Southward Bound

Well, I have certainly taken my time getting back to this haven't I? I will go back in memory as best I can.

We left Willow and went back to Glennallen to pick up our mail before we headed to the lower 48. Our bosses at the campground were gracious enough to let us stay for free for as long as we wanted, so we were there a few days then started the journey home. I must say that we were both dreading the long trip a bit until we got on the road. The first day we decided we would stay in Tok, as we hadn't stopped there going up. We pulled into a campground and they only had 15 amp. service so we elected to go on to the border, to a campground right on the Canadian border called Border City. We had stayed there on the way up, so decided to try it again. As soon as we pulled into our site, we spied a Teton 5er and a motorhome near us and the men were out cleaning their rigs. I soon realized that we knew the people! They had spent several days in the park at Glennallen. So we cocktailed and visited with them that evening. They were also heading home, via Haines to catch the ferry.

So, after Border City we headed south across Canada. We didn't have any trouble at the crossing, other than they took my chili! I had made the mistake of telling them that I had cooked chili in the fridg made of Canadian beef, so they confiscated it. Said you can heat meat to 3000 degrees and not kill the Mad Cow virus. I was very put out since my chili is never the same twice in a row and that was a damn good batch! Barry said he thought they just wanted it for supper! Anyway then we started across the Yukon and the worst stretch of road on the whole Alaska Highway. It is only about 60 miles and you just have to go slow. We stayed in Calgary a couple of days and took a guided fishing trip down the Bow River. That was really fun, and resulted in several pretty large Browns. It was ironic, we stayed in two different parks in Calgary, one being the worst we had been in and the other the nicest. The one that didnt't stack up was very crowded and full of people working contruction in the area. Some of the rigs didn't even look like they would run. The second place we stayed was beautifully kept, and huge sites.

It took us about 2 weeks to get from AK to WY. We stayed in Casper about 3 weeks and also made a side trip to Sundance. In Casper we saw old friends, and of course the kids and got our Dr. appointments and that sort of thing accomplished! then we set out for NM. We went to Steamboat Springs to see friends then on to Fort Collins, also to see friends. We stayed at the

Wittington Center in Raton. It is the NRA center and a very nice place. They have a big camp ground out in the desert that is very nice and quiet.

Then we came on to Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge, our new home until the end of February. What a cool place! We are actually volunteers, but they give us our site, propane, laundry, 2 shirts and a coat. Plus we can drive the government vehicles around the refuge to look at the wildlife. The Sandhills are just starting to come in. There will be several thousand of them here in a week or so. There are also thousands of Snow geese, ducks and other birds, all making their way south. Some of them will stay here for the winter, others will travel on. On the 13th the Refuge holds the Festival of Cranes, an event that draws thousands of people. I'm sure Nov. will be our busiest month here. There are about 30 of us volunteers, most of us living in RVs here on the refuge. So far we are really enjoying it, and I will try to not take so long in making another entry!

Willow Creek

After leaving the penninsula we went north to Willow, still in search of our silver and chum salmon. We stayed in the Pioneer Lodge RV park in Willow and it sits right on Willow Creek. We walked out of our trailer and watched silvers and chums right there in the camp ground. The chums were about done as were the silvers. We really didn't care though, as we just wanted to catch them, we didn't want to eat them! Our freezer is still full of halibut and Copper River Reds that a friend gave us.

We really enjoyed the park in Willow. It is a tiny little thing, maybe 15 sites with a restaurant and bar. The first night we were there, we went to the bar to get local info about the fishing, and meet some of the locals. I'm not sure, but I think if you want to live in Willow, you have to have several teeth missing! We met several people that could have really benefitted from dental work. The first guy we met was an expert on shooting pool and drinking Miller High Life, (That seems to the beer of choice in Willow!) His name was Fuzzy. Fuzzy didn't know a damn thing about fishing, but he was really quite the character! He did tell us that we needed to come into the bar the next morning and talk to Jerry, as evidently he is the local fishing expert. OK, so we visited with and laughed at Fuzzy for the evening, along with Tom, who is leaving soon to go to Thailand as he thinks he wants to live there. And Kathy, a lady who has lived in AK for 20 years, is currently between husbands and you guessed it......has some teeth missing! Fuzzy, Tom, Kathy and Jerry are not natives of AK, but transplants. So, the next morning, we went into the restaurant for breakfast and to talk to Jerry. He also is a piece of work, will talk to you forever about fishing and put us on to some great places to fish. He is the chief cook and bottle washer there at Pioneer and prides himself on being able to do it all there. He doesn't have a vehicle and lives right there on the property. Makes me think he is like many here in AK who are running from something on the outside. But anyway, Jerry was a wealth of information about fishing the Willow, since, I guess he doesn't do much else other than work, drink, shoot pool and fish!

So, we went down to the mouth of Willow Creek where it flows into the Big Susitna and fished there one day. The only really bad thing about fishing AK this time of year is, it smells terrible! There are dead fish everywhere, as the salmon are finishing spawning and then they are done. The bear love it, and you have to be constantly on the lookout for bears. We were lucky and didn't have any encounters. But , does it stink! I had taken halibut out for supper that night and after fishing all afternoon with that nasty smell, I didn't know if we could eat fish, but after being off the river for a while and having a cocktail, we were OK! So then the next day we walked up Willow Creek and got into some absolutely wonderful rainbows! They have been eating salmon eggs for several weeks and they are like footballs! Just beautiful fat fish! They were also hitting beads and we had a great time.

Barry got his silver and his chum. I got my chum but didn't land my silver. Barry's silver was already red and wouldn't have been good to eat! So, Barry got his salmon slam, catched all 5 different kinds of salmon. Then we went after rainbows and that was just a blast! They were such fat heavy fish it was wonderful fun. We also have those pictures that we will post later.

