Roll Call Alaska 2015

[trcgolf]

I know its early but we have been planning for the past 3 months. I know its another 15 months at least till we leave but we are just going crazy...
So here is our very rough plan overview. Leave mid June from western NY; travel west up through Ill., Wis., Min., ND, into Canada.
Diagonally across Saskatch. and Alberta, BC, and YT...
Our first destination is Fairbanks, via Top of the World Highway... thinking of doing the Dempster to the Arctic Circle. I know there will many stops... some short, some long but all will be great.
Fairbanks to Homer with the obligatory Denali stop for a few days.
Homer to Portland Or; Oregon to San Fran; San Fran to home via the Northern US.

We have so much planning yet to do but reading all the Roll Call posts in 2013, and 2014 just keeps us going. Started to plan finances which brings us to the first major question.
I have heard all the diesel advantages and draw backs of the gas engines. We invested in a 32' fifth wheel and 2013 GMC 2500 HD with 6.0L Crew 4x4. The fiver weighs about 8K empty, I would guess 10,500 loaded. ( I will get that checked for sure)Brand new to Rving

The truck is my every dayer.... need the 4 wheel drive here in winter. The decision with gas was pure economics. A Cummins diesel and matching tranny was $9500 more. Doing the math it was going to take a bunch of miles to save enough in mileage to pay for the increase in price. About 100000 mile by my calculation. We not going to be full timers; one long trip a year to Florida.
Traveling around NY and Pa and maybe Florida, that all makes sense but going on a trip like this, I am not so sure gas was the way to go. So I am asking for those who used a truck like mine to haul a fifth wheel through Canada...Alaska...et al... What kind of mileage can I expect? Sorry for the novelette...I will get better at this.

Edited to add 'Alaska' within the title.

[joe_b_]

Canadian package stores don't seem to carry the low end booze we see in U.S. Liquor store. Not sure what a Canadian alcoholic drinks in Canada. Beer is more in Canada but it is real beer, in taste and alcohol contest. Not the sissy watered down stuff the mega breweries sell here. If a person enjoys great beer, try some of the Canadian micro breweries, especially the Yukon Brewery in Whitehorse. I like the Yukon Red and my wife selects the Yukon Gold label. It produces the best beer I have ever tasted anywhere. My goal in life is to buy enough Red to make it home with some remaining, so far I haven't made it out of Canada with any. LOL

Hauling liquor,wine or beer to Canada , to me, would be like hauling coal to Pittsburgh. Why? As Bob mentioned, even if it costs more to buy in Canads, I doubt I spend more than $20 or $40 more on the round trip, for a much higher quality produce. Our northern neighbors produce some excellent wines in Ontario and British Columbia. Any booze imported from a Canadian Commomwealth member country is often cheaper in Canada ,than here in Florida, Goshling's Black Seal rum is one such product ..

[Community Alumni]

Duty and taxes are typically really high and more often than not, double; here is a duty calculator. The costs vary by province/territory.

http://www.canadiandutycalculator.ca

[CA_Traveler]

The amount should be on the website. The duty is rather high and to me not worth the trouble. As I recall it's a lot more than $1/bottle.

You can transport alcohol through Canada to Alaska w/o any duty. But permits and inspections are also involved. I thought about taking a case of wine to Alaska.

Alcohol is expensive in Canada. But it's only a small portion of the total trip cost so just buy locally.

[dahkota]

Does anyone know what the duty is for wine and beer? How much could it possibly be? If it is a dollar a bottle (of wine) - not so bad. $10? that is a little much...

[garyhaupt]

stickdog wrote:
Crossed into Canada this morning at Sweetgrass MT.. I think we were the only one going North. We were all prepared for an ordeal but it only took about 5 minutes. Stopped in Lethbridge AB exchanged dollars for Loonies and Toonies. Headed North but the wind was blowing something awful. Stopped for the night at Daisy May Campground in Fort MacLoed AB.

Welcome to Southern Alberta.


Gary Haupt

[Okie_Lady_Trave]

We are heading to Alaska from Oklahoma about May 21, 2015. We will have our sign in our back window so honk when you see us. Or if our hood is up, you are very welcome to stop. LOL

[cdbinns]

For those of you considering the TourSaver iPhone app, sometime in the last few days they raised the price to $99.99, so it now costs the same as the paper copy. When I looked at it on 4/28, it was $79.99 but when I went to purchase it this afternoon, the price had gone up.

[stickdog]

Crossed into Canada this morning at Sweetgrass MT.. I think we were the only one going North. We were all prepared for an ordeal but it only took about 5 minutes. Stopped in Lethbridge AB exchanged dollars for Loonies and Toonies. Headed North but the wind was blowing something awful. Stopped for the night at Daisy May Campground in Fort MacLoed AB.

[2gypsies1]

Ha! Like many say, "the roads to Alaska are no worse than the lower 48". Stickdog: looks like you are just getting broken in!

[stickdog]

After spending the night in Hardin, MT we headed towards Helena, MT. Turned north on US287 at Three Forks and quickly ran into road reconstruction 6 mi of temporary gravel. A possible foreshadowing of things to come? Looks like we'll do our border crossing Friday morning.

[2gypsies1]

Gentlemen... and Gals....get ready to start your engines! Time to head up is fast approaching. 🙂 Sure wish we were going once again this year. I do this trip by reading your comments as you travel so don't forget to keep this posting up.

[joe_b_]

You can buy the tour saver booklet in Alaska at Safeway, or some of the stores may still be signed as Carr-Safeway. A number of years back, Safeway bought out the largest independent grocery group in Alaska, Carr-Gottstein.

[SpencerRB]

FYI, you can get the TourSaver coupon book for $80 by buying their iphone/android app instead of the physical booklet. Saves $20.

[hr0082]

If you want to order the book now, go to this website http://www.toursaver.com where you can also look at what discounts are available.

Last year we used the book twice, for the Flag Train in Talkeetna and for Stan Stephens Glacier cruise in Valdez. Just those two uses more than paid for it. I also found that even though the train had a window of purchase, we were able to use it outside the window.

The book can be purchased at Safeway and Carrs.

[2gypsies1]

Definitely order the Tour Saver book before you go to use on the way up.