Alaska Trip Reporting!

[Ak Mike]

Howdy! My bride of 50 years and I (plus the pooch) are undertaking yet another adventure! Normally, an Alaska trip would be from home TO Alaska and back home...however, in our case, home IS Alaska so we're going from Alaska to pick up our new Micro Minnie and back home to Alaska. I thought that starting a thread here (at creativepart's suggestion!) would be a good way to share with everyone and help me with the inevitable questions from a first time RV owner! (see "Newbies to the RV World" thread in the Welcome Mat for some background)

We are currently working on the 'deal' with the dealership in Missouri. How did we pick them? At 70 years old, I'm a bit computer illiterate and had difficulty navigating the Winnebago website so contacted them for help. I had a timely and pleasant email back from our "Winnebago Concierge Agent" who asked what he could do to assist me....since we'd already done our internet homework and decided on the make/model we wanted, I simply described our plans to visit family in Iowa, pick up a travel trailer and drive back home. Sounds simple...but it really isn't. We're both government workers (still!) and despite having sufficient leave time accrued for a 3 week trip, we still have to be back at work...eventually. So, there's an end time and the beginning time was predicated on my Mom's passing and the service we planned in Iowa. We ended up with a week to drive from home to Missouri, pick up the Micro Minnie, visit with family and attend Mom's service then a week to drive home back to Alaska. We have a 2023 Tahoe with the heavy duty trailering package so the Micro Minnie was well within the Tahoe's towing capacity. I'll pick up a weight distributing hitch when we get down south. But, back to the planning: We live on an island in a Southeast Alaska community, those familiar with our situation know that we have to ferry our vehicle to another town that has road access since we are totally land-locked. In our case, we could go south to Bellingham (a long trip by ferry) or north to Haines/Skagway (much shorter but we'd have to drive further.). Since we'll be traveling with our fuzzy friend, we voted for the short ferry run as he'll be confined to quarters on the car deck while we enjoy the sea breeze up top. As we'll have to go through Canada, it's passports, no cash over $8K (whatever that's about?), health certificate for the dog and so on. No big deal but you certainly have to be aware of Canadian rules as they are different than we have in the U.S.
We're typically comfortable enough to drive 500 mile days so we expect to be on the road about 6 days to Missouri. All goes as planned, we'll be picking up our Winnebago in late August and heading back north by 10 September. I think we'll head west as far as Spokane then north up the Cassiar Highway and back to Skagway & home. I wish we had more flex time to smell the roses, but maybe next trip! Stay tuned for updates! Mike

[rk911]

your time line seems ok but understand that a 500-mi day likely means 10-hrs of actual driving not including stops for gas, meals, traffic, etc. in reality you're likely looking at a 12-hr day x 6-days. that's a lot! figure an average hwy speed of 50-mph.

good luck, safe travels and congratulations!

[Ak Mike]

We’ve done some long days before, always seems like it was about the destination and not the trip…hopefully someday we can travel (now that we’re going to be RV people!) without any schedule. And we’re looking forward to that! I don’t know that we’ll ever be full-time RVers but you never know! This trip is a three week window but someday we hope it’ll be the seasons that tell us when we need to go!

[rk911]

yup...been there, done that. we retired early at 55 and at that point started doing 4-hr driving days...maybe 200-250 mi...tops!

[Ak Mike]

4 hour days driving sounds perfect! If you find a spot that you want to stay at a few days, no problem, right? When we bought our big boat (37’ twin diesels), we drove it up the inside passage and across the Gulf of Alaska to Whittier…long days watching the scenery and once we got to our home port, we then spent lots of weekends just anchored up in some little cove and chilled out. We’re thinking we’ll do about the same thing with the RV.

[rk911]

yup. we'd break camp around 10, drive till noon'ish...stop for an hour to have lunch, fuel, etc. then drive till 3 and stop for anywhere from 1-day to 2-weeks. i hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

[Wakullabob]

I am 79 Y.O. and drive 4 and 5 hours per day pulling our 2106 Winnebago . We are driving Florida to Washington State , there to take a cruise ship on the inside passage . If we find a spot to stay several days , boy there are lots of them , we stop usually in city or county camping sites . Many small towns and counties have camps at parks or fairgrounds for ten to twenty five dollars a day .We are 23 days into our trip and are at the Idaho- Oregon border . Good luck with you plans !

