Cache Creek to Quesnel

l planned a much shorter driving day for today, and boy and I glad I did.  I learned a lesson yesterday -- stop and see what's there.  Read before you go, not after (duh). Remember that this is once in a lifetime. Yesterday I fairly flew through the Fraser River canyon and didn't stop to see anything, but when I read about it this morning, I realized what I had missed. I WON'T let that happen again.

One of the main attractions today was the town of Hundred Mile House. This road that I'm taking is the route of the Cariboo Gold Rush of 1858. When gold was discovered in the wilds of British Columbia, thousands of men (and women too, I suppose) rushed from California and Oregon to the wilds of BC.  The Cariboo trail was the route to the gold near Barkersville, and many of the towns along the way were supply stops for the miners. Apparently there wasn't much gold, but many of the towns have survived, supported by tourism, the logging business, ranching, and agriculture.

All day yesterday and today I saw roadside signs for fresh fruit and vegetables, and kept looking (and hoping) but these were left over from last year. Since I had to leave my apples at Sumas, and I forgot my pears at Carrie's in Seattle (I hope you and the boys enjoy them, Carrie!!) I've been wanting some fruit.

 Back to Hundred Mile House -- I stopped at the visitor center there (they had free wireless, so I did a check in on Face book) and had a lovely chat with the person manning the desk. She was incredibly helpful and informative, and as a result, I drove a few  blocks to Centennial Park. There is a trail along the river that goes to a waterfall that is just spectacular.

There are benches strategically placed along the path -- one caught my eye. I'm not sure if you can read it, but the sign on the left says "In memory of my first love...." and the one on the right says "In memory of my last love...."  I thought this was a very touching tribute to a woman's two husbands.

At last I came to the falls -- along with being very beautiful, they were very loud!!

On the way back, I saw this shrub growing almost in the water, and loved the red branches against the water and the green leaves.

There was one more sight today that was the first of what I'm sure will be many along the way!!

This afternoon I had a lovely time with a shop owner that I have been corresponding with a little on facebook -- we sat on the front porch of her shop and talked for quite a while and tonight I'm camped on Dragon Lake -- what a name!!  --  in Quesnell BC. Tomorrow -- who knows?  I just know that I'll be reading about it in the morning, or before I turn out the light tonight so I can be prepared!!

Canada

After a delightful weekend in Seattle, a weekend of baseball, T-ball, soccer, bicycles and lots of time with grandchildren (and their parents!), it was time to get back on the road. I finally made it into Canada, avoiding the collapsed bridge on I-5 and the associated detour by taking the much more picturesque Route 9.  I'd been on parts of it before, but most of this route was new to me, and so very pretty. I sure got my green fix!!

Owen in the outfield.

George as catcher.

Owen playing soccer and Ted refereeing.

Ballard Market

Harry Potter wizard chess -- Owen and Dad.

Crossing the border at Sumas was really easy -- it only took about 10 minutes, but I had to get rid of my apples.  I forgot that I had them in the car until I stopped for lunch before the border and saw them there. I managed to eat one before the border, but the other two had to go.  Oh well.

Crossing the border at Sumas

The afternoon was perfect for a drive along the Fraser river, through Hell's Canyon (but no photos -- couldn't find a place to pull over and take one) and finally to the evening's destination -- Cache Creek BC.   I did manage some photos earlier in the drive, before the Hell's Canyon area, and it was so restful to stop and spend a few minutes just drinking in the beauty of this place.

Along the Fraser River

For some reason, I am having trouble uploading photos, so I'm going to publish this and hopefully I'll have a better wireless connection in a day or two, then I'll do an edit and add the photos.  But for now, it's time to close and see if I can get this published....

