#3 Alaska Trip - Helena, Mt to Drayton Valley, AB

6/30/12
Miles: 620
Departed Helena at 8:30am & headed towards Pigeon Lake Provincial park SW of Edmonton.  A long day of driving but there was no line going into Alberta and the driving was easy, Canada easy.  We made it to the campground where LE had reserved a campsite online with the Canada Day weekend holiday in effect.  We got it and drove in but the site was 20 ft long and 8 ft wide with campers on both sides and no separation between sites, let alone, nowhere to park the truck and trailer.  It was way too tight so we went back out to the check-in booth and told the conservation officer thanks anyway.  She surprised us by escorting us to another campground 15 km away and checking for a spot for us.   The officer eventually mapped us the way to yet another hotel 40 miles away, which was on the route to AK, because the second campground was packed as well. We could have forced a tent spot next to the bathroom with the officer guarding the perimeter for us as we set up but felt we should move on. I find it strange that Canada has the most land & the least people yet they tend to camp in the smallest of areas as a group.  
 It is true that Canadians are extremely helpful and nice.  At a gas station earlier, a lady came out to make sure I was OK pumping gas. 
Calgary is a large city which mixes ranching / farming with big city, kinda cool.  Finally got into a wicked downpour for the last 20 miles of today's drive.


 Tomorrow Mrs. Evans sniffed out a Canada Day parade to watch at 10 am outside the Holiday Inn Express.  She just gets so excited about parades, how could we possibly disappoint her.  Even if the parade was just 1 drunk banging curb to curb down the road with a Canadian flag hanging off his car, it would make her day, which would make my day (happy wife, happy life).  


Tomorrow headed for Dawson's Creek, BC.
I have moved photos away from the blog and will update a Google + album when I can.

#2 Alaska Trip - Utah to Montana

Friday 6/29/12

An early morning visit from M.A. Fornelius to the hotel room in SLC.  Always good to see the man.  Departed north to Montana at 9:30am.  Somewhat uneventful driving day with the goal of camping at Holter Lake campground outside of Wolf Creek, MT.  We stopped in Butte and picked up a bicycle to take to AK.  On the hillside in Butte is a huge statue of the virgin Mary, below is a shot of her overlooking Butte.  We made it to Helena after 500 miles and decided one more night in a hotel would be perfect before we hit the dark territory of Canada and forced camping.  A decent Pizza Hut meal and a newer La Quinta hotel fit very nicely to end the day.  We saw a herd of elk, a few gophers which LE ran over one of expertly.  Hoping to make it to Red Deer tomorrow.

#1 Alaska Trip

6/28/12
Today starts the the journey to Sterling, AK.  After a few moments of fighting with sis, (some things never change) she and I got the trailer packed and padded. Officially on the road at 6:40 pm local time.  Road conditions were fine with no wind.  We passed through the New Harmony fire area which had been 70% contained as we passed and also came within 30 ft of Danyelle's cousins house.  Their garden suffered a bit of singeing.  The fire jumped I-15 and torched 22 buildings and homes on the West side of the freeway.  We also passed through a fire area near Scipio which ran the whole mountain ridge West of town.
We reached the Pavilion Inn in Murray, UT around 11:40 pm just as our contact pulled into the parking lot.  We loaded 5 boxes and some PVC pipes that you can only get in Utah?  Relaxing with a rum and coke(s) and preparing for tomorrow's journey to Butte, MT to pick up a bicycle then onward toward Wolf Creek, MT.

Shorty the Cat

Found some pictures of Shorty the other day and decided he needs his story told. Here he is hard at work.

Last winter Mrs. Evans and I noticed a white cat sitting outside our back sliding door to the bedroom. He was no more than 2 feet away from Pumper the dog who was sleeping inside the door. Shorty just sat there watching everything then left after 20 minutes. Later in the week he came back, only this time he was in our garage looking into the house through the dog door. I kicked him out and put the door blocker in place so he couldn't get into the garage anymore. Every morning I would go out to the garage and he would be curled up against the door waiting to be let in. We are not cat people and it was clear he wanted to adopt us. So finally, I took him to work and let him become a yard cat at the shop. We kept a bowl of food and water for him and on the first day he killed a mouse and left it out for us to see that he was keeping busy around the shop at night.

A few days after winning our hearts and minds the little feller just disappeared, gone, not even a good-bye note or anything. For 2 mornings we would race to his food bowl to see if he had eaten anything through the night but no, it was as full as when we left it the day before.

Now we've had a few shop cats over the years but they always vanish after a few weeks or months. Sometimes it's the owls or eagles. Sometimes they just walk away to be seen in a whole different area of the golf course. Sometimes they make it to the road and meet up with a car travelling 50 mph which I know for a fact hurts like hell. But this dude was gone and all of us tough guys were heart-broken. We thought he was going to be different. He really seemed to love his new job.

He had been gone for 3 days when I was driving home during work, to pick something up, I noticed it on the side of the road.......... there he was. Shorty.

