All posts by tburgett

Alaska 2022 – We took a tour bus and walked to Fisherman’s Wharf in Victoria British Columbia

On day 7 we had a bus tour of Victoria British Columbia. The ship docked inside a small inlet of water on the shores of Victoria British Columbia. Our guided tour bus was waiting on us when we got there.

We were incorrectly told that we would be required to wear covid masks in Canada. However, that was not the case. We loaded onto the large tour bus and had to wait about 15 minutes on some folks that didn’t get there on time.

The bus driver was a young man that gave us his life story in a nutshell during the cruise. He was very energetic and knowledgeable and a good driver to navigate that huge bus through city streets and residential areas.

We asked about the primary source of income for the city as we drove by 15-30 million dollar homes. He said the most common source of income was retirement money from wealthy individuals who had done well in their respective carriers.

The golf course club named Victoria Golf Club was $70,000 to join, and $10,000 / year to stay a member. If that tells you anything about the type of people that live in the area.

Enjoy these 180 photos of our day in Victoria British Columbia Canada

Alaska 2022-Leaving the Glacier and sailing for Victoria B.C.

When we left the Glacier, the next day was one of rest and exploring the ship. The scenery presented us with waterfalls, seals, 1 whale tail, and much more. I wanted to do the parachute simulator, but my contacts pushed me over the maximum weight limit. In case you were worried, we ate good while cruising on our way to Victoria British Columbia.

We hope you enjoy the few videos we took during the day of travel

Our sailing day in video format.

Glaciers, Seals, Sea Lions, Waterfalls, and more (day 5)

Day 5 we were on our way back South from Skagway. The next stop is Endicott Arm & Dawes Glacier. The nice thing about cruising is the ship sails while guests are dining, watching shows, or sleeping. We Enjoyed our day at Skagway and the Foreigner concert on the ship. Dinner was waiting on us at the “American Icon Grill”. After that, we late night excitement seekers went to bed around 9:00 p.m. Remember, the sun doesn’t completely set in Alaska.

Endicott Arm fjord is located approximately 50 miles southeast of Juneau. Breathtaking Endicott Arm extends over 30 miles long, with nearly one-fifth of its area covered in ice.

Over 600 feet tall and around one mile broad, Dawes Glacier is a mighty remnant of an even bigger ice block that forged Endicott Arm Fjord thousands of years ago. Dawes Glacier covers 250 feet of ice underneath the surface of the glacier.

The Captain sailed into the fjord very slowly and watched for floating ice, some of which were as big as a house. The ship was only able to get about 1/2 mile from the actual glacier. One of the more fascinating moves of the ship was to rotate the front point of the ship from “12 o’clock” position pointing directly at the glacier. Then turn it to the “9 o’clock”, then around to “3 o’clock” so that everyone had an equal opportunity to get some photos, and different views while the sun moved over the horizon.

You will also see a small “tender” boat taking passengers who paid extra for an up close and personal visit to the glacier. We learned that they were allowed to get off the “tender” and walk on the glacier. That would have been fun.

Our Breathtaking Train Ride Excursion in Skagway (day 4)

After having walked all day in Juneau and still not seeing everything we wanted to, we moved on to Dinner at the “American Icon Grill”. All week, Evans and Kamal have spoiled us by keeping our drinks full, surprising us with a personalized appetizer charcuterie board having cheese, crackers, grapes, and other varieties.

They are very professional and excellent at what they do. However, I stopped them just short of putting my napkin in my lap. I’m a big boy and old enough that I don’t need that level of assistance just yet.

We had another great nights sleep in our state rooms and those beds were like sleeping on a cloud. You would think the boat rocking and turning would prevent sleeping well, but everything was perfect, stable and quiet.

On Day 4 we looked forward to just checking out and getting on the train, BUT, hold on !!!! There was a tremendous land slide just where our ship would have docked at the port where it normally would. The Port Authority required the ship to park way away from the normal port location. This required using several tender boats to get us to the walk ramp from the small boat docks. It was a bit of a hike from sea level up to the land level where the train was waiting.

Once we got to the train, it was filling up fast because several other cruise ships unloading guests into Skagway. The train hosts guided us to one of the cars toward the front of the train, and assisted on and allowed to sit wherever we wanted. The seats were arranged like a dining room car with booth style seating. 2 face the front, and 2 face the rear with a table between each bench.

During the train ride, they came to collect our tickets, and offer us souvenirs.

White Pass & Yukon Train Excursion details.

Tens of thousands of men and 450 tons of explosives overcame harsh climate and challenging geography to create the “railway built of gold”. Today, 116 years later, you can re-live the adventure and the “triumph over challenge” in comfort and safety!

