Sunday, June 1, 2004

No travel today! We spent a leisurely day just seeing some sights and we took our time about getting started. About 9:30 or so we went to The Knotty Shop, a little shop that specializes in Burl Wood art and gifts. Some very interesting scupltures on display, all from the Spruce Burl Wood.

Then back into Fairbanks to the Pioneer Park, a very nice municipal park with a train, civic center, air museum, lots of kiddie playground, and lots of really neat shops.

Donna and I then took Mac and Lena back to the campground. We had tickets on the Discovery III paddle wheeler, and Mac & Lena decided to stay in camp, rather than take the truck while we were on the 3 1/2 hr tour.

Own our way to the cruise, we stopped at a Fred Meyer store, a large store that would rival a Wal-Mart Super Center, with a fantastic grocery area. Donna needed to get a prescription filled, which they did in less than 30 minutes, and were very accomodating. Donna an Lena went back later and did some grocery shopping.

The Discovery III is a family run business that was started by the Great Grandfather of the current youngest generation. All family members are involved, and start at the age of 5, with real responsibility being assigned at age 10. In fact, one of youngest was working on the cruise today - her 11th birthday.

The cruise was extremely interesting and informative. The commentator kept everyone interested and provided a great narrative of the history of the family and the business during the few times there was no activity on the shore. We were first treated to a Bush Plane take off and landing, as the boat stopped to watch from the decks.

A little futher down the Chena River, we stopped and were treated to a discussion by Susan Butcher, a 4 time Iditarod Champion. She spoke with a cordless mike that could be heard over the vessel Sound System. She showed us some of her dogs in training, and said they fed over 80,000 pounds of food per year!!

We also watched from the boat, as Athabascan Dixie Alexander explained a typical 'Fish Camp' used to harvest the Salmon, how they filet a Salmon, and how they are hung to dry, then smoked. In fact, she did a demostration on how to filet a 26 inch Salmon... in 52 seconds !!!

Returning up the river we disembarked at Chena Village. First demostration was Susan's husband, with some retired dogs pulling a sled around the grounds, and they were fast. There were several presentations about furs, some reindeer on display, viewing of some Indian baskets, canoes, cabins, tents, and some clothing, including a fantastic parka designed and assembled by Dixie Alexander.


After the ladies returned from the grocery store the men beat the ladies at 42, by a score of 3-0. Donna got the Widow.

I must apologize to anyone looking for Week 3 of the Journal. I just realized today that the link for Week 3 did not work, although most of the Week had been published. That has been fixed!!

Monday, June 2, 2003

Today was actually a pretty short driving day. We drove from Fairbanks to Denali Park, a drive of only 129 miles down Alaska Hiway 4, the George Parks Highway. We made a couple of stops along the way, including a little town of Nenama, right on the banks of the Nenama River. A really nice guy in the Welcome Center gave us lots of advice about the the area, and particularily about the Denali Park area.

Across the street at a little shop, I met a lady named Mackey (I think) whose husband is an Iditarod racer, and won it once. He also races in a race from Fairbanks to Dawson City, and won that one once too.

Once we were settled in at the Rainbow RV park in Denali, we did a little browsing in some shops right next door. Some really great art work, photography, and of course plenty of souvenir type stuff, a good deal of which was made in China.

We drove the 13 miles into the park that private vehicles are allowed, then went back to the Visitor's Center to take a look. From there we took a shuttle to watch a Dog Sled Demostration. The park maintains a team of dogs for demostration purposes, plus they actually work during the winter, since no vehicles are allowed in the park. These teams were much larger Husky type dogs than the ones we saw at Susan Butcher's place. These were bred for heavy loads of hauling 'stuff', while Susan's were bred for speed and indurance.

After this tour, Donna & I went out for a Hamburger at the Crow's Nest, a really neat restaurant/bar up the side of the mountain. Tomorrow we plan to take a tour of the park, more about that tomorrow.

