Heading West... Again... The Cedar Point Experience.

“Head is 100 points, body 50, balls…. Game over! That’s a Ballseye! and if you hit my legs it is 5 points. Game is to 1000!” My cousin, clutching the ball and dripping wet with the cool water of Lake Erie, couldn’t stop laughing. I was holding John Isaac, my brother, in a spring-like stance twenty feet away, ready to launch him into the sky only to come splashing back down in the water. He wanted Steven to hit him with the ball while airborne and he was giving us his rules. This was the game invented by a brilliant 8 year old, along with the newest word in the English dictionary; Ballseye. I couldn’t do it on account of becoming weak with laughter. He was killing us! “John, Of course he’s going to aim for your balls silly! Who the hell purposely marks their balls as game over?” I pleaded. His voice got quiet, “He’ll never hit my balls. That’s why legs are only 5. He’ll go for my balls every time and miss, hitting my legs instead.” “Oooohhhh,” I said, realizing the master plan behind his madness. Up he went, over and over again with us trying to whip the ball at him. Neither of us was successful at hitting balls and winning the game. We got legs every time and quit from physical exhaustion well before reaching 1000 points. What a slick little bastard.

The backdrop for the game of Ballseye was the greatest theme park ever invented, Cedar Point. It was our second scorching day, and the three of us were plopped in the lake on the back side of the park trying to find some relief from the 95 degree plus temperatures. We had enjoyed the first day immensely and had ridden rides in the morning, but the heat was just way too much in the mid day hours to be standing in lines for hours trying to ride the coasters. The EMT’s were very busy the three days we were there, rushing people around to local hospitals that had passed out from heat exhaustion or severe dehydration. We found out our air conditioner in the front of the RV wasn’t working, then we lost power completely trying to figure out how to get it back on. Mom called a technician, but he was unable to fix the AC. We did restore power however, which was a good thing for all of us since my mom was trying to figure out who she would give all the food to if we couldn’t keep it cold. Ahhhh….. family road trips! Don’t they all start out with problems?

The rides at the park were incredible, but you really do need three days to get on all of them. We got rained out at the Millenium coaster, a 310 foot brain bender, three times before being able to ride it with my mom. When we got on we went right for the front seat. It was late in the evening, and the drop was so hard and the ride so fast that we were covered in splattered insects by the time we reached the end. It was a real thrill, as were all of the rides, and my brother, with much coersion and begging, rode almost every single one with us. A few times he tried to back out by saying he had to go to the bathroom, but he was all smiles after every new challenge. It was a great start to our 6-week adventure.

My cousin Steven was supposed to make the whole trip with us across the country, but he bowed out after Cedar Point, heading home with Christina, who had joined us for the three days in the park. It seems he missed his new girlfriend and summer job. He barely looked up from his phone all weekend, texting like a mad man. Oh, to be young and full of dumb love again… ha ha. It’s just the three of us now.


We said goodbye and got on the road, heading for Starved Rock State Park in Illinois. This would be our stop-over for the night.

Day 11 July 2, 2010 We make it to Kenai!

We got on the road fairly early in the morning. and started the drive towards Anchorage, then on to Kenai. By now, we were so used to the wildlife we didn't even stop to photograph the moose walking through the busy gas station parking lot. Sarah was like, "oh.... yeah..... another moose." We'd say it a few more times over the next few days. We stopped in Anchorage, which is a city, but doesn't much look like a city and had the biggest fatty tuna melts ever. They were so well seasoned, they barely tasted like tuna. I almost couldn't finish mine if you can believe that! I got online with my 3G card for the first time on the trip and was bummed to be getting such a weak signal in the center of the city. It took forever to book my airline ticket home. After this important task was accomplished, we started the drive to Kenai, another 187 miles West. We passed glacier lakes, hippies living in vans, glaciers, mountains, more mountains, and rivers full of vacationers and locals enjoying the fishing, rafting and kayaking. It really is as beautiful as they say.

