Friday July 24, 2009

We left the RV park in Kasilof on Wednesday morning and moved to King Salmon RV park in Soldotna.  Our friends Chuck & Loraine, Rob and Norma and Tom and Dorothy were leaving Soldotna on their way to Seward…we pulled into 2 of their spaces just as they left.  Later that afternoon Bob and Joanne from Texas, also Phaeton owners, pulled into our RV park.  Mark had been in touch with Bob so they knew we were here.  On Thursday, Mark, Bob S. and I left the park at 5:00 am and headed for the Kenai River to fish.  We thought we would get there early enough to be able to get a good spot in the river…wrong!  We ended up having to fish off of the boardwalk which isn’t made of boards but metal.  We fished until noon with little luck.  I was able to catch 2, Mark caught 1 and Bob caught 2 1/2.  We worked hard and long for 5 fish. 

Here are the 3 that Mark and I caught.

This is Bob S. with 2 of his catches.

We were so tired on Friday that we took the day off.  Mark, Susan, Bob and I went to the movie, The Ugly Truth, and then we drove out Funny River Road to check out fishing places on the Kenai River that we had not seen before.  We saw some beautiful patches of fireweed.

We stopped at a small camping/fishing area that is part of Alaska State Parks and met the park hosts, Dan and Pat.  In talking to them we found out they winter in Mission, Texas and know our friends Dan and Rita Desmond.  Small world.

Upon returning to our campground Susan spotted a mama moose and her 2 young ones just a few yards from our coaches.

We are told these guys are regular visitors in the park.  The little ones were so cute.

Well, tomorrow we leave the park at 4:00 am hoping to be able to get a decent spot to fish.  My license expires Monday morning.  Wish me luck!

Moving on.

Friday, July 18 2009

Not much to report today…it was fishing all the way.  Sue and Mark left the RV park at 4:30 this morning.  Sue’s fishing license expired at 9:00 am so she wanted to try to do some good before her time lapsed.  Bob took me to the river about 8:45 so Sue could hand over the hip boots and rod & reel to me. 

Mark was having a terrible time.  He had landed one fish when I got there and lost numerous ones.  His line kept breaking.  Anyway, by 11:00 we had to leave the river to go and replenish our supplies.  But, by that time Chuck and Rob and gotten there and were able to save us room where we like to fish. 

I was so excited because I caught 2 fish today…can you believe it.  Chuck and Rob gave us their fish and Mark had caught others so we came home with 12.  Mark is still cleaning.  This is a portion of what we brought home with us.

Some other guys joined Mark at the cleaning table with their catch.

And here are my two beauties… I have to put plastic bags on my hands to be able to put my hands in their gills.  That one is kind of puny isn’t he?  Oh well, he’s mine.

Today was Rob’s 60th birthday so we all got cleaned up and headed to Kenai for dinner at Louie’s.  The food was great and everyone had a wonderful time.  We could hardly eat for laughing.  What a great group of people we have been blessed with.  Here are Norma and Rob, the birthday boy.  They are from Alberta, Canada.

Tom and Dorothy are from California.

Chuck and Lorraine from Bellingham, WA…now fulltime RVers.  Lorraine grew up in Alaska.

Susan and Mark from Lake Charles, La.  They are also full timers.

And here we are.

Bob had a seafood Caesar salad…

And I had steak…

Life is good.

Moving on.

Friday July 17, 2009

Last night we had a good time visiting with Chuck & Lorraine, Tom and Dorothy and Rob and Norma.  Susan fixed a huge pot of gumbo and lots of other goodies for all of us.  It was good to see these fun people again.  Rob and Norma are from Alberta, Canada.  I was so tired that I had to come home soon after dinner to get some rest.

Bob and I took a short road trip today.  We headed north on the Sterling highway to check out the Russian River near Coopers Landing.  We decided to travel out the Skilak Lake Road to see the…you guessed it…the Skilak Lake.  This was a gravel road that ran for about 18 miles before meeting up with the Sterling highway again.  Off of this road there were several other roads leading to campgrounds and other smaller lakes.  Remember, Alaska is the land of 1,000,000 lakes.  While riding through one of the campgrounds we saw the host campsite with a truck and trailer bearing plates from Texas.  The gentleman was outside so we stopped to see if they actually were from Texas or Escapees.  We ended up parking the car and getting out to visit with Rick and Dot from Grapevine, TX.  What a nice couple and we really enjoyed our visit.  The area they are in is quite remote so I think they were happy to have company.  Dot showed me the lynx track and bear tracks that are just a few yards away from their RV at a little creek.  She said they had a bear in the campground a few days ago and it came thru their site.  The bears are always looking for food so it is mandatory that campers keep everything stowed away tightly.  I liked Dottie’s footrest.

These are shots of the Skilak River.

We also had the Kenai River running along with us for a good bit of the way.

The water was clear at this point…and so cold.

The authorities put life jackets at all the boat launches to be borrowed by whomever needs them.  I think this is great.

We found this little place on the highway…we had not eaten all day and we were soooo hungry.  Up here there is no McDonalds around the corner.

Steve was our bartender, cook, dishwasher, etc.  The menu consisted of hamburger/fries, cheeseburger/fries, hotdog/fries, pizza…only one kind.  We had the hotdog/fries…it was great!

The bottled beer was $5.00 each…the draft was $6.00.  The draft was the Alaska Amber…the only beer he had made in Alaska but it was more expensive because they consider it an import…Go figure.

We sat at the bar and met the only 2 other customers there when we walked in.  The gentleman runs a plant that processes clams and his wife, Barbara (I remember her name) is an RN.  Then another lady came in and joined us all at the bar.  Can’t remember her name but she has a motel/campground/restaurant down the road called Sunrise.  She practiced law in Buffalo, NY until about 9 years ago when she gave it up to move to Alaska.  The people up here are all so interesting. 

On the way back to Kasilof we went by the Russian River campground.  Won’t bore you with those pictures but the beautiful fireweed is still alive and well the further north we go.

Just as we got back into Soldotna we found this area where they are having a chainsaw carving competition.  

Moving on.