THE BUS STOPS HERE

Monday 29th May 2023

Spring has the Dogwood trees busting out all over.

Little Rock, Arkansas had a tornado whip through a couple of weeks before we arrived. Our campground had a lot of damage.

One camper would be totally destroyed and the next one untouched.

At least the State Capitol was undamaged.

Bill looks so young. I guess he didn’t start going grey until he was in the White House.

It was $8 for a shoe shine. I wonder what a Chaco sandal would cost.

On to Louisville and the sibling reunion. We came from California, Oregon, Illinois and Tennessee for a great week of catching up. It had been 8 years since our last get together. Even though we are all aging like fine vintage wines, we better not wait that long again. That slippery downhill slope is getting slicker!

Louisville had beautiful brand new pickle ball courts. It was time to give the whole group some lessons. Everyone made good progress. We are hoping they will keep it up.

Thanks for the quality family time. We had a smashing time with everyone of you!

We travelled down Eastern Kentucky for a couple of weeks. There were some really nice rails to trails bike rides. Whoever came up with this idea for a covered bridge was thinking outside the box.

Umbrella Alley was cool. Luckily one of the few days without rain.

This Box Turtle was very friendly.

New River Gorge in West Virginia was designated a National Park in 2020. It is the 47th park in the lower 48 States. We have seen the other 46 over the years. After several days of hiking in the park, we can now check this one off.

We hiked a trail to get a view of Horseshoe bend. It was very nice but…..

…..here is a real Horseshoe bend. This one is near Page, Arizona.

Rhododendrons are the state flower of West Virginia and they were on full display in the park.

There was some major Rose screaming when this black snake slipped around my ankle and foot! It had been hiding at the base of the tree,

Dean snagged a pic of the escaping slithering serpent.

We have seen quite a bit of wildlife on our bike rides This baby raccoon was resting on the side of a trail we rode today.

Another black snake resting on the trail. Yikes! these reptiles are everywhere. I ran over a smaller one by accident. We went back to check on it and thank goodness he was OK.

Mountain laurels and wild roses are blooming along many of the bike trails. Flowers are always a Rose pleaser.

Thanks Arkansas, Kentucky and West Virginia. We enjoyed your southern hospitality. Moving upwards to the Michigan Peninsula next.

Monday 22nd August 2022

This post is a bit long. We have been out of internet service for quite some time.

After leaving Homer we moved up the coast a bit to Portage. It was very rainy and to top off the misery Leslie and Stuart came down with a case of Covid even though they are boosted up the kazoo. They moved up to Anchorage in a campground with full hookups to nurse their suffering bodies. Luckily, they felt better after a few days.

We managed to escape the bug! Snagged a clear day and hiked to Portage Glacier.

Dean found a lovely soft mossy spot for lunch and a nap.

A pretty butterfly stopped to pose for me.

We were all fit and excited to head into Denali National Park.

The skies cleared and gave us a beautiful view of Denali mountain

There is nothing like a good mountain hike to get my happy face on.

The only close up wildlife we saw was this little guy.

There was plenty of Fireweed blooming at the higher elevations.

We biked over 30 miles on a gravel road in the park. There were some long steep hills to climb, so we really appreciated the electric bikes. Although, we were on the last bit of power by the time we arrived back at the campground.

After 2 beautiful days it was back to rain. Occasionally the sun would peek out to give us rainbows.

The rainy weather really encouraged mushroom growth. There were so many different types.

We noshed on quite a few huckleberries.

Very close to the park was a very nice brewery.

As usual, I came in last in the darts competition. At least I was showing some style.

The brewery had an old bus similar to the “Magic Bus”.

The inside had info about the real bus

We saw the original one at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.

If you watched the movie “Into the Wild”, you will know about this bus.

Fairbanks had some nice breweries which we enjoyed.

Of course you have to have a pic of the Alaska Pipeline. Oil flows through this pipe from Prudhoe Bay, in the Arctic Circle, down to Valdez. It’s 800 miles of pipe crossing 3 mountain ranges and 500 rivers and streams. We would have liked to tap into that pipe and snag some fuel!

More rain and more rainbows….

and more mushrooms.

There are so many pretty places to stop for a lunch break.

When I see a big wheel I automatically think, let’s see if we can fit inside it.

The weather forecast for Haines was really bad with rain scheduled every day for the whole week of our stay. However, when we arrived, sky magic happened. Sunny days. Yippee!!!

We had fires every night and the guys were so excited to play with hatchets.

