We left Portland on Sunday morning and got to Big Bear Monday night. The smoke from the fires made the skies in Mojave dark as night. It is great to be home. The house sems gigantic after being in the camper for 3 1/2 months. We headed to USC Thursday for all the tests and the quarterly check-up. Great news! I got the all clear. No problems, cancer free. I do not go back until next year (4 months). I knew I felt too good and was so much stronger for there to be any more problems. What a relief! Dr. Daniels said that of his patient data base, they have not had any reoccurances after 24 months. I'm almost 1/2 way there! Plus, my liver is desease free ( not the usual case). Needles to ... read more

We spent 2 days in Jasper and 3 days in Banff National Parks. More beautiful scenery. Sometimes you almost get scensory overload. Both areas are very touristy. Banff had a bus system that ran right to the park, so it was very easy to get into town. Canada does a great job with thier campgrounds and parks. While we were in Jasper we rode out to Magiline Canyon , Medicine Lake and Magiline Canyon. We took a nice little boat tour. I always love being on the water! Beautiful Glaciers, mountains and even a moose by the lake. In Banff we took the bus to the gondola, decided we did not want to spend $60 bucks to go to the top of the mountain. We walked over to the Hot Springs, but I have a chest ... read more

Only 7188 miles later, we are back in Watson Lake (6/4 - 8/14) and back to the Alaska Highway. It si so nice to be back on good paved roads. There were so many animals in about a 3 hour stretch, I am devoting this blog to them. The Bison would walk straight down the side of the road. The Stone Sheep stood in the middle of the road (licking the minerals). But the Caribou were the craziest! Once yyou got next to them, if you moved, they'd run along side you, if you stopped, they stopped. It was very hard to get around them. Not the brightest animals. ... read more

We left Anchorage and headed to Tok, AK. I thought we were done with dirt roads until someone told Ed about a route that he couldn't resist. We drove the Top of the World Highway, again. The Milepost says... allow plenty of time for this drive. This is a narrow road with some steep grades and few gaurdrails. The weather was better this time (3rd times a charm) The Top of the World is gravel on the US side and gets a little better on the Canada side. I have included a photo of an Inukshuk. I believe these scuptures are meant to bring good luck. We discovered several of them on a turn-out, just across the Canadian Border. We drove past Dawson City into the Yukon and camped at a beautiful provencial Park called Moose ... read more

Hey! I caught Salmon! The first one was a real experience. I got up early on Saturday morning and headed to the bank of the Kenai River. I had on hip waders and my new fly rod. I landed a Sockeye Salmon (Red Salmon). First, my reel fell off the rod. So I pulled the line in by hand. Then, as I was fighting to get the fish in the net, my pole snapped in two. I had the fishing line wrapped around me, trying to hold on to the reel, and a 7 # sockeye in the net. I didn't even try to get out the hook. I just carried everything back to the campsite and untangled it all. We went out on JB's boat that afternoon, but came up dry. We met JB at ... read more