Day 73

We left our overnight rest area, Michele’s front yard, at 8.05 in the a.m. and headed out into the Anchorage rush hour in search of coffee and other breakfastly items. We saw both cars of the rush hour, and by 8.15 were already outside the city, heading north.

The town of Wasilla, where a lot of people live who commute to Anchorage, is a dump, so we didn’t stop there. The little city of Houston was closed, and we trogged up the Parks Highway without incident, except to exchange waves with some of the passengers on the Alaskan Railroad heading north, like wot we were, towards Fairbanks.

Now we found the first major scam worked in this wonderful state.

All the brochures, sales literature and other blurb designed to get you to Alaska wax lyrical about Denali National Park. We had heard various tales from fellow campers over the few weeks (months?) we’ve been here, and they all said pretty much the same thing, it is not worth the money. What you are tempted with is wonderful views of Mount McKinley and lots of wildlife.

Well, we’ve seen wildlife all over the place, and the real scam was revealed when we rounded a corner on the highway, and there in all its majesty, was Mount McKinley, and all it’s fellow mountains, and not a cloud in sight.

We pulled over on the side road to Talkeetna, and took some fabby “brochure” pix, and didn’t pay a penny.

When they get you in Denali Park, you have to pay millions of dollars, and then you are their prisoner! You are herded onto a bus with thousands of other sheep and shepherded around, mindless and clueless, going where they tell you, doing what they tell you, all the while they are milking your wallet for all they can get!!

Your Captain and the Pops saw through this as we were picture taking, so did not take the road into the park. We are wise, but not wise enough it seems. Read on.

The little town of Talkeetna is very rustic, very touristy, and we had rip off # 2 today with lunch. For the first time, a bad fish and chips. The chips were accompanied by batter blobs containing essence of fish, but no actual fish was detected, and Marlipops had a halibut taco, which consisted of two pieces of the aforementioned blobs, a bit of shredded cheese and a taco shell. For this gourmet delight we were charged $ 26.00.

The saving grace about this café was the waitress, who was about our age, and totally scatterbrained. It was her second day on the job and we could not work out how she would survive until day three. She sat down with us while we ordered, got our order wrong, gave food to us that should have been for someone else and forgot our drinks. Still, she tried.

After wandering around for a while we went back to the coach to find some ignorant Princess Tours bus driver had parked his bus right in front of us, blocking our way out. I went along to their office, politely enquired as to the kind person responsible, and would he move his bus. The driver was an arrogant S.O.B., and said he might not. I politely, again, told him he could please himself, if he didn’t move it within the next two minutes, I would just contact the nearest State Trooper. He moved, and as we drove off into the sunset, I acknowledged his help with the Alaska one fingered wave!

We kept stopping along the way north to admire the wonderful views of Mount McKinley, which is nearly four miles high, and permanently covered with snow, as well as all the other nearby mountain ranges.

We picked wild blueberries!

Despite the imminent danger of becoming bear food, we pulled over and picked a lot of fresh berries. Marlipops says she is going to make a pie……….. yeah, right.

We are overnighting at Tatlanika landing, at mile marker 276 on the Parks Highway, about 70 miles south of Fairbanks.

Wildlife watch today was pathetic, again, just a few scrawny squirrels.

Day 72

Happy birthday to “The Son” (Mike) today.

We have left Scenic View RV park.

We spent 17 very happy days there, and it really was a wrench to depart, but leave we must. So, with fond memories, of the views, the wonderful, wonderful owners/hosts/friends, Brenda and Bob, and the dogs, River and Max, we left at noon.

We drove to Anchorage, along the Sterling Highway, finally off the Kenai Peninsular. Once again, we had glorious, cloudless weather, and the mountains seemed to have changed colors, the greens somehow different fro m when we came down here. Whether the trees and bushes have grown, or it is a sign of autumn, who knows, but still fantastic to see them towering over the roads, lakes and rivers.

We have said this several times, but the Kenai is a magical, mystical place which has changed us forever, it is so perfect. We are both very sad to leave it, but we will definitely be back.

