Great Alaska Adventure - 2013

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We went out that way in our Jeep for 40 miles.  I'm sorry we didn't do it our first day in Denali so I could have warned you.  One thing I've found with RVing--those dreadful experiences do make great stories.  And, I have to say the part of the Old Denali Hwy. we were on (the 40 miles closest to Cantwell) is not even 50% as bad as the Top-of-the-World Highway.  Hard to imagine--but it could have been worse.

The Cedar Creek Bakery in Cantwell and the Pizza place also are highly recommended by several visitors we met on our Denali bus.  The bus is also bumpy, but the drivers know where the ruts are, and they know where the animals are.  We saw tons of animals, just a few really close up--everything but fox, lynx, and wolf.  Several people on our tour bus saw a fox right by Eielson Center on the bus trip, but we hadn't gotten off the bus.  There were quite a few mosquitoes, but if you keep the windows open, they don't like the wind, so they don't come in.
 
Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Good grief, I?m all confused. That means the vacation, i.e. our road trip of a lifetime, is successful, right? I?m in a state of limbo, f-l-o-a-t-i-n-g and not even registering the passage of time. I don?t even know what day it is. I bet I?ve asked Don 6 times today what day it is?

And I just posted my Daily Journal for Sunday June 23 that is all mixed up with what actually happened on June 24. So I?ll just jump right to today?

Last night (yes, Monday night?at Brushkana Creek Campground along the Old Denali Highway) was evil. Really. Evil. Somehow, mosquitoes snuck inside the Rollin Home. How and when we have no idea. Don tried his best to kill all of them before we bedded down after a very tiring day on the road-from-hell, the Old Denali Highway. We were hot. Sweaty. Skeeters whined in our ears and dive-bombed us. I must have slapped my face ? HARD ?trying to kill biting bugs, about 2 dozen times during the night. Don was up and down about 10 times during the night putting Repel on his hands and neck and ears, then putting Sting-Ease on the bites all over his hands and arms, then getting the flyswatter to try and kill more skeeters. I was semi-conscious, wearing my sleep mask (hey, the sun is still shining at midnight?you HAVE to wear a sleep mask in order to get to sleep!) but not sleeping, really. I?d scratch my hands where they were bitten, then pull the sheet over my head to block the skeeters from buzzing around my hair and ears?but it would get too hot and sweaty and I?d throw the sheet off and get bitten some more.

I had those on-the-surface-of-sleep dreams about tiny holes in the sides of the RV letting clouds of mosquitoes creep silently into the Rollin Home. Clouds of bugs were enveloping me. Nightmarish. I turned my book-light on for a while and read Michener?s Alaska. Tried to sleep again. Talked to Don for a bit?he got up to chase more bugs?Don the Dragon Slayer! He was doing all the heroic work! I was just trying to block out the buzzing, the biting. SLAP!

I finally gave up and crept gently out of bed at 4:45 after maybe 3-4 hours of sleep, total. Dressed silently, closed all the windows because it had gotten cold overnight (finally!), killed more skeeters and sat down to read, hoping Don could sleep in a bit and get some rest at last. But he woke up at 5:30. Let?s get the hell out of here, we both said at the same time. We had a quick breakfast and hit the road, our earliest departure yet, by far. Well, we coasted out onto it at a verrrrrrry slow pace, anyway. Maybe the moosies would be out for us! Maybe bears! Maybe elk or caribou! Maybe fox or wolves or just marmots! That might be the only compensation for my bad decision to put us ON this road in the first place!

Tundra. More tundra. Endless tundra. Hundreds of streams, creeks, lakes and kettles filled with glacial water. And tundra. Perfect moose country yet nary an animal to be seen anywhere. Not even ducks. We did see two big white trumpeter swans on a very distant lake this morning after about 15 miles had gone by, slowly oh so slowly. They were tiny pin dots of white in the distance. And lots of little birds flitted across the road in front of us swooping from a bush on the right to one across the road. That?s all, folks. Little birds.

I certainly know what sub-polar tundra looks like now?I see it in my sleep.

Milepost 124 on the Old Denali Highway is supposed to be ?the view? of Denali, But suddenly at Milepost 110 or so we rounded a curve as we climbed a hill and THERE she was in all her splendor: DENALI! Pink and glowing in the early morning sun, that lovely pale peachy-yellow color with pale blue shadows, showing fully, no clouds enshrouding her at all!

Many people never get to see The Great One, because she is so often banked in clouds and weather of her own making. As we drove west and then south, our views got even better. We stopped at one place and hiked up to a high bluff overlooking the deep river valley in Denali National Park, and the view of The Great One was breathtaking. That is one enormous chunk of granite. Stupendous.

As we drove south on the Parks Highway from Cantwell, we stopped at a major Denali View pullout, and hiked up to a high rock overlook. Gorgeous view of the mountain. Met and talked with people there, took their pictures and they took ours?the Christmas card picture parade for 2013. The hike was perfect: Long enough and steep enough to make you puff but not enough to make you stop to rest. Probably a quarter mile straight up. Nice walk! Farther south along the highway there were a number of other fabulous views of Denali. We stopped, took pics, gazed. What was best was that there was virtually no traffic?at one point a guy stopped his car and stood in the middle of the highway and took pictures. No cars in sight.

Our conclusion: No need whatever ? WHATEVER ? to take the Old Denali Highway for great views of the 20,300-foot Denali. You can see it very very well, thank you, from pullouts along the Parks Highway that goes from Anchorage to Fairbanks. So we need not have suffered the torture machine of the Old Denali Highway to get ?the best views.? Live and learn.

Pulled into Trapper Creek RV Park (between Denali NP and Talkeetna) by about noon, registered for an overnight spot, then drove into Talkeetna for lunch. Cute little town, and enough folks had told us to go there that we knew we?d like it. The cottonwoods along 3 different rivers have begun to throw their seeds (cotton) and it is a veritable blizzard, at times so thick you can?t see anything but cotton. I expected my eyes to start watering and itching uncontrollably any second. We kept the air conditioner going and drove directly to The Roadhouse, walked in quickly and joined a bunch of other folks at the long family-style tables.

We ordered two different things the Roadhouse is famous for ? knowing we?d each eat half of our order, then we?d switch dishes. This is the way we do things?we each get to taste the best of the best that way. Don ordered a large bowl of their reindeer chili (mixed with a portion of their bean chili), topped with a big pile of chopped onions and cheddar cheese. I ordered a ?half order? of the sourdough pancake, which is one enormous pancake that overflows its plate by a full inch or more all around. By far the best sourdough pancake I?ve ever eaten! Sarge was right when he wrote this on the rvforum.net site?it is out of this world!

After lunch we hunted around a bit to see if any of the air services take passengers into the Arctic Circle, which we were interested in doing. Nobody does those flights any more. Rats!

We avoided walking around the cute little town of Talkeetna because of the cotton blizzard and the hordes of cruise-ship passengers who had descended on the place. It was pretty crowded, pretty hot, and awfully cottony.

So we spent the afternoon catching up on various things back at the Rollin Home. Reading. Bills. The News. They have great WiFi here! It?s really great to be in a place with excellent connections to the Internet and strong phone signals. It feels as if we?ve gone months without decent phone and Internet service. Are we spoiled?

Grilled a steak for dinner. Finished off our fresh plums with some Greek yogurt for dessert.

To bed. NO mosquitoes to eat us alive. Cool air. It?s heaven.

 
    Hello from the Texans, We are staying in Cooper Landing for the next 4 nights and will be back in Anchorage to pick up Son and grand kids July 11th. Then off to Homer. Sorry we didn't get to meet you guys the other night but I feel like our paths will cross somewhere on this great adventure.
                                                                                                  Henry And Margaret
 
Wednesday, June 26, 2013

What a great night of sleep we both got last night. I can tell we?re just not made for dry-camping. Hving electricity is really a pleasure, and water etc. We like having air conditioning when it?s hot (or even just to have the fan on so the air is moving, and the fan masks the sounds of trucks on the highway nearby.)

