Fantasy Caravan Day 52 - free day in Haines, our last full day in Alaska

Monday was a free day (no scheduled activities by Fantasy other than a travel meeting at 7pm for our travel on Tuesday). It was also our last full day in Alaska.

We stopped at the RadioShack -- usually when there is a store with a sign outside indicating "RadioShack", it really isn't, but our bus driver the previous day said that it was... so Carl headed inside to check it out. The proprietor was busy working on a car outside and came in as Carl went in but wasn't interested in having someone "just looking around", so Carl didn't stay long. Carl said that it had a lot of RadioShack-type-stuff (resistors, capacitors, etc).

Our bus driver the previous day also pointed out the combination Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine / Liquor Store in the same building -- to medicate one way or another!

We wanted to get just a couple of things in the grocery store -- we had been told that the town gets supplies just once a week (on Tuesday), and since this was Monday, there may be some lack of goods, but we found the store to be quite well stocked with a large variety of goods. We got the couple of things we needed (I was making tomato soup -- it is chilly in Alaska! Apologies to any of you who are dealing with a heat wave, we wanted soup!), and headed back to the campground.

While I worked on the soup, Carl worked on trying to prevent a rock chip in Gracie's window from getting any worse. As you can see, the rock hit right where the Texas registration is stuck on the windshield, so we could not see it from inside the rig and we're not positive when it occurred (we think on the drive from Tok to Destruction Bay). We wanted to work on patching it as soon as possible, but the patch kit indicated that the weather needed to be above 50F and this was the first day that had happened. You might notice that we have a bulls-eye, and a crack, but they aren't connected. The crack goes from the bottom on the windshield (just a few inches to the left of the sticker), across the sticker, and on its way to the edge of the windshield to the right of the sticker. The bulls-eye is fully beneath the crack, so we think that it probably cannot cause any cracks that would go further up the windshield. Nevertheless, we had the patch kit, so decided to try patching it.

This patch kit had a device that you attached to the windshield with suction cups to hold it tightly so the cement would go directly into the chip.

... or that was the plan. As it turned out, the suction cups needed to stick right on top of the crack when the center of the device was over the bulls-eye, and therefore the cups would not stick. We had a friend from the tour helping -- Carl had also rigged up a shade with a paper bag as the kit instructions indicated that the patch should be applied *not* in direct sunlight, but then cure *in* sunlight. Since the rig was pointing south, it was in direct sunlight, and we weren't going to move Gracie, so the paper bag created a way to provide shade while he was applying the patch.

Finished product -- we are not sure that the patch "took" -- one of our fellow travelers suggested that there may be dampness in the bulls-eye or even dirt -- oh well, we tried!

Later in the afternoon, we decided to go to a fish weir where others have seen bear over the past few days...

On the way, we took a wrong turn and found this view...

... and after we found the right place, we had passed the parking area, and had to drive further down the road where we found this view!

Jeep in picture to give perspective

We finally got back to the fish weir and found parking...

There were folks fishing nearby so these cautions seemed particularly appropriate.

Fisherman in the river

Fish weir upriver

This fish weir is for counting fish

We had been at the fish weir for a little while, and saw no bear. Our travel meeting for Tuesday was at 7pm, so we headed out so we'd get back to the campground in time for our travel meeting.

As we were heading back, we saw this view as we drove by, so made a U-turn and went back to take a picture...

... this was across the road from a home, I guess these are their chairs so they can enjoy the view.

We made another U-turn to head back to the campground, but this time we spotted a bear down by the river (not near the weir)...

Carl got out and took pictures (I didn't get out because I didn't want to make any more noise than necessary so as not to scare him off).

He came up to the road -- Carl said that he thought the bear looked small when he was down by the river, but big when he got up near the road!

A couple of videos -- short one -- Carl did this one -- you can hear the river:

A longer one -- I did from inside the car:

He continued down the road...

Friends from our caravan had come up and seen us stopped on the side of the road so they stopped too and got pictures and videos. I think the bear is giving a side-eye cuz he doesn't want to have his picture posted on Facebook!

He headed back down the bank on his way back to the spot by the river where we'd originally spotted him.

If we had not gone back to take the view picture, we're thinking that we would not have seen this bear. Sometimes going the wrong way and taking U-turns gives you benefits!

View of Haines as we returned on our way to the campground

We were late for our travel meeting, but were glad we got to see a bear out in the wild!