Mahlon and Consuelo

A busy September leads into October

2011-10-02T08:26:00.002-05:00

Marilyn, Rich and Us

Time continues to fly by. Summer seems to be a distant recollection of recent past. We're busy planning for the next leg of our journeys, which will start on October 19. We leave then for Massachusetts to visit the Ipswich clan one more time, then on to Connecticut where Consuelo is taking classes at "Stitches" through the weekend. Then we'll start our southern slide, with arrival at Jekyll Island to start November 1.

Runaway boat

Ready for some zip line, while Consuelo hides in the car

August had us busy with visitors. Paul's family visited early, then Liam and Amelia stayed on until Thursday, when we brought them down to Ipswich and stayed for an evening concert at the Crane Estate there. The next week, we tripped over to New Harbor, the next Maine point, and had lunch there with friends Clive and Sandy Henery who we see at Jekyll. The following day, we had a fine visit from my cousin Marilyn and Doug who stayed a couple of wonderful days with us. Marilyn delighted me by giving me our grandmother's camera which she has had in her possession forever. I was thrilled to add it to my small camera collection.

Pensive Porter

A day later, TJ, Luna and Porter arrived for a week long visit. Soon after they arrived, we got a call that our pontoon had broken away from its mooring and was high and dry on the shore in Hatchet Cove. We secured it for the night, then floated it off on the next high tide, and moored it somewhat better. No harm done.
We did some boating on a very foggy day, which made for an interesting tour.
One day TJ and the kids tried out the zip line at Monkey C Monkey Do. We tripped down to Pemaquid on a sunny day and enjoyed the rocks and the scenery. We played games and read books. We were sorry to see them leave.
We caught our breath for a few days, then Deb and John Wilkinson arrived for their 3rd annual visit. John and I moved the back door to make space in the kitchen for the refrigerator, then we waited out hurricane Irene as it plodded it's way through New England. Aside from losing power for a couple hours, it was a non-event here.

Pemaquid Point Lighthouse

Moved the back door

The rest of New England was harder hit by the hurricane, and a few days after the Wilkinsons left, the Red Cross called and asked us to deploy to Southbridge, MA, where they had set up headquarters for all 6 states. Vermont saw the greatest damage, but each NE state had relief efforts. After a week there, and as things were starting to wind down, we were redeployed to Hazleton, PA, where Irene's impact was capped by TS Lee, which pushed the Susquehanna River over its levees in several towns. This became the largest relief operation ever in the Northeast for the Red Cross, with nearly 100 ERVs out feeding and 900 volunteers helping out. We spent 2 weeks there, finally returning home on 9/26. As with most Red Cross deployments, we got the crud, appearing as a cold which lingers still.

Parked with Red Cross in PA

I was pleased to find out that Escapees Magazine had honored me with the cover photograph in the Sept/Oct issue, which included an article that I wrote about Jekyll. I have to set a new, higher goal for my photographic efforts now.

August!

2011-08-06T07:03:00.001-05:00

My, the summer is traveling by fast. Projects, visitors, the boat, the garden, grandkids, events, art shows, all keeping us busy this year.Lots more to go before we shift gears, pack into out motorhome and travel south.
My garden is a bit smaller than last year, I skipped broccoli and carrots and have fewer tomatoes and cabbages. New this year are cucumbers, black beans, peppers and winter squash. The Maine spring was cold and wet in May, slowing everything down. My seedlings didn't do well, so mostly I have plants that I bought. One exception is the heirloom tomatoes from seeds that I saved from last year. They sprouted very slowly, but are coming along fine now. We've only harvested summer squash, green and yellow so far. Slugs are getting to the cabbage again.

Garden visitor

I've had some success with writing for publication. Escapees Magazine has published 2 articles so far. They are publishing another in September, this a feature article running 5 pages with 11 photos about Jekyll Island. They have another in the queu for next year, and one just submitted. I've also had a press release and a short feature in the coastal magazines here in Maine. I'm working on a feature on Mid-Coast Maine, but it's going slow, as the content is difficult to narrow.

Our table at Friendship Day

I've had a little success with photography. My Friendship Maine book has gone through 3 printings and one revision, and I need to order a 4th printing now (I print 10 copies at a time). We had a table on July 30 at Friendship Day, the local summer weekend celebration, where we sold books, posters, note cards and Consuelo sold slippers. We did pretty well I think. The next day was "Art in the Big Tent", again here in Friendship, where I had framed and matted prints. No sales... I think I was priced too high, and/or the traffic wasn't right. I'm not completely turned off, but less enthusiastic about art sales. Meanwhile, we've got a bunch of nice framed prints to put up in our house here.

Friendship Sloops racing in Rockland Harbor

Friendship Sloop Hegira rounding Owls Head Light

I did get myself over to the Friendship Sloop regatta in Rockland to take some pictures. The stance of the event organizers is to take "crew" on boards for sailing as space permits. I got onto one of the boats, but there was no space in the boats racing that day. Instead, on a day with 98 degree temperatures in Rockland, my captain decided to cruise out to one of the islands which had a protected anchoring area and a small beach. He had his son, daughter in law and two grand kids on board, plus anothe pair of "crew" from Illinois. The breeze was light, so we motored out and back. I did catch some nice shots, but I'd like to be in the race next year.
My grand kids Liam and Amelia, ages 10 and 6, spent a few days with us this last week. We had water balloon fights, tripped to Camden, went to the "beach", did some dog walking, watched TV, read books. Consuelo tried to teach them knitting with some small success. We enjoyed their company, but probably needed to be more active. The other grandkids with their dad will be here next weekend for a week's visit.
Our house is getting little new work this year. We spent our budget on a new roof this spring, so major renovations will have to wait until the future. We have some maintenance and repair items yet to finish before we leave for southern climes. We'd like to tear down the kitchen ceiling and put in a "cathedral" type affair with proper venting and vent fan for the stove. It will be a messy job as we have to remove the cellulose insulation above the ceiling tiles which are barely hanging in there right now. Another project is to remove a window in the end of the kitchen and install a pantry to store all manner of things which have no good home now.
We've had a couple visitors from among our Jekyll Island friends so far this year, with others yet to arrive. Sandy and Clive Henery called yesterday, and they are in Freeport now. We'll be having lunch with them on Wednesday. Jim and Linda Strid stopped in for a few days. And Bob and Nancy Hoffman stayed a couple days with us in their motor home while on their way to Acadia. The three of us ferried out to Monhegan Island for a hot walk taking lots of pictures.
Later today I am taking pictures of the "Chowder Cup" sailboat race here. Our pontoon will be on hand to rescue and of the sailors who might get into trouble during the Class C segment of the race. Class C is the smaller boats who will race around the small islands in the inner bay, while the larger boats will sail out around farther marks. Should be fun.
Monday we'll be taking a walking tour of Davis Point, one of the other summer ghettos here in Friendship. In preparation for this, one of the owners of a house that will be open there on Monday asked me to restore an old hand assembled photo taken out their back door many years ago. It was an interesting challenge and you can read about it on my photo blog.

Out with the Red Cross Again

2011-06-11T05:18:00.000-05:00

The tornadoes in Western Massachusetts did a lot of damage. We notified the Red Cross that I was ready to travel immediately after the event, but they did not have an opening for me until yesterday. Within an hour I was packed and on my way to Springfield. I expect to be here 2 weeks this time, and I'll most likely be doing the same things as my last outings, working in headquarters on staffing. I don't have info on the size of the operation yet. I do know that there is one large shelter open, and several mobile feeding trucks are out working the community.

I am staying in West Springfield, in a hotel that is in the backyard of where I lived for 3 years. My former efficiency apartment building us now a Friendly's, and that's not all that's changed over here.

Summer Arrives Soon, but first...

2011-06-09T16:58:00.012-05:00

We've had a coldish wettish May here in Friendship. I've tried to get some vegetables started for the garden, but they have declined until very recently. I did gte some tomato seeds planted before we left Jekyll, btought them up here, and tended them in at night and out during the day, except for that one noght I forgot to get them in and they froze. Likewise a basil plant I picked up along the way. Only the rosemary survived that night, because rosemary is a perennial.

Around the first of June, the weather started looking better. That is, we had some days in the 60s. Until today. This morning it got up to 80 degrees, and like most parts of the country, a hot day is being capped off with thundershowers this evening. We've missed all the tornado activity here, thank goodness.

Since June 1st, I've planted onions, tomatoes, cabbage and marigolds that I bought, winter and summer squash, pumpkins in the garden. I have pepper seeds and more tomatoes, lettuce and basil starting on the deck. The peppers have been reluctant to appear, but I think they're beginning to peek out.

We've also done a lot of work on the landscape garden next to the addition we put on. We got some hostas from Paul and Maria, monk's hood, bleeding heart, and daisies from a neighbor up here. I bought some ragged petunias from Home Depot on sale, and I think most of those will survive. The hostas and astilbe that we planted last year had to survive being run over by our roofers, but they appear willing to go on. We put landscape fabric down there and added mulch, and have edged it with rocks that were dug up while planting the foundation posts for the deck. Yesterday, I planted nasturtiums and the lase of the onions out off the deck.

Since I planted, rain has been nil, until right now. We're getting a good soaking... hopefully not so much that things wash away!

The GW Bridge in a motor home

2011-04-29T07:44:00.000-05:00

Our travels this spring took us from Jekyll Island, Georgia to Friendship, Maine, a distance of about 1500 miles. We stopped for fuel twice, once in South Carolina and again in southern New Jersey, and spent about $625 for diesel. We had about 1/3 tank to start, and ended up with about the same.

The only serious difficulty we had was entering the George Washington Bridge from New Jersey on Interstate 95. The signage was a bit confusing to me, and I'll explain.

Care must be taken when traveling around NY city in a large motorhome. There are a number of old "parkways" which are restricted for cars only. One reason for this is that they have many bridges which have low clearances that would impede our travel. Another is that they want to restrict commercial traffic to roads designed for heavy trucks.

The obvious route for us to take out of NY City would have been the Henry Hudson Parkway, but we could not travel on that. To avoid going way out of our way, we needed to connect to Interstate 87 immediately after crossing the George Washington Bridge. All of the signs in New Jersey stated that traffic bound for I87 needed to cross on the lower level. Other signs indicated that all trucks MUST cross on the upper level. There was no indication that trucks could access I87 via the upper level. Nor was there any indication that RVs must follow the truck routes, and in most cases, private vehicles like us are permitted where trucks are denied. With the information I had, my choice was to make sure I got on I87, so I chose the lower level.

When we pulled up the the toll booth, the very nice lady there told us that we were on the wrong level. She carefully explained that we would have to pull aside just beyond the toll booth and wait for an officer to escort us to the upper level. Oh, and pay your $32 toll here, and show them the receipt at the other toll booth.

We pulled aside and waited about 20 minutes for an officer to arrive. He told us to follow him, and we would go up a ramp that was marked "DO NOT ENTER". Which we did. That took us back onto the streets around the bridge, and we arrive at the upper level tool booths in a few minutes. A mildly confused warily eyed our receipt, and passed us through.

Getting on I87 after the bridge was no big deal, as long as we stayed in the right lane. Traffic was heavy but moving, and we got off without incident. An hour later we were parked iin a campsite north of the city, and the grand-kids arrive an hour after that.

A little knowledge is wonderful.In this case, the restriction that forced us to the lower level was because we were carrying propane, a hazardous material not permitted on the lower level. Signs that reflected that would have helped immeasurably.

Jump into spring

2011-04-05T07:31:00.004-05:00

Sunset on St. George Island
Oh, my, dear readers. I've been away for a long time. Sorry about that. We started this blog to document our travels, and we have not been traveling. Incentive dissolved.
In twenty five words or less, we left Maine in October, visited family and friends, did a little touring, went to Louisiana for RV repairs, schlepped over to Jekyll for the winter. OK, twenty six words.
The RV repairs had to do with our main slide, which wasn't working. We went to Dick Albritton's fine Alfa repair shop in LA for an upgrade to the motor, one better designed for the weight of the huge slide. So far, all that is working fine.

Foggy Jekyll Campground

We stopped in Roanoke, VA and Asheville, NC on the way down. We did a little touring in both places, going to the Blue Ridge trail and Biltmore Estate, and a nice downtown market in Roanoke.
We stopped at Summerdale, AL and St. George State Park in the Florida Panhandle on our way back east. Checked out the Gulf coast (post oil spill) in AL and wondeful deserted beaches in FL.
We arrived on Jekyll on Nov 28, just after Thanksgiving.
One of our goals was to share our knowledge here with those who were willing. Consuelo developed a beginner's and intermediate knitting classes. I put together a photography workshop and held 2 full 4 week sessions in January and February. We discovered that there was little structure to such activities, so we worked to develop some infrastructure. Part of that included creating a new blog for the winter group (jekyllwinter.blogspot.com), an online calendar, and developing policies that worked. There is now a working group designed to empower activities duing the winter season.

Alligator warming on the golf course

The photography was good this winter. Given that I'm just as inclined to put my feet up and watch TV as the next guy, instead of going out to find creative scenes to capture with my camera, but I got out enough. I continued to expand my skills both with the camera and with the software, in part by taking a class at the Jekyll Art Center. 90% of the class was reinforcement, 10% an expansion of my skills. I was disappointed that the class did not include creative feedback as promised. The culmination of all this was the Jekyll Arts Festival, a juried competition. This meant buying frames and mounting photos, always a challenge for me. Given their guidelines, I entered as an intermediate, and won two seconds, a third and an honorable mention. I've been informed that my time as an intermediate is over, I'll be in the advanced group next year. Harder, perhaps, but better.
To sell photos, I created 13" X 19" posters and sold a bunch, note cards, and I was requested to do portrait photo shoots. I also found a little work as a "Photoshop Expert" for a local photographer during the Christmas season.
We renewed old friendships and made new ones here during the winter. By February, I got out the golf clubs and did weekly rounds with the guys. Consuelo went to lunch with a bunch of other ladies a few times, and we had our share of dinners out.

Sunset over the fishing pier

Jekyll is partly under construction, as the old convention center has been demolished, and a new on under contruction. Huge tents have been placed in the historic district as a temporary convention facility. During November and December, 20th Century Fox tied up parts of the island making a movie. A huge chink of beach is still fenced in as restoration work continues where the movie set was located.
Now it's April, nearly all of our winter friends have gone home, replaced by snowbirds stopping on their way north and locals getting out of the Georgia winter for the first camp out of the season. We'll be here until 4/18, when we'll wing our way north.

And then came fall...

2010-10-13T12:00:00.005-05:00

Maples in Friendship
It would appear that I've been saving the eyesight of our blog readers over the past few months, by not posting anything. It's true, when we are in Maine we're generally not traveling, and sharing our secrets seems less important. And I make no guarantees as to how many posts will appear in the future. But for now, here's one.

Summer faded from our Maine home several weeks ago. The autumn leaves are in full swing, glorious in their color. We've enjoyed watching them this year, along with a few late guests who stopped by and collected their fair ration of lobster. That's late, as in "late in the season", not formerly living. We expect to further enjoy the foliage season as we venture south soon.

Rose hips

Our garden was a qualified success this year. Snails and horn worms did significant amounts of damage, but we had good crops of yellow squash, basil, broccoli, cabbage and Brussels sprouts. We had some crops of pumpkins, and tomatoes. We had some eggplant, which surprised some folks who said you can't grow eggplant in Maine. But this year was exceptionally warm, and though they started late, they did produce.

Our tomatoes started out well enough, but horn worms arrive while we were away for a week and defoliated many of the plants. We got them under control, but much of the fruit was chewed, though usable. More vigilance next year.

Autumn barberries
We did process about 15 pounds of tomatoes into sauce to take with us when we travel. We also
made some pesto as a way to store basil and spice up our lives.

We put the pontoon on a mooring as I noted in an earlier post. This made it much easier to get out for solo trips to go fishing, but had problems, too. First, the right pontoon is not sealed, and in fact a small amount of water in the boat drains into it. There is no way to pump or drain this while the boat is in the water. It wasn't full, but it did take on a couple hundred pounds of dead weight as the season went on and rains fell. Second, the depthfinder transducer got knocked off its mount early in the season, and we couldn't figure out how to remount it without pulling the boat. So we went without it. Third, when we pulled the boat (ahead of a pending hurricane that didn't materialize), we found the bottom fouled with weeds and barnacles. I spent hours cleaning it as far as I got, and I'll have to do more in the spring. Since the trailer covers most of the bottom of the pontoons, I have to jack the boat up on the trailer to get to the junk to clean it. No fun.

Housetop ornaments

We had lots of company this summer. Kids and grandkids, Minnesota visitors, RV friends and long lot cousins graced us with their presence. John and Deb came by in July and John and I added a deck to the back of the house. We've enjoyed that addition greatly, at least until it got chilly in the past few weeks. We took most visitors to Camden or Rockland.

We had 2 of our grandkids for a week. We found a great free puppet show in Rockland to take them to. And Pepaw took them to a 3D version of Dogs and Cats movie solo, everybody came home singing the theme song and wearing our 3D glasses to surprise Abuela. Add swimming in cool Maine waters on 88 degree days for wet fun.

Friendship Harbor

We volunteered to help with the local association events planning and scheduling. It turned out to be a very minimal amount of work, and we had fun.

The house got some upgrades. We replaced our 40 year old refirgerator, and got an icemaker in the bargain, very nice on hot summer days. I goofed up the installation, and suffered an 80 dollar repair bill to un-kink the water hose. Duh! We also installed a dishwasher in the kitchen (where else would you put it?) and I messed up the plumbing there, too, but finally got it right.

Our barn is aging faster than we are. The sills are rotting into the ground. I've added a couple jacks to try to hold up the worst area for a few more years, but much more serious work is needed to make it last much longer.

The heat of summer

2010-07-13T05:43:00.005-05:00

A sign at the harbor

Independence Day has passed. The heat of summer is upon us. Temps up here in Friendship have been in the 80s most every day. For about 10 days, rain was scarce, but we've caught up again. My guess is that this is a 'normal' summer, although we have had more days with the temp above normal than below.

Sticky has been with us, too. The dew points have been in the high 60s, meaning that fog rolls in just about every night, and the humidity stays high all day long. Under these conditions, it's guaranteed that you can work up a sweat just walking across the lawn. Pushing a lawn mower, as I did yesterday, multiplies the effect. The lobster men are out working on their boats in the evening, right around sunset because it's a bit cooler then.

So much for the weather. We've been polishing the house in preparation for company from Florida. The gang of 6+1 from Consuelo's family arrive tonight. Both of Consuelo's sisters are coming. A niece and nephew and their spouses are coming. And the baby. We'll have a houseful for a few days. I applaud the preparation and energy required on their part to get all the way up here. We're just about ready for them. Since they're "company", I'll be baking another cake. And we'll have a lobster dinner, too.

Our 20' pontoon is safely moored in Muscongus Bay. I put together the necessary cahin, a 100 lb anchor, and a float for our own mooring, acauired the proper permit, and placed it in Hatchet Cove. It was reasonably convenient to get to, requiring a 5 minute row in our old beat up dinghy. But the same day we put it in, another member of the Association told Consuelo that she had an unused mooring we could used. She has a dock, it's a 2 minute row, and that much farther out into the Bay. So we moved the boat to that location. So far so good.

Friendship Harbor

My garden is coming along well. The heat and rain have provided perfect growing conditions. If the tomatoes all bear fruit prodigiously, we'll have to rent another barn to hold the crop! Actually, we're planning to harvest and make sauce to can or freeze for the road this winter, along with whatever we get to eat as they ripen. The bugs are getting to the brussel sprouts, despite my efforts to protect them using pepper spray. My hope is that those bugs are going to devour the sprouts and leave the cabbage, broccoli and eggplants alone. That's what seems to be happening so far. We should have a good crop of squash and pumpkin later on, too.

The only downside of the warm, humid weather is that it's also perfect for silversfish, and we have a bumper crop of those pests, too. They're outside the house in huge numbers, hiding in any shady spot (like behind the knobs on our grill) and a bunch have found a way into the house. They won't hurt us, but they can do damage to fabrics.

Almost Summer

2010-06-17T06:37:00.005-05:00

Martin Point Sunset

Maine bills itself as "Vacationland" on license plates and signs at the border. While it suggests that there's extraordinary places to go and see in the state, it also suggests that if you don't live here already, you probably would never want to. In other words, it's good for visiting, but not for staying.

So in the summer, when the kids (and teachers) are out of school and the big factories (you remember those, right?) close for 2 week shutdowns, people come to Maine to enjoy the cooler weather, abundant forests, fresh air, wonderful coastline, and great seafood. Southern Maine has long, sandy beaches, fine for attracting presidential families.Western and central Maine offers trails, lakes and rivers for fishing, and some pretty golf courses. The midcoast and Down East have ocean adventures, sailing trips, the remarkable scenery of Acadia National Park, quaint little villages, and world class art.

In the modern world, the visitors come by car and plane, and a few thousand on cruise ships. A hundred years ago, the primary mode of transportation was the sea. Thus the coast was populated with ports and a healthy fishing industry. When the roads were built, and cars became commonplace, little villages like Friendship became geographically distant from the action, too far out of the way for people passing through to the rest of Vacationland.

But we still have visitors here, the ones that are smart enough to come to see us and make our house a destination. And our visitor season starts real soon now. So we've been busy getting ready. Putting finishing touches on our house like moving furniture, painting, and upgrading the kitchen with a new refrigerator and dishwasher. Adding some bookcases to hold our books and treasures. And getting ready to build a deck to enjoy the sun in comfortable surroundings.

Getting the lobster traps out

Then there's the boats. Paul's boat stayed here last year, and needed some attention to get ready for the water. The steering gear needed replacing, some wiring was moldy, and a good cleanup. Our pontoon ("The only one in Friendship") had been covered for 20 months, but still needed to be power washed and readied for the water. This year we're going to put it out on a mooring, as it needs a lot of water to launch, and the only ramp with deep enough water has no place to park. We've filed our mooring permit, acquired the needed parts, and should get it out there soon. Meanwhile, to get to the mooring, we have an old dingy which my brother gave us. It will work just fine, but still needs some repairs and a coat of paint. So there's plenty to do.

Then there's the garden. The few things that we planted there already are doing OK, except for the carrots. That includes cabbage, brussel sprouts, and pumpkins. The seedlings are up and ready to plant, the garden is tilled and covered with weed preventive (or maybe "limiter"). All that's needed now is time and energy, both of which are in short supply.

But the first visitors have been here. Last weekend my brother and his wife stayed a few days with us, playing rough and ready games of Taboo, and munching excellent lobsters. This week Paul and Amelia came up, so that Paul could take his boat home. And we're ready for 'em. More or less.

So, if you're on the visitor's list for this year, Come on Down! If not, well, Why Not!

Late Maine Spring

2010-05-27T04:56:00.004-05:00

Lupine in Hatchet Cove

Last year while we were traveling in Alaska, we got reports from our Maine friends as to how bad the summer was here. It was a cold, we summer. Gardens failed to produce much of anything useful. Pumpkins only made it to 6 inches in diameter. Some said that it rained every day in June.

I'm of the opinion that we bring good weather with us where ever we go. Of course, it's never perfect, we've seen some nasty stuff. When we leave somewhere, it often gets really bad where we've been. Like when we left Pincher Creek, Alberta at the end of May last year. They got 8" of snow, while we had wonderful summer weather farther north in Banff and Jasper.

So, since we're the good weather omens, it stands to reason that Maine would have great weather since we're back here now. So far, so good. We've been here for two weeks, and we've had 1 day of rain. It's mostly been sunny, with crystal clear skies. Yesterday Portland recorded a record high temperature of 86 degrees. In Friendship, it was in the mid 70s. And the forecast calls for a "hat trick" Memorial Day weekend of three beautiful days. So, if the weather is a marker of happiness, we should be delighted.

Spring is abundantly obvious everywhere here. The dandelions are very healthy, the lawns are growing impressively fast, and tulips and lilacs are most colorful and fragrant. Of the wild flowers growing here, I like the lupine the most. We have a patch growing next to our house, and they are peaking right now. My photos show other patches down near Hatchet Cove, near the water's edge.

The trees are in bloom, too. Our apple trees in the back yard are blossomed and looking very healthy, as much as old, old apples trees can look. I expect that we'll have another bumper crop of apples to pick up in the yard this fall.

