Month: October 2015

Pizza Roundup Mountain High Pizza Pie

Pizza Roundup Mountain High Pizza Pie

IMGP4647

Mountain High Pizza Pie is a pretty tasty pizza place in Talkeetna, AK.

IMG_1016

The decorations were nice and the place was clean. We sat outside and there were lots of flowers.

IMG_1019

My dad got the toasted ravioli with meatballs.

IMG_1022

I, of course, got pizza!

IMG_1020

They had a good selection of pizzas on the menu, as well as, sandwiches and pastas.

The bathrooms were nice and clean. That’s always important in my book.

I think that Mountain High Pizza deserves a 4.5 star review.

See you next time on

Pizza Street!!

Las Vegas, NV

Las Vegas, NV

IMGP7384

Fabulous Las Vegas. We spent a week in the area and did our best to experience everything we could.

IMG_1400

On our very first afternoon in the area we drove down The Strip and on the first big billboard I see…Elvis. Oh Lordy. Littlest and I are huge Elvis fans thanks to my mom. I grew up with Elvis music in the house and have passed that on to Littlest. I’m listening to his smooth, crooning voice as I write this post.

IMGP7186

Elvis seems to be everywhere in Vegas. If he slept there, ate there, or graced an establishment with his presence at all, it’s advertised for all to see.

We spent one afternoon walking around The Strip and that was enough. We didn’t get to see everything, but I’m not sure I could talk anyone into going back with me. It’s not really our scene…too many people, too much noise, too…adult for kids. The boys learned not to reach out and take anything someone is trying to hand you. That’s a big nope in some places.

IMGP7385

We parked at The Cosmopolitan. Yea for free parking! Even the parking garages in Vegas are decorated. You can see just one of the many murals that can be found in the parking garage in the photo above. We had to walk all the way through the casino to get to The Strip.  Once we found our way through, we went to the Bellagio to catch the first fountain show of the day.

IMGP7390

The Bellagio Fountains were really neat. We took in the show then headed to The Buffet at Aria.

IMG_1424

We got lost a few times trying to find it…the casinos are more like miniature cities, but we finally found it.

IMG_1423

We did a ridiculous amount of research before picking a buffet. We finally settled on the one at Aria. It had good reviews and wasn’t the most expensive thing on The Strip. Everything I had was really good, there was a nice selection, but not as much as what I thought there would be. We all ate way too much, then headed back out to explore.

IMGP7407

We eventually found our way out of Aria. We ended up seeing the inside of a few different casinos, and I do believe I like Aria the best. And not just because it had huge cakes on display…although, that was a definite plus.

IMGP7410

The Aria felt more family friendly. Not to the point you thought you were at a kids place, but it had a nice balance of elegance mixed with some whimsical touches like the butterfly hot-air balloon in the picture.

IMGP7421

We walked quite a bit of The Strip and I was the quintessential tourist the whole time with my camera in front of my face more often than not. I won’t put all of the photos up, but I’ll share with you our favorites. We loved the fun outside of the M&M World store.

IMGP7457

Inside there was a really great mural that showed the progression of the M&M characters through the years.

IMGP7458

They sure have changed.

IMGP7460

The store has four floors. We never made it past the second floor where the wall of M&Ms is found. What you see in the picture above isn’t even half of the wall. I got a sugar rush from just standing there looking at them. Littlest wanted to buy an M&M dispenser, but we couldn’t figure out where we would put it in the RV. We have one more day in this area…if we can figure something out, we might try to talk Jerl into going back.

IMGP7430

We got to see the big bronze MGM Lion. Did you know he weighs 100,000 pounds? That is one big kitty!

IMGP7435

The boys liked Excalibur with its castle spires and turrets.

IMGP7453

New York, New York was really neat with its skyline and roller-coaster.

IMGP7455

As the afternoon turned into evening the street acts came out. Littlest and I could have spent hours listening to all the musicians.

IMGP7462

We ran into Darth Vader. He was nice enough to pose for a picture or two. There were a ton of characters out and about.

IMGP7486

We stayed to see the lights. They were magical.

IMGP7482

We stopped back by the Bellagio Fountains for one more show on our way back to our car.

