Month: July 2017

Hi again!  We have been in the Portage, Alaska area for several days now.  Beautiful area – mountains and lots of glaciers, right off the Cook Inlet.  We’re about an hour south of Anchorage.  We got lucky on the campground site – we got an end site, with great views right out our door.  It’s windy here much of the time, something about the 2 mountain passes we are between and the weather patterns.  It’s also cloudy and gray most of the time, but we’ve had a sunny day here and there.  Not complaining!

We delt with the flat tire while here as you’ve read about in the last post.  That took up a couple of days but was necessary.  Otherwise we’ve been on 2 great hikes in the area, gone on an hour long boat tour to Portage glacier (Gerry was allowed onboard!) and gone over to Whittier twice.  Whittier is a small village (too small to call a town) right on the waterfront of Prince William Sound.  Cruise ships stop here, and one was in the first day we went there.  There’s a handful of small gift shops and coffee shops, but more than anything this is where adventure tours go out of.  Sea kayaking, boat tours, helicopter tours, etc.  And the Alaska Marine Ferry system has a port here too.  I didn’t realize until we got here how much of the state’s transportation system is by ferry.  Many places, including Janeau, the capital, are only accessible by boat or plane.  Very few roads in this big state.  We (briefly) considered using the ferry for part of our trip later in the summer, as they hold large RVs as well as trucks and cars.  BUT…dogs have to stay in the vehicle and cannot come up on deck.  Even the shortest route we considered, which was to Valdez, was 6 hours.  Gerry would never make that so we’ll stick to driving! 🙂

Anyhow, back to Whittier – you can only access it via a one lane tunnel, which is about 2.5 miles long through a mountain.  The tunnel is shared by the Alaska Railroad also.  So, there’s a schedule of when the tunnel is available for car traffic, depending on the direction you are heading – into or out of Whittier.  You can get in or out once an hour.  The first day we went over it was very cloudy and foggy, couldn’t see much.  I included some of these pictures in the link.  We decided to wait until a better day to do the hike we wanted to do over there, which we did the following day.

Also in the area is Portage Glacier.  It is about 5 minutes from our campground, but you can’t see the full glacier from the road.  So we did a boat tour that took us right up next to the glacier which was really cool.  And literally cool also – it was cold and windy and Gerry was freezing on the boat!  Fortunately I had his blanket with us and could wrap him up in it.

We got another view of Portage Glacier when we went back to Whittier and did the Portage Pass hike.  It’s about 6 miles altogether – up to the top of the pass, then down the other side to the Portage Lake, with the glacier on the far side of the lake.  So we hiked to the lake, and had lunch looking out at the glacier then hiked back.  Since this was an up to the top, down and then back up to the top and down again hike it was truly uphill both ways – we were all tired by the end.  We saw 2 eagles sitting together in a tree at the beginning of the hike.  Got some pictures, they are included in the link.

Another hike we did was in Alyeska – a small (very) village with a nice ski resort and hotel.  The hike was Winner Creek, about 5.5 miles and an easy hike.  Very little elevation change, but the trail ran along Winner Creek, through the forest.  There was a hand tram you could use to cross the creek and continue to another trail, but we didn’t think taking Gerry on the rope and bucket type tram that you pulled yourself over the creek (way high up above the creek) with was a good idea.  (Did I mention Steve is afraid of heights and hates cliff edges???)  So we turned around and went back.  A very nice day hike.

We have been regular visitors to the Alpine Bakery I mentioned in the last post.  I can honestly report everything we have had from there is delicious!  We also discovered a local ice cream shop in the same center – we are currently enjoying Black Cherry and Alaskan Berry ice cream at home in the to go containers we got yesterday.

The campground has a nice sauna – it looks like a shed on the outside, has a wood stove inside and the walls are lined with a wood that smells really good (pine, I think).  We enjoyed it one evening after the cold boat ride, and we enjoyed chatting with other folks who were enjoying the sauna as well.

