Headed to Seward

July 21 -   The drive to Seward was not bad!  Took about 3 hours and the roads were somewhat better than we’ve had lately.  We are in a KOA that has full hook ups, however, we got water and electric so it limits being able to do laundry.  Hoping for better when we get to Anchorage.

Once we parked and hooked up Bill, Melissa and I drove into town to check things out.  We arrived here on a train over 20 years ago to catch a cruise ship and we thought we’d recognize the B & B where we stayed but no.  Seward was a bit larger than it was 20 years ago.  We stopped at a “gift” shop and they had everything.  Of course there were souvenirs to be purchased!  There was a huge cruise ship in the harbor and we went by the train station that we arrived at 20 years ago.  Since it’s a city on the water, pretty much the entire coast of the city are campgrounds.  They appear to be owned by the city and some are dry camp and some have partial utilities.

Once we got back we put our beets on to cook.  They are for Melissa and I as Bill won’t touch a beet. I made chicken medallions and tossed salad.  The beets were delicious!  Next we will sauté the tops and see how that goes.

It was a quiet evening but Melissa and I kept a close watch on what was going on at our end of the campground.  The tenters are beside us and we were watching them set up and wondered how some of them fit in the tents etc. 

Checking out THe Spit!

July 20 - Well Melissa said she slept well on the recliner so Bill is putting the bed back in the storage compartment.  It’s been a brisk day today!  Once breakfast was out of the way we all went into Homer.  Bill had a couple of errands he wanted to run and we tootled around a super nice and big hardware store that even had yarn and fabric.  Bill made all the stops he wanted and we checked the location of the RV dump station and took some photos of the mountains across the bay.

We stopped on the Spit and visited the Salty Dawg Saloon.  It’s kinda dumpy, small, and started in 1957.  They only serve drinks, no food, and are know for the thousands of dollar bills on the walls, ceiling, window frames and any where else they could put them.  We all ordered a drink and sat with a nice lady from California.  We got out $1 for each of us and they provide Sharpie pens to write on your dollar if you want and tacks to put them up.  So I put our 3 together and we got photos of them and of the ceiling, walls, and tons of $1.

Then we went across the road to have lunch but  waited about 35 minutes for a table. Melissa and I shared a seafood platter while Bill had a hamburger.   The wait was long but the food was excellent. Then it was time to head back to the RV.

We stopped at the local Farmers Market.  It was kinda small and not all booths were open.  We bought some fresh beets for Melissa and I.

Tonight, the Wagonmasters were providing a seafood dinner.  Several of the group helped with cooking the crab legs, shrimp, sausage, potatoes and corn on the cob.  One of the ladies made a cobbler for dessert and other made cookies.  So it was a nice spread but unfortunately it was so cold and rather windy out.   I wouldn’t wait to leave and get back inside.  Tomorrow we head to Seward for a couple of days but we don’t think we’re going to have very good weather.

What a Day!

July 19 -   Today we learned that we don’t have 30 Amp, we have 20 because the power went off down our whole row.  These are the crappiest campgrounds!  So everyone had only 20 and you can’t run the heater and coffee maker at the same time. 

Today there was an excursion on a ferry over the bay to the town of Seldovia.  It was a Russian community that we were told it’s an arts and hand crafted area of shops and so much to see.  It was really cold on the ferry going over and got bumpy and I hadn’t thought about wearing a travel patch.  One of the ladies offered me some oil to put behind my ears and I made it without getting sick. 

Once we disembarked Bill and I started to walk and there weren’t many places open.  It’s almost a ghost town.  There was a coffee shop, Visitor center (which is very nice), the old church that is not open or currently in use, one restaurant, a couple of shops and a few other buildings were all on the main street.  Bill and I walked to the church and truthfully, you could see everything there was to see in an hour and here we were for at least 4 hours.  We had a very good lunch at the local restaurant and ended up just sitting in the community pavilion, then I got us each a hot beverage and we went down to the ship and sat and waited til 4.

Melissa got her flight all squared away and was scheduled to arrive around 7:30. I got to the airport just as the plane was landing and it’s so small that I could park in front.  I had just gotten inside when they departed the plane and here came Melissa.  They were told that due to how much fuel weight they had they could only take 3 suitcases and so everyone was scrabbling to fill out their paperwork and it was a mess.  Once the crowd left Melissa turned in her paper and as we   were headed to the door she saw one bag on the luggage table and what a relief that it was hers!  If not we would have had to go back at 9:30 tonight to claim her bag. 

It was only a few minutes to get to the RV and I heated up some leftovers as she’d only had pretzels all day.  We had a nice visit and catching up.  She decided to try sleeping on one of the recliner seats instead of the air mattress.  So time for bed! 

The Good and The Bad!

July 18 -    The good news is we made it safely to Homer and the weather was great today.  The bad news is Melissa’s flight was cancelled and with all the changes to get her here she won’t be in til tomorrow night.  Bummer!  She’s going for a morning arrival to a night arrival but it’s only 8:30 and we are maybe 5 minutes to the airport.

