Welcome to Rich Hudgins N5ALE Web Page

This is the Web log of my trip to Alaska 2015

Day one June 15 2015
 I did make good time on the hiway I am in vernon Texas which is about 40 miles north west of witchata falls Texas Staying at the Rocking A RV park.  Its a nice little park just off the freeway with clean showers and nice people.





June 16 day two
  It rained on me this morning for a while but not bad.  I made another good day of driving and stoped in Limon Colorado at the KOA there.  I followed us 287 all the way up to where it joined 70 in colorado and was lucky to find a camp site.  The vast planes of south east colorado have a lot of little towns that are not much more than wide spots in the road and no RV parks that even I would stay at [thats saying a lot].  The KOA here was flooded out but did have a few sites open so I consider my self lucky to get one.  Its a very nice place.





Day 3 arrived at Buckley AFB and parked the trailer for a few days.  Visited with Rikki and Matt and viewed the land they want to buy and build a house on. Its nice to hear the sound of freedom again [F16 fighters taking off]






June 18 Thursday finaly caught the outdoor recreation folks open and could pay for my stay.  I attended Matts Enlistment and  then  Rikki Matt and I went to Red Rock park and hiked one of the trails there.  Some really pretty Rocks and stuff.












June 19
  07:30 Revelee  played on the base  loud  speaker  system.  It sure is nice to be back on a working base.  Taps plays at 22:30 and heralds quiet time in the Family Camp....  All the partys move inside.
A day of rest and repair for today up at 05:30 like every moring so far I have to get some window shades to cut the light out before I get to Alaska..



Saturday is here and we went to the Renisausnce Festival south of Denver. 



You can see the look of joy on that camels face and Rikki seems to be enjoying it as well...



Well I cant hide it anymore my true personality come out at last


Rikki and her lady hat.  Maybe it will keep the sun off of her some.

2015 June 22
   Started on the next leg of the trip,  Into Wyoming.  went up 25 To Cheyenne then left to Laramie on 80.  From Laramie I went north on 287 [yes the same one that starts in Port Arthur Texas].  Followed it to one of the best back roads I have ever taken Wyoming 487 to 220 and into Casper.  Let me say a little about 487 and 220 if you like back roads then  these are some of the best not very much traffic and pretty grasslands to drive thru. 







Some of the 487 road



Up and over and around at times I was in second gear doing 30 mph up some of these hills, but over all the trusty GMC and BUC [butt ugly camper] did pretty well.  Tomorrow Montana.... and yes back roads again..

2015 June 23
   Well the days drive was from Casper Wyoming thru Shoshoni then up to Billings Montana.  Wyoming and parts of Montana have lots and lots of grass lands



But when I got into the Wind River Reservation and took the road up to Thermopolis it got really cool.  This is one of the tunnels that were on the road that ran beside the Wind River.




I am including a video taken from my Dash cam of this part of the drive, but it is huge [think one CD size] download it at your own risk..

Wind River Tunnels

Well if you have  tried to download the video you know its not there...  I have to wait until early morning to upload it as its so dam biggggggg.....

Here is a pdf of the route I took to get to billings.
Route from Casper to Billings

The KOA here in Billings if right on the River and is very nice. The days drive was very nice but also very tiring so tommorrow I may not drive quit as far and find a nice place just short of the Canadian border.

2015 June 24 got started about 08:00 and went almost due north to Malta Montana and then to the Morgan crossing into Canada.  The drive was Montanas equivlent of the Texas Farm to market road and was two lane with out almost any traffic.  As you can see in this first picture Northern Montana has grass and mountains that just seem to go on forever.

After I went thur the border crossing [very cute and professional young lady ] the road leaving the crossing looked like a trail that need repair work but that only lasted for a few miles oops Klicks..



I am now in Swift Current Saskatchawan at the Pondarosa RV park.  Tomorrow I will try to find a place to exchange some us money for Canadian [theirs is really colorfull].  After that I will probably head for Medicine Hat on transcanada highway 1.  I have heard from one of  the local ham radio operators that there are a lot of fires in the Youkon and Alaska some on the alcan hiway so I may have to check those out and see if I need to reroute.

Well its two days since I updated the page because I stopped at a state park in alberta called Starland Recreational Area.  It was pretty quiet when I got there but after 6 pm the park started to fill up but in an odd way people came in in one's and twos one to a camper some of which made my camper cover really professional.  Then about 10 of them gathered up in a circle just like the wagon trains parked there vehicles and left in the tow cars/trucks and didn't return that night.  Very quiet but still odd.  Below is the beginnings of the roundup. I think they were modern day gypsy's.



One of the local noctrunal large animals at rest.



2015 june 26
Up early those dam birds start very early in the park. After long observation and deductive analysis I have decided that Canada Tilts up in the west.... No matter what you do you are always driving uphill even when you think you are going down hill its just not as up hill as before.  And the wind blows 30 to 40 knots dead on the nose of the truck no matter which direction  you go.  I don't know how they do that but its most annoying.  I stopped at Sherks RV park in Valleyview AB.  I think I may have to stop for a couple of days to rest up pretty soon.





  2015 June 27
  rolled out pretty early and headed for Dawson's Creek The start of the Alaskan Hiway.  Its only 147 kilometers away so  pretty close.  There isn't much to Dawson's Creek but its big for this part of the world



Well I want you all to know that I am honored to be here and the people here were so happy to have me that they rolled out the marching band.  Ok so it is Canada Day here and they were celebrating.






2015 June 29
  Well I spent a restful Sunday washing cloths and going to church and reading books.  Now I need to get the oil and filter changed in the truck. 

    I leave for Alaska [on the alcan] tomorrow morning and if every thing holds true about 7am I should be on the road.  The days here are long I looked up last night at 10:30 and it was still light outside so I put the shades in place and went to sleep.  This morning it was light at least by 5am but I managed to go back to sleep until the decadent hour of 6am.  So far the mosquitoes have not been bad at all but it gets hot [still low humidity] during the day up to 95 F in the trailer even with the fan on so I spend a lot of time outside in the lounger in the shade with a cool beverage [mostly water ] reading and resting.

The drive from Dawsons Creek to Fort Nelson is more up and down hill with some pretty cool views along the way.  Just 21 miles west of Dawsons Creek is the last section of the old original Alaska Hiway and the last wooden bridge left.  Its also the only curved wood bridge in the entire hiway. 




As you can see it is held in high esteem by the locals.  The next picture  needs some  introduction.
MAN SEES BRIDGE, MAN WALKS ON BRIDGE, MAN PEES FROM BRIDGE......Sorry I couldn't help it It was a long way down....



And one more for today some of the real reasons people [crazy like me] take this drive.