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).