June 29, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time in Valdez

I covered the first 3/4 of the road to Valdez in my previous post First Time Walking on a Glacier so I won’t cover the first part of the journey again, but I will say that every drive is different depending on the light and the clouds and how much water has melted. The last 40 miles of the trip which was all new territory was absolutely amazing and definitely proved that this Highway deserves its designation as one of the most beautiful in America. It was cloudy going down and over Thompson Pass, but it was clear that the views on a clear day would be spectacular. Along with just seeing Valdez we also had a mission, to visit the campgrounds in the area and see which one would be best to stay at for my birthday. Kellie, Bill, Jo, and Ben will all be here and since we have booked a Glacier cruise in Valdez for one of the four days we are taking off, we all thought it would be best to stay close to Valdez. Plus I figure by that point I will want a change of scenery, so I had a list of campgrounds to check out along the way.

The first one is called Blueberry Lake and is a first come, first serve dry campground that costs $15 a night. The sits were well spaced and the views would be spectacular, but they only had a few sites that would fit our and Bill/Kelly’s rig. Since it was first-come, first-serve we regretfully had to pass but I would absolutely recommend staying here if you are passing through the area and it has space. It is buggy though because of the dense foliage so definitely come prepared.

The views from Thompson Pass

Blueberry lake campsite

Blueberry Lake

Next up was Keystone Pass which I was really looking forward to. I had been told that two major waterfalls were right off the road, but no description prepared me for the sheer majesty of these falls. I absolutely loved both of them and particularly enjoyed that there was plenty of parking and unlike most major falls you could walk right up to them. Phenomenal!!

The Keystone Canyon was beautiful even without the falls. See the water running alongside on the left

Bridal Veil stood over 300 feet tall and was stunning

You can see why it’s got its name

Then right down the road was Horsetail Falls. It was hard to pick a favorite, but I think I liked Horsetail better because you could climb the rocks and get “inside” the falls.

It was hard to tear ourselves away, but I knew we had to drive back through the pass to get home so next stop was Allison’s Point. To get to the campground we turned onto Dayville Road prior to reaching Valdez. Whether or not you are going to the campground I definitely recommend the drive as this is a major fish hatchery area and wildlife abounds. We didn’t see any bears but saw an eagle with it’s nest in a tree and two eagles down on a log in the bay. We spent lots of time getting pictures and Lee walked down on the bay and got VERY close to the two eagles getting some amazing shots.

My shot of the eagle flying to its nest

The nest …couldn’t see any babies but could hear them

The eagle stayed on watch and was not happy we were down below

Lee’s shot of the eagle on watch.

The bay

My shot from the road was ok

Lee’s from the ground was better

And this one was fantastic!!

The bay even without the eagles was beautiful and it’s a shame the campground is little more a pull off on the road. The views from the campground weren’t that great either although you could walk down to the water and see some amazing views.

Allison’s Point “campground”

The walk to the bay

If the sites would have been on the ocean proper I couldn’t have resisted, but we still thought we could do better. I was getting hungry though so we went straight to Valdez and ate at a local place called the Alaska Halibut House. It has been around for some time and at $21 for a full halibut basket (4 pieces of fish and some fries) the prices were pretty steep. The fish was local, and tasted ok plus my half order price of $11.75 was way more reasonable, still I certainly wasn’t blown away.

Alaska Halibut House

This was the $21 dollar portion size

The dock was pretty though and we went to a fantastic gift shop called Orca Bay Gifts. The place was crammed full of native alaskan made items and Lee was very patient as I went and looked at every single thing. They also had a small army surplus section in the back which kept Lee entertained and we ended up buying a couple of things for the beet harvest.

The view from the docks

Amphitheater at the docks

Civic Center

Marmots living in the rocks by the dock were very cool

The babies

Lee’s pic

Ferry Station

Orca Bay

The town was so beautiful with mountains and or water on all sides but unfortunately we didn’t much care for the town itself. I was really looking forward to visiting the Safeway and found it to be dirty and cramped with some empty shelves (they were out of milk) and rude staff. Plus the prices were no better than the small IGA we have in our town so definitely grocery runs to Valdez are off the table. The folks at the Halibut House weren’t that nice, the in town campgrounds were cramped little parking lots and really the whole town (except for that one gift shop) was a serious disappointment. So we headed back out of town and stopped out our last campground on the way, Glacier Campground. Glacier Campground is a military campground that is also open to the public and they had some sites with electric ($30 for 30 amp and $50 for 50 amp) and some older well wooded dry sites. It wasn’t bad by any stretch and was out of town so we thought this might be a good choice.

Safeway in Valdez

One of the group camping sites was really cool

One of the day use areas was really cool and had a little waterfall.

After getting some information to take back to the group (it’s first come, first serve), we continued down the road because there was a sign that said Valdez Glacier. Wow amd I glad we did, because stumbled across an amazing site. There is a lake that you can kayak on and pieces of glacier in the water that you can walk right up to. So, so cool and completely unexpected. Plus there is a large parking lot back there and no signs that say no overnight camping so we may try some boondocking back there if the group is up for it.

What we saw at the end of the road!

This piece had a huge rock in hit. For scale it was about the size of a car tire

Lee was fascinated by how the pieces of crystallized ice fit together like a puzzle

I wanted to walk on it

Success!!

You could see the water flowing under the ice

Can’t wait to do some kayaking

The professional outfit that was there had our exact same Sea Eagle

They even had a huge fire pit. This spot was awesome

Then we stopped in Old Valdez which is where the town stood prior to being completely destroyed by the Good Friday Tsunami of 1964. It was amazing how the land was taken over in such a short period of time. They had signs showing where the old buildings were and the views were once again spectacular.

Feeling excited we got to drive through Keystone Canyon again and this time we stopped at a tunnel in the rocks that was never finished because of a gun battle. Lee was very excited, but I refused to go all the way in. Instead I wandered down to another great waterfall and we sat on a rock chair overlooking to river and did some smooching. It was a great way to end a wonderful day and whatever you do if you visit Alaska, I definitely recommend the road to Valdez if not Valdez itself.

the “little” waterfall that didn’t even have a name

Lee was fascinated by the US Geological Survey camera

Cool rock chair someone built

The river view.

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June 25, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Filing Taxes as a Small Business

Let me start by saying I am in no way a tax expert and everyone’s situation is completely unique, but I wanted to share our first experience with filing taxes as a small business as it might help others who are thinking of starting small businesses on the road. I should also say that I tend to be extremely conservative when it comes to filing. When we were kids, Lee worked for a small company that didn’t take taxes out and because we didn’t understand the self-employment rules we ended up owing the IRS $1,000, which was a significant amount of money to us back then. That was a truly unpleasant experience and one I will personally go to great lengths to avoid, so I always stay on the more conservative side of the line. For most of the years of our marriage, Lee and I both worked jobs where taxes were taken out, and since we had a mortgage and three kids, generally did fine with those deductions. As each child left though, we ended up owing more and more each year (despite adjusting what was taken out) so I have been extremely nervous about what this year would look like.

The first thing I did was get a tax accountant who understands the RV lifestyle. Our friends Jo and Ben who are traveling nurses recommended Travel Tax and after having a free conversation with Joe the owner, I decided he was the person for me. I talked to him at the beginning of the year to make sure I was collecting the information he would need as the year went along, and I also talked to my friend Howard of RV-Dreams who is an accountant and a lawyer and runs his own small businesses, to get his advice. Plus, just to be on the safe side, we put aside 50% of everything our small business made in a savings account just in case. Yes, I know that is overkill, but we were able to do that because I was still making money at my corporate job, and it gave me peace of mind. Despite all that preparation however, I was still nervous, and it didn’t help that we had to file an extension because we were traveling and working during the tax period and there was no time to have a meeting with him. Extensions are no big deal of course, but I really wanted to know how bad of a hit we were going to take.

This morning I finally had my meeting with Joe and imagine my surprise when I found out not only did we not owe, but would be getting a refund of $3,682!! How awesome is that?? The timing couldn’t be better as it more than covers the costs for getting up here, and gives us a little extra to splurge on a couple of day trips I really wanted to do but wasn’t sure I could absorb into our budget. I am not going to go crazy or anything, but a little bit should go towards something fun since it is unexpected money! I thought I would take a minute to explain how we are handling the business, just please keep in mind as I said earlier that I am in no way an expert.

