Ila's Final Blog

So many of you have asked me what was "the highlight" of the trip and I just struggle to answer that question. It was SO vast, SO beautiful, and just so many different areas. It is impossible for me to just pick one thing that was most beautiful or interesting because it all was. I absolutely love the mountains so for one final picture post, I am using this shot of the St Elias mountains. As you can tell, they were as beautiful as all the other scenes we saw like this but I don't think we posted this particular one.

Some of you have asked about the price we paid for gas. I asked Phyllis because she was the one "in charge" of that area. She said Canada took tops for high with it calculating out to between $5.50 and $6.00 per gallon. She said Alaska was between $4.00 and $4.50 per gallon. We had no difficulty getting gas. I believe I remember a time or two that a pump or two was "sacked" but there was usually another one available.

And I know I commented I was glad to get home and I was. I am glad to be home. But that is true of me no matter where I go or for how long I am gone. The final section of the last chapter of Bob Benson's book "He Speaks Softly" is entitled "A Faithful Father Waits." In it he writes about going to watch marching band competitions when his son was playing in the band and how the band spends hours and hours in preparation for these events. In this scenario, everything is judged on precision and that final "pulling out all the stops" to "give the judges everything they have." He asked his son if he could describe what it felt like marching toward the stands filled with cheering parents and friends and his son just grinned. He told him that some day he would probably experience that same "rush" feeling when he had a son that was competing. But then he concludes with some thoughts about the heavenly Father. As a closing thought, he writes:

"It was Jesus himself who reminded us that we were to call him Father -- 'Abba Father' -- which is a lot more like calling him Dad. I think Jesus was telling us that our Father is the one in the stands who is standing on the seat, waving his coat in a circle over his head with tears of pride and happiness running down his face." I don't personally believe He is standing up in heaven waiting and watching for us to trip over our shoe laces or looking for a smudge on our face and whatever else people might dream of to conjure up "fear" of God. He loves us. He gave His Son for our sin. He wants us to succeed.

That is the final scene I want to leave in your minds. Yes this land (USA) is beautiful and we are such a blest people. But I want what I do here on earth to be part of what God recalls when He sees me approaching heaven. Do I do everything perfect? NO! God asks us to do our best and I truly try but I'm sure sometimes I fail even at that. But God knows my heart! I must strive to keep it "right" with Him. I love Him supremely and I know He loves me. PTL!

Many of you have commented on how much you enjoyed our blog. Well, we enjoyed creating it. There were times when we were quite tired and that was mentioned and probably came through in the writing. But, it was fun to write and we had so much to tell about what we saw. We even had some humor to throw in some times. Who knows, maybe you will even go back and look at it again and enjoy it once more. We surely do hope so!

Sunday 13th

Hi, it's Phyllis,
Guess I better weigh in on the last blog. It was a fantastic trip, and if I was 20 years younger, I would seriously consider Alaska as a place to live. But, like Ila, my recliner sure is great. Now, I'm not into cooking, so I haven't got that started yet. It was so good to be home, that I didn't leave, except to get groceries, go to the post office and to church today. Exciting things happened here while I was gone. For those who don't know, I live right next to the Des Moines River and the levee is in my back yard. Right now that levee is stacked high with sandbags. My daughter and son-in-law with the help of relatives, moved most of my things to higher ground, (Brenda and Bill's garage and house), and then on the 4th of July weekend, moved everything back. I knew it was happening, but there was nothing I could do from Alaska. Thanks to everyone who was reading our blog and praying for us. I don't suppose we will ever know how many people followed us day by day and shared in our adventure. We drove about 11,000 miles and OH the sights we saw. I can hardly wait to get my pictures printed. Thanks to all of you who accompanied us on the adventure of a lifetime.

This is Linda and I finally decided I shouldn't wait until I have time to do this or I'll never get it done! The amount of things I had to do since I returned home on Wednesday is astronomical. Yesterday I went to Tipton to pick up my mail and attend a grandchild event and Monday I am going to Lee's Summit to see my new grandson and his big brother.

I actually cooked today and it was really good! We had a lot of very good food on our trip as well as some that wasn't so good, but my own cooking definitely tastes good!

I can't really say that I have a favorite part of our trip. The most I can say is that I really enjoyed seeing a lot of scenery I had never seen before as well as a lot of animals in the wild I hadn't seen before. Some I had seen in zoos, but that is just not the same as seeing them beside the road or in the open water.

I have been asked is I'd do it again, and yes, I would go again. I would recommend to anyone to go and drive all the way like we did. It was very special. Of course if you don't want your vehicle to get dirty inside and out, then don't drive. Alaska does have carwashes! We saw a lot of things that you wouldn't necessarily see on a tour and we didn't spend valuable time at the tourist traps. We visited with a lot of very intersting people, both Alaskans and visitors from other states and countries.

Sometimes we have been tired when it was time to write in this blog, but I am glad we did it and I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed doing it and reading it ourselves. Happy traveling!

Linda

Thursday, July 10, 2008

This is Ila and I'm writing to just let those of you who have gotten into the habit of checking on us daily know that we arrived home safely late Wednesday afternoon. It took a bit of time to get unloaded and we were all tired so didn't do update last night. If you are interested, you might check back here to see if we have been inspired to write a final few words about our trip. I'm not going to attempt to do that this morning. I want my cup of coffee and my recliner! If you can't relate, try taking a six-week trip and spending all those nights in a motel. Just see how good that recliner feels. HA!

July 8, 2008

Tues, July 8, 2008 – Day 42

This is Linda. We began our day today by driving from our motel into the Rockies. As we passed Herbert, Marceline, and Kay’s street, we waved at them. In the Rockies we visited the villages of Ferncliff and Allenspark and also the Wild Basin Area Copeland Lake. There we managed to see a mule-eared deer even though we were quite busy attempting to miss the millions of potholes. A few of them we did miss, but I tried to get them on the return trip. I think I got all of them. We took pictures at the St. Malo Retreat Center and went on through Estes Park and into Thompson Canyon. While there, there was an accident and we had to wait about 45 minutes while fire trucks, a trooper, and an ambulance went past us. We also saw the helicopter come to pick someone up. When we went past the accident scene, we realized it was probably quite serious. A small car had hit a tree and burned. Once again God was with us. If we hadn’t made a wrong turn earlier in Estes Park, we could possibly have been at the scene and possible even have been involved in the accident.

From there, we headed for home from Loveland past Fort Collins and to Cheyenne and onto Interstate 80. Shortly after we got gas east of Cheyenne we ran into quite a bit of heavy rain and had to slow down and finally even pull off at an exit for a while. It was finally done so that we could go on. In Nebraska we saw some deer or possibly antelope off in the distance.

We are in North Platt, Nebraska tonight and are even in the Central Daylight Time Zone again after being out of it since very early in our trip. Tomorrow will be a long day since we plan to drive home and it is a few more miles than we have driven in any other day on this trip.

Today was Ila’s birthday and though we had planned to have ice cream, that never happened, so tomorrow it will be a priority. Have a nice day! We plan to do a brief recap after we get home, so check on our site again.

