July 4th

Happy Birthday America!!

THE DETAILS:

THE WEATHER: ditto

THE DISTANCE: We left Bird around 10:30 and arrived in Hope at 12:30. We’re staying at Alaska Dacha RV Park.


We woke up to rain &cool temperatures again this morning. It’s so weird to hear that at home the weather is hot and humid when we are in long sleeve shirts and coats!

The road to Hope has been absolutely stunning. The rain stopped before we left but there were lingering clouds and wind. The mountains to the left slope down to meet the road and to our right is Turnagain Arm which is the ocean inlet. There are bore tides (I’ll let Dan explain what that is) that come through this narrow inlet and if your lucky you might see some beluga whales. We have not been that lucky but have seen many eagles along the sand banks. Not close enough to take a picture of unfortunately. It seems like everything is waiting for that elusive salmon run. Even Bruno had a little run in with an Eagle... he's okay though. He freed himself.

There are warnings everywhere about the sand becoming like quick sand if you walk out on it and the fast rising water when high tide is moving in. Gary & Matt actually saw a seal out in the water up in Anchorage when they went fishing Friday night.

Gary fished Resurrection River (appropriate for it being Sunday) which is known for its salmon run and got, well, you guessed it! NOTHIN'! There were other fishermen on the river but nothing was caught. We spotted a moose on our fishing travels though!

So I'm hoping to post a picture of Jack Kimm on Thursday’s post (July 1st) but my camera was again acting up. Every time he would pose for a shot it wouldn’t come out, but this blurry one did. I’ll work on getting a better picture when we return the gun.

I posted the picture of the reindeer dogs because I think it’s so funny to see it everywhere. Gary & I had eggs and reindeer sausage when we went out for breakfast the other day. It’s actually very good, lean and tasty. Reindeer is actually caribou.

July 3rd

THE DETAILS:

THE WEATHER: Rainy, cloudy, cool, high of 68

THE DISTANCE: 30 miles to Bird… had to do it!


Well, we left the Anchorage campground with the best intentions of spending the day downtown with all the Fourth of July festivities. That didn’t quite work out as we planned.

Problem #3: Gary dropped me off at the office so I could post a couple of pictures before we left and when I returned a few minutes later the RV wouldn’t start. He worked on it for 30 minutes and nothing obvious was the problem. He thought he had flooded the engine but an hour later it still wasn’t starting. A man with a southern drawl helped us tow it around to the other side of the building where Gary could work on it out of the way of traffic going in and out of the RV park. That’s where we sat for the next 3 ½ hours. Finally, after pulling the engine apart he discovered a stuck choke. When he realized that was the problem it was an easy fix and we were on our way.

We did go down town for a short time and took some pictures… one is just for you Zoe!! But they were closing up shop so we didn’t stay long. We got on our way down south and stopped at Bird on the Seward Highway. It does not have internet, it does not have water hook up, their electric is by plugging into an extension cord and it’s right on the highway…. But it’s cheap!

The Seward Highway is absolutely gorgeous. I hope the pictures can capture its beauty.