So, now we are back in Glennallen waiting for our mail and we will be on our way back to the outside on Tues. after Labor Day. I probably won't have cell or internet through Canada, so probably won't post until we get back down.

The Kenai Penninsula

After leaving Glennallen and spending a few days in Anchorage, we made our way south to the Kenai Penninsula to fish the Kenai River. We had hoped to get our silver and chum salmon there, but our timing was off just a little bit. So, (oh rats), we had to fish for big rainbows and dolly varden. We wade fished the Russian River right after we got down there and it was full of red salmon and we did catch some small dolly and rainbow there. It was fun to fish it after you read so much about it in the flyfishing mags. Then we chartered a float trip down the Kenai River and had a wonderful time! Our guide was pretty sharp and able to put us on lots of fish. There was another couple fishing with us from CA. Very nice people. That was pretty different for us, as we are used to fishing two to a drift boat in WY, so being in a 20 ft. drift boat with for fishers was different. It was OK, once you got the hang of it. We did in fact catch lots of BIG rainbows and dollys. The 30 inchers that we were hoping for did elude us however. Between the 4 of us, we boated about 100 fish that day, which was really nice. Some of which were in the 25 to 27 inch range. Really nice scrappy fish, and the dollys were just as much fun to catch as the rainbows. We fished with beads, something we had never done before. You put a bead that resembles a fish egg about 2 inches above a bare hook and when the fish takes the bead, as soon as he spits it out, the hook gets him. Guess that was illegal here until a year or so ago, but everyone seems to fish that way now. We fished with a lot of weight and a strike indicator. It was a great day. I have photos of the day I will post to this after we get outside and I get stronger cell signal.

It is really expensive to fish the Kenai with a guide. We were amazed, but decided if we wanted to fish it, we would have to bite the bullet and cough up the almost $600.00 to do it, and, you don't even get lunch, you have to take your own! Wow! There are good things about WY that we didn't even appreciate! I guess if you want to fish a famous river like that, it is expensive.

August past so quickly

Well, haven't I just been the lazy heifer in getting back to this huh? August was a busy month for us. I went to WY the 2nd week to work in the bar during Sturgis. The Burnout event at the bar was a hum-dinger, with more people than last year. I have photos to post to this blog, but will have to wait until I am somewhere where I have a stronger signal, as I just can't get them to load here. All went well in Sundance during the rally, my Mom is well, and her usual self. I flew into Casper and drove to Sundance, then drove back to Casper. It was a whole lot cheaper to fly into Casper than to Rapid City and besides, I got to see the kids. They are doing well, and Jevin and Gavin are growing like weeds. Gavin turned 4 in Aug. so is growing up way too fast. Had a little cocktail party at Julia's in Casper so got to see lots of good friends. Boy the weather was warm. It was pretty different for me after being up here in AK all summer. Our bosses were in Palmer for medical stuff while I was gone, so Barry had to run the park by himself for a few days. I think he enjoyed it though, as if you are here alone you get to meet all the people coming and going. After I returned there was a couple here in the park, (actually they were here when I left and still here when I got back) from Germany. They spoke OK English and had brought their 14 year old motorhome over from Germany. Now lets just say that wasn't the smartest thing, as it broke down and of course they couldn't get parts for it here in the states. Anyway, we became friends with these folks and before they left I gave them one of our cards in case they had trouble as they were being towed to Anchorage where they were going to salvage out their motorhome, as they didn't want to ship it home and customs won't let them just discard it here. Anyway, a few hours after I had given them our card, they came to me and pointed to the words "trout bums" on our card and ask what that meant. I ask them if they knew what a trout was and they said yes, but Rolph said "this word here, I put it into my translator and it comes up"......he patted his butt! So the poor people thought our card said we were fish butts!!! We hadn't thought that the word "bum" wouldn't translate into what we meant. So, us old fish butts are just traveling along!

So, about the 17th of Aug. we left Glennallen and went to Anchorage and spent a few days, getting our carpet cleaned and enjoying the shopping after being in Glennallen for the summer. There are just lots of things you can't get in an Alaskan town of 450 people! We had planned to be done on the 15th, but our boss was in Palmer for two days then for chemotherapy, so we stayed until they got back.

We had a great summer here. We loved the work and the area as well. It was nice being able to go to Gakona, about 20 minutes away and see our friends who used to live in Sheridan that now own the Gakona lodge. We met lots of nice people here, both people staying in the park and people that live here. Itwas also fun learning the history of the area. And of course catching our kings here was wonderful. I really believe that this little RV park is one of the nicest in AK at least that we have found. All the guests really enjoyed the cleanliness and well kept aspect of it. Barry did a wonderful job of keeping it all landscaped really nice, and that is no small feat when the sun shines 24/7 during June and July, plus there is plenty of rain too. We are so glad that we came, but now, we have to drive the long way home, and that isn't something we look forward to! Oh well, it beats spending the winter in AK!

A Fishie, Fishie Tale

Greeting from AK! All is well here, actually we had a very fishie day last week. We went to Valdez on our days off and took a cruise out into the Sound on the LuLuBelle. It is a 40 passenger boat that has gone out into the Sound on tours everyday in the summer since 1979 with the same captain. He talked the entire 8 hour tour! Very nice, we saw sea otters, sea lions, humpback whales, dall porpoises and glaciers. It was a very fun time. Met some fun folks from Victoria and had a great day.

