HOLY COW!! Where's the Super Tent Now??

Oh, oh!!!

2009-04-27T10:17:00.000-07:00

Just as Rick was starting to decamp:

Trailer slipped off of the leveling boards.

Trailer fell off of leveling jack! It went backwards about a foot, and luckily, not into the trailer parked behind us!!! I was inside brushing my teeth and thought we were having an earthquake!! It ended OK and we left on time. Whew!

The Arts Community of Seldovia, AK

2009-04-26T19:29:00.000-07:00

Arriving in Seldovia, we first had a really good lunch in a local restaurant, then found the local museum and toured it, and then walked all over town. What a joy to explore here.

We enjoyed the tour with Frank and Carol Colligan.

This is where a new house is going up. No basements here. Tide is out at the moment.

Just fish for salmon right off your porch on any of these houses.

Couldn't figure out this house. Were there 2 entrances because of deep snow? This was away from the tide. Hmmm...

Cute kids merry-go-round. But, wait... there is only one pedal for each seat!!?

How many metal sculpture creatures can you find?

This is a JAIL????

These chain saw carvings were everywhere.

Can you read this? Harbor Garbage. In smaller print it says: Personal Garbage is $5.00 a bag. Pay at the office. And you think your garbage is expensive?!!! How many bags do you have a week?

Goodbye Seldovia.

This is a picture of Mt Redoubt before it was erupting.

What a fun day.

On the way to Seldovia, AK

2009-03-29T19:24:00.000-07:00

We decided to take a boat trip to Seldovia with our friends, Carol and Frank Colligan. This is a community of artists and can only be reached by boat.

Leaving the harbor

Our first wildlife of the crossing, an otter in the harbor.

Coast Guard boat docked in the harbor.

Gull Island is another rookery. Pretty good size compared to the kayaks

Some puffins in there, too.

Notice the way the cormorants are all in a line.

Looks like these cormorants are keep guard all across the top of the rocks.

Otter in the seaweed.

Kittiwake

Can you spot the eagle?

I watched him take off, grab a fish from the ocean and then fly away. He does have the fish in his talons.

Interesting color in these rocks.

I'm only sharing a couple of my otter pictures...I took a LOT. They were SO cute!!

Seldovia harbor was full of these jellyfish and kelp.

I had to take a picture of this boat for our grandson, Brandon!!

Heading out to the Homer Spit Harbor

2009-03-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

Sights along the way to the Harbor.

Huge Bouys

Various traps

Lots of boats in this harbor!

Our boat

Nautical Decay

2009-03-14T11:32:00.000-07:00

This bike path followed the road, and since the weather was nice.. just chilly..we took the bikes for the only ride on our whole trip!

Rick held the bikes while I went off with the Camera.

Boat cemetary or junk yard.

There were curtains in the windows on this boat!

A castle???

Did you notice the beautiful mountains in the background on most of these pictures?

Two museums

2009-03-13T13:31:00.000-07:00

The Islands and Oceans Visitors Center had quite a bit of land out to Cook Inlet.

At the Pratt Museum a Lynx.

Model of a Beluga Whale.

Painting of a Beaked Whale.

Picturesque Homer Spit and Homer

2009-03-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

It was a rainy day.

The truck had been made into a play area for kids.

We did eat in the restaurant, but I ate these on the wharf.

An Avion... sort of.

However you can enjoy this beautiful place, do it!

Loved Homer, AK

2009-03-13T10:47:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Homer, AK.

Beautiful! See the dark strip in the water on the left side of the picture? That's Homer Spit. Really neat place.

Very bright with the sun on the water. This is the Cook Inlet, and the boat route to Anchorage, AK. A few of these mountains are volcanoes, and one is currently somewhat active, lots of seismic activity. Mt Redoubt last erupted in 1989 and 1990. I've been watching this web-site: http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/avoreport.php?view=update

This small "pond" sure gathers lots of fisherman, out on Homer Spit. Can't remember what they were catching...

Cleaning the fish.

As I was taking this picture of the seagulls feeding on the remains, the eagle flew into the picture!!! WOW!!!

And even if the previous picture was a seagull, it really did happen, and this IS an eagle!

Got him a second time!

Alaskan Vegetables

2009-03-11T19:26:00.000-07:00

These were growing in a rest/viewing area along the road.

Along the road to Homer, AK

2009-03-11T19:15:00.000-07:00

One of the many Russian Orthodox Churches in Alaska.

Reflections

2009-03-11T19:04:00.000-07:00

We were driving along and I could see the neat reflections through the trees. So we stopped and found a path to get a bit closer. We didn't take too long in bear country!

Exit Glacier

2008-11-29T20:05:00.000-08:00

A short drive from Seward is the Exit Glacier.

Please click on all my pictures to enlarge... they are much improved and you can read the information about them.

Over the river

Through the woods

And to the Glacier

Here's another braided river. The stones are left by the receding glacier. Notice how flat the whole river area is. It's really unique. On the right edge of the picture way in the back by the bottom of the mountain and on the river bed is a cluster of shrubs. Please enlarge this. You will see 3 people..2 in red jackets. Now you can get more of the true immensity of these glaciers. It's really true. You have to be there to really feel how huge they truly are.

These signs are very informative.

Here's this years view of the glacier, and it has receded.

The carved out portions of these mountains are also caused by glaciers.

Fishing

2008-11-29T19:49:00.000-08:00

Fishing is a huge industry and tourist industry in Alaska. Fishing fleets and signs like this are in abundance. Click on picture to read... in fact, click on all the pictures to see them better. :-)

USAF Rescue Helicopter

2008-11-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

After we left the Sea Life Center, many people were looking up at the mountain. We heard a helicopter. We watched for awhile with the binoculars. After we left, we soon heard a helicopter very near us. We drove a couple of blocks to the local hospital, and there it was.

Off loading the patient (she'd been hiking, fallen and broken her leg, we heard).

We sat in the car watching.

It's taking off. It's much larger than the helipad. See the man leaning out the window?

Up in the air and he's still hanging out the window. As we were driving around Seward later, we saw this helicopter again. It was in the air and being refueled by a C130 tanker. Very interesting.

Sea Life Center in Seward, AK

2008-11-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

Anemone.

Starfish.

No, I did not touch with any finger.

Stellar seal lion and harbor seal.

Feeding a harbor seal. This was a lot of fun to watch. Injured and sick sea life are brought here, helped and set free again.

Some of the outdoor tanks.

Octopus.

Some diving birds.

Starfish.

Giant Squid.

King Crab.

Sea lion swimming. The tanks were huge. We went downstairs to see these tanks.

Can you see the bird flapping his wings under water?

Bird swimming.

Jellyfish.

Jellyfish.

Boat trip up Kenai Fjord

2008-10-28T10:47:00.000-07:00

For this boat trip, the weather was better.

Our boat is a catamaran.

Enlarge to see the sailboat with a red sail. The mountains look even bigger when you compare to the boat size.

Our first wildlife of the boat trip today. Puffins. There were literally thousands of them.

A beaver.

The glacier is a river of ice on it's way to the ocean.

WOW! 2 humpback whales.

That's one big whale!

After this dive, we didn't see them again. We think there were three of them. I have MANY MANY more pictures of them.. :-)

Stellar sea lions basking in the sun. Their noisy barks were amusing.

