GreatAM- I need your help!!!

Please help me plan a Prudhoe trip for next year. :)

I'm looking at, maybe two cruises with this touring in the middle. Gone 3-4 weeks total.

http://www.budgetqueenalaska@yahoo.com

Too bad we can't make it a hen party, but I plan to be retired by next summer. No more sleeping single and lonely up at Deadhorse for me!

Too bad we can't make it a hen party, but I plan to be retired by next summer. No more sleeping single and lonely up at Deadhorse for me!

Wow, that would be excellent. Think about reconsidering. :) I can also retire next year, but, have no plans to do so.

Wow, that would be excellent. Think about reconsidering. :) I can also retire next year, but, have no plans to do so.

That would be excellent. I volunteer to drive, PennyAgain, you bring the tools and Budget Queen, you fix the food and provide medical care(I don't do P & J but will eat most anything else).

As usual, unless things change dramatically, I will be in Alaska around Labor Day. Always try to take a few days for ME before I have to start rounding up all the paperwork from the fish shipping. Either bear viewing or Prudhoe or something else "spectacular" as well as dinner at Seven Glaciers has been the norm.

IF I can get a BP van (and of course, I won't know until about end of June next year), we can fly one way and drive back. Or we could rent a car and drive both ways (with stops in Coldfoot one way and I think Jack is still housing guests in Wiseman at the B & B ). I want to go back over to Chanticleer Lake. I sit here in Baghdad where it was 121 on Monday and think about Chanticleer Lake where the coldest ever temperature in Alaska was noted (not recorded officially)-MINUS 92. I'll take Baghdad (not much different than Arizona-once it gets over 110, who can tell.)

We could also do one of Northern Alaska's tours and make it easy on ourselves. But if we all could go, I sure would like to charter another plane and fly to ANWR again. Can't do that with a tour-well, maybe we could. ONLY book the road part FROM Prudhoe. Book our own flights TO Prudhoe and our own hotels. Do the ANWR trip, THEN get on the Northern Alaska van.

Retire-what the heck is that??? I still love the travel and all the weird and crazy places I get to go. IF and when I either get tired of the travel or am physically not able to do it anymore, I am selling every truck, trailer and truck dock I own (well, me and the bank). Going to my farm in Missouri and kick back in my rocking chair. That is not even a dream-I hope I can continue doing what I do until I kick the bucket.

So what kind of help can I provide? And could we really make this the "three old ladies" trip??? That would be a ball. I run into so few women who I would even consider this trip with-most are just too high maintenance for me.

I am "no" maintenance. :) Anyway- I'm looking for how long to plan for and what timing you recommend. I do think the Northern Alaska tours just excellent and well run, but have only used them round trip Coldfoot/Wiseman.

Keep me in mind with any updates.

No way am I driving or even riding along on the Haul Road. My old bones can't take that. That road is dangerous.

Airplanes were invented for good reason. Landings at Deadhorse aren't so bad.

I'm one of several being considered for a promotion. If I get that I'll labor away for 3 to 4 more years and then really retire. If I don't get it, retirement is going to be very real.

About the promotion: I've found out that some people are being nice to me because THEY want the job. Also people are being mean to me because THEY want the job. I can't trust anyone and can't talk to anyone. (other than you pair) but the results of it all will come out in mid-September about the time of the equinox.

On the issue of maintenance: never did do that and never will.

I am "no" maintenance. :)

Anyway- I'm looking for how long to plan for and what timing you recommend. I do think the Northern Alaska tours just excellent and well run, but have only used them round trip Coldfoot/Wiseman.

 

Keep me in mind with any updates.

The Northern Alaska trip is 3 days from Fairbanks-fly up day one, drive 1/2 way (to Coldfoot) the second, then drive to Fairbanks the third or reverse the itinerary. I have never flown OUT of there. Think I would be too sad.

If we were going to drive it both ways, 5 days if not six (if we could go to ANWR). I absolutely love it in Prudhoe-it seems so far from everything and there is really a lot to see or maybe I should say "absorb". I can spend hours looking at the Caribou and running around trying to find the "resident" bears. Talking to the people in the store, the postmaster, the airport people to me is how to get a REAL feel for the place. And just sitting and talking to the workers. Plus I find all the industrial stuff simply fascinating and want to know how it works, who made it, who maintains it, etc. This bores most women to tears-I run into it all the time, so I won't do it if the two or three of us can make this trip. But the BP presentation, BEFORE the tour, is absolutely excellent to explain how they find the oil, all about horizontal drilling (they are VERY close to ANWR as it is) and how they keep the environment so clean (only place where I have EVER seen pans underneath EVERY vehicle to catch ANY drips of antifreeze or oil-DH works at the USA's largest nuke plant and it is not as clean). I have had to say "shut up" more than one time because the presentation IS interesting, but way far out of the norm for most tourists (particularly women tourists).

Another thing that most people miss totally in the presentation-when they first built the pipeline-the caribou crossings were basically a "bridge" UNDER the pipeline. They found out the caribou HATED it and would not go under the bridge. So they ripped the pipes apart (a lot of money to take those huge pipes apart and get the rollers all lined up again) and dropped them on the ground. There are now little "ramps" for the caribou to walk over. The Caribou LOVE the warm pipes-they flock in at night to lay around the warm pipes. If one more person tells me we will decimate the caribou herd by drilling in ANWR, I am going postal. The Caribou herd was about 7,000 when they first started the pipeline (1974). It is now almost 30,000 AND the Caribou are dying due to OVERPOPULATION.

