Beautiful Green Oregon!

After a week of camping at the repair shop, it was determined that more parts were needed to do the repairs, so they turned us loose for a few weeks.  We headed back to my parents for a little quiet time.  The deer were hanging close and the ducks were enjoying the river and pond.  A beautiful place for some R&R!

This sucks the fish up into water filled trucks for transport to area lakes

A mama and baby deer

A crazy amount of fish

Gidget continues to contemplate life and squirrels

We took Mom for a tour of the Deschutes Brewery.  It was a long tour, and we learned more than we wanted to about beer.  The best part was the sampling, of course.  Mom is not much of a beer drinker so we enjoyed her share.  Afterwards we took her to a Vietnamese Restaurant for spring rolls and Pho.  It was a day of adventure for Mom!

After a week at the hatchery, we headed to the Oregon Coast.  A stay at Winchester Bay was so nice!  We had amazing big rain on Tuesday with more coming over the weekend.  The forecast is for over 5 inches in one day.  We'll see how we hold out.  The new windshield leaks, so we are keeping the dash dry with large amounts of shop towels.  The windshield will be fixed when we return to Bend for the other repairs, so not a huge deal, just inconvenient so far.  

The Oregon Coast is just amazing to me!  I love the roar of the ocean, the cool breeze, and the amazing huge rocks and lighthouses.

We took some day trips to Coos Bay and Bandon to wander around the towns, shopping at bookstores, and enjoying lunch on the wharfs.  We visited this really cool place called the Washed Ashore Project.  They have taken a small portion of the 11 million tons of plastic that are in the North Pacific Gyre and turned into art to create awareness of the problem of plastics.  Plastic is not biodegradable, with over 200 billion pounds produced each year, with only 4-7% of it is recycled.  The debris that is washed ashore is turned into creative art pieces.  It was all very creative and a great way to raise awareness.

Deer at Sunset Beach

Can you say awesome?

Oyster Shell Mountains

Coquille River Lighthouse

Elephant Rock

The RV park we are at is a great place with walking paths, bike lanes and grass.  Our view is of the little marina so it's fun to watch the little boats come and go.  There is a little harbor seal that hangs out right in front of the coach.  I haven't been able to snap a photo yet as he is very fast.  Cormorants hunt for fish and vultures and hawks fly about.

Umpqua Lighthouse

My view from my chair

From the front of the coach

A healthy lunch of Fish Tacos and Beer

Two Scoops of Ice Cream for a dollar!

Four Scoops!

Yummy Cheese and Ice Cream

We love the Oregon Coast!

Camping at the repair shop

After researching the repair facilities in and around Seattle, we headed South to Bend Oregon.  Coach Masters there has a great reputation, is a Tiffin authorized repair shop and best of all...my parents are nearby.  We had planned on seeing a Mariner's game, visiting an old friend in Port Angeles and going along the coast before heading into Central Oregon for a much needed parental visit.  But taking the short cut has been a great decision.  We made the appointment for the Beast to get her oil changed, the slide outs fixed, some small body work repairs and the windshield replaced.  So once again, we headed out early, trying to beat Seattle traffic and breezed right through the major cities in the Pacific Northwest.  We made a stop at Camping World after Portland for a stretching, shopping break.  After the farming communities we headed off the interstate across the mountains toward Central Oregon.  A beautiful ride!

We arrived in Fall River in time for dinner and a cool quiet nights sleep.  I enjoyed walking around the property while Eric and my dad (the repair wizard!) fixed many issues with the Beast.  Alaska was a little rough on the Beast and I couldn't wait to get her back in prime condition!  After a couple of days of repairs, cleaning and organizing she was back to almost normal. 

A huge thunderstorm rolled through one afternoon with tons of hail pelting down.  Some of the pellets were thumb size and one broke the vent in my parents ceiling.  It was the loudest I have ever heard.  After a while it finally stopped.  It looked like snow outside and the pups loved eating the hail.  Max, my parents schnoodle, wondered what the heck they were eating.  He tried some since they must be yummy and promptly spit it out.   

A bakers dozen of ducks on a log

A great place to walk the pups

After some much needed retail therapy with my mom, we enjoyed a great lunch along the river.  It was so good to spend time with her.  The next morning it was up early to ride into Bend and Coach Masters for the repairs.  Since we were pretty sure the repairs would take a day or so, we arranged for an overnight stay in their lot.  We took off to try to fill the day with the pups.  Bend is an outdoor living kind of place.  We had coffee along the River at the Old Mill District and walked the paths for the morning.  

It grew very hot as Bend is experiencing a little heat wave.  We seem to bring strange weather wherever we go.  We headed back to the shop to plug in the Beast to their 50 amp (woohoo!) service, turn on the air conditioners for the pups and go get some dinner to bring back.  It is kind strange camping in a parking lot, but after a good nights rest we were up and back to the Old Mill for coffee and long walks.  I'm trying to work off all the Apple Fritters from the Moose is Loose that are hanging on!  

This is what your water filter looks like after Alaska!  This was a new filter a couple of months ago

The Beast camped out at Coach Masters

We were hoping to have the windshield replaced today and the body work completed by the end of day.  We stopped by the Windshield repair facility to find the old windshield out, but the new one was not the right size.  The correct one should arrive the next morning, so back to Coach Masters we went.  Early in the morning, the body shop is ready for us.  We are hoping the windshield arrives and we can run the Beast over for the install then head back to my folks place.  It is cooler there and so quiet.  To be continued.....

The Beast is on the Move!

