Moving to Alaska: Day Twenty Two

Well after our very short day I got up early to call U-haul to get the tire fixed. I still have no idea why I have to contact them FIRST before they will start working on finding a repair company but since they told me 7:00 am yesterday, I called at about 6:55 am. And of course, in this comedy of errors, they call back and tell me the vendor cannot fix it. They are LITERALLY across the road; I can see them. All they have to do it roll a jack over and take the tire!!! I actually went across the road to have that exact conversation with them and learned their "field service" truck was in the shop so unless we could get it to them, and were willing to wait a long time, they could not help. They did call around a couple other shops and found one that actually would be able to fix it. So about an hour later we were packing the car to leave.

That is when I saw the tire pressure light...

Yup, another one.

We took a quick look and once again saw treadwall on one of the back tires, the one where the trailer flat was. Apparently the low/flat tire put extra stress on the car tire. So now we have to decide if we want to risk driving another nearly 800 miles or replace it here since this is the last option we will have. As much as we did not want to, we opted for replace, again.

We checked with the place across the road and they did not have them in stock so told us how to find the other shops in town. The next one, no luck. The third one, no luck. However, this happened to be the place that changed out the trailer tire and they have  a large selection of used tires. Thankfully they checked inventory and had something close but not quite the same and we decided slightly miss sized was better than what we had. So once again, we waited a couple hours.

FINALLY we were getting on the road at noon. We intended to drive all the way back to Anchorage, weather permitting since Thao is supposed to be back at work in the morning. The road report yesterday showed that entire route clear. Today, it showed "snow on the road". Of course.

Well after about an hour we arrived at the next town. And the trailer was shaking again. I know this will shock you all but the just replaced tire on the U-haul? It had a puncture. We stopped at a gas station and got directions to the local repair place because honestly, based on the hassle of yesterday, I wanted to just get it fixed rather than waiting for U-haul to dispatch someone, who we already knew would be lucky to get to us today. So we took yet another hour of our already tight time and got the puncture repaired before once again hitting the road.

They were not kidding about the forecast. The road was covered with a light dusting and/or light ice but much better maintained so we were able to at least drive 35-40 MPH in the bad spots and up to normal speed in the better ones. But it was still a white knuckle drive since we did have a fair amount of side to side shimmy as the trailer tends to not adjust well on the ice but nothing that was too scary. We did stop to plant a letterbox since I had not put one in the Yukon yet and found another one later in the day

For most of the day we were theorizing about whether we would go all the way to Anchorage or not. We had a long way to go, got a late start, an unexpected stop, and non cooperative roads. But we were not giving up on getting Thao to work yet. We did make a deal that we would get to Tok, the first town in Alaska (and still 300+ miles from Anchorage) and reassess at that point.

Well, wait for it, about 75 miles before Tok the tire sensor on the car went off again.

This time, we were in the middle of nowhere, it was night and snowing and we had no phone coverage. For the first time, this shit happened NOT in a town. But it was not flat and we had a cigarette lighter powered air pump which I just happened to know how to find in the trailer. Thank goodness I left it near the back. So we over inflated the tire by five pounds (compared to the other one), then drove until it was five pounds under and would pull off the road and refill it. Based on the deflation rate, that meant about every 15 miles. So four times on the way to Tok we would basically drive for 15 minutes then stop for 5, drive for 15, stop for 5... but we did finally arrive. But we also knew it was late and nothing would be open so Thao talked me in to trying to fix it ourselves. We went to the gas station in town and picked up a tire fixing kit. Well, first I got a fix-a-flat type spray but she had previously used another type where you literally shove some tacky rubber into the hole and let it seal. So we made a deal; we would dig out the rock, patch it, go have dinner and if the tire held, we would push on through to Anchorage. Otherwise we would have to get it fixed in the morning. She really did not want to miss work so I might still have lost that argument when it came down to it but luckily, after a 30 minute dinner, we had lost no pressure.

So we pushed on. 328 miles to go on icy roads late at night, starting about 8:30 pm. Sounds fun huh? Most of the driving was again the 25-30 MPH kind with clear spots mixed in where we got short spells of decent speed. But since it was below freezing and actively snowing we were on untreated roads. We actually did a good job swapping off sleep since we knew we would need it to finish with such a late night.

First a flight delay. Second a blown tire. Third an ice storm requiring ~150 miles of 25-30 MPH. Fourth a punctured tire followed later in the day by another blown tire, this time on the trailer. Then another blown tire on the car AND  a puncture on the trailer AND a puncture on the car AND icy road requiring  ~300 miles of 25-30 MPH. Canada is trying to "win" but we won't allow it!

But we finally arrived, just short of 4:00 am on October 21st. Plenty of time for Thao to rest and go to work at 8:00...

Start: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory

Stop: Anchorage, Alaska

~710 Miles Driven

~3.5 Miles Walked
2 Letterboxes Found

2 Letterboxes Not Found

2 Letterboxes Planted
3 Tire Replaced
2 Tire Punctured

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

===================================================================

Trip Totals

22 Days

19 States, Provinces and Territories

7072 Miles

50th State Visited
151 Letterboxes Found (including 4 new states; only 7 to go)

53 Letterboxes Not Found 

19 Letterboxes Planted (including 12 new states; only 23 plus DC to go)

5 Tires Replaced

2 Tires Punctured

1 New Life Begun

Now for the real adventure. Wish us luck and please, come visit!!!

Moving to Alaska: Day Twenty One

We left off last time with crappy weather and a low tire. Well, the tire was lower this morning and it seems we punctured it late last night so spent the morning waiting for it to be fixed at the only local shop. At least we have these issues near civilization, that is the only good thing I can say about them.

Since we had a little time I checked the road conditions and it looks like today will start out rough but should be better after about 100 miles. So again, hard to maintain pace. We have not given up on making it back tonight, but it would be a VERY long day to make that happen since it is close to 1000 miles to Anchorage. We decided that was ok even if we got in super late, just to get the drive done. I think we are reaching that point where it is no longer fun, it is a chore, mainly due to the weather.

As for the weather, it did go as expected; we talked to someone at a rest area after about 90 miles and she said she had been cruising along at full speed for 3 hours coming the other direction so we were encouraged for sure. And it was true; we cruised into Whitehorse in early afternoon and after a quick stop at the Yukon Brewery to pick up some "supplies" we pushed on out of town.

For about 10 minutes.

It seems we have a lot of shaking on the car and, of course, now the trailer has lost a tire. After a call to U-haul, we decided that rather than sit on the side of the road, it made more sense to hurry back to Whitehorse where the repair shops are located so we told U-haul to send someone to the Walmart parking lot since it was about five miles away and we still had most of the air, though it was going fast. We were told that someone would be there within the hour so we went and hung out in the parking lot. I actually wrote a couple blog posts and Thao surfed the internet; it was nice being in a town where such things existed.

About an hour after the initial phone call we got a call from U-haul to let us know about our hotel reservation.

Umm, what?!?

