A Toast to Alaska

It's day 3 in Alaska and we've had quite the adventure! We spent the last two days in and around Fairbanks. The first day we went to the Chena Hot Springs Resort where you'll never guess what we did! We went to an ice museum!! It was amazing! A barn-sized building with a constant temperature of 25 degrees held tons of incredible ice sculptures. Easily the 'coolest' place we've seen so far. We were the only people on a tour and got to see life sized knights jousting, an ice leopard and even an ice bar! We had cocktails in a glass made entirely out of ice!! Seriously if anyone wants to take a short plane ride (6-7hours) to Alaska it's definitely worth checking out. After that we headed back to Fairbanks for a relaxing night of dinner and checking out a few shops in town.
The next day we drove towards Denali National Park for a view of North America's tallest mountain, Denali. Unfortunately it was a fairly cloudy day so we didn't get to see the top...but we will someday soon! Shortly after leaving Fairbanks, we got a bit of a surprise when we stumbled across a bar that the Vedvig clan had visited a few years ago; Skinny Dick's Halfway Inn! We immediately pulled over to take a few pictures and look through the risqué novelty items they had for sale. We even found the dollar bills signed and stapled to the ceiling from a few Wisconsinites!! (wink, wink, the Vedvig/Keehn Family)What are the odds! What was really unique is that Fairbanks (one of the most northern cities in Alaska) had very little snow. Most of the snow had melted already but as we headed south we drove though a massive valley between two mountain ranges and quickly things changed. We went from a sunny spring day in Fairbanks to a snowy, cloudy day as we drove past Denali National Park. There was snow everywhere! Even stranger yet, as we continued to drive south we reached a point where all of the snow just disappeared. We mean gone! Adam and I looked at each other and said, "wait....where did all the snow go?". We had driven the past 3 hours in a winter wonderland and now we were back to spring! Oh Alaska, you tricky, fickle lady. After that we headed towards Talkeetna, about half way between Anchorage and Fairbanks, where we stopped for the night. We stayed at an RV park close to an airstrip so we could watch planes and helicopters coming and going all afternoon. Most of the shops downtown were still closed but we found a brewery that was open and serving dinner so we stopped in. We never thought it was that late until we checked the time and it was 10:30 with the sun still up! We'll have to get used to that pretty quick. As for today we plan to keep heading south and possibly go canoeing at Nancy Lake. It should be a great day!

-the A-Team

The Last Frontier.

Leaving Watson Lake we headed west towards Whitehorse! We were so excited to actually spend the night around civilization! Whitehorse had a population of 26,000 and that was the largest town we had experienced in several days! We lucked out and there was one campground that was open this early. We unloaded the camper and then headed into town to explore! Whitehorse is a cool town and we went out to eat at a local restaurant and had some poutine! Fries, cheese curds, and gravy! Couldn't get much better than that! After that we headed back to the camper to sleep off our food comas. The next day was a leisurely one, we woke up and made our way over to Tahiki Hot Springs and soaked in the hot water for several hours! It was so much fun! After that we headed on our way to Haines Junction, the last "town" before headed into Alaska. This town was probably one of our favorites! It had beautiful snow covered mountains and had a fun restaurant called Frosty's where we got a caribou sausage and pepperoni pizza. There were no campgrounds open so we ended up staying at a motel. The next morning we got up early for our 9 hour drive to Fairbanks, AK. We started off our journey and before we knew it we were crossing the border! The gentleman at the border crossing finally asked about the camper! Luckily everything went smoothly and we were able to cross without a problem! Probably one of the most exciting parts of the trip was not only getting to Alaska but being back in the states again. Don't get us wrong, Canada is incredibly beautiful with lots of wildlife but it was so nice not to deal with kilometers, liters, and Canadian money anymore. Also no less than 30 minutes into Alaska an entire herd of Caribuo crossed the road right in front of our car and a bald eagle flew over our car. We think that was Americas way of welcoming us home! We made it all the way to Fairbanks only to realize that no campgrounds are open so we stayed in another hotel. By far the nicest hotel we have ever been in! We plan to spend the day exploring Fairbanks and possibly go to more hot springs!! If you couldn't tell, we like hot springs!

