Friday, September 15
We left Bear Lake in the rain this morning. It actually poured pretty good last night. Our destination today is southeast Wyoming or northern Colorado. I wasn't sure we were going to make it too far today. The first thing we ran into was Fossil Butte National Monument. The visitor center has a display of the fossilized remains of everything from fish, to plants, to mammals. It was amazing how well preserved and abundant these fossils are. This area was once a huge subtropical lake 50 million years ago and the remains of what lived here really are fascinating. The national monument forbids collecting and removing fossils from there but there are numerous private quarries around where a lot of people dig and find thousands of fossils.
Our next stop was Kemmerer, Wyoming, just down the road. We went into a couple of shops that sold the fossils. It is really neat to think about how old these things are, and that they were once a part of a vast sub-tropical forest area in this land of sage brush and bluffs. Kemmerer is also the birthplace and home of J.C. Penney, and has the original J. C. Penney store. We couldn't pass this up. It is still an active store.
The rest of the day was spent heading east on I-80 fighting an extremely strong wind from the south. We made it to our turn and headed south on 125 toward Colorado. We made it into Colorado around 6:00 and found a beautiful boondocking site in the Arapaho National Forest. It sat above a large meadow with a pretty little stream.
After we sat up camp we couldn't get the furnace to start. We had to rely on the little propane heater to keep us warm. We kept trying and trying to get the heater going but it wouldn't start. It was suppose to get down around freezing tonight.
We had leftover bar-b-que pork and salad for supper.
Saturday, September 16
Well, still no furnace and the ground is covered with ice and snow, not to mention the camper. We had anticipated going over Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain NP, but with the weather being like it is we decided to head on down through Winter Park to Idaho Springs and Denver and see if we can get this heater fixed.
We got to Denver and Camping World about 11:00 and they did a diagnostic on the heater but couldn't tell what was wrong so they recommended a full cleaning. We agreed to that. Walla, guess what had been keeping out furnace from running. There was a gaggle of lady bugs collected around the gas oriface. They were all dead now of course but this was keeping the gas from getting into the heat chamber. The furnace works great now.
We called Shelby and she and Rob came over and got us while they were working on the furnace and we went and looked at her new house and then went to get some lunch at a little Mexican restaurant. Rob had a night out with his buddies planned so Shelby wanted to head up to Rocky Mountain NP with us to camp. This was fine, so we had Carol and I, and Shelby, and her dog Max in the camper all night. It really got cold last night. It had to have gotten down in the 20s. There are still a lot of folks camping in tents up here. Can't believe it. They sure do get up and out of the campground early though :-). We saw a lot of elk in Estes Park on our way into the national park last night. We also have heard a few buggles.
We had spagetti and french bread for supper. Shelby beat Carol and I at Scrabble and we hit the sack.
Sunday, September 17
We got up and had some breakfast burritos and then went for a walk along a little stream near the campground. Saw a nice mule deer with about a 10 point rack. Shelby had to be back in Denver to meet some friends so we dropped her at her car in Estes Park and went walking through a bunch of booths there in the city park at Estes Park. They were having an arts and crafts festival. It is amazing how talented some of these folks are that displayed. I would love to have some of the paintings we saw, but won't pay the prices that they are.
I had to go to the library and get on the internet and load up what I had done on the blog. Got all of that taken care of and Carol and I headed back into the national park to see what we could see. It is such a beautiful park with fantastic scenery and beautiful meadows, and the elk are abundant. We took lots of photos of elk and some of some deer we saw, not to mention the snow storm up in the peaks. It was just a beautiful day. We're back at the campground now, we had a hamburger, squash, tomato, onion dish for supper. It was okay, but not my favorite.
The temperature has been cold all day and the wind has been blowing hard so it was not conducive to hiking. We both seem to be worn out though and will probably go to bed early.
Monday, September 18
We drove as far up Trail Ridge Road as we could today. It was closed due to snow at higher elevations. We spent all morning driving around the Rocky Mountain N.P. taking photos and enjoying the scenery. It is a sunny but cold day. We stopped and ate lunch at a picnic area, but we ate in the camper. After lunch we headed into Estes Park and I loaded up what I had done of the blog at the time. We finished up in Estes Park and drove back to Denver on highway 7, which is a scenic route that goes through a beautiful canyon. We got back to Denver in time to meet Shelby over at her new house. It is officially hers now and we got our first looks at the inside of the house. It is a very cute little house with a great deal of potential, especially with the Denver housing market. It is really much larger inside than it appears from the outside. She also got a good sturdy garage that will not only act as a garage but as a shop as well. Shelby, Rob, Carol and I went out to a nice restaurant tonight. Shelby had a gift certificate from her realtor for the dinner so she treated. We parked in her new driveway for the night.
Tuesday, September 19 through Tuesday, September 26
Help, we've been Shanghied and placed in servitude here in Denver. The past seven days have been a whirl of physical labor, cleaning, and painting. We have also become known on a first name basis at the nearby Home Depot store. They smile every time they see us walk in.
This will complete my blog entries for this trip. Since we are now involved in helping Shelby and Rob getting their house ready to live in, and we plan on leaving Thursday morning for Kansas City, there really isn't much to write about. Becky wants some help with getting ready for a garage sale when we get there, and we are looking so forward to seeing Annabelle, and Becky and Rob,again. We are committed to baby sit Saturday evening. Carol and I both hope that you all have enjoyed this blog. We are glad we did this so we have a good record of our trip. When we get home I will post some final thoughts on the trip in general, some things we would do again, and some things we wouldn't do again for any that are thinking of a trip to Alaska for themselves.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Sunday, September 17, 2006
September 8 through September 14
September 8, Friday
Well, we're kind of in a delay mode. We're taking our time in heading back to Denver cause Shelby isn't closing on her new house until the 18th of September and we want to be able to see that and probably help her get it ready to move in. We decided to do something we hadn't been able to do all summer we found a resort with a pool and just enjoyed soaking up the sun, and reading, and getting wet once in a while. Since that is pretty boring stuff to write about, this is a very short entry today.
September 9, Saturday
Another day of lounging around doing nothing useful. Ain't it great. We are getting a lot of reading done though. We did have a delicious spagetti supper and the resort we are staying at is showing a movie in their meeting room tonight so we will go and see that.
The movie was 'Failure to Launch' starring Mathew MacConahey and Sarah Jessica Parker. It was really cute and fun to watch and we hadn't seen it before. Terry Bradshaw (the old Steeler's quarterback) played the dad in the movie and he did pretty good.
September 10, Sunday
We decide it is time to head on toward Denver so we load up and leave this morning. We head south toward Moscow, Idaho. We stop at a store in Moscow to get a loaf of bread and some salsa and then we head on over to the University of Idaho and drive around the campus. It is a pretty campus with lots of pines and some small hills we find a parking lot to park in and eat lunch. This is the campus where 'Life on Wheels' originated. Some of you may not know about this. It is a training session that has full time RVers as instructors, and they tell you all about surviving on the road. Most of them have larger units, i.e. motor homes and fifth wheels, than we do, but the principles are the same. Like I said this is the granddaddy of the Life on Wheels conferences. It is usually held here in June and lasts for about 10 days. One can attend about 4 sessions a day. The sessions deal with everything from working on the road, to places to go and see in different sections of the country, to how to choose an RV, to RV maintenance. Carol and I attended one up in Des Moines, Iowa last year but it was only a four day session, but it was very valuable in preparing us for this trip. After lunch we drove around town. it is a very pretty small college town. We could live here, but I'm not sure how the winters would be.
From here we went on south toward Lewiston, ID to catch Highway 12 east. We had heard that this is a great scenic route. At the junction of 95 and 12 is the Nez Perce National Historic Site. It is operated by the National Park service and tells the store of the Nez Perce who befriended the white man when they first meet Lewis and Clark only to be betrayed. Anyway, it was a nice center and we enjoyed the visit. From here we headed east on 12 though what remains of the Nez Perce reservation and on to the Clearwater National Forest. Around 4:00 we found a beautiful small forest service campground and pulled in there to spend the night. It was right next to the Clearwater River and I put on the new sandals I had bought at the Columbia store outlet for ten dollars and went down and waded in the river to see how they worked. They are made specifically for fording streams and rivers when one backpacks. They work great. The water was fine too, it must not be snow melt because it wasn't that cold.
We had some red beans and rice for supper along with fresh corn on the cob. We really are trying to eat healthy :-). We were both tired. I actually fell asleep reading at the table at 8:00 so decided it was time to hit the sack.
Monday, September 11
We got up about 7:00 this morning so we had about 11 hours of sleep last night. It is not hard to do with the fresh, cool air and the sound of the river right next to the camper. After a breakfast of egg burritos and cantaloupe we hit the road again. We continue east on 12 which continually follows pretty rivers almost exactly all the way across Idaho. Thus this is not a fast drive, one must travel slowly. We pulled into a river access and a forest service person was there doing a survey of people stopping by. I got chosen to answer the questions since my birthday was the closest to today. It was yesterday as a matter of fact. I sure didn't mind though, she was blond, with blue eyes and about 30 so I delayed survey as long as possible. We speculated on how long Dave would have taken to take the survey after we left.
I keep pulling off to let others go by me on this road because it is so scenic. I did this one time and mentioned to Carol that this guy was really moving and he must have to get to work. Her comment back was, "Well, at least he has a job." Even I had to laugh at that.
A short ways further we stopped at the historic Lochsa Ranger Station. This is a ranger station that was built in the 1920s and 30s and is not a great memorial to the forest service. There are several log cabins that are preserved and lots of displays of items used by the rangers back then and lots of photos. There is recorded message at each of the locations that tells you about the items displayed and the building you are in. There was a massive fire in 1934 that killed a couple of rangers and burnt thousands of square miles. The ranger station was saved by the efforts of the rangers there and survived. The story narration on the fire was great.
Now, it is about 3:00 and we have found another fantastic campsite. We actually found it about 1:00 and couldn't leave it is so pretty so we decided to spend the night. We're trying to figure out how we could get the canoe carrier attached to the top of the truck camper and come back here in a couple of summers to spend the summer. We would definitely get an annual fishing license and do some fly fishing also.
We have decided that Idaho is one of our favorite states. We loved the Stanley area last year and a few years ago when we visited, and now this only adds fuel to our fire of enthusiasm for the states lovely natural beauty.
We found out from Heather, the blond blue eyed ranger, that since the rivers along this highway are National Scenic Rivers they are protected from damming, and also the scenery along them must be maintained, thus preventing logging right along the river. Hopefully, this area will survive for generations to come.
Carol is down collecting rocks as I type this. My job will be to find a place to put them. We're getting pretty good at utilizing space.
Tuesday, September 12
We left our lovely campsite this morning and just a quarter of a mile down the road was an interpretive trail of one mile so we took that. It was a very pretty walk to a place called Colgate Licks which is an area where warm mineral waters surface. A lot of elk, deer, and some moose come here to obtain the minerals, much like a salt lick draws animals. We had hoped to see some animals but didn't. We got back in the truck and about 4 miles down the road was a trail to a hot spring. It was only a two mile round trip so we packed up the day pack and headed out. It was another beautiful setting with hot spring water surging out of a rocky bluff and they flowed into some pools that mixed with the stream water right next to the bluff for a perfect temperature of about 100 degrees. We were the only ones there and it was a fantastic experience. We needed a bath anyway :-).
After we got back to the truck it was about 11:00. It is amazing how fast the days go. I think we have spent the better part of almost three days and not gone more than a hundred miles. This is what I call 'Fluff' travel. Fluff is the nickname for Dave Bryan, my buddy in St. Louis, who likes to travel slowly like this. His middle name should be slow.
Unintentionally we have been following the Lewis and Clark trail through Idaho. Every historic marker deals with what Lewis and Clark did nearby. We stopped at a visitor center at Lolo Pass and it had a large display on the Lewis and Clark expedition and a video. We finally made it to Lolo, Montana and had cell phone service. I had a couple of messages on the cell phone, one from each of the kids wishing me a happy birthday. In Becky's she said, "Well, I guess you know what happened to Trent by now" but she didn't tell me and I had no idea what happened to him. I was anxious to see if the Chiefs had won Sunday. I finally found Dave at home, in his office, and he told me they had lost and Trent Green had suffered a severe concussion. Well, there goes the Chiefs season. They don't have a backup quarterback that is worthwhile, and from what I surmised their offensive line stinks this year. Oh well, now I won't have to tie up valuable time watching the games.
After stopping at a Safeway in Missoula, Montana and picking up some groceries and going by the old Fort Missoula we headed south again. We go down to th foot of Chief Joseph Pass and stayed at a forest service campground. Dave had mentioned it and said it was free, guess what Dave it isn't free anymore, It was $10. Since we were the only ones there it was very peaceful, we saw some deer and had a good meal. I clobbered Carol at Scrabble mainly because I used all of my letters on one turn and that is a 50 point bonus. The word I spelled was 'enlarger'. I almost felt bad, but not quite enough not to do it.
Wednesday, September 13
We had known that some friends of ours from Stockton (Buddy and Cindy Frye) were going to be in Rigby, Idaho visiting his aunt who has been in pretty bad health for the past couple of months and is just now starting to get a little better, but they came out to help her get settled in a nursing home while she recovers. We had called to make sure they were going to be in Rigby before we went by and they said they were so we headed down there. We got there around mid afternoon and got directions from Buddy on how to get out to the nursing home. We went out there and met his Aunt Vicki. They have talked a lot about her and said she is quite a card. We found this to be true. She told stories about here trips down to Arizona in the winter. She has a motorhome and would drive it by herself down there for the winters. Her husband died 20 years ago. She said she cried for three years and then got on with things and started going down there abou 17 years ago. She is not a large woman and I can just imagine her driving her motorhome down there by herself. To give you an idea of her humor, she had a rear bumper sticker on the motor home that says, "Caution: Driver is too old to give a shit anymore." She really is a card and we enjoyed our visit.
Buddy and Cindy and Carol and I went out to Pioneer Pies, in Rexburg, Idaho for supper. Carol had liver and onions. I never could understand why someone would actually buy liver and onions, but she does sometimes. I had Navajo Taco, which is like a large taco made with Navajo fry bread. It was really good. We topped it off with banana cream pie. Okay, so much for the eating healthy, but this place is called Pioneer Pies, we couldn't leave without eating pie. At least we shared a piece. We had a great visit with Buddy and Cindy learning what they did all summer and we told them about our trip.
We spent the night camped in Aunt Vicki's driveway.
Thursday, September 14
Well, not much happened today. We just headed east from Rigby toward the Wyoming border. This is the road that goes to Jackson, Wy. We actually got within 50 miles of Jackson and turned south. I told Carol it was almost sinful to be that close and not go into Jackson. I resisted the temptation though and decided to check out new roads. We went south on 89 through Star Valley, and turned onto what would shortly become Idaho 34 toward Bear Lake.
We drove until about 3:00 and found a Utah state park to camp at. A cold front is scheduled to move through today and it did about 5:00. Luckily I had started grilling our country style pork chops right when we got here. We got everything rushed inside before it got wet.
This Bear Lake that we are camped at is in a large valley surrounded by mountains but there are few trees here around the lake except for a few cottonwoods. The indians and mountain men used the lake prior to it be settled by Mormans in the 1800s. It is a pretty lake. It is a very azure blue and is sometimes called the Carribean of the Rockies.
We've had supper and since i grilled the pork and made the salads Carol gets to do dished tonight :-).
We talked to Shelby this morning and she is scheduled to close on her house Monday afternoon at 4:00 so we have decided to head toward Rocky Mountain NP and spend Saturday and Sunday there and go on into Denver on Monday. It will most likely take us two days to get to Rocky Mountain NP from here at the rate we travel.
Well, we're kind of in a delay mode. We're taking our time in heading back to Denver cause Shelby isn't closing on her new house until the 18th of September and we want to be able to see that and probably help her get it ready to move in. We decided to do something we hadn't been able to do all summer we found a resort with a pool and just enjoyed soaking up the sun, and reading, and getting wet once in a while. Since that is pretty boring stuff to write about, this is a very short entry today.
September 9, Saturday
Another day of lounging around doing nothing useful. Ain't it great. We are getting a lot of reading done though. We did have a delicious spagetti supper and the resort we are staying at is showing a movie in their meeting room tonight so we will go and see that.
The movie was 'Failure to Launch' starring Mathew MacConahey and Sarah Jessica Parker. It was really cute and fun to watch and we hadn't seen it before. Terry Bradshaw (the old Steeler's quarterback) played the dad in the movie and he did pretty good.
September 10, Sunday
We decide it is time to head on toward Denver so we load up and leave this morning. We head south toward Moscow, Idaho. We stop at a store in Moscow to get a loaf of bread and some salsa and then we head on over to the University of Idaho and drive around the campus. It is a pretty campus with lots of pines and some small hills we find a parking lot to park in and eat lunch. This is the campus where 'Life on Wheels' originated. Some of you may not know about this. It is a training session that has full time RVers as instructors, and they tell you all about surviving on the road. Most of them have larger units, i.e. motor homes and fifth wheels, than we do, but the principles are the same. Like I said this is the granddaddy of the Life on Wheels conferences. It is usually held here in June and lasts for about 10 days. One can attend about 4 sessions a day. The sessions deal with everything from working on the road, to places to go and see in different sections of the country, to how to choose an RV, to RV maintenance. Carol and I attended one up in Des Moines, Iowa last year but it was only a four day session, but it was very valuable in preparing us for this trip. After lunch we drove around town. it is a very pretty small college town. We could live here, but I'm not sure how the winters would be.
From here we went on south toward Lewiston, ID to catch Highway 12 east. We had heard that this is a great scenic route. At the junction of 95 and 12 is the Nez Perce National Historic Site. It is operated by the National Park service and tells the store of the Nez Perce who befriended the white man when they first meet Lewis and Clark only to be betrayed. Anyway, it was a nice center and we enjoyed the visit. From here we headed east on 12 though what remains of the Nez Perce reservation and on to the Clearwater National Forest. Around 4:00 we found a beautiful small forest service campground and pulled in there to spend the night. It was right next to the Clearwater River and I put on the new sandals I had bought at the Columbia store outlet for ten dollars and went down and waded in the river to see how they worked. They are made specifically for fording streams and rivers when one backpacks. They work great. The water was fine too, it must not be snow melt because it wasn't that cold.
We had some red beans and rice for supper along with fresh corn on the cob. We really are trying to eat healthy :-). We were both tired. I actually fell asleep reading at the table at 8:00 so decided it was time to hit the sack.
Monday, September 11
We got up about 7:00 this morning so we had about 11 hours of sleep last night. It is not hard to do with the fresh, cool air and the sound of the river right next to the camper. After a breakfast of egg burritos and cantaloupe we hit the road again. We continue east on 12 which continually follows pretty rivers almost exactly all the way across Idaho. Thus this is not a fast drive, one must travel slowly. We pulled into a river access and a forest service person was there doing a survey of people stopping by. I got chosen to answer the questions since my birthday was the closest to today. It was yesterday as a matter of fact. I sure didn't mind though, she was blond, with blue eyes and about 30 so I delayed survey as long as possible. We speculated on how long Dave would have taken to take the survey after we left.
