Susan and Christy arrived in Anchorage on the 1st of July. We had a problem with the windshield wiper on the driver’s side of the RV so before we headed out to the peninsula we wanted to be sure it was working. We found someone who would look at it but told us if it was an easy fix he’d fix it and if it was going to take any length of time it would have to wait until August. We took the RV in to the service center and it was an easy fix. GOOD. Then we went to start the RV and it wouldn’t start. Brendan brought the car over and we were able to jump start it. Off we went back to the RV park. The next morning we were going to head down to Portage for some sightseeing and eventually our Glacier Cruise. Once again the RV wouldn’t start, even our jumping it wouldn’t start it. So we called AAA. They were unable to get it to start. After replacing everything we could think of, we finally found it was the starter. Chuck ordered a new starter and he and Kevin (who worked at the RV park but also worked in an RV service center) installed it. What a wonderful sound when the engine cranked up. During this trying time we were able to drive the car to Portage and go on the Glacier Cruise – which was absolutely awesome. We went to a Musk Ox farm in Palmer (north of Anchorage) and the Native Heritage Museum. We had a wonderful time in Anchorage in spite of the difficulties. Chuck spent a lot of time working on the RV but did go on the cruise.
Michael (another grandson) flew into Anchorage on the 9th of July to travel to Denali and Fairbanks with us. We left Anchorage on the 10th and drove to Denali. We had our Kantishna Experience Tour of Denali on the 11th of July. The day was beautiful. The tour was 12 hours, our guide was a wealth of information. Dena was able to drive the bus and tell us all about the park and the animals we were seeing. We saw, eight grizzlies, a few moose, fox, lots of caribou, many different birds and beautiful scenery. We got a peek at Mt. McKinley. It was a wonderful day.
On the 12th of July we headed to Fairbanks where we visited the University of Alaska museum and their animal research center, went gold panning on a Gold Dredge Tour, and other sightseeing within the city. On 15 July Brendan, Christy and Michael flew out of Fairbanks to Virginia for an O’Brien reunion, Susan flew to Florida and Chuck and I were left with an empty nest. We drove back to Delta Junction on the 16th to get back on track with the biking.