Great Alaskan Holidays Archives - Big Guy Tiny Trailer

New Interests

New interests has been the theme of this sixth year of our retirement and at this stage in our life, it is exciting to be doing something new. When I first retired, how to fill the time was a concern. Fortunately, camping and our sweet girl, Sophie, kept us mostly busy and engaged. However, it is nice to have a couple of new interests.

Biking

Biking is one of our new interests and I have to give my husband credit for making it a thing for us. It’s an obsession for him and I was more of a reluctant participant. He has been wanting an ebike for a year or so, but I was always cool on the idea. But, we finally pulled the trigger and bought a couple of Rad Rover 6 bikes.

It was a big deal to figure out how to transport these heavy bikes when camping, but we discovered that they transport quite well on the front of our truck. See Hauling Bikes Camping With Lance 2075 for details on how we carry them. Once we had an easy way to haul them, we have taken them everywhere.

New interests, one is in biking — Riding the Santos Trail in Ocala

Kayaking

I wasn’t sure that kayaking was something I could do because of a bad shoulder. So, we never gave it a try until a camping trip with a favorite group at Silver Springs State Park. They made it look like so much fun that we had to try it. I loved it and my husband was the one who was not so enthusiastic. He seems to be coming around though and I think a purchase of a couple of kayaks is in our future.

Family

The most important time that we spent this year was with our family. I am happy to say that our children are doing well and we have a close relationship with them.

Our son and daughter-in-law live in another state, but we were able to visit them a couple of times in 2022. They are doing well and have just bought a beautiful condo. We enjoyed their company for several days.

Our oldest daughter lives near us and we are able to see her and her husband more often. She hosted us for Christmas this year and really made it special. She is so sweet and always works hard to make birthdays and holidays nice for us. We really enjoyed seeing them and the grandkids.

Our youngest daughter and her husband live nearby as well, so we are able to see them frequently. They took great care of our pup when we were in Alaska for a couple of weeks. We always have fun with them.

Long Winter Trip

We were fortunate to be able to spend several weeks in Florida during the winter and it was an amazing trip. Topsail State Park, near Destin, was our home for two weeks. The weather was nice and the sea air was good for my underlying lung condition. Our pup loved it too!

Port Saint Joe was our second stop and it was a wonderful week . Our friends from Michigan were also there, so that made it a lot of fun.

Our last stop, was Gamble Rogers State Park. It was a wonderful week that included meeting our friends and having a few days on a beautiful site with an ocean view. We were there for Valentines Day and our friends hosted us for a delicious steak dinner. A day trip to St Augustine and another to Ravine Gardens State Park kept us entertained.

Not a new interest, camping — Gamble Rogers State Park

New States

Our summer included a trip to New England. That trip added six new states to our effort to camp in all fifty. We camped in Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. While in Maine, we had lobster on multiple occasions. It was fabulous! If interested in reading about this trip see New England Camping.

A favorite in Newport, Rhode Island was Cliff Walk. It is a gorgeous trail by the sea with enormous old-money mansions on the other side. So beautiful!

Vermont was a standout because of the many quaint covered bridges. Really, each of the states we visited was special in its own way. I hope we get to come back to the area again.

Alaska

Our trip to Alaska included a rental camper and a train trip to Denali National Park. The weather was great, but a little cool on some of the days. We were camping right on the water at Resurrection Bay in the photo below.

Homer Alaska was another beautiful spot and the shot below was taken from the beach below our campground. It felt other worldly with very large rocks on the shore.

Our rental camper was from Great Alaskan Holidays. They were a pleasure to deal with and the camper was a current year model that was in great shape. We highly recommend this company.

One of our new interests is Alaskan Travel — Rental camper for our 10 days in the Kenai Peninsula

A highlight of our trip was seeing the Aialik Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park. The glacier was calving while we were there, meaning big chunks were falling off. If interested in more details about our Alaskan adventure, see Alaska Camping in a Rental RV.

