August 21, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time on a Glacier Cruise

The actual birthday weather wasn’t so bad for Valdez; no rain, and a little bit of sun peeking through, so we were all pretty excited about taking the cruise. Here’s the thing though, and I really think I should lead with this: Despite my best efforts in my head, when I think glacier cruise I had this image of a beam of sunlight and an orca jumping out of the water so I could snap the perfect pic. Yes, I knew it was unlikely, but since it was my birthday I thought maybe the universe would smile. Alas, there were no whale sightings on this cruise, but we did see the glacier, and two kinds of puffins at the end and that was pretty special. As a side note, this same group of friends went on a sunset cruise in Tarpon Springs a couple of years ago and it did have several magical moments, so sometimes it does happen, just not so much on this trip.

Check in time for the cruise was 10am so we all arrived with plenty of time. Despite the overcast day the docks were pretty amazing and Stan Stephens had a nice gift shop where I picked up a long-sleeved T-shirt and this really cool ear warmer head band. My ears get cold, but most earmuffs give me a headache, so I was excited to put one on that was actually loose on my head. Immediate sale!

Our boat, was smaller than I though it would be

Stan Stephens

The docks

I am not much of a boat person, but sometimes that is the best way to get to see stuff, so armed with lots of warm clothing, a sea sickness patch (which worked great), and my friends, I was ready to go. The boat was really nice. The bathrooms were clean and large enough that I didn’t feel claustrophobic, and there were indoor and outdoor seating areas. It also helped that the charter was only at about 50% capacity, so there was plenty of room to wander about and see both sides of the boat. They also offered free coffee, tea, lemonade, and water all day and the included lunch of clam chowder, bagel, and Oreos was perfect. I also really enjoyed the crew members as they were all young, friendly, and really seemed to be having a good time.

My only major complaint is that the ride was 7 hours long. Now, if it would have been non-stop action, that would have been fine, but there was a lot of down time between animal/glacier sightings. Also, absolutely no smoking on the boat. I get it, and bought some Nicorette lozenges (which work but taste like chalk) for the trip, but it would have been less annoying if more exciting stuff happened. For those of you who don’t smoke there was no drinking of alcohol either. At one point Lee leaned down and said, “I think we are spoiled,” and he was definitely right. I know I was incredibly lucky to be experiencing this amazing trip with friends, and in Alaska no less, but honestly a bunch of the trip was kind of boring. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad I did the trip, but I’m not sure I would rush to do it again.

Here’s the pictures though, and since you won’t have any wait time, I think you will enjoy it.

Navigating out of the bay was pretty

Lots of glaciers and waterfalls

According to the captain these oil tankers turn around in 48 hours

According to the captain these oil tankers are filled within 48 hours

We saw several bald eagles along the shore line, but too far away for any good pictures

We saw several bald eagles along the shore line, but too far away for any really good pictures. This is how it looked to the naked eye

With a 300 zoom lense

According to the captain there are 2,500 mating pairs along these shores, which is impressive

The waterfalls were cool

Anderson Falls was the best

There was a black bear sighting which Lee snapped this picture of, but since I was on the wrong side of the boat I couldn’t see it before it was gone

Me, Kelly, and Jo. Thanks Ben for taking this picture!!

When we got closer to the glacier we did get to see lots of otters, and they were super cute. They can sleep in the water, but give birth on the ice and use the ice to rest when they have their babies. We saw several groups of them and they were all very entertaining. The captain wouldn’t get close to any of the mothers with babies because they are skittish and can occasionally abandon the babies, which I respected.

Loved this little guy. It’s my favorite picture.

Next up was Columbia Glacier, and that very pretty cool. It does take quite some time for the captain to navigate the huge ice chunks, but he managed to get us pretty close on this particular day since there was little wind. The sun also came out for a little bit and despite the ice chill it was pretty. What everyone wants to see though is a big chunk of ice breaking off, and again reality did not match the picture in my head. The ice wall is huge and the calving happens very quickly, so although I saw a couple after the fact splashes I didn’t actually see ice breaking off, and I certainly didn’t snatch a picture of it happening. Still, I am glad I saw this, although I was uncomfortably aware of the Titanic movie throughout. That water was freezing and you wouldn’t last long in it. Here are the pictures of how it appeared as we got closer and closer.

Huge ice chunks the captain navigated. Keep in mind 90% is below the water

The Glacier with some sun on it which was nice

Lee’s pic the ice really was that blue, it’s not color corrected at all

Unfortunately, as slow as it was getting to the ice it was even slower getting out, and without the anticipation of seeing the ice close up. We did see some mountain goats along the way, but they were very far off and again no decent picture could be had.

The white dots are the goats with the naked eye

Best shot I could get with my telephoto lens

At this point I think we were all a little bummed, but the captain had one more trick up his sleeve. He took us a little farther out on the way back to an island where we saw lots of stellar seal lions and puffins!! Unlike the California seal lions the Stellar lions don’t really bark, they just growl and there were tons on the rocks. Unlike sea otters they can’t sleep in the water so they need to find land to sleep. And flying all around them were TWO kinds of puffins. Those little guys fly poorly and super fast so they were very difficult to get pictures of, but I got one of each kind (tufted and horned) and added two new birds to my bird list. That in and of itself was worth the trip for me, especially because the horned only come in during mating season and generally live on the high seas.

Lots of seals

Puffins were in the cliffs above them

This was the best flying shot I could get

But Ben got this beautiful shot with his 400MM lense. I'll be honest had some lense envy but $2K is outside of my price range plus the lense is huge and on the heavy side

But Ben got this beautiful shot with his 400MM lens. I’ll be honest I had some lens envy but $2K is outside of my price range, plus the lens is huge and on the heavy side

Lee got this shot of a horned puffin which I used for my Bird page

And I got very lucky and snagged these pictures of the tufted in the water

Pretty proud of these as they only have the curl during mating season and this was taken as the boat was pulling away.

Diving down, again this was sheer luck, and check out that water spray!!

Trying to capture the puffins was a lot of fun and really cheered me up about the day. Plus the company was great, and we had a bit of sun, so really how lucky am I? We even got to see more seals on the way back into the harbor close up. Their flippers are really something.

So overall I am glad we did it, and especially glad we did it with good friends. I would have loved a whale sighting of course, but we will save that for another special day. After the cruise we went back to the campground and ate burgers, brats, and hot dogs that Jo had brought and then had a multi-flavored cheesecake for dessert. That cheesecake (which I bought at Safeway) was awesome by the way. It was a nice birthday with great friends and kind of cool that we bookended our Florida sunset cruise with an Alaska Glacier cruise. It is not lost on me that now we live that kind of life!

Kelly, Bill, Ben, me (with my stylin new hat), Jo (who liked my hat so much she bought the same one), and Lee (don’t ask me about his hat lol…it was not my call.)

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August 19, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Turning 50

I am a birthday person. I like to celebrate them, I like to acknowledge their importance, and especially when it’s a milestone birthday, I like to do something special to mark the occasion. So one of the major reasons we are in Alaska this summer is because of my 50th birthday. We knew it would be expensive to come up here so we would have to work full time, and we knew it would involve some long travels days, but I couldn’t think of a better place to spend my birthday.

As part of my interview I requested several days off to celebrate, and Kelly and Bill did the same. Then Jo and Ben (traveling nurse friends of ours) worked their contracts so they would have a couple of months off during the time period. I am still blown away by them going to so much trouble, and not only did they make it to Alaska this summer to see us, but they made it to Glennallen for my birthday.

Everyone arrived at Northern Nights on Saturday, and since they had a travel day we cooked dinner for everyone. Well, I should say Lee cooked, as he made “Daddy’s Special Chicken”, which is pounded chicken pan fried in butter and garlic, and is absolutely delicious, but labor intensive. We had a wonderful time getting caught up, but I was itching to get on the road. After much deliberation we had decided on Valdez because Kelly and Bill hadn’t seen it yet, and we were all going on a glacier cruise the day of my birthday. Lee and I had scouted out campgrounds on an earlier trip and decided on the Valdez Glacier military campground (that takes non-military personnel) outside of town.