IMGP7488

The Cosmopolitan was glitzier and more glamorous. It was all lit up as we walked back through to our parking garage.

Las Vegas was definitely a different kind of experience for us. The boys had never really been in a city like it. Vegas was one of those destinations I was looking forward to, but at the same time not looking forward to. It might have been less stressful without the boys in tow. We couldn’t really even go into souvenir shops without some highly inappropriate sights.

I think Vegas was probably a one and done type of thing for us.

See y’all down the road!

Pizza Roundup Boston Pizza

Pizza Roundup Boston Pizza

Boston pizza is a nice, tasty pizza place with a wide variety of pizza, calzones, hot wings, pizza burgers, and more.

IMG_0782

This is the pizza burger. It’s a burger wrapped in pizza crust!

IMG_0780

Boston pizza is not in Boston though, it is in Alberta, Canada

IMG_0783

This was the pierogi pizza with mashed potatoes, onions, and sour cream on it. My mom thought it was one of the best pizza’s she’s ever had.

IMG_0781

The bathrooms were clean, the decor was nice, and it had a good staff. All of this I would say equals up to  5 star-review.

See you next time on Pizza Street!!

Death Valley National Park

Death Valley National Park

IMGP6706

Hottest, Driest, Lowest…Welcome to Death Valley National Park! Situated on the California/Nevada border, Death Valley is known for it’s extremes and oddities. We spent one whole day and four partial days exploring DVNP. Near mile marker 10 as you drive into DVNP from Beatty, NV you get to experience what they call Hell’s Gate. You can roll down your windows and stick your hand out the window and feel the temp outside raise by 10 to 20 degrees within a 3 mile stretch of road.

IMGP6628

We like to stop at the Visitor Center first to get up-to-date info on the park. While we were there the little boys took the opportunity to grab another Junior Ranger Badge. We were lucky they were still doing the summer program and they were able to fulfill all the requirements in the air conditioned center.

IMGP6629

Outside the Furnace Creek Visitor Center was a tad bit hot. Just a bit.

IMGP6643

We visited Badwater Basin and stood 282 feet below sea level.

IMGP6648

Badwater expands clear across the valley floor to the base of the Panamint Range. It’s quite something to stand out there and see the seemingly endless salt flats stretch out all around you.

IMGP6652

We got to Badwater just before sunset and we watched as the sun dipped below the mountains. The heat in the valley instantly felt cooler. It’s quite something to look up into the Amargosa Mountains and see a “Sea Level” sign a few hundred feet above the ground.

IMGP6711

Can you believe I even found flowers in the desert? They were gorgeous and something I’d never seen before. I probably took a dozen pictures of the same cluster of flowers.

IMGP6715

Day two started with a castle. Scotty’s Castle. Walter Scott was a popular entertainer in Buffalo Bill’s “Wild West” show before he became known as Death Valley Scotty. He told tall tales of gold, took peoples money, then he spent it all on everything but mining for the promised gold. One of Scotty’s investors, Albert Johnson, found out about the dupe. Instead of being mad Johnson became friends with Scotty and even built the castle you see in the pic above in DVNP where Scotty was a regular visitor.

IMGP6741

There are tours you can take of the inside, but we didn’t. We spent about an hour just roaming around the grounds.

IMGP6757

Scotty’s Castle is unlike anything we’d seen. It seemed to fit perfectly with the desert it was built in.

IMGP6717

In the visitor center at Scotty’s Castle, you can see a 1914 Packard seven passenger touring car. This is the way people used to get around DVNP.

IMGP6820

Down the road, you can even see faint tracks left from the tour cars. If you look just under the sign in the photo above, you’ll see two tracks left over from a tour car.

IMGP6844

The Harmony Borax Interpretive Trail was short and hot. It told of life in DV for the borax miners and the twenty mule teams they used to pull carts around.

IMGP6874

After a quick picnic, we made it to The Devil’s Golf Course. Littlest thought he was being funny, taking a picture of me as I took a picture of him. At The Devil’s Golf Course, crystallized minerals reacting with groundwater have lifted themselves into tightly packed ridges reaching up to two feet high.