Aialik Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park one of our new interests — Aialik Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park

Other Camping

We made it to three camping events with Southeastern T@Bs, T@Gs and Friends. It is a great group and we have known many of its members for several years. They are a lot of fun and they allow us to hang around even though we are in a bigger camper now.

Lastly, there was one short solo trip to Tupelo, Mississippi and Tombigbee State Park. It was a nice campground and Tupelo is a nice city. Elvis tributes are everywhere.

Downtown Tupelo, one of many guitars — One of many guitars in Tupelo

Dance and the Vikings

Dancing is not one of our new interests. In fact, we have been dancing for more than ten years. When in town, we still dance with our Viking Dance Club. There were two Viking-sponsored lead outs this year and we were happy to be able to attend both.

Dancing is not one of the new interests — Tuxedo Junction Lead Out

In Conclusion

It was an incredible year for us and we were so blessed to be able to have lived it. At this stage of our life, we are trying to live life to its fullest. Our new interests give us something to look forward to that will be a bit of a challenge. However, we will have to stay as healthy as possible to be able to enjoy them.

Be happy and healthy!

Alaska Camping

We have wanted to go to Alaska for a long time. When camping became our major retirement hobby and we set a goal of camping in all fifty states, it was clear that any trip to Alaska must include camping. We considered pulling our trailer there, but it is such a long trip to just get there and back and it was longer than we like to be away from home. Also, the train to Denali has always seemed so cool and we didn’t want to miss it. Therefore, it was a rental camper for this trip.

The Rental Camper

Great Alaskan Holidays was our choice for a rental company because they had the best reviews. We rented a 22 foot, 2022 Forest River Forrester from them and everything went very smoothly. We have never camped in a Class C, so it was an opportunity to try something new. It had a slide out and an on-board generator, both also new to us.

Alaska Camping — Our first day in the Forrester

I am very happy to say that all went well with the RV. Riding in the cab was not as comfortable as our Ram truck pulling the trailer and the gas mileage was only about 9. 5 miles per gallon compared to about 13 for our trailer. However, it had a more comfortable bed and a fabulous stove, refrigerator, and microwave/ convection oven. I also liked that I could see what was going on in the back and could also get back there if necessary.

Loved the access between the front and back

There was plenty of room in the RV and it was equipped with basic linens, blankets, dishes and cookware. We stocked up with food in Anchorage at the local Walmart.

2022 Forrester — My big guy fits in this!

Alaska Camping on the Kenai Peninsula

The Kenai Peninsula is where many Alaska residents go for vacation because it includes some highly prized towns to visit. I narrowed our trip down to four stops and ten nights. We could have done everything we wanted in eight or nine nights, but didn’t want us to be rushed.

Hope Alaska

Our first campground was Porcupine Campground in Hope. Hope is an old mining town and a popular weekend destination for Anchorage residents with live music. However, we were there on a weekday and absolutely nothing was going on. It would have been nice to see what a weekend would be like.

Porcupine is dry camping in the Chugach National Forest. Our site was nice and our first time operating a slide and using the generator went great. The batteries held well and we only needed minimal generator use. Overnight temperatures were in the mid-forties, but we were very comfortable.

Alaska camping at Porcupine Campground — Site # 33

A few sites are on water on Turnagain Arm. It was beautiful and phenomenal to have such a view right in the campground.

We attempted a short hike, but mosquitoes were quite aggressive. We were not adequately prepared, so we gave up this idea.

Alaska camping in Porcupine campground — A trail in the campground

We we were only in Hope for one night, but our next stop was close, so we spent awhile to explore the town. It was picturesque and rustic.

Hope has a museum dedicated to its mining history. It opened at noon, but we wanted to get on the road before then. We spoke briefly to the museum’s director and she told us to feel free to look around outside. There was quite a bit outside that we checked out.

Kenai Alaska

Diamond M Ranch Resort in Kenai was our next Alaska camping stop. The campground had full hookups, but no beautiful view. There were also very aggressive flies in the campground. Any opening of doors or windows allowed them in by the dozen.

Alaska camping at Diamond M Ranch — Full hookups at Diamond M Ranch

We were in Kenai for two nights and our major sight to see was the Kenai National Wildlife refuge. On the way, we encountered a moose. So exciting!