Today, the first order of business was laundry. Two big loads. I also have to say we?re really spoiled by having very nice RV parks available with nice laundry rooms?I love having huge commercial washers available and super-large commercial dryers, too. I had a small-world experience while there?jabbered a long time with a super-friendly gal from Michigan who lives here in Trapper Creek. She attended Hope College in Holland, MI, and often visited many of the same places I did while growing up. We had such fun. She gave me some great pointers for the weeks ahead on our trip, too?

I reorganized my drawer containing all my silverware and kitchen utensils (and a million other things as well?scissors, string, superglue, tacky adhesive, museum gel, knives, tongs, mixing spoon, measuring cups, knife sharpeners, rubber bands, wine opener, can opener, and on and on.) You know the drawer?the one we all have with everything in it?the kitchen junk drawer?except that in an RV, that one drawer weighs a ton because it has so much stuff in it.

By 11 we were ready to take off for Talkeetna to eat at the Roadhouse again, and take a walk around town. We were thinking that maybe later in the day we?d go have wine and appetizers on the outdoor deck of The Alaska Lodge outside Talkeetna, where there is an unparalleled view of Denali from the deck. The first thing we noticed as we drove south, however, was that the haze was thick and Denali was barely visible. Although there were no clouds in the sky, it wasn?t a clear enough day for the mountain to be out. We really lucked out yesterday!

The cotton blizzard in Talkeetna had abated. Hooray! Brunch at the Roadhouse was great. The town was much emptier today?the tour buses with cruise passengers  had not yet arrived. It?s easy to see everything Talkeetna has to offer within, oh, maybe 25 minutes. And that?s generous. Most interesting place other than the Roadhouse is Nagley?s General Store, a real dive of a GS, where I picked up a couple bottles of vino at decent prices.

We spent the afternoon doing nothing. Back at the Rollin Home we just hung out. A very nice day, indeed. Capped it off by having an ice cream cone?real, ?scooped? ice cream!

Don did a couple little RV maintenance things?added DEF to the diesel engine, and stuff like that. I shook out all the rugs, swept and double-washed the floors throughout the rig, wiped all the fine dust off every horizontal surface, and cleaned some squished mosquitoes off the insides of the windows. Normally I hate housecleaning chores (except for kitchen chores). But things are easier in an RV. Smaller, for sure. You can have ALL the cleaning done in about a half hour. Just right.

Tomorrow, we go to Palmer for a couple of nights. We?ll stop and do some hiking in Chugach State Park on our way, and visit the MuskOx Farm, among other things. Then do some food shopping at the big Fred Meyer grocery store in Palmer.

Oh, I forgot to include in yesterday?s diary that I made the ostensibly effective ?Homemade Mosquito Trap?. Water, brown sugar, and yeast?chemical reaction gives off carbon dioxide, supposedly attracting every skeeter within a wide area, causing the blood-suckers to fly into the jar, get trapped, and die. Hah! I?ve had this thing on the dashboard, and then on the counter for a full day now?not a mosquito in the jar yet. And lord knows we?ve killed an entire army of mosquitoes today with our hands and the fly-swatter. No shortage of mosquitoes, I guarantee.

Today, interestingly, I came across a recipe for a homemade insect repellant you put on your skin?more effective than DEET, the little article claimed. I hate DEET and the repellants with DEET in them?it gets in my eyes and burns like crazy, and irritates my skin a lot. I think I?ll try making this homemade skeeter-beater?alcohol, whole cloves, and baby oil. Pretty simple to make. We?ll see. Do I seem awfully gullible because I?m so darn eager to try these new remedies?
 
Susie you mentioned wanting to take a flight trip to the Arctic Circle and could not find one.  Not sure you are going to Fairbanks or have already been there; but there you can take a tour flight to the Arctic Circle.  However, I'm kinda remembering you don't like long car rides.  The tour consists of driving one way up the "Haul" road crossing the Arctic Circle then flying back home or vice-versa.  It was a very different trip for us and we really enjoyed it.  It's a long day.  We saw very few animals, but did get to put our feet into the Arctic Circle.  Lots of tundra which you have seen quite a bit of on the Old Denali Road and views of the Alaska Pipeline.  The Haul road is much better than the Old Denali road.

We also took a float plane from Anchorage out to Redoubt Bay, had lunch, took a boat ride to see bears then flew home.  On the flight back home, we flew over Beluga whales.  The pilot circled back around, flew low and we got a great view of them.

Marsha~
 
Salty,
  Fred Meyer is Wasilla is much bigger and has a better selection.  Not sure what all you need, just wanted to pass that along. ;)
 
PS This morning for breakfast we heated up one of the "world famous" cinnamon buns from The Roadhouse in Talkeetna. The claim that they're "the world's best" is justly deserved!!! Surely one of the finest cinnamon buns we've ever eaten! We've passed at least a dozen cafes/bakeries and roadhouses since Calgary that claimed to have "world famous cinnamon buns" and "the world's best" buns...we've not succumbed to most of these claims, recognizing quickly that hyperbole is the name of the game up here in the northlands. We bought one bun down in Alberta or BC, took 2 bites and threw the rest away. Not great, not worth the carbs. But THIS one from The Roadhouse, ooooh la la! They really know how to bake!
 
Thanks, Derby6, we'll stop at Wasilla's Fred Meyer to shop on our way today!

Also, thanks, Marsha, for the advice about the flight to the Arctic Circle. I went online last night and learned that we could only get one of those trips from Fairbanks...I guess that's off our bucket list for this trip. But the Redoubt Bay trip sounds pretty appealing...I'll check into that!

 
Thursday, June 27, 2013

The weather, the scenery, the quietude could not possibly be any better than tonight. It?s 9:25 pm and the sun is getting a bit lower in the sky, casting gorgeous shadows on the VERY high mountains very close to us. Out the side window of our Rollin Home we see a half-dozen huge, jagged peaks of solid granite rising sharply, covered in green tundra about two-thirds of the way to the top, then just pure rock from there skyward. Snow patches dot the crags and avalanche chutes.

We?re relaxing in Mountain View RV Park, just a bit east of Palmer, AK, about 2 miles off the Old Glenn Highway. We weren?t planning to stay in Palmer, but I decided we needed time here to see the reindeer farm just down the road a bit from this park, and most particularly the musk ox farm a bit more to the northeast.

The weather was much cooler today, and the sky a very hazy type of sunshine. Lots of moisture building in the air, but the breezes kept the heat down and the day was simply perfect. A few dark clouds rolled across the sky at one point, but they?ve disappeared and it really doesn?t seem like storms will appear overnight. We have all the windows open and Don has been sitting out at the picnic table reading the news.

Our only complaint about this place is that the Internet is horrible. What else is new, huh? Don says we?ll just have to go back to Starbuck?s in the morning to get on the Internet and do our things?we just love being ?in civilization? again. Yes, there are stoplights and plenty of traffic as we get closer to Anchorage. But also shopping centers, real supermarkets, and Starbuck?s! I guess wildness is nice for a change, but the bugs and inconveniences make us appreciate city living all the more. So much for being ?country kids.?

A sled dog center is located near the town of Willow, on the way south from Trapper Creek to Palmer. Vern Halter?s ?Dream a Dream Dog Farm? sounded interesting from all the writeups, and close enough to the highway that we wouldn?t have to detour 20 miles to get there. Very nice place, but as we drove in and parked at about 12:30, a member of the staff came over and told us the tours were already done for the day, and walk-ins ?aren?t what they do? at Dream A Dream. We would have to reserve in advance, at $69 a person, and take the full 2-hour tour, ?because anything less doesn?t do justice to the dogs and help with your understanding of what they?re all about.? Oooooookay. So we have to come back another time? Yes, absolutely. Well, forget that, we?re not driving 75 miles back north from Palmer tomorrow or ever to go on a mandatory 2-hour tour of kennels, even if they do have 5 cute little husky pups it would be fun to see.