Mon July 7 2008

Monday, July 7, 2008
Hi, it’s Phyllis again.
This morning after a continental breakfast in the motel, we got on the road again. This time we are headed toward Cheyenne. This is very interesting country. One minute things are fairly green, even with out irrigation, and just over the next hill, or around the next corner, it’s barren, brown and full of rocks. It is hard for me to imagine how anyone makes a living here on a ranch or farm. There are a lot of wind farms (turbines) and since there always seems to be wind, they are on the move. We see cattle scattered around the hills and sometimes pretty large herds. Not much wildlife, but a few deer, and lots of ground squirrels, many who did not make it across the highway. We gassed up in Laramie, where the gas was $3.89. That was the cheapest we found it since leaving home. We arrived in Cheyenne around 4:30 and stopped at the Lyle and Lorene Johnson home for a brief visit. Lorene was going to be doing crafts for their Vacation Bible School this evening, so we didn’t stay long, but really enjoyed our time with her. Lyle was on the road so we didn’t see him. Our motel tonight is in Longmont, Colorado. After finding a motel and a brief meal at Burger King, we went to visit Ila’s cousins. What a delightful family. Herbert and Marcelline Tennis and her sister Kay, made us feel just like family. Of course Ila was, but before the evening was over, we felt like we had know them all our lives. We did discover that since they were originally from the Cedar, Beacon, Eddyville area that we not only had several experiences in common, but also knew lots of the same people. It was a fun evening and we probably stayed too long, but if we tired them out you would never know it. If we had visited in the daytime, we could have seen Herb’s garden, and fish pond, and many flowers that he told us about.
Ila has reminded me that we never told you the story of “sleeping at the foot of the bed”.
It was in Langley, B.C. The bed was right against the wall, next to the window where the A.C. was located. Now since the cold air was blowing right on me, I decided that the only way to sleep at all was to change ends of the bed. Ila woke up, saw me down there and decided she would also change. When Linda woke the next morning , she thought we had lost our minds.
Well enough trivia for this time. Tomorrow we are headed East again and should be home by sometime Wednesday. Keep reading, the adventure is not finished yet.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Sunday, July 6, 2008

This is Ila writing tonight. Our breakfast this morning was compliments of the motel where we stayed last night so we had a warm meal to begin the day. There were at least 8 Nazarene churches in Nampa and we chose to attend church this morning at College Church in Nampa ID. This is the church where Kevin & Beth Borger had ministered at some time before they came to Oskaloosa.

In our trek on I 84 across Idaho, we saw various types of irrigation units with some crops of corn and lots of what appeared to be hay fields. We also saw herds of cattle – some dairy and some feed lots. There was one HUGE Holstein dairy herd just west of Twin Falls, ID. At Twin Falls, we did stop at the Snake River canyon. At the bottom, there was a golf course that I’m sure would have challenged all you golfers who are reading! We also came by a HUGE hay field and there were seven large balers working and the rows of hay they were baling were really big. We also saw what we think may have been potato fields.

Animal sightings today in addition to cattle and horses were some antelope. We kind of think that maybe some of the cattle had mountain goat blood because there were some who we way up on mountainsides and did not look all that safe. Not sure what in the world they were eating that would have been better than the wonderful green grass down low.

As we came through Ogden UT, I remembered being there in 1986 when Aaron McKee graduated from high school in Logan UT. We didn’t take time to investigate any of the area there. Heading farther on east on I84, we encountered quite a bit of highway construction and crossed over some of the rumble strips, which caused a bit of start for the one in the driver’s seat! HEE! Coming through Ogden, we also saw a Cracker Barrel sign so we know we must be getting closer to home! HA! We saw several “ranch” signs but the ranches were out of sight from the highway.

We are tonight in Evanston WY. I also have a 1986 memory of this place because on our way to Aaron’s graduation, we stopped to see our good friend, Sandy Pacha, who was living here at that time. We have this evening, called and touched base with friends in Cheyenne WY. We are hoping to perhaps catch an opportunity to stop by and say a brief “hello” to them on our way through their area but they are busy people. We will know by some time tomorrow afternoon. It looks like we should be back in Osky/Eddyville/Beacon either Wednesday or Thursday. We are getting pretty close to 10,000 miles on the van and also on three travel-weary bodies since we left.

Sat, July 5, 2008

Saturday, July 5, 2008 – Day 39

This is Linda and in case anyone wants to know, yes, I am tired of blogging. But, it will soon be all over and I won’t have to do it again. This morning I got up at the crack of dawn (5:00) to have breakfast at the motel and get the van serviced at Wal-Mart. Actually I didn’t get up until 6, but I woke up at 5 and couldn’t go back to sleep. You’ve heard enough about my woes.

We then left Yakima and went to Milton Freewater, Oregon to take out Dena Ward for lunch. Her husband was Bob’s mother’s first cousin. We had a very nice visit with her. For those of you who know her, yes she is still not acting her age. She told us she will be 94 in December. A “boy” does mow her yard now, but she still has a garden, has lots of flowers, drives, takes care of her two cats, cans fruit, etc. The area from Yakima to her place has a lot of fruits and vegetables raised commercially. It is a little strange for people from Iowa to look at acres and acres of onions! This area is just plain desert except where they irrigate and it is green there. They also grow hops for use in beer making.

From there we went on to Nampa, Idaho where we are staying tonight. Tomorrow morning we hope to take in a church service with some sort of patriotic celebration before heading on east toward home.

Have a nice day and we’ll write to you again tomorrow night.

Fri, July 4 2008

Hi, it’s Phyllis,
This was an interesting day, or at least we thought it was. Before we left the motel at Langley, the lady there gave us directions to Stanley Park in Vancouver. We decided that would be a valuable stop. In the process of finding this park, we saw China Town (twice). When we arrived at our destination we found it was indeed worth the effort. This was a beautiful place. We could drive clear around the bay, where we saw many sail boats and big yachts. There were lots of people walking, biking, and families as well as tourists taking advantage of the great day . There was a sea wall all the way around and people could walk, bike, and skate on it. We saw some larger ships out in the harbor and just spent some time watching people. But now it was time to move on and find our way through Vancouver. The tolleys run on overhead wires and some of the streets still have the rails down the middle. It is a very busy place and since there was a cruise boat in the harbor, that helped the busyness.
Since we had not heard back from Ila’s friend in Seattle, we decided not to go there so were looking for highway 99 out of town. This proved to be harder than it looked. We followed the highway clear through Vancouver, and out or town and found ourselves at the airport. There was no good place to turn around, so we just drove clear through, watched people departing, and on our way out, surprise, surprise there was 99. We just took the exciting way.
We crossed into the lower 48 at about 1:40 p.m. Guess what we did first thing? Found a Mc Donalds. Yes, they have them in Alaska and Canada, but this was better and even had the dollar menu. We thought the security at the border was the most watched, with cameras, etc. than the previous ones had been. We drove on to Yakima, Washington, where we spent the night. We had supper at a neat diner called, Mel’s. Then we did laundry and went to Wal Mart, where we had a really good view of the local fireworks, from the parking lot. Tomorrow we will have quite a lot of driving, and do plan to visit Linda’s relative on our way. So tune in again tomorrow for further adventures.

Sat am, July 5

This is Ila again. We will write a blog for Friday and post it tonight. We are in Yakima WA this morning and Linda is out getting the van serviced (3rd time). Heading off to Nampa ID for church in the AM. By the time we got supper last evening, went to WalMart to shop for a few necessary things, and watched the beautiful fireworks from the WalMart parking lot, we were all too tired to write. I just wanted to let those of you who faithfully read our writings that we are fine and on our way home. Are stopping somewhere along today's route to see a relative of Bob H that Linda has talked with and she knows we are coming. I understand she is a spry young one of 90 some years. So that will be fun. More later.

