June 19th-23rd

Wednesday June 24th
We had Wifi for a few moments! It was a long driving day, we left Muncho Lake about 9:30am. Actually, we have many long travel days to get home by Sunday.

Tuesday June 23rd
We decided to stay another day at Muncho Lake and raft around. Lars blew up the rubber raft and attached the little trolling motor, so that we could motor around and see if there were any waterfalls and animals along the perimeter.

The birds swarmed our area…they liked the Cheetos that we dropped in the water for the fish.
The lake was used as landing strip for the lodge down the road from us! Pretty neat to watch the planes take-off and land.
Monday June 22nd
We were going to stay two nights at our current location, but since the weather was kind of cloudy and rain looked possible, we decided to pack it up and head further east, toward home. Well, we made it 20 miles, because when we got to Muncho (large in the Kaska Language) Lake it was beautiful…it’s normally known as a party place…not today, because it’s Monday. We were also discussing our driving options for getting home by Sunday.

Sunday June 21st
We continued on our next leg of the journey home. Our goal was 655 miles or 12+ hours on the road…trying to get to Summit Lake. The early morning road was rough…we could only hold 20mph, after many miles we got up to 40mph, and then finally up to our cruising speed of 60mph. By 4:00 in the afternoon we were a little more than ½ way and we started at 8:00am. We didn’t make it to Summit Lake today, but that’s ok, we’re on vacation. Our roadside camp spot was very relaxing; the Liard River provided the background sounds for the evening.

In one of the small (I mean really small) towns, we came a cross the Sign Post Forest.

Wow, between Watson Lake and Muncho Lake on the Alaskan Highway, it was like a wildlife safari from the comfort of your own RV. We saw brown, black and grizzly bears. Two of the black bear mommas had two cubs each. Oh, were they fun to watch…and so close to the edge of the road. We also saw herds of buffalo (also with babies), and a red fox too.

Dandelions taste good…

Saturday, June 20th
We are officially on our way home, the drive maybe long today (11-16 hours). Lars said it will take about a week to get home, better than the olden days when it took about 6 months. We were discussing where to stop and camp for the night, when we came across a large Grizzly bear munching away on roadside vegetation. We stopped the RV and watched for probably 20 minutes. That bear didn’t even acknowledge that cars were passing by or that there were a few spectators watching.

As much as the sun sets during this time of year.

Night picture of our roadside camping spot.

Friday, June 19th
Today we left Denali and headed for Fairbanks and North Pole (AK that is). The weather was not cooperating, rain showers off and on until evening. When we got to Fairbanks we had some decisions to make, go on the gold mine tour, ride the paddle boat on the Tanana River, or go to the Pump House Saloon (a national historical location, of course) for lunch. Due to the weather we chose the saloon…it was a good choice…the rhubarb and peach cobbler with fresh whipped cream…yummm.

After lunch we proceeded to the North Pole. Santa Land was interesting…street names like Rudolph way, Elf street, etc.

Look the mail truck really does deliver all those letters to Santa.

We drove a few more hours until we reached a quite camp spot next to the river. Lars commented that we didn’t see any animals today, and then a couple of minutes later, while we were sitting by the fire, out popped a female mouse from the woods. The moose galloped about 15-20ft away from us. That was fun…we kept looking but there were no more.

I think Thor might be finished with the RV grand tour…he has been riding under the sofa a lot.