Oregon

13 Aug     Auburn, WA to Portland, OR     158 miles

We drove to Oregon today. We're staying at the Columbia River RV Park which is located outside of Portland. They have a Good Sam rate of $30 per day. We're going to stay here for 4 nights and just take it easy. This park is pretty nice. It's big and clean but our site is located right by a busy road so it's a little noisy.  I'm having a hard time finding nice RV parks in this area. I was actually trying to find a park closer to my cousin, Jake Yamanoha. He lives in Hillsboro which is about 40 minutes away from here.



15 Aug  We've spent the last 3 days just being lazy. We've been doing some cleaning and lot's of watching TV. This evening we drove out to Jake's house in Hillsboro. We had a nice evening visiting with Jake, his wife Yvonne and their children. They have a beautiful home in a convenient location to school and Yvonne's work. We had a nice visit....Joe drank too much and we left kind of late for a Thursday night. Both Yvonne and Jake had to work in the morning.

Yvonne, Kawika, Jake

Vista House

16 Aug   Today we drove the Historic Columbia River Highway. Our first stop was the Vista House on Crown Point. Vista House has an amazing view, it's the Columbia River Gorge scenic observation point. There were a lot of clouds in the way today, so we couldn't get a clear shot of the view. This historic highway runs about 12 miles. Amazing scenery with lots of waterfalls along the way. We took our time, hiked a little, had lunch, took a lot of pictures and just had a good time. We took about 3 hours to drive the highway.

Not a clear view, but still amazing

Multnomah Falls

Having lunch at Horsetail Falls

17 Aug   Portland to Canyonville, OR     212 miles     7 hrs 10 mins
We drove south today to Canyonville. It took us over 7 hours because we stopped at Woodburn Premium Outlets for about 2 hours to do a little shopping. I could have shopped longer but Joe was in the RV watching TV waiting for me. Then we went to Costco in Salem to fill up gas. We arrived at Seven Feathers RV Resort in the late afternoon. This really is a resort.....clean, spacious sites with tables, walking trails, indoor swimming pool, hot tub, fitness center, family style restroom and showers, laundry, horseshoe pits, free wi-fi and cable TV, and a complimentary shuttle to the Casino across the street. I'm so happy with this place, we're staying here for a week. They give a Good Sam discount and if you get a players card from the Casino you get another discount. So for our 1 week stay its costing us $200.88, good deal for a place like this.

Our home for the next week

Joe cooking dinner

18 Aug - 23 Aug  This last week was very relaxing for us. We started walking everyday, only about 40 minutes every morning. Just trying to get back in the groove of exercising. We also go swimming and sit in the hot tub everyday....life is good!
Here at Seven Feathers, they have a truck center with  a tire shop. Our front tires was wearing out uneven so Joe got our tires rotated.
We cleaned and waxed the RV and the Kia. After driving the Alaska highway, both needed a good cleaning. We're not completely done but it looks a lot better.

Seven Feathers Casino

Washington

10 Aug     Bellingham to Tulalip     57 miles   1hr 10 mins
We drove to Tulalip today and we're staying at the Tulalip Resort Casino. We can stay here for free up to 7 days. They have an area for RV's for dry camping and it's pretty nice.
We drove into Seattle this afternoon and ate at Blue C Sushi located in the University Village. My sister Dana recommended this place and it was real good. We haven't had sushi in a while so we really enjoyed ourselves.

Micah & Joe in the Huskies brand new stadium

After dinner, we went to the University to watch Micah Hatchie practice. We got to go in their brand new stadium....awesome! Micah is doing well and he looks real good out there. Kind of bummed that we won't be able to see any of their games but at least we got to spend some time with him.

11 Aug   Tulalip to Auburn     81 miles   3 hrs
Today we drove out to Mark Tanga's house in Auburn, Washington. Joe and Mark worked together in the late 80's, early 90's. They were in Alpha and SSD. That's when Joe was in pretty good shape.
Mark moved to Washington about 14 years ago and doing very well. He and his wife Julia, works for the Port Authority. Mark and Julia have a beautiful home with lots of room for us to park there for a couple of nights.

