Just drizzling rain

Today was just another day of drizzling rain - we would have periods of partly sunny skies but most of the day looked like this - plus the temperature never got above 52 degrees. A little chilly, but it all worked out. I don't know if you can see them or not, but all those white things in the water are ice bergs off the glacier.

We did the "deep" cleaning of the vaults today. Well, we worked out a system - while I swept the floors out Dan filled a bucket of water. Then he would go into the vault and clean the toilets while I filled the next bucket. He would come back out and get the newly filled bucket and I would go sweep the water out of the toilet. We worked this system out and it worked well. The big thing is we don't have to do this again for a month.

Dan's medicine came in today - we had ordered it about two weeks ago. I'm surprised that it got here so quickly - but that is a good thing. We can also order it again and it will be shipped to us in August (actually on Dan's birthday!). I don't know if I should do this or not because of the mailing address thing - if I order it now will they always ship to this address?? I really don't think I want to do that - so I will wait and see.

This is just another shot of the mountains - wanted you to see the cloud cover.

Dan is watching I Am Legend - once again, NOT my kind of movie - I don't like things that are scary and now the dog has been bitten by infected animals. I'm just a sucker for dogs and I can't take things like this - I know it is just a movie, but it still gets to me.

We really didn't do anything else today - Dan fixed chicken on the grill and we had a baked potato and a green salad for dinner (had left over chili for lunch). I'm not sure what we are going to do the rest of the week. We still have the mining museum to go to - maybe we'll do that this week.

Well, I think I'll sign off to tonight - hope you had a good day. Take care and ----------------

I'll talk to you tomorrow!!

Weather is better

Today the weather cleared up some - it was only partly cloudy with a few scattered showers - it only sprinkled here a couple of times, but most of the day was pretty. It was still pretty cool - I think the high today was 53 with a slight breeze- I haven't worn anything but long sleeve t-shirts and a flannel shirt or windbreaker since we have been here. Even when the sun is shining it still isn't hot - I think the highest temperature we have seen has been 73. I'm not complaining - I can always put on a sweatshirt if I need to - in fact, we read somewhere that the way to tell a "true" Alaskan is - they wear rubber boots (check), faded jeans (check) and a hooded sweatshirt (well, I have them, but I don't usually wear them - so I guess I'm not a "true" Alaskan)!

Today I did another load of laundry - made the chicken chili in the crock pot - we did a couple of rounds in the campground - although we don't have that many people in the campground - only 27 out of 69 spaces are taken. Tomorrow we will do our "heavy" cleaning. We won't do a "GI" on the bathrooms this week - just really hit them all with the Lysol and scrub free. It won't be that bad.

We also went down to Safeway to return the movies and we rented three more (at this rate, video rental is going to be our biggest expense LOL). I did NOT like the movie last night - too much blood and guts. Tonight we watched Leap Year with Amy Adams. It was really cute (even Dan said it was a cute movie). Not something that was intellectual but just entertaining. We also rented I Am Legend with Will Smith and The Time Traveler's Wife (can you guess who rented what?) Dan also wants to rent Sherlock Holmes - I guess that will be next. I'll keep you informed.

On the way home from Safeway we decided to drive down Montana Creek Road which turns off the road that the campground is located on and the road dead ends into the creek- this is it. It was really a pretty little creek and Dan thinks there would be some good fishing in it, but I don't think he will be doing any fishing here - it is just too expensive. He is now talking about taking one of the fishing charters that the cruise people take - you don't have to worry about fishing licenses (they handle all that ) and they provide the boat and everything. So, we'll see how that goes.

I also got all the paperwork done that I have to turn in at the end of every week. I also got our daily expense report caught up to date. That is about all I did today - not real busy. Not sure what we have planned for next week, but I am sure we will figure something out and you will be the first to know. For now, I think I'll sign off. Oh, before I do, the first picture tonight was taken out at The Shrine of St. Theresa last week. Just thought you guys would like to see a picture of Dan.

Hope your weekend was a productive one. Take care and ---------------------

I'll talk to you tomorrow!!!

Another Rainy Day in Juneau

Well, today was pretty much like yesterday - rain, rain, rain. All the locals are telling us "Welcome to Juneau weather!" They say that this is typical weather in Juneau - I really don't mind the rain - in fact I like rain - I don't like the cold and wind - the temperature right now is 48 degrees and the high tomorrow is suppose to be around 56 (with more rain). I know, I just can't be happy right? Well, I'm really not complaining - I do like the rain - and I have a rain coat to put on and sweaters to wear - so I'm fine. The pups aren't too happy - Jessie does not like rain or cold - she is so funny when she has to go out to potty - she just shivers and shivers! I think I'm going to pull her sweater out and see if she like it.

