The end of my trip could not have ended any better! A four thousand plus miles journey with nearly a month of traveling and the last 150 miles are some of the most scenic I have ever seen...and good dry roads and clear sunny weather!

Before leaving Fairbanks for the last leg to Cantwell, I stocked up on supplies, pressure washed the truck and trailer, filled with fuel and ran a couple important last minute errands! Then I headed down the road towards my new summer home!

Just a little of the scenery!





Until I finally pulled into the Denali Wilderness Safari Camp and got the RV Settled in to a temporary site!



Camp Main Street!



My Boat!!





Yesterday my first day was a busy day....had to drive north about 50 miles to take the drug test, then we did a nice presentation for the folks at Princess Lodge to the drivers, tour guides and tour desk people. Then back to pull the deck up on the big boat for a USCG 5 Year hull inspection. Lot's of work, now to clean it out and hopefully we got the ice melted in the bilge overnight!

Should be a fun summer, I am anxious to get on the river as soon as the ice clears. Late spring this year!!

Stay Tuned!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

May 7th Alaska Travel Update - Fairbanks!

After sitting for 3 nights in Tok, Alaska I left yesterday for the North Pole and Fairbanks. Weather was clear and sunny and unlike the previous three days the roads were clear and dry. Made the 200 miles or so in good time and got great gas mileage over 12 MPG!!

Stopped at the North Pole Christmas House and made some gift purchases for my Grand Nieces and Nephew...they will be getting a nice letter from Santa and I put a good word in for them!

Drove on to Fairbanks and arrived in time to fill up the gas tank, empty the waste tanks and fill up the water tank thanks to Sourdough Fuel stop, the only place in town with an open dump station and water fill! So I bought my gas there and there was no charge to fill the water or empty the waste!

No campgrounds open one I visited had a front end loader clearing out sites they said they would open around the 24th of May! So like a few others, I retreated to the Wal-Mart parking lot and bunked down for the night. Today was shopping day to refill the freezer and cupboards after the long trip. Phoned my job in Cantwell and he suggested to spend another night as the roads were sloppy they got about 8 inches of snow. So I am hanging out in Fairbanks. Two projects tomorrow, find a car wash to spray down the truck and RV and get my propane topped off, then head down to Cantwell and arrive in the afternoon to get set up for the summer!

I snapped a few shots along the way yesterday! So on with the pictures!

This is the campground in Tok, Alaska!







On the road between Tok and Delta Junction!





Santa's Reindeer at North Pole, Alaska!





The long journey is only about 3 or 4 hours of driving time from being finished, 150 miles to go! It has been quite the experience and I am anxious for the summer season to start and experience my new job and location!

Thanks to all who have followed my journey!

Stay tuned for an update of my arrival and throughout the summers adventures!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

May 4th 2013 - Trip Recap and some picture Art

Today was a day for cleaning and resting and checking the springs out on the trailer, as I was getting a weird squeaking noise, which went away as I pulled in here at the Tok RV Village. The place is barely open, they have about 8 sites plowed and access to the electric and cable TV. the office has yet to be open, they have envelopes for paying. The showers are open with nice hot water, so a good warm shower was the order of the day.

I spent the better part of this morning cleaning up a mess from yesterday. It seems I forgot to latch the fridge or the rough road from yesterday jarred the lock open and a ketchup bottle launched itself out and the friggin lid broke and sprayed ketchup all over, looked like a murder scene! So everything all scrubbed clean, including the floor and I am out of paper towels!!

Checked the springs on the trailer and both springs and shackles look fine. So will see if the squeak returns when I leave and if so, pull a wheel and check the bearings and grease them.

One class C RV left early this morning and then returned as I was checking the springs, they said visibility was bad and the roads were getting pretty slick with the light fine snow that has been falling all day and the wind is blowing pretty hard.

After the cleanup and a warm shower, I messed with a couple of yesterdays photos and did a conversion in Photoshop to resemble an oil painting, I thought they lent themselves well to the technique.

Here they are!







Not sure how far I will get tomorrow, may stop around Fairbanks and hit a store for some supplies, but HAVE to stop at the North Pole and arrange for letters from Santa for my grand nieces and nephew! The trailer is warm and toasty and with cable TV, just watched the Rangers Hockey game and now the Kentucky Derby, I have a nice rib-eye steak out thawing and will have some potatoes and a veggie! All is well....

Almost forgot the Trip Recap!

