September

 We spent some time one Saturday setting Son#1's plow.  The alfalfa was pretty tall, but the plow made it through.  We think we have it set pretty close to where we want it and it was doing a pretty good job.

We started harvest mid-September.  The corn is drying down very slowly, so we've only picked a couple of fields.  The beans are mostly dry, but with a lot of green stems yet.  It makes for slow harvest, but we are making good progress on them.  After the first full day of corn harvest, we parked the equipment and I snapped this picture.

I was doing some cleanup around the buildings and spraying some weeds one day when I stepped into an old calf hut.  My dad had built two pull together calf huts shortly after he got married and painted them white.  On the inside back wall of one of them he painted a love note for my mom.  I knew it was there, but forgot about it.  Barely visible, it was a good reminder of their long marriage ( 71&1/2 years) and their enduring love.

D#1 will turn 40 in a couple of months, and Bob turned 40 already.  They decided to throw themselves a birthday party out at Firefly Woods.  They called it an over/under party.  It was a beautiful evening, and since we weren't too busy in the field yet, we were able to spend the evening with them.  People came from miles around to attend.  The pasture and trails were mowed, so I was able to do a little exploring before it got dark.  It was a fun time and all the kids seemed to enjoy it as well as the adults.

Nephew Neil , wife Kim, and family built a new pizza parlor from scratch in Mahomet.  They imported a brick pizza oven from Italy and make their dough fresh.  We were invited to the soft opening on a Saturday night and drove down to try out the pizza.  Great pizza, great atmosphere, and a really nice building with indoor and outdoor spaces!  But it sure looks like a lot of work to this old farmer!  We hope we can get back and try some of their other food.  Congrats and best wishes to them.

And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering baken in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.                                                                 Leviticus 2:4

Sylvania

  On the day home from Alaska, I feverishly paid all bills that had backed up, and tried to catch up on everything else.  Then the next day, I left on another vacation.  Son#1, Son-in-law#2, three grandsons, and myself headed North to Sylvania Wilderness for a canoe camping and fishing trip.  I had never been there before, so I was excited for the experience.  Sylvania is a scaled down version of the BWCA, only in the U.P.  We arrived up north in the evening and spent the night in a motel.  In the morning we stopped at the outfitters and picked up paddles and life vests.  The canoes were already at the entry point.  The route to our campsite (Ermine 1) on Mountain Lake had only one portage, so we made good time arriving around noon.  After lunch, we finished setting up camp for our three night stay.  It sprinkled on us off and on most of the time we were there, but we had rain gear so it didn't disrupt us too much.  It was cool, but we still had some nice weather at times.  The fishermen we met on our way in said fishing was poor, so we didn't try too hard.

 

Isaac loaned us his bug tent (along with a lot of other gear), so we spent a lot of time in it when it was drizzling or buggy. I expected a mosquito problem, but they really didn't bother us much.

The boys enjoyed playing around and with the campfire.  They were able to go swimming one warm, sunny afternoon, and they spent a lot of time catching and playing with frogs.

We spent some time exploring in the woods, exploring a nearby island, and hiking across a nearby portage.  We found a patch of wild raspberries that the boys picked.  There was a pair of swans on Mountain Lake, and a loon family that swam by every morning and evening. Over the four days that we were here, I saw more loons than I ever did in the BWCA.  We were able to watch a nice sunset one evening when it was clear.

 

It was sprinkling on us the morning we packed up and broke camp.  It rained on us as we paddled all the way out.  We wore them out, but I think the boys enjoyed the trip.  We stopped back at the outfitters and returned our gear, and bought souvenirs for the boys.  Then we headed home with a van full of wet and dirty gear.  We had a good trip home, and I think the boys would like to go back again next year.  Maybe next time the fishing and weather will cooperate a little better.

And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.             Exodus 16:10

    

Alaska 2

 As often happens, we left on vacation just ahead of the sweet corn being ready.  Our trip lasted three weeks, so even though I planted several varieties over several planting dates, we missed the season.  Our children, family, and friends got to take advantage of our fresh sweet corn.  Our kids and grand-kids all got in on the action of picking, shucking, processing, freezing, and eating while we were gone.  The day we got back home, I scoured the patch and found enough residual ears that were not yet too hard so that I got to eat five ears!  But then there were none.  Fortunately, Tom's patch was later than ours and he graciously allowed me to pick some of his corn.  So, I did get to eat my fill of fresh, local sweet corn for several days.

