Cajun Riviera!

We left the camp near Amite, Louisiana, in the morning and planned a stop at a rest area along I-10, but it was gone. So many rest areas have been taken out and GPS's and maps don't have the information yet. So we continued on.

We had a couple spots to stop for the night near Lake Charles, but first we had to cross that high bridge at Lake Charles! The first camp was a motel/RV park which gets really good reviews and we did go by it. It looked like a very nice park and we thought if the other spot didn't pan out, we would come back to that one. We got on down near Sulpur, Louisiana, and crossed over the lift bridge that spans camp the Intracoastal Waterway. We could see the camp on the far side of the canal, but we had to drive on around the curve to come back into it. It is a very nice county park with water and 50A electric for $12 a night. Whoo hoo! Terry's kind of park. There is a bathhouse, but it's not as nice as ours! We are parked right on the canal with steps that lead down to the water.

We can see all kinds of barges, boats, yachts, fishing boats, etc., going under the bridge. It only has to lift the deck when something extra high goes through, so most of the time, it stays down. It's pretty cool.

Yesterday afternoon Terry wanted to go down to Cameron, Louisiana, because he read really good reviews about a restaurant there. I looked up the venue and found it was basically a burger joint and all the fish/seafood was fried, which I don't care for. But we decided to go have a look. What a ride!

It was a bit reminiscent of the drive down to Cousin Gary's place at Leeville, except it was even more desolate and less populated. Water on both sides and marshy grasses. Most of the way was a nice two-lane highway with pull offs and parking areas for you to fish the bayous and canals. And there were a lot of people fishing. There were warning signs for alligators. . . no thank you! We passed through Hackberry, which was the last "town" we really saw that had a grocery/post office, before we got to Cameron.

We first came to Holly Beach, which is known as "The Cajun Riviera." We have heard of this before and were always curious about it. It is one fine beach. You can drive and camp on the beach. There are no high rises, but there are houses on stilts and lots of RV's. One person had rentals at one time and they got blown away by one hurricane, then another finished them off. So now he has some FEMA trailers in there and rents them out to tourists. He said he can't get insurance on any structures there anymore, so he went cheaper. All the roads are still there from before the hurricanes. From my research, the first hurricane to hit the populated beach was Hurricane Audrey in 1957. Next was Hurricane Rita in 2005, and then Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008. Still there are about 300 people who live on this stretch of the Cajun Riviera. It really is an unspoiled bit of paradise where one could sit on the beach enjoying the sand and the winds off the Gulf. There appear to be many RV's on lots, some are rentals, but some may be owner occupied.

We decided to continue on to Cameron, even though we discovered we had to cross over an inlet by ferry! We couldn't remember the last time we were on a ferry! Perhaps the Yukon Territory? But we made it across, watching the dolphins play in the water. One was pushing straight up in the water, then he eventually made two leaps/flips completely out of the water! How cool. He was too quick for me to get pictures, but it was a thrill. We continued on to Cameron and found the "restaurant" Terry had wanted to eat at. We passed. . . I didn't want fried food and there were more restaurants on our GPS. . . . Yeah, we fell for that one. We continued the "14" miles which turned more into 35. The Harborside Seafood Restaurant was supposed to be in a small community on "Big Lake" but when we got there, we found only houses and no restaur

ant. Bummer. We were really hungry by now. We had decided to drive on up the east side of Calcasieu Lake (we are camped on the west side). . . how far could that be? Plenty far we found out. It was a LOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG drive and it got dark on us. It was even more desolate than the east side, but we still enjoyed the adventure. Once we got into civilization, we found a Taco Bell and ate a couple tacos before gassing up and making our way back to our camp. It was a FOUR HOUR ADVENTURE, kind of like what the "Minnow" took that fateful day. Ours had a much better ending, and Duchess was waiting on her supper when we got back. She opted to eat first, then go out. . . LOL.

