From Haines to Anchorage, AK

Folks, I seem to have a problem... I am trying to be the objective reporter, writing a journal of mine and David's trip to Alaska, however I seem to come across as "not excited to be here", or "things are not going as well as I had planned". Now I guess I have to face the facts that no trip of this magnitude can possibly all go as planned, but since we have intentionally from the outset, made no plans, then I have to say that things are going exactly as not planned! As for excitement, if something excites me, I take a picture of it, so don't listen to my boring words, look at my photos! I review my photos over and over, but I only do a brief proof read of what I write, so all I can do is apologize for my 64 year old mind's inability to infuse excitement into my words and for the grammatical and spelling errors. Accuracy and hitting the highlights is my goal, and to add my goosebumps would only make this longer than it already is... The excitement is in making the trip at all, not in the day to day events! Talk actually became action, and that is the real exciting thing.

From Juneau, the tourist capital city of 31,000 folks, we ferried to Haines, AK about 80 nautical miles Northwest. It is a quaint small town. My highlight was visiting the American Bald Eagle Foundation. The live owl and the many displays were only part of my delight! When I was a young manager at Sears Southland Mall, in Memphis, I had a younger Memphis State University student working for me as a camera salesman. We went water skiing and canoeing together and had a bit of an accident with the canoe that caused Mike to fall in the water and get caught in a tree and finally pop up downstream after I was in a panic. He went on to become a PHD professor of marine biology at Auburn University in Alabama. Here in Alaska were a professor and three students from Auburn U that either knew him or had classes under him. I have not seen him in years and only had a few email contacts over the years! Now that is exciting to me, but I have no pictures to show my goosebumps... sorry...
Then the story goes south again, but I have to report the facts, the road from Haines into Canada for about 400 miles and then back into Alaska are the worst I have ever seen anywhere in my entire life. The reports I had from other campers is part of why I listened to David explain how the ferry over the Alaskan Marine Highway made sense. We were in a strong truck and got bounced all over the place. If we had done this from Washington with the fifth wheel, we may have destroyed the truck and trailer. The road was like ocean waves with deep pot holes and trenches in them. I was dodging things on both sides of the road. I had heard about the gravel and trucks throwing rocks and breaking windshields, but the gravel parts were the only smooth places in the entire road. We got stopped at the Canadian border and they found a few pieces of firewood in the back of the truck, and we had to turn around and take the firewood back to the US of A as it was not allowed into Canada. Once we got back into Alaska, the roads were no better for a long way. My guess, based on what the naturalist told us on the ferry, that they have only a bit of top soil on top of the rock which causes the trees to be short and have wide root systems rather than deep ones, is that they have no clay to pack before they put the asphalt down, so over time the roads become wavy and broken. Anyway, we finally after 6 hours of Canada, and back into Alaska, arrived in a small town called TOK. (Pronounced like toke, taken from the intitals of the founder.) The main business in Tok is either RV repair, or windshield fixing or replacenment. Most of the motels were booked full, but we found a really nice one and got a good nights sleep. The desk clerk was a young lady out of high school from St. George, in southern Utah who had always wanted to visit Alaska, and came here and Tok was the first town she came to, so got a job. She is saving money to go to go home to college while here... (a bit of the American dream?)
From Tok, the roads varied from good, to bad, to worse. They would be really great in places, and really bad in others, and in other places winding and steep up or down. We saw several glaciers which still facinate me as they are frozen rivers, often in places where there is no snow or ice otherwise. Anchorage is busy, with all the chain restaurants we did not see elsewhere in the state so far. Tonight we are in a beautiful suite on Elemdorph AFB connected with Fort Richardson for a bit less than a cheap room here would cost.
These are the facts, the road was bad, the food is good, and I am "excited" to be here! Good food and friends and family make me glad whereever I happen to be. (When you are a Heise, anyone you meet who will talk to you and better yet, listen to you, is a friend!)