The next day we went Pink Salmon fishing in the back bay of Prince William Sound. They are a smaller fish than the kings, but there are lots of them in the Sound right now as they are running to spawn. The Pinks were jumping out of the water like crazy and we couldn't figure out why they were doing that, as they were feeding below the surface. I joked to Barry that I thought they were doing it because they were itchy from the sea lice they had on them from being in the ocean. Lo and behold we talked with someone that knew and that is exactly why they are jumping, to get rid of the lice, also to smack their sides on the surface of the water to make their eggs and sperm easier for spawning. (Would that be like going on a bumpy road when you are over due pregnant???) Anyway, we fished the Sound on Thurs. morning then came back to Glennallen, about 117 miles. We got set back up in our spot in the RV park and a friend of ours who is a fishing guide on the Gulkana River came by to tell us that the Kings were really hot that day. Sooo, about 8:30 that night we went King fishing. Oh my God, what a time that was. We both landed King Salmon on our flyrods! Barry caught about a 30 lb. king on his 8 wt. It was so much fun. Barry caught 3 and I caught 2. I was totally exhausted after two! I had to sit down, rest and have a cigar, as did Barry! (See photo above..I haven't figured out how to put the photos where I want them yet!) We were back in the trailer by 1AM and had landed 5 kings. We let them go, as if you keep one your limit is one. Much more fun catching them! This time of year here is like zuccini season is WY, everyone has more salmon than they want so they are always trying to give you some! Barry isn't a huge fan of LOTS of salmon, and I don't reallly want to eat it 3 or 4 times a week, so all is well! We didn't catch them on flies, we used roe, but all the same it was extremely fun! By the time I had my second one landed, I was totally exhausted from the fight (about 25 minutes) and the adrenalin rush. It was truly an experience of a life time. Neither of us had ever caught a fish near that big. I used the guide's 10 wt as the reel on my 8 wt. had a malfunction, but all the same it was great. I landed my first one on a spinning outfit and the second one on the fly rod. Anyway, it was super! OK, now I have to go take a nap just from talking about it!

We had some horrible news this week. A young man that was Rod's best friend until they were about 10 years old, took his life last week. So, so tragic. They live in Georgia. I am so sad, as he was like one of my kids those years when the boys played together every day. You just never know what tomorrow is going to bring.

OK, I'm outta here, I have to vacuum up the dog hair...imagine that. Later

July in Glennallen is something to behold. We went to the 4th of July parade here in town and it was fun. Glennallen only has about 450 people and the only real street in town is the Glen highway that does directly through from Tok Junction to Anchorage, so for the parade they just closed the highway! Probably some unhappy travelers. The leading vehicle was a state trooper throwing candy. Pretty much every one in the parade threw candy. State troopers are the only law enforcement we have here, so they started and ended the parade. The last trooper was the one that was stopping the traffic on the west end. Anyway, of all the entries in the parade I liked the guy with the "honey wagon" the best. Most everyone here has their sewer tanks pumped all year long because they can't have an actual cesspool that drains due to permafrost, anyway the honey wagon guy threw individually wrapped toilet paper! And behind his tank truck he was pulling an outhouse on a trailer with no door and there was a guy sitting in there....(I said sitting in there.) After the parade we went to the free salmon bake in the park. They grilled salmon and had baked spuds, corn on the cob and beans and garlic bread. It was pretty fun.

Salmon season is in full swing here now. The first run of kings is about over then there will be another run after that. There as sockeyes going up now too. The fishwheels (see the photo at the top right of this post) are going strong on the Copper River. Fishwheels originated in China and have been around AK since the early 1900s. If you are a resident you can get a fishwheel permit, as this area has subsistance fishing as does most of AK, primarily set up for the natives, but any resident can get a permit for a fishwheel. They scoop up the salmon in the baskets then have an angled shoot that drops the fish into a holding tank. The wheels are all home made, as there is no manufacturer of them. The amount of fish you can take with your permit is determined by annual income and need. They range from 49 fish to 500. How sick of salmon would you get if you got 500?? Anyway, I found the fishwheels very interesting. Residents can also dip-net on the Copper River as well.

We just found out yesterday that our lady boss has cancer. She had a stroke last year and suffers from Lupus and now a biopsy showed she has cancer of the intestine and stomach. No treatment plan yet, but that will all have to be done in Anchorage, so it appears that Barry and I will be running the park a lot of the time the rest of the summer.

I don't know if I told many of you about our friend John Richardson in Northern California whose 19 mo. old grandson was shook and banged up againest a wall by his baby sitter. Anyway, that happened in May and the little guy is doing better, they operated and took out a piece of his skull to accomodate the swollen brain. He is able to walk a little bit now with braces on his right leg as his right side doesn't work very good yet. They haven't given them a prognosis yet until the swelling goes down. He is still in the hospital in Sacramento but gets to go home the 13th of July. He will continue with therapy and hopefully they will be able to put the piece of his skull back when the swelling is down. I'm not sure how that all works, if they save the piece of his skull or if they put something else in. Anyway there is a webside for him, http://www.babykai.com/ that shows pictures of him. Unbelieveable. If you go there, you put Kai in as the password and hit enter. His father committed suicide about 6 months ago, so his poor Mom has really had a hard hard time. Hopefully all will work out for the little guy.

Well, so aren't I just a ray of sunshine in your life? I really got on a kick there with horrible news. Guess we all should just count our lucky stars that our lives are going as well as they are.

Barry and the dogs are fine. He is getting to be pretty darn good at week eating, although this week he has been running a chain saw too! Yipes. Bet you all are scared now! Yesterday he and the boss man had to dig up the sewer pipe as someone had put some rocks in it about the side of a baseball and that pretty much screwed it up. Anyway they got it fixed and smelled no worse for their work! (Although I did have the urge to pour bleach over him when he was in the shower! :)

It has been raining here quite a bit lately, and the temperatures have been lovely, especially compared to some of them that I hear about in the lower 48, (the locals here call that "the outside". We actually ran the fire place today awhile after being outside in the damp weather. it is about 55 degrees now and don't think it got over 65 today. Great sleeping weather. The days are getting shorter here. It now gets almost a little dark about 1 in the morning but it doen't last long.