-The A-Team

Nature, It's Everywhere!

Things have been going well in here ol' Canada! In the past few days we have been covering quite a bit of ground. As we drove through British Columbia we quickly realized once we got away from the Canadian/US border that there is little to nothing around. Most of our days have entailed driving through dense forest, along snowy mountain ranges and frozen lakes. To say the least it has been beautiful but it's typically at least 100km between any kind of civilization. We took Hwy 37 up through British Columbia and probably over 600-700km there was only about 3,000 people. Even though there were few people there were lots of animals! Our first wildlife encounter took us a little by surprise. As Adam was driving, we were trying to figure out the lyrics to "Let it Go" from Frozen (because why not? What else did we have to do?) and we look over and we drive right past a black bear on the side of the road!! We stared it as we passed and then it took us about 10 seconds to realize what just happened! It was very exciting and very terrifying at the same time! Probably 50km down the road we saw another black bear and this time we saw it in time to slow down and take a few pictures. After that the animals came out of the woodwork...literally. We saw a bobcat, moose, several caribou, an artic fox and several different birds. As if that wasn't exciting enough we took a brief detour from the highway to experience Hyder, AK which is accessible from Canada! The drive to Hyder was roughly 35 miles and was without a doubt the prettiest drive of the whole trip. Mountains on both sides, glaciers (Ashley was quite excited about those to say the least), beautiful braided stream, and too many waterfalls to count! Getting into Alaska was easy, literally no border patrol and Hyder was neat! However, going back into Canada we got the third degree. Lots of questions but of course none about the camper. We finally made it back into Canada headed for Watson Lake, Yukon where we saw the infamous sigh forest. Now we are heads off towards Alaska, more to come soon!

-The A-Team

Oh Canada!

Greetings from Canada! All is going well and we are having a great time. We didn't update the blog because all we did was drive most of yesterday and today so there wasn't much to tell. It's been a beautiful drive with forests as far as the eye can see and mountains all around. The towns have been few and far between and most of them are teeny, tiny towns. We stopped for breakfast yesterday and has maple doughnuts at Tim Horton's, the most Canadian place you can go. They were delicious but incredibly sweet!! We have also been seeing some wildlife which has been fun! We saw some elk, deer, and today Adam saw a black bear! Ashley was driving so she didn't get to see it but Adam was scanning the forests as we drove and caught a glimpse. When we checked into our campground the host told us there was a black bear spotted no more than 15 feet from our campsite so we have been keeping our eyes out! Back in Wisconsin Ashley was worried about bears and Adam was pretty nonchalant about it...oh how the roles have reversed! The host tells us about the bear and Ashley wants to go look for it while Adam is getting the bear spray and knifes ready for an attack! At least one of us is concerned about it at all times. But we should be safe for the night. Also Canada loves our camper!! We spent at least half an hour at a gas station just showing it off to different people that asked about it. That was pretty fun!

We think we'll be another 5 or 6 days driving through Canada so the blog might only be updated every other day. But we'll do our best to keep you informed! Also the 5 or 6 days is just a guess since we still don't have a map...

-the A-Team

Liters, Kilometers and Loonies; Oh My!

The big day finally arrived! We had our last morning in the U.S.A. before heading into Canada and needless to say we were quite nervous. We decided to take a walk on the boardwalk right next to our campground before heading out for the day. Less than a mile long, we figured it would be a good start to a long day. The path cut right between two small bays that were full of seagulls and even a few otters! We watched as bird after bird would dive along the coast, grab a clam, fly high above the blacktop-path and drop the shell to the ground! The gull then swooped down to enjoy the tasty breakfast it cleverly cracked open. We even saw one bird with a crab! The sharp claws were too much for the seagull as it quickly gave up on the feisty crustacean. We watched as the crab flipped himself over and scuttled back to the sea.