[Ak Mike]

The planning of purchasing & traveling ends up being the most complex part of the entire trip...and we haven't even gone a single mile yet! We've been waiting patiently...well, mostly patiently... for loan approval from our dealer before making our ferry reservations and lodging arrangements (for the southbound leg). Finally, I called again yesterday morning only to find out that we live "outside the loan district"...which means they can't arrange with the lending institution in the midwest for us. I wanted to give the dealership a chance to make money on the loan but since they couldn't make it work, we dropped by our local credit union and within 20 minutes it was done. Now it's a matter of getting the paperwork chase completed and we'll be RV owners. Owning an RV without ever seeing it or setting foot in it is a bit risky I suppose, but given our current situation, it was an option we chose. One reason I was in a hurry to get it done is the difficulty in getting ferry reservations at the last minute as well as lodging on the Alaska Highway during tourist season. Ferry reservations were a snap (and dented my credit card to the tune of just a tad over $700! Ah, the price of living on an island...

It seemed like the departure date was sneaking up on us...and indeed it was! All the sudden there's even more questions running through my mind, like: "Will I be able to use OnStar as a wifi hotspot when we're camped?" "Why do weight distribution hitches cost $400 to $800?" and, "How often can I expect to be rousted out in the middle of the night if we just pull over off the road and call it a day?" I'm sure I'll have a million more but for now, we're just happy to be making progress! More to follow!

[lwerman]

We visited, test drove, decided on a factory ordered unit & purchased a 2016 Adventurer 37F out of state, so flying in on a rushed timeframe to pick it up was a huge mistake. We live in the SLC area of Utah & ordered through La Mesa dealership in Phoenix. When I flew into Phoenix to sign the final papers, deliver the check & pick it up, I was well greeted and given a once-over tour of our new RV inside their display bay. While signing the papers, the white gloves came off & the RV was moved to the parking lot & left for me to find.

As I perused what I now owned, I found an easy dozen issues before I started making a written list. After about one hour I went looking for help & was treated like a stranger. No one could or would help, it was getting later in the day, May of 2015, the lot was going to get locked soon so I was advised to exit with the RV ASAP. When I finally tracked down someone who would talk about the situation, I was told I would need to schedule a service appointment to investigate the issues I discovered, or go home to SLC & deal with our local Winnebago dealer, which is the path I chose.

I had a close (relatively speaking) relationship with one of the service writers in SLC as we purchased from them before. I was shocked to discover that I am automatically at the back of the line as we purchased this RV elsewhere. I regret making that decision ever since.

I should have inspected the RV in Phoenix for as long as it took & not signed anything until they were all fixed. I imagine they would have worked quickly if I started to reside in the RV on the lot! I sincerely hope your experience goes much better.

[2lgdterrier]

I live in Canada have lived in the USA I have never heard of the 8K money limit. my experience, you can have as much money with you as you wish but you have to declare anything over 10K.

[Ak Mike]

Iwerman: That's horrible! I worked in a GM dealership for many years (in a previous life) and I'm aware of some 'professionals' who really get stinky with customers who buy somewhere else, so I know of what you speak. Now that I'm "old and crochety", I find myself not putting up with poor customer service any longer. Yet, nearly everywhere we go these days, customer service (as we knew it) is almost totally extinct. We need to hold their feet to the fire if we want to see it get better. Easy to say, tougher to do!

[Ak Mike]

Originally Posted by 2lgdterrier

I live in Canada have lived in the USA I have never heard of the 8K money limit. my experience, you can have as much money with you as you wish but you have to declare anything over 10K.

I've made the border crossing more times than I can remember and I'd never had them ask me that either...maybe it's the rate of exchange since it's been favorable to the US dollar lately and $8K in US dollars equaled $10K Canadian (limit to declare?). No worries though, we typically use credit cards in Canada anyway so we get an automatic rate of exchange.

[Grapehound]

Hey AK Mike! Please know that as soon as you sign the papers and hand over the check, you are a stranger at your dealership. You have to get in line to get anything taken care of.

However before you sign, they will jump thru hoops to get anything on your RV fixed.

So take your time with your PDI (Pre-delivery Inspection) and make them fix anything that is questionable before you sign anything. Otherwise, you own whatever issues you bought and they don't care. Don't create a long difficult, frustrating trip home for yourself by signing things too soon. You might even ask an independent RV tech to go over the unit with you in the PDI before you sign.

