Alaska RV Trip

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TailGator911

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I have hit a snag in planning our RV trip which kicks off here in a couple weeks. Going to Sitka island has always been on our bucket list, but the cost of taking the rv on the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry system is outrageous so I will have to park it in Juneau and fly over to it and rent a car there for 2-days while we explore and I am concerned about security and theft while our RV sits in Juneau. Google is not helping much so I wanted to ask my question here in the Alaska forum with hopes that someone who lives there may know of a secure storage facility in Juneau. Hopefully somewhere in the vicinity of Juneau airport? Any help appreciated!

JD
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mmckenna

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I can't help you on the storage locations, but I have spent quite a bit of time in Alaska.
Sitka is a nice town, I think you'll enjoy it.
Juneau is big, at least big for Alaska.

For all these cities, see if you can plan (if it's not too late) around the cruise ship schedules. Many of these larger ships arrive at the same time in these towns and can easily dump several thousand people into them. Much nicer if you can be there when the cruises are not in town. More relaxed, way less people, and a lot less crowding.

As a kid, we spent a lot of time riding the AMH through South East Alaska. Back then the Cruise ships were smaller and fewer in number. The towns were more authentic, now many of them are centered around the cruise industry and "shopping" trips. I felt that some of the smaller towns have been destroyed by this, but it brings a lot of money in, so a trade off.

You'll get a much more authentic view of Alaska by avoiding the cruise ship vacations. I've been on a few and have grown to hate them. After spending time living in Alaska and seeing a lot of the smaller towns unspoiled by uncontrolled tourism, I don't think I could ever do that again.

Red Dog Saloon is a popular place with tourists in Juneau, but it's nothing like it was, and it's actually moved from it's original location into a nicer building and made to look old. In other words, a tourist trap.
Mendenhall Glacier is well worth the visit if you can get there when there isn't too many tourists. It's quite a walk out to the glacier now, but when I was a kid it was right up near the visitors center.
Shrine of St. Therese in Juneau is a nice place to take a break.

Have a good trip. Expect that it'll rain most of the time. If it's sunny when you are there, enjoy it.
 

TailGator911

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Thanks for the travel tips, mmckenna! Very much appreciated. I will include visiting the Shrine of St Therese in Juneau, as will my wife, Theresa hah. Red Dog Saloon is on my list of tourist traps where I can buy a $40 t-shirt and a $30 hat! Thanks!

JD
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mmckenna

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Thanks for the travel tips, mmckenna! Very much appreciated. I will include visiting the Shrine of St Therese in Juneau, as will my wife, Theresa hah. Red Dog Saloon is on my list of tourist traps where I can buy a $40 t-shirt and a $30 hat! Thanks!

JD
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Shrine of St. Therese was a pretty special place. I'm not Catholic, but anyone can appreciate what they have there. Quite, peaceful, places to sit, enjoy the view and think. They've got a small labyrinth to explore and a small chapel out on an island.

The rest of the places I know are left over from my USCG days and wouldn't be the sort of place to take your wife….
 

TailGator911

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Yes, I believe that, there's the tour with the wife and the tour without the wife lol.

I am not Catholic, either, but find all houses of God are tranquil and fascinating places. We used to do the James Lee Burke thing and get cafe' au lait and beignets at the Cafe' Du Monde in New Orleans on Decatur St. and sit on the iron scrolled benches in Jackson Square and watch the street performers. A great dose of New Orleans if you've never been there. The big Catholic cathedral there (St Francis?) is gorgeous, and so big it should have its own zip code! Beautiful place to visit - thanks for that link! The wife is writing that in as we speak lol
 

mmckenna

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Yes, I believe that, there's the tour with the wife and the tour without the wife lol.

I am not Catholic, either, but find all houses of God are tranquil and fascinating places.

Yeah, I agree.
Chapel by the Lake out towards Auke Bay is pretty nice, too.

Never been to New Orleans, hope to get out there some day. Preferably the winter, though. I don't do humidity.