We decided to setup Lee’s business as a sole proprietorship because we didn’t want to mess with filing an LLC in multiple states. We created Open Road, which is an umbrella company covering both the RV Repair and video production business and we filed a Schedule C using Lee’s social security number as the business ID. Lots of folks think you should file an LLC and I am not going to tell you any different, but it is a huge pain to file in multiple states when you travel a lot, and the additional protection people think they get from an LLC isn’t always the case. It was the simplest approach and starting out that’s what I needed and wanted…simple. We may change it later, but for right now it’s working for us. Because we don’t spend enough months in any one state we were unable to establish a tax home, and as such could not claim the mileage traveling from one job to another. That would have been a significant deduction and is well worth investigating with an accountant, but we didn’t want to be tied down to any place in particular. Again, that might change in time, but for right now it worked for us. We were able to deduct all of Lee’s purchases in equipment and supplies, and the costs for the websites, business cards, etc. The start up costs for everything ran around $6,000 (equipment in the video world is expensive), and although we turned a profit last year, it was a small one. Most importantly for us we were able to deduct a portion of our internet costs. Lee needs to upload and download videos and we have 80 GB a month which runs us around $363 per month in internet costs. We calculated about 40% of those costs are going to the business, and this was a major deduction as well.

I was concerned about not showing a big profit, but as the accountant explained there is an expectation businesses will lose or make little money the first several years. What you can’t do though is have a business that loses money year after year and is obviously a tax shelter. That shouldn’t be a problem for us though, as this is how we will be funding the lifestyle in part so it needs to be profitable to exist. I also got some clarification on what we can deduct for the jobs we are working where taxes are being taken out. Again, no mileage to get to the position or for the commute, but if we travel for the job (ie: run to Anchorage to pick up supplies) we can deduct that mileage. There is a lot of grey in the tax code around small businesses, so my major lesson out of these conversations is that your decisions need to pass a “reasonable” test in case you get audited. Since that’s where my head goes anyway, we should be OK. One cool thing I did learn is we can start a retirement fund for the business and if we were in a situation where our income was getting on the high side (that would be awesome) we can put money in a retirement account up until October of the following year. This is nice because you can get to the end of the year, see your tax situation and decide if you want to take some of the revenue and put it into the small business version of a 401K. That would be a great problem to have and it’s good to know we can wait until the end of the year to decide.

Oh, and we got a very nice deduction because we put solar on the RV. Last year RV Solar Solutions put a system on for us and we got a 30% tax credit on the full amount. This was a great bonus, and a big part of our refund this year. If you live in your RV it is your primary residence, and both solar and the interest paid on an RV loan are tax deductible just like if you had a sticks and bricks home.

So it was a good year, and we are leaving the tax money we have set aside right where it is for 2016. Looking ahead I want to make sure we have plenty to cover 2016 especially because I am going to end up paying the tax penalty on our health insurance for several months. Back in April my COBRA costs jumped to $1,000 and we decided to buy a catastrophic plan for $361 a month and pay the penalty instead of taking the higher costing COBRA. Starting in 2017 we will get on the Affordable Care Plan (if it still exists). I feel like we are in a good place though, and I certainly am much better informed about taxes than I used to be. My only piece of advice about this is if you become a full time RVer you might want to get a new accountant. We loved the guy we had in New Hampshire, but he simply didn’t know enough about the other state rules or how the rules applied to full time RVers, or mobile workers. You don’t want to lose out on deductions, or worse, get yourself into trouble because your accountant is simply unaware. Yes, you can absolutely do it yourself, and at some point I may go that route, but at least in the beginning I wanted an expert to provide me with their expertise.

Take care and next time we will get back to the pretty pictures and the fun stuff 🙂

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June 22, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time at Liberty Falls and Chitina

Lee needed some concentrated time to work on editing some projects that he needs to get done, so on Saturday I volunteered at the Visitors Center here in town. I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn more about the area and they are very short staffed there so I really just wanted to help them out. The woman who runs the visitors center, Jan, has lived here for 25 years and knows the region inside and out. Not only did I learn a lot of new things about what the locals do, but it was also fun helping the folks who came into the center. By 2pm I was pooped out though. This past week we changed our days off from Sunday/Monday to Saturday/Sunday and have just worked 14 days with only 1 day off. I found myself feeling really tired and spent the rest of the day just relaxing. The next morning I actually slept in until 10am! I guess I really did need the rest. It was a very windy day and it was raining in Valdez so Lee and I changed our plan and decided to go to Chitina instead. I didn’t have high expectations of Chitina based on other blogs I had read, but I was pleased to see a waterfall was along the route, and you know I love my waterfalls, so off we went.

We headed out and the weather did get a little better as we entered Edgerton highway, plus the road itself was in really good shape. We were tooling along and suddenly we saw a weird animal on the side of the road. Lee stopped and I got out because I thought they were musk oxen, but instead we discovered they were Tibetan Yaks!!

Yakkety Yak Don’t Talk Back!! Sorry… couldn’t help it 🙂

The Circle F Ranch they were being raised on was open for business and since we were curious we stopped in. It turns out that the owners were professional hunting guides for many years, and have been involved in the Alaskan Conservancy (even visiting the White House several times). When they had grandchildren they decided to settle in a little bit (although they still act as guides part-time) and they did a lot of research on what to raise. They decided on Tibetan Yak because they are pretty mellow animals, and have naturally adapted to a colder climate, and only eat 1% of their body weight a day versus a cow which eats 3% a day. The meat is supposed to be leaner than beef and unlike a cow you can shear them for fiber. The “wool” is crazy soft (more than cashmere) and they had some beautiful sweaters and yarn for sale. The prices though were crazy high at over $300 for a sweater, still I could see the appeal. We really enjoyed our time talking to them, but then headed back down the road towards Liberty Falls.

The small gift store onsite. They offer “Interpretive Yak Tours” for money, but we just watched them through the fence

The clothes were beautiful, but way out of my price range

Not too far down the road we saw the sign for Liberty Falls. This is an interesting little state recreation area because it is almost all falls. There is a very small parking lot, some really beautiful tent sites, and three spaces that can fit truck campers, or very small trailers. If you have a bigger rig there is one place to park up on the road, but if you are in your car you can go down and park inside. The day use fee for over 30 minutes is $5 (it’s honor system and we paid), but you could also jump out and see the falls and then get right back in your vehicle, because the falls are right there!! Really, really cool rock formations surround the falls and we spent quite a bit of time walking the stream and taking a myriad of pictures. I couldn’t believe no one local had mentioned this place, because I thought it was terrific, but I guess that is what happens when you have this much natural beauty around you. Needless to say I took a ton of pictures and here are a few of my favorites.

The tents sites were really great, running all along the stream and if we were tent campers I would definitely recommend staying here. It was beautiful and peaceful and the sound of rushing water totally drowned out the road noise or that of any other people.

It’s a good thing the falls were such a hit because Chitina, as expected, was not so great. Chitina is a town that lies on the Copper River and is known for its great salmon fishing. It is also a rough fisherman’s town with a couple of bars, lots of RV’s parked down by the river, and it’s really windy. The river is full of silt in this section and is an ugly brown color and that coupled with the wind made it not a great place to hang out. They do have fishwheels there, which is a huge draw, but the day we went none were in use. Fishwheels are used by the locals for subsistence fishing, but generally they are placed on private property and you need permission to get anywhere close to them. The best part of the visit was the eagle I saw on the sandbar. Where there are fish there are eagles, and this one stayed in place a long time, probably because of the extreme wind.

Bridge at the Copper River

The views were pretty washed out from the grit in the air, would have liked to seen this view on a clearer day

Fish Wheel

To go down to the water you need to get your RV through this, we saw some RV’s had done it though

The eagle!

We went a little farther down, but then turned around and headed back and luckily caught site of a moose right next to the ranger station in town. Lee got this fantastic pic!! That was a nice cap to what seemed like it was going to be an average day, but turned out to have some special moments.

June 18, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

What Does my Alaska Work Kamping Day Look Like?

I thought I would take a few minutes to walk you through my average day, since many people who are contemplating work kamping may wonder about that.

I get up around 7:30am and take about an hour in the morning to drink my coffee and relax with some computer games or Facebook. During this time Lee (who works 8-5 generally) is getting his shower and finishing up his morning so I tend to just hang out on the couch until he leaves. After he is gone, I make some toast (occasionally I will throw in some bacon for a protein kick) and then take a shower and get dressed. This whole routine is complete by 9am and then I have a decision on how to spend my free 1-1/2 hours until I start to prep to go to work.

Some days I blog, other days I clean the house, and I try to get out as much as I can. 1-1/2 hours isn’t a lot of time to work with so the activities need to be short in duration. I have done a couple of cool things though. One day I planted some herbs and a tomato plant in a Topsy Turvy that I found at the local “everything” store. Tomatoes don’t grow well in this soil so I bought the hanging kind to plant and then, bonus, saw it had additional holes for herbs. I have always wanted a fresh herb garden, so I thought let’s give it a try and when Lee was in Anchorage getting the brakes done he bought me some herbs.

The only two topsy turvy’s in the store, but the price was good at $9 each

The finished product. Looks great…let’s see how it grows!

