canoepam@yahoo.com

Yet another Red Bay visit (with a day trip to Huntsville, AL)

After we left Bowling Green, we drove Hinton RV Park in Sikeston, MO. Nice place. We had a huge pull through site with full hookups at $45/ night. We didn’t have to disconnect the UTV trailer from the MH, and there was still room for the Jeep. We decided to stay 2 nights, knowing New Year’s Eve is noisy a lot of places. This place was nice and quiet, mostly with a mix of long term residents and migrating snowbirds.

The night we arrived, 30 December, we went to Lambert’s Cafe, home of the “throwed rolls”. It was decent cafe food, but you don’t go just for the food; you go for the fun. Yes, they really do throw dinner rolls to you across the dining room! The servers were working hard, and they had other staff come around with additional standards like fried okra (a favorite or mine), apple butter, and fried potatoes and onions (another favorite).

On New Year’s Eve we just relaxed. I did cut a bunch of quilt components with the Accuquilt though. We got to try out the new Starlink system, and it is fabulous. A good 5G signal gives about the same throughout, but it is hard to find 5G where we go. We actually made it to midnight Atlantic time (aka 10:00 pm Central time). We wanted to get up early and drive, but New Year’s Day started out quite foggy so we took our time. We did get to Red Bay at a decent time, and we are settled at Red Bay RV Park. “RV Park” is a strong name for a very nice gravel lot with FHUs, but it is level and roomier than some of the alternative places.

Since we are going to be here a while, I pulled out the sewing machine and got lots of little blocks completed. It is nice to sew while listening to audiobooks, and I did that while Kevin messed around with the water softener and a few visits to hardware stores. We had our first repair appointment today with the paint folks at Pro-Finishes. After 60,000 tough miles, it was time to get some chips filled in plus we had a couple of big scratches on a slide. They got all that done while we went to the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. Fabulous! Be prepared for incoming pictures.

We started in the main indoor section of general space “stuff” including training facilities for their Space Camp. Interestingly the exhibit started with a collection of space themed toys ranging from the 1930s to present.

After the toys were a combination of models are true artifacts.

Of course there were real artifacts too including these space suits

Please some concept suits for the future.

We then went to the Planetarium where we saw a presentation about the James Webb Space Telescope. Quite interesting! After that we visited the next museum building that was centered on rockets and manned space flights. Again, a combination of models and actual artifacts.

The inside of the second museum building emphasized manned flight. There was a docent who was giving a very interesting guided tour that we lucked out with. There was an actual Saturn 5 rocket inside this building, laid on its side (all 300+’ of it!), and I took lots of pictures. I will spare you those! This specific rocket was built for vibration testing, and obviously the designed passed. I will emphasize more on the manned capsules now.

The silvered thing in back was an actual training module for the Mercury

Damaged heat shield from the capsule – ouch!

There was even the sole remaining component from Sky Lab, the first space station. This was the only piece that didn’t end up burned up or lost in the ocean. You can see the insulating pieces of fiberglass that didn’t burn up.

We came back to check out the coach painting, and found a couple of spots they had to re-do. Looks pretty nice though! Tomorrow is a visit with Precision RV for slide check and maybe hydraulic pump repair, slide topper tightening, and replacing an igniter on one the propane furnaces. Of course they may find other stuff! Saturday is a full exterior detailing, then Sunday we head for Arizona. I can’t wait. It is so humid here that my towels don’t dry overnight, and we have to wash them every 3 days or so. Ugh. I want my nice dry desert again.

And we are off!

We left this morning for more southern climates. The weather has been truly awful for the last two weeks with even the highs below 0 and nasty winds. Kevin and I kept looking at each other saying “This is just too cold!” We always stay until after Christmas though, so we bided our time until we had two decent days. One we needed for packing and the other we needed for driving, and we finally got them. We even scored a FHU winterized site at the local KOA that let us get full de-winterized before taking off. I am towing the cargo trailer with the UTV on it, and Kevin is driving the Jeep separately. So far, so good, though he has to stop for fuel 3 times as often!

We were planning on staying at a campground in Bowling Green, MO, but they have their water turned off. We decided to save $60 and just spend the night in the local Walmart parking lot. With our batteries, solar, and generator, it is an easy thing to do even in cooler weather like we are having. At least it is dry.

