Wednesday, June 7, 2006

WHOOP DEE DO

When the coffee started brewing at seven we were awake.  It was sunny and forty eight degrees. Lying in bed we waited for the tell tale beep, beep, beep that told us the brewing was complete.  I got up and turned on the tea pot.  A final day of travel lay ahead but first we had to wash the coach.

With a breakfast of biscuits behind us we proceeded to the car wash where we labored mightily for an hour, removing the mud, dust and grime that we accumulated in the Yukon and the first hundred miles of Alaska.  We felt we had the worst of the roads behind us and looked forward to an easy three hundred mile drive to Anchorage and then another hundred forty seven to our site.

Wrong!  With a clean coach we made the turn onto the Tok cutoff, the route to Anchorage.  Two miles down the road we saw a little sign that said “Construction next 10 miles”.   While we were anxious to be nearer the end of our trek we felt 10 miles of construction was not a big hurdle.  It was.  An even bigger hurdle was the fact that one mile past the ten miles of construction we saw another little orange sign that said “Construction next 47 miles” and they weren’t kidding.  During those forty seven miles we saw every aspect of road construction possible in Alaska.

47 Miles of Construction

 Pilot Car Leading Us Through the Muck

Fabric Used in Road Construction to Prevent Frost Heaves (i.e. Big Bumps)

We drove in extremely dusty conditions, muddy conditions, narrow gravel wet road (less that a foot of clearance on either side between us and a two foot drop which is the end of the line for a coach), unbelievably rough roads and last but not least huge earth movers facing off with us as we just tried to get to Anchorage.  Remember that hour cleaning the coach.  We forgot it in our desire to just find a stretch of road that was paved and lacked road building crews on it.  At the end of two hours, after innumerable flag persons, notice how politically correct I am, we had traveled sixty three miles.  I told Onie that at that rate we would be at our campsite one day after I died.  It didn’t happen.

We finally reached some pavement, of sorts.  It was generously endowed with frost heaves and tortuous stretches damaged by the quake of ’03 and not yet repaired.  We were able to drive, after a fashion.  At the end of three hours our average speed was thirty five miles an hour.  At that rate the first run of reds would be over before we got to our campsite.

During the fourth hour of our travails we were able to average, by pulling our seatbelts extra tight, a whopping forty five miles an hour but the road was improving.  At the beginning of hour five, with the Wrangell Mountains in front of us and the Matanuska Glacier and river coming up, our spirits and speed lifted as we rode on a new piece of road, for twenty miles.  It doesn’t take much to encourage a salesman and I was encouraged.  We soldiered on to Palmer.  Now with Anchorage less than a hundred miles distant, and our agreed upon interim stop, the whoop dee dos returned.  Jaded but not deterred we persisted until we found the freeway, a true freeway, into Anchorage.

The last thirty miles on the freeway was sheer bliss as people drove past us on either side and we coasted along at sixty on a seamless, dipless, no potholed, finished road surface.

In Anchorage, where we knew our way around, we found Wal-Mart, did some shopping, fixed supper and settled in for the night.  We had averaged 39.78 mph during our sojourn and felt grateful to have arrived in one piece.

We passed a somewhat restful night. 

Thursday, June 8, 2006

AGAIN

We only had a hundred fifty seven miles to go to get to Cast A Way Riverside.  Perhaps today would be the day.  If we could average fifteen miles an hour and I could hang in there for ten hours we would be almost there.  Maybe we would get lucky and average thirty.  To get to the top of the mountain one must first go through the valley.  We had been through the valley, so to speak, and we were ready for the mountain top.  It came in the form of a moderately good road southwest out of Anchorage.  We skirted Cook Inlet, Turnagain Arm and got to Birdwood where we fueled up.  It was a real deal, only 2.92 a gallon, for diesel.  After 3.40 in Canada this was a real deal.  While some may scoff we were glad the Cummins usually ekes out about ten miles per gallon.

The road from Birdwood leads past the collapsed partially sunken buildings of Portage and then into Turnagain Pass.  We had stopped here in ’01 and Andrew and Colby had played in the snow that lingered in the many swales.

A few more miles found us passing through Coopers Landing and past the Kenai Princess Lodge and RV Park, one of the places we have stayed in the past.

Then it was Sterling and Moose River RV Park, the last place we had camped in’03 before heading home.  We gave a fond wave to Dennis, the owner, as we passed and headed for the car wash seven miles past the turn to Cast A Way.  RV parks don’t like it when you try to wash your rig at your site and LaVonne at Cast A Way was no exception.  We had picked up another generous helping of dirt, dust, mud and grime on our trek from Tok.  It had to be eliminated so I could spend the next few days applying a protective coating to the coach and tires.  It took an hour to accomplish this task and then we spent a few more minutes restoring the whiteness of the Subaru.  Clean and somewhat shiny we headed back to Cast A Way.

