Pastor Mike's Corner

Day 41

2007-08-06T15:03:00.000-07:00

Monday – WE ARE HOME! 41 days 10 hours and 54 minutes and 12,266 miles are 25th anniversary trip is official over. Now to get back to the routine. Praise the Lord for a safe good trip. We thank each one of you for your prayers.

Day 38

2007-08-04T04:53:00.000-07:00

Friday- We left Goshen about 8:30am and arriving at our campsite southeast of Wooster, OH about 2:00 pm. Tonight we went to the BMA Convention and met a lot of friends and acquaintances. Tomorrow the sessions are from 9am to 9pm so I don’t know when I will have time to post again.

Day 37

2007-08-04T04:52:00.001-07:00

Thursday - We had a uneventful trip to Goshen other than a lot of traffic around Chicago where we had bumper to bumper traffic in five lanes going our direction and people weaving in and out. Even had a motorcycle with a rider and neither had helmets driving about 80 mph in and out of traffic. Some people don’t value their lives very much. We had a good time with the Burkholder’s catching up on each other’s lives.

Day 36

2007-08-01T17:10:00.000-07:00

Wednesday – We were on the road by 8am and made it to Davenport, Iowa by 3:30pm. Trip went very well and now we are 450 miles closer to home. It is hard to believe that just 8 days ago we left Hyder, Alaska and that it is so far away now, but when I look at the odometer I realize it is 3072 mile behind us. We didn’t even take one picture today. Basically the scenery consisted of miles and miles and miles of soybean and corn fields. We were really missing the seafood from Alaska so we eat supper at the local Red Lobster when we got into town. We are now parked at an RV park at route 80 exit 292 in Davenport and Debra is washing clothes for what she hopes is the last time before we get home. Tomorrow we have a much easier day. We have about 265 mile to Bremen, Indiana where we plan on meeting Larry Burkholder around 1:30pm at his place of work. He would like to show us around before we go to their home in Goshen. Larry and Vanita Burkholder and we became good friends when they started attending Hammer Creek church in the mid 80’S. In March of 95 they moved to Goshen to do 2 years of service with Gospel Echoes. When their term was up they stayed in Indiana so we like to visit them when we go west. For those that are not aware Larry is a brother to Raymond who had our evangelistic services at Shiloh in April. Friday morning we plan on driving to Wooster, Ohio to take in the BMA convention Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Day 35

2007-08-01T05:54:00.000-07:00

Tuesday – We got an early start this morning knowing it would be a full day. Went to the Crazy Horse Memorial and got there before anyone was manning the entrance gates where they charge admission by vehicle. There were three motorcycles ahead of us. We had the place mostly to ourselves. The visitor center changed drastically since we were there 12 years ago. For those who don’t know what Crazy Horse is about 60 years ago the Native Americans asked one of the guys that had worked at Mt. Rushmore to carve a mountain so that the Americans would know that the Indians have heroes too. They asked him to carve one of their former chiefs “Crazy Horse” sitting on a galloping horse pointing towards their lands. Crazy Horse was quoted as saying “my land is where my people lie buried” when the US government was trying to put the Native Americans on reservations. The four faces at Mt. Rushmore would fit in the face of Crazy Horses face. This is a very large rock excavation project and that is where my interest lies in this undertaking. Our drive across South Dakota was uneventful. We drove 417 mile and stopped at exit 62 on I-29 midway between Sioux Falls, SD and Sioux City, Iowa. I decided to drop down to I-80 here rather than drive through Chicago on Thursday. Tomorrow we plan to drive to Davenport, Iowa which is about 400 miles.

Progress at Crazy Horse

Typical South Dakota landscape

Day 34

2007-07-30T19:35:00.001-07:00

Monday – After catching up this morning with what we thought had to be done we left Billings at 10am. It took over three hours of internet time so as it was. Today we drove 350 mile to Custer, SD and are camped at a site a few miles south of the Crazy Horse Memorial. Today we passed the half way mark from home to Hyder, Alaska so I guess since it is closer home than to Alaska we will come home. We also said good bye to Montana and Wyoming today and since Montana would be our choice to live will set our eyes on PA. We know that the Lord has called us to the work at Reading at this time so we are eager to get home next week and seeing all our friends at Shiloh. We have been gone long enough and miss you all. We are looking forward to seeing most of you on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday night of next week. Till then may the Lord bless and keep you!

We saw lots of train cars loaded with coal. We went past a
huge open strip coal mine. Each train was over a mile long
with two engines up front and two engines at the back with
about 125 cars.

Day 33

2007-07-30T19:15:00.001-07:00

Sunday - We went to church today with the Swartzentuber’s and had a wonderful time worshiping with the group there. Five of the seven families come from Lancaster Co. so we made a lot of connections in the fellowship time after church and around the lunch table at the Swartzentruber’s. We needed to drive to Billings, MT on Sunday to keep up with our schedule. We finally got off at 4:30 and got to Billings around 10pm. That kind of was what we planned since we were going to stay in a Flying J truck stop for the night so we would have a good wifi connection. Something we didn’t have since Saturday morning and we were getting on behind in our email. We wanted to park after dark so it would be cooler since we didn’t have electric. From Billings we have about 2300 miles home.

