Hi All: Still in Bridgeport, CA. John and Diane Van Duesen got here yesterday from over by Fresno across the Sierra mountains. We had a couple drinks here at the motor home and then went in to town for dinner. Had a super time. Met then again this morning for breakfast at the same restaurant. Good food... We then went to the USMC Mountain Training Center up the highway a ways. Was not sure we could even get in, but the guard waved us right in. I was there for Escape and Evasion School in 1963 I think, but what I saw this time was NOT even close to what I remembered the Quonset huts etc of "Yesteryear". They must have invested Millions of dollars in that place. It was a beautiful base. It is a place they train the Marines on Mountain Warfare and how to survive in places like Afghanistan. Enjoyed seeing that place a lot.

Above is a photo of the little museum in Bodie, CA. It's a Ghost Gold Town they have tried to maintain in natural conditions. They took a lot of gold out during the late 1800's, and is now a state park. Altitude is about 9200 feet... The ranger said it was 20 degrees there this morning. Down in Bridgeport at the Motor home it was 39.. Still to cold for me to breath...


This is one of the building they have allowed to go natural without any help over the years. I think this is the Ranger Home there. Would not like to be here in the winter when it gets to 30-40 degrees below zero. No big heaters, just the wood stove like they had in the late 1800's They don't pay them enough...

Photo of Diane and Amy at the parking lot at Bodie State Park Gold Mine.

Photo Of Diane Van Deusern with her new truck at Bodie, CA. A 1929 Dodge as I remember..

Ranger at the gate to Bodie, CA Gold mine State Park. When it gets to 30 below zero I would think the beard would help some..

Van and I at the gate of the of the U. S. Marine Corps, Mountain Warfare Training Center, Pickle Meadows, CA.

I am so glad we decided to stop here and visit with Van and Diane. We had a great time with them..

Semper Fi

Don, Amy & Pharaoh

Hi All: Sorry, have not been on the Blog for a few days. Have been real busy. Stopped in Seattle for a visit with Amy's Cousin's, Joe and Judy Harrison. We had a wonderful time with them. They were so gracious and fun to be with. They took us to Pike Place Market that is the biggest and best Farmers market I have ever seen. I did get some good fruit, and some peanuts there. Amy got I'm not sure what, but It looked like a lot.????Above is the Space Needle there in Seattle. We didn't go up in it, but we did drive by it. Neat....

Here I am "Waitin' on a woman in Pike's Place Market. Not sure what the name of the shop she is in, but she was in there for about 4 hours. (Just seemed like it). I was lucky, she came out with just one small bag....hee hee.

Above is the campground we are in here in Susanville, CA. We got here today, 29 Aug. We left the Interstate highway system today and headed down the East side of California. It is beautiful along this route. Would have put more photo's on the Blog, but the Internet is real slow here. Takes about 5 minutes to load each photo on the blog. This campground is one of the nicest places we've been so far. All concrete slabs for each site. Our rig is down about two on the left. Beautiful area. Well taken care of. Susanville RV Park, in Susanville, CA. Will be leaving for Bridgeport CA in the morning to meet with a great guy I was in the USMC with. John Van Deursan. Think I misspelled his last name. Always called him Van... They are driving 3 1/2 hours away to meet us there in Bridgeport to visit with us while we are there. Looking forward to seeing him and His Wife Diane.. We will be there two nights. The last time I was in Bridgeport was at the "Escape and Evasion" school of the USMC. They beat the crap out of me then. That was back in 1962 I think....

Well, all is going great yet, and we are still having a great time. Area here is beautiful, and the temp is around 56 here today. We are at about 4300 feet elevation.... Will be going down a little going to 29 Palms.

Semper Fi.

Don, Amy & Pharaoh.

Hi All: We are now in the good ole' USA.. WE got here in Mount Vernon, WA about 1400. Trip down was interesting. We came down an 8% grade for about 8 miles. Had to go to gear 2 to keep me slow enough that I didn't have to burn up my brakes to keep me within the speed limit. Beautiful country. All mountains covered with pine trees. A lot of them have the Pine Bark Beetle damage. Sad to see a full grown Lodge Pole Pine "Brown". Dead....Coming down the hill there was an area that was covered over the road as on the picture above, making a tunnel, as shown in the yellow colored photo. It is where they have a lot of avalanche trouble, so they built the cover over the road and the snow just roles off the side of the road, and the road is saved. Pretty interesting to see that, AND drive thru it.

