Since it was raining, I had to cook the pork chops inside instead of Bob using the grill.  We are too close to our neighbors to put out our awning.

We SKYPE'd calling home to talk with everyone.  It was so good to see everyone together, and get a peek at Stephanie's baby bump!  Rachel wanted to read us a story, Kylie wanted to bang on the keys, and just overall enjoy seeing and talking to everyone of them before they all scatter again tomorrow.

We will have to go back to the Salty Dog Saloon before we leave and get pictures.  It's a log cabin, with a LOW ceiling and the whole inside is covered with dollar bills that are attached to anything and everything!  Fun place!

This morning Margie and Bill took a boat tour of the bay area riding over to the fishing village of Soldovia; boat and planes are the only way of getting there.  Bob spent time investigating the cause of all the oil on the car. When he checked, the oil was high, but he could smell diesel fuel.  That was not a good sign.  He spent the rest of the morning on the phone with Cummins, and some mechanics, and Coach Net.  The repairs are beyond his abilities, so right now we have an appointment in Anchorage next Thursday at the Cummins dealer.  Not sure how we are going to get there yet. 
Spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning the car off, moved the RV long enough to dump and fill at the city RV dump.  There is an eagle's nest up a dead tree, right next to the dump, so while Sandy did the dirty work, I took the tripod over and got pictures of the Momma and baby eagle, me and a half dozen other people, that is.
Happy hour lasted a little longer than expected and we ended up not eating dinner until almost 10 o'clock.  What can I say, I WAS HUNGRY, and we had fresh corn on the cob to go with our hamburgers.  YUM!

We drove around Homer, getting pictures of the places where we didn't have the camera with us before, like the Salty Dawg Saloon, which has a NOAA approved lighthouse on the top and is shown on all nautical charts. (You can always chart a course to the saloon, haha.) We also stopped at the "Time Bandit" fishing shop. (This is the boat from America's Deadliest Catch TV show). Homer is the home port of "The Time Bandit". They were just in for about two months but had just left last week and won't return until sometime in September. We also stopped at the quilt shop again and then picked up the mail. Now I know how servicemen feel when they get mail call. I was expecting pictures of my granddaughters and I couldn't wait to see them. The bird shown here is a Ptarmagain, the state bird of Alaska. It's posted here for our good friends Bill and Margie, who said they saw one, but never got the picture! (smile!)

We left right after the picture below as taken. We dumped and filled our propane tanks before heading over to the elementary school where we will be picked up by the tow truck tomorrow morning. It ended up an absolutely gorgeous day; the sky was clear blue for the first time in a week!

The first picture was taken at 10:38 am and the second picture was taken at 3:01 in the afternoon. Same location. What a difference a couple of hours makes.

The part came in and they got it in and cleaned up by about 6pm. It was a beautiful day today; sunny and warm.  We have been able to stay in the RV while they worked on the engine.  We will be spending a couple of days right here while we finish doing some sightseeing here before moving on.  We drove to Sam's Club to buy a new battery for the car.  The mountains around here remind me of the mountains in Honolulu, Hawaii.  Bob reminded me that they are all volcanic peaks in both places.

