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

To the Blog

Link for pictures and descriptive captions

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