First night campsite -- Brookside Campground, Cache Creek BC

Moab

 Several years ago I drove to Seattle and passed through Moab, Utah. At the time, I wanted to stop and have a look around, but had a schedule to keep, so I decided to save it for another time. This week was that time. Again, I had a schedule to keep, but I had planned a whole day in Moab.  Turns out, I'm going to have to go back to see more -- one day was not enough time.  It was as enchanting as I thought it might be.

 My first campsite was in a Park Service campground right along the Colorado River. Imagine cliffs towering on both sides of the camp, and the river flowing by. I couldn't actually see the river from the site I was camped in, but I could hear it. The birds were out in full force, singing every evening and morning.









A little way down the road from the campground was a pulloff from which I could see where the Colorado River flowed between sets of cliffs.  Trying to imagine how that formed just boggled my mind.  
 

Three Gossips and Courthouse Rock

There is a drive that goes all round the park, with pullouts at many strategic and scenic points, and I took that drive --- very slowly.  I even had to keep pulling over to let cars pass me by so I could go as slow as I wanted to!  But oh, the views, and the rock formations... they were quite amazing.


 








Balanced Rock was one of them.

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One of several blooming cactus -- another was yellow, but I loved this pink one.

Landscape Arch

But I think the thing that most impressed me was the fabulous views of so many different kinds of rock formations.
 










Being old (well, not that old, but not a spring chicken either) and definitely out of shape, strenuous hikes are just not within my abilities, but shorter easy ones are.  I decided that my hike for the day would be to Landscape Arch --- described as an easy hike in the guide book.  Easy, I guess, if you are younger and in  better shape. I don't think it was easy, but I did it!  I think the hardest part was the last 75 yards or so through the soft dirt -- it was like walking on a sandy beach, and not the firm sand near the water!! But the effort was so well worth while, the views all along the trail, and of course at the end, were just breathtaking. Just to prove that I actually did make it here's the photo that another kind hiker took.

But I think the thing that most impressed me was the fabulous views of so many different kinds of rock formations.

Delicate Arch

  Reminds me of an old song -- On a clear day, you can see forever....  You sure could from Moab!  

Now on to Seattle to see kids and grandkids for a weekend, then the rest of the adventure begins!

One more day

Tomorrow (Monday, Memorial Day) is the day I leave. Everything I've been planning for the past year or so is coming together very nicely, and I'm just about ready to go. I just have to pack the cooler, and the valuable stuff (I have a safe for that).

So why is it that the you-know-what hits the fan on the weekend before I leave?  Things happen and they have to be taken care of -- things that I did not expect and did not plan for (well, not all of them).  So here are my whines for today:
     1. Went out to dinner with friends on Friday night, just like I do every Friday night. But this Friday night I ate something that wasn't "right", and spent the whole night and much of the next day fighting food poisoning.  Not fun, but luckily today I'm feeling much better.
     2. Friday's mail contained a jury duty summons -- for June 19-July 3.  Now I believe in doing my part and serving when called, but I served 9 days in September, and this trip has been planned for almost 2 years.  Hopefully they will accept my excuse and let me off for now. I'll be glad to serve when I'm back at home, just not now.
     3. Got home from church today to find my pantry overrun with ants.  These are a fact of life where I live, and I had called the bug guy last week to come and do his magic. But we have been trading phone messages for more than a week, and he hasn't come.  So I had to get out the can of Raid -- not my favorite product, but it's a last resort. Plus I had to empty much of the pantry and find out what the ants were feeding on (it was a package of rice mix that had a hole in it). 

So now my pantry is clean, my jury duty excuse is written and mailed, and my tummy has settled down. I wonder what other surprises are in my near future; whatever they are, I hope they are the good ones!  See you on the road...

Counting Down

Back when I made the decision to take this trip to Alaska and set an approximate date, it was so far in the future that I could only imagine. But the months and weeks have been flying by, and I'm now counting down days. As I write this, it's 38 days till I leave. I have a feeling that these last days are going to fly by.

