Time for another year in the most screwed up of all the professional sports. Major league baseball - or - should we call it the sport of the have's and the have not's returns. Tomorrow we are going up to the Trop to see the local boys, the Tampa Bay Rays take on the bullies from Boston. Yes, the Red Sox open their season here in sunny Florida. A quick look at payrolls for the two franchises (from Spotrac.com):
Boston Red Sox = $234,600,428 MLB rank #1
Tampa Bay Rays = $78,219,329 MLB rank #28
Wow - that seems fair.
Oh well, I'll complain more about payroll disparity later in the season but for today I'll just make some haphazard and random picks for the coming season.
Division Winners - NL
East - Washington Nationals
Central - Chicago Cubs
West - Los Angeles Dodgers
Wild Card 1 - New York Mets
Wild Card 2 - Arizona Diamondbacks
Divison Winners - AL
East - New York Yankees
Center - Cleveland Indians
West - Houston Astros
Wild Card 1 - Minnesota Twins
Wild Card 2 - Tampa Bay Rays
NL Pennant - Washington Nationals
AL Pennant - Cleveland Indians
World Series Champs - Cleveland Indians
Cy Young Award
Al - Corey Kluber - Indians
NL - Noah Syndergaard - Mets
MVP
Al - Mike Trout - Angels
NL - Bryce Harper - Nationals
Play Ball!
Thursday, March 29, 2018
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
We're back
Hello anybody who may have bookmarked or setup the auto email for new posts from this blog. In light of the recent Facebook data breach scandal I have decided to re-activate this page to share and document our travels and adventures. Nothing exciting going on right now but we have our 3rd annual camping trip to the Florida Keys scheduled for next month. Hope your having a great day and welcome back to dukebuaer.blogspot.com.
D
D
Saturday, November 14, 2015
From the golf course.
We live across the street from the 16th hole on the Oakland Hills golf course. We took the Princess over there for some fun and games tonight. Here are two videos from the course.
Kim and Leaya fix the trap.
Video from the 16th fairway.
These video's were shot with my Holy Stone quad copter.
Kim and Leaya fix the trap.
Video from the 16th fairway.
These video's were shot with my Holy Stone quad copter.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
A new toy
I'll be posting video's from my new quad copter on youtube and providing links here. This will take you to my youtube quad copter playlist.
These videos were all shot around my house. As I get better with the controls I'll be looking for more interesting places to film.
These videos were all shot around my house. As I get better with the controls I'll be looking for more interesting places to film.
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Half way home
Greetings from Little Rock Arkansas! We are spending a couple nights here at my mothers house before we make the final push for home. The internet is pretty fast so I thought I would get my maps caught up.
Our first day out of Santa Rosa, last Thursday, we made it to Austin, Nevada. We had two interesting stops that day, the first was at the Donner Pass rest area and the second was at an old Pony express station on Highway 50.
Day Miles - 401
Summer Miles - 12,845
On Friday we drove from Austin, Nv over to Salina, Utah. Nothing too exciting that day, just miles and miles on Highway 50, AKA, the loneliest road in America. Don't believe me - well here you go.
Day - 365
Trip - 14,638
It's been a long week to say the least. We have been here in North Little Rock for two nights and are probably going to stay one more. We will probably leave Friday morning and be back home on Saturday evening.
Our first day out of Santa Rosa, last Thursday, we made it to Austin, Nevada. We had two interesting stops that day, the first was at the Donner Pass rest area and the second was at an old Pony express station on Highway 50.
Summer Miles - 12,845
On Friday we drove from Austin, Nv over to Salina, Utah. Nothing too exciting that day, just miles and miles on Highway 50, AKA, the loneliest road in America. Don't believe me - well here you go.
There you have it, Highway 50 is the self claimed loneliest road in America.
Day miles - 369
Summer Miles - 13,214
Saturday was a short day. We only drove from Salina over to New Castle, Co. We stayed with a friend of my old neighbor Ken Hayashi. His name is Jim Kuhn and he grew up back in the triple cities area, attending Vestal high school. We got to talking to Jim and it turns out his dad lives in Rotonda West, about 5 blocks away from our house. Talk about a small world!
Day Miles - 280
Summer - 13,494
From New Castle we drove into Castle Rock where we had dinner with one of Kim's friends from her time in Colorado. Then it was due east to Limon, Co.
