Camping – Page 4 – TooBusyForWork

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.

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!

Along the way to Valdez

I seldom post on travel days, but today was the most beautiful we have experienced on the trip. While Banff and Jasper were gorgeous, they can’t compare to the huge peaks surrounding us on all sides while we drive along the river bottom. These mountains were sculpted by glaciers, and they are craggy and rough. I tried to get pictures, but with the flat, cloudy light (yes, it clouded over again!) none of them come close to replicating what I saw. Mountains were piled upon mountains, many being 12,000-14,000’ high. They seem higher since we were only t 1000’ – 2000’. I wish I could show you.

We did see glacier after glacier again.

There we’re lots and lots of much smaller glaciers along the way plus one larger one I couldn’t get a safe spot to photograph. These two are the big touristy ones.

We also visited one of the visitor centers for Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. This is the largest national park in the US with over 13M acres in the park and another 4.8M acres in the preserve. The park by itself makes up 15% of the total acres of the entire national park system! Sadly the native cultural center was closed, but they did have a fish wheel outside. When the salmon are running upriver to spawn, they truly just swim into the basket and get dumped into the box!

The last canyon before we reached Valdez is not far below Thompson Pass. The pass is the snowiest place in the US averaging 500” of snow a year. It had odd road markers well above our heads for plowing! The canyon is the repository of all that snow, and is deeply carved by the runoff. It is so full of waterfalls that you see multiples everywhere you look. The most famous are Bridal Veil and Horsetail Falls. They have huge pull offs to handle the sightseeing visitors.

Next to the pull off for Bridal Veil Falls there was this cute little spring gushing out of the wall drilled out for the road.

We are staying in the Bear Paw Adult Campground. There are only a couple dozen sites here, but they have a nearby family campground with many, many more. It is very crowded with all our big rigs parked in here. This is much quieter, and our site is right on the harbor entrance. We sat outside a while just watching the commercial and private boats move in and out of the harbor. There is separate docking for the massive oil tankers that move the 2,000,000 barrels of oil that comes from the Trans-Alaska Pipeline every day. Tomorrow we go on a wildlife/glacier cruise. I hope the weather stays dry.

Palmer, AK

First an important announcement: Today it did not rain!

Now to our story …

We arrived in Palmer on Sunday, 21 August, after a fairly short drive. We didn’t do much after we arrived, just took naps and went out to eat in the evening. We decided it had been so long since we last ate fast food, we decided to eat at Wendy’s! It sounds ridiculous, but I was so tired of monster restaurant burgers and huge portions we end up having for lunch the next day. I wish American restaurants would just have nice, realistic portions. Sigh.

It was a good thing we took it easy Sunday, because we did nothing but run around on Monday, 22 August. We started with a tour of the Colony House Museum, a restored house from the Matanuska Colony, a New Deal resettlement that brought 204 families from the northern reaches of the Midwest to settle in Alaska. It was both to help the families recover, and, more importantly to the US Government, increase the population of a very sparsely settled territory that seemed in some danger from other countries. It was a fascinating study in community with centralized government, utilities, and stores while each family was given 40 acres of land, a house, a barn, moving expenses, and living expenses for what amounted to a year while they got their farms established. The valley where Palmer is located is unusual. It has great soil, but was heavily forested. The growing season is short, but the long days of sunlight give plants an extra boost. They have had cabbages weight 100 pounds and rutabagas weight 50 pounds! We also got a walking tour of the old colony area. Quite interesting. And the scenery surrounding us is spectacular!

Looking down the street in each direction

After the tours we had lunch at the Colony Alehouse, located in the historic old colony storehouse. We had a brief break then we went to the only Musk Ox farm in the world. I had really wanted to see musk ox in the wild, but we weren’t going to be far enough north. This was a good second choice. Note the farm trims the horns for the animal’s safety. They have a tendency to roughhouse with each other, and the sharp horns can cause damage.