Craig & Marita Swartzentruber and family

The harvest is infull swing in Montana

Day 32

2007-07-30T08:12:00.001-07:00

Saturday – We had a relaxing day at Glacier Park. The yellow shuttle took us from the east entrance to the top at Logan Pass. We saw at least15 goats and 5 Bighorn sheep. We were at the Park for about 5 hours and then went south on route 89 to Fairfield, MT. That was another beautiful drive with some really rolling hills with anything from brush land to wheat and hay fields and various areas that were irrigated. At times it was very hazy and almost on the dark side because of smoke from the wild fires. There are 23 wild fires burning in Montana at this time. Tonight we are staying with Craig and Marita Swartzentruber and will be going to church with them. Craig is the pastor at a new BMA congregation starting in Vaughan, MT that should have a name in about two weeks.

Do you see the goat peering at you?

Day 31

2007-07-30T07:59:00.001-07:00

Friday- We decided to have an easier day then the last few, and to rest a little before we make a dash across the states. Our plans are to leave Great Falls on Sunday afternoon, stop at Crazy Horse Tuesday am. and be in Goshen, Indiana Thursday afternoon to spend the evening with Larry and Vanita Burkholder. Before we left Calgary we washed the motor home. We hope that we are about finished with dusty and muddy dirt roads. It was a beautiful ride through the prairie where the farmers were busy making hay and combining grain. After waiting 40 minutes at the USA border we drove south to Shelby, Montana and got a campsite. Since we got here we found out that at the east entrance of Glacier Park they are running a free shuttle to Logan Pass. We are only 90 miles from the east entrance so we will go to Glacier Park tomorrow. We were there twice before and love to watch the wildlife at Logan Pass. After that we will drive to Fairfield, about 120 miles and spend the night there.

Day 30

2007-07-27T09:20:00.000-07:00

Thursday - Today proved to be another interesting day. We toured the town of Jasper which was basically a town of shops in all kinds of forms to get you to spend any money you might not have spent yet. And the town was full of people stumbling over each other and fighting for parking spaces. We did find a nice secluded picnic area by a lake along route 93A (a scenic route that few people traveled) where we ate lunch. The rest of the day there were people everywhere by the hundreds. I guess we were spoiled by seeing a lot of God’s magnificent creation with only a few people around. When we got to Lake Louise there was a traffic jam to get into the parking lot. You couldn’t get a campsite anywhere in the parks so we decided we seen enough of people and drove to Calgary and did in one day what we had planned on doing in two days. In spite of all the people and traffic we did see three deer and one big horn sheep.
Tomorrow we plan to head towards Great Falls, Montana. We are planning on attending Mountain View Fellowship in Fairfield, Montana on Sunday, Lord willing. Enjoy some of the scenes we where privileged to see today.

Route 93A where we found a nice picnic area

Picnic area by the lake

Athabasca Falls

Lake Louise

Day 29

2007-07-26T07:29:00.001-07:00

Wednesday – After catching up on the blog and helping Ryan with some business matters, we left the campsite about 9:45. We planned a big day, 430 miles to get to Jasper, Alberta. Till we finally parked in an IGA parking lot we had driven 480 mile. The local Wal-Mart and the IGA both welcome RV’s to park in their lots. I guess there aren’t enough of campsites because everything was full. We lost an hour when we crossed into Alberta so now we are 2 hours behind what we call home time.
The trip was beautiful with a mix of hay land and cattle in some areas and pine forest in other areas. This was the scenery except for the last 80 mile when we got into the Rockies. Jasper is in the middle of the Rockies and also in the middle of Jasper National Park. Tomorrow we will go south through Jasper National Park and then into Banff National Park. The two parks are connected and all the campsites are public owned so we will more than likely be out of touch till we get close to Calgary on Friday afternoon.

Day 28

2007-07-25T07:51:00.000-07:00

Tuesday – We woke up to a light rain again this morning and again it rained off and on all day. We spent about 4 hours in Hyder hoping to see the bear snag fish out of the river. They have been seeing a Grizzly and her three cubs but we missed them. They were there at 6:00 am, before we got there and at 11:30am , when we were up on the mountain. That is still another adventure! We got to the bear viewing area about 9:30 and the rangers said it will more than likely be early afternoon before they would be back because the salmon run is light right now. So we decided to take a “beautiful 2 hour round trip” to the top of the mountain to view the glacier. They also told us that the road was only opened to the summit 4 days ago. They had a record amount of snowfall this year with about 40 feet at the bear viewing area. About 20 miles east of Hyder we had seen an area where an avalanche had come off the north slopes and broke the 12”-16” trees down 50’ up the south slope. My guess would be that there was at least ¼ mile between the bases of these mountain ranges. Well we proceeded through the valley to the top of the summit. First it was potholes that at best you could drive 5mh. Then it was mud slides, both coming down on the road and the road sliding off to make it a one lane path. On the upside you couldn’t see the top and on the down side would drop a couple hundred feet without guard rails. If that wasn’t enough when we were almost to the top the clouds came in and you could hardly find the road. The Lord provided us a place to turn around so we decided we had enough and went back down. We measured and timed our decent and it toke 11/4 hours to go 17 miles. When we got to the bottom they told us if we drove 17 miles we were basically at the top. They also told us we missed the bears by a half hour. We went into town and Debra checked out a gift shop, ate lunch, filled up with gas and set our sights on Houston, BC, a 250 mile trip. By now it was 3:00. We did see two more black bears and drove through rain. It cleared off in time for the sunset. Tomorrow we will try to get to Jasper, BC a 425 mile drive.