With lots of rain coming and freezing temperatures in Glenallen (the Hub of Alaska), we ended our adventure a few days early.  As we left Valdez in the fog and rain, we both were a little excited to move on to the next adventure.

Our view out the windshield

Leaving Alaska and entering the Yukon

We made it to Beaver Creek, Yukon Territories around 7:30 pm after loosing an hour and a late start.  A quick dinner of Thai Food picked up in Tok at the food truck and into bed.  The border crossing was easy with no questions asked.  Wish I hadn't tossed my fresh veggies out!  

An early morning start and 555 miles to go to Watson Lake for a 12 hour day.  Whew!  A couple of potty stops for the pups and we made it to Downtown RV in Watson Lake.  I took a picture of the lake across the street that we walked to in the Spring.  It was a lot greener this time around!

May

August

A fill up with gas, a good nights sleep and we were up at the crack of dawn for another run!  Eric drove for 13 hours, 613 miles and we landed in Dawson Creek, Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway.  Along the way we saw lots of wildlife..

A Black Bear through a dirty windshield

Bison along the highway

Very brave Caribou

This baby stone sheep and her mom ran in front of the beast

Mile 0 RV park looked different with the leaves on the trees and grass on the ground.  Another good nights sleep and an early start for another 627 mile day to Boston Bar, BC.  The road was mega scary after Cache Creek.  The scenery changed from farm and pastureland to looking like the ride from Reno to Las Vegas.  No trees, no mountains, just sand and rolling hills.  We ended up in Fraser Canyon where the railroad was carved out of huge mountains and they roll along the river.  I hated this part of the trip!  The road was winding, narrow with a very deep canyon on my side.  

The Fraser River 

There are no photos of the canyon, the road or the trains as I was busy trying not to have a panic attack.  Keeping my eyes forward, it was scary especially as the sun began to set and the shadows cast across the road.  We arrived at Alpine Canyon RV park in Boston Bar around 7:45 and found the nicest park we have been in for over 4 months.  It was clean, the host was friendly and helpful, and best of all they had a dog park.  For the first time in forever, the pups were set free from their leashes and they ran themselves crazy!  They had so much fun being crazy pups.  The next morning we slept in a little as we had only 150 miles or so to go.  We took the pups to the park, had a leisurely cup of coffee and left around 10.  It was nice to chill a little.  

We arrived at the border to a long wait, easy entry with again no inspection, and headed south through very pretty farmland.  It was so good to be back!

We traveled almost 2400 miles in just over 4 days, doing 55 miles per hour at the very best, most of the road you can only do less than 55, and 15 mph in lots of stretches in the northern portions.  The roads are awful with ruts like the worst dirt road you can imagine.  We feel lucky to make it back with minimal mechanical issues and the only real damage consists of many chips and cracks in the windshield.  The cracks are being held in place with clear packing tape, so far it's working!  Back to civilization with phones and satellite tv!  No more converting kilometers to miles, liters to gallons!  It's good to be in the lower 48!   

Meares Glacier Excursion, Valdez, Alaska

Since our original plan failed to materialize, we decided to go to Meares Glacier with Stan Stephens Cruises.  Not the intimate, whatever we want to do type of cruise, but we got lucky.  The boat was a large catamaran that can hold 150 people.  We were less than 40 with the crew included.  13 of the passengers were fifth graders out for a field trip.  They were very excited to go and were fun to watch running around.  We left the dock about 10am and the water was like glass.  The sun was out and the temperature was perfect!

Puffins!

An Otter on a berg

Big Ice 

Seals on ice

Meares Glacier

Dressed like the Michelin Man!

The Columbia Glacier is located closest to Valdez and is retreating at a rapid rate.  It leaves behind lots of icebergs floating along.  We were able to venture a little ways up the channel to see the big pieces of ice.  The Meares Glacier is advancing at the same rate the Columbia is retreating.  We traveled the Unakwik Inlet to see the 4 mile wide glacier.  We got within 1/4 mile of the face and waited for it to calve.  There was lots of loud rumbling sounding like thunder.  While there were no big pieces crashing off, little bits broke off and floated away.  We enjoyed the 40 degree temps all bundled up and watched the seals hop on and off the ice.  Along the way we saw lots of otters, one a mother with a baby.  We had lots of time since the seas were so calm so we took our time going back to Valdez.  We saw a small Humpback whale and a pod of Dall's Porpoises played with the wake of the boat.  There were Stellar Sea Lions on the rocks and buoy, and puffins (both Tufted and Horned).  

We enjoyed the lunch of Chicken Alfredo, Rice and steamed green beans and a snack of hot soup on the way back.  All in all it was a good day!

The next morning we woke up to lots of rain with no end in sight.  We visited the Valdez Museum and watched a really good movie on the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake that destroyed the original town site.  After the five minute quake, the town was destroyed.  It was determined that the rebuilding should be done farther south on more stable soil.  The new town site is well laid out and has an active harbor.  The Alyeska Pipeline ends in Valdez after traveling 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay.  The terminal is located across the bay.  

The Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 was devastating to Prince William Sound with many areas still trying to recover.  It was indeed a very bad event.  There are now several large ships in the area equipped for response to possible oil spills.  Lets hope this never happens again.

We saw a break in the weather on Thursday morning, with more rain coming after.  We cut our adventure short by 4 days and headed out.  The gremlins hit us again when we tried to bring our passenger side slide outs in.  They wouldn't budge.  A call to Tiffin and they walked Eric through possible fixes.  We finally got them in, hooked up the toad and the Beast was on the move!