Author: Shauna Vugteveen

We arrived in Seward and went down Herman Leirer Road which is the road to Exit Glacer. There is a huge area on the river that you can boondock on. We stayed there Thursday night and headed into town Friday for our 6 hour Kenai Fjord boat trip with Major Marine Tours. We had a pretty full boat which wasn’t surprising since it was a really nice day. We had assigned tables inside but we chose to sit outside on the second level in the back of the boat.

We saw sea otters right away floating on their backs being all cute. We didn’t have to go far before a humpback whale showed off a bit around the boat. It was pretty cool to see and pictures never do it justice. We chose the 6 hour trip because we wanted to see more of Kenai Fjords National Park. We were able to see coastal mountain goats and a black bear on shore. The captain drove the boat through a narrow section that was full of caves and was so pretty.

Our trip took us through Resurrection Bay past Bear Glacier and then around a point to Aialik Bay. The time it took to go around that point was only 30-45 minutes but it was open water and pretty rough. The staff were handing out puke bags to everyone and many people had to use them. Craig and I don’t get seasick and even we felt a little icky. Once around the point, the ride smoothed out and we saw Holgate Glacier. The captain turned off the boat so we could listen to the cracking of the glacier but unfortunately, we didn’t get to see any calving.

On the way back we passed a group of sea lions and we were all entertained watching one try to get to the top of a rock. There were many sunning themselves and didn’t much care that we were there cheering them on. As we continued, a pair of Orcas were spotted and we spent a lot of time watching them. It was a great day and we are glad we opted for this touristy excursion.

Once off the boat we headed to the Breeze Inn for a quick meal and then went back to our boondock spot on the road to Exit Glacier. We knew it would be busy out there for the weekend, but man, it was packed. And since it stays so light so late, many people just don’t feel the need to go to bed. We found a spot tucked into some bushes but there was no getting away from people who didn’t care where they parked or how close they parked. We didn’t want to go back into town on the weekend because we knew it would be busy so we just hunkered down for the weekend.

Our buddy John and his dog Blue found us Sunday night and while we were chatting a small plane came swooping through camp, touched down it’s tires, and then took off again. It did that about 5 or 6 times and then landed. It was pretty wild to see!

Monday we drove up to Exit Glacier hoping to hike the trail up to it again but were disappointed to see just how packed the parking lot was. We had done the hike in 2018 with almost no people on the trail so we opted to skip it this time.

We headed into Seward. We took showers, got supplies, fueled up and then walked around downtown a little bit. We went to the Yukon Bar, which is a locals bar, and had a beer and left our dollar bill. We went into a few shops but then headed north to Hope.

We camped out at a free campground south of Hope and then headed to Palmer Lakes Trailhead on Tuesday. We hadn’t done a hike in a while and we had an awesome sunny day. It was only about 3 1/2 miles with a little bit of a climb. The views were so amazing!!

We drove into Hope after our hike. We had driven through in 2018 but it had been raining heavily. Hope is not a big town and there was not much going on at all. Apparently there is live music on the weekends that will bring in a thousand people but it was completely dead when we drove through.

We found a great boondock spot overlooking Six Mile Creek and that is when the talk of whitewater rafting it came up again. When we were here in 2018, we talked about it but since we had Gus we didn’t want to leave him for so long. We have rafted a few other rivers but none that were solid Class V rapids. We decided to go on Friday so we stayed at our boondock spot for a couple days just enjoying the views and rested up.

When we arrived at Chugach Outdoor Center on Friday afternoon and learned that we would have a full crew of 20 people plus 4 guides and 2 safety boats. These guys and gals were awesome! They were professional yet fun. After getting all suited up in our dry suits, we were loaded on a bus and brought up river. We all had to dive into the 35 degree water and swim as hard as we could until a whistle was blown and then we could flip onto our backs and float down to the rest of the boats. Once you were close, you were told to swim hard again to get to a boat. That was probably the hardest part because you were still fighting the current and trying to get through the water wall into the eddy. Then someone in the boat had to grab your life jacket and pull you up into the boat. There is no being shy and everyone did great.

After that we all got into 4 boats, 5 to a boat plus a guide and off we went. We were with two older gentleman that didn’t want to paddle so Craig and I were happy to take the front and be the paddlers and another young man was tasked to sit between Craig and I and hold onto our life jackets so we didn’t fall out as we were paddling. We had never rafted when everyone doesn’t have a paddle. Our guide sat in the middle and did an awesome job of bringing us in, through, over and around all the fun stuff.

There are 3 canyons on Six Mile Creek. The first one is easy and just got us used to the boat and listening to our guide’s instructions. Second canyon has Class IV rapids and got a little more intense. Third canyon has solid Class V rapids and there were 7 of them, one right after the other. Some of the names of the rapids on Six Mile are Pearly Gates, the Nozzle, Suckhole, Jaws, Merry-Go-Round and George Foreman just to name a few. Some people took the option to get out after Second Canyon but we are so glad we didn’t. It was a blast and so intense and we would do it again in a heartbeat!

We had applied and were chosen for a pet sit in Eagle River for July 3-7 so we headed there on Saturday morning for a quick meet and greet so we didn’t have to try and get back there before they left on Wednesday. The meeting went great and we are excited to get to hang out with two cute kitties this week.

We grabbed some supplies and then headed to Point Mackenzie which is across the bay from Anchorage. The couple boondock spots we had found on iOverlander were either taken or just not that great. We found a little pull off to stay in for the night but decided we didn’t want to spend anymore time there.