We met up with my siblings and their spouses, and our tour guide at our hotel in downtown Fairbanks. A couple of us went out to eat at Big Daddy's BBQ restaurant that evening, and did a little walking tour in the downtown plaza area.  In the morning we joined the whole tour group and loaded the tour bus for the first leg of the tour.  We stopped to see the pipeline, and stopped at the Cultural and Visitors Center.

We had a wide range of food during our tour, including at a crepe place in Fairbanks, Thai food from a food truck in Denali, the dining car on the train, a food vendor at a street market in Anchorage, and Lodge food. 

 We did some sightseeing and shopping on our way to Denali National Park, including a stop at the Santa Claus House in North Pole, Alaska.  We spent two nights at a lodge in Denali and took a park tour, did some hiking, souvenir shopping, and had some educational programs.  It was cloudy and rainy, so we didn't get to see the mountain again. We hopped on the Alaskan Railroad and took the scenic trip to Talkeetna in an observation car.  The scenery was beautiful on this portion of the trip.  We saw more than what you can see from the highway.

     

We spent a night in Anchorage, and visited the Ulu factory.  We walked to the river and watched people salmon fishing and did some shopping.  We also stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.  We didn't see as much wildlife as we would have liked, but over the course of our travels, we did see some.  Some in the wild, and some at the conservation center.

Our first view of wildlife!

On our way to Whittier, we drove through a  2 1/2 mile long tunnel that was one way and also had railroad tracks down the middle of the road. Each half hour they switched directions to drive though it.  We waited about twenty minutes before we could enter.  In Whittier, we boarded our cruise ship, the Holland American "Noordam".  We had never been on a cruise before, so it was all new to us.  We had a very nice stateroom, and enjoyed all the good food they serve.  The employees were mostly foreigners, and very attentive and friendly.  We got to know some of them on a first name basis.  

We stopped in Glacier Bay National Park, Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan as we cruised the Inside Passage.  At Glacier Bay, the boat stopped in front of several glaciers and there were Park Ranger led programs on the decks.  At each stop, I tried to do some hiking and exploring around town.  In Skagway, three of us rented e-bikes and did a four hour, twenty mile sightseeing trip to Dyea, the Chilkoot Trail trailhead, the Gold Rush Cemetery, and Reid Falls.  I also checked out the Gold Rush National Park visitors center, and the Chilkoot Trail headquarters.  We did a short hike on the Chilkoot, and I hope to backpack it some day 😉.    In Juneau we took a bus tour around town and then to Mendenhall Glacier where we hiked to Nugget Falls.  At Ketchikan we hiked the Salmon Trail, walked down Creek Street, and saw some Totem poles.

  

While on the ship, we spent a lot of time outside on the decks looking for wildlife.  We saw several whales on several different days, but none very close up.  We saw a grizzly bear and her cub on a distant beach through binoculars, but not close enough for a good picture.  We also saw otters and sea lions.

The ship also had educational programs, travelogues, singing entertainment, and a couple comedians.  Most of the time while traveling the Inside Passage there were snow capped mountains in view.  Sometimes we were looking at fog shrouded mountains, and other times the sun setting behind them.  There was always something beautiful to look at. 

 

We docked in Vancouver harbor on a Sunday morning and disembarked.  We were bussed through downtown and out to the airport.  We went through customs, and then had lunch in the airport and visited until our flight back to Chicago boarded.  We had a good flight to Chicago, took the tram and found our car in the long term parking lot, and drove safely home. God blessed us with a safe, enjoyable, and special trip.  I'm ready to go back.  

"Once you've been to Alaska, you never come all the way back." 

For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:                       Psalm 7:19

Alaska 1

When my grandmother was in grade school, she learned about and dreamed of going to Alaska some day.  In Grandma and Grandpa's retirement years, my aunt took them on a trip/tour of Alaska.  Ever since they went, I had the desire to travel there also.  Back in 1982 when I was young and single, I planned a trip to Alaska.  Max, Doug. and I drove my pickup (with camper on it) up the Alaskan Highway for the trip of a lifetime.  We were gone six weeks.  After that amazing trip, I knew I wanted to go back some day.

Life intervened.  

Last year, my sister suggested a sibling trip to Alaska.  Since I no longer am raising hogs, I decided that now was the time to go back.  I planned a 12 day cruise/tour for the sibling group.  But if we were going all the way to Alaska, I wanted to spend more time than 12 days.  The others couldn't.  So the wife and I decided (actually I decided for her) to go a full week early and rent a camper and travel around independently first.  There were a couple things that I didn't get to see 42 years ago plus some things I wanted to do again.  So, in mid July we headed up to O'hare Airport.  We flew Chicago to Seattle to Fairbanks.

