Out on a Road Trip

We are heading out on a road trip around this great state.  No internet access and barely any cell reception ~ which is just fine with me.

Have a great week ahead ~ see you later!

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Momma Bear & Baby Cub

 

 

These photos were taking in June 2004. They were emailed to me by a friend who's family lives in Ruby and took these photos.  But I am not really certain where these photos were taken.

Posted here for Aunt Rhonda ~ she likes all things bears!

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Friday Quiz ~ Bee's Knees

So what does bee's knees mean?

In the 18th century a bee’s knee was used as a synonym for smallness and by the early 20^th century America Bee’s knees began to be become a popular saying.  Initially, it was just a nonsense expression that denoted something that didn't have any meaningful existence - the kind of thing that a naive apprentice would be sent to the stores to ask for, like a 'sky-hook' or 'striped paint'.

By the 1920s it was fashionable to use nonsense terms to denote excellence - 'the snake's hips', 'the kipper's knickers', 'the cat's pajamas/whiskers', 'the monkey's eyebrows' and so on. Of these, the bee's knees and the cat's whiskers are the only ones to have stood the test of time.

In the 1920’s there was also something called a Flapper Dictionary.  If featured sayings like:

Kluck - dumb person

Dumb kluck - worse than a kluck

Pollywoppus - meaningless stuff

Fly-paper - a guy who sticks around

Flatwheeler - A young man who takes a young lady to an egg harbor

Egg Harbor - A fall dance

Oilcan -  Imposter

Pillowcase  - Young man who is full of feathers

Feathers - Small talk

and lastly on my list...

Cake-Eater - A wearer of tight clothes, belted coat with spear like lapels and one button, sausage trousers, low quick fitting collar, greenish pink shirt; and one of those jazzbo ties that gives you the giggles.

It is fun to compare these terms to the pop culture words of the 21^st century.

What do you or your kids say that could be added to a dictionary for the language of the era?

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Barrow Alaska Ice Cam

This mornings view from atop the ASRC building in downtown Barrow, Alaska. The camera is looking approximately NNW.

The camera takes a new photo every five minuets. Check out that webcam video of an ice shove that occurred on Feb. 17-18, 2011.  You can see the Northern Light light the sky.

Click HERE for the web site.

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Wiggle

No matter the age the wiggles will remain.  We bounce our knee and we wiggle our hips to a good beat.  Old tunes bring it all back to the surface.  An adventure from our youth remembered and fun stories retold.

Whatever you do today, carry with you a song in your heart and wiggle to the beat.

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Field Day ~ Ames Iowa

Field Day today in Ames Iowa, in fact it is about dinner time and right about now they are setting up some of best BBQ in Central Iowa. Bett & Bev's BBQ Jefferson Iowa!

Field Day is a big day for our family ~ in fact the Wink Brothers would have all been there this year in person, showing off and demonstrating the Zurn Plot Combine.  We all know that Dad is there too, hanging out among the crowd smiling and laughing, giving our hearts courage.

Have a GREAT day at Field Day ~ we Alaskans are with you too!

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Great Photo

 A friend of mine took this photo along the Parks Highway this past fall.  

It's a great shot and needed to be shared!

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Summer

Summer has arrived and the long night of day shines in our eyes till the wee hours of the morning. Tomorrow is a day of recognition to the fathers in our lives.   Grandfathers who have seen it all, fathers who are learning to let go and sons who will be fathers someday.

No matter your status within the family, father, mother, brother, sister or just an aunty, enjoy a day of sunshine.

My wish for you ~ that it is a good day to go flying!

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Alaska 101

Check out this cool website ~ Alaska 101 ~ so far I have found it to be rather accurate, informative and has get stories about the villages and surrounding areas.

Alaska 101 ~ click HERE for their website!

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Cordova

Welcome to Cordova ~ Alaska Hidden Treasure!

Click HERE to go to their web site!

Historically, this region is said to have been Alutiiq, a type of coastal Yupik Eskimo, along with the Eyak, who speak a language somewhat similar to the coastal Tlingit Indians.

The Eyak people of Cordova traditionally facilitated transactions between the Chugach people of the coast and the Athabascan people of the Interior. 

There were at least 8 Native villages in Prince William Sound when Captain Cook arrived in 1778, looking for the Northwest Passage.

In 1790, Salvador Fidalgo, a Spaniard, explored the area. He named both Cordova and the Bay of Valdez.

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Prince William Sound

There are many spectacular glaciers in Prince William Sound, each one formed by numerous years of snow accumulation. In the Sound, we see a variety of different glaciers. The Alpine Glaciers (also know as mountain and cirque glaciers) can be seen high up on the slopes and plateaus of the towering mountains lining Prince William Sound. When these alpine glaciers start to overflow, they become Valley Glaciers.

