We crossed the border into Canada on April 27 and we started our journey through Alaska on May 10 by boarding the Alaska Marine Highway System ferry to explore the Inside Passage. We've been with our traveling companions Steve & Esther that whole time except for two weeks in the middle of June and our recent 4-night trip to Katmai National Park.
Well, today is the last day we'll be together on this trip. We've had such amazing experiences and we've seen so much, but we're all feeling like it's time to head back. Their RV is smaller and the addition of a chest freezer has shrunken their already tiny space, so they are looking to get back to Ottawa where they can spread out. So, they've decided to leave tomorrow.
And though we have Denali National Park on our list of places to still go, we're not sure that we're going to see anything better than what we've already seen. Plus we had a great visit to Denali back in 2004, so it's not like it's an absolute "must do" for us.
We're both ready to start back as well. But, we want to see some friends north of Fairbanks and spend a few days there, so we're going to continue in that direction. And if the weather is good, we'll go ahead and make our planned stop in Denali.
The plan all along was to leave Fairbanks around September 1, so we will depart somewhere around there, maybe a day or two before the first of the month. But the adventure is far from over. We will take almost a month getting back through Canada.
Today was all about getting prepared for the last part of our amazing trip, and spending our last evening with our dear friends.
Early this morning, Linda spread all her glass from Nome out and took the pictures I posted in yesterday's entry. She spent time with Esther.
And I took the RV to the Anchorage Cummins location to have our generator serviced. We have no idea if the prior owner of our rig ever serviced our Cummins Onan generator, and it has been cutting off after running for a while. It just went over 100 hours, so it was due for service, and I was concerned about the air filter and fuel filter.
So, for $250 the Cummins shop would do an inspection of the generator, replace the air filter, replace the fuel filter, replace the spark plugs, and change the oil. Since we need that generator to help keep our freezer cold and our fish frozen until we get to Florida in two and a half months, I wanted the pros to check it out.
They were quite friendly and professional. It took them about an hour and forty-five minutes, and the generator came through with a clean bill of health. I feel better about it.
Back at the campground, the ladies had made plans for our last evening together, and Linda was going to make a dessert. She also said she needed to do laundry and go to the grocery, but she didn't feel like it today. In a moment of weakness, I offered to take the laundry to a laundromat and grocery shop on the way back. It was a combination of wanting to help out and not wanting to have to do it in the morning before we vacated Alaska's largest city. I found a nice campground for the next few days, and I want to move that way at a reasonable time in the morning.
When I got back, we all sat and chatted a bit before going out to dinner and reminiscing about this summer's epic adventure.
Returning to the campground, we were going to enjoy Linda's dessert - a cheesecake with an almond/coconut crust and a mixed berry topping.
Steve took the last photo of us together.
We didn't get many photos of the four of us, and now I wish we had been more diligent about that.
It's hard to say how our trip would have been different without them since we did most everything we planned before they signed on, but I know Linda enjoyed herself more having Esther along to share beachcombing and creative cooking. And she liked the fact that Steve and I could just go off and do our own thing, so she could relax more. Of course, we wouldn't be eating Keto style, and we wouldn't have dropped a few pants sizes, if they hadn't joined us.
I fished more with Steve than I would have on my own, and most of my dreams at night are about fishing in one way or another. I tended to make our travel plans and offered suggestions to the group. After some discussion, we came to easy agreements. We're both pretty independent traveling couples, so traveling as a team isn't our normal mode, but I can't think of anyone else that we could pull it off with for so long. We're four pretty strong personalities, and we had our moments of course, but they were all minor in the overall scheme of things.
In the end, we've had incredible experiences together, and we're parting with no qualms about traveling together again in the future. We look forward to the next opportunity.
We called it a night, and we'll say our final "see you laters" in the morning as they head east and we head north. As I end many of our Journal entries, I'll end this one the same, but with dual meanings. Until next time.
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