FUN IN THE COLD AND RAIN

---

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 … beyond my farthest imagination …

… the ground was covered with moss and was at least above the toes of my boots and in places over the tops of my boots … it was like walking on a super soft feather bed …

… little lakes and ponds appeared around every curve …

… will have to wait for the pictures … we didn’t drive more than 300 miles on Saturday but were worn out … stayed in a rv place in tok Alaska last night to get electrical power, warm showers and warm restrooms …

TODAY, SUNDAY
… staying at an rv park tonight for the power and warm restrooms

… it would be a dreary day anywhere else but we enjoyed the rain and fog today … drove though some magnificent mountains and, of course, didn’t see them, however, the drive was like being in an ethereal movie … when we got out to take pictures, and the rain hit us in the face, we quickly came back into reality …

… stopped tonight in haines junction …had ice cream for supper …

… it was about dark tonight when we put up the aliner in a cold rain and turned on the forced air furnace … that furnace keeps us warm at night and keeps the humidity at bay … just as we put up the camper the fog lifted a little and we could see new fallen snow up about 2000 feet on the mountainside … haines junction is at the base of a beautiful mountain, which is complete with glaciers … hopefully it will be clear at sunrise so that we can take pictures of our campground setting …

… it may be cold and wet outside but we are warm as toast, well, not that warm, but still warm enough to be sitting in the aliner and completely comfortable …

… tomorrow if it is at all sunny, we will head down the road to haines alaska, if it is foggy and rainy we will drive to whitehorse in the yukon and see if we can get an oil change …

rain or shine, when we arrive at the road to skagway we will turn off the alcan and will then head to skagway …

… marilyn asked me the name of the tv show of the 1950’s about the yukon, whitehorse and the gold fields… i said “sargent preston …” and she finished the answer with “of the northwest mounted police, and his faithful dog, yukon king …” and then we both said, “ .. on you huskies!” … it’s magical to be in the land of the 1898 klondike gold rush …

… that’s it for tonight … saving this on works and will post it when we get wi-fi …
-onyouhuskiesontotheklondikegoldfieldsrichard



MARILYN WROTE HER KIDS THE FOLLOWING EMAIL TONIGHT -


Yesterday and today we drove and took pictures. Both days it has rained mostly but it’s still fun and beautiful. We talk about everything and still aren’t talked out! For dinner last night and tonight we had Frosty Freeze ice cream sundaes with hot fudge and nuts. Last night we ate it out doors at 60 degrees and in the sun, which only came out for our short dinner, but tonight it was 45 degrees and we ate in a heated indoors. It’s really cold today and tonight the little propane heater in the A-liner will be working full time.

Every night we have our “movies”! Unk downloads his and my pictures and our movie pictures on his computer. Then we both sit in “my apartment”. My bed is actually a full bed so I leave my suitcase. full time on it on the far side. We use the suitcase as our backrest (using our pillows to make it super comfy), prop our feet on the porti-potty (which doubles as an ottoman), and Unk drinks watered down coffee and I drink wine . Unk takes about 300 pictures/day and I take about 120 ending when my one and only camera battery runs out. (Once my camera battery is dead, I start using his camera to take pictures of what I want!) We have so much fun discussing why the picture is good or not, and what we were talking about or felt when that picture was taken. The “movies” usually lasts about an hour each night and we are mightily disappointed when they are over…. what a great plot!

---