Mark & Julia's backyard

12 Aug   We drove out to the Ballard Locks today.

It's a neat place to visit. The locks are like a elevator for boats. They also have a fish ladder, where you can go underground and watch the salmon struggling to swim upstream.

Then we went to Pike's Place Market. Very, very crowded but everyone needs to visit Pike's if you're in Seattle. We spent only about an hour there because we were worried about the traffic. We found the place where they throw the fish, we bought Mark his fried gizzards and fried liver, and I bought some fresh flowers. I wish I had more time to spend there. It was crowded but a very interesting place to explore and visit.                      

Was real crowded

One of the vendors

Flowers are super cheap at Pike's

Leaving Canada...Finally

07 Aug   Dawson Creek to Prince George   252 miles   5 hrs 30 mins

We left Dawson Creek this morning and headed south on Highway 97. It was pretty rainy. The drive to Prince George was real nice, very scenic and good roads to travel on. We're staying at the Walmart here in town, it's pretty nice. We took a walk around the area after we got settled. There's a lot of stores around. We ate at Fatburgers. Real good food, we enjoyed ourselves. Then we walked over to Home Depot because Joe wanted to buy some washers and try to fix our noisy door. For over 3 years now, every time we drove our RV, the door would vibrate and make all

sorts of noise. The lock wasn't working right too. Joe bought 2 washers, spent 45 cents, and that was all it took to fix our noisy door. We couldn't believe it! The door works like new. Now when we drive it's real quiet, can't believe we drove around that long with a noisy door that wouldn't lock easily.

Nice place to go swimming

 08 Aug   Prince George to Clinton   249 miles   5 hrs 25 mins

It was a real nice, scenic drive to Clinton today. I found an RV park in the milepost, Gold Trail RV Park, they advertise a 2013 special, $15 for full hook ups. When we checked in the guy said it was $20. Still a good price and the place was pretty nice.
They advertise a dinner buffet for $9.99 here. You choose your meat, pork steak $9.99, sirloin steak $10.99, salmon $12.99, and they had some others to choose from. But your meat is only 1 serving, the all you can eat was only the sides (potatoes, salads, baked beans, vegs).

Then we each had a water and 1 dessert. Our total was $36.95. I couldn't believe it...an extra $17 for 2 waters and 1 dessert. The guy that owns this place was just real sneaky about how he did things....oh well. That's why we just want to get the hell out of Canada. We should hit the US border tomorrow, kind of anxious for that.

09 Aug   Clinton to Bellingham, Washington   224 miles   7 hrs 55mins

We were pretty anxious to start today. Highway 97 turns into the Trans-Canada Highway 1. We made a stop at Hell's Gate. They have two 25 passenger air trams that takes visitors 500 feet down across the river overlooking Hell's Gate, the narrowest point on the Fraser river. There's a trail to the suspension bridge where you can view the fishways through which millions of salmon pass each year.  Hell's Gate was well named. It was by far the most difficult terrain for construction of both the highway and the railway. The cost was $21 each but well worth it.

Joe on the suspension bridge

We hit the Abottsford - Sumas border crossing at 215pm. It took us 35 minutes to cross. This was the smoothest one for us. The agent was pretty cool. We're so happy to be in Washington. Right before the border, gas was around $5.42 per gallon. As soon as you enter Washington there's a gas station, $3.81 per gallon.

We decided to camp for free at Walmart in Bellingham. We met this canadian couple there. They said they come across the border to fill gas and do their shopping. We noticed a lot of canada license plates all over Bellingham. I guess they all do the same thing.

The Alaska Highway....Again

03 Aug   Fairbanks to Destruction Bay   442 miles   12 hrs 15mins
This morning we started our journey back to the lower 48. We're going to try to whip thru Canada as fast as we can. The gas prices and RV park prices are pretty expensive so we're planning to spend some nights boondocking.
We stopped at Rika's Roadhouse which is part of Big Delta State Historical Park. There are walking paths and historical structures open to the public. We ate at the Packhouse Restaurant but it was kind of disappointing because there was not much on the menu. I had the crab & corn soup which was very good. Joe had a turkey sandwich which was nothing special.

