Goin' home again......

Anchorage, Ak July 31,2007

Tomorrow we will depart this beautiful place and head back towards Odessa...eventually.

I have been thinking of how to describe the beauty that is Alaska...and I have came to the conclusion that there aren't enough adjectives to describe it. Every time I see it, and not for the first or second time, the beauty of the scenery still takes my breath away. Everything is still pristine; well for the most part and especially on the drive from Anchorage to the Kenai River. Even tho there are so many people at the river at this time of the year; it is still beautiful.

We came back to Anchorage on Sunday after closing up the trailer for the season. It is a chore to close it up as you can not leave ANYTHING that will possibly freeze during the winter; so all canned goods, anything with liquid you have to take out and either 1. Give away; 2. toss; 3. give to your nephew or brother.

We have had a good visit with my brother, who will be moving to Tucson in late October and live in our other house along with my nephew. We are glad to have them with us and since my brother is not in very good health and can't take the cold winters any longer, we are happy to have him.

While here in Anchorage I helped my niece find a mobile home to live in. She had been looking, but today we finely found one and she made an offer on it. She has been living in her fifth wheel and about froze last winter, so we are glad to see she will be in a warmer house this winter.

Tonight we went to Glacier Brewhaus for dinner. It is one of the many micro brewery's here in Anchorage area and the food was excellent. And Cortney, eat your heart out, I had the best king crab legs I have ever had!!!! I thought of you the whole time.

This is what is left of the king crab legs after I got done with them...............

So until next time, we are on the wroad again, heading home.

Rain, rain go away

Sterling, Ak July 25, 2007



Rain, rain, go away!

We are having another typical Alaska summer…rain!!! Actually, rain, cold (to me) and clouds seem to be the norm here. I am one frozen person! I know this is July… I know I should be in shorts, tee shirts. Instead I am in long pants, socks, and long sleeve shirts and shivering! What is wrong with this??? Me, the warm weather lover!! Cold! Again, I am missing summer!

The sockeye fish (reds) salmon are running. Apparently, everyone else can catch them but me! I just don’t understand!! Cortney, where are you??? Jerry, where are you??? I can go down and beat the river to a froth…everyone around me catch salmon, but I can’t seem to catch any! Spaid luck? Probably! Last night the “Germans” were catching them beside be on each side, but I couldn’t seem to catch one! I even traded poles and they caught one on my pole!!!!! How disgusting is that? ?? Doesn’t seem fair.

Al has been fighting a bad cold -- and so have I. He has been so bad he hasn't been down fishing for 5 days. I think he is finally getting better today. Maybe he will feel like fishing tomorrow.

On another note............We are still saddened by Sun Country RV closing…however, we are excited that we will have Gordon and Denise with us this winter in Tucson! I talked to Denise today and they are in the last throws of business….We will really miss them, however, we think this could be the best thing to happen to them. They will be able to travel now and spend more time with us…yes, we are selfish! I feel for them however, it must be hard! After being in business for so long, and being so popular in the Moses Lake area, it will be hard to not have them there! They are such good friends, and we will be glad to see them in Tucson!



Well, our days here are numbered. We will probably head up to Anchorage on Sunday and spend some time with my brother; then Wednesday we fly back to Seattle. We will leave the trailer available for my brother's use or any of the family that want's to use it. Then in September my nephew Bruce will close up the trailer for winter. I am anxious in one way to go home...I miss my dogs and cats; however, I feel like we should stay up here another couple of weeks!!! But I am tired of being cold, wet, etc...so time for me to stop whining and go home I guess!

One more bear story to tell before we leave here. Last Saturday night about 9:30 p.m. I was out playing with Buddy, the owners labradoodle. We were playing "bone"--not ball, but throw the bone! And of course I was really having a good time and Buddy is like Beau with a ball, once you start throwing it he is obsessed with it and only it...only this is a bone. After about 20 minutes of this I was getting tired, he was still ready to play, but I decided it was time to stop. I had just put the bone away when I heard "BEAR"! Huh? WHere? Ulp! Buddy, of course, was only interested in where I had put the bone....hey, dog, B-E-A-R! Buddy finally must have gotten the point, because all of a sudden he hightailed it for the house! Uh, where is the bear??? Apparently the bear was right behind the lodge! Now, to set the scene...the lodge is right next to the house, and I am right in front of the house. Too close for me! I very hurriedly walked back to our trailer...and watching out for everything. The bear was the same one Al had seen the day or so before down on the river. And everyone thinks it is the same bear we had last year. Anyway, the bear very calmly walked through camp, and wandered back down to the river and paced on the dock for a while before saundering off to the woods again. So now, we are all on bear alert! Again. Except Buddy, who is still just interested in playing "bone" or today, "stick"...gotta' get that dog a ball!

