As you may have noticed, I've added the pictures and some entries from the final two days of our trip. It certainly was quite an adventure - thanks for following along!

You can stay tuned here to see what we're up to in Anchorage (what mountains we're climbing, trails we're hiking, rivers we're kayaking, cats we're scooping up after). You may also be able to see some random comments about the world ... politics, religion ... and, as we're snowed in come January, maybe some pictures of the Northern Lights.

We're actively looking for houses around here at the moment, which can be exhausting. Tomorrow, we're moving hotels to one that has a kitchen--we're really excited about cooking some chili tomorrow night.

Well, we made it to Anchorage, AK, after over 6,000 miles of travel. I still owe you a couple of posts and plenty of pictures yet! Look for them later today or tomorrow - I will have to back-date them so they make sense. We had a great dinner tonight at the Glacier Brewery, where they brew their own beers (and even root beers for Char).

So, if you've reviewed the pictures from Day 15, the day of many animal sightings, you may notice that I have mis-labeled some large game ... confusing moose with caribou with elk with mule deer or who knows what. Just understand that we're from Florida, and the largest game we've seen up to this point has been the racoons in our trash cans. SO .. we're working on it! Any help correctly identifying the animals in the photos will win you a kick in the pants. Send an e-mail or, better yet, post a comment!

We managed to drive a bit further than we thought the past couple of days, which made for an easy 6-hour ride into Anchorage, which included several stops for pictures and even a lunch break to let the cats stretch (Two was very fussy).

The trip through Western Alaska was beautiful—we are so excited to be living here! It is about 60 degrees outside for most of the day. Last night, the sun began setting at about 11:45 or so. We crossed into Alaska Time Zone today, which is Pacific – 1:00. I guess Sunday football games will start at 8:30 AM or so.

There is a good sized highway that starts about 60 miles out of Anchorage that runs into the city. Traffic seemed to flow pretty well overall. We’ll see how it is in rush hour. It’s amazing to me that all of this big-city business happens with snow-capped mountains staring at you from every side.

Today we traveled through Yukon Territory and crossed the border back into the USA! The Alcan Highway is famous because of this stretch of roads. We rode the rollercoaster for hours. The road is full of potholes and huge bumps followed by curves and long stretches of gravel. I kept the speed up on the car just for fun. The cats really enjoyed all the bouncing around, I think because it rocked them to sleep.

If you have driven through Death Valley, these roads make Death Valley seem like a drive down I-10 in Florida. The bumps were easily 2-3 feet high and came in patterns especially designed to jar your teeth.

The Canada/Alaska border was pretty cool. There’s a bit of history there regarding the border, and you can stand in Canada and in the US at the same time (I don’t know why that seems cool).

We’re stayed in Tok, Alaska, at a nice campground. Alaska is impressive and so far looks a lot like the Yukon, only with much better roads and cheaper gas. By the way, gas in Canada is about CDN$1.25 per liter, which equates to about US$4.60 per gallon. It’s even more expensive in the more remote areas (duh). On the Alaska side of the border, we paid about $3.10 per gallon. Glad we don’t drive a Hummer.

Unexpectedly, we drove over 700 miles today in about 13+ hours. The cats were very well behaved the ENTIRE time, which was a miracle. And they did get a treat when we stopped.

Between Ft St John and Watson Lake, we saw a TON of wildlife. We started the morning with a close look at a small black bear. Then some moose came trotting out of the woods. We got a good look at some caribou (cariboo in the Queen’s English). We must’ve also seen about 30 Stone Sheep (or, as Char likes to call them, Rock Sheep). These guys are amazing. They will just scamper right up a rocky hillside like they were running across an open plain. Incredible. We also saw deer and bison.

What a fun day! It is good to have made some ground, and the drives on tomorrow and Friday will not be so bad. Tomorrow, the goal is Tok, AK, and back to the USA! (I’ve got to get rid of this Canadian money.)

Sorry for backdating some of these posts. The internet here in Canada has been sketchy at best.

Also, all pictures are not quite up yet. The bandwidth is killer ... Check here for updates.

We are astounded by the depth of the landscape and the beauty of the scenery in Canada, eh! We are still on the lookout for wildlife, although we haven’t seen much.

This part of the highway is surprisingly crowded. It doesn’t look like we’ll have a shortage of places to stay for the time being. Every 20 miles or so there is an RV “Resort” (they call them resorts … they are really nothing like the Hilton or anything), so that was reassuring. Also, gas doesn’t seem to be a problem to find.

By the way, D$, I did have a Canadian beer just for you. (Picture available.)

On Day 14, we did have a 90-mile stretch without gas, but there was plenty of warning. If you ever make this trip, you HAVE to have a Milepost book. This thing is a lifesaver. It tells you, mile-by-mile, exactly what’s happening along the way. When we stopped today, the host-camper at the RV park where we stayed brought us a plate of stew. This really hit the spot because we were so hungry and tired and did not feel like making anything. Up for an early morning tomorrow!

