The First 6 Years
We retired in June 2000 and started our adventure of being fulltimers living on the road in our fifth wheel. We sold our house in Mesa Arizona and purchased the fifth wheel and planned on starting our journey. However I could not retire as planned and we lived in the fifth wheel for four years until I could finally retire from teaching. Our first destination upon leaving Mesa was to go to South Dakota and get our drivers licenses. We became official residents of South Dakota as a matter of choice because of tax and insurance issues. After securing our drivers licenses we spent the summer traveling around the state of Iowa visiting friends that we had made during the 20 years that I taught in the state of Iowa. When we began our life as fulltimers we had thought we would stay in one spot for longer periods of time but we ended up staying much less. We decided that choosing the fifth wheel over motorhome was the wrong decision for us. We decided to go to Casper Wyoming and get some things fixed on our fifth wheel. We were planning to sell the 5th wheel when we got back to Arizona for the winter and buy a motorhome. The factory in Casper was closing for two weeks to attend rallies and we could not get our work done. We started traveling south to Texas where they had a service center that could work on our fifth wheel. This facility also sold motorhomes and we decided to trade for a motorhome at this point. We took a couple of shake down trips to find out things that needed to be repaired before we left Texas.
The first winter we stayed in the campground that we had lived in for the four years prior to our hitting the road. We spent the winter visiting friends, playing golf, going to athletic events, did some reading and of course Carol did some serious shopping.
We began the summer of 2001 by going to Texas to visit our oldest son, Mark, and his family. We boondocked behind his business and helped him do some work in his factory. We also went down to New Braunfels to get some work done on our motorhome. Unfortunately we were sideswiped on the interstate and were then delayed for two weeks while getting the repairs done. We again spent most of the summer in Iowa visiting our daughter, Tami, and her family, long time friends and helping our mothers with different projects. In September, we went to Elkhart, IN to get some work done on our motorhome prior to going to visit our youngest son, Steve, in Toronto, Canada. We then came down through Niagara Falls into New York and Pennsylvania and drove down the Blue Ridge Parkway. We also attended the FMCA rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina. After the rally we headed to the Austin, Texas area to visit our son, Mark, and family. We headed toward Arizona in December and purchased our first campground membership into Western Horizons. We did stay for one month in Mesa at Mesa Spirit RV Resort before heading to Yuma, Arizona and Southern California to spend the rest of the winter in membership parks. In May, we purchased another camping membership into Thousand Trails. We continued to stay in membership parks in California until we went to a Good Sam rally in Pomona, California at the end of June.
The rest of the summer of 2002 we spent again in Iowa, as family problems needed our attention. We traveled about the state coming back to Panora to attend to family business as needed. In September we went to our first fulltimers rally, Monaco rally, and another FMCA rally in central Kansas. We met many new friends at these three rallies and touch base with several of them as we travel down the road. The first of October we headed toward Texas to spend time with Mark and our grandkids. We spent time in the Lake Conroe area and visited my niece, Dana, and her family who live in the Woodlands just north of Houston. The rest of 2002 found us traveling to Arizona to spend the rest of the year in Casa Grande, Arizona.
The highlights of 2003 were being the support vehicle for our son Mark and his family as they rode in RAGBRAI (Registers Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) in July. Prior to RAGBRAI we had a family gathering to celebrate the 90th birthday of Carol’s mother, Gladys. Most of her children and grandchildren were able to attend. After RAGBRAI we spent the rest of the summer in membership parks in the state of Michigan before going into Canada to visit Steve and attend his wedding to Lisa Paiva. Steve’s brother and sister and their families were able to come to Canada for the wedding. After visiting Steve and Lisa we came back to Elkhart, IN to have some work done on our motorhome at the Monaco factory. We then returned to Iowa and started for Arizona and membership parks to finish up the year of 2003.