We did have a fabulous Christmas though. All four kids, spouses, partners, and grandkids were able to get together for dinner and presents on the 23rd. We needed to work around my daughter’s work schedule as a nurse. And of course I forgot (again!) to take pictures!

I have been frantically trying to keep up with my Mystery Quilt Zoom class. i got the vast majority of it done, and I was pretty pleased with myself. Even though I posted the first two weeks, I am going to show all of them again to keep the pieces together.

Week 4 blocks – 10” I fixed the error on the last block on the left

I actually did week 5 which was a single block plus adding connector blocks, but I forgot to take a picture! I have decided to make this a king sized quilt so I need lots of borders. I saw some people made borders of the connector blocks on the sides of the basic quilt, so that is one of my winter projects. I need to make a few hundred little 4” blocks like those below plus some other ones I didn’t show. I will take all the pieces I have left of the original fabric plus I bought four more fat quarters in coordinating color#, so I should have enough fabric. Then I will add some standard borders too to make it the right size.

I also have a tradition of making something hand made for each family, something g practical. This year it was oven mitts. I made a total of 8, so each household could take their pick of two. Surprisingly people chose different ones, not coordinating.

I was able to get my binding technique down to a fine science which will be handy on other projects too.

Expect more frequent posts since we are finally on the road again. We are heading to Red Bay, AL for some paint touch ups and some small miscellaneous fixes. Then we head off to Quartzsite, AZ.

Been a long time …

I never seem to post much when we are just hanging around the house. We haven’t taken any fun trips, and we have mostly been consumed with medical “stuff.” Kevin had a knee replacement four weeks ago, and before that we had the series of miscellaneous appointments that go with having surgery. It didn’t help that the surgeon and facility was 1 1/2 hours away! But the results have been fabulous. He used a walker for just one week, and he tossed the cane four days ago. He still gets sore of course, and the strengthening exercises have a painful aftermath, but he is powering through it. His motivation is to get in good enough shape to drive south after Christmas. Good motivation as a snowstorm heads our way tonight and tomorrow!

We have made a change in the storage facility for the motorhome. The price for our indoor storage has increased from $220 a month to $379 over four years. We moved to outdoor storage for $45 a month. Of course there was a lot to clean out of the enclosed storage first, and the garage at the house had to be re-arranged to hold it all! Kevin managed to fit everything in plus the trailer with the RZR and two cars in the 3 stall garage. I was impressed. Keeping the batteries in good shape while stored without electricity has been a learning experience. We have a lot of solar, but there are parasitic draws even with the 12v and 110v systems turned off. The LiFePO4 batteries need to be kept about 50-70% in storage, so we had to play with some of the charger setting. I think we have it now.

We also hired our son in law to do install some landscape blocks to even out the slope in our lawn some. We had gravel that went down a hill, and every big rain would wash some of it in the grass. Now I will have a nice flower/shrub bed next spring. Oh, and it really is level even though I can’t seem to take a decent picture!

I have done some sewing, but not enough! I finally finished piecing the king sized quilt for our motorhome. I don’t have a picture though since it still needs a good pressing. It is a lovely Jewel Box design with rich colors on a charcoal background. I haven’t really quilted anything because I sent my Handi Quilter Sweet 16 display and c-pod to get updated. I am considering upgrading my S16 to use a stitch regulator table, and this was needed. The update is relatively inexpensive, but the table is not! Still thinking about that, but the update has some advantages just by itself.

I also am working on a “Mystery Quilt” Zoom class that uses my AccuQuilt cutting system. We get new “clues” every week, and we make the blocks called for. We don’t know what the final design will be until the last session on 26 December. The class is well run and the technology actually works! Here are my first two big blocks. There are also lots of little blocks that go with them that will be used in the final assembly. I only showed a few of those. The little blocks are of all types – tiny four patch (shown), bigger four patch, hour glass, kite, and others. The instructor is telling us to only finger press our blocks as we go, and that is so hard for me! But I am giving it the old college try, and I hope it works well. Pressing is a very power hungry task, and it would be nice to not do much of it while we boondock.