Today was a good day. The sun was shining and the air was warm. We took off for Whittier and the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. It took us about an hour to drive down to Portage where you get to drive through a railroad tunnel to get to Whittier and pay for the privilege. IT'S THE ONLY way to get there, unless you get there by boat. The tunnel is 2 and 1/2 miles long and was built by the US military during WWII. Whittier was built by the military during the war as a supply route for the military in Alaska, because it was an ice-free deep water port. This is also the primary docking facility for all Princess Cruise Ships that come to Anchorage. From Whittier they either ride the train or go by bus to all points north. The whole time we were here it was misting and the surrounding mountains were covered in clouds, so the views weren't all that spectacular. We were back through the tunnel in no time at all. Checked out a couple of Federal campgrounds on the way back. The one that could handle big rigs had a paved road and paved sites, but no water, dump or electricity and only pit toilets, but then most RVs don't need those facilities. When we got to the Wildlife Center it .was raining pretty good and they didn't have any wolves, and we have seen everything else in the wild, so we decided to save our money for a better opportunity. Driving back along Turnagain Arm, we were hoping to see a Bore Tide, but somehow we missed it. Turnagain is a long, shallow bay that never completely empties at low tide and when the high tide starts to come back in, you have a fight where these two forces are pitted against each other. Because of this, you can have very high tides coming in as high waves, anywhere from 6 inches to 6 ft. This is second only to the Bay of Fundy as having the highest tides in the world. We stopped at one point to look at the bay, but the attraction was on the mountain side above us. A small herd of Dall Sheep, was located way up near the top of the mountain, so the picture you see is quite small. By the time we got back to Anchorage the sun was shining as it was when we left. It would seem like we had gone to a different planet for the day.
Don't know if I've mentioned this before or not. The last big crop of wildflowers up here is called Fireweed; it is very profilic and grows everywhere and anywhere, with roadsides seeming to be its' favorite spot. It blooms from the bottom to the top. It is said when it reaches the top and stops blooming, that summer is over and winter is coming. (I have been keeping my eye on this plant especially). I don't want to get caught in the snow, although I am not going home until it cools off down there. We keep hearing there are triple digit temperatures at home.
We are located not far from a small airport here in Anchorage. I have never seen so many small planes in my life. They say 1 in 60 Alaskans has his/her pilots license and I think they all park their planes HERE! But we are also on their flight path and they all sound like they have been wound up with a rubber band. We were also on the flight path for these small planes in Homer. Guess I'm kinda' getting used to the sound.
Margie and Bill called this evening. They are already in Haines and will be taking the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry over to Skagway day after tomorrow. Tomorrow they are taking a fast boat down to Juneau, the state capital of Alaska. The only way to get to Juneau is by boat or plane. I will be anxious to hear what they have to say about Juneau.

We cannot leave until tomorrow.  When they were closing up shop on Friday afternoon, they also put our ladder in the their shop.  We didn't realize where it was until it was too late.  We must wait until tomorrow morning to get our ladder back so we can move on.  Road trip to the laundromat.  Manager of the laundromat was born in Mars Hill, North Carolina.  He has been up here since 1966.  Most of the people we meet came up here long time ago and loved it.  He worked on the Alaska Pipeline.  People that live here when they go to visit either say "going to the outside" or down to the "lower 48".

