June 29 Arrival in Anchorage! aka “the Banana Belt”. Seriously!

I only had about a two hour drive to get into town today, but I managed to stretch it out to an all day event, almost. I started by chatting with some folks at the campground this morning after a late breakfast. One gentleman told me that the Anchorage area is warm in the winter, compared to the rest of the state, and therefore known locally as the Banana Belt. Wheew! And I thought cold was going to be a factor! :) Then I moseyed down the trail a bit, checking out the Matanuska Glacier on the way. In the picture selection, I’ve included some of the signs that are along the viewing trail. I missed taking a picture of a really neat one that explains how the glacier grinds the mountain down into a very fine silt, called loess. The summertime winds blow loess around all over the valley. There is a lot of farming in this valley; it was part of the New Deal during the 30’s and Midwestern farmers settled here. I was just struck by the interaction of the Five Phases: Water grinds Metal, Wind carries Metal all about, Metal enriches Earth, Fire lights the midnight sky. Result: giant vegetables at the fair! Also, I’m hoping, regular-sized, mineral-rich ones at the farmer’s market. After the glacier pictures, there is one showing the road coming into Palmer and then a couple on the freeway into Anchorage. (They have a freeway here! Six lanes!) I didn’t take any pictures in ANC proper other than the camper, as there will be plenty of that within the next couple of weeks. Upon arrival, I went to my friend Reeda’s house and set my camper up. Thank you for a place to land, Reeda! I mean to tell you – I unhitched the Aliner AND put the legs down. That’s about as permanent as pulling the wheels off a double-wide in FL!! :) Then when I was driving around town afterwards, I felt so short! so incomplete! and so not used to looking in the rear view mirror! and so brilliantly-neon-conspicuous with a solitary FL license plate! So, …, …, this concludes the daily travel blog, the key word here being “daily”. Maybe the other key word is “travel”. :) It’s been fun, eh? I will still be putting stuff out here from time to time and may even develop a routine, like once a week, eventually. I imagine that when Bryan, Deet, et al, are here for the last two weeks in July, that I will be updating more frequently, as we will be heavily engaged in the tourist-thing during that time. Spying on Bears; Sneaking Up on Fish. In the meantime, I’ll be checking out a new cell phone and doing laundry and finding Fred Meyers and the library and the health food store and the thrift store and the yoga studio and hopefully, a local Nourishing Traditions group. There is free Tai Chi in the park on Saturdays, offered by the local massage school, so I plan to attend this weekend. Also, I’m looking forward to meeting some of the people on my Alaska Living yahoo group. So, more-or-less, regular stuff. And now, (via a church sign), a message from our Sponsor: God Wants Spiritual Fruits Not Religious Nuts.

June 28 Heading South: from the Tok Cutoff to Glenn Hwy via a short little piece of the Richardson Hwy

Today I saw a VW van that had run off the road quite some time ago, with weeds growing around it and I thought about going back and taking a picture of it and naming tonight’s entry “Into the Ditch”, but then, I just couldn’t do it. Too lazy to turn around, but not angelic enough to refrain from mentioning it. And frankly, such actions might create bad karma (unlike merely sharing a funny haha). I hope. Fingers crossed. Lots and lots of mountain pictures today. I really narrowed the selection for the blog way down because those sorts of pictures all start to look the same and with the clouds at the top of snowy mountains, the sky and the land seem to run together too. At a rest stop in the early afternoon, I talked at length with a couple from Ontario. We all agreed that pictures of the scenery will never, ever do it justice, so you just gotta come see it for yourselves. (Just remember, the mosquitoes, bears, eagles, etc warning). They thought it’s humorous that I’m moving to AK for the year, and then went right into highly recommending curling. What?! Curling?! They told me all about it and I also looked it up this evening – apparently it’s quite the winter sport. I must look like I’ve got some real curling potential for them to mention it to me, out of the blue like that! I always suspected that there was some sort of latent potential there, just lurking, waiting for discovery! Not! haha :) Here’s a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curling. Curling, noodling, I’m getting a real education on this trip!! :) In other news today: I finally passed a cell phone tower that works for me in Glennallen! This is the first one in DAYS. So I immediately pulled over at a gas station and chatted happily away on the phone for about an hour as I walked in circles by the truck and camper. I don’t know what that is, but I like to walk around when I’m talking on the phone! :) That was only two calls, too, so don’t feel bad if it wasn’t you! I still love you all, I promise! Tonight I’m at mile marker 109.7 on the Glenn Hwy (not to put too fine a point on it) and I’m only a couple of hours north of Anchorage. So (dare I preemptively mention it?) “The Trip Up” officially ends tomorrow. Barring any bad karma coming back to bite me, that is. Good fortune follows me, good fortune follows me, good for… ;)

