Author: jjacbah

Rainy and cool day, natives are happy as it has been unusually hot & dry for them.

Never know what you might see walking around.

Around seventeen million acres, thinking we’ll be seeing more Tongass signs.

The Alaskan Marine Highway ferry transports many different types of vehicles. You can feel a little sway when they load these big guys.

They really know how to pack the vehicles close.

Docked in Juneau for a couple of hours, hanging out on board. The Alaskan Marine Highway dock is quite a few miles from town, 2 hours isn’t enough time.

Backing down to load at Juneau.

The crew had to do a couple different safety exercises. One was to fight a fire, they had to take turns spraying the fire hoses over the sides of the ship. For the other exercise they had to lower one of the boats and go back to locate a life ring that had been dropped overboard.

Even without the sun shining there were some great views.

Counting sockeye salmon, bears are known to hang out in this area when the pinks are running. Total sockeye for the day was 2859, 27,899 cumulative. A guy is sitting there counting, said it was slow right now, last year when they were running pinks (later in July) were 5,000 and sockeye were 10,000 per day.

Cloudy day, view along Lutak road.

It is hard to miss where the Hammer Museum is located.

They have over 2,000 hammers on display. This is only one of the rooms. They have them grouped by their various uses.

Out and about trying to track bears on the Battery Point Trail.

We drove to Chilkat State Park and saw a moose and 2 calves cross the road.

Stopped by the Haines Cannery to see what they might have for our dinner. Ended up with a crab and salmon combo.

They use a large vacuum to suck the fish out of the ship’s hold up to the canning building .

It is pumped up and into containers for moving around. They had windows along the processing shed so you could watch them working.

Campsite was a tight squeeze between the trees but plenty of room otherwise. A couple of neighbors were busy watching us back in, campground entertainment.

Hiked the Seminole Trail. Including our walk from the campsite to the trail and back it was 6.23 miles. The trail followed the river where we caught sight of this fellow.

This was a nice park with a big pool, cafe, playgrounds, and trails. They also had canoe and kayak rentals. It looked like it would be a fun river to kayak, minus the gator, but we did not have the time this trip.

A cold windy day on the drive to Tuscan. There was snow in the mountains and we drove thru some sleet.

We were so excited to try one of the oranges from the tree on our space until we tasted one and discovered it was a cross between an orange and a lemon.  Later learned that they are called meyer lemons, thanks Roger.

On the drive back from Nogales Mexico we weren’t sure if we missed the border crossing or not when we saw this sign.

Karen going for a test flight at the Pima Air and Space museum.

There were so many planes to see both outside and inside it was hard to decide which photo to share.

Never know who you might meet at the museum.

Taking our first break on the hike into Sabino Canyon. In the background you can see the tram path far below, we were not even at the top yet.

Karen getting ready to cool her feet off before we hike back to the tram stop in Sabino Canyon.

Riding back down on the tram and still smiling after a 3.5 hour 6 mile hike with lots of switchbacks.

The river was our turn around point approximately at 3,700 ft, lots of ups and downs.

This is a crested saguaro cactus, it is rare to see and they are unsure what causes it to grow this way.

Yes, I can hear you now.  The Arizona Sonora Desert Museum was a little on the expensive side, it is a 98 acre botanical garden and zoo. You could spend a full day here between the museum areas and hiking paths.

Karen has not lost her knack for finding the dirt roads. This is the loop drive in Saguaro NP.

The drive thru the Saguaro NP was very interesting and bumpy, there were people in cars but they had to scrape by a few times.

Wyler Aerial Tram, people ride up then hike down. We chose to do the ride down. If you look close in the picture you can see 1 of the trams.

McGinns Pistachio Tree Ranch & Winery. We did the tour which was interesting, but lacked a little bit because the trees and vines were bare. We enjoyed our free cookie at the end.

White Sands National Park. You can “buy” a sled and they will “buy” it back for 1/3 the price when you are done.

We were amazed at the vastness of the sands.

Looking out from the cave near Dripping Springs. The springs really was just a drip.   The path to the springs was not the easiest  walking path. There was deep pea rock or larger river rock.

We went to Huaco Tanks State Park. You should make reversations because they only let so many in at a time.

Yep, we were at the top.

We did find some of the pictographs but I think you need to do the guided tour to see the best ones.

The Rio Grande River was a little on the dry side.

Only a overnight stop for us but beautiful sunsets.

Roadrunner, not much else in Fort Stockton. Prices were high for fuel and food.

More art, the 3 horses on the right change to a copper color when the sun hits them at the right angle.

July 12th – 20th we stayed at Royal Oaks Campground, close to town and bike paths.  Ben and Gwen joined us for the weekend. It was a lot of fun to go sight seeing with them.

Spacious camp sites, a little close to the road but not too noisy.

Ben and Gwen’s first time at karaoke together.
Gwen kept rocking out, like father like daughter.  Great job Gwen!

Saturday we rented a pontoon to go fishing on Lake Itaska, to late of a night singing for Gwen.

Is it a feed bag or barf bag?  Kid, you are hilarious!

Gwen was fishing with worms and ended up catching a perch with a minnow.

The four of us at the headwaters.

We climbed the fire tower 16 flights to the top, we all made it, it was more of if Gwen’s going so are we. Gorgeous view, a little windy and sway at the top.

Huge white pine tree.

Gwen, Ben, & Paul
Um, Ben does it feel like someone is standing over you?

Bemidji State Park, nice beach area.

June 29th we closed on our house and our travel adventures officially begin.  Downsizing from our brick and mortar house to our new home on wheels was quite the challenge, we’re in need of some serious R & R.