AUGUST 2ND AND 3RD 2009, ANCHORAGE

This is a really nice campground, but the Wifi is terrible and we only get 2 tv stations. However, we have found plenty to do here since the Gold Prospectors Association of Alaska were here.

First, we had a morning bus tour of Anchorage, where we visited the ULU factory, earthquake park, the largest bush plane airport and water air strips in the world, and the different historical sites and government buildings. Denny and I were here in 1994 and we didn't recognize hardly anything. The visitor center and cook inlet were familiar. Time marches on and Anchorage is a really thriving town with a population of over 275,000.

Back at the campground after a hurried lunch, Denny practically ran to the pavilion to take part in all the festivities. He entered the men's gold panning contest. After much coaching from me, he almost came in second. The rules were: 3 nice size nuggets are placed in sand in each pan. The contestants did it one at a time and the minute they picked up the pan, the time started. They were to find the 3 nuggets in the fastest time. Denny had the second shortest time, but couldn't find one nugget therefore he had 30 seconds added to his time. That knocked him out of second place. Not bad for a beginner (nearly all the contestants were seasoned gold planners). For $5 a bag or $20 for 5 bags, you could pan for gold. We both did it and had so much fun as did others in our group. Lynn found 3 large nuggets and won 2 door prizes. She can't play with us anymore :-) Anyway, a good time was had by all and afterwards we went to see a movie about Alaska and had dinner out at the Wild Berry Theatre. We also got up close and personal with a huge bald eagle.

Monday was a free day which started off with bkfst. in a bag done by our WM and TG's. Then Denny and I headed to Petco for supplies for Rudy and Costco for supplies for us! We stopped at a store called Red Apple that must have been in a Hispanice community as it was full of Mexicans. Dropping off our groceries, we headed off to visit the Alaska Native Heritage Center where we ran into several of our group. We watched some Alaskan teenagers demonstrate their games and looked at all the exhibits. The main thing were mini camps set out of the 5 tribes in the different regions of Alaska. All but one had subterranean houses. Tlinglit community had enormous cedar houses for the individual clans. I think I would have preferred that to living underground.

We hurried back to the RV to fix my chicken and dumplings for a potluck dinner we were having. I must say we have some great cooks in this group. Afterwards, we had short seminars on geocaching, Skype and a really neat talk from our Hawaiian coffee farmer. Phil had a short drivers meeting and we all retired to get ready to head our to Seward in the AM.