Day 43-45

We made it home late at night on 8/5, making it a 45 day adventure. The last two days we drove 805 and 758 miles. The trip odometer totaled 11,000 miles EXACTLY. It flipped to 11000 when I hit our driveway which I thought was very cool (easy to remember!) I was wheel man the entire way, but Mary was an outstanding navigator and "in-flight attendant" for both me and the kids. Considering the miles, I am also very proud of our two teenagers...they are road warriors. The only snag we had regarding traffic was hitting Chicago rush hour traffic on I-94...that pretty much sucked. The truck and trailer performed very well. I was glad to have the big diesel in the mountains. And oh boy did we travel mountains. We figure 70% of our trip was in one of the mountains ranges whether the Big horns, Rockies, Canadian Rockies, the list goes on and on! The only trailer casualties were direct rock hits to the low point drain on the trailer, which I cobbled together with plumbers tape, gorilla tape, and zip ties, as welll as a cracked light cover from another rock strike. We got two oil changes, with a third due now, oil filter, and a set of tires (I should have gotten new ones when we left because they were at the end of their life cycle almost). We never got a flat tire but I pushed it on the right rear trailer tire. It is worn down to nothing on the outside, but it held. Ironically, on our first day home, Mary had to perform first aid on the lawn care guy. He got bit by a large spider while weed whipping the yard (I know, what the hell?) and Mary got him Bactine and other stuff out of the trailer. Our black Lab also was a great asset. In fact, this morning he jumped in the pickup and just sat in there for about an hour as we unloaded. It was as if he was saying, "C'mon guys lets get going!" We are RV fans now. We met a lot of great people the past month and a half. Especially a family from Maryland who we met while zip-lining in Talkeetna. We plan on seeing them again someday (Abe, you are forewarned). This is most likely the last post. I will add some photos over the next day or so. Thanks for following us on this journey...it was awesome and we are planning the next one already!!

Day 42

Jasper and Banff are beautiful places. We left there this morning. We made a family decision to make a break for home. We put 570 miles on today and stopped in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. We may make it home by 8/5. More pics below.

Day 39-42

In Dawson Creek where the Alaska Highway begins and runs 1523 miles to Fairbanks. Going to Jasper today. Will post pics when I can.

Day 38

Drove through Yukon and into British Columbia. BC is so beautiful! Went over Canadian Rockies today and saw tons of wildlife, including sheep, bison, and one black bear (unable to get pic of bear). Added pics below. Be sure to view "web version" if your not seeing pics. Thanks for lookin'!!

Days 35-38

We are back in Yukon. No phone service past couple days. Getting groceriesand oil change as I write. In Watson Lake whose claim to fame is a display of signs that covers a city block. All kinds of signs from all over the world. Couple pics below.

Day 32-34

We have spent the past couple days in Fairbanks. We start home tomorrow and will enter the Yukon again. Luke has caught a few Grayling on his fly rod. I had one rise but unable to get one thus far. Spent yesterday cleaning the exterior of truck and trailer. Both were filthy! We are all somewhat excited to start home to see friends / family. A few things of note: -there have been very few mosquitoes ( I'm told due to light snowfall last winter) - Lansing got more snow than Anchorage last winter - temps are cool. 40's and 50's at night. 60's during the day. For me, that is perfect. - don't bypass a fuel/gas station if in doubt, top off. In places they can be scarce - fuel and groceries cost a bit more but not as bad as I anticipated - fishing regulations can be quite confusing. Each region has different rules such as closed to certain species, fly rod only, bag limits, etc. - RV folks are pretty friendly. We have met a lot of nice folks -just about every state in nation is represented -methods of camping here varies considerably from sleeping in trucks, tents, and modified cargo trailers to gigantic class A rv's and everything in between - I have not watched sports center in 34 days As always thanks for looking!

Day 30(I think)- Denali

We are on Denali National Park. Hiking, sled dog tour tomorrow. White water rafting day after. Pics below.

