Day 17 Ends at the Knik River Flats

When we drove up the Old Glenn Highway a few days ago, we spotted a place that looked like it would be great for boondocking ... a quiet place to rest for a day before we head up further north.

Since the place wasn’t too far from Anchorage, we dallied a bit this morning to let the rush hour traffic settle down. By 10:00a we were on the road ... an hour later we were settled into what looks like the outwash plain of a glacier or river. In fact, the Knik River is just a short walk from us, but the gravel/glacial silt terrain has some dips and humps that we decided not to tackle with the motorhome. We’re close to the road but there is very little noise filtering inside the rig. At the moment, except for two distant vehicles, we’re the only ones here.

At our spot, we have a meltwater creek on one side and mountains on the other side. Green trees add color to what has been a dull day. And breezy ... with gusts in excess of 30 mph. But our orientation is such that we didn’t feel much movement. Things have quieted down now, so it looks like the worst of the storm has moved on.

With the wind and all the silt that was blowing around, we didn’t get to go out for a walk along the river. No matter, we fine-tuned the way we have the RV organized. I also got a chance to catch up on my footprints. Yes, that means that we have cell signal here — T-Mobile/GCI 3-bar LTE ... 4 bars when I put the phone near the signal booster. That’s pretty darn good.

No SatTV, though. There’s a big ole mountain blocking the southern sky. No matter ... we caught 13 channels with the off-air antenna, so we managed to catch the news and Chicago Med to entertain ourselves.

Despite the overcast, our solars have been doing well keeping the batteries charged up. The long days — 17 hours and 15 minutes tomorrow — are great for that. Loving this because we won’t have to use the generator much.

Haven’t decided if we’re going to stay here another night or move on tomorrow. We’re going to wing it. We have six days to get to the campground at Denali National Park, which is only 217 miles away.Read more