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!