Day Miles - 265
Trip - 13, 759
From Limon it took two more days to get here. We stopped in Fredonia, Kansas the first night, then made it to North Little Rock on the second day.
Trip - 13, 759
From Limon it took two more days to get here. We stopped in Fredonia, Kansas the first night, then made it to North Little Rock on the second day.
Day Miles - 514
Summer - 14,273
Here's the last map for the first half (or more likely two thirds) of our tip back to Florida.
Day - 365
Trip - 14,638
It's been a long week to say the least. We have been here in North Little Rock for two nights and are probably going to stay one more. We will probably leave Friday morning and be back home on Saturday evening.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Time to head home
It's been a great trip but it's time to go home. We are headed back to Florida later this morning. We estimate about 7-10 days to get back. Thanks for following the blog, we will attempt to get some more posts up while we head across country.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
A little tundra golf in the Yukon
Greetings to anyone still following our adventures:
Todays pictures and video's are from August 5th up in the Yukon. We woke up that morning at our favorite Whitehorse campground, Pioneer RV Park. We headed east on the Alaska Highway then turned south on the road to Skagway. Our first stop was the Annie Lake Golf Course. This course is the definition of pasture golf. It literally is carved out of the tundra just west of the Klondike highway. The course costs $5 for 18 holes, on the honor system of course. No starter, no golf carts and no grass! A couple of the local rules include: Bears and Moose have the right of way, if you loose your ball down a gopher hole (in the fairway) no penalty and make sure to drag the greens when finishing the hole. The last one will make more sense if you view these pictures. Video's 1-4 show Kim in action at the course.
From Annie's Lake we headed south on the Klonidke highway. Our next stop was the Emerald Lake pull off. As the name implies this lake is a beautiful green which you can see in video six . From there we drove down to the worlds smallest desert, in Carcross. The dogs had a great time sprinting back and forth in the sand, well for a short time they did. Then they just enjoyed a nap. Finally, we headed back to the Alaska highway via Highway 8, also known as Tagish road. While driving up we saw a couple of really cool rainbows. You can see them in videos 12 and 13 via the below link.
I put all of the videos for the day in one playlist which you can find here.
I also posted some pictures from Emerald Lake and Carcross. You can find them here.
Kim and I are heading into San Francisco in an hour or so. We have tickets for the Pittsburgh Pirates vs San Francisco Giants game tonight.
Todays pictures and video's are from August 5th up in the Yukon. We woke up that morning at our favorite Whitehorse campground, Pioneer RV Park. We headed east on the Alaska Highway then turned south on the road to Skagway. Our first stop was the Annie Lake Golf Course. This course is the definition of pasture golf. It literally is carved out of the tundra just west of the Klondike highway. The course costs $5 for 18 holes, on the honor system of course. No starter, no golf carts and no grass! A couple of the local rules include: Bears and Moose have the right of way, if you loose your ball down a gopher hole (in the fairway) no penalty and make sure to drag the greens when finishing the hole. The last one will make more sense if you view these pictures. Video's 1-4 show Kim in action at the course.
From Annie's Lake we headed south on the Klonidke highway. Our next stop was the Emerald Lake pull off. As the name implies this lake is a beautiful green which you can see in video six . From there we drove down to the worlds smallest desert, in Carcross. The dogs had a great time sprinting back and forth in the sand, well for a short time they did. Then they just enjoyed a nap. Finally, we headed back to the Alaska highway via Highway 8, also known as Tagish road. While driving up we saw a couple of really cool rainbows. You can see them in videos 12 and 13 via the below link.
I put all of the videos for the day in one playlist which you can find here.
I also posted some pictures from Emerald Lake and Carcross. You can find them here.
Kim and I are heading into San Francisco in an hour or so. We have tickets for the Pittsburgh Pirates vs San Francisco Giants game tonight.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
The Whitehorse fish ladder
Stories from the road.
Now that we are back and have reliable internet the plan is to upload video and pictures then do a short post describing what you are going to see. Our first episode is from August 4th back in Whitehorse in the Yukon territory. Kim does this thing called letterboxing. Letterboxing is similar to geocaching in that you follow clues to find a hidden box. The difference it that the box contains a rubber stamp. You can read more about Letterboxing here.
