We planned our trip to Alaska to drive up there using the Alaskan Highway on the way up and the ferry on the way back to the States. We also planned trips by air to Barrow and to Dutch Harbor taking the ferry back from Dutch Harbor. We were helped in our planning by having Wendy Beavis, a friend of my from Washington, DC Einstein year, and her husband living in Fairbanks.
Click on each week to go to that part of the trip
May 13 (Sunday-Week 1)--We didn’t go to church, but spent the morning getting ready to go including checking the mail, picking up the paper, and leaving a list of the children’s phone numbers at the sheriiff’s office. We finally left about noon--filled with Frodo things--and headed to Corinth. There we spent the night with Dorothy, Will, and Bill, and put together Dennis’s dog house for Frodo. We ate at the Chinese buffet restaurant.
May 14 (Monday)--Frodo looked resigned when we left about 9:00. We followed MS Highway 2 to Tennessee, through Savannah, Tennessee where we filled up with gas and listened to two men talk about theirr mules. One told us that he used an old Chinook to help transport his mules. We then followed the Natchez Trace to US 84(?) and then took that north to just south of Indianapolis where we camped in the Camping World parking lot in hopes that we could have maintenance on our appliances the next day. We had lunch at a Cracker Barrel somewhere, probably Tennessee, along the way to celebrate Tom’s birthday.
May 15 (Tuesday)--Most of the morning was spent waiting for Camping World to service all our applieances. We were lucky that they could fit us in and that they had a special for spring servicing of applieances that was less expensive that servicing individual appliances would have been. We had a very good representative there whose name, I think, was John Trammel. I spent some time talking with Erlynn ?, who was having her Winnebago seviced also. She was from Crawfordsville, Indiana, and had been an overhead crane operator. Tom and I enjoyed seeing the inside of her Winnebago. She had done a lot to it to make it more homely. After the servicing, we left about noon and drove to Peru, where we arrived about 4:00 to visit Bill and Jan Christopher. We called Jan for directions in getting to their house. They took us to eat catfish, and we enjoyed visiting with them.
May 16 (Wednesday)--We left Bill and Jan’s at about 8:00 and started for Madison, Wisconsin to visit Lee and Laura. We went directly through Chicago and reached Madison about 4:30. I found a place called Custom RV Services (Scott) which had room to store the RV for two days. We took our clothes with us, and Lee picked us up after he finished work. We enjoyed seeing Lee and Laura’s apartment, which is right on the south (?) lake with a beautiful view of the lake and right downtown. Lee took us to a Tibetian restaurant, which was good. Laura was working late, so couldn’t go with us, but met us at the apartment after supper.
View from Lee and Laura’s apartment
May 17 (Thursday)--We walked to Lazy Janes to have breakfast and enjoyed it very much. They gave us a free lemon creme scone that was delicious! We returned to the apartment, took Lee to work, and drove his car downtown to a parking garage to which Laura directed us. We went into the capitol, which has a very large, beautifully decorated dome. I also went into the Episcopal Church to which Lee and Laura have been going. Someone was doing some work on the outside, but he unlocked the door. The inside was beautiful--especially the stained glass windows. We then continued to walk down State Street--a mostly pedestrian shopping street and had a sandwich at Potbelly before returning to Lee and Laura’s. Laura had gone to work, but we started our laundry and rested before going to pick up Lee. Lee gave us a tour of the Epic campus. It was fascinating with interesting art and decorations in every building. Lee, Tom, and I went to a Peruvian restaurant--one Lee had not tried either--that had delicious food. We had though Laura would be able to go with us, but she was kept late at work. We saw her workplace, but then left her there.
May 18 (Friday)--We all four went to Lazy Janes for breakfast. Then Lee took us back to l’Escargo Rouge before going to work. We left Madison about 8:45. We saw a traffic accident that involved an 18-wheeler in Wisconsin. That tied us up for about an hour or maybe more. We had lunch at a Cracker Barrel in Eau Claire. There was also a traffic jam on the interstate as we left Minneapolis that cost us another hour or so. We reached Fargo and checked email. Tom had a message from Josh Begley, his cousin in California, saying that he was comiing to Mississippi in June. Fargo, ND, WalMart parking lot
May 19 (Saturday)--Left Fargo about 8:45. We crossed North Dakoda. We stopped at a Schlotszky’s in Bismarck, ND. We stopped at a convenience store in New Salem, ND, to get gas and propane. The man who could pump propane was leaving, but he stayed long enough to fill our tank. At a little town about mile before we left North Dakota I had seen a pottery shop advertised and we stopped to lok for it, but it was closed. We drove around the tiny town. Glendive, Montana, Good Sam’s $25.52. One of the proprieters was from Georgia. He and his brother, who had gone somewhere, ran the campground together. His wife worked and didn’t join him except for visits.
May 20 (Sunday-Week 2)--Left Glendive at 9:50. Tom had one bad experience when the wind caught the RV and he almost lost control. Havre, MT, Fairgrounds Campground $20.00. We had trouble finding a place in which to pay until a woman staying in the campground walked over and told us to look for a box. We were able to get on the Internet, but I think it was the next morning..
Tom combing his hair at some river in Montana, I think
May 21 (Monday)--Left Havre at 8:15. We stopped in the railroad parking lot in East Glacier to have lunch and it snowed. We saw seven or eight freight trains and one Amtrak train. We then drove around the south end of the park to West Glacier where we found out from the ranger at the information station that the Going to the Sun road through the park was still closed. Apparently it won’t open until mid-June at least. We went to the campground, then bought a few groceries. We walked to MacDonald Lake and went out on the pier there. The lake is about 11 miles long with mountains around it. Apgar Campground (Glacier National Park) $10.00
McDoanld Lake at Glacier NP
Apgar Campground at Glacier NP
May 22 (Tuesday)--We drove about 14 miles up the Going to the Sun road--to where it was closed. Then we left the car and hiked up to Avalanche Lake. It was supposed to be a 2.3 miles hike each way, but it took us over three hours. We saw a mule deer very close to the trail and another hiker pointed out that she was pregnant and the foot of the foal could be seen and appeared to be kicking. After the hike we had lunch, and drove back to West Glacier where we’d planned to go on a raft ride on the Middle Fork of the Flathead River. Tom was too tired to go, but I went and enjoyed it. The rapids were only class 2 and 3. We left West Glacier and drove back around the southern end of the park. This time we stopped at the Goat Lick. We didn’t see any goats at the Goat Lick, but across the road we saw two up in the cliffs beside the road. We then drove on to St. Mary. St. Mary Campground (Glacier National Park) $5.00
Goat near the goat lick at Glacier
May 23 (Wednesday)--We left the campground to make two drives into the park. First we went on the Many Glaciers road to the Many Glaciers Hotel--as far as we could go in the RV. Right before the hotel we saw three grizzly bears. When we reached the hotel, sheep (we think dall sheep) joined us at the hotel driveway. They were all around us and didn’t seem at all hesitant to be around humans. All the ones we saw apppeared to be female and juveniles. Next, we drove as much of the Going to the Sun road from the east as we could. At the end of the drive, we hiked in to see a waterfall. It was a short hike, but a beautiful waterfall. We then went to a commerical campground to prepare for going on to Canada--wash everthything and empty/fill tanks. The campground we chose was on top of a hill right outside of St. Mary. It started snowing sometime during the night and continued off and on throughout Thursday. It was too warm for the snow to stick on the road. Johnson’s Campground, St. Mary, Mt $37.50
Tom on Many Glaciers drive
Tom, Frances, and sheep at Many Glaciers Hotel
Sheep at Many Glacier Hotel
Pictures from Going to the Sun Road of St. Mary’s Lake
Going to the Sun Road-- St. Mary’s Lake
May 24 (Thursday)--After only a short drive we reached the US/Canadian border. The weather was dreary, but the crosing was uneventful. The official seemed more interested in knowing that we didn’t have guns than anything else. We stopped at a grocery store for grocieries and decided to take the Icefields Parkway, the scenic route, after Calgary rather than the route to Edmonton. At some point we saw the results of a horrific wreak. I’m writing thiese first two weeks after the fact and neither of us can remember exactly which day we saw the wreck. There were two vehicles completely demolished on the side of the road while the rescure workers seemed to be still trying to get it all cleared away. It turned out to be a good decision since the Parkway was a beautiful drive. It led through Banff and Jasper National Parks, but we paid once to be allowed full use of the Parkway and its facilities. We stopped relatively early. The campground was almost totally snowed in. Only a few of the campsites were open, and we were interested in watching people who came in after us searching for sites. We talked with a Dutch family who were visiting their son who was working in Vancouver. Mosquito Creek Campground (Banff National Park on Icefields Parkway), Alberta, Canada $14.85 CD ($13.80)
Tom at Mosquito Ck Campground
May 25 (Friday)--We stopped at the Columbia Icefields Interpretive Center and were hooked on the Icefields and the big equipment available for visiting them. There was a tour on giant snomobiles that held about 50 people. We rode in buses to the side of the glacier and then rode in the snomobiles across the glacier to the bottom of the icefield. At the turnaround we were allowed to get out and walk on the glacier. Our guide, Josh Montana, had been in the Canadian army special forces for 13 years, had taken pictures of people jumping out of airplanes on their first jump for 10 years, and two years ago started driving this snomobile. He gave a good spiele and was especially interested in global warming. The tires on the snomobiles cost about $7000 each, and each vehicle was about one million. Of 27 of them in existance, 26 belonged to the company using them on the icefields. We left the Icefields and went on to Grande Cache where we stayed in the municipal campground. The woman who ran it was very friendly and pointed out to us that this was the best water that we would get on the way north--something we found to be true mostly. Marv Moore Municipal Campground, Grande Cache, Alberta, Canada $20.00
On the road to Grande Cache
Incline down to the glacier at Icefield
A glacier from the Icefield
Tom and transporters on the glacier
Tom with friend in the Interpretive Center
May 26 (Saturday)--Leave Grand Cache at 9:37. This was probably the most boring day so far. When we were looking for a campground outside the towns we tried one that was deserted. When we drove in, a man came out of a shanty and plopped down on a chair. It took us only a few minutes to realize that he was drunk. He keep calling some female to come out, but she never did. He told us that the campground basically wasn’t open, but we could just park free. We decided to go elsewhere. We started on the Alaska Highway today in Dawson Creek. The marker appears more impressive in the picture I took than it is in person! 5th Wheel RV Park, Fort Nelson, British Columbia, Canada $26.50 CD ($24.65)
Moose
Tom at the start of the Alaska Highway
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May 27 (Sunday-Week 3)--We left Fort Nelson, where the proprietress of the campground told us about Liard Hot Springsd, at 8:40. We crossed a suspension bridge across the Lower Liard River. This is the only suspension bridge left on the Highway. We saw several bears--black, although one was mostly brown--and some buffalo. We saw the buffalo after we stopped at the hot springs. We just walked down and looked at the springs, but there were about a dozen people in the first pond, and I was sorry we had not decided to go in. We decided to spend the night in Watson Lake, one of the few towns along the highway. We wanted to have Internet access so we picked a park with wireless. The first one at which we stopped had no one on duty and we could not pick up the wireless in driving around, so we went to one called the Downtown RV Park. It was a large paved lot with RV’s packed about as close as they could be, but with a friendly on-duty proprietor. The wireless was only around the office area, and since it was chilly, there were half a dozen people in the laundry room on their computers. I went in, but Tom went back to the RV. After I finished and returned to the RV about 10:00 and still daylight, I discovered that Tom had been able to pick up the wireless with his computer from l’Escargot Rouge. Downtown RV Park, Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada $26.75 CD
Buffalo--unfortunately not cooperating by looking up!
Liard Suspension Bridge
Liard Hot Springs
Tom testing the water at the upper pool at Liard Hot Springs
May 28 (Monday)---The RV Park in which we stayed last night had a free RV wash (two hoses with pass through spaces) so we spent about 30 minutes washing l’Escargo Rouge and left about 9:40. We then stopped to see the forest of signs--supposedly 10, 000 signs on posts and quite intresting--filled up with gas and left. I saw a jar of Nutella at the gas stop and remembered how much we had liked it before so we bought some. The road was a wide, mostly well-surfaced two-lane and allowed relatively fast travel. We stopped at a Swan Lake overlook for Nutella and jelly sandwiches and a nap. We saw a black bear right after Johnson’s Crossing on the Teslin River. this bear didn’t like the emergency blinkers’ clicking or the motor starting. He seemed more aware of us than other bears had. There was construction on that bridge. We decided to eat out at Whitehorse and had a delicious meal. Unfortunately we both decided to eat the halibut rather than try two different dishes. It was good, but the halibut soup was the best part of the meal, I thought. We then went to the “Frantic Follies”, a vaudiville show and enjoyed it very much. We both enjoyed Whitehorse. Hi Country Campground, Whitehourse, YT. $24.85 CD?
Wild animals? The funny thing was that all I saw were male!
Black bear on the side of the road
Small part of the Forest of Signs at Watson Lake
Yukon River with statues of moose and caribou
Tom with the statues
Frantic Follies in Whitehorse
May 29 (Tuesday)--The big decision today was which way to go. I really wanted to go to Dawson City and drive the Top of the World highway. We had pretty much decided not to do it, but people started telling us that it wasn’t as bad as we’d heard, and we decided to try it. Tom was doubtful, but agreed to go along. He wants to drive the really bad part! We drove to Dawson City to spend the night and decided on a campground right in the middle of town so that we could walk around. The streets were dirt and the next morning we saw a truck watering the surface. Almost everything was closed except the visitors’ center. We stopped there and watched a video before walking around the town and returning to the RV for supper. After supper we went to Diamond Tooth Gertie’s Casino and watched another show--only slightly different from the one in Whitehorse, but the dancers were more versatile.
May 30 (Wednesday)---We were a little late waking up and getting started, but emptied our waste water tanks and filled up with gas for the trip. We drove past the Robert Service (“Cremation of Sam Magee”) and Jack London cabins and then up the Dome road for a view of Dawson and the Yukon River.