Jo and Kelly hanging out in our place

Ben trying out some wine Bill brought

Bill and Jo

I decided to make desert and thawed out some red velvet cookie dough that Bridget had sent with me

We all decided they needed frosting though, and Jo, Kelly, and I combined ingredients and Kelly made some from scratch cream cheese frosting

So good!!!

The next morning we were all up and packed and ready to go. We were the last ones ready, it takes awhile to pack up when you’ve been sitting for awhile, and as a last minute check we looked at our brake lights on the trailer. Well, they didn’t work, or rather they worked intermittently. Lee, Bill, and Ben then spent the next 4 hours completely rebuilding a new plug and cable, and replacing a fuse. Since it was a Saturday this was a lot harder than you would think, but they MacGuyvered it, and Kelly and Jo went to get us all Mexican food for a lunch break while we waited. Jo, Kelly, and I had a wonderful conversation while we waited, but it did take a long time, and I was really grateful that they all stayed to help. Finally around 3:30 we were on the road to Valdez with working lights and brakes!!

Ben working on the cable

Lee and Bill putting electrical tape on the cable they made

Hooray we are on the road

Originally we were going to walk Worthington Glacier, but since it was late we skipped it and just stopped to take a couple of pictures and stopped again in Keystone Canyon. Everyone loved the views though, and although it sprinkled some, the rain largely held off as we made our way down.

Our rig, Kelly and Bill’s, and Jo and Ben’s truck camper (they left their Arctic Fox in storage back in Washington)

Worthington Glacier

Thompson Pass was relatively clear which was nice

Stopping to see the handcarved tunnel

Me, Kelly, and Jo checking out the waterfall

Me, Kelly, and Jo checking out a waterfall

The canyon isn’t as narrow as it looks in this picture but the walls are dramatic and pretty close

My favorite, Horsetail falls. Got the best rig porn to date!!

Lee directing the falls

So nice being with other people so we can get pictures taken

Kelly, Bill, Jo, Ben, me, and Lee. I sweet talked a random stranger into taking this for us

We made it to the campsite around 6:30, and after some discussion ended up getting two electric sites right across from each other. Rain was called for all weekend and it was chilly so we needed electric for heat since solar probably wouldn’t pull much in. Jo and Ben didn’t need electric, but the camp host was nice enough to allow them to double up with Kelly and Bill as long as they paid the dry camping rate.

Looking across at Kelly and Bill. See the huge waterfall on the mountains behind them. We could hear that water running at night

Looking across at Kelly and Bill. See the huge waterfall on the mountains behind them above the mist?. We could hear that water running at night

The next day I took them around to see the interesting things in Valdez and by far the best was Dayville road where the Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery is. We had seen it before , but not when the salmon were in, and the amount of fish was absolutely amazing. None of us had ever seen anything like that and although there were no bear, we did see some swans and eagles along the way. Plus the fish themselves were just cool.

The first creek we came upon with some fish fish

A family of swans across the way so cool to finally get this shot!

The next creek was totally full of fish

And the seagulls were having a field day

Near the fishery there were so many and they were trying to jump the small wall

That took them to this pool and waterfall where we hoped to see bear but it was still beautiful

The top section of the falls. My friend Sue saw a grizzly over here, but for us it was not meant to be

Seagulls were nesting right above the fish and Bill pointed out this baby Black-legged Kittiwake. So cute

Signs made it clear this was a bear area

No bears but this beautiful eagle was hanging out

We all found the fish hatchery itself fascinating. They have a “ladder system” inside that allows some of the fish to get back to the spawning area where the eggs are collected. The ladder setup allows them to rest in between levels. Then Jo and Ben spotted some seals out in the bay which was really neat as well.

The fish ladder

Each section has a resting area

Seals in the bay

The bay itself was beautiful

And if all that wasn’t enough, Kelly and Bill surprised me with cake and candles because with the 4 hour time difference, we all decided my birthday actually started at 8pm!

Afterwards we went back and had a campfire

Peyton, Jo and Ben’s Alaskan Malamute, loved the weather

Bill’s homemade carrot cake was delicious and they even had big signs from Bill’s 50th birthday party which they had been holding onto until I turned 50. How sweet is that?

It was a nice couple of days, and packed with firsts and great friends, which was a good thing. Because to be honest, turning 50 really struck me funny, and it caught me off guard. The last time I was bothered by an age change was when I turned 30, so it’s been awhile and I really didn’t expect it. That’s what is great about good friends though. They get it when you are off your game a little, and were kind enough to give me a little space. I’m honestly not sure I can verbalize what bugged me about it, other than it felt as if I had turned a corner and was looking downhill. And yes, I know I have lots of life left in me, many adventures ahead, and I am obviously blessed with the love of family and friends. Still, I was bummed a little, and I might as well say that out loud since I am 50 now 🙂

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August 15, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

More about Work Kamping in Alaska

We had Sunday off, but the rest of the week we worked, and the rainy, cold weather didn’t make it very fun. Business is slowing down as I mentioned last week, so I had lots of down time. Initially we talked about getting DISH turned on for the Olympics, but that didn’t work out, and it has been a bummer not being able to watch events live. I have been watching some clips on You Tube and NBC.com, but it’s not the same as just turning on the TV and watching whatever random sport is on. Plus Lee, who is an avid women’s beach volleyball fan, hasn’t got to see any of that at all 🙂 It has given me more time to work on my recipe book, though, and at least in that area I really feel like I have made some progress.

I’ve decided on categories that relate to living in an RV, and have written the basic introduction for all of them. I’ve also realized that despite lots of experimentation over the last two years I am still a little light on recipes in certain categories. The categories I decided on are: Happy Hour Appetizers, Pot Lucks, Travel Days, Dinners for Two (with leftovers), Regional Specialties, Slow Cooking, Sides & Salads, and Desserts. As much as possible I am trying to use recipes that are delicious, have common in ingredients, and are relatively easy to make in an RV. Which has turned out to be harder than I initially thought it would be.

So, I am currently working on rounding out the Happy Hour Appetizer section and if nothing else Lee has enjoyed being my taste tester! Several of the recipes were pretty good, but just not simple enough (ingredients and prep time) to make it into the book. I am sharing the French Onion Mushroom recipe below though because it was very unique and tasted yummy, it just didn’t make the cut because it wasn’t that easy to make. If you would like to share some recipes to try in any of the categories I would love to have them, and I am sure Lee would love to eat them!! Just email me at camperchronicles @ gmail.com, and if they make the book I promise to credit you and send you a free electronic copy of the book when it’s done.

Anyway, back to the work kamping. This week the sun did finally come out, but it was windy for most of the week. We had three desert nights and for the first time I made homemade brownies, or should I say homemade chocolate goo? It tasted good but was NOT pretty. Definitely not making the recipe book, lol. My favorite guest experience of the week was two families from China. They had three small kids between them, ages 6, 4, and 3, and the 6 year old girl was absolutely adorable. Her English was outstanding (she goes to English class every day) and she was incredibly polite. They are the second chinese group that has come through here this summer, and it was a pleasure meeting them. The most prevalent nationality has been Swiss. This week I found out that the exchange rate is very strong for the Swiss, which is probably why so many are coming here this summer. It is helping to offset the loss of Canadian business which is still down due to their exchange rate. I continue to love talking to people from other countries and get at least one couple a day, although some nights our dessert bonfire is like a mini united nations, which is a lot of fun.

One interesting thing that happened was a couple was looking for a dog walker and I volunteered to do it. The going rate is $10 a dog for two walks in a day and now I think I should have been doing this all along. We have two major day trips from here and both are very long days, so I could have been supplementing our income this entire time. Plus, I love puppies and could have gotten my dog fix by doing some walking. So of course it was a little goofy. I walked the dogs at 10:30 and 4:00 but the owners weren’t back by 9 as expected. At 10 they were still not back, and I was starting to get worried. I knew the day trip to the mine was long and had tons of stretches with no cell service so at 10:45 we walked back over and let the dogs out again. This time though the little cocker slipped the leash and ran us around in circles in a dark campground for about a half hour. She stayed close, but she is skittish and just would come back in the RV, but never close enough to catch. Thankfully the owners came home and of course she ran right up to them. They were so grateful that we let them out a third time they gave me $50. It turns out they did indeed have a flat tire on a lonely stretch of road and had no cell service to call, so I am glad I kept an eye on the puppies.

