320DegreesNorth

TRICIA

DAVID

LAYNE

LUKE

THE 4 TRAVELERS

THOR 30D RV

Our RV's Layout

OK packing and prep is all done, all we need now is to get to the RV tomorrow. We will spend the night in the RV, Friday night, orientation Saturday morning and then they give us the keys about noon and the wheels will be turning.

----------------------- This is our first chance to update:--------------------------------------------------------------------

Today is Monday May 8th, and currently in beautiful Minnesota.
We are heading north to our last stop in the lower 48,
Portal, North Dakota approximately 468 miles.

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Monday May 8th . After a long day on the road, we stopped for a well deserved night of rest at Smokey's RV park in Lignite North Dakota.
The park was operated by a real cool couple, Mark and Carolyn. After we setup they stopped by the rig to share their local beer with us,
"Good Ass Beer", a little bit about the history of the area and many good stories.

Beautiful country, corn fields, oil wells and just the smallest amount of snow.

Tuesday May 9th. Stopped at the duty free shop before crossing the border for a few essentials.

Cleared customs in about forty minutes, rather than the planned two hours. They "searched" the rig, and they didn't impound the meatballs
and homemade spaghetti sauce.

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Wednesday May 10th, Mileage wise almost half way to Alaska.

Spending the night in Grand Prarie Alberta Canada at the Rotary Campground.

Got to the Rv park with time to enjoy cocktails outside, and use our barbeque for dinner.

Tomorrow Thursday May 11, is the exciting part of our journey when we begin the drive on the Alcan Highway.

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Thursday May 11:

Arrived in Dawson Creek around lunch time. Dawson Creek is the starting point of the Alcan Highway.

Beautiful scenery with rolling mountains, some still covered in snow, gorges, Black bears, deer, and some incredible descents on our way to
our final destination for the day, Fort Nelson.

OUR FIRST BEAR SIGHTING

Encountering a 9% decline

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Friday May 12 th:

Traveled the Alcan Highway from Fort Nelson British Columbia to Watson Lake Yukon thru the eastern part of the Canadian Rockies. What a beautiful ride, many of the views look so perfect you would swear they are Hollywood sound stage produced. Up into the mountains with other snow capped mountains just in the distance and down in to the valleys following the river and surrounded by wildlife. Bison abound along with numerous Black Bears, Stone mountain sheep, fox and caribou. Still looking for our first Grizzly bear and moose, but there is always tomorrow.

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Saturday May 13th:

Left Watson Lake Yukon Territory , visited the Sign Post Forest.

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Sunday May 14th:

Went from Destruction Bay Yukon Territory cleared U.S. Customs in Beaver Creek, lunched in Tok Alaska and continued to Valdez Alaska.

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Monday May 15th

Took a glacier & wildlife cruise on Prince William's Sound aboard the Valdez Spirit.

The Bayside RV Park Valdez Alaska

Mountain Goat

Humpback Whale feeding off the shore

the Columbia Glacier

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Tuesday May 16th:

Tuesday May 16th

Eagle feeding

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Saturday through Monday - May 20th to 22nd

We arrived at Denali National Park where we spent a couple of days enjoying the beauty of the park.

We took a seven hour bus tour 56 miles into the park. We got to experience nature at her best seeing towering mountains, grizzly bears, moose, caribou, dall sheep, wolves, ptarmigans (Alaska State bird), and snow shoe hares. Our final stop in the park was at the kennels for the park's sled dogs. As we left we discovered a mom moose and her two calves just outside our campsite .

Wolf walking right passed our bus.

Heading to Anchorage today, Tuesday May 23.

Wednesday, May 24th

Our last day in Alaska turned out to be the coldest day we encountered on our whole trip. It was a good day to pack up and head for home after a 4543 mile journey. It was the ultimate road trip. It was an experience that none of us will ever forget !!

We hope you enjoyed following us on our trip through this blog.

THANK YOU FOR COMING ALONG WITH US.

