"I" Can't See Russia from Wasilla! (Day 23)

Yes...we're in Wasilla, Alaska...the home of the infamous Sarah Palin!  Guess she's out of town according to the news...she's with her biker buddies in Washington D.C.  She also bought a home in Scottsdale, Arizona recently.  Sarah.....you won't be able to see Russia from Arizona!

Ate at a little local cafe in Wasilla.  Since Sarah was out of town and Bristol moved to California and the rest of the family managed to stay out of the spotlight...we don't care about them....that leaves Levi!  I bet some of those young waitresses in this cafe could tell us some stories about Levi.  Guess we're not all that interested, so we paid the bill and moved on to more interesting things like............... going to the Wasilla Walmart.

Walmart is Walmart wherever you go in the states....everyone wants to check out at the same time and they only have 4 checkouts open!  I think everyone in Wasilla decided to spend Memorial Day there.  The weather is in the 70's again, sunny and everyone was buying beautiful flowers and lawn care supplies. 

 Oh...here I go again with my flower flashbacks!

Now....here's a great idea for a business!  Instead of going out and buying flowers and plants...this bus would come to your house.  Great idea!  Do you think they would plant them for you too? :-)

Am I thinking too far outside the flower box?

Wildlife Update

1 Bug at the campground

Specie unknown and wish not to find out!

People-watching Update

A father, 3 teenagers, and 3 dogs live in this trailer.  I meant living...not camping in this small trailer.  People are having tough economic times everywhere.  It's sad to see things like this happening in our country, especially to young children.  I had a nice talk with the woman who owns this campground and she said that many of the campers stay here the whole winter. She said it rarely gets

below -20.  Burrrrrrr!

With all that is going on in our world...

we still have so much to be thankful for.

Who Downhill Bikes in the Fog? (Day 22)

Talk about the fog rolling in!  This is what we woke up to this morning in Valdez.  A little anxiety started to set in because I knew we had to go through Thompson Pass that was 2,600 ft. and it would get foggier!  I guess I can close my eyes if I get too scared, I'm not driving.  On the other hand...maybe the driver could use another pair of eyes to lookout for obstacles ahead.  I'm hoping the sun breaks through those low-hanging clouds and melts away all the fog before we get to higher elevations.  Well....before we embark on that problem we have to take care of a few necessities before we leave.  This is one of my major jobs ...........

Now don't belittle the magnitude of this job.  If you have ever worked with sewage, you would understand.  However, I do have to mention the importance of the guy on the other end of the hose with the big, black, rubber gloves on.  (glad I had a pedicure...you never know when a picture like this will go viral:-) 

You think this is bad....it got worse as we headed up Thompson's Pass.  Then....people on bikes with those funny, looking helmets started whizzing by us down the highway.  We couldn't believe that bikers would be racing under such conditions.  The police were stopping vehicles to warn them of the bike race taking place and to be on the lookout.  They even had flares on the top of the mountain where all the bikers were starting from.  We could hardly see anything until we were right upon them.  They even had an ambulance waiting in case of any injuries.  I'm just glad we were going away from the race and didn't have to dodge them in the fog.  Not being a bicycle racer myself...wouldn't biking up a hill show more skill than going down hill?  Why even use a bike...wouldn't a Radio Flyer Wagon do?  No matter what...it was scary! 

 As we got to lower elevations, the fog cleared and it was another beautiful, sunny day in Alaska.

 On our way to Wasilla, we came across miles and miles of terrain used for four-wheeling.  It looked like they set up their camps anywhere along the way and hopped onto a trail.  It looked like fun; but it sure looked dirty!  It looks dry here; 

 but the picture below shows that much of this area is wet. 

This must be heaven for a four-wheeler.  

   Our two sons would love this!  As I write this, they are in Indiana Jeeping in the mud.

These are the names of the last 2 campgrounds we have stayed at....I'm starting to see a pattern here.  Which reminds me...

these are the only "signs" of bear that we have seen!

WILDLIFE UPDATE...

        Bear...0

            Moose...0

      Elk...0

             Caribou...0
White Swans...2 (again, same 2?)

Red Squirrel...1

ROADKILL...

