doubt.
That was yesterday, now for a little on today - 6th
I woke up this morning to a familiar and gentle sound. It was comforting until I realized what it was! I sat straight up in bed, and wondered why on earth the motor should be running - we were not planning on going anywhere in the house at all and besides, I don’t want to miss any part of being on the road. I still don’t do mornings too well so was not thinking straight at all. Frank was busy changing oil in the house and the bakkie and had both vehicles gently idling.
We went and rented a canoe for the day. It was slightly overcast, which was wonderful, there was a slight breeze blowing, which was great, and we both felt energetic too - amazing! We packed a goodly amount of cold water and iced water and fruit and chocolates (for energy) in an ice chest - grabbed our hats, bathing suits and towels - just in case we found a safe place to swim. It is a beautiful little slough that we started off in - gently floating along, seeing our house parked on the side of the banks, returning friendly waves at folks in the other camp sites - taking photos of course. At the end of this section, and the beginning of the lake is a long jetty on which two guys were standing, looking at us as if we were mad. We fast found out why.
Out here the wind had picked up quite a bit and there were waves, yes real breaking waves, not very high but high enough for a canoe. We decided that we could handle it and set off towards the beach section of the park knowing it was not too far away. We found muscles that we never knew existed! Our arms, backs and shoulders ached terribly after only a relatively short while. So we tied off to a tree for a little while a short way off the side of the bank and sat there recuperating, and gulping down cold water. Up in the mountains we could put our breathlessness down to the thin air, here we just had to face the facts - we would not be able to join an Olympic canoe team! The wind seemed to get worse so we untied the rope and drifted back down in the general direction we had just battled our way up from. Deciding that we were not going to give in this easily we then let the wind blow us waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down the lake, under the road bridge and into the swamplands. There are “swamp roads” there that are very easy to navigate, but one has no idea where exactly you are in the big picture of the swamp. It is rather like a maze, but with no one to come and get you out, alligators everywhere, very little firm ground and many fervent prayers that we do not capsize here!
It is beautiful - so many different kinds of birds, all exploding from the bushes and trees, screaming their warnings to the other birds. They all rise from the swamplands in something almost like the "Mexican wave" at a ballgame. The swamp lilies were in bloom, and there were the most incredible, very big yellow flowers, and then the dainty tiny white ones all over the place. There were many, many different types of flowers and plants. This is truly an amazing place. There are really big trees growing out of the water. At first we thought it was firm ground and it looked like grass from a distance - but I would really hate to be dropped in there - I would find a tree and just sit in it – forever if necessary! We paddled all along these winding water roads, sometimes just floating and other times tearing our muscles trying to get ourselves out of some of the thicker marshland, and battling the wind too. The different colors of green are just amazing, the amount of different plants and how the scenery changes from one bend to the other still surprises me. At times there were big huge trees, and then it seemed like there was miles of green swamp, filled with an awesome array of different birds, stretching for miles ahead of us.
We paddled and guessed our way through this wonderland for about 3 hours, drinking plenty of water, eating only one chocolate, and bravely dipping our feet in the alligator waters to cool off. Then we both realized that we were getting very tired, very burned, and our shoulders were starting to yell at us rather loudly. We each have a gammy shoulder that does not take too much strain without complaining. So we decide to head back towards home. It was almost impossible to see which way was home - the sun was straight up and the wind had changed direction so often - or was that us? Eventually we just followed one winding channel that led us past a very big alligator that took off into the water as soon as he heard us. Potential supper? We came out under another bridge miles above the camp and right across the lake. The wind had decided to pick up again and we battled our way back, muscles screaming, against the wind, bobbing up and down in the swells, for over an hour through trees and birds and water grass.
It was wonderful, it was beautiful. It was NOT the gentle "paddle around the pond" we dreamed of! But a blast anyway.
Now we are sitting here with the top of my legs covered in calamine lotion and the air conditioner going full blast to cool our arms and legs off. Wonderful too.
This place is called the Martin Dies Jr. State Park and is in the Big Thicket Nature Preserve. Its really lovely - a totally amazing place all in all. We will have to come back again some time.
And neither of us wants to move on quite yet either, and we are on day 3 already! I had a bonus round today too - got all three kids on the phone for good long chats - absolutely wonderful!
Tomorrow? Who knows, but it will certainly be a day in the shade - neither of us need much more of the sun for right now – we both carry a decided tinge of bright red.
So...
