Chapter Four (2009)

Chapter 4 – 2009

This trip started out again in early May…May 8^th to be exact.  I made it out of town and all the way to Alachua, about 130 miles to an old friend and roommate, Joe (Cracker) McLeod’s house where I spent a couple of days with him, his wife, Dee and one of his sons, Luke.  It had been many years since we had seen each other and we spent time remembering times about 45 years earlier. 

After leaving Crackers, I made it to somewhere near Panama City to stay over with a friend, Bill Booker, whom I had met thru Open Road Singles (ORS), an RV group of people who travel alone.  The reason I say somewhere near Panama City is the only way to get to the Booker palatial estate is via GPS.  Bill and I traded some discussion of past meetings and I was off again.  Prior to starting this trip, I had agreed to meet with two other members of the ORS group in northwest Montana and caravan from there to Alaska.  My ETA Lake St Mary MT was May 28 which allowed me time for a couple of stops along the way. 

The first was Cullman Al where I met up with and had dinner with my cousins Jackie and Ray and Ray’s wife BJ.  We had a long awaited meeting since we hadn’t seen each other in maybe 30 – 40 years.  Then it was over to the Allegro Plant in Red Bay AL where the Blue Goose was born in the late 90’s.  The next day, I was back toward Cullman to get the voltage regulator replaced in my RV’s generator. 

After that, on to Tunica and the Mississippi casinos just south of Memphis before taking off to Springfield Mo where my son Kevin and his crew Kelly, Sam and Lily, live.  I parked the  “Goose” in Kevin & Kelly’s front yard for most of a week, Playing with Sam and Lily, visiting some of the local establishments, a trip to Branson and Silver Dollar City for a couple of days, where Kevin had a live remote for his morning show.  Which by the way, if you are in the Springfield MO area, tune Kevin in at FM 95.5 KTOZ from 5:00 am – 10:00 am on the Kevin and Liz Show. You can also catch him on his sports show on the local ESPN station AM 1414 from 11:00am – 12:00am.  And if that’s not enough, go to Hammons Field and take in a minor league Springfield Cardinals game.  Kevin is the stadium announcer.  Keeps him out of Kelly’s hair.

After Springfield, it was north thru Missouri and Iowa.  I spent a couple of days in Sioux Falls SD, and took in some of the history provided by Lewis and Clark back in the 1800’s as they searched for a northwest passage.  I left for Sturgis South Dakota the last Friday in May and headed thru the northeast corner of Wyoming and into Montana.  As I was driving up US Highway 212 listening to Sirius radio, there was an announcement to visit a national cemetery over Memorial Day weekend.  What a neat idea…then out of nowhere about an hour later, there it was, right in front of me.  The Little Big Horn National Cemetery.  I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around, picturing what it must have been like on that knoll in late June 1878, facing several thousand Lakota and Cheyenne Indians.  Late in the afternoon, I headed north toward Billings Mt.  From Billings, it was on to Bozeman and Great Falls.  I stopped in Great Falls, about 100 miles south of Lake St Mary where I was to meet up with the rest of my caravan.  I went to my favorite campground (Wal-Mart) and stayed for a couple of days.  Great Falls has a lot of history, primarily related to Lewis and Clark.  While there, Beth Carol and Liz contacted me and said they just got to Great Falls, so I stayed another day.  We left Great falls to Lake St Mary where we finally caught up with Ron, the final member, or so we thought, of our group.  

We stayed at the beautiful Glacier National Park – Babb Campground and the next morning headed north across the Canadian Border.  We stayed west of Calgary, in a direction of Banff National park in Alberta stopping along the way to view the fantastic Canadian scenery.  On the second day, we had stopped for lunch in an overlook in the Canadian Rockies when a large familiar-looking motor home pulled into the parking area.  I had seen this coach before, but it took me a while to figure out.  When I was in Great Falls (Wall Mart, of course), this coach was also there both days that I was.  It was this chance meeting that I was introduced to Tommy and Olga Wood from Conroe Texas.  As it turned out, they traveled on to Alaska with us.  Next stop – Banff National Park, Lake Louise Which was completely frozen over when Tricia and I were there two years earlier), and the Colombia Ice Fields, a mile thick Glacier just west of Lake Louise.  Since I had visited the Ice Fields in 2006 with Tricia, and the fact that we were approaching Alaska too slow for me, I said goodbye to my fellow travelers and struck out on my own for Dawson Creek BC and Mile 0 of the 1422 mile Alaska Highway.

