Memorial Day Weekend

Thursday, May 26 - Anchorage, AK has many outdoor recreation opportunities, not just the nearby rivers, forests, and ocean, but also a network of walking and bicycle paths throughout the city.  We took a three mile walk on paths from the Lindsey home today.  In the evening we went to the Snow Goose restaurant for the rehearsal dinner, where Susan and I met the groom's family (nice folks) for the first time. 

Friday, May 27 - A small caravan of us drove to Seward, AK, including ourselves, Mark and Suzie, and Suzie's father Ray, plus sisters Jackie and Judy and their husbands, plus assorted offspring.  Seward is a little less than 200 miles away, around the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet, then over some hills with mountains all around.  Very scenic.  The Turnagain Arm is famous for its Bore tides (here's a link http://alaska.org/bore-tides.jsp ) which we did not happen to see.  It being Memorial Day weekend, we were concerned about finding a place for the camper, but the groom, Keith Long, obtained a spot for us at an military campground in Seward through his relationship with the Air Force.



Exit Glacier



Saturday, May 28 - Emily's Wedding - The weather, which had been clear throughout our trip, failed us today, starting to rain just before the wedding.  In the morning, a group of us drove about four miles, then walked about a mile to nearby Exit Glacier.  In the picture to the left, see how small the people are in the right center along the edge of the glacier.



Cutting the Cake



The wedding itself was a good time - great food and a great small band that kept everybody going.  Emily looked lovely (we expected no less.)

I know that Emily and Keith wanted the wedding to be held outside amidst the mountain scenery, but everyone enjoyed  the inside celebration just as much.

Sunday, May 29 - The weather cleared up again, of course, now that the wedding is over.  Susan and I hitched up the trailer, and off we went to see the town of Homer.  Always on the top ten of cool places to visit, there were so many people there over the holiday, that it pretty much lost its charm for us.  However, the views from a nearby hillside, looking down over the town and the famous Homer Spit, were spectacular.

Monday, May 30 - While we were down in the Kenai Peninsula, we decided to go rockhounding again.  We found a beach near Inkiski where the beach pebbles contained small pieces of volcanic agate.  Mount Redoubt, which has erupted recently, is just across the Cook Inlet.  After that, we drove back to Anchorage, to Mark and Suzie's driveway once again.  I want to include one more moose picture, taken on Sunday, on the way back from Homer.  A mother moose and two babies were by the side of the road, but one youngster was lying down - you can still see the other though.

McCarthy, AK

Monday, May 23, 2011 – Clear, 49 in am; 67 in pm.  With an extra day in hand, we found a reference to a town named McCarthy, Alaska, so we had to try for it.  We drove 140 miles toward Anchorage, then turned toward Valdez (25 miles), then toward Chitina (33 miles).  The roads were paved, but speeds were 35-45 mph because of the many frost heaves.  It turns out that the “town” of McCarthy is at the end of a 58-mile dirt road and a ½ mile pedestrian bridge beyond Chitina, so we pulled off into a free campground at the beginning of the dirt road and will try again tomorrow.  With the rare clear weather here, we saw many views of the Wrangell Mountain range, including 18,000 foot peaks when the base is about 1,100 feet.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011 – Clear, 47am, 70pm.  Left at 6:00 am for McCarthy, AK, arriving at 9:00 am.  The road was dirt and gravel, but we have been on far worse in Colorado. 

There weren’t many people around town, as it is still before Memorial Day, so we took a shuttle up to the site of the Kennecott Copper mine, where Kennecott was first started in the early 1900’s.  The National Park Service is rehabbing buildings.  There are good views of a glacier and good opportunities to rockhound for copper minerals Malachite and Azurite.  We saw six moose in our travels today.  By the end of the day we were 70 miles from Anchorage, and hope to see Mark and Suzie tomorrow.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011 – Spent some time rockhounding for fossils (not much to show for the time spent) and petrified wood (some interesting pieces infused with coal.)  We parked the trailer at Mark & Suzie's in Anchorage - phase one of our journey is complete!

