Lucy is on the road to Alaska

[Russ Abbey]

Brian and Sue Ellen,
I wanted to thank you for your kind postings and honest views of your trip. I enjoyed the trip I think as much as anyone else did and am now considering traveling form my Home in Virginia to Alaska ourselves. It sure won't be thins year or next, but we want to make the trip. I especially liked that you stayed off of the highways. That is the coolest facter of your trip I liked. To see this Wonderful Country from the old roads and byways is my dream. We may never get to Alaska, but we will tour the lower 48 if our health continues.

Again Thanks and have a wonderful vacation at home in your own beds without having to drive everywhere you go.

[moosetags]

Originally Posted by johnparris

Brian, great info. I really enjoyed following your trip, seeing your photos, and learning about some of the challenges of traveling to Alaska.

Overall it seems like your campground costs were reasonable, especially for last minute reservations and short stays. I've seen a lot higher costs virtually everywhere I've been so far, which is all east coast and over to Texas.

You did over 4300 miles of driving while not towing. That's cool! Lots of exploring. Surprising how quickly those miles add up.

Did you happen to keep up with food costs? I know that's harder to differentiate from everyday food costs when not on the road, but curious if you spent more dining out than you would normally. I haven't tracked my expenses on any trips so far, food or otherwise. Something I want to do on our next trip, out of curiosity more than anything.

Another question, think you'll do Alaska again? I wondered during your trip how you were feeling about it, particularly the weather issues and lack of views.

We're glad that you enjoyed Lucy's Alaska trip. We do our Airforums trip threads as much for ourselves as for the group. It gives us a permenant and comprehiensive record of our Airstream travels. We have been doing these threads for over ten years and have probably done about fifteen of them. They are a chronicle of our Airstream experience.

Our campground costs were noticeably higher in Alaska, but everything is higher in Alaska. I guess that it is getting the goods there that impacts the prices. We pretty much knew that it was going to be that way, so it was no surprise. On the other hand, we found that the campgrounds in Canada were about the same price as the l tripsower 48 when you factor in the exchange rate.

As far as tow vehicle mileage vs. the Airstream, this trip was amuch closer ratio than usual for us. On past trips, the ratio was much closer to 50%.

As far as food costs go, we did not track those expenses as we feel that we spend about the same on food whether we are at home or on the road in Lucy. We did not eat out in restaurants very often. we usually eat most meals in Lucy.

Would we do Alaska again? I don't know for sure. Our usual cross country Airsteam trips include a lot of small town exploration. This is our favorite thing to do. Northern Canada and Alaska do not provide a lot of opportunities in this area.

Brian

[ASfromAustin]

Glad you made the trip safely. We enjoyed our time with you in Valdez. Here's wishing you, Sue Ellen, Lucy, & Lillian many more years of 'streamin'!


Where to next trip?

[nsbcpa]

Thanks again for taking us along on your travels !

[moosetags]

Originally Posted by ASfromAustin

Glad you made the trip safely. We enjoyed our time with you in Valdez. Here's wishing you, Sue Ellen, Lucy, & Lillian many more years of 'streamin'!


Where to next trip?

Hi Carolyn and John,

We enjoyed our visit with you guys also. You also have safe travels. We are thinking New England for Lucy's next big trip.

SuEllyN and Brian

[Al and Missy]

Brian,

As usual, I really enjoyed riding along with you. I think I'd rather tour New England, the American West, and maybe even the Canadian Rockies and Atlantic coast before taking on Alaska. We had a northeast and Canada trip planned for this summer but had to abandon those plans for a body part replacement. Maybe next year.

Keep those blogs coming!

Al

[nsbcpa]

Originally Posted by moosetags

Hi Carolyn and John,

We enjoyed our visit with you guys also. You also have safe travels. We are thinking New England for Lucy's next big trip.

SuEllyN and Brian

Would like to hear your plans for New England. My wife & I would like to get up to Maine/Vermont next summer.

[Hickory1945]

As always I thoroughly enjoyed your trip postings. Can't talk the wife into going to Alaska so really looked forward to this trip.
Hickory

[moosetags]

Originally Posted by nsbcpa

Would like to hear your plans for New England. My wife & I would like to get up to Maine/Vermont next summer.

