Back in Arizona, Again

Well we made it back to Quartzsite and for our northern friends it is a balmy 82 degrees. Had a good visit with Nancy's kin the last week in Texas. We also went looking for some lake property so we'll have a place to go in the spring and fall. Made what we considered a low offer on a lot on Lake Brownwood and the seller accepted so we will be "texans" as soon as we close.
This is a picture of the small cabin on the lot. Nancy is already talking of enclosing the porch and rearranging the rooms. It may be lots of work but hopefully Nancy we let me take my time.
Here is a pic of our dock and a view of the lake where we are told there are lots of bass and catfish. Maybe she will let me fish between remodeling tasks.

Weatherford Texas

We're in Weatherford Texas visiting Mom, Sister Joyce and all her family and Deb and Todd who were also visiting here. The first weekend Joyce said there was a car show in town but didn't know anything about it. When we found it, it was a all MG show which I have an interest in as I have a 1957 MGA. As you can see from the picture there were quite a few cars. The one in the picture below is what mine should look like when I get it restored.

Her is Mom holding her new great granddaughter Autumn Rose.This was taken at a cookout at Joyce's new home near Weatherford.


We joined mom for lunch at her care center. They have a separate room for families to eat with the residents. Picture also includes Joyce, Deb and, Nancy, of course.

Deb and Todd hosted another cookout at the city park in Mineral Wells. The recent Alaska residents thought the weather was balmy but the rest of us had to bundle up a bit. You can see mom is 'hogging' that new ggranddaughter again.

HEAT RETREAT

They lied about the weather in the 80's and low 90's. After we got to Quartzsite they predicted 100 for last weekend so we headed for the hills. We went to the national forest just south of Prescott AZ for about 4 days. Stayed in this campground for two nights. Lots of ponderosa pines and about 15 degrees cooler than Quartzsite. This area is about 5200 feet altitude.














We then moved to an area where they have "dispersed" camping. You still have to camp where it is authorized but the camp spots are mostly for only one camper. And Free.














We went into Prescott to do a little shopping and explored the many forest service roads in the area. As you can see from this picture, we did some more "leaf peepin" as the oak were changing color in the region.

Arizona

There was snow in the mountains, it was 37 degrees one morning and the forecast for Quartzsite was upper 80s and low 90s for 15 days so here we are. We came down throughthe polygamist communities of Hildale, UT and Colorado City, AZ. Went through the national forest by Jacob Lake and on to the Vermillion Cliff area. Beautiful! This was the first time we've seen them and we decided we WILL go back. Here is a picture of the cliffs from the hiway.


We then stopped at Cottonwood AZ to visit my two lovely aunts ( I have to say nice things about them so they won't talk about me). We had made arrangements to stop and pick up a transmission for our Tracker in Phoenix so that was our last stop before getting home to Quartzsite. Everything here was fine except the sprinkler system on our citrus trees failed during the summer.

LEAF PEEPIN'

This time of year in Utah is beautiful in the mountains as the "colors" start showing so we decided to go for a drive up Logan canyon to see them.










Another picture showing many different colors.















OK! OK! We're not really leaf peepers. We used the colors as an excuse to stop at La Beau's in Garden City on Bear Lake for a locally grown raspberry shake and a juicy hamburger.

Alaska Moose Hunt

Thought I would add a little more on my Moose Hunt experience. After picking up Todd from the airport and doing our final provisioning, Mike, Todd, my son-in-law and I Towed the boat with everything in it to the launch site on the Salcha River (about 30-40 miles from Fairbanks. We Then went by jet boat (an enjoyable experience in itself) down the Salcha to the Tanana River to the muddy creek to the clear creek and then up it to Mike and Bernies cabin. This is about a 1 hour run at 15-25 mph so if it wasn't for the dozen cabins along clear creek it would be complete wilderness. This is a picture of Mikes jet boat in front of their cabin.

Here is a picture of their cabin. Not really "roughing it". They have running water, electricity, and a comfortable outhouse. About 1/4 mile away from the cabin is a large muskeg area with a treestand that normally provides a good vantage point for feeding moose although we didn't see any this year. Todd and I floated the creek two mornings. The first morning we got the moose you see in the previous post. Pretty exciting for both of us.




After Mike's son-in-law John got off work and to the cabin we loaded this tent and all of our gear on their 4-wheelers with large trailers and trecked 4-5 miles further back into the wilderness and set up camp in another area that promised to have some good hunting. We hunted about 3 days in this area- saw a lot of sign, heard a lot of bugling, heard bulls scraping their antlers. John saw one large moose but couldn't tell if it was a legal. (My permit was for any bull but they had to have a bull with a 50 inch spread or at least 3 brow tines on one side so you have to have a pretty good look at the animal before you pull the trigger). Mike's wife Bernie and John's wife Michelle stayed at the cabin while we went back to the tent camp and they needed to get out on Monday so Todd and I also came out, Helped butcher my moose and caught a flight back to Utah. Mike and John went back to the tent Tuesday morning so here is wishing them good luck.