?Can?t we just see the dogs?? Don asked, courteously. No, Dream a Dream doesn?t allow people to just see the dogs. In other words, they wanna make money on every single person who comes there. Riiiiiight. We drove away.

We did a bit of food shopping in the famous town of Wasilla at a big Fred Meyer store, then went across the street to Colorado-based Sports Authority and found me some new hiking poles?one of mine has stopped working and can?t be tightened any more when it is lengthened from its collapsed state. I use my walking poles a lot?they help me distribute my weight evenly and not limp. Better than using a cane, by far.

Starbuck?s was calling to me?decaf mocha frappuccino, the sirens whispered. Ahhhh, civilization! Neither of us resisted, even momentarily.

After pulling in and hooking up for the night, I collected my 3 ingredients for the Homemade Insect Repellant that I read about online and had purchased at Fred Meyer. Don thinks I?m totally crazy. Took ages to get all the little whole cloves into the bottle of 70% isopropyl alcohol. Then when I re-read the recipe, I realized I should have bought 2 cans of whole cloves instead of just one. Oh well, Fred Meyer is right near Starbuck?s so I?ll go back for more in the morning. Then, 4 days of fermenting, and we?ll see.

We talked with a couple of people who live in Alaska and they said they can?t live without the battery-operated bug zappers that look like little tennis rackets. So we bought 2 of them today. I quickly fried a whole bunch of those dang skeeters that were hanging out with us as we drove toward the RV park. Oh, this is gonna be fun fun fun!

Tomorrow we?ll find a credit union and get some cash, and visit the reindeer farm and the musk ox farm.

Tonight we?re just mellowed out after dinner and several glasses of wine. Mmmmm. Took a good long walk around the park, hoping to see the moose that everyone says hangs out here, and usually appears around dusk. Now, early to bed.

Yikes, Don was just ?making the bed? for the night (i.e., flipping down the kingsize memoryfoam mattress topper and transforming the twin bunks into our gigantic king size bed) and when he leaned over to close the window on my side, he royally jammed the wide pulldown screen at a cockeyed angle while trying to raise it. Those pulldown screens and pullup blackout shades are fairly fragile, fitted carefully into aluminum runners; they have to be moved quite gently and squarely in their frames or they jam easily. Oh, man, did Don do a job on this one! I hear a bunch of cussing from the back. I?m going to try my best to keep my mouth shut, for once. I guess tomorrow is also going to involve a visit to the local Winnebago dealer to see if we can get the screen fixed.



 
PS It's morning and all is well. I got the darn screen fixed last night before bedding down...you have to firmly but gently raise one side of the screen and hold the other side low, move the high (non-working) side out of its runner and fit the bent plastic slider back into place, then lower that side into place. Whew. It worked. So we had air, and darkness, and we are happy campers. No visit to the Winnebago repair shop in Anchorage today.
 
SaltyAdventurer said:
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Today, interestingly, I came across a recipe for a homemade insect repellant you put on your skin?more effective than DEET, the little article claimed. I hate DEET and the repellants with DEET in them?it gets in my eyes and burns like crazy, and irritates my skin a lot. I think I?ll try making this homemade skeeter-beater?alcohol, whole cloves, and baby oil. Pretty simple to make. We?ll see. Do I seem awfully gullible because I?m so darn eager to try these new remedies?

If your recipe works, let me know.  Today, we breakfasted with an Anchoragite (?) or Anchoragorian who heads up an environmental agency here.  I asked her what she uses for mosquito repellant, expecting a great recipe.  #1 -- she avoids going outside when they're bad  #2 -- she avoids going to places that have a lot of them  #3 -- if she can't do the first two, she uses 100% Deet.

By the way, we were having breakfast at a bakery that specializes in healthy foods, and she rode her bike there.  She practices what she preaches.  However......She says that Deet is the only thing she's found to be effective.  And I agree with you.  I hate to use it.
 
Friday, July 28, 2013

A whole day of just putzing around, seeing things, doing whatever the mood moved us to do, which wasn?t much. The sky was leaden gray today, with heavy misty-rain coming down, the kind your skin just loves. Temps in the low to mid 50s. Moist enough to wet the hair after a while, but cool and lovely to walk in. Just right for me, but you can?t see any mountains at all for all the heavy clouds hanging low.

As we drove toward Palmer on our first errand, we saw a sign for the Reindeer Farm that?s here, so we took a turn and went there first. Nice looking farm on the edge of town, with corrals full of riding horses ?they are a riding stable, too ? but it was hard to find the reindeer herd. We drove slowly by the place, and spotted about 50 reindeer lying down in the grass in a far corner of their pasture, huddled together for warmth. No one was moving. They sure weren?t going to come eat out of anyone?s hand on a day like this.

So we turned around, went back past the farm for one more look at the small forest of antlers, and set out for the Matanuska Valley Federal Credit Union in downtown Palmer ? all of about 12 square blocks in size -- to cash a check for spending money. It was very easy to find. My advance research before we left home convinced me the easiest, least expensive and best way to have access to cash while gone for a long time was to join a credit union in Colorado that had extensive affiliations with other National Credit Union Assn. (NCUA) members in Alaska.

By going to one of those affiliates (some 300 of them in Alaska and the Northwest having reciprocal agreements with Bellco CU in Colorado) I?d be able to use many ATMs or go to CU branch offices and pay no fees at all to cash checks or get cash from a machine. Long story short, Bellco did an extremely poor job of providing customer service. After tying up a Matanuska Valley FCU senior teller, Christy (who was a saint!) for 45 minutes while I was put on looooooong holds with 3 different people in Colorado when I phoned to see why my account was blocked for any withdrawals, I finally got my money. But Bellco is going to hear from me, big time.

While I waited, Christy and I talked about lots of stuff. We had become good friends by the time the whole mystery of the account blocks was solved. She suggested we go a few blocks down the street to the historic Valley Hotel on Palmer?s main street to the ?Open Caf? for breakfast, saying it?s a terrific place and is her favorite. What a hoppin joint the Open Caf? is! It?s open 24/7 and is always busy, we learned. Great halibut fish & chips (the chips are homemade potato chips, sliced very thin and fried very crispy), and 4-egg omelets. I took half my omelet, with reindeer sausage, home in a container for tomorrow.

After eating, we walked 4 blocks to the Friday Farmers? Market, at which there were only 2 vegetable stands (it?s early in the season yet), 2 flower/plant vendors, and a couple dozen jewelry and crafts vendors with white tents strung out in a line about a block long, by the old Palmer train depot (no longer in use). Fun and interesting. I bought a jar of local honey?the lady?s bees gather pollen from the fireweed, mostly, so it?s very herbal.

On the way back to our RV, I stopped in at the local bookstore and asked if by any chance they had the Wall Street Journal for sale. The bearded guy behind the cash register looked at me and just laughed. That was my answer.

Fred Meyer was next, for a couple of lemons and some more whole cloves to rev up the anti-mosquito dope. Quick trip.

Thinking the weather might possibly clear in a few hours, we drove to the local library to read the papers and some magazines, use our computers, etc. Within minutes, the lights blinked and we heard an announcement that the library would be closing in 15 minutes, at 2 pm. On a Friday? Strange. Aced out on that one.