We were headed out of Whitehorse towards the Damn on the Yukon river to look for one such box when we came across the local fish ladder. The purpose of this fish ladder is to allow Salmon to get past a giant damn. They have fish ladders all over Canada, this one claims to be the longest wooden fish ladder in the world! We stopped at the dam/ladder and wouldn't you know it the first Salmon of the season happened to enter the ladder right then. Of course, we have video of the event.
Here's the youtube link to 5 videos from the fish ladder.
Here's the link to some pictures we posted to Flickr.
You can view the online "Fish Cam" here. Finally, here's a link to a pdf with additional information on the Dam and fish ladder.
Now that we are back and have reliable internet the plan is to upload video and pictures then do a short post describing what you are going to see. Our first episode is from August 4th back in Whitehorse in the Yukon territory. Kim does this thing called letterboxing. Letterboxing is similar to geocaching in that you follow clues to find a hidden box. The difference it that the box contains a rubber stamp. You can read more about Letterboxing here.
We were headed out of Whitehorse towards the Damn on the Yukon river to look for one such box when we came across the local fish ladder. The purpose of this fish ladder is to allow Salmon to get past a giant damn. They have fish ladders all over Canada, this one claims to be the longest wooden fish ladder in the world! We stopped at the dam/ladder and wouldn't you know it the first Salmon of the season happened to enter the ladder right then. Of course, we have video of the event.
Here's the youtube link to 5 videos from the fish ladder.
Here's the link to some pictures we posted to Flickr.
You can view the online "Fish Cam" here. Finally, here's a link to a pdf with additional information on the Dam and fish ladder.
Monday, August 19, 2013
Dempster Highway
Here are 16 video's from our North bound drive up the Dempster Highway. Click here
And here's a link to a four minute video of a Caribou walking in front of our RV. This guy was over on the Top of the World highway.
Teklanika River Hike
I've been busy uploading video's today. During our visit to Denali we took a long hike up the Teklanika river. Here's a link to 17 video's I made that day.
Back in California!
We got back to California last Thursday. It's kind of depressing when a trip gets over so I haven't gotten my last post for this trip done until today. I did manage to get a couple more video's posted up on youtube. This link should take you to the most recent uploads.
On to the last few maps for the Alaska adventure. Last Tuesday we drove from Harrison Hot Springs to Woodburn, Oregon. We stayed at an interesting little campground right off Interstate 5 next to an outlet mall.
View Larger Map
That days' drive was 354 miles which brought our summer total to 11,861. On Wednesday, we drove from Woodburn down to Mount Shasta, Ca. We stayed at the Mount Shasta KOA campground. This was where we spent the first night three years ago, when we did our first Alaska trip.
View Larger Map
Day Miles - 331
Summer Total - 12,192
Our final day out was last Thursday. We drove from Mount Shasta here to Santa Rosa.
View Larger Map
Final Alaska trip day total - 252
Current Summer trip total - 12,444
What a trip! What fun! We are in the process of sorting through the thousands of pictures we have and hundreds of 1 minute on the road video's we shot this summer. We will continue to post pics and videos as we get organized.
We will be here in California until at least next Wednesday, then we start back for Florida.
On to the last few maps for the Alaska adventure. Last Tuesday we drove from Harrison Hot Springs to Woodburn, Oregon. We stayed at an interesting little campground right off Interstate 5 next to an outlet mall.
View Larger Map
That days' drive was 354 miles which brought our summer total to 11,861. On Wednesday, we drove from Woodburn down to Mount Shasta, Ca. We stayed at the Mount Shasta KOA campground. This was where we spent the first night three years ago, when we did our first Alaska trip.
View Larger Map
Day Miles - 331
Summer Total - 12,192
Our final day out was last Thursday. We drove from Mount Shasta here to Santa Rosa.
View Larger Map
Final Alaska trip day total - 252
Current Summer trip total - 12,444
What a trip! What fun! We are in the process of sorting through the thousands of pictures we have and hundreds of 1 minute on the road video's we shot this summer. We will continue to post pics and videos as we get organized.
We will be here in California until at least next Wednesday, then we start back for Florida.
