Sunday was our official move in. The muscle that Heather hired showed up at 1 to unload the trailer. I know Dan and David were glad they didn’t have to do it all. The first thing I did was get our bed set up. It sure was nice to sleep in our own bed. Of course, we didn’t bring the box spring because it is old. We have a new one coming on Thursday.
The best thing that happened was that Jim and Linda made it on Sunday afternoon. It was nice to have the gang back together. It was sooner than Heather, David and I thought. We thought the earliest was going to be Monday.
Heather and I went to Aldi’s to by a few groceries for the house. Heather made bean and cheese burrito’s for dinner. I still am not eating much because of the withdraws.
Monday we all went shopping in IKEA which is in Baltimore. The kids bought some of the furniture they needed there. We had all sold a lot of our stuff to save on weight in the trailer. I guess we didn’t leave enough behind since half of our stuff is still in Edmonton, Canada
Sorry I am a week late writing my blog. The hotel we stayed in last I couldn’t get online to post this blog and then we had no internet in the new house. So here is the post from Saturday to continue our last leg of our journey.
We left our hotel at 8:30 with 194 miles to go. Hoping to see our new home around noon.
We got a late start today because Kate decided to get up at 4:30 and not go back to sleep. So Mom and Dad were kind of slow moving this morning. We left at 9:25 with only 584 miles to go before we were at our new home.
We gassed up as soon as we left the hotel. Gas was $2.49 a gallon. We got 9.55 gallons which cost $23.87.
We did get an early start today. We left the hotel at 8:15. We were out of diapers so David and I took off in search of them. We took the first exit along the freeway and found nothing. Then we couldn’t get back on the road going east. We ended up right back where we had started from.
David and I left everyone behind as we headed out to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We had to get to Costco to pick up my Cymbalta. We figured we could get there and pick it up, then meet the rest of our caravan on Highway 90.
As we were getting back on the highway from the hotel I could see the Missouri River. We were well on our way by 7:40.
Well by the time everyone got checked into the hotel last night and ate no one wanted to check out Deadwood. I guess the kids really wanted to see Deadwood because there is a TV show that they watch. It has even been on for 3 seasons and I guess now they are coming out with a movie.
It was decided that David, Heather and would go back to see Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse, then catch up with the rest of the group. We could drive a lot faster since we weren’t towing anything.
If you want to check out Deadwood continue reading.
This was supposed to be the day of seeing new things. Well at least for some of us. Our friends, Steve and Nancy, had told us about this really cool place called Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota. Since we were kind of going to be in the area because we were going to Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse we thought we could squeeze it in too.
Well if you have been following along you would have noticed that things don’t seem to always go as planned for us.
I started my morning off by writing my blog I should have written the night before. David had brought me breakfast, so I could get it done before I had a couple of adorable little girls come to visit their Oma.
They were both very concerned about the clock that was blinking. I would have set it but I wasn’t sure what time it was with the Day Light Savings. I now have all our electronics at the right time, including my fitbit which has been wrong since we left Alaska time zone.
We started the day with our beautiful granddaughters. The other grandma, Linda, came to hang out with us too.
We are setting off a little later today because we just have a little way to go because we are stopping in Great Falls, Montana to visit some old friends.
Dan came up with a plan for our overloaded trailer. He rented a storage unit and as soon as we get to York, PA and unload him and David are heading back up here to get the rest of the stuff. I tell you I can see that the trailer and truck look like they are sitting better now. Dan said that the tires had rubbed holes in the wheel well and it was going to start throwing mud and snow up into the trailer.
Heather, Dan, Jim and David worked unloading things that we didn’t need right away. The wind was blowing and it started raining on them a little.
While they did that Linda and I had the hard job of taking care of our granddaughters.
Alice just spent the day kicked back.
Linda and I took the girls to the buffet at the hotel. They were so good and ate like big girls. Linda was having trouble with her phone, so we weren’t able to contact the rest of our group. Just as we received a text from Heather David showed up to tell us not to pack up and that we were staying another night. Linda and I finished eating lunch with our little girls, then it was time for their naps.
It was 2 before the rest of the party showed up. Heather was so frozen she had to take a hot bath to warm up. Then Heather and I did a little running around to pick up some apples and bananas which are the girls favorite. We also looked for some Halloween costumes for the little girls. We found some cute bathrobes that worked great, one was a frog and the other one was a bunny.
Before we went to dinner Heather and Dan let the girls go Trick or Treating to the grandparents’ rooms. I am not to sure they knew what was going on but the adults had fun.
We were all ready to have a good meal which we thought should include a steak. We went to the Sawmill which was close enough to walk, since everyone except us had something attached to the back of their vehicle, David ferried Heather and a baby and then Dan and the other baby to the restaurant because the wind was blowing.
