It's a Wrap!

We made it home just after Labor Day and have been unpacking and putting things away which has jogged some great memories of the trip.
Thought I'd do a quick wrap up and give you guys some of our random thoughts on the trip.

Things We're Glad We Did -
1. Made the trip in the first place - Whenever you take off on an extended trip like this you always have in the back of your mind that something is going to go wrong and you wished you'd have just stayed home. This was certainly on our minds but there are SO many potential things that could go wrong you'd drive yourself crazy trying to think thru them. We figured we had each other, credit cards, communication devices, equipment that was in top working order and a major passion to do this so what could possibly go wrong that we couldn't handle? Most importantly we had strong family support at home otherwise this trip would not have happened, that's a fact jack. And, everything went smooth as silk. Seriously, we've had 2 week vacations in the past where more problems have arisen, unreal.
2. Took it slowly - four months seems like not enough time but the reality is you only have that amount of time for safe travel up there and back before winter comes. Four months was ideal because it allowed short driving days and plenty of time to spend at nice spots we found along the way. If you're heading that way and can only afford a week  I think my brother Mark's family did it right by flying into Anchorage, renting an RV and spending the week on the Kenai Peninsula, that's what I would recommend. After seeing lots of different parts of AK I think the Kenai gives you the best overall feel for AK and allows you to pick up on the vibe and sights that best represent AK without a lot of driving. If you have one more week then also visit Denali like my sister Sue did. By the way, having them along was the highlight of our trip, for sure, thanks guys - we had a blast with all you wonderful folks!
If you're planning a driving/RV type tour up there figure you will make on average 30 - 40 MPH, not 60 - 70 MPH. The "highways" can be bad with long delays at construction zones so you need lots of time to get from point A to point B. We met lots of people trying to jam way too much into a 2 week itinerary that they ended up driving 10 hour days and not having time to relax and enjoy the place. A 250 mile long drive WILL take you 8 hours and this place is BIG. Cut the itinerary in half, slow down, meet the most incredible people you could imagine and enjoy the beauty, peace and solitude of the place.
3. Drive on Some Crappy Roads - And these are aplenty up here my friend. But, and here's the thing, these are the most beautiful, secluded and flat out best parts of Alaska, Yukon and British Columbia. Hell, even in CA, OR and WA the best drives we had were on beater gravel roads. This is where the Fit came in quite handy. If I did it again a 4 wheel drive, higher ground clearance vehicle would have been better but the Fit worked just fine - it got us everywhere we wanted to go. Epic roads like the Redwood Trail in OR, the road out to McCarthy/Kennicott AK, Wrangell NP, Top of the World Highway YT, Chugach Mountains in Hope, AK and many other memorable cruises would not have been possible without us having towed the Fit. I was surprised that we put about 3000 miles on the Fit just doing side trips and I'd wager that a good 2000 miles of that were on crappy roads.
I heard plenty of horror stories about towing a vehicle up there - it'll get trashed (and it sort of did, but not too badly), the RV/tow car combination is too long and a hassle to hitch up (not true AT ALL, easy peasy, trust me), one more mechanical thing to worry about (nope, did just fine - except for the tow wiring which was the ONLY thing that failed us the entire trip and it was really no big deal at all) - glad we didn't listen to the naysayers, having the Fit allowed us to see and experience so much more. If you're going to AK in an RV most definitely tow a second vehicle behind you.
On a similar theme bringing my mountain bike and sturdy, broken in hiking shoes was a good call. Opened up lots of exploration experiences and memorable moments as well as some stellar photo ops. A kayak/canoe would have been really good to have also, well there's always next time.
4. Take Time to Meet People - You generally have to go a bit out of your comfort zone to engage folks but most people warmed up right away and we ended up meeting some fine folks along the way. As I said in an earlier post all it takes is a smile, an earnest hello and you're off and running. Alaskans are, rightfully so, proud of their State and eager to show it off to visitors and to make sure they have a good time. Many of the Alaskans we met were originally from somewhere else and their stories of how they ended up in AK were fascinating. Met an 80 year old woman, raised on a farm in Iowa, meets a dog team musher from AK at a County fair in Iowa when she was 20 and took off to AK with him and never looked back. One example of HUNDREDS of similar stories we heard...what a blast. You will also meet tourists from all over the world. AK is on the foreign travel radar map for sure. A few of them were a pain in the ass but most were interesting and fun to hang out with, you know, hearing their particular "story". Take the mostly good with the few PITA's I guess. One thing for sure, for as big as AK is this is one small world.
5. A Little Upfront Planning and Prepwork - This really paid off big time. We purposely did not want to make reservations or set a definite travel route so that we could wander at will and make spontaneous decisions along the way. However some idea of the lay of the land is necessary to pick general routes and to try to loosely schedule your trip into blocks of time...such as, we'll be in Denali for a week around this time (this was the only campground reservation we made and very happy we did), let's spend a month in BC and YT getting up there - that sort of thing. In addition to prepping equipment we also secured as many maps, travel info, experiences from other RV'ers on trip blogs, etc to get an idea of what we wanted to see because there is SO much to see up there. One publication I would highly recommend is the Milepost which is updated annually and literally covers every mile of roadway in AK, YT and BC. It maps and lists mile by mile points of interests, lodging, RV parks, gas stations, etc - it was quite handy. If going to AK, get one.
Based on our experience you really don't need to make campground reservations because you can pretty much camp anywhere. This was easier for us as we had plenty of time and were flexible. If you're on a tight schedule and going to Kenai or Denali I would recommend making reservations.
Things We Wished We Did -
1. Nothing major comes to mind here. Would liked to have seen a bear snatching a salmon from a stream but we saw so much wildlife that ended up not being such a big deal. Our route up there in May/June generally followed the western/coastal area and our return trip was along a more easterly/inland route thru the Canadian Rockies. The salmon usually have their strongest runs in the coastal streams in August so a return route along the coast might have afforded us better bear and salmon viewings. Something to consider if this is important to you.
2. Seeing a wolf and/or wolverine.

