Mountains in the mist

  

 

Out for a drive and there, a hundred fifty miles away.

 

Denali in the distance!

 

 

I have a question.

 

Has anybody here been eating leaves?

 

 

 

Thursday

 

Happy Independence Day!

 

Saw a sign today.

 

All those tired of getting speeding tickets, raise your right foot!

 

Here is a Cackling Goose ballet.

 

And a Tundra Swan Ballet.

 

 

Discovered we were only 20 miles away from Frank, Sandra, Lou, and Alma.  Haven’t seen them since…. Fairbanks!  Got to share their burger dinner in Palmer/Wasilla.

 

Hard to get a good picture of everyone all at once.

 

 

 

Wednesday

I've been thinking...

How do nocturnal predators survive an Alaskan summer?

And a mystery solved. Some names I struggle to recall. For some reason, Foretravel, a brand of motorhome, is one of those. Not only can't I normally recall the name, I get sent off the wrong direction by my brain and can't find my way back from there, I'm just stuck with the word Uni-bomber. Why on earth, would the term Uni-bomber burst forth in my head while I'm looking at a motorhome? Eventually I get to the right name, Foretravel, but for years the strange diversion to Uni-bomber has been a mystery. Foretravels all have a unique number tattooed on the back of the rig. The number never starts with "U" though, so that's not it.

Well, mystery solved as we were camped with a caravan of eighteen Foretravels. There was a classic Foretravel in the group.
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There, stenciled on the side of the motorhome, was the model description. It says Unihome! That's how I got to Uni-bomber! "Uni" stuck all those years ago. That has to be the link!

Wednesday

 

I’ve been thinking…

 

How do nocturnal predators survive an Alaskan summer?

 

And a mystery solved.  Some names I struggle to recall.  For some reason, Foretravel, a brand of motorhome, is one of those.  Not only can’t I normally recall the name, I get sent off the wrong direction by my brain and can’t find my way back from there, I’m just stuck with the word Uni-bomber.  Why on earth, would the term Uni-bomber burst forth in my head while I’m looking at a motorhome?  Eventually I get to the right name, Foretravel, but for years the strange diversion to Uni-bomber has been a mystery.  Foretravels all have a unique number tattooed on the back of the rig.  The number never starts with “U” though, so that’s not it.

 

Well, mystery solved as we were camped with a caravan of eighteen Foretravels.  There was a classic Foretravel in the group.

 

There, stenciled on the side of the motorhome, was the model description.  It says Unihome!  That’s how I got to Uni-bomber!  “Uni” stuck all those years ago.  That has to be the link!

 

 

 

Tuesday

 

What a difference a day makes.

 

Last night we were in a gravel parking lot RV Park.  (We’re led to believe gravel parking lot RV parks happen a lot in Alaska.)  The surrounding scenery is glorious, but the RV Park itself is a little rough.

 

Drive across the orange hose, but don’t park a wheel on it.  It’s the water supply line for all the sites.

 

Tonight we’re at Riverside Camper Park in Houston.  Another beautiful setting, but with a really nice RV Park as well.

 

 

 

 

The Great 2019 Alaska Trip map

 

The Alaska portion of the trip

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4,219, 500, 56, 138 update

0, 134, 22, 138

 

Now it’s July, and we’re at 0 miles to go to get to Fairbanks (been there, done that).

 

134 birds remaining to get to 500 for the year.  I’ve been grousing about being in a bird desert.  I’ll walk for an hour and only see 5 or 6 species.  Not what we’re used to.  But then I look at the year-list and we’ve been getting really good birds at the rate of about 1 a day still!

 

22 continuing education hours to go.

 

And still 115 counties in which to report a bird to have all 254 counties in Texas.  That won’t change for a while.

 

We’re following the ½ tank rule that we initiated when we got to the Canadian Border.  If we’re anywhere near ½ a tank remaining in the RV when we pass a fuel stop, stop.  No sense taking any chances and finding out the next distant fuel stop is out of service.

 

Got to be careful buying diesel for the coach here though.  There are options.

 

 

There.  Hiding on the right side of pump number 2.  Our diesel.  Normal diesel! src=157617688678.7740.94575423890617344@FeluriaE1780" style="width:5.775in;height:3.8416in" width="554"/>

 

We’ve headed south on the Parks Highway and are at Cantwell for the night.

 

The Great 2019 Alaska Trip map

 

The Alaska portion of the trip

 

Driving through Alaska on (mostly) paved roads is a big loop.  We’re doing it counterclockwise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4,371 miles to sandpipers.

 

 

 

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Sunday

Housekeeping day. Rest-up, clean-up, and stock-up. We're moving on tomorrow morning.

We finally got a cool-down and some rain. We piled on our new raingear and went for a walk on Chickadee Trail so we could test-drive it.

It all works!

See this next to the car?

This is not dog poop!

No worries though. We're prepared.

I figure Judy will be easy to outrun. Before I go though, I'm going to spray her all over with bear spray so she'll taste terrible when the bear catches her!