The best-sounding attraction in Palmer is the Musk Ox Farm, which everyone we know who has come to Alaska recommended highly. We paid our money for a tour that would start in about 20 minutes, and went through all the displays and read all about the farm, the musk oxen, and the attempts to propagate and domesticate the species after it very nearly became extinct in the 1800s. Musk oxen are remnants of the Ice Age. Neither do they produce musk nor are they oxen -- they are definitely misnamed! The species is much more closely related to goats than to any other mammals.

The warm and very silky layer of inner fur that these animals grow for cold weather protection is the rarest fur on earth, even more than vicuna. This special hair, called quiviut (pronounced kee-vee-ute) is collected each spring, washed, carded and spun into yarns by Native Alaskans living in very remote villages in Alaska, who knit hats, scarves, stoles, tunics and other items for sale through the Oomingmak Cooperative of musk ox producers. The items are very pricey, as you?d suspect, but are so soft to the touch and so special that the temptation was great to buy something. Most items are a natural ash-brown color.

Forty-five minutes after we had paid, the tour still hadn?t been announced. I asked the attendant why things were so slow and was told that one of the musk ox calves had gotten loose and had to be caught. ?We?re a working farm,? she said. ?These things happen and we have to attend to them before we can allow anybody out into the pastures. We don?t know how long it will take to catch the little fellow.?

I?m a really suspicious (cynical???) person, I guess?her whole demeanor and her explanation seemed pretty phony to me. I think the REAL reason they were waiting so long was to get more people in the door and collect more money before taking anyone on the next tour. After nearly an hour, they still weren?t ready to go, but we were. We walked out, after telling them this was a waste of people?s time. I didn?t want my money back?I just didn?t like someone taking for granted that my time was worth nothing and that I would gladly wait for hours to meet Goliath, the dominant bull of the musk ox pack. Chalk it up as my donation to the farm and the good efforts of these folks to preserve the species and provide work to Alaskan Natives using traditional tribal skills.

Back in downtown Palmer, we went to the Vanguard Blues coffee shop 2 blocks from the Valley Hotel to sit and do computer stuff and read our books for the remainder of the afternoon. Also quite a hoppin little place! Moms and dads came in with their babies and little kids for coffee and bowls of soup. High schoolers came in and hung out for a while. Tourists arrived. Old friends used the place as a rendezvous for catch-up chats. Lots of happy voices could be heard all afternoon. At about 5 pm a couple of fellows who play guitar sat and riffed, whipping out some very competent jazz duets on their instruments. Nice background sounds.

Guess what? We walked back to the Valley Hotel?s ?Open Caf? for supper. Don ordered a small bowl of clam chowder, which he said was very good, and I had the halibut & chips this time (giving Don 2 of my 5 halibut fingers, the whole little container of coleslaw, and some crispy chips!). Their halibut is divine!

A very nice day of just hanging out. Put all of 6 miles on the Rollin Home today. We?re being very energy-efficient! If the weather is a bit nicer tomorrow, we?ll go to Chugach State Park nearby and hike several trails. We need a good long walk.
 
A fun read!  I didn't think about pre-planning to join a credit union.  Shoot, I could have even done that with one up here.  Good thinking!  So sorry it didn't work more smoothly, though.  Those good ideas should pay rewards.

I get really mad if I think someone is cheating or deceiving me.  You're a better person than I.  I would have asked for my money back, and if I really wanted to support them, later on I would have sent them the same amount as a donation.  I just hate to see wrong actions win.

It was such fun meeting you guys and chatting tonight.  What a nice surprise!  We're looking forward to seeing you for dinner of halibut cheeks on July 2.  I'll call Anchorage VC tomorrow and try to get more info on July 4th activities.
 
Saturday June 29, 2013

Another wet, heavy-cloud-cover morning. Off to Target in Wasilla to buy a couple of extension curtain rods that will keep our drawer shut while we travel, given that the stupid (cheap!) plastic latch has stopped working. The bungee cord I?m using right now isn?t doing a very good job.

As we leave the Mountain View RV Park to go to Wasilla, we turn left instead of right onto the Old Glenn Highway. Oops, before we know it, we?re in a little burg named Eklutna, far south of Wasilla. Oh, well, who wanted to go to Target anyway? We?ll find a WalMart or Target somewhere on the way to Anchorage where we can buy the curtain rods.

We decided to cut our stay in Palmer short by one day. We?ve seen everything there is to see, and the weather isn?t conducive to taking the several hikes I?d like to take. Nature Center is one. Bodenburg Butte is another. Darn. So we?re off to Anchorage. We?ll stay at the Golden Nugget RV Park one night, then move to the downtown park where I?ve reserved for 5 days, through July 4.

The Scottish clans in Alaska are holding their Highland Games in Eagle River today, and it?s on our way to Anchorage, so we got off the highway and drove into Eagle River thinking we?d stop and participate a bit. Drove past 3 auto parts places within a city block?O?Reillys, NAPA and AutoZone. Don suddenly remembered he wanted to buy some tubing to replace the broken tubes in our windshield wipers?we whipped around with a New York U-ee. NAPA didn?t have the right size tubing, but AutoZone did. Don fixed the first wiper right in the parking lot of the store to ensure the tubing he bought would work. Then he bought extra tubing for the other wiper, and for the future in case this happens again.

The Scottish Games and the WalMart store were in the same direction in Eagle River. It turned out that in fact the Scottish clans were celebrating at a big park right across the street from Eagle River?s WalMart, so the parking lot was overflowing; no one could get in or out. What a mess. We were foiled in our attempts to shop at WalMart and to attend the Scottish Highland Games in Alaska.

Continued on to Anchorage, got a spot in the RV park for the night, and went looking for the local WalMart nearby. A big Barnes & Noble was very close to WalMart, so Don was in heaven?while I got the curtain rods to hold the drawer closed, he bought the NY Times, which he?s happily reading right now. And we?ll go back to Barnes & Noble early tomorrow to get the Sunday NY Times.

It was getting late and we hadn?t eaten lunch, following a breakfast of only a protein shake and a banana. Stomachs were growling. We headed for the Snow City Caf? in downtown Anchorage, hoping that the odd hour would mean we could get in without a wait, having heard great things about the food but horrible things about the long lines of people waiting for seats. We found a parking spot only 20 yards from the door, a good sign?and free! No need to feed the meters on Saturday, thank goodness. Walked in and got excited that there were tables available?no wonder, the placed was closing for the day! It was just after 3 pm and the Snow City Caf? is open for breakfast and lunch only.

I quickly studied my notes about Anchorage, and the map. The Snow Goose Restaurant, a local brewpub that gets rave reviews, was very close by. We walked a few blocks and sat at a table overlooking the Knik Arm of the Cook Inlet, at low tide so the mud flats reached far out into the bay. Anchorage is a very busy commercial shipping center. The food and the wide range of prices at Snow Goose were excellent. Great menu. They have a Seafood Chowder that has no shellfish but has 3 types of fresh Alaskan fish ? salmon, cod and halibut ? so I had a bowl of that and an iceberg wedge salad. Don ordered the daily special, a beautiful piece of fresh wild King Salmon, grilled, with smashed potatoes and fresh saut?ed vegetables. Expensive but well worth it ($26.95)

Both dishes were absolutely superb! The chowder was to die for! As good as I can make, which is saying something. And the king salmon was cooked perfectly and was delicious. The salad was huge, topped with loads of bleu cheese crumbles, sliced seedless red grapes and candied pecans. At $7.50 it was a terrific value and delicious too.

It was a bit too late in the day to head for the Anchorage Farmer?s Market a couple of blocks away. We?ll go there tomorrow.

Dean and Linda, with whom we?ve been communicating on RVForum.net about our trips to Alaska this summer, are staying in this RV park. We met them in person for the first time and had a wonderful evening gabbing about our RV adventures.

Don is hounding me to come to bed so we can get the NY Times before it sells out tomorrow. OK, I?m coming, honey. G?night all.
 