As I read and review the Milepost (the bible for anyone driving the AlCan highway) I keep wondering just what I'll see.  I've read about various side trips and they all sound very beautiful, whetting my explorer appetite. But I think I have to exercise a little restraint and think about more than just what I might be able to see. For example, one place that looks truly beautiful is Monkman Provincial Park in British Columbia. There is a waterfall there that I would dearly love to visit, but the road to it is 39 miles of gravel (and then 39 miles back).  I've driven gravel roads before – specifically the road to Mowich Lake at Mt. Rainier in Washington – and it was a challenge. I think I have to be nice to my tires and windshield, so I'll probably pass on that one.  But there are lots of other places that are equally beautiful and more easily accessible.

Many people have asked me how far I'm going to go.  The answer – as far as I can!  To Fairbanks (where I have a friend who owns a quilt shop, that's a no brainer!!) and then down to Homer. Back up to Anchorage and down to Seward.  And DenaliNational Park; I had read that the camping spots and bus tours at Denali fill pretty quickly, so I made those reservations back on New Year's Day. Maybe, depending on time and road conditions, I'll make it all the way up to Circle (just above the Arctic Circle).

There are main routes and alternate routes described in the Milepost, routes such as the Top of the World Highway. Do I take that in one direction? I think I need to ask advice of other travelers on the road about that, and see what the road is like.

Part of the planning is visiting quilt shops along the way. The advice I've been given is that if I stop at the quilt shops and promote my book and tools, I can deduct the miles driven – how great is that!! So now I'm plotting the location of quilt shops all along the way, and sending them e-mails to let them know I'll be coming (and bringing presents!). Hopefully they'll be willing to talk to me.

I'll see you back here in a few weeks, and will start posting photos of all the wonderful places I've been able to visit. Till then…..

Trial Run

January 20, 2013

Trial Run

Every big endeavor deserves a test, and a trip to Alaska is a major endeavor. Last week I did a trial run by setting up Lizzie and taking her on a trip. We went to Quartzsite, Arizona, to an event called the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous.  This is a gathering of a fairly large group of people who either live in their rigs full time, or spend extended amounts of time in them. They gather on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land where camping is free. There's no bathroom, no water, no trash pickup, but all that is manageable if you plan for it. For me it was an opportunity to meet these people, have a look at their rigs to get ideas for my own, hear about some of their challenges and solutions, and to test out my theories of how things would work. 

I even got to hike a little -- these photos are of a place called Palm Canyon. It was the most beautiful desert view I have seen in a long time, and I even got up close and personal with Saguaro cacti. The ones shown below  looked like they were protecting the tree.

I had planned on Quartzsite being temperate – nights in the 40's and days in the 60's and 70's. That's what is normal for that time of year, although they do get fronts moving through that throw normal out the window. That's what happened the week I was there. Night temps were in the 20's and daytimes were 40's and windy. It was COLD!  Luckily, I had a good sleeping bag and a few blankets, so I was plenty warm at night (especially the nights I wore my hat and gloves to bed), but the daytimes were a problem. One of the days I was sitting in a seminar dressed in a turtleneck, a fleece vest, 2 hoodies, and a blanket (hat and gloves too) and I was still shivering. Someone asked me if I had a jacket.  Yes, I did, but I couldn't get it on over all those other clothes! So I'm really hoping that Alaska in June is not as cold as that. But if it is, I'll find a way to deal with it --- maybe a larger jacket!

I learned several things. First, my mattress would not work. It wasn't thick enough, and it was like sleeping on a board. I found someone there who wanted it, so I sold it before I left, and will look for a new mattress. If I'm going to be driving 10,000 miles, I need to be comfortable at night.