 

After watching the creatures on the beach, we hopped in the car and headed towards the intimidating border. A thousand crazy ideas raced between us about why we wouldn't be allowed to cross...calling us worry-warts would be an understatement! But as we rolled up to the border the clouds seemed to part and we were allowed to pass without hesitation. We weren't even asked about the camper! Let alone the lack of title/registration on it! What a miracle!! After that we drove for a few hours through the windy mountain roads that we've become accustomed to on this trip. But before all that could happen, we had a little accident...it was like we were in a movie. Ashley had just folded her last map from Washington state and proudly got out the Canadian map we had been waiting for. The windows were cracked so we could enjoy the fresh, mountain air. A small bug was found just inside the map so naturally, Ashley decided he'd be better off outside. Rather than remove it with her fingers or a napkin, the most logical thing was apparently to dump it out the window right from the large map. Just a quick gust of air and the bug would be gone forever. But of course, that's not how windows work at 100 kilometers an hour...both the map and the bug were sucked out the window and were gone forever! Did I mention this was literally 5 minutes after crossing the border? Over 2000 miles of reading maps all over the United States and this was the time we lost one. We had 10 maps to go through 8 states but only one to go through all of Canada! Good thing there aren't a lot of highways to choose from when heading north. We had a big long laugh about that and spent half the day waiting to write this post just so everyone could hear the funniest part of our adventure so far!

We stopped for the night in Cache Creek where we got our first taste of the Canadian dollar. Fortunately credit cards still work up here so that helped a lot. But it took us longer than it should to realize that gas doesn't cost $0.97 per gallon. But after questioning the gas station attendant we finally figured it all out! Ashley got the biggest kick out of seeing some of the different foods/brands in the Canadian gas station. Her favorite in particular is Crush Raisin Soda (which is really just Crush-Grape soda)! Crazy Stuff! She is still laughing about it now as we write this blog.  More to come later...

-The A-Team

The Birds and The Bees...

Good Evening! Last night the moon was shining bright and if you noticed there was a particularly bright star next to it, that was Jupiter! Had a great time looking up at the stars last night. This morning was a little more relaxed than our previous days. We woke up this morning and stopped at a local auto shop to get quick tune up on the car before we head into Canada! After that we were making our way up through Seattle and I kid you not, I have never seen Adam jump across two lanes of traffic so fast to get off the interstate. All because he saw a sign for Red Robin! Can you guess where we had lunch? You guessed it! Red Robin! One of our favorite places to eat so that was fun! I think the to-go cup they offered Adam for his freckled lemonade made his day...its the simple pleasures in life that mean the most. ;) After eating way too much we sluggishly made way back to car and continued north through Seattle. It was only about a 2-hour drive to where we were headed but it was 88 degrees outside and we have no AC! We were sweating quite profusely to say the least. We found a campsite right on a bay near Mount Vernon and then decided to head back into town for their Tulip Festival. Every April they have fields upon fields of blooming flowers and it was gorgeous. Below are some pictures from our trip to a tulip farm and we had fun being amateur (pronounced Ama-tour) photographers....someone thinks they are already on a professional photographer level (cough, cough, Adam Popanz) but we sure did manage to capture some amazing photographs. If you were a little confused on the blog title let us state for clarification that the bird stands for Red Robin and the bees has to do with the tulip fields and all the flowers.

Tomorrow our one and only goal is to make it over the border into Canada. Our cellphones will be turned off because we do not have international calling so if you need to reach us please use email or facebook and we will try to check it every day when we can get some wifi. We will try to keep the blog updated as much as possible in the meantime. We expect to take anywhere from 6-8 days driving through Canada, just depends on which campgrounds are open this time of year. Wish us luck! See ya America! Hello Canada!

-The A-Team

Going Out With A Bang!

 

Day 8 started off with a bang! Literally! We spent the night in Olympia again and drove south in the morning to see Mt. St. Helens. We went to their visitor center and they had an amazing educational center with a lot of cool displays and artifacts from the blast. We were unable to get really close to the mountain due to most of the roads still being closed for winter but we were able to hike around at the visitor center. Along the hike we encountered some slithery creatures, see if you can tell how many snakes there actually are in the photo! We were both completely grossed out (not Adam of course) by them and there seemed to be a good number of snakes hanging around in the grass along the trail so we made the hike a short and sweet one but man was it worth it! The view of the mountain was beautiful and as you can see there is still a  lot of snow on it from winter. After that we headed back to the campground and decided to relax for the rest of the day. This was the first time in 8 days that we really got a chance to camp, have a campfire, go swimming in the lake at the campground, and sit and catch our breath. We plan to start making our way north and get ready to head into Canada soon!