For all our delays we arrived a couple of days ahead of schedule at three thirty in the afternoon.  By five we were set up, sort of, on our site, with the river thirty paces away.

 The Kenai River from our Dining Room Window. What a View!

Clouds covered the sky and a strong wind whipped through the camp and around the coach sending a whistling sound to our ears accompanied by the constant flapping of the slide covers.  We didn’t remember all the wind.

Finally being on our site with the engine quiet seemed to drain the last bit of stamina from our tired bodies.  We had endured several days of less than perfect roads and two days of almost no roads.  Now we were where we would spend the summer.  Perhaps a lot of the construction would be complete by the time we started back to Coldspring.  We could only hope.

Our energy was reaching its nadir when it received a firm positive jolt.  Put our window, across the river, a cow moose and her two calves were wading in the river’s edge, eating the tender vegetation just under the water’s surface.  We rushed to the river bank, camera in hand, and began taking pictures.  When mama led her babies back into the trees we went back to the coach where we snacked before calling it a day.

Moose Across the River with her Newborn Twins. After 7 1/2 months gestation, calves are born May, June, and July.

Friday, June 9, 2006

SEVEN THIRTY

It didn’t cool off much last night only getting down to fifty.

The coffee pot started brewing at seven and when it switched off I got up and started the tea water.  Onie and I sat down to our morning brews and to discuss the day.  With our plans made we started breakfast.  She fixed some ham while I stirred up a batch of pancakes jazzed up with some Texas blueberries from our friends, Jim and Polly Johnson.  Jim had picked them and brought them to us prior to our leaving; now they were adding some special tastes to our morning repast.  When the inside temps are hovering around sixty and the wind is whistling through an outside covered by an overcast sky, hot pancakes soaked in syrup along with steaming ham really hit the spot.  With the spot hit and filled we turned to our day’s chores.

A motor home bouncing over rough road has a very bad effect on viands stored in shelves.  In fact what starts on top tends to be on the bottom and what is on the sides tends to end up on the floor when the cabinet door is opened.  All in all it is very interesting looking for things after bouncing them around for 4556 miles.  In addition we had found culinary treasures we couldn’t pass up, on the way here, and they had ended up crammed in any available space.

Four things would happen today.

First I would compose and send a roast message to my friend and older brother, David, whose 70^th birthday will be celebrated tomorrow although he doesn’t actually turn 70 until June 22.  At that time he and his wife, Ginger, will be traveling in Russia.  Our nephew, David, Jr., will read our message for us.

Second we must amend the havoc caused by the jostling mentioned afore.  This entails taking everything out of cabinets and starting over from ground zero.  I will help by staying out of the way.

Staying out of the way will permit me to complete out third item for the day, a trip to the post office in Soldotna.  We have a P O Box there for the summer and I will pick up the keys and accumulated mail.

Fourth and last we will wash clothes.  This will be the second time since we left home and we will have quite a job to get it done and folded.

I trudged off to the shower and got my daily ablutions taken care of.  On the way back I met Marvin and we talked about the local Wi-Fi network.  We can’t get on.  He is on and said he would be glad to give us a hand.

 Onie took the laptop over to Marvin’s rig, a nice fifth wheel with lots of slides, and they worked on it for quite a while to no avail.  We needed to send my musings, to be read at David Benjamin’s birthday party tomorrow, to Ginger so she could give them to her son, our nephew, David, Jr., to read for us.  Finally by having our computer talk to Marvin’s and with his talking to the WiFi system the message was sent.  I called later to verify its arrival.

Time permitting we will fish some.  That is what we came here for

It is 7:00 PM and still fifty.  It did warm up to fifty six but that didn’t last long.  Our chores were done and it was time to wet a hook.  With boots and warm clothes on we headed off to the river, all of thirty steps away.

Onie was the first to get a hook wet.  I came along shortly and started fishing, too.  I believe I felt a fish or two before Onie yelled the modern equivalent of “Gold!”  Her excited yell of “fish on” sent me scurrying for the net.  I quickly saw supper hooked on the end of her line.  She very adroitly led the fish upstream and then backed it down into the waiting net.  It was a fine fish going perhaps eight or nine pounds.

What Can You Say? A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words.

With the fish on the grate Onie grabbed the bonker and gave the fish a couple of swift licks on the head and then it was time for me to go to work.  It was seven thirty and Onie had supper ready for the filet table.  Knife in hand I performed my work to the best of my ability and then we departed for the coach and supper, fresh sockeye.