Thursday, May 26, 2011 – Mark may have solved the refrigerator-not-working-on-propane problem!  We have read whatever we could find on the internet about Norcold N-300 3R refrigerators.  Basically (if your eyes start glazing over just skip the rest of this paragraph), there is no pilot light on this reefer.  Pressing in a button safety valve on the door frame of the reefer inside the trailer allows gas to be sent to the burner, about 3 feet away, ignitable by a piezo clicker.  The heat from the burner warms one end of the thermocouple, which creates a small (10-15 millivolts) current to travel along the 3 to 4 foot copper thermocouple to its other end.  As long as there is the proper current, the safety valve will be opened, allowing propane to continue to flow without having to press the safety valve button.  If the burner goes out for any reason, the lack of heat stops the flow of current along the thermocouple and the valve closes preventing any build-up of propane.  Now if the current is not sufficient at the safety valve end of the thermocouple, the burner will not stay lit if the safety valve button is not pressed – this was our symptom.  It could be a faulty thermocouple (which we replaced in Kent WA), a faulty safety valve, a faulty “interrupter” (another small part attached to the safety valve) or bad wires or connectors, anything that would cause an improper voltage drop.  We found a few internet posting which claimed that for 2004 TrailManor trailers like ours, Norcold used wires that were too small (18 guage) and they should be replaced with thicker wires.  Mark suggested that we (for now) detach and clean the wire ends and re-attach.  To start with, he just detached them and re-attached immediately.  The propane setting suddenly works fine.  We are on the right track, but I’m sure there are further chapters to this little mini-drama.  Stay tuned!

Thursday evening, we attended the rehearsal dinner, and enjoyed meeting the fiance’s family.  The weather has continued to be beautiful every day, days in the 70's - nights in the 40's.  We have also met for the first time our grand nephew and nieces.  Saturday is the wedding, and we hope that the weather holds.

British Columbia and the Yukon



Farewell Bend, Oregon

 Thurs 5/12/11 – From Salt Lake City, we headed north through through northern Utah, then scooted through Idaho, into Oregon.  We stayed at an interesting Oregon state park called Farewell Bend.  (Thus far, state parks have been $16 (Utah), $25 (Oregon), per night.)  Farewell Bend was where Indians, and later settlers got together or stopped over for a while.  Hells Canyon above this point on the Snake River made this a good stopping point.






Fri 5/13/11 – Since we had an appointment near Seattle to try to resolve our ongoing reefer problem next Tuesday, we had an extra day to go rockhounding, so we pulled into a BLM campground near Madras, OR full of fishermen with small oar-driven boats.  On Saturday, we went to nearby Richardson’s Ranch to look for thundereggs, which are geode-like rocks, but mostly filled with colored agate instead of crystals.  The ranch had a rock shop with an impressive display of local rocks and fossils, as well as a menagerie of peacocks, ostriches and other birds.

Stonehenge, WA

Sunday 5/15/11 – From Madras, it was only a short distance to the Oregon border with Washington, about 120 miles.  We found a spot at Maryhill State Park, on Columbia River, and then visited local replica of Stonehenge, created by a Quaker pacifist as a memorial to local soldiers who died in WWI.  We also went looking for petrified wood around Roosevelt, WA  along the Columbia River gorge, but could not find anything - a not uncommon result when rockhounding. 

Monday 5/16/11 – We got on to I-90 and drove west over the Cascades, all very green and some rain (sleetish on snoqualmie pass, but Moose pulled us through).  One month ago, I was on the very eastern end of I-90 in Massachusetts; today we wereclose to the western end in Washington.  The evening was spent in Kaniskat State Park, close to Kent, WA where we have an appointment to bring the trailer tomorrow for reefer repair (hopefully.)



Whistler Area, BC, Canada

 Tuesday 5/17/11 – A good day.  At Auburn-Kent Valley RV, we met some really nice, competent, and caring people to help us.  Tim (mechanic) installed the new thermocouple, and the refrigerator is working on propane again.  He was done by 10:30 am, and also changed a drain valve and put in a new lag screw on a bracket that had broken off.  Tammy ordered a part for our sliding mechanism, and will forward it to Alaska upon arrival.   We then passed through/around Seattle and crossed the Canadian border, on I-5 to Vancouver, B.C., without any delays, except for traffic in Vancouver.  We drove up to Whistler ski area, home to the recent Winter Olympics, and stayed in Nairn Falls provincial park on a river in the mountains. 

