Misc Pictures

July 13, 2013 Saturday

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Just some pictures to upload.

Neat clouds, this blurred look is unedited.

Bridal Veil Falls in Valdez

Glacier on way to Valdez

Denali from the North View Point on the Parks Road

Exit Canada Enter Washington State

July 9, 2013 Tuesday
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We exited Canada this afternoon and entered Washington State, this was the shortest route out of Canada and I knew a lady from the rv forums years ago who I have on my facebook (when it is active) and she knew we were going to Canada and offered to let us stay at their house if we needed a place to stay. Well she was not far from where we entered so we decided to go visit her and her husband. We did spend the first night at a park in Republic Washington that is by far the nicest park as far as cleanliness. It had all paved sights and neatly manicured grass. Excellent nights stay for pretty cheap compared to what we had been paying. This one was only $29 for the night. The next day we left for Annie and Rods place which was only about 80 miles away in the fairly remote part of the mountains but not so remote there were not any people. Annie I first found on the rv.net forum and followed her escapades as she and her husband traveled around. She posted under the name of Outback Annie and is from Australia, through the years she has visited or lived in 60 different countries and flew airplanes and sailed on boats and all sorts of things including a stint as a radio show host under her assumed name of Outback Annie. She was all that you can imagine with the full blown aussie accent and is crossed with a Greek background in her family. The entire time we spent there she was trying to feed us something. Her stories went on and on of her experiences and we listened and laughed right along with her. Her husband Rod was just as interesting having spent 25 years in the Army and was a Ranger at one point, 8 tours of duty overseas including Vietnam and the Sand box as he called it. Now he spends his time as a long time FAA licensed pilot, inspector and mechanic. Being the only FAA inspector in this area he gets all the work he could want and can pick and choose his jobs. One of his past experiences was working for NASA on multiple projects and some work on the Shuttles.

Their house is situated on a depression of land having been raised and a lower basement/living space placed underneath it. It is surrounded by beautiful high mountains and a creek running along one side and down the back from a nearby lake that feeds the Grand Coulee Dam. The creek which is deceiving in depth flows at a very rapid pace and looks to only be a few inches deep but is not the case, at only about 15 foot wide there are spots over 6 foot deep! The trout are abundant and although all I managed to catch was what  they called sardines ranged  from 6-8" . All in the flavor of Rainbow and Brook trout. I caught probably a dozen and a half of sardines while Rod managed to catch a half dozen nice sized ones that we had for breakfast the next morning. Annie over fed us beginning the first night with barbecued chicken pork chops and sausages with potatoes and salad followed up by cheese cake and our choice of 4 different flavored ice creams! The next morning it was a souffle with sausages in it more potatoes and juice and coffee with toast. WOW, they the whole cheese cake and ice cream thing began again and reoccurred 8 hours later after fixing more breaded chicken and left over barbecued chicken from the night before. She fed us so much and they were so kind to us and welcomed us back anytime. We camped in their front yard and they told us we could pull down by the creek and camp is we wanted. We spent 2 nights here and decided rather than wear out our welcome we would head off to Missoula Montana to visit our old friends Smokey and Pam.

Another cool thing about this place was the wildlife, they have a feeder that the deer have learned if they come there they will get fed, all they need to hear is the sound of the coffee can and they wait patiently, although you can't get closer than about 20-30 feet they don't run away, they dump the food in the trough an soon as they walk away the deer begin feeding. Really neat experience, bear, beaver and moose are also frequent visitors along with the occasional Eagle but those were void during our visit. Of course I have failed to mention their dog Bear, a 13 year old chow with a real personality. He definitely does not like his picture taken but enjoys the belly rubs and attention. Bear lost his sibling about a year ago which was CoCo but seems to have adjusted although I can't say so much for Annie. :( In the meantime Bear keeps them company. Some day we hope to go back and visit and possibly have them come visit us. Annie got her citizenship last year  and is now a proud American/Aussie.

Friday morning we took them to breakfast in the nearest little town and we chatted about the past couple of days and the fun we had. Unfortunately it was time for us to move towards home, Deanna's back is doing better and with the smoother roads that helps. As we all know good things must eventually come to an end so after returning from breakfast and snapping a few photos we exchanged hugs and said our goodbye's. We most definitely enjoyed the time and it was so relaxing and at night we could open the widows and listen to the creek. So for now we move on............

Washington State

July 9th, 2013 Tuesday
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We are in Washington State for the night and heading to Annie and Rods tomorrow, tonight I am staying up late waiting for a possible Aurora and in the mean time snapped a few pictures of the evening sky.

