Sunday, May 26, 2013

Grand View - 5/26/2013

We had anticipated dumping the tanks after our overnight next to the burn barrel in the back lot at the Chevron station in Tok but the dump “hadn’t thawed yet.” That left us doing some quick calculating that resulted in a choice to BJ’s benefit.

A number of sections of the road today were very nice, but there was a nine mile stretch (according to the sign) that was in the running for being worse than yesterday. This picture doesn’t do it justice!

Along the way, my travel companion commented on a pile of black on the shoulder of the road as we passed. “I thought it was going to be bear poop but it’s just a chunk of tire.” Clearly, she’s acclimating.

An occasional roadhouse would appear well cared for. This one was open but wasn’t attracting much business.

The apparently well regarded café next door doesn’t open until sometime in June.

Other buildings along the road seemed to need more help.

The Copper River was flowing but there were still lots of blocks of ice that were hung up in the shallows.

Even the trucks are big in this state. This one was sitting at the station at the Glenallen intersection where gas was $4.42 a gallon.

It was a four bear day today – a sow and cub on one side of the road and two more cubs on the other side. We hoped for a picture but oncoming traffic (yes, there was traffic today!) scared them all into the woods before we could get a picture.

Home for the night is the Grand View RV Park & Café. They just opened for the season and they had full hook-up sites available with a Good Sam discount. We settled in and we’ll dump the tanks in the morning before we leave. Verizon 1x is available on site and they have Wi-Fi but we had to go to the café to get adequate signal strength for it.

The second reason we're here is that the café is supposed to have excellent wood-fired pizza and BJ has been suffering from pizza withdrawal. Is it polite to post a blog while eating pizza?

6 comments:

  1. It's polite if you share. Which you did. So we're good. :)

    Rock on!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks - that was my theory but it's always nice to have someone you trust confirm it!

      Delete
  2. Wait, I'm having problems processing this. At least one of you is a pizza lover. You were camped in downtown Tok, virtually at the door of Fast Eddie's and you didn't get a Pizza there? Simply unfathomable, words fail me, I am distraught. Thankfully, you are not members of my clan, as this serious lapse of judgment would of caused you to be banished from the kingdom, forever. Our daughter will gladly tell you that the only place for great pizza is Fast Eddie's. Unfortunately, it's about 4500 miles from our house, so we don't get there as often as we would like. Great trip so far, thanks for all the effort to share. Kerry

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I ate there a couple years ago when my son and I came through on a February trip and it wasn't memorable but very likely we didn't have pizza. Since we're going to be back to Tok at least once, I'll keep the recommendation in mind!

      Delete
  3. We camped at the Grand View in 2010. There is a nice little hiking trail behind it, and views of Sheep Mountain in front of it. The best part is the sign at the dump station: "If we catch you dumping without prepaying, you will be charged a fee of $100 and in addition you will receive double the poop back for being dishonest"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We walked the trail to some beautiful views! There was a sign at the dump that I found interesting, but I don't remember now what it said. Might have been the same one.

      Delete