It's been several weeks since we returned home from our trip across North America. I decided to wait a few weeks to write this last entry -- I needed some time to reflect about everything we did and saw on the trip.

The first few days of being home were like a big whirlwind, with so many things to do. After being away for so long, neither of our cars would start (mice had built a nest under the hood of our Mustang and my Focus wagon's battery was completely dead), our pickup truck was past due on its inspection, my driver’s license had expired, and our biggest problem: we couldn't remember where things were in our kitchen :-) I couldn't even remember where I kept my coffee mugs, and I love my coffee!

But on a more serious note, I was overcome with many emotions when we returned home. I was incredibly happy to be home—I had been homesick the last month or so of the trip. I had a wave of sadness/grief return when something in the house reminded me of my brother’s sudden death at the beginning of our trip. I was stressed out about our truck's brake controller switch which was malfunctioning the last several days of the trip and caused a random dinging during our drive through the torrential rains. I was excited that we had actually gone on the trip that we had talked about for years, but I was also depressed because the trip was over. In other words I was somewhat of an emotional mess when we got home. And I'm not sure what I would have written if my final blog entry would have been written immediately after our return. I wanted my reflections to be about the whole trip, and not about the last week of the trip with its’ many days of long drives.

So, as everybody has asked me, "How was your trip?"

We saw so much incredible scenery, especially in Alaska! It was great having almost two weeks in Los Angeles with our daughter! Mardi Gras in New Orleans was fantastic! Big Bend National Park was fantastic! Disney World is always fantastic! Yosemite Valley -- incredible! Lots of major and minor league baseball games for my husband! So much wildlife--especially all of the bald eages and grizzlies that we saw in Alaska! We not only enjoyed the places we visited but learned so many things -- a wonderful learning experience for the three of us, not only Joe.

Plus we met so many interesting and wonderful people on the trip. A few of the most memorable people: the 50+ year-old woman who had recently retired and has adult children & an 11-year-old just like me, the gentlemen who was traveling to Dawson City to spread his parents’ ashes near the gold mine they used to own (and was having a good time fishing along the way), Pete and Jean (who were also taking their RV off and & on the Alaska ferry) with their wonderful sense of humor at the end of the trip when I needed to laugh, the woman who had lost two of her young children in the past 18 months by sudden deaths and was returning home after some needed time away from home—she reminded me how thankful I should be for my healthy children, and lastly the gentlemen from Fairbanks who argued with me that they get as much daylight in Fairbanks during the winter as we get in Pennsylvania (I asked other Alaskans about this and they saiy ‘no way’ do they get as much daylight in the winter).

As far as our favorite places: I actually was interviewed by Eric of Travelerspoint about the trip, so rather than repeat our favorite places, here is the link to the interview:

http://blog.travellerspoint.com/127/

In many ways we had the trip we dreamed of! But...

I was homesick. I missed my family and friends. I learned that interesting places, beautiful scenery, friendly acquaintances, and new "things" are great, but eventually all I really wanted was to be home. I'm sure part of the reason for the homesickness was due to the grieving process over my brother's death--we probably should have waited a month to let me grieve at home and be ready to move on. For whatever reason I think 7 months away from home at this point in my life was too long. In theory a year-long trip across the U.S. sounded wonderful, but in practice it was too long. Well, ‘too long’ for me – my husband, who retired two weeks before the trip, never got homesick: he associates being home with working and he had no desire to return to the 9-5 grind (which was actually closer to a 7-6 grind for him). We had contemplated traveling through November, but cut our trip short when Joe and I decided we needed to be home for awhile.

That being said, we're already talking about what we should do for our next RV trip :-)

Some Reflections on Our Trip Across North America remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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They have a small temporary building where a National Park volunteer is stationed to answer questions and explain the memorial. The final memorial was originally planned to be finished by the 10th anniversary of 9-11, but construction has not been started and it's doubtful that it will be completed in the next 4 years.

We look at the many things that visitors have left in memory of the Flight 93 passengers, and then talk to the volunteer for a few minutes. Interesting stop, and the dreary weather seems appropriate for this somber place.

I think the memorial is also supposed to honor the passengers' bravery, and many of the momentos that have been left here by visitors reflect the appreciation for the passengers' bravery in preventing the plane's destruction of our Capitol or White House; but it's a final resting place for the crew and passengers of that flight, so a sad place.

Home is less than 3 hours from the memorial, so we arrive home in early afternoon. The house is still there :-)

I've been very homesick the last month or so, so it feels wonderful to be home. After living in the trailer the last 7 months, my house feels like a mansion. I look around the kitchen and almost cry because it feels so good to be home. I'm sure in a few weeks I'll feel like traveling again, but right now I am SO GLAD TO BE HOME!

Shanksville PA - Our Last Stop of the Trip remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We cross the Mississippi River today and then we stop at Joliette, Illinois, near Chicago for the night. The rain finally stops, so after dinner Joe and Jere play basketball while I watch TV and update my journal.

Note: No pictures today--too much rain.

A Rainy Drive across Indiana
Sunday, August 19, 2007

It rains all day, sometimes heavy. They had 2 inches of rain in Toledo today with high of 62 degrees. So another cold and rainy day.

