A trip to the Big city

Today we went to the big city (Anchorage), our agenda was to stop at some quilt shops, the Ulu Factory, farmers market and Cabela's.  We had a good day shopping and seeing downtown Anchorage.  We were disappointed to see the farmers market was not open and we weren't sure if it was because of the weather or some other reason.  The new Cabela's is very impressive and worth a visit if you are ever in Anchorage and we made it out spending only $30.  We also saw they are building a new Bass Pro Shops on the north side of town along the Glenn Hwy.

On our way to and from Anchorage we found a small secluded area to run the dogs, it wasn't nearly enough exercise for them or us, but considering the weather it was better than nothing.  Here is a photo near our stop.

On our arrival at Mountain View RV Park on Thursday we met one of our neighbors, a couple of full timers from Texas, Bob & Suzie.  We saw Bob before leaving this morning and made plans to meet for supper at the Noisy Goose in Palmer http://www.noisygoosecafe.com/ .  We had a great meal and nice visit with two very nice people.  We plan to see more of them this summer during our stay in Alaska.

After getting back from supper we are getting caught up on e-mails and our blog. While working on the blog I thought taking a picture of the rig and our view would be nice, so here it is, note the fresh snow on the mountain tops.

Moved down to Palmer yesterday

We took our time driving down from North Pole; hit some showers, but nothing heavy. We left late and stopped often. We stopped at a nice pull-out near Denali park overlooking a river for lunch. While sitting looking out the window, a moose suddenly appeared (a little distance away). It took too long to get up and grab the camera, so we didn't get a photo of it.

Also, the Alaska Railroad Train came by, it was a ways off,  but here is a picture:

The truck was due for an oil change, and Ken called ahead to Palmer GM dealer. They would change it, using his synthetic oil...So our destination for the day was Mountain View RV park. We have stayed here in 2010 and 2012. It is a nice open park, and this early it is not crowded (kind of out of the way). Very nice owners also.

I saw there was a Walgreens in Wasilla as we came through the cut-off on the Palmer-Wasilla Road. Great, because some of my prescriptions are due, and I didn't want to have to go through Anchorage to get to Walgreens again. I hope there will be a Walgreens down on the peninsula soon.

We found a very nice dog groomer who let us use her facilities to wash the boys today. They again smell so nice and fresh (not sure they ever enjoy their spa days, especially while on vacation). We did find an empty field on the way home, and let them run wild for a few minutes.

I have been stopping at Quilt shops along the way, picking  up some unique Alaska fabrics. So far, I have found shops in Fairbanks, Healy (near Denali), Wasilla, and Palmer. There are also shops in Eagle River and of course in Anchorage, and a few on the Kenai Peninsula. I am trying to get different/unique fabric in each store also. It is fun, and my stash is growing. Don't know what I will leave for the future, though.

Tomorrow we are planning to go into Anchorage for the Farmers' Market and a trip to Cabela's for Ken (I think there might be a quilt shop stop or two for me.)
We can just take the truck and leave the 5th Wheel at Palmer. It is about an hour to Anchorage from here.

The temperatures are perfect, but there is a very strong wind blowing from the south, up the Matenuska River, picking up a lot of dust from the gravel. Dust is thick in the air along and over the River, about 20 feet in the air.

North Pole and Fairbanks Alaska

We arrived in North Pole, AK Monday evening and found a nice RV park between North Pole and Fairbanks, it is called Riverview RV Park and as its name suggests it's on the banks of the Chena River.  We have decided to stay a few nights and catch up on rest and visit some sights in the area.

Tuesday night we went to The Turtle Club http://www.alaskanturtle.com/ for supper, they are famous for their prime rib with excellent horseradish sauce.  We first visited this supper club when we visited with Mom & Dad Kerl in 2007, like the last time the food was great.

Wednesday we took a walk at Creamers Field near Fairbanks http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=creamersfield.main we saw several species of ducks and a sandhill crane.  We took the dogs on our hike, but they needed to stay on leash to keep from disturbing nesting ducks.  After our walk we visited two fabric stores where Rosalie was able to find some fabric to buy for later projects.

The weather today was mostly sunny and temperatures reached the mid-60's.

