Tuesday, April 13, 2010





We are on our way to Fox, Alaska to see the Alaskan Pipeline pretty interesting

Ok it's Tuesday. We are staying at Springhill Suites in Fairbanks. Snowing this morning, temp 31 degrees and overcast. We made our way to Walmart -- rain, sleet nor snow will stop us! Now it's off to the North Pole! Really! Check out the pic.

Next we are looking for the Alaskan Pipeline -- just outside of Fairbanks at a town called Fox.

It's Monday and we are on our way to Fairbanks. 1st stop is Talkeetna. It is a small town about 100 miles or so from Anchorage at the base of Mt. McKinnley. Bush pilots fly groups up on the mountain. There was a rescue going on while we were there. Some snow machine rider got lost and seperated from his group. They found the snow machine but nothing of the rider yet.
I read a great book about a bush pilot from Talkeetna. If you interested the title is "Wager the Wind".


Next stop is Denali Park. Just our luck -- snow and the park closed! We couldn't even see the mountain.

Next stop the tripod. It's Alaska's form of gambling. People guess the hour and minutes the river will thaw. When it thaws, the tripod moves and pulls out a key that stops the time. The winner can get up to 50,000 dollars!

Sunday, April 11, 2010


This is the street were the big dog race ends every year. It's all downtown near the other state capitol. The other pic is one of the stadiums where the outdoor show is located. We will be leaving Anchorage early in the morning headed toward Fairbanks. Hope to have some good pictures after tomorrow. The trip is only 300+ miles.
Temp is currently 37 degrees and expecting up to 2 inches of snow.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Well it's Friday morning and we made it through the 1st show, these outdoor shows are really a big thing here in Anchorage. They sell everything from jerky to snowmobiles and of course AJ's gun and bow racks. Pictures later. The temp this morning is a warn 25 degrees with a high of 39 just about makes you want to go swimming.
When we left the show last night at 9 pm I thought it would be cold and dark, I was only half wrong the sun was still shining it was still cold. It was light until after 10 pm, these motels have black out curtains on the windows and now I understand why.
Off to another show.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010



Well it's Wednesday
Not much happening the last 2 days, made our trip to Wal-mart for supplies. Yesterday it snowed quit a bit, so we more or less just laid around and caught up on rest. Today we went and setup for the show which starts tomorrow, look like it's a pretty big thing here.
It's really funny up here, they pay 11 dollars an hour at McDonald's and they always have job openings. They have more jobs available than they have people.

Monday, April 5, 2010


We found a new friend!!!!

Monday
Well today is kind of a down day. We slept in, had a late breakfast and still on the road by 8:00AM.

Drove downtown, but it all looks like downtown to me!
1st stop was ULU knife factory. Pretty interesting place. Sue guess what one of your gifts is going to be!

Alaska is a really beautiful place, but all the dirty snow piled up makes everything look so dingy and gray. It even causes all the people to look homeless.

We have noticed a couple of thing here. Food is really high, well everything is really costly. Every place we stop to eat is always empty. Example: Pizza Hut, Valley Inn and a place called Freeze -- only people there were Ron, AJ and Dwight.
So we are off to where all the people gather. You got it, WAL-MART!

Sunday, April 4, 2010



Still Sunday the 4th 8:10pm AST
I am trying to get synced with the pictures.
These 2 pic were taken from our room.
By the way, when you stay at America's Best Motel don't really expect the best! But for the price of 84 dollars a night, it will do.
Tomorrow we will be riding around checking things out more.
Good night!
Happy Easter to everyone from Anchorage, AK.
One more note from yesterday, the 3rd of April. Once we got to the motel and got checked in from travelling 4,268 plus miles, we did what every good American does. We loaded up the truck and headed to Wally World. Had to get supplies in for the next couple of days.

Today we headed south down to Seward, AK to the ports for the fishing vessels (Deadliest Catch). The weather turned bad so we headed back along the coast. There is still lots of snow and ice. AJ said it was worse last year, but still pretty bad.

We also made another trip to Walmart this afternoon. So that's about it for today
I will post some more pictures later.




April 1, 2010 Thursday

Well looks like we are on our way. The Ford dealer in Idaho Falls was really helpful, although AJ had to pay dearly for the help. Seems the high pressure pump failed. Total down time was 20 hours.
It is now 9:30 AM MST and we are headed north on Interstate 15. Next stop will be the Canadian border. The weather is really sunny and warm for now.

April 3, 2010 Saturday

It is now Saturday afternoon 6:00PM Alaskan time 9:00PM CST and we have arrived in Alaska! I will go back and fill in the blanks, couldn't post anything while traveling on the ALCAN highway. It's like an old washboard.