Love to you all
and especially U3 of mine - I am proud of you all!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Hanging in Texas
8th August 2003
We have been SO lazy these past few days - it’s wonderful! Yesterday there were record temperatures here - the temperature went up from 101 degrees to 107 in an hour! So we stayed at home, sanded off a bit of wood in short spurts, between downing many bottles of ice water and playing games on the computer, sleeping and just generally doing absolutely nothing. But that gets old, fast, for both of us.
Today we slept late - only woke at around 9am. We then pottered around until lunchtime when we left to go and fetch the other photos we had handed in to Wal-Mart to develop. I wanted to go and wander around the little town they have here. It is quite stretched out, but I had glimpsed a thrift store and what looked like a few other interesting places when we had driven through looking for a laundromat the other day. So off we tootled. The town turned out to be yet another little Texas town with mostly closed ex-shops, and the thrift store had nothing that tickled me enough to buy it. Just me changing or did they just have a lot of junk? A thought for another day - maybe. They did not even have a place to buy an ice cream in town! The photos we picked up were also generally disappointing. Thank goodness we had only used that camera as a extra and only had five rolls of film and some of the photos were from the beginning of the Alcan Highway in British Columbia - so no treasures were lost in these photos. Phew! And Wal-Mart had ice cream.
I write short little sentences down to try to help me remember things about each day on the trip. On reading one of those pages today, I read how I had noted that each town smelled totally different. Some smelled totally sickening, like sulfur or sewage, some like very fresh cow poop, others gentle and clean - and many in between and some that we just could not wait to get out of! I guess it has a lot to do with the local industry, but geeeeez - some are really bad!
In Texas particularly, we have noticed that most of the little towns we have passed through are dying or dead. Many look like ghost towns with almost every store closed and not a soul to be seen. Even the windmills are leaning and broken, some just moving enough to make that metallic screeching they use in the spooky movies. It is quite eerie at times! They are generally quite far from the bigger centers, but one wonders how they ever survived, or even why they were started in the first place. The Indian reservations we have come through, mostly in Arizona and New Mexico, were unkempt, dirty, and littered with old rusted, upside down cars. It has surprised me just how many places have just stopped being - totally. And we wonder what treasures lie waiting for someone there, but we dare not stop and look without taking the time to do some research first and get the appropriate permissions.
The other thing I nearly forgot, what with being in the same place now for almost a week: NEVER drive over a skunk -even a dead one. It smells...... - it’s indescribable! Its like the thing, dead and all, jumps up from the road as you pass over him, carefully making sure that your tires don’t touch him, and attaches itself to the underside of the house, and dies even more! It takes frantically opening all windows while holding your breath for about 10 minutes before the last of the awful smell leaves. We have invested in a few boxes of matches in the hope that by striking a match, it will take the smell away faster. Texas seems to have - or had - too many skunks!
After our trip to the shops, we did another of those "Nature Trails" on the bikes here in the park. We really are suckers for punishment, but it just is lovely in there - no traffic sounds, just the rustling of leaves and the occasional panicked rush of some or other animal leaving fast. The path we took today split and the road we took came to an end about half a mile further on. They have benches alongside the trail about every half mile or so, but these are not a solid bench, they are made of slats. The spider webs hang thick from underneath and behind and I cannot imagine sitting on one of them after seeing the size of the spiders hanging from the trees around here.
Today there seemed to be many mosquitoes, and I had some quiet giggles watching Frank doing that insane bicycle dance again, while at the same time hitting his head, neck, legs, trying to kill the mozzies biting him! One did not dare slow down either - they tend to catch up with you when you do, so even a turnaround is done at high speed - anti mozzie spray and garlic pills and all. It is amazing to see all the different colors of dragonflies around here - beautiful bright iridescent colors. There are also big round looking "buzzers" that fly past one at an incredible speed, right in front of your face! They have the whole world to fly around in and they have to try to intimidate me by their almost kamikaze diving.
Yesterday evening we wanted to go and try our hand at some fishing (as long as Frank takes the fish off the hook for me!). We had seen billions of Willow flies or May flies on the jetty the day before and thought to use those as bait - the fish were grabbing them very fast when we threw them into the water. So, off we tootle to the jetty, passing our rabbit that is always in the same place on the side of the road, and does not even run from us anymore. (No - we wont be bringing him home either!). No May flies left. The birds had got them all - a few dried up ones left, but not worth trying to attach them to the hook - too brittle. We tried a few different places with no luck, so went for a gentle ride on the bikes around the park again. Ah well, neither of us really felt like cleaning fish anyway!
