Seward, Alaska                                                                     9th – 12th June

Our drive from Homer to Seward took us past many Moose. They guys just roam around the roads like they own the place. They will get spooked, so you have to be kind of careful around them.

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They are known to cause traffic jams of tourists taking photos of them. Unfortunately at this time of year all the males have lost their antlers after winter which means they aren’t as spectacular as they could be. They're like big horses mixed with donkeys when they don’t have antlers.  They get hit and killed regularly by drivers, especially in winter time, and there's a log book kept by locals who take the moose for meat.  If they're lucky there's ice on the road and they can just tie the dead moose up and tow it behind the car back home.

Our route took us through Moose Pass, where Jayne's Aunty Mary used to live with Joe the ex-merchant navy captain. We took a day and drove back there in search of someone who knew where Mary and Joe lived. But after asking at the one and only pub, then at the one and only General Store and even the one and only Library (yes you get it, there's not much to Moose Pass!) we couldn’t find anyone who knew them. The librarian spoke to an older generation lady and she said she could faintly remember Joe, the ex-captain who worked as a blind piano turner and that they were both Mormon.

Jayne says this didn’t sound like either Mary or Joe!

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The place we stayed in Seward was right on Bear Lake and the owner had his own sea-plane (called Float-Planes here as they don’t necessarily go on the sea!). There wasn’t any opportunity to go for a joy flight with him, as it was his toy and not a work thing. Shame!

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This B&B was outside Seward, in the wilderness, sort of and it was very nice. They had a Bald Eagle’s nest just nearby and Moose walked through their grounds right outside our window.

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Seattle to Ellensburg, Washington                                                13th – 16th June

We picked up our RV Motorhome in Vancouver, but we didn’t spend any time in Canada and headed straight to Seattle. We spent most of our time in Seattle getting the RV right for the next 4 weeks, and doing the shopping. We spent way too much time doing grocery shopping, how boring!

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On Monday when we left, we caught the bus and train into Seattle CBD and went to the Space Needle. Walked around it and then it was time to get the bus, train and bus back to the RV.

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We were very late heading out of Seattle and only made it to Ellensburg for our next night. More shopping for things we had missed!

We ended up staying the next night in a State Forrest and had the place to ourselves. We saw more Moose on the way in and many squirrels there. There was also a lot of black fur laying around the trees being a strong sign of bears in the area, so we didn’t do too much trekking around as we don’t understand bears and are very nervous of them. Give us deadly Australia snakes and spiders any day! We ate least know they will leave you totally alone and that you're perfectly safe around them.

To give you some idea of our RV. It’s a Winnebago on a Ford E-450 chassis. This beast has a 6.8litre V10 petrol engine and it loves petrol. It weighs in at 6.6tonne unloaded, that's heavier than our LandCruiser and Kedron combined! It holds 208litres of petrol which needs topping up very frequently. Carries 128litres of fresh water, 128L grey water, 98L black water and 68L LPG! Its 9.88m long and 3.25m high!

But as you can see, it has lots of room.

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But wait, there's even more room when you extend the 3 slide outs, which are extended at the push of a button (well 3 buttons really)!

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Enough room for a party!

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Camping at Cabin Creek Campground.  Our new $80 Wal-Mart bikes on the back.

But as you can see, ours is a Baby over here compared to others!

I have to say I love the toilet, as the connection to the sewerage on-site is so easy and there's no way you get in contact with any nasties and no lifting. When you're at a RV Park, they all have full hook-ups, which means the toilet is directly connected to their sewerage system so there's nothing to do but use it. Very nice.

I've been against grey water storage on vans in Australia, but if our Caravan Parks had hook-ups like these I would have this system without question!

We were in a supermarket in Montana, and I was looking for Fire Starters. Couldn’t find them anywhere, so I asked this older guy who worked there “Can you tell me where the Fire Starters are?”  He looked really strangely at me, and said “Fire Starters?” I said, “Yes, fire starters, fire lighters”, more blank looks from him “They are small blocks which you put under your wood to light the BBQ”. More blank looks, I think he was looking for my second head or something.

He finally says “You're after fire starters!”, “Yes, Fire Starters”. He says in a really loud American accent “in Montana we call those gasoline!” and then showed me to the front of the store and there they were. Only took me about 5 minutes to get through to him. Last night here at the RV Park I saws a guy using those Montana-style fire starters, I thought he was going to burn the park down!

My hip is really getting better now & im even walking without the aid of the walking stick, but if we're on a long walk I'll still take it but I normally use hiking poles anyhow so its basically the same.

Today is Yellowstone National Park, and we’re looking forward to this. But the parks camping is fully booked out, so we have to stay just outside the park. 

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