Friday, June 12th...Pictures

Taking forever to download...these will have to do for now. More tomorrow...have to get to
airport.

Friday, June 12th

Oh, the train trip....there are no words to describe the beautiful scenery. Freezing cold in Seward - right on Resurrection Bay. The mountains were cloud covered but still gorgeous. The train was wonderful. I upgraded to Gold class and sat in dome car...with an observation deck. Fabulous and well worth the extra money. I took over 200 pictures. Saw 3 glaciers, moose, a black bear on the tracks; a female bald eagle sitting in her nest, 3 other bald eagles flying around. The bald eagle population is doing well - slowing coming back.

I will do my best to get some posted as soon as I can. Weather is getting iffyyy....even in Anchorage it's turned cooler. From what the folks on the train said (employees), the last 2 spring/summers have been terrible. This one started slow but much warmer than previous. Now it's turned cooler. We'll see what happens.

My nephew was in the harbor in Seward so I got to see him and met the captain of this salmon fishing boat. Only 4 guys on the boat including the captain. Lots of rules and laws to catching fish here. Highly regulated. My sister and I will head back down to Seward on Sunday. Nate should be back in the harbor late Sunday or Monday. We want to take one of the glacier tours to Kenai.

Ok, I'm going to work on my photos and try and post them later today.

Wednesday, June 10

Spent most of the day playing tourist...which was most welcome...tourism is down about 20% so lower 48 $$$$ are most welcome. Found another brewery...Moose's Tooth...had a great time...really nice folks...I'm beginning to see that the average age here is about late 30's to late 40's. Not many ole folks like me seem to be full time residents. Also most are transplants..came here like me on vacation and every left....(hint....Carl!)....nah, I'll be back.

Clean and open city. Everyone is wondering why the weather has been so good. No rain for a couple weeks which is really unusual, and very warm...temps are in the 70's and 80's which is really strange.

Daylight is now 19 hours and 11 minutes - still weird, but I'm doing ok with it. I wonder how I would do with only 5 hours of daylight in the winter...I bet that's very difficult.

A photo of my first glacier...

Tomorrow I'm off on the train from Anchorage to Seward - yes, I'll be driving it on Sunday, but the train is supposed to be great, so why not. One day trip with a 5 hour layover in Seward. I can scope out places for us to stay at. There are cabins on the water which would be really cool. Long day...leave at 6:45 and don't return until 9:15 pm...but it will still be light....upgraded myself to a club car...all the amenities..I will take plenty of photos....

I've decided to leave the RV here and just drive to Seward...had the truck checked out today and the air filter, as I suspected, was a mess, so that was changed and some other minor stuff done. But, otherwise, the truck is really doing well.

Well, doesn't look like I cannot download anything tonight. Will try again late tomorrow or Friday morning. All is good!

Tuedsay, June 9

I have arrived in Anchorage. First stop was a truck/rv wash - I have to be 20 pounds lighter. RV Park - only 1 of 4 in all of Anchorage - is ok, nothing special but it will do. Going to take one of the train trips, just don't know which one yet. Doing laundry now...once that is done and I'm cleaned up, I'll head into city center (Anchorage's downtown). RR station is there so I'll stop in and get more info. I have photos, but this wifi is pretty poor. I'll try again later.

One a different subject...Intel Colorado Springs is finally, yes, finally closed. My son and the few others that remained were let go officially today. Some of the facilities folks are being contracted or hired (not sure which) by the Real Estate Investment company that bought the campus. Someone needs to maintain minimum services on site.

Will post again later...

More pics from my first day in Alaska!

Monday, June 8th

Wow and wow and holy wow! Magnificent - I'm running out of adjectives to describe Alaska....First, how about this photo!!!!

I'm in a wonderful, small RV park between no where and no where (actually, on the Alaska Hiway between Glennallen and Anchorage). Nothing else around but this place, surrounded by mountains. I have cable TV (not had that in a while) and wifi. Plus they have a cafe here so I'm going to treat myself to dinner out. I was able to download the one picture, but now I cannot seem to add more. I will try again later. I'll be in Anchorage tomorrow and will stay until Sunday. Ann (sister) arrives late Friday night. This will give me time to get everything cleaned and I mean cleaned. Thank heavens I did a truck/rv wash in Whitehorse. I'm also going to have the truck checked out again. Will be nice to stay put for a few days.

On Sunday, we head south to Seward to see my nephew. Seward is on Resurrection Bay which feeds from the Gulf of Alaska. This replaces Fairbanks, not a big deal. I love the ocean, so this should be great. I'm thinking of storing the RV in Anchorage, hopefully at the RV park I'm staying at. It's a long trip home, and I'd like not to beat it up anymore than necessary. I'll find out more about doing this tomorrow.

I will try posting more photos later...

Sunday, June 7

Rough ride from Whitehorse to Beaver Creek...I'm about 40 miles from the USA border, but no RV parks there. The road was as awful as I read. However, the scenery was fantastic..the best yet. Not many places to pull over for pictures, so I just stopped in the road. I'm hard-wired here in the little store.

So much history thru this area - from the building of the highway to gold mining - fascinating..... As I drive this road, it is not hard to imagine those folks back in 1942 constructing the original road. How they did it is, however, beyond imagination. Year-round construction in 40 below zero temps...wow! And ever since then, the road is constantly under going improvements. Just before entering Beaver Creek, they has these pipes ( I have a picture but it's still in the camera), they are being used to try and find the best way to deal with the perma-frost melting. When it does, it becomes liquid and the road collapses. Now I know not everyone believes in Global Warming, but that seems to be the issue here. Major studies going on. I'm hope to find out more in Anchorage - I'm curious...




Some pictures...seems I can download a few...

Momma grizzly and cubs...that's her backend...

My last Arrogant Bastard beer!

































From my boat ride on the Yukon River


































All is Good!