Monday, July 15, 2013

Monday, July 15, 2013

Since I lasted posted over a week ago there has been a lot happening.   We were able to get back into our house on Monday morning, 7/8/15.  The house and yard is totally untouched and looks like nothing happened.  I have posted a couple pictures of the fire to show you how close it was.  We still can't believe that our house is perfect.  Even our view is good although we can see the black boulders on the mountain behind our house.  We did lose the food in our refrigerators and freezers as the power was off for about 6 days.  Our main refrigerator is not working like it should so we are in discussion with our insurance company about that.

Now back to last Sunday.  We did not make it to the worship service as we had planned.  Wayne ended up on a call and I ended up on an lunch/ice run to the ICP.  We were able to eat our meals (except breakfast) at the ICP until they closed down on Thursday.  The meals were great and they give you enough food for a least 3 people at each meal.  It was really nice for us as we did not have to worry about groceries.  We did have some food in the camper but not that much.  On Sunday afternoon Yarnell Fire and Peeples Valley Fire lined our engines up along the side of Highway 89 as the procession went by of the bodies of the 19 firefighters. The power company lined up 19 bucket trucks with flags along the main highway through town for the procession to go under.  This was very hard to see and there were many tears.  All last week there have been other fire departments from all over the state sending crews here to cover our calls.  It was great as it gave us all the time we needed to grieve and get ready for the new normal that is now Yarnell.

We did not go to the memorial in Prescott on Tuesday.  There were only 6 tickets available for the department and there were certainly more deserving people than us.  There were many members of our crew that did know some of the 19 and they were able to go.  I spent the day cleaning out my refrigerator and crying while Wayne spent the day at the department and driving around the devastation handing out water, etc.  We have learned that we deal with tragedies such as this in very different ways.  It has taken some time but we are both now ready to move forward and do what needs to be done.  The community has pulled together in unbelievable ways.  The Red Cross and Salvation Army were here all last week and this week there are several church organizations that have moved in with heavy equipment, volunteers, etc.  They are helping mainly the uninsured and underinsured clean up the debris, etc.  The latest numbers I have seen are that about 30% of the population were uninsured.  Red Cross is still here and is handing out meals, etc.

There is a memorial that has been put up for the 19 firefighters and we spent some time there this past weekend.  On Sunday I was there for about 3 hours and it was amazing to me that there was a steady line of people coming through.  I received many "thank you for what you do" and lots of hugs.  Many of the people coming through were firefighters and first responders.  Many of these big guys were reduced to tears and I found that many of them were feeling the same things that I was feeling so it was very helpful to me and I hope to them.  On Wednesday I was at a different memorial and was just talking to one of the federal people about the town and how we were feeling.  He gave me some really good insight on taking care of yourself.  When I asked him what his real job was he told me he was a New York City firefighter so that made me feel better also.

Today was the first day that Yarnell Fire did not have other departments around for support.  As it turned out Wayne and I were the only volunteers on duty with our assistant chief and captain.  We had a call this afternoon that lighting had struck a power line so we spent some time there waiting for the power company.  Shortly after that the captain and I went on a public assist to place some sandbags for a lady.  One of the things I have learned this past week is that when there is a fire of this magnitude and heat the ground  becomes hydrophobic.  This means that it will no longer let water soak in so the water runs down the hills in sheets and brings all the ash with it.  The flood danger in Yarnell is now extremely high and we did have a big storm this afternoon (.61 inches) and it came down fast.  We checked out the creek below our house this evening and it is full of black sludge.

We still have barricades up on the streets to get into our neighborhood but the helicopters have stopped flying over.  I don't believe that our quiet little town will ever be the same and this is really sad.  They are predicting more storms over the next couple of days so it could get a little scary.  Our house is high enough above the creek that we are not concerned about flooding but there are many homes that sit very close to the creek and they are in danger.   On a happy note, last night while Wayne was grilling hamburgers for dinner we looked over and there were 3 deer across the fence eating grass.  We also had a couple turkey vulgers roosting in one of the trees very close to the house (they have never been that close before).

