We arrived in Anchorage at the Fort Richardson Black Spruce RV Park around mid-morning.  My friend Ted Lynn from Louden County, Tennessee is the summer camp host (2nd summer he's come up from TN to do that, interesting retirement job!).  He was heading out to Homer for some fishing as we arrived but had made sure we have a spot for the week as the place is packed and there are people 'dry camping' on a waiting list.  He'll be back Friday night and we're not leaving for Homer until Sunday morning so we'll have some time to visit Saturday.

        This week is going to be a time for maintenance, restocking, repairs, etc. in addition to doing the tourist thing in Anchorage.  Driving over the Glenn Highway, we cracked 2 drawer slide brackets in the kitchen, and the flap for the cook top vent vibrated loose and was damaged - little things but things that need attention.  So, this afternoon we drove downtown to an RV parts house and I picked up the pieces I'll need to repair them.  I also started washing the RV though its a bit harder than when I washed it back in Skagway.  Tomorrow I'll buy some bug remover to treat the entire front end.  And we also visited the commissary for some needed grocery shopping.

        Oh, I also filled the MGB gas tank - $1.975 a gallon on Elmendorf Air Force Base!

Day 60 (Wednesday, 16 June):  Low 50's, Overcast and chilly.

        Nothing much today, just relaxing in the afternoon with a good book, Dan Brown's Angels and Demons for me, Randy Taraborrelli's Once Upon a Time for Jerri, the story of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier of Monaco.  Earlier this morning, I replaced several of our kitchen and bedroom drawer slide rear brackets that had cracked under the vibration of the roads over which we've traveled.  Plus, after breakfast, we took a trip downtown and toured some of the historic places in Anchorage, realizing that not much here predates the 1964 earthquake.  The log cabin with grass roof that serves as the city's visitor center was built, for example, in 1955 and is considered old. Then we dropped by a large mall so Jerri could visit a Nordstrom's department store for the first time since the 80's.

Day 61 (Thursday, 17 June):  60's, Morning Rain, Afternoon Overcast.

        Like yesterday, just a day for just relaxing.  However, while Jerri did laundry, I handled some RV maintenance.  I've been noticing that my 2 'house' batteries weren't holding their charge as long as they should.  They're both Interstate deep cell, marine batteries and should easily hold their charge for a week or more with only our propane refrigerator igniter drawing off them.  However, recently, they've gone into 'amber' or caution much too soon, especially since they're less than a year old.  So, I drove over to the service station on Elmendorf Air Force Base, an Interstate battery dealer, to have them test the batteries.  They removed them and found one was bad; so, they replaced both batteries - at no cost - since they were still under warranty (my relatively new engine battery is hooked up separately and is fine).  We'll see if that solves the problem since we're going to leave the RV closed up for a week while Shannon's here.  And while I had it on the road, I filled the RV gas tank for $1.979 a gallon.  What a relief!

        I also tackled the RV's nose, removing all the dead bugs and critters.  After I'd gotten it completely clean, I had to wax it as the cleaning process took it down to fiberglass.  I think the new, heavy coat of wax will help prevent 'bug build-up".

Day 62 (Friday, 18 June):  70's, Sunny.

        Thoughts while out and about in the Anchorage area today.

        Dahlia's, an old fashioned flower that's been around forever are everywhere in downtown Anchorage.  We spent the better part of the morning at the 2004 Summer Solstice Festival honoring the longest day of the year, June 20th.  Street vendors, artists, musicians on 3 separate stages - its a mini version of CityScapes in Birmingham or Panoply in Huntsville.  Jerri was enthralled with the flowers and landscaping in the three downtown parks where the festival was unfolding.  Every festival has its pre-eminent food: Renaissance Fairs have their turkey legs, the Summer Solstice Festival has grilled corn on the cob, huge ears!  One interesting thing about this festival:  2 stages and their vendors/artists were near one another in the middle of downtown Anchorage.  The third stage with its vendors/artists was a few blocks away on the southern edge of the city center.  The two stages close to one another were predominantly white or native Alaskan; the third stage off to itself was predominantly black with the majority of vendors of the Lewis Farrakhan faith, and Jerri and I were among the minority of Caucasian visitors at the various booths.  I never would've thought that would happen in Alaska of all places!  Me, I just had fun watching the people, normal or weird.

        A&W Root Beer.  Now I understand why A&W is going out of business in the Lower 48.  Those lousy plastic mugs that can't recreate the frosty mug taste of glass mugs.  Or even worse, they put the root beer in cups like you get when you walk into MacDonald's!  Remember, every A&W I found in Canada still uses glass mugs that turn into a thick frosty ice covered container when the root beer is poured into them.  I went by an A&W here thinking they might also still use glass mugs.  Nope!  And the plastic mugs are kept in cold water but don't ice up when the root beer is poured.  Plastic root beer mugs are sort of like plastic margarita glasses that can't hold rock salt around their rim no matter how wet you get them.  And those paper cups?  That's like putting iced tea in a paper cup.  Sacrilege!  TI think I need to write A&W corporate headquarters when I return home to tell them; but, you'd think the dummies would know that root beer tastes better in frosty mugs.  After all they sold us on "A&W Root Beer's got that frosty mug taste".