The over 1000 flowers that I planted in early June are going great guns! All this day light sure makes them grow. My tomatos don't fair as well, due to the cool nights. I had to build them a green house. I only have 2 plants, so I took the wire dog cage, turned it on one end and covered it with plastic. Works like a charm, although it looks a little weird. Oh well, in Alaska anything goes. Our friend up here told us this is the land of half-ass stuff and he is right. There are lots of houses (or shacks) that are not quite done or not even close to done that people live in. I think the summers are so short they just do what they can and call it good.

We went to the half-way to Christmas party June 23rd at the Gakona Lodge. (See the picture on the left at the top of this post) It was pretty fun. Because so many people leave during the winter and it is so damn cold for the ones that stay here all year, they just have their Christmas parties in the summer, complete with Christmas decorations! They hired a band and he played outside the bar at the lodge. I took the attached photo at about midnight and you can see, it wasn't anywhere close to dark.

OK, well, I'm done til next time. Love to all.

Still surviving the skeeters

Yep, we are still surviving the skeeters, but barely. Some days they almost get the best of us, but so far we have prevailed!
I just returned yesterday from Minneapolis. I went for 2 days for my grandaughter Shayne's graduation party. She graduated from highschool and will start at U of Minn/ Mankato in Aug. She is sooo excited and so anxious to get away from home. She has a new fella and his name is Shane.....the Shayne and Shane show! How funny. Barry had to run the park for 2 days by himself as I went to Anchorage with our bosses, the lady had to go to the Dr. So Barry was King of the Campground! He did great.
We have had lots of international travelers in the park lately. Always have some but seems like more than usual. Last night we had a woman and 3 men from Holland that were very friendly and fun. We had helped them get a site in Valdez, so they brought us a bottle of wine for our kindness. We visited and wined with them for a while. One of the men is 65 and has smoked 3 packs a day since he was 13! Looks and acts in very good health. Maybe Swiss cigs aren't as bad for you as ours! They all spoke good English so we enjoyed them very much. Then there were 2 young Swiss men and their father in one of our tent sites. One of them came to our site and visited for a couple of hours. Learned a lot about his country and enjoyed him very much as well. It is so nice that many of the Europeans speak English.
Still haven't caught any salmon yet, but we are still working on it. We have been working more than we really want to, but with the boss lady so sick, we feel we have to help when we can. We plan to go out with a guide and get a king, not on a fly rod of course, but at least we can get one. The sockeyes are running now and we have had some of those on, but have failed to land them. We will though!
Our weather has been very nice lately. Yesterday was cloudy and cool, (50s) but most days it is in the 70s and in high 40s at night. Great sleeping weather.
There is a parade in Glennallen tomorrow. Bet that will be fun. Few people here, but they seem to have a pretty good time! Well, 'til next time...

Small world isn't it

Oh, I forgot a couple great stories.

The other day I was working in the office and these two women came to check in. Their husbands had stayed outside in their rigs. The first one's last name was Hoffman and the second one was named Trimble. They were from Redding, CA. I told Linda Trimble that I used to know someone named Trimble. He was the best man at my first wedding. She ask what his first name was, I told her and she went to the door and called her husband in, come to find out Jim Trimble, our best man is Jerry Trimble's, (the guy staying in the park) first cousin! Oh so very weird. Jerry isn't in close contact with him, and said he couldn't remember if it was Jim or his brother Carroll that had died recently, but he is going to contact their sister Lena Sue (they all live in TX, can ya tell, Jim's name is James Washington Trimble III). Anyway that was pretty fun. They left us some apple cider spiked with everclear and cinammon. Just what we need I'm certain! Haven't worked up the nerve yet to try it. We had cocktails that evening with the Trimbles and the Hoffmans.
Then a couple of nights later, Barry came it and said there was a pickup camper in site # 1 with WY license plates on it. We went down there, and it was from 18 county!!!! What are the odds? There are what, maybe 3,000 people in all of Crook Co. and two of them were in our park! We didn't know them, but they live in Pine Haven but did know some of the same people. Still a very small world! OK, now I really am shutting up for tonight. Later

