That's a wrap! We're currently at our last campsite of this trip and will be home tomorrow afternoon. :-( The blessings have been abundant, the weather has been perfect, the sites have been spectacular, and the time together has been beautiful. But, as much as we wish this journey could continue, it's time to get back to reality.
Yesterday, Friday, August 22 we boondocked at Fero Vineyard and Winery in Lewisburg, PA. A bunch of wonderful friends came to visit us! It was absolutely fantastic to see everyone and give them all hugs. As we did in Iowa when visiting friends we completely forgot to take pictures! There are a few posted here only because our friends Alison and Steve (and another friend Steve) shared some with us. Thanks guys!
Thursday, August 21 we camped with Colleen's cousin, Carol and her husband, Bill at their seasonal campground. We had planned to visit with them on our way to Alaska but with the late start we had we were unable to. So we were thrilled to be able to visit on our way back home. Fortunately we remembered at the last minute to take a picture but Bill wasn't able to be there for the picture and Gregory took it so it's just Colleen and Carol.
RV/MH Hall of Fame, Elkhart, IN - August 20
Just a few of our favorite recreational vehicles.
Iowa and Illinois - August 17-19
Highlight of this drive was visiting our friends Jason, Julie, Lyssa, and Kurt in Iowa. We were so busy catching up and enjoying their company that we forgot to get pictures. :-(
Drive through Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Nebraska - August 13 - 16
Crossing Oregon and camping at the Round Barn, Princeton, OR - August 12
As we mentioned before, we haven't made reservations for this leg of our journey. No reservations works fine for most pleases but not those highly visited places. Mazama Campground in the park is usually fully booked months in advance. Fortunately they hold 25% of their sites for first come, first served so we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best as we drove there. Fortunately we got a site and the campground filled to capacity less than an hour later!
If we're being honest we weren't really expecting much but thought we should stop by to see this since it wasn't far off our route eastward. Boy were we wrong! This is another amazing site to be seen. Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the USA (~1949 feet, about 1/3 mile) and was formed from a series of events following a massive eruption causing Mount Mazama to collapse inward. So, maybe the correct name for this lake is Caldera Lake.
We really wanted to take the path down to the lake so we could take a boat ride around the lake. Unfortunately we knew we could not guarantee that we could make it back up the 1 mile, 700 foot climb from the lake. So we opted to take the trolley ride around the lake which turned out really nicely.
There is a 30 ft. tall hemlock tree trunk floating vertically in the lake; first sited in 1896. Approximately three feet of the trunk is visible above the water. The tree is fondly named the Old Man of the Lake and, as you might imagine, is rare to see from the rim given the lake is 5-6 miles in diameter. However, we were lucky enough to see it! Well, through binoculars that is and only because a boat was lingering near it. Years ago park rangers used to stand on it while talking about the lake to tourists in nearby boats.
In order to hike the area of the forest we wanted to see, The Grove of the Titans, we needed to rent a car because Maxine is just too big for the single lane road to the trailhead. The drive itself was amazing but the hike through this old forest was absolutely overwhelming. The Coast Redwoods!! The tallest trees in the world. Words and pictures cannot describe the feeling of standing beside the giants - some 2,000 years old. So we're not even going to try, enjoy the pictures.
August 5 & 6 Maxine was parked in Seattle, WA as Colleen traveled to and from Boston for her "spa" day. Gregory kept Maxine company and cleaned her up a bit, supervised by Mr. Tumnus.
We have reached the "loosely planned" part of our journey. The route is all mapped out and overnight stops are planned from here on out but reservations have not been made. We managed to secure a site along Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park. The next day we took a hike to Marymere Falls through some old growth forest then continued our drive south along Highway 101.
We would have liked to have seen more of Olympic National Park but we were short on time and we found the park wasn't very RV friendly, at least where we were. The drive down the Pacific coast was absolutely stunning! We stopped for a hike up to Heceta Lighthouse which sits 206 feet above the Pacific Ocean and was first lit in 1894, and we got to watch a whale off the coast for a bit once we reached the lighthouse.
Just like every other area we've been on this trip, our pictures do not do justice to the beauty. God's creation continues to astound us in its beauty and variety! There's amazing beauty around every corner.
Maxine had her new brakes by the afternoon of July 31 and we managed to make it to Vanderhoof, BC where we stayed at Riverside Park and Campground, another municipal campground. We are really loving the provincial and municipal campgrounds in British Columbia. The ones we've visited were clean and well thought out to preserve the natural setting. RV campgrounds that are more like a parking lot don't interest us. We had a good nights rest and continued on to Lac La Hache Provincial Campground.
Our campsite in Lac La Hache was huge! We certainly didn't need all that space for the two of us for just one night but we sure did appreciate it. We made sure to cook the chicken we had and some of the eggs (knowing we couldn't take them across the border raw due to bird flu concerns). As much as we love the campgrounds in BC we are ready to be back in the States where gas and food prices are a bit less.
Saturday, August 2 we set out for our next destination: Bridal Falls, Rosedale, BC. When we got there we didn't like the campground we planned to stay in at all and the area was extremely congested so we decided to continue on. Wondering about the congestion, Gregory did some research and discovered this is a long weekend for most of Canada. No surprise then to discover the next provincial park on our route was completely full. Since we were only a couple of hours from the border we pressed on.
