Life in The Slow Lane

Monday, January 1, 2024

2023 Review last half

I can feel my brain getting dimmer and it’s more depressing than alarming. I couldn’t tell you if its just normal aging or if something else is going on. Sometimes I just practice remembering things as if that could make a difference. When I was awake in the middle of the night, I started to review what I’ve done and where I went in 2023. I think I remember the important things but then I would not know what I don’t remember, would I? I have a lot of pictures to help me remember and I have written about some of the more interesting things that we did. We still have places to go, things to do and children to see turn into adults. I need to be present and remember those things for sure.

I just reviewed my blog post from the end of June. At the time, I said that we had no more travel plans for the summer except for the bluegrass festival. That turned out not to be true. In addition to the festival, we took a trip to the Poconos where we spent a week in a chalet with Kelly, Jason and the girls. That was a fine trip.

At the Festival

Kelly making pancakes

Kelly came by herself in August. We picked her up at the airport, went back to our house to get our loaded and ready RPod and headed up to Old Washing Machine Hill. Old Wash is the rough camping, no generators allowed campground at the far end of El Rancho Manana. Once there, we set up camp and commenced to enjoy the music and visit with family and friends. My brothers Doug and Ludwig can almost always be found on Old Wash during MBOTMA events, as can sister-in-law Mandy. Here are some pictures.

By the creek

Kelly found a VRBO in the Poconos and asked us to join them for a week at the end of August. We drove to Pennsylvania, primarily because we needed to go to Kelly’s house in Media to pick up “the crib” because our family is going to get a new baby next spring. Mandy’s daughter is expecting and said she would like to use the crib. But that is all on the side. The chalet in which we stayed, was what I call a preschooler’s paradise. There was a playground out front, a stream running around it with rocks to climb on, a swing in the living room and a fully stocked playroom. There was a beach in walking distance and a trail back to a hidden lake. We also did a day trip to an amazing apple orchard. See . . . my memory isn’t too bad. I haven’t even looked at pictures to help me remember this trip.

Don and Andalu

Last summer our plan was to spend more time in Coon Rapids so that we could make more connections there and make it feel more like home. We have made friends with our neighbors and enjoyed a few meals with them this summer as well as looking out for each other’s places while we are gone. I went so far as to volunteer as secretary in the Tulip Street Homeowner’s Association, a decision I hope not to regret. So far it hasn’t been too much work. Our town homes were built in 1992 and some of the trees need to be dealt with.

Back in 2020 I had joined a book group at the United Methodist Church in Anoka that met on Zoom. I got to know a few people and enjoyed meeting with them on Thursday morning talking about . At some point, after the George Floyd events some members of the group decided to form another book group in which we would read books about social justice. After a couple of years, we decided that we would like to actually do something in addition to reading and

Class In Action

talking about these issues so we expanded our group to talk once a month and then do something once a month. We gave our group a name, CLASS (Christian Love and Social Stuff) and then CLASS in action. So this year I got to meet many of these folks in person and began to expand my friendships in Coon Rapids. Don and I participated in a painting project, tearing up carpet and bagging donated cookies to deliver lunches for some folks. And then I joined UMCA in September. We also started going to the Senior Center where we played some competitive, apparently high stakes, 500. It was only $1.00 each but you wouldn’t know that by how we played.

The finished floor

Tile removal

After we came home from the Poconos, we set about the task that I had been dreading all summer. We tore up floors in our foyer, laundry room and bathroom and replaced it with ceramic tile. Back in July, when Don said we would be doing this ourselves, I contemplated my options. I thought about going to visit my sister for a month while he did the job but then when I thought about how much I wanted to spend on traveling in the coming year, I figured that would be my payment for taking on the job. I also didn’t see how he could get it done without me. So we spent a week tearing up the old tile in the foyer which had a few inches of cement under it and removing the vinyl flooring in the other two rooms. I took the doors off the vanity and smoothed them out and painted them so that we have a nice modern looking cabinet. We proceeded to lay tile for several days with Greg’s help. We got a nice countertop for the vanity, painted the walls and put up a new light fixture in the bathroom. The whole job took about a month. I have to say that on the day we finished laying the tile I felt like we had finished a marathon. What a sense of accomplishment and I’m a little sheepish about my original reluctance. My knees are fine and that is a relief.

