July 31

For those of you who are still waiting and checking back here I'm sorry that the wrap-up took an extra day. Some how being out of the office for 5 weeks created a bit of a back log and I just was not able to get to the blog.
Just a few random things for those of you keeping score.
Miles driven 9979. Yes here is proof, I started the trip monitor as we pulled out of church on June 24 and took this picture when I pulled into our drive way at 5:00 in the evening July 27. Let this be proof once and for all that those who claim I am OCD and have to have everything just right, even, and in line that I did not drive around the block until it was an even 10,000 miles.

If you were following along here is a quick run down of how the map would look.
Saint Louis, MO
McPherson, KS
Denver, CO
Boise, ID
Cache Creek, British Columbia
Smithers, British Columbia
Ketchikan, Alaska
Skagway, AK
Dawson City, Yukon
Tok, AK
Valdez, AK
Outside of Glenallen, AK
North of Anchorage, AK
Denali NP area, AK
Fairbanks, AK
Hanes Junction, Yukon
Watson Lake, Yukon
Outside of Fort St. John, Alberta (I believe or maybe BC. One way or another it was in that area.)
Jasper, Alberta
Golden, British Columbia
Hamilton, MT
Wall, SD
Iowa City, IA

And there you have it! A sabbath journey headed north that will be long remembered.
If you want to stay around and visit here from time to time feel free, I'm not sure what direction this might take but we will see. For now the journey has come to an end and it is back to business and life and all that goes with it.
Thanks for coming along on the ride with us!

July 28

We are home at last!
We pulled in at about 5:00 p.m. yesterday with just enough time for me to bring some things in and change clothes to make it to the church by 6:00 for a wedding rehearsal. It is time to jump back into things with both feet I guess even though I'm not sure that I'm quite ready.

For those who have followed along on this sabbath journey, thanks for reading. On Monday I'll post our final tally of miles driven and places stayed and any other things that might cross my mind as relatively interesting to me if not to you. So if you want to jump in with a guess as to final miles driven feel free.

July 27

This morning we are staying just outside of Iowa City, Iowa. It really doesn't seem possible but sometime in the next 24 hours I'll be logging on to report that the road trip has come to an end and we are back in Fort Wayne. The days have flown by in many ways and it really doesn't seem like over a month from the time we left to head north. Oh well, this is not the time for reflection yet, that might come later.

As you might guess there are no pictures from our travels yesterday. When you have to put over 700 miles between your stops at night you basically don't make time for much more than the necessities. That is not to say that there weren't things that were picture worthy. South Dakota is a mixed bag of things. The western part of the state has the Black Hills and it really was kind of weird to see all the signs for Mount Rushmore and other sites but not stop, but we have seen those before and this was not the trip for the easier to reach sites anyway. Moving east from the Black Hills one gets into country that goes on and on without a farm house or town in site. One of the things I noticed was that in country like this every town that did come along had some kind of hook that they used to try to get you to stop. One place it was props from the movie "Dances with Wolves" another it was the petrified garden (Really, I'm not kidding go ahead and check out the link if you don't believe me.) and finally of course you have the Corn Palace at Mitchell, SD complete with its own web cam.
The eastern part of the state of South Dakota is farm country and a lot of it followed by Iowa which to the travelling eye looks like one big farm. But I know that isn't true as I lived in Iowa for four years growing up. As we travelled through on I-80 and got close to Des Moines the names of all the towns became familiar. They were towns that we used to play in sports and I was able to remember many very good times during junior high and my freshmen year in high school.
From here it is across Illinois and through Chicago into Indiana and home.
The road trip will be over but the journey will go on.