Another day when I was feeling particularly antsy I drove down to the Tazlina “mall”. Now don’t get too excited. It’s called a mall because it actually has multiple stores in the same building. There is a liquor store, hardware store, hair/nail place, and Casa de la Arte which was my real destination. I met the owner at the Chamber of Commerce meeting and really liked her, and since she has products made by local artisans I wanted to check it out. It’s a cool little store filled with Alaskan made products, and I enjoyed my chat with the owner Naomi. She is in the process of moving up to Glenallen (which I think is a great choice) and since she lives here year round is also working on offering classes in the winter to the locals. It was a nice little side trip and the Tazlina Mall is right off Hwy 4 so it only took me 15 minutes to get there.

The Tazlina “mall”

Feed Supply, liquor store, and hardware/fishing supplies. Everything an Alaska needs 🙂

Have to check out the hair place when my next cut is due

Casa de la Arte

Loved these antler coat and door hangers

Local beadwork

So so cute

Made by a local Athanascan

I really like these too. Regular head bands hurt my head

The magnet I decided to purchase was hand painted, but the owner gave it to me as a gift to welcome me to Alaska. So sweet

The magnet I decided to purchase was hand painted, but since Naomi made it she gave it to me as a gift to welcome me to Alaska. So sweet

The other thing I really want to work into my routine is to drive down and check out the Copper River where we saw the eagles. Once the fish are fully running I hope to get some more great shots and this is something I can get up early and do. As a side note, I have been wanting to mention how many abandoned US Army vehicles are up here. The military built these roads during WWII, and you find old ambulances, Jeeps, and trucks everywhere. Many have been restored and are being used by locals, but it’s always interesting when you run across them. Since Copper Center was a military supply town for a while it has several of them, sort of strewn around in various stages of decay.

At 10:30am I eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I tried holding off eating until my lunch break at 3:30, but I just can’t wait that long so a small sandwich tides me over until then. Since most of my physical activity is during the start of my shift (mosquitoes are much less prevalent in the mornings) I need the extra energy. I walk over to the office and get a quick hand off from whoever started the day, then I check the emails for any reservations. Confirmed reservations are printed and put in our reservation book, and if they are for the same day I make sure I assign them a spot, and place a pink slip on the board to reserve the spot. Then I take the cordless phone (it works all throughout the campground) and walk the sites looking for trash in the fire pits. I am amazed by what people throw in there, and since a dirty fire pit is a pet peeve of mine I make that walk every morning. Next I grab the weed eater and start working on a section. I try to keep an eye on the office, but there’s a sign on the door letting people know that if there’s nobody in the office they can pick any open spot. I’ll walk up to them at that point and take them up to the office and check them in. Luckily there is usually someone near the office at this time and since we only get a few check-ins before 2pm it usually isn’t a big deal. After I weed whack it’s back in the office and another check of the emails for reservations. As a side note, I would normally be cleaning bathrooms and cabins during this time, but Darlene hired a local retired person to take care of that. I am certainly not complaining, as I would much rather do yard work and working in the office than clean restrooms. I didn’t ask her to hire someone, but I certainly appreciate it.

The next hour is spent on administrative tasks, and then I have my lunch. It’s been an adjustment but I enjoy my 3pm lunch time. I eat heavy or light depending on whether Lee is cooking that night, and have enough time to watch a television show. Then it’s back to the office, and that’s when things start to get really busy. How busy we are and how early the “rush” starts depends totally on the weather. On cloudy/rainy days people stop driving earlier, and we start getting check-ins as early as 3pm. On sunny days people drive longer and we will get very busy between 7pm-8pm. Check-ins are my favorite things I do here. Lots of our guests are from other countries and have varying levels of English. I love helping those folks, and the less English they know the greater the challenge, which I enjoy. So far I have met people from England, Australia, Germany, Holland, Finland, France, and Belgium and Switzerland. Germans are by far the most common and since I have some German ancestry in my background I feel I am particularly good with them. I am friendly and helpful, yet as efficient as possible, and really think I am pretty good at this. As I have learned more about the area I love giving first-hand accounts of places I have seen or eaten at, but I also know when people are extremely road weary and just want to be checked in with minimal fuss.

The reservations process is multiple steps, and really only one person at a time can be checked in. Oddly, people usually come in batches, and the couple of times I had multiple groups waiting Darlene or Marc (the owners) would come over and chat with them while they waited. They fill out a form while I look at their rig and determine which spot is best. We try to put them in a slightly larger spot than they need but save the really big ones for people with big rigs who might come later. Then I process their payment (usually a credit card, which I have gotten pretty good at) and while doing that I draw on our map their location and explain how to get to their site. I give them the Wifi password, and their faces usually light up when I say we have strong Wifi, and it is throughout the campground. Then if they want more information I will make a recommendation on a place to eat or see in the area. The check in takes around 5-6 minutes, but information can take a while longer and those conversations are really fun.

There is downtime in between guest check-ins though, and if I have time I love to listen to Caribou Clatter. This is absolutely the coolest thing because many people are in the bush with no cell coverage, and the local radio station allows people to communicate with their loved ones via the airwaves. Four times a day they read off emails from folks, and they range from “Love you Papa, will see you soon,” to long messages about what’s going on at home. It’s absolutely charming and is available on streaming, so if you have a few minutes around 12:20pm or 5:20pm Alaska time (4 hours earlier than eastern time) take a listen. It reminds me of another time, and is really, really neat that the local station offers this service. I also read the local paper, the Copper River Record. At 75 cents per week it’s a bargain and everything a small town paper should be. This week one of the headline stories was about a rainbow that occurred at 9:30 pm! Breaking news. They are also ran an article on how the town was formed ( building the highway through what was then swamp sounds horrendous) and there is lots of local information on happenings in the region. Listening to the local radio station and reading the local paper make me feel more connected with the town and what is happening.

On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we have dessert nights. I premake the evening’s desert after lunch, and then put it in the oven at the appropriate time. I am cooking for 10-50 people, depending on reservations, and have never made such large desserts before. I do have a full kitchen and nice oven to work with in the owner’s cabin though, which is great. I don’t think I could make such big batches in the RV oven. Then at 7pm we ring the triangle, yes there really is one, and I serve desserts and chat with people. The second person makes the bonfire and keeps an eye on the front desk, and depending on how long service takes I stay and then pull the remaining desert and wash the dishes. I like to cook , but I never was much of a baker so this should be interesting for me. I am looking for easy and good in the recipe department and the ones I think fit the bill I will add to the recipes here.

My first dessert night was Rhubarb and Apple Crisp and folks said they really liked it. The vanilla Tillamook ice cream certainly didn’t hurt, and the rhubarb itself was local and very, very good. It has a nice tartness, but not overwhelming. There were some women from Texas and I told them to be honest, and they said rhubarb reminded them of their childhood, so that is nice. On the second dessert night I made Swedish Applesauce cake, and we still had leftover rhubarb and some watermelon. We were almost full that night, so we got quite a crowd. After serving all the desserts I wander around and chat a bit. It was nice seeing a couple of very young french hikers meet a much older Swiss couple, and they all happily chatted in French for awhile. Meeting folks is fun, and watching them meet each other is even more rewarding Finally, at the end of the night I close out the drawer. Occasionally people are coming in late, and closing gets delayed a bit, but usually I can finish in around 15 minutes. Then I go home and have dinner with Lee at around 8:30. Lee’s cooking most of the dinners, because he’s done at 5pm. It’s nice to be fed, but I don’t think I will ever get used to eating dinner so late. It doesn’t bother Lee in the slightest though.

So that’s my day. My favorite part is definitely helping the guests and there is enough variety in every day I am not bored. The combination of some physical activity and office work is good for me and definitely keeps things interesting.

My little dessert station

Recipe

Rhubarb and Apple Crisp

3/4 cup sugar
3 TBL cornstarch
3 cups “small bite-sized” sliced fresh rhubarb
2 cups “small bite-sized” cut apples (blueberries or strawberries can be substituted)
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 real butter, melted
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
Vanilla ice cream, optional but recommended

In a large bowl combine sugar and cornstarch, mix well.
Add chopped rhubarb and apples; toss to coat
Spoon into an 8 inch square baking dish
In a separate small bowl combine oats, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Mix well
Add melted butter and mix until resembles coarse crumbs
Sprinkler crumbs over fruit
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until bubbly and fruit is tender
Let sit for at least 15 minutes
Serve warm with half a scoop of vanilla ice cream or by itself.

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.

June 14, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Walking on a Glacier

Glenallen is a natural stopping point on the way to Valdez and I kept hearing from our guests how beautiful the drive down there was. Their feedback, coupled with the fact that this road was named one of the most beautiful in America made the drive an obvious choice for our first sight seeing day trip. Our goal was to make it down to Worthington Glacier and put a major check on my bucket list by walking on it. So we got up on Sunday, packed a lunch, and headed out. The first 40 miles or so from Glenallen was nothing special. The road is not in great shape (it’s not Tok Cutoff bad, but not great) and the scenery was largely forest. Then about 40 miles in, we saw this.