Skeleton of moose (?) in ditch

Bunnie again

Something unrecognizable 

     

Where's the "Wildlife?" (Day 21)

"People watching" and "talking to people along the way" can be almost as interesting as marveling at the sites.  For instance....we were, what seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, saw a young guy walking along the highway in cut-offs, a stocking hat and was barefoot.  You can't help but wonder why he was there and especially...why no shoes?  Then we had to stop for construction and the lady in the car in front of us came back and talked to us.  She was from the area, which again was in the middle of nowhere.  She was really nice and we asked her some questions about living so far from others.  She said that most of the people around there worked for the lumber companies or are in constructions work.  I asked her if she was heading to town and how far that might be.  She said the closest was about 20 miles; but it was a pretty small town.  She was heading to a town near Anchorage, so that was about 200 miles.  People in Alaska have been very friendly...they probably are happy to talk to someone because neighbors are few and far between!  I wonder if they think the same of us as they see us toodling down the road and wonder where those cheeseheads are going :-)

Some beautiful scenery on our way to Valdez on Prince William Sound.  You probably remember the little town of Valdez and the Exxon Oil Tanker's destructive oil spill of 1989. The wildlife and the livelihood of the people that lived in this area are still trying to recover from that disaster. 

We are so glad we chose this route, the mountains have topped anything we have seen in Alaska "so far!"  We even saw a glacier!  They're easy to pick out because the ice has a turquoise color to it.

Remember all the wildlife someone told us we would see on this highway?  Do 3 bunnies (one of which was flatten on the road), and 2 mosquitoes and a fly that were in the motor home count?  Oh...we did see two white swans on one of the lakes that was very picturesque (except I missed the picture)  The lady in the construction zone told us that just a few weeks ago,  over 100 caribou crossed a short distance from where we were.   She said they were heading to where it is cooler and has less insects.  We can verify for the bugs, we saw them!  Maybe tomorrow when we have to take the same highway back; but this time it will be mostly uphill, they will come out of the woods to make some tourists happy. 

We came through a pass and there were these magnificent waterfalls coming down in numerous places.  I think our mouths dropped open when we rounded the bend and this view was in front of us.  We couldn't pull over fast enough to try and capture their splendor!  As we went down the highway, everywhere we looked we could see waterfalls pouring down the mountain sides.

There were other things we could see going down the mountain sides.  It was the Alaskan Pipeline.  It's something to see and must have been a nightmare to put in place.  This picture is a closeup of the size of the pipe that was used to transport oil from Prudhoe Bay in the Arctic Circle to Valdez where it is put on oil transporters.  Are the transporters going the wrong way because gas was $4.69 today!

I pictured Valdez as a good-sized town. There is only one gas station and one grocery store.  There are a lot of restaurants and gift shops because they cater to the tourists, boaters, kayakers, bikers and hikers.  All the activity is right by the water.  Our campsite is right across the street so we have a good view of all the sites.

    I guess you would say that the harbor is downtown area.

This my "Odd Photo of the Day."  It is by the office of our campground.  The cans are attached to a large tree root and has plants growing in each of the cans.  I thought it was artistic in an "odd" way....I won't tell you what Bill thought it looked like.  Tomorrow we are heading to Wasilla....oh...that reminds me I need to buy eggs at the grocery store :-)  You do know that meant I need eggs to make breakfast.

The Texas Cash Master (Day 20)

This is DannyLee Whittle....The Texas Cash Master.  He was the entertainment at the campground tonight after the pancake toss competition.  He did a lot of Johnny Cash...reason for being called the Texas Cash Master I assume.  We could sit at our campsite table and enjoy the show :-)  Actually, he was pretty good and played straight for about three hours.  He wanted people to come up and do kareoke; but no one had enough beers I guess.  If any of my blog followers are interested in hiring Mr. Whittle for you next party...here is his email address www.texascashmaster@yahoo.com :-)  For you Wisconsinites and the other 49ers ...I doubt he goes out of state. Guess you'll just have to visit the Sourdough Campground in AK :-)

Here is Sourdough Campground in case you make it to
Tok, (long O) Alaska. 

Sourdough Campground even has a museum.  
It's quite unique........

Went to town and saw our first moose.................................

Sorry about that.  Talked to some travelers and they said that they saw lots of moose and some bear on or near the highway we will be taking tomorrow.   Someone told us that a guy was on a motorcycle with a sidecar that carried his dog.  There was a bear on the road and the guy said the bear saw the dog and I guess felt threatened and chased them down the road for a way.  We will be enjoying the Alaskan wildlife from the comfort and safety of our vehicle :-)

   The front of this store was interesting because the logs used had lots of burls on them.  I am told that the burls are caused by diseases or injuries.  We saw lots of redwood tree with these on the Washington coastline.  Artists make beautiful wood bowls out of them.  I have seen these burls at home...
 but not like these.

This shop had everything in it to make a tourist happy....
I was very, very happy!

You can even buy some burls and...
 make your own bowls! 
How about a dog sled?

The rest of the day went to mapping out our route for tomorrow, a little relaxation and checking the campground for some...............