The glaicer from the mountain road

A Hoary Marmot. We seen many of these on the mountain
The mountain road
Another glacier seen from Rt. 37A

The sunset at the campsite

Day 27

2007-07-25T07:32:00.000-07:00

Monday – One thing I forgot yesterday. In Whitehorse and the surrounding areas they had their first killer frost on Saturday morning. We had seen evidence of frost on Friday in the higher elevations. Saturday night was the first time it actually got dark over night since we were in Minnesota. The locals are saying that they should have their first snow for the season within six weeks. I think it best that we are heading south.
This morning it was raining when we woke up and rained off and on all day. I changed the plugs, wires, cap and rotor this morning and now the motor home runs great again. Till I had all this done and we hung our sign at the “Sign Forest” in Watson Lake we got word that the road to Hyder, Alaska is open so we headed south via the Cassiar Highway (rt. 37). What a trip that was! Mix in a sometimes narrow road with flooded areas, landslides, new road construction, repaired washouts miles of dirt roads with so many potholes that you cannot avoid them all, steep grades up and down all while it is raining. We didn’t leave Watson Lake till 12:15pm so till we got 350 miles down the road in those conditions it was 10:30 till we pulled in a rest area at Bell1 and called it a day. The last few hours it did clear off and we seen a rainbow and we seen six grown black bear and two cubs. Like I wrote yesterday each day is another adventure!

Our sign with the other 65,ooo

Who said you can't go mudding with a motor home?

Day 26

2007-07-22T20:55:00.001-07:00

Sunday - You never know what a day might hold. We weren’t sure what we were going to do today but I cleaned up the distributor cap and rotor and taped an ignition wire that was leaking last night. We asked the Lord to reveal His will to us took a step of faith and left the campsite. After a test run the engine seemed to be running better and we felt the Lord leading us to drive to Watson Lake. I must admit that it would have been very easy to go to the auto parts store and buy the parts that I needed but as two weeks ago in the same town, I was not going to compromise my convictions and buy on a Sunday. We had a nice drive to Watson lake (220 mile) seeing what we had seen 15 days earlier but from a different direction. This is one section of the Alaskan Highway you cannot avoid backtracking. We did see two bear today and one was close enough that we got some pictures but not very good ones. We were planning on taking route 37 south from Watson Lake but when we got here we found out that route 37 is closed due to a bridge or two being washed out on Saturday during a very heavy rain. This means we need to backtrack the Alaskan Highway another six hundred mile the next two days. This also means that we won’t be able to have our last farewell to Alaska in Hyder because we would need to drive over 800 mile back north and then turn around and come back the same way. We just don’t have the time or the energy to drive an additional 1600+ miles. It is kind of disappointing but the Lord has our days planned so it will be exciting to see what happens.

Day 25

2007-07-22T00:06:00.000-07:00

Saturday – We left Chicken this morning at 6:00 so that we could be at the border crossing when they open at 8:00. It was only a 43 mile drive but it was an all gravel narrow road with steep grades up and down and switchbacks. Some places it would drop down a couple hundred feet right off the edge of the road without any guiderail. It was every bit of what we were told. Debra was not impressed. I also wanted to drive this while the border was closed so we wouldn’t have any oncoming traffic. We got to the border at 7:45 and where to sixth one inline waiting for them to open at 8:00. From there we finished our assent to the summit and drove across the “Top of the World Highway”. This road was 65 mile from the border to the ferry at Dawson City with most of it being above the timber line. The ferry took us across the Yukon River to Dawson City. The total trip of 108 mile with a border crossing losing an hour and the ferry ride took 6.5 hours. From there we set our sails for White Horse another 353 mile away. Got to the same campsite we had two weeks ago about 6:30. The last 20 mile we drove with some type of ignition problem that I haven’t tracked down yet. Our plans were to drive to Watson Lake tomorrow afternoon. Not sure if that will happen.

Road from Chicken to border crossing

Border crossing

Looking from the border crossing to the summit

Scenery from the top. Road in the background

Ferry coming in. Loaded double fuel tanker on board

Scenery on road to Whitehorse

Day 24

2007-07-21T22:57:00.000-07:00

Friday- I guess you could say we are now officially on our way home. We left Fairbanks this morning and headed east for 200 miles to Tok. We had another tire that wanted to retire so I changed it before it did any damage. We bought another tire in Tok. Had the tire mounted on the rim, put in place and filled with gas in 20 minutes. I know for Nascar that would be slow but I thought it was rather fast considering you need to pay for it too. From there we went north to Chicken, uphill all the way till we were above the tree line. Got a site that has satellite Wifi so I could upload two blogs but it is so slow it’s a chore to get email let alone send any. We are 40 miles from the Canadian border but we are told it is all narrow dirt road with switch backs and steep uphill grades with no guide rail. This will be the end of Alaska for us until Monday when we stop at Steward/Hyder and give our final goodbye.

The end of the Alaskan Highway. We drove every one
of those miles.

