We are OFF to ALASKA!

Greetings from Dean and Anna as we prepare to leave for our trip to Alaska. To refresh your memory, we are joining a TRACKS Tour of 19 motor homes commencing on July 11 in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. The tour will last for 40 days and it will take us about a month to get from Laurie, MO to Dawson Creek and about a month to get back home.


Meanwhile, we plan to take our time and visit some noteworthy sites along the way. Our original plans included heading directly to the Amana Colonies in southeast Iowa but with the flooding on the Iowa River and in Cedar Rapids (which was on our itinerary as well) we will have to pass for now. The first week we will focus on heading North to Columbia, MO then on to Minneapolis/St Paul to spend a few days. Dean's mother was from northwestern Minnesota so we plan a slight detour to visit Gonvick then we are off to Bemidji, MN, Devils Lake, ND and will enter Canada via the International Peace Garden in Manitoba. We plan to stay a while in Riding Mountain National Park, a town called Chelan in Saskatchewan (where Dean's mom's family homsteaded) then on through Edmonton, Alberta ultimately ending up in Dawson Creek, BC.



After the tour is over and we return to British Colombia, we will spend some time in the Banff and Lake Louise area, then enter the US via Montana. We will travel down the Rocky Mountains to Yellowstone and over to South Dakota to visit the Badlands then on through Wyoming to visit friends in Colorado. From Colorado, we will head east back to Missouri. Our tentative itinerary has us getting back to Lake of the Ozarks late in September.


Molly has been monitoring our activities and remembers that the motorhome is one of her favorite places to be. She has been very patient with us these last few months as we caulked and painted the garage, worked on building out the basement, power washed the decks, replaced and cleaned windows on the house, tackled the landscaping and generally ignored her as we raced around trying to get all this work done. She will be very happy once we are on the road again!



We were hoping that the rainy Spring weather would have abated by the time we left, but it doesn't look like we will be that lucky. Let's just hope the stormy activity calms down a bit and that our trip is uneventful (at least weather-wise!). We will be posting at least weekly updates and adding pictures as we did last winter, so feel free to follow along and send us comments or suggestions on places we should see. Just remember that we can talk about anything except the price of GAS! Happy Summer . . .