61 Day Alaska Caravan: Day 37-39

August 17-19, 2016

Day 37

Our travel day today was about 220 miles, we made a few stops for pastries and to check out a farmers market. With road construction it took us about 5 hours to make it to Homer AK, Halibut Capital.

We are in Oceanview RV Park with views of the water from the road but not from our site. Later in the day we saw a campground on Homer Spit that if we are ever here again we'll choose that as our place to stay.

 After our travel meeting we headed out to dinner on "The Spit" with two other couples, dinner at Captian Patties was great but once again too busy eating and talking to remember to get a picture. Afterwards we tried to find a Geocache nearby but had no luck.

Day 38

Today half of the caravan group went out halibut fishing, for those of us who didn't go fishing it was a free day. We decided to check out Anchor Point and the most westerly point in the US that you can drive to. Our friend Dixie went with us, her husband was out fishing, and we introduced her to geocaching, we found two :)

Dave's big catch

 

You never know what you'll find on the beach

Meanwhile the fishing people all caught their limit in fish, 2 halibut per person. We helped a few with vacuum sealing their catch, a few pounds even found their way into our freezer.

After dinner we took a ride on Skyline Dr up above the town of Homer with views of the town, "The Spit" and a few of the local glaciers.

Day 39

A relaxing day, showed some friends the view we had found above town and visited the Salty Dog Saloon. The Salty Dog started out as a one of the first cabins in Homer with many incarnations, a post office,  a railroad station, a grocery store, a coal mining office, an office for Standard Oil Company and eventually (1957) becoming the Salty Dog. After the 1964 Good Friday earthquake it was moved to it's current location.

A stop at Homer Brewing Company rounded out our day. Next door to the brewery is an oyster shack, $1/oyster and he delivers to the brewery, Dave enjoyed a few dozen while we all looked on.

 Our trip has been flying by, as of tomorrow we only have 3 weeks left, before we know it'll be over.

Until next time...

61 Day Alaska Caravan: Day 34-36

August 14-16, 2016

Day 34

Lake Kashwitna

Travel day today, 242 miles and we reached Anchorage, a nice ride with peaks of Mt Denali along the way. A stop at a lakeside rest area for a bite of lunch and we were pulling into Golden Nugget RV Park right around 1pm.

Day 35

Today was all about smoking, butts that is. Early in the tour we had offered to do some pulled pork for the group, well today was the day we were going to be serving. Dave stayed up late last night and got two of the butts in the smoker about 11pm, we transferred them to a Nesco oven around noon and then put 3 chickens in the smoker. New friends Mike and Liz smoked the other two port butts in their Traeger grill/smoker. It was a relaxing day filled with an extended happy hour, it started about noon and didn't end until 5pm. Of course we were so busy once the butts and chicken came off the smokers we never took any pictures.

Day 36

Today was our day to explore Anchorage a little bit. We headed out with Mike and Liz, first stop was the Alaska Botanical Gardens. Of course most things were passed blooming time but we had a nice walk, there were plenty of mushrooms growing.

One of the many means of transportation in Alaska is float planes, there is a local sea plane base in Anchorage so we headed over there to watch the planes take off and land for awhile.

 By this time we were ready for lunch, one of Dave and Mike's goals is to sample as many local bears as possible. With 60 beers on tap, half of them local Humpys Great Alaskan Alehouse seemed like a logical place to go. Beer and great fish and chips, no desire for dinner after that large lunch.

Our last stop of the day was the Alaska Wild Berry Products store where we found a 12' chocolate fountain. Also found my first virtual Geo Cache, lots of chocolate and a few pieces even came home with us.

The rest of the aftenoon was dedicated to chores and getting ready to move on to Homer tomorrow.

Until next time...

61 Day Alaska Caravan: Day 30-33

August 10-13

Day 30

This mornings ride was about 111 miles to Healy Alaska just a few miles north of Denali National Park. We got a few peaks of Mt Denali on the way to the park, just a teaser for the next days visit to the park.

An early travel meeting and then we were off to the Alaskan Cabin Nite Dinner Theater where dinner is served family style by the actors in the performance.The performance is the tale of Fannie Quigley who came to Alaska during the Gold Rush, she made her fortune by cooking for miners. She became famous in these parts, staked a claim at Kantisha and married a miner by the name of Joe Quigley. The performance also goes into the beginings of Denali National Park by Harry Karstens. It is an entertaining performance, with a few other characters thrown in.

Day 31

Up and out by 5:50 to catch a bus that never showed up till 6:30am, sure could have used the time to sleep a little more. Our bus today would take us into Denali National Park and all the way to Kantisha,  92 miles of rough road but the scenery was worth it. We were lucky to be there on a beautiful morning when Mt Denali showed herself to us. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

 

Interesting glacier

Mamma grizzly with two cubs

In 2003 two bull moose clashed, eventually their antlers locked. One tine pierced an eye, both moose perished locked together on the tundra.

This area was just cleared two days before of a mudslide that happened about a week ago. The previous Adventure Caravan that went through couldn't take the road all the way to Kantisha. Our timing was good once again.

Male grizzly

Hanging out in Kantisha on their suspension bridge.

Our most adorable picture of the day, may have to make this into a Christmas card.









We also saw some bull moose but the pictures didn't come out very good. Considering the wildlife we saw and the views of Mt Denali we did pretty well compared to many others. 13 hours after setting out we were back at the rv tired and worn out.

Day 32

Today we did some white water rafting on the Nenana River, since we couldn't take the camera there are no pictures and the ones they take of the customers from the river banks were just too expensive.

After our rafting trip we headed to 49th State Brewery where those who drink beer enjoyed them, combined with a few appetizers it made for a nice lunch after our rafting.

 Day 33

Today we headed back to Denali NP, our bus tour did not stop at the visitors center so I needed to get my NP Passport book stamped.

This wonderful couple, Bill and Gail, just celebrated their 50th anniversary. They were on our rafting trip, they're going on the zipline adventure...such an inspiration. 

Dave found another grizzly to wrestle, don't think the spectators were impressed.





Tomorrow we head to Anchorage.

Until next time...