We had hoped to stop in at the RV Hall of Fame Museum today in Elkhart, Indiana, but it is closed Sundays. Half of the RVs built in the U.S. are manufactured near Elkhart, Indiana. We pass several of the manufacturing plants today, but it's raining too hard to even take pictures of the plants or the museum.

We stop at the Milan RV Park near Toledo, Ohio and are stuck inside the trailer, listening to the rain for the evening.

Yet Another Rainy Day: through Ohio
Monday, August 20, 2007

It pours down rain all day! Toledo had 2-5 inches already in the last 24 hours and they are predicting another 2-5 inches today! Luckily we didn't unhook the trailer last night, so Jere doesn't need to hook up the trailer in the pouring down rain.

The drive today is not enjoyable -- it pours for the entire drive through Ohio and then into Pennsylvania. I don't even try to take a picture of the Welcome to Pennsylvania sign. We see lots of fender benders but thankfully no serious accidents. Our trailer brake alarm keeps randomly 'dinging' throughout the day, so by the time we get to the campground in Rockwood, Pennsylvania, I'm frazzled and glad to stop. I take a hot shower and then we're stuck in the trailer again tonight listening to the rain hit the trailer.

They are forecasting for more rain tonight and tomorrow. So it looks like we'll end our 200+ day trip across the United States with several days of cold and wet weather. I feel like the dreary weather at the end of our trip means something, but I'm not sure what. Some kind of sign? But sign of what???

The good thing with the crummy weather is that we'll get home a day earlier than planned. Due to the rain we made very few stops. Boring, long days of driving to end our trip :-(

Rain, Rain, and More Rain remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Again today we pass lots and lots of farms. With lots and lots of corn and soybeans.

We stop at a campground at a dragstrip near Dyersville, Iowa.


We have driven out of our way today so Jere can visit the location where the movie, Field of Dreams, was filmed. To the non-baseball fanatic (that would be me), it's a baseball field in the middle of some cornfields and no big deal. BUT to baseball fans who love baseball, the field seems to represent everything that is good about baseball. So we quickly set up camp and drive over to the Field of Dreams movie site.

There are about a dozen cars there with others visiting the Field of Dreams. It's free to come here to see the movie location, read the signs and play ball on the field.

The family that owns the farm has a souvenir stand where they sell souvenirs and use the profits to pay for the upkeep of the field. Interestingly, the family does not own the left field and part of the center field of the playing field. So a group of investors has purchased this part of the field and has set up a competing souvenir stand by the left field, calling it "Left and Center Field of Dreams". Very odd.

Anyway, we buy a few souvenirs, including a bumper sticker with one of my favorite lines from the movie, "Is this heaven?". Joe has started a bumper sticker collection over our kitchen table and sofa in the trailer.

We read the boards about making the movie and then get on with the serious business of going on the field. First we go check out the cornfield and take the requisite pictures of walking out of the cornfield (just like the 'ghost' baseball players do in the movie).

Then we take turns tossing the baseball to each other in the outfield.

We sit on the bleachers for awhile watching a group play baseball. We had hoped to have a little batting practice ourselves, but it gets late and the field closes to the public at 6pm. Jere and Joe go to the outfield for some batting practice, but Joe smacks the first ball almost to the cornfield and they concede there's not enough room for Joe to hit. They'll have batting practice in the field next to the dragstrip at the campground instead.

“Is This Heaven?” Field of Dreams, Dyersville, Iowa remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Well today we are back on an interstate. It's great to be able to have regular rest stops where we can park our large rig, but the scenery is nowhere near as interesting as it was on the smaller roads :-(

We drive through Minnesota and see lots of cornfields and more farming combines. Today we also see a crop duster applying pesticide/herbicide on the fields.

We stop at the Town and Country RV Park just south of Minneapolis and then head to the Mall of America, the largest shopping mall in North America. When we walk in, we first see an exhibition being given by some local Sioux indians. They are having a pow wow in the area and the exhibition is part of the pow wow. Their dance costumes have incredibly intricate beading.

We walk all around the mall, including the amusement park in the center of the mall and Legoland.

We have dinner at the Kokomos Restaurant in the mall and then leave without buying anything from the largest mall in North America.

On our way back to the campground we stop for gas and the gas pumps have little televisions in them showing the local news and weather! Maybe this is common in some parts of the country, but I've never seen a gas pump with a televison in it before. I've seen several gas pumps with advertisements and monitors, but not a live television program. So I watch the weather and news while Jere pumps the gas. I usually wash the windows while he pumps, but I'm fascinated by televisions in the gas pumps :-)

Mall of America: Minneapolis, Minnesota remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We drive across North Dakota today. We pass lots and lots of farming combines, as well as fields of corn and sunflowers.

Another nice day so we have a picnic lunch at a roadside rest again. We also drive by the world’s largest buffalo statue :-)

So now in the last 3 days we've seen the world's largest moose, largest teepee and largest buffalo :-)

We get to the Fargo KOA in mid-afternoon and immediately head to the pool for a quick dip. The air is a little cool, but the water is warm. We meet a mother and daughter from Manitoba and they tell us about a steak buffet where they plan to have dinner. We decide to try it too: The North American Steak Buffet. All you can eat, including steak and salmon, drinks and dessert for $10.19. What a bargain and the food is very good. After the high food prices in Alaska, where a burger alone costs $10, this is a great deal for us.

