We have no photos to post today. It was mainly a day of getting ready for travel to Homer tomorrow. We had to stock up on a few items that would be more costly in Homer so that involved a trip to Fred Meyer and Super Walmart. This evening we went to Kimber’s house for a short visit and dinner, then back to the RV for the evening.
We loaded up Ken’s newest family history information and his computer to take to our niece Kim’s house to visit this morning. We talked and talked until it was getting way past lunch time. So, we loaded up and drove to the Burger Bus in old town Kenai. We stopped there two years ago for a hamburger and I remembered it as being great. My memory did not fail me in this case, and we had an excellent meal. Here are a couple of photos of the Burger Bus which is situated close to the Visitor’s Center.
On the left side of the picnic table is our niece Kim with Ken. On the other side is Kim’s oldest daughter Madeleine and Kim’s son Grant.
The Kenai River at this point is flowing into the Cook Inlet.
Looking across the Cook Inlet, Mount Redoubt could barely be seen through the low clouds.
Later in the afternoon, we returned to Kim’s house where she barbecued kebobs and a salmon she recently caught. We didn’t get any photos of Kim’s husband Gale, but will add them later when we get them.
We had less than 60 miles to drive today, so we took our time getting started this morning. The tire pressure was starting to get a bit low on both the RV and truck, so Ken added some air to the tires. With that task completed, we dumped the holding tanks and were on our way west to Kenai.
We stopped for diesel in Soldotna at the Fred Meyer where we had enough points on our reward card to get $.10 off the posted price of $4.719, so we paid (only???) $4.619 per gallon. That should have been a fairly easy transaction, but it became problematic when the pump we parked at was out of order. I had checked that our first, and saw that we could reach the hose from the other side of the pump. I went to the cashier’s booth to prepay to make sure we received the $.10 per gallon off on the entire purchase rather than being cut off at $125 or some other arbitrary figure that they pick. I informed her we would be using pump #5 rather than #6 since it was out of order. She input the wrong pump number, it stopped at 35 gallons, and we ended up with 4 credit card receipts. I then had to use a second credit card since it was Sunday and the bank would only accept 2 charges on that day. Note: To our friends headed this way, diesel in the Anchorage area is going for about $4.439 per gallon.
With that ordeal completed, we continued on to Kenai and parked at the Moose Lodge which is just a short distance from our niece’s house. We got set up in our site, and headed into town for lunch and a few errands and a short drive around the area. When we returned to the RV, Ken was looking out the window and pointed out a a young moose about 100 feet from us. We watched her for quite a while as she nibbled on fresh shoots near the road (in the first two photos).
In the remaining 4 photos, she had moved to within about 25 feet of the RV and stayed there for quite some time just enjoying her meal.
After dinner, Ken looked out and saw that she returned again. Apparently, she’s a regular at the Moose Lodge.
We left Eagle River this morning after saying our goodbyes to Ian and were on our way to the Kenai Peninsula. We traveled through Anchorage and soon the highway was beside the Turnagain Arm for several miles. It was kind of a cloudy day for any decent photos, but here is one looking out at the water.
The Alaska Railroad is parallel to the highway at this point.
At this point, we’re on the Kenai Peninsula and crossing the Kenai River. It’s not a very good photo with the glare off the window.
Again, there’s a little bit of glare, but this is still from the bridge crossing the Kenai River looking down at the rafters.
After getting situated in our campsite, we drove around the area. We wanted to check out the campground we will be staying at in the middle of June for the salmon fishing. We took a brief tour of the Cooper Landing Museum as seen in the next two photos.
Ken spotted some Dall sheep up on the hillside and finally got a chance to try out his new telescopic lens. This first shot is with our older lens.
And this one was taken with the new lens. Overall, we saw over 60 Dall sheep in the area between the turnoff for Quartz Creek USFS Campground and Cooper Landing.
Before heading back to the RV, we stopped at the Kenai-Russian River Ferry access point. The ferry wasn’t in the river yet, so we didn’t get any photos of that. From there we drove back to camp for the evening.
Tomorrow we will be driving to Kenai where we will be visiting with our niece and her family.
Ken spent a good part of the day working on the RV. The ladder in the back of the RV was coming loose and he had to get that attached again so that it wouldn’t fall off. We also had to fill the fresh water tank again as we were running low. We had a late lunch and drove into town to drop off some mail at the post office and also drove out to see the Eagle River Campground (Chugach State Recreation Site). On our way back to Ian’s we decided to drive to the end of the road to the Eagle River Nature Center. There was a moose in the pond as we drove that way, so we watched him for a few minutes.
If you’ve ever heard of Moose Drool beer, this is how it got it’s name.
This is our nephew Ian with Ken.
Jennifer, Summer, and Corey are all running in a race in Anchorage tonight. It’s called the Skinny Raven Twilight 12K and you can read more about it here: Skinny Raven Twilight 12K. We hope they all do well!
Tomorrow we plan to drive to the Russian River USFS Campground and spend a night. That campground is already full for the expected week of the salmon run, so we’ll be staying at another campground during that time. However, we will have family staying at this campground and wanted to check it out in advance. On Sunday we will continue on to Kenai to visit our niece and her family.
Update: There were over 6000 runners in the race tonight. Jennifer placed 19th in her class, Summer was 5th in hers, and Corey was 4th in hers. Congratulations! Good job.
Today we had a slow day in Eagle River, AK visiting with our nephew Ian and his family…sorry, no additional photos to post. It was just a catch up day for laundry and all the other stuff that we’d rather not mess with but still has to be done.
Ian knocked on the door this morning to let us know there were a couple of coyotes in the yard. But by the time we got into the house to check it out they were already long gone. The girls saw them running into the woods, and Cozmo (the grizzly hound) was on high alert although nothing else was ever sighted.
It’s been a while since we’ve been close to the big box stores, so we decided to make a trip to Anchorage today and stock up on some things. Our first stop was Costco where we also filled the truck with unleaded at $4.119. Our next stop was Sam’s Club for a few grocery items.
We stopped for lunch at the Alaska Bagel Restaurant thanks to a coupon from Groupon. For those of you who don’t already know about it, they have a daily offer in several cities offering half off coupons. It’s not just restaurant coupons either, as there are several businesses advertising through Groupon. Since we were traveling to Alaska this summer, I had been following the deals in Anchorage, checked into this offer, studied their menu, saw it had good reviews and purchased a $15.00 off meal coupon for $7.00. The restaurant was very busy, had generous servings, and we both enjoyed our meals.
Since beginning this trip and seeing our first wildlife at a distance with no chance for a decent photo, we had been kicking ourselves for not having a “whale” lens for the camera like our friend Dennis. So, our next stop was at Stewart's Photo, Inc. where we purchased a more powerful telescopic lens.
We visited the The Ulu Factory to purchase a gift and also a couple of other stores to take care of another gift. If that wasn’t enough shopping, we stopped at Walmart for a few other things on our way back to Ian’s house.
Jennifer’s mother fixed us a great spaghetti dinner with salad and rolls, and then the girls all got ready to head to soccer. Jennifer took Summer to a game, Jennifer’s mother took Corey to practice, but before they all headed out I got them seated for some quick photos.
Here’s Corey holding Cozmo, Jennifer, and Summer. Last summer, Cozmo actually chased a grizzly off their property!
And then another of Corey, Jennifer, and Summer.
They’re a very busy family and we’re really enjoying our stay here.
I did see one moose in the brush on our way back to Eagle River from Anchorage in the vicinity of Elmendorf Air Force Base.