IMGP6891

We walked the quarter mile trail to Natural Bridge. It was late afternoon and temps were soaring.  We tried to stay in the shade as much as possible.  As hot as it was in the sun (we could feel the sting of the sun on our skin), it wasn’t too bad in the shade.

IMGP6918

Artist’s Drive is one of my favorites in DVNP. We actually drove it twice because the first time was just after the sun set and we wanted to see the color in full sun. You can see Artist’s Pallet in the photo above.

IMGP6948

The colors of the desert were amazingly vivid. I took more pictures than I will ever need.

IMGP6978

We had the chance to explore not one but two ghost towns! The easiest to get to was Rhyolite. You can see one of the abandoned houses in the photo above.

IMGP6983

We walked past several crumbling buildings.

IMGP7009

It’s kind of sad, really. To think of the families that used to live there and the hardships they must have gone through. Several buildings from Rhyolite were moved to the nearby town of Beatty.

IMGP7032

We spent almost four hours navigating the Titus Canyon drive. It’s a one way 26.8 mile dirt road that winds it’s way through the Grapevine Mountains, past a ghost town, and through Titus Canyon.

IMGP7042

The vistas were simply amazing. You can see our winding road in the pic above.

IMGP7061

The second ghost town was called Leadville. 300 people lived here between August 1926 and February 1927. There’s a spot you can pull of the road and walk around the ruins. We wandered around for a bit and headed on down the road. We were racing the sun. I didn’t want to be on the narrow dirt road in the dark.

IMGP7068

Here’s another shot of the wonderful colors of the desert. We’d just left Leadville when we came upon this sight.

IMGP7077

We spotted our first snake. It was small and fast as it slithered it’s way across the road and up the side.

IMGP7100

Titus Canyon with it’s limestone cliffs.

IMGP7103

We could try to tell you how tall the canyon walls are…but you know what they say…”a picture’s worth a thousand words”.  The last 1.5 miles of the canyon are pretty narrow, in some places the walls are less than 20 feet apart.

IMGP7112

On our last afternoon we headed to Zabriskie Point. There’s a short walk up a paved path to get to the view.

IMGP7116

The point was nice…but this two tone formation was more interesting to me.

IMGP7126

We drove through Twenty Mule Team Canyon on another dirt road. It was short and we took the time to climb up on a small rock to play with shadows. The boys thought it was too hot to get out so they waited in the car…I think they’d had all of DVNP that they could handle.

IMGP7145

Our last stop in DVNP was atop Dante’s View. You can see Badwater Basin in all its glory.

On our ride back to the RV one evening, we stopped at Ash Meadows for a super quick drive through. Ash Meadows is a National Wildlife Refuge that covers over 23,000 acres of spring-fed wetlands in the middle of a desert.

IMGP7172

We were losing light fast so we didn’t get to see much, but what we saw was really pretty.

 See y’all down the road!

Carson City, NV

Carson City, NV

IMG_1288

We made it to Nevada! You can’t get much different from Alaska than Nevada. Where Alaska is cool, lush, and green, Nevada is a hot, desolate desert. We’re loving it! We stayed in Carson City for a week. There’s not much to do in this area but we wanted to hit the Capitol City and a couple of other close-ish places.

IMGP6367

The Nevada Capitol City Building is the smallest we’ve been in so far. In fact, I didn’t really take pictures of the inside. I snapped a couple pics of the marble floor that ran partially up the wall, but that’s really it. The outside of the building was more intriguing. We haven’t seen a Capitol Building made from sandstone. I did some digging and found out all of the sandstone for the building was obtained from the Nevada State Prison quarry.

IMGP6350

The silver colored dome on top was also a unique touch. I liked walking around the grounds with its many trees and monuments, but I feel like it was lacking a little in the way it didn’t really feel like a Capitol Building. It felt more like a park with a pretty building that happened to be in it.

IMG_1303

There were several casinos in the area, but for us…we were more interested in finding some good Mexican food! Something we’d been missing since we left the Missouri area.

IMG_1313

Thanks to the internet, Jerl found two places he wanted to try. We stopped at El Paisano first.