A model of the "State Bird"

The entrance of the Chicken Post Office

Day 23

2007-07-21T22:17:00.000-07:00

Thursday - We hit the road at 7:30 this morning and drove the 60 miles to the Arctic Circle in 2 hours then headed back to Fairbanks. Last Friday we where as far west as we are going and today we went as far north as we are going. So I guess we need to head for home.
I cannot begin to describe the scenery and pictures do not do justice. It is normal to climb a thousand feet or more and then right back down. Sometimes straight, sometimes around curves. One time I did manage to get it up to 50 on the road but most times it was about 30 going downhill and on the flats. Many hills I had to pull it down in first gear. From the Arctic Circle to Fairbanks it took us 6.5 hours to drive 186 mile. I had enough of this road so I was not even tempted to drive to Prudhoe Bay which is 400 hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle. We found a tire store in Fairbanks, to get another spare but they could not mount it before closing time so we are camping in Fairbanks tonight. Our last adventure in Alaska will be to drive to Chicken and then across the border to Dawson City via “The Top of The World Highway” which consists of another 70+ mile stretch of dirt road.
We met a guy today from Germany on the Dalton Highway who 1&1/2 years ago shipped a brand new motorcycle to Argentina and flew there, drove as far south as he could and then drove to the Arctic Circle for a total of 40,000 miles. He found someone in Anchorage who will buy his bike if he can get the paper work. He will then fly home. If he can’t get the paper work he will drive to the east coast and ship the bike home and then fly home. We have met many very interesting people from all parts of the world.

Airplanes are more important then vehicles.

Fireweed is the first plant to grow after a forest fire

Scenery - Do you see the road?

After enduring 4.5 hours of dirt road we have arrived.

Day 22

2007-07-20T07:23:00.000-07:00

Wednesday – After a long day yesterday and being on vacation, we did not get an early start today. Debra needed to get our clothes washed and I needed to get the blog up to date so it was about 10:30am till we left the campground. We had a nice trip to Fairbanks and after shopping at Wal-Mart and filling up with cheap gas($2.899@ gal.) we decided to go to the Arctic Circle. This trip consists of a 71mile drive to the Dalton Highway and then 115 miles of dirt road north on the Dalton Hwy. After driving about 50 miles on dirt road we had a tire that got tired of it and distorted the sidewall and threw some tread off which messed some things up. This was the opposite side from the last time but did not do any internal damage. We drove to the Yukon River at the only place you can get gas for 118 mile and parked for the night. I knew I needed to fill up with gas to make it to the Arctic Circle and had to pay $3.699@ gal. On the trip up at one place we had to stop for 20 minutes for construction and I got to talk to a trucker who runs one trip a week all year long from Anchorage to Prudhoe Bay and back which takes about 60 hours. He also stopped at the same place we did and I got to chat with him, (Cliff Baker) for about an hour. Keep Cliff in your prayers as he makes this trip every week with temperatures as low as -80. The company he works for hauls a lot of equipment to the bay for the oil companies. Some of the grades are very steep and the worst one we drove was a 9% grade for 2 miles. In the valleys there are 30 and 40 foot fills 2 lanes wide with no guard rail. He drives a 4 axle Kenworth with a 550 cat which is the standard company truck (seen a lot of them) and some loads they haul north are so heavy that they sometimes need to use 4 trucks pushing behind the trailer. We did see one empty lowboy going south with a pusher truck helping him up the hill. Cliff said he helped to push that truck up last week with a small load (only 205,000 lbs). He also wanted to know what Mennonites are.

Scenery on skyline drive west of Fairbanks

Standing at the pipeline

Road leading to Dalton Hwy.

Beginning of Dalton Hwy.

Scenery along highway

Typical company truck Cliff drives

Warped tire

Yukon River bridge with pipeline in background

Day 21

2007-07-18T10:12:00.000-07:00

Tuesday – Had a good time on the shuttle with Jims and Calebs touring part of the 6 million acre park. We saw caribou, wolf, golden eagles, grizzly bear and snowshoe hare (bunnies). Then we saw a dog sled demonstration. Very interesting. Jim and Sherry made supper for the six of us. Jim is a hunter in their home area and brought along some of their meat. So we were treated to bear burgers-very good. Jim and Sherry are celebrating their 20th anniversary, we are celebrating #25 and Caleb and Karen are celebrating their 30th anniversary. We discussed going to Switzerland together in five years to celebrate 25th, 30th and 35th anniversaries. A lot can happen in five years.

An Alaskan sunrise

Mt.Mckinley

A Ptarigan

A wolf looking for road kill

Two of the dog sled dogs

Caleb and Karen

Jim and Sherry

Day 20

2007-07-18T09:57:00.000-07:00

Monday – Today we drove from Wasilla to Denali National Park. Mt. McKinley is located in the park. We got to see the mountain which they say is only visible to 20% of the visitors because of the clouds. We are not lacking for things to do. And that is why this posting and yesterday’s is late. Tomorrow morning we need to be at the park by 5:45am to go on a 8 hour shuttle ride in the park. We hope to see more of Mt. McKinley and some wildlife. We are planning to meet up with Jim & Sherry and Caleb & Karen for the shuttle ride.

Our first view of Mt.McKinley

Mt.McKinley

Scenery along the way

Entrance to the park

Day 19

2007-07-18T09:41:00.001-07:00

Sunday - We went to Northern Light Mennonite Church todaya couple miles south of Wasilla. Leroy Martin (see day 15) preached out of Jonah. The first verse says” Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah”. What is my response when the Lord speaks to me? Jonah had a number of responses and at the end of the book it kind of lets us hang. Is your walk with the Lord clear enough for others to know what the outcome will be.
Life is full of surprises and Sunday morning was no different. There were other travelers from PA at church. Jim and Sherry Histand and Caleb and Karen Hess. Sherry is my cousin Wilmer Allgyer’s daughter and Jim and Karen are siblings. They are from northern PA and are travelling together. As we shared stories we realized that we camped at the same site last Sunday but didn’t meet. After church we went to Marcus’s for lunch with Jim’s and Caleb’s. Sherry and Marcus are cousins. Late afternoon we had a small Allgyer reunion at our campsite with David and his children joining us. After David left the rest of us went up to Hatcher Pass and enjoyed the wildlife and scenery. We also discovered that Davey Burkholder’s sister, Debra, lives with Jim and Sherry during the school year while she is teaching.

