I’M IN FRICKIN' ALASKA
Aug 21, 2016
Hi Team!
I'm in the great white north! (Actually more the great gray north, since there's lots of rain) but either way it's BEAUTIFUL!
(Okay, I'll be honest: I'm actually back in Los Angeles after an amazing 3 week trip to Alaska and Vancouver. Due to the nature of this trip, there were only 2 internet cafe's I even saw. One of them was closed. And the other was on the last day. So I'm going to do my best to go back there as I write these to hopefully, give you a fun adventure read. :)
So Alaska.
The 49th state.
The largest state in the USA by a long shot. (Sorry Texas!)
Population: 740,000 (with 400,000 of that in Anchorage area).
All these goes to say that there is A LOT of open space in Alaska. I almost wrote "open road", and while there is a lot of that too, the roads don't cover much of the state by any means. The capital, Juneau, is only reachable by boat or plane. In fact there are a lot of places in Alaska only accessable by boat, plane or just plain walking.
So how did we see Alaska?
Behind the wheel of a 29 foot RV we dubbed the "Minnie Winnie" (Since it said Minnie Winnie in big letter on the side.)
That's right. This was a road trip extraordianire with my Dad for the first 5 days, and then with my Brother, Sister-in-Law and Niece joining us for the next five days. And then there was a 7 day cruise...
But lets start with the road trip.
My family grew up road tripping. My parents always took us on multi week road trips during the summer growing up. We'd head to the southwest USA, the east coast, the mountains of Colorado, to visit relatives in the midwest. The list goes on and on, and I thank them everyday for instilling in me the wunderlust I have to explore and travel. So, it seemed appropriate to do a 10 day roadtrip-cruise with my Dad for his 75th Birthday. It's been years in the coming, delayed for all the reason's one finds to delay a trip (money, schedules, etc etc). But we finally were able to put it all together and head to Alaska.
So, RV? You might ask. How was that?
The answer: Awesome. It was so much fun! In Alaska you can literally park ANYWHERE that is not private property and doesn't have a sign expressly saying "no camping". Which means you can pull out at an overlook of Denali (as we did the first night) and just say "This is camp". Or pull off on a rocky edge of a wild glacier fed river and say "Now this is camp!". Sure, you can stay at an RV park (good for pumping out the "black water" and "grey water" and refilling the fresh water), or an official campground. Or you can just park on the side of the road, wherever you feel like it. It took a day or two to really understand this. To not feel strange or out of place just stopping and "camping" wherever we wanted. But once we did, it was great.
Was there enough space?
Our 29' RV was great for 2 people. Dad had the bed in the back. I had the loft over the drivers seat. It was like a fort! We had shower, microwave, stove, oven, fridge, freezer, table. Even a TV and DVD player (which we didn't turn on a single time!)
Gas Mileage? Cost?
Our RV cost about $240 / day after the extra collision waiver, some camp chairs and taxes.
To put it in perspective: A mini-van cost $200/day.
Hotels in Alaska are very hard to come by in the summer and quite expensive. So we would have had to plan every step ahead of time, and book early. And each room would be $150-$250 or more. And that's the cheap room. My brother had to search long and hard to find an apartment when we were in Seward because the only hotel room left in the city was $600! What?!?!
So the RV was actually a pretty big money saver on top of being fun. Sure it only got 10mpg. And had a 55 gallon tank. But we lucked out that gas was in the $2.40-$2.90 range most of the time. (In previous years it could easily top $4.00/gal).
Anyway, you get it. RV = fun and money saver! Both good things.
How is it to drive?
Not hard at all. We got it from "Great Alaskan Holidays", and they have a very thorough video showing you how to drive it, where to watch when turning etc. It took me about 2 hours before I felt really confident and was zipping up the road. It's big, but it's fun. If you need to get a snack just hop up and go to the fridge while you're cruising down the road.
LET'S HIT THE ROAD!
After a breakfast of eggs and Reindeer sausage in Anchorage, we picked up the Minnie, stocked up on food and headed north through Anchorage Rush Hour. Which consisted of a few multicatch stop lights and about a 2 mile back up with some construction. Other than that 10-15 minute delay on the first day, and some construction stops on the 2-lane highways, we never sat in any traffic at all for 10 days. In fact, there were times we would drive 200 miles or more without a stoplight or stopsign. In the lower 48, one of my favorite road signs is in Utah and it says "Next Services on I-70, 112 miles". In Alaska, it is COMMON to have 125 miles between gas stations.
There's a lot of space up there.
And a lot of it is GORGEOUS. 7,000 foot mountains shooting straight up out of the ocean. Ridges and ridges of hills and mountains stretching to forever. 17 - 20,000 foot mountains towering over everything around them. In some ways there is so much amazing scenery that it feels like overload... in the best possible way.
And there is also some monotonous tree-lined highways too. I mean, there's a LOT of space. And some of it is a 2 lane road with trees on both sides. It felt a lot like North Carolina, only the trees were different. Hey, in a place that big not everything can be off the charts.
Some of my fondest memories of the trip are just driving through beautiful scenery with my dad, some tunes on the radio, talking about his "rebel" days of youth. (I'll leave those stories for us, but it was really fun to hear about a time when my dad was.... well, still a good kid, but doing some silly goofy stuff that kids do. ) Or sitting by a camp fire, next to the glacial river as the twilight faded from the sky (at 11:30pm or later). The two of us tending the fire, listening to the river rush past and looking up at that big Alaska sky. Skipping and collecting rocks on riverbanks, or glacier sides. Bringing a little bit of Alaska back home with us. Laughing about whatever caught our funny bone.
There are adventures to be told, and they will be, but for now I'll leave you with the simple pleasures and joys of spending time with loved ones in amazing places. I'm grateful every minute that we are able to share these times together.