Me made it to the border, and it was good to see a sign saying we were going the right way.??

When we got to the border crossing they were already a line of vehicles waiting to get thru the gate. We got there at 1130 and we got thru at 1230. It was almost as bad this time as last time. Of course our line had all the RV's in it and it was the slowest, as there was only one lane for them, and about 5 lanes for everyone else. took an hour this time. Took 1 1/2 hours last time. All he asked me is when I retired from the USMC??? then we were gone in to the USA.

Above is the one lane for RV's that caused the long wait. Also, there was a entrance gate for the RV's that gave me about a foot on each side of the rig to line myself up to get in to. Had to do that from a turn also, and other cars in the way. A Customs agent was out there telling me how to line up to enter the area. It was clear to me what I had to do, but I'm sure he has found a lot of folks that need instructions....

We are now at the Mount Vernon campground in Washington State. Beautiful campground, AND the allow me to wash my motor home. Amy has been washing clothes since we got there. She says it's the cheapest laundry since Tom and Judy's where she washed clothes in Delaware. I think it is $1.25 per washer load here. We were paying $2.50 per washer load in Canada.. Not sure what Tom charged Amy to wash there???? hee hee.

We will be here tomorrow and tomorrow night, then on to the Seattle area to visit with Joe and Judy for a couple days.....

Semper Fi.

Don, Amy & Pharoah..

Hi All: Still in Clinton, BC. Started out a little cooler this morning, then progressed in to a full blown rain. We drove up town this morning and I turned to where I thought the WalMart I could see was and ended up on the big Interstate 5 going North. The way we came in. Could not get turned around for about 15 miles. The cloud that I made over my head was probably the cause for the rain...

We went to a restaurant in town the campground recommended. We both had a open faced turkey sandwich. It was huge, with french fries. Could not finish it all. The campground even gave us a coupon that got half off for the second meal. I am stuffed now. Glad we had a real good meal for our last meal in Canada..

Photo above is of Alan Jackson painted on the side of one of the buildings. Amy had to stand out in the rain to take the picture. We had planned on walking around town today, but did not want to do it in the rain. They had lots of buildings with photo's painted of Country Music folks. Lots of them must be Canadians, as I never heard of them. Nice little town...


A close up of Alan Jackson on the building. The painter didn't do to bad a job..

Here's a Mammoth tusk they had in the museum we visited. It felt and looked like it was petrified. Sure is a big tooth.

Here's our muddy Motor Home. The rain has not cleaned it up at all. Will have to load the car in the morning hoping the rain has stopped by then. Guess I could get a bucket of soapy water and clean the motor home in the rain??? NOT...

We will leave in the morning heading for Washington State. About 150 miles and we'll be back in the USA. Stopping in Mount Vernon for two days, as Amy has to do laundry. Haven't done any since we left Alaska, and running low on stuff.. Will be there for two days, then on to Seattle area for 3 days. Getting closer to getting home now...

Fires still burning up here. Not enough rain yet I guess. Saw on news the fire got to within 12 kilometers of Prince George, where we were before we got here. They are still under smoke there. Clear here except for rain clouds...

Later..

Semper Fi

Don, Amy & Pharaoh...

Hi All: We are in Merritt, BC now. Made it here with no problems in all the forest fire smoke from Clinton. It was a beautiful trip had we been able to see more of the country hidden by the smoke. Went over some large mountains and came down in to Merritt, the Country Music Capital of BC. Not sure why it is called that as there is NOTHING going on here now, However the weather is great. It got warm here and the smoke is not here at all. Got up in the 80's with a nice breeze and lots of sun. One of the best nicest days we've had in a long time.
The Photo above is of me at the diner we ate at last nite in Clinton. Pretty rustic. Just a tent next to a mobile home. The cook used a propane BBQ grill to do the cooking on, and had a buffet set up of vegetable etc. Amy had a Open face steak sandwich, and I had a Chicken fried Steak. Both were very good...


Above is a photo out our front window at the campground in Merritt. Beautiful campground, very well kept, and lots of campers....

Not sure how this will show up, but it is meant to try to show you how the smoke is filling the area all over British Columbia. Sure smelled also. So glad we are out of that at last..Radio said they had 1400 fires this year so far around here. That's unbelievable....

Here's Amy waiting on her dinner last night at the campground diner in Clinton....

