Back IColdwater

On Thursday the third we turned the RV in Anchorage. It was a busy morning getting the RV emptied out and our stuff all packed.Judy and Nancy gave lawn chairs and some paper goods to a group that was from Holland, They were traveling in a RV caravan touring Alaska and Canada. Nan and Judy were given little wooden shoes by the leader of the group. All the while Jim and I were frantically cleaning the RV and packing our stuff. A person from Great Alaska [the people we rented from] stopped by to check out the camp ground we were staying at. She told us to not clean just leave everything [even stuff in the refrigerator]in the RV and they would take care of it when we turned in the RV. They donate unopened food to some charity. Our whole checking out process took about 20 minutes. Then they gave us a ride to the airport--and we flew home. Arrived in Lansing at 9:30 am on Friday Alan and Dawn were there to meet us.
Altogether we drove 4412 miles and used 544 gallons of gas, an average of just over 8 miles to the gallon. Gas was a bit more expensive in Alaska [3.89] and in Canada it was well over $4 and a high of $1.60 a liter [$6.08 a gallon] in the more remote places. All in all it was a wonderful trip. Our days of fresh Halibut and Fresh Salmon are at an end for now.
PS This note is being added by Judy. After I read ken's blog, I objected to one of the items. As you know Ken nor Jim usually do not move at a frantic pace. And about the frantically cleaning, uhhhhhh I think he meant to put Judy and Nancy had frantically cleaned all the cupboards etc, before we took stuff to the other campers. (: Ken did wash the RV at a car wash a couple days before.. And that looked really good. (: Great time.... You all should try it sometime. You'll love it.

Homer to Anchorage

Pulled out of Homer this morning and after a stop at a book store [guess who had that idea] and the post office we were on our way to Anchorage as we have to turn in the RV at 10 am. tomorrow. We are camped at the Golden Nugget Camp ground. It's nice but the name implies nothing. We have driven 4000 miles since we left Forest City. We have eaten much fresh fish. Today about half way between Homer and Anchorage we came upon a mother moose and twin babies [I could tell they ere twins because they looked alike]. We even turned the 32 foot RV around so we could get another look at them. Once again we had a beautiful day.

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Homer Ak.

Today we went to "The Spit" in Homer. The Spit is a long road with with a big fishing population. Here is where 'The Deadliest Catch' begins. There are fish canning plants as well as large freezing facilities. We watched as a boat unloaded its catch. It looked like each fish was weighed,then iced down and when a big box was full a fork lift came and took it to the processing plant. I found the 'salty dog bar' and bought a t-shirt. It opened at 11am. and buy 11:02 every seat at the bar was full of rugged looking dock workers. We bought some salmon to grill, it was delicious. We ate lunch at Captain Pattie's. We sat by a window overlooking the ocean.We went to a visitors center and then back to the RV about 4PM. Grilled the salmon and now to do the blog. Internet service has been a little slow and sometimes I haven't been able to get connected. Tomorrow we will head to Anchorage and get ready to turn the RV in on Thursday morning. We will ly out of Anchorage Thursday afternoon to Seattle then to Detroit and then Lansing arriving around 9:30 Friday morning. We are trying to eat everything in the refrigerator before we turn the RV. We are not going to make it. We bought a grill and 4 lawn chairs and a coffee pot, Nancy is going to have a tag sale to get rid of that stuff.[we'll see]

5-30-2010

My o my the cruise trip was something else, we saw sea otters, puffins, orcha whales, mt. goats and kids, sea lions, a harbor seal, 2 black bears,2 humpback whales,seals an eagle and Steller sea cows. All this took place while we were o this little cruise boat going on the Kenai Fjord National Park trip. It was seven and a half hours long, but we did go for the roast beef and salmon dinner that was delicious! Then it was back to camp for the night. Today we went to the Alaska Sea Life Center to look at various birds and other sea life on the Resurrection bay. We saw puffins swim under water and had a lesson by a person that knew all about salmon. Well then we left for Homer and no sooner got here and they said that they had to go help unload a 200 pound halibut, they brought it back here along with about eight other halibut. There is a limit of 2 per fisherman. But once they are cleaned and in a cooler they no longer are counted. We grilled hamburgers for supper. We are all beat tonight, we were not able to take a shower this AM. But tonight we are in a better campground. Also we saw a glacier and what they call caving, where the ice breaks off from the glacier.

Today we left Anchorage toward Seward, about 150 miles. Stopped at a marsh walk that was south of Anchorage by about 10 miles, it didn’t deliver as promised by the travel guide. But it was a nice walk. The scenery has been great, many more photos of the mountains. We now are in a city park that is right on Resurrection Bay in the city of Seward, along with a long line of RVs and several tent campers. The harbor is loaded with fishing boats and small cruise boats that take people out on day trips. We are to do one tomorrow, it goes out for seven and half hours. We signed up for the prime rib and salmon dinner on board. The distance of the boat trip tomorrow is about 120 miles long. Resurrection Bay is a deep harbor a coal loading port a freighter just now is being brought in by a tug boat. Cruise ships also come in here and let people take day trips. We have been watching an otter and three sea lions play close to shore

5/28/2010

After a big breakfast of reindeer sausage and sourdough pancakes we headed south away from the smoke caused by the forest fire in Tok. The residents there were concerned because everything is so dry. We took several photos on the way to Anchorage, the photos do not do justice to the landscape, the snow on the mountains and the picture of the glacier do not do justice to the real thing. The airplane in the picture is a common sight, you can't see the runway, but it was gravel and had rolling hills. It must be an exciting ride to take off or land there. The traffic upon entering Anchorage was very busy, Anchorage is a lot bigger that what I thought it was. [250,000] We have almost 20 hours of daylight every day,This has raised havoc with our sleeping. It's light when we go to bed and light when we get up. We have driven 3800 miles so far. Tomorrow we will go to Seward, and hope to spend two days there.