Manx 2 Alaska 2016

[hillmotorsports]

Curiosity question........

Does/did the spot tracker quit once you were on the ferry? Or is your ferry departure later in the day?
When I just checked it showed you at the ferry docks/waterfront in Prince Rupert still at 3:30 pm est.

[hillmotorsports]

May have had my question answered......
When I refreshed just now it shows their position to be on water instead of the docks.
Hopefully they made it ON the ferry and aren't paddling to catch up!!!

[vincent9993]

We left a little later (probably by 30 minutes but we're all safe on the ferry. Tracker will probably not work from car deck.


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[hillmotorsports]

Yup, tracker seems to have stopped just after leaving the dock.
Just think...a whole day without driving!
Enjoy....

[hillmotorsports]

I can only presume the tracker picked up an internet signal while going by the airport at Ketchikan as it planted a marker there. They should be further along now. We'll just have to wait.....

[vincent9993]

I can only presume the tracker picked up an internet signal while going by the airport at Ketchikan as it planted a marker there. They should be further along now. We'll just have to wait.....

The tracker picked up the satellites when they opened the ferry loading doors. We're just south of Petersburg. The scenery is breathtaking.


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[vincent9993]

CANA-LASKA DAY 7: June 21st

We left Terrace this morning around 7:05am. The sun seemed to be hidden behind clouds and we knew that it was raining in Prince Rupert where we were heading to catch the ferry to Alaska. It is really sad that it was raining early when we hit the road because the scenery was awesome. We were supposed to arrive 3 hours in advance. The custom agent was really nice. He suggested where to have breakfast in Whitehorse. Paul and Joe didn’t have a valid passport because it was not signed. For Paul, he came to Canada in December and again couple of days ago and nobody told him anything. Even Joe when he crossed to Canada couple of days ago didn’t had any problem. So not all the custom agent are doing their job correctly. I need to admit that it seems really complicated to figure out how to fit all the different size of each vehicle (bus, trailer, boat etc). It took forever to be able to go on the ferry. They allowed Dave and I to go first to be able to take pictures of the buggy coming through the ferry. The remaining of the day we talked. At Ketchikan, Howard, Joe and Jon needed to move their buggies to allow other vehicle to go out. We took that opportunity to go buy some vegetable and fruit (Joe and I) and some beers (Paul and Vincent). Back on the ferry, we talked again in our cabin (Paul, Vincent and I) and we missed the dinner (that was closing at 9pm). Almost all people on the ferry were sleeping at 10:30pm. It is presently 11:45pm and I am finishing the recap. As soon as we will have internet, we will sent it to you.

Mileage: 90 miles (145 km)
Province/State: British Columbia / Alaska
Temperature: Wet
Beer: 1 x Hop Thermia Double IPA, 1 x Icy Bay IPA, 1 x Freeride Pale Ale…after that, I was sleeping so I don’t know.

Good night!

Vincent et/and France.

[vincent9993]

CANA-LASKA DAY 8: June 22nd

Before we went to bed, we decided that we would be on the deck at 3:30am to take pictures, and more specifically our “groupfie”. Vincent didn’t want me to wake him up but the guys said that they will come to wake him up. I went to bed around 12:30am and put my alarm for 3:15am. Just before he fell asleep, Vincent told me: Make some noise tomorrow and I will see what I will do. I woke up around 3:20am and like he asked, I made some noise. I went out alone of the cabin because my man was “still dreaming”. I did at least twice the tour of the ferry…nobody from my group was there. I decided to take few pictures. I was really awake and didn’t want to go back to bed. Finally around 3:40am, Jon showed up. I asked him where was the guys and them as well were all dreaming. We decided to take the picture only the two of us. Finally, Joe and Paul joined us around 4:10am. The scenery was so gorgeous. It was really too nice for Vincent to miss it. I went back to the cabin and I woke him up around 5:00am and told him that he should join jus otherwise he will regret it. He joined us about 10 minutes later. It was really windy in the front of the boat and a little bit chill but with that gorgeous scenery, I was able to forget the wind and the cold. During the breakfast, we got the chance to see whales. Hard to take picture of them but you will be able to see a spot on one picture and we can confirm you that it is a whale. When we were supposed to go out of the ferry, Jon’s buggy didn’t start…the battery was dead. Joe put a rope behind his dune buggy and pull Jon’s buggy out of the ferry. When the battery was recharged, no more problems. It is now official, my dune buggy has visited 49 states in USA, and this, within only 24 months (7 in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 3 this year). It is now time to build another one to visit again the 49 states. Before going to the hotel, we stopped to visit the Mendenhall Glacier. We could not ask for better weather…blue sky, not too hot or too cold, we can admit that we were spoiled. You will find that the pictures are talking by themselves…it’s breathtaking. For dinner, Joe and I we struck eating crab legs…it was delicious. I even dared to take oysters for entry, yummy.

