7/26/12 HOMER, AK

We arrived in Homer a few days ago and got a pretty good camp site with full hook ups.  We have a nice view of the ocean out our back window, although there are a few campers back there that are right on the water.  But those sites don’t have hook ups.  This place clears out by noon and fills up again in the evening.  The weather hasn’t been as rainy as previously forecasted.  The first few days were heavy overcast, no sun.  Yesterday was absolutely beautiful blue skies and warm.  The first day I’ve been able to take off my jacket in 2 months.  It must have been 70 degrees.  We took a boat ride/ferry over to the small community of Soldovia just across the bay from us.  It’s 1.5 hours by boat.  We spent 3 hours walking this quaint little town, saw an old Russian church from the 1800’s and had lunch at an outdoor café overlooking the ocean before catching the ferry back to Homer.  By the time we got back it was still sunny but windy, and that wind was cold.  Too cold to sit outside.   Norm and I are really getting tired of this cold weather.  We want to go somewhere about 10 degrees warmer. 

The other day we were walking around the harbor exploring.   We took a long way around, on the other side there is commercial stuff going on and we were the only ones there with the exception of a few workers.  We walked right up to an Eagle perched on some old steel piling. We watched him for the longest time and took plenty of pictures.  We are not birders by any means but we do enjoy seeing those eagles.  Today we’ll go to the visitor’s centers to find out about hikes in the area.  There’s national forest not far from here I would like to see. 

We got so close to this Eagle.

Flying off

A shop on the boardwalk.

 

7/21/12 SEWARD, AK

Wes took the 10:30 bus back to the Anchorage airport yesterday.  Instead of driving him the 5 hour round trip we put him on the bus.  It saves us diesel and driving all day.   After seeing him off we walked the harbor then went back to our campsite and cleaned the rv.  Later we walked the 4 blocks to the library to use their wifi and took a scenic walk along the ocean.  I miss Wes already.  The whole day seemed quiet and somewhat depressing without him.  Of course the overcast dreary day didn’t help.  Good thing I got my honey that is always by my side. He makes me smile.  The weatherman says it will be cloudy and drizzly for most of next week here in Seward and in Homer.   Seems Wes brought the Texas sunshine with him and took it when he left.  We called Bonnie and spoke to the gkids today.  Those kids are so darn cute!  We keep telling them that Memaw and Papaw are up in Alaska looking for Santa Claus.  Madi wants us to be sure to see the reindeer too.  And Holden is talking more each day.

Today we woke up to rain. It drizzled and rained all day. We visited the Sea Life Center this morning along with everyone else in Seward.  It’s the only indoor activity around so I guess everyone had the same idea.  We’ll decide if we want to extend our stay here or move on toward Homer.

7/23/12 NEAR SOLDOTNA, AK

 Yesterday afternoon we decided to hitch up in the rain and make our way further down the peninsula toward Homer.  Homer is the only place I’ve made reservations because there is one campground in particular that I want to stay at.  The Homer Spit Campground right down on the tip of the spit.  It’s right in the middle of the action near the small boat harbor.  I love those harbors.  Reservations aren’t until Monday so we have 2 nights to kill until then.  We found a large pull out near the small town of Sterling that is perfectly level.  It turned out to be a great place to night camp except for the highway noise.  Traffic slowed down late last night but is grating on my nerves so we’ll move on down the road today.  We took a 2 mile hike that goes down to Eguman Lake, good for trout fishing.  Not a great hike, lots of brush and mosquito’s.  Then we headed out around 2:30 and found another pull out about 60 miles from Homer.  Homer is as far as the road takes you out on the peninsula.  We have a beautiful view of the ocean, Cook Inlet from our camp spot.  Not bad for free.  The traffic is not quit as heavy here but still pretty loud.  We’ll leave here tomorrow around 11:00 in order to arrive at our Homer campground by noon hoping to get a good site.  We plan to stay there one week.  Unfortunately there’s a lot of clouds and drizzle in the forecast this week, with temps around 60. 