I keep pulling off to let others go by me on this road because it is so scenic. I did this one time and mentioned to Carol that this guy was really moving and he must have to get to work. Her comment back was, "Well, at least he has a job." Even I had to laugh at that.
A short ways further we stopped at the historic Lochsa Ranger Station. This is a ranger station that was built in the 1920s and 30s and is not a great memorial to the forest service. There are several log cabins that are preserved and lots of displays of items used by the rangers back then and lots of photos. There is recorded message at each of the locations that tells you about the items displayed and the building you are in. There was a massive fire in 1934 that killed a couple of rangers and burnt thousands of square miles. The ranger station was saved by the efforts of the rangers there and survived. The story narration on the fire was great.
Now, it is about 3:00 and we have found another fantastic campsite. We actually found it about 1:00 and couldn't leave it is so pretty so we decided to spend the night. We're trying to figure out how we could get the canoe carrier attached to the top of the truck camper and come back here in a couple of summers to spend the summer. We would definitely get an annual fishing license and do some fly fishing also.
We have decided that Idaho is one of our favorite states. We loved the Stanley area last year and a few years ago when we visited, and now this only adds fuel to our fire of enthusiasm for the states lovely natural beauty.
We found out from Heather, the blond blue eyed ranger, that since the rivers along this highway are National Scenic Rivers they are protected from damming, and also the scenery along them must be maintained, thus preventing logging right along the river. Hopefully, this area will survive for generations to come.
Carol is down collecting rocks as I type this. My job will be to find a place to put them. We're getting pretty good at utilizing space.
Tuesday, September 12
We left our lovely campsite this morning and just a quarter of a mile down the road was an interpretive trail of one mile so we took that. It was a very pretty walk to a place called Colgate Licks which is an area where warm mineral waters surface. A lot of elk, deer, and some moose come here to obtain the minerals, much like a salt lick draws animals. We had hoped to see some animals but didn't. We got back in the truck and about 4 miles down the road was a trail to a hot spring. It was only a two mile round trip so we packed up the day pack and headed out. It was another beautiful setting with hot spring water surging out of a rocky bluff and they flowed into some pools that mixed with the stream water right next to the bluff for a perfect temperature of about 100 degrees. We were the only ones there and it was a fantastic experience. We needed a bath anyway :-).
After we got back to the truck it was about 11:00. It is amazing how fast the days go. I think we have spent the better part of almost three days and not gone more than a hundred miles. This is what I call 'Fluff' travel. Fluff is the nickname for Dave Bryan, my buddy in St. Louis, who likes to travel slowly like this. His middle name should be slow.
Unintentionally we have been following the Lewis and Clark trail through Idaho. Every historic marker deals with what Lewis and Clark did nearby. We stopped at a visitor center at Lolo Pass and it had a large display on the Lewis and Clark expedition and a video. We finally made it to Lolo, Montana and had cell phone service. I had a couple of messages on the cell phone, one from each of the kids wishing me a happy birthday. In Becky's she said, "Well, I guess you know what happened to Trent by now" but she didn't tell me and I had no idea what happened to him. I was anxious to see if the Chiefs had won Sunday. I finally found Dave at home, in his office, and he told me they had lost and Trent Green had suffered a severe concussion. Well, there goes the Chiefs season. They don't have a backup quarterback that is worthwhile, and from what I surmised their offensive line stinks this year. Oh well, now I won't have to tie up valuable time watching the games.
After stopping at a Safeway in Missoula, Montana and picking up some groceries and going by the old Fort Missoula we headed south again. We go down to th foot of Chief Joseph Pass and stayed at a forest service campground. Dave had mentioned it and said it was free, guess what Dave it isn't free anymore, It was $10. Since we were the only ones there it was very peaceful, we saw some deer and had a good meal. I clobbered Carol at Scrabble mainly because I used all of my letters on one turn and that is a 50 point bonus. The word I spelled was 'enlarger'. I almost felt bad, but not quite enough not to do it.
Wednesday, September 13
We had known that some friends of ours from Stockton (Buddy and Cindy Frye) were going to be in Rigby, Idaho visiting his aunt who has been in pretty bad health for the past couple of months and is just now starting to get a little better, but they came out to help her get settled in a nursing home while she recovers. We had called to make sure they were going to be in Rigby before we went by and they said they were so we headed down there. We got there around mid afternoon and got directions from Buddy on how to get out to the nursing home. We went out there and met his Aunt Vicki. They have talked a lot about her and said she is quite a card. We found this to be true. She told stories about here trips down to Arizona in the winter. She has a motorhome and would drive it by herself down there for the winters. Her husband died 20 years ago. She said she cried for three years and then got on with things and started going down there abou 17 years ago. She is not a large woman and I can just imagine her driving her motorhome down there by herself. To give you an idea of her humor, she had a rear bumper sticker on the motor home that says, "Caution: Driver is too old to give a shit anymore." She really is a card and we enjoyed our visit.
Buddy and Cindy and Carol and I went out to Pioneer Pies, in Rexburg, Idaho for supper. Carol had liver and onions. I never could understand why someone would actually buy liver and onions, but she does sometimes. I had Navajo Taco, which is like a large taco made with Navajo fry bread. It was really good. We topped it off with banana cream pie. Okay, so much for the eating healthy, but this place is called Pioneer Pies, we couldn't leave without eating pie. At least we shared a piece. We had a great visit with Buddy and Cindy learning what they did all summer and we told them about our trip.
We spent the night camped in Aunt Vicki's driveway.
Thursday, September 14
Well, not much happened today. We just headed east from Rigby toward the Wyoming border. This is the road that goes to Jackson, Wy. We actually got within 50 miles of Jackson and turned south. I told Carol it was almost sinful to be that close and not go into Jackson. I resisted the temptation though and decided to check out new roads. We went south on 89 through Star Valley, and turned onto what would shortly become Idaho 34 toward Bear Lake.
We drove until about 3:00 and found a Utah state park to camp at. A cold front is scheduled to move through today and it did about 5:00. Luckily I had started grilling our country style pork chops right when we got here. We got everything rushed inside before it got wet.
This Bear Lake that we are camped at is in a large valley surrounded by mountains but there are few trees here around the lake except for a few cottonwoods. The indians and mountain men used the lake prior to it be settled by Mormans in the 1800s. It is a pretty lake. It is a very azure blue and is sometimes called the Carribean of the Rockies.
We've had supper and since i grilled the pork and made the salads Carol gets to do dished tonight :-).
We talked to Shelby this morning and she is scheduled to close on her house Monday afternoon at 4:00 so we have decided to head toward Rocky Mountain NP and spend Saturday and Sunday there and go on into Denver on Monday. It will most likely take us two days to get to Rocky Mountain NP from here at the rate we travel.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
August 31 through September 7
August 31, Thursday
After breakfast we scooted on over to the library I had found yesterday and i loaded up the blog and checked email. I also checked on news about the Chiefs to see how the preseason was going for them. I also checked to make sure that Mosers (Missouri State Employees Retirement System) had deposited another check into my checking account. They sure had. That just seems amazing to me that we can be out here having fun and getting paid at the same time. Miracles never cease.
After the library Carol wanted to run out to the arboretum and a Japanese gardens near the University of Washington. We walked a couple of miles around the arboretum and then headed over to the Japanese gardens. The Japanese gardens were the prettiest we have seen. We both enjoy these because they are sooooo neat and organized. By the time we got done here it was around 2:00 and we hadn't eaten any lunch yet. We headed on back to the camp ground to have some lunch. The traffic on Interstate 5 was backed up so I exited and went through downtown and caught 99 and 509 back out to Des Moines. This is the route we had used yesterday to get down to the Pike's Place Market. It is so much faster and easier, I'm surprised other people don't use it, but then, like Carol says, I'm always looking for the easiest way to do things. We got back and had some lunch and then I ran a tub of soapy water and started wiping down the camper. It had a lot of road grime on it and Carol let me use an old towel to dry it with. It looked brand new by the time I got done. Well, not really, but close. It is nice to have a clean camper again.
We didn't really have any supper because we had had left over brats and chili for lunch and we neither one were hungry.
September 1, Friday
We had to meet Dave and Linda at the Holiday Inn Express on Enterprise at 9:00. Our intent on doing that was to get down to the Pike's Place Market early before the crowd. Well, those of you who know Dave are sure to know that this plan was a complete failure. When we got there Dave had his month end report to mail so we had to go to the post office in Des Moines, that took about a half an hour cause there was a crowd, then we had to go to Sally's and get some 4X4 mousse for his hair. He never can remember his mousse. This was another half an hour. By the time we got down to the market it was 11:00 and the crowd had beaten us. Deja vu set in and I remembered what it was like to travel with Dave.
We did enjoy the market though, despite the crowd. It was fun to go booth to booth and look at what they offered. We bought a few items at a Chinese bakery to tide us over until lunch and then trudged ahead. We saw some great t-shirts with really cute sayings on them. One child size shirt said, "Momma no, daddy maybe, nana and papa yes". Carol thought she could do that on her own so we didn't buy one :-(. Another said something to the extent of, "Lifes intent is not to get to the grave with a well preserved body but to get there well used, sliding in and yelling, 'Wow, what a ride."
About 1:00 we decided to find a place to eat, so we ended up down by the water front at a place called Ivar's and we all had some sort of fish and chips and watched and listened to he sea gulls squawking for food. After lunch we decided to head out and explore so we drove over to West Seattle and found a completely different climate. It is much slower paced and relaxed over there we sat on a park bench and watched the boats in the harbor with the Seattle skyline and the space needle in the background. After that we found a nice little Mexican restaurant right across from a public beach and Dave and I had some Mexican beer while the girls had iced tea. We also got some chips and salsa and the salsa was great, different from most we are use to. This is the other thing about traveling with Dave you tend to get off the beaten path more and find some unique places when he is along, so I guess things balance out.
By now it is about 4:00 and they have to be at the Space Needle at 5:00 so we head that way. After a couple of missed turns and some diversions we finally made it. We said our goodbyes and then headed back to the Saltwater State Park to put the camper on and cook up some steaks for supper.
Saturday, September 2
We left the state park and went over to the local farmer's market. We couldn't resist some of the fresh vegetables and peaches. Next we headed on out of town toward Rainier National Park. It took us most of the day to drive up toward Mt. Rainier, of course we had to stop at a couple of garage sales and a grocery store. We ran across a great national forest recreation area with lots of open camping. We found a great campsite in amongst the pines that was absolutely free and this area was very uncrowded, which was great considering this was the Saturday of Labor Day. We actually stopped early because this is such a great campsite. We left overs for supper and did quite a bit of reading and relaxing today. A guy who camped near us had Utah plates so I asked him where he was from. He said he had been in Utah for the past year where he had remodeled a house and sold it. He had done the same thing in Florida before that. Now he was waiting to take possession of a house in Spokane to do the same thing. He bought houses in a place he wanted to see and spent a year or so to remodel and resell the houses. He said he made a pretty good living doing this. Interesting.
Sunday, September 3
We went into Rainier National Park today. It was quite crowded, but that didn't take away from the magnificance of Mt. Rainier. It dominates the countryside for miles and miles and the closer one gets the more awesome it is. We spent the day stopping at viewpoints and also the visitor center. They had a great movie on the mountain and the park at the visitor center. Around 4:00 we headed on out of the park. We didn't stop at any of the Inn's in the park because they were so crowded we couldn't find parking places. We decided to drive around the east side of Mt. St. Helen's because it would most likely be less crowded. We went through a small town of Packwood, Washington and got bogged down in a huge flea market. It was the largest I had ever seen. Wall to wall booths with all kinds of junk in them. Needless to say we had to stop for awhile. Luckily we didn't see anything we wanted. We finally found a place we could pull off and camp in the national forest for the night. Chefs salad for supper and a game of Scrabble finished up the day.
Monday, September 4 (Labor Day)
We left the campsite fairly early and headed on to Mt. St. Helen's National Volcanic Monument. That was quite impressive. The devastation from the blast was tremendous. It occurred 26 years ago and it is still pretty barren. We got away from there around 11:00 in the morning and wanted to get on down to Carol's brother's (Steve) house in Portland at a descent hour, but the road was so curvy and bumpy we couldn't make good time so we ended up not getting here until around 3:30. We visited with Steve and Phyllis and Kim and Hugh (their daughter and son-in-law), and had a great time with Hailey (6) and Carter (2). Made us want to get home to see Annabelle. We had a great supper of grilled hamburgers and other salad dishes, plus blackberries and peach cobbler for desert. We went over and took a look at Steve's new shop building, well not new but new for him. It is on a piece of property that he has a rental house on, so the workshop building is a bonus. It will be very nice for his work. He does construction jobs for people, whatever they might want, i.e. new decks, fences, flooring, etc. Sounds like a fun retirement job. The name of Steve's company is Fix-It Now, Etc.
Tuesday, September 5
After breakfast and a little watching of Carter move water sprinklers around the yard and turn them on and off, we headed out about 9:00. What a nice visit we had. It was good to see everyone again.
We had the directions to the Columbia Sportwear Factory Store so that is where we went first. Carol couldn't find many bargains but I found quite a few, including a couple of pair of jeans for $10 each and a pair of sandals for $10. I also got a pair of loafers for $25. Love the prices at this place.
We headed around town and north to highway14 east. Yep, we're headed back east now. Most of the day was just spent driving along the Columbia River and exploring various sites. We didn't make very good time. We made it to Maryhill at the junction of 14 and 97 and found the state park full, so we checked out a private RV park next door and surprisingly it was less expensive than the state park. It is a lovely park with nice spots and shaded grassy sites. By the time we got done with supper it was nearly 9:00 and we just hit the sack. We need to be up at Yakima, Washington around 11:00 tomorrow. This is where our camper was made. They have a plant tour at 1:00 I want to take and we also need to check into their service campground so we can get some advice on fixing the roof and the tie-down.
Wednesday, September 6
We left the Peach Beach RV Park, which by the was very nice and inexpensive. The first thing we did was visit a replica of Stonehenge. It is quite fascinating. The original Stonehenge was built about 2,000 B.C. and this was built by a local artist to commemorate the local soldiers who died in WWI. From there we headed on up to Yakima but not without a stop at Toppenish, Washington. This town is know as the town of murals, and it does have a big, big collection. We took photos of a few but not nearly all. It was a nice little town and we really enjoyed walking around and seeing what we could. There was an old time soda fountain, and some nice shops, although we aren't in the market for anything we browse anyway. We spent about an hour to an hour and a half walking around town here. We got back on the road and finally made it to Yakima. We stopped by the Alpenlite factory first and got signed up for a plant tour at 1:00. It was noon so we ran over to the service center to check out the camping. It was a completely treeless parking lot. I have failed to mention that for the first time in three months we did not have to turn on the heater in the camper this morning. The daytime highs are now around 95. We're finally back in shorts, but obviously this does not make a blacktop parking lot real attractive as a campsite. We put our name on a list to have a technician talk to us later this afternoon and went back over to the plant for the tour. It was fun, and according to the guide who gave the tour Alpenlite is one of the top products on the market. I imagine all of them say that. After the tour we went back to the service center and while we were waiting for the technician to talk to us we were visiting with some of the folks who were there to get their coaches fixed. One couple had been there a month with slide-out problems and another had a number of things wrong with their coach. That is one thing about a truck camper. I can fix most of it myself. These folks had motor homes with lots of fancy gadgets and the more complex something is the more things to break down. We talked to the technician and he pretty much confirmed what I had thought about the roof and tie downs. I'll just have to do a little work with them when I get home. He also mentioned a few other things I needed to do to maintain it, i.e. clean he flute in the furnace each year, and clean and recaulk all the joints in the camper.
We left the service center and went over to a local mall to cool down after our time with the tech. We weren't sure what to do for the night, move on or stay. We finally decided to go to a Mexican restaurant and have supper and decide. After supper it was nearly 6:30 and I didn't want to find a campsite in the dark so we found a state park on the map just east of town and headed out there to check it out. It had lots of trees and was a lot cooler than the parking lot so we decided to stay there.
Thursday, September 7
We got up this morning and Carol wanted to go to a couple of produce stands and get some veggies and fruit. This took us awhile and I also had to fill the propane bottle. We got all those chores done and then headed northeast toward Spokane. The landscape today wasn't much, mainly flat land with a little sage and lots of dry, dry grass. We cut out some of our backroad travel and hit the interstate to save a little time. When we got on the outskirts of Spokane the scenery improved some with hills and pines. We went to the visitor center and found a couple of spots we wanted to check out We went on down to a riverside park and had some fun. We rode horses, well, not really horses. I think it is called a carousel. Carol and I each had a ride. We took photos of each other in a huge Red Flyer Wagon. Next we went to an old hotel that had been restored and is an active hotel now but they encourage tours by tourists. They even have a brochure that takes you through the hotel and tells you a lot about the public parts of it. There are also lots of photos from the early 1900s of the hotel with activities taking place. It was an excellent tour.
From here we headed on over toward Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. We checked out a county park on the way over but the cost was as much as a regular RV park and there were no showers, wifi, or laundramat so we came on into town and found a campground with wifi so I could upload this blog.
We have decided to cut back on our eating so we had corn, tomato/pepper/onion salad, cottage cheese, and a combination watermelon and cantaloupe pieces for supper. It was really good. Maybe I don't need meat with every meal :-).
After breakfast we scooted on over to the library I had found yesterday and i loaded up the blog and checked email. I also checked on news about the Chiefs to see how the preseason was going for them. I also checked to make sure that Mosers (Missouri State Employees Retirement System) had deposited another check into my checking account. They sure had. That just seems amazing to me that we can be out here having fun and getting paid at the same time. Miracles never cease.
After the library Carol wanted to run out to the arboretum and a Japanese gardens near the University of Washington. We walked a couple of miles around the arboretum and then headed over to the Japanese gardens. The Japanese gardens were the prettiest we have seen. We both enjoy these because they are sooooo neat and organized. By the time we got done here it was around 2:00 and we hadn't eaten any lunch yet. We headed on back to the camp ground to have some lunch. The traffic on Interstate 5 was backed up so I exited and went through downtown and caught 99 and 509 back out to Des Moines. This is the route we had used yesterday to get down to the Pike's Place Market. It is so much faster and easier, I'm surprised other people don't use it, but then, like Carol says, I'm always looking for the easiest way to do things. We got back and had some lunch and then I ran a tub of soapy water and started wiping down the camper. It had a lot of road grime on it and Carol let me use an old towel to dry it with. It looked brand new by the time I got done. Well, not really, but close. It is nice to have a clean camper again.
We didn't really have any supper because we had had left over brats and chili for lunch and we neither one were hungry.
