Anchorage Away

26 Jun – We arrived in Anchorage but not without a little mishap. Maggie was driving the MH and there was a 2x4 in the road with some nails in it. She missed it with the motorhome but the right rear tire of her car didn’t. The air leaked out but we didn’t know it. It ran low; heated way up and blew apart. The car behind us flashed it lights and she pulled over. So, we bought a new tire in Anchorage and all is well again.

We’re staying at Elmendorf Air Force Base family campground for the next few days. Maggie and I went shopping earlier and when we got back Val told us that there was a mother moose and two little ones that walked next to our campsite. Don’t get that in Texas now do ya?

Tomorrow we’re visiting one of Val’s friends that used to work at Brooks and is now up here. We plan on doing some short hikes to a few local waterfalls.

I included a few photos from our Denali trip for your viewing enjoyment.

Back in the US; Back in the US; Back in the USA

We made it to Alaska and finally have a good internet connection. Here's what's been going on for the last week.

June 15 - We decided to stay in the US one more night and leave for Canada the next morning. The commissary was closed so we stopped at the next Wal-Mart we came to and stocked up. We spent the night at a Home Depot and left first thing in the morning. The roads in Canada are in pretty good condition so far. There is a lot of construction but it doesn’t slow you down too much. We drove 386 miles today and ended up stopping at a place called Quesnel, British Columbia. Before you ask, yes they have Wal-marts up here and yes we stayed there.

June 16 – We drove another day in Beautiful British Columbia. We saw waterfalls and lots of small lakes and ponds along the roadside. We stopped in Chetwynd, the chainsaw woodcarving capital of the world. The town was full of carved statues. They just had a world-wide competition last weekend with the top candidate’s sculptures outside the chamber of commerce. I included a picture of my favorite. Oh, and I included a photo of the most expensive thing we’ve purchased in Canada so far; gas. Gas is averaging $1.20 per liter up here; $5 per gallon. I put $310 in the tank at one time; YIKES! At least we’re getting good mileage with the MH. We’re averaging 7.5 mpg. For those of you who just screamed, how many mpg does your house get?

June 17 – We drove another full day through the woods but made it to Tok, Alaska. Saw lots of snow covered mountains peaks in the distance. We have seen deer, bears, moose (one was standing chest deep in a lake sticking its head under water eating vegetation from the bottom of the lake) small herds of buffalo, big horned sheep and huge white swans tending their nest.

The roads in the Yukon were pretty bad. The frozen ground in the winter creates what they call frost heaves. These are places where the ground/road has moved. Sometimes the road surface raises, sometimes it sinks: sometimes it’s cross-wise and others it goes diagonal to the road. Makes for a slow and rough ride. Most everything in the coach compartments and storage areas have moved. It’s always fun to open a cupboard inside just to see what falls out on you.

We’ve changed our minds a bit and are headed toward Fairbanks today with hopes of staying a night or two at Eielson AFB. Afterwards we’ll head south and stop at Denali National Park. First we have to wash the MH and car; both are very dirty after driving for 4 days on dusty, muddy, gravel roads.

June 23 – Got to Fairbanks on the 20th and were happy to see better roads. The rough roads/gravel had knocked an electrical connector off the tow dolly. Once it fell off it dragged on the pavement until we found it the next day. Half the connector is gone. One of the fenders was loose too so had to do some repair work.

There was a Summer Solstice Festival going on in Fairbanks. Lots of music, dance groups and food booths. It went on til midnight. We had fun but it’s kind of weird being at an outdoor street party at 11:30 at night and it’s not dark. And you probably wouldn’t believe that we watched street kids having a break-dancing contest until 11:00. Not our typical thing but it was fun to watch. We couldn’t believe what some of those kids do to their bodies; Ouch.