We stopped to grab a six pack of beer on the way to Sarah's aunt's house to celebrate our final arrival. 5,525.6 miles! Wow! We had done it! Not a single break down or issue with the car.... except that it was filthy and had a few cracks in the windshield from the long stretches of gravel highway. We cracked a beer and looked for the key to get in.... no luck. Being that Sarah's aunt and uncle are in the southern islands of the state for the summer, we were left directions on where the key would be... it wasn't there. We called our contact, the daughter and son who live on the same lake. She came with the kids and we finally found the key. We got in the house and collapsed into big comfy chairs and watched movies and tv for two days straight only leaving for a few hours to get food and look around town. We were exhausted. We stole each other's music collections and did laundry and cooked food to divert ourselves from being total bums, but mostly we walked around in PJ's and chilled out. Yesterday, in a fit of boredom, we checked out some local beaches and spots for recreation. I told Sarah "You will be very good at outdoor activities when you are done with your three years here! Maybe you can shred on the guitar and hone any other skills that take lots of practice..." Yeah, there isn't much to do in Kenai. We ended up at Walmart for two hours, just checking out all the fishing and boating gear.... I wonder what the alcoholism rate is like! Ha ha. Either way it has been a beautiful ride, a great adventure, and I would recommend this part of the country to anyone looking for Mother Nature. She lives right here... in the North Western haunts of the North American Continent. I fly home tonight to hop on the road again with my mom, brother and cousin. Many more adventures to come! Stay tuned and thanks for all of your comments and warm wishes! I really appreciate it.

Day 10 July 1, 2010 Whitehorse to Glenallen Alaska!

Dusty, dirty, a wee bit dangerous at times... we had endured the Canadian portion of the Alaskan Highway for two long days of driving and we were ready to hit our home soil again. This stretch of highway was the prettiest yet. The passage through Destruction Bay in the Yukon was like driving through another world. There were low hanging clouds and rugged grey mountains that were covered in glaciers. The road was gravel through much of the ride and was hugging the glacier lake, a lake that was more like a mirror than a body of water. I just wanted to pull over and sit down right on the shore of the lake and watch the clouds go by. It was cold, clean and remote. I could barely keep my eyes on the road. In all my travels I have never seen anything so raw and powerful.


The final 100 miles or so to the border were a wild and bumpy ride that we will never forget. Imagine going 70 or more miles an hour and all of the sudden turning a corner where half of the road is missing and there is just an orange flag letting you know. There were potholes that could swallow a tire whole! We got lucky and worked our way behind a motorcyclist that seemed to know the road like the back of his hand. This was not the place to break down or lose a tire. We were surrounded by mountains and had no cell coverage whatsoever. There were people pulled over and sleeping on the side of the road, probably beat from the experience. It seemed like the road would go forever, and it almost did, until we finally saw the "Welcome To Alaska" sign and the line backed up for the US customs. Back on our soil, we gripped the curvy road into the heartland of the final frontier. When we stopped in Tok, about 60 miles over the border, the first thing I did was call my grandmother and tell her she was right about the trip! She reminisced and shared stories with me about the ride she made 25 years ago. It was a great feeling. Sarah and I stopped at a great restaurant called Fast Eddy's and ate a big meal with voracious appetites! We would drive another two hours and make a stop in Glenallen for the night; it was too far to Anchorage and we were road weary and beyond tired at that point. We found the only motel in town, the "Caribou Hotel" for a solid night of sleep.

Day 9 June 30, 2010 Fort Nelson BC to Whitehorse, capitol of the Yukon!

All I can say is WOW on all accounts! The drive got prettier, crazier, more mountainous, more remote, and more wild the further we went. Surrounded by wilderness on all sides, we drove through the most awesome terrain we've seen yet...and the best I've ever seen. My grandmother told me I would see lots of great wildlife on this trip. She and my grandfather had done it 25 years ago with my uncle Anthony and aunt Annette. I just wanted to see a moose... just one... and I would be happy! We made our first stop on a mountain top under minor emergency circumstances. Sarah got a slight bout of food poisoning from the Super 8 continental breakfast in the morning. She thinks it was the apple juice that was bad since she only had a sip and knew something was wrong right away. We stopped at a rest stop overlooking a huge valley in between the mountain range we were on and one a few miles away. It was breath-taking, and a wee bit chilly too! She felt instantly better and we continued.

Our next stop was in a remote piece of country at a log cabin gas station where we learned a second lesson of supply and demand in these remotest of lands.... they have supply.... they demand high price! After paying an arm, two legs and a first born son for a half tank of gas we went inside to square up with the proprietor. He was a real mountain man. Jovial, big, and he had a bunch of dead shit mounted on his walls inside. It was like a museum in there. He told us he got every one of them himself, and that he hunts for food all the time. He's lived this way most of his life. His manly-hunter coolness made up for his lack of economic sympathy and he did have a credit card machine, so he wasn't fooling anyone!!! I bet he winters in Las Vegas! ha ha.