We then went to the ferry. It carried five motorcycles, a pickup truck and trailer, a backhoe, and us and was full. The ferry runs 24 hours a day except from 5:00-7:00 am on Wednesdays when it is lubricated. (I think that’s what they said happened.) We left the ferry and started up the Top of the World highway. I drove the Canadian side, and it wasn’t too bad although there was a lot of gravel. The views were beautiful! We mostly traveled on ridges so that we were able to see from both sides. During most of the Canadian side--about 60 miles--we saw snow-covered mountains in a little distance and beautiful green and blue valleys closer. At about noon we passed customs and started on the American side, which was all dirt and gravel. Tom drove this. It was not as sharp and twisty as we had thought it would be from what we had heard. A few miles after we passed through customs, we saw a motorcyclist standing on the side of the road with two bikes. We stopped to see if he had a problem and found that one of his companions had slipped in the gravel and apparently put his shoulder out of joint. They needed a ride for him to Tok. Since we were going to Tok we said that we would take him with us. His name was Luc, and he was a systems engineer for Cisco. He was very nice, but I think was in a great deal of pain before the trip was over. We left him at a clinic in Tok. The customs agents had bound up his shoulder and had called ahead to the clinic. After dropping him we drove on the Delta Junction where we eventually found a space in a somewhat rundown campground that at least had a laundromatte. We wanted to wash clothes before heading for Denali tomorrow. We also want to stop in Fairbanks for Tom’s medicine and to get l’Escargot Rouge’s oil changed.
Yukon River
Black bears along the highway
Dawson City Ferry
Motorcyclists on the ferry--one of whom came to grief!
L'Escargot Rouge on the Top of the World Highway
View from one side from the Top of the World Highway
May 31 (Thursday)--We left Delta Junction and made it to Fairbanks by a little after noon. We drove straight to the Ford dealership. I had called the Ford customer service number and they had made arrangements for us to stop and have the oil checked. I was impressed with the dealership. They did the multipoint check and actually gave me a sheet showing what they had done. We tried getting some lunch at Fred Meyer while we waited. I found some sushi and ate it, but Tom didn’t see anything he liked. We then went to WalMart and bought a few things, including a Subway sandwich for Tom, before going to the phamacy for Tom’s medicine. He had no trouble getting it, but we had to wait about an hour so we went to the RV and took a nap. As soon as we had the medicine we started for Denali. We arrived there about 7:00, but everything was still open so we had no trouble picking up tickets for the tour tomorrow and getting directions for the campground. We’ll be here for four nights. I cooked wok food and we went to bed.
Ice in the river--I think the Yukon--before Delta Junction
Cabin in Delta Juction Visitor’s Center. I liked the way it was built.
June 1 (Friday)--We slept late. We visited the Visitor Center. It’s new and nice--opened in 2005. Their introductory video was so good that Tom wanted to buy it for all our children. Our tour started at 2:30. It lasted the full eight hours that it was allowed. Our driver drove well, but didn’t seem to be a knowledgeable as some. However, we were very lucky in that we saw Denali, a lynx, two wolves, many moose, some Dall sheep, some caribou, several grizzlies, and many showshoe hares.
End of the Alaska Highway in Delta Junction
Eagle nest in the tree
Tom during the Denali Tundra Wilderness Tour--we probably could see some little bit of the mountain Denali at this point!
There are little white dots on the mountain that are Dall sheep.
Tom and Frances at the Toklat rest stop on the Tundra Wilderness Tour where we saw the Dall sheep--which are on the mountain behind us.
Two Dall sheep rams on a cliff
June 2 (Saturday)--Another day of sleeping late since we were so tired from the tour. We were determined to do very little today and basically succeeded. Our first trips were to the Post Office for envelopes to mail the DVD’s Tom bought, to the Visitor Center to ask about ranger tours and then to the Wilderness Center to try to cancel the tour we had scheduled for tomorrow. However, we found that we wouldn’t get our money back so we decided to get our tickets and go on it. We were both afraid it would be repetitious of the one yesterday. We’ll see. On the way out, in the parking lot, we saw a Road Trek, an RV on the Mercedes engine built by Freight Liner. I’ve heard about them, but not seen one. We then went to the settlement outside the park to hunt for Internet access. On the way out, we practically ran into a moose who stuck his head out of the bushes on the side of the road. He stayed there long enough for me to photograph and then went back. We ended up at the Princess Lodge sitting at a comfortable table and using their wireless. After we returned to the RV we discovered that there was actually wireless from some business that Tom could pick up with his computer. We talked with someone about a rafting trip in a couple of days and decided to think about it. At some point in the afternoon we decided to see the park presentation on their sled dogs. During the winter all travel by rangers in the park is done by sled, and they keep the dogs near the headquarters. We were able to visit with the dogs, hear about them, and then see a demonstration of their pulling a wheeled sled. We then drove 12 miles north to Healy to get some groceries and gas and returned to the campground for supper. We found the tiny store surprisingly well stocked with basics. We discovered that the Road Trek is camped right next to us. They are from Arkansas, so I may have to speak to them!
Mother grizzly with cub during Tundra Wilderness Tour
Frances on the dog sled at Denali
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June 3 (Sunday--Week 4)--We went to the Wilderness Center to try to cancel our tour--Natural History Tour--but found we couldn’t get our money back this late. We had decided that we’d seen enough on the first tour. So we went on the tour. First we walked down tosee the railroad depot, stopped at the gift shop, and then ate at the grill. The tour turned out to be interesting and thankfully about half the length of the other one. On this one we stopped at places and heard a little background--from a female settler impersonator and from the chief of a group of Athabascans. Our guide also told us stories such as one about Chris, who died in the park. All were interesting. We used the wireless connection again at the Princess Lodge, and returned to the campground for supper and bed.
Up-close moose in the spruce--obviously one that is tagged for research
June 4 (Monday)--We left the campground in Denali. We stopped at the settlement outside Denali and talked briefly with the rafting people, but decided the weather was too gray for a rafting trip. We then moved the RV slightly and were able to pick up Internet from a business nearby. We used it for awhile and then left to drive to Anchorage with several stops to see Denali--which we never did really although we thought we saw some of it. At one of the stops we talked with a man who’d worked as an electrician far out in the Aleutians. He mentioned the turnnel to Whittier, which made Tom want to try the tunnel. He said that where he worked--way out in the Aleutians--there was little law enforcement, but people seemed to law abiding. We checked out the Wal-Marts, but decided to stay in a campground. We picked one downtown that turned out to be very crowded. Something was wrong with one of the electrical boxes so we had to use one that was not really ours--someone else had used ours. A man (James something--wife Jessie) introduced himself. He’d seen our Mississippi tag and was from Memphis. They were in a rented RV and were returning it early the next morning and brought us some of their groceries.
Athabascan chief showing off the hat his mother made for him from three martens, I think
June 5 (Tuesday)--We woke up at the Creekwood Inn campground and discovered that our new friends from Tennessee had left us more groceries as they left. Most of them we threw away since we either didn’t want to use them or they weren’t things we used. Both Tom and I were a little dubious about what we’d find to do in Anchorage, but we decided to start with the Alaskan Native Heritage Center. It was a good choice. After looking around for a few minutes we ate at their grill with mixed results--my salmon melt was good although the cheese was cold, but Tom’s raindeer sausage was rather mediocre. We then decided to take a two hour guided tour. We were the only ones on the tour, and it ended up being nearer three hours. Our guide liked to talk and, of course, we asked questions. As we left the center a moose cow with two small calves trotted down the road in front of us, finally left the road and went through a hole/gate in the fence. We drove on to find Earthquake Park and a place we’d been told about to watch airplanes come into the airport. Both were interesting. At Earthquake Park we could see extensive mudflats, and it appeared that the tide was out. We had heard that the tide could be as much as 30 feet. We learned that mud flats are very dangerous and one should not walk on them. There are horror stories told of people getting stuck and drowning when the tide comes in. Both big airlines and float planes use about the same approach, and planes seem to land at about the rate of one per minute. They would go right over where we stood near the water looking over at more mountains--always in Anchorage we decided. We then looked for and found The Bridge restaurant that was on an 80 year old bridge across the Ship Creek. Tom had clams and I had oysters for appetisers. We then shared a delicious salmon and a creme brulee. Afterwards we went back out to see if Denali were showing and to watch the airplanes again. No Denali, but plenty of airplanes! We also checked on the mudflats, but they looked about the same. The wind was terrific--especially out near the water. We parked at one of the Wal-Marts for the night. Tomorrow we’re going to try to wash l’Escargot Rouge. We’ve heard several times about a market here on Saturdays and Sundays and plan to return for that market. We were waked up at 12:00 by a knock on the door. A security man told us that we could not stay, but he said that we could go across the street. We did that, and had no more trouble during the night.
Tom and Frances at the Denali viewpoint trying to convince ourselves that we saw some of the mountain
Tom and our guide at the poster on the Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian People
The guide’s half sister, who was shadowing her sister to learn how to present, between whale jaw bones (I think) that were stood in the ground to act as landmarks since these people live where there are no trees
Moose with two calves right outside the Native Cultural Center
Airplane approaching the airport over our viewpoint--mountains in the background and mud flats on the beach
June 6 (Wednesday)--We slowly started this morning and went to a car wash to wash l’Escargot Rouge. It was really dirty. Of course, it won’t stay clean long. It was drier and less work in a way to wash it in the car wash instead of with the hose. It also cost more. Maybe it was worth it. Next time we’re going to have to polish it. We had seen a Schlotszky’s earlier so we went there for lunch and then went by Borders to use the Internet and buy some books. At about 2:15 we finally left for Seward. It was supposed to be a 2.5 hour drive, but ended up being more like a four hour drive. We did take time to drive to Whittier through the tunnel that is now shared by the train and cars. We’ll come back through the tunnel on the train, but it was interesting to see it in the RV. Traffic is only one way and is on a very tight schedule. The weather was really cloudy, and although the mountains and the drive were beautiful we were wishing for some clear weather. It’s supposed to be bad the next few days. I’m hoping we’ll be able to do some of the things we wanted to do in Seward. We’re camped in a city campground right on the water--no hookups, but only $12/night. There are mountains all around us and the beautiful bay out our back window. (We backed into position.) We’ll rest tomorrow and, I hope, do our laundry and dump the tanks. South Resurrection Campgound--$12/night.
Line from which the earth fell away during the 1964 earthquake as seen in Earthquake Park--homes went with the land
Looking across Turnagain Arm on the drive from Anchorage to Seward
The entrance to the tunnel to Whittier--note the railroad tracks since trains and cars share the tunnel
June 7 (Thursday)--It was a gray, cold, and misty day all day. We slept late, and did nothing until afternoon when we did the laundry. It was the most expensive laundry ever--over $20. After the laundry we walked around a little downtown--including a visit to a merchantile store where I bought a heavy sweater/shirt and Tom bought gloves. One of the salespeople told us that a cruise ship would come in during the night. We ate supper and went to bed. We’re sleeping in the overhead bunk to save making up the bead everyday.
June 8 (Friday)--It’s still gray, cold, and misty. We did all our housekeeping duties--emptying/filling up tanks, getting propane, and filling up with gas and air. We were thinking about going to the Exit Glacier, but the weather is so miserable that we decided to go to the Sea World Exhibit instead. We’re parked in their parking lot now having just eaten lunch and Tom’s starting a nap while I play with the Internet. I’m picking up a signal, but still not locking on. It did lock on once, but there was no Internet--maybe because I’m not really supposed to be on this satellite. I called Richard at Mobilsat. He’s going to be on call all weekend, so if I can get on again I’ll call him. We napped and then went to the Sea Life Center (or something like that!). I remembered being there before with Wendy. It was interesting. We then went shopping downtown, and Tom found some jeans that seem to fit him better than the ones he has. We ate at Ray’s (per Tommy Smith from Buffalo Peak’s recommendation). It was good. We had scallops and several appetizers--oysters, king crab, seafood chowder. We returned to the campground and to bed. The sun came out for a little while about the time we were going to the restaurant, and we actually saw a little blue sky! We’re going to try one of the tours tomorrow and are hoping for decent weather.
Cruise ship at Seward
June 9 (Saturday)--We started rather late since the Kenai Fjords National Park cruise wasn’t until about 11:30. The weather was still a little dreary when we started but by the time we reached the fjord, it had cleared and we had a beautiful day. We had both taken pills for seasickness and Tom was completely knocked out even though it was not supposed to make us drowsy. We saw Holgate Glacier--the one we were supposed to see had too much ice. However, Holgate performed well, and I may have even been lucky enough to get a video of it calving. I’ll have to look at the tape. Tom was barely awake when we returned to the RV, but he cooked Lean Cuisines and we went to bed.
Kenai Lake (I think) on the way to Seward
Our campground in Seward--the mostly white dots along the water are campers
Holgate Glacier--a tidewater glacier calving into the water
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June 10 (Sunday--Week 5)--Tom ended up sleeping almost 11 hours! I didn’t sleep quite as much, but slept well. It was a beautiful day! We got up and prepared to leave. Something happened to the generator and it quit working. We’ll have to stop in Anchorage to get it fixed or repaired. We stopped and had lunch at an Internet Cafe, but it started not working as well as it had been and we left to drive to Homer. As we left Seward, I remembered that I’d wanted to see Exit Glacier--just a few miles out of town, so we stopped for that. It was nice, but we couldn’t get all the way up to it because the path was flooding from the glaciers that were melting. The path had apprarantly been fine until around noon. Tom went ahead of me and saw a black bear on the trail. When I went down with him, we saw the bear up in a tree and causing the tree to lean over so that he could eat. We turned around and went back the other way. We stopped on the way out to see the Iditarod sled dogs and to ride a wheeled vehicle pulled by the dogs. It was interesting--especially the talk by one of the mushers who told us about various experiences on the trail. Ididaride was the name of the dog sled ride and Seavey was the name of the family. Mitch Seavey, the son in the three generations there, won the Iditarod in 2004. We had meant to get to Homer, but detoured to spend the night in Kenai. On the way a porcupine walked across the road in front of us. Our campgound is up on a bluff overlooking the Cook Inlet and looking straight at three volcanoes across the way. We’ve just about decided to stay here three nights and go fishing on the Kenai River on Tuesday. Dennis called to say he’d been by the house and all looked good so far. We stayed at Beluga Lookout RV Park--$32/night.
