August 1-5 Anchorage to Valdez

Leaving the Pools' Home in Eagle RiverBeautiful Fireweed Blooming at the Top

6 more weeks till Winter!

Bridal Veil Falls on the way to Valdez

August 1-5 Anchorage to Valdez

We departed the Pool’s home, located in Eagle River outside of Anchorage, the morning of Aug. 4^th. The skies were overcast & cloudy, the temperature was nearly 58 degrees with an expected high for the day of 62 degrees, the leaves were beginning to fall from the trees, a light snow, called terminal snow dust by the Alaskans, is reported on the mountain peaks, & the wildflower, fireweed, was now blooming at the top which folklore says “6 weeks more weeks untill winter!” Also, the days are now losing more than 5 min per day of sunlight! WOW! Summer is about over in Alaska & we’ve been here for AK’s entire summer! We arrived in AK on July 5^th!

While in Anchorage we were once again hosted by the wonderful Pool family. We camped in their driveway & plugged our RV into their electric & we enjoyed the use of their bathroom, their water, their food, their washer/dryer but most of all, their sincere friendship. We are most grateful for the friendships we have established with Carol & Lloyd during our time together. They are truly the most wonderful friends we could have! When we arrived arrived at the Pool’s home they immediately said, “Any friend of Russ’ is our friend! Come on in!” And their hospitality just began at that point!

Upon arriving in Anchorage on Thursday, the 1^st, we stopped by an RV dealer to see if we could arrange to have our awning fixed. It had been broken in a severe wind while we were in Homer & we were away from the campground. Even though the dealership thought the part could be ordered it turned out that it wouldn’t be shipped until Aug. 18^th so we dropped that idea. We made a “necessary” stop at Costco that afternoon & stopped for pizza at the Moose’s Tooth Pizza & Brewery for a fun pizza dinner! A very popular place in town! We’d heard about it from other travelers along the trail. Eventually we made it to the Pool’s where we enjoyed an evening chat with Carol. Lloyd was already onto his next outdoor adventure – canoeing on a series of lakes on the Kenai with his canoe enthusiast friends. Friday Steve & I visited the Alaska Native Heritage Center located near Eagle River & visited Lake Hood, the busiest float plane landing “strip” in North America. In addition to the Ted Stevens International Airport, Anchorage also has Merrill Field which is the landing strip for small private airplanes & as mentioned previously, there is the float plane airfield as well. 1 in 6 Alaskans owns his own airplane & there are landing strips everywhere. We even saw a housing community that had a grass landing strip right behind the each row of homes! The planes were parked right by the houses! Guess that sort of equates to having a dock at your home on the Chesapeake Bay! On Saturday Steve & I departed early to drive to the Anchorage train station to catch the Alaskan Railroad train to Whittier where we took the “26 Glacier Tour” on a large catamaran boat into Prince William Sound to view both sea wildlife & many (26 to be exact) glaciers. We were served a delicious halibut fish & chip lunch while on board & we enjoyed many spectacular sights throughout the day. After the boat trip we returned to Anchorage via rail & arrived back at the Pool’s homestead by 11 pm. Carol was so kind to take care of Bennie during the day & he was able to “help” her get ready for baby shower she was hosting the following day! We weren’t told if he ate any of the special food for the event. On Sunday Steve & I made a final visit to the Anchorage outdoor marketplace & purchased a few treasures for our memory chest. In the afternoon Lloyd joined us & escorted us to visit Earthquake Park which is a memorial park commemorating the 1964 earthquake that greatly affected much of central Alaska through both the earth tremors, the aftershocks, & the ensuing tsunamis. I believe I mentioned previously that the earthquake was rated 9.2 on the Richter Scale, the largest earthquake ever recorded in North America! It was astounding to see steal girders that were bent in multiple places during the earthquake & also to see how much of the land had sunk 10 or more feet. We also spent a good 2 hours in the Natural History Museum & particularly in the Alaskan Room studying the history of the native Alaskans. Sunday evening the Pools & Lindlbloms enjoyed a wonderful farewell dinner & birthday celebration dinner for Lloyd at Simon & Seafords renowned restaurant overlooking Cook Inlet. After dinner we returned home to enjoy Carol’s delicious German chocolate cake which she bakes for Lloyd each year on his birthday. It was a most enjoyable evening & one that will last in our memories always!

We departed the Pools’ home on Monday morning & headed east of Anchorage toward Valdez. We made a stop in Palmer to visit a musk ox farm which was most interesting. The musk ox are descended from prehistoric ox animals. They look kind of like small bison but with a very long double coat of fur. The native Alaskans spin their fur or wool into yarn to make clothing. Apparently the musk ox wool is 7 times warmer than sheep’s wool. Of course, it is at least 10 times more expensive. One skein of the musk ox wool is $80!! We drove from Palmer along the Glennallan Hwy.(#1) to the town of Glennallen & actually drove though the primary agricultural region of Alaska. There really isn’t too much agriculture in AK & we really couldn’t tell what they grow or harvest in this area but the land was lush. We weren’t able to find a proper rest area to stop for lunch so we pulled off the roadway & fixed ourselves a light lunch before driving on. Bennie & I took a little walk among the wildflowers after lunch &, since this wasn’t a protected area, we gathered a few of the beautiful wildflowers growing on the roadside with which to decorate the BF. At Glennallen we turned south on the Richardson Hwy (#4) toward Valdez but it was becoming late in the afternoon so we stopped about 80 miles short of Valdez at a state campground for the evening. The campground had lovely campsites along a babbling stream which ran into a lake with campsites around it also. We spent the night there & enjoyed a delicious dinner of grilled salmon compliments of the Pools who ensured our freezer & refrigerator were full of fresh caught salmon & moose. Our freezer & refrigerator are very full & we couldn’t be happier! Everything will be greatly enjoyed by the Yonderers!

Today, August 5^th, (Happy 3^rd Birthday to our dear granddaughter, Emery!) began with rain, completely cloudy skies, & cold temps & it looks as though that it will stay that way for a few days. We pulled into Valdez about noon & the proprietor at the Bear Paw Campground mumbled that Valdez has NOT had 2 consecutive days of sun all summer! (While we were in Homer we were told that Homer had not had more than 2 days of over 65 degree weather this summer!) Anyone thinking about retiring to AK? It has definitely been a colder & rainier summer than normal for AK this year. We will remain in Valdez a couple of days. It is uncertain as to whether we will take another boat ride into Prince William Sound (from a different vantage point than our trip from Whittier) or not. We’re giving serious thought to this weather!