Category Archives: Road Conditions

New Photos – Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay

At the end of a 500 mile road, in the middle of nowhere lies a town with a bleak name, of which no one knows where it came. It is freezing pretty much all year around, and no one calls this place home. It is where the famed Alaskan Pipeline begins and where millions and millions of barrels of oil continually pass to feed our need for oil.

1000 Miles Later

One month ago we set out from Denver for the great wide open wilderness of Alaska. Before leaving, Craig and I conducted considerable research on the last section of road to Prudhoe Bay named the James W. Dalton highway. I found a website with an entire page devoted to the road named The Dalton Highway, “The Haul Road.”

Nels’ Notes: Nomadic Wandering Shenanigans June 5-12, 2009

Perseverance is defined as a steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement, and that is exactly what we had to do to make the voyage on the Dalton Highway from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. To reach the farthest north point on the Pan-American highway we had to take the 1,000 mile roundtrip, mostly gravel road, that really put our driving skills and minds to the test. It is a desolate highway that doesn’t see many tourists, usually just semi-trucks making their trek north. We endured and made it to Dead Horse, and to tell the truth, it felt beyond bizarre and kind of empty. We had driven for the better part of a day, on a terrible road, coupled with the never-setting sun, and in the cold and came to an oil field in the middle of the tundra.

New Photos – Lots of Them

I have been spending a lot of time recently trying to get to the point of where we have all of our photos up on the website. Unfortunately, the world was just so damn cool and we had a shutter happy bunch of crew members so trying to sort through over 27,000 photos to caption and upload is taking quite a bit of time. That’s right, 27,000 photos.

Photos of the Mid-Week: Boo-man

Bouey, filming the Saturday market on a long drive in Guatemala. Bouey, driving the Tundra, in the zone. Boo-man, with his friends, the habanero peppers.

Cruising The Open Roads

Mexico is a big country, the 14th largest country in the world by land area to be exact, and because Mexico is also a fairly developed country, that means we have a lot of pavement to put behind us before we cross the border back into the States. It is no real surprise that the roads in the major tourists areas such as the states of Quintana Roo (Tulum, Cancun), Yucatan (Merida) and Jalisco (Puerto Vallarta) are in really good condition, but you may be surprised to find that the roads in the rest of the country so far have also been in pretty descent shape.

Nels’ Notes: Nomadic Wandering Shenanigans Feb 16-20, 2009

Monday we bid farewell to the gracious hosts at Decameron All Inclusive Resort and were off to the Guatemala border. We arrived late in what looked like a fortress, Antigua, Guatemala. In Antigua there are many ruins from Colonial churches dating back nearly 500 years. Tuesday marked the day of Steven Shoppman’s birth.

Nels’ Notes: Nomadic Wandering Shenanigans

This is Nels’ first attempt at summing up the week. It is actually my fault that it is up a week late as we were out of internet contact for the last few days and I forgot get it posted before we got out of contact. So this one if for a week ago and another one will be up in the next day about this last week. ~ Steve S.

February 9, 2009-February 13, 2009

La Paz – la ciudad más loca del mundo

There is no doubt about it. La Paz, Bolivia is one of the craziest, most interesting cities I have ever been to. No other city seems to generate as many questions or spark more curiosity than La Paz. Sitting at just under 12,000 feet above sea level, the altitude alone makes La Paz a unique place and as a result, it is home to the highest pretty much everything.

Better Late Than Never

Well, I guess I can not really say never, because we did get the trucks blessed by some kind and generous monks in Thailand, so maybe you can consider the blessing of the trucks in Copacabana, Bolivia an after-the-fact kudos to the powers that be.