We were on the move early this morning, as we were blocking the work bays at Cummins. (We wanted to make sure we got our ladder back). Boy, where to go, what to do? Well, it's raining, so let's head east and see what we come across. Hey, let's go back to Wasilla to see the Iditirod Headquarters. Actually, it was very interesting. The championship cup was there, it's pretty BIG! The race was started back in 1971 by Ed Redington. He was trying to drum up support for the historic Iditirod Trail, which was used in the winter to deliver mail and supplies to the rural areas of Alaska.  The race starts the first weekend in March, and covers over 1100 miles from Anchorage to Nome. Mr. Redington's son is still there and he was the one that gave us our ride with the dogs attached to a small wagon. These dogs love to run, they are bred for it. So off we go, mush! It is only a short trip, but since it had rained all morning the course was pretty muddy and we didn't go all that fast, but it was fun. These dogs only weigh about 48 pounds each! These are race dogs, not the ones used to haul supply sleds with heavier loads like the park dogs we saw in Denali; those dogs weigh more. They also had some puppies that were SO CUTE! aahhh! (Mr. Redington has a granddaughter that lives in Fayetteville, NC). Everybody up here is related to someone in North Carolina, I swear it's true.
On the move once again, we keep heading East along the Glenn Highway. They only have about 8 highways up here, so they all have names, mostly of people important in the history of Alaska. Our real destination is Valdez, but we don't think we want to make it in one day, so if something interests us, we are stopping. There were several glaciers along the way; there was also Sheep Mountain, so named because the sheep would walk all over the mountain to lick the salt from the heavy mineral deposits that exist on the mountain, which, is also very colorful because of all the mineral deposits. So they made it a preserve for the sheep; no one can hunt on the mountain. We finally came to the end of that highway and turned south on the Richardson Highway when we saw the Headquarters for the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. It's a chance to get another stamp for our Passport Book, so in we go. This park is home to 9 of the nation's 16 tallest mountains, and many, many glaciers. This park is THE largest park in the USA. It is 6 times the size of Yellowstone, more than 13.2 million acres and it only has 2 roads into the park. One is 32 miles and the other is 60 miles, arriving at McCarthy and the Kennecott Copper Mine, which is a National Historic Landmark. Guess where we're going? We took the time before we left to watch the movie about the park. On the way out of the building a couple of women were looking up! There above them in the rafters of the roof was a momma robin feeding her baby chicks, after which, she promptly sat down on them! ! ! Now that's what I call control!
We drove down to the starting point of this road in Chitina (pronounced Chit-NA). It consists of a couple of small buildings and a population of about 25 and another ranger station. We went looking for a place to park and everything was so muddy, we stayed at campground five miles back that we had seen as we drove in. It didn't look like much, very rocky and weedy, and it was self registration, but only 20 bucks, and it had full hook-ups with sewer and 50 amps! Go figure. It was nice to have electricity and I was able to finish up the laundry was didn't do in Anchorage because of expense. Also to run water without worrying when it's going to run out, this is sheer luxury. Yes, we are self-sufficient, but it's nice to be a little luxurious once in a while. Here I complain while most of the town is running on water from a community well, where you fill up your own jugs or containers, and outdoor plumbing. (aka: outhouses).
         Sidebar: The motorhome is running wonderfully

The entire mine site was wonderful. We only had a short time there before they were going to close for the day. (We didn't realize it would take 3 hours to get there). But we had enough time to visit the manager's office, the general store and warehouse and the recreation hall. We could see all the other buildings, we just couldn't get in them. The mines were worked from about 1908 until about 1938. They were invested by the Morgans and the Guggenhiems. This site was the largest copper mine in the world at that time. We saw many hikers coming back from the Root Glacier. You can also see the Kennicott Glacier that runs along side the Kennecott Mine. This is a young person's paradise. Lots to see and do here, like Ice climbing, and hiking up to the copper mines. We met some graduate students from Colorado University working on the glacier, and hikers from France. You can hear many different languages up in Alaska. We didn't get home until late and Sandy wanted to wash the car; it really needed it. Here we could use hot water and not only get rid of the oil from the fuel pump leak, but also from all the mud we encountered again today. It was over an inch thick on our running boards. Dinner at 10 pm again.
Got a wonderful surprise tonight. The time stamp on this rainbow photo is 10:39 pm! It was raining off in the distance and this picture doesn't do it justice. I have never seen the intensity of the colors as deep as this rainbow was. By the time I could grab the camera and try to adjust the exposure for this late in the evening, it was starting to fade. I yelled at Bob to come quick! He said can't it wait, I said NO. When he got up to the front window, all he could say was, WOW ! God is great, God is good, God is a great artist! (The dot in the middle is a bug on the outside of the window. I don't have software with me that can remove it).

Woke up to an absolutely gorgeous morning! When I looked out our front window there wasn't a cloud in the sky, except, to the north, where a few were crowding around a mountain. My brain started functioning and I realized it was Mt. Wrangell, elevation over 14,163 feet, is the largest active volcano in Alaska. On a cool crisp morning they say you can see steam rising from the cone. I took my share of photos. We are continuing our trip to Valdez down the Richardson Highway, which has to be the most scenic drive in all of Alaska. The weather cooperated and it was a beautiful drive. Stopped for pictures at the Worthington Glacier and in Keystone Canyon, where there were some magnificent waterfalls and before you knew it we were in Valdez. It is beautiful here, it is completely surrounded by the mountains except where it heads out to Prince William Sound on the water to the south. It took us all day to get here because we stopped so often today. We didn't camp across the bay like the others did, but instead are camped at the Glacier Campground a few miles out of town by the Valdez Glazier. We weren't in the campground an hour, when a black bear came ambling down the roadway. I was on the phone but Bob managed to grab a few shots, before he walked out of sight. At least we have electricity here. There are also cottonwood trees here, and it constantly looks like it is snowing! I am posting just some of the highlights we saw today because there so many. I always feel like I am leaving something important out. Bob is just as amazed and fascinated as I am.

