Now the 'fun' begins

We reached our RV Park in the afternoon of June 6th after a beautiful drive watching Mt. McKinley unveil herself before us.

Somehow as we setup the RV for the night, I had brain fade...or a really senior moment but somehow I got my foot caught in the connection between the trailer and the truck and yeah you got it, down I went.  My right arm and shoulder took the brunt of it, but I heard it 'snap' when I not so gracefully landed.

The RV park folks were great.   They directed us to a regional health clinic about 9 miles away.  X-rays were taken and the doctor suggested that we proceed to Anchorage for further treatment.

A 90 mile trip took us to the emergency room at Providence Hospital in Anchorage.  More x-rays and a decision by the on-call ortho doctor was a referral to the ortho practice at the hospital for the next day.  The emergency room staff worked very hard to find us a place to stay that night - now 2AM- for the appointment the next day.

The ortho doctor - Dr. Spencer - indicated that I had broken my shoulder so badly that it needed to be replaced.  They could do it there but then I would need to stay in the area for rehab.  They suggested that I go home to have the repair done.  Since there was no potential of a negative impact on the shoulder break but only weather I could handle the discomfort of the trip home.  So we made the decision to make a streamline return to Dayton so that the trailer and truck would not need to be left in Alaska or that I would fly home alone while Steve drove by himself.

We drove home in 12 days....7 to get from Alaska to Washington State ...and 5 days from Washington State to Dayton arriving home on Sunday June 19th..all 4700 miles and several bottles of Tylenol and Percocet (a wasted drug on me).

I saw our family Doctor -who we had spoken with on our way home- on Monday.

Ortho appointment on 23th with a shoulder specialist who said that I needed a Reverse Total Shoulder Replacement.  So as of Saturday the  25th I now have a new Shoulder that is now backwards of the old one.  The socket is now on my arm and the ball is now implanted into my shoulder.

It has been a very big bummer.  Not only did it mess up our trip but...The pain has gone from OK to I can't believe it will ever get better levels.  The next three weeks are pretty much do nothing while the muscles and the repair start to heal and try to remain comfortable and gain control of the pain.  The days are generally bearable but the nights are something else.  If it wasn't for Steve's ability to break the pain cycle with massage of the arm, I am not sure what I would do.  He has been My Knight in Shinning Armor and  literally my right hand.

After the arm heals, it will be at least 12 weeks of physical therapy---so what was I going to do with the rest of my summer anyway?

I look forward to things being 'normal' again and my arm being out of this sling and feeling OK.  The block that was used during surgery has left my forearm and thumb and index finger basically feeling like it has gone to sleep.  They tell me this should disappear with time as the nerves repair themselves.

So, I apologize for any typing errors since I am really a one-handed
 typist.

Keep in touch and keep me in your prayers.

On to Anchorage

We continued our journey south toward Anchorage.  On the way south, we were able to capture Mt. McKinley at various locations.

The mountain is something else on a beautiful sunny day.

Denali

Denali is a huge place to visit.  The park is restricted to where you can go on your own and where you have to go by bus tour.

The day we were there it was over cast and cloudy.  We saw the park through a continuing thickening cloud.  As we traveled on the bus and the altitude increased we became engulfed in a cloud; so much so that Mt McKinley was no where to be found.

The glaciers that worked their way through Denali left what are called 'braided rivers'. 

We also saw a fox  having a merry time.

Caribou grazing in the river land

The Alaska state bird watching over it all

and lots of Dall Sheep.
Denali was first established to protect the Dall Sheep.


BUT  the best part was the' thrilling' bus ride.  The road through the park is gravel, narrow and snakes it way along the edge of everything.  When a bus approaches from the opposite direction, one bus must stop while the other passes.

The picture above shows the thrill  our bus driver loved to take I think to scare us to death.  He would drive right out to the edge and them make sharp left or right turns so you had the feeling you were going right off the edge.

 
You know, Denali is a beautiful park but one that is difficult to feel you are a part of and not just a spectator passing through.

Next

We continued on to Fairbanks  AK were we spent several days.  We visited the Alaska Pipeline

We also visited several museums about native culture. 

It has been a while

A lot has happened since my last post...so I will try to bring you up to date.

We took a detour at Whitehorse YT and spent a few days in Skagway Alaska.  While there we took the best little boat trip ever.  The all day trip went from Skagway to Juneau.  On the trip we saw all kinds of aminals from sea lions, orcas, otters, bald eagles and whales.  It was wonderful.

While in the Juneau we also saw the Mendenhall Glacier

IT WAS A GREAT DAY.

The Alaska Highway Drive began May 22nd and Ended May 31st

We started the drive on the Alaska Highway from Dawson Creek.

This is the Zero mile on the highway.

  1400+ miles later we are in Fairbanks, Alaska, the end of the highway.  During the building of the pioneer road by the Army Corp of Engineers in 1942, the official building ended in Delta Junction, Yukon, because there was already a road in existence from Delta Junction to Fairbanks.  The original road was built only to the extent that army supply equipment could travel over it.  It was the Public Road Administration in 1942-1943 who built the road to the standard that would support regular vehicles.  The PRA build all the permanent bridges and surfaced the road.

Jasper Tram Ride

Today we are in Jasper.  We had a great day.  We rode the

Tram up Whistler’s Mountain.  The tram ride was such fun.  Seven

Minutes up the side of a mountain. This shows the town of Jasper from the

Upper terminal of the tram.  We went up early in the morning with the idea

of having breakfast at the upper terminal.  We had just sat down with a cup

coffee and tea when all of a sudden we could not breathe and started coughing

severely.  My initial thought was that there was some sort of electrical fire, but

it turned out that someone had a canister of bear spray on their backpack and it

discharged.  It took about a half an hour before the ‘fragrance’  was dissipated.

