October 25, 2005 (Tue)
Camp Walmart, Columbus, OH
Indianapolis, IN to Columbus, OH (208/946 total) Q026439
Frannie is well on her way to full recovery from her brain operation and very able to be on her own until her husband gets home from Oregon. Even so it was hard to leave. It has gotten steadily colder over the nine days we were there. Last night was the coldest at 41°. At 9:00, when we left, it was only 42°. The sun tried to come out all day but fought a loosing battle.
We'd found US-40 (Historic National Road) such a good alternative to the busy I-70 last month that we came all the way to Columbus, OH on it today. Most of the corn fields are stubble now having been harvested since we last passed. The rest were brown and waiting. On the way out we found the price of gasoline lower in Ohio than Indiana so our goal was to get back to Ohio before buying gas. Consequently we passed up $2.28/gal for what turned out to be $2.34/gal when we had to stop. This appeared to be the best price we were going to see. 20 miles later it was selling for $2.23!!
This Walmart north of Columbus shares its parking lot with Kohl's and several other smaller stores and restaurants. Even so it appears to be an OK place to spend the night. At the moment (6:30) we are the only motor home here. And the Chinese Buffet was quite good.
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October 26, 2005 (Wed)
Camp Walmart, Harborcreek, PA
Columbus, OH to Harborcreek, PA (251/1197 miles) Q026690
41.0° overnight, 42° and clearing when we got off at 8:35. We backtracked a mile to SR-750 that would take us back to I-71 north. We stopped at the Flying J truck stop to dump, take on fresh water and put some air in the rear tires then proceeded on up I-71 to a camping World store in Brunswick, OH. We had nothing on our list to buy but spent $40 anyway. They have such neat stuff for camping!
The trees have been spectacular today, much more colorful that yesterday it seemed. We thought it might be because the sun was out but they glowed even when it clouded over and sprinkled a bit. The road across to I-271 (we'd had to bypass the interchange to get to the Camping World) was hilly and beautiful in fall colors. Lunch was at a rest stop (48° and cloudy) off I-90. Thinking that the price of gas would be less in Ohio than in Pennsylvania as it was when we came out 10 days ago we went searching, on narrow, construction laden, traffic heavy US-20 and found the best price to be $2.34/gal. We filled up and of course found it much less expensive in PA. at $2.21/gal!
Henry found us 2 Walmart Supercenters in Erie, PA along our route. The first was located in the middle of a low income area in Erie and was surrounded by a high chain link fence. We decided it might not be a good place to spend the night. The other, in Harborcreek just East of Erie, seems to be quite new. In fact, the parking lot is still being paved. The young woman at the customer service desk seemed surprised at the idea when Mark asked if it was OK to spend the night in the parking lot. She called the manager and asked him about it.
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October 27, 2005 (Thu)
Susan and Paul's driveway
Harborcreek, PA to Belfast, NY (196/1393 miles) Q026865
Up at 6:30 (41.1°), showers, breakfast and off at 8:50 (45.7° cloudy). After getting back to I-90 via US-20 and SR-53 we drove East about 2 miles to I-86 East. The fall colors were again brilliant making the normally very picturesque Southern Tier Expressway even more beautiful. We were a bit ahead of schedule so we decided to take a detour to our old alma mater, Alfred University. Not much had change since we'd been there last but it was fun to see it again and reminisce a bit. There was snow in the air as we ate our lunch in a Tops (supermarket) parking lot.
We arrived at Susan (Mark's sister) and Paul's at about 1:30. Susan was recently diagnosed with colon cancer and is 2 months into her recovery from successful surgery. She and Joy had a lot in common to share. She is in the process of working through her options and it was very interesting to hear about what she has learned in her research. They treated us to a delicious dinner at Sprague's Maple Farms Restaurant in nearby Portville, NY. On the way home we stopped to see nephew Rod and family.
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October 28, 2005 (Fri)
Camp Flying J Free B
Home
Belfast, NY to Gibson, PA (179/1572 miles) Q027044
The thermometer got down to 30° last night, the coldest we've seen since last winter, but it was 36° when we got off at 11:11. Thank you Susan and Paul for your warm hospitality. Hang in there.
The light fog and frost softened the colors on the hills but the drive down SR-17 (future I-86) was still beautiful. There were long hilly stretches of road with barns, silos and patchwork fields adding color to the landscape. Lunch was in a rest stop near Corning, NY.
The area set aside for RVs in the Flying J parking lot was full so we found a corner near the restaurant just the right size for Q. After we'd settled in a fellow with a badge informed us that RVs weren't allowed in that area. We didn't feel comfortable about taking up a whole long trucking space with our little motor home but we did. Before the evening was over there were several other RVs around us. We still only occupied a third of a parking space but we felt better about it. The couple next to us was on their way home to Biloxi, MS. They'd lost 2 homes to Hurricane Katrina while they traveled in New England. To add to their misery, they'd gotten their motor home stuck in the mud earlier in the day.
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October 28, 2005 (Sat)
Home
Gibson, PA to Home (178/1750 miles) Q027222
Except for a truck parked nearby with the air brake releasing every 20 seconds keeping Joy awake for a couple of hours (Mark slept through it) it was quieter than many truck stops. There was no road noise, engine brakes, or shower announcements and the idling diesel was a constant drone that became background noise after a while. We were off for the McDonald's across the road at 7:50 (39.7° - 32.5° over night) and were on the road by 8:25
We were home before noon.
A swing by Belfast, NY - #53-02
Brain surgery - #53-01
October 14, 2005 (Fri)
Today Joy's sister Frannie had her brain aneurysm surgery. She came through it fine. Tomorrow we start out for Indianapolis to be with her for a few days.
October 15, 2005 (Sat)
Camp Cabela's, Wheeling, WV
Home to Wheeling, WV (416/416 miles) Q025909
We got off nicely at 7:36 (61.5°) but had to go back for some things from the refrigerator we'd forgotten. Off again at 7:45. On the way up the parkway we saw the sun for the first time in about 9 days - a strange and beautiful sighting. A full arc rainbow gave us the promise of no more rain for a while as we traveled West on I-78.
But there was no promise of light traffic. Just after crossing the Delaware River into PA and before the toll booth we hit the first of several accident and construction slowdowns. The CB chatter informed us that the interstate had been particularly bad today. We passed the overturned 18 wheeler they talked about but the FEDEX tractor and double trailer stuck in the mud had been freed and was gone. Rubberneckers watching a crew clean up after an accident slowed us down further on and another accident stopped traffic in both directions completely for 30 minutes while a helicopter ambulance came and went. Fortunately we were close enough to the action to know why we were stopped. Later on we saw a billboard that said "Drive like your mother is with you."
We hit Wheeling, West Virginia at about 4:40 and headed for the big Cabela's ("Outfitters For The World") store. They, like Walmart, allow and encourage overnight motor home parking. We set up shop in their parking lot, wandered around the store for a while and bought Angus Dogs (beef hot dogs) for dinner.
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October 16, 2005 (Sun)
Lee and Frannie's driveway
Wheeling, WV to Indianapolis, IN (322/723 miles) Q026231
Off at 7:38 (49.5°) We were worried about being so close to the truck parking area and having to listen to their noise all night but it was very quiet. We learned as we left that the trucks weren't allowed to be there overnight.
We needed to do some shopping so we went looking for the Zanesville (OH) Walmart and for the second time couldn't find it. While Henry was booting up we decided to go on to the one in Columbus. OH. As we found on our way East last month, all (well, almost all) the rest stops along I-70 are closed for rebuilding so the one that was open was very crowded. We stopped anyway and parked outside the lines to eat our lunch.
We got set up in Frannie and Lee's driveway and borrowed Lee's blue Jeep, to go to the hospital. We found Frannie doing very well. She had a rather bad head ache (to say the least) and an uncomfortable looking "seam" across her head but otherwise was pretty much herself. She will be coming home tomorrow.
Home at last! - #52-23
September 15, 2005 (Thu)
Dillon State Park, Zanesville, OH #85 elec. $21.00 A
Indianapolis, ID to Zanesville, OH (221/13231 miles) Q024945
We said a reluctant and tearful good-by to Frannie and got off at 8:15 (68.9° cloudy). A half hour later it came to us that we'd forgotten the package of Lee's elk sausage that he'd given us to take home. What a disappointment not to have this special treat and reminder of our visit!
At 9:10 we pulled into the Spiceland, IN Flying J to refuel and to dump Q's holding tanks. Rather than get back onto I-70 with all the trucks competing for roadway space, we dropped down to US-40 (The National Road) running parallel to the south. This road goes through every town it comes near but was much more interesting than the Interstate would have been - and it had much less traffic. But the cities of Springfield and Columbus were more than we wanted to tackle, so back to I-70. The Interstate also has rest areas - we were ready to stop for lunch - that US-40 does not. The two we passed were closed for rebuilding so we were pretty hungry by the time we ate lunch in the campground at 3:00!
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September 16, 2005 (Fri)
Camp Flying J, Carlisle, PA
Zanesville, OH to Carlisle, PA (293/13546 miles) Q025260
Up at 7:00 (71.4°) off at 8:15 (71.9°) It rained most of the night but this morning it was foggy and hazy with some blue sky above. We switched back and forth between US-40 and I-70 depending on the road conditions. - we tended to go to I-70 to bypass the larger cities. We got gas ($2.79) in West Virginia just before crossing over into Pennsylvania.
For lunch we decided on Kentucky Fried Chicken. Getting to the place was a nightmare! We sat for 10 minutes trying to make a left turn off the interstate ramp. (in frustration, a fellow pulled around us and into the path of one of the 18 wheelers holding us up. He made it, but barely. We finally turned right and made a U turn. When we got the the KFC it was blocked with a bar announcing "No Trucks Clearance 10 ft 6 in". We decided to find a nearby lot and walk there but found a back way in. We managed to place our order just before the place was overwhelmed by tour bus (that also found the back way in) passengers.
On the road again we passed fall colors in the hills, a wind farm (6 wind mills), and a motor home size Oscar Meyers hot dog (westbound).