We got into Anchorage around 6.30, having first stopped for a while at Potters Marsh bird sanctuary, where we watched red salmon spawning in the creek below the boardwalk we were on. Very interesting, they swim around a bit, then turn on one side, give a little wiggle, out come the eggs, then they swim around a bit more….and die.

We saw some pretty birds, took a few pix of them for looking up in the bird book later, and left.

We met up with our friend Michele, who took us to Sullivans, and we pigged out on steak and horseradish taters and garlic spinach and big shrimp and for the first time in my life, escargot, which were very pleasant.

That reminds me, Helen P. another postcard is on the way.

The meal was followed by an early bedtime coz the last few late nights were catching up with us.

Wildlife watch today was a few birds.

Day 71

Happy Birthday Stephknee.

Another glorious day in the travels of Marlipops and The Captain.

Up and away at the crack of dawn. Well, 8.06 to be precisely exact.

After a very pleasant drive of 127 miles to Seward, which is on the other side of the Kenai Peninsular, we parked the peril and embarked aboard the good ship Greatland. The weather was “Brochure Fine”, meaning it was so good, beautious blue sky, no clouds and bright sunshine, that all the locals could be out photo-ing and filming for next years sales brochures.

As we left the harbor, we passed 20 million gulls all swarming at one particular spot on the ocean, about ¼ mile from the harbor entrance. This is where a pipeline from the local fish processing plant discharges it’s waste, for recycling. Happy gulls, and happy citizens of Seward, coz the gulls don’t crap in the city!!

We sailed past a snoozing sea otter, who looked at us disdainfully, as if complaining that we had woken him.

We were whisked across Resurrection Bay to the delightful Fox Island. This place has a lodge, a few cabins, a small dock and nothing else, except trees, streams, mountains and wildlife. Some people kayak, others overnight in the cabins and some just hike and laze all day. We had booked kayaking.

After a reasonable lunch of baked salmon, rice, corn and salad we were given our instructions for kayaking, and fitted out with all the gear. We had wellies, (rubber wading boots) skirts and life jacket/floatation devices, and looked pretty nerdy walking across the pebbles to the water.

Luckily for us, we were the only ones kayaking so we had the obligatory guide to ourselves, and he was pretty good.

Off into the wild blue yonder we went, in our tandem kayak, Marlipops in front and me at the back, in the engine and steering department, around Halibut Cove, which was actually very calm, but to Captain Nervous, was very choppy!!

So, we got into the rhythm of paddling, finally, and watched for wildlife. We moved out of the cove, into the full force of an Alaska storm. Actually the waves were very slightly bigger, but down there, literally at sea level, with them humungous mountains all around, it felt like a mega storm! Of course, first mate Marlipops the Calm, who had stopped paddling to take pix, told me to calm down and relax. Her actual words got lost in the howling wind, so I think that’s what she said!

We paddled around the island, and went into Sunny Cove, where we saw lots of puffins, guillemots and other assorted flying creatures. Then, onwards, to the very southern tip of the island, where there were rocky outcrops covered with cormorants, gulls and their droppings.

At this point, the open ocean was facing us, the very tip of the Pacific, at least that’s what our guide said, and the waves started coming at us from several angles at once. So we started back, and as we had the wind and tide with us, the journey back was shorter and easier on the arms.

One interesting phenomenon was dense white clouds started rolling into the Bay from the open sea, but mainly on the opposite side, so all the mountains were shrouded in mist and fog, and as various boats and ships came out of this cloud they looked ghostly and scary.

We arrived back, just as the passengers from another visiting boat, about 100 or so, were boarding to leave. I feared the worst, imagining myself falling out of the kayak as I attempted to get out, or tipping over into the water, or some other mishap to embarrass Marlipops. But, you guessed, Captain Cautious took no chances, and both he and the Pops disembarked without so much as a ripple or a stumble. A perfect landing.

We then sat on the beach, got slightly warm coz the weather was still perfect, and waited for our ship to come in.

