Our Davis Mountain State Park week 1st issue

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It has been a few days since I updated everyone, so here I am, back to blogging.

Click here to view pictures complete with descriptive captions

Friday Nov  6th  2009
Barbara and I returned from our wonderful Alaskan adventure on October the 11th.  We had already planned this Davis Mountain trip last year while at Davis Mountain with Keith and Linda Turner.  On this trip we are pleased to have Jack and Booty Reed joining us.  Barbara and I are thankful for the friendship of Keith, Lynda, Jack and Booty and for good times shared in campgrounds around the state.  I worked with Jack and Keith at SPS. When all of get together as we are now at Davis Mountain State Park we gather around the campfire in the evening and cook out.  We build a nice big fire and stand or sit close so as to knock the mountain air chill off.  Of course we engage in story telling, table games, and planning other events.
 

Davis Mountain state park is a great place for a visit during November because of the nice weather, cool nights but warming into the 70s during the days.  The park is about 280 miles (5-6 hours) from Lubbock south of  Interstate 10 very near Fort Davis.
The park also has a good variety of wild life.  Each evening we are treated to the parade of deer, wild hogs, foxes, skunks, and many other 4 legged animals that come wandering through the campsites, and a few even stop to visit.  Starting about sunup, hundreds of birds flock to the area to check out the many bird feeders hanging from the trees.
Another feature of this area is the bonus of clear view of the heavens at night.  On most any night one can travel 15 minutes to the McDonald observatory for a "star party" along with looking through some very nice telescopes. 

Sunday Nov 8th
Today started with nice clear morning with a temp of 37 degrees.  We had decided to go up the hill to the Davis Mountain state park Black Bear restaurant next to the historic Indian Lodge for Sunday lunch.  The lodge was built in the 1930s by the CCC and is still operated by the State of Texas.  The lodge has undergone a recent restoration that restored some of the rooms back to the original look along with the CCC crafted furnishings. After a good lunch we did a short hike back to the campsite to watch the Nascar race from the Ft Worth track. After supper we gathered at Keith and Lynda's site for desert and a campfire.  We had a visit from a gray fox and a skunk.  The two got somewhat close and scared each other each leaving in the opposite direction.

Monday Nov 9th
Another beautiful day at Davis Mountains, early morning is cool and crisp, but quickly warming into the mid 70s and clear blue skies.  During a hike to the bird watching building, Barbara and I visited with a fellow traveler that was having a problem returning his slide out to its stowed position.  The Keith Jack and John campsite repair service was able to resolve the problem.  That enabled them to travel on to Big Bend.  The problem turned out to be an electrical  interlock that was not made up.  It was a lazy day around the campground with the girls playing table games.  I worked on a few repair items on our trailer and did a little waxing and cleaning. We did a few more nature hikes around the area during the mid afternoon.  After supper we settled in around a campfire to end the day.

Tuesday Nov 10th
The big news of today is that our hummingbird feeder was knocked from the tree last night and damaged.  Maybe a raccoon, but we are not sure, it could be almost any of the many visitors that come each night.  We will do a day trip to the Fort Davis National Historic site and visit the town.  We spent several hours at the Fort looking at the many exhibits including a film presentation and the many restored buildings. The Fort was open from 1854-1891 and served to protect the interests of the pioneers traveling west between San Antonio and El Paso. 
After that, we went down to the Jeff Davis Court house area and did a walking tour of the town square area.  Some of the old buildings were the Limpia Hotel  and the bank. 
We returned to the campground and had a wonderful pot-luck dinner around the campfire.

John and Barbara along with Keith, Lynda, Jack, and Booty at Davis Mountain State Park




 

Starting our 4th month on the road and homeward bound... then computer failure.

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Link to the pictures with informative captions

We truly had a wonderful time, and adventure of a lifetime in Alaska, "The Last Frontier".  It's hard to describe, but we felt some of the magic in the land of the "midnight sun" and the "northern lights".  We originally had planned for just the scenic value and the Denali adventure, but we found out quickly that their was much more than that.  We found history, geography, geology, really good restaurants, museums, visitor centers, glaciers, flowers, fish, birds, planes, trains, bears, moose, caribou, reindeer, wolves, but I think that the best were the many people that we met along the way from all parts of the world. Many showed interest in us and we of course, were interested in their stories and lives. Never before have I seen the number of tourist and RVs heading to all parts of a state as I saw in Alaska. They walked, rode bikes, motorcycles, RVs, buses, trains, small boats, ferries, big ships, and airplanes.  We drove for days on the Alaskan Highway, also called the ALCAN because of the construction during WW2.  Each day, around every bend in the road, was another bonus or a WOW.  It was truly a pleasure and an honor to live in a country where we could travel like we did.  Other than fuel we were able to control costs most of the time.  The usual  for a campsite was $15 or less, except the night we were in Prince Rupert, and that was $27 with full hook ups.  Some nights were free and yes, we had unbelievable nice campsites.  The National Park System and the US forest service was usually around $5 to $8 with our half price senior discount. 
We traveled in 10 US states and 3 Canadian Provinces during the last 100 days.  We logged ~12,400 miles on the truck.  The trailer was about 300 less than the truck.  I think that Barbara and I walked about 50 miles on the many trails, just a guess. We felt that on some of the trails we walked the footsteps of some of the Goldrushers of the late 1800s.  We had mostly perfect weather with little rain.  We had very few bugs and almost no mosquitoes. We had no mechanical problems other than a  windshield wiper motor control board and a balky heater in the trailer, both of which I repaired on the road with no expense.  No flats or broken glass.  Not too many wrong turns, but than there are not many roads up there..  And the roads for the most part were just fine if you took it slow. 

You might enjoy these two Youtube links.  We had a short cut on the desktop for easy access to these mp3 files.  We would play them many times before our adventure ended.
Springtime in Alaska Johnny Horton
North to Alaska Johnny Horton

Thanks to all the friends that wrote and followed along on this blog as we traveled those many miles.  Thanks for the many friends we met along the way. I am still getting a few email asking questions about the Texans.

Much has happened since my last posting.  On Tuesday the 6th my trusty laptop booted and then went dark.  It was dead and remained dead for the rest of the trip. We rely on the laptop for mapping, blogging, and it also serves as the display for the rear camera on the travel trailer. I will try to update you. 

We spent 4 days in the Arches national park and the Moab, UT area.  Moab is a tourist city and We traveled US 191 south toward the  Canyonland Needles National park.  The Needles park is about 30 miles west of US191 at the junction of State road 211.  We stayed in the Needles park for 2 nights in the Squaw flat camping area that has 26 sites.  The first night was in a group area because the park was full when we arrived.  The next day we did a self guided tour of the park.  We walked several of the trails and spent some time at the visitor center where we watched a video about the park. We attended a ranger program that was about the different early ranchers that were the pioneers in the area.  One of those persons was a interesting woman named Marie Ogden.  She took over the local newspaper called the San Juan Record and also established a cult following called the Home of Truth.  Many of the buildings are still standing on the road 211 going toward the Needles park entrance. You can read about Marie here.  This area was the also the center of the uranium mining boom of the 1950s. 

