(Updated with photos)
Once again, because of an unpowered campsite, I write as if I’m writing in the evening of the day in question, but in fact it’s a day later than that.
We didn’t sleep all that well in Anchorage. I’m not sure why. I don’t want to blame the trains, because there were only about […]
(Updated with photos)
We slept well in our spot overlooking where Denali ought to be. When we awoke, not only was Denali not visible, but neither were any of the mountains we’d been admiring last night. At least we could revel in our success relative to the people who were stopping by this morning.
Debbie got the […]
(Updated with photos)
I’m never sure what to do with tenses when I write a diary entry late. I’m typing this a day late, from brief notes, because we had no power when I should have written it. I’m going to write as if I was writing at the correct time.
We woke this morning to the […]
We slept in, enjoying the pleasures of a hotel room. At something past ten, we checked out, left our bags with the hotel, and returned to Pepe’s for breakfast. Debbie had pancakes and I had a huge Spanish omelette. Although we were repeating on a restaurant, we were placed in another room, so we had […]
Fortunately, yesterday exhausted us, and we got to bed really early, because we got up at 5am today to catch a plane.
Today was our trip to Barrow, the most northerly town in the USA. I had fondly imagined that our Alaska Airlines flight from Fairbanks to Barrow would be a cute but noisy propeller plane, […]
No photos today - I left my memory card in the van.
We’d left the bikes assembled and chained to our picnic table overnight, so we were soon zooming towards “Alaska’s guiltiest pleasure” according to Lonely Planet — Pioneer Park. I don’t see that it’s so guilty a pleasure. Parts of it are like a museum.
We […]
Land of the midnight sun? Land of the midday cloud, more like. It was overcast again when we got up.
The guidebook promised us good roads, but winding, from Tok to Delta Junction, the end of the Alaska Highway as originally built. Fairbanks and Delta Junction are still arguing over where it ends now. What we […]
Note: there are at least two lies in today’s diary. See if you can find them.
We’re far enough north now that there’s no night. Last night we almost forgot to go to bed. It’s actually rather problematic. We played Chrononauts. In Chrononauts, you decide who goes first by guessing what time it is. Debbie went […]
It was absolutely freezing this morning, and I found it very difficult to motivate myself to get out of the hot campsite shower. But I managed, and after a breakfast of bagel, we packed up and set off.
Even though I’ve got loads to get through, let’s go on a tangent and discuss the routine of […]
Dave, our host at Dawson Peaks, gave us a card for four cents of fuel at a place in Teslin, a couple of kilometers down the road. It seemed rude not to take him up on it.
Also in Teslin, we visited the George Johnson Museum. George Johnson was a member of the native Tlinkit […]
Putting aside any plans for an early morning hot springs bath, we awoke moderately late. We’re never awake when it’s dark, in these parts, so there’s the illusion of perpetual daylight, which gets you out of bed quite early. Still, it was 9:30 before we went to the campsite’s restaurant for breakfast. I had ham […]
Today was not a mammoth drive, for once. We didn’t even have to buy any petrol.
After our now traditional toast and peanut butter breakfast — a tradition that has to end temporarily tomorrow as we’ve run out of bread, and there are no shops — we got back on the road. Soon after leaving, we […]
So, at last, our journey on the Alaska Highway could begin. But not until we’d popped to Dawson Creek’s Walmart, to work through Debbie’s shopping list. Top of the list was a bike helmet for Debbie. You see she has a head the size of a three year old’s, and the rental helmet rattled around […]
Today was a day of driving. 644 km of driving to be precise. Or rather, to be approximate, because I got that figure from a ready reckoner in the atlas, and it won’t take into account where precisely we are, or where we started, or how we took each bend, or how much we did […]
Our first RV breakfast was buttered (peanut butter in Debbie’s case) toast and orange juice - quite a departure from the huge diner breakfasts we’re used to having on these road trips. We had our first RV showers too. It works OK, but it sure fills the grey waste water tank quickly. Our RV has […]
When I awoke, Ruth told me that Dave wasn’t well, and so we did our packing as quietly as we could in order not to wake him. We did a good job because he didn’t stir, even when we clattered around toasting ourselves bagels from the freezer.
Ruth gave us a phone number for a taxi […]
Ruth had to go to work today, like a sucker.
We had a plan: Grouse Mountain, “The Peak of Vancouver”. But first, breakfast, which we bought at Cafe Zen a few blocks from Ruth’s house. Today, as yesterday, the waitress forgot to give us cutlery, but other than that it was a good filling American style […]
I woke up at around 6am, to find that Dave had already gone to work, and Ruth was up and about. Debbie slept on, until finally Ruth’s stomach and mine led us to wake her at around 7:30.
Before we left, Dave phoned Ruth saying he’d forgotten his work shoes — he had cycled to work. […]
Nice neighbour Steve gave us a lift to the coach stop at Warwick Parkway, and this 10 minute leg, crammed in the back seat with our suitcases (Steve’s boot is filled with junior football paraphernalia) was the most uncomfortable part of the whole day’s traveling.
It was our first time getting the National Express coach to […]
It’s another North American road trip, starting on Sunday when we fly to Vancouver. After a few days staying with my sister Ruth, we’ll be picking up a rented mobile home, and setting off for Alaska. It’s a long way, but since it hardly gets dark, we’ll have plenty of time…