Anchorage to Valdez

We got up at 7:30 to get any early start and it was 48°. It had quit raining during the night and the clouds were clearing. We stopped at the dump station before leaving the campground to empty our tanks. We stopped to get gas in the RV at the post gas station and found out that gas prices had come down 6¢ since yesterday to $3.799 a gallon. We left the gas station at 9:40 and then drove downtown to the post office to see if our mail was there at General Delivery.

We found a parking lot near the post office and I walked over to check on our mail and it was there. We were going to have to have our mail forwarded down to Skagway if it wasn’t there this morning.

We drove through Anchorage on AK-1 and stopped for lunch a little before 11:30 at a scenic lookout above the Matanuska River. After eating lunch we walked up the path to the Matanuska River overlook. As you can see, the rain is gone and we had blue skies and lots of sun.

From Anchorage to Valdez

The drive east along the Glenn Highway from Anchorage gave us great views of mountains, rivers and lakes.

When we were about 100 miles from Anchorage we saw the Matanuska Glacier which is almost 27 miles long and is a stable glacier – it is neither advancing nor retreating.

From Anchorage to Valdez

From Anchorage to Valdez

We ran into some road construction at MIP 114 and one lane traffic, so we had to wait for 10-15 minutes.

From Anchorage to Valdez

When we were about 80 miles west of Glennallen, we started seeing these snow-covered mountain in the distance.

From Anchorage to Valdez

We had planned on spending the night at Glennallen, but we decided to go on to Valdez today.
After turning south onto the Richardson Highway at Glennallen, our scenery started to change.

From Anchorage to Valdez

We still saw a lot of glacier rivers (the grey water is due to glacier silt or glacier flour).

From Anchorage to Valdez

From the highway we were able to see the Worthington Glacier.

From Anchorage to Valdez

As we were getting closer to Valdez the temperature started to fall and it was 48° when we saw this woman jogging.

From Anchorage to Valdez

We passed by the Bridal Veil Falls which is so tall that it took 2 photos to capture it.

From Anchorage to Valdez

From Anchorage to Valdez

Then we saw Horsetail Falls.

From Anchorage to Valdez

We arrived at Valdez Glacier Campground at 5:45. The campground is managed by the Ft. Greely MWR (Morale, Welfare  & Recreation), but is open to the public. There are 21 sites here with electric, but all of them were occupied. We stopped to fill our fresh water tank and then parked the RV in site #27 which is a pull-through.

From Valdez Glacier Campground

As retired military we are paying $10 a day to dry camp. Dry camping may not be accurate for here, since it started raining shortly after we parked the RV and has been raining steadily ever since. We'll have to get photos of the campground tomorrow.

I checked the weather forecast and it is supposed to rain for the 3 days that we are here. We are close to our monthly limit on our internet usage with Verizon, so we are going to the Valdez Library tomorrow. I will update our map, Picasa web album and post today on our blog then.
We took 186 photos today and we narrowed them down to 73 photos and we’re putting 59 of them in our Anchorage to Valdez album – it was hard to trim it down any more.

Change of travel plans & a Moose in campground

It was still raining when we got up this morning at 6:00. We left the RV at 7:30 to go to the ID office here at Elmendorf for my 8:00 appointment. We got there about 7:45 and over half of the seats in the waiting room were occupied. I looked at the sign-in sheet and most of the people who had already signed in didn’t have an appointment.

My name was called a few minutes after 8:00. It took about 15 minutes to get my new ID card. On September 1 my Medicare coverage starts and I had to have my D.E.E.R.S. file updated in the Department of Defense records to get Tricare for Life medical coverage.

We stopped at Burger King for breakfast and then got gas in the Vue at the post gas station. Gas prices had come down 2¢ since yesterday and was now $3.859 a gallon.

Mike called the post office this morning and our mail still has not come in to General Delivery. The main counter at the post office is closed on Saturdays, but we were told that there is a window we can knock on and get our mail if it is there. Otherwise, we will have to have our mail forwarded when it comes in and we’ll have it sent to Skagway when we’re there on August 15th.