We leave tomorrow (Saturday) to a new spot near Seward.  We’ll be there 3 nights and then we’re off to Kasilof, where we’ll be for 2 weeks.  Seward and Kasilof are in the Kenai Penninsula, which seems to be where much of the tourist type things like fishing charters happen.   We have lots of visitors coming in August, starting with my sister August 4th.  Can’t wait to see her and share some of this amazing place with her!

Lots of pictures in this link, and I also posted (I think, fingers crossed!) 4 short videos of our hike on Portage Pass.

Pictures:  https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkFN8xLPCcEozuScl

Videos:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkFz0qJsT7GXsDa9Z

 

 

Hello again!  We moved to the Portage area on Saturday July 22nd.  A beautiful area, on the Turnagain Arm, along Cooks Inlet.  About 1 hour south of Anchorage.  Had a great drive from the Denali area.  I’m going to do a separate post on the Portage area with lots of pictures.

We woke up the next morning, planning to do a glacier boat tour and found one of our front tires completely flat on the truck!  There was a nail in the tire.  The nice guy who owns the campground filled the tire with air and also put some fix-a-flat into the tire so we could make it up the road about 10 miles to a little strip center were we can get cell and internet at.  It was Sunday, we found out everthing was closed and we had to wait until Monday to get it repaired.

So we came back to the campground, and Kathleen, a nice 18 year old from California and traveling for the summer with her grandparents agreed to dog sit Gerry for us so we could go out to dinner.  It was Steve’s birthday and we haven’t been out to dinner in a long time.  So, we crossed our fingers on the truck tire holding, and drove to the Double Musky, about 12 miles away in Girdwood.  It had been recommended to us by a few people.

A great place, very busy and no reservations are taken.  But after about 45 minutes we got a table and had a great meal.  Steve ordered crab legs…..2 full dinners of them!  This is after we had an appetizer of these great cajun pepper steak bites, and he also had a bowl of Gumbo!  I had the salmon.  All was delicious and we took desserts to go – strawberry cream pie and some chocolate whipped cream layer thing. The tire held, we made it back to the RV with no issue and it was great to get out to dinner.  Gerry had fun with Kathleen and their yellow lab Dozer.

We were bummed about the tire, but it could have been so much worse.  It could have blown out while we were driving the day before, pulling the RV, which took us through Anchorage and more traffic than we’ve seen in a long time.  Or we could have been stuck on the side of the road with the RV in tow.  So we are not complaining.  We found a Dodge Ram dealership in Anchorage and went there on Monday.  At first they thought it could be repaired, then decided it had to be replaced.  A 2 hour time estimate turned into a day and a half – yes, after waiting around all day, they decided right before they closed at 7:00 Monday evening they couldn’t get it finished and we should come back at 11:00 Tuesday morning.  We had requested a few other things be done while we were having work done at the dealership – fuel filter change, oil change, front and rear differential (I still don’t know what that is), and since the tire couldn’t be repaired, 2 new front tires, balanced.  We now have over 17,000 miles on the truck (which was just purchased new in November).  So it was time to get a few things done.

We got a rental car and did some grocery shopping and a Target run while in Anchorage.  Gerry was wiped out after a day in the big city as you’ll see in the photo below!  When leaving for the night, we happened upon this great little restaraunt called the Lucky Wishbone.  Been in business for 60 years and specialize in pan fried chicken.  So we got to go orders and drove to a beautiful turn out along the Cooks Inlet on our way back to the campground and ate overlooking the water….life is good 🙂

The truck was ready the next day as promised and we got to spend some time with internet connection and catch up on banking, mail and phone calls.  A few pictures below.  Stay tuned for another post soon from this area with lots of pictures, I promise!

Hi Everyone!