We headed up to Hatcher Pass and found a great little spot on Willow Creek. Unfortunately it wasn’t very level and we struggled to get even close to level with all the tools at our disposal so we decided to move. We found another pretty spot on Willow Creek just down the road. It was a little busier but that was to be expected the week of the 4th of July.

We had ordered some stuff from Amazon which took 2 weeks to get to Anchorage so we planned our route around that. We’ll be heading back into town tomorrow to pick up packages, get some supplies, hit some breweries and then settle in at our pet sit. We are looking forward to being in a house for a few days. The truck and camper need some TLC and it will be be good to get everything cleaned up.

Off to Eagle River…

We crossed into Canada on Friday the 31st and it was like we entered a winter wonderland. It felt like the snow covered mountains were in our reach and there was snow on the ground.

We were only in British Columbia for a little while and ended up in Yukon where they have really nice campgrounds with pit toilets, garbage and free wood for $13 USD. We made our way to Million Dollar Falls campground and decided to hang out there for a couple days. It rained on and off for most of the weekend so we were in and out of the camper. We did the short walk to Million Dollar Falls and around the campground.

Sunday we headed to Haines Junction to get a few supplies and gas. We stopped off for a quick hike on Rock Glacier Trail which had some pretty great views.

Our friend Paulo told us he had stayed at an abandoned campground in Burwash so we headed there. The iOverlander reviews were mixed as to whether it’s abandoned or just very unused. There was no signage for it but the garbage cans and picnic tables looked new like maybe someone was working on it. In any case, we were the only ones there and parked with a decent view of the water. It may be unused because it’s so windy there. It was sunny but it was so windy we couldn’t even have a fire. We only stayed one night and decided to head out the next morning.

We crossed back into Alaska with the fastest easiest crossing we’ve ever had. We were delighted to find a new super smooth section of the Alaska Highway and zipped right along…until we couldn’t. After that nice section the orange cones and Road Damage signs started appearing very frequently and we were dodging potholes that could swallow up our rig. It was everything we rememered and expected!

Going slow isn’t a bad thing because we were able to see another big bear casually strolling across the road without a care in the world. It was neat to see him up close and not running away.

We pulled into another free campground  and as we rounded the corner we saw our friend, Paulo. We hadn’t been in contact with him for a few days so it was great to run into him and catch up. We foraged for some fire wood and were able to enjoy a beautiful night and a fire with him.

The next day we grabbed showers at a gas station and continued toward Tok. We had gone to a restaurant called Fast Eddie’s when we were here in 2018 and wanted to go back for their pizza. Paulo joined us and the pizza was as awesome as we remembered it to be. We said our goodbyes to Paulo as he was heading north to Fairbanks and we were heading south.

We headed up Nabesna Road to camp. We had met some great people at the Wrangell Mountains Lodge in 2018 and wanted to go back to say hi. The weather was good as we drove and were once again in awe of the views. We found a free campground close to the lodge.

Unfortunately, our friends were in Anchorage so we would miss seeing them. We drove Nebesna Road to the end and back and stayed one more night in the free campground. We then headed south towards McCarthy.

The road to McCarthy had been washed out the week prior and I had been watching reports of the fix. We were going to come back to it after going to Valdez but when we saw that it was fixed and the weekend weather was going to be sunny, we changed our plan and headed that way. As we were turning off the Richardson Highway toward McCarthy, I saw two vehicles coming at us and I was pretty sure they had Four Wheel campers on them. It only took a second and I realized they were our friends John & his dog Blue and Mike & Gina who we had met in February at the Truck Camper Rally in Quartzite, Arizona. We knew they were in Alaska and thought we’d catch up with them in Valdez. The fact that we turned onto the same road at the same time as them was crazy! We found a boondocking spot and had a nice campfire and had a great night catching up with them. We went our separate ways in the morning but hope we cross paths with them again.

We continued toward McCarthy but decided to do our hike on Sunday so we found a decent spot on the side of the road to camp for the night. The mosquitos are out in full force now so sitting outside is pretty much impossible. Sunday morning we got up and headed into town.

You cannot drive all the way into McCarthy. Only residents can have their cars on that side of the river so you have to park and walk. We paid $5 to park for the day and walked about a mile into town. There is a shuttle that will pick you up after a pedestrian bridge but we didn’t take it. We went to the McCarthy Center Store to purchase our shuttle tickets to Kennecott Mine which is another 4.5 miles one way from McCarthy. Back in 2018, we remembered this shuttle to be only $5, but today tickets are $15 a piece. Totally worth it though because we did not want to tack on an additional 9 miles.

Once off the shuttle you are in Kennecott and can go check out all the historic buildings. It’s a really neat place with so much history. People still live there as well and it’s amazing to think how remote they are and how difficult it is to get supplies to a place like that.

We walked down the main road to the trailhead excited to get back on to Root Glacier. We were happy to have a beautiful sunny day and all the mountains were visible. Back in 2018 when we did this hike, it was raining and overcast so we didn’t get the full experience of how beautiful this place is.

The hike was fairly easy and we made our way onto the glacier. We bought crampons so we could walk with more traction and went up further on the glacier than we had before. We took many moments of just standing there in awe of where we were and the beauty of it all. We drank from the running glacial water and were just giddy to be back here.

