June 28th -
added 78 more picture, ordered them by date, so a few are mixed in from Glacier and Yellowstone. Hope the link works for you.
https://picasaweb.google.com/cawarburton/CCSBigAdventure?authkey=Gv1sRgCNn89p2x_52VZQ
Leaving the senior center.... : ) Hope everyone has a wonderful Fourth of July!
Cheri and Charlie
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Seward - beautiful town
June 28th, 2012
Seward - what a nice town. It is one of the prettiest and most quaint areas I have seen. we made it here in time to hear the town whistle blow at noon, something they have done for years. Stopped by the visitor center and picked up some information that was very helpful, we found a bakery and bought a cinnamon roll, : ) and we found a senior center where we could use their wifi!!!! and it works better than anywhere we have stopped!
They were also serving lunch, so we were able to get a hot lunch at a good price ( 4.00) and upload around 80 pictures. I am going to put the link on an entry of its own just as soon as they are done, and folks who want can check there for the pics. (I tried to add them to the blog entries, but it was too much for the server I guess.)
There are 8 people here playing Pinocle and having a great time, this is a great center. I gave them money for letting me use their connection, it is obvious that they use their funding well. ; )
There is also a Wildlife center here, that is like a aquarium and we will be able to see sea lions, beluga whales, fish, etc. I am looking forward to that.
Charlie has gone out to look for some fishing information for us while we wait for the pictures to load. I think we will look for a fish packing / market and buy some more fresh fish if we can. Hopefully soon, we will be catching our supply.
Tomorrow we will fish the Russian river or Kenia and when I can get back on I will catch you up on our success. After that we will head to Homer and Clam Gulch ( so I can dig for some razor clams - will be thinking of you mom and dad...)
Seward - what a nice town. It is one of the prettiest and most quaint areas I have seen. we made it here in time to hear the town whistle blow at noon, something they have done for years. Stopped by the visitor center and picked up some information that was very helpful, we found a bakery and bought a cinnamon roll, : ) and we found a senior center where we could use their wifi!!!! and it works better than anywhere we have stopped!
They were also serving lunch, so we were able to get a hot lunch at a good price ( 4.00) and upload around 80 pictures. I am going to put the link on an entry of its own just as soon as they are done, and folks who want can check there for the pics. (I tried to add them to the blog entries, but it was too much for the server I guess.)
There are 8 people here playing Pinocle and having a great time, this is a great center. I gave them money for letting me use their connection, it is obvious that they use their funding well. ; )
There is also a Wildlife center here, that is like a aquarium and we will be able to see sea lions, beluga whales, fish, etc. I am looking forward to that.
Charlie has gone out to look for some fishing information for us while we wait for the pictures to load. I think we will look for a fish packing / market and buy some more fresh fish if we can. Hopefully soon, we will be catching our supply.
Tomorrow we will fish the Russian river or Kenia and when I can get back on I will catch you up on our success. After that we will head to Homer and Clam Gulch ( so I can dig for some razor clams - will be thinking of you mom and dad...)
Glaciers everywhere, and beautiful water...
June 27, 2012
Left Anchorage fairly late for us, probably close to noon. But we have fresh water, clean clothes, everything is charged, and we have a few fresh groceries. Drove thru the downtown area of Anchorage, our RV park was actually in the center of town, odd I know, but what can I say...
As you leave Anchorage, there is a beautiful inlet, Cooke Inlet, and much marsh land. The tide comes in 30 - 40 feet, and leaves some very tempting area to explore, but the Mile Post says do not fall into that trap - that there is quicksand out there, created by the silt and sand, and you could get stuck and not be rescued until after the tide comes back in. So needless to say, I stayed away! I love exploring areas like that, to see what the sea has left, but did not think it was worth it at this time.
There were Dall Sheep on the mountains, but I was not quick enough to get a picture, so you will have to trust me on that one. There was also a place to pull off and look for Beluga whales, which we did of course, but we were not lucky enough to spot one.
We headed on down the Sterling Hwy and passed several more glaciers. They look like flat ice that has run and remelted, I wonder if they used to be high like the mountains, that is how I had always imagined them. They found plane wreckage at one of the local glaciers, that was from a 1952 plane. The glacier had moved it 12 miles since then, which I guess gives us an idea of how fast they move...
