8/9-11/15 BACK IN THE U.S. OF A.

Arrived at the US Border about 8:00 AM and had to wait for others to go through ahead of us.  (We weren't the first in line!)  No problems getting thru customs. Once in the lower 48 it was amazing how the road conditions improved.  Yea!  The bouncing and shaking were all but gone.  Montana interstate system felt like we were driving on glass most of the way.

Even the animals came out and welcomed us back to the lower 48 when we crossed the border.

The drive through northern part of Montana was so pretty.  We both would like to come back here and spend some time rafting and fishing some of the rivers in this area.

We stayed just north of Yellowstone National Park at the KOA that is located along the Yellowstone River.  We took the dogs for a walk along the river bank.  When we went to bed at 10 PM we both started giggling because it was finally dark when we went to sleep.  That was the first night of "dark" we had for sleep since we left home.

We are driving about 450 miles a day on our way home.  One of the rest areas we stopped at had a beautiful view.  At one stop when I was walking the dogs, the moho door locked me out and Joe in.  Joe had to dismantle the door lock mechanism and make some adjustments.  The moho is definitely getting a shake down trip.

One of the daily chores that Joe had to do every time we moved from one campsite to another was to unhook all the connections and stow them away in the storage areas in the moho.  He was such a good sport about doing this job while I finished up washing breakfast dishes, putting things away inside the moho, and walking the dogs.  It's been a good trip, but too long of a drive to do again.

2 more nights on the road before we get to our daughter's home in Clarksville, TN. We will rest up a 2 full days in Clarksville, and then be home soon after that.  Looking forward to being home again.

8/5-8/15 YUKON & ENGINE PROBLEMS

Crossing the Yukon from Otter Falls to Watson Lake was an uneventful and not very scenic part of the trip.  We just had to get those miles behind us to get us closer to home.  We stopped in Whitehorse to pick up a few groceries, but didn't do any sightseeing going back.  As we approached the Teslin bridge, we remembered that area is heavily patrolled and made sure we weren't exceeding the speed limit.

Watson Lake is a more populated area and the lake is a popular place for fishing.

We stayed at Baby Nugget RV Village.  It was a nice stop and we were assigned a spot that actually had some trees around it.  There have been so many bugs that have sacrificed their lives for us as we drive through this part of the world.  A small church was located right behind our campsite.  I don't know the story behind it, but thought it the totem pole on the front porch was something you don't normally see next to a church.

There were some heavy patches of fog as we left Watson Lake.  This is an area that is heavily populated with bison.  As we topped a hill (in the fog), we literally ran up on a herd that was grazing along the roadside.  We are very thankful there weren't any in the road because Joe said there would have been no way he could have stopped in time.  He was only driving about 35mph due to the fog. 

The road construction just west of Muncho Lake area was worse this week than it was when we passed through this area 3 weeks ago. 

With the sun shining, Muncho Lake was like a mirror, allowing the mountains to be clearly reflected in the water.

Stone Mountain Provincial Park also had some pretty sights to behold.

The sheep in this area have been known to run right in front of your vehicle.  This one jumped in front of us and got out of the way in the nick of time.

We stayed at Triple G RV Park in Fort Nelson.  The next day we had planned on staying in Grand Prairie, but began having some engine trouble.  When Joe called the Ford Warranty people, they recommended we drive to Edmonton so the Ford Dealer there can provide warranty service.  We drove about 650 miles from Fort Nelson to Edmonton arriving at the campground near the Ford Dealership about 11PM.  Needless to say....it was a long day.  As soon as we arrived in Edmonton, the "check engine light" went out.  We still had the moho checked by a mechanic since we would be driving another 3000 miles home.  

The Ford Mechanic checked our rig out and couldn't find anything wrong.  The computer showed it had misfired 2 times in the past 10 starts.  The mechanic told us it was safe to drive, so on the road again.  We think we may have gotten some bad gas in Fort Nelson.  We've given up washing the bugs off the motorhome.  It's all we can do to keeping the windshield clean.

We drove to Lethbridge, AB, about an hour north of the border where we camped for the night.  The roads from Edmonton, AB, thru Calgary and on into Lethbridge were much smoother.  The countryside was much like the high plains of the US.  Anxious to get home and park this rig for awhile.    

8/4/15 DESTRUCTION BAY 2.0

Today's weather was what you would hope to have when traveling in Alaska and Canada.  The temps outside when we left Tok, AK was 45 degrees. We've been using the central heat in the motorhome for the past 2 weeks now every morning to take the chill off. By the time we settled into Otter Falls RV Park, east of Haines Junction in the Yukon Territory, the temperature had soared to almost 80 degrees (a heat wave in northern Canada).  We had blue skies and sunshine all day allowing us to see parts of the Wrangell- St. Elias Mountain in the US and Kluane Mountain Range in Canada that we had never seen before.  Here are some of the highlights of today's trip:

We stopped at the Tetlin Wildlife National Refuge Center in Alaska just before crossing the Canadian Border.

It wasn't long after we crossed into Canada we hit gravel roads and construction for about 50 miles.  Our speeds ranged from 5 to 50 mph on the dirt portion of the highway.  There were a lot of other RV 'rs  traveling and complaining about "the road from hell" at the rest areas along the highway- some had clogged fuel and air filters.  The only saving grace for this part of the trip was the view out the window.

Due to the permafrost and the harsh climate this section is always under construction.  The pilot cars were very efficient maneuvering the lines of traffic (usually about 4 or 5 vehicles)  from left to right around working equipment and through the construction areas.  Water trucks routinely dump water on the road to cut down on dust, but in doing so make a fine concrete covering of mud on the moho and toad.

The views continue to be spectacular.

The dust was intense and so bad it clogged the air filter on the generator set in the motorhome. We stopped in a rest area and Joe disassembled the air filter and cleaned the air filter, But we are now in need of a new air filter for the generator and we've been searching across the small towns of northern Canada for the part . We may have to wait until we get down to the lower 48 to find the filter.

We saw our first grizzly bear near Burwash Landing, Yukon Territory.  He was munching on some young tree leaves minding his business.  Our dog Shiloh started barking at him causing him to look our way. 

More spectacular scenery around Kluane Lake and Destruction Bay.

We stayed at a dumpy little campground called Otter Falls Truck Stop, east of Haines Junction, YK.  There isn't much to choose from for camping in this area, but we made the best of it.  The campground was infested with Marmots (lots of holes for the dogs to go nuts over), but after a long day with rough roads, we were ready to stop most anywhere.

Tomorrow we continue east on the Alaska Highway thru Whitehorse to Baby Nugget RV Park at Ft Nelson, British Columbia