Episode 8 : KS to MT

The host, AlaskaDub, is excited to start the road trip to Alaska. They gather resources at their friend's parents' house in Kansas and set off in a small car with limited space. They plan to camp along the way and enjoy the freedom of the road trip. They make a stop in Boulder, Colorado, which is a hip and interesting town. They continue their journey, taking a shortcut that leads them to a ski lodge where they spend the night. Alright, welcome back to episode 8 of the AlaskaDub Chronicles. I'm your host, AlaskaDub, and I'm excited because we're finally getting on the road to Alaska. Um, at the end of the last episode, we were, uh, gathering the last of our resources at my, um... Well, I haven't named anyone before, so I probably should keep him anonymous. But we'll just say my road buddy, my friend. So we're at my friend's parents' somewhere in Kansas. I've been racking my brain and looking at Google Maps, um, for the sake of the, um, map whose link I attached. Uh, it's a nice Google Directions meeting from Pleasant Hope, Missouri to, um, to the end of this road trip. Uh, so the best I could come up with was, uh, it was Forested Hills, um, and the house is set on a lake. Because I remember we had a big dinner, and then, uh, I took a quick cruise on the lake in the family boat, uh, powerboat. So that was pretty cool. Um... So I've been trying to find places that had residences on the lake, and, uh, before you start hitting the plains of Kansas, uh, I knew it was a little bit north of Kansas City. So Cocker City, uh, is about the best I could find as far as a point. Uh, some tells me it's not that because we would have made fun of the name. Uh, but from there, we basically, um, packed up the tiny CRX. There was literally no room. It had a hatchback that was, the entire back hatch was completely stuffed. Uh, we couldn't see out the window at all. And then I had a little cooler in between my feet, um, the whole trip. And, you know, just pretty much knees and elbows, you know, knees up to our chins and, uh, rocking out. I think it may have gratefully had a sunroof. That would have been one saving grace. But, uh, you know, it was a good little car. It got crazy gas mileage. Um, I want to say like 50 miles per gallon. And, you know, it was good. Um, it factored in well. It was, it was, it was far more reliable and dynamical than, uh, than the pickup truck was. So that made for an easy decision. It wasn't quite as cheap as taking, taking a Greyhound would have been. Uh, but it left far more room for adventure and, uh, freedom to enjoy lifestyle choices. Uh, and nothing weird, just part of it. And, um, and allowed us to bring more stuff, really. Uh, so we wanted, uh, to spend as much time, uh, camping, uh, camping along the way. So we did have, you know, the basics, uh, with the, probably just a little Coleman, Coleman camp stove. Um, we, to save space and, uh, for a variety of terrains, we had actually jungle hammocks, pretty dope jungle hammocks. Um, with, uh, mosquito netting sides and like a waterproof, like, uh, tarp roof. And so that was great. Um, we set up camp on the ground, uh, just to find, find a few trees and string them up between there and, um, set up camp pretty quick. Um, and as, as the trip went along, you know, our routine got, got pretty efficient. Uh, we jettisoned anything. We didn't have room for anything extra to begin with. And it's pretty, pretty amazing how, uh, how indulgent, uh, all my friends have been my entire life when it comes to, uh, transporting my books. Cause I've always, I'm a chronic over packer in a general sense. And when it comes to relocating, uh, when it comes to books, man, it's just back breaking. Uh, so anyhow, I, uh, I took as much advantage of that as I could. So, um, as much as I was tempted to, you know, walk down memory lane at, um, in Denver, which was sort of our, sort of our destination. Um, we knew there, at this, let me just throw out a little disclaimer that anything I say about any of these areas, uh, even going back to Cocker City, to the residents of Cocker City, I'm sure it's an awesome place. I picked it on the map because it looked like the place I was very fond of, uh, even though I was only there, um, you know, less than two days. But general impressions and so forth, I know for any less than flattering opinion I may express, uh, there is totally evidence to support a contrary, uh, opinion. And I'm totally open to, you know, uh, if any listeners in the future, uh, want to open my eyes to some places that I didn't, uh, appreciate and, or have not expressed an appreciation for yet, uh, feel free to let me know. And, uh, and I'll totally revisit my hastily drawn and, uh, decades ago opinion of these places. That being said, uh, we didn't think there'd be too much to see, uh, crossing, crossing through, uh, western Kansas, eastern Colorado, and, you know, it's plain, it's plain. Um, so we