We made the trek back to the mine and went through the old buildings while we waited for the shuttle to come pick us up. If you like history, this is a cool place to visit even if you don’t hike to the glacier.Once back in McCarthy, we headed to The Potato for a beer and good food and then walked the mile back to our truck.

We decided to drive back to a boondocking spot on Moose Lake that we had spotted on our way in. As we were driving along, we finally saw a big moose in the middle of the road! It was pretty awesome and topped off an already amazing day. We got to our spot, happy to see noone else was there. The mosquitos drove us inside but our view from our back door can’t be beat!

This neck of Alaska doesn’t get near the praise it should. The Wrangell-St. Elias Mountain National Park & Preserve is beautiful. It’s peaceful and not very busy. We love this area and are so happy we were able to come back to experience it in better weather. We will continue south today after laundry and showers and hope the rain holds off as we head back to coastal towns.

Off to Valdez…

Our second leg on the MV Kennicott was pretty uneventful. We got on the boat on Sunday and we left port by 1:30pm. We had a cabin for our 33 hours on the boat and we were glad we did. We had stayed really busy in Ketchikan and I think it caught up with us. We wandered the boat for a bit but it was raining and overcast once again so we decided to go take a nap. We must’ve been exhausted because we both slept through dinner which ended at 9 pm.

We docked in Juneau at around 11 pm Monday night. Once off the boat we headed to a trailhead parking lot we found on iOverlander to stay for the night. We got a nice 5:30 am wake-up call in the form of a crappy vehicle blasting their radio in a parking lot right across from us. It was annoying. Thank goodness for our long nap on the boat. We had parked across from Mendenhall Lake which we were able to enjoy once the loud car finally took off. It was a beautiful clear morning and the views of the lake, Mendenhall Glacier & Nugget Falls were just amazing! We were so excited to be surrounded by snow-capped mountains.

We knew we had to take advantage of any nice days we got so we went just down the road to the West Glacier Trailhead. We really enjoyed this hike. It brought us through rainforest and past waterfalls and streams until we had to start climbing up rocks. The end got a little sketchy but we made our way to the top and just sat in awe of the beauty!

We were definitely tired after that hike. We logged 7 miles and about 1300 ft elevation gain. We decided to splurge on a campsite at Mendenhall Campground for a hot shower. We found a spot with a gorgeous view and set up camp. The hot shower was amazing!!

On Wednesday we went into town to do laundry. Not my favorite task but I was able to stream our nephew Cade’s sectional baseball game. We had decided to go camp on Douglas Island so we found a locals bar called Louie’s Douglas Inn so I could finish watching the game. A bunch of local guys came in and we had a blast. They bought us a few rounds and told us about a few places to go check out.

Thursday it rained all day. We headed downtown to check out the touristy places everyone goes to when in Juneau. Craig and I went to Devil’s Club Brewing and the Triangle Club.

We had been in contact with Paulo, who we had met in the ferry line in Bellingham and he met us at Red Dog Saloon. Red Dog is loud and wild and lots of fun. When we left we got suckered into the Red Dog’s Shot counter. We knew we had to have a famous Duck Fart shot so that seemed as good a time as any. It was so good!

We also went to Barnaby Brewing. They had good beer but my favorite thing was the bar cat! It was a really fun day!

Friday morning we walked the Treadwell Mine Trail. The Treadwell mine was once the site of the most productive gold mine in the United States-$70 million in gold was removed by 2,000 workers. Of the 144 structures that stood in 1910, only a few still exist.

We then headed to the Mendenhall Glacier Vistor Center. We walked the 2 mile round trip to Nugget Falls and snapped a few pictures of the falls and the glacier. It was really busy on our way back so we got out of there.

We decided to drive up the northwest side of Auke Bay as far north as we could. This was a really pretty drive and we ended up staying in a pulloff.

The next morning we went back into town and took showers at the laundromat which happened to be right next door to Forbidden Peak Brewery. We had been in contact with Paulo again and he was going to meet us there for a couple beers.

While we were waiting, we got a phone call from the Ketchikan Ferry Terminal notifying us that the LeConte was down with mechanical issues and that our sailing was canceled for Sunday morning. We asked what our options were and she said we’d have to get on a waitlist by calling the Auke/Juneau terminal. I probably called 50-60 times with no answer. I checked online to see if I could schedule it but everything was booked out until June 21. Surely, they would be able to put us on a boat before that since we already had a reservation. Sunday morning I called a bunch more times and finally got through. The gentleman told me all waitlists were full and I would have to just go make a reservation that was now booked out until July 1. He really gave us no options, no hope, no nothing. We were really frustrated and in that time our friend Paulo told us he had been on a waitlist for Friday and was notified he was now on the boat for sure. He didn’t have an original reservation to leave Juneau so he was on a waitlist before the LeConte broke but obviously they were moving people from the waitlists.

We decided to go down to the terminal and spoke to the gentleman in person. He was very frustrated and was really hating his job. I can understand why but also he didn’t give us any options again even though we were being very patient and kind in trying to figure out this mess of a situation. He said this is the worst he’s ever seen it and that our chances of getting on a boat anytime before July 1 were slim to none. We had no reason not to believe him. We were devastated, but I made a reservation for July 1 and we started looking for things to do for 5 weeks. Yes, Juneau is beautiful but it is also touristy and expensive. We had gotten everything out of it that we wanted and have a plan for how our summer was going to go. We drove back up to the same pullout that we had stayed at wondering what to do.

