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Alaska 2014
Ernie and Addie off to see the grizzlies…
Hello! If you have a comment or question, not related to a specific post below, or just want to say “Hi!” to either or both of us, this is the place, click on “Leave a reply,” ABOVE.
Alaska 2014 
F I N A L L Y! I have asked you since the Adventures of Ernie’s Journeys began back in the olden days!!! I will be eager to vicariously take this trip with the two of you! Make it GOOD! I believe there were a couple of whales off the Alaskan shore (from the windows of a diner or eating facility of some kind) ? I want updates! Happy Trails !!! Are we on motorcycles?
Hey,Phyl!
The whales I remember from the 2005 trip were viewed from the windows of the Land’s End restaurant at the tip of the Homer Spit on the Kenai Penusula.
We will try to post frequently and include as many photos as possible.
No motorcycles this time. We are driving my big, old Chevrolet pickup truck. Not as exciting as the bike, but way more comfortable.
Glad you are coming along with us!
Regards,
Ernie
Neat that you’re doing this, will be fun to follow, and awesome that you’ve undertaken this spectacular trip together!
Hello, Candy!
A road trip of this length would certainly not appeal to everybody, but it suits us masochists We are having a great time and enjoyed spectacular scenery in Wyoming and Montana today.
We will cross into Canada in the morning and be in Banff National Park for two nights. That will be our fist nights camping. I am not too worried about bears, but mosquitoes are another matter entirely.
For better or worse, we are committed now. Please come along with us. Voices from home and family are very appreciated. Tell Skip, “Hello!”
Regards,
Ernie
Having fun. Scenery is amazing, and Dad is a great travel buddy!
Hope things going well in Cola!
That is quite the ambitious schedule! Have fun and even though you miss Otis, don’t hug the grizzly’s!!
No stranger to ambitious schedules 🙂
I plan to enjoy the grizzly’s from afar..very far!!
Barbara and I were in AK last August. Hope you two have as much fun and enjoy it like we did. Barbara has made me promise to take her back. Highly recommend the Denali Dome Home B & B in Healy near Denali if you haven’t booked already. Try the fly fishing on the Kenai river if you can. Just enjoy everything and anything you do up there. Have fun!!
Hi, Bob,
Knew you loved it when you lived in Alaska, but did not know you had been back so recently.
We are doing mostly hotels and B&B’s, but camping some to try to keep down expenses a bit. Denali is one place we are camping.
Fly fishing? Can you catch a fried seafood platter doing that?! Probably catch my fish in restaurants.
Anyway, come along with us. There are undoubtedly adventures and misadventures in the near future.
Regards,
Ernie
Greetings Ernie and Addie!
I’m glad to note that according to your route schedule, you will be taking a couple of days off from driving this weekend. Clearly you have taken a big bite out of the “drive to destination” portion of your trip, I know the break will recharge you for the final leg.
I did not know you had done this drive on your motorcycle in 2005. I had my Electra Glide Ultra Classic then, and in fact spent a couple of weeks driving all the southeastern states, racking up some 5000 miles during the summer of 07′. Makes me really appreciate what it must have taken to ride to Alaska! And back!! Wow!
Y’all be safe and keep us posted now, ya hear?
Best!
Hall
Hello, Hall! Between our fumbling trying to learn WordPress on-the-fly and no viable Internet access for days, we are way behind on the blog. We hope to make great progress in catching up today while we have a good Internet connection. After today, we will be camping in Denali National Park for three days and I do no know what, if any, kind of Internet access we will have.
The ’05 Alaska trip was solo, riding a little BMW F650GS. Because I was alone and riding a motorcycle, I chickened out on part of the planned trip, but it was still the best adventure of my life. Ever since that trip, I had wanted another look at the Yukon Territory and Alaska. Joyce not being up for a 12k to 14k mile road trip (Few people are, I guess.), when Addie expressed an interest I jumped on it.
During the several years between the time I retired and Joyce retired, I enjoyed some wonderful motorcycle tours – besides the solo Alaska trip, there was a “four-corners” tour of the Southwest with friends and a solo trip to Labrador with lots of miles in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, east-to-west across Newfoundland, down into Quebec and up the coast to Red Bay, Labrador. Friends and people I met traveling, were surprised I was married and that my wife would “let” me take off and travel like that. Hell, I would get back from one trip and before long she would be getting me packed for the next one!
Thanks for looking in on us. Staying in touch with family and friends while enjoying new sights makes the whole deal more fun. I hope the little we can share of our adventure will amuse others, provoke good memories of their own or even inspire them to do something fun themselves.
I understand low to no internet connection all to well! I’m helping out on a friends farm in the GA foothills this weekend, and last night I couldn’t make a connection. This morning at 4:am, I was! I’m doing some catch up now, and saw all y’all’s great posts and pics. That Grizzly was something! Please tell me what a KTM is? It sounds like some kind of cruiser, but not sure…
There’s been a lot on the coconut telegraph re: politics, disasters, and world conquest…but I’ll fill you in on all you missed when you get back. That is, unless they decide you are an OTM, in which case you may get adopted and flown to some metropolis to start a new life in America! Free bread and cheese is only the icing on the cake these days…we have been invaded, and apparently defeated by South American illegal immigrants, as they are receiving free money, housing, clothes and food…and not a single shot was fired!
Have a terrific trip, be safe, and next time I get decent signal strength, hopefully I will be more awake and can give you better news updates!
Best,
Hall
KTM’s are Austrian bikes. They are known for their dirt bikes which are quality machines prized for their performance and competitiveness right out of the factory crate. In recent years they have been building larger displacement so-called adventure touring bikes to compete with the BMW GS’s and such. KTM may now be owned or partially owned by BMW. I do not remember if that was rumor or fact. In any case, they are fine machines and, obviously, growing in popularity among the adventure touring crowd.
Still on schedule, eh? I’m glad to see nobody has driven a third of the way across the country in the wrong direction! You’re both cut out for life on the road it seems. I hope you are enjoying Banff. I hear it is beautiful and full of mythical beasts, like this fellow (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkW-EAkClbE). Safe travels amongst the wily Canadians!
Ernie, many thanks for the Two Hearted Ale you picked out for beach week!
Your post got caught in the spam filter, so was just discovered. Both the driving a third of the way across the country in the wrong direction and the not being cut out for life on the road quotes have been thrown around (by me) on this adventure. Those Rockies keep hiding from us, and car camping “in the wild” a different beast than in a parking garage.
Banff was full of mythical beasts. We have also encountered the mythical Farva. Check out Dad’s post on our border crossing 🙂
Looks like you all are having a good time. Good luck and keep us posted as you can with this new adventure. I know Ernie is an Alaska travel veteran..
Wally Momeier
Hey, Wally! We arrived in Fairbanks, AK via Top of the World Highway from Dawson City, YT, yesterday afternoon. We have not had a workable Internet connection since Great Falls. MT, but have much to post and a lot of new pictures to put up.
We seem to have a good Internet connection here in Fairbanks and plan to work on bringing the blog up-to-date today and this evening.
Addie and I are having more fun than the law allows. Hope all is well with you and Rhonda. Thanks for checking in on us and commenting. Check back later for posts on a funny bear encounter and our being apprehended by the Border Patrol.