Day 21---July 23rd Butte to home

Our morning started out at the KOA camp in Butte, Mt. I believe that the guys said we had 450 miles to get home. Tim left at 330 am pushing his bike out to the street so it wouldn't wake anyone. He was anxious to get home. He got home about 1200.

It was definitely a hot (we have worn sweatshirts for 3 weeks)drive home. Utah was 97 degrees.

The drive home featured a stop at Idaho Falls, where there was an airshow with the blue angel jets and Amy&Harold stopped for a photo op at the temple to commemorate their anniversary.

Traffic was thicker from there on in and of course thick into Utah and Salt Lake. We were glad when we hit home. We arrived into Lindon about 1700. Tim met the guys at the PG Walkers to drive in. Becky was waiting for us at the house.


We got the trailer unloaded and the pop up popped. There was hope it would dry with the Utah air.

We ended the trip with us putting on "I drove the Alaska Highway and Survived" t-shirts, eating at MiRanchitos, and finishing it with the fist bump.

Off to a shower, private bed,...and sleep.

Ottcrew--Day 20, July 22nd...

IT is coming to an end. It is hard to express the feelings of packing so much into such a short time and yet it seems like we haven't been gone that long.

Bucket List Day 20---July 22 Thursday Sparwood –Lake Louise-Butte

No one slept especially well at our rest stop makeshift campground. There was a lot of truck noise and paranoia. The area through this part of the mountains is called Crowsnest. There is a whole area called Crowsnest. It has historical significance. We will have to look it up. There are cool Highway 3 signs with a crow and a 3 in the middle of it. I wanted to steal one. In a town called Coleman, gas was cheap at 96.9 a liter. The bigger towns jacked up the prices. There were lots of resorts, golfing, skiing, flyfishing spots along this trip.

WE made it to Pincher Creek Walmart. Their prices were more Americanized. We got food for lunches and breakfast as Harold promised we could eat out tonight.

Waterton Lake sat at the bottom of a mountain and had a 1920s lodge called Prince of Wales that sat overlooking it. The lodge was fantastic architecture and looked like the hunting lodge from the movie Beauty and the Beast. It was overcast and the lake was probably not as spectacular as it would have been on a clear day.
We made our way out of Waterton toward Baab. It would not have been a bad mountainous choice except for the road work that stopped us. The border crossing here to get back in the USA, featured an especially obnoxious border guard. Note: Do not say anything to them or give them any information until asked for. He lifted our hood and opened our truck into the back seat. We had to stop up the road to shut the hood again as he didn’t get it shut. From Babb on Hwy 89 to Browning, the road wasn’t too bad. The locals told us to take Hwy 44 to Valier and then to I-15. This road (44) was a welcome smooth relief after all the weeks of bumpy, winding, up and down roads. We were sad when we got to I-15. Right after getting on I-15, a family of badgers was going across the road and Harold barely missed hitting them. They scurry and do not move too fast as they are low to the ground.
We saw beautiful, spectacular landscape from GreatFalls down to Butte.
We are glad to be back in the USA. Gas prices better!!!! We got a 44 oz for 99cents. We hardly saw fountain drinks while we were up north. HA.
At this time we are in Great Falls and on our way to Butte. Amy has the pedal to the metal and we are on our way home! No other tourist stops planned. ;)
We stopped in Butte as it was approaching our 730 twilight time and we needed to eat. We went to old town Butte and found it full of people, bikers, etc… celebrating Evel Knivel
Day. Evel is a Butte alum. They had extreme sports i.e. motocross jumping (down a main street), arena boxing matches, bungee slingshot rides, etc… We ate at another “hit by accident” hot spot called Freds Mesquite Grill. The food was good. Our #1 spot is still Denali’s Salmon Bake and #2 is Rays in Seward. The breakfast best spot was Gwennies in Anchorage.
We pulled up to stop at a KOA….and you guessed it, it is by the Freeway. We are trying to figure out how we can be so out in the wilds and still have to deal with freeway noise. But…. We wanted something quick and with a shower… Amy said Harold was stinking. Note: Tim does not stink. The price was 25 with $5 for each of the guys additional for showers. With the tax, it came to 40 something.
Off to sleep. We are 454 miles from home. We should be home tomorrow. A day early. Tim wants to be there for a rugby game.