Monday, August 12, 2013
Coming to an End
We arrived in Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia last night to a dismal climate with rain, lightening, and lots of thunder, but today proved to be a gorgeous, warm day. And as I sit here in our campsite, I'm saddened by the fact that the trip is two days from being completed. I just can't believe how fast the entire trip has gone-where in the world did seven weeks go? But then I realize that instead of being a bit sad because it's ending, I think about how lucky I am to have done this trip with Doug and especially my Mom. Not many people get to spend so much time with a parent later in their lives so I'm thrilled to have this opportunity.
Traveling tends to change people from all the experiences, but then traveling so far North to Alaska, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories really makes a tremendous impact. You learn to treasure moments each day that make you smile, laugh, or just cry because they add a little bit to your life story. One such moment was just over a week ago in Watson Lake, Yukon when we stopped at the Sign Post Forest. Back when the Alaska Highway was being built in 1942, a homesick soldier from Illinois placed a sign in Watson Lake with the name of his hometown and the distance back to that town. Little did he know what an impact his simple task would become because today over 77,000 people have placed signs in the "Forest" that have become a little part of their stories. So for the last two years, I have talked about making a sign and putting it up at the "Forest" and this year I did just that. I made a sign with all of our names on it, including the dogs, and together we put the sign up representing a little story of our lives. It was an overwhelming experience for me putting the sign up, but then I had to turn away because I was really crying when my Mom made us promise to revisit the sign in 50 years. It made me happy to have the sign there, but then I realized that maybe my Mom won't be here if we ever revisit our sign. But at least we have a sign up saying that yes we were here! Here's a picture of the sign and us posing with the sign.
Another such impact on this trip was finally making the journey all the way to Tuktoyuktuk, Northwest Territories. Our hopes were dashed during the early part of the trip when the highway to Inuvik, Northwest Territories was closed, but then when the road reopened, I knew we had a chance to fulfill a dream. And we did it in style! The plane was only a four seater so we had the plane and pilot all to ourselves both going and returning. So when the pilot spotted four beluga whales, we were able to circle back to watch them for several minutes. Then we had the tour guide to ourselves which made it seem more intimate of a tour. I even got to stop at the post office to take pictures and mail a few postcards. In fact, the tour guide got a kick out of the fact that the postcards we mailed from his little post office were going to Florida and California. And finally the real thrill of the trip was being able to wade into the Arctic Ocean and freeze our feet of course!!! But I really don't know anyone else who has traveled that far north to the Arctic Ocean and put their feet into it's icy waters. And that part of the trip is another part of our story for the rest of our lives.
There are many more other adventures we've added to our story, but I guess what I want to convey is how important it is to experience life every chance you get. We get one shot at this so we have to make it count for something. And each day we experience anything, it becomes another piece to our story. I'm happy to have added many more stories on this trip; many will never be forgotten.
Thank you for joining us on this incredible journey. It's not over; it's just another new chapter.
Traveling tends to change people from all the experiences, but then traveling so far North to Alaska, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories really makes a tremendous impact. You learn to treasure moments each day that make you smile, laugh, or just cry because they add a little bit to your life story. One such moment was just over a week ago in Watson Lake, Yukon when we stopped at the Sign Post Forest. Back when the Alaska Highway was being built in 1942, a homesick soldier from Illinois placed a sign in Watson Lake with the name of his hometown and the distance back to that town. Little did he know what an impact his simple task would become because today over 77,000 people have placed signs in the "Forest" that have become a little part of their stories. So for the last two years, I have talked about making a sign and putting it up at the "Forest" and this year I did just that. I made a sign with all of our names on it, including the dogs, and together we put the sign up representing a little story of our lives. It was an overwhelming experience for me putting the sign up, but then I had to turn away because I was really crying when my Mom made us promise to revisit the sign in 50 years. It made me happy to have the sign there, but then I realized that maybe my Mom won't be here if we ever revisit our sign. But at least we have a sign up saying that yes we were here! Here's a picture of the sign and us posing with the sign.
