The Ride Home

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Day 26 August 8 Traveled 520 miles to McBride, BC

We are off the ferry and in the Old Ford F250 again. We made it almost across British Columbia. We would have made it to Alberta, but a very beautiful rainbow led us to a campground in McBride, BC. The rainbow made a perfect arc over this nice little town. We stopped and took a bunch of photos of the rainbow and are spending the night under the rainbow, or where it was. It was again cloudy and rainy most of the day, until the rainbow came out. Maybe it’s a sign of a sunny day tomorrow. It would be great if we could drive through Jasper and Banff National Parks tomorrow with the sun out. BC has lots of mountains and trees. Unfortunately many of the spruce trees are dieing from the spruce beetle. The beetles bore through the bark and girdle the tree so it can not get nutrients. We saw whole mountain sides of a brown color from all the dead trees. We also stopped and watched some locals netting salmon in the Skeena River.

Wildlife Count - 1 Black Bear, 2 Deer and 2 Bald Eagles (Where are all the Moose?)


Day 27 August 9 Traveled about 420 miles. Camped in Claresholm, Alberta.

Started the day driving in thick morning fog. Fortunately it cleared up before we got to Jasper National Park. We joined thousands of other tourists gazing at the grandeur of the Canadian Rockies. The road through the park is very good. It took us a long time to get through Jasper and Banff Parks because we kept stopping to take pictures of another grand vista. When we got to Banff it started raining and we couldn’t see the mountain peaks very well. We managed to get to Calgary to enjoy another rush hour. We stopped at Ken’s restaurant and had another good Chinese meal. We are camped about 120 miles from the US boarder. We are planning to drive into Glacier National park tomorrow.

Wildlife Count - 3 deer and 3 elk.


Day 28 August 10 Traveled about 580 miles to Sheridan, Wyoming.

We decided we have had enough camper sleeping and will head straight back home. No stopping at Glacier National Park. We have seen enough mountains and glaciers on this trip.
Saw lots of prairie, grain fields, hay bales and cattle today. We decided to eat stake tonight since we are in Cattle Country. We would NOT recommend ordering a New York strip at an Applebee’s. Chain restaurants probably don’t buy local beef. Picked up a couple more geocaches. One was at a windmill farm. There were 80 windmills generating 135 megawatts of electricity. It was very windy at this location so that is probably why they put them there. We visited the Little Bighorn Battlefield and paid our respects to General Custer and his men, and the Indians. As we drove along the Bighorn Mountain Range this evening we could see smoke from forest fires. We had heard that there are 13 fires burning in Montana. It looks very dry here.

Wildlife Count - 4 mule deer, many prong horned antelope, 1 herd of buffalo, 3 sharptail grouse and1 T-Rex (Statue)


Day 29 August 11 Traveled about 680 miles to rest-stop near Jackson, MN.

It was a long trip across Wyoming and South Dakota. We were meeting many motor cycles as we drove. When we visited with a few bikers at a rest stop they confirmed our suspicion that it was “BIKER WEEK” at Sturgis, SD. When we got to Sturgis there were motor cycles everywhere. As we drove east of the black hills we had very heavy traffic with many of the bikers heading home. We made a stop at WALL DRUGS for some ice cold water. It was getting warm and this is the first day we really missed our air conditioning. We drove until 10:30 PM and spent the night at a rest stop listening to the neighboring trucks idling all night.

Wildlife Count - Many antelope, 1 coyote and another T-Rex at Wall Drug.


HOME AT LAST!

Day 30 August 12 Traveled about 350 miles to Baraboo, WI

Finally returned to familiar territory. We arrived in Baraboo at noon and immediately had a cold beer. We spent some time cleaning out the camper. It had developed a strange odor. We decided it must be some fish residue left in the refrigerator. Karen and Amber were glad to see us return safely. We know Maria will be glad to see Al, when he makes it safely to back to Illinois.

Wildlife Count - 2 tired old duffers after 30 days on the road.


Some statistics on this adventure:

Were gone for 30 days
Slept 29 nights in the camper and one night on the ferry deck
Traveled 8,188 miles in the old Ford F250.
Burned 600 gallons of diesel fuel
Average 13.7 MPG
Spent $2,090 on fuel and $150 for oil changes
Most expensive fuel was in Dawson City, Yukon ($4.92/Gal)
Cheapest fuel was in Anchorage, Alaska ($2.81/Gal)
Traveled 800 miles by boat.
Took 365 photos

After all this, Big Al and Wayne are still friends!

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Photos

Inside Passage
The sun almost came out in the evening.

A Rainbow in McBride, BC
I think the gold is in that shack!

Cows in McBride, BC
Those cows probably see rainbows every day.

More Mountains
And we have to drive on that road down there.

Montana Windmill Farm
10 of the 80 windmills in this farm.

Wall Drugs
All those bikers had to stop to buy some hangover medicine.

Comments

[Tom]

Thanks
Thanks for keeping us posted and welcome back safe and sound (or is it half crazy). It was nice reading the adventures. I should have had you leave the pickup on #90 by Albert Lea. I have to move the whole family to Winona and Faribault, beds, tables, sofas etc.

[Karen S]

You're almost sourdoughs!
Enjoyed following your trip and seeing your pics. You must have done almost everything you had planned and then some. Too bad the salmon weren't running all that well. You'll have to have 2 months next time to be there when the runs are strong. Hope the two "sourdoughs" can adjust back to civilization.