A Piedmont Glacier will be formed when one or more glaciers merge into a fan-shaped ice mass at the foot of a mountain range. As the piedmont glaciers retreat, they often leave a terminal moriane behind marking the furthest distance the glacier advanced, before retreating. As the glacier continues to melt, the run off water might be trapped by the terminal moraine and eventually a lake will be created from the melting water.

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Happy Anniversary

Just a little trip interruption to wish my dear a Happy Anniversary!

It seems like just yesterday and it seems like we have been together always!

Here's to more always and forevers!

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Valdez

The City was founded just prior to the turn of the 20th century as a gateway to the “All-American Route” to interior gold and copper fields. Incorporated since 1901, the community’s first hundred years have been marked by a number of significant events the most notable of which are the 1964 Alaska Earthquake, being chosen as the terminus of the trans-Alaska Pipeline and the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. 

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Worthington Glacier

Worthington Glacier State Recreation Site is located in spectacular Thompson Pass, 28 miles north of Valdez on the Richardson Highway. Worthington Glacier is a popular stop along the Richardson Highway and allows people to view a glacier.

Like most of Alaska’s glaciers, this valley glacier has been steadily retreating for the last 150 years, but not as dramatically as many others. The upper basin sits at 5,500 feet and collects about 28 feet of snow each year. 
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Thompson Pass

Summer in Alaska is beautiful as the snow packs are melting and the ice is thawing creating massive waterfalls which highlight the highway scenery. Thompson Pass where this waterfall rages, is approximately 27 miles northeast of Valdez, Alaska and during the winter months, the snowfall averages about 550 inches. This leaves plenty of snow to create the summer scenery of waterfalls where the Richardson Highway climbs to a height of 2,678 feet.

At Thompson Pass, the scenery looks out over the valley below and the true Alaskan wilderness.

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Chitina

Rich in history, Chitina is nestled at the edge of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, surrounded by spectacular mountains and roaring rivers.

 

Chitina began in the early 1900's as supply town for the Kennicott Mine and Copper River Northwestern Railway. When copper prices began to decline, Chitina became a ghost town.  

Chitina is located on the edge of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the largest, most pristine of our National Parks.  History comes to life as you travel back in time to the boom days of copper mining and gold rushes.  Spend a few days in the Alaska you have envisioned.  You will find the area accessible but not yet over developed.  Alaskans sharing Alaska and making your visit a memorable experience that you will cherish for years. 

Chitina sprang up with a boom from 1908 to 1915. It once boasted that it had the finest accommodations north of Seattle...Breedman’s Hotel Chitina.  It was a transportation “hub” connecting the Kennicott copper mine with Seattle smelters via train from Kennicott to Cordova; then barge to Seattle.  It also connected to Fairbanks via road.  The railroad arrived in 1910 and Chitina thrived until 1938 when the railroad pulled out. It quickly became a ghost town, and eventually even had ‘ghosts’ painted on several of the abandoned buildings. Work is currently underway to have Chitina declared a historical district.  It is a treasure trove of old buildings, cars, and stories. 

Chitina is at the confluence of the Copper and Chitina Rivers.  It is a hot spot for Alaskan dip-net fishing for the world re-known Copper River Red Salmon.  It is also the gateway to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park  which contains five of the ten largest peaks on the North American Continent.  The pavement ends at Chitina and the road into the park is gravel and a slow drive; so many choose to overnight in Chitina.

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Copper Center

Copper Center developed where the Valdez Glacier trail reached the Copper River. Andrew Holman was its first resident, establishing a temporary roadhouse near the site in July 1898 to provide shelter for prospectors on their way to the Klondike. He initially erected two tents: one served as Hotel Holman and the other as a makeshift post office. By winter 1899, Holman had replaced his tents with a substantial cabin. Leaving Dick Worthman to run the roadhouse, Holman pioneered the first mail route from Valdez to Eagle.

During the height of the Klondike stampede prospectors set up tent camps along both the Copper and Klutina rivers, but the first cabins were built on a site one half mile west of the Copper. Another camp sprang up at what was called Copper Ferry, where a ferry crossed the river. The area got a boost as a goldfield service center in June 1898, when B. F. Millard brushed a trail from there to the mouth of the Slana River via the foothills of Mt. Drum.

The east bank site of Old Copper Center apparently was settled in 1901 1902 by prospectors intent on investigating mineral prospects on that side of the river. Its days as a mining center were short lived, but it did draw a Native population and existed for many years as a village.