We plan one more day here, then will leave for the USA. Will spend a few days around the Seattle area, and have a couple days with Joe & Judy Harrison in Seattle. Amy's cousin. Will be nice to get back to the USA..

Semper Fi

Don, Amy & Pharaoh

Hi All: It's been a couple days since I've been on the Blog. Not much to say about traveling down the road. We are now in Prince George, British Columbia. Got here yesterday and have had no real trouble on the trips. The photo shows above a little of the smoke we are contending with now. Have several forest fires Southwest of us and the wind is bringing the smoke up here. Supposed to get even worse in the days to come. We plan to leave in the morning for Clinton, BC. Not anything to do with one of our Presidents for one night, then on to Merritt, BC that is supposed to be the Country Music capitol of British Columbia?? Think it is for Canadian Country Music. Will be there for two nights.

As you can see, my travel mate is tired from all the work she has done during the day and is relaxing. She deserves the rest. Couldn't be doing this trip without all she does..

Here is what the poor Saturn looked like when we got here yesterday. I didn't ask about washing vehicles when we checked in so I started washing it when we got here. Had to wash off the cover first, then did a wash on the car. Looked pretty good while it was wet, but didn't look as good the next morning. Thought of taking it to a car wash, but decided to just clean the windows and cover it up again for our trip South. There are a few forest fires where we are heading, but they say the roads are open so far. Hope they keep the fire under control so we can get South of them... Smoke here is awful bad, and is supposed to be worse as we go South.

This is a photo of one of the Chain Saw art work they do in Chetwynd, BC every June. They are all over the city. The work and art are AWESOME. I'm sure the photo's do not lend to them as they are a work of ART. This is a Japanese Warrior he cut out of a hunk of wood.

Here are a couple works of art. AMY being one. and the other is another chain saw work of art.

This may be hard to see, but we got a big rock hit on our windshield. It is on the right side, and had it hit one inch higher it would have missed the windshield. It started out as a BIG rock chip, but is now sneaking down the window. This will require me to put a new windshield there when we get home....

Bob... Do your remember this place. We walked around in it for some time looking at all the neat stuff it had. Well, it is still here, and we spent some time in there today. I just picked up a couple things. The Surplus area is not as large as it was when we were here in 2008. Still a neat place to walk around a OGLE... Amy even found some things in there this time.

Well, that's about it for today. We are close to the Good Ole USA, and will be in Seattle area on the 25th for 3 days with a visit with Amy's cousin Joe Harrison and his wife Judy. Hope to make another trip to Pike Market. It was a grand trip last time.

Semper Fi

Don, Amy & Pharaoh.

Hi All: Another day on the road, and we are now in a campground in Pink Mountain. I am sure we cannot prove there is a Pink Mountain here today. At about 0400 this morning it started raining in Toad River, and has been raining ever since. We did not have any cell phone service yesterday so Amy could not make any camping reservations for tonight until we got to a place we had service. She called the campground here in Pink Mountain and found they only had one site and it only had electricity only. She did make the reservation though, but did call several other campgrounds all the way to Dawson Creek, 150 miles farther down the road and could not get a site that we did not have to unhook the car and dolly to get in to, SOOOO. We are here in Pink Mountain with only electricity, and 15 amp at that. We do have super WiFi though. No water. We do have a water tank half full though. No TV. WE do have DVD's. Not even any radio. WE do have CD's with music though, so we are really in good shape for tonight. Leave in the morning for Chetwynd, about 225 miles down the road. Amy did have enough Cell phone service here to make reservations there, so we will have water at least there?? hee hee.

Photo above is of a Momma Moose that crossed the road in front of us. Kinda blurry as the camera tries to focus in on the rain on the windshield....


Traveling the roads today was sure tough. At times we went over the mountains and were in the clouds. Could not see more than 50 feet in front of the Motor home. Hit one area that a sign said "Extreme Dusty Conditions" Well, the dust was still on the road, but with all the rain it was now brown mud. The motor home and car are a mess now. JoAnn said I'll be lucky if they don't charge me for taking part of Canada back to the United States. I must have 700 or 800 pounds of Canada hooked to the Motor Home now. Cannot even wash rigs in most campgrounds. Had to wait till we got to Arizona last time we were up here.