Dinner was reasonable, baked salmon, rice, corn and salad!

On the way back, we toured the entrance to Resurrection Bay, went past Barwell Island, a tiny dot of an islet which had a garrison of soldiers during the second world war. There is no harbor here so everything had to be hauled onshore via a great big cable. My thought was how did the cable get there in the first place.

Then on around Resurrection Point, where there were millions of screaming gulls, kittiwakes and cormorants all nesting on the rocks, right down at the water’s edge. There were also millions of flies, all attracted by the bird’s leavings. Every winter, the storms, with their 30 to 50 foot waves, wash all the nests off, thus sanitizing the area, providing a germ free nursery ready for next years crop of birds.

We also saw lots of puffins, birds which can dive to depths of 600 feet, but fly like winged potatoes.

On the rocks we caught a glimpse of some mountain goats, who fall prey to bears in the spring, but whose main enemy is gravity!

The journey back up the bay was just awesome, watching as mountain after mountain went by, interspersed with glaciers, waterfalls and all types of trees.

We went past a rock which had a solar powered camera monitoring some very endangered sealions. They are under threat of extinction coz they are not eating herring any more, herring being scarce, so they are not getting enough fats and oils and stuff.

The powers that be are hoping to get them to eat other types of fish, to survive, otherwise by the year 2040 they will be defunct.

Bald eagles soaring overhead, gulls following the boat, salmon jumping out of the water, and at one point, several Dall Porpoises racing across the bow, leaping all over the place, chasing the salmon.

On the drive back to camp Scenic View we saw a total of 5 mooses, of various sizes.

All in all, a 10 day.

Day 70

Sunbathing!

That’s what we were doing at 9.30 in the evening!

We had a very relaxing, lazy day ( again), reading magazines, doing not much at all, and in the afternoon we drove the 30 miles into Soldotna.

Marlipops took care of business on the computer, while I read more magazines, in the library.

After grocery shopping we got back to Camp Scenic View around 6, the sky was totally cloudless, so we sat outside, had a couple of drinks and some nibbles of halibut dip and frog eye salad, and fell asleep in the sun!

We have new campsite neighbors today, a very nice family of 5 from Germany.

We very quickly got round to the subject of football, (the real football, not American throwball,) and our English audience will be pleased to know that I quickly brought up England 4 Germany 2, Bayern Munich 1, Man United 2, and Germany 1 England 5.

These are scores etched into the hearts of all English football fans, but will mean absolutely nothing to our American readers, sorry.

And they bombed our chip shop!

I promise not to digress as much again!

Happy Birthday Melinda.

Despite the glorious weather, we only saw one young eagle today.

We have booked an extra day here because tomorrow we are going to Seward, to sea kayak, and we’ll be back late.

Hopefully we will have something interesting to report tomorrow!!

Day 69

We finally arose at around 9 this morning, having slept like the proverbial logs.

It was about 3 before we had gotten to bed, coz we stayed up a while, looking at the stars. In particular, we were looking at the Big Dipper. Firstly because this is the emblem on the Alaska state flag, and secondly it was the first time we had seen stars since being up here! Having very little actual darkness, and quite a lot of cloud a lot of the time, stars were indeed a rare sight.

The state flag was designed by a 13 year old boy, who entered it into a design competition, when Alaska became a state back in nineteen something.

We spent some of the morning figuring out the new camera. Even though it is almost identical to our other one, there are some changes in operation, but being your dynamic super hero duo, we sussed it. (To suss is an English term, dating back to the middle ages, meaning to work out how to use digital cameras)

Although it was a bit breezy today, the view over the Inlet was stupendous, the whole Chigmit Mountain range clearly visible, all the peaks still virtually covered with snow, and finally a clear view of Kalgin Island. Mount Redoubt and Mount Iliamna, our resident volcanoes, were resplendent in their mantles of snow and shadows from what few clouds were around.