        Cars.  Lots of beautiful ones out and about today.  A '57 Corvette, a '63 split window Corvette, a 60's Datsun Fairlady, all three red.  Its amazing how closely the Fairlady resembles my '63 Midget!  A beautiful early white Porsche 911S Targa and a '60 white Chevrolet Impala convertible.  I suppose the ultimate car for me would be one of the early Porsche 911S Targa's, only in Guards Red!  But, as usual, our MGB continues to turn heads and get comments.  Mostly, young kids who've never seen one scream "neat car!" as we pass by or guys my age comment that they "had one" when or that "you rarely see them anymore".  As we came onto post today, the MP at the gate asked me, "What year is your MG, sir?"  And he was probably no more than 20 at best.  Most everyone with whom we speak is amazed that its our only car for the trip.  And they're even more amazed when they find out its 25 years old!

        Gas.  Its ranging from $1.979 to $1.989 all over town, down drastically from a week ago.  Wonder how low it'll go to stimulate the summer tourist season?  I still say we are being manipulated by the oil companies who would love to set the price of regular gas at or about the $2 mark.

Day 63 (Saturday, 19 June):  70's, Sunny.

        Not a cloud in the sky.

        We spent the day at the Saturday Farmers Market.  There were 200 or so vendors selling everything from lettuce to tomato plants to jewelry to souvenirs to all things Alaskana.  Food vendors were aplenty selling all kinds of food from fresh oysters on the half shell to Cajun food.  And entertainment was on every corner, from clowns and jugglers to semi- professional street musicians on stage to school aged kids who had set up shop with their flutes or violins or keyboards and were playing for change.  Clowns were making balloon characters, little kids were getting their faces painted, and people were just outside enjoying the day.  It was almost like a festival except it occurs each Saturday during the summer.  

        We bought some red leaf lettuce from a vendor who proclaimed it was "picked at 4am this morning", some little green onions, fresh radishes and white turnips.  The lettuce, onions and radishes were for dinner, the turnips I enjoyed as a snack while we walked, sweet ummm!  I even had a large glass of freshly squeezed lemonade afterward.  The local animal shelter was also there walking some of its offerings. One was a beautiful black and white 8-month old female Alaskan Malamute.  Just as friendly as she could be, registered but her owners lived in an apartment so they had to give her up for adoption.  They could've done the paperwork and I'd be on my way with her for a nominal adoption fee; however, I held fast realizing that Alabama really isn't the place for her (but down there she'd bring $1000 easily!). 

        When I gave the farmer my grandmother's recipe for wilted lettuce salad, he was amazed and declared he'd try it tonight when he gets home.  He'd never heard of it before!  Only in Alaska.  Most probably in the South, every grandmother had a recipe for wilted lettuce salad.

        Okay, okay.  Here's how we make wilted lettuce salad:

        1. Take a head of red leaf lettuce and shred it onto individual plates (a plate for everybody who's eating).  
        2. Cut up the little green onions and scatter over the lettuce (the whole onions, green part and all).
        3. Add lots of black pepper over the salad & salt to taste.
        4. Next fry some bacon, mainly to get the grease, it'll be the salad dressing.  You may want to add some
            additional peanut oil to the bacon grease if there are several of you eating!
        5. When the grease is so hot that it'll fry a tiny piece of lettuce you toss into it, its ready to be poured over the
            salad.
        6.  Careful, its HOT!  And you have to eat it while its hot otherwise its not good.
        7. I like to sprinkle some more fresh black pepper over the wilted salad before eating, but I really like pepper.
        8. And the bacon?  Its your meat for the meal.  To go with it, Jerri fried some cornbread "ho cakes".  You know, those thin round cornbread cakes that look like pancakes.

        The Summer Solstice Festival was still ongoing, and the Mayor's Midnight Sun marathon was also being run.  About 4,000 runners were entered in the marathon and, apparently, its a big deal as people were here from all over the country.  I saw one guy wearing his New York Marathon tee shirt, it was just like mine!  And there was one guy running who's goal is to run a marathon in every state, Alaska is his 23rd state.  Anchorage was hopping today!

        However, you know, were it not for the snow capped mountains to the east, we could've been in any large city anywhere in the country, Seattle, San Francisco, Birmingham.  Its been a while since I took any pictures, but what's to take photos of?  There's not much different from Anchorage than any other large US city?  Not other than the snow and mountains!

        We've been in Anchorage 5 days now.  Before that, we were only 40 miles away in Palmer for 2 days.  Its time to move on.  Tomorrow we leave for the Kenai Peninsula where we'll stay until Shannon arrives on July 3rd, 12 days from now.  When she gets here, we'll continue to explore the peninsula and the Seward area together.  After she leaves, we'll return here for a couple of days before setting out once again on our great adventure.