The view from our front windows was spectacular! Cruise ships passed by on their way back and forth from Skagway to Juneau. A few even stopped in Haines.

Our first meeting with a grizzly! We were on our bikes and she just crossed in front of us. Thank goodness she was more interested in eating lunch than us.

Junior got a nice snack too.

We saw mom and her cubs later as she passed under the bridge we were biking over.

We took the fast ferry to Juneau (Alaska’s Capital). It was a 3 hour journey each way.

We even saw a whale breaching!

Actually, we did NOT see any breaching, but we saw plenty of whales and porpoises swimming about in the distance. Our boat never got close enough for a good view.

This cool statue was in Juneau.

Juneau harbor is quite picturesque.

A visit to the State Capitol was on our list.

Leslie and I tried to phone each other, but had forgotten how to use a dial phone.

The guys had a puppet interview in the Senate Chamber.

We tried to ‘bear up ‘ with the antics of the chaps.

We were tempted to put them in daycare.

This is a cool way to protect your plants.

We were lucky enough to have one last sunny day so we took a trip to Skagway. It’s only 45 minutes on the ferry.

The old visitor center has a facade of more than 8000 pieces of driftwood.

There were three cruise ships at the dock. This one looked like it was going to sail up Main Street.

I thought this was an interesting sign to have in the bathroom of a brewery we visited.

We had completely forgotten our wedding anniversary until Dean’s cousin Candice and our good friends Calleen and Jon sent us congratulatory texts. It was a good job we had planned on eating out in Skagway. A lovely day out. We are pretty happy considering we both turned 70 and have been latched up for 50 years.

The Fireweed has finished blooming. Winter is on the way. Time to head south to the Lower 48.

Thursday 28th July 2022

I thought this map was interesting. It really gives you an idea of the vastness of Alaska. The US purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 for the bargain price of $7.2 million dollars. What a deal!

Crikey! My whole country fits in at least 6 times .

Hoop net fishing opened up at Kenai. It looked like everyone gutted their salmon and tossed the innards in the surf. The seagulls were thrilled with the easy grub.

Alaskan citizens were the only ones allowed to fish with these huge nets. Two salmon limit each per day. 25 for head of household and 10 extra for each dependent per year. Even though “The Hoopers” were packed closely together we saw dozens of salmon being hauled in.

This lady had just caught her last fish of the day.

These kids were trying to stay warm, and having fun doing it.

The local store had a great deal on fresh sockeye salmon. That’s our kind of fishing. Dean is practicing his filleting skills after a lesson from Stuart.

Guess what’s for dinner tonight, and yes Jay, we have saved you a fillet.

We stayed nearly two weeks in Homer and it rained a good portion of that time. In between the showers we managed to have some fun times.

The Salty Dog Saloon was quite interesting. It’s been in operation since 1957 when Alaska was still a territory.

The whole interior walls and ceiling are covered with dollar bills.

The inside had such low ceilings, and was packed, so we had a beverage in their patio area.

Alaskans know how to recycle their wellies and …….

boots.

Leslie was a good sport and posed for me.

A great hike across the bay at Kachemak Bay State park required a front loader boat. We felt like troops being offloaded in the brisk surf.

After a nice trek through the forest we took the self propelled tram across the river just for fun.

Well, I had fun as I supervised the pulling and pushing of the tram. It took 6 trips back and forth.

I had a nice relaxing trip. Thanks guys.

We had told Leslie and Stuart about all the icebergs on Grewlingk Lake. Thank goodness there were plenty of bergs to admire. I asked everyone to cosy up with a berg. I think I gave my berg the most love.

Homer still retains it’s quirky housing vibe with multi story condos..

and single story deluxe houses.

There were also plenty of fixer uppers.

We finished our stay in Homer with a fun Pickleball tournament in the basement of the local rec center.

A great way to spend our last day.

Fireweed is blooming everywhere.

Onwards towards Denali National Park.

Saturday July 9th 2022

Most travelers stop and take a selfie at the Alaskan border.

We passed so many lakes on our journey to Valdez.

We had this campground to ourselves. It was very peaceful.

Lying on a bed of yellow daisies is lovely. I am enjoying being on top of the daisies instead of pushing them up for the time being.

It was mostly cloudy and cold in Valdez so the sea kayaks were not getting much use.

The dock was always busy after the fishing boats came in.

Seagulls were enjoying all the scrap fish and then the big guys arrived. Mom cleared the deck and stood stood guard while……..