IMG_1316

The restaurant was small, everything was served on disposable plates, and the food was amazingly good!

IMG_1321

And just like a true Mexican place, you had several choices for meat. Being the Foodies we are…it’s no great surprise our oldest got some of the…not so common meats. I believe he ended up with the pork stomach, beef head, and the beef tongue. He ate it all and went back for another taco.

IMG_1347

The second place we tried was The Lady Tamales. Supposedly this place had the best tamales in town…how could we possibly pass that up?

IMG_1345

This place did not disappoint. We all wolfed down our food and then got two dozen tamales to go. Yep, they really were that good!

IMG_1344

This place not only had some of the best tamales we’ve ever had, it also had probably the best rice and beans. I would’ve gone back just for some more of the beans. Interestingly, neither of the places we ate at served chips and salsa the way we’re used to, but hey, when the food is that good…you don’t want to fill up on fluff before the main event.

IMGP6512

We spent an afternoon in Reno to get some shopping done. New shoes and some groceries from the first Whole Foods we’d seen in months. We drove by the Reno Arch and The Strip on our way out of town.

IMGP6373

We managed to fit in an afternoon at Lake Tahoe State Park! The little boys did the Junior Ranger program, but weren’t able to get a badge because all of the Rangers were at a wildfire that had popped up just that afternoon.

IMGP6379

We walked around Sand Harbor.

IMGP6385

Even in the late afternoon with a storm coming in, the water was beautiful.

IMGP6404

We marveled at the big boulders sitting haphazardly all over the place.

IMGP6406

We didn’t really get to spend as much time as we would have liked at Lake Tahoe, and someday, we plan on going back.

IMGP6505Carson City was a nice change for us. No overwhelming green…it never actually rained…and it was hot!
RIMG0363

The boys even got to swim at the RV park pool!

See y’all down the road!

Alaska: Reflections from the Road

Alaska: Reflections from the Road

People call Alaska “The Last Frontier” and boy, they are not kidding. Everything from the locals to the wildlife in Alaska are rugged and wild. Our Alaskan summer is officially over and now that we’ve had time to reflect on everything that happened we thought we would do a review post for y’all. We’ve had several people ask about tips or how we planned our Alaskan summer so we sat down and tried to put it all down for you in a somewhat organized manner.

 Before we even started to officially plan the Alaska portion of our RV trip, we knew we wanted to spend at least two months in Alaska and we really wanted to see the Northern Lights while we were there. We had read that the best time to travel to Alaska is between Memorial Day and Labor Day…so that gave us a time frame of June, July, and August. Since we wanted to try and see the Northern Lights we went with July and August…since it has to be dark to see the Northern Lights and summers in Alaska are known to be very…not dark. Once we had our time set, I started planning what exactly we wanted to do while in Alaska. What did we want to see, experience, do? The list was long. Really long. So, I had to narrow it down to the essentials and from there we had our areas within Alaska we would be staying. Most people do the Alaska Loop going from Fairbanks to Denali, Anchorage, Valdez, then up to Tok to head home. We, being the weirdos we are, did it in reverse. Our thinking was that if we saved Fairbanks for last which would be in August, we would have a better chance of seeing those elusive Northern Lights.

Our next step was to get The Milepost. If you only take one piece of advice from us, this needs to be it…get The Milepost! The Milepost was invaluable.
IMG_1240This is what our Milepost looks like. They come out with a new, updated one every year. So, what is The Milepost? Well, it takes the roads to Alaska and in Alaska and breaks it all down for you mile by mile. It tells you what the road conditions were like the last time they were there, any services available, and even goes so far as to educate you along the way about different interesting aspects of the route. I could find pull-offs beforehand and know whether or not it was double-ended, if it had a bathroom, and which side of the road it would be on. I suggest you get The Milepost in advance so you can go through and familiarize yourself with the way it’s laid out. I highlighted throughout mine and then sticky tabbed each drive so I could easily flip right to it. I found most of our RV parks from the Milepost. Speaking of RV parks…make sure you reserve. Seriously. There were so many times we would pull in and the spot we’d reserved was the only spot empty and there were people dry camping in the parking lot hoping for a spot to open. We’d never seen so many RVs in our lives! It really was insane how crowded most parks were. So plan ahead and reserve your spots!!