Dog walking aside, we seem to have finally fallen into a rhythm here. As we are winding down though I can’t help but look back on the experience and feel we could have done better in many areas. Part of the difficulty as I have stated before is that this is my first new job in over 15 years and another part is transitioning from a knowledge worker to an hourly employee. But once you take all of that out of the equation there are definitely some issues that could have been resolved by us asking better questions up front. I do chalk that up to not knowing what to ask, but now with some time under my belt I thought I would pass on some lessons learned to those who haven’t work kamped in a campground. Some of these we got right, and others we did not, but I think they are all pretty important for both the employee and employer to have a good experience. I am also, for the record, including some experiences that have been shared with me by others because I think it is good if we all learn from each other.

Work Kamping Interview Discussion Lessons Learned

In the interview process make sure you talk to your direct supervisor. Work Kampers often report to other more senior work kampers or someone other than the campground owner and they may have different expectations than the owner does. It is important you talk to both parties to make sure everyone is on the same page.
If you need to work extra hours for pay to make your budget, make sure you have a weekly hourly commitment in writing. Business could be unexpectedly slow because of factors like weather, gas prices, wildfires, etc, so keep that in mind if the money is absolutely needed. We actually talked about this upfront so has worked really well for us, but we interviewed for another position we just couldn’t make work because they wouldn’t guarantee hours.
Be very specific about your job responsibilities including what hours you will work, the types of work, what will you do during the “slow times” etc. If there is something you are absolutely not willing to do, ask specifically about that activity. Don’t just assume.
How flexible is the schedule? Can you take extra days off? Can days off be traded? If the flexibility depends on a second couple, keep this in mind as some people do not like trading their schedules.
Talk about work standards that particularly matter to you. For example, customer service, accounting practices, and cleanliness standards. Try to get a feeling if you will be allowed to use your own judgement or be micromanaged. You may prefer one style of management to the other and either way these are good things to know going in.
Be very specific about your living conditions. Where will the site be? How close are your neighbors? Is it a separate “employees only” population or among the guests? Power, water, laundry?

How do you have this detailed conversation without coming off as being too particular and a pain in the ass? I really have no idea. But those conversations are going to happen sooner or later, so I do believe it’s better to have them up front so everyone is on the same page and both you and the employer are making decisions with the fullness of facts. Again, many of these items we covered and some were a non-issue, but I have spent the summer collecting campground work kamping stories from friends, and these are the types of things that can cause conflict if they are not addressed up front.

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Search Amazon Here
You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on Itunes.

August 10, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time at the Alaska Wildlife Conservancy

Our original plan was to travel down to Homer on Monday, but when I learned it would be an additional 5 hours just in driving, I changed the plan to just seeing Kenai. But then I did something I rarely do, which was sleep in until 10:30am. I am not really even sure how that was possible since I was on Kelly and Bill’s couch bed, but I was out like a light and pretty embarrassed I woke up so late. Kelly and Bill were awesome about it though. Between working all week and long weekends, we’ve been running pretty hard all month. And since generally we would rather skip a place than see it just a little, plus it was overcast and rain was predicted, so Lee and I decided we would just head back to Glennallen and call it a very full weekend.

At least that was the original plan, but as we were driving back Lee pulled into the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. We knew that this was a great place to see Alaska Brown Bears, but since our friends Jim and Barb had recently had an up close and personal encounter with wild bears in Denali I was still holding out for the real thing. Despite what you might think, it is extremely rare to see a bear here. Yes, the bear population is large, but the territory they can live in is much, much larger. So we have talked about it, but when Lee pulled in he said this may be our only chance t0 see a bear.

I will say I was pleasantly surprised. All of the major animals of Alaska were represented and most of their habitats were large and natural. Plus, the bears!! We got lucky and the grizzly bears, despite a very large habitat, were hanging out near the wooden bridge. There is a nice walkway so you can get very close to them and they really put on quite a show. It’s also quite reasonably priced at $12.50 per person. So my recommendation is definitely to stop by. Many of the animals were injured and brought to the habitat, it is a good cause, and may be the only change you get to see some of these animals in Alaska.

Baby Elk

Musk Ox

These unusual deer are found in southeast Alaska and parts of Canada in the rain forest areas

They had a few large moose that were brought here when found injured. Seeing them up close really impresses upon you their size

Couldn’t get the face of this cutie porcupine, but he was fun to see up close. There was a sign on the fence that said “Do not pet porcupine. He has spikes, and he bites”. Yes, you know there is a reason they had to put that sign there

The only disappointing exhibit was the wolves. I did get to manage this shot but there wasn’t much good information on them

One of their big missions is the breeding of bison. They have huge pastures for them and recently took a herd and reintroduced them into the wild.

The other cool thing about the conservation center is the beautiful views all around. The ocean bay even backs up to one section of it

And finally the grizzlies or Alaska Brown Bears. There were three and really awesome to see close up.

The size of those claws. Wow

The fur is so beautiful. Makes you want to run your fingers through it. I am thinking that would not be such a great idea! Plus I love, love their ears

After the conservancy we were really getting hungry and since we were near Anchorage we could have whatever we liked. I decided on Vietnamese and we found a wonderful little restaurant, Pho Vietnam 8. It didn’t look like much from the outside, but it was clean and the food was absolutely delicious!!

The rest of the week was largely uneventful. We have had absolutely terrific weather, but the rain followed us and it rained on and off the entire week. Business here at the campground has also slowed down as more people are leaving Alaska and less are coming in. We’ve also been collecting lots of household tasks that weren’t getting done with our crazy pace. We also worked Tuesday – Saturday so we wouldn’t miss any hours from our three day weekend.

Since we are coming to the end of our engagement here we really need to start working on the tasks that need done before we leave. They included mailing presents out to my family, Lee figuring out what is wrong with our wifi hot spot, Lee looking at the furnace which decided to stop working, me making batches of spaghetti sauce and chili to freeze for travel days, cleaning for me, lots editing for Lee, pictures and blog writing for me, and lots of other unexciting stuff.

So, if I have been giving the impression in recent weeks it’s all been beautiful vistas and great weather, that certainly isn’t the case. It’s just a lot more fun to write about that stuff. You carry regular life tasks with you, and of course we are working 40 hours a week. On the whole, it’s worked out well for us, because it has made it possible financially for us to see all the amazing things we have seen this summer, and we have enjoyed having a centrally located “home base”.

I didn’t really expect to be able to see all of Alaska in this one visit and now that I am here I know that absolutely will not happen. There are some amazing places that are only accessible by plane and boat that I still want to see, and we would also like to come back and spend a lot more time on the Kenai. I think that’s good though. It’s too big a place to be a “one and done” visit, and hopefully a few years from now we will be able to come back.

August 7, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

July 2016 Budget (with Work Kamper Revenue)

I knew July was going to be a heavy expense month because we made a huge grocery run and spent the night in Denali. I was VERY pleased to see, however, that despite those additional expenses we still covered our costs with work kamping revenue and even had a $277 surplus. We made $4,734 in work kamper revenue this month (it was a five paycheck month) and spent $4,457. Our budget for the month was $4,059 so we did go over budget by $398. I expected to cover the overage with a gift I received from my grandfather and a larger than expected tax return, but now that money can go directly into the general fund for a later date. A detailed accounting of the overages is listed below.

Campground Fees – One of the biggest benefits of work kamping is free or reduced cost campground fees. By working here we have been able to explore Alaska in our time off and still keep those costs low. There are thousands of beautiful free boondocking spots up here, but your costs for dump stations, propane, fuel, and water go up accordingly. We have a free site and free utilities (water/electric/propane) which is no small thing. One down side though was in order to travel to Fairbanks, Denali, and Seward, because they were just far to do in one day, we did need a place to spend the night because Lee wasn’t willing to pack up the rig and drag it around. Of the three, we only paid for Denali and the cost (which is in entertainment) was pretty steep at $231 for one night. We also could have chosen to move the rig, in which case there would be extra fuel and campground costs as well, not to mention we wouldn’t have been able to take it on the Denali Highway, which was an amazing drive. But even if you factor in the occasional overnight trips, it is absolutely the most economical choice for visiting an area. (For Fairbanks we used accumulated hotel points, and for Seward we stayed with Bill and Kelly)

Groceries – We went over $346.30 in this category because we made two big runs to Costco and Sam’s Club at the beginning of the month. After a few months with the membership, I am not feeling this club is really saving us money overall. Yes, we save on items like meat, but we end up spending more on luxury items. Plus, we are spending extra money on gas to get to the locations. I really need to see what it is like down in the lower 48 before making a final decision, but unless we can show more discipline when we go there, it’s not worth it to me. Lee on the other hand is very happy with the selection and the quality and that is no small thing. We just need to keep working at it.