Junior had a good nosh.

We had one nice day so we hit the trails at Thompson Pass, just a few miles up the road from Valdez. There was a smidgen of snow to hike through.

There were still a few mini icebergs left in this lake.

I was feeling on top of the world!

We even managed to play a little Pickleball on the local tennis court.

Anchorage is a good place to refuel and resupply.

It was time to try a Yakburger.

It looked better than it tasted but everyone liked the beer! (cider for Rose of course)

Our week in Seward was lots of fun. People taking day fishing charters were bringing in huge Halibut. The one in the middle was over 100 pounds. That’s a lot of fish and chips.

Barges were being loaded up with a bit of everything.

July 4th is a big deal in Seward as they have the famed Mount Marathon race.

It’s claim to fame is being the toughest 5 kilometer race on the planet. There is a 3000 foot elevation gain and a lot of that is on slippery scree.

We cheered and clapped as Max King from Bend, Oregon won the mens race. He clocked in at just over 43 minutes and claimed the record as the oldest (42 years) guy to win the race. That guy has a serious six pack.

Cruise ships came into Seward most days and we had a great view from our front windows of them coming and going.

Our last day was nice and sunny so it was time to take on the burly hike up to the Harding Ice Field in Kenai Fjords National Park. Since it was a 10 mile trip with 3500 foot elevation gain we took our handy water filter to save lugging too much water.

There is nothing more refreshing than drinking crystal clear icy glacier water! We topped up several times.

The Harding Ice Field is shrinking every year but it still looked nice and chunky to us.

We had to stop for a little rest and cool down.

There was quite a bit of snow to hike through.

The views were spectacular when we finally reached the top. The hike was definitely worth the achy legs we all had for the next couple of days.

The firework display didn’t start until after midnight and even then it was very light. There were so many people on the beach front enjoying the show. It was fun to watch families with little kids. All the fire pits were getting some good use and kids were toasting marshmallows and riding bikes all about which seems so strange in the middle of the night.

Our trip continues.

Tuesday June 14th 2020

Sorry if you recently received a post with nothing on it. I accidentally pressed the wrong button. Definitely a senior moment.

We are finally on our journey to Canada and Alaska. Our first stopover after passing through the border was Kelowna.

This area is famous for its Trestle trail which has been converted from an old railroad. We biked through tunnels and over trestles. We love Rails to Trails.

Stuart was pleased to have this Kelowna park named after him.

Dean had driven a tractor similar this John Deere back when he was a kid. It ran on kerosene.

The only machine I ever rode was a bicycle, but I would have liked to give this mini a spin round the garden.

It took three of us to figure out how to use the parking meter.

The guys discussing the intricacies of darts.

My bike mechanic keeps our electric bikes in tip top shape.

This particular campground had a good size rhubarb patch and the camp owner said help yourself. That’s all I needed to hear.

This is one of several batches. We will be enjoying stewed rhubarb and rhubarb crumble for the next couple of weeks.

We had to snuggle up in this camp spot.

Laird Hot Springs is a must do on the British Columbia section of the Alaska Highway. It has the second largest natural hot springs in Canada and is actually a river of hot water,

We had a nice long soak in the toasty water which we really needed after juggling the rigs into that tight parking spot.

There were quite a few Bison strolling around the edges of the road. It was fun to watch the calves jumping about.

Plenty of black bears were enjoying the new growth on the verges.

Another required stop is the Signpost Forest in Watson Lake, Yukon. I think there might be at least 100,000.

Stuart wanted to add the 100,001 sign. We got out the ladder and screwdriver and now the forest has a nice green license plate from Vermont.

We had one nice day in Whitehorse and made the most of it with a great hike on Grey Mountain. There were a few snowy bits to manoeuvre through.

The views from the top were pretty stellar with snowy mountains all around us.

Whitehorse is also famous for having the worlds largest weather vane. We thought it was a joke but we actually saw the plane turning in the breeze.

Onwards to Alaska!

Sunday 22nd May 2022

We had so much rain in Oregon! It seemed like it rained nearly every day. In fact it was the rainiest April on record!! A good portion of May has also been slinging down that liquid sunshine. Of course this gave us a good excuses to visit many breweries.

Taking advantage of a sunny afternoon we explored Oregon City.

We just had to take a trip up the only vertical street in the US. No charge either.

It was originally built in 1915 as the locals living on the bluff got tired of walking up the hill. A few renovations later and this fancy elevator takes only 15 seconds to reach the top.