This bear spray stuff is awful.   But after that we did have a really nice breakfast

and climbed the mountain from the upper terminal.

These pictures are of the tram and a view down the mountain toward the lower

terminal.

 And this is the mountain we climbed....Not bad for some 'old folks'

Banff and Lake Louise

Banff Alberta is a tourist/ski town for most of the year but in the summer, visitors come form all over the world to view the mountains and to see Lake Louise - about 50 miles north of the town.

The view of the Rockies are without words and pictures do not do it justice.

This picture Steve took from our campsite at Banff.  How is that for a backdrop.

We spent part of a day and drove to Lake Louise.  I am not sure why this location has drawn so much attention.  The lake is not very large.  It was still frozen over when we were there.

I think the drawing point is that there is a very large old hotel there that was built when the railroad was built.  It is a pretty location but we have seen many other areas in the Rockies just as post card pretty but without the hotel.  So maybe all of those folks really come to see the hotel not the lake.

Pictures from Calgary

It has been almost a week since WiFi has been available---so I will try to catch up with what has taken place over the last few days.  In my last post I told you how we had gone to the Olympic area in Calgary.

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These were two pictures of the ski jump at the center.  You could not get up into it, but I took the shot standing right next to it looking down the hill.  I really find it hard to think that people willingly jump off this thing.  You would have to start doing this as a very young child before you knew what you were doing and then......

As this picture shows there are four jumps of different heights - 90 meters, 70 meters and two shorter ones.  The information we found at the site indicates that there are actually more jumps made during the summer than during the winter.  They have some way of wetting down the artificial turf that makes it just like snow.

We stayed in the small town of Cochrane, Alberta just west of Calgary and this is the view from the town's main street.


We also attended an official professional bull riding contest that was held right next to the RV Park we stayed in.  It wasn't the 'offical' Calgary Stampede but it was as close as you get in May.

Calary, Alberta

Well, we made it to Calgary this afternoon.  We are staying outside of the city in a small town called Cochrane.  The campground sits right on the Bow River.  It is nice and so far quiet.  I still can't quite get use to all the daylight.  With the change in time - 2 hour difference - it is light here way past 10 o'clock. 

I took some pictures of the mountains as we were coming into town and I will post them tomorrow. 

We are going to go into Calgary and look around  tomorrow.  It should be a nice day---lots of sunshine and around 60 degrees.

What a Day!!!!!

When we arrived at Winnipeg yesterday we discovered that the whole area from Winnipeg west into the southeast portion of Saskatchewan had been declared a disaster area because of flooding.  Between all of the melted snow and continuing rain many of the rivers were waaaay beyond their banks.  So instead of staying there for a day or two, we decided to get up early and drive west to get out of the area before the road was closed.

As we were driving west on Highway 1, there was water on both sides of the road in many areas and water level up to the bottom of bridges.  In the town of Portage de Pairie, there is a diversion channel from there to Lake Manitoba that was so full of water that the folks there were thinking of breaching the dikes to flood over 500 square acres of land and some housed to save 800 homes in another part of the city.

Well, we made it to Regina, SK. the capital of Saskatchewan late today.  We drove all day (366 miles -  way beyond the norm) through rain, fog and high winds but the forecast for tomorrow is better.  The Temp here is only in the low 40's and with the wind blowing around 30 mph it is not much fun to be out.  Hope tomorrow is better.

Dryden, ON

We actually have found an RV campground in what Ontario back country calls a town.  Dryden has cell phone bars, cable TV, radio and even a Wal-Mart.  Can't beat that. 

It rained off and on today as we travel from Thunder Bay.  The roads are hilly and weave between the hills and Lake Superior.

The country is beautiful in a sense that it is about to wake-up from a long winter's nap and spring is just around the corner.

Tomorrow---off to Winnipeg.

Catch-up

After several days without cell phones, TV or Internet, I will try to catch up with what has been happening.

We spent Tuesday in Mackinaw City.  The campground is right on the lake.



The Original Big Mac



The next day was a day of bridges.  The Big Mac and the International over the SOO.

The Original Big Mac



The International Bridge over the SOO



The locks at the SOO

Steve had some concerns over the brakes on the trailer so after crossing into Canada we stopped at a RV place to have the brakes checked,  All was OK but because it took several hours to accomplish we spent the night at a camp site at Montreal River.

Once we left Sault St. Marie, ON going north along Lake Superior, there was basically nothing to be found.  Limited 'small' towns, no cell phone bars and when we stopped to spend the night - no TV or radio.  It was almost like being in the Boundary Waters again.

Continuing along the coast of Lake Superior, winter had not let loose for spring.  Where was still snow and ice on the lakes and in the woods.  We saw several moose along the road but fortunately none hit us.

Last night we stayed at Terrace Bay near the Aguasabon Falls.  It was a very pretty place.  You could hear the falls from our campsite.

This picture should be rotated 45 degrees but I could not figure out how to do it, so you will have to twist your head a little

We spent today in Thunder Bay, ON.  There were cell phone bars in town so I was able to get a text from Grace, but here at the campgrounds no bars but at least Internet.

Hope all is well with all and a Happy Mothers Day to all.



We are in Lansing Michigan

Well, after a week of trying to put a 1200 square foot house into a 120 square foot travel trailer well, I could have used some of the 'Honey I shrank  the Kids' magic.  But we made it.  Then the heavens let loose and I thought we may need an ark instead of a TT.  Traveling up 75 in Ohio and 69 in Indiana and Michigan there was water all over the place.  We had to get north of Fort Wayne before the sun sort of came out.  Hopefully it will be better tomorrow. 

Off we go...North to Alaska

I will be sharing with you the events on our trip.  Hopefully I will be able to add pictures of what we see and where we go.  I hope you will enjoy.