License plate: Hi Ho Ag (Ag being the atomic symbol for silver)
We are camped at Ed's favorite - could it be the donut shop just down the road? - Flying J Truck Stop in Carlisle, PA. It's as noisy as all of them are, but we'll see. There is a Walmart 5 miles south if we need to stop in this area again.
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September 17, 2005 (Sat)
Home
Carlisle, PA to Home (193/13739 miles) Q025453
117 days and 13739 miles later we are home. It was a great trip! We would definitely like to do it again - once we've seen the rest of the country and if the price of gas comes down.
The traffic and truck stop noise wasn't as bad as we expected. Even so, if we need a free stop in this area again, we'll probably head for one of the two Walmarts in the area. It rained some last night and was still cloudy this morning. We got gas ($2.79) and dumped and flushed Q's tanks before hitting the road at 7:30 (72.9°) Our last-day-on-the-road breakfast was from McDonalds about 5 miles North on I-81. (A Red Robin restaurant and the other Walmart are there too.)
Two motorcycles with teddy bears in goggles as passengers passed us shortly after we got back on I-81. The Cabela's store in Hamburg, PA (we stopped to check it out) does not allow overnight parking. Most other stores allow it though. They said it is by town ordinance because people were taking advantage - loud parties!
We crossed the state line into New Jersey on I-78 at 11:15. Home at 12:40.
Across the Midwest - #52-22
September 5, 2005 (Sat)
Bemidji State Park, Bemidji, MN #9 dry $15.00 + $7.00 B
Minot, ND to Bemidji, MN (333/11456 miles) Q023773
Camping here ended up being more expensive than we thought it would be. There is a $7.00 a day fee just to be in the park! The cost of the campsite was additional. $22 a night without hookups is a lot.
Up, this morning, at 6:45 and got off at 7:35 (59.7°) - It was warm when we went to bed last night, almost too warm. But it cooled off nicely during the night. It was hazy as we started out East on US-2 and there was even some light fog 20 miles out. At 8:55 we passed the geographical center of North America, Rugby, ND, a monumental passage!
About mid-morning a class A motor home came up on us from behind. At first we thought it might be friends of ours but it turned out to be a man by himself. Although he was traveling faster than we were he tended to stop at all the rest areas so he overtook us several times. And in Bagley, Minnesota he passed us going the other way! We guess that he needed fuel and discovered that the prices went up as he went out of town so was coming back for a lower price. We filled up down the road in Bemidji for $3.09/gal - not too bad compared to some of the prices we saw today - some as high as $3.34!
In general the road was good even when the four lanes narrowed to two in the construction areas. The landscape was quite flat with fields of mostly soy beans and sun flowers. There were also some fields of corn. The weather was clear but very windy. As we passed through Grand Forks, ND we discussed the fact that this is where Ray Kelley (married Mark's mother after his father died) was from. We got into Bemidji State Park at about 3:20.
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September 6, 2005 (Tue)
Bemidji State Park, Bemidji, MN (2)
It rained during the night giving us both concerns about having signed up for two nights here and maybe spending the day cooped up inside. The sky was clear when we got up though, so after breakfast we took the bicycles off the front of Q for the first time since we'd left Homer, Alaska.
The city of Bemidji is 7 miles down the paved Paul Bunyan State Trail (an old railroad bed) along the Bemidji Lake shore, a beautiful ride. There is a huge statue of Paul Bunyan and his blue ox "Babe" in town that we wanted to see. It is claimed to be the most photographed site in Minnesota. But to get there we'd have had to ride through city streets so we decided to wait until tomorrow and see it from the safety of Q's cab.
This afternoon we took our chairs down to the beach and spent a couple of hours there in the sun looking at the water and reading. It got rather windy though so we didn't stay as long as we wanted to.
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September 7, 2005 (Wed)
Wanoka Campground, Chequamegon National Forest #1 dry $5.00g B-
Bemidji, MN to Iron River, WI (222/11678 miles) Q023995
Up at 6:30 off at 8:00. Our first stop was in Bemidji to help maintain the "most photographed" reputation of the Paul Bunyan and Babe statue. The next was across town (to near where we were on bicycles yesterday) to a laundromat - a needed stop because we'll not be in comparably equipped campgrounds.
US-2 eastbound was about the same as it has been for the last two or three days, flat without much interesting scenery. After about two hours we passed the couple (we think) on bicycles whom we passed two and four days ago. Quite a trip!
We stopped for lunch in a rest stop in Floodwood, MN and found out later that there was a free WiFi hotspot there. (We must learn to check whenever we stop!) To restock the pantry we chose Super One Foods in Superior, Wisconsin (across the St. Louis River/Lake Superior from Duluth, MN). We should have gotten gas before we crossed that river! We would have saved least 10 cents a gallon. Instead we paid $3.19/gal.
We're in a National Forest Campground with the usual amenities, atmosphere, trees, few people, quiet, pit toilets, and no shower facilities. We discovered that Wisconsin is like Minnesota in that they charge a daily fee just to be in their state parks. That makes the cost equal to or greater than private campgrounds. We opted for atmosphere and a low price. After dinner we walked down the path from our campsite to the small lake that we can see from our dining room window.
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September 8,2005 (Thu)
Camp Walmart, Madison, WI
Iron River, WI to Madison, WI (321/11999 miles) Q0243116
Up at 6:30 (43.3°) off at 7:30 (45.5°) Cloudy but blue sky in the distance. In Ashland we began to see a huge pier projecting out into Lake Superior and finally determined that it was a railroad pier (probably used to load the big ships bound for the Atlantic Ocean via the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway. For wildlife we saw several white tail deer in the woods and risking their lives to cross the road and a lonely pheasant strutting his stuff along the shoulder.
Finally leaving our old pal US-2 we turned south on US-51 where we saw the landscape change from mostly forest and lakes to mostly farmland - wild rice seemed to be a popular commodity as we saw it advertised for sale all along the way. At first the trees showed definite signs of fall but as we drove south the color turned back to green. Interesting. Road construction produced some slow downs and one stretch of loose gravel - no stone dings this time but one SUV tried his best to give us one. Why is it always the SUVs?
When we stopped for gas in Stevens Point, Mark found a WiFi signal so we were able to download our email. We got cut off though when we tried to download our banking data. We pulled into a Pizza Hut for lunch and found that Q was way too big to maneuver around. We almost couldn't get turned around (backing out onto a busy 4 lane highway was out of the question!) We went on and found one in Plover. Our former traveling companions will be interested to know that it was a buffet and they had blueberry pizza for desert. YES!
Our host for the night is again Walmart. As I write this (6:00 pm) there is a class A motor home nearby - here when we got here at about 3:30 - and a fellow sleeping in a beat up old Chrysler wagon loaded so heavy that the fender is barely off the rear wheel.
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September 9, 2005 (Fri)
Moraine View State Park, Le Roy, IL #C11 elec. $15.00 A+
Madison, WI to Le Roy, IL (234/12333 miles) Q024550
Up at 6:45 (For the first time in a long time it was warm enough, 63°, not to turn the furnace on when we got up) off at 8:00 (sunny & clear 68.9°).
The interstate highway system isn't known for scenery and I-39/US-50 southbound through southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois is no exception. It's mostly flat fields of mostly corn - although there was a silo at one farm that was topped with a huge Jack-O-Lantern, as big around as the silo itself. South of Rockford, IL we noticed that there was no traffic northbound. We soon came upon several emergency and police vehicles supervising a front end payloader cleaning garbage off the highway. It looked like some kind of trash hauler had dumped its load. We're not quite sure why the operation required routing traffic off the interstate 10 miles down the road. Lucky for the north bounders, traffic was very light - barely a quarter mile back up. A large wind farm further on added some interest to the landscape near the village of Paw Paw, IL.
This Illinois State Park is very nice and so far unpopulated. It was so hot (92°) when we got here at about 12:30 that we haven't done any exploring. There seem to be hiking paths and it looks like we might be able to bicycle a road that goes all the way around the lake. We've left that kind of activity for the cool of tomorrow morning.
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September 10, 2005 (Sat)
Moraine View State Park, Le Roy, IL (2)
It was 74° when we got up this morning. We're not in Alaska any more! We got a phone call this morning with the news that Joy's sister Frannie is scheduled for surgery - not for the aneurysm that she's been anticipating but an unrelated minor procedure - on Monday. She preferred that we come tomorrow as planned so we will be here another night.
The road around the lake is only 3 1/2 miles long so we decided to walk it rather than take our bicycles. It was a very nice walk through woods with occasional views of the lake. We were surprised at the number of other people who were also doing it - both walking and on bicycles (and some also in cars). The thermometer was approaching 90° by the time we got back so sitting became the most strenuous activity for the rest of the day. After lunch it was naps interrupted now and then with vigorous reading. The temperature reached the mid 90s before dropping back in the late afternoon.
September 11, 2005 (Sun)
Lee and Frannie's driveway, Indianapolis, IN
Le Roy, IL to Indianapolis, IN (174/12507 miles) Q024724
Up 6:00 Off 7:30 (hazy 71.2°) After dumping the tanks and topping off the fresh water we were on our way headed East on I-74 through eastern Illinois corn fields. At 9:20 we crossed over into Indiana and proceeded through its corn fields. Off in the haze we can see a big city, but there shouldn't be a city there. Brigadoon comes to mind. Then we realize the "city" is just a bunch of grain elevators. On through more corn fields.
Back when Mark was gainfully employed he had been in Crawfordsville several times on business. We thought it might be fun to detour through there for our grocery stop. He didn't recognize any land marks but we did get groceries. Rather than getting back on I-74 we followed the less hectic US-136 into Indianapolis. In addition to corn fields we saw turkeys in the road and Llama in a yard. And for a long while we drove along side a 10 hopper car long train (2 CSX blue and yellow engines, Ed. Don't know the manufacture, model, etc.) We got to Joy's sister Frannie's at about noon. We spent the afternoon catching up.
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September 12, 2005 (Mon)
Lee and Frannie's driveway, Indianapolis, IN
Frannie and Lee left at 5:30 for Frannie's 6:00 appointment at the hospital for her out patient TGN surgery. We joined Lee in the waiting room at about 8:30. At 8:45 the surgeon stopped by and told Lee that all had gone well and that she was in recovery. We brought her home an hour later and she spent the rest of the day resting.