It seems that since it is a Sunday afternoon, we are screwed since no one is open!!! So now we get to spend the night in Whitehorse and get the tire repaired in the morning. Remember, we have been sitting at Walmart for an hour now so the tire is much lower but we literally have two blocks to go to the hotel so we go ahead and drive over. Not ideal but had we known, we would have moved it a long time ago. I am still not sure why it took them so long to tell us. Either they could reach a vendor or they could not. No excuse for an hour delay. In either case, we obviously will not make it home today since we are still about 800 miles from Anchorage and are a tire short. So like it or not, we are here for the night. And another annoying thing, even though U-haul knows it needs fixed, apparently I have to call them in the morning to let them know "when we are ready" for them to dispatch someone to fix it. Really? You can't just know that we have an issue still? But I would almost rather call to make sure they are dealing with it so we set the alarm for 6:45 and will call them in the morning.

First a flight delay. Second  a blown tire. Third an ice storm requiring ~150 miles of 25-30 MPH. Then a punctured tire followed later in the day by another blown tire, this time on the trailer.

A night in Whitehorse might have been fun but not without a car since there was not much within walking distance. Plus our frustration level was pretty high so we were not in the mood for "fun".

Start: Watson Lake, Yukon Territory

Stop: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory

~275 Miles Driven

~1.4 Miles Walked
0 Letterboxes Found (First day of the trip without a Found Box)

1 Letterboxes Not Found

0 Letterboxes Planted
1 Tire Punctured
1 Tire Replaced (Pending)

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Moving to Alaska: Day Twenty

It was a chilly night camping in Kitwanga plus it rained overnight so it is a good thing we set up our tent mostly inside the picnic shelter in the park. We figured since we arrived so late and were leaving so early, it wouldn't really matter anyway since no one would even know.

We hit the road very early, well before daylight since we knew this was one of the longer mileage days, and we were still trying to make up for lost time from the tire issues. And we were going to make it to Alaska  today!!! Just not where we wanted to go.

We were taking a side road that goes to Hyder, the easternmost town in the state and probably the most non-Alaskan town in Alaska. What I mean is that the only way to get there is to take a long drive through British Columbia. No roads connect it to any other part of Alaska; you can only drive back a couple miles to Stewart, BC. The local law enforcement is provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The local fire and EMS is from  Stewart. Hyder is the only town in Alaska NOT to use the 907 area code (they use BC's 250). They are on Pacific Time, the only town in Alaska that uses it. They observe Canadian holidays. Their kids go to school in Canada. It is about as Canadian as you can get. Anyway, we were really going there to attempt to drive up to the Salmon Glacier which is supposed to provide wonderful views since the road takes you on a ridge above it but after about half way, we bailed out since the trailer was going to make it pretty much impossible to navigate the rutted forest service road. So our detour really did not pan out other than some pretty views on the drive in to town since there are multiple glaciers visible from the road.

This stretch of the drive is long and empty. Very few towns, just lots of scenery. More than once we passed those "94km to next gas station" type of signs. At one point we did make a letterbox planting stop that turned out better than expected. It was a trail at a provincial park that we went down and after about 3/4 mile found a huge lake and flocks of trumpeter swans flying and honking; it was pretty awesome just watching and listening to them.

After our short break we hiked back out and continued driving. But about 4pm, and probably 10 minutes after I took over driving, we found the road ice and snow covered. Enough that it was an issue with the trailer and tough traction. I had purchased some "AutoSocks" before coming up which are a chain replacement (as my car cannot take chains) so we put those on to try and help. I am not sure if it did or not but at least psychologically it helped. But what followed was white knuckled, ice driving for the next 4-5 hours at about 25MPH. It was a long, slow drive for sure, though we only had one slide. Where did this weather come from?!? The forecast had it clear. This was not only not clear, it was miserable. The snow was coming down and the road was rough. We reassessed our sleeping goal for the night and just wanted to get off this side highway and back onto the "real" Alaska Highway.

First a flight delay. Second  a blown tire. Then an ice storm requiring ~150 miles of 25-30 MPH.

Finally we did get to the end and even found a hotel for the night but as we were pulling in, the pressure sensor on my car went off. Great, more fun. But we will ignore that until tomorrow morning. The other annoying thing for the day; remember the AutoSocks? Well, when we parked for the night, they were no longer on the car!!! I have no idea when they came off but I will be voicing my displeasure with the company since I literally used them for at most 5 hours and about 150 miles and they are gone.

Start: Kitwanga, British Columbia

Stop: Watson Lake, Yukon Territory
~550 Miles Driven

~2.4 Miles Walked
1 Letterboxes Found

0 Letterboxes Not Found

1 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Moving to Alaska: Day Nineteen

Well, after yesterday's lost five hours, we really wanted to try and make up some time today. So we started really early, before daylight. Since it was not overly cold last night the furry copilot slept in the car. He might have been happier in the tent but space was at a premium so we made him a blanket pile in the backseat. Besides, they have bears in the area and we did not want noisy bait!!!

We made a stop for a letterbox at a scenic view, and of course I forgot to take my camera from the car so no photos. We had lunch in a park in Prince George that was rather nippy since it was on top of a hill and the wind was blowing pretty hard. We looked for a couple other letterboxes along the drive including one at the world's largest fly fishing rod, just to take short breaks.

But really today was all about driving. Minimal pictures. The only item of note for the day was we checked the weather forecast while in Prince George and based on what we were driving in so far, opted to take the shorter, narrower, less travelled road north since this is the decision point. Either cross over the mountains to the official start of the Alaska Highway or take a different route that stays on the west side of the Rockies before crossing much further north. So to the west we went.

Yeah, this is another pretty boring entry but it was a pretty boring day too. We pulled into a tiny town about 9:30pm that has a park with a couple free tent camping spots (which we did not know about; the place we intended to stay was closed for the season) so we set up there while again intending to head out very early since it is a long way to get all the way off the "side highway" and back to the Alaska Highway.

Start: Cache Creek, British Columbia

Stop: Kitwanga, British Columbia

~580 Miles Driven

~3.8 Miles Walked
2 Letterboxes Found

3 Letterboxes Not Found

0 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Moving to Alaska: Day Eighteen

Most of the next few days is driving, not stopping, not looking at stuff, just covering a lot of miles as fast as possible since Thao has to be back at work in five days and we have ~2200 miles to travel with unpredictable weather. And to complicate that further, in talking, Thao wanted to try and get back as early as we could, like, a day earlier if possible, so we had time to unpack and settle in and such.

So we plan to hit the road early every day. Though today that involved running a few errands around Vancouver like grocery shopping to have stuff for camping and snacking on the rest of the drive. Once we finally got going we were about 100 miles outside of Vancouver when a tire blew on the car.

First a flight delay. Then a blown tire.

In looking at the tire, it was worn to the metal from the weight of the trailer. Actually both back ones looked like that. The AAA driver (or CAA technically) said I have a non standard tire size (of course) so made a few calls and we learned our only option was to drive back about 40 miles to a bigger town where they MIGHT have them. Like it or not, we towed the trailer on the temporary tire to get back to town. The issue with this trailer is that it is held onto the car by gravity, meaning the only way to take it off or put it back on is to pretty much empty the entire trailer.

So after a slow hour of driving, the tire place said they could get us the tire by the next afternoon... which we did NOT want. Luckily they sent us to another shop who at least said they could get us out of there the same day, though it would be late. So of course we went there and we waited since same day is still better than next day. It took about five hours since they had to first get it from their Vancouver store. To pass the time, Thao, the cat and I hung out in the shopping mall parking lot, got out the camp stove and made some lunch. And reevaluated the route planning for the day. We figured out a target area assuming it would be a 6pm (when the store closed) departure and once we finally got back on the road, things went smoothly all the way to the campground.

