Remembering our 2013 Travels

Happy New Year!! 2013 was a great year for wandering!

This year we checked off one of the biggest items on our bucket list: from May to September we made the trip of a lifetime to Alaska and back in our RV. In the fall we visited a beautiful COE park in West Point, Georgia. I’ve already posted about those trips in previous posts on this blog so here are a few photos from our January 2013 journey to south Georgia and North Florida.

We started 2013 with a short trip to three different parks. The first was Little Ocmulgee State Park in Helena, Georgia.

Our main destination was a week in the United States Forest Service campground in Salt Springs, Florida.

Our final stop was at one of our favorite parks, Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in White Springs, Florida.

So where do think we will be off to in 2014? Stay tuned for more.

Wandering Dawgs Wander Again

Not all of our wandering is to far away places like Alaska or the Yukon. Sometimes we wander close to home. On Monday, we hitched up the Titanium for a road trip to Auburn, Alabama to watch the south’s oldest football rivalry between Georgia and Auburn this coming Saturday. We decided to take a few extra days and explore a new to us Corps of Engineers park on West Point Lake in West Point, Georgia just off of I-85 near the Georgia/Alabama line. It’s great traveling during the week during the off season. We are almost the only ones here.

We spent three relaxing nights in site 113 in the campground with no other campers in our loop. The trees were wearing their fall colors and the sunsets were spectacular.

Our only neighbors were the geese.

R Schaefer Heard Campground on West Point Lake is one of three Corps of Engineers campgrounds on the lake. Our site is about 40 feet from the lake and like most COE parks we have a large site with plenty of room between our site and the ones on either side.  Our site is a paved, back in site with water and electric hookups, a tent pad, fire ring, picnic table and a beautiful lake view. For more information about the park or to make reservations you can go the Recreation.gov site for R Schaefer Heard

Favorite Canadian Memories

I recently posted our Favorite Alaska Memories so now it is time to post our favorite memories of traveling through Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon Territory. We spent 23 nights in Canada and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, abundant wildlife, and friendly Canadian people.

We started our travels in Canada by spending almost a week in Alberta in Banff National Park and Jasper National Park.

We saw lots of wildlife as we drove through British Columbia on the Alaska Highway before arriving in Alaska for the first time.

After a week in Alaska we drove through Canada to Dawson City, Yukon and across the Top of the World Highway before returning to Alaska.

Our journey back to the lower 48 took us along the Cassier Highway through British Columbia.

For a map of our entire journey be sure to check out Our Route. And for a list of all the campgrounds where we stayed check out our Campground List.

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Meeting fellow Georgians on the road

And a Georgia G on the back window of the Titanium
Georgia G on the back window of the Titanium

One of the things we enjoy most about traveling by RV is meeting so many wonderful people along the way. On this trip we met people from all over the U.S. and Canada and from far away countries like Australia and Switzerland.

What really amazed us though was how many people from Georgia we met along the way and how many of them were Georgia Bulldog fans. We heard “Go Dawgs!” in some very unexpected places!

When we travel there is no doubt where we are from. With our Georgia license plates on both the truck and fifth wheel, our big red Georgia G on the front of the truck and another big G on the back window of the fifth wheel our Georgia allegiance is easy to recognize. And we both often wear Georgia hats and shirts when we are out exploring.

When you are several thousand miles from home, it’s always nice to connect with someone from your home state. Here are just a few of our favorite encounters with other travelers from Georgia:

