Camping World, Olive Garden and photos of new tow bar

This morning Mike took photos of the campground and our new tow bar.

From Ft. Lewis RV Park

From Ft. Lewis RV Park

From Ft. Lewis RV Park

This afternoon we drove up to Camping World in Fife for a new air filter and oil filter for our Onan generator and some cleaning supplies.

We then drove up to a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Federal Way to get a new Wal-Mart Road Atlas. Of course, we bought some other items, but no Wal-Mart Road Atlas. They didn't have any atlases, just maps.

Since we were only a couple of blocks from an Olive Garden and it was almost 5:00, we went there for dinner.

We decided to sit a table in bar area and ordered Sam Adams Octoberfest on tap. For dinner we both ordered the Never Ending Pasta Bowl. Mike had the whole wheat linguine with Pizzaiola Meat Sauce and meatballs. I ordered the fettuccine with Pizzaiola Meat Sauce. We both really like the Pizzaiola Meat Sauce and will definitely order it again.

After dinner we came back to the RV and I worked on our blog and photos. Mike worked on planning our trip when we leave here and head east.

Moose walked through our campsite!

Yesterday we did some shopping in Anchorage and I got a few groceries at the Commissary.

I needed to wash the comforter on our bed and the one we use to cover the couch, so I drove off post to go to a laundromat. I had found one about 2 miles from the base and was on my way there when I saw another laundromat even closer. I pulled and went inside to check it out and found out it was much cheaper than the one I was originally going to.

I paid $3.50 for a large washer for each of the comforters and the dryers were 6 minutes for a quarter. The laundry I had intended to use cost $4.25 for a large washer and 3 minutes for a quarter! It ended up costing me $11.25 for the 2 comforters, not too bad.

Then I went to the McDonald's just up the street and took my laptop in to use their wi-fi. After ordering a soda, I found a booth and got out my laptop. I had a LOT of photos to upload to our web albums and update our blog. I was there for 1½  hours, but I got a lot accomplished.

While I was gone this afternoon, Mike climbed up on the roof and cleaned our solar panels. Then he worked on getting ready for our departure on Sunday. He put away our barbecue grill and took up the outdoor mat and stowed some other stuff we wouldn't need before we left.

At 6:40 tonight Mike was watching TV and I was reading a book, when I looked up and saw a moose walking past our RV! As soon as I said "moose", Mike jumped up, grabbed the camera and ran out the door. But by then the moose was crossing the road behind the RV and heading towards a marshy area not too far from the FamCamp.

From Elmendorf AFB

Once across the road the moose did turn a little and it looks like he's watching Mike to see if he's going to follow him.

From Elmendorf AFB

In the meantime Tinker was having a fit and barking for all he was worth - he wanted to get the moose. We took Tinker outside a little later and he had a good time smelling where the moose had walked through our campsite and he wanted to follow the scent towards the road.

Changed campsite & explored Elmendorf AFB

When Charlie (one of the camp hosts) came by this morning, Mike talked with him about us changing to a campsite that had either 50-amp or 30-amp electric. Charlie took Mike around the campground in his golf cart and found a campsite with 50-amp electric that we could move into this morning.

Mike drove the car back down to the site and placed a “campsite occupied” sign there so no one else would take it before we moved the RV. We are now in site #44 with 50 amp electric and water hook-ups.

We were planning on staying here for 2 weeks, but we’ve decided to spend 3 weeks here. After lunch we drove over to the Outdoor Recreation building to pay for our campsite with a credit card. The campsites here cost $18 a day.

We drove over to the Iditarod Dining Facility for lunch. We tried the Adobo Chicken (very good) and with our salads, vegetables and desserts it cost us $11.40.

Afterwards we drove around the base and discovered the Elmendorf Eagles – One-eyed Jack & Notch Wing. They are 2 adult Bald Eagles that were rescued and are unable to fly or survive in the wild.

From Elmendorf AFB

Across from the eagles several aircraft are on display that have been in service in Alaska.

From Elmendorf AFB

From Elmendorf AFB

Across from the Third Wing Headquarters we saw the Yukla 27 Memorial Park dedicated to the crew of a Boeing E-3B Sentry AWACS that crashed in 1995 at Elmendorf AFB.