We finally decided to just get up at 3 am on Monday morning and went to the ferry terminal. The Kennicott was in port which is a larger boat than the LeConte. We were desperate and grasping at straws. We were prepared to show up every day a boat was in port until they got sick of us. We got an assistant manager this time and after explaining that we had gotten canceled for our Sunday sail and were told there were no options for us, he worked his magic. He slid us our 2 boarding passes and our #13 standby vehicle tag and said he wasn’t charging us because of this mess and he hoped we could get on the boat. If we didn’t, we had to go back in to see him and get put on the next waitlist. We think the weekend guy messed up and we should’ve been put on a list in the first place. We were happy to have made some sort of headway and waited in line for 2 hours while they loaded the boat. The standby line started loading and when they waved for us to load, we were ecstatic! Crisis averted and we got to sail for free. A little emotional distress never hurt anyone. Ha!

It was a four hour sail to Haines and we arrived around 10:45 am. We were tired but it was sunny and we were happy to be in Haines. Haines is absolutely gorgeous and is a nice small town. Cruise ships do go there but it doesn’t have the touristy feel at all. We drove around and enjoyed the views and then grabbed a beer at Haines Brewing. I found a trail that we wanted to hike on the south end of town in the Chilkat State Park so we headed that way. We stayed at the trailhead parking lot with no issues and did the hike Tuesday morning. It was another beautiful sunny day. After the hike, we were told camping was only allowed in the Chilkat State Park campground. We grabbed a site and enjoyed sitting outside finally.

Wednesday we went back into town for showers at a laundromat and did a load of laundry. Craig went to the Hammer Museum while I opted to save the $7 and read in the truck. He got to talk with the owner quite a bit and enjoyed his hammer time!

We learned that there would be 2 cruise ships in town on Thursday so we decided to do all our town stops. We went to the Fogcutter Bar that is a locals favorite. Next we went to Chilkoot Distillery where we had some pretty tasty cocktails.

The bartender was awesome and she gave us a good recommendation for dinner. We headed to the Harbor Lighthouse Restaurant where I had the best seared Halibut & veggies! We also ran into Martine, who worked in the kitchen on the Kennicott on our Bellingham to Ketchikan leg. He remembered us and came over to say hi.

We found a 4 mile hike to Battery Point and did that this morning. Town was definitely busy as was the trail. But it was a cool hike with amazing views although this whole town is surrounded by awesome views. We headed out of town and found a pretty spot to camp for the night.

Off to Canada…

So much excitement led up to us actually getting on the ferry. It feels like we have been talking about this trip for so long but in the meantime we have done so much fun stuff since we left Michigan in September. We’ve driven some awesome roads and hiked some awesome trails. We were able to check Baja off our list with an amazing trip with our Pop-Top Crew in March. Time really does fly because we had so much scheduled and as each thing ticked away, it was all of a sudden the eve of us heading north to Alaska!

I was so happy that we were able to meet up with my National Forensic Academy roomate from 2009 for drinks & dinner at a brewery in Ferndale, WA on Thursday night. We hadn’t seen eachother since 2020 and yet we never miss a beat. After catching up with her and her hubby we camped out at the Silver Reef Casino. Friday was a day of grabbing last minute supplies and then we went to Stones Throw Brewery that was just a few miles away from the ferry terminal. We were excited and giddy and were just ready to go! We had to be there to check in at 3 pm. We had no idea how they loaded vehicles or how fast it would go, so like true newbies, we arrived early.

We got checked in and were in line at about 2:45 pm, little did we know they wouldn’t start boarding anyone until about 5:30 pm. But we had a blast in line! We pulled up behind a box truck with three gentleman and a sweet collie who was happy with anyone that would throw her frisbee. All dogs have to stay on the car deck while sailing and only get let out about every 8 hours so we were happy to try and help tire her out. We had a couple beers and met others parked around us including Paulo who was in the skoolie behind us. I feel like everyone was excited about the journey and we were all just having fun while being patient.

We finally got to board and found our room and just wandered around the boat. It was just fun. It was exciting to be on board and watch as we pulled away from Bellingham. We had grand ideas of seeing sunsets, sunrises & the Northern Lights. We saw all the photos coming from Michigan of the Northern Lights. We stayed up late and set alarms to get up in the middle of the night but we just didn’t see much. There was the green glimmer and our phones didn’t enhance it much. The time change kinda screwed us up for our 5:00 am alarm clock and realized we were an hour off. Oh well, it’s definitely part of the adventure and we chuckled about it.

Our time on the Kennicott was a great experience. The Alaska Marine Highway Ferry is not the most practical, cheapest or fanciest way to see Southeast Alaska. But it felt right for us. Click below if you want to see our experience on the M/V Kennicott from Bellingham to Ketchikan.

The cafeteria style, reasonably priced food was really good. You can get away without buying the food as there is a microwave and hot water available but we were ready to have the whole experience.

We met a lot of cool people in the bar. The bartender was super friendly and took great care of everyone. We were able to chat with a bunch of people while watching the beautiful scenery pass by. We definitely went out on deck but it was raining off and on and was very windy and cold. We bundled up to enjoy the sights but you can only do that for so long. I was so happy to finally see a whale! Many had their binoculars out and said they were seeing them along the way, but the one we finally got to see was showing off and wanted me to see her for sure!!