We spent several days enjoying the Denali National Park area.  We stayed at 2 places, one about 30 miles north of the park, and one about 30 miles south of the park.  We really liked the second place we stayed at, the first place not so much.  In fact, we left the first place 2 days before we were supposed to.  One evening we got back from a hike and found our extra fuel tank (It’s installed in the bed of the truck and we can carry about 45 extra gallons of diesel in it.  It also has a switch in the truck cab that lets us turn it on so the fuel runs into the main tank when needed) was leaking.  Turned out to be a minor problem, we had put too much fuel in both tanks and it was overflow, not a leak.  But, the campground lady was not nice about it and charged us $200 for the small amount of diesel that went onto the ground….more than the fee, her unpleseant attitude ran us off.  But, we found a really nice small campground  that we liked better anyhow.

We got in 2 great hikes while in the area, one in Denali State Park, and one in Nancy Lake State Recreation area.  We also visited a cute little town called Talkeetna.  The hike we did at Denalie State Park, which was the Little Coal Creek trail, was very hard.  It was a gray and drizzly day, so we only got a few pictures on Steve’s “big” camera because we didn’t want to get it wet.  But I took a couple videos on my cell phone as we approached the top which I included in the link below.  I hope the videos come out okay in the link, this is an experiment for me!  It was a very steep trail and one of the hardest we’ve done so far. It was about 3 miles to the top, and gained 2,200 feet in elevation.  So about 6 miles altogether.   It was freezing at the top, we were literally inside of a cloud.  Gerry started whimpering and didn’t like it at the top at all.   We met a nice couple on the trail back down, they were from Iowa.  Except she had just moved to New York, working as a doctor for the athletic program at Columbia University and also for the performing arts.  She had just left a position on the medical staff for the Iowa Hawkeyes.  We had a nice chat with them and then found a fairly protected area behind some rocks for our lunch.

The hike we did at Nancy Lake State Rec area was called Red Shirt Lake trail.  By comparison it was easy, about 6 miles also.  But very little elevation gain.  We had a nice picinic by the lake there.  We also came across 2 flocks of some type of ground birds, with babies.  Grouse or Quail or something like that.  I have a picture of one of them in the link.

We’ve seen a couple of Moose while driving, including a mommy and baby standing in a river.  We’ve seen several eagles and those bears along the road I mentioned before.  Otherwise, pretty uneventful so far on the animal sightings, which is probably for the best, especially regarding bears.  We heard a story last night about a young man who was killed a few weeks ago near where we are staying while participating in a trail race.  A grizzly had killed a moose, the runner went by the carcass and the bear attacked him.  We’re especially careful with Gerry, and keep him on a leash most of the time.

Talkeetna was a cute tourist area that we enjoyed for an afternoon.  Had some tea and cookies and a peach tart at a nice bakery there, they had a porch we could sit on with Gerry. We also drove into the National Park as far as they allow cars, which is 15 miles.  After that, only park buses are allowed on the road.  It was pretty, but no more so than the entire area around the park.  Since they don’t allow dogs on any of the trails in the national park, we didn’t do anything else there.

On our last day in the area, the clouds finally went away, we woke up to a bright sunny morning and we jumped into the truck and drove to a viewing spot for Mt. McKinley.  Mt. McKinley is the largest mountain in North America, and is just under 21,000 feet.  It is only visible about 30% of the time, since there are so many clouds and gray days here.  Steve got some great pictures, and experimented with his large zoom lens (sorry John, I know the lens has some number associated with it but I don’t know what it is, it’s the big one).  The mountain was visible all day, and we got shots of it as we drove along the road to our next destination also.  It was great to see it, the pictures really don’t do it justice, it is huge! I should mention we also found a great bakery near the viewing spot that had freshly baked bread that I took home for dinner that night, and also freshly made strawberry scones and a great breakfast sandwhich made on their bread….yum!

You’ll notice in the pictures that Gerry got a new scarf with his name and picture on it!  We were in a gift shot near Denali National Park and the guy there makes them from a picture on our phone.  The picture of Gerry on the bandana is from the big hike we did at Little Coal Creek.  I think it turned out great, and he loves to prance around in it and show off even more than normal!

