Archive for the ‘Alaska Road Trip’ Category
Tuesday, August 18 – “Baby, the Rain Must Fall, Baby the Wind Must Blow!”
Hello again, dear family and friends!
To your relief, I am sure, there is not too much to report since we left Kenai Peninsula. The title above kept ringing in my brain yesterday and today. (Song by Glenn Yarborough.)
A young man in Soldotna displays his sockeye catch. (3 caught in 10 minutes that we watched.)
The rain that began there has followed us for two days (we stopped one night in Trapper Creek), and though we managed to outrun the edge of the large system by the time we got to the Visitor Center in Denali National Park, still we were in heavy weather prior to that, and hopes for seeing Mt. McKinley died. However, the rain stopped for our drive up to the end of the public access road in Denali, and the park was very beautiful. We also watched the movie in the Visitor Center, and saw most of what we could see yesterday.
Road conditions heading north from Kenai Peninsula
Weather conditions for most of Monday.
Mt. McKinley, as we saw it!
Mt. McKinley, as others see it. (Lifted from a pamphlet.)
Denali Park near the end of the public access road.
In Healy, just north of the Park, I stopped for fuel, and used Roada to locate another quilt shop – Grandma’s Quilt Shop. She (Roada) took us through a dry river bed with huge potholes thinking that it was a road. We finally located the shop only to discover that it was closed on Mondays. Oh well! Later, in Fairbanks, on the internet, I also learned that we were a mile of two from the road where Chris McCandless disappeared “Into the Wild” and later died – possibly after suffering severe nerve damage from eating the seeds of the wild potato plant while in a state of protein deficiency. (The movie is about to be released and the young actor has been sentenced to 2 weeks in jail for assaulting a young woman at the Sundance Film Festival. And that, is the news!) The book by Jon Krakauer, “Into the Wild”, is a very good read.
Anyway, back to the road… We passed up all scenic “photo opportunities” since they were a waste of time until we reached the summit above Fairbanks. The sun came out, and by the time we were settled in to our beautiful site at River’s Edge RV, we were able to get back into shorts and lounge in our anti-gravity chairs beside the lovely Chena River for an hour or two. However, the weather system caught up with us again and the temperature dropped as the clouds moved in. By morning today, steady rain was once again our current and forecasted outlook.
Tuesday morning at our Rivers Edge site.
Since my dashboard indicator was indicating time for oil change, we went into Fairbanks Chevy but because of the camper, we were directed to H&H Auto Service just around the corner. An hour and a half later – with a chatty time in the waiting room with folks from California – all was serviced, oil changed, air filter replaced, and we were once again ready to get on our way. One last stop – the Visitor and Culture Center. This is a magnificent building with tons to see and read. The displays are beautifully done, and there are a number of natural and historical movies that can be seen if you hit the right time of day. (We didn’t!)
The “Antler” Arch beside the Visitor Information and Culture Center in Fairbanks.
Three and a half hours later, much of it in torrential rain, we are now settled at Tundra RV in Tok (“toke” – remember!) Tomorrow we will tackle the “Top of the World” Highway through Chicken to Dawson City. We can expect very muddy conditions! By the way, we read in one of our pamphlets that when the folks of that town were trying to decide a name for their settlement, they wanted to call it “Ptarmigan”, but no one knew how to spell that so instead they called it “Chicken”. I love that story!
North again tomorrow!
Love and best wishes to all…
Tony, the Quill, and Sandy, the Quilter
August 1, 2015: Things are Heating Up
Greetings again! We have survived unexpectedly chilly (and windy) weather in Birch Bay where we visited with cousins Rich and Shirley Henderson, and travelling companions – Mike and Marlene Harris. (Rich, Mike and I did our annual “Village Inn Pub” hamburger” lunch and visit to Yeager’s Sporting Goods while Sandy Shirley and Marlene found other more appealing things to do.) Mike helped me organize my fishing gear for the northern journey, and talked me out of buying a new truck and camper, so I guess I am in Sandy’s “A-list” status. (Might be a good time to purchase some new tools!)
Last Friday, we continued our annual visitations to Penticton’s South Beach Gardens on Skaha Lake. The weather continued unsettled for 2 more days, and we had several chilly and wet days before the sun returned to provide typically blistering hot Penticton summer weather. Our son-in-law, Doug Lindsay and our granddaughter Hannah arrived a bit later on Friday and daughter, Paula joined us the next day after completing a shift with Surrey Library Services.
Hannah converses with South Beach Garden denizens.
