Copyright 2019, CABS for Reflections From the Fence
The last post on our Alaska adventure. It covers Alaska and my comfort zones, and after thoughts, some about what worked and what may not have worked. We will be months absorbing the enormous and vast things we have seen.
Alaska is large, huge, vast, BIG! Getting to Alaska via Alberta, British Columbia and the Yukon is also large, huge, and more than the sum of large and huge put together. Leaving Alaska via Yukon and British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, etc. is also large, huge and more than the sum of large and huge. There is less connectivity coming out through British Columbia than there was going in, less of just about everything else as well. Less campgrounds, less fuel. The adage, do NOT pass a fuel station, should always, and I do MEAN always, be followed and adhered too. Alaska, getting there, being there, getting back, can be and was at times overwhelming. It helped to focus only on where we had to get to on any given day, a couple hundred miles or so at a time.
Living and traveling in 100 square feet for over 3 months. Yes, that’s a comfort zone challenge. We are actually quite surprised at how quickly we adapted to living in our "tiny house on wheels". One trick - - there is this corner over by the sink that one person can cozy into while the other walks from the bath to the front, or front to the bath. Ya kinda get used to dodging in and out of the cubby corner, or just climbing onto the bed to stay out of the way of the other. Man found that it was a good time to take Sir W for a walk and dispose of the garbage while I packed up each morning. He was out of the way, and I have freedom to move about. It made for a more speedy and stressless packemup.
The flip lid small storage box. One of those things that worked out way past any expectations or hopes. On our last trip to the Home store, I saw this, and grabbed it, thinking, I love this, but, have NO idea how to use it in The Estate, but, I am buying it anyway, cause I love it! WELLLLLLL. This has been well used, well appreciated and I am so glad I bought it. It holds little stuff that I would normally have on my nightstand. And, my earrings. And, the top holds my iPad or iPhone, or a small book, or my pencil or my stylus for my iPad or - - -
The only flat spot around my sleeping area, and it is small.
Way out of my comfort zone. Wait! What do you mean little internet, and even less television? No internet at times, or minimal connectivity which is hard to surf with. No phone service for hundred of miles at a time. Basically no television once you pass into Canada till you cross back into the lower 48. Your satellite will not function up here. If it is not attached to your unit, just leave it home. Campgrounds with cable were scant. Many that had cable offered snowy pictures, small number of stations, or both. I can count on one hand the days we had "decent" cable or over the air television once we crossed into Canada. I used that down time to rest, blog, rest, process photos, sleep and after resting some more, I might play computer solitaire. It is our collective memory there were very few campgrounds in Alaska proper that offered cable either. I went weeks without even turning on my television. Yes, Virginia, it can be done, even Carol can go without television for weeks on end.
Weather is always a challenge. I mean, who went to Arizona and had 3 snow storms in 6 weeks in Cottonwood - where it may snow once every ten years. In Alaska, in our experience in the 6 weeks or so we were there, we had fog, rain, fog and more rain, none of it was torrential, just constant rain. August is said to be the rainy month? This year, July was too. That’s a tough thing for a sun loving, seasonal affective disorder sufferer. And, they have fires. Smoke producing big ole fires. Smoke that covered Fairbanks, Denali, Homer, Seward, Cooper Landing, for a few hours, or all day. Both of us have breathing issues and the smoke on bad days had us searching for something to do inside. The smoky hazy days were disappointing as it reduced visibility. That said, we did not lose our home or our business due to fire, and our healing thoughts go out to the citizens affected by the fires. For us, the rain and fires were inconvenient, not so for the citizens who lost so much.
The well used bucket /box/basket. Sits between the two seats in the cab. This thing has been stuffed with water, passports, Sir W health papers, power bars, iToys, maps, books, Sony III, and whatever else. Super functional.
Regrets. Photos missed. Like the porcupine. It was the only one I saw. Photos taken that were not in focus and were tossed into the digital trash bin.
