vegging out......

We haven’t been doing much of anything the past few days…Don and Sharron, Bill and Bar bara left on Monday heading South toward Anchorage.  We’re hanging around here waiting until Wednesday to go down to Denali to meet Lisa and Wayne, Linda and Chase.  I thought about moving down closer, but there is a shortage of CG’s on the Parks Highway. Made sense to just stay here, sit by the river, read a book……

I finally got the kayak off the car yesterday, and took it out for a spin.  Things were kind of quiet on the river, none of the crazies on their SkiDoos.  Don’t know why there aren’t more accidents with those things, especially  in the hands of those with death wishes.  They have no consideration for the people on the river in canoes, kayaks, and sloboats.

The current in the river is swifter than I thought.  I wore myself out paddling upstream for about 1/2 mile, but it was a treat to just lie back and drift back down.  I discovered a stream off to the side of the river, and paddled quite  a ways up it.  Several cabins with the ever present gaggle of dogs lined the bank.

I had this all typed last night, hadn’t saved it, and River’s Edge WIFI suddenly went dead, lost everything, and I mean to tell you, there were some deep and thoughtful thoughts contained therein, none of which I can remember.

However, I won’t make that mistake again….right now I am going to SAVE!!!

There, I feel better.

We’ve been eating in for about a week, and decided to go out to dinner tonight to celebrate our last night here.  We went to an Italian place we spotted the other day, up on the side of one of the mountains.  Sadly disappointed….chicken parmigian was way overcooked, and the sauce was bitter, with way too much garlic….and, I love garlic…. 

On the way home, I told Shelby that it’s sad when you appreciate crock pot beef stew (had for lunch) more than an expensive restaurant meal.  When I am King, I will make a rule that you will never have to pay for a bad meal.

It’s almost 10:00 p.m. and the sun is still shining brightly.

Looking forward to travelling down to the Kenai Peninsula after Denali.  Been reading about it, and it looks like maybe the highlight of the trip.  Can’t wait to see the “combat fishing” that takes place when the salmon start to run.

Signing off now before I get cut off…..probably will be without internet for at least a week.

 

Harold and his favorite automobile, 19?? A Model Ford. 

Homemade paddle wheeler, cruising up the river. 

Alaska Pipeline, Prudoe to Valdez,shown near Fairbanks. 

Shelby studying her gold pan. 

Don and Sharron, looking for gold. 

Hanging around Fairbanks.....

We decided to stay here at River’s  Edge CG until it’s time to meet Lisa and Wayne, Linda and Chase in Denali.  The sites are a little crowded, but, all in all, it’s a pretty nice place.  It’s clean, and right on the river.  We spend a lot of time sitting by the river, reading, and watching what floats by.  There was one of those joke boat races upstream yesterday, one of the requirements was that any boat entered had to be put together with duct tape….last night, remains of some of the boats came floating by.  We had intended to go see the race, but forgot about it until it was too late.  Also, we saw two young fellows with a “Huckleberry Finn” kind of raft (on oil barrels) come floating down.  They seemed to be having a great time, along wih their dog.  Another home built boat came by, powered by paddle wheels that were mounted on either end of an automobile rear axle, probably powered by the same auto engine.  He wasn’t going very fast, but getting there!

We drove up to the northern part of the Fairbanks area on Friday and did some gold panning.  None of us expected to find any gold (did see some gold flecks), but after awhile, everything looks suspiciously like gold.  It was a great outing on a creek about 25 miles back on a BLM road.  We just enjoyed the sun, waded in the river, and picked some blueberries.  Downside was that the whole area had suffered a huge forest fire last year, and was in terrible condition.  Thousands of acres of trees totally destroyed.

Don and Sharron, Bill and Barbara left here yesterday to head down toward Anchorage.  We’ll try to catch up with them after we leave Denali, somewhere down in that area, maybe on down in the Kenai Peninsula.  I just hope our cell phones are working so we can be in contact with them.  I told Don that if we lose touch, to call Linda at the office week after next and let her know where they are.  Bill and Barbara are getting the ferry on the sixth of August, so they will have to head over to Haines about August 2nd, so we may miss them.

My River Bend WIFI just came up, so I’m going to close out and post this.  After Wednesday we’re probably going to be without access (at Denali).

Shelby at the Fairbanks Welcome Center...lots of flowers! 