We pressed on, stopping frequently to take pictures and comment at the incredible, picturesque Rocky wilderness. It was intense. Our next stop was for food at another log cabin 100 miles or so down the road. We were not disappointed at this place. As soon as we walked in I smelled fresh bread baking in the oven. The happy little mountain woman working behind the counter was serving soup, sandwiches and smiles to some hungry motorcyclists and bouncing back and forth from the kitchen to the register to help people with gas or other items. It was like meeting your entrepreneurial aunt for the first time. She would crack jokes and make you feel right at home. Everything was "on your honor" and the grilled ham and cheese sandwiches we ordered came out on the biggest slices of home made bread you ever saw. We were stuffed for the rest of the day! I grabbed a peanut butter cookie and put myself into food heaven. We thought it couldn't get any better than this...

Then we saw a car pulled over on the side of the road. Sarah said, "Moooose!" so I swung it over and walked back to the overlook where a female was drinking out of the pond below. She was so beautiful, and it was so quiet outside with barely a vehicle passing. I was thrilled. It wasn't two minutes later when we saw another one right next to us on the road. We slowed down and it passed 5 feet in front of us to the other side of the highway. I was fumbling to get my camera out and snap some pictures. It was almost like the moose knew to stop and pose for me! I was so happy to finally see one, especially so close.

Later in the drive we saw a few herds of Wood Buffalo right on the highway and a small grizzly that was so hungry he didn't even look up when I was calling to him. Sarah didn't think this was too wise of me, but it wasn't phasing the bear at all. He was 10 feet away munching whatever he could find in the fields. They are just waking up from hibernation so they are a bit skinny and hungry as hell right now. He'll be a big fat boy by the end of the season, especially after he gets some salmon in him!

We crossed into the Yukon and it was one glacier lake after another on both sides of the road. There were little pockets of camps where you could see people tented in the woods, also some signs for native lands. This is wild country up here, and very beautiful. We ended up finally making it to the capitol, Whitehorse, an important mining town and the heart of this wild province that carries the moniker "Larger than Life" on all of its license plates and signs. It was an exciting, but exhausting drive.

Day 8 June 29, 2010 Great Prairie to Fort Nelson BC

We struck out in the morning passing through some serious country roads and heading north and west towards the link up to the famed Al-Can or Alaskan Highway. We got to mile zero after crossing some great rolling hills, farms, rivers and the like. Everything is in bloom up here, so it feels like spring all over again. Flowering fields of marigolds and buttercup are everywhere. We high-fived as we negotiated the little traffic circle in Dawson Creek and officially onto the Alaskan Highway. This stretch of road would be our humble home (or battleground) for the next couple of days and we were looking forward to the adventure. Sarah was ever conscious about gas and mileage, as you must be on these remote, sparsely populated roads. If you miss a gas stop, or worse, it is closed, you could really jeopardize your trip. We drove with the mountains looming ten miles or so to the west, the peaks glistening with white snow and glaciers. The closer we got to them, the farther the civilized world was fading behind us. Cell phones and internet were not an option. We made sure the truck was ship shape before embarking and kept a good weather eye towards which towns we would be staying in.

We decided we could make it to Fort Nelson, which seemed to be the next biggest stop en route. It was a good 600 or more miles away and we were still skirting along just east of the Rockies. It was awesome seeing them in the distance all the time and the road became wild and surrounded by nothing but pine trees and logging roads. This is the sticks. We had to laugh at the amount of insect carnage slapping into our windshield. It was a messy situation. We stopped to clean it as often as possible, which wasn't often enough. We noticed that Sarah had the ill fortune of always having a huge streak of guts right in her field of vision almost every time she was at the helm. She kept saying, "Look at this! They know I'm behind the wheel! Every time.... the same spot!" It was funny. We saw our very first Moose Crossing sign, but didn't see any moose. We did however see a bear briefly on the side of the road. The scenery was great and we were making great time, pushing 80mph on the straight stretches.


When we pulled into Ft. Nelson we found out that the room rates were definitely in tune with "supply and demand" theory. Sarah couldn't believe the rate for a Super 8, but we had to take it, there weren't many better options. We grabbed a bottle of rum from the liquor store/ restaurant across the street after having a nice pizza and sipped away until passing out much later that night.