Arrived at Denali yesterday and Gary did a white water river raft trip. He had a ball. One person actually got tossed out on one of the big rapids but they got her back in after about 15 seconds. We all went to the National Park today and took one of their bus trips 65 miles into the park. We saw eagles, moose, caribou, dahl sheep, black and grizzly bears and a couple of grey wolves. We’re all tired now and are looking forward to a good night's sleep and going to Anchorage tomorrow.

Lovin it in Lyle

June 13 – Camping on the river bank did not turn out to be the great thing we thought. You see, there was this train; no lots of trains, that went up and down the tracks we didn’t see before we parked. At least a dozen trains went by before 11 pm, a couple between 11 and 6 am then 4 or 5 more before we left about 9 am. Argh

We contacted a guy we met in Big Bend National Park earlier in our trip. Let’s say his name is Bob. He said if you’re ever up my way stop by. Well, if you invite me, I’m there. So, we sent him and email and said; “Hey remember us?” He invited us to breakfast the next morning and we spent the good part of the day together. He lived outside a small town called Lyle, Washington, right on the Columbia River; very pretty. Check out the photo of Mt Hood. I took it through the binoculars.

While we were visiting, he told us about a grand opening of a small bar in the local town. They were having 3 live bands and smoked salmon and prime rib; Cha Ching! We decided to stay and sample the local food and hospitality.

They had two people that performed that were fabulous. Mark sounds a lot like Clint Black and Tammy does some killer Patsy Cline, Reeba Mac Intyre and others. The sang until 2 am and we stayed until 2 am. Never closed down a bar before.

The River Rat & Tap Room bar is a great place. Jerry and Colin, the owners, are wonderful people (see photos) Jerry’s eyes are usually open. I just caught him taking a cat nap I guess. They let us park the motorhome along the side of the bar and we spent two nights there. We parked our butts inside and the motorhome outside. We had a great time. Oh, and they have this waitress, let’s call her Brenda, she’s a hoot. If you are ever up on the Columbia River you gotta stop by.

This morning we left Lyle and headed toward Seattle (McChord AFB). We want to stock up at the commissary before we leave the country. We plan on being in Canada tomorrow night. So, if you can’t get us on the cell phone or we don’t return your email for a while, it’s because we don’t have access. Don’t worry, we’ll get back to you eventually.

Covered Bridges in Oregon

June 10 – We left Coos Bay and headed up the coast to see the Umpqua River Lighthouse. See photo. They had a nice museum and we took a tour; it was pretty neat. We got to go up inside the light assembly and learned about the history of the entire station; very interesting. After that we headed inland in search of better weather. They hoisted the gale warnings while we were there because the winds went above 35 mph. Oh, and did I mention it was raining too? Here’s where I am obliged to say, once again we’re glad we didn’t take the bikes.

We drove to a small town called Cottage Grove; has a quaint ring to it doesn’t it? There are a bunch of covered bridges in the area so we went out to see how many we could find. We found half a dozen and took photos of them all. I attached one for your visual enjoyment. We spent the night at my favorite place, Wal-Mart and went out to see some more covered bridges in the area the next day. After viewing 4 more we headed up interstate 5 towards Portland. We are now camped at a state park in the Columbia River Gorge just off the banks of the river. This river is huge. Since it’s been raining so much all the rivers are very full.

Lighthouses & Gardens

June 8 – Well, we did the jet boat ride yesterday. Man was that cool. No, really, it was cool. We didn’t get warm until about 30 or so miles upriver. After the boat ride we drove to Coos Bay. They have a casino here and they let you park your RV for free. Gotta love it.

Maggie decided to gamble for a while; that was a mistake. I had to go get her about 11 o’clock. She said “Oh, is it that late already?” She didn’t leave with me but came back to the MH a while later. Seems she met a guy there and was helping him spent his money. And you thought you knew her.

Today we went to several areas of rugged coast line, toured some finely manicured gardens and saw another lighthouse. We also saw a bunch of seals and sea lions; thousands of them. Sounded like we were near a dog kennel with all their barking.
We found a local seafood place and had a great fish and chips lunch. We started to walk the docks but it started raining again so we headed home to the RV. That was the end of our adventures for the day.