We ate breakfast at the hotel before we headed out. This morning was a good breakfast with waffles, eggs and bacon. That should hold us over for a little while.
Started my day out with a couple cute girls who I bathed while Mommy and Daddy packed up. We even got a little pony on the top of Kate’s head. She finally has enough to put up.
On this beautiful Sunday morning in Watson Lake we stopped to look at the license plate forest. It was around 9:30. We are getting off earlier than we have.
The license plate forest has grown over the years that I have lived in Alaska.
The Sign Post Forest, a world famous attraction was started in 1942 by a homesick U.S. Army G.I., Carl K. Lindley of Danville, Il., Company D, 341st Engineers. While working on the Alaska Highway, he erected a sign here pointing the way and stating the mileage to his hometown. Others followed his lead and are still doing so to this day. On July 20, 1990, Olen and Anita Walker of Bryan, Ohio placed the 10,000th sign. Carl K. Lindley and his wife visited the site in 1992, 50 years after his first post was erected.
Have you noticed that all hotel/motelS have the fast internet? Well I think they all lie. I have been unable to do my blogging because of all the fast Wifi. I have not had good internet since we left Tok. First night we couldn’t even get on, the next night you could very slowly get on if you were lucky, then we had the one where you could not upload photos because it was so slow and the place we are now is the best so far, it just takes a long time to get photos uploaded. Hopefully I will get to catch up tonight.
Before we could actually start on our 304 miles the trailer had to be jiggered around inside. It was too heavy in the front, so all the guys unloaded and packed the trailer starting before it got light.
Today is the beginning of our new adventure. After camping out in our house for the last week I decided we needed a couple nights in a real bed. We are moving out of the empty house, deflating our air mattress, folding up our camp chairs and going to a hotel in Eagle River. We can be close to the kids there and can help them with the last of their packing.
It is kind of sad saying goodbye to the house we thought we would spend the rest of our life in. You never know what might change in your life even at our age, 64 and 70. We are lucky that we can actually make this trip and have such loving children that want to take us with them.
David has lived in Alaska all his life and in Anchorage since 1961, so there were a lot of good byes that had to be said.
It started Tuesday, we had dinner with David’s brothers and their wives. It was a lot of fun. I love to listen to the brothers talking about growing up. Lot of hugs and promises to come see us we said bye.
On Saturday was his last concert with Anchorage Concert Chorus.
David has sung bass for the chorus 27 years. The last concert was the best one I have heard I believe. After some of us went out for a drink and food. We did not get home until 1. It was so nice to get to say good-bye to them.
In 1980 we moved to Sterling, Alaska with 3 children ages 5, 2 and 3 months. We had two more children after we moved there. Sterling is always going to be my home because I spent more time there than anywhere else in the world. Our children were raised there when it was really very small and rural. Life was good there.
I know I have been gone for quite awhile but it was due to surgery on my right hand. Do you know how hard it is to type with the pecking style? I was taught on an huge electric typewriter with no letters on the keys, so this causes problems for me when I can only type with a finger. This means I have to look at the keys because I am not sure where the letters are when I have to do it that way. Anyway I got my cast off and am supposed to start working my hand and wrist. What better way to do that than to blog!
Well if I haven’t said anything we are moving to York, Pennsylvania with my daughter, Heather, and her family. Heather got a great job down there and is taking us with them because we help with the twins or is it because they sold our house? Either way we get to go.
Once again it is that time of year that we get the best lamb dinner ever. We never miss the Greek Festival. We enjoy the food, music and dance. If you want to find out more about our day read on.
I had been wanting to try doing some photography with a lightbox. I got one back in at the end of February for my birthday. The last few days I keep telling myself to set it up. I finally did today.
Here are some photos I took with just things I found around the house.
The students studying Japanese at UAA, University of Alaska Anchorage, had an afternoon of Japanese food, green tea, Pikachu, Tai Chai and other activities to try or watch.
Being that my husband, David’s, Dad spent the first 11 years of his life in Japan because his parents were missionaries there., so David has always been interested in Japanese things. They even started a food co-op which the last we heard was still going.
When I moved to England I knew about WWII, that is what we are taught in school. Then I started to meet people over there. I met a lot of older people who were either children, fought or worked in the shipyards during the war. After listening to their stories of bombs falling, going to shelters and carrying and using their gas masks WWII came a lot closer to home.
I have been reading all kinds of books and watch different shows. Right now I am watching Wish Me Luck. It is about women who were spies during WWII in France. It is so surprising what they did do. It tells of love and love lost. How they try not to get to attached to people but that isn’t easy. They lose friends and family, yet make new ones.
I have already watched the first and second seasons of the series. My husband is even hooked on it. It is nice when we can watch something like this together and talk about it after.
Our last season to watch. Not sure if there will ever be any more or not.