Nice shot of some star trails and also my first attempt at shooting the Milky Way.

Exit Alaska

July 5, 2013 Friday

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We went down to Valdez on July 2nd and spent 2 nights but the weather was nothing but cold and dreary and rainy, not much to see or do in weather like that and Deanna's back was wreaking havoc on her from all the rough roads so we decided it was time to head for home and bypass the last half of our trip to get back to the lower 48 and better roads to ease some of her pain. We attempted to call her doctor for some meds but it was later in the afternoon back home on July 3rd so no answer and we left a message, our hopes were to get her a pain prescription before heading back but that obviously was not going to happen. So on the 4th in the morning we headed back to Tok which is the way out of Alaska and spent the night. Friday morning we started for the border  which is only 90 miles away, the road there didn't seem so bad but after crossing the border inspection point it all went to hell, approximately a 100 miles of bad road lay ahead of us and a lot of it being dirt road again, slow and not so steady was the order. After exiting that portion the next was the road leading to Haines Junction, it was much nicer and a lot smoother, we spent the night in Haines Junction and then the next hurdle was heading down the Cassiar Highway, this is other way of in or out to Alaska by driving. I had read what I could about it on the forums and most said it was in good shape and all paved. Upon arriving the first 50 miles were terrible with frost heaves and pot holes like grenade pits, although we did get a nice picture of a black bear along the way. This road at this point is pretty narrow and no lines painted, we made it to a little spot in the road called Jade City where we found out that about 90% of all Jade is mined there and shipped all over the world. Of course there were all types of Jade carved items for sale :) Deanna did by a little memento for our mantle at home and when I inquired about camping they said it was free albeit dry camping but still a place to stay on a long road with no chance of communications. This was our first hint of darkness since entering the Yukon back in June and it was not darkness but dang close.

The Cassiar Highway is 450 miles long and we wondered what the hell we got ourselves into when our objective was to exit Canada with her back in one piece and her still mobile. The next morning we drove approximately 25 miles and stopped to fuel up at one of the few places to do so, should you ever travel this road to or from Alaska never pass an opportunity to fill your tank regardless of how much fuel you have because you just don't know if the next station will be open. Run out of fuel and you are in serious trouble as there is not a lot of traffic on this road. Anyway at the gas station someone coming from the opposite direction I asked about the road and they said gravel ahead..............Oh boy! Well it was gravel for about a 1/2 mile and then another 1/4 mile stint with a few intermittent 150' patches but they were smooth but rough at the same time due to the size of gravel they use.  After this section the next 300 miles was like a dream, the road opened up and painted lines appeared and we sailed at 60 mph all the way to the other end!

We got off the Cassiar in one piece and now needed to find a resting spot for the night, we drove about 50 miles to a little town called Smithers in the BC and stayed at a campground called Glacier View which describes it well, across the road is the remnants of a glacier up on the mountain. This is the first place where we actually did see darkness and enough to see the stars at night. I had went out about 1am to check on a possible Aurora but was not fortunate enough to see it. We spent one night here and left the next morning for another 400+ mile trip into lower BC, this was the last night we would spend in Canada. the following morning we headed for Washington State.

Black Bear along the Cassiar Highway

This was about the first stop on the way back from Alaska where we once again saw darkness.

Glacier view from campground

Anchorage part Duex

July 1, 2013 Monday rainy 52*

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Today we left Seward for our return trip to Anchorage. From here we go to Valdez tomorrow thru the fourth, it's about 300 miles and is one of those places that is touted not to miss but also one that you can't get too without going someplace else first, hence coming back to Anchorage. When we are finished there we have to backtrack again all the way back north to the town of Tok which begins our exit of Alaska as we head towards Haines to pick up the ferries to the islands of Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan and finally being dropped off in Price Rupert Canada. Currently we are about 6000 miles into the trip.

Today when we got back to Anchorage we went to the Ulu factory where they make the Ulu knives and cutting boards. Once again we were tempted by the "Factory Tour!" hype, NOT. It's a tourist trap gift shop that you an look through the windows to perhaps see someone doing something. A let down one again, much like American Pickers store and the Deadliest Catch store. These appear to be untouchable people or so it seems, but regardless we attempted one more time by going to the Wild West Gun Shop in Anchorage, for those who are unaware it is a real gun shop with various stories taking place but is televised on Animal Planet. MUCH to our surprise when we walked through the door we saw people we recognized. For once the actual people who are on the show.