Thanks for all who have followed us on our journey. I don't know what I will do at night without having 5 people within a close distance to me! The journey has been totally a life experience that we will talk about for the rest of our lives.

Check out the blog in a couple of days and I will get some pictures posted. It is 1030 and I told myself I would be in bed at 1000. Everyone else has zonked out. xxoo

Bucket List Day 19--July 21 Wednesday

Day 19---July 21 Wednesday

We awoke to a very cold start. No one wanted to get out from under the sleeping bags. It was a quick trip...less than 30 miles into Lake Louise.
At the off ramp to Lake Louise, we found a parking spot to part the truck and trailer. Shelley and Amy got on the motorcycles for a trip into Lake Louise. You drive back into the mountains and the lake sits in a bowl of mountains with a huge mountain at the end with a glacier. It was beautiful. It had beautiful cottages you could rent on the way up and although had a touristy part to it, the Lake and Victoria Glacier that fed it were so naturally pristine. Amazing. It had canoes you could take on the lake and hiking all around it. Very blue. We got pictures here that we will post....again when we get internet access that allows it.
Traveling down the mountain a short distance, we came to Bow Lake. Amy said, is that the mountain…or…. And we both said in unison, “Reflection”.

The WHOLE mountain range was reflected in this large lake. The lake was still and clear making it the perfect mirror. It was breathtaking and amazing. It was one of those surreal moments in life and none of us were rushing the moment. We were grateful that we were not 1 hour on either side of the nature display of beauty as we would have missed it.
Road trip:
Hwy 1 from Lake Louise to Golden
Hwy 95 to Fort Steel
Hwy 3 to Fernie
Trip highlights:
• Saw 2 sets of nesting eagles about 20 mile apart right on the road (one on a telephone pole) outside Skookumchuck.
• This is the hot and dry side of the Canadian Rockies. There was tourism over here and we couldn’t figure it out. It must be because it is warm…and no where else. For the middle of July we have worn sweatshirts everyday except this day. There are many outfitters setting people up for trout fishing along this whole route. From the looks of it, fishing must be good.
We gassed up at Fergie and we were still 80 miles from Waterton. It was hitting our 730 point. We stopped at Sparwood to take a picture with
“The Worlds Biggest Truck” and stopped in at the grocery to pick something up for dinner. After looking at the prices….(still in BC) and talking to a local couple, we only bought 1 loaf of bread for $5. We were going to wait for the Walmart in Alberta on the turn off to Lake Louise about 40 miles away. We stopped for the night at a reststop at the top of the mountain called Crows Nest rest stop. It was beautiful, but right by the highway and there were trucks going all night long. All this area for about 20 miles is called Crows Nest and has some historical meaning that we did not find out. Tim wants to be home by Friday instead of our Saturday original plans.
Going to Waterton would have been quicker if we had used the route down from Banff, but the Guidepost map looked deceiving and inaccurate.

Ottcrew Day 18--July 20 Tuesday

Ottcrew—Day 18, July 20---Tuesday McLeod Lake to outside Lake Louise Alberta


We were on the quest for a BC spoon for Becky. I must say that a valiant effort has been made and there has been considerable regret that Tim did not get the Toad River spoon. We went from McLeod Lake to Prince George. Prince George is a good sized city and the highway we needed fed through town. We pulled off for Tim to look for spoons. While waiting (Tim will tell this story different) we went and got groceries. In BC the groceries are outrageous priced and everything is taxed high. Tim swears off of eating at this time. The locals do everything they can to go to Alberta to get food and bring it back...like we go to Costco.
We saw the largest Saw mill we have ever seen outside of Prince George and on our way to McBride. I can't describe how big it was. The guys say that they liked McBride. (We are still looking for spoons and Tim is regretting that he did not get a spoon at Toad Creek)...yes I said that before and it is still true and he tells everyone about it.
On our way from McBride to Jasper, we came on Mt. Robson. It was spectacular to come around the corner and see that facing us. We stopped at the gift shop to look for spoons.
At Jasper, we gassed up the bikes and outside took 93 A loop to Athabascan Falls.
It was amazing and well worth the side trip. We spent time taking pictures here. I will post some when we get where we can add pictures. It is one of our favorite parts of the trip.
We were now back into the Ice fields and Glacier and Banff parks. (Had to pay park fees again ) The Athabascan Glacier is the one we described on our trip up. It is so big, they take tour buses out on it. We were on our way to Lake Louise.
At about 730 pm each night, we hit a wall and search for our resting point for the night. We have not had any trouble finding our desired spots. We stopped outside of Lake Louise at a Province (run by the state) Waterfowl Campground. It is in the Glacier part of the park. It got COLD!!!!! We lost an hour of time as we crossed the time zone. Tim started a fire …with gas…ha. We made fried ham and cheese sandwiches, smores, and hotchocolate. The bathrooms were close to us. Surprise. They did have hot water and that is nice even though we didn't get to shower. I filled the water bottles that they had from our tap. It was glacier water and the BEST water. It was cold and great days later.