The drive was nice road today and not too much traffic.  We received word that we could not go to the campground until 3 so once we got into town we pulled into a side lot of Safeway with several other RV’s from our group.  We unhooked so Bill could go see a place about putting tires valves on our rear inside tires.  So I went to Safeway and got a few things we were out of.  Just as I was unloading them Bill called and said he was on his way back to have me follow him to the garage.  Well he did and I did and they looked it over and said they couldn’t.  So we were headed back to the Safeway and Bill got a message that we could come in to the campground.  We were just seconds from driving past the turn off so it was excellent timing.

We are on Homer Spit, which is a long narrow piece of land jutting into the Kamishak Bay.  There are several campgrounds on the spit but we are at the very end, within walking distance to the ferry that we are taking tomorrow.  The airport is where the spit starts at the mainland.

The downer for the day is that we were not told that our 3 night site would have nothing but power and that is 30A.  We did not fill our water tank and we will have to be very careful not to waste water.   It will be quick showers too. 

So this hasn’t been the best day with no water and Melissa’s plane issues.  We did walk over to the beach and it’s so windy and cold.  Bill took a couple of photos of me on the beach and I did put my foot in the cold water. 

We had a group meeting at 6 and then Bill and I went out to dinner.  It was a long wait, expensive and mediocre for the price!

We head out at 10:30 tomorrow on the ferry so at least we won’t be rushed!

Long driving day

 July 17 - Today’s drive to Soldotna was about 5 hours. We didn’t leave until 10.   We tried to get propane at the campground before leaving but they couldn’t get it to work.  We will maybe have better luck at a gas station that also has propane.  We’re at about half and with cooking with it and needing to run the heater I think we better get it!

The drive was thru Anchorage during the rain which was not fun but at least we had 4 lane road for quite a while today.  It was rainy part of the way and a lot was along lake edges.  I don’t like that part at all.   We drove along side of the train tracks for a very long time and Bill and I recalled when we road the train from Anchorage to Seward over 20 years ago.  It hasn’t changed much!

We set up for dry camping along a private airstrip.  Not my idea of a good campground.  Can’t imagine what they paid for this place!  We have 15 rv’s pretty much in a line along the runway.  The area that is actually   a campground had small spaces and very overgrown weeds.  I would give this place an X and NO stars.

Some of the group went into town for groceries and to look around. Bill and a couple of guys went to a carving shop to admire the skill of the owner.  I prepped for dinner and was out visiting with some of the group.

After dinner we had a fire circle.  One of the ladies had a load of firewood so hey got a fire going and about half of the group sat around and toasted marshmallows, made smores and just chatted.  It started cooling down and the party broke up.  It’s now 10 pm and it’s a light as it was a noon.

Tomorrow we head for Homer.

Glaciers

July 16 – Driving day again!  We were close to the last ones to leave the campground.  We were following our friends Dave and Donna.  We agreed we wanted to stop at the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park that was on our way.  The timing worked out great as once we parked and went in we had some time to look around and get what we wanted from the gift store and then we went next door to a movie.  It was an extremely well done movie of how vast the park is and how it came to be.  Excellent movie!  We all enjoyed the stop.

Dave suggested we have lunch while we were parked so we didn’t need to find a stopping point down the road.  Great idea so we had lunch and then we all got back on the road.

One of our other group messaged Dave that we were going to come to some road with lots of ups and down, kinda like a wave.  You just can’t find a flat straight road here!  So I was continually slowing down for the dips.  Then it was mountain crossing time!  Oh joy!  The roads were narrow with rather non-existent edges and then we were right on the edge of a lake on a curvy road.  It was another drive I could not wait to get over.  I did slip off the inside once and scared the bejesus out of Bill.

The up side of the drive is we got to see 2 glaciers.  The first was Nelchina and it was pretty far off the road but up in the mountains and the other was Matanuska, which was closer to the ground and wide and skinny.  Too bad that road wasn’t a good spot to pull over to get some nice photos.

We were the last to arrive today at our campground in Palmer.  We were expecting partial hook ups but we lucked out with a pull thru and full hook ups.  We’ve been told tomorrow night we are dry camping in a field.  Oh joy!

I finally cooked my cube steaks tonight and baked Bill a white potato and a sweet potato for me.  They are very big so we each had half and now we have potatoes ready for another meal.  I was pooped so I just made a salad to go with it!  We’ve been eating out way too much and need to get back on track!  

Lazy Day!

July 15 – Today was a free day – meaning you were free to do whatever you wanted.  From whit I heard there was a lot of laundry washing going on today.  I was part of the mix.  I did 4 loads in the RV!  I love my washer and dryer!  I also cleaned my floors and was doing some things on the computer and showing Bill how to move his picture from his phone to his computer.

Later we drove into town to see the gift shop we missed and it was the most reasonably priced places we’ve been in this trip!  I got a Christmas ornament for us and a couple of small gifts to take home.  We stopped at the fish processing place and I I got some rockfish and halibut that was caught and flash frozen.  Bill won’t eat it but when Melissa comes I know she will enjoy it with me!

This evening was chili night for the group and luckily for me one of the other ladies can’t have spicy so they made her a small crock of chili and she invited me to share it.  It was good and no hernia issues!

Tomorrow we head to Palmer for one night.