Late this afternoon Frank finished up some sanding on the burlwood and walking sticks and put some varnish on them - they look great! I sorted out all the stones I have been picking up along the way and cleaned them up. They look really good, but I do hope we don’t have to go through a weigh station!
Had a late shower again tonight. There are quite a few motor homes and campers in the park tonight, being Friday night and there was a gentle, friendly glow about the park when I came back on the bike so I had no trouble finding my way home. Besides, Frank had the lights on for me at the house, and I now know the layout of the roads that lead home.
So now here we sit - me finishing this email, Frank having finished reading his book, us drinking coffee and sharing a candy bar. The fridge is full of them and we will have plenty for the kids to pile into when we get back!
Happy Birthday, Mom!
Lotsalove to you all
Especially U3 of mine
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Of Spiders and Bumps
10th August 2003
Friday night I sat typing the previous email sent to you all. Frank had gone to bed after a while, so I piddled around, typing, checking emails, and playing games on the computer while he gently snored in the back of the house. When I got up to go to bed, I did so quietly not wanting to wake him as he was sleeping like a widdle baby! So I put all the lights off, tippy toed to the bathroom and then took that big step to the bedroom. My eyes had not adjusted to the dark yet, so I felt for Frank’s toes before climbing into bed. Well, I nearly died! When I touched his foot, I immediately heard a gentle voice right at my ear - I had not heard a sound and knew he was lying down sleeping. My heart rate went up dangerously high and my body went numb. You all know the things one thinks when getting a voice in your ear in the middle of the night, in pitch dark, and no human awake to do it?! It was Frank. He had very quietly, but not on purpose - or so he says - sat up in bed, needing to use the bathroom too! Fortunately for him my arms had gone numb from fright so I could not even hit him. He started laughing first - it took me a while to get breathing again but then it took both of us a while to stop. As each of us calmed down, the other would start up and I fell asleep with Frank still giggling at times. He has been duly warned never to do that again!
Here is another thing never to do. Let me paint you a picture first. Picture the bathrooms, in the middle of the pine forest, in the early evening. The small parking place there has a few really good potholes, and opposite these are motor homes parked where my bicycle tire kissed the tree that first night. So... I am finished showering, no spiders and not even dark yet - quite confident all in all. I get on my bike and start off, swinging the bike around to stop from hitting the potholes in the road. The bag that has the "shower tools" (soap, shampoo and towel) in it starts swinging wildly from their place on the handlebars. No big deal - so far! On top of this, my hair is still delightfully dripping down my back and into my face, so I decide to shake my head like a dog would - you know, feeling good and all. THAT is what one should definitely not do under any circumstances when riding a bicycle, dodging potholes and trying to control a swinging bag!
I landed beautifully with my butt on the bag with the towel etc in it, shampoo bottle popping like a ripe lemon. My knee landed on the bag of trail mix (peanuts, raisins etc) that I had in the bicycle carrier which was now spewed all over the road! I felt no pain. Except the ego pain. As I landed, I was aware of doors opening and voices talking that had been silent before. I knew that my very in-delicate dance had been seen by quite a few folks. They did not rush over, rather looked at me as if surprised to find me sitting in the middle of the road, and quietly asked if I was ok. Nice of them. Amazing just how many people were in those motor homes! Well, I found some more stones that I had picked up and forgotten after putting them in the bicycle carrier, and a shell or two. So some good did come out of it all.
I pulled myself towards myself, picked up all the goodies strewn around, and headed back home just a tad more carefully. I did experimentally shake my head again, but slowly and very carefully. I could almost feel those other campers shaking their heads at me! By the time I got a few feet along the way I could feel my wrist talking loudly to me. So I became this whimpering being, slowly pushing the bike the rest of the way. Fraaaaaaaaaaannnk! Fraaaaaaaaaannnk! sniff - I - sob/sniff - fell off my - gulp/sniff - bike and, and, and, sniff/gulp/sob - my - sniff, sniff, - wrist is reeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaallllly - SOB! hurting - sniff - bad - ooooooooh. Gosh! I really was a wimp! Frank muttered a very quiet "Oh shoot!" and a bottle of cold water was promptly put in my hand to help in case it swelled, and I was given a delicious chocolate to eat and some coffee. Nothing broken, no swelling, and doing great today - just don’t squeeze it!