We are doing well and have a pretty good grip on our emotions.  At Sunday's worship service we presented the colors with a couple other firefighters which was something I have never done before.  A woman here has written a song about the fire called "Blazing Heroes".  She sang the song Sunday and it is beautiful - if I knew how to send you to it I would.

This has gotten a little long but will close now and post some pictures of what we have seen in the last week.  The pictures I have posted show just a very small part of the destruction.  There will be a home in perfect condition setting on a street where every other home is destroyed. It almost looks like the fire picked and chose which houses to destroy.  Every day I am a little more confident that Yarnell will survive but it will be a long path.
  


Procession on Sunday - APS had 19 trucks with flags across the street

Fire on 6/30 about 1/2 mile from our house

Fire from our backyard

Some of the devastation

House destroyed but a flag at half-mast erected

Dumpsters brought in by the county for debris

More devastation

Black sludge in the creek below our house

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Well, it is has been quite an interesting few days since I last posted.  We did arrive in Rolla on Sunday (a day earlier than we had planned) and it was great to see my family.

However, as many of you know, Sunday afternoon we received notice that we had to evacuate our house in Yarnell as there was a wild land fire very close.  Luckily Eric (my youngest son), his wife Amy and their good friends Tiffany and Ryland were in Flagstaff and were able to go by the house and get what they could and drive our car down to Phoenix.  From the pictures they sent me we were almost certain that we would not have a house in Yarnell to return to.  On Monday afternoon we found out that we did indeed still have a house and decided at that time we needed to get back as we knew there would be much that needed to be done as there were many homes destroyed.  We left Rolla on Thursday, 7/4 and arrived in Yarnell yesterday around 4 p.m.  We were stuck in Amarillo for a full day as the oil cooler and egr valve on the truck decided to go out.  The dealership (Tri-State Ford) was very helpful and put an extra person on the job so they could get it done and got us back on the road by about 6 p.m.

Since we volunteer on the Yarnell Fire Department we were able to get past the roadblock (with a phone call from one of our captains) but were only allowed to go to the fire station.  We have not been allowed to go into our house as the evacuation is still in effect and probably will be until Tuesday or Wednesday.  At the present time we are staying in our camper at the fire station which is actually not a bad thing.  We can shower and use the restroom in the station and were able to plug into their electricity so we have lights, etc.  Also, since we are with the department we were allowed to go to the ICP (Incident Command Post) last night.  What an amazing thing this is; it is like a small town was built in a day to handle anything that could come up.  We ate at the cafeteria there and the food was okay (actually pretty good considering where they are and what they are trying to do).  I believe that we will be able to eat there until they close up and call the fire totally contained - last I heard last night was I believe 90%.  We also have food with us in the camper so are set for a while.

We were taken on a tour of our house and some of the surrounding areas.  It is the craziest thing, our house and the neighborhood around us is perfectly intact.  The trees are green and it looks like nothing happened.  However, within a quarter mile of our house there are homes that have been completely destroyed.  The devastation we have seen is overwhelming.  We have not been allowed to take pictures as they are trying very hard to protect the privacy of the people whose homes have been destroyed.  There is a church service today at 10:30 that we are going to try to attend and the caravan of the 19 fire fighters bodies will be coming through town around 1 p.m. this afternoon on the way to Prescott so we will be here for that. 

This is going to be a very long, hard road for Yarnell to come back and I don't think it will ever be the same.

I will try to update the blog regularly to get you all up to date.

June 28th and 29th

We have just been driving on our way to Missouri and will be in Missouri tomorrow.  Last night we stayed in a city campground in South Sioux City, NE and it was great.  Our spot was close to the Missouri River so we had a great view.  Only problem was the campers next to us were having what must have been a fun party from the noise they were making.  You would have thought they could have at least invited us!!!  Anyway we got to see our first sunset in quite a while (I took a picture).

Today we drove through a really hard rain storm with lots of wind.  When we stopped for the night we discovered a leak through the air conditioner so it appears that there may be more damage than we originally thought.  The good news is that the air conditioner still works and Wayne climbed up on top and put tape over the leak.  He thinks the front end of the air conditioner just got pushed up a bit.
That is it for now.  More once we are in Missouri.