From Elmendorf AFB

Next we saw the POW/MIA Memorial.

From Elmendorf AFB

After driving around the base we stopped at the Shoppette/Gas Station to fill one of our portable propane tanks and paid $3.59 a gallon. We then drove over to the PX/Commissary complex. We walked around the PX and checked out the different vendors in the mall area before we went to the Commissary to get some groceries.

Denali State Park to Anchorage

It was very cloudy this morning when we got up and looked as if it would rain any minute. We left Byers Lake Campground this morning at 8:45 after stopping at the dump station to empty our black & gray water tanks and hitch up the car. It started to lightly rain just as we were hitching up the car and it rained until mid-morning.

We saw this float plane (white plane in trees on right of photo) on the shore of Kashwitna Lake just north of the town of Willow.

From Denali State Park to Anchorage

We drove through Wasilla and saw the Mug-Shot Saloon

From Denali State Park to Anchorage

and the 1917 Alaska Railroad Depot that is on the National Register of Historic Places.

From Denali State Park to Anchorage

We drove past the entrance to Fort Richardson and continued on to the Boniface gate to Elmendorf Air Force Base. Elmendorf AFB and Fort Richardson Army base are next to each other and operate as a joint base.

From Denali State Park to Anchorage

From Denali State Park to Anchorage

At the Boniface gate we were given a map of the base and we drove past a housing area, the Shoppette/Gas Station, PX/Commissary on the way to the campground.

We arrived at the campground at noon and stopped to speak with Charlie, the camp host, and he said for us to just pick a site and then register. We parked the RV at the overflow lot and unhitched the car so we could drive around the campground.

After looking at the empty sites, we settled on site #61 and moved the RV there. Mike realized after we parked the RV that we only had 20 amp electric there. We decided to pay just for tonight and then see about moving to another campsite tomorrow.

We filled out the registration form and paid for 1 night and dropped the envelope in the box at the self-registration kiosk.

Manatee Cove FamCamp

This morning Mike went to the FamCamp office and paid for us to stay here a month - $440. The campground accepts mail, so we called American Home Base this morning to have our mail sent here.

The post firing range is right behind the FamCamp and our RV, so we woke up this morning to gunfire. It was startling, but we knew to expect it from the various blogs and comments we've seen about the campground. The 747 that is parked at the airfield has been running its engines since we arrived yesterday. Mike says they are probably running some kind of test on the engines.

Here are some photos that we took of the campground today.

From Patrick AFB

From Patrick AFB

From Patrick AFB

Here is a photo of the Blue Herons that are nesting in the Australian pines across from us.

From Patrick AFB

Since we are close to the airfield, Mike was able to get some photos of the Huey that was practicing touch 'n go this afternoon.

From Patrick AFB

St. Augustine to Patrick AFB

We left St. Johns RV Park this morning at 9:15 and headed south on I-95 to the Flying J at Exit 305 to get gas ($2.889 gal - after our discount). Then it was back south on I-95 to CR-509 at Melbourne and down to SR-404. We went east on SR-404 and crossed the Indian River on the Pineda Causeway to A1A.

From Patrick AFB

We drove north on A1A about a mile to the commercial truck gate at Patrick Air Force Base. After showing our IDs to the gate guard and getting directions to the FamCamp, the guard lowered the security barriers for us to enter.

From Patrick AFB

The campground is located on the western side of the airfield, so we drove around the airfield to the Manatee Cove FamCamp.

We saw a 747 over by one of the hangars at the airfield and I was able to get a photo of it.

From Patrick AFB

We arrived at the campground at 12:30 - 150 miles from St. Johns RV Park. We met Lorrie, one of the camp hosts, and she took Mike around to look at some of the site. Manatee Cove FamCamp only accepts reservations for active duty personnel and first come, first served for everyone else; but right now there are a lot of empty sites.

While they were doing that, I started unhitching the car. Mike & I then drove around to look at the sites that were available and we settled on #30. There was a site open right on the water, but it is a back-in and looks to be too short for us.