Franks response when a front tire blows out, or something goes wrong is this quiet voice muttering "oh shoot". I have learned to listen for this, thankfully it does not happen often at all, but when I hear those words I know something is wrong and I tend to stop whatever I am doing and wait to see what has happened. Mostly this happened with the bust tires. And thankfully nothing broke in my fall.
We went bike riding again yesterday - on the freeway in the direction we had not been before. We rode past a very big part of a very big, very dead rattlesnake, and many very dead and dried out turtles. The road ran out of shoulder early on, and we would ride a bit and then swerve off into the grass and brambles to allow the cars and trucks pass by safely. We rode across the bridges we had gone under in the canoe and were looking for alligators. Frank found a piece of dead tire in the road and threw it over the bridge into the water. Almost immediately the Daddy of Alligators floated to the top. Maybe he thought he had competition in the area or that his supper had been delivered. He hovered there for a good while and then regally swished his tail and headed back to the shade tree. This was in the area that we had been canoeing in just a few days earlier. It was good to see the alligator from us here and not from in the tiny canoe!
The road never did grow its shoulder back again, so we turned around and headed back towards home. It’s no fun riding on such a narrow road with trucks and cars whizzing by at high speed. On the way back we went into the other side of the park which is across the road from where we are camped and picked some herbs from their herb garden. We found some Rosemary and Thyme and Garlic. We chatted to some of the folks working in the shop there and then headed home to cook again. The herbs made a wonderful difference in the food - it was great!
We have cleaned much of the wood now, and even varnished some pieces. I have sorted my shells and stones. Frank cleaned the windows and door handles and surrounds of the house. We scraped some of the butterflies off the radiator. The bakkie is almost all packed again, except for one gas tank which we are using and the bikes. We are cleaning out the left over food in the fridge and unfortunately had to throw out our box of wine. It has done us really well, but has the distinct taste of vinegar, even mixed with orange juice! It’s the same box that left Chattanooga with us so it was time for us to part company with it. It was lovely lying in bed with all the lights off and the curtains open, listening to the noises of the forests and seeing the moon shining through the tall pine trees. Gentle.
Tomorrow - Monday - we will be on the road again. Don’t know where to, yet. But now we are both looking forward to moving again.
Lotsalove to all of you
Especially U3!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Down in Louisana
11th August 2003
This morning we both woke up rather early knowing it was moving day again. Frank cooked a wonderful breakfast and I took my time opening my eyes. When I first woke up it was fairly light already, being about 7.30 am. After eating, it was definitely darker and I was convinced that we had somehow got our times mixed up and was ready to head back to bed! It was only a storm coming in. The sky turned dark gray and a few heavy drops plopped onto the roof. It waited for us to unhook everything and get rid of the trash on the way out, before it really came down in buckets.
Over the last two or three days in the park in Texas, we cleaned up stuff like the wood, the stones, and generally sorted out before packing it all back into the bakkie and motor home again. It all just fell so nicely into place and by last night, everything was packed up ready to go. The radio said that it was going to rain - only a 30 % chance, but rain anyway and we felt rather smug that we had managed to pack up everything before it all got wet.
It’s never good to feel smug.
Every time we get back on the road after a few days stop over, I have to get used to the sounds again. Each time they are slightly different as things are packed differently and just one bowl in the sink can make me jump up and check. This time, as normal, there was a new sound. But nothing fell, nothing fell down, and nothing fell off, and we had all six tires still spinning wonderfully. About an hour into driving, we stopped for ice and gas. I walked to the back of the house and noticed that the carpet was totally soaked. At first I thought it was the ice chest leaking, but then noticed it was all over the house and was deep enough to cover my toes! We realized what had been happening. On the last rear wheel blowout, the covering above the wheel well was damaged - a big piece broken out of it. This left a gaping hole right above the tire straight into the house under the stove and sink area. So, while we were feeling smug about having packed up everything before the rain got it all wet, the tires were doing an excellent job of throwing water up into the inside of the house from underneath! The carpet got wetter and wetter as we drove on, and we were sloshing around in a great big puddle when we walked back there. Water was running out of the door and underneath the house. We stopped at a Wal-Mart to buy a dry/wet vacuum cleaner and took out the extra carpet layer we had laid down and sucked up what water we could. We now have the cleanest carpet around. Wet, but clean. We sucked about 10 gallons of water out of the inside of the house! Now we are really and truly washed off, and the motor home looks nice and shiny from the outside too. It was a really comical seeing the folks faces when we stopped at an angle at the rest stop and the water literally poured out of the house!
