6/8/2009 Signs of Alaska

Up early again this morning. I don't know if it's the sunlight, which is coming through the windows at just before four thirty, or the excitement of what the day is going to bring. The excitement of what's around the bend when we're driving around a curve. The excitement of who we are going to meet today. We are lovin' this trip!

Here we are bright and early getting ready to pull out of the spot we were in last night.

This was the scenery we had to endure when we left. LOL...yeah like that was hard!

This was one of first signs we saw. We see them for elk, moose and bear but we haven't seen any as yet. Bob keeps yelling out, "moose poop" but I haven't even seen that yet, I guess I'm always looking out the side window instead.

A going down the road picture.

We saw our first Alaska sign!

We pulled into the gas station behind this sign and there were about a half dozen other rigs already there getting gas, drinks and munchies. We are all going to Alaska.

We'll be staying in Stewart, visiting Hyder, Alaska this week and we'll see Bear Glacier on the way.

While in the parking lot I saw a bridge that we will be going over and I saw the mountain and I heard water, I just knew there was a picture waiting to be taken.

More scenery pictures.

More Alaska signs.

So we going down the road, lost in our own thoughts and all of a sudden Bob yells, "bear poop"! I yelled, "Stop!" Well, you know what's coming now don't you?

Let me explain something here. Bob is a hunter. Big time. He hunts in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Idaho and Canada. He hunts for deer, elk, moose and bear. The man knows poop! Bob had this idea he shared with me. He suggested I get a picture of moose poop and put it on the site next to the bear poop and have YOU, the reader, see if you could tell which is which. I told him that was a great idea but I expanded on a bit. I said I would take a picture of moose poop and post it with this bear poop picture and that the next time he got "the urge" that I wo......he cut me off right there. He's not going for that idea. Oh well, at least you'll know if you ever get lost in the woods and you see poop you'll know what animal was there before you. Always a learning experience here on Quinn's Awesome Journey isn't it?

I was reading something as we were going down the road and I looked up when I heard a really strange noise. I so didn't expect to see us on a single lane wooden bridge.

Look, I hate to bore you with scenery pictures but I just can't help it. Bear with me here.

We are just in awe every time we go around a curve.

Seeing this Avalanche Area sign didn't give me a warm and fuzzy feeling. For that matter neither did the Tsunami signs in Washington and we didn't have a Tsunami so maybe we'll luck out here too.

We had reached the Bear Glacier.

We had met up with a couple here that we had met in the last station. I was taking their picture in front of this scenery while Bob was in the 5th wheel. I had them all lined up in the viewfinder, they were smiling and then we heard it. A low rumbling, a crack and then the rocks started falling at a waterfall just across the street. Right in back of where our rig and truck were parked. It all happened in a matter of seconds and they looked at me and said, "Did you see that"? At this point Bob comes out and we told him what happened and he said he had heard it but thought a tractor trailer had parked right next to our rig. So we've seen our firsts, and hopefully last, avalanche. Thankfully it was a small one.

We saw lots of water falls along the way. With the thaw going on there are many. Some small, some large.

A little ways down the road we were stopped by this lady.

It seems the river overflowed and took the road with it. We were going to be delayed for a short time while the road crew repaired it.

We talked with Lourie about living here in this area and she told she hasn't been a long a time but that she hated it! She doesn't like snow and this area got sixty feet this past season. Sixty feet, I can't even imagine that.

She went on to tell us that her house is heated by wood and that this past season they went through eleven cords of wood. This is also heating a work shop. Her husband likes his tools warm. Her words, not mine.

She also told us that she grows her own veggies in a hot house during the summer because the produce they get in the stores leaves a lot to be desired. She said that Alaska get much better produce than the local stores do and that every one does a happy dance when a tractor trailer hauling fresh veggies turns over. She assured us that the driver is certainly given first aid if needed but the radios are busy notifying everyone in the area that a truck carrying good veggies is down. Everyone rushes in to help "clean up". And clean up they do!

We were allowed to go but we certainly enjoyed our talk with Lourie.

More scenery.

We reach our destination!

We pulled into our campground and were just in awe when we saw the scenery we'll have this week outside of the rig.

We'll see what the area has to offer and take you along with us.

Note to friends and family: No cell service in this area.