Ketchikan, Alaska

Good Bye Alaska (for now)!

We are spending our last stop in Alaska.

We took the ferry from Petersburg on Friday. The ferry was late arriving, late in getting to Wrangell (its one stop) and late in getting into Ketchikan. What was suppose to be an 9-hour trip turned into an 11-hour trip. Thus, it was dark getting into Ketchikan. Rather than drive 14 miles to the RV park in the dark on an island we knew nothing about, we decided to take advantage of Walmart's offer for us to spend the night in its parking lot (along with 3 other RVers who got off of the ferry).

But, let me tell a bit about this particular ferry trip. First of all, the weather was perfect (at least no rain). At the first part of the trip, the captain had to steer the ferry through the Wrangell Narrows, which at some places is only 300 feet across. There was a "spotter" at the bow of the ferry to watch for any unexpected obstacles.

The trip felt long, but the scenery was beautiful. The ferry made a brief stop at Wrangell before continuing on to Ketchikan. There were 174 people on the ferry. Here are some more of the pictures we took along the way, including one of the ferry coming into Wrangell and of the deep red sunset.

We arrived in Ketchikan at 8 p.m. and drove a couple of miles to Walmart. The next morning, we decided to drive into the town before going out to the RV park. We walked the streets, shopped, had mochas, saw the largest cruise ship we've seen so far (the "Island Princess") and bought something special for ourselves to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary this year.
We then drove to the Clover Pass Resort and Marina RV park. As we were in Homer, our coach faces directly into the marina. Right now it is Sunday (Sept. 13), and the skies are blue, the clouds are puffy and white, the water is deep blue, the trees across the water are thick and green, fisherman are coming and going, birds are sitting on the poles, there is a slight breeze, and the temperature is 60 degrees. An absolutely perfect way to spend our last days in Alaska.

On Tuesday, we take our last ferry trip out of Alaska and into British Columbia. For the next week we will be in Canada where we will turn off our cell phones again. Unless we get to an RV park with wi-fi, you'll have to wait a week before we update this blog.

Wishing everyone a great week ahead, and keep living the life you love.

Jerry and Mary