Mileage: 19 miles (31 km)
State: Alaska
Temperature: Windy and cold at 3:30am, nice and comfortable in Juneau (approx. 77F / 25C)
Beer: 1 x Smash Galaxy IPA, 1 x Haines Black Fang and Alaskan IPA beer in the hotel room of the boys.

Good night!

Vincent et/and France.

[vincent9993]

CANA-LASKA DAY 9: June 23rd

This morning we woke up early because we wanted to drive with Dave and Howard to the ferry terminal. It was nice outside and the temperature showed 50F (10C). When we came back from the terminal, the guys left me at the hotel while they were doing oil changes on their dune buggy. I took the opportunity to do my laundry. When the oil changes and laundry completed, we went to a place called “End of the Road”. The scenery was so beautiful. I am running out of words to describe the beautiful landscapes that we see. For lunch, I wanted to go to Tracy’s King Crab Shack, but Vincent didn’t seem like the menu. So we went to Red Dog Saloon. I had the urge for crab leg but unfortunately no crab legs on the menu at the Red Dog Saloon. Too bad, you will eat them another day. Thank god Joe made a comment like it would have been better in Tracy’s. I told him: Let’s go. I didn’t have to say that twice. Vincent, Jon and Paul stayed at Red Dog Saloon and Joe and I went to Tracy’s King Crab Shack…we didn’t regret our choice. After lunch, we played tourists downtown Juneau. It was so nice that finally we decided to return to our buggy and visit the roads in every directions. We returned to the hotel by the end of afternoon. The guys did few adjustments to their buggies. For dinner, we decided to have delivery.

Mileage: 148 miles (238 km)
State: Alaska
Temperature: Min 50F (10C) Max 79F (26C)
Beer: 1 x Alaskan Amber, 1 x Alaskan Icy Bay IPA


Good night!

Vincent et/and France.

[vincent9993]

CANA-LASKA DAY 10: June 24th

Another beautiful day just ended. We started with the “au revoir” to Juneau around 6am this morning. We were supposed to be at the ferry terminal for 6am. We were almost first to go in the ferry. The temperature was not really nice. It was not raining but really cloudy. I need to admit that when I was on the front of the boat, outside to take pictures, it was less windy and cold than when we did the ride from Prince Rupert to Juneau. We were supposed to arrive at Skagway, AK around 2:15pm, but we arrived around 3pm. We were supposed to go to the Yukon Transportation Museum before their closure at 6pm. I need to admit that the sceneries of Skagway (Alaska), Fraser (British Columbia) and Yukon is my favorite so far. Each time we had a turn or a hill, we never knew what would be on the other side. On top of that, the sun came out. It was just FANTASTIC! Due of the late arrival of the ferry and time change, we knew that we would not arrive on time at the museum. As soon as we got cellular coverage, Vincent called the museum to let them know that we would not be onsite on time (we were about 44 miles (70km)) from them. They were nice enough to tell us that they will wait for us. We arrived around 7pm and they were in the parking lot, ready to take video of us…it was really cool. We did the tour of the property with the explanation of Murray and Sherry. Two really nice person. We gave them a frame were the shirt of our adventure was signed by all on us. If you pass by, please stop to say hello to them, they are really welcoming and the museum is really nice. We arrived around 8:10pm at the hotel. We didn’t want to go too far for dinner. Adjacent to the hotel, a saloon was there. We decided to go there. It was one of best place since the beginning of our trip. Joe and I eat a Bison Burger that was delicious. To add to the ambiance, a band was playing music that made our evening even more memorable. It is really too cool…11:30pm and I can still see the sun and on top of that, the Royal Bank is just in front of the hotel….from my window, I can see it. We are truly blessed by life and we will never say thank you enough to God for all these wonderful days. We hope that all our friends and family enjoyed the St-Jean Baptiste celebration.

Mileage: 118 miles (190 km)
State/Provinces: Alaska, British Columbia, Yukon
Temperature: Min 50F (10C) Max 79F (26C)
Beer: 1 x Yukon Ice Fog, 1 x Yukon Red, 1 x Yukon Black and probably one more when I left.


Good night!

Vincent et/and France.

[ManxManiac]

Absolutely incredible & fantastic photos!!! I have a cousin that lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, but he & his family are vacationing in Arizona for another month!!! They love it in Whitehorse, but as he says, they have to visit other relatives in Arizona for a couple months "every year" to refill the heat in their bodies!!! LOL
I've never been to the transportation museum, but have read quite a bit about it & seen lots of photos of the place!!!
Thank you again for all the awesome photos & your nightly recap of the day's activities!!!
Be safe & keep having FUN FUN FUN on the trip home!!

