Travels in 2004

I left Avon Park, FL on May 15th looking forward to working as a Campground Host again in the Chugach National Forest in on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska.  I planned my trip this time to visit some new destinations and to revisit some I had already seen.  Included on my itinerary this year were visits to friends and relatives in Iowa, Montana, Washington, Canada and Alaska.

 

From there I headed north around Memphis, TN, into Arkansas and then Missouri.  I was going to stop in St. Louis and go up into the Arch, but was in the wrong traffic lane and with the truck and trailer and all of the traffic I decided that visiting the Arch would be at a later time.  I then continued north on US-61 into Iowa then taking US-218 to Iowa City.  I stayed overnight there and had lunch with one of my cousins and then headed west on I-80.  North of Council Bluffs I went north on I-29 stopping in Sioux Falls and visited the Sgt. Charles Floyd monument which overlooks the Missouri River.

 

From Sioux City I traveled west on I-90 through South Dakota into Wyoming.  At Buffalo I continued west through Cody, WY and into Yellowstone National Park through the east entrance.

 

 

I came out of Yellowstone Park west entrance and headed north on US-191 in Montana to I-90 stopping in Missoula to visit one of my cousins.  From there I continued west on I-90 through Idaho and into Washington and then south to Oregon on I-82 then to I-84 which runs along the Columbia River.

I continued to travel west to I-5 and then headed north and then back east to Mt. St. Helen's National Volcanic Monument.  I had been here in 1991 a few years after the eruption and wanted to see what changes had taken place.  I was very surprised at the amount of re-growth and the changes that had taken place in the whole area.

 

From there I traveled north and stopped for a few days at the RV Park at Fort Lewis, WA.  I stocked up on groceries at the commissary, visited with my son John in Seattle, and some cousins in Tacoma.  From there I continued north and then caught the Washington State Ferry at Anacortes for a short (and expensive) trip to Friday Harbor where I visited with some friends that I met at the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Response Center in Valdez, AK in 1989.  

After a short visit I caught the ferry to Anacortes, drove east on WA-20 to I-5 and continued north into British Columbia crossing the border at Sumas.  I continued to go north and got on BC-97 through the Fraser River Valley through Prince George and then to Dawson Creek.

 

 

The travel distance from Dawson Creek, BC to Wasilla, AK is 1,443 miles through some very spectacular country.  I got one very good picture of Stone Mountain Sheep in British Columbia along the way, the other pictures were routine.

After I arrived in Wasilla, I contacted Alaska Recreational Management and discovered that I did not have a job.  Always in the past they had had problems with people not showing up for work, this year everyone did.  I was very angry (for a few seconds), got over it and decided to go fishing.  In 2002, when I had been Campground Host at Cooper Creek I became friends with Dan & Janis Stone and John & Pat Miller and had smoked and canned salmon for them.  They were back in Alaska this year and wanted me to do more fish, they would catch the salmon, I would smoke and can it and take half of the product.  

From June 9th through July 6th I camped at Quartz Creek & Cooper Creek Campgrounds on the Kenai Peninsula using both as my home base.  I visited with friends, went fishing and sightseeing and smoked and canned Red Salmon.  During this time I produced 181 1/2 lb cans of salmon which I split with my friends.  I took a couple of pictures in the late evening in approximately the same position of Kenai Lake to illustrate what summer evenings just before the summer solstice are like.

 

I drove to Homer on July 8th and got a campsite for a couple of days and then set up a halibut fishing trip for the 9th.  I caught a couple of small halibut on a half day charter and then the next day went on a full day charter with Steve Button on the Donna Mae (Crystal Sea Charters).  I caught 2 halibut, 1 ling cod and a yelloweye rockfish.  I carried a 5 gallon bucket full of fish fillets to my camper where I vacuum packed and froze it for my trip back to the "lower 48".

 

I left Wasilla, AK on July 17th, I needed to have a different lifting system installed on the camper and decided that a Stable-Lift system was the best choice.  On the way I visited with cousins in Grand Prairie and Lloydminster, Alberta and then continued the 10 day - 2,305 mile trip to Kalispell, MT and the Stable-Lift factory.  While the camper & truck were being worked on I rented a car and drove to Glacier National Park.

 

 

 

 

It is 1,682 miles from Kalispell, MT to West Bend, WI, the trip took me 7 days as I stopped to look for insulators and sightsee along the way.  I visited with friends in Janesville, WI and cooked them a halibut meal.

I had planned to stay in Wisconsin for a month or so visiting relatives and relaxing but it wasn't to be.  Hurricane Charlie passed over Avon Park on August 13 and damaged my mobile home.  I left West Bend on August 14th and arrived home in Avon Park on August 17th.  I used to have an 11 foot carport the length of my mobile home, the hurricane ripped it off and flipped it over the house and the shed that was under it was also damaged.  The good news was that when I arrived the power was on in the park and I was able to plug in the freezer with over 100 lbs of frozen fish that I brought back from Alaska.

 

I spent the next couple of weeks doing clean-up and repair at my house and helping others in the park.  On September 2nd hurricane Frances was forcasted to hit the area so I headed north and got to Panama City, FL in a couple of days.  While I was there hurricane Ivan was moving up the west coast of Florida with landfall scheduled in 2 days.  I left there and went to Tennessee to visit my cousin Bob Gruber & his wife Genie.  I finally got back to Avon Park on September 15th and started helping with the clean-up effort.  Hurricane Jeanne arrived on September 24th, there was a mandatory evacuation for the park and I stayed in Sebring overnight in a cement block house with friends and rode the hurricane out.

 

I have decided that my home is now in Florida, and I won't be making any more driving trips to Alaska.  I have gotten a Florida driver's license, registered my vehicles here and registered to to vote here.  When I travel, I will be making shorter trips.

Last Updated:  12/17/2006