Thurs July 3, 2008

Thursday, July 3, 2008
Day #37
This is Ila writing tonight. We left Williams Lake BC this morning and headed toward Vancouver on Hwy 97. Near Cache Creek, we decided to go on the Sea to Sky/Sky to Sea highway. That was a most beautiful drive. The Fraser River runs down deep in the canyon. We saw many, many spruce trees that are dead. There is a beetle that attacks the spruce tree and it seems to be prevalent from Arizona to Alaska. If you want to read more about that, I will simply tell you to check out Google.

At a town called Lillooet, we decided to take another highway and head back down to the main road we left when we began the Sky to Sea journey. While driving through this canyon, we saw several places where they were irrigating hay fields. There were beautiful farms nestled on both sides of the river. Also along this highway, we came to a place that had growing plots that were covered with a type of black covering. We discovered these were Ginseng gardens.

Also while on this highway, we came across a rock processing plant. It appeared to be processing a lot of rock. They had what looked to be terraces a long way up the side of one of the mountains and we could see them driving up higher than the equipment that was doing the process work. We also came across a couple of deer. They didn’t appear to be too old but decided they were both male because both had the beginning of a rack of antlers. The antlers looked so soft and velvety. They were standing on opposite sides of the road and we got pictures of both of them. They didn’t seem too frightened by three ole ladies! We also caught sight of a little grizzly bear but by the time we turned around and got back to where we saw him, he was gone or we couldn’t find him.

We also came across the Rocky Mountaineer train running through this valley. We sat at the crossing and waved at the people on the train. We stopped at Hell’s Gate and saw the tram come across the valley but we weren’t interested in riding it so went on our way. In getting back to the highway leading into Vancouver, we passed through several tunnels. They were all very nice and well lighted. It rained on us probably more today than any other day. The clouds were drifting in and around the mountains, which made for a beautiful scene. Some of the places along the canyon road were very narrow and at least two of them had “no stopping” places because of the danger of rock slides. At one point, we had to stop to let a pickup go past before we could proceed.

After reaching Hope, BC, we pretty much had what I would call an interstate highway. We are in Langley, which is a suburb of Vancouver. We’ve had a nice supper and are in our room for the night. It is a somewhat “snug” room but we will manage. We get spoiled by a big one with queen beds and plenty of space and then we get one that isn’t so “great” and we have to learn all over again that we need to be more picky!

pics Mon June 30 & Wed July 2

We spotted this black bear off the road a ways on Monday. This was the best shot I got of him
There was a pretty large group of these mountain goats right along the road but we were on a section of road that had loose gravel and a couple of semis passed us and scared most of them away before I could get a picture. Wasn't a very ideal place to stop for a picture. This one looks pretty scrawny but most of the animals are molting and they just don't look the greatest.
This was where we stopped to eat a picnic lunch. It was a rest area beside Dry Williams Lake south of Fraser Lake. It was a beautiful setting. Obviously one didn't look at me. There is an advantage to being on the camera end! HA! A group of ants provided our lunch time entertainment! Pretty amazing what they do as they seem to work all the time. They even buried one of their dead while we watched. No. We are not losing it. It was just interesting.
Linda mentioned in her blog writing about the detour road. This doesn't really show it in all its "glory." It wasn't really too bad as far as driving went but there sure was a long string of vehicles. There was at least two logging trucks ahead of us totally loaded with logs. I don't know how many semis in addition to the other vehicles. They had watered it down so the dust wasn't too bad.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008 - Day 36

Hello, hello, hello! This is Linda blogging tonight. We had a great day today. At one point God protected us from a major calamity. As I was cruising down the highway, I glanced to the shoulder and there was a moose standing there at the edge of the ditch looking at and trying to decide if he/she should cross the road. God told it, "No way! You leave my ladies alone!" Evidentally it obeyed and just looked at us and returned to the ditch. It wasn't a large one and had no rack, but any size moose would cause a lot of damage!

Since it was just almost next door to our motel we had to start our day at Tim Horton. For those of you from our area, Tim Horton was a hockey player who now has his name in a large string of bakery type stores. Phyllis had fruit for breakfast in the form of an apple fritter, I had milk in the form of a pudding-filled pastry, and Ila had a fruit explosion muffin.

This afternoon just after Kitwanga we passed an area with several Mennonites. Later near and past Prince George (or Prince Albert as Phyllis calls it) we went through hay country for miles. This is for the benefit of my kids: If you took all the fields south and east of where our house was on the farm and put them into one field, it wouldn't be as large as any one of the hay fields we saw. Many of them were covered with big round bales waiting to be moved. (Sound fun Jodi and Lee?) One field even had some little square bales in it. Most, if not all of it, appeared to be grass hay. We saw one dairy set-up and a few stock cows, so we have no idea what they used the hay for. Evidentally they sell it as a cash crop. I had to wonder if they use it in some way like I've heard they are starting to use straw and cornstalks to make products like plywood for the housing industry. Since we didn't have Dad in the van with us we didn't stop to inquire about the use of the hay.

I'm not sure if Ila will drive again or not. While she was driving, she decided to drive us off the highway onto a dirt road, so I took a picture of where we were driving and she is going to put it on the blog tonight. Actually it was a detour so that they could build a bridge over the road we were traveling on. Next they'll have to build a road to the bridge. It was the longest string of traffic we have been in for road construction. Maybe next time she'll try to stay on the road.

We will cross back into God's country late tomorrow or Friday. Believe me, we are going to be glad to be back on US soil. It has been a great trip, but nothing compares to the our great country. If it wasn't so far down, we'd possibly kiss the ground. Perhaps we can grab a hunk of it and pick it up to kiss it!

We are at Williams Lake tonight and had a nice meal at Denny's even though some people were waiting so long that they walked out. There is another Tim Horton near here as well as a McDonald's, so we'll probably find something for breakfast.

Have a nice day or evening or whatever it is when you read this. Oh yes, we saw a deer in the ditch today too.

Tues, July 1, 2008

Hi, tonight it is Phyllis, doing my own typing.
Today we were on the "Road Again". We on on the Cassier Highway. It was a long, long, long, long road. In case I forgot to say, it was a long road. There really wasn't anyplace in Dease Lake to get breakfast, so we ate out of our supply box. In fact we "grazzed" out of it all day. I think we drove around 400 miles today and there was litterly nothing to stop and see, in fact it was hard to find a place to pull over to change drivers. The only animal we saw (and we were in an area where there should have been many) was a little grey fox and he just stood and watched us go by and then proceeded to go on his way down the road. We purchased gas twice today, because we try not to get lower than half a tank. I forgot that we also saw about seven horses right on the roadway. It was strange because two had bells around their necks, and all appeared to be shod. But you could tell they were very familiar with the road, and there was evidence that they had been up and down the road a lot.
We finally reached Kitwanga where we left the Cassier Highway for the Yellowhead Highway. It wasn't too long until we saw signs of civilization (like homes, farm fields, bailed hay, mown hay, cows and domestic horses,and traffuc, We said finally we are back where there are people. Our motel tonight is in Smithers, B.C. It is right next door to a nice resturant . We actually felt like we had real food, not too high priced and not a hugh serving. There is a D.Q. and Mc Donalds in town, so guess where we are headed as soon as I finish this. We haven't had ice cream (milk) for at least three days. Also, there is a Tom Horton's here, so that may be where we get breakfast. Tomorrow we hope to make Prince George and maybe further, as we make our way toward Vancouver. This has not been a very exciting day, but we covered a lot of miles.
Linda got good news this morning. Jodi and James have a baby boy. His name is Judah David Light. He weighed in at 8 pounds and 7 oz, and is 21 inches long. He has a big brother named Asa, who will be very surprised when they get home with the new baby. Asa is 17 months old, so his reign is about to be compromised. That's all for tonight. Keep us in your prayers for safety.