Q got new shoes this afternoon. We had begun to hear noises from the tires indicating that something wasn't right so Mark had it checked out. Result: two new tires in front and a promise to Q that we'd have the alignment checked when we get home.
We will be here for 3 days.
The Icefields Parkway - #52-21
August 27, 2005 (Sat)
Sintich Trailer and RV Park, Prince George, BC #12A w/e $19c B+
Smithers, BC to Prince George, BC (240/9747 miles) Q022064
Up at 6:00 off at 7:15, in the rain, continuing east on the Yellowhead Highway. This is the weekend of the "biggest fair in British Columbia". It's an agricultural fair held in Smithers. We had talked about going to it "it might be fun", but not in the rain. But the location seems appropriate. We were passing through farm lands with cattle, horses and large rolls of hay in the fields. Logging is also a big industry here.
We stopped in Burns Lake for gas and rejoiced at having to pay only $3.13/gal (equiv) after paying as much as $3.74 only a few days ago. We stopped to do some grocery shopping on the way into Prince George and got to the campground at 12:30.
One of the first things we do on arriving at a campground is look for a way to connect to the internet so that we can keep up with email. When we were here with Gail and Phil on the way north, we found a coffee shop with free WiFi. It's not free any longer! The campground has WiFi but at a price - they think/thought. When we turned the computer on we found that we were connected - free! We took advantage and downloaded several days worth of email and updated our financial data.
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August 28, 2005 (Sun)
Sintich Trailer and RV Park, Prince George, BC (2)
It rained most of the night but the morning brought clear skies and only a few clouds. At 9:30 we all climbed into the toads and went into town to church. St. Michael and All Saints is the largest we've been to on the trip. Although we often doubled or even tripled the congregation, today we barely made a difference. That's not to say that we were there unnoticed. When we entered through the parish house the priest came rushing up, introduced himself and ask us to do the same. We chatted for a while and until he had to go to prepare for leading the service. The sanctuary was "A" frame modern with quilted banners hung everywhere. The service was the most relaxed we've ever been to. The priest often interacted with the congregation rather than the more normal, leading from the altar. The sermon was humorous as well as poignant and well delivered.
For lunch we took Bob and Pat out to a highly recommended buffet brunch for their 51st wedding anniversary. It was a wonderful meal and we all ate way too much. This afternoon we didn't do much - read, napped and relaxed.
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August 29, 2005 (Mon)
Whistlers Campground, Jasper National Forest #21F dry $24 B
Prince George, BC to Jasper, AB (240/9987 miles) Q022304
Up at 6:15 (52°) off at 7:25 (50°) We left Prince George eastbound on the Yellowhead Highway with mixed feelings of freedom and loneliness. Bob and Pat had just left heading south. Ed and Kathy were staying on one more day. Chip and Kim had left yesterday. There was no one we knew ahead of us or behind us. And no sometimes inane, chatter on inter vehicle communications radio. At the same time we were free to make decisions without seeking consensus - where to go, what speed to travel, when to take a rest or lunch break, what sights to stop for, where to camp.
The Yellowhead is supposed to be a scenic drive. It might be but the fog obscured everything but the road ahead and the trees to the side. At 9:40 a black bear strolled casually across the road in front of us. He paused when we got there to allow Joy to get a picture of him. We saw another on the side of the road later on but too late for us to slow down without causing a traffic problem.
It rained off and on for the whole trip making us feel sorry for the hearty souls on bicycles, and there were a surprising number of them. We crossed the Province boundary into Alberta at 11:58 and had to set our clocks ahead an hour to 12:58. At the entrance into the Whistlers Campground we got the now usual warning about the danger of bear in the park. But this time we were told that it is rutting season, two weeks early, for elk and they can be aggressive and dangerous too. We spent the afternoon listening to the rain on the roof and reading (and watching out the window for bear and rutting elk).
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August 30, 2005 (Tue)
Waterfowl Lakes Campground, Banff National Park #75 dry $19 B
Jasper, AB to Waterfowl Lakes CG, AB (110/10097 miles) Q022414
Up at 6:45 off at 8:00 (43°) We slept "late" this morning because it's an hour earlier here than we've been used to. Our bodies are still on Pacific time. The weather was clear after raining off and on during the night. And it was cold. There were elk grazing near the park entrance as we left, females we think, and a big male grazing on the side of the road as we chugged south. We have also added wolf to our wildlife sightings because we think we saw one trotting through a nearby campsite (empty) last night.
The scenery along the Icefields Parkway is some of the most spectacular we've seen. The mountains look like huge jagged rocks with a dusting of snow, silhouetted against the morning sky. And the views were endless. A sign for Athabaska Falls tempted us to take a side trip. The short walk to see them was crowded - even at 8:30am - with the contents of 5 tour buses. Although annoying it was worth fighting our way to the view points.
Some of the same tourists were taking pictures of each other at the Icefields Center when we stopped later on. This is where one can buy a ride on an a big ice buggy that goes out onto the Athabaska Glacier. We decided to save that for our next trip.
Waterfowl Lakes Campground, as was Whistlers last night, is a lot like our National Forest campgrounds in the US - high on pretty woodland atmosphere but low on facilities. There are flush toilets though. We got here at about 12:30 and enjoyed a restful, quiet, dry afternoon. There was even sun on Q's roof for a while.
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August 31, 2005 (Wed)
Chain Lakes Provincial Park, Nanton, AB #45 dry $11.00s A
Waterfowl Lakes CG, AB to Nanton, AB (234/10331 miles) Q022648
Our thermometer read 43° when we got up at 6:30. It felt colder than that though. Maybe it was the damp weather, although it didn't rain much. Or the altitude, we were at nearly 7000 feet. It had warmed up to 45° by the time we hit the road at 7:45. The weather was great, the road good and the scenery spectacular. And there was barely any traffic - for a while. What a drive! Bow Pass at 6710 feet is the highest point on the Icefields Parkway. We stopped but decided not to attempt the trail that started there. It was hard enough to breath just walking across the parking lot at that altitude.
We stopped at Lake Louise to find an internet connection. The young woman in the visitor's center said there was none in Lake Louise but there was an internet cafe in Banff. Although she told us exactly how to find it when we got there, we went to the visitor's center in Banff for a second opinion. It was confirmed. Only one place in town - $6.00 an hour for internet connection. Back in Q Mark turned on the computer and found 2 wireless networks within range. We up and down loaded our email for free!
We found Banff to be a very unfriendly to RVs. All the municipal parking lots - there are many - have signs saying no RVs. Street parking was pretty much undefined. It's hard to know whether it's allowed or not. We took a chance and parked behind another RV on a side street. As we left town we saw one sign directing RVs to a special lot - probably on the outskirts. The sign was on a side street. There had been none on the main drag into town. It's an interesting place though and once the RV is parked, legally or illegally, the shops are worth exploring.
We have left the Canadian Rockies for now. We can see them in the distance from our campsite but the area around us is rolling farm land. The sky is clear and blue and the sun is bright and warm. We can see a lake down the hill. It has been a restful afternoon, sitting in the sunshine, reading and relaxing. It's even warm enough for shorts.
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September 1, 2005 (Thu)
Lewis & Clark RV Park, Shelby, MT #44 e/w $25.50 B+
Nanton, AB to Shelby, MT (223/10554 miles) Q022871
Up at 6:30 (45°) off at 7:40 (49.9°) Sunny and clear. Last night at dusk we heard loons on the lake and this morning we saw deer romping on the other side. Going south on PH22 was mostly prairie and farmland with plenty of cattle and horses. There were sheep too and donkeys, mules, and assorted feathered wildlife. After turning onto PH6 we began to move closer to the mountains we'd been seeing in the distance. Some had fields of snow (or glaciers) but they were mostly dark gray. Then we were in the mountains again.
We're getting to be old hands at crossing the Canada/US border. This crossing from Alberta to Montana in Waterton/Glacier International Peace Park was like the others, no sweat. Just outside the park boundary in Montana we saw a small heard of cattle wandering along the deserted roadside. A half mile or so further on a cowboy, a real cowboy with big hat, chaps, leather vest, etc., on a horse and accompanied by two border collies cantered by. We guessed that he was after the stray cattle.
At the top of one mountain pass we discovered we had a strong cell phone signal so we stopped and made several calls. Our phone service doesn't include Canada so it had been a long dry spell. In Cut Bank, MT we stopped and traded in our Canadian money for US and got groceries at a real store. Since entering the US the price of gas had been consistently $2.84 at every station. We picked one at random as we drove through Shelby and filled up. At the very next station we passed the price was $2.79!
There are very few trees in this part of Montana but there are several small ones scattered around the campground. They were probably planted by the owner when he carved a small spot out of the plains for an RV Park. There is no shade but the sun and 79.2° is pleasant after so much cold. We were the only ones here until a few minutes ago so it's quiet.
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September 2, 2005 (Fri)
Downstream Campground, Fort Peck, MT #13 elec. $6.00g A
Shelby, MT to Fort Peck, MT (292/10846 miles) Q023163
Up at 6:30 off at 8:00. Bright with a thin layer of solid clouds - we could see the sun through them as a big white ball. We turned onto US2 and headed east. The gas station we didn't buy gas at yesterday showed a posted price of $2.93 this morning, up 14 cents overnight! The other stations are still showing $2.84. At 9:17 the road turned 10° toward the northeast but 15 minutes later we were going east again. It's exciting events like that that keep things interesting in this part of the country. It's mostly flat plains with a few rolling hills. Black-eyed Susans and a small yellow wildflower line the road and we can see mountains off to the north. In Canada?
Among other very small towns we passed through Rudyard, MT "Population 596 nice people and 1 old sore head" and Chinook, MT. They have strange "Rest Areas" along this road. Two were gas station's parking areas (I guess one can rest there but how do they differ from the many other gas stations that don't have the official Rest Area designation?) Another was a parking area near the fair grounds. A sign nailed to a post at the hard to turn into entrance announced that "Rest Area does not mean free overnight camping". We didn't even want to rest there, let alone camp. We ate a McDonalds lunch in Q's comfortable dining room.