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Matanuska Glacier

Adventure is available at Matanuska Glacier, which is most easily accessible through Glacier Park Resort, Mile 102 of the Glenn Highway east of Palmer. 

The lower end of the glacier, about three miles wide, is relatively flat and easily clambered upon. It's a good place to examine glacier-borne rocks and to peer down into crevices and imagine the decades and physical forces that went into the glacier's creation.

Perhaps part of the attraction of Matanuska Glacier is being present as this cold creature, born in the Chugach Mountains, visibly dissolves into a new form: the Matanuska River, running full-bore to the sea.

The glacier is about 27 miles long, descending from the distant Mount Marcus Baker, 13,176 feet high.

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Hatcher Pass

HATCHER PASS IS HISTORIC GOLD COUNTRY.
In 1906, Robert L. Hatcher staked and filed the first hard rock gold claim opening one of the richest chapters in Alaska mining history lasting until 1953 when Independence Mine was finally closed.

In the late 1970's, the Independence Mine State Historical Park was established, where today, guides lead walking tours among its romantic old buildings. The Hatcher Pass Lodge is situated on a ten acre private inholding within the 761 acre park and is under original ownership since Federal Patent Application in 1963.

Denali Park

The word "Denali" means "the high one" in the native Athabaskan language and refers to the mountain itself.

We will have several opportunities to see the mountain along the road trip south on the Parks Highway.  We will stop in the park, drive back into Savage River for a look around.  We will walk a bit along Riley Creek and drive down the road to the Perch for a bit of lunch.  They serve up a mean halibut taco!

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Usibelli Coal Mine ~ Healy Alaska

Mining began in Healy in the early 1900s in an area known as Suntrana. An abundance of naturally exposed outcroppings of coal seams is highly visible and resulted in the Alaskan pioneers tunneling directly into the coal seams to secure fuel for steam driven riverboats and the railroad. Underground mining operations began to prosper in the Suntrana area. Many of these historic mine sites are located in the Healy Creek Valley.

Click HERE for their web site and more history.

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Nenana ~ Mears Memorial Bridge

Nenana is in the western-most portion of Tanana Athabascan Indian territory. It was first known as Tortella, an interpretation of the Indian word "Toghotthele" (TOG-uh-TEE-lee), which means "mountain that parallels the river." Early explorers such as Allen, Harper and Bates first entered the Tanana Valley in 1875 and 1885. However, the Tanana people were accustomed to contact with Europeans, due to trading journeys to the Village of Tanana, where Russians bartered Western goods for furs.

The discovery of gold in Fairbanks in 1902 brought intense activity to the region. A trading post/roadhouse was constructed by Jim Duke in 1903 to supply river travelers and trade with Indians. St. Mark's Episcopal mission and school was built a short distance upriver in 1905. Native children from other communities, such as Minto, attended school in Nenana. A post office opened in 1908. In 1915, construction of the Alaska Railroad doubled Nenana's population. The community incorporated as a city in 1921.

The Railroad Depot was completed in 1923, when President Warren Harding drove the golden spike at the north end of the 700-foot-long (210 m) Mears Memorial Bridge over the Tanana River. Nenana now had a transportation link to Fairbanks and Seward. According to local records, 5,000 residents lived in Nenana during this time. However, completion of the railroad was followed by an economic slump. The population in 1930 was recorded at 291.

Information above from Wikipedia 

Check out the Alaska Railroad web site as we will see the railroad several times along the road to Anchorage.  One of my first real paying jobs was working for the Alaska Railroad as a hostess on-board the passenger trains.  I thought trains were just the best, then I discovered airplanes!
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Getting Started with Fairbanks

Fairbanks is an interesting town with a golden past.  In 1902 gold was discovered in this far part of the wilderness and they are still mining gold in the area today. 

Check out this web link for a bit of gold rush history in the area.  Click HERE!

One of our favorite places to eat and sample local brewed beer is Silver Gulch Brewery ~ America's most northern brewery.  Click HERE to view their web site.

We will walk downtown and visit Golden Heart Park and spend an afternoon at the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Click HERE for the museum web site.
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Let's Road Trip Together

In just a few short weeks time from now we will have family visiting from central New York.  We are planning a road trip around Alaska that includes a ferry ride into Cordova.  We will tour as much as we can from the road system around this great state and we will see a bit of the state from the air when we take Pumpkin Girl out for a tour of Interior Alaska.

We will spend a day and a half touring all the sights Fairbanks has to offer and then head south on the George Parks Highway that leads to Anchorage.  Along this counter clockwise route around Alaska we will stop and see some old familiar sights and a few places we have as yet to see.  

Over the next few days I will be planning the trip and sharing with you some of the highlights.

Are you ready to see Alaska?  Get set, go!

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