Palmer Alaska - Matanuska Valley

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I didn't think I would have anymore blogs from here but Jim and Jerry went on a little expedition this morning around the RV park and brought back some very nice pictures that I thought I should share. Next to our park is an organic garden. Jim thinks they probably had about 3 acres and 4 greenhouses. They were growing kohlrabi, broccoli, cauliflower, onion, spinach, zuchinni, tomatoes, cabbage, dill, peas, swiss chard and he said they had corn that was only about 1 1/2 ft. tall but was already tasseling. They had a sign that said they only sold vegetables on Friday evening from 5-7. Jim thought maybe they took the vegetables to farmer's markets . The pictures of the mountains and the lake are near our RV park. I am also attaching a picture of our moose visitor from last night. We were given a map of Anchorage and on it were some Alaska facts that I thought were interesting. At 591,000 square miles, Alaska is larger than Texas, California and Montana combined. Of Alaska's 3 million lakes, the largest(Lake Iliamna) is the size of Connecticut. Alaska's mainland is only 51 miles away from Russia. Alaska has 17 or the 20 highest mountains in North America (Mt.McKinley is the highest at 20,320 ft). Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867 for under 2 cents per acre. The name "Alaska" comes from an Aleut word meaning "A Great Country, or Continent." Astronauts say they can see the 800-mile Trans-Alaska Pipeline from outer space. Alaska has two of the three biggest islands in the U.S. - Kodiak and Prince of Wales. As I said before, Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867. It was organized as a territory in 1912. It became the 49th State on Jan. 3, 1959. Carroll told me about a man that he met in Denali. He was from Austria. He had his RV sent to South America 8 months ago. He traveled from South America all the way to Alaska. I think he had traveled around 30,000 miles in 8 months. He is heading toward Baltimore where he will have his RV shipped home. I think his trip will be about a year. And I thought I was going to be gone a long time!

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