On wednesday the 7th  We left Needles and drove back to US191 and south to Monticello and then to southwest on 491 to Cortez.  Purchase propane at Cortez and drove east on US 160 to Mesa Verde National Park. We arrived at Mesa Verde national park  in the southwest corner of Colorado just west of Cortez on US6.  We spent the night of the 7th in the park at Morefield camping area that has 435 sites managed by Aramark. It is located 15 miles into the park. We went to to the Far View visitor center at  and did some of the self guided things.  Barbara and I have been to Mesa Verde back about 1981. We woke up on Thursday with the temp of 29 degrees.  This was to be our last camping of our Alaskan Adventure for our next stop would be in Eldorado, New Mexico at the lovely home of Brad and Beverly Cottingham.  We left Mesa Verde on thursday and drove through Durango and on to Alamosa where we would turn south on US 84 toward Santa Fe.  In the high mountain passes the temp would drop into the 30s and while driving through Chama, NM we got into a blinding snow and ice storm.  That didn't last long and the weather on to Santa fe was good. we arrived at Brad's about 5:PM. 

Oct 8th 9th and 10th
We camped out at Brad and Bev's in their driveway.  Only the second time we had been hooked up to electricity since July 1.  We visited and caught up on a lot of things.  Barbara and Beverly cooked some nice meals in the big fully equipped kitchen.  Remember, we have not been in a real kitchen since the end of June.  I helped Brad move his satellite dish up on the roof.  It was a 15 minute job, but it took us about 3 hours.  We drove 10 miles to Lamy, NM and ate lunch at the Lamy Station Cafe. It is also featured in this youtube video.  Enjoyed it very much. After lunch, some of the local historians gave us a personal tour of the Rail and Hotel museum.  Lamy is a historic town that was the rail center of Santa Fe and is the rail stop for Amtrack service.  The location is a few mile east of US 285 on highway 33.

Oct 11th
The long 300 miles home after 110 days on the road.  We had a uneventful drive back to back to Lubbock and some realities.  Monday was a holiday, then on tuesday a trip to the post office for over 3 months of mail. 

John and Barbara back in Lubbock

our stay at Mount Rainier National Park Sept 27th and 28th and on toward Arches/Canyonland National Park

To the Blog,

Link to the pictures and descriptive captions.

We left Olymic National Park on the Olympic Peninsula and drove toward Mount Rainier.  Olympic is just about as far north and west in the continous US as you can go.  Very enjoyable time in the rain forests and along the Pacific costal beaches. 

Again we find excitement as we come back to Mount Rainier National Park after being here with our son, Jay, 26 years ago.  This is an old park (around 1923 for  with the campground we are in) and it a few places it may look a little worn out.  We enjoyed two nights in the park and hiked some of the interesting in park trails. The best one was the Grove of the Patriarchs.  It is about two miles into a grove of old growth Doug Fir, Western red cedars, and Western Hemlock.  Some of the trees are 300' feet tall and 1000 years. 
When we drove into Rainier campground, a fellow traveler greeted us with a "Hey Texsan". He and his wife were camped in the site across the road.  They are  from Midlothain, TX.  He had lost his job do to the economic downturn, so they decided to vacation to the northwest.
The morning of the 28th as, we left Rainier, we were greeted with a snowstorm for a few miles along highway 12.  We are heading to Yakima, WS and beyond.  This takes us along the Yakima valley where all the apples and other tree fruits are grown.  The river is close by and is controlled by irrigation diversion dams used for the crops.  This goes on for a hundred miles.  When we get to Yakima we stop at the visitor center and get a free sample package of apples, pares, peaches, and tomatoes. 
We continued out drive toward Boise, ID and then to Salt Lake City, UT, and to Arches/Canyonland in the southeast corner of UT.

We are now at Arches/Canyon and heading for the Needles campground.

Fellow travelers that we have met along the way

a few more pictures and our present location

To the blog,
We have met  many fellow travelers while on our 10,000 mile (as of now) adventure and I welcome them.
Many have been helpful with answers to our questions and all have had an interest in us wandering  texans.  These are the ones that I have a card on or in a few cases, I just remember them.
Thanks all

Jennifer and Tom  Griffin,  Williams Lake, B.C.
Ken & Sherry Patrick   Kamloops BC
John W King. Sr  Denham Springs LA K5PGW
Bill and Lil Pensacola, FL (WB4ORN)
Mark & Brenda Erb  Edmonton, AB
Gold Rush Peck of Hope AK
Christopher Sorbi Montana
Ellen & Orval Baldwin Oshawa, Ontario
Jesse & Kathy  Clifton  Fairbanks, AK
Mike and Teri Myers   Florence OR
Pat & Charlotte Yates   Crosby, TX
Scott Robbins  Bend OR
Paul & Lynn Goulet  Florida
John & Marium (WL7CFA) Anchorage, AK
Dave & Dee Hanrahan  Homer AK
Theodor Fremd   paleontologist working for the NPS
Russ and Lauri  Sequim WA
Jim Mountifield    Prince George BC

John and Barbara on the return leg

An update on John and Barbara and our wonderful adventure... heading for Olympic National park

To the blog,

Link for pictures and descriptive captions  Be sure to check the pictures, as I am not blogging much of our day to day activity except in picture captions.

FYI should be another blog and more pictures shortly.

We are on the move and for one reason or another, I have let the blog fall behind.  We had made plans with Jay to meet him in Olympic National Park and to work with his calendar we were going to have to cover some ground.  As it turned out he had a couple of things that came up and he will not be able to me us.   Sorry for the absence on the blog.

Some of our recent adventures were  driving and camping along the Gold Rush Cariboo Highway 97 south from Prince George, BC. The highway got the name from the gold rush days in the 1860s.  Many towns on the road are named after mile post bunkhouses or the person that owned the shelters along the way.  The scenic highway is well traveled and busy.  There is still some active mining in a few areas.  Two railroads follow the highway closely.  Because of the mountainous nature of the area, seven tunnels are cut through some of the mountains.

At the present time we are on the west side of Olympic National Park in the Kalaloch beach campground on Pacific coastal scenic highway 101.  The weather has been perfect for about 10 days straight and we have enjoyed our time in  three of the Olympic National park campgrounds.  We have 5 days in the park, at Sol Doc campground,  Kalaloch campground , and the day at Hoh rain forest center.
This is about as far west and north in the lower 48 that we can go and this is the turn around point for us.  Tomorrow, the 27th, we'll turn the rig toward Texas.  Not sure of the route, we'll let the GPS start us out.  The GPS indicates 2020 miles to Lubbock. 

John and Barbara from the turnaround location

we'll moving on... We are Prince Rupert and heading for Prince George

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Breaking news..
After 77 days without hookups we got hooked in Prince Rupert at the Prince Rupert RV Campground, because it is getting late in the year the provincial park outside of town and it was closed for the season. We have done well without hookups using the generator when needed.

At the present we are in Prince Rupert, BC on the west coast.  This is a busy little town with a lot going on.  Prince Rupert is a major port on the inland waterway system. It has a huge container shipping terminal port for shipping containers all around the word.  We watched it from a viewing point high on a hill and the activity looked like a little city of ants each carrying something back and forth.  The containers are handled from train or truck and placed on ships, much of it automated handling.
I am posting this link to google that will show the location and other informative pictures. 
I am able to do this because we also have Wifi here in this park.

We spent the day in Prince Rupert yesterday.  We wandered around the visitors center and had lunch at Smiles Seafood restaurant. It has been operating since 1934 at the same location.  We walked around the downtown area and viewed several of the many totem poles carved by the native Indian craftsman.  I chose to visit the CN railroad museum while Barbara was doing some shopping. We also watched the planes come and go at the Seaplane port. This is just like a airport, except that the runaway are water in the bay.  The planes taxi out and take one of two runaways. They have radial piston engines that have a lot of power, they get in the air very quickly.

Our next stop will be along the Yellowhead Highway, about halfway between here and Prince George, BC.  We will be in Prince George the next night.

