Alaska RV Camping

Saturday August 11, 2007

Gorgeous morning===not a cloud in the sky! What a difference from our last visit when we couldn’t leave the RV because of heavy rain. However, it looks like the Gods of Easy RV Travel were not with us because while still parked in the visitor center this morning we discovered that we had no power running to any of our electrical outlets. While this is not necessarily a disaster in itself, we also discovered that the generator wasn’t recharging our batteries. This could lead to trouble and we weren’t sure if anything was also draining the vehicle battery. Nonetheless, not to be outdone by the shenanigans of the RV, we decided to press on and find a spot at Williwaw and make do with what we had.

I am still somewhat amazed by the friendly and helpful nature of other campers. Maybe this is a hold-back from all those years that I lived in south Florida where people generally aren’t as friendly. However, on our very first trip we went to a private RV park up near Orlando, Florida. This was a place where there were full-timers who had seemingly permanent spots. While I tend to keep to myself and just “figure things out”, my husband is just the opposite and before I knew it we were receiving a lot of help and advice from the man camping across from us. Simple things–like dealing with the awning, checking for lizards in the hose before plugging into the water supply, etc.

This helpful and friendly nature is apparent within the camping culture (is it a culture? I don’t know), and here at Williwaw we weren’t disappointed. Two nice gentlemen, each of whom had experience as electricians, helped us diagnose the problem as being the generator. OK, we still had low voltage lights working, and if we ran the vehicle engine our batteries would re-charge. No microwave or electrical outlet usage, but we could live with this for the weekend.

We normally travel with our 2 kids and our 4 animals (2 cats and 2 dogs). One reason we like Williwaw so much is that the bicycle trails are smooth and relatively flat. Our daughter is developmentally disabled and can’t ride a bike. We purchased a Wike which is like a regular child carrier that travels behind one of the bikes. However, it is larger and more stable than the kind for small children. Our daughter is 60 pounds and still fits in the small Wike (although, only just….), looks like soon we will have to spring for the larger model. With the Wike we are able to take her along on our rides, as long as the trail isn’t too difficult or steep. Williwaw has great trails and even more areas have been paved since we were last here in 2006. The trip from the campground to the Begich Visitor Center is about 1.5 miles, and there is also another nice (although graveled) path which is easy to navigate on bikes.

Relaxed in the evening in front of the fire with our Box O’ Wine. Seems that every time I go in the liquor store (which is practically NEVER of course) I laugh to myself about the giant box of wine (who would actually want a box of wine??). Well, now I’m not laughing so hard! We bought this box (which is equivalent to 6 bottles) and kept it in the fridge in the RV. Each night it went out on the picnic table and we never had to worry about breaking the bottle.