We've been busy trying to capture all this weather by working toward a fairly large vegetable garden this summer. We arranged to have George Simmons stop by with his tractor and till a plot that's about 22' x 35'... not huge, but most likely more than we'll want to tend later. Seeds have been started indoors for broccoli, tomatoes, eggplant, and more. We also tilled flower beds next to the sunroom, and we've been planting hostas, nasturtiums, and will have lettuce and spinach growing there, and a few herbs.

Meanwhile, we've been making repairs where needed, and working to finish the 3rd bedroom upstairs. It was used for storage for our personal junk while we tripped off to Alaska last summer, so we had to empty it out first. Now the junk is scattered all over the house, but most of it is still upstairs. We've patched and started painting, and expect to start moving back into that room in the next few days.

We decided to make the large bedroom into a sewing room for Consuelo. She had considered making the attic more accessible and sewing up there. But I think that would have been a poor choice, since there's no ventilation and it gets pretty hot or cold, depending on the weather. We'll sleep in the now-being-finished 3rd bedroom, which should be fine, as we don't spend a lot of time upstairs otherwise.

We also found a new refrigerator at Lowes and had it delivered. Since it's a bit larger than the old one, it lives in the expanded kitchen area for now. We'll have ice on demand here, something that we've missed. And we'll save some money on electricity, too.

In another money-saving move, we signed up for cable TV and Internet. We get HD now, more channels and really high speed Internet. Most of the savings comes from dropping Starband satellite Internet service. They were really nasty when we called to cancel our service, wanting to charge us a cancellation fee. We had not signed a contract beyond our original 2 year commitment, and we stood our ground, and they relented.

Our Maine vehicles and boat have been registered. We tried to take our Ford Explorer on a 100 mile trip last week, but it had been stored in the barn in our absence, and we lost the power steering about 1/2 way there. We took it into a repair shop and hope to have it back today. No money saving there, I'm afraid.

Major summer projects include building a deck off the back of the house. The small deck that's there is pretty rotten. Consuelo fell of the back of it while hanging laundry and got a pretty bad bruise. We have the plan ready to go to the town office today for a building permit.

Chestnut blossoms

Similarly, the barn is pretty rotten, too. The south side has developed a bulge where the wooden foundation has completely failed. I've had some discussions with folks who know better than I that we might jack it up and keep it in place for a while, but a good heavy snowstorm might bring it tumbling down. More thought needed there. We do use the square footage for projects and storage, and losing it would be problematic.

We're enjoying our house here. Summer will bring boating days, events and visitors from near and far. This will be fun!

Go East, Old Man!

2010-05-08T06:50:00.006-05:00

Spring Robin in Elk Horn

Our home has been rolling down the road toward Maine. After leaving Lincoln, NE, we headed north to Pender, NE, to the Blue Ox factory where we had our tow bar, the part that connects our car to our motor home, checked and repaired. It was still in pretty good shape after 5 years of traveling.

We developed a problem with our slide awning, designed to cover the main slide to keep it clean. It failed to unroll when the slide extended, requiring a ladder and some muscle to open it and extend it before the slide went out. The awning is made by Carefree, and a call to one vendor in Lincoln resulted in a report of "No we don't want to deal with Carefree". Camping World in Council Bluffs said they might be able to fix it, so we went there after Pender. But Camping World really didn't want to help either, saying that they might replace it, but it would likely take a couple weeks. We decided that getting it fixed in Maine would be our best course of action.

Danish Windmill in Elk Horn

From Council Bluffs, we roamed along I80 to Elk Horn, IA, listed as an "overnight stop" on one of our RV lists. We found a wonderful Danish Windmill and Danish Immigrant Museum there, and a tiny campground which offered us electric. In the morning, we toured the sights, anso found a nice quilting store on Main Street.

We could have made one more stop on our way to Rochester, but made the trip in one day. We arrived at the Silver Lake Campground around 5:30 PM, got ourselves parked and set up, and began contacting our friends there. We had planned most of our appointments for the following week, so we called Mayo and asked that they reschedule. We managed to moev up everything, including our dentist appointments.

I made plans with Curt Kraft to play golf on the next day. Now that Curt is retired, that was no problem for him. It was the first of 6 golf outings in 1-1/2 weeks, interrupted only by Clinic visits and weather one day. That was a load of fun.

The time in Rochester was wrapped up by a get together with my former work mates at Jon Camp's new house in Stewartville. It was good to see everybody and chat for a while. I showed a boatload of pictures and ate altogether too much. Thanks, Jon.

Immigrant Museum in Elk Horn

On Saturday, May 1, we moved the house to Lake City, MN. They were having their annual 100 mile garage sale along the Mississippi River, and we toured a few garages. We bought little... a few hostas to plant in our yet to be built Maine landscaping. Saturday night, we had dinner with John and Deb Wilkinson at the relaxing river condo. Good food and good company. We'll see them again in late summer when they come to Maine.

Sunday began our trek east. We stopped at a Flying J in Beloit, IL for an overnight. We ate at a greasy spoon in a truck stop, and the next day, I developed serious diarrhea and a low fever. We kept moving though, and arrived later in the day at the Elkhart Red Cross, our home chapter for our volunteer activities. We got our paperwork up to date, and they found a couple tasks for us to do while we were there. We also did some shopping at the RV places. I managed to find a pair of awning arms which may effect a repair for the awning.

I was thoroughly embarrassed that night when I set off the alarm in the Red Cross building. I had unlocked a door while going back and forth to repair an Ez Up shelter for them, looking up info on the Ez Up web pages. At 9:30 PM I realized that I had not re-locked the door, and apparently nobody from the Chapter had caught that fact. So I opened it and locked it, setting off the alarm. I went back into the motor home and said to Consuelo, "the cops will be here soon." And they were. I reported my actions, he said fine, then somebody from the Red Cross came out and turned off the alarm. Embarrassing, but had to be done. Turns out that the Exec Director was the one that was supposed to check the locks, so she was embarrassed, too.

On leaving Elkhart, our main slide failed to retract. After trying several things, I relented and gained access to the manual gear to roll the slide in. Fortunately, a little elbow grease was enough to get the slide moving up a ramp it needs to climb, after wich it retraced the rest of the way on its own. One more thing to fix in Maine.

We stopped for overnights in Hubbard, Ohio and near Scranton, PA, before finally arriving at Croton Point Park in Croton, NY.

Lost a Friend

2010-04-18T19:56:00.002-05:00

A friend of ours passed on today
We feel the loss severely
She graced our life with joy and love.

She never earned a show award
Nor fought the fiercest bear
Instead she won our hearts and minds.
We walked the woods and climbed the hills
She'd look for squirrels and rabbits
The home again to watch our door.

When young, she'd wander miles away
Seeking kinship and adventure
Usually to come home again, tired and muddy.

We took her to obedience school
So she could teach us how it's done
We learned a lot from her

She'd jump, and dance, and shake both paws
But couldn't do roll-over
And then she tell us that she loved us.

Fourteen years makes a dog quite old
The last were not so nimble
Her legs gave out, she'd not complain

We took her to her ancestral home
In Alaska, then around the west
She loved the snow, the desert, the woods.

Thumper, we knew the end was near
We held you in our hearts
We will go on, never the same, missing you... loving you.

NOW we're over the hill

2010-04-15T22:45:00.006-05:00

Before we left Provo, we got tickets to the BYU Ballroom Dance exhibition held in the Marriott Center on the university campus. This program has produces internationally acclaimed ballroom dancers, having won competitions in Europe many times. And we now know why. They are terrific, and we were amazed at the presentation of various dance steps with up to some 80 dancers on the stage at one time. Really impressive.

The Rim in Moab

We left Provo and headed southeast to Moab, an small tourist town situated between Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. Our campground was at the south end of town, situated under the cliff hundreds of feet high called "The Rim". Remnants of the active mining history around Moab lie scattered at this end of town, not the prettiest part. But we had views of not only the Rim, but also the 11,000 foot La Sal Mountains.

Lizard in Canyonlands

But the jewels in the region are Canyonlands and Arches. We decided to go to Canyonlands first, given that we had maybe one and a half days of good weather, and there was farther to travel up to Canyonlands. This huge park was created in the 1960s, is divided into 3 parts: Island in the Sky, the northern part where we went, the Needles, some 65 miles south of Moab, and the Maze, across the Colorado from the other parts, and inaccessible to mere mortals. Island in the Sky is a large mesa, about 12 miles across. The canyons are some 600-2000 feet below the edge. Jeep roads provide access to the lower canyon, following the White Rim Trail around the lower mesa above the Green and Colorado Rivers, which join in the park.

South Window Arch

The next morning, I cruised up to Arches, much older and more developed for tourism (more signs, parking, sites, etc. Arches is home to some 2000 natural arches, formed by unique geological processes. Some of the standing rock formations are just as impressive as the arches. I spent 3 hours and several rolls of film (just kidding) wandering around in the park. By the time I got to Delicate Arch, the icon on the other Utah license plate (the one that doesn't say, "Best Snow on Earth"), the sky was overcast and the light was completely flat and the rocks were more or less one dimensional. So I skipped the 1-1/2 mile hike up to Delicate Arch and took the long shot from the lower (read: Far Away) viewpoint, where a ranger intern was trying to impress us with facts about kangaroo rats (they drink no water...). I took one last drive inward to "Fiery Furnace", but given the opaque sky, the fire had gone out, so I went home.

Balanced Rock in Arches

We considered staying another day in Moab, but the weather forecast was not kind, so we decided to pack it in and head for Colorado. We tangled with a balky slide awning, which is still attached but not playing nice, requiring a manual roll up and down whenever we want to put our main slide in or out.

We decided to take Utah 128, know to the Moab locals as "The River Road" and to the state as a Scenic Byway. And it was very scenic, following the Colorado River for some 40 miles surrounded by towering red rock cliff walls, canyons of infinite depth, and angry rapids here and there. We began to understand how awed Powell must have been when he made the first boat trip down through these waters some 150 years ago.

In the ghost town of Cisco, we turned right onto a road marked "Not State Maintained" for a 10 mile trip up to I70. The road was OK, but I did have second thoughts, and though it would turn to dirt around the next bend. We stopped at the I70 interchange for lunch, then headed into the Colorado hills.

White Rim Trail and the Green River, Canyonlands

Coming in from the west, I70 is relatively flat until Glenwood Springs. Then the speed limit drops to 50 mph as the road winds through Glenwood Canyon for some 15 miles. After that, it works its way up along the Colorado River, then ascends up to 10,600 feet at Vail Pass. Our 360 HP Cat diesel took this in stride, if slowly.

Now we've been doing this RV thing for well over 5 years, and we've never been shut out at finding someplace to stay for the night. Consuelo uses Delorme Street Atlas, and we have several add on files with locations of Walmarts, Elks Clubs, Flying J Truck Stops, repair shops and the like. We had looked up a couple Walmarts which we figured would be OK for the night. The first one was in Vail. We looked, and looked, and looked, but there was no (visible) Walmart in Vail. The next one was at Copper Mountain, and likewise, invisible. Darkness was falling along with the temperatures. We were getting desperate. We finally cruised through downtown Frisco, and noted a Public Parking lot, which even had a sign stating "Over Night Parking Permitted". To soothe our worried souls, we had a great dinned in a good restaurant, Vinny's, and slept well that night, though our little furnace ran for much of the night keeping us warm. Due to our slide awning problem, we kept the big slide in, which reduce the heat loss. The morning low was 19 degrees.

We rolled back onto I70, climbing to the entrance of the Eisenhower Tunnel at 11,150 feet, admiring the snow covered peaks above us and the snow covered hemlocks below us on the hillsides.We then started the 60 mile descent into Denver. Down, down, down. We are definitely over the hill now.

Sunset at the Flying J in North Platte

After the red cliffs in Moab, Glenwood Canyons, the foamy Colorado, the white peaks of the Colorado 14s, getting out onto the prairie east of Denver to North Platte, Nebraska was, ummm, boring. But it was warmer, and the fuel economy was much better. We stopped the night at a Flying J truck stop there, then rolled today to Lincoln, NE for a few nights.

The bad news as of the moment, our constant companion for 14 years, our faithful puppy Thumper, is in serious pain an almost unable to walk, and not eating fresh cooked chicken and rice. We're concerned.

Utah!

2010-04-09T11:06:00.008-05:00

Us and Rich and Shana Robb at Temple Square

We finally left Arizona on April 3rd, bound for Utah. The plan included spending a couple nights at Bryce Canyon National Park, but the weatherman was forecasting snow, so we skipped southern Utah and headed straight into American Fork, where we (thought) we had reservations for a few days. When we called the campground from I15, not only did they not have our reservation, but they said that they don't allow RVs over 36 feet. They suggested another park in Provo, which was nearly full, but found us a space. Other RVers who might be reading this blog should stay away from American Campground in American Fork.

Lakeside RV in Provo is just a hop skip and jump away from Utah Lake State Park, which was not really open when we got there. Utah Lake is the largest freshwater lake in Utah, receiving mountain runoff from the Provo River, American Fork and Spanish Fork rivers.

The Mormon Temple on a snowy day

We woke un Sunday morning to an inch of snow on everything. Normally we would just stay out of snow's way, but we had made arrangements to meet up with my former boss from Mayo, Dr. Richard Robb and his wife Shana, as they have a second home here, and would show us around Utah. They only had Monday and Tuesday available, and the weather again turned foul, with a smattering of rain and hail pelting us on Monday. But we did get to see the Mormon Temple Square and had lunch high above the Mormon Temple. The Tabernacle, home of the famous choir, had unusually excellent acoustics, and a very impressive pipe organ. Rich and Shana also shared details about the church and their beliefs with us. On Tuesday, we went to their house in Highland, where Consuelo taught SHana and their daughter Rachelle to knit, and Rich and I played pool and watched the Red Sox. Turns out that Rachelle's husband Kevin is a rabid Red Sox fan.

On Wednesday, the weather cleared. We got some house work done, did a little walking around the campground.

On Thursday, I took off for the hills while Consuelo stayed home to work on her marketing project. I ventured into historic Provo, then up US 189 into the Wasatch Mountains. Fishermen were out testing the streams and Deer Creek Reservoir to see if the fish had thawed out enough to be hungry. Of those that I spoke with, only one had caught anything.

Park City skiers enjoying a fine spring day

After, I drove into Park City, a tourist trap at 7100 feet elevation. Park City was the home to the Nordic events for the 2002 Winter Olympics. I stopped to watch the skiers and snowboarders having their fun on the slopes. The same storm that kept us housebound on Tuesday had dropped two to four feet of fine powder on the slopes, and the valley folks had come up for some fine spring skiing.

Downtown Park City

After the slopes, I found the shopping district on historic Main Street, built in the style of a mining town, which it was, but far more colorful now. Art galleries, jewelry shops and clothing boutiques lined the narrow sidewalks. A few interesting sculptures brightened up the town. One sculpture of two boys sliding on their tubes, had snow piled up around it so it almost looked like they were in their design environment.

The Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City

I left Park City, wandered down to I80, and thence down the hill into the valley in Salt Lake City. I located the Utah State Capitol building and took an hour or so to wander around it and explore the inside. The government was not in session, so only me and a few other tourists occupied the building. I was impressed with the grandiose design and execution of the capitol building. And it sat high on a hill offering a view of Salt Lake City.

Canyoneering

2010-03-31T21:22:00.006-05:00

On the edge of the Grand Canyon

Another long span has developed since I last posted, and a lot of water passed over the dam. We got Bill and Pat moved into their new house in Mesa, with relatively few incidents. The moving company dis most of the work, but we helped some. They're having a great time finishing the move, putting up photos, fixing odds and ends. Just like newlyweds!

We cruised back to Tucson once we finished our time in Tempe. Our Pincher Creek friends Art and Sharon had moved there, and we wanted to visit, play golf, and eat some more. Art and I got our 3 times to play golf. Two of the courses were tough, but we kept under 100. The third course was a par 3, which I finally got into the hang of by about the 15th hole. We also worked on finishing their shed update.

Hummingbird in Saguaro National Park, Tucson

On our last night there, Consuelo and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary, a few days ahead of schedule, but we wanted to dine with friends. We had a great meal at Olive Garden, topped off with Asti Spumante.

We then left for northern Arizona, with a fast oil change for our motor home on the way out of town. We slipped through Phoenix and made our way to a casino in Camp Verde, AZ for an overnight stop.

Montezuma Castle National Monument

The next morning we explored Montezuma Castle, one of the Sinagua cliff dwellings along the Verde River. The site was misnamed by early settlers who thought that Montezuma had a summer home here in the hills, but history assures us that Montezuma never got this far north.

Leaving there, we rolled up through Flagstaff, headed NW to Tusayan, AZ, just outside the Grand Canyon National Park. We spent 3 nights there, wandering around the park, taking the free shuttle buses to and fro. I went out one night to try for sunset photos, but the sunset was blah. We tried to celebrate our real anniversary at El Tovar Lodge, but they were booked up.

Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is quite a place. My photos are but a suggestion of the immense size of the canyon, and the beautiful colors of the canyon walls. The canyon width is about 8-10 miles from the south rim area. It's about 4500 feet down to the river from Hopi Point (elevation 7008) on the south rim. The mules were making their journeys down to the river, but we didn't even consider trying it.

It was cold there, especially compared to Phoenix and points south. Overnight lows were down to the low 20s. We had all of our heating devices running, and we were cozy.

Red Rock mountain on US 89

On Tuesday, 3/30, we hooked up our bug and traveled out the East entrance to the Canyon, connecting with US 89 up to Page, AZ. This route traveled through wonderful scenery, close up views of the various layers that appeared in the Canyon, reds, pinks, greens, tans. There is so much of this stuff out here. I suppose that the locals don't notice it anymore, but it's quite a change from Maine!

We passed by Page, crossed the Glen Canyon Bridge and found our reserved campsite in the Wahweap Campground, inside the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. We have a great view of Lake Powell to the north from our campsite, just a mile or so south of the Utah border.

Glen Canyon Bridge and Dam

Today we visited the Visitor Center, located at the dam. Currently the water in Lake Powell is down about 80 feet, somewhat lower than normal for this time of year. Also, the snowpack is somewhat less than average, meaning that the lake won't be filling this year. Unusual, considering all the rain that fell in Arizona this winter (but not here).

We were surprised by the warmth when we arrived here. I knew that the temperatures at the Colorado River were higher at the Grand Canyon (by 20-30 degrees!) but that was conceptual. When we left the south rim, it was a relatively warm day, with temps around 60 degrees. But when we arrived in Page, it was 82, with an overnight low last night of 57. Back to shorts!

Today has been quite windy, with gusts up into the 45 mph range. Sand and dust have been blowing into everything... our car, my camera, our hair and Thumper's fur. Rain and perhaps snow are coming this way, and cooler temperatures. Such is the environment for travelers like us.

The Ides of March

2010-03-12T08:40:00.004-05:00

Us and the Canadians in Yuma

Consuelo and I search all through our motor home for our togas to celebrate the Ides, but alas, they were not to be found. Instead, we'll wear our jeans and shorts to celebrate this famous Roman feast day. Not that we need another feast day. We've feasted enough of late. It always seems that when we get together with our rowdy friends, we add a few pounds onto the frame. It seems that we've been doing so since the first of January.

Arts and Crafts in Tubac

February was a short month. It usually is, but our faster than ever activities cut it to what seemed 12 days. We spent the first week in Yuma, playing some golf and wrapping up our activities there. Our campsite benefactors, Rusty and Mary Ann returned from Mexico, and we partied with them a bit. Then we cruised over to Tucson for a very brief week playing with Curt and Beth Kraft, who escape Rochester every year to SE Arizona. Curt and I played golf for 3 days, we tripped to Tubac for the Art Festival, and we had a wonderful Valentines day dinner with other friends of theirs.

The sewing sisters

We then journeyed up to Fountain Hills where Consuelo and the sewing sisters had their annual sewing camp in Arizona. Lots of cutting, stitching, patterning, and fitting was done, along with comfy food. The ladies did an outing to the Art Museum to celebrate Deb Wilkinson's birthday (how many years is that, Deb?) and Denny Robertson and I hiked out to the Dixie Mine, a round trip of some 6 miles. One night everybody came to our little house for dinner, where I served up salmon stuffed with bleu cheese, bacon and pears, and Ming's pork fried rice.

Consuelo selling garlic graters

After the sewing camp ended, we walked through "The Great Fair", another art event in Fountain Hills with Denny and Andrea. At one point, Denny decided to buy some garlic graters from a man who was alone in his booth. While the man wrote up Denny's order, Consuelo took over pitching the product to the folks walking by. She was pretty good at it, too.

Four Peaks from McDowell Mountain Park

We parked our house in McDowell Mountain Regional Park while we visited Fountain Hills. This large Maricopa County park (actually in Scottsdale) hosts about 95 large wonderful campsites, miles of trails for hikers, trail bikes, or horses. Coyote bands roam the area, yelling to each other at night. We might have extended our stay there, but they have a 2 week limit unless they are full, and they had folks waiting in overflow every night soon after we arrived.

Bill and Pat's new house

Soon after we arrived in Fountain Hills, my brother Bill began moving from their modular home in Apache Junction to a real house in Mesa. He and Pat have decided to abandon Massachusetts as a summer retreat and spend full time in Arizona. Prior to the move, after they got the keys to the new house, I helped them get some things ready to move and packed a load of things over to the new house. Logistics required scheduling, as they needed to have the ceilings painted and tile laid in the kitchen before they could completely move in. I helped some by rehanging the ceiling fans, installing a new stove and oven, repairing one miswired outlet, and odds and ends that I could help with. The final move was completed on March 10th, the evening of which we celebrated with pizza in the new house. I think they'll be very happy there, except perhaps for the days when they need to vacuum and realize how much more square footage they have.
We had departed McDowell Park on March 1st, arriving at the Elks Lodge in Tempe. It is a handy location to get to places in the city. For example, one of our sling chairs broke and it was a short haul over to Phoenix to get it repaired. Shopping is all around us.

In the midst of this, we've been refinancing our house in Maine, a long distance event that is proceeding quite nicely. Consuelo has been doing marketing for Oregon Woodworkers online, also proceeding quite nicely. And lately I've been fighting with a nasty bug my computer has of just hanging in the middle of a project, with no clear success yet. Very annoying.

We've started to fill in the blank spaces in the calendar between now and when we arrive back in Maine in mid May. Stops along the way include Tucson for another week, Grand Canyon, Salt Lake City, Arches National Park, Rochester, Croton Point NY, and Ipswich. And of course, a bunch of gas stations and Walmarts.

Cruising through January

2010-01-25T09:29:00.006-05:00

Consuelo's Gourd Project

January has been a busy month for us in Yuma. Our friends from Pincher Creek Canada arrived, and that alone added to our calendar, including occasional bike rides, some golf, dinners out with a movie (It's Complicated), happy hours, progressive dinners, Mary's good cookin', and various projects.

The friends are Ken and Mary Clinton and Art and Sharon Bonertz. Sharon and Mary are sisters. We've also gotten to know some other Pincher Cretians who are staying here, Leslie and Gerry Musa, and met folks from all over.

Consuelo, Sharon and Mary participated in a gourd decorating project. Consuelo's is shown above. It came out pretty nice, I think.

The bicycle rack that Art built in Canada for Consuelo's bike developed a list, and Art wanted to correct it. We pulled the trailer hitch off the motorhome, got some heavier bolts and reattached it. It's now straight. That took most of a day.

Art Bonertz strumming

Music has been touched as a topic. Art Bonertz brought his guitar along, and Ken Clinton is practicing steadily on his new electric guitar. I got my old buzzing ukulele out and rediscovered a few standard chords, but my memory is a sieve with regard to song lyrics. None of us has felt comfortable enough to get together and play at the same time, so maybe we'll skate by some bad music. Consuelo was encourage to enter the Karaoke Contest (with a $1000 prize to the winner) but the contest ends long after we depart Yuma, so that was sufficient for her to say no.

Classy slippers

Besides, Consuelo has been busy enough with other projects. She generated a slipper knitting class with 9 students, and they all made their way through to the felting process. Some students only managed to get one slipper made, and they are now out searching for Cinderella, or hopping around on cold mornings.

