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Well, I did it! I finally flew to Alaska for my fifth trip and rented an RV for four weeks to reconnect with some of my favorite haunts and get the feel for one of my favorite states again. I shared the trip and the RV with friends and we drove 3,000 miles to include a fair portion of Canada as well.

I had already traveled all the major paved and gravel roads in Alaska as well as the ones through western Canada. And through that five trips and over two years worth of Alaska travel, I have experienced a great deal of what Alaska and Canada have to offer. But there is always something new cropping up. This time we shared new things such as Segway touring in Anchorage; a visit to the Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer; the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Center in Whitehorse, Yukon; and Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and Kachemak Bay Research Reserve in Homer. We were fortunate to be able to visit their research and transportation support vessel that was in home port, the Tiĝlax.

As I have promised, I am revising the RVing Alaska and Canada book. When I was writing up the “how-to” and adventure fly/rent RV story, I realized that maybe this should be a separate short book as well as possibly including it in the revised book. I’ll be making that decision shortly as the writing is nearly finished.

I think with fuel prices being what they are and what they might become, this may be the answer for a lot of people. You would miss the terrific adventure of driving through Canada and not being on a schedule as you are with rental units, but the cost of flying and renting might equal the fuel cost.

In the meantime, if you are going to drive it, and I hope you will, and take PLENTY OF TIME, here are some tips.

Good Equipment

Necessary Supplies

Adequate Information

Slow Down! Frost heaves and wild creatures have NOT GONE OUT OF STYLE! Ditto 2008!

Traveling 8,000 or 10,000 miles from home into unknown territory on sometimes bad roads, is not the time to be stupid or careless! SLOW DOWN when necessary.

Even if it sounds daunting when you estimate how much fuel will cost, look at it this way: An RVing friend and I were just recently discussing the fuel cost to Alaska and he said that in comparing mileage and fuel that he and his wife used RVing across the lower 48, it equaled the amount it would have cost to go to Alaska and back. It just sounds further!! It really pays to look at going to Alaska as the “Trip of a lifetime.” Go for it!