Another such impact on this trip was finally making the journey all the way to Tuktoyuktuk, Northwest Territories. Our hopes were dashed during the early part of the trip when the highway to Inuvik, Northwest Territories was closed, but then when the road reopened, I knew we had a chance to fulfill a dream. And we did it in style! The plane was only a four seater so we had the plane and pilot all to ourselves both going and returning. So when the pilot spotted four beluga whales, we were able to circle back to watch them for several minutes. Then we had the tour guide to ourselves which made it seem more intimate of a tour. I even got to stop at the post office to take pictures and mail a few postcards. In fact, the tour guide got a kick out of the fact that the postcards we mailed from his little post office were going to Florida and California. And finally the real thrill of the trip was being able to wade into the Arctic Ocean and freeze our feet of course!!! But I really don't know anyone else who has traveled that far north to the Arctic Ocean and put their feet into it's icy waters. And that part of the trip is another part of our story for the rest of our lives.
There are many more other adventures we've added to our story, but I guess what I want to convey is how important it is to experience life every chance you get. We get one shot at this so we have to make it count for something. And each day we experience anything, it becomes another piece to our story. I'm happy to have added many more stories on this trip; many will never be forgotten.
Thank you for joining us on this incredible journey. It's not over; it's just another new chapter.
Maps for the last week
We started last Sunday driving Whitehorse to Carcross then Teslin Junction. This short hop, just over 100 miles for the day, pushed us over 10,000 since we left Florida!
View Larger Map
Day Miles - 139
Trip Miles - 10,104
Monday we drove from Teslin to the Liard Hot Springs Provincial Park.
View Larger Map
This was almost a 300 miles day.
Day Miles - 291
Trip Miles - 10,395
We spent three nights at the hot springs then headed east to Fort Nelson. We went down for a morning soak and didn't leave until almost noon so we didn't get a lot of miles covered.
View Larger Map
Day Miles - 189
Trip Miles - 10,584
Saturday was our longest day in the RV this summer. We drove from Fort Nelson all the way to Hixon, BC. There is a little RV park there that we have stayed at twice previously so that seemed like a good goal. Naturally, it being Saturday and all, the little RV park had no vacancies. Lucky for us there was another park just down the road. It wasn't as nice but it had been a long day and we were leaving early so we called it a night.
View Larger Map
Day Miles - 545
Trip Miles - 11,129
That brings us to today. We left Hixon at about 10 am and drove here to the Harrison Hot Springs. We are spending two nights here then we head for Santa Rosa.
View Larger Map
Day Miles - 378
Trip Miles - 11,507
So there's the update. Over 11,000 miles so far! It's around 900 miles back to Santa Rosa and a couple thousand miles give or take back to Florida. We could make it to 15,000 miles this summer!
View Larger Map
Day Miles - 139
Trip Miles - 10,104
Monday we drove from Teslin to the Liard Hot Springs Provincial Park.
View Larger Map
This was almost a 300 miles day.
Day Miles - 291
Trip Miles - 10,395
We spent three nights at the hot springs then headed east to Fort Nelson. We went down for a morning soak and didn't leave until almost noon so we didn't get a lot of miles covered.
View Larger Map
Day Miles - 189
Trip Miles - 10,584
Saturday was our longest day in the RV this summer. We drove from Fort Nelson all the way to Hixon, BC. There is a little RV park there that we have stayed at twice previously so that seemed like a good goal. Naturally, it being Saturday and all, the little RV park had no vacancies. Lucky for us there was another park just down the road. It wasn't as nice but it had been a long day and we were leaving early so we called it a night.
View Larger Map
Day Miles - 545
Trip Miles - 11,129
That brings us to today. We left Hixon at about 10 am and drove here to the Harrison Hot Springs. We are spending two nights here then we head for Santa Rosa.
View Larger Map
Day Miles - 378
Trip Miles - 11,507
So there's the update. Over 11,000 miles so far! It's around 900 miles back to Santa Rosa and a couple thousand miles give or take back to Florida. We could make it to 15,000 miles this summer!
Sunday, August 11, 2013
We are back in Harrison Hot Springs
From Annie Lake we headed south to Carcross then back up to the Alaska Highway. We spent a night at Teslin Junction then drove over to the Liard Hot Springs Provincial Park. We spent three nights there, enjoying the hot springs twice a day, then headed east again. We made it from Liard to Fort Nelson on Friday. The last two days have been long days on the road. First we drove from Fort Nelson to Prince George, a little over 500 miles, on Saturday. Today we drove from Prince George down here to Harrison Hot Springs today. That was around 400 miles. We are going to spend two nights here then we are headed back to California. I hope to get caught up on my maps posted later today and tomorrow.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Cloudy day in Whitehorse
We are back in Whitehorse today. I was planning on playing some golf but it rained last night and it is cloudy this morning so not sure if that will happen.
