Alaska 7

As you can see Anchorage downtown can be quite pretty, I accompanied April to a bar where we met some very talkative people (aren't all drinkers talkative?), they thought April was very pretty.

One of April's highlights, petting the reindeer in Anchorage.

Notice the chocolate fountain behind me, the chocolate is kept at 90 degrees, they did get the pipes clogged once when they lost power. One person fell in, I wished it was me. After they read my shirt (Give me all your chocolate and no body gets hurt) they gave me this bar.

The Sourdough Restaurant in Anchorage, one of the best food deals on the trip. I ordered a small salad, it had to be 2 feet across plus you got to make your own free sundaes.

This was the most despised sign on the trip, I must have seen over a hundred of them. It really meant the road was ALL gravel. Some sections were as short as a few hundred feet but one section was 12 miles. Many sections were short BUT they were within a half mile of each other so speeds of over 40 MPH were foolhardy.

After we left Alaska we headed to Banff, on the way I took a road (#37) which looked OK on the map but was the most desolate road I'd ever been on and it lasted over 250 miles. I hate traffic lights but after being on that one I prayed for a traffic light, anything that resembled civilization. If we had broken down on that road we would have been dead. The radio appeared dead as it had a number of times on the trip, however this time the antenna had come loose.

This is the city of Banff in Canada's Banff National Park. The city and the park were the highlight of the trip. The city is what I imagined Alaskan cities to be, quaint, beautiful and clean. The whole city and national park were unbelievable

Banff National Park, the drive over almost 200 miles is almost all like this to view. It is billed as the most scenic highway in the world. The water is that color as it is glacial runoff

A glacier, the temperature away from the glacier was 75, but here it was nearer 55 with strong winds. The glacier is in retreat. A number of tourists have fallen in the cracks. and died.

We later canoed on this lake, Lake Louise in Banff. I was a bit concerned about being in it, because if you fell in it, you died within 5 minutes. The water you see here is 34 degrees.

Notes: If I were to do this again, I would never drive the 10,200 miles. Far better to take a plane to Dawson Creek and rent a car. I would NOT rent a camper. There was always plenty of rooms at motels and the rates were pretty reasonable. I would stay at the cheapest motel you can find, even the $30 hotel was clean. I would only go alone or with my youngest daughter. If alone I would have had a better chance to interface with the locals (my youngest daughter is a travel expert). By the way everyplace we went had Lays Potato Chips.

The trip was 24 days, average motel per night was $74, food for both of us was $581. Gas was $438 (44 MPG), misc. entertainment was $285, not counting the plane fare to the Arctic.

There are many more Alaska pictures, if you want to see them all, email me. I saw a site where a guy did this trip by moped. Now that is an experience.