First block of the second week – 18” square

I still have the second block of the second week to do, plus a bunch more of the little blocks. I really messed up on the color contrast with this one, but oh well. Lesson learned.

I am also starting Christmas presents, though I am way behind. This year everyone is getting oven mitts, cut (of course) with the AccuQuilt. Here is the sample I am keeping for myself. I am pretty happy with the construction and the final appearance. I used my binding attachment, and it went together pretty well.

I also bought myself a bit of a present (shush, don’t tell!). I ordered a Handi Quilter “Mystery Ruler Box.” It had six long arm quilting rulers in it, and it only cost $50. Pretty good deal! I am not sure what I will do with the hexi, but I feel I will use the others.

I will probably think of something else I have forgotten in the last two months, but I can catch that later.

Kevin’s updates on the new RZR plus our first trip with it

As of last Friday, Kevin had installed a rear view mirror, side mirrors, turn signals and running lights, and a front windshield. He has a rear windshield, lower and upper doors , and a new roof on order. They arrive sometime this week. He also bought a Fire tablet to run the off-road mapping software on, a case for it, and is figuring out the best place to mount it. He’s been busy!

We did go on our first big ride on Saturday. It was a charity ride for some local volunteer organizations in Northeast Iowa, and we started at the Volga River campground in the town of Volga, Iowa. The ride was restricted to 200 rigs, and it closed early last week, amazing to me. The event was advertised on Facebook through some UTV groups, and there were still people who wanted to get in. I have never even heard of something like this, and it was an experience. Cost was $50/rig.

We loaded the rig up with everything we needed on Friday, and we headed to Volga by 8:30 in the morning. We got parked and unloaded the RZR, then headed to the checkin, arriving there about 10:15. We had reserved a sack lunch from a local church (“free-will offering”, and not much!). Next time we will definitely bring our own. Lots of good organization. The parking area was huge and easily handled the crowds of mostly pickups with trailers.

The check in was orderly too, and we were given a numbered tag and got in rows.

We knew we were going to be the little guy, but some of these rigs are as big as cars! Four and six seaters were common, some with full fiberglass doors and roofs with roll down windows. Then there were the true utility rigs that doubled around the farm, a few mud racers, lots of donut maker/racers, and a few like us. I was rather astonished to see people drinking beer and hard liquor at 10:00 am on a Saturday before they were going to drive, but it seemed very acceptable to the crowd. Lots of vaping and cigarettes too. It had been so long since I had seen groups of people smoking that it took me aback.

We got started a few minutes after 11:00, and we had so much fun! It was 30-40 miles with a wide assortment of terrain. A little bit of road (the local fire department and police blocked traffic for us), some cornfields, lots of fallow pastureland with rolling hills, some heavy forest, and a number of stream crossings.

There were three stops along the way. Lots more drinking. Portable toilets were on a trailer that two trucks pulled to each stop. As we went through some farm fields, we actually had the farmers there to open gates and keep their cattle away. It was definitely a community endeavor. That makes sense since the proceeds were going to the local volunteer EMS folks! Each place we stopped for a break had plenty of room for people to spread out.

The ride finished at our starting spot about 4:30. We both had big grins on our faces. The ride had been bumpy and rough, but we weren’t all beat up like we would have been in the Jeep. The soft balloon tires and suspension of the RZR were much gentler on our bodies, though we were feeling a bit worse for wear this morning! It wasn’t anything some Tylenol wouldn’t solve though. I am really very happy with the entire purchase, and I am looking forward to using it a lot this winter in Arizona.

What’s going on at home after the trip

I am finally getting caught up. The first week we were home (mid September), I just collapsed. I was still sick from the sinus cold from hell, and it kept me exhausted. It took 5 days before we got the motorhome half-way cleaned up and winterized. While I napped and relaxed at home, Kevin went through every bay and cleaned and sorted them. Lots and lots of stuff came home. Some ended up on the garage shelves and some just ended up in the trash. I bet we are hundreds of pounds lighter! That is good because he is now packing up our “normal” stuff we didn’t take with us this summer like the 3D printer and the telescope.

