Less than a week!!!

We leave in less than a week!! Still so much to do. Today are doing some cleaning and organizing in the house and kind of ignoring the RV. We had an ice cream social last night and gave our friends tours of the RV. Many people commented on how nice it is. It was fun to show it off and we stayed dry under the awning.

I've made a few updates here at the blog. We figured out out path up to Canada and added it to our itinerary. We also included a few maps. I also signed up for a Flickr account which we will use to store photos for you all to see. We will just upload some of the favorites here to the blog.

I have some major lists started. I've got some color coded sheets on a clipboard instead of a lot of little notes here and there. I think we have a pretty good handle on most things, except for food. We need to come up with a list of about a dozen or so dinner ideas. Then I can go out and shop for what we need. We have limited space in the fridge/freezer, but I think we have enough space for all the non-perishable foods we need. We have a stove, microwave, crock pot, and small charcoal grill, but no oven or convection oven. I've been so busy wrapping up my clients and prepping to take off 7 weeks AND with other things that I haven't had time to think about food! I just need easy dinner ideas. Any suggestions are appreciated~ we are pretty simple and basic eaters. Ziploc makes these baggies that you can now suck the air out which are really cool. I already have some taco meat frozen and ready to take. I hope to make up more of that type of thing this week.

Big storm coming through...time to log off!

Home Sweet Safe Home

So yesterday Eric IMd me from work and asked how I felt about having someone stay with us this summer. I wasn't sure what that meant at first, but then he explained. There is a student that he knows from the sailing club that was going to sublet a studio apartment from a friend of a friend. The arrangement fell through this week and he needs a place to stay until his new lease starts in August. Eric has known this guy for a few years and said he's very responsible. He just needs a place to stay for 8 weeks as he will be flying home later in the summer to see his folks. So it's a no-brainer. We will be gone for 5 weeks and need someone to watch the house. This guy is a dog-lover, so he is willing to watch the dog too. So now our house will be safe while we are away and the dog doesn't need to be boarded! w00t!

Mid-April Update

Things are cruising along. Eric has been doing lots of prepping and planning. The trip is just over 2 months away and this is what has been accomplished~

• RV fixes: The hydraulic jacks & the fridge have been fixed. The RV dealer told us that we would need a new fridge $1500 + installation, but Eric did some research and found the part we need online for $500 and his dad got it installed. He & a neighbor friend also fixed some other little things on it.

• This weekend: Eric is going up to work on the RV with his dad. They will be installing seat belts on the sofa, bolting the sofa in place, installing the CB and new back up monitor (courtesy of our BIL), and getting the towing/hitch stuff in place.

• Jeep: Eric has been getting his Jeep ready to go. He finished his roof rack and painted it, he has a working CB, and has been looking over the towing.

• Eric has mapped out our drive up. I need to now find places for us to stay and decide if we are just going to show up or make reservations. The only time I am concerned about reservations on the trip is around 4th of July. I am thinking we will be near Anchorage at that point.

• We are starting to make our pack lists and I am buying a few things each time I go to the store.

Time is going quickly, but we will be ready!

Spring Update

It's been over 3 months since I've posted here. The trip got put on the back burner for a while as it was winter and it seemed to far away. All of a sudden we are under 3 months away from the trip and it doesn't seem like enough time. LOL!

This is what has been accomplished recently~

• I have secured boarding for Cooper while we are gone. He will be staying with our groomer, who will incorporate him in with her dogs. He will learn so much as he lives in her house and with other dogs. Plus he will see dogs come and go for grooming as she runs her biz our of her garage. This is a HUGE concern of ours and is now taken care of. We are not worried about how he will do while we are gone at all!

• We got our 2010 Milepost magazine. The Milepost is The Bible of North Country Travel. We were borrowing the 2009 version from some friends, but this is nice to have our own to mark in. We've also started a 5 subject notebook that we will be using to keep organized.
  

• Eric has started mapping out our travel. We will be leaving on June 20th and need to return by July 25th.
  

• We got our passports renewed today. We also applied for Dori's US passport. They should arrive in about 4 weeks.

Eric will be going up to his Dad's this weekend so they can start prepping the RV. There are a few things that need to get fixed and they will be putting together a list of RV needs. We are so grateful for his dad's expertise and for him storing the RV for FREE! Eric will go up one weekend in April too. The plan is to bring the RV down after Eric's finals are over. I am guessing the weekend of May 22nd will be when he goes to bring it down. We plan on just driving as far as his dad's (3 hours away) on our first day (6/20), so we can make sure everything is in order.

Upcoming plans will include finishing mapping out the trip and making reservations, making pack lists, and of course giving this blog a new look!

Updated Plans

Gosh...it's been a while since I posted. Let me catch you up...

First off, after calculating the price we have decided that we will not be going on the Alaska Marine Highway at all. It is going to cost us roughly $8000. YES~ $8K! That is just too much!! I was bummed at first, but now I am ok with it. There is still so much to see and do.

We've also started to figure out what we are going to see. We went over to Connie & Kent's a few weeks ago and spent several hours discussing AK with them. Kent has worked up at Denali NP the past several summers and Connie (who retired in the spring) joined him this year. They had a lot of great tips and suggestions for us. I hope to get together and talk with them again as we basically just covered the first half of the trip with them. One of the best things they told us is to purchase a booked called The Milepost. The Milepost is a mile by mile guide of Alaska, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and British Columbia. It a very thick guidebook, but it covers EVERYTHING! They publish it each year, so we will order ours when the 2010 edition comes out in March. C&K did pass on several guide magazines that they've received in the mail, which have a lot of info also. Eric just finished up his last final yesterday and plans on using the time between semesters to do lots of research on AK and map out the whole trip.

Last week we sold 2 of our vehicles~ the Porsche and the little red pick-up. It's so nice to have our driveway open. Eric's parking the Jeep in the garage. He's also doing lots of work on the Jeep...routine maintenance and some other stuff. He recently purchased the a tow hitch so that we can tow the Jeep behind the RV. So we have officially decided that the Jeep will go along with us. We also purchased a kewl bikerack off Craig's List that hooks between the hitch & the RV. We need to gather some rugged bikes for all of us to take with us. I'll be keeping my eye on Craig's List for that. Don't you just love CL? BTW~ the funds from the sale of the 2 vehicles will used to get braces for Jake.

Making Plans!

Yesterday I called the 800 number for the Alaska Intercoastal Ferry. I got a lot of questions answered and we are prepping to make our reservation. We just need to get some information/documents together. We've decide to reverse the direction of our trip and will drive across the US to Washington State first and take the ferry through the Inside Passage up to Alaska. Then we will explore the state before returning home via the Al-Can Highway.

I am also reading though journals of other's trips to Alaska. Many of the journals I have found are from people who got to spend MONTHS up there, but it's still good to read through to see what there is to do. We plan on getting together soon with some friends of ours that go up and work at Denali in the summers. I am sure they have lots of good advice.

Such Excitement!