Rookery of red and black footed kittiwicks, and horned and tufted puffins.

Nesting puffins.

Red-footed kittiwick with his fish.

Nesting Kittiwicks.

Puffin.

Two cormorants flying and puffins are there too.

Puffins on cliff.

Arriving at the glacier.

Up close to the glacier. Let's see some breaking off...

No such luck... But they are SOO impressive!

A different glacier on the way home.

More sea otters. They are so cute just floating there in the middle of the ocean!

What a beautiful day!

Just a couple of harbor seals on the rocks.

What a wonderful day aboard this boat. We left at about 3:00pm and returned at about 9:30pm. We had been served a soup lunch and either chicken or salmon for dinner. The animals I didn't manage to get a picture of were the 3 Dall porpoises, black bear and 2 bald eagles.

Traveling down Turnagain Arm again

2008-10-28T09:05:00.000-07:00

Our next stop was Seward, AK.

A Hump?? Well, I guess it is... The name for a Rotary up there is a Round-About.

There's the train tracks we were on before. Beautiful sky.

Beautiful ride.

When your truck doesn't work anymore, just leave it there, and look what happens.

On the way to Seward, we stopped at Portage Glacier, which we couldn't see because it had retreated around the edge of a mountain. We watched a movie about glaciers. We could see Burns Glacier across the lake. We learned about ice worms here..they do live in the ice! They are very small. This area is part of the Chugach National Forest.

This is the Explorer Glacier. It is a hanging glacier.

Driving around Seward we found this waterfall.

On the other side of the road, the river drained into the ocean. See the fishermen?

What a way to travel!

2008-10-28T08:48:00.000-07:00

This bus was parked near us in the campground in Anchorage. It's a German made vehicle. There were 2 drivers, workers? Rick talked to them and they said they usually tour Germans. About a dozen people. There are seats in the front and, yes, that's the beds in the back. We didn't get to see inside...would have been interesting. The men also did a lot of cooking for the group. It had Alaska plates.

Glaciers in Prince William Sound

2008-10-21T16:10:00.000-07:00

On one of the rainiest days of the whole trip, after the train to Whittier, we boarded a boat to go and view the glaciers.

Here we go...

I think that's a high hill going into the water.

I think I see a mountain with snow and waterfall through the misty rain.

Wildlife: our first sea otters just floating there watching us.

Our first tidewater glacier only calved one very small piece of ice. We stayed here probably about 20 minutes watching for more...in the rain.

It was quite wide and we were about 1/4 mile away.

The glaciers were a beautiful blue. They were quite noisy with all the cracking that they did.

As we left the glacier, we could see how immense it really is.

On the way to the second glacier we passed the rookery of black footed kittiwakes.

The second glacier.

There were very many waterfalls from the glacial melt.

Leaving the glacier.

Through the window you can see a hanging glacier.

On the return trip there was a second rookery and more waterfalls.

Anchorage train station.

Our train.

Cute.

Train from Anchorage to Whittier, AK

2008-10-15T09:03:00.000-07:00

This map shows our train trip from Anchorage to Whittier along Turnagain Arm. Some of our group were lucky enough to see the Beluga whales in this arm of Cook Inlet. When Capt. Cook was exploring the area, he had to turn around again in this dead end.

Visiting on the train.

Mud flats in Turnagain Arm. There are warnings not to venture out onto them because of the extreme high tides in the Arm which are the second highest in North America. Also because the mud is like quicksand and people have gotten stuck in it when the tide came in.

Fishing for salmon.

The clouds kept getting darker and darker.

This is the area of Alaska that was hit by the second largest recorded earthquake in the world at 9.2 in 1964. The land sank about 12 feet.

The whole forest went underwater...the salt water prevented the decomposition of the trees and they don't decay.

Our train and the tent covered passageway to the boat. It rains here a lot because it is a temperate rain forest. Whittier, AK, averages 9 to 20 inches of rain each month. Snow is up to 20 feet.

It was really raining. Our train is in the background. (Not our bus.)

Mt McKinley Along the Road

2008-10-14T08:35:00.000-07:00

The day we left Denali was spectacular...and clear as a bell. Opportunity for viewing Mt McKinley (or it's original name: Denali) all day long. Awesome. Wonderful. We became part of the 30% Club. Most people that visit Alaska don't get to see Mt McKinley due to the clouds. Only 30% do get to see the mountain. We were blessed.

Views along the road.

Driving along in the mountains.

Construction again.

Just look at that line of Airstreams behind us, too.

There it is again.

Tried a zoom on this one.

Our log book mentioned that this restaurant had good food and a good view. The wait for lunch would have been over an hour with everyone stopping here. There was only one waitress working that day. We found another spot with a view and just made sandwiches. We did that most of the time.

The view from the garden was really good.

And the view from the porch.

Zoom again.

Down the road we found a great spot along a lake.

Nice reflections.

Walked down on some boards almost in the water to get this last picture of Mt McKinley. Did not see the mountains again on the trip...rain, clouds, their usual weather.

Spectacular Scenery

2008-10-08T20:41:00.000-07:00

The next day was bright and sunny. Were all those mountains there yesterday? WOW!!

The higher elevations have snow.

Time for a caravan picnic. Burgers, beans, potato salad and pie for dessert. That's us in #7886, currently camped next to the Caravan Leaders, Jim and Bobbie Matkovich. After dinner it was announced that one of the Rangers had said it was clearing off and we might be able to see Mt. McKinley this evening.

Where is it?

Not here.

Well...

Let's see...

OK. Let's look closer...

I see it!.... Kind of far away...

Almost mystical...

Ooo...

Ahh...

This arctic hare could care less if we were all standing around him.. just let him eat!

Thanks to Amanda DiBella, I got these shots using her lense and tripod.

A Day Trip Through Denali

2008-10-08T18:48:00.000-07:00

Our bus left at 5:30am and eventually we arrived at the end of the 90 mile dirt road at the lodge in time for lunch. It was a very rainy day, so at every stop the bus driver washed all the bus windows.

Wildlife seen on the trip: wolf

Herd of caribou.

This is one of many, many braided rivers we saw on the trip. They are caused by the receding glaciers, are very flat and wide, and are all full of small stones and gravel.

People have been here in Denali for a very long time.

The cloudy picture is because it was snowing!! Herd of caribou.

Bear. Yes, there is one in this picture. Enlarge it. Actually all the pictures look better enlarged! The other pictures that I took of this bear were all his backside.

Lunch at last. Very good soup and sandwich spread.

Bridge was fun to walk over.

This is a double- decker gazebo. So much rain you can hardly see through the screens.

Gold can be found in most rivers in Alaska, including this one. None found today, however.

Beaver lodge on the edge of the lake.

Grizzly Bear (driver said that it was probably the same one we saw earlier).

Dall sheep in the snow.

The state bird is this Willow Ptarmigan.

Coloring hides it well.

Spectacular scenery! Too much of it was hidden in the rain and snow. We arrived back at the campground at 7:30pm. Long day!! Wonderful time had by all...even in the rain and snow!

A Trip on the Discovery III

2008-10-07T12:50:00.000-07:00

After the Eldorado it really rained!

Our paddle-wheeled boat is ready to board.

Is this plane chasing us??