After dinner we drive over to the Roger Maris Museum. It's a small museum, which is free, that is part of a nice mall. Apparently Roger Maris grew up Fargo, North Dakota. For the non-baseball fans reading this blog: Roger Maris was a NY Yankee who broke Babe Ruth's homerun record in 1961 of 60 homeruns in a season. We had watched the DVD about Roger Maris' 1961 season,"61*" , a few weeks ago, so stopping at his museum is actually interesting. Of course it's very interesting to Jere.

It's dark, but we decide to drive down main street Fargo anyway. Not very picturesque and a little rundown. I had also wanted to visit the Scandinavian-inspired church that they have here, but we simply run out of time.

Fargo, North Dakota remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We take our time packing up this morning.

Before leaving the Traveler's Oasis Campground in Moose Jaw this morning, we walk across the road to Moose Jaw's claim-to-fame: the largest moose in the world. Bruce the Moose is showing his age, but we check him out and take some pictures.

They are collecting funds to maintain the very tall moose. Jere contributes the rest of our Canadian coins to the fund. It's our last day in Canada, so no need for Canadian coins after today.

Lots of farmland scenery today on our drive south from Moose Jaw (Saskatchewan, Canada) to Minot, South Dakota. I'm still enjoying looking at the farmland and the many grain elevators.

Our border crossing back to the states is uneventful, but takes longer than any other border crossings. We answer all the usual questions about alcohol and firearms and ground beef, but this time the border guard asks for our trailer keys and inspects the inside of our trailer. Not sure what he was looking for, but after a few minutes he comes back and gives our keys back. He then tells us to drive up to a different guard who has us slowly drive through a special scanner of some kind. We drive through the scanner and then wait a few minutes for them to give us the final okay to drive away.

Another gorgeous day with good weather, so when we arrive at the Roughrider campground in Minot, South Dakota we spend all evening outside. Joe even gets Jere to play soccer with us in the field across from our campsite.

Back in the "Lower 48": 200 Days on the Road remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We started the day by packing up and taking a short drive to Medicine Hat's claim-to-fame: the worldn't largest teepee. The teepee was built for the Calgary Winter Olympics and then moved to Medicine Hat. It looks really tacky from the highway, but up close it is a very interesting structure.

We then start our drive across the prairie. We see buffalo and antelopes, but mainly we see lots of farms and grain elevators.

It's a beautiful day, so we have a picnic lunch at a nice roadside rest.

Our other long stop for the day is at Reed Lake, where we look for birds and enjoy the scenery.

We arrive at our campground in Moose Jaw before dinner and have a quick swim at their indoor pool and waterslide before dinner. Jere and Joe spend the evening at the waterslide, while I relax in the trailer. My stomach isn't feeling so good -- I think the loopy waterslides got the best of me this afternoon :-(

Medicine Hat, Alberta to Moose Jaw, Saskatchawan (Canada) remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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It's time to start heading home. We want to be home in time for Joe to start school the end of August.

We have ten days to get home and 2500 miles to drive, so we’re driving 250 miles each day. But before we start our first 250 mile drive today, we decide to drive up to see Lake Louise one more time. Some clouds move in by the time we get up to the lake, but the lake is still pretty.

Then a long day of driving. We drive past Banff and look at the mountain scenery that was hidden by the rain on Friday when we were here.

The drive is uneventful, except for some minor trailer brake issues. The scenery is okay, but nothing special after we leave the Banff area.

However, it is close to 90 degrees fahrenheit today. We are not used to this heat! It was below freezing less than 48 hours ago. What a change!

We stop in Medicine Hat, Alberta for the night at the municipal campground, Gas City Campground. Nice campground. We unhook, have dinner and then get some groceries and gas. We make a few phone calls, go for a walk around the campground and then watch the first Harry Potter movie on tv.

Starting the Long Drive Home to Pennsylvania remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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It is very foggy this morning, but by the time we drive up to Lake Louise, the fog begins to lift.

We're taking a long hike today in the Lake Louise area. As we start up the Lake Agnes trail, most of the fog lifts off the lake and we get a view of gorgeous Lake Louise.

We were here 15 years ago for one day and I remember it as being the most beautiful place that I've ever seen. We were fortunate to have a crystal clear blue-sky morning that day and very early in the morning the lake was as smooth as ice. Simply beautiful. So I am looking forward to our hike with views of the lake and area glaciers.

As we hike up the Lake Agnes Trail, we meet a couple from Canmore (a city about 20 miles south of Lake Louise) who must be close to 80 years old. We will cross each other's paths all day with this couple -- they are almost in better shape than we are. I hope that I am capable of a strenuous hike when I'm their age. I really enjoy talking and joking with them throughout the day.

We hike up the Lake Agnes Trail to Mirror Lake and take a break to enjoy the view. Big Beehive mountain is the mountain behind Mirror Lake. After our hike up to Lake Agnes, we will continue our hike around the lake and up to the top of Beehive Mountain.

After our break, we continue on toward Lake Agnes.

We finally make it up to Lake Agnes.

We find a place with a great view of the mountains and eat our lunch.

After lunch we continue our hike around Lake Agnes. The lake is very picturesque, with a teahouse at the end (near where we had our lunch). There are many others at the lake today and the teahouse is filled with people drinking hot chocolate, coffee and tea. The teahouse was built many years ago when the park was trying to encourage tourists to visit. It's rustic, but pretty. Jere has no interest in it, but Joe and I take a peak inside.