What I wish I’d known as I was planning is that the speed limit throughout Alaska is usually 55 mph and the distance between cities is often insanely long. We could quite literally drive for hours and not see another person. Alaska has twelve main highways, numbered 1-12. Most streets seemed to be named after mountains or animals…and presidents…with a lot of roads name Hidden this or Lost that. Quite a few parts of Alaska are only reachable via boat or plane, so when you’re planning your Alaskan vacation make sure to pay attention to whether or not there’s an actual road to your destination. Since we’re on the subject of roads…let me dish the dirt on the roads in Alaska. There are some very nice highways and then there are the towns where the main road is paved, but all of the side roads are dirt.
IMGP5595

Road construction is a given in Alaska.

Expect it.

Accept it.

And be grateful to those willing to do it. The road crews in Alaska have a horrible time trying to keep up with the destruction the hard winters and permafrost due to the roads. It’s just one of those things. Keep your eyes peeled for frost heaves. They’re very cleverly hidden sometimes…or maybe we were just too busy looking at the amazing scenery or wildlife…whatever the reason, sometimes you’re going to miss seeing the frost heaves until you’re going over them. It can be scary. If they’re grouped just right, they’ll throw you in the air and by the time your back wheels get to the first one you’re bouncing and flailing pretty badly. You know how on a trampoline you can double bounce someone? It’s kind of like that. You get to bouncing along and the back end of the RV is double bouncing the front end. There are some experiments going on trying to help prevent frost heaves. I really hope they pan out.
IMGP2467There are many roads that aren’t paved. The road crew grades them, so what you’re left with is miles of washboards, potholes, and mud because they come through and water the roads. It makes for very slow going, but just slow down and take your time…you’ve made all of your RV park reservations, right?

IMGP2375

This was something we saw quite a bit of. Wait for the pace-car…and wait we did…sometimes 20 or more minutes.

IMGP2401

Bicyclers were another big road irritation. There were loads of these guys just willy-nilly on the roads. They were usually so laden down with gear they could barely pedal down the strait road in front of them let alone the huge hill coming up. And if the shoulder (when there was one) was unfit for a bike, well, they’d just stay in the lane. I don’t get the bikers. They really were a thorn in my side. Alaska is a wild place filled with animals and plants that want to eat you. Humans aren’t really on the top of the food chain there. I don’t understand why someone would willingly choose to put their lives in danger by biking across Alaska.

IMGP3079

Are all roads in Alaska crap? No, not at all. They’re not stellar, you’re going to run into frost heaves, pot holes, and washboards. Just be aware. In the photo above, you can see the road was nicely paved, but there was an accident. People forget to watch where they’re going because the wild beauty of Alaska really is like throwing a squirrel in front of a group of dogs…it’s a huge distraction. And slow down…we heard horror stories of bolts being sheared right off and the insides of RVs breaking apart…I can only imagine it was because those drivers didn’t slow down.

We drove a LOT. Above is a map of exactly where we went in the RV, from the time we crossed into Canada in June, to when we crossed back into the Lower 48 in August.  That’s over 5,620 miles in the RV!! This data is taken directly from our GPS unit, and shows all the gritty details. You can find a few places where we had to double back or re-route due to the GPS giving us questionable directions.

The weather in Alaska is a complicated topic. People want to know how to pack, right? Well, it really depends on where and when in Alaska you’re going. At night when we would watch the local weather man (I’m pretty sure all of the news and weather comes out of Anchorage), he would give the weather for all of Alaska. There would be reports of snow in the north to 70s in the south with everything in between. For us, we had to plan for it all. I can only talk about the one summer we spent there. We were told it was a dry hot summer and we didn’t mind at all. Usually, summer is the rainy season for most of Alaska, but we only experienced a handful of rainy days. We heard other travelers complain about being trapped inside for a week in Valdez because of the rain, but when we were there it was sunny and beautiful. Just the luck of the draw? Maybe. While we were in Alaska, we experienced everything from mid 70s during the day to low 40s at night. The best solution to this is layering. When you’re planning your Alaskan trip make sure there are some things you can do indoors on days that it’s rainy. We would save things like museums for those days.