Bucket List Day 17--July 19

This was our day of slow traveling headaches.
Ottcrew—Day 17, July 19th Monday


Woke up at our own personal campground outside of Ft. Nelson. Harry and Henry watched a movie while we went to sleep. No bear prints around camp even though we had seen some the day before and we were parked in a clover field. Henry and Tim almost hit a moose….didn’t get a picture of that .
Harold getting a back adjustment. It is a long way from home and we are hoping his back will hold out.
Stopped for gas at Sikanni Chief. Same dude there with zero personality. We hit the road again heading to Fort St. Johns. Outside on the side of a mountain, we had to stop ½ hour for road crews. There was cell coverage out in the middle of no where for us to txt and if you had Canada coverage, make calls.
At Fort St. John, we gassed up and Harold went into town to get a spare replacement for the pop up. The rest of us ate lunch while we waited for him to get back out. Then, because we didn’t want to go back the same way, and the Milepost map doesn’t represent everything, we went off the beaten path toward Hudson Hope…. We just had to go there with the Hudson connection and all.
It was a slow going mountain, windy, hilly route. Going up a hill behind a slooooow logging truck (one of many), we heard some squeeling on the truck.

We pulled off at Carol Wyland’s house outside of Hudson Hope and she had everything that the guys needed to diagnose that it was dust on the brakes and not something more serious such as bearings or differential. Well, that all took almost 2 hours.
After our down time to get the spare, we had eaten up a chunk of time.
Once back on the road, we drove past HUGE milling plants. The scenery was beautiful and we got to see the Peace Valley that is planned to be flooded with a dam in 2012. It was beautiful land. I am glad I got to see it. One note here is to tell you that on several spots on this trip the air was filled with pine and cedar smell and was so clean smelling and fresh that I wish you could all smell it. It was such an experience and it happened several times on the route.

When it hit around 730, pulled up to a campground called Whiskers Bay Resort right at sunset. There were mosquitoes. It is a good thing I paid at the office because the guy driving around was going to ding us for more money. The showers were not connected to the toilets and you had to walk up on a hill to get to them. The place is for sale and is in need of updating and repair. Tim started a fire and we made smores. It was a quiet place to sleep. We grilled out steaks this night and went to bed.

Bucket List Day 16---July 18, 2010 Sunday

Bucket List Day 16---July 18, 2010 Sunday

Sunday, Sunday… We awoke at the Campground Services RV park in Watson Lake. Our goal is to make it from Watson Lake to Sikanni. We will see. We stopped at Contact Creek as they have the best gas prices on this stretch and the best “I did Alaska highway” t-shirts. Shortly outside of town, we are stopped for, “Half hour to 45 min…” waiting for a pilot car on a 1 way stretch of highway repair. So, Amy is closing her eyes and pretending to take a nap, but I keep talking to her. Me, I got out the lap top to start our daily blog. ;) It is sunny.