June 27 Taking the AK Hwy Back to the Land of Miles and Gallons

Shortly after getting on the road this morning, I saw about six or seven cars all pulled over on both sides of the highway. I didn’t realize until I was through them that everyone was out with their cameras, looking at something. So I parked on the Far Side (!) and hopped out with mine, and saw through the trees a couple of Grizzlies wandering off. I couldn’t get a good snap shot, unfortunately. Later on, I also saw Beaver, but didn’t stop. Just waved as I went by. The road was the worst today of any on the trip. Lots of frost heaves in the paved parts and large sections of dusty, rocky, dirt roads. The front left tire (I’m pretty sure) of passenger car, driving too fast and approaching me, ricocheted a rock up to smack into my windshield. I saw the rock as it was flying through the air and it hit with a loud crack. It caused me to say a bad word. I’m a little surprised, though – I get the whole rock-comes-from-behind-another-vehicle thing, but I didn’t know until today you could be nailed by an approaching car. So now the truck has a couple of dings in the middle of the windshield. I can’t explain two dings from one rock. Maybe there were two rocks and I only saw one? Probably I’ll see about getting some stuff put in them when I get to Anchorage. I spent quite a bit of time traveling through scrawny black spruce forests this afternoon. These guys have it tough – it’s cold in the winter and there’s essentially no soil. Some trees with a five inch diameter can be 100 years old. Also in today’s picture selection, there’s one of an outhouse at a rest stop. They don’t stink! I can’t figure out if it’s because they’re open all around the top and bottom, or they’re vented with a black pipe, or it’s 55 degrees and therefore too cold for outhouse contributions to develop odor. Maybe all three! :) Bear-proof trash cans are also in that picture. Another picture shows that I took the truck and camper for a swim today! :) We are having FUN!! Going through customs at the border was a breeze, no worries. The last picture for today (the one at the top) is Tok, AK. Rhymes with "smoke". ;) And that’s where I am this evening.

June 26 Code Edification

Alright then, right to the Heart of the Matter: I’m drinking up the very last of my wine this evening. Yes, Dear Readers, we are almost at a Code RED (that means, out of red wine, as opposed to a Code WHITE, etc). I hear that alcohol is quite expensive in Canada due to taxes (haven’t exactly checked it out) but I DID note the price of cigarettes: $15 a pack. Wow. That’d be a reason to quit, eh? That’s the Yukon Territory price, it’s about $8.50 in BC and somehow, the Indians have negotiated less or no taxes on their cigarettes (I don’t know about alcohol). However, regarding my own personal situation, I think I will be able to forestall an actual Code RED by arriving in AK tomorrow. Wheeww, close call, eh? Still not there yet, though, so who knows, tomorrow could be (shudder) “dry”! Or, (another shudder), “expensive”! :) And now, moving right along, some commentary on the pictures from today, starting from the bottom. First one is out of the box, on the road in the am. Next, the traffic at a rest stop just outside of Whitehorse. You can see a bridge across the lake in the distance between a couple of campers. I had several pictures of the bridge too (approaching it and driving over) but they didn’t make this evening’s cut, so that’s why it’s pointed out in the rest stop picture. Look carefully, please. It’s important that you see the bridge. Next, downtown Whitehorse, YT. Whitehorse is the capital of the Yukon Territory, with 27,000 people - only 33,000 in the whole territory, so they all pretty much live in Whitehorse. As I passed through town, I stopped at The Real Canadian Superstore, along with every other RV on the road, and stood in line with them all in the store, too, – and noticed on the way out, that funky orange bus-camper that I saw the other night! Tell me it’s the same one! No fleet, puh-leeze! :) The next picture is of Haines Junction, YT, which is not to be confused with Haines, AK! Even though they both have “Haines” in their name, they are in different countries, even. In the picture, if a person continued straight on the road, you would end up in Haines, AK. I took a right at the Shell station. Next couple of pictures, after the right at the Shell. Then – Kluane Lake. WOW! I have never seen a turquoise green lake like this!! It looks fake, almost! Is it because there are green (jade?!) rocks on the bottom of the lake? When I stopped to examine the water up close and personal, I could see, in the distance, a significant amount of dust blowing off the upcoming highway, so surmised, (correctly), road work and took one last picture of a clean truck and camper. It lasted almost for the whole day! :) Twenty minutes later, dirty, (I thought that’s the way you liked it, wink, wink ), I pulled into Cottonwood RV on the Lake, just 16 miles south of Destruction Bay, where it’s posted, no washing campers. So we stay dirty tonight! It’s otherwise a beautiful little campground, and I highly recommend it to each and every Dear Reader. And this is especially dedicated to my favorite younger brother, Bryan! :) Wish you were here, Bro! (ps "delayed gratification" for all regarding today's pictures - I will put them on ASAP.)

