Its Saturday evening and we are in Canton S.D. a Little south of Sioux Falls S.D.. Last night we were in Dickinson N.D. We have been all interstate and can make better time. Of the 10,000 trip about 6,500 will have been 2 lane and only 3,500 miles of dual lane highway. The itinerary for yesterday, today and tomorrow is the same.......sleep, have breakfast, drive, have lunch, drive, have dinner sleep, and do it again. Baring mechanical breakdown, mental breakdown, or other miscellaneous problems we should be home late tomorrow evening. A few misc. thoughts about the trip............it was great and we would do it all again.......over 50% of the people on the AK Highway are in some kind of RV......the economy is much better in Canada than in the US......forgot to tell you earlier we saw real cowboys and a modern day chuck wagon going though Mt........ their is a difference between camping and RVing.......lots of construction going on in Edmonton and Calgary.....met a lot of people in AK who came there for some temporary reason but never left......the RV is less tiring than a car to drive long distances. We miss everyone and will see you soon. John

Well, its Thursday and this is the first time we have been able to blog in a long time and a lot has happened. So, here goes......On Saturday we drove from Tok to Whitehorse over the only really bad part of the Ak Highway. It was slow going because the pavement is so bad probably do to the permafrost. Still, great scenery and a good ride. Tried to stay at Walmart, but it was full, must have been 50 RVs, tried the place we stayed on the way up, but it was full so we went about 20 miles down the road to another camp ground which turned out to be OK.
That night we decided to return via a little different route that did not look any longer on the map. We drove almost to Watson lake and made a right on 37 to go straight south. We spent the night dry camped at Boya Provincial Park, in the woods right next to a lake surrounded by mountains.......definitely the neatest camping spot of the trip.I fished a little, but could only get the lake trout to follow my lure, not take it. Took a long walk down a trail for about 45min., Beth thought a bear got me. The next day we continued down 37 400 miles of narrow, mostly no center line, no shoulders, no guard rail mountainus road with about 75 miles of gravel construction. It was unbelievably dusty and even though we had everything closed up everything got really dirty including the basement. The good thing is we saw bears 5 separate times including a mom and her cub that we watched for a while a I got some reasonable pictures. We also were stopped by a heard of wild horses on the road and had to wait for them to get out of the way. We spent the night at a nice private camp ground near the corner of 37 and 16 (about 550 miles Northwest of Seattle).
I can't tell you how bad everything looked after this stretch of road, so I decided to have the oil changed and filters checked on the motor home as well as wash things the best we could. We got it all done a few miles down 16 in Smithers. Very nice people......found a Cummings dealer to work on the motor home( he even power washed the front and back) while Beth and I washed the car, had lunch and went to the grocery store. The whole thing only took a couple hours and we were on the road again. We spent the night with 20 newly found friends in a beautifully Walmart Parking lot under a city no overnight parking sign with the gentle humming of generates in the back ground.
By the way, for an extended time in the for north we could not get our satellite radio and TV to work. They could not find a signal. Now that we are further south again, both are working fine......I can lesson to CNBC going down the highway and drive Beth nuts......nutter. We must have been over the curvature of the earth.
The next day,Wednesday, we drove to Jasper and then down to Lake Louise. We almost hit a black bear and 2 cubs.They walked right out in front of us, I knew we couldn't stop, so I hooked the horn and they stopped just long enough for us to get by before they proceeded across the road. This was a spectacular drive. Jasper Provencal Park is a must see.....it was great. I would like to have been able to spend more time, but by now we are both home sick and are pretty much deadheading home. Spent the night dry camped again at an overflow campground in Lake Louise and took off early this morning.
Crossed into the US around noon and tonight we are in Havre Mt at a nice spot. all is going well and Beth has not died from my cooking yet.........pizza tonight,roast beef, steamed vegetables and salad last night, rotisserized chicken from Walmart the night before, chicken Alfredo the night before that. Should be home in a few days if all goes well. Your driver John ( spell check didn't recognize rotisserized so your guess is as good as mine)