Alaska...
Aug 21, 2016
Hi Team!
I'm in the great white north! (Actually more the great gray north, since there's lots of rain) but either way it's BEAUTIFUL!
(Okay, I'll be honest: I'm actually back in Los Angeles after an amazing 3 week trip to Alaska and Vancouver. Due to the nature of this trip, there were only 2 internet cafe's I even saw. One of them was closed. And the other was on the last day. So I'm going to do my best to go back there as I write these to hopefully, give you a fun adventure read. :)
So Alaska.
The 49th state.
The largest state in the USA by a long shot. (Sorry Texas!)
Population: 740,000 (with 400,000 of that in Anchorage area).
All these goes to say that there is A LOT of open space in Alaska. I almost wrote "open road", and while there is a lot of that too, the roads don't cover much of the state by any means. The capital, Juneau, is only reachable by boat or plane. In fact there are a lot of places in Alaska only accessable by boat, plane or just plain walking.
So how did we see Alaska?
Behind the wheel of a 29 foot RV we dubbed the "Minnie Winnie" (Since it said Minnie Winnie in big letter on the side.)
That's right. This was a road trip extraordianire with my Dad for the first 5 days, and then with my Brother, Sister-in-Law and Niece joining us for the next five days. And then there was a 7 day cruise...
But lets start with the road trip.
My family grew up road tripping. My parents always took us on multi week road trips during the summer growing up. We'd head to the southwest USA, the east coast, the mountains of Colorado, to visit relatives in the midwest. The list goes on and on, and I thank them everyday for instilling in me the wunderlust I have to explore and travel. So, it seemed appropriate to do a 10 day roadtrip-cruise with my Dad for his 75th Birthday. It's been years in the coming, delayed for all the reason's one finds to delay a trip (money, schedules, etc etc). But we finally were able to put it all together and head to Alaska.
So, RV? You might ask. How was that?
The answer: Awesome. It was so much fun! In Alaska you can literally park ANYWHERE that is not private property and doesn't have a sign expressly saying "no camping". Which means you can pull out at an overlook of Denali (as we did the first night) and just say "This is camp". Or pull off on a rocky edge of a wild glacier fed river and say "Now this is camp!". Sure, you can stay at an RV park (good for pumping out the "black water" and "grey water" and refilling the fresh water), or an official campground. Or you can just park on the side of the road, wherever you feel like it. It took a day or two to really understand this. To not feel strange or out of place just stopping and "camping" wherever we wanted. But once we did, it was great.
Was there enough space?
Our 29' RV was great for 2 people. Dad had the bed in the back. I had the loft over the drivers seat. It was like a fort! We had shower, microwave, stove, oven, fridge, freezer, table. Even a TV and DVD player (which we didn't turn on a single time!)
Gas Mileage? Cost?
Our RV cost about $240 / day after the extra collision waiver, some camp chairs and taxes.
To put it in perspective: A mini-van cost $200/day.
Hotels in Alaska are very hard to come by in the summer and quite expensive. So we would have had to plan every step ahead of time, and book early. And each room would be $150-$250 or more. And that's the cheap room. My brother had to search long and hard to find an apartment when we were in Seward because the only hotel room left in the city was $600! What?!?!
So the RV was actually a pretty big money saver on top of being fun. Sure it only got 10mpg. And had a 55 gallon tank. But we lucked out that gas was in the $2.40-$2.90 range most of the time. (In previous years it could easily top $4.00/gal).
Anyway, you get it. RV = fun and money saver! Both good things.
How is it to drive?
Not hard at all. We got it from "Great Alaskan Holidays", and they have a very thorough video showing you how to drive it, where to watch when turning etc. It took me about 2 hours before I felt really confident and was zipping up the road. It's big, but it's fun. If you need to get a snack just hop up and go to the fridge while you're cruising down the road.
LET'S HIT THE ROAD!
After a breakfast of eggs and Reindeer sausage in Anchorage, we picked up the Minnie, stocked up on food and headed north through Anchorage Rush Hour. Which consisted of a few multicatch stop lights and about a 2 mile back up with some construction. Other than that 10-15 minute delay on the first day, and some construction stops on the 2-lane highways, we never sat in any traffic at all for 10 days. In fact, there were times we would drive 200 miles or more without a stoplight or stopsign. In the lower 48, one of my favorite road signs is in Utah and it says "Next Services on I-70, 112 miles". In Alaska, it is COMMON to have 125 miles between gas stations.
There's a lot of space up there.
And a lot of it is GORGEOUS. 7,000 foot mountains shooting straight up out of the ocean. Ridges and ridges of hills and mountains stretching to forever. 17 - 20,000 foot mountains towering over everything around them. In some ways there is so much amazing scenery that it feels like overload... in the best possible way.
And there is also some monotonous tree-lined highways too. I mean, there's a LOT of space. And some of it is a 2 lane road with trees on both sides. It felt a lot like North Carolina, only the trees were different. Hey, in a place that big not everything can be off the charts.
Some of my fondest memories of the trip are just driving through beautiful scenery with my dad, some tunes on the radio, talking about his "rebel" days of youth. (I'll leave those stories for us, but it was really fun to hear about a time when my dad was.... well, still a good kid, but doing some silly goofy stuff that kids do. ) Or sitting by a camp fire, next to the glacial river as the twilight faded from the sky (at 11:30pm or later). The two of us tending the fire, listening to the river rush past and looking up at that big Alaska sky. Skipping and collecting rocks on riverbanks, or glacier sides. Bringing a little bit of Alaska back home with us. Laughing about whatever caught our funny bone.
There are adventures to be told, and they will be, but for now I'll leave you with the simple pleasures and joys of spending time with loved ones in amazing places. I'm grateful every minute that we are able to share these times together.
Alaska...
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