Florida Time!

We drove for three days, some longer days than normal for us, but we wanted to get to Florida and spend some time with Brandon. He had a couple days off while Megan was gone to a Plexus seminar, so we got to spend some rare time with him on a weekday. He wanted to attend an event on Saturday, so we got to babysit. That was soooo easy. They don't even have to sneak out of the house. They just tell Brynlee bye and that Grandma and Grandpa are staying with her while Daddy goes away for a bit and she's fine with that. I find that pretty remarkable for a two-year old!

I got to go to a swim lesson for Brynlee, but they wouldn't let me take pictures. She enjoyed the water and got to play with Megan in the pool. She's certainly not afraid of the water. I know Megan and Brandon want her to learn enough to save herself at this stage if she were to fall in the pool.


We had really good weather while we were there. It was sunny and temperatures were mild. But there was some wind for several days. No hurricanes or anything, but we went out to the beach one day to look at the surf and it was really wild. It was a little hard to even stand up. There were small craft warnings and, of course, no swimming or surfing. The waves were really big.

We camped at Wickham Park again. They have really made improvements in this park and we have come back to it after several years' hiatus. There were gypsies living in it years ago and they just took over the comfort stations and had derelict rigs and hardly ever followed the rules. It's been cleaned up a lot since then and we are enjoying camping there once again. The sites are so spacious it makes for a comfortable stay. This time they were in the process of putting up the Christmas lights and just about every night when we arrived back after dark, another section would be lit. They do that at night and then go around changing and adding bulbs. It's a lot easier to see them at night.

An extra special treat was seeing two eagles in the park. They were on light poles and were quite a ways from me, but I was able to snap a couple decent pix with my Sony. They were beautiful birds and I got to see one take off and soar around.

We babysat again for Brynlee while Brandon and Megan went out to eat. It was so much fun to be able to play with her and listen to her. She talks a lot and I was able to understand a lot of what she says, but not everything. But if I tell her I don't understand her, she doesn't get mad. She just goes on to something else. LOL

As usual, our time there ended way too soon and we found ourselves headed out of Florida toward cousin Gary and Jo's in Zachary, Louisiana.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Juneau, Alaska

We arrived in Juneau Sunday night and went straight to bed. The next morning we got up and broke camp. We drove over to Bob and Val's house. Bob and Terry were in cancer treatment together in Houston 2 1/2 years ago and we wanted to visit with him since we were here.

So we met up with them at their house which was literally across the street from the campground and they told us what not to miss on our day out in the city. We didn't plan to do the downtown the first day, but wanted to see some other sites first. . . like the Mendenhall Glacier. We went there first. It was only about 1 1/2 miles from their house and we had ample parking for MinnieMee. The glacier is very large with a waterfall to the side. The lake, known as Mendenhall Lake, has icebergs in it and is extremely cold. Brrrrrr. We hiked out to a photo point for closer pictures, but we didn't hike to the falls. A bit too far.

On the way back to the motorhome, we found a face staring at us from the ditch. A huge porcupine. Terry had been wanted to see one, but I didn't think we would get the chance. He was very pretty and I got one picture of his face before he hid in the culvert. After that, all I could see were his back and tail. LOL

We drove on toward town and stopped at the fish hatchery. We crossed Salmon Creek and could see the salmon running, so found the RV lot and parked. Walking up to the building, we passed by the fish wier, or ladder. Similar to Valdez, they collect thousands of fish into the fish ladder where they are routed up into holding tanks. Once the fish have produced eggs, they herd them into a tank and zap them with electricity to stun them. They they harvest the eggs and fertilize them by squeezing the sperm from the male fish. Then the fish are sent overseas where it is determined if they are fit for "human use." But they primarily are used in the production of pet food. I didn't quite get this at all. I inquired where they got the salmon they sold in their gift store and they told me. . . "from out there" and motioned to the harbor. LOL I'm thinking. . . hmmmm. At Valdez, the fish are processed and sold in their retail outlet. I'm a little bit mystified by the procreating of "pet food fish." Why don't they fertilize and produce salmon fit to eat? Something tells me they do. Sounds like a coverup. LOL

We drove downtown Juneau in MinnieMee and decided (as we were told) there was no place to park, but we got a feel for the place just the same. We checked out the creek on the way back and watched salmon going up the creek. These were ones which managed to avoid the fish ladder.