In 2004, we planned our first extended trip touring the state of Alaska in our motorhome. After spending the first four months traveling in Arizona and Southern California, we returned to Iowa for the annual Alumni Banquet prior to leaving for the Alaska trip. While we were in Iowa our inverter burnt up and ruined our TV, satellite system, and VCR. We left Iowa the first June and spent four days traveling through Iowa, SD and MT before crossing the Canadian Border. After leaving Alberta, it took us three days before we reached milepost 0 of the Alaskan Highway. We stopped through Banff and Jasper National Park and saw the Columbia Ice field and toured the Ice field Centre.
As we began our journey along the Alaskan Hwy, we saw numerous wildlife, as the weather was very cool. We spent the nights boondocked on pull outs along the Highway. We stopped at the Laird River Hot Springs and enjoyed a nice soothing sit in the Hot Springs. At days end we were in Watson Lake, Yukon Territory and stayed in the campground overnight to dump our tanks and take on fresh water. It was 9:30 p.m. when we set up camp and you would think it was late afternoon, as the sun was nowhere near setting. On leaving Watson Lake, we decided to take the Campbell Hwy instead of staying on the Alaskan Highway. We were told that very few took this route to Dawson City and there would be very little traffic and we can drive at our leisure. The drive was billed as spectacular with more wildlife than the other route. The first 240 miles of the 367-mile Campbell Hwy was like a two-lane gravel road in Iowa. On that stretch we saw a total of four vehicles. The day was very hot and very little wildlife was to be seen. The last 127 miles was paved until we reached the Klondike Highway. When we boondocked that night, I used the power washer to clean off the dirt we accumulated while on the Campbell Highway. We arrived in Dawson City on June 11 and stayed in the campground for two nights. There were many interesting sites in Dawson City as it was the destination for the Klondike gold rush. We also attended the Commissioners Tea Party, which is an annual event at the site of the original Commissioners residence. Our friends, Ken and Bonnie Woepke, were at the Tea Party as well. We had planned on traveling with them in Alaska but they had had motorhome trouble and were delayed getting to Dawson City.
On leaving Dawson City, we ferried the motorhome across the Yukon River and took the Top of the World Highway into Alaska. After we reached the Alaskan border, the road on into Chicken, Alaska was worse than that of the Campbell Hwy. From Chicken to Tok the road was again a nice paved stretch. We stayed overnight in Tok, Alaska and ate our first salmon bake at the campground. On Day 14, we arrived in Fairbanks and the temperature was 93 degrees, which is very unusual. We stayed in Fairbanks for five days and visited the town of North Pole, the University of Alaska Museum of the North, a gold mine to pan gold, took the Riverboat Discovery along the Chena River as well as got a close up look of the Alaskan pipeline. On the day of the solstice, June 19, we left Fairbanks to travel to Denali National Park, the home to Mt. McKinley. We took 11 1/2 hour trip (85 miles) to Wonder Lake, which is the closest spot to observe Mt McKinley. There was not a cloud in the sky so we were one of the fortunate few to be able to see Mt McKinley in all its majestic beauty. Our bus driver and guide had been driving this tour for 10 years three days a week and this was only the 6th time he had been able to view Mt McKinley on a cloudless day. It is said that fewer than 20 percent of the people that come to Denali Park even get to see any of Mt McKinley because of cloud cover. We were very fortunate indeed.
  
As we left the National Park and headed south towards Anchorage we stopped at Talkeetna for breakfast and visited the Ranger Station. Talkeetna is the staging area for all climbs on Mt McKinley. There were several climbers who just come from Mt McKinley the day before. As we were on the north side of the mountain on a cloudless day, some of the climbers had abandon their climb on the south side because of the fifth consecutive day of high winds and poor visibility. Talkeetna is also known as the drug capitol Alaska.
We bypassed Anchorage in order to head for Homer, AK to get our inverter repaired as this was the nearest authorized repair facility on our planned route since we left Iowa. The Russian River was close to the Highway and we were able to observe what is called “Combat fishing”. The fishermen were lined up shoulder to shoulder for the salmon run up the river to spawn. I had seen pictures of this in sporting magazines and they were true to life. The fishermen were lined up on the far bank and there was a cable ferry to take the fisherman across the river.