Our critter count is very low this year. One bear (seen twice) and too many squirrels to count. No moose! Oh, and mosquito's -- at least a gazillion of those.

Until next posting..................

The Reds are Here!

Sterling, Ak July 21, 2007

The Reds are here! In great numbers! 48,000 came through the fish counter on Thursday, so they are now in our water! And a lot are in our freezer! So far I have packaged 48 pieces of fish and they are in the freezer being frozen; and one in the refrig waiting to hit the bbq tonight. My vacuum sealer has been humming for two days. And with the fish come all the people in the camp! EVERYONE IS HERE! It's a busy place right now and getting a spot on the dock to fish is tough....I just wait for someone to pull out a fish, then while they are taking the fish off I go fish in their spot, and everyone seems to do that. Of course, the SPAID luck is holding, I catch one fish to every 20 everyone else catches. Bruce and I have decided it must be in the blood!

Today was the memorial celebration of life for Ray Geerin, the owner of Fish on Inn until he died last October. He was a wonderful person, and we count ourselves fortunate to have known him. There was a huge pot luck today at noon and boy was there some yummy salmon dishes. Salmon wraps with sweet/hot sauce were my favorites. YUM

Our neighbors in camp, Chuck and Kate Sullivan from Sequim, have sold their trailer and they aren't coming back up on a regular basis anymore. This really saddens us as they are great neighbors and people. Chuck reminds us so much of a taller Gary Wraspir.....he has the same disposition and looks like Gary and treats people like our Gary does. Chuck is a family practice doctor in Sequim, so it was nice having him near when we were up here. There are plenty of other doctors in the camp, so we won't be short on help if we should need it. We hope to keep in touch with Chuck and Kate.

The weather is nice and warm...80 today...wah hoo. I am loving it! So are the flies and mosquitos tho! OH WELL, such is life here!

Gotta' go....I hear a sockeye calling me..................

THE REDS ARE COMING! THE REDS ARE COMING!

Sterling, AK July 19, 2007

THE REDS ARE COMING! THE REDS ARE COMING!

At least we hope they are! The sockeye salmon count is still low, however, word has it that the fish were schooling up in Cook Inlet, just outside the mouth of the river, getting ready to run upstream, where, hopefully, some of them will be found on the end of our fishing line. The run is late again this year. Usually you can count on 4 days on either side of July 13 for the run. However, in the past few years Mother Nature has changed her mind and the run has been late, later, or latest. Most of the regulars are here in our fishing camp now, and all of us are just waiting. Every year “The Germans” come over to fish. There are 4-8 men from Germany that come every year to fish here and boy are they ever fishermen! From early morning to late at night they are beating the water to a froth and usually catching fish. I enjoy listening to them talk…only two or three speak any English, and then not the best English, so it is fun trying to communicate with them.

Al went down to fish yesterday while I went to town to do the laundry. Yes, more laundry! I swear we dirty more clothes here than anywhere else, or maybe my laundry basket is just smaller here! At any rate, while he was down at the river fishing with some of the guys from camp, they saw a huge grizzly bear not far from them on the bank. ULP---they’re back! Of course, the bears have probably never left, but I haven’t seen one, yet. Al said it was the biggest bear he has ever seen! After the bear looked them over, he/her retreated back up the hill, towards our camp. However, no one has seen him/her since. So I am on bear alert now! Boy, if it isn’t snakes in Odessa it’s bears in Alaska! I still think I would rather encounter a bear than a snake, but right now, it’s a pretty close toss up which one I would encounter. I think I want to go back to Tucson where I only encounter an occasional Javalina or Coyote!!! I feel like I am living in the Wild Kingdom!

Dan and his dad, Rod, left Tuesday morning to fly back to LA. We really enjoyed our time with them here and hope they will return next year. And yes, there will be a next year here, at least we hope so. We had talked about selling this trailer, but have decided to try one more year here. The owners of the camp have the camp up for sale, so who knows, we may not have an option for next year if the camp sells and the new owners decide to do something different with the land. Anyone want to buy a fish camp on the Kenai? Only $1.7 million! Come on, I know some of you have some loose pocket change you can gather up and buy this place!