Tuesday, June 3, 2003

TOTALLY AWESOME !! How else is there to describe being able to almost reach out and touch Mt. McKinley, at 20,320 feet, the tallest mountain in North America. Okay, so I couldn't really touch it, but from the window of the Twin Engine Navajo, it sure seemed like it. We were flying at 12,000 feet, so the top of the mountain was still over a MILE AND A HALF above us.

Donna and I, along with 4 other 'tourist' and the pilot, took about an hour and 5 minute flight through some of the most beautiful and rugged scenery we have ever seen. Most of the mountains were above 12,000 feet so the pilot weaved our way through mountion passes and saddles, on the way to make a circle around Mt. McKinley.

Mac and Lena decided to take a bus tour into the park. They will be gone for about 8 hours round trip, making several stops along the way. As I am writing this part (about 3 pm) they have been gone since about 12:30, and we will pick them up about 8:30.

Mac and Lena told me earlier to say Hello from them to Parker and Kay-Kay. So Hello to Parker and Kay-Kay!!

Since we got back from the flight, we have just done a little shopping, drove around some and gonna take a much needed nap.

We picked Mac and Lena up at the appointed time. They had spent 8 hours on the trip up into the park, and loved every minute of it. They saw lots of caribou, dall sheep, moose, and bears, including one Mama Grizzley with three cubs. Unfortunately, the mountain was not visible, rain and sleet, but they were more interested in the game, anyway.

After they returned, we built a little fire in the fire ring and played 42. The ladies won tonite by 2-1. Mac caught the Widow.

Wednesday, June 4, 2003

Guess what time we left this morning! Yup, 7am. The sky was completely clear, and I figured as we got further south on the George Parks Hiway that we would have some more opportunity to see Mt. McKinley. Man, was I right about that! The further we went as the highway looped back around to the south of the mountain, we were actually closer to the mountain than when we were in the town of Denali Park.

We stopped and several points, but the most awesome was at a large pull-out designed to view the mountain, and what a view. One local guy was there, a tool peddler, who said he traveled the road on a regular basis and had seen the mountain only a few time.

Then on to Kalteekna, a little village on the main road, with a few shops, and airport, a train station, and that's about it. A lot of the flight-seeing trips originate here.

Then back to the George Parks Hiway, to Wasilla where we are staying at the Iceworm RV park. We visited some of the sights in Wasilla, such as the Transportaion Musuem, The Iditaord Headquarters, and the Welcome Center.

Plans right now are to pass on by Anchorage, head toward the Kenai Peninsula, and then spend some time in Anchorage on the way back through.

Oh yeah, the guys won at 42 tonite, 2-1, with the Widow going to Lena, only her second time, she pointed out.

Thursday, June 5, 2003

Got up this morning to a bit of sprinkling rain, nothing signficant as we traveled through Anchorage, but as we started south on the Seward Highway, it turned into a real drizzle and the wind really picked up. Our destination was a small U. S. Forest Service campground, Willawaw, near the tunnel to Whittier.

Whittier is a small port town on the Prince William Sound, and until a couple of years ago, was accessible only by boat, plane, or train. The Alaska RR had a 2.5 mile tunnel throught the mountain about 6 miles from the Seward Highway. The tunnel road bed was re-done to allow vehicle traffic to travel right on top of the railroad tracks. The road bed is actually kinda like a good railroad crossing with crossing running with the rails. The toll is pretty high, $12 for a car, and about $30 for a motorhome. The tunnel is one-way traffic, with traffic going one way for 30 minutes, and then the other way of 30 minutes. Any time the train is using the tunnel, all other traffic must wait, as the trains have priority.

By the time, about 1pm, that we headed to the town of Whittier, it was really raining pretty good, and the wind was really blowing. We passed by Portage Glacier as we crossed the bridge crossing the river that the glacier flows into. Right at the bridge there were lots of ice floes, some as big as a UPS truck. They all showed the beautiful blue color attributable to glacier ice.

The city of Whittier is really very small, nothing but a bunch of boat docks, rail lines, and only about 200 or so folks actually living there. We saw NO personal homes, just boats and businesses. Everybody lives in one huge Condo development that was at least 12 stories high. The school, right across the street from the Condo's, has about 40 students.