Whales and Redwoods

June 6 – First thing yesterday morning we drove to an overlook and saw a bunch of whales just off shore. They are migrating now. Some were as close as 40 feet off the beach. Most were further out though, lots of interesting rocks just off the coast up here.

After viewing the whales we drove into the Giant Redwood Forest. Wow are those trees tall; tons of ferns and undergrowth. We took a nature trail (had a bunch of little signs telling us what we were looking at) it was like walking through Jurassic Park. We ate a picnic lunch next to a meadow where a bunch of bull elk were grazing. That seemed like a full day so we went back to the MH and did some laundry. Still cloudy and raining off and on. Oh well.

News Flash: Maggie drove her car into a tree. Nobody was hurt though. It was the giant redwood with a hole in it large enough to drive through so she did.

This morning we drove to Gold Beach, Oregon. They have jet boats that deliver mail at places up the river. Oh, and they also take riders for a modest fee. Well, it’s more than modest. We’ve seen the video and it looks like fun so we’re going tomorrow.

This afternoon we walked the beaches and looked for walking sticks. There is a ton of driftwood on the beaches now. The heavy rains have caused the rivers to fill and they, in turn, have picked up every loose piece of wood they could and sent it downstream. Once the river dumps into the ocean all the wood goes out a ways and then washes back up on the shore of the beaches. Check out what some industrial people did with some of the wood.

Waterfalls and Snow

June 4 – After being at Crater Lake, we drove to a place called Hat Creek and spent a couple days there. My grandfather helped build the campground when he used to work for the Forest Service. It was nice to be there with the river running full of the melted snow. That water is COLD.

We drove to Lassen National Volcanic Park to see what we could see. There are four kinds of volcanoes in the world and all four are there. It was interesting to learn how the landscape was changed by the eruption of Mt. Lassen in 1914. There is/was a lake called Honey Lake about 80 miles away from the volcano. It used to be probably 30 miles wide and 50 miles long: that is until the volcano erupted. The earth under the lake opened up and the lake emptied. Some think that’s what calmed the volcano down. We couldn’t see much of the park because IT WAS UNDER 8 FEET OF SNOW. When you’re given lemons you make lemonade right? So, we decided to play in the snow. We took the carpet protector out of Maggies trunk and slid down some small snow banks. What can I say?

The next day we drove about 200 miles on what was supposed to be some of the most scenic roads around. It was pretty but it rained almost all day. We did manage to see several sets of waterfalls. That was pretty cool. We also visited a small mountain town called Mc Cloud and had a great lunch at a small place there. The town is full of B&Bs and old houses.

Today we drove west to the coast to a small town called Klamath and are camped on the banks of the Klamath River. It’s really full and running fast. They’ve had several days of rain lately. The next couple of days we’ll be exploring the Redwood National Forest. We saw several elk on our way in. We’re looking forward to seeing more tomorrow. It’s really neat to see mountains and the ocean meet. The beaches here look good too. Hopefully we’ll be able to spend some time walking them. That is if the weather improves.

In the High Sierra's

June 1- It’s hard to believe that June is here already. We’re back in the mountains and seeing snow again. We’re camped tonight in a large meadow off highway 44 northwest of Susanville, CA. We’re watching antelope, coyotes and dear around the MH; pretty cool. We were hoping to camp at a small lake that is inside an old volcano. It’s called crater lake; I used to go there as a kid. We tried driving to it but there were snow drifts on the road and we couldn’t make it. So, we parked the MH in the meadow and drove Maggie’s car as far as we could. Then, we hiked about ¾ mile through the snow to get to the lake. It was awesome. The lake was 7/8 covered with snow and ice, everything else around it was covered with snow and we’re standing on the shoreline of this lake looking up at the walls of the volcano. There was another couple there for a while but they left shortly after we got there. It was really something to be the only people there. We fished some of the shoreline that wasn’t covered with ice and caught 3 rainbow trout. It was a good day.