Dining Out – We went over in both dining out categories by a total of $222.74 because of our overnight trips. I packed lunches on the way to the locations, but then we picked up fast food on the way back. We also really splurged on a $100 dinner while in Denali which was largely mediocre and we definitely would not have done that if we had our rig with us.

Entertainment – We went over by $308.21. The bulk of this overage was the one hotel stay night, and we also saw a movie in Fairbanks, which was unplanned. We did a ton of stuff over those days and most of it was free, which was really good.

Truck Fuel – Despite the five week month and heavy traveling I was please to see we were only over by $44.27. This is mainly do to Lee being very careful about where we filled up. There is as much as a 50 cent per gallon swing between the towns (Palmer, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Wasilla, etc) versus the more outlying areas. By carefully planning where you fill up, and getting the absolute minimum amount of fuel when you can’t get the lowest price, you can travel and not break the bank.

RV Registration – I had budgeted a couple hundred dollars for this in June and was very pleased that the cost was only $53.95. The process was also extremely easy. Lee went online, quickly renewed, and we received the tags right away. This is a nice boost to the annual budget and so much cheaper than the annual registration would have been in New Hampshire, which is one of the reasons we decided to change home states.

Postage – We were significantly over on postage to the tune of $71.87. I don’t know if that is an Alaska effect or we are just being overcharged for our mail forwarding. Lee has promised to really dig into this and get a handle on it, but I know part of the problem is that when we need something sent we generally need it sent quickly which always ups the price.

Gifts – We spent $170.58, but I actually put that in the positive column. I decided to buy all the Christmas gifts for my nieces and nephews in Alaska and have had a blast finding Alaska made items. Overall, even with postage, I am actually spending a little less than I normally spend and the kids are getting something super cool.

Home Furnishings Optional – We went over in this category by $240, because I treated myself to the wooden bowl set. I consider this a gift from my grandfather, but since I did choose to buy the present I have included it here. Not only did we make enough wages to cover the purchase, but we also had a $97 offset by savings in the other home furnishing categories.

So even though it was a high spend month I feel great because we both did really cool stuff and covered our costs. That’s a good month!! Next month we are taking 4 days off and going to Valdez with friends to celebrate my 50th birthday, and we will see if we can cover costs next month as well.

August 5, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time in Whittier

The next morning we all got up pretty early and headed out to Whittier. Whittier is a weird town where the only access is a one lane tunnel, and even that lane is a railroad track. Both cars and trains share this single access in and out of town, so the direction of the traffic is scheduled. There is one 20 minute window per hour and if you are late you are waiting until the next one, so between that schedule and the train schedule we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time. It also costs $13 for the trip through the tunnel (only paid going in, not going out) so we took two cars to the visitor center in Portage outside of town and left our truck there, and then jumped in with Bill and Kelly.

Portage Visitors Center

Beautiful Glacier Lake next door

Multiple glaciers

The tunnel entrance

This area is full of glaciers and I think I saw at least 5 inside and outside of Whittier. It was overcast, unfortunately, but easy to see how spectacular it would be in full sun, and the glacier lake had massive chunks of ice in it. We took a few pics, used the restroom, and got into line. There are actually two tunnels, the first runs two ways, but you will see the signs clearly for the second.

Lee got a couple of pics for me, but it was super tight and he was afraid to stick out to far

Lee got a couple of pics for me, but it was super tight and he was afraid to stick out too far. You have seen the lengths he will go to to “get the shot” so that should tell you something

Everyone was worried about me and the claustrophobia , but it wasn’t that bad. Just tried not to think about it to much. On the other side there were more glaciers and a beautiful waterfall and then pretty immediately the town.

This was one of my favorites of the day

The town of Whittier is very different than Seward, and absolutely more of a working fishing village. It is also unique because everyone in the town lives in one large high rise, which also includes the post office and other things people need. The town has about 2,000 people in the summer but reduces to only 200 in the winter, and the school is even connected to the high rise via an underground tunnel. They get massive amounts of snow here so even the playground is inside, and initially I wasn’t a huge fan. The grey, overcast weather certainly didn’t help.

The high rise every lives in contains most of the local shops as well. It is not open to nonresidents

The high rise everyone lives in contains most of the local shops as well. It is not open to nonresidents. Ocean views on one side and waterfall views on the other. Not bad!

We would have loved to hike up to the big waterfall behind it but there wasn’t really time

This abandoned military building is perfect for a Walking Dead episode

The town itself wasn’t nearly as picturesque as Seward, but Bill assured me that was largely due to weather. He showed me some beautiful shots they had taken on a clear day there and I have to admit they were breathtaking.

The dock

Where we ate lunch

Our views were grey and cloudy

Then we decided to walk back to the car and drive up to where the waterfalls were, which I was excited about. And Lee found a geocache along the way, where we dropped off one of the trackables we have been carrying around.

Cool place for a geocache

The hillside had tons of waterfalls which were really beautiful. I loved this part of Whittier

Kelly and Bill

Then we drove up the road a bit and the sky brightened and we saw the beautiful cove. The color of the water looked a lot like Lake Tahoe and the waterfalls along the coast line were really special.

Whittier looks prettier from this angle

Would love to take a boat ride here along the waterfalls

Huge Glacier

We particularly liked the big section of rock

A little truck porn. Bill said it reminded him of a Ford Commercial. Really beautiful spot and a can’t miss if you are in Whittier

After the waterfalls and views I was feeling much better about the town, and we drove back down to get on our train. The train “depot” is actually a series of unmanned tents near the tracks. After Kelly called we discovered the train personnel had our tickets and we didn’t actually have to be an hour early, we arrived about 15 minutes early which was plenty of time. Although we had assigned seats the train was pretty empty and the staff didn’t seem to mind where we sat. We all spent some time in the open air between the cars and wandered about as we wanted to. The ride to Spencer Glacier came with a couple of different stops where we picked up some folks that were taking a rafting adventure and others who used the train to transport camping gear into the Chugach National Forest. It was part local transportation and part tourist ride and we all really liked it.

Lee and Bill talking about …trains!!

Kelly and Lee looking at the window and laughing

One of our glamorous stops 🙂

Beautiful scenery along the way

And we made it to our destination in about an hour

I didn’t do a very good job of planning this excursion, or maybe I was just confused, because I thought Whistlestop was a town. Uh..nope. It is as it is called; a whistle stop for the train, and all it has is a campground, some restrooms, and a wooden shelter. The train ride included a narrated hike to the glacier with a Forest Ranger, and since there was literally nothing else to do there, off on the hike we went. Turns out it was lovely and Maia our ranger was awesome. I actually learned quite a bit and the well maintained 1.25 mile hike each way was extremely easy. Maia stopped along the way to talk about the forest and the glaciers, and I learned several interesting things. For example, did you know that the mountains with rounded tops mean that a glacier at one point was over them whereas the mountains with sharp peaks were never capped by a glacier? She also explained that glaciers form U shaped canyons and rivers formed V shaped canyons in a way that actually made sense to me. Plus, once again we were lucky with the weather and even though it was overcast it never rained.

First stop along the walk was a beautiful wooden pedestrian bridge

We were surrounded on all sides by beautiful mountains and forest. See how the mountains in the forefront are rounded versus the more jagged peaks in the upper left? The rounded ones used to be covered by glacier “like water in a bathtub.”

The path was very nice and made for a pleasant hike

Finally we turned a corner and were at the glacier lake. We made a beautiful hike to Kintla Lake in Glacier, but Spencer Lake and Glacier are ten times as big. Plus, when you looked in 360 degrees it was so beautiful everywhere.