Today we have our window shades pulled back so we can see the activity heading under the bridge. It's raining, as it did for the entire night, but it is supposed to stop later this morning, so it should be an enjoyable day. May head up to a casino later.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Friends have arrived!

Monday afternoon Jim and Luanne pulled in. They had spent the night with friends in Falfurrias and plans were to stay a few days there. But they were having car trouble and decided to try to get into the Kia dealer here in town for repairs. They were having heat/AC problem. They had heat, but couldn't control it and no A/C. Hmmmm. That's a problem down here because it is starting to warm up. We took them in the golf cart and showed them some of the parks in our system here. With the extra seat on the golf cart we added, we were all able to go. It was fun.

They were able to get an appointment for Tuesday morning. Once they got here we just sat outside enjoying the nice weather and visited. I thought after two hard days driving down here from Indiana, they might welcome a break and we got them settled in the Texas Room.

Tuesday morning we took their car to the Kia dealer and took off west. it turned out to be not so nice a day with misting and cool temperatures. So we decided not to do anything outside. Our destination was the Los Ebanos Ferry and it has been so long since we have been there, we missed the road. We ended up in Rio Grande City. We took them to the Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto at the Immaculate Conception Church. The mist held off so we could walk around and take some pictures.

We headed back to Mission and found the road to the ferry. We were so shocked when we got there. It has been several years since we have visited and they have put in a border checkpoint. It is a large building with driving lanes and all kinds of security. I always wondered why there wasn't a more secure checkpoint here. There used to be just a kiosk. We walked up to the little building in front of the fenced in walkway which was part of the new structure. The guy there charged us $1 to walk to the bridge and told us we only needed our drivers license. I wasn't sure why we needed that to go look at the ferry. But SURPRISE! You go past the border checkpoint, so you actually need a passport. After taking pictures of the ferry, which hasn't changed much, except they've added a checkpoint on the Mexico side as well, we walked back up to the building to go back to the car. We were stopped and asked for our passports or a birth certificate. Well, now, I know we need our passport to go to Mexico. But we didn't leave the U.S. But they wanted them. In the end, they took our drivers licenses which they used to call up our passports. Luanne, however, doesn't have a passport. We really didn't want to leave her there, but they allowed us all to move on, reminded us next time to have our passports. Nuff said.

On the way back to Mission, Kia called and said the car was done. All they had to do was reprogram the computer and all is well. Covered under warranty. I was so glad they were able to get it in quickly and fixed it. Hope they don't have any trouble on the way home.

Later in the evening, Luanne and I went over to the hall to play Bingo. The guys hung out and rested up from their day!

Till next time. . .

Dale

Prince Rupert to Fort Telkwa, British Columbia

What a night! Our ferry left last night at 7:45 p.m. and we had quite a sendoff. Two eagles were poised at the pier and supervised the exit from the dock. Pretty cool. It was overcast and misting at times, but it was still a nice view down through the channels. There were not a lot of people on the boat. . . we probably had fewer than 15 in the forward observation lounge. We had reserved a cabin which I thought would be good for the 7.5 hour sailing so that Terry could get some rest. I planned to as well, but I wanted to at least check sometime during the night to see if there were any visible auroras.

As it was, I forgot to turn my phone off and we were both snoozing when I got text messages from Verizon hawking their international plan. . . which basically is non-existent anyway. I could have done without the wakeup call. Once up though, at midnight it was, I headed up to the observation deck, but no one was there and it was dark, so I went back to the cabin and tried to get back to sleep. That was not to be because at 1:30 we were slowing down coming into port. ???? Thought this was a 7 hour ride? Well, it took another hour to dock and we were "early," so we got up and ready to depart.

Once off the boat, we had to go through customs. There weren't that many vehicles on the boat, but we all had to go through customs and they were taking their time. The people in front of us were pulled over, but when we got up there, we sailed through. The guy was very nice and talked to us about our trip.