John and Barbara form Prince Rupert

The continuing drive south on the Cassiar and visit to Stewart and Hyder

Hello Bloggers,

click this link for pictures with descriptive captions

NOTE...
Want to get the travel fever?  Get the Milepost, the bible of the north country travel, it doesn't matter what year edition, just pick a section and start reading.  The Milepost contains road descriptions as well as the history of the area.  If you are a Ebay-er, spend a few bucks and have it sent to your front door.  Ours is a 2005 that came from the Red Wing Public Library in Red Wing MN that was discarded.  Make sure that the edition that you are considering has the large fold our map, it is important.

Sept 13 2009

Our first 60 miles heading south on the Cassiar Highway has about 20 miles of gravel road and with some soft spots on a detour. The rest is paved wide one lane with no center stripe and no shoulder.
An update...After having driven the entire distance, this is a very nice scenic road and I am glad to have traveled it.

We spent the night on the road at the Simmons Lake overlook.  Very nice scenic spot with lake and small cabin on the other side.  367.2 milepost  It rained most of the night, sometimes a hard rain. We wondered how that would turn our because we were expecting a 20 mile section of gravel in the morning.  It turned out they had just seal coated it and it was a very good road even in the wet weather.  Tomorrow the weather is expected to clear by afternoon with mostly sunny on Monday.

Sept 14 2009  from Lake Meziadian Provincial Park BC

Nice day at sunrise and a low hanging moisture cloud hanging over the Meziadian Provincial Park..  This is a beautiful campground with a 12 mile long lake attached.  Also the first Provincial campground that has a  generator and solar powered wifi hotspot. 
We drove into Stewart and Hyder today for another full day of sightseeing and adventure.  This Cassiar highway that we have been traveling is a scenic wonderland of mountains and glaciers.  Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK are old mining towns that are trying to hang onto something and that is tourism.  The mines are all closed although there is still a lot of exploration by mining cos.  Only about a 1/3 of the people are left because the mines have shut down.  It is a walk back into history with all of the old building and attractions.  We enjoyed the day very much.  This is a link to the Stewart Hider web page.  Well worth the time to read about these two historical places.  It is also the gateway to the Tongas National park.   We spent some time at the fish creek where the bear come to fish.  It also has a large glacier that you can drive to.

Sept 15 2009
We are leaving the Lake Meziadian park and heading south to the Yellowknife junction and then to Port Rupert, BC.  This will put us into Port Rupert this evening.  It is a side trip that will add about 300 miles, but we don't want to pass it by.  More later

John and Barbara
 

Whitehorse, YT and south to Carcross and Skagway, AK more gold rush history and a nice scenic drive

Dear Blog,

Just an FYI... We will not have cell service until we get back into the states.  Best way to get in touch is email.  We use Skype for outbound calls when we have a Wifi connection.  Our cell is 806 790 9299 and anyone is welcome to leave voice mail.  When we get service we can retrieve the voice mail

link to pictures with descriptive captions
  
FYI... A few of the readers might wonder why I put so much "Gold Rush" stuff in the blogs.  With well over 100,000 rushers from all over the world coming into this area and heading for the Yukon in the 1890s, it is possible that you may have had a rusher in your family.  We don't know of any in mine or Barbara's.   The museums and libraries in this area, are a hangout for the gold rush history buffs.
Many pictures that I used in this posting are from the descriptive interpretive signs on the pull out spots along the highway.  There are many of these and each denotes some historical event or a scenic view of some kind.  Rather than try to write about them, I just took a picture of them.  Use the enlarge button in the gallery and I think you can read them.  Each one has a piece of history to report and I think you will enjoy reading them.

And for those that have been following my "looking for Sargent Preston and King", I found them in Skagway.  Check out the attached picture. 

Sept 9, 2009
Another big day as we head down to Skagway, AK, this afternoon.  This morning was a shopping trip to Walmart (not far), Canadian tire, the Super Store for food items.  We also went to a bank to change American dollar for Canadian dollars.  We pay our camping fees with Canadian dollars.

A reader wrote and asked about the fuel prices.
Note, these are from Whitehorse, the prices in the remote areas will be around 20% higher
The prices for unleaded gas and diesel are ~$1.009 per liter, so if you do the math, it is around $3.60 us dollars. We also needed propane and a 30lb cylinder cost about $30.00 us dollars to fill. That is about $12.00 more than it is in Lubbock. Today's money exchange is ~$1.04 Canadian for $1.00 USD.  When we entered Canada, in July, it was $1.08 Canadian for $1.00 USD.  Whitehorse is the last big town before we head south on the Cassiar highway.  This is the more westward route down toward Stewart, BC, Hyder, AK,  and on to Prince Rupert, BC. My propane tanks are full as well as the two 5 gal extra gas cans, so we should be good to go.

More about the historical and scenic route that we are on at this time. We are camped at the city campground in Carcross, YT.  This is another gold rush trail of the late 1890s.  Carcross is on the Yukon highway and is north of Skagway about 50 miles, the entry port of the majority of the 1898 Gold Rushers.  Up to 100,000 rushers from all over the world came through this port or the other nearby port of Dyea.  They followed the White Pass trail or the Chilkoot trail up and over a 3000 foot mountain and then built boats to sail down the Yukon river to Dawson City. It took many trips up this pass to carry the almost two tons of material to build their boats, food and supplies to live on.  Only about 30% of them made it to Dawson City.  This trail is still used by many hikers.  The narrow gauge White Pass and Yukon railroad was built starting in 1900 and completed 1902 and is an international historic civil engineering landmark.  Check it out at wpyr.com.  There was so much history made here in a very short period of time.
We left Carcross early for a day trip to Skagway. I spent several hours at the museums and around the rail center while Barbara got in some last minute shopping.  The weather was rainy but that didn't slow us down any.  There were 5 large cruise ships in the harbor, so the stores were busy and everyone was having a good time. 

Sept 11 2009 our 73rd day on the road
We spent the morning in Carcross at the WP&Y railroad museum and a short shopping trip to a 100 year old store that is still in business.  Our plan this afternoon is to travel the 250 miles toward Watson Lake and stop at a YT campground in that area.  We made it about 230 miles to the Big Creek YT campground.  Nice place, so we built a really nice fire and then I worked on the blog.
I meet a couple here in the campground from  Vancouver, BC.  One of them has grandfather that was a pastor near Dawson City during the height of the gold rush.  They are visiting some of the places where he lived.  Of course, as with most of the gold rush towns, they were short lived. Very interesting chat.  They have found information and he has shared a lot of personal documents that have been in the family since the gold rush.

Tomorrow we will spend a few hours in Watson Lake and then turn south on the Cassiar route, highway 37.  That is where I will post this blog.

That all for now.
John and Barbara..... still wandering along the Alaska Highway
  

another day at Valdez, on to Tok and Whitehorse with link to pictures

Dear Blog,

link to pictures with descriptive captions

Sept 4th 2009 Labor day weekend

note... This blog entry is a little screwed up and jumps around a little.  Did not mean it to be that way, but we have been busy and writing while driving is a bit difficult.  just kidding but time for blogging has been a little short.

We are still in Valdez enjoying the town and our wonderful adventure in Alaska.  The season is changing from summer to fall rapidly.  The nights are now in the 40s with the days warming into the 60s.  Each day seems to be noticeably shorter by a few minutes, we still have ample sunlight for our activities.  Today we drove over to the other side of the bay to the Valdez Marine Terminal.  This is the oil facility that loads the oil on the tankers that transport it to the rest of the world.  This is almost a small city with all support infrastructure. About 800,000 barrels pass through the VMT  each day at a speed of about 3 mph.  A barrel is 42 gallons and the transport time from Prudhoe Bay to VMT is 12 days.
Along with the VMT is Alyeska Ship Escort/Response Vessel System (SERVS) that hopefully has the resources and talent to contain any oil spill that might happen.  All tankers that enter the Prince William Sound are double hull tankers and have special escort ships that maintain  precision guidance in the channel.
Just the amount of human effort that went into these projects is truly hard to believe.

