Central and North Pole

Yesterday we took a trip up to Central, Alaska. The main purpose we went was to do a little goldpanning up there. The trip was about 130 miles one way. When we got there we couldn't find the place we were looking for. Oh will, the scenery was nice and we had bought our fishing licences before we left Fairbanks, so we stopped along the way to fish. We caught a few Grayling that I cleaned and Louise fixed for supper when we got back to the rv. I had put off buying the licence because of the cost, $145 each for the summer, but decided it would be a waste to pass up all this fishing. The tundra we passed through was covered in spots with the purple flowers you see in the pic. We passed over several mountains on the drive and the valley views were many. The beaver in the pic was not happy when we first got to pond. He or she ??? slapped his or her tail on the water a couple of times to alert the others . Saw an eagle but didn't get a picture. Not seeing much wildlife yet. Been in Alaska for 4 weeks and haven't seen a moose or a bear in this state yet. On Friday we packed up and headed down the road to North Pole. Our mail was suppose to be there, guess what, no mail. If I had known that it wasn't there we would have stayed where we were another night. I should have called to check before we pulled up. There is a nice rv park in North Pole that we decided to stay at, a little more money then the other place but a lot nicer. Hope the mail gets here tomorrow, if so we will head down the road a bit. May go back to Chicken for a few days. The guys we met in Girdwood at the gold show will be there and wanted us to meet them there. Stopped at Santa Claus's house here at the North Pole. Can we say tourist trap!!!!! Neat store really.


Till next time
Duane and Louise

FAIRBANKS

We arrived in Fairbanks Monday afternoon. The drive there was real scenic like always. We stopped at the Mount McKinley view stop. As you can see in the pic, she was hiding in the clouds. We crossed over a couple of deep canyons and had a lot of great river views. The glacier rivers are gray from all the silt in them. The first pic was taken out the rv's window where we were parked Sunday night. When we got to Fairbanks we went to Pioneer Park, which is a park with a lot of old cabins and museums, then we went to the rv park. Today we went the El Dorado Gold mine for a tour and demo of how they mined then and now. We stopped at a pipeline view, BIG pipe....Then it was off to catch the sternwheeler for a trip down the river. On the trip we stopped at Susan Bucther's dog kennel. She was the first women to win the Ididarod dogsled race. She won it 4 times. She died of cancer last year. Her husband is carrying on the training and breeding of the sled dogs. After the kennel we stopped at an Indian village for demo's on their life in the cold north. Pretty interresting trip. Tomorrow we will visit the museum at the collage here. It is suppose to be the best in Alaska. We are having about 21 hours of daylight now. It is 12 midnight and I am setting outside typing this and it is still really light out. I guess I had better go inside and get to bed.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Heading north

We decided to stay in Palmer for a Good Sams Club RV rally over the weekend. Had a good time there, met some fellow rvers, and enjoyed the entertainment. Went there primarily to get a gravel guard, which of coarse did not fit, so we still don't have one. Left there this morning, Sunday, heading up the road toward Fairbanks. Pulled off the road for a little break and looked up to see a "wifi here" sign so I signed on. Don't have any new pics right now but hope to have some soon. We are the proud Grandparents of a new baby boy. Simon was born to our daughter and son-in-law, Rachel and Benji on June,21. We will have to make a trip to Ohio after we get back from Alaska. We will have another grandbaby born in California within the next couple of weeks. Not sure which way to turn when we get back to the lower 48 yet. I guess we will have to make that decision when the time comes.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

A day of rest

This is a picture of the coin I won in the metal detecting contest at the gold show. Pure silver with a little gold nugget in the pan, pretty cool. Louise is out fabric shopping with Pat, a friend that lives here in Palmer. I have been doing a little maintinance on the rv and just hanging out. Joe, Pat's husband, has a sluice box he loaned me for the rest of our stay up here. It will make our propecting for gold a little easier. I called around and found a gravel guard for the Jeep to try and limit the rock damage, a little late, but may keep from more nicks in the paint. Anyone heading this way should have a guard on the toad. Will post whenever we have access to the net, so, if there isn't something new on here, we don't have net.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

GIRDWOOD

We have spent the last week camped at a gold mine in Girdwood, AK. We panned for gold one day and found some little flakes. The weekend there was a gold miners meet at the mine that we attened. I entered the metal detecting contest and won a special minted gold miner coin. I will take a picture of it later to post. We had a great time and met a lot of nice people. I won a big gold nugget in the raffle, about a 1/3 of an once. That don't sound big but is valued at $500.00. Pretty nice prise!!!! We have envites to camp with several of the people we met at there places. We will take them up on it before we leave here. The mountian pic has dall sheep in it if you can find them. I really need a longer lens....lol. The bay is Cook inlet. We went on a hike that took us over a gorge on a hand tram, see pic. It was a long way down to the river. We are back in Palmer for a couple of days. We will head on north to Fairbanks about Thursday.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Palmer

We are now in Palmer, Alaska. The trip from Valdez to here was as pretty as ever. Visited with the family I know that lives here in Palmer for a bit. Yesterday we went to the Independance Mine, there is a pic of it. It was one of the top producing mines in Alaska in it's day. After the mine visit we panned for gold in the river for a while, still broke ......lol Went into Anchorage today to a prospecting store to talk to the guy putting on the gold show we are going to this weekend. Then went to a fabric store so Louise could look for a few things. Planning on leaveing here on Wednesday for the gold show in Girdwood. The internet is very spotty where we are now. I drive around till I can find a hookup. Setting in a mall parking lot right now. Will post as soon as I can get a connection again.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Just hangin out

Rained today. We hung out in the rv till the rain let up, then went out geocaching. Hunted for 3, found 3. The first one was at the falls. Louise is signing the log at the falls. The 2nd one was along the shore of the lake at the glacier. The 3rd we found along a road in the same area. Saw more eagles today, pretty cool to watch. We are waiting here for our mail, should be here tomorrow.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Valdez boat tour

We went on the Prince William Sound boat tour today. It was a 7 hour trip. Got to see whales, sea otters, sea lions, dall porpoise and eagles. The 5th pic is the porpoise swimming right along side of the boat. I took about 15 pics to get this one. Every time I would snap the shutter they would dive or take off. I had a heck of a time timing the shutter on these guys, or girls, whatever they were. The eagle pic is the 11th one. I need a more powerful lens....lol Any one want to lend me some money? This is as close as I could get with what I have. There were a lot of otters in little groups. There were a lot of sea lions in one BIG group. I don't know how many were in this pod, but it was a bunch. The whales were my favorite. We saw several different pods. The third pic is a mother and her calf. Do you see both of them? How about my timing on the breaching whale, my favorite pic of the day. The glacier was the Columbia Glacier. The boat captian weaved through all that ice to get us as close as he could. The mian wall of the glacier was way off in the distance. There was ice cubes everywhere. The pics don't do justice to the blue in some of them. The big tanker was in port taking on oil from the pipe line. I had heard that most of the oil is sent overseas for refining. The guide said that all of the oil is refined in the U.S. He said that when the pipe line was put in, that was one of the stipulations. The tour was a little pricing but well worth it.

Till next time

Duane and Louise