One of the coolest parts of the drive from that point forward, and something it actually took me awhile to realize, was there were waterfalls everywhere. The lines of snow coming down from the mountains are actually part snow and part waterfall. Once I was clued in, I was transfixed. I haven’t seen that many waterfalls all in one place since I visited Kauai with my mom, and being able to stop and take pictures of them was amazing.

The upper section is waterfall and it runs under the snow cover, which is why I missed it at first

Some were more obvious 🙂

Along with the numerous waterfalls was breathtaking scenery. Glacier rivers ran through the scenes along with many different types of mountain terrain. It really was a feast for the eyes and it was difficult not to stop every 5 seconds and take a picture.

We also caught some glimpses of the pipeline as we traveled. I have been hearing about the pipeline my whole life and I don’t know what I expected but aesthetically it wasn’t really a big deal. I can’t comment on how it impacts animals, but the pipeline itself was largely unobtrusive as it sat pretty far back from the road and usually was hidden by pine forest.

Then suddenly we turned a corner, and there was the glacier. We had seen a glacier on the way to Alaska, but the Worthington Glacier is much closer to the road and appears much bigger. It has been designated a Federal Monument and there is a nice day use area to park in so you can walk up. The terrain to get there is loose gravel, but if you are careful it’s definitely walkable. Or you can just stop at the paved section and take a picture from there. If you are at all able though I absolutely recommend walking up. I’ll let the pictures show you why.

The walk to the glacier looks much worse than it was. See the little people on the left

These giant boulders were pushed by the glacier and then left when it receded. They were huge

The view from behind as we were walking along the mostly dry lake bed was amazing in and of itself

Our first views of the glacier made the walk so worth it. The group of kids on top had a guide and equipment and walked up into the glacier itself. Not recommended unless you have metal spikes for your shoes.

I’m touching a glacier!!

Took so many pictures of this shot from slightly different perspectives. Wow.

Lee getting some video

There were some people there, but everyone tooks turns getting their shot and allowing others to do the same. Sunday mornings are a great time to see things like this

There were some people there, but everyone took turns getting their shot and allowing others to do the same. Sunday mornings are a great time to see things like this

This is what I had to walk on to get onto the rock in the picture abaove. It is dirt, rock, some snow, and a thick layer of ice. Very slippery, but I wanted to walk on it

This is what I had to walk on to get onto the rock in the picture above. It is dirt, rock, some snow, and a thick layer of ice. Very slippery, but I wanted to walk on it

What I didn’t expect were the waterfalls. The running water has cut the most beautiful “stair-step” gorge, and we actually spent more time on the rocks with the water. The people who were visiting largely just looked at the glacier and skipped the waterfall area, so we were along down there for a long time. Unfortunately, Lee kept leaning closer and closer to get “the shot” and I finally said “Veto” because I was afraid he was going to fall in. The water was running very fast and going into the gorge would have been extremely dangerous. He was having a wonderful time though. I got some of the best pictures of him I have ever gotten and he said it was in his top 5 experiences since becoming a full timer.

I loved how this waterfall went down then across and then down again. So beautiful

Loved the water running under these snow mounds

Blowing Lee a kiss

this is where I called Veto!

Not ok you goober!

It was an absolutely lovely day and we could have pressed on and seen more, but we decided to call it a day. We are here for several months and there is no need to cram it all in, so we drove back home had a nice dinner, watched some TV and went to bed. Some things are special enough that they should really stand on their own and this experience was definitely like that.

Here’s some of the video Lee shot. If you have the bandwidth, be sure to watch it in 1080 and full screen. He didn’t put in any music because the waterfalls make their own music.

(I take no responsibility for the video making you need to pee. – Lee)

June 11, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

No Feelings of Resentment

I know, it’s an odd title for a post, but hopefully it will make sense in a minute. One of our big concerns about taking a work kamping job for the entire summer was that would we feel resentful about the job because it was “keeping us” from seeing the beautiful stuff. We spent hours talking to people about this possibility, and a large part of the reason we chose Alaska for our work kamping job was because we felt the more dramatic the location the less likely we would feel resentful. Keep in mind that we’ve spent the last five months doing mostly what we wanted, and that’s how most people in this lifestyle like it. And although we picked Alaska, we knew we weren’t staying in one of the tourist destinations, like Denali. Several people who used to live here said, “Why would you go to Glenallen?” or “It’s the most boring place in Alaska.” Seriously, lots of people were concerned both by our choice of work kamping for the summer and by where in Alaska we were choosing to park for four months.

Consequently we were a little nervous. Maybe we would feel resentful, or unhappy, or “stuck” because we couldn’t do whatever we wanted. It turns out that that hasn’t been the case at all. I know it’s still early (we are only just starting week 3 here), but so far neither one of us feels that way at all. On the contrary, we really like the work we are doing. Both of us feel like it’s a fair days work for a fair day’s pay, and we get to do it in a beautiful place with truly spectacular weather. I am sure there are more breathtaking places in Alaska, but it’s pretty amazing right here. I freely admit a huge part of that is the way that Darlene and Marc are treating us. We have been working in all aspects of the campground, and the little improvements we have been allowed to make are really rewarding. When someone borrows a DVD for the night, or grabs a book, I feel great about that. When I complete a section with the weed eater, I get immediate satisfaction because it looks so much nicer. There is plenty of work, and we go to sleep tired and satisfied with a job well done, which is no small thing. In my corporate job I often experienced feelings of “Am I really making a difference?”, but here the difference we’re making is immediate and noticeable. Plus, Darlene and Marc truly seem to appreciate our help. They are not falling all over themselves or anything (which is good because that makes us uncomfortable anyway), but they take the time to express their gratitude for what we’re doing. They also are really concerned that we have a good time while we are here. They are keeping an eye on our experience outside of work and as much as possible making sure that we are having a good time.

Having said all that, I am really struggling with the transition from working for a large corporation to a small business. All of my adult work experience was for 2 extremely large corporations, and I liked it that way. There were rules, tons and tons of them, and over time I learned how to navigate the complicated environment. When I would get frustrated by how long change took, I would think longingly of working for a smaller company where changes could be implemented quickly. As a “change agent” the bulk of my job was talking people into making changes, implementing those changes, and then monitoring the results. I liked it very much, but sometimes it felt like I was pushing a big boulder up a hill. Now I am in a situation where change is relatively easy, but what I didn’t count on was a much higher level of ambiguity. I never was very good with ambiguity, I always put it on my reviews as a self-improvement category, and it honestly never occurred to me that in a small business things would be so fluid.

At first I thought we were all just “settling in”, and maybe that is the case, but more likely it is the nature of a small business. One of the major advantages of small businesses over large corporations is the ability to be nimble and respond quickly to changing business needs. Here I am seeing that in action every day. On the one hand it is heady stuff. Having the ability to make a change and immediately see the impact, good or ill, on the customer and/or revenue stream. On the other hand, it creates an environment where every day, or even every hour can be different. That’s new for me, and honestly I am still adjusting. To be clear I am not talking about adapting to a customer need on the fly. This I like and think I am very good at. It is changes in how we do paperwork, close out the night, clean the bathrooms, etc, that leave me feeling uneasy. A huge part of me yearns for the structure that I found so confining for all those years. Contrary right? All in all this is a very good experience for me. The odds are that we will be working in small business environments much more than with large corporations, and I need to learn how to function effectively in this world as well. Luckily, since Lee has a lot more experience in this arena he has been helping me find my way. And again, Marc and Darlene have been very understanding as I muddle through.

At this point you might be thinking “At your age why put yourself through all of that?”. Well, unlike most of our peers, we always knew we would have to work on the road. In order to travel as we wished, we also knew we would have to work in different capacities than we had in the past. We could be resentful of the fact that we have to work at all and then transfer those feelings of resentment to any job we have, but what is the point in that? I know some work kampers do that, and frankly, shame on them. We aren’t going to stop being who we are as workers simply because we make less money and have less responsibility. At the end of every day we want to feel like we provided more value than the money we were paid, but we also need to leave the job at the end of the day. That’s tough for both of us, but we are working on it. Not everything is our problem to solve here, and the trick is recognizing that and being OK with it. That really is the key, and at almost 50 this is not a skill I have ever been able to master. I absolutely need to figure that out though, or I will start feeling resentful, and that would totally be on me. No one is asking me to take that on, it’s just in my nature, but if I am going to make my life all about a job, I might as well go back to the corporate world. I went to a lot of trouble to leave all that behind.

