Saturday, we left the Bus at the campground and decided to do a day trip to Homer, Ak. The southwesternmost city that you can drive to. After some more beautiful scenery....Nikki decided that she needed to play in a lake. Shadow felt a little left out.

As we drove along, we were amazed at the people, in their waders, out in the freezing water.....fishing! EVERYONE FISHES here! We continued on to the town of Kenai...where we saw a Russian Orthodox Church...you can really see the Russian influence here, even the street we had to turn on was named Kalifornsky Blvd.!
Then on to Soldatna, a pretty large town, by their standards....1700 people! They even had a McDonald's! But we stopped and had a Chinese Buffet (pretty good!)

We left Anchorage on Friday headed down to the Kenai Peninsula,(after Jimmy walked Libby, the cat, in the parking lot of Sam's) down the Seward Highway, around the Portage Glacier and Whittier, through Moose Pass....(these are all fabulous mountains!) and eventually stopped and spent the night at Cooper Landing. We had been recommended the Kenai Princess RV park....but thy were full, so we stayed at the Kenai Riverside RV park. (down in a hole....no possible view for the TV or the internet). Jimmy and the dogs and I loaded up in the Hummer and went exploring. We went way up the hillside and found the Kenai Princess Lodge. Stopped on the side of the mountain....tried the Internet dish and lo and behold....it worked!! Downloaded some email, then went to the lodge and had a WONDERFUL dinner. Split King Crab legs, with drawn butter and Jimmy had Prime Rib, yum!We drove around and just could not get over the COLOR of the water in the Kenai River.....it was turquoise!

Now, call it Dumb Luck or something...but we saw THE MOUNTAIN ( Mt.McKinley or Denali and some call it) on the first day we got here! We met people who had been here six days, waiting to get a view. There was a tour (Buses filled like sardine cans) to drive all day, into the park, to get a better view (if you were lucky), but we didn't want to be gone that long. It is pretty fabulous....20,000 feet tall! We drove a little down the road to see if we could get a better view, but when we stopped for the night, it was engulfed in clouds.We spent the night at the South viewpoint of Denali National Park, but the mountain was never to be seen again. They say that out of 105 days of summer, it is usually only seen about 5 days!
From there, we headed to Anchorage, with a stop at Wasilla to eat at McDonald's and call our former Hummer Club President, Linda North, to see if she was home.(she lives here)....but she was down in the "lower 48". We made it to town, but there are NO RV parks with any vacancies!
Jimmy decided to drive through town, all the way to the water's edge, to see where we could dry camp. After meandering through town, getting lost on smaller and smaller streets, fearing that we would have to unhook the Hummer and back out of the neighborhood....he lucked out and found a road that lead us back to the local park.
After parking there for awhile, to get our plan figured out. We pulled out, and some kids that were playing soccer, kicked the ball, right under us....I didn't know that happened, I just saw Jimmy cringe hit the brakes and heard a loud POW! I thought "Great, another tow bar just broke", but one of the kids just picked up the ball behind us, and put it on his head....like a hat! ha!ha! poor kids!
After trying the Fred Meyer parking lot (it was packed with RVs), we drove South in town, to the Wal-Mart. Several Rvs were parked there...but there were signs everywhere...NO OVERNIGHT PARKING! Sure enough, a little security guard came and ran us off...but said the Sam's, across the street would let us park there. So that is where we are now. Don't know if I'll be able to access internet or not for the next few days, but we plan to be here until tomorrow, going to the Kenai on Friday, then Seward on Sunday. I'll post, if I can.

Just thought you might like to see Midnight on the road from Fairbanks to Denali National Park. It never really gets dark here, the sun goes down, but it is just below the horizon for about 4 hours, then comes up again.....so it is twilight from 12:30 to 4:30am.....good thing we have black out curtains in the bedroom!

On Monday, the replacement tow bar came, Jimmy fixed it, then we went to the University of Alaska museum. Went to an interesting short movie about the Winter, here..then to look at the exhibits....pretty school....sort of Frank Lloyd Wright looking architecture.

On Sunday, the 8th, we took a ride on the Riverboat Discovery. It was probably, on of the highlights of our trip. We first saw a bushpilot in his floatplane, take off and land on the Chena River, then stopped off at one of the Kennels that raises Iditarod sled dogs (cute puppies!) learned about how they are raised and raced. after awhile, we turned onto the Tanana River, where they meet, the water definitely mixes and chanes....really cool to see! Further up the river, we stopped at an authentic Native Indian Village, where we saw, and later got to pet, caribou (reindeer). They have soft velvety antlers....the vegetables they grow are HUGE,because of the long daylight hours, then saw some native parkas and muclucks made from skins and the beautiful beading they put on it!

After heading back to the dock...they pointed out that the dock was made from sections of the Trans Alaska pipeline bought as salvage, years ago. Really nice tour, on a sunshiney day.