Speaking of cold mornings, the weather has been pretty good here. We did have a couple days of rain and hefty winds, highly unusual for this area. Record rainfalls were recorded, close to 2 inches on one day, which is 1/2 of Yuma's average annual amount. Many folks reported minor leaks, including us, and a slide awning or two was damaged, and some lighter than air plastic lawn chairs departed for places unknown. We're now waiting to see if the desert blossoms, as often occurs after a rain.

Tissues and Bananas Still Life

Meanwhile, I've been pursuing my photographic hobby. I acquired a new strobe flash for my camera, and have been experimenting (or, studying) its use and operation. Various objects have found themselves exposed on our tabletop, then subjected to bright lights. Some of the pictures, like the red gourd, look pretty nice. Bananas and a tissue box weren't so pleasing, but they were well lit. I'll be moving into portrait work next.

Flashy golf tees

I've also been leading two meetings a week for other campers in the park. One is a computer group, where we mostly help newbies learn how to use email and web browsers. The second is a photo discussion group, which led to a request for a presentation from a neighboring RV park. I expect this can develop into a photo seminar for amateurs in the future.

Does a Ford moo?

Ken Clinton's truck got horny one morning, as Art decorated his hood with some real Texas flair. Ken declined to take up the spurs, though, and de-horned the big hauler.

On to February!

Happy Holidays to all!

2009-12-23T09:40:00.006-05:00

OK, here's a test for those of you that read this blog:

Which one is the real picture of where we're parked for Christmas?

OK, I know, that was too easy. Anybody that know us also knows that we think snow is a 4 letter word.

The snow picture was given to me by our neighbor Doug Spriggs. He specializes in such photos, as he and his wife usually work a T-shirt booth at car shows, where they photoshop pictures of peoples cars into nice backgrounds and print them up on transfers and put them on T-shirts. I've seen some of his work, and it's very nice.

So we're parked in Yuma, AZ, where it never (never say never) snows. More likely is a weather event such as we had yesterday, 40-50 mph winds laden with sand and dust, blowing up almost instantly as a cold front passes across the desert. Awnings were flapping, loose objects like do0r mats and wash buckets were blowing around the park, and any whirlygigs were zooming along or scurrying along the desert between the RV sites. Waves splashed in the swimming pool, and we nearly got out our surfboards!

But today it has calmed down, temp at 8:00 AM is a cool 46, and the sun is coming up over my right shoulder. Time for us to get our last minute stuff done for Christmas. Only one package remains to be shipped east, one that includes some sewing, probably won't make it out until next week.

We got volunteered to decorate the table for Christmas dinner here in the RV park. Consulo has been exercising her creative muscles, and we found some pretty cheap markdowns yesterday to do the job. I'm making photo place cards with pictures of folks RVs to put on the table, and those are nearly done. We still have some cooking to do, as the park is providing ham and turkey, and the rest is pot luck. I'll be making a cherry pie, Consuleo is making flan.

We've been busy since my last post. We got ourselves organized to show photos and slippers at a couple craft shows/flea markets here. I think our display looked pretty god, but we only sold 2 pair of slippers. We're booked for one more show in January so far.

I also offered to coordinate a "Computer Club" in the park, basically a get together to chat about problems and issues around computers. We've solved a couple problems for people, and we'll continue that into January. I've also volunteered to do a photo club in January, as many of the computer issues surround photo topics.

I got word yesterday that an article & photos I submitted to Escapees Magazine have been accepted into their publication mix for 2010.

On Monday 12/28 we're going to Apache Junction, AZ, some 4 hours away, by car (only) to visit my brother for a few days. We're also scheduled to have lunch with Andrea Mackie and Denny Robertson on Wednesday, as we return.

On to Yuma

2009-12-06T09:31:00.008-05:00

I know, I know, it seem like we fell of the earth after my last post in November. We're still out here somewhere. We have settled into a long term stay in Yuma, Arizona, and have been catching up on all those things that we knew would be easier done when we stopped for at least a couple weeks. We're getting caught up on those, so I'm now inspired to write again.

BLM parking north of Lake Havasu

First, a short update on our travels to Yuma. We left Coarsegold and drove to Barstow, CA. We stayed overnight there in a the front lot of a Flying J. We were awakened there by the noise of half a dozen police cars and several ambulances and firetrucks, all bound for the truck parking lot. We never knew what happened at the time, but have since found out that a 27 year old drove his ATV off the top of a 40 foot embankment into the top of a trailer truck, and was killed at the scene.

Leaving Barstow, we crossed the Sierra Nevadas and roamed down to Lake Havasu, AZ, current home of the London Bridge. We would have spent the night in a Walmart, but the city has so much open space that it has had to ban overnight RV parking in anything but a campground. We found a BLM site just north of town where we could dry camp for 2 nights for free.

Hot air balloons laid out for inflating in Yuma

We did some driving around town, including crossing the London Bridge. I thought it was rather bland. In fact, we missed the fact that it was the London Bridge the first time we drove by it. Other points of interest that we found included the waterfront, a large sandy place with nothing there. My guess is that it serves as a flood plain. The rest of the city seemed fairly ordinary. We did discover that the Casino on the far side of the lake, in California, has a passenger ferry that runs back and forth to the city. If we had known that, we might have stayed there.

Leaving Lake Havasu, we followed Arizona 95 into the desert, where we saw our first saguaro cacti north of Quartzsite. We stopped in Quartzsite for lunch, then passed the Yuma Proving Grounds on our way to Yuma. We checked in here at The Palms RV Resort, a new upscale park between the city and the Foothills on the east side of town.

The Palms has nice amenities, but we miss the friendship we get in an Escapees park. They seem to be working hard here to generate fun, but many of the activities have a fee, so things tend to be more business like than sharing an adventure. We came here because we'll have friends here after Christmas.

Up, up and away in Yuma

Part of our winter plan included finding outlets for our arts and crafts. Consuelo has been busy knitting slippers, and sold a couple pairs here. But there is no bulletin board, no advertising on site, no vending, so we're looking elsewhere to carry on. Yesterday we found an inexpensive flea market nearby, and agreed to buy a table for next weekend. This week we're doing finishing touches, framing photos, making slipper tags, etc. We'll see if we can recoup the cost of the table next weekend.

Getting repairs done has been the other activity. The car needed an oil change, and the brakes needed looking into. Parts have been ordered for that. Our thermostat failed on our furnace when we arrived, having been balky for a couple months. We found and ordered one of those and installed it. We've given parts of our motorhome a good cleaning, like the leather in the sofa and captain's chairs. Changing the drinking water filter, which should have been a 10 minute job turned into 5 trips to the RV parts store and one to Lowe's, as a tiny leak developed which challenged my patience.

One of the street urchins in Los Algodones

Consuelo finished proof reading the book we did for our Alaska trip and we got that ordered and it has arrived. We think it turned out pretty good, and we'll be sure to show it to you when we see you.

The plan to print calendars on our new printer turned out to be too expensive, given the costs for ink. I did print up a few copies as Christmas presents, and they came out pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. I've been printing other photos to sell.

In reviewing all the great spots we got to since we left Maine just about a year ago now, we both feel really blessed to have had the opportunity. North America is really a wonderful place, notwithstanding some of the less attractive spots. We got into a dozen National Parks in the US and Canada on our travels, plus a number of state parks and historic locations. In our view, they all live up to the hype. We encourage you to visit them, too.

Brother Bill saying "NO!" for the 1000th time

Having said that, Yuma is not a national park. I've not been inspired to search for many photogenic opportunities here. One event that I found was the Colorado River Crossing Balloon Festival, which provided some good shots. You have to be up early to see hot air balloon liftoffs, which means before sunrise here at this time of year.

My brother Bill and his wife Pat came to visit from Apache Junction for a couple days. We had fun with them, both sharing our travels and photos from the last year. We found one of the few historic sites in Yuma, the Territorial Prison which held all the outlaws in the late 1800s and early 1900s. That place made me glad I didn't go to jail there.

Perusing the purses in Los Algodones

We also tripped down to Los Algodones, Mexico, just a skip and a jump from Yuma. Los Algodones offers Mexican pricing on things like pharmaceuticals, eyeglasses, dental work and liquor. They also sell all kinds of junk like purses, pottery, ballcaps and wall art. Sellers accost the tourists on the the sidewalk, nearly forcing their stuff on you. Its a great game, if you're into it, and when you leave, you can say you did some international shopping.

We'll be here until the end of January. Don't expect too many blog posts before then.

Coarsegold and Yosemite

2009-11-11T11:18:00.005-05:00

We've moved on to Coarsegold, California, about 30 miles north of Fresno and 30 miles south of Yosemite National Park. Our reason to be here was to visit Yosemite. We could have stayed closer, but we were attracted by the Escapees RV park here, called Park of the Sierras, or POS for short.

A view of Park of the Sierras

This is the 12th Escapees park that we've visited. Each one has it's own flavor, and POS is no exception. Like its sister park called Jojoba Hills in southern California, near Temecula, it was built from scratch as a coop under the Escapees umbrella. Also like Jojoba Hills, POS is built in the rolling foothills so common in California. The RV sites are scattered around the rolling humps and bumps. Going for a walk here turns into real exercise as no street is level. One advantage to this is that most sites have a view of something.

Likewise with Escapees parks, POS is run by a minimal paid staff of only 2. The bulk of the maintenance is handled by volunteers in the park, who do everything from replacing 4" gate valves in the water lines to repaving the interior roads. This keeps the costs associated with the park at a minimum.

Pothole rocks in Coarsegold Creek in POS

A constant challenge for the crew is keeping brush under control. Considerable effort has been paid to fire prevention and protection. There is a 100 foot fire break around the outside perimeter. In some areas, the park has obtained permission from adjacent landowners to remove brush next to the park fences. In the interior, the bulk of the greenery is live oak and manzanita. The manzanita contains oil which makes these beautiful bushes highly flammable. All of them are carefully pruned.

As a coop, the 250 sites are all owned by Escapee members. About 15 sites per year are being resold by members, against a waiting list of 75 who would like to buy them. If a member leaves for an extended period, they can make their site available for rental. Enough members are usually out to make space for travelers like us who only want to stay a few days.

The Gateway into Yosemite

On Monday, we tripped up to Yosemite. We got an early start for us, leaving POS at around 9:30. The signs said that Yosemite was only 22 miles from here. They failed to say that the valley itself was another 30 miles after the entrance, and that the roads were hilly, windy, curvy roads that kept maximum speed at 35 and average speed much lower. It took us 2 hours to get to the Gateway.

Yosemite is indeed a magnificent piece of land. The valley floor is a meadow surrounding the Merced River, the valley walls curve up to the base of 4000' cliffs rising nearly vertical from the floor. The landmark cliffs have names, such as El Capitan, Two Brothers and Half Dome. Spectacular waterfalls drop thousands of feet into the valley from above. Even though the dry summer conditions sometime stop the falls altogether, we were lucky to see some falling water.

Bridal Veil Falls in Yosemite

We stopped for lunch at the deli in Yosemite Village, in the heart of the park. It was expensive, as we expected, and since we were nearly into winter, many other places that cater to the summer visitors were closed. I stopped in the visitor center, and also checked out the Ansel Adams Gallery next door. Adams made many wonderful photos of Yosemite, as well as other California sites. A few Adams prints were on sale for $18,500 each. I only had $18,000 in my pockets, so I had to pass. But they were beautiful and inspiring.

When we left, we exited through the western side of the park, as Consuelo had requested yarn to be sent to El Portal, a tiny blip on the map just outside the park entrance. Following the river down the hills was a beautiful trip, too, not quite as spectacular as the core of the park. We made our way to Mariposa, then turned east and found our way back to Coarsegold.

It's getting chilly here, though, up at our 1700 foot elevation, and we had enough warmth in Petaluma to want lots more. As soon as our mail arrives, we'll move on south.

More images of Yosemite can be viewed in my gallery.

Warmth!

2009-11-02T14:30:00.005-05:00

We're parked in Petaluma, California for a few days, and it reached 80 degrees here yesterday. We haven't seen such warmth since we were in Fairbanks in June. It's a pleasant change from the cool fall weather, often rainy, that we've had over the last few months.

Coastal Redwoods, the tallest trees on earth

We had planned to stop at Mount Rainier and Crater Lake National Parks as we left the Northwest. But it was raining in Yakima, our jumping off point, and there was no relief in the forecast. So we hustled out of the area. Snow was reported after we left in the mountainous areas.

Our next planned stop was Redwood National Park in northern California, between Crescent City and Orick. We found an RV park in Klamath, CA, and settled in for a few days. The first day was sunny and clear, unusual for that area. A significant percentage of the water consumed by the redwoods comes in the form of fog, much more common. I got out to the Pacific Coast and took some pictures of the rugged, rocky shore and the incredible surf pounding the rocks. A surprising discovery was on old WWII radar station hugging the coast. My imagination created a vision of a big dish pointing out over the ocean. The actual site was far less dramatic. It was constructed to appear as a farm along the shore, a small farmhouse and barn like structure, quite innocuous in appearance. Up close, it was obvious that both buildings were constructed of cement block, covered with wood and cedar shingles on the roof. I guess it was successful, since it's still there.

Mahlon and Thumper on the pier

The second day of our stay, rain did arrive, and we used the weather to trip into Crescent City to see the National Park Visitor Center and check out the town. The Visitor Center was small, but informative. They suggested a several places in town to visit, which we did. One was the coastal scenic drive, another great view of the rocky California shoreline. We were surprised that the real estate along the shore was fairly modest, compared to coastal homes most anywhere else in the country. I would have loved to be at some of the scenic viewpoints here on a clear day with the sun going dow. I'm sure the sunset would have been spectacular.

Battery Point Lighthouse

We walked the city pier, which gave great views of Battery Point Lighthouse, a very picturesque structure at the end of town. The breakwater provided storage for dozens of cement beach blockade anchors, likely left from WWII. On this rainy day, the foghorn and bell buoys warned mariners, but got on our nerves after a while.

The final attraction in Crescent City was the seal dock, where we did indeed find a dozen harbor seals resting their hulks and barking at each other.

Seals in Crescent City

The next day I tripped into the National Park. The sun was out, but the fog was thick. I have always been amazed by the magnificent redwoods, huge trees towering over anything else in the forest. 5 of the 10 tallest trees in the world are in this park, and many huge specimens are along the road, some so close that vehicles have hit them, or they are growing into guard rails. Walking a short distance from the road, groves of these huge trees can be seen growing together. Often they are shoots from an older central tree which has died and disappeared, absorbed back into the forest. Four foot diameter limbs high in the canopy collect airborne soil, and plant life takes up residence high off the forest floor.

The forest floor is equally interesting. Ferns cover much of the forest floor, one of the few plants that can thrive in the near permanent shade provided by the giants.

RV in the fog

Later that day we pulled up camp and traveled the length of the Newton B. Drury Scenic Highway which travels through the heart of the park. Every inch of this trip revealed magnificent views of the forest, until we reached the Elk Prairie at the south end of the road. A large herd of Roosevelt Elk roam this area, but our travel at mid-day was the least likely to reveal them, and we did not see any.

Rejoining US 101, we continued south to the Orick Visitors Center, which is right on the coast, but the fog was too thick for us to glimpse the ocean in this location. We did stop in and chat with the rangers, and took in the 12 minute movie about the park.

We continued south through Eureka, entered the Humboldt State Park, another glorious redwood forest. Some section of 101 are 4 lane California freeway, but small chunks meander through the big trees in narrow two lane stretches. More glorious scenery.

We stopped overnight in Redcrest, staying in Redcrest Resort, a facility which disrespects its name. The sites were goofy, utilities strange, wifi not working, staff unhelpful. One of the low lights of our trip. The next day we traveled here to Petaluma, and found a nice place to stay at the Elks Lodge, which has one of the best RV facilities we've seen at an Elks Club... 18 full hookup RV sites, and it was full when we arrived. We stayed one night in the parking lot without hookups.

The weather here is gorgeous. I'm planning to take advantage of it to get some good pictures in Point Reyes National Seashore.

Central Washington State

2009-10-25T11:53:00.005-05:00

We've been parked in Quincy, Washington for a few days. We're at Crescent Bar Resort, a big sandbar in the Columbia River, on a lake formed by a power dam. This place must really rock in the summer, but now we're the only campers, paying winter rates. We've got electric and water service, so we're happy.

Bluffs along the Columbia River

Besides the campground on the Bar, there's a Thousand Trails RV ownership park, several condo developments, and a huge trailer/RV park. There's a 9 hole golf course, and a 9 ho;e executive course. Docks and hundreds of mooring buoys attest to the summer boating scene. Two public beaches provide swimming and sunning. Swimsuit and quick food shops fill out the venue. All of this closed for the season, except that the golf course has an honor box on the first tee and several golfers were out enjoying the sun on Saturday.

Blue Heron

We stopped out here to visit Wayne and Mary Jo Lohrman, RV friends we've bumped into several times around the US. We both saw some of Canada this summer, so we compared notes on that. We also showed them our scenes of Alaska, since they're headed up that way next year. Wayne has been picking apples here, just about done with that.

The Columbia ha carved a fairly deep canyon through this part of the country, which leaves a fairly high bluff alongside the Bar. Across the river the land tapers down to the water. The land above is high desert, full of scrub and devoid of trees. The exception is the orchards, vineyards and farms that irrigate with river water. Quincy has several large fruit shippers, along with beans and grapes.

Foliage behind Crescent Bar

About 35 miles north of us are the burgs of Wenatchee and East Wenatchee, straddling the river. Consuelo visited a knitting supplier in East Wenatchee to check supplies and get ideas.

Twenty miles east of the Wenatchees on the edge of the Cascade Mountains is the faux German Alpine village of Leavenworth. We took a ride up there with the Lohrmans to shop the town and have some lunch.

Leavenworth has sculpted itself in alpine motif, picked Bavarian designs and names, and filled its shops with Deutchland-like wares. You can buy steins, liederhosen, and european crystal. The food features wursts, German style potato salad, and lots of beer. We enjoyed a good lunch, then visited the stores.

Winter comes here, and it's coming soon. We're out of here later today.

It's Raining... what a surprise!

2009-10-16T10:36:00.005-05:00

We've been parked in Hoquiem, WA for 3 nights. It's on the southwest corner of the Olympic Peninsula. I surmise that wood products and/or paper are the major industries here. Hoquiem and her larger sister Aberdeen sit at the inland end of Gray's Harbor, one of the few bumps in the Pacific coastline providing safe shelter for boats. So there's a fishing fleet here, too.

We've been parked in Hoquiem RV Park, a nice campground with good amenities and friendly staff. They have a very good wifi, as campground wifi's go, and I've downloaded some Windows upgrades and checked out some video tutorials on the Adobe site.

Ocean City Beach

It's been raining since before we arrived. Such is the reputation of the Northwest Coast in the US. Right now, the weather forecast has no sun in it for the foreseeable future. The sun came out for a few minutes Wednesday night, so I took off to Ocean City beach, about 20 miles NW of where we're parked. By the time I arrived, the overcast had arrived again. I walked out onto the beach, which I shared with one lonely seagull. IF it had been summer, and IF the sun had been out and IF I got there at noon then it would have been a really great day at a beautiful beach. Only IF.

Consuelo has been busy knitting slippers, preparing to sell a few pair at a flea market in Yuma when we get there. She's had a little trouble with yarn deliveries, as we've been on the move since we left Chimacum. It turned out that the last box she expected arrived the day we left Chimacum, and was returned to the vendor.

I've been busy working on 2010 photo calendars, also to sell in Yuma and online. I've started a web site here for them. I expect to add 3 or 4 more before I finish. I've ordered a new printer from Office Depot to print them, but Office Depot has thoroughly screwed up my order, and may cause me delays before I can deliver. We'll see. I've asked them to refund my money, but I expect a gnat has a better chance of devouring an elephant.

I've also been working on my commercial photo website. Photoshelter offered up a 30 day trial of their custom websites, which I've had up for a couple weeks now. It's a lot nicer than the regular site, but until I sell some photos, I can't really justify the extra cost for style points.

Hoh! Hoh! Hoh!

2009-10-13T18:55:00.005-05:00

Hoh Rain Forest

Curt Kraft and I stomped through a section of untouched forest 15 years ago in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota. Actually, we most likely were in the adjacent Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario. It was hard work, as the trees had died and toppled every which way, stacking themselves 3 and 4 trunks high. The trunks were two to four feet in diameter. We picked a route, set off to follow it, hoping not to get lost. In some places we clambered over them, in other crawled under them. After we tired ourselves out, probably not going more than 1/4 mile, we turned back and returned by a slightly different route. Neither of us had ever tried to negotiate such a place before. It gave us an insight into the difficulties that the pioneers had negotiating forested areas when they tried to move west.

Maples and Spruce

Yesterday, Consuelo and I trudged through a section of the Hoh Rain Forest, part of the Olympic National Park near Forks, WA. We had no such difficulties in this forest. While there were many downed trees, the nice forest rangers had cleared a trail among them, even cutting slots in some for the trail to follow. Recalling my Minnesota experience, I realized how easy we had it.

The Hoh is one of the sections of temperate rain forest in Olympic. Because the forest is backed by the Olympic mountains, water laden clouds arriving from the Pacific Ocean are forced up and drop their rain before passing over the mountains, 140 to 167" of rain annually. There is a rain shadow behind the mountains, which get on average, 17" of rain, a mere 40 miles away.

Ferns

My vision of a rain forest was quite different from what I saw there. I think my visions were generated by movies of the Amazon Jungle, rubber trees hundreds of feet high growing in a closed canopy, blocking out the sun, and the forest floor choked with tropical plants and shrubs, making passage virtually impossible.

The Hoh rain forest is dominated by Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock, which grow up to 300 feet high. Coastal Douglas Fir, Western Red Cedar, Big Leaf Maple, and Red Alder are also prevalent. In mid October, the maples are turning, a few red, but most bright yellow. Since there has been no frost here yet, the colors are not turning uniformly. May maples are still green, while others have lost their leaves.

Clear stream with green bottom

Most of the trees are adorned with mosses and lichens. Consuelo didn't think they were as pretty as the Spanish Moss we see at Jekyll Island, but then she leans toward Spanish things. There was certainly a wide variety of them in the Hoh, along with ferns that covered the forest floor.

We also noted a stream running in the park, nearly full of bright green water plants that looked like the weeds that grew in the lake where I grew up. But unlike other places where we see lots of green vegetation in the water, the water in this stream was crystal clear.

Roosevelt Elk

We took a drive through the campground on our way out, and found several Roosevelt Elk grazing on the mown grass around the campsites, all males, all decked out with big racks. They seemed undisturbed by cars driving by them, but there were warnings on the board that several visitors had been charged by the elk recently, so we kept our distance.

Readers of this blog are reminded that my photos can be purchased on my Photoshelter site. You can get prints, mugs, mouse pads, etc.

The Weather Report in Alaska

2009-10-06T06:34:00.005-05:00

Now that fall has arrived, we've just seen our first below 40 degree day where we're parked in northwest Washington state. It's cold enough that our heat pump in the motor home has stopped providing heat, and we've switched to LP.

Meanwhile, back in Alaska, it's 39 degrees in Fairbanks, 34 degrees in Anchorage, and 30 degrees way out in Nome. It's 28 and snowing in Prudhoe Bay, where the ice road truckers will be heading soon if they have not already started for the winter. It's 39 degrees in Valdez, and 36 in Seward. Adak reports in at 41 degrees. Tropical Juneau is a balmy 43 degrees.

The previous paragraph is fairly typical reporting for the average Alaskan weatherman or woman. I was somewhat surprised in watching the weather reports on TV up there, because they report and predict the weather for the entire state, every time. Most of the TV stations in Alaska are in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau. There are a handful of low power TV stations elsewhere, like Homer and Seldovia. For such a big state, that's not a lot of coverage.

From what I can discover, Alaska only has one cable TV provider, GCI. I saw a GCI store in Homer, and could not figure out from the outside what they did. They provide cable TV in many small communities, as well as school links, Internet and long distance phone services, and medical network connections. So many little towns get the Alaska TV stations by cable.

Dish and DirectTV also provide TV service to Alaskans. Most users had 1.5 meter diameter dishes, and they appear to point into the ground when you see them. The satellite providers carry the Alaska TV stations as locals, so the few stations in the big cities are available throughout Alaska.

So, if you live in Alaska and watch TV, you're most likely to be watching a station from Fairbanks, Anchorage and/or Juneau. As a result, "local" news and weather reporting will carry stories for the whole state, not just Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau.

