Alaska 2014 Week 6

Alaska 2014 Week 6

June 27  From Valdez we drove to the Russian River. The Russian River is where you go to fish for Salmon.  Its changed somewhat since we were there 10 years ago. Before you had to line up on the road outside the park and wait your turn to go in.  You had to wait til someone caught their limit of 2 salmon and  had to leave before you could get in.  This time we drove right into the park and paid for two nights with no waiting time.  Both us and the Halsteads got great parking spaces for our RVs where we had plenty of room for our slides.  The first day that we got there we fished on  the RV side of the river but neither Larry or I got any fish.  I got a few nibbles but no bites.  They were swimming by me and jumping out of the river in front of me but no such luck as even a nibble.  Larry noticed the other side was having all the luck.  To get to the other side, you had to pay $5 to ride the ferry.  At least the $5 covered for round trip.

June 28  Today Larry and I decided to take the ferry across and try our luck over on the other side of the river.  We did find out the we were at the end  of  one salmon run and supposedly the next run for the reds was coming any day.  I was telling Larry, 10 years ago when we came here people were catching fish left and right I couldn’t understand why it was so slow.  That’s when we found out we were in between runs.  Larry just had regular boots on that day and he was getting wet, the water here is pretty darn cold.  So at lunch time he was ready to call it a day.  He and Mem took a ride to Soldotna and found a great sports store and Larry got a good deal on some hip boots and some lures and weights.  Jim brought my lunch over to me (what a sweetheart) but I gave up fishing around two that day with no luck.  Larry and I both tried again that evening on the RV side of the river but to no avail but just because it was fun.

June 29  Larry got out there early this morning and by noon his luck changed he pulled in a nice salmon.  I hadn’t got over there yet.  I was having a lazy morning.  Mem texted me and  said you better get over here, Larry just got one.  Jim and I  finished up lunch and we both caught the ferry and rode over.  By the time we got over  to where Larry and Mem were, Larry had caught his second one.  I was so happy for him.  He had a smile a mile wide.  Not long after I got over there, I finally got a bite.  I was so excited.  I got a beauty of a Rainbow trout.  When Larry got ready to go he offered to take my fish with him and fillet it for me.  That was so nice.  I fished for a few more hours but no one was getting any bites so I decided to call it a day.  I was happy.  I got a big fish finally.

June 30  We spent the night in another quiet roadside pulloff.  It looks like moose tracks all around the spot where our RVs were parked but we never saw any.  In fact we haven’t seen any wildlife since we have arrived in Alaska except eagles.  Now I will admit, eagles are awesome.

Jul 1 We stopped in Wasilla.  Jim wanted to go see if he could run into Sarah Palin haha.  We googled her address and got close but weren’t sure.  So we stopped in the Best Western which is on her street and the girl at the desk told Jim that her street is closed to public but if you go out on the Best Western Dock and look at 2^nd house to the left that is Sarah’s house.  So we did haha.  Sure enough we could see it.  I remembered what it looked like from watching her show on TV.  The house is not very extraordinary but my goodness they do have some awesome views and no they can't see Russia from their back yard!  The 2 pictures below the back of their house pictures are across the lake from them.  It was just beautiful.  There was a plane parked at the dock and Jim looked up the tail number and it was registered to a company owned by Bristol Palin, their daughter.  I guess they are using her as a tax write-off.  We met another lady on the sidewalk at a shopping center and was asking questions where we might find a Wasilla pin, and other questions, and Jim asked her if she knew Sarah or ever shook her hand and the lady’s daughter said she did once, so Jim shook her hand (she was about 12 years old) she got a kick out of  that.  Then he asked the lady if she knew where the Palins ate at and she told us a place where all the locals go including the Palins.  So we went, but the waitress said Todd and the kids eat there but she hasn’t seen Sarah in there.  But Jim was still happy to think she still might have sat where he sat.  Too funny.  

Jul 2  We are staying at the Driftwood Inn RV Park in Homer, AK You can see the ocean so I guess  you could say we have an ocean view location.  Although the picture looks like we are right on the water we are really up on a hill overlooking the water.  We walk the dogs along the ocean road.  Its very nice.  We have full hook up.  Its pricey $55/night but well worth it since we are in Homer and ocean view.  The spaces are very tight though.  I’m glad we got here when we did, I think Jim would have had a hard time manuevering our big rig around other campers.  You can tell the people who live in Alaska vs the people from the lower 48, especially around the water.  The Alaskans are wearing shorts and tank tops and us lower 48ers are wearing jackets and longs pants.  Little kids are swimming in the water and my dogs are shivering especially my Chinese Crested.  She has to wear her flannel pjs to go outside half the time. 

Jul 3  We met some nice folks on either side of us and the Halsteads.  Both families live in Alaska.  The folks next to us were here with no children.  Their daughter is in college so it was just them on vacation.  They have never been to the lower 48 but are looking forward to traveling the lower 48 when their daughter graduates from  college.  We had a great time visiting with them.  The folks on the other side of the Halsteads live on the AF base in Anchorage and are here with 4 of their 5 children.  They are really a nice family.  We’ve really enjoyed talking with them.  We went to the lagoon on the spit today to see if the Kings were biting today and they were.  The lagoon is a man-made fishing recreation area.  Supposedly the townspeople put Kings in the lagoon so they would come back to spawn year after year.  The Kings come into the lagoon with the tide comes in and the fish start biting like crazy.  Before the tide comes in you can see the kings swimming around in the lagoon and they are huge but they don’t seem to bite.  As soon as the tide comes in the fish go crazy and people start catching like crazy.  Its really fun to watch.  Ten years ago when we were here a couple were living in an old boat along the side of the road.  We were surprised to see that they are still living in it.  I was also surprised to see that they have collected quite a few other old boats and are surrounded by them.  Their boat by itself 10 years ago was pretty neat, but collecting all these other boats seems to be taking away from their uniqueness and its kind of looks like a boat junkyard now.  Its too bad.