Allgyer Reunion - Jim&Sherry, Marcus,Martha&family
Debra&I, David,Lance&Amy

A wolverine on Hatacher pass

Day 18

2007-07-15T08:58:00.000-07:00

Saturday - It was a cold rainy day today. Temperatures were in the 40’s when we got up this morning. Our ride north to Anchorage was kind of boring compared to the last few weeks. The clouds were so low that we could only see ¼ to ½ of the mountains. As we got into Anchorage it did clear off some. We did meet with my cousin David in the afternoon. He showed us around town and we eat at a very good Mexican Restaurant. His wife Robin recently broke her leg (a compound fracture) and is in a lot of pain so we did not get to meet her. We had a good time together and are looking forward to meeting with them and Marcus’ tomorrow afternoon at our campsite. After we came out of the restaurant the sun was shining brightly but only for a short time. We were soon driving through rain again.

Salmon swimming upstream

David and myself

Some pictures of the Anchorage Harbor - low tide

Day 17

2007-07-14T07:44:00.001-07:00

Friday- Had a nice leisure drive to Homer today. Only drove 221miles for a total now of 5,600. Another mountain range and valley, with yet different scenery. Homer is a fishing town and the seafood is very good! Temperatures never reached the 70’s and there was a strong wind off of the bay. It was on the chilly side. Tomorrow we plan on driving back to Anchorage and stopping to see me cousin David Allgyer, before we go to Wasilla where another cousins’ son lives – Marcus Allgyer. We plan on going to church with them and should see Leroy and Lucy Martin and their family if their trip went well since we parted. They went north and we went south. Check out the special treat we had at our campsite tonight.

We found this neat chainsaw carving place

Who will get the fish?

Looking over the Bay on top of the hill from Homer

Ok you off road guys!A fully equipped van with

kitchen. Bumper up front is sturdy enough to

take out six inch trees and has handyman jack.

If you swamp it pull off the kayaks and your on

your way. If you get hung up on a rock, get the

bikes. Only trouble I can see- it's a Ford

Debra on the beach at Homer, AK

A treat at our campsite- a mother and two calves

Day 16

2007-07-13T07:40:00.001-07:00

Thursday - Today we got a late start. Since it was late till we got a campsite we did not check our email till morning after getting up around 8:00. The modem was awful slow so it took a lot of time and it was way too slow to be able to update the blog. We drove to Seward today, another fishing town which was a 300 mile drive. If you have been following us on a map you can see that the towns of Skagway, Valdez and Seward are on the bay in the southern Alaska. To get to these towns from the north you need to drive over the mountains. Since there is only one road you need to go back the way you came unless you take the ferry. What amazes us is how God created each one of these mountain passes so different and how the scenery is unique on each drive. Pondering this I was reminded that each one of us is created uniquely and just as the mountains praise God by showing their splendor, each one of us must bloom where and how He has created us. Not looking at others and wishing we were like someone else but to be the person that God has created thereby giving Him the glory He deserves. We did get to Seward by 5:00, got the last campsite available, checked our email and went to town. We got back about 9:30. The clouds were low so we didn’t get the best pictures

A glaicer in the background.

Lakes in the meadowland

God's colorful creativity

The bay at Anchorage with the tide coming in.

The bay at Seward

Another shot of the bay

Day 15

2007-07-13T06:37:00.000-07:00

Wednesday – God truly works in mysterious ways. We camped at a campground at Tok and this morning I was sitting at a table at the laundry (this is where the wifi worked) uploading my blog when this Mennonite lady came to do her laundry and to make a long story short it was Leroy Martin’s from Missouri. Leroy was a minister at Blue Ball Mennonite until they moved to Missouri about five years ago. Leroy and I got to talking so we didn’t get off till after 9:00. Filled up with gas @$3.51/gal. and headed for Valdez, a 260 mile drive. Another beautiful drive. We seen the Alaskan Pipeline for the first time and had our first opportunity to walk up to a glacier. When we got to Valdez we toured two museums and learned more about the pipeline construction and the earthquake on Good Friday in 1964 that completely wiped out the town. It was 7:00pm till we left Valdez and we decided to drive back to Glenallen which consisted of a 115 mile drive with a 12 mile section rising almost 3,000 feet. We stopped at 6 campsites till we found one that had a space available. Tomorrow we plan on going to Seward. Two items of praise I much share . one has to do with our trip one doesn’t. The first one is a few days ago I talked about the heater core leaking. It keeps getting colder every morning and this morning after we started driving it was really cold. We were praying that somehow we could use the heater without it leaking too much. When our faith was strong enough I turned on the heater and guess what? God fixed the heater! No leaks!
The other one is, we got word from home that the plans for the Discipleship Center came back stamped approved. This was a long process that was started about a year ago. And with that my plumbing license is ready for me to pick up at Kenhorst Borough. God is good!

A phone in the wilderness

The silver line above the lake is the pipeline.

Dwayne, I couldn't get the motor home up the hill

so I guess we will be driving home!