Great White Hunter

Success in Alaska. Flynn and Todd spotted this moose while floating down the river. Flynn took the first shot and then Todd made sure this big guy didn't get away. It went down close to the river so it was loaded in the boat for transport back to camp. They were happy but tired hunters that day. There are several members in their hunting party so they are now trying to help others fill their permits and enjoying every minute of it. Deb and I have been keeping busy. We attended the Utah state fair on the one and only rainy day, had a good time anyway. We have done our fair share of eating and shopping too!

Wild horses on the streets of Ogden Ut

We arrived back in Utah about a week ago. Getting caught up visiting family and friends. The weather has been beautiful, nice to see the sun again. On one of our trips around Ogden we saw these painted horse statues. They were part of the Pioneer celebration that is held every July. These are just a few that are all over the downtown area. Flynn will be flying out on Sunday for his moose hunt in Fairbanks. The last few days he has been buying, sorting and packing supplies for that. While he is gone I plan on having some girl time with Debbie and Dana. That usually means shopping and eating out.

After our ferry ride to Ketchikan, we spent one day getting our camper out of storage, last minute shopping and waiting for the next ferry. We got to Prince Rupert British Columbia about 2:00 in the morning and found a pull off on the road out of town to finish our nights sleep. The following night in Prince George and then last night just before we stopped we came upon this herd of Rocky Mountain Sheep right beside the road in a provincial park just south of Banff National Park. Today we're back in "the good old US of A" in Walmart in Helana Montana. Montana has got to be one of the prettiest states in the union.

Put Away for the Winter

Here's where 'Tug For Two' will spend the winter. Of course it had to rain almost the entire time we were putting her up. By the end of the season we had gone 570 miles. That's quite a few hours at about 6 miles/hour. The storage yard is about 5 miles south of Petersburg.








Our new transportation awaits us. We took an overnight ferry to Ketchikan where we had left our camper. We decided to get a cabin on the ferry so we could have a hot shower and a good nights sleep. Nancy said she didn't sleep well. Go figure. It's raining here in Ketchikan too!!!

Petersburg Again

Well we're back in Petersburg. As I said before it is a fishing village and this picture was taken from our slip in the harbor. Notice how low this purse seiner is setting in the water. They must have a lot of fish on board. On our trip down from Juneau our boat was supposed to have a lot of fish on it too but I felt so lousy I just didn't feel like fishing. We got here yesterday so I went to the clinic today and found I have bacterial pneumonia so I'm on Z-pac, an antibiotic, to see if I can shake it. We've got quite a bit of work to do on the boat to get it ready for storage here in town. Hope I feel up to it.

Still in Juneau

This is the only picture you're getting today. The weather has been so bad and it's been raining so much we haven't left the boat today. The rivulets on the mountain side in this picture are a result of all the rain. There are reports that some creeks near town are flooding. I took this picture through the door so I didn't have to go outside. It's not only rainy, but windy also. It is supposed to be windy again tomorrow too so it looks like it may be Wednesday before we get out of here. Not only that but I've come down with a lousy cold. Have a nice day.

Exploring Juneau

Our second day in Juneau so we decided to do the touristy thing and go to town and join the thousands from the cruise ships. Here is a picture of Nancy in front of the Alaska state capitol. It was saturday so not much going on. Downtown was a different story...








Here is the "world famous" Red Dog Saloon (according to them anyway). Notice how everybody in town is bundled up. It's been cool and rainy ever since we got here. Tonight and tomorrow the wind is supposed to pick up so the seas will be rough. We'll probably stay in town till it gets better.







Of course we had to go see why it's "world famous". It is one of those unique places with weird stuff everywhere, sawdust on the floor and a ragtime piano player where everyone is having fun

We're back. After 3 days without cell or internet service we're back in semi- civilization - Juneau. The first day out of Petersberg we stopped in a small cove in a larger bay where the forest sevice had this float dock, nice because I didn't have to pull anchor.








Going into and out of the bay we saw a lot of humpback whales. These pictures are hard to get because you usually have the camera ponting the wrong direction when they surface. I've got a lot of pictures like these, just before they disappear again.










We then went into Tracy Arm to view the glaciers. They're about 15 miles back in so it is an all day trip back to the head of the fiord. Beautiful country. These are both tidewater glaciers nad here is a shot of the face of one of them. I saw a small "calving" on the face of one of the glaciers while we were there. At one of the glaciers a tour boat had just left the face of it so we followed the path that he had left. By the time we took a few pictures and turned around to go out we found the path had closed in. A little scary but we found a way out, through mostly slush although I heard a few loud bumps.