Day 7 June 28, 2010 Calgary to Great Prairie Alberta

The roads are getting narrower and less and less traveled the farther up we travel the North American continent. It's mostly trucks and RV's up here. We traveled several hundred miles from Calgary to Great Prairie, a town of 50,000 and our last look at organized civilization for the next 1800 miles or so until we get to Anchorage, Alaska. There wasn't much change in the scenery during this stretch of road. A couple nice railroad bridges, rivers, and oil fields were about the only thing that broke up the monotony of the drive. Sarah was happy to see an occasional curve in the road. It wasn't all that interesting of a day, but we made it through to the Stonebridge Hotel in Grand Prairie and called it a night. It was early so we decided a good meal and a beer were in order for the evening. The hotel had a pub. We went down for a taste of the local fare.

When we walked in to the place we noticed a serious lack of females all around. Sarah was the only female besides the old waitress and a woman working the slot machines in the corner of the room. Gambling seems to be legalized almost everywhere from South Dakota west and if you find a gas station or restaurant that doesn't have gaming it is the exception rather than the rule. The lack of women told us this is trucker country. Almost everyone looked like they belonged behind the wheel of a big rig. The road worn look in the eyes and bodies told a thousand tales of life on the highways. We got a pitcher of Molson and some appetizers, since they were half off on Mondays, and watched some World Cup soccer on the big screens in the bar. I was feeling a bit worn myself, so I called it an early night and went back up to the room to play on my laptop. Sarah did the same. That's how the nights have been in the motels that have wifi. She's on her bed playing with her MacBook, I'm on mine... playing with my Macbook as well. Occasionally one of us will pull up a comedian or some funny video for the other to watch and that will spark another 20 videos as we get comedy A.D.D. and giggle into the night. Last night I looked outside at 11:30pm and it was still lit up in the western sky. You really feel the axial tilt of the planet in these parts. Man I would hate to be here in the winter when the day is 4 hours long. I guess I'll have to ask Sarah how it feels 6 months from now!

Day 6 June 27, 2010 Livingston MT to Calgary

We woke up early and looked outside. Snow capped mountain peaks were glistening in the sunshine. We totally missed them the night before on our madcap race to find a motel room anywhere on the road! We gassed up and stopped at a local place called Pop's Stand for breakfast. The food was mediocre even though the portions were enough to keep us filled for half the day. The smell of fresh pine and mountain air made its way into our nostrils and put smiles on our faces as we got back on the road for a long drive to Calgary. The valleys and rivers of the Montana Rockies were stunning. There were great big sections of the state that were barely populated and wild as could be. I was always on the lookout for wildlife as Sarah navigated the hairpin turns of interstate 15 through Beaver Head forest to the Canadian border. The rivers were dotted with a few fisherman and the clearest fresh water you could have wanted to fish. We saw the upper Missouri, the Blindman, and many other rivers with names you would recognize from old history books. We crossed the continental divide twice and passed by Glacier national park, but this time we did not stop.



We celebrated Sarah's first ever crossing into Canada with the border patrolman commenting, "That sucks." after explaining to him that she was being transferred from Puerto Rico to Kenai, Alaska for a new position in the Coast Guard. Upon gaining entry we started the long haul to Calgary, the nearest city, through the largest grain fields and flattest roads in Canada. Sarah fell asleep while I listened to music and kept my mind occupied with mileage and stupid questions in my head like, "gee I wonder how many acres that farm is? -or- I wonder what the largest grain export in Alberta is? (wheat and canola being the answer....I just looked it up!). The province is big and flat until you start reaching the Rockies again near Calgary. Sarah took notice of how bad the signage sucked in Canada. There were many times where the interstate would just turn into a town and you wouldn't know to slow down or that a big curve was coming if you weren't paying attention. We vowed not to drive at night here. The big roadkill blood stains on the highway told us another story about night driving that confirmed our decision.


We ended up at a nice hotel outside of the city and Sarah caught up on her "Bones" episodes while I went down to the gym for a workout and a swim in the pool. The pool had an indoor water slide that would shoot you out so fast you would go skipping across the water. Of course I started playing games with the couple of kids left in the pool; including a crazy water slide game we made up where we threw a nerf football inside the slide from the bottom while the next kid went flying down the twisty tube towards the bottom. They had to blindly "catch" or find the football in the tube on the way down then throw it back to us while skipping across the water. It was violent... as all good kids games are. It was after 11pm by the time I made my way back to the room for the night.