We woke up early to go to the Pike Street Market and found a spot on the rainy Sunday. After finding some coffee (easier than you think in Seattle), we made our way through to the market.

The fish people at the market are crazy. They throw fish and tell jokes and scare old women and children. It’s hilarious. People gather all around just to watch them sell fish. They wrote a book about how to have fun at work. We bought some salmon from them which you can see being chucked in the picture. I also got a dozen oysters which I ate later that night in Vancouver. (Yes, we did steam oysters in the camper.)

Vancouver was cool – we took the driving tour. It has a really cool section of town called “Gastown”, which we would like to visit longer when we go back. They also have a *huge* Chinatown (second only to San Francisco … and I guess, China).

We started this morning early, with an 7:00 AM PDT appointment for new trailer tires and an oil change. We found a nearby bakery to eat some delicious pastries while we waited. Their coffee was pretty good, too.

After the work was completed, we headed to the Portland Japanese Gardens and the Rose Garden. They were quite wonderful. I’ve attached just a few photos of the great gardens. It was very relaxing to wander through and loose ourselves in especially the Japanese garden. The roses were only partly in bloom – we are probably here about one week too early. But we did see some roses.

After the gardens, we stopped at Javier’s Taco Stand, which had delicious tacos. It brought me back to my days in Morelia, Michoacan. Ah, those were the days.

We spent the (relatively) short drive to Seattle trying to make reservations in Anchorage and future days of our trip. Before you ask, I don’t know why I didn’t do that way earlier. Anyway, since I was on the phone and Char was looking up hotels in the AAA guide, we missed our exit by about 30 miles. Oh well. We just ended up at an RV park closer to downtown Seattle and further from Olympia National Park. No big deal.

We spent the evening in the Space Needle and grabbed some dinner at a fantastic seafood pub with delicious (and potent) local brew. Very nice!

Crater Lake National Park in Oregon lives inside an exploded volcano that collapsed on itself. This makes it one of the deepest lakes in the world at roughly 1900 feet deep. Large mountains and beautiful terrain surround the lake, and in late May, when you may expect the weather to be warm like spring, the North access to the park remains closed due to impassable snow.

We spent the better part of the morning biking and hiking through the park, since only a small portion of it, accessible from the south, was open to road traffic. We entertained ourselves with the majestic views and by playing in the snow.

Our campsite, Prospect RV Resort, let us check out late. The Prospector told us, “Check-in time is when you get here, check-out is when you leave!” So we left the cats for the morning and came back for them on our way to Portland. All Day 10 Pictures are here!

Portland will be some quick sightseeing and some car work (oil change, trailer tires). Just two more days in the continental US.

OK, so, on a picture caption from Day 1, I made a comment, "Char crying in disbelief." Well, in reality, this was some creative license. There's no crying on Dunn Car Trips (that's Rule #2 -- for Rule #1, ask Josh Gaines). Anyway, we were laughing at it all almost the entire time. The only time the mood on this trip has been anything other than bliss and excitement is the 20-minute stretch where Pi WOULD NOT SHUT UP. I mean, really, she is obnoxious. Also, if Char gets hungry ... that'll put things on edge too. But that's it. NO crying. Char has received several e-mails of concern for her well-being. She says, "MIKE, TELL THEM I WASN'T UPSET!" So, here you go!

Admin: Adam let me know that the "Contact Us" link was broken. That's been fixed. Thanks Adam!

Redwood and Sequoia trees are gargantuan. I felt like a dwarf roaming among these trees. When you approach a tree that you can’t even begin to put your arms around you, you get the feeling of small. We had a good time walking among the trees and seeing their grandeur and bigness.

We decided to take a detour from Redwood to go toward Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. I think that was a good decision. We’ve arrived in Prospect, OR, to camp for the evening. What a great small town this is! Our camp site is wonderful—great people who are so excited to have us around. The town is small—population of about 1,000 or so—but there is still a lot to see! We’ve taken the waterfall tour here in town that includes three different waterfalls. It was a great, relaxing evening.

Tomorrow, off to Crater Lake!

All Day 9 pictures ...

We had better views of the Golden Gate bridge in the daylight, so it was good to see the famous landmark as we were leaving town.

California wine country is neat – a lot of vineyards. Unfortunately, we got a late start today because One, Two, and Pi visited a local vet to get health certificates (requirement to cross the Canadian border – only good for 10 days). So, by the time we got to the vineyards (SF traffic isn’t the greatest), they were all closed for tastings.