6 Moose in the pond! Quite a sight!

After the Gold Mining...we drove round Fairbanks and found a back road into the airport.

We saw some old C46's and Jimmy thinks that one of them ma even be one of our old ones we had, years ago at Atorie, in El Paso. At least maybe the sister plane.

Saturday, we drove out to Chena Hot Springs.....a real nice Resort (they've made it into), with some of the natural geothermal springs made into pools...saw lots of "cow"moose along the road, cars stop on the side of the road, people jump out and wade through the trees, etc. into a clearing with a pond (slapping mosquitos all the way). I got some really nice shots.

Then, Nikki and Shadow had to play in the Chena River....so we went down to an area where we could access driving on the banks and let them play.

These are pictures of gold mining dredges working in Alaska somewhere around 1948.....they got a lot more gold then! They estimated by today's price....the gold dredge that we were at (#8) brought in about.....wait for it.....$ 1.3 Billion (with a B)!

I think I will post some of Daddy's photos, taken in 1948, or so.....pretty amazing....

Friday, we went panning for GOLD! Lots of interesting facts about gold dredges....and I realize that many of Daddy's pictures, I have, are of these Gold Mining Dredges, and how they were done. Jimmy and I panned, and got over 17.00 worth (combined) so I put them together and they made a charm on a necklace for me....so I can show it off!

We left the White River RV park and went up the Haines Highway, through Desconstruction Bay where, if you weren't careful, the Frost Heaves in the road could really....DE-Construct Your Motorhome! That was the worst road, so far, that we have had to run on. Back and forth through the US and Canada a couple of times, then to the us border at the main part of Alaska. We got to Tok and had lunch at Fast Eddie's.....much like a Chili's or Applebee's (they want to ease the Americans into the Great White North)! Stopped in Delta Junction and got our certificate saying that we had "survived" the Alaska Highway. This was the official "end". Then, as we were pulling out, the towbar pulling the Hummer broke! Jimmy called the Blue Ox people and arranged for them to send us a replacement, under warranty, and then "Jimmy-rigged" it so we could at least make it to Fairbanks. We stopped at the North Pole and saw Santa, ate at Taco Bell (really surprising it was there! it was new)....then witnessed a hit and run in the parking lot at Santa's House! We met some people from New Mexico and demo'ed the RoadHog...they were really interested, might buy one.Well, it finally happened.....we made it to Fairbanks for the 4th, and lost the internet! We checked in at the Riverview RV park and Jimmy washed the bus, of course! Most of these parks have a wash area....I guess they realize how dirty you can get. There were fireworks....but we had no idea where they were, since it was still light at 12:30 am! The big satellite dish could no longer get internet, but the smaller dish, on the bus, still got TV. There were some local channels on the regular TV, however, not very good reception.

We waved good bye to our nice campground in Haines......if anyone plans to do this, in the future, I suggest driving into Skagway, but catch the ferry to Haines to go to the Haines Hitch-up RV park. Then, once you are settled, take the Fast Ferry, for a day trip to Skagway. It's a great little town, but really caters to the cruise ship tourists. Also, the campgrounds are not really wonderful....the Pullen RV park in Skagway, is ok...but the Haines one is much nicer...they have 50 amp power, available, which you don't need, it's so nice and cool....however, if you want to do laundry.....that's important. There's grass,and it's very well kept, and town is right down the road.

Jimmy wrapped the Hummer up, to avoid any stray rocks, chipping the paint or breaking the windows. Then we saw a couple of girls, kayaking way out on one of the many HUGE lakes we passed.

Then....the neatest thing of all....a mama Grizzley bear and her cub, eating dinner on the side of the road! We stopped at the White River RV park, just short of Beaver Creek, it's pretty nice, we can still get TV and internet, I really can't believe it....I expect to lose it, any day now, we're so far North.

Today,Monday, We drove over to Fort Seward....a decomissioned army base, then drove out to the bald eagle preserve, however, were disappointed...saw no eagles, but did see a fishing machine....really interesting to watch, it is tethered to the shore and the river flowing, makes the arms move. The baskets gather up fish and dump them into a holding tank....no electicity, unmanned....pretty neat! Then, of course, Jimmy had to see if his satellite dish would work....it did. Tomorrow, we will be headed toward Tok. We have heard horror stories of the road being bad.....we'll see soon!