Day 27-30

Hello! We finally got onto the water and caught our limit of halibut, and yes, Dan caught the biggest fish in our group of six (closely followed by Mary's fish). We camped in Turnagain Pass Tuesday night and today we reached Talkeetna. It is starting to rain but we plan on keeping our zip-line activity later today. We also drove down to the Homer "spit" which is a thin peninsula that stretches out into the ocean. It is filled with shops and campers and fishermen in the summer. I believe it is also home port of the Time Bandit from the Deadliest Catch series. I was told the ship was out salmon fisshing when we were there. The last several days were spent in the Kenai Peninsula where folks from Anchorage go to play, fish, etc. Like evrything here it is vast, but there are some highly developed areas such as Soldotna. Sorry for the typos (which I'm not bothering to fix). We leave for Denali tomorrow. Will be there three days and not expected to have any connectivity. New pics posted below. Take care and thanks for looking.

Day 26-Ninichilik, AK

Today is Sunday 7/19. The trip is flying by!! Our halibut charter got pushed to Monday. It is a beautiful day today but other groups got pushed to today so hopefully our turn is tomorrow. The boat have been coming in with good catches of halibut. In fact one is coming in now and I will post a pic below of their catch if I can. The days are very LONG. We go to bed around 11pm to 12am and it is not dark. We rise as early as 5am and it is already light outside. You sort of have to remind yourself to get some sleep. Alaska is somewhat expensive as well, for groceries, gas, beer, etc. But we expected that too. For the gearheads out there, I'm about 6300 miles into the trip and averaging 11mpg with the 6.7L Cummins Diesel. I planned on 10mpg so anything over that is a bonus. I also put a new set of tires on in Eagle River a week or so ago. The other tires were borderline when we started and toast by the time I changed them. I will have to get a second oil change pretty soon when we start back home. As always, thanks for looking........the Pekrul's

Days 23-25

We spent two days in Seward where it rained alot. But we fished anyway. Our sea kayaking was cancelled due to the wind. We are now in Ninichilik about 30 miles north of Homer. Supposed to Halibut fish tomorrow but high winds may cancel it as well. We did catch some nice Dolly Varden today in a river nearby. Pics below hopefully.

Day 22-Anchorage

We are camped in Eagle River, about 10 miles north of Anchorage. The 300 mile drive here from Valdez offered the most beautiful scenery to date, which I didn't think was possible to improve upon. Pics posted below....pictures just cannot do the views justice. They are spectacular!!

Day 21-Valdez

We leave Valdez for Anchorage tomorrow. A mere 300 mile jaunt which will take several hours because of these things called mountains. Sorta feel like a billy goat after all this mountain driving! We also leave Valdez with many pounds of salmon fillets. We caught 12 beautiful, large pink salmon today. From shore no less. I will post pics later (scroll all the way down for pics).

Days 19-20

The past day/night we spent in Tok, Ak. Today and tomorrow we are in Valdez. We are going to salmon fish tomorrow even though it is rainy. Nothing exciting to report other than the dog's tail got shut in the truck door this morning....he is o.k.

Days 16-18

We are camped in Destruction Bay Yukon today on a beautiful lake. Last two days in Skagway Alaska. Hit 5000 miles on the trip odometer today, which is about half way regarding mileage. I have provided medical assistance to two separate people so far. The first was a teenage lad who layed his leg open badly after falling off his bicycle on a rough trail along a river. He was sitting there bleeding and waiting for help when I got there, coming back from fishing. The "local guy" showed up with a pack with first aid stuff. He looked at the laceration (tibia exposed right below knee)and asked if I knew first aid. When I said yes he handed me the pack and said he would open the trail head gate for a vehicle and left. I bandaged the kid up and helped load him in a pick-up to go the the ER. The second was a lady who approached us on a trail head parking lot in Skagway. She had fallen and either sprained or broke her wrist. I gave she and her husband a ride the two miles back to their cruise ship. They were from CA and lived near my buddy Tom Smart. Anyway, things are going great! I will post some pics down below.

Day 13-15

We are in the Yukon. Driving through British Columbia took a few days. it is enormous. It makes the U.P. Look like Greektown. Will try to post pics but am on a diner's wi-fi and keep getting booted

Day 12-Happy July 4th

We will be without wi-fi for a few days. If you have not caught on yet, the pics posted are at the bottom of the page so you must scroll down :-). Will post again when possible. Take care.

Days 5-11

Wow. We have been without connectivity for several days. Even we we are supposed to have it, we don't. We are now in British Columbia, having went through customs this afternoon. The two days prior to that we spent in the Olympic National Park on the Pacific Ocean. It was awesome. We have video of a bull elk feeding in a creek bed from about twenty yards away. Prior to that was St. Regis, Montana where we caught some trout in the Clark Fork River. Prior to that was two days in Yellowstone. There were stops in between but the days are running together in a blur! Will post more pics when. I can.