Since leaving Kingman Arizona on April 9th I have traveled approx 4620.4 miles (which includes some running around) and used 349.72 gallons of fuel, costing $1,574.90 lowest gas price was $3.329 and the highest was in Canada and without currency conversion was $6.107 for an average of $4.46 per gallon for the trip. I averaged 9.96 MPG with my best leg at 12.99 MPG. I have for the most part tried to limit my travel to about 300-350 miles per day. My longest day was 732 miles on day 1. Several days near 400 miles.


Stay Tuned for the next leg of my journey!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

May 3rd - Alaska Arrival

Today's plan was pretty simple...get to Alaska! I was warned that fuel may be an issue, but in reality there were plenty of places open and I arrived in Tok with plenty to spare and didn't have to use my spare tanks.

Today was by far the most spectacular scenery on this trip so far. The snow peaked mountains were astounding! From a driving standpoint as advertised, this was the roughest section of the highway with warning cones for frost heaves and rough sections all the way from Watson Lake to the border. Once you get to the border the road smooths right out, so either the Canadians need to stop hiring road crews trained in Ohio or take some lessons from the Alaskan's!

All in all a very enjoyable drive with no real issues, have a weird squeak in the trailer suspension to check out in the morning, but nothing serious I am sure. I am VERY happy that I rebuilt the front suspension on the truck before this trip. It would NOT have survived....Thank You Jim Flinchbaugh!!

Now some pictures....

First - here are the frost heave waring cones and flags!



Now some scenery!









Tomorrow is a re-group day - check the trailer suspension and maybe make a short trip to Delta Junction for some sightseeing and then on towards Fairbanks planning another stop to get things cleaned up the truck and trailer are both filthy. Then on Sunday make the drive to my summer home in Cantwell.



Stay Tuned for the next leg of my journey!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

Alaska Bound - May 2nd, 2013 - Fun Day of Driving!

Early departure this morning with a plan to make it to Whitehorse. Fueled up first thing, had a confirmed gas stop in Teslin, just about half way.

The roads had been reported to be very bad last night, with one trucker saying that the road was almost impassable in spots. I was hoping that was due to freezing. The first hour or so was fine, then it turned to snow packed in sections, then a little while later it was snow packed on ice with about 2 inches of freezing slush on top, which made you really stay in the grooves, otherwise you were all over the place. Hit a pretty big hill and it got worse, really slick had to slow way down and I jumped into 4 wheel drive. I counted 6 different RV's and cars off the road, some from last night and a couple with people standing around looking like they were screwed! Which they were. Shame some people just have to try and go fast. I had no problems at all only slid a little one time on the steep hill. Actually had to pass an old Dodge Van / Camper looked like his tires were bald and he was going nowhere on that hill.

The most dangerous part was when a big truck passed you oncoming and threw up 200 pounds of slush all over your windshield. At Teslin I fueled up and the road was clear from that point on, so easy driving the rest of the way. The first half I averaged 35 mph according to the GPS and the second half I was averaging about 50 mph.

I got to my stopping point in Whitehorse and did a drive through and much was closed, fueled up and decided to head on another 96 miles to Haines Junction, good road for the most part with a few frost heaves but all were well marked with little pink flags and cones, so easy to slow down for. Pavement was good with some small pot holes, but easy to avoid if you were paying attention. The roughest part all day was the frozen slush on the snow packed part, it was a teeth rattler.

Truck ran like a dream with no problems at all!

Here is what the better part of the snow packed road looked like, couldn't take a picture in the bad part!



As the day progressed the views got better!!









Stay Tuned for the next leg of my journey! ALASKA Tomorrow!!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

April 30th - A long Days Travel - fairly uneventful!!

After the fuel episode I was determined to make a better plan and to not count on the Milepost ads that say open all year, but rather to call and confirm ahead of my departure from a safe area.

So my plan for yesterday was to fuel up three times and also to have the extra tanks of fuel on board before leaving Fort Nelson, so after hitching up and filling with water, I headed to an auto parts store and bought two fuel tanks, then to a gas station and filled the tanks and the truck, then went to a bank ATM and got some more Canadian Cash.

The travel plan was to hop scotch the confirmed fuel stops to Llaird River Hot Springs. Spend some time there and depending on weather maybe dry camp and spend the night after a good soaking in the springs and maybe another in the morning.

The drive was fairly uneventful although the roads were a little snow covered in spots and at one point pretty icey, so had to go into 4 wheel drive and slow way down. Stopped for fuel in Toad River, filled up. Then made another stop at Northern Rockies Inn but the gauge was still on full and had plenty to get to the next confirmed fuel spot! So on I went towards the hot springs. Pulled in a heavy snow covered road to the hot springs and parked in the parking lot, anxious to get in and soak. Au Contra're!