We took in the Valdez Museum today which had a lot of history on the Earthquake and the early days of Valdez, before the Earthquake. Actually there are two museums and we only went through one today. We get so entranced, we always stay longer than we plan on. When we left the museum, we saw a couple of people swimming in a pond in the corner park downtown! Brrrr! Down at the boat docks, you can see so many fishing boats with their nets all hanging out to dry. Then we headed over to Peter Pan Fish Co. to buy some fish. We found out it was less expensive to buy the fish, than to go out for 8 hours on a charter. Bob says, less labor too. On the way back home, we drove to the Valdez Glacier 1/4 mile past the campground. It all trickles into a lake at the base (or what used to be the base) of the glacier. It has retreated back into the mountain quite a bit. Many glaciers are retreating up here because of climate change. (It's politically incorrect to say "Global Warming", because they can't prove it). I think these melting glaciers prove it.

We had to leave the campground before 11am check out, so we parked down at the corner before going into town again. I stopped to take a picture of the eagles nest in the campground first. They closed four sites so as not to disturb the eagle and her chick(s). I thought that was very generous of them. It was another glorious day. Maybe I should mark these days on the calendar, they are precious and few. We went to visit the second museum before we left town today. I enjoyed this one so much more. The exhibits seemed more professionally done, showcased better, and the condition of the building was newer. For a town that had to literally move and rebuild after the earthquake, they still have a lot of history to showcase. The exhibits went all the way back to the natives before the land was bought from Russia, up to today, with the monetary settlement so many received from Exxon. The earthquake hit on Good Friday, March 1964, when we were just teenagers, so many of the people are still around from that time. To listen to their recorded stories was heart wrenching. The pioneering spirit of the first generations to come during the gold rush in 1898 lived on in the hearts and minds of these people who stayed to create a new town, literally rising from the ashes. (When the new town was built, they burned down what was left of the old town). Then on Good Friday, again, in 1989 there was the oil spill of the Super Tanker Exxon Valdez. There was much also devoted to that disaster. We saw our old vacuum cleaner (The Kirby), in one of the exhibits. Guess we are getting old when our possessions show up in exhibits. (The top picture is one of an 1886 hand pumper fire truck. It has been restored to original condition and was pumped back in 1996). The bottom picture shows a 1907 steam fire engine restored. They were beautiful.
And we're off....we're headed towards Tok, where we can pick up our last bunch of mail before we get back to the states. It won't be in before Monday, so we have all the time in the world to get there. And today was another beautiful day, (did I say that already)? We are headed back up the Richardson Highway to the Tok Cutoff just above Glennallen. Stopped for a few more scenic pictures and drove through Copper Center to get a picture of "City Hall", before we settled for the night in a picnic pull-off by the Tazlina River.

Early this morning there was a knock at our front door, Bob didn't know what was going on. A man was standing there asking Bob if he was interested in Salmon. Long story short, we ended up with 10 1/2 pounds fresh caught Copper River and King Salmon, already filleted. We know it was that much because we weighed it. The man was very generous, and said he was doing his good deed for the day. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. God is good. We continued on our way to Tok where we will stay until our mail arrives.

Visited the Teslin National Wildlife Refuge Center and a couple of gift shops before the rain started. Blah. Picked up our mail at the post office. We saw this momma moose on our way up to Tok. She had 2 babies with her but I couldn't get them both in the picture.
(Remember, you can click on any picture to enlarge it.)