Later, Val and Bob came by and took us out sightseeing. Since it is light way late, it offers a good bit of time in the evening to see stuff. We went and visited the Chapel by the Lake and the Shrine of St. Therese. Both very impressive. We took pictures from several coves and Eagle Beach which has. . . EAGLES! There were both adults and juveniles. We continued to drive out till the road ends. Near the end we found a guy taking pictures. We stopped and he showed us an eagle nest. One of the adults was there and there were two babies in the nest. They were pretty good size and appeared to be plucking out their downy fluff as their feathers were coming in.

It was a great evening with great friends. We got back to the rig close to 11 p.m. but we had seen a lot!






Till next time. . .

Dale

Around Haines, Alaska

Haines is a quaint little village that has some interesting things to explore. If you are into hiking and the outdoors, there are a couple state parks and the eagle preserve that would be very much to your liking.

We started out by checking out the bald eagle preserve. It is a strip of land between a river and the mountains and in the fall, as many as 3500 eagles come here. The port is ice free and they come for the climate and the fish. Unfortunately, we didn't see any wildlife on this visit, but it was an enjoyable drive. We did see an old cemetery along the road and nothing that identified it, so I will have to investigate that a bit. We drove out to the Roadhouse 33 and had lunch, then turned around and headed back into town.

Once back in town, we went out the other direction to the Chilkat State Park. Getting there was a bit tricky. Once you get off the main road in Alaska, there are dirt roads. . . and worse, NON-maintained roads. But it wasn't too bad and on the way back there we did see eagles. We saw one group which may have been a family. There were two adults and three juveniles. Pretty awesome. We wandered back to a camp host cabin and enjoyed the view from his deck. There were two glaciers visible, one called Rainbow Glacier that had a large waterfall at the bottom.

We drove back into town and passed through the Ft. Seward grounds. This was a fort and when it was abandoned, it was purchased by some veterans who have maintained it and use the buildings for many different things. It has been declared a national historic site.

Tomorrow we are heading to Juneau. We may do a little more sightseeing in the morning.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Valdez back to Tok!

Yesterday we spent a little time wandering around Valdez. It continued to rain, but Valdez still had their parade and other 4th of July activities. We talked to some people who said this was very typical weather for Valdez and they just plan on it. In addition to being rainy, it was cold, probably only in the low 50's or maybe 40's, but not freezing. But Valdez still has snow on the ground! We found this pile of it in town! We also found this trailer across from us to be interesting. It was obviously home built, but very nicely done. The biggest problem, however, is that with all the rain we had, when they wanted to be in out of the rain, their options were their car, or lying down in their trailer.

We took in a shop or two and then the Valdez museum. We had been to the museum annex where we saw a movie about the 1964 earthquake. Today's main museum was about the history or how the town began as a camp and later as prospectors came, others arrived to offer services, etc. It's so hard to comprehend that people took steamships up to Valdez from Washington, then climbed up over the Valdez Glacier to the Klondike goldfields on the other side. A lot of them didn't make it, but most of those who did found there were no gold claims left. It is an interesting history. There was also a stores called Anne's Sugar and Spice which showed free movies of both the earthquake and the building of the pipeline.

The museum also covered the earthquake in 1964 and the building of the pipeline from 1973-76. I found one fact of the pipeline interesting. They buried the pipeline in some places because they found out that the caribou would not go under it, thereby depriving them of being able to relocate to their wintering grounds. So the pipe was buried so the caribou would be able to traverse the areas they needed to. Other animals were not bothered by the pipeline. We have seen more pipeline on the way down to Valdez because the Richardson Highway, the route to Valdez, is the "Pipeline Highway." All the oil taken from the Prudhoe Bay area goes down the pipeline to the terminal at Valdez.

We also learned that cruise ships, long a boon to the local merchants, can no longer come into the port at Valdez. That occurred due to 9-11. My guess is because they consider the Valdez terminal to be a possible terrorist target. Just my opinion.

Today we drove out of a still rainy Valdez. Before we left, however, we took another look at the salmon fish hatchery. The tide was out and we were treated to a very cool view. Sitting on the stumps out in the mud were EAGLES! There was one on every stump. Some were adults, with their white heads and tails, and others were juveniles which look sort of spotted or mottled. Terry got one picture of several sitting on a spit and counted 3 adults and 3 juveniles.  When we left there we drove  up through the Thompson Pass and up the highway. We passed GlennAllen, where we had come in from Anchorage the other day, and proceeded north. We came to the Tok Cutoff which is the name they call the road that goes from the Richardson to Tok.

