Sharp's Travels

We both slept good last night. We were up early and I made pancakes for breakfast.

I had a number of books I’ve read and the campground has a book exchange so Gay & I took them over to the office to exchange.

There were a number of hummingbirds at the feeders by the camp office. That’s my favorite bird. I love to watch them buss in for their food.

At 10am we took our chairs down by the office for Spike’s Sunday Prayer meeting. It lasted 30 minutes and by 10:45 we were all lined up ready to carpool to Salmon Glacier. It was 28 miles up an old dirt mining road with lots of pot holes. It was just a beautiful day to drive up there.

This is one of the world’s biggest glaciers you can drive to. We went past a few old gold mines on the way up. We parked and hiked up the far end of the snow covered road.

The glacier was really neat. We could see the different shades of blue-green in sections of it. The mountains surrounding it were beautiful. There were lots of waterfalls flowing down into the canyon.

We started back down and heard on the radio that someone had spotted a bear. We weren’t fortunate enough to see it, but there will be more bears on this trip I’m sure.

We stopped at the overlook on back down the road and had our picnic lunch before returning to camp.


At 6pm we all headed to the Seaalaska Inn for happy hour and a halibut dinner.

Gay has uploaded pictures of the day. See album: Hyder- Salmon Glacier

We were ready to pull out of our campground in Hazelton, BC by 9:30am. Spike had us all lined up in the order they wanted us to file into our next campground in Hyder, AK. He took us through the villages of Kitseguecla & Kitwanga to view the totem poles and the old churches.

The sides of the road were lined with little wild prickly roses and also clover which they called bear candy. The bears come to the sides of the roads to eat their candy. Gay saw 1 black bear and I saw 1 black bear and one white spirit bear. If a person views a spirit bear it means luck for them and their family. Yah!

Spike got permission to use the yard of a saw mill as a stop for our lunch break. Everyone got something to eat from their unit and then we were on our way.

We traveled through the Coast Mountains and what awesome sites we saw. The snow caped mountains were awesome. You could see the water falls come from near the top of the mountain. We went by Bear Glacier. You could see the beautiful hues of blue peaking out the end of the Glacier.

We crossed over the border at Stewart BC into Hyder, Alaska about 3pm. Hyder is like stepping back into time. The gal at the campground said they don’t want anyone here that will make changes. All 100 of them like it just the way it is.

We had our meeting with Spike and then we all dispersed to set up camp.

Our afternoon was free so we went to check out the shops in Stewart and Hyder and then back to the “Blue Bus” for deep fired fresh Halibut and potato salad. It was so good. We thought we needed dessert with that so we went to one of the shops in town for hand
dipped ice cream.

We talked to the owner of the shop and he told us if we wanted to see bear we should go to the dump, so we did it! Sure enough, one came out of the trees and climbed up on a log and rubbed his butt on the log, sat down and then proceeded to lie down. Gay got lots of neat pictures of him. Another truck finally scared him off.

We were also told we may find eagles at the boat dock. We did see one off in a distance, setting on a piling in the water. The picture didn’t come out great you can at least see it is an eagle.

We came back to the campsite to pick up another couple and we all went out to the Bear Viewing Dock. NO BEARS! We are just a few weeks early to see the bear catch the salmon as they try and swim up river. Darn.

Tomorrow is another day. Who knows what we’ll see or do!

Gay has uploaded pictures of the day. See album: Hazelton BC to Hyder AK

This is the first day of our tour and we car pooled to the village of Kispiox about 9 miles from our campsite. Spike narrated the trip. He told us about the wild flowers and trees along the way. When we arrived we went to the Totem Park and he explained the meanings & history of all the totem poles there.

The totem poles are made out of Red Cedar and they commission someone out of their own clan to carve the poles. They are paid for by giving the carver goods for his work. Each pole represented a different clan of people.

The poles can get up to over 180yrs old and when they fall they leave them lay right where they land, even if it means stepping over them.

On the way back I spotted a black bear chewing on the plants along the road. Spike backed up for us so we could all get some pictures.

We were back in the campsite by noon for lunch then we met at 2pm to take the Ksan Historic Village & Totem tour.

Spike took us on a path down to the where the rivers meet and explained about the movement & erosion of the river.

We then headed on over to the Ksan Village and got a personal tour of the grounds. We went into the Frog House where up to as many as 60 people in a family would share one house. Next was the Wolf House where meetings and other gatherings were held. There were all kinds of artifacts of their culture displayed in these buildings.