When we arrived in Ketchikan at 7 am Sunday morning, it was rainy & overcast. We were going to just get out of town to avoid the crowds as there were a few cruise ships in port as well but we decided we were kinda hungry and didn’t want to wait until we found a place to camp. We headed to a restaurant recommended by Cindy, our awesome bartender and we loved the huge breakfast we had at the Pioneer Cafe. Our timing was pretty good as we got a seat right before the line formed at the door. We didn’t spend much time in town at this point. It was busy & raining so we decided to go back on a better day.

We had a few spots in mind to camp that we had found on the iOverlander App but found they were just pull-offs on the side of the road and are now homeless encampents. We took a side road and ended at the Dude Mountain Trailhead. I had already found that trail and wanted to hike it so it was perfect that we found it on accident. It was raining so we decided to just camp there because who is going to hike in this weather…well, Alaskans & people who are here for a limited time.

So many people drove up and began the hike. Most came back pretty quickly and we weren’t sure why. We did the hike on Monday and we hit snow pretty quickly. We continued up as far as we could follow tracks and when they stopped, we stopped. It was really beautiful but we weren’t ready to climb up through snow and the clouds got darker and darker.

We made it back to the camper before it started to rain again. We did move down the road to camp to a more open spot that wasn’t a trailhead and that worked out much better for us.

We headed back into town on Tuesday for a few supplies and went to the Asylum Bar that reviews said was a locals favorite. Walking in, we had the choice of a high top table or two bar stools at the rail. We always pick the rail when we can and sat down next to Nate. He’s been in Ketchikan for 3 years and we enjoyed chatting with him about the town, the tourists and where to go to get away. He told us to take the airport ferry across to Gravina Island. I hadn’t even looked to see where the airport is located in Ketchikan but it is on an island across from town. We decided that was probably a good fit for us and we would go over there on Wednesday.

Ketchikan is not that big of a town and there are not many roads to drive. We went to the Ward Lake recreation area where there were a few campgrounds, a lot of day use areas and a bunch of trails. One campground was completely gated & closed and another only had only 3 spots available that were all taken, the rest of the campground was gated off too. We went online to discover reservations could be made this Saturday, May 18 when the camping season officially begins. So we could stay for free but no spots available. We wanted to hike Perseverance Lake trail so we parked at the trailhead where it said no camping and took our chances. It was a busy little parking lot but nobody bothered us until a schoolbus full of middle schoolers arrived in the morning and would be camping across the street. That was the perfect time to take off on our hike.

Perseverance Lake trail was beautiful. We had sunshine on & off but no signs of rain. We enjoyed the rainforest feel and how quiet & peaceful it was away from everyone.

Once we got back, we moved the rig to another trailhead just a couple miles away to get away from the popular area. Little did we know the gravel, pot-holed crappy parking lot we thought would be quiet, was for a dog park that everyone in Ketchikan brings their dogs too after work. Really it was fine but I think our time being so off grid sometimes makes us highly aware when people are around us. Not our favorite spot but it worked. We got up in the morning and moved back to the day use area at Ward Lake. We walked around the lake before taking off for the airport ferry.

We had no clue what to expect. Nate said that nobody goes to Gravina Island except to get on a plane, work at the mill or locals go to shoot. There are limited roads so we decided to drive them all. We drove all the way to the north end of the island to find they were busy pulling logs off a mountain and we couldn’t continue down the road. We backtracked and turned onto Bostwick Lake Road and it turned out to be a nice scenic drive. We found a decent campsite but wanted to get to the end of the road of course.

We got to a spot where there were piles of huge pipe on the ground, a berm and a large ditch dug where we assumed they would start laying the pipe in. Craig convinced me that we could go over the burm and go through the ditch and we could keep going on the road. Little did we know that there would be about 25 more ditches, each one seem steeper than the previous. We made it so far pushing dirt & stones with our bumper and dragging our hitch through until we finally said we should be done.

We turned around and were happy to be going through the last ditch when, as we started up the ditch, there was a loud noise that I can’t even explain. Turns out the edging of our flatbed, right behind the back window of the truck, must have hit the window enough to completely shatter it. Awesome. What better place to have this happen than in a town that only gets supplies once or twice a week. Ha. Ha. We drove back to the campsite we had found and started to clean it up.

 

Craig called a few places in Ketchikan but not surprisingly they did not have a back window in stock and it would take a week to get one. He called ahead to a shop in Juneau and they were all on vacation for a week. We knew we had to go find a temporary or maybe a semi-permanent fix. Another issue that comes along with this is that it isn’t just getting a new window. The camper will probably have come off which means finding a place that has a hoist or a way to lift the camper off the truck while they put a new window in. When us Vugs do something, we do it good!  It’s all about the journey. Attitude makes it an adventure or an ordeal. I won’t lie, my first reaction was definitely ordeal based. But in the grand scheme of things we didn’t get hurt & we can deal with it.

We left the island and made our way to town on Friday morning. The guys at the local hardware were really friendly and helpful and hooked us up with clear vinyl that only cost us $20. That was a lot cheaper than I thought it would be considering where we are. We walked around downtown for a bit, grabbed a drink at a brewery then went back to the Asylum where the beers were $3.50. We like that place.

We headed back to the Ward Lake area and found a camping spot had opened up at Signal Creek Campground. We grabbed it and decided to stay 2 nights. We spent Saturday installing the vinyl which went pretty well. We walked around Ward Lake again and ended the night with a fire.

