Category: Traveling the hiways and byways

We had stayed in Anchorage for a couple nights to empty the tanks from the convergence and fill the fresh water as we were going to drycamp at Williwaw Campground at the Portage Glacier.   We left early as we didn’t have reservations there and we knew it had a lot of first-come first-served sites.

The drive down was spectacular.  Kind of what I thought Alaska would look like prior to getting to the great white north.  The mountains with tops covered in clouds, the road carved between the mountain slope and the water of the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet.    We were told it was called the Turnagain because Capt. Cook was looking for a shortcut from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean and the waterway was another bust and he had to turn again…

It was low tide as we drove and some of the areas have a long muck beach to the edge of the water.  Kathy heard that if you walked out in it, you would likely get yourself stuck and it was deep and difficult to pull yourself out of.

We arrived at Williwaw before noon and there were a lot of open sites, many of which could fit the largest vehicles.  We chose a double spot that was probably 60′ deep and 25′ wide.  It cost us $28 for two nights!  50% off due to the National Park Senior Pass.  I think that thing has saved us about $500 dollars since we paid the $10 for it at Montezuma’s Castle National Monument back in May 2017.   I just calculated that was a 4,900% return on that $10 investment.  Wow… I wish the stock market would give me a return like that.   I could retire!   LOL.

The campground was beautiful.  There was a waterfall coming down from what looked like a glacier right above us.  The sound from the falling water could be heard inside our coach.  It was a terrific background sound.   And the campground wasn’t full on Thursday or Friday night.   Kind of amazing for the end of July.  There are no hookups here, just a hand water pump and large dumpsters.   There were also pit toilets.  I didn’t bother to look in them.

This is an awesome campground to see the local area and I bet to fish as there is a lot of water all around.

We left Wasilla and headed out the Glenn Highway toward Glennallen, AK.   Along the way we encountered the Matanuska Glacier just south of the highway.  The pictures don’t really do it justice, it was huge and right next to  the highway, curving its way back up the mountains.  The town, if you could call it that, was aptly named Glacier View.   Apparently it’s the largest glacier in the US that is accessible by car.

In a little while we were at our spot for the night, the Roadhouse Lodge & RV.   Upon first sight it was a bit sparse, but the owner greeted me in the parking lot and took me to our campsite.   That was service I hadn’t experienced before.

After we set up, I went in to pay for the night.   We had 50 amp service, water and sewer.   That was what I wanted so we could be fully ready for a week of drycamping on Isabel Pass.

The owner, Karen, said she would be telling the history of the place around 6pm tonight, so we went back for a bowl of chili and the story that evening.

We met her husband, Andy, that evening, and talk about a workaholic, he never really stopped working the whole time we were there.   I saw him dig a long trench and lay electrical cabling for 5 new sites he was creating over by the creek.    In the morning he was putting siding up on a new addition to the back of the roadhouse for a large kitchen and liquor store.   We heard he had moved the existing building over to the other side of the grounds and would use that for something later.  It sounded like it needed a lot of work so he found it would be quicker to move it and build a new structure.

He mentioned that the kitchen should be open when we come back here on our way to Valdez in a couple of weeks.   That was hard to imagine, but we will know soon enough.

I asked what Andy had done prior to retiring to this full-time job.  He said he was a demolitions contractor and he always worked alone, preferring to buy bigger equipment than hiring and managing workers.   He mentioned he worked on the World Trade Center demo but was fired as the unions said he had to hire workers and he wouldn’t.   Interesting.

There was some new looking 9′ diameter galvanized pipe sections over on the other side of the campground and I asked him what they could be for.  He said he is building an underground walkway inside them from his cabin to the Roadhouse so he doesn’t need to go outside in the negative 70 degree winter weather.   I guess there isn’t permafrost on the site.

We left in the morning to drive the 100 miles to Isabel Pass on the Stewart Highway.  Here is a picture of what trees grow on top of the permafrost.  Black Spruce is the type and they look very stunted.  When you see them you know to look out for the frost heaves on the road!

The rest of the week we played tourist around Fairbanks.

We read about a paddle wheeler that was just around the corner on the Chena River from our campground, so we drove over there to check it out.   It was a few minutes away from us and when we turned into their very long driveway, it was the  bumpiest driveway I have ever been on.   I started wondering if they did the maintenance on their boat like they did on the driveway.  When we got back to the boat it was just arriving from a tour.  It was packed side to side and top to bottom.   I decided that I would pass on that experience.   I think they cater to cruise tours as there were a gaggle of buses from different cruise lines in the parking lot.   And we had just done a smaller paddle wheeler on the mighty Yukon River.

We headed back out that same driveway from hell.   From there we drove over to the post office via a very circuitous route.   Because we took such an odd route there, we drove past an airplane graveyard off to the side of the Fairbanks Airport.  There were a lot of planes packed into a pretty small area.  Lots of them had their wings hacked off.  From the looks of them, they were being used as a parts warehouse.  Check out the missing nose cones on many of them.