Tom and the Glacier Express on which we saw the Holgate Glacier and other sights
June 11 (Monday)--We signed up this morning to go fishing tomorrow. We’ll float down the Kenai river for about six hours from 12:15 to 6:00 and fish. If we catch something, we’ll have to send it to some one--probably Dorothy, Jim, or Rob. The weather started out pretty, but by noon was pretty cold. We visited the Russian Orthodox Church and were told about it by the priest there who was quite interesting--a real character. His parents were Russian, but he was born in Connecticut. We learned that Russian Orthodox priests can either be married or can take monastic vows. Apparently only the monks can move up in the hierarchy. If a priest is going to marry, he must marry before he becomes a priest, and if something happens to his wife, he cannot remarry and remain a priest. We then went to a restaurant called Veronica’s for soup and a sandwich. The weather had changed so much when we came out that we walked right back to the RV for a nap and just to watch the water before going for groceries. I saw an eagle fly over! On the way back we stopped at the Visitor Center/Cultural Center where there was an extremely interesting display of artifacts, movies about the history of Alaska--particularly during WWII--and art work. We returned to the RV and I cooked soup from the onions and potatoes that the people from Tennessee left us and carrots and ham that we bought at Safeway. The Safeways and Carrs (owned by Safeway) here have been fantastic grocery stores. I’m going to start trying more of the items that we don’t get at home. Tomorrow is fishing!
Tom at Exit Glacier near Seward
Tom at Kenai Russian Orthodox Church
June 12 (Tuesday)--Tom caught a fish--a 14-lb. king salmon--small by Alaskan standards, but big by ours. Our licenses are good until noon tomorrow so we’re going back from 9:00-12:00 tomorrow morning. We tried two techniques of fishing--bottom bumping (or something like that) and back trolling. Tom caught his fish by bottom bumping! One king salmon is the limit for a day, so when Tom caught his fish, he couldn’t fish any more. I never caught one, but maybe tomorrow. Our guide was Stanley, and he seemed competent and somewhat interesting. He was born in Hawai, had lived in southern California, and then had moved to Alaska. He is building his own house. We ate at a restaurant that billed itself as Greek, Mexican, and Italian. We both had halibut fixed in a Greek manner supposedly. It was good. Tonight here and then we’ll go to Homer.
View from the Beluga Lookout Campground
Stanley getting ready to take us fishing for salmon in the Lower Kenai
June 13 (Wednesday)--We spent the morning on the Kenai River--our licenses expired at noon so we could only fish until then. We went back trolling-trolling backwards by moving slower than the current. I caught a king salmon! It was on the rod on Tom’s side and was small--only about 10 pounds--but the largest fish I had ever caught. We had Melissa filet my fish also and give us one pound plus the “belly” to eat fresh. We stayed parked at their fishing place until after we ate lunch and took naps, and then we headed for Homer. We camped in a park on the spit--almost out at the end. Homer Spit RV Park $37.20.. We are right back from the water--only tents and dry camping ahead of us and luckily no one directly in front of us. That means we have the beautifully colored water immediately in front and then snow covered mountains and volcanoes across the water. We walked down the spit to look at all the shops and found the usual Alaskan things except for some exceptional carving done on moose antlers by Peter Nagle. He said he did about three of four of these pieces each winter. He had a horn with intricate carvings of animals, and a moose wallowing in the snow. They were both excellent, but I especially liked the horn. I almost bought it, but decided to think about it overnight. I cooked one piece of the salmon for supper and it was really delicious.
Tom, Stanley, and Tom’s salmon
Frances with her salmon from the Lower Kenai
Fileting the fish
June 14 (Thursday)--Today was a cleanup day, so after we woke up and got started we did the laundry. I talked with Richard about my Internet problems, but didn’t get anywhere. As of yesterday I can’t access the D2 that controls the satellite receiver. After naps we went down to the shops. I had decided to buy the carved horn, but when we got there it was gone and Peter said he’d sold it. I was extremely disappointed, but we went on into town to a visitor center that had displays of the wildlife and sea. Tom could tell I was disappointed about the horn and told me that he had bought it for my anniversary present. He hadn’t realized I would be so disappointed and didn’t want me to be unhappy about it. It’s a fabulous anniversary present. We went back by the shop to tell Peter that I now knew we had it, and he said that the story was making the rounds of town with everyone wondering what would happen! Probably an exaggeration, but who knows. We went back to town and drove around looking at the historical section then stopped for a dozen oysters on the half shell for each of us and went back to the RV. On the way we stopped back at Peter’s shop for another purchase. I cooked the “belly” of the salmon that we’d been told many people didn’t consider good, but we both really liked it. We spent the night again on the spit.
Looking at the Homer Spit off to the left
Looking out the back window of L’Escargot Rouge camped on the Homer Spit
June 15 (Friday)--We woke up in time to get to Ninilchek for halibut fishing at 8:30--almost. We were a little late since we had to buy our fishing licenses and pack our day packs.. As it turned out, we didn’t need the day packs very much because we rode out for about an hour--35 miles or so--fished for a couple of hours with everyone catching as much as they wanted, and returned in another hour. Tom and I each caught two halibuts--the limit. Tom’s was the largest one caught and must have been at least 30 pounds. We had almost all of it shrink wrapped and sent to Rob and Angela to keep. We kept three packages. I wanted to send some to Lee, but was told that it wasn’t good to send such small packages. The campground run by the charter people was full, but they suggested another one--called Country Boy’s Campground and just what you might expect. We toured the Russian village, which was a little bit of a disappointment although it did show us what a tiny village looked like, got some milk and orange juice at the small store, and returned to the RV to cook halibut cheeks and go to bed. I worked on the satellite again and at least got it registered. I don’t know why it’s not working and will probably have to contact Mobilsat again. Everything appears to be working. Country Boy’s Campground $25.20.
Ship and kayaker from the Homer Spit looking toward the volcanoes
Putting fishing boats in the water at Ninilchek
Frances with assistant captain and halibut 
Taking the boat out of the water at Ninilchek
Our captain and assistant captain with help filleting the halibut
June 16 (Saturday)--Tom was happier with the campground after a good shower. As we were ready to leave, I went to ask if they had a book exchange. They didn’t, but a man went to get his wife, who he said had a lot of books and might like to exchange some. I felt a little guilty because I only had two books and she gave me about eight books. We drove on to Kenai to pick up our salmon. Melissa had it ready and nicely packaged, but we decided to keep it in our freezer rather than mail it home. We’ll just have to eat salmon for awhile. We stopped at the Safeway, and the started for Cooper Landing--only unfortunately we turned the wrong way and went about 15 miles before realizing it. When we finally did reach Cooper Landing it was swarming with people--weekend and Father’s Day. We passed Cooper Landing a few miles and tried the Quartz Creek CG which is a US Forest Service CG. It was full. We stopped at the dump right outside to dump our tanks, and started talking with some people there. It seemed that they were just leaving a reserved camping space. They said we were welcome to it and signed a paper for the host so that he’d know it was all right. We ended up with a beautiful site for the night--free. We like the area and are probably going to stay two more nights and forget about trying to make it to Valdez--at least for now. When we stopped by the camp host’s to tell him how we’d gotten a site he told us that a really beautiful site on the water was supposed to open up tomorrow. He suggested that we go by and ask the person who had it to let us know when he was leaving so that we could get that site. We did go by. He wasn’t sure when he was leaving, but said that he would come by our site and get us before he left. I cooked chicken for supper since the salmon I had started thawing hadn’t thawed completely.
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June 17 (Sunday--Week 6)--We spent the morning resting and catching up on various things while we wated for the man from campsite #38 to come by and tell us he was leaving. When he did come by before noon, we immediately went to his site and then registered for it. It was right on the water so that when we backed in we had a lovely panoramic view from our rear windows. We registered for two nights ($7.00 each). After lunch, we went to the horseback riding place we’d seen. We had thought we’d just ask about it. I fully intended to go by myself because I didn’t think that Tom was interested, but he saw the horses come in from a ride and decided that they looked pretty tame. Anyway, he decided to go with me, and I was thrilled. We ended up signing up for the all day Paddle Saddle. That meant a two-hour horseback ride, lunch over a campfire, gold panning, and then a float down about 12 miles of the Kenai. Michelle, at the horseback riding place, suggested that we try Drifters’ when we asked about fishing charters, so we did. There are so many charter places, and all probably good, that we appreciated a suggestion. We decided on a combination trout and salmon fishing charter. Our guide, Jason, was cleaning his boat as we booked the charter, but we met him, and he agreed to come pick us up at 5:30 so that we would not have to park the RV in the small parking lot that they had at Drifters’. Apparently Drifters’ was started by people who wanted their own place to fish and just grew. They said that their families pretty well filled it up for about a month each summer. After we had made all our arrangements for the next two days, I cooked one of our packages of salmon for supper. We also decided to extend our reservation for one more night so that we would not have to move after the fishing trip.
Tom at the campground at Quartz Creek with a campfire and working Sudoku
June 18 (Monday)--We went to the horseback riding concession at 8:30 to begin our Paddle Saddle adventure at 9:00. There were two people already saddled and ready to go, and there was great confusion. The wrangler, Jamie, had thought they were we and he didn’t have them on his books. Then another family of four came and they also were not on the books. All was straightened out, however, and the first couple left for a halfday ride while the other six of us prepared for the Paddle Saddle ride. There was a choice of mountain ride or valley ride. I had wanted the mountain ride, and Michelle, who booked the ride was aware of that. The others seemed to want the valley ride. Michelle was going to enlist another wrangler to give both rides, but the others decided to take the mountain ride so Jamie took us all. Michelle indicated that Jamie was easily upset when there were mixups, but Tom found out later that Jamie had been in Irag--maybe a connection.
Tom on Cricket and Frances on Crescent Moon before the horseback ride
Tom coming going up the trail on the ride
View from the top of the ride of Lake Kenai and our campground
Tom at the top of the ride
Tom and Frances at the top of the ride
Tom being helped to dismount by Jami
Frances and Crescent Moon at the end of the ride
(Click here for more horsebackriding pictures.)
Jamie carried pistol that he said was just in case of a too close bear encounter. The others riding with us were a family of mother (Tracey), father (Larry), and two children (David and Regan--after Ronald) fromCalifornia. David was in a pre-med program and Regan was starting college in the fall. Larry had MS, but was able to cope with a good bit of help. Tom rode Cricket, and I rode Crescent Moon. The mountain trail was challenging in places, but the horses were very well trained and the views were great. The trail back was especially bad. There was one switchback and one descent that could have been really scary. At the end of the ride, we returned to the staging area and had hot dogs and marshmellows over a fire before panning some gold. We then drovedown the the staging area for a float down the Kenai River.
Fishermen on the Kenai River at the Russian River fishing for salmon--all the little dots along the shore are fishermen.
Our guide was Billy. He was knowledgeable and talkative. We didn’t see the grizzly and two cubs that had been frequenting the shallow water near the fishermen at the Russian River, but we saw many bald eagles--including one that was sitting on a branch about 10 feet over our head. When we went under the branch he dropped his fish and took off. We notice later that the seagulls were bothering him as he flew. Billy said this often happened. The fishermen at the confluence of the Russian and the Kenai were unbelievable. They had just opened the area for salmon fishing--today or yesterday, I think--and the fishermen were packed. They were also pulling out fish. It’s interesting fishing. The fish at this point are not eating, and the idea is to snag them as they pass. After they spawn, they die, and as they go up the river we’ve been told that their digestive tracts actually atrophy so that they can’t eat. Most people fillet their fish right on the river and throw the remains back in the river. It seems that the dead salmon feed many other animals in the ecosystem. We’ve been told that later in the season dead salmon from fishermen and just the natural processes stack up in the river. Bears and gulls feast on the shore and apparently the trout feast under the water. After the float down the river, we returned to the starting point and then Jason drove us back to the campground. He filleted our trout and the two salmon Bob had caught and given him in the Kenai lake at the campground. We decided to go get milk and to eat out. We wanted to get pizza, but the one pizza shop in town was only open Thursday-Saturday, so we went to Gwin’s, an old roadhouse supposedly. They had Internet, but we although we accessed the system, we couldn’t seem to get out with it. We saw the family from California there eating. They had told us that they had stayed there last night, but they were going elsewhere tonight because it just wasn’t a place they really liked.
Tom at Quartz Creek communicating with a Steller’s Jay we heard in the tree
June 19 (Tuesday)--Tom woke up at 3:00 and I was later at 4:45 so that we could have breakfast. Jason (Jason Simmons--jfsimmons@hotmail.com) was nice enough to come get us at 5:30 to go fish. There wasn’t really a good place for us to park the RV at the beginning spot for the fishing.