We had a great week in Ketchikan although we are ready to leave. I think we saw everything we needed to see. We drove out to Settler’s Cove this morning and did a short hike to Lunch Falls. We are now in line at the ferry terminal. The Kennicott should leave port by 1:30 pm. We are excited for the next leg of this journey.

Off to Juneau…

We are long over due for an update here so we figured what better time to update than a few hours before we get on a boat to go back up to Alaska! We have been thinking and planning for our return since we left in 2018, which was supposed to happen in 2021 but like everyone else, we had to adjust our plans. Since our last update we bought and built out a schoolbus, bought and sold a boat, and we’ve continued to travel and return to Michigan for the past few summers. We’ve enjoyed living with a loose schedule and love it that we can change up a plan when needed.

Thankfully our plan to head back to Alaska is finally coming together. We will get on the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry in Bellingham, Washington today at 3 pm. The ferry should leave port at 6pm and we’ll be sailing for 36 hours to Ketchican. We did purchase a cabin so we could get a couple hours of sleep but we plan on staying up and seeing as much as we can!

Our plan is to spend a week in Ketchikan, Juneau & Skagway. We will ultimately end up in Haines where we can drive into Canada to get to mainland Alaska. The ferry trip will take us through the end of May. We plan on spending all of June and July in Alaska and are really excited to get back to some places we want to explore more and find new places we couldn’t go to in 2018. We are also very excited to meet up with friends that we haven’t seen since then.

We are also planning a return trip to Tuktoyaktuk in the Northwest Territories in August. We were there within the first 6 months of the road opening from Inuvik to Tuk and the small village was not really prepared for tourists. We are hoping their little town is thriving because of new visitors.

We appreciate everyone that follows us. We love all the comments, reactions and messages that we get. We love to share our travels and hope you continue to enjoy it too as we meander our way around the country.

Off to Alaska…

When we took off in August, we had our route in mind but nothing was set in stone. We completed the TransAmerica trail in its entirety starting on the east coast and ended at the west coast. We really had no intention of staying in the Pacific Northwest until pet sitting opportunities kept us there and we really enjoyed the months we got to explore, even if it was cold and wet.

We had also planned on heading to Alaska after spending March in Scottsdale with my mom. But as we traveled during the pandemic, even as things were slowly opening up, the Canadian border continues to stay closed. We kept saying if it opens by April…then May, we can still make it work. It has become clear that it won’t be open anytime soon so we made other plans. 

We spent a lot of time in the desert after we met some cool people through a Facebook group called Nomads Helping Nomads at the beginning of February. We ended up meeting up with them a handful of times over the past couple months and have really enoyed spending time with them and hearing their stories of being nomads too. One visit brought us to Wickenburg, AZ and our friend Scott mentioned there were multiple school buses for auction in Kingman, AZ for cheap. We hadn’t really been talking too much about getting a bus but this peaked our interest. So we took off to Kingman which was 2 hours away and inspected the few buses that checked the boxes of what we thought we would want. After checking them out we were really excited about Bus 197! We put in our bid and waited.Checking out Bus 197

The auction ended March 22 and we are now the proud owners of a 2002 36′ Bluebird school bus. We are excited to be bringing it back to Michigan to build it out into a tiny home. The Vug Bus will be in addition to our Adventure Rig. We will move between the bus and Adventure Rig depending on the time of year and where we want to go.

Once we knew we had the bus, we went back to Kingman on March 25 and drove the bus back to Chandler, AZ. We had a week left of our stay with my mom so we put it in storage until we could get back to it.

Craig driving the bus for the first time! Craig actually got it up to 75 mph on the highway! Safe & sound in storage

After we left Scottsdale, we headed north to Utah. Our friends in Utah had been storing some truck parts for us and we decided that since we now had a bus, we could transport them back and we always love to see the Grimmers!! We also returned to where we had work done on the truck in Salt Lake City because the locker we had installed never worked. We were happy they could fix it. After a few fun days with Randy & Kristen in Northern Utah, we headed back south.

We plan on picking up the bus tomorrow then head to SanTan Solar. It is located very close to where we put the bus in storage. We already ordered solar panels for the bus since we were so close and it will save us a ton in shipping. We had bought our solar panels for the Adventure Rig from this company and have been very happy with them. Then we will make the long drive home…separately. Craig will drive the bus and I will follow in the Adventure Rig. If all goes well we will be home this weekend. We are excited for a new project and really excited to see everyone at home.

A lot of people have said they didn’t see this coming…well, neither did we. We are adapting and adjusting as needed and are always open to different adventures. We are loving our life on the road! We love figuring out what we want to do day by day and the people we have met has been awesome. It’s a very freeing way to live and we are happy for the chance to do it together.

It’s hard to believe we’ve been on the road for six months. In one aspect it feels like we just left, but mostly it feels like we’ve been gone forever. We have put in a lot of miles in a short time and have seen so much different scenery and been to so many places. It was hard to keep updating the blog with our ever changing day to day travels.

We kind of knew what to expect when we left although the feel this time was a bit different than when we left in 2018. In 2018, we knew we had an end date and we had a house to go back to. This time we left without the stress of continued expenses of a house, property taxes, renters, etc and it felt so good. We talked so much in 2018 about how it would feel when we didn’t have our high maintenance house holding us back. I thought I would be really sad for a long time and even have regrets about selling, but we don’t. Although we absolutely loved our house and are really happy we were able to enjoy 16 years in it, we are happy with the steps we have taken to free ourselves from stuff. It feels really good to be able to wake up every day with no alarm and decide together what to do, where to go and have a wide open schedule. We love the sights we have seen, the experiences we’ve had, and being able to stop and see friends along the way has been so fun. We appreciate everyone that gave us a place to stay, invited us for dinner or just reached out to see how we are doing. It breaks up our time in our tiny home.