Land of the midnight sun

OK, we finally had a really nice warm day, about 80 and since then it has been pretty nice. Last night it got a little nippy, but the days have been warm. We got all 9oo and some odd flowers planted last week! Yipes. There are lots and lots of them. Our bosses are such a kick. Tomi is a really take charge kind of woman, and since her stroke she hasn't been able to do lots of things she used to do. The only problem is, she is unable to let go of all the things she used to do, and thinks she still can! Oh dear, what a fracas! If there was a picture in the dictionary under control freak, it would be of Tomi! She so wants to do everything she used to do and say everything she used to say. Talking has always been one of her joys I think. She does pretty well tho, considering. Rich just does what he is told and all works out well!
Holy smokes are the mosquitos out in force now. There are millions of the little creeps. We have a sticker in the office that reads, "There is not a single mosquito in Alaska...they are all married and raising very large families!" I believe it too. I didn't know there were so may devices, gismos and gadgets to attract, repell and kill mosquitos. We have propane ones that attract them and then they stick to stuff like fly paper, we have little round devices that are battery operated that have a citronella smelling sponge in them to repell, then of course there is the citronella candles, and other battery operated devices.
A few of the things I have learned since in Alaska.
1. Alaskan tundra is next to impossible to walk on, and anyone who hikes a lot in AK has to be crazy! It is like walking on a very bumpy and uneven mattress!
2. Fishing and doing other things with a head net on, takes some getting used to. You find yourself looking cross eyed at all the lines in front of your eyes and you still swat at the mosquitos because several of the jokers feel the need to come and buzz right in your ear! Head nets are pretty close to heavenly tho.
3. Alaska is the only place where you can buy cans of mosquito repellent in case lots in grocery stores! In the Glennallen grocery store you can't get diet tonic, but by damn you can get mosquito spray by the case!
4. I feel certain that after living here for 4 or 5 months our blood will be 80% deet! We have sprayed enough of the stuff on us, we have to obsorbed some of it. This is the only place I have ever been where you can buy mosquito spray that is 100% deet, no kidding! Guess some folks get very nauseaus from it......ya think?????
5. Alaska has some of the most majestic mountains you will ever see anywhere. There are mountain ranges after mountain ranges.
6. Most everyone up here has relatives that live "outside".....OK, that means in the lower 48.
7. Even in Glennallen, AK I can't make myself pay $7.00 for a cantaloupe. (Boy those buggers would have to be really really good to justify that price.)
8. Got our hair cut today in the only hair cutting place in Glennallen. $18.00 for girls, $15.00 for boys, and she accepts out of state checks. Her name is Marla, she has 2 kids, 14 grandkids, she has been a widow for 10 years after her bush pilot husband was killed, she sold her house to her fertile daughter and her husband, and lives in a tiny apartment in the back of her shop, or house sits. She was born in OR, hates green peppers and has never been to the arctic circle. All of that I learned during two hair cuts. Yipes, life is good.
9. Glennallen has a very fine dental clinic. It is one dentist strong, his name is Kevin and he works in jeans and tee shirt and mocks on his feet. His hygienist has been a hygienist since 1982 and has a daughter that does the same thing in Anchorage. Only mother daughter team ever to graduate from the hygienist school in Anchorage. Take a bow Char! The hours at the clinic are 7am to 6pm, 4 days a week, and more if someone has a tooth ache. I had an abcess, so had to get anitbiotics, etc. So after the dental clinic I had to go to the pharmacy. The clinic faxes in your script, then you go to the medical clinic/pharmacy combo and get your drugs. The pharmacy is smaller than many closets that I have seen, much smaller that your closet Julia, and smaller than your bathroom Ann, anyway, everyone is just so very friendly and nice.
10. The library in Glennallen rocks! It is run by volunteers and when you request a library card, you get nothing, just your name put into the computer! You get your books and they enter the data in the system and away you go. Barry thinks we had more books when we lived on Manor than are in the library, but we never fail to find some to take home. Pretty good selection of magazines too.
11. I think an 8 wt. fly rod may be just a might small to catch a king salmon on, at least in the Klutina River. Had one on the other day and he took all my line and darn near all my backing before he threw the fly. Yipes, it was very exciting. Didn't get a look at him, but we did get to see some of the sockeyes that were porpoising through the water and the one that Barry had on. Have to keep at it until we get it right.

OK, I'm about done for tonight. Have to work tomorrow at 8 as our bosses will be going to Palmer, so we are holding down the fort. Holy smokes and it is our day off too! Tomi has to go to the Dr., so we just have to step up to the plate, bite the bullet, and all of that. Later

Hey everyone from AK

Hello again from Alaska. I am putting some photos of our halibut fishing trip on tonight. We went out on a charter boat named the Dawn Treader with good ol Captain Mike. Really nice fella. We took the trailer to Valdez Tues. night, put it in a camp ground and went out Wed. Jeff and Charlene, friends from Casper were up here and they went out with us. We were out almost 13 hours so it was a really long day, leaving us all ready for a good night's sleep. My arms are oh so very sore today from landing those fish, and we didn't even catch any big ones. I caught a ling cod, a very ugly fish (see photo) and a halibut about 20 or 25 lbs. I caught the halibut in about 200 feet of water and holy smokes it is hard work bringing those things in. Barry caught a yellow eye rock fish. That is the picture of him and the orange fish. Crazy looking fish (and crazy looking man) and very very bright color. It was kind of cool and misty most of the day, and the seas were pretty rough. We didn't get to go where the big fish were because of wind and high seas. But, with Dramamine, we did just fine! Gawd I love that stuff. It sure helps a wimp like me that has a tendency to motion sickness. Anyway we spent 2 nights in Valdez. The lady that owned the camp ground was good enough to let our dogs out during the day so they didn't have to hold it for 13 hours. That was a good thing.

We are now back in Glennallen. And tomorrow we will go back to work. We both worked Tues. as the bosses went to Anchorage for shopping. We hope to pick up the flowers tomorrow and get them planted. It still isn't all that warm here, and perhaps won't get really warm, I don't know. We went out this evening and caught a couple of grayling and we both had a jacket on. We are so stupid some times, we went out fishing and didn't take our skeeter spray, and believe me, you don't go any where without your skeeter spray. There are millions and millions of those buggers here, and they are very very large. So far I haven't gotten a single bite, so I don't know if they just aren't biting or if they are impotent, but I am not complaining. There have been lots of them on me, but haven't felt a bite yet.

OK, that is it for today, until later.

At home in Glennallen, AK

So here we are, in our new home! We pulled in Wed. May 16th. The road up from the lower 48 was really very good, and we are most grateful. The last 50 miles in the Yukon before the Alaskan border was quite awful, but most all the rest was good. Those frost heaves cause havoc with the roads this time of year.

Our campground is very nice, and we have a wonderful spot, on the end of the first row. We are snuggled in among the spruce trees, right along the highway entering Glennallen.

We are little ahead of the game, coming in earlier than the campground owners expected us. We had agreed to start work on June 1. but we have been busy since we got here, although the park hasn't been full yet, there are a few early birds on the road. We usually have between 4 and 8 campers each night. They tell us after June 1, it is full every night. We only have 26 sites, and we inhabit one of them!