Yeah, this is a boring blog. Short too. That happens when most of the day involved sitting in the grass taking a nap.

Start: Vancouver, British Columbia

Stop: Cache Creek, British Columbia

~310 Miles Driven

~2.2 Miles Walked
2 Letterboxes Found

0 Letterboxes Not Found

0 Letterboxes Planted
2 Tires Replaced

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Moving to Alaska: Day Seventeen

I am picking Thao up at the airport in the morning so Ryan, Amanda and I just hung around the house until time to go.

Except that about an hour before we had to be at the airport, Thao sent me a message saying the plane just landed in Anchorage!!! Last I checked, that is the wrong direction. Amanda, being the flight attendant, knows where to check such things, and saw it turned around after about 45 minutes and was now expected to arrive in Seattle a few hours later.

Well, a few hours pass and Thao has not left Anchorage yet. A few more "estimated departures" come and go until we eventually get to the number that it will arrive in Seattle about 10 hours behind schedule!!!

So to kill time Ryan and I went walking around West Seattle for the afternoon, grabbed some lunch with Amanda (who did not go aimlessly wandering with us) and some letterboxes, then eventually were able to make it to the airport to pick up Thao. Amanda drove me down so I did not have to load up the car and cat and all that to go over. We all went back to visit for a short while but Thao and I had to push on through to Vancouver. I did not want to but alas, it was too lake to cancel the reservation once we learned of the late flight so we figured we might as well just go and have a midnight arrival since we paid for the room anyway. It turned out to be a decent room; I will keep it in mind whenever we finally do make a visit to Vancouver.

So not much happened today since so much of it was in limbo but FINALLY, Thao and I are together and it is time to start for the Northlands!!!

Start: Seattle, Washington

Stop: Vancouver, British Columbia

~150 Miles Driven

~4.7 Miles Walked
4 Letterboxes Found

0 Letterboxes Not Found

0 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Moving to Alaska: Day Sixteen

I am a tourist. Ryan is taking me around town and showing off the city. Well, eventually. First thing I did was catch up some blogging, photo uploads and worked on my logbook. But once morning rush hour died down we caught the bus into downtown and started wandering. I am not sure I remember everyplace we went but we walked a lot of miles and saw a lot of things. We went to the Boring Museum. It is a little more exciting than it sounds. They are currently in the process of drilling a big tunnel to replace an existing old road. However, the huge machine digging the hole is stuck. And has been for a while. So right now they are working on getting to the machine so they can fix it and start digging again. The museum is about the status and goal of the dig.

We did an Underground Tour. That is a very uniquely Seattle experience. Apparently Seattle was built on VERY hilly land and they had lots of issues with tides, sewage and water flow in the early days to the point they actually started filling in streets to change the slope. So you have many building in the city what actually have a "first floor" that is completely underground. Yet you can tell it used to be the street front since they have window frames and doors and such. It is cool to think about the fact that there was fill dirt from 10 to 32 feet added in some places!

We walked along the water front. It was pretty much that, walking along the water and going through a couple of parks. One is a sculpture garden, and I still don't like or get most modern art, especially sculpture. I don't understand how they pay someone to randomly weld chunks of metal together and call it "Experiencing the World" (made up name, but proves the point). It is just a random assembly of metal, nothing more.

We walked over through Freeway Park (a park built OVER I-5 in downtown. We walked to the Space Needle. We walked to Chinatown. We walked through some building with art inside that Ryan had previously found so wanted to show me. Notice a trend? Ryan walks, a lot, so he had a lot to show. It was a long, tiring day but I am sure I have seen more in Seattle than most people ever do.

Start: Seattle, Washington

Stop: Seattle, Washington

0 Miles Driven

~13.1 Miles Walked
1 Letterboxes Found

0 Letterboxes Not Found

1 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Moving to Alaska: Day Fifteen

Today is the end of "Round One". Thao is flying into Seattle to drive up the last week with me and I need to pick her up the 15th in Seattle. I had added an extra day and a half as a buffer just in case it was needed since meeting her flight on time seems rather important. And it turnes out that the extra time was not needed so so I will have an evening plus full day in West Seattle with my friends Amanda and Ryan.

Since it is the last day of driving I actually slept in a little bit before hitting the road then was running errands like picking up a gas can to have a little extra while driving through Canada and reloading some food and snack supplies. As for the stops themselves, nothing over exciting. I actually drove back to the top of the hill from the day before to see it in daylight and to plant a letterbox. It is still a crazy, circuitous route both up and down the mountain.

But mostly today was just driving across Oregon and Washington since I had done a fair amount of letterboxing in them previously, meaning I did not NEED to find many so the stops would only be to stretch my legs.

By far the funniest/cutest place I stopped was in Zillah, Washington. One of the churches there has a small parade float parked behind the building with a monster on it. It is for the Church of God-Zillah. I was much more amused than I should have been by that.

Tomorrow will be a first for this trip; an entire day where I actually have nothing planned. I did not print letterbox clues since I was not even sure I would be in town. I did not plan tourist stuff for the same reason. So I am just going to go with the flow and not worry about the rest.

Start: Pendleton, Oregon

Stop: Seattle, Washington

~330 Miles Driven

~8.3 Miles Walked
2 Letterboxes Found

1 Letterboxes Not Found

1 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Moving to Alaska: Day Fourteen

Just outside the town of Twin Falls is Shoshone Falls, 212 feet high and 1000 feet wide. It is a huge waterfall though waterflow was restricted when I was there since there is a  hydroelectric plant on the top and they were doing some work, meaning they diverted water from the main section. However it is still impressive, especially when considering that the largest portion had no water going over it. I spent a few hours here seeing what different angles I could find to take photos of the falls. I also went back to the Perrine Bridge to take some photos of the Snake River Gorge in daylight before heading west.

The next stop was at Malad Gorge which is a short 2.5 mile canyon that is as deep as 250 feet on the way to the Snake River. There is a pedestrian bridge over the gorge right where the waterfall spills into it and the trail goes along the side for a short way. A very pretty and unexpected state park stop.

Right at the end of the day I drove down Emigrant Hill aka Cabbage Hill aka Deadman's Pass in western Oregon. It is a crazy stretch of road where you lose 2000 feet of elevation in six miles through 6% grade hairpin curves. They have multiple runaway truck ramps on the way down and speed limits for tractor trailers based on their weight. This would have been fun had I not been towing a trailer.

The main thing I noticed after leaving Twin Falls was that I was sadly mistaken when I thought I was out of the wind. Today was a STRONG headwind all day long, to the point it was swaying the trailer, which had not happened previously. It was a very physically demanding and exhausting day because of the extra effort required. But once I got off that last hill it was noticeably better.

Start: Twin Falls, Idaho

Stop: Pendleton, Oregon

~375 Miles Driven

~5.8  Miles Walked
9 Letterboxes Found

2 Letterboxes Not Found

1 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Moving to Alaska: Day Thirteen

Back to the grind. After a couple days off, it was time to hit the road again. The cat did not seem happy with this development since he was crying for the first time in two weeks once we started driving. I guess that 48 hours he spent in the hotel room made him think we were "there". Alas, poor Endymion, you have about 10 more days of this.