The campground is pretty empty - we probably have about 25 campers out of 69 spaces - and some of the spaces that have tents on them - you don't see any people or cars - don't know if they have gone home and will come back later and get their stuff or what, but as long as the space is paid for we just leave it.

This morning Mark (the ranger that hired us) gave me a big surprise - two tickets for a Whale Watching tour!!!!! Yep, it's a promotion for a hockey league and he gave us two tickets - I don't know if he had to pay for them or what but I am very happy!!!! It is for the June 27th and it lasts about four hours. I will certainly be looking forward to that and I'll be sure to take as many pictures as I can!

We have already done our rounds for tonight and Dan has just finished his shower - we are going to watch the last of our three movies Inglorious Bastards - another Dan pick. I'm not sure if I'm going to like it, but he sat through Last Chance Harry last night (which wasn't all that good, but don't tell him I said so) so I'll sit through his movie. I might even fix him some popcorn!

We also did my hair today - it was about time since we hadn't done it since leaving Georgia, so it was time. Other than that - it was pretty much another day to just stay inside and read. I didn't fix chili today - I fixed stir-fry instead. Chili tomorrow night fixed in the crock pot. I did a couple of loads of laundry (towels and jeans) while we sat in our chairs and read - Dan worked on Sudoku puzzles. That's about it.

Well, I think I have bored you enough for one day - I hope your weekend is going well and you are warm and dry where ever you are. Take care and -------------------

I'll talk to you tomorrow!!!

Really, Really Short and Sweet

It is raining and I don't know how long I'll have Internet service - took me about 15 minutes just to get on. Anyway, we have done our rounds for tonight - going to go in and crawl up in the bed and watch a movie (thanks Melissa and Justin for the Christmas present!) Last Chance Harry. This was my choice - we watched Avatar last night and it was much better than I thought it would be.

All is quiet in the campground - we still have some campers, but not nearly as many as last Friday night. We checked the bathrooms this morning before the rain really started and then came home and just sorta snuggled in - Dan went out a couple of times to answer questions but we didn't even have that many people coming in to the park.

I cheated tonight and Dan went up to Fred Myers and got some chicken and potato wedges for dinner - I had taken out chicken but it didn't thaw out. Tomorrow night we will have chicken chili for dinner - I think it will be good on a nice cool evening with the rain - oh, BTW the high today was 53 before it started to drop it is now 46 at 8:00.

Well, I'm not going to push my luck - I'm going to sign off for tonight - I hope that you are warm and dry where ever you are. Take care and have a great weekend!!

Talk to you tomorrow!!!

Very Short and Sweet

The rain has moved in - it is suppose to rain starting today through Monday - right through the weekend - we'll see how that affects that number of people who decide to camp.

Today was pretty much a do nothing day - we did make a couple of rounds in the campground - checked the bathrooms and restocked the toilet paper and made sure they were clean - actually had to "GI" one of the bathrooms on the Auto Loop - someone had stepped in dog poo and tracked it into the bathroom! Oh well, it could have been worse!

This afternoon we went in to one of the thrift stores in town just to look around - didn't buy anything except two books for me for ten cents each - I have plenty of reading material now - I have two books on my Nook (one I am reading now - J.D. Robb - and then I have the Laura Bush book to read). I also have 9 paperbacks that I have picked up in second hand bookstores on the trip - while we were in Canada my Nook didn't work and so I picked up a lot of books to keep me busy - I think that I have plenty to read now and won't be buying anymore for a while!

When we got home I was able to go online and do some more research for jobs for next summer - there isn't much I can find in Vermont, but I am looking in other areas of the Northeast and we'll see what we can find. I did apply for one with the National Parks Service where we would be Visitor Center Hosts - should be interesting. I found one I would have loved to have done - it was as an interpretative host in the Ford Theater in Washington DC - you could dress in period costume if you wanted - but there was no housing (RV spot) provided - so that just wouldn't work out - it sure would have been fun though!!!

Tonight I fixed beef and bean burritos and Santa Fe Rice for dinner - cleaned up the kitchen - did our evening rounds and now we are going to watch a movie (we picked up three today to watch since the weather is suppose to be bad all weekend) so I'm going to sign off for tonight. I hope that you are having a good week and ---------

I'll talk to you tomorrow (if I can get on line)!

A little bit of trouble

The pictures on the blog tonight I took yesterday when we were on North Douglas Island - this is a shot of the glacier looking across the Channel - it gives you a little better perspective of just how large the glacier really is - and how much territory it actually covers. Anyway, I thought you might like to see another look at it.

This is the point on the end of the island - from what we understand it is a very big fishing area and there were some people there when we were there. I didn't see anyone catch anything, but that doesn't mean that they weren't catching fish. I just thought it was a beautiful spot.