A view of South Dakota

Our campsite last night

Our first sunset in 6 weeks!

We are back in the USA!!  We are now in Grand Forks, ND and are very glad to be back in the USA.  It is so nice to have secure internet and phone service.  Crossing the border today was not without drama.  The border agent decided she would like to look in the back of the camper as I had told her we bought some tomatoes and potatoes (we think - don't really know why she wanted to have it checked).  Anyway she instructed us to go to door #3 and wait for someone to open it.  We did and after a few minutes an agent opened the door and waved us to come in.  About halfway in we heard a terrible scrapping noise and the agent was screaming at us to stop ( which we had already done).  Turns out he had not opened the door all the way (we know from our fire training that you also open any door all the way) and it got our TV antenna on the top of the camper.  It was completely ripped off ; luckily it was at the front of the camper because we got stopped and there was only a dent on the air conditioner which was next in line.  They had us get out of the truck and go into the "waiting room" which we did and watched through the windows as they took pictures; looked on top of the camper and talked to each other.  Finally, the agent who did not open the door completely came in and asked Wayne to write down what he thought happened.  After a little while longer they asked us to come out and gave us paperwork to file a claim with "Homeland Security" and recommended that we also contact our insurance company.  They did let us check the top of the camper and take any pictures we wanted.  They then gave us our passports and all the other paperwork back and told us to have a great day - never did check out my produce!!  Wayne did figure out a way to hook up the antenna so we can get a couple channels if cable is not available.  Looks like the camper will be in the shop for a bit after we get home.

Other than that it was a good day.  We went to a Texas Roadhouse here for dinner which was great.  Here are a couple pictures.

Our view as were driving today

The damaged door at Customs

Where the TV antenna used to be

The camper under the door

Tuesday and Wednesday, June 25 & 26

 

Yesterday and today we have been driving through Saskatchewan and Manitoba.  Tonight we are staying at the Minnedosa Beach Campground in Minnedosa, Manitoba.  We noticed quite a difference between SK and MB.  SK is all flat, plains and farmland while MB is hilly with lots of trees.  Today we took an off road trip to see the Inglis Elevators.  I will post a picture when I have internet.  This is the only row of original grain elevators that still remains and is still being used.  They were pretty neat and we learned that Manitoba is the barley capital of the world.  Our little trip ended up putting us on gravel roads for about 30 miles and then took us through a national park (which was pretty nice).  South central Canada is having some major flooding problems and we saw lots of evidence of that today.  There is water everywhere along the road.  You will see a fence and all of a sudden it is underwater for a ways and then reappears.  We saw lots of closed roads and one highway that had actually caved in.  We have been missing most of the rain and all of the roads we have been on have been in good shape.

Saskatchewan

Manitoba

Inglis Elevators

Enjoying a campfire on our last night in Canada

Lake Minnedosa - we camped by this lake

Tomorrow we should cross into the USA and hope to stay in Grand Forks, ND tomorrow night.  We checked with the campground host and he says we should have no problems with the weather or the roads tomorrow.  We are enjoying some cool weather, the high today here is 23 (Celsius which is about 75 F).  It seems weird to hear the high is 23 and the low will be 17!!

We spent today in Edmonton, Alberta.  We tried to find a place to get the tires rotated on the truck but did not have any luck.  We spent most of the day at the West Edmonton Mall.  This is one amazing mall.  It is supposed to be the largest mall complex in the world and I would believe that.  There is an amusement park, water world, casino, bingo hall, zip line, sea life adventure, casino in addition to something like 800 stores and many restaurants.  What a fun way to spend a day with your family.  I took a couple pictures and will post them.

That was pretty much our day.  Tomorrow we plan to drive to Saskatoon and if things go according to plan we should be back in the lower 48 sometime on Thursday.  I did learn how to download pictures from my phone today - and how to zoom in when I am taking pictures with it!!!  I will have to try that out tomorrow.

