We left Indiana with friends on May 20. We arrived back without our friends on August 4. Our friends left for home on the 4th of July due to some medical issues. I did blow out my knee somewhere along the way and see a specialist tomorrow. Our 3rd grandbaby arrived early and we are headed to Florida next week to see her.
We had a WONDERFUL time. Alaska and the route up through Alberta, B.C. and the Yukon was everything we expected. We did a lot of research in the two years we spent planning our trip and there were no surprises. We are so glad we made the trip. DH has serious health issues, but got along great with no problems. The warmer weather was a help to him.
We basically followed the "Grand Tour" from Mike and Terri Church's Alaska Camping book. We ended up in Skagway and "ferry hopped" down through the inside passage. I felt our experience there was much better than what the visitors on the cruise ships got. They got a few hours in port to shop. We had a couple days in each port to sightsee and take in cultural stops.
While we fulltime in a 40' Phaeton, we bought a 22' B+ for this trip. It was wonderful. It went everywhere we needed to, easy to drive, cheaper on the ferries, etc.
A highlight of the trip was stopping 30 miles west of Whitehorse at Sue.T.'s house and boondocking for the night. She really gave us so much information about the area and the Yukon in general as well as stops along the way and we appreciate it.
We also met "lizzie" in Anchorage and visited a bit. We stayed at the home of a friend who went through cancer treatment with DH in Houston. He and his wife live in Juneau, so we got the grand tour there. So cool.
We saw so much. . . lots of wildlife and landmarks and learned a lot of history of Alaska.
As I sit here, it's hard to imagine that we have been there and back. We probably wouldn't have come back quite so fast if my knee hadn't been hurting so bad. I wouldn't let it interfere with anything we planned in Alaska, but when we got off the ferries in Prince Rupert, it was time to get it taken care of.
I had printed out copies of everybody's notes from the forum and we took them with us. Referred to them several times. We were fortunate that we were about 2 weeks ahead of the caravans, so we didn't run into long lines or much traffic the entire time. Whoo hoo!
Thanks for the thread everyone! If you are still up there. . . continue to have a great time on your journey. If you are going in the future, read a lot and research. That way you know what you want to see and plan to do it. Otherwise, you will be back home and say. . . "I wish I had known that was there. . . I would have gone to see it." And seriously consider the ferries down through the inside passage. There were very fews rigs on with us. It is easy to book. . .you will find the Alaska Marine Highway System among the nicest people in the country when it comes to helping book your ferries. I planned our trip out on their web site but actually booked it over the phone. We even added a leg later and it was easy-peasy.
Sorry for the ramble, but I still marvel that we did it!
Dale