Above is a better shot of the Momma Moose and Baby after they crossed the road in front of us. they did stand there for Amy to get a shot of them thru the side window. Less rain on the side I guess. At last Amy got to see her Moose. We did also see a pasture of Bison we passed, but it was raining so bad we could not get a photo of them. They were in a fenced in area, so must be a Bison Farm...??

Hope we have a nicer day tomorrow...

Semper Fi

Don, Amy & Pharaoh.

Hi All: We got on the road again this morning and headed Kinda South again. We passed the road that went down the Cassiar Highway and the RV's were stacked up to the Alaska Highway waiting to be taken thru the forest fire area. IF they allowed it today. We left it behind and continued down the Alaska Highway.

Above is a herd of buffalo walking along the side of the highway. The messy windshield caused it to NOT turn out like Amy wanted it. I think we killed half the bugs in British Columbia on our windshield. At least we saw our first Bison on this trip.


Above is a photo Amy took of me CLEANING the bugs off the windshield so her pictures would come out better in the future. The guy with me is a guy who was traveling and resting at this rest area also. He was eating his lunch. Would not share....

Above is a Caribou along the side of the road. Amy is finally having fun, as she is seeing some wild animals. Today we have seen more than we have the whole trip so far. Think the windshield is cleaner. Amy's camera was focusing on the bugs and making her wildlife all fuzzy.

Another wild animal.. It's a Stone Sheep licking the stones along the side of the road. There were several of them, but this one paid no attention to the motor home passing it. Amy is so happy..

Another wild animal along the side of the road. Amy filled up a 2 gig chip with the animals she saw on this trip???? You wouldn't believe the people out of their rigs taking photo's of these little fellows. There is no cure for "Stupid"..

We are at a campground in "Toad River" now. There is no cell phone service here, however, we do have electricity, water and cable TV, and WiFi here at this place. We are not to far from the Generator that provides all the electricity to the restaurant, gas station and the campground. There are no overhead electric lines along the roads around here. They have to provide their own electricity. The Toad River is a beautiful river. To bad it has such a strange name. Not sure where it got it's name either.

We leave in the morning for another campground at "Pink Mountain" on the Alaska Highway. It is not near anything and I suspect it is like this campground. No Cell Phone. WE have not been able to make any reservations at campgrounds, but there appears to be few RV's on the highway now. Guess the tourist season is about over. They'll have snow in a few weeks here.

We can see some of the smoke here from the fires on Cassiar I guess. Sad to see all this beautiful forest destroyed, probably by some careless person.......

Well, not sure when I will have another Blog, as I don't know what Pink Mountain has to offer it's campers....

Semper Fi

Don, Amy & Pharaoh

Hi All: We are now in the Watson Lake, British Columbia, Canada area today. Got there at the "Luck Nugget" Campground and found that the area is covered in smoke from the forest fire that is going on down the Cassiar Highway. That is the highway we had planned on going South on. Have changed our plans now. Don't want to drive thru a Forest fire. They have not closed the highway, but they have areas that they lead you thru the smoke etc. That don't sound like a place I want to be, so we are taking another route South. It's the same route we took the last time we were here. They say the fire is expected to continue for another 10 days or so????

Photo above is from the lake at the last campground we stayed at. The lake is real low. Where I am standing is usually in the water. Alaska must have gotten all the rain and water. None down here. Causes forest fires also...


Here is one of the road killers they have up here. I've heard of 18 wheelers. These ones are 30 wheelers. They really fly also, and is the cause for most of the marks in our windshield from the last trip, and the broken out window also. Have not been hit so far this trip. When their is a gravel covered part of the highway they post a 35 MPH speed limit, and if you are on the gravel when one of these beasts are coming against you, THEY DO NOT slow down and it is like a machine gun of gravel against your rig. No wonder they don't let you bring in a gun in to Canada. hee hee.

Here is what it looks like when a vehicle is in front of you and hits the gravel spots on the highway. Not a good thing to be to close to them....

This is our site at the Lucky Nugget. Nice site. Has cable TV, WiFi for $5 a day, electric and water. No Cell Phone service, and no sewer at the site, so have to hit the Dump Station on our way out. Will be here two nights. Had planned to be here that long to rest up one day for the trip down the Cassiar Highway, but now we are continuing down the Alaska Highway and will turn South out of Dawson Creek towards Prince George, British Columbia, and then on South to Seattle. This will be about 200 miles farther than the Cassiar Highway

Wanted to buy some bread and milk at the store here, but they said they are short on supplies due to feeding the fire fighters, so they are not selling anything now. We will have to unhook the car and drive the 6 miles to Watson lake. Doubt we will do that as we have to drive thru there when we leave. I can go two days without milk I think. Will have to drink beer I guess?? hee hee.

