Day Eighteen - Cantwell to Seward, AK

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We made it through our stay in Cantwell without having to empty our tanks, yay!

The road was in better shape than what we'd seen for the most part so far. I'd also noticed a lot more cars on the road in both directions. We kind of missed being the only drivers out there. There weren't many rest areas, though; just pullouts with lined parking spaces.

A few campgrounds ago I saw a window decal in the back window of the RV parked across the road from us. I thought it was really cool and wished I could get one for myself. The day after I took a picture of it, the driver left the campground for their next destination. I wasn't able to ask where they'd found it. Throughout the next couple of days my mind kept going back to that sticker. I finally went to the Googler to see what it could find on the subject. It came up empty. I looked again at the picture I took of it and noticed something at the bottom. I zoomed in and it was a website! I asked the Googler to find the website and this time it worked. I hemmed and hawed about buying a couple of them, but after a couple days I ordered them. At checkout I had the option of having them mailed to my home address or picking them up in person. I really didn't want to wait to get it until I got home because it would be after the fact. I looked to see where I needed to pick them up. Wasilla. We would go right through there on our way to Seward! I asked the others if they minded if we took a little side trip once we got to Wasilla. Mike knew what I wanted to do, but I wanted to keep the decal a surprise for Teri and Dave. Everybody was okay with it so I marked the "Pick up" box on my order. After I placed my order I got an email from the website confirming my order with directions as to how to pick them up. I was to email them back once I got near Wasilla and they would give me directions to their location. Got it. I emailed, they emailed and I read the directions to Mike. They said if we were towing a fifth wheel we should unhook at a parking area between a little market and a lodge just off the highway. I relayed the information to Teri and Dave and when we came to "downtown" Houston, Alaska we parked, unhooked and followed the directions to the house where I'd get the decals. Alternating left and right turns down increasingly narrower and rougher dirt roads we arrived at a large house with a shop, chicken coop that matched the house, and other out buildings tucked back among the trees. My decals would be in an envelope inside an unlocked mailbox attached to the wall outside the door to the shop. Okay. I walked up to the shop door, found the mailbox, figured out how to get my padded envelope out of the unlocked mailbox (there were two lids, I'd only opened the outer lid), got my prize and smiled as I walked back to the truck. In the truck I opened the envelop and pulled out two large decals that looked like yellow and blue Alaska license plates that read "RV2AK23" See why I had to have them before we got home?

We wound our way back to where we'd left Teri, Dave and our trailer. Teri asked what I got and I replied, "Something..." Mike took advantage of being unhooked and topped off the tank. He tried to wash the bug carcasses and other debris off the windshield but it was a tad difficult. The sponge was hanging half torn from the handle and kept flopping around like a professional soccer player every time he moved it. While we were filling up I saw Dave coming out of the market with an ice cream cone. That sounded good! It was warm out and ice cream is what you have on a warm day. I went in and got one for Mike and one for me. None for Charlie.

Reunited with our condo we continued on our way. I could tell we were getting closer to a major town. There was a lot more traffic, we now had to deal with traffic lights, the highway was now divided, there were dispensaries on every other block. Google maps had us arriving at the RV park at 4:20! I'm not kidding. Mike laughed when I told him. Wasilla was nestled among tall, rugged mountains and was a much bigger town than I expected. No, I couldn't see Russia from the cab of the truck.

We eventually drove through Anchorage, a sprawling city with everything a thriving metropolis has to offer, before reaching the Kenai peninsula. The mountains there were lush and green and so close you could reach out and touch them, or so it seemed. Wild daisies carpeted the shoulders along the highway. I could feel the temperature cool as we made our way south.

We stopped for a break and Mike went to use the bathroom in the trailer. He pushed the button to slide the dining room out a bit so he could get past the table and nothing happened. No sliding, no clicking, nothing, zip, zilch, nada. Oh great. Now what?! We hadn't even made it to the campground yet.

And speaking of the campground, holy moley! It's tucked way back into the woods down two or three crater-filled dirt roads (are there any other kinds of dirt roads in Alaska?). It's a surprisingly large park with the office sitting right in the center of it all. The sites are out in the open, but we're used to that by now. There is a creek that runs along one side with a high, grassy bank perfect for tenters. Here is home for the next few days.

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Comments

[Dennis]

Great read
Thanks for the blog and great pictures