Happy Birthday being sung by grandsons, is how Grampy started his day. Michelle called at 7 am to wish her Dad a Happy Birthday along with the boys. The Old Man turns 60 today. He looks pretty good to me for an old coot. It was great to sleep-in this morning. After breakfast we hiked to the Visitor’s Center and took a short bus ride to the Dog Sled Demonstration that the rangers put on. We were able to walk through the open kennels and pat any dog that wanted us to. The demonstration was interesting, the dogs were eager to run and it was pretty cool. After lunch at the campsite we took another hike, this time to the Nenana Canyon. White-water rafting boats were along side the swift moving river below having just ended ... read more

Joe, a real great guy at the campground worked all night and got the plumbing fixed which allowed us to take showers before heading up to the Arctic Circle. A little hesitant about what the road conditions will be like, we are “going for it.” Leaving Delta Junction we were greeted by several moose on the side of the road who were more than happy to pose for us as they ate their breakfast. As we drove north we arrived at the North Pole. We looked everywhere for Santa but could only find a statue of him. We did see Santa’s reindeer and Dave (Papa, Grampy, Grandpa Dave) actually talked to Rudolph. The North Pole has candy cane light poles and sign posts and we saw Santa’s House. It is a pretty cool place. I saw ... read more

Renew, refreshed and rejuvenated we left Whitehorse behind, headed a short way down the Alaska Highway and turned onto the Klondike Loop Trail toward Dawson City. This route was the path less traveled, as we saw only a handful of other vehicles all day. We traveled through the Yukon River Valley and enjoyed great views of the Yukon, especially at an area called Five Finger Rapids. The lakes along the highway were plentiful and extremely scenic. There were several areas which we found worth noting. First was the strange shape of the landscape. The hills almost looked like mounds of lava. Also there is a layer of white ash from a volcanic eruption which geologist date to A.D. 700. Many areas of the route were in different stages of recovering from wild fires. Signs in 4-5 ... read more

We left Watson Lake behind and headed west on the Alaska Highway. After yesterday’s awesome scenery today’s views were relatively uneventful. We saw beautiful mountain scenery, but nothing as spectacular as yesterday and we saw no wildlife. At first, I thought it was because of Dave’s speedy driving, but Pete and Carolyn, the wildlife radars, who we saw at the campground later, did not see any either. We stopped at Rancheria Lodge for coffee and I went out back to take a picture and was jumped by a German Sheppard. I startled him and boy did he startle me. I thought I was going to get ripped to threads, but he just got down and walked away. We drove over the Continental Divide, and along the Swift River and Teslin Lake and into the town of ... read more

Excitement! The Alaska Highway starts here in Dawson Creek. Known as the Alcan Military Highway, it was built in 1942 to bring military supplies to bases in Alaska to protect the US from the Japanese. The 1500 mile road, built by the US military, was started on March 9 and finished on October 25, 1942. And today we have the privilege of driving on this historic route to Alaska. Our day started off a little confusing. Up at 6 am, ate breakfast, packed up and left the campground for the local supermarket. As we approached a nice lady told us that they opened at 8 am. Checking our watches, we saw we only had an eight minute wait. After ten minutes we approached again, and again we were told that they opened at 8 am. Seeing ... read more