September 1, Friday
We had to meet Dave and Linda at the Holiday Inn Express on Enterprise at 9:00. Our intent on doing that was to get down to the Pike's Place Market early before the crowd. Well, those of you who know Dave are sure to know that this plan was a complete failure. When we got there Dave had his month end report to mail so we had to go to the post office in Des Moines, that took about a half an hour cause there was a crowd, then we had to go to Sally's and get some 4X4 mousse for his hair. He never can remember his mousse. This was another half an hour. By the time we got down to the market it was 11:00 and the crowd had beaten us. Deja vu set in and I remembered what it was like to travel with Dave.
We did enjoy the market though, despite the crowd. It was fun to go booth to booth and look at what they offered. We bought a few items at a Chinese bakery to tide us over until lunch and then trudged ahead. We saw some great t-shirts with really cute sayings on them. One child size shirt said, "Momma no, daddy maybe, nana and papa yes". Carol thought she could do that on her own so we didn't buy one :-(. Another said something to the extent of, "Lifes intent is not to get to the grave with a well preserved body but to get there well used, sliding in and yelling, 'Wow, what a ride."
About 1:00 we decided to find a place to eat, so we ended up down by the water front at a place called Ivar's and we all had some sort of fish and chips and watched and listened to he sea gulls squawking for food. After lunch we decided to head out and explore so we drove over to West Seattle and found a completely different climate. It is much slower paced and relaxed over there we sat on a park bench and watched the boats in the harbor with the Seattle skyline and the space needle in the background. After that we found a nice little Mexican restaurant right across from a public beach and Dave and I had some Mexican beer while the girls had iced tea. We also got some chips and salsa and the salsa was great, different from most we are use to. This is the other thing about traveling with Dave you tend to get off the beaten path more and find some unique places when he is along, so I guess things balance out.
By now it is about 4:00 and they have to be at the Space Needle at 5:00 so we head that way. After a couple of missed turns and some diversions we finally made it. We said our goodbyes and then headed back to the Saltwater State Park to put the camper on and cook up some steaks for supper.
Saturday, September 2
We left the state park and went over to the local farmer's market. We couldn't resist some of the fresh vegetables and peaches. Next we headed on out of town toward Rainier National Park. It took us most of the day to drive up toward Mt. Rainier, of course we had to stop at a couple of garage sales and a grocery store. We ran across a great national forest recreation area with lots of open camping. We found a great campsite in amongst the pines that was absolutely free and this area was very uncrowded, which was great considering this was the Saturday of Labor Day. We actually stopped early because this is such a great campsite. We left overs for supper and did quite a bit of reading and relaxing today. A guy who camped near us had Utah plates so I asked him where he was from. He said he had been in Utah for the past year where he had remodeled a house and sold it. He had done the same thing in Florida before that. Now he was waiting to take possession of a house in Spokane to do the same thing. He bought houses in a place he wanted to see and spent a year or so to remodel and resell the houses. He said he made a pretty good living doing this. Interesting.
Sunday, September 3
We went into Rainier National Park today. It was quite crowded, but that didn't take away from the magnificance of Mt. Rainier. It dominates the countryside for miles and miles and the closer one gets the more awesome it is. We spent the day stopping at viewpoints and also the visitor center. They had a great movie on the mountain and the park at the visitor center. Around 4:00 we headed on out of the park. We didn't stop at any of the Inn's in the park because they were so crowded we couldn't find parking places. We decided to drive around the east side of Mt. St. Helen's because it would most likely be less crowded. We went through a small town of Packwood, Washington and got bogged down in a huge flea market. It was the largest I had ever seen. Wall to wall booths with all kinds of junk in them. Needless to say we had to stop for awhile. Luckily we didn't see anything we wanted. We finally found a place we could pull off and camp in the national forest for the night. Chefs salad for supper and a game of Scrabble finished up the day.
Monday, September 4 (Labor Day)
We left the campsite fairly early and headed on to Mt. St. Helen's National Volcanic Monument. That was quite impressive. The devastation from the blast was tremendous. It occurred 26 years ago and it is still pretty barren. We got away from there around 11:00 in the morning and wanted to get on down to Carol's brother's (Steve) house in Portland at a descent hour, but the road was so curvy and bumpy we couldn't make good time so we ended up not getting here until around 3:30. We visited with Steve and Phyllis and Kim and Hugh (their daughter and son-in-law), and had a great time with Hailey (6) and Carter (2). Made us want to get home to see Annabelle. We had a great supper of grilled hamburgers and other salad dishes, plus blackberries and peach cobbler for desert. We went over and took a look at Steve's new shop building, well not new but new for him. It is on a piece of property that he has a rental house on, so the workshop building is a bonus. It will be very nice for his work. He does construction jobs for people, whatever they might want, i.e. new decks, fences, flooring, etc. Sounds like a fun retirement job. The name of Steve's company is Fix-It Now, Etc.
Tuesday, September 5
After breakfast and a little watching of Carter move water sprinklers around the yard and turn them on and off, we headed out about 9:00. What a nice visit we had. It was good to see everyone again.
We had the directions to the Columbia Sportwear Factory Store so that is where we went first. Carol couldn't find many bargains but I found quite a few, including a couple of pair of jeans for $10 each and a pair of sandals for $10. I also got a pair of loafers for $25. Love the prices at this place.
We headed around town and north to highway14 east. Yep, we're headed back east now. Most of the day was just spent driving along the Columbia River and exploring various sites. We didn't make very good time. We made it to Maryhill at the junction of 14 and 97 and found the state park full, so we checked out a private RV park next door and surprisingly it was less expensive than the state park. It is a lovely park with nice spots and shaded grassy sites. By the time we got done with supper it was nearly 9:00 and we just hit the sack. We need to be up at Yakima, Washington around 11:00 tomorrow. This is where our camper was made. They have a plant tour at 1:00 I want to take and we also need to check into their service campground so we can get some advice on fixing the roof and the tie-down.
Wednesday, September 6
We left the Peach Beach RV Park, which by the was very nice and inexpensive. The first thing we did was visit a replica of Stonehenge. It is quite fascinating. The original Stonehenge was built about 2,000 B.C. and this was built by a local artist to commemorate the local soldiers who died in WWI. From there we headed on up to Yakima but not without a stop at Toppenish, Washington. This town is know as the town of murals, and it does have a big, big collection. We took photos of a few but not nearly all. It was a nice little town and we really enjoyed walking around and seeing what we could. There was an old time soda fountain, and some nice shops, although we aren't in the market for anything we browse anyway. We spent about an hour to an hour and a half walking around town here. We got back on the road and finally made it to Yakima. We stopped by the Alpenlite factory first and got signed up for a plant tour at 1:00. It was noon so we ran over to the service center to check out the camping. It was a completely treeless parking lot. I have failed to mention that for the first time in three months we did not have to turn on the heater in the camper this morning. The daytime highs are now around 95. We're finally back in shorts, but obviously this does not make a blacktop parking lot real attractive as a campsite. We put our name on a list to have a technician talk to us later this afternoon and went back over to the plant for the tour. It was fun, and according to the guide who gave the tour Alpenlite is one of the top products on the market. I imagine all of them say that. After the tour we went back to the service center and while we were waiting for the technician to talk to us we were visiting with some of the folks who were there to get their coaches fixed. One couple had been there a month with slide-out problems and another had a number of things wrong with their coach. That is one thing about a truck camper. I can fix most of it myself. These folks had motor homes with lots of fancy gadgets and the more complex something is the more things to break down. We talked to the technician and he pretty much confirmed what I had thought about the roof and tie downs. I'll just have to do a little work with them when I get home. He also mentioned a few other things I needed to do to maintain it, i.e. clean he flute in the furnace each year, and clean and recaulk all the joints in the camper.
We left the service center and went over to a local mall to cool down after our time with the tech. We weren't sure what to do for the night, move on or stay. We finally decided to go to a Mexican restaurant and have supper and decide. After supper it was nearly 6:30 and I didn't want to find a campsite in the dark so we found a state park on the map just east of town and headed out there to check it out. It had lots of trees and was a lot cooler than the parking lot so we decided to stay there.
Thursday, September 7
We got up this morning and Carol wanted to go to a couple of produce stands and get some veggies and fruit. This took us awhile and I also had to fill the propane bottle. We got all those chores done and then headed northeast toward Spokane. The landscape today wasn't much, mainly flat land with a little sage and lots of dry, dry grass. We cut out some of our backroad travel and hit the interstate to save a little time. When we got on the outskirts of Spokane the scenery improved some with hills and pines. We went to the visitor center and found a couple of spots we wanted to check out We went on down to a riverside park and had some fun. We rode horses, well, not really horses. I think it is called a carousel. Carol and I each had a ride. We took photos of each other in a huge Red Flyer Wagon. Next we went to an old hotel that had been restored and is an active hotel now but they encourage tours by tourists. They even have a brochure that takes you through the hotel and tells you a lot about the public parts of it. There are also lots of photos from the early 1900s of the hotel with activities taking place. It was an excellent tour.
From here we headed on over toward Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. We checked out a county park on the way over but the cost was as much as a regular RV park and there were no showers, wifi, or laundramat so we came on into town and found a campground with wifi so I could upload this blog.
We have decided to cut back on our eating so we had corn, tomato/pepper/onion salad, cottage cheese, and a combination watermelon and cantaloupe pieces for supper. It was really good. Maybe I don't need meat with every meal :-).
Thursday, August 31, 2006
August 25 through August 30
Friday, August 25
We had pancakes for breakfast this morning. I love the pancake mix we found. It is called Krusteaz and all you do is mix water with it, heat up and grease the griddle, and cook. They are unbelievably light and tasty pancakes. Anyway, I did the cooking this morning. I went and paid for the site, since it was late and sooo dark the night before when we got here. then we walked around several of the campground loops. We packed up about 10:00 and headed toward Port Angeles.
Today is errand day. We went by the visitor center for the Olympic National Park first and stopped. The ranger (Rod) we talked to was most helpful. He told us where we could camp by the beach and a rain forest campground we needed to stay at. I think we have the days and nights filled up until we get to Seattle next Thursday. We needed diesel badly so the next place we watched for was a gas station. We found one just east of town. Can't believe diesel is so much higher than regular gas. It is about $.50 per gallon higher. I also filled the propane tank. Next we headed for Walmart. I needed to get a perscription filled and we wanted to pick up a few groceries. It was amazing the cost of groceries is so much cheaper here in the states. We got about $30 worth of groceries that would have probably cost us $50 in Canada. We also had to stop by Safeway to pick up some hamburger for tacos tonight, yum. After that we stopped at two banks to see about changing our Canadian money back to US money. They wouldn't do it so we ended up stopping down by the ferry docks at a 'duty free' place and they changed it.
When we came out, a man and his family were standing near the truck trying to start their car. They had been gone to Hawaii for a couple of weeks and the battery was dead. He asked if we could give him a jump and we said sure. Got him started and chatted briefly with them. They are from Klamouth Falls, Oregon. The wife said not to miss Port Townsend, but since it is the opposite direction from where we mainly want to go, I guess we will have to catch it next time.
Next we went to the public library to see about wifi. Sure enough they had it so I could catch up on the blog. By this time it was about 3:00 and we still hadn't had lunch. When you're retired you just don't have time to eat. We decided to go back out to the campground we were at last night and find another site. By the time we did this it was 4:00 and we finally had a bite of lunch to tide us over. We wanted to go up to Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center and see it since it is a beautiful clear day. We headed up there next and it was well worth it. Lovely scenery and we saw quite a few deer. By the time we got back to the campsite it was about 6:30. I started my generator and downloaded some photos. A neighbor came over about 6:45 and asked us to turn off the generator so I did. Oh well, can't blame him. It does kind of disturb the peace and quiet. I got what I needed done. We cooked tacos for supper and had some more fresh corn. Carol just can't keep from adding this nourishing stuff to the menu. After dishes we played another game of Scrabble. Guess who won. No not me, Carol :-(.
Saturday, August 26
We had a light breakfast this morning and called the kids and Carol's folks since we had cell phone coverage. Then we packed up and headed out again. This time we were heading for Salt Creek County Park. It is only about 15 miles from where we were. It is on the shore and when the tide is out it has some nice tidal pools according to Rod the Ranger. We did stop at a fish shop and pick up some halibut for dinner :-(. Oh well, one of these days we'll be away from all this fresh seafood. I wanted shrimp but they import it from Maine, bah humbug.
We got to the Salt Creek Campground and found a nice site someone was vacating. It is packed here since it is the weekend. After a bite of lunch we went down to the beach and explored. Lots of driftwood and lots of folks swimming. We don't know how they swim in this water since it is cold. Kids can swim in any temperature of water though. There is a tall island not far from the beach. It makes a great photo op. We actually got hot here on the beach, but managed to survive the heat. It must have been in the 80s here and was blocked from the wind.
After awhile on the beach we came back to the camper and read for a while and then went for an evening walk around the campground. When we got back from the walk our neighbors were building a campfire in our fire pit. They wanted to surprise us. They are college age kids and very nice. Their names are Mike and Bev. Mike had brought a bunch of firewood in his pickup so they wanted to share it. It was great. We visited with them and ended up playing the game Taboo with them until about sunset, and then we all ran over to the west side of the point to watch the sunset and get some photos. We cranked up the lantern and ate our clam chowder and bread sticks out on the picnic table by the roaring fire. It got close to 10:00 and we couldn't keep our eyes open so we hit the sack.
Sunday, August 27
We had bacon and toast for breakfast this morning and messed around until about 9:30 waiting for the tide to go out. We wanted to go out on the rocks and see what we could see in the tide pools that were left when the tide receded. We finally ventured out about 10:00 and Mike and Bev were just emerging from their tent. We climbed all over the rocks and really enjoyed the aninames and star fish, etc. in the pools. They are beautiful. As we were out there fog moved in and it gave a feathery look to the coast. I got some great fog shots.
We came back and loaded up and headed out to our next location. We found some cell phone coverage and called Dave Bryan to make arrangements to meet he and Linda next Friday. They are flying into Seattle Thursday to go on an Alaskan cruise so we are going to meet them on Friday before they depart on Saturday. I forgot to ask Dave who won the Rams/Chiefs game though, bummer.
Our goal was to go a whole 60 miles to Mora campground and Rialto Beach. We had to stop in Forks for some milk since we had used all of ours in the chowder last night. We got to the campground around 2:30 and found a site, then we headed for Rialto Beach. Unfortunately the fog was still thick as soup over the ocean, not on the land though. The tide was at it's highest so we had to walk on rocks on the beach. I had read about some huge rocks down the beach I wanted to see. Carol stayed near the parking lot and picked up rocks to take home. I walked on down to the area called Split Rocks. I passed a number of other hikers and some groups who were camped on the beach. I ran into one couple who was pulling a large wagon like you would buy at Sam's. They had it filled to the hilt with gear and a huge ice chest. They were going down the beach for a whole week so they figured a little pain now would provide some luxury as the week progressed. I got to the rocks and took a few photos and then turned back. Luckily the tide was going out a little so I could walk in the sand going back and that made it a little easier. It would be fun to camp here for a couple of days, but it never gets warm I don't think. The wind constantly blows off the ocean. I got back with only one incident of waves hitting me. I wasn't wet above my knees though. I hung my pants and socks out when we got to the campsite, but they were wetter in the morning than when I had hung them out.
We had a halibut dish and some fresh corn for supper. No junk food for me tonight. Oh well.
It was cold out and we didn't have any firewood so we stayed in and read tonight. I was tired after fighting the rocks and sand for about 3 miles today. We went to bed early again, about 9:00 this time.
Monday, August 28
Well, we had cereal and fresh peaches for breakfast and then I had to get out the generator so Carol could wash her hair. No, she doesn't have and electric hair washer, but she does have an electric hair dryer that she needs when she washes her hair. We got away from the campsite about 10:00 (we seem to be in a rut here). Our objective was to head over about 40 miles to the Hoh Rain Forest, another part of the Olympic National Park. I did stop to call Dave though when we had cell phone reception. Since he lives in St. Louis I knew he would know who won. He didn't want to talk about it so I guess the Chiefs won.
We got to the Hoh Rain Forest area about 11:00 and went to the visitor center. After that we walked some of the trails nearby. What a site. The trees here are huge, moss and ferns are everywhere, and there are some places where the sun hardly shines through the forest canopy. By now it was about 2:00 and we went looking for a campsite at the national park campground nearby. We found a campsite right next to the river and it is gorgeous. This is the Hoh River and it is glacier fed, so it is blue green and flows pretty fast right below our campsite. It is narrow and right across the river a herd of about a dozen elk were feeding. They continued to browse while we sat in our lawn chairs and watched. We listened to the birds singing above and the flow of the river. I truly believe that one can get nearer one's God in nature than in any church, mosque, or synagog built by the hands of men. It is just beyond words. What a fantastic sight. It is still sunny and quite warm here also for a change so we are now happy campers.
Carol whipped up some tuna salad for a late lunch and I'm just bringing this log up to date looking out at a lovely scene. It is hard to beat.
We just lazed around all afternoon. I read and brought the blog up to date. About 6:00 I dug out the grill and lit some charcoal to burn a few brats for supper. We had brats with chili and onions. It was actually warm enough to sit outside at the picnic table and eat. It was a beautiful evening. We also had some watermelon, the first of the season for us. It was great. We read a little while and went to bed.
Tuesday, August 29
We headed out after some pancakes this morning cooked by moi, of course. We stopped at the Hoh visitor center and walked another trail we had passed on yesterday. It is called the trail of mosses. It is made up of mature trees with lots of mosses and lichens. It is fascinating to walk through this forest and observe the trees and thick foilage.
Our objective today is somewhere around Olympia, Washington. We have no campground in mind for the night. We stopped at Ruby Beach and the tide was out. What awesome scenery. Large rocks and another tall island. We also saw lots of starfish in the pools left by the receding tide. We stopped for lunch along the coast and watched the waves roll in. I saw a Dairy Queen at Aberdeen and couldn't resist stopping. We arrived at Olympia around 4:00 and went downtown near the capitol to the information center. We were too late to catch a tour of the capitol building but we did find out about a Japanese garden near the city hall so we drove over there. It was peaceful and lovely even though it was small. Someone had hung some origami birds from some of the trees. The birds had tags on them that had some thought provoking notations. One read "We are making enemies faster than we can kill them," and another read " The evils of government are directly proportional to the indifference of the people." There was a third one which I can't remember. The back of the tags commemorated Hiroshima Day, August 6.
We drove on toward Tacoma and found a Walmart. Since we did not have a campsite in mind and our Trailer Life guide book really didn't have any in the vicinity we asked if we could park overnight and they said we could so we stayed there. We did buy a DiGorinos pizza for supper while we were there, plus a couple of other things.
We had salad with the pizza, and after supper we played some Scrabble. I won.
Wednesday, August 30
We left Walmart fairly early and headed to a state park just south of Seatlle called Saltwater State Park. We weren't sure we could get a spot since labor day weekend is this coming weekend, but there were several vacant and we picked one out. We took the camper off the truck in anticipation of running around town. We are scheduled to meet Dave and Linda Bryan Friday morning. They are flying in with a group of their church friends and they are all going on a cruise up to Alaska next week. Since we were going to be here about the same time we made arrangements to meet up.