We made it to the turn off and decided to find a place to camp and just drive Didi into Seward - well, everything was full due to the salmon running, so we ended up parking in overflow parking for the night, which was fine with me - we couldn't build a fire, but it was raining so we wouldn't have anyway - and it was only 8.00 a night.
Since we had stopped a bit earlier than usual, we had time to just chill, read, clean the windows ( in the rain - Charlie not me...) and just relax. Looked for bears, there are many around due to the salmon being near, but did not see any. We are right next tot he Russian river, at the Russian River campground, if anyone is looking at a map. : ) The water in the Kenai and the Russian river is the way I thought water would look in Alaska - clear, but not transparent, and sort of greenish blue, just like the glaciers....
Tomorrow we are going to go to Seward, and then come back, stay here, and try to fish is possible. There is a little ferry that goes across the river that looks fun.
Left Anchorage fairly late for us, probably close to noon. But we have fresh water, clean clothes, everything is charged, and we have a few fresh groceries. Drove thru the downtown area of Anchorage, our RV park was actually in the center of town, odd I know, but what can I say...
As you leave Anchorage, there is a beautiful inlet, Cooke Inlet, and much marsh land. The tide comes in 30 - 40 feet, and leaves some very tempting area to explore, but the Mile Post says do not fall into that trap - that there is quicksand out there, created by the silt and sand, and you could get stuck and not be rescued until after the tide comes back in. So needless to say, I stayed away! I love exploring areas like that, to see what the sea has left, but did not think it was worth it at this time.
There were Dall Sheep on the mountains, but I was not quick enough to get a picture, so you will have to trust me on that one. There was also a place to pull off and look for Beluga whales, which we did of course, but we were not lucky enough to spot one.
We headed on down the Sterling Hwy and passed several more glaciers. They look like flat ice that has run and remelted, I wonder if they used to be high like the mountains, that is how I had always imagined them. They found plane wreckage at one of the local glaciers, that was from a 1952 plane. The glacier had moved it 12 miles since then, which I guess gives us an idea of how fast they move...
We made it to the turn off and decided to find a place to camp and just drive Didi into Seward - well, everything was full due to the salmon running, so we ended up parking in overflow parking for the night, which was fine with me - we couldn't build a fire, but it was raining so we wouldn't have anyway - and it was only 8.00 a night.
Since we had stopped a bit earlier than usual, we had time to just chill, read, clean the windows ( in the rain - Charlie not me...) and just relax. Looked for bears, there are many around due to the salmon being near, but did not see any. We are right next tot he Russian river, at the Russian River campground, if anyone is looking at a map. : ) The water in the Kenai and the Russian river is the way I thought water would look in Alaska - clear, but not transparent, and sort of greenish blue, just like the glaciers....
Tomorrow we are going to go to Seward, and then come back, stay here, and try to fish is possible. There is a little ferry that goes across the river that looks fun.
Anchorage - small - big town
June 26, 2012
Went back to the river, cold this
morning, and rainy. Rained all last
night and is drizzling this morning. No
luck at the river so we headed back toward Glenallen and then to
Anchorage. Thought we would get to take Molly to lunch, but she has not made it to Alaska yet, so we will try and catch her on the return visit...
Drove past several glaciers and we
have gotten very good at identifying them before the milepost even tells us
they are there! There were some pretty
significant mountains we had to go thru so we unloaded Didi and I drove her to
Palmer and then loaded her back up.
Found a campground in Anchorage to
stay for the night, there are no state campgrounds that had any services for
RV’s around here, and we needed water and a dump station, so we bit the bullet
and stayed at the golden nugget RV park.
I finally got signed on this morning and was able to update the
blog.
We are headed to Seward next and
then Kenai and Homer.
Having a wonderful
time, and seeing something amazing everyday! But still no Moose.... where are they?
I will try to post some more pics and will add the link to the next blog entry when I am able to do so.
Valdez!
6-25-12
Valdez today!
We took Didi to Valdez, awesome
mountains and most snow-covered.