So how big is the territory covered by Alaska? Alaska is about about 3 times the size of Texas. If you overlay a map of Alaska on the lower 48 states, and put the panhandle with Juneau down in Georgia, the Aleutians will stretch to California, and Prudhoe Bay will be in North Dakota.

Now think of the poor weatherman in Alaska. If you overlaid his job on the lower 48, he would be reporting for Jacksonville, Atlanta, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Denver, Chicago and perhaps Los Angeles, all in the same 5 minute forecast. And you know that the weather across that area varies considerably, so a little detail is often required.

And just to add to the problem, and to justify Sarah Palin's remark about "seeing Russia", the extended weather forecast for Alaska often includes noting the current conditions in Siberia, just 50 some odd miles from Alaska, because whatever weather is happening in Siberia today is likely to be in Nome tomorrow, and Anchorage the day after.

To be fair, the weather options are far fewer in Alaska than in the lower 48. Tornadoes are unheard of, as are hurricanes. Blizzards are fairly common. Smoke is often in the forecast, given the number of forest fires that occur up there. Heat is limited. Cold, rain, and snow occur in extreme overabundance. Whereas Fairbanks averages about 11 inches of rain per year (almost a desert), Ketchikan gets 162 inches. Barrow gets 28 inches of snow, and Valdez gets 290. The Harding Ice Field reportedly gets 400 inches of snow, but nobody lives there..

Occasionally, the sun comes out. Alaskans don't have a good handle on dealing with this condition. As they say up there, Alsakans don't tan, they thaw.

More pictures

2009-09-30T11:17:00.002-05:00

We're still parked in northwest Washington state for a few more days. Here's another gallery of pictures from our Alaska trip to entertain you. You can also get to these on my photo site:

http://my.photoshelter.com/mahlonstacy

The Alaska Photo Gallery

Alaska - Images by Mahlon Stacy

Time for some pictures

2009-09-28T20:31:00.004-05:00

Now that I have stable internet access, I've been using up all my upload bandwidth getting photos up to my photo site:

http://my.photoshelter.com/mahlonstacy

But you can view these photos here in this first gallery. I'll post more galleries here in a few days.

Alaska Highway - Images by Mahlon Stacy

Back in the USA

2009-09-25T23:28:00.005-05:00

We've now parked at the Evergreen COHO Escapee park in Chimacum, Washington. We had 2 nice days, but today it's raining. Good weather to add a few paragraphs to the blog.

Desert-like terrain at Spence's Bridge

The trip down through lower BC had a surprise in store for us. As we approached our stopping place at Spence's Bridge, the road began to travel through a valley. The valley got deeper and narrower, and the vegetation began to look more arid. When we arrived, the valley had very few trees, the Thompson River was bounded by railway and roads on both sides.

We spent a peaceful night at Spence's Bridge, named for the bridge builder in the mid 1800s. The bridge is still there, but closed to traffic. It serves as a footbridge, but I was the only person trampling on it that we noticed. A new highway bridge ½ miles south carries all the cars and trucks.

Happy Canadian Sunflowers

We found a little coffee shop that had a limited, but flavorful menu for dinner. The town appears to be shrinking, the last gas station closed 2 years ago. Supposedly there were episodes of big horn sheep invasions from the nearby hills, but they shied away from us. We didn't determine that there were any other attractions nearby.

We left the next morning traveling south and found that the valley got narrower and deeper, reaching a max at Hell's Gate, where a footbridge was installed to scare the visitors out of their wits. The rail lines still followed both sides of the river, now called the Fraser, but they traversed through several tunnels as they clung to the canyon walls. The highway had several tunnels as well, and eventually crossed back over to the west side of the river, where we began a long descent from the canyon walls down to the less rugged valley that delivered us to Surrey, just east of Vancouver.

View of Vancouver Waterfront

We had found a directory of campgrounds near Vancouver and selected one based on location, price, and the availability of wifi. The price and location were as promised, but the wifi was “in the office only”. When I complained that carrying my desktop computer to the office would be difficult, the manager placed us somewhat close to the office. I was able to get intermittent access, and Consuelo got her laptop to work if she leaned out the bedroom window.

We got parked in a really tight site, where the our slides touched the trees on both sides of the RV. We then went off to look for a Chinese place for dinner, and found an excellent one, the Jade Forest, which has the best hot and sour soup we've ever tasted. The orange chicken was outstanding, too. I went back the next night to get some to go, but they were closed on Wednesdays.

Vancouver Tour Bus

During the day Wednesday, we tripped into Vancouver to see what we could see. We decided to take the “Big Bus” tour, which promised 22 stops and we could get on and off where we wanted. We arrived by the Transportation Center, where the cruise ships park in Vancouver, and the railway station is. We bought a combo ticket for the bus and Vancouver Lookout. Like many of our days in the past 2 weeks, it started to rain.

We rode the bus for about ½ hour, noting that many of the 22 stops were at hotels where passengers might be staying. We decided to leave the bus at Granville Island, home of the Market where all sorts of fresh fruits, vegetables, seafood, and prepared foods for lunch could be had. We both tried some pirogis, and had a spinach and cheese croissant. There were also artists, jewelry makers, photographers, and other trades for sale there, so we wandered for an hour or so. We finally made our way back to the bus and finished the tour, going through Stanley Park, China Town, and Gastown, where we got on, where we got off. We shopped some of the interesting stores in the neighborhood and watched the unique steam clock signal the hour.

The Vancouver Lookout is a circular observatory perched atop Harbor Centre, right next to where we parked, so we strolled over there and took the elevator up some 20 odd stories. Despite the gray weather, we got a nice view of the city and the harbor. Numerous twitter like city facts and descriptions were posted under the windows around the turret, and there were some fascinating (to me) panoramic photos form the late 1800's and early 1900's in a gallery area. I was fascinated because the negatives for the images were the same size as the photos, one of which was 8 feet long. There was also an interesting collection of old movie clips of Vancouver playing on a TV, some of which they played side by side against modern clips.

Formal gardens at Stanley Park

We rediscovered the challenge of rush hour traffic on our way back to the camper, something we had not missed in our months of travel. The next morning, after Consuelo took a quick trip to a fabric store to trade in our remaining Canadian dollars, we packed out of Surrey, and in 15 miles had packed our way out of Canada. We drove about 20 miles east, guessing that the border crossing there would be less busy. Crossing into the US with my expired passport turned out not to be an issue, and there was no line at noon.

Our route took us down I5 through Bellingham, where we tripped off to the west onto Whidbey Island. We made our first ever stop at a Northern Lights casino to lunch, and found a great buffet there for $7.77 each. We paid for lunch, and kept the rest of our money on our pockets.

Appropriately named eating place in Vancouver

We had to take a ferry from the end of Whidbey Island to the Olympic Peninsula where we are now staying. We found a phone number for the ferry on the sign that said, “Reservations recommended”, gave them a call, and made a reservation for 9:15 PM. But they said we could wait on standby if we went to the terminal, which we did. As it turned out, we got on the 4:30 ferry for our ½ hour ride across the bay. We chugged through Port Townsend down to Chimacum, and got ourselves parked for a 2 week stay, something we had not enjoyed since Fairbanks.

Stewart to Prince Rupert to Hixon

2009-09-15T22:17:00.005-05:00

One of many totems in Prince Rupert

We got to Prince Rupert from Stewart without incident. We stayed overnight in a rest area off Highway 16, aka the Yellowhead Highway. Much of the drive to Prince Rupert follows the Skeena River. From Terrace west, it climbs a few hundred feet into the rounded mountains that are characteristic of this part of coastal Canada, then sinks again to follow the river as it becomes an estuary.

We had planned to take the ferry from Prince Rupert to Ketchikan, thence to one of the barrier islands, Metlakatla. Consuelo had befriended another volunteer in New Orleans who invited her to see their island. The logistics of making the trip became insurmountable, though. After reviewing the costs, we decided to make the trip on foot.

Totem and view in Prince Rupert Museum

First, our cell phone didn't work in Prince Rupert, apparently because Verizon had no agreement with the local providers. This significantly hampered making necessary calls. To solve this problem, we bought a calling card. This was not completely satisfactory, because we could not get any callbacks.

Second, requirements for bringing our dog back into Alaska were that we have a kennel for her to stay in on car deck for the 6-7 hour ferry ride. She also would need a health certificate signed within the last 30 days. This would entail a checkup, and probably another $200-$300. Since we had a certificate from May, and she had blood tests in Anchorage in August, there was a chance we could get through.

Native ceremonial garb decorated with puffin bills

Third, our friends in Metlakatla could not house us, and due to construction on the island, all other housing was occupied. We tried to call the 2 B&Bs out there, and to send them email, but only got voice mails and no replies.

Fourth, Consuelo was still coughing pretty badly. She was willing to take the cough with her, but I was concerned that adding the seasickness of the ferry trip, part of which was across the open gulf, plus visiting friends while sick would not be the best.

Fifth, due to the complicated ferry schedules and irregular sailing times, we would need to book a couple nights in Ketchikan. That would give us a chance to see the city, but added to the cost.

Finally, we would have to store our RV and car at the RV park. The RV would need electric to keep our refrigerator and freezer up and running. This turned out to be the easiest part of the process, our campground host was more than willing to accommodate us for $20/night.

There are some hills in BC

We tried for 3 days to resolve the housing issue, without success. We worked all the other problems as well, but not having a place to stay in Metlakatla killed the deal. We considered a day trip, since there were 2 ferries a day tot he island, but that would only allow only about 1-1/2 hours there, not really worth the expense.

We did take the opportunity in Prince Rupert to get the rear window replaced in the bug. All West Glass did a great job for us, getting the replacement window in on the next day and changing it out. While they worked on that, I visited the museum and learned about the local First Nations culture and totem poles.

Totem poles are a case of using the available materials for presenting art to the community. Trees are readily available on the west coast of British Columbia around Prince Rupert. And you don't even have to go cut them down... they are floating down the river, free for the taking. So it's no surprise that the local aborigines ended up using them for something, something that endured and became a visible symbol of their culture when they were invaded by us Europeans.

Main Street in Smithers

I learned in the museum that when a native chief established a community, he built a long house and a totem pole to demonstrate his power in the region. The totems were designed to illustrate the clan that the community belonged to, such as Raven or Eagle. Other elements in the carvings highlighted some of the history of the clan and paid tribute to important ancestors. Upon completion of the long house and totem, a great feast would be held, where neighboring clans would come to celebrate, to eat, and to bring gifts to the chief and his family.

After getting the car fixed, I returned to the RV, and we got ourselves packed up to hit the road the next morning. We traveled east on the Yellowhead to Smithers, BC that day. Smithers is a regional center of about 6000 people. They had a nice main street, guarded by a wooden guy blowing on an alpenhorn. We parked in a mall that indicated free overnight RV parking. Just across the street was a produce stand featuring Okanogan fruit, and the nectarines were really delicious.

The verdant ski slopes in Smithers

The next day, we continued on the Yellowhead to Prince George. This city bills itself as the “Capitol of Northern British Columbia”. We thought we might park at a Wal-mart, and found one upon entering town, but also found signs saying “No overnight parking, by city ordinance”. Since this was an RV unfriendly town, we moved on another 35 miles to the town of Hixon, where we found a nice RV park, cheap, and very friendly staff. Even some place for Thumper to run free for a while.

The terrain has changed. In Prince George, we turned south on highway 97. We have left most of the mountains behind us, now in rolling hill country dotted with hay fields and dairy farms. The highway is posted at 55 or 60 mph, but now passes through little towns along the way, with speed limits of 25 or 30 mph.

The climate is different, too. The last two days have been warm and sunny... so warm, in fact, that towns in this region have been experiencing new record high temperatures. We may have to get out and get a tan.

Stewart/Hyder

2009-09-09T22:32:00.004-05:00

One of the dozen or so glaciers on Rt 37A

It's 7:00 in the morning, not very light outside yet. It's not raining, but everything outside remains wet. We're parked in a roadside rest area, just west of Kitwanga, BC on route 16. Later today we'll make our way into Prince Rupert, BC, to check into ferry crossings to Ketchikan, AK.

As we continued down the Cassier Highway, it kept getting better and better. When we left the Alaska Highway, the Cassier was under construction, really bad. After about 20 miles, it improved into a rough dirt road, then a sealcoated road, all for about 200 miles, except for one 15 mile stretch dirt stretch that was steep and windy with hairpin turns as it descended into a valley and then out again. Then it was rough paved road again, shaking everything in our house. Finally, we got to a section that had on it, and it was pretty smooth. We were out of the permafrost areas, so the sudden dips were gone.

Chum Salmon in Fish Creek

We finally arrived at route 37A, which leads about 35 miles to Stewart, BC. This road crosses an unnamed pass through the mountains, and is said to have the largest concentration of glaciers along a roadway. A couple of them must have crossed the highway at some point, perhaps before the highway was there, because the evidence of terminal moraines on the side opposite the glaciers were very visible. Three glaciers came all the way down to within a few hundred feet of the road. Several more were visible draping down between the peaks of the mountains. They continued into and beyond the town of Stewart.

Brown bear fishing

Stewart used to be an important port community, now fading. It lies at the end of the Portland Canal, a natural fiord that extends some 20 miles to the ocean on the inside passage north of Ketchikan. It lies nestled between the mountains. It boasts a fairly large number of houses, considering its remoteness, but most are small and not in good condition. One whole block of apartment buildings was completely abandoned. Likewise, downtown was small and a bit shabby, with some older commercial buildings abandoned. They did have a couple groceries, and a nice Visitor Centre, but it was closed every time I went there. That's where the free wifi was, and it still worked.

Brown bear eating

We stayed in the municipal campground, Rainy Creek, nestled up against the bottom of a cliff on the northern mountain boundary. We arrived at about 5:00 PM, the tiny office was closed with a sign that said, “Back at 6:20”. We wandered around until we found the 30 amp sites, then parked in one of them. A dozen campers or so were scattered in the 60 odd sites.

As we parked the car, we noticed that the rear hatch window was crackled, thousands of cracks laced through the glass. Somewhere along the way, it had shattered. There was no apparent sign of an impact. It seemed to be holding together for the time being. Around 6:30, I went back to the office to register, and asked the man about window repair. He said there would be nothing for several hundred miles.

Downtown Hyder, Alaska

A mile or so up the road along the canal is the US-Canada border, and the tiny town of Hyder, Alaska. Hyder has a little main street with a few shops, about ½ of them closed. All the roads are dirt. It's so disconnected from the rest of the US, that there is no customs post at the border, just drive right on in. Supposedly the ferry arrives there once a week, so Canada controls its side of the border with customs agents. We took several trips to Hyder, and needed our passports to return to Stewart, always questioned about purchases and firearms.

The main attraction in Hyder is the Tongass National Forest Fish Creek Wildlife Viewing Area, about 3 miles up the Salmon River from 'downtown'. Several people said we should go there to see the bears. The parks people have built an elevated boardwalk along a narrow spit between Fish Creek and a lagoon, near the Salmon River. It is patrolled, and a $5.00 entry fee is charged, unless you have a Golden Age pass, which I do. Schools of salmon were clearly visible swimming up fish creek, and salmon bodies littered the shore along the creek. We spent about 2 hours there in all, never seeing a bear. But they told us that they had been there. Our luck. But on the road leading to the park, there was a crossing down to the river, and seeing several cars parked there, I stopped down, and got a few pictures of a grizzly bear searching for salmon. He never caught any live ones while I was there, but he did scavenge some dead ones off the bottom and look them over.

After 2 nights, we packed up to move on. We applied some duct tape over the rear window to hold it together while we traveled. We wound our way back though the glaciers, over the pass, and back onto route 37, continuing south. This section of the highway was even better, with posted speeds of 60 mph for most of it, passing though meadows and along streams, until we reached Kitwanga and the junction with highway 16 and turned east.

Back in Canada

2009-09-09T22:27:00.006-05:00

Dease River Crossing Campground

We've just parked the camper at Dease River Crossing RV Park, about 90 miles south of the Alaska Highway. As I stepped outside, fragrant balsam tree scent filled my nostrils, reminding me of trips our family took New Hampshire when I was just a kid, where they sold balsam needles in little bags at the souvenir shops.

We're next to a lake, and the Dease River. As I walked Thumper near the beach, an eagle flew overhead, perhaps sizing up Thumper for an evening meal. He must have decided against it, as he flew off into the woods.

The Cassier Highway is a big step down from the Alaska Highway. We knew there would be some rough stretches, some dirt road. The first 5 miles from the Alaska Highway were under construction, and rough and potholed, limiting us to 15 mph in places. The next 15 miles were dirt, but being sealcoated, so it was loose gravel. After that, we got hard road, but not the best. Speed limit is 50 mph, and frost heaves and roughness limit that to 35 at times. We chose this route as our stateside destination is Washington state, and the Cassier saves 300 miles over going back through Dawson Creek.

A young eagle along the Cassier Highway

The Cassier is also much more wild than the Alaska Highway. There are no shoulders, and few guard rails. The road is lined with lodgepole pine forests, some spruce forests, and a few poplars and aspen. Just before we parked, we entered a valley between the Cassier Mountains, rising 3-5 thousand feet on both sides of us.

We've been traveling for 3 days and nights, since our last overnight at Eagle Trail State Park just south of Tok. We got through customs without any issues, though Canadian customs alerted me to the fact that my passport has expired. I had checked Consuelo's passport, which expires in November, and thought ours were both the same. This could be an issue when we enter the states again, currently planned for being on the ferry into Ketchikan.

US customs at the border were doing thorough checks on outbound vehicles. The drug sniffing dog gave us the once over, said hello to Thumper, and went on to the next car. The officer asked if we had any ocean mammal trinkets, and Consuelo acknowledged that she had bought some seal fur thimbles at the Museum of the North. He told her that he never saw them. They're not illegal, but there supposedly is a raft of paperwork to be filled out for such things.

The roads were pretty mediocre on the Tok Cutoff of the Glenn Highway to Tok, and the Alaska Highway from about 40 miles from Tok until Burwash Landing. The problem is that these roads have been built over permafrost, and they develop huge sags where the permafrost melts with the summer sun. In many cases, an alert driver can see skid marks in the dip, left by other RV drivers who have bottomed out their suspensions. Slowing to 30 mph in most cases prevented me from doing the same, but I managed to hit a couple of them too fast. Also, they were repairing the roads in Canada, some dug up and just dirt, other places patched with gravelly tar.

We stayed the first night at Burwash Landing Resort, something of a historical place with free dry camping and a good enough restaurant. We had roast beef, with gravy, mashed potatoes, carrots, and Jello for dessert. It was yummy.

1950s T-Birds

We had leapfrogged four 1950s Thunderbirds as we left Tok, with them pulling up right behind us at the border. As we prepared to leave Burwash, they arrived for breakfast, and we snapped a couple pictures of the cars on the way out. In addition, one of them was from New Jersey, the last continental state missing from our “see the license plates” game we had been playing since Banff. We're only missing Hawaii for a complete set.

Teslin Lake

We continued on down a section of the Alaska Highway that was all new to us, until we reached Whitehorse. The days were mostly cloudy and rainy, with brief bits of sunshine poking through the clouds. Our goal for the second night was Mukluk Annie's Restaurant and RV Park, where you can dry camp for free if you buy a salmon dinner. We were ready, mouth's watering, only to find that the place had closed for the season. It was closed when we went north, too. Guess we'll never know if it's any good.

There was a government campground about 10 miles north of Mukluk Annie's, where we stayed on the way north, but we were loath to go back north again. We found a roadside rest area next to Teslin Lake, with a sign posted “No Camping or Overnight Parking” which we ignored, and stayed undisturbed for the night. I found some of that tar mixture from the previous day's travel stuck to the hood, windshield, and roof of our VW Beetle, which I removed before we left. Cosuelo picked up some interesting driftwood on the shore, and I pocketed a few more pebbles.

Travel on the Alaska Highway was uneventful. We saw no wildlife. We stopped for fuel at the junction of the Cassier and Alaska Highways, and took on 270 liters of diesel fuel, at $1.099 per liter. On the Cassier, touted for having more wildlife than the Alaska Highway, we saw one chipmunk. Not too impressive so far. But we've still got hundreds of miles to cover on this route.

On the Cassier, we stopped at Jade City, at the Jade Store. There is a jade mine near there, and the store was loaded with all sorts of jade objects, from earrings to 5 lb chunks of uncut jade. It was all very pretty, but didn't generate an urge to extract the wallet. We moved on.

Dease Crossing Campground presented new challenges. The woman in the Jade Store said that the campground was under new ownership, alerting us to this in case we had stayed there before. When we arrived, a Japanese gentleman was standing on the porch of the “office” which is actually a house. He invited me and Thumper in, gave me an apple, poured me tea, and signaled to me that he didn't speak English. I sat in the living room, drinking my tea, and he went to the porch and hollered to somebody. I waited. Eventually, I said I would take Thumper for a walk, and he said, “OK”. I reported the situation to Consuelo, and then walked Thumper to look at the campsites. When I returned, another Japanese gentleman was there who spake some English, and said we could park “anywhere along the road”, and that the fee was $15. I paid him and we found a great spot next to the lake.

Heritage Center, Glenn Highway, Valdez

2009-09-09T21:26:00.007-05:00

We finished the state fair. Next order of business was getting our generator fixed. The repair shop had called and reported that the parts were in. We took the RV back to Anchorage for a 10:00 AM appointment, left it and went to the Alaska Native Heritage Center.

Athabascan log house and food cache

The Heritage Center is a first class museum in northern Anchorage, displaying and demonstrating native culture from all of the Alaskan tribes. There are 5 main tribes, including Athabaskan, Inuit, Aleut, Tlinglit, and many sub tribes. Each culture had created their own traditions for costume, housing and food sources. The museum had typical houses from each culture, with docents in each to explain the way of life and the essential elements of living. For example, the Saint Lawrence tribes on the north slope built sod houses, buried about ½ way into the earth. A single opening in the roof, covered with a “window” made of sewn seal intestines provided light. This group hunted seals and walrus, whales, as well as fish. The summer tundra yielded berries and rose hips.

Eskimo athletic games

The Center also provided demonstrations of various cultural activities. One that we watched was simple yet challenging games which are now part of the Eskimo Olympics. A leather covered ball, about the size of a tennis ball, is suspended from a string held up by a wooden arm. The string is arranged so that the ball can be raised and lowered. Several physical games are played with this equipment. In one, the player sits on the floor holding one foot in his hand. Using only strength and coordination, he or she has to raise the free foot and touch the ball. Strong agile boys can achieve a one hand handstand while raising the foot up to the ball. It's really quite amazing, and difficult. Try it sometime.

We got a call from the generator shop, our coach was ready, and we picked it up and returned to the Palmer Elks for one more night. The next morning, we headed out to Valdez.

Valdez had been a question mark on our trip. We hadn't heard or read a lot about it, although the Chamber of Commerce does an excellent job of keeping the name visible throughout the state. It seemed a bit out of the way, taking some 250 extra miles to get there and back. But in the end, we decided that we'd go.

Colorful autumn taiga along the Glenn Highway

The Glenn Highway from Palmer to Glenwood passes through the Chugach Mountains on the south and the Talkeetna Mountains on the north. The Matanuska River runs under and along the highway near Palmer, as it winds down into the Knik Arm, the northern end of the Cook Inlet. The highway gains elevation up to the Tahneta Pass. In this area, the taiga (bush and forest just below the tundra) was crimson red and golden yellow with fall colors.

We arrived in Glenwood, had a bite to eat, then stopped at the Visitor Center for the Wrangell/St Elias National Park. I had heard that the view of the mountains from here would be spectacular. All we got were views of some rather ordinary clouds. The ranger said, “We should have been there in the morning.” But we stayed the night in their entrance road, and I walked back in in the morning to see if there was a view. Nope. We went along to Valdez.

Bridal Veil Falls

People had reported to us that the waterfalls in the mountains on the way to Valdez we quite a sight, and we have to agree. Photographs do not do them much justice. Thompson Pass was also breathtaking.

We finally arrived in Valdez, and got ourselves a space in Sea Otter RV Park, right on the channel where the boats cruised back and forth from the small boat harbor into Port Valdez, the bay. Across the bay, we could see the Pipeline Terminal, with a cluster of oil tanks arranged on the hillside next to it. Two huge oil tankers arrived, filled up overnight, and departed the next day. Dozens of fishing boats ranged down the bay, small aluminum skiffs to 50' charter boats. Across the channel toward town was the ferry dock. The Marine Highway runs from Valdez to Whittier and Cordova. The ferry arrived and departed twice a day.