He was running not walking up the freaking sidewalk to my house. It took him 3 or 4 days but the SOB had walked from the golf course back to my house! It's about 2 miles distance between the two places. I stopped and opened the door and he jumped in. I took him back to the shop. By the way, have you ever driven a cat in a car before? It can be hectic but he stood on the seat back taking in everything including speed, direction, time and what roads we were taking and yet he still found time to swipe my face with his tail every couple of minutes. I will never forget

the elation on, my co-worker, Don's face. We celebrated our prized mouse catcher's return to work!

Then 2 days later he was gone again. We hoped he just took a vacation again and we were right! He walked up to the house again! I got up to go to work and he was waiting patiently in the garage for me to come out. I put him in my truck and went back inside to put my shoes on. As I installed my shoes, I heard a horn honking which is unusual at 5:30am. Plus, the honking was coming from the garage. I ran out to shut the noise down to keep it from waking the whole neighborhood. I wasn't ready for what I saw. Shorty the cat standing on his hind legs and pushing the horn like this, honk-honk.......honk.........honk-honk. I'm not sure but I think he was sending a distress signal to other cats in the area. I couldn't believe my eyes or ears. I had to tell the cat to stop honking the horn at 5:30 in the morning! Which he did. I got him to the shop as quickly as possible and he stayed there for a few weeks until Mrs. Evans called early one morning after I'd gone to work to say "That *#%&ing cat is in our kitchen!" She put him out, got in the shower and by the time I arrived he was already back in the house sitting there 5 feet away from the sleeping dog just watching everything.

Then he was gone for week and we went hiking that weekend and found out later when Don came to check on Pumper, Shorty the cat was laid out in the spare bedroom right in the middle of the bed sleeping. When he was returned to work Don noticed Shorty had a 1" sized hole in the middle of his back and he couldn't walk. We figured he was attacked by a bird of prey. He was so traumatized he wouldn't tell us anything about it. We thought he would be dead by the next day. He just laid on the ground like a dead cat. But, he pulled out of it and after a week of recovery he was back to work and all was fine. Then he disappeared for good while I was in rehab. We never saw him lying in the road. Never saw him on the course. We just never saw him again. As cats go, he was a keeper. He never complained and never bit or clawed anyone. He was one of our best workers and is sorely missed.

After talking to the neighbors, we found out that Shorty (the little whore) was two-timing us by spending nights at their house under the name of Buster during his trips to our house.

Check out my Grillz!

Got a BBQ the other day. The dude did a pretty good job and only took a week to build it. Turns out he is cousins with a guy I played basketball with weekly in FH and who once picked me up hitchhiking on Gilbert Rd while driving by.

Went to LV with the Mrs. a few weekends ago and had a good time. Stayed at the Aliante Station which is new and sits NW of LV out all by itself. Very nice and self-contained with the best gym I've ever seen. Saw the movie The Hangover and can see why it will be the largest grossing comedy of all time! It is ribald and raunchy but is very funny. We went to Boulder City to kill some time waiting to pick up DD's grandma from the airport and had a great lunch in a hole-in-the-wall place called Milo's.

Therapy is getting a little easier and the shoulder is starting to heal. Also, I won an ice wrap today. I knew I would win the monthly drawing after all the donuts and cookies I dropped on that place. Going camping this weekend near Mormon Lake to try and cool off.

Back to work

Got released to full-time work yesterday. Got the work truck back from Don also much to his chagrin. Had an ortho Dr. appt. yesterday as well and he says the knee is on schedule and we can now concentrate on the left shoulder and right arm. The arm still doesn't straighten fully. The shoulder has 2 partial tears in the scapula area. Docs and therapists feel the tears have healed and just need rehabbed, so we began doing that today. My new rehab schedule is Tuesdays and Thursdays working more on the shoulder and then spending some time on the knee and ankles. So it will be fewer days a week but more time (2.5 hrs) each day. Plus, walking and exercising in the pool on off days. We're trying to get this all fixed up before my remaining 15 insured visits expire. Feels good to finally move on to the last of my injuries.

Taking Mrs. Evans to Vegas next weekend for a few nights and to do some birthday shopping for her. Looking forward to a family camping trip to possibly Colorado next month. Welp, time to hit the gym /pool for some water walking and dog paddling.

Can't stop talking about myself!

Took some time off so I will have something to blog about. Had some visitors last weekend. My dad and his wife came up and Matt came down from SLC. Matt, as always, is a good mixer at any get together. His puppy is getting BIG and Pumper was happy to have a friend to play with. Did a little touring around S. UT. Went to the Mountain Meadows Massacre site, a place where Mormons killed up to 100 innocent travelers and tried to blame the local Indians for it. Not their proudest moment but at least they fessed up 100 years later.

The artist formally known as Chris Peterson pulled a fast one on us and sent 2 paintings for the price of one. We don't consider him a starving artist and feel lucky to have both paintings.

Had a fantastic dinner in Mesquite for our anniversary. Here is a pic of the aftermath. Mrs. Evans can be seen trying to push my belly back in.

Joined Facebook today or as Dad calls it, Spacebook. Got hooked up with no less than 4 elementary school chums within 20 minutes, a few of which I hadn't talked to since the early 80's. They all look old just like me.

Been going to the rec center to walk around in the pool and get exercise on the legs. Did without crutches this weekend and have been using a cane. I am more willing to use the cane, crutches are not as fun as they look.