We have gold fever

While staying with Bruce Grossmann he graciously took us to his gold claim between Delta Junction and North Pole (The exact location is classified), and gave us a class on gold panning before helping us pan for gold.  We even found some and have more pay dirt to pan to see if we can find more.

Rosie's low-tech log of our travels from May 22 til May 25....

May 22 (Thursday), we drove from Sherk’s at Valley View through to Triple G at Fort Nelson. We didn’t keep track of anything on this day, but we did see 2 black bears. And we found diesel at $1.63/liter or over $6 a gallon.

May 23 (Friday): We left Triple G at Fort Nelson about 10:15am Mountain Time. We saw so much wildlife all day.

Bears: 8 plus 2 cubs

Moose: 1                            Elk: 1                Rabbit: 2                    Caribou: 4

Coyote/Grey Fox (feeding on dead moose): in the heavy fog/cloud -- zipped into the woods so we couldn’t be sure what we saw.

Buffalo: 18 singles or small groups plus 43 in a herd including babies.

Rosie started a low-tech log of our travels to help our memories while we have fewer opportunities to hook up to the internet.

We drove through the high mountains in the clouds, fog got pretty thick in places, and it was raining with falling temperatures as we gained altitude. I’m glad Ken was driving.

We stopped at Tetsa River Lodge for a huge, delicious cinnamon roll.

Both Summit Lake and Muncho Lake are still ice covered and there was fog to drive through.

Pulled into the Baby Nugget RV Park west of Watson Lake. This was a very nice park with sites among sparse pines, but at least a little space between sites. Nice people who advised us to fill up with water and make sure to visit the dump station, since we would be finding lots of frozen pipes or parks that wouldn't even be open yet.

May 24 (Saturday): Left Baby Nugget RV Park about 9:00am Pacific Time.

It is impossible to play the alphabet game, since there are just so few signs along the road. There are high snow-covered mountains west of us.

We saw 1 caribou, 1 Rabbit, 1 coyote, 2 Porcupines, and a brown-phase Black Bear. Where have all the animals gone?

We stopped at Teslin for lunch; good food and got a discount on diesel fuel.

Made it to RV park at Destruction Bay.  Flat gravel lot with frozen water; only electric.

May 25 (Sunday): Left Destruction Bay about 8:45am, heading for Beaver Creek and Port Alcan.

The road is very rough! We are seeing a lot of ducks again and a few swans.  We also saw 5 moose today.

For future reference: There is a very nice RV park at White River (midway between Destruction Bay and Beaver Creek).

There is a lot of haze over the mountains to the west….from the forest fire on Funny River Road south of Sterling. We wish we could get computer or TV news to find out how large the fire is, and how it will affect our plans to spend the summer on the Kenai Peninsula.

We came up on some road equipment repairing the frost heaves, without flagmen to direct traffic around the equipment on one-lane surface. So we waited back because a big rig came into our lane heading right at us.

Crossed the border about noon….no issues at all.

Drove through TOK (note: Tundra RV park looks to be still open); it was too early to pull in, so we drove on to Delta Junction. We were very tired, but found the RV park still closed, because the frost isn't out of the ground yet. We didn't want to go on to Fairbanks, so called Dad to get phone number for Bruce Grossmann for advice.

Back to regular blogging now.

We Are In Alaska

We finally made it into Alaska yesterday (05/25) shortly after noon.  The road between Burwash Landing and Beaver Creek was the worse we had, lots of roller coaster heaves and sunken spots, so we had to go slow and pick our trail.  We could see a distinct haze in the air from the fires burning on the Kenai, close to the area we will be staying at later.

Diesel prices are crazy in Canada with the average being over $6 a gallon, one fill up cost $191, yikes!  Many RV parks are still closed or have limited services as the ground is still frozen and things haven't really picked up yet.  Lakes Muncho and Kluane are just starting to break up and there is lots of snow on the mountains yet.

We didn't have internet the last couple of days, so we weren't able to post and didn't take to many pictures.  We have seen lots of black bears, some moose, caribou, elk and a wolf and even a pair of Sandhill Cranes.