The third building was the Fireweed House which held all their regalia and costumes for the presentations they put on during the summer. Much of it dated back years & years. They are keeping their history and customs alive for all to see.

Outside you could also see a spirit house that was erected over the site where someone was buried, a smoke house and a building constructed high in the air to store meats away from the bears. Gay also got pictures of a totem pole being made to display on the grounds.

The museum was our last stop. It had all kinds of artifacts used by the clans along with a new section upstairs devoted solely to totem poles. Everything was so interesting.

At 5:15 we headed down to the clan house for our pot luck. Spike had cooked fresh King Salmon with a brown sugar glaze on it and we all brought a dish to pass. The salmon was fabulous. What a meal! What a wide variety of food.

Spike gave us the rest of the information regarding our travels and then we all headed back to our units and started the preparations for heading out tomorrow.

Gay has uploaded pictures for the day. See album: Kispiox- Ksan Village

I got the laundry started early this morning and then we went for a walk up town by way of the river path. We’d been told we may see bear across the river. We checked out the river boat and artifacts around that area and took some pictures of the streets in Hazelton.

Also took a number of pictures of all the rigs here in the campground that will be going on our tour.

Gay went scouting for wood with Griffin so he could make his sign for the sign forest in Watson Lake while I finished up the laundry.

We played a few games of magnetic lawn darts and Gay won all the games.

We had our meeting at the clan house at 6:30 pm. Spike is giving us all the low down on how things will go for our trip. It gave everyone a chance to socialize and get to know each other.

Gay has uploaded pictures for the day. See album Hazelton, BC 6-26-08

Today was our wedding anniversary, 41 years. So Cheri and I planed to go out for a late lunch and early supper. There aren’t very many nice places around here. The fist place we went to was closed and the second only served sandwiches. So we drove to New Hazelton and looked there and found the New Hazelton café. It wasn’t very fancy, but the food was pretty good. We stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things and got a real shock when we looked at the prices. 150 to 200 percent more the other grocery stores we have been in. I guess when you are far way from a large city you have to pay the price. I worked this afternoon on more waxing of the 5th wheel; hope to get that job done tomorrow. About seven more units came in today for the Alaskan trip. We spent quite a bit of time talking and getting to know the people we will be traveling with.

Today was a very nice day with a high of 62 degrees and only a few sprinkles of rain. I spent most of the day waxing the 5th wheel. I am almost half done. Cheri spent the day cooking and reading. Late this afternoon several people arrived in the campground that will be going on our tour. Spike Fortier also got here; he is the owner of Alaska Discovery Tours and our wagon master. I had a nice visit with him this evening.

Happy Birthday Grandma, 87 years young! We had rain off and on all night and some during the day. I did get out side to check the house batteries and do some waxing on the 5th wheel before I got rained out. Cheri took it easy and spent the day reading and watching TV as I also did most of the day.

It rained all night and off and on today. Between the rain shower we took a ride into Old Hazelton, it is a neat old town. Then we went to North Hazelton and stopped at the visitor’s center, Cheri picked up some brochures of places that she wants to stop and see on the way to and from Alaska. To make our day complete we drove over to South Hazelton, nothing much there. Cheri made the sign she wants to put up at Watson Lake Sign Post Forest. I have uploaded a few pictures of the day. See album: Hazelton.

We had to close up in the rain and got on the road at 9:15 am. We drove in rain all morning. The wild Lupine flowers along the road were very pretty. We made a stop at the Wal-Mart in Prince George. I bought a pair of boots so I can go in the water and pan for gold without getting my feet wet. We ate lunch before we left the Wal-Mart parking lot. About 1:00 pm it finally quit raining. We arrived in Vanderhoof at 2:30 pm. We are staying at Dave’s RV Park. We made this a short day as we only have 235 mile to go before we get to the Caravan stating point in Hazelton.

We were up early this morning and around 7:30 am Nikki, Coz & Cece talked to us over the Web Cam. They called to wish Dad a Happy Birthday and Happy Father’s Day. We enjoyed the visit.

By 10am we were ready to tackle our day. We went to Capilano suspension bridge by way of the public transportation. We drove down to the mall here in Surrey and picked up the local bus over to the sky trail. We purchased an all day ticket for $9 each and that allows you to use all the public transportation the whole day. We hopped aboard the sky train and took it to the harbor. There we boarded the sea bus over to North Vancouver. When we got off the sea bus we got on the local bus again and they took us up to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. All in all it took 2 hours to make the trip.