Sunday June 30, 2013

Ah, we got good exercise today, and it feels just great! The only problem with trips, especially long ones, is they disrupt our normal routines and we don?t get as much regular daily exercise as we do when we?re home. At home we take long daily walks and bike rides, and often do several hours of strength training at the local health club as well.

Here, our routine is quite different, usually rising later, getting started later, and if the weather isn?t cooperating fully we don?t take the hikes we planned for or the 2-3 walks a day that we typically enjoy.

We rose early this morning, well rested and chipper. I took a shower at the RV park?s shower room, which was very clean and nice?the shower felt great. Despite the huge number of RVs and campers they jam into that park, close together, the place is quite nice. It is about 5 miles from downtown Anchorage, so you have to drive everywhere, but that?s okay. We pulled out at 8:45, headed for Barnes & Noble to get the Sunday NY Times, then go to breakfast somewhere. Just for the heck of it, I called the Snow City Caf? to see if there was any chance we could get in. No way. Already a 1-2 hour wait for walk-ins, and no reservations were being taken until after 12:30 pm.

So we went to Kay?s Family Restaurant, south of downtown on Spenard at 36th St. Good place. No wait! Good coffee! And a wonderful special: Corned beef Benedict. Yum. We set and drank coffee, read papers and tourist guides for Anchorage, and generally lollygagged for hours. Typical Sunday morning for us.

At the nearby REI store, we found Don a pair of hiking pants to replace his favorite old Orvis?s, which have developed big tears in the fronts of both legs. They?re probably just disintegrating from age. Also bought a couple of ?bug bonnets? which consist of brimmed hats with large attached bug nets that hang down to your shoulders, to keep the swarms of mosquitoes off your face and out of your hair when outdoors.

We drove to the RV park where we?ll be for the next 5 days: Ship Creek RV Park in downtown Anchorage. It?s within walking distance of all the downtown activities of Anchorage, so we wanted to park and walk everywhere, particularly to the Weekend Market and Festival. Ship Creek RV Park is in quite an unusual location, a corner of the city that is semi-industrial, alongside the railroad tracks near the water ? the Knik Arm of the Cook Inlet.

Upon checking in, we were warned not to leave any food outdoors because a medium-sized brown bear has been hanging around, rattling the garbage containers looking for food. That makes Don anxious. I promised not to make him go out for snacks in the middle of the night!

We took a strange, roundabout route to get to the downtown market from here, about a mile walk. Just right. Hung out at the market looking at all the craft stuff for a couple of hours, then walked down the hill again to the Ulu Factory before returning to the Rollin Home. Yes, I succumbed to the promotions and bought one of the unique Alaskan Ulu knives and a chopping bowl/board to go with it. I like them a lot and they seem practical. I think I?ll use it quite a bit. The only other thing I bought at the market was some smoked king salmon very nicely done by some local folks.

We were tired by the time we got back at 3:30, a bit over 2 miles round trip. The rain never did materialize, though the skies were quite dark all day. The rain probably never came because we had our rain jackets with us?always good insurance.

By 5 pm, the skies began to clear and overall things became brighter. I guess that?s what every day, practically, is like in Anchorage?mornings are rainy, damp, cold and very cloudy and by late day spots of sun shine through and the day brightens. It?s backwards! By the time we walked back to the RV park, we could even see some of the high mountains encircling the city that had been completely invisible earlier.

A bit ago, a strange red bus contraption pulled into this RV park. It?s extra long and the rear half is a kind of double-decker, with smallish 2-foot-square windows on one side but not on the other. Never saw anything like it before. After it had pulled into its spot here, all the passengers got out and went to work opening up one whole side of the bus, extending side panels to make a kind of stage platform, stringing a long curtain over the open side, putting steps in place for people to climb up to their ?bunk slots? inside. Hmmmm. A big ?camper-bus? is what it is, with sleeping compartments of a sort.

Don, ever the reporter (and detective type!), was out taking a walk and spoke with a German lady who is a passenger on the bus, one of 15 Germans on holiday out of Vancouver doing a 2-week camper-tour of Alaska. They drove up the Alaska Highway (the Alcan), and at the end of their trip, they fly out of Fairbanks to Frankfurt. The bus can take up to 22 passengers on such trips. Each night, the vacationers do all the setup of the bus for sleeping, and they put tables and chairs outside for dinner and socializing.

They?re apparently going to be here for several days. A few minutes before the German campers pulled in, another long bus hauling a big trailer pulled in and parked, too: A gospel singing group of young people from Wisconsin. Boy, they?ve sure had a long haul! These two groups should tie up the bathrooms and showers for days on end, I suspect.

And just now, 6 cars of college-age kids have pulled up alongside the Rollin Home?I see kayaks and paddles, duffel bags and tents being unloaded. ?Oh, good,? Don says, ?our bear protection has arrived! Could be an interesting night, and a noisy one!?

Oops?one of the kids just ran over to the others and read them the bear warning that?s posted on the office and bathroom doors, and we see all of them hurriedly toss all of their stuff back into the cars, slam all the doors, and drive off. Wow. Fast departure. Nope, they?re not really leaving; they?re just driving down to the far end of the park where there are a bunch of additional tenting sites. They were just parked and setting up in the wrong place.

64,000-dollar question: Are we relieved or disappointed that we won?t get to experience that old college hoopla of the holiday party during the week of July 4 in Anchorage?

Gotta get some dinner ready. Or we?ll munch ourselves to death on potato chips, Hershey bars, wine and other sinful stuff.

As Don says, this place is sure a lot more interesting and exciting than other quiet campgrounds we?ve been in!

 
Monday, July 1, 2013 Day 34

Rain, rain. Heavy rain, then light rain, then heavy again. Nonstop. Makes you want to stay indoors all day. We awoke to a heavy downpour at about 6 am and felt sorry for all the folks in tents around us, and the group traveling together in the big bus-camper contraption ? they?re going to have to get up early and get out in the rain to close up their shelters and get on the road. Yuck.

The German couple next to us have a really nice big rented truck-camper (the slide-in kind, where you enter from the rear) that they?ve traveled in for a month. They have to return it to the rental agency today in Anchorage, and were out scrubbing energetically to remove all the bugs, sticky-dust and mud from the thing so they get all their money back for turning in a clean unit. They fly back to Germany later today. Yes, the euro is strong against the dollar and there are many Europeans traveling in Alaska this year.

But overall, tourism is pretty slack this summer. Take, for example, the RV park we?re in right now. This is the holiday week, with July 4 on Wednesday, so the days before and the days after should be really busy for everybody in the tourist/travel business. Out of perhaps 100 RV & tent sites here, only about 30 are taken. Pretty poor business. Must be hard for any of these camp operators to make a living. And they tell us it?s been this way for 6 years or so. That?s why we?ve seen so many really run-down RV parks and restaurants along the way, with many of them closed, boarded-up and biodegrading.

Our plan is to visit the Alaska Native Heritage Center today, then hit the Anchorage Public Library for a few hours of reading and computer time. I?m trying to find out if the Center involves lots of outdoor exhibits, which we wouldn't? be able to enjoy in heavy rain. If so, we?ll opt for the Anchorage Museum instead, which has the renowned Smithsonian Center for Arctic Research. Definitely an indoor activity.

We took off at an odd hour, 10:45, and I figured we just might get into Snow City Caf? for brunch/lunch if we were lucky. Don worried we wouldn?t find any kind of parking places on the street, since it?s a workday and downtown would be buzzing. Ha! Drove right into an open space a block from the caf?. What luck. Fed the meter for 2 hours and dashed to the caf?. There was a bit of a wait, but we put our names in and walked a block to Simon & Seafort?s to make a dinner reservation for tomorrow night, July 2, when we?re meeting our RVing friends Dean & Linda for dinner there?to have the world famous ?halibut cheeks? of course. Then we walked 2 blocks north to Elderberry Park and the Resolution Point Overlook, which looks out on the harbor of the Knik Arm of Cook Inlet. It?s just a beautiful overlook?we?ve been there 3 times already.

