Life in The Slow Lane: September 2022

8/29/2022...There is nothing worth writing about here in Alaska. We drove forever to get here, and we made it in one piece. Once here, we spent time in beautiful places in the rain. We watched fish being cleaned and explored some options for catching our own fish but then we got COVID and had to take some time off and isolate in our camper as best we could mostly. And then we came to this god-awful RV park in the middle of Anchorage, and we stayed here a week. Now we are mostly recovered from COVID we think and will head up to Denali tomorrow and I have little expectation. In fact, I expect it to be cloudy and rainy while we are there, and we will give up and begin the long long trip back to Minnesota. I will not share this bit of gloom with anyone because I don’t want that to be the story that we tell about our Great Alaska Adventure…..

Our Great Alaska Adventure.

We arrived back in Minnesota before the first of May and had a lot to accomplish before we could begin our trip to Alaska. We started with a week of babysitting in Pennsylvania when Kelly started back to work. She needed childcare until her regular nanny could start the second week of May. Once we got home, we had to recover from a cold that we picked up from Kelly’s family. In the meantime, we looked at campers and explored trading our car in for a better towing vehicle. We decided to stay with this car and find a camper that we could tow. We also celebrated our 50th anniversary for the 3rd time with my family at our house in Coon Rapids on May 29. The best thing was that Kelly and Andalu came to help us celebrate. Once that was done, we turned our attention into getting a camper and getting it set up for our Alaska trip. We purchased this 2018 RPod 180 and made a shake-down trip to Springfield, Illinois where I was able to spend some time with some dear friends. We bought a generator and built a carrier on the back of the camper for hauling it. It was a very busy month. Following is an account of our trip not in chronological order.

A night with Doug and Georgene

Our first stop was at my brother Doug’s house in Fargo, ND. Actually, that wasn’t our first stop. Before we got to Doug’s about 10 miles from Fargo, we ran out of gas. That was after we emptied our 5 gallon can into the tank. We begged (actually paid) a local farmer for some of his lawn mower gas to get to the gas station. That is how we learned just how short our gas tank is when hauling a trailer. That was good to know once we made it to the Yukon where gas is sparse. But we made it to Doug’s in plenty of time to visit with him and Georgene and tour their newly remodeled kitchen. It is very nice. Since it was

Thursday, we had dinner at their favorite wine restaurant and enjoyed ourselves. We backed the camper up his driveway and plugged it into the garage and slept very well our first night out. 12-volt connection to run

CPAP headaches

Our second night was in Wibaux, Montana at the Beaver Creek Brewery. We began to understand that just having a generator was not going to allow us to run my CPAP machine all night. We brought along a small inverter. We were able that first night to connect it to the battery and run an extension cord through the window. That wasn’t a good long-term solution because rain. The inverter has a plug that goes into a cigarette lighter, so we purchased one of those and some wire. Don spent one of the days with Elmer’s help getting the wires run for that and it seemed like that would work. In Whitehorse we replaced the camper battery figuring that was the problem. Some nights I got a few hours but finally when we were at Denali the inverter quit entirely. So,, we drove to Fairbanks, about 100 miles away, and checked out the sleep clinics to see if they had a 12-volt cord for the CPAP. They had none in stock. So, we found another inverter at Fred Meyers and took it back and made it work. That day was a relatively clear day, and we were able to enjoy some spectacular scenery going to and from Fairbanks. A week later when we went to Fairbanks to stay, it was rainy and foggy. We would have missed it had we not taken that trip. We were able to make the connections in the camper for the inverter and for the remainder of the trip I could sleep all night when we had no electricity.