Traveling how we travel isn’t always easy. Living in a small space together has it’s challenges and we both have our off days. We aren’t always excited about where we end up having to make camp but deal with what we can find. Rest areas or busy campgrounds aren’t our favorite but sometimes that’s the only choice. Dealing with weather is another thing that definitely affects our moods. It’s hard not to get sick of constant rain or extreme cold when living in a truck camper. Sitting around reading and sleeping all day long is fun for a day, maybe two, but then it just gets old and frankly makes us feel lazy.

When we left, our plan was to try and chase 70 degree weather but once we started pet sitting and finding some great spots in the Pacific North West, we realized how hard it is to camp when it gets cold and dark so early. We truly enjoyed November and December in Washington in the homes people welcomed us into. We wouldn’t change it for anything. Not only did we make some good friends and got to love on some really great pets, we were able to fly my mom out for Christmas and enjoy a great time with her too.

We continue to deal with the Covid stuff like everybody else. It’s frustrating to see some things open but other things still shut down. I know everyone is sick of it and trying to make sense of the decisions being made. We just roll with the flow, complaining to each other but just doing what we have to do and just thankful that we can continue to be on the road through it all.

People ask us what our favorite part so far as been. That’s such a hard thing to answer. There are so many places that we love for different reasons. Some places stick out just because of the people we were with, others because of the scenery, others because of how different it was from anything else we’ve ever seen. I don’t think we’ll ever say with absolute certainty that one place is our favorite. We’ve said in the past that Alaska is one of our favorite states, but that too is such a vast huge area that to narrow it down to one spot is impossible. The lower 48 has so much beauty. Staying off the highways and seeing it from the back roads, off road trails and paths less traveled has truly been eye opening. Having a rig that can go to further places has been so much fun.

So our favorite things have been visits with friends & family, beautiful sunsets and sunrises, mountain passes, rock filled rivers, beautiful hikes, wildlife, awesome beaches, elephant seals, bridges, water crossings, Joshua trees, fields of flowers, salt flats, and meeting new people.

So what’s next? We will be spending the next two months in Arizona meandering on trails that Craig finds and hopefully getting to enjoy warmer weather, free camping and more campfires. We are excited that my mom will be spending all of March in Arizona as well and we plan on staying with her for most of that time. After that our plan got a little derailed. We were going to head back to Alaska but with the border still closed with no projected opening for nonessential travel, we won’t be able to go ahead with that plan. Right now we will just enjoy ourselves and will decide where to go when we need to move again.

A week ago Friday, we were standing in our empty garage getting ready to hand it over to someone else. I think that’s when it hit us both. We walked through the house and garage one last time. I did cry, a lot. We have so many memories in that house, it was just hard to imagine not living there. We drove away and although I know we have great adventures ahead, I was not in a good mood.

Everything leading up to leaving was hard. It was hard selling stuff, storing stuff and packing stuff into our tiny house. I didn’t even want to think about leaving family and friends. We were so busy dealing with all of that, seeing friends and saying last goodbyes that when the the 31st came, I don’t think I had actually processed the fact that we were leaving our dream house. We just drove around a bit Friday afternoon and ended up having one last dinner with some great friends at our neighborhood bar. That was just what we needed. After a night of talking and laughing with Mark & Jackie, we were feeling better.

Saturday morning was another hard goodbye. We had stayed in my mom’s driveway and after she spoiled us with her awesome french toast, we said a teary goodbye. We appreciate all of our family and friends and the support they have shown us as we planned and are now living our dream. Thankfully we are only a phone call or plane ride away.

We meandered our way to my brother’s house in Decatur, Indiana. We stayed a couple nights and Craig was able to finish a few things on the rig he hadn’t been able to get to. Ryan and I put his old movies onto DVD and we had so many laughs watching old Christmas parties, hunting videos, and movies of his kids when they were young. If you knew my dad, he was the ultimate commentator. He would video us and ask us questions and we always hated it but seems it carried over because Ryan did the same thing to us and his friends on those videos. The videos just wouldn’t be the same without that funny sarcastic commentary. It was a relaxing couple days and I was sad to say goodbye.

The first leg of our adventure is the TransAmerica Trail (TAT). It begins in Ripley, West Virginia and goes east across America on 90% dirt & gravel roads. We took all back roads to get to Ripley and began the TAT at 5:20pm on Monday night. It started out paved and eventually turned into a skinny gravel road. It brought us up into the mountains and past farms and beautiful country. We saw so many deer as we crawled through.

To follow the TAT, we purchased tracks that are sold by a guy that runs it every couple of years. I am the navigator and had to watch them pretty closely as it was easy to miss a turn. I actually like to navigate and it went pretty well. We assumed we would be able to find a place to pull off and camp but this leg didn’t offer any place to do that as most of the land is privately owned. We drove until dark and finally found a pull off that looked okay. We decided to stealth camp in case we had to move quickly, which means we didn’t pop up the top of the camper. We folded down our new chairs we had put in the camper and settled in on the floor. The problem was that it was raining and it was hot! We couldn’t have the windows open and we were squooshed on the floor together and both pretty miserable. It as about 4:30am when we just couldn’t handle it anymore. We got up and decided to just keep driving. This is when we heard a loud annoying noise coming from the truck. We couldn’t really fiure out what it was with a flashlight and me driving so instead of quietly coming down from the mountain at 5 am, we were the horrible annoying tourists. We got to a gas station and Craig discovered a small rock had landed between the heat shield and the caliper on the passenger front side and that was causing all the racket. I drank my coffee and people watched at the small West Virginia gas station while Craig took care of our issue.