The next day we drove downtown to find the Moose Antler arch.  It was located in a nice park along the river right in the middle of the small downtown.

On the way back toward our campground, we came upon the back of Pioneer Park, so we drove around to the front and took a stroll thru there.   First thing we did was to drop by the information booth and asked about the fireworks situation for the 4th.  She explained there weren’t going to be fireworks for the 4th, which she said was normal due to the fire danger in the area.  At this time there was a very large fire burning just northwest of town.   She mentioned that in Fairbanks the normal fireworks occur on December 31st: lots of nighttime to actually see them and not much of a fire danger that time of year.

We then made our way around the park.  We found a large train car with a roof built over it.  Turns out it was Warren G. Harding’s train car used during his Alaska trip to dedicate the first railroad there.  It was well taken care of and the insides were very ornate,  being built back in the early 1920’s.  The park had a small train ride that went around the perimeter.  I think the fee was $1.  It seemed to me we went back in time as we walked into this place.   We walked into the train museum/train station building and found a couple of very cool hand cars for riding the rails, both of them made out of wood.  Somehow I lost the pictures of those.

There was also the Tanana Valley Steam Locomotive No. 1 , which had been fully restored, including a new boiler.   I was told it was going to be pulling the small rail cars around the park on the 4th.   They cannot use it all that much currently due to it not having a spark arrestor on its firebox.  It runs on coal and I guess sparks must come out of the chimney.

There was an area they called the gold rush town with lots of old cabins and buildings that had been donated and moved there.  Now they housed lots of shops selling knickknacks and food.

There was an old paddle wheeler in need of a lot of repairs and even a small aviation museum.  The most amazing thing about this park was it had no admission fee.   Some of the museums asked for donations but that was it.

It had several play areas for kids.  What a wonderful outing for a family to come out and enjoy while the weather is nice in the summer!

We left early Friday morning from Chicken hoping that the road would be smoother than yesterday’s ordeal.  Fortunately, it was mostly pavement all the way down to the ALCAN.  A lot of dodging potholes and short new gravel sections, but it was like riding on glass to us after the “dirtway” the day before.  It was nice to reach the Alaska highway again.   It was very smooth over to Tok, AK.

We had called ahead from Dawson City to the Tok RV Village Campground, and they said we didn’t need reservations that day; so before we went to the campground, we stopped in the visitor center and got a few more maps and brochures for Alaska cities we would be going to.   Then I asked one of the docents where was a good place for breakfast,  one that the locals go to.  We drove the RV there for a late breakfast.  It’s called Fast Eddies, and it was a great breakfast!   And from what I can tell, it was the only restaurant in that little berg.

We checked into the campground after we ate.   It was a nice campground that had an RV wash right out front.  I think it was around $30 for the car and 40′ RV.  But that coach and car were so dirty it would have been worth it at almost any price.   We washed the car first.  Prior to driving it over there, I got my small brush and swept off about 5 lbs of rocks and dirt from the areas around all the doors, roof rack, hatch, and in the well the wipers are parked in.  Then we washed it, and my best guess was another 20 lbs of mud was on the pad when we were done.  It was a steady stream coming out of everywhere I pointed the pressure washer, and for much longer than I had experienced ever before.

After the car was washed, Kathy quit so it was up to me to wash the RV.   That seemed to take forever, there was so much muck everywhere.  That pressure washer sure did take the bugs off the front quickly.   I wonder if there is a very small version of one that I could mount under the coach to use every night we stop to get the hardened bugs off?   I must check Amazon for that when we get home.

While I was cleaning the RV windshield, a small crack near the bottom of it we received on the Alcan from a truck speeding past us on a gravel section, spread all the way to the top.   I am sure glad I lowered my comprehensive deductible on the car and RV prior to leaving for “rocky” Alaska.  But now I have something else to get fixed when I can!   And later in the afternoon we noticed the car’s windshield also cracked, but I can see no reason why it did.  There was a divot from a rock on the passenger side that happened while we were at the beach last summer.   I think we will wait till we get home to have both fixed as I am sure there will be more rocks coming our way.

The campground roads were very narrow and they had planted trees between each site, so many so that it was a bit tricky to get a large RV around them and into the not-so-wide site from the way-too-narrow roadway.   We did it and settled in for a night or two.

Since we were now back in the US, I expected to be able to use my two unlimited hotspots that had no service in Canada for the last month; but my AT&T hotspot had so little bandwidth, it was barely usable and the Verizon hotspot had no service at all unless I turned on roaming.  I didn’t want to turn that on without knowing if they would be charging a buck a megabyte like they tried to do while we were in Washington state last summer.  We had latched on to a cell tower across the Juan De Fuca in Victoria, Canada.  We racked up $100 charge in a few minutes that day.   Lucky for me I got a text alert from Verizon letting me know what was happening.

And my Google Fi hotspot couldn’t connect to anything in Tok either.   It still cannot connect while in Fairbanks.  Google Fi support said it should be using T-Mobile or Sprint in Fairbanks, but that’s not what we are experiencing.

