Day 26 – Frost Heaves!

There are these things in the north lands that are called “Frost Heaves”. We encountered them from British Columbia up to the Arctic Ocean and then throughout Alaska. The lumps, bumps, dips, cracks, and slumps in the roads are caused by the extreme cold. The freezing and thawing, along with the permafrost layer in many places wreaks havoc with the asphalt and cement roads.

Sometimes you have warning flags for these frost heaves and other times you don’t. Sometimes there are little “stop” or “slow” signs and sometimes there aren’t. Sometimes when you have a warning flag or sign it turns out to be no more than a minor blip. Other times without warning there are large frost heaves that send vehicles bouncing. Even though Pat was extremely wary of these road hazards, I think that a few times all four wheels were off the road. We would look at each other and go, “Where’d that come from?”


These road challenges do make driving up north interesting. This little bear must have thought it was a good place for him to sit to watch all the cars bounce by.  

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