Today I drove through the town of Arco, Idaho. As with me, I am sure none of you know anything about it but the entire area there is fascinating to me. Arco was the first nuclear powered city in the world. This also means it is home of the first nuclear reactor, EBR-1, which produced about 100 kW starting in late 1951. And while not advertised, it is also where the world's first and only US fatal nuclear reactor accident occurred. In fact, more than 50 nuclear reactors, more than anywhere else in the world, have been built on the plains of Idaho. While it was not something I knew even existed, this area is home to the Idaho National Laboratory which is very heavy into nuclear research.

The reason I went through Arco is that it is on the way to Craters of the Moon National Monument. This is another of those places that I just thought sounded very cool so wanted to visit and was not disappointed; I spent a lot more time here than anticipated which made for a very long rest of the day. Essentially, COTM is a huge lava field covering about 53 miles with more than 25 volcanic cones and 60 distinct lava flows that range from 15,000 to just 2,000 years ago. They also have a few "caves" you can explore which are really old lava tubes. All in all, a place I am very glad I took the time to stop at.

Most of the rest of the was driving to Twin Falls, Idaho which has a couple of highlights as well. It is where Evel Knievel unsuccessfully attempted to jump the Snake River Canyon and it is home to Perrine Bridge, which is 1500 feet long and almost 500 feet above the Snake River. It is also the only man made structure in the US that BASE jumpers can use any time of the year without a permit. In fact, while I was walking across the bridge trying to get sunset photos over the canyon (and was too late) a guy jumped off well after dark. I watched but could not see much. In talking to another jumper (who was just watching that night) he said you have about 3 seconds to open your chute and will hit the water in 5 seconds. Me? No thanks, I will just watch.

Start: West Yellowstone, Montana

Stop: Twin Falls, Idaho

~285 Miles Driven

~10.7  Miles Walked
7 Letterboxes Found

4 Letterboxes Not Found

0 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Moving to Alaska: Day Twelve

After yesterday, one thing I always suspected has been confirmed; I should have been a geology major. Think about this; on this trip I detoured specifically to go to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. I hiked "Fossil Ridge" (which I did not mention by name earlier) in Eisenhower State Park in Texas. I stopped at a small museum with petrified wood and geodes (again not mentioned before; I didn't want to bore you all with the minutia of the day) in Nebraska and finally to Yellowstone with the geysers. Things like rocks and fossils and volcanoes have always fascinated me and still do. There were a few things on this drive that I opted NOT to do such as Dinosaur National Monument in Wyoming and Hagerman Fossil Beds in Idaho, more due to time/distance and having a trailer. I actually considered changing my major from biochemistry to geology but took the lazy route; I had enough credits that I was technically a semester ahead with no intention of graduating early, meaning I could take less full loads the last two years or I could change my major and spend two years playing catch up on classes. The funny thing is that at the time, I just didn't like the career options for geology over biochem, but since I have never actually had a science job and instead ended up working in IT, it would not have mattered anyway.

Today was a trip back to Yellowstone. The first part of the day was a hike to Fairy Falls, which is about 200 feet high, then more of the same; drive and/or walk to various geysers and springs. The hike in was pretty and unlike the previous 5 mile round trip bear country hike, this one did not bother me as much since I was at least occasionally passing people on this trail. Not many, but they were at least out there. It is amazing what that sense of isolation does to your head.

There are a lot of pull offs and short hikes around the park and I was exploring some of them when something amusing happened, again. I stopped the car and walked away from the geyser to look at a pool across the street. Then as soon as I turned to come back, the geyser blew. What is funny is that the same couple I had met the night before and talked to about how my timing had been so perfect were parked there too so they proceeded to thank me for finally allowing them to see a geyser blow.

Another of the areas I hiked to day was "Artist Paintpots" which are more bubbling mud pools of different colors. Some actually look like paint. The various minerals in the dirt dictate the color of the pot. It was one of those places where I just said "of sure, let me pull off here and look", which I did a lot of in the park. I had a target destination and an approximate time needed there so did from time to time have to skip things I wanted to see and focus on the actual intended highlights but I did see a lot more than I am talking about here.

I also saw a lot of wildlife today; herds of buffalo (including one that wanted to cross the road about a foot from my car so I waited patiently), a couple elk (no photos, they moved too fast), another coyote, and even a grizzly and cub. I apparently like seeing bears from 100 yards, but not closer than that!

Eventually I made my way over to Yellowstone Falls and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The upper falls is 109 feet and the lower falls is a 308 foot drop with about a 1/4 mile between them. There are some fantastic views as you walk along the top of the canyon rim and even a few places you can go down for closer looks. One is "Brink of the Lower Falls" which is exactly that, a twisting trail that takes you to a platform right on top of the drop for the lower falls. On the other side there is also a set of 328 steps built into the side of the cliff so you can go about 3/4 of the way down for a view of the lower falls. What I found interesting about this is they have a sign saying basically this is hard and you are at 8000 feet elevation so it will be harder than you think so you might not want to go down those steps.

But alas, now it is time to say goodbye to Yellowstone and continue the journey north and west. I will come back here some day and see the rest, and see the same things again too.

Start: West Yellowstone, Montana

Stop: West Yellowstone, Montana

~130 Miles Driven

~14.2  Miles Walked
4 Letterboxes Found

1 Letterboxes Not Found

0 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Moving to Alaska: Day Eleven

So last time we left off with a "tomorrow is Yellowstone" teaser. However, some Montana exploration was in the cards first for me.

In 1959 the largest earthquake ever in the Rocky Mountains, 7.3 on the Richter scale,  happened about 15 miles north of West Yellowstone just downstream from Hebgen Lake. It caused a massive landslide, with approximately 80 million tons of dirt and rock collapsing into the valley, resulting in 28 deaths, mostly of campers who were buried alive. It completely blocked the flow of the Madison River. Fears of the water buildup causing a massive flood led to the Army Corp to cut a 250 foot long by 14 foot deep channel into the slide within two weeks to allow the water to start flowing. To this day the second lake remains. There is a driving tour and a couple short hikes in the area which I wanted to go see.

Another thing I did today was that I actually rented a car rather than tow the trailer around. That was in part because I knew some of the roads I would be letterboxing on today were forest service roads, which are generally hit or miss anyway. So I had arranged to at least for one day, park my car and use one that would drive where I wanted without dragging the ground, get decent gas mileage, and accelerate when I pushed the gas!!! So I moved a few things into the car (including the cat) and we did the Earthquake tour in the morning. I then dropped him off back at the hotel after the room had been cleaned, and went off to Yellowstone.