[Ak Mike]

I'm getting the strong sense that I'll need to expect a poor purchasing experience from you all....lucky for me that I've had the life's experience of being on both sides of the fence; sales for a couple of decades and the rest of the time spending money. When I was on the dark side, it was pretty easy to see why salespeople quickly became cynical towards customers. And, as a customer, it was really easy to spot those salespeople. (Please notice that I'm working diligently to speak 'gender neutral'...although teaching an old dog new tricks is always a challenge!) Well, I certainly can appreciate everyone's experiences, I still think the old saying of "Your results may vary"....so, we'll see how it goes for this old dog! We have captured lots of perspectives here and I'll imagine that you will all be waiting to hear our purchasing and travel experiences...maybe you should start a pool to see who gets to say, "I TOLD YOU SO!"

[creativepart]

In your first thread many of us took great caution to not dash your plans. And you told us to let you do you. So, we are.

But I have to tell you we’ve seen a great many others rush, buy sight unseen and lament their decision and none of them were planning on turning around and driving to Alaska.

Of course we all hope for the best. But honestly I cringe with every plan you mention in you posts above.

In the many hard luck stories we’ve heard, there are always really good “reasons” that things had to be done in a rushed manner. But when the crap hits the fan on day 3 and everything grinds to a quick halt suddenly there is all the time in the world to find a way to just make everything OK again.

[Ak Mike]

The purchase process is nearly completed...finally! Check has been overnighted to the dealer...although, "overnight" from Alaska often means only a few days! : ) We're used to things taking longer and paying more for shipping on most everything though. We did get a little 'twist' tonight with a phone call from our salesperson. He got let go from the dealership today and was courteous enough to give us a call and refer us to another salesperson. I was hoping to meet this young man as he worked hard to put this together for us. We'll be on the ferry in a couple weeks and heading down the highway. Providing we dock on time, we hope to make Watson Lake the first night then on to Fort St. John. Then down through Alberta and Saskatchewan and cross the border in North Dakota. Providing no delays, we're hoping to pick up the little Winnebago by the end of the month. Then stop and visit family for a week or so before heading back home. I worry a little about lodging on the way south with our pup, but seems like there will be plenty of pet-friendly hotels along the way except maybe for the more remote parts of the trip so we did make reservations in Watson Lake and got the last room! We are prepared to sleep in the Tahoe by folding down the seats and using an inflatable air mattress but hoping we won't need it! I tried it out and it's comfortable enough and about 100 times easier than trying to get in/out of my little backpacking tent. (Wife already said NO to that idea anyway!) Two artificial hips and bad knees probably made the decision for her! Our pup rides pretty well; we took him up north earlier this year and other than taking about a day getting used to riding in the car, he did great! A bit high-strung and only two years old, he really didn't like staying in town because of the noise so we're thinking he'll enjoy the travel trailer life better! I'll post more once we hit the dusty trail...providing I can figure out how to use the wifi in the Tahoe! Mike

[Eagle5]

Hi Mike,
My dog Grace wants to know what kind of pup is it that you have? Grace is an M'loot, which is the Tribal dog of the Inuit. The Inuit could get by on just three of these large sled dogs for the lighter sleds, but on those cold Alaskan nights, all three dogs would sleep with you to keep you warm. This was known as a Three Dog Night.
Thanks, Eagle5

[Eagle5]

Originally Posted by Ak Mike

As we'll have to go through Canada, it's passports, no cash over $8K (whatever that's about?), health certificate for the dog and so on.

Hi Mike,
The rule for entry either into Canada or into the United States is that you cannot have more than $10,000 in that country's currency value to enter into that country without declaration. So, in US Federal Reserve Notes when entering Canada, that would limit you to:
$10,000 CAD × 0.7455 = $7,455 USD
If you had Canadian Dollars, you could take this much of those into the USA:
$10,000 USD × 1.3415 = $13,415 CAD
If you wanted to "pay in cash" for your trailer, you could do so by using $50 Gold Eagles. These are US Treasury coins, and customs must accept them at their face value of $50 USD. So, you could take:
$7,455 ÷ $50 = One hundred and forty-nine $50 Gold Eagles
These would be worth about $298,000 in Federal Reserve Notes, which should pay for about seven new trailers!
Is that cool or what?
Of course, this reminds me of Steve Martin explaining how to become a millionaire and not pay any taxes.
Thanks, Eagle5

You Can Be a Millionaire and never pay taxes

[Ak Mike]

Eagle5: Grace is beautiful!! My brother had. McKenzie River Husky in Fairbanks years ago also named Grace and your Grace looks very much like his. Our pup is Kobuk III, a miniature American Eskimo and he loves the snow! He’s quite a bit smaller than Grace so I’m thinking it would be a “Six Dog Night!”

[Eagle5]

Hi Mike,
Kobuk III sounds like a wonderful dog. Hopefully, the nights won't be so cold.
Thanks, Eagle5