My strategy for camping:  Arrive early but after check out time, usually 11:00 or 12:00.  This gives us a chance to get a camp site and perhaps have a choice of sites.  Also gives us room to back the 5^th wheel in case sites are tight, which they usually are around here.  Sometimes we chose a site because there is nobody in the site ahead of us allowing us to pull up into it and back into our site.  Another tip is to not move on a weekend.  A lot of locals camp on weekends because they want to fish.  Salmon are going to start running pretty soon so it will get crazy, especially down here on the peninsula.  If we arrive at our destination late in the afternoon I would rather pull over just outside of town and dry camp for free then drive into town around noon to find a spot.  The caravans usually leave early and arrive pretty early so I like to get there earlier. 

7/16/12 SEWARD, AK

Wes arrived at the Anchorage airport right on time last night.  We got up and left out of Anchorage this morning to head to Seward.  Along the way we stopped at the Alaska Conservation Center where you drive through to see the various animals; moose, caribou, bears, bison, musk ox, lynx, and a few others I can’t think of right now.  Norm finally got to see a bull moose, and the babies were so darn cute! 

We made it to Seward around 3 or 4:00 set up the rv at Resurrection City Campground then quickly went down to the visitor center to find out about their fishing charters and glacier/wildlife cruises.  We called several charters and they were all booked up except one, LeSea Charters.  We scheduled halibut fishing tomorrow and a wildlife cruise for Thursday.

7/17/12 SEWARD, AK  - ASHES TO ASHES

We were at the boat harbor ready for our halibut charter at 6:30.  Our boat was a small one, suppose to seat 8 but I’m not sure where 8 would sit.  The captain was a 72 year old man, weathered and a pretty feisty old codger.  We were his only people this day, yeah!  We have our own personal charter!  It was a ways out for halibut, about 1 ½ hour boat ride.  After we got out of the bay area the waves got much bigger.  I had asked Duane, the captain if we could spread my mom’s ashes today.  He was very accommodating, saying it was a common request.  We thought of a few nice places to spread the ashes and finally decided on Emerald Cove.  Ahh, this sounded nice!  And boy was it nice.  We pulled up, he turned off the engine and Norm, Wes and I took the ashes out to the back of the boat and all of us spread the ashes on 3 sides of the boat.  What a beautiful and peaceful place.  I’m so glad we were able to do this here.  My mom’s request was be cremated and spread her ashes out to sea.  She LOVED the sea.  If that wasn’t possible just spread them in the wind and let them blow all over she said.  Well it’s been 8 years now.  Originally me and both my brothers had planned to spread them together while on an Alaskan cruise.  Mom wanted to go on an Alaskan cruise but was diagnosed with cancer and died before she got to do that.  After her death we still planned to go to Alaska but then my older brother was diagnosed with cancer, fought it for over 2 years and he passed away also.  Being a superstitious person I was convinced I should not go to Alaska.  Seemed like a tragedy always struck when those plans were made.  After all I only have one brother left and I didn’t want to lose him to.  I know, sounds dumb, but that’s just the way I’m wired.  For several years I’ve been waiting for me and Wes, my younger brother to get together somewhere so we could spread mom’s ashes.  We never got together at a special place to do so.  Then Norm and I decided to tour Alaska this summer and Wes asked me to spread the ashes while here.  Good, I was thinking the same thing!  I invited him to fly down to join us if he wanted, and low and behold he did.   So here we are, in Seward, Alaska, out in a beautiful quiet cove with emerald green waters all around beside a huge rock cliff.  I couldn’t think of a more perfect place.  RIP mom.  You are sorely missed!