Some things are great being back. For example, I am back in church choir! it is so lovely to sing with others again. It had been almost 3 years since we left for Arizona in January 2020. Choir stopped during the pandemic, and it just started again in September. We no longer sing every week since we only have one service split between praise band music and traditional choir music, but it is better than nothing. A lot of the regulars at church haven’t been coming. Some are still worshipping online, and sadly a number of the older folks died. That included people in the choir too. I have hopes a few more will start showing up for choir, but it is easy to lose habits when they are paused for 2 years.

We have finally bought a UTV, a skinny 50” wide 2020 Polaris RZR Trail model. Love it! It will fit in the back of a pickup eventually, but we bought a trailer for it now. Of course it needs all kinds of fun and practical stuff that Kevin is buying including a new roof/door combination, full front windshield, rear view and side mirrors, and turn signals. We intend on using it a lot in Arizona this winter, and they allow UTVs to drive on the street if equipped properly. It will be a pain getting it there this year because we have to tow the UTV and trailer with the MH while Kevin drives the Jeep, but then we will leave it in AZ until some time in June when we will pick it up and spend time in Utah.

Kevin worked really hard to get the garage ready for 3 vehicles again, but there is now room for the Jeep, the RAV4, and the RZR on its trailer. We hope to go for our first real ride in it on Saturday when there is a charity group ride in NE Iowa. We are hoping for decent weather and beautiful fall colors.

Coming back in the fall is always a busy time for us because we schedule all our yearly doctor visits now. Kevin has a big one – his knee replacement is scheduled for 9 November. Since I am a poll worker on 8 November until late, we will have a long day. The plan is to be healthy enough to head to Arizona soon after Christmas. Of course there will be a number of appointments for imaging and checkups in addition, but we will manage those. I finally got the colonoscopy I tried to have in April of 2020 (yeah, we know what happened then!) then in April this year (cancelled because I came down with COVID). Still have to schedule a mammogram, but my routine physical is scheduled for December.

Hopefully the next post will be full of lovely foliage pictures from the UTV ride.

My totally personal view of RV caravans

I wanted to summarize my personal thoughts on RV caravans. Let me emphasize that again – my personal views. These comments are based on the one and only caravan I have ever been on, the 63 day trip to western Canada and Alaska. So take it for what it is worth, perhaps very little!

We signed up for this caravan after our planned trips (sans caravan) in 2020 and 2021 were cancelled due to COVID. We were really worried that with three years of demand we wouldn’t be able to find places to stay or get into attractions we were interested in. It turns out the increase in diesel prices kept a lot of people closer to home this year. Few campgrounds were completely full, and there were nearby options for the ones who were. Oh well, live and learn.

Good things:

Everything is set up for you, and you need to plan very little. This is particularly good if you are new at RVing or new at long trips. I would say well over half of the folks were in the “newer” category, though some had been full-timing for years. We had travel booklets with routes identified in detail.

Lots and lots of full hookup campsites and even more electric/water sites. We have never in our life stayed at so many serviced campsites in the period!

Lots of built in social activities if you choose to participate. Things like drinks around the fire or dinner at a local restaurant.

A good wagon master is well organized, keeps people informed, provides alternatives if an activity isn’t appropriate for an individual. We had travel briefings every 2-3 days to discuss the details of the next few days travel and planned activities. The wagon master also confirmed our campgrounds and directed us to our sites when we arrived. Our wagon master was amazingly organized. He was retired military man, and it showed.

The tail gunner can be extremely helpful if you have trouble on the road. Every morning he went by all the rigs thumping tires to give a brief check. At the start of the trip, he crawled under everyone’s rigs checking out undercarriages, springs, shackles, etc. We had a few people come down with serious rig issues on the road, and the tail gunner stayed with them until they got to the campsite or had service arranged.

The activities that a group can get are more varied than an individual can get. For example, we had guides when individuals did not, for example on an old riverboat. We were allowed into special areas that weren’t open to the public, like a puffin exhibit at an aquarium. We got a special viewing of sled dogs and a presentation that others did not, and there were other things. The bus trips were nice since we got an entire bus to ourselves and the trips were customized to our group.

Now for the not so good things.

With all that planning there were times I really wanted to stay longer or stay less long at certain places. There is significant rigidity in the schedule. And I found the schedule,rushed. I would have taken at least half again as long for the trip, maybe twice as long. It was more of a sample rather than in-depth, even at 63 days.