We are in a US Army Corps of Engineers campground in the Fort Peck Dam Recreational Area. Beautiful! It is a very "park" like setting with widely separated sites. The landscaping is mowed lawn with small trees and well maintained shrubs scattered around. All this and electric hookup at the site we get for only $6.00 a night (because we're old folks). We've decided to stay for two nights.
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September 3, 2005 (Sat)
Downstream Campground, Fort Peck, MT (2)
Nice sunny warm day - actually hot! As I write this the thermometer reads 96.6°. The sun is influencing that reading some so it's not really that hot but it certainly is good to know that we aren't missing summer altogether. After breakfast we went out walking to explore the campground. and came across the "nature trail" which is a paved walkway all the way around the outside of the campground. It may be about 3 miles long but we only covered about two miles. Mark's back and hip problems are about cleared up but we didn't want to take the chance of aggravating them again. The rest of the day was devoted to enjoying the weather and being in this beautiful and peaceful campground.
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September 4, 2005 (Sun)
Camp Walmart, Minot, ND C
Fort Peck, MT to Minot, ND (277/11123 miles) Q023440
Up at 6:30 off at 7:40 (63.9°) We took in-house showers because those provided by the campground (Downstream Campground) were less than desirable. We went North on SR117 back to US2 then East. US2 is the northern-most route that goes all the way across the United States. It misses all the big cities and is giving us a real good look at the rural midwest. The road is very good, 70 mph speed limit most of the way except through the villages and construction areas and there is hardly any traffic and virtually no large trucks. We think it is an excellent alternative to I-94 a few miles to the south.
We traveled all over Alaska as well as both directions on the notorious Alaska Highway through British Columbia without a windshield ding. We got one in Montana! The gravel construction area was only a mile long and the gravel pretty well stabilized with tar. An SUV with two kayaks on the roof came at us like the river was about to dry up and threw a stone. We had slowed to almost a stop for him to go by but the stone hit the windshield anyway and hard enough to leave evidence!
After several miles on US 2 we passed two bicyclists that we had passed on the road way back three days ago. Ah, to have the energy to take on a trip like that! On the right side of the road in what looked like a single range that went on forever we saw several large herds of horses. Beautiful animals to see "in the wild" like that, especially at full gallop. In Minot, South Dakota we bought groceries at The Marketplace (great store) with a great bakery (hard to resist those cinnamon buns), and gas (at $3.14/gal for 10% ethanol - cheaper than regular and worth a try). We finally found an electric heater for Q at Walmart (who kindly agreed to let us use a corner of their parking lot for the night).
Down the Cassiar Highway - #52-20
August 23, 2005 (Tue)
Dease Lake RV Park, Dease Lake, BC #19 w/e/s $19c B+
Rancheria, YT to Dease Lake, BC (209/9063 miles) Q021380
Up at 6:30 (41°) clear beautiful skies. Off at 8:00 and continued down the Alaska Highway to the junction with the Cassiar Highway. We badly needed gas but the price at the only station in the area was the U.S equivalent $3.75/gal. We bought $20 worth.
Where we come from, the Cassiar "Highway" would have been considered a back road one step up from a dirt road and not a particularly good road at that. It wound and twisted its way into and through the mountains. It was smooth most of the time but there were frost heaves and broken, badly repaired pavement often enough to keep us from going much over 40 MPH. 14 miles of it was a true dirt road with pot holes and wash boarding. There were even a few mud holes that we had to negotiate! The scenery was worth it though and it was all scenery. We seldom saw anything, other than the road, that had been touched by the hand of man. Even the hills were devoid of buildings (houses).
Jade City is a wide spot in the highway with a jade jewelry and gift store on each side - not a village at all, much less a city. One shop was owned by the people who own and operate the jade mines 60 miles east. In addition to retail items for sale there were work areas outside where they were cutting up the jade. It would have been interesting to watch the craftsmen make the jewelry too but that was somewhere else. Jade City was supposed to have a gas station too but it was closed. The next one was 75 miles further south. We made it with the gas gauge on empty and optimism fading but there was over a gallon of gas left in the tank.
The price here was the U.S. equivalent of $3.52/Gal.
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August 24, 2005 (Wed)
Rainey Creek Campground and RV Park, Stewart, BC #41 elec $20c B+
Dease Lake, BC to Stewart, BC (244/9307 miles) Q021624
Up at 6:15 (44°) off at 7:22 High clouds and sunshine. At 7:35 a large bull moose wandered across the road in front of us and stopped to wonder why we slowed down. As we climbed up and over Gnat Pass (4072 feet) the temperature got steadily colder finally reaching 32° before starting back up again. The first part of the Cassiar Highway we traveled today was a lot like the section we on yesterday, rough and broken pavement and some rough gravel (dirt). We had expected some 45 miles of dirt and gravel but road construction this summer has reduced that kind of driving to about 20 miles. Where the road is finished it is silky smooth - or is that in comparison to the rough sections?
A lot of the road was between high steep sided rock mountains - beautiful and awesome but bordering on claustrophobic. At times it felt like the sheer rock walls would topple over on us. We stopped at a pullout overlooking Bear Glacier. It is possible to watch this glacier "calf" into Bear River from there but no ice broke off while we were there. There were several icebergs from recent calving, though, floating in the river.
We pulled into Rainey Creek Campground at about 3:00. Dinner was halibut fish and chips at the King Edward Hotel in Stewart. Delicious! Some of the best we've had.
Hyder, AK is about 2 miles further on and is where there is a area (Fish Creek) on the Salmon River where black bears (mostly) like to come to fish. We saw 3 or 4 bears. Non were fishing but there had been some earlier.
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August 25, 2005 (Thu)
Rainey Creek Campground and RV Park, Stewart, BC (2)
One of the main reasons people, us included, come to Stewart is to see the bears in Hyder. If that's all they do, they miss one of the most spectacular and scary drives in the whole northwest. The southern tip of the huge Salmon Glacier (the 5th largest glacier in Canada) is 17 miles out of Hyder on a very rough dirt road. It is a magnificent sight to behold in itself but getting there (and beyond) was more than awesome. We climbed nearly 4000 feet on a road without guard rails that clung to the sides of high steep mountains. At times we were looking almost straight down to a river winding through the valley a couple of thousand feet down.
The views down were scary but the views out and up were spectacular. The mountains were rugged and rocky. Glaciers of varying sizes filled most of the areas slow to get direct sun but there were glaciers also on the tops of mountains. Mines large and small were scattered all along the road providing periodic breaks in the natural beauty. At about 33 miles - we had no idea the road went that far - we stopped to view another large glacier and get more pictures. We were tempted to go on to the end of the road - we had been told it did end out there - but turned back because everyone was hungry and in need of sanitary facilities unavailable since we'd left Hyder.
We'd been told by some people who were coming back that there was a crew filming a Lexis commercial at the end of the road. We met them coming out (way too fast) as we went in. We came across them again on our way out, blocking the road to film in another location. It wasn't very interesting because, except for a camera mounted helicopter hovering overhead, all the action was taking place around a bend so our patience ran out rather quickly.
After about 20 minutes we ran their blockade to their excitedly expressed disapproval - one of the crew ran over and stood in front of the car. We claimed a partially true medical emergency. That got their attention! Several came running with food. They finally let us through when they were told non of their food was appropriate. Kathy is hypoglycemic and needs to eat regularly. She always carries snacks, but delaying her lunch for two hours could have been a serious problem for her and we were twenty-five miles from any kind of civilization!
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August 26, 2005 (Fri)
Glacier View Campground and RV Park, Smithers, BC #19 dry $16c B+
Stewart, BC to Smithers, BC (200/9307 miles) Q021824
Up at 6:00 off at 7:30 (58°) Raining. Our first stop was to get gas then back up the Stewart-Hyder Access road through misty mountain panoramas. On the Cassiar Highway again we sailed South on a smooth newly paved road. Off in the distance, barely distinguishable, 3 or 4 black bear ambled across the road. By the time we got there they were long gone into the woods.
Just before turning onto the Yellowhead Highway (a real highway this time with actual cars and trucks and lane marker lines), we drove a quarter mile into the tiny Indian village of Gitwangak to see a pretty little Anglican Church and bell tower as well as some totem poles along the road nearby. We parked near a fifth wheel rig driven by a retired military man. He was apparently very unfamiliar with handling a large fifth wheel or incompetent and blamed us verbally and loudly for his inability to turn it around. He refused to listen when we told him the road looped back to the highway and he didn't even need to turn around.
We chose Glacier View Campground "on the fly" (without prior research) and it has turned out to be very nice. It's small but very neat and clean. The young woman who checked us in was very pleasant and friendly in spite of having to do all the paperwork for four units with a 4 month old baby on her hip.
We could look out at a glacier high on a mountain as we relaxed in the sun outside Q.
Back to Skagway - #52-19
August 17, 2005 (Wed)
Hitch-Up RV Park, Haines, AK (2)
After breakfast we went into town, maybe a half mile away, to the Sheldon Museum & Culture Center where we learned a little bit about the history of the area. From there we toured Alaska Indian Arts gallery and workshop where we were supposed to see totem carving and silver jewelry making in progress. We didn't. Interesting place though. For lunch we went to The Fireweed Restaurant which seemed to be more a locals hangout than a tourist place. From the outside the building looked almost derelict and we couldn't tell if it was even open. The inside was fixed up though. Jazz was the background music and a drum set and music stands in the corner indicated that there is often live music (evening?) The food was very good.
After lunch we drove out to the end of the road south to a view point in Chilkat State Park. There we could look out over Chilkat Inlet and see see two huge glaciers. One high on a mountain, the Rainbow Glacier, sparkled pink and blue in the sunlight. Water was flowing off it at such a rate that it is hard to believe that it could last more than a couple of weeks, much less centuries as it has.
We have decided to spend another night here. The two state parks that we had been considering moving to are at the ends of roads 10 miles away in different directions - one out where we looked at the glaciers today and the other out near where we watched the bear fish last night. The weather forecast is 100% showers and the prospect of hanging out in the wet forest is less appealing than here in this nice campground.