Going in, I had done a little research and reading and knew I wanted to see Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic Spring and Yellowstone Falls as a generic hitlist. I also knew that many roads closed for the year in September and October but luckily, I would be able to get to all three of those. So for the first day I opted to head south towards Old Faithful. On the way down I actual did a detour for a letterbox only because I saw the sign that said "No Trailers" so figured I better do that one today instead of tomorrow when I would have my own car. Then I went beyond Old Faithful to the trailhead for Lone Star Geyser. I didn't know much about it other than it was a hike to get there and it only went off about every three hours. So I just parked and started walking. I have to admit, I am not very comfortable hiking alone in bear country but did have my bear bell, bear spray and talked outloud to myself a lot just to make sure every critter knew I was coming. It took the edge off but I was still jumpy; guess I should get used to having bears around since there are quite a few in Alaska... anyway, so I just started walking. eventually I passed a sign that indicated I still had 1.5 of 2.5 miles remaining. I had no idea this was a five mile roundtrip hike; guess I should have read that board at the trailhead, though I doubt it would have stopped me from going. As I finally started up the last short incline to the clearing where the geyser is located, I heard it start making noise. I literally walked within sight of the geyser as it started shooting water. Nice; no waiting for three hours now!!! So after taking lots of photos and watching it for about fifteen minutes until it stopped doing anything, I walked back out and then drove down to the Old Faithful area.

I won't go into all the details here but there is Old Faithful plus a lot of other smaller pools, springs and geysers in the area. There are a few walking trails so you can look at these other ones, all of which I find fascinating. There is also a trail to an overlook above Old Faithful, which I hiked up. And once at the top, I sat down, got my camera out and Old Faithful started erupting. So for the second time today, impeccable timing. As before, I took some photos then hiked back down to the car. By now it was dark but on the way out I did chat with an older couple from Virginia and we were talking about how I was a geyser luck charm of some sort. They were waiting on Old Faithful to erupt again (which would have been about another 30 minutes I think) but I could not stay since I had a cat waiting for dinner at the hotel and it was already a couple hours later than he expected it...

Start: West Yellowstone, Montana

Stop: West Yellowstone, Montana

0 Miles Driven (officially; unofficially 145 miles)

~15.3  Miles Walked
13 Letterboxes Found

0 Letterboxes Not Found (this is the first day on the trip I actually found all I looked for)

1 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Moving to Alaska: Day Ten

Now I am starting a fun few days. What I mean by that is more hiking, exploring and less driving. It starts in the morning outside Ogden with some hiking up near Snowbasin ski resort. It was where the skiing events were held when Salt Lake City hosted the Olympics, though luckily the trails I was going to be on were not that far up the mountain. It was a fantastic morning for walking since it was cool mountain air and I was there just after the sun came up. But after a few hours, it was time to go back to the hotel to pick up the cat and continue north.

What is north you say? State #50!!! I have now officially been in all of them and of those, 48 were within the last twelve years (sorry Nevada and Michigan). It wasn't something I was trying to complete until the last couple years and is a big part of the strange driving route to Alaska. So now I am on to the next list which is to plant and find letterboxes in all of them. I have some catching up to do on that though. Currently I have planted in 25 states and found at least one in 44 states (plus DC). But my real goal is to find at least ten in each state and pending some final verification, I believe 35 of them on that list.

Most of the afternoon was driving across Idaho and along the way I stopped at what I think is a great rest area near Blackfoot. It is called Hell's 1/2 Acre and is an interpretive trail through the lava fields that is run by the Bureau of Land Management (federal agency in charge of national forests and wilderness areas). I really enjoy stuff like that so spent probably an hour at the rest area walking the two trails. What is interesting is that they have a long loop and a short loop yet on them, the signs are the same. I guess they don't expect most people to do both of them and even notice that...

The day finally ended at what most brought me to this part of the country; Yellowstone National Park. OK, technically it took me to the town of West Yellowstone since I did not go to the park today but I will be out rather early tomorrow.

Of course, rather early is an interesting concept. As you know, I am travelling with a cat. Unfortunately the cat does not understand time zones so I seem to be getting up far too early most days. And he is not free fed, meaning he gets a set amount in a bowl twice a day. So it requires my filling that bowl twice a day, on the schedule of his stomach which still thinks it is in Atlanta. He is getting a little better but seeing as how I still have to more time zones to enter, it is not going to be a fun transition.

Start: Odgen, Utah

Stop: West Yellowstone, Montana

~330 Miles Driven

~7.9 Miles Walked
16 Letterboxes Found

3 Letterboxes Not Found

1 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Moving to Alaska: Day Nine

I hope this is the most boring blog I write on this trip. There really were not a lot of notable highlights today.

The most important was over the mountains, finally. The first half of the day was spent in the 7000 foot range but other than bad gas mileage, due to towing and a strong headwind, it was really not that bad. However I am sure the trailer reload back in Alabama helped a LOT.

The only other thing of interest was the Great Divide Basin. If you look at a map of the continental divide, there is a square in southern Wyoming. It is an ~4000 square mile section of land that is actually BETWEEN the continental divide. Water only goes in, it does not flow out east or west like elsewhere in the country. The only way it leaves is due to evaporation which based on the wind, is pretty easy. So it is really an extremely arid high desert. In the pioneer days, this section was bypassed either north or south and even today, there is only one town in the area. I just like oddities like this so wanted to share.

The rest of the day was coming down the mountains into Utah. It was nice to be out of the strong headwind for the first time in a few days and to see green stuff. I spent the afternoon letterboxing, mostly successfully, around Odgen. It is a very hilly town so even the little hikes tended to require some effort.

Well, that was it. Like I said, from a blog standpoint, a boring day.

Start: Laramie, Wyoming

Stop: Odgen, Utah

~420 Miles Driven

~5.7 Miles Walked
9 Letterboxes Found

5 Letterboxes Not Found

1 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Moving to Alaska: Day Eight

Today I started heading west across the plains of Nebraska, with an eventual destination about a mile higher in elevation in Wyoming. This is the start of the section that has had me most worried on the entire drive. I think I shed enough weight. I think my car can handle pulling a load over the mountains. But for now, I will ignore all that and worry about it tomorrow. Today is a bit of touristing, though still lots of miles to cover.

One thing I noticed is that it is very windy and very dusty the closer to the mountains and more and more of the roads are dirt, which doesn't help I am sure.

I had a few highlights for the day. One was a visit to an original (though relocated) Pony Express station. What is interesting about the Pony Express is that pretty much EVERYONE knows about it but in reality it only existed about 19 months. And after the brief tour I did, I also realized I don't know much about it other than the absolute basics. The entire purpose of this private company was to keep California up to date on news from the east since the Civil War was looming. Prices started at $5 for a half ounce, which today would be about $150. They would get letters 1900 miles from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento in 10 days. They had 120 riders, 400 horses and set up 184 stations approximately every ten miles. That was roughly the distance a horse could travel at full gallop. The riders had a special saddle pouch that held the mail and the compartments were locked; only someone at each end had the keys. So when they changed horses, they just grabbed the saddle pouch and kept going. Riders had to weigh less than 125 pounds (meaning most were teenagers) and would ride about 100 miles at a time, day and night, until their "shift" was up. Buffalo Bill Cody is the most famous of the riders. 

Another cool place I went is Bailey Yard, which is the largest "railroad classification" yard in the world. All Union Pacific trains go through here and they sort, service and repair them. This place is massive. The yard has 200 separate tracks totaling 315 miles of track. They also have "humps" which are used for sorting; for example if a train from the west coast comes in with items for the northeast, the midwest and the southeast, this is where they detach all the cars, change switches and let them roll downhill to the various trains below that are going in the proper direction. They average 140 trains and 14000 cars per day through here. If you like trains, you should visit.