Some of the activities were of zero value to us. For example, we spent lots of time at coastal towns where the main activity was fishing. The thing is, we aren’t anglers! These are very small places that can be well explored in a day or two, but we stayed longer.

While the social butterflies were extremely happy, I found all the emphasis on group socialization a bit uncomfortable. We are more introverted, and we are used to solitary camping in a wide variety of places. There were a few days where I just hid in the camper because I was overwhelmed and “peopled” out!

I got tired of the complaints people had about the campsites. We were in fairly remote areas much of the time, and campground amenities weren’t 4* except in a very few places. If we had electrical service, it was almost always 30 amp. They didn’t tell us this when we signed up, but they did tell us in the preparatory emails we got a month or so ahead of time. Those with full electric rigs that need 50 amp struggled some, and a few of them (ok, one in particular) whined on a regular basis. I think this fits in with the item above – no control over who we were around.

Summary: We won’t do a caravan again. I am just too solitary a creature to enjoy the forced company of others quite so much. I will happily trade the special group activities for the flexibility of staying as long as we want where we want. While I recognize the value a caravan trip might have for many, it just wasn’t our cup of tea. Oh, and I don’t think Adventure Caravans, the company we went through, is significantly different than Fantasy. It wasn’t Adventure Caravan’s fault that we just aren’t caravan people. They did exactly what they said they were going to do, so I won’t fault them.

Forgotten end to the Canada Alaska caravan trip

I guess I was sicker than I remembered at the end of the trip, because I forgot to post! I was getting together to put a new one up, and I realized I never finished the trip posts. Oops! Here you go, weeks late. And the photo quality isn’t very good. My camera finally gave up completely, so they are all from my iPhone. The zoomed in quality is particularly bad!

We left Prince George after breakfast on Tuesday, 7 September. We decided we wanted to head home the fastest way possible, so we took the TransCanada Highway to just north of Jasper. We had intended on staying at the Icefields, but with the fires we decided on the Hinton KOA instead, the same place we stayed on the outgoing trip. The campground sites are lovely, but make sure you drive very, very slowly coming in. The campground roads are awful! Huge potholes are too numerous to dodge, so just go slowly. We had some caravan friends staying at the same place, and we all sat around our propane fire pit and relaxed after the rigors of the trip.

The next day we drove down through Jasper and Banff National Parks. The town of Jasper was closed completely as were all the campgrounds, and it was obvious why. Here are a bunch of pictures of the fire and it’s residual smoke.

When we got to Banff we saw mountain goats at the same place we saw them on the outgoing trip. There actually are 5 in this picture, but the baby is tough to spot.

Banff is just outside Calgary, so the road quickly becomes a major one, but the smoke still lingered.

Being a populous area with lots of wildlife, we saw a number of these wildlife crossings.

We spent Kevin’s birthday at Cranbrook KOA. Nice enough place. Not a great place for a 70th birthday though! We were both feeling pretty miserable, so we just had eggs and bacon, using them up before the border. No nice dinner for his birthday!

On 9 September we crossed the border with hardly any wait. Quite different when it is a weekday morning than the middle of a Saturday! We spent the night at one of the prettiest campgrounds we have ever been in – Jim and Mary’s RV Park outside Missoula, MT. The place is a gardener’s paradise with flowers everywhere. We always try to stay here when we are in the area. Since we were both feeling so blah, we would have like to stay 2 nights, but they didn’t have any availability, so we headed to Big Timber KOA west of Bozeman, MT. Nice enough place, but I don’t remember any details. Remember I noted the fuzzy head?

On 10 September we came to the Buffalo, WY KOA, and we finally got to rest a bit. We reserved a fancy patio site next to the river in their newer area. We stayed two nights. Much of the time I just relaxed on the patio, soaking up the sun and mild temps. We both needed a rest. After two nights, we were beginning to feel human again! It helps that the Buffalo and Sheridan areas of the Bighorns are some of our favorite places, though we usually stay up in the mountains or at the lake between the two towns. We wanted relaxing pampering though, so we chose the KOA. I don’t usually spring for patio sites, but this one was well worth it for recharging.