We are moving south, towards the Kenai Penninsula.  More updates to come soon!

Lots of pictures, plus 2 videos in the link below – hope the videos work, let me know.  Thanks for all the comments!  It’s great to hear from you all!!!

https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkAyckK_PIFsPSrJV

Hello!  I’ve been a little slow getting updates out, sorry!  We spent almost a week in the Fairbanks area, staying in North Pole, Alaska (just outside Fairbanks) and then another campground just north of Fairbanks.  We did some tourist things, like visiting the Santa Claus House in North Pole, a museum on campus at University of Alaska Fairbanks and a river boat cruise.  We also got a good hike in at Angel Rocks trail, in the Chena State Recreation area, about 1 hour from Fairbanks.  Today we are in Cantwell, Alaska, near Denali National Park.  I’ll do a separate update for this area soon.

The Santa Claus House was fun – Christmas galore!  We went twice – the first day, we had a Facetime call scheduled with the grandkids, Greyson and Connor that fell during the time we were there.  The 4 hour time difference makes it harder to connect back home at a time that works for the kids.  I showed them the inside of the Santa Claus store, including Santa’s empty chair.  Santa was not in, but it was fun to show them the Christmas things.  We went back the next day to pick up a few more gifts, and Santa was in!  When he finished with the kids on his lap, I was taking his picture when he asked me how I was – we started talking, and I told him about my Facetime call yesterday with the grandkids, showing his empty chair.  He said, “that won’t do…let’s give them a real hello!”.  A store helper came over and took a video of Santa talking to me and saying hello to Greyson and Connor.  He also let them know he double checked his list, and they are both on the good list!!!  I was able to send the video to Steph who reports it was a big hit.

We spent an afternoon at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, visiting the Museum of the North which was really nice, a lot of history of the area, native life, animals, etc.  We found a nice food truck for lunch nearby and also a farmers market for some yummy almond cake and rhubarb jam.  There were a lot of food vendors that seemed to be of eastern european decent, and the almond cake was from one lady that reminded me of a Russian grandma.  It was kind of like a tart, kind of like a dense one layer cake….and very good.  Sorry, I didn’t get a picture of it!

On another day, we went on a riverboat tour down the Chena river, a significant river that runs through Fairbanks.  It was a warm and sunny day (which has been a rare thing for us so far).  The tour was extremely well done.  The narrator on the boat was excellent.  The boat took us by the sled dog kennels and home of one of the famous Iditarod race champions, Susan Butcher.  Susan died a few years ago from cancer, but her daughter and husband still run the kennels and her daughter will race for the first time next year.  Susan won the race 4 times with her lead dog named Granite.  There was quite a story behind Granite and Susan and the challenges they overcame.  The boat stopped by the kennels and we saw a training session with the sled dogs, it was fun to watch them work – they love to pull!

The boat then stopped at a living museum that demonstrated native life and how they survived on the land for centuries.  A “fish camp” was set up to recreate how native Alaskans caught and preserved salmon (by using a smoke house) each summer for winter food supply.  We also saw native Alaskan clothing and household tools used for everyday life.  We really enjoyed the tour and learned a lot.

Gerry had his own special outings too!  We were able to get out and do these things while Gerry was at doggy day care.  First he went to Chelseas Pet Resort – really nice place and perfect for a day of fun.  He also got his very first bath while there.  Then he went to visit Travis and Jenna at their house.  We met Travis at a Petco store while buying dog food in Fairbanks.  He was really nice, and after talking to us for a while offered to have Gerry come visit him and his 2 dogs at his house on his day off.  We said yes and Gerry had a great time – they had 2 lab mix dogs, a nice house with about 1 acre and a big fenced in area for the dogs.  Another super nice person we have met on our trip.

We got in 1 hike while in the Fairbanks area (I know, we are getting lazy….have to pick up the pace a bit!).  We drove to the Chena State Recreation area and hiked Angel Rocks trail.  It was just under 4 miles, and a very nice hike.  There were a lot of people on the trail, it was a Saturday and a lot of locals were there in addition to tourists like us.  So no animal spottings, but we had a great lunch on the trail and enjoyed the outing.  So did Gerry – he’s becoming a good trail dog.

