Sunday, July 1, 2007

Today dawned cloudy and rainy. We had no specific plans today - just to kick back and relax. Had a late breakfast then Jerry and Frank went to drive out to the terminus of the Ak Pipeline since we had been at the very beginning a couple of weeks ago. Since 9/11 you can't go past the gate, but they wanted to drive out there and then they just turned around and came back. They did drive past the old town of Valdez that kind of subsided in the big earthquake and they saw at least 25 eagles at one point on the drive.

Jerry wanted to hike a trail that left from the other end of town so he came home and got the dogs and Frank took him to the trailhead. He went for a ways and got down to the beach at one point, then headed back as he had told Frank he would return by 5. He encountered a bear along the way and said the bear stood up at one point on his hind legs and looked at him and he was fumbling for the camera and the bear just put his head back down and resumed eating. Jerry said he was making lots of noise and shouting to run him off. I think he should have fumbled for the bear spray! No pictures and all is safe....so no problems.

I spent most of the day on the computer making DVDs of all my pix. So far I have filled up (2) 4.7 gig DVD's and still don't have quite all of them on DVD. Have had lousy WIFI connections and have been unable to upload pictures. Most of these RV parks have WiFi, but is only for email and checking stuff on internet, not for loading pix and large files. One pix was trying to load for about 20 min. and I finally just cancelled it.

Have been 32 days in RV so far....and we are still speaking - sometimes a bit testy, but mostly having a good time. Having to constantly load and unload stuff in the RV for travel gets a bit old, but not too bad yet. Jerry takes care of outside stuff...hooking and unhooking water, electric and sewer and I batten down hatches inside - getting everything that can roll, fall or otherwise become a missile stowed away or in a sink. That part is getting a bit old, but not as bad as having to load and unload suitcases every night and eating out every night - that gets old as well.

I don't think I have told you how you have to take a shower in the RV. It is a bit of a multitasking job. We only have 6 gallons of hot water and believe me, you DON'T want to be in the shower when the hot water runs out. The water out of the taps here is really COLD! That has not happened to me yet and I am certainly not planning on that. Once you get the water to the temp you want it and get in, you wet your hair while you are washing your face and neck. Then you click the shut off valve to turn off the water and grab the shampoo and shampoo your hair. Click on the shut off valve to start the water running again, rinse the hair. Turn off the water, soap your body and turn on again to rinse. You are doing all this in a very small shower enclosure - maybe 2 ft wide by 3 ft. long. It does have a skylight - whoopee!

We have a double sink, but it is only about a foot square - maybe 15" and a miniature dish drainer especially for RV's. To wash dishes I mostly heat a pan of water on the stove so I don't have to heat the whole 6 gallons and rinse in cold water. We use lots of paper plates - but occasionally we do use the dishes. It is definitely a one person job. I have a cutting board I bought especially to put on top of the cooktop so I have some counterspace. I learned the hard way not to put anything on top of it. I also learned that you need to put some of that rubberized mesh shelf liner underneath it so it does not become a missile while you are driving down the road. I have learned all kinds of trivial stuff like that....and most of it the hard way! I pad all the metal pans, etc with paper towels or dish towels when we are driving so they don't rattle so much! Ah, the tricks of the trade!

Well, not much else going on today....it did quit raining and by evening the sun was shining. We went for a drive up to a waterfall and that was a really pretty trip - we went in Frank and Barb's car. Valdez is absolutely gorgeous and we would come back here again if we ever get back this way. They get over 300" of snow in winter. There is still some on the peaks and glaciers in a few places and there was even a pile of snow still left in town where they had plowed it and it was slowly melting. After the drive, Jerry and I walked down to the harbor and took some more pictures b/c the sun on the mountains was really pretty. Each peak kind of made it's own clouds and they were hanging over each mountain top in some really unusual formations that we found fascinating. Leaving tomorrow for Tok. All for now....Linda