We celebrated the end of summer with a family party at our house. We had 35 or so family members come together to share some really good food and smoked ribs. Here are pictures of that group. Then at the end of October we headed south and made it to Palmdale on Halloween.

The family reunion

My brothers and sisters

St. Croix River cruise

River Cruise with Barbis/Ruffs

We are back in our normal routine around here. This year looks much like last year. We saw the SpaceX launch in November. That was exciting. I went to Cuba for 5 days but I’ve written about that in a separate post. We have friends over on our porch, go to exercise class, line dancing, walk around the park and go golfing. We enjoyed a seafood feast with neighbors to celebrate Christmas Eve. It was nice enough that we were able to eat on the porch.

We spent this week researching, shopping and finding a golf cart for Dick to buy so now he has wheels and can get around Palmdale. I think we are ready for the new year.

Neighbors Lyle and Judy moved their shed and were left with a small shed-sized plot of ground that needed to be tilled up to plant some grass. Don, who is in the business of solving neighbor’s problems, borrowed their shovel, purchased a hoe and enlisted me in cultivating the little plot of rock hard and muddy ground. We dug and chopped and got it into about 1-inch chunks. My brother Dick was using a couple of bags of potting soil to hold down the septic hose on his camper. Don took some of Lyle’s bricks and solved Dick’s problem and we put the soil on Lyle’s plot. Now Lyle planted some grass seed and we spend time watching for the seeds to germinate. B

We will be going on an Hawaiian Cruise with friends Kay and Max in February. So there you have it.

Saturday, December 30, 2023

Cuba

Cuba… where to begin.

I returned from Cuba 2 days ago. A week ago I was boarding a flight out of Harlingen

to begin my journey. It seems like much longer than that. I had some anxiety about traveling alone, worried about how I would handle problems in airports and such. Turns out that this trip was set up to seduce me into thinking that traveling is easy and predictable. All of my flights were on time and I had no problems finding the gates or with customs either going or coming. Air travel to a foreign country really is a piece of cake.

Speaking of cake, we were overfed at every meal which always ended with dessert. One dessert was Quatros Leches (Four Milk) Cake. That’s one more leches than the tres leches cake we have in Texas. It was pretty yummy, but by the time we got to dessert I was normally too full to finish my dessert. Poor planning on my part.

Our room

I traveled with Road Scholars which is a group that organizes educational travel for seniors. I was met at the airport by our amazing group leader, Lian who got me on a bus where I met Raoul who took me to a brand new 25 story hotel.

The Malecon

From our room on the 9th floor, we could look out and see the waves crashing over the Malecon, the sea wall in Havana on the Gulf of Mexico. See, the world is not so big. Where I’m sitting now, I’m only 20 miles from that very same Gulf.

Lian and the group

Lian - photo by group
member Steven

There were 21 of us in our group, all from the United States and over 55. A good group a people whowere open to all kinds of experiences, including getting up and learning a few steps of a Cuban dance in a warm humid dance studio. We had a lot of fun together. I traveled with my long-time friend Kathy who came from Springfield, Illinois. We met at the hotel and enjoyed getting reconnected. I met Kathy in graduate school back in the mid-eighties and have been friends ever since. When Don backed out of this trip, she was the first person I thought about inviting and I’m so glad she chose to join me.

I need to write about our leader, Lian. I can’t think of the right superlatives to describe her. She worked hard, she was so knowledgeable about Cuban history and culture, shared so much of herself, had an amazing sense of humor and managed a changing schedule so that we were all overfed and learned so much. We all fell in love with her.

Vitamin R and meals.

Breakfast was a buffet at the hotel that included eggs to order, omelets, cheeses, fruit, juice, a variety of meat, cake and, of course, champagne. We learned quickly to have a light breakfast because lunch and dinner were both full meals with a drink, appetizer, main course with rice and black beans and dessert. We always started a meal with a cold fruity drink which was supplemented with as much Vitamin R (aka rum) as we needed. Some of us needed more than others depending on our dietary requirements.