Stopped at Worthington Glacier and walked over some snow covered
walkways to get as close as we could. It
was COLD up there, didn’t expect that since it has been reasonably warm since
we have been here. Made it to Valdez,
pretty harbor, and small commercial area – bought some fresh salmon and some
canned salmon for Peter Pan Packing and then some smoked salmon from another
shipper. If I cannot catch it, I will
buy it! They had caught it that morning,
and it was only 6.00 a pound.
Saw a coyote while we were there and
several bald eagles. They were huge!
There was a section where the tide has gone out and there were about 9 spread
out on that area, I guess looking for fish.
But they looked like small people sitting out there. There had been an eagle at the river yesterday too, it was so pretty watching it
fly over us. I think it had more luck
fishing than we did too.
Cooked the salmon tonight and had
fried potatoes and corn and homemade bread.
Nice meal. The fish was good –
very red in color.
We decided to fish a little tomorrow
and then head on up the road if the fishing does not get any better. We tried fishing the lake here at the
campground, but I think both of us got attacked by about 70 mosquitoes at the
same time, and we called it quits… wimps, I know….
Found Salmon - but they are still in the river...
6-24-12
Had sourdough bread for breakfast –
and headed to Squirrel Creek around 8:00.
We stopped at the Klutina river to check on fishing and as we were
crossing the bridge, I saw someone catch a fish, so we thought that a good
sign… and stopped.
Several people were lined up
fishing, so we decided to join them.
There was a man there that had several bags of salmon, I would guess, 5
Wal-Mart bags full, and later we saw him catching a salmon about every 4 minutes! We all had on waders, and he had on shorts
and a t-shirt, so obviously a local. We
left to go find the campground and chatted with him for a bit about what he was
doing. He gave us some tips and said you
have to line the hook up in the salmon’s mouth and then snag them… which would
be easier if I could see them, but we will be back this afternoon to try his
techniques…
Squirrel creek is very pretty, not
many people here and we were able to get a spot right on the creek, which if
flowing pretty fast, and I think is high…
Went back and tried the dude’s
techniques, the fish do not currently have to worry about me, but it is surreal
casting out a large empty hook – just seems wrong is someway… but that is what
you do.. We fished till 9:00 p.m. and decided
to call it a day. I got a little bored and just started looking for last tackle
– found several sinkers, and hooks, and we needed them so that was cool ; )
We will head to Valdez tomorrow and
see if the river goes down a bit.
Leaving Tok and headed to look for Salmon!
June 23, 2012
Made oatmeal for breakfast and put
the bread in the loaf pans to rise.
Headed into town and bought gas, 4.25 a gallon, but you got a free RVwash and free dump and water so that
was nice. We washed off Bessie and Didi – which was good, they seriously needed
a shower.
Went to the PO and the Visitor
Center, bought a map of state campgrounds, and mailed our postcards.
Headed down the Glenn Highway, and
tried several creeks for fishing, no luck -but again, it was beautiful just
being in the streams. We heard the fish/red
salmon were running in Gakona and Gulkana rivers, but there has been so much
melt off on the glaciers and snow from the mountains that the streams and
rivers are pretty swollen. ( don’t I
sound like a native…. ) We met an older couple at Gakona and they told us some
places to try.
We ate out for dinner tonight, we
passed a café selling breakfast for 3.99 and we went in and had eggs, toast and
hash browns. : ) This was the first meal
we bought “out” other than the subway sandwich Charlie bought in Yellowstone.
We stayed at Dry Creek campground,
and the bugs were amazingly abundant! So
I stayed inside…. I did bake the bread
and some biscuits so we do have that for the next few days. Tomorrow we are headed to squirrel creek
campground and Valdez.
Friday, June 22, 2012
We made it 4997 miles to . . .
ALASKA!!!!!!!!!!!!
Staying at Tok River recreational park, my parents were camp hosts here about 12 years ago!
Staying at Tok River recreational park, my parents were camp hosts here about 12 years ago!
Potholes the size of a five gallon bucket....
June 21, 2012
Up at 6:50 - we decided we could sleep in today, and that was as late as we made it!
