Petersburg Wednesday May 10

Being we got off the ferry at 10 at night (Tues). We went looking for someplace to park for the night.  Not the best situation for sure.  We just drove out of the city (South) which was about 2 minutes later.  We found a pull out that we felt comfortable with.  It was about 4 miles out of the town.

The next morning we looked out our window and was greeted by these Eagles.

We drove on with a U.S. Forest Service in mind about 21 miles South of Petersburg.

There’s a deer on each side of the road.  They just look at you and really don’t run.  They just walk away like saying “here come the tourists again this year.”

No hook ups of course and no fee.  Trees blocked the sun.  It did come out most of our first day but no real solar power.  We are the only ones here.  There’s about 10 sites and most of them will take 40 footers. 

Skeeters are around but not many at all.  They are really big and usually signal when coming in for a landing.  Not enough of them to break out the preventive “good stuff”.

I stayed outside for over 12 hours just enjoying the silence and scenery.  Carol came out and sat ever so often too. 

We have one Eagle flying around sometimes.  No other animals or real signs of them.  The sun did come out and look at us ever so often.

Retirement is listening to the silence longer.

See ya when we see ya.

Leaving Wrangell Tuesday May 9

Our ferry don’t check in for our ferry until 5:45 PM.  We did a window tour again.  Four left turns and 5 minutes later that was done.

Here’s our ferry coming in.  The brochure says it will hold 90 vehicles and looks it.

Of course it’s sprinkling again.  We were the last on (two vehicles) and the second off (two vehicles).  There was no crowds what so ever.

Then a clear sailing evening.

Humpback whale…best shot I could take.

This bear was on the shoreline.  I got a little better shot.

The Wrangell Narrows are something to see and go thru on a big boat.  The the captain steers the ferry thru the maze of buoys.  No sleeping during this adventure.  It looks impossible… it took about a half hour to go thru.

The storm never happened but it was around.

The port of Petersburg about 9:30 PM.

Retirement is going where you haven’t been before.

See ya when we see ya….

Wrangell Monday May 8

Who knew….?

This boat is packed like some RVs

$15,000 and you can own it….

Retirement is waiting too long for it…

See ya when we see ya…….

Wrangell Sunday May 7

It was a very quiet night and peaceful last night. 

We had sausage & eggs for breakfast.  We took the time to cook because we had no where to be or see until Tuesday’s ferry.

Then we went for a walk up the hill.  Looking down…. there is room for one vehicle up this road.  The pic made it look bigger.

We kept an eye on our cat that we let loose.

She just wanted to eat grass.

We got to see a boat that was being pulled by another boat.  Friend rescuing a friend?….

This was 300 mm zoom.  I do have a 500mm stored away.  I call it the whale, it’s a bigee.

Carol was line dancing….

We have no hook ups except what we brought, a small solar system (3-100 watt panels, 500 watt controller, 1,500 watt inverter, two batteries) and a stock generator (4K gas).  We watched a movie later on.  We plugged the TV into the inverter directly and the CD thing was in the TV.  No problems.  It was a 100% cloud covered day with drizzles all the time.  The solar panels were creating enough solar power to run the few things we got and a little extra.

Going into the batteries…..amps…

Batteries maintaining…..volts,,, nice

So that was a surprise that the panels were soaking up the light enough to charge the batteries, slow but charging enough for us.

We ran our portable LP heater most of the day on lower than low.  I made a position on the knob where I can adjust the flame to just above the pilot light, low and lower I call it.  It maintains us at 72 degrees or so inside.  If it gets higher we turn it off for an hour or so.  At bedtime it goes off.  I’m the one who gets up in the morning and turns it on and on high till it gets about 65 degrees or so.

Our ducks are still riding with us…

For those early Loosey Goosey 2017 people that are up North by then, don’t forget Laird Hot Springs for Mark’s 60th birthday on Friday 26 May.  He volunteered to be the host.  No action required by him except to provide a space to meet at his rig and BYO everything.  If you make it…you make it.  Loosey Goosey.

Retirement is getting that damn clock to slow down a little.

See ya when we see ya..

Wrangell May 6

The ferry trip to Wrangell from Ketchikan went very well.  We were under way at midnight.  We even caught some sleep before arriving to Wrangell at 6 AM.  This is not a tourist town.  No waiting buses or vans, no tourist shops all over the place, no eager tour guides.  It’s just a small little community that’s trying to survive their way.

No hook ups out here and it’s free.  We don’t have a good WiFi and some cell service (Verizon).  Who needs it.

The morning coffee view…..The river view is of the Stikine River. 

It only had two sites and one was an obvious tent site.  We took the other site and not to shabby either.

  We set out for hours.  Yes, we were dressed warm with long johns, gloves and all that.  No wind so it was really nice.  It did sprinkled off and on all day and night but it didn’t RAIN.

Temps got to about 53 for the high and 41 for the low last night (Sat).  Mostly cloudy.

Tomorrow (Sunday) we might just hike around the area.

Retirement is being able to enjoy life more.

See ya when we see ya…

Yes, Whales Ketchikan May 5

Yep, around sunset we were setting in the camper at the Safeway parking lot looking out our windshield.  We were eating our Safeway dinner. 

AND…….two humpback whales came by…these are the best pictures I could get zooming all the way with a Nikon 300mm lens….

Next thing you know we had a few people around us watching the whales too.  The two guys are tour guides, one girl on the right is a flagger,  the two girls behind Carol are the managers for the big Lumberjack Show they have here.  Everybody talked about where they were from, etc., etc.. Very nice friendly people.  Nobody knew anybody except the two working for Lumberjack knew each other.

We even got invited to a free show for the community tomorrow night at the Lumberjack.  Oh well.  In a few hours we get loaded up on the ferry and gone by midnight to Wrangell.  It’s a 6 hour journey.  No we can’t stay or go to the camper.

We see a moose or two we might as well turn around and go back south.  We will have seen most of the animals several times.  I’m setting here doing this blog and watching a Bald Eagle perched on a pylon.  I think this is pretty close to as good as it gets but wouldn’t mind a few more!

Retirement is not hustling at doing much of anything.

See ya when we see ya….

Ketchikan Alaska May 4th

We started off this morning with sunshine.  That’s the time to go out for sure.  So we stopped for more totem pole shots.

Then we went into to town to look around more.  They have an Elks but the parking lot is no for an RV.  Their appear to be not real active.

Next was the Safeway.  Halibut $24.95 a pound.  Then a liquor store.  Wine boxes are double in price.  Beer wasn’t really that bad.  Liquor was a little high but not real bad like the wine boxes.

Then we went to the tourist stores.  That was fun.  We talked in length with one local store owner.  Another store the guy was making a drum.  He was full of the knowledge of the First Nation people.  He was eager to tell us the stories and we listened.

Carol said to let everyone know we are fine.  The Walmart is 11 miles away.

After all this tiring tourist stuff we went back to our camper site.

Tomorrow night we ferry up to Wrangell.  We’ve planned 5 nights there because of the ferry system.

Another sunset  ..  who hum…

Retirement – Do Not Disturb!

See ya when we see ya.