Gretna, Nebraska to Panora, 124 miles

Safe and Sound back in Panora, almost 12,000 miles later. (9,298 in the motorhome and 2,536 in the Jeep) It’s good to be back but it sure is a lot of work unloading and cleaning. We have stacks of mail to go through but most of the important stuff Brad forwarded to us along the way. The flowerbeds are a mess! They look more like weed patches than flowerbeds. We know now why we run into so many full timers. Oh well, that’s the price you pay and it’s good to be home and see everyone.

Sidney to Gretna, 372 miles

It’s a long ways across Nebraska! Today seemed like a lot more than 372 miles, especially since we were driving in a semi truck NASCAR (NASTRUCK?) race. We stopped just west of Omaha and the most exciting thing about today is the thunderstorm we are having this evening. Mother Nature is demonstrating her power and putting on quite a lightning show.

Rawlins, WY to Sydney, NE---

We got off the Interstate again and went south to Saratoga and had breakfast at the Warm Springs Café. The football team was having breakfast also and we visited with one of the players. They are hoping for a winning season but haven’t had one in over 30 years! That’s a long time to go without a winning season. We planned to go to the Hot Springs in Saratoga but for some reason changed our minds. Also didn’t stop at the Ryan Ranch since we spent almost a week there last summer. I didn’t even call my cousin Greg, (shame on me) but we needed to get on down the road. Greg is the 4th generation of his family to live on the ranch that his Great Grandfather B. T. Ryan homesteaded in the 1870’s. Pop Teale, my grandfather, used to spend every summer at the ranch when I was a kid and we visited there often. It’s a special place for all of us Teale’s. From Saratoga we went over the Snowy Range in the Medicine Bow National Forest and stopped at fantastic Mirror Lake, my photo with this post. We pushed on to Sidney, Nebraska, just a short drive for us today of 275 miles. We stopped early and right now, at 4:oo p.m. it is 95 degrees. The humidity is almost as high. We are in the Cabela’s RV Park so shopping tonight will be a welcome change from Wal-Mart.

August 20, Jerome, ID, to Rawlins, WY, 458 miles

Our plan today was to stop in Rock Springs, Wyoming, about 110 miles west of here but the wind was blowing soooo hard we decided to go on to Rawlins. We were on a 2 lane road and once today the wind blew me into the on-coming lane. Fortunately no one was coming at the time. It is still windy in Rawlins but not as bad as what we had earlier today. Yesterday I mentioned that we have seen some beautiful country on this trip and we have enjoyed it all. It seems that all parts of the country have beauty but in different ways. Iowa doesn’t have breath-taking beauty like majestic mountains or fabulous beaches but it is still beautiful. Wyoming has some beautiful spots, like Yellowstone, but the 450 miles we drove today is the ugliest countryside that I think I have ever seen. I don’t know how anyone could think it “pretty” but some probably do. Tomorrow we will drive through some more beautiful Wyoming country and I’ll have a picture of Mirror Lake for you. Stopped for the night at another RV Park with free WIFI that doesn’t work!

August 19, Redmond to Jerome, Idaho, 451 miles

Cindy fixed coffee for us this morning before we took off so we got to spend some time with them. It was a long day today, too long, but not a lot of places to stop. We have seen some beautiful country on the trip and today was no exception but it was a lot different. A good part of the road we traveled was the original Oregon Trail. There were lots of Historical Markers all along the route but we didn’t stop to read them all. We followed Lewis and Clark part of the way west and now we are following the Oregon Trail and the Overland Trail part of the way back to Iowa. Spent the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot and of course, did some shopping.

August 18, Coos Bay to Redmond,

We drove up the Umpqua River Valley to Eugene, Oregon this morning and then over the McKenzie pass in the Cascade Mountains to Redmond. Naturally the drive was beautiful and much different than what we were seeing on the coast, especially on the east side of the mountains. We drove through the town of Sisters and will drive through the town of Brothers tomorrow. We parked the RV in Craig and Cindy’s driveway then drove the Jeep up to Marty and Marlys’ home for a short visit. We met them in Mexico 2 years ago also. Their house overlooks a beautiful canyon with a large lake. We had to cross a one-lane bridge to get to the house so we were glad we only took the Jeep.

August 17, Coos Bay

Sandi and I went over to Manny & Connie’s this morning to go out to the sand dunes to where George & Sharen and a group of their friends have been camping for several days. This is about the 15th year for their outing and they have a very nice campsite in the few trees that are out there. George picked us up in the parking lot, (he has a car that won’t get stuck in the sand) and took us to their campsite. Driving around in the dunes is great fun and would be a must if you lived here. The grandsons would have a fabulous time!!! There are lots of 4-wheelers but we also saw kids sliding down the dunes with snowboards, probably called sandboards here. Tomorrow we are heading east for Iowa but don’t know how long that will take us. We are still 2,000 miles from Panora but after we get over the Cascade’s there isn’t a whole lot to see except sagebrush. This may be the last post for awhile since we don’t know if we will find another WIFI hotspot.

August 16, Coos Bay

Today we canned 26 cases of Tuna. Actually WE didn’t do too much more than watch and learn. Manny & Connie, Louie & Deanna, (Manny’s cousin), Craig & Cindy (their son---in the picture) can Tuna every year and today was their day to get it done. Sandi and I got some jars at Wal-Mart and some Tuna and joined the party so now we have 24 jars of Tuna to take home with us. They had 3 pressure cookers of Tuna going almost all day. It was a lot of fun to learn how and we are anxious to have some for lunch. They all say we will never buy Chicken of the Sea again. Sorry Charlie!!!