Delighted. Long days, no setting sun. Loved that. Would not love the no sun in the winter. Nope, that would break me. But loved those long glowing days of July. Ooooo ya!
Packing everything in boxes. Food, clothing, medicines, you name it, it went in boxes. Small enough to fit in the cupboards and small enough that I could not fill them too heavy.
The all important memory cheat card. We did look at the height numbers a time or two and the license number (removed here for obvious reasons) was nice to have available while going through borders. I read it off to several customs officials.
Crossing international borders. Another “out of Carol’s comfort zone” issues. I have never like crossing borders so this is nothing new.
It is enhanced tho, now, considering world and American politics and issues. Due to Man's hearing issues, he made this pronouncement at the beginning of the tour that I should drive through each and every border crossing. I guess the ole "activity keeps the nervousness down" worked for me once again. Keep busy and you won't have as much energy to fret. I successfully drove through customs each time, I believe it was 7 crossings. We were never asked for more than our passports, the standard questions and we were never pulled over for the agents to do a search. I was so busy dealing with the "hat off", dog papers, our passports, all electronics "off", "tinfoil" out of the windows, etc., etc., etc. that I did not have time to get very nervous. That crossing into Washington tho, that took 1.5 hours, give or take, and the one crossing into Alaska the first time, taking 45 minutes, those both left me "fret" time. Overall, border crossings were almost painless, sorta almost.
Growth. Spend this much time in 100 square feet and put on as many miles as we have and you will either break or grow. I think we did both. Life is real and some days break ya. Other days, are splendid and you come to new understandings. Yep, even after 51 years of marriage. The growth can be personal or as a couple, or both.
Worked, like really worked. Tin foil, my nickname for a Reflectix (trademarked name) double reflective insulation, which is bubble wrap with two sides of silver reflective material. We cut tinfoil to fit every roof vent, with the velcro applications they come down easy peasy. Then we cut 2 large pieces for the window over the bed areas. Those were cut a wee bit large so we could just press them into the opening. Easy to remove or even slide side to side. They were originally intended to fight the midnight sun in Alaska, but, were even more useful when the days were hotter than blue blazes. That tin foil can really cut the heat factor, and therefore reduce the use of the noisy (and quite irritatingly so) air conditioner.
Then there is the stool! Oh, what would we have done without this. Sir W uses it to jump on the bed, Man uses it to sit on some mornings while having breakfast (with his bed tray filled with food), and we both use it several times a day to access the "attic".
The Estate has performed over and above our best hopes. Way above our most wildest dreams, as they say. Parking is easy. The gearing is fabulous. Fuel mileage more than acceptable for us. We have praised the driving and the Transit time and time again. We climbed to over 8500 feet and according to the GPS, were about 900 feet below sea level one time (NO, we were not, it was some fluke, hysterical fluke.) We are totally thrilled with the size and no slides. The Estate is not as wide as Jolly and driving through as many construction zones as we have, every time, we look at each other and declare, one more time, how nice it is to go through these zones with a more narrow rig. Yea, really, for this time in our lives, for this intense kind of traveling, The Estate rules!!
The living is easy - - in The Estate. Simplified and easy. Hard to loose stuff. LOL Although I did loose a camera battery about 1 month out. I found it the other day while cleaning out The Estate. That said, really, the living is easy.
Funky fix. If you have been following along, you may remember a few posts ranting about the rattles and noise. I spent a few days and more hours that I want to think of, searching down and silencing stuff that wiggles, jiggles, clanks and makes noise. For the most part, if the road is smooth, it is quiet in here. Hallelujah! It takes me about 5 - 10 minutes extra during packemup to put all the noise stopping measures in action. Sure, it's a bit longer to pack up, but, that quiet, that silence, that peace. Yea, rattles drive us nuts! This is the cover for my stove top, the rig did not come with a cover. The cover provides mandatory much needed counter space. And, it rattles something awful. Thus, the foam, no rattles now.
It may look funky, but, the quiet miles, so worth all the funk!!
