Steve and Judy's Travels!

I was just thinking.

Sitting in the den, mom and dad watching tv, me watching the smoke rise in the still room from the cigarette in the ash tray (cigarettes in the ash trays).  No stray draft of air to disrupt the thin unbroken stream for six inches, maybe ten, until it suddenly disperses in a swirl of curls.  As soon as someone gets up and walks past, or moves around in the room disrupting the air, the pattern is broken, and the smoke is messy until the air settles down again.  As the air stills, I watch the pattern return and the thin unbroken line of smoke reform.

And a glass of scotch.  There is always a glass of scotch on each table next to each recliner, next to each ash tray.  Never an indication of excess, never an inebriated parent, never a problem, just a comfortable glass of scotch at the end of the day.  That’s life in the evening for adults at our house, a glass of scotch, a cigarette, and television in the den with no ventilation.

In the present day, I see the signs in every restaurant.  “Do not drink during pregnancy; it’s bad for your unborn child.”  “Don’t smoke during pregnancy; you’re risking birth defects.”  And it occurs to me that my brothers and I, and our entire generation, are mostly all products of smoking and drinking during pregnancy; what no-one at that time knew might be bad for you.  We are all the product of what you’re now not supposed to do.

We drove the Richardson Highway today.

There is smoke in the air from forest fires; a front came through with wind and blew up the Swan Lake Fire on the peninsula and a few more started, but the scenery is still spectacular.  It’s very big here.

Early fall colors.

Tonight’s windshield.

We’re boondocking next to the Alaska Highway east of Delta Junction.  We could have driven straight to Tok from Glennallen, but we received so many warnings about road conditions on the Tok Cutoff, we chose to drive the extra miles through Delta Junction.  We’d rather drive farther smoother, than shorter rougher.

Valdez to Delta Junction part of the trip map

Good weather all day.  It’s cold and raining tonight.  We’re snug and warm inside.

4,175 miles to Sandpipers.

No internet last night.  None tonight.  A foggy start.

But another day of good weather and great scenery.

We stopped for fuel and supplies in Tok, then continued east crossing the border into Yukon Territory; past Beaver Creek, Snag Junction, and Quill Creek.  Past Burwash Landing and Destruction Bay.  Settled at an overlook on Kluane Lake.  Another boondock.

Delta Junction to Destruction Bay part of the trip map

We’ve kind of made a mess of this map.  With all those pins, it’s probably hard to even pick out where we are on it.

Tonight’s stop.  We had it all to ourselves.

6,104 kilometers (3,802 miles) to Sandpipers.  Our destination isn’t Sandpipers yet though, it’s Haines, AK, our last stop in Alaska this trip.  We started out referring this as our trip of a lifetime; probably our only trip ever to Alaska.  It didn’t take long before we started referring to attractions we skipped, missed, or discovered too late as “On the list for our *next* trip to Alaska.”

Back to Alaska!  We were only out of Alaska for two days and one night, so we didn’t even change our clocks.  From our camp south of Destruction Bay, we headed south to Haines Junction, tanked up, and continued south crossing first into British Columbia, then back across the border into Alaska again!

Valdez to Haines part of the trip map

We’ve run out of scenery superlatives.

And what is this on the mountaintops; that thing called Termination Dust?

3,699 miles to Sandpipers.

It is with some sadness that we pack up for tomorrow’s drive.  The Alaska trip isn’t over, but this part of it is.  The calendar says it’s time to go.  The weather says it’s time to go.  With low temperatures in the forties, touching on lows in the thirties, we want to stay ahead of the weather.  When you look at our trip map, it may not look like we’re going, because to leave this part of Alaska, we first have to drive north for 250 miles but really, we’re on our way.

In the meantime, here are some boats.

Including some featured in television’s Deadliest Catch.

After that brutal crabbing season out of Dutch Harbor in the winter, the boats come down to Valdez for the summer and tender salmon from the fishing boats out in the sound to the processing centers on the docks in town.

A Dall’s porpoise making a splash.

Another humpback whale tail.

A whale blow-hole.  Here, the whale is moving right to left with the small dorsal fin just beginning to clear the water.  The head is underwater.  The blow-hole is well behind the head.

And here, the whale is moving left to right, with the dorsal just coming out of the water and the head under.

The head doesn’t have to clear the surface for the whale to come up and breath, just the blow-hole, and then the rest of the body follows.

And an iceberg.

4,396 miles to Sandpipers.

The salmon run is still going strong.

Pinks and Coho.

The black-legged kittiwakes are there to help.

As are a few contented seals.

A couple more waterfall pictures.

And windshield evening light.