Camping Trip

Before we left Fort St. John us guys went on a camping trip. Bill, Justin, Dave, Alan and I packed up the quads, motorcycle, tent and stuff and headed for a spot on Williston Lake. It was a long long drive to get there but oh so beautiful. We did some quading and some fishing and enjoyed some beautiful scenery. No, the first picture is not Louie. He stay with the girls. It's a grouse. The second picture has Bill up on top with Dave descending a rope. Alan and Justin are down below on the log jam. We found this spectacular canyon with crystal clear blue water and rock cliffs on both sides that was full of fish. The third shot is Bill and Justin in Bill's new quad doing what is fun to do with quads. And of course the last one is all of us standing on the shore of Williston Lake.

For those of you that might be curious about where we were camping, here is the SPOT map address for you: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=55.964,-123.1992&ll=55.964,-123.1992&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

We're Home!

Well we made it home today at about 5:00. Neither of use is interested in going anywhere in a car in the immediate future. We were trying to hurry home and that just makes the time go so much slower. The last 2 days were also a little stressful for obvious reasons. Monday I will be flying to Phoenix by myself. I will be meeting my niece Monaka, Jon's daughter and we will be taking care of things there. I fly home on Tuesday. I still have a lot of pictures I want to add to the blog and some more stories so stay tuned. I will do it as time permits. Here are a few more shots from the wedding.

Beautiful Wedding

OK, OK, I know I am way behind but trust me I have many reasons for it. More on that later. Tabitha and Clifford's wedding was beautiful. The weather tried to scare us but an hour before the start it turned into a perfect day much like Danielle an Jeremy's wedding in Alaska. The Hiding Place, Bill and Sandra's property, was incredible and these 2 pictures don't do justice to it. That gate is larger and grander even than it appears. The bride was so beautiful and everything went well. When I get a chance I will say more about the property and the wedding but I have a lot of ground to cover in this blog.

Saturday morning before the wedding I found out that my cousin Nadine who lived in Alabama had passed away. We were aware that she was in a serious battle with cancer but it had only been discovered about three weeks earlier. I think we were all shocked by the suddenness of it.

There was much to do before and after the wedding and the time we spent at the property, and when I went on a camping trip with the guys there was no internet. Then right up until leaving Fort St. John we were up late visiting and spending time with all of our old friends. Finally on Thursday, yesterday we hit the road for home.

My brother Jon who we spent some time in Phoenix with right before this trip has been struggling with liver failure. We went down right before we left and spent a week helping out and I intended to go back to help him move to California shortly after we returned. I have been calling him on a regular basis during this trip and he seemed to be doing OK up until a few days ago. I tried to call him several times while we were traveling yesterday but when I finally got through I found out that paramedics where there trying to resuscitate him. I called back about 15 minutes later to find out he has passed away also. His condition was quite serious but I fully expected to see him again within a few weeks.

We need to get home quickly so we drove until about 11:30 last night before stopping in Cashe Creek. We parked the trailer fell on the bed and went right to sleep. Today I started driving at 6:30 but we hit some heavy traffic in Seattle and Portland and so we met Steve and Alice Hensley next to Alice's work around 5:30 and they took us out to dinner. We had a nice visit and then hit the road again for a brief time before checking into an RV park in Woodburn. We had a dip in the pool got showered, blogged and it's off to bed early. We want to get an early start tomorrow so we can get home midday. I or we will be flying or driving to Phoenix probably on Monday. I have many more pictures and stories from the trip but I just don't know when I will get them on right now.

Back To Fort St John

As you can see, the R&R thing worked out pretty good. Connie, Louie and I all enjoyed our time at Muncho even if it did rain that evening and we didn't get to hear any loons besides Louie. We did get some game pictures but nothing spectacular. Jeremy and Danielle, the couple that got married in Alaska, left Palmer on Saturday headed for Idaho where they will be living for a while. I told them to keep an eye our for us but they were skeptical. Well, about have way between Fort Nelson and Fort St John, there they were. We pulled over and had lunch together and it turns out they had passed us once while we were camping and we had pass them once while they were in a motel. We had a nice visit and then we were on the road again. We have good dependable internet here at Bill and Sandra's but Connie and I could end up spending a few nights at the property. Therefore, I won't promise to blog before the wedding on Saturday, but it's not impossible.