After we get around Lake Agnes, we head up the trail, with it's many switchbacks, to the summit of Big Beehive. We take a break at every switchback to catch our breath -- the view is incredible at every switchback. Here's a view of Lake Agnes from halfway up the mountain:

And here's a view of the distant snow-covered mountains from the trail:

We finally make it to the top of Big Beehive and the view is absolutely incredible! We sit on a rock ledge and enjoy the view of Lake Louise while we eat the rest of our lunch. That's Chateau Lake Louise at the left end of the lake.

There's also an old shelter at the top of the mountain where several people are relaxing. We spend some time talking with several people and enjoying the views. And taking lots of pictures.

We eventually leave the top of Big Beehive and head toward the Trail of Six Glaciers. The views of the glaciers above Lake Louise are wonderful as we hike down the mountain.

As we're taking a break to look at the various glaciers, we hear a roar and realize the the one glacier is calving off big chunks of ice. Very cool to see.

It's a long hike, but we finally get down the mountain and take a trail that leads to the far end of Lake Louise.

We again take lots of pictures of Lake Louise.

We only hiked about 7 miles, but the trails were somewhat steep and strenuous, (and we took many breaks to enjoy the scenery) so it is almost 5pm when we return to the car. We really enjoyed the trails. The scenery was incredible. There were a lot of people on the Lake Agnes Trail and the Trail of Six Glaciers--and they were from all over the world. We must have heard at least 8 different languages being spoken. Surprisingly we didn't meet anyone else from the U.S.

We're tired but decide to drive over to Morraine Lake anyway. It's a pretty lake, but it's getting late and we're tired so we don't spend much time there.

We then go back to the trailer and collapse for the evening.

Snow and Cold in Beautiful Lake Louise remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The Lake Louise campsite isn’t as nice as the Jasper Whistler campsite, but we do have electric here. The worst part is that there is a very busy train track only about 50 feet away from our campsite.

We drive the Bow Valley scenic highway to Banff. Clouds and rain, so not very scenic. Nice hike back to a waterfall in Johnson Canyon--it even stops raining for hike :-)

We see a large elk beside the highway and there is a very large crowd of people surrounding the elk taking pictures. I guess they didn't see the signs saying to stay 3 bus lengths away from the elk :-)

Banff city is a mess.

Lots of cars and the main street is completely closed with construction, but we finally find a place to park. We do some shopping and have dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory. Good warm food in a warm restaurant – it pours down rain while we eat, so we have a nice leisurely dinner. The only bad part of dinner is when the waiter informs us that prior to this week they had 4 weeks of sunshine. We didn't really need to know that.

After dinner we drive out to Surprise Point to view the famous Banff Springs Hotel.

It’s drizzling so it is a quick stop, as most stops are today in the rain. Then we drive out to the Cave and Basin National Historic Park, the site of the first Canadian national park. The inside museum has already closed but we can walk around the outside to see the original hot springs resort. They also have a boardwalk leading to the original hot springs above the resort.

We also drive around town on the Tunnel Mountain Road with a few quick stops. The rain and low clouds are putting a damper on what is supposed to be a beautiful town.

Then back to the trailer to play a game of Life and bedtime.

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It’s definitely colder today and apparently the rain last night was snow at higher elevations. The mountain tops have a thin layer of snow—very pretty.

We are traveling the Icefields Parkway today. A very scenic drive between Jasper and Banff, with lots and lots of glaciers that can be seen from the road.

We stop at the Columbia Icefields Center and decide to have a snack in the lodge before taking the bus to the glacier. Great view of the glacier from the window seat.

After our snack we get on the bus that will take us up to the Athabasca Glacier. The total tour takes about 90 minutes, with an 8 minute busride to get to the snow shuttles to ride on the glacier. The clouds have lifted and we get blue skies! Great views!

The bus ride to the glacier is fine, but the snow shuttle starts with an incredible steep drop down a hill. Several of us can’t believe that we’re actually going down this hill. Here is a picture that Joe took of a shuttle traveling down the incredibly steep hill. It’s blurry because of the very bumpy snow shuttle ride:

The tour guide tells us that it was 25 deg F last night and they had snow so the glacier is all white instead of blue at some parts.

We walk around the glacier and take lots of pictures.

We return on the bus to the lodge and take one last picture of the glacier:

And a picture of the lodge located across the street from the glacier, where we started our bus tour of the glacier:

The scenery after we leave the Athabasca Glacier area is also spectacular.

Unfortunately the clouds and rain settle in before we get to Lake Louise, so no more pretty pictures :-( Then when we arrive at the Lake Louise Campground around 3pm, they’re full. The good news is that they have an overflow area, so we drive there and drop off the trailer. Then we drive to the Lake Louise-Banff National Park Visitor Center and onto Chateau Lake Louise. It’s pouring rain by this time, so we spend close to an hour roaming around the Chateau, looking at the art and architecture.

The evening is spent watching TV in the parking lot overflow area and listening to the pouring rain.

Icefields Parkway, Jasper and Banff National Parks, Canada remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Today is not only rainy but it’s also cold, with a high around 50 degrees. So the lifeguards have winter coats on and the one is drinking coffee and the other has a winter ski cap on. That’s something you don’t see every day :-)

We stay at the hot springs for close to two hours. What else are we going to do in the rain?

