Finally on the Road to Alaska

We left Washington State Saturday June 7th after spending about 10 days visiting friends and family.  We headed north to the Sumas WA border crossing.  Our destination for the first night was Kamloops BC...about 250 miles.  The first part of this drive was familiar to us.  We had traveled to the Hope BC in 2011 before we retired.  the Hope area is also where we started geocaching in 2011.

We stopped at the visitor center in Hope to pick up some brochures on British Columbia.  It's nice little visitor center and museum.  We logged a geocache while there.  They have it inside the center...you just ask for it.  We received a Hope BC pennant for finding the cache.

The scenery in the Hope BC area is stunning.  I'm going to put a link to the right of the blog that shows the pictures and activities from our previous trip.

On the drive to Kamloops BC there are mountains everywhere. We spent the night at an RV park next to a wildlife center.  We didn't take the tour, but we did find a couple of geocaches within walking distance and the weather was nice enough to sit outside with a drink.

Curlew Lake State Park - Republic WA

Our first stop after we left the Yakima area was Curlew Lake State park where we spent 7 nights. The state park is north of Republic WA in north central Washington.  It was a beautiful drive through the northern hills. We could definitely tell we were back in Washington as we had several thunderstorms and downpours at the Lake. 

We drove 60 miles one day to Oroville, WA so we could play “Cow Pasture Pool “.  The drive to Oroville took us through Tonasket WA.   We came across the U. S. Armed Forces Legacy Project on Hwy 97 in the town of Tonasket.  The brochure calls it " A tribute to America's past, present and future veterans nationwide."  In addition to the outdoor displays, there is a building with a service office for veterans and their families and a military library for all to use.  For more info go to www.veteranlegacyproject.org   Randy has a friend that used to live there and we wanted to find out if he still did.   We found his name on the wall outside, but we were unable to locate him.  There were also paintings on the back of each section of wall.  It was just a small area but it was interesting.  

In town of Republic, which is about 6 miles from the State Park, is the Stonerose Interpretive Center.  Stonerose is the name of the fossil site where impressions of plants, insects and fish can be found.  The city of Republic is on part of an ancient lake bed.  You can see examples of local fossils at the interpretive center.   

For an admission prices of $5-$10 you can go to the site and look for fossils.  We paid $5.00 apiece (Senior rates) and $5.00 for tools and went to the archeology site to look for fossils.  Surprisingly the site is just a couple of blocks from the center and right in town.  The city periodically uses a front end loader to bring more of the rocks down.   

 We found and brought back 6 specimens from the site. The kid at the interpretive center was very smart and helped us catalog the finds The fossils we found we from the Ecocene Era about 50 million years old. We found a couple of different Leaves, a small wasp and the wing from a small insect. This was a pretty cool way to spend the day and learn a little about fossils and geology.

Winter 2013-2014 in Apache Junction

Oct 2013 through April 2014

After 15,000 miles 21 states and 5 Canadian Provinces we arrived in our winter home in Apache Junction, AZ.  It was a much warmer winter this year compared to last year. through Peggy’s Mom flew down and spent the entire winter and stayed in our brand New 5^th wheel as we resided in our Park Model. Enjoyed time by the pool, park parties, geocaching adventures and events. Randy had some health issues and had to have a Carotid Endocardia done just about 2 weeks before we left for the summer.

We hit the road on April 8^th with mother in law in tow as we are taking her back home to Yakima area along with Coee her cute little Shitzu. Our first stop was Las Vegas where we spent 2 days, left there $600 richer.

We decided to follow the Extraterrestrial Highway to pick up some alien geocaches and yes we stopped in Rachel NV near Area 51 and the Little Al’e’inn on our way to Tonopah, NV where we spent one night in a dirt parking lot with several other RV’s. There is a lack of RV parks in this little town or at least ones I would want to stay at. We had dinner and gambled a bit in a small restaurant next to our boondocking space for the night. Decided I would donate to the local economy and lost about $150.00. 

Next morning we drove on to Reno, NV where we stayed at a nice KOA campground about 6 miles from downtown. We went into town after we setup and it just happened to be the Reno Marathon so we watched a few people cross the finish line and then in to eat and donate some more to the economy.

We took off from Reno and went up through Susanville, CA up through Klamath Falls, OR then onto La Pine Oregon where we spent the night. Next morning we hit the road and actually drove the rest of the way to Cowiche, WA to my mother-in-law's place. Nice that she has full hookups. We spent 3 weeks at her place so we could clean, organize and get her place ready for sale and as it turns out she had an offer on her place just 2 days before Peggy and I left to start our 2014 summer time journey to Alaska.

