Day 88 Tuesday July 26, 2022 I called the garage about 9:15 and the parts to fix the Jeep have arrived and they will start on it later this morning when they finish repairing another car. We walked back down to the small boat harbor and watched a fisherman that was dressing a bunch of pink salmon. There are two large stainless steel fish dressing stations along the boardwalk at the boat harbor. They wash the parts of the fish they don't keep down the line out into the water in the harbor and the sea gulls have a picnic with the remains.
We departed the RV park at 10:45 and drove to the garage to wait for the Jeep to be fixed. After about 45 minutes Doddie came out to the motorhome and told us the Jeep was ready. It was ready before we arrived and we didn't know it. Some miscommunications on mine and her part I guess. Anyway I paid the bill and we were on our way to Palmer to meet up with the caravan.
The views coming out of Valdez were great until we got several miles past Thompson's Pass then it was kind of bland until about 60 miles from Palmer. We saw several glaciers, snow on the mountains, huge valleys between us and the mountains with several large ponds. It was a tiring 225 mile drive. We didn't stop but a few minutes to use the restroom because we wanted to get there before they had the planned hot dog and drivers meeting. After a fuel stop a couple of miles from the campground we got there and setup in Mountain View RV Park in site 23 and had about 15 minutes before the cookout started. We missed the tour of the Muskox Farm and the pizza lunch but at least we got the Jeep fixed quickly and are back with the group.
We stopped at a pullout along the Turnagain Arm outside Anchorage for a break and some photos. A lady stopped Tom to ask him about their dog Sugar. We found out she and her husband are from Carrboro NC and are school teachers that have worked in schools all over the states. For the last 5 years they have been teaching in a Native Alaskan school in a very remote part of Alaska that only has a population of about 200 people. The only way in and out is by small airplane. She said they got so much snow there this past Winter that to get into the school someone had to dig DOWN to the door to get it open. That is too much snow for me. They said they had only planned to work there 2 years but they liked it there so much they have stayed 5 years now.
Then we stopped at the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center at the former location of the town of Portage. The earthquake of 1964 destroyed the town when the ground dropped several feet. Now the land is used to care for animals that can't survive in the wild for one reason or another. We saw porcupine, muskox, elk, caribou, black and brown bears, bison, black tail deer and bald eagle.
We got to Stoney Creek RV Park in Seward about 3PM and setup in site B4. We had walked almost 2 miles today plus the driving so we were tired. Our bodies still have not adjusted to the four hour time change since leaving NC so we were sleepy by 8PM.
Day 90 Thursday July 28, 2022 This morning we visited the Sea Life Center in Seward and the one hour talk called the Puffin Experience. Puffins are an interesting bird. Then we explored the town and stopped at the Firebrand BBQ shack for lunch. We had a BBQ brisket wrap that was very good. I though it was odd that they had sweet ice tea until the owner told me he was from Armadillo Texas.
We stopped at the Bear Creek Weir to watch the salmon jumping out of the water trying to get past the Weir.
We returned to the RV park to clean the bugs on the front of the windshield, which is a constant task. Then we relaxed the remainder of the day.
Day 91 Friday July 29, 2022 Our group boarded two small buses for a ride into Seward for our boat tour of Resurrection Bay. We made a stop at Fox Island for lunch around 1PM. The lunch was not as good as the one we got in 2015 at the same place.
Then the Captain took us all around the area so we saw Bald Eagles, puffins, kittiwakes, sea lions and finally a humpback whale, lots of glaciers and also some WW II military lookout towers that were on top of a massive rock out in the bay. It looked like the only way for the military guys to get to the towers were to be delivered by helicopter.
On the way back to the harbor the Captain pointed out a hiking trail up the side of a mountain in Seward. They have a annual contest to see who can get up the 3000 foot climb and back down the quickest. He said the climb up has been done in 30 minutes. A 87 year old man did it in 2.5 hours. It looks almost impossible to even hike up it much less do it in 30 minutes.
We returned to the RV park for our drivers meeting some snacks and birthday cake for two of the group with birthdays.
Day 92 Saturday July 30, 2022 It was drizzling rain this morning when we got up and when we departed about 7:45 headed to Homer which is called the Halibut Capital of the World. We stopped in Soldotna at the Fred Meyer (similar to a Walmart) for some groceries. I went into the wine section and found a peach wine I wanted to try. When we tried to use the self checkout registers we had a problem. They don't work like the ones in Walmart. When the clerk came over she about pushed my buttons a little two hard. She just ranted on and on about me trying to pay for the wine at the self checkout and not inside the section where the wine was displayed. You would have thought I had committed some major crime. Then she fussed about us using the register wrong.
The rain continued to drizzle and be foggy almost all the way to the Heritage RV Park in Homer. All of our group got sites on the row that faces Kachemak Bay. We have a great view of the bay and the hills around it out our windshield.
At 4PM us and Tom and Gloria went to Fat Olives for a great meal. We stopped at an auto parts store on the way and the man that checked me out was from Winston-Salem NC originally. The meal was expensive as all restaurant meals are in Alaska. When the waitress was taking us to our table I saw another waitress that I recognized from the TV show Alaska The Last Frontier featuring the Kilcher Family. I asked our waitress about her and she said yes I was correct so she got her to come over to our table for a few minutes. We asked her about the tours that they have at the homestead and she advised us to just call the telephone number and ask about the tours to get the latest information on what was available. She suggested that if we went to take the hiking tour and to wear good shoes that would keep our feet dry.
After our meal we rode down the Spit to the end to look around and then returned to the motorhomes to relax for the remainder of the day.