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August 18, 2005 (Thu)
Pioneer RV Park, Whitehorse, YT #132 w/e/tv $22.00d B
Haines, AK to Whitehorse, YT (254/8509 miles) Q020819
Up at 6:00 to the sound of rain on the roof and it rained off and on as we went through our morning personal and break camp routines. While Bob was at the tire place getting a new tire mounted we went over to get the lowest priced gas in town, $2.94/gal. We got $99 worth - aaarg! We took off up the Haines Highway at about 9:00 (61°), cleared Canadian customs at about 10:00, and almost immediately plunged into heavy fog. (It's surprising how much like White Pass out of Skagway, Chilkat Pass out of Haines is in the fog.)
We had planned to camp in a roadside pull off overlooking Dezadeash Lake (it's done all the time up here) but thought it wouldn't be all that much fun in the rain so decided to push on to Whitehorse. It would put us a day ahead of schedule but we can find a way to make it up.
Back on the Alaska Highway southbound, we lunched in Yukon Government Pine Lake Recreational Area. Actually it turned out that it was a little tight for Ed and Kathy to feel comfortable parking their long rig so they went on and found a roadside rest area. We picked them up there later. We got into Pioneer RV Park, the Whitehorse campground where we stayed on the way north, at about 4:15 Yukon time. We are up on the hill in a more "state park" setting this time.
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August 19, 2005 (Fri)
Pioneer RV Park, Whitehorse, YT (2)
The first order of business was grocery shopping. The Walmart was not a supercenter so food items were rather limited. We got what we could and finished up at a regular supermarket. The fish ladder was next. This is a structure that is build next to the hydro dam to allow salmon to get upstream to spawn. The facility is also used to count the fish. They actually count every fish! There is a gate that opens only when someone is there to do the counting. Interesting.
After lunch at a not-too-good Chinese buffet we went to the Yukon Transportation Museum. There were displays on most of the various forms of transportation - airplane, train, riverboat, and dog sled. Joy wasn't feeling well and went out to nap in the car. Mark stayed and watched very good video about the Yukon Quest dog sled race.
When we stopped by the campground sometime during all that running around Chip and Kim's motor home was parked at the campground office but when we got back later, they were not around. In the late afternoon they pulled into a camp space near us. Apparently they had been asking for us when we saw them first and had been told we weren't here so they went searching in all the other campgrounds in Whitehorse. When they came back later they were told that we were here after all. Campgrounds are supposed to keep better track of their clients than that!
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August 20, 2005 (Sat)
Pullen Creek RV Park, Skagway, AK #24 w/e $25 A+
Whitehorse, YT to Skagway, AK (104/8613 miles) Q020923
Up at 6:30 (52°) off at 8:03. It rained a lot during the night and the weather didn't look much better this morning. The Seattle, WA forecast (via campground provided cable TV) was for a beautiful day in the 80s. We hoped to get a little of that up here but by 9:00 the temperature was down to 49.5°. But there was some blue sky.
White Pass into Skagway is beautiful as we mentioned when we were here in July but today it lived up to it's name - white. The fog was socked in thick. Even so there was a tour bus in one turn-out and the passengers were all out taking pictures. I can hear the slide show narrative now. "You can't see it but this is a picture of....."
No problems with US customs and the fog did lift some so the mountains around Skagway are again spectacular. After lunch we walked around Skagway a bit then came back for naps and reading. Dinner was at the Skagway Fish Co. The mermaid Burgers were delicious!
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August 21, 2005 (Sun)
Pullen Creek RV Park, Skagway, AK (2)
The first order of business today was to get our mail. Yes, on a Sunday -the post office was open to accommodate the larger tourist population from the cruise ships. There were no surprises in the mail i.e. no unexpected, therefore unpaid, bills.
St. Savior's Episcopal Church in Skagway is a very small church meeting in the Roman Catholic church building. Apparently everyone, or most everyone, was in attendance. Even so the six of us more than doubled the size of the congregation. After lunch Joy and Pat went off to a laundromat while Mark updated the computer financial records from the mail and Bob had a conversation with Cingular (wireless provider) about their bill.
We shared a spaghetti dinner with Bob an Pat and ended the evening with a game of dominos. We had wanted to go down to the docks to watch one of the big cruise ships leave like we did when we were here before - they usually leave about 8:00 and give plenty of warning with their loud air horns - but tonight they left silently early in the evening. We missed it all!
The word "skagway" or its root word means windy city. We know now why it was so named. The wind was fierce and relentless. It seemed almost like a stormy winter day although the air was relatively mild.
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August 22, 2005 (Mon)
Rancheria Hotel-Motel and RV Park, Rancheria, BC #18 elec $18c C
Skagway, AK to Rancheria, BC (247/8828 miles) Q021171
Our 46th wedding anniversary. It rained all night, although the wind died down some, and was raining this morning when we got up - 6:30 (56.8°). We marveled at the fact that there were already 3 new cruise ships tied up at the docks but went on and prepared to leave anyway.
Off at 7:50 to get gas and finally on the road at 8:10. The rain had let up some and the fog was not bad enough to hide the views of White Pass - well almost. As we neared the summit of the pass we came up on a double tanker truck struggling along at 10 MPH. It gave us plenty of time to enjoy the scenery until he pulled away from us on the down hill side. It was a beautiful drive through the mountains - dull and dreary where we were but the sun highlighted the far off mountains. We couldn't help but think of some paintings we've seen.
On the Tagish Cut off road a silver colored fox ran across the road in front of us and hung around on the bank long enough for Bob and Pat, following us, to see him. Tagish Cut Off joins the Alaska Highway at Jake's Corner. Although there's really no town (or village) by that name there is a sign announcing its existence. We took a picture of it to show nephew Jake.
We crossed the Continental Divide at about 2:00 and pulled into the campground at about 2:10.
To Haines, AK - #52-18
August 13, 2005 (Sat)
Westmark Inn Campground, Beaver Creek, YT #44 dry $17.12c B+
Copper Center, AK to Beaver Creek, YT (285/7919 miles) Q020229
Jeff's birthday. Up at 6:00 (53°) off at 7:15 (58°) Sunny - but hazy. (The temperature is 83° as I write this.) The mountains, as we drove up the Glenn Highway, had a beauty of their own. The haze made them look like flat paper cutouts in various shades of blue. As we approached Tok the haze became heavier and and we began to to smell a hint of smoke in the air. Apparently there are forest fires in the Eagle, AK area and we were down wind.
Through the luck of timing Chip and Kim ended up on the road ahead of us into Tok so joined us for lunch at Fast Eddy's. Great burgers! Don Marshall (the campground host from West Fork Campground near Chicken) was there eating lunch too. (Small world up here!) He said the smoke up there was unbearable. We had planned to camp in Tok tonight but we - all 8 of us - decided to get gas ($2.64/gal) and go on to a less smoky place.
The frost heaves and construction along the Tok Cutoff (from the Glenn Highway to Tok) were bad but nothing compared to those on the Alaska Highway south of Tok. There were times when we had to slow down to 20 MPH to keep from going airborne! We are told that the road will be even worse tomorrow! Going through Canadian customs (into Yukon Territory) was a breeze. The young woman was friendly and talkative. She seemed very interested in our "new" NJ licenses. She never asked if we had any fruit on board. We had carefully cut up the three apples we had into a fruit salad so we wouldn't have to dump them like we did coming into Canada the first time.
A sign at the customs booth read "Those who don't like speeding tickets, raise your right foot."
Westmark Inn Campground is a nice little campground. There are a few trees which spreads the spaces out a little so we don't feel as much like we are in a parking lot. There is water and electric at the site but we chose not to hook up, thus saving a few dollars.
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August 14, 2005 (Sun)
Cottonwood Campground, Destruction Bay, YT #N dry $22.00c A+
Beaver Creek, YT to Destruction Bay, YT (132/8051 miles) Q020361
Up at 5:45 (57°) Off at 7:01 (57°) The sun is a big red ball, it's still smoky. The Alaska Highway south of Beaver Creek is, in deed, worse than the the road from the north. We have discovered that we can identify the really bad frost heaves by the skid marks beyond them. Sometime in the past someone found themselves airborne, slammed on their brakes and hit the road with wheels locked. It didn't seem to slow some people down though. We were glad to let them pass us. It would have been a bonus to see a 40 foot motor home fly. We never did though. We followed a bicyclist through one bridge construction area. Her support van with yellow lights flashing and extra bicycles on the back displayed the lettering "PAN AMERICANA". We saw another support van, no bicyclist, parked several miles on down the road.
Fall is coming to the north country. The leaves of some trees (willows?) are turning yellow and the wild flowers and grasses along the road are displaying the softness of fluffy seed carriers.
The woman who took our money at this campground said that there is a grizzly bear around but they haven't seen him for a couple of days. We're not sure if this is comforting information or not. It's a nice little campground though. It's clean and obviously cared for. We are parked right on the shore of Kluane Lake facing the water. There is supposed to be quite a view from here but it's hard to tell because of the smoke in the air.
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August 15, 2005 (Mon)
Cottonwood Campground, Destruction Bay, YT (2)
The haze (smoke?) lifted a bit last light and this morning we could see hazy mountains close behind us and the mountains across the lake are in silhouette. It looked like it might be a nice day so we decided to take a break in our traveling and "re-up" for another night here.
It's hard to think, as we sit here in this well maintained campground with RVs parked here and there, that we are really out in the boonies. The nearest villages, very small, are 18 to 20 miles away. There may be homes between but not many. For electricity, the campground generates its own and until 6 weeks ago they had no conventional phone service - they relied on radio contact with the outside world. We can pick up only one radio station (not worth listening to), no TV station, no cell phone service, and no internet. We are parked overlooking a beautiful lake but there are no boats - although Ed reported that a couple of kayaks went by as Mark snoozed in his chair on the bluff. Except for an occasional car (RV?) on the road and some rather bad country music coming from a rented RV last evening, the only sounds are natural. A good place to relax and we took advantage of it.
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August 16, 2005 (Tue)
Hitch-Up RV Park, Haines, AK #49 w/e/s $26.90 A+
Destruction Bay, YT to Haines, AK (204/8255 miles) Q020565
Off at 7:20 (56.7°) Hazy. The road by the campground is under construction so the going was very slow for a while. But once through it the road was fine. The mountains were beautiful, as usual, in a hazy kind of way. Kluane Lake stayed out our port window for several miles. After leaving the lake we entered a spruce forest that has been heavily damaged by the spruce beetle, a pest that attacks only spruce trees. Some scientists are saying that the recent increase in beetle populations is due to increased global warming. The lady in a Haines Junction gas station told us that Hillary Clinton had been in town yesterday to see the damage. She's in the area to learn about the effects of global warming.