Not much else happening here. I am enjoying watching the eagles fly up and down the river, and watched one catch a fish yesterday. They really are exciting to watch and especially when they do catch a fish. They circle around and then, whoosh, they dive and grab a fish! We also have a little red squirrel in residence at our trailer. He/she is sitting on our picnic table right now looking for food. Billie, our squirrel girl would like watching this one, and taking a million pictures of it!

It’s been cold, rainy and windy; then hot and sunny; then cold , rainy and windy again. Both of us have a cold….courtesy of the weather I am sure. Dan left with a cold and I was hoping he took it with him, but he left just enough here to share with us! Al has really been feeling down with the cold and I am just starting with the sore throat, stuffed up nose, etc. Woo hoo..what fun!

So, until next time, when I hope I can say, The Reds are HERE, we hope you are all happy and healthy and enjoying life to the fullest!

Halibut and a Sinking Boat

This is a view from our trailer of the Kenai River. Great view to get up to every morning!

Sterling, AK July 13

We had a great day yesterday! However, according to my body it was a rough day. Guess I need to start at the beginning.

Son-in-law Dan and his dad, Rod, arrived as scheduled on Tuesday.

We sat around and yakked and visited. On Wednesday they tried their hand at fishing for some sockeye, but the run isn’t really strong yet and they didn’t catch any. Late afternoon we headed to Homer to spend the night before going out on our halibut charter on Thursday. We enjoyed the drive down, scenery beautiful as expected. This is Dan’s first time in Alaska and we hope he is enjoying it. We had dinner at the Elks Lodge in Homer, which sits right on the water and has wonderful food. We were all stuffed to the gills as we waddled back to the hotel.

Thursday we were up at 5:30 a.m. (there isn’t much I will get up for at that time, however, Halibut fishing is one thing I will get up early for!) and off to the Silver Fox Charters.

We were assigned to the Silver Fox II boat; just a luck of the draw. “Silver Fox I” was the other boat and then the charter company had leased a boat for the month, the Fat Kat, to handled the seasonal crowd. This charter company runs their boats together, in other words, they never go out with just one boat, a minimum of two always go out for safety reasons. The ride out was uneventful…a little rough, but we have been in worse. There were 7 of us on board, besides us four, Matt the captain, and Mike and Mark, long time buddies from Minnesota. OH, and by the way, it was raining a good, steady, cold rain the whole time we were out fishing. We got out to the “fishing grounds” after a two hour ride, so we were probably about 45 miles out. We immediately began catching halibut. OW, OW, OW. Hey, I forgot how much work this is! My arms are complaining loudly over how much I am working them! First reel in and dang, I have a halibut. Woohoo….I only have to catch one more and I am done for the day! However, getting this first halibut into the boat was harder than I remembered…but finally, with help from Dan, I pull in a measly 25 pounder. The captain asked if I wanted to keep it, HECK YA! By now Dan has caught his first, at 52 pounder (show off!!) and Rod has caught a nice size one as well. Al is still fishing, Mike and Mark have both caught fish as well. To make a long story long, we all caught our limit, which is two each, however, we threw back smaller ones we caught and in all we also caught (and brought up from a depth of 250 feet) 6 sharks (dog fish) and 3 skates (relative to the sting ray). Just checking your bait got to be a challenge as we are fishing in 250-300 feet of water and dragging the bait and a 10 pound weight up time and time again is hard on the body. At least on Al’s and mine….Dan, didn’t seem to have any trouble with it….young whippersnapper! Rod did well, even though the day he flew up here he had a kidney stone blasted out! OW OW OW.

Halibut!! Our catch is 8 of these! The two largest are Dan's.