Water park inside the mall

Amusement Park inside the mall

Today is Sunday and we find ourselves in Edmonton, AB, CA  We had a long day of driving and the roads were not as good as we had hoped.  A lot of them had 4 lanes but were very bumpy so it was a little slower than we had hoped.  We did drive through some pretty country.  Lots of fields, cattle, etc.  We are staying at a campground outside of Edmonton and it is wall-to-wall campers, trailers, etc.  We do have internet, TV and all services so it is not too bad.  The largest mall in the world is supposed to be in Edmonton (West Edmonton Mall).  Our plan for tomorrow is to go check it out.  We are set to stay here for 2 nights and will then decide where to go for here.  We were planning on going through Winnipeg but are now thinking we will go south sooner and go through Regina instead.  Nice to have some flexibility.

Yes, I did forget to mention the cinnamon rolls.  We did find the place and the roll was very good - didn't have white frosting on it but it was very good.  Not nearly as good as what we get at the Yarnell Bakery - they may have to change their sign!  Also, while we are on food we did have sourdough bread pudding in Whitehorse, YK that was great.  The Ranch House has great bread pudding and the Whitehorse version was very close to theirs (of course we only had to drive a few thousand miles to get there).

Not many pictures from today but I will post one or two.

Really big beaver along the side of the road

Our view for most of the day

This is actually yesterday's blog (Saturday, June 22) I am doing this morning.  For some reason last night I couldn't get the internet up but this morning it came right up.  We drove from Toad River to Fort St. John yesterday.  The roads continue to be much better, however, we are getting into more traffic.  We are so used to being the only vehicle on the road it is a little strange to see other vehicles.  We saw bears yesterday - we saw a momma and two cubs playing.  They were so cute one of them was trying to climb up a tree and kept falling off.  Wayne tried to take a picture but we were too far away and the pictures didn't turn out so well.  We also saw lots of mountain sheep with babies, a porcupine and another moose.  We are staying at a Rotarian RV park and it is pretty nice.  It is gated from 10 p.m. till 7 a.m. and you can't get in or out during those hours.  We went to a pub last night for dinner and they were, of course, watching the Stanley Cup.  Wayne and I were having a hard time just figuring out who was playing.  I have been keeping track of the Diamondbacks through the internet and they are doing great.  We are missing some really good games.

Today we will finish backtracking and start traveling down some new roads.  When we came we came up through south Alberta (which we heard yesterday is having some flooding and the highway we were on was closed).  We are going back through Winnipeg so we now start going east instead of south.  Our goal today is to get to Edmonton, Alberta (more north).  Alberta doesn't have the gas tax that BC has so our fuel will be a little cheaper.  We are excited to see some new territory.
I will have to post pictures tomorrow as they don't seem to be working today. 

Our view while we were driving

Mountain Sheep and baby

Porcupine

Today we drove from Teslin to Toad River.  We are now in British Columbia and have left the Yukon.  The RV park we are staying at tonight is really nice.  We are looking at a pond (I know our campsites have had a water theme lately) and it is pretty nice.  We looked all day for moose and did not see any, however, as we were backing the camper into our spot I looked at the pond and there was a moose (with antlers) eating grass from the pond.  He hung around for about 20 minutes than left for a while and came back with a friend for another 30 minutes or so.  Amazing.  We did see lots of wildlife today - a bear, lots of bison, lots of mountain sheep and of course the moose.  We have a ways to go on this particular road so are hoping to see more wildlife tomorrow.  We also have not gone by the place with the world famous cinnamon rolls - tomorrow.

While we were going through Whitehorse yesterday we stopped at Wal-Mart for some essentials and found a mosquito tent for $55.  We put it up tonight when we got to our site and it works great.  It is big enough to fit over the picnic table and there are no bugs.  It was in the sun and was pretty hot so we opted for the air-conditioned camper for a while.  We again drove through some really nasty road construction today.  You cannot even tell what color the camper is but we have decided it is a wasted effort to clean it until we are out of the bad roads.

Just wanted to say Happy Birthday to Nick - hope you are having a great day.

We will head south again tomorrow - don't know where we will end up.