The White Pass & Yukon Route Railway is “The Scenic Railway of the World”. Built in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush, this narrow gauge railroad is an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, a designation shared with the Panama Canal, the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty.

The WP&YR railway was considered an impossible task. However, blasting through the coastal mountain allowed completion in only 26 months.

The $10 million project was the product of British financing, American engineering and Canadian contracting. Tens of thousands of men and 450 tons of explosives overcame harsh and challenging climate and geography to create “the railway built of gold.”

The WP&YR climbs almost 3000 feet in just 20 miles and features steep grades of up to 3.9%, cliff-hanging turns of 16 degrees, two tunnels and numerous bridges and trestles. The steel cantilever bridge was the tallest of its kind in the world when it was constructed in 1901.

Enjoy these 190 photos from our day in Skagway AK.

Alaska 2022 Juneau (day 3)

After a great nights sleep during the ship’s continued sailing onto Juneau, we ate a hearty, healthy, flavorful, and fresh assortment of breakfast options. Then we walked down to deck 3 and checked out of the ship and departed for a day of shopping and sight seeing in Juneau.

The staff were all hyper sensitive about covid and all wore masks even though the guests were not required to do so. As you enter the “Wind Jammer” buffet area, you were greeted by a staff member that would detour you through the hand washing station as he shouted ” WASHY WASHY, YUMMY , YUMMY “. As I am one who needs coffee before jokes, humor, or conversation in general, I wanted to smile and tell them good morning, but I was deficient in caffein and it didn’t happen.

Juneau is the capitol of Alaska, but is also land locked from the rest of the state. You either fly or boat into the capitol city. There is an “Air Taxi” that operates in and out of the same port we were docked.

Our first excursion was to ride the Mt. Roberts Tramway up the 2000+ foot elevation via cable car up to the shop and restaurant. The food was good but mostly sandwiches and fries. The shop was mostly souvenirs and gifts so we didn’t purchase anything there. The most enjoyable part of that excursion was the cool air, and unbelievable views.

Here are almost 200 photos from a great day 3 in Juneau.

Alaska 2022 ( day 2 )

Day 2 of our cruise was all sailing North in the Pacific headed to Juneau. We were curious as to what all the ship has to offer for entertainment and dining. As with all our past cruises, we were amazed at the huge ship’s height and length. More than once, we got lost looking for our room.

Our stateroom attendant was always working no matter what time of the day we were leaving or returning to the room. His name was Imam, and he cleaned every time we left and returned. Not just a once per day cleaning. ( wow – not used to that at home 😉

We ate a wonderful breakfast in the main dining room named “American Icon Grill”. Luckily, we only had to ride the elevator down 2 floors and a short walk to get there. They had fresh fruit, custom made omelets, all sorts of pastries, pancakes, waffles, etc. Service was way over the top with multiple wait staff attending to our needs.

We walked at least 100 miles ( may be a stretch ) on day 2 just trying to locate everything. There was a hot dog stand in the youth area next to the bumper cars. The quietest and warmest spot on the ship was in the adult only swimming and hot tub area. What a fantastic view from the front of the ship on the 14th floor.

Finally, we found the surfing simulator, mountain climbing wall, and parachute simulator. However, we decided against doing any of that because we didn’t want to show anyone up at how skilled we are in those areas 😉

Alaska 2022

Photos from our first day flying from Home to Atlanta to the ship. We almost missed the boat while waiting in the wrong bus/taxi line. Turns out the cruise shuttles are 3 stories below ground and we didn’t figure that out until the last bus was collecting any stray passengers to transport to the ship. When we arrived all the “welcoming committee” was yelling ” HURRY UP ” !

Canada here we come !

Commitments Made

Plans are firmed up.? Reservations are made.? Motor home is fueled up.? All we lack now is the date to get here so we can head out for our 5 week trip to Nova Scotia and back.? ?We have reservations with friends and historic and scenic places all setup on the calendar so we don’t forget anything.

Past Trip Memories

We uploaded another video to our Youtube channel that you might enjoy from some of our past trips.? Please check it out here.? If you like the channel subscribe, like, and turn on the notification button.? ?We also have several other channels that we really enjoy and would recommend you subscribe to those channels as well.? They are inspiring and thought provoking, entertaining as well as educational.

Recommended YouTube channels

“You Me and the RV”,? “Changing Lanes”,? “Less Junk < More Journey”,? “Keep Your Daydream” are the ones we have watched the most.? Trust me, with TV being what it is today,? this is much safer, and more entertaining, especially if you enjoy the RV lifestyle (part time or full time).? ?I feel like we know them and we haven’t met, but have commented back and forth on their videos.