We were given a short tour on information as to how this attraction came to be. This bridge has been in existence since 1889. George Mackay built it to access his prime forest land. The bridge was originally suspended on hemp rope. Today’s bridge uses 2” steel cables capable of supporting two fully loaded 747’s. Each step you take creates gentle waves on the bridge surface. You are 230 feet above the canyon floor. Some of the people were purposely making it sway and the overseers would holler at them over the microphone. Somewhere around the midpoint of the 450 foot span you have to stop and take in the view. You see the river flowing below and the water streaming out of the canyon walls. It was beautiful.

We made our way over to the other side up into the rainforest. We were given another bit of information regarding the forest and then went on our way to do the treetops adventure. You stroll up in the sky and it takes you high above the forest floor for a squirrel’s eye view. This 650 foot long walk is made up of a series of 8 cable bridges suspended between platforms that reach as high as 10 stories. It was really neat. We hated to come down out of the trees.

We continued the loop around the walks in the forest and back to the front of the park.

It was past lunch time and we needed to get something to eat before we took that long ride home. We ordered Canadian bacon and cheese burgers and fires. They were expensive but good.

Reversed our ride home and took the sky train one station further then we should of but we hoped off and went back to our station and we back in business. We talked to some people to find the right bus to get back to the truck and ended up getting home about 5pm.

It was a beautiful, sunny and fun day. Today was only a 7 hr day.

Gay has uploaded pictures of the day. See Capilano album.

We were up at 5am this morning to get ready to head over to Wal-Mart to pick up our charter bus into Vancouver and over to Vancouver Island. We arrived there early and it was cool standing outside so we stepped into the entry way of Wal-Mart. As the employees came in to work I would say “Welcome to Wal-Mart”. They would smile and say thank you. I told Gay “My God I’m working; I’m a Wal-Mart greeter!”

The bus took us around to a number of hotels in Vancouver to pick up others that we on our tour. We arrived at the ferry around 9:30am. We were booked for the 10am ferry. They loaded us on and we went up to the lounge to relax for the 1 1/2hr trip.

When we reached the island our first stop was Butchart Gardens. The grounds and flowers were beautiful. You think you’ve seen the most beautiful flowers and you turn the corner and you mouth drops open with the site of something even more beautiful. We had 1 ½ hours to spend there and we could of used more. It was breath taking.

Miles, our driver then took us down into Victoria. We were right along the Harbor. There they had a bunch of sidewalk artist selling their items and yes I did buy something. It was stained glass with real flowers inside. It has beveled glass around the edges. I can hang it in my window at the 5th wheel.

On down the line there were a couple of people, one spray coated in bronze and one called the plaster man. They would stand as statues and unless they blinked you wouldn’t see that they were real people. They had their pots out asking for money.

We ventured over to where the sea planes were and watched as a few of them taxied up the bay to take off.

We took pictures of British Columbia’s Parliament buildings. The big stone buildings were real impressive. We also got pictures of the Empress Hotel. Wow what a massive building.

We chose the Spaghetti Factory to eat at and that was a mistake. We didn’t have a good meal. We even paid extra for their clam chowder and that was a disappointment.

We were lucky enough to see a couple of big schooners come into port. If you look close at the pictures you can see the people standing way up high on the riggings. They rode all the way into the harbor like that. They got a big hand from everyone for that when they docked.

Our last stop was the Royal London Wax Museum. We saw Queen Elizabeth, Princess Diana and the rest of the royal family, past and present. They had a number of the presidents, Elvis, the Bonanza crew, Marilyn Monroe. Walt Disney and the list goes on. There was also a house of horrors in the basement.

Miles was waiting for us when we were all done and took us back to the bus and we headed back to the ferry. This ferry was bigger then our morning ferry. It had six decks. We went to the top and found a seat by the window for our 1 1/2 hr trip back to Vancouver.

By the time we delivered all the other people back to their hotels and were brought back to Surrey it was 11pm. It was a good day but a long day. 16 hours from start to finish.

Gay has uploaded the pictures See the Victoria album.

Wow its Friday the 13th. We went to find the Wal-Mart store and ended up at a huge mall and found the Wal-Mart hooked to one end. We wanted to see about a track phone to use while we were in Canada. Found out that they don’t offer any for Canada. We could have got a cell phone that has no contract but the cost for a couple of months was going to be too much. We did buy an international phone card to use. We walked through the mall and I bought 4 new polo shirts and Cheri got a fancy tee shirt. We signed up for a bus tour for tomorrow to go to Vancouver Island and tour the city of Victor and the Butchart Gardens. It was 4:00 pm when we got back to the 5th wheel. Cheri did laundry and I did some work on the computer and did some input to our RVnotebook.