At nine o’clock we were dining, fresh sockeye sautéed in garlic butter with a generous serving of fresh asparagus for a side.  It was the freshest salmon we had ever eaten and it was just a taste delight.

Not to rest on her laurels Onie made a cobbler, for dessert, of the remaining blueberries.  I had two servings.

Under a clearing sky but still blustery wind we retired.  It was eleven but looked like seven, in Coldspring.     

Saturday, June 10, 2006

WIFI-YES!

Yesterday Onie put aluminum foil between our window and shade in the bedroom.  When the door to the bathroom is closed the room is pitch black, even at high noon.  This morning in the pitch blackness we slept until nine.

Breakfast got us moving a little faster and we set about doing a few more things to get settled in.  Onie tried the satellite, one more time, to no avail but then no one here is getting a TV signal, nor radio for that matter.  Lack of news of killings, bombings, crooked politicians, (is that an oxymoron?) rising fuel prices, falling stock markets and the bulging American waist line is keeping us all very happy thank you.  She then moved the DVD player from the bedroom to the living room.  This will let us watch movies and Foxworthy in the cool comfort of our living room where the heater is on the fritz.  I think it is a thermocouple but will have to wait til Monday when I can locate a part and or some help.

The sun began trying to show its face around three and we took ourselves off to the river, thirty paces, where we began our Kenai swing.  I hooked up on the second try but let the fish escape as it appeared to be only three or four pounds.  Onie had hooked one earlier but she was unable to land her fish.

Half an hour later we decided to give it a rest and go back to the coach to call my brother David who is celebrating his seventieth birthday, at a surprise party.  We got through after several attempts and sang Happy Birthday to him, chatted for a minute and then let him get back to the festivities.  We wish we could have been there.

There is a fish fry tonight on the deck of the lodge.  A fella who raises flounder back in Alabama brought some with him and is furnishing the camp with fish.  The folks from each rig are bringing a dish to round out the meal.  The big event starts at six.

When Onie’s dish was finished we sat down to watch an hour of Gaither Home Coming music on DVD and then it was time to go.

Jackets were in order since it was only in the mid fifties and we are still accustomed to Coldspring temps.  When we got there it looked like everyone except the owner, LaVonne, was still used to lower forty eight temperatures as all sported a windbreaker or something warmer.  LaVonne was in a short sleeve tee shirt.  The fried fish was great and the cold slaw, confetti potato salad, vegetable tray, smoked salmon, cheese grits, garlic rice and rice, beans and cheese dishes filled every ones plate to overflowing.  When we were full a rhubarb cake appeared.  That was dessert.

Seven thirty found us back in the coach with a neighbor, Marvin, in tow.  Marvin is the park’s resident computer guru.  He and his wife, Ardith, winter in Arizona and he belongs to a computer club there.  With five hundred members his club is almost as big as our town of Coldspring.  Last night he had figured out how to configure our laptop so it could access the WiFi system.  He came in, sat down and with five minutes we were on line.  Marvin’s a nice guy, smart too and has a perfect head, bald.  I made a mental note that he should get one of Onie’s salmon pies.

For the next two hours we checked email.

With no heat in the front of the coach we retired to the back where ere too long we sought Morpheus.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

COOL WATER.  

Cool water falling from the sky.  That is what rain is this time of the year in Alaska and that is what greeted us when we rose.  It kept us company through our coffee and tea and breakfast.  Outside the temperature was emulating the rain.  It was falling.  By one o’clock it had fallen to forty eight.

Inside Onie had been working on her email and I watched four episodes of Judge Roy Bean, an old television show, on DVD.

We stopped for our first meal of the day.  I suppose that would be breakfast.  She cooked and I cleaned up.

While she did more straightening up in the coach, a daily job, I wrote a little in this journal, also a daily job unless one neglects it and then it becomes a job of several days.

At two o’clock the rain was still falling but the thermometer stabilized, for the time being, at forty eight.  If we fished today we might be all wet, as the fish.

Returning to the coach we put on the Sunday school lesson for Sunday, May 28^th.  As part of our church’s ministry the lesson for our class is recorded and sent to those who can’t attend.  Right now that is us.  For the better part of an hour we listened to our friend and teacher, Pat Lindsay, talk about Paul’s letter to the church at Thessalonica and his admonitions to keep the faith.

Later we made our way back down to the river where we both hooked and lost a fish.  I suppose that is why they call it fishing and not catching.

The cool weather coupled with the rain and the brief exercise we had left us with a big appetite.  While Onie prepared supper I wrote a bit.

Then we sat down to a steaming hot supper of chicken and dumplings.