More than 60% of the locals have planes similar to this. Some have even been grandfathered in to land and park on their own property.

Home of some of the Ididerod sled dogs and puppies.

They are very anxious to pull the ATV around the track.

Afterwards a cool down and drink of water, this river was very cold water.

The difference between reindeer and caribou: reindeer are domesticated.

This was a native encampment and displayed various types of shelter.

We had a demonstration of what the natives did with some of the skins and how they prepared them for use.

There was a demonstration on the training of the sled dogs.

Once again, we were not alone on the tour!

Eldorado Gold Mine

2008-10-06T12:07:00.000-07:00

A visit to a gold mine.

The train station.

The engine of our train.

A typical gold miner's cabin.

An engine to work the mine.

The owner of the mine told us how the sluice works.

Water running thru the sluice. The largest of the gold nuggets are left at the top of the sluice and the stones are washed on down.

College kids work here and show us how to pan for gold.

After the stones and dirt are washed away, this much gold was left.

Wife of the owner shows us the nuggets that were left when the water went thru the sluice. The gold flakes are from the students that did the panning. The soil they use, comes from the actual mine...these were in the soil dumped from the backhoe.

Now we get to pan for gold.

Thru the tunnel.

We each recieved a leather bag full of soil.

We get to keep the gold that we panned.

Ready for the next set of panners. We put our gold flakes into little black film cannisters.

We now go into the gift shop, where we get our gold weighed and valued (ours together was worth $20) and can have it put into a necklace or earrings to display. The necklaces started at about $30 each. Talk about gold mining!!

The crew waves good-bye as we get back on the train to get back to the cars.

Our group wasn't the only one at the mine today.

Ice Museum

2008-10-06T10:04:00.000-07:00

We visited an ice museum in Fairbanks.

He used chain saws and torches to create this carving.

Musical xylophone ice carving.

These were left from last year's ice carving contest.

The Flight back to Fairbanks.

2008-09-06T21:38:00.000-07:00

These are the black spruce trees of the permafrost. They are the only ones adapted to live on the mossy layer above the ice. The shorter the trees, the closer the ice is to the suface. These trees that are pictured could be 100 years old!

This is the area above the Arctic Circle.

These are the planes that flew us back to Fairbanks. The group that flew up in them, took the bus back to Fairbanks.

I sat right behind the pilot. Rick enjoyed watching all the dials from the seat to my right.

The terrain above the Arctic Circle.

A very gray and rainy day.

The bridge from the air over the Yukon River. There's a picture taken on the bridge and pipeline 2 posts before this one. See the mountains in the distance?

The pipeline heading to Valdez.

About to land in Fairbanks.

Seaplane lake at the Fairbanks airport. One of the largest in Alaska.

Alyseka Pipeline

2008-09-06T20:44:00.000-07:00

Our bus driver was in contact with people in Coldfoot, our destination, and with the pilots for our return trip. Coldfoot was fogged in. They decided to fly the planes to the airstrip at one of the pipeline pump stations. We had about an hour to kill, so the bus driver brought us up close to the pipeline.

We went under the gate.

And closer.

With the people in the picture, you really get the perspective of size.

This is a close-up to show how the pipeline can slide from side to side due to heating and cooling and also in case of earthquakes. The pipes are insulated and the oil is very hot...over 100 degrees F., the whole trip across Alaska. That's over 800 miles of pipeline. It is above ground like this where there is permafrost. They do bury it if there is no permafrost.

The Arctic Circle

2008-09-05T23:56:00.000-07:00

Yes, we did go over the Arctic Circle.

See the red carpet? The bus driver gets it out, lays it down and then...

greets everyone, one by one. This is Frank Colligan from California.

This is the view, even if you turned 360 degrees.

Only a few survive up here.

See? We were here!!

Truckers beware.

Following the Pipeline

2008-09-05T22:35:00.000-07:00

The Dalton Highway is the highway from Fairbanks to Deadhorse in Prudhoe Bay and follows the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.

One of the times the pipeline goes over the river. It's on the same bridge as the highway. Where there is permafrost, it makes construction of anything MUCH more difficult.

The next rest area.

Does this picture seem really bright to you? When the sun is out... it is REALLY bright.

Notice the sticks in the ground around here? Pay attention. Permafrost. When the pipeline is above ground, there is permafrost close to the surface. Remember this in all the pictures.

Almost Crossed the Arctic Circle

2008-09-05T21:09:00.000-07:00

The caravaners were divided into 4 groups. One group went in the morning by bus to the town of Coldfoot, AK, across the Arctic Circle. The second group left a little later in the morning and flew to Coldfoot. Then there was a trade... bus group flew back and plane group took the bus back. At least that's how it was supposed work. Day one was too foggy in Coldfoot for the plane to land. Group one had to take the bus back... this was a 7 hour one way trip. The fliers were flown to a different Native community and landed there and explored. They flew back. Day 2 and groups 3 and 4: Rick and I bused up. This is the rest stop maybe a little over half way to Coldfoot.

This family was very interesting. They had their own kids (I don't remember.. 2 or 3) and then became foster parents for somewhere around 34 or 35 kids. They lived here in the many log buildings. We didn't see many during our visit, and I think most of them are now grown. This was a souvenir shop, coffee, sandwiches, etc.

The way to the "deluxe outhouses".

Yep. The restrooms. They are even worse than they look. But... them or nothing...

One of the family houses.

Fairbanks Visitors Center

2008-09-04T23:53:00.000-07:00

Right downtown is the Visitors Center.

The Natives of the State of Alaska.

The river through downtown.

See the Plug? All cars have them up here. It's so cold in the winter, the cars must be plugged in, in order to start again. There are posts in the parking lots (like Walmart) to do so. I mean, really, -60 degrees daily....is that daytime or night-time...oh...there is no day....

The summertime brings out wonderful color in the flowers. There are flowers everywhere.

Snowbaby Airstream

2008-09-04T23:32:00.000-07:00

I just had to share this Airstream with you. Really cute. No, didn't get it... too pricy... :-) But what an Airstream...

North Pole, AK

2008-09-03T22:57:00.000-07:00

North Pole?? THE North Pole?? As in SANTA CLAUS??

WOW!! He's a favorite of mine... :-)

This is Santa Claus House in North Pole, AK. Next door is the RV Park.

All these next pictures are on the outside of the house.

And live reindeer in the back yard. What a treat!!

You just never know where your adventures will bring you.

Delta Junction, AK

2008-09-03T22:11:00.000-07:00

Our first view of the really high mountains.

This is a river bed. Like nothing we've ever seen before. It's almost a mile across. The water is on the far side of these stones and trees.

Flowers along side the river.

Mountains look bigger in this one. Lower foothills, then higher hills, and the level of the start of the snow on the high ones. What a view. It was spectacular.

End of the Alaska Highway and First Sighting of the Alaska Pipeline

2008-09-03T20:05:00.000-07:00

End of one Highway, but early in the trip. Being all in Alaska, the Highways all have names, as they can't be numbered Interstates. I'll name others as we travel onward.

Visiting the Visitors Centers is always interesting and informative.

Description of the Alaska Highway. It really was an impossible road to build. We enjoyed several museums and movies about the building of it.

This is Delta Junction's end marker for the Alaska Highway. Remember the one in Dawson Creek?

