Back in the Lower 48

Hello and greetings from Washington State and the Lower 48 !


We crossed back on 8/27 and have been hanging out in northwest Washington. I should apologize for not getting an update out sooner but I got into a good book and my nights have been filled with reading.


We started out in a small town near the San Juan Islands. It's been a lazy time and we've caught up on some little chores, including giving the coach a good bath. We stayed at a local Elks Lodge and it was really convenient to stores, etc. We moved south a few miles, got the coach serviced at Cummins and we're now at the Burien Elks Lodge in the shadow of SEATAC airport and have been touring Seattle. More about that later.


When we last talked the rigs were in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory and we left there on 8/17 and headed south. Much of the road we traveled had been done already but we soon turned off to the Cassier Highway and returned to British Columbia. The Cassier is a narrow, 2 lane road that is 95% paved with only 2 bad sections of about 10-15 miles of dirt, mud, calcium chloride rocks and some extremely beautiful scenery. It's slow going but the mountain views and woodland are spectacular.


We stopped in Jade City which is nothing more that large store that sells local jade. No services, no electric, no phone, just free coffee and place to park overnite and an opportunity to buy some jade. Over 90% of the world's jade supply comes from this area and they have plenty. We made a small purchase.


We also met another couple, Roger & Mary Buss from Nappanee, Indiana. Yep, hometown to Newmar and they even know the owner. They drive "Big Rig", race tractors and are a fun couple. Big Rig is a full size Freightliner cab with a 35' Newmar coach mounted to the chassis. The coach was a front end gas model that was wrecked. They cut the nose off and mounted it on the cab. Great rig, but big.


Roger and Mary joined us and we traveled together down the Cassier headed for Stewart/Hyder. We found a great little Provincial park on Burns Lake, toured Stewart & Hyder, enjoyed a few happy hours and a pot-luck dinner. They were headed for Jasper & Banff and 2 days later we parted company. Someday we hope to share a road with them again.

The view from our coach at Burns Lake Provincial Park, on the Cassier Hwy. near Stewart / Hyder.

Taking Pics of the Glacier, enroute to Stewart

The Glacier

Entering Hyder, Alaska

A 'halibut" dinner at Burns Lake. Roger & Mary on the left.

We spent 4 fun-filled days in Vancouver and got to bike Stanley Park and the Lionsgate Bridge. Vancouver is a great city and we will return again someday. We enjoyed a superb meal at our favorite restaurant, Bishops and had a "See Ya" dinner with Gene & Lynn. We've shared the road with them for 88 days and 6,000 miles and enjoyed the experience but it was time to part ways and each of us had things to do and places to go that didn't match up.

Vancouver Harbor

The "view" under the Lionsgate Bridge

Point Atkinson Lighthouse in Vancouver.

We've had the opportunity to visit friends, Bill & Joanne Johnston at their lovely home on Orcas Island (just across the bay from Bill & Melinda) and we headed over to Victoria Island, BC for a few days.

Bil & Joanne Johnston on Orcas Island

Their home on the Island

Their "view" at sunset.

Some sights from our visit to Vancouver Island and the Provincial capital of Victoria. A side trip to the world famous Butchard Gardens as well.

Floral display at Butchard Gardens on Vancouver Island, BC enroute to Victoria.

More of the Gardens

Flower

Some more floral display & Laurie

Legislative Bldg at nite.

Fairmont Empress Hotel.

Inner Harbor, Victoria, BC
Our hotel for 2 nights in Victoria.

At the end of the month we'll fly back east for a little quality time with our daughters, son-in-law and grandchildren and friends in Ocean City, NJ.

Enjoy the pics.

We'll talk again soon,

Gene & Laurie

Anchorage, Valdez & Farewell to Alaska

Hello Again and greetings from the Yukon Territory.

Well, we've made the loop from Whitehorse, YT around through Alaska and back to Whitehorse. It took 51 days and 2,675 miles (coach only) and boy did we see a lot. So now an update on our latest adventures.

We attempted to spend a few days in Anchorage after leaving the Kenai Peninsula but the campground we picked was noisy. Our site backed up to a railroad grade crossing and the trains ran 16 hours a day. Now, I know what you think, hell he retired from a railroad that shouldn't bother him, but try sleeping 25' from an active crossing ! Not fun. Also, the local power plant turbines produced a whistle that would keep even the devil himself awake and drive a sane person crazy. Plus, they wanted $38 a night. Sorry.

