Tag: road trip
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The Trans Alaska Pipeline
The kinky snake is as long as Great Britain (just over 800 miles) and transports oil from the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic, to Valdeze on the southern coast. The Trans Alaska Pipeline split the state from top to bottom in 1977 and was the most expensive, privately funded construction on earth. Although I can…
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I’ll make sure the minx is filthy again soon
After driving slowly past the least inconspicuous military air base in The World (I can say that now, as America advertises everything compared to “the world”) Fairbanks is the next city on the trail. For its location, the Eielson Air Base, just south east of Fairbanks, was established as part of World War 2 military…
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Tok on July 4th & a mile marker to note
Driving into the tiny town of Tok on the Alaska Highway at the beginning of the 4th of July carnival/caravan parade, is rather like accidentally walking into a meeting room containing your bosses, while discussing the sexual antics of ducks on the phone and not realising anyone else is in the room. Inappropriate, and badly…
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Rougher than grinding pebbles in a blender
Top of the World & Taylor Highway. Following the old sourdough track over the hills from Chicken, the views from most of the Top of the World Highway as we headed towards the U.S. border, were of pine forests as far as the eye can see – some of which replicates the fire damaged trees…
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I “beeped” out the expletives
This morning I was woken up by a loud, beeping alarm and KP coarsely saying “no, I don’t need you!” Unless signalling a fire, some carbon monoxide overload, burglary, an air raid, a morning when the sun isn’t going to rise (it does happen here), or worse, we’ve run out of tea, there really shouldn’t…
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Into the Arctic
We crossed into the Arctic Circle a little after 7am on July 1st 2015. The sodden, squelching tundra was forgotten briefly as it opened up into sparkling, dew-covered hills. From a distance, rather than early morning Arctic peaks, the approaching mountains resembled hazy, desert sand dunes. Although not gigantic, they possess their own, gently unassuming,…
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Mother Nature: The Temptress
There have been no obvious critters from the start of the Dempster, all the way to the Inuvik (750Km). The caribou cross the road twice a year on their migration – once in spring and once in autumn – but despite appreciating their time keeping, I’m slightly sad I won’t see them. It’s also correct…
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Wearing a woolly jumper and swimming through peanut butter
Day two on the Dempster and the road has been surprisingly good so far. Like many highways in the north country, it’s detailed as dangerous and not for standard vehicles. Compared to the rest of the country, the roads are unpaved, and indeed a little rough, but honestly, (especially in the summer) apart from a…
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I am literally a walking stick of candy floss wrapped in bacon
Industrious, vicious, relentless, and the size of birds – mosquitos in the Yukon are intrepid villains, seemingly programmed to insistently make my life a complete misery. As long as I’m around, getting their full attention, KP appears relatively fine, but even he has had a dozen bites on his head and hands since we started…
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I Lied
Dawson City is not the start of the Dempster Highway (but it is where the paddle boats from Whitehorse once steam powered to). Forty kilometres east of Dawson City, we found a petrol pump in a deserted gas station, at the start of the highway. KP had to go into a booth-like-Tardis and follow instructions…
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Whitehorse: An update for lovers….of murderous horses, my toilet time, and history
Arriving into a city isn’t normally such a wonderful thing, but since leaving dusty, Dawson Creek, Whitehorse is strangely, rather comforting. There are crowds of people, even in the rain. There is traffic to negotiate, and various city aromas fill the air (it’s amazing what civilisation stinks of). There are numerous places to fuel up,…
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Penetrating your Yukon…
Update from the river bank Penetrating Your Yukon Update prior to Heading North Productive day
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Intimacy with an orally fixated sheep
As if driving on the back of a grey millipede which is missing a few legs, the highway’s industrial limbs appear to be less common as we head north. I wouldn’t normally be so happy to see an insect with its appendages missing, but whichever bully decided to dissect the bumpy-backed diplopoda, I’d like to…
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Camouflaged, but not for my furry friends.
The start of the Alaska Highway from Dawson Creek constantly reminded me of how the north works – practically, hard, hands on, in extreme weather, overcoming the wild, and with no apologies. The industries up here are oil, gas, logging, infrastructure maintenance, and survival, and everyone seems to enjoy it a little rough around the…
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The Alaska Highway – Dawson Creek
No punns or associative crying please – although, half expected, the start of the Alaska Highway is not what you’d call a metropolis, nor is it a picturesque country town. Dawson Creek (nothing to do with the TV show) is an oil workers farming town. It’s a hard, industrial boondock, strewn with combine harvesters, tractors,…
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Nostalgia, some dreams, and the colour of my crotch.
It’s the city that never sleeps. Although New York might have been better named, the city that can’t keep its mouth shut. It can’t be quiet….at all. I’m normally one for coming prepared, but after a day in the rain and still suffering from a little jet lag, I threw on the wrong trousers. A…
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Times Square : New York
Sometimes there is no blog. Sometimes I’m taking too much in visually, in the rain, to sit down and write anything. So, here I am enjoying a little walk around New York before hurrying out of town to begin my trip to Alaska. It seems so easy when you say it like that. As if…
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Panda Porn and Umbrella Rage
Walking twelve blocks in the rain to drop my backpack down, to then spend much of next hour trying to find a food stand which didn’t have a cue of at least twenty people wasn’t the best start to the morning. New York City is a place of food cues, and I’ve also never been…
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Bam! New York, Baby!
Six months away from ‘Merica, and I’m back for more. After being delayed seven hours and enduring an always slightly turbulent re-entry into the states (and I don’t only mean the weather), I finally arrive on the doorstep of a friend in New York, looking only slightly similar to a damp rat. Some spicy, Thai,…
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Starting out again…
I’m supposed to be in the sky, but even though leaving England maybe imminent, I’m having to wait just a little longer for my next big adventure. “It’s not the destination, it’s getting there”….said someone once, about the wonders of travel. I think they may have been quoted prior to airport delays; when getting there,…
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2014 in review
So I wrote 62 posts across the USA and the blog received just short of 10,000 reads. Raising $3227 for @worldlandtrust. I’d say it was a pretty successful year. If you’re stuck for some toilet time reading, these were the most popular updates: Naked and Alone https://winstonwolfrider.wordpress.com/2014/07/16/1579/ Haunting Experiences https://winstonwolfrider.wordpress.com/…/nobody-heard-me-s…/ New Orleans https://winstonwolfrider.wordpress.com/…/a-miss-havisham-p…/ Race and…
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When a Bear is a bird, and when Beards do battle
Without attempting to be The Riddler, waking up in Yosemite for the last time was like waking up on the first morning of a new job – much less exciting than waking up on the last day of your old job, and even though there is a reason you must start work, quite unsure and…
Not a Travel Blog 