Things That Were Kind of a Hassle -

1. Fuel Availability - never, repeat, never let your gas tank go below half full up there. Don't ask why I give this strong advice....ah, what the hell here goes - we didn't run out but we were in the middle of nowhere and we were sweating it. Ended up buying gas out of a 2500 gallon above ground tank in Chitna for around $6 a gallon...and damned happy to pay it!
2. Internet/Cell Availability - if you're in a largish town or on one of the main highways this is generally not a big deal but don't count on it. Even if you get just a few miles off of a main highway, which was 80% of our trip, it ain't happening. Seems like ATT has the most coverage and Verizon isn't bad. In Canada you will be transferred to a Canadian tel company like Bell or Rogers and their roaming fees are EXHORBITANT. If you're using your cell as a WiFi Hotspot and tethering in Canada, get your check book out, especially for data downloads (like sending blog photos out, boy did I get a rude awakening on that one!). In Canada we would generally hit the local visitors center (seems every town in CA has one of these) or a chain restaurant like Tim Hortons, Panera, Boston Pizza or just about any brewhouse for free wifi - worked very well with high speeds and the price was right. This becomes problematic when handling financial or confidential matters as we never use public wifi for that so you'll need to do some planning for this type of transaction. Usually most banks will offer a secure connection but you have to be aware of their office hours, partnerships with your US banking institution, etc. - research this upfront before you leave with your bank. All major US banking institutions have branches in AK so this works well but in Canada you'll need to find one with a connection/partnership with your US bank.
3. Leave your AmEx card at home - it was not accepted at most places we visited...Visa and MC rules up there, especially in the remote areas. Retailers have to pay AmEx up to 6% on all AmEx card purchases so they just don't accept them, that simple and I can't blame them. I'm rethinking my nearly 40 year association with AmEx these days, greedy bastards.
4. Laundromats - I guess this is universal but sitting in a hot, funky, weirdo infested laundromat for 6 hours is not my idea of a fun time but having clean clothes is nice. Part of the adventure and a chance to meet some very interesting people, I'll leave it at that.

Things That Surprised Us -

1. Damn, that place is big - there is so much open land up there it is difficult to comprehend the vastness of the place until you are in the middle of it. We knew AK and western Canada were big but getting from spot to spot took much longer than we anticipated and left us shaking our heads.
2. Great Food - the produce, in every location, was fresh and tasty. With such a short growing season I assume they truck everything in from the lower 48 and other Canadian provinces. Grocery prices seemed to be just a bit higher than here in SD however restaurant prices were quite high. Figure $40 for breakfast for 2, lunch about $50 and dinner prices are about $30 per plate plus drinks. The portions were always huge and the food was good so we usually went for a late breakfast/early lunch and doggy bagged half of our order and stretched it to another meal - worked fine and we sure as hell didn't starve.
3. It Never Gets Dark - in the summer it really never gets dark. I kept wondering why we brought 18 flashlights/head lights and 5 lanterns with us. Totally useless and surprised us how light it stayed. Leave your auxiliary and portable lighting systems at home, you won't need them.