I couldn't make up my mind whether to go fishing in Valdez or not. I had heard good things about Allison Point, across the bay and inland from the oil terminal. But I didn't know what to use for bait, where to go, etc. I finally decided to skip it.

Then luck stepped in. We had chatted with our next door neighbors, a family from Palmer, there with 2 boats and two freezers, a cord of wood, and plans to catch salmon in a week long stay. They reported catching their limit the first day out, with 3 of them in the boat. They asked me if I'd like to go along the next day. I thought about it for a microsecond, checked with Consuelo, then told them yes. I scurried into town to get a one day fishing license.

The Great Alaskan fishing dogs

As 7:00 the next morning, we launched their 20' flat bottom boat and hurried out onto the water. There were 4 of us, Lance and Tammy, husband and wife, and their grown daughter Jamie, and me. There were also 2 dogs, a black and a chocolate lab. They were the fish dogs. They were a riot, scrambling from front to back, barking at otters and seals, jumping salmon, driftwood, or lures being cast. Every time we caught a fish, they wanted to see it, smell it, taste it. They ran back and forth from the bow to the stern, until once they collided head on with each other, causing a gash over one eye. That slowed them a little, but just a little.

Captain Lance immediately got lost in the fog, as he tried to work his way westward along the north side of the bay, but lost sight of land. For whatever reason, he kept doing a slight left hand turn, thinking that he was going straight. Port Valdez is 13 miles long and 2-1/2 miles wide, and I think we covered most of it before we saw lights and figured out we were at the oil terminal. Oops! He headed off across the bay again, and this time ended up at Allison Point, even farther east and still across the bay from where he wanted to be. Setting out one more time, I kept watching the wake, and guiding him off to the right as he tended to veer left, and we this time arrived at the ferry terminal, which was at least on the right side of the bay. From then on, he never lost sight of shore, and we got to the fishing spot about 1-1/2 hours after we left. Wow!

Silver salmon for the freezer

But then we caught fish, nice big fat silver salmon which tipped the scales between 10 and 15 pounds. I caught 4, and lost a couple more. Between the 4 of us, we pulled 14 into the boat in about 5 hours. From the reports that we got on the way back, we did quite well for ourselves, as several boats returning had caught only one or none. We took our catch to the fish cleaner on the docks, who filleted our catch for us. I arrived back at our camper with 4 fish with a net weight of 16 pounds. Just as a side benefit, I got some more eagle pictures, since we saw dozens of them along the shore. What a piece of luck!

Meanwhile, Consuelo had a sore throat that over two weeks had developed into a glob of crap and then into her sinuses, and she finally called the Mayo Nurse and was told to get to a clinic. The gave her antibiotics and a cough syrup. When she returned home with the meds, she had a ½ hour coughing bout that left her abs sore the next day. (A week later, she seems to be improving, but is still coughing...)

On our final night in Valdez, our fishing friends loaned us the DVD of Clint Eastwood's “Gran Torino”, which we found to be excellent.

The next morning we departed Valdez, back up the highway to Wrangell/St Elias, and this time the mountains were in full view, though the clouds were still around. I stopped a couple places along the way, and got some pictures of the mountains.

Just north of Glenwood, the Glenn Highway splits, the Glen Highway continues on to Delta Junction, joining the Alaska Highway at it's end. The other road is called the Glenn Highway, Tok Cutoff. We took the cutoff toward Tok. This road is built primarily over permafrost, the bane of the Alaska road builder. As the summer sun heats the road, the frost underneath melts, leaving full width dips in the road, typically 4 to 8 feet long, and 6 or more inches deep. The road gets patched, but the permafrost never gets replaced, so every year it melts a little more. Late summer, the time we are traveling now, is just about the worst. Sitting up high in our RV, I can see the dips most of the time. Many of them have skid marks in them, where some other RV or truck has bottomed out their suspension, probably sending the occupants towards the roof of the cab, to be restrained only by their seat belts, should they be wearing them.

Tundra swans

But to save some miles, we put up with this kind of road, take it slow, reduce speed for the dips, and only manage to bottom out on a couple of the "invisible"ones. The payoff is that we see new country. We usually get to see the black spruce forests, since they are the only trees that can manage to grow year after year with their feet frozen in the permafrost. And we get to see the little ponds that are just standing water that can't seep into the ground, and whatever surprises they may hold, like the tundra swans in the picture.

View from Eagle Trail SP

About 15 miles before we reached Tok, we found Eagle Trail State Park and stayed the night there. There were two trails that I got to walk on, one that climbed into the hills overlooking the valley, the other a nature trail with lots of signs describing the flora. Both were a lot of fun.

2009-08-27T21:24:00.009-05:00

If the leaves on the deciduous trees are a microcosm of life, then death is starting to appear in Alaska. In Maine, about now I would expect to start seeing the glorious red and orange hues of the maple trees as they shed their adornments. There are even a few maples in southern Minnesota near where I worked. But the colors in Alaska are more like northern Minnesota, birches and poplars which turn yellow like the one at the left. All the leafy trees are starting to blush in pale yellow here in Alaska.

We've been doing the last few thing in our list before we head back towards Canada. We developed a problem with our generator, it cranked very slowly, but would not start. Our friends on the Alfa web site suggested a starter was the problem. We brought the coach into a shop in Anchorage on Monday, they confirmed the diagnosis, and they have ordered a starter which they will put in on Friday. Have to get that done before we leave.

Meanwhile, we came up to Palmer, back to the Elks Lodge on Finger Lake. The loons here haunted us soon after they arrived. Such a familiar sound from our time in northern Minnesota, but we both had to take pause and remember what that sound was.

Hatcher Pass

On Tuesday, we packed a lunch and climbed back into our car to take the Palmer Willow Fishhook Road road through Hatcher Pass, another item on our list. The clouds lingered around the mountain tops, with overcast above. We passed the Independence Mine, which we had visited in July, and continued up the steep, rough, washboard dirt road up to the top of the pass. We were above the treeline, into the tiaga and tundra. The road kept our speed to 20 mph or less, washboard on the slopes, and potholed on the flats. The view from the top was pretty good. Still would have liked to have seen it on a clear day. About 2/3 way through, the clouds were clearing to the west, and a snow covered mountain range came into view. Could have been up in Denali, but we may never know.

We continued on down the hill to Willow. We realized, after about 15 miles of the 40 mile trip, that there are no restrooms on the mountain tops, and not even a bush to hide behind. Fortunately, the last 8 miles or so were paved, and we hurried on to Willow and relief in a rest room.

South Rolly Lake

By the time we got to Willow, the clear sky was above us. We looked for a place to have lunch, and stumbled into the Nancy Lake Recreation Area, one of the parks in the Alaska State Park system. We found a picnic table overlooking South Rolly Lake, had our lunch, and then wandered up to the campground to look around. Got some nice pictures of the lake.

Our list also included going to the Alaska State Fair, which started today in Palmer. We arrived 2 hours before they opened (some sort of a record for us) so we went touring for a while, east of Palmer toward the Chugach Mountains, across the Matuniska River, until we bumped into the Reindeer Farm. We stopped and toured that for 1-1/2 hours.

Consuelo feeding the reindeer

The farm gives the visitors a 10 minute talk about the farm and the reindeer, then hands out some pellets and turns us free in the pens with the reindeer. The reindeer they let us go near were pretty friendly. They got visitors all the time, so they knew what the routine was. People who walk into their pen usually have food. Follow them around and maybe they'll get some.

400 lb pumpkin

After the reindeer farm, we went back to the state fair. After waiting in our car to park and waiting in line to get in, we toured the fair from one end to the other. We had heard about the giant vegetable the Alaskans were able to grow in the extended summer days, and we got to see some in the vegetable exhibits: Pumpkins, almost 400 lbs; 70 lb rutabagas; 90 lb cabbages; 133 lb watermelons; and 15 lb beets. Way to go, Miracle Grow!

Quilts on display

The fair had the usual assortment of other competitions: chickens, turkeys, rabbits, livestock, sewing, photos, and more. The streets were lined with food vendors, trinket shops, service clubs. 4H had their own building. One of the most spectacular was the exhibit of quilts, some 250 were entered into the competition. Quilting is a perfect hobby for long, dark winter nights, and Alaska has more than their fair share of fabric shops, we've notices.

We spent 5 hours wandering around the fair, were completely tired out.

Western Kenai Peninsula

2009-08-19T22:21:00.011-05:00

Moonrise over Anchorage
We returned form Seward to Anchorage in the rain. We delivered the kids and grandkids to the airport for the plane to New York on 8/6 at 6:30 in the morning. They had TSA challenges, because the smoke from the fires around Fairbanks had diverted passengers into the Anchorage airport, and there was a crowd at TSA. But they got through OK and we got a call in late afternoon saying that they had arrived safely.

The rain stopped after a day, and we spent a few days in Anchorage, putting away things and doing laundry. Thumper needed to get here prescription renewed, so we found a vet for that. We also had our mail sent and picked it up at the post office. I went for a bike ride with our Escapee/Jekyll friends Lloyd and Kathleen with whom we've been sharing Alaska. I got out to Woronzof Point for some sunset photos and shots of downtown Anchorage after dark.

Mount Resolute Sunset from Kenai Harbor

On Tuesday, 8/11, we departed for the Kenai Peninsula again. This time, we would spend some time on the western side of the peninsula. We cruised up through the Turnagain Pass on the Seward Highway, then took the Sterling Highway through Cooper's Landing and Sterling over to Soldotna. We passed the Russian and Kenai Rivers along the way, noticed that the fishermen were far from shoulder to shoulder, as the peak salmon runs had passed.

In Soldotna, we stopped at Fred Myers store. This is the only store parking lot that we have found listed as a campground in our travel bible, Church's Alaska Camping book. Dozens of RVs were parked around the fringe, and smaller ones in the middle. They have a dump station and water fill, and we took advantage to empty our tanks. We then checked with the Kenai Elks and found that they had room for us, so we went to Kenai and parked at the Elks.

The Russian Orthodox Church at Kenai

The rain returned, with projections for a week or more of it, at least off and on. We checked out the Kenai Visitor's Center, and happened onto a free concert by Hobo Jim, Alaska's official balladeer, which we found very enjoyable. In the evening, I took my camera to the town wharf and got some shots of the fishing fleet and Mount Redoubt, the active volcano across Cook Inlet that had been spewing smoke and ash earlier in the year.

On Saturday, we did some exploring, getting as far east as Soldotna, where we checked out the Farmer's Market and bought some produce. We then came back to Kenai, checked out their Saturday Market, bought nothing. We took a ride up to Cook State Park, some 35 miles up the Peninsula, at the end of the Kenai Spur Highway. We noticed all the oil and gas facilities in Nikiski, where oil was discovered in 1957. Production is now moving toward LNG, as the crude is mostly depleted.

Another munching moose

On Sunday, we looked into old town Kenai. We found the Russian Orthodox Church, still in use for services after nearly 100 years. Kenai was settled by Russians in the 18th century. They recently celebrated their bicentennial. We found a really horrible Chinese buffet, where the owner/waitress/hostess tried to be sure we didn't eat too much food. In some ways, the plan was smart... you order the main courses from a check list, as often as you want. The food is freshly cooked, but the portions were fairly small, and it was strange to have to order 2 or three times.

A Pair of Eagles looking for Breakfast in Homer

Consuelo needed to replace her 15 year old iron. I took it apart, it needed a part, might have been salvageable, but I broke a screw and made it worthless. So we stopped at Home Depot, nothing she wanted, went to Lowe's (right next door, of course!) and found a good one.

Later I went back to Cook State Park, as the weather had cleared and I was looking for more good sunset shots. While I waited, I had several conversations with campers and visitors on the beach. One old native Alaskan was hunting for agates, was kind enough to show me what they looked like, and even gave me one. And I did get a few sunset shots. I also nearly bumped into a pair of moose munching along the road on the way up, a distance of some 25 miles. I made the return trip, after dark, slowly and carefully.

The Harding Ice Field from Homer

On Monday, we left Kenai and headed down the Sterling Highway to Homer. The weather cleared up , and it was a beautiful day. We found the Homer Elks, who have a great location on a bluff overlooking the bay. After some confusion on where to park (they told me where to park, but didn't realize that we were long enough that we blocked their dumpster) we nestled up to the back edge of the parking lot. We have great views of Kachemak Bay between the lodge and the adjacent buildings. We can see the mountains and parts of the Harding Ice Field across the way, all the boats that come and go, at least we can when the fog stays away. When it's really clear, we can see Augustine Island (another volcano), some 65 miles away.

The Homer Spit

On Tuesday, we checked out some of the shops in town, and cruised out to the end of the Homer Spit, a jut of land which some believe is the terminal moraine of a glacier that created Kachemak Bay. The Spit is the only deep water land in Homer, so the ferry terminal and deep water docks are there. It's also the home to hundreds of cheap city RV sites, some sleazy looking shops, and dozens of charter services competing for fewer dollars this summer. You can charter boats for fishing (Homer claims to be the halibut fishing capital of the world) or wheel or seaplanes for fishing trips, sightseeing, or even bear viewing. Tuesday night I went to the top of the hill, looking for more sunset shots.

Sunset across Cook Inlet from Homer

On Wednesday, we took a 35 mile long drive across Skyline Drive, East Hill Road, and East End Road, traveling up the north side of the bay nearly to the end. We got great views of the bay, the mountains, and the ice field. After, Consuelo found the fabric shops in town and did some shopping.

We had planned to go to Whittier for a night or two on Thursday, but after looking at what there is to do (boat tours of Prince William Sound) and the cost ($70 in tolls to get through the tunnel) we decided to stay in Homer for a few more days.

Seward to Anchorage

2009-08-06T22:09:00.004-05:00

Resurrection Bay on a clear day

If you read the last blog segment, you learned how bad the campground was in Seward, how it rained forever, the road washed out, and the boat trip got postponed. Then when we got on the boat, almost everybody got seasick. I ended the segment with us eating dinner Friday night in Seward.

During dinner, things began to turn around. Paul and I decided to go fishing on Saturday. Consuelo, Maria and the kids decided to go to the Sea Life Center in Seward. We went home and built a campfire. The clouds began to part, and we saw the mountain tops clearly across the bay for the first time in 4 days.

Our fishing boat left at 12:00 noon, a half day outing. It was our iontention to catch some silver salmon, but that was not to be. When we met with the 3 other charterers on the deck on the lodge, one of them was urgent to bottom fish to catch a lingcod. Due to the Alaska fishing rules, if we caught a lingcod, we could not do any other fishing in Resurrection Bay, where the salmon were. Our guide suggested that we bottom fish some, then salmon fish some. We agreed, got into the boat, a 26' center console, and headed down the bay.

Salmon fishing spot

Our first stop was near the cliffs where all the birds congregated which we had seen on the previous day. We stopped over 200' of water and baited up, one guy fishing the bottom, the rest of us fishing for black rockfish. I think our guide weighted the location toward us, since we caught our limit of black rockfish in aboug 45 minutes. We caught no bottom fish. We did catch a couple small sharks. At one point, all five of us had fish on our lines, and our guide, Andy, was busy unhooking, untangling, and stowing rockfish. He knocked them on the head to kill them, because their dorsal fins carried toxic spines which would have disrupted our trip if somebody got spiked.

Once we had our load of rockfish, we motored across the mouth of the bay, watching a pod of 6 or 8 orcas swimming in the same direction we were going. A group of stellar sea lions watched us go by. We then stopped in an area with about 20 other boats fishing for salmon. Paul manage dot catch 2, and I got one. We all lost some before we could get them into the boat. We certainly could have caught more, but time ran out on our trip. So, we had to return home.

Paul and I and the catch from the boat

Our captain and some of the staff at Millers filleted our catch, and we cooked up one of the rockfish for dinner. The salmon and the rest of the rockfish, about 25 lbs of fish altogether, we froze.

Soon after we picked up our fish, the rest of the family returned from the Sea Life Center. Everybody had a grand time there, too. The Center has the largest salt water aquarium tank in the world, and they have wondrful displays of puffins, common murres, sea lions, and the other creatures that live around south central Alaska.

On Sunday morning, Paul got up and out early, taking his camera to the black beach. Independently, I had the same idea, and arrived at the beach about 20 minutes after he did. The rest of the family slept in. We took a few shots of the beach, then decided to walk the nearby trail down towards the point.

The trail was probably the remains of a road built to create and supply a fort on the point which defended Seward during World War II. The fort was about 6 miles down. We only walked the first 1-1/2 miles. The trail was dark and damp, even though the sun was out. Many little streams were still draining all the rainwater from the mountains.

Tosina Creek and Point

We finally reached Tosina Point, the next point down the bay from Millers, where a salmon stream ran into the bay. Dozens of salmon were making their way upstream to spawn, continuing the cycle of life. Just beyond the stream, a flat grassy area remained, most likely a portion of the coast that was submerged in the 1964 earthquake that destroyed Anchorage. The trunks of long dead sitka spruces punctuated the grass. A few folks were fishing in the mouth of the stream, where fishing was allowed. It was closed to fishing farther upstream. We checked it out for a few minutes, then made our way back to the campground.

On Monday, we ran out of fresh water in our tanks. We had been being careful with water, using the grungy restrooms and showers in the campground. Making 20 cups of coffee every morning was a significant toll by iteslf. We figured that our holding takns were nearly full, too, so we packed most everything up and drove into Seward to dump and fill. Maria and Liam had decided to walk into Seward earlier to have lunch together. Consuelo stayed in the campground and got a couple loads of wash done while we tripped into town.

A pair of eagles near our camper

Later Monday was birdwatching day. The eagles were flying around the campground, and a pair of them camped out in a tree near where we were parked. We found an eagle's nest just a few hundred feet away, in another small campground.

On Tuesday, we really packed everything up and left Seward. Maria and Liam decided to take the train from Seward to Girdwood, and the rest of us drove up to Bird Creek, just beyond Girdwood. Paul and I fished in the creek, COnsuelo and Amelia stayed homw and tried on lipstick and other makeup. When we got back from fishing, Consuelo had dinner ready, and Amelia put on a show for us. After dinner, we picked up Maria and Liam at the Girdwood train station.

Paul and the single salmon from Bird Creek

Wednesday morning, Paul and Liam and I tried one more time in Bird Creek to catch some salmon. There were plenty there, and we snagged a few. Alaska regulations require that salmon caught in fresh water must be hooked in the mouth, snagging them with a hook in the fin or tail is not legal, and those fish had to be returned to the river. Paul managed to catch one, which we cleaned stowed for dinner.

Wednesday afternoon, we rolled back into Anchorage, back to the same mediocre campground that we started out in. It was raining again. Although we wanted ot eat the salmon we caught, we wanted more to enjoy the reliable sameness of a night out at MacDonalds, so we all packed into our little VW bug and headed out for dinner. After we ate, we went downtown for some last minute shopping, then got ourselves settled in for the night.

The alarms went off at 5:30 AM on Thursday morning. The kids had packed most everything up the night before, and I bumbled my way around, dumping first a bowl of cereal, then a cup of coffee. We got everybody but Consuelo into the car and headed out to the airport, arriving at 6:30. The car disgorged all the baggage and 5 people, and I went hoem to catch a nap.

Anchorage to Seward

2009-08-06T13:19:00.008-05:00

(The blog was abandoned our kids and grand kids arrived in Anchorage to visit with us for a couple of weeks. This section was written on 7/29 in Seward)

Polar bear at the Alaska Zoo

We landed in Anchorage ahead of schedule, since we wanted to get a few things done before our kids/grandkids arrived. Good thing we did, as our car needed major engine work. Had we arrived on schedule, we would not have had time to get it fixed. As it was, the work took even longer than the shop expected, and they gave us a loaner to pick everybody up at the airport.

After the kids arrived, we spent a couple days doing the sights in Anchorage. We took a walk along Ship Creek near the campground and watched the fisher people catching salmon. We went to the Alaska Zoo, which was pretty good. The kids got to see all sorts of Alaskan animals all in one place and close up, but being 4 and 8 the attention span was only about 30 seconds each. I'm thinking that TV conditions us to want to look at something else after 30 seconds, or change the channel. I do it, too. But I lasted longer than 30 seconds, and enjoyed seeing and reading about the animals and their lifestyles.

After the zoo, the kids treated us to lunch at the Glacier Brewhouse in downtown Anchorage. If you like beer, they have some great stuff. The food was pretty good, too.

Seaside Cafe in quaint Hope, Alaska

The next day, they checked out the shopping at the craft fair and bought a few unusual souvenirs. On Monday, we headed south, cruising along the Turnagain Arm (the estuary of Cook Inlet extending east from Anchorage) on the Seward Highway, one
of the few designated "All American Highways". It was pretty spectacular, even though we were hemmed in under a 1000 foot ceiling and pushing 30-40 mph headwinds.

Some folks have to choose either the ocean or the mountains when they go on vacation, but here there is no choice. You have both everywhere, and the mountains roll right down into the sea.

Liam learning to pan for Gold

We had one night out before our arrival in Seward, and we decided to stop in the village of Hope, Alaska. The attraction was for Liam, the 8 year old, could try his hand panning for gold. Some folks told us that "there's nothing in Hope", but like most places, some like it and some don't. We fell in love with it. The salmon run
was on, and people were lined up in the stream to catch them, and catch them they did. The quaint Seaview Cafe runs a little campground right next to the stream. You overlook Turnagain Arm, and there's enough history and crusty folks there to keep the whole family amused. The gold panning was excellent. The lady's name was Dallas, and she kept the 8 year old and everybody else amused for over an hour, teaching him that gold was 19.3 times heavier than water. And he got some pretty nice gold flakes out of the process.

We departed Hope for Seward. We had made reservations for a camp space and a boat trip in Seward at Miller's Landing. We were told that the site was right on the beach. We were told that we could pitch our screen room on the beach. We wanted the spot to be memorable for our kids/grand kids to enjoy. Then we arrived, and reality fell far short of our expectations.

On the 'beach' in the rain and fog

Miller's Landing is, to be somewhat generous, a fish camp. The sites by Resurrection Bay are far from level, all rock, and just a tad bit wider than really, really narrow. There's only electric, no water or sewer at the sites. We knew that going in, but were told that they have "hot showers and flush toilets". The hot showers are filthy, as are the toilets. Some fixtures are not working. The building looked like they were last painted in the 60s. The explanation, proudly displayed on the shower wall, was that they had finally received approval to build new facilities, but that was no excuse for not keeping the old ones clean and painted.

Then there's the fees. They have wifi, but they charge $12/day. I offered them $20 for the week, but they said no. We're paying $46/night for a campsite for a week. We booked it in February.

The weather is generating complaints from others for the campground, too. The rain has been incessant for several days, and the roads and walkways are flooded with puddles. Some folks paid for all day boat rentals, got washed out, and the campground said, "Sorry", no refund.

Beyond the control of the campground is the 2 mile road from Seward that leads along Resurrection Bay to Miller's. There's a stream that flows under a bridge at the south end of Seward that leads along the bay to Miller's. We thought there was an amazing amount of water flowing under the bridge when we crossed it on the way in. It rained long and hard overnight, and this morning the bridge is closed, so we are effectively stranded at Miller's. We took a drive up there to the bridge this afternoon, and they appeared to be working feverishly just to keep the bridge from washing away. But we've been without rain for about 8 hours now, and we just got word that we can walk across the bridge tomorrow, and get cars across it by Friday. No word yet on how long it will take to get it up to carrying the motorhome across.

And the road itself is a real piece of work. Driving speed is about 5 mph most places, as it's loaded with pot holes large enough for a tire to fit into. We knew about that before we got here, so we're not surprised. But, Wow!

Steller sea lions

We did discover a nice black rock/sand 'beach', just a few hundred yards from Miller's that has the beautiful Alaska scenery that we wanted from our visit here. Back in February, we also booked a Kenai Fiords Boat trip for the 6 of us through the campground. We expected some confirmation when we arrived at Miller's but they said no, just give them your name when you go into the boat. It didn't matter too much, since the road was closed, we couldn't get there this morning anyway. The tour boat people were kind enough to reschedule our tour for Friday. We're hoping that the weather clear up some by then.