Bill, the repairman, found our inverter had a program board that was fried. Unfortunately, he could not repair the inverter so he had one ordered to be delivered to a Monaco repair facility in Anchorage. While in Homer we went to the Platt museum, which was an outstanding museum for a small town. They had several interactive displays on the history of the area, the people, and the extensive display on the Exxon Valdez oil spill. We called the repair facility in Anchorage and found they could not look at our inverter until Monday, which gave us 5 days. We then decided the to go to Seward prior to returning to Anchorage. The Highway south to Seward was the prettiest stretch of road that we traveled so far. While in Seward we visited the Exit Glacier just north of town. On the way back to Anchorage we stopped at Portage Lake and took a boat tour of the Portage Glacier.
The repair facility had to order the inverter and would not be able to install it until July 12 so we decided to go to Valdez during that time. Valdez had a lot of history from the Good Friday earthquake of 1964 and the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It rained about everyday we were in Valdez. We spent a lot of time riding the scooter to see the sites around Valdez. The RV park we stayed in hosted a free salmon BBQ on the Fourth of July. As we ate dinner, we watched across the Bay as the oil tanker, the Polar Endeavor, was filled to transport oil south down the Pacific Coast. On July 6 we got word that the inverter had arrived in Anchorage so we headed back to the RV facility. While they were installing the inverter we toured Anchorage and watched several videos of the earthquakes devastating impact on Anchorage.
After the inverter was installed we decided we would go back to Homer again. We stopped at Coopers landing and took a raft float trip down the Kenai River. The raft trip was 13 miles long and took a total of three hours to complete. It was a peaceful and relaxing trip and highly recommended for anyone making a visit to the area. We took a side trip to the town of Kenai and it was a very clean and peaceful town. We stayed overnight in Soldotna before heading to south toward Homer. We boondocked two nights on the Cook Inlet at Ninilchik and watched fishing boats come in at night and clean their fish. The Sunset on the bay was very beautiful. When we arrived in Homer, we set up camp on “The Spit” with no hookups. We spent four days on the Spit and took several scooter rides around the area. We took a trip across the bay to Seldovia, the fishing village of 300 people with no access other than by boat and air. The fish and chips of fresh halibut were very good everywhere we ate in the area. We rode the scooter to the end of the road on this Alaska Peninsula.
After we left Homer, we traveled back north to Palmer, Alaska. Palmer was the most interesting stop on our Alaskan trip. Palmer was established in 1935 as part of United States Resettlement Act in the depression years when 300 families came to Alaska from the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. We toured the colony house museum, which was a restoration of the original 1935 house built by the settlers. All of the furnishings were from the original era and most came from Sears and Montgomery Ward catalog. The hostess for the museum was the first baby born in the colony hospital that was built by the settlers upon their arrival. Her sister was 11 years old when her parents helped start the settlement in 1935. We met her as well when we came back the next day to visit the museum. Arville Schaleben, writer for the Milwaukee Journal, wrote a running account of the relocation in May and June of 1935. If I were to go back to Alaska, I would definitely spend a lot more time in the Palmer area, as the history is so rich.