In the afternoon we decided to break camp and head back north to Glennallen.  This is the big turn-around that starts us on the route back home.  We still have a lot of places to go and both of us still have the adventuresome spirt.  So here we go... At Glennallen we take the Tok cutoff (Alaska A1) that takes us back to the Alcan Highway.  The big WOW of this 250 mile stretch is that we drive almost all of it around the west and north perimeter of the Wrangell-St. Elias national park.  We have the pleasure of view the breath taking views from the north as well as the west.  Our camping spot for the evening is a pull out along the north side of Cobb Lake.  The trees in this picture are black spruce with white spruce mixed in.  Trees don't grow very tall here and the tree line is only about 3000 feet altitude.  If you look at the routing of the Acan Highway, it is easy to see why the road goes north so much, the Wrangell-St. Elias  mountains are in the way.  Just a note about the road condition, bumpy with lots of pot holes, frost heaves, and many pavement breaks (gravel replacement sections).  We just have to slow down and enjoy the scenery.    

Sept 6, 2009
We had a nice drive this morning into Tok.  More bad road and great scenery.  The tourist season is winding down and the stores are having clearance sales, so that entertained Barb while I did some work.
It is time for maintenance on the Suburban again, this time in addition to the normal items, it will get a new fuel filter.  The trailer will need the brakes adjusted.  Both will get a good wash and detail cleaning.  There is a service station there that if you fill up, you can use their wash facility. 
After the wash job and some shopping in Tok we decided to continue our drive to the southeast and overnight in the Yukon Territory.  The Yukon Provincial  campgrounds are always very nice.  These campgrounds are a bargain, check out my pictures with the captions and you will see why there are so nice.  We stopped about 30 miles into the Yukon Territory at the Snag Junction Campground for the night.  There were only 2 sites left and  we took one that was on the lake.  It was late and getting dark, so we didn't scout around any. 

Sept 7, 2009
Got up the this morning and we were  delighted to find this was a beautiful place.  It in fact was so nice we just decided to spend another night here.  I caught up on the maintenance stuff and Barb found things to occupy her time.  We built a fire in the early afternoon and had our hobo special again for supper.  We were looking at the Mile Post and found that one of the featured photos was of our campsite #4 looking over the picnic table out onto this lake surrounded by trees and mountains.  Of course, I also tried to take the same and will attach it to this blog. Earlier in the day we met Denny and his wife from Anchorage that were overnighting in another site.  He has lived in Alaska for years and knows a lot about the area.  He came by our site and alerted us that he observed  a common loon, bald eagle, 2 trumpeter swans, from the bank of the lake. We also got a good look at these.  The trees, crystal clear blue sky, mountains, and a full moon were all reflecting in the water.  Another WOW on our Alaska Adventure. 

Sept 8, 2009
Another spectacular morning with the lows in the high 20s and the clear skies.  A low hanging moisture cloud is just above the water.  No sign of the swans or any other wildlife.  About dark last night a group of around 20 German tourist camped in the group site.  This morning some of them went down to the lake to brush their teeth. 
Our plan for today is to drive the 280 miles to Whitehorse, and stop at the Walmart there for supplies and overnight stay.  We need a few items at Walmart and propane for the RV.  We stopped several times during the day and got to Walmart around 7pm. 

When we get to Whitehorse, we will have driven all of the Alaska Highway (Alcan) 1520 miles one way (Dawson Creek to Delta Junction and on to Fairbanks) or around 3,000 miles round trip.  This give us a total miles in Alaska of around 5000.  Our total mileage is 7800 miles from Lubbock.

Tomorrow we leave Whitehorse and travel to Carcross in the evening.  I think I will leave the trailer at the campground in Carcross for the day trip to Skagway on thursday.

John and Barbara from Whitehorse YT

The Glenn Highway, Valdez another interesting port city on Prince William Sound

To the Blog,

Link for pictures with descriptive captions

I think the last time I blogged with you, was just before leaving Palmer, in the Mat Su Valley area.  We had a good time in Palmer attending the State Fair.  You know that good things are in store when you make your plans to leave town, but you need to do three things on the way out of town.  We needed to get fuel, dump the tanks, do some emailing and post the blog.  I noticed that the Fred Meyer store had a gas station with a dump, so we headed to the station and they had a dump and a gas pump so close, that I could fill the truck while dumping the tanks.  Well guess what, the Dairy Queen next door, had a wifi hotspot so we got everything done while dumping the tanks.  Good start for the day.

The next big WOW was the excitement that the Glenn Highway (Alaska A1) offered.  Wonderful views of the valleys, mountains with high passes, glaciers,  and the river of the Matanuska River valley, then windshield fills with the Wrangell Saint Elias National Park mountains.  These are five close together mountains with peaks of 13000 ft or more.  They are big when we first saw them at mile 266 (from Anchorage) and we are still  about 50 miles away.  This is another spectacular mountain range that is straight ahead of us and Barbara and I both realized that we had completely forgotten about this National Park that our highway is taking us to.  Another adventure ahead on our Alaskan vacation.

Facts about Wrangell St Elias National Park established 1980

• Larger than 6 Yellowstones over 13.2 million acres 20,000 square miles
  
• It has only 2 roads that inter the park and those only a short distance
• from 1911 to 1938  the worlds largest producer of copper (Kennecott) ore nearing 90% copper,
• The peaks attract climbers from around the world

We visited the National Parks visitor center and walked a short hike, watched a movie about the park and talked to the rangers.  Very impressive and we thought we had seen everything that Alaska had to offer.  Another bonus adventure.

At the crossroads town of Glennallen we turned south on the Richardson (Alaska A4) for our trip to Valdez, at the south end.  The should keep us busy for a few days.  This is also gold rush area, but bigger than the gold was the copper rush, that was the real money maker, far beyond the gold.  It doesn't stop there, try "Black Gold and the Alaskan Pipeline, tourists, RVing, history, earthquakes, birdwatching, weddings, museums, glaciers fishing, small boat docks, The Alaska State Ferry,  Prince William Sound excursions, major cruise line ports, and even the hugh disaster known as the Exxon Valdez (that is still paying $$$$ off and will be for years).  All are big money makers for this area and I don't see gambling on the list, this place is just down right exciting. The earthquake of 1964 and the resulting tidal wave, destroyed Valdez, that made it necessary to completely rebuild in a new location about 3 miles away.  The new Valdez is turning 45 years old and some of us are old enough to remember 1964.
I stopped at the Valdez museum and spent several hours reading about the area.  Some of the 1897 All American Gold Rush stories are almost unbelievable.  This was the wild gold rush days when men came here to make a fortune. Few did and many died trying.


It time to get out and about for the day is nice

from Valdez, AK

John

Barbara and John at the Alaska State Fair in Palmer and new picture link

Hello Blog,

picture link with descriptive captions

We spent 2 1/2 weeks on the Kenai Peninsula and drove around 700 miles.  Sure glad we didn't pass this area up.  This was a fun spot in our great Alaskan adventure.  Anyone thinking about an Alaskan trip needs to reasearch the Kenai.