IMGP4259

Alaska is also known as “the land of the midnight sun”. We were in Alaska for two months and in that time, we never once had a completely dark night. It would get to about dusk and then the sun would rise again. The photo above was taken about at 10:30 pm. There are easy, cheap things you can do to make sure that you have a dark interior so you can sleep. We bought some blackout material at a fabric store, cut it to the size we needed and then using the 3M adhesive we were able to cover what we needed.

RIMG0196

One of my biggest worries was being stuck in Alaska because of snow. If you’ve followed our blog along at all, you’ve seen the umpteen different photos of fireweed that I’ve posted. I might be a tad bit obsessed with it. Well, not only is fireweed pretty, the locals use it to let them know when winter is coming. No lie! And you know what? It totally works! In the photo above you can see fireweed. Notice it blooms from the bottom up.

DSC03412

Here’s a better picture. You can see that there are blooms on the bottom and still buds at the top.

IMG_1068

As the season goes along, the fireweed blooms move up. When the last blooms fall off of the stem, you have about six weeks left of summer.

IMGP5146

When the fireweed goes to seed…it’s time to get the heck out of Dodge! We had planned on staying two weeks in Fairbanks. It was our last stop before heading back down to the lower 48, but almost overnight the weather turned cold and we noticed that all of the fireweed had gone to seed.

Winter was coming.

We ended up leaving a week early and you know what? The week we would have been leaving…it snowed! Alaska had snow that whole week and it was even down into parts of Canada. No. Thank. You. Driving those mountains and roads on snow and ice…that’ll be a great big nope.

We get asked a lot what our favorites are so we made a few summary lists for you. I’m a lister…it’s what I do.

Animals Seen In The Wild:
Puffin, jelly fish, Dall porpoise, harbor seals, humpback whale.
Orca whale, fin whale, Dall sheep, caribou, grizzly bear, black bear, wolf.
Chipmunk, salmon, sea lion, Bald Eagle, moose, elk, ptarmigan.

Top Five Experiences:
Denali National Park bus ride
Kenai Fjords day cruise
Worthington Glacier
Gold Dredge No.8
Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center

Damage Report:
A flat on the trailer
A chip in the front window
Our smoker was totally destroyed

Places We Want To Go Back To:
Valdez
Denali
Palmer

Expenses. Alaska is not cheap. Everything there, and I do mean everything, is at least triple the cost you’re used to paying down here in the lower 48. Produce in most places is pretty horrible, which is weird considering the fact that Alaska grows some monster veggies. One of the biggest expenses for us during our visit was the price of the RV parks. They were extremely high compared to what we pay in the lower 48. In some cases, it was as much as two to three hundred dollars more for one week. But when you want to stay in that city…

Let’s talk about border crossings. We crossed the US/Canadian border six times on this trip. We were so nervous that they were going to have to search us (even though we had nothing to hide) or take our stockpiled food, but that just wasn’t our experience. We had no troubles at all. We found the Border Guards to be efficient and very professional. My advice…don’t try to take something across that you’re not supposed to. Don’t hide something…these guys have seen it all and know all of the hiding spots. On two crossings we had to drive through some kind of sensor. We could never get them to tell us what it was, but I’m guessing they were looking for hidden passengers.

We had the best summer. There are places we would go back to and places we wouldn’t. Now, having said that, I would do the entire trip again if it was my first time. There are just some places you only need to see once. Yes, Alaska is gorgeous. It is, for us, the Postcard State because we couldn’t find a bad view. We were surprised by how Hawaiian it felt in parts of Alaska…huge mountains with waterfalls all over the place…lush and green. Would we do anything differently? Maybe. I’d try to stay longer so we could have taken our time and enjoyed some of the other cities that we could only drive through. I would definitely have taken into consideration how long it takes to drive anywhere…maybe broken up the distances a little. If y’all decide to make the Ultimate Roadtrip and head up to “the final frontier” make sure you have a plan A and a plan B and then make a plan C. But most of all, slow down and be in the moment.

See y’all down the road!