 
After we left Palmer, we went to Copper Center, AK to tour the McCarthy and Kennecott mines. Kennecott was a copper mining town that was built and wholly owned by the Company. The mine operated from 1911 until it’s closing in 1938 and has fallen in disrepair. Plans to completely restore the mine and all of its buildings are underway. We then went to Tok and spent a few days in the campground. We made arrangements to take the ferry from Skagway to Juneau and Sitka later in the month of August. We spent seven days at Deadman Lake Campground in the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge at milepost 1249.2. The campground had no hookups but we are able to dump and fill our water tanks so we could boondock during that time. All of the rangers for the Refuge were Athabascan women who gave talks every night about growing up in this area, how they lived a subsistence life, how they made use of everything from trees, plants and wildlife to be able to survive in this area. They also talked about the different plants and how they used them for medicinal purposes. They also talked in great detail about the ritual of the potlatch and all the work and expense that goes into the occasion. We then traveled on to Whitehorse, Yukon and spent two days visiting that area. On day 62, August 1st, we went to Skagway to begin our trip down the Marine Highway. We left the motorhome at the ferry terminal parking lot and loaded the scooter on the ferry for the trip to Juneau. Our stay in Juneau was a disappointment as our Hotel, which was on the National Historic Landmark list, was not clean and had not been completely renovated. After staying two nights in Juneau, we were back on the Marine Highway to Sitka. We took the fast ferry to Sitka, which took 3 ½ hours. Sitka is a very historic destination as there is a lot of history from the Russian occupation and the sale of Alaska to United States from the Russian government. The Sheldon Jackson Museum, which is the Alaska State Museum, is said to have the most artifacts of Alaska Natives as any museum in the world. Sitka is definitely worth a stop on a trip to Alaska. Upon returning to Juneau by ferry, we stayed in a different Hotel and the experience was much nicer. We visited the Mendenhall Glacier and also the AJ Mine-Gastineau Mill that was the original mining site that gave Juneau its place on the map. We also visited the Glacier Garden Rainforest, a Botanical Garden. They have gardens of flowers planted in “overturned upside down tree stumps”.
We’ve returned to Skagway by way of the Marine Highway and spent three nights until we could board the ferry with the motorhome to travel to Haines. While in Skagway, we learned a lot about the Klondike gold rush and its impact on the towns of Skagway and Dyea. We also took a short hike up the beginning of the Chilkoot trail, which was the start of the trek of the Klondike gold rush to Dawson City, Yukon. Each miner had to transport over 1000 pounds of gear up an almost vertical assent to start his journey to the gold fields of Dawson City. He was required to have in his possession enough supplies to last one year in the wilderness.
While in Haines, we were able to see several lumberjacking demonstrations as part of the Alaska State Fair of Haines. We were also able to see our first Grizzly as it was fishing along the Chilkoot River. From Haines, we went back to Whitehorse and after spending a few days there, we continued along the Alaska Highway to the Cassier Highway in British Columbia. We took the Cassier Highway down to Stewart, BC and Hyder, Alaska. The purpose of the stop was to see more grizzlies feeding on salmon, however, it rained most of the time and we did not see anymore grizzlies.
On day 84 of our trip we left the Cassier Highway and headed across BC. We saw many interesting things in our trip across Canada, from restoration of forts, to pulp factory’s, to the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village. We stopped in Edmonton and visited the West Edmonton Mall, which is gathering spot for family entertainment. The trip across Canada back to the U.S. took us 10 days and returned home in time for our wedding anniversary on September 3rd. The Alaska trip was a once a lifetime experience but some day we hope to make the trip again. Anyone considering spending an extended stay in Alaska should buy the tour saver book, which will allow 2 for 1 discounts on many of the sites and excursions in Alaska. You can purchase the tour saver book online at toursaver.com or purchase it at a Safeway store when you get to Alaska. The book costs $99.99 and we saved over $975 during our stay in Alaska.
The remainder of 2004 and this spring of 2005 was spent traveling from Iowa to Arizona to spend the winter. We stayed for one month in the Verde Valley before going to Casa Grande to finish out the year. In April, we flew to Austin to attend Mark’s wedding to Kenna. We met Kenna’s parents who are also fulltimers living on the road in a motorhome.
During this spring and summer of 2006, we traveled through Northern California and Oregon staying at various campgrounds in the systems we belong to. The time we spent along the Oregon coast was cold and rainy. When we got to the interior the weather was much nicer. We attended a Good Sam rally in Redmond, Oregon and spent about a month in the Bend area seeing many sites. We returned to Iowa to celebrate my mothers 85th birthday in August. The birthday celebration was held at the conference center at Lake Panorama. Almost all of the children and grandchildren were able to attend this celebration. Steve had put together a video of pictures of moms’ family to show during the reception. After the birthday celebration we again started south to spend the winter. We decided we would stay in one place for four months instead of traveling every two weeks as is necessary in staying in the membership parks. We chose to stay in the RV Park where we first lived in our fifth wheel when we decided we wanted to be full-time RV’rs.
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(Tami,Andrew,Chelsea, and Keaton)
