wandering but not lost

SEPTEMBER 13 TUESDAY …overcast the entire day, and rain tonight … took state highways from glacier national park to butte, montana and took the interstate from there down to three forks, montana … … you may get tired of hearing this, however, it is true: though we didn’t see very much sun today the scenery was delightful … the rain and low clouds added ambiance … met some people tonight who were complaining that all they had had since leaving Michigan was rain … guess it all depends on one’s attitude toward life … … tomorrow we will head south along the western border of yellowstone national park … up a river and narrow canyon to the west yellowstone entrance to the park … it is, i believe, the most scenic routes into Yellowstone, with the ... read more

SEPTEMBER 12 … yes, it has been a long time since either one of us wrote on the blog … the reason being that we did not have access to internet … … yesterday morning, we awakened to rain and 34 degree temperature … which is 2 degrees above snow … we were in hinton, alberta which is the eastern gate to jasper national park … in order to get to jasper we had to gain a 1000 feet and once in jasper gain another 2000 feet … which means that we were going to be into heavy snow plus that the clouds were a few feet above ground level … we made the decision to head out on to the plains and turned toward edmonton … to make a long story short we drove east ... read more

SEPTEMBER 5 … yesterday and today have both been joyous days with cloudy-foggy-rainy weather … great alaskan weather, however, not conducive to photography, thus ansel adams and his sister marilyn won’t be sharing any pictures … plus that we have no wi-fi, though this campground advertises wi-fi … SATURDAY … we drove the first 35 miles of the denali highway and as we suspected only far enough on the gravel to turn around … the denali highway is above the tree line and tundra … we saw hunters everywhere but nary a caribou … the tundra was in purple and reds … as we suspected the blueberry bushes give the tundra that purplish color in the early fall … even with a papacy of sun it was stunningly beautiful … it is difficult to describe … ... read more

Sept 2nd, Thursday must be Valdez, AK Dick was so excited last night because he planned to go on another 6.5-hour glacial cruise for today. I thought it would be nice but had absolutely no idea that it would be fantastic. This cruise was to the Columbia Glacier plus looking out for the marvelous AK animals. We saw numerous rafts of otters, which are pretty shy animals. Just learned today they rock back and forth on the water to make air pockets, which help them float. Then we saw Steller sea lions. Looking at the pictures, you will be surprised that these are young sea lions, and have been left behind by their parents. The adults are already in the really cold waters now. These “little” guys are taking naps and gaining weight and fat before ... read more

Tuesday, August 31st. Yesterday was my grandson, Nicholas’ return to school day. He has just started 7th grade; and today is my granddaughter, Makayla’ first day of kindergarten. It’s very difficult to be on a trip and not be able to hear immediately how their days have gone. I am loving the trip but missing out at the same time. Driving in Alaska is definitely different than driving in California! The maximum speed limit is 55 miles per hour. All roads are only two lane highways, with the exception of Anchorage where the freeway had 2 lanes per direction. It is unlawful for a driver to hold up traffic with more than 5 cars trailing behind him. You must drive with your headlights on 24/7. Seward, Homer, Glenellen, and Valdez don’t have any traffic signals. Anchorage ... read more

Today, after a very late start (that shower was too fantastic! I am definitely getting fixated with running water.) We headed for the city of Valdez, known for the worst oil spill until recently. I have been going crazy looking for moose. Every other tourist brags about the large numbers of moose they’ve seen, but until today I’ve been at zero. Well wonder of wonders, today I saw my first one close to the city of Wasilla - and you know who lives there! It was a cow and I was truly shocked how massive she was. I was so very excited. I should tell you my moose-hunting story: when the kids were around 10-12 (Christy didn’t go with us) we went to Michigan to join my brother Dick and Susan for a road trip ... read more

AUGUST 30 - MONDAY … what a full day … marilyn spotted three moose … two beautiful red foxes tried to cross the road in front of us, turned back and climbed the bank and sat there expecting us to take their pictures … sorry no pictures from me tonight … just too tired … oh yes, and we saw the most dramatic rainbows … one after the other as there were rain showers then sunlight and back to rain showers … … marilyn and i traveled up the matanuska valley and stopped at the matanuska glacier - a 24 mile long glacier flowing at the rate of one foot a day down the valley … the glacier starts high up in a ice field, tumbles down into a valley and then pushes itself down the ... read more

THURSDAY THROUGH SUNDAY The hours in the day are flying. When we have a specific set of places we want to see, we plot out the day in advance giving structure to our day. The day after we fished, we had no structure; since we were exhausted we slept in until 9AM and then made the one big plan of doing laundry before we were to meet all our important kids for dinner. So the hours flew quickly as it took us the entire day to do two overstuffed loads of laundry. Why overstuffed? The laundromat only had a total of 5 washing machines and 4 dryers; for each machine running there were two people waiting for it; and most importantly it cost $4 to wash one load and another $4 to dry that one load. ... read more