Some pictures below, and more also at this link:

https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pj1vOmy5bClPTdk6S

Hello everyone!  We are currently parked in North Pole, Alaska.  It’s a small town near Fairbanks.  We crossed into Alaska on Sunday July 9, and reached the end of the Alcan Highway that day also.  We spent one night in Tok, Alaska, then drove here to North Pole on Monday July 10.  We are staying in the Fairbanks area until early next week, at 2 different RV parks.

I’m happy to report the boarder crossing was uneventful and easy.  Before crossing into Alaska, we spent 3 nights at a fantastic RV park, called Yukon Discovery Lodging, located near Beaver Creek, Yukon.  We had no cell or internet service there, but it was beautiful and peaceful.  The RV park has a fully operational, grassy, airstrip on the property.  The airstrip is used for fire fighters and medical emergencies in the area.  They were happy to say it had not been used yet this summer.  Our campsite was located right on the edge of the airstrip, so we had this very large green area right outside our door.  Plus we had mountain views right out our windows.  Many of the photos in the link below are from our stay at that RV park.  Also, several of the photos taken there are at 11:00 at night…it is definately the land of the “midnight sun”!

Our second half of the Alcan highway drive was fairly uneventful, and very few animals.  I think we saw 1 or 2 hawks, 1 eagle and that is about it.  Hoping we see more wildlife while in Alaska.  There are several pictures in the link from the second half of the drive.

At the risk of sounding like this is a food blog, I have to tell you about some of the food we’ve had recently.  While driving from Whitehorse, Yukon to the Yukon Discovery Lodging, we stopped at a great little bakery along the road and purchased 2 fresh fruit tarts.  The owners of the bakery were French and we also purchased a loaf of rustic multi-grain bread.  Delicious!  Then, our first night at the Yukon Discovery Lodging (I’m going to refer to it at YDL from now on), we noticed the owner was delivering freshly made fruit kuchen to the cottage occupants….we asked if we could purchase 2 pieces – it was great!  Sorry, I didn’t get a photo of the kuchen, we ate it before I thought of it!  We let the owner know how much we enjoyed her kuchen the next morning.

To our surprise, the next afternoon we received a delivery of freshly made, still warm from the oven small round loaves of rustic bread….I had literally just said to Steve, “too bad we didn’t buy more of that rustic bread at the bakery, it would go great with the spaghetti I’m making for dinner”.  The words had just left my mouth when Stephan, the cute young man from the Czech Republic working at the YDL knocked on our door with the warm bread!  There’s a photo in the link, but only of 1 loaf…we devoured one before I thought to take a picture, sorry!  We had a great meal of spaghetti, salad and bread that night.

Stephan was very nice and fun to talk to.  He is 29 (and super cute), and has lived and worked in:  London and Sydney, Australia and is heading to Ireland when done with his summer job in Beaver Creek, Yukon.  He said he was enjoying travel and learning new cultures and not having the pressures of “normal” life.

The next evening, we grilled out beef steaks purchased from the YDL – she had a small quantity of frozen meat from a local farm available for sale.  I made red skin potatoes sauteed with carrots and onions, a nice salad and a peach cobbler.  We set up dinner right outside our door on the picinic table (photo in the link).  We took a drive after dinner to look at the local scenery and returned to find a plate of german chocolate cake on our doorstep!  The owner seemed to enjoy sharing her cooking with us as much as we enjoyed eating it!  She really was very nice and we enjoyed talking with her.

We had a full day of rain also while staying at the YDL and took advantage of the DVD library.  We watched several movies and enjoyed the clouds floating by the mountains right outside our window.  This stop is our favorite in the journey so far.