We left Ron & Marcia’s at 9:15am. We made our way up Interstate 5 to Mount Vernon and stopped at Wal-Mart for groceries before crossing into Canada. We also filled up with gas at $4.89 per gallon.

It was about a 30 minute wait to get over the border. We got into the truck lane and were told we should have been in the car lane. The border guard said the signs were very clear but I beg to differ! I didn’t say anything but I sure wanted to.

We pulled into our campground around 4pm. We will be staying here for 4 days to look over the area. I picked up lots of brochures and Gay researched them on the internet so we’ll be off and running tomorrow.

It was another day with no sun and a high of 53 degrees, no rain but a mist in the air most of the day. Ron and we went out for lunch at Fatso’s (Ron’s favorite place). Ron took us for a ride around the country side and along the bay. It was a nice relaxing afternoon. When we got back to the 5th wheel we visited and looked at pictures. Ron left for work at 3:30 pm and Marcia got home from work at 4:30 pm. Marcia took us out to see her horse and showed us all the tricks she has taught him. He could play a miniature piano, fetch a ball, plus many other things. On the way home we stopped at a Mexican restaurant for supper. When we got home we visited and looked at pictures.

It was 42 degrees this morning and was cloudy all day, had a high of 61 degrees, but no rain. Ron came over to the 5th wheel around 9:00 am. We visited for a while and then Ron and I installed the cell phone repeater that we bought in Florida before we left. With only one bar on the cell phone we figured this would be a good place to test it out. Well when we got done we still only have one bar, not sure what the problem is, will have to check into it further. Ron left for work at 3:30 pm and Marcia got home around 6:00 pm. I had some new soft ware I wanted to load on the computer and my DVD drive doesn’t work. So I took my external back up drive and went to Ron & Marcia’s computer and loaded it on my back up drive. Then back to my computer and uploaded it to my C drive. I was glad that I could get this done. The soft ware is called RVer’s Notebook and I wanted to be able to use it on this trip. It was 10:30 when we called it a night.

Today was move day. We were packed up and on the road by 9:15 am. It is a cool 48 degrees and no sun. We arrived at Ron & Marcia Wolf’s in Olympia WA around 12:45 pm. Marcia is a school teacher and didn’t get home until 5:30 pm. After we got set up Ron took us out for lunch. When we got back we sat and visited, it’s been about ten years since we have seen each other. Ron was off to work around 3:30 pm. When Marcia got home we had a nice visit with her. It rained all afternoon and most of the night.

We had a beautiful day with a lot of sun shine and a high of 75 degrees. It is the first day that it hasn’t rained in more then two weeks. We went into McMinnville to church this morning and made a stop at Lowe’s on the way home. We picked up a couple of things for a project to add handles to the landing gear on the 5th wheel. I read about it on the Excel Form. I finished cleaning the truck this afternoon. I watched the NASCAR Race and Cheri read her book and took a nap. This evening we took a nice long walk around the neighbor hood.

Today was a very lazy day. We watched some old movies on TV and Gay got a chance to see some of his races also.

We finally went outside for a walk around 7:30pm. We were surprised to see how many empty spaces there were in the park. We ventured over into the permanent residences. We saw lots of pretty flowers everywhere.

It was a cold rainy day with a high of 52 degrees. We are getting tired of the wet cool weather. We were going to go for a ride out in the country, but because of the rain we stayed home. Cheri did laundry and vacuumed the 5th wheel. I worked on the computer doing e-mails and wrote a letter to GMC about the truck air conditioner. Probably won’t do any good, but will make me feel better. This afternoon we did go to a movie and saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It was an entertaining movie. The rest of the day was spent reading and watching TV.

This morning we went to the Evergreen Aviation Museum, the home of Howard Hughes flying boat the “Spruce Goose”. The museum was located just down the road from our campground.

The museum houses over 80 historic aircraft, including rare war birds, aerobatic planes, gliders, and the world’s fastest spy plane, the SR-71 Blackbird. The most impressive was the Spruce Goose. It is the largest wooden airplane with the longest wingspan ever, 319 feet six inches, with a length of 218 feet 8 inches and a weight of 400,000 lbs. The aircraft was designed to fly Trans Atlantic to avoid the World War II German submarines that were sinking allied ships.