We drove the rest of West Virginia and started on the Virginia portion when we were both getting pretty tired. We found a small little campground and set up camp and settled in. The weather was nice and after a little nap we took a walk to a little river.

We knew at some point we were going to jump off the main trail of the TAT and drive the Atlantic spur that starts in Nagshead, NC and goes to Virginia. We decided to jump off at that intersection and head to Wake Forest, NC to visit Ronnie and his wife, Amy Jo. We had met Ronnie in Chicken, Alaska in 2018. He had ridden his Harley up there and we all met at the saloon and had a night of drinks and laughter. We ended up seeing him again in Fairbanks two weeks later when we were having dinner in a restaurant and he happened to walk into the same restaurant. We’ve kept in touch the past two years and we were so happy to see him, meet his wife and their cute pup Cooper. They have a beautiful property (and donkeys) and were so welcoming, it felt like we’d been friends forever.

Another friend and former colleage from JR Automation, reached out and invited us to his home in Greenville, NC. Brad and his wife, Jaclyn, had moved to NC in 2018. We pulled into Greenville with the hopes of camping at a campground that we had found close to them. Due to COVID, they were not taking campers and just as we were getting this information, it started to downpour. We raced back to the truck, soaking wet and feeling a little discouraged because the next closest campground was 45 minutes away. We knew finding places to camp the way we like to camp was going to be hard on the East coast, so we got a hotel just a few minutes from Brad & Jaclyn’s house.

Brad and Jaclyn spoiled us as well! They met us with drinks and served us an amazing meal. I had never met Jaclyn before and we talked all night as the boys meandered around Brad’s garage talking about boy things. We got to meet their sweet pup, Dozer, and threatened to take him on the road with us because he was so sweet and close to the right size for us. Pretty sure he was having none of that.

So after being on the road a week, we can say we are happy. We’ve already figured out a few things to change, we’ve enjoyed the beautiful back roads and small towns, and are happy living a slower paced life. We are headed to Nagshead today and hope to find a camping spot on the beach and then get back on the TAT tomorrow.

We haven’t posted much since we’ve been home because there wasn’t a lot to talk about. We spent the last year and a half getting the house ready to sell and then this spring, like everybody else, we were surprised and confused and were just trying to figure out what was going to happen when COVID hit. We had a loose plan of putting the house up for sale early May but with everything shut down that didn’t happen.

We stayed home and stayed busy working on things, but every time the stay at home order was extended, we got a little more nervous. All the fears raced through our heads as we waited. Is this a good time to be trying to sell a house? When can we put it up for sale and actually have people walk through it? Obviously no one had the answers and our problems were not devastating in the grand scheme of things especially compared to so many others that were struggling so much more because of it. We just had to be patient.

We decided to put the house up for sale on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. My good friend from Tennessee is a realtor and offered to come up and take awesome pictures and drone footage of the house and help us with the for sale ad. We had a ton of fun while he and his friend Bill did the pictures. We drank some beers and talked a lot about how the for sale by owner process would go. By the end of breakfast on Sunday, we had an awesome Zillow ad and we put it out there. By Thursday, the new buyers would be walking through and making an offer. After all the anxiety and a few tears about putting our dream home up for sale, a couple just down the street wanted it and they made an offer that insured we didn’t hold the open houses we were planning the next weekend.

As we got to know this couple, the more we realized that they are the perfect fit for our house. We always hoped we would sell to someone who would love it and take care of it like we do, but that doesn’t always happen. As we signed the contract the next day, it just felt easy even without realtors involved. We got through the paperwork, had a beer, wandered in the garage after, figured out we had friends in common and they even have a dog named Gus. They also had no contingencies and were fine with us moving out on our schedule. We officially close on July 17 and will vacate on July 31. We plan on celebrating with them after closing at Odd Side Ales. What an exciting beginning for us all!

Craig has been working hard on the new rig and it is almost finished. We added solar panels, a new battery, new flooring, a new fridge, and outside shower and so many other things to help make living on the road a little more comfortable. We are looking forward to being fully contained and not pulling a trailer.

Now to answer what many have asked, what is next? As we said before, it all depended on when the house sold. We are now able to say we are leaving August 1 and will head to the East Coast. We’ll stop in Indiana to visit my brother and his family and then head to North Carolina to see a friend we met in 2018 in Alaska. After that we’ll hop on the TransAmerica Trail at Nags Head, NC.

The TransAmerica Trail started out as a dual sport motorcycle route but now attracts all 4WD adventurers. It runs from the East coast to the West coast and is 90% dirt and gravel roads. We are very excited to try it in our new rig. We plan on stopping to see friends in Tennessee, Colorado and Utah for sure. We’ll probably end up in Oregon in November and that is where our plan ends. That is the beauty of how the next few years of our lives will be. No plans! We can bust home to Michigan if we want or need to or chase 70 degree weather. We are looking forward to doing whatever we want to do and seeing more amazing sights that our country has to offer.

Stay tuned! We hope to share some grand adventures!