The End

Today, we arrived in Virginia.  Not to our final destination, but I'm now in my home state.  Yay!  One more day of driving and we'll be checking into our temporary quarters where we can stay put until I figure out where my permanent residence will be.  My house in Reston is rented out so I'll have to look for another place.  I can rent until the tenant's lease is up, but I am leaning towards buying.  Regardless of where I end up, I'll probably continue my blogging on http://dancingnomad3-reston07.blogspot.com/ where I was blogging before when I lived in Virginia.

Well, this will conclude my blog on my Alaskan Adventures.  It's been a great, though hard, experience.  Next time I go back to Alaska, it will be for a visit, and in summer months only :)

Good-bye, Alaska!

Doggy Parks

Selby Farms Park

From Albuquerque onward most of our sightseeing involved going to various doggy parks in the major cities.      The trip has been exhausting, so we hadn't really been in the mood for further sightseeing.  It was pretty neat seeing the various doggy parks since they all varied quite a bit.  Roosevelt Park in Albuquerque was dog-friendly, but it's not fenced.  There were little hills and trees all around, and no mud puddle for Millie to jump in.  It was a nice park.  In Oklahoma City we went to the Myriad Botanical Gardens hoping for a nice walk there, but the dog release area was quite small, and there's not much to see in the winter.  In North Little Rock we went to Burns Park where the dog park was full of mud puddles.  We ended up doing a walk in the River Trail instead.  Memphis had the best dog park ever at Selby Farms Park.  A section of the park there called Outback had over 100 acres of doggy space, which included trails and some lakes.  Nashville's doggy space at Centennial Park was also interesting, as there were lots of doggies in a concentrated area.  It was fun for doggy watching.  In Knoxville we stopped at Doggywood, which had a (relatively) small off-leash area, but a number of other open spaces and trails good for walking/jogging.

We really didn't do much else besides these stops for Millie.  The only other highlight was meeting up with Jen, a friend from college, in Albuquerque.  She just happened to be doing a fellowship there and I was really glad to catch up with her.

Most nights we preferred to relax and sort out administrative stuff on the internet.  Some nights I had to spend a bit of time planning for the next day's trip.  Mostly though, I've been worrying about the things I have to do over the next couple of months.  I am currently refinancing a property, and will be looking a for another when I get there.  I'm also trying to stay on top of my retirement accounts.  With Stocks peaking (tho now falling) in recent weeks, and bond bubble expecting to burst in the near future, I've been trying to figure out what to do with my money there.  Maybe it's time to start getting my hands dirty and try to hit it big with individual stocks.  Risky, but I might be able to do better than average if I do the research and stay on top of things.  Unfortunately I don't have much time for that at the moment.  Maybe once things settle down.  We'll see....

Bryce Canyon to Albuquerque

Colorado River near the dam

At the last minute we had a change in plans.  The weather forecast was calling for a winter storm (i.e. heavy snow) all day Wednesday in most parts of Arizona, including Flagstaff.  It was supposed to begin late Tuesday, with heaviest of the snow falling early Wednesday.  We would either be stuck in Flagstaff or end up driving through potentially bad conditions.  Instead of risking either, we decided to skip Flagstaff and head straight for Albuquerque, which didn't have any winter weather advisory.  It made for a very long day of driving, parts in middle of nowhere Arizona - miles from anything.  The scenery was nice but I definitely wouldn't want to be driving on these roads in bad weather.  The drive on 264 to I-40 was especially tiring.  Although, we saw one cyclist at a BLM visitor information center.  I hope he doesn't get stuck anywhere bad in the storm.

Despite the long drive, we did have couple of nice scenic stops.  The Lake Powell area was especially nice.  There are several view points around the town of page that are worth stopping.  We got a view of the Glen Canyon Dam, but somehow missed the stop for the Horseshoe bend.  That was where we were going to walk Millie, but since we missed it, she didn't get much of a walk rest of the day :(

Bryce Canyon

Today was one of the shortest drive days at 3.5 hours.  We were in Bryce Canyon around noon, and after lunch, spent the afternoon checking out the park.  The park hasn't really changed much since I was there few years ago, and there wasn't really enough snow to make the scenery any different.  Still, it was a nice break from the driving.  As for walking Millie, we couldn't really do any of the hikes since they don't allow dogs on most of the trails, which are snow or ice covered anyways.  On the way into the park though, about 14 miles out, there is the Thunder Mountain trail.  The trailhead is at the first scenic view point as you head towards the park.  We only walked around for an hour, but since there wasn't anyone around, we were able to let Millie run around off-leash.  Actually, I think the area outside of the park was a lot nicer than the park itself.  If you're going to go into the park, you really want to spend time doing some of the hikes down into the canyon.

