An Alaskan Adventure: A Travelogue

By Alan R. Adaschik

Alan Adaschiks dream was to visit Alaska; Americas last frontier and a place which abounds with wildlife and unspoiled wilderness. Upon retirement, Al and his wife Gayle sold everything and bought a thirty-seven foot Damon Intruder motor home to make his dream a reality. An Alaskan Adventure is a narrative about Al and Gayles trip which highlights the places they visited and the wonderful things they experienced along the way.

An Alaskan Adventure commences in Indiana following a visit with Als relatives who live there. After negotiating the traffic jams of Chicago, Al and Gayle traveled I-94 across the northern Great Plains visiting Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana along the way. Heading north, they visited Glacier National Park and continued on to tour Yoho, Banff, and Jasper national parks in Canada. Afterwards, Al & Gayle picked up the Alaskan Highway which took them to a realization of Als dream.

The reminder of the book is about Al & Gayles travels around the Great Alaskan Triangle, a circuit of 900 miles defined by the cities of Tok, Fairbanks, and Anchorage. While negotiating this triangle, Al and Gayles primary goals were to find gold in one of the many streams they crossed and to also find a Wooly Mammoth frozen in a glacier. Toward this end, they took side trips to the White Mountains National Recreation Area, Denali National Park, The Top of the World Highway, and the towns of Homer and Chicken.

An Alaskan Adventure is not just a book about touring Alaska. Al is an environmentalist and a theme evident throughout the book is that the beauty we find around us is fleeting and that if we, as a species, continue to over-populate our world, what we see and value so highly is sure to go away.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 14, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491857021

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©

2014 Alan R. Adaschik. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 02/13/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4918-5706-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-5702-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014901497

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1:   THE NORTHERN PLAINS

Chapter 2:   THE ROAD TO GLACIER NATIONAL PARK

Chapter 3:   THE ROAD TO JASPER

Chapter 4:   ON THE ROAD IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

Chapter 5:   THE YUKON

Chapter 6:   TOK TO FAIRBANKS

Chapter 7:   THE WHITE MOUNTAINS ADVENTURE

Chapter 8:   THE ROAD TO DENALI

Chapter 9:   A DENALI ADVENTURE

Chapter 10:   THE ROAD TO ANCHORAGE

Chapter 11:   THE ROAD TO HOMER

Chapter 12:   A HOMER ADVENTURE

Chapter 13:   ENCOUNTER WITH A GLACIER

Chapter 14:   CHICKEN ALASKA

Chapter 15:   THE END OF A DREAM

Chapter 16:   OUR ENVIRONMENT

This book is dedicated to the memory of my loving wife Gayle, who lost her 25 year battle with breast cancer on October 14, 2010.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Al Adaschik was born in New London, Connecticut, on June 27th, 1943. He was raised in Brooklyn, New York and attended Franklin K. Lane High School. Upon graduation, he was accepted as an engineering student at the University of Michigan in its Naval ROTC program. Finishing college, Al qualified for Navy flight training and received his wings as a Jet Fighter Pilot in June of 1966. After completing his tour of duty, he left the service and earned a MBA from Long Island University, at the C.W. Post Center, in Greenvale, Long Island.

Al has worked as a Flight Test Conductor for the Grumman Aerospace Corporation, a Financial Analyst for the Singer Company, a Senior Financial Analyst for Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, a Financial Administrator for the City of Fort Lauderdale and is presently retired from that position after twenty years of service.

Upon moving to Florida in 1976, Al and his first wife, Pam, opened and managed a School of Olympic Style gymnastics called The Gym, Inc., which was home of the Tumblebees (the girls gymnastic team) and the Stingers (the boys gymnastics team). Team colors were yellow and black. The phrase Yea Buzz was a common expletive heard around the gym anytime something good happened or a team member mastered a new trick. The Tumblebees, under the tutelage of Pam and Head Coach Tim Rand, rapidly became the most successful gymnastics team in the South Eastern United States; winning many honors and awards at both the State and Regional levels of competition.

Eventually, Al, in partnership with Dann Smith, capitalizing upon the success and reputation of the Tumblebees, began franchising Tumblebee mini-gyms in malls and shopping centers throughout South Florida. Nine locations were developed and Dann and Al had visions of going nationwide with their concept. However, an undercapitalized situation combined with the launching of a disastrous Gym-On-Wheels venture, drove the Tumblebees into bankruptcy.

When hired by the City of Fort Lauderdale, Al was on a fast track to become Department Head of the city’s Utilities Department. However, his career came to a screeching halt three years after being hired when he discovered that his Department was dumping raw sewage into the river which ran through downtown Fort Lauderdale. Not able to accept this state of affairs, after attempting to solve the problem internal to the City, Al enlisted the help of two friends and their involvement brought about an immediate end to the problem.

