Rick & Carol's Journey (DL)

[Be sure to click on the photos for larger versions.]

This installment covers Sunday (July 13) through Thursday (July 17).

Sunday was an overcast driving day from Seward to Homer. En route we stopped at a woodcarving shop and got photos of some large scale carvings.



Others on our caravan also stopped, but it looked like everyone was taking photos and no-one was doing much buying. While stopped, we had a good barbeque lunch from a small lunch stand.

Our campsite in Homer is located on the Homer spit and has a waterfront view.




This evening our caravan carpooled to the end of the spit where we had a social hour and a halibut dinner at the Lands End Restaurant.

Monday was a free day. This morning was overcast and we got poor photos of town when we drove up Hill Drive to the ridgeline overlooking the area. We did see a moose cow with two calves and Carol was able to get a couple of good photos.


Back in town, we visited the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center. In addition to the exhibits, we saw a short movie on the activities in the reserve. Carol and I had a quick lunch, then drove up Hill Drive again and, with a little afternoon sun, got a couple of better overview photos of the town and the spit.


Nine members of our caravan went halibut fishing today. This evening we had pot luck dinner at the campground with their successful catch as the main course.

Tuesday was a driving day, backtracking up the Kenai Peninsula to the Beluga Overlook RV Park in Kenai. Our campground had a good view of the beach below, where the season just opened for Alaska residents to dip net for red salmon.


Carol and I walked down to the beach, which was littered with fish heads and flush with sea gulls.



After a group dinner, Carol and I drove to see a nest with two young eagles near the city boat docks. We also drove to viewing areas in hopes of seeing caribou and moose, but the animals were not cooperating.

Wednesday was another overcast driving day from Kenai to Palmer, about 40 miles west of Anchorage. Carol and I signed off the caravan this morning, because we had to visit the Winnebago dealer to get our new windshield wiper switch and sewer door latch installed. En route, we stopped at the Alaska Big Game Wildlife Center, where large animals are rehabilitated. We got our first view of bull moose and grizzly bears, and got some good photos of each.



Thursday was another a rainy day. Thanks to the Anchorage Winnebago dealer the leak around our windshield is finally fixed – we did not collect any water overnight in the pot we have been using to capture rainwater. This morning our group took a short bus tour of the Mat-Su valley area. Palmer was one of the new communities created by FDR during the depression; it was populated in 1935 by families relocated from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The tour included one of the original ‘colony houses’ and a local museum with some exhibits from that early farming era.

We had lunch at the local inn, then toured the musk ox farm. The musk ox (which are neither musky nor oxen) are raised here exclusively for their underhair, or quivuit, which is many times lighter and warmer than wool, and proportionately more expensive. A knitted scarf goes for about $225. We got photos of both full grown musk ox and of a couple of calves.



This evening our caravan had an early chili / clam chowder dinner in the campground’s recreation hall.