Sarah Palin, Talkeetna and Boondocking.....

Woke up this morning about 4:30ish to light rain and thought, "oh great.... another day without sun!" With the sun not shining was able to go back to sleep until 6:35am.  Made coffee and decided as soon as rush hour 8:00 traffic was done I would find Sarah Palin's house so Faye Costine would be proud of me!  Then I thought about it.... there is no 8:00am traffic in these small towns.  Found her address online, along with lots of unflattering things about her -- people here don't care for her too much. Found a blog with directions how to take a photo of her house since driving past it is not an option.

Off I go to Lake Lucille, in the light rain, to park and walk down to the water then out on a dock.  There her compound stood.... across the water.  In my photos, there are 2 images (one is only an enhancement of the original). House on the left is her original house and on the right is one she built in 2009. In the original photo you can see their (husband is a pilot among other talents) plane.  So, Faye..... that's the scoop other than reported marital difficulties, since before 2009, reported in this blog.

OK.... after that I drove 70 miles to Talkeetna which is the more than usual tourist town . If fact, I saw very little that was not made for tourism (except the Post Office). Town is all of 6 or 7 blocks long and 3 blocks deep.  Won't go into the prices of items...... didn't stay long there.

Then I found my PERFECT SPOT to camp -- it's so perfect, I plan to stay here 3 nights and it's FREE.  Boondocking by a river and there are about 8 other RVers here. Guy close to me looks to be in early 70's and is from Virginia. He comes out and sits -- wife (or so I assume) does not.  Anyway..... photos show Yoda III, my view from my door and the bridge I was going over when I looked over and saw this jewel of a place.  This is my camping style and why I have solar panels. Can't wait for tomorrow morning to see if there is wildlife on the other side of the river.

AND..... I have Verizon signal and can get on the internet with my Hotspot...... 

Life is good -- now if only the SUN WILL SHINE so I can take some decent photographs!!!

Palin Compound - 2 houses on right and far left is their plane.

Close up of just the 2 houses.

 

People keep asking what does Alaska look like in the interior -- well, reminds me a lot of Southeastern USA, lots of green and lots of trees.

Lots of bikers everywhere -- check out this girl with 2 little ones and a dog.

What started the tourism in Talkeetna -- Famous Nagley's Store

Just another gift shop and Spinach Bread kiosk

Bought me a sweatshirt here -- bit the bullet and paid the price!

Sign says it all..............

And Folks..... this is Downtown Talkeetna

Yoda III parked on the river -- FREE boondocking!  Get to use my solar panels. Gonna stay here three nights and as you can see I am not alone.

View from my door... hopefully, tomorrow the sun will shine and I can take a better photo.... it is BEAUTIFUL

This is the bridge I drove across and noticed the RVs parked along this bank -- found the road and here I am!

Wasilla..... Again!

Once again, I'm parked in Wasilla's HUGE Wal-Mart along with several other RVers. And.... once again.... the sun is NOT shining!!  Every once in a while a few sprinkles will fall, other than that... it is just cloudy with low lying clouds making it impossible to see the mountains. If I stayed here until the weather was nice enough to get out and take pictures well, I think I'd be here for a LONG time.

This morning had the oil and filter changed in Yoda III. You can't see from the photo below all the dirt clogging up the filter but, believe me there was gobs... just gobs.... plus the bees that got sucked in. Whole deal cost $87.  And that brings me to the cost of things in Alaska!!! Don't know what people get paid around here..... I couldn't afford to retire here! My little trip inside Wal-Mart for groceries for upcoming 12 days before hitting Fairbanks cost a little over $64 and I still had lots inside the RV before going inside to shop. Evidently, they haven't heard of DUKES mayonnaise.... hurt my feelings to pay for something else! And the cost of grapes..... don't get me started -- I didn't buy any. Did get bananas and little tomatoes (thanks Dianne for  turning me on to those).

Tomorrow I head out toward Fairbanks which is only 318 miles. If you pay attention to the paragraph above, you're probably wondering why is it going to take you 12 days to do 318 miles?  Well, about half way I'm staying in a campground for 4 nights and the rest will be staying in road side viewing/parking areas that Alaska has for tourism (to sit and stare at the awesome beautify) and living off my solar panels.  Image below shows that the road I'll be taking has Verizon coverage most of the way to Fairbanks -- so keep looking for my blog to update!

Like I said before.... Alaska is EXPENSIVE and to stay longer than I've recalculated would be to sit in campgrounds costing $50-60 a night and I see absolutely NO reason for me to do that. Plus, I'm kinda anxious to get back in the Yukon and Canada. I keep saying Alaska is beautiful but, Canada is just as pretty!

In Canada and Alaska are A&W Root Beer establishments. Haven't seen any with the drive up like Live Oak had in my growing up years. However, they are all the same colors and I broke down and got an ice cold mug of root beer and chili dog as I'm always been able to remember the taste.  I remember Mom would come home for lunch, (she worked at Sears) and take us (reckon, it was me and Dianne) to there for lunch sometimes as a treat. Yep, it was the same and I was in MEMORY HEAVEN enjoying that meal.

I'm by myself traveling now and that seems to suit me just fine. 

My BEFORE Filter..... see the bees!

Verizon Coverage as I drive up the 2 LANE highway 3 then over to 2 to leave Alaska

Still in Anchorage.... and of course.... it RAINED!!!

Tuesday, June 27th....  Late yesterday I got a call from Laura -- they were on their way to Cabelas for the night. Today, we all decided to go to the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center (about 40 miles away). We walked around in light rain, lots of wind and it was cold but.... we wanted to see the animals. Most of the animals were hunkering down in the weather so it was hard to get photos of them doing much.

