Sun Sept 16: Camped near Penticton, BC at Twin Lakes Golf and RV Park. It’s at a high enough elevation that my ears pop 3 times driving up from the valley. Full hookup $28. Mon Sept 17: George golfed. Dinner in town at Saigon on Main. We ordered the combination for two, as it was our first time eating at a Vietnamese restaurant. This way we could try a variety of dishes. I also ordered the hot and sour soup, as I’m still looking for the perfect combination (since my favorite place closed). We both enjoyed the meal and would be [View Full Entry]

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Sat Sept 8: Before leaving Hyder, Alaska we mailed postcards and other mail, to take advantage of the US postal system. The mail arrives and goes out on a float plane on Monday and Thursday, weather permitting. The weather was cloudy with misty rain as we drove inland. Today’s travels took us to Old Hazelton, British Columbia. We camped at ‘Ksan Campground which is adjacent to the ‘Ksan Historical Village and Museum. The village is a replica of the Gitxsan Village that stood at the confluence of the two rivers for centuries. We walked through the closed village in the [View Full Entry]

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Sun Sept 2: Left Whitehorse. Stopped at Miles Canyon for a walk and pictures. This was another treacherous stretch of the Yukon River for the Stampeders. Initially many boats wrecked here, and later they had to have a pilot take the boats through this area. We didn’t get back on the road until 3pm, but still made it to our destination at Rancheria. There is a restaurant, gas station, motel and campground at mile 710 of the Alaska Highway. There was one other camper in the campground. We camped by the river and felt like it was really getting late in [View Full Entry]

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This year we had the long spring, by being in the south during the late winter and gradually working our way north. Spring continued on our trip to Alaska. Now fall has arrived and we hope to enjoy a long season of color. One of my goals was to see the Northern Lights. We’ve been learning about them and tracking the solar activity that would make them appear in the night sky. One of the other key ingredients is enough darkness to be able to see them. People have been telling us that some of the best Northern Lights they’d seen [View Full Entry]

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North Pole We left Fairbanks and headed southeast to the North Pole. No not THE North Pole but the town in Alaska named North Pole. Of course there is a Christmas theme to the town. We noticed even a welding company had gigantic candy canes as part of the entrance to the company. Items that are mailed from this town are postmarked “North Pole.” Delta Junction This was our next stop. We took pictures by the marker for the end of the Alaska Highway, so now we have a picture at each end. We had planned to have dinner at [View Full Entry]

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Kenai Peninsula July 23-Aug 8 This blog is posted out of order. Bird Creek We stayed at a state park on the Turnagain Arm of the Cook inlet. We could walk up to Bird Creek and watch the people fishing for salmon. That was interesting to watch, but less tightly packed than we had thought combat fishing would be. My fascination with the tides continues and here there are mud flats that can be deadly. When the tide is low it exposes large expanses of silty mud that appears to be an interesting place to walk. Unfortunately it is a dangerous [View Full Entry]

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Nenana As we headed north from Denali we stopped in Nenana to tour the railroad museum. The museum was set in the old train depot and had the feel of the early 20th century. A lot of the town’s history was in this museum. Nenana was where the Golden Spike was driven by President Harding in 1923. The Golden Spike was to symbolize the completion of the railroad from Seward to Fairbanks. The town was interesting with lots of flowers and sod roofs on some shops and the visitor’s center. One shop owner played the accordion to her flowers while sitting [View Full Entry]

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On our way to Denali we stopped at a Museum that was in a cabin from The 59ers. They were a group of homesteaders from Michigan that George remembers reading about when he was a teenager. Of course it caught the imagination of a teenage boy, so it was interesting for him to learn more about it many years later. We arrived in the Denali area and camped north of the park entrance at Denali RV Park. It is 20 minutes north of the busy touristy area known as Glitter Gulch. That’s where the cruise ships have hotels and there’s lots [View Full Entry]

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I wanted to let people know about a great website with a live stream video for watching bears fish for salmon at National Geographic Wildcam Grizzlies I don’t know how long the salmon runs. I assume once the run is over the bears will move on to feed elsewhere. The camera is at the McNeil River and the number of bears vary. There are several different fishing techniques. Last month when we first saw the live video at the Pratt museum in Homer, there were more bears and more interaction between them. Someti [View Full Entry]

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We left The Parks Highway and went up the Talkeetna spur. The day was mostly clear with only a few clouds. As the road curved, we kept getting glimpses of a large snow covered mountain. They say the odds of actually seeing Mt McKinley is 25-30%. We’ve heard that people see parts of it as the clouds move, but not all of it. As we approached Talkeetna there was a scenic pull-off. There we could see that indeed the Alaska range was in view and there was Mt Foraker, Mt Hunter, and Mt McKinley. There were some small clouds obscuring parts, [View Full Entry]

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