Despite the problems Al experienced with his superiors as a City employee after the pollution incident, his efforts and contributions to the citizens of Fort Lauderdale did not go unrecognized. On March 1, 1988, the Riverside Park Residents’ Association honored him with a plaque which stated that, In profound appreciation of your many contributions to our community, we acknowledge your dedication, wisdom, generosity and reliability which have been a foundation of our neighborhoods progress and which have made Riverside Park a better place to live. Also, on November 2, 2001, the day of Al’s retirement as a city employee, by written proclamation, the Mayor and City Commission officially decreed that day to be AL ADASCHIK DAY in appreciation for the dedication, professionalism, and leadership he exhibited throughout his career as a public servant.

In 1994, Congress passed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) making the United States a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). According to the Fort Lauderdale news, this Act was passed by pushing sovereignty issues aside. This revelation motivated Al to obtain a copy of the GATT Accord from the Government Printing Office and this document revealed that our membership in the WTO required that this nation subordinate the prerogatives of our President, Congress, and the Supreme Court to the WTO’s Ruling Panels. This being the case, acting as Attorney Pro-se for the citizens of this nation, Al sued our Federal Government in the Federal District Court of Miami over the constitutionality of GATT and our membership in the WTO.

Subsequent to Al’s lawsuit against the Federal Government over the constitutionality of GATT, Al wrote a book, available free online, entitled, While We Sleep – A story of government without law. This book begins with a narrative about Al’s idyllic childhood, goes on to describe the circumstances concerning his bringing to a halt the pollution of Fort Lauderdale’s New River, documents Al’s efforts to jumpstart and redeem his stalled career after doing what was right for his city and its citizens, and concludes with a description of his efforts undo the harm done to this nation by the passage of the GATT accord and our resulting membership in the World Trade Organization.

Finally, Al developed and hosted a web site called The Constitution Forum in the hope of waking people up to the plight this nation is in. As host of this web site, he authored a plethora of political tracts and articles many of which can be found on line under his name.

Al is now retired and lives Ormond Beach, Florida.

INTRODUCTION

All my life I have dreamed about visiting Alaska. My longing stems from my perception that Alaska is America’s last frontier and last bastion of freedom as freedom was known to the pioneers. As a teenager growing up in Brooklyn, New York, I believed the world was much too crowded. Please don’t get me wrong, I like people. When you talk to one, they become a person and the experience is usually quite pleasant. On the other hand, how many people around do you need to be happy; ten, twenty, one-hundred, five-hundred? Whatever the number, everyone else is excess baggage that gets in your way at traffic lights, makes you wait for tables in restaurants, and detracts from your overall quality of life.

Someday, I want to get a bumper sticker which reads, People Are Pollution. True, they are and can be many other things, but after all is said and done; each person born makes a small but measurable contribution to an overcrowded and polluted world. Therefore, while the arrival of a new baby is a great joy to those with a personal attachment to it, it is a detriment to everyone else who must suffer the consequences of this new presence. I suppose this is why I didn’t get married for the first time until I was thirty-three years old and never cared much about having any children of my own.

This book is a travelogue of my trip to Alaska taken with my wife Gayle and our two Schnauzers; Scooter and Sally. I apologize for starting out with an editorial, but my comments set the backdrop for our journey.

I love the great outdoors and the solitude it offers. As far as America is concerned, outdoors and solitude are what Alaska is all about. Therefore, retired and at the ripe old age of fifty-eight, Gayle and I purchased a thirty-seven foot motor home to make the journey in a grand and glorious style. What a beauty! She has all the latest technology, including two push button slide-outs that turn our bus like traveling quarters into a roomy country cottage. Motor homes have come a long way in the past several years and those not familiar with the latest advances, have no idea how spacious and comfortable they are.

Being a novice at RV’ing, the thought of towing a car behind us did not appeal to me. I didn’t want to deal with not being able to back up and the other drawbacks associated with a towed vehicle. Therefore, for area transportation we settled upon a rear bumper mounted 650cc dirt bike, setup for both on and off the road use. I reasoned that if the weather was bad, I didn’t want to be touring anyway and a dirt bike would allow Gayle and me to see places unreachable by a conventional four-wheel vehicle or even a road restricted motorcycle. We also have aboard two folding bicycles and an inflatable kayak.

After gearing up and outfitting our freedom machine, we took several short trips to become familiar with its equipment and to ensure we were ready for our Alaskan adventure. On these foray’s we met other people who had visited Alaska and to our dismay, were told that bringing a new motor home to there is foolish because of the poor road conditions. Broken radiators, chipped windshields, and shredded tires are a routine occurrence.

We were