We have toured New England with Lucy several times in the past. We like to follow a western route and enter New York from Ohio. This allows us to avoid the I-95 debacle. It also routes us to stop in at Niagara Falls and visit the Finger Lakes. Keep in mind that we are starting from Central Time, Florida and this route is not out of our way as Santa Rosa Beach is due south of Indianapolis.

We will make our way across New York and into Vermont and New Hampshire. The small towns there predate the Revolutionary War. This is where the idea of America was born.

We will eventually continue into Maine. We will visit the coast, but we prefer interior Maine. We will visit Baxter State Park and the North Maine Woods, seeking out the ever elusive Moose.

We will most likely dip down into Massachussetts and Connecticut for more small town touring.

As far as a return trip, we will decide the route as we go. We always try to take a return route different from the trip up.

Brian

[Mollysdad]

Perchance did I see you on I-70 heading east last weekend?
I was heading west in central Missouri and the red truck with the distinctive topper and Airstream made me think of you!
Welcome home!

[moosetags]

Originally Posted by Mollysdad

Perchance did I see you on I-70 heading east last weekend?
I was heading west in central Missouri and the red truck with the distinctive topper and Airstream made me think of you!
Welcome home!

It couldn't have been us that you saw. We came south out of Salina to Wichita where we spent a couple of days getting Lillian new tires. We continued south from Wichita into Oklahoma, so we never got into Missouri. Also, we arrived in Santa Rosa Beach last Saturday afternoon. We spent last Friday night in Meridian, Mississippi.

Brian

[moosetags]

Originally Posted by Russ Abbey

Brian and Sue Ellen,
I wanted to thank you for your kind postings and honest views of your trip. I enjoyed the trip I think as much as anyone else did and am now considering traveling form my Home in Virginia to Alaska ourselves. It sure won't be thins year or next, but we want to make the trip. I especially liked that you stayed off of the highways. That is the coolest facter of your trip I liked. To see this Wonderful Country from the old roads and byways is my dream. We may never get to Alaska, but we will tour the lower 48 if our health continues.

Again Thanks and have a wonderful vacation at home in your own beds without having to drive everywhere you go.

We are glad that you enjoyed the Alaska trip with us. It was a great adventure for us. We had wanted to take the Alaska run for about ten years, but it never seemed to come together for us for various reasons. We are glad we did it, but found that we like meandering around the lower 48 better.

We have been Airstreaming for some time now, and try to stay off the Interstates whenever feasable. When we are traveling on the Interstates, we take many of the business loops through the small towns. We have always enjoyed seeking out and touring the small towns of America. That's why some of our travel days are less than 100 miles. This is why we rarely make campground reservations in advance. We are easily distracted and never know how far we are going to get on a given day.

We are glad to be back at the beach, but already have a couple of Airstream trips in mind for the Fall and Winter.

SuEllyn and Brian

[Gene]

If you want to see the trees change, you can follow them south once you get north. Over about 2-3 weeks the best colors will move south. The maples in northern New England are bright red and unlike any other tree in the fall.

The best time (never can be sure depending on weather, though diminishing light is the prime mover in leaf colors, but cold temps matter too) is to get to the Adirondacks by early October and then drive east through Vt. and NH and then on to Maine. I've never made it to the wild north part of Maine, so I'll be jealous when you do. There's a 200 year old wire bridge outside of New Portland that was the town's gateway to the west long ago. We got to Acadia NP and Bar Harbor Columbus Day weekend and tourist trinkets were discounted a lot. We started in western NY because we visited friends from Buffalo, but you could start in Maine. Western Mass. is hilly and pretty, but the rest of southern New England is very busy with loads of traffic. Lots of small towns to enjoy in the northeast.

Then we went back to the Appalachians and traveled south as the trees changed color, finally going home by the time we got to Tenn. Snow can happen—at Lake Placid we had two inches in the morning, but it melted off fast.

[trigal]

So enjoyed the adventure y’all were on,
Looked forward each day to your moosing adventures.
Glad you are back at the beach safe and sound.
Trigal

[moosetags]

Thank you for the kind words. We're glad that you enjoyed Lucy's Alaska adventure.

Brian