Yellowstone National Park

It was so good to see Aunt Bernice again in Bozeman, Montana. Since we saw her two years ago, she has had two sons and her husband die. She is very busy with church, family, friends and her weekly walks of several miles. Her daughter plans a week visit early in October and she will travel with church people to visit family in Michigan later in October. Terry took this picture of us at breakfast even though my hair was still wet.

We left the RV at my aunt’s home and took a one-day trip to Yellowstone National Park to see the usual sights of Old Faithful, the forests, plains, waterfalls and animals. The sun was shinning just right so we saw a rainbow at the bottom of one of the falls. Terry wandered around what he called the “stink pots.” Bison by the hundreds wandered the plains. I felt like I was in the middle of a western movie set. The elk were in their rutting season. This magnificent bull elk was on a knoll in the town of Mammoth Springs. We heard him bugle a challenge to other bull elks. He didn’t have any cow elks beside him. Not far from the edge of town, we saw eleven cows and calves in a stream. Upon closer inspection, a young bull elk was watching his harem and hiding from other bull elks. He did not answer the challenge.

Cassiar Highway Adventures.

We took the Cassiar (Highway 37) in British Columbia hoping to see more black bears and as a more direct way of getting to the USA where diesel was $ 3.99 a gallon instead of $1.42 a liter or over $6 a gallon.

We met interesting people such as the senior mushroomer who showed us his pine and lobster mushrooms. (The orange mushrooms I’m holding are the lobster mushrooms.)
He asked us if we had seen his bicycle that was stolen.

We drove to the end of the road in the green toad. While attempting to turn around in the driveway, we met Zanna Ove who creates “Radiant Indian Health” which is a bi-monthly health booklet of sixteen pages to give to the “natives”. The paintings, which she creates for cover photos, are excellent. She took me into her home, which is pictured, and showed me her work while Terry visited with her husband who showed him the buildings that had been a school. It is a large complex, which included a greenhouse and dormitories for the young people who used to go to school there.


The photo is of a boardwalk at Fish Creek, which was built as a viewing place for bear. Unfortunately, the salmon were few this year. Since bear hunting with a camera wasn’t too successful, we drove the Suzuki several miles along the Salmon glacier. (This glacier picture is taken with fireweed in the foreground.) We saw helicopters, which were picking up large tubes and flying them away. When we asked what they were looking for, one crewmember said, “diamonds.” Others said that they were exploring the area and obtaining core samples of mineral deposits. The Bear Glacier, a much smaller glacier pictured by the water, is receding but continues to be a point of interest.

Pictured are some of the fourteen bears that we saw along the Cassiar Highway and the small gravel roads connected to the Cassiar.

Barkerville

Barkerville is a gold mining ghost town in British Columbia of one hundred and twenty five heritage buildings where history comes alive through the characters that take you through a time warp from 1862 to 1930 as they interact with you in their time period. I met Judge Begbie who presided in the Wesleyan Methodist Church since the recent rains made the roads to Richfield impassible. I noticed Queen Victoria’s picture on the wall. The owner of the mine used a Cornish Waterwheel to clean the gravel from the gold. She was interested in obtaining sponsors for her mining operation so, with her supervisor of the mine; she explains the geology of gold and the principals of the waterwheel prior to a demonstration of the wheel in operation. She changed her mind about the sponsors when she found big nuggets of gold. We could buy goods in the restaurants and stores or ride the stagecoach. Terry and I attended a stage show where the talented professor played the piano and the others sang and danced in a joyous entertaining family style. A taste treat was the coconut cake that a young man baked in this old stove with the boiled coffee that he prepared on top of the stove. He told the story of his partner Mr. Wendle and the grizzly bears that Mrs. Wendle shot. Since he cut the cake in small pieces, Terry and I even got a second piece. I missed the Chinese History tour and the lessons at the Williams Creek Schoolhouse. We spent from nine am to five pm at Barkersville but there wasn’t enough time to participate in all the activities in one day. To see photos more clearly, please click on the photos.