Anyway, the work is good, the people are nice, and we are in a beautiful place. We thought that combination would be enough for us, and so far it really is. To slightly change subjects though, I should say that how we define a beautiful place may be different than other people. The country is full of breathtaking vistas and many RVers make a tour of them and after a few years are done. For me a beautiful place is about more than the view. It’s about the people, the animals, the art, and the quirky little attractions we find along the way. When you drive through a place and get out and take “the picture” you can say you were there and you experienced it, but the level of experience is quite different. Don’t get me wrong, there are many, many, places where we have done just that, and that’s just fine, but as I have said before when you “live” in a place, the experience is different. The type of beauty you see is different.

How can I explain this? Picture a beautiful landscape photograph of a mountain with a forest and a river in front of it. The overall scene is breathtaking, but there is also beauty in every little corner. The flowers, the trees, the birds, maybe an animal all live in one little corner. You can kayak on the river, hike the trails, see the view at different times of day in different light and in different weather. That big, beautiful mountain scene is made up of many smaller little vignettes, and if you just jump out and take a picture, you will never get to experience any of that. Not that it is all good of course. There are bugs, overgrown trails, other people, and bad weather that can all get in the way of experiencing the area. And it can be boring. Some days I am out and everything I see has an innate beauty and other days I feel like if I see one more tree, rock, or whatever I will go crazy. I don’t love every landscape (there were whole sections of desert that I didn’t care for) and I don’t love every experience despite the beautiful setting (10 straight days of rain in the Redwoods comes to mind.). I get bored, frustrated, annoyed, and irritated just like before, sometimes all in one day. The difference is on the whole I still have the feeling of “I can’t believe this is my life!”. When I compare the “now” to the “before” it amazes me. Three years ago the thought of me spending the summer working in Alaska was unthinkable. Seriously, it would never have even crossed my mind as a possibility. And now that I am actually doing it, and for once in my life I am trying to really live in the moment of it.

I could spend my time focusing on the things that I don’t like, but why in God’s name would I do that to myself? I could also Pollyanna, pie in the sky, gloss over the reality of the experience, but again, why? I spent too many years of my life thinking about “someday” and that someday is here right now. I have no expectation of perfection (Lee and I may differ in that respect). All of the really great things in my life have come with some level of sacrifice (raising children comes to mind), and since I don’t expect perfect what do I have to be resentful of? I know I am spending a lot of time on this, but so many people were genuinely concerned about us that I sort of feel like maybe I am missing something. Or maybe it’s just too soon, and that’s fair. We certainly do better when things are new than later down the road when the shiny wears off. I hope not though. I hope this is the start of a new way of seeing things, and a new way of living.

We will see, and as always, all I can do is be as honest with myself and all of you as I can bear to be.

But really, this doesn’t suck. At all.

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June 8, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

What is Living in Alaska Like?

Our preferred method of travel is to spend enough time in an area to get a feel for what living there would be like, and we were excited about our four months in Alaska because we thought we would really get to know the land and the people who lived there. After a couple of weeks though I have to say, I can’t come close to answering what living here is like. It’s always very clear that we are guests here, and the fact that it is very different in the summer here than it is in the winter is always front and center. Locals talk about things in that way. Sentences often start with “In the summer” because the same rules simply don’t apply the other 8 months of the year. So at this point I can only give you impressions and those impressions are only based on the tourist season. Because of that I thought about holding off on writing these thoughts down, but I am not so good at remembering initial feelings after time has passed, and more importantly these thoughts are what I have to work with right now. If this post ends up being all over the place, that is pretty reflective of where we have been the last two weeks, because Alaska is definitely its own unique place. Seriously, I have had an easier time getting settled into foreign countries than I have here.

A big part of it is the weather. The constant sunshine (roughly 19 hours a day at this point) is mildly unsettling. It hasn’t had the major impact on us that it has on some folks. I can fall asleep when it’s so bright outside you feel like you need sunglasses (not exaggerating that), but I don’t sleep as long. I tend to wake up at least once a night to go to the bathroom, and when I get up because it’s light outside it’s a little harder to fall back asleep. The robins are crazy chatty at dawn (which happens to come at 4am here) and I am countering that by using my white noise machine which works well, but at this point I am unwilling to darken all the windows and live in a cave, so I just have to deal with the light.

The temperature is also strange. In the sun it’s often T-shirt or even shorts warm, but the wind is generally cool and it often gets down to 40 at night, or cooler. Lots of layers are called for, and many days I am in jeans, then shorts, then back to jeans again and a T-shirt, fleece, coat, then back to T-Shirt again. It’s also very dry here (to the point where you feel dehydrated if you are not careful), but it also rains quite a bit. I know that doesn’t make any sense, but it’s true. In the same day it can be blustery, calm, pouring rain, and hot sunshine, sometimes the change can all happen in a couple of hours. I am not a meteorologist, but I am sure a big part of that is the mountains. And the wind here is interesting. Wind is your friend; it keeps the mosquitoes at bay, and since the wind is crisp, clean and sharp (almost like a fall wind but without the fall smell) I don’t mind it as much.

Oh, and speaking of the mountains, since we are working and have been very busy getting the grounds cleaned up (mowing lawns, weed whacking, planting flowers, etc) whole days go by when I don’t walk out to the road and see Mt. Drum. So when I do catch a glimpse of it my initial response is “Holy crap that’s big”. Here in our little corner of the world, you kind of forget about the wildness of the place. We’ve been very focused on prepping this campground for the mid-June business spike and as such our focus has been a little narrow, but even a short drive outside of town and you are in the wild. Speaking of town, Glennallen gives a whole new meaning to the word small town. We’ve seen lots of them in our travels, but up here a small town means less than 1,000 people, and that is considered a town. “The City” is Anchorage and that’s where people go for Best Buy, Home Depot, Walmart, etc. Everyone else makes do with coming to the nearest town which is Glennallen. So what does a town have here? It’s a really short strip along the main highway, and we have a few gas stations (one with towing and auto repair), a cell tower, one radio station (light christian rock and local talk radio), a hair place, a tiny library, a tiny school, a post office, an IGA, a general store with a small Radio Shack section, a Tru Value Hardware store, a laundromat, a couple of RV parks and lodges, two banks, two tiny churches, and two liquor stores. It also is the hub of medical treatment in the area with a dentist, chiropractor, and a small urgent care. Because of all the tourist activity and proximity to federal land, it also has a visitor’s center, department of fish and game, and BLM office.

IGA

The prices are weird. Hagen Daz ice cream is $22 a gallon, but Tilamook is $7.99 better than I paid in Glacier

The general store is a true hodge podge of stuff and their gas is 10 cents cheaper than anywhere else in town

Pizza, greeting cards, clothing, some groceries. You name it, they might have it

The Radio Shack section of the general store

The fishing section

So what don’t we have that almost every small town in the lower 48 has? There is no “over the air” television of any kind, no McDonald’s, no Dollar store (which is really surprising because those seem to be everywhere), no fire department, no local police (state trooper barracks is down the road a bit), no bars, and no town government. In the lower 48 you would consider it a spit in the road, but it’s not here, because this is the place people even farther out come for services. The nearest Ford Dealership is 3-1/2 hours away and the nearest grocery store is Safeway in Valdez about 1-1/2 hours away. Which is actually all kind of cool. It is not “Everywhere USA”. You know, the homogenized, strip mall version of the United States that is all too common. And the people who live here are used to making do with what they have. They consolidate their trips to “The City” as they call Anchorage. They live off the land and they take advantage of the revenue from tourist season to get by. What we have been told by more than one local is that there is a shortage of labor here in the summer, but in the winters work is difficult to find. It depends on your skill set of course, but the “real oil money” flows out of the state and back into Texas. The Athna people do have some funds though. Because of the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, there are 13 regional corporations that administer the claims and manage the funds, and which essentially provides income to the natives through privately owned stock in the corporations. The corporations manage the funds, the remaining tribal lands, and the resources and in this area Ahtna Inc. is the biggest employer in town. The Ahtna people also have the right to subsistence hunting and fishing that the non-native locals do not have. There is an interesting relationship between the eskimos and the other locals and frankly I am still trying to get a handle on it.

You would think in this environment that everyone knows everyone, but that is actually not the case. Dale, for example, who has worked in the Visitor’s Center for the last 4 years didn’t know Bob, the local who has been working on our propane issues here at the campground. That I don’t get at all, except maybe that people largely keep to themselves. But they don’t always. People who have been around for 20 plus years all seem to know each other, but the more recent transplants haven’t met as many people. Maybe it’s the weather that keeps people inside most of the year, maybe it’s the personality type of people drawn to this place, or maybe I keep expecting Mayberry and simply not seeing that. Either way, I can absolutely say at this point that “normal” rules don’t apply. You simply can’t assume anything here. And again that’s largely OK, but the combination of all these factors does leave a person from away feeling vaguely unsettled. It’s still early and maybe by the end of 4 months we will have it all figured out, but honestly I doubt it.