On Thursday, the road was repaired and we drove into town to snoop around and get some groceries. We visited the Visitor Center for Kenai Fiords National Park, bout some books and things, and watched a short movie there. The city had graded the road, so it was a little more passable.

A puffin fishing

On Friday (7/31) the rain had stopped, after dropping another 1-1/2 inches on us. We found a few things to do at the campground. The campground shuttled us into the boat harbor for our tour of Kenai Fiords boat tour. Everybody enjoyed the first few miles of the boat trip, but it was windy, and as we left the protection of the bay, the seas grew to 15 feet. Our 120 foot boat was rocking pretty good, and a lot of people got sick, including Consuelo who suffers from seasickness in the back seat of a car. Liam, Amelia, and Maria were all somewhat unsettled. Unfortunately, there were several hours of boat trip to go.

We got to see mountain goats, sea lions, and some birds on the way to the glacier. The tour was narrated by one of the Park Rangers, who pointed out sights and talked about the history of the area. As we left Resurrection Bay and made the turn into Ailick Arm up to Ailick Glacier, the seas were the worst, and lots of folks clutched their barf bags while holding onto a rail.

The face of Ailick Glacier

We finally arrived at the glacier, in a quiet bay. The boat stopped and faced each side of the boat at the glacier for 20 minutes. Seasickness is something that people recover from almost immediately, so everybody got a good look at the glacier. Hearing it was almost as impressive, as it groaned and cracked like a thunderstorm as it moved down into the sea and calved off big chunks of ice. Forty minutes seemed to pass in an instant.

On the return, we cruised across the mouth of Resurrection Bay to an island that was a rookery for gulls, common murres, and puffins. Sea lions and mountain goats were hanging around here, too.

Humpback whale tail

In the bay, among the islands, a pod of humpback whales were hunting for food. We could hear them blowing when they surfaced, and caught a few whale tails.

The return trip was as rough in some places, but farther up the bay, with the wind now calmer and behind us, the seasickness was more manageable. We arrived back inot Seward around 5:30, regained our sea legs, and called fror the shuttle to pick us up. We got the car and then were treated to an enjoyable dinner in town by the kids. By the time we got back to the camper, everybody was tired out and ready to sleep.

Palmer and Eklutna Lake

2009-07-17T11:12:00.004-05:00

Wild Geraniums along the highway

Still pretty hot in Alaska. We had to leave Talkeetna, because the Moose Dropping Throwing Contest was coming to town, and the campground was all booked up. So we headed on down the Parks Highway toward Anchorage. South of the Takeetna Spur Road, we entered the Denali State Park, loaded with little off roads to hiking trails, camping sites, and fishing lakes and brooks.

Along the way, we passed through Willow, the “almost” state capitol. Seems that back in the 1970s, Alaska wanted to move its state capitol to a more central location. After reviewing the options, Willow was chosen as a central site, platted, and the land boom was on. Soon thereafter, the legislature found out what it would cost to move the capitol, and refused to fund the move. Then the land bust was on. A few businesses sprung up along the road, and a state rec area lives there, but otherwise, little goes on.

Airplane parked at Palmer Elks Club

After Willow, we passed through a few smaller towns, then the edge of the big city began to appear. By the time we got to Wasilla, it was clear that we were nearing a population center. Whereas Talkeetna had the charm of Grand Rapids, MN, being 100 miles from the next nearest city (although Grand Rapids held 4000 folks and Talkeetna only 800), Wasilla reminded me more of White Bear Lake, only 30 – 40 miles from the big city. Big box stores appeared along the highway.

It was time to reload our larder, so we stopped into a Fred Myer* to fill the fridge. We also stopped into a Chucky Cheese... no, it was a Carl's Junior, whre they are determined to invent the next Big Mac. This one is called the Teriyaki Burger, topped with sauce and grilled pineapple. Definitely not your standard California Burger, but pretty good nonetheless. We shopped for groceries then headed off to Palmer.

We chose Palmer for a couple reasons. One is, it would give us a few days to spend before our 7/19 reservation in Anchorage. Another is that they have an Elks club with 21 RV sites, members only , all with electric. We drove all the way to Palmer from Wasilla (10 miles of road under repair), called the Elks Lodge to discover that they were a good way back along the road we had just taken. Nut no matter, we called, got directions, and parked there for the night.

Little Susitna River

Our general experience of the Elks is that they have some pretty good property around the country, at least the ones that have good management. The club in Palmer is on the edge of Finger Lake, a resort scene complete with ski boats and jet skis. From the club deck, overlooking the lake, you can see the mountains off to the northeast. Really pretty. One of the best we've seen.

On Saturday, we decided to cruise into Palmer to check out the town. The sky was overcast with the ceiling at about 500 feet. We stopped in the visitor center, got more information than we asked for, nut all of it good. We went to check out the “Great Alaska Flea Market” at the state fairgrounds, only to find it was about 4 tables, and we didn't even stop. There were apparently about a thousand garage sales in town, but we passed on those, too. We drove out to the Musk Ox Farm, and checked out the gift shop, but they jealously guarded the musk ox from anybody seeing them without paying $8.00 per head for a guided tour, and we'd had a tour in Fairbanks, so we skipped that, too. We chased down a couple odds and ends we needed at Fred Meyer and a gourmet shop called “Non Essentials”, without luck, requiring a trip to Wasilla in the future, or wait until Anchorage. We then had a wonderful lunch at a little restaurant, where I had a fresh red salmon salad, delicious it was. After that, we cruised home for a nap, and that too was outstanding, but I awoke having a dream in which I was being attacked by a moose. Interesting...

Independence Mine

On Sunday we hopped into our dirty Beetle and drove up to the Independence Mine, an Alaska State Park about 15 miles north of Palmer, in the Talkeetna Mountains. The road passed along the Little Susitna River, a charming emerald rocky river with lots of water in it. We then climbed up into the mountains to about 3500 feet to the site of the mine.

Independence Mine is a hard rock gold mine, similar to the mines in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Most of the gold mining we have seen in Yukon and Alaska is placer mining, meaning that the gold is essentially loose buried in the soil and rocks, thus panning, sluicing, and dredging work well for placer mining, since water can be used to wash away the lighter dirt. The Independence mine used blasting and mucking to remove ore from the mountain. Rock crushers then reduced the ore to gravel, and liquid mercury attached itself to the gold, forming amalgam, which was then sent off to be processed elsewhere.

This was a fairly large operation, requiring dozens of people to operate. Numerous buildings supported the operation, housing the staff, providing space for engineering, pipe fitting, and lumber operations. The mine operated in the early part of the 20th century, and was finally closed during World War II when the war department determined that gold mines weren't necessary.

After a wonderful "Cook Your Own" dinner of steak and chicken with the Elks, we packed up and departed for Eklutna Lake. We stopped along the way to dump our tanks and get fuel at a Chevron station in Palmer.

Eklutna Lake

The trip to Eklutna was only about 40 miles. The last 5 miles climbed up to about 1200 feet in the Chugach State Park. The campground was excellent, lots of space between paved sites. No hookups, but only $10/night. Quiet. The lake was just a short walk away from our site, and it was grand, about 6 miles long and surrounded by mountains. The lake is a major source of water for Anchorage, so no motorboats are allowed. Kayaks can be rented. And a 16 mile trail takes tou right up to the glacier that feeds the lake.

We deposited payment for 5 nights of camping, but discovered right away that our inverter batteries were not operating properly. I did some troubleshooting and determined that 2 of our 6 volt batteries were only putting out about 4.5 volts, suggesting shorted cells. Since they are 5 years old, it time to replace them. We packed up, got a refund from the ranger, and headed into Anchorage. We really hated to leave there, as we had planned several things for the downtime... me to hike, Consuelo to sew, etc. But we can come back here in mid August, so we'll get our batteries fixed and save this pleasure for another time.

* Fred Meyer is a Walmart alternative in the Northwest and Alaska. They have food, housewares, clothes and lots of other stuff

Holy Smoke – Talkeetna

2009-07-17T10:36:00.007-05:00

(Note: we've been out of Internet connections for a while. This was written on July 8)

Downtown Talkeetna

Well, maybe it wasn't really holy, but the smoke was there. And they say, where there's smoke, there's fire. We didn't see any fire, but it was hot enough. Talkeetna was setting record highs, with temps around 90 on Tuesday, 7/7. It was so hot, we ditched our dry camping ideas and booked into a campground with electric so we could run our air conditioner. Didn't expect to need that very much in Alaska!

The campground is very compact, but grass, wildflowers, and a few trees give a sense of separation to the sites. We had not even finished parking when Kathleen Baird called us on the phone. Kathleen was one of Consuelo's knitting students at Jekyll Island last winter. We enjoyed a dinner with them, and made them breakfast the next morning before they left.

The smoke lingers on. While there have been numerous rumors of being able to see Mount McKinley from several places in Talkeetna, the smoke is still to thick to see that far. I'm guessing that visibility is now up to 15-20 miles, but we'll need a lot more than that to see the mountain.

Talkeetna Ranger Station

Talkeetna is a nice little town, definitely experiencing an overdose of the hormones that spur on tourists. Main street is only about 4 blocks long, but people seem to be walking up and down it from 9 in the morning until 9 at night. The blocks are filled with gift shops, guided tours, quilt shops, and restaurants, with a few lodges scattered here and there, and a museum or two. Much of the Main Street area is a registered historic district, many of the buildings are original homes and stores from the area, dating back to 1900-1920. Tour busses find their way into town and disgorge passengers, as does the train.

Looking seriously out of place, there is a Ranger Station here for Denali National Park, although we're not in the park. Talkeetna is the jumping off point for those crazy people who feel the need to climb the mountains, Denali and others nearby. And in true Alaskan style, you don't drive to the mountain to climb it, you take an airplane, which lands on a glacier at 7,000 feet. And, as it turns out, Talkeetna has the closest airstrip. It also has a train station, so folks can fly to Anchorage or Fairbanks, train down to Talkeetna, then fly up to the mountain.

3D Model of Mount McKinley

Ranger Bob gave a nice talk using the 3D model of the mountain that was donated by the Boston Science Museum all about climbing and what people have to know to get started up the mountain. The NPS provides 8-12 rangers and volunteers on the mountain through climbing season, which lasts from late April until, well, about now. Next week, they will haul all their gear off the mountain, as the snow is becoming too soft to be safe where there are crevasses along the mountain. Actually, it has become too soft this week, as they are having to land the planes at the second base camp, at around 10,000 feet altitude, as the first one at 7,000 feet was becoming unsafe.

Sunset where the rivers join

About 1200 people climb the mountains every year, and about 50% of those make it to the summit of McKinley. 4 people died trying in the last year. Many, if not most, of those that die on the mountain are still there. Some were never located. Others were in places that were far too difficult to try to retrieve. The Talkeetna Cemetery honors the climbers who died trying.

Talkeetna means either “Where the rivers join” or "Place where food is stored along the river", depending on who you ask. At the end of Main Street, a short walk over the sandy delta brings you to the junction of the Talkeetna, Chulitna and Susitna Rivers. It's a place where Thumper likes to go to cool off in all this heat.

Dock at Talkeetna Lakes

We asked about trails, and were directed to the Takeetna Lakes Trail by the campground manager. This is a cooperative project of the residents of Talkeetna and the borough (Alaska has boroughs instead of counties). We were told the trail was about 3 miles, but it felt more like 10
by the time we finished it. It traveled through the woods around several small lakes, with several easy climbs. Wonderful scenery, interesting to see what the Alaska forest is doing at this time of year. Lots of mosquitoes. We made noise along the way so we wouldn't surprise any bears.

Denali National Park

2009-07-16T22:33:00.004-05:00

(Note: We were out of Internet range for a while, so I'm catching up. This was written on July 5th)

We've parked our house in a scruffy RV park in Healy, 12 miles north of the entrance to Denali National Park. We thought this would be cheaper, and we'd avoid the crowds in the Denali campgrounds. However, we're right next to the highway, in a tiny site designed for a 30' trailer, I think. They have bigger sites, but we just wanted electric, and this was it.

Visitor's Center Interior

This morning, July 3, we drove our bug down to the National Park to see what was going on. There is a strike by the local bus driver's union, and since the buses are the only way to get very far into the park, so we had low expectations. It turns out there was nothing to worry about. The buses are running, and we don't know what the strike is affecting.

We stopped first at the Visitor's Center, a beautiful building. We found the crowd to be active but not overwhelming. We watched a live presentation by one of the rangers on the life and biology of the 65 wolves living within the park boundaries. Partly scientific, partly emotional, and all designed to support the notion of the wildlife preserve. After that, we walked through the various displays in the visitors center, describing in good detail the animals, flora and history of the park. The park was founded in 1917 as a game preserve to protect the Dall sheep in the mountains. It has since expanded to 6.6 million acres. The fact that Mount McKinley is within the boundaries is more of less coincidental, as the Alaska Range is the natural habitat for the sheep.

After checking out the displays, we went back to the theater and watched a video called “The Heartbeat of Denali”, one of those incredible video presentations that had to have been filmed over several years in the park, edited to perfection, showing unimaginable scenes of wildlife in action, up close and real. Wonderful scenes of the flowers and tundra, and covering all the seasons as the park evolved throughout the year.

After that, we wandered into the book/gift store, found a couple books and do-dads to buy, then got some lunch at the restaurant. Lunch was mediocre. After lunch, we went to the bus ticketing area to see what was available. We had been warned by our several guidebooks that buses were always full, and it might be two days before we could get a ticket as a walk-in. But the recession seems to have done its job for us here as it has elsewhere. We decided to take the 8 hour Tundra Nature Trail bus, and we could have gone on the spot, or at any time the next day. Out of the dozens of bus trips available, only one was full, and that one left in a few minutes. I bought the tickets, which set us back $104 apiece.

Enjoying the Park View

After buying the tickets, we drove the 12 miles of accessible road into the park to look at what there was. There was one viewpoint where the Mountain was theoretically visible, but the day prevented seeing much. Although it was mostly clear where we were, it was hazy and clouds shrouded our view to the peak. We did see one caribou resting in a wash. At the end of the open road (only the buses can go further into the park) we turned around and went up to the shops along the highway near the park entrance and got an ice cream cone. The thermometer was reading 82 degrees. After that, we wandered back to our home. We had spent 5 hours doing very little at the park, but had lots of fun.

Tundra Wilderness Tour – Day 2

Bus on the Park Road
Saturday, July 4th. We wake to find the day clear but apparently very muggy, visibility limited by the haze. We would later discover that this is smoke, not haze, from a forest fire burning near Nenana. The bus tour tickets disclose that there is no refund if we miss the bus, and no accounting for the weather. We arrive at the bus stop over ½ hour early. We've brought all the things the books says you should bring... extra socks, our own food and water, rain gear, bug spray, and of course cameras and lenses. It turns out that the book is preparing you for a day trip; on a tour, you pretty much stay inside the bus, so most of that is unnecessary.

Our pick up point is the Chalet Resort, just outside the park boundary which is the Nenana River. Our bus arrives, and we are first aboard. We sit apart, since we both want windows, Consuelo to breathe, me to take pictures. The bus is nearly full. The tour includes a box lunch and water, and we end up waiting about 15 minutes while 2 vegetarian box lunches arrive. We stop at another hotel to pick up 4 more passengers.

The name of our driver/naturalist/tour guide is River. He's been doing this for 20 years. He starts by giving us the ground rules, safety instructions. We then start the long ride into the park, with River telling us about the history and mission of the national park, setting our expectations for what we may or may not see. He describes wildlife sightings as something of a poker game. He says he's never been skunked, and tells us about one really bad rainy day when they only saw one fox. He tells us to shout “STOP” if we see something, then call out the location based on clock directions: The front of the bus is 12:00, the back is 6:00, etc. In a few minutes, we see another bus stopped to look at something, and River gets hand signals that describe what and where it is. It's a couple of caribou hiding in the trees in the taiga (the thin evergreen forest). Everybody helps everybody else look in the right direction, and soon we move on to what we hope will be a better sighting.

Dall Sheep

The bus ride is described to go to the Toklat River, about 57 miles in from the Parks Highway (Parks Highway is the road from Anchorage to Fairbanks... the bus is on the Park Road). At mile 12 is a ranger station, which prevents private cars from driving further along the Park Road. A ranger hops aboard to welcome us, and further remind us that we are entering a wilderness area. Indeed, in 6.6 million acres, this one road is the only encroachment resembling civilization.

We continue on, making occasional stops to view Dall sheep along one of the mountain faces, grizzly bears scratching for roots along a grassy hillside, more Dall sheep along one of the braided rivers. River tells us about the animals, their habits, ranges, diets. The interaction between the bears, the wolves, the sheep and so forth. He compares the grizzlies here with those that feed on the salmon down in the Kenai... bears in Denali are primarily vegetarians, though they may catch game from time to time. But there are no salmon laden streams here, so Denali bears top out at around 600 pounds, and Kenai bears can reach 3 times that.

Grizzly Sow & 3 Cubs
We continue into the park, crossing Sanctuary River, making a pit stop at the Teklanika River. We climb through Sable pass and Polychrome Pass. Top speed for the bus is 35 mph. We eventually wind down to the Toklat River for another pit stop.

At the Toklat River, our driver tells us that he has the option to continue on another 20 minutes to Stony Overlook, where we could see Mount McKinley on a clear day. After a quick discussion, we proceed to this point. He tells us that the mountain will not be visible today, there's just too much smoke, and when we get to the stop, we'll still be 45 miles away. We arrive to find just the faintest glimmer of the snow on the mountain virtually invisible, and unnoticed if River had not pointed out where it was. But I was happy to get a few good pictures of the tundra flowers along side the overlook parking area. After a few minutes we loaded back onto the bus and headed back the way we came.

Visibility along the way was quite different between the two sides of the bus. Consuelo and I both sat on the left side of the bus, and on the way out, we had the best view of the landscape and animals, since the road tended to hug the hills and mountains on the right side. Even with my one bad eye, I was the one that spotted the Dall sheep along the river. On the way back, I was almost as vigilant in looking for game, but the hillsides were more difficult to see and provided better cover for the animals, so none was seen. We did stop at one overlook for photos, and a pair of red foxes came walking down the road toward us, but disappeared so quickly that nearly nobody got any pictures.

The bear sow and 2 cubs that we saw on the mountainside were still there when we returned, but had moved closer to the road, so we stopped again and took more pictures. We also saw a couple another bear in a hollow with 3 younger cubs, and caribou in a couple of places.

The bus, which was an old Bluebird, developed a complaint about being too hot, which presented itself with an alarm buzzer. River did what he could to keep it cool, but it was annoying. The mechanics happened to be on strike, so getting it fixed might be a problem at this time.

River carried a video camera with a fairly long lens, and the bus was equipped with flip down TV monitors every 4 or 5 seats. When we sighted animals, he stopped the bus and found them with the camera, bringing them fairly close so that all could see them clearly on the monitors. This really did help people see what was out there, because many sightings were of animals 3 or 4 hundred yards away.

As we left the tundra and returned to the taiga, many folks started conversations among themselves. I talked with Sigfried and his wife, from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Consuelo and I discovered that most of the people on the bus were travel agents on a tour from Holland America, taking in what we had seen in over 2 months in about 12 days. We appreciated their experience but were just as glad we didn't have to be up at 5:00 AM as they did to start most every day.

Just before we left the park, we had one more sighting. A crowd of people had stopped on the park entrance road to look at something. We soon discovered that it was a lynx, hiding in the trees, and apparently ready to pounce on a rabbit close by. I never did see where it was, but I snapped dozens of pictures, hoping that I would be able to see it when we got home. Consuelo saw it, and pointed out where it was in the trees in my pictures. A terrible photo, but River told us that in 20 years and thousands of trips into the park, he had seen lynx only about 15 times, so it was definitely a rare sighting.

The bus finally dropped us back at the hotel. The 8 hours on a bus, went by fairly quickly, so busy was I scanning the landscape and taking pictures of the few animals and flowers, and the grand landscapes that we were able to view. We agreed that the $104/person price was a bit steep for what we got, but we were glad that we did it.

The Last of Fairbanks

2009-07-16T22:14:00.004-05:00

(Note: We were out of Internet range for a couple weeks so I'm catching up... this was written on July 2)

We're coming up against 2 weeks in Fairbanks. We've still got a few things to do and see on our list before we leave.

Birdwatching at Creamer's Field

On Monday, we went to Creamer's Field Wildlife Preserve. This is a bird refuge that is operated and maintained by the State fish and game department. It serves as a migratory stop for several species that pass through Fairbanks twice a year. A number of species travel as far as South America, and one goes all the way to Antarctica, based on records of banding birds here and finding the bands there.

The Field is just that, a large field which was part of Creamer's Dairy Farm for many years. The open pasture with several permanent ponds provided a perfect place for birds to stop and rest. Hay and grains that were raised for the cows, along with seeds recovered form cow dung provided a feast for the avian travelers. The state acquired the farm in the 1970s, the farmhouse is an interpretive center. Well built paths around the field provide walking space for the many visitors. Covered viewing areas along the entry road provide space for bird watchers to spend afternoons or evenings watching the birds come and go. While we were there, a flock of sand hill cranes were mostly sleeping alongside one of the small ponds near the viewing areas.

Sleeping Sand Hill Cranes
The mile long walk along the edge of the field leads to the main office of the Alaska Bird Observatory, a scientific organization whose mission is to gather and report on the health of the avian community in Alaska. A biology team was working in the main room while we visited. A gift shop offered numerous birding books and other related items. We bought some trail mix and water to quench our thirst and hunger. We returned to our car and our home.

Pink Plumes on the Trail

On Tuesday, we planned a 60 mile trip up to Chena Hot Springs, northeast of Fairbanks. The weather was wonderful, sunny and temps in the mid 70s. Chena Hot Springs Road is a paved road up to the springs. Along the way, we stopped for a hike in the Chena River Recreation Area, another large state operation. The recreation area has facilities for camping, ATV trails, many places to enter the Chena River for kayak or canoeing, a shooting range, and trails which ranged from 1-1/2 miles to Angel Rocks or 35 miles for the adventurous backpackers. The road crosses the river and numerous creeks in many times, and many ponds and still backwaters also line the roadway. We were told that the moose are there, but you have to look for them.

We came prepared for the hike. I had my photography monopod which I use for a walking stick when I'm out hiking for pictures. Consuelo picked up an adjustable walking stick in Fairbanks soon after we arrived there. Both got a lot of use on this hilly, rock trail that followed Angel Creek. We also made good use of our bug spray, as swarms of mosquitoes followed us up and back. There were few mountain views, but there were lots of wildflowers to take pictures of. We got a good look at Angel rocks and then returned to our car. Thumper went with us, and got a couple swims in the cool river.

We continued up the road, on the constant lookout for moose, but mostly hungry for lunch. We finally arrived at the resort. This year round, off-the-grid facility is quite a place. 80 rooms provide lodging for guests who come for extended stays. Our first stop was the restaurant, which had a nice menu and was situated in a wonderful old log lodge building. Prices were steep, but we were at the end of the road to nowhere. We spent $50 for a roast beef sandwich, Alaskan haddock and chips (best fries Consuelo has ever had, she says) and one slice of cheesecake between us. Well worth it, though.

After lunch, we walked around the grounds, checking out the various pools and ponds. One is designated as a skating rink. We also looked at the lodging, which ranged from dry cabins to yurts to hotel style rooms.

Chena Hot Springs

The hot springs are offered for relaxing in a large outdoor pool, water temp around 105 degrees, no kids allowed. The kids have an indoor pool for their use, along with a couple hot tubs. Locker rooms are showers provide changing space, with a day use fee of $8 for seniors like us. We changed into our bathing suits and went into the outdoor pool for a bit, then went in and played in the pool with the kids. Consuelo went to change, and I took one more trip to the outdoor pool. It was all very relaxing, but it left me wanting to take a nap afterward. But we still had to go home.

Driving back down the hill, we took our time and looked more carefully for moose along the way. We saw a mother and calf at the far end of a pond, did a quick U-turn and got some pictures. A few miles farther down the road, a stopped RV clued us into a solitary bull in another pond. More pictures.