On the way back to Jasper we pass more big horn sheep and an elk with a very large rack.

We do some window shopping at the Jasper gift shops, have dinner at A&W (again), and return to the trailer for the evening. It continues to rain steady. Despite the rain it looks like the campground is going to be full again tonight.

Miette Hot Springs, Jasper National Park remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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As we pull into the parking lot at Maligne Lake we spot a deer. I think it's a mule deer because of it's really long ears, but Jere says it's a white tail. Maybe it's a hybrid :-)

We want to canoe or kayak on the lake, so we stop in at the historic Maligne Lake boat house.

They do not have any single kayaks left, so after looking at the waves on the lake, we decide that I should stay on the stationery land while Jere and Joe kayak in a 2-man kayak. They kayak for almost two hours – it starts to rain so they decide to keep it short. I stroll around the lake and do some bird watching while they kayak.

We see more big horn sheep on the drive back.

It rains off and on for the drive, but fortunately the rain stops when we stop to take our hike down the Maligne Canyon. The canyon is very pretty, but hard to take photographs since it is very narrow and very deep, with a roaring creek at the bottom. The walk takes about two hours and gives us a workout when we return to the top of the canyon.

We return to the campground for dinner and then walk around the very large campground after dinner.

Maligne Lake, Jasper National Park remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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After breakfast we pack up and head to Jasper National Park. Our first stop is about a mile down the road at the Overlander Waterfalls. It’s a short ½ mile walk to the falls—beautiful morning for a walk.

One other stop along the way:

Then we’re back on the road for the Whistler Campground in Jasper National Park. We wait in line for our campsite. We think it’s a long wait, but later in the day we will see that this is a short wait (around 3pm, the line consists of 50+ campers waiting to get a campsite). There are around 700 campsites here.

It takes us an hour to unhitch our 5th wheel! We had this problem the other day also, where we couldn’t get the hitch to open. Today we realize that the one leg of the 5th wheel is not working correctly, which is causing the 5th wheel to be slanted and then the hitch gets bound up. So we figure out how to fix the 5th wheel leg and then the hitch easily disconnects. We’re just really glad that we could fix the 5th wheel leg with the tools we have on hand.

After having a quick lunch we head out to see the area. Our first stop is at the Jasper National Park visitor center in the town of Jasper. As we pull into town we spot a herd of elk in the park beside the road. So we pull into the parking lot to take pictures and the herd decides to move down the street—right down the center of the main street! What a sight.

After a quick stop at the visitor center to get a map and list of trails

we head back to the campground to grab a snack before our hike back to Angel Glacier. When we get to the road that leads to the campground, we cannot get through. Both lanes of the road into the campground are packed solid with campers to the intersection. There must be about 50 campers waiting to get in. We end up driving up the road and park at the edge of the campground so Joe & I can walk back to the trailer to grab some food for our picnic.

We drive the old Jasper highway towards Angel Glacier.

Our major stop this afternoon is at the Angel Glacier. We have a picnic dinner and then do the 2-mile loop to see the three glaciers in the area. The biggest glacier is the Angel Glacier, but there is also a glacier at the base of the mountain that calves icebergs into the lake. Very nice hike. Great scenery.

We pass a beautiful blue glacial lake on the road to/from Angel Glacier, but there aren't any pulloffs to get a good pic, but here is a partial view of the lake:

Our other major stop is at the Athabasca Waterfalls. We take the walk around the waterfall area. The area is pretty much empty since it's getting late. No tourist buses or crowds in the evening.

We drive back to the campsite and relax for the remainder of the evening. The campsite is really nice—large with lots of trees and very private.

Our First Day at Jasper National Park remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The scenery is okay but nothing special today,

until we get close to Mt Robson, the tallest peak in the Canadian Rockies.

We’re at Mt Robson Meadows Campground, a very nice provincial park. The campsites are large and lots of trees between campsites. Quite different from many of the parking lot RV parks that we’ve been staying at recently.

We set up camp and walk over to the visitor center. Mt Robson’s top is covered with clouds, but it is still picturesque.

Then we have dinner and spend the rest of the evening relaxing around the campfire. Of course if there’s a campfire at the Engelman campsite, there are always s’mores :-)

Mt Robson Provincial Park, British Columbia remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Today is another beautiful, sunny day. We pack up, drive a few miles and then stop to take pictures of the suspension bridge that we drove across yesterday and today to get to & from Ksan Campground.

It is a one-lane suspension bridge that was built in 1931. It traverses a very deep canyon. We were a little nervous yesterday when we first saw the bridge, especially when we saw the sign that said "One Truck at a Time".

I have no idea how many feet deep the canyon is and the pictures can't really show the depth, but it is definately a long way down from the bridge to the river below.

We take lots of pictures of the bridge and the old church on the other side of the road. Then we're on our way down the Yellowhead Highway (Hwy 16).

We're less than an hour down the road when we see a lot of people stopped at a roadside rest with cameras and binoculars. So of course we stop. There is a narrowing of the river here and there are rapids (Moricetown Canyon), but I can't figure out why everyone is here.

So I ask someone and they explain that the local tribe fishes for salmon here using their old methods of nets and harpoons.