We did stop at the Worthington Glacier again. This time we got out and walked down the path a bit. You can hike all the way to the glacier and touch it, but we didn't do that. It looked like some rugged climbing and I couldn't do that. But we got some great pictures of the waterfalls and the blue ice in the crevices. Really cool.

We did see some moose again today, none close to the road. That is good, as I sure don't want to hit one, but it really makes photography difficult. Really have to zoom in and then getting a steady shot is harder.

We had a leisurely drive today because we had some bad road. One section on the Tok Cutoff was built on permafrost and it went back and forth from undulating to potholes, to gravel. It means slowing way down in order to keep everything in the cupboards.

We arrived at Three Bears Outpost about 4:30. We were here a few weeks ago on our way down from Chicken and on the way to Fairbanks. We are the ONLY ones in the park.

Tomorrow we head to Beaver Creek after crossing the border into Canada.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Homer to Seward. . .

After getting in off the ferry from Seldovia last evening, we went to the Mariner City Park on the Homer Spit. That is where Tab and Deanna went once they checked out yesterday morning. We were right on the "beach," although it is mostly rocky. There was a kite surfer that we watched for quite some time. Deanna said he had been going for at least an hour and he went almost another two hours. Wow. The winds were strong and it was very foggy, but it was pretty cool to watch him go up in the air and then down again into the water.

We settled in for the night. We ran our generator a little bit when our neighbors were gone. We didn't want to disturb them. But I would like to have strangled one this morning. Quiet hours were 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., but she started her generator at 5 a.m. and ran it for about 45 minutes. Grrrr.

The highlight of the morning was seeing eagles again. I ran out to tell Terry to get a picture of the one flying overhead and he was photographing the one sitting on the beach. Hah

We started the drive back up through Soldotna about 9 a.m. We stopped there and topped off some supplies at the Fred Meyer store. Terry and I left then while Tab and Deanna fueled. We wanted to stop off at the Russian River to see if we could see any bears fishing in the river. We went to the campground and walked down the trail to the river. There were some fishermen there and one woman who was watching her husband fish said a grizzly had just been down earlier, but walked on.  I didn't really want to see one face to face, but I did have my bear spray with me. We took a couple pictures and talked a bit then headed back out. The mosquitos were soooooo bad right there, so we didn't hang around. There were not nearly as many people there today as we saw earlier this week, so I'm guessing this particular run of salmon is about over. There are several different kinds of salmon and they all have their own times to run the river. Amazing how that works.

Along the way, we saw some moose. . . one grazing by the side of the road. We saw him a little late and he got spooked. Terry moved over into the other lane a bit because the moose started for the road. It would be a terrible thing to hit one of those animals. Luckily he veered off and turned toward the ditch. We also saw a cow and twin babies. So cute. We did see some snow up in the mountains on the way down here. . . kind of mini-glaciers.

We got to Seward behind Tab and Deanna and decided to go down into the town and see where our tour leaves from tomorrow. We are taking a 7.5 hours Kenai Fjords Wildlife and Glacier cruise. Pretty exciting. We leave at 10 a.m. and return around 5:30 p.m. They are serving a prime rib/salmon buffet, so we are pretty pumped for that! Whoo hoo! Hopefully we will see lots of great wildlife. There happened to be a cruise ship in the harbor. Pretty cool!

We are camped at the Stoney Creek RV Campground. It is pretty nice. . . one of the nicer parks we've been in here in Alaska. We will be here for three nights.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Around Homer. . .

We planned to go by ferry to Seldovia today, but when we got to the dock, we found out the ferry does not run on Monday and Tuesday. So we decided to spend the time exploring Homer today and go to Seldovia tomorrow.

It didn't take long to do Homer. :-) It, like most Alaska towns, is not large and it doesn't take long to see all there is to see. . . or at least a lot of it. This is not a criticism. Alaska is really only sparsely populated and if you come up here and expect very large cities at every turn in the road, you will be disappointed. We, on the other hand, find the communities to be quaint , charming and interesting. A lot of people working in the shops here are not Alaskans by birth, but came up here for some other reason and have stayed.

We got a shot of one of the glaciers that is visible from the spit. I actually got a better picture of it from town. And the eagles were on their nests again, so I got some shots of them. We do have some large military planes that fly around here. There obviously is an airbase close by.

Hopefully if the weather holds out, we will be able to go to Seldovia tomorrow.

Till next time. . .

Dale