At the top of the driveway into the campsite, by the main road, is a “scenic view” turnout for tourists to stop and “Ooh and Aah” at the vista of the mountains. Today, there must have been a million vehicles stop for picture taking. Bob the Owner told the tale of a woman who came into the campsite for better picture taking, despite the big sign which forbids anyone except camp residents from setting foot on the property on pain of dismemberment. River and Max, the camp guard dogs immediately set upon the woman, nearly licked her to death, and she was panicking so much Bob almost wet himself with laughter. She thought the dogs were vicious, and she was gonna get maimed. These two dogs are big, see pix, but soft as brushes. The most harm they do is step on your feet, or smack you in the face with their wildly swishing tails. We are now more determined than ever to dognap River, we just haven’t worked out how to get off the Kenai safely.

It is a bit difficult to avoid the cops when there is only one road off the peninsular.

After a lunch of cheese, Cheddar, Vermont and English Stilton, and crackers, we trogged off down to the Buzz, our local friendly espresso place, where we spent a happy hour interneting and chatting to the owner.

We lazed about the rest of the day, met new campers around the evening campfire, had a wonderful dinner of grilled halibut, scalloped taters and garlic spinach.

The sunset tonight was gorgeous, and Marlipops took 10 million pix with her new toy, trying, as she puts it, for the perfect picture.

We only saw a couple of eagles today, Karen, so nothing exciting to report.

Day 68

Today is MPR!!!

The cloud we have been under, literally and figuratively, is sure to blow away now that her ladyship is returning.

So, after making sure the coach was spotless, and doing all the manly chores like laundry, off I went towards Anchorage.

For the geographically challenged amongst you, the part of the Kenai that we have been on has no mountains, and it’s been a while since I’ve seen them close up. So, driving the 180 miles to the airport, through the passes, and along Turnagain Arm, I got a “mountain fix”. They are just magnificent. Every time we drive through the various twisty turny passes and valleys, there seems to be new mountains, glaciers and lakes. The colors change, the leaves on the trees and bushes vary tremendously, and everything is fresh and new each time we see them. Absolutely fascinating.

It seems that we have a larger audience than first we thought. It appears that certain family members, mentioning no names, Alisha, are letting other people read this travelog, free of charge.

Welcome all you audience members who are from the Emerald Isle.

It is a well known fact in England that we tell jokes about the Irish, as Americans tell jokes about Aggies, or the Polish, depending upon which part of the country you happen to hail from. That said, I will not insult anyone knowingly, with jokes in poor taste. I will just let you know that I’m writing today’s travelog really slowly, so everyone can keep up!!

We drove back from Anchorage, and after a pit stop at Sourdough Sals in Soldotna for a wake me up coffee, we got back to the campsite at around 1.30 in the early morning

o’ clock.

Wonder of wonders!!

Just as I predicted in the beginning of this report, the cloud was gone, vanished, disappeared, va-moosed.

It is the Marlipops magic!

However, the wind was blowing so strongly, I had to put down all the awnings on the coach, coz they could easily have broked, so it was another half an hour before we could get into bed.

There was a weird, very pale blue, almost grey sky, with lots of streaky clouds, in the west. I t was much later than sunset o’clock, so it cannot be classed as such, but more of an afterglow, only very pale. Of course, we tried to photo it, and the pix did not turn out, so you will have to make do with my verbal description.

No wildlife today, and actually no pix either.

However, as a going away gift in reverse, I buyed Marlipops a new camera, so beware, in future, probably more pix than y’all bargained for!

Day 67

Today my head was in the clouds.

Actually all of me, plus the coach, the yellow peril, the campsite, in fact the whole world was in a cloud. And it sat on top of us all piggin’ day. I have decided never to commit a crime which would land me in jail, coz I would go stir crazy very quickly!

Not much happened today, obviously, except that I had some very nice home made clam chowder, courtesy of Owner Brenda, lovingly prepared, so I am told, with the clams that I digged up the other day. It was delish.

So, come 9.30 in the pm, I trogged off on my now habitual Oil Well Road moose safari.