...........beautiful flowers! 

Oh....I wonder if my flowers miss me :-)

How Can I Go To Sleep When It's Still Light Out? (Day 19)

Warning....if you ever see this sign in Canada...slow down!  I didn't understand the odd Canadian signs; but learned this one quickly.  It means bumps ahead and believe me they were not little!  It felt like we were on a bucking bronco!  I thought going on the ferry would make me sick; but I was wrong....it was the Alaskan Highway!  When we got on the U.S. side the road was as smooth as could be....for awhile and then we rode the bucking bronco again for miles and miles.  The bad thing is that it is the only road and we will have to take it again when we want to head over to Denali Park.

We got back up into the elevations where there was snow on the ground again.  As you can see, many of the lakes still have some ice on them.  Snow.....ice.... and yet we didn't even have to wear jackets it was so nice and warm.  We pulled over at this pull-off and had lunch, it was just beautiful!

  We put on over 400 miles today and decided we needed to find a campground and take it easy for a few days.

We found a campground in the small town of Tok, Alaska.  It's called Sourdough Campground because its specialty is sourdough pancakes.  We were invited to a pancake toss challenge.  They had some hardened pancakes from the morning's breakfast and you were given two to toss in a bucket.  If you got one pancake in the bucket you would win a free sourdough pancake breakfast the next morning.  Unfortunately...we didn't win; but it was fun!  As we were sitting there we ran into the people we camped next to in Bellingham, WA....isn't that a coincidence....small world.

I had to snap a picture of what it looks like outside right now.  It is after eleven o'clock at night!  How can a person go to sleep when it is still light out and it feels like 5 in the afternoon?  This morning I woke up and thought it was time to get up because it was so light out.  When I looked at the clock it was 3:30 in the morning!  So here I sit...waiting for my brain to finally realize it really "is" time to go to sleep.  Guess I have to hop in bed and just close my eyes....   at least it will be dark then :-)

Turned Out...Our Penny Hadn't Lost It Power........ Totally! (Days 15-18)

That lucky penny I found and kept to give us some luck since our ferry was cancelled must have been stepped on too much and lost its power!    I guess our lucky penny hadn't lost all of it power because we did get put on another ferry... even though there was an 8 hour delay and we did have a room... even though it didn't have a window.  Little did we know until later that we were "very lucky" because most of the 250 people aboard did not have rooms.  They had to find a space anywhere on the ferry to stake out their little area and sleep the nights they were aboard.  So...we were happy to be able to go to our little "stateroom" and  be rocked to sleep by the gentle rolling of the waves.

Here is the "Taku" that we waited... and... waited... and waited for.

We didn't do any fishing; but we did a lot of Crabbing...

if you know what I mean!

The vehicles are parked so close together that we could only get out of the driver side door.

Our room, minus window.  However...we did have a private bathroom.  The person that pees the most during the night...got the bottom bunk....won't tell you who that was :-)

This is how the other 200 people slept!  Whatever space you could find, you staked it out and it was yours until you got off the ferry.  On deck, many pitched tents for the duration of the trip. This area reminded me of the steerage section of the Titanic :-(  Some of these travelers had chosen to do this; but many of these people had to make due with these means or they would have to delay their trips.  We didn't complain after we met people that told us their stories of having to find a place to sleep for their nights aboard.  They made the best of an uncomfortable situation and because of it we met so many nice people that shared their thoughts with us.  After awhile... things started becoming humorous and we all had a lot of laughs.  The crew did its best; but it will be a trip that many will not forget for a long time.  

Finally... on our way to Haines, Alaska...with stops along the way.

I'm happy... because I have my own room and bathroom and even my own bed (not telling you which bunk!)

The scenery was absolutely beautiful and breath-taking!  We saw lots of whales and porpoises.  We stopped in some towns along the way that we could get off and explore.  Some of these towns are only accessible by boat or plane....no roads! (Juneau, the capital is one of them)  Can't imagine living in a place where you can't drive you car to another town.

  A great way to end the day!

This is the view out the front window of our motor home in Haines.  Even saw whales from our campsite!  In the winter they have a festival called "Heli-skiers."  Helicopters drop off skiers on the top of the mountain so they can ski down.  Yikes!

Haines is very small town that has some neat tourist shops; but not too commercial. They hope to stay small and quaint.   Another festival they have is the "Eagle Festival."  Thousands and thousands of eagles come in the fall to this area.   The people are so friendly and they seem to love it here!

Here's another way to end a great day :-)  Tasted pretty good.  We got this from some friends we met on the ferry that happened to stay at the same campground as us in Haines.  A farewell drink to some nice people we have met along the way.