Grazing Bull Moose

I noticed that the relaxation from the hot springs lasted well into Wednesday, when we took a ride over to the Fairbanks Farmer's Market. We've now found that early farmer's markets tend to look the same, a variety of crafts, home made jellies, honey, breads, woodworking, etc. Very little produce at this point, and what there is must be hothouse, and is very expensive. $6.00 for tomatoes is a bit too much for me, though probably worth it for the taste.

We had planned to take a look at North Pole after the Farmer's Market, but I was too relaxed to shop anymore, and Consuelo's shopping urge couldn't overcome her desire to relax, too. So we stayed home, napped, and watched a movie, Blood Diamond. I got a few pictures of the setting sun a little after 11:00 PM.

On Wednesday, we packed up our home to move on down the road. This took a while, since we had time in 2 weeks to spread out quite a bit. We finally got underway about 10:30, traveled down to the little town of Nenana, where we shopped, bought a couple things, and had lunch. We then continued down the Parks Road to Healy where we stopped for the night.

More from Fairbanks

2009-06-29T10:18:00.009-05:00

We've been having so much fun in Fairbanks, we decided to extend our stay for a total of 2 weeks. We finally got caught up on our laundry, and we're back in maintenance mode. We have stocked up on groceries, too.

Statue in downtown Fairbanks

Over the past week we've been on several outings. We picked a wet, rainy day to go over to the University of Alaska Fairbanks Museum of the North. This fine museum is housed in a building that is a striking architectural wonder of its own, and houses a broad range of artifacts which exemplify all of Alaska, divided into the several basic regions that tend to have unique characteristics. For example, in the Southwest section, there is an extensive display about the interment of Japanese and Aleut citizens starting in 1942. Photos, newspaper articles, and first person accounts describe the plight of these people, which ended up being somewhat more severe than the interment of Japanese in the lower 48. In the Aleutian Islands, the small towns were destroyed to keep the invading Japanese from utilizing the structures. Thus there were no homes to return to after the war.

Another set of displays covered the geology of Alaska. Besides gold, the land is minde for coal, lead, copper, and of course, oil and natural gas.

Bear family up close and safe

Natural history displays exhibit the scope and size of the animals found in Alaska. Seeing the normal size of these bears gave me a fuller appreciation of what I might be up against if I should encounter one in the wild. I don't think I would ask them to pose for me. The current conventional wisdom calls for fighting back if one finds you too interesting to pass up, but I'll avoid the entire experience if it is offered and I have a choice. Other native Alaskan animal are mounted for viewing. Its likely the only way we'll see polar bears while we're here.

Eskimo art

Considerable space is devoted to disclosing the customs and art of the native populations and their history. In general, the PC term for these in Alaska is Eskimo, but there are several different groups that inhabited the area, and each has developed their own style. The eastern group, and perhaps the largest, are the Athabaskans who inhabited the eastern and interior sections of the state. Other tribes include the Tlinglit in the Southeast, and the Inuipiak in the Northwest, the Aleuts and Onangan in the Aleutian Islands. While all had to brave the cold, dark Alaskan winters, each developed their own subsistence means, and art and custom followed the materials available.

Finally, we saw two movie productions of the museum, both wonderfully produced. One covered life in the winter around Fairbanks, when temperatures can reach 60 below zero or more. Outhouses are still a way of life here, since running water and sewer lines tend to freeze, and of course, some parts of the area are built on permafrost, which never thaws. The other film explores the beauty and science of the aurora borealis. Since the aurora forms as a ring around the poles, optimal viewing of this phenomenon occurs in a narrow band that includes Fairbanks at its center.

The Nenana

On Wednesday, we tripped to Pioneer Park. It's hard to relate this to similar parks in the lower 48, due to it's lack of focus. In general the park displays the gold rush history of the area, but also includes rides for the kids and a wildly eclectic Air Museum. The park was built for the Centennial celebration in 1967, 100 years after Seward encouraged the congress to buy the place. It is owned and operated by the Fairbanks North Star Borough, basically a county organization. Where enthusiastic volunteers have devoted their blood, sweat and tears to preserving their bit of history, the park shines. An outstanding example of this is the 100 year old narrow gauge locomotive that is kept in working order and brought out on special days for rides. Other displays, like the 230 foot long Nenana riverboat, probably require more care and money than can be provided to keep the display in top notch condition. We enjoyed it nonetheless.

On Friday, Consuelo had signed up for a class at the local fabric/yarn store, so I took the time to look for photo opportunities. I first parked downtown and took my bike on the Chena River Bike Trail. I rode Southeast first, finding the end of the trail at the gate to Wainwright Army Base where I was turned away. I returned to downtown, and discovered an Army Brass Quintet performing in the park next to the river, so I stopped and listened to their music and ate my bag lunch. I tried to venture farther southwest, but lost connection with the trail after it left the park, so I returned to automotive transport.

Giant Alaskan Cabbage

I then went back to the U of A campus to check out the Botanical Garden. This university extension service provides Alaskans with firsthand displays of annual and perennial flowers, trees, and garden vegetables in the ground. If you're considering a garden or landscaping, you can see what luck the U has had growing varieties of your vegetables. Displays include the names of seed companies, and sources are listed if you want to purchase them.

Other areas of study include optimizing production in the 90 day growing cycle, under nearly 24 hour days. Some plants, like soy beans, need some darkness to thrive. Others, like the giant cabbages developed here, flourish under the long, long days. These cabbages get up to about 80 pounds. That's a lot of coleslaw!

Fairbanks for the Solstice, musk ox, pipeline

2009-06-23T11:32:00.009-05:00

Fairbanks celebrates the solstice

We don't usually set too many goals for our destinations when we're traveling, unless we have a reservation or appointment. We did set one for Fairbanks, though. We wanted to be here for the summer solstice, just to observe the longest day of the year at the farthest northern point on our route. Besides, if we didn't set a goal to be in Alaska at some point, we might have spent the whole summer in Canada, as there were lots of things to see and do there, too.

We made our goal, arriving in Fairbanks on June 18th. We booked ourselves into Riverview RV Park, in North Pole, Alaska, about 10 miles SW from downtown Fairbanks. It's a nice park, right on the Chena River, just across the river from where a pair of bald eagles appear to be nesting. We spent the first 2 days in a concentrated effort to get the remaining Taylor Highway dust out of our home. That meant vacuuming the ceilings, walls, floors, miniblinds, and furniture. We also replenished our groceries and looked around town a bit. We went to the post office and picked up our mail, which we hadn't seen since Rochester in mid-May. There was quite a pile, and it took a couple hours to handle the bills, checks, and read the magazines.

Skateboard jumping in the streets

Fairbanks had a celebration planned for the Summer Solstice on Sunday. They shut off about a 10 block area downtown for a variety of activities, open from 12:00 noon until the midnight sun at 12:00 misnight. The older young people set up a 3-on-3 basketball tournament, 2 games going at a time and lots of practice space. The food vendors offered a wide variety, from barbeque to Thai to brats to burgers to elephant ears. We decided to have Latino, which was rice and vegetables, grilled pork or ribs, and red beans with bacon. We wandered the craft booths, saw some beautiful things, but held onto our money. And we watched the kids having fun on the climbing wall, the air houses, and the skateboard area. 3 stages offered rock music, dance recitals, and a swing band that sounded pretty good. It was fun!

Full grown musk ox

On Monday we decided to go the the Large Animal Research Center of the University of Alaska. This scientific mission studies the lifestyles, biology and physiology of musk ox and caribou. We took the tour of the facility, had an excellent presentation and learned a lot about these magnificent animals.

Musk ox are a prehistoric species. They were hunted to extinction in Alaska during the gold rush, as the demand for fresh meat spiked as people arrived from their long sea voyages to search for gold. A small herd of about 40 animals was shipped to Alaska from Greenland to reintroduce the species in the 1930s, and the herd is maintaining itself today. But because they are all descendants of such a small gene pool, they have no strength of genetic diversity, and couold easily succumb to disease. They weight 400-500 pounds, live for 10-20 years, live in harems, and produce some of the lightest and warmest wool in the world. Consuelo wanted to buy a few skeins, until she found out that they were $70/skein.

Caribou daddy

Caribou are far more plentiful in Alaska and elsewhere. Whereas musk ox defend themselves by circling and using their horns, caribou run away when endangered. Their longer legs and energy efficient ankles give them the ability to run a long ways, and because the hair in their fur is hollow, they can easily swim away from some predators. In addition, the newborn calves can run with the herd as soon as they are about 1 hour old. The young calves we saw in the pens were about 2 weeks old, running around the pen, chomping on grass, and bothering their moms for a little milk.

Caribou mom & kid

After visiting the musk ox, we shopped in the gift shop, and I had an extended conversation about with our tour guide about what the content of their research was. They have 2 active grants, one to research the physiology of their digestive systems, since they are able to survive on some of the worst forage in the world. They are looking to see if that capability might be transplanted to domesticated animals. The other study was examining the domestication characteristics of these animals to see if they might serve as a future source of meat and wool.

Alaska Pipeline

After leaving the Center, we traveled up highway 2 a few miles to visit the display about the Alaska Pipeline. This 800 mile conduit was an engineering achievement when it was completed in 1977. Since then, it has delivered 20% of the crude consumed by the US. The builders had to overcome numerous technical and environmental obstacles when building the line. The 4' diameter pipe is half above ground and half under ground. Radiators are installed on the mounting structures so that heat from the relatively warm crude oil doe not melt the permafrost below. The pipeline crosses over rivers and under roadways. There are a dozen pumpstations along the way to keep the crude moving. And high tech gadgets called "pigs" are inserted into the stream flow to clean the interior of the line and to measure the health of the pipeline using ultrasound detectors. Hundreds of crossovers were built to allow animal traffic to cross the line throughout its length. I was impressed, Consuelo less so. She just expects us engineers to create such miracles, I guess.

Pipeline "pig"

In order to be completely tired out before we got home, we stopped at Sam's club and picked up some of the few bulk items that we can fit into motorhome, like sausage, chicken, 5 bean salad, etc. We then went home and collapsed. There's still lots more to see in Fairbanks, and we'll get back to it soon.

Ferry Dust to the North Pole

2009-06-19T11:37:00.005-05:00

The free ferry at Dawson City

We left Dawson on Tuesday, June 16th. Our first challenge was crossing the Yukon River on the free ferry provided by the Yukon Government. This little ferry takes about 4 minutes to make a crossing, making wide swings and applying lots of power to compensate for the swift current in the river at this time of year. The capacity is about 2 RVs of our size. And there was a line to cross, we arrived at about 11:00 in the morning, so we waited almost an hour to board.

I was concerned about getting on and off the boat, since our Alfa has pretty low clearance. But the ferry masters had the landings worked out on both sides so that the ramps were pretty level, so that was not a problem. We ended up waiting an extra turn in line, because the partial load that queued up in front of us didn't have space for us, but did have space for 3 smaller RVs behind us.

Once we crossed, we started our trip to the US/Canadian Border on the "Top of the World Highway". I found the name to be particularly appropriate, because the road climbed up nearly 2000 feet from the river and traveled near the hilltops at 3500 feet for most of the 65 miles in Canada. It was gorgeous. I'd love to share the pictures of the hilltop where we stopped for lunch, but I failed to check my camera, and found a bunch of over exposed photos later. All part of my training.

We crossed the border with little fuss. I had our passports ready, the agent checked them, asked the usual questions, then told us to have a nice day.

Flags and outhouses in Chicken

Whereas the Top of the World Highway was partially paved with dirt road sections that were in great shape, the so called "Taylor Highway" on the US side of the border was little better than an old country road that got no attention. Average speed before the border was probably 45 mph, but on the US side, that dropped to 20-25 mph. And dusty, dusty, dusty. There was some beautiful scenery to see along this stretch of road, wonderful Alaskan streams. But there were also winding hairpin turns, steep up and down stretches, and lots of narrow sections.

A few miles before we got to Chicken, I noticed that our engine was losing power. The last few uphills were tenuous, and we parked at the store/gas station/campground in Chicken to shop for a few minutes. As we tried to leave town, I could barely get up the first little hill in 1st gear, so we turned around and got a campsite for the night. They had no phone service there, but they did have wifi. Go figure.

Dust collected on our bug from the Taylor Highway

I pulled the air cleaner out and dumped about 5 pounds of Taylor Highway dust out of it, and put it all back together. The next morning, we tried to go to Tok again, but we still had no power. We decided that there was no help in Chicken, so we kept going, crawling up the first hill at a speed so low that nothing registered on the speedometer. About 2/3 the way up the 2 mile hill, the engine popped, issued a thick cloud of black smoke, and then we had power again. Still concerned, we drove another 5 miles, then hooked up our car and made the trip to Tok, about 70 miles, without incident.

We stayed one night in Tok, at a nice little campground in the fir trees, with the lupines flowering all around us. The campground had a wash station, so we spent an hour getting all the highway off the RV and car.

The Tanana River Valley

On Thursday, we traveled from Tok to the end of the Alaska highway in Delta Junction, where we stopped for lunch. Then on the Richardson Highway into Fairbanks. There were apparently some mountains to see south of our travels, but rain and clouds kept them invisible to us. We did get some nice views of the Tanana River along the way.

We decided to stay at Riverview Campground in North Pole, Alaska, just a few miles before Fairbanks. The days are now nearly 22 hours long, since we're just a couple days before the summer solstice. Fairbanks has a big celebration for the solstice, so we'll be downtown checking it all out on Sunday. And the golf courses are open from 6AM to 2AM, so tee times should not be a serious problem if I decide to play golf.

3 Nights in Dawson City

2009-06-19T00:18:00.006-05:00

Yukon River, cloudy day

We planned to go to town on Saturday to check out the Dawson Info Center, then make plans from there. We found out that our Annual Parks Pass got us into the Parks, but not the Historic Sites, of which there were many in Dawson. It would be cheaper to upgrade the pass, but we didn't have it with us. We stayed and watched the 3 video movies they showed at the info center, one on the Riverboats, which I found fascinating, one on the Miners and the settlement of Dawson, and one on Gold Mining. We then went back to the motorhome, and got lazy.

Riverboat Keno, parked on the rivers edge

On Sunday, we tripped back into town, stopped at an ATM to get some cash. Consuelo then went shopping, and I went to the Internet cafe, called TastyByte to check my email. After a while, she came around and she checked her email while I strolled the riverfront, watching the ferry cross. After that, we took a drive up Dome Road and caught the spectacular view of the Yukon River Valley. The day was a bit gray, but the clouds were interesting.

Dredge #4

After Dome Hill, we drove up Bonanza Creek Road, toward where the original gold strike had been made in 1897. Most of the road was dirt, and it snaked its way along the creek, between the piles of tailings and ratty looking homes/trailers where some people were still hoping to strike it rich by finding gold. We passed Claim 33, a place where they show you how to pan for gold, with a flake guaranteed in every pan. We finally arrived at Dredge #4, a Canadian Historic Site. The dredge is an 80 foot high monster, that crawled through the terrain scooping up placer gravel, just above the bedrock, and sifted sand sluiced the gold out of it, leaving piles of ugly rock and gravel behind. It was impressive that they had built such a big machine to look for tiny flakes of gold. It also demonstrated the cosmic shift that took place after the streams were played out, claims were consolidated, and big business tore up the remaining land to find treasure. Kind of like Walmart.

After dinner visitor
For supper on Sunday night, I grilled some marinated pork chops and potatoes and onions in foil, a real camp dinner. It was delicious. Some of the local wildlife must have thought it smelled pretty good, too, since this red fox came over to check out the grill after I was done.

On Monday, Consuelo had a dizzy spell in the morning, and was not feeling well for most of the rest of the day. We stayed in, played games.

Since I had some time at home, I looked in vain for cable access to the bottom of the main slide. We had the TV lift working fine, but we still had a cable routed across the living room floor when we used it. The Alfa forums indicated that there was a way to route cable to the bottom of the slide from within the lower compartment, and I opened up one cover in the compartment ceiling, to no avail. All that was there was part of the slide mechanism. I'll need further guidance on that one.

Our campsite, from Dome Road

As an alternative, I decided to investigate how hard it would be to adjust the wipers so that they were stored in the center, where they are supposed to be. When Lesmeister RV mechanics in Rochester repaired the wipers, they showed most of their ignorance in putting things back together. They had them starting in the middle and wiping across each other, and I was able to tell them what was wrong with that setup. But then they had the wipers storing themselves about 10” from the center, not in the middle of my field of view while driving, but far enough into it to annoy me. I realized that all I had to do was remove the link from the motor and adjust the wipers to the center, then mount the link. Removing the link, and I got the wipers where I wanted them. But then I discovered that the link blocked access to putting the nut back on to secure it. A ten minute job ended up as a 1-1/2 hour job, since I had to take the whole thing apart to put it back together right. But I got it done.

For dinner, I decided to thaw one of the eye round oven roasts that we had purchased in Alberta. Black Angus not withstanding, Albertians believe they have the best beef in the world, and I find it hard to argue. It cooked up into a wonderful, juicy, tasty roast that we will enjoy for days. At least 2 days.

Yukon River, clear day

Around 9:00 PM, I drove into town to take some pictures in the late day sun. The shops were closed, the gambling hall was open, and tourists were ambling around town looking at the sights. Afterward, I drove back up Dome Road and caught a few shots of the valley with fewer clouds.
After I got home,

Pelly Crossing to Mayo to Dawson City

2009-06-14T17:35:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the town of Mayo

The North Klondike Highway is narrower and rougher, in general, than the Alaska Highway. We encountered numerous short dirt sections, and one long one, about 6 miles. Other sections of the highway had patching done. All of these contributed to keeping our average speed somewhere around 40-45 mph, although there were sections where we were able to maintain 55 (90 Km), the posted speed limit. I have to give credit to the road crews, the road may not be smooth, but where there are serious bumps, the kind that would send us flying out of our seats, they have placed signs or cones to warn us, and I was careful to take heed. It appears that they are widening the highway for many miles, north of Pelly Crossing, as a wide clear strip appears along, with wood from clearing in various states from piled to burned.

Wildlife was hiding from us along this highway. We saw nothing along the road that moved. The fireweed, daisies, roses, crown vetch, and other wildflowers were just as abundant as the day before.

Evidence of other forest fires were marked along the highway, one dating back to 1958, where the vegetation appeared mostly normal, except that the fir trees had not fully recovered.

Another Mayo Clinic

We took a side tour up to the town of Mayo, about 35 miles up to the east. Mayo sports a very active historical association, with a downtown walking tour highlighting the old structures, and a restored 1920 house filled with artifacts. Mayo is situated along the Stewart River, and came to fame by being the shipping point for silver ore (galena) mined upstream. Tons or ore would be piled along the riverbank in the winter, waiting for the river to that and the steamboat to arrive. We found the museum interesting, but had doubts about the 60 mile side trip to see it.

100 miles farther up the road we came to Dawson. The road eventually paralleled the Yukon River, wide and fast in these parts at this time of year. Other areas along the highway appeared to be quite swampy. Close to Dawson, the road is lined for several miles with tailing piles from the dredge that worked though here along the river.

Cheap camping in Dawson City

We thought we would stay in an RV park called GuggieVille, but could not find it where we expected south of town on the highway. We did see 3 others, one that appeared to be all braggadocio (Bonanza), one fronted by a gas station (Dawson City), and one sign advertising “Off Road RV Parking $10.00”, fronted by a construction equipment repair shop. We went into the city, turned around and came back, and found GuggieVille stuffed in the side of Bonanza, actually part of the same park. We went to register, found that they had dry camping, but did not allow generators, which would not work for us. Besides, the lady was quite arrogant about it, wanting to upgrade us to their most expensive site. So we left and pulled into the construction repair place, built on top of the mine tailings. I found the owner quite friendly, paid him for one night. We had a flat empty gravel lot of about 5 acres all to ourselves, free to run our generator at will. As it turns out, our electrical use has been quite controlled, and we didn't even need the generator until the next morning. And in retrospect, Dawson is a working town. It's appropriate that we park alongside some of the equipment that put this place on the map. At least, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Views from our campsite

After we parked, we went into town to get some supper. We drove around first, checking out the restaurants, and decided on a Greek restaurant. However, when we checked the posted menu, we discovered that we would be paying $50 for supper, more than we wanted. (OK, those readers that think we're too cheap can choose another blog here...) We looked further, and found Sourdough Joe's, which had great pea soup, fish (salmon) and chips, or (salmon) burgers. Tasty, and much kinder to our wallet.

We went home to finish the evening playing Scrabble (Consuelo beat me... again!) and watching more Johny Carson on DVD.

Whitehorse to Pelly Crossing

2009-06-14T17:28:00.004-05:00

Wild roses and daisies

Yesterday we packed up our coach and headed up the road toward Dawson City, on the Klondike Highway. This road is fair to good, with a number of short (100 yard) gravel spots, and narrower (small shoulders). It passes Lake Labarge near Whitehorse, then climbs up into the hills. Most of the terrain is what I call “green rock”, smaller mountains mostly tree covered, with numerous rocky outcrops.

The guide book said to watch for elk and bear, but we spotted none in the likely locations.

We stopped in 3 spots along the way. The first was the Fox Lake Burn site, scene of a major forest fire in 1998. Unlike the forest fire we traversed near Laird Springs, this fire was later in the summer and consumed nearly everything except a small percentage of the fir tree trunks, which still stood 11 years later. The undergrowth had recovered somewhat, but is is still obvious that thousands of acres of forest were burned. There was a short guided trail to an overlook, with signs telling about the fire and its effect. We put together some lunch here.

More Yukon wildflowers

The next stop was the old Montague roadhouse, a historic site with the remains of the old log house still standing. As with the pony express in the old west, the Klondike trail was established for a time as a stagecoach trail, with roadhouses every 20 miles or so. During the winter, this was the only way to travel between Whitehorse and Dawson.

The final stop was to view Five Fingers Rapids, a notable geologic element on the Yukon River. These rapids were the only major impediment to river traffic between Dawson and Whitehorse, and until the steam paddleboats were introduced, a winch was installed upstream to pull the boats through the rapids. The paddleboats were powerful enough to push themselves up through the rapids without assistance.

The most remarkable sight along the way is the profusion of wildflowers that have appeared along the roadsides. The guidebooks claim that fireweed is the major color in July, but we think that the fireweed is bursting forth now, along with lupines, wild roses, small daisies, and dandelions. Some spots were quite beautiful.

Parked at Pelly Crossing Campground

We finally reached Pelly Crossing about 6:30 PM. Church's book said that there was a nice campground here, but we found it under excavation in its heart, grass unmowed, and litter strewn about. Regardless, there was a nice pull through site for us and we stopped for the night. We celebrated the independent lifestyle by watching “Open Range” on DVD.

Whitehorse, the capitol of the Yukon

2009-06-11T21:23:00.005-05:00

Main Street, Whitehorse

A short 100 miles up the road from Teslin, we stopped in Whitehorse. We were ready for a couple nights of full hookup camping to get laundry caught up and do a little sightseeing.

We picked the Pioneer Campground, about 5 miles south of the city. The full hookups are in a flat dirt row along the highway, but we didn't either notice or care about the traffic noise. They had acable system with 50 channels, including good old CNN and CBS, and we caught a few US shows on the tube.

Since we arrived around 1:00 PM, we had lunch and caught a nap. Around 4:00 we drove into town to look around, and grabbed a sub at Subway. We did some shopping on Main Street. The camping store was serving wine and cheese, pretty cool, we thought.

Pioneer also had wifi, and after some fiddling, I got online and started catching up on my blog posts. That took most of the rest of the evening.

Goofing at the Macbride Museum

On Thursday morning, I took the ailing tire into a shop in town and got it fixed. According to the tech, it had picked up a small nail, which went right inside the tire. When I got back, we had lunch, took a nap, then went into town to check out the MacBride Museum of the Yukon. This fine small museum was apparently the collection of artifacts started by MacBride in the 1950's, and was a bit eclectic, covering a fairly wide range of topics in a small space. They had an excellent collection of mounted animals, with good descriptive text for each. They also had a collection of geology specimens, and maps showing where the major mineral deposits occurrred throughout the Yukon. They also had a small but impressive collection of First Nation artifacts, covering the hunting methods of the ancient people over time.

Panning for gold

No museum of Yukon history would be complete without some gold panning, and one of the staff was sluicing some nasty looking dirt trying to find flakes in it. He gathered a crowd, but I didn't hear anybody exclaim "Wow!"