The internet was good last night so I managed to get some more photo's posted. Fifty six additional photo's from our flight and day trip to Tuktoyaktuk can be found here. I also managed to get some pictures of Inuvik and our trip back down the Dempster highway posted. You can find those pictures here.
The drive down from Dawson City was fairly uneventful. We did see another Momma bear with two cubs but they bolted into the woods before we could get any pictures. That brings our bear count to 23 for this years trip. The last two years we had seen 30 bears each trip so it looks pretty good for breaking our viewing record this year.
The map for yesterday -
View Larger Map
Day Total - 331
Trip Total - 9,965
The internet was good last night so I managed to get some more photo's posted. Fifty six additional photo's from our flight and day trip to Tuktoyaktuk can be found here. I also managed to get some pictures of Inuvik and our trip back down the Dempster highway posted. You can find those pictures here.
The drive down from Dawson City was fairly uneventful. We did see another Momma bear with two cubs but they bolted into the woods before we could get any pictures. That brings our bear count to 23 for this years trip. The last two years we had seen 30 bears each trip so it looks pretty good for breaking our viewing record this year.
The map for yesterday -
View Larger Map
Day Total - 331
Trip Total - 9,965
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Dempster Wildlife Report Card
Grizzly Bear - Check
Brown Bear with cubs - Check
Caribou - Check
Moose - Check
Red Fox - Check
Dahl Sheep - Check
Let's see - thinking . . . thinking . . .
Oh yeah, Beluga Whales - Check
Photo's are on Flickr. Find them here.
Brown Bear with cubs - Check
Caribou - Check
Moose - Check
Red Fox - Check
Dahl Sheep - Check
Let's see - thinking . . . thinking . . .
Oh yeah, Beluga Whales - Check
Photo's are on Flickr. Find them here.
Safely off the Dempster!
We are safely back in Dawson City. On the way back down the Dempster we saw 3-4 vehicles with flat tires. What a bummer for them. We are headed to Whitehorse tonight so hopefully Kim will get a post together with details on our adventure. This morning I am going to try to get caught up on the maps for our trip. First, last Sunday we drove across the Taylor highway to Chicken, Alaska. Then on Monday we drove over the Top of the World Highway here to Dawson City.
View Larger Map
2 day total - 387 Miles
Trip Total - 8,660
From there it was off to Inuvik! Almost 500 miles each way. We stopped at Eagle Plains and spent one night during each trip.
View Larger Map
It was about 487 miles each way!
4 days of driving the Dempster - 974 Miles
Trip Total - 9,634
We saw lots of wildlife on this segment! More info and pictures next post.
View Larger Map
2 day total - 387 Miles
Trip Total - 8,660
From there it was off to Inuvik! Almost 500 miles each way. We stopped at Eagle Plains and spent one night during each trip.
View Larger Map
It was about 487 miles each way!
4 days of driving the Dempster - 974 Miles
Trip Total - 9,634
We saw lots of wildlife on this segment! More info and pictures next post.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
What an adventure!
We made it up to Tuktoyaktuk today! The weather was good, our plot was really cool and our guide gave us a great tour of the city. We took close to 1,000 pictures but I am using the public library here in Inuvik so I don't want to hog there bandwidth to badly. Instead, you can find the 10 pictures I did post here.
I have some catching up to do on the maps and I am sure Kim will want to post all the details but that will have to wait. We should be in Whitehorse by the weekend and internet is usually pretty good there hope to get caught up then.
Meanwhile, here's a map of Tuk. If you scroll down to the south on this map you can find our starting point in Inuvik.
I have some catching up to do on the maps and I am sure Kim will want to post all the details but that will have to wait. We should be in Whitehorse by the weekend and internet is usually pretty good there hope to get caught up then.
Meanwhile, here's a map of Tuk. If you scroll down to the south on this map you can find our starting point in Inuvik.
Monday, July 29, 2013
It's a Go!!!!