Fortunately for you, we didn’t take any pictures of our campsite near Redwood. If you really want to know what it is like, I’m sure we will be in “Deliverance II – the escape” as the couple who barely made it out alive. Let’s just say that when we arrived (10 PM) until we went to bed (1:00 AM), we were trying to find working power for our heater and someone was using a tile-saw to work on the showers that we couldn’t use.

All Day 8 pics

Driving from Yosemite through California toward San Francisco, our journey was delayed slightly by a large herd of cattle being shoveled across the road by real-life cowboys (and cowgirls). It was the strangest thing – we were driving along the highway and all of a sudden a cowgirl is flagging us down telling us to stop. They finish moving the cows across the road and we continue to San Francisco.

We went downtown for a lovely dinner with an overlook of the Bay. We ate at Alito’s, where we enjoyed Sicilian-style seafood dishes and delicious bread. Some boisterous Sicilian family arrived toward the end of our meal; we had fun watching them yell and curse at each other in that affectionate Sicilian way.

After a visit to Ghirardelli square to procure some chocolate, we took quite a few pictures of Alcatraz Island (left) and the Golden Gate bridge (right). After a quick swim out to Alcatraz and back, we returned to our car for our trip back to our lovely RV park in Pacifica.

All pics from Day 7

Yosemite National Park should be on everyone’s “Things I must do before I die” list! It is so beautiful. There are miles and miles of hiking trails. We came in from the east side, Tioga Pass. It just opened three days ago due to the winter weather. It normally does not open until late May. The mountains are stunning. Some of them are surrounded by streams and waterfalls. Just beautiful.

I think we took just over 300 pictures. Unfortunately, I can’t post them all, but you can at least get a taste.

We saw lots of climbers, which made me jealous. I want to climb those rocks! (Mityob, are you reading this?!?) They move very slowly (not like at the rock climbing gym). I guess that’s because they go thousands of feet and not eighty.

It’s hard to give one part of the park preference over another; it’s all so grand. I really liked the drive in from the East side where it is high (altitude) and still very snowy and cool. Some of the mountain views there made me cry (well, almost). On the other hand, the waterfalls and streams were also eye-wetting (hah!). So, I wish we had another day to do some more hiking (Char is glad we don’t—I like the 8-10 hour hikes, she likes the 1.5 hour hikes). But it was a great trip. Give yourself three days if you like to hike; you could spend years here.

Find more pictures here: http://www.onetwopi.com/pics/Day6/

Death Valley National Park is the coolest thing on the face of the planet! I am genuinely disappointed we didn’t have much more time to spend there. The views were incredible. The history is incredible! 20-mile mule teams & borax!

Anyway, we just drove right through, enjoying the vistas. This is where Jamal (the Subaru Forester) was put to the test! We went from 190 feet below sea level to over 5,000 feet sea level in a very few miles. It’s 8% grade for 17 miles, then it goes back down, then you have 5-6% grade for many, many more miles. We did run with the a/c off in the car for a while to prevent overheating. They have these random “do not drink” radiator refill water stations every so often. Jamal did just fine pulling an overweight Tons of Fun.

We arrived to our lovely campsite in Lee Vining, CA at about 6:15 PM PDT.

Welcome to Las Vegas! We arrived at about 2:30 PM to 101 degree heat. After putting up Tons of Fun (the camper) as fast as possible, getting the A/C going, and stowing the cats, we changed clothes and headed out on the town.

I received two phone calls in that process. My boy, Carlos (popularly known as Carlos del Rio don Sanchez el Suave), gave me a ring to say “Hola, mi amigo!” Most of you know, my Spanish is flawless … regardless, it was great to hear from my good friend.

Then, my good friend Leah (popularly known as Leah) called and asked where to find some good beef jerky in Oklahoma City. Yes, it is weird that I know these things, but I do, so keep your questions coming, people!! I love talkin’ to ya! Congratulations, Leah, on your checkride and good luck with your upcoming trip and then MQT.

So, Vegas is almost just like I pictured it. It’s huge; the buildings are huge, and the entertainment is huge. It’s a big adult playground, really. We went from the Luxor to Excalibur, then down to MGM Grand, Paris, Venitian (where we rode the gondolas), back around to Bellagio, Caesar’s Palace, and probably a few I missed. Since we didn’t have a ton of time, we mostly just took the overview tour and found out where we would spend some time and see some shows when we came back.

Since you asked, I did play a few hands of poker at Bellagio, $4/$8 limit. I didn’t lose all of my money. I’m sure if I’d had more time, I certainly would’ve come home a millionaire. Char lost our future kids' college funds in penny slots (~ $2).

Get the pics!

What a great adventure to the Grand Canyon. (Or, as they say here locally, Gran Cañon.) It is truly the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. We did a little bit of biking on a trail where we weren’t supposed to bike (whoops) and didn’t wear helmets although we were supposed to (whoops). We did get to put our bikes on the cool bike rack on the front of the shuttle bus.