A few minutes later we watch one of the natives use his 20 feet long harpoon/pole to catch a large salmon.
It was so interesting! We watched two fishermen catch several fish this way. They lift up their 20 ft pole that has a large hook on the end, place it down into the water, lift it up and down several times, and in a surprisingly short time they snag a fish on the hook. We watch them for about 30 minutes. A great stop!

We continue our scenic drive through British Columbia til we get to Smithers. We stop for diesel and Joe somehow talks us into stopping at McDonalds for lunch. After lunch we continue driving til our next stop, Houston. Houston's claim to fame is the world's largest flycasting fishing rod. We take a few pics, talk to some locals and look at the stuffed grizzly at the visitors' center.

The ride between Houston and Vinderhoof, where we stop for the night, is okay, but not as scenic as this morning. We stop at Dave's Campground for the night. This is a nice park. Not only does it have cable TV and wifi, but a miniature golf course with real grass and a gigantic checker board.

The park has a lot of RVs by evening; many of us heading south after visiting Alaska.

Yellowhead Highway through British Columbia remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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So we’re up at 6am, drive off the ferry, and wait in line to get through customs.

Customs goes well, except the agent spends a lot of time looking at Rosdale’s (our cat) vaccination papers and I start to get worried that something is wrong. Still not sure why he took so long examining the paper, but he handed it back and said we were free to go.

The day starts out somewhat overcast and the tops of the mountains are in the clouds. By lunchtime the clouds lift and we can see the top of the mountains. Very pretty scenery.

We stop at Terrance, British Columbia for lunch. Plus we get some groceries, fill up with diesel, and exchange some travelers’ checks for Canadian currency. We’re in Canada, but the towns are still few and far between for the next few days.

We notice that everyone is wearing shorts except us. It feels like it might be close to 80 degrees here and we are not used to the heat. We haven’t worn shorts for weeks. The warmth feels good and we’ll change into shorts later today.

We’re tired, so around 3:30 we pull into the Ksan Campground near Old Hazleton, BC.

The Ksan campsite is a very nice campground by the river. I was concerned that we would have problems finding a campsite on a (Canadian) holiday weekend, but lots of empty sites here. We relax in the afternoon (I take a nap). Then after dinner we walk around the Ksan historical village (First Nation village)

and then through Old Hazleton. Old Hazleton has many restored old buildings and turns out to be more interesting than we expected.

We walk back to the campground and watch a videotape from the History Channel and then have an early bedtime.

Back in British Columbia, Canada remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We’re going to be driving a lot the next few days after we get off the ferry at Prince Rupert tomorrow, so we take a day to basically relax. We do some chores in the morning, have lunch and then head out to the state park north of us (Settlers Cove) for a walk through the beach and rain forest. We spend time on the beach just looking around (and watching 2 harbor seals in the water)

and then walk the 1-mile loop through the temperate rain forest.

We drive back to the trailer to grab a few folding chairs and then head to Refuge Cove State Park to sit on the shore for the rest of the afternoon. There are several families swimming in the water, but we didn’t come prepared to swim. Joe rolls up his jeans and goes in the water but Jere and I sit on the shore and read.

Around 6:30 we decide to go get the trailer and drive to the ferry dock. Our ferry doesn’t leave til 12:30am and we don't need to be there til 10:30pm, but we're anxious to leave and we want to get to the dock in the daylight.

We arrive at the dock and make dinner. There are already at least a half dozen other RVs waiting in the parking lot.

After dinner we walk over to the dock and watch a sternwheeler go by the dock

We then take a short walk to the small boat harbor near the ferry and then sit around the trailer relaxing and waiting for the ferry.

Around midnight we start loading onto the ferry. This is the third time we’re traveling on the Taku so the attendant recognizes us, “You again?” The other two times we traveled on the Taku we had to back on the ferry, so Jere asks if we’ll have to back on this time? We’re told not only can we drive on this time, but we can drive off at Prince Rupert. No backing up in the ferry? Yea!!! We're also not the longest rig on the ferry this time--there's a motorhome pulling a boat that is 56' (we're 52').

We’re one of the first ones on the ferry. We get the keys to our cabin, drop off our backpacks and go up to watch the ferry leave. Our last ride on Alaska's ferries. It's been an adventure driving on/off the ferries. Some people would even say that it is part of the Alaska RV Trip experience :-) I really enjoyed visiting the small fishing towns in southeast Alaska, but I'm glad we're done with getting on/off the ferries.

Our Last Day in Alaska AND BLUE SKIES!!! remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We eat breakfast and walk down to the dock at the campground.

The tide is really low this morning. We can even see starfish from the dock.

We walk around the dock and look at all the small fish. The fishermen threw some of their waste into the water and the small fish are gorging themselves with food.

Our first stop today is at Saxmon Totem Park, on the other side of Ketchikan (our campground is about 14 miles north of town). The weather is great and we enjoy the scenery on the way to Totem Park, including a dock full of floatplanes:

Saxmon Totem Park is just what the name says: a park full of totem poles. There is also a clan house that is very nicely done, inside and out, and a shop where two men are carving a totem pole.

Then we drive south of town along South Tongass Highway. This again, is not a highway, but it’s name says ‘highway’. It’s a 2 lane rural road. We pull off at a beach and make some sandwiches for lunch. There’s a group of tourists snorkeling along the shore, so we watch them and the fisherman and the jumping salmon while we eat.

The road continues for a few more miles past an old logging camp and several waterfalls. We stop at one of the waterfalls and find some ripe salmon berries to try.