Back to halibut fishing:  After spreading mom’s ashes and taking a few photos of the area we started up the boat and headed on out to fish.  Like I said, it was a long way out for halibut.  Such a small boat on such a large ocean.  The waves got bigger and we went up & down, side to side, uh oh…….suddenly I don’t feel so good.  Neither does Norm.  We took motion sickness pills earlier, but they aren’t working.  We get to our fishing spot, it’s 300-400 feet deep.  The captain gets the poles out and baited.  I take a position near the cab of the boat, lean over the railing and start vomiting.  This is what I did the rest of the trip.  Boy was I ever sick.  At one point the captain asked me if I wanted to reel in a fish that was on the line.  After his encouragement I did so.  It takes a long time to reel in 300-400 feet of line.  Captain held the pole while I used both hands to reel.  I think he felt sorry for me, keep asking me stuff that was really pretty funny, like “want me to get you some crackers”, I couldn’t speak or I would vomit so just shook my head no.  “Want me to help you”?  Shook my head no.  “Want me to turn your hat around”?  He was funny now.  No I blurted out and I closed my mouth real tight to keep its contents in.   It was all I could do to get that little halibut reeled in then captain took over as I assumed by position back by the railing to vomit some more.   Luckily we caught our limit (2 each) pretty quick and headed back in.  I was sick as a dog.  Wes caught the biggest at about 35 pounds.  We would have stayed out longer to fish for something else or to see wildlife as we had book a full day, but Norm & Wes took pity on me and decided to head back in.  I feel like I spoiled the day.  Sure wish we could have enjoyed the day more, it was a beautiful day.  By the way Norm never got sick.  He started feeling better once we stopped to fish. 

7/19/12  SEWARD, AK

Yesterday we drove out to Exit Glacier and went on a 2 mile hike to the edge of the glacier. Turned out to be another beautiful day. Later we walked around the old Seward downtown area and checked out the small boat harbor and shops.

Today was our 9 hour Fjords Wildlife and Glacier Cruise. Another sunny and warm day, I can’t believe the nice weather we’ve had since Wes arrived. I guess he brought it with him. We saw humpback whales, orca’s, sea lions, harbor seals and various birds including puffins. The captain got us close to Northwestern Glacier, shut off the engine and we got to sit there and watch for calving. And we did see the glacier drop chunks of ice. Nothing real big, no house size chunks, but we did see what was probably pretty good size pieces. We were very pleased with the cruise and glad we went. Afterward we dined at Ray’s seafood restaurant overlooking the harbor. King crab legs were delicious. A very nice end to Wes’s last day here. We booked him on a bus back to Anchorage tomorrow instead of driving him the 5 hour round trip. I can’t believe how fast the time went. Wish he could stay a bit longer.

Our catch!

Emerald Cove where we spread mom's ashes

 Our fishing charter

Northwestern Glacier/Cruise

Our campsite in Seward

Puffins

7/15/12 ANCHORAGE, AK

We moved from Eagle River to Anchorage early yesterday.  Because we didn’t have any hook ups in Eagle River we had run out of water and power so we packed up early and checked into the Creekwood Inn Motel & RV park with full hook ups.  I did laundry while Norm set up the RV and mopped the floors.  Then we drove thru downtown Anchorage and on to the port area.  We walked on a trail that follows Turnagain Arm (Cook Inlet) then cut over to walk thru part of the downtown area.   Anchorage has a nice downtown, hanging flower baskets, murals on buildings, everything seems clean and they have parks scattered throughout the city.  I think I had read somewhere that Anchorage has over 200 parks.  Many are small but very nice. 

I got a call from my brother around 4:30 yesterday, that knucklehead missed his connecting flight in Denver.  The next flight isn’t for 24 hours as they only have one that goes to Anchorage daily (Frontier).  So we’ll stay here another night and hopefully he’ll make it in this evening.  I’m sorry it shortens his Alaska stay. 

We woke up to rain this morning. Looks like it will be cloudy with showers off and on all day.

