Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Cheri Sept-4-12
11:31 AM | 
Posted by
Sharp's Travels
We got packed up before the rain started and we all were on the road by 9:30am.
Spike gave us our history lesson as we headed through the Tundra. We were still seeing the beautiful colors. I was clicking off pictures even though it was raining. They might not be worth putting on line, but I couldn’t help it—gorgeous scenery!
We stopped for a 10 minute break at mile 50. After we got back on the road, we started coming down off the mountain. The tundra red velvet carpet under the trees was gone. We just had the yellow and oranges of the aspen trees.
When everyone else stopped for lunch we went right on by and headed for the RV Park. It was still sprinkling when we arrived. We put on our rain jackets, got our unit set up and headed up to the office to let them know our group would be arriving soon.
The parking went ok; everyone was finally settled in for the next 5 days.
Gay got the grill out right away and cooked steak & chops that we had defrosted a few days ago. We had dinner and finished up some paper work, watch a little TV, and crawled into bed. We have a full day of sightseeing tomorrow.
To see pictures of the day click on this link https://picasaweb.google.com/sharpstravels then click on album: Denali to Anchorage.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Cheri Sept-3-12
12:30 AM |
Posted by
Sharp's Travels
All of us were up by 6am. I fixed breakfast for us and Issie headed over to Subway to pick up sandwiches to take along with them for the 6 hr bus trip into Denali.
We are dog sitting today and we have Kim & Issie’s dog, Honey, staying with us while they are gone.
Spike called everyone on the two-way radios about 8:50am. They were all to line up and be ready to head out at 9am to Denali Park.
As soon as they all left, Gay, Honey and I hopped into the truck and headed for Denali Park also. You can drive your personal car up into the park about 15 miles. We wanted to check out the colors and look for animals.
I don’t know how to describe the beauty we saw. All the colors, with the mountains in the back ground, were gorgeous. Yellows, oranges, reds and deep maroon, we kept blinking our eyes to see if these beautiful colors were real.
The green bus carrying our group passed us and everyone waved. We were able to get a picture of it just after it went through the check point and headed up the dirt road, deep into the park. They traveled 53 miles back into Denali Park.
We turned around at this point and headed back out. We stopped to take so many pictures. The scenery was breathtaking. About half way out there were a number of cars parked along the road, all with their camera going. We pulled over, jumped out and got a chance to see a bull moose with the biggest rack we’d ever seen. That made our trip. We hated to come back out of the park without seeing any animals.
We walked dogs and then I finished up making my dessert for tonight. Spike and Roger joined us. I had a pot roast with all the fixings going in the crock pot all day. It was an easy meal to put on the table. It was a very enjoyable evening.
We turned in early; we’ll be leaving for Anchorage tomorrow morning.
To see pictures of the day click on this link https://picasaweb.google.com/sharpstravels then click on album: Denali.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Cheri Sept-2-12
5:28 PM |
Posted by
Sharp's Travels
We all met down by the river for a short prayer meeting at 9:15 before we began our journey today. We pulled out of the campground at 10am. We hadn’t even got 30 miles up the road and one of the units had a problem and pulled off to the side of the road. The rest of the group continued on towards Denali. Our mechanic and Gay& I pulled over to check things out. Come to find out, he had a broken belt. One of our tour group had an extra belt. They turned around and headed back to see if it would work. Gay and I went on the catch up with the tour group. Roger stayed behind to get the belt installed. Come to find out the belt was the wrong size and they ended up calling their Good Same Road Side Service and had them send a mechanic with the correct size belt. They finally got it fixed and were on their way.
When we finally caught up with the tour group we found out another unit had problems. His truck just died on him. We dropped our 5th wheel in a big lot up the road and went back and hooked onto Kim’s truck and pulled the truck and 5th wheel over into the vacant lot near our 5th wheel. Gay thought he might have a filter problem, so he crawled under the truck and put on a new filter. That didn’t solve the problem, so they called tec service to see if they could give them some assistance. It was a weekend and a holiday coming up and they were told as long as they were off the highway, they would have to wait until Tuesday to be towed in. We hooked up again and headed on into the campground to check out the sites and Spike led the rest of the group in. We had them all parked in a flash and were waiting to hear what Kim & Issie were planning to do.
