Jello planning.......

6:45 am - Monday - January 6th - Ramona, CA - 63° F, 14% humidity, wind 20 mph out of the east by northeast.......clear, blue, warm skies today with a forecast high of 72° F.

I had four simple goals when I awoke Sunday morning......1) Wash the VW, 2) Vacuum the interior of the VW, 3) Air up the coach using my pancake compressor, and 4) Charge the Haibike battery up to 100%.  The rest of the time I planned to be watching two more NFL Wild Card games (Minnesota Vikings vs. New Orleans Saints, and Seattle Seahawks vs. Philadelphia Eagles).

Regarding the four goals, I washed and vacuumed the VW during half time of first game, and plugged in the Haibike battery.  During the half time of the second game I aired up the coach, and hauled the vacuum along with the recharge Haibike battery back to the trailer.  Now, one might think that would signal the end of today's blog post, but one would be wrong.

While I was 'watching' the NFL Wild Card games I spent quite a few hours at my laptop researching our route north to, and across the Canadian Border in northern Washington.  Now that we are officially into the year 2020, and just weeks away from rolling our wheels again our planning, such as it is, is in full swing.  TLE was busy reading through the 2019 edition of MILEPOST, while I spent time reading blogs of those who have already been to Alaska, and typing up a rough itinerary.

We have decided to meet up with Glenn and Laureen and their 1984 Newell at All Aboard America in Mesa, AZ in early April where we will have the drive trains of each Newell checked over thoroughly before we begin our long odyssey 'North to Alaska'.  From Mesa, AZ to the Canadian border it is 1,613 miles.  From the Canadian border through British Columbia to the Alaskan border is another 1,835 miles for a total of 3,448 total one way miles from Mesa, AZ.  So, before we drive one mile in Alaska we will be committed to round trip mileage of almost 7,000 miles.  We expect to enter Alaska in early June, and then spend at least 3 months, and 2,000+ miles touring Alaska........

......as is our long time practice, we have made only two reservations for the entire trip.....a week in Seward, AK over the 4th of July weekend (very necessary), and in Denali National Park (extremely necessary) in late July.  Glenn and Laureen have an appointment at A.M. Solar (Springfield, OR) in late April to have a solar system similar to our installed, so we will have about 10 days to cover just under 1,300 miles during that interval, with the possibility of 2, or 3 layover days.  Once we leave A.M. Solar our next reservation is Seward, AK.  After Seward we have several weeks before our reservations begin in Denali during which we will explore the Kenai Peninsula.  I have identified over night places along our route as far north as Dawson City, B.C., and a few alternatives if our first choices don't work out.  There is a lot more work to do just to create a basic Jello outline of our travels.  How it all pans out remains to be seen, but as my father often said, "Half the fun is planning the trip....", and that is true.

As was the case on Saturday, the two NFL Wild Card games on Sunday were also good games, and were decided late with two of the four games going to overtime.....it doesn't get much better.  So far 3 of the first 4 playoff games were won by the visiting teams, and it was almost a clean sweep for the visiting squads.  Looking forward to more great games next weekend!

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