The glacier was massive

See the folks boating for scale as to how big the ice chunks were

There was also this cool NAtional Forest cabin on the hillside which is accesible only by trail..and yes housekeeping walks the trail to clean them or if more supplies need brought in it's done by helicopter

There was also this cool National Forest cabin on the hillside which is accessible only by 2 1/2 hours on a switchback trail up the mountain..and yes, housekeeping walks the trail to clean them, or if more supplies are needed brought in it’s done by helicopter

Our terrific ranger Mia who was kind enough to take pictures for everyone

And here we all are at the glacier! Kelly, Bill, me and Lee

Oh and I forgot to mention the global warning information. Glaciers reach a certain size and then start to retreat naturally. The speed at which they are retreating however is faster in current years than previous ones. Scientists believe the acceleration is due to global warning.,

Oh and I forgot to mention the global warming information. Glaciers reach a certain size and then start to retreat naturally. The speed at which they are retreating however is faster in current years than previous ones. I liked how they presented the information and then left it up to you to draw your own conclusions.

After a little while Lee and I decided to walk back (there may have been some birthday kisses) and the views were equally beautiful. I even found this little bench that had some spectacular views.

View from the bench

The wooden bridge from the other direction

We were the first ones back at the train area and Lee laid down on the bench and took a nap. Kelly and Bill weren’t that far behind and we sat and talked until the train came.

Lee’s siesta

Turns out Kelly and I have the exact same pair of hiking shoes

The train arrived and folks who had camped over the weekend were loading their stuff

On the way back we sat on the second story of this train car which had huge glass windows

I liked the train ride very much with the single caveat that if you see an animal you can’t stop and take pictures. There was an active eagles nest and on the way out I saw the baby, but on the way back the best shot I could get was the following.

We did have beautiful views all the way back though and by the time we got to Whittier there were only 7 of us on the train. Absolutely fantastic customer service and I highly recommend at least one Alaska Trains ride to anyone who is visiting Alaska

August 3, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time in Seward

First time in Seward. First time having a sleepover in someone else’s rig, First time for Lee having a birthday in Alaska. First time on the Kenai peninsula. There were many possible first times for this post but I decided to stick with my favorite part of the day, which happened in Seward, but that is at the very end. Oh, and grab a cup of something, because this is a long one! Lee and I packed up the truck and got out pretty early on Saturday, his birthday. We knew we had a couple of stops we wanted to make, and also new roads to explore, so we told Kelly and Bill we would absolutely make it to their place by dinner, but weren’t sure exactly what time. Several weeks prior Kelly and Bill (or B/K for short) had offered to allow us to sleep over at their rig, so we wouldn’t have to pack ours up or pay for a place to stay in the Kenai. It was an incredibly generous offer, and Lee for the first time ever agreed to stay at their place.

Lee has never been a huge fan of sleeping in other people’s houses, and I can probably count on less than two hands the amount of times he has done it since we have been married. Staying over in a rig is even tougher, because you are cramming four people into a 400 sq ft foot space, but Kelly said she and Bill loved to have people stay with them and it’s one of the things she misses from living in her sticks and bricks house. So we accepted with gratitude and off we went with a truck full of stuff to stay with them. The day started out really great with our first ever baby moose sighting. It was kind of sad since the mother was nowhere in sight, but I was really glad I got to see a juvenile somewhat close up.

Our next stop was a sort-of “favor” for another friend of ours, Deb and Steve. They had bought a Bigfoot trackable geocache item and it had made its way to pretty close to us in Alaska. Trackables have a unique number, and their own webpage, so the originator can watch them travel around the globe. Cool concept, but sometimes they can get lost, or stuck in a place. This one hadn’t moved for a while so Deb told us about it, and thought it would be cool if we picked it up. We do geocaching on occasion (Steve and Deb just broke 1,000 caches found) and Lee likes it, so I thought “sure, why not, quick side trip, we grab it and move it along”. This is where the story gets funny. I love Deb to pieces, and she is an incredibly low maintenance kind of friend, but every time she really wants something (which is an extremely rare occurrence) I end up doing something incredibly physical. Because of her I have climbed to the top of a large hill in the Arizona desert and I have climbed to a glacier lake in Glacier National Park. So really I should have known that no way would this simple request be so simple.

We found the road off HWY 1 and using the geocaching app navigated numerous side streets until the road hit a dead-end. Let me show you what happened from here with pictures…

Dead end road

Do we take the left or right?

We went left.

After walking for some time (and reading the clues) we realized we had missed the path, so we went back up the road and saw an unmarked trail.

Following the unmarked trail

Saw this sign

Cool mushrooms along the way I had never seen before

The grass got very high

And became less and less of a path

You really don’t want to see this many berries when you are in tall grass in Alaska. At this point I was fondly thinking of my bear horn which was of course back in the truck

We finally stopped at this beautiful visit

We finally stopped at this beautiful vista.

Lee realized that somehow we had gone to far

Lee realized that somehow we had gone too far

So we headed back, following the GPS directions

Which led us climbing a hill in very thick brush

Oh did I mention these giant sticker leaves can cause blisters on unprotected skin

About the time I had completely lost my sense of humor about the whole thing we found another path. As a side note scroll up to the pic right before the trail sign and see where Lee was standing. That is where this unmarked path started

Lee was victorious

And we retrieved the trackable

Ok so Lee was happy, but I was still not over the wooded hill climb, and sorry Deb, I was not feeling very charitable towards you at that moment, but then as we wandered down the trail to return to the truck, the most amazing thing happened. I should say that these adventures Deb gets me to do always end well. I end up doing or seeing something very cool. We met a young rock hound playing guitar on that hill in Arizona and in Glacier we went on a hike through dense brush singing ACDC at the tops of our voices to keep bears away. This time was no different. We turned a corner and there was a geocacher named Ken in the woods. Turns out he just hit his 1300th cache and was a member of the Alaska geocaching group. When we mentioned the bigfoot he laughed and pulled an identical one out of his bag. I mean seriously, what are the odds? Super nice guy, we had a great time talking to him, and he even gave us these cool pins that say AlaskaKen on them. Loved it, and what a lovely birthday suprise for Lee. So alright Deb, once again you were right, but that doesn’t mean I have to like these little adventures!

Seriously what are the odds?

Very cool pins

This sign would been helpful at the beginning of the path!!

Needless to say, the quick detour took longer than we expected, so we were eating into our time pretty quickly. We stopped in Palmer for some McDonald’s, and a quick stop at the grocery store (Kelly provided the meat for two dinners and we brought all the sides and dessert) and then it was onto Anchorage. The drive through Anchorage was a bit tedious, but we made good time, and finally we were on a road we had never been on before. I knew from some research that the road into Kenai wound through a bay, but was unprepared for how beautiful the landscape was. The water in the bay was mostly out, and it was cloudy, but it was still stunning. We even stopped and did a quick geocache along the way. y698

Water, mountains, and even a beautiful glacier

For scale see the tiny houses in the front

I do have to say that I have done a pretty good job of giving the names of glaciers as we run across them, but when we hit the Kenai we saw so many that this became difficult. We saw between 8-10 in the weekend we were there and each glacier is unique and utterly beautiful in it’s own way. I’ll do the best I can to match up the close up and wide shots of the same glaciers, but I cry uncle on naming them all.

We stopped several times long the way, but finally reached Kelly and Bill, well in time for dinner. They are working at a really great park called Renfro’s Lakeside Retreat which has 8 VERY nice cabins and a small 8 space RV park. Before dinner we took a quick tour, and it really is a special place. The cabins are great and the bath house is outstanding with a beautiful shower with no timer and lots of hot water. Seriously, we loved that shower. After the tour Kelly finished prepping dinner and we had some amazing ribs. We also had a chance to eat with their boss Gary in the party house and had a really good time.

The party house and office

All guests have access to the full kitchen

Kelly’s view includes Mother Goose Glacier (which is on the top of the mountain covered by a cloud. What a view

Kelly’s flowers are doing great

They can use any of the boats on the lakje

They can use any of the boats on the lake

One of the smaller cabins

Really nice inside

Did I mention we loved the shower?