Money

There are 3 kinds of money in Cuba but everyone wants US dollars. Much of it I don’t understand but this was my experience. When I arrived, I was encouraged to purchase a debit card that could be used in government owned businesses such as the hotel. We were told that we could get a $50 card but when I went to the currency exchange, they only had $100 cards. I bought one and when Kathy arrived, I told her not to get one that we could both use mine. I thought that there would be plenty of opportunities to spend it. I bought lunch on day one and I think that was it. The rest of our meals were included in the trip. All of the private businesses wanted US dollars and service people preferred tips that way too. A couple of times I needed regular Pesos so I changed a $5.00 bill for 540 pesos for Kathy and me to use for something. The debit card could not be changed back into USD but I was able to convert it to Euros and Kathy bought the Euros from me because she has high hopes of going back to Italy soon. I think all of those transactions only cost me about $15. I think it is a way of getting more USD into Cuba and they need it because their Peso is losing value so fast. It is very sad and the US needs to lift the stupid embargo. It has long since lost any strategic purpose if it ever had any.

Gifts

We were encouraged to bring gifts for the Cuban people . . . things like art supplies, powdered milk, baby formula, band aids, toothbrushes, stuff that is in short supply. We turned in those items to Lian and she distributed them to the places we visited. I like to think the art supplies I brought are being used by the people at the art studio.

Day 1 – Architecture – History – Synagogue – Day at the Farm

We started our first day with orientation at 8:00 AM. We had to introduce ourselves with 3 words (our first name, where we were from, and what we were interested in learning). I had about 3 minutes to decide where I was from. I chose Brownsville… because I just came from around there and that’s a city that most people know about. It’s never easy to answer that question.

Then we listened to a lecture from an architect and city planner. We learned a lot about Cuban history and how it was settled. Our speaker was a professor from the University of Havana and also had

designed some buildings. He was very interesting. We visited a synagogue in old Havana where the rabbi talked about the history of Judaism in Cuba.

Roast Pig

Then we all got on the bus and Raoul took us to the country where we visited an organic farm, had lunch and toured the farm. Cuba was covered in tropical forest when the Spanish first came here and it is still a lush green land with many different kinds of trees and plants. That is mostly what we saw as we traveled in the country with some small kind of run-down homes here and there. The farm we went to had been in the family for many years and was completely organic. As we came up the lane, I saw water buffalo and cattle herds. We started with cheeses that were made at the farm. These included goat and water buffalo cheese. They served us lunch which consisted of a small roast pig which they cut up in front of us. The restaurant was outside and we had chickens and a couple of dogs wandering around the tables hoping for us to drop our food. We, of course, began the meal with a dose of Vitamin R.

Day 2 - Music – Lunch at Paladar – Squares of Old Havana

We began day 2 with a lecture by a Cuban professor of music and musician. He spoke about the culture and development of Cuban music. The culture of the original inhabitants has been totally lost as their music was considered “noise” by the Spanish conquerors. Music from classical Spanish and Africa together formed the basis of Cuban music. By the time that slavery was abolished in Cuba in the 1873, Africans were the majority of the population. Cuban music evolved much as music in the US did from African roots.

Barbecue Pork

We visited Riera Studio where people with mental disadvantages are able to express themselves through art. We were able to purchase some artwork and see some of the artists working. We had lunch at a paladar. In 1992, the Soviet Union collapsed and Cuba lost their market for sugar which was their economic lifeline. They were totally unprepared and one thing they did was to make it possible for people to own a small business with limitations. People turned their homes into small restaurants called paladars. The word paladar came from a word used in a soap opera that was universally popular in Cuba at the time. Eventually restrictions were lifted and those paladars developed into larger restaurants. That is where we had a lunch in Old Havana. There we were served barbecue pork ribs, chicken, or shredded beef. After lunch, we toured some squares in Old Havana.

Lunch at a paladar

Day 3 – Classic Car Parade – Dance – Visited Squares – Shopping – Dinner – Choir

Our ride

Lian surprised us. As we were waiting for Raoul to arrive on the bus in front of our hotel, 7 colorful classic convertibles pulled up to the curb and that was our transportation. I should have known something was up because before our ride came, she gave her tour guide speech about what we would be seeing. We were taken through the streets of Miramar which is the area in Havana where the wealthy built beautiful mansions and lived before the revolution. In 1959 they all left their homes and mostly went to Florida where they thought they would live briefly until they could get rid of Fidel Castro. That didn’t work out and their homes were taken over by the government. Many of them are now used as embassies and we drove by them and saw flags from all over the world flying in front of them.