Train entering Whittier

 The cute town of Hope

Anchorage mural

7/12/12 EAGLE RIVER, AK

The town of Eagle River is located just north of Anchorage.  We found a nice campground here as the ones in Anchorage are terrible.  They have a four day limit so we will stay here four nights then move into Anchorage closer to the airport the last night in this area.  My brother’s flight gets in around 11:00 p.m.  We took the truck into the Ford dealership to get the oil changed yesterday.  We got a later start than we should have (not unusual for us) and had to wait a few hours until the truck was done.  In the meantime we walked over to a motel just a block up the street to check out their little rv park.  It’s expensive, sites are tight, pretty much a crap hole, in the bad part of town next to a busy highway.  But it’s close to the airport and has cable, we’ll take it.  After picking up the truck we checked out a Fred Meyers to see if we could possibly camp there one night.  Fred Meyers is a grocery store chain that often times lets you camp overnight in their parking lot.  We did not see any campers, but did see signs saying “No parking for longer than 24 hours, violators will be towed”.  I think it would be okay for an overnight but it was extremely congested with vehicles and we weren’t comfortable dropping the trailer there while running out to the airport.  So we’ll stay at the crap hole we saw earlier.  

We’re just relaxing and enjoying the sun when it makes an appearance.  There are a few places in Anchorage I want to check out as well as Eagle River.  We have to stock up on supplies and wash laundry.  I don’t even have clean dirty clothes to wear any more.  I brought just a little of everything.  A few short sleeves, a few long sleeves, shorts, capris, long pants (light, medium and heavy weight), so I could be ready for all kinds of weather.  But the only thing I’ve been wearing is long pants (jeans), long sleeve tee shirts, a hoodie and at times a light weight rain proof jacket.  That seems to be all you need in Canada and Alaska.  It may get warmer as we get closer to Fairbanks next month.

This morning I was talking to Norm when all of a sudden I saw a black bear come out of the woods behind our rv!  My jaw dropped open and I couldn’t speak, probably because I was shocked to see this bear.  Norm turned around to see what I was looking at.  We watched him as he meandered by our picnic table and fire ring.  He just kept going, right on through our camp site.  It was amazing.  We hadn’t seen a bear since Canada and were beginning to think we wouldn’t see another one until we drove back through Canada.  This one was a little too close for comfort, I was glad we were safe inside our rv.  Just yesterday morning we were sitting right out there drinking our coffee.  I’m glad it was too cold to do that this morning.  I had my camera nearby and got a pretty good picture of him.  I’ll try to post it when/if I get fast enough wifi. 

7/9/12 GIRDWOOD, AK

Just 50 miles up the road is Girdwood. The only thing in this tiny town is a ski resort that sounded pretty cool.  We pulled into their $10 a night rv parking lot to check things out.  Well…..things were not as they appeared on paper.  The ski resort is 1 mile from the parking lot.  They made it sound like it’s right near the resort.  Not so.  But it was a beautiful day so we enjoyed the 2 mile round trip walk.  Nothing to see here.  The resort is nice enough, but not what I was expecting.  We will move on to Eagle River tomorrow. 

7/08/12 HOPE, AK

Today was the last day of the Hope Blue grass festival with two bands playing from 2:00-7:00.  We had a late lunch at were there around 2:30.  Two bands playing today.  Both very good.  I’ll miss this quaint little town and the hopping little café/bar with live entertainment.  The rv park filled up this weekend with rv’s and tent campers and just as quickly emptied out leaving 4 of us rv’s tonight.  Tomorrow we’ll head back toward Anchorage stopping in Girdwood for a few days on the way.  My brother Wes flies in next Saturday to join us for a week and we want to get back a few days early to get the oil changed in the truck, stock up on supplies and attend the Eagle River Bear Paw Festival just north of Anchorage. 