We left Walliwaw, a USFS campground on the banks of the Portage Creek in the rain, but within an hour the rain had stopped and we were in Anchorage, at the Sams whse.  Another $100 and we are on our way north and east on highway A1, called the Glenn highway.  I think this is the turnaround point on wonderful Alaskan adventure, we are traveling the same road that got us here, except the opposite direection.  We stopped at a Goodyear dealer in Anchorage to have a tire inspected because it was showing  strange wear pattern in a small area.  He told me not to worry about it because it was normal, I guess we will see.  I hope he is correct.  I have not had any problems of any kind other than the windshield wiper problem on the car and the heater problem on the trailer.
We arrived in Palmer, stopped at the Fred Meyers store and did the dump station deal.  Then we debated if we should attend the Alaska State Fair that was in progress. Several described it as a country type fair.  We decided that we could camp in their RV parking area and spend several hours attending the fair.  Barbara and I really can't remember the last time we were at a fair so this was a flash back to younger days.  We really are the same two that used to walk the dirty mid-way and ride the crazy rides at the Lubbock fair.  So much for the flash back... We enjoyed all of the attractions, exhibits, the food, the giant vegetables (see picture), the free shows, and even the midway. As the daylight faded away and sounds and the colorful lights of the midway came on, memories took us back to another time in our life, and that was nice.  What a evening of entertainment for us seniors (got our discount at the gate $6 instead of $10).  I can tell you that prices are a lot higher for everything but we contributed a fair share to the local economy.  A lot different than in the mid '50s when Dad would give each of us $2 in quarters, drop us off at the gate and tell us not to spend it all in one place.  So much the same, but so much different... Would you believe the Beach Boys, circa 1961 (or what's left of them (2 original))were the opening night headliner, first hand report from a old timer, gives it thumbs up.  However, another big crowd pleaser is the Kenai Peninsula Racing Pigs.  We saw the same pig race at Ninilchek a few weeks back and it was just as exciting tonight.  I reported about the pig races in an earlier post.
We walked back to the RV parked in a grass field parking lot filled with all kinds of rigs, just outside the gates.  I were tired and as I walked through the maize of rigs with generators running, I wondered just who all these people are, for this is also the place that the workers park.  Alaska is said to be a place for the misfits and others that are hiding from something or somebody.  However, we have had not even had a hit of trouble.  We have seen less police in the last 60 days then we see in 1 day in Lubbock.


BREAKING NEWS
Be sure to check the picture gallery.  My friend and co worker from Roswell, NM, Champion Racer Ron Lynch agreed to do a Grudge Match with a local powder puff champ, in a high powered open class racing go-kart match.  Here is the result.  I think that Ron (in the red kart) is setting up her for a pass, but time has run out.  Normally when Ron shows up at the track, they just hand him the trophy...

Sorry Ron, I couldn't resist.
reporting from the Alaska State Fair in Palmer

Update for 8/31 through 9/2 Wittier, AK and picture link

Hello blog readers,

link for new pictures with descriptive captions

I have had a few question and comments that I will answer in this blog.
Several have asked how I send the pictures and blogs to Goggle and how do you connect.
I have learned to do most of the writing and organization of the blog while sitting in the RV where it is comfortable. The blog is composed just as any Google email and sent to a special address. Google makes it easy, they have a good offline email program except the spell checker doesn't work when offline. When we leave the campground for a day trip, I might hunt a convenient hotspot. We almost never have internet access while at the campsites. Wifi signals don't travel very far. I have some favorites such as Holiday Inn and some other unsecured hotels, they reach out farther because they have more power and access points . I have learned where to look and often I find a signal easily. Several visitor and welcome centers and almost all libraries have wifi available and if they don't, I ask the person working there. Most know exactly what I am asking and direct me to a hotspot that is nearby. I paid for access on two occasions, the first cost was $3 for 15 minutes and the second was $6 for 24 hours. I can receive my email from two accounts within a minute or two and then transmit my picture files and blog. Total time is less than 10 minutes. I can usually can answer most emails at the same time. Of course, browsing the net takes a little longer. Once at a gas station in Jasper, I was able to get the job done at the gas pump.

Another question is How do I leave a comment to the blog?
I am not sure, I think at the bottom of the page there is a button that will post a comment. I don't see the completed blog unless I am on line. Maybe someone else can help out. If that doesn't work, just drop me an email. I will try to look next time I get hooked up.

And the last question for the day is When are you coming home?
We are not locked to a date, but sometime during the first 2 weeks of October. We are still having fun and you can not see Alaska in just one summer. I will say that fall season is on top of us, the leaves are changing color and some are falling. The temps are in the mid 50s to mid 60s and those long days of sun are gone, but about normal for this time in the lower 48 states. The days will get much shorter and some of the campgrounds will start to close in the later part of this month, so I guess we will head south like the snowbirds do.

The last 2 days have been somewhat slower than normal. Just outside of Hope, we stopped at a scenic overlook and saw dozens of Beluga whales swimming in the Turnagain Arm bay. They put on a good show, sometimes clearing the water while jumping The salmon are spawning and the whales are feeding on them. Our 100 mile drive from Hope took us out of the Kenai and into the Chugach National. We arrived at Walliwaw, a USFS campground on the banks of the Portage Creek about 2 miles from the Portage glacier. Portage glacier is just one of the many large glaciers between the east end of Turnagain Arm and the seaport of Whittier on the Prince William Sound. Lots of history around here... earthquakes, gold rushes, railroads, fur trading, and the WWII war construction and protection of Alaska during the 1940s and then the cold war after that. Whittier was called the "secret port" because it was so well shielded for from foreign enemies. The Alaskan Railroad laid it rails from the main north south line to Whittier, thereby making it the largest supply line for all of Alaska.
We visited Begich, Boggs visitor center today. It is built on the remnants of a terminal moraine left by the Portage Glacier. We spent about 2 hours there. Very nice visitor center, it offered information, guided walks, films, and exhibits. We also hiked one of the trails that took us along the river where we could see many salmon spawning. Nice walking and a little over a mile.
After the visitor center, we drove the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel between Williwaw and Whittier, AK. This is a 2 1/2 mile tunnel that is actually a train tunnel, but in 2000 it was widened and updated to allow cars and trucks to use it. Check out the pictures I took while driving the tunnel. It is only one lane, so traffic has to wait for the green light, before entering. In Whittier we walked around the dock area and visited the town museum. Wittier has several charter services that do day trips to the Prince William Sound. The PWS is a hot spot for cruise ships, tour boats, kayaks and small boats. Cruise ships bring passengers from all around the world for the connection to the Alaska Railroad that will carry them on the overland route to Fairbanks and Denali. Almost anywhere along the highways you will see people fishing from the banks. They just park their cars, pull out the hook and line and fish.
I get a little involved in museums so I spend too much time in them, according to Barbara. I will post just two of the pictures that I took, they are of an old army housing unit and at the time (1950) it was built it was the largest building in Alaska. Now it is just a ghost of the past, see the pictures in the gallery.

Sept 2nd Our target today is Palmer, AK in the valley just east of Anchorage. This is where all the vegetables are grown. Growing season is short, but they get 20 hours a day of of sun during the summer months.

John and Barbara reporting

our new location for Aug 29th, 30th and more new pictures

August 29th, our 60th day on our Alaska adventure.

link to pictures with descriptive captions

I've had a few emails from friends that are "riding along with us" on our big adventure and I want to thank each of you for your comments.  If anyone has questions for either myself or Barbara, please email me.  We have driven over 600 miles on the Kenai Peninsula and enjoyed every mile.  All the towns on the peninsula are interesting because of their history and each has a nice visitor center that is a also welcome center.
If you enjoy the excitement of of fishing, hunting, sightseeing, gold prospecting, or just getting away from the normal, this is the place.  Our location is 10 miles east of Anchorage across the water of the Turnagain Arm, but by the Seward highway (shortest), it is almost a hundred.

