Wednesday, August 30, 2006

HEADED EAST

The day had arrived. 

At seven thirty we were drinking our coffee and tea, much to the surprise of anyone watching, not that they were.  The only regulars left besides us are Sonny and Birdie and Marv and Ardy.  Sonny and Birdie are early risers and by seven thirty their attentions are focused on things other than what we are doing.  Marv and Ardy are late risers like us so they probably weren’t awake yet.  LaVonne and Chuck may have been up but it is hard to tell since they live in the lodge and one never knows what is going on in there.

The toasted cinnamon bread and hardboiled eggs were a quick breakfast before we took quick showers. Then I ventured out into the misty forty two degrees to unhook the shore power, visit with Sonny as he walked back from the grate, check the basement doors, bang on the tires and check the tow bar for the toad.

A quick glance at space number seven, ours, told me it was clean and would be waiting for our return next May or June.  The deposit had been paid and the regulars would be looking for us.  The flowers Onie had planted were still blooming and would until the first snow flies.

Slides were brought in, jacks were retracted and the Cummins was cranked.  It was time to begin to head east but first goodbyes were waved to Ardy, Lavonne and Chuck.  Marv was most likely still in bed nursing his bum leg.

At nine thirty we headed up the gravel road, the one we walked before the bear interfered, toward the pavement.  The day was like many before it as we were accompanied by rain.

The Sterling highway traffic was light as we turned right and headed toward Cooper Landing, Turnagain Pass, Portage, Girdwood and Anchorage.

Eighty six miles from Castaway we got our first glimpse, of the day, of Cook Inlet.  The tide was almost high, the highest we had ever seen it.  The mud flats we were used to seeing were almost completely submerged and the waters covering them were calm as a mill pond.

There is a pull out on the way into Anchorage around Cook Inlet and this particular pullout has a name, Beluga Point, because oft times one can see Beluga whales from the vantage it offers.  This day we didn’t make it to that turnout before we saw the Belugas.  They were in the upper reaches of the Inlet.  We had been around the Inlet many times but this was the first time we had seen the Belugas.  Ninety miles from Castaway we pulled to the side of the road and Onie got out the camera.

Outside the coach she watched as the whales played and fed in the calm waters.  It seemed that wherever one looked a beluga could be seen or at least a footprint.  Onie snapped away with the digital camera getting many good shots of the whales.

Beluga (white spot, that's not a white cap)

We and many others watched until our individual goals got us moving again.  Our spots on the roadside were quickly taken by other interested parties.

Continuing on toward Anchorage we noticed the fresh snow on the surrounding mountains.

At one thirty we pulled into the parking lot at A&M RV.  Inside we checked in and signed a work order to repair the front furnace, check the ride height, check a weld and check the right rear inside dual for a slow leak.

In the Marlin at two we decided it was time to break our fast from Mexican food.  The last time we had eaten Mexican food was back in Texas. We unhooked the toad and headed to Don Jose’s for lunch.  We got there at two thirty and ordered their special of the day, something called Chicken Tequila Fajitas.  They were good but the refried beans were the best we had ever eaten.

Now it was three thirty.  We hadn’t received a call from the repair shop so we decided to pay the local Fred Meyer a visit and see if we could be persuaded to part with any of our retirement funds.  An hour alter we left with all our money.

Back at A&M at four thirty we were told the coach would be ready by five.  It was a little after that when we settled our bill with a labor charge of one hundred fifteen dollars an hour.  Anchorage rush hour was in full wing and we really didn’t want to venture out into it.  The service writer, Jerry, told us to back up to the building and plug into his power and spend the night.  We did back in but we didn’t opt to plug in.

Rain was threatening again and tomorrow we would need to have the car shield on the Subaru.  We took this opportunity to put it on and check the tow bars.

By six we were ready to eat something but not a heavy meal.  Half a Tuscan cantaloupe a piece served for supper.  Later I took a walk and located a tire shop since A&M had told us they didn’t work on tires.

First Onie and then I played free cell before our interest turned to dominoes.  Three games later at ten o’clock we went to bed.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

ON TO TOK

We were up at six thirty.  The threat of rain had materialized and brought cool temps with it.  It was forty nine.  When I did my morning walk around I checked the air pressure on the inside right rear tire and it had lost fifteen pounds since the night before we left Castaway but had lost none since last night.  We decided to monitor it and head on to Tok. 