got an early start, and I think, I think we realized, we, like, wanted to get some miles under our belt and didn't want to get tangled up in, you know, negotiating Denver traffic for, I don't know, maybe I had initially planned to swing by the old, uh, you know, the old, old, the whole thing. The homestead from my kindergarten days, but, uh, my guess is if it ever was a plan, it got shelled, you know, in the, in the crush of traffic and, uh, and seeing that we had time to, to make it up to, uh, Boulder. And I, I'm a little frustrated in that I had this journaled and through the course of, as you will see, uh, I have lost those journals. So, knowing that this was described in, in, in great detail, uh, it's a little saddening, frustrating, uh, but anyhow, Boulder was an awesome place. I mean, it was a great head shift from the hustle and stress of, of life in Kansas City, uh, to, like, a glimpse of what we had, what we hoped, uh, general, general Alaska would be like. That being our destination, um, not, not to give away the story, but, uh, uh, so I think we, we rolled up, uh, you know, I, I literally have a map in front of me, but I'm not going to, um, I'm not going to get worried about distances too much and times. But I think we rolled up sort of in the late afternoon into a nice piney, uh, piney forest at the, the, uh, rolling foothills of the Rockies and, uh, you know, you start getting, like, the crisp air coming from, coming from, uh, you know, the hot plains. Uh, this was in, uh, June. Yeah, I, I think this would be early June. Uh, you know, uh, briefly after the semester ended at DeVry and my friend graduated, uh, so it was sort of like his, his time abroad or just, just trying to figure, figure things out. Uh, it had been so, so demanding, uh, scholastically, and I'm really proud of him for, for having graduated, especially the way he partied his ass off. He was almost a king. Um, but, uh, but so it, it's kind of like the new, the new world, the new life began the morning we woke up. Uh, woke up in the jungle hammock. I remember the needle strewn, uh, ground and, uh, I don't know, whipped up some quick breakfast or something on the, on the little camp stove and, um, and headed into town. I remember in the, like at the first intersection we came to, like in the actual, uh, town of Boulder, four, four-way, four-way stop, probably, I think it was a light, and we were the only non-Volkswagen, uh, at the, it was like two buses and a, and a beetle, uh, there at the stoplight. And that kind of just really set the tone, uh, for the super hip town and, uh, I, I don't know what it's like today. Maybe it got over, I don't know. I don't know what it's like today. It could, I don't, I can't imagine it's too radically different either. But I may be wrong. I'll have to check it out, uh, when we might go back south again. Uh, but we enjoyed our, enjoyed our time there. I remember there was a really great army surplus store, uh, along Pearl Street, and Pearl Street was great. Uh, it kind of blew my mind. And it was, looking back from this perspective, it was one of the towns that became sort of like a piece of, like a little preview of what I would fall in love with in Juneau. Uh, because it was super funky, uh, people walking, walking about interesting shops and, and restaurants and bars on, on either side of this wide mall that, I say mall because it's called the mall, but it's, it's really just like a wide brick, uh, meander that, um, Pearl Street, I think, kind of follows Pearl. River, creek, burp, um, this Pearl, this waterway. And, um, it was just so darn interesting. Uh, I remember someone was playing ragtime piano, and then you go from, from that little musical zone to another, and, uh, just super hip. And I got the greatest pair of pants. It's like Austrian army surplus wool. And, uh, oh my God, what I wouldn't give to have another pair of those. Um, and so, there was so many, so much stuff to love about, love about that place. Um, definitely, definitely felt like one of the, one of those places that you put down on your mental map to, uh, to be, if I ever, if I ever, you know, go back down south and, and, uh, it might be a, a good place to live. I don't know what the income opportunities are, the price of living nowadays, but, uh, back then it struck a really, really awesome note. A great, great way to step out, like, sort of officially, not leaving mom and dad's house, you know. Uh, so, so, what I would consider the first official, uh, start of our, start of our trip. And, uh, so, from there we headed up to, uh, those four columns. And, uh, about the next, next landmark that I, that, um, I remember, uh, would be around Lander, Wyoming. And, uh, and I think somewhere after there, uh, there was a couple, somewhere outside of Lander, I want to say. Um, we were taking what looked to be a classic, uh, classic shortcut, uh, which ended up taking us, um, it was like a