Returning to the Snow City Caf?, we noticed there was a line of twirly-stools by a counter near the front. Can just anybody take the stools without waiting, if they?re available? we asked. Sure, said the host. Two people were leaving just then, so we grabbed the stools and eliminated the wait for a booth or table. We also had 2 coupons for freebies from our Northern Lights coupon book, which paid off. Don ordered a tuna melt sandwich with a cup of their tomato soup. I ordered Snow City?s stuffed French Toast (stuffed with mandarin orange cream cheese, and served with raspberry butter, along with REAL maple syrup! Yum!) We also both had large decaf mocha lattes. My breakfast was a freebie (coupon) and one coffee was free (coupon). Such a deal. Surely that was the best stuffed French toast I?ve ever had. Our meal was so inexpensive using the 2 coupons, we decided to finish off by sharing an extra-thick vanilla shake. And I bought 2 of their oatmeal-raisin cookies to take with us, for dessert tonight and Wednesday.

Off to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, to visit the Smithsonian Center for Arctic Research and also the exhibit on Northern Art that is on right now. Both are spectacular. The Smithsonian Center, however, has so many items of great quality and interest that I rapidly felt OD?ed and was overwhelmed, because I tend to pay attention to every detail and read every word. I also watched all the movies about the Native Tribal Cultures?Inupiak, Gwitch?in, Aleut, etc., and their languages, their oral histories, their arts and dances and clothing and weaving and snowshoe making and what all else I can?t even remember. It was absolutely riveting.

Looking at the exhibits of artifacts and clothing on display was nothing less than mind-blowing. Such innovative methods of making clothing and boats and tools. Such gorgeous handiwork! The weaving and knotting of sinews for snowshoes is so intricate and beautiful. One ceremonial winter coat, for example, was made up of literally hundreds of perfect little feather hides from crested aurak birds, stitched together in slightly overlapping fashion in perfect straight lines, row upon row upon row. The feathers of slightly larger birds were used at the shoulders, as epaulets in effect. The cuffs, edges of the hood, and front opening were finished in light-colored fur from various animals ? fox, wolf, caribou -- with wolverine fur closest to the face, since wolverine hair does not freeze or form ice at the ends in extremely cold weather. This long coat was absolutely magnificent. It must have taken some masterful woman a thousand hours or more to complete this garment. I could hardly take my eyes off of it.

Also incredibly wonderful were the lightweight, waterproof garments that fishermen and whale hunters and seal hunters would wear over all their other clothing during rainstorms and heavy snowstorms. These transparent ?long tents with hoodies? that tie tight around the face are tissue-paper thin, made of the intestines of whales and seals and caribou. Processing the intestines involves many hundreds of hours to prepare them for making into garments?rinsing each body piece hundreds of times until the water ran clear, then curing, drying, bleaching, cutting, shaping, and sewing with special sinews and needles. Then putting ornamentation on each one. These were absolutely water-impervious, would never stretch or shrink, and would last many lifetimes. They could be folded tightly and stuffed into a small bag or compartment for easy transport by the hunter until needed. And we 21st century types think we are so dang smart with our man-made fibers?these people really knew how to make extremely advanced, useful items for survival. In some ways, they were way ahead of the rest of the Western world in their knowledge of how to make use of the resources that were available.

In a movie I watched, some Tlingit women spoke of making beautifully-designed ceremonial robes woven using mountain sheep wool. All of the wool from 5 Dall sheep would be needed to hand-roll on a woman?s leg enough yarn just for the warp strands of one section of the garment. And the weaving of the patterned sections is not done on a loom?it?s done with the fingers, so that the patterns are quite intricate. One lady said the made one robe ?quite fast? in only 800 hours or so. Another Tlingit weaver said she spent more than a thousand hours making one robe.

The Art of the North exhibit was small, about 40-50 large paintings done between 1870 and 2010, and another 50 or so pencil and ink drawings, most done before 1950. It was outstanding. Most of the large paintings were traditional landscapes done by native and non-native artists living in Alaska. Several contemporary pieces however were quite noteworthy: A Cubist-style landscape done in recent years; a watercolor of a boat?s bow with water reflections and a dock; an oil painting of whale hunters in a traditional boat painted in the 1960s.

The Anchorage Museum was so excellent I could go back there 3 more times and enjoy it just as much as I did today. I have to take exhibits like that, however, in very small bites. The rain had stopped by the time we left the museum, but the weather has turned cold enough for 3 layers. Brisk and delightful. Still gray and cloudy, though.

Our return to the RV park in late afternoon was just in time for us to take naps. Lovely way to end a terrific day. After our delicious lunch at Snow City, a small salad for dinner was all we needed. And our ?heart medicine? of red wine, naturally. I had arugula available, some Boston lettuce, cut up a few sugar snap peas for crunch, added chunks of cantaloupe, some sliced grape tomatoes, a few pieces of the outstanding smoked salmon I bought yesterday at the outdoor market, and a few crumbles of bleu cheese to top it all off. Then some fresh lemon juice & olive oil dressing. Perfect.

My list of things to do tomorrow the 2nd, Wednesday July 3 and Thursday July 4 is very long, and most of it involves walking and bicycling. I want to walk the Ship Creek Trail down here along the shoreline of the inlet, where lots of people fish for salmon. And I want to bike the Coastal Trail from downtown Anchorage out to Kincaid Park, also along the shore to the south of the city. Hope it doesn?t rain!
 
Tuesday, July 2, 2013 Day 35

Up early. Heard hard rain again overnight, but none right now, thank goodness. I hear only train whistles in the distance as early morning tourist trains head out for Denali up north. Dozens of these trains go north each day, coming back late into the night. People told us we wouldn?t like this RV park in the center of Anchorage because of the trains, but they haven?t bothered us at all. In fact, the sound of trains is muted and very nice.

I?ll read a few pages of Michener over coffee this morning, then head out for a walk before we go to the Alaska Native Heritage Center.

Also, I?ve fermented my cloves in alcohol for enough days now, so it?s time to strain the cloves out and add some baby oil and see if my concoction works to repels mosquitoes. It smells wonderful, I must say. Much nicer than the repellants with all the DEET in them. Still a bit alcohol-y but very nice clove odor. Mosquitoes must hate cloves. Let?s hope!

We set out early for the Alaska Native Heritage Center, arriving just when it opened at 9. Don headed for all the displays and exhibits while I sat down and listened to presentations by natives: Explanation of native cultures, demonstration of native athletic prowess and ?games?, drumming and dancing, and finally, storytelling. The narrator this morning was a young Yupik woman who grew up in Anchorage, attended college at the Univ of Anchorage, and is in the process of learning her native language from her grandmother and aunts, some of whom still live in Tetlin, the village of her ancestors, near the Canadian border.

I?m really fascinated by the varied tribes in this vast land, consisting of 11 distinct cultures speaking 21 different languages: The Native Heritage Center organizes these into 5 cultural groups: The Yup?ik and Cup?ik (pronounced choo-pick) in the central western coastal areas of Alaska; the Inupiaq & St. Lawrence Island Yupik in the far north of Alaska (where we in the south generally think of the Eskimos as living), who have always been and still are the renowned whale and seal hunters, using their magnificent invention, the kayak (spelled qayaq in their language); the Athabascans with their 5 or 6 different cultures and 11 completely different dialects, who occupy the enormous inland areas of central Alaska, live off the land as hunters and gatherers and are the ancestors of the Apache and Navajo tribes that migrated south; the Tlingit, Haida, Eyak and Tsimshian fisherpeople who occupy the southeastern islands and coastal areas of Alaska, and carve the well-known huge totem poles that tell great stories and are adorned with magnificent carved and painted designs; and the Unangax and Alutiiq (pronounced ahl-ee-yoo-teek --more commonly known as the Aleuts) who occupy the Kenai peninsula, Kodiak Island and the string of volcanic islands jutting far out into the Pacific ocean, known as the Ring of Fire, had no trees at all and depended entirely on whales, seals, fish and driftwood for food and life. The Unangax and Alutiiq, too, used kayaks, but theirs were distinguished by an advanced design feature called a split bow that aided in navigation.