We spent last night with Bruce Grossmann in Delta Junction after finding the local RV park closed yet.  We had a nice visit with Bruce after supper and will spend some time today with him touring Delta Junction and maybe panning for some gold on his gold claim.  Then it will be off towards North Pole Alaska and then on to Fairbanks before heading south back towards Anchorage and then Seward.

Where are we?

Well we left Lignite Tuesday morning and about 7 miles later made it to the border at Portal, after the usual questions at the checkpoint we were told to park and bring in the slip of paper the agent gave us.  Once inside were greeted by a friendly and polite agent who asked a few more questions and then used our firearms declaration form from 2012  and collected the $25 fee and we were on our way in less than 20 minutes without incident.

We continued our way northwest on Hwy 39 across Saskatchewan seeing HUGE fields and a coal mining operation.  I would say the fields are 2-3 miles across. The fields were wet and every pothole had ducks and geese on them.

A little northwest of Moose Jaw we took Hwy. 2 north to Chamberlain where we stopped and put the trailer slides out and ate some lunch and stopped at a local ice cream shop for dessert. This picture was taken in Chamberlain.  The sculptures you see are made by Don Wilkins and are placed along Hwy. 11. A website talking about these sculptures can be found at: www.donwilkins.net

We then picked up Hwy. 11 and continued towards Saskatoon until we decided to stop at North Battleford for the night.  We stayed in a township campground that was very nice and only had about 8-10 sites occupied.

We began Wednesday morning by picking up Hwy 16 that continues northwest into Alberta at Lloydminster and goes through Vermillion and on towards Edmonton.  Driving through Edmonton was like driving through any big city, lots of traffic and stop and go.

A ways northwest of Edmonton we picked up Hwy. 43 that runs through Whitecourt and up to Valleyview where we have pulled into a place we have stayed before Sherks RV Park.  This place is top notch and I don't think you could find anyplace better.

Now we are catching up on e-mails etc and relaxing a bit before bed.

Tomorrow we will officially begin our journey on the Alaska Hwy. at Dawson Creek.

I should mention today temps were in the low 70's and mostly sunny.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more.

The Train, The Train! Canada here we come

Good Morning from a cold NW North Dakota, after a good day driving we found a place to stay in Lignite North Dakota.  There is still frost in the ground here and lots of water on the fields and all the potholes.  Seeing LOTS of ducks, they're everywhere.  The place we stayed hasn't turned the water on yet and there are only 6-7 sites.  It is all gravel (mud), but a nice place and nice people.

This morning we will head north to Portal ND where we will cross into Saskatchewan and begin our journey through/across Canada.  We will head NW towards Saskatoon and then on towards Edmonton.

We only took one picture yesterday during our travels and it was of this train.  Note, Ken took the picture and Rosalie was driving.

More as service/time allows

Monday Morning in Fosston, MN

We awoke to a rainy morning in Fosston, took our time getting started and are taking a slower pace to get on the road.  Rosalie took these pictures of our rig while we were out walking the dogs in the small village RV Park we stayed in overnight.  It was just what we needed to pull in and relax a bit after a good day driving.

Minnesota

We left Chetek this morning at 10:00 a.m. and made it to Duluth about 12:30 p.m.   On the way into town and across the hwy. 53 bridge we noted the south shore of Lake Superior was packed with ice.

After hunting for a station with Diesel we finally found one and topped off.  The truck computer showed we got about 11 mpg.

After getting fuel we met a friend of Rosalie's, Carol Northcott and enjoyed some appetizers and coffee at a Duluth establishment.  We then headed west on US 2 and ended our day in Fosston, where we found a small village RV lot to stay at.  There was one other rig in the park.  It only had electric, but we have enough water on board to get by.

We enjoyed a nice salad and spaghetti for supper and then it was e-mail and computer time while watching season 1 of Duck Dynasty.

Now it is off to bed....

On The Road Again - North To Alaska

05-17-2014 The rig in the driveway only minutes from departure at 9:40 a.m.

We made it to Chetek, WI where we stopped to visit and spend time with our friends Jim & Donna Meacham.  They had a nice spot for us to park our rig, so we decided to make it a short day and stay overnight.

After a great nights sleep and waking up to a beautiful day we will be off for our next adventure.