Hi to your wife. I hope she enjoys it. Sounds like you guys have a nice trip planned. I hope to pull something like that off when I retire. I'd love to get my wife and son up to some of the places I've been. Cruise ships do an awful job of showing the state the way it deserves.
 

juneau

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I have hit a snag in planning our RV trip which kicks off here in a couple weeks. Going to Sitka island has always been on our bucket list, but the cost of taking the rv on the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry system is outrageous so I will have to park it in Juneau and fly over to it and rent a car there for 2-days while we explore and I am concerned about security and theft while our RV sits in Juneau. Google is not helping much so I wanted to ask my question here in the Alaska forum with hopes that someone who lives there may know of a secure storage facility in Juneau. Hopefully somewhere in the vicinity of Juneau airport? Any help appreciated!

JD
kf4anc

Your welcome to park it in my driveway for a couple of days while you go to Sitka, I live near the ferry terminal in Juneau

Matt
 

TailGator911

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Wow, Matt, thanks so much for that offer! I have already paid in advance (deposit) at a storage facility on Commercial. I am pretty confident that our belongings will be secure. I didn't get any response after posting this so I got on the phone and made arrangements. Again, thanks so much for your hospitality.

JD
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TailGator911

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Big skillet breakfast this morning over open fire. SDS scanners picking up Dallas/Ft Worth traffic very nice. Made contacts last night on open repeaters on 2m/440. Had some weather Sat/Sun coming into Texas. I-20 to I-10 West to San Diego. So far so good. I am liking these Compactennas so far. GPS scanning is throwing me for a loop, half the time SDS200 showed 'Nothing To Scan' went in and adjusted Location settings (duh) and now is fine. So many things in the settings that have to be right or else pffft. Think I got it now. All systems are go.

JD
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kayn1n32008

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I have hit a snag in planning our RV trip which kicks off here in a couple weeks. Going to Sitka island has always been on our bucket list, but the cost of taking the rv on the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry system is outrageous so I will have to park it in Juneau and fly over to it and rent a car there for 2-days while we explore and I am concerned about security and theft while our RV sits in Juneau. Google is not helping much so I wanted to ask my question here in the Alaska forum with hopes that someone who lives there may know of a secure storage facility in Juneau. Hopefully somewhere in the vicinity of Juneau airport? Any help appreciated!

JD
kf4anc

What port of entry are you planning on crossing at? I strongly recommend avoiding the Peace Arch in BC. Midway and/or Coutts are much faster to get through. What route are you planning to take through Canada, to get to Dawson Creek(Mile Zero on the Alaska Hwy)?

Both BC and Alberta have handheld electronic device bans(AKA cellphone bans)

Don’t use them, the fines are not cheap.

In BC:

-Stay the hell out of the left lane, on 4 lane highways, unless you are actively passing slower traffic. Pass and move over. You WILL get stopped by the RCMP.

-Your vehicle will get impounded for 7 days if you are caught 40+km/h over the posted speed limit. You will get left of the side of the road, and it will likely cost you thousands of dollars to retrieve your vehicle due to towing/impound/fines. You will get stopped. Generally the RCMP will give you 10-15km/h leeway before stopping you. Don’t weave in and out of traffic, and stay in the right lane, unless actively passing.

-If you have 5 or more vehicles behind you, you MUST pull over and let the faster traffic pass you. Again the RCMP watch for this. They WILL pull you over.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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TailGator911

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Down to Escondido today to visit with my son and his family, then Monday morning launch for Alaska via the ALCan Highway - the adventure begins!

Just a quick mention, was in Dallas area the day some guy started shooting at the courthouse. Scanner coverage was great and SDS's got it all. Very hectic communications. Sounded like a mess, just glad that no one (ceptin fer the shooter) was hurt. Was monitoring from the RV at a rest area/parking area on I-20 with SDS scanners thru Stridsberg 4-port coupler, fed by mini-Diamond 220 discone mounted up on roof luggage rack. After much testing and comparing, the Diamond 220 outperforms the Compactenna by a longshot. Compactennas are 'ok' but not for me. After 2 days I delegated it to the storage locker. I am a Diamond discone fan, above all other scanner antennas. Great reception with the mini-discone and it is no higher than my AC unit up there. I also like the fact that I can disconnect all the scanners and transmit 2m/440 with my Yaesu FT2-DR. It gets out just fine. My RV setup is working well now!