We woke up to a nice, lazy Sunday morning and Jimmy decided to cook breakfast, outside, on the grill. Then we watched the NASCAR race until about 2. The Flightseeing people called us and said they would be by to get us at 4:30, so we hopped on the Road Hog and went into town to grab a bite. We had to stop and watch some poor guy whose boat had fallen off the trailer, as he was backing down the boat launch ramp. We had a pretty good lunch, albeit SLOW SERVICE. So we had to eat fast and hurry back to the bus. Sure enough, not 5 minutes after we got there.....they were there to pick us up and take us to the airport. There was another couple...so 4 of us, and the pilot, squeezed into a Cessna 172 (I think). The flight was really amazing....besides Glacier after Glacier, we saw sheep, on the mountains, a couple of crazy groups of people.....CAMPING on the Glaciers and then we landed on the beach. Jimmy was in charge of the video camera while I took pictures. We got some great pictures and video...but it would have been better if the plane had glass! (the windows were plastic). I was fine until the final leg of the trip, the pilot swore that there were bears on this one mountainside so he turned, pretty hard and the plane dropped a few feet.....that did it, for me......I turned green and grabbed the sic-sac. (remind me not to eat before I go up in a small plane)!

Well, after getting up at 4:30, we went to the ferry dock and lined up. They loaded cars first, so I drove the Hummer and parked it in the belly of the boat. Everyone else went next,and finally they loaded Jimmy and the bus. Needless to say, we were the biggest thing on the boat, so they had Jimmy back in, the very last thing, so he would be the first one out. I had to take pictures, of course....it looked pretty dicey!The ferry boat ride was very pleasant....we had a nice breakfast on the boat and, less than an hour later, we pulled up at the Haines Dock. Jimmy stopped at the first fuel pump and put about 50 gallons on the bus, then we went and checked in at the Haines Hitch-up Campground. It's probably the nicest we've found since we left Montana. We found satellite TV and satellite internet, right away, then Jimmy got out the Road Hog and we went exploring the town. We first went to a couple of garage sales (nothing cool), then we went to a big bar-b-que at the local firehouse, a few shops, hardware store, fudge shop (YUM), took pictures of some of the many different kinds of flowers, then back to the bus.

Well, on Thursday we pulled into Skagway, The RV parks to choose from were not too great, but we tried the Garden City...(the TV cable was out, no grass, gravel, sardine can, muddy where someone had missed with their dump water...UGH!

Then we drove down Broadway (the main street where the cruise ships drop off tourists, for shopping.) It was located between mountains, so there was no chance of satellite TV or internet. We drove around to the other campgrounds.,one was at the base of the mountain and the other one was even worse, but had trees. However.....we did have cell phone service! After we went to dinner at the Bonanza Bar and Grill (not like the steakhouse we all know and love) we went home and went to sleep. Friday, we got up and Jimmy decided to wash the bus, then we went and made reservations on the ferry to Haines (we had to be in line at 5:30 AM!). After we got our tickets (we figured the cost of the ferry to go 13 miles was about the same as driving 380 miles) we went shopping. Several fur shops...Jimmy wants a jacket...just so....haven't found one that he likes, yet. Jewelry shops, for me, of course.....Bookstore, , souvenir shops, lunch at a restaurant specializing in (get this) Italian/Mexican foods and steaks. ha!ha! It really wasn't too bad, tho'. When we got home, I found 1 local TV station...a combination of PBS,CBS,NBC and local news. The signal was pretty bad, but at least it was something! Had to get some sleep, 4:30 wake up call came early!

Well, this morning, we slept late.(not easy with the midnight sun) We moved across the street and took the roadhog to Archie's for lunch. Great burgers and milkshakes, then we went to the Northern Lights Centre (kind of like a planetaruim or the Omni theater) Then we took off driving. We stopped at Mukluk Annie's, just north of Teslin. Free RV parking and a big breakfast in the morning. Great scenery along the way. We still have TV on our bus satellite dish...I don't know for how long.....the big dish on the hummer, still gives us phone and internet service. Nikki loves the frequent "walks" because she investigates everything! Jimmy, of course, had to work on the satellite, on the roof of the bus.....but all turned out well.We plan to be in Skagway, Ak., tomorrow, for a few days. A friend from Fort Worth, Alan, called, he is up here, in Alaska,with some of his friends on BMW bikes. Hopefully, we will run ino them, somewhere, and have dinner,etc.

Today, we have settled in Watson Lake, Yukon. We left Toad River, drove until we got tired and stopped in a pullout on the side of the road, for the night. When we got up, we drove on to Liard Hot Springs. We encountered a couple of 9% downhill grades.....a little steep, considering the steepest ones in the lower 48 are usually 6%. We stopped and had lunch at a really cool lodge, right by Muncho Lake. They had a nice restaurant....we had the "bushpilot's burger". $15.00 apiece! Everything up here is more expensive...the exchange rate is just about the same....but they are going to get their pound of flesh!With a stop at Muncho Lake..a favorite of the locals...we pulled into the Strawberry Fields Campground......beautiful, but big mistake....couldn't turn around. We had to unhook the hummer to get the bus turned around then re-hook. The dogs loved playing in the ICE-cold water,though. Plenty of wildlife ......Bison, bear, big horn sheep......all along the road! We pulled into the Watson Lake campground about 8pm.....it's really deceiving...you drive and drive, because it's still light. Plays hell with my sleep schedule, though!Tomorrow we are going to the Northern Lights Theater...more later