Today was a chore day. We had showers, took the truck to get the oil changed, found a laundromat and washed clothes and bedding, I washed the truck, and found a library where I could get on line tomorrow and load up the blog.
After that we decided to do an exploratory run down to Pike's Place Market and see what it was like. We made it down there but finding a parking place is a real trick. We finally did and then started walking around. We found the main market with the fish markets, etc. It is a really neat place. It is a combination of fish and meat markets, garden stands, gift shops, and small food stands. It is just fun to walk around and see what is there and watch people. It is fun to watch the guys at the fish market throwing fish around and yelling out orders. It was a little trickier getting back to the campground since it was rush hour but we made it. Now I have the route down pat for Friday when we meet Dave and Linda. They are staying at a motel not too far from where we are camped.
Overall, we had a good day and got a lot accomplished. We got back to the camper and had BLTs for supper with watermelon for desert. It is nearly 9:00 now and I am working on this while Carol reads.
We got a call from Shelby today and it looks like she will be getting a new house soon. I told her Carol is getting a little antsy to get home so after we get together with Dave and Linda we will head south to see Steve, Carol's brother and his family, and then take a more direct route back to Denver than I had previously planned. I told Shelby we would probably be there in Denver around mid-September. We will probably get there just in time to help with painting or moving or somesuch.
Well, a little reading for me and then off to bed. Carol wants to see some more of Seattle tomorrow. Driving in this traffic wears me out.
We had pancakes for breakfast this morning. I love the pancake mix we found. It is called Krusteaz and all you do is mix water with it, heat up and grease the griddle, and cook. They are unbelievably light and tasty pancakes. Anyway, I did the cooking this morning. I went and paid for the site, since it was late and sooo dark the night before when we got here. then we walked around several of the campground loops. We packed up about 10:00 and headed toward Port Angeles.
Today is errand day. We went by the visitor center for the Olympic National Park first and stopped. The ranger (Rod) we talked to was most helpful. He told us where we could camp by the beach and a rain forest campground we needed to stay at. I think we have the days and nights filled up until we get to Seattle next Thursday. We needed diesel badly so the next place we watched for was a gas station. We found one just east of town. Can't believe diesel is so much higher than regular gas. It is about $.50 per gallon higher. I also filled the propane tank. Next we headed for Walmart. I needed to get a perscription filled and we wanted to pick up a few groceries. It was amazing the cost of groceries is so much cheaper here in the states. We got about $30 worth of groceries that would have probably cost us $50 in Canada. We also had to stop by Safeway to pick up some hamburger for tacos tonight, yum. After that we stopped at two banks to see about changing our Canadian money back to US money. They wouldn't do it so we ended up stopping down by the ferry docks at a 'duty free' place and they changed it.
When we came out, a man and his family were standing near the truck trying to start their car. They had been gone to Hawaii for a couple of weeks and the battery was dead. He asked if we could give him a jump and we said sure. Got him started and chatted briefly with them. They are from Klamouth Falls, Oregon. The wife said not to miss Port Townsend, but since it is the opposite direction from where we mainly want to go, I guess we will have to catch it next time.
Next we went to the public library to see about wifi. Sure enough they had it so I could catch up on the blog. By this time it was about 3:00 and we still hadn't had lunch. When you're retired you just don't have time to eat. We decided to go back out to the campground we were at last night and find another site. By the time we did this it was 4:00 and we finally had a bite of lunch to tide us over. We wanted to go up to Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center and see it since it is a beautiful clear day. We headed up there next and it was well worth it. Lovely scenery and we saw quite a few deer. By the time we got back to the campsite it was about 6:30. I started my generator and downloaded some photos. A neighbor came over about 6:45 and asked us to turn off the generator so I did. Oh well, can't blame him. It does kind of disturb the peace and quiet. I got what I needed done. We cooked tacos for supper and had some more fresh corn. Carol just can't keep from adding this nourishing stuff to the menu. After dishes we played another game of Scrabble. Guess who won. No not me, Carol :-(.
Saturday, August 26
We had a light breakfast this morning and called the kids and Carol's folks since we had cell phone coverage. Then we packed up and headed out again. This time we were heading for Salt Creek County Park. It is only about 15 miles from where we were. It is on the shore and when the tide is out it has some nice tidal pools according to Rod the Ranger. We did stop at a fish shop and pick up some halibut for dinner :-(. Oh well, one of these days we'll be away from all this fresh seafood. I wanted shrimp but they import it from Maine, bah humbug.
We got to the Salt Creek Campground and found a nice site someone was vacating. It is packed here since it is the weekend. After a bite of lunch we went down to the beach and explored. Lots of driftwood and lots of folks swimming. We don't know how they swim in this water since it is cold. Kids can swim in any temperature of water though. There is a tall island not far from the beach. It makes a great photo op. We actually got hot here on the beach, but managed to survive the heat. It must have been in the 80s here and was blocked from the wind.
After awhile on the beach we came back to the camper and read for a while and then went for an evening walk around the campground. When we got back from the walk our neighbors were building a campfire in our fire pit. They wanted to surprise us. They are college age kids and very nice. Their names are Mike and Bev. Mike had brought a bunch of firewood in his pickup so they wanted to share it. It was great. We visited with them and ended up playing the game Taboo with them until about sunset, and then we all ran over to the west side of the point to watch the sunset and get some photos. We cranked up the lantern and ate our clam chowder and bread sticks out on the picnic table by the roaring fire. It got close to 10:00 and we couldn't keep our eyes open so we hit the sack.
Sunday, August 27
We had bacon and toast for breakfast this morning and messed around until about 9:30 waiting for the tide to go out. We wanted to go out on the rocks and see what we could see in the tide pools that were left when the tide receded. We finally ventured out about 10:00 and Mike and Bev were just emerging from their tent. We climbed all over the rocks and really enjoyed the aninames and star fish, etc. in the pools. They are beautiful. As we were out there fog moved in and it gave a feathery look to the coast. I got some great fog shots.
We came back and loaded up and headed out to our next location. We found some cell phone coverage and called Dave Bryan to make arrangements to meet he and Linda next Friday. They are flying into Seattle Thursday to go on an Alaskan cruise so we are going to meet them on Friday before they depart on Saturday. I forgot to ask Dave who won the Rams/Chiefs game though, bummer.
Our goal was to go a whole 60 miles to Mora campground and Rialto Beach. We had to stop in Forks for some milk since we had used all of ours in the chowder last night. We got to the campground around 2:30 and found a site, then we headed for Rialto Beach. Unfortunately the fog was still thick as soup over the ocean, not on the land though. The tide was at it's highest so we had to walk on rocks on the beach. I had read about some huge rocks down the beach I wanted to see. Carol stayed near the parking lot and picked up rocks to take home. I walked on down to the area called Split Rocks. I passed a number of other hikers and some groups who were camped on the beach. I ran into one couple who was pulling a large wagon like you would buy at Sam's. They had it filled to the hilt with gear and a huge ice chest. They were going down the beach for a whole week so they figured a little pain now would provide some luxury as the week progressed. I got to the rocks and took a few photos and then turned back. Luckily the tide was going out a little so I could walk in the sand going back and that made it a little easier. It would be fun to camp here for a couple of days, but it never gets warm I don't think. The wind constantly blows off the ocean. I got back with only one incident of waves hitting me. I wasn't wet above my knees though. I hung my pants and socks out when we got to the campsite, but they were wetter in the morning than when I had hung them out.
We had a halibut dish and some fresh corn for supper. No junk food for me tonight. Oh well.
It was cold out and we didn't have any firewood so we stayed in and read tonight. I was tired after fighting the rocks and sand for about 3 miles today. We went to bed early again, about 9:00 this time.
Monday, August 28
Well, we had cereal and fresh peaches for breakfast and then I had to get out the generator so Carol could wash her hair. No, she doesn't have and electric hair washer, but she does have an electric hair dryer that she needs when she washes her hair. We got away from the campsite about 10:00 (we seem to be in a rut here). Our objective was to head over about 40 miles to the Hoh Rain Forest, another part of the Olympic National Park. I did stop to call Dave though when we had cell phone reception. Since he lives in St. Louis I knew he would know who won. He didn't want to talk about it so I guess the Chiefs won.
We got to the Hoh Rain Forest area about 11:00 and went to the visitor center. After that we walked some of the trails nearby. What a site. The trees here are huge, moss and ferns are everywhere, and there are some places where the sun hardly shines through the forest canopy. By now it was about 2:00 and we went looking for a campsite at the national park campground nearby. We found a campsite right next to the river and it is gorgeous. This is the Hoh River and it is glacier fed, so it is blue green and flows pretty fast right below our campsite. It is narrow and right across the river a herd of about a dozen elk were feeding. They continued to browse while we sat in our lawn chairs and watched. We listened to the birds singing above and the flow of the river. I truly believe that one can get nearer one's God in nature than in any church, mosque, or synagog built by the hands of men. It is just beyond words. What a fantastic sight. It is still sunny and quite warm here also for a change so we are now happy campers.
Carol whipped up some tuna salad for a late lunch and I'm just bringing this log up to date looking out at a lovely scene. It is hard to beat.
We just lazed around all afternoon. I read and brought the blog up to date. About 6:00 I dug out the grill and lit some charcoal to burn a few brats for supper. We had brats with chili and onions. It was actually warm enough to sit outside at the picnic table and eat. It was a beautiful evening. We also had some watermelon, the first of the season for us. It was great. We read a little while and went to bed.
Tuesday, August 29
We headed out after some pancakes this morning cooked by moi, of course. We stopped at the Hoh visitor center and walked another trail we had passed on yesterday. It is called the trail of mosses. It is made up of mature trees with lots of mosses and lichens. It is fascinating to walk through this forest and observe the trees and thick foilage.
Our objective today is somewhere around Olympia, Washington. We have no campground in mind for the night. We stopped at Ruby Beach and the tide was out. What awesome scenery. Large rocks and another tall island. We also saw lots of starfish in the pools left by the receding tide. We stopped for lunch along the coast and watched the waves roll in. I saw a Dairy Queen at Aberdeen and couldn't resist stopping. We arrived at Olympia around 4:00 and went downtown near the capitol to the information center. We were too late to catch a tour of the capitol building but we did find out about a Japanese garden near the city hall so we drove over there. It was peaceful and lovely even though it was small. Someone had hung some origami birds from some of the trees. The birds had tags on them that had some thought provoking notations. One read "We are making enemies faster than we can kill them," and another read " The evils of government are directly proportional to the indifference of the people." There was a third one which I can't remember. The back of the tags commemorated Hiroshima Day, August 6.
We drove on toward Tacoma and found a Walmart. Since we did not have a campsite in mind and our Trailer Life guide book really didn't have any in the vicinity we asked if we could park overnight and they said we could so we stayed there. We did buy a DiGorinos pizza for supper while we were there, plus a couple of other things.
We had salad with the pizza, and after supper we played some Scrabble. I won.
Wednesday, August 30
We left Walmart fairly early and headed to a state park just south of Seatlle called Saltwater State Park. We weren't sure we could get a spot since labor day weekend is this coming weekend, but there were several vacant and we picked one out. We took the camper off the truck in anticipation of running around town. We are scheduled to meet Dave and Linda Bryan Friday morning. They are flying in with a group of their church friends and they are all going on a cruise up to Alaska next week. Since we were going to be here about the same time we made arrangements to meet up.
Today was a chore day. We had showers, took the truck to get the oil changed, found a laundromat and washed clothes and bedding, I washed the truck, and found a library where I could get on line tomorrow and load up the blog.
After that we decided to do an exploratory run down to Pike's Place Market and see what it was like. We made it down there but finding a parking place is a real trick. We finally did and then started walking around. We found the main market with the fish markets, etc. It is a really neat place. It is a combination of fish and meat markets, garden stands, gift shops, and small food stands. It is just fun to walk around and see what is there and watch people. It is fun to watch the guys at the fish market throwing fish around and yelling out orders. It was a little trickier getting back to the campground since it was rush hour but we made it. Now I have the route down pat for Friday when we meet Dave and Linda. They are staying at a motel not too far from where we are camped.
Overall, we had a good day and got a lot accomplished. We got back to the camper and had BLTs for supper with watermelon for desert. It is nearly 9:00 now and I am working on this while Carol reads.
We got a call from Shelby today and it looks like she will be getting a new house soon. I told her Carol is getting a little antsy to get home so after we get together with Dave and Linda we will head south to see Steve, Carol's brother and his family, and then take a more direct route back to Denver than I had previously planned. I told Shelby we would probably be there in Denver around mid-September. We will probably get there just in time to help with painting or moving or somesuch.
Well, a little reading for me and then off to bed. Carol wants to see some more of Seattle tomorrow. Driving in this traffic wears me out.
Friday, August 25, 2006
August 17 through August 24
August 17, Thursday
We got up and had cereal with fresh peaches for breakfast. It has been a long time since we have had good fresh fruit and vegetables. We actually are far enough south now that we have found some roadside stands selling fruits and vegetables so yesterday we stopped and got some black cherries, peaches, and garden grown tomatoes. What a treat. We really enjoyed the campsite last night. I guess that BC Electric has several of these sites around the province in conjunction with some of their dams. They provide free camping as a public relations move I suppose. Our neighbor in the campground said they ought to be free after what BC Electric charges them. I said I hadn't paid them anything. He said that I probably would be in the future if they start selling in the US.
We went on south on the Duffy Lake Road. What tremendous scenery. This is what mountain scenery should be. It is absolutely gorgeous. I do believe British Columbia has everyone else beat out with beautiful scenery. I would be very tempted to come back here as a destination camping area.
There was a considerable amount of work being done on the highway between the resort town of Whistler and Vancouver. I couldn't believe the increase in people from Whistler on either. The people in Whistler were thick as flies. Whistler reminded me of Vail in Colorado, ritzy and upscale, with not much going for it except the shopping. But is seems to be a very popular area. We picked our way through the construction from Whistler to Vancouver and finally got to Horseshoe Bay about 2:00. This is where the ferry terminal is. Luckily the neighbor last night told us how to approach the terminal. We actually had to pass it and then double back to get in the ferry lanes. We got there and paid the attendant. She said they may get us on the 3:15 ferry but if not we would get on the 5:10 ferry for sure. We really hoped for the 3:15 ferry since we didn't want to wait 3 hours. Sure enough we were the last vehicle loaded on the 3:15 ferry.
The BC Ferry was very nice with comfortable seating and gift shops, coffee shops, cafeterias, etc. It was only an hour and a half ride and a BC Parks person gave a presentation that we went to and that took up about 45 minutes so it seemed like we crossed the strait in no time. We landed at Nanaimo and wow, talk about unloading. These folks have their act together. You better be ready to go or you'll be run over. We were off the ferry within five minutes of docking.
We went to the Nanaimo visitor center to check on RV parks and they told us which ones were available and how to get there. We found a lovely little park (Jingle Pot RV Park) with great landscaping for $20 a night. We caught up on our laundry this evening and managed to squeeze in a bowl of clam chowder in the process. It has been a lovely day today, bright and sunny and warm. We couldn't ask for more.
Friday, August 18
We woke up at a reasonable time this morning, around 7:00. I went to take advantage of the showers while Carol slept a little longer. After we had both showered and had some cereal for breakfast we walked around the park. It was another lovely clear day and the temperature by now, 9:00, was a perfect 70 degrees. The landscaping at this park was fantastic. It is owned and operated by a man of Chinese descent. He converted it from a trailer park in the past few years and he by himself has done all of the landscaping around the park, rock gardens, flower gardens, water fountains, etc. We took quite a few photos and made us want to work on our landscaping some more at home. Carol talked with John, the owner, and he seemed pleased that she was so interested in the landscaping.
We filled the water tanks and emptied the holding tanks and left the park. Our first stop was Walmart. We had to restock on some groceries. I tried to fill a prescription for eye drops here but they couldn't fill any prescriptions from the US. Guess I'll just wait until I get back to the US. We found another truck camper in the parking lot and I chatted with the owner. He had lots of racks attached to his camper and I was checking to see how he had done it. He had a roof rack bracket that attached to the side of the camper, much like I had anticipated doing. This way I can avoid putting any bolts in the roof.
We headed north on 19A, the ocean side route, toward Campbell River and Mike and Carole Dodds house. It took us a whiles since we were driving fairly slow and enjoying the scenery. We also took a side trip to McMillian Provincial Park to see some old growth trees that were supposed to be quite a sight. This grouping of trees is called Cathedral Grove and it is a set of huge trees that have never been cut. It is very pretty. We also stopped at a garage sale. We have a terrible time avoiding those things.
We got to Mike and Carole's about 4:00. They greeted us like long lost friends. What a lovely house and yard they have. They also have lots of fresh garden vegetables, especially tomatoes. We got acquainted and Mike wanted to see our camper and we wanted to see theirs so we talked campers for awhile. They grilled some pork tenderloin with a full compliment of potatoes and veggies to go with it. After supper we chatted for awhile and then we watched some CFL on TV. The BC Eskimos were playing the Edmonton Lions. It was really a good game and fun to watch. It is a little different than NFL football, most notably they only have 3 downs to get ten yards. It seems to move a little faster than American football. British Columbia won, but barely, and only due to a missed field goal.
Mike does a lot of his own wine and beer making. We had a few of his homemade brews and it was just a very pleasant evening. I think I mentioned earlier that Mike and Carole had both retired about the same time I did so we have been in constant touch by email and blogs. They told us a lot about the road we took down from Prince Rupert.
Another great day.
Saturday August 19
We were all up and ready for a morning walk around 9:00. Mike and Carole took us over to the beach and we walked some trails right along the beach and through large heavily forested areas. When we got back to the house we talked about what to do the next few days. They mentioned a campground they really liked west of here called Buttle Lake so we decided we would all head over there tomorrow morning. Mike and I walked down to the market on the corner and picked up some material for supper and for meals over the next couple of days. This afternoon they took us around Campbell River and showed us the sights. We stopped at a U-Brew store. Here in British Columbia there are several of these and mainly it is a place where one can buy a wine or beer kit and they will brew it for you and then you fill the bottles with the finished product. It is a cost effective way to stock up on beer or wine. I thought of Don Haddock while looking at all this since he likes brewing his own wine.
I had picked up some country pork ribs for supper. Carol brewed up some of the famous Eagleburger bar-b-que sauce and we spent a couple of hours grilling these ribs and basting them with the sauce. They turned out delicious and Mike and Carole really enjoyed them. We sure get a lot of use out of that sauce and everybody just loves it. I don't know where Pa or Ma got that recipe but I'm sure glad he did. It is such a hit with everyone we do it for.
After supper we split up and we came out here to the camper to catch up on the blog. Mike and Carole had offered for us to stay in a spare bedroom but since we have our bedroom with us, there isn't much since in that. We sleep very well in our own bed, sometimes too well :-).
Off to Buttle Lake tomorrow and some new areas not yet explored. What a great way to see the country.