We took a ridiculously long, difficult hike down into the canyon. We turned around before we were angry, which is more than we could say about most of the rest of the visitors.

I’ll have to let the pictures say the rest! Great trip!

Check out all of the pics at http://www.onetwopi.com/pics/Day3/

After a day’s delay in Albuquerque, we’re headed off toward the Grand Canyon. We end up losing about half a day due to the maintenance delays. So, instead of 1.5 days at the Grand Canyon, well just have one day. If we really like it, maybe we’ll stay an extra day there and cut something short later in the trip.

Today we were stranded for most of the day; we dropped off our car at the Subaru dealership this morning. We didn’t see much of Albuquerque due to the fact that we didn’t have a car. We ate at this ridiculously gross greasy spoon for lunch and ended up eating more Pepto Bismol than we did food.

We headed out toward Williams, AZ (about four hours away from Albuquerque) at about 6:15 PM. The car seems to be running OK so far. Hopefully that will be the first and last incident.

After eating some gas station turkey sandwiches for dinner, we arrived in Williams at about midnight. We got set up and cleaned up and crashed. One, Two, and Pi all decided to share the (ridiculously) small bed with us. Very cozy.

Tomorrow morning it’s off to the Grand Canyon (about 1.5 hours north of Williams). We’ll get a good start in the AM and look forward to a full day.

Boring Pictures

After a nice goodbye with Josh and Anna, our roommates in Oklahoma City (more on them later), we pulled out of the driveway at 9:37 AM. Making three left turns instead of a right to avoid some cars in the road (at Char's request), we hit the Interstate and headed West.

It went fine for several hours. Even Pi was (sort of) quiet.

Then, it all went SOUTH. Fast.

Cell phone coverage is scattered in rural New Mexico. I did manage half a call with Leah who got a Q1 on her checkride today (YEAH!) and a brief call with the in-laws. My phone coverage with USAA for my insurance claim and AAA for towing was not as good.

Cruising down I-40 at the breakneck speed of 55 MPH, a large truck tire suddenly appeared in the middle of my lane. (I think they pop out of the ground in New Mexico.) Because I had just had some trouble with the trailer swaying, I wasn't about to swerve out of the way and flip Tons of Fun into the ditch. So, I slowed a bit, then hit the thing head on. That's where the fun started. I pulled over to inspect the damage because it sounded like I hit an angry moose.

That ripped a hole in my front bumper. More like a giant crack, really. "Well, that sucks," I thought, but I thought it was just cosmetic. Then I turned the car back on and every light on the dash was blinking angrily. It turns out that the car wouldn't shift anymore and the 'AT OIL TEMP' light kept flashing and the 'CHECK ENGINE' light stayed on.

The goal was to make it to Albuquerque this evening and stay at a campground just west of the city. Well, we made it to Albuquerque, only we're parked just east of the Subaru dealership at the local Roach Motel. And, we kept 30 miles off of our car as it was towed from Podunk, NM into the big city.

I thought I would start the trip off by introducing you to our home for the next few weeks. Nicknamed "Tons of Fun", this wild adventure of a pop-up is 15 feet long, 6 feet wide, and between two and eight feet high depending on where you're standing. And it's not named "Tons of Fun" for no reason, folks. This little puppy is guaranteed to give you a good time. I mean .. you get it.

It has a three-burner stove, a mini-frig, an A/C unit, a table, and a baby grand piano. We like to cook in the little guy. What's on the menu, you ask? Day 1 - Chicken a la Shake & Bake (toaster oven style), Day 2 - Chicken fajitas, Day 3 - Spaghetti, Day 4 - sushi. No wait, Day 4 was something else, but I don't remember.

Anyway, I left you more pictures here. Look under Day 0.

Time to go to the grocery store!

It appears that the trip to Alaska is at our door! I thought it was a bit further off, but we're leaving on Thursday to maximize our time on the road.

Synopsis:
Leave Date: 9 May 07
Arrival Date: 25 May 07
Travel Days: 17
Total Miles: 5,300
Why?: I'm in the USAF and is being relocated from Oklahoma City (Tinker AFB) to Anchorage (Elmendorf AFB). I'm an ABM on the E-3 AWACS (more on that later).

The Plan:
West to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon
Northwest to Las Vegas
Through Death Valley to Yosimite
Across to San Francisco
North to Redwood
Continue North to Portland
Next to Seattle
Cross the border to Vancouver
North through Canada via the Alcan Highway
Arrive in Anchorage with no breakdowns, flats, or freaked out cats

More to come soon on our last minute packing process!

We've undergone quite a redesign here at onetwopi.com. We wanted to make it easy for us to use the site to update everyone on our pending trip to Alaska. Pending as in ... starts this Wednesday.

Hopefully you enjoy the site. We welcome your feedback via comments or e-mail.