August 15, Coos Bay

Sandi and I walked the beach this morning checking out some of the sea creatures left in the tide pools and another lighthouse just down the beach. After lunch Manny and Connie picked us up for a sightseeing trip to Bandon Dunes, one of the top rated golf courses in the country and to see more of the Oregon coast. The beaches are fabulous but the coastline very rugged. We had fresh tuna this evening that Manny cooked on the grill. Delicious.

P.S. Enlarge this picture of the sea creatures if you can.

August 14, Florence to Coos Bay

We spent the last couple of days looking around Florence, checking out their restaurants, going to the beach and even went to the Sunday matinee The Brourne Ultimatum. It was a short drive today down to Coos Bay. We have a nice RV park with lots of privacy and just a short walk to the beach. Haven’t checked it out yet but will tomorrow. Manny and Connie picked us up mid-afternoon and took us over to George and Sharen’s for dinner. We had a great time visiting and talking about next year’s trip to Mexico.

August 11, Tillamook

More putzing in the a.m. then took a drive in the afternoon and stopped by another lighthouse. The coastline is really pretty with the waves crashing into the big rocks. In the evening we went to the Tillamook County Fair. I know what you’re thinking but the fair was pretty good. It cost us $8.00 each to get in and the grandstand show is included in the price. Tonight the show was Sawyer Brown and last night it was Lorrie Morgan. We had good seats in the center of the grandstand and were pretty close to the band. I’m not a big county western fan but we enjoyed the show. I would have rather seen Lorrie Morgan but we didn’t hear about the fair until today. The fair had all the great stuff to eat; corn dogs, funnel cakes, ice cream, burgers, fries, all the healthy things. It’s no wonder the grandstand only seats half the number of people it did when it was built several years ago. We saw some nice exhibits of things that people had done (photographs, quilts, 4-H stuff, etc.) but didn’t look at the tractors or the cows.

August 9, Tillamook

Ah ben ta 2 hog callin contest and a corn pickin contest but ah ain’t evr seen nuttin like this! WOW does this look like fun!!! We drove out to the dunes and it looked like an anthill that someone had kicked with all the ATV’s and dune buggy’s running around. We didn’t take our Jeep out on the sand because we needed a tall orange flag, plus a $10 permit, to drive out by the water. I’m also not too sure we have the right type of tires for the soft sand but we could let some air out. (how smart is that?) Another stop was the Munson Creek falls, the tallest waterfall on the Oregon coast at 319 feet; it is at the end of a steep canyon but it was worth the half-mile hike. The Tillamook Cheese factory was packed with people for a tour but the production lines weren’t running while we were there so didn’t get to see much. Their free samples however passed our taste test so we bought a couple of packages to take with us. Pacific City and Ocean Side are two neat towns on the coast with fabulous beaches that we perused. We found a nice spot in Ocean Side for supper before heading back to the RV.

August 8, Westport, Washington to Tillamook, Oregon

We had a beautiful drive down the coast of Washington and crossed the 4.1-mile bridge in to Astoria, Oregon. Astoria is the oldest settlement west of the Rocky Mountains as an important fur trading location. Lewis and Clark ended their 4,000-mile trek to the Pacific here and built Fort Clatsop, where they spent the winter of 1805. One of the early ship Captains built a Victorian home high on a hill that stayed in the family until it was donated to the Historical Society a few years ago. The home was mostly original and interesting. After a short trip through the town on the refurbished 1913 streetcar we drove to Tillamook, Oregon to an RV Park. This one has a WIFI system that works!

August 7, Westport

Putzed around this morning and then went downtown, all 3 blocks of it, and stopped in several tourist traps. Everything is the same in most of them and most of it was cheap junk made in China. (China today makes all the cheap crap like Japan used to make when I was a kid) Many of the restaurants weren’t open but we did finally find a place for lunch. You would think that somebody would be fixing fresh-caught fish but if they were they kept it a secret. Putzed the rest of the day away and tried to figure out just where we go from here and what to see. I think our next stop will be better.

August 6, Tacoma to Westport

I don’t know why we decided to drive to Westport unless it’s because it is on the coast. Westport is a small fishing town, both charter and commercial, but not much else and I don’t plan to do any fishing. We didn’t have a reservation but found a RV Park that had WIFI and after getting settled we found out it doesn’t work. That’s been a frequent problem on this trip. We ask if they have WIFI and of course they do, then we find out the signal is really weak and slow or as in this case, it isn’t working at all. The beach here runs for 18 miles and is really wide so we took the Jeep and drove down it There was an RV out there but getting it pulled out of the sand would be quite expensive so that didn’t look too smart. We did pick up several pieces of driftwood to carve but nothing really cool. Maybe we will find something better down the coast.

August 4, Tacoma, WA

Bob and Mary Ann took us sightseeing today and to try to pick up some driftwood for carving. Our first stop was Trader Joe’s for some 2 buck Chuck (which is $3 buck Chuck here). We found a few pieces of driftwood along the shore of Puget Sound but most of it was too wet so going to look when we get to the coast. We stopped for lunch in the small town of Alyn, at Leonard’s Restaurant, and had fish and chips. Across the street was a chainsaw carving shop so went there to browse after eating. They had some terrific stuff and offer classes about every week, with a limit of 3 students. Too bad we don’t live closer as it would be fun to learn. I’ve wanted to chainsaw carve for a long time but think I can find a teacher closer to home. We stopped by a new links golf course that looked like fun to play and also one of the city parks with huge flower gardens. Now we don’t have to feel bad about not going to Butchart Gardens in Victoria. Tonight we had pizza at a local spot that is very popular.