7/7/12 HOPE, AK and Ponts

OMG is all I can say about today.
Seems like every other night I can’t sleep, then the next night I sleep good out of exhaustion.  Last night was one of those nights I couldn’t sleep. It was nice lying in bed hearing the blue grass band playing just 50 feet or so from our rv at the Seaview Bar.  By 11:00 p.m. the bar shut down and this sleepy little town was quiet once again.  But still I can’t turn off my mind for sleep so I lay awake several more hours.  This weekend is Hope’s blue grass festival.  It’s not like the blue grass festivals in Texas that are so huge you have to take a shuttle in from the parking lot to attend.  Hope is a tiny town, population 150 and we were fortunate enough to stumble upon it when they were having this festival.  So the population probably swelled to 225 or so, counting me & Norm.  Anyway, I got up a little grumpy today and ready for a cup of Joe.  As the coffee percolated Norm pointed out all the tent campers across the gravel road from us that arrived the night before. A lot of people here for the festival we suspect. They were our entertainment for the morning. As I watched the tent campers making a fire to keep warm, one of them looked a little familiar as he loaded the ice chest with beers.  Our conversation went something like this:

Pam:  That looks like Ponts.

Norm: Who?
Pam:  Ponts, from the show Flying Wild Alaska, the bush pilot.
Norm:  Oh
Pam get’s her binoculars (Yes, RV’ers are nosey):  Yeah, I think it is Ponts.  Don’t you?
Norm:  Well it kinda looks like him, but no, it’s not him.
Pam keeps looking through her cheep binoculars:  Omg, I believe it’s him, looks just like him.
Norm:  uh hu…. (as he keeps reading a book)
Pam:  I swear that’s Ponts.   Doesn’t just look like him, it is him!
Norm:  Kinda looks a little like him, but no, it’s not him.
Pam:  You left the coffee pot on with no coffee in it, now it’s burning!
Norm:  Oh, sorry.

So we go for a walk, but it’s cold and windy and I’m not in the mood to be outside.  We go back to the rv and have lunch.  Today, Saturday, the festival started at 2:00 p.m.  We went over to the bar about 2:30 and ordered a couple beers.  They have a deck outside where the band was set up.  Because it was cloudy and windy today it was a bit chilly and I opted to sit inside, just inside the door to the deck so we could see some of the band playing.  They have 4 bands scheduled to play today until they close at 11:00 p.m.   We enjoyed them immensely.  Our next conversation:

Norm:  that wasn’t Ponts.

Pam:  what?
Norm:  that guy that was just at the bar, the one you thought was ponts earlier, wasn’t him.
Pam:  what guy? I didn’t see him.
Norm:  Oh, I thought you saw him, he just walked out.
Pam:  Why didn’t you point him out to me?
Norm:  hm…..haha, wasn’t him anyway, don’t worry, he’ll be back.
Pam:  Don’t assume I see him, point him out if he comes back!

When the third band comes on deck there are probably 60 people in all there, inside and out on deck.  Norm says “that band guy is one of the guys camped across from us, with Ponts. You know, the guy that you think looks like Ponts.  The Ponts look a-like will be back”.  And guess what?  Soon, I see Ponts sitting with some of the other campers out on the deck in front of the band!!!! 

Pam:  Norm, there’s Ponts!

Norm:  haha, (disbelief).
Pam:  I’m going to get my camera from the rv, I’ll be back so you can take my pic with him.
Norm:  k, haha
Pam returns with camera.
Norm:  Go ahead, talk to him, ask permission to take his picture.
Pam:  I’m going, you just stand by with the camera (Pam makes sure camera is turned on and ready).  When you see me wave you on, come take the picture quickly.
Norm:  Make sure you have his permission to take a pic (still in disbelief that it’s Ponts).
Pam walks behind the row of seats and taps Ponts on the shoulder “Are you Ponts?”.
Ponts:  Yes (with those big dimples and white chicklet smile, just like on TV).
Pam:  Can my husband take my picture with you?
Ponts:  Sure! (he turns his chair to put an arm around my shoulder)
BAZINGA!   (As Sheldon would say).
And Norm, he’s right on que, takes the pic, “We’re fans of the show”.
Pam:  LOVE YOU!
We walk away like school girls that just met Justin Bieber.  Hahahahhaha.  Then we stalk him for another hour or so with huge smiles on our faces.
We laugh for a long time, sure made our day here in little Hope, Alaska.  It ranks right up there with meeting Conan O’Brien, seeing David Blain in Central Park, walking by Bill Clinton in Manhattan and seeing the hump back whale breech in Valdez.  I won’t be able to sleep again tonight for sure. 