Historic Route 66 - Day Four

Today was a short sight-seeing day.  Just a few miles from where we are staying is Route 66 State Park.  The park it self is mainly hiking and biking trails with picnic areas, but it has a somewhat troubling history...it also has an excellent Visitor Center on Route 66.

We spent some time chatting with the woman at the desk.  Not only did she give us some great brochures, but she told us specifically what to watch for and what not to miss.  What she gave us also covers the tiny bit of Kansas and part of Oklahoma.

They one of the best museums I've seen.  They have been loaned hundreds of Route 66 artifacts... photos, menus, room keys.  They also have terrific original signs.

Historic Route 66 - Day Three

Day three of our travels on route 66 didn't involve a lot of driving.  We are staying at a KOA about 30 minutes west of St. Louis and we are staying on Route 66.  It's a great place to stay and it's nice to be able to go back into the city without the trailer attached. 

 

Historic Route 66 is and was sort of a profusion of "optional", "city" and "truck" routes in St. Louis.  Other areas are areas that even the EZ Guide book says should be skipped. 

We went to see the Arch on a Sunday.  If we have to do any city traveling we seem to find Sundays a day to do it when there isn't much daily work traffic.  Sure there are more people out and about, but this time of year it isn't too bad.  Randy bought a combo ticket for us to go to the top of the Arch and to take a paddleboat cruise on the
Mississippi River.


The Arch is beautiful...it makes you wonder...how does it stay up and how did they do that?  Technically the Arch and surrounding area is the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.  Inside one of the legs of the Arch contains the Visitor Center, Museum of Western Expansion, Gift Shop and access to the towers.

We took the trip up to the top....the ride up there is the real experience.  You climb into a little "pod" with a 4 ft high door and seats for 5....make that small seats for 5.  You have to scrunch up and bend your head.  The ride up takes 4 minutes...the ride down takes 3.  There's a lot of stairs to climb...both before and after you get out of the pod.  You can stay up on top as long as you like. 

After our Arch experience, we walked across the street to get the on the paddle boat "Tom Sawyer" for our river tour.  We decided there really isn't much to see along the river in St. Louis...but there is so much they could do with it.  The weather was very nice and it was a nice cruise.

We drove over the Edward Jones stadium.  Randy wanted to get is picture taken with the Seahawks flag in front of the stadium, but there was nothing on the outside of the stadium to even show that the Rams play there, so we just scrapped that idea.

Our next goal was to get Historic 66 and find Ted Drewes Frozen Custard.  We found it and tried our first "Concretes".  Very good.... It's a very busy place with walk up service only.  They have several benches along the street so you can sit outside and enjoy your frozen custard.

When we left there we were going to find another one of the "giants" that Route 66 is famous for.  Apparently, the giant farmer and son have been removed.  We found the spot and there was nothing there.

Historic Route 66 Day Two...

Day 2 of our Route 66 journey started early. 

Randy had to try to get us out of the campsite where we had spent the night.  He did a great job of maneuvering and backing into a jackknife position to get us out of there. 

We headed into Pontiac IL to continue where we had left off....

We managed to find a spot to park the truck and trailer.  Nothing was open yet in town, but we had a geocache we wanted to find.  As we were trying to pinpoint the cache an older gentleman walked over to cross the street near us.  He started chatting...found out we were tourists and gave us a ton of information on Pontiac...about the murals, museums and even the Farmer's Market two streets over.

Pontiac was a fun place to visit.  We had spotted murals painted on the outside of some of the buildings. So we followed the walking footprints on the sidewalk to find them.

The 19 murals were all painted in one weekend as part of the Walldog Summer Bash in 2009.  It was a lot of fun to wander around a few blocks and see all the wonderful art work.

We also "toured" Bob's bus and the Route 66 Visitor's Center.  Talked to several people about the highway, the town and where we were going.

We found the Farmer's Market and there were lots of fresh veggies and baked goods.  I also saw some very interesting jams and jellies...from the usual apple butter, peach butter, and cranapple to beer jam and bacon jam.  I sampled the bacon jam and it certainly was different.

