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.