AH YES…The Alaska Highway aka the Alcan Highway.  Tons of history in this 2-lane ribbon that runs from Dawson Creek to Fairbanks.  You just sit back and observe…the snow-covered Rockies to the left, rivers and frozen lakes to the right, and too many small villages and towns to mention.  You travel thru the upper portion of British Colombia thru Ft. Nelson, Watson Lake and then cross the border and arrive in Whitehorse, the capital city of the Yukon Territory.  I usually spend a couple of days in Whitehorse, which is about 2/3 the way up the Alaska Highway.  Time to stock up and gas up (on those $5 per gallon Canadian prices.  Next stop will be back in the US at the Alaska border.

I have to tell my Watson Lake story.  When I left Grand Prairie in central BC, the news on Sirius Radio was a huge forest fire in the Yukon Terratory, so when I got to Watson Lake, around 4:00 pm,  I stopped by the Chamber of Commerce to get the latest information.  I was told the road was open and closed about 60 miles west at the discretion of the forest rangers.  And the best time would be early morning.  So, I set up in their parking lot for the night (WIFI available and a grocery store across the street).  I pulled out around 5:00am heading toward Whitehorse.  And sure enough there was a roadblock about 60 miles up the road.  I was told that the smoke was too thick to continue, but the rangers were allowing traffic thru with an escort, and the escort vehicle had just left.  I was the first in line, or the first one to miss the last escort run, so I knew I’d be there for a while.  As it turned out, it was only about an hour.  I was sitting in the driver’s seat listening to the radio when someone knocked on my door.  I opened the window and asked if I could help.  The man stood there looking at me as if I was crazy…I couldn’t figure it out, then he said “you don’t recognize me do you?”, to which I replied “no”…Then he said, ”Well you should, we spent every afternoon two years ago having cocktails together, and you  can’t remember”.  Then I got the picture.  It was Carroll Frecking, from Minnesota, one of my fishing partners on the Kenai River from 2007.  So much for short term memory.  And so much for how small the world is.  Me from St Petersburg, he and his wife Carolyn along with two of their grandsons Ben and Dalton stopped behind each other in a forest fire road block in the Yukon Terratory.  It must have been the smoke in my eyes.

As I crossed into Alaska at the northern most point of the Canadian Rockies, I was  on the only road into Alaska…there is no other way to drive it.  Still about 800 miles from Anchorage, I usually feel differently driving in the US.  I’m not sure what causes that, I just feel more comfortable back in my own country.  This part of the trip from Whitehorse to Anchorage took me 3 days.

The Blue Goose in Alaska

  I have taken the Valdez cutoff and spent a couple of  days in this unique fishing village, but knowing I will get there on my way out of Alaska, so,I passed. 

Once in Anchorage, I parked at a City lot on the banks of Ship Creek and headed out to my favorite eating spot, Humpy’s.  A couple of days in Anchorage, and then it was south to the Kenai Peninsula, and Soldotna.  I stopped at one of my most remembered towns, Hope, for an overnight stay in the local campground and trout fishing in the  creek at the end of the only street in downtown Hope. Always fresh fish for dinner in Hope.

Once I left Hope I hopped on down the Seward Highway to its namesake town. And started out my fishing trip with a full-day Halibut trip.  The limit is 2 fish per day and you always get your limit.  The problem with trip was the fish were small…about 20 lbs.  So, if it’s early in the day you throw them back and go for a larger one.  After hauling up about a dozen fish, I quit with 2 fish (the 2 to the left of my hand).

Then it was back up the road about 90 miles to Soldotna and Centennial Park where I would call home until August.  When I arrived, I was met by several people I had met two years earlier, and some I met on the Alaska Highway in a smoke screen.  I set up about 75 feet from the Kenai River where I would walk down the nice aluminum stairs and stand in the river until I caught my limit of 3 or 6 fish depending on whether or not the Alaska game and Fish Commission increased the limit due to more fish coming up the river.  After a couple of weeks in Soldotna, I headed back to Anchorage and took a flight back to Tampa to spend a week on the beach in Ft Myers…a vacation from my vacation.