The Casualties -

1. Honda Fit - the Fit took most of the beating I'm sorry to say. It is presently with my mechanic who is fixing the following items: replacing both front suspension struts and shocks; replacing the rear shocks and twisted rear suspension transverse beam; bent drive axle (I managed to pretty much destroy the suspension on the drivers side); tranny fluid replacement and filter; add to that a cracked windshield, both fog lamps smashed to bits and sand/gravel in the rocker panels.
2. Lazy Daze Motorhome - the LD faired much better with just a cracked windshield. The rig seems to be tight with no squeaks or rattles so I think it's in good shape. I'll keep my eyes and ears open as time goes on but I think we'll be OK.
3. Camera - intermittent issues with the camera, it still works fine but I think it's time for an upgrade. It did take some great photos  and served us quite well. Higher powered lenses would have been great for some of the wildlife images.
4. Cell Phones - Debbie's phone dumped on her and she replaced it in Washington on the return home. I had issues with connectivity in Canada with my ATT account.

Costs

I have been asked by some folks who are planning a trip like this for some typical cost information. This is always a tough one because each of us has our own way of travel so your costs may vary significantly. But, here's what we generally budgeted for and we've seemed to have hit it just about right:
1. Fuel Mileage/Consumption - we put 12,000 miles on the LD and an additional 3000 miles on the Fit doing side trips. Since being home Debbie and I will look at each other and say...'did we just drive to Alaska and back?'.
Fuel Consumption - while towing we averaged around 8 MPG and burned about 1600 gallons for the motorhome. The Fit got about 30 MPG so we went thru about 100 gallons for our side trips. All told about 1700 gallons of fuel. In AK average fuel prices were about $2.65 per gallon and in Canada about $4 per gallon (adjusted for USD/CAD exchange rate, which was very favorable). I don't have a detailed bottom line on our fuel costs but a decent estimate would put it at around $6K - easily our largest budgeted item.
3. Campground Fees - over the 120 days we spent on the trip we stayed in fee campgrounds about half the time, the rest were spent boondocking in free areas or spending it with awesome cousins Ron and Susie and good buddy Phil. Average fee was $25 per night so the total was around $1500.
4. Groceries/Alchohol - this is where we may need to re evaluate our lifestyle, or maybe not. Hate to say it but we may have spent more on booze than food, how sad is that? I will say that anything with alchohol in it is very expensive up there, especially in Canada. Grocery store runs averaged about $200 per week so a good estimate would have it at $5,000 or so.
5. Restaurants - we would generally average about 5 meals at a restaurant each week and it was usually breakfast/lunch at about $40 a throw. Good estimate, $3,000.
6. Entertainment - this would include things like flight tours, admission to parks/museums, Kindle book purchases, rafting trips, boat tours, fishing licenses, golf, etc. I'll peg this at about $2500.
7. The Bottom Line - it all adds up to around $18K or about a buck fifty per mile. And as stated, your mileage may (and most likely will) vary.
Now to do an appropriate cost analysis I should include depreciation on the equipment, damages to vehicles, insurance costs, satellite TV charges, cell phone charges, etc but I reason that these are sunken costs and we would be responsible for most of these even if we stayed at home so they are not included but may be considered if you're planning a trip like this. However you should budget for some wear/tear/repairs to vehicles and equipment. Based on what I know now I'd estimate this at around $2,000 for our trip. So by the time all is said and done I'd estimate our 4 month road trip to hit the $20K mark.

Finally we want to let you guys know how much we loved hearing from you and how much we enjoyed sharing this trip with you. Writing this blog was a great way for us to keep track of the million and one things we experienced and it will serve as a reminder of all the fun we had.
Thanks for coming along, taking the time to correspond with us and most of all being our friends.

Love to you all, Debbie and Howard.

Post script: we're kicking around a Baja trip in January so stay tuned.....