Home 8250 miles

We are home.  We were gone 51 days, 8250 miles, 883.656 gallons of gas....
I went back and posted photos on the last several posts where the internet was not capable of uploading photos so please, go back and reread the last 4-5 posts.
We haven't processed the trip in terms of all we saw and all the incredible experiences.  I plan to make a photo album to remember the highlights.  The album I bought will only hold 160 photos so will have to really dwell on which to print.  Maybe then I will have more of a short answer in response to what we did and experienced.
We have many memories of people, places, wildlife that will live on in our hearts.  God went before us in many ways.  We felt protected, surprised, in awe of His creation.  Many days Garnet commented about our gift of the day. 
Now, all to quickly, we will get back into our usual routine and this will be a wonderful memory.  I enjoyed sharing it with you.

Day 50 Cache Creek to Spokane 8093 miles

 

 We said goodbye to Garnet and Ken.  They headed south and we headed east.  It was sad to say goodbye after 50 days together experiencing the beauty and wonder of our amazing world. 

Our next stop was Spokane to see Mark, Amber and the kids.  Here is Hayden, Caleb, Lilly, Grace and our dog Piper.  We missed them all and was good to get greeted with all the hugs.  Garrett, Carol, my Mom and Carols Granddaughter, Ashlyn, came to Spokane to do errands and also come by Marks so we got to share our trip with them all. 

Cache Creek 7672

We are still having poor internet so no photos.
We enjoyed the bears fishing at Hyder, AK for 2 days.  There is no US customs but we went through Canadian Customs each time we returned to the RV park.  On one trip the customs agent was asking his questions to see what we are up to.  He asked how long we were in BC and our trip plans.  When we told him we were on our way home from Alaska, just traveling through he commented that we had been to "the real Alaska".  Going to Hyder doesn't count I guess.  Then we had to leave and start the trip home. 
The roads had  been poor and slow for many days so when Gary planned the itinerary he kept the miles short to account for the slow going.  Well, the road is much improved past Stewart so our trip to Smithers went quite fast.  We decided to push on and ended up on Vanderhoof, about an hour out of Prince George.  We stopped at Gitanyow and Gitwangak to see totem poles.  Beautifully carved old poles.  The sign said they aren't of religious importance but rather showing artistic skills of the carver while carving images relating to his/her family.  Even saw a black bear crossing the road ahead of us.
Day 48 we drove from Vanderhoof to Quesnel.  We had been there before, the town with the painted fire hydrants.  This time we had promised ourselves to take in Barkerville, a 1860's mining town.  They had interpreters in costume telling us of their period.  Very interesting, they put on a stage play and also interacted in the street.  A great wildlife day, helps to get off the main road.  We saw a deer, hadn't seen them for some time, it is too cold in Alaska.  Also saw 2 coyotes crossing the road in front of us and 5 black bears.  All of these animals were quite close.  The mountains are getting shorter, more rolling hills covered in trees.  Lots of farmland and hay fields.
Day 49 on to Cache Creek.  7672 miles
We saw a deer this morning.  Took a side trip to see Prism Canyon, pretty canyon.  Stopped for lunch at another old mining town.  This is our last day together with Ken and Garnet.  Tomorrow we head east and they head south.  This is a bitter/sweet feeling.  We are in the traveling routine but all good things  must come to an end.  More wrap up when we get better internet.

Totems at Gitanyow. 

 Barkerville, a 1860 mining town.  These interpreters explained what the town and life was like in 1860.

We enjoyed a musical where these actors portrayed their lives and that of Capt. Jack Crawford.  They played the roles of real life people. 

A street scene.  Very entertaining.

 Chasm Canyon.  Beautiful colors in the layers of rock.

Stewart/Hyder

We have been driving the Cassiar Highway from Watson Lake south.  This is the 3rd park in a row that has said no uploading of photos, Skype etc.  They have given a reason, something about the internet providers shutting down sites when there is too much use (pigs) they are called.  Life in rural BC.
The road from Cassier highway to here is called the Glacier Road for good reason.  We saw many on the road in.  Yesterday we drove up to Salmon Glacier, the largest glacier accessable by road in north America.  I drove 16 miles on gravel road.  We would have complained had this been the highway but because we were sightseeing it was OK.  Gary and Ken would have turned around about mile 10 but I was driving and I wanted to get this view of the glacier.  We drove up an old mining road and ended up higher than the glacier, looking down on it.  It is huge and a gorgeous overlook. 
The other reason to come here is that when the salmon are spawning on Fish Creek the bears are there feasting, fattening up for the winter.  The people are on a platform above the creek looking down on the activity.  It is truly amazing.  We have seen a black bear with her cub, several grizzly's.  Seeing them catch a fish and eat it in real life is amazing.  Poor fish however.  The best times for watching are 6-9 AM and 6-10 PM.  Yesterday we were there after 6 pm.  Went back at 7:00 AM when we saw so many bears.  I cant believe the fish know to be frightened of the bears.  When the bear walks in the creek the fish scatter.  It is really shallow so they make lots of splashes.
 Stewert is in BC and Hyder is in Alaska.  The towns are side by side.  Stewart has businesses and seems to have lots going on though the population is around 3-400.  Hyder is considered by some to be a ghost town.  We had a nice chat with the General Store owner.  We said it didn't seem ghostly but his response was that we should be here in the winter when they get 40 feet of snow.  Yikes.
Well, hopefully this will save and publish.  More when we have better internet, maybe home!
These photos are not any any order, they ended up scrambled...

Salmon Glacier, it was huge and awesome to see it from this vantage point.  As I said, well worth the drive.

Toe of the glacier and resulting lake.

Bears, bears and more bears.  Fun to see this sow and her cub. 

The mom got frightened of a grizzly down  stream.  She sent the cut up a tree.