It was 4:30 a.m. so we stopped in Prince Rupert at Tim Horton's and got coffee. Then we headed out. It was foggy, but the roads were good so we made good time. We were both tired, though. When we got to the next town, we found a restaurant and ate breakfast. Then about 25 miles down the road, we were really tired, so we pulled into a rest area and slept for about an hour and a half. That refreshed us and we pushed on to Fort Telkwa where we are in a nice full hookup campsite with a very nice bathhouse. We were tired by the time we got here, though, so once again, we just crashed and slept. Terry slept less than I did. . . I slept till 6 p.m. Then I fixed us some supper and we sat outside a bit. We are next to a river, but up high. It is a lovely view, however, with mountains in the background.

Tonight as we left the coach for the bathhouse I looked across the river and saw a fox! He was hunting along the river bank on the far side. We watched for awhile, then I got the camera and was able to get off a couple quick shots of him. Cool.

Tomorrow we will probably stop in Prince George, B.C. or we may go further. We are anxious to get home now that Brynlee is here!

Till next time. . .

Dale

Sitka to Ketchikan, Alaska

All our alarms rang this morning and we were up at 4:30 a.m. We got up and got things stowed and checked in at the ferry dock early, at 5:45. It was then we learned that the ferry would be leaving an hour late. LOL No problems, just a tide issue and they had to wait on the tide.

So we got in line and talked a bit with some other travelers which always makes the time go fast. We actually got loaded earlier than we thought and it was interesting. This is a different ship than we have been on before and we are making multiples stops before we get to Ketchikan. We drove on and were put in a “hold” position and eventually backed up into the slot where they wanted us. Hmmmm. Whatever works.

Once we got parked, we headed up the stairs and to the purser's office to get the keys to our cabin. Since we will be on the ship for 24 hours, we booked a cabin. It was surprisingly very comfortable. Bunk beds, but very large singles, :-) and a bathroom with a shower. Very nice. We stowed our gear that we didn't want to drag around with us and went up top to watch our departure. Fog had rolled in, but it doesn't seem to last long. We have had fog off and on all day. We weren't sitting for long before we both got tired, so we went back to our room and lay down. After about an hour, we starting moving again and heard the captain announce that killer whales were spotted on the starboard side. We looked out our window and a huge whale was right next to us! Whoo hoo! He was doing that thing where they come up. . . breech? Not a dive, but it was pretty cool.

So, we have been busy today doing nothing. . . going from the observation deck to the lounge, to the “quiet” room. . . we read, we rest, we talk with other passengers, ate lunch. . . watch for animals. We saw some sea lions. As we were coming into port in Kake, we saw a humpback whale. . . he rolled a couple times, then dove and “gave us the tail.” It's been a very enjoyable trip and we have a ways to go yet. It's 4:30 p.m. and we get into Ketchikan at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow morning.

Our next stop after Kake was Petersburg, which is known as "Little Norway" reflecting the heritage of the settlement. They have a replica of a Viking boat and I managed to get a quick shot of it as we sailed by.  We also were treated to a rainbow effect of the sun peaking through the fog and mist and landing on this island. Not sure what this would be called, but it was pretty.

Till next time. . . 

Dale

Haines, Alaska, to Juneau, Alaska!

We've been sleeping in a bit recently. Can't believe we have actually accomplished that with the light outside. We have found getting to sleep easy as it now is getter “darker.” By 10:30 it's too dark to read outside. The other part of that is that at 3:30 a.m. when I first wakeup, it is already light outside. . . enough to read by. It is pretty cool actually, because it is different from that to which we are accustomed.