Sunday, August 20
We ran down to the corner store this morning while Mike and Carole packed up their camper. We needed some milk. Carol spends a lot of time just looking through the grocery store even if all we need is milk. She likes to see what possibilities there are for future meals. When we got back Mike and Carole let us use their phone to call Becky and Rob. We had a missed message from Rob on out cell phone but didn't have enough coverage to get a call through. Turned out they were just checking on us.
We got away about 10:00 and headed up toward Strathcona Provincial Park. Buttle Lake is in the park and feeds right into a huge reservoir lake called Strathcona Lake. This is the most beautiful area. We got to the campground and got settled into a double campsite and then combines some food for lunch. After lunch we went hiking along the lake shore. So much driftwood and so little room, Carol keeps moaning. She wishes we had a trailer to take stuff home in. By stuff I mean rocks and driftwood. It is probably a good thing we don't have more room though. We are less likely to buy junk at all the garage sales we go to.
We got back to the campsite after a nice couple of mile hike and sat around and chatted until supper. Mike and Carole are great to talk with, we have so much in common. Tonight was their night to cook supper so they grilled up some turkey burgers and had salad and corn. It was delicious with a little of Mike's homemade wine.
After dishes were finished we set up the Scrabble board and all played Scrabble. It was great fun. Mike got a huge score and I challenged the word 'yo' and he lost it. That kind of set Carole up to take the lead and she eventually won. By then it was 9:30 so we all headed to the campers and some shut eye.
Monday, August 21
This morning dawned bright and clear again, and as we hoped the wind was calm. Mike and Carole wanted to take us out in their boat. After a combined breakfast of scones Mike hooked up the boat and we headed over to the launch ramp. they have a nice Double Eagle boat with a 65hp motor and a smaller motor for trolling. We tooled around the large Strathcoma lake for a while stopping and combing the beach for driftwood and rocks. Then we headed over to a favorite fishing area and the girls fished for awhile. Each caught three rainbow trout and we figured that was plenty for supper, so we went into a river to find a place out of the wind for lunch. We sat up above the river channel and gawked at the scenery while we ate lunch. There is something about lunch in a beautiful surrounding that makes it all the more special.
We headed back to the campground after lunch. Mike cleaned the fish and we got the boat loaded back up and re parked and the camper back in it's slot. Then we sat around and chatted for awhile before we started supper. It was supposed to be our turn for supper and we did do a few brats, but Mike also cooked up the trout with salt, pepper, and cinnamon. Yep, cinnamon. He fried them and they were delicious. We feasted again. This could be hazardous to one's waist line. After supper we cleaned up dishes and played Scrabble again until about 10:00. I lucked out and won tonight.
Tuesday, August 22
We got up and had breakfast this morning and then we packed up to leave. We were finally escaping Mike and Carole force feeding us fresh fish and all the fresh vegetables that they have grown. We have had too much corn and tomatoes the past couple of days. I'm looking forward to getting back to junk food myself, bring on the pizza. Seriously, they have been terrific hosts and we really enjoyed our stay with them. It is not often you run into people that you feel so comfortable with right off the bat. We did part but with the understanding that they would come to Missouri so we could treat them to some of our midwest hospitality. Hopefully they will be able to make it next year.
We ended up driving all day. We only went about 150 miles but it was a hard 150 miles. The traffic tends to be pretty heavy when one gets closer to Victoria on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. We stopped a few times to check out some gift shops and for lunch. One gift shop we stopped at had a number of lawn items made out of driftwood. They were really great. They had made everything from benches to water gardens from driftwood.
We finally got to the west edge of Victoria late afternoon and took Highway 14 northwest toward Sooke and Jordan River. We stopped at French Beach Provincial Park right between Sooke and Jordan River about 4:00 and we were lucky to find a vacant campsite. It was packed. We parked and immediately headed for the beach. It was cold though. The wind is constant on these beaches and we needed a good coat to be comfortable. This is a pretty beach and we walked quite a ways before turning and heading back to the camper.
Carol whipped up some tomato soup with pasta in it for supper and we had toasted garlic buns with it. It was pretty good. This was a powdered soup mix and we weren't sure how it would turn out. After I washed dishes we played more Scrabble. I won again :-).
Wednesday, August 23
After a bacon and egg breakfast Carol wanted to cut and wash her hair so I got the generator out so she could do that. She needs the generator for her hair dryer and curling iron. The provincial parks don't have electric power so that is the reason I had to get the generator out for her. While she did that I headed down to the beach to take a few photos. When I got back about 10:30 Carol was all done. It amazes me that she can cut her own hair in this camper. It really looks good too. We needed to be out of our site by 11:00 so we packed up and departed right about 11:00. We drove a little further up 14 through Jordan River, but we couldn't see much of the beach, just a lot of trees so we turned around and headed back toward Victoria. We stopped at a Vistior Information Center and checked on how to get to Buchart Gardens and where we could catch the ferry to Port Angeles, Washington. We also checked on RV Parks in the area.
We followed her directions to Buchart Gardens and finally arrived about 1:30. The roads here are not real friendly to strangers. I guess if you knew your way around it would be okay, but being new I missed the turn to Buchart Gardens and had to exit the highway we were on. Then when I got to that turn again, there was no right turn there so I had to go another few miles and loop around again and then make my approach for a third time. But we finally made it. The directions are marked.. A big sign says take Exit 18 to Buchart Gardens, but then seldom notice an exit number sign at the exit, so it seems kind of useless to have the initial sign in the first place. Of course this could just be that I'm not as observant as I should be.
What a tremendous place Buchart Gardens is. The flowers and colors overwhelm you. It is almost like overload on beautiful flowers. The first garden you enter is called the Sunken Garden. It is an old rock quarry. Mr. Buchart ran a cement company and I guess this is where he got his first rock for his cement company. Their house was right there so when he finished getting rock from the quarry, Mrs. Buchart decided to turn it into a garden. By this time they were fairly wealthy so she had the money to put into developing it. This was in the early 1900s. It has taken nearly a century but what a lovely showplace they have now. The second or third generation Buchart's run it now but it is just amazing that they could turn an eyesore like a rock quarry into such a beautiful place. After the sunken gardens, you pass through other gardens including bog gardens, rose gardens, Japanese gardens, and Italian gardens. Carol, needless to say, thought she was in a gardners Disneyland. It really is quite beautiful. There was quite a crowd there but it was not wall to wall people. They also do play and concerts. It is quite a place. We kept thinking how much Carol's mom would enjoy this place.
After we left the gardens we headed back to the main highway to check out a couple of RV Parks. The first one was like a parking lot, but the second one was a lot newer so we got a site at that one. It is near the beach, and again the first thing we did was walk to the beach. Unfortunately, it was kind of cluttered and rather small so we headed back to the camper.
We had stopped at a couple of farm markets while looking for a campground so we loaded up on vegetables. We had a large chef salad and fresh corn on the cob for supper. So much for my junk food. Maybe tomorrow. I'm determined to have some Tim Horton donuts and some fish and chips before we leave Victoria. Supper was delicious though I must admit. It is really great to have fresh produce again.
Our plans are to visit downtown Victoria in the morning and probably catch a ferry to Port Angeles, Washington tomorrow sometime. That will put us back in the lower 48 for the first time in nearly three months. Gee, we'll be able to use our cell phone again :-).
Well, it is about 9:30 and time for a little reading and bed. Good night all.
Thursday, August 24
We skipped breakfast this morning hoping to find a Tim Horton. We drove north to Sydney first and drove around there. It is a very pretty little town. Then we headed back south toward Victoria. We had to stop at the garden market and get some more corn on our way by. I'm having a terrible time getting away from these vegetables. Carol is just a bad influence on me. We got to Victoria and drove on down by the government buildings and the wharf. After parking at one spot and walking down to their fisherman's wharf we decided to go check on the ferry. We drove over to the ferry docks and it turned out the first ferry available to us was the 7: 30 pm ferry and it was just past 10:00 am. We could, however, go ahead and get in line and buy our ticket and that would provide us with free parking downtown, so we did that. We had to be back at the camper at 6:00 for customs to check us out prior to the departure.
We parked our truck and bought our tickets and took out on foot to explore downtown Victoria. This is one of the prettiest cities I have ever seen. Flowers are everywhere. We walked along the harbor and went into the Empress Hotel to see how the rich folks lived. By this time it was about 11:00 and we were getting pretty hungry since we had not found a Tim Horton restaurant. There are a number of street vendors down around he harbor so we bought a couple of hot dogs to tide us over until fish and chips later. We sat and watched the whale watching boats, flight seeing airplanes, and the harbor tour boats running around the harbor while we ate them. Ahhhhh, junk food. After this we went up Government Street and window shopped and went through a few shops and a mall. It is fun because things are very British, or what we suppose British to be like. All this shopping made me even hungrier and the hot dog was not enough so I got a big pretzel from another street vendor. Carol thinks I'm just not happy unless I have something to eat. Needless to say I do take a lot of abuse on this issue. I just tell Carol I'm taking lessons from her dad, Don.
We went to the British Columbia Parliment Building which was built around 1896 and had a great tour of that. They do a very good job of providing these tours. They have a young man who comes out in period costume and pretends to be the architect who designed the building and he tells about the way it's beauty and history was almost lost due to needed office space and remodeling tastes of the time, but it was saved and restored to it's original beauty. It is a very impressive building similar to our state capitol in Jefferson City. By this time, even Carol was getting hungry again, yippee. So we started our walk over to the fisherman's wharf to get some fish and chips at Barb's Place. The fish and chips were okay, it was halibut, but it sure reminded me of Captain D's. Oh well, I think I have this built in aversion to fish. We met a Canadian who was there at the same table with us and he shared some information about the land and prices around BC. They have passed laws restricting the development of farm land for residential use, so that has driven up prices on homes here. He said a regular 3 bedroom house in a nice neighborhood would go for about half a million dollars here. Sounds like Denver.
We took a walk around the wharf after eating and enjoyed some of the houseboats there. Many were decorated with flowers and other memorabilia. It was fun to see what people had done. I just can't imagine the cost of maintaining these homes. Then we took the long way around some of the streets near the harbor and enjoyed the neighborhoods. There are a lot of condos and apartments in this area. Another result of the limiting of development. I do think the law limiting development is good overall though or Victoria would not stay as charming as it is. We found out tourism is the second biggest industry, next to logging, in British Columbia today. It is no wonder, this is a beautiful province.
We got back to the area of the camper around 4:00 and sat on a park bench and watched activity in the harbor again. It is one busy place. We watched a lot of boat traffic and several float planes landing. I'm surprised it is as orderly as it is. We must have walked five miles today so the bench sitting was well received. Around 5:00 we went back to the camper to get ready for departure. We read and waited for the ferry and the customs people to check us. Guess where the customs guy who checked us was from. Yep, Missouri, the Branson and Springfield area. I guess the border patrol does a lot of recruiting in Missouri. I can't believe we have had so many check us through who were from there. We loaded on the ferry and had a pleasant trip across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We talked with a family of five who were from the Okanagan area of BC who were on a motorcycle vacation. The oldest daughter will be a senior in high school next year and she had her own motorcycle. The other two kids were riding with their parents on cycles. The young lady talked with us extensively. She was very mature and charming. She will do well in life. We finally landed in Port Angeles about 9:30 and had to go through more customs, but this was simple and all we were asked was if we had any meat bought in Canada, and where we were from. We said 'no' and we were from Missouri and he let us right on through. We didn't even show identification. I guess I still need to grow a beard.
We drove in the dark to a national park campground about 6 miles south of town and found a not so level campsite in the dark, amongst giant trees. We couldn't even see the sky it was so dark. It was a lot prettier this morning when we woke up and could see what we had.
Well, time to shut down and head into town. Hopefully, we'll find someplace to put this on the blog. It has been awhile.
We got up and had cereal with fresh peaches for breakfast. It has been a long time since we have had good fresh fruit and vegetables. We actually are far enough south now that we have found some roadside stands selling fruits and vegetables so yesterday we stopped and got some black cherries, peaches, and garden grown tomatoes. What a treat. We really enjoyed the campsite last night. I guess that BC Electric has several of these sites around the province in conjunction with some of their dams. They provide free camping as a public relations move I suppose. Our neighbor in the campground said they ought to be free after what BC Electric charges them. I said I hadn't paid them anything. He said that I probably would be in the future if they start selling in the US.
We went on south on the Duffy Lake Road. What tremendous scenery. This is what mountain scenery should be. It is absolutely gorgeous. I do believe British Columbia has everyone else beat out with beautiful scenery. I would be very tempted to come back here as a destination camping area.
There was a considerable amount of work being done on the highway between the resort town of Whistler and Vancouver. I couldn't believe the increase in people from Whistler on either. The people in Whistler were thick as flies. Whistler reminded me of Vail in Colorado, ritzy and upscale, with not much going for it except the shopping. But is seems to be a very popular area. We picked our way through the construction from Whistler to Vancouver and finally got to Horseshoe Bay about 2:00. This is where the ferry terminal is. Luckily the neighbor last night told us how to approach the terminal. We actually had to pass it and then double back to get in the ferry lanes. We got there and paid the attendant. She said they may get us on the 3:15 ferry but if not we would get on the 5:10 ferry for sure. We really hoped for the 3:15 ferry since we didn't want to wait 3 hours. Sure enough we were the last vehicle loaded on the 3:15 ferry.
The BC Ferry was very nice with comfortable seating and gift shops, coffee shops, cafeterias, etc. It was only an hour and a half ride and a BC Parks person gave a presentation that we went to and that took up about 45 minutes so it seemed like we crossed the strait in no time. We landed at Nanaimo and wow, talk about unloading. These folks have their act together. You better be ready to go or you'll be run over. We were off the ferry within five minutes of docking.
We went to the Nanaimo visitor center to check on RV parks and they told us which ones were available and how to get there. We found a lovely little park (Jingle Pot RV Park) with great landscaping for $20 a night. We caught up on our laundry this evening and managed to squeeze in a bowl of clam chowder in the process. It has been a lovely day today, bright and sunny and warm. We couldn't ask for more.
Friday, August 18
We woke up at a reasonable time this morning, around 7:00. I went to take advantage of the showers while Carol slept a little longer. After we had both showered and had some cereal for breakfast we walked around the park. It was another lovely clear day and the temperature by now, 9:00, was a perfect 70 degrees. The landscaping at this park was fantastic. It is owned and operated by a man of Chinese descent. He converted it from a trailer park in the past few years and he by himself has done all of the landscaping around the park, rock gardens, flower gardens, water fountains, etc. We took quite a few photos and made us want to work on our landscaping some more at home. Carol talked with John, the owner, and he seemed pleased that she was so interested in the landscaping.
We filled the water tanks and emptied the holding tanks and left the park. Our first stop was Walmart. We had to restock on some groceries. I tried to fill a prescription for eye drops here but they couldn't fill any prescriptions from the US. Guess I'll just wait until I get back to the US. We found another truck camper in the parking lot and I chatted with the owner. He had lots of racks attached to his camper and I was checking to see how he had done it. He had a roof rack bracket that attached to the side of the camper, much like I had anticipated doing. This way I can avoid putting any bolts in the roof.
We headed north on 19A, the ocean side route, toward Campbell River and Mike and Carole Dodds house. It took us a whiles since we were driving fairly slow and enjoying the scenery. We also took a side trip to McMillian Provincial Park to see some old growth trees that were supposed to be quite a sight. This grouping of trees is called Cathedral Grove and it is a set of huge trees that have never been cut. It is very pretty. We also stopped at a garage sale. We have a terrible time avoiding those things.
We got to Mike and Carole's about 4:00. They greeted us like long lost friends. What a lovely house and yard they have. They also have lots of fresh garden vegetables, especially tomatoes. We got acquainted and Mike wanted to see our camper and we wanted to see theirs so we talked campers for awhile. They grilled some pork tenderloin with a full compliment of potatoes and veggies to go with it. After supper we chatted for awhile and then we watched some CFL on TV. The BC Eskimos were playing the Edmonton Lions. It was really a good game and fun to watch. It is a little different than NFL football, most notably they only have 3 downs to get ten yards. It seems to move a little faster than American football. British Columbia won, but barely, and only due to a missed field goal.
Mike does a lot of his own wine and beer making. We had a few of his homemade brews and it was just a very pleasant evening. I think I mentioned earlier that Mike and Carole had both retired about the same time I did so we have been in constant touch by email and blogs. They told us a lot about the road we took down from Prince Rupert.
Another great day.
Saturday August 19
We were all up and ready for a morning walk around 9:00. Mike and Carole took us over to the beach and we walked some trails right along the beach and through large heavily forested areas. When we got back to the house we talked about what to do the next few days. They mentioned a campground they really liked west of here called Buttle Lake so we decided we would all head over there tomorrow morning. Mike and I walked down to the market on the corner and picked up some material for supper and for meals over the next couple of days. This afternoon they took us around Campbell River and showed us the sights. We stopped at a U-Brew store. Here in British Columbia there are several of these and mainly it is a place where one can buy a wine or beer kit and they will brew it for you and then you fill the bottles with the finished product. It is a cost effective way to stock up on beer or wine. I thought of Don Haddock while looking at all this since he likes brewing his own wine.
I had picked up some country pork ribs for supper. Carol brewed up some of the famous Eagleburger bar-b-que sauce and we spent a couple of hours grilling these ribs and basting them with the sauce. They turned out delicious and Mike and Carole really enjoyed them. We sure get a lot of use out of that sauce and everybody just loves it. I don't know where Pa or Ma got that recipe but I'm sure glad he did. It is such a hit with everyone we do it for.
After supper we split up and we came out here to the camper to catch up on the blog. Mike and Carole had offered for us to stay in a spare bedroom but since we have our bedroom with us, there isn't much since in that. We sleep very well in our own bed, sometimes too well :-).
Off to Buttle Lake tomorrow and some new areas not yet explored. What a great way to see the country.
Sunday, August 20
We ran down to the corner store this morning while Mike and Carole packed up their camper. We needed some milk. Carol spends a lot of time just looking through the grocery store even if all we need is milk. She likes to see what possibilities there are for future meals. When we got back Mike and Carole let us use their phone to call Becky and Rob. We had a missed message from Rob on out cell phone but didn't have enough coverage to get a call through. Turned out they were just checking on us.
We got away about 10:00 and headed up toward Strathcona Provincial Park. Buttle Lake is in the park and feeds right into a huge reservoir lake called Strathcona Lake. This is the most beautiful area. We got to the campground and got settled into a double campsite and then combines some food for lunch. After lunch we went hiking along the lake shore. So much driftwood and so little room, Carol keeps moaning. She wishes we had a trailer to take stuff home in. By stuff I mean rocks and driftwood. It is probably a good thing we don't have more room though. We are less likely to buy junk at all the garage sales we go to.
We got back to the campsite after a nice couple of mile hike and sat around and chatted until supper. Mike and Carole are great to talk with, we have so much in common. Tonight was their night to cook supper so they grilled up some turkey burgers and had salad and corn. It was delicious with a little of Mike's homemade wine.
After dishes were finished we set up the Scrabble board and all played Scrabble. It was great fun. Mike got a huge score and I challenged the word 'yo' and he lost it. That kind of set Carole up to take the lead and she eventually won. By then it was 9:30 so we all headed to the campers and some shut eye.