We are 100 miles out of Liard Hotsprings that is to be our next stop. No big goals for the day. Henry wants to slow down a bit and see the scenery. We have crossed the Yukon into British Columbia and there is a noticeable difference in the beauty.
Our next stop was Liard Hotsprings. It is a natural hot springs up in the mountains with 2 main pools at the first level and a deep one further into the mountains about 5 minutes. The smell of sulfur is very noticeable at the lower pools. The minerals tarnished Amy’s silver rings to a nice brown color. The area had board walks up to the springs and dressing rooms, but the springs remained relatively primitive. The bottom of the crystal clear pond had smooth rocks that were easy to walk on. Amy said the lower pools were “uncomfortably” hot in temperature. A local native American teenager told our group to use their arms to paddle up the cool water from the bottom. Heat rises…remember science? Our group was able to go to the front part of the pool where 2 small cool streams fed into the ponds. Off to one side there was a stack of rocks. Our teenage friend told us that he picks a stone off the bottom every time he comes and puts it on the stack. He called it a name I am unfamiliar with but I got the sense from what he said it was good luck to do this. It was also an accomplishment to do it as the stack was in the hottest part of the pool where the hot water was bubbling up from somewhere deep in the earth. After getting out of the springs, we had lunch at the picnic area by our car. This would have been a GREAT time to take a nap, but we needed to get on the road. Off we headed to Toad River to get gas. Tim is dutiful and looks for souvenir spoons for Becky at each stop. Note to Tim....you should have listened to me and got the Toad River Spoon.

On the road, we have had our most plentiful wildlife sightings today. We have seen goat, BIG Bull moose, caribou, buffalo, and 2 black bears. One black bear was seen by our bikers standing on a rocky ridge looking at them. By the time we stopped, he had left. The second bear was in a field of clover and would not look up for us to get a good shot with the camera. He looked pretty large.

Off we go to Ft. Nelson and then we will see how late it is. We stopped outside of Ft. Nelson at a by the side of the road camp spot. Pictures to load later. Wifi not strong.

Day 15--Saturday July 17,2010

Bucket-list Day 15---July 17,2010 Outside Burwash, Yukon, Canada to Watson Lake


We camped last night outside of Burwash. 8am: Shelley opened the door and let in the sunshine prompting everyone to get out of bed….reluctant to find a bathroom spot out of view of each other and hopefully not near any bears….(Ha…since our wild life sightings are few!) Our morning was great to wake up to Kluane Lake….one of our trip favorite spot…and Amy playing Lady GaGa on the ipod…. Can you hear it Deb? Oh la La La la…. Behind Kluane was mountains behind mountains with glaciers visible. Breaktaking.

Our first leg was from Burwash to Haines Junction. Our second leg was Haines junction to Whitehorse. A baby grizzly cub walked across the road right next to us. Tim could have reached down and touched it. It was tempting to stop to see where Mama was, but we didn’t. We stopped in Whitehorse to get food, eat lunch (yes at McDonalds…we are getting less picky), and gas up. Our third leg was to Teslin. While there a RV driver told us one of our trailer tires was missing a piece of rubber. How he saw that we don’t know but consider it a little blessing from Heavenly Father that we changed the tire there instead of having it blow out on the road. Racing madly ahead, Amy is holding back road rage on a trucker who is not letting people pass.
Our forth leg is from Teslin to Continental Divide for gas to make it to Watson Lake. We rolled into Watson Lake about 7 pm. After thoughts of finding a spot on our own outside of town, we pulled into the place we stayed last time. It is only $10/night, has showers, and has washers. We ate chicken fajitas and bored the guys (Tim to sleep) with a slide show of our pictures thus far. The mosquitoes are the worst here than anywhere else. It is right beside the Lake.
The WiFi…as we found out before, is slow and loading pictures impossible. I will get this posted as we are trying to get ready to leave.

Day 14---July 16, Friday

Friday (just to remind us Palmer, AK to Burwash, Yukon, Canada)