We broke camp around 10 and drove into town. The one market was open, so we went in and looked around. We also went into an Alaska sports store and checked out their merchandise. Terry bought some “gorilla tape” so I'm wondering what we have that needs fixing. LOL We stopped in at “Rod's Alaska” which is a shop of items made in Alaska. The owner was in the shop and we had a very interesting visit with her. Ninety-nine percent of the goods she sells are made in Alaska by local artists and she sells them on consignment. It was a neat shop because there were a lot of different items offered that showcased each one's talents. We visited as we looked around the store and we ended up buying some stuff. Terry bought a knife with a wood handle which the owner's husband makes himself. It is beautiful and is quite a work of art. While we were in there, I asked her where I could find information about the cemetery we saw along the road to the airport. We had seen it yesterday and there was no signage and no place to stop, so we couldn't check it out. Turns out the store owner's husband, Rod, had taken it upon himself a few years ago to create a project to clean up that cemetery using some local youth. They repainted the fencing and straightened and cleaned up the headstones. It is an old Tlinget cemetery and the remains of their village are behind the cemetery over the hill. The town has been reluctant to post any signage or provide information on the village, thinking there isn't much interest in it, but I would like to know more.

We then drove out past the ferry terminal where we will be loading at 4 p.m. Our ferry was there, but loading for a run over to Skagway and back at which time we will board. The Chilkoot State Park was five miles past the dock and the scenery getting there was spectacular. It is another warm and sunny day here. Yesterday we had to shed our jackets and eventually turn on the air conditioning because it was warming up. At the end of the road, the Chilkoot Lake appears. It's a beautiful lake and a lot of people were taking advantage of the weather to fish.

On the way back out, we stopped and took pictures at the river. This is a river where bears fish, but because there don't seem to be a lot of salmon right now, we didn't see any fishing bears. We did see some people fishing, but we didn't see them catching anything. Perhaps the bears know more than we do. LOL We stopped at one turnout and took pictures, then we had a quick lunch. As we drove on out, I spotted an eagle fishing. I actually got some pictures of him flying. It was a quick setup and I was shooting through the windshield with sun glaring in, so some reflection is present, but it was fun to see the eagles anyway. We also saw one from across the river. She flew up into a tree and we noticed nest on top of the tree. So cool.

We came to the ferry terminal and got checked in. We decided to stay here and get in line, which we did. We are the first one in our row. Whoo hoo!

The boat arrived on time and we drove onto the ferry and got parked. Then we headed up to the observation deck where we stayed for the first couple hours of the trip. We saw a lot of great scenery, including glaciers and whales. We passed by an octagonal lighthouse sitting out on a rock. Later we went down to the cafeteria and had some dinner. They had quite a variety of food items available and it wasn't too bad, but the dining room was a madhouse with kids, families, etc. It was very loud, so as soon as we were finished, we headed outside and up to the solarium. That is the top deck on the boat and half of the deck is covered but open. It was very pleasant, views were great, and very few kids. As the evening waned on, it started getting a little cooler, so we headed back down and read in the computer room for a bit, then on to the observation deck again. Within a short time we were headed into port in Juneau. Interestingly enough, there was an eagle perched on a light pole right at the dock. He seemed quite interested in our boat docking and maintained a constant vigil not more than six feet up the pole the entire time we were pulling in. When we left the deck to go down to the motorhome, he was still perched there. Pretty cool!

We managed to get out in good shape and found our campground quickly. Our site was waiting for us and we got in and set up by 10:45 p.m.

Till next time. . . 

Dale

Seward to Whittier to Anchorage!

We left Seward this morning. We had a great time there and saw a lot of animals while we were there. There was another cruise ship in dock on Sunday when we were down there. We visited the Marine Life Center. It's kind of an aquarium, but serves more as an educational venue. There were several different species of animals though and some we hadn't seen yet, so that was fun.

We also spent some time visiting the shops in town. Seward has a larger and more organized downtown area than we have seen in the smaller Alaska towns. We took advantage of the shops and browsed. We had a nice time walking around and meeting and talking with the shop owners. They are all curious about where people are from and how far they have come to see their state.

On our drive out of camp this morning, we saw a moose cow about knee deep in the marsh eating away at plants. She pulled her head out of the water and had a mouthful of luscious greens hanging out of her mouth. . . just like you see in pictures.