Dinner was fantastic

Lee, Gary, Kelly, and Bill

After cleaning up we weren’t done yet and finally we got to Seward. One of the nice things about the sun not setting until 10:30pm is you can really get a lot out of a day, and we went down into town and took the whirlwind tour. I absolutely loved Seward. It is by far my favorite port town we have been to, and I can’t wait to go back and spend some more time there.

Boatyards really lend themselves to black and white photos

Cute guys cleaning fish

So much fish!!

One of the coolest things about the town was all the places to stop and take a picture and everyone got into the action, even Lee without needing prompting.

Loved this one!! Look what Kelly caught

Lee carrying on the licking stuff tradition

Lee carrying on Greg’s “licking stuff” tradition

Lee loves these Before I die boards

He wrote “Do All The Things”

We saw where Seward landed

Mile 0 of the Iditarod race

And this great campground with ocean views (all dry camping $20 a night

But the very best thing we saw was our first wild sea otter, eating a huge piece of halibut. It hung out near the dock and ripped into the fish, periodically letting it drop, then taking a deep breath, and going down after it. He was putting on quite a show and we loved every minute of it. So we started the day off with a moose, and ended with an otter. I’d say that’s a pretty good birthday for Lee.

The fish was as long as him

Look at those teeth!!

Diving!

He even played for us a bit between fish bites

So so cool and you should definitely check out Lee’s video.

And all that was only the first day of our three day weekend. Next up: Whittier and Lee’s birthday train ride!

August 1, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

What Does Freedom Look Like?

We are currently in the middle of a political cycle and just to be clear, this is not a political post. I think we all care deeply about the freedoms that we consider our inalienable rights, the right to vote, the right to bear arms, free speech, the right to assembly etc, and as a woman, I am keenly aware that if I had been born in a different time or place my concept of freedom would be quite different. Instead I am talking about the more personal concept of freedom as expressed by many full time Rvers.

The idea of freedom looms large in our lifestyle and is one of the major motivating factors of this lifestyle. We talk about it, have songs about it (Zac Brown’s “Free“ is almost an anthem to many of us), and many of us pursue it with a fierce passion. For me though the concept of freedom has always been a difficult one. Cori and I have discussed this many times and I always say to her, “Yes, but what does that look like.” To her credit, in those moments she gets less frustrated with me than she has a right to be, because freedom is obviously a very subjective concept and very very much rooted in personal experience. Fair enough, so in order to try to talk about this in a shared context I am going to go back to the dictionary definition of the word. The Webster dictionary definition for freedom is “…the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action; liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another; independence the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous<freedom from care>.

Based on that definition the only time in my life (aside from heady moments of teenage rebellion) that I can ever remember experiencing freedom was when I went to college right out of high school. As I watched many of my peers go a little crazy with all the freedom, I ended up imposing rules and restrictions on myself because I was so uncomfortable. I wasn’t exactly a goody two-shoes, but I mostly stayed on that side of the line and ultimately gave up that freedom (and college) for the more comfortable rules of work and a relationship. Looking back on that choice I don’t regret it, because it led me to where I am today, but I have wondered what my life would look like if I would have grabbed that freedom and experience with both hands.

Then it was marriage, and kids, and buying a house, all of my choices the exact opposite of “freedom from care.” And I was mostly satisfied. Certainly in rough moments I thought longingly of the freedom of retirement, or the relative freedom of grown children, but I was following what I felt was the proper path. Freedom as a concept never loomed large in my childhood. I don’t remember my parents really ever talking about it, and it was definitely not a value that my family espoused. Commitment, hard work, truthfulness, and family were the guiding ethics of my childhood and have strongly formed my character. So when I met people in my life who were risk takers and gypsies, I was wistful, but always thought I could never do that.

Lee, on the other hand, from a very early age wanted to be free. His desire to be with me transcended those feelings enough that he married me and had children, but he has always been a person who needed a lot of space. Even from a relatively young age I understood that “standard” relationship rules would not work with Lee. While many other young wives I knew struggled to exert control over their husbands movements and actions, I tried as much as possible to let him do his own thing. I wasn’t always successful, of course, and it was the source of much conflict in our early marriage. But I always understood that the only way I would ever lose him was to try and coerce or constrain him, and somehow we managed to create an environment where he had freedom and I had structure. Not an easy balance.

The older we got, the more things began to tip in his direction. Kids moved away, jobs got easier to some extent, and we had more time and disposable income for ourselves. For me the concept of freedom became specifically about freedom from debt and ultimately from a mortgage. To me freedom began to equal money, and since I was unwilling to go any farther up the corporate ladder, that meant we needed to eliminate debt. This wasn’t easy for either of us, and it wasn’t really until Lee discovered the full time lifestyle that we got serious about it. The moments of eliminating debt were amazing ones, and I absolutely felt freedom from care in them. Within a short period of time we became both empty nesters and full time RVers, and by relative standards we were free! Except we weren’t really, at least by Lee’s standards. For the first 9 months or so he kept saying “we haven’t really started yet,” but what he actually meant was that we aren’t really free yet. I carried my corporate job with me and all of it’s requirements, not to mention all my angst about the lifestyle in general, and it wasn’t until I took the corporate buy-out that I started to feel freedom from care. It wasn’t a “flip the light switch” transition of course, although I should say that for many, many people I have met, it truly seems to be just that, but I took my first trembling steps on the path to freedom.

The odd thing though is despite all we have seen and experienced, freedom still isn’t one of my main goals. For me it’s more of a byproduct of the lifestyle than a guiding tenet. Not so for Lee. He has remained unwavering in his desire to achieve as much freedom as possible, and once again in our lives it has been the source of some conflict. I should say here that sometimes as a friend I really feel bad for him. He didn’t consciously choose to have a wife who was so different from him when it came to these concepts, and since he fell in love with me at 14 I think it is fair to say he couldn’t possibly have conceptualized our lives turning out this way back then. And largely I think he’s been pretty patient. When we lived in the “regular world” he was always the one that was a little out of step, but in this lifestyle that situation is reversed. His instincts are solid, he usually knows what needs to be done, and I am the one who is often floundering. He understands the rules and the possibilities and often these are concepts I barely grasp.

So how does this all translate into our day-to-day life? Mostly it comes up around our travel/work schedule. Do we take a job or leave a job? Do we travel frequently or less often? Do we make reservations or fly by the seat our pants? These are huge decisions for full time RVers and more than anything else (at least for us) dictate what our lives look like day-to-day. Our level of freedom is impacted by family obligations, finances, weather, campground availability, internet availability, and mechanical issues. Just like in our old lives if we were not careful those considerations could completely dictate our choices. As you can probably guess, Lee is totally not OK with that. Not that he doesn’t understand the necessity, but he strains against any constraints that make him feel as if he is back in his old life. He is not alone in these feelings at all by the way, but rather more the norm for full timers. I on the other hand sometimes find myself embracing those restrictions. They bring with them structure and a sense of “normalcy” and I know that to some of you reading this that sounds nuts, but it’s true. To be completely honest there are times I would rather endure the unpalatable or even downright unpleasant than be faced with more freedom.

I believe that regardless of where we live, or what we do for a living, we all have the capacity for more freedom in our lives. What stops us from experiencing that is ourselves. We build walls around ourselves, impose rules, and create excuses. Fear is a huge factor of course, but so is perceived obligation. We are big on freedom of choice in this country, but then we rarely exercise those choices. And if anything can prove that point it is the fact that we have no house, or young children, or debt, or career jobs, and I am still struggling. I am living in an RV in the middle of Alaska and working at a campground making $12 an hour. I mean seriously, how different could my life be from what it was before? Do I feel “independence, the quality or state of being exempt or released, usually from something onerous”? Relatively, yes! Do I feel free? Not really. Do I feel as the Zac Brown lyrics say “Free as I’ll ever be”? Definitely not, but I am finally starting to visualize what freedom might look like for me. That is no small thing.

