It’s been a long minute since I’ve recorded a song. Here is my rendition of Madman Across the Water by Bernie Taupin and Elton John. I remember buying this masterpiece album when I was in high school (just a couple of years ago).
With a little help from “Eva” the 109 year Violin, (a little amped up) I put my own little twist with my limited resources… AKA… no orchestra nor band.
Since I was a teenager, and after seeing a TV special on Alaska, I’ve wanted to see this magical place for myself. Years ago, my Aunt and Uncle sold their home for big RV and spent over a month traveling from California through the Yukon to Alaska. After hearing their stories, I knew THAT was how I wanted to see Alaska. I wanted to head into the interior and spend quality time with the people who live there. Fast forward to age (almost) 63 and I’m finally getting to Alaska. As I would love to do an entire month traveling around in an RV like my aunt and uncle, my husband Alex isn’t retired yet so I had to scale the trip down a bit. I couldn’t wait any longer… I have to go NOW. It takes a whole 5 days just to get to Alaska by auto from California (one way) so we decided to fly to Anchorage and rent a car.
Why not rent an RV? Well, I did toss that around, but I decided it was easier for us to rent a Camry (fuel efficient) and get lodging. Plus, I didn’t want the hassle of breakdowns in a rented rig, and a whole host of things that comes with driving a large home on wheels. Trust me, we know! I know, it could all work out just fine, but I didn’t want to take the risk. Maybe one day we will take our own rig way up North.
Why not a cruise? Cruise ships just ain’t our thing. If it’s yours, more power to ya! We will get our fill of being on the water with the four boat tours I have planned (including the ferry).
So, here I am just a few weeks away from when I get to book this adventure with lodging, excursions, ferry rides, rental car, air fair, as well as making lists of what to pack, where to eat, other things to do and see. Alaska is a BIG STATE and the area of Alaska where there are roads is a small portion of the state. However, this area is STILL BIG and to see every single thing would take you a couple of months, maybe more! Heck, I haven’t seen everything in my home state of California and I’ve lived here for years! 🙂
In the posts to come, I will detail all of my planning for the next year, how I go about my booking, who has helped me and so on. Maybe you can plan your dream trip to Alaska using my notes. Believe me, it takes a village to plan this adventure but you don’t have to re-invent the wheel. Just make some modifications to fit you on a wheel that works!
My first thing to do was join a few Face Book Alaska Travel groups. In these groups you will find a gold mine of information and advice. I befriended a gal in Michigan who just came back from her epic road trip just like the one I have planned. She has been so kind to send me soo soo much information, even her epic color coded spread sheet itinerary that is detailed down to the hour! Thank you Suzan Donato Hicks in Michigan! I’m using her wheel with a few of my own modifications.
Here is how our trip looks at this moment.
This Kayak trip was extremely cool!
I haven’t been hiking as much the past couple of weeks, it’s just been too hot! Even up in the Tahoe Basin, it’s been in the 90s.
So what do we do??? KAYAK! I have my usual go-to lakes in the Sierra, but I’ve had my eye on this trip for a while.
Sand Harbor on Lake Tahoe is on the Nevada side just south of Incline Village on Hwy 28. The water is crystal clear and the boulder structure in the water is amazing to see.
Here are your instructions if you want to do this:
As much as I love this hike, I also hate it!
What I love about this trail
Wildflowers are off the charts – The views are amazing – You get a great workout – It’s a favorite hike of the Truckee locals and they are nice folks to chat with along the way.
What I have to be aware of:
It’s hot – I blogged about my heat issues in the past) The trail (PCT) goes through the two tunnels under I-80. Until the snow at the top is completely gone, the tunnels are full of water. I mean knee deep cold as hell rushing water through both tunnels. This year it didn’t clear out until July because of the late snow dump in the Sierra. However, this means that the temps are now hotter than I prefer to get to the top. A very very early start is advised if heat is an issue like it is for me. This trail has a 1500 foot elevation gain in a little over 3 miles with hardly any switch backs making it a hard hike. It’s even a workout going back down as the footing is a little loose.
I try and this trail at least once a year and get up there as EARLY as my hiking partners are willing to go. This year it was later in the am than I would have preferred (8:00am) and we didn’t get back to the car until 2:00pm which is the hottest part of the day and I was spent! I felt like a sloth and my legs were full of lead. I like to get back to the car by noon.
Advice for Senior Flatlander Hikers
GO EARLY. 80 degrees up at altitude going uphill will feel like it’s 100. In the summer, sunrise is 5:30am or so. By 9:00am the sun is very high in the sky. You get the picture. Get an Ultralight hiking umbrella – carry lots of water with electrolytes – eat salty snacks- take a cooling towel to dip into the cold streams if they are still running – take LOTS of rest stops – Listen to your body. Enjoy the scenery
Now for the show!
I got the Relive app which takes the data from my navigation app Gaia and turns it into a cool 3D map of my movements on the trail. Pretty cool! Take a look!
I finally got around to tallying my hiking stats for 2021. (scroll to bottom) With the fires it was a challenge so I went to the coast as much as possible. However, it was hard to escape the smoke even at the ocean on some days! In May, Alex and I took a Colorado/Utah road trip with the camper for a couple of weeks and explored lots of roadside trails, in Colorado, Moab, Arches and Canyonlands. Not much real hiking was done, just some meandering with a poodle riding in a backpack. Check out the vids!
Here are my 2021 stats for a total of 149.76 miles
I can’t take complete credit for this version of Everyday People. I heard it on an episode of Sons of Anarchy and fell in love. So cool.. However, I DID throw in some violin since I just started playing this fun little instrument.. So here it is with my twist!
The Mission: Deliver special package to Colorado Springs….contact operatives and other secret agents along the way for further instructions. You have two weeks to complete this mission.. Good luck.
This is the story on how I was able to get the US Army to finally award my dad his WW2 purple heart and the people who helped me make this happen. Also, I explain what happened to his WW2 artifacts and where they ended up!
twylaworld.com 
You must be logged in to post a comment.