Christmas 2001 Newsletter

Seasons Greetings to all:
     If you are on our "On the Road" e-mail list, much of this letter is old news. If not, copies of all our e-mails and some pictures can be seen from our travel page at the website above. If you are online, drop us an e-mail and get on our list.   We have had a good year in the Reeves household. We left our home at Freeny, MS on January 10 aboard the Southwind Storm, our house on wheels, and towing our Honda Civic. We spent a few days in Florence with Nita (our daughter), Bob, Nathan and Jenna Best, then stopped in Houston for a short visit with Bruce (our son) and Judy Reeves. We made a stop in San Antonia, had a short visit with Jim and Trudy Ratliff (our neighbors when we were in Naples, Italy), then went on to El Paso, TX, where we left the Storm at the campground at Ft. Bliss and took the Honda, through the snow, to Albuquerque, NM to see "Stars on Ice".
    From El Paso, we continued on to Ft. Huachuca, at Sierra Vista, AZ, where we attended the annual Cowboy Music and Poetry gathering. We went to Organ Pipe Cactus Nat. Mon., spent some time in Gila Bend AAF, AZ, where we got to watch the Air Force pilots do bombing and gunnery practice, made a stop at Tuscon, AZ for a few days, then back to Holloman AFB at Alamogordo, NM. We visited White Sands Nat. Mon., went on the tour of Trinity site, where the first A-bomb was tested and drove up to the National Solar Observatory near the town of Cloudcroft, NM.
     By now, it was early April and time to start "North to Alaska". We stayed longer than planned in Albuquerque, as we had to get a transmission in the Storm replaced. Back on the road, we started our migration north, with stops at all the National Parks and Monuments along the way. While there are many pages of e-mail and pictures on our website, describing our travels and beautiful scenery, we'll have to keep this brief, and just say we visited Canyon DeChelly NM, Glen Canyon NRA and North Rim of Grand Canyon NP in Arizona, Grand Escalente NM, Zion, Bryce Canyon and Capital Reef National Parks in Utah, Craters on the Moon NP and Snake River Canyon in Idaho, Newberry Volcano NM and Crater Lake NP and the west coast in Oregon, Mt. St Helens, Mt. Rainier, Olympic, North Cascades National Parks and Whidbey Island in Washington.
     On June 25th, a bit behind our "planned" schedule, we crossed into Canada. We made stops in Clinton, Vanderhoof, Terrace, Prince Rupert and Stewart, British Columbia, then crossed the border to Hyder, Alaska. The only way to Hyder, by land, is from Canada. We drove the Cassier Hwy. mostly a gravel road, north to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, made a stop at Whitehorse in the Yukon and finally crossed into Alaska on July 2. By now we were experiencing daylight around the clock and the sun was visible for 22 hours each day.
     During our 2 months in Alaska, we went almost everywhere they had roads. We visited Tok, Anchorage, Homer, Kenai, Seward, Valdez, Wrangell NP, drove the Denali Hwy., 2 stays in Denali NP, Fairbanks, North Pole, Chicken, Eagle and other places too numerous to mention. We saw eagles, bears, wolves, caribou, moose, lynx, sea lions, dolphins, sea otter and many smaller species, glaciers and miles of beautiful scenery. Again, if you're online, check the e-mails and pictures on our website.
     We left Alaska on August 30, via Top of the World Highway to Dawson City, Yukon, visited the gold mining areas and continued south back to Whitehorse. We were ther on September 11 when the terrorists struck our country. We had planned to take another 6-7 weeks and take the long way home, but lost some of our enthusiam after watching the carnage on TV. We were stranded at the campground there for 24 hours when 2 KAL flights, enroute to Anchorage, were diverted to Whitehorse. All the roads and most of the town were closed while they made sure the planes were not in the hands of terrorists.
     We made stops at Dawson City, BC, Jasper and Banff Canadian National Parks and crossed back into the USA on Sep 17 and stayed at Glacier NP, MT, USA. We came home by way of Wyoming, Nebraska, Missouri and Arkansas, arriving in Florence, MS where we visited Nita, Bob, Nathan and Jenna for a few days before coming home.
     Bruce and Judy visited us the weekend before and Nita, Bob and the grandchildren were with us for Thanksgiving and we look forward to visiting them for Christmas.
     We were saddened on December 1 to learn of the death of an old and dear friend, Edmond A. Roy, our neighbor in 1957-58 in Pensacola. We had planned a trip to Florida in the spring to visit them, but too late to see Ed again. Joe created a page on our website in his honor. See www.hometown.aol.com/edmondroy/edroy.htm or click the link on our site.
     We wish you all the best Christmas possible and a great New Year! See our web pages for our previously sent e-mails and pictures.

Joe and Nancy Sue Reeves