The wild flowers along the road are beautiful. Some, and there were thousands of them, looked very much like dandelion fluff balls. Some hill sides looked almost snow covered with them.
Bob and Pat commented (via walki talki) that they were feeling a shimmy in the wheel of their motor home. When they stopped to take a look, they found the left front tire in very bad shape and ready to go flat. After some discussion about whether to drive it that way the rest of the way into Haines (30 miles), change it there (difficult for 3 old men), or get help somehow (no cell phone signal there). We all decided getting help was the best option. We and Ed & Kathy came on into Haines and called their road service provider from here. We are camped at one of the more expensive (and better looking) campgrounds in Haines because it was the best located for Bob and Pat to find us when they got here. We may move to a less expensive place for tomorrow night.
After dinner, we piled into toads and headed out to the Chilkoot River north of Haines. We had been told that sometimes grizzly bears will come to the river to catch fish. After waiting for an hour or so one did - right across the river from us. He caught at least two (maybe more) and ate them while we watched with binoculars.
To Valdez and back - #52-17
August 8, 2005 (Mon)
Anchorage, AK to Palmer, AK (46/7252 miles) Q019557
There was a caravan in the campground and leaving this morning so we weren't in a hurry to get off. Also the campground provided WiFi was having problems with download/upload of email and the DSL cable was locked in the office until 9:00. The temperature was 54° when we got up at 6:30 and up to 62° by the time we pulled out of the campground at 9:15.
After getting set up in the campground in Palmer we all piled into Ed and Kathy's toad and headed for the musk ox farm. It was an interesting tour and we learned a lot about musk ox - their fur is combed and spun into yarn - but barely worth the $7.00 fee to get in. After lunch we drove (in two cars) up into Hatcher Pass to the Independence Mine State Historical Park. This is the site of a large hard rock gold mining operation, now defunct, deteriorating, and being restored. The interpretive displays were very interesting and the drive up was one of the most spectacular of our trip. On the way back we stopped to sample the self proclaimed "best ice cream in the world". It turned out to be an old soft ice cream dispenser (chocolate out of order) in a convince store. We didn't get any.
Matanuska River Campground, Palmer, AK #71 dry $10 B
Matanuska River Campground is a municipal campground and quite small. But it is very nice. Palmer is known for its giant cabbages and there are some being grown in the park. There is also rhubarb, red and yellow raspberries, squash and other vegetables. We are free to harvest what is ripe. Only the rhubarb and raspberries are.
August 9, 2005 (Tue)
Palmer, AK to Copper Center, AK (180/7432 miles) Q019737
We forgot to have the fresh raspberries on our cereal! Oh well, there'll be another day. We took the Glen Highway east along the Matanuska River stopping once to take pictures of the Matanuska Glacier in the distance. Although we could have taken a walking trail to the glacier from another turn out, we chose not to. The scenery was spectacular. But the views going south toward Valdez on the Richardson Highway were awesome. We began to see the Wrangell Mountains - Sanford, Drum, Wrangell, and Blackburn - as ghost images of white on white. The snow covered peaks only slightly whiter than the hazy sky and the rock below only slightly darker. Barely visible, they seemed to float several hundred feet above the hazy horizon.
Kenny Lake Mercantile and R.V. Park, Copper Center, AK #9 dry $14.00 B-
We chose this campground "in Copper Center" because one of the promised village attractions was a garden model railroad layout. It turned out that the campground is some 25 miles south of Copper Center. We drove back after setting up camp only to find that the layout is in a bar that is open only between 6 and 12 pm. The campground fees are "ala carte". We are paying $12 for a basic no hookup site (really quite a nice site in the woods) plus $2 for permission to dump our holding tanks. Another $2 would have allowed us to take on water (we didn't need it) and for another $4 we could hook up to electricity. A $4 token would buy 7 1/2 minutes of shower time.
August 10, 2005 (Wed)
Copper Center, AK to Valdez, AK (110/7542 miles) Q019847
Yesterday afternoon the temperature got up into the 80s (much appreciated!) This morning when we got up at 6:00, it was 50°. Quite a change! As I write this the thermometer reads 75°. In keeping with these latitudes, it's too warm for sweatshirts in the sun but the breeze makes it too cool to not wear them.
The consensus of our maps and personal judgment indicated that our best route could be found by turning left out of the campground. It took us 5 or 6 miles to determine that the one guidebook (The Milepost) that indicated that we should turn right, had it right. Even Henry mislead us because we were closer to the "turn off" than we thought. The campground drive was actually on the road we were looking for. He would have complained had he been on duty, but he wasn't. Turning around was easy for Q, not so easy for the larger motor homes with cars in tow.
Once headed in the right direction we found the Richardson Highway with no trouble and turned south. What a beautiful drive it was. It seems like I say that about every road we go on - because it's true. We were completely surrounded by glacier bearing mountains, some with slopes coming right down to the road. When they were further away we could see the oil pipeline snaking through the forest not far away. We stopped at Worthington Glacier State Recreational Area to take pictures and hike out to the glacier - well, all but Mark hiked. He's having a back problem - and Joy actually got to touch it. She retreated rather quickly, though, when it groaned loudly.
Valdez is one of many places where salmon come to spawn and die. We stopped at a view point on the way in to town and saw hundreds of dead and dying fish. Interesting, depressing and smelly!
Sea Otter RV Park, Valdez, AK #59 w/e $25 A+
This campground in Valdez is like those in Homer and Seward in that we are right on the water - an arm of Prince William Sound here - where we can look out and watch the sea life (wild and otherwise). There are mountains with glaciers all around us. Across the water we can see the huge tanks that are used to store the oil coming down the pipeline from up north and with binoculars we can even see one of the supertankers in port to be loaded with the oil.
August 11, 2005 (Thu)
Sea Otter RV Park, Valdez, AK (2)
The Valdez Museum is showing the 21st annual Quilt & Fiber Expressions exhibit "Stitches in Time" that goes all summer. The quilts were all of excellent quality. Among the museum's historical displays were two horse drawn fire engines beautifully restored. One was a 10 man hand pumper and the other a steam powered pumper. The museum annex had a 1:20 scale model of what Valdez looked like before the 1964 earthquake. The village is now four miles from where it was at the time of the earthquake. We also saw movies about the earthquake and the building of the oil pipeline.
After lunch we went with Ed and Kathy to the site of the old Valdez (nothing there now except for a few interpretive signs) and the operations control facility for the pipeline (closed to visitors since 9/11) On the way back we stopped to do some grocery shopping and dropped Joy off at the quilt shop in town while the rest of us went back to the campground. Joy walked the mile and a half back glad for freedom to shop without feeling rushed and for the exercise. Watching the sea otters play in the sound by a (smoky) fire was our late afternoon entertainment. Dominoes in the evening.
August 12, 2005 (Fri)
Valdez, AK to Copper Center, AK (97/7634 miles) Q019944
53° @ 6:30, 59.7° @ 8:00, 94° @ 4:00. The smell of dead fish in the sound was particularly bad this morning making leaving this beautiful place a little easier. The drive back over Thompson Pass and through Keystone Canyon was as beautiful as it was on the way in. Finding the Kenny Lake campground was much easier this time so we all arrived in better spirits.
Kenny Lake Mercantile and R.V. Park, Copper Center, AK #11 elec $14.40p B
After lunch Mark, Bob, Pat, and Ed took off to find the fish wheels in the Copper River in the tiny village of Chitina, at the end of civilization 30 miles on down the road. Fish wheels, powered by the flow of the river, rotate scooping salmon out of the water and shunting them into waiting baskets. Native Alaskans are allowed 500 fish (per person per year?) for their own use. To get to the fishing area we had to drive over a very rocky dry river bottom and park some distance from the wheels - there were 8 to 10 of them. As we stood there watching, a woman who was working alone at one of the wheels filleting fish waded through knee deep water over to us and asked if we wanted fish. It turned out she was offering to give us some fillets - if we wanted whole fish she was required to sell them to us. We chose the free fillets. She waded back out to her filleting table and returned with about 5 - 6 pounds of them! We had barbecued salmon for dinner and there's enough left over for another meal or two.
Back to Anchorage - #52-16
August 2, 2005 (Tue)
City of Seward Campground, Seward, AK #00 dry $12.00 B-
Moose Pass, AK to Seward, AK (26 miles today 6997 total) Q019302
The sound of rain on the roof and the occasional mournful sound of the Seward to Anchorage train not far off made for a cozy and restful night. There were high clouds when we got up at 6:30 (53°) and it looked as if it might clear. We could see the mountains around us draped in garlands of fog. Beautiful. After a 3 mile walk around the campground we got off at about 9:30 for our long grueling 26 mile drive into Seward.
Ed and Kathy, who had stayed in Kenai last night, pulled into the campground 10 minutes after we got here. Our three units are parked side by side on the water front. We can look out at the small boats (and sea otters) out in Resurrection Bay, and the mountains, glaciers - and right now the clouds and rain!!
After lunch at a Chinese Buffet we all went to the Alaska Sea Life Center. It was a fascinating place. In addition to the usual and expected displays of former (dead) sea life there were habitat simulated enclosures and tanks of live sea animals and birds - sea lions, harbor seals, dozens of interesting fish, crabs, sea urchins, etc. It was well worth the cost of admission.
It has been a peaceful afternoon with rain on the roof (again) and the soft sounds of nature and piano music from the CD "Spirit of Alaska" we bought today.
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August 3, 2005 (Wed)
City of Seward Campground, Seward, AK (2)
The wind came up just after we went to bed last night so Mark had to get out of a warm bed and get dressed before going out to pull the awning in. He didn't put the rug away though (it was already soaked anyway) nor roll up the table cloth. We're going to need a nice sunny day sometime soon to dry everything out!
