The year began with a trip to Arizona. Along the way I started a series I decided to call “Great American Cities” After my home base of Miami, Florida, we explored Atlanta, Georgia. Then we visited friends in the Texas Pineywoods before heading to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. This was probably our favorite American city this year. From the John F. Kennedy assassination site, to the cattle run, to some of the best BBQ brisket we’ve ever had, I can’t say which was my favorite but I totally recommend you visit the area.
Done with “Great American Cities” for now, from there we took the road less traveled to New Mexico and Visited Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands National Parks, including a perilous drive when rain turned into snow at high elevation. From there we made a beeline for the Sonoran Desert to attend the Q23 meetup in Quartzsite, Arizona. Quartzsite is one of those unique love or hate places, and I am definitely in the “love” camp. This was where one day, minding my own business, hiking to a hill called the “Q” Mountain, I cracked my right fibula, and the trip was over. Thankfully Ily got a crash course in towing the trailer and was able to drive us back to home base, after a two week stay in Las Vagas for doctor’s appointments an no much more. Here’s a link to the entire “Winter Trip“
We didn’t do much travel wise until April, when we drove up to Middlebury, Indiana to pick up our current trailer a Winnebago Micro Minnie 1720FB (a one of a kind FLX edition). On the way back, as a Maiden Voyage of sorts, we dry camped at a brewery in Cincinnati, visited Cumberland Falls in Kentucky, and spent a couple of sponsored nights at Camp Margaritaville in Pigeon Forge. I was still limping pretty badly from my injury so we didn’t do any hikes, just relax and enjoy the resort.
In May we began the big trip of the year, the farthest and longest we’ve ever traveled to date: our great summer in Alaska. I decided I would try to make it interesting and after a lovely night moochdocking with our friends Greg and Angela in north Florida, we hightailed it to the mountains. We stopped briefly at Hot Springs, Arkansas because we had never been there. Then went through the Oklahoma panhandle, and eventually made it to Raton, New Mexico, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. From there we decided to drive north, hugging the mountains as much as possible. We visited Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak, in Colorado Springs for the first time. Then Cody, Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park, and East Glacier National Park.
At this point we crossed the border into Canada. We visited a town called Vulcan, and were pleasantly surprised by Calgary. We must revisit, as we may do a Great Canadian Cities series too. The Canadian Rockies offered breathtaking scenery, especially Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. We decided to save Jasper for a future trip as our main goal was to make it Dawson Creek in order to begin the journey on the Alaska Highway.
What can be said about the Alaska Highway? We were so excited to drive to the “Last Frontier”. Most of the road was in better condition than we expected. Some of the highlights were Summit Lake, Liard River Hot Springs, Watson Lake, and some of the most breathtaking lakes and mountains we’ve ever seen. The last 300 miles or so were pretty rough, but we were expecting that.
After we reached the end of the Alaska Highway in Delta Junction, that’s when the Alaska adventure really began. We explored Fairbanks, the state’s second largest city for a few days, and several of the nearby attractions like Chena Hot Springs and the Midnight Sun Festival. Fairbanks was also the starting point of our adventure on the Dalton Highway, the northernmost and most isolated “highway” in the united States. After a quick wade in the Arctic Ocean we drove back south.
Then we drove farther south to the most visited attraction in Alaska: Denali National Park. We joined the 30% club of visitors who actually get to see the highest peak in North America.
After partially driving the Denali highway we headed to Talkeetna with the intention of taking a flightseeing tour around Peak Denali but the weather didn’t cooperate so instead we rode the Hurricane Turn Train which was a long ride with a great climax. From there we went to Alaska’s largest city: Anchorage.
Anchorage is the city you can see Alaska from. It’s got everything you may need with a great food and craft beer scene. From here we took a tour to walk on Matanuska Glacier and a flight to the northernmost point in the USA: Utqiagvik, Alaska. We also rode the Alyeska Arial tram.
Then we went into what I call the touristy part of Alaska: the Kenai Peninsula. We did the Kenai Fjords cruise in Seward, we experienced the salmon run in Kenai, We took a float plane to Brooks Falls from Homer, and the 26 Glacier cruise from Whittier. From there, reluctantly, we began the return trip, stopping in Valdez, Chicken and eventually crossing into Canada. There we explored the Klondike gold rush town of Dawson City, in the Yukon territory, before heading south. We stopped by the peculiar exclave called Hyder, Alaska and saw the breathtaking Salmon Glacier. From there, south to Hope, filming location for the First Blood Rambo movie and eventually Vancouver and Victoria.
As you can probably tell it’s been quite the adventurous summer, and I hope you have enjoyed these videos as much as I enjoyed making them.
Fall was also full of activity. We attended the Hershey RV Show, the M23 meetup, got to see some new models at the Winnebago Open House, the Ohio State University Farm Science Review, and we revisited Asheville, NC, among other things.
Finally, hurricane Idalia caused a considerable amount of damage to our North Florida retreat Pelicamp so we drove the 425 miles from Miami a couple of times to deal with the aftermath.
I’d say overall it was a very well traveled year and I’ll leave you with a screen capture of my Google timeline to prove it.
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