Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Day 14 --Up North

' DA Moose'-------------------------------The Glacier ---------------------Snow on the mountains------------















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Flowers of Anchorage The Golden Nugget RV Park =Anchorage




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Sunday July 18, 2010. We drove from Tok to Anchorage today which was 325 miles. The roads were full of frost heaves.The pavement was not broken but driving on the highway was like riding a roller coaster. We had to take it rather slow as the dips were so bad we were afraid we would brake a spring or shock.


The first 100 miles were pretty normal scenery except we did spot a moose in a little water spot along the roadway. Later we spotted a fox and two rabbits. We left the Tok cut off and turned onto the Glenn Highway, which is RT 1 to Anchorage. As we entered the Copper River Valley, the views were just the most amazing thing I have ever seen. We drove through the mountains and came into the Matanuska Glacier area. The ice fields were huge and had the most beautiful blue hue. Speaking of the blue ice, I read an article that said the reason the glacier ice is blue is because ice absorbs all other colors except blue, which is reflected. The glaciers ran for several miles and the mountains were socked in again with clouds and you had to look very hard to see the tops of the mountains they were so high. While driving through this majestic area the roads wind around, up and down, with spectacular drop offs that looked like it was miles down to the bottom. What made the drive more exciting was there were no guardrails and the roads were narrow. I do not have the words to describe the beauty. We have traveled to many places and seen glaciers and mountains but the views today were just indescribable!


We arrived at the Golden Nugget RV Park around 3:30pm. The park is huge, however,the RV's are packed side by side like sardines! There is hardly room to park my little car next to the motor home. It is row after row of RV's and our price with our Good Sam's discount was $40 per night, I would estimate 250 RV's at least in the park--so take that to the bank!!! I realize it is probably only 4 or maybe 5 months that they have this kind of business but I think I could pay my bills easily on this kind of money.Not sure if we are going to stay here for long but since we have the motor home going into Freightliner tomorrow, we will be here tomorrow night as well.


The weather was pretty nasty when we got to Anchorage with cool temperatures and raining. We got set up at the RV Park and went to find a Walmart as my camera needs a new battery. Would you believe we drove back and forth from the RV Park to the downtown area and around and not one Walmart in sight! My heart is beating---a town of more than 100 Without a Walmart?? I'm sure it is just a matter of fnding it. We had dinner at Chilli's and then drove into the downtown area. At 7:00pm all the shops were still open on Sunday night. I guess the shop owners are afraid they will not make enough this summer to pay their bill as well. We walked around and looked in the gift shops--if you've seen one you have seen them all!!! The thing we enjoyed most was the beautiful flowers, and they were everywhere! They were the most unusual assortment of flowers I have ever seen. They had all kinds of vegetables planted among the blooming flowers. We picked out red cabbage and broccoli and some native green plants with wide leaves but the color of the flowers were so brilliant it was amazing. Not only did they have flowers planted in front of every building they had huge hanging baskets all up and down the streets. It was truly beautiful.I assume there is not a problem here with keeping the blooming beauty's watered as I have been told Anchorage has rain the majority of time.

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