One of the things I noticed today, a bright sunny day, is that my eyes are now more sensitive to light than it used to be after living in a dark place for two years.  I find myself wearing sunglasses a lot more than I used to.

Boise to Springville

Today was another easy drive, though the day was chilly and windy.  The scenery today was more 'white', as there was snow all around us except on the roads.  We also left at a reasonable time today so with a 5.5 hour drive, we got to Salt Lake City mid-afternoon.  This gave us time to take Millie to a nice walk at Parley Historic Nature Park.

Parley Historic Nature Park

Cascade Locks to Boise

Columbia River Gorge Scenic Area

Today's drive was an easy 6 hour drive on I-84 to Boise, Idaho.  We drove through the Columbia River Gorge scenic area in the rain, but it was still a pretty drive.  It got a bit drier about an hour or so into the drive.  No snow on the mountain pass either.  Once in Boise, we took Millie to an off-leash area in Fort Boise Park and tossed the ball around for her.  She's been a pretty good doggy these days in the car.  Maybe she's a bit stressed from the travel, I don't know.  She's not running around the hotel room like a lunatic like she did on the drive to Alaska so that is nice.  All-in-all, an easy day today.  Checked into Spring Hill Suites for the night, did couple loads of laundry ($1 for wash, $1 for dryer - not bad), caught up on e-mail, did taxes and got bummed, and now off to bed to try to get up early for a change.  Losing an hour as we move forward in time zones sucks....

I-84

Bellingham to Cascade Locks

After a hellish ride we were so glad to be off the ferry finally.  First things first we went to the Marine Park nearby to let Millie poo and eat breakfast.  She was very happy to be off the ferry too.  Then we found a off leash area near by (on 4th Street) where Millie got to run around more.  She was a usual naughty self and decided to jump in and roll around in a mud puddle just as we were about to leave.  Argh!  Good thing we carried a few towels with us for times like this.

Kaiten zushi

After leaving Bellingham we headed for Bellevue to meet with Sue & Mike at the Sushi Maru, my first kaiten zushi in the U.S.  It was pretty good!  Then a 3 hour drive to Portland to meet Maria and her friend for dinner at Tasty N Sons.  Unfortunately, I ended up asking her to come out to the ghetto of Portland because I wanted to avoid downtown traffic.  I wish I had left it to her to pick a place... oh well.  By the time we were done eating we had to head for our hotel, which was still 45 minutes away.  I didn't get to see much of Portland at all like I thought I might, so I guess I'll have to come back and check out this city again properly.

Tonight we're in Best Western Plus Cascade Locks.  I've been trying to stay in Best Western hotels where I can since they have the most pet friendly rooms.  Although a Mariott or Hilton would be nice, their pet fees ($75-100) are worth it only if you stay there a long time.  Most Best Western hotels that allow pets don't charge a pet fee, or if they do, it's only like $10 or $20 a night.  So far this hotel and the Best Western Plus Landing in Ketchikan have been really nice.  There aren't 'Plus' hotels in all the places we're going, so it won't be nice all the way, but hopefully the regular Best Westerns will be a comfortable stay.

Ketchikan to Bellingham

Ketchikan

The ferry ride from Ketchikan to Bellingham started off okay.  We watched couple of movies the first night - MIB3 and Battleship, which helped make time go by.  The rest of the 1.5 day ride didn't go so smooth....