Friday July 16, 6:45 PM in Tok AK. Looked around Anchorage yesterday going to the visitors center and saw a great movie on the big earthquake of Good Friday 1964. It was the biggest earthquake ever recorded......9.3 and devastated several towns in AK., caused a title wave that also hit the lower 48 and killed a lot of people. Matt had called , he had looked on the Internet and found a place for us to g0 and eat in Anchorage.......Humphys. The 4 of us went and had a beer and a snack.......it is a local bar hangout. Then, Beth and I took Jerry and Carol to their hotel and said goodbye. It was hard to believe that our adventure together was over.... But Beth and I have a long way to go and needed some provisions so we stopped at a grocery store on our way back to the RV. When we got on the road again we saw a full grown moose( much taller than a cow) crossing a 4 lane highway in downtown Anchorage. It was stopping traffic and just slowly
walking around ignoring all the confusion was causing. Friday morning we got up early, broke camp and headed up the Tok cutoff. The weather was cool, rainy and foggy. The road was narrow, winding, not in good condition with a cliff on one side, no shoulders and no guardrail. Slow was the speed of the day. About half way to Tok the sun came out and the views were spectacular.....mountains, a glacier, many rivers and lakes. I really wanted to get further than Tok, but it was 4 pm and we knew we had good phone and Internet here so we decided to stay. Made roasted chicken, green beans and canned peaches for dinner( after a short happy hour in Jerry and Carols honor). Tomorrow we get into Canada where cell phone and computers don't always work and are expensive so you may not hear from us for a few days. All is well and we hopefully will be home in about 12 or 13 days,,,,,,, about 3700 miles mostly on 2 lane roads. We are looking foreword to seeing everyone but not looking foreword to the hot weather.

Well, here's the guest blogger again this morning. We are camped here in Palmer, Alaska at a lovely RV park. It's cool this morning and cloudy (unlike the weather we're hearing that's in
St. Louis). Yesterday we left Kenai and headed north toward Anchorage. The Anchorage RV
parks didn't look very nice so we ended up here in Palmer which is very nice and just about 30
minutes north of Anchorage. Today is our last day with Beth and John - we are touring
Anchorage and they will drop us off this evening some time after dinner. Our flight home leaves
early tomorrow morning so we are staying at a hotel tonight and they will begin their trek
home tomorrow.

Yesterday after we got settled in the campground, Jerry and John tried their hand at salmon
fishing at a couple of nearby lakes. Finally decided they just didn't have the proper gear for
catching salmon. Grilled brats for dinner and played Sequence and Liverpool (our favorite
card game).

Speaking for Jerry and I, it's been a wonderful 3 weeks in the interior of Alaska, seeing so
much beauty - mountains, lakes, rivers, wildlife (although we are still wishing to see a moose
and/or a bear) and sharing it with our good friends. It is now our hope that they have a safe
trip home.

Well, its evening in Kenai Ak.. I'll start by telling you a little about yesterday. After a nice homemade breakfast of egg Mc Muffins(better than Mickey Ds) we went to the visitors center and watched 3 great movies about bears, Kachemac Bay, and an Alaskan research boat. Then Jerry and I headed for a 1/2 day charter fishing trip for Halibut. We had a great time and each caught our limit of 2 halibut. These were small by Ak standards, abut 20-25 lbs. each, but they were just fine for us and we have fish in the freezer to bring home. There were 16 people on the boat and all of us got our limit.......we had a great time and didn't get seasick. We went out to dinner overlooking the water and had........FISH ! Today we left Homer and drove to Kenai and really got lucky with a camp site We are in the end spot overlooking the confluence of the Cook Inlet and the Kenai River. It is the beginning of the salmon run and the gray sand beach is crowded with Ak. citizens netting fish The fish are going up the river and will not eat, the only way to catch them is in a net which only people from Ak. are allowed to do. There are hundreds of people fishing and tent camping on the beach. It rained gently almost all day but this does not slow down the fishing. On our way here today we saw an adult moose on the side of the road. Tomorrow morning we go to Palmer about 36 miles the other side of Anchorage. We will check out fishing opprotunities one more time. Thursday evening we will drop off Carol and Jerry at the airport, stay the night in Palmer, before starting the long trek home.

Well, its about 8:45 PM and the sun is high in the sky. Jerry and Carol just got back from a small grocery shopping trip to Safeway, Beth is reading her book and I am messing with the computer. We had another great day. Drove from Anchorage to Homer stopping to take pictures many times. We saw many, many beautiful mountains, lakes, and lots of snow. The weather was cloudy though the mountains and then the sky opened to full sunshine as we approached the ocean. We are at a very nice campground with a view of the snow capped mountains across the Kachemak Bay( Carol helped the spell it ). Had Happy Hour, homemade Chicken noodle, misc. stuff soup for dinner and went to see the town. We went to the Spit which is a very narrow strip of land that goes out into the water. There were lots and lots of RVs parked in and out of campgrounds, lots of restaurants and Carter fishing places. Jerry and I may go fishing tomorrow if the weather is still good. All is well here and we all hope things are good back home.