July 26

Yesterday was a long day of travel through a great variety of settings. We started out in the mountain valley that Hamilton rests in between the Bitterroot Mountains and the Saphire Mountains. It is an area that has many farms and lumber mills as well as other things. There are many folks who have come from other parts of the country to retire here and I can tell why. From there we went up to I-90 and drove across Montana, and drove across Montana, and drove across Montana. It was a beautiful drive but it does go on and on. We followed I-90 down into the edge of Wyoming and then into South Dakota. The Black Hills are amazing in the evening sun, however everyone and their grandparents have come to the Black Hills for vacation and we finally got a room (the last one they told us) at a Best Western in Wall SD.
Today will be another long drive as we hope to make it somewhere between Des Moines, IA and the Quad Cities.
Now for a little interactive opportunity for those who are still reading. Yesterday we blew through my mileage estimate of 8,000 give or take a thousand miles for this trip. In fact we are very close to the upper end of that guess. What do you think our total mileage will be. Just post an guess and you will win .......
nothing actually, but you will have the self-satisfaction of being a better guesser than others.

July 24

Today we are in Hamilton, Montana with Don and Peg. Their hospitality is as always worth writing about. Even though we got in later than we had hoped (the traffic was worse than we anticipated with all kinds of road construction) there was dinner waiting for us which was some of Peg's trial dishes which are always wonderful. Then there was conversation and laughter that allowed us to catch up with each other. It was a fun evening and we are simply enjoying the day before tomorrow heading back on the road.

I'm sorry about the lack of pictures the last couple of days. I've just not had good enough access to be able to upload pictures. I'll have to try again later.

July 23

This morning it really does begin to feel like we are headed home. We are looking forward to a stop in Hamilton, MT to spend time with friends Peg and Don but after that it is a quick run home so that we can be there by Friday night. Somehow the weekend has responsabilities that are associated with it. And yes for those of you who are already assuming the worse I'll be preparing my sermon for this weekend on Saturday sometime.

Sorry for some reason I'm having trouble posting pictures this morning. I'll try again soon.

July 22

Greetings from Golden, BC. Today we drove down from Jasper over the Icefields Parkway to Lake Louise.
We found the weather a bit of wet but the beauty still came through. The Jasper NP has many highlights.
We made several side trips today and found the trails to be worth the effort. The first picture is of a lake that is fed by a glacier. The second picture is of a falls area. The falls were thundering in the amount of water that was pouring over the rocks. You could actually feel the ground moving under you as you stood near the falls.
All in all it was a great day that could have been made better with a bit more sun, but good none the less.

July 22

Just a quick post to let you know that we continue to head south in Canada and today will be enjoying the National Parks of Jasper and Baniff. I'm sure there will be many pictures to come (hoping that it clears off a bit as there are clouds around the mountains to start the day off).
For those of you who are still worried that we are roughing it to much here is where Kathy and I shared a BBQ Chicken Pizza last night.

July 21

The day started out and stayed cloudy and rainy for most of the drive south. It kept the mountains out of view but it made us keep our eyes open for the wildlife. The person at the visitors center that called our drive yesterday a drive through the Serengeti was right. We started out with a black bear running across in front of the car and of course I had my camera in the back in its case when the bear stood up by the side of the road to look at us. Oh well one picture missed but a memory none the less.
Shortly after that we started seeing signs warning of buffalo on the road and sure enough we came upon 2 that were headed out of town walking along the left side of the road so that oncoming traffic could see them. A few miles further on we came across a whole heard of them as they were settling in for their afternoon naps. I didn't count them but I'm guessing there were at least 50 in two different settings in about a 1/4 mile setting.
Following the bear and buffalo we saw some shaggy caribou. This time of the year this far north they are still losing their winter coats and are not the most photogenic.
We just missed a large moose with what looked like a huge rack of antlers as we came up upon a couple of cars that were stopped along the side of the road just in time to see the moose run into the woods after someone did something to spook it a bit.
We also saw several groups of Dall Sheep as we went into one of the mountain passes. The first group was two females and two young ones (bonus points for any of you who want to fill in the correct descriptors for the young of these animals that I'm describing). I was just commenting to Kathy that we handed seen any sheep with the full rack of horns when around the corner we came to find ourselves car to horn with this pair who were simply grazing along the road conveniently right along a turnout area.
Yesterday as the clouds and rain finally began to lift we passed along the northern edge of the Canadian Rockies. The terrain begins to change again and we continue to be awed by the great beauty of God's creation around us.
Yesterday we also finished up listening to the Message version of the New Testament on CD. We have been listening to a CD or 2 each day as we travel. It has been a very good experience to listen to large chunks of the Bible at one time. In the midst of it you hear the flow of themes that continue to repeat in various ways that you don't hear or read when you only do a few versus at a time. There are overriding themes of God's love and the call for those who believe to love others in return that are repeated over and over again in different ways. If this is something that you haven't done yet I would highly encourage it!
Ok, this is enough for now. I need to get ready for our trip south into the heart of the Canadian Rockies as our destination tonight is somewhere in the Jasper area.