 

-The A-Team

 

 

Here Come the Mountains Again!

Well if Ashley thought we were done with high elevations she was wrong...On Day 7 we went to Mt. Rainier. We spent the night camping in Olympia so it was only about an hour and a half to the mountain. When we finally made it to the park Ashley was incredibly relieved to realize that although we were driving up a mountain there were very few if any cliff edge roads! As we drove into the park we followed the Nisqually River which was this huge rocky riverbed with a small channel of water flowing through it. As more snow melts the river will fill but for us it was incredibly beautiful and you could see lots of debris from previous Lahars (mud flows coming off of the volcano). As we went higher and higher up the mountain the snow appeared, and man was this a lot of snow. As you can see in the picture below it was a pretty thick layer of snow. The road was lined with snow markers at least 14 feet high so that the snow plows can tell where the road is when they finally plowed. Now the crazy part was it was roughly 55-60 degrees out that day and as we hiked around it got pretty warm. So here we are hiking around on a volcano in t-shirts, walking around on several feet of snow! The warm temperature made the snow pretty soft so you take a step and you sink half an inch and the next step you would sink about calf deep. Very difficult to walk on and of course we were too cheap to rent snow shoes so we just toughed it out. Totally worth all the hard work to see the glaciers on Mt. Rainier! If you notice Ashley is wearing her I Heart Glaciers T-shirt in the photos (Thank you Nicole Wood!). If you look closely you can see the entrance to a glacier cave on the Mountain! After fully exploring we started to make our way back down off the Mountain and came across several different waterfalls! We have a lot of pictures and it was with out a doubt one of our favorite stops along the trip!

-The A-Team

From Ocean to Snow

Waking up to the ocean was incredible! We spent the early morning collecting rocks on the beach and running from the foamy waves of the tide. After climbing around on massive pieces of driftwood we decided to head more inland and check out Olympic National Park. As we drove through the forest we half expected a dinosaur to burst through the trees and chase us from its territory! Huge trees, large ferns and moss covering everything, it was like being in a different world. We actually stopped at a hot springs location and went for a swim. It smelled like rotten eggs but damn did that feel good. Then after a quick lunch we continued to Hurricane Ridge for a view of Mount Olympus. A twisty road through the mountains took us from sea-level to 5,242 feet on top of a mountain in only 17 miles! Terrifying cliff edges and sharp turns made us a bit nervous but we made it to the top with the grace of a skilled mountain goat. Our views went from dense trees and green ferns to several feet of snow and a 20 degree temperature drop!! Coming down the mountain was much easier but we discovered that Ashley has a crippling fear of driving along a sheer cliff edge. A lower elevation and a much slower heart rate for Ashley signaled that we were leaving the mountains for the day. We headed south towards the state capital where we found a quiet campgrounds tucked against the forest. Hopefully for Ashley's sake we're done with mountains for awhile!

-The A-Team

All Water Leads To The Ocean

On our 5th night we decided to stay in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area and hiked around to a few waterfalls in the morning...boy did we find waterfalls! Less then a mile from a main highway, you would guess we were on another planet! Trees and mountains so tall that you would fall over trying to look up! Did we mention everything was green? We mean EVERYTHING! From moss to trees it was everywhere! After hiking around for a bit we headed back to Washington and made a bee line for Olympic National Park! It was there on the west coast of the U.S. That we got to see the Pacific Ocean! Us Wisconsin kids had the entire coast to ourselves, apparently people don't like to go to the beach in April? Who would have thunk? We ended up camping right next to the ocean! And today we plan to hike around the park! More adventure to come!

-The A-Team

Multnohmah Falls 

That boulder was roughly the size and weight of a bus! 

Waterfalls everywhere you turned!

THE PACIFIC OCEAN!

We love to chase the tide out and out-run it on the way in!

Bald Eagle flying majestically over the coast

Massive burls in the trees!

Man these trees are tall!

View from our campsite on the coast! 

A beautiful sunset at a beautiful place!

We could have hung out here all day!