Disappointments. AT & T phone service. They changed their Canadian partners in the last year or so, and connectivity was awful. Especially in the Yukon. No service for days. We went with AT & T due to the wild positive raves we had heard during our planning stages. Huge disappointment. It was our emergency back up and it failed. To be clear, we rarely get phone calls, use our phones to tether into the internet. Noting that the data cell towers are different than the cell towers that deliver your phone calls, eh? But, if you have NO service, I don't care what you want out of your phone, you will not be getting it! LOL We expected to be out of service when we were 100 miles from any town of any size. But AT & T would not connect even when we were in "towns" of any size. Verizon data, on my iPad did not fare too well either. And, yet, there were a few times in Alaska that Verizon data on the iPad was the only connection available. For the "connection addicted Carol and Man act", having 3 different providers sorta worked out. Unless you are 100 miles out in the middle of millions of pine trees.
What did not quite work out the way we expected. The Milepost. I know, I know. So many Alaska travelers swear by it. And, we did refer to it, now and then. And, we LOVED the big ole pull out map, that alone made it worth the purchase price. Our issue, was that if we read it while rolling, the reader had their head in the book and not looking at the scenery and glory all about us. I personally found the organization did not suit the way I see or think about stuff. I use mile markers, or in Canada kilometer markers. They are usually pretty easy to spot. I kept thinking, and screaming now and then, just use the mile/kilometer markers. Why all this silly so many miles from the east AND/OR, so many miles from the west. l am not so good with abbreviations and the Milepost is full of them. Now, don't get me wrong, some of the historical data was very interesting. But, if I find the thing frustrating, I am not going to be reading the fine historical data either. Yea, this did not work out for us. It's a great resource, just did not speak "Carol".
Surprises. Sprint phones, we were told would be shaky in Alaska and Canada. They out performed AT & T and Verizon. Our GPS worked most of the time, in Canada, and Alaska. There was the 900 plus feet under water thingy one time. Ooops! A few times it simply could not find a satellite. We were told that GPS was flaky up there, but, that was not our experience.
Your breakfast is served. Another of our, wow, this is sooooooo valuable tricks and it multitasks. Bought this for Man to balance his big breakfasts. Man loves his tray. Soon discovered it fit well on the kitchen sink, thus has served well as an additional level surface. That white cutting board behind the sink, it will also fit the sink opening and can be used as another way to cover the sink and provide a flat surface to work on.
No regrets. The Estate. Lost count on how many times we have said we are so glad we did this trip in The Estate not Tana. We have nabbed campsites in campgrounds that were full of big rigs and only had room for little guys and gals like us. Parking in shopping centers is pretty easy and we did pretty good in most situations. Sometimes we got in extra steps due to where we had to park. U turns are easy with The Estate, so we did many! The ease of driving and set ups upon arrival at camp, what a joy. We love Tana, but she is an exhausting lady at times. (Refer to the prior paragraph, "The Estate has performed over and above our best hopes.")
One of those things not usually spoken about in public. OK, so, Man and I both have some health issues and we use the "head" more frequently than we care to mention. SIGH. Having the head so easy to access, well, it was good! LOL This is in part due to the size and ease of driving The Estate, we can pull off the road in places that we would never consider pulling off Tana and Jolly. (Yes, "head" is a sailors term, you may internet search it if you don't know the meaning.)
You CAN do this. You can keep a digital journal every day and convert it to blog posts and you can choose and process the photos and post them to the appropriate blog post, almost daily, I think I did two posts that had 2 days each, other wise, it is one post = 1 day. Some days I went from 200 plus photos taken to 30ish used on the blog. Some days I barely had one photo to choose from from that day. The posts and editing of the photos will not be perfect, spelling and grammar take a back seat to speed, connectivity and the urge to "get it done". You CAN, and you DID. OK, I am breaking my arm patting myself on the back. When I started I wondered if I could make it to the end, and I DID! Wow, just WOW!
