North to Alaska » Uncategorized

In the end

Judy — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 12:18:16 +0000

I’ve been meaning to write this one, last post for .. well, weeks. We’ve been home for 5 weeks, it’s now Spring and we’re already thinking about where we’ll travel to next (probably a camping trip to South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland in January 2015, in case you’re wondering).
Just a few stats that I found interesting – in 63 days, we visited 12 American states and 3 Canadian provinces. We camped a total of 37 nights, including 11 nights of ‘boondocking’ (free-camping). We stayed in motels for 20 nights, spent 3 nights on the ferry from Bellingham to Skagway and a couple of nights staying with friends.
We visited more Walmarts than I care to count, didn’t put any money through slot machines at Vegas and only ate out in cafes and restaurants a few times. The rest of the time we self-catered.
We discarded A LOT of stuff on the last day in LA, but when we got to the airport we still had to throw out another 8kg of stuff. Yikes!
Since we’ve been home we’ve talked a lot about our trip, of course, but especially about Alaska and Utah. I think for both of us they were the stand-out highlights. We hadn’t even thought much about spending time in Utah before we left, but the week we spent in and around the South-Eastern national parks was great.
As always, thanks for travelling and singing along with us. It’s been fun.

Thunderstorms

greg — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 23:03:53 +0000

Thunderstorms rule our day. We are learning by experience about the strange summer weather in the USA. We have had thunderstorms every day for the last two weeks. Some days its just lightening and dark clouds in the distance, while on other days its very up close and violent. We hid in the car twice in the night during a very close thunderstorm in Sundance Wyoming. We have had thunderstorm warnings on the radio in Nebraska. A few nights ago north of Canyonlands National Park we had a thunderstorm that nearly ripped the tent from the ground despite many guys and all our pegs. It poured with rain, and we had thunder and lightening blasting above us, while almost washing another tent in the campsite away. Yet earlier in the day it was all blue sky and sun. An hour after the thunderstorm it was blue sky again.

In Escalante yesterday it was again a 15 minute violent thunderstorm pouring with rain (although not much wind this time), and again an hour later it was all over and blue sky again.

We look at campsites now differently, looking for the slightest sign that a small depression will turn into a raging torrent during a thunderstorm. We guy the tent every day, because we just don’t get much warning when a thunderstorm starts.

The warning signs are around. In Capitol Reef National Park there were warnings everywhere about the dangers of flash flooding during thunderstorms. In Bryce Canyon National Park every lookout has a warning about staying in your car during a thunderstorm. In this national park in the last 19 years 3 people have died from lightening strikes and 10 people have been injured.

Arches and Canyonland National Parks Utah

greg — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 02:29:59 +0000

Windows – Arches National Park Utah

Camped for 2 nights at Sand Flats recreation area Moab Utah

We are in desert now, Cactus plants near camp

Arches National Park

Landscape arch so thin and close to collapse

Double D arches in Northern Arches National Park

Private Arch

Canyonlands the view from Green River overlook

Canyonland National Park

Remember this one?

Judy — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 00:08:34 +0000

We are in Prince George for a couple of days – more about that later – and as we were driving around town I noticed a sign on Hwy 16, and it reminded me of this song from the mid-’70s