Sorry for the delay in blogging - we have had some technical difficulties but seem to be corrected now at least for the moment. We think the last time we blogged we were at the North Pole (home to Santa Claus who was vacationing).In Fairbanks We saw the University of Alaska museum which was very good and had lunch at a nice italian place called Geraldo's - service was very slow which allow more time to quench our thirst with Alaskan pale ale. Then headed to Pioneer Park which was a collection of houses built in the early 1900s. Thursday morning we cleaned house (washed the motor home at the rv park - it was filthy but of course it's dirty again now. )We headed for Denali and saw Mt. McKinley from the road - pretty clear and massive- easy to pick out on a clear day. After settling into our spot at the RV park, we headed to Denali - can only drive in 15 miles so we did - still didn't see any wildlife - saw a few seagulls which we figured were misplaced from the Gulf Shores area. stopped at the visitors center - saw a movie about the park. It was a beautiful day - about 77 degrees and sunny. On Friday we got up to a gorgeous sunny clear day which is unusual for Alaska - so decided to head to Denali State Park rather than the National park. The State Park is about 100 miles south of where we are living (this is BIG BIG country). Saw Mt. McKi nley several times from the road -
many people make this trip and never see the mountain because of the clouds. But we were very fortunate and there was not a cloud in the sky. Mt. McKinley is 4 miles high - the highest mountain in North America and according to the park ranger the largest object on earth (by land mass). We had lunch at the state park and took lots of pictures and stayed there for a while just to enjoy the beauty. So now we're up to yesterday - packed up yesterday morning and headed for Anchorage - about 225 miles - not many RV parks in Anchorage and what we found were
sh________. But we stayed there anyway. The Walmart parking lot was looking pretty good right now. Walmart allows RVs to park overnight on their lots and we have seen a lot of that up here. We drove around Anchorage for a bit, went to Church and had dinner at the Sourdough Mining Company - back to motor home for our nightly card game (liverpool, canasta, etc.) It's cooler and cloudy here in Anchorage. Heading for the Kenai peninsula today - hoping for some sun. The weather has been gorgeous up until Anchorage. Our campground has an airport on one side and the railroad tracks on the other so the sound of trains and planes lulled us to sleep last night. We've met people who have been motoring since Jan. 15 and another couple since May 15th. They're gypsies or nomads but we are missing our families and friends and homes (John's missing Butler). So long for this morning - will try to keep you updated on a more current basis in the future. Carol's buns are beginning to get cold so she has to go eat breakfast. The four of us haven't had this much time together since we spent a weekend at Jeffrey's cottages many years ago.

Greetings from Fairbanks AK.. It is Wednesday and we are going on our second day touring this 80,000 population, second largest city in Ak. Drove up from Tok on Monday stopping at Delta Junction the official end of the Ak Highway........a nice short day In Delta Junction we stopped at the Sullivan Roadhouse( a roadhouse is like a motel from the old days ) and met a very neat 88 year old lady who drove up from Wisconsin in 1961 with 6 of her 9 kids and decided to stay. Its a long story my finger does not have time to tell. Also stopped at Rika's Roadhouse, another neat historical place on the river. We have a good camping spot in Fairbanks and went on the riverboat Discovery yesterday. It was a great 3 1/2 hour tour stopping at an Indian village for about an hour. We also went to a wooden bowl making company and bought souvenirs.Also saw the Ak pipeline and got some of the engineering behind its building and operation.......fascinating. Weather is good.......lows in the 50's high's in the 70,s and mostly sunny. Running low on beer, will have to breakdown and the pay high prices.

Can't remember when we posted last so here goes - we spent the last 2 days in Dawson City without phone service so thus the lack of blogging. Had a great time in Dawsin City after a
rough road to get there. We left the motor home in Tok and road 180, mostly gravel road with
the only civilization a one-building town named Chicken. It was named chicken because the
miners didn't know how to spell ptarmigan. The building had a gift shop, saloon and a cafe
with a generator out back for electricity. No phone or plumbing in Chicken, Alaska. Tonight
we are back in Tok and our campground had a July 4th celebration with a live band and a free
taste of salmon.

The Chicken cafe had excellent food and great home made pie and we stopped there for lunch
today.

Tomorrow we head for the North Pole stopping along the way at Delta Junction to see the Alaska
pipeline and the official end of the Alaska highway. Then tomorrow night we will see Santa
Claus and see what he does during the summer.

WE are now 3 hours behind St. Louis time and it never gets dark. We couldn't have any
fireworks because it never gets dark enough to have them show up.

Hope you all had a great 4th of July. We're happy to be back in the USA where we can make
phone calls and blog.