We paid for another day’s stay here at the campground ($18) – we had planned on leaving this morning and spending tonight at Glennallen on the way to Valdez.

I was sitting on the sofa after lunch and looked out the window and saw a young bull moose walking across the road a couple of campsites over from us. I said “Moose!”, Tinker jumped off the sofa and started barking and Mike grabbed the camera, put on his shoes and ran out the door. By this time the moose was walking through the trees over to the next row of campsites and Mike was going right after him.

From Moose at Elmendorf FamCamp

Mike got a lot of photos of the moose and took several movies of him.

From Moose at Elmendorf FamCamp

At one point Mike was hiding behind a birch tree taking photos and movies, when the moose started walking towards him.

From Moose at Elmendorf FamCamp

Mike said when the moose was about 15 feet away, he was deciding whether to stay behind the tree or retreat – he decided to retreat and forgot that the camera was still filming a movie. Mike said when he was hiding behind the tree, he was trying to think himself thinner.

It rained all morning and was 49°, but by noon the rain had quit and later this afternoon the sun came out and warmed up to the low 50’s.

Moose Alert! Just as I was writing, Mike said “Moose” and we saw the bull moose walking across the road near our RV. There were several of us from the campground out taking photos of him and traffic on the road next to the campground was stopped with people taking photos of him.

From Moose at Elmendorf FamCamp

Still no mail today & possible change in travel plans

Mike called the post office this morning and our mail still hasn't come in. We hope it will be here tomorrow, because the post office that received General Delivery isn't open on Saturday.

I went to the commissary and got a lot of groceries including stuff to make for lunch. After lunch we took Tinker and stopped at Lowe's. We needed to get an adapter for the kitchen faucet so we can attach a water hose to it and give Tinker a bath with warm water.

Then we went to Petsmart to get some of Tinker's treats and more shampoo.

Mike put the faucet adapter on the kitchen faucet and connected a water hose to it and ran the hose out the RV door. We gave Tinker a bath on the picnic table. Instead of being a white Bichon he had become a grey & brown Bichon. Tinker is now white and I think he feels better after his bath.

This morning we actually saw some sun and it had quit raining, but this afternoon the clouds moved back in and the rain started again.

We're getting up early tomorrow morning for my 8:00 appointment to get a new ID card. Hopefully, our mail will be at the post office when we call in the morning. If our mail isn't there tomorrow, we'll have to stay here until Monday. Since the campground isn't busy that won't be a problem and we haven't made any campground reservations that will have to be changed.

We had planned on leaving tomorrow to go down to Valdez for a few days. Since it's about 300 miles down there we were going to spend tomorrow night at Glennallen before going to Valdez. We also have an appointment for the Alaska Ferry from Haines to Skagway on August 15. We may have to call and change our appointment to a later date. We've heard that it costs about $20 to change the appointment.

Still raining & our mail hasn't come in

Mike called American Home Base last Thursday to have our mail sent to General Delivery here at Anchorage. We drove downtown to get our mail and it hadn't come in yet. On Thursday when Mike called it was too late to send our mail out that day, so it was going out on Friday. Hopefully, it will be tomorrow since we are planning on leaving here Friday.

My military ID card expires the end of this month and we went over to the ID section on Fort Richardson this afternoon and there was a long waiting line. We saw a note that there was an ID office at Elmendorf, so we decided to go there.

When we got to the ID section at Elmendorf we found out their computers were being upgraded today. The personnel told me I could go online and make an appointment to get an ID card.

After getting back to the RV I went on line and made an appointment for Friday morning at 8:00 to get my new ID card - that was the first available time they had. Then I got together the rest of our laundry and went to the campground laundromat.

While I was at the laundry, Mike went to the barber shop at the PX and had a haircut - a really short haircut.

It rained most of last night and today. Tomorrow I've got to get groceries at the commissary and we're going to give Tinker a bath. And hopefully, we be able to pick up our mail tomorrow.

Soldotna to Anchorage

It started raining again last night and was still raining when we got up this morning. We left Edgewater RV Resort at 8:45 and stopped at the Holiday Station to get gas ($4.179 a gallon) in the RV. While Mike was pumping gas, I went into the store and bought a couple of breakfast sandwiches.

We traveled back north on the Sterling Highway and passed by Kenai Lake.

From Soldotna to Anchorage

About 10 miles east of Kenai Lake we connected with the Seward Highway and headed north.

From Soldotna to Anchorage

We continued north on the Seward Highway along the east side of Turnagain Arm which is a beautiful drive with glacier and mountain views. But it was still raining so the mountains were shrouded in low clouds.

From Soldotna to Anchorage

From Soldotna to Anchorage

We arrived in Anchorage about noon and as we were driving through the city on the way to Fort Richardson, we decided to go to the FamCamp at Elmendorf AFB instead. It's close to the PX & commissary and we hoped to see more of the moose and bears that come through the campground.

The first time we came to Elmendorf we entered the base through the Boniface gate and today we used the Muldoon gate which is closer to the FamCamp. We arrived here at the campground at 2:30 and parked in the same site we had before - site #44.

I fixed a quick lunch and then gathered up 3 loads of clothes and went to the campground laundry. The last time I had done laundry was 10 days ago just before we left Elmendorf.

On the drive up here we talked about seeing the movie Cowboys vs Aliens. I checked the movie schedule and found out it was playing at the Regal theater just outside the Muldoon Gate. We had a light supper and went to the 6:50 showing.

Then after the movie we stopped at the Marble Slab Creamery for a couple of chocolate shakes before going back to the RV.

Homer to Soldotna & Sightseeing in Kenai

Late last night it started to rain and it was still lightly raining early this morning.

We left the Marina Park campground and drove to the dump station in Homer across from the Post Office. While Mike dumped our tanks, I drove over to the Post Office to buy stamps for our postcards so I could mail them from Homer. I met Mike up at the Safeway and we hitched up the car in the parking lot and we left Homer at 11:50.

Five minutes later we decided to stop for lunch at a rest area on a bluff overlooking Kachemak Bay and Homer Spit instead of later looking for a pull-off farther up the road. There is a Gold Rush Centennial sign which tells the story of “The Wheelbarrow Nightmare”.

From Homer to Soldotna

Just north of the Ninilchik River we turned off onto Orthodox Avenue (a gravel road) and drove west a little ways to view the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord Russian Orthodox Church on a bluff overlooking the village of Ninilchik and Cook Inlet. Ninilchik is Russian for “peaceful settlement by a river” and is an old Russian fur-trading village. The Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord Russian Orthodox Church was built in 1900 and is one of the most popular sites to photograph on the Kenai Peninsula.

From Homer to Soldotna

We continued north on the Sterling Highway to Soldotna and the Edgewater RV Resort. We arrived at Edgewater RV Resort at 2:15 after driving 78 miles from Homer. Edgewater RV Resort is a Coast to Coast member and we are using our campground points to stay here tonight. Since we used the points we earned on our Good Sam credit card to “purchase” Coast to Coast points, the points for tonight’s stay are free. There is a $3.18 cash resort fee for the campground.

From Homer to Soldotna

We are in site #34 with full hook-ups (30 amp electric). There is a lot of traffic noise since the campground is at the intersection of 2 major roads, but once we’re asleep I doubt we’ll hear it.

After getting settled in we drove over to Kenai which is 12 miles west of Soldotna to visit the Russian Orthodox churches there. We first stopped at the Kenai Visitors Center and got a Walking Tour Map of Old Town Kenai.

From Kenai

Using the Walking Tour Map, we drove around looking at some of the old homes and cabins.

From Kenai

The main reason for our visit to Kenai was to see the Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church that was constructed in 1894. It is one of the oldest standing Orthodox churches in Alaska and is a National Historic Landmark and is still an active church.

From Kenai

Father Macarius Targonsky was at the church and told us about the church and its history. He explained that there are no pews in the church because they stand to express their reverence before God although sick and the elderly may pray sitting down.

From Kenai

He showed us the 19th century Russian Bibles

From Kenai

and explained that the brass chandelier used to have crystal pendants.

From Kenai

Our next stop was at the St. Nicholas Memorial Chapel just down the road that was built in 1906 as a tribute to Father Nikolai who was the first missionary in the Kenai area. Father Nikolai and 2 assistants were responsible for bringing the smallpox vaccine to the Kenai Peninsula and vaccinating many people there.

From Kenai

As we were leaving Kenai we spied a Don Jose’s Mexican Restaurant and quickly decided to have dinner. We split a Carne Asada Grilled Burrito dinner with rice and beans, so we would have room to share a Fried Ice Cream. So far we have eaten at a Don Jose’s in Anchorage (2 times), Homer and now Kenai – we think the dinner at the Keani Don Jose’s was the best.

On our way back to the RV, we stopped at the Visitor Center in Soldotna and walked out on the boardwalk along the Kenai River and people fishing along the river.

From Homer to Soldotna

Tomorrow we leave Soldotna and go back to Anchorage. We're planning on staying at the Black Spruce FamCamp on Fort Richardson which is next to Elmendorft AFB.

Last Day on the Homer Spit

This morning we sat out on the beach and drank our morning coffee. It was low tide and we watched people walking on the beach with their dogs.

From Homer

There were even 4 horseback riders with their dogs out enjoying the beach. The temp was in the mid-50’s and breezy and quite chilly.

From Homer

We met a couple with a young daughter and 2 dogs who were walking on the beach. They decided to move their travel trailer from the end of the park to a site near us with a better view of the bay. Mike & Sally are from Anchorage and took a week off from work to come here.

We decided to reheat and eat the grilled burrito we brought home from Don Jose’s last night for lunch. After lunch we drove down to the end of Homer Spit to the Land’s End Hotel.

From Homer

We stopped in at the Salty Dawg Saloon

From Homer

and had a couple of Alaskan Amber beers.

From Homer

The Salty Dawg began as one of the first cabins built in Homer in 1897. In 1909 a second building was built and later it was joined to the original. After the 1964 earthquake the Salty Dawg was moved and the lighthouse was added to cover a water storage tank.

We spent the afternoon checking out the shops on the Spit and stopped at the Harbor Grill Restaurant to check it out to see if we wanted to eat dinner there. After looking around and reading the menu, we made a reservation for 6:30 for a booth with a view of the Homer Boat Harbor. We found out that the same people who own the Harbor Grill also own Don Jose's Mexican Restaurant where we ate dinner last night.

We also went into town to a large gift & souvenir shop and bought a couple of things and saw these beautiful peonies outside the store

From Homer

and saw this 1957 Corvette in the gift shop.

From Homer

We went back to the RV and fixed a pot of coffee. The tide had come in and we spent our last afternoon here sitting out on the beach drinking our coffee. The temp was still in the mid-50’s and very windy, so we were bundled up.

From Homer

We visited with Mike and Sally, our neighbors here, and their daughter Lilly until it was time for us to get ready to leave for dinner.

From Homer

We arrived at the Harbor Grill a little before 6:30.

From Homer

We had a nice booth looking out on the Homer Boat Harbor at the Harbor Grill restaurant. I ordered the Baked Alaskan Halibut (I’d been told if I liked salmon that I would really like halibut) with lemon olive oil, bread crumbs and Parmesan ($29) and Mike ordered a 14 oz. rib eye steak ($28). We both got a salad, steamed vegetables, red potatoes and focaccia bread and a glass of pinot grigio. I REALLY enjoyed the Baked Halibut – thanks, Chris (Mike’s brother) for suggesting I try halibut. The bill for our dinner came to $91.38 before our tip – we don’t indulge like that very often.

Colin, our waiter, brought around the dessert tray and I ordered the New York cheesecake and Mike had a chocolate and berry cheesecake.

From Homer

On the way back to the RV, we saw this green tour bus, the Green Tortoise, and a large group of young people setting up tents on the bay. I looked up Green Tortoise and found out it is a backpacking adventure tour.

From Homer

Tomorrow we leave Homer and go north up the Sterling Highway to Soldotna for one night before heading back up to Anchorage.