Tag Archives: drive

Deadwood, South Dakota

Jack and I recommend a visit to Deadwood, South Dakota.  Especially if the sun is shining!

This statue is of Wild Bill Hickok, the most famous Old West character associated with Deadwood.

If we remember correctly from reading about the history of Deadwood, this creek at one time flooded the town and is now specially engineered to flow through and under the town.

This is Adams Museum, a beautiful building with 3 levels packed full of interesting items from Deadwood’s past.  Here are some highlights:

And here is another striking statue, this one of a Cowboy on a bucking horse.

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The signs on the main street of Deadwood are really fabulous!

We wish we could have spent time in each of these places.  But we have to say that the Deadwood Social Club Restaurant is terrific…they make their own blue cheese dressing and it is more than worth the walk up those stairs!

We happened upon a darn fine Wild Bill impersonator.

And then ran into a fan of Jack’s, Ed, running the parking garage.

Thanks Deadwood for showing us such a fun time!

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Truck Shots From The Road

Taking photos from the truck is tough, but possible, as we have discovered.

The back of this truck looked quite fabulous reflecting the sunset.

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Driving out of the sunset, surrounded by trucks.

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The trucker didn’t know that this piece of wood was near to falling off the rear of his truck.  It must have worked its way out of the load.  Jack tried to tell him on the radio but wasn’t able to find the right channel and soon we were passed him.

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This dump truck was losing it’s load, spraying gravel all over the road.   (The coffee cups look like they are floating but it’s just the reflection of them sitting on the dash.)

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Trucks pass under these wildlife corridors in Canada with plenty of room to spare.

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And Jack, enjoying the setting sun, driving south.

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Sign Post Forest & Fans

One of the best places to stop along The Alaska Highway (aka “The Alcan”) is The Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada.  Even back in the 70s it was a sight to behold but now it’s almost too much to take in:  thousands upon thousands of license plates, signposts and pieces of metal or wood with the names of hometowns showing how far people have traveled to get there.

There was also some old heavy machinery that was used to build the Alcan.

That’s one big wrench!

And these are some fans we happened upon.

People are still adding to the Sign Post Forest.  Hope you can make your way there someday and leave your own signpost.  🙂

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Elk – Yukon Territory, Canada

Hope you guys like wildlife photos!

This male elk was protecting his harem, watching as we pulled up and snapped photos.

A female was about 15 feet away; she walked up to the edge as if checking in with him to see if it was okay to stay there and graze:

The rest of the harem grazed nearby and stayed pretty calm while we eavesdropped.    The light was poor so these photos needed touching up but we definitely checked “ELK” off our list! 🙂

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On the Hook!

No, not us!!  This truck here:

A strange way to drive down the highway, with an 18-wheeler facing you.

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This is the last bit of great scenery we saw in Alaska, before crossing into Canada.

The Tanana River.

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More to come!

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Congrats to Jack for winning the load count!

Well the season is over and Jack won the load count!

Jack says it was a hectic season.  We are now on a month long road trip, heading down to the states.  I plan on posting about our adventures when we get a chance.  For now, I want to brag about the AWESOME custom bed cover Jack made to keep our belongings safe while we are traveling.  It had to be custom because of his fuel tank (he hauls heating oil for our house) and toolbox that is already in the back. Here are a couple of photos of him building it and getting ready for our trip:

The end result:

It looks great and even makes the truck more aerodynamic!

We are all having a great time.

More to come!

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The Shed Saga

Jack is happy to report that he has finished at least one project so far this summer (actually it’s autumn now in Fairbanks).

He fixed the roof on the shed and shingled it.  (I’m telling you, Jack can do anything!)

Here is a photo of him in the middle of the project:

This shed has a bit of a story.

When we first moved into our house, we had to move it since we wanted to build a garage and it was in the way.  Jack tackled the job himself.

This is him putting the shed on the trailer, getting it ready to be moved:

We realize this is probably the equivalent of drinking while using power tools.  Kids, take note, do NOT drink alcohol while moving a shed!  🙂

The next day, with the shed on the trailer, Jack just barely gives it a little gas to see how sturdy it is.  It was just fine.

This is where it ended up.

(If you want to see a few seconds of this heavy haul project in progress, click here.)

The 4-wheeler is holding it in place.

He had to prop it up on blocks until he could give it a more stable foundation…!!!

Here is the “more stable” foundation when the project was mostly done.

This is not where the shed finally ended up, though he didn’t do the moving this time.  It’s present and permanent spot you can see on the first photo.  We will finish siding it at the same time we side the garage that has yet to be built.

Hope everyone is doing well!  Thanks for reading.  🙂

Dirty Truck!

Hello again, sorry it’s been so long since we’ve posted.  Life has been hectic.  You would think that it would slow down a bit if you aren’t working, but that just means more things need to get done…!

Since Jack is taking some time off (he still works for Carlile) he had to clean out 2019 so it can be used by other drivers while he’s gone.

While I was helping him remove his stuff, I noticed that there was a lot of dirt on this truck and I felt the need to document this. 🙂

I hope you enjoy this gallery of dirty truck photos:

Thanks for looking and have a great Labor Day!

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Still Hauling Pipe

Here are some photos of the job Jack is presently working on, hauling huge pipe sections from the port of Valdez to Salcha where there is a railroad bridge being built across the Tanana River.

Empty trailers, waiting for the pipe.

This is a photo from an earlier post:  the trucks loaded with 2 lengths of pipe each, and more pipe in the background that still needed to be loaded and hauled to Salcha.  Each section is 6 feet in diameter and 43 feet long.  That stack has been transported by now but more has arrived from other barges.

Eight inch wood dunnage cradling the pipe.  It gives space for the forks to pick it up and set it down, and the pipe chalks (upper wood pieces) stop it from rolling until they get it tied down.  Each piece of pipe is 25,000 pounds.

The trucks have to stop at quite a few roadwork sites along the Richardson Highway.  This is in the canyon just north of Valdez.

A couple of days ago Jack was held up at some roadwork for almost 2 hours.  Since the Richardson is one of only a couple of major highways in Alaska, there  must have been a line of ticked-off tourists 10 miles long!

Anyone interested in more information about this bridge project can go to this link:  State of Alaska webpage.