We had just finished fishing, eating our lunch when over the radio came a “MAY DAY, MAY DAY, FAT KAT TAKING ON WATER”! WHAT????? Fat Kat is the other boat in our fleet! Our captain literally threw our boat in gear and off we go! In the mean time we are getting out our life vests and throwing them out on the deck incase they are needed. We are looking for the Fat Kat, which by now is sinking at a very fast rate. We are literally flying over the water…. Still can’t see her! Over the radio, Silver Fox I says they have all the passengers and crew (total of 7) rescued and on board. We arrive, mind you only 7 minutes after the first may day, and the boat is already two thirds under! And remember, the water is a whopping 50 degrees! I have never seen anything like this. No one is injured and they even managed to rescue the halibut they had caught. The crew of the Fat Kat said she belched a lot of black smoke and started taking on water immediately at a rapid rate. Since this is a leased boat, and only the first time the charter company had her out, one has to wonder. At least everyone is safe, scared, but safe. Both Silver Fox boats circle Fat Kat, waiting for her to completely go under, but she never did while we were there….must have a big air pocket somewhere! Our boat picks up what we can of the stuff floating around that has came off the Fat Kat, but we were unable to retrieve much. We finally take off back to Homer. After getting back to shore and learning that it was an exhaust problem on the Fat Kat they think that sank her. WOW! What a day!

The Boat "Fat Kat" sinking in Cook Inlet, Alaska.

We finally get our fish to the processing plant where they will be packaged in to one pound packages and flash frozen and shipped home. We have a total of 141 pounds of filleted and trimmed halibut…not bad. Dan, Rod, Al and I split up the total, 70 pounds each. Yummmm….halibut for next year. But our halibut fishing trip was just a little more exciting than we anticipated. We are just glad the passengers and crew of the Fat Kat were okay. I talked to one of the men on board and he said it was very frightening from the time they started taking on water to when the Silver Fox 1 arrived…just over 4 minutes and they were already capsizing. Thank goodness Silver Fox 1 was just a little closer than we were or those passengers and crew would have been in that 50 degree water. Makes me wonder why these boats don’t have life rafts on board. I know the next time we book a charter that will be question I ask. And, I will also ask if they boats go out in pairs just for this reason! If they had been out alone, they wouldn’t have survived as most other boats were at least 10-15 minutes away.

We finally got home around 9:30 last night, after a stop at Suzi’s, our favorite restaurant here. We were all exhausted and it didn’t take us long to get to bed.

We all woke up this morning a little sore, but moving. At least Dan and Rod are, Al and I are still wondering if all our body parts are working!!! Dan and Rod and my nephew Bruce are out in his boat on the river today fishing…Al is resting and I am on my way to do my favorite thing…yep , laundry!

So until next time, we are here, fighting mosquitos, hoping for more sockeye to run and having a great time.

Cold, wet Alaska

Sterling, Alaska Kenai River July 9, 2007

BRRRRRRRRRRRR -- it’s cold. Even Al says he is cold! Yes, we are in Alaska…land of the midnight sun. We arrived last Thursday after an uneventful flight. Rescued all of our luggage, got our rental car and went to my brothers house in Anchorage. We spent Friday and Saturday with him, just visiting and getting supplies (aka groceries) to take to the river. My brother seems to be doing well, he has various heath problems, heart, diabetes, breathing, etc., but for his age we think he is doing well.

The weather in Anchorage was cool…in the 60’s, and we did have 2 sunny days. Of course, it had to rain part of the day, which I am beginning to believe is normal for this area.

We came to the river yesterday. It is such a beautiful drive down here. I can’t even begin to describe the beauty of the mountains, rivers, glaciers, trees, etc. It is really breathtaking. There was a lot of traffic going to Anchorage, but traffic was fairly light coming this way. One thing we have noticed is the reduced amount of RV’s on the road from the lower 48 states. The last few years it has been amazing to see the number of RV’s from the lower 48…however, this year it is really evident the reduced numbers. Still plenty of RV’s bearing Alaska license plates. Along the upper Kenai, near Cooper’s Landing, it looks like the fishing war has begun! We saw wall to wall anglers, or combat fishing as they call it here, on the river yesterday.

In our fish camp, only a few of us are already here, only 4 trailers opened up so far, including ours, thanks to Bruce, our nephew. He is really good to us, closing up our trailer for winter and opening it up for the season. The salmon are beginning to trickle in; however, it looks like a few days before the run starts in earnest….but up here one never knows.

We have pretty much settled in…most everything is unpacked; now the problem is where to put the empty suitcases….never thought of that! They will probably be stored in the shower, so when we take showers, we will have to rearrange, but that is the only place I can see to store them.

We both remembered why we love it here after we got here…it is so beautiful and tranquil (at least until everyone arrives in camp) and the scenery is something we never tire of. We haven’t seen any critters yet, unless you want to count the moose size mosquitos! I am back to wearing my favorite perfume, “Off, with deet” and walking around with my bug zapper in hand. I am looking for my bald eagles that had a nest in the tree above us, but haven’t spotted them yet.