Our companions for the fishing were Bob and Fran Clay from Massachusetts. (fclay_2000@yahoo.com) We started out fishing for rainbow trout. I caught one right away and decided to keep it for supper. We could each only keep one. However, even I could keep fishing after catching that one. We all caught and threw back others. They were fun to catch. Fran and Bob, especially Bob, were long time fishers. They have a boat (ocean) from which they apparently do a lot of fishing. We floated down the river as we fished, and Jason stopped us at about 15 “holes” where he knew there might be fish. After we reached the area at the Russian River and passed the fishermen there we pulled into the shore, put on waders, and began fishing for salmon. Bob had on his own waders that came all the way up to his chest and was able to go all the way out in the water. He caught two salmon. The rest of us didn’t catch any. It’s an interesting way to fish. We used fly rods, but all the fish here are on the bottom. You simply flick the line with weight about two feet above the hook to a spot perpendicular to you and let it float down. At the end of the float you yank the line and hope to catch a fish. We did that for an hour or so and then continued on down the river. This was the same stretch of river down which we’d floated yesterday, but this time we saw more. We saw an eagle swoop down to land on the water, struggle in the water for a moment, and then rise up with a fish in its mouth. It then circled around gaining altitude until it was high enough to go to its nest. There was also a grizzly at the shallow area of the river right across from the fishermen. We didn’t know whether it was the female with cubs that was said to have been seen there often or not because we didn’t see any cubs. We did see the bear standing in the water fishing. There were no fishermen really close, but they weren’t all that far away either. Fishermen and bear seemed to be ignoring each other. Jason’s brother met us at the landing, and they took the boat out. We all went back in the truck to the beginning of the trip. Michelle from the horseback riding place was at the landing. She had come to see her husband who worked there. He is a mechanical engineer who has his own business, and she is a dental technician. They are able to leave their respective jobs and come to Alaska in the summers. I was surprised when she told me that she has a 21-year-old daughter and a granddaughter. She looked much younger. She told us that they’d had someone fall off a horse today and that it had really upset Jamie. No one had ever fallen off one of their horses before, and this person did it on level ground--not tough terrain such as we’d gone on. Tom wanted to thank Jamie again for the ride, so after supper we walked over there to see him. Supper included the beautiful rainbow trout that I’d caught. I got out my biggest skillet and cooked it in olive oil. It was delicious. While we were waiting for Jamie to return from a ride, we began talking with Lorraine Temple (LThuskys@hotmail.com), who boards her horse there. It turned out that she may be a second or third cousin to Sara Jane Alston in Jackson. She gave us her card to give to Sara Jane. She also gave us a quote that we have remember referring to the fact that there are more men than women in Alaska, “The odds are good, but the goods are odd.” We returned to the campsite and sat by the fire for a little while before going to bed.
June 20 (Wednesday)--We were somewhat sad to leave Quartz Creek because of the beautiful campsite and the many nice people we’d met--but we’ve met nice people at every stop. However, we did pack up our chairs, which we’d put out for the first time, left one fire log, and left. We needed to dump, but decided to put it off since we weren’t driving very far. I had decided that I’d like to stop in Talkeetna on the way up. I’d wanted to stop there on the way down, but we hadn’t had time. We stopped in Anchorage long enough to shop at Carr’s and replenish our food supply, eat lunch, and take a nap. We probably should have gone farther than Talkeetna so that we’d get to Fairbanks earlier, but it was interesting. It’s the town from which most of the mountaineers who climb Denali start. There are many flights to glaciers on the mountain, but, of course, we didn’t have time to try one--maybe next time! When you walk to the end of Main Street and keep walking a little distance, you walk out onto a beach made of silt--looks like gray sand, but has been formed by glaciers--and are at the confluence of three rivers--the Talkeetna, Chulitna, and Susitna--and can see over the rivers to see Denali. It was out last night although somewhat misty, and we were able to see the mountain range including all of Denali. It’s still a wonderful sight. I’m hoping it’ll be even clearer in the morning. We had a pizza at the Mountain High Pizza parlor since we’d both had a craving for pizza and walked around town a little. Talkeetna was somewhat like Dawson City in that only the main street was paved. They’ve done a pretty good job of keeping their old log structures and documenting them. We then went to the campground to do our dumping and laundry and get on the Internet with the campground wifi before going to bed. We stayed at the Talkeetna RV Park $26.00.
Talkeetna Pizza Parlor Talkeetna--where most of the climbs of Mt. McKinley (Denali) begin
Trying to see Denali from Talkeetna--imagine you see something in the middle!
Talkeetna and the view from the beach
June 21 (Thursday)--We had planned to dump the gray water again, but it was crowded so we didn’t. We drove all day. It was a little more of a drive than we had expected. We stopped several times to see Denali and had a good view at the Viewpoint South before the clouds closed it off.
When we reached Fairbanks it was about 4:30, but we decided to go by the Northern Truck Center to see if we could at least set up an appointment for getting our generator fixed. They remembered that I had called--it was on Worrell Street and I mentioned that that was the name of Tom’s cousin. One of the men in the office went out to look at the generator. He did a few things and then went to get a large screwdriver and a small sledge hammer. He positioned the screwdriver and hit. It turned out that the fly wheel had been caught in the gears? Anyway, the generator was fixed--at no charge. We then checked out the airport to be sure we could leave l’Escargot Rouge there when we went to Barrow. We stopped at Safeway to replenish supplies and then at Fred Meyer’s to get gas before parking at Pioneer Park. After supper we went downtown to see what the Fairbanks Summer Solstice Festival was all about. It was more or less a Choctaw County Dawg Days Festival--just a little bigger. We spent the night in the parking lot at Pioneer Park. We didn’t see anyplace to pay and so we didn’t.
June 22 (Friday)--We went to the airport in Fairbanks about 8:30 for our 10:30 flight to Barrow. We found that we were much too early. We flew on Frontier Air, which was so relaxed that there was not even a security search. There was no problem parking the RV in the airport parking lot for the time we’ll be gone. We reached Barrow at 12:30. The plane we flew in carried about 20 people and didn’t have a restroom.
The hotel is the building on the right, and the airport is the blue building across the road--King Eider Inn.
The main road by the airport and hotel
Oriental buffet
When we left the terminal, we asked about a taxi, but discovered that our hotel was directly across the street from the terminal. Barrow has no paved streets. The buildings are made from what would be temporary housing, medal housing, cheap looking siding, etc., but there are no local building materials so everything with which they build must be brought up by barge--only in August-- or by plane. We asked about seeing Barrow as soon as we reached the hotel and were referred to a couple of guides. I chose Frank, one who made to trip to Barrow Point in a Hummer. We ate lunch at an oriental buffet near the hotel. He was able to take us there at 2:30, and it was exciting.
The water in the Arctic Ocean was mostly broken up ice. We saw seals out on the ice, and we saw a polar bear who was dragging a piece of whale meat. It seems that the carcasses are thrown in a specific place after whale hunts so that the bears will get their meat there and not come into town. The Hummer did a good job of driving on the small rock surface. Frank let us out at the Cultural Center, which unfortunately was closing at 5:00 so we didn’t see much. We walked around and had supper at Brower’s Restaurant. Whale bones were used as decorations. It was supposed to be an old whaling center. The Inupiats were having a celebration nearby to celebrate a good whale hunt, and the children kept coming in to buy ice cream cones. The proprietor didn’t seem to like the noise of the children and kept chasing them out after they bought their ice cream. We walked back to the hotel--maybe a mile. We had planned to stay up to see the midnight sun, but were too tired.
June 23 (Saturday)--I was awake a couple of times during the night--at midnight it was cloudy and the sun had not made it to directly north as best I could tell, but at 3:30 the sun had passed due north and there didn’t seem to be any clouds. By the time we got up at about 8:00, the clouds were back. We dressed and walked to a restaurant named Osaga where we’d been told we would get a good breakfast. It was a good, cholesterol-rich one! We then returned to our room to be checked out by 10:00. The people who ran it told us that they made everyone check out so early so that they could clean since they did the cleaning themselves. We took our bag to the terminal across the street and checked it in. The girl at the check-in at the airport said that I could return later to add my coat to our duffel bag. I started walking over to the big store and Tom went to take pictures and joined me after I reached the store. We bought some postcards and then wrote them and waited at the post office for it to open at noon. We ate lunch at a Pizza place in front of which were remnants of some kind of older settlements (basically holes in the ground).
Sign post in Barrow
Will Rogers and Willy Post memorial in Barrow--They crashed near there.
Almost midnight sun
We were tired and took a taxi back to the terminal where we found out that our plane wasn’t leaving until around 2:00 rather than 1:30. It ended up being about 2:45. We made three stops on the way back--two of them too small to have terminals and one in Deadhorse. Supposedly there were caribou near the runway at Deadhorse, but I missed seeing them. Much of the flight was over the Arctic Ocean to reach our third stop, an Island in the the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. We also flew over the Alaskan Pipeline. When we did reach Fairbanks we returned to the Pioneer Park parking lot. I discovered that we were supposed to pay to park, but the office was closed and would be closed until Monday.
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June 24 (Sunday--Week 7)--A day of rest! Tom didn’t even get his shower until noon. We were both really tired from our trip. After lunch we even took our usual nap! We then went into Pioneer Park and looked around. I went through all the stores and found the store in which I bought my mammouth tooth last time--when the DC Ladies visited Wendy. There were some interesting things there this time, too. I found one other store with interesting artwork carved by the man who ran the store. He had some things I liked, but I still prefer my carved horn from Homer. We visited the Nenana Paddle Wheel that was on display. There was a series of dioramas depicting varous villages on the rivers here in the entrance way--probably where the freight was stored. We were then able to go to the next deck where the gathering room, dining room, and staterooms were and then to the next deck where the crew quarters were. It’s not totally restored, but very interesting. The only cabin that was open had two bunks--one above the other--taking up half the room and nothing else in the room. The captain’s room had a slightly larger bed, but still almost no space. We thought we’d like to get a “real” campground with hookups, but after driving around looking they were all full or not worth the extra money so we dumped at a state campground for $5.00 and returned to Pioneer Park. At least we can run the generator now, so I used the microwave for a few minutes. It’s disconcerting still to have so much daylight. It’s 9:12 now and still bright daylight. The good thing is that there’s plenty of time to charge the solar panels. While I cooked supper--some of our salmon--Tom went into the office to pay our $12 for the night. He found out that they had shot a howitzer three times last night for the Sun Run at or about midnight. We didn’t even hear it! Apparently some people complained about the noise.
June 25 (Monday)--Today we had set up the El Dorado Gold Mine and the Discovery River Tour. We did the Gold MIne in the morning and the River Tour in the afternoon. At some point, we passed by the Alaskan Pipeline.
The Gold Mine was a very touristy tour of a permafrost tunnel and gold mine with explanations and gold panning at the end. We ended up with about $11 of gold! The River Tour was also touristy--but a nice ride on a big paddle wheeler with talks along the way and a visit to an Athabascan village. Along the way we watched a sea plane land on the water and on a spit of sand, saw where sled dogs were kept, a fish trap, someone building a log cabin, and a fishing and smoking camp. (Click here for more river pictures.) Somewhat interesting although Tom nearly went to sleep on the boat. I bought some smoked salmon.
We returned to Pioneer Park, paid our $12, and had supper. Afterwards we walked into the park for a few minutes to look at the art gallery and two of the shops--I looked and Tom waited outside. Then we retired to l’Escargot Rouge for shower, relaxation, and bed.
June 26 (Tuesday)--This is to be a day of cleaning up--and was. We looked over a couple of car washes and finally started washing about 10:30. It’s easier washing in these car washes than at home, but expensive. This time we washed the top first and after we had lunch we put polish on l’Escargot Rouge changing it back from l’Escargot Gris. After all that fun we went to do laundry so that we’d have clean clothes for the trip to Dutch Harbor. Then we looked for and found propane and headed back to Pioneer Park to stay until time to go get Wendy and Fred who have been away from home. Tom talked with Wendy yesterday or the day before and they did want us to meet them at the airport at 1:00 am. After that we’ll all go to their house. Right now I’m looking at three police cars surrounding a car in the parking lot. All the police are out, but I don’t see a civilian. They are right across the lane from us.
June 27 (Wednesday)--This was our day to go to Dutch Harbor. Wendy called about 10:30 pm last night and said she and Fred had been delayed and wouldn’t get in until noon today so we agreed to meet them at the airport and follow them to their house. We finished all our housekeeping duties by dumping again and getting as ready as we could for the next RV stage. We managed to find propane yesterday afternoon and filled up with gas then. We met Wendy and Fred, unfortunately without their luggage which didn’t make it, and did go out to their house. There was just time to park the RV and return to the airport for our flight. Wendy drove us in while Fred went to get their dog. The flight to Anchorage was uneventful. I had looked up bed and breakfasts in all our literature and picked one near the airport at random--Frenchie’s Adventure B & B. I called ahead, found that she had a room, and arranged for her to pick us up. As soon as we reached Anchorage we called and she came for us. It was a very nice bed and breakfast, and Frenchie was Dr. Karen French, a former teacher, author of children’s books, and a very interesting person. She dropped us off at the City Diner, where we had supper--Tom had a delicious Chicken Pot Pie and I had liver and bacon. We then walked back to the bed and breakfast with a stop at Title Books and went to bed.
June 28 (Thursday)--Frenchie took us to the airport at 7:30 for our 9:35 flight. We were going on Pen Air as part of our Air Alaska purchase. Again, there was no security check although this time the airplane had a bathroom. Our stewardess, Vera, was one of the most enthusiastic stewardesses that I have ever seen. We stopped at King Salmon to unload freight and take on fuel, but overall the flight was uneventful. We were a little worried because of the cloud cover and we’d heard about so many flights to Dutch Harbor not being able to land, but having to turn back. No problem! The runway, however, was very short and ended at the water. Luckily the pilot stopped the plane before the end. The co-pilot did have us believing him when he told us that the ferry had blown it’s engine and they were waiting for a new one with a two week wait predicted. Luckily he was joking.
A fishing net being stretched out to dry
Eagles as scavengers
The hotel sent a shuttle after about 30 minutes. It’s a very nice hotel with beautiful views out the windows.
While we were waiting we talked with a taxi driver, Kathleen with Mr Kab, who said that she had been a teacher, but was now trying to get enough money to go to Australia and New Zealand by way of Ireland for her sister’s wedding. We asked her about tours and found that she could do one. She had only been here in Dutch Harbor/Unalaska for five weeks so she was a little cheaper.
Russian Church--There's a big Russian influence here--and a lot of World War II remnants.