The last egg had been used to make the dumplings and we hadn’t grocery shopped in many days so we headed of to Soldotna and the Safeway.  I dropped Onie off there and headed for the post office to put some things in the mail, including money to have the yard mowed and edged, and to pick up more mail.  We wandered the aisles, reacquainting ourselves with the store and marveling at the mess it was in.  We strode on bare concrete and stood aside while coolers were being moved, shelving rearranged and before we left a portion of the store had been roped off and flooring crews were starting to cover some of the bare concrete.  Outside major renovation was taking place too.

We drove home in the evening light, it looked like six thirty or seven at home but was ten thirty here.

At home we had a little blueberry cobbler with Cool Whip and then ambled off to bed.  I heard the gentle patter of rain as I fell asleep.

Monday, June 12, 2006

RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY

What time it was when I woke I’m not quite sure but at eight o’clock my body drove me from the bed.  It was fifty degrees and still raining.

I fixed the coffee pot and when it had finished brewing I started the tea water.  Perhaps the smell of the coffee woke Onie.  I heard her stirring and took her a cup of coffee to get her day going.  I joined her with a fresh cup of tea.

We settled back under the covers and watched two episodes of The Jeff Foxworthy Show before getting up to start breakfast.

We prepared some of what we bought last evening and feasted on eggs, pork chops and rice with lots more coffee and tea.  We are in the Last Frontier according to the locals so we feel compelled to eat like it, on occasion.

We have been working on a particularly difficult crossword puzzle the last few days and we continued that through our breakfast and afterwards as the rain continued to fall and the temperature stayed low.  All we could think of was “Rain, rain, go away and come again another day”.  Perhaps our prayer worked because in the early afternoon the rain finally quit.

We set off to get good baths.

On the way back we visited with Sonny and his wife, Birdie.  They are full timers who have worked here for many summers doing maintenance and helping LaVonne, in general.

By the time we got back to the coach the sky was trying to clear and it was a little warmer.  We decided to put the sun screens on the front of the coach.  They give us more privacy but allow us to see out at the same time.

Home for the Summer

While we were finishing up Shirley and her husband, Stew, came by to visit.  They are permanent residents of Alaska and have a place at Anchor Point as well as owning a fifth wheel which they leave here at Cast Away Riverside, year round.  They travel out side; the way the locals say they go the lower forty eight, in their pickup, for the harshest part of the winter.

The fish were beckoning again so we went back to try again.  The fish didn’t cooperate so we decided it was time for supper.  Before we could eat the dominoes found their way onto the table.  Three games later we were famished.

The microwave heated the chicken and dumplings to perfection while Onie cut up a tomato and avocado.  We feasted again.

Going away for the summer and living in RV parks doesn’t mean mundane jobs stop.  Trash still has to be put out.  After supper I did this and then picked up my rod and stepped back to the river.

On the first cast I hooked a nice red.  He came out of the water tail dancing, a sure sign of a foul hook, most likely belly.  With a three or four foot dance he managed to break the line and was gone down river.  I looked at where the line had parted and could see that it had chafed on the rocky river bottom.  Seems every year I have to learn to check for this and the lesson is a lost fish.  I tied on a new hook and Onie joined me on the grate.  We stayed for a while but the only thing biting was the mosquitoes.  The warmer weather must have hatched them.

Back in the Marlin at eight thirty Onie straightened pillows on the bed and cued up a movie on the DVD player.  It was time for the Monday night feature.

When the movie was over Onie closed her eyes and I went back to the living room to write a little.  I set my going to bed time at midnight.  I almost made it.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

LOST ANOTHER ONE, BUT NOT TO DITECH

Onie was up first and when I finally made it to the table she put hot biscuits and sausage on.

After breakfast she took the laptop and began working on getting the first week ready for the web, editing it and putting in selected pictures.

Outside I replenished our fresh water supply and emptied the gray water tank, put out our awning and secured it so it won’t rip off in a high wind.  An hour or two was spent visiting with Stu and Sonny who stopped by as I worked.

Around five Birdie came by to visit with Onie and Sonny joined us a short time later.

Around seven thirty I picked up my rod and headed for the river.  On the second or third cast I hooked a nice red, in the tail, he promptly took off down stream, I cranked down on the drag and the line broke right at the hook.  The one ounce lead ball shaped weight came back like a shot and hit on the left lens of my shooting glasses.  Had I not had them on I may have been cold cocked or at the very least had a huge shiner.  As it was I just lost another one.  I re-rigged and tried it again and belly hooked one which I was able to jerk the hook out of.  Onie came down and tried it a bit but had no luck.  I felt a couple of more but didn’t get a hook in them.  The mosquitoes began taking a toll so we repaired to the house where supper was waiting.

The beef stew Onie had prepared was delicious and a few jalapeno slices really set it off.  The corn bread was also a nice addition.

While she selected and cued up a movie I jotted down a few notes.