Anchorage

On the Road with Fred and Barb - Newsletter #15

June 29-July 2 Palmer to Anchorage

Anchorage is only 40 miles from Palmer and many people commute from Palmer each day for work. We were shocked how much the city has grown since we were here in 91. Didn't even recognize anything except the little log cabin visitor center. And the traffic has been hard to get used to again after hardly seeing another car for hundreds of miles.

Our main purpose for staying in Anchorage was to stock up on supplies - there's a Costco and Walmart as well as Sears and Nordstrom! Got 9 rolls of film developed that were taken with the 35 mm and APS cameras. It was fun to remember what we had seen the previous 6 weeks. Some of the panoramics really turned out nice.

As it turned out we also discovered a serious problem with our car. The bolts holding the baseplate for the tow bar had pulled through the frame of the car on the right side. Fortunately we found a machine and welding shop close by and they were able to weld some metal onto the plate to reinforce it. We hope that solves the problem. Good thing we found it or we might have lost the car somewhere down the road.

Robbie and Steve's daughter Stacey flew in from Boston and will be traveling with them for the next 3 weeks. We heard that this is a very busy time of year down in the Kenai and it would be advisable to make reservations for campgrounds and any fishing or other excursions. We have gotten very used to deciding each day where to go and how long to stay. Having to plan several weeks in advance is a lot of work and not as much fun. But after calling a few campgrounds to get reservations over the 4th and learning they were full, we decided it was a necessary evil. So far we've been successful in reserving everything we want to do.

Besides all the "work" we did while here, we did take time today to visit a few attractions. Went to the Alaska Native Heritage Center which has some wonderful exhibits on each of the 5 main cultural groups of the Alaskan Native People. They also performed some native dances which were very energetic and well done. I liked the quote from one of the tribes: "Unless you dance, you'll get moldy. " We also went to the Alaska Experience Theater which shows an Omnivision movie called Alaska the Greatland . It has some breathtaking photography from all across Alaska. We learned that Alaska is 2.5 times the size of Texas and about 1/3 the size of the whole US. No wonder it takes so long to see even a small part of the state.

The growing season here is very short but because the days are so long, the flowers and vegetables grow really large. Downtown Anchorage has lots of beautiful hanging baskets lining the streets and huge flower beds all over.

The only bad part about our stay in Anchorage was our choice of campgrounds. We chose the Ship Creek Landing RV Park because it was right on Ship Creek where the Salmon were running and it was the closest to downtown. The salmon were indeed coming into the creek to spawn but because of that, you weren't allowed to fish there, just downstream where they weren't biting. But the worse problem is that the campground is right next to (feels like on) the railroad tracks. Our RV is less than 30 ft. from the track. Every 4 hours, night and day, a train comes thru and when it does the whole RV shakes. And it gives several blasts on its whistle each time - not nice at 3 am when you are sound asleep. Right now the wilderness of the Yukon is looking pretty good.

So now it's off to the Kenai. Looking forward to some more Salmon fishing as well as Halibut. Just don't know where we'll put it!