After we checked in and rested, we decided to call Kathleen to just get an overview of the two islands. She gave us a good tour--mostly of Unalaska since that’s where Tom said he’d like to go--and gave us information for seeing more. It's a beautiful place! (Click here for more pictures of Unalaska.) Her suggestion was to rent a car to go around in tomorrow, and that’s what we’ve decided to do. She also suggested going to the Unisea Sports Bar for sushi--Dorothy, can you believe it?--We went. It was only a few blocks from the hotel, and we walked, but it seemed really cold. The temperature is in the 40’s, but the wind is so strong that it’s almost hard to walk and is very cold feeling. The sushi cook seemed like such a serious person as we watched him make the sushi until right at the end. He looked as if her were about to sneeze and then held his breathe as he cut three rolls of 18 pieces. At the end he almost exploded. We talked a little and he told us a story about a bear licking his lips coming up behind him when he was fishing near Juneau. He ran for the boat, jumped in the boat, and looked back to see the bear watching him. We braved the wind to walk back to the hotel and get ready for bed. One of the big sights here are the fishermen drying and repairing their nets. These nets are long--hundreds of yards. They spread them out in front of the hotel, and eagle light on the nets to eat the fish that are caught in them. We saw hundreds of eagles--young and older with their white heads. They behaved just as vultures at home.
June 29 (Friday)--We woke up to a beautiful day! It was so late by the time we got up and started moving that we decided to eat a big breakfast at Amelia’s and then skip lunch.
Amelia's inside and outside
We went to the tribal office to buy a permit to allow us to walk off the road (without this permit we woul be limited to the road) and to the Cultural Center for a couple of hours. Then we called the car rental place for a car. They picked us up and took us back to the airport where we rented a four-wheel drive pickup. We had asked for a sedan, but they were out of sedans and gave us the pickup for the same price. The young man at the booth, Joe, had been at the sushi bar the night before and had sat beside us with his sister. It was really good that we had the pickup because the roads would have been a challenge for a sedan. Some of them were just rocky trails, and I’m not sure any of them--even the main one--were paved. We drove up and around on Ballyhoo Mountain--supposedly named by Jack London when writing one of his books. There are ruins of the fortifications built by the U.S. during World War II when we were taking back and holding the Aleutians. Unalaska was never taken by the Japanese, but it was bombed. The remants of the fortifications were interesting with bunkers, gun turrets, and underground shelters. We drove up the mountain until the road was blocked and then walked about one-third of the way up for a great view of Dutch Harbor and Unalaska. We then returned through town and tried to drive up Bunker Hill, which has some kind of fort on top of it. It was also blocked and we decided to go eat rather than climb it. (Click the image for even more pictures of the Dutch Harbor area.)
We had been told that we must eat King Crab while were were there, so we went to the hotel restaurant to have some. Our theory was that we’d eat the king crab as an appetizer and then go have some more sushi. We did that, but we weren’t nearly hungry enough for the sushi so didn’t have much. The sushi barkeeper encouraged a couple of girls to talk with us. One was supposedly an engineer who built air strips in the bush and was very concerned that it was too expensive for most Alaskans to see their own state and the other was a waitress at the hotel and a long time friend of the barkeeper’s. It would be easy to feel at home here.
June 30 (Saturday)--The weather changed during the night and was cold and wet. Luckily we still had our truck so we drove to Amelia’s rather than walking. We didn’t eat quite such a big breakfast either! After breakfast we drove to the World War II Museum/Visitor Center. It only had three rooms, but was so packed with information that we both gave out before we had seen it all. We had several post cards to write, so we sat in the nice padded chairs there and wrote our post cards. We then mailed them, got gas at the one and only gas station, picked up a little food for the ferry, and went to the airport. Joe sent someone with us to take the truck with all our stuff and us to the ferry. Once on the ferry we discovered that we didn’t need the sleeping bags or the towels we’d brought and probably not the food although there were plenty of people who were camped on deck in tents or without who seemed to be eating only what they brought. As we ate supper, we watched about twenty humpback whales surface. The ship stopped at Akutan, a village of about 90 people and 1000 in the cannery. I took a sponge bath rather than braving the cold corridor for a shower, but the bathroom seems quite decent, so if I get warm enought I’ll probably have a shower tomorrow. Our cabin has bunks, and Tom wanted the top one. We have a socket in which to plug anything and wi-fi Internet. It’s amazing! (Click here for ferry pictures.)
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July 1 (Sunday--Week 8)--It’s another cloudy dreary day, but we can see beautiful cliffs. It’s similar to Scotland with the clouds and cliffs. I asked the purser about the chance of moving to a cabin with facilities and with a little thinking about how to do it, she decided to simply upgrade us without charging us any more. I think it was the simplest thing for her to do, but still nice. Now it’s not necessary to leave the room and trek down the hall in the middle of the night for the bathroom. Also, there’s a small heater in the bathroom so showers will be warmer. We have four bunks so there’s more room. (I just quit writing for a minute because we saw porpoises in the water--Monday.) It was so dreary that we didn’t do much but sleep and rest. We stopped at several little towns including King Cove, but there wasn’t time to get off. We ate lunch from all our food we’d bought, but went to the dining room for supper.
July 2 (Monday)--It was a beautiful day on the ferry. We saw some wildlife--porpoises and whales. Tom slept late while I ate breakfast, we ate lunch from our food supply, and then we ate supper in the dining room. I emailed the bed and breakfast and found that we could go there as soon as we arrived since she didn’t have anyone else there tonight. We also made sure that we could get a ride to the bear viewing airport. It turned out that our hostess at the bed and breakfast worked for the aviation people. We tried to go to bed reasonably early so that we’d be able to get up at 2:30 am to disembark.
July 3 (Tuesday)--We had a knock on the door at 1:30 saying that we were docking in Kodiak in 45 minutes so our alarm clock didn’t even get a chance to go off. We got ready to go by the time the ferry docked. After waiting a little while we got a taxi and went to our bed and breakfast, the Salmon Run Guesthouse, hostess Treena Breyfogle, and went back to sleep. When we woke up we walked to town for lunch at a chowder house right on one of the channels. It was a decent lunch, but a great view. We sat outside and saw sea lions in the water.
After we walked back to the guesthouse we met Treena, and she took us to the Kingfisher Air place of business where we were going to get a plane to fly to see the Kodiak bears. A woman from Cuba/Florida also went with us. She had driven a pickup truck camper all the way from Florida alone. She’d even driven all the way up the Haul Road and showed us how the gravel had eaten her tires. Our pilot at Kingfisher Air was Glen Eaton, and the flight was delightful. (Click on the image below to see more pictures of the flight and of the Kodiak bears.)
It took about 45 minutes to fly to Fraser Lake where we watched the Kodiak bears. On the way in we saw several pods of whales--probably fin back whales. Seeing them from the air was a totally different experience because we could see the entire whale. We could see five or six at a time as they grouped together and blew, but we weren’t dependent on their arching out of the water because we could see them through the water. We walked a little way to the upper falls of the river from Fraser Lake. Actually we flew over the lower falls and saw about eight or ten bears there, but that was too long a walk for us in the time we had. At the upper falls we saw two females with two cubs each and two or three lone bears--probably female. One set of cubs seemed to be young and weren’t hunting for themselves--just playing and watching, but the other set of cubs were older and hunted pretty well--at least one of them did. I never saw the second one catch a fish, but it did share a fish with its mother. They were catching salmon in the stream, and birds--magpies, gulls, and eagles were waiting for the scrapes. On the way back we saw two herds of mountain goats and the one and only glacier on Kodiak. We went with Treena to load an airplane for another trip and she drove us to one of the downtown restaurants. It turned out to be all right, but not special. We walked back to the guesthouse, did laundry, and went to bed. There are fireworks tonight a 12:00, but we’re too tired to stay up to see them. I did wake up at 12:00 with a charley horse in my leg and watched them from the window.
July 4 (Wednesday)--We had breakfast and packed up to leave the guesthouse. We had to be out by 11:00, but were actually out a little after 10:00. Treena let us put all our luggage in the laundry room and keep a key so that we would not have to cart it around with us. We walked downtown to see a little of Kodiak. Unfortunately, the weather had changed and it was dreary. We discovered that almost everything in Kodiak was closed for the 4th. We saw a couple of old cemetaries and as we walked back into town, we saw part of the parade. We then found that the VFW was having what they called a barbecue at one of the town squares for anyone who was around--no cost--and we stopped there. We ate with a man named Jack who was from northern California. He was a teacher of special needs children and had been teaching for 34 years. He was divorced, but not too happy about it, and lived in a fifth wheeler although he wasn’t traveling with it presently. He is a golfer and said he might come to Mississippi someday. He told us a good golfing story.
(Click on the picture of the Russian Church above for more pictures of Kodiak.)
After lunch, we kept searching for open things with little luck. There were a few stores open, but the museums were closed. Finally we decided to go sit in the Best Western and wait for their dining room to open so that we could have supper before getting on the ferry. At 5:00 when it was supposed to open, it didn’t, so we went to a coffee house Tom had discovered and had a hot croissant ham and cheese, which was pretty good. We then called a taxi, picked up our luggage, and went to the ferry. We had a roomette on this ferry. That turned out to mean that we had no linens, although we could rent them, and beds that we had to make up from a table and an upper bunk that stored against the wall. We decided to use the towels and sleeping bags we’d brought with us rather than rent linens. We’d been told that the Kennicott had stabilizers, but both Tom and I thought there was more rocking than on the Tuskumena.
(Click on the picture of our cabin above for more pictures from the boat.)
July 5 (Thursday)--It’s another dreary day. We had only one stop before Whittier, Conega Bay (sp?). Even the sea animals seemed to be staying in with this weather! We ate breakfast and lunch in the ship cafeteria. The ship docked at Whittier at 3:30--more or less on time--and we were able to use the cell phone so I called Pat Abney at the Soundview Getaway Bed and Breakfast where we had reservations and she came to get us. There’s no public transportation here. We talked with Dorothy after supper when she called, and I way overestimated the number of people who live here--only about 175 live here in the winter. There seem to be many more here now. There is an old deserted building here in which everyone in town used to live. It also housed the public buildings such as post office, theater, hair salon, and everything else.
Now there is another condominium building and the old batchelor officers’ quarters (where the bed and breadfast is) where all the people live. The only private home we were told by the man who sold us ice cream is one made from two buses welded together. We walked throught the entire town and returned to the start for our supper. We ate supper at a place called Orcas where we ran into the purser and his wife with whom we’d visited on the ships from Dutch Harbor here. He had actually recommended this place, and it was pretty good. We finally learned their names: Lee Harris and Libby Dennard, phone number 907-463-1580 and email ravnak@gmail.com. We may try to call them when we reach Juneau if it works out.
Our room here is very nice. It is a bedroom with kitchenette, a dressing area, and a bath. We’re looking out at the port and can watch the boats come and go. There are a lot of boats. Most of them look about the size of charters. Across the water are green mountains with snow in patches. Pat was another former teacher--biology for 34 years. She and two friends bought a fishing boat and ran a charter/fishing service for about ten years and through two boats. When she retired she decided to stay here and now has the bed and breakfast--no boat. There are two glaciers here--one is Billings and we can see it from our window. The other, I think, is Whittier, and we can see it when we walk out the door. There are waterfalls coming down from it and we may hike up to one of them tomorrow. It’s looking as if it might clear up tonight. The ice cream man also told us that part of the mountain behind the school slid down the hill during the 1964 earthquake. When you look at the hill you can persuade yourself that you can tell where it fell, but it’s pretty well grown up since then.
July 6, 2007 (Friday)--The weather was nicer today--in fact, it was beautiful. After eating our bagel and cream cheese at the bed and breakfast, we stored our luggage in the basement and then left to hike down to the nearest waterfall.
It was a very short hike, and after that we walked into town to eat a good lunch at the Tunnel End restaurant. I had quiche and fruit, and Tom had a Reuben. After that we walked to the kayak place to start our kayaking trip. We were both overdressed and ended up taking off some of our clothing before going. It was so warm that one layer was enough. I sat in the back where they had pedals for the rudder and Tom sat in the front. We paddled down the bay and then across to a kittywake rookery. Along the way we could see the Billings Glacier and the Whittier Glacier. On the way back we were looking at the Portage Glacier. We were able to get right up to the rookery, and our presence didn’t seem to bother the birds at all. However, the presence of a young eagle did. The birds flew around and made a tremendous noise as he flew through and, I think, picked up a chick.
(For more kayaking pictures, click on the image above.)
After the kayaking, we went by one of the gift shops that had been closed yesterday. I had particularly wanted to see it because it focused on local artisans. We then had supper at the fried fish place--crab cakes and calimarri--and then called Pat who picked us up and took us back for our luggage before leaving us at the train station.
Our train trip to Anchorage was nice--especially with the blue skies we had. At the end we called Frenchie and went to her bed and breakfast.
July 7, 2007 (Saturday)--We had scheduled a cab last night, and it picked us up at 7:15 to go back to the train station where we got on the train for Fairbanks. It’s a beautiful train and we have seats in the dome, but the weather has closed in and there isn’t much viewing of the mountains. We saw rafters on the Nenana and also kayakers one of whom was showing off by turning over and righting himself several times.
Wendy and Fred met us at the train station and took us to their house.
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July 8, 2007 (Sunday--Week 9)--We spent the day recouperating. It seems as if we do a lot of that. We visited with Fred and Wendy, and Wendy cooked supper. We have decided not to try to drive the Haul Road. We’ve heard so many bad things about it, and it would be a relatively hard two days.
July 9, 2007 (Monday)--We went around with Fred and Wendy--first for a short hike and then to drive around and have them show us things around their home such as the Chena Hot Springs. It was much more commercialized than the Liard Springs in Canada, and the day was so hot that none of us wanted to go in the water. We decided to go into Fairbanks for supper and had a pretty good supper at Chena Restaurant. Wendy and Fred had not tried it before so they were somewhat interested in trying it.
July 10, 2007 (Tuesday)--Wendy took Tom and me into the University of Alaska Museum where we spent a couple of hours and then went with her for lunch before going back to watch a program on the Aurora. I found several gifts in the gift shop. We then looked at an art gallery, but found nothing, and went back to Pioneer Park. I returned to both the stores I had visited before, but ended up getting a couple of things at the one in which the proprietor did much of his own carving. I may still look for things in Juneau, but I’ve found some interesting things!