An upclose of the crystals that form the glacier.

The sunset on the snow covered mountain.

Day14

2007-07-11T07:07:00.000-07:00

Tuesday – We made it to Tok today but what a trip! The scenery was beautiful, as you will see in the pictures but the frost heaves were horrible. Some were that bad that we had to slow down to 20 miles per hour so we could stay in our seats. I know some of you young guys would think it sweet to see a fully loaded motor home getting air but when you land it is not a good feeling. And I am not into making more repairs after yesterday. By the way we had about 350 miles of this with 125 miles in the very severe category! This was in the area of the coldest recorded temperatures in Canada at -84 degrees. This area also sees more than half of the days a year below freezing. It was 50 degrees this morning when we got up and as we drove west it got colder. There was a very strong cold wind with cloudy skies which kept the temperatures down most of the day. Tonight here at the campsite it is very nice with the temperature in the upper sixties. We are now in Alaska to stay for approximately 10 days. A dream come true after 25 years. Thanks to our church family for allowing us to experience our dreams. Thank you very
much!

A retired army truck that helped build the Alaskan Highway in 1942.

Day 13

2007-07-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

Monday – I got up this morning at 4:30am local time. We actually got to bed by 9:00 last night of course it was still very light. It seems like it is light all night. I did get a good picture of the mountains this morning. We left camp before 8:00 and headed for White Horse so I could fix the damage to the motor home form Saturday. On the way to town we came across the world’s smallest desert. I parked in the parking lot of the hardware/lumber store and even had a tire store right against the parking lot. I was fixed for the day and didn’t get finished with the repairs till 6;30. Tomorrow we will head to Tok but I doubt will make it there since it is 432 miles away with the border crossing 308 miles. It depends how long we get delayed and how much time we spend at various points of interest.

Day 12

2007-07-09T05:42:00.000-07:00

Sunday - Today it was 54 degrees in our camper when I got up. About noon we decided to take the trip to Skagway since we wanted to be in White Horse tomorrow to get supplies and fix the motor home. Skagway, Alaska is about 100 miles south of White Horse, Yukon via route 2. It is the only way to get to Skagway by vehicle. Skagway is where most prospectors started their over land journey to get to Dawson City, Yukon in the gold rush of 1898 arriving in Skagway by boat. It is quite a story of determination, reckless abandonment and sacrifice to rush after that ever elusive gold. As I ponder, it is not much different today as so many give up many good things in life to chase after wealth. If only they could see and taste the riches that can be had in Christ Jesus.
After about an hour’s drive south we began again to see beauty in creation we had never seen before. And till we reached the summit we again could not understand how some can believe that this beauty could happen with a bang. You could see God’s handy work and His creativity everywhere you looked. This trip was definitely the high light of our trip so far. At the summit the wind chill factor was about 30 degrees. We met a couple on their honeymoon who was trying to get a picture of themselves at the Alaska sign. We offered to take it for them but they thought it might embarrass us because they wanted to kiss. We told them that we are on our 25th honeymoon and that is what married couples should do.
Enjoy the pictures!

Day 11

2007-07-08T09:20:00.000-07:00

Saturday - We woke up to a cool and crisp morning in the low fifties and overcast. We left camp before 8:00 and didn’t drive long before it started raining and it got colder. I forgot to mention that the other day we thought it was a little cool while we were driving so I turned on the heat only to realize that the heater coil leaks. Anyway we were about to stop and start the generator to run the heater in the motor home and then the sun came out. We drove to White Horse (490 mile) and seen lots of wildlife even seen a herd of 61 buffalo. About 15 miles west of Watson Lake we had some tire tread that decided it was tired of going round and round and wanted off. Of course it did this without telling me so when it jumped off it made a mess of things. It ripped out the sheet metal fender well under the kitchen cabinets plus got a hold of the main 12 volt wiring harness. It reminds me of what happens to our lives when we jump off of the potter’s wheel when God is molding and shaping us. Well I need to fix this up since it is all open under the kitchen and will make a real mess if it rains or we go down a dirt road. We didn’t get to White Horse till 6:15 and by that time their version of Home Depot was closed. I must remind you that when this happened, we where 250 miles from White Horse and that was the closest place to get material to make the repairs. Since tomorrow is Sunday we have to rethink our trip plans. We were planning to head north of here to Dawson City and then to Tok, Alaska but there are dirt roads that way plus we won’t be able to get materials till we get to Tok. It also is a two day trip. Here are some pictures of the day

Day 10

2007-07-08T08:20:00.000-07:00

Friday- Since we didn’t have internet service for two days we had a lot of catch up to do with emails. Thanks to those who keep us informed. And I had to write this blog for two days because there were too many other things to do. Because of this we did not leave Dawson Creek till 10:30. We drove to Toad River (400 mile) and got a campsite at 7:15. We are in the midst of the Rockies and each house and business has their own generator for electric power. Prices are high. The last time we filled up with gas we paid $1.37@ liter, which I think equates to $5.185@ gal. There is a restaurant here at the campsite and a hamburger will cost you $7.95. But don’t let that scare you away if you are planning a trip through here. I cannot begin to put in words the beauty of God’s vast creation. Pictures do not do justice to the beautiful sights that our eyes behold. I am reminded of how in significant I am in the scope of God’s creation. My thoughts again are directed the book of Job chapters 38-41 where God questions Job about the creation and what part did he have in it that he could question the actions of the Almighty God. And then I realize that God is a God of detail in every aspect of His creation including you and me. He makes no mistakes and He loves me so much that He gave His very own Son, who so willing gave His life so that be accepting Him as Savior and Lord of my life I can have an intimate relationship with Him. And He continues to love me even when I sin but with a greater love when repent and come back to Him. He does all this for me and displays a lot of patience with me while the vast expanse of His creation keeps praising Him without fail. Who am I that a King would bleed and die for?
Here are some shots of the beauty our eyes have beheld.