It rained off and on most of today too. Joy went with Pat to the post office and to check out a few of the stores while Mark and Bob puttered around their respective homes. Later they went to sit outside the Breeze Inn Motel where they had found a free Wifi signal. After lunch we all went out to Exit Glacier, about 9 miles outside of Seward. There is a half mile plus trail there that leads right up to the glacier itself. What an awesome experience it was to stand so near the huge field of ice and realize that the water that formed it had fallen to the earth as snow thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of years ago. It's hard to know if the rain added to or detracted from the experience. We do know that we were quite waterlogged by the time we got back to the car and the hot chocolate back at camp really tasted good.
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August 4, 2005 (Thu)
Williwaw Campground, Chugach National Forest #54 dry b-
Seward, AK to Girdwood, AK (147/7118 miles) Q019423
We're back in Williwaw Campground in the Chugach National Forest near Portage Glacier. It's not where we planned to stop but is better. We started out at 7:53 (54.7°) for the tiny village of Hope at the end of a road on the south shore of Turnagain Arm. None of us liked the looks of the one private campground in town and the spaces in the nearby NFS campground were either taken or too small for big rigs. We knew this was a nice place so we came back here.
The drive here was beautiful. The sky was overcast, as it has been the last several days, but wisps of fog lay across the mountains like huge cotton fluffs making the greens stand out in brilliant contrast. We got in and were set up by 11:30, time for lunch.
In Girdwood we found another bake shop/restaurant - a cheeseburger for Joy, fish and chips for Mark, and an ice cream cone each for desert. A good long walk would have been appropriate. Instead we spent the afternoon reading and napping.
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August 5, 2005 (Fri)
Williwaw Campground, Chugach National Forest (2)
We discovered a problem with the black water system this morning. Although we had dumped and flushed the tank yesterday, it appeared and acted as if it was full. Since there is no dump station in this park we had to drive out in search of one. I won't go into the details about what might have happened but it seems OK now. When we got back we went for a 4 mile walk on a trail out toward the Portage Glacier Visitor's Center. The trail kind of petered out before we got there so we didn't go all the way. We'd been there the last time we were here anyway.
After almost two weeks of cold dreary, sometimes rainy, weather the sun finally came out enough today to warm it up a bit. 71° here seems warmer than it does at home - are we developing Alaskan blood? - and as long as we are in the sun it is quite comfortable. We took advantage by sitting outside to read, knit and nap. We also put the patio rug out to dry in the sun. It got pretty wet in Seward when it rained unexpectedly.
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August 6, 2005 (Sat)
Golden Nugget Camper Park, Anchorage, AK #96 e $22 B+
Girdwood, AK to Anchorage, AK (88/7206 miles) Q019511
We're back in Anchorage in the same campground we were in two weeks ago. And the weather has improved greatly. So warm in fact that we have been sitting outside in shorts.
It wasn't so warm this morning when we got up though - 50°. Actually it wasn't bad for a brisk 3 mile walk on the path around the campground. The sun struggled to burn through the heavy haze but the glaciers high above us sparkled. There were salmon in the small brook beside the path and watching them work their way up stream was fascinating.
The Seward Highway to Anchorage was amazingly beautiful with high mountains on both sides and the flat water of the Turnagain Arm between defining the course of the road. Some of the mountain slopes plunged directly into the water and had to be cut away for the road. The layers of rock in the cuts made decorative roadside walls much more interesting than the man made sound barriers we see so often.
We pulled into the campground at about 10:00 and got set up in the site that Ed and Kathy had reserved for us when they came in yesterday. Laundry was the first order of business, then lunch at Red Robin and a shopping foray to Sam's Club, Safeway, and Costco.
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August 7, 2005 (Sun)
Golden Nugget Camper Park, Anchorage, AK (2)
St. Mary's Episcopal Church here in Anchorage is a beautiful modern building with friendly enthusiastic people. When we walked it at about 9:45 the music ensemble - guitar/mandolin, flute, and voices - was practicing, creating a nice backdrop for the friendly conversation we had at the door with one of the parishioners. The sanctuary was more or less square with the altar in a corner. Large windows covered the walls on either side of the altar giving a panoramic view of the mountains. Beautiful! At the end of the service those with birthdays were asked to come up to the altar for a special prayer and blessing. Today is Joy's birthday but she elected not to go up. She may well have benefited anyway.
After church we went downtown to the The Alaska Experience Theater. There were two movies showing. One, on a huge 180 degree domed screen, was about Alaska in general - people, scenery, animals, etc. Many of the scenic shots were taken from airplanes flying over the crest of mountains, and along winding rivers. (Mark could have used some dramamine!) The other (on a smaller screen) was about the 1964 Good Friday earthquake and included "quaking" seats at appropriate times.
Lunch was on our own but dinner was a birthday celebration compliments of Bob, Pat, Ed and Kathy at the Royal Fork Buffet. Ed and Kathy's friends, who were in Homer while we were there, joined us.
The Homer Spit - #52-15
July 26, 2005 (Tue)
Homer Spit City # dry $15.00 C-
Soldotna, AK to Homer, AK (83/6795 miles) Q019100
We woke at 5:00 to a beautiful sunrise. This wasn't an unusual hour for a sunrise but it had been going on for a while. Although it's light when were go to bed and light when we get up in the morning, there is some darkness during the night now. It makes waking in the middle of the night more natural. The office was supposed to open at 7:00 so the three guys walked down at 7:15 to pay the bills - so as to avoid having to drive through the motel parking lot on the way out - but the office was still closed. It was just opening at 7:30 when we returned with the motor homes.
Homer (The Halibut Capital of the world) is at the southern end of the Sterling Highway on the Kenai Peninsula and almost at the end of the road in that direction. It's an arts and crafts oriented village with many fine galleries. After setting up camp on the spit (more on the later) we went with Bob and Pat to do some errands and explore the town - which included lunch at the Jen and Dave's (no relation) Cafe Cups. We also hunted up the local free WiFi site and took care of some email and internet stuff. After our work was done we set out to find the end of the road. It was a beautiful drive out into the hills east of Homer. We got a spectacular view of the huge glacier in the Mountains across Kachemac Bay.
The Homer Spit is a four mile (or so) very narrow spit of land that projects out into Kachemac Bay. On it are two or three private campgrounds, dozens of little tourist businesses - shops, restaurants, fishing charters, etc. and associated parking lots. The city also allows camping on most of the left over space (what there is of it). Most areas are suitable only for tents. We are in an area crammed full of RVs but we were lucky enough to find a spot overlooking the Bay. If we didn't have a big Winnebago right outside our dining room window, we'd have a great view of the mountains and glacier too. We can see them by stepping out our back door though.
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July 27, 2005 (Wed)
Homer Spit City, Homer, AK (2)
The fellow next door, a fisherman, started banging around at about 4am. Since his rig, a pickup camper, was only about 6 feet outside our bed room window, it was hard to ignore. Even so we stuck it out until 6:00. The weather was rather heavy, low clouds and fog - we could barely see across the bay much less see the mountains - and a light sprinkle in the air. We watched sockeye salmon jumping and a little harbor seal hunting in the bay as we ate breakfast and by 9:00 the weather looked as if it would clear.
We and Bob and Pat bicycled down the spit toward town (about 3 miles away) to check out the Wednesday farmers/flea market. It was a disappointment and it rained lightly for some of the return trip. Actually Mark didn't go all the way. There was a big exodus going on when we left and he thought we should take advantage of it to move Q to a better spot. Now we can see the mountains out our dining room window as well as the bay out front. Better yet our neighbors (new) are 12 - 15 feet away on either side.
For lunch we ate at a great restaurant, Land's End, at the end of the spit. Delicious salmon & halibut fish and chips. Expensive! This afternoon, after a quick trip into town for a few groceries and email, we spent relaxing and watching the seals, eagles, and fishermen from the stone "beach" in front of Q. There was one young girl, 12 or 13, who was going at it like a real pro - out casting the men and most of the boys along the beach. A young fellow, 14 or so, caught a nice sized salmon but lost it just as he had it beached.
In the evening; six handed dominoes.
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July 28, 2005 (Thu)
Homer Spit City, Homer, AK (3)
A nine mile bicycle ride got our day off to a good start. We rode out to the end of the spit then back to the base. The shops were closed at that time of day so we made no stops. It was a good ride and warmer than yesterday.
The Pratt Museum in town features Alaskan History - especially the Homer area - and local art. We learned about the big earthquake in 1964 that destroyed much of Homer and lowered the harbor area, including the spit, 6 feet and about how the Valdez oil spill affected Homer and the surrounding area among other things. The art exhibit featured the works of local quilters, painters,sculptors and potters - all excellent.
After lunch we piled into Ed and Kathy's toad and took off to explore another road to the east of Homer. This road went along the ridge high above Kachemac Bay. Again the view of the mountains and glacier were spectacular. This time we went to the end of the road - dirt and very rough for the last 8 miles. Surprisingly someone was building a house out there. Wonderful view but a long way to groceries (and medical help) in the winter.
For supper we grilled a piece of halibut from Chip's fishing trip yesterday. Fantastic! We spent a quiet evening at home drying out after getting wet cooking dinner. Quiet evening but excitement later. When we took our last restroom walk before going to bed we saw large groups of people around "The Fishing Hole", a tidal pool near where we are camped. It turned out that a brand new Dodge pickup truck had rolled down the the bank into the 15 foot deep water. A scuba diver was in the process of trying to locate it. An hour and a half later it had been found and pulled from the deep. It's going to be a while until the poor fellow is able to get his fifth-wheel back home to Maine.
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July 29, 2005 (Fri)
Homer Spit City, Homer, AK (4)
We have decided to stay here another couple of days. The Kenia Peninsula being where all of Anchorage, to say nothing of the rest of the world, comes to fish we thought it best not to try to compete for campsites on a weekend. And this is a great place to hang out - right on the beach and all. A beach site (albeit with full hookups) in the private campground next door goes for $91 a night! We're paying $15.
After breakfast we all piled into Ed and Kathy's toad and went into town. Among other things we checked out a discount grocery store that we found quite interesting. It turned out to be like a mini Costco (or BJ's, or Sam's Club) with a little of everything (even some Kirkland and Trader Joes brand things) and prices almost as good. When we got back we walked up to the shops at the end of the spit - interesting but not spectacular. There was an ice cream parlor though and we went back there after lunch. The rest of the day we just "hung out" and enjoyed. Dominoes at 7:00.