July 29, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time in Fairbanks

After the North Pole we were both pretty tired, but I got some exciting news from my Mom. My Grandfather had decided to give all of his grandchildren a cash gift. First off, this is incredibly cool. As the oldest of many grandchildren I know that as much as it means to me, it means even more to the younger grand kids and since he and my grandmother were full timers for 3 years (and in no small part why I had the courage to do this) it made it very special. About a year ago he had done something similar and since I wasn’t working at the time I put the money directly into our general fund. I thought they would appreciate helping fund the lifestyle. This time though I decided to treat myself a little, and the timing couldn’t have been better.

For those of you who have been following along for a while you know how much I love wood, and in our travels I have seen many pieces done by the The Great Alaskan Bowl Company. When I discovered the workshop was in Fairbanks, I knew I had to visit it, but thought this would be another trip, like many others, to wood stores where I browsed, admired, but couldn’t afford to purchase. Really good wood pieces are expensive, but since I consider them functional art I totally think they are worth it. They just weren’t in my budget. So here we were less than an hour away and I got the news. OK, things just got serious! So we went inside and ooohed and aaahed over the wood. The staff was great and they allowed me to buy a packaged salad bowl set but I got to hand select whatever bowls I wanted. Lee and I spent a significant amount of time mixing and matching (Lee cares because he makes a mean Caesar salad) and finally found our set!

The workshop from the outside

They sells the remaining peices of birch as planters after the bowls come out. Love that

They sells the remaining pieces of birch as planters after the bowls come out. Love that

So cool and only $10 each or two for %15

Loved the heart shaped bowls but Lee said he couldn't toss a salad in them

Loved the heart shaped bowls but Lee said he couldn’t make a salad in them

This $4300 set was so amazing. All cut from one piece of burl

Wonderful customer service!

See how red my face was. I was excited and not used to splurging like this even in my old life

Voila!! Can't really see how cool they are, but I absolutely love them

Voila!! Can’t really see how cool they are from a picture but I absolutely love them. Thanks Grandpa!!

Afterwards we decided to complete the splurge day and eat at a Chinese Buffet and see a movie. In the lower 48 this would not be considered a splurge but at $16.50 each for the buffet and then $19.50 each for the movie it definitely was. The Star Trek movie was great and the 3D IMAX theater was awesome, but really, $19.50 for a movie?? Because Alaska.

Afterwards we went back to our hotel room, Hampton Suites, and just relaxed. I used the very last of my hotel points for the room and I have to say I felt a little sad. I spent a ton of my time in hotel rooms over the last 10 years and as much as work travel can be a pain in the butt, having a hotel room all to yourself isn’t that awful. I kind of miss someone else making my bed and I know I miss the bathtub. Oh yes, I made sure I had a room with a tub, and for the first time in almost a year I took a long hot bath. It was really nice. Not worth giving the lifestyle up for, but really nice. And sure, I remembered how stressful it could all be, and tiring, but as the mother of three teenage daughters some of those weeks away were a godsend. Just being honest and I am sure they appreciated the breaks as much as I did.

It also brought home the fact that from an employment standpoint my life had definitely changed. These moments of nostalgia do happen from time to time and rather than fight against them I just own it. Despite the difficulties I have been having getting used to a different type of employment, I have not regretted my decision to leave my former company at all. I do miss certain things associated with the work though and apparently staying in hotels is one of them. Go figure.

Pretty nice Hampton Inn

The next morning we slept in a bit because after researching how long the trip to the Arctic Circle would be (13 hours roundtrip from Fairbanks, and then another 5 back to Glennallen), Lee decided that was just too much. I agree, because although we are willing to do 12 hour days in the car, an 18 hour day is just too much for us. Instead we decided to go see the Museum of the North in Fairbanks which I had heard wonderful things about so we packed up and headed that way. When we were almost there though we smelled a strange burning smell like brake pads, and saw white smoke coming from the right side-wheel well. We pulled over right away and Lee checked things out. A very nice Alaskan also stopped to check on us, but we just weren’t sure what had caused it. As soon as we stopped the smoke and the smell were gone. I found some green liquid inside the wheel well, Lee was concerned that the caliper on the brakes might be sticking, and of course thoughts of engine failure were going through my head. We decided to forgo the museum and drive towards the Ford dealership. I will say that this really shows how much we have changed with this lifestyle. There was a time when we would have done what we wanted and damn the consequences, but that isn’t us anymore.

To be fair we have also had some pretty horrible examples to learn from this year. We are right off the Tok cutoff and have seen multiple rigs coming through with major, catastrophic mechanical issues that end up staying with us. The Class A’s seem to be getting the worst of it with two TOAD hitches breaking on the road (in both cases the tow vehicles went into ditches and didn’t harm anyone), a blown radiator (the part took a week to get in), and in one case a Class A where the toad caught on fire and ended up burning the entire rig to the ground. Thank God no one was hurt in that one. Trailers have had their share of issues too, and we have seen many with busted springs or broken under carriages. There is a reason a town of under 1,000 people have more than one full-time welder living here. In every case the person with the incident universally said, thank heavens I was close to somewhere I could get help, because we all know there are stretches of highway where there are no services or cell phone coverage, and a breakdown in one of these areas could be much more serious.

With those incidences in mind we drove the 13 miles to the dealer, which was indeed closed, and then decided to drive to the next Ford dealership in Wasilla which was sort of in the wrong direction. Even though it would add two hours to our overall drive we knew the road was heavily traveled (relatively) and if there was an issue, that Ford dealership was open until 8pm. This route was actually taking us on the other side of Denali and we knew those roads were in better conditions and in general had better cell coverage as well.

Really neat cloud formation, just had to stop and take a picture

Since we were driving right by it, we decided to go ahead and stop at the Denali Visitors Center, which we missed last time. Lee liked it, but I was pretty disappointed. I have definitely seen better and the gift shop was really disappointing, probably for the best since I had already spent so much in Fairbanks and the North Pole. We also stopped at a couple of the local gift stores in town and I picked up a 30% club (for seeing Mt. Denali) T-Shirt. But it was a pretty brief stop and then we continued the long ride towards home.

Gift Shop

After we left Denali it started raining and didn’t stop until we got home. Lee got pretty tired after we hit Wasilla (still no truck issue so we kept going) and I took over in Palmer. We believe the issue is related to the AC since the air conditioner is now not working. Perhaps a coolant leak of some kind in the compressor. We didn’t have the AC on when the incident occured and I didn’t catch the fact it wasn’t working until a couple of days later. AC is not needed much up here – Lee

I had never driven that section, and in the rain (and sometimes fog) it was pretty tough. Lots of curves, wet pavement, I really had to pay attention. We did have lots of time to listen to Podcasts though, and since I am newly a fan I wanted to take a moment to explain them. Podcasts are internet audio programs that you can download, and there are tons to choose from. They are way less heavy on data use than streaming a TV show or movie and are fun to listen to in the car. Lee started by downloading many of them of NPR, but there are other shows that famous people do via their websites. You can subscribe to them and they will automatically download to your phone when there’s a new episode, or you can choose to manually download them instead. There are thousands out there, and truly something for everyone. My recommendation is to just do a search on your phone on your computer for top 100 podcasts, and start browsing. My favorite’s are: More Perfect, Dear Frank and John, Still Untitled, Invisibilia, Freakonomics Radio, Hardcore History, Radio Lab, The Moth, This American Life, and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me- Lee t

The only good thing about the drive and me being hyper aware is I saw a beautiful female moose. She was on the other side of the road and I was VERY tempted to get out and take some closer pics, but really that is not a good idea. Still, any day that includes a moose sighting is a decent one, and despite the many hours in the car, I was glad we took the cautious approach and for once took the road more traveled!

July 27, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time at North Pole

Ok we didn’t go to THE North Pole, but we did go to North Pole, Alaska, and since that is probably the closest I will ever get to the real thing I am using it for this blog post title. It’s been a busy week here at the Glennallen campground so let me catch you up a bit before we move on to our North Pole adventure.

We were tired when we got back from Denali, and of course we were jammed pack on Monday our first day back. We are starting to get both traffic leaving Alaska and people coming in at the same time, which has definitely boosted our occupation numbers and we also got our annual visit from Good Sam. These rating visits are unscheduled, so they really do see you for what you are and I am happy to see we got a big jump in the scoring. Last year the campground rated 5.5/9.5/9 and this year we jumped to 7/9.5/9. This jump is in no small part to this summer’s efforts and I was particularly pleased to see the Site Attractiveness category raise from a .5 to a 1, which is the highest score. They specifically mentioned the new paint and new signs and this made both of us very happy. Also they specifically mentioned the Lend a Book and Lend a Movie programs which helped raise our entertainment score from a .5 to a 1. It really is a very nice little campground, and it’s been fun being a part of improving it.