Watching the Alaska Native Games demonstration was amazing. Different cultures have different athletics, depending on how the group obtains its food and traverses the land, the rivers, the oceans, or the mountains. Children are taught to play these games from infancy, and many old people also still play them, kicking their legs high into the air to kick a tiny ball on a string, for example. Four high school and college age youths, 2 girls and 2 guys, showed how the emphasis on power, strength, balance and focus enables people such as the Inupiaks or Cup?iks who live on the Bering Sea or the Arctic Ocean to jump with great agility from an outcropping of one ice chunk to another when the northern seas are frozen solid in winter while hunting seals, without falling into the ditch between the bergs and possibly drowning instantly in the freezing water, never to be seen again. The enthralling act of standing on one hand while holding one foot in the air and kicking high overhead with the other foot to touch the ball suspended 8 feet in the air is breathtaking ? the skill and balance involved exceeds what I?ve witnessed in many Olympic sports. Very impressive!

Dancing by both men and women resembles closely Hawaiian dancing, in both hand and foot movements (on non-movements). Dancers use symbolic moves as well as storytelling moves, very graceful for the women, strong and aggressive for the men. Meanwhile, drummers and singers chant story-music that is hauntingly beautiful. Most songs are very short. The sauyaq (drum) is a long piece of bent wood over which is stretched an animal skin. Note how the word for drum ? sauyaq ? resembles qayaq, for the boat made of bent wood pieces laced together and covered by animal skins to make it float. These drums were about 28 inches in diameter, and were beaten with whale baleen sticks in the old days (bamboo sticks now). Very powerful sounds.

The Center has six representative villages constructed around a small lake to show how the various cultures lived. At least 6 of the cultural groups constructed shelters partly underground for insulation, and covered with earth or with sticks covered by animal hides, furs and skins. The Athabascans and the Eyak/Tlingit/Tsimshian/Haida groups often built wooden and log houses, since their areas of the land had many trees. One of the narrators at the earlier presentations had told us that all of the natives now live in modern houses, whether in cities or in their native villages. No igloos or hide-covered shelters used any more?they were all destroyed. Ridiculously, the Bureau of Indian Affairs came in during the 1940s-50s and required all native Alaskans to live in modern frame houses, usually built on stilts in their towns, but our narrator pointed out that these houses in native villages are almost always very drafty, poor at retaining heat, and not nearly so effectively insulated as were the earthen homes built partly underground. Makes little sense in a sub-arctic environment where temps drop to minus 70 degrees F pretty often.

We headed downtown and walked around a bit, visiting a few shops and feasting on a wonderful reindeer hot dog served up at an outdoor stand just outside the downtown Anchorage Visitor Center. M&As Reindeer Dogs has been written up, which is what sent us there, and rightly so. Deeeee-licious! They top their juicy reindeer dog with a heap of saut?ed carmelized onions. (Their secret of carmelizing the onions is to add Coke to them!) Yum! We sat outside in the brief sunshine (though cold, blustery winds) eating our dogs, just as if we were in New York or Chicago. Fun city stuff.

Back at the ranch, we napped, read books, showered and changed, preparing to meet our friends Dean and Linda at 5:30 for dinner at the upscale Simon & Seafort?s to have their famous halibut cheeks. Probably will be the only time on this trip that we ?eat fancy??we are enjoying not doing anything fancy, in fact. A lifelong friend, Dave, told us we just had to have the halibut cheeks at Simon & Seafort?s in Anchorage?he just loves them. They are indeed, the actual cheeks of halibut?they come off the fish in long thick strands, more like the grain of a pork roast than the typically flaky meat of a fish. Quite tasty, fixed with a bread-crumb-and-cheese coating and saut?ed til crispy. Fun to have had such a unique dish while in Alaska, but not sure I?d go back 6 more times.

Our waiter at Simon?s told us that when people come here and go halibut fishing on charters, they often have NO idea that they have to specify to the charter owner that they want to keep their halibut cheeks when the fish is processed for the customer, to ship home or to take along in a freezer. Hence, most charter operators are accustomed to keeping the halibut cheeks and selling them to restaurants like Simon & Seafort?s, with the person who caught the fish never knowing the difference.

Well, I can tell you that if I go fishing for halibut, I will definitely specify that I want to KEEP my halibut cheeks! Nice piece of information to have!

The winds had calmed and the sun was out by the time we left the restaurant at 8 pm. Typical day in Anchorage: morning rain/cold/clouds; afternoon more clouds and brisk winds, sometimes sun breaks through for brief moments; dinnertime, some blue sky, clouds break up, wind dies a bit, sun comes out more clearly, mountains are visible, temperatures quite nice for the first time all day. Interesting patterns.


 
Wednesday July 3, 2013 Day 36

Drove nowhere today. Read our books. Just hung out. Talked to other folks in the RV park. By late afternoon, of course, the rain had stopped and the skies were clearing. We walked quite a long way along the nearby Ship Creek Trail, which leads out to the mud flats along the Knik Arm of the Cook Inlet, just north of downtown Anchorage. This is where the cargo ships berth and unload their containers. We watched a big crane move shipping containers around for a while. Grilled fresh fresh fresh sockeye salmon for dinner, outdoors on our little propane grill. Just perfect.

Thursday July 4, 2013 Day 37

The plan: A nice breakfast at 8 in the Rollin Home. Go find parking within 20 blocks of Anchorage?s ?Park Strip? just south of downtown at 9. Attend Anchorage Independence Day Parade at 10 am to honor servicemen and women serving abroad and who?ve returned home. Wander around the 50+ ?festival? booths at the park after the parade. Then maybe rent bikes and ride the Coastal Trail out west to the end and back.

Foiled again. Rain, and lots of it. Cold. Leaden gray. Stayed in bed. Forget the dang parade, it would be miserable.

Succeeded with the nice breakfast: Melted a bit of butter in my little saucepan, put a layer of hash browns on top to get them really crispy, put a layer of eggs on top of that, some salt & pepper, then a layer of grated Havarti to top it off. Covered the pan, let it puff up and cook til done. Fried up a few frozen sausages to go with, and voila, a terrific feast for a gloomy day.

Some neighbors here in the park came back drenched from somewhere. We asked if they had gone to the parade, and they told us they couldn?t get within 2 miles of it, the traffic was so tangled. A hopeless situation. No parking available anywhere. People walking around in a lot of mud. So they gave up and returned.

Headed out to REI to use our ginormous $20 dividend that has an expiration date of July 15. Don went in to find something to use the dividend on while I researched coin-op laundromats in the area. Best thing to do on a rainy day like this is wash clothes. Indoor activity. Found one within a few blocks, nice and clean, with giant washers and dryers. Perfect. An hour later, everything is clean and ready to go to the Kenai Peninsula tomorrow.

We stopped at the Snow Goose Restaurant on the way home to have that delicious fish chowder again. Changed our minds once inside, however, and ordered the salmon & chips instead. Bad decision. We both got indigestion from dinner that lasted all night. A bummer.

Friday July 5, 2013 Day 38

The Seward Highway south from Anchorage lived up to its reputation as a gorgeous drive. High mountains on all sides, quite close to the road, covered most of the way to their tops in many hues of velvet green. A long part of the drive is along the shore of Turnagain Arm, which runs off the Cook Inlet. Quite the views.