Day 4

Friday was Mt. Rushmore and a drive on 85 through the Black Hills before reconnecting with I-90. Spending the night in Buffalo Wyoming tonight. We will make Yellowstone on Saturday and spend two days there.

Day 3

We drove through heavy storms in South Dakota on Thursday. Spent the night in the Badlands and toured them despite the storms. Saw lots of wildlife including sheep and antelope.

Day 2

We are in Chamberlain South Dakota on the Missouri River. The kids caught a couple white bass and one walleye from the pier. Have pics but having trouble posting them. I will get it figured out. They are on a separate device. Mt. Rushmore tomorrow. Thanks for reading...

Day 1

Put in a 12 hour day, including breaks. Staying the night in Des Moines Iowa. On to South Dakota tomorrow.

Eight Hours

Roughly 8 hours from lift off.  Today was hectic.  Felt like a squirrel in the fall, rushing around burying nuts (yeah that sounds bad) but seemingly getting nowhere.  The truck is loaded. The trailer is loaded.  Intend on grabbing a few hours of sleep and leaving before sunrise.  Thanks for reading.....

Two Days Out!

Most in law enforcement are familiar with the concept of "you have to get there safely in order to help someone" or some variation thereof.  In that vain, Saturday morning was spent on the truck.  I suspected the dealership was using some crappy oil and bought supplies to change it myself, which I hadn't done in years.  Luckily, a buddy learned of my plans and invited me to swing by and use his garage and his expertise.

To say Rick is equipped is akin to saying Mt. Everest is "sorta big."  Anyone who owns a lift that can crank up a 22' diesel truck, not to mention a race "car" (rocket ship?) that gets from zero to eighty in 1.1 seconds knows his stuff.  Anyway, judging by what came out of the crankcase, I was right about the dealership.  It wasn't oil.  More like water.  Rick was aghast.  Long story short, 12 quarts of some good stuff was put in the big Dodge (Rotella-T if your interested).  All the tires were removed, balanced, and checked for proper inflation.  The truck is purring like a kitten.  In fact, it seems to run better when I even drive by Rick's place.  Guess it has found its new mother-ship.  Can't thank my friend enough!!

Monday will be busy with last second preparation and then the big day! Thanks for reading.....

Five Days Away

Turns out, no matter how prepared one thinks he/she is to depart, you're not nor will you be!  The accumulation of "gear" has been on-going, such as torque wrenches, impact wrench, inverter generator, air compressor, extra fuel containers.....the list goes on.  But, everything we have acquired will be used for other applications and trips, which takes the sting out of it.

We have finally thrown in the towel somewhat and whatever else we need we will get along the way.

We have also checked out all the trailer systems and everything is working great so far!

Pre-trip planning

Mary and I have spoken of going to AK for years.  We were initially going to make the trip in the fall of 2014 upon my retirement.  We then decided to wait until the summer of 2015, when Mary retires, to make the trip and not have any time constraints whatsoever.

Also, we initially planned on flying there and back, but one day while bowhunting I wondered to myself why we were going to fly over the entire country and the idea of driving was born.  When I broached the subject with Mary she was onboard and BAM that was that!

But, after some research, we quickly realized there were some things that would have to change.  First, we purchased a travel trailer.  We went with "new" because we wanted all the benefits of a full warranty.  We also plan on using it in the future on other trips, so buying was a better option for us than renting an RV.

Once the Jayco trailer was secured, I realized that pulling it for 10,000 miles was NOT going to be a pleasant experience with a 1/2 ton pickup.  Gas mileage was going to be horrific and the truck was going to labor constantly, being at its max combined gross vehicle weight rating.  So, after more research and searching, out with the old and in with the older pickup.  We traded in a 2012 Silverado for a 2011 Dodge Ram one-ton diesel.

Welcome

Hi everyone-

Mary, Jessie, Luke and I welcome you to this blog site.  If you are reading this you have been invited to track us on this blog as we travel across the country, spend three weeks in Alaska, and travel home.  The duration of the trip is seven weeks.  We are going to camp in several national parks trvaveling to, while in, and en route back from AK.  My intent is to capture as much of the trip and our experiences with pictures and share them with you on this site.  I cannot promise "something new everyday" being posted, but I sure will try.

Thanks for joining us!

Dan