Denali, Riley Creek, Wildlife No Mountain pictures

They say that the biggest mountain in the Western Hemisphere was near to us for the week that we stayed in Denali, but we have to take it on faith that it’s true. We saw no evidence to support such a claim. We drove from Anchorage to Denali on Saturday, July 30. Two people who we met along the way showed us pictures of an enormous mountain that they took on Friday, July 29. So, I started to pay attention to the weather and looked for any day where there was some sunshine forecast. So, one day when there was some sun in the forecast we took off and drove 90 miles south of the park entrance where the best views of the mountain might be had. We ran into another mountain-view chaser and came to a place where he said that he saw the mountain. I wasn’t sure if it was a cloud or the mountain but that is as close as we came to seeing the mountain. The morning wasn’t wasted because it was warm enough that we were able to sit on a patio and have breakfast with a beautiful view.

We booked the perfect bus tour in Denali. Our driver was practicing becoming a guided tour driver which costs twice as much so we got a guided tour and were able to get some great wildlife pictures. We saw several caribou, a moose, a grizzly bear among other things. Our driver said that was the best wildlife viewing that he has ever had on this trip.

Riley Creek Campground is typical for a national park. Tree-filled space between the camp sites. Beautiful setting with no hook-ups and restricted generator-use which created some challenges for us until we solved the CPAP problem. Also, a problem because we couldn’t make coffee until 8:00. Other than that it was a beautiful place to stay in the park. The “Mercantile” was the campground headquarters with good $4.50 showers and a laundry along with groceries and souvenirs. It was always booked full. We were glad we made reservations back in the winter.

The Homer Spit

We left Valdez which is a beautiful place and headed to Homer which they say is “the best halibut fishing in the world” We saw some halibut at the fishing pier in Valdez and decided that is what we wanted to do. So, we went to Homer. We made plans for a way to transport fish back to the lower 48. Our plan was that we would catch all the fish we wanted in Homer and get it fileted and frozen. We would then drive back to Anchorage and buy a 5 cu. Ft. chest freezer which we would put in the car after removing a back seat. We would then run an extension cord to our generator and keep the fish frozen all the way home. This would actually cost less than having it shipped home and we would have ended up with a freezer which we could use in Texas. It would have worked. We spent a night in Anchorage in Cabela’s parking lot with about 50 other campers. We talked to a Cabela’s worker about fishing and bought some hooks with weights that you drag along to snag salmon. (Never used those and returned them to the store when we went back to Anchorage). We arrived in Homer late in the day on July 18 with no reservations. There were, of course, no RV sites with hookups to be had so we found a place for $20 per night at the Fishing Hole on the Homer Spit. We stayed there for 5 days. We learned that there were no fishing charters available to catch halibut anywhere on the Kenai Peninsula. Which turned out to be a good thing because we couldn’t have gone anyway. I was feeling kind of crumby and had thrown our COVID tests in the camper, so I tried one out on July 20th. Turns out we both had COVID so we isolated as best we could in the camper for the next 5 days and then took up mask wearing. Neither of us were terribly sick but had a cough for a couple of weeks. Our first visit to Ulmer’s Drug and Hardware in Homer was before we knew we got sick. We were there shopping for 12Volt parts to get the CPAP operational since we were out on the Spit with no electricity. The second time Don masked up and went in to get some Mucinex (no DX) which is what my doctor recommended for the COVID cough. He first went to the Safeway Grocery, but they directed him to Ulmer’s. Ulmer’s actually carries just about anything you need except for groceries.

We took a day to drive around Homer and drove up East End Road to the end where we saw some amazing views of Kachemack Bay.

Anchorage

I found a RV park in Anchorage with full hook-ups and got reservations. I felt better being closer to more medical care in case things went bad for us. Fortunately, we never needed that but were able to check in without contact with anyone and then kept our distance from others. When it was safe to do so we masked up did some sightseeing around Anchorage. Even took a bus tour and got some of the history of the place.