Then we’re off to yet another totem pole exhibit, Ketchikan’s Totem Heritage Center. This is a museum that tries to preserve old totem poles of the Tlingit and Haidi tribes. We learn even more about totem poles and then walk around the area.

Then it’s off to downtown Ketchikan for some shopping and dinner. After buying a few trinkets, we have dinner at Annabelle’s. This restaurant is in the Gilmore Hotel, where we stayed in Ketchikan 13 years ago when we visited. Good salmon chowder and Alaska Dungeness crab cakes.

We visit a few more gift shops and then head back to the trailer to do laundry. The washers are really cheap here, $1/load. However, the water in the campground is brown—tannic brown—pretty gross looking to me, even though I know it won’t hurt me. But I do the wash in it anyway and the clothes look fine when they’re done. Just as my body was clean after this morning's shower in the brown water, but no way will I use the brown water to brush my teeth!

I take a break in the middle of laundry to go down to the dock to look at the sunset—it is gorgeous!!! Several of us are down on the docks taking pictures. Definitely not the sunset I expected in Ketchikan, the rainiest town in Alaska.

Ketchikan, Alaska remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The engineer tells us that we need to back on. We were hoping for an easy drive onto the ferry this morning, but I guess that’s not going to happen. So we back up the rig and turn around in the intersection next to the parking lot (very early, so no traffic). We have a little turn before we get to the ramp and Jere is frustrated with my instructions on which way to turn the rig. Luckily one of the attendants comes up to us and asks if we want help. Jere immediately says ‘Yes’ and I’m relegated to my normal duties of making sure he doesn’t run into anything.

We finally get down the ramp and the ferry is almost empty, so we just keep it parked by the door so we can pull right out at Ketchikan (that is the only good thing about backing onto the ferry).

It’s drizzling this morning, so we find a seat in the front lounge and relax. The scenery is foggy and we’re tired so we spend most of the ferry ride inside looking at the scenery or reading.

While we’re back in the cafeteria having breakfast (the Matanuska has good food; unlike the Taku), someone yells ‘whale’ and we all race to the window. There’s a small humpback whale fairly close to the ferry.

As we get close to Ketchikan, it’s getting brighter. We expected rain today, so this is a nice surprise.

We arrive at Ketchikan by Noon and are the first ones off the ferry. Our first stop is at the tire dealer. We had a blow out on one of our trailer tires near Destruction Bay and none of the tire dealers in Haines or Juneau had the size tire we needed. So we had a tire shipped from Oregon to Ketchikan about a week ago and it arrived in the container yesterday. There are 4 customers ahead of us, so we make some sandwiches and wait for our turn. It is actually sunny out, thankfully we don’t have too long a wait before we are on our way again.

We set up camp and cannot get our hitch undone. After about 30 minutes or so, we finally manage to get unhitched and set up. We walk down to the dock at the RV park and look around at the SUNSHINE AND BLUE SKIES!!!

We’re tired so we take a break, have a snack and then head out to explore Ketchikan. It normally is cloudy/rainy in Ketchikan (they average 155 inches/year of rain and it’s not unusual for Ketchikan to get 200+ inches) and the tire clerk said this is the first day it hasn’t been rainy since she’s been here this summer. SO….even though we’re very tired, we figure we better take advantage of the sunshine and do some sightseeing.

Our first stop is the Bight Totem State Park to see totem poles. Ketchikan has more totem poles than any other city in North America.

Then off to downtown Ketchikan to check out the town

and the Southeast Discovery Center. All of the state and national forest & park services went together to build one visitors’ center in town. It’s free with our national park pass and is very nicely done.

We also walk to Creek Street: Their picturesque and historic ‘red light’ district. The cruise ships have all left town, so the street is deserted.

We’re very tired, so we head back to the trailer for dinner and some TV. We haven’t had TV for the last week, so this is a nice change.

Ferry to Ketchikan remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Our first stop is the post office and the campground office downtown to pay for our campsite. The campground is only 8 sites and there is no office at the campground itself. Then we visit Petersburg’s museum.

It was built 5 years ago and is surprisingly very well done. Surprising, because this is not a tourist town. No cruise ships stop here, not even small ones. We end up spending close to two hours there – yes, it’s that’s good (plus it’s raining). They have two well done movies and excellent exhibits.

We pick up a few groceries and then head back to the trailer for a late lunch. We’re hoping that the rain will slow down and we can go for a hike, but that is not to be. It continues to rain hard, so around 3:30 we decide to take off and drive south to the Tongass National Forest anyway. This would be a beautiful drive if it would clear up.

The road is gravel, but fairly well maintained. The views are great. We try to do what the area residents do and just ignore the rain and continue on with whatever is planned,

but after awhile we say ‘enough’ and return to the trailer.

On the way back we stop by the road and watch a small troller bring in his catch. We’ve seen several of the small boats today trolling for salmon. The fisherman lets out a line (maybe 100 feet) with floats on. Attached to the line are lots of individual fish lines with lures on the end. At the end of the day, they bring the line in and detach each salmon individually (after bopping it with a stick to knock it out). They use this technique to catch their premium salmon. So they throw back the fish they don't want (the fish are still alive and will be fine when they're thrown back, in case you were concerned about throwing 'dead' fish back into the water):

We also stop to take a picture of an eagle sitting on a pile of rocks that someone must have built. It’s still raining so the pic is not great.

It rains the rest of the evening so we spend the evening inside packing for tomorrow’s ferry ride and watching a DVD. There's a nice view of the harbor and some crabbing pots on one side of our RV, but here is the view we get from our dining room table. Not very picturesque, but very representative of many parts of small fishing towns in Alaska.

A Rainy Day in Wrangell, Alaska remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The Taku engineer says we need to back on the ferry again. Only this time we need to back onto a long curved ramp (with a very low flimsy guardrail, in my opinion). It takes awhile with at least 4 attempts before we can get around the curve in the ramp.

This is by the far the longest ferry ramp in Alaska. The ferry is almost empty so we can leave the rig parked at the door and then drive right off when we get to Wrangell.

We walk up to the top of the ferry and discuss the ferry ramp – we wonder why they couldn’t have made this ramp differently. And I thought the steep ramp at Haines was challenging :-)

We have a short 3 hour ferry ride to Wrangell today, so we find a seat and enjoy the ride. I take one last picture of Petersburg.

Several miles from the dock we pass the Matanuska ferry:

Shortly after passing the ferry we pass a fishing lodge, where they have several halibut hanging. The one is over 200 pounds!

The Wrangell Narrows is the most dangerous part of the Alaska Marine Highway. The have a watchman posted at the front of the ferry to watch for other boats and any other hazards.

Views of Wrangell from the ferry:

We get to Wrangell and the attendant there looks at our rig and says "I bet that was fun getting on at Petersburg". We just smile. The drive off the ferry is an easy drive off.

We check out a campground near the small boat harbor that is supposed to have a nice view. Well, there are lots of trees, so no view for the campsites we can fit in. Plus the campsites are not very level and it’s $25/night for electric only. We head back to town for the ‘parking lot’ RV park with the level sites, full hookups, and free wifi for $32/night. After setting up we head to check out downtown Wrangell. It’s Sunday, so everything’s closed.

We look at the dock area and inquire about a tour to go see the nearby Anon Bear sanctuary. It’s $207/person! Times 3 is $621, so that’s not going to happen. On the ferry ride to Sitka we met a family of 3 from Homer, Alaska who were planning to do this; but too $$$ for us.

So we drive over to Petroglyph Beach and look for the petroglyphs. There are quite a few and a lot easier to find than at Sandy Beach near Petersburg.

Then we drive to the end of the good road, where we see a No Trespassing sign that is quite detailed.

Our planned last stop today is at Shaker Island to view Tlingit totems and a clan house.

As we’re driving back to the 5ver we notice a ferry in port. So we go look to see what ferry is in port (the Columbia) and check out the gift shop that is open for the ferry. There are also several kids at the dock selling garnets. They get around $20 and up for the garnets that are imbedded in some sort of rock. We later find out that the garnets are found on land owned by a local Boy Scout troop. Only kids are allowed to dig for the garnets.

We go back to the trailer for dinner. After dinner Jere and I take a walk to the new wharf area. Our walk is cut short when it starts to rain. So we head back to trailer and call it a day.

Short Ferry Ride from Petersburg to Wrangell remains copyright of the author jengelman, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Then we park by the dock area and walk around downtown Petersburg.

We first stop at the Sons of Norway area and read about their Norwegian founder/heritage.

There are lots of fishing boats in this town.

Then we walk along the main street and do some window-shopping. Petersburg was founded by a Norwegian, so several of the stores are decorated with Norwegian artwork. Even some of the sidewalks have the Norwegian inspired designs.

All of the windows have quilts displayed, so I am thrilled to look at quilts. They apparently have quilting camp here each summer. I joke with Jere that we need to come back next summer so I can attend quilting camp. The town has dozens of quilts displayed from “Quilt Camp 2007”.

We look for a place for lunch, but the only restaurant we find in town that meets Jere & Joe’s approval is filled with cruise passengers. Petersburg gets 2-3 small cruises in here each week. The cruise boats are small, with less than a 100 tourists/boat.

So we return to the trailer for lunch and it is pouring rain. After lunch we head south for a drive. We pass several sitka pygmy black-tailed deer along the road.

They’re not bothered by our loud diesel and keep on eating when we pass. It stops raining so we get out to take a walk on a nature trail. It's through a muskeg meadow to a salmon creek. While we’re watching the salmon and fishermen at the creek, a black bear comes out to the riverbank about 50 yards downstream, so we watch the bear for awhile.

The one section of road has graffiti painted on it. The graffiti continues for around 1000 feet. I'm not sure if I've ever seen graffiti painted on blacktop.

We stop by the trailer for a snack and then drive to the other side of town and do some beach-combing at low tide.

There’s a lot of sea glass on the beach, so we gather some sea glass as a souvenir.

After walking on the beach for awhile we head down the road to Sandy Beach Park. They have very unusual picnic tables:

It’s not very sandy at Sandy Beach, but we walk out through the mud and mussels to look at some petroglyphs that are supposed to be out on the rocks. We find a few and then head back to the truck – it’s raining again.

We make one more stop (in the rain), where there's a covered viewpoint, Whale Point.

There are icebergs in the strait from the LeConte glacier, so we look at them through the binoculars for awhile. They're really pretty. Then head back to the trailer for dinner (and lots more rain!).

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