Monday, August 21
This morning dawned bright and clear again, and as we hoped the wind was calm. Mike and Carole wanted to take us out in their boat. After a combined breakfast of scones Mike hooked up the boat and we headed over to the launch ramp. they have a nice Double Eagle boat with a 65hp motor and a smaller motor for trolling. We tooled around the large Strathcoma lake for a while stopping and combing the beach for driftwood and rocks. Then we headed over to a favorite fishing area and the girls fished for awhile. Each caught three rainbow trout and we figured that was plenty for supper, so we went into a river to find a place out of the wind for lunch. We sat up above the river channel and gawked at the scenery while we ate lunch. There is something about lunch in a beautiful surrounding that makes it all the more special.
We headed back to the campground after lunch. Mike cleaned the fish and we got the boat loaded back up and re parked and the camper back in it's slot. Then we sat around and chatted for awhile before we started supper. It was supposed to be our turn for supper and we did do a few brats, but Mike also cooked up the trout with salt, pepper, and cinnamon. Yep, cinnamon. He fried them and they were delicious. We feasted again. This could be hazardous to one's waist line. After supper we cleaned up dishes and played Scrabble again until about 10:00. I lucked out and won tonight.
Tuesday, August 22
We got up and had breakfast this morning and then we packed up to leave. We were finally escaping Mike and Carole force feeding us fresh fish and all the fresh vegetables that they have grown. We have had too much corn and tomatoes the past couple of days. I'm looking forward to getting back to junk food myself, bring on the pizza. Seriously, they have been terrific hosts and we really enjoyed our stay with them. It is not often you run into people that you feel so comfortable with right off the bat. We did part but with the understanding that they would come to Missouri so we could treat them to some of our midwest hospitality. Hopefully they will be able to make it next year.
We ended up driving all day. We only went about 150 miles but it was a hard 150 miles. The traffic tends to be pretty heavy when one gets closer to Victoria on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. We stopped a few times to check out some gift shops and for lunch. One gift shop we stopped at had a number of lawn items made out of driftwood. They were really great. They had made everything from benches to water gardens from driftwood.
We finally got to the west edge of Victoria late afternoon and took Highway 14 northwest toward Sooke and Jordan River. We stopped at French Beach Provincial Park right between Sooke and Jordan River about 4:00 and we were lucky to find a vacant campsite. It was packed. We parked and immediately headed for the beach. It was cold though. The wind is constant on these beaches and we needed a good coat to be comfortable. This is a pretty beach and we walked quite a ways before turning and heading back to the camper.
Carol whipped up some tomato soup with pasta in it for supper and we had toasted garlic buns with it. It was pretty good. This was a powdered soup mix and we weren't sure how it would turn out. After I washed dishes we played more Scrabble. I won again :-).
Wednesday, August 23
After a bacon and egg breakfast Carol wanted to cut and wash her hair so I got the generator out so she could do that. She needs the generator for her hair dryer and curling iron. The provincial parks don't have electric power so that is the reason I had to get the generator out for her. While she did that I headed down to the beach to take a few photos. When I got back about 10:30 Carol was all done. It amazes me that she can cut her own hair in this camper. It really looks good too. We needed to be out of our site by 11:00 so we packed up and departed right about 11:00. We drove a little further up 14 through Jordan River, but we couldn't see much of the beach, just a lot of trees so we turned around and headed back toward Victoria. We stopped at a Vistior Information Center and checked on how to get to Buchart Gardens and where we could catch the ferry to Port Angeles, Washington. We also checked on RV Parks in the area.
We followed her directions to Buchart Gardens and finally arrived about 1:30. The roads here are not real friendly to strangers. I guess if you knew your way around it would be okay, but being new I missed the turn to Buchart Gardens and had to exit the highway we were on. Then when I got to that turn again, there was no right turn there so I had to go another few miles and loop around again and then make my approach for a third time. But we finally made it. The directions are marked.. A big sign says take Exit 18 to Buchart Gardens, but then seldom notice an exit number sign at the exit, so it seems kind of useless to have the initial sign in the first place. Of course this could just be that I'm not as observant as I should be.
What a tremendous place Buchart Gardens is. The flowers and colors overwhelm you. It is almost like overload on beautiful flowers. The first garden you enter is called the Sunken Garden. It is an old rock quarry. Mr. Buchart ran a cement company and I guess this is where he got his first rock for his cement company. Their house was right there so when he finished getting rock from the quarry, Mrs. Buchart decided to turn it into a garden. By this time they were fairly wealthy so she had the money to put into developing it. This was in the early 1900s. It has taken nearly a century but what a lovely showplace they have now. The second or third generation Buchart's run it now but it is just amazing that they could turn an eyesore like a rock quarry into such a beautiful place. After the sunken gardens, you pass through other gardens including bog gardens, rose gardens, Japanese gardens, and Italian gardens. Carol, needless to say, thought she was in a gardners Disneyland. It really is quite beautiful. There was quite a crowd there but it was not wall to wall people. They also do play and concerts. It is quite a place. We kept thinking how much Carol's mom would enjoy this place.
After we left the gardens we headed back to the main highway to check out a couple of RV Parks. The first one was like a parking lot, but the second one was a lot newer so we got a site at that one. It is near the beach, and again the first thing we did was walk to the beach. Unfortunately, it was kind of cluttered and rather small so we headed back to the camper.
We had stopped at a couple of farm markets while looking for a campground so we loaded up on vegetables. We had a large chef salad and fresh corn on the cob for supper. So much for my junk food. Maybe tomorrow. I'm determined to have some Tim Horton donuts and some fish and chips before we leave Victoria. Supper was delicious though I must admit. It is really great to have fresh produce again.
Our plans are to visit downtown Victoria in the morning and probably catch a ferry to Port Angeles, Washington tomorrow sometime. That will put us back in the lower 48 for the first time in nearly three months. Gee, we'll be able to use our cell phone again :-).
Well, it is about 9:30 and time for a little reading and bed. Good night all.
Thursday, August 24
We skipped breakfast this morning hoping to find a Tim Horton. We drove north to Sydney first and drove around there. It is a very pretty little town. Then we headed back south toward Victoria. We had to stop at the garden market and get some more corn on our way by. I'm having a terrible time getting away from these vegetables. Carol is just a bad influence on me. We got to Victoria and drove on down by the government buildings and the wharf. After parking at one spot and walking down to their fisherman's wharf we decided to go check on the ferry. We drove over to the ferry docks and it turned out the first ferry available to us was the 7: 30 pm ferry and it was just past 10:00 am. We could, however, go ahead and get in line and buy our ticket and that would provide us with free parking downtown, so we did that. We had to be back at the camper at 6:00 for customs to check us out prior to the departure.
We parked our truck and bought our tickets and took out on foot to explore downtown Victoria. This is one of the prettiest cities I have ever seen. Flowers are everywhere. We walked along the harbor and went into the Empress Hotel to see how the rich folks lived. By this time it was about 11:00 and we were getting pretty hungry since we had not found a Tim Horton restaurant. There are a number of street vendors down around he harbor so we bought a couple of hot dogs to tide us over until fish and chips later. We sat and watched the whale watching boats, flight seeing airplanes, and the harbor tour boats running around the harbor while we ate them. Ahhhhh, junk food. After this we went up Government Street and window shopped and went through a few shops and a mall. It is fun because things are very British, or what we suppose British to be like. All this shopping made me even hungrier and the hot dog was not enough so I got a big pretzel from another street vendor. Carol thinks I'm just not happy unless I have something to eat. Needless to say I do take a lot of abuse on this issue. I just tell Carol I'm taking lessons from her dad, Don.
We went to the British Columbia Parliment Building which was built around 1896 and had a great tour of that. They do a very good job of providing these tours. They have a young man who comes out in period costume and pretends to be the architect who designed the building and he tells about the way it's beauty and history was almost lost due to needed office space and remodeling tastes of the time, but it was saved and restored to it's original beauty. It is a very impressive building similar to our state capitol in Jefferson City. By this time, even Carol was getting hungry again, yippee. So we started our walk over to the fisherman's wharf to get some fish and chips at Barb's Place. The fish and chips were okay, it was halibut, but it sure reminded me of Captain D's. Oh well, I think I have this built in aversion to fish. We met a Canadian who was there at the same table with us and he shared some information about the land and prices around BC. They have passed laws restricting the development of farm land for residential use, so that has driven up prices on homes here. He said a regular 3 bedroom house in a nice neighborhood would go for about half a million dollars here. Sounds like Denver.
We took a walk around the wharf after eating and enjoyed some of the houseboats there. Many were decorated with flowers and other memorabilia. It was fun to see what people had done. I just can't imagine the cost of maintaining these homes. Then we took the long way around some of the streets near the harbor and enjoyed the neighborhoods. There are a lot of condos and apartments in this area. Another result of the limiting of development. I do think the law limiting development is good overall though or Victoria would not stay as charming as it is. We found out tourism is the second biggest industry, next to logging, in British Columbia today. It is no wonder, this is a beautiful province.
We got back to the area of the camper around 4:00 and sat on a park bench and watched activity in the harbor again. It is one busy place. We watched a lot of boat traffic and several float planes landing. I'm surprised it is as orderly as it is. We must have walked five miles today so the bench sitting was well received. Around 5:00 we went back to the camper to get ready for departure. We read and waited for the ferry and the customs people to check us. Guess where the customs guy who checked us was from. Yep, Missouri, the Branson and Springfield area. I guess the border patrol does a lot of recruiting in Missouri. I can't believe we have had so many check us through who were from there. We loaded on the ferry and had a pleasant trip across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We talked with a family of five who were from the Okanagan area of BC who were on a motorcycle vacation. The oldest daughter will be a senior in high school next year and she had her own motorcycle. The other two kids were riding with their parents on cycles. The young lady talked with us extensively. She was very mature and charming. She will do well in life. We finally landed in Port Angeles about 9:30 and had to go through more customs, but this was simple and all we were asked was if we had any meat bought in Canada, and where we were from. We said 'no' and we were from Missouri and he let us right on through. We didn't even show identification. I guess I still need to grow a beard.
We drove in the dark to a national park campground about 6 miles south of town and found a not so level campsite in the dark, amongst giant trees. We couldn't even see the sky it was so dark. It was a lot prettier this morning when we woke up and could see what we had.
Well, time to shut down and head into town. Hopefully, we'll find someplace to put this on the blog. It has been awhile.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
August 14 through August 16
Monday, August 14
I have already entered a little bit pertaining to today. Carol and I were at the Breakers Pub having lunch. When we got up this morning it was completely cloudy. By midday though it had cleared up and was nice and warm. We found Prince Rupert to be a very nice place. It would be fun to spend even more time here. We went to Cow Bay which is a restored area that was once a pasture on the shore and has a cow theme. This is where we found the Breakers Pub. We also found a little fresh fish shop where we got some red snapper for supper. After we finished lunch we headed west on Highway 16. We stopped at the community center and took some photos of some totem poles. We had read about an old cannery that was now open for tours. We found this at Port Edward just outside of Rupert. It was fascinating.
Canneries were once very numerous along the northwest U.S., British Columbia, and Alaskan coast. Canneries had their own fishing fleets and each summer when the salmon would run these fleets would sit at the mouth of rivers and net thousands of salmon coming in to spawn. This and four other canneries were located within just a few miles of each other at the mouth of the Skeena River. The canneries were run byEuropeans or whites, but most of the laborers were Japanese, Chinese, and Native American. The company provided segregated housing for each of these groups. This North Pacific Cannery was established in the 1880s and operated until 1968. A number of things contributed to their closure, automation, consolidation of companies, and refrigeration. It use to be there needed to be a cannery within one day of the ships, but with refrigeration a ship can go out for a week now and the fish will remain fresh. There is now one cannery in Prince Rupert since consolidation and automation have also sealed the fate of the canneries.
A native American guide gave us tours of the fishing procedures used and of cannery life. It was fascinating due to the fact that she had grown up there as a child. Her parents had worked there during the summer. She took us in the store and told us about the store manager. He was very prejudiced. There were not marked prices on the items for sale so he would charge the whites one price, the asians another, and the natives yet another. She said the pay rates were similar to that process only reversed. The whites would get paid most, the asians below that and the natives the lowest.
Trains were a real important part of this process also, and most of the canneries were serviced by trains to get the canned salmon out and to market. There happened to be a great model train layout display here that was left to the cannery museum by a collector. I, of course, thought of my brother when I saw this. Don't worry Mike I got some video of it.
Salmon fishing is now significantly restricted by type of fishing and the state of Alaska and the province of British Columbia are trying to control the take on salmon in the hopes of restoring some of the population, or at least maintaining it.
It just amazes me that the people who built these canneries didn't control their own take. I guess that is one thing that has really struck me with this trip. I fully believe in capitalism and think it is a great motivator, but completely uncontrolled capitalism leads to greed. I think that is what the last century was here in the north, a century of greed. It led to the depletion of a lot of resources, but more significantly the near complete extinction of some animals and fish, forest, and even land that had minerals under it. This land would never have been settled without that greed factor though. Perhaps that would have been okay with the native population that lived here prior to the white man. I have to admire the people who came up here in the 1800s though. What a very rough life they led, they had to be really tough hombres. I don't know, all of this is just too much to think about now that I'm retired. I'm about of the opinion that what will happen will happen. How's that for philosophical?
After we left the cannery we headed northeast toward Prince George. We made it to a town called Terrace. They have a municipal camp ground here so we got a spot for $14. Carol fried up the red snapper, I made salad, and we had some corn on the cob also. Delicious. I think I like fish better fried.
Tuesday, August 15
We got up this morning and took our time again getting ready to go. We had some breakfast and then hiked a nature trail associated with the park. It actually started right behind our camper. We got away from the campsite about 10:00 and stopped by the Visitor Information Center to check on wifi locations. They had wifi right there so I hooked up. I wanted to check email since I was expecting a response from Mike and Carole Dodds who live in Campbell River on Vancouver Island. They have kindly invited us to stop by and meet them and perhaps do some camping with them on the Island while we are there. We met on the RV net bulletin board. I had posted our trip plans a few months back and Mike had emailed and mentioned they live on Vancouver Island. We have since gotten acquainted by emails and are going to stop by and visit them. They just retired also and have a truck camper. I had told them we planned on being in their area on the 18th of August and wanted to make sure that was convenient with them. We haven't had much luck with cell phone service in Canada, so I have been relying on email to correspond.
The rest of the day was pretty much spent driving. We finally got to Prince George about 7:00 pm and turned southwest toward Vancouver. We drove perhaps another fifty miles, until about 9:00 and finally found a rest area to pull into and catch some sleep. We had some chicken salad Carol had made from canned chicken so we had sandwiches for supper and hit the sack.
Wednesday, August 16
We got up and got an early start today. Again it was a day of driving mainly. We did stop at Mile 108 rest area where there was a roadhouse museum and some other buildings that had been preserved. It was very interesting. We drove down to the junction of Highway 99 and took it at the advice of Mike Dodds. It is supposed to be a very scenic route to Vancouver. When we got to Lillooet we stopped at a rock shop and Carol got a polished piece of jade for her necklace. We left Lillooet and drove south a little ways and saw an entrance to a campground. It is the Setton Lake campground and run by a power company. The campsites are free and they have free firewood as well. What a deal and the scenery is very pretty.
We are now officially warm, no hot. I'm not going to complain though we got to this arid hot area about 60 miles north of Lillooet. This is quite a contrast to what we have been experiencing the past few weeks/months. We actually broke out our shorts. I'm sitting outside typing this and it is 7:00 in the evening. It is quite comfortable and not bugs or mosquitoes. This is all right. Well, time to get some supper so we can get the campfire lit when it gets dark. More later.
I have already entered a little bit pertaining to today. Carol and I were at the Breakers Pub having lunch. When we got up this morning it was completely cloudy. By midday though it had cleared up and was nice and warm. We found Prince Rupert to be a very nice place. It would be fun to spend even more time here. We went to Cow Bay which is a restored area that was once a pasture on the shore and has a cow theme. This is where we found the Breakers Pub. We also found a little fresh fish shop where we got some red snapper for supper. After we finished lunch we headed west on Highway 16. We stopped at the community center and took some photos of some totem poles. We had read about an old cannery that was now open for tours. We found this at Port Edward just outside of Rupert. It was fascinating.
Canneries were once very numerous along the northwest U.S., British Columbia, and Alaskan coast. Canneries had their own fishing fleets and each summer when the salmon would run these fleets would sit at the mouth of rivers and net thousands of salmon coming in to spawn. This and four other canneries were located within just a few miles of each other at the mouth of the Skeena River. The canneries were run byEuropeans or whites, but most of the laborers were Japanese, Chinese, and Native American. The company provided segregated housing for each of these groups. This North Pacific Cannery was established in the 1880s and operated until 1968. A number of things contributed to their closure, automation, consolidation of companies, and refrigeration. It use to be there needed to be a cannery within one day of the ships, but with refrigeration a ship can go out for a week now and the fish will remain fresh. There is now one cannery in Prince Rupert since consolidation and automation have also sealed the fate of the canneries.
A native American guide gave us tours of the fishing procedures used and of cannery life. It was fascinating due to the fact that she had grown up there as a child. Her parents had worked there during the summer. She took us in the store and told us about the store manager. He was very prejudiced. There were not marked prices on the items for sale so he would charge the whites one price, the asians another, and the natives yet another. She said the pay rates were similar to that process only reversed. The whites would get paid most, the asians below that and the natives the lowest.
Trains were a real important part of this process also, and most of the canneries were serviced by trains to get the canned salmon out and to market. There happened to be a great model train layout display here that was left to the cannery museum by a collector. I, of course, thought of my brother when I saw this. Don't worry Mike I got some video of it.
Salmon fishing is now significantly restricted by type of fishing and the state of Alaska and the province of British Columbia are trying to control the take on salmon in the hopes of restoring some of the population, or at least maintaining it.
It just amazes me that the people who built these canneries didn't control their own take. I guess that is one thing that has really struck me with this trip. I fully believe in capitalism and think it is a great motivator, but completely uncontrolled capitalism leads to greed. I think that is what the last century was here in the north, a century of greed. It led to the depletion of a lot of resources, but more significantly the near complete extinction of some animals and fish, forest, and even land that had minerals under it. This land would never have been settled without that greed factor though. Perhaps that would have been okay with the native population that lived here prior to the white man. I have to admire the people who came up here in the 1800s though. What a very rough life they led, they had to be really tough hombres. I don't know, all of this is just too much to think about now that I'm retired. I'm about of the opinion that what will happen will happen. How's that for philosophical?
After we left the cannery we headed northeast toward Prince George. We made it to a town called Terrace. They have a municipal camp ground here so we got a spot for $14. Carol fried up the red snapper, I made salad, and we had some corn on the cob also. Delicious. I think I like fish better fried.
