Alaska 2015 - Day 49 - Haines - Skagway

Day 49 – 6-29-15 Monday We awoke to rain this morning. The owners of the campground was probably happy because the grass on the sites were beginning to show signs of needing rain. We got everything ready to leave and I called the post office to see if our last package had arrived (the one we had forwarded from Valdez last Tuesday). Due to the weather they had not received any mail deliveries since Saturday so they didn't have the package. I needed to go to the post office and fill out some papers to get it forwarded again. In Valdez I could do it over the phone. Different post offices different rules. We departed the campground, fueled up the motor home and drove out toward the Alaska Marine Ferry and parked the motor home in a large pull out beside the road and drove the Jeep back to the post office. Lena had to make one more stop at the Mountain Market to pickup a few meat items and a pastry item. We went back to the motor home, cranked the generator and made some coffee and ate the pastry and enjoyed the view around us for a little while longer. We didn't need to be at the ferry terminal before 1PM anyway.

We arrived at the ferry terminal and checked in. The ferry Columbia arrived about 1PM and began unloading vehicles and people. We were supposed to depart for Skagway at 2:45PM but it was closer to 3:30PM before it departed. I though they would never get all the vehicles off the ferry so we could load. A half dozen vehicles or more had to get off and then get back on. They must have been parked blocking another vehicle that was getting off in Haines. Lena went on with the Jeep but I was one of the last to load with the motor home. Lena was happy she got a spot easy to get in and out of with the Jeep. I have put the motor home in some fairly tight spaces before – I thought – until today. When they got me parked I could not even get the door open enough to get out and people can't stay in the vehicles on the ferry, so the man directing me had me ease back and over a few inches. There was just enough space between the motor home and the camper beside me and the wall on the other side to walk sideways so I could leave the parking deck and go upstairs.

The ferry is somewhat like a small cruise ship. They have a small dining room, a cook preparing food and you can also reserve a small cabin if you are going to be on the ferry for a few days or you can camp out on the top deck. We were at the Skagway dock in about an hour after leaving the Haines dock. There were three cruise ships in dock at Skagway. The same man on the ferry that directed me on, directed me off as I backed out of my “cubby hole”. They do an amazing job of getting all the cars, trucks, travel trailers, 5^th wheel campers, small and large motor homes on and off the ferry without anyone getting any damage. There was a short log truck came off the ferry in Haines. The ferry system has been running for 50 years so they have a lot of experience and it shows.

We saw one odd looking camper from France come off the ferry and we had seen another one from Germany in Haines earlier and several days ago we saw one from the Netherlands. I can only imagine what it cost to have them shipped from Europe to the United States.

Our campground, Pullen Creek RV Park, was only about 2 blocks from the ferry terminal so we checked in and setup. We can look out the windshield at two of the cruise ships. We came to Skagway in 2007 when we took a cruise to Alaska and had not planned to come here on this trip but like I say – plans change. There was one thing I wanted to do when we were here on the cruise and didn't do it, so tomorrow we take the train trip up into the mountains. They have about 1 million visitors (tourist) a year. That's a lot of cruise ships.

I was as tired as if I had driven all day. All the setting around is as bad as driving for me. We will be here two nights.