Semper Fi

Don, Amy & Pharaoh

Hi All: We are in Tok, Alaska now and will be leaving in the morning to head toward the lower 48. The Canadian border is about 90 miles from here and we hope we don't have any problems crossing it. We heard that Pharaoh has to have a Health Certificate that is less than 30 days old. Well, we got his $45 Health Certificate before we left Florida. Have not taken him to a vet to get another one. Just hope they leave us alone...I am beginning to no like Canadians. They won't let you bring your own booze, or your own vegetables in some cases. Guess they want as much money as they can get out of us while we are travelling thru their country....We'll let ya know....
Above photo is of one of the 30 wheel trucks and trailers we have on the highways up here. It seems that whenever we come to a patch of repaired road with gravel all over it one of these devils come the other way and hit the gravel doing faster than the 35 MPH they post and throw gravel all over you. They are the ones that got my windows last time we were up here. I have covered my headlight with "Bubble Wrap" Hope the border guards don't make me take it off...


This photo is a little strange when you first look at it. Those bent poles are to help the snow plows stay on the roadway when it snows. I may not ever have thought of that as we don't have that much snow where we live. hee hee.

And some how I got two photo's of the snow plow guides. I am on the local WiFi here that I have 45 minutes to work on line. My Verizon thingy was so slow it took 7 or 8 minutes to download a photo last time I used it. This WiFi is much faster..

This is a glacier coming down out of the mountain we passed on our way here from Palmer. It was down lower than the road we were on, and is supposed to be 1000 feet thick and is one of the few that is not getting smaller each year. 10,000 years ago however it reached Palmer, about 50 miles farther back from where we came from. We didn't go down to touch this one. I'm sure it was cooler down there than it was on the hiway where we were at 50 degrees..

Stopper at one of the many pull offs along the highways up here. The mountains were beautiful and we were taking photo's of the glacier and Amy snapped this one..

Above is a photo of "Jamie Lee Curtis"???? OOPS, it's not her, it's my sweety standing in front of the glacier. I like her short hair cut. Hope she keeps it that way....

Well, not sure where we will have WiFi or even electricity after we get in to Canada. It may be a few days before I can get on line. Verizon shows there is very little service going in some of the places we plan to go now. Will keep in touch as much as possible.

Harry: I think the trees were Birch, but not sure.....They have a lot of Birch trees up here..

Semper Fi

Don, Amy & Pharaoh

Hi All: Finally got a couple photo's to load on the Blogger. It took about 6 minutes each, so the Verizon Thingy sure is slow out here in Palmer, AK. Above is one of those Musk Ox things. It weighs about 800 pounds and does not have a nice attitude so the tour guide told us. Still strange that the only thing they are good for is some real fine hair that grows next to their bodies each fall, and they comb it out each spring and make scarves etc out of it. It's supposed to be real warm, and is what keeps the Musk Ox from freezing each winter??

Above is a photo of the potato patch at the visitors center in Palmer. The do a lot of growing around here. It seems that during the great depression they decided to send a bunch of folks from Minnesota, and other cold climate places to this area to settle new communities and farm lands. Seems it must have worked, as Palmer is the biggest growing area in Alaska for veggies etc, and the stuff that grows here in their short summer. Last years largest cabbage was 127 pounds. Not sure what they would do with a cabbage that big though. The biggest carrot was 29 pounds. Not sure what to do with that either. Might be able to make lots of little ones out if it??

Above are a couple "Bald Eagles" sitting on a light pole. There are a lot of them around in Alaska. Is neat to just see them any old place.

We leave here in the morning after I do the "Dump" thing at the "Dump Station" here. We are going to Tok, AK about 280 miles North. Will be there for two nights then cross the Canadian Border from there in to Yukon, Canada. The roads at first are the worst roads on the trip. No way to go around them either...

Well, better go out and hook up the car so we can get a head start at the Dump Station in the morning before everyone gets up and wants to leave at the same time. Will be about 51 degrees in the morning. Won't be long now when we will miss this nice cool weather.

Semper Fi

Don, Amy & Pharaoh...