We Are Home!

 

There is usually a bright side to even a negative if you look hard enough. Even though we cut our adventure short a couple of days, this did allow us to cross back into the U.S. before August 1^st, the date that the new CDC dog regulations took effect. And let me tell you, are we glad we did! There is so much confusion associated with these regulations. I still do not know all the details, just the horror stories we have heard, and this was even before they were enacted! 

Apparently, dogs have to have a microchip implanted in them before they can cross the border. Not a big deal as both of ours do. But wait, it has to be a 15-digit ISO compliant microchip. Dakota has a 15-digit microchip, Zoey does not, so she would have to have a new chip implanted. But wait, there is more. One person talked about having to get their dog a new chip, but also a new rabies shot tied to that chip. Total vet bill; over $600. The problem is that a dog cannot cross the border within 28 days of receiving a new rabies shot so they are stuck in Canada for a few more weeks. 

Another person talked about having to have a USDA approved veterinarian fill out the CDC form so she took her Canadian dog to the US to have the dog examined and form filled out just so they can cross again later in the year. 

Neither of these make any sense to me but these are the tales that are being told. I am sure there are more horror stories to follow. Suffice to say, we are glad we crossed before the 1^st! I wrote that a couple of days ago and understand since then they have relaxed/clarified a couple of these regulations since then, but those of you crossing the border, you best know the new rules before attempting to cross. 

The roads were a mess up there this week. The fires are continuing in the area making for very smoky conditions. So far, the fires are not impacting any travel on the Alcan itself, but it is closed again at KM 624 due to flooding on the Peace River which washed the road away. We were through this way just a few days earlier, so once again it is a blessing we were a few days early. The detour for this section is to turn around and take the Cassier, which would add at least another day to your travels. 

Then there was the South Klondike, which was impacted by a landslide totally closing the road and trapping people in Skagway. The only way to get out of that area was the ferry to Haines. We were nowhere near this area so it did not impact us. I understand it is now open to one lane of traffic.

And I am sure many of you have heard of the Jasper fire which has multiple roads closed and has devastated the Jasper/Golden area with many significant structures destroyed. 

 Our fish made it home safe and sound. The route they took was a little weird. 2 Day FedEx Shipping took it from Homer Alaska to Tennessee, where it sat for 17 hours, then to Sioux Falls, SD, then to Rapid City and eventually to their respective delivery addresses. One box to Kevin's house, one box to Neighbor Jim's house who took it and put it in our freezer upon delivery.  Both of them said that they filets arrived ice cold with several of them still frozen. We would have preferred that none of them thawed along the way, but we just were not willing to pay $800 to have them shipped! Jim has been so helpful on this trip, between checking on the house, fixing fence and putting the fish in the freezer. He is now insisting that I have business cards printed for him with the titles of Property Manager, Caretaker and On-Site Security/Defense Expert. I know, I have said it before, but we have such great neighbors!

Our last night in Canada found us in Leduc, and you know what that meant? We got to see Dave and Leslie again! A lot has changed for them since we last saw them on our way up in May. They have sold their house, closed on it and are now living in their RV at a campground in Leduc while they look for a new house. Leslie was nice enough to book a site right across from them.

 After arriving and setting up we headed to Rig Hand Distillery where we had lunch and bought a bottle of Brum. It is a rum made from sugar beets rather than molasses and has quite a distinct flavor. Then it was back to the camper where we cooked up a couple of our salmon filets for supper. 

We spent the rest of the evening in the coolness of their 5th wheel. Dave and Leslie insisted that the girls joined us. Dakota just laid on the floor while Zoey terrorized one of Dave good socks. Here is Dave trying to gently extract said sock from the jaws of death. It was not until Dave distracted her with a ball that she finally released the sock.  

The next morning all 4 of us headed to Cora's restaurant for breakfast before heading south. After a 452-mile drive, we landed in Havre, Montana for the night. The border crossing in Wild Horse was a breeze and funny. I will have to say, the officer was kind of an odd duck, but very nice. As he was going over our passports, he looked at Zoey and said, "Those dogs sure are popular right now, I just don't get it, with their pointy ears, pug nose and bulging eyes, I think they are hideous". Barb covered Zoey's ears so she would not hear him. He just laughed, gave us back out passports and welcomed us home. 

Our last day on the road was a long one, just over 600 miles, but we were not going to stop with the finish line in sight. And before we knew it, we were welcomed with this sight.

How's Barb feeling you ask? Better, but still not great. Hopefully now that she is home she can relax and get better. Knowing her though, there will not be much relaxing.

 Several of you have asked who won the 2024 Great Summer Adventure Fishing Wars. Drum roll please…… I did! Well, at least that is my story. I won the Rainbow trout category, the Grayling category and the Salmon category. Barb won the Dolly Varden category and the Lake Trout category with that monster laker. She is claiming that she should be the winner as she caught the only fish that would be considered a trophy and the largest Cod which really wasn’t even a target category. I told her, I write the blog, so I am the winner!

 In total we traveled 8,510 miles, averaged 10.8 mpg so about 788 gallons of fuel, and were gone 66 days. We spent $623 on campgrounds, $239 of which were the last 5 nights $239 where we needed hook up for the AC. Another $90 was our 2 nights in Seward where we visited the McCormick's. In all those miles, we only visited 4 states (SD, WY, MT and AK) and 3 provinces (AB, BC and YK). I cannot say this is entirely accurate, but by last count, we visited at least 16 breweries, 6 distilleries and one winery. We try to collect coasters from each one, Barb is going to make a plaque or incorporate them into a table at some point.

So, that is it, we are home! I think Zoey is happiest to be home as she has so much more room to zoom around. Upstairs, downstairs, bouncing off the couches. Sorry Harry, it was so fast I could not get a video! The next few days will be a mix of relaxing and unpacking as it is really HOT! Then it will be time to tackle that list we put together on our way home.

Change in Plans

 Man plans, God laughs. Those are the words that went through my head as we turned around on our trip to Fairbanks to visit Barb’s cousin. AND for the first time ever I posted a map of where we WERE planning to go before we actually got there. Here is where we were planning to go this week.

Now, here is where we actually went.

Barb had a relapse on her….sickness…., she was not feeling well a few weeks ago, then got better, now she's not feeling well again. Bad enough where she thought she better not visit her cousin who is works in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at a Fairbanks Hospital. She started feeling sick again when we left Ninilchik that last day and into the next day in Anchorage. She was hoping she would feel better the next morning when we were to head to Fairbanks, but when she didn’t, she texted her cousin letting her know, and should she still come? Neither wanted to answer that question, it has been several years since they have seen each other, but both knew the answer. 

In the end, we turned around an hour outside of Anchorage and headed east. Both of them heartbroken it would be at least another year or two until they see each other. The mornings and evenings are the worst, she actually feels halfway decent during the day. Halfway decent is decent enough to still do a few things along the way. 

 What did we do in Anchorage you ask? Well, let me tell you what we did before Anchorage first. On our what through Cooper Landing, we stopped by the Cooper Landing Brewing Company. Nice place, nice brews, worth the stop.

 In Anchorage, we visited The Anchorage Distilling Company of course! Being connoisseurs of all things alcohol we know what is good and what is bad (at least to our taste) when it comes to distilled spirits. Their Vodka and Gin are very good. Their flavored vodka’s, not so much. Except their Ghost Pepper Vodka, Barb loved it! Too hot for me. Their whiskey is good, but it is a blend, so it is hard to give them a rating on that. Overall, it was a good visit.

 

Now, a stop in Anchorage is not complete without a stop at Dino’s Donuts for one of their infamous Dino Bones. I just could not get myself to do it, but Barb did. She said it was okay, but she’s had bigger and better. I stuck to the normal donuts without a friend's name associated with them.

 Once we had turned around on our way to Fairbanks, we were kind of discouraged and pointed the truck towards home. The GPS said we were only 50 hours, just over 3,000 miles away, so away we went!

7 hours later we found ourselves at a wayside rest near Northway, just before the Canadian border. We spent the night at a rest area, just us a few other rigs.

 

The border crossing early the next morning was a breeze, and we were on our way. It was a series of long drives; 400–500-mile days. As the song goes; we saw fire and we saw rain, we saw sunny days we thought would never end..... We also saw some beautiful days, some fireweed which was blooming everywhere and smoke, lots and lots of smoke outside Fort Nelson. Our overnights were in Northway one in Whitehorse, another in Toad River and Dawson Creek. 

I know we are not going to get any sympathy from those of you in the heat down south, but it got hot! We hadn't even seen 70 in a few weeks, now it is in the upper 80's! We stayed in campgrounds so we could run the air conditioner.

We were done sightseeing; Barb was still under the weather. Although she was sad not to see her cousin, the next few days confirmed that she made the right decision. I have never mentioned it before, but she has a white blood cell issue, it's been dropping over the last year or so. So far, the doctors are baffled, but we need to figure this out.   

We did get out for one mini hike in Whitehorse, walking the dogs really, but it was a nice walk up a sandy embankment over the lake.

 

So, we are carrying on, headed south and east. As we are driving, we have started a list. A list of projects that we want to get done when we get home. With luck, our next post will include a picture of us pulling into our driveway where it will feel oh so good to be home! But, we will hit the ground running, so much to do in the next few weeks before it is time to head to the farm for fall harvest!

Moving on From Homer

I had fun writing that last post. Many of you know the characters I wrote about. Know them enough to know that there is a little bit of truth and a whole lot of fiction in what I wrote, and I am thankful I have friends with thick skin who can take a little ribbing! In fact, we received this photo from Steve (Officer Colibaba) and Dianne the next day saying “Here’s a selfie for ya!” I thought for sure as it was loading I was going to see a picture of a middle finger, but no, it was of Steve and Dianne doing what they like best; out on a hike. Then there is Dino who usually takes the brunt of my abuse. I got a message from him asking if I did not love him anymore. Just wait Dino, the tales of Detective Olivieri are not done, there will be a sequel!

 

Now, on with this week….

Back in ’16 when we were selling our camper after our last Alaska adventure, we came in contact with a couple from Texas; Ron and Mary. They were looking for a rig to take to Alaska the following year. In the end, they decided on another rig. Over the years, we have kept in contact and had even come close to meeting in 2022 when we were both in Nova Scotia, but our paths never did cross. Well, this year we are both in Alaska and our paths did cross!

 We were both in Ninilchik and made arrangements to meet in Homer. Great to meet them after so many years! We walked The Spit and the marina looking at boats. Man, there are some beautiful boats down there! And some very unusual ones!

 

We eventually made our way to The Salty Dog where we had a brew. Those of you who have been here as tourists certainly stopped by the Salty Dog to leave your dollar. It’s like the Sign Forest in Watson Lake, but with dollar bills. I took some pictures of the inside, but the lighting was so bad they did not turn out. I have a feeling we will be back again so I will have another chance.

 

Ron bought us each a beer, we sat, chatted and put up our own dollar bills.

 

Then it was off to Harbor Grill for lunch. A mediocre lunch that was a little high priced. But we were there for the company, not the food, so it was a pleasant lunch. After that, we said our goodbyes. We were both going to be in the area for a few more days so knew we would meet up again.

 Then it was back to fishing! Back to the Kenai across from the airport. Back to my same spot if it was available. With the fish counts now in the 30,000-50,000 per day, there was bound to be a lot more people.

The biggest difference between this time and the previous times is that Barb would be joining me. So, away we went! Arriving at the river, we saw a river all right, a river of people! Lined up along the river 10’ apart for several hundred yards. But….. I think we can squeeze in between those two people right there. So squeeze in we did. Once you have your spot, you keep it. There are only so many. Hungry? You better just eat your sandwich in place. Want to check your phone? You better check it in place. Have to go to the bathroom? Well, you should probably give up your spot and head to the portapotty. It is not uncommon for someone to stand on shore for over an hour waiting for a spot to open up.

There is an unspoken etiquette on the river; stand just far enough apart so you do not hook each other (although it does happen), stop fishing when the guy directly upriver from you hooks a fish, help whoever is upriver from you net their fish if they need help. As you are flossing, you are sweeping your rod across the water, your hook comes within 6-12” of the person downriver from you. That is how tight it is on the river. When someone hooks a fish, you yell “fish on” then the person downriver from you (usually) stops fishing and steps back while you fight your fish. They will often net it as well should you need help.

 Over the next hour, I had yelled “Fish on” 4 times. Barb netted two of four that I was able to get into shore. Both of them were big hook-jawed males and put up quite the fight. I swear one spent more time dancing out of the water than in it! Barb, ready with the net, waited while I tried to get the fish close to shore. It would come in shallow, go out deep, come in shallow, go out deep. Finally she got her opportunity to net it and dang if that thing did not jump up right in front of her slapping her in the face a couple of times with its tail. You may think, “yeah right”, but I sh#t you not, that thing slapped her right in the face! She was waving the net around trying to catch that thing in the air like a mad woman trying to hit a bee with a rolled up newspaper! She eventually netted it when it was back in the water again and everyone around was laughing.

