Saturday in Wasilla, AK

Hi everybody, from sunny Wasilla, Alaska. Unfortunately this is one more "pictureless post" because I'm unable to get my own lap top onto the internet; and that computer is the one that has all the pictures. So, I'm just doing a brief entry here to let everyone know that we have not been eater by grizzleys or stomped by moose.

We crossed into Alaska on Wednesday, May 5. We had come through some pretty nasty roads, as well as lots of rain and snow. It was so nice to be back in the good old U.S.A. and to hear the border guards welcome us. We drove to one of the most beautiful campgrounds, Deadman's Lake, to spend the evening. Ice still covers the lake. Having camped here on the way into and out of AK the last time, I now have another memory of it. Nobody else was there.

Actually, if the truth be known, Alaska is not open for busyiness yet. Their tourist season begins on Memorial Day. Campgrounds are not open. If any are open, they have no water or showers yet....still frozen. We did see a grizzley going up the side of the hill. It was huge. I do have pictures of it.

We traveled south from Delta Junction and left the rugged pleasure of the Alaska Hwy. We went through some really nasty snow storm and slushy roads. After spending the next night in a pull off, in the splendid view of the Matanuska Glacier and whole range of snow covered mountains, we arrived at our friend's home in Wasilla early Thursday morning. Spending time doing our launtry, restocking groceries, cleaning out the camper and catching up on old times we are prepared to hit the road on Monday.

I called the Alaska ranger who is in charge of our host program. I found out that the orientation we had to get up here for is not until May 19 !!!!! What!!!! We are up here a whole week early. I told him that we had been told the 12th. He told me that the ranger who told me that was new and was mistaking on that. So....we have a whole unexpected week to sight-see, go help the rangers get the camp ready, or whatever. We'll figure that out on Monday. We'll be going up to Willow to drop the boat and check out the camp.

Oh....as a side bar...just had $1000 of work done on the truck. Noticed we were leaking something when we sat in Karen's driveway....thought it was oil. Took the truck to the Chevy dealer. Turned out to be the power stearing pump, rear u-joints, and a seal on the transfer case. We never would have noticed that leak sitting on a dirt pull-off somewhere. Could you believe our Guardian Angel was looking over us to protect our power stearing. Any of these things would have happened in Indiana or here. Better here than in the middle of nowhere. And we have been through a lot of "nowhere" in the past 13 days!

So, until we connect again...hopefully somewhere I can get the pictures up for you all to see...