But wait!  The food story isn’t over!  Today, Steve went to a local gym to workout.  He’s been finding local gyms in most places we’ve been.  I’m going to do a post with pictures he’s taking of the gyms at some point.  Anyhow, while talking to the guy at the front desk at the gym today, Steve discovered he was a local hunting guide.  He owns 3 planes and has 2 hunting cabins – one in the Brooks Range and one in the Kenai penninsula.  He takes groups hunting and fishing.  Most places in Alaska are only accessible by plane or boat.  There are very few roads in this state compared to the amount of land.  They got to talking about fish (Steve has been on the lookout for local seafood, his favorite food but has not had much luck so far).  The guy asked Steve to wait a few minutes, and he left and returned with a bag full of local fish and meats!!!  Halibut, salmon, ling, trout.  Summer sausage, smoked salmon.  Photo in the link.  We’ve having Halibut tonight!

Our plan now is to enjoy the Fairbanks area for a few days, then meander our way towards Denali National Park.  We cancelled our reservation we had for a campsite inside the park.  We discovered Gerry can’t leave the campsite to explore the park or go on any of the hiking trails.  So we’re going to stay outside the park and find hikes in the area.  We’re also exploring doggy day care so we can do some long hikes inside the park.  I’m sure I’ll have a post about all of that when the time comes.  So for now, we are going to explore the Christmas shopping in North Pole, Alaska and other area attractions.  It’s a rainy, dreary day (again) but that is not unusual for Alaska in July from what I hear.

Today (July 11) is our 30th wedding anniversary.  Hard to believe – time goes by so fast.  Many of you were there on the big day 30 years ago, and many of you have helped us along the way these many years through your friendship, advice and support.  Life has many ups and downs, happy times and hard times.  One thing I know for sure is the love and support you all have given us both through the years has made all the difference.  Thank you.

More photos at this link:  https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pjzy-sr4nIRv1oXc3

We spent 3 nights at a great campground near Beaver Creek, Yukon, but had zero cell or internet access.  We left there yesterday, Sunday, and have arrived in Alaska!  We spent last night in Tok, Alaska.  But very limited internet, and many things are blocked to ensure no one “hogs” the internet at the RV park.  So will provide an update and pictures as soon as we can.

Leaving today for North Pole, Alaska, will be there a few days.  Hope to get you a post soon!

Thanks for all the comments on the blog!  We love hearing from you!

Anita & Steve

Hi Everyone:

We have made it to Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada.  We are about 507 Kilometers or about 300 miles from the Alaska boarder.  We arrived here yesterday, for 2 nights.  We’ll leave in the morning (Thursday) and go to Beaver Creek, Yukon for 2 nights.  Then, we’ll do the boarder crossing into Alaska on Saturday July 8th.

We have driven about 5,000 miles since we left home and we’ve been “officially” on the Alcan since June 29th when we arrived that evening at mile 0 in Dawson Creek.  We’ve taken our time so far on the Alcan.  We’ve driven about 900 miles of the Alcan so far (the Alcan is about 1400 miles beginning to end, which is just before Fairbanks, Alaska).  While on the Alcan, we’ve stayed at:

– Dawson Creek, British Columbia – 1 night; Fort Nelson, British Columbia 3 nights; Watson Lake, Yukon 1 night; Whitehorse, Yukon 2 nights.

It has rained for much of our time on the Alcan, and the driving has been slow at times.  The road is in pretty good shape, with a few bumps and patches and frost heaves, but sometimes it has been foggy.  Mud, mud and more mud!  But the sun came out this afternoon while we were touring the city of Whitehorse and we’re happy for that.

We went to the Walmart in Whitehorse (I am truly becoming one of those “Walmart people”, I’m afraid!).  We counted 40 RVs in the parking lot on our quick tour of the lot!!!  It was about 5:00 in the afternoon, and the parking lot was full.  I feel sorry for anyone coming in late and hoping for a spot….like we have had to do before.  It is definately RV land out here.  RVs are common place on the road, large and small and everything in between.

