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.