The night before the glaciers and bears we camped  at a RV park near the town of Iskut, Shadow Mountain resort.  We were in the shadow of the mountain and on this beautiful lake.

Traffic jam at the gas "station". This is a small town with only 1 open gas station.  There were RV's lined up in both directions for 1 gas pump and 1 diesel  pump.  The only attendant was also the waitress in the restaurant.  Once you pumped you went inside, told the attendant how many liters you pumped and she figured out your bill.  We had made it through, Gary is returning to the truck.

Ken and Garnet are waiting for the attendant to help them.  Quite a place, but when you need gas you wait.

Hyder, AK calls themselves the friendly ghost town.  Here is an example  why they have the title.

Bear Glacier, which flows to Bear River on the road to Stewart.

Here is the boardwalk where we viewed the bears in Fish Creek.  This keeps the humans in the cage and the bears in the wild.

 Good catch.

I like her expression.  This grizzly got in trouble in Hyder last year and was relocated.  She found her way back for the salmon to fatten up on this year.  The bears are gaining weight fast getting ready for winter.

Watson Lake

No photos today.  We are in a RV park that says they will fine us $50 if we upload photos.  Takes too much band width and internet is expensive.
We drove mostly east today.  There was a point on the Kenai peninsula where we were as far west as Hawaii so it is taking us some driving to get back to north of Washington.
We took a little side trip today to Carcross.  It is an old mining town.  The stampeders would come by ship to Skagway or Haines.  They would climb the mountains on either the Chilkoot or White Pass trails ending up in Carcross.  From there they would go up Bennett Lake by boat to Whitehorse and on to the Klondike.  That is at Dawson City on the Klondike River.  An arduous journey.
The road is better now than a few days ago.  When we crossed this road on the way north we complained about the bumps.  Now they don't seem so bad after having been on some really rough road. 
Tomorrow we will start down the Cassier Highway.  That will be new road for us.  We are told it is beautiful and we will be in the coastal mountains.
Today Gary and I saw a black bear along the road.  It all happened so fast (60 MPH) we weren't even able to radio Garnet and Ken.  At least we finally saw another bear.  We have been looking for days.

Emerald Lake.  What beautiful scenery on the way to Carcross.

Would you believe they have a desert near Carcross?  Well, actually it isn't a desert but sand dunes from the wind blowing across the lake.

A very interesting and quaint town.  There was both gold mining history and culture from the first nations.  These were the first totems I have seen with the beautiful carving added on the top.

WE were looking for cinnamon rolls.  As were were lamenting to eachother about the lack of them at the bakery near the parking lot a local overheard our conversation.  He told us where to fine the best bakery and rolls.  Here we are eating outside with the rhubarb.  The "sticky buns" were the best of the trip.

Whitehorse 6055 Day 42 (6 weeks)

We spent the day enjoying Whitehorse  This suspension foot bridge is over the Yukon River.  Before a dam was built there were rapids here that were quite troublesome to the stampeders heading to the Klondike.  Beautiful Miles Canyon.

 Gary and Ken went golfing.  Garnet and I went grocery shopping.  This is a building on the golf course,  Gary and Ken were with a red fox for part of their morning.  They enjoyed watching it.

We crossed the bridge in Whitehorse.  The town on the other side is called Riverdale.  Loved this bicycle sculpture in the front yard of a bicycle loving family.

This retired airplane is a weathervane.  As I was taking the photo it shifted a bit and I got a better angle.  It was a military plane, then passenger plane until it blew an engine, then became quite an attraction.

Whitehorse, YT

Yesterday as we were taking our time getting ready to travel the 100 miles from Haines Jct to Whitehorse our neighboring RV traveler noticed we had a ruined tire on the trailer.  Gary put on the spare and we stopped at a tire shop here.  While we were getting new tires a rig from Idaho and 1 from Montana came in for the same tire.  Turns out chip seal, the road surface, is hard on trailer tires.  These guys are experts at changing tires and we were on the road in 1/2 hour.  Met up with Ken and Garnet at the RV park.  We decided to stay here another day.  The guys are golfing this morning and Garnet and I went to the grocery store and from the photo, you can see Starbucks in the background.  We are enjoying chai tea and using their internet.  This was the home of Robert Service who wrote  The Cremation of Sam McGee.  The sculpture is in memory of that.  This is an old town, 27,000 pop. so has lots of shops and RV repair shops.  We found a wonderful quilt shop here, could have stayed there all afternoon, also a great helpful visitors center.  We drove past Whitehorse on the way north on the bypass at 50 mph and missed the whole town.  God has blessed this trip in many ways and this tire experience is just the last example of his graciousness.

Haines

We left the rigs at Haines Jct. RV park and drove the pickup to Haines.  It is about 300 miles round trip.  These first 2 photos are scenery on the way down.  These mountains amaze me every day.

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 Here is a fish wheel.  The native people catch salmon this way.  The wheel is powered by the river current.  It scoops up the fish though there were no fish in it when we watched.

There were several totem poles around town.  

 This is the weekend of the Southeast Alaska State Fair.  We enjoyed the atmosphere. 

Gary and I took a hike to Battery point on Lynn Canal.  As with the roads we have traveled, the path started out easy and paves with crushed rock.

 Look what happened part way there.  A woman coming back out the trail gave me her walking stick.  It was helpful in the mud and crossing the creeks where there were rocks to hop across.

 The view from the end of the trail.  We sat on the beach a few minutes and then returned to the truck.  Garnet and Ken chose to site see in town.

Chilkoot Lake.  We drove ;up here hoping to see bear fishing in the river between the lake and the sound.  No bears were hungry when we were there.  Once again beautiful scenery.

Here is sunset at 10:30 pm on the way back.  See the bugs on the windshield?  Great Day