Today is cold, (59), cloudy and breezy and some rain. I bet some of you roasting in the heat wave would trade with me right now, and as cold as I am, I could use some of your heat. The fire near Deep Creek (Ninilichik) is contained, so there is no smoke in the air and so far there are no other fires burning. I still don’t see how a fire can burn up here…everything is so green.

Dan (son in law) and his dad Rod are due to arrive here tomorrow. Sure hope the fish start to run while they are here. We do have a halibut charter scheduled for Thursday out of Homer (and these fishing boats have the very needed bathrooms on board, unlike the ones we took last year out of Ninilchik) and we hear the halibut fishing has been great. I can’t wait to hook on to one…then I will need someone to help me get it in the boat probably…it’s like pulling up a barn door!

July 10
It is busy raining here today...a nice, gentle, steady rain, which we are enjoying right now. However, if it continues this way, I am sure in a day or so I will be cussing the rain. And it is a toasty 55 degrees! brrrr

At least we aren't burning up as most of you are....more later

Ready, Set...fish?

Seattle
July 3

Happy 4th of July early....

We are in Seattle, getting ready to fly to Anchorage on Thursday. The dogs are on their "vacation", aka...staying at Ardis and Jerry's and being spoiled rotten (and hopefully, watching out for snakes!)

We got here on Sunday after stopping in Moses Lake to have lunch with good friends Gordon and Denise, who are the owners of Sun Country RV. We got some real bad news from them...as of the end of this month Sun Country RV is no more! Oh woe is us....now we have to sell our 5th wheel...they are the only ones we trust to work on it. They lost their lease and with only 30 days to find another place (which is damn near impossible) they decided to bag it and retire. It just isn't going to be the same without them there. On a good note, they will still have their mobile RV repair business and they are planning on coming to Tucson for a few months this winter...so we know where they can park their trailer and operate out of...we seem to have the room since we have decided not to take the 5th wheel to Tucson this year. That is another story for a later blog.

Al had his sleep test on Sunday night....and yes, he passed! He has been studying for it for weeks. His results were fine, CPAP working fine so he is good to go for another couple of years.

I saw something on Monday morning I haven't seen in a long time! A SLUG! I had conveniently forgotten how much I detested those slimy things! I almost stepped on it...that would have been a big, gross mistake...ick, ick, ick!

Traffic here is not any better...not that I expected it to be. We drove to La Conner today (a favorite place of mine) to meet friends Ann and Gene for lunch. I-5 was moving fairly well for a Tuesday...about 45 mph! UGH. And coming over I-90 on Sunday we were roaring along at 7o mph when all of a sudden everything came to a dead stop! WTH? We then did the stop and crawl for over 40 miles and for over an hour....never did figure out what slowed traffic down! Again, too many cars and too little roads. And the roads in this state are in the worse repair we can ever remember....rough, worn and pot hole city!

La Conner was a blast today. For those who don't know what La Conner is, it is a small city north of Seattle that has charm charm and more charm. And the drive through the Skagit Valley was absolutely beautiful....I had forgotten how pretty it is. And we stopped and bought berries..strawberries, blueberries and raspberries that all were picked this morning and oh boy are they ever good. And we had oysters for lunch...and then stopped and bought more at this tiny, country store and we fixed them for dinner tonight and needless to say, my tummy is very happy...they were excellent. There is nothing better than pacific northwest oysters.

Tomorrow Ric and Janet and Sherrie are coming over to Jennifer's (that is where we are now...our home away from home...thanks J!) for a bbq for the 4th. From the sounds of it outside, a lot of people have started to celebrate tonight. Poor Pookie, our grandkitty, is scared of the loud noises going on outside. I feel sorry for the animals.

Thursday Al has a doctor appointment in the morning and then we head to the airport and will fly to Anchorage. Plan is to go to the river on Friday...we shall see.

Jennifer is going to the UK for a week, leaving the 7th. I am not sure I am too happy about that given all that is going on over there right now. She is going on business as the company she works for, Content Master, is headquartered outside of Bristol. She is excited, but I think a little apprehensive as well, again, due to the terrorist crap going on over there now. All we can do is hold our collective breathes and pray.

So, until next time, here fishy, fishy, fishy...................