Correction and Update

I have discovered that I made a geographical error that I need to correct for all you budding adventures out there. Several posts ago I shared a picture of the Yukon River at the 5 Finger Rapids and said that the river ran by Dawson City and then continued up north and emptied into the Arctic ocean. That however is incorrect, the Yukon River actually turns west a bit past Dawson City and flows through all of Alaska to finally empty out into the Bering Sea. It is really quiet amazing and the rivers and lakes that we are coming across are quite large. Yesterday we drove along beside a river for a number of miles and didn't see a boat on it.

Just to finish off my question from our stay at the Sheep Crossing Lodge. After sharing my frustration and dissapointment with the owner she appologised and then asked if she could get us some coffee before we left. I of course had already paid for my $2. 25 coffee for the morning and declined. I don't know if I should have expected more or I got exactly what was coming to me, but all in all if you are traveling the Parks Highway I would encourage you to stop and get a piece of their Wild Berry Pie (alamode of course) a drink if you need one and enjoy the ambiance before heading on to stay else where.

Here is actually a picture of how you get across the Yukon River at Dawson City.

Today it is starting out raining and gray as we continue to head south. I'll post later with any new excitement.

I just looked at the calendar and realized that we need to be back in Indiana a week from today.

It doesn't seem possible but the adventure will be winding down soon.

Bonus for Russ and Michelle

Here at Watson Lake they have a space called Sign Post Forest. It is right next to the visitors center and what did we see but something obviously left by one of Russ and Michelle's old neighbors. So this is a special bonus post just for them.

July 19

So 26 years ago Kathy and I made the Northwest loop from Yellowstone into Glacier National Park then on to Calgary and over to Vancouver Island. That was a fairly major trip and one that we made in a Chevette with a tent and a couple of bicycles. We lived off of Peanut Butter sandwiches and boxed milk. (Kathy was pregnant with Kyle at the time and needed her calcium.) This time we aren't roughing it that way and it sure is nice.
We were talking yesterday about how many memories that trip created and how much fun it was, but that we weren't interested in doing it that way again. That trip is nothing compared to what the folks I saw this morning were making in their Model A's. This one I think was from Nevada and they were all headed to Fairbanks I think. They said they made about 200 miles a day. At that rate it is going to take them awhile. We on the other hand are traveling at the speed of light and lap of luxury in comparison.
Now for the excitement of the day. This is a picture of a Lynx that crossed the road in front of us. All we saw was her tail, but stopped anyway to see if she was still around. As we looked along the side of the road we saw her looking back up toward the road. After a brief time (just long enough for me to get my camera out and ready) she came around the back of the car and up into the woods. There I could see a couple of smaller fuzzy objects which I'm assuming were her babies (not sure what you call them though I'm sure they have a special name). This was not an animal that I expected to see.
We will see what appears tomorrow as we have been told that the locals sometime call the area that we are going through the Serengeti as it is filled with so many animals.

July 19

It took what seemed like forever yesterday to get to Haines Junction yesterday because of road construction and just plain roads. The roads along here are greatly affected by frost, especially when there isn't as much snow as usual. They just don't crack but the roads actually move up and down so you get a rollercoaster affect.

Having said all that I'm glad that we decided not to go on into Whitehorse like most people do. This is a beautiful location right on the edge of one of Canada's National Parks, Kluane. This is a picture from just outside our hotel last night. Taking longer to get here also meant that we ended up staying at the Raven and looking forward to a full German Breakfast. (Fran your Father should plan on making this trip sooner rather than later. He would not only find the country beautiful but it is very German speaking friendly.)

