5 nights in Skagway, Alaska - Gateway to the Klondike

hi from Skagway Alaska..
a town of 382 people when it's 50 below zero and 8,382 when the summer cruise ships are in town.. the town is 4 blocks wide and 22 blocks long.. downtown reminds me of big ant hill with ants going in all directions up and down a jaywalking across the streets.. it is a colorful town which is what attracts the ships.. it was the route to Klondike Gold Rush in Dawson City, Yukon.. 10,000 people came here and then discovered that they had another 600 rugged grueling miles to go to the Yukon.. there was no railroad, like now, the poor among them had to hike 3,800 feet up and over rocks in the coldest winter on record - 50 below zero.. to make matters worse the Canadian govt required that each miner have 1 ton of supplies to last them for an entire year in the remote Yukon area.. that meant 50 trips up and down the Chilkoot trails hauling that 1 ton of provisons to the customs station and have a partner watch it while the other went down for another load.. it took them two years to get to the Yukon and by that time all the claims had been staked and they were out of luck.. very sad story..

Peg and i rode on Dawson Dolly's Parlor Car a couple of days ago.. Dolly is my sister in law who i helped raise from age 8.. in Columbus, Ohio.. i have attached a link to the pictures in facebook that shows her in action and also the scenery along the train ride.. spectacular..

we are ready to move on to Atlin, Yukon with Cindy and Will.. they have gold mines in Atlin which is where that gold nugget in the pictures comes from.. From Atlin we will go on to Dawson City, the heart of the goldrush.. it remains much as it was at the turn of the century complete with dirt streets and old buildings.. hope to have plenty of pictures from there..

we are 3,800 miles from San Jose at the moment.. the night is shorter and shorter as we go north, it doesn't seem to bother us however.. we pull the curtains in the RT and we are in our only little world and we go right to sleep.. Peg reads herself to sleep and i usually fall asleep over the computer looking at pictures or writing..

Well time to go do something else like enjoy the town and capture it's beauty..

love to all ..
Pegndon

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=121914&id=749024017&l=5bd5b4de7b

We are in Yukon Territory at Watson Lake tonite..

Hi all.. we are in the wilderness, no cell ph or wifi svc so communication back home and around the world has been sketchy.. but for us we are both feeling well, no sickness, just pesky skeeters, but we have a tennis racket electrocutor for flys and pests that get inside the RT and we have no mercy.. i let every car and truck pass me and then i poke along about 40 to 50 mph and we look for wildlife.. i keep my 80 by 400mm lens connected to my nikon D2X and we can get good closeups.. peg shot the running grizzly and got good pix.. the moose is shaking itself like a dog after a bath that was at our stop over in toad lake.. the mt sheep posed as if he was in a contest, i loved that look..

the red and white heart with harmony in center was on the hillside after a first nation settlement on the way into watson lake.. the canadian indigineous people are refered to as first nation or aboriginal people..

we have met some interesting people along the way and exchanged cards and will probably see more of them at the stops ahead.. by now nearly all the people we stop with at night are heading into various parts of alaska.. a caravan of adventerours.. there are quite a few europeans traveling north as well as young people and motorcycle riders.. we have encountered ten to fifteen couples of bike riders heading south out of alaska.. the hills are fierce.. today we had an 8% grade and some hills i have to use first going down to slow down the RT..

we are only a few days from seeing my sister-in-law cindy, aka "Dawson Dolly" in Skagway. we are not sure how we are going to get to see her because she has written a book and is doing book signings every night in Skagway or Whitehorse.. she plays a goldrush madam on the White Pass & Yukon Route narrow gauge railroad from Skagway to Whitehorse..

if and when we get internet connections again we will tell you what has been happening and perhaps show some pictures of interesting sightings along the way.. i hope you are liking what you see, we love doing it..

all our love to you all, Pegndon

High Country hello from Grand Prarie, AB, Canada

Friends and relies..
we have now entered new country to us.. we had been as far as Jasper before, but today we drove hwy 40 in Alberta which went through 3 towns all day.. 300 km. Meskeg, Grand Cache and ended in Grand Prarie a town of 50k.. big for up this far.. oil country.. funny thing on this long isolated 2 lane road there was quite a bit of traffic and trucks but hardly any visible wildlife although it was a wildlife preserve.. we did see one deer spring across the road, but that was it..