Trip from Fairbanks to Cassiar Highway

We picked the perfect time to travel. The roads have never been better during the eight trips to Alaska plus eight trips returning to the Lower Forty Eight. The autumn colors in their shades of gold, amber, forest green and white snow topped mountains were superb. The lakes were like mirrors with no wind on them. We didn’t see bugs except for the ones who bombed our windshield but smiled at the sculpture of a mosquito at Delta Junction. We had one hour of sprinkling rain on the whole trip to Iowa. One time we even drove through a cloud. No, it wasn’t fog because we could see that the air was clear over the lake and fog tends to move to cool moist areas. The temperatures were in the 60’s and 70’s. We stopped at the visitor center at Nenana, visited the log buildings at Rika’s Roadhouse where I ate delicious strawberry/rhubarb pie, and camped by Little Atlin Lake at sunset. Did you know that you can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them?

Ice Museum in Fairbanks

Fairbanks has an ice sculpture contest in March of each year where artists from all over the world compete for the best ice sculpture. In 2008, a 20-foot high creation of a flying woman over an architectural monument that looked a bit like a pagoda was the blue ribbon winner. Pictures of it were in their scrapbook but my attempt to photograph the pictures resulted in more glare than anything. Four persons from China created the ice sculpture in 5 days. One of the Chinese participants was at the museum while I was there and made a flower using what looked and sounded like dentist drills.

What I enjoyed the most was going into the freezer and experiencing the sculpture. A woman took my picture and I took one of her playing the xylophone. Yes, I played it too. The icy instrument really worked.

Denali National Park

After leaving Raymond and Teresita’s house, our first stop was at Denali National Park. Although we only saw Mt. Mc Kinley through clouds, the fall colors were magnificent. The scenic picture was taken at Savage River. The moose were in their rutting season so were not as careful with hiding. We saw four of the big five animals- moose, bear, caribou and little white dots with legs which were mountain sheep. The fifth animal is the wolf, which alluded us. Little animals like the ground squirrel and ptarmigan were also photographed and enjoyed.

Alaska Women Speak and Alaska Women Write

Roberta brought the proofs for the summer issue of Alaska Women Speak magazine to the Alaska Women Write meeting. I share the centerfold section with Asta who wrote a poem and Dianne’s picture of the eagle. The magazine also has a review of my new RV book, More RV Chuckles and Chuckholes-More Confessions of Happy Campers.

Pictures are of Kay on the left, Lizzie in the center and Arlene on the right. I have made good friends this summer meeting some members for lunch, a dinner meeting, the birthday tea, reading manuscripts and critiquing them.

At the last meeting, we critiqued a chapter of Arlene’s memoirs and wrote a piece on the topic of fall.

The magenta flowers of the fireweed are blooming at the top of their stems and rumors of termination dust on the mountain tops tell us that if we want to take our time to travel south ahead of winter snows, we better be moving.

We plan to go to Denali National Park on Sept 2 then on to Fairbanks. We will go to Delta Junction, Reka's Roadhouse, Tok and down to Whitehorse. We hope to see the bears at Fish Creek and the reenactment at Barkerville in British Columbia. Before we travel southeast to see family in Iowa, we’ll go to Yellowstone National Park.

Don't worry if you don't get emails or blogs from us from September 2 until sometime in October since Terry doesn’t set up the satellite dish when we only stay a day or two at one location. We will be having fun- RVing!

Eagle River Apartment and Upper Fire Lake

Terry has moved a lot of dirt in preparation for the new house that Raymond and Teresita plan to build. The work on the apartment has been slow this year. Although Raymond has helped Terry three days a week, he and Teresita work twelve or more hours a day. Last winter it was too cold in the building to do much work. Because they have the plumbing, wiring, insulation, and sheetrock in, Raymond and Teresita will be able to finish it this winter. Terry likes the little gas stove in the living room that warms the apartment during cool days. The windows in this room face Upper Fire Lake. You can watch the bush pilots take off and land their little floatplanes or you can just watch the loons. Of course you can also have a picnic in the gazebo or ride a boat around the lake.