North Pole!

Some of my blog readers seemed surprised that we’re winding up our trip here in Alaska so soon. We still have about 3,000 miles to go to Gillette, WY and will be enjoying that part of the trip as well. Although it may not be as adventurous as what we’ve been doing, we still want to do some kayaking and there are a few new locations to explore and roads we haven’t yet traveled. Some of our group need to be in Gillette by August 21 to teach at the Escapees’ Boot Camp. Others of us are on staff for Escapade and need to be there no later than August 25. (Yes, Helen, that includes us – we look forward to seeing you and Bill there!)

We feel that we’ve done a pretty good job of seeing and doing what we wanted in Alaska, even though it was sometimes done at a less than leisurely pace. But we’ve worked within a window of time totaling about 90 days (with about 30 of them still to go) and managed to take a wonderful tour of this beautiful state.

Today we moved about 12.5 miles to the Riverview RV Park in North Pole, Alaska. We’re side-by-side with the Hills and the Forbes. The sites are larger, at the same price as the River’s Edge that we just left. And Shadow likes the grass!

Yes, there really is a place named North Pole, Alaska. This town is not to be confused with The North Pole, the geographic point on the globe that reaches the farthest north and is directly opposite of The South Pole. One interesting fact you’ll see if you follow the link to the town of North Pole is in the weather statistics. The highest temperature recorded in the month of March was +56 degrees, and the lowest was -56! I don’t want to be here for that one!

We enjoyed happy hour, where the ‘girls’ got together for crafting. (Notice that Pat and Jim caught up with us.)

And the ‘boys’ just BS’ed in the background! (At least that’s what it sounded like to me.)

Mary’s doing very well as a novice crocheter!

And Carol’s many years of crocheting experience are helping her untangle a mess probably caused by Rainbow or Patches, her cats.

We all went to Pagoda’s for a dinner of Chinese food, since Don and I enjoyed our lunch there yesterday.

Seated in a different room this time, we noticed banners of Rotary Clubs from several places around the world posted on the walls. Here’s one from Hawaii, Don’s home state, next to ones from Sparks, NV and somewhere in Europe (couldn’t quite read it). We saw others from Japan, Australia, Argentina, England, Barcelona, Norway, and Russia.

We all enjoyed our dinner and the chance to get together once again.

Back at the RV park, Don equalized the air in all our tires. He appreciated valuable help from Dennis.

We thought one of our Pressure Pro sensors on the car had gone bad since it was giving us false low readings. But after spending some time on the phone with Pat McFall (we bought the system from Pat and Mike McFall) and later with Doug at Pressure Pro’s headquarters, we got the problem resolved. Don took advantage of the good weather and relative shade on all the tires, with an outside temp of about 72 degrees, to check them all and be sure they are properly inflated for the trip southward. Now we’ll feel safer with the knowledge that all the sensors are working and the pressure is where it should be all around.