That's all I did today. Came back for another night at Cabelas and made chicken and rice. Tomorrow am headed to Wasilla.  Keeping my fingers crossed the sun will shine!

Bison/Buffalo -- Every place seems to have buffalo.  South Dakota was the best place to see buffalo.

Gift Shop -- didn't buy anything but little cute expensive stuff.

Animal Hospital -- and this one LOOKED sick!!!

Red Fox in the Hospital

Alaskan MuskOx -- 34 were brought in from Greenland in 1930 as there were no more in Alaska -- now state wide there are over 2,500

Santa's Reindeer-- or actually Sitka Black Tail Deer -- as you can see even they don't like being out in the rain!

Another shot of the lazy deer.

Talk about a pose!  I assure you this is a real deer!!

BEARS

Bear -- doesn't look that big but he was BIG

How would you like getting swipped by these bear claws!!

Reindeer

Have no idea what these are but, Alaska sure has 'em EVERYWHERE

Look at the size of the antlers!!

Forgot where these are.....

More Santa's Deer -- never understand difference in Reindeer and Santa's Deer.

And these fellows are the same as the huge antlers.

Anchorage.... And A Big Bill....

Today is Monday, June 26th and I find myself in Anchorage for the night. Spent 2 nights in Kenai leaving early this morning as my generator has stopped running and I needed to find service for it. 

Found Cummins Onan Service (my generator is an Onan so that is about the best place you can go). Sat around for a little over 6 hours to determine the problem and fix. Good news is the generator is not broken so the thought pattern was a loose wire (happens a lot on these Alaskan roads). Technician followed wires for an hour or so then it ended up being the 40 amp breaker needed replacing. Bottom line it cost $469.04 and $350 of that was the standard cost for troubleshooting a generator. Good thing I added $1,000. in my budget for vehicle expenses. This plus the new tire in Nebraska is getting me close to that mark.

Staying overnight at Cabelas along with about 10 other RVers.  Cabelas really caters to RVers in their parking lot and I love to go in their stores. Tomorrow I plan to see some of Anchorage before deciding what to do next.

Laura and her group are heading to back toward the coast (where it is forecasted to rain) then slowly head back home. I'm fine on my own as there are always other RVers where I camp or spend the night.  

Gonna take it slow driving north through Wasilla (again) then Talkeetna then Denali Mountains then on to Fairbanks and NORTH POLE. Gotta have Santa send something back with me for Rosie and Shane. After that the road is out of Alaska and from here around that loop and to the border is only 681 miles. 

Don't think it will take more than 2 weeks to cover that -- if the sun is shinning making it enjoyable. Those who tour and find sunny days to do so are lucky (reckon, it's the time of the season for coastal rain). 

Yoda III getting generator fixed

Bakery in Soldotna -- 11 miles from Kenai

Overcast driving to Anchorage this morning

What's left for me in Alaska -- there are no side roads like there are in the "Lower 48" so it's the main road for me from here to the border then a long trip through Canada heading toward Washington and Oregon.

Kenai.... Yipppeee - The Sun Is Shining.....

Left Ninilchik this morning visiting the Russian Orthodox Church. There is no other church like this in Alaska, built in 1906 over the graves of three missionary monks who came to the Kenai area in the mid-1800's. There has been 1 service in the past 20 years to celebrate the feast day of St. Nicholas, the 3rd century bishop of Myra (in modern-day Turkey) and namesake of both Kenai’s chapel and of the missionary monk buried beneath it. Igumen (a Russian Orthodox monastic title) Nicholai established the Parish of Kenai in 1845 and became its first priest when the site of the present town was occupied by the Russian Fort St. Nicholas. Nicholai and his assistant Makarii Ivanov are best remembered for distributing a smallpox vaccine in Dena’ina villages struck by the disease in the 1860s. Nikolai died in 1867, and when Ivanov followed him ten years later, the two were buried along with an unknown third monk in the yard of the original church.  (info from internet)

It is wonderful with the sun shining, the views are stunning as we drove along the coast to Kenai about 50 miles north.  We are doing the Wal-Mart thing tonight in Kenai before heading to Soldotna for another night. Soldotna is a whopping 12 miles southeast of here for tomorrow night. Sun is expected to shine tomorrow, also.

Now the "situation".... rain is expected to move back in the coastal region next week. Laura and her companions want to go to Valdez. I can't see driving there to sit in the RV, in a $55 a night campground, while it rains. Even with the light drizzle it just takes away from viewing the mountains on the other side of the bay. Rain is in the fore cast until July 4th (70%-90% each day). 

Am thinking of parting ways on Tuesday, June 27th when they leave for Valdez area (from there are heading out of Alaska so we would be parting ways anyway soon). Gonna follow the sunshine heading north to Wasilla (second time there) for a night then have the oil and filter changed before heading north toward Denali Mountains.

So many RVers on the road it will be hard not to be around people. I just gotta get out of my comfort zone and get out to meet people when I park. 

Anyway...... goal is to follow the sun as much as possible, try to have Verizon connectivity as much as possible and to see Santa when I hit the North Pole.

Good Note:  Crack in windshield is still holding and the 3 chips have not increased..... WooHoo!

Stay Tuned........

Russian Orthodox Church and Graves -- it is on a cliff overlooking the bay

Front of church

Listing of groups in the cemetery

Old house close to church still standing

View of bay from church - clouds still cover the mountain tops.

To show that people are still being buried in cemetery -- lots of Russian descendants in area -- our campground host appeared to be of that heritage and about 35 years old.

Another view of the bay on our drive to Kenai

Part of the old Russian village - buildings standing in good condition and new houses in are same area.

Linda, check out this cool greenhouse complete with Christmas lights still on. Be great in our back yard.

And here I am -- in Kenai