tomorrow we cross into BC and one step closer to the Alaska Highway.. forgot to say yesterday we took a detour to a hot spring in the mountains outside Jasper.. we had stopped to photograph the Mountain Goat and kid and someone else who spotted it first told us about the hot spring and we followed them off the road about 17km but it was so worth it.. Peg loves her hot tub and this was a hot tub fix extraordinary.. he noticed the sprint car on the back window of the RT and said he raced Miata on a road course.. nice people..

we have been in and out of internet connections.. yellowstone was blank.. some say they have it then it doesn't work.. this one right now is going in and out so we will see if you have something to read or not.. the blog is autosaving when it can, but then it will say it can not contact blogger so saving and publishe may fail.. then it saves.. so it goes in the wilderness with new technology..

i have been putting more stuff on facebook and the links below will take you to two albums you might want to see because the pictures are quite nice.. today was frolicing foxes, a family of red foxes caught on my long lense and then the pictures from the ice field parkway between Lake Louise and Jasper, one of the most beautiful stretches of landscape either one of us have ever seen and some of the pictures will give you a good impression of its beauty..

we are just a day or two from the Alcan highway so no telling what our communication ability will be.. i am still tweeting little bits and pieces here and there, ususally at a restaurant or the like.. so take care be safe and so will we, love you all,
Pegndon on the road to Alaska and loving it..

Frolicking Foxes..
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=119290&id=749024017&l=c33010f309

Beauty on Road to Alaska..
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=119012&id=749024017&l=eeb39cb79b

Calgary fixit day.. jun 8 2009

staying with Peg's friend Kathleen got a late start and went to Roadtrek dealer who said he could work me in the middle of August.. hey i'm almost home by then.. went to their in house store and scouted around and found just the part that would screw onto my dump hose and bought it and put it on and job is done.. then i went to Apple to try and fix my iphone which was freezing on Kathleen's phone #, they didn't fix it but gave me some clues to look in the manual (RTFM) which i did and found that if i held down the off/on switch on top and the home button on the bottom that it would reset itself.. this is the fix if it freezes off and won't come on.. but it worked to chase out the gremlin that was bugin me.. so now all i need to find is a cig lighter power cord for the garmin 660 we use on the road.. to find stuff that is not obvious.. that's tomorrow's job one..

the other day at Glacier's Alberta center we saw this big T-Rex skeleton which they had found intact.. it was hard to get a iphone pic of it so here are a few portions, you have to put it together in your own mind.. it was quite nice..

Glacier Natl Prk Montana.. what a diff a day makes..

so we go to bed with the wind howling and a severe chill in the air and we look at each other and think this could mean snow.. so the pix above show the before and after the wind blew in the snow on the campground outside East Glacier.. we were planning to drive around the lower portion of the park and go up the hwy to the sun from the other side.. but when we got around to that side the snow was falling the road had cinders on it and we thought.. nah.. some other year we will see this great sight.. all of the land around the park is black foot indian reservation and it was not kept up at all.. my comment was that they were living like teenagers often leave their rooms.. only it was on the outside too.. no offense you tidy teenagers, but you get the picture..

so we went on to calgary alberta to spend a few nights with one of peg's friends from Tripoli Libya. we got in late afternoon and have our own life size room for a change and will be here maybe up to 5 nights before pushing on up the highway to Banff, Canmore, Lake Louise and Jasper.. the must see portions of Alberta..

need to get some repairs done to the RT while in Calgary.. the large hose we use to empty our gray water and black water has a crack in it and that needs to be replaced and we need to find another cig lighter power cord for the garmin gps we are using. it shorts out because a potion of the connecter is missing.. like they say if it isn't one thing its your mother..

cheers yall..
here we are 16 days out and in canada already..
be safe and take care, love..
Pegndon

East Glacier Montana June 5th

sunny and warm all day as we drove from glacier meadows campground to east glacier a small town at one end of the highway to the sun, which is closed by snow, construction and an avalanche.. it was said it might not open til mid july.. we will be deep into alaska by then.. oh well..

we did drive up the 2 lane hwy to the closed sign and found a spot to picnic and along the way we had some pretty good photo ops of the river gushing down hill from the melting snow.. we could only see the big mountains from a distance though so the entire experience was so so.. would have been different had the highway been open but after all this is montana at the border with canada so this is big snow country..