The weather is wet and cloudy, but clearing and blue skies are expected later in the day.  We are camped in Porcupine US Forrest Service campground near Hope, AK. It features 24 dry camping sites, 2 water pumps, and two vault toilets.  On the plus side, the views of the Cook Inlet/Turnagain Arm, with the mountains in the background are excellent through our picture window looking north.  The campsites are well kept and are perfect for our purpose.  They are a bargain at $7.00 per night. The camp hosts are a couple from Missouri (retired dairy farmer) and were drawn to Alaska because of its natural beauty.  They have been here for 8 years now. I encountered a small black bear yesterday afternoon.  No problem, the bear went about his business and I just walked on.  We love to watch the low tide expose the beach.  At the low tide, I will guess that we can walk 1/4 mile out on the beach.  These are good  beaches for discovery, but forget about swimming, the water is very cold.

We hit another discovery adventure today.  We did a day trip to Hope, AK, on the north coast of the Kenai Peninsula about a mile from our campsite.  Hope is the first gold mining boom town in Alaska.  It was started in 1896 with about 3000 miners coming with the idea of striking it rich.  Many did well but the Klondike rush drew all but a few away from Hope in '96-'97.  The gold rush came back and the area grew.  Please try to read the pictures 4853-4855 in the picture gallery.  I hope you can use the zoom button in the upper right to view in detail. 

We were doing the walking tour of Hope when we met Gold Rush Pec, the famous prospector that was featured on the Travel Channel a few years ago.  He is a part time miner that also does personal tours of Hope and gives a welcome and a handshake to tourists.  He has a partner and together they do a mining demonstration next to the museum.  He is a colorful man in his 60s that rides a four wheeler around the area that is equipped with a shotgun, shovel, goldpan and other tools of the trade.  He loves to tell you stories about the town and the gold mining. You will recognize him in the picture album.

We spent several hours in the Hope Museum.  The Millers are the caretakers of the place.  Both Bill and Phyllis have put a lot of work into the place.  Bill came to Kenai Peninsula as a young US Army soldier and was stationed at Whittier Army Depot about 45 miles from Hope in 1949 and never left.  He worked the areas of Hope and Sunrise.  Phyllis worked in the Post Office and never left, somewhat common for folks around here.  Some of the old 1900s building are still in service and a few have been repaired and rebuilt by Bill and Phyllis and moved to the museum for viewing.. Lots of work, skill and dedication shows in this museum.  Bill and Phyllis have written their personal memories of the 1964 good Friday earthquake in book form. Many parts of the Kenai sank from 3 to 8 feet.  Much of Hope was under water and some of the building had to have the foundations jacked up.  Bill has a 1947 Dodge Power Wagon, that was the first year for the civilian issue (not a military issue), it was made the same, except came with extras such as front winch and a live shaft  in the rear for powering anything needing a flat belt.  It might be used for a sawmill or thrasher.  He has kept it serviceable all these years.  He added an "A" frame to the front of it for lifting.

Today is Sunday the 30th.  The sun is shining and the temp is ~48 degrees and warming, a beautiful day is forecast. We will be moving on to Whittier for a stay in the USFS park called Williwaw.  It has 60 dry camping sites and is located at the base of the the Portage Glacier.  Whittier is a sea port town located on the west end of the Prince William Sound and during the early 1900 was a major supply route for the area.  During WW2 and into the cold war time, it was a military supply depot.  On our drive to Whittier we will travel a tunnel that is used for trains and cars.  The cars travel at certain times only and that depends on the train schedule.

Stayed tuned

from Homer to Kenai, Nikiski, and Texas Flag flies over Captain Cook State park in Alaska and an important birthday celebration for Barbara

To the Blog,

click here for New picture link with descriptive captions

In my last blog, we were in Homer.  I should have mentioned that Homer is the home town of Tom Bodet, and  as he said for years, "we'll keep the lights on for you".  I think you'll remember Tom. 
Tom must have a lot of money, because the Homer Electric Association charges $.208 per KWH, the highest in the state.  They generate from a hydro plant and a natural gas fired plant.  HEA offered a large reduction in rates if the city of Homer would allow them to build a clean coal technology plant, the city fathers turned it down because it has to do with coal.  FYI, coal is everywhere up here and the Healy coal is being shipped to South Korea.  Homer used to be a coal producer for a European company about 90 years ago.  

August 25th
We left Homer around 1400hrs on Tuesday.  Before leaving, we walked the beach at low tide for a few hours.  We dug for razor edge clams.  These clams bury in the sand with a digging foot.  They have an opening in the sand where they take in water and food.  The shell is sharp and can cut your hand if not careful.  The idea is to dig down beside it and grab the clam's head and pull it out of the sand.  We dug several different places, but since we don't really know what we are doing, we came up empty handed.  We saw several people with clams at the cleaning station, therefore we know they exist here.  We drove north along the coast, usually within a few hundred feet of the Cook Inlet, the passage of water north and west of the Kenai Peninsula. Our destination for today is Captain Cook State Park, located on the north west corner of the Peninsula about 100 miles from Homer.  We made a short stop at Ninilchik beach  where we did a little beach combing and gathered enough coal to fill a 5 gal bucket.  Coal has been found on the beach for hundreds of years and some of the locals drive there truck to the beach and gather it up, using it for heating in the winter.  It varies in size from small golf ball to a big cow pattie size. The color is from brown to dark black.  It is easy to break up and will burn under the right conditions and leaves a yellow ash in the firepit.

We stopped at the town of Kneai visitors center for information and checked email (free Wifi) did some shopping and ate at McDonald's.  Walmart is building a new Super Walmart just a block away.  I would guess that it will open in a couple of months.

Aug 26th
From Kenai north is oil country.  The first oil wells in Alaska were drilled about 50 years in a little place called Nikiski.  Oil has brought highways, employment, and money to this area.  Captain Cook State Park is at the end of the Kenai Spur highway just past the last oil field.  There are 53 campsites here and we had our choice of almost any of them.  We chose one with a view that looks out across the water to the volcanoes on the far mainland shore more than 50 miles to the southwest. One of the more well know is Mount Redoubt, last erupted in May of this year dumping about 1/4 inch of ash on Anchor Point and Homer.  Mount Augustine is currently spewing steam, check my picture, really neat.  In the evening we get a really gorgeous sunset across the water.  The days are starting to shorten up, we are loosing sunlight every day and we are seeing the foliage change.

The campsite that we chose also was ideal for displaying the Texas State Flag.  Anyone coming into the park gets a good look at it. This flag was given to me on my retirement by my friends and co workers, Terry Paxton and Ron Griffith.  I worked with these guys for over 25 years and I think they knew I needed a Texas flag while traveling in Alaska.  Thanks Griff and Terry!

Barbara and I walked the beaches of Captain Cook and looked for agates.  We found many, mostly quartz.  The beaches come alive with a opportunities to dig clams, fish, and hunt for neat rocks. Ever since Barbara and I have been camping, we have collected rocks for our back yard and this trip is no exception.  Every rock has a interesting history so we fill in the blanks with wild guesses.  Our gross vehicle weight is increasing each day... remember Lucy and Desi Arnez in the Long Long Trailer where Lucy loaded the back of their trailer under the bed and caused the front of the trailer to lift up.  I've started calling Barbara, Lucy.
After our field trip, we built our usual campfire, except this time we used that coal that we collected down on the beach.  We started the fire with wood and broke up our coal into crushed pieces and put it in the fire.  It burned fairly well, but put our some smoke.  I went back to the wood fire for cooking.  We seasoned a Silver salmon fillet and baked it, it turned out perfect and tasted great.
With the some of the remaining coal, Barbara is going to tie a ribbon around it and give everybody a chunk of coal.