July 11, 2007 (Wednesday)--We left Wendy and Fred’s at a little before 8:00 and drove down to Denali--reaching the village and the raft place in time to park, register, eat lunch, and take a nap before the trip. We had signed up for the combo trip--two hours of scenic trip and two of white water--and that’s what we did. The scenic part had a very few minor rapids and the white water was fun. This time the guide did all the paddling so all we had to do was enjoy. No one fell out of the boat, but most of the children did go overboard to hang on the side of the boat in their dry suits. We were told the water was about 37 degrees. After the rafting we went to the Riley Creek Mercantile to check into our campground. After we checked in we discovered that the generator was again not working--not fun with three days of wilderness camping coming up!
July 12, 2007 (Thursday)--We slept late and moved slowly from Riley Creek Campground with a stop at the Riley Creek Merchantile to use the Internet and buy a few groceries. The Internet is very frustrating because it comes and goes--mostly goes. We then drove the 29 miles into the Teklanika Campground in about an hour or so. Once we’ve driven in we aren’t allowed to drive out for the three days we stay here, and three days is the minimum stay. We slept all afternoon, and then had a little trouble going to sleep that night--at least I did. Tom didn’t have nearly as much! We did go to the ranger talk about signs of animals--mostly tracks and scat. Interesting.
July 13, 2007 (Friday)--We woke up relatively early for us--Tom got up at 6:00 and I was an hour later--so that we could catch the shuttle as it came by Teklanika to go to Wonder Lake. Unfortunately, it was still cloudy so we couldn’t see the mountains. We did see some wildlife. We saw several grizzlies each way. We saw two really nice caribou on the way in, and then saw a fox digging for some small animal that he didn’t catch and finally left, a couple of marmots on a rock right next to a peregrine falcon--maybe another falcon below, we weren’t sure, and a big beaver swimming across a pond.
(For more pictures of the fox click on the picture of the fox above.)
When we got to Wonder Lake, we ate our lunch--peanut butter and jelly sandwiches--and then tried to walk around the lake. However, we couldn’t find a path that was useful to us. There was too much small growth and too many holes in the ground. We went up to the top of the hill where we could see the mountains and the many tents of people who were tent camping. While we watched, the blue in the sky almost covered the mountains and we both thought we saw something that could be Denali, but it quickly recovered itself. We took the next bus and after another four hour drive were back at the campground for supper and bed. These bus trips are really tiring. We’re missing the generator and have about decided to stop in Anchorage to see if we can get it fixed.
July 14, 2007 (Saturday)--A day of total rest. It seems as if we need a lot of rest! Tom worked Sudoku until even he was bored and I tried to put pictures in this narrative so that when we do reach the Internet I’ll have more to put up. In the afternoon we finally got up the energy to go for a walk in the riverbed--the Teklanika River--which is a braided river.
(Click on the picture for more River pictures.)
We went as far as we could figure out a way to walk in the riverbed and then turned back. We checked out the ranger talk, but it didn’t sound too interesting so we tried a path in the campground until it ended in a creek we couldn’t easily cross then we continued the hard work of doing nothing but eating--some more of our salmon--and going to bed.
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July 15, 2007 (Sunday--Week 10)--What a nice day! We were ready to leave Teklanika by about 9:00 although we didn’t have to leave until 11:00, but it took us more than an hour to drive the 29 miles back to the entrance. On the way we saw a fox moving through the bushes and then, just as we were talking about how we’d seen more moose in June and hadn’t seen any this time, we saw two very large bull moose with beautiful racks very close to the road eating near and in a pond. They stayed there from about half an hour with buses, cars, and campers pulling up to watch them. They were beautiful.
The weather slowly closed in so we couldn’t see Denali Mountain. As we left the park we stopped at the gift shop near the Visitor Center to buy a new flower guide and to ask about a lost and found. We were told that the lost and found was at the baggage center at the bus stop so we went to ask about Tom’s hat. Unbelievably, someone had returned it. The woman at the desk was really amused that our best way of identifying it was by the two drops of blood on the top from the last time Tom hit his head on something! We drove on to Anchorage in time for about an hour at the Anchorage weekend market that I’d wanted to see. I bought some really warm bedroom slippers made of wolf, beaver, and lamb and a carving by the artist who was there selling them. The slippers were supposedly made by the mother of the woman who was selling them. We tried to go to The Bridge, where we had such a good meal last time, but it was closed on Sunday evenings so we went on to the campground, Ship Creek Campground, where we’d made a reservation earlier. This may be the most crowded campground we’ve seen. There are about 150-200 RV’s with no more than six feet between each. However, we needed to dump and get fresh water and also to access the Internet so it’s not too bad. We don’t really notice others once we’re closed into l’Escargot Rouge. Since we couldn’t eat at The Bridge and wanted to eat out, we asked the campground hostess for a recommendation. She suggested Orso. We went, and it was even better than The Bridge. I had a stuffed wild mushroom ravioli with capers, and Tom had a seafood medley on a kabob. (Ship Creek Campground, $35)
July 16 (Monday)--We called the generator places as soon as we were up, but none of them could work on our generator today. They were all too busy. We’re going to try again in Juneau. It is a beautiful day! Very few clouds. We decided to drive to one of the viewing points for Denali in Anchorage out Northern Lights past Earthquake Park, and we could actually see the mountain. I wish it had been like this while we were in the park!
After that we got groceries and left to start for Haines. The drive on the Glenn Highway was beautiful with mountains and glaciers. We stopped at Matanuska Glacier State Recreation Site and walked about a mile through an interpretive trail. It was interesting, but hot and buggy.
(Click on the picture for more pictures from the Interpretive trail.)
We then drove a little farther and there was another place where you could drive in close to the glacier and then walk a little farther to actually walk on the glacier. We had to cross the river on a smallish bridge and the road was not good. I did walk out on the glacier, and it was fascinating. Tom didn’t feel like doing it unfortunately. The glacier was divided into an old part that was no longer moving and another still moving part. I only walked on the old part because I could see that there were no deep crevasses and felt relatively safe. There were quite a few people walking on the ice--some with crampons just stalking along. Some of the ice even on the old part and not very thick had the blue color associated with glaciers.
(For more glacier pictures click on the picture above.)
The road to and from the glacier went over a challenging bridge!
We found a campground about another 40 miles on, and although they hauled their water and only said they had dry camping, they let us have about 20 gallons of water for our tank. Tom had tasted the water from Anchorage this morning and it was so bad that he couldn’t drink his coffee. We emptied our tank on the lawn of the park and put their water in our tank. I cooked some of our halibut by boiling it and eating it with butter--what we’d been told was “poor man’s lobster”--and it was delicious. Wonder of wonders, we were able to get the Internet from our campsite! (Slide Mountain Cabins $20.00)
July 17 (Tuesday)--We woke up a little earlier than usual and would have been on our way rather early, but I was playing on the Internet and it was nearly 11:00 when we finally left. We drove to Glenallen through some nice scenery--more mountains and some larger trees--including Drum Mountain which stood right in front of us as we drove toward Glenallen. As we reached Glenallen we realized that we both really wanted to see Valdez so instead of heading for Tok, we turned south to Valdez. We were really glad we did. The scenery was outstanding. (Click on the image below to see more of the scenery.)
There were more mountains, and there were wonderful deep gulches through which the road ran with waterfalls and glaciers. We stopped at the Worthington Glacier and climbed up toward it on the Ridge Path, which would have taken us all the way to the top, but we really didn’t have time to do that and to make it to Valdez in time to see anything. We stopped briefly to see Bridal Veil and Horsetail Falls. Both were beautiful. We reached Valdez a little after 4:00 and began looking for a campground. We looked at what was available, and finally chose Sea Otter CG out on a peninsula. When we tried to hook up the electricity there were only 20 amp. plugs so we decided to try another one. However, the others that were right near the water were full so we returned to Sea Otter.
After getting our campsite, we drove back to town where we went to the Valdez Museum, which had wonderful exhibits of form lifestyles in the area, and then to a Chinese restaurant, Fu Kung, where we had a very good supper. Afterwards we looked around Valdez a little. I bought a wool duster thinking it would take some of the dust off l’Escargot Rouge--which it did--a little. We filled the tank with water, but we’ll need to dump in the morning. We sat outside and watched boats and birds on the bay for awhile while I started the satellite, and, miracles of miracles, it looked on and worked! (Sea Otter RV Park $29)
July 18 (Wednesday)--We woke up relatively early and prepared to start our two days of relatively strenuous driving--700 miles. This isn’t much in the lower 48, but here, where some of the roads are partly gravel and frost heave and pot holes appear randomly and where the scenery often causes one to slow down, 350 miles a day can be more difficult. However, we did pretty well today and made about 100 miles past the Canadian border so we’re back in Canada for the night and part of tomorrow. We thoroughly enjoyed the drive north from Valdez. It’s really an especially beautiful area with its gorges, waterfalls, and glaciers.
From Glenallen to the border was nice, but we’re almost jaded with just plain pretty scenery. We did have a close viewing of a black bear and a moose. The black bear almost came out on the highway where we were parked watching him, but a bicyclist passed and a very large motorhome squeaked its breaks as it stopped and he ran back into the grass. He looked like a relatively young bear--maybe just left his mother this year. The moose was a cow and was standing in a pond right next to the road. We stopped at a campground that’s pretty much in the middle of nowhere. They have an airstrip, run nature tours, and have an outside fire ring where people were sitting around talking. They told us that it costs $250 per day to run their generator! They were telling us what a hard time people along this road are having because the traffic has dropped so. We had planned to do our laundry tomorrow when we reached Haines, but they had a laundromat and we weren’t exhausted, so we did it here. Unfortunately, we discovered that only two of their machines were working. At least we won’t have to do it in Haines, and we knew we’d have to do it before going to Skagway. (White River Campground $21.40)
July 19 (Thursday)--This was another relatively hard day of driving although not as bad as we’d feared. It felt good to know that we’d done our laundry and didn’t have to worry about it. The road was the worst we’d seen in Alaska as we went to Haines Junction. We later talked with a couple who’d gone through this area towing a trailer and had broken two springs although they said they were driving slowly. We reached Haines in time to look over the campgrounds. We wanted to stay on the beach, but the campground there was full, so we stayed at one on the other side of town. It was probably the nicest campground in which we’ve stayed. They actually had grass on the camping area with plenty of space in the sites and everything clean and working. I was even able to get the Internet with my satellite. I cooked wok food for supper. (Hitch Up RV Park $25.50)
July 20 (Friday)--We woke up ready to make the trip to Skagway at 11:00 on the Fast Ferry. It was drizzling all day, but the mountains are still beautiful with clouds around them. I called the Oceanside RV Park and made arrangements to camp there when we returned from Skagway. The trip from Haines to Skagway took only 35 minutes--I think we were on a hydrofoil boat. Once in Skagway, we called Sgt. Preston’s Lodge and they came to get us in a van. As far as I know there were no taxis in Skagway. At least I never saw one. We asked for a recommendation for lunch and were sent to the Sweet Tooth Saloon--delicious, but too much food. It was very crowded, so we volunteered to share our table with someone and ended up eating with James Reedy and his wife from Virginia. I had their names and addresses somewhere, but seem to have lost them. We walked around Skagway for awhile before going to supper at the Skagway Fish Co. Our hosts drove us and a family of four over and then picked us up. Tom and I then went to a show about Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith. Before the program we enjoyed some fake gambling with the cast members acting as dealers and, in my case, helping with my winning. I won the most money, and was awarded a tape of one of their productions as a prize. It was all fun. there were only about a dozen people at the show because the cruise ships were not in port.
July 21 (Saturday)--We woke up at Sgt. Preston’s Lodge to the same weather there was last night. The rain however is really mostly drizzle and not too annoying. We ate breakfast at the Sweet Tooth Saloon and asked them to pack us a sandwich for the train. Then we went back to the lodge to check out and leave our bag in the lobby before shopping and going to the train station. The train ride was really delightful. There were about six passenger cars on the train, but it wasn’t full. We sat in the last car where we met Butch and Trisha from North Carolina and had a family of several grandchildren, children, and grandparents celebrating the grandfather’s 70th birthday. They were all on a cruise together and had decided to take the train.
We went about 30 miles up the White Pass a little past the Canadian border and turned around. This was one of two passes that the gold stampeders used to get to the Yukon. Many horses died on this one-about 3000 in one gultch. It was especially difficult because the Canadians required each person to have 2000 pounds of supplies so that they wouldn’t starve in the winter after they arrived. Even with the drizzle and clouds the ride was spectacular.
After the train, we bought some things I’d seen earlier, went to the lodge, and asked for a ride to the ferry terminal. Once there, we had another dozen oysters at the Skagway Fish Co. and caught the 6:00 ferry to Haines rather than wait for the 8:00 one.
We immediately went to the Oceanside RV Park where our space was waiting for us. We are right on the water again. (Oceanside RV Park $25.50)
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July 22 (Sunday--Week 11)--This started out as a slow day and didn’t change. We slept late, and Tom especially had trouble getting moving. I finally left him taking a nap at noon and walked around Haines for a little while. It seems to be a nice little town with one main street and a few side streets. The Main Street goes right down to the water, and our campground is slightly off where it tees into the beach road. When Tom did get moving we did a little grocery shopping--we’re trying to minimize what we have in the freezer and refrigerator before leaving for Juneau. We then drove out to the Chilkoot Lake and Campground where we’d heard people fished and bears often visited them. We saw a few fishermen, but no bears. I did see some eagles, and I think I saw an otter. We returned to the campground, emptied the RV tanks, and then turned around the other way so that our back end with the picture windows was toward the water. It has been a beautiful day, and the light on the water as I write this is spectacular. There are a few clouds now making shadows on the mountains across the water. We’ve seen three cruise ships go out. A really large motorhome came in to take the last space and we all turned out to watch the driver park it. There’s very little room, but he managed to get it in the space--moving a few things like tables and cars.