We also had a visit from Les and Sue (Big Boomer on the RV-Dreams forum) who have been touring Alaska all summer and finally got to us on their way home. I offered to cook dinner, but Sue wouldn’t have any of that and brought us a complete meal including amazing halibut Les caught, vegetables, and a salad. She even brought utensils, plates, silverware, everything so I wouldn’t have to do a thing. So amazing and we had a wonderful visit with them and I really enjoyed getting to know them better. We last saw them in Quartzsite in the desert and here we were sharing halibut in Alaska. The RV-Dreams family is really a wonderful thing.

Sue and Lee are totally agreeing with each other

Les cooking up some amazing halibut

They were huge pieces and so yummy

The rice and veggies were great also. Did I mention I didn’t have to do one thing 🙂

Well I did contribute dessert. Huckleberry Tilamook ice cream with hand-picked raspberries and blueberries

I also spent some time this week trying to figure out the best way to create an Ebook and publish it. One of my goals for this summer was to try to write a recipe book for full-time RVers and before I started formatting I wanted to make sure I knew what was needed. People talk about publishing books like it’s easy, but I have to say the technical aspects are pretty intimidating. I finally found a website called Blurb and downloaded their free tool. Have no idea how this is going to work out yet, but at least I found a starting place. I realized his week we are half way through our stint here and I had better get started.

And I signed up for our absentee ballot. This was so very easy and that makes me super happy. When we setup our mail service in Green Cove Springs, Florida we also went to the voter registrars office and registered to vote. I received a voting card in the mail this week that had a phone number on it to call for an absentee ballot. I just assumed I would have some sort of issue, but it was super easy. I called and the very nice lady at the registrar’s office took Lee and I’s information over the phone and they are sending me the ballot. How cool is that. I have never missed a major election cycle since I came of age, so I was not looking forward to the prospect of missing my opportunity to vote. Especially not in this election. It was a very positive and easy experience so I thought I should mention that.

This week we also got some much-needed rain to help fight several fires that were started by lightning last week. I have been incredibly impressed by how capably the Forest service is handling multiple fires spread across a huge territory. I have been following their progress closely through a wonderful blog the forest service writes called AK Fire Info. The forest service gives daily updates on all the fires and more frequent updates on the fires that are threatening property. They also conduct public meetings when the fires get to a certain point to keep the public notified. Most impressively they move crews and equipment around as needed and their efficient use of limited resources based on necessity is extremely impressive. I also think it’s important that in some cases they let fires run their course. AS we have learned on the road fires are an important part of the ecological process and overzealous fire fighting can cause significant damage to the natural habitat and wildlife. We have been very lucky to have several pilots and other members of the team stay with us in our cabins the last few weeks and I am a huge fan of them both as people and for what they do.

The rain not only helped the fires but also helped our business as many people decided to hunker down for a few days and we are a nice place to do that. We even were completely full for the first time we have been working and it was a very busy week. So we were both a little tired on Saturday, and we got a later start than we normally do. We were heading up to Fairbanks for an overnight, but had several stops planned along the way. Although it was supposed to rain all weekend in Glennallen, the Fairbanks forecast was a little better and we were hoping we could get some nice pictures. It started out great too as we took a wonderful shot of Mt. Drum from a different angle than we normally see it.

Mt. Drum

Next we stopped at the Meiers Lake Roadhouse to drop off some fliers. The campgrounds here often reciprocate having flyers in each other’s locations, but I like to visit the sites when possible and judge for myself. The owners used to hunt in the area and bought the business in “retirement” (if you can call 14 hour days retirement) and are running it with their daughter, son, and son-in-law. It really is in a great spot on a cool lake, but it needs a ton of work still. One of my favorite parts though that is absolutely worth seeing is the on site Alaska Museum which was a private collection of a local and was donated to the roadhouse years ago as a museum. It had some incredibly cool stuff and I really enjoyed looking at it.

Meiers Roadhouse

Meiers Lake

Her husband shot this grizzly close by and always loved the area. I found out that the “meat was blue when they ate it and delicious”…way better than bears who eat fish apparently those taste nasty. Yes these are the kind of conversations you find yourself having in Alaska. Truly surreal.

The museum

The first picture I have seen of Sarah Palin anywherfe

This was really neat and antigue papoose

This was really neat a metal baby carrier

Loved, loved these

Not sure how the gold miners could fit in this tub. They all most have been really skinny

After Paxton, the next section of the drive was really pretty. We saw the most amazing views at Summit Lake and Lee went on a side road between MM 197 and 198 and we saw the most amazing campgrounds and the Gulkana Glacier. Apparently the Arctic Man snowmobile race takes place there every spring, which is probably why the road is in such great shape. That being said Lee kept going further and further in and the road kept getting worse and worse until we were finally driving on what I thought was creek bed. At that point I made him turn around. Yes I know I am no fun.

Right after the turn off onto the back road

A little rig porn 🙂

Monument for road builder. See lots of those here which makes sense when you know what these folks had to go through to get the roads built

The 360 degree views were spectacular

The road when it was pretty good

Close-up of the Gulkana Glacier

The colors were amazing

What’s left when they recede is pretty interesting to me

And we finally got a close up view of the pipeline. There is a nice pull-over spot where you can walk right up to it and Lee got pretty excited and actually asked to have his picture taken. That’s a rarity.

It’s pretty tall

With big bolts lol

I loved the sign…was tempted but this is not something you want to mess around with

We were definitely on a roll and when we went through DElta Junction we saw they had a farmer’s market going on so we stopped there as well. I got a present for my nephew and bought some beautiful home-made rolls. That town reminded me quite a bit of Vermont.

So it was a fun drive with relatively good weather and we hadn’t even gotten to the best part yet. I got an email from a reader Carole who is both a full-time rver and fellow Ohian. She grew up in Westerville, Ohio, (which is where Lee’s dad lives) and we were all in Columbus area high schools during the same time period. Carole and her husband (retired police officer Scott) have been fulltiming for the past year in a conversion van. Yep, a conversion van and although I had read about folks doing this I had never actually met one. They wintered last year by house sitting in Seattle and this summer flew to Alaska (to save miles on their vehicle) and are camphosting at Birch Lake Recreation Park. The receive a free dry (no water) cabin, a small subsidy, and access to a state vehicle for local errands, and amazing lake views including a resident moose who comes and hangs out in the water when it’s quiet.

Really cute cabin

Propane fridge and wood stove

The back porch

and a few steps away is this amazing view

Ever meet people and feel you have known them forever? Well that’s how it was with Carole and Scott. Maybe it’s because we are from the same place and roughly the same age, but we jumped right into conversation as if we were lifetime friends. I really really enjoyed talking to them and will enjoy following their travels on Facebook since we are friends now!

A Midwestern spread. I don't even know where she found the sausage and grapes but it was yummy

A Midwestern spread. I don’t know where she found the sausage and grapes but it was yummy

Scott and Carole

After leaving we finally reached North Pole, Alaska which is where I started this post lol. What can I say other than I totally loved it. I also went a little crazy, spending more money there than anywhere else we had been, but I just had to buy my kids, brother, and sister a North Pole Christmas ornament! It was a ton of fun and I absolutely recommend a stop.

All the street names are Santa related and the lightpoles are striped or have candy canes on them

Giant Santa Statue

Lee thought the Santa Statue had creepy eyes 🙂

We didn’t go in the Reindeer farm because we just saw reindeer. There was an RV park back there as well, and ample RV parking near the workshop

Santa’s House

Amazing inside.

They had some very neat toys

And Santa even came out and talked to everyone for a while

Some things in life are exactly what you think they will be, and Santa’s House was definitely like that!! Next up…First Time in Fairbanks.

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Camper Chronicles

Travel Tales from Working Full Time RVers

Author: Lee and Tracy

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First Time at North Pole