trains are running through the mountains following the rivers and going through mountain tunnels.. we noticed they have the same kind of avalanche shelters that the sierras have along the donner summit, which prevent avalanches from stopping the trains..

the rivers we have seen are nearly emerald in color and we expect to see more of that as we go further into canada.. we will see if we can capture that in photos.. it is wonderful to see..

right now it's about 11:30pm and the wind is howling and clouds are heavy so tomorrows excursions may be dampened by the rain and possible snow.. remember this is montana and canada we are traveling in..

im starting to nod so i'll unravel a few phrases perhaps tomorrow..

take care and be safe,
w/love Pegndon

A visit at the Summit Lighthouse HQ

June 3rd was a short travel day from yellowstone to Bozeman Montana.. we made a stop at The Teton Ranch in Corwin Springs, MT to visit the HQ of the Summit Lighthouse, the organization behind the teachings of the Ascended Masters which don has been associated with since 1977. Peg and I were shown around the HQ building and the chapel and then we were treated to lunch by our wonderful guide, Mary Anne Drew of the staff.. it was an opportunity for me to catchup with the development and evolution of the Summit Lighthouse organization since the Messenger, Elizabeth Clare Prophet retired with the onset of Alzeheimers.. before that occurrence she and her husband Mark Prophet had received the teachings of the Ascended Masters and published them in books and CDs and now online at - http://www.tsl.org

I asked about Rev. Gene Vosseler who had joined the organization at the same time I did in 1977 and she said he was living in Bozeman and that he might like a visit. I called Gene when we were near Bozeman and arranged to have dinner at Perkins Restaurant on Main St in Bozeman, a Restaurant they frequent.. it was a wonderful meeting to hear the stories of his association with the Summit and the many assignments he had undertaken while he was on the staff of the organization, and at 83 he still undertakes various assignments.. His wife Wanda was with him and we heard of how they dealt with the challenges they were given while working with the Summit..

it's now thursday june 5 in Bozeman and we will be off to Cabelas sportsman store to pick up a few things we need for the trip like some comfortable chairs and perhaps a pair of outdoor shoes that don't mind going anywhere i want to go..

take care all,
our love to you..
Pegndon

5 Nights Yellowstone Park

June 2, 2009 Fishing Bridge Campground Yellowstone Wyoming

the last five days we have had no cell phone service and no internet access because the fishing bridge campground doesn’t have it.. we only had cell service at old faithful but that has been it, and for a wired traveler that has been a change..

today was a rain day so we decided to stay put and catchup on stuff we have put off.. backing up on external HD all the pictures we have taken with three cameras.. i am using a Nikon D2X and a Canon G9 and peg is using a Canon 990.. I have been using a tripod and shutter release cord to get as good a picture as i can.. the G9 and the 990 have vibration reduction an anti-shake feature which keeps the blurs to a minimum..

last night the rain was heavy around dinner time so peg suggested we go over to the Yellowstone Hotel and sit in the lounge and have a drink.. the hotel was built in 1891 and it still has that simple dated feeling to it inside.. outside it’s painted yellow, imagine that.. we checked the menu and decided to eat in the dining room, the rain had not stopped yet.. the service was good but the food was so so, in fact most of the meals at the yellowstone restaurants or cafeterias have been so so.. could be that the facilities have only been open a week and a half and the students and other workers are just getting up to speed..

a couple days ago we drove to Lamar Valley looking for wildlife and we found, boodles of buffalos, smatterings of elk, one black bear holding up traffic in both directions on a two way road.. and a few prong horn antelope.. it was threatening rain most of the time, but not pouring yet.. so we were pleased with this foray..

day before yesterday we drove to old faithful and we had a choice to go the 32 mile direction or the 59 mile direction and we choose the shorter and just as we are walking from the RT to old faithful it goes off.. so we picked a front row bench and sat there for an hour a 17 minutes waiting for the next eruption.. it was warm and sunny so it was not a bad wait and what the heck we had a front row seat for the next performance.. after the blow we went into the old faithful lodge and had lunch and looked around at the structure which was much more interesting than the yellowstone hotel..