Willamette Falls, in Oregon City has the largest waterfall by volume in the Northwest. It is the 17th widest waterfall in the world. That’s a lot of water!

We had a great visit with Dax and Jay. Dean got a bit nostalgic for the old days of living in a house and mowed the grass. He might be done for another few years.

Stuart gave our lads a knife demonstration. They learned more about knives and sharpening knives than they ever thought possible.

I’m always up for a boy hug.

We still have our Honda Elements. Ours is the oldest. Beauty reached the grand old age of 18 this year.

Thanks for the good times lads.

We had a conversation at dinner the night before about never having a tire blowout. Of course it had to be chucking it down with rain when the blowout occurred. Also, to add to our pain, it was on a very busy interstate and by the time we were able to reach a fairly safe area to change the tire it was ruined.

This part of a pair of scissors picked up on the road, was the cause of our miserable afternoon. Still a new tire, hot showers and a few drinks helped ease the pain.

Moving on to Hood River we managed to snag some great views of Mount Hood.

It just so happens that we know of a brewery that has outdoor seating so we were able to relax with a beverage and enjoy the view.

Talking about blowouts. I think we might have a little tire jinx going on. Not too far into our 35 mile bike ride around the Hood River area I had a puncture. Luckily Stuart had a spare inner tube so all ended up well. Thank you Stuart for your extensive repair kit.

Driving on I-84 along The Columbia Gorge, you frequently see “Arms” traveling down the road. Biglow Canyon Wind Farm has over 200 windmills and more being built all the time. With a pretty constant wind coming down the Gorge these babies generate a lot of electricity.

Another great brewery. I love the breweries in the Northwest as they always have at least 1 or 2 ciders on tap, and that’s my drink. I have even converted Leslie into a cider connoisseur.

This brewery had good pizza as well as brewskis and cider.

That’s a lot of Buffalo heads.

A sunny day meant a hike at Catherine Creek.

They may not be bluebells (my favourite flower) but Lupines come pretty close, and they are certainly the right color. Next to hugging Dean and the lads I love hugging me some flowers.

We tried a bit of logging but got stumped.

There were lots of flowers to enjoy on our hike including this pretty Bitterroot.

Wild Roses smell so good.

We even had the pleasure of a little meetup with this cute Garter Snake.

Balsam Root and Lupines were bobbing in the wind. It was a lovely day out.

There is only one person in this picture who is stylin’ the hair.

Onwards to beautiful Canada. Eh!!

Tuesday 26th April 2022

Ventura has some cool looking windswept trees.

The guys were impressed with the curvaceous mermaid.

We sure could do with some love again.

When you are in Santa Barbara and see a sign like this what can you do but…

follow the instructions.

A group of low riders drove into town and put on a good show cranking their cars up and down (hopping). The guy driving the tan car told me it was his very expensive hobby retrofitting his car but he loved driving it around.

Pink ice plant was blooming nicely on the Monterey peninsular.

We had a good bike ride along the coast, although it was very windy. Thank goodness for electric bikes.

We rode next to Pebble Beach golf course. There were plenty of people playing the course. It costs around $600 for a round of golf. Blimey!!!

We have seen people walking dogs, cats and even parrots, but this guy taking his donkey out for a stroll was a first.

Talk about a laid back dog.

Point Reys National Seashore just north of San Francisco was a lovely place to spend a day.

It was a shame the lighthouse was closed to visitors.

We all liked the lichen.

The beaches were packed with sunbathing sea lions.

There were quite a few Mules Ears blooming.

Wild Iris was starting to pop up.

We luckily had another sunny day and no fog so a trip to the Golden Gate Bridge was in order.

I found a broom washed up on the beach and started tidying up.

Walking around the old gun battery was fun. These doors are still pretty solid after 100 years of salty air.

A little more corrosion happening here.

Golden Gate Bridge looked tiny through this lookout.

We are in Oregon now. A quick visit with our good friends Calleen and Jon in Grants Pass. Thanks for the camping spot for both of our rigs guys. We are moving slowly up the state. Between warranty and insurance both Rv’s are getting a bit of TLC.

It is cold and rainy. Note to myself. Please stay south until the middle of May. It was so hot In Indio California when we left at the beginning of the month it was hard to think of COLD and RAINY weather giving us a beatdown. Our rain jackets have had more use over the last couple weeks than the last 2 years.

O.K. done with whining. We are getting closer to our lads. Are you ready for some mum cooking boys?