North to Alaska????

Dorcas and I have wanted to take an extended trip to Alaska ever since we retired four years ago, but each summer something has conspired to keep us from this quest. For many months we have felt that 2011 will be the year, and we decided at some point during winter to go for it. Since then we have been making plans. Unfortunately we have not been making "PLANS". At this point we have no clear agenda, itinerary or route. We will make most of it up as we go. We hope to leave home about May 1 and return home about October 1. We do plan to do our traditional Boundary Waters canoe trip in Minnesota about September 1 on our way home, so we are taking the Kevlar boat and camping gear. We did hope to go through Montana and Glacier National Park on the way up, but after spending a little time on their web site it became apparent that they still had a significant snow pack and most facilities would be closed. That lead us to think that maybe we will take a more westerly route going up, and come through the Rockies on the way back home. It would be really nice to follow the coast, perhaps spend some time on the ferry system and go up the inside passage, but that will be terribly expensive with a rig our size. Also, if we plan to do that, we need to be making reservations now. We'll see.

At this point we have been gathering literature and jotting down the names of places friends say we can't miss. We have friends who own Safari TREKS who are going to Alaska this year, and we had considered signing on to their caravan of about 12 coaches. However, their trip is more structured than we really like. We do have their itinerary and hope to cross with them somewhere along the way. Also, I have a high school friend who lives near Anchorage. He has room to park our coach at his house and has invited us to visit. Cool! We will spend time with him when we are in the Anchorage area.

In the meantime, we have much work to do at home. We have been home very few days this year and have numerous home chores and coach maintenance and repair projects to finish. It's time to buckle down and git 'er done.