My favorite Bush Pilot!

7/6/12 Eagle Pics

Slow wifi here at the Library in Hope, but here's a few pics of an Eagle in Whittier:

https://picasaweb.google.com/113107122312068056493/July62012#

7/5/12 HOPE, AK

It rained steady ALL NIGHT long.  We hitched up in the rain in Whittier and caught the 12:00 traffic flow through the tunnel.  The tunnel schedule is leaving Whittier they open it to outgoing traffic on the hour up until 11:00 p.m.  If you’re driving into Whittier they open traffic inbound on every half hour.  And of course the train gets priority as it comes & goes.  Once we crossed the mountain range between Whittier and the Kenai/Anchorage area it stopped raining and the sun even came out a little.  The pastor told us that the weather on the Whittier side of the mountain range gets a lot of rain, and boy he was right.  I would not have thought we would drive out of that rain any time soon, if ever.  We arrived in Hope which is one the coast of the Turnagain Arm.  It seems to be sort of a canyon that is very windy.  We traded rain for wind, but at least we’re drying out.   We got the only campsite that was available for 3 days here at the Seaview RV park, 15 amp electric only.  They are having a blue grass festival here this weekend and most sites are reserved.  What luck!  We’re looking forward to the blue grass music.  Hope is tiny, population about 150.  Nothing to do here but a very charming town indeed.  The population is about the same as Whittier but there is no harbor. It’s located on the north side of the peninsula which appears to be very shallow, but fishing is said to be very good. 

7/2/12 WHITTIER, AK

We had planned to go to Girdwood today but Norm read about a special July 4^th celebration that Whittier puts on so we passed by Girdwood for now and drove straight to Whittier.  The scenery between Anchorage and Whittier is very nice. We pulled over in one of the many scenic overlooks just south of Anchorage in the Turnagain Arm area where Beluga whales are often seen.  No Beluga’s today but we did see some dall sheep on a mountainside.  The views of Turnagain Arm were beautiful surrounded by snow capped mountains.  Are you seeing a theme here?  Yes, every place in Alaska is surrounded by snowed capped mountains.   It was very overcast and cold today, in the 50’s.  We got a campsite at Creekside Campground which seems to be the only one in Whittier.  Not great, gravel with a lot of big rocks, very unlevel and no hook ups.  But it is close to town.  We are in a site with a view of the harbor on one side, the snow capped mountains on the other and the creek right out our back window.  The water is running fast, we can hear it from inside the rv with windows closed.  It’s very soothing, there’s something about running water that makes everything seem nice.  To get to Whittier you pay a toll to enter through a long tunnel.  There is only one lane of traffic so you have to pay and get in line until the other traffic is stopped so you can go through. They charge according to your vehicle/length.  Our 25 foot rv was $20, vehicles are $10 and larger rv’s are $35, that’s round trip.   It also shares the same tunnel with a train and that train has the right of way.  We had 40 minutes to wait our turn so went inside the rv to have lunch.  After driving through the tunnel it’s just a few miles into Whittier. 

7/4/12 WHITTIER, AK

Whittier had scheduled a fireworks display for July 3^rd at 11:00 p.m. but postponed it due to low cloud cover and rain.  We walked the harbor and on the way back to the rv spotted an Eagle.  We watched him for a long time and eventually saw another.  They were building a nest.  The big guy would fly off and come back with a branch in his beak or claws, put it in the nest and the little gal would stomp around on it.  It was fun to watch and we got some pretty good pictures of it. 