July 23 (Monday)--It’s really amazing how well we’re both sleeping in the RV. When we leave to sleep in a hotel we don’t sleep as well, but here in the RV we sleep through the night and into the morning sometimes. Today we were relatively early getting up, but we spent some of the morning writing postcards and notes to the grandchildren. We walked to the post office to mail them and to pick up the black water chemicals that I’d asked Lazy Daze to send. It was lucky we went today because they had just decided to send the package back. It seems they only hold packages in general delivery for 30 days unless they are marked to “hold for pickup” or some such. apparently it took less than the five weeks that we were told it would take to get a package to Alaska. Anyway, they pulled the package for us and we have the chemicals. We then ate a lox and bagel sandwich in the RV and took another nap! When we woke up we went to Fort Seward to see the native crafts--often not done by natives--and the dancing.
Tom bought me a beautiful necklace with a silver pendant representing a bear, raven, and man supposedly representing what man got from each of the animals. We met the artist (Tresham Gregg), who also ran the shop, danced, and sponsored the dancing--quite a businessman. We were told that he had been adopted into the native people--Tlingit, I think--because they thought that he had been one of the people in a former life. One of the stories the young lady in the shop, who was also one of the dancers, told me was about two birds who wanted to listen to some of the words of wisdom about growing in spiirituality that man was hearing. They were told that such words were only for humans so they ran into a tree to kill themselves and years later they returned as humans. The dances had beautiful costumes with elaborate masks. Each one had a story. The first was about Tide Woman and Wolfman. Tide Woman was seduced by Wolfman and lost her powers as becoming mortal. Raven came to her and made her realize what was happening by blinding her. She was able to trick Wolfman using his insatiable appetite and make him return her powers and immortality so that she again began to cause the tides. The second was a funny piece about Raven as a very lazy and tricky character who fooled other birds into doing all his work and feeding him until the end when they left him alone. The third was about a Cannibal Giant who was killed by being tricked into falling into a large hole and then being burned to death. From his ashes came the mosquito. Before this dance, people in the audience who wanted them were given sticks to beat in time with the drums to keep the bad spirtis away. The fourth and final dance was about a young man who wanted to marry a very pretty girl who treated him badly. The young man was able to overcome what the girl did to him with the aid of a strong Shaman and some spirits, but the girl was not able to overcome his revenge. He ended up being a strong Shaman himself. The dances were fun to watch, and the dancers did an excellent job. There were five or six dancers from high school students to Tresham Gregg himself. He and one of the women dancers did the narrations. We drove out to Chilkat State Park, which was beautiful, and then returned to eat supper--salmon again. It’s amazing how much better this tastes than what we get at home! We then sat out and watched the bay with its boats and ducks and went to bed.
July 24 (Tuesday)--We aren’t out of Alaska yet, and I’m already missing it! We wanted to go on a tour of a cannery that is here, but the regularly scheduled tour wasn’t until tomorrow. I mentioned it to Ben (Host) and Joyce (Owner) of the campground, and they mentioned it to some others so that we ended up with enough people to set up a private tour. It was very interesting. The owner had set up a canning operation as it was at the beginning of the 1900’s more or less. He had recovered all the machines from various places and restored them so that they worked. Some of the machines, like the ones that made the cans, had been retired in the 1980’s because the industry changed from three piece cans to two piece ones, were no longer in use in canneries. Some of the machines were of a type that are still used. It really made me sorry that we didn’t take the tour in Unalaska that we think was available. I was given the web page address of a good company for shipping Alaskan salmon (www.takusmokeries.com) after we get home since I know we’re going to miss it. One of the most interesting parts of the tour was the enthusiasm of the owner. After the tour we returned to the RV for our usual lunch and nap. We then went to the Sheldon Museum (www.sheldonmuseum.org) and to the Hammer Museum, which had over 1500 hammers. After that there was a little time to go to a couple of the gift shops before we thought about supper. We had decided to go to the restaurant at the Hotel Halsingland in the Generals headquarters building at Fort Seward. We asked around about places to go, but didn’t get any other really good recommendations so we did go to the Hotel. I really wanted to see the inside, which had some nice woodwork. Supper was delicious. Tom had lamb, and I had a duck salad since we’d both had so much fish. Our waitress was very knowledgeable about the town and area and we enjoyed chatting with her and with a woman at the next table who had been a college biology teacher and was leaving tomorrow on a nine-day rafting trip. After supper we returned to the campground and sat on the bay side in our chairs watching the water, ducks, and boats until it was too cold. There was even a seal whose head we could see occasionally.
July 25 (Wednesday)--We had to get up at a reasonable hour to get ready to catch the ferry to Juneau. The ferry didn’t leave until 12:30, but we were told to be there at 10:30. We emptied the tanks first and then went to the Native Carving Center where I’d seen some prints that I decided that I’d like to have. We then went to the Ferry, found out our tickets had been mailed but never arrived, had the clerk reissue tickets, and then found that we really didn’t need to be there until 11:30. We went back into town and had a bakery/restaurant that we’d heard was good fix us sandwiches for the ferry. Tom ate his there, but I kept mine to eat later on the ferry. It was interesting getting the RV on the fery. (Click on the picture below for more pictures of loading the ferry.)
We were the biggest vehicle, I think, and they loaded us first. Tom was driving and he had to back down the gangplank and into the hole of the ship. We were right in a back corner, but it wasn’t particularly crowded--probably not half full. After we parked the RV we went to the upper decks and couldn’t come back to the RV until the ship docked again. We took naps and looked at mountains and wildlife. We saw two pods of humpback whales blowing and showing off. We were told that they were bubble net fishing. Somehow all the whales blow out bubbles in a circle that surrounds fish and brings them up so that the whales can feast. Gulls were circling around the whales so I think they were enjoying the fish also. (For more boat views and landing in Juneau click on the image below.)
We reached Juneau a little early, and drove right off. We were the last off. I’d call an RV camp before we landed and they called us back just as we landed to say that they did have room for us. It’s not in town, but there aren’t any campgrounds in Juneau. The campgroud is very near the Mendenhall Glacier and has wifi. We went grocery shopping, returned to the campground, and ate supper and did the laundry. (Spruce Meadow Campground $28.00)
July 26 (Thursday)--We were up early to get to ElectroTech when they opened at 8:00. It was definitely a case of hurrying up to wait! It’s a small operation, and the boss was involved with his parttime secretary for about an hour. After that they started looking at our generator. We stayed in the RV whiile they did their thing. We heard them mumbling about “the worst installation they’d ever seen” and other such comments. At around 11:30 they told us that they had finally managed to lower the generator, but that it was not possible to remove it so that we could drive off and play since even lowered to the floor, the generator did not clear the bottom of the RV. They had managed to take the top off the generator and could get to it. However, the technician was about to go to lunch. They suggested that we take a taxi and do some things and come back in a couple of hours. We were glad to do that and only wished they had suggested it earlier. Mark in ElectroTech called a taxi for us, and we went about nine miles into the center of Juneau itself. We discovered why few people live in Juneau center. The center of town is between two very steep mountains and the coast. There’s no way for it to expand away from the coast so the people live in the Mendenhall Glacier valley where our campground is, or on Douglas Island, which is connected to the mainland by a bridge. There are around 30,000 people here. We asked the taxi to drop us at a restaurant, had lunch, and then took a tour of the capitol building, which has no dome.
It was an excellent tour, presented by a high school senior. The building is very nice, but not pretentious. It was already there when Alaska became a state and they turned it into the capitol. After visiting the capitol we walked around town a little and then walked down to the tram to the top of Mount Roberts--one of the mountains right behind downtown Juneau. (For more images of and from the tram click on the image below.)
We rode it to the top of the mountain and walked up one of the hiking trails about a quarter of a mile to a wonderful overview of the city and channel. We went down from that and took another taxi to ElectroTech where we found that our generator was back in the RV with no parts left over and that Mark had talked with my insurance people and they said they would pay him within two hours of his submitting his claim. We left in the RV and went to Glacier Gardens. These gardens had been built starting in the 1980’s, I think, by a man who accidentally--so the story goes-discovered that if he turned trees upside down they made interesting flower basket holders. The gardens now consist of some beautiful baskets of flowers hanging from these trees, flowers planted in the ground, part of the rainforest, and trails on which a guide drives tourists in a golf cart. At the top of the path is a boardwalk 600 feet above the Fred Meyer in the valley below with another beautiful view of the city. (Click on the image below for more images of Glacier Gardens.)
At the garden I asked about buying a Sitka Spruce and was told that the man who owned the garden also had a nursery that I had seen near the Safeway. The clerk at the gardens called the nursery and asked them about a small spruce that I might be able to make into a bonsai. They weren’t sure they had one. After the gardens, we went to the nursery and asked about the spruce tree. They had dug one up for me and had it in a pot ready to go. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to it in Mississippi! We then drove to Mendenhall Glacier and looked at it. We were able to get close just by driving. It’s a big glacier and ends with a pool and a stream that forms Mendenhall River. The glacier was striking, somewhat dirty, as many of them are, and wide. (Click on the image below for more pictures of the Mendenhall Glacier.)
We then ate supper and went to bed. We found when we went back to the RV park that we had tickets to see Tracy Arm tomorrow.
July 27 (Friday)--We had to get up early again to be at the dock by 8:30 for our Tracy Arm Tour. We were there and so was everyone else on the tour so the boat left early. It was about two hours of traveling to get to Tracy Arm, and the travel was somewhat long each way although on the return trip we had an excellent view of an orca whale pod. It seemed to be four or five whales--one especially big and one especially small. When we reached Tracy Arm we went deeper and deeper into the fjord seeing more and more ice bergs--many beautiful glacier blue--as we went. At the end of the glacier was the South Sawyer Glacier. (Click on the image below for more pictures of the Tracy Arm Tour.)
Apparently it had done a lot of calving overnight and there were so many bergs that we were not able to get closer than about a mile, but it was still impressive--as well as a little scary to go through all the ice to get as close as we did. Since we couldn’t get any closer, we eventually left and went to the North Sawyer Glacier. There we were able to get closer. The wind and currents had pushed the ice away from the glacier. As we came up to the glacier we saw three really large pieces calf--at least I did, Tom was napping inside! When we returned to Juneau we rushed to Safeway to get my perscription and buy cans to give to the RV Park’s food pantry. Then we went back to Juneau to eat a delicious meal at the Twisted Fish, which is part of Taku Fish Company. I was really wanting oysters on the half shell one more time. It was actually almost dark as we returned to the campground at about 10:00. We aren’t used to the darkness so it felt strange. We went to bed setting the alarm clock to wake us up at 5:00 since we had to be at the ferry terminal by 6:00.
July 28 (Saturday)--We made it to the ferry terminal and, as usual, had to wait. We were in line by about 6:30, but not loaded until 7:30 or so. This time there was another really big RV and a truck with a trailer, so we weren’t the biggest vehicle. The people who help load the vehicles do a very good job. We rode on the Fairweather, a new ferry only in service since 2004. It had a bottom deck for the vehicles and a second deck for the passengers, but no passengers were allowed outside except on the back of that deck or on the third deck. I didn’t see any passenger cabins. This is the fastest ferry in the fleet, I think. It does 32 knots regularly whereas the others do 16 knots. It was a catamarran and looked as if it had four engines. It turned by jet sprays rather than rudders and could turn very quickly as it dodged through the islands and very narrow channels. We met several pleasant people on the ship and talked especially with Elfreda and Ivan Reents, 1861 L Ave., Clarinda, Iowa 51632 (712-542-2108) <iereents@iowatelecom.net>. (For pictures of the trip, click on the image below.)
When we reached Sitka we unloaded the RV and went to the city campground because it was within walking distance of town. It’s nothing more than a concrete parking lot with water and electricity. After lunch and a nap we went to the water treatment facility where the city maintains a dump and dumped our tanks. We then drove downtown and visited Castle Hill (where Tlingit and Russians had fortifications and where the transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States October 18, 1867 took place) and some of the shops. Tom bought me a lovely vase of orange roses with a purple flower in them.
Things were closing, but we found an Episcopal Church and might go tomorrow. We also found a fly fishing shop. The proprietor told us about where to fish from the bank, and it sounds like fun. We walked back to l’Escargot Rouge and ate supper before playing with the Internet and going to bed. I’ve left my spruce tree outside behind the RV. (Sitka City Campground $21.20)
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July 29 (Sunday--Week 12)--We slept late this morning, but got up in time to go to church! St. Peter’s on the Sea was so convenient that it seemed a pity not to go. Almost a third of the congregation seemed to be visitors. We could tell because they asked the visitors to introduce themselves. We went back to their See Building for coffee afterwards, but there weren’t many people there. There were very few younger people in the congregation, but they were all very nice. Afterwards we went by the gift shop that we’d found that has some of the most beautiful carving I’ve seen in Alaska. There’s one item there that we’re debating buying--maybe more. We then drove to the Visitors’ Center to park, eat lunch, and take our nap. The weather is nice. There was a little rain early in the night, but today was beautiful until the late afternoon when there was a little more rain.
After the Visitors’ Center we went to the Bishop’s House, where we had a tour by a ranger who was 70 and about to retire. He was a character. He was planning to check out retiring in India. The Bishop’s House was built for the Russian bishop in the mid-1800’s and consisted of two floors--downstairs for school and seminary and upstairs for the bishop’s living and duties, including a complete chapel. The insulation was done room by room--in the walls, floors, and ceilings--so that each room was essentially heated separately. After the Bishop’s House we walked around downtown until we reached a restaurant, Van Winkle’s, that we had been told was good. It was just opening at 5:00 when we got there so we made reservations for 7:30.
We then walked around some more and found the fortification that the Russians had built to keep the Tlingits out--at least it was a restored version--on the top of a hill where there had also been a Russian Church and where the Russian priest/saint was buried.
A man out walking his three dogs showed us where the path was up to the site. He also told us about another cemetary for the natives that was on the next hill over, but we didn’t have time to see it then. It was then time to eat supper, which we did and returned to the campsite for bed.