It was raining all morning and we had a fairly short drive of 2 1/2 hours to Anchorage, so we detoured and took the road to Whittier. Whittier sits on the water, but the only way there besides water or air is to take a 2 1/2 mile tunnel. The tunnel is shared by cars and the railroad, so coordination is the key! It is narrow and the tunnel is acutally carved out of the rock. The sides of it are very rough and jagged. There are several "safe houses" along the route so if there is an emergency in the tunnel, you can make your way to one of those. There are some pull offs at those areas as well. It is a bit spooky or I should say claustrophobic, but you can actually see both ends of the tunnel while you are in there. You have to drive on the railroad rail which is a little squirrely. We got through it and out the other side and saw a cruise ship was in the harbor. Also there was a ferry there. We had talked at one time of taking the ferry over to Valdez and this would have been the ferry we would have taken. But we decided since we had the time, we would do the drive. There is not much in Whittier except for the terminals so we did a lap through town and then started back. There is a schedule for moving through the tunnel and we lucked out when we arrived that we were able to proceed directly through. It happened the same on the way out, and we got through very quickly.

We got back onto the Seward Highway headed toward Anchorage. We arrived and parked across from Tab and Deanna. We then took off and went downtown to the Ulu Knife Factory. The Ulu knife is a knife made in Alaska and is of a unique design. We watched them making the knives in their factory and checked out their store. Afterward, we parked near the downtown area and walked down Fourth Avenue, which is the main tourist area. We picked up a few things and enjoyed the walk.

We are now back at our campground and planning our route tomorrow. We will drive to Valdez tomorrow for three nights. Looking forward to that!

Till next time. . .

Dale

Seldovia

This post is out of order! This is the post for Thursday, June 27, but since I didn't get it posted, I am not able to move it up in the order. So just remember this is for yesterday!

We woke up to really foggy skies on the day we were to take the fast ferry to Seldovia, which is a small community across Kachemak Bay from Homer. It is only accessible by ferry or plane. Earlier this month, we purchased an Alaska Toursaver coupon book and there are many 2 for 1 specials in it, including one for this ferry ride. So we all planned to go. We were going to go Wednesday, which was a beautiful, bright sunny day, but the ferry doesn't run on Tuesday and Wednesday. So we went today. Tab and Deanna decided to stay in camp and relax, so we were on our own.

The ferry ride was exceptionally smooth. On the way out of the harbor we saw either a seal or sea otter. We really don't know which one it was. There are a lot of sea otters here and we did see some in the harbor at Seldovia. We also saw seals on the buoy heading into the harbor.

The ride over was very foggy. The vessel was very comfortable with large padded seats and tables. Although people were moving about the boat, I was a bit unsteady on my feet while underway, so only stood at my seat to take pictures.

Once we arrived, we walked about town. It is an interested place and there is a museum depicting the history of the town. Until the 1964 earthquake that devastated much of southern Alaska, it was the fishing hub of the area. The earthquake devastated the town and destroyed the canneries there. The boardwalk, famous for its houses and shops, lay in ruins in the ocean. Much of the town was there as well. They rebuilt portions of the town by bulldozing a large hill and fixing a rock embankment, then built shops and houses on top. The population is about 250 now and residents there are very happy and enjoy visitors. There is water, electric, and paved roads, a police departments, and restaurants. We found the village very quaint and hospitable.

There was another Russian Orthodox church here, once again reflecting the heritage of the people from years ago.

There were a lot of eagles here as well. They perched on top of buildings and fished the waters surrounding the town.

The fog lifted some while we were in the town, but when we were ready to leave, we were once again shrouded in fog. Most of the journey back was the same. We had another enjoyable and relaxing trip back and when we arrived, we relocated to one of the city park campgrounds with Tab and Deanna.

Another enjoyable day!

Till next time. . .

Dale