yellowstone park is very large and it is somewhat of a long drive to where ever you are going, but it is made interesting because there are always surprises along the way.. either animals, vistas and overlooks.. but consequently you can’t do too many things in one day..

yesterday we saved the short drive of 17 miles to the grand canyon of the yellowstone river which for a picture taker was one of the most stunning sights we have encountered, especially artists point with the upper and lower falls and the canyon of pastel reds, oranges and other volcanic colors.. we spent quite a bit of time there and then drove to some new sights and overlooks they have recently built for viewing the falls and the river..

the altitude has been a challenge for me most of the park is between 7500 and 8800 feet high which makes it challenging to walk up and down some of the viewing points which have 300 steps down and 300 up, needless to say i avoided them.. i have discovered that by breathing deeply from my diaphragm i can over come the shortness of breath and do rather well but i am avoiding the strenuous hikes and climbs and still getting very good pictures..

tomorrow june 3 we are off to see the mineral hot springs on our way out of the park and into montana, not positive where we will end up.. Butte or Bozeman perhaps.. but once again we will have cellular service for our phones and internet where i can post this blog update with some pictures..

things are going well and we are settling into a routine of activities inside the RT, i usually get up first and make coffee.. we have brought along some Kauai Coffee beans, so i grind up a weeks worth and heat the tea pot and use a melita cone and filter and brew up a large thermos full of hawaiian coffee and i drink what is left along the drive for the day to keep me perky on the windey roads..

our sleeping accommodations in the RT is a king size bed we leave made up in the rear of the van.. it has two zip together sleeping bags with two sheets sewed together and put inside the bags.. one bag is heavy and the other is light.. so depending on the climate we use the top bag to keep us warm or cool.. it has worked well for several years like this.. it has been cold here, not freezing but pretty close, there is still snow on the ground around the park and in the campground itself, but when the sun is out it is tee shirt weather..

that’s it for now, need to hit the sack because not sure how far we are going tomorrow..
hope all are well and having as much fun as we are.. we do know how fortunate we are to be doing this trip and we are happy to share it with you and let you see some of it through our eyes and words..

our love and best wishes to all friends and relies..

Pegndon

Grand Tetons

here we are in grand tetons natl pk.. what a site the teton range is.. talked to german tourist and he said oh we have mts like this in europe, sure these are nice but no big deal.. perhaps they are all he says, but to be in front of these magnificent jagged peaks is my kind of spiritual connection, they speak to my soul with a subtle beauty and power that few other sights do.. mountains, especially high and beautiful ones tend to contain a special spiritual power.. the ascended masters speak of the tetons as being the shambala of the west, and opening from the spiritual realms to those tuned to its vibration.. it said that Lord Lanto is the hierarch of this western shambala, in one of his last incarnations he is said to be Confucius..

we saw our first moose grazing willow shoots along the snake river bridge leading into the teton visitor center, we thought he had the 12 to 4 shift for the tourists.. he/she appeared to be molting, or had a bad case of bed hair combined with hat hair..

stopped in jackson wyo on the way here and had lunch and walked around the square which is famous for its antler archways.. the elk antlers are from the elk preserve right outside town.. the boy scouts pick them up and sell them for fund raising after the bucks drop them.. caught a cute ground squirrel scurrying back into his hole as i was walking the square so i stood there to see if he would come back out and viola there he was as if he was posing for the tourists.. i took some shoots and that alerted the other camera toters around that there was something worth here and he stayed for some pictures and autographs before getting back to squirrel bidness..

one of the big warnings in the tetons is BE BEAR AWARE.. they have signs screwed down on the picnic tables at each site.. so this morning i hear the garbage truck picking up the bear proof dumpsters and it occurred to me that some advanced bears may be able to morph into garbage truck drivers' and hijack the dumpsters and take them back to the tribe for a summer feast.. nah.. maybe.. nah..

today we are off to yellowstone for five nights.. a fellow traveler told us ther was a minor eruption in one of the hot spots in yellowstone recently.. wouldn’t that be something to be here when the second big eruption occurs at yellowstone.. i guess it is possible, but if i had a vote it would likely be nyet..

there is still snow on the ground in shady places around the park and the workers have been working for only a week and the students are from all over the country and the Caribbean.. their uniforms are still new and have the creases in them, doubtless that will be the way after a few weeks..

More later,
Pegndon