Awoke at 7:30-8am: It was raining and good to sleep in the rain. We had told the Palmer, AK Homestead Campground hosts we were getting up early in the morning to get on the road and they were a little bit worried about us waking up the other campers with the diesel truck and motorcycles….HA…. Um...we rolled a little later. It felt good to sleep. Note to everyone: This campground is right off the Highway 3 on the Glen Highway…just .5 miles and better than the other campgrounds in Anchorage. It is about 30 miles north of Anchorage. We rate this campgrounds bathrooms #1 in our whole trip and that is saying something. It is a well kept campground and has WIFI. I got some pictures of the 2 nesting eagles off the backside of the campground.
Our drive on the Glen Highway from Palmer to Glenallen was a 140 miles and then from Glenallen to Tok, another 140 miles. The road is a mountain road that is well kept and has passing lanes. It goes through the Matsunuska Park. It is home to the MatSu glacier.
The road took us on a path of unforeseen fortune to come very close to the glacier with spectacular views. The drive through this pass was as beautiful as our drive through Denali Park and the roads were better kept. Gas at Glenallen was our most expensive of the trip with diesel at 4.01. UGH.
The guys had to drive through intermittent rain and wet roads. We hit the Canadian border at about 8pm. There were 2 girls manning the post. Unlike the crossing from Montana, these girls were friendly and fun. Our bikers had renewed energy and wanted to hit the most notorious piece of road on the Alaska Highway …even tired. From the Border to Burwash is frost heaves, gravel, and broken road. We only launched like Dukes of Hazard on a couple of occasions. This was by far our best wild life day. We had a black bear and a moose walk across in front of us. By the time our cameras got in focus, they were gone. Missed the shots. Dang.
We rolled into Burwash around 1030pm. The day’s total mileage was 503….a new record and we were tired. Since it was so late, we forewent checking into a campground. As mentioned previously, Canada towns roll up their carpets at about 8pm. We found a “subdivision” in development outside of town called Copper Joes. We pulled in and found a spot to set up camp along the north shore of Lake Kluane. At this point, food was a time barrier to sleep. We grabbed finger food and hit the bed. (Note: The subdivision is only identified by the wilderness due to a developer putting a sign on the road and some roads into the unknown)
Some view points
• We really don’t get to talk much. When we stop at night, we go to bed!
• When we stop for gas, the other bikers all share east/west bound information and our guys get to talk to each other. That is a price we are paying for not having a communication system.
• We thought that at night it would be PARTY. We go to sleep ASAP. No cards, no movies…..
• We knew from the start that this vacation was about the trip and not the destination to Alaska. Each day is an adventure and one would think that we would get bored, but there is always something new and beautiful that we have not seen before.

Bucket List Day 13---July 15, 2010

Happy Birthday MOM!!!!

We awoke at Millers Landing early to get packed up and go in to meet our boat for a day trip to the Kenai Fjords.
It was disappointing to wake up to low cloud cover. We grabbed some breakfast and some gloves as it was a rather chilly morning. Due to waiting to board, the "good" seats were taken along the windows on the inside. We went and sat outside at the back of the boat. It was fine until we got chilled to the bone. Tim said the boat ride was "awesome".
We saw many orcas who came in this week to feed on the silver salmon. Running along with the orcas were doll porposes that looked like minature orcas. We saw probably under 10 humpback whales that included a mother and her calf.

They were very, very close. We saw otters and sea lions, and harbor seals. There were many varieties of birds many of which I had never heard of. The ones I liked were the eagles and the puffins. The ride was out 58 miles and took us about 6.5 hours. We stopped at Holgate Glacier and watch a chunk fall off which is called, "calving". It was very loud and amazing to witness. On the long ride back to the dock, we all came inside the boat and soon were lulled to sleep by the hum of the engine and the rocking of the waves. We were just getting to the drool stage,...when we were wakened to "Ohh! Whale at 2 o'clock! Everyone hops up and runs to the side, listing the boat to the right. Amy comments that unless that fish is jumping out of the water and showing his back tail fins I ain't getting up, and she didn't. Bit of browsing at the quaint shops and on the road we went again mailing more postcards from Moose Pass, and NO we didn't see any moose! Yet again we were foiled! Quick pass through Anchorage and onto a beautiful campground just off the turn headed towards Palmer Alaska called Homestead. It has the best bathrooms of all our trip and the 2 couples running it are fabulous and welcoming. The backdrop was the Chuglak Mountain range with Two nesting eagles in the trees right out of our camp ground. The cook inset is visible in the distance. So picturesque. There is talk of a movie tonight...we will see how long everyone will stay awake. Song of the Day: "I'm Workin' My Way Back To You Babe xxoo

Bucket List Day 12---July 14, 2010

Wednesday. This way out last group picture with all of us together.

I forgot to say that last night when we camped, Amys forward cabin got soaked from the rain kicking back into the trailer. She and Harold went to the local laundromat called the WishyWashy to wash and dry their sheets and padding.

