August 25, 2008
Day 48We left Tolsona Wilderness Campground in Glenallen, Alaska and are now in the Sourdough Campgound in Tok, Alaska
We have Internet and cell phone service!!! Yeah!!! We only have Alaska channel 13 on our TV, but we have lots of movies to watch if we get bored with the Democratic convention!!!
I have decided I am a technoaddict (I don't know if that is a word, but it describes me) I really like my gadgets.
I took some more pictures (in the rain) coming down the road to Tok. It was a beautiful drive, even if it was rainy and gloomy. The trees are starting to change here and that made the drive so enjoyable. All of the golds, reds and greens mixed in with the lakes and mountains. Merrell said he enjoyed it almost as much as Glacier National Park in Montana. That says a lot!!!
I don't know how long we will stay in Tok. We want to do a little more of the "tourist" thing while we are here. I think we have decided that when we do leave here, we will go to Haines and take the hour long ferry trip (motorhome included) to Skagway and then head through Canada to Washington. That is the plan at this point if we can get a booking on the ferry. I am going to call them tomorrow and see what dates are available.
I am sitting here in the motor home at the kitchen table looking at the porch of the campground office and it's covered with beautiful pots of flowers. I have just fallen in love with what Alaskans can do with a packet of flower seeds!!!!
All of the campgrounds say that the RV tourist business is way down this year. Not only because of the price of gasoline and diesel, but they have had a lot of rain and colder weather this summer and people have left earlier than usual. It's made it nice for us. Nothing is crowded and the roads have very little traffic, so we can stop whenever we need to take a picture. Teeheehee
I will have to wait to post those pictures later when I have time to see how many of them turned out OK. 90% of the pictures we have taken have been taken out of the windows of the car or motorhome, so about 70% have spots or raindrops on them. :>)
Catch ya later,
Love, US
Leaving
This is the flower bed at the Tolsona Wilderness RV park we stayed in on our way to Tok. Look at the size of that cabbage. They had a whole "bed" of cabbages (no pun intended!!) there and said that before long they will harvest and give some to the campers and keep some themselves.
This old wagon with the flowers in it was in front of the Golkona Lodge and Trading Post we stopped at on our way back to Tok, Alaska. We have a wagon at home very similar to this one that belonged to Merrell's Dad. We plan to get it fixed up and put it in our yard too. The flowers are a good idea, huh?
This is another view of the wagon in front of the Trading Post part of the Gakona Lodge and Trading Post. I sure wish it hadn't been raining that day so I could have explored more. They had some neat stuff there.
They also had this neat teepee in the front part of the Lodge and small cabins that are rented to tourists. I know in a lot of places we have been they will actually rent teepees to tourists to stay in. Now, I like to camp and travel, but I can NOT see myself sleeping in one of these. The idea is cool, but that's about it as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure it doesn't have a king size air mattress in there with a computer, satellite, TV, indoor FLUSHING toilet and microwave just to name a few necessities. :>)
We stopped at the Gakona Lodge and Trading Post. From what I read in the Mile Post book, it's the spot with one of the oldest "Road Houses" in Alaska. A Road House back in the day served as a one stop shop for everyone traveling through Canada and Alaska. They would feed you and give you a bed to sleep (I don't mean give in the strict sense of the word. You definitely had to pay) in and a place for your animals, etc. Now it is a gift shop and some new cabins that they rent out and a restaurant. Once again they have the beautiful flowers that I fell in love with. I bought some post cards, but not much else. The post cards weren't too expensive, but I checked out a bag of chips and it was $7.50 and I figured I didn't need a snack anyway. :>) :>)
This is the inside of the Gakona Lodge gift shop. They had some neat stuff, including items handmade by Native Alaskans. Most of it I didn't care too much for, but a few things were really nice.
This is one of the old original smoke houses where they smoked all of their meat for the Gakona Lodge. At least that is what the girl at the gift shop told me as I was aiming my camera out the window behind her trying to get a shot of it. It was raining outside and I didn't want to melt (you know SUGAR does melt) so I took the picture out the window. :>)
I loved the way the fog hung low below the top of the mountain range and over the trees which are just beginning to turn fall colors. It was a beautiful drive, even though we had some sporadic rain.
As you can see, the trees are starting to turn and it makes for a beautiful drive along the highway. It's amazing what a difference the changing colors make in the landscape.
No matter how many of the mountain lakes we see, we never cease to be amazed at the beauty we see. I'm still amazed that a picture can turn out so well from inside the motorhome. Must be the camera!!! :>)
It looks like we're driving to the top of the world, doesn't it? The clouds seem to be within our reach. It was an amazing sight.
More clouds hanging low over the mountain side.
The fall colors here aren't the same as the colors in our WV mountains. Most of the deciduous trees here are the aspen and they turn a beautiful gold. There are very few reds and oranges. We see an occasional one, but it's mostly aspen mixed in with the pines.
I don't know whether you can tell how HIGH we were when I took this, but trust me we were HIGH!!! Again you can see that the fall colors are coming fast. Hard to believe it's only August 26th.
More aspens and pines with the beautiful dark mountains in the background. It's only in the 50's here in the daytime so I guess fall just comes early in Alaska.
Remember when I told you that Carolee should have learned by now about standing up while Merrell is driving on these roads??? Well, she did it again. See the camera in her hand. AND, GUESS WHAT??? I had mine in my hand again and it was turned on............................. At least she fell on the couch and not in the floor. Teeheehee
