A LONG DRIVE

We left Clarksville at dawn on 7/30/14 heading west.  One of the 1^st stops we made was at a WalMart to get some Silicone Spray.  After it was applied to the “Happy Jacks” that hold our camper in place, the squeaking noise was gone and we were happy campers. We traveled a total of 683 miles and stopped in Salina, KS for an overnight stay at the KOA.   Here are some of the pictures taken along the way.

I had hoped to get a better picture of the St. Louis Arch.  If you look closely, you will see it in the mid-right section of the picture.

The Mississippi River has always fascinated me as one of the natural wonders of this country, linking the north with the south, meandering through the countryside.

In tribute to our son-in-law, we had to get a picture of his favorite hangout…the Kansas City Chief Football Stadium.  We hope to stop in and visit his parents on our way back from Alaska.

It’s amazing how the price of gas fluctuates across this country.  We left Georgia paying $3.49 a gallon in gas.  In Kansas we paid $3.18 a gallon. 

After you go through Kansas City and Topeka, you begin to enter the Great Plains.  The topography was absolutely stunning.  The pictures that were taken don’t give the vistas we saw justice.

Fort Riley Army Base, the home of the Big Red One, is in the middle of nowhere.  We saw our first drone flying here.

The Salina KOA was a nice overnight stop to recharge our batteries for another long drive the next day.  Our accommodations are “tight”, but things are going well.  It is nice to be able to sleep in the same bed and not have to pack and unpack a suitcase every night. 

FINALLY ON OUR WAY

Once we had everything packed, the house clean, and the refrigerator empty, we realized we don’t have any food in the house and would have to start “camping” in our driveway until we left….so, we left a day early and decided to have dinner with our daughter Julie in Clarksville, TN.  Unfortunately we didn’t get to see our son-in-law Marc because he was on-duty with the Army.

Leaving home behind.  A big thank you to our son Thomas and our friend Jerome for collecting the mail and keeping an eye on our home while we are gone.

The vet cleared Sugar to travel…she’s all better.  We picked her up from the vets on our way to the scales to make sure we are legally under the 10000 pound GVWR for our truck. 

As you can see, we are “legal” to travel, but only have 60 pounds to spare…weighing in at 9940 pounds.  That is after we removed the back seat, the metal rails that hold our 5^th wheel hitch, the luggage rack on top of our camper, and replaced the wood board that we had for the truck bed with a foam pad.  The water tank was only 1/3 full and we had a full tank of gas.  I don’t see how some of the truck campers that have slide outs stay legal after they add their personal items and gear to the camper.  One little quirk we’ve run into, is our turnbuckles that hold the camper to the truck are annoyingly squeaky.  The number 1 priority today is to find some WD-40 to correct this problem.  (I just hope all our problems this trip will be as easy to fix.)

We had an uneventful trip to Clarksville, TN, but traffic was heavy.   Nickajack Lake was especially pretty just north of Chattanooga.

Our daughter Julie had fixed a very nice spaghetti dinner.  Her 2 big dogs and our Shiloh were playing outside in their fenced backyard while we ate dinner.  We had a nice visit with Julie sitting on her front porch watching the hummingbirds work the feeder.  The weather was perfect.  When we were getting ready to leave and were saying our goodbyes, somehow, all 3 big dogs bolted out the front door and started running through the neighborhood.  It was like herding cats to get all the dogs back to the house.  Shiloh got enough running in to last her the entire time.  She made sure we got our exercise too!

The temperature is 56 degrees, partly cloudy skies at 6:30AM.  We are currently in Kentucky traveling to Topeka, Kansas.

GETTING TRUCK CAMPER READY TO GO

My husband & I had to go South this past week to attend my niece's wedding and took our 5th wheel (5ver) while parking in my parents backyard.  It was comfortable and we had a nice visit.  At least traveling with the truck camper is easier on the gas bill than the 5ver.

When we got back home on the 27th, my son Thomas came over to help my husband Joe change out our camping equipment.  It took about 3 hours to complete all that had to be done before we could start loading the truck camper.

We had to remove the 5th wheel hitch so the truck camper could slide in place.  This is what it looked like after the tailgate was removed.

Thomas and Joe removed the bolts to the 5ver rails and hooked the system up to a pulley.  (The rails can be left in, however, you have to add a leveling board on top of them which adds more weight.  For this trip, we wanted the truck as light as possible before adding water and supplies.)

As Joe lifted the hitch using the pulleys, Thomas drove the truck out from under the hitch.  It was then lowered onto a dolly so it can easily be moved to the back of the garage for storage until needed again.

