Back to Glennallen

Robert, Monday, July 14

It was back to Glennallen today. The trip was only 130 miles so it was an easy drive. From Palmer to Glennallen is uphill almost all of the way but we had a tailwind to help out. The drive goes past the Matanuska glacier. This glacier is a little unusual as it is down in the valley while the road climbs up the side so you can look down on it. Usually you are either on the same level as the base of the glacier or you are looking up at the glacier so you really don’t see too much of it. When we left Palmer, it was overcast and it looked like rain. As we drove east, the clouds broke up and we saw blue sky and sunshine. I think that it was getting further away the coast that caused much of this. We have noticed that the weather changes a great deal when we drive just a few miles. The mountains that surround us can easily be the reason as well. In Colorado it can be bright, sunny, and warm on one side of a mountain pass while it is cold, windy, and snowing like crazy on the other side. In any case, sunshine was welcome. We got to the campground in the midst of a caravan pulling in. Caravans are commercial ventures where people with RVs pay to have someone lead a group to Alaska. They normally start in Dawson Creek, Alberta and drive up the Alaska Highway. They have a leader and someone who brings up the rear who can help if someone breaks down. Between the two there are 15, 20, or more RVs. Sometimes they travel in a “train” and sometimes they are spread out over miles. They last for 30-40 days and cost about $5,000. For that cost they pay all campground fees and some tours. Some people like them as everything is planned. Some people hate them as everything is planned. They only plus I could find in them is the social aspect. That being said, I would never sign up for such a thing. I think a lot of people take them as they are fearful of the unknown and coming to Alaska for the first time has a lot of unknowns. This caravan had 28 rigs. They had a campfire meeting where everyone was expected to tell a joke, tell a story, or perform a skit. The way we know what they were doing is that the leader posted a schedule of events on a whiteboard displayed in front of his rig. While we were sitting outside before dinner we tried some of the mosquito coils that Leslie bought. I was of the mind that they would never work but we lit two and placed them a little upwind from where we were sitting. Like magic, most of the mosquitoes departed. We lit a campfire and that too helped ward off the mosquitoes. The weather held and we grilled dinner outside. As we were told when we checked in that a black bear came through the campground the night before, the grill was packed away so it didn’t tempt the bear.