June 25 Gone Fishin'

Today, I didn’t drive. Not anywhere. I hung around the campground all day, pretty much, getting caught up with the blog and a couple of other various things. In the afternoon, I went fishing with Fred, who is retired and working at the campground for the fun of it this summer. We drove to a couple of fishing spots and tried for a couple of minutes (we did see some fish coming to the surface in one lake), but it started raining so we didn’t keep at it. It's illegal here to use bait; lures are okay. I also got to see the local airport. It’s not used at all anymore, although it maintained, by the look of it. It was built back during the war (‘40’s) and bombers on their way to AK would stop to refuel here. I think they probably also used it to bring supplies in for the men working on the AK Hwy. The orange cones on the runway are the original ones (you can just barely see some of that in one of the pictures). We also went by the Continental Divide. Bernice the dog came along to chase bears away. And that’s about it for today. Oh, I was offered a job at the campground! :)

June 24 "YT" Bay-Bee!! Alaska Hwy, Bay-Bee!!

I spent the biggest portion of the day finishing up the drive on the Cassiar Hwy, aka 37. It was so beautiful, especially the part south of Good Hope. It was sooo beautiful, I thought about adding two days to the trip by turning around and driving south and then driving north again. Everyone should see this part of the Earth (or something like it), but … I hesitate in the same breath. It’s like recommending an excellent yet little-known restaurant. The next time you go in, the friends-of-your-friends have all spread the word so well that you have to wait, they’re overworked and underpaid all of a sudden, and it’s just never the same again. So just know: the mosquitoes are vicious, the bears are ferocious, and the eagles will carry away your little dog. For a snack. Anything under 22 pounds. I saw a black bear crossing the road this morning and later on, I also saw, right in the middle of the road, a huge pile of shit. Don’t know who left it, but whoever did, eats quite a bit. Maybe 22 lb dog snacks. :) I stopped at Jade City in the middle of the day. Angel, Girlfriend, this is where we need to shop! Talk about your cold jade stone! Not a drop of plastic in it! They supply something like 92% of the world's jade. The girl in the shop said that the jade is mined, but that after frost heaves in the winter, big jade rocks come up to the surface (no mining necessary). After I left there and kept seeing large green rocks on the side of the road, I kept wanting to stop to get one or two! Probably I would have ended up with "fools jade"! LOL Eventually, I reached the end of the Cassiar Hwy and took a left on the Alaska Hwy and drove for about another hour before reaching my camping location this evening at the Contintental Divide RV Park in Swift River, Yukon Territory. That’s right! You read that right: I’m in the Yukon Territory, Bay-Bee! The ole “YT”! How cool is that!? The truck and camper got pretty filthy today (on a dirt road off and on for about ? hmm 1.5 hours?) so I spent the first campground hour washing them. That got me filthy, but that’s okay, 4th day in black jeans, time for a change anyway.