Arctic Songbird Adventures

It was quite an exciting drive but we made it to NY in one piece. Day one was the longest at 795 miles. The next day we saw lots of black bear, bison, Caribou, elk, a coyote,  a red fox, and dozens of porcupine along the road. We ended up stuck in a freak snowstorm which dumped 14-16 inches of wet snow and made it extremely difficult to drive. I didn't think to bring a shovel to dig myself out of the 30" berm the snowplow sent into my Truck! 3rd day was snow and then heavy rain and wind making it too difficult to continue into Saskatoon so we camped in a convenience store parking lot. Day four was back in the states into ND when I literally was stopped due to billions of bugs that splattered the front of the truck so fast I could not see out of the windshield. Don't drive in ND in May when the sun goes down! Day 5 was beautiful in MN, WI, and upper MI. I saw the Great Lakes for the first time and they are awesome. The last leg of the drive was 610 miles back into Cana...

Yesterday was a long day finalizing the packing and organizing the boat for the long journey ahead. This monumental expedition would not be possible without Carrie's organizational skills and ability to put 10 pounds of stuff in a 5 gallon location. I got 5.5 hours of sleep at best and woke to a crystal clear Alaska morning. Going to hitch up, have a quick bite to eat, drop Frazier off at school, and start motoring northeast toward New York! Those pesky 18,000 foot mountains prevent me from actually driving toward NY for the first 300 miles so around them I go. A very exciting day and God has blessed us with this glorious morning to begin! Carrie and Frazier.....see you in NY next week! Here we go....Brian, Gibson, and Gracie!!!!

The boat is nearly packed full with two months worth of STUFF! Everything is fitting in a cubby, compartment, hatch, bucket, or box but we need a table of contents to remember where everything is! The cockpit just got a little more space with a custom throw together bike rack I built for the cabin top. If we just had an old mattress to throw up there we could officially rename this as the Palmer Hillbilly Adventure.

I am getting excited for the journey to begin. Carrie has been adding to our luxury with compact items and now we have a mini....toaster, blender, coffeemaker, and hair dryer. Each item is 800 watts or less which allows us to use our Honda 1000W generator for power. One of the most important things is we  have a shower on board! A sun shower and a curtain for the back deck will definitely be luxury! I installed towel hooks too so now I don't have to stand by and be the towel holder! Now....where does the washer and dryer fit in! I guess we need a bucket of quarters for the laundry facilities we will visit!

We have been working on the boat every day stowing gear, cleaning, waxing, and getting everything ready for our ten week, 10,000 mile adventure to New York and beyond. We still don't have every detail of the route figured out but will start in North Tonawanda, NY and head east down the Erie Canal to Albany. From there south down the mighty Hudson to Liberty Landing marina in New Jersey, which is next to the Statue of Liberty! We have reservations for one week there and then back up the Hudson to Lake Champlain. From there we will proceed to the St. Lawrence Seaway and upriver to Montreal, Canada. Then up the Ottawa River to Ottawa, and then via the Rideau Canal to Kingston. From there, we are not sure if we will cruise lake Ontario to Toronto, or proceed up the Trent Severn Waterway. It all depends on time, weather, money, and if we are ready to kill each other and get off the boat! Brian, Carrie, Frazier, and our two little barkers; Gibson and Gracie are gearing up for the grand m...