RV ALASKA - 2024 Outdoors RV Owners East Coast Rally

In planning to spend the summer of 2024 in Alaska, Alan and I were working within certain parameters.  We had secured a highly coveted waterfront site at Northampton Beach Campground on Great Sacandaga Lake in central New York for the opening weekend of the 2024 camping season.  Plus, Ryan and Anya (our son and daughter-in-law) and friends Bernie, Carol, Cliff and Diane (fellow Outdoors RV owners) were joining us there.  So, the departure date for our Alaska adventure was actually the day after Memorial Day when we broke camp at Northampton Beach.  At the other end of the trip was the 2024 Outdoors RV (ORV) Owners East Coast Rally scheduled for mid-September at Pocahontas State Park in Virginia.  Because we had missed the last three annual rallies, Alan and I were determined to attend this one.

When we left Dam West on Carlyle Lake in Illinois, we were pushing hard to arrive at the rally on September 19^th.  That would mean two days of driving through Illinois, Kentucky, West Virginia and most of Virginia.  After a quick one night layover at Kentucky Horse Park State Park near Lexington, we pushed on to Pocahontas State Park in Chesterfield, Virginia.  By this time, Alan and I were a bit road weary, but the thought of reconnecting with ORV friends, old and new, made the final push worthwhile.  Following the rally, we had planned to spend four nights at North Bend, an Army Corps of Engineers (COE) campground on the John Kerr Reservoir – a large body of water on the Virginia/North Carolina border.  North Bend had been on my bucket list for years, but we never made it there because it was kinda sorta in the middle of nowhere.  As it turns out, “the middle of nowhere” was just an hour and a half from the ORV rally, and Alan and I decided that a few days of down time at a bucket list campground would be an excellent way to end our Alaska expedition.  Little did we know we were in for a surprise ending.

RV ALASKA - Cinnamon Rolls Across America!

I published my first blog post seven years ago in December of 2017.  I started blogging after I escaped from the work force, mainly to document our travels - especially our extended cross-country National Parks trips with our kids.  Plus, I enjoyed creative writing and wanted to do more of it than just produce our annual Christmas newsletter.  And, I was hoping to connect with like-minded adventurers who enjoyed travel and the camping lifestyle as much as Alan and I did.

What has truly amazed me is the number of friendships that have developed during these past seven years.  Connections I expected; ongoing friendships, I did not, but it is with a whole lot of gratitude that I view these relationships.  Many of my connections and friendships are with fellow bloggers; a few are with wonderful people Alan and I have met in our travels.  Today’s post is a story of a friendship that came about strictly due to happenstance and coincidence.  And it’s a “dam” fine story.

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Programming . . .

It was with high hopes that I intended to publish another post in our RV ALASKA series this week.  I’m “this” close to finishing up the trip, and have only a few posts left – including the final, “Alaska by the Numbers.”  But, as it often happens, real life gets in the way, and I find myself up to my ears baking Christmas cookies, wrapping gifts and planning Christmas dinner.  You can expect the next RV ALASKA post shortly after Christmas.  For now . . .

RV ALASKA - Fun & Frolic in Fort Collins

When Alan and I left Ridgway State Park, we made our way back to Interstate 70 and headed east through the Rockies.  We’ve crossed this magnificent mountain range many times, but one particular crossing stands out in my mind.  It was late March of 2017, and Alan and I had just purchased the Creek Side in Everett, Washington.  We were on our way home with our brand new travel trailer, and it was snowing on Interstate 70 in Colorado by the time we hit the Eisenhower Tunnel (elevation: 11,000'+).  I still remember how bad the trailer looked covered in snow and mud.  What a mess!  This time around, we had a blue sky day that allowed us to relax and enjoy the spectacular scenery.  We arrived at Inlet Bay Campground on Horsetooth Reservoir just outside of Fort Collins, Colorado, on Tuesday afternoon, excitedly anticipating the arrival of long-time friends who had booked sites just down the loop road from us.

RV ALASKA - The Black Canyon of the Gunnison & Colorful Colorado's Historic Mining Towns

Fortunes were made and lost in the old mining towns of the American west, and some fortunes just never materialized.  Many towns went from boom to bust in only a few short years.  Some of them turned into ghost towns – or disappeared entirely.  Others not only held onto their history, but celebrated it, enticing tourists to visit or even relocate.  Although we had passed through Durango, Colorado, on our way to Mesa Verde National Park back in 2010, we had never made it north to the other old mining towns of Silverton, Ouray and Telluride.  The Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park remained an elusive check mark on our bucket list, as well.  Nearing the end of our expedition to Alaska, we worked our way back east through Colorado to visit with friends and visit the destinations that had remained just out of reach for way too long.