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July 30, 2005 (Sat)
Homer Spit City, Homer, AK (5)
The day started out with the promise of being sunny and maybe even warmer than it has been. Joy and Pat went into town to do laundry. Bob went along take care of some internet business - the Laundromat is where the free WiFi is - while Mark stayed home and kept Thandi company.
The Sat/Sun farmer's market was small but there was some good stuff. We got a rhubarb danish, a blueberry scone, some raspberries which were more than we intended to buy when we went there. While Bob and Pat were doing lunch in the next town North (Anchor Point), we and Ed and Kathy did the National Wildlife Visitor's Center, very nice and well done, and took another drive into the hills east of Homer. We discovered a small Russian community at the end of the dirt road with a Russian Orthodox Church, a school, a graveyard and several houses.
St Augustine's Episcopal Church has no building, so the worship services are held in the Methodist church on Saturday night. The service was the familiar Rite II and the people very friendly. We felt right at home. The priest is a summer fill-in from New Orleans with a very good, though long, sermon.
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July 31, 2005 (Sun)
Kenai RV Park, Kenai, AK#?? w/e $20 C+
Homer, AK to Kenai, AK (90/6885 miles) Q019190
Up at 6:00 (54°) to heavy clouds, and some spritzing rain, but there was some blue skies peaking through too. We got off at 7:45. The trip back up the Sterling highway was uneventful. The scenery was muted by the haze and low clouds and non-existant along what we thought might be a scenic detour - too much distance and too many trees.
We pulled into the tiny Kenai RV Park (17 loosely packed sites) with Bob and Pat. Ed and Kathy chose to go to the more expensive campground where they could park on a bluff high above Cook Inlet. They hope to sit in their motor home and watch Beluga whales swimming up the Kenai River. We hope to see some too.
After getting set up we drove out 27 miles to the end of the Kenai Spur Highway in Ed and Kathy's toad - just to see what was there. There wasn't much! The Capt Cook State Recreation Site campground (52 sites) was all. We saw a moose very near the road on the way back.
Kenai RV Park is a very nice campground in spite of its size and location (in the middle of town). There is a well trimmed grass strip with a large flower pot between most sites and the tent area is like a lawn and the small picnic tables are nicely painted. The rest rooms and showers are very clean and well maintained. In all a pleasant place to be. A fisherman was cleaning a fish at the cleaning station near where Bob and Pat parked their rig. Bob, looking very hungry, allowed himself to be talked into taking some filets off the fisherman's hands. He ended up with a couple of large pieces of sockeye and king (chinook) salmon. We're going to eat well tonight!
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August 1, 2005 (Mon)
Trail River Campground, Chugach National Forest #19 dry $5.00 B-
Kenai, AK to Moose Pass, AK (86/6971 miles) Q019276
Up at 6:00 (54°), showers, breakfast and a walk through "old Town" Kenai. There were some nicely restored and preserved buildings from the early days of the community (mid 1900s frontier) and a small Russian Orthodox church. We also walked over to the bluff near where Ed and Kathy were camped hoping, but not expecting, to see some Beluga whales in the river below. No whales.
The Kenai Spur Highway intersects the Sterling Highway in Soldotna where we stopped for gas and provisions before heading north to the Seward Highway then south. The Trail River Campground in the Chugach National Forest, about 24 miles north of Seward, is a pleasant respite from the crowded and busy campgrounds we've been in for the last couple of weeks. Instead of RVs we see trees out our windows. The only RV we see is Bob and Pat's across the road. There a few other campers here but they are some distance away. We spent a restful afternoon reading, napping and listening to the rain on Q's roof.
To Soldotna, AK - #52-14
July 21, 2005 (Fri)
Golden Nugget Camper Park, Anchorage, AK (2)
Although this park has hookups available we have chosen to save $10 a night by using a no-hookup site. An RV caravan is coming in today so we "borrowed" one of the full hookup sites to dump and top off our water supply (most campgrounds have separate special facilities for this). Then we took off in search for a gas station where we've earned a 6 cent per gallon discount with a $50 plus purchase at a Safeway Supermarket.
There was a fast lube place nearby so we went on and had Q's oil changed. The fellows there suggested that we might want to have our battery checked and recommended a specialist. Two tests: battery good. Two tests (and owner conclusion): battery bad. We now have an "Alaska Gold" battery and Q is like a new motor home.
Bob, Pat, Ed, and Kathy were waiting for us when we got back and we all took off for some shopping, lunch and sightseeing. Red Robin is a gourmet hamburger chain around here. The hamburgers were very good - and free as it turned out! We waited over an hour because our order got lost so we weren't charged. We kind of wished we'd ordered more expensive burgers.
After lunch we took a self guided sculpture tour of the city. The sculptures were a little disappointing but we got to know the city. Anchorage also has painted salmon sculptures (not part of the tour) similar to New York's cows and Lakeland, FL's swans. They were interesting.
We also went out to Lake Hood to take a look at the worlds largest and busiest seaplane base (600 take offs and landing on a peak summer day) and Merrill Field (104th busiest light plane airport in the nation) also right there too. Result: many, many little airplanes. Not much activity though.
Mount McKinley was visible from the road. We have really been lucky!
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July 22, 2005 (Fri)
Golden Nugget Camper Park, Anchorage, AK (3)
While Ed and Kathy were off to have the 10,000 mile service done on their motor home, we and Bob and Pat went downtown to check out some quilt and yarn shops. Kim had reported that The Quilt Tree was the better of the two in town so we went there first. It was, in deed, a nice quilt shop well stocked with good fabric. The yarn Branch was located in one corner of the shop. The yarn selection was limited but of good quality. We found a better selection at Knitting Frenzy but the proprietor and assistant (we assume) were more intent on the conversation between them than selling yarn.
We also stopped at a store owned and operated by a musk ox yarn cooperative (native indians). The yarn is very light, very soft, and apparently very warm. It is also very expensive at $90 a skein. Joy bought a $3 sample (1 ounce). On the way home we stopped at Costco, across the street from the campground, for a few things.
After lunch Joy and Pat went to check out a used book store - two as it turned out, one of which was huge to the extreme - while Mark and Bob stayed home to clean up some things that have been put off due to intense sightseeing. The rest of the afternoon was devoted to enjoying
the sunny low 80s weather.
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July 23, 2005 (Sat)
Williwaw Campground, Chugach National Forest #17 dry $6.00 B-
Anchorage, AK to Girdwood, AK (66/6593 miles) Q018907
The bicycle trails in Anchorage are extensive and complex. We and Bob and Pat found a trail head near our campground and entered the network. Before we were done we had ridden all the way across the city and out the other side and to the airport. All along the way there were
intersections with other trails complete with sign posts as distance markers. We were lucky to make it back with only one wrong turn. We went 20.3 miles.
We had planned to stay one more night but when we got back to the campground we found that there was no unreserved site available for Ed and Kathy - we were OK because our motor homes are smaller. So we all packed up and left.
The Seward Highway south along Turnagain Arm was beautiful - bright sunshine, blue sky, fluffy clouds, and snow laced mountains plunging into the water. It helped soften our disappointment about losing the extra day in Anchorage.
We checked into the nearly full Williwaw Campground and headed out to see Portage Glacier. This involved an hour boat trip on Portage Lake and was well worth the cost of the ticket. Seeing a glacier up close was an exciting experience, like seeing what we've always thought of as the "real" Alaska. We were disappointed not to see it "calve", a chunk breaking off into the water, but not many people do.The late afternoon and evening were spent peacefully and restfully on our own.
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July 24, 2005 (Sun)
Williwaw Campground, Chugach National Forest (2)
The drizzle started as we all piled into Ed and Kathy's toad and headed for Whittier. The only way to reach Whittier, except by boat, is through the longest highway tunnel in North America - 2.5 miles long. It is one way and shared with the railroad. Every hour on the half hour traffic is allowed into the tunnel eastbound. Every hour on the hour traffic is allowed into the tunnel west bound. When there is a train all auto traffic is held up. We wondered what would happen if a train came along during the 6 minutes or so that we were in the tunnel. Fortunately we didn't have to find out.
Whittier was built as a year round ice free port on Prince William Sound during the second world war and even today there is very little to see. What there was, shops etc., were closed (combination of our being there too early and it being Sunday. We left when the tunnel opened west bound. "Been there, done that".For lunch we went up the highway the other way, toward the village of Girdwood, to a little restaurant at a ski resort that specialized in soup and sandwiches. The grilled pastrami and cheddar (Mark) and grilled veggie and swiss (Joy) on thick sliced sourdough bread were superb! We stopped at a local farmers/craft market on the way home. "Local" sums it up.The tide comes into Turnagain Arm with attitude. Under certain
conditions the "Bore Tide" comes in as a wave 12 to 18 inches high. Theconditions were right for a good one tonight so everyone but Kathy piled into Ed and Kathy's toad and headed for 20 Mile River, the closest good viewing point. It was supposed to pass that point at 9:04. We waited until 10:15. No bore Tide! It was evidently on the way because there were two cars there who had seen it down the road and were there to seeit again. But it was late and we got tired of waiting.
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July 25, 2005 (Mon)
Best Western King Salmon RV Park #15 w/e/s $21.00 C+
Girdwood, AK to Soldotna, AK (110/6712 miles) Q019017
It rained steadily and hard all night and it was still raining this morning as we broke camp. Q was sitting in a lake that we had to move out of to keep from getting our feet too wet. Although we'd been dry camping for several days, we had enough water left to take showers this morning. We are really getting good at conserving water!
We got off at 7:55 (57.9°) and headed on down the Seward Highway. In Soldotna we got spaces in an RV park in back of and run by the Best Western Motel - these days full of salmon fishermen hoping to bring home lockers loaded with fish. Bob and Pat took off to visit Pat's cousin who lives here in town and Ed and Kathy left to see friends who live in a town south of here. This left us to our own devices so, after lunch and laundry, we went grocery shopping and topped off Q's gas tank. We also went to a Jo-Ann Fabrics (shudder) to pick up some fabric for a picnic table cloth.