Signing off for now. You may notice some typing errors as we have had a long happy hour
tonight.
Beth, John, Jerry and Carol

Saturday June 26 got up Early, accidentally, we didn't realize we crossed over to Pacific time. We are now 2 hours behind you. Had a little breakfast and headed to downtown Dawson Creek to see the town......it took all of 2 minutes. It was only about 7:30 so we parked the motor home in the middle of the street, got out and took pictures at mile zero of the Alaskan highway. We found the farmers market that was open looked around and then went to the visitors center and watched a really good movie about constructing the highway. We got fuel( $3.70 per gallon) and hit the road. Some of the highway was very good and some was not. There were huge hills .......down and up,,,,,which were hard on the RV. It was all you could do to keep it under control down hill and max of 30 mph at times up hill. Overall another good day. A little rain, picnic lunch and got to Ft. Nelson about 4:30. Pizza and salad in the RV, Church at 7:30 mass ......all 16 of us and back for the night. Tomorrow we head for Watson Lake. Running low on beer, will need to spend some money soon. John

Greetings from the guest blogger of the day~! That would be Carol and Jerry! WE arrived in Edmonton yesterday after 2 fine flights and Beth and John were waiting for us at the airport.

Went to the RV park, had happy hour and drove downtown for a while. Back to RV park and

John cooked dinner, sausita and spaghetti. Heard the Cardinals lost 5 to 0 so we were glad we

missed this game. This morning we headed to Dawson Creek in British Columbia - had good

roads and saw pines, pines and aspen. Beautiful country - very small towns. Fixed lunch in

the motor home - arrived Dawson Creek about 4:30 -pm - fixed dinner, roasted chicken,

baked potatoes and corn on the cob. After dinner, we plan to go to town and see mile marker 0 where the Alaskan highway starts. WE will also try to catch part of the Cards game.

Special hello to Tammy, Ahren, Stacy, Ellie and Emily. And all the Duda grandkids. We are

having a great time and miss all of you.

Thursday the 24Th. Did a little computer work this morning, made mean ham, egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast and took a half hour walk around the camp ground. It was a very nice morning after a late night shower. Picked up Carol and Jerry from the airport and took a site seeing trip around town. Made Italian sausage and spaghetti with garlic bread for dinner. While we were out we went grocery shopping and made a terrible discovery that will completely screw up our budget.......beer is very expensive. A case of 24 Bud Light is $37.......that's 37 dollars for a case of beer. Then Carol and I bought a few bottles of wine at the grocery store, got home and discovered they are non alcoholic......but, vodka and grape juice isn't bad. Tomorrow we take off for Dawson City B.C. about 6 hours away. I hope it is not bumper to bumper RVs. John

Today, Thursday, June 24 we are picking up Carol and Jerry at the airport at 1:30. Our camp site is OK, just outside the city. Weather is sunny and warmer.....might get to 80 this afternoon. Talked to work and kids......it is good to be in communication again. Need to go grocery shopping today for tomorrow we head for the wilderness. I hope at&t does a good job for us. John and Beth

I think this is day 10 Thursday and we finally have cell phone service again. We are in Edmonton Alberta and I will try to summarize the last few days. Sunday we were in Billings, had a hard time finding a church, but finally got to 9 am mass. Got on the road about 11, went though Great Falls and on to St. Mary Mt. which is on the east side of Glacier NP. We had a wonderful camp site at a KOA with a great view of snow capped mountains. The first day was very cloudy and a little rainy but the second day was bright sun. Temps were 40s to 60s......just great. The main road though the park is the Going To The Sun Road over the top of snow capped mtns. It is normally open by mid June but this year, because it has been cold and wet ,it still was not open the last 10 miles at the top. We drove in from both sides as for as possible. Awesome views with lots of water falls from melting snow....I hope our pictures turn out.
Had lunch at the visitors center and generally a couple very nice days.
Wednesday we took off, crossed into Canada without a problem, and drove to Edmonton.
A couple things I forgot earlier......In Wyoming we saw a huge open pit coal mine with a couple of loaded trains heading east. I think this is where Ameren gets its coal. Second we went by Custer
battlefield in Montana.....the only big battle the indians won. Continued