Second, be very kind to your vehicle. I had been watching my tires. I had two new ones, and knew that I would probably need two more new ones before I left. But I managed to pick up a screw in one of the tires, and didn't realize that it was flat, so had to get a new one. That was a story in itself, because accessing the spare tire is a challenge on a Toyota Minivan. It lives under the car, and is released by unscrewing a bolt between the front and second row of seats. That's where my bed is.  I was really afraid that I'd have to disassemble the whole thing to get to the bolt, but the repair guy was able to do it just by taking out the stuff under the bed. Whew! But he didn't have a tire to fit my car, so I had to go on to Lake Havasu City where they had a tire store that is part of the chain I always use. They fixed me up in about an hour, and since the tire was under warranty, it was free!  Free is a good thing!

ON the way into Lake Havasu City, my brakes were making a funny sound, and since my mind was on CAR MAINTAINENCE today, I asked for a reliable place to check them out.  Bad news, needed new brakes.  Oh well, at least now they are ready to go to Alaska!  I suppose I could rationalize it by saying that it would have had to be done anyway. But I should have had them checked before I left New Mexico. I'll be taking Lizzie to my mechanic about a month before I leave to have her totally checked out and put in top notch condition.

I was able to do some more organizing.  When I set the bed up before I left, I realized that I would need something like a headboard to keep my pillow from sliding into the back of the van. I got some pegboard, painted it white, and attached it to the base of the bed with angle irons. It made a great place to organize some of my kitchen stuff. The photo shows the start of the organizing, but there will be much more that I can store there. And it will make it much easier to find things – rooting around in a plastic tub looking for a fork is very inconvenient, especially when your supper is getting cold!

 

The final upshot, though, was that Lizzie was very cozy for sleeping, and reading, and even for driving. I think this whole thing is going to work!

Curtains

Curtains

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I spent mine thinking more about "the trip."  I did a bit more sewing and figuring out how to cover Lizzie's windows.

It's amazing what you can find when you go exploring in a car.  There are all kinds of covers and hidey holes that can function for your special purposes if you are willing to uncover what you find. For example, I have always noticed oval cut out shapes on the side posts right above the front seat belt attachments.  Knowing that I wanted a curtain across that space, I took my screwdriver and pried off the cover.  Lo and behold, there was a space there that would just fit the end of a tension curtain rod. Problem #1 -- curtaining off the  front seats -- solved.  That seemed almost too easy!

 The next problem is covering the side windows. That isn't as hard, because I can use bungee cords attached to hand grips that are on both sides of the car for the side curtains. Well, there isn't a hand grip on the driver's side, but there is a container there for sunglasses or something like that, and the bungee cord attaches to that really easily. Actually, I could also hook the bungee cord to the tension rod in problem #1 if I wanted to.  Since bungee cords have a tendency to droop, I will support them on the hooks built in to the sides about halfway between the hand grips. These will have to come down for driving, I think, because I'm afraid they will restrict my vision. But they are so easy to hang up again that I don't think I'll mind that.

That still leaves the rear side windows to be covered and I haven't figured that out yet. I need to screen them so that I can have some ventilation, but the screening won't be enough. I'll consider that over the next few weeks.

The rear window was a challenge.  There were more of those oval covers that could accommodate a tension curtain rod, and that would work for holding the bottom end of the curtain against the window, but I didn't know how to attach it to the top.

On a trip to the Container Store I found what I hope is the solution -- Command cable clips. The large ones can hold a dowel, and they won't damage the interior of the car.

I may need to shorten the dowel I have in place, to make sure it doesn't force the clip to release, but we'll see. I think it's pretty nifty! 

One of the things I learned while surfing other peoples' ideas for converting a minivan is to have the curtains made of a dark fabric so it just looks like darkened windows. I didn't want dark curtains on the inside of my "home" -- I wanted it to be pretty. So I just lined the curtains with a dark fabric, and when you look at the windows from the outside, you can't tell that they are covered. 

I've been making lists of what I think I need to have for a long trip like this (yes, my passport is on the list!) and I think I'm going to need a "shakedown" trip to test all this stuff out. Maybe in January I can find someplace warm to go for a long weekend....   Till then, Happy Holidays!