Mature musk oxen have a helmet style of horn.

Young ones have horns, but not the full helmet yet

The animals weren’t as large as I expected them to be. They are left overs from the last ice age where they coexisted with megafauna like mastodons! These are maybe 600 pounds full grown, significantly smaller than a bison.

After the musk ox, we went to the Independence Mine State Historical Site. Fascinating place! As with almost all the mines in Alaska, this one existed to mine gold. It was immensely profitable in its heyday, but it closed down in 1951. They basically just walked away from it, so it still has a large number of historic buildings and a reasonable amount of machinery. The mill was removed and other accessory machinery, but you can still see an awful lot even with the 70+ hard Alaska winters since.

This boarding house for the miners has been renovated.

The mine supervisor’s home, now the Visitor Center

But not everything made it through unscathed

We were sorry we couldn’t have been here for the few tours they do each day, but the self-guided tour was still enjoyable. The spot had great interpretive signage to put it in context.

And just like most of the places we have seen, there were glaciers.

Of course there is a glacier in the distance!

We were only at 3500’, but it was obvious that autumn was beginning.

Tomorrow we go to Valdez, another coastal town.

Last few days in Seward

I am really getting tired of coastal Alaska! I am naturally a desert girl, craving dry air, and all it has done for days and days is rain. They tell me coastal Alaska generally gets significant rain in August, this continuous weeks long deluge is quite unusual. Doesn’t matter to me whether it is usual or not, I am OVER it! We have to put our bath towels in the dryer after a shower or they don’t dry by the next morning. I have to wash towels and the bath mat with a bit of bleach every few days or they smell musty, even after drying. The inside windows of the motorhome fog up if we don’t leave our vents open, and we sometimes need to open a window even at 50 degrees. Ugh. I kind of feel like this stump I photographed in this temperate rainforest.

We have done some enjoyable activities though, as much as I complain about the rain. We arrived on Wednesday, and Thursday we went to the Alaska Sealife Center. Fabulous place. One of the advantages of being in a caravan is we have access to programs given only to groups that book in advance. Here we got “The Puffin Experience” which was an aviculturist (bird specialist) talk to us about Alcids, the birds like Puffins that live on the open ocean but come ashore to nest. It was special because the aviary is actually completely closed to regular visitors because of the avian flu that has been killing birds all over the continent. (It is also the reason no eggs or fresh chicken allowed across any border right now!) We got to see a Rhinoceros Auklet up close. This bird was hand reared at the Center, and believes people are its same species so they use it in public shows. You can see some of the infection precautions – masks on all humans (including us), sanitizing wipes sized liberally, and gloves. We also had to walk on a sanitizing mat to make sure our shoes didn’t bring the avian flu into the Center. The demo bird is also kept away from the rest of the aviary. The pictures show clearly why the bird got its common name.

We also went through the fabulous aquarium with all kinds of Alaskan sealife. Oh, and they have a great gift shop! A few things just might have come home with me …

After the Sealife Center we had lunch then went to the Idadride. That isn’t a typo. It is a fun activity operated by a 2 time Iditarod winner to showcase his dogs and keep them in training in the summer. We got an introduction to the gear an Iditarod racer uses, got to pet some adorable puppies, and then we were taken for a ride in a wheeled cart pulled by 14 dogs! Fabulous place.

The kennels. Open runs instead of chains like we saw before

And puppies will be puppies (6 weeks old)

Adolescent dog (11 months) just beginning training plus his musher and her gear

A view of partially harnessed dogs and the carts

These dogs runs 50 miles pulling a 300 pound sled while racing, but in the summer they also train with a 3000 pound cart (including the 8 visitors and the musher) for a bit less than 2 miles. They were quiet until the last dog was harnessed, and then they started howling to GO! Click to watch a bit of them pulling the cart.