My BIL is going Caribou hunting again this year (last time he did was 2 days before 9/11-their group was essentially LEFT in the wilderness for a few days. They had NO communication and thought the pilot abandoned them. Thank goodness, they are all firefighters, used to "fending for themselves" and are avid hunters and fisherman. The pilot finally showed up-could not fly due to 9/11). He has been offered TWO out of state caribou permits, which is pretty unusual. I think DH is going with him.

The trip is what we could make it-warts and all. What kind of time frame are you looking at?

No way am I driving or even riding along on the Haul Road. My old bones can't take that. That road is dangerous.

I don't think (I could be wrong) that your old bones are as old as my old bones (62 yesterday-what a birthday-Baghdad, Iraq-I did get a piece of cake with one candle on it in the DFAC (dining facility-don't you love the acronyms). Couldn't even go to the new upscale shopping mall due to a "security" shutdown and I could not talk any of my Triple Canopy escorts to accompany me.

Airplanes were invented for good reason. Landings at Deadhorse aren't so bad.

But we can't see the muskox, the bears, the "thumper" trucks (which I just find fascinating) Wiseman, Chanticleer Lake or even the outpost in Joy (I love the idea that they adopted ELEVEN kids) if we fly.

I'm one of several being considered for a promotion. If I get that I'll labor away for 3 to 4 more years and then really retire. If I don't get it, retirement is going to be very real.

 

About the promotion: I've found out that some people are being nice to me because THEY want the job. Also people are being mean to me because THEY want the job. I can't trust anyone and can't talk to anyone. (other than you pair) but the results of it all will come out in mid-September about the time of the equinox.

 

On the issue of maintenance: never did do that and never will.

That SUCKS!!! Could never play the political game-just got too big a mouth. Glad I own the business or I would NEVER have a job. I sure hope you get the promotion. You need to make this "girls trip"-retired or not. We will let you have the back seat and even bring a air mattress if you want. I have one that blows up off a car battery-you don't have to air it up-LOL. This would be a BALL.

I did the trip "just for fun" in my subcompact Scion a couple of summers ago (August) with one of our biotechs. It was an amazing road trip. We camped out at the BLM campgrounds on the way and the fall colors were beautiful north of the Brooks Range. Deadhorse was really windy although not too cold. The biggest problem with driving the road are the trucks who don't slow down for anything. I got a big rock to my windshield (never have gotten it fixed) and a few minor chips. Overnighting in Deadhorse is expensive, but the food at the Caribou Inn (??) is really good plus you get to check out the shell-shocked Princess passengers. You have to give the tour people your info at least 24 hours in advance if you want to do the Prudhoe tour (of course having an "insider" like pennyagain along might get you some perks). I also flew to Deadhorse a few weeks later as part of a government "orientation tour" for some DC VIPs. Amazing how fast the flight is compared to the road trip!

Of course, you could always wait for winter and join the "Ice Road Truckers"!

but the food at the Caribou Inn (??) is really good plus you get to check out the shell-shocked Princess passengers.

Ain't that the truth!!!

Of course, you could always wait for winter and join the "Ice Road Truckers"!

I think every truck driver in the lower 48 with a CDL and HAZMAT endorsement has applied to Carlisle. My own drivers have applied. I told them if they could find the freight, they could go run the ice road in our trucks (which is really NOT an ice road unless you consider that they just dump water on the road to smooth it out in the winter). Ice roads cross lakes/rivers and are prevalent in Canada and are VERY dangerous unless you know what you are doing. You can run the Haul road all year long. Oh, for TV and the Reality shows (which are far from real a lot of time).

I avoid the Princess passengers. Just can not stand the moaning. I am a bit older than GreatAm and went to Deadhorse first in ....gads....1978. I flew in sitting on freight. I weighed about 120. Looked like a boy with lipstick.

Happy Birthday to GreatAm.

I won't have any news until Sept. Can't make plans.

What time of year would be best?? I really want to see muskox in the wild. I have had to settle, gazing at them through fences at the Fairbanks U.

Yep, this sounds like a great adventure for me to consider.

I really want to see muskox in the wild. I have had to settle, gazing at them through fences.

One of my goals, too. DH goes to the Brooks Range almost every year, and if the weather is awful, goes on up to Prudhoe just to do it. I don't go along because I don't want to be the "3rd wheel" in the hunting party. But this summer we were supposed to go up, just the 2 of us. However, with the summer almost 1/2 over, it doesn't look like that's going to happen this year. Other things keep popping up, and as of yesterday, it looks like we'll be kind of tied down for the rest of the summer. Time will tell.

Back in '75, I was a newlywed and DH worked at Pump Station 6(?) at the Yukon River. I decided in late March that I was lonesome, so my girlfriend and I drove up one day. We had a Pinto, and we spent the entire trip thinking we would be squashed by one of those big trucks. Back then, no one but the truckers were on that road, and it was cleared of snow barely wide enough for the trucks to pass each other, and even then, only in places. The berms of snow were far higher than our car, so we couldn't get off the road. I had to p**, but we didn't dare stop. Finally I found a place just wide enough to get the car off the road enough to maybe not get hit. Being more modest than I am now, I tried to get behind the snowberm. While the berm was frozen solid on the front, as soon as I stepped over the top I fell in up to my armpits. I had a heck of a time getting out of there... That ended my modesty for that trip!

mytime53, oh love! Been there with the modesty issues. Can't do modesty that far north. No trees!

I haven't driven the Haul Road and don't intend to, but I wish BQ and GreatAm well if they decide to go for it.