We got up in the morning with the purpose of 1)taking Tim's bike to the Anchorage Yamaha dealer to change the rear tire, 2)take Debbie and Becky to the Anchorage Airport to fly home, and 3)stop at FedEx to pick up Shelley's license that she had mistakenly left at home. (Sarah sent it up for her)
* The Anchorage Yamaha Dealer was fantastic and according the guys one of the best equipped dealerships they have ever been to. They got the tire changed, tightened Tim's belt, and washed his bike.
* The Garmin is invaluable. We made our way to the airport without any problem and got our "sistas" off. We will sorely miss them on our trip as each of us had found our niche in the group.
* Fed Ex was HUGE next to the airport. We found the office door and went in. I had my package in 5 minutes....and they were nice. I just want to say that other than the waitress at the Prospector Pizza (she was from Cali), everyone in Alaska has been SOOO nice.

While the bike was getting the tire changed, we went to a local hot spot called Gwennies for breakfast. We knew from the crowded parking lot that it was a great place. It was fantastic and rates up there right now with our top 5 restaurants! Breakfast was fabulous.

On the road again.... Anchorage to Seward. It is about a 138 miles along the coast line down to Seward. It was beautiful. We stopped by Beluga Point and took some pictures. (I will post. Our WiFi is slow at this campground) Ahum...still no wild animals even though all the road signs warn us about them!


Seward is a quaint fishing village. We went out to the end of the highway road, (T-intersection) and then turned right and then you go to the end of the road to Millers Crossing. We set up camp at the endpoint of town on the water. It has washers and we did laundry before going to dinner.


Dinner on Wednesday night was at Rays on the Water in the harbor of Seward. Tim was tipped off by a neighbor. The food was good. (pricey) The view was fabulous. The blue skies with clouds low against the mountains were so great that the waitresses exclaimed that it was too beautiful of a day to waste working. It makes us think that good weather fortune has again shone down upon us. And....not to jinx us....we have not been bothered by mosquitoes.


It is cool tonight on the water. Tomorrow is our boat out in the the Kenai Fjords. We have talked to people who saw whales etc... this week.

Debbie and Becky's end of trip what they brought and didn't need:
Deb: A white shirt
Becky: clothes
Off to bed. xxoo

Bucket List day 11, July 13, 2010

Ottcrew Bucket List Day---Day 11 ---July 13, 2010 Tuesday


Denali to Anchorage Day
Tuesday---It is hard for all of us to keep track of the days. The girls got up early as the guys said they were sleeping in and we wanted to go into the chalet’s and do some shopping before we left town. We were all up showering to go for our trip. It started to rain and so everyone ready and packed up camp before our camp got soaked. We were sure glad that we had gone rafting the day before because today was rainy and cloudy….
The guys had to endure us shopping for a few minutes before we headed on a rainy 2 hour trip from Denali down to Anchorage. It was a rainy cold drive and the leather bike gloves became soaked quickly. At a gas stop, Tim and Henry picked up a pair of neoprene fishing gloves. Harold decided to wait and see if they worked. They were the ticket! Tim and Henry had warm, dry hands for the remainder of the wet drive. Harold was jealous.
We stopped at a Yamaha dealer in Wasilla…No, we didn’t see Sarah Palin. They did hook us up with the Anchorage dealership for the next day.

Our afternoon ended at the Centennial State Park in Anchorage. It had hot water showers and beautiful setting...within a very close noisy distance to the freeway. It was a place to drop our heads for the night. We grilled out chicken and made coleslaw.

PS---We did not see any wild animals this day except for Henry and Tim who are getting hairy beards. Harold shaves everyday. His wife doesn't like whiskers.
I will post pictures when I get them downloaded.