Mon June 30, 2008

This is Ila writing tonight but I know I will recruit other help as well. We left Teslin this am and heading on the way which will eventually lead us to home. But we have a lot of miles to travel to get there. We are, tonight, in Dease Lake BC. I am guessing we have traveled a total of somewhere around 7500 miles. Linda has had the van serviced two times so far. Today's travel was a combination of road types. We had blacktop, holes, big rocks (kind of like some they dumped on Iowa's gravel roads this spring), loose gravel (some fresh and some pretty well packed). To say the least, the roads are interesting and one has to take care and watch closely. I likened a part of today to being better than Africa roads and some reading this will know what I mean. Difference is there is no driving off the road because then you would either be in water or bushes. Road shoulders are non existent. We praise the Lord we have stayed safe. We did see our first accident yesterday. It appeared pretty severe in that an SUV had done a roll over and was laying on its top. We could not stop because law enforcement were there and also an ambulance but we heard farther down the road that no one was killed so we have prayed for those involved even though we don't know their actual condition.

Today was actually a lot of driving for Linda and a lot of riding for Phyllis and Ila. But again I will reiterate, we are safe. Our motel room was definitely an answer to prayer. Along this particular stretch of road, motels are scarce. We came into Dease Lake and both (2) motels had "no vacancy" signs posted. But we decided to stop at one and ask if they could recommend how far down the road we would have to travel to find other accomodations and/or call ahead for us since our cell phones do not work in Canada. It just so happened the man had one room he had not rented out because one of the pipes on the sink had broken and it was not usable. BUT, he has let us have the room at a discount as long as we do not use the sink. So we have to wash our hands in the tub. I told him -- I grew up with NO running water so washing my hands in the tub is certainly not a problem.

We did see some animals today. First off we came across a LARGE moose that had a huge set of antlers. But we did not manage to get a picture because just as we got stopped, the moose decided to vamoose. There were about five vehicles stopped and I guess it thought that was too many. Then we came upon a small black bear. It didn't look very old and was actually pretty close to the roadway. We did manage to get some pictures but the bear wandered off into the bushes too. The last animal(s) we found were a group of mountain goats that were right beside the road. We stopped but a couple of semis passed us in an area of loose gravel and that pretty much sent the group scattering. We did get a few pictures of a couple of them that didn't leave the scene.

Our choices for food here are a nice, very expensive restaurant or a pub, which our motel manager said served good food. BUT, being the godly women we are, we didn't go to the pub and probably should have because there was nothing on the menu at Mama Z's under $10 and the buffet was $21.95. I wasn't really hungry and neither was Phyllis and when Linda asked for a baked potato, you would have thought she ask for "gold." So we all had a salad, which they took from the buffet and we ended up paying a variety of prices for it. Stupid huh?! I think we will all be glad to see the US border of the lower 48 states. Those of you who have been on WW out of the country will smile when you read this because you will all remember the cheering that goes on in the airplane when we set down on US soil.

Well, I have managed to fill a lot of space with probably a lot of nothing but hope you enjoy reading. Linda is anxiously awaiting a new grandchild in Kansas City. Jodi went into the hospital this morning and they were starting her labor but when Linda talked with her at 9:30 pm (your time), the baby had not arrived yet. Obviously we do have internet tonight for which we are thankful and Linda was able to send the motel phone number to Melinda and Melinda had Jodi call. So we are hoping to hear of a new baby by morning.

Pics Sat June 28 & Sun June 29

This is the ferry we rode from Haines to Skagway. You can see it was a very nice one.
This was at a pullout along the highway from Skagway to the Canadian border. One of our last looks at the beautiful state of Alaska.
This area was described in Milepost as a "moonscape." The trees growth has been badly stunted by the various kinds of weather that is in the area during the seasons.
I shot this just out the car window as we were whizzing down the highway. There were so many places I kept seeing of the water through the trees and wanted to see what I could get. Camera may not do well getting close up shots but it sure does okay on this type of picture. ENJOY!!

Sunday, June 29, 2008

This is Linda dictating to Ila. We jumped off our beds at 8 am or so this morning at the B&B in Skagway. Just so you know, it was the White House. No, we didn't see President Bush. After dressing, we had a nice continental breakfast. While eating we visited with other guests. One couple was from Topeka, KS and the man had graduated from Drake University. She was originally from Missouri. They were talking about how impressed they were with the Drake BB team this past year. We went to church. We were three of the congregation of 19 at the Skagway Assembly of God church. Their pastor had previously preached in Missouri and Nebraska. We met a lady there from Ames who was quite friendly. Then after church, we proceeded to check out the city of Skagway. First we went to see about taking the train trip on Monday. It was not as we had anticipated so we skipped it. Since we weren't going to ride the train on Monday, we didn't really need our motel we had reserved in Skagway. I managed to get it cancelled. The man was not real nice so I lied when I left by thanking him for his kindness. Then we went to see the seals we had heard so much about but since we were there, they weren't. We decided we should work more on our Dale Carnegie course so we proceeded to enter a total of three eating establishments, look around and leave. You may be surprised to hear that one of these establishments specialized in hard pack ice cream and fudge. Even we have our price. Maybe we are getting a little picky. Then we decided it was time to leave town but first we needed gas so we looked for the gas station. This city that has thousands of tourists every year has one gas pump, which proved very hard to find but we finally found it after driving by it several times. Yes you heard that right. One gas pump. Keep in mind, Skagway is a major tourist trap complete with boardwalks and thousands of tourists who walk whenever and wherever they want to in the street. Then we decided it was time for us to get out of town and we literally headed for the hills/mountains as some might say. About an hour out of Skagway (about 2 pm), we left Alaska for the last time. It was a really pretty drive to Carcross. We took a driving tour of Carcross. We also stopped at Caribou Crossing but decided to not spend the money to go through it. We are staying tonight in Teslin, Yukon. We are heading down the Cassier Highway tomorrow. It will be a long day's drive. More than likely we will NOT have cell phone service until we reach Vancouver. We are pleasantly surprised to have the internet service tonight. We didn't even ask if it was available but when we turned on the computer, there it was, so are updating.

Sat, June 28, 2008

This is Phyllis dictating to Ila. This was a day to relax and get caught up with laundry, grocery shopping, bear hunting (animals). We didn't leave our motel until around 10 am. We drove out and got our tickets for the ferry ride which wasn't until 10 PM. We heard of a park where we might see bears and did see one grizzly bear, who we think might have been crippled. We saw an eagle catching fish and then we drove back to town, where we went grocery shopping, ate supper at Bamboo Restaurant. It sounds Chinese but actually not. Then we went back to the park hoping to see more bear but there wasn't anything. Couldn't even find any fishermen who were catching fish. We had three hours to kill before the ferry ride. So we sat and watched the water at a couple places and figured out the tide was coming in. The reason we figured this out wasn't because we were so smart but there was a little boat that had looked land-locked in the afternoon and was now floating. DUH! Drove back to the terminal where we sat -- some of us read and Linda was just "being" and trying to be warm. About 9 pm, we saw the ferry coming. Ila thought it looked like the Titanic and was relieved it wasn't a flat-bottomed raft since there were mega cars and campers waiting to be loaded. We drove into what looked like the "belly of the whale" but found it wasn't really all that scarey. We then went upstairs to the lounge. We climbed two flights of stairs before we found out there was an elevator. That helped a lot! We had front row seats in the lounge and could see the whole spectrum in front of us as the ship proceeded to Skagway. Oh, yes, it was still daylight when we arrived at 11 pm. When we docked and got our vehicle on dry land again, we had no trouble finding our bed and breakfast. It was very nice and they had left the light on and key out for us. We wasted no time climbing into bed. Climbing was an important word because the beds were so high off the floor and for short people, that presents a challenge. Now, imagine this -- a running jump took care of the problem. Good night.