Really nice visitors center here. Hopefully I will get to volunteer a little

Nice display of the Athna people

So now that I have set the stage on the area, what have we been doing since I last blogged? Well, we are both very busy getting things organized for the season. We have had a slow start to the summer according to Marc and Darlene and we actually think it may be due to the weak Canadian dollar. Dale in the visitor center says he is seeing far fewer Canadians than usual, and that appears to be having a big impact on business. Plus, we learned the salmon are running a little later this year than usual and many folks visit the Copper Valley region for the fishing. Princess Cruises even has a lodge 12 miles down the road so people can come here and fish. We haven’t seen it in person yet but the pictures look really nice. We are taking advantage of the relative slowness to get things organized and trim back some of the grounds. You can’t just indiscriminately cut stuff down here. There are blueberry bushes, raspberry bushes, wild roses, and many other flowering species that you want to let live, but you also want to get rid of the weeds. We are still learning what is what, but as more things bloom it gets easier and easier.

Office before

And after

Particularly proud of this. We setup a book area and a DVD free loan area (with donations for us and Marc) and so far it’s been a hit. Since there is no TV we can offer DVD’s instead which people seem to appreciate after a long travel day

The roses are blooming everywhere and so pretty

Amazing to me how different the prickly rose is from what we are used to as a culitvated rose

Amazing to me how different the prickly rose is from what we are used to as a cultivated rose

These propane mosquito eaters fill up with thousands of mosquitos in no time and one of Lee's jobs is to empty them. Battling mosquitoes is a full time job here!

These propane mosquito eaters fill up with thousands of mosquitoes in no time and one of Lee’s jobs is to empty them. Battling mosquitoes is a big time job here!

Then towards the end of our second week, Darlene the owner had an abcess and Marc had to take her to Anchorage for an emergency root canal. Thankfully she is fine and it was great that they felt they could trust us alone with the place. We really enjoyed those two days (after we worked through “you are not the boss of me”) and it really proved to us that we can do this!! And luckily she felt well enough to stay in their house in Anchorage while Marc came back and gave us our days off. Jim and Barb were stopping by on their summer long tour of Alaska and we were so looking forward to it. They have been traveling in a small truck camper they bought used just for the trip (they plan on selling it as soon as they are done) and because they can go almost everywhere and love to fish they spent two months making it to this point! Jim writes one of my favorite blogs and we adore their little dog Daisy so it was a real treat to get to see them. Since the weather was the coldest it’s been when they arrived, we went down to Caribou Lodge in town and had lunch. People often ask me where they can get a meal in town and I wanted to try to to give them a first hand review. Turned out it was really good and we all loved our meal, plus it was a nice warm place to get caught up. And they have a really great gift store with lots of local artisans displaying their work there.

Jim and Barb are here. There truck camper is really nice.

Got them settled into a dry camping spot in the back for $24.30 a night with Good Sam discount

Daisy loves playing with any rock she finds. She’s so cute!

Fireweed Grill at the Caribou Lodge

The restaurant

Loved the counter!

Jim and Barb

My $11 BLT was a triple decker and really very good

I bought this cool $8 coffee cup made locally from Alaska clay. Love, love it!

Because it had rained the two nights before they came and we couldn’t mow back there, the mosquitoes were a little crazy, so we made a campfire for them, provided some bug spray and pulled out these mosquito sticks which seemed to work pretty good. We were going to cook dinner, but Barb and Jim insisted on making us some fresh trout they had recently caught and cooked it with butter on the grill. I’ve never had fresh trout before and it was pretty good. I liked it much better than the salmon we tried a few days prior. We had some baby potatoes to add to the mix and we sat outside until it started raining. Then Barb showed me the cake she made me because she remembered I liked it so much in Quartzsite. It is a white cake with jello in it and I am definitely stealing that recipe for desert nights here!

The next day Lee had to drive to the Ford dealer in Wasilla (home of Sarah Palin) and get the left front brake repaired. Despite our having a platinum warranty with Ford the dealer said it would be $1100 because the brake pad wasn’t replaced in time and the rotors were ruined. When Lee called me to let me know, I was instantly mad. We had the brake pads checked in Rock Hill right before we left, and according to them they were fine, and now my platinum warranty wouldn’t cover it?? I don’t think so. I called Ford and they said it was covered and gave me a claim number for the dealer to call. The Service Manager didn’t want to bother with it because he “was sure it wouldn’t be covered”, but guess what, it was!! So mini rant here. This is not the first time this is happened. Every time we go in for our 100% covered pre-paid service intervals, they try to charge us for fuel filters or some other nonsense, and when we have other covered service work done they are always trying to charge us extra. I don’t know if it’s intentional because they want more money than the warranty company reimburses for, or just not understanding what the plans cover, but it is starting to make me very angry. $1,100 is a pretty big mistake to make and if we had taken them at their word once again we would have had a huge hit to the monthly budget. OK rant over, as it turned out OK, but I really should write a letter or something.

While Lee was dealing with that (it took 15 hours all in to drive there, wait for the work to be done, and drive back), Jim, Barb, and I did a little exploring. We went over to the visitor’s center for Wrangell-St. Elias park and watched the movie, and took a small 1 – mile hike. It was still pretty blustery in the morning but that was a good thing as the mosquitoes are pretty bad on this particular hike normally, and we all enjoyed the 22 minute movie on the park. Wrangell-St. Elias is the largest park in the United States (larger than Switzerland) and holds 9 of the highest mountains in North America. Unfortunately for us, very little of the park is accessible by car and most of it can only be accessed via boat or airplane. So, watching the movie in this case was great because you got to see pictures of the amazing vistas. Several companies in the area sell helicopter and airplane tours and we may have to do one of those at some point, because it truly looks amazing. Oh and interesting story, the ranger asked us where people where from and mentioned she grew up in Dublin, Ohio!! I grew up in Grove City which is about 20 minutes away. When she was a teenager her family farm was taken to build the outer belt and she decided after college to move to Alaska because of the impact the urban growth had on her. She has been here ever since and what a small world it is.

The big skull is grizzly bear

You could feel all these pelts, my favorite was the marten which was super soft

The ranger from Ohio

Views on the hike of the valley were pretty

The copper river

Barb made us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch! She even added a little chocolate.

Then afterwards we drove down to Copper Center which is a tiny hamlet where many people died during the Gold Rush years. They ended up getting scurvy because there was no vitamin C in their diet, or many froze to death. Little gold was found in the area and the only reason the town still exists is the military used it as a supply depot.

Copper Center

Jim really wanted to see the river closeup though, so we stopped and walked back a little ways to the river. Holy cow!! I don’t think I would have ever done that, and because we did had one of my best Alaska experiences to date. There were at least 6 eagles flying along the beautiful river and they were swooping down and trying to catch fish. Absolutely, positively fantastic!!

The river

Must have been pretty deep because this boat drove by

Folks were out fishing

The flowers were beautiful

Jim spotted this two year old juvenile bald eagle right away. We know it’s a juvenile because of the white mottling on its chest

It was across the river so best closeup I could get

Another juvenile in flight

A mature bald eagle

Loved, loved this shot. Can’t wait to get a better one of an eagle diving. Since this spot is less than 15 minutes from where we are staying I think I will get the chance again!

The best of the day

I was giddy with excitement during the period they were active around us, and then they all wandered off. It was absolutely amazing. We walked around a bit and then drove down to the bridge and watched the fishermen for awhile. The fish don’t eat when they are “running” so fisherman try to hook them and yank them out of the water. Kind of interesting, and we went into a cool little fisherman charter business and talked to a very knowledgeable young woman Miranda for quite some time. She knows her fish and her and Jim talked for quite some time. I didn’t understand much of what they said, but it sounded interesting. If the annual fishing licenses here weren’t $150 I would give it a go, but that’s just too much money. Plus, more than one fisherman said that when the fish are running you can easily catch your limit (5 salmon a day), in under 5 minutes or so. Not really my thing, but it was great learning about it with Jim and Barb and they may stop on their way back and give it a try.

It was a really great day. Amazing animal sightings, being with good friends, learning about the area, and picking up some flyers for our guests from Copper Central. Plus we ended the night with a spaghetti dinner and Barb and Jim really liked it. Spaghetti is my go to dinner to fix for folks and I figured they would like it because it’s not something they would fix in their truck camper. Looking forward to reading about their adventures as they continue across the state, and again was so grateful for the visit! Now that the truck is fixed we can take our own day trip on our next days off, and I am looking froward to doing more exploring.

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.