After a few minute changes in settings, the SDS200gps is working very well, too. Lots of editing to do mainly in Service Types, if streamlined correctly you will hear what is going on around you and able to lockout unnecessary TGs. My pre-programmed SDS200 is working great, hard to compare as both are lighting up on the same hits most of the time. Now the SDS200s are running neck-to-neck and performing very well, and the SDS100 and 536 are catching the 'slack' and hearing transmissions that are missed due to activity on the others. Overall, I'd say I am doing pretty good on radio reception. Made contacts last night on LA area 2m/440 repeaters with Yaesu FT2-DR, hit repeater 30 miles away with stock antenna. Dialed in some shortwave broadcasts, scratchy on Yaesu HT but listenable. Made last minute decision to leave R8600 at home and test the hf and wide receive on the FT2-DR. The best thing that happened so far - I actually heard someone on 10m asking for a radio check - ran to the front of the RV where my Galaxy's are and had a 30-minute QSO with very friendly ham in San Bernadino named Al who gave me some great tips on the AlCan Highway trip and some things to look for. Said he is registered here, so a big thank you shout out to Al in San Berdoo (as he calls it) if you are reading this! :) First 10m contact in a very long time!

On his recommendation, I purchased the kindle-edition Alaskan Driving Guide for things to do on the AlCan Highway. Some great info in there! I have since made a few adjustments to our travel agenda.

On the road by 9am, time to break camp and hit the I-5 south, short drive time today. Until next time - safety first!

JD
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TailGator911

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Well tomorrow we are checking out of the lodge and hitting the road home. It's been a wonderful (and long) 2 months on the road. Loaded a few sd cards full of pics with the Nikon P900. Alaska was a great adventure, and so much going on when we were there, bad stuff like tourists drowning, on the way there on the AlCan Hwy there was a very big police presence looking for 2 bad guys that killed some people. I was able to hear search teams with dogs on dot frequencies and DMR uhf as we passed thru. They later found them deceased on a riverbank. Very bad accident happened right in front of us on the AlCan - 1 fatality and 2 airlifted out - so we saw our share of bad stuff, too. But the good definitely weighed out the bad and we have had a wonderful time. Sitka island was amazing. I brought home a slab of Sitka spruce that probably would have went to the Gibson Guitar factory in Bozeman had I not snatched it up on one of our hikes. I'm going to solder-burn the date on it and hang it on the wall in my studio. Scratch one off the bucket list. Great fishing and camping.Have about 5lbs of frozen brook trout in the freezer.
Have to say the Winnebago Via is a sweet RV but not as big as the Arrowhead we used to have, so motel rooms were always a luxury and a little too often lol. Overall, fantastic summer adventure. Lots of radio fun, too. I will post a general equipment performance review when I get home later this weekend.

Have to say, I miss my radio desk!

JD
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kayn1n32008

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Yea. There was a massive manhunt that took the RCMP into northern Manitoba looking for the suspects in that incident. They committed suicide, and were found last week. They killed 3 people in total. The couple on the Alaska Highway, and a man further west in BC.
 

TailGator911

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Ahh, it's good to be back home!

Yes, AlCan is no joke. Glad I had a couple few decades of driving 18-wheelers in all kinds of adverse conditions under my belt. Denali roads were even worse. I thought I'd seen skeeters in Louisiana and Florida, but they don't hold a candle to the skeeters in Canada and Alaska! Great adventure, but 2 months in an RV proved to be a little too much for me. I'd love to blame it on the wife, but I was looking for the motels long before she brought it up lol. We had a blast, tho.

Full day of cleaning out the RV and securing it tomorrow, then I will be posting some performance reviews of the radios and equipment that I took with. Had me some radio fun now! :)

JD
kf4anc
 
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