Beatty RV Adventures: June 2016

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

North to Alaska

The plan for our Alaska trip this year was to catch the ferry from Bellingham, Washington and take it to Whittier, Alaska. Bellingham is north of Seattle. We left Las Vegas and had a bout 6 days to get the ferry. This meant our normal drive for 2 - 4 hours and park for a week or so would not work. So we drove some 5 and 6 hour days. Along the way we spent several nights in Costco parking lots and then fill up with gasoline and head out. We did stop near Sacramento to see some friends we'd made on last summer's trip to China. We met up with Carmen, Betty and Stella. We had a wonderful visit.

Also along the way we stopped to see another friend from the China tour in the Portland, OR area. We were actually able to park in front of her house and spent the night. Meet Dorothy;

We arrived in Bellingham 2 days before our departure on the ferry which gave us the time to do laundry, empty the refrigerator and prep for the 4+ days on the ferry.

The ferry was nicer than we expected...not as nice as a cruise ship but not to bad. We had an inner room for sleeping and it was bigger than we expected.

Initially we were told we could leave the car connected to Harvey but later learned we needed to disconnect so we could back on to the ferry. Backing onto a ferry was fun!

We had a few stops on the way and were able to get off the ferry for a short period. We had already been to a few places but it was good to get off the boat.

The trip was beautiful.

But after 4+ days of basically the same scenery the trip got long. The ship had a movie each night but we learned they only had 3 movies. And we had seen one of them.

We got off the ship about 6AM in Whittier, had breakfast at the only place in town that served breakfast and were on our way to see the Kenai Peninsula.

Monday, June 27, 2016

Brokaw Reunion

We had a Brokaw reunion in Las Vegas. Brokaw is Diana's maiden name and she and her family try to meet somewhere about every 2 years. This time was Vegas. Sadly, Diana's youngest brother, Charlie was unable to make it. We were all bummed by that. But sister Marge and her husband David, brother Dale and his wife Christy, Dale's son Ken and his girlfriend Emily, our son Daniel and his girlfriend Mona plus us were all able to be there. We had made arrangements to park Harvey at another resort so we all stayed in 3 two bedroom condos about 4 miles off the Strip.

We went to a few shows, hung out on the Strip, did some hiking and just had a fun time.

Christy, Marge and Diana

David, Christy, Diana and Marge

David and Bob

Emily and Ken

Mona and Daniel

Emily and Christy

No pics of Dale since he was on the other side of the camera

Kenai Peninsula - Seward

Once off the ferry in Whittier we headed toward Seward. Step one was to drive thru the Whittier tunnel. The tunnel is narrow and only one way traffic is permitted. So on the hour traffic travels from west to east. On the half hour it travels fro east to west. This is true unless a train is coming, then the train has priority.

No problem, just narrow and 25 mph.

When we arrived in Seward we parked at the municipal campground along Resurrection Bay.

We were welcomed by this sea otter.

We did the usual tourist stuff including a day cruise.

Steller Seals

This glacier was calving like crazy. The captain turned off the engines and you could here the glacier moan, grown and crack. It was spooky sounding but very cool.

We left the campground and headed toward Kenai Fjords NP only a few miles from Seward. Found a nice place to park along the river to spend the afternoon and night.

A very nice spot...and free

Valley of Fire State Park

After Great Basin NP we stopped in Valley of Fire State Park about an hour north of Las Vegas. We got an amazing campsite.

We were nestled in the rock formations. We had no hook ups but we were prepared for that. As we parked I pulled out the chairs, the grill and began prepping for a camp fire. But the skies turned dark and I put everything away. I stepped inside and within 2 minutes it started to rain. Then it rain harder, then it hailed, followed by more hard rain. It is very loud in an RV when it rains, but hail makes it so you can't even talk to each other. Within about 45 minutes the storm was over and we had a nice evening by the fire.

The park is made up of red rock that just pop up in a large geographic area that is rather flat and plain. But these formations are magnificent;

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Great Basin NP

After we left Dave and Julie we headed to Great Basin NP. We had some time to fill before we were to be in Las Vegas for Diana's family Reunion. More on that later.

Great Basin is a relatively small park, off the main travel areas and does not get that many visitors. But in our quest to see as many National Parks as we can we stopped in. If you care we are now up to 35 National parks and will get more in Alaska.

We did some driving thru the park and then took a tour of the cave. Lehman Cave;

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Dave & Julie Tour

We have never traveled with any one else during our life on the road. But this spring when we left Mesa we traveled with our friends Dave and Julie Daniel. Diana and I called it the "Dave and Julie tour". It worked out great. We had a great time. So here are a few pics;