 Two fish for Jim, none for Barb. When her upriver neighbor called “fish on”, Barb would slide down to my spot and I would net her neighbors fish . Everyone seemed to be catching fish except Barb who was using her flyrod with flyline on it. Several times I offered to switch rods with her. “I’m fine”, “I’m fine”, she would keep saying. Finally I switched over my handle to the other side (cuz she’s a lefty) and handed her my rod. Within a minute of fishing with her rod I knew what the problem was. The current was taking her line down river too fast compared to the monofilament line everyone else was using.

 So I waddled over to the shore directly behind me (risking giving up my spot) and stripped her fly line off her reel and started putting 25lb mono on. As I am in the process of doing that I see someone has their sights on my spot and starts wading down to slide in next to Barb! “I am right there” pointing to the open hole. Luckily, he turns around and heads off in another direction. As I am spooling new line on her reel, I hear; “Fish on!”. I turn around and it is Barb! I dropped everything, netted her fish and go back to spooling. Just as I am finishing up and tying the hook on; “Fish on!”, Barb again. Another one on the stringer 2-2.

 I get back into my spot and start fishing with her now monofilament filled flyrod. To no avail. Soon enough Barb yells’ “Fish on!” and we had a 5^th salmon to the stringer. 2-3 Barb. By now we had fished 4 hours and we were ready to head back to the camper. After fileting the fish, we do just that.

 

The next day was similar. We started fishing around noon, finished around 4 with three fish on the stringer, 2 for me, one for Barb. So over the past two days it was a 4-4 tie. I would have had 3 if Barb had not knocked the last one of mine off the hook as she was trying to net it. She said it was an accident, but was it? Was it really? We again fileted and vac sealed the fish; ¼ of a fish per bag, 4 bags per fish 32 total packages of fish. Here’s the thing we learned; you put that many unfrozen packages in an RV freezer, it thaws everything in there. That freezer just cannot keep up! So, the next morning we headed down to Rich and Susan’s to put them in one of their chest freezers. We now have so much fish I had to move things around just to get the door closed. You could not fit one more package into that freezer!

 

Mission accomplished, we set out for meet up with Ron and Mary again who were still in the area for one more day. They found a really nice site on Boondockers Welcome right on Deep Creek. We visited with them for a couple hours before heading off again.

 

We spent both Saturday and Sunday nights in Rich and Susan’s driveway enjoying the company and camaraderie. We left there early Monday morning headed to the FedEx terminal at the Homer Airport with 100lbs a fish destined for South Dakota. As we were driving to Homer we got to talking about our trip so far, while the scenery is second to none, but what really makes this trip special is people like Rich and Susan. Our trip would just not have been the same without them. Who would have thought a chance meeting on a boat ramp in 2016 would turn into a friendship that I am sure will last a lifetime. Sure, we would have still had a great time had we not met them, but now, looking back at how they opened their home and lives to us, it just would not have been the same. Truly special people.

 Arriving at the Fed Ex terminal the clerk was super helpful. $400 later, we had 100lbs of fish headed to South Dakota using two-day air!

 Then we were off to The Spit to meet up with Steve, Deb, Rick and Angie one last time. My head still hurts. We found three sites right on the water!

 

After getting set up we walked down to the Salty Dawg for a cocktail. Well, three cocktails. The girls each had Longliners, then Steve bought us a round of Duck Farts. Sounds appealing right? They are Kulhua, Cream and Crown. Actually very good!

 

Then it was off to the Harbor Grill again for lunch (sound familiar?). This time, lunch was much better. Why is it both times we got together with this group, it is cold and rainy? We made the most of it and sat outside under an awning in the light drizzle. Debbie made some kind of Upside Down Pineapple drink that were very good, Barb experimented with some new huckleberry syrup that she had bought. It is still a work in progress. 

And Steve and I kept each other supplied with a couple of whiskeys. Angie was the first to tap out when she disappeared into their camper. Barb should have been the second one to tap out, but being stubborn, she powered on. Then she got the hiccups and could not stop! Steve gave her a shot of bourbon and said “Here, this should fix it”. Oh, it fixed it all right. Stopped this hiccups but started something else! Oh boy. An hour later I guided Barb back to the trailer where she hit the bed and did not move for the next 9 hours.

 Our time on the peninsula was now over, time to move one. The next morning, we said our goodbyes to the gang and drove up to Ninilchik to pick up our remaining fish and say goodbye to Rich and Susan. Bittersweet for sure, for the first time on this trip we left an area with a pit in our stomach. We wish we could have stayed longer.

 But now we are headed north to Fairbanks to see Barb’s cousin Lori; another adventure awaits!