Day 5 June19 got up at the usual 6 am and had oatmeal, fresh blueberries and some of Janet's Apricot Bread, coffee and orange juice for breakfast. ( Just a thought, if anyone is really reading this, you don't have enough to do). Left Custer about 8:30 on our way to Billing Montana. The first 60 mile or so was very nice two lane though the hills and forest. Went though Deadwood the home of Wild Bill Hickok. Hit I-90 the rest of the way, a very nice highway. The amount of open space is immense. You look 180 degrees from right to left over rolling grass land seeing many many miles in all directions and there is not a building, person. tree or anything else in sight. Sometime you can see tiny black and brown dots in the distance which turn out to be cows. This is very big ranching country. We cruise at about 65 mph but once going down hill the RV got up to a little over 80( don't tell Beth). Beth sat on the couch in the back all day today instead of the co-pilots spot and it worked out a lot better. She has turned out to be a very nervous rider in the front but is very comfortable in the back.Pulled into Billings about 6 and making the rest of Carols hamburger casserole for dinner. The plan is to go to 8 am mass in the morning.

Day 4 June 18 Spent the day looking at beautiful scenery in the Black Hills. They are a combination of tall pines, aspens, and what we know as elephant rocks. Very beautiful. There is something mystical about standing in a pine forest, smelling the pine, hearing the breeze blow though the trees and looking up to see blue sky though the trees. We went to the Crazy Horse Memorial and Mount Rushmore and had lunch at Mount Rushmore and drove though Custer State Park. Saw Buffalo and antelope and some great looking lakes. The weather was very nice, lows in the 50s and highs in the 70s. Made polish sausage(heart healthy turkey) , sauerkraut and potato's for dinner. Took a walk in the evening to get some exercise.We would come back to this part of the world anytime.

Day 3 June17 Left Minden about 8:15 for Custer SD and got here about 6;30 Mtn. time. Went though Scotts Bluff and saw Chimney Rock, both important land marks on the Oregon Trail. Made a couple wrong turn which necessitated us taking a few less traveled roads. You can't turn this thing around just anyplace. Saw a lot of prairie and then a lot more prairie........ It really is very pretty and you can't help wonder how the pioneers made it. I found the first thing I don't like about driving the RV. Strong wind. We drove much of the day in unusually strong winds even for this part of the country. Sustained winds of 50- 55 mph with gusts higher. Very difficult to keep this big sail in a lane. I hear it is hot at home......wanted you to know in was 62 in the RV this morning so I turned on the furnace for I while to take the chill off.

Day 2 June 16 Very nice relatively restful day. Up at 6:30, breakfast of oatmeal,fresh blueberries and Janet's apricot bread. Put Beth's electric scooter together which only takes about 5 minutes and we were off to The Pioneer Village. Spent 4 hours looking at 30 buildings of everything imaginable from 1830 to the 1950's.The collection of antiques is huge but in some disrepair. It is a private collection, basically in the middle of nowhere. There were a few other people here but it was not crowded in the middle of tourist season. Weather is warm but not hot, sunny, and breezy. It was sometimes hard to tell if some of the other people in the village were part of the display or just visiting.......lots of old people. Tomorrow we pack up and head for Custer South Dakota. We are parked under a tree so have not been able to get the satellite TV or radio working. I did a little work on our potential deal. Rucker is also going on vacation starting on the 18th so not much will happen soon.

June 15, day one of the great adventure. It stared out a little slow because our electricity was out in the morning and it took us a little longer to get away. We were up at 5 am and on the road at 7:15, not fast, but OK. It was a very good driving day, overcast with some rain, traffic was not heavy and everything worked as it should. Stopped for fuel and breakfast in Kingdom city, early, and a couple other short rest area stops and pulled into Minden Ne. a little before 7 pm. Staying at the Harold Warp Pioneer Village camp ground and will go though the village tomorrow....30 buildings "showing man's progress since 1830". Talked a lot about Brinkley, the family, and our lives. Decided we must be the most fortunate two people in the world. God has blessed us in many many ways(but I can still only type with one finger). Things look super green and clean. Lots of water setting around, but the sun came out in the late afternoon. The rivers and streams all look to be at flood stage and there is water setting in the fields......they have had lots of rain.

June 14, the day before we depart on the great adventure was a busy and sad day. Maureen stayed with Beth while went I to work ,finished a few last minute details, double checked the RV and did some last minute packing. Tim installed a Sirius radio which will help a lot on the trip and Katie, Jim, and Taylor were at the house, living there while we are gone.
To make a long story short, our dog Brickley, who was 16 years old, we had to put to sleep. She had been getting consistantly worse and could not even walk up or down one step to go outside. We didn't want the kids to have to do it while we were gone and Katie and Jim voluntered to take her becasue I was busy and other reasons I don't want to go into.
She was a great dog, a member of the family at home and at the farm. She had a great life and we miss her.

Farm House in Winter

065, originally uploaded by John and Beth Duda.

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