August 3, Anacortes to Tacoma, WA

We left the RV park this about noon and drove down to Tacoma to Bob and Mary Ann Richey’s. The traffic was heavy but we got in the HOV lane and just sailed along until we got to Tacoma and ran into an accident scene. We crawled along for several miles until we got past that. Got to the Richey’s about 4:00, just in time for happy hour….After eating they taught us how to play Texas Hold’em. It appears I have about the same luck at gambling as I do fishing. I’m going to have to watch ESPN and pick up some pointers.

August 2, Anacortes, WA

I got a haircut this morning, my first since we left Iowa. I was getting a little shaggy around the edges. When Michelle and Keith lived in Seattle we took a little trip to La Conner, which is where we purchased the stained glass window that we have in the dining room. La Conner is (was) just a small berg, but isn’t too far from Anacortes, so drove there for lunch. Wow, what a change. When we were there they had just a couple of stores and places to eat. Now the shops run for several blocks and no place to park. We went in the antique shop where we purchased our stained glass and they still have some left from what looked like the same batch ours came from. We didn’t stay in La Conner too long and drove to Whidby Island over the Destruction Bay bridge. We looked around in a couple more small seaport towns on the island, which was fun. Sure is different than Iowa.

August 1, Anacortes, WA

We made arrangements this morning to get in to the RV park here at the Casino so moved this morning and got settled in for a couple of days. Drove to the Anacortes ferry dock to see about taking the Jeep and going over to Victoria tomorrow. The terminal was a mad house but we found out that it’s a 2-hour ride to Victoria and we would have to go through customs (both ways). we would only have about 5 hours on the island to look around so we decided that wasn’t enough time and opted not to go. We’ve been to Victoria before, several years ago, but would have been nice to see Butchart Gardens again. Anacortes is a center for building commercial and private boats so drove to the shipyards. We saw them working on a huge ship and think it was a cargo ship or tanker but not sure. We found a marine hardware store that has to have been there 100 years or more. It was like a museum but they had everything from old parts to new. They specialize in parts for old wooden boats and I’d bet they have whatever you need. It was fun to wander around. We stopped at a little Hawaiian restaurant for a drink and met the owner, who is from Hawaii and just moved to Anacortes a year ago. Nice place but we went to the marina for supper and to walk the docks. There were several beautiful boats and we even picked out a few that we thought we could live on. We’re thinking we could become “Boat Potatoes”.

July 31, Lac La Hache, BC to Anacortes, WA. 316 miles

The drive today was one of the most amazing and grueling days I have ever had of driving. The scenery was incredible but it was hard to appreciate sometimes with the sun reflecting off my white knuckles. The road from Cache Creek, BC to Hope, BC had everything; amazing scenery, one curve after another, steep grades both up and down, lots of tunnels, several narrow bridges, and more semi-trucks than I have seen in my life. It’s one of only a couple of roads to the interior of BC so naturally that’s where all the trucks have to be. In our opinion Canada has the most beautiful mountains that we have seen. We didn’t get to see a lot of Banff and Jasper National Parks in Alberta because of the low clouds but what we did see, along with driving through BC, it’s the best. My picture today doesn't do it justice. We are in Anacortes, Washington tonight and will stay here a couple of days and explore. Having trouble finding RV parks with space so going to have to start planning where we are going to be. Hate doing that but tonight and last night we had to work to get a place to stay. Tonight we are boondocking in a Casino parking lot as we couldn’t find a park with a spot open. Along the coast of Washington and Oregon we may have a tough time finding anything so may be doing more boondocking.

July 29, Vanderhoof to Lac La Hache, BC, 243 miles

We could not find a tour of a saw mill plant anywhere! We tried plants in several cities along the way but they are all full for several days or we had to make arrangements several days in advance. All of the plants were extremely busy and had enormous piles of trees stacked up waiting to be processed. I think it would have been a fascinating tour but not this time I guess. We stopped in Quesnel, BC, left the RV at Wal-Mart, and drove the Jeep over to Barkersville, a restored gold rush town about 50 miles out of our way. It is also a National Historic Site of Canada but after getting there we decided not to go through the town. We looked at all the information and pictures and thought we had seen enough. It appeared to be very well done, similar to Living History Farms, but we drove back to the RV. The parking lot at Wal-Mart was full of campers by the time we got there but it was only about 4:00 so we drove on to Lac La Hache, BC to a park on the Lake. It’s a very nice park on a beautifu lake but not easy to get in to like the book said. This weekend is a Canadian Holiday so the park is full and we got the last spot.

July 28, Hyder to Vanderhoof, BC

Still more towering mountains before leveling off to beautiful high plains later in the afternoon. We haven’t seen much of British Columbia yet but what we have seen is spectacular. Tonight we stopped at Dave’s RV Park, one of the best campgrounds we have been in. The park has lots of grassy space between campers, picnic tables and beautiful flowers. Today is Sunday so going to stay here a couple of days to see if we can get a tour of a lumber mill.

July 27, Prince Rupert, BC to Hyder, AK

Today is going to make our highlight reel. We got off the ferry about 9:15 a.m. (still without our promised beer) and drove through Prince Rupert to Hyder and Stewart. The drive was probably the most beautiful that we have seen since we started our trip, towering mountains, huge waterfalls and rushing streams with several black bears and cubs. We made the right decision to come this far by ferry as the Cassiar highway from Watson Lake to Hyder/Stewart is closed several days, maybe weeks, because of an avalanche. It would have been a looooong drive out of our way to get here had we not taken the ferry. Might have even skipped it. Tonight we saw a grizzly bear with triplets come out of the woods, walk down the stream and eat a salmon; we watched them for probably 20 minutes before they wondered off into the woods again. We stopped at an old converted school bus for a great supper and ate with some locals as well as some tourists from Tennessee. Terrific clam chowder and halibut.