Site #30 is a pull through with full hookups (50 amp). We have a fairly good view of the Indian River. After Mike hooked up the electric and we leveled the RV and put the slides out, we stopped to fix lunch. After lunch we finished setting up camp and spent the rest of the afternoon just enjoying the view of the river. There are pelicans diving and fishing in the river and a family of blue herons in one of the Australian pine trees near our site.

Since the FamCamp office is closed on Sunday, Mike will go over tomorrow morning and pay. We had planned on staying here for 2 weeks, but this evening we decided to stay for a month.

Richmond, KY to Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, OH

  Last night the rain continued and there was quite a lightning storm. I was sitting up reading after Mike went to bed and there was a lightning strike nearby (it looked and sounded like it was in the parking lot) - I decided then it was time to go to bed!

We got up earlier than usual so we could leave Wal-Mart by 8 a.m. to go over to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Last night I looked on Google Earth to check on the parking for Cracker Barrel and we found a place alongside the road that we could pull off and park the RV. When we got there it was just like I had seen on Google Earth and we were able to park there easily. There wasn't room in the parking lot in the back of Cracker Barrel for us to park the RV.

We were back on I-75 a little after 9:00. I used our Next Exit book to locate a Saturn dealer and a Petsmart store along I-75 in Florence, KY that were close together. We stopped at the Saturn dealer to buy an extra fuse for the Vue (this is the fuse we remove when we're towing the Vue); we've wanted to have an extra on hand just in case we lose or something happens to the one we have.

We then drove over to Petsmart to buy a bag of dog food for Tinker. I had used our Verizon modem this morning to check Petsmart's sale ad and they had $5 off a bag of Tinker's food! Usually we go into Petsmart to buy something and what we buy isn't on sale, so our Pet Perks card doesn't help us.

So we're back on the road by 11:45. We arrived here at Bass Lake Campground at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base at 1:30. I had already entered the route through the base to the campground, but the guard at the gate told us a more direct (and less winding) way around the flight line to the campground.

After getting the RV setup I walked over to the laundry to check it out. They have 3 washer and 3 dryers (1 dryer was out of service). The washers are $1 for a load and the dryers are $.50 a load. That was the same price as when we were here 3 years ago. I went back to the RV and gathered up a couple of loads of laundry and did them this afternoon.

We're on site 13 with full hookups (50 amp). Since we're only staying the night here, we didn't unhitch the car.

From Ohio, May 2009

Mike put out the awning to let it dry from all the rain we've been in and discovered that the latch that locks or releases the awning was not locked. Fortunately the bracket that we have on the awning to keep it from opening worked. Several stretches of I-75 were extremely rough and we think that the latch may have been "jiggled" loose.

Today Streets & Trips "lost" the gps after about 2 hours; I rebooted and it was okay for about 2 hours. Then it "lost" the gps just as we exited I-75 north of Dayton. I didn't reboot the laptop then because I needed to refer Streets & Trips for the route we needed to take to get to Bass Lake Campground.

Burlingame State Park to Hanscom AFB, MA

We left Burlingame State Park this morning about 10:30 and headed north on US-1. We stayed on US-1 until it connected with SR-138 where SR-138 crosses Narragansett Bay. The Newport Bridge which crosses Narragansett Bay is a toll bridge and our toll was $4 for the RV and the car. SR-138 becomes SR-24 and we continued north until we stopped at a rest area near Scotland, MA for lunch.

We stayed on SR-24 until we connected with I-95 south of Boston. Then we took SR-225 northwest for about a half mile to the turnoff for Hanscom AFB Famcamp. We arrived at the campground around 1:30 p.m. We're in Site #49 - a fairly level pull-through with a concrete patio. We have 50 amp electric and wifi. Hanscom Famcamp doesn't take reservations, but we had no problem getting a site.

From Boston, MA

After hooking up and getting settled in, Mike called the Camping World in Chicester, NH to order a new awning. Our RV insurance will cover the new awning and installation (less our deductible). Our insurance company said they would pay Camping World for the new awning and installation, but Camping World had to have everything paid for before they would order the awning. After we told the insurance company that we would pay for the awning and would have Camping World fax them the invoice where we paid for it, our insurance company agreed to mail us a check to reimburse us.