We did a little back tracking this week. On Saturday we traveled back to Tok. It had been our first stop in Alaska back in July. This was a 208 mile drive and a one night stay. The trip to Destruction Bay certainly exceeded our expectations. We had driven that stretch of road in July, and considered it most likely the worse road we had been on. If you remember my post from July 24th, you will remember the mud-coated car and motorhome. This drive was dry, so there was plenty of dust. It was, however, in worse condition ... it took us over 1 1/2 hours to drive 30 miles on one long stretch of constant bumps. It is a wonder we got through this without falling apart! No way do we ever want to ... read more

We have four nights in Fairbanks. The roads were good, the distance about 111 miles from Denali ... a short drive on a chilly day. Along the way we made a stop in a small town named Nenana. The story has it that a lady won the entire town in a pool game. It was also the starting point of the 1925 Diphtheria Serum Race to Nome. As we pulled in to the small town, we had a caravan of at least 8-10 motorhomes with tow cars lining the entire length of this town, only to find most of the town closed down since the death of this elderly lady. Nenana also has the Ice Classic yearly, where they place a huge iron piece out on the frozen river and sell chances on the day, hour, ... read more

We left Homer on Tuesday morning for another 223 mile trip to Anchorage. It was a long drive due to some construction, although the roads were basically pretty good. We arrived in Anchorage for a three night stay. Our campground is located right in the city. Anchorage is the largest city in Alaska, with a population of 300,000 people. This is more than 1/2 of the population of the entire state. At sea level, the city is bordered by the Chugah Mountains and the Cook Inlet shoreline. The area has been setting records with their 70 degree days, and also tied for 5th with 4 days over 80 degrees so far this summer. We have had absolutely beautiful sunny days. We have heard all about these record setting days from a former Madison, Wisconsin weatherman, David ... read more

Our next stop was Palmer, 226 miles from Valdez. We got here on Monday afternoon, and after setting up (and we have gotten very good at moving this motorhome by now), we had another travel meeting followed by our first campfire, complete with smores. I also found it a great time to do laundry, as the laundry room was next to the fire pit. However, by the time I finished, many of the group members were calling it a night .... I don't think they stay up quite as long as we do. We have not quite adjusted to daylight still at 11:30pm. Tuesday we joined the group as we toured the city of Palmer. Back in 1935 the US government offered 204 families from northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan an opportunity to receive 40 acres ... read more

Guess I have a little catching up to do. The trip to Destruction Bay went well. The scenery made the trip seem to go quicker and enjoyable. We traveled through the Kluane Mountain Ranges, which were beautiful. These mountains wrapped themselves around the Kluane Lake, which was the most interesting aqua blue. We spotted our first grizzly bear along the road, but by the time we got close enough for good pictures he moved into the brush area. Our overnight campground was in another very tight spot. Again, these places are not always made for a number of bigger rigs traveling together. We looked like a can of sardines ... all lined up in a row, some parking forward and others back in order to pull out slides. The owner of the rv park, however was ... read more