June 4, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

May 2016 Budget

This month is a little complicated because there is a budget within the budget. We knew the trip to Alaska would be costly. We didn’t know exactly how costly, but I estimated roughly $1,000 in diesel to get here, and I was remarkably close, with the true diesel costs for the 4700 mile trip coming in around $1300. We also knew we would need to stock up on food this month, but weren’t planning on having to go twice for big stock-ups in May, and those visits alone added up to around $800. We went right before we hit the Canadian border and then again on May 31st because of the way our days off fell. I won’t truly know how it all evens out until we can take a 5 month average for food costs in September. And we were not planning on having our shackle strap break and to need to upgrade our suspension which ran $747. So, it was a rough month all around with our spend at an all time high of $5959.15. However, if you take those three items out of the mix we actually had a very good month, spending around $3202.

The costs were so low because we worked at the RV-Dreams rally and our campsite and most of our food was covered for that week. It is what it is, and this is why we signed up to work the Beet Harvest in October. We knew we would need to cover our travel costs and it was unlikely we would make enough to both cover our monthly costs and recoup all the travel costs. I know I keep saying this, but in June we should start seeing what it will really look like going forward. For more information on some categories please see below. (I don’t agree entirely, I think our expenses will be EXTREMELY low while we’re work kamping here in Alaska, and since we’ve both already been given raises retroactively to our first day, we’ll be earning 35% more than we had projected, and we won’t have campsite costs, which is like making another ~$750 per month. That should more than make up for the costs to get here and get back to the states. Unless we end up blowing a lot of money sightseeing and whatnot, I project that we will be able to put at least $1000 per month in bank while we’re here.)

Campground Fees – Once again, super happy with this category. Despite staying in full hookup campgrounds (for the WiFi) as we traveled, we were way under budget in this category. This will be close to zero for the next few months which is a major help with the budget.

Groceries – I did want to mention here that we looked into other alternatives such as Amazon Pantry (which does not deliver to Alaska) and buying things online. Some things we can get, but certain weird things like Dental Floss Tooth pickers we cannot. Very odd. Anyway, with Doritos at $7.49 a bag at the local IGA we really have to strategize on how we handle food. The gas to get to Anchorage and back is $50 and the prices are still around 25% higher than in the US, even at Walmart. I was really hoping I could use local fish and produce to help keep costs down, but it turns out neither one of us like Salmon and the veggies don’t come in until later in the summer. Still, we will do the best we can with this one, because I didn’t think costs would be this much higher. (On the plus side, the campground owners have given us the use of a nice big chest freezer, just for us, so that should help a LOT. – Lee)

Dining Out (Fuel) – With the hectic travel schedule we did eat out a little more than we should have and the trip to Anchorage at the end of the month also cost us money in food for two meals. We need to think that through the next time we go and at least bring one meal with us.

Memberships – The $195 is our AMEX card membership which earns us points whenever we use it, and double points when we buy groceries and fuel. Thus far the benefits have outweighed the costs, for example, when we use it in Canada, they do not charge a fee for the currency conversion, whereas Bank of America charged 3%, and the AmEx conversion rate is the best we found.

Entertainment – We were well under budget for a change in this category because with the fast pace we didn’t do much on the way here. I do give us some credit though because we could have bought our way through Canada and didn’t do that.

Storage – One last thing, we are now only paying $20 a month for this as the kids are splitting the cost with us three ways. So that’s nice.

On a side note I wanted to mention we have earned $184.76 since January 1st through the Amazon Affiliate program for this website and we are very thankful for everyone who has ordered something using our Search Amazon.com here link. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, and once you reach the Amazon page you can log into your account and then order anything you would like. We are using that money to help to mitigate the higher Alaska food costs, by ordering what we can through Amazon Prime. I thought you might like to know how much we have earned through that program, and where it is going, and I wanted to say I really appreciate anyone who has made a purchase through this website!

Thanks so much, Trace

June 1, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Trip to the Grocery Store in Alaska

On our first day off, I didn’t get up until 8:30. Normally I am up and raring to go on our days off, but one of the advantages of long days of sunlight is you really don’t have to get an early start. I took a few minutes and called both my mom and dad to let them know how I was doing, and explain the best time to call me with the time difference and my new work schedule. Then Lee and I started talking and realized that because it was Memorial Day Weekend if we were going to do a grocery store run to Anchorage we needed to do it today as everything would be closed tomorrow. Memorial Day is a big holiday here with numerous ceremonies in the area, and almost all local businesses closing down. We knew the drive would be long, at least three hours each way, and your response to that drive might be “Ugh”. Maybe my response a couple of months into this will be the same, but for now let me say this was the best trip to a grocery store I have ever taken in my life.

Uh yeah. And those views were all in the first couple of hours. So here’s where it gets interesting. When you make a trip into “the city” as they call Anchorage here, you run every errand you have, because that’s where all the less expensive stuff and more variety of things are. But, as you are running all those normal little errands we all have day-to day, it’s somewhat different.

The first stop light we saw on our route came two hours into the trip

View from McDonald’s where we picked up a quick lunch

View from Home Depot

View from auto parts store picking up DEF

The views (for us at least) were distracting and the whole experience felt a little surreal as we were running our normal errands and things kept being a little different. For example, we drove 3-1/2 hours to get to Costco to stock up on a month or more of meat. The campground owners have a freezer in the back office that is for our use, so we wanted to be able to fill it up. We brought two coolers, purchased ice, and when we got to Costco they were completely out of hamburger, ribeye, and chicken thighs. I don’t mean running low, I mean completely out. Yes, it was Memorial Day weekend, but seriously?? So we ended up going to Walmart (selection was pretty good but prices were on average 25% higher than any Walmart we had ever been in) and then to Fred Meyer which is owned by the same company as Kroger. We loved the Fred Meyer and it is in Palmer which is an hour closer to us. We may still want to make a Costco run later in the season, but next time we will call ahead and check their stock levels first. We also need to do the math because $50 in gas plus the cost of lunch and maybe dinner as well must be offset to make the trip worthwhile. We also experienced first hand what a long-time former resident of Alaska had explained to me in Quartzsite. There is one road in and out to Anchorage from Glennallen and if there is any issue on that road you are waiting until it clears. We sat in traffic for awhile coming back because there was a bad accident between a pickup truck and a semi truck. It didn’t look like anyone was hurt, thankfully, but both vehicles were trashed.

Semi sunk to it’s axles in the marsh next to the highway

Once we were out of Palmer though we were back to the beautiful views and driving back they were completely different. Lee stopped several times for me to take pictures, and since by this time it was after 7pm the lights and shade made for completely different pictures.

King Mountain is my absolute favorite

Slide Mountain

Matanuska Glacier is our first glacier sighting

Oh, and did I mention that one of those times we pulled over to get a shot of the glacier, Lee calmly said “How about taking a picture of that Moose?”. Huge beautiful moose right in front of us and he/she was kind enough to pose for a long time. This was a big, big deal because despite 15 years living in New Hampshire and numerous trips to Maine, Lee had never seen a moose and I had never gotten a picture of one. It was really special, and a wonderful way to cap off the day.

After the moose sighting we decided to treat ourselves to dinner at Eureka Lodge diner. Sitting at a little table with glacier views we ate a BLT and a hamburger and talked about the day. I don’t know if these trips will always be this special, and I can certainly see how over time that long of a drive to anywhere could be a burden, but for right now I am enjoying our 12 hours round trip visit to the grocery store and the moose moment is something I will cherish for forever.

May 30, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Work Kamping in Alaska

Here we are at Glennallen and what I call the third phase of our full timing experience is now beginning. Since we don’t have investments or pensions to rely on, we always knew we would have to continue working. Initially, I kept my corporate job and our travels and choices revolved around that. Then I was offered a buy-out and for a pretty terrific five month period I had paychecks coming in without needing to work. OK, that was awesome! Now we start a new phase in which we work seasonal jobs, hopefully in beautiful places, and see if we can make enough money to support our budget. What better place to start this phase than in Alaska??? When we were looking for a position many of them were geared toward retired couples who were looking to supplement their retirement,and the schedules were setup to maximize downtime. That makes perfect sense really, and our friends Kelly and Bill have a position they are sharing with another work kamper couple that is 7 days on and 7 days off. This will give them lots of time to explore, and was perfect for their situation. Ours though was different. In order to make the finances work we wanted to have a gig working 40 hours a week, and luckily Marc and Darlene, the owners of Northern Nights Campground and RV Park, were able to make that work. More importantly, they were very interested in us as people with unique skill sets. I spoke to many potential employers when looking for a summer position who in my estimation were looking for “warm bodies.” There’s nothing wrong with that as they have a business to run, but not something we were particularly interested in. Marc and Darlene were the only people I talked to who truly seemed interested in what we had to bring as individuals and definitely were the only folks who expressed an interest in hearing our ideas for improvement. Since I spent years building a career revolving around process improvement, this was the deciding factor for me.