Bucket List Day 10---July 12, 2010

Ottcrew Bucketlist Day 10, July 12, 2010


Monday, Monday…. We did not shower this morning because we were on our way to go river rafting. Our raft company was the Denali Outdoor Center (DOC) at Otto Lake. Skies were blue with some fluffy clouds and after listening to other people say it had been overcast for days, we were feeling great. Our gear for the run made us all look like we put on those Sumo wrestler suits. They are to be water tight, but I guess Becky’s had a good leak! We will have to scan our picture from our raft trip since none of wanted to risk ruining our cameras. The river was the Nenana. It runs through this part of the Park and the water level was med-low. I would say it was only class III rapids and no class IV rapids…which is what we were seeking. This was Amy’s “one thing”….The one thing she wanted to do on the trip. Shelley’s “one thing” was also accomplished. It was to laugh until she cried. Deb and Amy got out of the boat during a calm spot on the river. When they said to get them back in the boat, Harold and Shelley were trying to pull Amy back in. We got to laughing so hard, that we failed on several attempts due to the “laughing weakies”. The guide had to yell at us to “Get her in NOW!!!!” for us to get down to business before the next set of rapids. The 2 guides in our boat spend their off season in the Salt Lake area. After our 11 mile trip was completed, we were bused back to de-gear. Once we were back, we quickly drove back to our camp ground to eat some lunch and get ready for our afternoon in Denali National Park.
THE PARK EXPERIENCE

We purchased a bus shuttle pass to go 58 miles out in the Park to Tolkat. ($24/person) It is a 5 ½ hour round trip. The guys couldn’t keep their eyes open. We were told by our river guide, Buck Wheat that we would see all kinds of wild life, but we didn’t. (Please note here that I think our mother is praying that we are safe and don't have any wild animal experiences....boy are her prayers answered!)
We saw some caribou, a few doll sheep, a female and a male moose, and from a far distance, a grizzly with her 2 cubs. I believe that it has already been documented that Becky has amazing eye sight, and she saw a bear and its cubs. They looked like ants being miles away from our mountain perch. They are very visible on our magnified camera pictures. The buses we rode in were like old school buses. The roads were only paved for about 10 miles and then we were driving on graded dirt/gravel roads. When on the top of the mountain with switch backs, there was not enough room for 2 tour buses to pass each other and one had to pull over on a very narrow shoulder. Coming down was SCARY and looked like we would drive right off the mountain with each curve. We prayed for our 70 yo driver to have good health. Our goal of this trip was to get close enough to see Mt. McKinley. We are told that you can only see it 30% of the time due to cloud cover. Blue skies had been smiling on us, so we felt confident we would see the mountain that locals call Big Mac. We did not see it and Henry felt ripped off. The park is SOOOO huge (9,300 square miles) that there were only a couple of vantage points on our drive that we would have been able to see it. We would have had to go on the 8 hour trip out to Wonder Lake to have a good chance to see it. Tim would have needed medication if we would have gone that far. We ate at Prospector Pizza. It has wood fired stoves and our pizza came out burnt. Since we don't participate in the 58 types of beer you serve, we couldn't soak it down and think it tasted good. Sorry Prospector Pizza, you do not rate a 2 ** on our food list. We were disappointed and you did not give us any comp us any off our bill. You are lame. PS, I don't know what I clicked to make it underlined...sorry... I need computer expert Beck.

Day 9---July 11, 2010 Sunday

Ottcrew Bucket List Trip Day 9, July 11, 2010


We awoke from our great night sleep in our downtown Fairbanks hotel to get ready for church. The free breakfast was a welcome site. The Stake Center was not too far away. There was a warm Fairbanks welcome in the Fairbanks 6th Ward. It was good to go to church. Once back at the hotel, Becky caught up on the blog postings, Amy finally got to paint her toenails, while the rest of us took a short nap until check out. It was as a Sabbath Day should be with nothing rushed and a day of rest.
Shelley hopped on the back of the bike for the 2 hour trip from Fairbanks to Denali. It was a windy ride.
We stopped about 10 miles outside of Denali at a RV park called McKinley. It would be where we would park it for 2 days…our longest stationary spot since we started. All of us piled into BIG RED to drive into Denali to the restaurant Salmon Bake. It is renowned and lived us to it’s reputation. Each of us got something different and all the good was GREAT. MMMMM halibut and salmon. Makes my mouth water writing this. Walking down the boardwalk with chalet shops, we met yet another group from Iowa, identified by his Hawkeye cap. They were from Reinbeck and Traer, and it was fun to swap stories with them. I think we have met someone from Iowa almost every day. Small world.

Tidbits from Alaska, Day 8 -July 10, 2010

We woke up at 5am to spitting rain--so it was a quick camp take down--luckily we has all showered the night before. Tim was disappointed yet again that no grizzly showed up at our camp. Debbie said that if we hung a donut around his neck, they would be sure to come to him. He has yet to take her up on that theory. After we left camp, we found out that no gas stations are open at 6am.