July 30 (Monday)--We went to the New Archangel (Russian name for Sitka) Dancers at 10:00. They are a group of women who dance the traditional Russian dances--all women. There are about 30 of them, and they do it for fun, exercise, and keeping the old dances alive, but they are not Russian. They were very good. Men presented the story of the Alaskan flag and one of them sang the song written about the flag, but men are not allowed in the dance group--the announcer said it was because the men refused to join at the beginning and now the women didn’t want them.
After that we went to the Sitka Rose Gallery, where we had found some of the most beautiful work that we’ve seen in one place. There was something there that we particularly liked, and we bought it. Then I wanted a couple of other pieces and they gave us more than 10% off. We had been in there looking at least once a day and were becoming very friendly--they liked our purchases.
After that we went to the Sitka National Historical Park (we aren’t sure about the name). The Bishop’s House that we saw yesterday was part of the park, but this part was almost out of town on the Indian River. We saw the beginning of the salmon run! We saw multiple salmon jumping out in the salt water and were able to see them jumping and swimming in droves up the river. It was more than impressive. We were told that there are even more moving a little later in the run, but what we saw was great. The park was part of the rainforest-as is all of this area, I guess. It rains a lot. We’ve heard them say that it rains 360 days a year. What we’ve seen is some rain during the day or night with cloud cover and mist much of the rest of the time. We saw blue sky the first day or two in Sitka, but very little after that. It would seem as if that would be depressing, but the mountains are still beautiful with the clouds hovering over them, and the rain really doesn’t stop one from doing things outside except for short periods of time and then only if you don’t have on some kind of rain gear. The second half of the trail at the park was through their totem poles. The governor collected around 20 totem poles at the beginning of the 1900’s and after displaying them around the country, brought them back to Sitka. Most of the old poles have been replaced (duplicated) and are now displayed inside the park building, but the duplicates are outside on the trail. (Click on the picture below for views of some of the totems.)
The trail also went by the site of the 1804 Tlingit fort that was taken by the Russians. After the trails, we went back to the RV, which was in the park parking lot to eat lunch and take a short nap. We then went back into the park to see the exhibits. We were able to watch a carver and a woman teaching basket weaving. We then walked through town toward the Russian Cathedral and other shops.
We stopped to go get some meat--steak--for supper. On Tuesday I realized that I had thawed some salmon and hadn’t needed to get the steak, but I forgot tonight. After supper we decided to drive to a city laundromat and wash our clothes so that we’d have enough for the boat.
July 31 (Tuesday)--Our last real day in Alaska! I drove the RV downtown while Tom walked across the bridge. We walked up Lincoln Street starting with some shops we had missed. On the way, we stopped to see the inside of the Russian Cathedral, St. Michal’s (I think), which was open today. It was lovely. It showed a great deal of influence from the first Russian Bishop, Bishop Innocent, who was a man of many talents. I bought a book yesterday of his descriptions of the natives when he first arrived in the area in the early 1800’s. After seening the Cathedral we stopped at the church store and bought a few of their articles made in Russia. We then continued to walk up the street to the Sitka Rose (the “money hole” as we have called it) where we found a few more irresistible articles. We also stopped at the shop of a partially native artist who was very opinionated about how people should sell art. On the way back to the RV, I bought one of his pieces, and he took time to show me how he made it. We had to rush just a little to dump the RV tanks and remove all the food from the refrigerator. We left some ice in it hoping that it would keep things a little cool. We made it to the ferry by 4:00, but were told that the Taku was loading and they would not be checking people in to the Columbia until 4:45. We waited, but eventually were checked in and loaded. It was a relatively straight forward loading. We gathered our clothes and computers and went upstairs to find our cabin. It’s luxurious! Compared to the other boats, this is palatial.
There’s enough room to have a chair in the stateroom. Many people didn't take cabins, but camped on deck. We explored the ship and went to the dining room where we were given a buzzer and told it would buzz for us anywhere on the ship--probably in about 30 minutes. It did and we had corned beef and cabbage--lots of it. We walked around a little more and went to our cabin. Our window is on the outside and no one can walk by it--no walkway--so we don’t need to close the curtain. We’d like to wake up in the morning at 5:30 and see the narrows south of Petersburg, but we didn’t bring our alarm clock so we may not make it.
August 1 (Wednesday)--Not only did we wake up in time, but I misread my watch and got up a little after 4:00 rather than a little after 5:00! Tom heard me say that it was 5:00 and also got up a little later so we were both up way too early. It turned out that the Wrangell Narrows was not what we expected. We were both expecting high cliffs and narrow passageway, but what we got was a narrow channel through rather widely spaced islands.
(Click here for more pictures from the boat.)
The channel that was deep enough for the ship was narrow and required steering of the ship. One of the crewmen stood at the bow looking out during the entire passage--probably in case he saw something unexpected. After the narrows, we both went back to sleep for awhile before eating lunch at the snack bar. We made several stops--Petersburg (right before the Narrows), Wrangell (in the morning), and Ketchikan (in the afternoon).
Ketchikan was a two-hour stop so we disembarked and walked around. Unfortunately, we were hesitant to go into town thinking we might not make it back when we probably had pleenty of time to take a taxi in and look around. However, later we heard some of the crewmen talking about two people who didn’t make it back and carrying some luggage. After we returned to the ship, Tom took another nap, and I went to a safety demonstration about using life vests. After supper we went to bed rather early.
August 2 (Thursday)--No reason to get up early, so we didn’t. We had the whole day without stops on the ship. I went to one of the nature talks on orcas and sat in one of the front lounges putting labels on pictures while Tom wandered around, slept, read, and worked sudoku. We both rested. Supper was a buffet as they tried to feed everyone as quickly as possible. We went to the RV to get the alarm clock so that we could get up about 4:45 and eat breakfast before landing at 7:00 Alaska time.
August 3 (Friday)--Up early and to the snack bar to eat lunch. They had arranged a “chuck wagon breakfast” of eggs, etc. rather than their usual hot cereal only, but the hot cereal was oatmeal so I ate that while Tom had the eggs and bacon. We both really enjoy the eggs and bacon! We disembarked with no trouble.
Bellingham
The salmon was somewhat thawed, but I turned the freezer on and hope for the best. I left one piece out to eat tonight. Gary led us directly to the Ford dealer where we had the (very expensive) 60,000 mile checkup done. I hope l’Escargot Rouge feels better! We still need to wash it. The dealership (Diehl) was good in that they supplied a shuttle to take us to Fairhaven--apparently an older part of Bellingham with some nice little stores. It happened that they were having a student chamber music concert at the city green so we ate our lunch outside at a cafe on the green.
The cafe (Colomet) was connected to an independent bookstore in which the owner/manager? knew Square Books and had visited the owner there several times. After walking around a little more we called the dealership and found that they had finished so they sent the shuttle back for us. Except for deciding to buy windshield wiper blades, which I agreed we needed, they were totally finished, and our biggest problem was finding the way out of the dealership. We went back to the bay area where Ellie, the shuttle driver, had showed us the City Sand Castle Competition and looked at the sand castles. (Click here for pictures of the sandcastles.) They were just finishing, but we didn’t stay for the judging. We tried a state campground, but it was full, so after some grocery shopping we decided to stop at the Walmart where there were 10-15 motorhomes already parked. There was no trouble getting the Internet, and the generator worked well.
August 4 (Saturday)--We spent the morning--or most of it--washing l’Escargot Rouge. It needed washing. Unfortunately, something has happened to make a dripping across the red paint in the front. We then drove on to a rest stop down the I5 and had lunch. After a nap we keep driving through Portland where we turned onto I84 and headed east along the Columbia River on the northern edge of Oregon. It was a beautiful drive. We stopped at Hood River and had trouble finding a place to stay. All the RV parks were full, and WalMart had a sign up saying that overnight parking was not allowed. We ended up going across the river to the Hood River Expo Center where there were several large parking lots and several RV’s parked. Although we were a little worried about being interrupted during the night, we weren’t. I had a pretty bad headache today.
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August 5 (Sunday--Week 13)--After breakfast we decided to walk across a grassy area to the river to see what was going on and ended up spending more than an hour there. They were having windsurfing races while others were doing kite surfing. It was fun to watch both groups. We started talking with Mike Warich? from Chicago who was about to retire from Blue Cross--one more day to work. He was visiting his daughter in Seattle and they were spending the day in Hood River apparently. He was very interesting. One of the things he mentioned to us was a steam train that left from Hood Rivers. Eventually we left and checked out the train, but it wasn’t there and we decided to put that off for a return to Oregon. We drove on down I84, which was interesting all day. Even after we left the Columbia River, there were steep cliffs and then hills. We had thought we might make it to Boise for our first Cracker Barrel in two months, but decided it was too far and stopped in Ontario, Oregon, where we stayed at a campground in Idaho--just across the line.
My headache was still a little with me. We had bought a new filter for the water system, and neither of us thought about rinsing out the carbon. I’m afraid we’ve really messed up the plumbing. We had to turn off the city water and use water from the tank for my shower. (Neat Retreat $26.50)
August 6 (Monday)--As soon as we were up, I started the laundry since we wanted to have it done and leave by check-out time at 11:00. I thought my headache was gone completely, but it returned when we got really hot around noon. We missed the cool weather in Alaska! As we did the laundry we also dumped the RV and were ready to go before 11:00. We drove on to Boise where we took a sightseeing train ride for about an hour and a half--unfortunately when it was really hot at 1:00. After that and a short nap, Tom drove on while I tried to continue the nap. However, the road was a little too rough to sleep. About 20 miles south of Boise, we turned off the interstate to US 20 and were very glad we did. It was interesting with high hills and wide, wide valleys. We saw Craters of the Moon advertised and decided to stop in the National Park Campground there for the night. Craters of the Moon is a lava flow from a rift and covers miles of the Snake River plains--I think it’s about 60 miles long. Unfortunately, we saw a drip from the water heater and are afraid it has something to do with the carbon. (National Park Campground $5)
August 7 (Tuesday)--We started exploring Craters of the Moon by going to the Visitor Center to see their videos and look at the exhibit, and then we began to drive around the seven mile loop that is set up to show different features. A long trail to Big Crater was closed off so we couldn’t take it. We stopped at the Devil’s Orchard, where large lava fragments stand in beds of cinders. (Click on the image below for more pictures of Craters of the Moon.)
We then went to the Inferno Cone, where we could walk up a 0.5 mile (roundtrip) steep climb to the top of one of the “world’s largest basaltic cinder cones”. Then we went to the Spatter Cones and Big Craters Area where we saw the spatter cones-miniature volcanoes--and took the 0.5 mile end of the trail up to the Big Crater that let us look into the crater. It was spectacular, and we were glad we’d taken just that end of the trail rather than starting where we would have had a 3.5 miles walk to the Big Crater. We drove to the trails to Tree Molds, Broken Top, and Wilderness, but did not take any of them since we wanted to go to the Cave Area. Then we went to the Cave Area. (Click on the picture for more cave pictures.)
We walked, and scrambled, through Indian Tunnel cave with no accidents, but then we decided to go to the other caves and try them. I had taken the flashlight from the RV and we had the requisite extra batteries. We started down into the cave, but Tom fell shortly after we started down. Luckily, he didn’t seem to do more than scrap his shoulder and cut a couple of places, but we decided not to continue down. By then it was so late that we didn’t see any sense in trying to go farther for the night, so we returned to the Park campground for the night.
It’ll take us two more days to reach Bob and Helaine.
August 8 (Wednesday)--Today we were ready to make a start toward Bob and Helaine’s, but we made our usual lazy start. We had to stop in Arco for gas and then again in Idaho Falls for groceries. We followed the Snake River most of the way and continued to see lava rock. At the grocery store in Idaho Falls we took time for our lunch and short naps. We decided to head through the Teton and Yellowstone Parks just to see them again. This turned out to be both a good and a bad decision.
Descending to Jackson Hole
Teton Mountains
The scenery was beautiful, and in Yellowstone we saw first one bison and then a whole herd of bison--at least 20--who had stopped traffic on both sides of the road for a long time as they dithered over whether to cross the road or not. They looked quite healthy (fat) and seemed to have completely rid themselves of what we had thought was winter fur on other bison that we had sighted.
It was slow driving through the parks--especially Yellowstone--and we were ready to camp. We had hoped to camp with hookups to check out our water system again, but we saw Shoshone National Forest Campground just outside Yellowstone and decided to stop there. It’s a beautiful campground although, of course, there are no hookups. Only hard-sided campers are allowed here because of bear danger, but we saw no bears--too bad. We should be able to make Buffalo with no trouble tomorrow. (Shoshone National Forrest CG $7.50)
August 9 (Thursday)--Optimists ever! We started out well, but the scenery was so pretty that we stopped many times and made it to Buffalo after 7:00 at night. (Click on the picture below to see more pictures of our drive to Buffalo.)
Almost immedately after leaving the campground saw a bear walking along the stream to our left. We stopped and went back to watch him. By the time we left there was quite a traffic jam of people watching him. We stopped at a state park to dump for $4 and decided that we liked Wyoming’s state parks. We stopped on the side of the road at a wide pullout for lunch and short naps. We went through the Shell River valley which had cliffs, waterfall, and beautiful sights. We put ten gallons of gas in the RV at Dirty Annie’s, but waited until Sheridan to fill up because it was $3.39 a gallon and we hoped for better which we did get. We weren’t able to call Bob and Helaine until Sheridan to tell them we’d be late because we had no cell phone reception.
August 10 (Friday)--At Bob and Helaine’s we had a slow day. Helaine and I went to lunch with two of her friends, Dorothy and Virginia. We went to Story, a nearby town with trees and which Helaine says is the home of many well-to-do people. We met George. Helaine cooked supper.
August 11 (Saturday)--Bob, Helaine, and I drove down to watch the rodeo parade. Tom wasn’t ready to go so he walked down later and we happened to meet him. I picked up a prescription by having it transferred from Fred’s. We came back to Bob and Helaine’s for sandwiches. George joined us. Bob, Helaine, Tom, Lolo, and I then set out to explore a road, Rome Road, that Bob and Helaine had wanted to explore. George and Lewis stayed home.
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August 12 (Sunday--Week 14)--I seem to have quit writing here, but we probably took another three days or so to get home.