Just for good measure we saw this pair of mother and calf south of Fairbanks yesterday morning.

I hope you are enjoying these pictures as much as I am taking them.

July 18

While we were in Denali we road around on one of these, a green school bus that depending upon its age and where on the road we were, was comfortable or not so comfortable. Along the way if any one on the bus saw animals that they wanted to stop and see you simply yelled out STOP to the driver and then the type of animal and it's location for the rest of the bus. It's a system that worked fairly well I would say because we did see a lot of wildlife.

One of the big highlights for me was the actual chance to see Denali. Denali is the highest peak in North America and one of if not the tallest in the world from base to peak. On Tuesday we were fortunate to be able to see the mountain in the morning as we went back into the park. Only about one in three days is the mountain actually visible and even from our limited view it was well worth it.

A couple of other treats included this moose and her calf at the end of our day on Wednesday. We had gotten off our original bus earlier to go out hiking (which is allowed and encouraged) and got back on a smaller bus which had been out sense 6:45 that morning going way back into the park (for those of you who know Kathy's patterns you will know why we weren't on that bus originally). Many of the people were sleeping on the bus but this woke everyone up and renewed their energy.

I'll try to post some more pictures yet this morning while Kathy is getting up and around.

July 17

So here are a couple of pictures to try and catch up with things.

July 16

Today we spent the day in Denali National Park (or here for other information). We weren't able to see the Mountain as it was covered with clouds, but we did see some wildlife. We spent the day riding around in an old school bus.
Everyone in the bus is either on foot or in a bus similar to this. There is really only one road in to the center of the park and the roads are such that you wouldn't want just anyone driving on them. It really was the best way to see wildlife and that we did.
We saw: caribou, dall sheep, and bear. As well as misc. other smaller animals. I know this is just teasing but my connection here is just not fast enough for me to upload pictures. Hopefully tomorrow.

July 15 #2

Today we attended church where Kathy and I made up 1/13 of the congregation. It was nice to simply sit and listen / participate in worship, but at the same time it was difficult as the pastor was preaching on John 16 and the role of the Holy Spirit. I can honestly say that I've never heard a sermon take quite the same approach as he did this morning. While it was nice to be in worship for those who think smaller is more personal than large. I've had more people speak to me personally at Willow Creek where there were 5,000 + in worship than I did this morning. Oh well, I could tell that God was working with the people there and that is really what matters.

We went on to the Moose Drop Festival (which I will refrain from sharing photos of) and ended up tonight outside of Denali National Park where we will spend the next two days. I would love to upload some pictures tonight but the connection is slow and weak so I'll try again later.

Now for and interactive question for you who would like to participate.
This morning I talked to the owner of the lodge that we were staying in about how hot the room was. I found out that she had turned down the heat after we had checked in and that the thermostat that controlled our area was in a different room. Apparently the people in that room had turned up the thermostat and we suffered for it. After telling her of my displeasure (and inability to sleep as the room felt hotter than Indiana in August) in a very civil and polite but firm way I waited to see what she would do.
What do you think she should have done?
What do you think I should have expected be done as a result of the experience?

Help me out here because I'm not sure what the right answer is but I'll tell you later what happened.

July 15

This morning it is quiet and cool as I catch up with things while allowing Kathy to sleep a little longer. I woke up early as the room we were in seemed like it was sitting on top of a hot spring. When I went to put my shoes on this morning the bottoms of my shoes were warm even.
Oh well it gives me a chance to share a few more pictures this way.

Whale

Puffin

Iceberg

July 14

Ok, so there was a bit of a change in plans. We decided to go on down to Valdez (long e sound) instead of off to Homer. There wasn't any reliable access so we had to wait until this evening when we stopped at the Sheep Creek Lodge between Anchorage and Denali.

Where do I start? Thursday when we left Tok (pronounced as in the first part of the Japanese city Tokyo) it was rainy and cloudy. As we were nearing one of the National Parks we saw the mountains begin to take shape like this.

