Kenai to Homer

We left the Kenai Moose Lodge this morning, and after filling the propane take (at a cost of about $4.12 per gallon), we were southbound to Homer.  We saw a moose and 3 bald eagles, but the only photo I got today was this Homer, Alaska sign.  We are in the Mariner’s Campground which is the first campground on the right on the spit.  It is all boondocking sites run by the City of Homer at $15.00 a night.  They do have a slightly better rate for 2 weeks which is the maximum stay limit here.  We are overlooking Kachemak Bay and are planning on going halibut fishing while here as well as a boat trip to Seldovia.  We should be here about a week so we’ll be trying to look into the better weather days for our trips.

That’s all for today!

Russian River to Kenai, Alaska

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.

 

Working on the RV and a Drive Up Eagle River Road

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.

 

8/5 - 8/8/2009 - Kenai, AK

After having visited the southern most part of the Kenai Peninsula, we made our way back to Kenai so that we could have more family time with our niece, Kim and her family. Basically for all of our married life plus some, she has been in Alaska and we've not been able to get to know her. This trip to Alaska has been priceless in that respect...we've been able to get closer to Kim and her family and have really enjoyed the visit and hope there will be many more!

This photo is NOT Kim...it's just a moose meandering through her neighborhood on our last evening there.

Kim and family in a more humorous pose: Top row left to right: Nikki, Madeleine, Rick (Madeleine's boyfriend), Tyler, bottom row: Gale (Kim's husband and great welder!), Grant (aka Fang), and Kim.

Here's another photo of the family...just a little more serious.

We can't say enough about what a wonderful time we had visiting with your family and getting closer and getting to know you better. We love you Kim and family!