I'm sitting in our campground in Dawson City, Yukon after having gone over the top-of-the-world highway from Chicken, Alaska today. If you remember back several weeks ago, we came to Dawson City in hopes of traveling the Dempster Highway to Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada, but the road was washed out. And as I said before, all my Mom wanted to do this year was to travel the Dempster Highway then take a flight to a fly in village, Tuktoyuktuk, Northwest Territories where she could put her foot into the Arctic ocean. So several weeks ago it seemed as if the dream wasn't going to work out, but things have changed and for the better. As we traveled throughout Alaska, we kept an eye on the weather for this part of the world and it looked better and better each day. Then we all made the decision to try this one more time before really giving up so I'm thrilled to announce that it's a go. Yeah!!!!!!
Tomorrow morning, Monday, we leave Dawson City for the 25 mile drive to the start of the Dempster highway. Our plan is to go to about the half way mark which is Eagle Plains, a town of about 8 people, then the next day finish the highway to Inuvik. The road is all gravel with two river crossings for a total of 417 miles from start to finish. Then once we arrive in Inuvik, we'll go to the Nova hotel to make plans for a Wednesday flight to Tuktoyuktuk. The flight is roughly an hour then we travel through the town to explore for several hours and of course we get to play in the Arctic ocean. Even as I write this, I cannot believe this is finally going to happen. I guess I didn't give up in my heart so I hoped our luck would turn around. And it did!!!!!
We'll keep you posted as we get wifi which will be spotty at best. But for now just wanted to give you a brief update as to some very exciting news.
Once again, I want to thank all of you for following along on our trip as it's been a great adventure. It's always fun to share the trip with all of you. Also, please feel free to leave us comments since it's fun to know what you have to say. Don't be shy-I know you want to comment!!!!!
Tomorrow morning, Monday, we leave Dawson City for the 25 mile drive to the start of the Dempster highway. Our plan is to go to about the half way mark which is Eagle Plains, a town of about 8 people, then the next day finish the highway to Inuvik. The road is all gravel with two river crossings for a total of 417 miles from start to finish. Then once we arrive in Inuvik, we'll go to the Nova hotel to make plans for a Wednesday flight to Tuktoyuktuk. The flight is roughly an hour then we travel through the town to explore for several hours and of course we get to play in the Arctic ocean. Even as I write this, I cannot believe this is finally going to happen. I guess I didn't give up in my heart so I hoped our luck would turn around. And it did!!!!!
We'll keep you posted as we get wifi which will be spotty at best. But for now just wanted to give you a brief update as to some very exciting news.
Once again, I want to thank all of you for following along on our trip as it's been a great adventure. It's always fun to share the trip with all of you. Also, please feel free to leave us comments since it's fun to know what you have to say. Don't be shy-I know you want to comment!!!!!
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Hello from Ptarmig . . . wait how do you spell that?
Oops, we are actually in Chicken, Alaska. We read a sign last night that had interesting facts about Chicken. One of the facts was that the original settlers wanted to name the town after the local bird which "filled many pots" in this area. Unfortunately, it seems no one could spell Ptarmigan hence Chicken was born.
We intend to drive until about 7 pm tonight. That should get us at least to the Tombstone Territorial Park on the Dempster highway and perhaps North of that. Assuming the Dempster is open we will not have internet access until at least Inuvik (Which is 400 miles of dirt road North of Dawson City). Worst case, we won't have internet until we get to Whitehorse sometime towards the end of this week or beginning of next week.
A couple more interesting facts about Chicken before we head out of here. The road is closed in the winter, only about 15 hardy souls hang in here year round. The summer population "swells" to about 30 or so. There are no cell phone towers here. Kids do correspondence, no schools. Finally, and most depressingly, there is not a flush toilet to be found!
We intend to drive until about 7 pm tonight. That should get us at least to the Tombstone Territorial Park on the Dempster highway and perhaps North of that. Assuming the Dempster is open we will not have internet access until at least Inuvik (Which is 400 miles of dirt road North of Dawson City). Worst case, we won't have internet until we get to Whitehorse sometime towards the end of this week or beginning of next week.
A couple more interesting facts about Chicken before we head out of here. The road is closed in the winter, only about 15 hardy souls hang in here year round. The summer population "swells" to about 30 or so. There are no cell phone towers here. Kids do correspondence, no schools. Finally, and most depressingly, there is not a flush toilet to be found!
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