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Grand Canyon Here We Come

This year’s trip will be so mild and tame after Alaska. I am not even sure if there are any wild animals to be on the look out. Hmm, should probably look into that. I am sure there are snakes and birds and deer–all your typical animals. In Utah there should be wild horses somewhere and bison somewhere. We shall see.

Earlier this week I hurt my foot which had me out of commission for a few days. Of course there was nothing wrong per the ER and foot doctor and two days of rest I was good as new. No clue what happened but I was in excruciating pain for two days and then it stopped. Though I had no problem sitting around with my foot up doing nothing, it did prevent me from “getting” things ready for our trip. Normally we leave the night before we plan to get a few hours into our trip. This time we stuck to the plan to leave in the morning. As we finally pulled out of the driveway at 9:00 am there was a big clunk sound and John couldn’t move forward. Seems the spring on the axle broke and we could only back up and because the trailer was now sitting lower, we scraped the tire as we backed off the road. Not a good start–but it could have been worse. We could have been on the road driving 65 mph when this happened and who knows what that would have meant. Not to mention working on the camper on the side of the road, trying to find parts. OMG! That would have been so much worse. John was smart enough to buy 2 springs to replace both–so it didn’t happen on the other side. He also changed both tires and we finally pulled out at 5:00 PM.

We spent out first night at a Cracker Barrel in Meridian, MS. We arrived about 8:15 and had dinner there and retreated to the back lot to spend the night. We try to have dinner there because we generally leave before they open in the morning. Which is exactly what we did. If they opened at 6:00 am like a good breakfast restaurant should we would just have breakfast before heading out. It’s the least we can do for a nice quiet “free” night of camping.

We headed out toward Shreveport, LA and then north to Murfreesboro, AR to Crator of Diamonds State Park. We arrived about 4:00 PM and thought we were going to head over to the park to look for diamonds but that section of the park closes at 4:00. Our only option was to tour the town, relax at the campsite and we will head over in the morning for about an hour before we leave. We are staying at Murfreesboro RV Park. Our site is awesome. This place is so nice. Very spacious sites, level lots, picnic table, some shade and a firepit. You are going to have to wait for my next post to find out how we did in the diamond field. Don’t hold your breath.

On our little tour we discovered Narrows Dam about 5 miles outside the city. Thought we should check it out so we can compare it to Hoover Dam when we get out there.

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Reno & Lake Tahoe

This is the only picture of Lake Tahoe I could find. Something tells me I lost some pictures because I know I took some. We left Crater Lake to go to Reno to see my Uncle Tom and my cousins Siobhan and Molly. Though we had a great time and so glad we stopped, we were ready to get home. From the moment we crossed back into the lower 48 we were ready to get home but, we had family to see. And that was the best part of the leg home.

Thank you guys for a great time. We really enjoyed it and wished we had more time. Next time we start with you.

We left Reno about 6:00 am and hoped to get to Salt Lake City but, we made it all the way to Cheyenne, WY. It was late and we slept in and took it a little slower the next day. We had to go to Indy to pick up Chanel before we could head home.

Surprisingly Chanel was not real excited to see us. Tony pampered Chanel while he had her and she liked him better. Once we headed back out to get in the truck she was eager to join us but it took a while. We finally made it home and then the unloading began. Worst part of the trip? That was it. Best part, omg there were so many. I enjoyed everything about it. John and I spent 24/7 for over 2 months, with no tv, occasional internet and we didn’t fight nor get tired of each other. The views were outstanding and I would actually love to do this again.

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The Dempster and Arctic Ocean

The Dempster Hwy is 737.5 km hwy in Canada that connects the Klondike Hwy in Yukon to the NW Territories in Inuvik. After the Dempster is the Inuvik Tuktoyaktuk Hwy that is 138 km that takes you all the way to the Arctic Ocean. It opened in 1917 and until that time residents of Tuktoyaktuk relied on planes in the summer and ice roads in the winter.

They really should call it the Dirty Dempster. Imagine driving a dirt and gravel road for approximately 461 miles one way and then 461 miles back. There are also 2 ferry crossings along the route. Gas stations are limited and internet service is just as limited.

We set out initially wanting to get to Eagle Plains which is where the first gas station is–229 miles in before we could fill up. Pulling a camper uses more gas so we were sure to carry some extra–just in case. While driving and realizing we were going to get to Eagle Plains mid afternoon, John and I discussed going a little farther and thought maybe we could get passed those ferries before settling in. The first one was only another 115 miles–or close to that and the second one was about 40 miles farther. We just thought since the ferries didn’t start until 9:00 in the morning (and we seem to be early risers) it might be good to get that far. We ended up going all the way to Inuvik and camping there. I think it was about 11:00 pm when we arrived. We lost an hour because we went from Pacific to Mountain time so I am not sure what time it was. John was up again around 6:30 (naturally). Sometimes I wish he would slow down a little. We didn’t pay when we arrived because the office was closed until 7:00 am. Finally someone arrived about 7:30 and she just told John to not worry about it because she wasn’t ready. Score–especially for John. He loves a good deal–we even had electric which is great because here we were in the Arctic Circle and it was hotter than any place we had been. And mosquitos were horrible.

I decided to divide this post into two posts because it was going to be so long and I am hopelessly trying to edit a video so I can post that. This really might take a while.

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