Day 9

2007-07-06T08:39:00.000-07:00

Thursday- Look where we are!

And another 10 miles after driving 3100 miles we have arrived at the beginning of the Alaskan Highway.

So what does this mean? Well we are now three hours behind time at home which is messing us up. It will not be dark till almost midnight and will be light by about 3:30. And with the time change midnight is our 3:00am! It also means we only have 1270 mile left to the state of Alaska. Debra is thinking she should have paid closer attention in geography class so she would have understood better how far it is to Alaska. I am not sure she understands how big Alaska is once we get there.
We are enjoying a change of scenery. We drove through aspen forest between the prairies where they grow mostly hay and canola.

We also encountered some more road construction.

Some more shots

And just up ahead is Dawson Creek

Day 8

2007-07-06T08:21:00.000-07:00

Wednesday – Today we left the campsite a little before 8:00am which is considered early by camper’s standards. We drove to Saskatoon and found a hot spot at a Flying J truck stop where we were able to check our email and post for the last two days.

We didn’t take many pictures today. Much the same as yesterday. It did change a little about 50 miles before we got to Alberta. I guess the gas price is high enough that it pays to drill new natural gas wells. They are drilling lots of them. Because of this the locals are telling us jobs are plentiful and housing is nonexistent. A clerk at a 7/11 store gets $15@hour. The workers on the oil fields start at $40@hour. Real estate has doubled in the last two years and if you can find a one bedroom basement apartment it will cost you $950.
we encountered a strong head wind today so strong that we only got 200 mile out of 29 gallon of gas. At least it wasn’t a cross wind. I don’t think we could have continued.
We drove to Edmonton and even to the West Edmonton Mall and decided we didn’t loss anything there and continued on. It was the first time I seen a mall with parking garages around two sides. From there we continued west on 16 and then north on 43 and stopped at a campsite in Sangudo,AB

Ice Cream shop at campsite

Some shots of the landscape.

Day 7

2007-07-04T07:55:00.001-07:00

Tuesday – We have had beautiful weather since Thursday. Temperatures in the 70’s and very little humidity with today being the same. We drove 433 mile with two road construction delays where you had to wait for a pilot vehicle and one to wait for a house to come through. Each one of these toke 10-15 minutes each.

The other delay we had was after we pumped $120 (Canadian) of gas and our credit cards would not work. After a rather lengthy phone call we got the one working again. The card companies put a hold on them because of suspicious activity. We don’t usually use our cards this hard. We will try to get the other one taken care of when we have phone service again.
We stopped at Inglis, Manitoba and toured an old wooden grain elevator. The bins, which is the main part of the building where constructed of 2”x6” nailed together laying flat. When the bins where fully loaded the building could shrink as much as 4’because of the weight of the grain. Because of that it was of upmost importance to load the bins evenly or else it would start leaning like the Tower of Pisa.

As we were driving we seen thousands of acres of barley, wheat and flax. At times you could see the road ahead for 6 or more miles.
We stopped at a campsite 25 miles east of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan that advertized internet connection but the connection is for only to check your email. So once again I will have to wait till tomorrow. It appears that there are a number of hot spots in Saskatoon, so we plan on hitting the road early to see if we can get these posted.

We are planning on driving to Edmonton, Alberta which is approximately 350 mile. If all goes well we might make it to Dawson Creek, British Columbia on Thursday. That is the beginning of the Alaskan Highway.

Day 6

2007-07-04T07:41:00.000-07:00

Monday – We left Moorehead, MN at 10:30 this morning. I finally was able to get a post on the blog for each day. It was a long day since we need to average 330 mile a day in order to complete our trip in time. It took us 40 minutes to get through the Canadian border.

After that the drive went well to Steinbach, Manitoba. There we toured the Mennonite Village Museum. This was a settlement replica of the Russian Mennonites first immigration into Canada in the 1800’s. It is hard to imagine being plopped down in the middle of this vast desolate prairie that know body ever tilled with very few belongings needing to provide food and shelter before a harsh winter sets in. It makes me wonder if I would be willing to sacrifice so much so that the future generations would be able to enjoy religious freedom.
From there we drove north to Winnipeg and then west on route 1 to Portage la Prairie where we found a campsite. The campsite has no internet service so hopefully I can post this tomorrow. Since leaving the Winnipeg area we don’t have any phone service either and won’t till we get to Edmonton, Alberta which should be Wednesday.

Day 5

2007-07-02T07:46:00.000-07:00

Sunday - Paul Zimmrman’s moved to Minnesota in 2001 with some other families from Indiana and started a new Wissler settlement. They now have 13 families. Paul is a minister and we went with them to church.

Faith Mennonite Church, Brooten, MN

After church we drove to Moorhead, MN and got a campsite with WiFi so I can get caught up on this blog.

Moorhead, MN is right next to Fargo, ND. We now drove 1557 miles and have about 3000 mile to Alaska from here.

