Swollen Eye, Buffalo, Hot springs,

My eye, well take a look. I was hoping it would be a bit better today. You know my mind is going in ten thousand directions like I hope it wasn’t one of those spiders that the bite will eat the flesh, make the tissue necrotic, and I loose half of my face. Then I will have to employ that doctor who in the movie with Nicholas Cage and John Travolta, Face Off (I think) swapped their faces. Did a good job too. So now in my travels instead of just looking for bear and eagles, I will have to look for faces.

Now meanwhile back on the trip: Hooptie is covered with ash,  the skies are hazy with smoke, and the smell, well, it’s not good like a camp fire.

We are going to Laird Hot Spring today and look what was wondering up the road alone. A buffalo. I was surprised to see him all alone. But not for long. About two miles up the road we came upon a whole heard. Lots of babies too! Look how close they are. I opened the RV door and a baby came to visit.    I quickly closed the door, don’t want to stir up a Mama Buffalo. The size of these guys are incredible. If that Buffalo decided to have a seat, the little car didn’t stand a chance. They are very docile creators, just moseying along eating grass and flowers.  That was exciting to see.

On to Laird Hot Springs for the afternoon. We followed a boardwalk path through a forest and then wetlands that support so many boreal forest plants. Some of these plants only survive here because of the hot springs. Berry bushes are loaded with unripe fruit and wild flowers brightened up the walkway that led to the lower hot spring pool. The upper pool was closed off due to recent bear activity. The hot spring temperature ranges from 108 to 126 degrees. The waterfall was a wonderful masseuse especially when your muscles were warmed up from the steaming water.   So relaxing. Now, if I could just get carried back to the RV for a nap.

The roadside was camp again for us and I don’t think we could have found a better spot. The mountains, the Northern Rockies, in front of us looked like pyramids and the creek, named 115 mile creek, was so peaceful.    The beavers were busy building.   With it getting dark at about 11pm, sunsets are a nightly event now.      

Spider Bites, Cinnamon Buns, and Wild Fires

Tommy had our flat tire repaired in Whitehorse with a plug and a patch. We left the repaired tire as our spare. Stayed at Camp Walmart again in Whitehorse, but this time, Walmart only had a fraction or the travelers there compared to when we were going to Alaska. It was so full on the way up that the parking lot didn’t hardly have room for shoppers.

We met such a nice couple, Don and Sue, from Ontario. Sometimes you meet people and can’t find things to talk about and other times you just hit it off. We did. So many similarities between Sue and I. Geez I wish we lived closer to each other. Sue would be such a great girlfriend, you can tell. I can definitely see us keeping in contact. I gave her a lesson on setting up a blog, like Snookie did for me. Do we have a new blogger on our hands?

I woke up to a weird feeling around my eye. I thought I slept with my face squished into the pillow and thought I had deep pillow wrinkles on the side of my face. When I finally got around to look at my eye, I was shocked. A spider or something bit me. I didn’t think of taking a picture of it until 7:30 at night. See the red dot of the bite. Looks better now than it did this morning.

We passed Johnsons Crossing and had to stop back in for a cinnamon bun like we did on the way up. Yum! A few extra found their way into the freezer again. 

Tommy and I were just discussing how lucky we have been with both vehicles, only one flat tire  and CRACK! A tractor trailer kicked up a rock and of course put a nice three armed crack in the passenger window.  Tire yesterday, windshield today. Too bad it’s not the round chip that stays a chip. Oh no, this is one will run in 3 directions. We will see if we can get it repaired. If not, I can see a new windshield in my future.

We are hearing of terrible wild fires in British Columbia. The Cassiar Hwy, that we took up through BC from Seattle to Alaska, is now closed to all traffic and has been for a few days. We are going to take the Alcan Hwy down to Jasper and Lake Louise and just heard that road may be closing as well. There are only two roads you can take, the Cassiar or the Alcan, that’s it. We are 9 miles away from Watson Lake, where the Sign Post Forest is, the air is thick with the smell of smoke and you can see the darker smoke wafting in, covering the puffy white clouds and blue sky. (look back up to the picture of the crack, look in the distance in the photo, see the smoke coming in) The sky now looks like a thunderstorm is coming but it is the smoke. Further down the road, just after 9pm with the sun sinking, the sky was a glow from all of the smoke in the air.   That sky is high up on the wow factor scale.

Uh Oh

(I just got caught up on some posts from 8/1 to 8/4 so be sure to go back and catch up.)

What a nice night last night. I am so glad we stayed at Kluane Lake. Cool night just perfect for sleeping.