This series is free on Amazon Prime Video. I highly recommend this series if you are into WWII shows. It tells you of the danger these British people went through to save the French from the horrors of the Nazis.
Let me know if you have watched it or plan to watch it. Then let me know what you think about it.
Ever since we have been trying to stay on Keto I have looked for a good pancake recipe. I found the Cream Cheese Pancakes which we liked a lot but they kind of were not the best to take camping. Then one day while in Costco I found something I thought we could try.
As you can see it is Paleo not Keto but I thought we would give it a try. It is high in Carbs but we don’t eat them often. You just add water which makes them great for camping.
I then decided to look on Amazon and see what I could find. I just can’t trust Costco because sometimes they carry something then you never see it again. Well look what I found on Amazon.
Or you can buy the regular and the chocolate chip mixes together and get a better deal
Ok back to the cooking. The pancakes have always risen to look like regular flour pancakes. I had always measured the mix and water out. On this day I didn’t. You need to mix the batter up then let it sit for 5 minutes or until it thickens. It should be pretty thick. Well I put to much water and this is what happens.
Well I had to keep adding mix until I got it just right.
Now you can see the difference once I added enough mix.
As you can see they look a lot better.
I just need to mention my griddle. I wanted a nice grill and found this one at a charity shop. I brought it home and tried it out. I fell in love with it. If you are looking for great griddle look no further.
Just one last thing to say about the pancakes. I made them for our great niece and nephew they loved them.
Be sure to check out my links if you are interested in anything and if you decide to buy something that is even better. Thanks
I was looking at this calendar that my daughter had given me for Christmas this year. It was the year of the twins. It started out in January with a very pregnant daughter and in February the birth. Now 17 months later I can’t believe how they have grown. From being under 3 pounds at birth to over 20 pounds now.
Of course, we think they are the most adorable babies ever. Well I guess we have to call them toddlers now. They are such good little ones. I don’t remember my children being this good when they were little. Can’t say it was because they didn’t have anyone to play with because there was 5 of them. It could be that I am just older and more mellow.
Anyway thanks for taking time to look at our granddaughter’s, Beka and Kate.
If anyone knows me they know I love to shop the charity shops and garage sales looking for things I can upcycle. A while back I made myself a bird bath and my friend says we can sell these. See if you think we can.
As soon as we got service when we were leaving McCarthy our friends called and asked if we wanting to go camping in Homer. We figured we could kill two birds with one stone. We had promised our little friend, Silas, when we were in Ajo, AZ visiting them that we would walk along the beach in Homer with him while he was visiting his father. So we got home on Sunday and left again on Friday for Homer.
We decided to go to McCarthy for 4th of July. I took tons of photos and somehow managed to loose most of them. So there won’t be many on this blog.
We headed to McCarthy in our camper. I had not been there since 1980. David had never been there. Our kids and granddaughters were meeting us there.
Boy was I surprised when we got there. Where we had camped back in May of 1980 was now a campground. It was still just a big gravel area along the Kennicott River. We found a camping spot, you just park where you want. You can’t get the big RV’s down the road to McCarthy. The hand trolley that used to take you across the river has been replaced by a footbridge. The people of McCarthy no longer had to wait until spring to drive across the Kennicott River because they have a private bridge now.
We arrived a day early from the rest of our party, so we could find us a good campsite. We found one right on the river and parked so we could save a space for the rest of us. There is only one other camper on the other end of the area we were camping in. As we got out of our truck and were walking to the back I notice that the person at the other campsite is walking over. All of a sudden she says, “I knew it was you. I saw those legs getting out of the truck and I thought those look like Cindy’s legs. Then I saw that long grey hair and I knew it was you.” It was only David’s niece, Laura and her two kids, Mattie and Hannah. We had no idea that she was there. Now our family camping trip got even bigger.
We spent 4th of July in McCarthy. We went to the pancake breakfast and then to the parade. Our twin granddaughter’s were in the parade because Daddy made a cool stroller that goes easily across rough terrain. He put bushwheels, airplane tires, on the stroller. Everyone was taking photos of it.
It was a booming place when the Kennicott mine was going strong because alcoholic beverages and prostitution were forbidden in Kennecott.
It is also known for the murders of 1983 when a man shot 6 of the 22 residents while they waited for the mail plane to land. There is more about this on Discovery Channel’s Alaska’s Ice Cold Killer episode “Frozen Terror”.
There was also a TV series on Discovery Channel called “Edge of Alaska”
Then there was the story about the Pilgrims. Who were thought to be this big family who moved out to some land outside of McCarthy who were quaint and charming until the truth came out.
This poor little town has a lot of bad things happen to it but it just keeps on going.
The next day we went up to Kennicott mine. It was a ghost mine when I was here in 1980. When they closed the mine they just left everything there. The whole mine was deteriorating. In June of 1998, the National Park Service acquired many of the significant buildings and lands of the historic mining town of Kennicott. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and designated as a National Historic Landmark since 1986, Kennicott is considered the best remaining example of early 20th Century copper mining.