Kathy and me

We then drove by the Christopher Columbus Cemetery a huge cemetery with many elaborate mausoleums. We didn’t stop so I have no good pictures. You can find those online. We also drove by some incredibly beautiful woods that reminded me of the woods that were created for the Avatar movies.

We stopped at a dance studio and watched some students do a performance for us. Then the teacher invited us up to the dance floor where she proceeded to try to teach us some Cuban dance moves. We were then invited to have private conversations with the students. The language barrier prevented us from learning a lot, but we met William, a 19-year-old man who is studying dance. I think he has 4 more years at the school.

Dancers

Then we went back to old Havana where we toured the San Francisco Square where we could visit some shops and have lunch on our own. Kathy and I decided to have ice cream so we would be hungry for dinner. Part of our group went to the Art Museum, but we went to the square. Lian introduced us to a man who never spoke but communicated with hand gestures. She said that he would also be our guide and he was looking out for us. Kathy and I started going down a side street and he immediately caught up to us and directed us back towards the square. After that he showed us a few

San Francis Cathedral

shops to go in and I found a few souvenirs to bring home. We were being watched out for and I have no idea what danger we might have been in or if there was any. We then visited a craft market where I found a pair of earrings.

We sat down for dinner on a rooftop in a paladar in Old Havana. It isn’t exactly like being on a roof top as it is partially covered by a roof and there are walls. It’s too windy in Havana to be truly eating out in the open. We were given a choice of rum drinks and served some appetizers. We were enjoying some lively conversation about things happening in the US when we were surrounded by about 20 women who began to sing for us.

The choir is called Vocal Luna and with just their voices they silenced us and wrapped us in beautiful music. The acoustics were perfect for their voice. They sang several numbers and then sold CDs. I bought one but

Vocal Luna

have no equipment to play it. Someone in this park surely has a CD player. Then we were served our last supper. Amazing. Our meal was ended when the wind picked up and was blowing tablecloths off the unused tables while the serving staff ran to clear off those tables. Fortunately, by then we were finished with our Quatros Leches cake. We returned to the hotel with waves coming over the Malecon. Lovely finish to an amazing trip.

Monday, June 26, 2023

Summer so far

I haven’t written anything at all in almost a year since we returned from Alaska. Now it is nearing the anniversary of the start of our trip. I have thought occasionally about some of experiences and subjects about which I might write, but that is as far as it goes. Today, I have some blank space. Not that blank space is unusual in my life now but instead of puzzling, reading or moving the laundry around, I am here at my keyboard.

A New Car

We sold our Buick Enclave. It was somewhat unexpected in that we had just begun talking about replacing the car as it was getting a little tired. We cleaned out the glove box, and at the bottom was a handmade mask, a gift from my friend Karen Campion. The print is of the Stars and Stripes with wear and tear marks, like it was in a fire or run over. At the time, back in 2020, that seemed like an appropriate design for a COVID mask. It has little stretchy lace elastic for the ear straps, the only thing she could find at the fabric store. I think this mask should be a museum piece in the Vintage Covid 2020 section.

It just happened that our next-door neighbor in Minnesota had a low-mileage Toyota Highlander in his garage that he didn’t need and since that was one of the models at the top of our list of cars to look for, we offered him a good price and he accepted.

Then we drove the car to Kentucky and back at the end of May. It was a trip to connect up with long-time and old friends. Most of our long-time friends seem to be getting a little age on them. We stopped in Hannibal, MO to see Vivian who was married to Don’s boss from 1974-78 at the Tempo Store in Jacksonville, IL. Vivian and Dennis, who passed away in 2021, helped us in many ways and we enjoyed many holidays with them. She has 2 children, 7 grandchildren, and 15 greats. Talk about rich.