We crossed the border at about 9:00 PM, and as expected customs confiscated the uncooked eggs. This border crossing seemed to be in the middle of a town with businesses right up to the border on either side. Since it was so late and the campground options were not to our liking, we camped in the parking lot of a casino that was not far from the border. The location seemed a bit strange too since the casino was surrounded by farms. We don't really understand how or why the casino was built there but obviously they want people to know about them since they were listed as having a campground in our RV Life app. We over=nighted in the parking lot since it was free. :-)
Staying in a parking lot all day Sunday and overnight again didn't appeal to us. So, we found a lovely state park nearby. We enjoyed the quiet day by finishing a book on tape we've been listening to: "All The Things We Cannot Say" by Kelly Rimmer. We both really loved it and highly recommend it. We took a bike ride, visited the bay, updated this site, and just relaxed in this beautiful park amidst large trees.
The air conditioner in our motorhome has not worked since we left home. Up north we haven't needed it at all. But we know the temperatures we're heading into on the Great Plains have been pretty high so fixing our air conditioner has become a priority. Gregory had done everything he knew to do to try to fix it so, we made an appointment at an RV garage near the border (Lynden, WA) to get the A/C checked out on Monday, August 4. Thankfully Ocean West RV, Marine, and Equipment Upfitters had everything repaired before noon and we were on our way.
We need to be in Seattle on August 5 for Colleen to catch a red eye flight back to Boston for a 'spa day' at Dana Farber. However, the only campground we can find in reasonable proximity to the airport is ridiculously expensive so we don't want to stay there longer than we need to. Fortunately we found a wonderful county campground not too far from Seattle to spend the evening.
**More photos will be added to this post once we have a better internet connection.**
Tuesday, July 29 seemed like our longest day so far. We knew it was going to be a bit longer because of where we had found to stop for the evening. On our way we discovered Gitwangak, BC which according to The Milepost (the GO TO guide for traveling to Alaska) has "some of the finest authentic totem poles in the area." We put a couple of pictures here rather than overwhelm you with all the pictures we took. They are truly works of art and so interesting. Unfortunately the interpretive center was closed so we were unable to learn more about them other than what we read on the sign.
As much as we love "getting away from it all" we have reached the tipping point. We were ready to get off the desolate Cassier Highway and couldn't wait to return to "civilization." So, when it was difficult to back Maxine into a site at the provincial park we had planned to stay at we were quick to throw up our hands and keep moving along to a different place. Gregory consulted The Milepost and found a riverside municipal campground in the town of Smithers that looked promising. We must confess that the name of the town was also appealing to us; a place named Smithers must be fun, right? Additionally, as we left the Cassier Highway we began hearing a brake noise that we knew we needed to get checked out so driving an additional 40 miles to reach 'civilization' seemed the right thing to do.
We rolled into the campground in Smithers after 7:00 PM to find they have full hook-ups! Perhaps we mentioned earlier that full hook-ups are a bit of a treat since we don't need to worry about using up our water or overfilling our holding tanks. We parked and at once took nice long showers. Then, because we felt in need of civilization, we decided to ride our bikes into town for dinner. We had a wonderful dinner and discovered that Smithers truly is a neat little town.
After a good night's sleep we packed up camp and headed into town in search of a garage to look at Maxine. While we waited we had lunch at Two Sisters Cafe, went on to the Smithers Brewing Company, and then walked around town a bit. Though we were hoping to be on our way after lunch, by the time the garage got the parts they needed it was best for them to work on Maxine tomorrow, Friday, August 1st.
The garage - Babine Truck & Equipment - has been wonderful to deal with, first by taking a look at Maxine without us having an appointment and then by realizing they would not be able to finish the work today (which would leave us without a place to sleep), so, they put her back together so we could return to the Riverside Municipal Campground to enjoy another peaceful night by the river (with full hookups!). We'll be up bright an early tomorrow morning to get Maxine back to them and so we can be on our way again.
Ed and Cathleen drove us back to Maxine where we found Mr. Tumnus doing just fine but excited (as excited as a cat can be) to see us. Unfortunately it was time for Ed and Cathleen to return to PA. So as we headed northeast on the Richardson Highway back to Tok, they went southwest to Anchorage. We had so much fun sharing this last leg of our Alaska journey with them!
Time for us to set our sights on Tok and the Alaska/Canada border. The scenery along the way was stunning, as usual. We seriously cannot think of one place we've been in Alaska that was not absolutely breathtaking. It is fair to say that we have fallen in love with this state and hope to return again. If Colleen had her way we'd spend every summer here.
We picked up the Alaska Highway in Tok and traveled along it until just west of Watson Lake where we got on the Cassier Highway. We were excited to take this highway to see a different view of British Columbia. The Cassier highway is a two-lane road that lacks shoulders and center lines for much of the road. We drove through an area where we saw the charred remains of a wildfire that happened in 2011. It is nice to see the area healing but it portrayed a clear picture of how long it takes for a forest to recover.
For us the down side to traveling the Cassier Highway is that it is illegal to overnight in pull-outs along the road, so we are staying at provincial parks. British Columbia certainly takes pride in their parks. Every park is well maintained and the camping areas are beautifully balanced to keep it natural while providing comfortable space for us campers - all for CA$20/night!