Our second flight was delayed, so we didn't get into Fairbanks until 1:00 in the morning.  It was still light out!  It doesn't get completely dark up there in mid summer.

Fairbanks Airport at 1:30 in the morning.

  Kathy's cousin and wife, Jim and Kitty picked us up at our motel in the morning and gave us a tour of the town.  We had an early lunch with them, and then they took us to the camper rental place.  We rented a 4 wheel drive pickup with camper because we were planning on traveling on some remote gravel roads.

We headed Southeast out of Fairbanks on the Richardson Highway.  We drove through the Alaska Range and into the Wrangell Mountains.  In much of Alaska you can boon-dock; camp in pullouts, rest areas, parking lots, viewpoints, etc.  Our camper was self contained, so we only stayed in campgrounds about half the time.  Mostly when we wanted showers and laundry.  We drove 1600 miles in the week and saw amazing scenery, lots of mountains, glaciers, and historical remote Alaska.  Sometimes we would drive for hours without passing anyone, or finding gas or food.  And we ate at some very interesting restaurants, and met some nice people.  Ernesto had already closed for the day when we got there (8:00), but he said he would feed us anyway.  Great food!

We had reindeer dogs at Chitina Grubstake.

We got to eat fresh Halibut on the Homer Spit.

I had never been to McCarthy/Kennicott in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park before, so that area was a favorite.  There is a 60 mile gravel road that you have to travel on to get there, which took us 2 1/2 hours to drive.  Much of the road is actually the old railroad bed that led to the mines, and you can still see rails occasionally, and you need to watch for spikes!  At the end of the road is a gravel parking lot and a primitive campground.  To get into town ( where cars are not allowed) you park and walk across a pedestrian bridge over the Kennicott River.  Then you can walk or catch the one erratic shuttle that is available into town.  The scenery in the Park is beautiful, but I especially wanted to tour the old towns, the copper mine, and hike to and out onto the Root Glacier.  After a half hour hike to the glacier, I was able to spend about an hour hiking on the glacier using crampons borrowed from Jake.

  

We left Wrangell-St. Elias and headed Southeast.  We spent most of a day on the Glen Highway.  We were treated with beautiful views of the Chugach Mountains as we headed for Palmer.

We camped at a city campground in Palmer and took our first showers.  In the morning I emptied the black and gray water tanks, and then filled the fresh water tank.  We headed through Anchorage, along the Turnagain Arm, and into the Kenai Peninsula on the Seward and Sterling Highways. We camped on the Homer spit, a long strip of land that juts out into the bay.  Homer is known for its Halibut fishing and views of the Aleutian Range.  We ate fresh Halibut that evening. 

We left Homer in a fog and retraced our path back towards Anchorage.  We stopped at an old Russian Orthodox Church that had a wild flower cemetery and beautiful mountain views across the bay.  

As we headed North from Anchorage on the Parks Highway, the weather was clear and beautiful.  Around Willow we first saw Mt. Denali.  Usually covered with clouds, we saw it in the clear for two days straight from three angles!  We felt very fortunate!

 

We camped at a Denali State Park viewpoint, and then drove into Denali National Park.  We stopped at the visitors center, did some hiking and sightseeing, and had a picnic lunch.  We stopped in the village of Nenana, which had a neat little ice cream shop, then we continued North back to Fairbanks.

  We had a day to spend around Fairbanks, so we visited the pipeline, took the Discovery Riverboat tour, and visited Gold Dredge No. 8.  On the riverboat tour, we stopped and had a sled dog demonstration at Susan Butcher's kennel, watched a float plane take off and land, and visited a recreated native village.

At our campground in Fairbanks, we had showers again, and we did laundry.  We found the UPS store and shipped a suitcase full of souvenirs home. We also washed the pickup camper so we could turn it in clean.

We cleaned out the camper, emptied the black and gray water, filled the gas and LP tanks, and turned the truck back in at noon the last day.  Jim and Kitty picked us up (along with our luggage) and we went out to eat for lunch.  We had a great 2 1/2 hour visit with them, then they took us to our Fairbanks Hotel for the start of the tour/cruise part of our vacation.  We were thankful and blessed by our first week.

Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; 

thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and beast.           Psalm 36:6