While in Watson Lake we stopped at the Sign Post Forrest.  A tradition for many years, folks post a license plate or sign with their name or address or something like that.  We didn’t post a sign, it was raining and we weren’t feeling it.  I tried to locate the sign that Steve H. and Michael posted when they drove the Alcan a few years back, but couldn’t locate it.  I read there are over 75,000 signs posted, and I couldn’t find any type of organization or way to locate one out of the masses.

Internet and cell service has been very spotty.  I’ll post more in a couple days when (hopefully) I’ll have better service once in Alaska.  I created another photo album, and have put the link below.  It has pictures from the drive along the Alcan.  Most of the pictures are from Steve’s “big” camera, but a few are from our cell phones too.

Animal count so far on the Alcan:

8 black bears, 1 grizzly bear, 3 Stone Sheep, 2 hawks, 1 eagle, 1 fox and 12 bison. We’ll keep counting tomorrow when we hit the road again!

A few photos below.

ALSO:  link (I think I figured out how to make it an active link so you can just click) to more photos along the Alcan:

 https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pjw0Thk8jVj83U9qK

 

Greetings!  We arrived in Ft. Nelson, British Columbia, Canada last evening, about 5:00 after driving about 6 hours, and traveling about 300 miles.  We will be here until Monday morning (today is Saturday, July 1).  So, since we have some down time, and I have an internet connection (weak and need to reconnect sometimes), I thought it was a good time to give an update.

We ran into some of the same folks who we met down in Dawson Creek while we were walking around the campground last evening.  I have a feeling this will happen more and more as we travel up the Alcan…there are only a few routes to travel to Alaska, and not all that many campgrounds along the way, especially if you are traveling in a beastly sized RV like we are :).  It’s kind of nice seeing someone familiar and trading stories of the day’s drive.  We learned that many folks saw bears (black and grizzly, including one with cubs) and a moose yesterday on their drive….we saw none!  And I was watching for animal activity, that is I was when I wasn’t turned around talking to Gerry in the back.  He continues to do great on the drives, sleeping much of the time and making efficient use of potty breaks when we take them.

We are at Triple G campground in Ft. Nelson.  Very nice, they have a restaraunt on site with a patio, and they allow dogs to sit with diners on the patio – a real bonus.  So we had dinner there last night which was a nice change of pace.  I haven’t taken any photos of the campground, but will try to and post next time.  We decided to spend 3 nights here, which will give us 2 full days of non-driving which will be a good break.  I have a photo below of the lilac bush we saw last evening full of butterflies – the photo doesn’t do it justice, the bush was quivering with butterflies.  Lilacs, peonies and other spring flowers are in full bloom up here, several weeks after the ones back home finished.

It’s a rainy day today, gray and drizzling.  I made pancakes this morning along with a quick syrup I made out of some homemade huckleberry jam we had purchased in Montana – yum!  Gerry’s first pancakes, and I can  report he likes them and they will be added to his list of favorites!  We use our fireplace every morning, it is cozy and warms things up nicely on cool mornings.  Great to have tea and coffee in front of the fire and Gerry gets in my lap every morning to nap.  Speaking of naps, Steve is enjoying one right now also!  I have a pot of soup (vegetable beef) simmering on the stove now, and am doing laundry.

I also tried to hook up a coax cable this morning, but failed.  The campground has cable at each site (many do, I have found).  Since our DirectTV install failed miserably back when we were in Montana, I thought we’d try to hook up to the cable.  Maybe watch an old movie or something on this nice rainy, relaxing day.  So we bought a coax cable in the office here and I hooked it up this morning.  Our TVs are supposed to be already set up for cable, just plug in the coax from the campground and go.  Nope.  No go.  I give up.