Wednesday 5/18/11 – Coming out of the Whistler area, also called the Sea-toSky Highway, we went up and down some steep grades, several 13 and 14 percent.  We stopped in Lillooet- where jade is mined, and visited the local museum.  Soon we were on higway 97, a more major route, with more traffic and construction delays, but not too bad.  Stayed in Bee Lazee RV park because we liked the name.  We have heard of flooding on portions of the preferred route out of nearby Prince George.  We could stay on Hwy 97, but Hwy 16 & the Cassiar hwy is supposed to be prettier and have less traffic, especially trucks.



Farm house near Smithers, BC

 Thursday 5/19/11 – In Prince George, we shopped at Walmart for supplies, then went to the library for internet access, then visitors’ center for info about flooding.  No recent information was available, but we decided to press on with Hwy 16.  The drive was great today, good road with wide shoulders, no flooding, although signs of high water along highway and in towns, notable Houston, BC.  Smithers, BC is one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen, with scenic views of  beautiful, jagged peaks to north and west, full of snow, but right near town.  Stayed in Seeley Lake Prov. Park, 20 miles before junction with Cassiar Hwy.  The sun is up until 10:30 pm, and rises before 5:00 am.  Weather has been uniformly great.  I shelled out the most money I've ever paid for fill ups - $88 (full tank) in Prince George; $78 (3/4 tank) in Smithers.



Brown Bear Cassiar Hwy, BC

 Friday 5/20/11 – Along Cassiar Hwy Temp am, 39F; Pm 68F., Clear.  Hwy 37, road still good but narrower shoulders.  After Istuk, more bumpy (frost heaves.)  All in all, the roads have been better than expected.  Gas here was $1.54/liter.  This was “bear Friday”.  We saw our first bear at 9:00 am, about 60 miles in. at 10:00 am our first grizzly (brown), eating grasses by the side of the road, nonchalant.  Altogether, we saw 9 black, one brown.  The black would usually walk away when we stopped; not the brown.  It was a pleasant day driving, and we drove almost 400 miles, to Jade City, where we purchased a few trinkets, and stayed (for free) in their parking lot.



Is his name Bob?

 Saturday 5/21/11 – Temp am 39F; pm 65F, clear then clouded up, few showers in pm. 
We finished the Cassiar Hwy in a very bumpy stretch travelling no more than 45 mph for the remaining 75 miles to the Alaska Hwy.  Then we had a good road for 260 miles to Whitehorse.  Along here, we came upon very nervous, disoriented caribou.  Finally, we went another 75 somewhat jarring miles to camp in a provincial park at Pine Lake, near Haines Junction.  We saw what might have been our first moose, then determined them to be horses, then saw that they were moose after all, mother and yearling, now out of range for pictures.

Sunday, May 22, 2011 – Clear, 47 F in am; 65 F in pm.  Bumpy, Bumpy, Bumpy.  The road from Haines Junction to the US border (about 200 miles) is famous for flat tires and broken axles, especially the last 100 miles from the aptly named Destruction Bay.  The US government has assisted the Yukon province in improving the road to current standards, but they cannot keep ahead of the thawing and freezing of the permafrost.  We passed one guy in a broken down Uhaul, waiting for repair help, but he did not need any help from us.  But we took it slow, taking most of the day to cover that stretch.  We crossed the border to the good ole USA and drove 100 more miles to Tok, AK, finding an RV park with a laundry and a truck wash.  Only 442 more miles to Seward, AK.

Underway

Within the past few weeks, from our home base in Fort Myers Beach, FL, we have purchased a 2004 Toyota 4Runner (which Susan has christened "Moose"), and a 2004 TrailManor 3124KB camper trailer.  Both of these conveyances have some miles on them, but so do Susan and I, so let’s go!  We have needed a 4wd vehicle for rockhounding in the summer in Colorado, as our 1994 Toyota truck (while still reliable) is proving too uncomfortable for long trips as it and we age.  The camper is also un upgrade, from our 2000 Coleman Santa Fe popup.  The TrailManor is also a popup in a way, but easier to set up and more secure, and has brakes which our old Coleman does not.  It is about 1,000 lbs heavier, however, and a whole lot longer. 