This is a typical cabin built by the first homesteaders. Note the grass roof.

There are really HUGE mosquitos up here.

What is this???

From Delta Junction to Fairbanks we will follow the Alyeska Pipeline. Here is how some of it has increased in size.

This describes the cleaning of the pipeline.

This is one of the types of "pigs" that cleans it.

Our first sighting of the pipeline over a river.

On the Way To Delta Junction,AK

2008-09-02T18:52:00.000-07:00

The Alaska Highway (previously the Alcan) starts in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and ends in Delta Junction, AK. That's a total of 1422 miles.

This is one of the mileposts along the way.

This is Betty and Mike Ivy's truck we rode in to Eagle. Unbelievably muddy. Wet mud. Slippery, too.

WHAT THE!!!!!! OMG!!!!

After we left Chicken, driving on a wet, potholed, muddy road, the road improved. Sometimes we see animals along the way. This is what a moose can do to an Airstream. This is the Ivy's Airstream. They watched the moose, moving out at maybe 10mph, the moose turned into their truck and hit the Airstream!!!! The truck was fine. But...WOW!!! Roger Mory was up checking it out. The torn aluminum is about 2/3's the way down the trailer. The moose walked away into the woods and couldn't be found.

Front view. That's Betty Ivy on the left calling their insurance agent. Needless to say, the inside was a mess, too. They were able to stay in it until they got a new one.

Mike Ivy on the ladder starting to cover it. Anybody that had a tarp or anything, donated it. The blue tarp was ours.

Even a tablecloth will help.

This is their dog. He must be thinking: "What happened to my home??"

Insurance called it totaled and paid quite a bit for the Airstream (although not new, they hold their value). They were able to sell the trailer to someone in Fairbanks, and he was going to cannibalize it for parts. They bought whatever was available in Fairbanks at the time. This is their new trailer. Sleeps quite a few, and they were happy with it....until, would you believe... There was an electrical problem and the refrigerator wouldn't work. Finally...FINALLY... under warranty... they got it fixed in Anchorage. Yes, they are still with us...it's not their fault it was a moose attack!! They've been able to be with us on almost all the tours.

Chicken and Eagle, AK

2008-08-31T14:41:00.000-07:00

The Top of the World Highway is an all dirt road. I tried to get a picture of at least a couple of the millions of potholes. The Suburban really rides like a truck sometimes.

At the end of the day, we had homemade Blueberry Buckle and ice cream, made and served by the campground hosts. Yummy. The kitchen in the campground was excellent.

Nobody missed out on this goody.

In the summer, the town of Chicken has 21 residents. In the winter, there are 6 residents. The only businesses are 2 campgrounds, the post office, and the "strip mall" of a diner, liquor store (very slim pickings and twice the price), gas pump (no station) and souvenir store. The full time residents aren't too fond of the "newcomers". Cold and rain during our visit here in the dry camp...that was full of puddles and mud.

Leaving the trailers and driving the 90 miles each way to Eagle, part of it on the same Top of the World Highway, we traveled with Betty Ivy while her husband, Mike, stayed back to do some work on something in their trailer. We enjoyed a very s-l-o-w lunch, then toured the museum and restored Fort Egbert. Interesting. During lunch, across the Yukon River, there was a black bear loping along the beach. He decided to cross the river to our side. This is one big river with a fast current...not to mention cold. That poor bear got swept past us and on down the river. The local wildlife management man said if the bear couldn't get to land, he could drown. We all hoped he made it....

The reason I'm writing this is.... it's one of the few days that Elaine forgot her camera. Can you believe it? Sigh.

We got back into the cars and headed back to Chicken on that muddy and pot-holed road. It was only 4 1/2 hours one way. Yeah. 90 miles. That's a clue about the road. But the scenery was spectacular...and baren.

Time to ferry across the Yukon River

2008-08-25T00:56:00.000-07:00

The journey across the Yukon River, for 35 trailers/RV's was about 5 hours. Yes, you read that right. No more that 3 at a time, depending on the length of the vehicle.

We weren't even last...

Finally..soon it will be our turn.

Here we go..

Off we go...

Top of the World Highway..a golf course??

ahhhhh

WOW!!

US/Canada Border

Does this road ever end???

Preparing for the Top of the World Highway

2008-08-24T17:59:00.000-07:00

The highway is gravel. Apparently there are cases of broken windows from flying stones from oncoming traffic and bugs clogging up the radiator. Three people in the caravan have had cracked windshields. These are Rick's solutions.

Bubble-wrap and duct tape on the side windows of the Airstream.

This is a contraption we picked up in Prince George at the campground that was free and someone else had used. It's held on with bungies. When we return to the same campground at the end of the Caravan, we will leave it for someone else to use. There were maybe a dozen different ones piled there.

Rick cut this screening and duct taped the edges, then used plastic ties to attach it. This is for bugs and stones hitting the radiator.

Just had to take a picture of this bus that someone is living in...hard to believe. It's in the middle of the gravel piles.

Dredge Number Four

2008-08-23T23:46:00.000-07:00

What is a Dredge? It is a huge machine that digs up the creeks to find the gold in them. This is the last one to operate in Dawson City, actually until the 1950's, when it sank to the bottom of the lake. Lake? Creek? They dammed up the creeks and these dredges floated on the lakes that were created. Large companies came in after the gold was actually discovered via an individual man and his pan.

These piles of stone were created by the dredge "spitting out" the unwanted stones. If you go back to the gold mine picture in the last page of the blog, and enlarge it, you will see the worm-like things at the bottom of the picture. It's these piles of rejected stones. They are everywhere.

Sometimes there are ponds created by the stones. There's no soil, so not many plants.

These next 2 pictures kind of describe how the dredge works. Digs it up. Drops it on the sluices, and then out the unwanted stones go on the conveyor on the back.

These are the buckets, still buried in the mud from when it sank in the 1950's. It remained untouched and buried for 30 or so years until they decided to restore it as a museum.

Some of the gears.

The gravel was put on this, the large stones ended up on the conveyor and discarded.

Everything else went down the sluices. The gold is much heavier than the stones (about 20 times heavier) and was trapped in the sluices. They had material (like burlap...today they use artificial turf) to catch the small flakes of gold, and hopefully lots of nuggets.

More gears.

Handles to operate all the gears.

Front of the dredge.

Rear of the dredge where the discarded stone came off the conveyor. Now you know all about gold mining. Don't forget to add in the permafrost...all the gravel was frozen...no gold unless you could thaw it (even in the summer), or the -20 to -60 degree winters with many feet of snow.

The Dome

2008-08-23T22:41:00.000-07:00

This is the view from the top of one of the mountains above the town. Drove the dirt road to the top. We were alone to view these fabulous scenes. Later we heard that a grizzly and 2 babies had been seen on the road earlier in the day. Don't forget to click on these pictures...they're really great when they are enlarged.

Yukon River and most of the town of Dawson City.

View downriver.

The gold mine that is still in operation. See the road that is on the right and goes up the valley? That's the road to Dredge #4.

Can you see the layers of mountains in the distance? See the little road that goes up and winds around the moutain? That's how we left town...the beginning of the Top of the World Highway. You can see it on the second mountain, and again at the top of the mountain on the right....way far away. That's where we went!

