Here we are, on the road: We’re in Soldotna, Alaska

July 13, 2014 Lorraine’s report

My oh my, what a G R A N D 50 Year reunion our class had. It has been since since 1984, when we had been to my last one and what a nice reunion it was then. Of course it was fun to see, meet and greet a lot of my “older” classmates. I was so happy to see Marie, Lynn, Ingrid, Vivian, Rod and all the rest of our class. Face book helped me find some of my classmates, and hook up with them. It was sad to loose so many over the years-about a third.

I want to thank all the organizers for all their hard work in putting it all together. What a fun time you gave all of us that weren’t from here for this reunion. Thanks again for all your hard work in organizing this reunion! We had a blast! Was Great!

Soon it was time to head north, this time to come and see our son, Rick and Donna. We didn’t know that we had booked the milk run for this trip. We stopped in Wrangel, Petersberg, and Juneau, before we headed north into Anchorage. And just like when my granddaughter comes to see us or we got to see her, I get so excited to see her. I can’t sleep the night before. I was so excited! Rick and I kind of have a “hidden, unexplained” connection, and when I really start to miss him-he calls me or I call him. We’ve had it since he was little.

It was so great to see him and Donna. J O Y.. to me to see them and know they are good! , They bought a new home last April 4, 2013. What a beautiful home they enjoy and love! And the home is absolutely gorgeous. It has lots of what I consider “upgrades” for a home. You can see the pride and love they put into this gorgeous home. All I can say is “Wonderful”. I’m so happy for them!!!

Chuck has talked about some of the things we are doing here with them, so I won’t go into it too much. I’M ABSOLUTELY, happy just to be here, visiting and just enjoying all the time I can.

I have to say the weather hasn’t been as cold as I thought, Thank Goodness!

To Rick & Joy, so glad Rick had his surgery, hope it wasn’t too bad on pain for him, and we wish him a very speedy recovery!

Happy Birthday to Breta! and John, sorry about the loss of your mother. It is so hard to loose you Mother; not sure if it is harder to loose you mom or your dad, but both are hard!

So we have another week here and we sure will enjoy our time with Rick and Donna. Being here, my smile never ends.

Thanks again for finding us, and we wish everyone a wonderful week…

Hugs to all,

Lorraine

7/13/14 Chuck’s report

After a week in Ketchikan for Lorraine’s class reunion, we continued our vacation by flying into Anchorage on Monday. We were met at the airport by our son Rick and his partner, Donna. We had been waiting for this for a LONG time, it has been over three years since we’ve seen them.

After getting our stuff luggage and loading the car, we made one stop on the way to their home, Costco. There is a Fred Meyer and Wal-Mart in Kenai but they wanted to stock up on some stuff and we wanted to get some things there too. In the end, we had to re-arrange the luggage to get the boxes in the back of his SUV but everything fit and nobody had to carry stuff on their lap.

We had a very nice, scenic trip for Anchorage to their home, brought back memories of when we made the trip in our MH back in ‘09. The trip takes about 2 hours or so and we kept the scenery watching and conversation going for the whole trip. Rick had just gotten back that morning from his two week on/two week off job and hadn’t slept yet, he works night so it was heading on towards 26 hours. I volunteered to drive, he said if he got too tired, he would pull over and let take over but it wasn’t needed.

Soon we pulled into their driveway and saw their house for our first time, very nice. It is situated on a slight hill with a view over a valley with some open spaces between the Black Spruce trees. It is out in the country, not in a subdivision and very secluded. Their house is a three bedroom, two level and is very well built with lots of high end upgrades, definitely not a spec home, that’s for sure. He has an outside building with a car port too.

After we got the Costco stuff unloaded and our luggage unpacked, we continued with our visit. We made some rough plans of what we wanted to see/do while in the area but mostly decided we just wanted to hang around and visit. With this being Rick’s two weeks off, he had a list of things he wanted/needed to do and I told him he could count on my help on some of the things. I did mention that my hands have gotten so full of arthritis that they no longer can hold a shovel or paint brush, but they will hold a fishing rod just fine, ha. It wasn’t long before I said I was getting tired and noticed it was after 10 pm. We hadn’t noticed it was that late because it stays light up here so long.

Next morning we got up and Lorraine noticed something moving about in the valley in front of their house, it was moose traveling through. Shortly thereafter, Lorraine was looking out the window and saw her two calves in the yard alongside the drive drive way, neat. They hung around long enough for us to get some pictures then headed across the road to an open field where they stayed for 1/2 hour or so. What a treat, our first morning here and already seeing some wildlife.

Rick needed to do some yard work so he spent the morning doing that while Lorraine finished unpacking our stuff. They have three dogs, an Australian shepherd with one blue eye and one brown one, a Karelian Bear dog, Lab mix and a Schipperke. They were sure glad to see them when we got here and wanted to meet the strangers as well. Next morning they realized we were still here and welcomed us as part of their pack.

While Rick was mowing, I threw tennis balls while Jack retrieved them, over and over until I got tired. He would have made a good outfielder on a baseball team, he anticipates where the ball would bounce and be there waiting. Cooper would run along barking and harassing Jack but didn’t seem interested in retrieving.

Soon, Rick was showing me some of the improvements he’s made since moving into the house a year ago. Of course, he has a list of things we wanted to do so we started looking at these things. We spent some time trying to figure out his fresh water system, hot water and in-floor hot water radiant system. He had replaced a small whole house filter with a larger one and it was time to clean it. He had isolation block valves so that was an easy thing, once we got the filter housing loose that is. While were were doing that, we decided to attempt to flush they system as he’s been getting some sand/silt.