As I walked to the back of the trailer towards the hot spring trail, I noticed the propane storage door was open. I tried to close it and it was sprung, so got out some tools and re-aligned the door only to realize the latch was broken. Think for a minute about an easy fix and dig out my drill and hunt for a big sheet metal screw to screw the door shut. It is a fairly quick fix once I dig out the tools and find a screw that would suffice. After fixing, I am putting away the drill bit and drop it under the trailer, as I am retrieving it, I see a long wire dragging under the RV. Trace it back to the drivers side trailer brake, seems it used to run across the trailer to the passenger side brake. Well the wire is shot and all frayed and the other end on the passenger side is dragging as well. Rather than take a chance that it would end up wrapped around a wheel or something, back in for wire cutters and crawl in the dirty parking lot slush and cut off both wires at the wheel connections. So no more trailer brakes. Not really a big deal, just have to allow a little more room to stop. They will get fixed properly this summer, with the wires encased in a piece of PVC Pipe like it should have been, seems the slush and snow and mud etc built up on the wire and the weight made it break. See the front landing gear on the RV to get an idea of the build-up.

On to some pics....Ready to leave Fort Nelson



Extra Fuel Tanks!



Landing Gear



Propane door and fix!





Llaird Hot Springs





Some pics from the road!





Arrival in Watson Lake!







So I got out of my wet jeans from making the repairs and put on my bathing suit and thankfully my sweat pants and walked the 16 miles (300 yards or so) over the snow packed board walk to the Hot Spring. Had towel and was ready to soak. There is a nice changing room and showers to rinse off after soaking. There were about 8 or 9 people there and I spent about an hour or so until it started snowing pretty hard and headed back to the camper. Not knowing how long the snow would last or how bad it may get, I made a good choice to drive on to Watson Lake. Pulled in and stopped at the Sign Post Forest then checked in to the "Downtown Campground".

So of you may already know, as soon as I got in and downloaded the camera and prepared to do this blog entry, all of a sudden I felt terrible...cold sweats and severe stomach cramps - like real friggin pain, so hit the toilet and quickly realized I was sick as a dog. Decided to eat a sandwich and get in bed....which I did. Feel better today, but it is snowing even more and road conditions are reported as hazardous, so it is laundry day and plan for tomorrow to head for Whitehorse. Cable TV with Fox News so I am happy!


Stay Tuned for the next leg of my journey!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

April 28th - Alaska Highway - when the days plan goes to shit!

I am a planner and like to have my day all planned out, when I will start, where I will end and where I will stop for lunch or fuel or both....well, it didn't work today!

Last night before I ate dinner, I had today all planned. I was in Grande Prairie having driven further than planned yesterday, since where I intended to stop looked like a meth lab, so I drove on. Had plenty of time so made a longer day. I was determined to not make that mistake again, so planned a shorter day. Well....it didn't work again!

The original plan for today was a short drive to Dawson Creek and mile 0 (zero) of the Alaska Highway. Take some time to get a couple pictures of the start then drive on to Sikanni, looked like there was a decent campgound there who emailed I could have power only as no water or sewer available...not a problem. So I left at about 8:00 am had a nice drive to Dawson Creek, stopped at McDonald's for a coffee refill for the road, found mile zero, took some pics and even though I only had used about a quarter tank, stopped and filled up. Figuring that according to plan, there was fuel where I intended to stop.

Nice drive with fairly good weather and road conditions toward Sikanni. Made the planned long steep downhill to the Sikanni River and right past the bridge was my planned stop. Pulled in only to see a sign that said, Sorry No Gas!! And nobody at the campground...not a soul to be found. Still had almost a quarter tank so I pressed on...I didn't know it at the time, but fuel was much closer going back the other way. But trusty Milepost said there was another fuel stop about 15 miles North. And there was....same sign, sorry, diesel only, no gas! At this point I am beginning to worry, a little. Check the Milepost again and there is another supposed fuel stop about 40 miles away, (you see where this is going) so I press on. GPS assures me the place I am headed is in range, barely.

Driving with one eye on the gas gauge and the other on the road...I press on. What is that yellow light...oh just the low fuel warning...No problem, GPS says 17 miles, I can make that!! There ahead - that big sign with the Shell on it, you know the yellow one....right in front of a closed down station! Sorry - Out of business!! Across the street is another place that was in even worse shape. So I pulled in stopped and started contemplating my alternatives. Generator has about 4 gallons in it, which ain't enough to get me to Fort Nelson, which several people had told me was the closest gas - about 60 miles.