We hooked up the Forester and pulled out of the parking lot at twenty minutes to eight.

We were headed away from most of the traffic and soon Knik Arm and then Knik River were passing behind us in the rear view mirrors.

We were headed to Palmer and the Glenn highway.  The rain had stopped by eight thirty and we motored on under partly sunny skies.

Breakfast had been but a thought as we left the A&M parking lot and now it was time for it to become reality.  At a wide pull out next to Matanuska River we pulled over, stopped and shut off the engine.

Matanuska River and mountains

Onie prepared a breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast, coffee and tea.  The laptop held my attention with notes of the morning while Onie cooked.

We were moving again at ten.  We could see snow falling in the higher elevations around us with fresh snow visible for three hundred sixty degrees.

Matanuska glacier came into view and was soon lost to sight but not before Onie got a picture of it.  It is the source of the Matanuska River.

We were moving into higher elevations and soon reached the highest on the Glen Highway.  We were soon enveloped in heavy fog and had to slow our progress to thirty miles per hour.

When we began our descent into Glenallen the fog rolled away and we were once more riding under partly cloudy skies.

In Glenallen we stopped for latte, hot chocolate, to check the toad and tires before heading onto the Tok Cutoff.  The lady at the latte shop gave Onie a brochure delineating the many sights to behold in and around her fair city of perhaps a hundred.  She was also kind enough to autograph it without Onie even asking.

Heading out onto the Tok Cutoff we reviewed our memories of the trip in, this past June.  Onie remembered a lot. I remembered less.  In this case I think less was better as I wasn’t worried or intimidated by what lay ahead.  Most of the bad stuff we had gone through had gone the way of many other things in what I laughingly refer to as my short term memory.  It was gone.

When we were lucky we were able to drive forty or forty five miles an hour.  When we weren’t so lucky we drove twenty or thirty or less.  We had over one hundred miles to go before we would reach Tok.  Much of the road was greatly improved.  In some areas there was construction but it was divided by lots of short smooth stretches with nine miles being the longest.

When we were almost to Tok we had a bit of a scare.  We were following a pilot car through a construction area.  We were driving as close to the soft shoulder as we felt we safely could and at one point had felt the left front tire sink into the soft gravel.  A quick correction got us back onto the hard surface where we were meeting loaded gravel trucks traveling to our right.

We were going perhaps twenty miles an hour and the gravel trucks were doing thirty or forty.  The distance between the meeting vehicles was less than two feet and much of the time less than a foot.  Our nerves were being tested over and over as we met one truck after another, avoiding them on the one side and the soft gravel, that would turn us over, on the other side.  At last someone misjudged, me or a truck driver or perhaps both, and with a loud crash our right mirror hit the right mirror of the on coming truck. 

He never slowed down.  The mirror popped out of its housing and dangled precariously as we continued following the pilot car.  It would have been too dangerous to stop and deal with the damage at that point.

At last we came to the end of that particular construction area.  I stopped and told the flagger what had happened .  She wasn’t too impressed.  She yelled and told someone else.  We pulled on down the road, we were the first vehicle of perhaps twenty or thirty and we were blocking them.  At the first opportunity we pulled over to check the mirror and see if anything else had been damaged.

Outside we were relieved to find no other evidence of contact.  An examination of the mirror disclosed that it had just popped out of the housing and didn’t appear to have any real problem.  I snapped it back into place, went inside and operated the remote and everything seemed to work just fine.

We pulled back onto the road, a little shaken but thankful it hadn’t been worse, and drove the last few miles into Tok.  Fourteen miles of roadway that had been a mess in June was now completely new and smooth.

With a sigh of relief we pulled into Sourdough RV Park.

We knew better but took a spot in the trees anyway.  As soon as I stepped out to hook up the shore lines the mosquitoes swarmed me removing at least a pint of blood on their first attack.  I moved quickly and there was no time for a second blitz from them before I was safely back inside.

After applying some bug dope I ventured back out to tighten some screws in the basement that had been shaken loose and to replace a few that had come loose and been lost.

Back inside I jotted a few quick notes while Onie prepared supper, stew with smoked chicken from Lake Road and a salad.

After supper we each took a turn playing Free Cell.  While Onie played on I retired to the back to watch North to Alaska with John Wayne.

When the movie was over at ten we went to sleep.