We headed out - planning on making it to Beaver Creek today - and let me just say that I had no idea what a bad road looked like until our journey today... lol. Beginning just before Destruction Bay, the road started to look like a back road up in the hills - first there were tons of pot holes, and they were scattered all over the various parts of the road, so it was hard to miss them - although Charlie did an amazing job. Next, there are places in the road where the road has dipped, due to the dirt freezing that then melting. The dirt here is from volcanic ash, and sand, and it moves after it freezes, and let me tell you - boy, it moves! So we were either swerving around in the road trying to avoid the pot holes, or we were bouncing around going over the swaybacked road - it was sort of like a carnival ride. : ) oh, and then lets throw in lots of miles and breaks of gravel and dust - with signs warning you of the "extreme dust" caused by the gravel..... and at another point the road was simply gone and they were having to build it back - so there were stacks of dirt about 4 feet high on each side as we drove thru on a dirt packed section....
Lets just say that we were both ready to be off the road - so we found a government park named Lake Creek and pulled in - it was very nice, a little rugged, but very nice. We stopped around 3:30 and had dinner cooked and cleaned up with by 6:00. Charlie built a fire and we roasted some hot dogs and had slaw and salsa with them. It turned out to be a great combination. ( and the fire starter/kindling pieces that Buz gave us before we left have been a life saver - we can start a fire no matter the weather!) thanks Buz!
The skeeters were out in full force, and they are bigger than any I have ever seen. They would probably eat Arkansas mosquitoes for lunch! We sprayed ourselves though and they stayed away - so that was very nice.
The water heater wasn't working, Charlie and I worked on it a bit, both of us coming up with ideas, but Charlie actually working on it, : ) and figured it out! We had come thru so much dust, it had clogged it up.
We both cleaned windows and washed off the vehicles a bit, they certainly needed it and both of us will need a shower after all the insect spray and the cleaning, glad we got the hot water heater fixed. ...
Charlie also worked on the light a bit more, he has narrowed down the problem to a bulb, and we will have to replace the whole piece, so we will look for one as we go along. That Charlie is certainly very good at figuring out things, and fixing things. A very helpful skill to have on this trip.
I got to do some reading tonight, something we have not had time for before this, and that was a nice treat.
Tomorrow we head for Tok, Ak! I think we are currently about 60 miles from the border, so we should pass over into Alaska fairly early in the morning!!!
Up at 6:50 - we decided we could sleep in today, and that was as late as we made it!
We headed out - planning on making it to Beaver Creek today - and let me just say that I had no idea what a bad road looked like until our journey today... lol. Beginning just before Destruction Bay, the road started to look like a back road up in the hills - first there were tons of pot holes, and they were scattered all over the various parts of the road, so it was hard to miss them - although Charlie did an amazing job. Next, there are places in the road where the road has dipped, due to the dirt freezing that then melting. The dirt here is from volcanic ash, and sand, and it moves after it freezes, and let me tell you - boy, it moves! So we were either swerving around in the road trying to avoid the pot holes, or we were bouncing around going over the swaybacked road - it was sort of like a carnival ride. : ) oh, and then lets throw in lots of miles and breaks of gravel and dust - with signs warning you of the "extreme dust" caused by the gravel..... and at another point the road was simply gone and they were having to build it back - so there were stacks of dirt about 4 feet high on each side as we drove thru on a dirt packed section....
Lets just say that we were both ready to be off the road - so we found a government park named Lake Creek and pulled in - it was very nice, a little rugged, but very nice. We stopped around 3:30 and had dinner cooked and cleaned up with by 6:00. Charlie built a fire and we roasted some hot dogs and had slaw and salsa with them. It turned out to be a great combination. ( and the fire starter/kindling pieces that Buz gave us before we left have been a life saver - we can start a fire no matter the weather!) thanks Buz!
The skeeters were out in full force, and they are bigger than any I have ever seen. They would probably eat Arkansas mosquitoes for lunch! We sprayed ourselves though and they stayed away - so that was very nice.
The water heater wasn't working, Charlie and I worked on it a bit, both of us coming up with ideas, but Charlie actually working on it, : ) and figured it out! We had come thru so much dust, it had clogged it up.
We both cleaned windows and washed off the vehicles a bit, they certainly needed it and both of us will need a shower after all the insect spray and the cleaning, glad we got the hot water heater fixed. ...