Nothing going east on the road, as usual, but coming back I did see two mooses, about 200 yards away, heading towards some trees, which abutted the road. So, master hunter and stalker that I have become, I stopped the peril opposite the trees, turned off the engine, opened the window, anointed myself with bug spray, and waited for them to appear right where I knew they would. And waited, and waited and waited. And eventually……………nothing. I heard all sorts of noises, snorting and grunting and bushes movements ( Is that anything to do with our president?) but absolutely not a thing was forthcoming.

So, dejected, disheartened and as miserable as an Astros fan, I called it a day and drove to the main road. Not a mile further on, munching away on the left side of the road, a fully growed Mrs. Moose! So, I took a few pix, but it was almost dark, so I turned off the camera and sat and watched. A few vehicles went roaring past, and she flinched nervously a couple of times, but nothing was going to deter her from supper.

A delightfully pleasant and rewarding end to a miserable day.

I also saw a fishing boat charter company named “Afishunt Charters”

Some are pathetic, aren’t they?

Wildlife watch today was the aforementioned mooses, and two bald eagles, early on, flying low over the campsite.

Day 66

No moose stories today. In fact no wild life to speak of, just some wild scenery.

I decided to wander down to Homer, the town right on the end of the Kenai Peninsula, and luckily, the clouds were quite high, the sun was doing its best to sun, and the view of the mountains all around Kachemak Bay were spectacular.

I saw a couple of amusing names.

One was on a big boat, it was called “The Other Line”

One was on a tow truck, it was “Happy Valley Hookers”

If you buy a piece of property up here, and have a road or driveway built for access, you get to name it whatever you like.

Occasional feature # 321.

If The Captain and Marlipops built a road, what would they call it?

Answers please, but keep it clean, this is a family show!

After I left Homer I took a side road, along the southern edge of Kenai, which meandered for over 20 miles, was very up and down and wiggly wiggly, but had breathtaking views over the bay, and I even saw 2 glaciers wot I didn’t know existed down here.

In the evening I did my usual late trip down Oil Well Road, to see if I could see some mooses, but three times in a row was asking too much.

On the way back, on the main road, was a horse, trotting along in the middle of my lane, so I followed him for about 5 minutes before he disappeared into an opening in the bushes on the side of the road, there to get eaten by bears, or mooses or something, supposebly.

So, an uneventful day, but some good pix.

One day to MPR.

Day 65

Today’s report is going to be serious. No attempt at humor.

It is now 10.50 pm, and I am writing this with some very mixed emotions. Happy and sad together.

Tonight I saved the life of a moose calf.

No lies, embellishments or bullshit, I saved a moose calf from certain death.

As you can see when you open the pix, the female and calf were on the opposite side of the road from me, and I was happily taking some good pictures. The calf decided to trot across the road, (see the pix,) and started eating the fireweed on the side of the road I was parked on.

I was busy taking more pictures, when a white Chevy truck, towing a boat trailer came around the bend, towards me. I immediately started flashing my headlights, but he did not slow down so I jumped into the road, on his side and started frantically waving my arms. As he got nearer, the calf got scared and ran, right towards me, trying to get back to its mother. By this time the driver of the truck had seen me and came to a screaming halt, the calf ran right in front of me and the truck, and skittered off into the bushes, having been missed by a whisker. If I hadn’t jumped into the road, the truck would never have seen the calf, and gone straight into it.

As you can see from the pix, these calves are all legs at this age, and run very awkwardly.

I am happy I saved the calf, or at least stopped it from being hit, but sad because I now see how easily they get killed.

So, my semi humorous report from yesterday has taken a serious, and personal, turn.

I know one person cannot save the world, etc, etc, but I now know I will be advocating slower night driving wherever I can.

Having lived in Florida for 3 years, and discovering the real beauty of the wildlife there, ospreys, raccoons, turtles, and of course the alligators, we have become keen nature watchers and lovers. The cynical amongst you might say we are tree huggers, and Green Peacers, but that is not the case. We just appreciate what Nature has provided, and marvel at the diversity.

Since we have been in Alaska and Canada, we have been amazed at the wildlife, we can’t get enough of it.