We saw one of these TrailManors in a state park in Utah last year, and were intrigued as to how the setup works, with springs and torsion bars.  We did quite a bit of research, looked at some for sale, etc., and finally decided to get one.  (http://www.trailmanor.com/)  Between the new (used) car, the new (used) camper, and new highways and byways to explore we'll have a lot to experience.  We'll see how the equipment and our sanity hold up.

The camper came with a weight distributing hitch.  The hitch uses two iron bars to move the tongue weight of the camper forward to be distributed equally on the tow vehicles two axles.  It's a mystery how it works, but it should improve the 4runner emergency handling (don't even think about it!) and ride.

Susan and I have been to Alaska before, flying in to spend some memorable, great times with her brother Mark and his family.  We have always wanted to drive, and an opportunity presented itself, as Mark’s youngest daughter Emily is getting married in Alaska at the end of May.  We start in Fort Myers Beach, FL and hopefully will end up in Alaska before the wedding.

Monday 5/2/11 – Today we embark on our Alaska road trip adventure.  We have left Fort Myers Beach late, due to the need of closing up our winter quarters.  We also stopped to see my aunt Geraldine in Winter Park, FL so we ended up only driving about 400 miles.  That put us in Albany Georgia around 11:00 pm and we parked for a few hours sleep in a WalMart parking lot – not exactly the “back to nature” theme we would have liked.  Also, we discovered that the refrigerator is not working on the propane setting (which means that it won’t be on unless we have access to plug-in 110v power - it has a 12 volt DC setting, but that does not provide much cooling capacity and drains a battery severly.)  We still hope to reach Bull Shoals, AR tomorrow, although that is 700 miles away.

Tuesday 5/3/11 -  We slept very little, in the noisy, city atmosphere but at least we got on the road early.  Traffic was snarled up in Birmingham, AL due to the serious tornado that went through the week before. 



Flooded railroad, Jonesboro AR

 We also saw flooding in Arkansas, near Jonesboro, almost over the highway.  A piece of a retread tire hit the car, putting a hole in the a/c condenser, so no a/c for now.  We made it to Bull Shoals and a warm welcome from Dick and Suze.  Dick has made an appointment for us to get new trailer tires locally tomorrow.

Wednesday 5/4/11 - With Dick’s invaluable help, we pulled and replaced the trailer tires.  We also greased the trailer wheel bearings, and ordered a new a/c condenser at a local shop, then enjoyed a quiet home dinner with our friends, Dick and Suze plus John and Jinny.

Thursday 5/5/11 – We took the trailer to a local RV dealer in an attempt, ultimately unsuccessful, to repair the refrigerator.  However, the condenser was replaced and we have a/c again. Yay!  We left Bull Shoals at 12:30 pm and drove to the Eldorado State Park near Wichita, KS.  The reefer, unfortunately is still not working with propane.  In fact, nothing requiring electricity is working either.  The camper battery which is supposed to be charging while underway discharged instead, and was dead.  So we sat in the dark for a while, then went to bed...pretty exciting. 

Friday 5/6/11 – Today we returned to Colorado, arriving in time to have some birthday cake (son Kevin’s 42^nd) and spend a few hours with the grandkids.  They sure change a lot in six months.  It was great to see the family again; we hope to see much more of them when we return from this trip.

Saturday 5/7/11 – Back at our summer home in Buena Vista, CO.  Everything looks good, but we just missed a visit from Florida friends Dan and Donna who are on their own western swing.  We spent Saturday and Sunday preparing for our trip and had good visits with neighbors, after being away for six months

Monday 5/9/11 – We took Moose in to see John at MJ Auto – he checked out fine. John also looked at trailer brakes – ok.  Picked up mail, etc.

Leaving Buena Vista, CO

Tues 5/10/11 – Left for Alaska – made it to Green river State Park, UT.

Wed 5/11/11 – Spent much of day waiting for reefer part (thermocouple) outrageous price in Salt Lake City.  Trying to arrange for TrailManor dealer in Washington State to replace thermocouple.  This will slow us down, as first opening is Tuesday 5/17, in Kent Washington.  Stayed at Crystal Springs c.g. north of SLC.  These mineral hot springs are really popular locally; 50 or so people were still thereat 9:30 pm.