Uh Oh! What did Tommy find when he went out to get Hooptie ready to go? A flat right front tire. Damn, no cell service to call for repair. He got out our 12 volt tire inflator and let it pump up for a couple of hours. Maybe we could get somewhere for repair. Tommy then saw the problem. An Allen Wrench stuck in deep. No chance of getting somewhere on that tire. Tommy had a hard time of it getting those lug nuts loosened but after  talking to it appropriately for awhile (@#%?!), he finally got them loose, got the spare out,        and changed the tire. Good Job Tommy!  Good bye Kluane Lake, I am sure glad we stayed with you last night. Now on to Whitehorse to either get that tire repaired or to buy a new one. Hey if we were to have a flat tire, we couldn’t have had it in a better place than in front of Kluane Lake in a large pull out, out of the way of other vehicles, with plenty of space to make the changing of the tire a bit easier. Luck or Angels on our side again.

Our Last Day

We got up this morning, said our good byes to Bob and Barb, who were heading to Skagway to catch the ferry on the Marine Hwy to see the inside passage. Tommy filled the RV with water and I did 4 loads of laundry before we got on the road. It is 90 miles from Tok to the Canadian boarder. The sun was shining, it was so warm, skies were the bluest that I have seen since coming to Alaska, and the fluffy white clouds just lit up the sky. What an exquisite day. Alaska was giving us a send off to remember. The beauty just wouldn’t quit as we drove towards Canada. Hated to leave but so, so happy we came.

Stopping for the night at Kluane Lake, the largest lake in the Yukon Territory, made leaving Alaska just a bit easier. Look at this water. Can it get any bluer? And the sunset, at midnight, wasn’t bad either.

I Bid Alaska Adieu

Alaska – how can I thank you for allowing me to spend some time with you. You did not disappoint. Your friendly people and hospitality, with a small town feel, well it makes me feel like I did many years ago when people cared for one another. You have a slower pace here. You feel life here instead of hurrying along just getting through the day. Taking time to talk and to help someone out is important business. Yes, like it used to be. Where common sense is more important than being politically correct. . Yes Alaska you are a wonderful place and your beauty is second to none. From your mountains, so rugged and tall, to the waters, abundant, clean and life sustaining. The glaciers, with a color so blue that it they appear to glow from within.They have a life of their own and speak to you, reminding us to take care of our world for our future depends on it.The vastness of your wilderness so vital to many magnificent creators. And the air, crisp and unpolluted.  You take the air for granted until you breath truly clean air and realize how good a deep breath can make you feel. Oh Alaska, you can capture a persons heart, injecting it with desire to return. I leave you Alaska, but I will not say good bye or farewell, I will bid myself adieu for someday I hope to return. But for now the memories of gold panning and summer solstice in Fairbanks, Anchorages’ dazzling flowers, the quirky town of Talkeetna, the Eagles of Homer, Sockeye Salmon fishing on the Kenai in Soldotna, the animals in Denali and the mighty Mt McKinley, standing tall above all others, the Pink Salmon and bear were so fun to watch in Valdez, and the athletes who climbed Mt Marathon in Seward will remain vivid in my minds eye until I am able to see you again. 

Hello Again

Why Hello again Tok. Tok was the first town we came to when we entered Alaska and is the last town Alaska had for us on this trip. As soon as we pulled into the town we saw a couple, Bob and Barb, that we first met in Fairbanks and saw again in Valdez. Barb and I went to a few shops together after Tommy and I washed the RV and car at this gas station that offers free dumping and vehicle wash. We camped next to Bob and Barb for the night. A relaxing, sun filled, low key last full day in Alaska with a pretty sunset at 10:30 pm to top it off.

Another Rainy Day In Valdez

Raining again today, that made the decision for us to leave Valdez and head north toward Glen Allen. The weather continually improved as we approached Glen Allen until we had complete sunshine. 

We are on the hunt for Diamond Willow to make walking sticks. Diamond Willow is a slow growing hard wood, great for walking sticks. It is beautiful with red and blonde wood and diamond shaped groves. It will be a hard hunt since all we know is it grows like a lilac bush with many branches sprouting from a center cluster with small leaves and thick bark. Do you know how many trees fit that description here? We also know that it likes to grow near streams or swamp areas. So it looks like we will be in the swamps and permafrost today. Just in case we didn’t find any, we purchased an unfinished stick that I will have to whittle the bark off and out of the diamond shaped recessed groves. Anyway we hunted for hours, found trees that looked like it but when the bark was peeled back there wasn’t any red wood. We will keep looking on future days but today we came up empty handed. What we did find were mosquitoes. We haven’t had them while down on the Kenai Peninsula, but they are here in Valdez and Glen Allen for sure. I am glad we purchased that one piece of Diamond Willow. I started to remove the bark from the diamonds,  will need to sand it smooth, and then varnish it.  A project to finish while sitting around a campfire. It’ll be gorgeous.

I got a glimpse of the moon for the first time in months.  This is about 12:30 am. The mountain way off in the distance lit up under the moon light. There is a mountain in front of the snow capped one, but the way we were sitting it looked all as one. That is a nighttime picture of the mountain. The sky stays light for quite some time. I took the moon picture out of the front window of the RV and turned to take the mountain pic from the side window.    Alaska will loose about 3 hours of daylight per month now until the winter solstice. She still has very long days. At 11 pm it’s just dusk.