I know I keep relating sightings of bald eagles, and they are so abundant up here, but they have only recently been taken off the endangered species list, and they are so regal and majestic in flight, we could watch them for hours. I only ever saw one during almost 20 years in Houston and Florida, and they are definitely not “commonplace” to me.

So, I will keep mentioning them.

It’s the same with all the mountains, fjords and glaciers. No matter how many times you see them, they are still awesome.

This part of the Earth is so big, so grand, and so wild it is humbling. I’ve said it before, and I know I will say it again, but we have fallen in love with Alaska.

Day 64

Today was Wednesday, last but-one-day for a few weeks of really, really low tides and clamming.

Bob the Owner, ( I have awarded him the honor of a capital O ) knocked on the coach door and invited me to go clamming with him and Brenda, so I did.

We drove down to Ninilchik again and got on the mule on the pebbled part of the beach.

The mule is a Kawasaki four wheel drive red beast, which will go anywhere, underwater, over water, sand and snow, and even the moon probably. It has a neat arrangement of combined anti crush bar and air intakes. Marlipops keeps referring it as the moose, so now that name will stick.

Anyway, after a crash revision course in locating clams, off I went.

If you want a hobby that knackers your back, knees and thigh muscles all at once, choose clamming.

I have previously described the contortions you have to go through just to get a mouthful of shellfish, and we digged up over 100 in a couple of hours.

Captain Cautious, ever mindful of his poorly bad back, did his stint, then became chief clam hole and neck spotter. These stupid things literally stick their necks out, above the top of the sand, thus making them very easy to spot, and dig up.

On the way back we saw the obligatory bald eagles, Karen that’s 325. ( private joke)

After a lazy afternoon doing laundry and piddling about, at 10 in the evening o’clock, I thought it was about time I saw some wildlife, so off I trotted, down the road, to a little side road called Oil Well Rd.

Marlipops and I had previously been down here, to look for wildlife, coz we had a tip from a friend, but had not seen anything.

So, Your wise and proactive thinking Captain thought he would drive fairly quickly along the gravel and dust part of the road, about 6 miles off the main road, and scare out all the bears and mooses and things. Then he would turn round, come back slowly slowly, and creep upon all that had been disturbed. So I did, and what did I see? Dust. Yes, all the dust I raised in zooming past took it’s own sweet time to settle, and nothing wild, except great swathes of purpley fireweed, seemingly painted at random by Mother Nature all along the side of the road. An interesting “fact” about fireweed is that it grows and flowers all summer long, and when the flowers get to the top of the stems, then there are supposebly only 6 weeks left to winter.

So, thoroughly disappointed, I got to within ¼ mile of the main road, and there, as if by magic, were not one, not two, but three mooses!!

Mrs. Moose and two mooselets.

They did not give a damn about me, so I just stopped, turned off the engine, got some good pix, then turned off the camera and sat and watched them munch their merry way along the side of the road. An absolutely wonderful end to the day.

I have decided to start a campaign to stop all driving in Alaska after dark. On the way back to the campsite, every shadow was a bear, and every bush was a moose. It is quite nervy driving at twilight, wondering if something big and hairy is going to jump in front of you. I am not worried about damaging the yellow peril, but it would be terrible to harm one of these magnificent, harmless creatures. Thus the no driving after dark campaign.

The fact that there is not a lot of sun up here for about 7 months of the year is a tiny detail, which should be ignored. As a lot of road signs say: “ Give Moose A Brake”

So, to bed.

Wildlife watch was definitely worth watching today.

Only 4 days to M.P.R.

Day 63

I went to watch the clamming today. There was an incredibly low tide, and the world and his wife were out on the beach digging and shoveling and boring and scratching for razor clams.

Bob and Brenda, our campsite owners were as busy as beavers, filling their quota for the day, so they have some food for the winter, to go with their 5 million pounds of salmon!!

The weather here today was naff, which for our non English audience, means it sucked the big one!!

Windy and chilly and no sun to speak of, I even put the heater on in the coach.