We are in a campground just north of New Orleans - the Fontainebleau State Park, with the air conditioner and fan running at high speed with all the windows open, trying to dry the carpet out. This is another lovely park, with enormous Oak trees that have moss draped all over them and I can imagine that it would look terribly spooky at night time. Some of the tree branches are draped on the ground, allowing one to sit and even walk along the branches, and then they grow back upwards, looking as if they are just too heavy to go very far at all. The campground is mainly under Pine trees, and the pine beetle does not seem to have moved in here yet. There are the most incredible vines climbing all the trees, hanging all over the place looking like they expect Tarzan or Jane at any moment.
We passed quite a few logging trucks again today, and remembered that the logging trucks in California would carry one tree and often only one log at a time. Those trees were enormous! The logs on these trucks have stacks of toothpicks, by comparison! Another thing we noticed is that most of the houses are brick houses. This was also so in Texas and parts of California. I have always loved a brick house - one can hang a picture anywhere instead of having to hunt a beam or some such thing! The ground is so soggy here in Louisiana that most of the houses are up on blocks or little triangle stands a foot or so above the ground. Even the cemeteries are all above ground - I have to admit that that does look weird. Definitely different!
We have been for a bike ride today already, and found Lake Pontchatrain. It sounds so amazing, and is enormous. There is a massive bridge going right across it near where we are. The lake has white sand and very fine stone, which felt good on the feet. But. The water is dirty with rotting weeds and there were dirty diapers and beer bottles and cans and stacks of other trash floating around. It does not make one want to paddle around in the water at all. So we rode further around the park just looking to see what there was - lovely smooth roads, plenty shade, quiet spaces - just peaceful and quiet. I found a fishing float and a few shells and yes, more stones. Cant stop collecting now - and Frank even picked one orange stone up for me, so he is still helping with the collection too. We saw a raccoon crossing the road, but he quickly turned back when he saw us and hid behind a big tree, spinning his head around, watching Frank who had gone on ahead and then me who was pointing the camera at it. I got a lovely picture of him with only his head peering around a tree watching me very carefully. Also saw a deer with her twin babies - little white dots all over them. She took off quickly and then showed the babies "the silent walk" as they disappeared into the forest, hardly crunching one leaf at all. Amazing.
Neither of us really wanted to unhook the bakkie today, we just want the carpet dry right now. We also have to watch the weather before travelling again as we really don’t want to get into too much rain and have the same problem all over - once is enough.
We have just been for another long bike ride – it’s wonderful to see the deer and rabbits on the road as we ride along. There are many young deer and they stand and watch one like a statue until we get too close, then they run off like a gangly teenager, not quite sure which way their legs need to go to get away fast enough!
We had lovely refreshing showers, made more fruit salad and Jell-O, still drying the carpet out, and about to head off to bed to read for a while.
Lotsalove to you all
Very especially U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Gulf Islands National Seashore
14 August 2003
The idea that we were stuck at the park, any park, depending on the weather to let us out was just too much for either of us! So, we broke the bakkie loose, drove into the little town and bought some bonding stuff to fix the wheel well. It rained and rained and the weather map did not indicate any lessening at all. Frank found the main piece that had broken off of the wheel well inside, underneath the motor home - quite a bonus! So he patched first with the little bit of liquid and then smeared the bonding goop all over anything that faintly resembled a place that water could get into. A good job - it’s still holding up!
We left Fontainbleau State Park the next morning, Wednesday morning. My mind very much on my girls busy with their first day as seniors in school. We buzzed along a lessor road - not a freeway. The freeways seem so hectic, cars racing by and the noise is always ten times worse than a smaller road. So we ambled along into Biloxi and stumbled across another National Seashore. We parked the house in a wonderful quiet spot, covered by pine trees and surrounded by swamp area. It was lovely. By now, both of us needed some good bread and some ice cream too – we had not had either for a good few days already. So we unhooked little Skilpad, and took her to town. It poured with rain. The roads got so flooded in a terribly short time that cars were driving straddled across the middle line on the double lane roads to avoid the flooded edges. The drains just could not handle the amount of water. It was lovely watching the enormous fans of water being thrown up as each car passed by or hit a deeper patch of water. But lovely too when it all stopped and one could see again. We found no good bread, but did find ice cream.