[vincent9993]

CANA-LASKA DAY 11: June 25th

Oh boy, what a long day. We left Whitehorse around 6:30am. Nice sun outside, but a little bit cold (54F / 12 C). Again today we saw nice sceneries. Different kind of vegetation, rock etc. Everything went well until we stopped on a side of the road. We were trying to find what was the strange noise from the back of Joe’s buggy. After verification, a broken valve spring. This was not good because the dune was not able to ride anymore. For those who think that a Kick Out SS is only good for the street you are wrong. Last October, we went off road with the Kick Out when we were at Manx on the Banx. So today, we used the Kick Out as a towing. Yes, we were at 2.4 miles (3.9km) from the closest town. We attached Joe’s buggy behind the Kick Out to go to Nuggets. In that town, nice people were there. They made one phone call and bingo, we were able to go to Watson Lake where a guy would probably be able to help us. We use again the Kick Out as a towing for another 15 miles (24km). In that town, you can see the Sign Post Forest where people leave signs there as souvenirs. The guys spent a little bit more than 2 hours to repair the buggy. We were able to go back on road for Fort Nelson. On the road, we crossed many different kinds of animals, fox, rabbit, bears, buffalos and deers. One of the deer was not really brilliant…he walked (or I should say ran) in front of us for about 2 minutes. We stopped at the Liard River Hot Springs. At that place, the water is really hot. I was not really able to stay in the water. The scenery was really nice. We arrived late at Fort Nelson (pass 9pm). For dinner, we went to Boston Pizza because the restaurant was open until midnight. Tomorrow, if everything goes well, we will do a detour to go to the Northwest Territories…we are crossing our fingers.

Mileage: 592 miles (953km)
Provinces: Yukon, British Columbia
Temperature: Min 50F (10C) Max 81F (27C)
Beer: 2 x Rickard’s Red


Good night!

Vincent et/and France.

[vincent9993]

CANA-LASKA DAY 11: June 25th

Today was supposed to be a short day but like I mentioned yesterday, we decided to do a little detour (a little more than 200 miles / 325 km) to drive our buggies up to the Northwest Territories. So we did it. When we arrived at the NWT, a welcome committee was waiting for us. Almost a hundred mosquitos seemed to be really happy to see new skin and blood. On top of that, we didn’t see anything special on the road and we crossed only one truck. We can now say that buggy visited the NWT. To drive to our finale destination, nothing really special to report, still lot of wind today. A bear crossed the road in front of our dune buggy, but I was not quick enough to take a picture, sorry. We hed the opportunity to take few pictures at mile 0 of the Alaska Highway at Dawson Creek BC. We arrived at the hotel around 7:45pm. While I was going to our room to recharge the batteries of the electronic equipment and began the recap, the guys were cleaning their dune buggies that were really dirty. Joe decided to go to the car wash to clean his buggy and at the Tim Hortons just beside, he spotted two dune buggies. He asked them to come to the hotel the meet the rest of the group. It was Kathy, Joey and Lon who live here but didn’t know that we were coming because they are not part of the club. For dinner, we went to The Canadian Brewhouse. We are in Alberta and I was the only one who order beef, really funny my friends (including my husband).

Mileage: 570 miles (917km)
Provinces: British Columbia, Alberta
Temperature: Min 54F (12C) Max 81F (27C)
Beer: 2 x Goose Island IPA

[travlinlon]

It was really great meeting and chatting with you guys. Have a safe and enjoyable journey home!
(Lonn & Kathy/Grande Prairie, AB)

[vincent9993]

CANA-LASKA DAY 13: June 27th

Today we left Grande Prairie under a bright sunshine but a little bit chilly. Lots of construction on the road. I was looking forward to go back to Jasper and I was not disappointed. We had lunch on the roof of a restaurant, it was really a gorgeous day. The road between Jasper and Lake Louise is simply BEAUTIFUL. The color of the water change, the green of the forest contrast with the white of the snow, it is like a post card at each turn. If I was not here today, it would have been my bi-weekly call with my manager, I don’t want to say that it would have not been cool, but let say that I am really happy to have been on the road with the dune buggy today. Not only construction created delay on the road today. There are also the mountain goats. We saw many of them and we didn’t have a choice to stop. You will be able to see in one picture the thickness of snow still on few peaks, really impressive. When we arrived at the hotel, Vincent took the opportunity to clean the dune buggy, there had to be almost as many mosquitoes as when we went to the Northwest Territories. When the dune was cleaned, the guys relaxed buy drinking a beer. I passed my turn for dinner, first I have good reserves and secondly I wanted a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow we are staying around so no need to put the alarm at 4:30pm.

Mileage: 393 miles (633km)
Province: Alberta
Temperature: Min 54F (12C) Max 86F (30C)
Beer: 2 x McNally’s


Good night!

Vincent et/and France.