Catch Up

We are back to Fort St John now and I need to bring you up to date.

We left Valedez on Saturday after making one lap around this small but pretty town. It wasn't a good day for pictures because of the low clouds but there's one of the tank farm across the bay and a small lake along the highway. First it was the clouds and then heavy smoke from forest fires. But then we came across this coyote. He was on the left side of the road and when I stopped for a photo he crossed the road behind the trailer. Then he walked up alongside the truck while Connie was snapping pictures out the window. I got out and was taking pictures near the front bumper until he started coming my way and then I decided it was time to get back in the truck. Finally we made it as far as Destruction Bay with Louie's help leading us. We were supposed to have internet at the RV park but it was down.

Sunday was uneventful with somewhat better weather and we made it as far as Watson Lake. We had a little time in the evening so we wandered around in the famous Sign Post Forest and found some familiar ones. I think Louie got a little confused there and wasn't quite sure which way to go. The RV park in Watson Lake had a WiFi hot spot but I had to go to the laundry room to use it. After about 20 minutes of uploading pictures and typing my blog the connection dropped out and I lost all of my work. I was done for the day at that point and again, no blog but I got the pictures loaded.

Monday we headed for Muncho Lake. We made it a short easy day but the but that Louie keeps us on our toes. First I had to scold him for getting to close to the river bank and latter he got chased by a buffalo. (I bet you'd like to know how I got that shot, wouldn't you?) Connie spotted these sheep in the same area where we photographed some last year but they were quite a ways up the cliff and we didn't see the big males this time. Business and traveling were catching up with us so when we got to Muncho Lake at about 3:00 we decided to take a little r&r there.

Destruction Bay to Watson Lake

And I don't think we'll have internet tonight.

Return from Valdez

I don't have time to blog this morning but I can give you some pictures.

Headed South

Well yes, today we begin the return trip, sort of. We were going to go to Homer on Wednesday and return to Palmer on Friday but when it came time to go Connie and I were both a little under the weather. She got some kind of a cold bug first and then I got it and we decided to pass on the Homer trip. In lieu of that we decided to head home today instead of tomorrow and make a little detour along the way to Valdez. It was a good call because the drive here was one of the best we have seen so far. Tonight we are in Valdez and tomorrow we will have to back track a little over 100 miles before picking up the highway home again. This is Worthington Glacier an you can drive almost up to it. My big lens picked up some people who appeared to have just ascended out of that hole in the ice. Then there is Bridal Veil falls (not such a great picture but I had to include it for the sake of Louie the roaming loon). And Horse Tail Falls. Hopefully I will get some more good pics on the way back trough there tomorrow.

Off to Denali

Today we drove to Denali from our RV park in Talkeetna. It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive one way. We drove into the park 13 miles, as far as you can with your own vehicle. If you want to go further you have to take a bus tour. The various bus tours range from 4 1/2 hours to 12 hours and from $25 to over $100. They are old school buses. Neither of us really felt like doing that. I understand you can see a lot of wildlife on those tours but that's a lot of hours. The shorter tours don't take you all the way in either. We kind of knew all of this before we went but we still came away from the experience a little disappointed with their strategy. The buss fee are in addition to park fees also. The real problem though is with the amount of time all of this takes. We did some sightseeing and picture taking along the way and explored some other back roads near the park where we spotted a moose. I could only get one picture before the truck scared it away. The igloo was a closed business and no I didn't drive through it. I just backed up to the door for a photo op. The sign and the mountain are pretty much self explanatory. All in all we enjoyed the trip, just not the park arrangements.

Just Senery

Tonight we are still in Talkeetna. We had breakfast with Martin and Rebekah and some other friends before they all headed home. We just rested up a bit, did some laundry and I was able to get some pictures of the mountain since it was clear today. Tomorrow Connie and I are leaving the trailer here and driving to Denali for the day. It's about 2 more hours up the road. We will stay here again tomorrow night before heading back to Palmer. Of course 2 of these pictures were taken from the airplane yesterday. The woods are just beautiful right now with so many plants and blooms. And alas, Denali!