It was completed in 1947 after the end of World War II. It made only 1 flight by Howard Hughes himself during a taxi test. It flew at an altitude of 70 feet for about 1 minute. After flying her Howard Hughes stored his flying boat away in a special hanger and out of the public eye for the next 33 years. After his death in 1976 the plane changed hands a number of times before being disassembled and brought to this museum. This building was built specifically for it and it takes up the entire length of the building. It dwarfs all the other planes in the museum. We got to go aboard the “Spruce Goose” into the cargo deck. It is a site. It is SO HUGE!

They also have the Spruce Goose Vineyards located next to the museum. You can sample wines made at their vineyard in the museum. We have seen miles and miles of vineyard fields here in Oregon. We didn’t know they were so big in the wine industry.

We came back to the 5th wheel and after lunch Gay worked on some of our florescent lights. They needed new diodes. He’s so handy!

We went to the 4:50pm show at the cinema. We saw “What Happens in Vegas”. It was a good show. We were home by 7pm.

Gay has uploaded pictures of the day. See album: Evergreen Aviation Museum

We were up at 4:00 am this morning as we had an appointment for our truck in Portland at 8:00 am. It was 40 miles from here and I was worried about rush hour traffic and not knowing where we were going. So we left here a little after 5:00 am. Well everything went without any trouble and arrived at the GMC dealer at 6:15 am. They didn’t start on the truck until 8:00 am. We had them change the oil, oil filter, fuel filter and compete check over. Also had to have the air conditioner fixed that quit working in Wyoming. They found a hole in the condenser. The tubing from the transmission cooler was to close to the condenser and rubbed a hole in the condenser. We had to wait for the part to come in. By the time they got done it was 3:30 pm and the wallet was $869.00 lighter. (I think I will send a letter to GM and see if they will do anything for me) Then we stopped at an electronics store to get some diodes to fix one of the florescent lights in the 5th wheel. Then we stopped a Camping World on the way home and picked up 2 gallon of Protect All to use on the truck and 5th wheel. It was 6:00 pm. It was a long day and we both are pooped.

We ventured out this morning to fill the LP tank and pick up a few items at Radio shack.

We made a stop at Historic down Town McMinnville to look through some of the shops. There were 2 shops that stood out but we didn’t buy anything---just looked.

We headed back to the 5th wheel for lunch. Gay did some cleaning on the truck while I caught up on some mail.

We decide to take in a show at the Cinema just down the road. We saw Made of Honor. It was a good show.

We needed milk before we came back to the 5h wheel so we stopped at Roth grocery store. What a selection they had. Our half gallon of milk we needed ended up costing us $45!

We’ve decided to stay at our campground in McMinnville for the rest of the week. We went up to the office and made the arrangements then headed out on Hwy 18 to the Pacific Coast. At Lincoln City we pulled up to an overlook of the ocean. It was an easy walk down the steps to the beach. We walked along the edge of the water and had to feel how cold the water was, of course, I got one shoe wet when the tide came in farther than I expected. The beach was pretty empty. The temperature was 56 degrees. We got a number of pictures and then headed back. The climb back up to the truck was a little harder----131 steps, but we made it!

We headed north out of town on 101 through the Siuslaw National Forest to Pacific City. It’s right on the beach. We watched some kids try their hand at surfing the waves.

We ate at the Pelican Pub & Brewery right on the beach. We got a table by the window so we could watch the waves come in. We had a tower of onions and a bowl of clam chowder. It was very good.

We drove the back roads and stopped to take pictures of the pretty yellow and pink bushes by the road. Gay spotted a doe with 2 fawns. On up the road we pulled over again. This time there were red, purple & pink bushes. I broke some off to bring home with me. It’s a nice time to be traveling, all the wild flowers are out and so pretty.

We connected back up to Hwy 18 and headed back to McMinnville, stopping at Lowe’s, Wal-Mart and Auto Zone before arriving at the 5-wheel.

Gay has upload pictures of the day: Pacific Ocean & Flowers

It was 49 degrees when we pulled out of our campground at 9:20am. The sun was shinning so it seemed warmer then that!

There is a lot of lava rock here in Oregon as well as Idaho. You see high mounds of it along Crescent Cut-Off Road, the highway we are traveling to connect with HWY 58. We will take it to Interstate 5 north.

We only went about 177 miles today. We called ahead to reserve a site at Old Stone Village campground in McMinnville. It was a good thing we did as there wasn’t any sites left when we arrived. It’s a beautiful place. We each have cement pads, cable and wifi for $25 a night. We pulled in about 2pm and got set up.

McMinnville is the home of the Spruce Goose that Howard Hughes had built and we plan to go check that out. It isn’t far from our campground.