We then blocked and drained his holding tank/accumulator, hot water tank and associated piping. We never did figure out how fresh water flow from the holding tank to the hot water tank as that manifold is somewhere inside the walls. But whatever, we got everything flushed and the water back on. Lorraine had been washing clothes so she and Donna were glad when we finished.

We spent the afternoon touring the area a bit, sure lots of scenery and pretty places around here. We had a good dinner then spent the evening playing with the dogs, watching TV and visiting, good times.

Wednesday morning we were all up and after breakfast the decision was made we would make a drive to Homer. This is one of the main tourist stops for folks coming to Alaska, we spent some time there back in ‘09. It’s a couple hour trip by car, we stopped off at Deep Creek (remember that place, Clay?) to see them launch/retrieve boats using tractors. Rick also drove us down the beach for 1/2 mile or so to see the bald eagles. Boy were there lots both on the bank and on the shore, eating halibut carcasses from the fishermen’s cleaning them just offshore. We must have seen about 100 of them, some very close to us, what a sight.

Soon we headed on into Homer and down the peninsula where the tourist shops are located. By now it was raining pretty heavy so we just walked from shop awning to shop awning. We did have lunch at a place right on the beach, it was good. We also were at the small bay during the incoming tide and saw a couple of salmon being caught, made me wish we had licenses and poles.

As we were leaving town, I mention to Rick that it sounded like the rear end differential was growling and suggested he might want to get the oil level checked. Shortly after that, we saw a repair place and he pulled into there and they were able to check the oil. They came back with good/bad news for him, the level was full but there were metal shavings on the magnetic drain plug. They made the decision to flush it our and refill with fresh oil. They did run a magnet inside as well as they could and luckily didn’t find anything larger than shavings. After talking it over, we decided to continue on back home, a couple hour drive. The growling was better but we could still convince ourselves we heard something. But no problems on the way back except for the rain. About halfway back, Rick asked if I would drive so he could rest, still recuperating from his two week work stint.

Next morning we worked off a couple more items from Rick’s list, the largest being we cut an access panel from the garage to get access under the stairs and check out the plumbing for one of the outdoor faucets. We managed to complete this and was installing blocks to install the door when I managed to run a screwdriver through my thumb, that was sure a stupid thing to do and it hurt like hell. We took a break while Donna, an ex nurse, fixed me up with a bandage then completed our panel. Only thing left to do is to make a frame for so it looks better but it worked just fine and we got the inspection we wanted and most important, didn’t find any problems.

Rick did a great BBQ for dinner that evening and once again we let the time get away from us, soon someone mentioned it was after 10 and we hadn’t even noticed again.

Rick has a mechanic friend here in town so we ran his car over to his shop the next morning. He is very busy but said he would check it out and let him know what he found. Rick has a pickup truck too so we didn’t need to rent or borrow another vehicle.

We stopped at a grocery store to pick up a couple items then headed back home. We spent the rest of the day getting his fishing boat ready and working on the gutters on his house. Whoever installed the gutters sure didn’t do a good job, they butted two pieces together the put a downspout at that site with no way for the water to drain. So of course with no way for the water to drain, it was just like not having gutters at all. They stayed full all the time and leaked at each connection. It took awhile for us to figure out what the problem was and then had to come up with a good solution/repair. Of course, all this was while working off a 20’ ladder and/or stepladder on the upper deck.

We managed to get the gutter somewhat clean and left it to dry so we could continue with our repairs the next day and called it a day. Once again we had a good dinner and just visited/watched TV until bedtime.

Friday Rick got his boat and fishing gear ready for when we decide to go out. He has lots of gear from his years a fishing guide and his boat has been under the car port since last fall so it needed a good wash job. But now everything is ready when we do head out this week plus the Reds are showing up in good numbers too.

Saturday we decided to head out for a trip to Wal-Mart and to see the folks who are at the mouth of Kenai River dip netting salmon. The season just opened this week for dip netting and lots of people from all over the state show up for this. The daily paper even recommended that locals not even head out as everything would be full of out-of-towners, restaurants, hotels and more importantly, the river would be full and all the prime spots taken. We did drive to a boat ramp/launch area and all all the parking sites, including two large overflow areas, we completely full. As we were leaving Rick’s house he pointed out two caribou just leaving his woods and heading across the road. We stopped and got pictures but only on my cell phone and they didn’t turn out too well. But seeing more wildlife up here is always nice.

We drove to an overlook where we could see the mouth of the river and wow, lots of people out. We tried to get some pictures, I have to look and see if they turned out. We made a stop at Wal-Mart and Home Depot then returned home. Once again, we worked on a couple of items around the garage, one was installing new light fixtures in part of his garage. Rick had run across a guy giving away light fixtures and has a good supply for this job.

Once again we had a late dinner and spent the evening just chilling.

The weather has been nice although we must have brought the rain with us. Everyone says it was really nice here in May and June, they even had a large forest fire just across the river from here when it was so dry. But we’ve had a few days of rain, sometimes even heavy. Guess just like everywhere, all this green comes with a price. At least it doesn’t rain here like Ketchikan. The temperatures have been raising to the upper 60s most day and cooling off to lower 50s at night. But when the sun is out, it’s almost too hot? Can’t really understand that but it’s sure nice when the sun is out.

We plan on being here for another week, leaving next Monday to head back to our rig in Blaine, WA. We leave Anchorage at 12:30 and get into Bellingham at 6:30. Our friends John and Bretta will be picking us up at the airport and driving us up to our rig, thanks for that. We than need to head out to Lynden to get our dog back from Tim’s, he’s watching her while we are gone. Sure is nice to have friends like that to help out!

And now to go through the pictures we’ve taken this week and pick out which to add here.

In Ketchikan at a Gift store