We headed north and found a small c/g in Palmer that charged $25 and was only about 40 minutes from downtown Anchorage. We've been in Anchorage before (2004) and there was not much we didn't see. So we got the Honda serviced, visited Costco and toured one downtown museum; enjoyed a few relaxing days and headed on for Valdez.

Valdez, the city that Joesph Hazelwood made famous is a small, non-descript town that was completely destroyed by the 1964 earthquake and rebuilt 4 miles from it's original location. There are more campgrounds than stores; the city buildings are all the same style and the harbor is the center of life. The USCG station in Valdez has the USCG Cutter "Long Island" berthed in the harbor.
USGC Cutter, Long Island

The view from our coach @ C/G in Valdez.

The marine ferry has a new terminal building and across the bay is the terminus for the Pipeline and the tankers load daily. The area is off limits to everyone except employees.
Looking across the bay to the pipeline terminus.

The city of Valdez

Valdez harbor

The site of "old" Valdez

The fish hatchery in Valdez and the salmon returning to spawn.

The route through Thompson Pass approaching Valdez and the mountains surrounding it are spectacular but the town is unimpressive. We saw the sites, watched the boats and the tankers and marvelled at the amount of salmon that had returned to spawn at the hatchery and moved on for the trek out of Alaska.
Thompson Pass

Wellington Glacier, enroute to Valdez

Wellington Glacier

We traveled north out of Valdez and turned east on the Tok Cut-off. Our last night in Alaska was spent at MP 72.5 on the highway and it really turned cold and in the morning we woke up to several inches of snow on the mountain tops. A sign that winter is not far away.
Fresh snow on the mountain tops, near Tok.

A beautiful sight.........but cold.

Our rest area campsite.

We crossed the border back into Canada on August 12th and headed for Whitehorse, YT. We're spending a weekend here while we celebrate our 40th anniversary and visit some places we skipped on the way up, then on Monday head south.

We're 1600 miles to Vancouver and there are some interesting sights along the way in British Columbia but I don't expect it to be as exciting as Alaska.

We'll talk again soon,

Gene & Laurie

Caribou Golf

Hmmm, funny name for a title but we had a extremely interesting experience at the Kenai Golf Course.


The city of Kenai has a fabulous golf course located just outside of town and is a jewel. Besides being long, 6,194 yds from the white tee's and 5,894 yds from the senior or gold tees the course is in great shape and winds it way around the Kenai River and woods surrounding it. The fairways are wide, the greens in good shape and the rough manageable. The price was a bargain at $25 + $13 for cart.


The following pictures really tell the story, but as we were approaching 16 green on the back 9 we had a visitor come out of the woods...........a full grown, bull caribou that would probably tip the scales at over 350 lbs. and a rack that had to span 6 feet from tip to tip.


He wanted to play ! He scared the heck out of us, just by his shear size plus he got so close to us that it was amazing. He stayed with us for 17 and only after we tee'd off on 18 (and he held us up for that) did he finally wander off into the woods.


A unique experience. Enjoy the pics and the video.


Gene








Our visitor approaches from the woods at 16.




17 tee box

Keeping an "eye" on us !

Having a snack on 17 fairway

Coming back to see us on 18 t-box

Finally getting out of the way

But still keeping an "eye" on us.

The Kenai Peninsula

Hello and greetings once again from Alaska.

Well we made it to the Kenai Peninsula and the port city of Homer and the rains came and the rains stayed ! The cold weather also rolled in and it was a tough week weather wise but we had fun and survived. Most days the high only got into the mid 50’s and the rain and or drizzle rarely stopped. This can happen in Alaska and we made the best of it.

Our campground was right on a bluff overlooking Cook Inlet and we watched the big tide changes; second largest in the world after the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia. We were right in downtown Homer and only minutes to the infamous Homer Spit and all the fishing boats.

A view from our c/g in Homer

A visitor at low tide.


Low tide at 10.30 am in Homer.

Pretty imposing for a little one !

High tide at 5.30 pm....some change !