Aug 27th 
Guess who is having a birthday tomorrow while traveling in Alaska???  1949 you do the math...
We made our plans for the day, we will drive to the 40 miles to Soldotna for fuel, an overnight at the FM and use their dump station.  Should be a short drive and we can spend time in Soldotna and Fred Meyers.  This is a neat store and we did not have enough time the first time we were here last week.
Tomorrow our plans are to drive to the town of Hope. Hope was one of the original gold rush towns in Alaska.  In 1896 3,000 miners rushed to Hope and found 400 ounces of gold, but the Klondike gold rush began and all but 150 miners left for the Klondike.  The next year 10,000 miners rushed back to Hope.  Gold panning is still a big draw in Hope.  We still have our shovel and pan, so I expect to strike it rich, maybe.  I have an made an image of our route starting on the 28th.  We plan to travel the Slilak Lake road for about 17 miles.  It is more scenic, an if we choose to spend the night, it has a nice campground on the lake.

Fred Meyer is very busy place, the parking lot is nearly full and most of the 30 pumps at the gas station are in use.

Aug 28th Barbara's birthday  and we are still at Fred Meyer's in Soldotna.
Booty Reed had entrusted a gift to me before we left Lubbock,  I kept it hidden in the trailer.  The timing was perfect, Booty called and I gave Barb the gift and card during the conversation. 

I also gave her a special heart shaped chunk that would make any girl happy!  Special gift for a special girl. 

John and Barbara reporting from Soldotna on the Kenai Peninsula.

another day, another adventure Soldotna, Homer, and points west, new pic link and the wiper fix

To all,

link to new pictures with descriptive captions

We left Seward on Friday the 21th and headed for Soldotna on the  west side of Kenai peninsula about 75 miles to the north and west.  Passed through some scenic country and along the Kenai river. Our first stop in Soldotna was the visitor center where we learned about the beginnings of this crossroads town.  This is a hub of the west side and the market place between the far north near Cook inlet and Homer on the south.  The town formed after the railroad started building some infrastructure in the late '40s.  The Kenai River flows through the town and provides world class fishing for local subsistence and visitors from around the world. The world record for a King salmon caught here is 97lbs.  I took a picture of it displayed in the visitor center.  I guess one of the big attractions is the Fred Myer store at the east end.  The store is larger and more stuff than a super Walmart.  It was also our overnight spot on Friday.  They even provide instructions on where to park and a complete dump station facility. 

Saturday the 22nd
We decided we would go south 8 miles to Homer because a town on the way was have the regional fair on Saturday that we wanted to attend.  We will come back to Soldotna because we have to travel the same road.  We stopped at Ninilchik, an old Russian town from before the US bought Alaska back in the 1840s. We found a free parking spot in the church parking lot. The fair was in full swing with all the usual community stuff.  The stock show, exhibitors, food sellers, and barrel racers.  I think the new Alaska governor was to make an appearance in the late afternoon. One event that Barbara and I had never been to was a pig race.  It is held on a closed  100' course and starts with a posting of the pigs in a starting gate.  The gate opens and the three pigs put on a exciting one lap race.  The course has two 1 foot hurdles for the pigs to jump over.The winners go into a final that decides the main event winner.  It is all in fun and a few helpers take $1 bets just before the start, if your pig is a wiener, you get a plastic piggy bank.  I never thought pigs could run so fast! It is all for charity. We spent over 3 hours there and enjoyed it very much.
We rolled into Homer around 1700hrs and found a nice campsite on the north (harbor side) of the Homer Spit.  All of the permanent small boat docks are located on this side.  The Spit is a natural sand bar that has been reworked making it less subject to erosion from the sea.  It designed to break the waves and wind making the dock area a safe harbor. The spit is a very busy place with fishing and sight seeing charters and on the far end even a lodge.  We have spent some of our time following the tide.  The tide difference between high and low is ~26 feet, this makes for a treasure of stuff on the beach.  The beach is easy to walk.  It has been a little rainy and cool, but has not kept us from spending time outdoors. 

Sunday the 23rd  The weather was overcast and rainy for most of the day. The windshield wiper problem came up again and this time, I decided to see if I could repair it, as it was really annoying having to pull the fuse to turn the wipers off. I removed the cowl air intake grill and was able to hit the controller to make it stop, so I know where the problem is.  I got out my tools and removed the wiper motor controller mounted on the back of the motor.  It is a circuit board with surface mounted components that included two small black plastic enclosed relays.  I was not sure, but I figured one of the relays was sticking in the closed position.  I got out my box cutter and carefully cut the plastic top from both and cleaned and burnished the contacts using a dollar bill and contact cleaner.  All went back together and every thing is fine now.  I expect no more problem from it.
In the afternoon we visited the Pratt Visitors and Cultural Center to see some of the most astounding wildlife displays and a museum.  We watched two films and spent about 4 hours there.  Very nice place.  Homer is the home of political correctness and the art crowd for this part of Alaska.  They even replaced all of the city owned sedans with Ford hybrid escorts to reduce their carbon footprint.  I have not see any yet, but I am feeling better anyway.  Watched a DVD and went to bed a little early.

Monday the 24th   Rain off and on till around 1300hrs.  and just a FYI... the windshield wipers are still working great.  We went shopping at the Salvation Army Thrift store and purchased a Yahtzee game, new old stock, still shrink wrapped. Good buy $1.50..  We also did a driving and walking tour of the town.  We walked the old part of town. We drove up on East Hill drive and got some good shots of the town and the Spit with a twin glacier in the back ground.
I was walking along Pioneer Ave, when a small car came by that had a really strange 6 foot mast anchored on the roof.  I took a snapshot with my camera, but could not figure what the mast was used for.  Later, we were driving along Kachemak Drive road and I saw it again.  This time it was stopped so I pulled up beside it and noticed it had a bunch of lenses around the top.  I asked the driver what they were and he said it was a Google mapping car.  It has 13 cameras at the top of the mast.  So in some future Google street view, I will show up taking a snap shot and later driving toward the mapping car. 
I also got pictures of a boat being lifted from the bay and moved across the street to a winter dry dock.  It is getting close to that time of year up here.
Built a fire and had a hot dog cookout while watching the sunset over the harbor, nice.  We will hook up and head toward Soldotna sometime tomorrow . 
Just an FYI on the Wifi hotspots in Homer... It is everywhere, I have had a connection on demand, while in our campsite on the beach.  The one that I am using is called spitswspots.  I am a free user, therefore I have to sign in every hour.  That is no problem.

John

our perfect day on the Gulf of Alaska... and more... plus another new link for pictures

To the blog followers,

link to new pictures with description captions...

I  put these blogs up in hopes that some of you will just ride along with us on our adventure.  I enjoy doing this and a few of the followers have given positive feedback. I think that if you check "follow this blog box", you will receive email notification when a new posting is put up.
I do hope you enjoy riding along with us, so let's get going on another exciting day. Blogging also gives me a log of travel info.

