July 20, 21 - Day 15 & 16

Hello - here we are again

Today is day 16 - four consecutive days of rain and fog and clouds -- this is getting depressing! To make matters worse, I apparently did something to my back. Probably sitting too much. Yesterday morning we left the campground we stayed at Monday night in Wasilla. Donny stopped and visited with an internet acquaintance, then we spent a couple of hours at the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry - another "Rusty Iron Heaven."

Once again, the skies were so cloudy and the fog so heavy I wasn't able to take hardly any pictures of mountains or scenery. Got one shot of the Alaska Range from Wasilla.

We attempted Hatcher Pass Road east of Willow after we left Wasilla, but the road was really rough. Our poor camper was protesting (Donny has named it "Gallopin' Gertie"), so we turned back to the Parks Highway and continued north.

We decided to go as far as Cantwell and find a place to camp on the Denali Highway. We settled in a nice spot near a small lake and went for a short walk between rain showers. Found a few more wild flowers and watched a Barrow's Goldeneye fishing for her ducklings. It got pretty cold - down in the 40's by morning. We were glad we were not tenting! It was nice to be able to turn on the heat once in a while to take the chill off. We keep hearing about the heat wave in NH - it's hard to imagine temps in the 90's.

This morning we got up, planning to head for Fairbanks, but I bent over just the wrong way, and all of a sudden could hardly move! I couldn't sit, stand or lie down comfortably, so we decided to return to the Cantwell RV park where we stayed on our way south a few days ago. I had to ride kneeling in one of the seats! Fortunately, it was only a few miles to the campground. We are staying here for the rest of the day and taking it easy. Tylenol helped ease the pain, and I can now stand and lie down - but still can't sit. We may be here for a couple of days. Good think we brought books, a TV, VCR/DVD player and a bunch of movies!

Later!

Cheryl & Donny