A pretty, unusual flower at the top of the mountain.

Robert Service and Jack London

2008-08-21T23:35:00.000-07:00

They both lived in Dawson City in these cabins. This North country had profound effects on both of their lives.

Robert Service's cabin.

Rick looking in the back door.

These roofs were good insulators.

These steps were soft to walk on. Weird.

We went to a program about Robert Service. This fellow told of his life and read several of his poems.

Jack London's cabin and cache (elevated room to store meat and food so bears couldn't get it.) is open to the public, also.

Sternwheeler Keno

2008-08-21T23:02:00.000-07:00

One of the last sternwheelers to work the Yukon River. Now they give tours of it.

There was so much wood needed for the opening of the land, mostly due to the gold rush, the forests still haven't recovered. This one boat on one trip used something like 40 cords of wood just to go one way and it's one of the smaller ones. There were dozens of boats, buildings being built, heat for the long cold winters, they were cutting further and further from the rivers.

The store across the street....they spell different up here...

Rick at the wheel. (This wasn't even on the boat.)

The engine room.

New and Old Dawson City, YT

2008-08-21T13:24:00.000-07:00

It is a town of contrasts. The "new" is very colorful...and not very new. The old is what happened when building improperly on the permafrost. There are no basements in Alaska due to permafrost. All buildings are sitting on a special gravel to protect the permafrost. It's like an underground glacier. It's anywhere from several inches to several feet below the surface. Dawson City has no paved roads..all dirt with potholes. All roads are specially prepared with a base of extra gravel before paving to protect the permafrost. With the supercold winters up here, (-20 to -60 all winter) most of the roads have heaves and potholes. Our truck rides like...a truck!

There are moose or caribou or elk antlers on many, many of the buildings.

A Very Special Potlatch/GAM

2008-08-21T01:31:00.000-07:00

During the earlier part of the Caravan, we had Potlatches. These are socials to get to meet each other. Bring your own drink, chair, and an easy snack to share. Usually in groups of 6 couples. Hopefully it won't rain!! One was scheduled for the first evening in Dawson Creek, Yukon Territory. This one is different.

Why is Jim Matkovich (our fearless leader of the Caravan) using the sound system?

Something is going on...

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Jerry and Mary Lou Cristy on your 50th Wedding Anniversary!!

Tom Venable, a Methodist Minister, performed a re-affirmation ceremony.

Yes!

Not like the first one...even better!!

Yes!

Cutting the cake... at least the first one...

Everyone gets a piece of cake.

Our campground.

The Road to Dawson City, YT

2008-08-20T23:23:00.000-07:00

This scenery goes on and on and on. For hours. Trees and road.

Can you see the bear tracks? We stopped for breakfast, and the owner was out looking at the prints and scratchs and said he'd never seen them so close to the restaurant before.

Guess they're cleaning up the sides of the road. We've seen some of these piles burned.

You might not believe that this is my only picture of the 2 trumpeter swans. They were swimming along on the outside of the grasses, and when I finally got the camera ready...they went inside the grass...sigh!

This dirt road goes on and on...

On to Minto, YT

2008-08-20T23:04:00.000-07:00

Many bridges like this to go over.

The river at the private campground we stayed at. We had BBQ pork sandwiches and potato salad at the picnic in the screened room at the camp. Games of Joker were played after dinner.

Others sat around and enjoyed the bonfire.

We filled the whole camp. It was only for one night, and there was absolutely nothing else on the deserted road, so we never unhooked. Left early in the morning.

Fox Lake Burn

2008-08-15T18:58:00.000-07:00

As you've seen in so many of the pictures, there are many trees. Sometimes there are fires. Man-made and lightning strikes are the usual causes. Hard to believe this was 10 years ago.

This burn was 45,000 hectars. (Canada uses metric)

Life is returning.

This is fireweed. It is the first plant to return after a burn.

Can you see all the burned trees all over the hillside?

We have driven thru many of these burns. The burn from about 1954 (I think) was still visible. Where there is permafrost, it remains beneath the protective mosses and layers of soil.

Climbing out of Skagway and back to Yukon Territory

2008-08-11T13:49:00.000-07:00

The ride out of Skagway wasn't nearly as bad as I thought, and the views were fantastic....in and out of the clouds. Didn't rain.

Snow Train

2008-08-08T23:49:00.000-07:00

I just had to put this amazing train in. It's on display near the train station. Click on the picture to enlarge so you can read about it.

White Pass and Yukon Railroad Trip

2008-08-08T22:26:00.000-07:00

We had a 4 hour train ride up the valley and back into British Columbia...no customs because we didn't get off the train when they stopped to switch the engine to the back of the train. The seat backs flipped so we were facing forward and back down we went to Skagway. Fabulous scenery even with the cloudy weather.

Here's our engine.

We are all settled in.

This isn't the best picture, but it does show Skagway way down there.

Around the corner we go.

Waterfall with the road above it...hard to see.

Another train ahead of us going over three bridges. Count them.

The lake where we stopped, then went back down.

The actual trail of the Klondike miners.

What scenery!

Over the bridge.

Hugging the cliff.

The light green trees have grown where there were avalanches. The darker black spruce are slow growers.

Train and bridge

Almost end of ride.

Hey, there's our airstreams, right by the railroad.

I stood on these to take some of the pictures.

Skagway, AK

2008-08-08T17:05:00.000-07:00

There is a drop from about 3292' at White Pass to sea level in about 11.5 miles in order to get into or out of Skagway on the only road.

Look at those clouds. At least it didn't rain.

Another bear stopping the traffic.

The real border is here, but customs was 8 miles down the road. We've used our passports several times already. This day we traveled from Yukon Territories, through a narrow section of British Columbia and then into the USA.

This road follows the Klondike Gold Rush trails.

One of the cruise ships docked at Skagway. Can you see the people on the walkway and going up the ramps.

2 more ships in port. ALL those people were on the streets of Skagway!

The streets of Skagway.

To the gold seekers.

Tlingit Heritage Center

2008-08-08T16:47:00.000-07:00

Very nice museum. Haven't really seen too many Totem poles, except these, but they are prominent with the native culture. Can you see the animals they represent?

Eagle

Beaver

Wolf

Frog

Raven

Now they are in reverse order.

A little fox was just sitting there watching us drive by.

Teslin, YT

2008-08-06T23:34:00.000-07:00

Small town on the Alaska Highway.

View as you enter.

Over the bridge.

Rick is befriending the wildlife...as long as they aren't alive.

A bull moose can be up to 6' at the shoulder! Caribou are much smaller.

These were taken at the museum.

Moose and wolves.

Beaver.

Bear. (That's a reflection on the glass... oh, well.)

Caribou.

What's this?? Rick under the hood again?? Yep. Today, I had water dripping on my foot while we were driving. Soon, I had a puddle. Moved my purse. Put napkins on the floor to soak it up. Heater. Clamped it off. Rear heater is OK. Defroster is OK. Duct tape the clamp and let's go!!

This is the car of the man that settled the area. The museum told an interesting story.

On the road

2008-08-05T22:32:00.000-07:00

More scenery.

We saw this outside a little restaurant. Some Hummer!!

Very interesting.

Our first forest fire. It is so deserted out here, that they watch them and just let them burn, as nature intended. Almost always started by lightning.