Further a few miles down the road is the town of Lexington IL....just north of Lexington is a section of the old highway you can drive on or walk on.  It's called Memory Lane....we were told the gate might be closed for driving, but you could walk...it would be about a mile.  The gate was open, but we decided we didn't want to take a chance on what we might find with the trailer on.  I ended up walking the highway and Randy drove ahead and found a place to park with the trailer.  It was nothing spectacular for scenery...only a couple of billboards and a couple of recreated Burma Shave signs. But I can say I walked part of Route 66.

The town of Atlanta IL has a small park with signs depicting varies aspects of Route 66.  There is an interactive display where you can push the button and listen to a man tell about his travel in the army and his return to Atlanta. 

Atlanta is known for it's water tower with the "Smiley Face" painted on it.  Atlanta also has one of the "Giants" that Route 66 is famous for....The Bunyon Giant...the giant hot dog was added later.




We ended our day in St. Louis MO...a total of 238 miles from where we started in Pontiac IL.

Historic Route 66 - Day One....

Day One – Route 66 - 60 Miles

  

We started the trip on Route 66 with a stop at the Visitor’s Center in Joliet Il.  When we decide we want to stop somewhere we always have to think…can we get the trailer in and out or parked?  We found on street parking about ½ block away from the Visitors Center…we had to feed 2 parking meters.

The bldg. also contains a museum for the city of Joliet.  We didn’t pay to see that, however we did get a little peek when she let us go upstairs to the bathroomJ  They have some cool Rt 66 stuff in the lobby area including a mural “map” on the wall of the 8 states the highway went through.  This mural was created by the author of the mile by mile guide we are following…EZ 66 Guide by Jerry McClanahan.  

We grabbed a couple brochures and a map and spent a few minutes talking to Elaine at the desk in the gift shop.  She gave us a couple of photocopies of a map that had some recommendations tagged on them.  She also gave some personal choices she liked…good places to eat and some things not to miss.  She had an album of photos that she had taken when she traveled the route.  She also pointed us the right direction to head out of town and assured us we wouldn’t be in traffic for long.

We know there are things we may not be able to stop to see…we just can’t take the trailer everywhere.  But we did pretty good….

Gemini Giant – at the Launching Pad restaurant (restaurant was closed). 

No place to park at the Polka Dot Inn…I just had to settle for a quick drive by photo.

Dwight Il – spent some time chatting with the guy at Ambler’s/Beckers Texaco.  This is a visitor’s center.  There were some great things on display.  He gave us route 66 pins and also a tootsie pop.  Mr. Becker who owned the station for years used to give tootsie pops to all the kids (sometimes parents too) that stopped by.  He told how to find the Frank Lloyd Wright designed bank building in town.  We went across the street to have lunch at the Old Route 66 Family Restaurant.  The food was pretty good.

Odell – We found the 1932 Standard Oil Station.  Nice restoration.  The items in the garage bays reminded me of things my dad used to have in his auto repair shop.  Grabbed a geocache while we were there.   

 

Pontiac IL– Stopped at the North Creek Bridge to check out the original Hwy 4 bridge marker painted on the concrete bridge rail.  Took a few pictures and tried to find a geocache.  Not easy to poke around on a bridge these days.  Too many people and you look really suspicious.

Day one covered only about 60 miles of Route 66.  We decided to spend the in Pontiac – rest will wait until the next day to do our sightseeing. 

 Our main goal now was to find a place to park for the night.  Our day had started early in Elkhart IN so by mid afternoon we were tired.  There really aren’t many places.  We have a list of campgrounds along the route…but not many.  Randy found a campground online while I was taking photos.  We plugged the address into the gps and headed out.  We never quite know where our “Little Miss GPS” is going to take us.  This time it was about 17 miles sort of the opposite direction.  We made several turns…all the roads were narrow and through miles and miles of corn fields…and then we were on gravel…all the while are GPS is telling us to proceed with caution…as you turn off the “main road” onto what seems to be a long driveway you start to wonder what you got yourself into and how are you going to get out of it.  We eventually saw some RV’s…When we finally found someone to help us, Randy went with him to check out the site (we had already paid for). 

When a park advertises that they have 150 sites you would think this time of year you would be able to get something easy to park in…We drove down a hill and under a canopy of trees…rough ground…and no other road out.  Randy’s challenge in the morning will be to see if he can make a tight U- turn or perhaps try the infamous “Y” turn with a 36’ trailer attached.  Thankfully it didn’t rain, because it looks like it would be really ugly.  I’ll let you know what happens……..