Tidbit #1: Gas up the night before (there was a gas station 5 miles up the road that they should have gassed up at the night before). Another fill up from the gas cans in the truck.


Tidbit #2: Gas up before 8pm because that is when everything closes up here.

We left camp with no gas, no breakfast, and no makeup. The guys are getting sunburned.

Tidbit #3: Put sunscreen on multiple times during a day's ride. Might also need mosquito repellent.

Each morning the guys huddle up and put their fists together and shout "Fairbanks" and then get on their bikes. When we crossed the Yukon/Alaska border we took pictures under the sign. It was sort of anti-climatic since they were pushing hard to get to Fairbanks today...so we hurried on.


Tidbit #4: There are multiple stops for postcards along the way and multiple post offices. So, many chances to send greetings to the people back home.

Tidbit #5: Take the road between Destruction Bay and the border early in the morning while the bikers are fresh. This was a treacherous road at times, but we could continue at 50+ mph (you dirt bikers would have been proud of the bikers and truck drive Amy for they way they maneuvered around potholes and supposedly fixed ruts).

At one stop Harold changed socks and left them on the top of the trailer. One flew off, but one hung on for dear life for over 50 miles. Harold gets the "Little Sock" award for this part of the trip.

Tidbit #6: Always talk to the other bikers because you never know when you might meet someone of interest.

We have met someone from Iowa practically every day on the road. Today it was Jim Martindale from Waukon. Yesterday it was a school teacher from Minnesota. The day before that a guy from Lone Tree (just south of Iowa City), and it goes on. Simply amazing that of all the people that might be stopped the road at the same time as us, they end up being from Iowa.

Tidbit #7: For support personnel, it is hard to do things while driving because the scenery is so wonderful all the time. So keep your minds active. Our original perceptions were:
--the roads would be worse than they are
--there would be more animals on the road
--there would be more mosquitoes (but we have our fair share of bites anyway)
--there would be more rain

We have had the good fortune to have beautiful days and less animals for safety sake.

We stopped at Delta Junction where the Alcan Highway ends. Fairbanks was still looming in front of us so we quickly took pictures and got on our bikes.

Tidbit #8: SOMEONE has to make T-shirts that celebrates the riding of the Alcan Highway and sell them to the visitors center in Delta Junction. Not one to be found that was worthy of purchasing.

We stopped at the North Pole, but Santa was too busy to visit with us. So we went up the road to Fairbanks. We finally made it. We checked into a hotel and went out to eat at Big Daddy's BBQ. It was apparent that the owner was from the Chicago area with all the sports stuff on the walls. The place was featured by Guy Fieria (sp?) on the food network. (He is the host of Minute to Minute and Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.)

The girls did laundry and Tim says that he is set for the rest of the trip. But we did talk him into a shower--even though he says he still didn't stink yet!

Signs, signs, everywhere signs -Ottcrew Day 7 July 9,2010

Day 7--The days blend together and if we don't get written down on paper or in the blog, it all becomes confusing. Our drive was from Watson Lake to outside of Haines Junction this day. LONG RIDE and drive. We wanted to make up some ground. Becky drove all morning. We saw a little bit of wildlife like a moose. So far, there haven't been as many mosquitoes, cops, wildlife,card playing at night, or bumpy roads.

We left our mark on the Sign Forest at Watson Lake.

Gas is harder to find and we have had to use our gas cans a couple of times. There are places in our books that are now closed. A stop for gas at a place called Johnson's Crossing had yummy Cinnamon rolls...not as good as ours though!

Our Day ended outside of Haines Junction at Kluane Lake. We stayed at the Cottonwood RV Park, right on the lake with a walk down to crystal clear waters...cold but clear. Becky made hamburgers and we had a feast. We hit the hay early after a long hard day. Of course we didn't see the sunset nor the sunrise--not sure it even was dark!


East bound riders have told us of the treacherous rides between Destruction Canyon and Delta Junction. We want to hit it first thing in the morning before the RVs and when our riders are fresh. (PS Tim says he never stinks)

...and we still haven't gotten to paint our toe nails yet.