Homer is the halibut fishing capital of the world and there are literally hundreds of charter boats available and of course the locals launch their own boats so the harbor is crowded. Tour boats operate to the Glaciers, the nearby out islands, including Soldovia and the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry system runs from here out to the Aleutian Chain and Dutch Harbor. In short, there are a large number of people on the “spit” at any given time and parking is always at a premium. There is also a large lagoon or fishing hole that traps salmon and other fish at the tide changes and is packed with folks trying their luck.

We took a day ferry over to Soldovia, a cut little Russian founded town with neat shops and restaurants and a great little museum. The town was originally built with wooden walkways throughout because of the tide changes but the 1964 earthquake changed the land level and now many of the streets are use able for cars and ATVs’. There is still a 16’ tide change in the harbor and some of the old walkways remain.

Homes in the old section of town.

Boat / sea plane harbor in Soldovia

Sea otters on the boat ride to Soldovia.

Russian Orthodox church

Guess who caught a big fish !


Of course the biggest attraction is deep sea fishing and off I went with my buddy Gene and his girlfriend on a charter. Laurie opted to stay on land. Perhaps a good idea since we had 3+ foot seas with 20 knot winds at times and rain most of the day. We were in about 150’ water. Oh the temps were around 50 degrees. Just perfect fishing weather for a 25 mile ride in a 30’ boat.

Oh and yes, we caught halibut. There is a 2 fish limit per person and there were 6 of us + the skipper (no mate) and we each got our limit. I was fortunate and got the largest fish and it weighed in at 60 lbs (NOTE to Jack McGinn, that’s 350 lbs) and another about 30 lbs. It was cut up and frozen and we have some with us and some was sent to relatives.

Just for Jack McGinn: My 350 lb fish !


Our fishing group with our catch !



On the hook.




Getting on the scale

Our charter boat, the "Big Easy"

We tried our hand at salmon fishing in the lagoon but came up empty. We had fun and Laurie got in some sketch time on the shore, flew her kite and we actually had a break from the rain.

We moved on to the city of Kenai, up the peninsula where the Kenai River meets the Cook Inlet and guess what: the rain followed us. Yep, we had 4 more days of the liquid sunshine but we got to watch the local “circus” called dip netting. Only residents can use these big (maybe 5’ in diameter) nets that are attached to long metal poles and they wade out chest deep in cold , no frigid water and stand shoulder to shoulder and hope that the salmon swim into their net.

Dip-netting mid week, Kenai River

Our neighbors with a king salmon

And do they get them. They are allowed up to 35 fish per family member and it’s considered subsistence fishing. They net a silver salmon maybe 6-7 lbs each, drag it to the shore, kill it with a billy club, cut the head off and gut the fish on the shore and leave the carcass right there, throw the fish in the cooler and get back in the water. An amazing spectacle.

It’s almost impossible to find a spot to fish using a pole and hook and it is strongly discouraged; hooks and nets don’t mix well. But we made friends with the family camped next door and 2 very nice silvers ended up in our freezer !

We moved over to Seward and guess what: the sun found us ! Yea! We camped at Waterfront Park which overlooked Resurrection Bay and had a steady stream of boats, including cruise ships parade by us daily.

The view from our coach in Seward

Waterfront Park. Our coach is right behind the small car in the center of the picture.

Resurrection Bay

Downtown Seward.

Seward is a fun little port city which bustles with activity. Major cruise lines start and end their Inside Passage trips here; the Kenai Fjords National Park is here as is Exit Glacier and the Sea Life Rescue Center.

A stellar sea lion: Woody at the Sea Life Center


We took the Fjords trip and saw whales, sea lions, dolphins and lots of birds. Actually, several eagles would buzz the campground each evening as they searched for food in the Bay. The boat took us to within 100 yards of Aialik Glacier and we watched and marveled at the beauty and majesty of this wonder of ice and snow. We hiked out to Exit Glacier too. The weather cooperated and we had a great 3 days in Seward.

Stellar Sea Lions, a bull with his mates.

The longer they are out of the water, the more brown they get. Dark grey, just came out of the water.

A Beluga whale diving.


Standing in front of Exit Glacier.

On the Glacier cruise.

The Aialik Glacier: calving

Up close to the Glacier

Oh, and I met a retired engineer from the LIRR, Bill Cloonan who lives in East Northport and whose son is stationed in Homer with the Coast Guard and is getting married next week. Congrats Bill & family !

Were up in Palmer now and will see some Anchorage sites and then at the end of the week move onto Valdez.

Enjoy the pics.

Gene & Laurie