So I was so pleased that on Monday morning (during our two hour introduction/orientation meeting) their philosophy of continuous improvement was evident in everything they said. This may be a small, family-owned campground, but they are committed to making it the best it can be, and were excited about new ideas we brought to the table. They also “inventoried” our skill sets during that meeting and started to build a summer plan around them. For me, the most interesting part of the meeting was when we started to talk about what we had to offer. Lee rattled off his very long list of skills and they got more and more excited. He can work on almost anything, from electric and plumbing to painting and light carpentry, and his years of production experience give him a unique way of solving problems and looking at everything with an eye towards theater. His “MacGyver” skill set will be very valuable here. I, on the other hand, had to dig a little deeper. Certainly my Lean Six Sigma experience and process improvement experience will come in handy, but I had to think back to jobs I had very early in my career. I left the meeting feeling great about our prospects for the summer but also mildly unsettled about where I fit in. I didn’t have time to ponder on it too much though because we spent the rest of Monday moving into the brand new site they had created for us and spending time with Kelly and Bill before they moved on to their summer jobs in Seward.

Our campsite. I actually like being in the front and since we have a front living room, the trees are nice. This is the roadside view.

And the campground side view

As the next few days passed, my feelings of being unsettled grew. Darlene was extremely patient with me as I struggled to grasp some of the basic elements of the job. Let’s face it, some of my skills were a bit rusty (I haven’t been responsible for a cash drawer since I was 19, for example) and the campground business isn’t nearly as simple as it looks from the outside. Quite a bit goes into just deciding what site to put people into. As with most older campgrounds, the site sizes are not all the same and larger vehicles with multiple slide-outs can’t fit just anywhere. We have plenty of sites to fit those rigs and love to have them, but it isn’t one size fits all. Darlene knows the campground inside and out, and makes those decisions easily and quickly. I needed to learn quite a bit before I even started feeling comfortable, and it involved many questions and some walking around the sites and acclimating myself. As frustrated as I was getting with myself about the slow learning curve, Darlene seemed to take it in stride. She knows how hard this is, and had no expectation I would learn it over night. And for me it wasn’t just the office elements of the job. I love getting outside and working also, which Marc and Darlene are happy to accommodate, but again, in this area I find my skills are sorely lacking. I am able bodied and willing, just don’t have a ton of experience. It wasn’t until Lee taught me how to use the weed trimmer and I spent a happy hour trimming weeds that I really started to feel better. It turns out I like doing it (although my upper body definitely felt the workout) and I seemed to pick that up pretty quickly. That boosted my confidence and more importantly gave me something I could do to contribute during the slow periods between guest arrivals. I also spent some time organizing the back room of the office and definitely felt in my element as this was work I had done in the more recent past.

Welcome to Northern Nights!! Lee helped hang this new sign.

The small office I work in

Really comfy chair!! It's the little things

Really comfy chair and everyone loves the bear picture when they walk in. One of the things we’ve already done is take down the banner and replace it with a nice triple picture set of the local mountain, Mt. Drum.

Walk out to the road, look left and here's what you see. Wow!! Mt. Drum in all it's glory

Walk a few yards out to the road, look left and here’s my view.Wow!! Mt. Drum in all it’s glory

Nice campsites with some tree separation. So glad it’s not a parking lot!

Showers house, modern bathrooms, and laundry room

Shower house, modern bathrooms, and laundry room.

The really nice cabins in the back have a view of the mountain as well

This is a fish wheel which is used by the natives for subsistence fishing which is allowed by the government. Darlene tried to explain it to me but it seemed complicated. Can't wait to see these in action when the salmon start to run

This is a fish wheel which is used by the native tribes for subsistence fishing. Can’t wait to see these in action when the salmon start to run.

While I was getting acclimated, Lee jumped right in with his usual gusto. He spent three happy days cleaning out and organizing the huge workshop tucked away in the back of the campground, and when he put in electrical outlets and lights for them, Marc and Darlene were thrilled. He also repaired some token operated showers (because water must be trucked in, the showers are 7 minutes long per token, but nice and hot, and the water is good), hung some signs, and fixed several small things. You probably know enough about Lee by this point to get that he was perfectly content. Marc and Darlene were smart enough to give him a prioritized list, say “GO!”, and largely stay out of his way, and he had a huge impact immediately. I was so happy that it was going so well for him, but to be honest this did heighten my feelings of insecurity. Once again, Lee seemed made for this lifestyle, and I was struggling to find my way. Thankfully, Darlene is a very easy person to talk to and I was able to share with her a little about how I was feeling. She definitely got it because Marc is going through the same thing. Until two months ago Marc held a high level job in an oil corporation about two hours away and had just retired. Prior to this year Darlene managed the campground and Marc came out on every other weekend. Now he was finding his place as well in the day-to-day operations and we were all kind of figuring out where we fit together. This all could have been a recipe for disaster, but Darlene stepped in and brought us all together for a meeting near the end of our first week. We finalized our rough schedules (they will change by necessity as the season gets busier) and our various areas of responsibility. It was a really good meeting not only because it was collaborative, but also because at the very beginning of it Marc and Darlene gave us both raises. Based upon what they had seen from us so far, they adjusted our hourly wage and wow, did that mean a lot to both of us. We had made a commitment for a certain dollar amount, which we were going to make it work financially, it would just be tight. Marc and Darlene didn’t have to pay us more, and the fact that they did says a lot about them as people. And for me personally, it immediately showed that they value what I had to offer. Very, very cool.

Lee’s big workshop

Boy was he happy

Shower token machine he fixed. How did he even know how to do that??

Each site gets two free tokens. Folks with showers in their RV’s don’t need them, but people in truck campers and smaller rigs love them. I just have to remember to hand them out 🙂

Lee fixed the moose antler for me which was very cool!!

The other really great thing that happened this week was they sent us to the local Copper River Valley Chamber of Commerce dinner. This was a huge expression of faith in us and I took that responsibility very seriously. Darlene wanted us to attend so that we could meet people and local folks would know who we were, but she also sent me with a list of questions she wanted answered. The event was great. It was held at Tosina River lodge that is Russian owned, and the food was wonderful, and we got to meet so many people from the local school principal to the director of the visitors center. It was different though. Lee and I have both spent a fair amount of time in very small towns, we raised our kids in small towns, and Lee has attended many, many chamber of commerce meetings. But as we soon learned, there are small towns in the lower 48 (25,000 or less) and small towns up here (1,500 or less). Big, big difference!! The topics were interesting. You could have heard a pin drop during the “Summer Highway Repair” report, for instance, which makes sense, since tourism is huge factor up here, but it was also very informal because everyone knows everyone. As the new shiny faces in the group, people were very interested in talking to us, and I am so glad we had an opportunity to go. I loved it, and definitely hope we get to go again.

The president of the chamber wore a different hat for each section of the agenda. I loved that he put a leather pilots cap on during the flight sight seeing section of the agenda! Oh and check out that huge bearskin rug on the back wall. Don't see that every day!

The president of the chamber wore a different hat for each section of the agenda. I loved that he put a leather pilots cap on during the helicopter sight-seeing section of the agenda! Oh, and check out that huge bear skin rug on the back wall. Don’t see that every day! Also the table (which is just a sheet of plywood on a couple of flimsy plastic sawhorses) behind him collapsed more than once during his presentation, but everyone totally took it in stride. Very funny!

They had a full house, pulling businesses from as far away as Valdez

They had a full house, pulling people from as far away as Valdez

This is how the helicopter touring company folks came to the meeting. Not only do they do sightseeing, but also precision flying for the drilling companies. And two of the pilots were very young women who flew Apache helicopters for the military. Badass!!

One of our favorite people who owns both the local fireworks store, but also makes his own special flies which come with free fly fishing lessons. Definitely need to get Ben introduced with him when he comes up!!

One of our favorite people who owns the local fireworks store, but also makes his own special flies which come with free fly fishing lessons. Definitely need to get Ben introduced with him when he comes up!!

I'm talking to the local head of the BLM who was great. Every sense we worked for Stan and the BLM they hold a special place in my heart

I’m talking to the local head of the BLM who was great. Ever since we worked for Stan and the BLM they hold a special place in my heart

Oh, and did I mention the views? The constant daylight made the 30 minute trip to the venue a joy and we stopped on the way back to take a couple of pictures. After seeing this I am really looking forward to Sunday and Monday (our first days off) to get out and explore the area. Can’t wait to see what happens next.

Road to the lodge

Oh and I forgot to mention my absolute favorite part of the job. Rock is the puppy owner of the place and the one really in charge. He is completely awesome, but a little bossy 🙂

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Camper Chronicles

Travel Tales from Working Full Time RVers

Lakeside

First Time in Valdez

First Time Filing Taxes as a Small Business

First Time at Liberty Falls and Chitina

What Does my Alaska Work Kamping Day Look Like?

Recipe

Rhubarb and Apple Crisp

First Time Walking on a Glacier

No Feelings of Resentment

What is Living in Alaska Like?

May 2016 Budget

First Trip to the Grocery Store in Alaska

First Time Work Kamping in Alaska