The last of the highlights for the day was driving down windy, dusty dirt roads, literally with tumbleweeds blowing by, for 30-40 miles total to reach the Nebraska highpoint. It is amusing since it is in the middle of a field on a buffalo ranch and you can see all kinds of higher elevation in the area, including the looming mountains, but they are across the state line since this is in the very southwest corner. As with most things on this trip, towing a low trailer was not the best of plans for visiting here...

I also made a couple of dips into Colorado, one to plant a box and one to find a box, before making my way to about 8000 feet elevation for the night. I did not know this at the time, but I had bypassed the highest point on I-80 when I did my second letterbox detour.

Start: Kearney, Nebraska

Stop: Laramie, Wyoming

~460 Miles Driven

~3.9 Miles Walked
9 Letterboxes Found

2 Letterboxes Not Found

2 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Moving to Alaska: Day Seven

Today was nearly a zero day. After arriving late last night (9:30 pm or so), I spent today boxing and catching up with my friend Mitch/Der Mad Stamper. He is one of those folks who I only seem to cross paths with every couple of years so it is always a treat to get to spend some time with him. In the morning, I slept in after that very long day yesterday, and we had some breakfast before deciding to go do some letterboxing around the area. Most of the boxes in this part of Kansas were planted by Mitch or his mother so he knew where to find them all. Not that he didn't make me do the finding, he just knew which ones to skip. One of the highlight areas was the cabin where the original poem which became "Home on the Range" was written by Dr. Brewster M. Higley in the 1870's. Mitch and his girlfriend have also opened a new art shop in the town where they live so I got a tour of it as well. All in all, just a nice relaxing day and the cat stayed at their house all day not being in the car so I think he was pretty happy too.

But alas, all good things come to an end so after dinner, I had to drive in to Nebraska to stay just to get a couple hours further along since I would need those hours in a few days. And I did stop for a couple letterboxes WELL after dark on the way north too, of course. One turned out to be a bit of a hike, which I am not always in the mood for when it is late and I am alone but this day I guess I was ok with it, somewhat.

Start: Phillipsburg, Kansas

Stop: Kearney, Nebraska

~100 Miles Driven (Mitch drove for the boxing part of the day so I did not include them here)

~3.3 Miles Walked
12 Letterboxes Found

1 Letterboxes Not Found

0 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Moving to Alaska: Day Six

This is going to be a long day. Remember a couple days ago when I discovered the useless tent?!? I had forgotten that I was planning to camp tonight and then the next day drive on to visit with my friend Mitch/Der Mad Stamper in Kansas. I had originally talked to him about staying at his place but once I assembled the route, it just didn't make sense for me to be there since two days later it would make my longest day on the drive when I was crossing the Rockies, and I was already concerned that would take longer than expected. So in the morning I let him know I was up for changing plans if he didn't mind, though it also meant I had a LONG drive from nearly the Texas border in southern Oklahoma to nearly the Nebraska border in northern Kansas.

So drive I did. I stopped in Oklahoma City to plant a letterbox because, really, on this trip how could I not put a box in the town of Yukon in Canadian County? It just seems too appropriate... of course, finding a hiding spot was harder than expected but that happens sometimes. I eventually went to my backup plan for a park and was able to do something there. Yes, I even have backup plans for planting since I am the sort who prefers to know where I am putting it before going. Like in this case, I wanted it in that town so had to see what options I could find before going there.

From there I made the long drive to Wichita. I did stop for a couple boxes but knew that was only the halfway point of my day so tried to keep moving as much as possible. One of the boxes, which was missing, was actually a cool location. The photos did not turn out but they have urban art inside a storm grate; it is a giant troll chained to the metal and looking up at you. Quite amusing and one of those things that you wonder how many people even notice?

I also had a box to plant in Kansas. It is in the middle of nowhere and I still can't believe I drove down that rutted, muddy, dirt farm road for something like 15 miles round trip towing a trailer and regularly dragging bottom. But I wanted the box at that spot. It is a planted at a place where Boston Corbett used to "live" (and I use that term loosely). You actually know _OF_ Boston Corbett though not the name. He is the man who shot John Wilkes Booth (in spite of explicit orders to take him alive). But Corbett was a total nutjob. He was a hatter by trade so had mercury poisoning but he, for instance, self castrated himself with a pair of scissors to avoid temptation by prostitutes. After the war he spent some time in Kansas, eventually ending up in the Topeka Asylum for the Insane, from which he escaped. It was at that time he lived in the hole in the ground. He is presumed to have died in a fire in Minnesota a few years later. Anyway, crazy, self castrating, shot Booth because Jesus told him nutjob? Oh yeah, that needs a box.

And it is well beyond dark? That is nice. I can still visit the geographic center of the contiguous United States (way to go Alaska, you stole the "center" landmark from Kansas and gave it to South Dakota). 

Start: Ardmore, Oklahoma

Stop: Phillipsburg, Kansas

~545 Miles Driven

~3.4 Miles Walked
4 Letterboxes Found

3 Letterboxes Not Found

2 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Moving to Alaska: Day Five

Today is the first designated "short day" I am actually doing less driving and more letterboxing just for a change of pace. So the day started by visiting Eisenhower State Park to get a couple boxes then continuing on to Lake Murray State Park in Oklahoma (hello state #49) for the rest of the day.

I really don't have a lot of commentary or pictures for the day. Lake Murray was not very wet since I would walk over bridges with no water beneath them. One thing I did NOT like about letterboxing here is that the boxes were more often than not a what I felt poorly designed series. You would walk for a mile or two finding some along the way and then you were just done, the clues ended, or they would have something like "ok now go all the way back to the first bridge" which meant some long walks with nothing to break it up. The worst one was a clue that even said something like "walk until the next bridge. It took me about 20 minutes so just keep going" and they were about right on that estimate. Then after finding that one, they say "now walk back to the first bridge" which was about 30 minutes walk back the way you had just come. So a 45-50 minute walk for one box in the middle of a series, which seemed weird to me.

By far the most interesting revelation of the day for me personally is that long letterboxing days alone are not really that fun to me any longer. I have felt this way when boxing in Alaska before since when I would go visit Thao, she would go to work and I would just entertain myself but at a certain point it stops being fun and starts being something I am just doing to pass the time. So when I felt that way, I just decided to call it a day. Luckily I don't really have any more long solo days that are focused on letterboxing on the trip.

Start: Denison, Texas

Stop: Ardmore, Oklahoma

~130 Miles Driven

~10.4 Miles Walked
26 Letterboxes Found

8 Letterboxes Not Found

0 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Moving to Alaska: Day Four

We left off the last episode with our wandering hero and his fuzzy sidekick "sleeping" in a car (because, really, how do you sleep with a cat climbing all over creation?!?). And what happened? I apparently did not set the alarm. Of all days it could happen, this was probably the best since I had intended to spend a couple hours digging for diamonds. Alas, instead I had to spend about 45 minutes as well as do a hike to hide a letterbox. So my schedule for the day was really shot before it even got started.

Digging for diamonds is interesting; you pay your $8 for the day and can come and go as much as you want from 8-5. You can look, dig, dry sift or wet sift depending on your interest. Each "better" type takes more equipment and takes more time but is also more likely to produce results. I was lazy and just opted for the "look but also dig with my trowel since I have one" option. The cat supervised. The instructions are look for shiny things and then feel free to take them to the ranger on the way out and they will let you know what you have. They actually have about 1.5 diamonds found per day on average. Most are about the size of match heads. Alas, no luck for me so sorry Thao, no engagement ring for you since not finding a diamond is obviously a sign.  :)  Though in all honesty, I really would like to go back and spend a half a day, in the cooler weather, looking. So I have put Hot Springs and Crater of Diamonds on my "to return" list, meaning I guess I will be taking another trip to Arkansas one day.