Then we went to St. Louis where we met up with Kay and Max Klinkenborg and Kathy and Jon Edwards with whom we used to ride bikes with the famous NOBEs (Numb on Both Ends) club back in the 90’s. We stayed at an old brick 2-story Air B&B in the Forest Park area where we went to theBotanical Gardens and spent an afternoon at the Zoo. We ate good food and enjoyed a couple of card games as we caught up on each other’s lives and remembered our good times together.

We spent a night in Springfield where we met up with a couple of other Tempo-era friends for dinner one night with Dwight Reese and breakfast the next morning with Chris Holloway.

We stopped in Lincoln, IL where was able to locate Mary Krusz’s grave and spend some time with her. What a privilege that I was able to share a friendship with her since we worked together in 1990.

Then we headed for Lexington, KY where we celebrated Graeme and Nancy Wilson’s 50^th Wedding Anniversary and got reacquainted with their children Chase and Drew, who are now middle-aged men. I still referred to them as “the boys” and we got some pictures that I will share here. The boys are close to my children’s age. We met Graeme and Nancy in Jacksonville when Don was selling radio advertising and Graeme worked for Sears. We celebrated Thanksgiving with them for many years as they moved around Illinois and Missouri following Graeme’s job.

Us with the celebrating couple

Graeme & Nancy with the boys

The Highlander traveled very well.

Camp Deer at Effie, MN

Way up North is a rustic resort with cabins built to house lumberjacks back in the 1930’s that still stand. In the 1950’s, my Uncle Harold who wasn’t my uncle yet, left the Air Force after fighting in WWII and purchased the place for a fishing camp. He advertised to find someone to clean cabins and my Dad’s younger sister, Aunt Ivy came to work for him. Ivy had been in California working in an airplane factory (Rosie the Riveter) and came back to Minnesota after the war with a baby, my cousin Jim. She then married a lumber jack who took her up North and she had my cousin Kathy in 1948. Aunt Ivy then found herself the sole provider for her children so she was looking for work. She was a very hard worker and kept the place spotless as well as providing freshly baked bread for Harold and the campers. She became indispensable and of course Harold asked her to marry him at which time he became my Uncle Harold. They had a child together, my cousin Norman. Most of this story I never knew until I was an adult. Uncle Harold adopted Jim and Kathy and to me he was always their Dad.

These are all old pictures. I didn't get any this year.

Norman

The resort is still in business and looks much like it did when I visited as a young child. It is a beautiful place situated between Deer and Pickeral Lakes with the road running through it. The cabins on the Deer Lake side look out over the beach where they are provided with a splendid sunset almost every night. The cabins are rustic, meaning they have no running water. They do have electricity and a propane stove for cooking the fish that you catch out of the lakes. A bathhouse with a shower for Ma and Pa is a short walk from the cabins. The “Office” where Uncle Harold and then Norman held court and told stories is still there but there is no story-teller anymore. The coffee pot is set up to go in the morning and there are all the things you need: night crawlers, ice, pizza, ice cream and water for purchase on the honor system. You make a note on a paper when you take an item and it gets added to your bill when you check out. It is a good system.

Jim’s widow Em is now running the place along with her sons. One son, Jeff comes up every weekend from the cities and mows the grass and helps with whatever needs to be done. Not sure how much longer this place will continue as a resort. It is just this last year that we lost both Kathy and Norman.

We went there with our boat and rented a cabin for the second week of June. My brother Dick also rented a cabin and we had visits from 2 other brothers, Mark and Doug. It was a good week. Did a little reading, fishing and enjoyed a glass of wine watching the sun set over Deer Lake several nights.

Now we are back in Coon Rapids with no more travel plans for the summer except to go the Blue Grass Festival in August. Kelly will join us for that

Rustina the Palmdale Chicken

This story has been sitting in the back of my mind and it needs to be told though it might be old and stale by now. Chicken can get that way.

Last fall when we returned to Palmdale, our neighbor Jack, 2 doors down, had adopted an abandoned chicken that lived over the fence in the property behind the RV park. He fed her corn but he also got fed up because she was pestering him and hanging around the place all the time. Once we watched as he pitched her back over the fence to get her away. That was fine with us and we were somewhat amused. Then Jack did the unthinkable. He sold his camper, packed up and went back to Minnesota, abandoning the abandoned chicken. We discussed the best way for the chicken to travel with Jack and it was suggested that “plucked and frozen” might be best way but I don’t think he even considered that. By the way, this was a Rhode Island Red chicken we are talking about and since she was becoming a pet, people began calling her Rusty.