We were on the Matanuska, a sister ship to Malaspina, the one I took from Bellingham to Juneau two years ago.  Malaspina was an old ship, but this one seemed even older, and it wasn't anywhere near as nice as Taku, the one we just took from Juneau to Ketchikan.  This didn't really matter too much though.  The main problem with the trip was that we couldn't get Millie to pee or poo for about 30 hours while on the ferry.  Since there are no port calls on this leg of the trip, we are given 15 minutes at 0815, 1415, 2015, & 0015 daily to feed and walk our dogs on the car deck.  It was quite distressing to not see her go pet call after pet call.  To make matters worse, I got like 2 hours of sleep the first night on the ferry thanks to a book I couldn't put down.  By the 18 hour mark I was worried sick about Millie, thinking how uncomfortable she might be and wondering whether she'd end up going inside the car where she has to stay the rest of the time.  Every other dog was doing their business but Millie and this one other dog.  The owner of the other dog seemed quite upset too and we kept asking each other "did your dog go?"  I'm not usually an emotional person but I was really worried sick and balled on the car deck.  The Watchman saw that I was upset and came over to reassur me that my dog is ok (she was wagging her tail) and it's not uncommon for some dogs to hold it the entire trip.  That made me feel better.  Due to the lack of sleep the first night, I spent quite a bit of time sleeping mid-day again.  Millie eventually did pee at about the 30 hour mark, but she didn't poo until after we got off the ferry.  (I stopped feeding her after the 2nd meal.)  I hope I never have to take a dog on a long haul ride again.

Ketchikan

View at Totem Bight Historic Park

With 6.5-20 inches of rain a month, Ketchikan is probably one of the rainiest places in the U.S.  Here we are though, for two nights, while we take a break from the 3 day ferry ride down to Bellingham.  Last time I was here it was a 7 hour layover on the ferry up to Juneau.  This time, there's no snow but plenty of rain.  At least this time I have a car to explore more of Ketchikan with.

Walk through the rainforest

The first place I found after getting off the ferry and checking into the hotel was Ward Lake.  There is an easy 1.3 mile loop around the lake that was perfect for walking Millie.  The trail here was well maintained and sheltered by the trees.  We walked around it twice to give Millie a good walk.  The next day, after checking out a few other places around Ketchikan (Saxman Park, Creek Street, and Totem Bight Historical Park), we ended up coming back to the Ward Lake area to try out portion of the Perseverence Trail.  It too was a well maintained trail.  It seems Juneau has too many trails to maintain and too many people using them so most of them are quite muddy.  Most trails I've found elsewhere in Southeast Alaska seem to be much better maintained.  Anyway, we didn't have much time to do the full trail, which was a shame, but we had to get back to the hotel before the evening rush for the laundry room started.

Our stay in Ketchikan is the last place where we will be in one place for two nights (aside from the upcoming ferry ride).  Here on out it'll be one night at each hotel, which will suck.  Well, tonight's our last night in Alaska for a while.  Tomorrow night we'll probably be in Canadian waters, and then onto the lower 48!

Juneau to Ketchikan

Since the movers wouldn't do a weekend pack, they came on Thursday for packing and Friday for the loading.  I knew by Friday or Saturday the house would be cleaned out, so instead of doing the full 3 day ferry ride from Juneau to Bellingham on Tuesday, I made plans to break it up by taking the Sunday ferry to Ketchikan and staying there couple nights before catching the ferry rest of the way to Bellingham.  It might seem an inconvenience to break the trip up like this, but it's actually brilliant and works great for us because then Millie wouldn't have to be cooped up in the car for 3 days straight.  You see, you can take pets on the ferry, but they have to stay in the car for the whole duration except when in port or during pet calls, which is infrequent.  Three days would be tough for any pet, but even more so for an active 2 year old lab.  Getting the chance to walk her in the middle of the trip helps a lot.

The Sunday ferry to Ketchikan has many stops in between - Hoonah, Sitka, Kake, Petersburg, Wrangell.  Since there are several port calls, there are no pet calls on this trip.  We wanted to walk Millie every chance we got, so we got up even for the late-night, middle-of-the-night, and early-morning port calls.  Getting up at 3am two nights in a row to walk Millie was not fun.  The odd schedule made it hard for us to get a good night's sleep so we ended up sleeping during the day a lot.  Lots of folks bring sleeping bags and even air mattresses to sleep in the lounges, but we had a comfy cabin to stay in, which was nice.  Unlike my Northbound trip two years ago, we had a window this time so we could enjoy the view, which was nice even though it was raining the whole time.  The facilities on Taku is similar to Malaspina (ferry from Juneau to Bellingham), so there is a cafeteria, bar, lounges, observation deck, solarium, and a theatre.  I don't think we did much else but catch bits and pieces of movies and do some reading.  All in all, that leg of the trip was mostly spent sleeping and walking the dog.