July 24, 25 and 26, Alaska Marine Highway

We got situated in line for the ferry about 8:30 Wednesday to get our assigned loading spot. Some dip stick from Texas backed 10 feet square into us in spite of me laying on the air horn. We were lucky because he didn’t do any damage but he did leave an impression of his spare tire in the dirt on the front of the RV. Funny thing was, his spare tire was covered so he hit us pretty good. He offered to buy us a beer when we got on the ferry but we haven’t seen anything of him. Since we were to be on the boat 2 nights we got a berth that was quite nice, 2 comfortable bunks with a bath, including a very good shower. Some people slept on the deck lounge chairs; one even pitched his tent. The ferry made several stops on the way to Prince Rupert but we didn’t have a lot of time to go ashore. The ride has been very scenic and many picturesque small fishing villages that are only accessible by boat or airplane. The stops along our route have been Hoonah, Sitka, Kake, Petersburg, Wrangell, and Ketchikan before off loading at Prince Rupert. We met several nice and interesting people on the trip; one native lady from Hoonah has 130 grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren. How would you like to keep track of birthdays? Also visited with Father Jim, a Catholic Priest who is a southeast Alaska icon, (according to locals on board) that filled me in on the history of most of the towns we visited. Not a lot of wildlife on the trip but did see a few whales.

July 23, Sitka, AK

When we got up this morning there were two cruise ships in the harbor. We were glad they weren’t here on Saturday or Sunday. The downtown area, which isn’t too big, was full of people. The locals had a bunch of little stands set up along the sidewalk that weren’t there when we got to town. They must have heard we were coming, J Our ferry left the dock at 1:30 so we had to be in line by 11:30. The ride back to Juneau was uneventful except we did see a couple more whales but not close enough to get a good picture. It’s really neat when they dive and their tail sticks up out of the water but it happens too fast to get a good picture. We are trying to figure out what to do tomorrow in Juneau, which will be our last day in Alaska. Wednesday we board the ferry again for a 2 day cruise to Prince Rupert, British Columbia.

July 22, Sitka, AK

Started today at the Alaska Raptor Center, which nurses back to health injured or sick birds of prey, including bald eagles. They make every effort to return the birds to the wild but some are not capable so they end up in a zoo or stay at the Center for educational purposes. We then grabbed a picnic lunch at Subway and drove to the top of Harbor Mountain. The road is a very narrow, winding gravel road to the top of the mountain overlooking Sitka and the water. Sandi was a little worried about bears so she had her picnic in the Jeep. By the time we got down from the mountain it’s the middle of the afternoon and only one more thing in town that we can do---yep, a museum. So, we gave in and headed to the Sheldon Jackson Museum. Sheldon Jackson was a Presbyterian minister in Sitka in the late 1800’s and started collecting Indian artifacts. There is a college here of the same name. What we saw was a small part of his collection but it was a very nice museum with loads of interesting things. We were glad that we went.

July 21, Juneau to Sitka

5:00 a.m. is no time to be getting out of bed but we had to check in at the ferry dock at 6:00, 2 hours before departure. It was a beautiful 4 ½ hour cruise on the “fast ferry” to Sitka through lots of little islands. We did see a couple of humpback whales along the way. After we docked the first thing we looked for was the Healing Totem Pole that Wayne Price from Haines had carved. It was really neat but so tall that in order to get a picture you have to be so far away that you really can’t see it very well. We then found a nice little place for lunch before stopping at the Russian Bishop’s House built in 1842, the Russian Orthodox St. Michael’s Cathedral in the middle of the downtown street and a few shops. Later in the afternoon we checked into our Bed and Breakfast that was a wonderful place with a terrific view of the mountains and water. The owners, Connie and Gary McCarty, are very nice people and the accommodations were outstanding. After getting settled we went out for dinner and had fresh Halibut that was very good then went to bed early as it’s been a long time since we got up.

July 20, Juneau

We started out this morning at The Shrine of St. Therese; a beautiful little stone Church and Shrine right on the coast. It was built during the depression and is absolutely wonderful. From there we went to the Mendenhall Glacier National Park and were very surprised to run into Fran Brune and his wife from Lake Panorama. They are visiting their son in Anchorage and came over to Juneau to go fishing and see the sites. Sandi and I had lunch at a Mexican restaurant in the heart of historic downtown then went to the city museum. They had an interesting 30-minute film about the history of Juneau but the museum was a disappointment. The museum is probably just a good as some of the others we have seen but we have been to several and a lot of the information is the same. Think we will skip them for awhile. After visiting the museum we stopped at the famous Red Dog Saloon for a beer then went all the way---to the end of the road. The road north out of Juneau is 40 miles through the rain forest to the end so if you live in Juneau, and want to get away from it all, that’s as far as you can go by car. There were a lot of people out there camping, probably trying to get away from tourists. There were 2 cruise ships in town today and the downtown area was very busy with tourists. Juneau is a beautiful town in the heart of the rain forest so everything is so green and lush.

