It was a chilly night in the camper van last night. Denisa slept in yoga pants, t-shirt, and fleece jacket, inside a sleeping bag with another very heavy blanket on top. For the first time in our trip, we stayed at the same camping spot for two nights in a row. But we had more neighbors for the second night. Remember that large private path to the overlook? We had six tent campers that decided that was a great spot for their tents and moved in with us. What can we say, it's free to them as well!
We had our last camper van breakfast and emptied our ice chest and food bins, and swept out our crumbs. We were on the road by 9:00 a.m. When we were taking pictures from our (then) private viewpoint on the side of Turnagain Arm, we could see the mountains and the highway on the other side of the arm. That's the highway we'll be driving on today, and it's only 3 miles across the water from where Denisa is standing.
But it will take us 71 miles and over one hour to drive to the other side of Turnagain Arm! Sometimes road times are deceiving here in Alaska. As we drove past the railroad tracks, we saw our first Alaska train through the raindrops on our windows. It was the first day of the tourist railroad season. It was interesting to us, since we'll be riding that train tomorrow.
We made the boring drive through Anchorage, and then on to the town of Wasilla to return our camper van to Amazing Accommodations. After eight days of living in the van, we agreed that we would do it again. We have been blessed with good weather for seven of those days, so it would be harder if it was cold, windy, and wet like our last day.
Our bed was surprisingly comfortable. But we are ready for indoor plumbing and a refrigerator and heat and air-conditioning options. We found some beautiful camping spots, and all were free! We didn't purchase the $9 per day windshield protection plan, and we let out a sigh of relief that we didn't need it this time. We brought the van back without any new windshield chips!
We drove 1175 miles in those eight days, and that gives us another reason to be glad we rented with Amazing Accommodations. Most RV rental companies allow 50-100 miles per day, and then charge by the mile for any driving over that. Our company has unlimited mileage and even allows for multiple drivers without an extra charge. We also took advantage of the fact that Amazing Accommodations allows their vehicles to travel on gravel roads. The owner, Sabine, has a first-class shuttle from the airport and then returned us to Anchorage. More importantly, she is nice and honest, and we would certainly recommend Amazing Accommodations to anyone wanting to rent an RV to tour Alaska. It's a good thing that we feel this way, since we'll be back to pick up a Class C motor home from her in two days!
Today, Sabine drove us to our hotel in Anchorage at noon. We were a little early to check-in, but we could start our first loads of laundry. Then Denisa was pretty excited to get into our room with a shower! We microwaved our last food and ate a piece of pie from Peggy's Cafe next door. With more rain and temperatures in the 50s, it would be a miserable day for hiking or exploring outside. In fact, the local weatherman reported that we broke the record for the amount of moisture in Anchorage for this date. They are way above average for the month. So we cancelled our plans to rent bikes and tour Anchorage, and enjoyed the luxuries of electricity this evening. This concludes the first segment of our adventures in Alaska, that started with this first picture we took of our camper van in its first camping spot. It's been a good ride so far!
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