L -—.II .
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wur trip To Alaska
/ Klondike Elmer and
Kodiak Katie -
note: The following is part
< n account of a trip from Mary
us told by Elmer A. Basing
er, who with his wife, came to
visit their daughter and son-in
law, the Hadju’s, a Navy couple
stationed here. It’s a free
w healing re-cap of a trip up the
Alaska highway, with a few im
pressions of Alaska and Kodiak in
in particular thrown in.)
Our sights are now set for Daw
son Creek and our first taste of
the Alcan Highway. Now we are
u^uming to get into the mount
tarns and the beginning of about
1300 miles of gravel and crushed
rode road. I have travelled a lot
worse roads than this. We wen
lucky in getting a snower a uay
which kept the dust down. We
drove according to the condition
of the highway — sometimes 20
m.p.h. and sometimes 40 and 50
m.p.h., keeping a goed lookout
for chuck holes. We went all the
way from Maryland to Anchorage,
Alaska without a fiat fire. One
car that waa passing and nepaaa
ing us all the way up had eleven
busied tires and had to buy a new
one each time. He seemed to
be strictly a 70 m.p.h. man, but
we beat him into Anchorage. Met
him in the hotel there. “Cripes,
what hard luck with tires, he
said.
The scenery on the highway is
out of this world, so take your
time and enjoy yourself. The
best time to see wildlife is
«*arly morning and late afternoon.
If you are stopping at the so-called
motels, stop early in the evening.
The accomodations are rough, but
the people are kindly and iheipful.
We are approaching the Peace
River and there are regular camp
ing places along the highway.
Well, hare is a chance to try out
our camping equipment. We had
a bed made in our station wagon
and I am anxious to try every
thing out. Kat4^ said she was
satisfied to stay at the motel.
“Aw, come on,” I said. “Let s be
pioneers and rough it sonfe And
besides, I didn’t want to waste
all that equipment. OK, we camp
ed. There was a cook shack and
wood cut and a stove with other
people cooking, real cozy and
warm. We fried bacon and pota
toes and made coffee. Sat around
and shot the Ibreeze awhil® and so
to bed in our car. “Feels like
frost," said KaUe. I slept like
a log. "Not 1," said Katie, "I
like to froze. Cripes, get up and
start the car and get some warmth
in here." “1 will/ said I, “if you
will unwind enough from me so I
can." Well, heart did feel pretty
good at that. Got into the cook
shack and fried bfioon and pota
toes, and made coffee. “Real
good." said I. "Wusl-W.’ said the
wife.
And on to the Peace River.
“Bridge out,” said the sign, “De
tour.” Followed the detour and
came to a line of cars. ' Have to
wait for a lead car,” said a man
standing there.' Raining hard.
Here comes a tine of cars from
the opposite direction, and all the
drivers looking real relieved.
“Must be glad to be on their way,”
said the wile. A man came along
our line and gave instructions.
“Just follow the lead car and don’t
try to pass, and don’t get nervous.*
We went up another grade and
began to drive on a single track
railroad. “How funny.” said the
wife Katie. “Well, good luck,”
hollered the guy that had gnmn
the instructions. And there we
were — about 200 feet up on a
single-track trestle. “Owp!” hal
tered Katie, “turn around, go hack.
Cripes Almighty!” “Sure, aero.
I said, “just be calm. Stay over
to your side,” said Katie, putting
on body english. “Stop that, honey,
the door is bulging ray aide.”
“Oooh,” moaned she, “live it up,
drive the Alcan. I'll kill those
kids if we make it of this thing—
at the other end, I mean!” Well,
we made it, or you wouldn’t be
reading this. It seemed two miles
long, but was actually only about
two blocks. One man got out of
hk car at the other end and lost
his dinner. But we were breath
ing normal again after 25 miles or
so.
Up Steamboat Mountain, and I
mean UP. Began to snow, hard,
on the 17th of August. “ I am
NOT going to camp tonight," said
the wife. “Oh, it isn’t so bad,"
said I. “Oh, YES, it is,” said Ka
tie. So we stopped at the next
motel. Full up. 25 miles further
on, full up. 43 miles further,
dork and still snowing. “Got one
cabin left. Would you Wke to
see it?" said the woman “We’ll
take it,” said Katie, knocking the
woman and me to one side. How
she got the grip out and into that
cabin so fast beats me! Had to
build our own fire and the pow
der rooms were 200 feet away,
the mud six inches deep. “Don’t
worry about the mud,” said the
lady. “It wipes off.” W-e-l-M,
some of it did. The temperature
went down to 26 degrees before
morning. “Real cozy,” said I.
“XZPPTT3! ;| :2,!!,” said Katie.
Boy! she really threw the mud
getting into that cabin.
The next day Katie saw her
first moose. Got all excited, want
ed to see a whole herd. Kept
hollering “MEECE, MEECE,
here MEECE,” ail the way to An
chorage .
Incidentally, when I mentioned
shower every day, I meant rain,
NOT’ us. It did warm up some
and tye camped a few more times
and there should be a picture of
the wife at one camp stop. We
were eating, lunch not too far
from Valdez. And there are
birds called camp robbers. Watch
close, or they will have lunch, not
you. On® got so eagar he perch
• » . , »
ed on the hot trying pan, ON THE
FIRE, and gobbled scrambled eggs
from the pan. He was really
jumping up and down, BUT GOB
BLING. And then Valdez. Be in
this place on a day with the blue
sky and white fluffy clouds and
you have got yourself some pic
tures. We took about 60 dollars
worth of color pictures while on
this trip, and are not regretting
a penny sipent. Used ordinary
Kodak, but you should have a tele
scopic lens to slip on. We walk
ed into a glacier just outside of
Valdez. Drove our car right up
to it.
And so on to Anchoroge. No
more use for our old car. Sold
it at the first lot we stopped at.
“Goodlbye, Old Paint. Not a mur
mur or complaint all the way up.
You didn’t complain when you
ran out of gas, just stopped.”
Well, Kodiak, here we come. A
plane once a day or a boat once
a month . We decided on the
plane. Oh yes, the prices are a
little high ih Alaska. For instance,
the last letter we had from our
daughter before leaving on the
trip, she said she was so hungry
for some Chinese food. So just
iKi.oro girling on the plane for
Kodiak, I went to a Chinese res
taurant for some chow mein. Four
orders in a clean fruit can,
TWELVE DOLLARS AND FOR
TY CENTS. Everything else is
in proportion — groceries, cloth
ing, gasoline, etc. We found one
cheap thing. There was a sign
on the glacier, HELP YOURSELF.
We didn’t. The flight to Kodiak
was uneventful. Made two stops
on the mainland, one at Homer
and one at Kenai. Had a very
happy reunion with the children
and grandchildren. Katie said,
“This was worth the trip up —
and where is the nearest
stove?”
We are now in the banana belt.
“You’ll just love it here,’ said tin
kids. And I did. I fished
and prowled all over the island.
Met one of the 'best fishing bud
dies I ever had. Showed me all .
the tricks of the business, includ
ing bow to make the fish bite
when they didn’t want to. Katie
discovered the kids* kitchen and
stayed there. Got her on one fhrb
(Continued on page 8)
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