Feeling almost human, we continued east to Belevedere, SD KOA, west of the Badlands. We would normally have spent a couple of days boondocking in the Badlands area or at the park campground, but we were on a mission to get home! And yes, you are seeing a theme of KOAs. We find them standardized enough and close to the highway that we particularly like them on traveling days. After Belevedere, we spent the last night on the road at the Sioux Falls, SD KOA.

We are now almost home, and we booked it out of there on Thursday, 15 September. However a minor disaster struck not far out of Sioux Falls. We used the Blue Beacon Truck Wash there, and discovered the rock guard at the back of the MH had come unattached and we were leaking fluid of some type. We called our local shop in Decorah, IA and they said bring it in though it would get looked at for a few days. I drove the MH there while Kevin drove behind in the Jeep making sure nothing disastrous happened. He did enough debug to discover it was a small oil leak from near the oil filter. We just stopped at every rest area and checked the oil on the way. It was a slow way to travel! When we got to Decorah, we unloaded only the bare necessities (cats, meds, night clothes) and headed home. The cats were thrilled to have all the space, and they spent a lot of times doing zoomies and looking out the windows. The next day we drove back to Decorah and picked up clothes and a few more necessities. The forecast was for sunny weather, so we just left the refrigerator running knowing the batteries and solar would keep it happy. It took a week to get the diagnosis and a part (oil filter loose and a turbo hose leaking, so needed a new one of those), but we finally got the rig to Cedar Falls a week later on Thursday, 23 September.

We parked the rig at a nice local campground, Big Woods County Park. It is only 7 miles from the house and has roomy FHU sites. It makes a handy place to stash the rig while we unpacked and clean up. I admit we weren’t very quick at the cleaning business. We got the important things like like haircuts, grocery runs, and laundry though. We finally got the MH winterized. Kevin also emptied out every storage bay and repacked! I bet we are hundreds of pounds lighter LOL! It is amazing how unneeded junk hides in the back of the bays.

I will summarize our views of caravans in general and the specifics of this caravan in the next post. This one is long enough!

On the way to the end of the caravan trip (with some forgotten Teslin shots too)

On Saturday we left the boondock runway to head to Stewart and Hyder. We exited the Cassiar (Highway 37) and took dead end Highway 37A to Stewart. Lovely views even though it rained the entire time. One of the big sights is the Salmon Glacier, and it was fabulous.

People go to Stewart, YT in order to go to Hyder, AK to see bears feasting on salmon. We stayed at the Kitawanga River RV Park, a pretty nice place. I was still feeling poorly, so we laid around more than we normally would. We did cross in AK to see the salmon spawn, hoping to catch a view of bears at the Fish Creek Wildlife Viewing Station. It is a NPS official spot that requires a ticket to get to. Easy and inexpensive to get one online, and we got three days of viewings through our caravan. We went on Sunday, crossing an amazingly simple border crossing into the US. It was totally unstaffed without any notice required. A nice ranger checked out tickets at the viewing site, and we went in. It was a lovely place.

And since it was raining (still!) we just enjoyed the day for a couple of hours without seeing any more bears than the one we saw crossing the road on the way in. If anyone else wants to do this, I highly recommend getting a chair and a water proof poncho or something to cover the chair while you wait. I was still not feeling well (darned sinusitis again), and Kevin’s knee couldn’t take much more just standing g around, so that was our one attempt. Others in the group went back a few times and stayed longer. Their effort was rewarded with some good bear photos. Oh well, we have seen lots of bears in other places. I tried for an artsy-fartsy shot of some dangling Old Man’s Bear glistening with raindrops, but the focus on my iPhone just wasn’t up to the task. I am going to order a new camera as soon as I get home!

The only border control between Stewart and Hyder is a Canadian border patrol spot that actually serves both countries. We had filled out our ArriveCan app ahead of time, showed our passports to the nice agent, and she checked everything. The information is then transmitted to the US, or so a sign at the office said. One of the rangers in Hyder said the two communities actually act as one and did so through the entire pandemic.

On Monday we went to Smothers, BC for a simple overnight spot. We stayed at Fort Telkwa Riverfront RV Park, a very nice place. All the sites are directly above the river for some great views. And guess what? NO RAIN! In fact, there was so weird blue color to the sky! I was starting to feel a bit better since I started the steroids for my sinusitis, though I still cough an awful lot.