Next I drove down through Texarkana Arkansas/Texas and over to Paris to do a little letterboxing. The temperature was about 98 degrees and no breeze. Yet while in Paris, it was almost black at about 430pm and it was VERY windy, but pretty. Based on the look of things, I was right at the edge of a storm. It was black to the left and clear to the right. The temperature dropped about 35 degrees in 15 minutes and it rained lightly but with the 70 mph wind, it stung (what? you thought I was not still outside letterboxing?!?). The weird thing is that the National Weather Service warning kept going off on the radio but then they would not say anything. It happened probably 6 different times. And of course about an hour later it was clear and lovely out, though much cooler still.

I also made a stop at the birthplace of Dwight Eisenhower in Denison, Texas. But as with most things, it was already closed when I got there so I just walked the outside then left.

Start: Murfreesboro, Arkansas

Stop: Denison, Texas

~250 Miles Driven

~4.8 Miles Walked
7 Letterboxes Found

4 Letterboxes Not Found

2 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Moving to Alaska: Day Three

This morning started out with a little later start because I had to wait for the U-haul office closest to where I was staying to open. Luckily I was correct about being able to just swap out the jumper cable on the lights so it only took a couple minutes before I was able to get on the road.

Today was part of why my route to Alaska is going in a non-logical direction; at the start of this drive I have been to 47 states. One of those missing ones is Arkansas so figured I might as well see the sites, as much as possible when mostly driving, towing a trailer and not stopping a lot...

In Little Rock I struggled mainly because I had a trailer so could not park anywhere and ended up having to basically skip the entire riverfront, which was on my to do list for the day. I was able to visit a couple of parks further away from downtown, including T.R Pugh Memorial Park which I recommend. Some of it was actually designed by the same man who did the Crystal Grotto in Memphis. It was weird when I was there. For the first 10 minutes there were probably 100 kids of various ages then suddenly, they were all gone. There were no buses so it is not like it was a field trip, and it was a weekday when they should have been in school so I maybe there was a school nearby and that was recess?!?

After Little Rock I went down to Hot Springs. Contrary to what most people think, Yellowstone, which was established in 1872, is not the oldest national park in the US (on a technicality). Hot Springs was created by an act of Congress in 1832 but it was not officially a "National Park" until 1921. However, schedule and cat dictated my time here so I did not get to do and see much. I have this on my return list. I also might expand on that and make a new hobby; visit the 59 official "National Parks". There are something like 400 "National Something" but most are historical sites or preserves but I figure 59, of which really only one is a total pain to visit (American Samoa), is doable. Especially when you consider that 8 of them are in Alaska.

The other fun thing I did in Hot Springs was take the cat on a hike. I have a shoulder carrying bag for him and it was just too hot to leave him in the car, so he went along. Nothing like adding an extra 15+ pounds for a hot, humid hike.

I finished the day with a late, after dark, arrival at Crater of Diamonds State Park where we would be camping for the first time on this trip. But wouldn't you know that Murphy's Law visited Murfreesboro and the tent pole strings had disintegrated?!? So I had no way to assemble the tent!!! This is the "spare" tent so not used often but really, they just fall apart while stored in the basement with all the OTHER camping stuff, including another tent?!? So we car camped unexpectedly. It was hot and muggy but since the cat was there, I would only crack the windows and I did not let in a lot of air. It is going to be a long night...

Start: Memphis, Tennessee

Stop: Murfreesboro, Arkansas

~285 Miles Driven

~7.3 Miles Walked
8 Letterboxes Found

6 Letterboxes Not Found

0 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Moving to Alaska: Day Two

I awoke feeling MUCH better about the load I was towing but still will wonder if it is too much until I get over the mountains. But nothing I can do about it at this point (or later really, since I will already be there before I know anything). On today's drive I did a few touristy things. One is to visit the grave of the longest lived Confederate veteran of the Civil War, who passed away in 1951. 

I also went to the Natural Bridge in Alabama, which is the longest natural bridge east of the Rockies. I have seen a few of these before but this one is pretty impressive. I made a short visit to the birthplace of the King in Tupelo (though only the outside items; I couldn't bring myself to buy a ticket just to look inside a couple small buildings). And for the literary folks, I made stops at the home and grave of William Faulkner. What is of note with Faulkner's grave is that he drank whiskey and people apparently take a bottle to the grave and do a shot with him then just leave the bottle. However, no shots for me since I didn't have any and none were waiting for me. Of course, a lot of this driving around was in an attempt to find my tenth letterbox in Mississippi (and I failed). For some reason I have decided I don't just want on per state, I want double digits. So I guess I have to come back here and go south next time as that is where most of them are hidden.

Anyway, after that I sped on to Memphis to plant a letterbox in a cemetery. I was in a hurry because it was getting dark and best case, most cemeteries close at dusk. Low and behold, this one was open until 10pm!!! Had I known I would have not worried. I highly recommend you visit Memorial Park Cemetery and find the Crystal Grotto. It alone is worth visiting the cemetery (and what drew me here).

I also stopped to go grocery shopping. I know, you are thinking "really, he has to talk about that in this blog?!?" but there is a reason. When I came out I actually checked the chains on the trailer which I have been pretty good about doing every morning but since I knew I had hit a few low spots near the end of the day, wanted to check again. And what I noticed about made me cry. The cable that powers the lights on the trailer had come unplugged and the actual plug was melted from road friction and unusable!!!

So in my head I am thinking "Hell no I am not reloading this trailer, you will just cut the end of the cable off and attach a new connector" but then I realized it was a jumper cable, maybe 4 foot, so I just needed to replace the jumper and I would have lights again.

So for the first full day the cat did fine, mostly slept in the backseat and I got my butt kicked letterboxing; that is the down side to hunting in a place with no real active people and older boxes.

Start: Oxford, Alabama

Stop: Memphis, Tennessee

~430 Miles Driven

~5.4 Miles Walked
6 Letterboxes Found

6 Letterboxes Not Found

3 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Moving to Alaska: Day One

Well today is the day. I picked up a UHaul trailer and spent the weekend packing it. I have been targetting a noon departure for the last couple weeks. And I am a packing savant since to me it is just a giant game of Tetris, and I was VERY good at Tetris back in college when I played it. The normal rules of travelling and packing with me is make a pile of all the stuff so I can see it and just stand out of the way unless I specifically ask for an item. However, this time it is different since I have to drag that crap all the way across country and over the Rocky Mountains three times!!! So of course that means on the night I am stating an epic roadtrip I was up until after midnight finishing the packing and woke up at 3am to start pulling things out of the trailer. I had done a mental approximation and was afraid I had too much weight since I am towing with a small car, so have a much lower maximum than most people who do things like this. Anyway, I rearranged/repacked and took out about 150 pounds of stuff. And I only missed my ETD by about an hour.

The first day was not designed to be a long one, hence the noon start. It was more to avoid having to start at 6am the next day and fight rushhour traffic all the way across Atlanta. So I was only going to around Talladega in Alabama. I had scoped out a campground close to where I would be letterboxing so planned stay there the first night.