I have to mention the new arrivals at the campsite. We have been extremely lucky so far on our travels in that we have not had any noisy people, nor any unruly kids running around.

That all changed today when a coach, smaller than ours, pulled in, with 4 adults and 4 kids, . How they all fit in a place smaller than ours I dread to think. Bob says they are only going to stay tonight, which is a good thing, coz I won’t put up with kids chasing dogs around my coach. Feed ‘em to the moosses, I say!!

The fish and chip perfection search resumed today, at the Boardwalk café I have mentioned before, down the road a bit in the little village of Ninilchik.

Not as good as before, the halibut not as moist, and I had to request vinegar, never a good omen.

I was on the beach this morning and for the first time saw 2 bald eagles sitting in close proximity, so I have included a pic for your delight.

Nothing much else happened here today.

It would be nice if we got a little feedback from our worldwide audience, letting us know if we are still keeping a modicum of interest, or if we are boring the pants of y’all!!

Wildlife watch today was the eagles, and noisy kids.

Day 62

Marlipops has left and gone away!!

She took off on the big silver bird to stinky Houston, to take care of some stuff, leaving me alone here in paradise.

What am I going to do?

All those fish waiting to jump on my hook, all those bears and mooses waiting to be photographed.

I suppose I’ll have to suffer relaxing, reading, snoozing and other strenuous pastimes until she returns!

We actually saw some new wildlife today, mountain goats. They were perched on the rocky mountainside on the edge of the highway from Seward, nonchalantly eating the vegetation and fauna, jumping, leaping and prancing from rock to rock. Marlipops asked me why they don’t fall, and the answer is simple, they have four wheel drive.

It is a total of 180 miles from the campsite to Anchorage airport, and it took us 5 hours, with a stop for gas, on the way there, Marlipops in the driving department.

It took me 3 hours, with a gas filling up stop, on the way back.

The highway is well built, and when there is little traffic, my left foot gets heavy!!

Just before I got back to the campsite, I hit a full blown fog bank. It just appeared off the Inlet, more of a mega cloud really, and suddenly visibility was down from bright sunny to zippo. So, Captain by name, and Cautious by nature, I slowed down to the speed limit, and right then, Mr. Alaska State Trooper decided to take a look at the back of the car. So, thank you, cloud gods!!

Scenic View RV Park is not at present, it is 10.03 in the evening o’clock, and previously mentioned cloud bank is still out there, totally blocking the view.

So, I’ll have to watch a movie.

Helen P…….did you get the seeds?

Wildlife watch today was mountain goats and a bald eagle.

Day 61

We’re back!!

Scenic View RV Park, Ninilchik.

This is where we spent an idyllic week, and now we are back here, for at least 10 days.

We had an uneventful journey from Trail River, did a bit of shopping in Soldotna, and decided to see if we could book in here a day early.

We were welcomed back like long lost friends, and since the place is nearly empty, had the pick of the sites.

We both wanted the site at the bottom of the hill, on the left, next to the site we had previously stayed in, and we got it.

We have no other campers either side, and a perfect view over Cook Inlet. In the evening, Bob the owner built the usual campfire, Brenda the other owner brought out clams and nibbles, we contributed some of Marlipop’s halibut dip, others brought out marshmallows, and a wonderful evening was had by all. The sky tonight was a stunning mixture of colors and clouds, but all the mountains on the other side of the Inlet were clearly visible, and we could even see steam rising from some of the volcano vents. How exciting to be able to see several active volcanoes.

The weather today was brilliant, so warm that we had to put the AC on in the coach.

Marlipops has been fascinated by the riot of flowers in Alaska, and everywhere we go there is one particular variety called fireweed, which is all over the place, so we’ve included a picture, which does not really do it justice in terms of the richness of color, but we’ve done our best.

Wildlife today was River and Max, Bob and Brenda’s dogs, who are just delightful, and a new camper’s dog, but we don’t know it’s name yet.

We have told Bob and Brenda that we are going to dognap River, who is nearly two years old, and BIG.

….until tomorrow.