We found coming up that there were a lot of things not open yet. We used the trusty Mileposts book as our bible, as everyone should that is coming up to Alaska, and many of the places advertised in there weren't open yet.

You can see from the photo top right, that Barry is hard at it! He was just hangin' around! Not really, he was putting up the flagging that runs from tree to tree in front of the park. The park as indentions in the ground throughout. The snow is all melted, but water stands in all the dips in the park. We pump the water out of them daily and more just keeps coming up as the permafrost melts. It is amazing. The ground is also very squishy when you walk on it. The sites are solid, where you park, but all of the grassy areas are soft and will remain that way all summer. Has something to do with the frost and the tundra growth.

Tomi and I went to the greenhouse today, about 40 miles from here and ordered the flowers! It was quite fun and a wonderfully large greenhouse. These people take their summer plantings very serious. I got two Sweet 100 tomato plants that I am going to put in pots by the trailer. Will be fun to see how they do with continuous daylight and lots of rain. We won't put the flowers out until after Memorial day as the evenings still get a little chilly.

There are about 500 people in Glennallen. It is an interesting little town. Appears to be a large portion of the inhabitants are Christian fundamentalists and most of the rest are native.

At least this area of Alaska has a lot of people that are here for a reason, i.e. they are felons, coming here to start a new life, or they are running from something. Most everyone it seems has some substantial baggage.

Every citizen of Alaska, (at least the adults, I don't know about the kids) gets an annual check for $2000.00 each. Isn't that amazing? I think AK is the only state that does that. Perhaps they feel it helps offset the high cost of living here. Last year it was only about 1400.00 but they got a raise this year!

Oh, you can't tell from the photo of Barry, but we each have shirts that have our names on them and Northern Nights Campground! Wow, we feel pretty darn special. We feel like we are on a bowling league, or we work in a gas station!

Speaking of gas stations, today we went to Valdez, about 120 miles south of here and there is a convenience store there that has full service gas! When was the last time you saw that? Been a while for us.

Valdez is an interesting little place, about 5,000 people, (I thought it was bigger), and it all centers around the harbor and the Sound. There are ferries coming and going all the time, and I'm sure tankers as well, although we didn't see any tankers today. I stopped at a fish market right on the bay and got some halibut cheeks. We had them for dinner and they were delish. Awfully expensive, but I guess halibut don't have chipmunk cheeks, so they are a little scarce. The drive to Valdez is magnificent. Sooo many mountains it just takes your breath away and there are lots of glaciers near the highway too.

We plan to leave here the 24th and go to Anchorage until the 28th for National DU Convention. They are good enough to pay our registration fees this year, since Barry retired last. That worked out great, with our free year being Anchorage. Convention here is always well attended. We were here for one in 1995. Wow, that is 12 years ago, how time does fly by!!

Well, 'til next time. Nick, I hope you like the pictures! Ya'all take care now, ya hear!

Alaska, Here we are

So, we made it to the 49Th! We spent the first night in Alaska at a park, 3 miles inside Alaska, across the Canadian border. Once again crossed customs without any problems. The size XXL mosquitoes were waiting for us! My, they are healthy devils up here. There were many at the campground we stayed in, but they must have all been males, because they would land on you but not bite. Guess the girls were all preoccupied with kids or girls night out somewhere else or something, but we were grateful. We didn't mind a bit that the guys hung around, but we didn't miss those bitin' girls!

As were we each time we have come to AK we are awe struck by the mountains. Being people from a mountainous region you would think it wouldn't be that different, ah, but Alaskan mountains are very different from WY mountains. In WY you go across a mountain range and then there aren't any more for awhile. In Alaska, there are range, after range after range. They just seem to go on forever. The highways seem to be just ribbons, cut through the dense forests. As you can see in the photo here, the forests run right to to foot of the mountains, and the roads are cut into that dense forestation. Most of the trees are birch, black and white spruce and very thick underbrush. It doesn't appear that there would be much foraging for the wildlife in those dense trees, but they must find groceries somewhere. We saw several caribou and moose in the Yukon, and have seen moose in Alaska. The moose up here are very different from the moose in WY, they are very very large. Much larger than their kin folk down south. They are also very light colored compared to the Shiras moose of WY. They have that same ugly mug as their cousins, but much bigger and lighter. Haven't seen any this year's calves yet, they must be keeping them in hiding yet.

The rivers are raging here in AK so we haven't been fishing yet. The lakes are still holding some ice and run off is in high gear, so it appears fishing will be on hold until the 2ND week of June or so. All the rivers right around Glennallen are very muddy as well as being high. Most of them have that opaque look from glacier melt as well. Guess we will have to live with that. We have the fishing licenses at the ready though, so when the waters clear, we will be ready to go!

We stopped at Gakona Lodge to see our friends from Sheridan, Greg and Val Marshall that now own the lodge. It is on the historic register as a historic road house. They have done a tremendous amount of work to it, and my does it show. It sits right on up against the Gakona River, and comes complete with restaurant and bar, as well as the lodge and cabins. I believe there are 5 rooms in the lodge. Greg goes back to Sheridan ever Jan. through April to work as a CPA and Val and the kids live year-round at the lodge. The lodge is about 30 minutes from Glennallen, so I believe after we get settled in, I will bar tend some for Greg, as he is running on the ragged edge, trying to keep up with everything and tend bar every night as well. That should be interesting. It is smaller than our bar, but the clientele is very interesting. They have many natives around Gakona, as the lodge sits between two native villages. You can't see liquor in a native village, but the Gakona Lodge liquor license is grandfathered in. Only such circumstance in Alaska. The Lodge was really a busy place during the construction of the pipeline, (as I'm sure every bar in AK was.) Two people were killed in that bar during that time. The running joke up here is that the Alaskan Pipe Line was built on speed and cocaine, since the days are so long in summer when they could work, no one really slept much. The bar at the lodge is somewhat quieter now. As state law requires bars in WY to close at 2:00AM, up here it is 5:00AM. Can't imagine how that works in the winter, but it is understandable in the summer. Greg says he tries to get everyone out by 3!