Day 4

2007-07-02T07:38:00.000-07:00

Saturday - We left the Martin’s at 1:30pm and headed for Brooten, MN. Debra became friends with Mary (Martin) Zimmerman before we met and they keep touch through a circle letter. Mary was from Martindale and her husband Paul was from Indiana. George Weber had part in their wedding and they where members at Martindale Mennonite Church for the first few years of their marriage.

The Paul Zimmerman family. Their oldest daughter is missing.

We had supper and breakfast with the Zimmerman’s. Eugene Weaver’s had breakfast with them the other week when Eugene was on tour for Olive Branch Missions.

Day 3

2007-07-02T06:42:00.000-07:00

Today we head for Osage, IA. We continued west on route 18to the Mississippi River. We thought we had plenty of time in our schedule but after two 20 mile detours for road construction on route 18, we had no extra time left. As we came into Prairie du Chien we got behind this truck.

I don't think you could go a mile in Reading like this till you would get stopped!

Here is the great Mississippi River

We wanted to stop at Debra’s cousin Shirley (Wenger) Sadler close to Osage,IA. We got there about 12:30 and visited till 2:00. They were planning on leaving for PA at 7:00pm

Phil, Shirley Sadler and family.

From there we headed a few miles north to Neil and Susan Martin. Neil is a farmer and Sue is a police woman working for Mason City, IA.

I helped Neil on the farm and Debra went along with Sue to work Friday night 11:00 pm-7:00am. They had a very busy night. The police had to book 7 to the County Jail that night. For more details make sure you talk to Debra.

I got to drive their Mini Cooper S (super charged).

Neil and Sue Martin (Sue is trying to stay awake after a very long night)

Day 2

2007-07-02T06:31:00.000-07:00

We had breakfast with Todd & Anita and then headed for a tire store to get two new tires. Upon having 6 tires and a spare that held air we left Goshen, IN and set off for Greendale, WI which is a suburb of Milwaukee. Greendale is home of Reiman publications which publishes Country and Farm & Ranch magazines. We toured the Visitors Center and ate at the restaurant.

This is Debra and I standing in front of the wagon that made a Cross Country tour a number of years ago.

Before we could go any further I again had to change a tire that the tire store had mounted earlier that day. For some reason the valve stem blew out of the rim. We then headed for Madison,WI and from there headed west on route 151/18 and getting a campsite just outside of Dodgeville,WI

Here is a picture of the sunset at the campsite.

Trip day1

2007-07-01T17:57:00.000-07:00

Day 1
It all started the first week of September 1982. While on our honeymoon we started dreaming and joking about what life might hold for us. What would we do for our 25th wedding anniversary? Why not take a trip to Alaska? What started as a joke was not forgotten and we talked about it every year. Well 25 short years later here we are.

This is my wife Debra and I, all ready to leave at 6:15am June 26th 2007 with our motor home we bought for the trip.

God has been good to us and blessed us with three sons and a dog among many other blessings in the past 25 years. Since the boys and the dog where not along with us on our honeymoon we decided to leave them at home.

Ryan, Ash, Dwayne and Houston

Ash helped his mother make a sign to put in the back window of the motor home.

It is really neat how so many people blow the horn give us thumbs up and even cheer as they go by. Good lasting marriages are a testimony and encouragement to the world.

We where almost at the Ohio/Indiana line when a truck pulls up beside us blows the horn and then motioned about a tire. I pulled to a stop on the shoulder to find what he was trying to tell me. I found a blown out tire on the right rear inside. Since there was not enough room to change the tire on the shoulder we drove about 5 miles to the toll booth and found plenty of room to work there. Just as I was ready to change the tire it rained for about 5 minutes.

Here I am jacking up the motor home to change the tire. This is when I realized I had two blown tires.

We did get to Todd Neuschwander’s in time for supper and then went with them to "care group".We had a good time with their group and watched a DVD entitled “Life Without Limbs”. It was a very moving story.

Always remember accept and praise God for what you have. Don’t become bitter at what you don’t have. Check it out at lifewithoutlimbs.org.

Todd & Anita.

Todd will be our evangelist September 11-16, 2007. Remmember to pray for Todd and his family as he prepares for the meetings.

Flat Tire

2007-06-30T07:53:00.000-07:00

Talked with Mike last night. Their trip is going smothly, although they have a hard tme getting to internet connections.
The only problem they got into soo far was thier Komatsu motorhome had a flat about an hour into their trip. it was then that mike discovered the behemoth does not come equipped with a jack! (Oh well, he probably wouldn't ave been able to handle it himself anyway). So he called up a buddy with a crane and a few hours later they were back on the road.

2007-06-30T07:34:00.000-07:00

One of Pastor Mike's other interests is earth-moving equiptment. In his younger days, he moved many mountains and filled in many valleys. His favorite brand of earth moving equiptment is Komatsu

This summer Mike and his wife are going to Alaska on a 6 week road trip. They bought a motorhome for the trip, and it was only after he plunked down the cash for his wanna-be winnebago that he learned Komatsu made a motorhome.

Here are the specifications:
Ground Floor: services, entrance, garage for 1 car (back of truck)
1st Floor: dining room, kitchen, toilette, DRIVING ROOM with little terrace.
2nd Floor: 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, and big terrace
Atic Floor: playroom

Under de hood: Komatsu Truck 930E-3SE, 2550 HP, Capacity 320ton, Max. Speed 40 mph.

MPG: .25