Auke Nu Trail

Today was our last day in Juneau.  We were going to catch the midnight ferry and made plans to take Millie for a very long walk so that she would be pooped out for the day and a half ferry ride to Ketchikan.  I had wanted to invite a friend or two to join us, but it was pissing rain in the morning so Brad & I decided to go just ourselves.  This way we could stay flexible and turn back if the hike turned into a disaster - and a disaster it was.

I'd been wanting to do Auke Nu trail for a while so I took us to that one.  Neither of us had any idea what to expect on that trail, although I had heard it's a muddy one in summer.  Since a lot of the snow at lower elevation has been melting, I thought it might be all muddy today, but it turned out ok - sort of.  The first quarter mile was all ice, which we got by with grippy things on our shoes.  The trail then turned to packed snow and was actually a pretty easy walk.  The trail takes you through forest and muskeg, with the occasional stream crossings over bridges.  The forest sheltered us from the rain and the views were nice.  For a while I wished I did invite my friends along.  After about 2 miles though, things took a turn for the worst.  The trail got a bit steeper and put us higher up on the mountain where we were more exposed to the elements.  It was chillier and windier, with rain turning to snow at times.  The snow up here was also not as packed, maybe because there was less people using it, so we kept pot holing here and there.  Our pace was slow going, and it seemed like it was taking forever to get to the next and final mile marker before the cabin.  Well, if there was one, we never got to that mile marker.  Brad was so fed up of hiking in those conditions by then that he wanted to turn around.  I felt like we were so close the John Muir cabin that quitting now seemed like a shame.  However, given that we had a ferry to catch that night, we couldn't really afford to do something stupid like get stranded at the cabin in a potential white out condition or get hurt.  Seems every time I go on these long hikes with Brad it turns into some sort of a disaster.  We joked about our Eagle Glacier hike we did last April, which was actually a lot worse, and how we're going to die here on the trail on our last day in Juneau. It wasn't as extreme as it sounds, but I suppose the potential for a real disaster was there.  After I agreed to call quits we took shelter under a tree so we can scarf down some lunch and started the 3 mile descent back down.  Once back, we got a good nap, a shower, and a dinner before heading to the ferry terminal.

Road Trip Grand Plan

We now have one week to go until my trip back to Virginia begins.  On Thursday the packers will come, and they will load on Friday.  I took Wednesday off to prep, so I only have two more days of work here - yipee!  We'll stay in a hotel from Thursday onward until we leave at 00:00 on Sunday on the Alaska Marine Highway System.  The trip to/from Juneau & Bellingham is typically three days, but I was able to split this up into 2 segments so we have 2 day break in Ketchikan.  This is great because Millie would go nuts stuck in a car for three days straight.  (See my post on the trip coming here.)  I don't expect there will be a whole lot to do in Ketchikan, but hope we find some nice trails to walk Millie on.

We arrive in Bellingham, WA on 2/15 and will drive 11 days straight until we get to our hotel in Herndon, VA.  The nightly stops planned as of the moment is this:


2/15/2013 Portland, OR
2/16/2013 Boise, ID
2/17/2013 Salt Lake City, UT
2/18/2013 Bryce Canyon City, UT
2/19/2013 Flagstaff, AZ
2/20/2013 Alberquerque, NM
2/21/2013 Shamrock, TX
2/22/2013 Little Rock, AR
2/23/2013 Nashville, TN
2/24/2013 Roanoke, VA

I went back and forth on what route to take and some how ended up with the above.  Unfortunately, I didn't make any plans for an extended stop anywhere.  Most of the driving days will be short though (~5 hrs), so I do hope to make good use of some mornings and afternoons to see things.  We do have a plan to stop into Bryce Canyon, Petrified National Forest, and Smokey Mountain NP.  We might throw some other things in as time permits.  I only wish more National Parks allow pets on the trails.  I don't really want to go somewhere on a road trip and have to leave Millie in the car.

In addition to seeing some sights, I found out some of my friends live near some of the places I'm stopping, so I am making plans to try to catch some of them also.  This probably means the most relaxing part of the trip will be the ferry ride, but it should be a fun road trip.

The only thing I really have to worry about now is weather.  I think I'll be fine down South but am not quite sure what I'll see around Boise and Salt Lake City.  I want to take my winter tires off now since I won't be able to switch 'em out until mid-April possibly if I drive with it.  Hopefully I'll get lucky and not hit much snow....