Alaskan Adventures 2014 with Rich & Mary

Today is August 31.  We have been home for a little over a week and I thought it was time to take care of business and finish this wonderful last leg of our trip.  We spent our last day in Canada traveling though Manitoba.  Turtle Mountain Provincial Park was the place we found to stay in before going back into the states (also known as the lower 48!).  We really enjoyed staying in Canada's provincial parks. They are beautiful.  









On Aug. 17, after a good night's rest in a very quiet spot, we headed to the border. Before crossing the border, we paid a visit to the International Peace Gardens. Half of the gardens are in Canada and the other half is in the United States.  It covers over 3.6 miles of area with over 150,000 flowers planted each year.  It was towards the end of summer, so the garden was past its peak, but there was still a lot of beautiful landscaping to enjoy. 

We spent a couple of hours at the gardens and then headed to customs to see just what they might want to ask us about where we had been and just what we might be sneaking back with us!  The border guards asked a few questions, checked the back of our truck, and also had Rich open the trailer for them to inspect. With a friendly "have a good day", we were on our way.  



We traveled along Hwy. 2 through North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and then into Michigan.  We didn't take much time to be tourist at this point in our trip since that wasn't what was on our minds to do anymore.  Once we saw the "Welcome to Pure Michigan" welcome sign, we felt like we were back home, and home sounded really good.  We stayed at one of our favorite Upper Michigan parks on Aug. 20, which is Indian Lake State Park.   On Thursday, Aug. 21, we saw one of the best sites I can think of. It was the Mackinaw bridge! It is beautiful.  

Lake Mitchel State Park is another campground we like to spend time at. Our last night camping was spent there. My brother John lives near here, so a visit with him and wife Diane was a great way to spend our last night on the trail.  
After 12,500 miles of traveling down the road, seeing so much of God's awesome creation of mountains, rivers, and wildlife, we feel so blessed to have taken this trip without any problems with our truck and trailer, as well as both Rich and myself having nothing more than a bit of a head cold for a few days.  


We planned for our Alaskan trip for quite a few months.  It is a trip that we shall always feel was one of the best times of our life.  Something we didn't expect along the way was the vastness of the country which amazed us; the miles and miles of just land, trees and mountains that are in between the towns and the "no-man's-land" we saw. One of the amazing things about Alaska to us was the beauty that we saw. We would stand and look at the mountains and feel we were overwhelmed with trying to absorb it all.  The pleasant experience we had was meeting so many people from so many different parts of the world. We now have friends all over the U.S. and Canada that we spent time with and shared our trip with. Their friendship will always be a part of what made this trip so special.   


We would like to give our friends a huge "thank-you" who, before we left home, helped us plan for our trip   First and last, we give God the praise and thanks for covering us with His protection and guidance over the many miles of roads and spectacular ocean waters we traveled.  We look forward to planning another trip; just not 12,500 miles!