We saw a lot of icebergs on the way, most of them large and easy to see like this one. You had to watch closely to make sure you didn't hit one of the smaller ones that were mostly submerged.

Alaska's Little Norway

Petersburg that is. Gene and Juan this blog's for you (Or any others with a little Norsk blood). We spent the night in Petersburg harbor, a mainly fishing village. This replica of a Norwegian ship is in front of the Sons Of Norway hall. There are lots of indications of the Norwegian influence around town....







Even the door of the local bar.

Wrangell Alaska

Here we are in front of the Native Tribal House on shakes Island, a small island inside the boat harbor in Wrangell. There was a native woman guide inside the house that explained some of the island native history. They had various artifacts inside. There was also a firepit with seating around it in the middle of the building where they had their meetings (potlatches).






Here are some more of the tribal family totems that have been moved from various parts of the island for display at the tribal house.











A picture of part of the city boat harbor with ours right in the middle. Wrangell also has a very good city museum that we went through. There are about 1800 residents and most of their economy revolves around fishing and tourism. There was a small (probably 500 passenger) cruise ship in town yesterday and the Alaskan Ferry comes in about every day.

I know, not a good picture but this is something you see quite often is porpoises "playing" in the wake of a boat. We spent last night in Berg Bay, a remote bay with no cell phone or internet access. Tonight we're docked in Wrangell AK. Today we're having the first rain we've had since we got to AK. Tomorrow we'll explore the town and report.

Meyers Chuck

Last night we spent the night in a little community called Meyers Chuck (8 fulltime and about 30 summer residents). They have a nice docking facility which was free (My kind of accomodations). There is no road just walking trails between homes. They do have a post office with their own zip. By the way, that salmon we had for dinner was GREAT. Even Nancy said she liked it.

Tonights Dinner

About 15 miles out of Ketchican on our trip north we stopped for lunch so I dropped a herring over to see if I could catch a salmon. Sure enough, before we finished a nice 'silver' bit.
















Look at that pretty red meat. Fresh wild Alaska salmon. Yum Yum

Shakedown Cruise

We went out for a three day cruise to make sure everything was working right and we didn't forget anything before leaving Ketchikan. Found some loose connections on the batteries (found when I tried to cook coffee with the electric maker on inverter power) and a few items which required a last run to wal-mart. We went to Traitors cove about 15 miles north of Ketchikan and our favorite crab spot. We caught 26 on our first pot pull but only 4 keepers ( male over 6 1/2 inch). All together we caught over 60 with 10 keepers. Today we're headed north up the inside passage to see what we can see.

Also in traitors cove there is a bear viewing station overlooking a salmon stream. I caught a picture of 2 cub black bears before my camera batteries went dead. The cubs are right in the center of the pic with a bald eagle watching from a nearby log.

Tug For Two in Water

We launched the boat today. While cleaning and sevicing we found a bad galley (kitchen) and head (bathroom) water pump. I'll replace that this morning and we should be able to go crabbing and fishing.

Getting Ready

Working on a new coat of bottom paint on the 'Tug For Two'. Took two hours to put it on, six hours to recover, and 600mg of ibuprofen. Today we're going to launch it and after stocking it head for our favorite crab spot.

Dog Kennels

We made it to Ketchikan AK last night (after my bedtime). We made advanced reservations on the ferry and then had to hurry across British Columbia to catch it. We had been over most of that road 4 or 5 times before anyway. We saw 3 bear coming across and got a picture of this one. It was out in a field near the road. I know, you can barely see it but I couldn't get Nancy to walk out closer.





We stopped at a rest area in Alberta for breakfast an saw this facility. I couldn't pass up a photo. You might have to enlarge the image to read the captions.

Canada Canola

We just crossed into Saskatchewan. Lots of farm land across Manitoba. This is a field of Canola, the most prominent crop in this part of Canada. Had lots of rain and wonderfully cool weather. We'll post again when we find another free WI FI.

Monday Uncle Don and Cousin Nancy took us wild blueberry picking. It's a good thing they were along or we wouldn't have enough berries to even whet our appetite. This is in a state forest between Sturgeon Lake and Willow River MN.









Cousin Nancy baked this 'berry good' pie for us before she had to leave for home. We took it along to Ruby's as a desert with her wonderful dinner. Today we have sworn to begin our diet. Tonight we're in International Falls MN and will start across Canada to Alaska tomorrow. Not sure if we'll have internet service for the next few days so if you don't see our blog update, that is our excuse.