Then we did our mandatory tour on bicycles of the park. It is wonderful with big hanging trees, swamps all over, alligators and an amazing amount of bird life. Many folks using the park to jog, hike, run, and push babies and bicycle or just park off. We sat on a bridge and watched the little hermit crabs fighting over their hidey holes as the tide took the water out. Frank spotted a nice big crab and tied a piece of jerky to a string - the crab grabbed hold of it and hung on as he pulled it up about 10 foot towards the bridge! Lovely blue color in the crab and apparently very edible too. But he let go before we could get a hold of him. There was also an alligator we were watching - he was lying up on a bank with its mouth wide open and seemed very happy to stay right where it was.
There is a fly here, a yellow fly-thing. It bites. It grabs hold of you and hangs on, biting all the time, while you are frantically swatting at it. And they come in swarms so the arm waving and yelling gets rather frantic at times. I could see at least 10 of them racing after Frank as he peddled his bike frantically out of the forest! He did stop - once. And then peddled again really fast when they caught up to him. Once we got out of the forest back into the sunlight, they left us alone. Frank also collected some good fire ant bites when he stopped to adjust the chain on his bike. He put his foot straight into a nest of them. He did not immediately realize it and rode on, only to come to a screaming stop a short way down the road, with me once again, very narrowly missing hitting him. He stomped the ground like a madman for a minute or so, now swatting at his ankles, before I caught on to what had happened. It’s not always easy not to laugh…
So now we both carry fire ant holes in our feet and ankles. The mozzies had attacked us over the past few days, and I don’t think the garlic tables are doing much to keep them away, but neither of us are going to stop taking them - just in case.
Travelling back east has brought a drastic change in the temperatures for us. We had very little humidity and now everything seems to be damp - even the chips are soggy! Having the house wet inside did not help in the slightest either.
We tootled back home, had supper, played some games on the computer, chatted to Joleen on IM and spoke to some friends on the phone, and then called it quits for the night after being eaten alive by night creepy crawlies.
Its lovely to be able to sleep with the blinds open, and the moon was almost full - lovely light through the pine trees. The house was backed into the parking place, with its back window right into the forest. We heard owls and some other animals and birds all night. Another gentle evening.
This morning we wanted to go and walk on the beach, which we did for a short while. The beaches here are raked by bulldozers every day! The water was dirty and there were no shells to pick up. The ocean did not smell or feel like the ocean at all, not like on the West Coast. So off we ambled to the casino. We put some money into the machines, got some out, put some more in, put some more in, and put some more in - then quit! Its nice playing with a bit of money like that, but not something either of us could do for very long or with very big amounts of money. Some folks look like they are playing way too seriously.
So, we saw the park, the beach, the casino and the town and we are now on the road again. Where to? A couple of hours, and we will know, maybe.
That’s us for now - going to give the road my full attention for a while now. I have the map on my lap and we are trying to decide which direction to go.
Love to you all - and again, specially U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
What a ride! What a Ride…………………
15th August 2003
We have seen meteor craters, giant trees, deserts, ancient fossils, ice, snow and glaciers, beaches, swamps, tunnels, canyons, bats, caves, cliff houses, faces on mountains, and forests. We have been to the furthermost point North one can drive to in the United States (Prudoe Bay, Alaska), and almost to the most Western point too. We have been up so very high on mountain peaks - over 11 000 feet, over two hundred feet below sea level in Death Valley, and 750 feet below sea level in Carlsbad Caverns. We have put our feet in the Arctic Ocean, the Gulf of Alaska, the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. We have been so hot that we felt as if we were melting, and so cold that it felt that our bones were going to splinter apart. We have been to so many amazing National and State Parks, ooh-ed and aah-ed at the most wondrous sights I could ever have imagined. We have experienced the most awesome sunsets, sunrises and constant sunshine, dust storms, thunder storms and lightening shows, rain torrents and rainbows. We have seen the razzle and dazzle of what mankind has made - Vegas, and the total awesome-ness of what God has made. We have driven the smoothest of roads, and ached along on the most awful of trails. We have left the country twice and re-entered it twice, been through British Columbia and Yukon Territory and touched into Alberta in Canada. We have changed and replaced endless tires, and exchanged one little Skilpad. We have seen bears, moose, and caribou, armadillos, eagles, otters, and snakes, and pig-thingys, amongst others. We have found antlers, burlwood, and the most amazing stones and driftwood. We have found peace, love and wonder. We have driven over 16,000 miles and been away for just over two months, and are still at home - what a ride!