So I pulled out by the entrance to the "Gas Station" and shut down...wondering just how much I was going to have to spend to call and have someone bring me 10 gallons of gas....checked, no cell service!! WTF!!! Now I was even more perplexed!

Figuring my next step was to lay down in the road and stop the next vehicle that passed by and hitch a ride, as I was contemplating this....an old beat-up Ford pulled in next to me and rolls down his window and says, you look perplexed! I say, you wouldn't happen to have 10 gallons of gas...and he said, I have 5 gallons in the back of the truck and another 8 gallons in a can back at the house about a kilometer from here! We negotiate a fair (very fair) price and I dump in the first tank! After that he says, just follow me and I'll get you the other can.

So off we go, he turns down a dirt road and stops...gets out and says, you have 4 wheel drive don't you! I say yes and down the road we go, which becomes steep, muddy and snow packed! He makes a right turn in what can only be described as a mud path, comes to a stop in front of a small pond which is covering the road...gets out, walks back to me and says, it's not deep just stay to the left! So off we go...

As i go through the puddle, I look in my mirror and see the water being pushed by the trailer, it is well above the bottom of the trailer. We press on about another 300 yards or so to his "house", now this guy is living "off the grid", has a home, two story, built out of log ends, he tells me the walls (logs ends) are 3 feet long for insulation. Generator, outhouse all the conveniences of home, big wood pile and a warm wood stove, he has to show me around.

Back outside another 8 gallons or so of gas and I am trying to figure out how I am going to turn the rig around and get on my way....I had asked if there was room to turn around when he told me about the huge puddle, he assured me there was! Well there was, just barely with the front of the truck buried hood high in a snow bank! And at that it was about a 25 point turn around with a trailer, in deep mud and snow! Many thanks to David Engle of Prophet River, BC!! He relieved me of most of my Canadian currency and took away all my stress!!!

Then it started snowing and got cold and I drove on to Fort Nelson and here I am!! Tomorrow I buy 2 - 5 gallon gas cans and fill them up and put them in the bed of the truck and KEEP them filled!!

Now a few pictures!

Last nights stop in Grande Prairie!



Mile Zero!







My View for most of the day!



The Driveway!!



So, I arrived in Fort Nelson with plenty of fuel, found a campground and I am settled in for the night, tomorrow I need to repair the trailer plug on the back of the truck which got broken while making the tight turn-around in the driveway. Also, Half the wire got cut on the bed of the truck as I jack-knifed the trailer in tight quarters...and buy some gas cans and make a better plan for the next leg. Since I made a 2 day drive, I may spend tomorrow making some phone calls to confirm fuel stops!

Great fun!! Stay tuned for more adventures!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

Update April 26th - from Red Deer Alberta Canada

My departure from Kalispell was uneventful, although I am always a little sad to leave as the Flinchbaugh's have become like family. Which brings me to some personal news, Wednesday the 24th of April my Mother passed away. It was not a surprise she had been battling cancer since I left there in December and we knew it would not be long. So all is well on that front.

The drive from Kalispell was pleasant with blue skies and sunshine and warm weather, border crossing went extremely smooth with no inspection...I was happy about that. Hit rush hour traffic in Calgary and have now confirmed where all the lousy Canadian drivers came from that I hated so much in Florida!!
Planned stop for the night was at the Moose Lodge in Red Deer, Alberta. I was assured there was plenty of room to stop for the night and electric...but about 10 miles out the battery light on the truck lit up and I pulled over to check the belt which was fine, so I drove on losing voltage as I went. By the time I got backed in near and outlet and shut the truck down the truck was having trouble running. Knew it was the alternator so just left things until morning.

Up early - Moose Lodge having a huge garage sale, so plenty of people around with a ton of solutions, several calls made and found an alternator at a parts store and also found a place that was less expensive and told me to drive right over they had a bay open and would fix it in short order. So removed a battery from the camper, put it in the truck, unhitched and headed there by 9:30 am - back at the Moose by 11:30 all fixed and installed for less than the alternator alone.

Now another night in Red Deer, I am out at McDonald's for internet and a late lunch and fill the truck with gas. Plan to leave in the morning towards Edmonton then west towards Grande Prairie. Not sure yet where I will stop as the next leg from Grande Prairie to Dawson City is pretty short and may spend some time there as it is mile 0 Zero for the Alaska Highway and some interesting things to see there - pictures from there!!

Sorry no pictures this post!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest