Here we are, on the road

Sunday, July 13, 2014

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

Welcome!

On the way to Sterling, AK

Glacier!

My Son, Rick, my happiness! I love Donna!

Their Home!

The fire was out there in the right hand. Thank God it didn’t get too close!

Miso with Rick

Momma Moose

So cute!

Nate Shane

The Kenai!

Eagles galore….

Homer, AK

They caught a fish at the lake by the Lagoon in Homer. Salty Dog Saloon

Captain Cooper Seahawk, or Cooper Dip net fishing at the mouth of the Kenai, that’s people standing in the water.

Thanks Chuck

183

Saturday, July 5, 2014

We’re in Ketchikan, Alaska

July 6, 2014 Lorraine’s report

Well the first thing I need to say is what has been said to me over and over is by my classmates is “what a nice man my husband is!!!” He is the best part of me and I would be lost without him. I sure hope he knows that, without him, my life would be pretty empty. This reunion would not be as fun as it has been without him. Even though we haven’t been to any of his reunions, I would sure hope I could be the same way he has been with me, here at my reunion.

So Chuck has updated what we have done before and during the trip. I just need to write my feelings, etc.

I would like to thank all the people in charge of putting on this reunion. I know how much time, effort and what ever is involved. Thank you all, without you to take such interest and involvement, this reunion would not have been so fun! Lynn, Susan, Cheri, and everyone involved-Many Many THANKS!!! You guys did an awesome job!

So just coming and seeing all the changes that have happened here in Ketchikan was wonderful. Don’t know how we lived here before all the changes etc., as they have now, but it is wonderful.

It was so nice to visit with the many classmates that came for the reunion. Every time we get together we all complete enjoy each others company! Ask who, what, where, and when of the many friends we had still dominates our conversations. It was sad to learn that 20 to 25 something of our class mates have passed.

To have as many of our classmates come for our 50 year reunion was pretty amazing. Laurel Burns came from Hawaii, Lynn Clay has been married the longest, Les Brendible and Jimmy Church has the most kids, 7 each, I think. It was very sad when they read all the names of those who passed away. What a class our Class of 64 was!

So today is our last day in Ketchikan, and it is sad for me to be leaving Ketchikan, know I probably won’t be coming back. But I thank each and every one of you for the wonderful time you gave me and my husband. Thank You all….

Hugs to all,

Lorraine

PS. Looking forward to seeing my son, we’ll see him tomorrow, yea!

7/6/14 Chuck’s report

Well, it’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve updated our blog and guess we should do one now. We are traveling although not with the motorhome. Boy what a shock to the system, flying and staying in a hotel is strange plus eating all our meals out too. Guess we are homebodies at heart and our home is on wheels but it’s back in Blaine, WA.

I don’t have access to the calendar that Lorraine uses to write a short note about our day, it’s back in the motorhome so guess I’ll just wing it here. For the past three weeks, it’s been mostly more of the same, not real exciting for sure. We’ve been enjoying the slower living for sure, visiting with family and friends.

Last week we brought our dog, Misty, over to our good friend Tim. He agreed to watch her while we were gone and it is sure appreciated. He recently got a new dog and they seem to get along ok too. Thanks Tim, see you when we get back.

Lorraine is one very organized and has been planning on what she wanted to bring along and how to pack it for a couple of weeks ahead of time. We have two suitcases and quickly realized that wouldn’t be enough for all our “good” clothes for the reunion and enough for our two weeks visit to our son’s place in Kenai too. So that meant we needed to purchase two more, carry on size pieces of luggage. Lorraine wanted to pack as much as we could a few days early so we tried that first. But after getting the two new pieces, we had to change what was in each bag, re-organize #1. Finally we had everything except for the last minute stuff packed and the luggage set aside until we loaded them in the car.

Monday morning we finished with all the last minute stuff, put the baggage in the car and head over to Joe and Alice’s home. They kindly agreed to drive us to the airport so we didn’t have to leave our car there. Thanks for the help.

We are flying on Alaska Air and we have to pay for all luggage, $25 for each stored and one carry on per person. We have to check-in on-line the day before we left and found they had some 1st class seats still open. They had a special, only $50 each and that would include two carry-on per person, free drinks and a dinner served too. Let’s see, $50 for baggage and sit in coach or upgrade for $50 more and go 1st class. So that’s what we ended up doing, first class from Seattle to Ketchikan. But that meant re-packing everything once again, re-organize #2. Once we got to the airport in Bellingham we found one of our bags was 4 pounds overweight (54#) and they would charge us $75. Well that made us do another quick re-organize (#3). Finally got everything settled, good thing we were there a bit early however.

Then when we checked in they said I was able to leave my shoes on, the computer randomly said so. BUT, I was also randomly selected for a explosive check of my hands?? Never heard of that one, but they walked me back, ran a treated pad over my hand and inserted it in a machine. Of course, they didn’t find any issues and finally we were through the screening, what a hassle.

But once on board, everything was good. I’ve found that I need to take a “chill-out pill” when flying, I’m very closterphobic and have had issues in the past so I took my pill and settled down. A good flight to Seattle, had to change planes there after going to a different wing of the airport of course. But we got on the plane to Ketchikan and had a good flight once again. They did offer us a drink, I had a beer and Lorraine had a soda and shortly thereafter they came by with a plate of meatloaf, potatoes, green beans and salad. Better than nothing but not anything to write home about.

Once we landed in Ketchikan, or should I say on the island nearby, we got our baggage and headed for the ferry to come over to Ketchikan. I was surprised to see they had baggage carts for our use, free too. We can use them on the ferry either way and leave them on the other side. It is $5/person for the ferry ride and extra for a car so we were picking our car up on the other side. Once we got there, the guy was waiting for us to fill out the paperwork and check out the car, pretty slick and didn’t take too long.

Lorraine had suggested we bring our GPS but I didn’t think we would need it, wrong. I didn’t know/remember where everything is in Ketchikan, starting with our hotel. But then I remembered we could use our smart phone, it worked just fine. Guess I should learn to listen to my wife better though, the GPS would have been nice.

Got to our hotel, checked in and put stuff away then headed downtown for a quick road trip. Sure lots of tourist shops waiting for the cruise ship passengers to walk in. Seeing as how it wasn’t raining at the time, we headed North out of town just to see the area and the changes since we’ve been here.

We then headed to the grocery store to pick up a few things for our stay here, we do have a microwave and small fridge in our room. Boy, sticker shock on the prices up here. I had forgotten there was a Wal-Mart here, it is sort of off the highway and we didn’t see the sign when we drove by earlier. We did run by there later and the prices are just as high there, ha. So that ended our first day here.

Tuesday we continued with our exploring of the area, went to the end of the road both North and South plus some of the side roads. We also parked in town so Lorraine could explore some of the shops. Sort of reminded us of our cruise to Mexico, same sort of stuff with lots of Alaska stuff included. Didn’t find anything we couldn’t live without however, whew.

We also met a couple of Lorraine’s classmates, at least two who are staying at the same hotel as us. Lorraine has really been looking forward to meeting/visiting with her classmates and it started with these two, ha. I am not going to try to list names here, I’m sure I would get a few wrong and probably forget to add some so best to not even try, sorry about that.

Lorraine’s brother, Ralph, lives here in Ketchikan, the last of his family to do so. We had stopped by his house on Tuesday but he wasn’t home. But we did make plans to meet him at the ferry on Wednesday. He had some family members come into town, changing ferries and needing to run to the bank. After he finished with those errands and getting them all setting in, he met us at a café for for a nice visit. His wife doesn’t get around much so he couldn’t stay too long, had to get back to her but we had a good visit and got caught up on some of what’s going on with him. Good to see you, Ralph!

Wednesday was the first scheduled activity for this reunion, a no-host meet/greet at the bar in our hotel. We headed down and started visiting with folks. It wasn’t long before everyone headed into the restaurant/bar area where they moved tables around to attempt to get everyone in the same area. It soon became apparent that we were overwhelming this area so they moved us to one of the meeting rooms, much better. I think there were about 15 classmates there, and of course some spouses too. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the reunion with lots of laughter from almost every group. I couldn’t help overhearing lots of “remember when/who/where” type conversations, it was fun.

Thursday evening was the main event, once again at a meeting room here at the hotel. They had it decorated up and the hotel was catering the dinner. Everyone found a spot at a table but mostly just walked around visiting with different folks until the dinner bell rang. It was a good dinner with salad, vegies, fish and beef. The room got a bit quieter while everyone was eating but soon it was back to normal with all the conversations and laughter going on. Sure seemed the everyone had a good time. I think there were 25 classmates at this function, along with us non-classmates being there too.

Friday we were invited to a BBQ at Lynn’s house. We met some of her family members and of course some of the classmates were there too. Once again everyone seemed to be having a good time and the food was great with plenty of it.

Saturday had the last scheduled activity, a picnic at Ward Lake, a few miles North of town. The day started out raining but when we got to Ward Lake, it was pretty nice. They had reserved a building and had tables set up, overloading with food. Once again, lots of different groups of folks talking, laughing and eating. I think there was 25 or so classmates here, some that hadn’t made the other activities too. The rain was heavy at times, sprinkled most of the day but there were time when it quit for awhile too. Once again, we enjoyed the visits with all.

Today is our last day in town, not sure what we will do. We hope to see the folks who are staying here at the hotel, at least. I will say it was a pleasure to meet and visit with the folks here for the reunion. I was surprised to learn how many live in Washington state too, maybe enough to have a mini-rally there someday. Thanks for all the fun times, everyone.

Now for the weather report. It was getting pretty nice in Blaine for the past few weeks, some rain but not too bad. the daytime highs were in the upper 60s or even low 70s most days. The forecast there for this past week was for above normal temps, getting to the 80s on a couple of days. Of course, we aren’t there and the temps here in Ketchikan aren’t getting that high, only into the 60s. I think it has rained everyday we’ve been here, normal for here, but there has been lots of times with no rain. The clouds/fog hang around the mountains most days but when they do clear it is sure pretty here. Oh, the rental car they gave us had an issue with the windshield wipers, they didn’t work! I called up and they didn’t have any other cars available but I was finally able to convince them to give us a different one and to fix this one for someone coming in the next day. So at least we have wipers that work now.

Our plans are to head over to the airport tomorrow morning and fly into Anchorage. Our son, Rick, will be picking us up there and we’ll travel on to his house in Kenai for two weeks. We are really looking forward to seeing him and Donna, it’s been too long.

I’ll go through the pictures we’ve taken and try to post some here. Once again, I don’t plan on adding names as I know I would miss some. Sorry about that but if you see a picture and don’t remember who is in it, ask Lorraine and she may be able to tell you.

Lorraine at the Relay for Life walk in Lynden two weeks ago.