Tuesday, August 15
We got up this morning and took our time again getting ready to go. We had some breakfast and then hiked a nature trail associated with the park. It actually started right behind our camper. We got away from the campsite about 10:00 and stopped by the Visitor Information Center to check on wifi locations. They had wifi right there so I hooked up. I wanted to check email since I was expecting a response from Mike and Carole Dodds who live in Campbell River on Vancouver Island. They have kindly invited us to stop by and meet them and perhaps do some camping with them on the Island while we are there. We met on the RV net bulletin board. I had posted our trip plans a few months back and Mike had emailed and mentioned they live on Vancouver Island. We have since gotten acquainted by emails and are going to stop by and visit them. They just retired also and have a truck camper. I had told them we planned on being in their area on the 18th of August and wanted to make sure that was convenient with them. We haven't had much luck with cell phone service in Canada, so I have been relying on email to correspond.
The rest of the day was pretty much spent driving. We finally got to Prince George about 7:00 pm and turned southwest toward Vancouver. We drove perhaps another fifty miles, until about 9:00 and finally found a rest area to pull into and catch some sleep. We had some chicken salad Carol had made from canned chicken so we had sandwiches for supper and hit the sack.
Wednesday, August 16
We got up and got an early start today. Again it was a day of driving mainly. We did stop at Mile 108 rest area where there was a roadhouse museum and some other buildings that had been preserved. It was very interesting. We drove down to the junction of Highway 99 and took it at the advice of Mike Dodds. It is supposed to be a very scenic route to Vancouver. When we got to Lillooet we stopped at a rock shop and Carol got a polished piece of jade for her necklace. We left Lillooet and drove south a little ways and saw an entrance to a campground. It is the Setton Lake campground and run by a power company. The campsites are free and they have free firewood as well. What a deal and the scenery is very pretty.
We are now officially warm, no hot. I'm not going to complain though we got to this arid hot area about 60 miles north of Lillooet. This is quite a contrast to what we have been experiencing the past few weeks/months. We actually broke out our shorts. I'm sitting outside typing this and it is 7:00 in the evening. It is quite comfortable and not bugs or mosquitoes. This is all right. Well, time to get some supper so we can get the campfire lit when it gets dark. More later.
Monday, August 14, 2006
August 8 through August 14
uesday, August 8
We messed around the Hi Country RV Park this morning taking care of chores, checking email, dumping tanks, etc. and finally got away around 11:00. The next stop was a gas station to fill up with diesel, $132.48 in Canadian dollars. Gas is really high up here in Canada. Next we got a half gallon of milk and were on our way back northwest toward Haines Junction. This was repeat territory so nothing too spectacular to see. Once we got to Haines Junction though we got onto the Haines Road. The clouds started to break up a little and we saw some sunshine. This is a very pretty drive. It skirts the Kluane National Park (Canadian) and has some great scenery. We have no destination in mind for today.
We found a Yukon campground and pulled into it. It is called the Million Dollar Falls campground. The Milepost magazine says to be extra cautious for bears here. It is a really pretty campground and there is no one here so we decided to spend the night. The sun did come out for a little while, but then around 4:00 it an actual thunderstorm moved in and it poured. It has been raining for the last three hours with no letup in sight at this time. It sure is hard to believe this area we are in is semi-arid with only 10" of moisture a year. I think it has all come while we are here.
Most locals we have talked to have said that this is an exceptionally cool and wet summer. I hear it is exceptionally hot and dry at home. Thus the reasoning would be that if we stay home next summer it will be a cool and wet summer there. We can be bought to stay in Missouri if any of you want a cooler summer next summer.
Carol whipped up some fried rice with pork tonight for supper. It was really very good. It was the last grilled porkchop we had from the other night. We had pear and cottage cheese salad along with it.
It is now 8:00 and we are sitting in the warm, dry camper listening to the rain fall on the roof. We're both in the middle of a couple of good books. We do spend a lot of time reading. Most places we camp are not too conducive to being outdoors a lot, due to the mosquitoes up here, so we do read a lot in the evenings.
Wednesday, August 9
It was still raining when we woke up, but not as cold as it could have been. We had breakfast and broke camp about 8:30. The drive south from here was gorgeous even with the heavy clouds and at one point it actually started to break up and the sun popped out for a few minutes shortly after we hit the British Columbia border. We have about 60 miles of British Columbia to go through before we hit Alaska again. We stopped at the Yukon Welcome signs and took some photos since we didn't have any of the Yukon sign. We spent quite a bit of time and money in the Yukon (considering gas) going and coming so we wanted something to remember it by. We drove a few miles further south stopping frequently at pullouts or side roads and on a couple of occasions I did a little exploring. As we were driving a long we hadn't seen any cabins or houses for a good fifty miles and there was a cabin out in the middle of nowhere so I pulled into the road to the cabin and took two photos of it. A car pulled in right behind us. My first thought was, what a copycat. I could see it was a woman driver and I thought she was going to take a photo of it also. She got out of the car and walked up to me. She said she owned the cabin and we were welcome to pull up and take a look at it. Of course I was blocking her way in, maybe she was just being nice to get me to move but we agreed and I pulled over so she could lead the way. We got to the cabin and chatted with Lis (sounds like lease) for awhile. She invited us in and I took a few photos. She bought the cabin from an native who has a 99 year lease on the property. It was built 50 years ago so she still has 49 years on the lease. It turns out she is a doctor in Whitehorse and she had just come up to supply the place for fall and winter when it gets it's most use. She said she comes up and snowshoes and cross country skis from it. Some of her friends use it as a hunting cabin.
What a fluke that we should be there when she pulls in. It was fun to talk to her. She says it remains unlocked year round so people can seek shelter in it if they need too.
We headed on south and finally got to the US border. We had to go through the US border check again, our second time in a couple of months. The border guard who checked ;us was very friendly. It turns out he is from Nevada, Missouri, and the other agent that was with him is from Nixa, MO. What a small world. We got through with no problem. Maybe we look too honest. Perhaps I should grow a beard or something.
The border check is still about 40 miles from Haines but we started seeing homes and mail boxes right away. We hadn't seen much of those for awhile. We went through an eagle preserve on the way down but didn't see any eagles. When we got to Haines there was a Holland America Cruise ship in port and quite a few people walking around. We explored the city some. I stopped and got prices to take the fast ferry to Skagway, but it would be about $90 for the two of us so I think we will pass on that. We went to the visitor center and were talking to the staff person there and we overheard a lady mention they had seen a lot of bears out by the state campground (Chilkoot Lake) east of town. She also said it was a very pretty campground. They had stayed at an RV park in town. After stopping at the grocery we headed out that way to see about a site. It turned out to be a very pretty campground and only $10 a night. There were several tour buses out there watching eagles. We found the eagles. The salmon are running and they are all out here eating salmon.
We headed back into town. We wanted to stop at the ferry dock and check on our ferry and ask a few questions so we did that since it was on the way to town. Then we decided to eat at a local restaurant the visitor center person had mentioned. It is located in the old Ft. Wm. H. Seward area. The army once had a fort here and the buildings are quite impressive. They are all privately owned today but it was easy to imagine the army occupying this place. That is what all the large white buildings are in some of the photos, old army buildings. By old I mean about 1930s or 40s vintage. All history here in Alaska is relatively current compared to back home. A lot of the museums we go into up here has stuff we used when I was a kid. What does that tell me?
Anyway we went to the Fireweed Restaurant. The service was slow but I had beer and pizza and Carol had a vegetable zita, which is a noodle dish with all vegetables, so we were both happy. We chatted with some of the folks in the restaurant while we waited for our food. After supper we came back out to the campground, watching for bear all the way along the Chilkoot River. Didn't see any so we came back to the camper and spent awhile and then walked up to the mouth of the river where it comes out of the lake. We had to wait almost an hour and a half before we saw anything but finally a bear came out around 9:30 and caught a few salmon. We tried taking some photos but they didn't turn out very well due to the lack of light. They were too blurry. We got back to the camper about 10:00.
Thursday, August 10
I got up early and took the camera out to see if I could see more bear. Being the avid hunter that I am I knew it might take a while so I found a rock to sit on and it had a nice back rest. I almost went to sleep. I had walked down the road quite a ways to a weir (gate) where they count the salmon coming into the river. I did get a few shots of an eagle and a duck family but no bear. I saw some bear scat on the road. That made me think. I thought these bears were all on the other side of the river. I got back to the loop near the campground and there were some guys from Vancouver there. They said they had just seen a couple of grizzlies down by the weir. I said I had just walked back from there and hadn't seen any. They said they were right beside the road, yikes. I got back to the camper and Carol was gone so I went looking for her. Turns out she had been down to the weir also after me and hadn't seen any bear. She was probably closer to being breakfast than I was. Guess we better stick together.
We decided to take the truck down there this time and look for bear. Again we didn't see any, so we went out on the road and headed toward town. We stopped along the beach and had a little breakfast and then headed down toward town again. We went around a bend and there were some cars and a bus stopped there on the beach so we pulled in. There was a sow and a cub walking along the beach, not more than a hundred feet from the road. We kept following them as they went down the beach in our truck getting out to take a few photos now and then. We got some good photos and were within 50 feet of them at one time. What a thrill. We finally lost them when they got to the mouth of the river so we headed back toward town. I stopped and wanted to walk along the beach for a bit. Carol decided to stay in the truck since it was breezy and cold. I had some success beach combing. I found a whole box of salt water flies someone must have dropped overboard. I got back to the truck and we headed into Haines. We walked around the small boat docks. It is fun to see the different boats and really fun to look at the names on the boats. We went downtown again and I picked up some Canadian beer to go with the smoked salmon we planned to have for lunch. Then we went out to the southeast state fair grounds where the set of the movie 'White Fang' is located and browsed there for awhile. The Haines Brewery is located there so I had to buy a little to bring back for lunch. Guess the Canadian beer will have to wait.
We got back to the campground and had smoked peppered salmon with cream cheese and crackers, and I had beer while Carol had Pepsi. I then set up the generator so I could update this blog and download photos from the camera. Carol decided it was a good time for a nap so she is presently sleeping.
The weather here is cloudy but the sun has broken through the clouds briefly yesterday and today for a few minutes at a time. The temperature is not too bad. It is around 60 right now. As I glance out the camper window I see a pretty thick rain forest type setting here. Moss hangs from the trees. The woods are dark and deep and Bobby Frost would say (Robert Frost) for those of you who don't know him that well.
I think Carol has some Hamburger Helper (Lasangua) planned for supper and about 7:00 we will head back up to the river to hunt bears. I just hope they aren't hunting us. I know, it is a rough life.
I've tried to find a wifi setup here in Haines but haven't had any luck. Looks like we'll probably have to wait until we get to Prince Rupert or later before I can find some place to post the blog.
"You sure you like griz, pilgrim?" (From the movie "Jeremiah Johnson)
Bears, bears, bears. We finally saw a bunch this evening. We saw a sow and cub again this evening. They may have been the two we saw this morning. Shortly after that we had a couple of sibling grizzlies come down on the road near the weir and walked into the water and started fishing. It got within about 30 feet of us. I got some great photos. One sibling went back up into the woods when he saw the cars and people but the one I got the best shots of was the brave one. Luckily we fall well below salmon on the grizzly food chain so as long as the griz has a salmon he is happy as long as people don't antagonize them. The one sibling that went back up in the woods was calling to the other one. It was a great show. Of course we had to watch the one in the woods to make sure he didn't get frustrated and charge. It is amazing how easy it is for the bears to catch the salmon. The weir is kind of a fence across the stream and a Alaskan fish and game person sits on the weir and opens a gate and counts the salmon that go through to spawn. The salmon seem to find the gate. The bears have learned that the fish tend to congregate below the weir and that is one of their favorite places to go to catch fish.
It was great being so close to a wild bear in his own habitat. It is also fun to watch the eagles calling as flying around while waiting for the bears. This is a great place. I would enjoy coming back here in a few years and doing a little salmon fishing. This is a beautiful area.
We played Scrabble before we went to bed and Carol beat me :-(.
Friday, August 11
We got up and had bacon, eggs, and toast for breakfast and then headed out to walk the road and watch for more bears. We didn't see any bears but we did enjoy the walk. We had to check out of the campground by 11:00 so we packed up and moved out. As we were leaving a man from Quebec asked me if I could help him register for a site. I walked him through it an even took him down and helped him fill out the registration. I don't think he was comfortable with English. Carol accused me of practicing my camp hosting skills.
We have been seeing a lot of a blonde in a super expensive truck camper called an Earth Roamer. This truck camper probably runs in the 6 digit range. We saw her in town and then out at the campground also. She must be rich. She is traveling all by herself. I wonder if she is a movie star. Carol accuses me of having too much interest in her. Actually I'm just fascinated by the truck camper. Later in the day she was at the service station where we emptied our holding tanks and filled with fresh water and fuel. I went over and asked her if I could take a few photos of her camper. She said sure. I was hoping she would show me the inside, but no such offer was forthcoming. She is from New Mexico. She said the campers are made in Colorado.
After we left the campsite we ran into town where we found some postcards and a paperdoll book for Annabelle and got them in the mail, then we went and dumped tanks, got fuel, and of course I got the photos of the Earthroamer. We stopped along the beach and ate lunch about 2:00, and then drove on back out to the campground road again to watch for more bear. We messed around out there for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. We found a place to pull off the road beside the river so we could watch for bear and cooked some hamburgers for supper.
We did see a few bears this evening but they were so far away we didn't take any photos. Got some good photos of eagles though, including some of two eagles on the same rock. What fun. We stayed here until past 8;30 and then drove into the ferry staging area and checked in. We're getting good at this ferry thing. We parked in the staging line we were assigned and then we packed our bags for the ferry. We still had a little time before loading so we played another game of Scrabble. I won this time :-). We can't access our truck and camper except when we are in a port. We had signed up for a cabin so we were anxious to see what it was like. Of course it was dark when we got on the ferry so we got our cabin and wen in to hit the sack. We got to bed around12:30. The room is nice with a bathroom and shower and bunk beds. I got the top bunk, and we didn't even have to flip a coin for it. I think our cabin is pretty close to the engines. The bed feels like it is vibrating and rocking at the same time. All of this and I don't even have to put any quarters in it.
Saturday, August 12
I got up early this morning when we arrived at port in Juneau, about 5:30. I had to go down to the camper and get my toothbrush which I had forgotten, and then I went up on the solarium deck to see what I could see of Juneau. After that I went back and laid down again until 7:00. I wanted to get some photos of the area around Juneau as we departed port around 7:30. By the time I got back to the cabin Carol was up and had showered and we were ready to head to the cafeteria for breakfast. Carol had a muffin and orange and I had hotcakes and sausage. Right after breakfast we went back up on the solarium deck and saw a couple of whales breeching not too far from the boat. At 9;30 we went to a presentation by a forest ranger who rides the ferry. The Alaskan Marine Highway has an agreement with the forest service to provide a forest ranger on each boat and they do presentations throughout the cruise and help watch and identify wildlife for the passengers. We docked at Hoonah, Alaska and we got off the ferry for a few minutes to walk into town. We only had about 45 minutes but we got part way in before we had to turn around.
We're sitting up in the forward observation area which is a large glassed in room at the front of the ship with lots of seats. Everyone is watching for whales and porpoise which we see pretty frequently now. This is really a nice way to travel. Like I told Carol, the ship is not so large as a cruise ship where you kind of get lost but it is not so small as to rock and roll and make you seasick. It is just right and they are extremely comfortable. This is the way to travel.
A little more about this ferry ride. We left Haines, Alaska at about midnight on August 11 (actually 12:15 on the 12th but who's keeping track. We arrived in Juneau at around 5:00 in the morning. We stayed here until around 8:00 a.m. and then left for Hoonah and arrived there at 11:00 a.m. and departed at 12:00 noon. Our next stop is at Kake, AK. We arrive there at 7:30 p. m. and leave at 8:15. The next port is Petersburg at 12:15 a.m. on August 13 and depart there at 1:00. Then Wrangell, arriving at 4:00 a.m. and departing at 4:45. We get to Ketchikan, AK at 10:45 a.m. on the 13th and depart at 11:45. Our destination and final port is Prince Rupert, British Columbia arriving at 7:00 p.m.
Thus we spend almost two days on the ferry. I think it is well worth it because it saves me about 4 days and 1,000 miles of driving. Besides that we get to eat in the cafeteria. I would still take a ferry from Prince Rupert south to Vancouver Island if I could but it is just too hard to get on that ferry. When we get to Prince Rupert we will have about another 1,000 miles to go before we get to Vancouver city and can catch a ferry across to Vancouver Island. This will probably be around the 17th or 18th of August.
Going down the inside passage is more like going down a large lake. It is pretty protected and you can always see land on both sides of you. The ride is smooth and not rough like you would think an ocean cruise would be. I had often heard how cloudy the panhandle of Alaska was due to the fact it is really a rain forest. I thought that would be somewhat depressing, but just the opposite. The clouds cover the mountains like syrup in places and other places it looks like cotton candy gracefully laid over them. It is really very lovely and adds a unique dimension to the scenery. Even though it is cloudy it really rains here very lightly and most of the times not at all. Rain is very spotty.
When Carol and I walked into Hoonah earlier we got very hot. There was no breeze and it must be 60 degrees. I think we might have some difficulty contending with the hot, hot temperatures back in the lower 48 when we get there. Gee, you'd think we were never happy.
One of the presentations by the rangers this evening was on the Wrangell narrows. They said it it got as narrow as 300 feet from shore to shore and was only 26 feet deep at high tide. Our ship draws 17 feet and needs another 5 feet for steering so this is a minimum for the ferry and must be taken at high tide. Unfortunately we are going to go through it at 1:00 in the morning so it will be dark and Carol and I will most likely not get up to see it.
Sunday, August 13
We didn't get up to see the narrows. Probably just as well, from those who did they said it was had to see because of the darkness outside and the light inside and there was also a hard rain.
We had breakfast in the cafeteria, bacon and eggs with toast and then headed to the observation deck again. We spent much of the day on the observation deck watching the scenery and reading. We struck up conversations with some folks, notably an fellow from New Zealand, and a lady from Utah. The man from New Zealand was a stay at home dad and he and his wife had a 2 year old son named Benjamin. Everybody on the boat knew Benjamin at the end of the two day trip. He was interesting and told us a lot about New Zealand and Australia, especially economic issues, taxation, health care, etc. The lady from Utah had lost her husband last winter and was traveling with friends. She was very nice and was really enjoying her trip. She and her husband had been ranchers so she was a pretty tough lady.
The most notable stop today was Ketchikan. It is a very busy harbor with lots of ships, tugs, seaplanes, ferries, and fishing boats all using it. The cruise ships come into a dock a little farther south since they are so big. It looks like it would be a fun place to visit sometime.
The fog started to really get thick as we came into Prince Rupert this evening. As we drove off the ferry it was raining. We had to drive through customs and again we had no problems. It was about 8:00 when we got through customs so we stopped at the first RV park we came to. It was kind of pricey but it is the only one in town and I wanted to see some of Prince Rupert in the daylight. It is getting dark around 9:00 now since we are farther south. We pulled the front spare out of the camper in the rain and got inside and turned on the heater. We snacked for supper since we had had a little snack at mid afternoon on the ship. I had a small pizza and Carol had pasta salad on the ship. The food prices on the ferry are very reasonable it seemed to us. About what you would pay in a local diner back home.