With heels dragging all the way, making deep tracks, we arrived back in Soddy Daisy, Tennessee this morning (Friday 15th August 2003).
Yesterday morning at the Gulf Shores National Seashore Park in Biloxi, Mississippi, we went to the beach and then the casino for a little while. And there we discovered something interesting - we were both "out-played" for now, we knew the time had come and we both agreed to give it up and get on back. (Besides, I had said to Joleen that when she sends the rain and storms, we will head home, and I had to keep up my end of the bargain! She sent amazing storms!) So with a quick, sad look, and some excitement too, we dropped the last quarters into the slot machines, headed home and packed up the Skilpads, dumped the tanks, wished the alligator farewell, and headed for the interstate. Good to be on the road again, sad to be ending this trip, but with happy tears in my eyes at the thought of seeing everyone again.
On 8th June this year, I was in a flat spin. I had so much to do and was incredibly nervous about this trip. I knew we would be ok, but had to tie up so many little final ends that it just made the whole experience feel impossible at times. Not at all least, actually on top of the list of worries, was the one that made me wonder if I could be away from my three children for so long. I don't think the question was whether they would cope without me, rather whether I could cope without them. One day maybe I will grow up and be independent of them - maybe. It was part of my job to make them independent of their parents and I have done my job well, so far, and given them each the confidence to deal with many things in their lives, and to be without me over the past two months. And they have all dealt incredibly well with many issues while we have been away. I am proud of the way each one has done this. It has been a learning process for all of us and I have missed them terribly, and then some more.
So we hit the road on the 9th of June with Steven driving the first mile or so behind us waving us on our way. The tears! Gosh what a way to have started the trip. It was a wonderful feeling, yet so scary, so unbelievable.
And the experiences began. Many of them I have tried to share with you all in my emails. Many of you I have carried along on this trip with us, some of you have bumped me on the head each and every day - yes, it was you! We have taken a zillion photographs - many, many won't ever get printed, and others are just stunning. The memories are great, the places were wonderful, the experience incredible. And the company amazing.
Frank and I have just fitted together so well, we work together well, play together well and travel together well. We are so at ease with each other, and have learned to "read" each other too well at times! It really is amazing just how many things we do have in common, from thin sliced cheese to weird/whacky thoughts and ideas! He handled my "kid missing days" great - just held me, and was so gentle and kind, helped me cry it out and then picked me up again. We have had the most amazing time all in all. It's been so good. Good for him and good for me. We both find ourselves whistling and singing without even realizing it. That is a big deal for me! We have both learned how to be silly again, and laugh and cry and laugh again. We have both grown so much on this trip. We are already planning the next trip - rafting through the Grand Canyon - or something!
We would love to take the kids to Padre Island, but then I would love for them to get to the Pacific Coast and all the other places we have been. We were so hoping to be able to fly them out to meet us, but their schedules clashed when we could do this and then our timing was wrong and the air ticket prices just too ridiculous - a great disappointment. Well, I made two months without them! More than that would be pushing it for now, methinks.
Again, this trip has been amazing and we now have to learn how to settle in again for a while. Fixing computers seems so far away, and we will both miss being on the road terribly. But that is life, we would not appreciate the freedom if we had it all the time. (Oh Yeah? Try us! ) Things to do, time to pass, and later, hopefully later…
All of you have, in one way or another, inspired my writing the emails that have kept you up to date with where we are and what we are up to. Thank you to all of you for sharing the most amazing trip through many states, in and out of the USA, through the immigration stops - all very successful and sweetly short! Thank you for all your encouragement and your emails, and phone calls - they all helped make the trip even more special - yes, every one of them.
So. That's us for this time, thanks again for sharing with us, and helping me create this book of memories.
And a very, very special Thank You to Steven, Lisa and Joleen (U3). Without your sense and sensibilities, your pushing, and shoving at times, your "oh mom!'s" this trip would never have been possible. You might not know just how all three of you rode "the ride" with us - deep in my heart and always on my mind and in oh so many talks and conversations. I really missed you all.
And Frank - for the laughs, for the love, for the wonder, the ride - for the whole kit and kaboodle - words cannot express. But you know. And I know. Thank you, sweet man!
With lots of love, and again especially U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
What a Ride . . . . . .
What a Ride!
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