I had read that Potters Marsh on the way south was a good place to stop and walk the boardwalks in this acclaimed bird-watching preserve. Don missed the turnoff, though, and the traffic was so heavy going north and south on this 2-lane highway there was no way we could turn around and go back. On toward Seward!

The turnoff to Girdwood and the Alyeska Resort (also the major ski area in Alaska) offered a caf?/bakery, an ice cream shop and a store named ?Alaska?s Greatest Tourist Trap.? Such candor! The bakery had wonderful apple fritters and very good coffee.

While there, a very attractive young couple at the next table were looking anxiously out the window watching for something or someone, and the young woman began pacing back and forth. Piled near them were 4 suitcases, a small duffel bag and another soft-sided bag. The young woman was dressed in very non-Alaskan garb ? a floor-length slinky knit skirt and matching top (very summery!), with a tiny little lightweight 1-button jacket in a cute print fabric, and ? get this ? open-toed beige patent platform-sandals with ankle straps and 4-inch skinny heels about the size of a kebob skewer. In contrast, other people in the shop had  layers of long-sleeved shirts, fleeces and rain jackets on, with jeans and hiking boots, or high rubber galoshes. It was 50 degrees outside, raining on and off, not exactly pleasant and certainly not summer weather.

I just couldn?t resist asking this young lady what she was doing there, dressed as she was. ?Oh, we just got off the cruise ship!? she exclaimed. A shuttle had driven them from Seward where the ship docked to the Girdwood turnoff, dropped them off and drove away. Completely confused, they called Alyeska Resort, where they were to attend a friend?s wedding, and requested the Alyeska?s shuttle come for them. It came, drove through the parking lot rapidly without stopping, and headed back up the hill to the resort. So they called a second time, and were determined not to miss the shuttle a second time, and to run out and wave the driver down if they had to. From New Jersey. Right. Very clearly they weren?t from anywhere near Alaska!

A second stop along this road was supposed to be the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, a state and federal project to preserve and restore native species in Alaska. It is 500 acres of drive-through park and wild animal viewing in natural settings. The line of cars and RVs lined up in the driveway waiting to enter was enough to give us indigestion again, so we drove on. We saw as we passed, however, that the AWCC has a large herd of extremely scraggly, scrawny bison in a large pasture. They did not look healthy or well-fed like those in Yellowstone NP or Canada.

I have read The Milepost on this trip everywhere we?ve gone, and was hard at it again today. Oh, good, there?s a nice little grocery store at Moose Pass, Alaska, where I can pick up some butter, honey and tea?and see their water-wheel from 1909 in the process. The third generation of the Estes family runs the store now, and they?ve rebuilt the old water-wheel 3 times since it was first constructed by old Mr. Estes so he could mill his lumber for his cabin. The water-wheel now is used to provide power for a fine old grinding wheel. Two guys were there sharpening their axes when we arrived. Made for some interesting pictures.

The Estes Brothers Store at Moose Pass is long on character and history, short on inventory. Virtually nothing on the shelves. A few barrels of ice cream in the freezer is all. On to Seward!

Glad I made a reservation for the RV park near Seward. The place is jammed full, because of the holiday I guess. We drove into Seward and found our Colorado friends Marion and Tom in their coach parked at the municipal RV park, facing the shore of Resurrection Bay and the mountains beyond. They get to watch cruise ships go in and out, as well as fishing and tour boats of all kinds whizzing by. No water or electricity or sewers, but fabulous views. We took a quick walk together around downtown Seward, and returned to their coach for conversation and dinner just as the rain started pounding. Don and Tom grilled the fresh halibut, standing under an awning to keep dry, while Marion and I fixed corn on the cob and salads. Fun dinner and super-fun being with friends.
 
Saturday July 6, 2013 Day 39

We went to sleep to the sound of hard rain pounding our roof. Nice noise to sleep by.

We awoke to the pitter-patter of light rain falling on our roof. Within minutes, it had turned to pounding hard rain. What else is new?

Our thick hiking socks have taken 1? days to dry hanging on the shower rod after we did the washing, because it?s so damp. I can tell it would be difficult to NOT get moldy up here. What a dramatic change from the brittle dryness of Colorado. In Colorado, those socks would have been bone-dry after 3 hours. My skin likes this moisture. And we?re not constantly craving water here?we drink much less water during the day than when we?re home, where we are never without a full bottle of water in our hands, always sipping from it. I?d bet I gulp at least 70-80 oz. of water a day when in Colorado; yesterday I drank only 2/3 of a 24 oz. bottle here. Plus the usual cups of tea and glasses of wine, of course.

We are almost creeped-out at how jammed full this RV park is, after being in parks that were nearly empty from the time we left home. Because it?s a holiday weekend, and the Kenai Peninsula gets a lot of Anchorage crowds on weekends, it?s full here?about 85 RV sites and it?s packed.

Today?s plan: Visit the Sealife Center aquarium, walk around town (there are some nice shops and galleries here), go to Safeway for tea/butter/honey/lettuce, maybe sit and have coffee in a coffee shop. Cross our fingers that the weather clears for at least one day while we?re here so we can go on the Kenai Fjords National Park cruise.

10 pm and headed to bed. Didn?t do any of the things I planned for today. Hard rain all day. No letups. A few times the rain changed character and turned into thick sheets of falling mist, though. That?s when Don took walks and I left the Rollin Home to walk to the bathrooms, talk to people and get out of our teeny tiny apartment for a bit.

I am nearly finished with Michener?s Alaska, though. That?s a good thing. The book gets better and better, also a good thing. Otherwise, any sane reader would give up on it long before finishing. So I?ve been absolutely riveted to it during rainy days.

Oh, one final thing?at 8 pm our neighbors next door, 2 couples from Loveland, Colorado camping in a huge 5th-wheel trailer pulled by a big fancy pickup truck, returned from a long day of flyfishing on the Upper Kenai River. They had 2 gorgeous sockeye salmon, which they filleted and cooked for dinner, along with sweet corn. But I gotta say, that was one helluva long day of fishing for 2 fish! They left very early in the morning, maybe 7 am, and returned at 8 pm, had dinner at almost 9 pm sitting outside at a picnic table in the cold and heavy rain (though covered by a nice tent/canopy on stilts). Not my idea of heaven. They?ve been here 2 weeks already and are staying another 2 weeks, Don learned.
 
SaltyAdventurer said:
Saturday July 6, 2013 Day 39
We are almost creeped-out at how jammed full this RV park is, after being in parks that were nearly empty from the time we left home. Because it?s a holiday weekend, and the Kenai Peninsula gets a lot of Anchorage crowds on weekends, it?s full here?about 85 RV sites and it?s packed.
Today?s plan: Visit the Sealife Center aquarium, walk around town (there are some nice shops and galleries here), go to Safeway for tea/butter/honey/lettuce, maybe sit and have coffee in a coffee shop. Cross our fingers that the weather clears for at least one day while we?re here so we can go on the Kenai Fjords National Park cruise.
Same situation at our park in Homer--108 spaces, sold out--all spaces are $73/night!  But this evening, we see empty spaces.  The Sealife Center is fun, but not huge, so you didn't miss a big event.  But...the Kenai Fjords NP cruise--the marine life cruises are the #1 thing in my book about Alaska.  I know you're not doing Valdez, so unless you are going out of Whittier later on your itinerary, you might want to skip something else and do at least one marine cruise, especially since we should see the sun for the next couple days.  I'm not saying where to go, just try to put at least one marine cruise in. They make my heart sing.  We've discovered that we should have planned fewer days in Homer since I couldn't fish and they have a 32' change in height of pier with the changing tides, so the ramps are way too steep for me to even do the birding cruise.
 
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