The Marshalls tell us they have more trouble with white people in their bar than with the natives, although the natives throughout AK are known to have a serious alcholism problem. They tell us that the natives always bring a designated driver with them and they all admit that they have a drinking problem! The whites on the other hand, drink and believe they are only social drinkers and completely capable of driving.....thank you very much!

Oh, the human race is amazing isn't it? So different in some respects and so alike in others. So, next time I write we will be settled in our new home. Later

Thru the Yukon

OK, we came through BC just fine and then it is North through the Yukon. My, there really aren't very many inhabitants of the Yukon! We spent the night in Teslin, a little native village of about 100 people. The RV park was quite nice, but the water hadn't thawed out yet, or any of the individual sewer dumps, although we were able to dump at the central sewer dump. We spent 2 nights here as the kids that own the park are really hard workers, and we have been traveling every day for a while. We spent Mother's Day in Teslin. There was a small (village size) grocery store. Shopping there was a real treat. Of course, prices were extremely high, but since we know first hand what it takes to get groceries in here, it was expected. I also found pearl tapioca in that little store, and it is extremely hard to find in the US.

Fuel has been running nearly $5.00 a gal. here in northern Canada, so will be glad to hit Alaska and see if it is any cheaper. Temperatures are pretty nice during the day, and evenings get a little chilly. It was amazing that the further north we came, the trees were budded more than in some of the areas further south. That being because we are getting into the much longer hours of sunlight! In the northern Yukon, it was still light at 11PM. We are very grateful that neither of us require darkness to sleep. So, off we go zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Heading North

Yikes, I didn't realize it had been so long since I brought this up to date. I have been remiss.
We spent a couple of weeks in WY in April. We were in Casper, parked in our friends, Nickie and Steve's yard, (bless 'em) for a couple of weeks. We got Dr. appointments, vet appointments, etc. done while we were there as we won't be back until Sept. or Oct. Also had some time to spoil Jevin and Gavin while we were there.

Then we went to Sundance the end of April. We buried Rod's ashes in the Miller Creek Cemetery next to his Dad on April 28th. It was a beautiful day and an equally beautiful place. Shayne, Rod's daughter came from Minn. for the service. It was a true joy having her. She is all caught up in her Sr. year of high school. What a gal she is.

We left Sundance on May 2 headed toward Alaska. Got as far as Billings the first day. Met with our financial advisor and our trust attorney then went as far as Malta the next day. Crossed the border into Canada on the 4th. It went remarkably easy. We went to the crossing just North of Malta and it is a tiny crossing, only one guy working there. We had cleared out everything we thought might present a problem and he didn't even look. Rats! I could have kept some of those groceries after all!

Anyway, we meandered across Sask. then for the next couple of days. Then we crossed into Alberta at Lloydminster. That town is right on the border between Providences, with main street being the dividing line. Bet that is plenty confusing. We spent 2 nights in Edmonton and that was pretty fun. I know you will think I am really a big fat nerd, but the highlight of our stay there for me was going to a HUGE and I mean HUGE Chinese supermarket. It was larger than most grocery stores in the states. It had the weirdest stuff I had ever seen! How about some nice fresh pork spleen? Oh yum, or if that doesn't strike your fancy perhaps you would prefer some boneless duck feet huh? Maybe your taste runs more to a fresh pork stomach! Their fresh fish market was incredible. Carp, talapia, scallops, prawns, crabs, just about anything you could think of! There was an entire aisle of nothing but soy sauces! Wow. Anyway, I enjoyed that a lot. It was located in the West Edmonton Mall, touted to be the largest mall in the world. It has a water park and a skating rink. It was really something, and we only saw about 1/4th of it. We left there on the 8th and traveled to Grande Prairie, Alberta. Nice little town. It rained on us all the way today. It is very green here and evident that they have had abundant rain. All of the pot holes are full and all of the ducks and geese are smiling!

We plan to get to Dawson Creek tomorrow or further. Dawson Creek is mile 0 of the Alaskan Highway, so we may have to do a little happy dance when we get there, probably will depend on whether it is raining or not! Anyway, I will try to enter more often in this blog. We are now up and running with WiFi, as our Verizon air card won't work up here. Our cell phones work sometimes, but we pay .69 a minute, so have been using a phone card and public land lines. That seems weird since we have used only cell phones since last Aug. We plan to be in Anchorage by May 23 for the National DU Convention. Shouldn't have any problem making that, barring any major problems with the rig.

OK, friends we will talk later.

On The Road Again

We left Safford, AZ, our winter home heading north, with our final destination the end of May being Glenallan, AK. We drove as far as Sun Valley, Az today. It is a wide spot in the road east of Holbrook in Northern AZ. We drove through the beautiful Salt River Canyon coming here. Boy, that canyon makes some in WY look pretty wimpy. We certainly were glad we had the big ol white truck to get us out of there... very steep and very long. Now we are in a really different little campground. It only has 22 sites, but it has chickens! Yes, you read that correctly, chickens! They just stroll around the campground and cluck and poop! The dogs think they are a little weird. First campground we have ever shared with chickens! Tomorrow we will go into Northern NM to the San Juan River to fish. Poor Barry is in serious withdrawl as he hasn't had any good trout fishing for a while, although he scored with crappie and Sun fish, as did I at Roper Lake State Park, just about a mile from my sister's house where we were living, (In her yard!) WE are expecting the weather to be measurably cooler there as it is further north, and pretty high. OK, I'll keep you posted.