Which was all well and good. But it only got better! At some point you simply say, "God you win! I can't take in any more of the gradure and beauty and still be able to discribe it." By the time we got to Valdez it was looking like this which I believe is the Worthington Glacier.
On Friday we went out into Prince William Sound with Stan and Mary Ellen and saw:

And these: sea lions, puffins, icebergs, and whales and more.

Sorry you will have to wait for those pictures until later.

July 12

Having a few minutes while Kathy is still sleeping I thought I would see if there are things that I need to get cleaned up around here. First for your information Martha I had a buffalo burger and Kathy had a hamburger at Chicken. Yes Dawn the minivan looked out of place in Dawson City, you really expected people to have their horses tied up in front of the stores. By the sounds we heard well into the morning at Dawson City the party at the near by saloon was straight out of the 1800's.

Today we will decide if we head toward Homer on the coast to go whale watching or into the interior to see Denali. With the weather forecast I'm leaning toward Homer as it is supposed to be cloudy and chances of rain for the next two days or so and if you're wet what difference does it make if you are on the water? Oh well, more info on this decision yet to come.

Now for your viewing pleasure some pictures that I haven't posted prior to today.

First is a picture of an iceberg taken from the ferry outside of Juno. It might not seem big from the picture but everyone knows that it's whats under the water that will get you.

Here is a picture of the 5 Fingers Rapids on the Dawson River. For those of you wanting to know the Dawson river runs north and empties into the Artic Ocean. It is a major watershed for Canada but not as large as the Mackenzie which empties into the ocean near where the Dawson does. The Mackenzie River is actually the third largest watershed after the Amazon and the Mississippi and it runs north. Just a little fun fact for you today.

July 11

Going over the top of the world is amazing if I must say so myself. This is a picture from the Canada side.
Next you see a picture of Kathy at the welcome sign back into Alaska.
The last picture is from Chicken. As you can see the road was a bit messy. Much of it was dirt/packed rock and we got into a bit of rain.

July 11

Just have to blog from Chicken Alaska. We stopped here for lunch after taking the Top of the World Highway from Dawson City. Pictures to be posted later. The road was beautiful though primitive. It is probably the longest 130 miles that I have ever driven.

July 10

We left Skagway this morning in the rain and fog but after getting over the pass it began to clear and the views got better and better. Here you will see one of the high mountain lakes just south of Carcross in the Yukon.


Tonight we are in Dawson City and looking down one of the main streets in town. (ok there are only about 4 streets anyway) This picture is taken about 10:45 and now at midnight it is still light enough to read or do anything that you could otherwise do at 7:00 p.m. on a normal summer night in Indiana.

July 9

Monday morning on the ferry was rainy and foggy but still some great views like this one of a glacier coming down to the bay. By this time we had been on the ferry for over 24 hours and it was getting a little old.

July 8

The wedding went really well on Sat. night and we enjoyed ourselves with Tara's family and Ryan's family as well. Sunday morning we left early (for Alaska time) to get on the ferry and head north. It started out rainy and wet but ended up clearing off later in the day and was absolutely breathtaking as we got to the Wrangell Narrows. The picture to the left is one from this 21 mile stretch of waterway. There are many more but you'll have to wait for the sermon illustration to come up for those.

July 7

Yesterday was a day of discovery as Kathy and I looked around the island that Ketchikan sits on. (Well we went as far as the roads would take us which is about 15 miles north of town and 15 miles south of town. As we left the paved road going south onto the chipped surface road we heard the sound of rushing water and stopped to see this beautiful water fall. It was a most peaceful place and one that I thought I would share with you by picture.

July 7 #2

Last night after the rehearsal we ventured down south of town where my nephew had told us they had seen bears the night before. So it was early yet and off we went. The light was fading so the pictures are a bit fuzzy (just like the bears). In all we saw 6 bears come down to the stream to start their night fishing. It was quite the event and one that will not soon be forgotten.

July 7 #3

Here are Ryan and Tara after the wedding rehearsal as everyone gets ready for the big day tomorrow. I must say that I have enjoyed getting to know Ryan (my nephew) as the fine young man that he is and I have been very impressed with Tara and how grounded and real she is, I think they have a lot of exciting years ahead of them and it is a privilege to be able to perform their wedding tomorrow.