One of those rare gorgeous Alaskan sunsets taken in Tok, Ak at 10:25 at night. If anyone has ever driven to Alaska, you have driven through this intersection. (The Alaska Hwy and the Tok Cutoff.)

We are on the road to Haines. We crossed from Alaska, back into Canada. We feel like we're leaving Alaska, but we're not done yet! We didn't make it quite half way, spending the night in a Canadian rest area with 3 other camper vehicles. The trash cans have bear prints on them, so we'll have to be on the look out for bears. I also saw another rainbow this evening, although it was a little earlier, say around 7:30pm. (Kluane River Overlook Rest Area 1726 km) Today's wildlife included a moose, 2 trumpet swans, and a ptarmigan which we almost ran over because he wouldn't move out of the road. At least one chipmunk at the rest area and two things that crossed the road that were so small, Bob said one was the size of a scorpion (not) and the other the size of a teeny-weeny mouse. Did you know there are no snakes in Alaska? That's GREAT.

We passed through Yukon Territory to British Columbia, and back into Alaska today. No problems so far. We stopped at the Alaska Chilkot Bald Eagle Preserve about 20 miles outside of Haines. This is where they have the largest concentration of eagles in the world. Each Fall, 3000 to 5000 eagles arrive to feast on the last salmon run in the area to fatten up for the winter. This preserve is approximately 3 miles by 30 miles long. It also allows for the traditional uses of hunting, fishing, berry picking and other subsistence practices by the Natives of Alaska. Learned a lot of neat stuff about the eagles.

Checked out the AMHS Ferry schedule before doing anything else today. We will probably stay here a day or two before heading over to Skagway, about a one hour ferry trip from here. We are parked in a pull off, protected by bushes from the road. I can look out my window and see daisies and the Lynn Canal through the trees. It has rained most of the morning, not a very nice day to do any sightseeing. But the sky finally broke through about noon.
Sightseeing in Haines. We took off for the Haines Visitor Center to see what was going on. They asked if we have gone to the State Fair. We said no, and she gave us several other ideas to do. We headed first to the American Bald Eagle Foundation. They also asked us if we had been to the state fair, adding they had 3 live raptors on display there as well. They have more than 200 specimens for birds, mammals and other wildlife on display. Very well done. They also had two live raptors on display, a barred owl (named Hunter, and a red tailed hawk, called Sitka). These raptors will never be released into the wild again, as the injuries they sustained will keep them from hunting which is necessary to their survival. They are amazing; they can turn their heads 270 degrees to watch for prey. Their eyes do not move in their heads like ours do, but their vision is about 10 times better than ours. They do attempt to rehabilitate the birds and release them back into the wild if at all possible. They currently have 10 birds they are working with.
From there we drove out to Chilkat State Park which is located several miles below Haines. There is a campground we wanted to check out, and beautiful views of two glaciers on the other side of the Chilkat River. (The Rainbow and Davidson Glaciers) There are several camping sites that we could fit on, it's just getting down and back up the hill with a 14% grade! I would worry about.
On the way back we drove through the area that used to be Ft. Seward, an army base that is full of Victorian style homes now. Although a National Historic Landmark, most of the buildings are private property and they are all in variable states of repair or disrepair I should say. They are all located around the dress parade ground, which seems to be all they did while stationed up here. One building of interest, now located on the parade grounds was all marked up with native
markings. Interesting.
We were going to head home, but decided to drive five miles further up the road to Chilkoot Lake and Campground State Park. We were told that the salmon were running. When we got there, there were cars parked along the road, like in the Smokies. It was a BEAR JAM. Yes, a momma and two cubs were fishing down on the river. You are told not to get out of your car as there are bears present in the area. We took a picture or two and headed on up the road to the campground. Beautiful campground overlooking Chilkoot Lake. Since the salmon are running, this campground was FULL! We would have a hard time finding a site that would fit our motorhome. So we drove back to where we spotted the bears at the fish weir. There, we realized there was a man out on the weir. He was counting the fish and measure them as they come through a small opening in the weir. This is all regulated through the Alaska Fish and Game Program. Below the weir, there were dozens of fishermen trying their hand at catching the salmon. We stopped a little below there, and saw two women watching the fishermen, asking if they had seen the bears. They said, "Oh, you mean the momma and two cubs down there?", pointing to a spot about 100 feet down river. We chatted a few minutes more, before rushing on to get some more pictures of the bears. We were not alone in our pursuit; but with dozens of others getting out of our vehicles to get that "special shot". Momma could care less about us; she was interested in getting some dinner for her youngins'. That's not to say, we didn't all run backwards, when she took a couple of steps our way. All you could hear was the clicking of the cameras, total silence except for some very muted whispering. Now this was AWESOME! Needless to say, we have LOTS of pictures. Dinner was late that night.