The young lady in the cafe, who grew up here, but went to school in Anchorage, told us that it snows 36 FEET during the winter. The buildings along the water front are totally covered by snow.

Since its raining, we didn't play 42 tonite, but Donna and I got in a game of Phase 10, which she won 10-10 phases, 375 to 390 points. Was much closer than normal, but the normal winner. LOL

Plans are to go to Seward tomorrow, but with the weather like it is we may go on down to the Lower Kenai Peninsula, to Homer, in search of better weather, and visit Seward on the way back to Anchorage.

Friday, June 6, 2003

Well, just as we anticipated, it drizzled rain all night, and was still raining this morning. We were a bit later than normal leaving today, and did decide to go to Homer rather than Seward. Right before we arrived in Soldotna, we stopped at a Carver's place to look at the carvings. As Donna stepped out of the motorhome, she heard a spewing sound and could smell propane. A quick look revealed we did have some sort of leak, so I turned off the valve, which solved the problem.

As we left the Carver's, Donna called an Amerigas dealer who had an ad in the Soldotna tourist magazine. We got directions, and found them real easy. The problem was diagnosed by Jeff, their technican, as a faulty regulator. They had a suitable regulator in stock, and it took Jeff, with my help about an hour to get the old one off and the new one on. After the repair was complete, we got propane. We paid for the regulator and the propane, but Jeff refused to charge for the labor. (We did give him a VERY nice tip, though).

After getting fuel in Soldotna, we continued on toward Homer, as the skies started to clear. A beautiful drive with lots of vista views of Cook Inlet. Just before we got to Homer, we saw a bald eagle flying right by the road.

Through Homer and on to Homer Spit, we located a spot in the City Campground, no hookups, but was only $10 per nite. The Fishing Hole is right next to where we are parked and folks are lined up along the bank, catching Halibut and Salmon..

Homer is known, or at least claims to be, the Halibut Capitol of the World. And, from the looks of things, there's not much doubt about it. There is a large harbor on the Spit, with lots of Charter Boats, Commercial Fishing boats, and personal sport fishing boats.

There are also several tour boats to go view the otters, eagles, sea lions, and even some whale occassionally. One tour goes to a little village of Seldovia, a Russian settlement reached only by boat or plane.

Donna & I had dinner at the El Pescador restaurant, and really nice place with good service. Things were kinda slow, not quite being the full tourist season, so we go to meet the owner, Mr. Ramos. He and his wife also own a Mexican restaurant in the city, and have been here 32 years.

Saturday, June 7, 2003

We all decided to take the boat trip to Seldovia this morning, so we got our tickets with time to spare, and had a lot of time to look over the boats in the harbor while waiting for our departure time. The boat, The Discovery, was a really nice boat for sight-seeing, open decks or enclosed seating with large picture windows.

We took a round about way to view some of the wildlife, went by a rock island that is home to thousands of Sea Gulls. We even saw a few red-headed Puffin. The real treat was getting some really close-up looks at some sea otters, really cute things just floating on their back, enjoying life.

At one point we spotted a bald eagle, soaring right over the boat near an island. Upon arriving in Seldovia, Donna & I went to the Mad Fish Restaurant for lunch, and Mac and Lena headed on to a place for a snack. We met back up later and walked around the town. It seemed like most of the businesses in town were either closed or for sale. The little village sure did not live up to its billing. It seems the folks just don't really care whether the tourist come or not.

After returning to camp, we all loaded up and went into the city of Homer, and found a really nice gift shop still open. The Wild Berry. They specialize in jam and jellies from local production, but had lots of other neat stuff. Donna found a really cute little Eskimo Doll for Courtney.

After returning to camp, Donna and I went to The Land's End restaurant for dinner, which was just as good or better than last nite's dinner. We then went to the harbor and watched the crew of a fishing boat re-install their big net, getting ready for season to open to commercial fishing.

Plans are to leave here tomorrow, probably go to Soldotna for a day or two.