Winding down our time in AZ

It has been over a month since I wrote here. And quite frankly one of the worst of my life. My son Rod was killed in an auto accident Feb. 23. It was a single car wreck and no one was with him. He was killed instantly. Guess there are things to be thankful for at times like this. My heart is breaking. I am trying to work through it, and I am getting better as time passes. I know my life will never be the same, but I do cherish the memories of the 40 years we had him. (How could he have been that old...I'M NOT THAT OLD. Ha!) We went to CO where it happened and took care of all the details. There was a memorial service there for him, complete with flowers, friends and many many memories. We will bury his ashes in WY on April 28 with a grave side service and a wake of sorts in the back room of the Dime Bar. He loved that bar, and now that we own it, it is only fitting. His daughter will be there from MN. She is a senior in high school and has been accepted into the U. of Minn/Mancato. We established a memorial for her college. She is a pretty girl. Looks like her dad only with blonde hair and blue eyes.

We no longer work at the newspaper, they didn't like the fact that we were gone for a couple weeks I guess. Oh well. We went to Life on Wheels in Tucson in mid March. It is a 2 1/2 day school on rving. It was great. Learned lots and met lots of nice people. It was great, highly recommend it to anyone that spends any time in an RV. We also got the job we wanted in Alaska. We have met our new bosses, as they winter in Yuma. We went there and moved their rig from one site to another as they traveled from AK in their suburban and left their dually up there. I think it is going to be very fun. We start around June 1, so will leave WY around the 1st of May. Plan to attend the DU national convention in Anchorage the end of May. We are looking forward to the summer. Don't know where we will winter in 07-08. Barry isn't terribly fond of it here as there isn't much close by fishing. Except the lake, and that is pretty fun, but no moving water close.

We spent a couple of days in Tubac visiting our friend Jess Driskill. There were two couples there from WY that we know real well, so that was fun. It was the first time we had been there since Jess's wife died, so it was a little emotional, but always good to see Jess.

That pretty much brings us up to date. Will keep you posted when we start moving.

Floatin' in Arizona

OK, our big news is.....we got a float tube! It is pretty fun. We take it to Roper Lake right here by the house and fish out of it. The fishing sucks, but hopefully within a few weeks it will get better. Barry went to Frye Lake yesterday and caught a few small trout. Not floating tho. The float tube is really fun. You feel like such a dork when you first get in it and figure out how to move around. I immediately beached myself when I first got iin it, but then figured out how to go where I wanted to. I look forward to using it when the weather gets a little warmer, although it isn't bad now. I think we had a day last week in the low 80s. That was pleasant. We are slaving away in our new job. We usually only work a few hours on Tues. night from eleven until two or 3 in the morning. We did put in an 8 hour day a couple Mondays ago. Yikes! Went in at 8 in the morning and got home about 5. Now we are working on finding something in Alaska. We are in touch with a campground there that uses workampers. It is in Glenallen. Good fishing all around it. That would be cool. Will keep you posted how that works out. OK, for now guess that is all the news.

NEW YEAR-NEW ADVENTURE

So, here we are already in 2007 with January almost gone, actually it is gone! We now reside in Safford, AZ. We enjoyed our time at Jay and Kristy's in Casper and got to spend lots of time with Jevin and Gavin. What a treat they are, as are their parents. My Mom came to Casper for Christmas so we had a large time. We went to Sundance for New Years Eve at the bar. Always nice to see old friends. Safford is very comfortable, and we woke up over a week ago to 10 inches of wet snow! Yipes! We are at my sister and brother-in-law's house. They live out in the country with the quail, doves, pigs, and humming birds, so it is very fun. Anyway, the day of the snow, this area lost power for nearly the whole day, so we all gathered in our house with the good ol generator going, so all was well. One plus of the whole thing was it was great snowman making snow, so I tore out and made two very cool snowmen! One was actually a snow woman because she had very perky boobs! I will have to post a picture of those creatures one of these days. It was warm enough that I didn't even need a coat, but I had cooked breakfast that morning so I DID have on my apron! My sister thought I was very weird, but she already knew that.
OK, the next big news in our funny life is, we got a job! Barry and I now work as inserters at the local newspaper. We normally work in the middle of the night, starting at 11PM and getting done around 3. It works OK, because we can sleep late and nap as our schedule is pretty flexible. Barry thinks we might make enough to buy a bottle of scotch every couple of weeks, so you can see that it isn't a high paying position. It is kind of fun though, and gives me a whole new appreciation of the labor intensity of a small town newspaper. Last night as we were stuffing, I felt like a true resident as I recognized one of the young ladies in an engagement photo, she works at the grocery store. Quite an ecclectic group there in the middle of the night, and it is very active as all the contractors come in to get their papers to be delivered in the morning. The paper only comes out twice a week, so we don't work all that much.
The dogs are doing great and certainly enjoying the sunny weather, as are we. It has been a little rainy but we had a great day this week and we took advantage of it and went to the shooting range with our hand guns. It was just glorious weather. Nice warm sun and on a week day we had the range to ourselves. Safford sits at the base of some mountains, so the scenery is also a huge plus. We look out our living room window at Mt. Graham and it is all snowy. That is very fun in Tshirt weather.
Julia and Cody from Casper are coming in Feb. for a few days, so we have some fun stuff planned. We will spend a day in Tombstone which I always find a treat, and we will go one day to Tucson to an Indian Art Fair. That should be really cool. We live about a mile from a state park with a lake on it, so we got our year long pass to go there and our fishing license. It is very nice and the lake is stocked with trout and also holds catfish, crappie, and large mouth bass. We are looking forward to wetting a fly there and seeing how we can fare with the bass and catfish. That will be something different. The park also has a natural hot spring so we will have to go have a good soak. Nice that it is less than a mile from our house.
Till next time..... tight lines.