Bolt Hole Report, May 22, 2010

After I finished the deck staining (Hoorah!) on Friday morning, Terry and I drove up to the Bolt Hole to do inventory of the trailer and get it prepped for our Alaskan adventure.

The weather here int he northlands is beautiful. There's a fairly stiff breeze blowing, only a few high altitude cirrus clouds, and a temperature reaching into the upper 70s and low 80s. The breeze has been helpful in keeping the black flies in check. Not so much the deer flies, however. There's a slight (30%) chance of some showers tomorrow but we'll be on the road home soon after breakfast.

I cut the grass around the cabin this morning while she did some cleanup inside the cabin and began the inventory process. We were both surprised to see how much of the material/equipment we needed was already on board. It's been several years since the trailer went anywhere except to PA for its annual inspection and we haven't had any real camping experience since our last run to Colorado Springs. Even that was just four days out and five or so days back with a five or six day layover in Monument, CO--a few miles north of the Air Force Academy along the Front Range--as our destination. This Alaskan sojourn will be closer to 75 days in total--43 of them with the Good Sam Club crew touring the Alaskan Highway, Alaska, and British Columbia. The balance of the trip will be on our own as we stop just northwest of Chicago for a couple of days on the way outward bound (the DIL's parents are there), in Portland, OR for a weekend (son and DIL), and again in Colorado Springs for four or five days (good friends who have their own hot air balloon--hope the weather cooperates!). I've calculated we'll be on the road for approximately 12,000 miles.

But driving is not our only means of seeing things. Some time will be spent in the air (flying in the country north of Fairbanks and hot air ballooning just west of Pikes Peak), and some on the water (ferries to Juneau and Mendenhall Glacier, stern-wheeled paddle boats on the Yukon, and halibut fishing out of Homer).

We'll be leaving the Bolt Hole to head back to the Aerie in the morning. The poor kittehs are probably hoarse from trying to get us to come out of the bedroom and feed them. They would be happy to know that even without their wake-up call, we were out of bed at 6 AM today.

Only 17 days to go before we start!