They did have a parade and BBQ on July 4^th at noon even though it was still raining.  We decided to attend the BBQ that was held under a pavilion right on the harbor overlooking the ocean.  It was so nice to see the townspeople come out for that with their children.  We met a woman that was also from Texas.  When I asked her where she said “a little town north of Austin, Georgetown”.  WOW.  I was shocked to come all this way and meet someone from my very home town.  She was traveling here on a missionary trip with the First Baptist Church to help out this little isolated coastal town that struggles to survive.  I’m not sure what all they are helping with, but they helped cook and serve the burgers, hot dogs, hot chocolate, lemonade, sodas and cake.  Whittier has a population of under 200 and they all live in a 14 story condo that towers above all else in Whittier, which isn’t much.  A very small little boardwalk down by the harbor with a few small shops and restaurants.    We had a nice conversation with a pastor and his wife that moved here last summer from Texas.  It was interesting to hear their thoughts on their first winter in Alaska.  Snow got up to 40 foot high, the children were playing around the street lamps, as in you could walk right by the street light, the pole was covered up with snow.  WOW.  I can’t imagine.  The school, K-12 is located behind the condos and they have an underground tunnel to access the school.  Sorry kids, no snow days for you.  The kids play in the tunnel when it’s too nasty to go outside.  The pastor’s wife said she struggled to stay positive, upbeat and cheerful for the town’s people.  And that people get very strange, start saying very strange and bizarre things as the long dark winters set in.  We asked about the northern lights.  They described them as spectacular and said they were very close, not far off in a distance like you would think.  But it was too cold to stay outside very long to see.   To bad it’s so rainy; we would have like to take some of the hikes we saw on the map of Whittier.  We get out to see as much as we can even if it’s raining, but it’s raining too much and cold on top of that.  We spent the rest of the day inside and worked on our flooring project, nailing trim in areas where we could.  We still need to glue down some vertical pieces on the stairs that won’t stay but the glue is to cold to work with. That will have to wait.  It’s nice to have a rainy day project and this is something I enjoy.  It also saves my back to work on it a little at a time.  We spent the rest of the evening reading some of the literature of Alaska we had gathered from various visitor centers. 

6/28/12 PALMER / ANCHORAGE

6/28/12 PALMER, AK

We left Valdez this morning as the clouds were parting and the sun came out.  The drive halfway to Palmer was nice and partly sunny, then scattered rain the rest of the way.  Alaska weather is funny, it’s dreary and heavy overcast one minute then the clouds part, the temp raises 10 degrees and you think it’s going to turn out to be a nice day.  But no, dark clouds come back in as fast as they left and it gets cold quick, and a torrential down pour could happen at any time.  Back in Liard River I went for a walk when it was a beautiful sunny day.  All of a sudden it clouded over and rained, I was drenched before I made it back to the rv, which was not far away.  I plan to always be prepared and have a rain coat handy I don’t care how sunny it is.  Back in Texas we have a saying “if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute” because it changes a lot.  But NOTHING like Alaska.  In Texas it changes in a day.  In Alaska it changes in one minute, literally. 

We arrived at Gary and Jill’s house in Palmer around 4:30.  We got a very warm welcome and were soon parked, hooked up to electric and water and settled in.  We’ll be mooch-docking for a couple of days.  Gary and Jill split their time between Palmer and their property in Baja California, Mexico.  Real good folks with the sweetest dog, Bella.  She loves to play ball.  She’s got a lot of energy.  

A note on writing my blog:  I follow a blog “Phannie and Mae” who recently gave some very good pointers on blog writing.  One of them was to read what you write before you post it.  This gives you a chance to edit, correct spelling and grammatical errors.  I sometimes do this, and sometimes don’t.  Since I read Mike’s blog writing entry I’ve been trying to make sure I do read over my blog entries before I post them.  This often works, but many times I don’t notice the mistakes I make when proof reading.  I guess I know what I “mean” to say; therefore when I re-read it I still miss these mistakes.  Sorry, I’m just blog-tarded.  I guess if someone doesn’t like it, well they can just leave it.  This blog is mainly for me, my personal journal to reflect on.  And let’s face, my memory isn’t what it used to be.  So being able to go back and read about our travels refreshes my memory.  And I do know that there are a couple of people that are really interested in what and where we are.   Some people are interested in details, some not.  So I put it out there and you can hang on every word, or skim over it.  At any rate, I do enjoy reading Mike’s blog.  He’s is a very polished writer, interesting and funny. 