The other day a friend of ours invited us to go to Campbell Creek Estuary with her. My husband, David, had lived in Anchorage since he was 12 and had never been there. Of course, the park was not opened until 2013. It is the newest park in Anchorage. We decided it would be a fun way to spend a Saturday.
We met our friend, Renee, for breakfast and then we headed over to the Campbell Creek Estuary. Renee had told us that this 60 acre homestead was donated to the city because the sheep farmers that homesteaded it didn’t want some investor coming in and building high end condos. I think this is such a wonderful idea. By doing this they have saved some delicate wet lands besides making a wonderful place to visit and do some birdwatching.
We didn’t see many birds or wildlife but the trails were nice and it still was a beautiful day for a walk. I call this a walk instead of a hike because the trails were well maintained and there were places to sit to enjoy nature.
Check this page out if you are a birdwatcher because I read that this is where the first and only sighting of a Lazuli Bunting was made.
 The Campbell Creek Estuary is one of few public access points to the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge. It is the most intact ecologically functional watershed in Anchorage, and attracts bald eagles, sandhill cranes, river otters and five species of salmon, among other wildlife. Campbell Creek winds through the mud and grasses on the flats. Sometimes belugas chase the salmon up the creek.  From the edge of the flats, you can see up and down the majestic coastline.
If you are ever in Anchorage, Alaska you should stop by and take this peaceful walk to enjoy some wildlife.
Every year the Arctic Air-Cooled VW club holds a reunion, which means if you have a Volkswagen you can bring it and show it off. This happens on the Saturday before Father’s Day. I got involved because my son in law, Dan Montgomery, is involved with the club. He has had a love for VW’s all his life. He even inherited his Dad’s 1967 Bug which he drove to Alaska when he moved here. Which if you saw the Bug you would wonder how he made it up the Alaska Highway. It has won the VW in the worst shape many times.
Anyway back to the Family Reunion. It is a lot of fun. They give out prizes every hour. Yes, they have something to do with Volkswagens. I do believe that the Diamond Center usually donates some kind of gift card for the big drawing.
The event is free but they do like everyone to vote on the VW’s. There were four divisions to vote on, The best Volkswagen, best Audi, best Porsche and the best beater.
Why you ask are Audi and Porsche at a Volkswagen Family Reunion? Well I asked too and this is what I found.
Volkswagen Group sells cars under the brand Volkswagen, Audi, and Porshe. So, all these brands are owned by the same parent company. Volkswagen started in 1937. They had a majority share in Audi by 1966, bringing Audi under the control of the Volkswagen group.
So I guess they are all Volkswagens.
I am sure you can find a vehicle that interests you enough to vote on it but I warn you it is hard to chose.
Even the young are having fun.
If you would like to know about the club you can check them out here:
If you are ever in Anchorage, Alaska the Saturday before Father’s Day you should stop by Diamond Center to take a look at all the interesting Volkswagens.
A slender pointed rod for holding meat over a fire.
To eject from the mouth
To rain or snow slightly
A small point of land usually of sand or gravel running into the water
Now can you figure out which one I mean by this title?
Read on to see if you are right.
David had to go to the Kenai Peninsula to work and I went with him, so I could visit my friend Stella. Stella and I decided to take a day trip to Homer.
We got up that morning and headed out for our 80 mile trip to Homer with a few stops for photo ops on the way down.
We stopped on top of the hill leading into Homer to take some nice scenic photos.
I also got some nice flower photos there.
We then drove on into Homer and out on the Spit. The forces of nature that built the Homer Spit might have washed it away years ago, if humans had not intervened. Winter storms roaring out of the northwest try to separate the 4.5-mile strip of sand and gravel from the mainland almost every year, but rock walls and perseverance keep it intact.
While on the Spit you can’t leave without taking a few shots of the marina. Guess who happened to be in the marina, Time Bandit. If you are fans of the Deadliest Catch you will know what I am talking about. I myself have never watched the show. I guess because I live here.
After leaving the Spit we stopped at Grace Ridge Brewing. It is not as well known as Homer Brewery but I think they have great beers. Check it out if you are in Homer sometime.
In June of every year we have a Renaissance Fair here in Anchorage. We enjoy going and spending time with the family there. It is a cheap day out with the tickets $8 for adults and $5 for children which can be bought at the gate or online. It is also educational for adults and children.
David and I did hang out with the pirates a lot due to the fact that they were in the beer garden, besides being fun. There is a lot of singing and storytelling which leads to tons of laughter.
You will receive tokens that you use to vote on which of the Barons you prefer Red, Blue or Green. There are many different shows that you can watch from sword fighting to ….
