Sharp's Travels

We were up early and took our usual walk around the campground, had a few cups of coffee and then ate breakfast.

Gay helped Roger with transit shields, signs for backs of units and other odd jobs.  I started putting away craft books, paints and miscellaneous supplies used for our signs in preparation for pulling out of the park tomorrow.

At 10am we met Spike at the entrance of the park to carpool to see and learn about the Kispiox Totem Poles and early Native history.  It was all so interesting.

On the way back we stopped to see a totem pole being carved.  The Chief that ordered the pole was there and he gave us lots of information on his totem pole.  They were cooking some salmon by an open flame fire and he invited us to check it out.  The fish were stretched and placed on poles about 2 feet from the open fire pit.  He said it would take about ½ hour to cook them.  One of our group asked if this was smoking fish and he said “no”, I’ll show you my smoke house”.  We got a tour of that too!  This stop was all something extra for our tour group.  We just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Everyone returned to their rigs for lunch and at 1:30 we were off again.  Spike took us on a trail down by the river at the meeting of the waters and gave us the history lesson on the river and the surrounding area.

We then walked over to the K’san Historical Village & Museum for a tour.  Our guide took us to the Clan House, the Wolf House, and the Fire Weed House.  It was so interesting to learn all about the Gitxsan culture and people.

The museum had lots of artifacts to check out and of course the gift shop.

5:15 was pot luck time.  I made a pasta salad to take.  Everyone brings a dish to pass and Spike furnished Smoked Salmon.  It was all very good.

We had a short meeting after our meal and received our paperwork for our next leg of our journey to Hyder Alaska, our first stop in Alaska.

To see pictures of the day click on this link https://picasaweb.google.com/sharpstravels then click on album: Totem Poles & K’san Village.

We had a busy morning. Gay was running off pictures of our group and ran out of ink for the printer.  He had to make a 100 mile round trip to the nearest store that carried cartridges.  He left at 10am and was back close to noon.

I finished up painting the numbers on the signs for the back of each vehicle and started putting things together for the Sign Forest Workshop.

Gay drove in just in time for lunch.  We had a quick sandwich and I began to bring my stuff outside to the picnic tables for my workshop.  Just then it began to rain.  We quickly moved the picnic tables under the awning and it wasn’t long and the rain stopped, the sun came out and it was beautiful, a perfect day for painting!  The gang arrived and began to paint their signs.  We had a great time and ended up with such a neat variety of signs.  It was a fun time.

Gay took time out to get pictures of the gals down at the riverside fish cleaning station.  They were cleaning their salmon and putting it into their canning jars.  The salmon are running now.  They say they have an abundance of fish this year.

At 5pm we walked down to the little coffee shop here in the park for a special grilled Salmon dinner.  It was very good.  It was another fun gathering for this group.

By 6:45pm it was time to meet Spike at the Wolf House for a special performance of the Regalia Native Dance.  They were all dressed in bright colored costume.  They sang and preformed clan dances to the sound of the drums.  Each dance told a story.  It was a very neat experience.  

We headed back to the 5th wheel—Gay up-dated the blog & pictures, by then it was time to head for bed and get some rest.  Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.

To see pictures of the day click on this link https://picasaweb.google.com/sharpstravels then click on album: Sign making or Alaska photo album.

It was really nice outside this morning early and then around 7:30 am it clouded up quickly and we had a heavy rain storm come through although it was over by 9:00 am. Around 11:00 am the sun came out to have a beautiful day. As soon as the rain was over and we got the picnic table dried off and got thing set out and were ready to register more of our caravan guest. Throughout the day the rest of the caravan people arrived. They were Jim & Linda Clarke from AB Canada, Patrick & Maureen Long from FL, Donley & Carol Duerksen from KS, Ron & Betty Ertel from CA. At 3:00 pm we had our orientation meeting to get out all the information Spike had along with what Cheri and I had. The meeting lasted for three hours but it is something that needs to be done and were able to answer a lot of questions, plus Cheri and also learned a few things. So now that that is out of the way and everyone is registered tomorrow should be a much easier day, although we have a lot of loose end to get done. Sorry this is late, Spike’s internet was down for the day and we didn’t have time to go down to the office to upload the blog. 

orientation meeting

orientation meeting

It was a busy day for us, although we did manage to get our morning walk in. Cheri started the day making a peanut butter pie and putting together Lasagna to have for supper this evening as we were having Spike, Roger and Theresa over to eat with us. I helped Roger with putting on some of the transit shields and the rock guards for the trucks, 5th wheels and motor homes. We had a meeting with Spike getting information, radios, name tags and other misc items to hand out along with the vests. The couples that came in today were Ken & Deb Johnson from WY, Carol Heyne & Judy Lange from WI, Jonesy & Linda Jones from CA, Kim & Essie Nielsen from MI, Ed & Janalee Cheney CA, Mary Lee Stets from CT, Raymond & Shirley Agnew from LA, Cliff & Marge Hardy from VA, Jim & Margo from NY. So we were busy welcoming everyone and getting to know them a little bit. Then it was time to set up the table and register the couples, hand out vests, radios, Itineraries, take tour payments and take pictures of each couple for an album to hand out later. After supper we registered one more couple and then we went to Cliff and Marge’s motor home to help Marge get on the internet. We took a walk around the campground visiting the couples that were sitting out and walking around. It was after 10:00 pm by the time we got back to the 5th wheel. The day went by really fast and it was a very warm day with a high of 84 degrees and sunshine this afternoon, plus we got a heavy rain shower while we were eating supper outside under the awning.  

Roger installing radiator screen

Roger installing transit shield

Roger installing transit shield

Our morning was pretty quiet as we did our morning walk and went down to the office to upload our blog. I talked with the office manager about our caravan group and to see if any one came in late last night, he said just the one couple the night before. At 1:00 pm we stopped by Jim and Lorraine’s to see if they wanted to go into town for any groceries, Lorraine said she would ride in with us. Just as we were leaving a couple of rigs for our group came in. we said a quick hi and went to town. We stopped at the filling station on the way back to fill the truck and have it ready to leave on Saturday morning. As soon as we got back to the 5th wheel and got our groceries put away we headed out to welcome the couples that arrived and invited them to our place for a little get together and hotdogs. The people that came in this afternoon were Dick & Marie Holt from FL, Tom & Sandy Wade from OH, Roger & Gwen Boyles from NC, Bob & Bridget Meissner from CA. Plus Roger and Theresa were back. Bob and Bridget had come in last night and we didn’t know about it until they came down to visit this afternoon. So we had a group of twelve for hotdogs. We all had a fun time getting to know each other and telling stories. Just as we were finishing up the office manager came by and told us a cougar had been spotted north of the campground and he was going up to set off some fireworks to scare him away. We also heard that there had been a bear spotted a couple of days ago. They probably have been checking us out to see which one of us would be the best meal for them. So as you can see things are picking up and we will be busy from now on until the end of the caravan.