  • Meeting  two sisters in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada on their way to Alaska who are from the same county where we live.
  • Hearing “Go Dawgs! as we sat by our campfire in Liard River Hot Springs, Yukon.
  • Having someone from near our hometown knock on our door just to say hi in Liard River Hot Springs, Yukon.
  • Meeting a recent graduate of the University of Georgia wearing a Georgia sweatshirt.in Skagway, Alaska, who was living in Alaska and working on a cruise ship.
  • Having  a woman in a Georgia t-shirt walk over to our campsite in Skagway to take a picture of our Georgia truck because she couldn’t believe there was someone who drove all the way from Georgia to Alaska.
  • Hearing “I’ve eaten there before” when Henry was wearing his Crab Shack t-shirt in Skagway. The young man was in the Coast Guard and had just finished being stationed in Valdez and was on his way to his next station close to his home in Georgia.
  • Meeting a young woman in Haines, Alaska who was a graduate of Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. She  studied marine biology and was now  living in Haines working as a mate on a fishing boat and singing in a band.
  • Talking to the woman working at the Visitor’s Center in North Pole who had moved to North Pole from Georgia.
  • Wearing our Georgia hats, having one of the drivers on one of the floats in the July 4th Parade in North Pole yell “Go Dawgs!” as he went by.
  • Being helped by a woman from Georgia at the transportation center in Denali National Park.
  • Hearing “Go Dawgs!” while stopped for road construction in Denali National Park.
  • Meeting a grandfather and his two granddaughters from Georgia at Teklanika Campground in Denali National Park.
  • Halibut fishing in Ninilchik, Alaska with a young couple living in Anchorage who were originally from Atlanta and North Carolina.
  • Having a woman from Georgia stop by our campsite in Homer, Alaska because she saw the Georgia G on the back of the fifth wheel.

There were many others but these are the ones that stand out. However, the one that stands out the most was the Canadian border crossing guard in Beaver Creek, Yukon who asked us if we were heading home to Georgia before he even looked at our passports. He must have seen the Georgia G on the front of the truck! He was a huge American college football fan and discussed football with Henry for a few minutes before getting down to the business of checking our passports and asking the required questions before letting us enter Canada.

Favorite Alaska Memories

Although we left Tok, Alaska almost a month ago, our memories of Alaska will never leave us. Here, in no particular order, are a few photos of some of our favorite places and adventures.

Our favorite place was Oceanside RV Park in Haines, Alaska where we could sit and watch for whales, watch eagles fly by, and watch the ferries and cruise ships sail by.

Cocktail hour whale watching with Ted and Ruthy
Cocktail hour whale watching with Ted and Ruthy
Bald Eagle at Chilcoot Lake State Park, Haines, AK
Bald Eagle at Chilcoot Lake State Park, Haines, AK
Deadliest Catch!
Deadliest Catch!

The most exciting and most memorable experience of the entire trip was the South Face McKinley flight-seeing tour and landing on Ruth Glacier with Talkeetna Air Taxi.

We went really close to Mt. McKinley
We went really close to Mt. McKinley
Loving every minute of our time on Ruth glacier
Loving every minute of our time on Ruth glacier

We loved all of the boat trips we took.

Whale Pectoral Fin on day trip to Juneau
Whale Pectoral Fin on day trip to Juneau
Stellar Sea Lions on day trip to Juneau
Stellar Sea Lions on day trip to Juneau
Seeing ice calving on Aialik Glacier on the Kenai Fjords trip from Seward
Seeing ice calving on Aialik Glacier on the Kenai Fjords trip from Seward
A pair of Orcas on Columbia Glacier tour from Valdez
A pair of Orcas on Columbia Glacier tour from Valdez
Sea Otters on Columbia Glacier tour from Valdez
Sea Otters on Columbia Glacier tour from Valdez

Driving to the Coldfoot, sixty miles north of the Artic Circle was a drive to remember.

Wandering Dawgs at the Arctic Circle
Wandering Dawgs at the Arctic Circle

Catching Halibut and watching the sunset in Ninilchik, Alaska.

Four of these fish are ours!
Four of these fish are ours!
Mount Redoubt Sunset
Mount Redoubt Sunset

Denali National Park.

Moose beside the road on the way out of the park
Moose beside the road on the way out of the park
Lukor liked it on top of his house
Lukor liked it on top of his house
Beautiful green valley at Polychrome Overlook
Beautiful green valley at Polychrome Overlook
Another group of Caribou up on a ridge
Another group of Caribou up on a ridge

Driving the Top of the World Highway, panning for gold, going for a train ride on the Alaska Railroad, watching for wildlife on the side of the road, seeing the Fireweed blooming everywhere, seeing glaciers off in the distance and up close are all highlights of the trip we will never forget.

Every day was memorable, every day was special, every day we saw something spectacular.