After the museum, we looked for a small pizza stone to cook bread (and pizza) in our gas oven. Canadian Tire didn't have any, and referred us to Coffee, Tea and Spice, a local gourmet cookware store. They had larger ones, but they said they had sold 6 of the smaller ones that very morning, and wouldn't have any more until August. Oh, darn.

We picked up a few groceries, and went back to our mobile house to make supper.

Teslin, Yukon

2009-06-11T21:07:00.005-05:00

Teslin Lake Yukon Campground

Just west of Muckluk Annie's, which is still closed for the season, and which was to be our overnight stopping point.

It's cloudy and raining. All the more remarkable because we've pretty much had wonderful weather since the states. A couple sprinkes of rain from partly sunny skies, and a few showers at night. Sunny, warm days. Yesterday it was 75 when we parked at 8:30 PM.

Somewhere over the past few days we crossed into Pacific time and missed it altogether. We found out when we got to Watson Lake. So we gained another hour.

We've been dry camping most of the time in northern Canada. As a result, our habits have changed. There's no TV stations, so watching TV is out. We've been doing more reading and playing games: Yahtzee, Scrabble, and two person Taboo. We're playing pretty even.

Waiting for the pilot car at the forest fire

The roads have been mostly pretty good. The Banff-Jasper road, through the National Parks was good to very good, with only a few small areas of contruction. Jasper to Grande Prairie was good with some fair areas, bumpy was all, slowed doen to 40-50 mph. Grande Prairie to Laird Hot Springs was good, a few rough spots. Laird to Watson Lake included a section of forest fire that was still being worked on, so we had to follow a pilot car through that area with a couple dozen other vehicles. Fortunately, the pilot car arrive about 2 min after we met the south point, and we didn't wait long. We followed him for about 20 miles, at near highway speeds.

In the fire area, they were mopping up, putting out small localized hot spots. They had placed 1000 gallon pools of water in the ditches by the road every mile or so, and were adding new ones farther north. We spoke to one fireman at a rest stop, and he said it was a big fire, ove 50,000 acres. The souther part was under control, but it was moving northeast. Fortunately, there was little wind and a sprinkling of rain

Laird Hot Springs

We stopped at Laird Hot Springs for an overnight. Nice campground, dry camping, for $19/night. We got a swim in the hot springs, which were about 100 degrees F, and featured a hot waterfall that you could sit under and get a back/shoulder massage. Very relaxing.

After Laird, we worked our way through the Rockies, stopping for lunch next to Muncho Lake. This section of road was much more winding and hilly that before, so we had to slow down somewhat. They were fixing the road around the lake, but the speed limit there is only 30 km/hr anyway, so we didn't lose any time.

In the morning at Laird, I discovered that the left front tire on the Bug was nearly flat. It still had 5 lbs of air in it, so it wasn't a complete blowout. I punped it up and waited a bit, it seemed to be holding. We stopped after 50 miles and it had dropped by 1/3. I pumped it up again and we got a fix-flag aerosol in Watson lake and put some in, and pumped it up again. I checked it again after another 50 mies, and it seems to be holding. We'll keep checking it.

Yesterday's had mostly good roads, with a couple sections of dirt road. The first was about 2 miles, the second about 7 miles. The dirt was good, though, and we were able to maintain speeds of 45-50 mph. Only the dust was an issue, and part of the second one had been watered to keep the dust down. If we encounter more dirt roads today, the rain will keep the dust down, but may turn the road into mud.

The wildlife has been fun to watch. The highest concentrations have been in the Rocky Mountains, both between Banff Jasper and again over the past couple days as we crossed them to the west. We've seen bear, moose, elk, caribou, deer, a porcupine, mountain sheep and goats, and several small flocks of buffalo. And lots of birds.

Mountain Waterfall

I've stopped a few places to get pictures of waterfalls coming out of the mountains. It seems to me that this must be the high water season here, as most of the rivers are at the top of their banks, and a few running over them in places. I wexpect that the warm weather is pushing the snow melt out of the mountains. We've seen some splendid rapids just longing for a raft of some kind to journey down the river.

Thumper has been doing pretty well. She's still dragging her right rear leg just a bit, but Consuelo is goving her meds every moring which I'm sure helps her some. She'd much rather ride in the car than the motorhome, but of course she can't. We get a couple walks in every day, good for both of us.

Internet access has been close to zero. I tried our internet dish in Grande Prairie, and no luck, we're too far north for it. Likewise with Dish TV. The limited internet access may work against me much more than Consuelo, since I'm now confined to my desktop computer for most everything. This morning I'm writing on her computer, since we're minimizing power drain, and my desktop is a power hog. We tripped to a coffee shop in Grand Prairie that had access, but had to share her computer, a most annoying process. We did find that the Visitor Info Center in Dawson Creek had free wifi, and we stopped in the morning there with the RV and both got online for a while.

Last night we got serious with the calendar, looking at the plan for the time until the kids arrive in July.We've been moving to be in Fairbanks by the solstice, June 21, to be as far north as possible on the longest day of the year. Already, it's still light when we got to bed at 11:00 pm. We look at the clock, then out the window and say, "Wow". So far, it hasn't disrupted our sleep. Traveling has been exhausting enough that, for example, yesterday we stopped near Rancheria and I took a 2 hour nap, then slept another 8 hours starting at 11:00 PM. If it works out, I'll try to get a round of golf in at Dawson Creek at midnight.

Jasper to Grande Prairie

2009-06-11T11:12:00.005-05:00

Whistlers Campground in Jasper NP

We spent one night in the National Park Campground called Whistlers in Jasper. We arrived late, due to picture-taking and sightseeing along the way, about 6:30 PM, and the campground was filling up fast. We got site R on loop 64, about ½ mile from the checkin booth. No hookups, but a nice open wooded campground. We thought $27 a night for dry camping was quite high, but then we were in the national park. They warned us when we registered that the elk were calving, and were very aggressive, but we didn't see any. We had dinner, then I convinced Consuelo to take a drive through town if I promised dessert.

Jasper Train Station

Jasper is a relatively small town, but apparently an important rail center. There was a long passenger train in the station when we got to town, and lots of freight train activity. The shops were very tourist oriented, tee shirts and souvenirs of about the national park. There is a gondola ride near the campground.

Like Banff, Jasper is nestled in the mountains. The Athabasca River, which starts at the Columbia Icefield, runs through the town. Canada highway 16 crosses the Icefield Parkway here. When we left town, we took highway 16 east. This section of highway follows the river, and is dotted with many pools and lakes which act as reflecting pools for the surrounding mountains. We stopped near Palisade Mountain to get some pictures. Just off the road shoulder, there was a large, soft sand area, almost desert-like.

Just before Hinton, we turned onto highway 40 north, which would be the bulk of the driving for this day. The road was generally good, with a few fair spots. The terrain was hilly, lots of up and downs, some 8% grades, mostly short. Many, many logging roads and operations entered the highway, suggesting one major business in the area. Numerous gas and oil wellheads were also visible from the highway.

Lunch stop in Grande Cache

120 miles from 16, we climbed into the town of Grande Cache and stopped for lunch at a tiny Chinese restaurant which had a “Smorg” of 3 main dishes, plus the sides, for $12. We then climbed down into the Smoky River valley, which we followed for a ways, then ascended again until we reached Grand Prairie.

We checked our books and found “Camp Tamarack RV Park”, which featured wifi, plus full hookups so we could catch up on laundry. However, on arrival, we found the rate pretty high, $40/night, less 10% senior discount. More annoying, the wifi was $10/day, and we skipped it, chancing to find a wifi coffee shop in the city.

Weyerhauser Lumber Mill, Grande Prairie

As it happened, the Rotary Club in Grande Prairie does a free city tour in a school bus on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at 7:00 PM in the city, and I cooked and rushed through supper in order to make it. It was interesting, though confined to the school bus, and probably designed to attract people to move there. The city is a regional center serving about 175,000, so there are numerous malls, “boxter” stores (Walmart, Bestbuy, etc), parks, and medical facilities. Major industries are agriculture, forestry, and oilfields, with tourism close behind.

The Columbia Icefields

2009-06-11T10:54:00.005-05:00

Athabasca Glacier (behind me)

About 100 miles north of Banff is the Columbia Icefield and the Icefield Centre. This tourist stop boasts plenty of parking and a self guided history and info exhibit on the glaciers in the surrounding mountains. We stopped to take a look.

A major feature of the site is that for $50 they will take you up onto the glacier. This is a two step process. You get a ticket for a bus ride, in a greyhound type bus, ½ way up the mountain to the terminal for the glacier vehicles. You then leave the bus.

Consuelo descending from the Explorer

The glacier vehicles, called "Icefield Explorers" are specially built mountain buses with 4' wide tires. The floor is about 4' off the ground. The trip starts with a steep 18 degree descent into a pool of water at the edge of the glacier, designed to help clean any dirt from to tires so that the glacier stays clean. A dirty glacier attracts sunlight and melts too fast. Then the bus climbs onto the packed snow that is the glacier itself, ove a graded “road” on the ice. A turnaround area in the middle of the glacier provides a place to get out and walk on the glacier.

The day was sunny and bright, and the temperature in the parking lot was a balmy 75 degrees or so, definitely above normal for this area at this time of year. At the glacir bus terminal, a thermometer registered 60 degrees, still comfortable. Up on the glacier, which had lots of meltwater runoff, it was much closer to freezing, but still sweatshirt weather.

Drinking glacier water

We were still about 1000 feet below the top of the ice field, 2000 feet below the surrounding mountain tops, which reach to about 11,000 feet. Where we stood on the glacier, it was 900 feet thick. The glacier had receded ½ mile from it's farther extension, and is now receding at a rate of about 90 feet per year.

At the foot of the glacier are annual moraines, mounds of dirt created as the glacier advances and retreats. Along the sides are lateral moraines. The bus route was built in a flat spot between moraines, partly on the edge of the glacier. The roadway moves about 4 feet every year.

The glacier we traversed is called the Athabaskan Glacier, alongside Mount Athabasca to the south. At the foot of the glacier is a pond which is the headwaters of the Athabasca River, which was nearly a mile wide by the time we left it east of Jasper.

Between Mount Athabasca and Mount Andromeda was a smaller glacier, dubbed “Double A” from the names of the mountains.

Into the National Parks

2009-06-11T00:56:00.007-05:00

We left Pincher Creek and tripped to Okotoks, just south of Calgary, to visit Rusty and Mary Ann Stuckey who we met last winter. They introduced us to other friends in Okotoks, including Bernie, Rusty's brother, and his mate Alison. Bernie and Alison have more wanderlust than we do, they bought an around the world air ticket and stayed in hostels all over.
While in Okotoks, we went to the Saskatoon Farm for breakfast, then tripped into Calgary to shop at Costco and visit a few other stores. We also shopped in Okotoks, checking out the shops downtown.

Banff Train Station

We said our goodbyes to our friends in Okotoks, hooked up our car and headed for Banff. We figured it would be a 2-3 hour trip. We took Alberta route 22 around Calgary, then connected with the Trans-Canada #1. On the way, we stopped in Bragg Creek for lunch, and found a gas station there that could fill our propane tank, which was nearly empty. We also stopped at a truck stop where 22 & 1 joined and bought 174 liters of diesel at 78.9 cents per liter. Since I had filled our water tank, and dumped all our holding tanks, we were fully loaded for whatever might come along.

Ariel Tram in Banff

We entered Banff National Park at Canmore, and purchased the Annual National Park Pass for $138.00. We figure it will pay for itself before we leave Canada later in the year. We traveled up to the first Banff exit and turned left into Banff. Consuelo saw a sign for RV Parking, but following that got us into downtown, lost and coming up against a closed road construction area, but we managed to escape through a hospital parking lot and found our way back to Transcanada #1 one exit up from where we got off before. We took the highway south, back to our original exit, and made our way to the Tunnel Mountain Campground. A line of 10 or so RV campers pooled together at another one lane road construction, then we all convoyed to the campground entrance. They moved us along pretty well. We got an electric only site for about $33 for one night. Once we hooked up, it was about 4:30, so we relaxed a bit then made some supper.

Park where Thumper and I walked

After supper, Thumper and I went out in the bug to scout out the town. We found an easy trail along a stream and walked for a mile or so, took some pictures. I then drove back into town and up in the hills toward the gondola and hot springs. Took some more pictures, then went back to our camper. Consuelo was busy catching up on her craft shows that she had captured on our DVR, and watched them into the evening.

Darkness arrived around 9:45. The daytime temperatures had been in the mid 60s and sunny. Overnite lows were expected to be around freezing.

The campground is busy, with lots of class C motorhomes, many of which are rentals. Downtown looke pretty busy to me as well, lots of people walking around looking in the shops and stores. As soon as we hit Transcanada #1, we started bumping into lots of RV travelers. We spoke to one couple at the diesel station, they were from North Carolina, on their way to Alaska. We hope it's not as busy as we head north.

We're Not in Kansas, eh?

2009-05-28T08:27:00.010-05:00

Visiting Art & Sharon

When I've vacationed in other countries such as Sweden, Cuba or Spain, I've had an expectation that things will be different. Immersion is impossible for me in those countries since I do not speak those languages, and as a consequence I am not aware of local issues and problems that form the foundation of what is important to the the people there. For example, I tried but unsuccessfully to get an English newspaper in Cuba. Perhaps this fact, more than any other, is what gives Americans such a bad reputation when traveling outside our own country.

In Canada, I do speak the language (at least in Alberta) so I am up on the news. We watch local TV stations, read the local newspaper. In addition, conversations with our friends and their interactions with their friends and families gives us an intimate sense of what's going on here and what's important to them.

We've had enough conversations with our Canadian friends during winters in the US to get a sense of their view of the world. Even so, living in their neighborhood, watching them demonstrate their commitment to their town, province, and country presents a fuller spectrum of Canada and its people when compared to our life in the US.

For example, the folks we've met here are impacted by the recession much as we are. Their retirement funds have been reduced by the stock market decline. Canada has many of the same industries as the US, though often with different names. Shopping centers look very similar, and the inside of a Walmart is just like in the US. But other different stores compete with Walmart, places like Canadian Tire. Learning the names of common Canadian stores helps us know where to find things, and having done that, we think we can fit right in.

But we often bump into the differences and realize that we're still foreigners, no more adept at being part of the culture here than a 4 year old would be, still learning the customs and practices.

Canadian coins

Some of that comes in little language differences. For example, they don't write checks, they write checques. They don't go to college, they go to university. Not to "the" university, just "to university". And they go out and aboot, not out and about. They have a labour party, and red, green and blue are colours. Subtle, perhaps, but distinctive, eh?

Then there's the money. Canadians are less inclined to waste things as we are in the US. That shows up in the money in that they have 1 and 2 dollar coins, playfully called loonies and toonies, because they have loons on one side. No dollar bills. Every bill denomination is a different color, easy to tell apart. This all adds up to a more efficient method for handling money. Also, they have the picture of a living person on their money, not dead presidents.

Of course, y'all know that we have our own regional peculiarities in the US. Uffda! But the major regional difference in Canada is put forth in writing and made visible throughout the country, on road signs, on packages in the stores, and any official document. That's the French spoken by Quebecers, making Canada a bilingual country. This annoys some Canadians, since it's unlawful to post signs in English in Quebec itself. We see some bilingual things in the US, too, but its not enforced by law. It's more likely to be a marketing ploy to make the US more attractive to our visitors.

There's more international pictorial road signs here, too. That takes a little getting used to. A sign with a little picture of a road on the left and a picture of a truck on the right means "Trucks entering the highway from the right". Or a picture of a little person, with a big X under him, means "Pedestrian crossing". Easy when you learn it, bur it requires some learning.

So, I'm glad to be here to experience firsthand a life with similarities and differences, that works as well or maybe better than life in the United States. I'm glad to be doing it before my brain solidifies and rejects the differences as bad or wierd, as may happen when I get senile. I'm glad to have good friends in another country, that can share their lives and gently remind us that there are other ways to do things that make them just as happy. As Mark Twain said, "Travel is fatal to prejudice". And as Maya Angelou said, "Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends." We're getting there. In the case of Canada, we first had to recognize that it's not just like another state. We had to discard our inbred arrogance.

Waterton Lakes

2009-05-23T10:29:00.006-05:00

Waterton Lake

Canada has many fine national Parks. While staying in Pincher Creek, we decided to trip down to Waterton Lakes on a sunny afternoon. We were not disappointed.

Waterton Lakes is the Canadian part of the International Peace Park, at the north end of Glacier National Park in the US. The lake itself straddles the boundary between the US and Canada. It is nestled in the Canadian Rockies, as you can see from the pictures.

I'm the sort of person who is in awe of the mountainous terrain. I had to restrain myself from taking thousands of pictures, just because they were there. As it was, I took about 500.

Prince of Wales Hotel

We started our tour of the park in the village at the top of the lake. The village includes shops and restaurants, and the iconic Prince of Wales Hotel at the top of a mesa overlooking the lake. Tourists can catch a boat trip around the lake. Lodges and private cottages dot the town.

Waterton contains several campgrounds. One is near the village on the lake. Another is a winter camping site in the Copper Canyon.

Bighorn sheep grazing in town

Wildlife is abundant here, and the deer and the bighorn sheep know that they're safe from people in the park, so the wander around town just like the tourists. If they get tired, they just lay down in the shade of a cottage. I suspect that the neatly trimmed lawn are delicious to them, too. Of course, the tourists love to gawk at them, so traffic comes to a halt while everybody in the car gets a good look.

Foraging black bears

Later in the afternoon, we took the road into Copper Canyon, a long winding ravine that runs east-west between the mountains. An RCMP officer gave us directions to where a pair of black bears were foraging in the hillside meadow farther down the canyon. We had no difficulty locating them, we just stopped where all the cars were parked. They were about 200 yards up the hill from the road, fairly indifferent to our presence.

Finally, we realized that we had started too late in the day for this trip, though having the late afternoon sun for taking pictures was a bonus. We've just started on our northern adventure, and we realize that this is just the beginning. There's so much to see!

Consuelo shooting me shooting her

Consuelo discovered my secret that taking pictures is a way to visualize the landscapes with an added perspective. It forces you to frame the vastness in a place like Waterton in a very small window, and as a result, you start to look into the frame and see more detail. At least I do. The result is that she took my camera and went to work, depriving me of some of my fun. But she ha d that fun with the camera. Who know, this could become a photo team. 3 eyes are always better than one!

Pincher Creek, Alberta

2009-05-22T08:20:00.005-05:00

Pincher Creek Countryside

We're in Canada, in a little town called Pincher Creek in Alberta. Pincher Creek is in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, just north of the International Peace Park which is comprised of Waterton Lakes National Park on the Canadian side and Glacier National Park on the US side. Pincher is known as one of the windiest places on earth, and has a huge windfarm to prove it.

We're parked at the home of our friends Art and Sharon Bonertz. They have been wonderful hosts, feeding us wonderful food and they have a full hookup RV site right in their front yard.

This is our second trip to Pincher, and we've lost count of how many times we've visited with Art and Sharon somewhere. They spent a month with us at Jekyll Island last winter.

Art promised to build a bike rack for Consuelo for her three-wheeler incumbent bike. We've been carrying her trike on the back of out VW bug on a standard bike rack. It will travel OK there, but it's heavy and rides off balance. The new rack will mount on the tow bar hitch on the back of the motorhome. He fabricated most of it after he got home from Jekyll, and has been waiting for us to arrive to do the final fitting. It will work well, but still needs a bit of modification to balance properly.

Cooperative back scratching

Yesterday we ventured out to find the local Wal-Mart (they're everywhere) to pick up some odds and ends and replenish our larder.

Our trip into Canada turned out to be a bit challenging. We left the city in shorts, as they were expecting highs in the 80's and were well on their way by the time we got on the road. We cruised up to Shelby, MT, stopping there to fill our gas tank. We then took US 2 over to Cut Bank, MT, and took the rural road up to the border crossing at Del Bonita, Alberta.

Soon after we got out of Cut Bank, the west wind started blasting across the open prairies in what I perceived to be 30-40 mph with higher gusts. It was strong enough to open the awning over our slide which started bouncing in and out. I went to the roof and was able to secure the latches with a couple bungee cords, which stabilized that one. The smaller bedroom window awning tried to unfurl, but only came out a few inches again and again. Fortunately, our large awning was on the lee side of the coach. The wind continued until we arrived in Pincher Creek, alternately a cross wind and head wind as we zig-zagged in a west then north direction across the high prairie.
Pincher Creek Windmills

The border crossing was easy this time. Whereas we had been told to leave our coach whit the border agents searched it the last time we entered Canada, we only had a visit from a nice customs agent this time. We did have to produce vaccination papers for our pup, not unexpected. And of course we had our passports ready.

We're about 1/2 way through our planned week long Pincher visit.

Montana

2009-05-20T09:43:00.005-05:00

World Famous!?

I know my head has been under a bushel, but World Famous applied to the Bucking Horse Sale in Miles City, Montana escaped me somehow. Perchance World Famous can be applied to an event that one person saw, then he/she traveled all over the world? Or, maybe the folks out there have their tongue stuck into their cheek?

Aside from debating the superlative adjective, there were people attending this event from around the northwest states. The campground we found was full, so we eneded up in an overflow site with electric only. This confounded our plans to get some laundry done while we were there, so we adjusted our plan to stay only one night instead of two.

Miles City Hitching Post

I found this hitching post amusing, perhaps because my Yankee mind is not ensnared in the cliche which surrounds the western natives. I find it funny because it appears that the horses all got away and left their bits behind, but the tree was not so fortunate, humorously attesting to the lack of cowboy skills of the locals.

So, instead of Miles City, we spent two nights in Great Falls. That may have been a blessing, because Great Falls offered some views and interesting history not to be found in Miles City

Black Eagle Falls & Dam

Great Falls was the major challenge for the Lewis and Clark Expedition as they worked their way up the Missouri River. They had heard that there was a large waterfall on the Missouri from the Native Americans as they approached from the east. Their perception was one big waterfall which they could get by with a simple portage. After arriving there, they found not one, but 5 waterfalls, plus numerous cascades. They surveyed routes, and decided to carry their boats and gear around to the south of the river, over a distance of 18 miles. The portage took them a month to complete.

Rainbow Falls & Dam

Today, the 4 of the 5 falls are complemented with dams which channel the Missouri through hydroelectric powere plants to produce powere for the region. The 5th waterfall eneded up under the water behind one of the dams.

We parked in Dick's Campgorund in Great Falls. It's a little hard to find the entrance, but it had spacious pull through sites. Disk's was nearly full, to, but it was because the Canadians had a long weekend for Vicrtoria Day, and the Albertians were venturing south to escape the cold, windy days that were still lingering on up north.

North Dakota

2009-05-17T22:42:00.003-05:00

North Dakota Capitol

Yes, that building in the background is the Capitol of North Dakota. Around Bismarck, it's called the skyscraper. They claim it's not the tallest structure in North Dakota; that honor goes to a 2000 foot TV tower. So, I guess it's just the tallest building in North Dakota.

We found time for a walk around the ground on a crisp May morning. The grounds are adorned with various statues, generally representing the historical development of North Dakota. The statue in front of the capitol is of the Pioneer Family. The settlement of North Dakota by Europeans is a story of hardship, working difficult land with few resources. The pioneers built sod huts, huddled together for warmth in arctic winters, and scraped meager crops out of the hard prairie. Somebody had to do it. I'm really glad it wasn't me.

Buffalo Statue

The buffalo is another important icon in the history of North Dakota. Plains Indians hunted them for food, clothing, bowstrings, dishes, and numerous other elements of life. The white men hunted them for the sheer sport of killing a big animal, nearly sending them into extinction.

Lewis and Clark ventured up the Missouri River in search of the mythical Northwest Passage. They hired a french trapper, Charbonneau, to guide for them. He brought along his Indian wife, Sakakawea (also spelled Sakagawea), which turned out to be a most fortunate event. Having a woman in the party suggested that the expedition was peaceful. In addition, Sakakawea's brother turned out to be a Shoshone chief that they encountered, and her presence pacified the skittish tribe.
Sakakwea

The statue of Sakakwea on the capitol grounds was sculpted by Chicago artist Leonard Crunell and unveiled in 1910, shortly after the 100th anniversary of Lewis and Clark's expedition. Crunell used a woman named Mink, also known as Hannah Levings, as the model for Sakakwea. Mink is a direct descendant of Sakakwea.