More Book Signing

Evan Swensen, who is a distributor for my books, took the photos in Costco on Dimond St. There were as many as ten authors at the store at one time. The tables were set up in a huge U shape with the authors sitting in the middle of the U. It was very interesting to meet the Alaskan authors who wrote children’s stories such as “Alaskan Animals, We Love You” historical books such as “The Buffalo Soldiers,” personal experiences such as “Why Alaska” and novels such as “the Fraternity.” The youngest author was 10-year-old Sam Allred who wrote about his experiences with his kidney disease called IgM Nephropathy in a book called “Opening Hearts.”

La Von told me about going to an RV park and selling books there. I asked Evan about it. He called the Golden Nugget RV Park who were having a soup supper with music afterward that evening. They wanted me to give them some jokes and anecdotes and set up a table so I could sell my books after that. I said, “Yes”.

Instead of going back to Eagle River after the Costco, I headed for the RV Park. The people were very welcoming. A teenager took the photos of me. The “talk” went well and I sold a lot of books.

Two Events in one Day

Besides visiting with family and going on cruises, I have been doing book signings of my books, “RV Chuckles and Chuckholes- The Confessions of Happy Campers” and “More
RV Chuckles and Chuckholes- More Confessions of Happy Campers.”

June 5, I was at the BX at Edmonton Air force Base. They had a fire at the commissary and evacuated everyone. This is a first for me. I never before had a book signing where the place caught on fire. No it wasn’t a book-burning event. They said that a toaster caught fire. Everything was back to normal after an hour.

On June 12, I was able to do two events in one day. In the morning was the author’s meeting upstairs. It was good to see everyone again. (Some of the chapters in the More Chuckles. . . book had been critiqued by this writing group.) In the afternoon, my book signing was from 1 to 4. Pictured are some of the women from the group who also took the photos. Yes, I took my glasses off for the pictures because of the glare.

On June 17, 18, and 19, I will be with other authors at the Costco store on Dimond St. in Anchorage from 10am till 5 pm for Costco Road show event.

Kenai Fjords Tour from Seward

We enjoyed the 8-½ hour tour through Kenai Fjords National Park with dinner at Fox Island. Not only did we see wildlife but also had a wonderful meal of salmon and prime rib as the entrees.

Shortly after we left Seward we saw mountain goats with their kids on the mountainside. This time they were close enough to see which end was front and which was back. They don’t have the curved horns of the mountain sheep but little spiky horns.

It was fun to see the otters play in the water. Another name for seagulls is kittiwakes. Their nests were lower on the rocks while the puffins burrowed higher up.

Sea lions played at the bottom of the rocks.

The Aialik Glacier sounded like thunder or a shotgun blast before huge chunks calved or broke off and fell into the water.

The blowhole of humpback whale was seen before we saw the side and fins.

We saw more wildlife on this cruise than on any cruise that we have taken. I would recommend this cruise to anyone who goes to Seward.

On the Way to Seward

If you have a limited time and want to see Alaskan animals, I suggest you visit the “140-acre Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, jaws drop in awe-even those of longtime Alaskans who've studied grizzlies and other animals up close. AWCC's mission is to provide refuge for orphaned, injured, and ill animals-those that can't survive in the wild.” This quote is from their web page.

The only place we saw musk ox in the wild was close to Dead Horse-Prudhoe Bay area. Then they were only seen afar off.

The brown bear was not hurting the other bear but playing with him. The shaggy bison is loosing his winter coat. The black bear is scratching his head.

Jerry, here is another eagle. He is located in a large wire cage that presents a challenge to taking photos.

On the road again, we stopped at Exit Glacier. The brown flat area in front of glacier is where Terry walked in 2000 or 2002. A moose crossed in front of us on the walking path.
A far off shot of her shows a large white scar. I wonder what happened to her.

Robert, here’s your photo of a magpie.

Joy's Pics

These are photos from Joy’s camera. When she is included, the camera was handed to someone else.

Ray is looking for the dall porpoises who are playing in the stern of the Lu-Lu Belle.

As you can see, we are having lots of fun!!!

Trip to and from Valdez

Starting at the top of the page, Raymond, Robert and Joy are enjoying the wonders of nature and fun being together on our travel to Valdez. Terry took photos but had trouble with his camera shutting off so I took most of the pictures.

Between Palmer and Glennallen is the Matanuska Glacier. The moose are camouflaged but we saw seven of them. One crossed the highway in front of us.

Joy is taking Robert’s photo at Thompson Pass. The snow on the mountains is thawing and creates fast flowing waterfalls such as the Bridal Falls. Raymond and Joy got a little wet climbing the rocks at the bottom of Horsetail Falls.

One museum in Valdez shows mockups of the town of Valdez before and after The 1964 Earthquake while a video shows interviews of the survivors. The other museum shows artifacts of the town in the gold prospecting era when the town was located four miles away.

We took many pictures of eagles but Robert was the first to spot this black bear as we drove around the inlet to Valdez.

The path to the Worthington Glacier still has snow on it so I only ventured part way. Of course no travelogue about this area is complete without photos of the pipeline.

A side trip on the way home to Eagle River was to the Copper River area. Only Alaskans can dip net in Alaska while only native people can operate fish wheels.

Remember to double click in the left bottom corner to enlargen photos.