rosebud

Thanks for all the positive thoughts and messages! We have made great friends here over the years that are not going to get rid of us. Statussymbol - check out Amazon.com for the headlight. Phil amazes me with the random things that shows up on my cart. Bongobobny, we met in person at B2 mom & dad's last fish fry.

Our Hannigan does not have reverse. It really has not been an issue.

We hate to do this, but we decided that it's time to stop riding. Phil had triked out his venture before he had retired so that he was ready for retirement. And we had a couple of great years with incredible trips on the trike. But the last two years have been a different story - last year Phil had knee trouble and didn't ride very much just a couple of hour rides through out the entire year. He waited 7 months to fit into the doctors schedule for knee replacement surgery and finally had surgery the end of Feb this year. He's been back on the trike, but just not enjoying it the same as he did before. Getting on the bike is hard for him, but getting off is very difficult, so it just seems like it's time to let it go and hopefully someone else can enjoy it as much as we have. We have loved this group and all the knowledge shared, and support that each and everyone of you give. I suspect that we will remain behind the scenes reading about rides and trips that everyone shares. And if you're interested in the tike - check the classifieds. Thanks for everything - Diane & Phil (Rosebud & NewTrk)

We went to Alaska this past June 2015. We took our 2006 venture converted to a trike with the Hannigan kit. Be prepared for 100 miles of gravel road right before the Alaska border. It doesn't matter which road you take in to Alaska both have 100 miles of gravel. We bottomed out on one frost heave and lost the mufflers, luckily the support bar on the underside of the trike prevented them from dropping on the road. Would go again bye way of ferry!

Sorry to say Phil will not be headed for the international after all. We are stuck in Coal River, BC with the bike disabled. Waiting for the tow truck to arrive to tow the bike back to Whitehorse for repairs.

Patti and Don, those are some digs. Beautiful. May this home bring the two of you many memories to come.

Congratulations Patti. As Phil says everyone works so they can retire. I know this has been in the planning stages for a while, so happy you and Don got to make it a reality. You will have fabulous trips because they are yours. The door is always open to you at our house.

We are in Seward for the next few nights. It's raining and in the mid 50's here. According to the locals this is normal summer weather. We were prepared for lots of bugs and skeeters. Every time I turned around Phil was stocking up on bug spray with 99% deet. The bugs have not been bad, but they had a dry winter here. As far as what I would make sure I saw and tell others not to miss: 1.) Watson Lake sign post forest 2.) Ride Seward Highway from Ankorage to Seward. Most beautiful road we have ever ridden on. 3.) Canadian Rockies, the Ice Highway. What to skip: 1.) Fairbanks, just not impressed with the area. 2.) Route 37 through Smithers and Dease Lake, kind of boring I'll post some pictures later this week when I find the Seward Library and upload the pictures to the laptop. FYI we are staying in a city park camping for $10 a night right on the water.

Hey Jeff, Happy to help out. We spent 2 fun filled day in Denali camping at the Riley Creek Campground for $22 a night. Sure can't beat the price. It was a little cold camping and we needed to run the portable propane heater a couple of times to arm up the mini Hilton. We did a bus tour into the park, and saw some animals, but a long distance away. You would need a big zoom lens on your camera or binoculars to see the animals. Alaska is very dry and no campfires are allowed any where. Denali is a semi arid environment with little rain. This morning we packed up and moved on to Anchorage. We are staying in a hotel tonight - pretty expensive for a comfort inn, over $250.00, but we needed a soft bed, and a good shower. I think we were beginning to smell, at least each other. The plans tomorrow are to do laundry, visit the Ulu factory, and to take the Seward Highway to Seward. Gas ran $3.30 a gallon today. Very few Shell or Mobil stations in Alaska. The kids had given us gas cards as gifts this past year and we have no been able to use them so far. Here are a few pictures from the last couple of days.

No problem last week as we our in Alaska

Sorry for the long delay between posts. Internet service has been very spotty where we've been. We went up highway 37 through BC to Watson Lake, YK a few days ago. Stopped by the Sign Post Forest and retired Phil's vanity plate NEWTRK at the SP Forest. From there we spent 2 nights at Whitehorse. Beautiful country. The mountains are amazing. We took a bus/train trip through White Pass to Skagway on Monday. What an amazing ride through the pass that the circa 1880 gold miners took into the Klondike to mine for gold. After that we continued up the Alaska/Canadian Highway for Alaska. The roads between Haines Junction to Otter Creek are under construction for about 60 miles. What a mess. The permafrost heaves got the better of the exhaust on the trike. One on the heaves in the road pulled the exhaust apart and suddenly we sounded like a Harley instead of the venture . Once we reached Tok, AK we stayed in the Sourdough Campgrounds. They are ran by great people. Tim the owner use to be an RV mechanic and helped Phil put the exhaust back together. The ride from Tok to Fairbanks was filled with smoke from wildfires along most of the route. We ended up staying in a hotel instead of camping simple to get out of the smoke. Today we got our oil changed at Northern Power Sports and had them replace the battery too. We were having issues with the bike not wanting to start every morning. It would be great during the day, but overnight the battery seemed to drain, and we finally had enough of it. Gas in Alaska is running about $3.65 a gallon on average. Gas in Canada was running about $1.20 a liter. There are plenty of campgrounds once you get into the mountains. Phil found it harder to find a campground in the flatlands of SD, WY, or MT. Tomorrow we're headed to Denali to camp for a couple of days and then we're moving on to Anchorage then Seward and Homer. Here are a few pictures from the last few days.

Phil thinks I brought the rain with me to Canada. We've road in rain every day since I've arrived on Wednesday. The Canadian Rockies are awesome. We stayed the first night Lake Louise area. Outside our hotel building were a family a prairie dogs. They were so use to being fed they would come right up to you. They like to stand and get their pictures taken too. The next day we road through to Japer and then on to Prince George. It rained on and off all day. As we pulled into the campgrounds at PG the skies started to open up and really rain on us. We set up the mini Hilton in the rain. Listened to it rain all night and broke camp in the rain the next morning. Tim Horton's are pretty good places to dry out and warm up. We don't drink coffee, but they serve the hottest hot chocolate we've ever had. Ended up last night in Smithers BC. Our goal today is to try to reach Watson Lake in the Yukon. Temps have been averaging in the 50's sure glad that I brought the liners for our jackets with me. Here are a few pictures of our trip so far.

We're on our way have to go to Alaska first see you on the July 20

Here till wed 6/17/15 to meet diane at air port then on our week ride to fairbanks

For anyone who's been watching Phil's path on Spot, it's been pretty cool watching him go along. He is in Shelby Montana about 90 miles outside of Glacier National Park. The area is predicting strong winds today 50 - 60 miles an hour until about 6 tonight. He's going to stay where he's at instead of packing up and trying to reach Glacier. So don't worry about not seeing him move today.