Horses that were beside the road today

Baby Bison

The moose in the pond behind our camper

Another picture of the moose

Our room addition

June 20, 2013

We drove from Destruction Bay to Teslin Lake today.  These are the same roads that we were on when we were going into Alaska.  Although the look is a little different (since we are going the opposite direction) a lot of it is the same.  There is not near as much snow on the mountains or ice on the lakes as there was on the way in.  I guess we have been so overwhelmed by Alaska as the scenery that we thought was amazing on the way in is now just beautiful.  Our campsite tonight is on Teslin Lake and it is beautiful – I took a picture from inside the camper and will post it when I have internet again.  We did have some rain today; however, not enough to clean off the camper.  We went through some really nasty road construction yesterday and you can tell.  The roads today were much better and the speed limit went up to 100 (kilometers); the roads should continue to get better as we go south.  It is amazing to me that there is very little traffic on the Alaska Highway.  We do see lots of trailers/campers going the opposite direction so guess they were right about June and July being the busy season.  A couple things about Canada – everywhere you go you see signs that say they have the best cinnamon rolls (we plan to try some tomorrow just for research purposes).  Also, when you are in Canada and order ice tea it will be sweet tea – most places do not even have unsweet tea.

Well, that is it for today.  Not sure how far we will get tomorrow.  We saw lots of wildlife on the road we will be on tomorrow when we came in – hope it will be the same tomorrow.

Our view today as we were driving

The view from the camper

I took this from inside the camper this morning

 

June 18, 2013  (We have had no internet for a couple days)

We are spending tonight at the Cottonwood RV Park on Kluene Lake which is the biggest lake in the Yukon.  It was sad to say goodbye to Alaska but we both think that someday we will return.  We had tried to stay at this campground on our way out, however, the lake was still frozen and it was closed.  The owner told us that they were not able to open until June 4^th which was really late for them.  It has been just over 3 weeks since we went through here and what a difference there is.  The mountains that were all covered with snow are now green and the lake that was frozen is now beautiful.  Since we are now back in a “foreign” country we do not have phone service only text.

Not sure if I mentioned it but last night we went to a concert for a group called “Alaskan Sweetgrass”.  It was a brother (who played the guitar and banjo) and his sister (who played the violin/fiddle).  They were excellent and we picked up lots of information from them about Tok; the most interesting being that they have no tax (except federal), no laws, no zoning and no law officials.  There are 3 state troopers that cover Tok but they also cover an area about the size of Connecticut.  It was a great way to spend an hour.

 

We both think that the roads are worse now than they were when we went the other direction.  There also seems to be more road construction, which makes sense since they can only work on the roads from May – September.  Hopefully, the roads from  here on will only get better.  Not sure where we will stop tomorrow, somewhere south of Whitehorse is all I know.  I will have to post pictures later as this internet is very slow.

The view on our drive today

Kluane Lake, our view from the camper

Another view from the camper

Tonight we are back in Tok at the same campground we stayed at on the way out.  It is great and so far there are not any mosquitoes!!!!  This morning when we closed up the trailer to leave we were swarmed by mosquitoes.  We had long sleeves, long pants, and our head nets so the only part of our skin out was our hands.  It was crazy how many there were on our hands.  We spent today just driving and the roads were bad.  Lots of rough road and gravel and road construction and the wind was blowing very hard which made the driving even worse.  We had thought about going further today but after the weather and the roads we just decided to stop here.  We have a new game to play - kill the mosquito- and Wayne just got one in the camper.  Probably left over from last night.

We will cross the border tomorrow as it is only about 90 miles from here.  We have enjoyed Alaska so much and this is a trip we will never forget.  We still have a long way to go to get back home and are looking forward to what we will see on the way back.  Just took a couple pictures today - I will post one of them.

Mount Sanford - 16,370 ft.  Beautiful

June 17, 2013

Today started off on a little bit of a downer.  We got to the RV place to get the faucet replaced and discovered that they had been sent the wrong faucet and it would not work in the camper.  So we still have a leaky faucet and won’t be able to get it fixed until we get back to Phoenix.  However, after that it turned into a wonderful day.  Most of the roads that we were on today were narrow, no shoulder or guard rails and steep drop-offs.  Wayne did a much better job of driving that I did riding!!!  We stopped at the Matanuska Glacier which was about halfway on our trip so was a good place to have lunch.  It is a glacier that you can actually walk on and we did.  The road to get to the glacier was very bumpy and gravel but well worth the trip and the $15 each it cost us to get in.  Walking on a glacier is the most amazing thing.  It looks like gravel and snow and then you will see a spot that is crystal clear blue ice and you realize that you are walking on a huge piece of ice.  We walked in about a half-mile on the glacier, jumped over a couple streams of very cold water and spent a delightful couple of hours there.  I am now a lover of glaciers – they are just the greatest thing.