What is this mess? I'm sure ya all are shaking your heads now. Well, it's Sir W's feeding plate. (By the way, it is wet, and clean. LOL) We put silicone caulk on the bottom and guess what, it does not slide around on the linoleum floor in The Estate. I know, silly, right? But, totally functional. It can be the little things. And, often, it is.
Learn something new every day. Subscribing to the app News Break which feeds local news as well as national and international turned out to be a fun and an educational good thing. Of course, you must be connected to the internet, eh?? One day in Wyoming I learned that coal mining is in trouble there, two mines having recently closed. That news gave me some new insight into the state we were traveling through.
What sorta missed the mark. Replaced two throw rugs, they were so dirty, sigh. No way to wash and really get clean. Will address that clean thing back at the stick built.
Man's leveling app and hardware. This thing is so fabulous we have no words. We pull into a campsite, he can determine in 30 seconds if we are level or not. He can quickly determine how many leveling blocks or ramps we will need and where, and seriously, in less than 5 minutes we are done for the day. The Estate cannot have automatic levelers installed, for reasons too complicated for me to remember. LOL We LOVE this app and hardware!
App on the iPhone, shows you each axel, what will be needed to make the unit level.
Before you jump. Before you jump into RVing and/or a trip of this sort, you really need to know who you are, how you live, what you can do and cannot do. We had disappointments, true, and they are never fun, but, they were not totally unexpected. Knowing the sport, expecting things to break, knowing what is necessary and what was not, all this helped us survive over 90 days in 100 square feet. Think, plan, think more. Know thyself and to thyself be true!
Bug out. OK, so, we encountered NO skeeters. Alaska is experiencing a long term drought, so despite the rain we experienced, there just were no skeeters. There were close encounters with flies tho. Reminder to Carol - - you need a fly swatter - - just sayin.
Extra shelves Man built for kitchen cabinet. Could not have managed without them.
Cool!! We have three of these little USB personal sized fans. One for each of us and of course, one for Sir W. Since The Estate has no large ceiling fan, these are life savers. And, can be run when you are on battery power only.
Wish list. A slightly larger frig, we managed, but if only it were just a bit larger. Known issue before purchase. Always something about a rig that is less than stellar, frig size fell into that category. Water heater that is not set so high/hot. This one will scald you, just way too hot. The lemonade here is we save a bunch of propane, as we run it just long enough to get warm water and then turn if off.
Irritating. Water pump/leak. We are determined to find the fix for the water leak. Determined! (And, we did! For now, eh?) Rain dripping in on cab doors. This is poor design. Rain or air conditioner drip off the roof with the aid of "extensions". The extensions on the front are not long enough. So, when you open the door, the dripping hits the electric window switches. We can tell you from past experience, this is NOT a good thing. Had a similar issue in a custom van once, it melted and fried the electronics in one door. Could have burned down the entire van.
It's a LONG trip. Son told us that our estimated total distance driven of 12,000 miles is half way round the world, yep, we will have driven approximately one half of the circumference of Mother Earth. No wonder we are tired. I actually did another search on this factoid, to get the exact numbers, the circumference of the Earth in miles is 24,901 at the equator. Our final trip milage was 12,283. Half way round the world, at the equator would be 12,450 miles. We missed it by 167 miles! LOL But, I think we can call that close enough!
Biggest disappointment. No doubt about it, the smoke, especially at Denali. We never saw the mountain range, the visibility was less than 1 mile.
Biggest delight. Combo of Banff National Park, Jasper National Park and for sure the Icefields between the two.
I have been asked a number of times, will you ever go back? My initial reaction has been, probably not. 4,000 miles just to the border of Alaska and The Yukon is epic and exhausting! I have no burning desire to see millions of pine trees again. However, as I am a firm believer in "never say never, cause you will regret it when it comes back to bite ya on the backside", I'll say that the photos I am seeing as fall hits Alaska, intrigue and interest me. Seems there are trees that are NOT pine trees, and they turn colors in the fall. Ya, the fall colors might do it. Never say never - - it's not wise.
The End.
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