We drove a lonnnng time yesterday but we finally made it to Tok. We drove through the Yukon, which ended up with us crossing the US border twice. The Yukon is true no man’s land. Even much of the highway is still a gravel road. The scenery is really beautiful, however. It’s different from British Columbia; it’s more tundra to BC’s alpine forest. We didn’t see much in the way of wildlife, other than this butterfly (which let me get rather close!). In the first 150 miles of driving, we passed 20 or so cars the entire time. I quit counting for the last 350 miles.

Today we are in Glennallen and I have REAL INTERNET. Which of course means pictures time.

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Just a note that we have made it through the ferry madness.  We took a ferry from Prince Rupert to Juneau, then got off that ferry and immediately turned around and boarded a different ferry to Haines.  We arrived here last night and their internet is not free, so no pictures.  We’re driving to Tok today, which will be the longest haul of the journey.  After that it should be short drives, thank goodness.

We will be passing into Canada for part of the trip, so there is some hope we will find a Tim Horton’s along the way.  Yummy sandwiches and the combo comes with a donut.  Win-Win!

With the time change (AK is one hour ahead of California) and the fact that it’s light out until 11p or so, along with staying somewhere different every night and traveling non-stop, I have pretty much lost track of what time it is and even what day of the week it is.   It’s a tad unsettling.

Time to get ready for the drive.  447 miles to Tok and not a whole lot in between.

I learned an important lesson about myself today. When a bear runs at me, I don’t scream, I don’t run. No, I freeze up in terror.

Now before my mom freaks out completely, it was a juvenile bear. Granted, this is maybe scarier because where the juvenile is, there’s often a mama bear. We didn’t see her though. Which…isn’t necessarily a good thing…

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Another long day in the U-Haul, but the scenery was a lot better!  We drove to Crater Lake which was just breath-taking.  There was still a fair deal of snow which was amusing since I was running around in my flip-flops.

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Our U-Haul trip has begun, and we made it to Mt. Shasta this evening.  We drove through Lassen Volcanic National Park on the way.  It was a gorgeous drive, although not one I’d generally recommend doing in a U-Haul.

I spent almost the entire trip today falling asleep, yet I’m still exhausted.

Tomorrow we’re heading to Salem, OR.  Sounds like we’re going to skip Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens due to U-Hauls not really mixing with mountain roads.  We will be hitting Crater Lake, though.

I rarely feel the need to recommend places I stay or eat, but the place I’m staying is just so amazing; I want to buy one of the condos.

The place is called Hale Kona Kai, it’s a short walk to downtown Kona. It’s also, as you’ve seen, directly on the beach. The prices are reasonable even when you’re not getting a 25% discount on the price. I’m staying in #210, which you can see in the top left of the picture, with the dark ceiling beams.

Every door and window opens, and the front door has a lockable wooden slatted door (perfectly private, but lets through the breeze). There’s A/C if you want it, and ceiling fans if you don’t. There’s a nice pool right next to the ocean open whenever you want. There is free poolside wi-fi which I can get in my room.

Just with that, I’d probably recommend the place. However, it gets even better. I found in my closet beach mats, a pool noodle, and various other things you’d take to the beach. In the fridge was a full Brita filter and the freezer had three freshly filled ice trays.

The Brita filter set me over the top. How fantastic is that?

The only con I have had so far is that their office is open really strange hours. I’m waiting for them to open which is why you’re all getting spammed. However, they give you a code for a lockbox outside the door to get the key if you come in after hours which is terribly convenient.

We interrupt our scheduled flashback programming to bring you a little bit of impulsiveness. I finished my master’s thesis and then I found this great deal on a trip to Hawaii…if I left the next day. So I got an airplane this morning and found myself on the Big Island! Turns out there’s a vog warning (volcanic spewage mixed with a marine layer) and it’s bad enough in some places they’re evacuating people. Fortunately, most of that is closer to the volcano which is a fair distance from Kona where I’ve rented a condo.

I got a great deal on the condo because I rented out the last unit. I have no idea why their units are so cheap, they are literally right on the water. I have all the windows and doors open and I’m listening to the waves right now. It’s fantastic. Every time I come here I just want to stay.

Sadly, there was too much vog for a decent sunset, but there was some great twilight. I was watching the waves from my lanai and I realized that I just had to share this with you all. Because photographing waves is fun. Photographing waves when the light is fading and there is a fair deal of directional lighting originating from the condos and streetlights is even MORE fun!

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Springdale is a gorgeous little town, nestled in this amazing valley that doubles as the entrance to Zion National Park. We spent the night in Springdale and then headed into the park. As I mentioned before, we were there at pretty much the exact wrong time. There was very little snow left and the plants hadn’t started turning green yet, so there was a lot of brown in the landscape. Given all that, it was still incredible! Continue reading this post…

I’ve finally had a chance to narrow down the 1000+ photos from our trip! As I mentioned in a previous post, on our first day out of the gate, we ran away from Las Vegas and started our trip towards Springdale. In a split-second decision, we decided to jump off the freeway and take a detour towards Valley of Fire. After driving for quite some time through some scenic but somewhat unexciting landscape. We were making some theories about what part might be the “Valley of Fire,” when we made a turn and the scenery went flat. Smack in the middle of the flat plain was an other-worldly scene of bright red rocks.

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Today we visited four national monuments; Wupatki, Sunset Crater, Montezuma’s Castle, and Tuzigoot which has the best name of them all. It’s just fun to say. Too-zee-goot. Our national parks pass got a good workout, and my national park passport got lots of cancellations. Win win situation!

I’ve wanted to see cliff dwellings our entire trip, so Montezuma’s Castle was a stop just for me. You can see a picture of the fantastic building to the right.

After that craziness, we headed to Sedona against Colin’s will. I had the keys and the GPS so he had no choice. While Sedona IS touristy, it’s also downright beautiful. We stayed until twilight and I took a few shots of the town.

Tomorrow I will be home, which will make Kita a very happy kitty, and I’ll hopefully have time to start sorting the pictures and writing about the trip in earnest.