So back to the tale, I was planning to do some letterboxing around Cheaha State Park. I went to the state highpoint, I power hiked down a trail well after dark and had to climb a ton of stairs to get to the spot, I never got a call back on my reservation voicemail at the campground, which I would not find anyway since I just drove to where I had mapped it on the GPS, and eventually just headed back near the interstate to get a hotel. Oh, and remember that trailer that I removed weight from? It dragged a lot and struggled with the hills in Alabama. That does NOT bode well for the Rockies...

About the time I was finishing for the day I was texting my friend Erica a bit since she had helped me with the final packing and even mailing the 150 pounds I previously removed. The gist of the conversation was that I had a slower day coming up a few days from now in Oklahoma so I was going to remove and mail some stuff from the trailer (again). But she mentioned/volunteered that her boyfriend DOES live about 20 minutes away from where I was staying so maybe I could just go ahead and do it then and be done with it. [Mental Process: Find strong boxes, unload trailer, reload trailer, pack boxes, find post office, ship versus unload trailer, reload trailer, have Stewart take stuff to Erica to pack and send (who obviously loves me for even suggesting this)] Once I finally talked to Stewart, I began unpacking the entire trailer in the hotel parking lot because of course, the item I knew was the heaviest was center/front/bottom. I had about half of it out when Stewart and his two sons arrived and we quickly got it out, then I want through a few things trying to scrape together another 50-100 pounds of stuff (computer stuff, tools mostly) to also have shipped. I was up way too late and completely exhausted but glad to have that done. So again, thanks Stewart and Erica.

Start: Suwanee, Georgia

Stop: Oxford, Alabama

~200 Miles Driven

~8.5 Miles Walked
4 Letterboxes Found

1 Letterboxes Not Found

0 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos

Back From the Dead

OK, so this post is really a multiyear catch up post but the Readers Digest version is that I am moving to Anchorage Alaska and thought reviving my old blogger account was a simple way to at least try and keep in touch with friends and to stay connected while on my long drive across country. Yes, I am driving to Alaska and not taking an even remotely logical route. Oh, and there is a cat with me.

Here is the background for those who may not know it. In early 2012 I started going out with a girl, Thao, and just about the time we really started to figure stuff out, she was offered a job (which she has previously applied for) with the Peace Corp in Africa. She actually turned that down, in some part because of me (or at least that is what I keep telling myself). Well, a couple weeks later she was offered a internship through the CDC (which I actually helped her work on, what was I thinking?!?). A slight pause here, she already worked at the CDC in the Hepatitis lab but wanted to get more into Public Health and Policy so anyway, she was offered a job with the CDC but unfortunately for me and us, they assign you a place, you don't get to pick. And she was offered Anchorage, Alaska!!! I asked her if there was any chance I could talk her out of it again and was pretty much told "no". So long story short, we decided that while we had not been together a really long time, there seemed to be something good happening there so we were going to try making it work since it was only a two year assignment.

A two year assignment you say? So why am I moving? Well, the entire point of the program is to train people to get them into state Public Health jobs. And after about 18 months with the CDC program she actually accepted a fulltime job with the State of Alaska. So now there was no longer an "deadline" for her time there and after many long conversations about us and our future, I decided to go so spent 6+ months getting rid of as much stuff as I could and started planning to move. The funny thing is, it would have probably happened sooner but in January we had purchased tickets to visit Vietnam and I thought it would be silly to fly across country just to fly back so did not move over the summer when it made more sense. Now, I am actually worried about snow on the trip so hopefully it will just stay away until the end of October.

Back to the trip. So this is a vacation/roadtrip/letterboxing opportunity for me. Yes, for those who don't know, letterboxing is a major hobby of mine so that is part of why I am taking such a bizarre route; I am on the hunt as well. If you don't know what it is, a little simple research will help you understand but the Cliff's Notes version is someone hides a rubber stamp, writes clues to direct you to the location. You follow the clues (some extremely simple, some damned near impossible) and find the stamp, take am imprint of it for your logbook and imprint your own personal stamp (your avatar is a good way to think about it; an image that is "you") the put it back and move on to the next one. It is similar in concept to the much newer geocaching (1854 versus 2000) for those of you who are familiar with it.

So I am taking a route that roughly is outlined below with "highlighted" stops for letterboxing and/or touristing.

Day 1: Suwanee, Georgia to Talladega, Alabama with stops in Cheaha Mountain State Park and the Talladega National Forest.

Day 2: Talladega, Alabama to Memphis, Tennesse with stops in Tupelo, Mississippi, Oxford Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee.

Day 3: Memphis, Tennesse to Murfreesboro, Arkansas with stops in Little Rock, Arkansas and Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Day 4: Murfreesboro, Arkansas to Denison ,Texas with stops at Crater of Diamonds State Park (because really, how cool is it to be able to dig for your own diamonds?!?), Texarkana, Arkansas/Texas and Eisenhower State Park.

Day 5: Denison, Texas to Ardmore, Oklahoma with most of the day spent at Lake Murray State Park, Oklahoma.

Day 6: Ardmore, Oklahoma to Glen Elder, Kansas with stops in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Wichita, Kansas.

Day 7: Glen Elder, Kansas to Kearney, Nebraska with stops at Smith Center, Kansas (middle of continental US) and Phillipsburg, Kansas (to visit a friend).

Day 8: Kearney, Nebraska to Laramie, Wyoming with a stop at the Nebraska State Highpoint and a dip into Colorado to find and plant a letterbox (yup, not much else of note happening this day).

Day 9: Laramie, Wyoming to Ogden, Utah with, well, no real stops along the way other than to get out of the car every couple hours. This is "Cross the Rockies, Round One" Day. The other one or two will be in Canada.

Day 10: Ogden, Utah to West Yellowstone, Montana with a stop at what sounds like one of the best rest areas I have ever heard of in Blackfoot, Idaho.

Day 11: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming with a side trip through Montana to find and plant letterboxes.

Day 12: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

Day 13: West Yellowstone, Montana to Twin Falls, Idaho with a stop at Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho.

Day 14: Twin Falls, Idaho to Pendleton, Oregon with stops at Shoshone Falls and Idaho, Boise, Idaho.

Day 15: Pendleton, Oregon to Seattle area, Washington with nothing planned. I am going to stay with friends in Alki Beach and pick Thao up at the airport on Day 17; this is just my buffer in case I get behind schedule for some reason.

Day 16: Seattle area, Washington

Day 17: Seattle area, Washington to Vancouver, British Columbia with stops at SEATAC Airport to pick up a certain girl... then we are spending half a day in Vancouver just being tourists.

Day 18: Vancouver, British Columbia to Prince Georgie, British Columbia

Day 19 through 21: now it gets interesting; there are two routes and the option will depend on the weather. One is to cut back over the Rockies to Dawson Creek, British Columbia and take the Alaska Highway. The other is to head up the Cassiar Highway through British Columbia which meets back up with the Alaska Highway at about mile 650. These are mostly driving days as there are not a lot of things to stop at see. To give folks an idea, it is approximately 2200 miles from Seattle to Anchorage so that is still a VERY long way to go.

Day 22: Arrive in Anchorage, Alaska and start my new life.

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos