Day 181……Home

Arrived home safely today from the 6 month trip…..10,873 miles in the RV.  Did not record the tow vehicle mileage before we left.

Visiting family

 

Stopped off to visit gradkiddos  while Mom took a week-end off.  They have all grown in the 6 months we have been gone.  Dogs Mikki & Charlie have had a a great time playing.  We did have a much needed rain shower.  It is so dry, that the septic field  isn’t even green.

On the 17th  we went on a geocaching adventure. It was the first  for Brianna and Graydon.  They each found one, we found 2 out of 4 using a very outdated GPS.

 

 

Sunday, Sept 18th

Graydon is playing  baseball.  This is the first year the players are pitching instead of the coaches.  Graydon  is a good hitter as well as pitcher.

Back in Texas

We are at the Thousand Trails, Lake Whitney off FM933.  It is 106 degrees out today, and we will be home next week.

On the road……….i

Just had to share this beautiful sunrise in McPheson, KS.  We will be in Thackerville, OK  for 2 nights.  We will for sure drive over to Gainsville, TX for a Whataburger fix, then Thousand Trails, then Dripping Springs before arriving home.  Don’t plan on sending out Datastorm location emails  for these short stops, but the location will be in the in the right column if you click on “our current location”.

Spencer, Nebraska

Arrived Friday to visit with friends we have not seen for several years.  Having a wonderful time.  Visited a grape orchard during harvest and have toured the countryside.Yesterday Larry & Chet had a successful  fishing trip. 
The largest at 7.5 lbs. and 25 inches

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Hart Ranch…..Day 160

We left Moose Jaw at 7:30 and crossed into North Dakota at 10:00AM.  We stayed at Trappers Kettle Campground(behind the motel) in Belfield, ND.  Excellent, fast Wi-Fi.  We arrived at Hart Ranch Resort about 12:45PM.  It is south of Rapid City.  A beautiful private campground on a working ranch.  We are using our RPI  affiliate (Thousand Trails) membership.

KOA to past Jasper

We left Pipers Glen at 7:30 AM.  By 9:00 we were finished shopping at the Super WM in Prince George and fueled up.  The scenery to Jasper is beautiful.



We wanted to stay at Whistlers Campground, but it was booked (last big week-end of the summer).   We traveled on through to the KOA  about 50 more miles.  Very nice park.   We stayed 2 nights.
This KOA is 5 miles from the town of Hinton.   One of the lumber mills donated funds to build a wetlands for beavers.

Drove back into Jasper town for a while.


Just before the KOA is a Zip Line place.  Larry just had to try it & it was a kick (for him). I put the camera on burst &  turned them into a little video.
East of the KOA park there is a Beaver wetlands park

Travel day…….# 154 of the trip

Departed Hyder after going the 3.5 miles to Fish Creek viewing area.  No luck.  Departed and fueled up in Stewart – still raining – at noon.  We stopped at   Bear Glacier at M15 of the Stewart Hyder Access road.

As we traveled away from the coastline the weather conditions improved and was a little sunny by the time we reached the Cassiar.  We stopped for lunch somewhere  along side an Aspen grove.

We stopped for the day 89 miles from Prince George.  We camped at Pipers Glen Campground at PG88. The sun had set, but still a little shining across the lake.  Nice park on a lake, but very low voltage.   Wi-Fi was available.

Hyder, AK

Arrived in Hyder on Aug 22, and departed the 24th.  It never stopped raining.  It has been an extremely wet summer for them.  We went to the Fish Creek viewing area every day and did see a few bears. Nothing like expected.  Sometimes we waited several hours to see one bear.  Did get some photos though.

Cassiar Highway

Leaving Whitehorse, we drove to Watson Lake for fuel & stopped for lunch.  The Cassiar (PH37) cutoff is 13 miles back.  We  didn’t get to see much of it’s beauty as it was cloudy  and rainy.  The Milepost   numbers for the intersection of Hwy 1 and  the Cassiar is  AH 450 (miles south to Kitwanga)  at the junction of the Yellowhead Hwy 16.  The 1st night we stayed at  Dease River Crossing( N58.946889, W129.863773 – our campsite),  A very small private  campground – no hookups, $20 on a beautiful lake.  Too bad it was so cloudy and rainy, but did get a few photos as in the following slide show.

  The Cassiar is PH37 from Alaska Hwy  Kitwanga, 450 miles where it ends at the Yellowhead Hwy PH16).  It is ALL paved.  There were no ruts nor chug holes.  The first 1/4  to 1/3 slow going about 40 mph because of the heaves. Nearing the cutoff to Stewart- Hyder Access road, it became better.  From the Stewart-Hyder access road to Kitwanga it was smooth.  We took a side trip to check out the bears in Hyder.

Day 144 Burwash Landing, Kluane Lake

Valdez is about the most beautiful place we have visited.  Mountains all around.  Some days were cloudy and rainy. So far, we have not had any summer.

We  left Valdez on Aug 18th and stayed the night at Northern Nights RV park in Glennallen.  Our next stop was about 1/2 from Burwash  Landing .  The next morning we visited the museum.  The clouds started lifting around Kluane Lake and saw some mountains before Haines Junction. Our next stop was Pioneer RV park In Whitehorse where we visited the Beringia museum for a little history lesson  of the area.  On Aug 21st we left Whitehorse and drove to Watson Lake arriving around noon.  After fueling up we drove back 13 miles to the Cassiar Hwy.  It went from sun to cloudy/rainy but did get a few photos.  Unfortunately we saw none of the beauty of the trip. br/> 

Day 144 Glenallen to Burwash Landing from Our RV Travels on Vimeo.

Glennallen to Valdez

The drive between Glenallen and Valdez is my all time favorite for beautiful scenery.
Can't get it all into just one video.
The first one is from Glenallen to Thompson Pass. It was a beautiful clear  sky.  When we were here in 2005 it was cloudy so we did not see all the beauty.






The sun was shining just right on the falls
Bridalveil Falls and Horsetail falls are about 17 miles before Valdez

Horsetail Falls

View of Valdez from  bridge to fish hatchery



Eagle’s Rest RV Park, Valdez
Today we watched a bear (2 for a while) catch salmon in a shallow stream.  The birds wanted their fair share.

Anchorage to Glennallen

We were going to leave at 9:00AM, but a new belt was too worn so a trip to the Cummins dealer for a new pulley tensioner.  By the time that was all fixed and fueled up at Fred Meyer, we left at 11:40AM and arrived in Glennallen at 3:30.   Sure seemed like a lot longer than 4 hours.  The Glenn Hwy is narrow, curvy, and bumpy.  It was raining much of the time so we missed much of the beautiful scenery.  Also some miles of construction.  Fortunately the sun was shining when we went by the Matanuska Glacier.




Matanuska River

Mikki likes to peek out the window when the shade is drawn

Redoubt volcano and Homer….

It was a clear sunny day  for a change as it has been  cold and rainy.  Most days  don’t make it out of the 50’s

Mountains and glaciers around Homer. Taken from the  pull out before descending into Homer.
The light line in the water is the “spit”.  At the end is the harbor where all the fishing boats come in.

A better view of the spit.

The marina at Homer

It is low tide….. the ramp is at a steep angle and the poles are tall.  At high tide, the ramp is about level with the dock.

Halibut trip

Larry & Clark went on a 2nd and overnight halibut trip and came back with  35 lbs. each.  Larry skinned all ours  & we rinsed & rinsed & dried before vacuumed  them.  Now the freezer is pretty much full as all the remaining salmon caught has been frozen.  Have to leave room for the  ice cream freezer container ……

Day 125……… Finished

Finished the canning with a total of 192 pints……12 batches of  16 each……8 days of canning.

More fishing…………

Largest caught.

Filets in large colander

 

Large roasting pan…..I trim off all the dark meat before processing

Fishing and Canning

No shortage of filets to can.

Canning is a long process…….100 minutes after pressure reaches 11 lbs.

Wind off the river is cold and makes it difficult to maintain the pressure.

Day 116 Fish are in

The boardwalk at River Terrace.  Larry is fishing around the bend.



Yea!   Fish are finally in.  Larry got the limit (3) by 7:15AM.  Now the work begins.


Looks like the fish cleaning table he make is working out. He said it needs some carpet to keep them from slipping so much