July 19, Haines to Juneau

The saga continues…will the mail be here or not??? Last trip to the Post Office this morning to see if our mail has arrived---no luck! They have been very helpful and are going to forward it, if it ever shows up, to either Richey’s in Tacoma or back to Iowa so it will be there when we get home. Might as well just left it there in the first place. Hope there isn’t anything important in there. The ferry was to leave Haines at 1:45 but was running 2 hours late because of a caravan of 5th wheels unloading in Skagway. We finally got loaded and underway at 4:00 p.m. What started out as a beautiful cloudless day turned into a rainy day by the time we were half way to Juneau. The ferry was very nice, like a cruise ship without the swimming pool (almost). There was lots of room to roam, nice roomy seating areas, a good bar and cafeteria, it was an enjoyable experience. We unhooked the Jeep from the MH to load and Sandi drove the Jeep in. She was the first one to load and I was the last and it was a piece of cake. Drove down the ramp, turned a little to the left, and shut it off. My worst fears were realized however when we got to Juneau. Instead to driving out I had to back out of the ferry and all the way up the mile long ramp. It wasn’t really a mile long, only about 200 feet, but it seemed like a mile when it’s narrow and the mirrors are covered with raindrops. I did a great job though and didn’t hit a thing. It was about 9:00 p.m. when we docked and we found a state park 10 miles north of town to park for the night, still raining of course. We thought we were in trouble when we got to the campground. Narrow tree-lined winding road with no place to turn around and we just kept getting deeper and deeper into the woods. Finally found a clearing and a place to park. I think it will be a good place to leave the MH for a couple of days while we go to Sitka. Nobody could find it here.

July 18, Haines

We drove up the river this morning to pick up some cottonwood bark for carving. I found some along the bank of the river that may or may not be suitable for carving. I will have to wait until it dries out and see. We spotted a large dead cottonwood tree along the side of the road that I thought would be perfect for harvesting some bark. When I walked into the ditch I almost disappeared in the grass. It didn’t look that tall. No wonder the bears and moose disappear so fast. I didn’t get to the tree, too deep and wet. We checked in at the Ferry Station then spent the rest of the day just relaxing by the baywatching the fishing boats and cruise ships go by. We had another campfire with some new neighbors.

July 17, Haines

Checked at the Post Office for our mail but it’s not here yet so we stopped at Fort Seward, built around 1903 or 1904. Many of the old Officer’s Quarters have been purchased by individuals and are private homes now and in good condition. Some of the other buildings could use some work however. We met Wayne Price who was carving a canoe out of a very large redwood tree the way his ancestors did. Wayne has carved many large totem poles and did a special “healing totem pole” for the hospital in Sitka that we are going to look for. All the chips from his carving are at the tree so anyone can write a name on a chip and leave it at the tree for healing, like a prayer tree. Wayne also did this one that is in front of the elementary school here in Haines. He was very nice to visit with and does excellent work. We went to the Haines Museum this afternoon which was very good. It’s divided into 2 parts, Native Indians and Goldmining/Pioneers. Later we went to a Chilkat Dancers Storytelling Theater show put on by local people. They performed native dances that told an old legend passed down through the years and wear masks to show the character they are portraying, which are usually animals. After supper we had a campfire with some of the neighbors. It’s hard to have a campfire when it isn’t dark and to know when to go to bed. It’s midnight before you know it.

July 16, Haines

Woke up to rain this morning and it rained all day. We didn’t do much except tried to pick up our mail that has not yet arrived. Brad mailed us a Priority Mail package with all our mail to date from Iowa the end of June. As of today it isn’t here yet! The local Post Office said it could take 3 to 4 weeks. If it’s not here by Thursday we may have to have them send it back to Brad as we have no plans to be in any one place for a significant length of time. There is more to the story about the U. S. Postal Service but I won’t bore you with my complaining. Gage (Kimberly’s oldest boy) is playing in a 9-year old baseball tournament in Memphis this week and his game today was broadcast live on the internet. There are teams from several states in the tournament and they had to qualify to get there. We were able to get the game in the motorhome on our laptop with the WIFI connection here in the park but the picture and play-by-play was intermittent. The technology we have today is amazing but the broadband speed here in Haines wasn’t quite fast enough. Gage’s team, the Arizona CYCLONES, beat a team from Texas 5-0. Roger Snyder called today to tell us that Kirby is back in the states from his tour of duty in Iraq so all together we had a great day. Hoorah for our side!

July 15, MP 50 to Haines, AK

Boy do we know how to pick ‘em! The drive this morning was spectacular, the best scenery we have seen in Alaska. The weather was getting foggy yesterday when we stopped and we would have missed it all if we had driven the last 50 miles to Haines. Once again our RV park is right on the bay with a great view of the mountains across the water. The park is small and the people are friendly, which means no one from the east coast. The population of Haines is less than 1000 but I don’t know why, it’s a beautiful spot. Tonight the park had a fresh Dungeness crab/pot luck dinner for the people parked here. The food was wonderful, especially the crab, it’s a lot of work though. After dinner we watched the eagles for awhile then drove up the river to see if we could watch any bears catching salmon. They didn’t catch any either. (we didn’t see any) Had a campfire with some of the neighbors when we got back. One neighbor is traveling with 2 kids (8 & 9) plus a German Shepard and a rabbit, 4 bikes on top the car and 4 dirt bikes on back the motorhome. They are traveling for 2 years (been gone 15 months) and home schooling the kids. Another neighbor is traveling with 4 kids (12-10-8 & 4) and home schooling. They plan to travel for 2 years while figuring out where they want to live and what they want to do. They just sold their business and have been gone 3 weeks; said they have already won some bets. That would take a lot of courage. We will be here a couple of days then catch the ferry for Juneau. Going to skip Skagway.

July 14, MP 1244 to MP 50 Haines Highway

Had a good nights rest and woke up to sunny skies. We hit the road about 8:00 a.m. for what we knew would be a long day of bad roads. It didn’t take long for us to hit them either. We drove about 150 miles at 35 mph with a few stretches up to 45 (darn few) and many stretches slower. The frost boils just play havoc with the roads and it’s a never-ending job to fix them. They do a pretty good job of marking the worst ones with orange flags so that helps. Sandi drove for an hour or so and did a good job. This time we had the front of the Jeep covered up and it doesn’t appear that we have any headlights broken or windshield dings. Will be able to tell better tomorrow when we get it uncovered and washed. We are about 50 miles from Haines but found a nice rest area along the highway so decided to pull over for the night. We have no reservation in Haines anyway so no other place to go. Should be fairly quiet here.