Kayakers on the river directly in front of our campsite... 

Still in Fairbanks....

Yesterday morning we drove the MH over to Alaska RVCenter for our 10:00 appointment, and, without realizing how close we were, got there almost an hour early. The owners were so nice, they pulled two Techs off other jobs and put them to work resetting our fridge circuit board so that it will work on propane.  They also found some rust in the chimney, which may also have contributed to the problem.  Our other gremlin problems seem to have disappeared (for the moment).  As expected, the Techs told me that they could only attempt to fix the problem when it is evident.  They seemed relieved that they didn’t have to deal with it anyway.  Now I can only wait  for it to reappear (probably when we are out in the boonies, somewhere).

Afternoon, we drove down to the Alaska Prospector’s Supply with Sharron and Don to pick up gold panning equipment for our outing today.  We’re going up to a stream, which is North of here, to try our hand at securing our fortune (LOL).  Our equipment consists of one pan for each of us, one vial in which to place our gold dust….pretty much a bare bones operation!

The lady who runs this shop is a character.  Shelby asked her if she used to be a prospector, and she replied “I am still a prospector!”.  She showed us her cache of gold dust….I told Shelby to take a good look, it may be the only time she’ll ever see it.  Her name is Lela Madonna, her husband is a professor of geology at the University of Alaska, and they work as a team at determining where to search for gold.  They also purchase “rocks” that contain interesting semi prescious gems (amethyst, for example).  while we were there, several people brought in bags of rocks for appraisal.  Didn’t see her purchase any of them.  Kind of sad, though, for some of the people looked like they could use the money.

We also talked to a local school teacher, a parttime prospector, in buying some supplies.  He gave us some good advice on pans, etc., where to prospect, books on the subject.  Nice fellow, he seems to be typical of other people we have met here, they have jobs or other ventures to keep them fed, but their primary interest is getting out in the mountains and streams.

Fairbanks AK Farmer's market...July 20, 2005 

Believe it or not, this lady used to work for the Carroll County Sun newspaper...she has been in Fairbanks for 15 years. She took a job with the local paper for one year (she thought), and has been here ever since.  

Flower vendor at the Fairbanks farmer's market, July 20, 2005. 

Fairbanks farmer's market, July 20, 2005. 

Hotel Banff Springs....fanceeee! 

Street scene, downtown Banff BC. 

A smiling RCMP in downtown Banff. (works for the chamber of commerce?) 

Another Moose Jaw mural. 

Most of the buildins in Moose Jaw SK have murals such as these. 

Cooling our heels in Fairbanks.....

Today is our third day in Fairbanks, and the weather has been gorgeous.  Yesterday we did the Walmart thing, then went to the downtown area for awhile.  Fairbanks has a mixture of modern buildings and antique log cabins.  Really is a clean town, with the Tanana River running smack thru the middle of it.  Our CG is on the banks of the same river.  Lots of people kayaking, but I haven’t gotten out yet.

Last evening we took a long drive up thru the mountains that surround Fairbanks, and saw a lot of expensive looking homes that are built back in the woods….quite a few of them are of log construction.  I would guess that they are within 15 miles of the downtown area.

We saw a really nice restaurant up in the mountains…will try to go back up there sometime this week.

We are having 19 hours of daylight now, and it is quite disconcerting to look out the window at 11:30 p.m., and see bright sunlight.  People out washing cars, etc., mowing lawns…..quite different.  We have black felt curtains over the bedroom windows to block the light, probably would be difficult to sleep without them.  Last night I had to get up and place the insert (velcro fastened) up into the shower skylight….too much light coming in.

After we got back from the drive, we stopped over next door at Chena’s Restaurant and had dinner. I had baked halibut with garlic mashed potatoes, and a cream sauce of some kind…really great!  Halibut and salmon are the most common fish on menus.  Shelby had pork loin with mashed sweet potatoes…she thought most of it was not cooked enough, and gave it to me.