August 19th... The day is perfect for a boat ride.  We are boarding the Glacier Express, a 150 foot 250 passenger excursion catamaran hull boat powered by two big Cat diesels.  Our adventure will be a 6 hour 120 mile trip out the Resurrection Bay, to the Gulf of Alaska, into the Aialik Bay, Holgate Glacier and back through Harbor and Chiswell Islands. Everything about the cruise was perfect, good weather, smooth sea, and lots of points of interest.  A Kenai Fjords National Park ranger narrated the entire trip.  We saw the hump back and the oraca (killer) whale. We saw Steller sea lions, Dall's porpoise, bald eagles, puffins, and a variety of other sea birds.  The Holgate glacier provided lot of action with the falling ice and the loud noise as it falls into the water. The captain stopped the engines as we just sat in the calm water with no other noise.  I got a series of shots using the rapid fire of my camera.  A nice lunch was provided as well as coffee, cookies and cokes. We were able to go anywhere on the boat because at this time of the season it is only about 50% booked. The captain of the boat would stop for just about anything of interest.  During WW2 this was a fortified area with bunkers high atop some of the mountain peaks.  I carried my GPS so I could monitor the location and the speed of the boat.  Top speed was ~27 mph and we traveled 126 miles. 

August 20th...  This was to be our last day in Seward, be we found more to do, so we extended another day.  We went to the Alaska Sealife Center. This is a 3-4 hour self guided tour of a Sealife research center.  We enjoyed it very much.  We then just sat and watched the fishing activities alone the shore. Every few minutes silver salmon were jumping out of the water and several fishermen were casting their lines out in hopes of catching a big one.  Quite a show.  From Aug 8-16, is the 54th Annual Silver Salmon Derby with prizes worth over $100,000.  That may be the reason we saw so many fishermen around the area, especially the dock area. On the way back to our campsite we stopped by our favorite hotspot, the Holiday Inn Express, and checked our email.  There are many others in Seward, but this one works well for me. At supper time, I built a smokey fire for the hoboes (ground beef, potato, carrot and onion wrapped in foil), an old Boy Scout favorite.  Seward is another town that we have enjoyed very much.  No disappointments, just great adventures everyday.

A little note of interest... This town was almost wiped off the map in the 1964 earthquake/tsunami.  There are still reminders in several location around town.  It was one of the towns most affected  by the Exxon Valdes tanker accident, and was involved in the recovery.

Tomorrow we move on to the western part of Kenai Peninsula, Homer, Kenai, Soldotna, and Anchor Point.

John and Barbara

Surveillance in Seward

With a sophisticated linked security camera system, we are tracking the Texans.   Even though this image is a poor screengrab, I'm sure we can zoom and enhance the photo to verify that it's them.

On to Anchorage and then Seward more exciting wandering in Alaska and new pic link

more pictures

Hello Blog,

We left Denali  Saturday the 15th and headed south on the Parks highway #3 toward Anchorage.  The weather was a bit wet with a drizzle type rain, therefore there was no chance of viewing Mt Mckinley from the south side.  We decided to travel the extra 30 miles to Talkeetna, a old pioneer historic railroad town 130 miles south of Denali and in the Talkeetna Mountains.  The town is a big tourist stop because of charter services making connections to the railroad.  The Alaska Railroad serves passenger and freight from Seward in the south to Anchorage, Talkeetna, Denali, and then to Fairbanks to the north. It carries many passengers as one leg of tour packages.  We did a walking tour of Talkeetna, population of ~300, so that didn't take more a few hours.  The town serve as the base camp for all the climbing  and charter air operations for the  Mt McKindley charter services.  We visited the museum and did some shopping in the old log cabin type stores on the square.  Jay had made an overnight stop there on the Alaska Railroad last year and recommended the Roadhouse as a good place to eat.  We enjoyed our meal there.  It started business in 1944 and still very popular in the area. After that we continued on to south into the vegetable growing Mat-Su Valley area of Willow, Palmer, and Wasilla.  Both Wasilla and Willow are modern bustling cities with all the big name, big box stores found anywhere else. Starting around Willow, I got the sensation of these towns serving as bedroom towns for Anchorage.  We drove  into Anchorage about 1900 hrs.
Saturday night was spent at the WM accommodations in Anchorage.  We shopped at Sams Whse and Wallmart to restock the shelves.  We drove downtown and found that they are celebrating the 50 years of statehood.  We did a walking tour of the downtown area.  This is a clean and neat area with some of it rebuilt after the 1964 earthquake.  We visited the visitors centers and the exhibits in the Federal building. We did some shopping in various stores before leaving town.
We are now heading south toward our target of Seward.  The drive is beautiful.  We are driving along the railroad that is between the highway and the Turnagain Arm bay of the Cook inlet to the Gulf of Alaska.  On our left side is the Chugach Mountains with some blue sky and a few clouds hanging in the air around the sharp peaks of the mountains. This is in the Chugach national forest area.
As we drove, we encountered some rain showers and when I tried to turn off the windshield wipers, they would not turn off.  After messing with all the controls, I pulled the fuse.  Of course it started to rain again, so I had to install the fuse.  To my delight, everything went back to normal for the rest of the evening.  I know I will have to deal with this again as, things don't fix themselves. I suspect the intermittent wiper control as the problem.
As I have said in the past, this is an a continuing adventure and this is really a scenic route with the mountains, the clouds, and many lakes and streams.  We drove by the Johnson river and found fishermen standing shoulder to shoulder along the bank just as far as I could see, fly fishing for salmon sponning.
We stopped at a pull out along the highway with a information sign reading that this was a trail to the river for viewing fish.  I took the short trail and sure enough, the river was clear and several salmon chug were swimming by.  I could have netted them easily.  We decided this was a great place to stop for the night.  By this time it was getting toward dark and starting to rain.  We got into the Bigfoot and turned on the heater. The heater would not do anything.  I used a test light and found the thermostat to be working, therefore I would have to inspect the outside compartment.  We just covered up and went to bed.  In the morning, I removed the electronic control board and discovered a small green spot of corrosion caused by moisture and DC voltage.  I cleaned that up and sprayed it with WD-40.  I believe that it is fixed.  This was important because we use the heater every evening and morning.

Monday morning the 17th we drove the 30 miles to Seward and made camp in one of the town owned campground located 1 mile from town.  Nice campsite with all the different plants around it.  We went on a walking tour of the harbor area and gathered information about the points of interest.  We drove to Lowell Point and saw a few sea lions and a pair of adult  bald eagles in a tree.  Their nest had to be 6 feet in diameter and was about 50' up the tree.  On  Tuesday we are going to a glacier called "Exit Glacier" , a  glacier in Harding Icefields located in the Kenai Fjord National Park.  They offer Ranger talks and walking trails to see the Exit Glacier close up.   Monday evening we had a campfire and grilled hamburgers.

Tuesday we have the Exit Glacier visit and a visit to the tour boat companies on the Seward docks.  We may take a cruise out in Resurrection Bay and a glacier visit to the "calving" (glaciers shedding huge blocks of ice into the ocean) of the Holgate glacier viewed from the water.  Also we will see the big whales, puffins, sharks, Dall porpoise, steller sea lions, and a few bald eagles.  This time of the year, we can get good price discounts on the packages as the attendance is falling off.  Barbara made a crockpot with chicken, vegetables, and biscuits.  We will start the generator as we leave camp and when we get back, we will have a chicken and dumplings dinner.  While we where at the Exit Glacier we saw some friends that we had met at the Teklanika a few days, so we visited with them in the late evening and had a enjoyable time.  The crockpot worked perfect, it's nice to come back to the campsite and have the hot meal waiting  for us.

Wednesday is clear and no rain is forecast, so we are going cruising.  I better get ready.  I'll report on our cruise in a few days, stay tuned.

John

Denali - Wonder Lake

I thought I'd put a couple of photos here.  These were taken in July 2008 from my campsite (#7) at Wonder Lake.  It was a lucky break in the clouds that day. Jay