Anyway we did get to the Canadian border at 8:30PM MST. Everyone had said we would have trouble bringing 11 rifles through the border, and if nothing else, they would tie us up a long time. We passed the border at Sweet Grass MT/Coutts Alberta and the Canadian border patrol people were really nice. After a few questions and a small fee, they let us go! Total time at the border 40 minutes.

It's getting dark now. We stopped at a Denny's in Lethbridge, Alberta. When you come to Canada, be pepared to pay dearly for everything (that's just a little side note).
In Canada we pay in US dollars and always get back Canadian money, so I guess the exchange rate is dollar for dollar. The Canadian money can't be used in Alaska.

We decided that it was dark and the land was real flat, so we would go ahead and drive all night to make up time. Traveling through Calgary, Edmonton, Whitecourt in Alberta. Next Dawson Creek, British Columbia the start of the ALCAN Highway and a real blast to past in history.

It is a thousand miles from Dawson Creek, BC to the Alaskan border. Those are some of the hardest miles I have ever traveled. Traveling the Canadian Rockies are just like a ride at Six Flags -- continuious turning and bouncing up and down the whole 1000 miles. We saw less than 50 trucks and maybe 40 cars the entire trip -- that's from both ways. You might find a place to get gas and find something to eat every 250to 300 miles. We saw 2 cops the entire time and that was when we stopped to eat. Another treat of the ALCAN is there is absolutely no cell service at ALL!
The XM radio signal will also come and go.
If you like trees, mountains and stress free driving (except for the elk, bison and moose resting on the highway) you will love the ALCAN.
I sure do miss Molly (and Sue).

Wednesday, March 31, 2010







Well today hasn't really been such a great day.
We left this morning - the 31st @ 6:30 after another fine breakfast. We headed toward Yellowstone a mere 156 miles from Landers, WY.
Things didn't go as planned. The south entrance of Yellowstone was closed and we discovered we had quite the oil leak.
We decided to head toward Jackson Hole, WY. Unknown to us last night there was a snow storm, and the pass recieved 4 to 6 feet of snow. They plowed the road but there was still too much snow for us! (Hopefully I will be able to attach the snow pictures.)
Finally made it there (Jackson Hole) but there was no place to work on the truck.
So we headed to Idaho Falls, ID, found a Ford dealer, and they are replacing a high pressure pump. They said it would be ready around 11 or 12 on the Thursday. From here we have only 2800 miles left.
Idaho Falls is a pretty nice city and the WIND IS NOT BLOWING.

We are thinking we will be able to get to the Canadian border tomorrow night.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Well we finally stopped in a place called Landers, WY -- about 150 miles from Yellowstone. We went to dinner. It wasn't bad and a lot to eat. The Captain and I went to Mickey D's and got a fresh cup of decaf coffee.
Time to relax and get ready for tomorrow. As soon as I can figure out how to put on some pictures, I will.
Later.

March 30, 2010 Tuesday

After a fine breakfast at the motel, we bid farewell to Salina, KA at 6:30am. If you have never been to KA, the wind was blowing so bad it blew us almost back to MO. We motored along on I70 with absolutely no traffic to interfere with our travel (just the way AJ and I like it).
Dwight (Scotty) was at the helm while the Captain and I slept. We spent the rest of our travel through KA looking for the highest point in the state. We finally realized we were the highest point in the state! So much for that little time killer.
Yeah! We are in CO! It really looks like KA! The trip in CO was uneventful, travelled on I70 to I25.
We are now in WY headed to Yellowstone. We are planning to spend the day there. Stopped in Rawlings, WY to get a shake at Mickey D’s. We thought the wind was bad in KA, but were we wrong! I have never seen wind like this in my lifetime. Oh well.
We are off the interstate traveling on US 287 and there is absolutely nothing. Going on 6pm. Hope we find somewhere to stay for tonight because it’s starting to rain.
I must say the mountains are really something to see.
Signing off from the bridge of Starship Enterprise.
Here goes day 2, we spent the night at the LaQuinta Inn in Salina, KA. The weather is really great here -- sunny 62 degrees at 5:47 am.

Everything is going well so far, at least we haven't lost anything or anybody yet.

It's time we do what we do best -- that's go eat breakfast again.

Monday, March 29, 2010

We're on our way, a little late on our departure time because "Captain Kirk" though he would sleep in a little. Otherwise a great day to travel. Like other explorers of the world, we started our journey by stopping at the first Cracker Barrel to eat breakfast.

We are on the way!!! Now we are stopping to eat lunch in Nashville IL.
Nothing but a lot of trees so far.
St Louis in sight more later.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Alaska 2010 Odyssey





This is the crew of Enterprise for the Alaskan 2010
Odyssey.
A.J. aka "Captain"
Ron aka "Spock"
Dwight aka "Scotty"

Will be departing Fayetteville, TN at 'O' dark thirty, Monday the 29th of March 2010.