Friday, September 01, 2006

HEADED OUTSIDE

We were up at eight.  The coffee and tea pot had been primed the night before, by Onie, so all we had to do was flip a switch for our morning fix.

Outside the temperature hovered at thirty nine in the falling rain that had started after midnight.

A banana was peeled and the last of the English walnuts chopped before they went into the pancake mix.  While the pancakes were on the griddle the sliced ham was warming in the microwave oven.

Then we sat down to our morning meal.  At nine we rose from the table to do the dishes, take showers and make some notes.

We unhooked the shore lines in the rain.  It wasn’t as cold as it had been earlier, having warmed to forty four degrees.  We left our camping space at ten

There was a short list of things to do before setting out for the lower forty eight. 

First on the list was a stop at Three Bears, a local food mart, for some milk.  Bell peppers were on sale for forty nine cents each so Onie got two of those.

Second we needed fuel.  One of the local gas bars caught our eye with their dirt cheap prices, only two ninety nine a gallon for diesel. We pulled in and bought seventy five gallons.

A pressure check on the tire that had been leaking showed it had lost fifteen pounds in three days, too much to ignore so we needed to have it fixed.  The large shop that boasted of RV repairs including tires didn’t work on tires larger than those on a car.  They couldn’t help us but sent us down the street to a truck repair place that could.  An hour, with two men working, was required to remove both tires, check the leaky one, find a faulty stem, replace it and put everything back together.  The service was a best buy in Alaska at only thirty dollars.

At twenty til one we were headed east, leaving Tok.  We had ninety miles to go to the border and another twenty to Canadian Customs.

This part of Alaska is very hilly and subject to great temperature extremes as well as the effects of earth movement, sometime called earthquakes.  As a result maintaining a smooth road surface is a real challenge and one not often met.  It made for a slow journey for us but allowed lots of time for sightseeing and animal viewing.

At the border the young officer, while looking at our passports, asked where we live, if we had any weapons or firearms, and wished us a safe and happy sojourn in Canada.

The weather and moving earth know no international boundaries and so the next one hundred miles of road was similar, only worse, than those last ninety in the U.S.  They were more interesting though as the rain changed the construction areas to muck and mud

And there was no short supply of construction areas.

There was no short supply of beauty either and we took it all in knowing full well it would be at least a year before we saw it again.

Onie had been looking for trumpeter swans for years.  Today her search came to an end in a great way.  Many such swans were seen on the various lakes we passed.  They seemed to always be in pairs and were of stately beauty.

What a picture!

Our granddaughter, Haley, loves the birds also and we wished she could have seen them.

Swans didn’t have a lock on the waters of the many lakes.  Feeding in one such lake was a cow moose and her yearling.

Kluane Lake is certainly one of a kind and we always look forward to seeing it again.  Today was the day.  On the way up we had been stopped, on its shores, for some time, in a construction zone, and spent many moments enjoying the reflection of the snow covered mountains in the brilliant blue waters.  Today those same mountains were veiled in new fallen snow.  Those that had a minimal covering back in June now stood bare, rocks jutting skyward waiting for the snow that would soon cover them, again.

 We had started our day in the company of the Southern Strangers and listened to three of their CDs before playing some country gospel classics, classic country singers and finally hearing Jose Carreras, a great tenor, do his rendition of some wonderful old love songs and some operatic classics.  Almost everyday we listen to some music and it is usually varied.

Before leaving Castaway, Onie had prepared some silver salmon salad.  Now on the move Onie put that salad in a bell pepper half and it became half of my lunch.  The other half was more silver salmon salad wrapped in a low carb tortilla.  She had the same except for the bell pepper.  Raw bell pepper is not high on her personal list of must have food stuffs.

Our day on the road drew to an end at Haines Junction at eight.

Sitting on the gravel parking lot looking west, we had a breath taking view of the snow capped St. Elias Mountains in Kluane National Park.

What a view! 

The park had advertised itself as having wifi and it did in a meager sort of way.  The signal was like the sun had been all summer on the Kenai, we knew it was there but couldn’t always access it.  It came and went but mostly went so our connection was sporadic, at best.

With darkness coming on at nine, under clear skies and with the thermometer telling us it was fifty outside we settled down to supper, soup and salad.

At eleven we tucked ourselves in, said our prayers and went to sleep.

Saturday, September 02, 2006

ELK

We got up at the same time this morning as we did yesterday, eight Alaskan.  The difference was we had changed time zones and the local time was nine.

