{"id":367,"date":"2013-08-12T01:26:08","date_gmt":"2013-08-12T01:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/?p=367"},"modified":"2013-08-12T01:58:32","modified_gmt":"2013-08-12T01:58:32","slug":"starting-the-alcan-38-years-earlier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/?p=367","title":{"rendered":"Starting the AlCan 38 Years Earlier"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/StartofAlCan.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-370 alignleft\" style=\"border: 0px none;margin: 6px\" title=\"The Start of the Alaska Highway marker - 35 years ago.\" alt=\"StartofAlCan\" src=\"http:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/StartofAlCan-300x215.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"215\" srcset=\"https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/StartofAlCan-300x215.jpg 300w, https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/StartofAlCan.jpg 442w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Thirty eight years ago &#8211; 1975 &#8211; we quit our jobs in\u00a0 CA, put Witt in this VW Van and headed for Alaska. It was getting just too crowded in CA. We weren&#8217;t sure how long we were going to stay and we didn&#8217;t really have much of a plan. But our &#8220;stuff&#8221; was stored and we were free.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/camping2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-373 alignright\" style=\"margin: 6px\" alt=\"camping2\" src=\"http:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/camping2-300x179.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"179\" srcset=\"https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/camping2-300x179.jpg 300w, https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/camping2.jpg 458w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We camped where we could. And Witt played where and when he could and was always happy.<\/p>\n<p>We arrived at Dawson Creek and we believe this is the exact spot Quinn and Jen were standing in their photo &#8211; but much improved now!<\/p>\n<p>Dawson Creek was the last stop to get prepared &#8211; travelers highly advised that we get chicken wire to put around the windshield to help prevent rocks from cracking the windshield. This was the beginning of a 2000 mile gravel road journey with not many services along the way. Henry cut out a hole about 4&#8243; x 8&#8243; to pier through and hopefully avoid the potholes and rocks from other vehicles.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/WireMeshonVW.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-371 alignleft\" style=\"margin: 6px\" alt=\"WireMeshonVW\" src=\"http:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/WireMeshonVW-300x185.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"185\" srcset=\"https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/WireMeshonVW-300x185.jpg 300w, https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/WireMeshonVW.jpg 452w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a> Well, about a week later, this is what we looked like, along with a nice big crack in the windshield right where the view hole was. There weren&#8217;t really many camp grounds along the way &#8211; we mostly pulled out along the side of the road and camped where we could.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/VWRoughroad.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-372 alignright\" alt=\"VWRoughroad\" src=\"http:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/VWRoughroad-300x191.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"191\" srcset=\"https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/VWRoughroad-300x191.jpg 300w, https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/VWRoughroad.jpg 449w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Plenty of opportunities for Witt to fish along the way. We could only wish back then that we could have had Witt, Jen and Quinn&#8217;s 4 wheel drive. It would have worked perfectly at that time and day. But, oh well, we had so much fun and ignorance is bliss.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/WittFishing.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-369 alignleft\" style=\"margin: 6px\" alt=\"WittFishing\" src=\"http:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/WittFishing-289x300.jpg\" width=\"289\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/WittFishing-289x300.jpg 289w, https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/WittFishing.jpg 319w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 289px) 100vw, 289px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A note to Witt and Jen. With the current RV luxuries, you guys are roughing it on a scale greater than we experienced, going further, faster and into more remote areas and making contributions along the way. We are loving the virtual travel with you!!!! And thank you so much for posting these wonderful events! H&amp;K<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thirty eight years ago &#8211; 1975 &#8211; we quit our jobs in\u00a0 CA, put Witt in this VW Van and headed for Alaska. It was getting just too crowded in CA. We weren&#8217;t sure how long we were going to stay and we didn&#8217;t really have much of a plan. But our &#8220;stuff&#8221; was stored [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-canada"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=367"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378,"href":"https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions\/378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}