Overall it was a great cruise with lots of smooth water, great scenery, and lots of whale sightings. We listened to some more of 'Up Country' by Nelson Demille on tape and went to bed around 10:30.
Monday, August 14
Got up this morning and took advantage of the shower here at the RV park. We can take showers in our camper but it is pretty small and the grey water holding tank fills up really fast when we do so we like to use the showers at the parks when they are available.
We're heading off to explore Prince Rupert this morning and will try to find a wifi hook up to load this up today sometime. It better be here or we may have to wait until Prince George to get one. It is about a 1,000 miles down to Vancouver from here so we will be on the road for the next three days heading that direction.
More later.
Well, found a pub with wifi. What will they think of next? It is about noon so will have lunch looking out at the harbor. We have been walking around Prince Rupert this morning and we're ready for a little energy boost anyway. More on Prince Rupert later.
We messed around the Hi Country RV Park this morning taking care of chores, checking email, dumping tanks, etc. and finally got away around 11:00. The next stop was a gas station to fill up with diesel, $132.48 in Canadian dollars. Gas is really high up here in Canada. Next we got a half gallon of milk and were on our way back northwest toward Haines Junction. This was repeat territory so nothing too spectacular to see. Once we got to Haines Junction though we got onto the Haines Road. The clouds started to break up a little and we saw some sunshine. This is a very pretty drive. It skirts the Kluane National Park (Canadian) and has some great scenery. We have no destination in mind for today.
We found a Yukon campground and pulled into it. It is called the Million Dollar Falls campground. The Milepost magazine says to be extra cautious for bears here. It is a really pretty campground and there is no one here so we decided to spend the night. The sun did come out for a little while, but then around 4:00 it an actual thunderstorm moved in and it poured. It has been raining for the last three hours with no letup in sight at this time. It sure is hard to believe this area we are in is semi-arid with only 10" of moisture a year. I think it has all come while we are here.
Most locals we have talked to have said that this is an exceptionally cool and wet summer. I hear it is exceptionally hot and dry at home. Thus the reasoning would be that if we stay home next summer it will be a cool and wet summer there. We can be bought to stay in Missouri if any of you want a cooler summer next summer.
Carol whipped up some fried rice with pork tonight for supper. It was really very good. It was the last grilled porkchop we had from the other night. We had pear and cottage cheese salad along with it.
It is now 8:00 and we are sitting in the warm, dry camper listening to the rain fall on the roof. We're both in the middle of a couple of good books. We do spend a lot of time reading. Most places we camp are not too conducive to being outdoors a lot, due to the mosquitoes up here, so we do read a lot in the evenings.
Wednesday, August 9
It was still raining when we woke up, but not as cold as it could have been. We had breakfast and broke camp about 8:30. The drive south from here was gorgeous even with the heavy clouds and at one point it actually started to break up and the sun popped out for a few minutes shortly after we hit the British Columbia border. We have about 60 miles of British Columbia to go through before we hit Alaska again. We stopped at the Yukon Welcome signs and took some photos since we didn't have any of the Yukon sign. We spent quite a bit of time and money in the Yukon (considering gas) going and coming so we wanted something to remember it by. We drove a few miles further south stopping frequently at pullouts or side roads and on a couple of occasions I did a little exploring. As we were driving a long we hadn't seen any cabins or houses for a good fifty miles and there was a cabin out in the middle of nowhere so I pulled into the road to the cabin and took two photos of it. A car pulled in right behind us. My first thought was, what a copycat. I could see it was a woman driver and I thought she was going to take a photo of it also. She got out of the car and walked up to me. She said she owned the cabin and we were welcome to pull up and take a look at it. Of course I was blocking her way in, maybe she was just being nice to get me to move but we agreed and I pulled over so she could lead the way. We got to the cabin and chatted with Lis (sounds like lease) for awhile. She invited us in and I took a few photos. She bought the cabin from an native who has a 99 year lease on the property. It was built 50 years ago so she still has 49 years on the lease. It turns out she is a doctor in Whitehorse and she had just come up to supply the place for fall and winter when it gets it's most use. She said she comes up and snowshoes and cross country skis from it. Some of her friends use it as a hunting cabin.
What a fluke that we should be there when she pulls in. It was fun to talk to her. She says it remains unlocked year round so people can seek shelter in it if they need too.
We headed on south and finally got to the US border. We had to go through the US border check again, our second time in a couple of months. The border guard who checked ;us was very friendly. It turns out he is from Nevada, Missouri, and the other agent that was with him is from Nixa, MO. What a small world. We got through with no problem. Maybe we look too honest. Perhaps I should grow a beard or something.
The border check is still about 40 miles from Haines but we started seeing homes and mail boxes right away. We hadn't seen much of those for awhile. We went through an eagle preserve on the way down but didn't see any eagles. When we got to Haines there was a Holland America Cruise ship in port and quite a few people walking around. We explored the city some. I stopped and got prices to take the fast ferry to Skagway, but it would be about $90 for the two of us so I think we will pass on that. We went to the visitor center and were talking to the staff person there and we overheard a lady mention they had seen a lot of bears out by the state campground (Chilkoot Lake) east of town. She also said it was a very pretty campground. They had stayed at an RV park in town. After stopping at the grocery we headed out that way to see about a site. It turned out to be a very pretty campground and only $10 a night. There were several tour buses out there watching eagles. We found the eagles. The salmon are running and they are all out here eating salmon.
We headed back into town. We wanted to stop at the ferry dock and check on our ferry and ask a few questions so we did that since it was on the way to town. Then we decided to eat at a local restaurant the visitor center person had mentioned. It is located in the old Ft. Wm. H. Seward area. The army once had a fort here and the buildings are quite impressive. They are all privately owned today but it was easy to imagine the army occupying this place. That is what all the large white buildings are in some of the photos, old army buildings. By old I mean about 1930s or 40s vintage. All history here in Alaska is relatively current compared to back home. A lot of the museums we go into up here has stuff we used when I was a kid. What does that tell me?
Anyway we went to the Fireweed Restaurant. The service was slow but I had beer and pizza and Carol had a vegetable zita, which is a noodle dish with all vegetables, so we were both happy. We chatted with some of the folks in the restaurant while we waited for our food. After supper we came back out to the campground, watching for bear all the way along the Chilkoot River. Didn't see any so we came back to the camper and spent awhile and then walked up to the mouth of the river where it comes out of the lake. We had to wait almost an hour and a half before we saw anything but finally a bear came out around 9:30 and caught a few salmon. We tried taking some photos but they didn't turn out very well due to the lack of light. They were too blurry. We got back to the camper about 10:00.
Thursday, August 10
I got up early and took the camera out to see if I could see more bear. Being the avid hunter that I am I knew it might take a while so I found a rock to sit on and it had a nice back rest. I almost went to sleep. I had walked down the road quite a ways to a weir (gate) where they count the salmon coming into the river. I did get a few shots of an eagle and a duck family but no bear. I saw some bear scat on the road. That made me think. I thought these bears were all on the other side of the river. I got back to the loop near the campground and there were some guys from Vancouver there. They said they had just seen a couple of grizzlies down by the weir. I said I had just walked back from there and hadn't seen any. They said they were right beside the road, yikes. I got back to the camper and Carol was gone so I went looking for her. Turns out she had been down to the weir also after me and hadn't seen any bear. She was probably closer to being breakfast than I was. Guess we better stick together.
We decided to take the truck down there this time and look for bear. Again we didn't see any, so we went out on the road and headed toward town. We stopped along the beach and had a little breakfast and then headed down toward town again. We went around a bend and there were some cars and a bus stopped there on the beach so we pulled in. There was a sow and a cub walking along the beach, not more than a hundred feet from the road. We kept following them as they went down the beach in our truck getting out to take a few photos now and then. We got some good photos and were within 50 feet of them at one time. What a thrill. We finally lost them when they got to the mouth of the river so we headed back toward town. I stopped and wanted to walk along the beach for a bit. Carol decided to stay in the truck since it was breezy and cold. I had some success beach combing. I found a whole box of salt water flies someone must have dropped overboard. I got back to the truck and we headed into Haines. We walked around the small boat docks. It is fun to see the different boats and really fun to look at the names on the boats. We went downtown again and I picked up some Canadian beer to go with the smoked salmon we planned to have for lunch. Then we went out to the southeast state fair grounds where the set of the movie 'White Fang' is located and browsed there for awhile. The Haines Brewery is located there so I had to buy a little to bring back for lunch. Guess the Canadian beer will have to wait.
We got back to the campground and had smoked peppered salmon with cream cheese and crackers, and I had beer while Carol had Pepsi. I then set up the generator so I could update this blog and download photos from the camera. Carol decided it was a good time for a nap so she is presently sleeping.
The weather here is cloudy but the sun has broken through the clouds briefly yesterday and today for a few minutes at a time. The temperature is not too bad. It is around 60 right now. As I glance out the camper window I see a pretty thick rain forest type setting here. Moss hangs from the trees. The woods are dark and deep and Bobby Frost would say (Robert Frost) for those of you who don't know him that well.
I think Carol has some Hamburger Helper (Lasangua) planned for supper and about 7:00 we will head back up to the river to hunt bears. I just hope they aren't hunting us. I know, it is a rough life.
I've tried to find a wifi setup here in Haines but haven't had any luck. Looks like we'll probably have to wait until we get to Prince Rupert or later before I can find some place to post the blog.
"You sure you like griz, pilgrim?" (From the movie "Jeremiah Johnson)
Bears, bears, bears. We finally saw a bunch this evening. We saw a sow and cub again this evening. They may have been the two we saw this morning. Shortly after that we had a couple of sibling grizzlies come down on the road near the weir and walked into the water and started fishing. It got within about 30 feet of us. I got some great photos. One sibling went back up into the woods when he saw the cars and people but the one I got the best shots of was the brave one. Luckily we fall well below salmon on the grizzly food chain so as long as the griz has a salmon he is happy as long as people don't antagonize them. The one sibling that went back up in the woods was calling to the other one. It was a great show. Of course we had to watch the one in the woods to make sure he didn't get frustrated and charge. It is amazing how easy it is for the bears to catch the salmon. The weir is kind of a fence across the stream and a Alaskan fish and game person sits on the weir and opens a gate and counts the salmon that go through to spawn. The salmon seem to find the gate. The bears have learned that the fish tend to congregate below the weir and that is one of their favorite places to go to catch fish.
It was great being so close to a wild bear in his own habitat. It is also fun to watch the eagles calling as flying around while waiting for the bears. This is a great place. I would enjoy coming back here in a few years and doing a little salmon fishing. This is a beautiful area.
We played Scrabble before we went to bed and Carol beat me :-(.
Friday, August 11
We got up and had bacon, eggs, and toast for breakfast and then headed out to walk the road and watch for more bears. We didn't see any bears but we did enjoy the walk. We had to check out of the campground by 11:00 so we packed up and moved out. As we were leaving a man from Quebec asked me if I could help him register for a site. I walked him through it an even took him down and helped him fill out the registration. I don't think he was comfortable with English. Carol accused me of practicing my camp hosting skills.
We have been seeing a lot of a blonde in a super expensive truck camper called an Earth Roamer. This truck camper probably runs in the 6 digit range. We saw her in town and then out at the campground also. She must be rich. She is traveling all by herself. I wonder if she is a movie star. Carol accuses me of having too much interest in her. Actually I'm just fascinated by the truck camper. Later in the day she was at the service station where we emptied our holding tanks and filled with fresh water and fuel. I went over and asked her if I could take a few photos of her camper. She said sure. I was hoping she would show me the inside, but no such offer was forthcoming. She is from New Mexico. She said the campers are made in Colorado.
After we left the campsite we ran into town where we found some postcards and a paperdoll book for Annabelle and got them in the mail, then we went and dumped tanks, got fuel, and of course I got the photos of the Earthroamer. We stopped along the beach and ate lunch about 2:00, and then drove on back out to the campground road again to watch for more bear. We messed around out there for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. We found a place to pull off the road beside the river so we could watch for bear and cooked some hamburgers for supper.
We did see a few bears this evening but they were so far away we didn't take any photos. Got some good photos of eagles though, including some of two eagles on the same rock. What fun. We stayed here until past 8;30 and then drove into the ferry staging area and checked in. We're getting good at this ferry thing. We parked in the staging line we were assigned and then we packed our bags for the ferry. We still had a little time before loading so we played another game of Scrabble. I won this time :-). We can't access our truck and camper except when we are in a port. We had signed up for a cabin so we were anxious to see what it was like. Of course it was dark when we got on the ferry so we got our cabin and wen in to hit the sack. We got to bed around12:30. The room is nice with a bathroom and shower and bunk beds. I got the top bunk, and we didn't even have to flip a coin for it. I think our cabin is pretty close to the engines. The bed feels like it is vibrating and rocking at the same time. All of this and I don't even have to put any quarters in it.
Saturday, August 12
I got up early this morning when we arrived at port in Juneau, about 5:30. I had to go down to the camper and get my toothbrush which I had forgotten, and then I went up on the solarium deck to see what I could see of Juneau. After that I went back and laid down again until 7:00. I wanted to get some photos of the area around Juneau as we departed port around 7:30. By the time I got back to the cabin Carol was up and had showered and we were ready to head to the cafeteria for breakfast. Carol had a muffin and orange and I had hotcakes and sausage. Right after breakfast we went back up on the solarium deck and saw a couple of whales breeching not too far from the boat. At 9;30 we went to a presentation by a forest ranger who rides the ferry. The Alaskan Marine Highway has an agreement with the forest service to provide a forest ranger on each boat and they do presentations throughout the cruise and help watch and identify wildlife for the passengers. We docked at Hoonah, Alaska and we got off the ferry for a few minutes to walk into town. We only had about 45 minutes but we got part way in before we had to turn around.
We're sitting up in the forward observation area which is a large glassed in room at the front of the ship with lots of seats. Everyone is watching for whales and porpoise which we see pretty frequently now. This is really a nice way to travel. Like I told Carol, the ship is not so large as a cruise ship where you kind of get lost but it is not so small as to rock and roll and make you seasick. It is just right and they are extremely comfortable. This is the way to travel.
A little more about this ferry ride. We left Haines, Alaska at about midnight on August 11 (actually 12:15 on the 12th but who's keeping track. We arrived in Juneau at around 5:00 in the morning. We stayed here until around 8:00 a.m. and then left for Hoonah and arrived there at 11:00 a.m. and departed at 12:00 noon. Our next stop is at Kake, AK. We arrive there at 7:30 p. m. and leave at 8:15. The next port is Petersburg at 12:15 a.m. on August 13 and depart there at 1:00. Then Wrangell, arriving at 4:00 a.m. and departing at 4:45. We get to Ketchikan, AK at 10:45 a.m. on the 13th and depart at 11:45. Our destination and final port is Prince Rupert, British Columbia arriving at 7:00 p.m.
Thus we spend almost two days on the ferry. I think it is well worth it because it saves me about 4 days and 1,000 miles of driving. Besides that we get to eat in the cafeteria. I would still take a ferry from Prince Rupert south to Vancouver Island if I could but it is just too hard to get on that ferry. When we get to Prince Rupert we will have about another 1,000 miles to go before we get to Vancouver city and can catch a ferry across to Vancouver Island. This will probably be around the 17th or 18th of August.
Going down the inside passage is more like going down a large lake. It is pretty protected and you can always see land on both sides of you. The ride is smooth and not rough like you would think an ocean cruise would be. I had often heard how cloudy the panhandle of Alaska was due to the fact it is really a rain forest. I thought that would be somewhat depressing, but just the opposite. The clouds cover the mountains like syrup in places and other places it looks like cotton candy gracefully laid over them. It is really very lovely and adds a unique dimension to the scenery. Even though it is cloudy it really rains here very lightly and most of the times not at all. Rain is very spotty.
When Carol and I walked into Hoonah earlier we got very hot. There was no breeze and it must be 60 degrees. I think we might have some difficulty contending with the hot, hot temperatures back in the lower 48 when we get there. Gee, you'd think we were never happy.
One of the presentations by the rangers this evening was on the Wrangell narrows. They said it it got as narrow as 300 feet from shore to shore and was only 26 feet deep at high tide. Our ship draws 17 feet and needs another 5 feet for steering so this is a minimum for the ferry and must be taken at high tide. Unfortunately we are going to go through it at 1:00 in the morning so it will be dark and Carol and I will most likely not get up to see it.
Sunday, August 13
We didn't get up to see the narrows. Probably just as well, from those who did they said it was had to see because of the darkness outside and the light inside and there was also a hard rain.
We had breakfast in the cafeteria, bacon and eggs with toast and then headed to the observation deck again. We spent much of the day on the observation deck watching the scenery and reading. We struck up conversations with some folks, notably an fellow from New Zealand, and a lady from Utah. The man from New Zealand was a stay at home dad and he and his wife had a 2 year old son named Benjamin. Everybody on the boat knew Benjamin at the end of the two day trip. He was interesting and told us a lot about New Zealand and Australia, especially economic issues, taxation, health care, etc. The lady from Utah had lost her husband last winter and was traveling with friends. She was very nice and was really enjoying her trip. She and her husband had been ranchers so she was a pretty tough lady.
The most notable stop today was Ketchikan. It is a very busy harbor with lots of ships, tugs, seaplanes, ferries, and fishing boats all using it. The cruise ships come into a dock a little farther south since they are so big. It looks like it would be a fun place to visit sometime.
The fog started to really get thick as we came into Prince Rupert this evening. As we drove off the ferry it was raining. We had to drive through customs and again we had no problems. It was about 8:00 when we got through customs so we stopped at the first RV park we came to. It was kind of pricey but it is the only one in town and I wanted to see some of Prince Rupert in the daylight. It is getting dark around 9:00 now since we are farther south. We pulled the front spare out of the camper in the rain and got inside and turned on the heater. We snacked for supper since we had had a little snack at mid afternoon on the ship. I had a small pizza and Carol had pasta salad on the ship. The food prices on the ferry are very reasonable it seemed to us. About what you would pay in a local diner back home.
Overall it was a great cruise with lots of smooth water, great scenery, and lots of whale sightings. We listened to some more of 'Up Country' by Nelson Demille on tape and went to bed around 10:30.
Monday, August 14
Got up this morning and took advantage of the shower here at the RV park. We can take showers in our camper but it is pretty small and the grey water holding tank fills up really fast when we do so we like to use the showers at the parks when they are available.
We're heading off to explore Prince Rupert this morning and will try to find a wifi hook up to load this up today sometime. It better be here or we may have to wait until Prince George to get one. It is about a 1,000 miles down to Vancouver from here so we will be on the road for the next three days heading that direction.
More later.
Well, found a pub with wifi. What will they think of next? It is about noon so will have lunch looking out at the harbor. We have been walking around Prince Rupert this morning and we're ready for a little energy boost anyway. More on Prince Rupert later.
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