 

6/30/12 ANCHORAGE, AK

Yesterday Gary and Jill took us for a tour of Palmer. Palmer has “Friday Fling” each Friday during the summer which consists of booths selling their wares, food and even fresh grown vegetables.  What a beautiful day for such a nice venue.  They had a girl band playing when we arrived that sounded fantastic.  We thoroughly enjoyed listening to their music until they took a break.  I did not realize Palmer was such a small town.  What a wonderful place to raise a family.  Gary and Jill knew a lot of people in town, what a nice community.  We took a drive in the country side around a beautiful mountain (Butte) that has a nice view of the area, only we did not hike it this day. 

This morning we all went to a wonderful restaurant for breakfast.  Gary & Jill’s two little grandsons’ joined us and they were so darn cute!  Well mannered kids at that.   It sure made me miss my grandkids.  Norm and Gary fixed some damage that was done to the rear of our RV when we entered into Alaska.  Gary has a huge garage/workshop that would be the envy of any man.  We said goodbye to our hospitable hosts and pushed on to Anchorage, a mere 45 miles or so on down the road.  We got a site at Centennial campground on the North side of Anchorage.  This is a nice campground, forested but no hookups.  We only stayed here because it seemed to be close and convenient to my old high school classmate Diane.  Unfortunately we were not able to make contact with her.  Bummer.  I wouldn’t have stayed here two nights if I’d know we would not see her.  But most of all I’m disappointed I didn’t get to see an old high school classmate.  Maybe on our return trip from the Kenai Peninsula on our way up to Denali. 

7/1/12 ANCHORAGE, AK

Today we went to Kincaid Park in South Anchorage near the airport. We read that Moose often gather at the fence by the airport and Norm really wants to get a good look at a Bull Moose.  This park was real nice but very different from what I was expecting.  Hilly and more like a forest with very nice trails.  Mosquito’s were pretty bad.  No moose sightings or any wildlife.  Anchorage seems to be a nice city but we did not see much that really interested us.  We decided to look at a couple rv parks near the airport to see if there was one close to stay at when we return to Anchorage in 2 weeks to pick up my brother.  His flight gets in after 11:00 p.m. and he’ll tour around with us for one week.  The first park was a pretty tight fit for 5^th wheels. No space to pull up in order to back in.  The other, Golden Nugget looked okay and is very large but in a very scary part of town.  This would be just okay.  After shopping Home Depot we needed to make a Wal-Mart run to stock up on groceries and such. I have a very long list. There are not many (any) good sized stores to buy groceries or essentials so we thought Anchorage being the big city would be good for shopping.  But to my surprise Anchorage has several small Wal-Marts but not a Super Wal-Mart.  We decided to make the 12 mile trip to Eagle River to their Super Wal-Mart.  On the way we checked out a campground in that area, Eagle River campground.  It’s very nice; we may stay there on our return trip to Anchorage even though it’s 15-20 miles from the airport.  No hookups, but we’ll just be there a few nights.  What a nice little town Eagle River is. After stocking up on supplies we arrived back at our campsite around 6:00 to find our neighbors fighting, again.  Boy, what a spectacle.  They had a lot of company that had arrived for the evening, they were all arguing.  Norm wanted to complain to the office but I was afraid of retaliation.  “Just don’t look at them Norm, keep your head down, or they might come over and *(%$  us up!”.  “Now go get me a beer and don’t look at them. I said don’t look! “.   Haha, that man just can’t help but stare.  This is a nice campground but seems to have homeless people living in tents here.  We’ll be glad to leave this place tomorrow.