Base camp for our explorations was the Pa-Co-Chu-Pak Campground in Ridgway State Park, located less than 20 miles from Montrose.  With a population of just over 21,000, Montrose was an excellent place to reprovision, get the truck washed and enjoy a couple of visits to Culver’s for their scrumptious frozen custard.  The weather was a blend of sunshine, clouds and showers, but the rain didn’t hamper our plans, and we managed to accomplish everything we set out to.

RV ALASKA - Golden Spike National Historical Park

Our visit to Golden Spike National Historical Park was a long time in coming.  It had been on our bucket list for a while, and was actually on our itinerary in 2021 when we took an extended trip to Idaho to enjoy a number of the state’s many biking trails.  Back then, our scheduled visit to Golden Spike was preempted by the first inter-mountain snow storm of the year in the Rockies.  Instead of stopping in Utah for our planned visit to the Historical Park, we continued on our way east, trying to stay one step ahead of the storm – and just barely managing to do so.  Luckily, there was no snow in the forecast this September, and we not only marked Golden Spike as a completed bucket list item, but also re-scheduled our meet up with Chris Mamula, a fellow blog author who writes over at Can I Retire Yet.  A three year delay wasn’t exactly to our liking, but better late than never.

RV ALASKA - Shari's Café & Pies: A Tribute to Jen

Today’s post is less about the trip and more about the connections we make along the road.  Our travels are not just about a check in the box next to a bucket list item, although making that little check mark (either literally or figuratively) always provides a sense of accomplishment.  No, our travels include the joy of planning, the excitement of arriving at a new-to-us destination – or an old favorite, the flavor of fresh, local foods, the incredibly scenic vistas we’ve discovered in every single state we’ve traveled to – and the often transient connections we make with people along the way.

RV ALASKA - From One Site #8 to Another

Months ago, Alan and I had agreed to book reservations on this extended expedition for those dates and places we thought we might potentially run into trouble – like Banff and Jasper National Parks in Canada and Independence Day and Labor Day weekends.  I covered the Fourth of July holiday weekend with reservations at Denali State Park and Denali National Park.  Y’all know how that turned out for us.  For Labor Day weekend, I had booked reservations at Hood Park – an Army Corps of Engineers (COE) campground in Burbank, Washington.  That was the first COE campground we had ever stayed that I crossed off our “Return To” list.

RV ALASKA - Adventures in Anacortes

On our trek west across the country a few months back, Alan and I were focused on getting work done on our travel trailer and moving up into Canada as soon as possible thereafter.  I didn’t factor in any real vacation-type breaks or visits with friends.  We knew we’d have time for that later.  Even though five months was feeling like too long a trip for us, Alan and I were happily anticipating the remaining stops on this lengthy expedition.  Why?  Because “later” was now, and we knew we’d be laying over at a couple of our favorite campgrounds, checking off a bucket list item that had been in the bucket for way too long, and making several stops along the way to hang out with some very special friends.

RV ALASKA - "Welcome Home!"

We found a place to call home!  As Alan drove on through winds and rain that Friday evening, I continued searching for a campground that would hold us over until our reservations in Anacortes, Washington, kicked in on Monday.  Although we were still annoyed at the woman’s behavior in the gas station in Hope, British Columbia, we were thankful to be out of the Thompson River Canyon and past the danger of severe rockslides.  Before we hit the border, I had found an unlikely base camp for the weekend – and it reminded us an awful lot of Alaska.

RV ALASKA - "Bad Day at Black Rock"

When I was young, whenever our family ran into a difficult situation, I remember my dad saying, “It’s a bad day at Black Rock.”  It wasn’t until well after he had passed that I wondered where that expression came from and did a little research.  As it turns out, “Bad Day at Black Rock” was a 1955 film that was nominated for three Academy Awards – Best Actor in a Leading Role (Spencer Tracy), Best Directing (John Sturges) and Best Writing (Millard Kaufman).  “Bad Day at Black Rock” has remained in my repertoire of often used expressions even though my dad passed almost 40 years ago.  As we headed into our final days in Canada, I had no idea it was, indeed, about to become a Bad Day at Black Rock.

RV ALASKA - Off the Cassiar, Onto the Yellowhead

When Alan and I left Meziadin Lake Provincial Park on the morning of August 19^th, we were flying by the seat of our pants.  Until our reservations in Washington State kicked in at the end of August, we had no place to be and all the time in the world to get there.  Our plan was to just keep working our way south through western Canada, stopping to enjoy any parks or attractions that caught our attention along the way.  While I agreed that this plan made perfect sense, having to make reservations along the way continued to stress me out.  That day, we’d be coming to the end of the Cassiar Highway near Kitwanga, British Columbia, and picking up the Yellowhead Highway east toward the city of Prince George.  After guesstimating our approximate end-of-day location, I decided upon yet another provincial park.  This one was a real gem, too!