So the next morning instead of re-registering for another night, as had been my plan, we packed up and left for Fairbanks.  The evening before, realizing the internet was lacking and the town was also lacking any appeal, I had called the Fairbanks campground we made reservations to arrive on Monday and asked to start them on Sunday.   Luckily I called as they couldn’t find my reservation but could see they had sent a confirmation email to me.   The gal said she would fix it and that we had a spot for Sunday night too.   I should have known things would be messed up as the first woman I had made my reservation with for the 1st thru 5th of July, apologized, after confirming she had an opening for  the 1st-5th, and  said she was sorry she didn’t have any openings for the 4th of July.

The drive to Fairbanks was all decent roadway and uneventful.  Lots of lakes and rivers along the way.  We did get our first view of the pipeline.  I noticed a pretty large and shiny suspension bridge that was only holding up a large shiny pipe to cross a river that we were also crossing, but we were on an old highway bridge.

Somewhere along that road we got back into full cell/data service and a bunch of TV shows that had been sitting in my Dropbox waiting for bandwidth to download to the RV’s DVR for weeks was fully downloaded before we even set up at the River’s Edge Campground.   We had reserved this site till July 5th, thinking we would watch the fireworks in Fairbanks.   LOL.

Dawson City is a place you should see if possible.   We signed up for 6 days at the Bonanza Gold campground.  And that was perfect to see the sights and do some of the adjustments needed for the RV and clean a bit, do laundry, etc.

We had been driving past Dome Road each time we went in to town, so one of the days I made the left to see where it took us.   It was a windy potholed paved road that led to the top of the mountain above the city.

Great views in all directions from up there.   After driving up in the car, it was difficult to imagine the townsfolk climbing all the way up there for a party.   They must have really wanted to attend those parties!

We tried the Jack London Grill for lunch one day.  If you like your burger mostly carbonized, then this is the place for you.  We won’t go back there again.   We had better luck with dinner at Klondike Kate’s.   The food was pretty good and the service was OK.   I got to try Poutine, a French Canadian staple, from what I read.   It’s french fries with cheese curds and brown gravy.   It’s actually pretty tasty as a side dish.

One evening I surprised Kathy at the last minute to get ready to try Diamond Tooth Gertie’s for a show and maybe some dinner.   The place was a hoot!   But it’s not a place to go have dinner.  It seemed like it was their first day feeding people.   You had to go up to a counter to order from a very limited whiteboard menu.   They asked for your name and told you to come back in 5 minutes.   40 minutes later our burgers were ready and they weren’t half bad.    I had checked back at lest 6 times, so the order taker actually called me out when ours was ready.  No one else’s name had been called the whole time and lots of people kept coming back to the counter wondering where their food was.   Luckily we ordered something odd,  a salmon burger without a bun for Kathy, so our order stuck out against all the others.   They even stopped taking food orders from all the folks in line so they could get caught up.  Boy, did that change the mood fast for the folks waiting to order.   I thought there might be a rebellion about to occur.

The place is mostly a gambling hall that has 3 Can-Can shows per night.  I heard it was all for charity but wasn’t too convinced the charity there was for someone other than themselves.

Dawson city appears to be a destination for Holland America Cruise tours.   We saw a lot of their buses outside of town and talked to a lot of folks from the ships.   And the ships are all the way back in Skagway.  That is one long bus ride for those folks.  Luckily they got to fly to Fairbanks instead of driving the Top of the World Highway like we ended up doing.   But that’s another story.

That first afternoon there we took a drive into town to get our bearings.   After driving down a few of the dirt streets looking at a lot of the homes and businesses we drove over to the ferry landing to see what that looked like.  When we leave Dawson we must traverse the Yukon River on the free ferry to get to the Top O the world highway toward Alaska.

There were two very long lines, one of cars and small trucks and the other was of RV’s.   We parked near the ferry and i walked over to the guy in the first RV in the line (next to get on) and asked when he had gotten there.   He said 9am.   it was after 4pm when i asked.  Ouch!

The ferry was VERY small.   Probably held 6-8 cars or a few cars and two RV’s.   I watched it load and go to the other side of the river and come back.  On the way back i was not sure the captain would be able to get back to the “ramp” as the river current is really fast there.   He was able to do it, but it looked like a thrilling ride for the folks on there.

When i say “ramp”, there is no ramp.  They pile up a dirt embankment with a large Cat Front loader that looks permanently parked there.   That’s it.  There is no dock whatsoever and from what i can tell on the other side of the river either.

i asked one of the ferry workers what the hours are, and was told it runs 24 hours a day when the river is not frozen which i guess means it runs just a few months a year.   The towns folks say that 40 below zero here is very normal.  That seems unimaginable to me… it never goes below 40 above zero at home.

While we were standing there by the river i saw off in the distance another larger vessel and wondered what it was.   Later that afternoon we saw it was a side paddle wheeler.   i think we should take a ride on that this week.   We also walk over to the visitor center and get some info about the area.   We find out the parks Canada has a guided walking tour a couple times each day.   Now that’s added to our list also.   This could be a fun place!