Nabo's Adventure to Alaska 2017

[Nabo]

Monday July 24th - Ok ya can say it - another travel day. We have made it to Valemount British Columbia and have decided to stay for 3 nights. 5 days traveling is enough!! Valemount is west of Jasper National Park so we will spend a couple of days wondering in and out of the Park. Today's drive was uneventful except for a couple of bridge constructions, going thru a couple of valleys and cattle/farm land. The campground we left in Prince George was hosting several families who were displaced by the wildfires. Two had received word that they could return home so they were packing up, hoping that they would have a home when they got there. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those effected.

 

[Nabo]

Tuesday July 25th - today we headed over to Jasper AB to check the little community out and to ride the Jasper SkyTram. The town is just like any other tourist town with lots of shops and restaurants as well as neat trains but the tram was amazing. The ride over was thru Mount Robson Park before heading into Jasper National Park and a little ways down the Icefield Parkway to get to the tram. All of the brown dead trees are because of the pine beetles which is destroying the forest. This is part of the problem of all the wildfires in that all this dead trees are fuel for the current fires.

 

[Nabo]

Wednesday, July 26th - busy and a quiet day (if there is such a thing) getting ready to travel for the next 5 days. After going to find the elusive salmons with no luck, either we are too early or just plain late, I came back to start washing clothes. After a couple of hours, I talked Nathan into running over to one of the local waterfalls. Pretty neat but not like a waterfall that I'm used to, more like a class 5 rapid but impressive on how much water is moving down the river. Not sure if I'll be able to post anything until Friday which is when we move back into the lower 48 (Montana).

 

[Nabo]

Thursday July 27th - and the Mathis' adventures continues. Our day started out great, traveling to Jasper before heading south on the Icefield Pkwy to Radium Hot Springs BC. We saw a bear, elk and another bear before our luck went bad. On the Pkwy as Nathan was checking the monitoring system of the tires both camper and truck, he immediately pull over in a gravel pull-out. He wasn't sure if the monitoring system had gone bad (which had gone bad in the past), but sure enough, the inside tire on the driver's side dually was flat. OK - 1st thing to do is get the generator out and put more air in the tire - OOPS, it exploded. So unhook the camper, out comes the jack and we try to get the spare tire down which had a mind of its own and being stubborn. Finally tire down, changed and 90 minutes later, on the road again. BamBam and I stayed far out of the way. Got to the campground, found a tire store and bought another spare. We had prepared with all kinds of parts for the camper but... Tomorrow is another travel day.

 

[brianlajoie]

Thursday July 27th - and the Mathis' adventures continues.On the Pkwy as Nathan was checking the monitoring system of the tires both camper and truck, he immediately pull over in a gravel pull-out. He wasn't sure if the monitoring system had gone bad (which had gone bad in the past), but sure enough, the inside tire on the driver's side dually was flat. OK - 1st thing to do is get the generator out and put more air in the tire - OOPS, it exploded.

Do you have any idea why your truck tire had a catastrophic failure? I haven't notices any comments on the trailer tires, I assume they are doing good?

 

[dlw930]

We had an inside dual go flat and self-destruct two years ago. I had a new TPMS a week later. Where are you camping around Jasper?


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[Nabo]

Do you have any idea why your truck tire had a catastrophic failure? I haven't notices any comments on the trailer tires, I assume they are doing good?

We have had our issues with the trailer tires. First finding that the back axle had gotten out of alignment so Nathan re-adjusted the alignment of the axle but by then one tire was showing some wear so he rotated the back tire with the front tire - so far so good. This alignment problem could have been caused by the Center Point System bracket failure which we had to have welded twice during the trip. Remember that we had over 14,000 miles on these tires before pulling out for Canada and Alaska. We have put over 9,000 more miles on them since we started this trip with about another 2,000 to go so we might be pushing our luck. As for the inside truck tire failure - no.

Friday and Saturday - July 28th & 29th. Both are travel days in that we finally left Canada back into the lower 48. Our plans had to be change because of many road closures due to the wildfires in British Columbia so we entered the States in Roosville, Montana. Friday we traveled to Glacier National Park and on Saturday on to Livingston MT. In some ways it feels great to be back in the US but we will miss the countryside of Canada. Enjoy some of the interesting pictures.

 

[Nabo]

Sunday July 30th - as we are working our way south and east, we stopped last night in Livingston MT. Livingston is just north about 60 miles of Yellowstone NP. We have been to YNP so we are not stopping this time but instead, we stopped at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Crow Agency MT, Crow Indian Reservation. What a site. What was hard was taking a 42 foot camper thru the park. They did not have bus/camper parking so as we pulled up to the gate, the ranger said we would have to drive the 5 mile tour road, returning back to the visitor center, hoping to find a spot to pull the Silver Bullet over. The tour road is about 14 feet wide, curvy on the ridge top with no shoulders. WOW - passing cars were one thing but another camper was a real trick. We would just stop and pull our mirrors in and pray - but we survived. Oh by the way, it was hot (97 degrees). We are now in Sheridan WY.

 

[dlw930]

We happened to go to the Battlefield in June 2011 (without an RV) which happened to be the 135 anniversary of the battle. We missed the battle reenactment by one day, but were there for dancing and historical presentations by members of the Arikara tribe from North Dakota that provided scouts for General Custer. I believe one of the scout's great-granddaughter was present at the ceremony. I can't imagine pulling our Landmark around the battlefield, but seeing the battlefield layout and topography is quite impressive.