The Sign Forest

2008-08-05T19:06:00.000-07:00

On the road to Watson Lake

The sign forest was started by one of the workers working on the building of the Alcan Highway during World War II. He put up a sign with his hometown, an arrow pointing the way and the number of miles. It caught on. There are now somewhere around 60,000.

Our caravaners looking in amazement at rows and rows of signs.

Yes, we need to put one up, also! Our leader, Jim Matkovich, made a sign for the caravan, and several others also had signs.

This was quite a ceremony!

Here they are...

WBCCI Caravan...whoops...carvan???

Rick enjoyed looking at the old machines.

Can you believe we found one from Jefferson, OH! No, don't know the people.

More animals

2008-08-04T13:05:00.000-07:00

Soon after we left Liard...what is this??

What IS this?? (don't forget, click on pictures to enlarge)

OMG! It's a bear eating a moose. The moose must have been road kill. Some of our group later said no bear, but an eagle having some lunch.

Oh, my, what's ahead?

A whole herd of wood buffalo. We were happy to stop and watch them.

Many young.

And again, on down the road, on the same day, a bear eating berries. Most days we do not see this many animals. People who have been on this caravan before, say that this is more than they've ever seen. So, we have been very lucky.

Liard Hot Springs

2008-08-02T21:41:00.000-07:00

Canada has many hot springs. I never knew this. We spent 3 nights at Liard Hot Springs Provincial Park, went in the springs, walked on the boardwalks to several of the springs, and went to listen to the park's naturalist talk about the area. She said that there are actually several other springs, but they are not developed for public use. Bears are often seen in the area, so one talk was on bear safety. Now, when we are out walking, about every 50', I yell..."Yo! Bear!!" so they know I'm around and, hopefully, they go the other way!! :-)

The boardwalk goes over the hot springs swamp. There is only one type of fish in the water and it has adapted to the hot water. This swampy area has cooler water than the actual springs.

Many animals come to the springs, especially in the winter. No, no animals in this picture.

This is the boreal forest surrounding the springs.

It's almost tropical-like vegetation.

This is the hottest end, about 180 degrees. As you'd expect, the sulfur smell is quite strong.

Many sets of stairs lead into the water. It's about 150 degrees at the far end of the pool.

The springs feed the river and swamp. The lower river area is cooler yet.

These are some of the people from our caravan. The man is sitting on an underwater bench under the waterfall. On our first walk to the springs, I brought the camera. We came back later wearing our bathing suits and enjoyed the hot springs. I was sitting on the bench when the force of the water kind of bumped me and knocked my magnetic sunglasses into the river. Oops! Rick looked and looked, and so did a couple of other helpful people...to no avail. Darn! When the sun is out way up North here, it is REALLY bright!

This is a second hot springs, close to a mile from the parking lot. It was quite an uphill walk on the boardwalk. Can you see it bubbling in the middle? Few hike this far to use the springs....also, too hot.

Really pretty up here. Both springs had little changing rooms and outhouses.

These steps led up to an area called the hanging gardens. It's where some of the water comes out.

Kind of weird looking, really.

That's me on the boardwalk.

Our first cook-out

2008-08-02T19:57:00.000-07:00

We lined up for our delicious looking food. Ham with pineapple topping, baked potatoes (they were huge!), green beans, roll and cookies for dessert.

This is the view down the road at the entrance of the campground.

Animals

2008-07-28T20:49:00.001-07:00

Here's some of the animals just on one day. No, we don't see this many every day, but we see something, if only a ground squirrel.

Why is everyone stopping...I think I see an animal....

Young Moose

Another young moose trotted down the highway past the cars.

Big Horn sheep just sitting there ignoring all the traffic and cameras.

Stone sheep.

Stone sheep and babies, about 15 in all.

Another moose.

Buffalo?

On the road???

That was a busier than usual animal day. We actually saw a black bear, too, but couldn't get a picture.

The road to Fort Nelson, BC

2008-07-27T21:22:00.000-07:00

Gorgeous sights all day long.

Does this resemble "The Old Man of the Mountain" of New Hampshire fame? It's name is Man in the Mountain.

There goes our road... into the distance.

Granite mountains.

Following the rivers.

Another WOW!

Along the lake.

Look at the color of that water! It was spectacular.

Into the mountains.

A Red Light! Civilization! Road work on the bridge...one lane, and almost to Fort Nelson.

First animal sign: Moose

2008-07-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

Along the way.

MOOSE

Behind these trees??

Behind these trees??

These are the pumps up here...these are some of the better looking ones.

Read these signs. I think it gets muddy up here!

Now that is muddy!!!

Think the rain will wash it off??

Dawson Creek

2008-07-27T12:37:00.000-07:00

Dawson Creek is where the Alaska (used to be called the Alcon) Highway starts.

This is milepost 0 in the middle of the town. All the miles start here and end in Delta Junction, Alaska. It goes across British Columbia and the Yukon Territory. In 1996 it was dedicated as the "16th Wonder of the Engineering World." The space out here is immense and barren.

This is the Visitors Center and museum and they showed a movie about the making of the Highway during the war when it was feared that Japan would invade Alaska.

Rains come and go quickly and several times daily out here.

Oh,Oh! Car won't start...again. Third time since we left Little Rock. Yep, had to put in a third starter!! At a Chevy garage they installed a NEW Chevy starter and heat shield. All for one days work (they were SO good to fit us into their busy schedule!) and about $800! We're not putting in a rebuilt Napa one this time!

The caravan left without us, but we were able to catch them by evening. Whew!

Off we go!

2008-07-27T11:55:00.000-07:00

After 2 days in Price George, British Columbia, we're off to Dawson Creek for another 2 days. The drive was 257 miles.

Naturally it started off with a traffic jam due to road repairs. Happens everywhere! Look at all those Airstreams in the line!

Couple of scenes along the way. Beautiful!

Dawson Creek's crop is Canola, that's all those yellow flowers.

Give-aways and Potlatchs

2008-07-22T22:15:00.000-07:00

See the nice insulated bag? We use ours every day for snacks and water in the car.

Potlatches are get-togethers to meet each other. We'll have 6, each one having a different host and guests. Bring your own chair and beverage and a quick snack to share. Usually not even plates or napkins! Then we go around the group and introduce ourselves and whatever else you want. That part is the GAM. New language here!

Our Airstream Caravan Adventure Starts

2008-07-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

We arrive in Prince George, British Columbia, and the campground is full. Great! The owner called across the street to another park, and they had camping spots available. We stayed the night and moved across the street to the gathering point at 11am and had out first meeting at 12:30pm.

We met each other. Some have been on many caravans, and some, know each other from traveling together before. It does get to be a small world. One lady was a teacher in Jefferson in the 1960's, another grew up in Eastlake and his stomping grounds included Ashtabula County. We went to the Tall Ships Rally in Cinncinati a couple of years ago, and the couple who were in charge of that rally are on this trip. Neat!

After the meeting we all got our pictures taken in couples, and then recieved the pictures so we can get to know each other better. We also recieved the "Milepost" Book. It's the Bible of the Alaska (previously Alcan) Highway. It's about $25-30.

Here's some Tunnels

2008-07-12T22:52:00.001-07:00

With all those mountains, you don't think that the road just winds around them, do you?? I only took pictures of a couple of them.