Moose sighting on side of the road—too slow getting camera

We spent several hours at the refuge. The employees were very nice and informative. They recommended a hike by the lake and a loop. We had bug spray, but it didn’t contain deet. The had complementary bug spray with deet and we used it.

We also visited the City of Kenai. It is a small and quaint town with a wonderful restaurant in Old Town called Veronica’s. The desserts were so good, we stopped there twice. Old Town has several very old buildings, such as the Russian Orthodox Church built in 1841 below.

Holy Assumption Russian Orthodox Church 1841 to present

Homer

Homer was our favorite stop on this trip because it had our favorite campground and extraordinary views. Ocean Shores had full hookups, a nice laundry, and very well-maintained facilities. We were there for three days.

Alaska Camping at Ocean Shores — Ocean Shores Site #19

Our campground had a beautiful view of the mountains, the bay, and the beach below. We walked down to the beach and discovered dark sand and rocks with shapes and colors like I have never seen. Very other worldly. An interesting fact about Homer is that its tides create a variation in water levels by as much as thirty feet within a single day. Boats can become stranded because of this.

The Spit

A big attraction for Homer is The Spit. It is a narrow 4.5 mile jutting out of land into the bay. The harbor, tours, restaurants, and several campgrounds are on it. It is a cool place to visit, but extremely windy.

Homer is known as the Halibut Fishing Capital of the World. We didn’t do any fishing, but we did try the halibut and it was delicious!

Fresh Halibut at Boardwalk Fish and Chips on the Spit

The harbor was a very busy place. We took the Kachemack Bay Wildlife Tour with Seabird Ventures and it was excellent. Davey and his wife, Lindsey, have a small boat and they took us to Gull Island, a rookery where over 15,000 seabirds nest.

While near Gull Island, we saw eagles, common murres, and puffins. We also saw sea otters in the water.

When we returned to The Spit, my husband spied an eagle perched on a pole. He was able to get fairly close. We saw several eagles there.

Homer also has tours by plane or air that will take you to a place where you are likely to see brown bears from a close range. We considered it, but the tours were quite expensive. I think if we had it to do again, we would take the tour despite the cost because we are not likely to have another opportunity to do something like that.

Seward

Seward was the last stop of our Alaska camping adventure and it was an amazing place. We were at Waterfront Campground right on Resurrection Bay. The campground had electricity and water, but few amenities beyond that. However, the view more than made up for it.

Alaska Camping at Waterfront Park — Site #554 Waterfront Park Campground

Resurrection Bay is actually a deep fjord that was carved by ancient glaciers, much like those that can be found in Norway. It is almost a thousand feet deep and is a stop for cruise ships.

Alaska camping on Resurrection Bay — Resurrection Bay

The Alaska Sealife Center is an aquarium and a marine rehabilitation facility in Homer. It provides care for sick and injured marine animals and returns them to their natural habitat. We spent an afternoon there and saw many aquatic birds, seals, and sea lions.

Nearby Kenai Fjords National Park is only accessible by plane or car with the exception of Exit Glacier. We took a six-hour cruise and saw stunning rock formations and mountains. On two separate occasions, we saw orcas from a distance, but sadly they did not rise highly from the water.

We also saw a group of sea lions resting on a cliff from a fairly close perspective.

Glaciers

The highlight of the cruise was Aialik Glacier located in Aialik Bay. It was enormous and pieces of it was falling off into the water. It was so majestic!

The next day, we visited Exit Glacier, a few miles north of Seward. It is part of Kenai Fjord National Park and the glacier can be viewed by taking a mile hike. We took a ranger tour, which made it more interesting. The glacier has been receding since the 1800s and it appears much smaller than Aialik.

Alaska Camping Conclusion

Our Alaska camping adventure was everything we expected and more. We have now camped in thirty-nine states. If interested in reading about our adventures in other states, check out our page, States Visited, a Campsite Resource.

Tag: Great Alaskan Holidays

New Interests, Retirement Year Six