7/11/19 - Day 13 - Thunder, Smoke, and Decisions

Yesterday we enjoyed our trip over the Top of the World Highway, although the persistant
smoke in the distance probably hid some far distant mountains. Guess that means we will make this another place to revisit when we return. A teensy bit of gold was found in my pan at the teensy town of Chicken. I suppose that is appropriate, but I am still looking for that gold nugget in my pan!

Today we woke up to loud cracks of thunder quickly followed by pounding rain.  It was nice to hear the rain on the roof, albeit brief. We thought that it might help clear the smoke, unfortunately the smoke had thickened overnight. We drove on to the town of Tok which is kind of a crossroads. We can head north toward Fairbanks (our original plan), head west toward the Kenai peninsula, or head back south and east toward Jasper (our plan B).  The smoke was so thick that we could only see the next hill...  Decisions, decisions.

Surprise! We got a text from some friends we hadn't seen in a while telling us they were traveling back from the Kenai peninsula heading heading for the Top of the World Highway via Tok. Over 2,500 miles from home and we met at a tiny little town in Alaska! It is a small world sometimes. We swapped stories and pictures from our travels, gave suggestions for placeas to see or avoid, and in general caught up about our families.

Their information did help us decide our course for the morrow - onward to the Kenai peninsula...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1 – Searching for Some Sunshine

Image
We headed south from Olympia, driving through gloomy rain showers until we were well east of Portland, Oregon. Our destination? The Total Eclipse of the sun in Texas, which will occur on April 8th. That will give us about 9 days to travel the 3,000+ miles. I always forget the interesting geology that is exposed in the Columbia River gorge. The varying shapes of the basalt columns kept my interest for miles on end. Especially this time of year, spring, there were many waterfalls spraying the cliffs, and Multnomah Falls was roaring! Our first night was spent at a Harvest Host location in Echo, Oregon. The host was Echo Ridge Cellars. They have a nice flat gravel lot for Harvest Host guests.   The wines sold are pressed from their vineyard which is about 3 miles away. The building itself is my favorite part. They have restored and updated an old grain elevator. The inside of the elevator was left exposed so visitors can see the construction. It is very solid 2x6 boards stacked flat, rat
Read more

Day 9 – Side Trip to the Border

Image
With an extra day before our reservation at Lake Brownwood State Park for the eclipse, we debated where to go. Pat suggested a side trip down to Del Rio and/or Eagle Pass at the US-Mexican border which had been in the news of late. After looking over our maps, we decided to just go take a look at it. (Our apologies, this blog is longer than our normal ones, but it was a very interesting excursion) We drove down Hwy 277 through relatively flat terrain. There was scrub brush and cactus for miles and miles. When news reporters talk about illegal immigrants disappearing into the brush, we could easily see how that could be. Someone could be just feet away from the edge of the road and not be seen. The two-lane road was a good road with regular passing lanes. The further south we went the sparser the traffic became. It was kind of eerie and we wondered at times if we should be heading down there.   “Was this really a good idea?” However, curiosity kept us going. About thirty miles fro
Read more

Day 7 – A Window, the Wind, and Warriors

Image
The sun was out all day today as we traversed Arizona. There were so many choices of roadways, where would the wind blow us? We headed out from Page onto the scenic Hwy 98 with Navajo Sandstone cliffs to the north and periodically solitary sculpted rocks towered above the sagebrush flatlands on either side of the highway. Our next choice was to cross the Navajo and Hopi Reservations on Hwy 264. This road travelled up over around and down several mesas with only scattered villages. As we drove, we noted the highway was designated the Code Talker Highway for the Navajo Marines who helped the Allied forces during WWII.  Camp was in the town of Window Rock, which was designated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as the center of the Navajo Nation. We made camp for the night at the Navajo Museum. Later in the evening, a short drive from camp brought us to the park at the base of Window Rock which is a huge wind eroded sandstone sculpture that allows you to glimpse the sky beyond.  What we
Read more