View of pipeline from Rika's Roadhouse

Rika's Roadhouse

The end of the Alaska Highway

Our next stop was at Delta Junction, which is the end of the Alaska Highway, historical milepost 1422. From here we will work our way back to milepost 0, the start of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek.

Joe beating up a mosquito

The price of gas in Canada is real expensive so we filled gas and propane in Tok. The propane was $3.60 per gallon and gas was $4.15 per gallon. Then we filled again at Border City because that's the last gas station in Alaska, it was $4.79 per gallon.

Beautiful scenery along the way

When we crossed the border, the road turned real bad. It went on for over 20 miles so we just took our time and kept driving. We finally stopped to camp on the side of the road at 10:15pm. We have a nice view of Kluane Lake but it's pretty windy.

Boondocking at Kluane Lake

04 Aug     Destruction Bay to somewhere close to Liard Hot Springs  513 miles   16 hrs 35 mins
We got up pretty early and started driving. We got to Whitehorse at about 930am and filled gas. $1.39 per liter, around $5.35 per gallon. Later we stopped for gas again at Watson Lake, $1.45 per liter, $5.58 per gallon. Today was a very long day but we took a 2 hour lunch break, a 3 hour nap, and a couple of other short breaks. I think we were so tired because we didn't sleep too good last night.
We finally found a place to camp on the side of the road at 1030pm. We're pretty close to Liard Hot Springs, about 1 hour away.

This fox crossed right behind us

We saw some wildlife today.....

This grizzly was busy eating berries

Moose eating flowers

Nice scenery along the way

05 Aug     Close to Liard Hot Springs to around Sikanni   340 miles   12 hrs
We slept real good last night. There was another RV parked by us so felt pretty safe. Our first stop was Liard Hot Springs. Was real good to soak our achy bones, we spent about 2 hours there. It cost $5 per person to swim in the hot springs.

We drove to Fort Nelson and filled gas. $1.56 per liter, about $6.05 per gallon.

A herd of bison right alongside the road

We saw a lot of wildlife today.....

This black bear came towards us

Dall Sheep

 and more sheep

more sheep

Nice scenery along Muncho Lake

We drove to about 830pm. Was getting dark and rainy so we found a place to park. Turns out it's at the top of a big hill where truckers stop to check their brakes. So all night, trucks were stopping right alongside us. Was pretty noisy.

06 Aug   Sikanni to Dawson Creek   157 miles   4 hrs 25 mins

Fog on the road as we started our dayWe

We got an early start this morning and there was a lot of fog on the road. We stopped to eat at Shepherd's Inn. We ate here on the way to Alaska and enjoyed it so decided to eat here again. This time it was just okay.
We got to Dawson Creek around 12pm and checked into the Mile 0 RV Park. After 3 nights of boondocking, it's nice to have full hook ups. It's $40.50 with the good sam discount. We went to the Butcher's Block and bought some sausages and canadian bacon.
The car was super dirty from driving the Alaska Highway so we gave it a wash.

Our dirty, dirty car

Tomorrow we head towards the US border on highway 97. Hopefully, we'll be in Washington in the next 3-4 days.

Exploring Fairbanks

We're here in Fairbanks for the next 11 days or so....here are some hi-lights.

Huge cucumbers

July 24     Today is Joe's birthday, 52 years old!

He didn't want to do anything special today. We went to the Tanana Valley Farmers Market. We were very impressed with the huge vegetables. We bought 2 cucumbers and spicy reindeer sausage.

Josh and Miki called this morning so that made Joe's day. We're always glad to heard from the kids. Josh and Casey has set a wedding date, May 3rd.  Joe and I better start eating better and working out real soon.

Antler arch

July 25   This morning we went to the Morris Thompson Cultural Center, which is the visitors center for Fairbanks.

There were cultural and natural history films, world class exhibits, and a knowledgeable staff to answer any questions. They also have a nice walking trail.





 This evening we went to the salmon bake at Pioneer Park. Pretty good deal, for $29 you get salmon, prime rib, snow crab, and cod.  After dinner I went for a walk because I ate too much.

I took a little of everything

July 26   We got up this morning and went for a walk along the Chena river. Fairbanks has nice walking trails. Later in the day we moved over to the River's Edge RV Park. We're staying here for 2 nights at $39.55 for full hook ups. Our site is not river front but it's a very nice park.

Our campsite for the next few days

July 28     We decided to stay at this campground for the next 6 nights. We moved to a better site close to the river with 50 amp. That means it cost more $42.25 per night. We decided to splurge on this campground because after this, probably a lot of dry camping thru Canada.

    

We took a drive to North Pole, about 14 miles away. Yes, this place really exists. Spent some time at Santa's house. Neat place to visit....... Christmas all year.

Santa's reindeer

We also went to the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum. We had a 2 for 1 coupon so paid only $8 for the 2 of us. Nice museum with lots of old cars. The newest car was 1930's. They had an audio guide which was really helpful.

Joe checking it out

Otto the grizzly

July 29     We went to the University of Alaska Museum of the North. It was very good. I normally don't care for museums but I enjoyed this one. The museum is the premiere scientific and historic museum for the state's collegiate system. There were 3 different films that was pretty good. We spent about 3 hours there.









July 30     We drove out to Chena Hot Springs today. On the way, on the Steese Highway, we stopped to view the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline. 2 pigs were on display here. They are used for maintenance of pipes. This is mile 449 on the 800 mile long pipeline.

Retired pig

 Chena Hot Springs road is 56 miles long and it ends at Chena Hot Springs Resort. This resort has a natural outdoor hot springs rock lake for adults only. It also has an indoor pool and hot tubs which were kind of dirty looking. The outdoor hot springs felt good but it was a little crowded and felt a little dirty, also could smell the sulfur. We went on a renewable energy tour in the afternoon, that was interesting. They also took us to their hydroponic garden. I took some pictures and picked up some tips to get our garden going again when we come home in September.
We're spending the night here at the resort. There was some kind of internet special, so the rooms were half off, so ended up paying $102. The room was nothing fancy, if fact, maybe a little dumpy.

Lettuce

Tomatoes

July 31     We got up this morning and went for a soak in the hot springs. There was only 1 other person there and it felt a lot better than yesterday. We had a nice soak, I really enjoyed it.

Aug 1     I got up early this morning and talked Joe into going for a walk at the Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge. It's an old dairy with a farmhouse. They have nice walking trails and bird viewing. On one part of the trail we went thru a boreal forest and had plenty mosquitoes. Joe wasn't too happy going thru there. We only walked for about 40 mins.

Cranes in the field

Boardwalk to the boreal forest

This afternoon was spent on the Sternwheeler Riverboat Discovery. It's a 3 hour tour down the Chena river. There was a bush floatplane takeoff alongside the boat, saw the home and kennels of the late four-time Iditarod winner Susan Butcher and see her champion sled dogs in action, went on a guided walking tour of an Athabascan Indian village. We used another 2 for 1 coupon so this tour cost $59.95. We enjoyed this tour, had a really nice afternoon.

Athabascan parka

Different fur skins

Fishing village

 Aug 2    This is our last day in Fairbanks so we spent most of the day getting things ready. This evening we went to the Tanana Valley State Fair. We're not able to go to the big Alaska State Fair later this month in Palmer so we stayed in Fairbanks long enough to attend this fair. This is a big thing for Fairbanks but it was nothing really special, just another fair with livestock.

Tomorrow we leave Fairbanks and will drive close to the border crossing. Then we'll be driving thru Canada and then on to Washington. That means we'll be turning off our phones and communicating thru e-mail and phone calls with g-mail contacts.