July 13, Eagle River to Mile Post 1244 Alaskan Highway---368 miles

I went to a bordello this morning, rather it used to be a bordello, now it’s a very popular local restaurant (Gwennies) and has been for several years. It’s a part of Anchorage’s colorful past and Andy and Gerri wanted us to go there for breakfast. Breakfast was very good and the portions were quite large. I mentioned how big the servings were and the waitress said “haven’t you heard, everything’s big in Alaska”. I wonder what our Texas friends would think of that? Andy and Gerri insisted that we follow them to their house when we left the restaurant so they could give us some halibut. They were very generous and loaded us up with some freshly caught halibut, canned halibut, canned salmon and some moose sausage. We left Anchorage/Eagle River about noon and drove to Tok, then down the Alaskan Highway to milepost 1244 to a rest stop. It’s a very scenic spot looking out over the valley of trees with snow-covered mountains in the distance.

July 12, Seward to Eagle River, 141 miles

Yippee, Skippee we finally got some sunshine and warmer weather. Right now we are in Eagle River at 3:15 p.m., it’s 67 degrees and the sun is shining. It’s too early in the day to stop but we are meeting Andy and Gerri Anderson for breakfast in Anchorage in the morning before heading on to Tok and further south. Andy and Gerri gave us the boat ride to Soldovia from Homer on the 4th of July so going to say good-bye before we leave the area. Meeting for dinner tonight would have been better for us but they were busy canning all the fish they caught---lucky them. We stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center near Moose Pass on the way here today. They take wounded and orphaned critters and raise them to be released into the wild, if possible. It was an OK stop but not one of the better ones we’ve been to. We are staying tonight in a Fred Meyer parking lot. Eagle River has an ordinance against campers staying in parking lots but the manager said we could stay in the employee parking area behind the store. I don’t think anyone will see us here. Really nice of them. Will make sure we shop the store before we leave. That will be easy as it’s a great store. Too bad we don’t have them in Iowa.

July 11, Seward

Still raining and cool today. I wish we had kept track of how many sunny days we have had. Seems like lots more rainy days than sunny ones but maybe it’s just my stinkin thinkin after several days of this c**p. (I’m ok now!) Spent a couple of hours at the Seward Museum this afternoon. It’s a very nice little museum with good displays about the earthquake, local history and biographies of several of the original pioneers and interesting citizens. One feature was about Benny Benson, a 13-year-old boy from the local orphanage that designed the state’s flag back in 1927. After the museum we drove out to Exit Glacier, an easily accessible glacier flowing 2,500 feet down from the Harding Icefield. The icefield is 50 miles long by 20 miles wide and 3,000 feet deep. What we saw is just the tip of the iceberg. ;-) There were several signs along the drive to the glacier with dates that showed where the leading edge of the glacier was that particular year. Based on what we saw today there has been significant global warming in the last 125 years. But, without global warming, would we still be stuck in the ice age?

July 10, Seward

Eureka, Eureka! Finally found a B&B in Sitka to stay in while on our 2-day side trip there. Of the 15 places I emailed only 2 had any rooms available. What a relief to finally find a place. In the afternoon we went to the Alaska SeaLife Center, a marine research center. They have underwater viewing tanks where you can watch sea lions and sea otters swim, and also birds dive and swim. The sea lions are so clumsy on land and so sleek in the water. They also had several short films and a lot of interactive displays. Kids were having a great time with the displays were they could touch sea creatures. It was a good place to spend the afternoon on a rainy cool day. Alaska has some beautiful scenery but we haven’t had much good weather. We went to Ray’s on the waterfront for an excellent dinner.

July 9, Seward

We went to the Library this afternoon and watched a couple of interesting films about the 1964 earthquake that hit Alaska. The epicenter was near here and the town was almost wiped out with both the earthquake and the multiple tsunamis’ that followed for the next several hours. We then spent a couple of hours on the internet trying to find a place to stay in Sitka in a couple of weeks. We already have ferry reservations but no room reservations. Sandi called 10 places that are all full so I sent email messages to 15 more. Will see if we get a reply from any of them. Turn in tomorrow for another exciting day and see if we found a place to stay or if we will be homeless in Sitka. That would be a good movie title wouldn’t it? OK, maybe not. Had a campfire on the beach tonight with the neighbor. We are parked right in front of Mt. Marathon, which is the mountain that 800 idiots run up and down on the 4th of July. It’s almost straight up and the winner runs up and back in less than one hour. Not my idea of a good time.

July 8, Soldotna to Seward, 93 miles

Nice day today for a beautiful drive to Seward. We were lucky to find a spot right on the waterfront in the City RV Park. We beat someone to the spot by seconds. It was like parking at the mall at Christmas, we were coming one way and they were coming the other way; and we got there first. I to run over 5 people and a couple of dogs but we got there first. It was a beautiful day so about 1:30 we scheduled a 6-hour boat cruise through the Kenai Fjords National Park that started at 3:00. Around 2:00 we loaded the backpack and I groused about Sandi taking all this stuff that I had to carry. We learned first hand how fast the weather could change here. I was glad we had it all as shortly after we disembarked the sky clouded over and the wind picked up and it got cold once again. It was a large touring boat so we were able to get inside when we wanted. They served us a salmon dinner which was very good. We saw tons of wildlife; dolphins, sea lions and sea otter, hump back whales, and zillions of birds including a couple of kinds of puffins. We stopped right beside a glacier and listened to it crack and calf. It sounded like a good Iowa thunder storm. The glacier was about ¾ of a mile across and ran up the valley for several miles but I don’t remember how many. I was not too excited about seeing a glacier but it was an impressive thing to see and watch. At dinner we shared a table with a couple from France that are spending 36 months traveling the world in their camper. They are 21 months into the trip and will go from here to Australia. It was fun visiting with them but was difficult as their English wasn’t too good and our French is zippo.