I actually forgot the pictures from Teslin I took on Wednesday on the way to Watson Lake. We first stopped by the Teslin Tlingit Cultural Center, but they were unexpectedly closed. They had some great totem poles and a fabulous boat though. I was disappointed they were closed.

We did stop by the George Johnson Museum, a fabulous curated museum that was not the standard small town historical spot. Mr. Jonnson was born in a completely isolated village, and had no schooling until he went to Juneau at 16 to stay with an uncle. He taught himself English and mathematics, and was a born visionary. He came back to the area, opened a store, brought the first car to an isolated area without roads except in the winter when he used the frozen lake, and was an absolute local legend. They had some fabulous Tlingit history and costumes that the docent, a longtime white resident, was excited to share with us.

Today we are in Prince George at the Sintich Campground. Sites are decent sized, but they have small trees too close. We had to do some maneuvering to get so our door would open without running into the tree. We have a dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow as a caravan, and then we are done. We have decided to go through the big Canadian National Parks again on the way home, but just a drive-by. The town of Jasper still doesn’t have electricity after a fire wok out the lines, so it will be interesting. I probably won’t post again until we are in the US. Buying enough cellular data to post in Canada has been expensive!

Skagway, Watson Lake, and Burrage abandoned airfield

We arrived in Skagway on Sunday, 28 August. It was only partly cloudy at first, but of course it started to rain. I seemed to have picked up a miserable sinus infection again, so we basically didn’t do much on Monday. And yes, I did take a COVID test, but it was negative. Guess my March infection antibodies are still in good form since so many caravaners have gotten it this trip! We did wonder around town some, and I got the mandatory picture of one of the cruise ships.

The town itself is (obviously) full of cruise ship passengers. Three of the big ones can come into port at once. It was four at once until earlier this summer when a landslide took out one of the berths. That means “only” 12,000 passengers of so!

Busy downtown with scenic railway right through the middle

Two of the cruise ships along with a part of the small boat harbor

Another view of the Skagway small boat harbor showing a third cruise ship

The town is part of the Klondike Gold Rush Historical Park, and we visited some of the sites of course. The Moores were a leading family. You can see how they moved from a log building to a lovely framed house.

Kevin took in a vaudeville show in the evening called “Soapy Smith,” about a local legendary bad guy. I wasn’t feeling well, so I stayed in the rig. He said I didn’t miss anything!

The next day we were up early for a long day trip to Juneau by water taxi. It was a charter through Fjordlands, and the captain looked for wildlife and good scenery in addition to just getting us to Juneau. Be prepared for lots of pictures!

Three orcas (two with spouts and one without)

We also saw at least three groups of humpback whales migrating south, a real rarity. However my little camera couldn’t catch anything you could tell was a whale, so you will have to take my word for it! Kevin got a video of the humpback, so at least I can show a snip of the tail. We saw the standard puffins and sea otters too.

The tour included a bus ride into Juneau from the water taxi port. It gave us a couple of hours, long enough to have lunch and a quick tour of the nearby shopping area. Juneau was a so-so city in a gorgeous area. There were five massive cruise lines in port and way too many people. Along the tourist streets it seemed that every other shop was for jewelry.

Due to the rain, waterfalls were everywhere

Life sized statue of a 3/4 grown female humpback.

I did end up with some cute earrings, but it wasn’t a place I ever want to come back to. Oh, and I like this picture of the co-captain steering for a few minutes.

The ride back was even more rain, and everyone was tired. The entire trip was over 12 hours. Highly recommend, but hopefully on a day with better weather.

On Wednesday we visited the historic Dyea townsite. This was the alternate way to the Klondike gold fields. After a tragic avalanche, this route lost it glory and was quickly superseded by the railroad. There is an old cemetery with graves of avalanche victims plus other residents. As gold fever died down, the town went back to its roots as a small native community.

Grave marker for one of the 70+ avalanche victims

The area was obviously heavy temperate rainforest, and it was filled with all types of mushrooms frantically fruiting before the winter comes.

No grass, just moss and lichens on the ground

We also took a trip on the White Pass and Yukon Railroad. A fun two hour scenic trip with mostly empty cars for some reason.

