Please insert the strongest expletives you can think of ... RV.NET's nanny routines would just star out what I want to use ... although they might miss the Spanish, German, Japanese, Korean, Yup'ik, and Ojibwa ones I'm inclined to use.
I was two-thirds through composing my next post on fuel economy when some idiot managed to take down the electrical grid along 18 miles of road where we live.
I'm not in the mood to try to re-compose what I'd typed in right now. Instead, I'll share a secret about Alaska. (Most of you would probably dearly love to bring your motorhomes up to Alaska for a visit.)
It's really hard ... almost impossible ... to get lost in Alaska if you stay reasonably close to the pavement. (Every year or so, someone in the military, stationed in Alaska, actually tries ... and fails.)
There's only one big loop in Alaska, consisting of the Parks, Richardson, and Glenn highways. (The highways up here have numbers but nobody uses them.) Everything else are out and back roads.
No matter which way you go, you'll wind up at Cook Inlet/Kachemack Bay, Resurrection Bay, Port of Valdez, or the Canadian border. Three of those mean teaching your motorhome to swim if you don't want to go back the way you came. (The other means leaving Alaska.)
The Kenai Peninsula is arguably the best tourist area. In a fairly small area, you can see just about all there is in Alaska. I could easily spend months just wandering around the Peninsula, even though I've already spent several hundred days down there.
The secret is turn right every chance you get. (You could turn left but that means sometimes having to wait for oncoming traffic.)
Start by heading south from Anchorage on the Seward Highway. As soon as you come down the hill, start your right hand turns. (You can't miss when to start ... you'll be close to sea level, with the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet on your right and Potter's Marsh on the left.
Do NOT venture onto the mud flats around Turnagain Arm. They're worse than quicksand ... more insidious and stronger than wet cement.
(If you time things right, you may see a bore tide along Turnagain Arm, especially midway between Anchorage and Girdwood ... locals can tell you where and when it's best to see a bore tide.)
This isn't limited to pavement ... turn right on every road that's not obviously someone's driveway. (Don't worry, most locals are reasonably friendly and used to meandering tourists wandering onto their driveways.)
In each case, you'll eventually reach the end of each road. Just turn around and go back to where you turned off, turning right again.
In some cases, you'll reach the end of the road in a mile or two and sometimes as little as a few hundred yards. Most often, these are relatively unexplored and visited infrequently. Some of these also happen to offer the best scenery, to be enjoyed all by yourself.
Okay, a few of those side roads lead to gravel or unimproved 'roads' up the side of mountains ... so use your best judgement before proceeding. Just about all of these eventually have a good turn-around spot, although you may endure more of an adventure than you wanted getting to the turn-around. (More than once, my wife has made some rude comments about where I'd gone ... and I knew better than take her some of the places I'd been.)
Don't be tempted to turn left. You'll eventually come back to whatever appears interesting on that side of the road.
After a day or so, you'll turn right onto the Sterling Highway. It's less than 100 miles from Anchorage to the Sterling Highway turnoff. But, you'll likely take at least a day to get there because you'll keep stopping to view the scenery and explore.
You'll spend at least a week, and possibly a month or more, doing your 'right turn exploration' along the Sterling Highway before arriving back at the turnoff.
Avoid being tempted to wade in rivers and lakes. Except for a few small lakes towards the end of summer, all fresh water on the Kenai never gets much above freezing. (I've seen people levitate and run on water when they fall in.)
If you have a boat, do not take it out on Skilak Lake. It's glacier fed, so extremely cold. Surrounding mountains and passes channel fierce winds onto the lake, creating huge waves. The winds can come up suddenly, creating waves big enough to swamp 30-foot cabin cruisers. (This can happen during apparently calm, clear weather conditions.)
Tustumena Lake is worse than Skilak Lake. Fortunately, it's relatively difficult to get to, so is the cause of less fatalities.
If your return to the Seward/Sterling turnoff is in mid-summer (usually during July), you may get a chance to witness "combat fishing for red salmon at the Russian River." People are shoulder to shoulder -- two, three, or four deep -- casting over each other. I've only participated once because (1) I don't like combat fishing and (2) I prefer silver salmon. (Red salmon is the Alaska name for sockeye and silver salmon for coho.) I have, however, been down there several times -- with a lawn chair, binoculars, and a full cooler -- to sit on the opposite bank to watch. Throw in a few brown (overgrown grizzly) bears sneaking out of the woods to steal fresh-caught salmon and the result is quite a show.
When you return to the Seward/Sterling turnoff, a right turn will take you to Resurrection Bay and the town of Seward. (Seward was one of the places most affected by the Good Friday Earthquake.)
From Seward and Resurrection Bay, you'll return to Anchorage along roads you've already traveled. Still, the return to Anchorage could easily take a week or more, due to the many possible 'right hand' stops along the way.
The area around Girdwood (right turn 40 miles before reaching Anchorage) has a number of things to see. One of my favorites is the Crow Creek Historic Gold Mine, which offers recreational gold mining. (Two decades ago, they allowed limited camping, without any hookups ... don't know if that's changed, for better or worse.)
Other sights to see around Girdwood are the Begich Boggs Visitor Center, the Alaska Railroad tunnel through the mountains between Girdwood and Whittier, the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, Alyeska Resort, and many other attractions.
I've never been to Alyeska Resort, but everyone I know who's been there gush about it. It's a ski resort but is arguably even better during the summer. From what I understand, it definitely worth splurging on the Seven Glaciers Restaurant, a multi-award winning mountain-top dining experience. If you don't want to or can't splurge, the Alyeska Aerial Tram Ride and Dine offers the same tram ride and a credit at the Bore Tide Deli, with a similar panoramic view, at a significantly lower cost.
So, plan on at least several days in Girdwood, with at least one full day at the gold mine, before a quick trip back to Anchorage.
Before closing, an Alaska axiom: Where there are fish, there are people -- where there are people, there are fish. This is especially true for salmon. On the other hand, there are many places on the Kenai Peninsula where you can fish for rainbow trout, Dolly Varden (a char), and grayling without anyone is sight. (At some, you're more likely to see moose or bears than another person.)