The Plan.....ALASKA via Route 94



		Miles	Driving Time	Total Daily	Total Daily	Actual	Total of Accumulative
			Hours	Miles	Hours	Hours	Miles	Hours
	Wakarusa, IN
	to
	Rockford, IL	200	3 1/2	200	3 1/2		200	3 1/2
		Woodmans grocery shopping - Open 24 hours
	Rockford, IL
	to
	Alexandria, MN	468	8	468	8		668	11 1/2
	Alexandria, MN
	to
	Minot, ND	373	6 1/2	373	6 1/2		1041	18
	to
	Kenmare, ND	52	1	425	7 1/2		1093	19
	to
	Portal, ND	43	3/4	468	8 1/4		1136	19 3/4
	Portal, ND	Clear Canadian Customs			2			21 3/4
	to
	Saskatoon, SK, CA	311	5 1/2	311	7 1/2		1447	27 1/4
	to
Via RT 16	Lloydminster, SK CA	171	3	482	10 1/2		1618	30 1/4
Yellowhead Highway		Time changes at Lloydminster, SK to Mountain time
	Lloydminster, SK CA
	to
Via RT 16	Edmonton, AB	156	2 3/4	156	2 3/4		1774	33
	Grande Prarie, AB	286	5	442	7 3/4		2060	38
	Grande Prarie, AB
	to
Via RT 43	Dawson Creek, BC	82	1 3/4	82	1 3/4		2142	39 3/4
Via RT 97	to	Pacific time starts at Pink Mountain - half way to Fort Nelson
Highway	Fort Nelson, BC	283	5 1/2	365	7 1/4		2425	45 1/4
	Fort Nelson, BC	Through mountains
	to
Via RT 97	Muncho Lake, BC	149	3	149	3		2574	48 1/4
Via	to
RTS 97 & 1	Watson Lake, YT	170	3 1/2	319	6 1/2		2744	51 3/4
	Watson Lake, YT
	to	Through mountains
Via RT 1	Teslin, YT	162	3 1/4	162	3 1/4		2906	55
	to	Through mountains
Via RT 1	Whitehorse, YT	111	2 1/2	273	5 3/4		3017	57 1/2
	to	Through mountains
Via RT 1	Haines Junction, YT	97	2	370	7 3/4		3114	59 1/2

	Haines Junction, YT
	to	Through mountains
Via RT 1	Beaver Creek, YT	181	3 3/4	181	3 3/4		3295	63 1/4
		A short distance past Beaver Creek is US Customs and the Alaska time zone
		Clear US Customs			2			65 1/4
Via US RT 2	to	Through mountains and a plateau
(old CA RT 1)	Tok, Alaska	110	2 1/2	291	8 1/4		3405	67 3/4

	Tok, Alaska
Via RT 1	to	Through mountains and a plateau
Tok Cutoff	Gakona, AK	75	1 3/4	75	1 3/4		3480	69 1/2
	to	Through mountains and a plateau
Via RT 4	Valdez, Alaska	202	4 1/2	277	6 1/4		3682	74

2 day	In Valdez, Alaska
Tour
	Valdez, Alaska
	to	Through mountains and a plateau
Via RT 4	Glennallen	120	2 1/2	120	2 1/2		3802	76 1/2
	to
Via RT 1	Palmer, Alaska	140	2 1/2	260	5		3942	79
	to	Through mountains and a plateau
Via RT 3	Talkeetna, Alaska	85	1 3/4	345	6 3/4		4027	80 3/4

	In
1 day	Talkneetna, Alaska
Tour
	Talkeetna, Alaska
	to	Through mountains and a plateau
Via RT 3	Denali	155	3 1/4	155	3 1/4		4182	84
1 day
Tour	Denali

Via RT 3	Denali
and	to	Through mountains and a plateau
Via RT 1	Anchorage	237	4 3/4	237	4 3/4		4419	88 3/4
1 day
Tour	Anchorage


	In Anchorage
	Return the RV @ 1120

320DegreesNorth

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

As the crow flies, 320 degrees north, Chicago to Anchorage