Higher elevation views with a mandatory glacier

Luckily we traveled a more modern trestle

Blow it up and you can see the Skagway harbor and cruise ships

Long day, but I really liked Skagway! We left on Thursday morning for Watson Lake, same campground as before. Friday we boondocked at the abandoned Burrage air strip along the Cassiar Highway. It was our anniversary, and while the rest of the caravan got hot dogs, we made steaks, potatoes and onions, watermelon, and cheesecake for desert! I will talk about our next destinations in the next post.

Valdez, back to Destruction Bay, and on to Skagway

We didn’t have good data service in Valdez so I didn’t post anything there. Therefore a lot to catch up on!

Oh, and it rained again. Pretty much continuously. Have I mentioned that I am so, so tired of rain? We had a big glacier and wildlife tour booked with Stan Steven’s company, and it pretty much rained the entire time. There were a few limited periods of just fog/haze, but it mostly rained. We also went on a day when a major gale was headed our way, so the captain had to get a bit creative with our routing. We did get to see some lovely things though.

Turns out sea lions will perch just about anywhere

In the lee of a bigger island, this one had clear glass for a reflection

This guy must not have wanted his whiskers or tail to get cold

The glacier is still growing as evidenced by the trees being swallowed on the left

Yes, it is hard to see some of the things through the fog. It was harder to get pictures of other things we saw – sea otters in small and large groups, puffins all over the place, and we even saw a small group of orcas. There were three of them, but Kevin only got this one picture by accident. They were a long way away and pretty fast.

Notice I said “Kevin got only this one picture.” Turns out my camera really has given up the ghost! Too many times it fell off the cabinet I guess. The majority of my pictures from now on will be from my phone or Kevin’s camera. I can’t find the camera I want anywhere in Alaska outside of Fairbanks, and I am definitely not driving back that far! I will order one when we get home. The trip really was enjoyable, but it would have been much better in nicer weather.

We had a free day in Valdez, and we used it doing some sightseeing. We drove up Thompson Pass, the snowiest in Alaska. It was too foggy for good pictures. We stopped by this historic site in the canyon below Thompson Pass. In 1906 multiple railroad companies were fighting for railroad rights from Valdez to the massive Kennicott mine.one group dug this partially completed tunnel, but the effort was abandoned when a gunfight broke out between the groups. Interesting story about very wild times.

We also spent a few hours at the Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery in Valdez, hoping to see bears catching salmon as they came through the fish ladder there. The hatchery itself was interesting. There are so, so, so many fish! I had never seen a salmon run before. At the bottom of the weir that exists to funnel the fish to the fish ladder, the fish are almost a solid mass.

Just one small part of the thousands of salmon

There were other hunters besides bears pigging out on the salmon though. We saw numerous sea lions eating their fill. They would go under water, looking almost like a lot, then come up with a fish in their mouths. They tossed the fish in the air to get it positioned for their mouth, then the swallowed it.

And another one of the videos that are annoying in this blog, but worth the click. Keep the sound on to hear the thousands of gulls too. They were feasting too.

IMG_8063

We did finally see one bear, but he wasn’t right by the hatchery. There were still lots of fish for him though until people spooked him. He is on shore in this picture, but he wandered out into the water to do some catching a bit after this was taken. Oh, and it was raining again.

After Valdez we headed back to Tok, staying in the same place as before. We then had to drive the road from HELL that is the Alaska highway between Tok and Destruction Bay. It was actually worse than our first trip through due to more frost heaves. I have never been so glad to see an uneven gravel parking lot in all my days! The views were pretty spectacular.

The weather had cleared up as soon as we headed away from the coast. The drive to Tok was nice, and the views of the drive to Destruction Bay were nice too, but I was concentrating too much on not shaking my motorhome apart to take pictures. The one above is from our “campground” – a gravel lot. Note the colors in the hills. Autumn has arrived in the Alaska and Canadian hill country. We did have to cross the Canadian border again, and this time it took almost an hour. That’s what we get for crossing on a Saturday! A nice border agent, just a lot of vehicles.

I will leave the description of the drive we took today to arrive in Skagway, AK along with those adventures for another post after we have completed some of our planned activities here. I will say that it only sprinkled on us some this first night in Skagway!