Home from our adventure

[MN G'ma]

This is my first post. Just wanted to let you all know that G'pa and I returned yesterday from our great adventure to Alaska. We spent 88 days in our 2010 Excel RT 26TRW. We traveled 12,000 plus miles, visited 13 states, 3 provinces, spent almost six weeks in Alaska, and had a BLAST! This is our third fiver, first Excel, and we are very pleased. We traveled on some pretty tough roads as we criss-crossed Alaska, and the Excel looks as good as new. We met some other Excel owners in Alaska -- all very friendly and enthusiastic about their Excel experience. Now we can't wait for the next adventure.
By the way, our two cats, Lucky and Sparkle, had a great time on the trip, too. They loved the many windows to look at the scenery, and found the bed to be very comfortable, with or without us.

MN G'ma & G'pa

[MonacoMama]

Mn G'ma...
Welcome to iRV2 and the Excel forum!!
I think your first post is specail enough to actually have it's own thread so others can give you a proper welcome!!

It sounds like you had a great time. I am so glad you took plenty of time to enjoy Alaska. There is much to enjoy there.

I hope you don't mind that I move it out of "Where is Everyone"...I promise to stick you on the map in Minnesota though.

Again ....welcome to the Excel forum...we hope you visit & post often!!

PS..It seems like somoene was wanting to look at a 26' ... You may want to check some threads from last week.

[Money Bags]

I can’t let this sit any longer.. MN G’ma what a wonderful trip! That trip is a once in a life time one for some folks and just a dream for lots of others. Thanks so much for sharing and I can read you’re excitement between the lines through out you’re whole post! It is so nice to hear so much positivism about you’re Excel Experience instead of hearing how rough the road was or how many screws come loose. Now I don’t know, but others must know the in and outs on taking pets into other countries. Did the pets slow down you’re border crossings?
You are from a very beautiful state, I have a lot of childhood memories in Otter Tail county to Park Rapids and then of course getting very wet trying to stay on those walking stones at the beginning of the Mississippi. But I have walk across her many times.

[MN G'ma]

Thanks for the reply, Money Bags. It's hard not to keep smiling when we remember the trip. It was just So. Much. Fun. We read up on what we would need to get the cats across the border and got the health certificates and proof of rabies and distemper shots from the vet. Our vet office was quite familiar with what we would need. We had heard that there might be a problem with bringing pet food into Canada, so we got a letter from the vet explaining that Lucky needed the special Science Diet food we had along for him. We dealt with Canadian customs four times on the trip as we traveled up and down the state of Alaska. We found the customs agents for both Canada and the U.S. to be very friendly and easy to deal with. Most asked if we had health certificates for the cats but never actually looked at them. No mention was ever made about food -- ours or the cats -- so that may have been information that was valid for an earlier time when there was concern about mad cow disease. The funniest exchange we had regarding the cats was when we returned to the U.S. in Montana. The agent was running down a list of items we might have with us: Hides? No. Horns or antlers? No. Live plants? No. Birds? Before we could answer, she said, "Oh, yeah, the cats would have eaten them by now." After we all had a laugh, she gave us back our passports and said, "Welcome home." What a nice touch. Come back to Minnesota any time. The fall colors are pretty spectacular. We are planning a five-day trip to the Duluth area for the Labor Day holiday. Got to keep the Excel on the road.

[BookIIRoadtrash]

I know, I know, Alaska never leaves one and I went there in a big bird, to have the maximum number of fishing days! So are you going again? Welcome aboard and keep sharing you experiences with us!

[MN G'ma]

Thanks for the salute to the cats. We were just talking today about some of the things we want to do on our next trip to Alaska. So, yeah, we want to go again. We didn't do any fishing this time, and we want to try that. I'm not sure I want to go out in the ocean (at least not without Dramamine) but I would like to fish inland for trout, white fish and especially salmon. We were in the Copper Canyon area when the banks of the river seemed to be shoulder to shoulder with anglers. Next time we will have a better idea of where we want to go and how to get there. Also, what we need to take along and what we could have left at home. Our Excel has plenty of storage, but we probably didn't have to pack every inch of it. It wasn't just my stuff that filled the space. I gave G'pa full charge of the basement storage and he seemed to find a lot of tools he thought he had to have "just in case." Probably can't make another Alaska trip next year, but maybe 2011. Now we are looking for a good place to escape the snow and cold in January and early February.