Pics June 26

The "performer" who was young enough to not know he was really too close to the road for his own good. But he was sure having a good time eating the wildflowers etc right next to the road
This grizzly was a little farther away but we thought you would enjoy the wildflowers around him.
We stopped at a state or national park lookout place and thought you might enjoy this overlook shot.
This is the view from our motel window in Haines Junction. Really tough to go to sleep with this outside our window! HA! For the most part, we really aren't having too much difficulty with all the daylight. We take our turns in not sleeping well and doesn't seem to hit all of us on the same night.

Pics Day in Valdez

This was at the petroleum storage plant in Valdez. We got as close as it would allow so this is the best I could do for a picture.
This is the boat harbor in Valdez. Actually every "setting" is so beautiful. Hope you are enjoying via our best efforts.
This was taken from just along the highway. We spotted it going one way and then turned around and went back to get the picture.
There is a moose standing in the water. We were on our way into Tok and I think we wrote about all the moose sightings on this day.

Sun, June 29, 2008

This is Ila. I am posting our "already prepared" blog entries for Wed, Thurs, Fri. Saturday isn't done yet because our ferry ride from Haines to Skagway arrived at 11 pm so blogging wasn't high on our priority list. So hope you enjoy our updates. Not sure if I will do any pictures but "maybe." Hope you will enjoy. We are at beautiful bed & breakfast but someone will write about Sat and Sun later today.

Wed, June 25, 2008
This is Ila writing tonight. We began our day at Downtown Bed & Breakfast in Valdez. They served us a very nice continental breakfast. We visited the local museum, which involved us going to two separate buildings. They showed a video of the 1964 earthquake that struck Valdez and all the tragedy that was part of that. It also included how the town relocated after that earthquake. We found it quite interesting. Both buildings had quite a few historical pieces (as most museums do) but one thing that really struck me was a set of ornate bar furniture. It was complete with spittoons and mirror behind. You could almost imagine the miners and prospectors lining up at the bar and doing their bragging about staking their claims and all the gold they had panned that day.
In driving around Valdez, we found Peter Pan seafoods and they have many buildings including dorms and a mess hall. So evidently the people who work there, must live there as well or at least some of them. We also located Prince William Sound Community College. They, too, have a nice museum but we did not stop at it.
As we were on the highway out of Valdez, we came across several cars stopped along the roadway, which usually indicates someone has sighted an animal or something awesome. We looked and looked but did not see anything. So we pulled alongside the pickup in front of us and he pointed us toward a large grizzly bear who was rummaging in the bushes some distance off the highway. Phyllis got a pretty good picture but I knew my camera would never capture him. I did watch him through the binoculars.
We also came across an Aleutian village near the Valdez airport. One would conjure up in their minds that these people would live in huts but not true. They do, in fact, live in pretty old-looking mobile homes. Probably not anything that any of us would live in.
In going by the Valdez airport, I noticed there was a building there that was called a “man camp” and it had posted “room and board.” We also located the old Valdez town site and stopped where the post office stood where they have placed a plaque with the names of all those who lost their lives in the earthquake. We got pictures of a tanker on the bay and also the pipeline terminal. Couldn’t get very close because it was a restricted area. Along Port Valdez, we saw two bald eagles sitting in two separate places. We drove back through Keystone Canyon. There were places where it reminded me of Big Thompson Canyon in Colorado but the walls are not as high and ominous but beautiful nonetheless.
We stopped midafternoon for lunch/supper at Copper River Lodge. I think we “may” be learning to eat more conservatively. Linda & I shared a meal and she and Phyllis have also done that. Last night we succeeded in all of us getting baked potatoes. Maybe we will get this down yet so we aren’t overly full and miserable.
As we traveled on down the road to Tok, we had the beautiful Wrangell mountains in front of us for quite a distance. I decided to read along the way and next thing I know, Phyllis says “moose in the water on the right!” Well, I got a glimpse but by the time we found a spot to turn around, he was no longer anywhere to be found. Not far down the road we spotted another one far in the distance just grazing on grass and bushes but too far away for picture. And lo behold, just a little way further, there was another one standing in the water. It was such that we could stop immediately and he was close enough to get a picture though we had to look almost directly into the sun. We hope it will be good enough to post. Maybe the animals are getting acclimated to us and decided we are pretty harmless. We stopped at Mentasta Lodge for gas and as I was standing outside the van, a silly bird almost landed in my hair. I thought I felt it but when I looked, it was sitting on the gas pump. When I went in to pay for the gas, the two guys said it did indeed almost land on my head. All along the road today, it seemed there were just trees, trees, trees. On the final few miles before we got to Tok, Milepost book says there are paper birch, quaking aspens, balsam poplar, black spruce, white spruce and tamarack. Also in that same area, we spotted some rabbits and then we spotted a whole bunch of them. We couldn’t decide whether it was a pack, a covey, a herd, or just what you call a bunch rabbits that run together. Guess throughout the day, we saw a snowshoe hare, a mouse, a ground squirrel. But I’m sure you could care less about those. Well anyway, guess I am writing too much so I will quit. We are in Tok tonight and heading to Haines Junction tomorrow.

Thursday, June 26, 2008 - Day 30

This is Linda today. In fact it is actually Friday when I am doing this since we didn’t have any internet last night. Tonight we don’t have it in the motel either, but we are planning to paste it into the blog at the library later.

Yesterday we saw 4 grizzly bears at four different locations. One was right beside the road in the ditch when I first saw it. It wasn’t a very old one and didn’t know it wasn’t supposed to be near people. For at least 5 minutes it just ate flowers and watched us. In fact in some of the pictures we also have a lot of pretty wildflowers.

Later Phyllis and I saw a fox run across the road in front of us. I also got some pictures of wild flowers yesterday that I had wanted to get. So far I have almost 4 full rolls of film exposed on our trip and I don’t know how many pictures Phyllis and Ila have taken on their digital cameras. Each of my rolls has 24 or 25 pictures on it.

Much of the road we were on yesterday was terrible. In fact in almost all places 40 was the top speed. There were times when 15 was even too fast. We also had a pilot car twice and served as our own pilot car once or twice. One of the times we even had to wait for the equipment to make a path for the pilot car to lead us through. We’re not in Iowa anymore.

Toward the end of the day we came across 5 horses beside the road. We assume they must have been wild horses since there are signs here and there about wild horses and they had no fence to contain them nor did they have any bridles or anything on them.

Between US customs and Canadian customs we saw several trumpeter swans. They were too far away to get pictures of them.

We had lunch at Buckshot Betty’s and our waiter had been on a mission trip to Mexico last winter. Also at our table was an Iowa Methodist minister who was traveling alone to Alaska. She was camping some, sleeping in her van some, and getting a motel some nights.


Friday June 27, 2008 – Day 31

This is Ila writing again. I have a “bit of humor” story to tell. And some days, we all know that humor is a good thing! Our motel last evening was very nice. Probably one of the less expensive but what a wonderful view. We had beautiful mountains immediately in the distance. As Phyllis and I were sitting on the “bottom” end of the bed, we noticed when we got up (simultaneously) that it kind of came off the floor at the head. Consider all that weight on the end of the bed!!!! Now, we didn’t think too much about it at the time. A little while later, I was in the bathroom and heard a “little” scream. Upon returning to the room where the bed was, I found one of the wheels at the head of the bed had fallen out and one side of the head of the bed was on the floor. SO, we moved the nightstand and Phyllis and I put the wheel back in place. Now, you may read this and wonder where is the humor – but, it was one of those things that you had to be there and experience it!