Outside frost covered some roof tops, it was thirty four degrees, and had cooled the coach to the point of being cold.

The furnaces roared to life as the coffee and tea brewed.

Fresh hot whole wheat biscuits and sausage got our day started.

Onie had checked her email while I got sausage going, then I checked mine while she did the biscuits.  Our joint efforts had rendered a good breakfast.

After our showers we took a few minutes to admire the morning sun on the mountains in front of us.

We were on the road at twenty minutes to twelve.

It looked like the roads were going to be much better than yesterday or the day before.

Like the swans we had been looking for elk in our travels up and down the Al-Can but had yet to see any.  At twelve twenty that changed.  Onie spotted three young bulls grazing next to the tree line.  We were moving at a pretty good clip and by the time she said something it was too late for me to spot them.  She lamented how much she had wanted me to see them and it was an opportunity that I had missed.  We were thankful for the good roads and drove on.

With the rolling hills, mixed woodlands, lakes and streams abounding it looked like good elk country to me and made me long for the days on Shiloh when she and I roamed the high country of Colorado in search of Wapiti.  Shiloh is gone now and so are those days.

Rain fell intermittently and kept the coach cool.  The weather was still conducive to elk movement and sure enough down the road a piece we saw a young bull standing by the road.  He had been well taught by his mama as he looked both ways before trying to cross.  He saw us coming and waited for us to pass but we stopped instead and Onie took a picture.

Even though it was cold there was no heater today.  It was the first time since we left Anchorage that the heater had been silent.

In the afternoon a CD by the Legendary Singers kept us company as we inched across the map to Watson Lake.  When we pulled into a place called Campground Services in Watson Lake we had logged one thousand ninety five miles since leaving Castaway.  We had done three hundred sixty two of it today in eight hours.

We decided to buy fuel in the morning and went to our site and hooked up.  It had been a long day.

There was a hot spot in the office and we tried to access it from the coach but it didn’t work.

We did enjoy our evening with full hookups and a good supper before retiring at ten thirty.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

HOT SPRINGS

We were still on Alaska time and rose at nine.  Outside it was forty two and sunny.  Last night had been windy and rainy but most of the puddles had dried up by the time we were stirring.

With the coffee and tea brewed and being enjoyed I put some sausage to boiling and started on some Liberty toast.

Onie worked on getting week fourteen ready to post before we left.

When the sausage and toast was on the table she took a break from the laptop and we ate while it was still steaming.

After breakfast she went back to the laptop while I cleaned up the kitchen and got ready to disconnect. 

Week fourteen completed Onie took the computer and headed for the office hot spot, stopping to drop off the trash on the way.  Once there she had a good strong signal and the posting went quickly and smoothly.

She was back at the coach before I had all the land lines in and stowed.

When everything was stowed we eased out of our space and to the fuel pumps at the front where we added seventy two gallons to our tank.  You don’t even want to know what fuel is costing these days in Canada but I will tell you that the seventy two gallons cost almost as much as my first car.  We were glad the Cummins had delivered nine miles to the gallon and not the six that some folks get.

Twenty minutes to twelve saw us rolling east again under sunny skies.  The roads were improving but still had a long way to go before we could cruise at sixty three miles an hour, in comfort.

An hour down the road several large brownish objects appeared on and near the road.  As we drew nearer it was apparent we were seeing a large herd of bison, perhaps a hundred or more.  We pulled out of the moving traffic lane and stopped on the shoulder to watch as they grazed on the green vegetation in the ditch.  There were many bulls as well as cows and young calves.

Awesome animals 

With pictures stored on the card in the camera we were gone again.

Some showers fell out of the sixty degree sky as we bumped along over a fair road.

Two hours down the road we saw another herd of bison, smaller than the first but still some twenty five to fifty, coming out of the trees.  They were very close to an abandoned cabin next to the road where we had seen just a handful back in two thousand one.  I wondered if a dozen buffalo could become that many in five years or if we had only seen a few of them five years ago.

We made a left turn at two o’clock and coasted into Liard Hot Springs, stopped and paid our respects and some money to the attendant, then went and parked on the gravel parking lot.

Hunger pangs were roaming about in our nether regions so we had a little snack before taking a rest.

