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.

Tok

We drove from Whitehorse YT. to Tok Alaska today. This completes the Alaskan highway part 1314 miles. Tomorrow we will head toward Anchorage and visit that area. We have had to make some choices on what we will have time to see and things we want to do. CAN'T DO THEM ALL. The road from Whitehorse to the Alaskan boarder was very rough and parts were gravel and not very well graded at that, also some delays for construction.
We stopped at a cafe just after Destruction Bay and had quite a visit with the owner, chef, and leader of the band. He was very informative guy. We reached the Alaskan boarder at 3PM. Alaskan time. then on to Tok and our campground. Some people at the visitor center were told that they couldn't head on up to Fairbanks because of a forest fire--we can see the smoke from where we are staying.
If you would like you can see an article that was written about us while we were at the GREEN GIANT at this web site;
http://www.faribaultcountyregister.com/page/content.detail/id/502124/Seeing-double--or-triple---or-more---motorhomes-from-Alaska.html?nav=5001
We are to have sourdough pancakes in the morning

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Whitehorse, YT.

Today was a driving day, we saw NO wild animals on this section of road. The landscape is still spectacular. We Ate at a place called Klondike Rib & Salmon BBQ. They serve Caribou, Muskox, bison along with other fresh fish. Good meal. Then we went to the 'Frantic Follies' a vaudeville revue. They picked out a lady from the audience to tease, she happened to be from Brighton, Mi. I talked to her and her husband, as it turns out He was raised in Quincy and she in Allen. The now are full time RV'ers. Alaska in summer and Az. in Winter. His father was a mailman i Quincy and her father was postmaster in Allen. The picture of the Moose was from yesterday and you won't believe where we camped last night. You have been by Wallmart parking lots with campers in them, well that was us last night.

More from 5/25

More pictures, I can only post 4 at a time.

Alaska 5/25

Greetings from the Yukon.Today we started out towards The Yukon. On the way we saw a moose, some stone sheep, a black bear, caribou and then a buffalo, all within the first two hours on the road. The picture of the lake is Muncho Lake, it was a beautiful green blue color.further on down the road we went to Laird Hotsprings. It is a Provincial Park, there is a boardwalk about 1/4 to 1/2 mile long, at the end was a river that was fed by very hot springs 45 to 49 degrees C. that is close to 120 degrees F. There were quite a number of people in the spring, and we joined them. It was HOT and as you went up stream the water got hotter. We stayed the better part of one half to three quarters of an hour. Then we had a picnic there at the park. Then on to Watson Lake in the Yukon, Here we found the 'Sign Post Forest' It was started when they built the Alaskan Highway and has grown every year. They count the signs every Sept. and last Sept. there were 69,700 different signs Wish we would have known so we could have brought one from Coldwater.

Toad River Camp

A couple more pictures of our camp at toad River

From Toad River Camp

We left Mile-O-Camp early and headed out to Toad River. It was the better part of a 400 mile trip with lunch and fuel {$98} and Propane for the furnace {$26} at a stop in Fort Nelson, then on our way. The area now is Great North Rockies in B.C. We saw Two Black bears, stone sheep, elk, and to top it off a Moose ran right by our door as we were cleaning up after eating.[We grilled steaks] He was huge and in no hurry, we followed him out to the road and watched him go into the woods. The Camp ground that we are at is at mile 422 of the Alaskan Highway, The weather is still great. We have taken a whole lot of pictures. As I try to post the photos I can only do 4 at a time. We filled the RV when we got her [$168] fuel is the most expensive part of this trip. But worth every cent so far. The main enterprise seems to be oil well and related businesses, some of the trucks they use are huge, they had eight tires on the front end, I have not figured out how they turn the things. We have encountered grades as high as 10% for 2 or 3 miles. Makes for interesting driving. Judy and Nancy still are enjoying driving the RV.

Hinton to Dawson Creek

Today’s travels took us from Hinton, Alberta to Dawson Creek BC. The beginning of the Alaskan Highway. It was about a 300 mile drive, Nancy and Judy drove most of the way. We saw Caribou , and deer on our way. We had sunny weather as well as some snow and a little rain. It was mostly a driving day. We woke up to freezing temps, our water line to the RV was frozen solid. We all had good hot showers in the camp showers and then were on our way. This is a prosperous area, lots of new building and new oil related business. Lots of road construction on the roads leading up to Dawson Creek.

YESTERDAY

Picturesfron 5/22