Now to the beginning of this day! We started the day by going to breakfast at a bakery. It didn’t measure up to what we had prior. The quality of baked goods wasn’t so good and the service was less than friendly. Before we left Haines Junction, we stopped at Our Lady of the Catholic Church. The idea for this little building was resourcefully put together by the priest at the time it was built in 1954. They decided to use parts from an old Quonset hut that had been used by the American Army during construction of the Alaska highway.

The road to Haines was a beautiful drive and we stopped several times. Once we drove down a little road to an Indian fishing village. The log houses looked pretty well constructed but there seemed to be no sign of life. There was one house that had hanging baskets of beautiful flowers. We stopped coming through Chilkat Pass and took picture(s) of the mountains. We passed through US customs around noon. Along the road, there was a beautiful alpine valley. It is a bald eagle preserve but not a one did we see. It really is the wrong time of year for them to be there but we looked with the binoculars and still did not see any. We did spot a trumpeter swan and four young ones. As we got out of the van to take pictures, she quite smoothly moved into position putting herself between her young ones and us. But we did get a pretty good picture. Just outside of arriving at Haines, we stopped and watched a fish wheel at work on the river. While watching, they netted, measured, determined sex and tagged what we think was sockeye salmon (we aren’t certain).

We have checked into a motel for tonight early. We had planned to take a fjord tour from Haines to Juneau but the tour is full so we cannot get on. We plan to go to the library to get this posted to our blog. We will find a place to eat and enjoy our nice motel tonight. I’m not certain if I will get pictures loaded but will try. Cell phones and internet are somewhat a challenge and aren’t always available. We will travel on the 10 pm ferry tomorrow evening to Skagway. We plan to take the train from Skagway to Lake Bennett on Monday so will be staying somewhere in that area until Tuesday am. When we leave there, we will probably be on our way back down to the lower 48 (as they are called up here).

Friday, June 27,2008

This is Linda. We are having trouble with the library computer and will just get back when we have our own computer. Have a nice day!

Friday, June 27,2008

Pics Tues June 24

These are two mother musk ox. Up under the trees are some babies but they never came down close enough to get a good picture. If you enlarge the picture, you will see the ox are in the process of shedding their winter coats. At the farm, they do brush them (can't remember how often) and it takes from one to three hours for the brushing. People in the village use the hair to weave head bands, caps, scarf-like headpieces. But they were really expensive to purchase so we did not buy one.
This was taken at the musk ox farm. You can see the beautiful Chugach mountains in the background. A young man who had his family there offered to take the picture. Not much else to be said about this one!
This is Horsetail Falls in Keystone Canyon on the Richardson Highway from Glenallen to Valdez. We also saw Bridal Veil Falls but I thought this one was the prettiest. In this particular area, it seems all the mountain walls were "weeping" water. The wall beside us didn't have a falls but it was totally wet with water.
This is the Worthington Glacier also on the road from Glenallen to Valdez. We have so many pictures that are so beautiful but can only post four in a space and don't want to bore you. I know you will say you aren't bored but it all takes time and we are tired.

Tues, June 24, 2008

Hi, It's Phyllis tonight.
It has been a long day. We never seem to get up and going very early. Our day started with breakfast at Mc Donald's. First time on this trip that we have eaten there. We visited the musk ox farm, where we had a walking tour . We got a few pictures, but most of the animals were far enough way that they were hard to photograph. We did learn that while most people think they are related to the ox or buffalo, they actually are in the line of goats. Of course they date back to the days of the pre-historic animals, and have been saved from extinsion. As we traveled on we did a short loop around some farm ground. We headed for Glenallen to find a long area of road construction with a pilot car. It appeared that they are blasting and litterly tearing apart the mountain.
We saw the Mantuska Glacier, which was not far off the road, but did not drive down to pay the owner of the land a fee to walk up . When we finally got to Glenallen, we had another 117 miles to Valdez. It was probably one of the prettiest drives we have been on so far. There are mountains all around us, some green and other covered with snow. Driving thru Thompson Pass, we saw the Worthington Glacier, Bridal Veil Falls, and Horsetail Falls. These were the major ones, but there is water coming down the mountains everywhere. We decided that if we don't find much to do tomorrow in Valdez, the drive to get here was worth every minute. It rained on us today, which it does about everyday, but never lasts very long. The temperature is in the 50's and 60's. Before we left Palmer we visited the Family Christian Center. The ladies from Linda's missionary group sends money to this church for some missionaries from this church. The pastor, prayed for us as we left, and prayed for us to see animals on our way, but his prayers didn't work any better than ours. Tomorrow we will head north and travel the same highway we did today. This is not unusual in Alaska, as there is only one road in and out of a lot of places. Ila will put on some pictures from today, so hope you enjoy them as well as our adventures.

June 23 Day 27

Hello! This is Linda writing all about our day's activities today. It has been pretty busy. This morning I had the van serviced while Ila and Phyllis did laundry. This time the price for servicing the van was more realistic. I also ran the van through the car wash. Believe me, it needed it! Doing laundry at laundromats is pricier than it is at the motels, but usually the motels don't have very many washers, so it is quicker to go to a local laundromat. The laundry at the motel this time was a little scarry-looking. Those jobs took up the morning so we had lunch and breakfast combined and took a short ride to see some reindeer and a little of the Hatcher Pass that we hadn't seen yet. Then it was back to the motel to make future plans. Tomorrow we will be going to Valdez and then heading back toward the Alaska Highway the next day.

Since there isn't much to discuss for today, we have decided to tell you about the time we had the encounter with the Canadian Mountie. It was actually only a check of driver's license, seat belts, license plates, etc. We just thought we'd let you think about that for a while. Actually a couple of evenings ago we were attempting to see the beluga whales and were stopped, but not parked, and an officer told us we needed to move. Actually I think he was more interested in knowing if we had seen where a flare came up from than anything else. We hadn't seen it. It was the evening of the big summer solstice celebrations and I suspect it was a time that they have lots of work to do.

We also have spoken to several locals to find neat places to see. Most are quite interested in telling us about things to see. Some of them we hadn't heard about from other places so we were glad we talked to them.

One thing that will be nice about getting back into the lower 48 will be dirt, or lack thereof. There are many places where the ground has rock on it in parking lots, etc. The rock is usually large and extremely bumpy. Also, the holes are huge in it. Most of the roads here are also not very smooth. In fact the speed limit is usually 55 and it is only worthy of 50 or less. Most of the highways are blacktop and the permafrost really plays havoc with it.

We are still in Palmer and actually last night I talked to the Chief of Police. I could let you think about that for a while, but I'll just tell you that his son lives in Oskaloosa and told me to call him if we needed anything. Last night I needed to know where to get the van serviced and where to find a laundromat. He was very nice and told me to call him today if we needed anything else.

Last winter on television I was watching a program about Alaska and they were telling all about a potatoe chip factory here in Palmer. We decided we'd try to see it but had trouble finding out about it. While I was waiting for the van I talked to a man and asked him about it. It seems that he and his wife had been share holders in it and operated it during it's last three months of operation. They were trying to keep it from folding. Oh, the television program must have been quite new. The factory closed 15 years ago. Then someone said that some had been made here and the plant had moved to Anchorage so we tried to find some of those chips. It seems that Phyllis and Ila can't remember the name of them, The man I talked to told me that the potatoes grown here are quite sweet and turned brown when they tried to make chips from them and most people (unlike me) don't like brown chips.