Rested we put on our bathing suits and headed for the hot springs at four thirty.  The place looked and felt very different from when we were there in June.  It was dry and hot.  June had been damp and cold.  As we walked down the board walk little bugs swarmed everywhere.  They seemed harmless enough and we paid them no mind as we looked for moose, none, bear, none, ducks, none.  The wildlife seemed to have left for cooler climes.

The warm air temperatures meant that we couldn’t stay in the hot water as long as we did in June.

Oh, the water's HOT.

When Onie got out to cool off some of the “harmless” bugs, called “no see ‘ums” by the locals bit Onie.  She came in for a few minutes then we climbed out and headed for the coach.

Relaxed and ready for the day.

Laird hot springs area setting

Even though it was nearing six there was still lots of daylight and we stopped along the way to take some pictures of the delicate flowers that grow here, the minnows that live in the warm water and warm ponds and trees that surround the board walk.

 Pics off the Boardwalk

Minnows in the water

Laird pond. We were a little late for the moose.

Onie was still very hot when we got back to the Marlin so we cranked the generator and ran the air conditioner for a while.

She played Free Cell while the A/C did its job and crosswords occupied me.

When we were finally cooling off we had half a cantaloupe each.

The generator continued to run charging the batteries as I had forgot and left the headlights on when we got to the hot springs.  Canadian law requires that one drive with the headlights on at all times.  After three hours the batteries were fully charged again so we shut the generator off.

During that time Onie was reading Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel, and I was writing.

Outside the temp was dropping and hit sixty at seven o’clock.

Onie continued reading and I stayed with the writing until I stopped and we had milk and cookies at nine thirty.

At ten we turned off the lights to go to sleep.  Outside it was fifty six and dark.

Monday, September 04, 2006

LABOR DAY    

Labor Day started for us at eight under cloudy skies with the wind whipping through the trees and the thermometer resting at fifty five.  The winds had started after midnight and were now sustained and showing no signs of letting up.

Coffee and tea were made and poured and Onie sat down to play Free Cell for a bit.

Shortly we added cinnamon raisin nut bread to our coffee and tea before getting into our bathing suits and heading back to the hot springs.

This morning the high winds were keeping the bugs away from us and we managed to soak for an hour before returning to the Marlin/

By eleven o’clock we were headed south again.

By the time we reached Muncho Lake we were ready for breakfast.  We turned out on a large gravel pull out and Onie started breakfast.

When it was prepared we enjoyed it while looking at the lake and the large gravel deposits to our left that were left by snow and avalanche motion.

Reflection of mountains  in Muncho Lake. Notice shoreline dividing the actual

mountain from the reflection.

Just as we were finishing our breakfast of bacon, eggs, biscuits, coffee and tea, four Stone sheep, also known as Thin Horn sheep, came down the gravel and walked behind the coach.

After breakfast we walked around a bit while Onie looked for rocks for her cactus garden at home.

It was sixty eight and sunny and for the first time in several months I was not wearing a tee shirt under my flannel shirt and to my amazement I was perfectly comfortable, perhaps even a little warm.  In addition we hadn’t even run the heater on rising to chase the morning chill from the Marlin.

Motoring on after breakfast we opened the dash air vents and let the fresh air come in, unheated.  After all, there was no snow on the mountains and it was down right summery.  We were getting into the deep south.

At one we were on the road again.  It was rough.  Thirty five miles an hour was comfortable but we felt the need to try forty or forty five.  We bounced around like ping pong balls in a tumbler at a bingo parlor.

We tried to talk as our teeth banged almost uncontrollably from the punishment the road was dishing out to all present.  What we talked about was how we had seen signs on every trip to Alaska warning of Caribou on the road.  Never, not once, had we seen a caribou near the road, much less on the road.  We had seen them at the Large Animal Research Station in Fairbanks and we had seen them in Denali National Park but never ever never on or near the road.

No sooner was the conversation at an end than there on the road, right in front of us, were four caribou.  We stopped.  Onie grabbed the camera and began snapping away.

On down the road close to where we had taken pictures in June of Summit Lake frozen over we saw a heard of maybe thirty or forty.  We stopped for more pictures.

Caribou on creek bed

Pushing on we headed for Ft Nelson.

Past Ft Nelson Onie took the wheel and drove the next sixty miles over fair to good roads.  They were the worst she had experienced yet but did very well handling the coach on them.

The last hour and a half into Pink Mountain found me back behind the wheel.