It turned out they left their truck & 5th wheel there and Roger brought them on into Denali with him, so they could join the group tomorrow for the bus trip into Denali.
It was about 7pm and the unit with the belt problem finally pulled in. We got them settled and it wasn’t long and Kim, Issie and their dog Honey arrived. They stayed with us for the night.
A few of the group went into Denali in the early evening and came back reporting sightings of moose and an awesome array of colors all over the mountains and along the roadsides.
It was very windy here and too cold to go out and visit tonight.
We were all tired so I make up the sleeper sofa for Kim & Issie. We called this day GONE!
To see pictures of the day click on this link https://picasaweb.google.com/sharpstravels then click on album: Fairbanks to Denali.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Cheri Sept-1-12
1:33 AM |
Posted by
Sharp's Travels
Today we went moose hunting. We were up and on the road by 6:30. We were dog sitting today, so we took Pepper with us. She liked sitting on my lap and checking everything out.
We read the best chance to see moose in the Fairbanks area was along Chena Hot Springs Road just north of town. Past about mile 15 there are swampy areas and many creeks and sloughs. Moose love to feed in swamps and sloughs. We went as far as mile 26 and didn’t spot a thing. The scenery, however, was beautiful. The trees were all a pretty yellow, along with a few orange and red. The creeks were like glass and you could see a mirrored reflection in the water. We saw a few old, rusty cars sitting along the road, they made a perfect picture. We meet very few cars so we could drive along at our own pace.
When we got back to Fairbanks, who do we see at the Cookie Jar Restaurant but Dick & Marie? We stopped and joined them for breakfast and then headed to the Farmers Market. It was something to see different color carrots and large cabbages. Then we headed back to the campground.
Gay needed to fuel up so we jumped back in the truck and went over to Fred Meyers for gas. Meanwhile I popped into the store to pick up a few items.
We checked out a few things with Spike, got a little paper work done and then went over to Roger & Gwen’s for a bit, and checked on a few other tour members and headed back to the 5th wheel.
We were invited out to dinner tonight. It was a great evening spent with some wonderful new friends. We laughed lots and lots. We feel so blessed to be here.
To see pictures of the day click on this link https://picasaweb.google.com/sharpstravels then click on album: Fairbanks day three.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Cheri Aug-31-12
1:56 AM |
Posted by
Sharp's Travels
We were out and about early this morning. We went to breakfast with Dick & Marie at the Cookie Jar Restaurant. It was off the beaten path and we found the food to be excellent there. It gave us a chance to enjoy the morning and visit a bit.
Later in the morning Gay helped Dick repair his shower and I went to check out the material at the Alaskan Fur Co. I bought one small piece of material and was not impressed with the layout of their store. They had a lot of their material setting on the floor. It made it too hard to check it all out.
We decided to get a few of our errands done. We got a fresh tank of LP, and then headed for the Harley Dealer. Gay wanted to get a tee-shirt from Alaska. He found 1 long sleeve and 1 short sleeve shirt that say Farthest North Outpost for Harley-Davidson. He also checked out the motorcycles. A bike like ours here is $3,000 more than what you could buy one in Florida for!
We stopped by the Alaskan Bowl Factory. We watched the manufacturing process through the in store viewing windows, and also the process of burning the designs on their products. The bowls were all too expensive for us, but we did pick up some Alaska Pure Birch Syrup and a cookbook on Sourdough everything.
I got Gay to stop and take a couple of pictures of the flowering cabbage at the Alaskan Fur co. The flowers here are all so big and beautiful.
We needed to pick up a few groceries, so we headed for Fred Meyers. It’s like a big Wal-Mart. They have everything. With that job done we headed back to the campground, put the groceries away and were ready to head out again.
We picked up Issie and off we went to the Quilt shops. Material up here is very expensive. I did buy a few choice pieces, along with a couple of patterns.
We had a note on our door when we returned. It was an invitation to dinner at Big Daddy’s BBQ. This place had been featured on the food channel as well as Good Morning America. We tried the chicken, brisket, and the ribs. Gay says the ribs were the best he has ever had. Everything was excellent.
It was another beautiful day with friends.
To see pictures of the day click on this link https://picasaweb.google.com/sharpstravels then click on album: Fairbanks day two.
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