Charlie also worked on the light a bit more, he has narrowed down the problem to a bulb, and we will have to replace the whole piece, so we will look for one as we go along. That Charlie is certainly very good at figuring out things, and fixing things. A very helpful skill to have on this trip.
I got to do some reading tonight, something we have not had time for before this, and that was a nice treat.
Tomorrow we head for Tok, Ak! I think we are currently about 60 miles from the border, so we should pass over into Alaska fairly early in the morning!!!
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Sign Post Forest
June 20, 2012
How in the world did I forget to add this to the blog today? Charlie and I stopped in Watson Lake and toured the Sign Post Forest - I loved it, there were license plates, city signs, road signs, dust pans, plastic bottles, - you name it it was on there - from all over the world. People just go put their names, or states on the poles, and it just keeps growing....
Well we put one up too! We took our 9 x 13 baking pan, wrote Charlie and Cheri's Big Adventure, June 20, 2012 on the back, and screwed it into a pole. So if any of you go, you will have to find it, and if we ever go back, we will add another date to it. We thought later we wished we had added Virginia to it, but it was too late, we had already left... but it is cool that it is permanently there!. I will add a picture of it soon, so stay tuned...
C
How in the world did I forget to add this to the blog today? Charlie and I stopped in Watson Lake and toured the Sign Post Forest - I loved it, there were license plates, city signs, road signs, dust pans, plastic bottles, - you name it it was on there - from all over the world. People just go put their names, or states on the poles, and it just keeps growing....
Well we put one up too! We took our 9 x 13 baking pan, wrote Charlie and Cheri's Big Adventure, June 20, 2012 on the back, and screwed it into a pole. So if any of you go, you will have to find it, and if we ever go back, we will add another date to it. We thought later we wished we had added Virginia to it, but it was too late, we had already left... but it is cool that it is permanently there!. I will add a picture of it soon, so stay tuned...
C
Whitehorse, Yukon
June 20, 2012
Headed out at 6:30 today, ( I hope this is not a trend and
we start heading out an hour earlier every day…) but I was awake at 5:50 so we
just got up and headed out.
Today we saw 12 bears before 9:00 – two brown bears, and all
the rest were black bears. We also saw
our first fox today – it was red and sitting in the grass by the road, also
before 9:00. There were also bison just
hanging out where ever they wanted, and a few deer.
We made it to Whitehorse, Yukon this afternoon. We drove 400 miles today, giving us a total
of 4697 miles that we have driven so far!
I wonder if you divided that by the number of bear we’ve seen, how many
that would be…. : )
As I sit typing this, it is 10:22 and we can still see the
sun reflecting off some of the other motor homes. We are staying in High Country RV park
tonight, so we could use the laundry and WiFi and take hot showers with all the
water we want!
We passed a lot of country today – if we went southwest, we
could be in Alaska in 2 hours, by going to Skagway, but I think we are going to
keep heading to Tok. We only have 389
more miles to go to get there.
We went to a Walmart tonight, umm, very different than ours. No fresh veggies, some, but not much food, so
we went to a Superstore on down the road.
Ummm, not like any store I have ever been to, first you have to pay a
dollar to use their carts! I of course
refused to do that – those of you who know me well should not be surprised to
hear that, : ) and said I would carry what we needed before I paid to use a
cart… which I did until I found a small produce box that had been used to hold
peppers, and I snagged that and put my food in it. We didn’t need much, just wanted to get some
coffee and creamer, and dish soap, etc.
One thing they did have that was pretty neat was quail eggs! Always wanted to try them, but they said they
were good until late July, so that made me nervous, and I decided against
it.
We made pizza tonight in our cast iron skillet – that has
been the best cooking utensil… the pizza was perfect, crunchy and soft at the
same time, and so were the biscuits that Charlie made in it a few days
ago.
We have washed clothes and Charlie has cleaned the
windows. I have cleaned the kitchen and
bathroom and I think we are ready to go another 4700 miles. I don’t know if we will actually make it to
Tok tomorrow, the roads are getting rougher and rougher, so you have to go
slower, but we are very close… and we will be in Alaska soon. : )
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