We had hoped for full hookups but due to our late arrival, seven thirty, the only sites left were electric only.  We settled for that.

Although hooking up electric only is a quick job I had to don a shirt jacket to keep from getting a chill.  The sky was clear, a big orange moon hanging just over the tree covered mountains belying the fact that just three days ago it snowed eight miles from here.

By seven thirty I was back in the coach.

Onie was getting our supper ready, salad and stew.

At nine Onie picked up her book and I picked up the laptop to make a few notes of the days events.

Ten o’clock found us pulling up the covers.  Outside it was partly cloudy and forty nine.  It wouldn’t snow but it would be good sleeping weather. 

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

NO MORE

We were up at eight.  Outside the sun was trying to edge the thermometer past the fifty degree mark.  It had been forty six just a little bit earlier.

The night had been a restless one for both Onie and me but more so for her.  The bites from the bothersome but innocuous “no see ‘ums” had blossomed into full blown welts, the size of an old fashioned carbuncle that itched like the worst case of poison ivy one can imagine.  Benadryl gel and Cortisone Ten ointment provided no real relief and we twisted and turned most of the night.  Again it was worse for Onie than me as I only had two or three bites and she had between six and a dozen.

Coffee and tea were made and a few notes put down between rubbing the bites.  Our Mom’s had always told us not to scratch and we were trying to mind, even though it was difficult.

Onie boiled some rolled oats and sausage while I pecked away at the laptop.

After breakfast Onie lowered my ears.  It had been several weeks and it was either get a haircut or a dog collar.  Dog collars here abouts go for ten to thirty dollars.  With Onie doing the cutting the haircut is free.  I opted for the haircut.

Unhooking was no big deal and when the electric cord was stored we pulled up to the sanitary dump and emptied our gray water.

Fuel is still very expensive here even though we got a three cent a liter discount since we spent the night in the park.  A dollar nineteen less three cents is a dollar sixteen.  There are four liters in a gallon so that makes the fuel cost four dollars sixty four cents a gallon, Canadian.  Yes it is true an Imperial gallon is one and one tenth a U.S. gallon and the exchange rate is roughly ninety cents, the last time I checked, but that is still a lot of money for kerosene.  After all, diesel is a by product of gasoline.  We bought enough to get us to Edmonton where we know fuel is less and headed on down the highway at twenty til twelve.

Ft. Nelson was just a hop skip and a jump down the road and then we were looking for Ft. St John.

Our windshield on the coach had taken a real beating and in addition to a long vertical crack on the driver’s side had some chips that needed repairing before they became real problems.  In Ft. St John we stopped and had the repair made.  The repair guy was working in direct sunlight in eighty one degrees.  It was too much for me.  I shed my overalls and flannel shirt in favor of shorts and a tee shirt.  No more would I wear those clothes until hunting season in Texas.

Onie had prepared wraps for lunch while the windshield was being repaired and I changed clothes.  While we were sitting still we ate our lunch and had a coke.

Next we stopped at Safeway to shop for produce.  Salads like fudge are a food staple and can’t be done without too long without serious harm to one’s system.

Assured of good health for the next few days, we had loads of salad stuff, we headed on toward Grand Prairie, Alberta, our destination for the day.

On the way we saw numerous deer on the roadway and in the bar ditches.  The roads were good and for the first time since heading home we were able to drive sixty three miles per hour, our normal cruising speed.

Of course this was only attained after the climb out of the Peace River Valley, a steep grade of six miles.

Near Grand Prairie we saw two elk farms.  Apparently one had nothing but bulls and the other nothing but cows.  It may have been the same operation and they just had the sexes separated to keep the peace.  That is kind of like separating kids so they don’t fight I think.

It was still eighty one when we pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot in Grand Prairie, at six.  On the way up we had stayed here by necessity, not being able to find a camp ground with an open space.  Now we stayed by choice having planned the stay.

With the generator running the air conditioning Onie prepared our gourmet meal, salad with fresh tomato, radishes, half an avocado and organic greens followed by prawns sautéed in butter and steamed asparagus.

Of course I pecked away while she slaved over the hot stove.

When supper was over, at seven, it was still seventy six outside so the generator continued to work as Onie played Free Cell after I had completed two games.

The last piece of fudge, accompanied by cold milk, was eaten by yours truly while Onie played her games.

With a desire to be on the road early on the morrow we hit the sack at nine.