We got back on the road and saw some incredible scenery.  Alaska is an amazing place and the scenery is too magnificent for words.  We are spending tonight at a campground called Tolsona Wilderness Campground and it is appropriately named.  There is a creek right behind our site that is beautiful and it is relaxing to hear the water.  The mosquitoes are very bad – people told us today that this is one of the worst years they can remember for mosquitoes – also for the warm weather they are having.  We have no internet or phone service here so I will post this tomorrow when we have access.  Tomorrow will be our last full day in Alaska as we will cross into Canada the first thing on Wednesday morning.  No phone calls till we reach the lower 48!!

 

Matanuska Glacier

Us standing on the glacier

A closer view of the glacier



Our campground that we shared with the mosquitoes

The creek behind our campsite

 

We have now officially started the trek back.  Last night we did stay in a national forest campground.  There were no hookups and it was in the middle of the forest.  We got there, found a spot and walked over to register.  We then started a fire and we were ready to enjoy the outdoors when the mosquitoes came - we decided they won and we went in the camper and watched a movie.  It was pretty looking out through the windows!!!  Tonight we are in Wasilla just hanging out until we can get the faucet fixed tomorrow.  While we were sitting outside two vans pulled up filled with kids.  We found out that they are from Miami, Florida and are on a trek to Alaska for 3 weeks.  I think these kids are 5th to 7th graders.

Hopefully we will get the faucet fixed first thing in the morning and will get a good start.  There is a glacier not far from here that you can drive or hike to (I'm not sure which) so we are going to try to do that and then stay somewhere close by tomorrow night.  Right now it looks like we will be leaving Alaska by the end of the week :<(  It has been great.

Our campsite last night

Our campsite tonight

The ocean when we left yesterday

We have spent the last couple days just relaxing.  We have spent time on the beach and walking around Homer but mostly just being lazy.  We did clean the camper and do laundry but that is about it.  We are starting the trip back today.  We plan to take our time and make sure we didn't miss anything on the way out!!  We are planning to stay at a state campground (something we haven't done yet) tonight somewhere between here and Wasilla.  We have to be in Wasilla on Monday to get the faucet replaced.  Anyway, we are doing great.  I will post a couple pictures of the beach - it has been a little foggy the last couple of days, however, it is beautiful today.

The foggy beach

Me cleaning a seashell

Today we decided to drive to Ninilchik Village and an old Russian Orthodox Church we heard was there.  Ninilchik is only about 35 miles from here so we decided it would be a nice drive - it was.  Unfortunately, the church was closed so we could not see the inside, however, there was an old Russian cemetery there and it was really interesting to walk around and read the gravestones.  It is like a little bit of history.  On the way back we also stopped at another Russian village Nikolvask.  It was about 10 miles off the road but there was also another Orthodox church there.  We have noticed that the crosses at both churches and the cemetery have 3 cross bars with the bottom one tilted.  I am going to have to do some research and figure that one out.

We went up in elevation when we went for our drive and when we came back we looked out at the ocean and it looked like a heated swimming pool on a cold morning - all steamy.  It was the craziest thing - looked like a huge hot tub!  As we went down in elevation the fog got thicker but stayed mainly over the water.  It is now 7:20 and the fog is gone and the sun is out.  We took a couple pictures that I will post.

That was about it for our day.  We did go out for dinner at the Cosmic Kitchen and the food was great - expensive as all restaurants here seem to be.  I just don't understand how come halibut fish and chips is so expensive when this is the halibut capital - you would think it would be cheap since they can catch it out the back door.  Anyway, here are some pictures from today.

The Russian Cemetery
 

The first Russian Orthodox Church

The second Russian Orthodox Church

Fog over the ocean

Another picture of the fog