high, high mountain dirt road that still had snow on it in, in June. Um, so that led to, well, we ended up, so that night we ended up staying in a, like, ski, it was a ski lodge that was still, it was like boarded up, sort of. I mean, it was open. We slept under its shelter, uh, shelter of its roof. It was left open and available in that regard. And, um, and it was, it was right there by the, where the snow made the, the little dirt, dirt road impassable. So that's where we spent the second night. And through some, you know, backtracking and I couldn't really, couldn't really say where, but to the best of my recollection, uh, the next night we, uh, made camp. Um, just outside of Yellowstone, uh, in Montana. So, uh, well, I have my, on my map, the best I have is West Yellowstone, but I think that's what, in Wyoming, but right about there. I mean, from the west, western edge of Yellowstone. And, uh, saw our first bear. Saw them on the grizz across the river. Uh, we did hear tell of, uh, of some bear activity on our side of the river. Uh, you know, where we, we were a little bit, there was a row of camping spots and then like a little, like a dirt, sort of like a dry, smaller dirt road leading off and for a few additional spots. And so we were at the end of these additional spots and had our hammocks hung up. And I think probably back, back at the, um, like the outhouse, wellhouse, communal, communal area back in the main camp is where we heard about, uh, you know, some bear activity and to be careful about your trash and do bear wear. And, um, so of course I don't think I slept super well because I kept thinking about being like a bear burrito, just hanging, hanging out there. Um, but, you know, it was, it was cool to see, you know, uh, I, I think we'd also seen some elk, which are freaking awesome. Um, and, you know, of course deer and, uh, the elk were really the impressive ones. Um, and as of from there, uh, so the plan was originally to, um, to drive the outcamp, um, which would take us, uh, we were going to cross the border, uh, Montana. Uh, again, about the best I could come up with was, uh, Cootes, well, Cootes being the town on the other, just the border town on the other side in Canada, in Alberta. And, um, so that, that takes, So, uh, that was our plan, uh, to, to drive up through there. So I can't really recall any, anything too notable. Uh, we may, we may have had a, like another, another night of camping before. Um, we must have, we must camp pretty close to the border. Um, because the next, the next day is, uh, is a pretty early morning border attempt. And, um, that did not go as we had planned. Um, Um, so we knew well enough not to, to have any, or did we? I know we did not have any handguns, but I'm pretty sure I was taking my 12 gauge. And of course, you know, had it safely unloaded and, uh, probably had the, you know, like a trigger, trigger lock on it and had it on top of everything to, you know, to clear it. Um, and we had, we were well supplied and were smoking. Uh, you know, we enjoyed smoking, uh, but we did not have any, any illegal substances, uh, when we were going, you know, when we had, when we approached the border. Uh, like I said, we did look like a clown car and, but after having camped for a few days, uh, you know, we were pretty scruffy and I'm sure, I, I don't think we had taken a shower anywhere because we hadn't, uh, yeah, I don't, with the camping, I don't think there were any showers available. We hadn't stayed in a hotel or anything. And, uh, so, so right off the bat, we looked sort of disreputable. Uh, probably just the CRX riding low with all our stuff, dust covered. Uh, I'm sure we didn't have the forethought to clean it, you know, clean it or ourselves. And, uh, I remember they had us completely unpack it to, you know, search it for any contraband. And, uh, so, so far everything was good. Uh, but what turned us around, what got us turned around is we didn't have enough pocket cash. Um, we, you know, we had money in accounts and money available, but as far as cash on hand, it was something like we each had to, to, to show 300, 300 bucks a piece. I don't know. We simply didn't have that. And so they didn't want us. Uh, we got turned around at the border and had to kind of come up with a plan B. Um, the lasting effect of that is I am still persona non grata until I pay like this, uh, border rehabilitation fee. I think it's still pending, like, oh my God, 30 years later. So, you know, that's on my to do list. Uh, so at this point it goes from a road trip up the Alcan to, uh, well, plan B is basically we got to catch a ferry. So, um, for that we, we point the car west and start heading for Washington. I think this makes a good, uh, good place to pause. Uh, since we had that change, since we had to change our plans, uh, this gives, gives you folks a chance to change your head at the same time. Uh, so until we continue, uh, be good.