Have a nice day. If there is anything else we need to tell you about, we can't remember it!

Pics June 19 & June 21

At the end of Homer AK spit, looking out on Kachemak Bay. There was almost a constant stream of boats going by. A mom, dad and little boy were trying to get a kite to fly. This was a 5-mile strip of land and a LOT of touristy trap sort of places (eating, gifts, etc). But looking at the bay, the mountains, boats was a beautiful sight.
This was a fishing boat at Ninilchek. They were unloading their catch of what looked like halibut. But we aren't certain because we have talked with people who say it costs $180 for a license to fish halibut and you are only allowed to catch ONE (1) halibut. Now if these were halibut, they were counting and measuring them at the cannery. Probably ranged from 3 to 4 feet long. They seemed to be huge. We are guessing commercial fishermen have different rules.
The morning we went on our cruise (Thurs 19th), we had only driven about one block or two when we spotted this mother moose and baby standing in the yard of this home in Seward. It is these unexpected spottings that seem to be so outstanding. One can look their eyeballs out along the roads and never spot anything. BUT, we certainly aren't complaining that they haven't dashed on the road in front of us.
This, too, was in Seward. As we walked down the dock area to board our boat for the cruise, this was the harbor scene of boats. You can see the big cruise liner in the background. Needless to say, there were a lot of people in town that day. The next day when we were leaving town, there were two cruise ships in the harbor and people and buses all over the place. So we aren't the only ones up here sight seeing. But we are seeing more and more people as time goes along.

Sun, June 22

This is Ila writing tonight. We were unable to add to our blog for two nights because the motel wireless simply would not let us on the internet. But Phyllis typed it into Word and we were able to drop it in tonight. We DID mention it this morning when we checked out along with the fact that when we called about the room, they said it was ground level but failed to mention there was 7 steps to get to that "ground" level and the water was brown. They said it had been tested and was safe but we DID NOT drink it. This motel was in Kenai. Tonight we are in Palmer. We kind of retraced some of our previous route but we had to do that in order to get here. It was raining this morning (as it was yesterday morning). It took it longer to clear up today than it did yesterday. (Phyllis probably mentioned that in her writing yesterday.) We had breakfast this morning at a bakery/breakfast place called "Moose on the Loose!" Then we located the Church of Nazarene in Soldotna and attended their church service. There were probably 50-75 people there. There were no children in the service so we don't really know how many there were. We stopped in Cooper's Landing at Gwins for a bite of lunch. We tried to be "smart" and just had soup. It was one busy place. I think all the Sunday people were out doing their fishing, sight seeing, etc. The roads were quite busy too. Coming into this place, we saw several people lining the river stream doing fly fishing. We visited with a young man who said he had been fishing for halibut. It is a busy fishing time. When I get pictures loaded, you will see one that we took yesterday of a fisherman unloading his catch at a cannery. We took a little 15-mile side trip to Hope. It was a beautiful scenic drive. The road was lined on both sides with trees, a stream run along not far from the road and on the other side and ahead was gorgeous mountains. All along the road, there was a lumber project and they were harvesting some of the dead trees. Along the Seward highway, we saw mountains with slopes of snow. It was like they were striped among the green grass and trees. The tops of the mountains were shrouded in clouds. In some cases, there were clouds in the middle of the mountain and clouds at the top. It made them look even more beautiful. In many places along the road, there was water gushing along little gullies down the mountains and others, it was like it was coming out of the rocks. It made for a beautiful drive. After arriving here in Palmer, we had supper at the Noisy Goose restaurant. I "think" maybe before we get home, we may get the eating thing down but the portions they serve are SO HUGE! Well, I've rambled enough and will add some pictures. Some of you are wondering about the size of the animals. If you double click on the picture that is posted, it will resize and make it much larger and it will fill your whole computer screen. At least I think it will -- it does for me.

Fri June 20 & Sat June 21

Friday, June 20, 2008

This is Phyllis. We didn’t have internet last night, even tho the motel said we did, so this is a day late, and will include Saturday also, since we are in the same room as last night. Before leaving Seward, we ate breakfast again at the Bakery. We learned, while in Seward that they had a major earthquake in 1964, which was followed within minutes with a tsunami, which destroyed a lot of the town and especially the coastal area. We learned all this information while visiting the local museum. It was a small place, but so many antiques. It was a step back in time for myself and Ila. We stopped at the Exit Glacier, but since it was a half mile walk, we decided to pass. It can be seen from the roadway. This was a day of mostly travel. We had a motel reserved and finally found it. It was at Kenai Landing, which is a work in progress. It is a fish cannery that part of it is being converted into a fish market, restaurant and motel rooms. After finding our room we went into Kenai, to explore. We found Veronica’s restaurant, which was recommended to us by the lady at the Museum. Once again we overate, which needs to change or we won’t fit into our clothes. In Kenai we saw a Russian Orthodox Church and some older buildings with it. We drove to the Cook Inlet hoping to see Buluga Whales, but they didn’t bother to show. So it was to the motel for the night.


Saturday, June 21,2008
The morning started out raining, so we just stayed in the room until it let up. Actually the day turned sunny and very nice after we go on the road. The road took us along Cook Inlet, which is a beautiful sight when we could see it for the trees. Breakfast was at the Kasilof Mercantile. We stopped in Nimilchik, where we saw another Russian Orthodox Church and Cemetery. There was also a war memorial cemetery in the same area which the American Legion maintained. We drove down to the beach where we saw a great number of people digging clams. We visited with a young man who had found several and he explained how to cook them. Also there was a fishing boat in and they were unloading a great number of halibut. They brought them from the boat in a large basket and deposited them in a long trough where they were weighed and then put in large containers filled with ice. There is a small cannery there but we don’t know if that was where they were being processed. These fish were very large, some looked to be over three feet long and very heavy.
We drove down to an old Russian Village, where there are three communities. Some doing everything the old way, another village where some things are improved, and in the third village where they operate modern. We arrived in Homer and we drove out on the Homer Spit. It is about 5 miles long and full of fishermen, and bunches of tourists. There were some brave souls wind surfing on the Kachenak Bay. Their sails were very pretty. We ate supper(or whatever we want to call it) in Homer before heading back to Kenai. We made one stop to see what is called the Erector Set Bridge, and then headed for the motel. Tomorrow we plan to attend the Nazarene Church in Soldotna, then on the road again. We really wish if anyone is reading these blogs, that you would comment. It is not that difficult and lets us know that you are out there.

Pics Thurs June 19, 2008

This set of pictures was taken while on our cruise today. Here a bald eagle sits perched up high.
Here are harbor seals sunning themselves on the rocks. We watched and listened to this glacier for quite a long time. Some of the ice actually did calve off while we were sitting but I never caught that on camera. You can see the pieces of ice in the water in front of the glacier.

I wasnt' quick enough to catch the beautiful tails of the humpback whales or the dall porpoises. But it was a beautiful day and we saw MORE beautiful things and scenes.

Pics Wed June 18, 2008

This was taken along the highway as we drove from Anchorage to Seward. Another beautiful scene. We made several stops along the way just to "look!"
If you zoom this up (by double clicking on the picture itself, you will see Dall sheep on the rocks.

We stopped at a conservation center which had the animals contained in large areas so they were somewhat free to roam. This grizzly decided to just sit down by the fence.
In Seward, we went to a sea world that was inside a building but so many neat fish, and water animals. This is a puffin. It was really putting on quite a show but my one p icture I tried to get just didn't turn out.