See the second tunnel?

This is it.

The Gold Rush Trail

2008-07-12T21:37:00.000-07:00

The Gold Rush Trail is the name of the road on which we are driving. It goes straight north. Views along the road. It was a beautiful rainbow!

View of the mountain from where we were camping.

The pine trees were extremely tall. Rick said when the wind picked up in the morning, they were swaying back and forth over 10'. Actually, on the news that night, we heard that there had been tornados not too far away. At home, we never get Canadian news, so I didn't know that they were up here, too.

Driving along

2008-07-11T11:17:00.001-07:00

Everywhere you look is another beautiful vista.

It's amazing how the huge mountains hide, and suddenly peek out again. And hide in the clouds.

Mt Rainier and Mukilteo Beach

2008-07-11T11:01:00.000-07:00

It is just stunning to be driving along and suddenly Mt Rainier pops up out of nowhere. We were there for 2 days before we saw it! It's hidden in the clouds a lot of the time

Went for a walk on the beach near the ferry to Whidby Island. Barnacles on the stones and pier were interesting. Beautiful day.

Evening in Seattle

2008-07-11T10:25:00.000-07:00

The ferry pulling into the dock at Bainbridge Island.

Couldn't resist the sunset pictures. The cars are waiting to board the ferry and go to the Island.

This is where it all began.. Starbuck's at Pikes Market in Seattle. Not the usual... no seating in the store.

This is an old silver trailer that was parked next to us at the KOA just before we entered Canada. They said that their trailer wasn't qualified to join WBCCI.

A Trip to Seattle, WA

2008-07-10T21:41:00.000-07:00

The first picture is the middle of a panorama, the second is to the left and the third is to the right... looking at the pictures, I don't think that they overlap. It really was a beautiful view.

We were taking a ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island, just for the fun of it.

See the sail with the boat pulling it? The Space needle is on the way left of the panorama.

That's where we were headed... Bainbridge Island. We had coffee and a chocolate mousse while we waited for the return ferry. Met an interesting winemaker and his family and had to wait for the second return ferry. We didn't even get any wine!

The ferry ride was about 35 minutes each way.

Our ferry at sunset.

Cleveland to Seattle/Lacey, WA

2008-07-05T12:16:00.000-07:00

AND ALASKA HERE WE COME!!!

First we travel over the Heartland....

Beautiful day to fly. ?Crop circles? Areas that are watered?

Look at those mountains...and the snow!

Lacey, WA, where the Super Tent is in storage.

Rick opening an awning for me.

Rick has mentioned many times now that maybe we should get a second trailer for the Rallies... naw... it wouldn't qualify for WBCCI... would it??

It does have a back porch and lots of firewood! And all for only $3500!!

I think we'll just keep what we have!! ;-)

Anticipating the next jouney of the Super Tent...

2008-06-14T19:36:00.000-07:00

Bye, for now. Our next trip will actually start very soon. We are scheduled to leave for an Airstream Caravan (about 30-35 Airstreams) to Alaska on July 14, 2008. We will fly from Cleveland back to Washington on July 3, 2008 to start our trip to meet the Caravan in Prince George, British Columbia. Can't wait!!! See you then... :-)

Fort Clatsop and Finally, Washington

2008-06-14T18:34:00.000-07:00

The trees in Oregon are really big!!

Rick and a tree.

Our 34' sure looks small in the parking lot!!!

Fort Clatsop was built in about a month.. Winter protection for the Lewis and Clark Expedition when they reached the Pacific Ocean, just upstream slightly on the Columbia River south shore in Oregon.

I'll bet it took the National Park Service longer to build the copy!!

Inside the museum. We enjoyed the tour.

On the other side of the Columbia River, we are nearing the end of our trek in Washington.

Wonder what this old wharf was... There were many of these along the shore.

Got the Airstream ready for storage.

Bye, #7886. See you later.

More Coast

2008-05-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

The views along the road were spectacular. We stopped in viewing areas that were big enough for the Airstream to park.

The Oregon Geology sign talks about Tsunamis.

These rocks that stick out of the water are called haystacks. They are remnents of old volcanic activity. They don't weather like the surrounding rocks.

This one is huge. Can you see the people to the right at the bottom? The white dots are seagulls sitting all over it.

See the people on the beach?

The tall cloud over the coast is really a rain cloud. We watched it move from over the ocean to over the land. Rain, sun, rain, sun all day, every day out here.

Oregon Coast

2008-05-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

I haven't really posted any pictures of the actual coast, so here goes...I have LOTS of them.

There are people walking on the beach.

In this one, too.

This is called the Devil's Punchbowl. It was a cave that the roof collapsed.

This is a kelp forest. I'm not an underwater photographer..so this is all I could see.

Coastal wildlife and things that grow

2008-05-19T16:30:00.000-07:00

I already posted the mossy fungi on the trees and also the spanish moss. That continued all along the coast. We were on the Pacific Ocean, so, of course, millions of seagulls. I must say, however, that they are larger and colors are different than the Lake Erie seagulls!

Really weird roots on many of the trees.

Skunk cabbage was all over. They flower in the spring.

Many seagulls.

They liked to pose.

Not the crabs, just the cages to catch them.

A Visit to the Newport Aquarium

2008-05-15T16:41:00.000-07:00

Let's go see the fish. You're only seeing a few of the pictures that I really took.

jellyfish

blue fish

white jellyfish

blue and red fish

anemones

anemones and starfish

Tube in the fish tank. These are really fun to walk through.

shrimp

crab

jellyfish These are hard to catch a picture of...they wiggle too much!!

Bridges along the Pacific Ocean

2008-05-12T17:39:00.000-07:00

I thought a Blog Post of the Bridges would be interesting. They were beautiful.

See the ocean in this one? Bottom right are the waves.

Newport, OR, at dusk.

Newport in the morning from the other side.

Retaining wall is the actual road. Way up on the hillside. Great view of the ocean. There are chain link mesh attached to the hillsides to help prevent falling stones.

Bridge over the Columbia River into Washington.

Up we go...

And down we go.. and on, and on, and on.

The Elks Club in Florence, OR

2008-05-12T17:14:00.000-07:00

After dinner, we drove to the Elks Club in Florence, OR. We parked, but Rick was going to straighten up the Airstream a little bit.....the Suburban wouldn't start. At all. Sigh!!! Once again, it was the starter.

This time Rick didn't wave as the Suburban was towed away in the rain. Again I stayed in the Airstream and worked on the Blog.

Totem Pole in the Elks Club parking lot. Rick walked back from the garage, he said it was about a mile down the road. The sun came out.

The car was done about 3:30pm, so Rick walked back to get it. We drove about 3 hours up to the Newport, OR, Elks Club.

Winchester, OR

2008-05-12T16:42:00.000-07:00

The whale watch people suggested eating in Winchester. All of the restaurants have great food.

Winchester Marina

We chose the Crabby Cafe because it overlooked the Marina. Great view while we ate.

Our appetisers were clam chowder and fried clam strips. This is the house salad that came with my fish and chips. Great shrimp. Rick had halibut stuffed with prawns.