Comment below

Let us know what your favorite RV destination is, and why.? ?Also let us know if you have other RV related youtube channels that you enjoy so we can watch them as well.? ?If you have any favorite state or national parks we would like to know that as well.

Question of the day

What software, web sites, books, phone aps, etc do you use when planning your cross country, multi-stop RV trips.? It is important to us to keep in touch with what others are doing so we don’t use obsolete or less that current tools for planning a safe journey across this great nation of ours.

Thanks
Coming to a campground near you soon.

Wayne and Norma

Big Trip Coming Up – 2019 stay tuned

Well, it is time to get the dirt daubers and spiders out of the motor home and start packing her up for our Summer RV Trip cross country tour. We seem to operate a little differently than the average “weekend warrior” or full-timers. We don’t do very many weekend quick trips, and I work part time from anywhere I can get good Wi-Fi signal. Norma works for the school system here so she is off every summer. This tends to give us a good way to travel during the summers to take long get-a-way trips to see many places that we would otherwise never have an opportunity to visit.

Plan Outline

With all that said, we are planning a “re-visit” tour up through Gettysburg, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Newburgh NYC, Boston/Plymouth, Kennebunkport, Portland, Bar-Harbor, Bangor, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. I know that is a lot of stops, but we will setup base camp in the RV and drive the Honda Civic to the specific points of interest. We plan to be gone a month +/- the drive there and back may slow us down a day or two. We Can’t Wait !!!

New You-tube Channel to compliment the blog

Check out our RVacationer you-tube channel to find out a little more about us and our setup. Please help us out by subscribing and hitting the “thumbs-up” and “notification bell”. This is a good way for us to share our experiences both good and bad with you, and get your comments back on how to improve, and find out from you things that will help us do better in the future.

Online Planning Tools

The online tools we us for planning are of course maps.google.com, then rvparky.com, www.rvtripwizard.com, which is a member based tool good for pin-pointing common points of interest like Walmart, Pilot, Flying J, etc, and displays warnings to avoid low bridges, toll roads, and other hazards that would be a problem for a big rig. Then we use the street view to do a virtual drive on any roads that are suspect for being narrow or tight neighborhoods getting into the campground.

Talk Soon. Hang in there Spring is nearly here !

First RV Trip of the 2018 season

Waiting patiently
As many of you, we have been waiting since our? RV Thanksgiving trip last year to get out into the world again.? ?After winterizing the motorhome last November my wife and I sat by the window waiting for the first chance to get outside without frost bite.? We are finally going on our first RV trip for 2018 to a local campground about 20 miles away.

Lake Guntersville State Park view from our site.
View from our campsite

We unplugged from house shore power, cleaned the drains, and removed the cob webs and drove about 20 miles away to Lake Guntersville State Park RV campground.? ?This is our favorite local campground as well as a good place to de-bug anything that may have happened over the winter.

As expected, we had a few issues but nothing to diminish the thrill of being back outdoors. ?Our site had a great look at the lake on one side and the mountain up to the Lodge and golf course out the other side.? What we didn’t plan on was this being the states “Spring Break” for schools and there were lots of others who had the same idea.

What went wrong

Our only incident that caught us by surprise was a small water leak coming from our ice maker.? My wife noticed the carpet was wet in front of the cabinet that had the ice maker and I immediately unloaded the cabinets and turned off the feed valve.? ?It turns out that it just needed a refresh of the silicon plumbing tape around the inlet.? I just happen to keep enough plumbing tools and spare parts with me for this very reason.? While I was at it I replaced the water pressure regulator at the faucet as well.

After we fixed the leak

We tested for other issues that may have been caused by winter’s cold temperatures.? We checked the toilet, washing machine, and all the sinks, toilet, and shower.? Then, our Ubiquiti wi-fi amplifier system? pulled in seemingly unlimited internet bandwidth for streaming our favorite news and sports channels on directvnow.com.? ?Our site was? .4 miles from the wireless access point and it got enough signal to browse and stream TV.?? Something we do when RVing is to play games like scrabble or cards.? Those things are a lot of fun, but we don’t seem to find time when we are at home.

The wife and I went on several nature walks and saw one huge buck at the golf course late in the evening, and as much as we could in the low light we think we counted 18 deer in and around the lake area.

We didn’t do much cooking or lounging outside because it was still a little windy and cool to be comfortable.? ?However, we sure did enjoy our first adventure for the year.? ? Our wonderful experiences have made us look forward to doing this at least a couple of times per month.? The RVing season in our area is usually from late March through late November.? ?Until the temperatures turn back to? freezing and force us back to our homestead we are “On the Road Again”.

See you out there somewhere soon!