Hi! This is Linda today. Today was the day of our tour of the Kenai Fjords National Park. It was an 8 hour cruise. No, it wasn't a three hour cruise that ended in a shipwreck on a deserted isle like Gilligan and friends. We saw a sea otter, several harbor seals on rocks, bald eagles, puffins, a humpback whale, 5 or 6 pods (families) of orcas, a humpback whale, and several Dahl's porpoises. They actually stayed with our boat and played for quite a while. We were told that it was a perfect day since we saw everything there was to see and the weather was good.

We also got to see and hear a glacier making it's sounds as well as calving. That is when a piece of it falls into the ocean.

Once again we got to eat. Our all-you-can-eat buffet included prime rib, salmon, rice pilaf, lettuce salad with mandarin oranges and sour dough bread. That was later than planned since we were busy watching animals at 2 when we were supposed to have it. Then later we had (once again) all-you-can-eat dessert. It included brownies, carrot cake, sugar-free jello, cheese cake and fruit. Of course there was coffee, tea, pop, and water to drink. Actually there were other things to drink, but we didn't know what they were, so we chose not to imbibe in them. They weren't our type of drinks.

The steller sea lions were in their rookery and it is calving season for them. Last night at the sea life center they had a live feed of them where we saw them today and it too was very interesting.

We also saw other birds and some of them were nesting literally in rocks on a cliff. There was a park ranger on our boat and she was very informative. She told us that only 1/4 of mountain goats reach adulthood. Their main predator is their habitat. In other words they just fall. Looking at them, it is no wonder! We also saw a family of them today. Some things were difficult to capture in pictures because they were so quick or far away.

Tomorrow it will be off to Kenai by way of Exit Glacier. We are told you can drive and walk to it. We'll be in Kenai two nights since we will go to Homer from there and return. A lot of places in Alaska have to be visited by going back and forth over the same road. Have a nice day and please do comment so that we know someone is actually reading this!

Wed, June 18, 2008 Day 22

This is Ila writing tonight! We are putting the finishing touches on our day #22 of this trip. We left Anchorage around 9 am this morning to head on our way to Seward. We are traversing to the south of Alaska now. We traveled along the Turnagain Arm down the coastline. We had all "studied" our Milepost books and made several stops along the way. The tide was out so we didn't get to see the beluga whales but we have hopes of seeing them tomorrow. We did spot some Dall sheep (a momma, baby and ((we think)) daddy(s)). We found an ice cream shop along the way too. We stopped at a salmon weir where they count and determine the sex of every salmon that is released to go up to the lake. The young lady said she is "an expert of sorts" in being able to do all that. We stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. This was a 140-acre "contained" wildlife center. We saw a grizzly bear REALLY UP CLOSE but there was an electric fence between it and us. We also saw musk ox, wood bison, black bear, buffalo, moose, elk. It was the closest encounter we have had with most of the animals. After arriving in Seward, we went to the sea life center. It is inside and so much sea life. Very interesting place. It is actually a rehabilitation center for the sealife it contains. We had a good supper but then, that really isn't anything new. It seems the meals are always SO big/SO much! By the time I get home, I think I will be ready to cook for myself for a time! That probably won't last long! Tomorrow we are off on an 8-hour cruise and hope to see lots of things that we haven't seen yet but they make "no guarantees." Guess I'm not too exciting tonight!

Pics Sun Jun 15 & Tue Jun 17

This is part of the Memorial to Alaskan Veterans that we found along the road from Wasilla to Anchorage. There are five of these concrete markers -- one for each branch of the armed forces. Guess if you can't tell, I am a proponent for recognizing the men and women who have and are serving to preserve my (AND YOUR) freedom. The young man who led our tour at Eielson Air Force, when I thanked him for his service, he said something to the effect, "I serve so you can be free to enjoy this wonderful country of ours." What a message!
This picture is looking down one of the main streets in downtown Anchorage where we drove tonight. It just struck me the beauty of the building with the mountains on each side in the background.

Tomorrow we will move farther south and it appears we will have more beautiful scenes to look at. We feel so blessed to be healthy physically and financially able to do what we are doing. It seems our devotionals are tying right in to all the beauty that lies around us. God is good and we are certainly praising him for His continued protection and His love. We continue to pray for many of our friends and church family at home as well.

Tues, June 17, 2008

Hi, this is Phyllis tonight.
We are still in Anchorage tonight. It was really kind of an uneventful day if you count sightseeing. We spent a while this morning securing rooms for the next four nights. This took quite a lot of time. After knowing that we had a room in Seward for tomorrow evening, we booked an 8 hour marine tour for Thursday. Maybe we will see some whales, otters, etc., but if the word gets out among the CRITTERS that we are coming, we may not .
We knew that there were people here in Anchorage that we knew ,so this was our day to make contact. First we called Gavin and Alecia Gardner. Gavin is stationed here at the Elmendorf Air Force Base. Alecia and the children met us for lunch. What a special family. Nehemia will be in first grade, Evelyn will be in kindergarden, and Lilian is probably about 1 1/2. Alecia took us on a tour of the Base, where she always sees wild life, and the word got out and there were none. We got to see Gavin briefly, since he was busy with an inspection.
Later me met Melody Paynter. Her parents used to be the youth pastors at the Nazarene Church in Osky. Melody is a nanny for a family here in Anchorage and does some stage management at some of the local theaters. We had dairy (aka ice cream) at a neat place downtown. It was good to visit with Melody and get caught up on her life.
The scenery here in Anchorage is spectatular, with mountains all around. The only problem is that it NEVER gets dark, at least until we are fast asleep. They will celebrate the solstice this weekend, which is the longest day of sunlight. By winter, the sun barely rises about the horizon. This has been a really good day and was nice to spend some down time. I'm sure there will be lots of exciting things to see tomorrow on the way to Seward.
Thanks for you continued prayers and we love to read YOUR comments, so keep them coming.

Sat June 14

On Saturday, we took a bus tour into Denali National Park. We had barely driven out of the parking lot on the bus when here was the moose along side the road.
On the way back down from the top (Eielsen Visitor Center), this grizzly bear was walking along a creek bed just eating and meandering his way to where ever. We watched him for quite some time. Sure hope you can figure out how to zoom this up. Driver said he was young maybe 5-6 years old.
This too was on our way down. Was a group of dall sheep just laying on the hillside. Everything we saw on the way up was too far away and I didn't even try to get pictures. They certainly know they are protected. Were not the least bit disturbed by the presence of the bus.
This is the other side of the mountain from where we took the picture at the motel the night before. Again, it is hard to get all of it because the clouds keep it hidden most of the time. But it is a gorgeous sight even when partially covered. You will note there is still quite a bit of snow. They say that usually it is all gone by now. So unusual weather patterns all over the place.

Hope you are all enjoying the pictures. We are sure having fun taking them. Will try to post some from Sunday later. I didn't take any at all today (Mon, June 16)

Pics Fri June 13

If you can zoom this up, you will see the mother moose and baby who came from the timber on the Air Force base (near Fairbanks) and walked across the road as we were doing our tour.
This was also at Eielsen Air Force Base near Fairbanks. It is Heritage Park, a memorial they have established on the base to honor the veterans who have served there. There was much more to the park but I thought the flags were special. I believe there was one for each state of the union.
This was the view of Mt McKinley from the window of our motel on Friday night. Couldn't really see the top but was a beautiful scene anyway.

This is Ila doing the narrative on pictures. (Mon, June 16)