Livingstone Journal

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Livingstone Journal Bruce and Laurie Heimbigner left Washington State (U.S.A.) The box on the back is the “garage”.

Livingstone Journal chronicles the multi-year overland journey of Bruce and Laurie Heimbigner through 56 different countries, and travels here and there since then. December 15, 2017 for an 6 to 8 year drive around the world (reduced to 4 to 5 by choice, then 2.5 due to covid) - But we will be back. The truck is a high clearance four-wheel drive Ford 550 that holds 100 gallons of diesel, 30 gallons of gas/petrol (for the KTM motorcycle and generator), and 100 gallons of water. Livingstone is a custom designed pop-up camper designed to allow us to live "off the grid" for a minimum of 3 weeks at a time - access to water being the limiting factor. Bruce has installed a ultra water filtration and UV purification system, so theoretically we can throw a hose into any fresh water source, no matter how sketchy, and have purified water come out the faucet. To help conserve water we have a composting toilet that uses a biological process to break down waste and uses no water. It has a power lift for getting the motorcycle in and out as well as room for 2 spare tires, 2 bikes, and stuff. The entire rig is designed to fit into a shipping container for shipping overseas.

09/11/2026

Shoup Glacier was much smoother than Columbia Glacier, so it was easy for our pilot to land there. It looked like part of a Hollywood movie set.

09/11/2026

This is how glacier calving starts.

09/11/2026

A fun sighting in the middle of the icebergs.

09/11/2026

The highlight of our trip to Alaska was a 90 minute helicopter tour of the glaciers around Valdez. The massive rugged glacier is Columbia Glacier. It covers a mind-blowing 400 square miles (1,000 km), and it's 1,800 ft (550 m) in places. It's one of Alaska's fastest-moving tidewater glaciers which means it flows directly into the sea and loses mass mainly by calving icebergs). We got to see minor calving, and hovered for around 5 minutes in hopes the whole wall would calve, but no luck.

We went to Valdez for two reasons: because that's the end of the Alaska oil pipeline, and because Laurie remembers her d...
09/05/2026

We went to Valdez for two reasons: because that's the end of the Alaska oil pipeline, and because Laurie remembers her dad mentioning it when he talked of his time working on the pipeline was being built. Located at the head of a fjord off of Prince William Sound, it's a beautiful little town in southern Alaska surrounded by glacier filled mountains. A lot of people work there for the summer season, then leave before the snow falls--because the town averages 25 feet (7.6 m) of snow per year! Despite the fact that Valdez has the record as the snowiest city in the US, it's the northern-most ice-free port in North America which explains why the pipeline terminus is located there.

It turns out that Valdez was our very favorite place in all of Alaska, so it's going to take 3 posts to do it justice--starting with Bruce's wildlife and glacier tour aboard the good ship Lu-Lu Belle.for

Now that we're retired, we only have self-imposed limits on how long our trips are. We've always been planners, but to o...
08/31/2026

Now that we're retired, we only have self-imposed limits on how long our trips are. We've always been planners, but to our surprise we've discovered that we don't like to travel with an itinerary. Instead, we codiwomple: we travel purposefully toward vague destinations. So, when we were getting ready to leave Denali, it was time to figure out where we were going next. Since we had visited the Arctic Ocean in the north we wanted to visit the Gulf of Alaska in the south. We considered going to Homer, but fall is coming and we don't want to contend with snow covered roads, so we took the shorter route down the Kenai Peninsula to the town of Seward.

Named after William H. Seward, the U.S. Secretary of State who negotiated the 1867 Alaska Purchase. Mile 0 of the Iditarod National Historic Trail. Southern terminus of the Alaska Railroad.

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08/27/2026

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08/26/2026

These lucky dogs at Denali National Park got to demonstrate their dogsled pulling skills.

With our successful completion of driving to Deadhorse then taking a dip in the Arctic Ocean, it was time to head south....
08/26/2026

With our successful completion of driving to Deadhorse then taking a dip in the Arctic Ocean, it was time to head south. Our next goal was Denali National Park. Google Maps said it would take us 2 hours and 18 minutes from Fairbanks via Parks Highway. The highway was in great shape and--for the first time in Alaska--Google Maps got it right. (It didn't account for road conditions on the other legs of our journey, so just like in Africa, you had to ignore arrival times and plan on spending extra hours on the road.)

We kept hearing horror stories about driving the Dalton Highway because it's quite rough in places, but Livingstone is a...
08/21/2026

We kept hearing horror stories about driving the Dalton Highway because it's quite rough in places, but Livingstone is a Ford 550 truck with single 295/60 R22.5 semi tires instead of duals in the back which keeps us narrow. It was the perfect vehicle for navigating the potholes, ruts, and frost heaves that peppered the roadway in places, and Bruce is a skilled driver. This was no challenge compared with driving through Africa!

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