Now, let's get the the reason for the title of this blog. Everything had been going very well here in the campground until today - the day started out well. Dan and I sat outside and had our coffee and he fixed his world famous (just kidding) "Dan McMuffins". Some of the campers came up and we were talking about what they had done yesterday and about the road into Tok (you remember - that absolutely horrible road!) and just stuff like that - when, another couple came up and told us that we had some drunks in the campground that were scaring and harassing people. Well, Dan got in the truck and told me to call Law Enforcement (either Dan or Mike). Well, I try to reach them and they aren't answering their cells. Now, I don't know if I should call the Juneau Police Department or what and I'm a little worried about Dan going down there by himself because you never know what drunks are going to do. Anyway, to make a long story a little shorter - Dan came back and said that he had things calmed down and everything was okay. We decided to do our rounds and while we were at the first bathhouse one of the people that were at the "problem" site comes up to me complaining that people were racist and wanted us to do something about it - well, I just told him to go back to his camp spot and leave other people alone. Law Enforcement showed up a little while later (they weren't on duty) and told us that if they gave us any further trouble just to call JPD and have them evicted from the campground. Fun, fun, fun!

After all that we decided that we needed a little break - so we went into town to check on maybe getting a different Internet service while we are here since things are so "iffy" with the service. We have a hard line here at the site, but the service is not turned on. We thought that if we had the phone turned on that we would be able to Internet on it - WRONG! We would have to buy another air card and pay another $50.00 a month. Also, since we didn't want to sign a 2 year contract we had to buy the air card for $100.00 on top of the $50.00 a month - that would have been $250 for three months PLUS having to pay for the Verizon card. We decided that that was just too much money -and I could deal with the getting knocked off and being frustrated. (I can take a lot of frustration for $250!).

We came back home and I started the laundry and straightened up the house. Did two loads and washed my ACIS shoes - while cooking dinner last night I dropped the tongs on my foot and got spaghetti sauce all other the top of my shoe - well, guess what - it doesn't come out. Anyway - at least my shoes are clean except for the little bit of light red that stained the material on the top of the right shoe - I can live with that. Tomorrow I'll do the towels and then we will be all caught up again.

Not much else happened today - tonight all is calm in the campground (let's hope it stays that way!) I hope that your Wednesday went well and remember it's "hump" day and everything else is all down hill. Oh, I rode my bike around the campground again tonight - it's just going to take riding it everyday to get back into shape. I'm determined!!!!

Well, I thought I would leave you with these beautiful flowers that were in someones yard over on Douglas Island - I think they are poppies, but I am not sure - I'm sure someone out there can set me straight! You guys take care - enjoy the pictures and ------------------

I'll talk to you tomorrow!

North Douglas Island

After we did our rounds this morning and checked on all the bathrooms (had to make sure they all had toilet paper in them and were still clean) we decided to drive over to North Douglas Island and have a look around. It was a nice drive - but I don't think it was as pretty as "the end of the road" was. We did stop and take a few pictures. This is one of the ferries that was headed up to either Skagway or Haines.

Then we decided to take a side road that said "Eagleton Ski Area" - it was a much prettier drive with Fish Creek crossing back and forth under the road - it was a beautiful creek and I'm sure that later in the season there will be salmon running up it and bear along it. We drove back to the end of this road which ended at the Ski area that they are now using with zip lines (have to get the tourist dollars while they can). There were some of the cruise boat passengers lining up getting ready to go off into the woods where the zip line was set up. That is one thing that I have always thought would be fun to do - but I would rather do one in the Amazon or somewhere that you are really high in the trees. I don't know - I just don't think of a zip line in Alaska.

Anyway, on our way back down to the main road we stopped by Fish Creek again and there were these woodpeckers - they are not as big as the ones we have back home but they were certainly pretty.

After we left Douglas Island we stopped at Fred Myers just to look around - this store is really pretty amazing - it is sorta a combination of Fresh Market and Kohl's and Bass Outdoor all in one. It is a huge store and I think everyone shops at "Fred's". The parking lot is always full and they seem to have all the bargains - Seriously, they have everything from groceries to furniture to books to tents and guns to clothes and shoes and jewelry (even a bridal shop). It is quite an adventure just to walk through the store. We did buy me a new seat for my bike (yep, we bought the bike today for $50.00) - this seat has gel in it and it is much more comfy for my little bottom. (I even rode it down to tell a camper that the site they had been wanting opened up today and they are going to move down to it).

We came home and I cooked dinner -spaghetti, salad and garlic bread. Turned out pretty good. Dan has already had his shower and is reading the paper that we picked up at "Freddy's" and I'm ready to go take mine. I hope that your day was as nice as ours. Take care and -----------

I'll talk to you tomorrow!!!!