On my way back to Anchorage, I got a call in Atlanta that my RV had been broken into.  When I got back, I found a mess and a lot of things missing.  The people at the Cummins Diesel place, and in particular, Bubba Tillery, worked with me and reimbursed me for my loss.  It was just the mess that I wasn’t happy with.

Back in Soldotna it was snagging Sockeye Salmon on a daily basis.  I got to know carol and Carolyn’s 9-year old grandson, Dalton real well while here.  He was a real trip.  He was required to wear one of the complementary life jackets.

Then as July turned  to August, the Red Salmon run began to slow down, so, several of us packed up and drove on to Valdez, about 80 miles as the crow flys, but around 300 by road. The objective to finish off the season and fill the freezer with Silver Salmon. With the freezer loaded with about 400 lbs of fish, I headed back down the Alaska Hwy to the lower 48 driving in the direction of Albuquerque to meet Tricia for the Balloon Fiesta.

I took a couple of weeks thru Canada, Montana, Utah, Nevada, California, Arizona and finally New Mexico.  Tricia flew in to Albuquerque and we stayed in Santa Fe and took day trips to Taos and the surrounding area.   Tricia spent a day at the Ojo Caliente Spa, a mineral springs spa just outside Taos.  I wasn’t interested as I had done my spaing a couple of weeks earlier in the Liard Hot Springs in northern British Colombia. Tricia took a ride in one of the balloons while I kept my two feet planted on the ground.

 My visit to all the western states, other than Montana, was my first other than flying in on various trips. I found the west to be quite a pleasant change from what I have come accustomed to in Florida.  For instance, I left a Bryce Canyon UT campground one morning with the temperature right around 36 degrees, and stopped in Mesquite NV when the mercury was hovering around 110 at 9:00 pm.  Not only that, my Generator had gone on the fritz and I had no AC.  That caused me to spend several hours in a local casino.

                   Bryce Canyon                                               Grand Canyon

campground one morning with the temperature right around 36 degrees, and stopped in Mesquite NV when the mercury was hovering around 110 at 9:00 pm.  Not only that, my Generator had gone on the fritz and I had no AC.  That caused me to spend several hours in a local casino.

Tricia and I spent 3 days in Albuquerque watching hundreds of hot air balloons fly each day.  We had a parking site on the front row of the landing field which always offered balloon activity.  We had a chance to take a cable car ride to the highest bar in the world.  What a view…Then after about 9 days in the area, Tricia flew back to Tampa, and I headed east for Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri  visiting my cousin Earl Tillery and his wife, Jo, in Tulsa, and winding up in Springfield MO back at my son Kevin’s house for a few days with Kevin, Kelly, Sam and Lily. 

When I left  Kevin’s I traveled south to Petit Jean State park in Arkansas to catch up with my friend Fred Atterbury and his wife Maryann. .  This park is a plateau that I would guess to be about 1500 feet high, about 4 miles wide and 20 miles long.  It Was perfectly flat on top and covered with huge pine trees.  We stayed in the park for a couple of days, then they heeded and I headed east.   I drove on thru Mississippi, Alabama and ended up in Ellijay which is in north Georgia, and a reunion of my high school class..

Then it was on to Atlanta to visit with Janna and Joe Fackler for a couple of days.  It was Halloween which made a good conclusion to my trip.  All the ghosts and goblins reminded me of all the shadows and images I had seen over the past 14,000 + miles I had traveled.   I got back into St Petersburg on November 2nd, one week shy of 6 months…and immediately began planning my 2011 trip back to the Kenai…Stay Tuned!!!


On July 29, I got word that my friend Will Causseaux had passed away.  A pain in the ass, a lot of fun, and a good friend.   Will and I made the 2007 trip from Anchorage to Fairbanks, then to Vladez, Edmonton, Great Falls, Sturges, Souix Falls, Springfield, and New Orleans Will, you are missed...and I have a seat saved for you when I travel.