We decided to do the fair today. We figured we could do the fair pretty quick and still make it in time for the ferry by five o'clock. It was a beautiful day. I mean it was so warm and the sun was shining so brightly, we didn't take any jackets into the fair. How nice for a change. I mean now this is a small fair. They don't have much of a midway here, just a few rides like a train and a ferris wheel, and a few more. We were told they have a Logging Competition that is pretty good, and also a wonderful quilt display in their exhibitor's hall. We managed to get to the quilts before the competition started. They may have had what I call 5 full bed quilts, perhaps 15 lap or smaller quilts, then quilt hangings, table toppers and a quilted jacket. They were wonderful! I didn't see anything showing native culture, but the women worked hard on these quilts and their handiwork really showed. I think I enjoyed the children's crafts section the best. Everything there had a ribbon on it, most of them blue ones! Now that's what I call encouragement! But...OMG! The Logging Competition was wonderful. From young men to old timers, women included! Everyone gets equal billing up here. Seeing women wielding chain saws, WOW! I guess we can do it all. There was one native couple I think entered every competition, Maria, and a man affectionately called "Animal". This must be their occupation, I mean she was wearing her own hard hat!
There was small chain saw competition, large chain saw, obstacle bucking (walk waaaaaay out on a tree limb about 12 feet with the chain saw RUNNING, cut off the tip of the limb and make it back without falling off! Whoo Hoo! Now that was dangerous; a couple of men didn't make it to the end of the limb, they just canceled. Maria was the first person, and only woman to do it! Yea!! There's also "Setting the Choke", a young guy with long legs won that. You have to jump from log to log (BIG logs) set a cable, run back, attach it to a cable and PULL! There was also Axe throwing. WOW! Some people were better than others, some hit the target, some over, some under, some went in the log roll water and some guys had to go in that water to get them back! Brrrr! One guy even knocked that target down. You could get fifty dollars if you hit the postage stamp in the middle of the bulls eye. Yep, sure enough, one man did just that. Now that was a pretty small target.
But the competition that really got the crowd roaring, was the log rolling competition. I guess that's why it was last. This was definitely a young persons challenge. Funny! Each round only lasted a couple of seconds. The women were pitted against men, it didn't matter. You just had to stay on the log longer than your opponent. But once you got soaked, if you won you had to wait for your next round, and that water was COLD! Brrrr. By this time, the pond was in the shade, double Brrr! All in all, good, clean, fun.
During all this, you could hear music coming from the entertainment stage. Some really good music, the fiddling was fantastic! We worked our way down to the main thoroughfare, where they had crab pot tossing, putting on life suits and jumping into a rubber raft, and fish bait setting competitions. We walked through the animal barn, and the community garden. One of the last things we did, was talk to a totem pole carver and looked at piece he was working on. Wonderful work! What a wonderful day! Our faces were red from too much sun for the day. We were tired, we're staying another night!

So far was have take 8,138 pictures with our camera.  That does not include the ones we have taken with our cell phone cameras.  Now aren't you relieved to be reading this short synopsis of our trip and look at these FEW pictures.  We are so GLAD we have digital cameras!