July 7, Soldotna

So much for 07-07-07! We got up at 4:30 a.m. in order to be at the boat dock by 5:30 and in position by 6:00. (Guides can’t be working before 6 or after 6). No rain but about 50 degrees so we wore as many layers as we could and stayed warm. It warmed up to mid-60’s and turned in to a very nice day. DOZENS of boats ON the water but no fish IN the water. We fished an area of the Kenai River near where it comes off Cook Inlet and the Salmon would start their journey up the river to span. We had a good guide and a good spot, just no fish. We fished from 6:00 until 11:30 and didn’t get a nibble. Our neighbor in the RV Park is a Guide so he was out all day with no luck. He said he hadn’t been skunked in 2 years. That would be a really long day. Next week though! So, we headed for the Fish Processing plant and bought 20 pounds of fresh salmon and stuck it in the freezer. $9.95 a pound but less than half of what we would pay in Iowa for Alaska wild salmon, if you can find it.

July 6, Homer to Soldotna

Left after breakfast to return to Soldotna for our fishing charter tomorrow. I got Sandi a cinnamon roll at the coffee shop/bakery just down the street. She’s always happiest when she has her cinnamon roll. Soldotna is only about 90 miles up the peninsula but is away from the bay and is usually warmer. We have had mid-50’s and overcast days in Homer but sunny and mid-60’s today in Soldotna. Checked into the Kenai River Fishing and RV Park instead of Swiftwater Park so we would have electric, water and sewer. It’s also on the Kenai River (the other side) so we tried our hand at fishing again. Same results, (it doesn’t seem to matter which side I’m on). Nothing, not even a nibble, but at least no one is catching anything. They all say the same thing, “maybe next week they will start running”. Well, next week we won’t be here and tomorrow is our fishing day so they better start running TONIGHT! Tomorrow is 07-07-07 so that ought to be our day to catch fish don’t you think? We’ll see just how good this guide is!

July 5, Homer

Rained off and on most of the day but usually more of a heavy drizzle than rain. Was also cool and windy so all-in-all a pretty nasty day. I went to the coffee shop WIFI in the morning while Sandi slept-in. Checked out a few more shops in the afternoon but just looked, didn’t buy. After a while it all looks the same. We had reservations for a boat ride to Halibut Cove, 45 minutes across Katchamac Bay, for dinner so weren’t sure we wanted to keep the reservation. Finally decided that we would go even if it was raining and it turned out to be a good decision (mostly). The Island where the restaurant is located was very picturesque and we got to explore the island after dinner. Most of the houses are located along the shore with a boardwalk connecting them. Really interesting and neat! The return boat ride however was brutal. The boat left at 9:15, it still wasn’t raining but the wind came up and with the temperature in the mid-50’s we were pretty darn cold by the time we got back to Homer. The boat was a neat old wooden trawler but all open seating and no protection from the elements. Had a hot toddy when we got back and thawed out pretty fast though. It was a good trip. Oh yea, we had salmon for dinner.

July 4, Homer to Soldovia

Happy Independence Day Everyone! Thanks to all our Veterans! Just when we think it can’t get any better---it does. Our neighbors in the RV Park are from Anchorage and have a 28 foot fishing boat here so they invited us to ride along with them to Soldovia, a small fishing village about an hours boat ride from Homer. The only way to reach Soldovia is by boat or airplane. We left Homer about 9:00 a.m. with Andy Anderson and his wife Gerry and their friends from Soldotna, Andy, (little Andy) Kelley, their 2 daughters Victoria and Anna and Grandma. It was a wonderful boat ride and Soldovia is a quaint little town. We watched the parade, looked in a few shops (all they had) and had pulled pork sandwiches for lunch. We found it hard to believe that they didn’t have salmon or halibut but maybe they get tired of it and pulled pork is a treat for them. Don’t really know. We stayed in Soldovia until about 1:00 then headed back to Homer and secured the boat in a slip. We saw several sea otter on both trips, they were just laying on their back floating in the water. Cute as they can be.

July 3, Homer

This morning we went to the Islands and Oceans Visitor Center in Homer. The Center is part of the National Wildlife Refuge System and is full of exhibits and displays concerning wildlife in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. We attended a session about glaciers that was very interesting and informative. Time for lunch so had a wonderful small wood-fired stove pizza at a little place called Fat Olives. From there we headed towards Anchor Point (about 10 miles) to Norman Lowell’s Art Gallery. Norman was born and raised in Iowa and after getting married homesteaded in Alaska. His paintings are fantastic. He and his wife were both at the Gallery so we got to visit briefly with Norman. He said “Alaska captured me so I have tried to capture Alaska”. He has done a beautiful job of it. While we were there a woman bought a painting for $40,000. I saw another priced at $125,000 but decided we really didn’t have a place that it would look good. Later this afternoon we found a local winery where we just had to test their wares. Turns out a couple aren’t too bad so will be taking some home. It’s a good thing we went to the winery last or we might have bought a painting at the Gallery. NOT! Met a woman and her daughter today from Wisconsin that are tent camping in Alaska for 2 months, no heater, small propane stove, eating mac and cheese, and they were cold. They have more courage (or something) than I have.