Instead of using a heavy piece of plywood, Joe placed insulating foam as a cushion between the truck and the camper.

The camper jacks were then extended, allowing the truck camper to clear the truck bed.  Joe backed up the truck while Thomas and I helped guide the process so the camper sits square in the middle of the truck bed.

The power cord to the camper is plugged into the truck and we checked to make sure all running and break lights were operational.

Our vehicle is now ready to load for the trip.  We removed the backseat of the truck to give us more storage space for the camp stove, screened tent, extra cold weather clothes, and food.

We plan on leaving on July 30th if our little dog Sugar can travel.  She got sick over the weekend and is at the vets office today.  We will know more about her condition when we meet with the vet this afternoon.  Joe and I still have to make final adjustments to our route and get it loaded into the Rand McNally intelliroute system.  Looking forward to posting pretty pictures in future posts.  :)

PLANNING TRIP PART 2

Today we notified all our credit card companies about our travel plans driving thru Canada to get to Alaska.  If you don't do this, your credit cards could be locked while traveling because the ceedit card company will think your card has been stolen.  This has created problems for a lot of people.  I also asked each credit card company about their transaction fees that could be added in Canada. Discover is becoming more accepted in Canada.  No transaction fees and 2% cash back to the consumer on purchases using this card.  This is good to know when buying gas, souveniers, etc.

We also made an appointment with our vet to have our dog Shiloh (45# Redbone Hound dog) to get an ID chip. She can get curious when exploring in strange territory and could get lost if we don't keep an eye on her.  Our other dog...Sugar, is a 13# Yorkshire Terrier.  Our dogs are affectionately referred to as our "canine kids".  Sugar already has a chip because she as proven herself to be a runner.  She has to stay on a leash at all times unless she is in a fenced in area. Both dogs were rescued from the Human Society.  Those are the best kind of dogs.

My husband and I are still working on our list of campgrounds, gas stops, etc.  We got oue copy of Milepost and started reviewing it.  There was some conflicting information about the need for a Health Certificate from your veterinarian before crossing the border into Canada in the Milepost. According to the Canadian Embassy, all you need is a current rabies vaccination certificate.  It is also recommended to bathe your dogs with flea and tick shampoo since Canada and Alaska don't have fleas and don't want any imported.

We plan on loading our camper on our truck on 7/27/14.  Will post next blog then.  Have a great week.  Feel free to post questions and give feedback in The comments section.

PLANNING THE TRIP

We have been wanting to drive to Alaska for a long time. Several obstacles stood in our way.  One was time needed to take the trip, having a road worthy vehicle and camper, concern about road conditions, and the overall cost of making this journey from Georgia.   When our son and daughter in-law announced they were moving to Anchorage,  we realized the time had come to begin planning our big adventure.

We already had a Ford 250 truck that was rigged to pull our fifth wheel camper. However, after studying the RV blogs, we were concerned about the wear and tear a trip like this would have on our 5ver.  So, we purchased a Lance slide on truck camper to make the trip with our two dogs. We now have 2 campers to use based on the type of traveling and camping we plan to do.

On July 13th we decided we would leave for Alaska on the afternoon of 7/30/2014.  We had been studying maps and different RV forums, trying to learn as much as possible from other travelers experiences.  We planned our route, loaded into our Rand McNally RV direction system.  We then started working on a spreadsheet listing all campgrounds and fuel stops that we could quickly pick from along the way.  We had to purchase new cell phones that would give us coverage in Canada.  We checked with our health insurance company that we would be covered in the event of illness or accident.  We notified our auto insurance carrier and obtained insurance cards for the time we would be driving through Canada. I made copies of our dogs vaccination records to take with us.  We retrieved our passports out of the bank vault and placed them in a travel documents folder for easy access when going thru customs. Now that we have all the "paperwork" done, we can start prepping our camper and truck for the trip.

My husband ordered some heavy duty shocks to put on the truck and plans to rotate the tires, check the spare, and change the oil this week.  We will be pulling the 5ver hitch and rails out of the back of the truck so we can load our camper. We plan on putting foam board under the slider to help cushion and protect the bed of the truck from damage.

I have taken inventory of all the nooks and crannies of the camper, rearranged stuff to maximize space. Since we rarely use the oven, that has made a nice cabinet for plates, bowls and other kitchen supplies.  We have a counter top toaster oven we use to cook biscuits or baked potatoes.  We don't plan on carrying a lot of groceries with us since  most populated areas have a WalMart where we can replenish supplies.

As we get closer to our departure date, I will post pictures of the camper being loaded along with pictures of the camper interior.