After my misadventures and adventures in the Talkeetna area, I headed south to Wasilla to buy a new digital camera. I was told to go to a Ritz store there so I plugged it into the GPS and off I went. I really wanted another Canon because I've been so happy with the one I broke. I couldn't find the store. It was in a strip mall, but I couldn't find it. I ran into a mail man and he pointed to a coffee place and said Ritz was right next to it. When I got there, there was only a toy store. I went inside and the lady told me Ritz closed, but said there's another in Anchorage, another 40 miles away. So off I went to Anchorage. I had been thinking about seeing the ... read more

(If you've been wondering why I took so long to add this update, read on and you'll find out.) I left Fairbanks with Denali National Park as my next destination. Thanks to the good old Milepost I finally found an interesting bar along the highway: Skinny Dick's Halfway Inn. I had a beer (no Bloody Mary mix or tomato juice) and checked out the most extensive collection of goofy, utterly tasteless sexual humor I've ever seen...... It was great. I got to the park mid-afternoon and decided to drive in as far as they allow cars, only 15 miles. To really see the park, you have to take a bus. There are several different tours, but to see the whole park it's an 8 hour day so I decided to head down to Talkeetna where they ... read more

By the way, If you ever make this trip, I highly suggest you plan to bypass the town of Watson Lake. Suffice to say, it’s a dump. That opinion may be influenced by the hotel I stayed in and the lousy internet connection. I heard from Lucy about this and she enjoyed her stop here. After leaving Watson Lake, I stopped at a great place for breakfast, called Nugget City, with a pretty cool gift shop and a great café: the Wolf It Down Café. Thanks again to Bryan for loaning me his copy of “Milepost.” It is THE bible for travelers in the North, particularly the Alaska Highway. It has every possible thing in it, mile by mile. That’s how I decided to have breakfast at Nugget City. My next destination was Whitehorse, on the ... read more

I was ignorant of Jasper National Park before this trip and really hadn't put it on my intinerary. But, thanks to Zoe, Simon & Rob for telling me I had to go. More mindblowing places. Driving through I just kept telling myself, "It never ends." Meaning the absolutely spectacular scenery. Quite a few people have told me that the Canadian Rockies were probably even more spectacular than the Rockies in the US and I always thought that they had to be wrong. Well, I haven't seen all of the US Rockies but they may be right. You drive for over 200 miles and every mile is astounding. There are beaucoup glaciers everywhere in the huge mountains. I could have taken a thousand pictures. (And almost did). By the way, great weather again. Fair and 60's. I ... read more

A new country! After seeing all of Glacier that I could, I headed north into Alberta. Going through customs took about a 1/2 hour because I had to declare the shotgun I brought with me. It went just fine, just took a bit longer than with nothing to declare. (Special thanks to Joe, who convinced me not to try to smuggle a handgun in.) Being tired from the previous night's activity, I figured I'd get to Calgary and find a motel. Well, I screwed up and got caught in the evening rush and decided I just had to get past Calgary. So, I pressed on to Banff, the town inside Banff National Park. Boy, am I glad I did. Driving through the part of Alberta south of Calgary and east of the Rockies is reeaaal flat. ... read more