After leaving Winnipeg and crossing back into the the States we arrived at our son Jason's in Shakopee Minnasota. It was really good to see His family since it had been a while. I appoligize for not adding to the blog and keeping it up. The time we spent in Minnasota went by fast as they kept us busy going here and there. Sarah's Father took us boating and swiming and then there was the Zoo, a trip to Wisconsin to see old town St Croix Falls. We then went to the falls and a park and had a good time. The water at the falls was almost red colored. After that Sarah and the kid's took Patsy and I on a nature walk where the kids had a ball, they know so much about nature. Then there was the Minnesota State Fair. And best of all was a walk almost daily to a school play ground about four blocks from their home. Grampa helped Eli to start and stop by his self of his bike. Way to go Eli. The school was a good place for them to play and we liked watching them play.
At the park Ethan showed us some great moves on whatever they call this thing, they didn't have one at my school, don't think they were invented yet.
On some days they have up to 240,000 people come to the fair. They have parking all over town and then they bus you to the fair. It's a great fair. Wish we had one like it.
Andy had no trouble about riding the rides. She was like a pro that had done this all her life.
Eli sure had fun on the cars. He kept his car right on the track so it didn't go where it shouldn't go. Great job Eli.
Jason took me fishing one day. Fishing is one thing Jason likes to do and he loves taking his boys with him. What a great dad!
On our way home we stopped at Mankato, Sleepy Eye, and Walnut Grove and check out all the Little House On The Praire sites. The museum had a lot to see and do. We ate dinner at Nellies Dinner.
From there to Walls Drug Store, somewhere in Dakota. There were bill boards every few miles for a hundred miles so we stopped. We bought a number of items there. It was really quite nice for a tourist trap.
From there to Mount Rushmore. We both like being there, this is our second time and it moves you each time we go. There are more than fifty flags as they include all the territories that were over.
This is Crazy Horse, its a lot bigger than Mt Rushmore. It has been in the works since I believe 1948 and won't be finished for many years to come.
I want to live to see this finished. It will be awesome, hope I live long enough. One man started it and his family keeps it going.
This is the end of our travels this last summer. The weather was warm, mom wore a coat a couple of times when we were on the coast. There was a lot of rain on the way up and our first vist to the coast but never when we had something we wanted to do did it rain. Only when we put up the tent. The next morning we packed it up wet and the next time we set it up it dried in just a few minutes. Took five minutes to set up, couple of minutes with the electric air mattress which mom said was better than most beds we slept on and take down was just as fast. We had a propane stove which we heated water for a couple of bowls of oatmeal and a banna, some yogart, muffins in the morning, at night a can of stew, soup, or ravioli all on paper plates, fast and good. We did sleep in the car three nights in a row due to a fire and being out in the middle of nowhere. We did sleep in the car two nights in a row several times also. We stayed in Motels over half the times. Most motels were Comforts Inns, Hampton's Holliday's, a Hilton and three nights at Fairbanks in a suite with a balcony. Several cabins and a few places we won't talk about. Fairbanks the temp was 78-82 while we were there. About half the nights late you might need something over your shoulders. Alaska welcomes you to stay anywhere there is a pull off or at Wal-Mart or anyother place. It's always safe. Patsy say I'm not sleeping in the car at Wal-Mart, it never gets dark and people can see me sleeping."
On our way up we camped at White Horse in the Yukon and Patsy asked, "you awake," "am now,"
"what time is it?" "three fifteen in the morning." Under the trees and in a tent you had not trouble seeing. At Chicken I would set out side and work on the computer till the sun went down around a quarter till twelve, but never dark. We only saw a couple of mosquitoes one night and no other bugs to be found. Neat huh.
Gas, we paid as much as $7.00 a gallon. Gas in Canada is by the litter. At the top of Canada gas was running a $1.85 a litter. A man told me to buy gas at a place called Contact Creek right in the middle of all this high prices. We stopped and gas was a $1.09 a litter. We asked him why his was so much less, He said "I'm making good on what I charge. No need to rip people off, I'm doing just fine." The food was a couple of dollars more than what you would pay here, but you seemed to get more and it seemed better prepared. At Fairbanks we ate the the farthest north Denny's in the world.
One thing we both liked about our trip was we spent most of our time in the back country in the small cities
and going places most people never see. Yes we did take a couple of cruises and went to the parks and the museums and I did go on two minning trips where I worked my own mining equipment. One place I staked a claim and found a lot of color in my test pan. I then started working the sluice and just got going and the bank of the creek caved in on me. It was three feet deep and five feet wide. There was a couple of young men just down from me and when I moved on they asked if they could have my claim. I said yes and they worked hard. They could shovel the big rocks out and they had buckets and a larger sluice than mine and by night fall they had around an ounce worth. I did find another place, and the same thing happened but not as big as the first one. From then one I just worked the creek. You paid a fee and then they took you in to the back country by four wheelers and they left you for the whole day and came and picked up and brought you back to your car. It was one of many great experiences that I had, no I did not become rich but did have a rich experience doing it as the old miners did.
Phone service was only in cities over one or two hundred people and then not always. Most cities away from the large cities made their own electricity. RV places and campground had their own generators. One note, we were without phone most of our trip but had WI FI every night no matter where we were. Even in the small camp grounds the host would have a small gererator and a satelllite dish for TV and Internet and they all provide WI FI. A lot of children there get their school over the net. That is most people's contact with the outside world.
Our travels took us 11500 miles with out incident, our car ran well. Canada was good to us as each time we drew money out for each $200.00 we gained $15.00. Something interesting in northern Canada and away from the cities in Alaska for two months of travel we saw only two police cars and only about five others in the cities and across Canada. You could travel 500 or more miles and never have more than a dozen or more people scattered along the way. After four or so in the afternoon traffic was almost nil. I often thought if you had some trouble or accident help would be long in coming.
Both Alaska and Canada had a lot of rain and their hay could not be put up. Much through Canada was in round bales and had turned dark. I'm sure that will hurt the farmers a lot. All the cities were clean and neat and homes in good repair.
We here live in a small world. Up there everything is big, like the Grand Canyon. It stretches your mind to take it all in. Mountains fourteen thousand feet high or higher seem like giants because they start out at less than two thousand feet. Even at forty or eighty miles aways they seem to tower over you. The ocean is big and I had to take sea sickness pills to enjoy it.
Both of us feel very gratefull to have been able to spend two full months of our lives and enjoyed it as we did. Each of the four times we crossed a border it gave us a different feeling inside us and we loved Canada and the people but we love the good ol USA. When we got to Minnesota and spent time with Jason and Sarah and Ethan, Eli, Andy and our soon to be grandchild we realize how much we missed all our children and grandchildren..
Is there anything we would do different? Yes, we would spend more time exploring the old mining cities and some of their off colored places. No, we would not drink or gamble, but most places were gathering places and it would be fun just to hang out with the locals and just go back in time a little.