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[Nabo]

dlw930 - What a treat to be at LBH right after the re-enactment. What fun and yes - very interesting taking the Silver Bullet thru the park.

Monday July 31st - last day of the month. Summer is almost over and sure seems to have gone fast. We are now in Rapid City SD with already a thousand or more motorcyclists waiting for the start of the Sturgis rally Aug 4th. The drive was slow from Sheridan WY because it looks like we have now loosing some axle springs. Along the way we passed some interesting thing. The owner of the campground was great giving us some assistance to a shop that works on axles so off we go very early in the morning hopefully to get them fixed.

 

[Aandaar]

Leaf springs on trailer?


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[Nabo]

Leaf springs on trailer?


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Yes - all 4 had gone pretty flat and it was just a short matter of time before loosing one or more of them.

Wednesday Aug 2 - Today we ran over to Hill City and Crazy Horse Memorial. This whole area (Black Hills) & our campground has been inundated with motorcycles because of Sturgis Motorcycles Rally which starts this Friday Aug. 4 thru the 13th but Hill City was unbelievable. We moved on to Crazy Horse to see how much work had been done since the last time we were here. It was difficult to see that much change until we took the tour to the base of the mountain. Afterwards we headed back into Hill City to the sweet shop to get some old fashion sundaes and milk shake.

 

[Nabo]

Thursday August 3rd - today we decided to head east, leaving the noisiness of Rapid City and the motorcycle rally behind. Nathan had read about an auto museum in Murdo SD call Pioneer Auto. They had all kinds of interesting cars from the early 1900's but also movie props from Dancing With Wolves and the Dukes of Hazards. We spent a couple of hours wandering around before heading to Mitchell SD for the night. Mitchell is the home of the world famous Corn Palace but also this evening a street festival. Too much fun listening to local bands and singers. It's unbelievable that all the murals at the Corn Palace are made from ears of corn. Tomorrow we will continue to head east and south.

 

[Nabo]

Friday Aug 4th - travel day from Mitchell SD to Rock Port MO which was pretty uneventful - YEAH. The campground we are in, Rock Port Rivers Edge Campground, was flooded by the Missouri River over 5 years ago and the owners are working hard but slowly getting it back. There was over 8 feet of water in the campground for many months which killed trees, destroyed building not to mentioned all the electrical and plumbing. The bathhouse is still not fully functional with only the ladies side working so you have to be careful when walking in. The owners have a notebook of the before, during the flood and as they started to re-build. I would give them a B+ right now.

 

[VKTalley]

Friday Aug 4th - travel day from Mitchell SD to Rock Port MO which was pretty uneventful - YEAH. The campground we are in, Rock Port Rivers Edge Campground, was flooded by the Missouri River over 5 years ago and the owners are working hard but slowly getting it back. There was over 8 feet of water in the campground for many months which killed trees, destroyed building not to mentioned all the electrical and plumbing. The bathhouse is still not fully functional with only the ladies side working so you have to be careful when walking in. The owners have a notebook of the before, during the flood and as they started to re-build. I would give them a B+ right now.
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We've stayed in this campground and liked it! Yes, they were working on in then but it was still nice.

 

[dave10a]

I too would like to do Alaska, but I don't like to pay the caravan fees, but there are advantage in traveling with groups. Maybe the Heartland Owners Forum could open a forum up for people who could link up with each other to travel. Something like an unofficial wagon master to form a group. In other words set up a voluntary convoy ;-)

 

[danemayer]

I too would like to do Alaska, but I don't like to pay the caravan fees, but there are advantage in traveling with groups. Maybe the Heartland Owners Forum could open a forum up for people who could link up with each other to travel. Something like an unofficial wagon master to form a group. In other words set up a voluntary convoy ;-)

Well, this is the Route / Trip Planning sub-forum. Seems like if you want to form a caravan, you need only create a new thread in this sub-forum asking interested parties to join you.

 

[dave10a]

Well, this is the Route / Trip Planning sub-forum. Seems like if you want to form a caravan, you need only create a new thread in this sub-forum asking interested parties to join you.

Good point, maybe I will do that when I get ready to do so--- if someone has not already done so at the time I would like to go.

 

[Nabo]

Saturday Aug 5th - today was a wet, soggy travel day from Rock Port to Columbia MO. Columbia is a pretty big community with the University of Missouri being here. As we travel toward the east and south, things are more common plus with the rain, we didn't take any pictures today. Tomorrow we are heading onto St Louis and then to Paducah KY. It's forecast to rain again tomorrow.

Dave10a - back when we were talking about heading up over a year ago, I started this thread as who would like to go to Alaska 2017. There were a couple of Heartlanders interested but things came up, one by one they dropped out so that was how we ended up alone.

 

[Nabo]

Sunday August 6th - travel day from Columbia MO to Paducah KY. I always hate going thru St Louis but we didn't have any problems on a Sunday morning. Check out the sign in St Louis. Too funny. When we got to the campground and checked in, the officer staff gave us a guardian duck for safe travels. Yep you heard me right. The campground name is Duck Creek RV Park, a Good Sam's park, flat sites, 30/50 amp service, pretty good wifi and cable tv. For those who like satellite, this is your campground because there are no trees. Oh by the way did I say it was raining again - LOL

Interesting stats: today is our 77th day out; 43 campgrounds; over 12,500 miles. The Missouri River we must have crossed 15 or more times. We are still 3 days out from home.