July 2, Homer

Checked my emails this morning then we went to the Pratt Museum, which was exceptional. They had a lot of information about the Homesteaders and Pioneers of the area. The Museum has an inventory of over 30,000 items and has about 30,000 visitors a year. McNeil River Falls Brown Bear Sanctuary is on an island near Homer and the Museum has a remote camera on the Falls so they can watch and study the bears. It is also on the Internet at prattmuseum.org. In the afternoon we drove around Homer and did some standard sightseeing, later we stopped at Land’s End Resort at the end of the spit for a bowl of clam chowder for supper. Not too exciting of a day was it? Not everyday is full of fun and excitement. We still had a fun day.

July 1, Soldotna to Homer

Finally ran out of battery power this morning after 5 days of dry camping so had to start the generator to get coffee going. Left Swiftwater Campground and stopped at Fred Meyer to dump all our tanks and fill up with water before heading to Homer. Short drive but very pretty. Cloudy and much cooler today which we expected being on the ocean. (currently 7:00 p.m.and 55 degrees) Tomorrow is to be mid-to-upper 60’s and sunny. Homer, like the rest of the Kenai Peninsula, is full of fishermen as this is the height of the Halibut season. We are parked on the spit so we saw several boat loads of fish come in. Some weighed over 100 pounds. The Spit RV Park is nothing to write home about, but I guess I’m doing it anyway. Spaces are quite close together and are all fine glacial gravel, tracks in badly. They quoted me $30 per night when I made the reservation and when we checked in they charged us $37.50 for electric only. Too much but we’re staying anyway because we need to hook up to recharge our batteries. Makes up for some free nights at Wal-Mart and Fred Meyer. We stopped at the Visitor’s Center and got some good information about things to see and do while we are here. Have our 5 days here pretty well planned.

June 30, Soldotna

We had planned to leave this morning and drive to Homer but after getting the fishing equipment and lesson last night from Scott and Kathy we thought we should stick around one more day and see what luck we might have. We stopped at another carving shop on our way to get our licenses, this time Moose and Caribou antlers. Tim Cooper is the carver and he gave us a quick lesson in how he carves eagle heads on the ends of antlers. I bought some Caribou antler pieces and am going to give it a try. Think I will practice on wood first though as antlers aren’t readily available in Panora. Bought our fishing licenses and headed back to our park and the river. Fished for a couple of hours in the afternoon and a couple more after supper with the same results I usually (read always) get. Nothing, not even a nibble. Maybe next time. Gave it a try so now we can leave and head for Homer. Will be back here next Friday sometime for our fishing charter on Saturday morning. Hope that goes better. We have a very nice couple parked next to us that gave us supper last night and again tonight. Last night we had delicious stir-fry over rice and tonight she gave us BBQ short ribs, salmon and fried rice. We only nibbled on last night’s meal as Scott and Kathy were coming over so we have that left over.

June 29, Soldotna

Not much going on today. We did laundry, rather Sandi did laundry while I checked emails and surfed the net. The Laundromats are very nice. There are 2 in town (maybe more) that advertises 70 and 80 machines, fulltime attendants, drop-off service, free WIFI and showers. We went to a fish processing plant to price fish and inquire about how much we could take across the border. Apparently there is no limit but we aren’t too sure. Also stopped at a greenhouse and looked at some incredible flowers. We spent the afternoon hanging around the campground watching the Kenai River go by, carving and reading. Scott and Kathy Romain (Orville Terry’s daughter) came over this evening for gourmet hotdogs cooked over the campfire. They brought us a couple of fishing poles to use and taught us how to fish for salmon. Going to give it a try tomorrow and next week. They also made arrangements with a friend for us to go on a guided fishing trip for King Salmon next Saturday morning. That will be fun.

June 28, Soldotna

Today we visited Mike and Liz Chase’s family owned and operated commercial fishing operation. I was surprised to learn that most commercial fishing operations are actually quite small and their window to harvest fish is very short. The industry is very tightly regulated, as is sport fishing, which they said is a good thing and is necessary to make it sustainable. We first got a brief history of the commercial fishing industry then we got to watch their crew in operation from a bluff overlooking their designated fishing area of Cook Inlet as Bald Eagles circled overhead. Each “permit” is allowed only 3 nets, which are 200 feet long and 8 feet deep and they can only fish Monday and Thursday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for 8 weeks. This family has 4 permits, one each for Mike, Liz and 2 sons so they had 12 nets in the water. Today the total catch was 86 fish. Sandi won a Flounder as she guessed the closest to how many fish they would bring in today. We grilled it over the campfire for supper. We weren’t too impressed with it and decided we like salmon better. We bought some salmon from them, right off the boat, which they cleaned and packaged for us. It doesn’t get much fresher than that. We bought a King and a Sockeye and put them in the freezer. We just had a great day with the family and learned a whole lot about fishing here in Alaska.

June 27, Soldotna

Found the city Library this morning so we could update the blog and gather some travel information via the internet. That took about an hour and we drove from the Library to the Visitor’s Center in Kenai. We found out that the Official Balladeer of Alaska, (designated by the legislature and Governor) Hobo Jim, was going to be performing at 3:00 p.m.. Went for lunch at Victoria’s, (I went for the lingerie but didn’t see any), then back to the Center for the show. He is a legend around Alaska and he sang songs that he has written about living in Alaska. In the off-season he has a 2nd home in Nashville and is a songwriter there. He played for an hour we enjoyed the show. Drove to the end of the Kenai Spur highway to a beautiful spot at Captain Cook State Park where we looked across Cook Inlet at some snow-covered volcanoes. Back to an old cannery that they are trying to get started as a shopping destination and ate supper. Guess what we had, King Salmon! Haven’t found a bad one yet.