We got up late this morning…I slept until almost 6:30 which is unusual for me.  Shelby finally made it up an hour later.  We had planned to go to the local farmer’s market, and thus got a late start.  We finally made it up there, and what a treat!  A lot of the stands were selling local grown veggies, mostly root vegetables, cabbage, lettuce, carrots, etc. No corn though (shucks!)  Local tomatoes are green house grown (due to the short growing season), but they have a really nice flavor.  Expensive though….$3.00 a pound.  Flowers just outdo themselves here, probably due to the lengthy days of full sunlight.  We bought a nice bouqet for the MH, first flowers we’ve had for quite awhile.   The downtown streets, businesses, have these huge hanging baskets of flowers.  We wondered how they ever got that big in 3 to 4 months…..lady selling plants at the Market clued us in:  they take them to local greenhouses, pay rent for them during the winter, then pick them up in the Spring.  Result:  ever growing hanging baskets.

Kind of nice to have a long rest after all those days of driving…..

After the Market, we went up to the University of Alaska Historical Museum.  Lots of displays, pictures, eskimo kayaks, fishing gear, etc.  We spent a couple of hours, then came home for lunch.  We bought a baked chicken at Fred Myers the other night, ate half of it, then made chicken soup out of the rest.  Had that for lunch, along with some of that crusty bread that Safeway sells.  Still haven’t had any dinner.  Crock pot really comes in handy.  On the way up we put the crock pot in the sink, connected it to the inverter, and made soup while we travelled….nice to have hot food at lunchtime.

We are thinking about just extending our stay here until we meet the kids down at Denali.  They still are kids, aren’t they?  Thought about moving down closer to Denali, but looks like there is a scarcity of CG’s down that way.  May call one of them before we make a decision.  Don, Sharron, Bill and Barbara are heading on down to Anchorage, and we will hook up with them later on.  Bill just told me today that he made reservations on the Ferry that leaves from Haines AK, and goes down to the Seattle area.  Takes three days, but cuts considerable time off the land route.  Guess he’s seen enough of the Alaska Highway.

Tomorrow we take the MH over to the Alaska RV Center to have the refrigerator repaired.  The other problems have solved themselves (I  hope!), so it should be a short trip.  Trying to figure out how to get it washed on the way back…it is completely covered with that grey mud/dust that people call “schmulk”.  CG doesn’t allow any washing on site, they want you to use their wash facility (fed by quarters).  I took the CRV over there, and barely got the soap off before my quarters ran out.

After 3 weeks, finally in Alaska......

 Today is July 19th, and we arrived in Fairbanks AK on Monday, and plan to stay for 5 to 7 days.  We have an appointment with a RV repair facility on Thursday to check out the 12v electrical problems.  However, just for the heck of it, today I tried the stabilizer jacks, and they worked just fine.  Went back and disconnected the temporary wiring, reinstated the original wire, and everything works great.  I just switched the refrigerator to gas, and am waiting for it start beeping….hasn’t yet.  So…..is what happened just a freak occurence, or should I worry about it happening again?  Also, should I keep the appointment?  I just know if I do, they’ll tell me “we can’t do a thing unless you can make the problem happen again”..

We spent Sunday night at Tok Alaska…pronounced “toke”.  Went up to the welcome center, and learned that the town is named for a Husky that was the mascot of an Army Engineering Group ,helping to build the Alaska Highway.  Interestingly enough, the dog’s best friend was a young black bear that he kind of grew up with.  There were some pictures of the bear and dog roughousing.

The roads improved greatly as soon as we crossed the Alaska state line.  They seem to know how to handle the permafrost heaves much better than the Canadians….also might be a case of financial problems.

We had constant problems with the frost heaves after we left the Kalane Lake area of the Yukon.  They usually post little red flags up ahead so you can slow down, but sometimes not soon enough and you crash into this bottomless swale, and the front end of the Rv  cracks as it comes up on the other side.  I can’t believe we haven’t broken a spring, or something worse.  Also, some sections where they have tried to level the swales, they are filled and covered with loose gravel.  They wait a year until they black top over the repair, and when you meet an oncoming vehicle, it will likely send a few speeding gravel directly toward your windshield, thus the term “Alaska tatoo”.

 

 

Our CG at Muncho Lake, BC 

CG at Munch Lake British Columbia 

Some of the signs at Watson Lake. 

Harold & Shelby at sign post, Watson Lake 

Bill and Harold at Kulane Lake, Yukon Territory. 

Kulane Wilderness CG, Yukon Territory, night stop. 

Kulane Lake, Destruction Bay, Yukon Territory. 

The Klondike Queen that used to ferry supplies to the gold fields during the Gold Rush. 

Yukon River near Whitehorse, Yukon Territory