Across the street were the Sportsman Restaurant

and the Anchor Grill

Along the Road on the Oregon Coast

2008-04-30T19:41:00.000-07:00

All of the following we saw again and again along the way. I've never been in a Tsunami Zone before. At least I was never told that I was there. We lived in Alameda, CA, for 3 years, and never gave it a thought. I lived in Boston for a year and never heard about it, either. Rick was in Pensacola, FL, Glenco, GA and Whidby Island, WA, in training in the Navy, he,also, never heard about it. We honeymooned in Hawaii and still never saw a sign like this.

Beware!

Beware!!

This is the only picture I can find anywhere that says "Super Tent".... and it only says part of it. Now it's in WA and I'm in OH.... maybe I'll remember to take one in Alaska for the next Blog addition. Yes, I'll add it to this one... hopefully as we travel. I'm getting excited!!

I thought Spanish moss was only in the South. This sure looks like it! It was everywhere, on every tree and shrub. Click on pictures to see the 2 kinds of moss.

A different variety of moss was also on every tree and shrub. Click here to see the second type.

Over the coastal mountain range to the Pacific Ocean

2008-04-27T13:15:00.000-07:00

Most of the route through the coastal range followed the middle branch of the Coquille River through the mountains. It was a beautiful drive. There were trees along the road, but once again, through the trees, the mountains had been clear-cut. Rarely had they been replanted, or so it seemed. In the higher elevations we once again drove through the snow. It was about 40 miles down to the ocean. Lots of flowers at the lower elevations, like daffodils and magnolias in the towns.

Finally arrive at the ocean, and we couldn't see the ocean. I think it was the Sand Dunes National Monument. They were huge! You could see that sometimes they even covered the road. Went on for miles. Many campgrounds along here....there were ATV's and dune buggy's everywhere and you could hear their motors.

Signs on the road said that there was whale watching ahead. This is the Umpqua River Lighthouse.

Across the street is this whale watching station. I was SO anxious to see the whales!! There was a family there, had been there all day watching the whales. They answered all our questions and told where to sight them. First get out the big binoculars...

See this wide beach and sand dunes? The breakwall points to where the whales can be sighted...with binoculars. You scan the ocean and look for small plumes of water shooting upward. This is a whale breathing....that's all that you can see. Rick was so disappointed, he thought they might come closer and shake his hand..tee! hee! We watched for about a half an hour.

Along side the parking lot was this jaw bone of a whale. Whales are huge!! When they're almost a mile away, they don't look so big.

Day 16 Northern CA to Oregon Mountains

2008-04-24T12:46:00.000-07:00

After leaving the Elks Club, we found the Walmart where I'd called in one of my pills several days earlier. On our way back up into the mountains,

the rainbow was hard to catch.

We could see Shasta Lake many times from the road. We were amazed at the low levels of the lake. It was down 30-40', I'm sure. As the mountains got higher, the tops were all snow covered.

As we went up into the mountains and went over the 4000' level, here you see the almost blinding snowstorm the rain had turned into. It was so much, it was staying on the branches of the trees. Up in this area was the first time we'd ever see a bear crossing sign. No, didn't see any.

On the other side of the mountains, down we went again into another valley in Oregon. Now we sighted our first forsythia in blossom, and also other pink and yellow shrubs. Spring must be here. Go away snow! See the white patches on the mountains? Those are clear cut areas where they've cut all the trees in one section and the snow is visible because of it. We saw this all over Oregon. Only occasionally could we see where they had replanted.

Took us awhile to find the On The River Golf and RV Resort in Myrtle Creek, OR. Sounded good in the AAA campbook, but directions and signage were not. The next morning, by the light of day, Rick agreed, it really was a nice place.

Some of the friendly wildlife who came up to us begging for a treat!

Visit and tour of Woodbridge Winery

2008-04-18T18:14:00.000-07:00

Driving up through the San Joaquin Valley was interesting and boring. Mile after mile of Almond Orchards (had no clue there were so many!), grape vines (I expected this), bee hives at the ends of the rows (should have expected this, but didn't) and the unexpected smell...manure. Suddenly we came upon several miles of feed lots of cattle. I'd bet there were up to a million cattle kept in fenced areas to eat, eat, eat, definitely not free range. Bet that's where they're fed all the hormones we hear about. I was so busy looking, I forgot to take a picture. Just as well.

Because of all our car problems and delays, we decided we had to go straight through California...LA to Oregon.

In reading the brochures we picked up, Rick discovered that the Robert Mondavi Woodbridge Winery was in Modesto. That's one of our favorite everyday wines. Since we missed going up the Pacific Coast Highway, we decided to take at least a short side tour.

Let's take this Airstream to the Winery.

Let's visit.

Early spring for the vines.

These are special vines. Only Zinfandel grows on vines which aren't on wires. Some of these plants are quite old we learned on the tour.

This is a HUGE operation. Each of these vats hold about 216,800 gallons. There were dozens of them.

These vats are at least twice the size of the last picture. Only a small portion of them are in the picture. Look at the cars compared to the vats. The employees rode around the facility on bicycles it's so large.

This is the bottling and corking machine. It bottles 400/minute. That makes 50,000 cases per day. That's a LOT of wine...start drinking!!!

These storage vats are made of Redwood. Also old. The guide said that they do not flavor the wine at all. But that they are good for the wine because they breathe.

These are the Oak casks to produce the oak flavor. Only a small portion of them are pictured. The winery has so much space in this cooler, they rent space to other wineries to place their casks here to age.

It was an interesting visit and tour. Well worth the time.

Now on to the Redding Elks Club where we enjoyed visiting with the members.

Leaving LA

2008-04-16T14:50:00.001-07:00

As we leave LA and Southern CA, these are all typical sights.

Many layers of bridges. I missed a couple of better ones...not quick enough.

See...we were here...which lane are we supposed to be in? Don't forget...we are in the Suburban towing a 34' trailer, luckily about noon on Monday.

This is as close as we got to downtown LA. See the brownish haze?

Rows and rows of hills.

Barren hillsides.

Lots of traffic traveling North from LA. On the long long down grades, the trucks can only go 35mph!

Down, down to the fertile San Joaquin Valley. Notice the rows and rows of crops. We drove all the way to Lodi, CA.

Flag City RV Park was brand new and nice..had WiFi, too. Think I did one of the earlier posts from here. Rick said the shower house was really nice, too.

Easter Dinner at Karen and Tom Richards

2008-04-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

As I look over my pictures, I see I didn't get any pictures of Karen and Tom or their son Kreig. Must have been too busy visiting, and eating a great prime rib dinner. Thanks again, Karen. It was great!

This is the front of their house.

Their back yard and garden.

This is Tom's shed and workbench. He's got all the tools, and is a great craftsman. He really enjoys his time in here since he's retired.

The Nixon Library is in Placentia, CA, which is the same town that Karen and Tom live in. Karen took us on a tour of the town. It was great to visit with them.

Crystal Cathedral

2008-04-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

The Elks Club we stayed at was in Garden Grove, CA. So we searched out the Crystal Cathedral. Impressive. Beautiful. It also happened to be Easter Sunday.

Inside there was a Hispanic Service going on. Lovely. Great singers.

Christ was housed in a special room at the base of the tower.

This smiling Jesus was beautifully done. There were quite a few other bronze statues in the beautiful gardens on the grounds.

Numerous fountains on the grounds, also.