By Monday, the weather had improved and Lindsays’ friends from Walnut Grove, Grant and Jane Sauer and two daughters and son (Cassi, Mikayla, and Benjamin) joined us in the neighbouring site. Their third daughter, Gabriela, joined the gathering on Thursday.
From left: Mikayla, Gabriela, Jane, Grant, Benjamin, Cassi
Sandy and I had visits with cousins Jan and Darrell Beebe, and family friend, Carmen Bliss during the week. On Tuesday, we visited our aunt, Gerry Gaplette in her lovely new digs in Summerland with her daughter, Kim. A trip to the local GMC dealership on Wednesday was necessary in order to replace our fuel filter, so we are ready, I think, for our northern run. We actually made it to the beach on 3 occasions, but that pleasure, and sun-soaking activities seems to fade in importance (and increase in dangers!) as years go by.
Our Penticton stay ended on Friday, and we began our trip north with a first stop to visit our cousins in Peachland – Norm and Shirley Caplette. They have rebuilt a damaged fifth wheel which was given to them and the resulting RV is pretty impressive. They should have great times travelling in that vehicle. Our day ended at Knutsford RV just south of Kamloops on Hwy 5A. Our original designated site was in the open, and since the temperature was hovering at about 37C, and wifi wasn’t available at our site, I whined (just a little) at the office. We were immediately given a beautiful site with a very literary “babbling brook” running right behind our campsite – and fully in shade! What a relief! Then, having secured a shady site, we abandoned it to head into Kamloops for an afternoon and evening with our dear friends – the Siggers family.
We will gather our resources here until Monday when we begin the next stage of our northern journey – hopefully for a full Alaska loop as well as explorations of Yukon and northern BC. As always, we keep an open mind about destinations and routes. Meanwhile, we will plan on seeing our Kamloops Thuot family while we are here, and enjoy air conditioning as much as possible as temperatures once again soar.
Sandy has decreed that her visits to quilting shops to pick up free plans (at every quilt shop in North America, I think) don’t count against her, and thus, I cannot balance her visits out with trips to tool shops. Will I ever understand the rules?
Much love and best wishes to all, and I hope that you continue to enjoy your summers – wherever you are!
Sandy, the Quilter, and Tony, the Quill
July 19, 2015 – “Have you bought your maps yet?”
Our summer travelling time has finally arrived, and this time, our anticipation and excitement don’t seem to be as high as we sometimes experience. For one thing, our trip is a very long one, and for another, one of the driest seasons on record has created huge fire danger potential. Also, we are quite enamoured with our homebound hobbies of quilting and woodworking, and my workshop is nearly ready for productivity instead of organizing. These hobbies along with family and friends will give us great incentives to be eventually homeward bound.
A fish-eye view of my new workshop. The “door” wall at my back, is seen on the left and right of the photo.
My new workbench using pipe-clamps instead of traditional vises. (The plan is modified from “Fine Woodworking – A New-Fangled Workbench”.)
In preparation for leaving this week, I sought some electrical wiring assistance from my neighbour – Jim Clark. (I have added an after-market backup camera so that I can judge rear-view distances a little more accurately.) As he quickly resolved my issues, he asked about our itinerary. I explained we would head down into Birch Bay, Washington and then across to the Penticton… “Tony,” he interrupted, “Have you bought your maps yet? Alaska is NORTH!” Yes…we have all our maps, and the 2014 edition of Alaska State’s “Milepost” book. We are on our way with the first stop being in Fort Langley at the new digs of our Lindsay family. We will eventually visit with family and friends in Birch Bay, Penticton, Kamloops, Prince George, and Whitehorse.
Truck House is as crammed as it has ever been, and although I saved a bit of room by downsizing our barbecue, I then added a 5 gallon diesel can for reserve. Although I am not sure that it is needed, our experience in the Springtime of almost running on empty in southern Oregon (“sage rat” episode) has encouraged me to be more cautious. Multiple fish “guns” are stacked in the crew cab, and the kayaks loaded on top. Fishing is a high priority for me on this trip as well as the opportunity to see new vistas and travel down new roads. We are probably carrying way too many books, but many of them are used to it as seasoned veterans of our travels! Perhaps they will get read this time.
We’ll keep you posted and will look forward to your comments – both on the blog, and via emails – whichever you choose.
Much love and best wishes to all, and we hope that you all are enjoying your summer wherever you are – including the snowy regions of Australia!
Sandy, the Quilter and Tony, the Quill
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