The Alaska Highway

First you have to drive for 6 days just to get to the start of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek, BC. You have to get across the great plains and then drive north and even farther west for a long time. We did that and arrived in Dawson Creek on July 6. We used “The Milepost” Alaska Travel Planner to guide us along the way. We drove the Alaska Highway for another 6 days before we got to Tok. The highway is all paved except where it is under construction and there you have a lot of “loose gravel”. Just like the book said, there are frost heaves and potholes especially after you get to Alaska. One person we talked to thought she should call “Mayor Pete” and complain about the condition of the last 100 miles that are in the United States. Beautiful scenery is the norm along the route, and I will post some pictures.

Nail in the water pipe

When the camper was built, they put a piece of trim over the water pipes in the back of the bathroom using small brads. One of those brads rested on the water pipe ever since then. After about 8000 miles of pounding, the nail found its way through the PVC and started a small leak which became bad enough that we couldn’t ignore it when we got to Charlie Lake Campground on our return trip almost back to Dawson Creek. We needed to do laundry and take a break. When I asked about laundry, the camp host gave us a site right next to the laundry. We were near to a Canadian Tire store, so Don figured out what he needed and got some parts. I was off getting clothes out of the dryer and when I came back, there was water everywhere. We had turned the water off from outside but had turned the pump on so we could find the leak. When Don pulled the nail from the pipe, he got a good spray. He fixed the problem and was careful not to replace that particular brad.

The Dinosaur Museum with Elmer and Penny

Elmer and Penny Lee are our dear friends that we met at Palmdale in 2019, before the Pandemic. They lived in a big 5th wheel and had been full time for many years when we met them. In 2020 when Canada called all Canadians home in March, they left in a hurry. They bought a home in Strathmore, AB because they couldn’t spend a Canadian winter in their 5th wheel. That is where they are living now as they are selling their 5th wheel because of health reasons. Maybe they will be able to come back to Palmdale for a month this winter if they can find a place to stay. We stopped to see them on both ends of our trip. The first time we stopped, Don and Elmer worked on the 12-volt hookup in the camper. On our return trip, they treated us to a tour of the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta. Everything you could possibly want to know about dinosaurs. We fit right in.

Dinner with Bill and Carol

Our last day of our trip before heading back across the great plains was spent with Don’s brother and his wife Carol. Don and Bill got to go through their dad’s old tools and remember their life with him. Bill and Carol treated us to a wonderful meal on the patio of a very good restaurant. The nice thing about out west is that when the sun starts to set, the temperature outside is very comfortable.

Day in Columbus/Laurel

Before we went to Billings, we drove from Great Falls to Columbus, MT where we camped in the Community Campground on the Yellowstone River. We spent some time driving up to Island Lake and then around Columbus, Park City and Laurel visiting the cemetery where Don’s parents are buried. Then we parked the camper at Yellowstone Cellars and Winery before going over to Bill and Carols.

Flat tire No Bob…. You got it all wrong.

Yeah, we had a flat tire, but we are denying that it was because the tire was not inflated properly. And the undersized spare was an honest mistake it wasn’t some “idiotic” attempt to save money. We count our blessings that we were in North Dakota when it happened, and we were able to get it fixed relatively fast. It could have been so much worse up on the Alaska Highway.

Banff – Lake Louise –

Icefield parkway We saw amazing, beautiful scenery and mountains throughout our trip and have a couple of pictures to show but probably the most beautiful mountains in the world are at Banff National Park in Alberta. We were able to stay in a campground in Banff and managed to get a bus trip to Lake Louise, a world-renowned beautiful lake.

The Yukon

We both fell in love with Yukon Territory. Maybe it was because both going and coming, we had sunshine. The road wasn’t always lovely, and we learned to spot frost heaves and potholes. We spent a couple of days in Whitehorse on the way up and back. We got the oil changed at the Chevy dealership and worked on our electrical problem while we were there. On our way up, we took a side trip out of Whitehorse and went down the mountain to Skagway. Saw beautiful views on the way down and back up. Decided we didn’t need the scenic train ride because it wouldn’t have been much better than what we saw from the road.