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Yesterday we took a four hour Kenai Fjords wildlife boat tour with Major Marine Tours. We saw lots of wildlife, but I have very few pictures to prove it! We saw bald eagles, both adults and two fledglings sitting on the side of their nest; puffins by the dozens, both fringed and horned; common murres, also by the dozens; sea otters, also dozens; and nice groupings o harbor seals and Steller sea lions. We even got a glimpse of some orcas! I sat inside most of the time because it was, of course, raining, but trust me, I did see them all! They were all clear through the binoculars, but between rain and distance, my camera just wasn’t cutting it.

Today we did exciting things like 4 loads of laundry! I also finished the baby quilt I have been working on. I found a nice laundry in Palmer, tomorrow’s destination. I will wash it, and ship it from there.

Homer and then to Seward

We had a great time on our wildlife tour on Monday, 15 August. We went with Coldwater Tours, but I bet the same basic tour is available from other vendors. The boat was quite nice, and our captain Zach knew a lot about the birds. It wasn’t a narrated trip with him talking about the history or geography, but he pointed out animals along the way, and he really seemed to enjoy discussing the birds. He was very cautious not to disturb wildlife, and I appreciated that. We also absolutely lucked out with the weather! It has been raining for days, but we didn’t get rained on even once on the trip.

First some basic landscapes.

Don’t you think this could sail to the south?

Very spooky clouds covering the mountain tops

A moment of clarity to see a mountain top and glacier

Now to the animals. Our first was this bald eagle posing for us.

We saw a harbor seal who got stuck on rocks at high tide and could get safely off at the lower tide we were in. We stayed well off the point he was on so as to not scare him. The only picture I took just shows a blog of light color on dark rocks, so I won’t insult you with it. We also saw lots and lots of sea otters. Most were just floating on their backs to watch us.

We saw a bunch of jelly fish, all orange like the one below. They ranged in size from a small 2-3” to 9” plus. This one was about 6” in diameter.

And then there were the birds! Lots of birds. All kinds of gulls plus puffins! There were two rocky outcroppings used as nesting areas for a variety of gulls and other birds. The eggs are just laid on the bare rock in a crevice just big enough to hold them. The captain said the eggs are not round but pointed so they don’t roll off as easy. You can see the spots where the nests had been by the droppings and sometimes a dab of seaweed.

More exciting than gulls were the puffins! We saw both a crested puffin and horned puffin. However the only good picture I got was of crested puffins. The horned ones always had their back to me when trying to take a picture, and from the back they are just a black bird.

It was our first time seeing a puffin in the wild. They are rare enough that the captain says he doesn’t always get to show them to passengers.

We saw no large mammals – no moose, no bear. Sigh.

On Tuesday I finished up the baby quilt for Baby Lucy, scheduled to arrive this month. At least I thought I finished. Turns out I forgot to quilt the middle medallion! I was pretty irritated with myself since I was so excited to finish the binding and thought it ready to wash and mail. Oops! I also didn’t have enough of the color of thread I needed, so I had to wait until this afternoon to buy some along the way. Thank goodness for nice, small town quilt shops with a good selection. I guess it will be a few more days until I get it in the mail.

Today we drove to Seward. It rained pretty steadily, and we didn’t expect to see much along the way. Surprise! We found a nice cow and calf moose. Moose have a tendency to hide in the brush, and these two did their best.

We are now settled in at Stoney Creek RV Park outside Seward. Nice place with more room than we have had recently plus 50 amp power! That is unusual in Alaska. Most places have 30 amp, and it doesn’t always work well even at that level. We had a fabulous dinner at the Gold Rush a bistro in town plus did exciting things like go grocery shopping including getting some sea sickness preventatives – Dramamine, candied ginger, and peppermint. We go on another much longer wildlife cruise in a couple of days, and the water could be rough. Hope it calms down some before then as it is very rough right now.

We did some sightseeing to the literal end of the road and saw this fabulous waterfall.

The rain is forecast to continue, and we are almost surely going to miss the strong aurora forecast for tonight. Oh well.