Once Jack left, Rusty began making friends with other Palmdale Residents. Our neighbors next door, Lyle and Judy fed her some happy hour snacks but once Rusty deposited some droppings on their patio, she was discouraged from coming back. Don fed her once, but I yelled at him that I didn’t want to encourage the chicken on our patio either.

At the Palmdale Tenant’s Committee meeting in December, Don made the announcement that Lyle and Judy would be taking charge of the chicken and her name was now Rustina because clearly Rusty is a rooster’s name and this was a hen. Our neighbors Mike and Deb across from us who live in a big fifth-wheel began feeding Rustina creamed corn and oatmeal, and making sure she had plenty of water as chickens need a lot of water. Rustina would follow us up to the Rec Center when we went up to exercise in the morning and she became quite popular around the place enjoying patio parties with various residents.

Rustina

One day, we were amused because Rustina was roosting on the chair in front of Lyle and Judy’s house. It didn’t look like a very good place to roost for a chicken. Up until then she had flown back across the fence to roost. Then things became much less amusing. We have a nicely sheltered railing by our front steps right next to our porch and Rustina decided that was her place to roost every night as the sun went down. She would have preferred being in the porch but that was never going to happen. It didn’t take long for us to realize that this was not going to work. When we opened the door in the morning it swung across the landing and smeared chicken shit all over the place.

Christmas Eve Dinner (Dick, Terry Mike, Deb and Jean)

On Christmas Eve we hosted a dinner party and as our guests were preparing to leave we gave them instructions about how to exit our porch without disturbing Rustina too much and avoiding walking in the chicken shit. One time Deb found a white egg under her camper and brought it over to show it to us. I was skeptical about whether Rustina layed the egg as it was white but Deb was so excited that I didn’t want to disillusion her. So the story remains that Rustina laid an egg.

We decided to prevent the chicken from roosting on our porch. We shooed her away and I tried to get Don to throw her over the fence like we saw Jack do but he wasn’t into that. She kept coming back. So we started covering the porch landing with the Valley Star which we subscribe to. That worked fairly well at keeping the shit off the wood except when the wind blew the paper up on the siding. We still had the problem with the door and at times used the back door to walk around the porch. We decided to make the area uncomfortable for Rustina. Lyle provided us with some chicken wire which Don crumpled up and tied on the railing with tie straps. It didn’t take her long to get comfortable with that. Don found a board and a bunch of 3-inch self-tapping screws which he put in the board so the screws sharp ends projected up out of the board and there was no place for her to step that didn’t have a sharp screw. We watched her as she tried to settle down on the screws and the first night, she didn’t set her body down but neither did she leave. The second night she adapted to the screws and made herself at home. I googled ways to repel chickens and sprinkled cinnamon and cayenne pepper all over the board, but that didn’t make a difference.

Meanwhile, I was also talking to people and discussing where to get rid of a nuisance chicken since Rustina had clearly become that. Suggestions included calling animal control or making it the park’s problem since we are paying rent there. Meanwhile Deb continued to feed the chicken. I talked to her about how this couldn’t go on. She stopped feeding Rustina and the amount of poop was down about 90%. I felt bad about starving Rustina. Finally, I decided to call around to chicken farmers looking for advice. I found a CSA (CD&A Mini Ranch in San Benito). The lady I talked to said that they raise Rhode Island Reds and would take her off our hands.

Mike and Deb’s next-door neighbor, Grace had a couple of dog crates by their camper. They agreed to allow us to use a crate to relocate Rustina if we made sure to clean it out good which we were happy to do. Grace informed us that she is able to communicate with animals and she had discussed with Rustina the problems she was causing on our porch and our desire to be rid of her. She said that Rustina understood but she was apprehensive as you would expect her to be. She also said that we have the name wrong and her name was Beverly. So one morning in January, I rode along with Mike and Deb as we hauled Beverly in the back of their pick-up truck to the CSA and handed her off to the chicken farm where she belonged. Mike cleaned up the crate and returned it to Grace.

Sunday, September 4, 2022

Our Great Alaska Adventure

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.