I will spare you all the gory details of the previous failed DirectTV attempt; here’s the cliff notes version:  we had DirectTV satellite installed on the RV when we purchased it; we purchased 2 DirectTV receiver boxes from an RV supply place;  I spent 4 hours on the phone with DirectTV one day when we were in Montana to install the receiver boxes (1 for TV in living room and 1 for TV in bedroom); after repeatedly explaining to the young lady on the phone that we do NOT live at the house we used to live in and had a DirectTV account for, and we do NOT have those same receivers any longer since we do NOT live in a house, rather in an RV and have purchased NEW receivers; and she activated the OLD, previous, from our house and already returned via mail back to DirectTV receivers and couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working! and I finally got transferred to a “level 2 technician” who straightened that mess out but couldn’t figure out why our NEW receivers in our new RV, connected to our new DirectTV satellite would not work.  I then spoke to a local RV repair guy who said he quit doing any work on DirectTV set ups because it was impossibly complicated and usually ended with him spending 8 or 10 hours on the project with no favorable outcome.  And we have learned from other campers that even if you do get it installed (fat chance), you then have to call DirectTV each time you move locations to have them reset the location/set up.  Who wants to do that?!  This is why, I’m sure, that when we mentioned we were having DirectTV satellite installed to the nice neighbors Ray and Cindy at the RV factory in Indiana (remember them?) they looked at us funny and said, “we would never do that, it’s way too complicated”.  The wisdom you gain from experience…..

So no TV, which is not a big deal.  We have managed to watch 2 movies in the month we have been on the road, using Netflix.  That is until I learned our Verizon mobile wifi (JetPack) UNLIMITED wifi is only unlimited til you hit the limit.  Yup.  Spent another 2 hours with Verizon support to figure that out.  While in the US, you get up to 10 MG per month of 4G (fast) internet.  When you use up your 10 MG you get “prioritized” – the word they actually used – to 3G.  Not fast enough to run Netflix or Amazon movies. AND then, when you arrive in Canada, even though you have been assured by the nice Verizon sales person when you purchased your new Verizon JetPack that it works in Canada “just the same as in the US”, you only get 1/2 of 1 MG of 4G internet per day, then you are “prioritized” to 2G. With 2G you can’t even get Google to come up, and certainly can’t watch Netflix.  They assure me that when we arrive in Alaska, we will go back to the US system which will work as described above.  I will belive that when I see it, I’m guessing Alaska will be more of an “extended network” scenario with limited access.

All of this technology stuff is a huge stretch for me, and I don’t enjoy spending time on it at all.  I would like to find a technology guru for hire, who understands RVs and how to use mobile technology for RVs, and have them come install/set up and instruct me on how to operate.  I am going to search for such a resource for when we arrive in Alaska, I’m thinking Anchorage may have some services, given the popularity of RV travel in Alaska.   In the meantime, we will continue to not watch tv or movies, and will limp along with whatever internet we can get, which is okay with us.  We have actually enjoyed not having TV most of the time, and are reading instead.  Steve is reading a very large civil war book, “Battle Cry of Freedom” by James M McPherson, and I just finished George Orwell’s “1984”.  It’s an older book (maybe a classic now?) but I had never read it…very good, a bit scary it is so insightful in how we live and may live in the future….and the role TVs (or telescreens as they are called in the book) play, it may be a good thing ours don’t work!  I just started another book by Jan Karon, “Come Rain or Come Shine”, the very last book in the beloved Mitford series.  Many of you have also read the Mitford series, and this is the last book, where Dooley and Lace get married.  Completely relaxing and a peaceful book.

So there you have it, that’s what we are up to!  A few pictures below of the inside of the RV.  I’ve received requests for pictures of the inside, so I will start with these.  Sometime later I’ll get pictures of the bedroom and main bathroom area.  If you’re interested, our RV is a 2017 DRV Mobile Suites model 39DBR S3.  You can find the floor plan online.  I’ll share more about the RV in a future post.  I discovered I can increase the size of the pictures attached to the blog posts – let me know what you think.

Today is Canada Day, and soon it will be 4th of July.  Enjoy the holiday, we are fortunate to live in a beautiful country with freedoms and opportunity many can only dream of.