Author: Ed Armstrong

Places Visited

/ Ed Armstrong

I have been keeping track of the locations where I have stayed in our two motorhomes. I was able to visit all 50 states and several provinces in Canada. I was keeping track of the locations at a website called RVillage. However, the website is closing at the end of the month, so this is the final visual of my motorhome travels to date.

Best Friends for Decades!!

/ Ed Armstrong
A wonderful benefit of traveling is connecting with old friends. Miles and I were best friends starting in third grade and continued as friends all through high school. It is wonderful to connect again in Washington state after all these years. Friendships are very special.

Drive to Haines, Alaska!!

/ Ed Armstrong
I absolutely loved this campsite. I refueled in Haines Junction and started looking for a place to spend the night. This is the perfect campsite. It was quite with the soothing sound of a creek from melting snow and glacier. It was the ideal location to relax after a day of driving.

I loved waking up the sound of flowing water! It was so peaceful and beautiful!

As I started driving, there were interesting clouds building over the mountains. Will it start raining?

Clouds started building up all around the mountains. I loved the colors within the mountains! Soon after taking this photo, the drizzle rain started to fall everywhere.

Once I arrived in Haines, I stopped at the visitor center. The gentleman told me there was an excellent brewery in Haines, so I added it to my to-do list.

I sampled two beers and thought they were both great. Tomorrow, I may try another one too. It is fun to meet small local businesses and hear a bit about how they got started.

Valdez, Alaska Lu-Lu Belle Boat Trip!!

/ Ed Armstrong
It was very fun to take a trip on the Lu-Lu Belle because it was a much smaller boat and we were able to get within 0.5 mile of the Columbia Glacier!! It was very cold in the midst of the ice and cloudy weather. This glacier is a massive wall of ice. Several chucks fell into the water while we were there.

I was captivated by the blue icebergs floating along in the water. I liked the rays of sun shinning behind this iceberg.

All the blue colors are interesting in the midst of the fog and clouds!

As we came closer to the glaciers, more and more ice appeared in the water.

In the distance is another glacier slowly moving its way to the water. The fog and clouds give it an interesting setting.

This seal was happily enjoying himself on the ice with the glacier in the background.

What can I say? Alaska is simply amazing! It is such a blessing to see so many unique attributes of Alaska!

The massive wall of ice, from 0.5 miles away, is truly awesome!

We watched a section break loose and cause a ripple of a wave through the water.

These seals were enjoying a peaceful day sitting on the ice with this enormous glacier wall behind them.

The Lu-Lu Belle captain slowly maneuvered through the icebergs to see these amazing views of the glacier! The captain was ready with props for Christmas cards too!

On the boat trip, we also saw these sea lions relaxing on the beach!

I am not sure why they like to put their noses in the air, but the massive males weigh more than 1,000 pounds!

Bridal Vail Falls!!

/ Ed Armstrong
I love all the waterfalls in Alaska!! Sometimes I feel like I am in Hawaii with all the waterfalls and green foliage. However, Alaska is a bit cooler!! I am not sure it has reached 56 degrees for a high temperature over the previous 4 days!!

It is not uncommon to see a series (like 3 in this photo) of waterfalls. Beautiful!!

This is horsetail falls, near Valdez, Alaska. It is nice to listen to the falls!

This photo is to remind me that I need to be careful at all times. I slept here a couple of nights ago and had a very peaceful evening. I returned tonight and started talking with the fellow with the red truck. He told me that a couple with motorhome “sort of like yours” was camped where he is and a bear visited him at 5:30 am this morning and wanted inside!! Apparently, they had made their garbage ready to be thrown away and left it just inside the motorhome door. They think the bear could smell their garbage through the edge of the door and he wanted inside! The bear scratched the door and tore the window screen trying to get inside. The two people inside were certainly scared!! I looked at the situation and decided to opt for a different location. I probably would have been fine, but bears are large and powerful and I decided that some risks are not worth taking. I moved on to a new location.

This is not the greatest photo, but it shows the bear paw and claws of the bear that was trying to get inside a motorhome. No thank you. A location with less bear activity is preferred for a restful night’s sleep.

Drive to Valdez, Alaska

/ Ed Armstrong
Alaska is filled with beautiful sights! On the way to Valdez, I pulled off the road to marvel at this river. While I was there, I met an elderly couple and the wife told me this was her favorite stop on the way to Valdez.

The power of the water rushing through the rocks was impressive! The mountains, rivers, lakes, sea, and wildlife of Alaska are true marvels!

The churning current was strong and dramatic!

The Bald Eagle Came for a Visit!!

/ Ed Armstrong
This bald eagle landed near our campsite. He found some fish to enjoy.

He watched carefully to ensure that nothing tried to get his fish!

His wingspan was impressive!

It was amazing to watch him take to the air holding a large piece of fish.

And away he flew with his yummy meal!

It is impossible for a day to pass without enjoying Alaskan flowers and scenery!

Alaska is gorgeous! The haze in the background is smoke from a lightening initiated forest fire.

This is one of my favorite Alaskan flowers. It grows everywhere.

Flowers are abundant in Alaska!

Kenai Fjords National Park

/ Ed Armstrong
We had a wonderful boat tour to see Kenai Fjords National Park!! It is a magical place with glaciers and wildlife!! The tour was all day and provided lunch and dinner. It was cloudy for the entire day and rainy at times. It was quite cold for most of the day while we were outside on the boat deck enjoying Alaska. Having lived so much of our lives in Arizona and Texas, being cold on July 12th is quite a novel experience!

We cannot get enough of seeing the amazing glaciers in Alaska!

We were amazed to see the cave that had developed in the base of the glaciers. Several chunks of ice feel into the water while we were there.


There was quite a bit of ice that had fallen into the water.

It is amazing to look up at the wall of the glacier!

At one point this glacier reached the water below, but it has receded a little each year recently.

The tour company fished out a piece of ice from the water and Charlene had fun touching the ice with her tongue!! Apparently, some people collect glacier ice for margaritas.

Out of all the people on our tour boat, Charlene was given the honor as the person who threw the ice back into the water!

Here the ice goes back into the water!!

When parts of the glacier break off and fall into the water it is quite loud and seems to echo all around!

It is amazing to look up at the wall of ice towering about you!

Sea otters are bashful creatures. We found this cute guy merrily floating along.

The sea otter turned around to look at us and then quickly went under water.

The Alaskan scenes of water, mountains, and greenery truly amaze me!

The overcast skies and low clouds gave some interesting scenes. Alaska is beautiful!

The waterfalls into the sea are gorgeous!

These tiny islands do not seem to have much soil, but the trees grow right out of the rocks!

The boat captain pointed out that this small island looks like an elephant!

The misty scenes is Alaska are beautiful to behold. Although we could have gone inside the boat and warmed up, we simply needed to stay on the open deck to enjoy God’s creation in Alaska.

We were delighted to have found two humpback whales enjoying themselves!! Here they are both spouting water into the air.

It is truly inspiring to catch a glimpse of the whale’s tail as they leisurely swim along.

It is a photographer’s delight to actually catch a view of their tail!

The boat captain was gracious and we waited to see if the whales would lift any part of the bodies up out of the water.

The whales moved around and I was able to see it in time to capture this special moment. I love seeing the water flowing off of the end of this tail.

The whale gave us a fun show and lifted his tail a little higher into the air.

Then the whale shifted and started to swim deeper.

He tipped his tail as he went along

He waved goodbye as he swam below.

Here is another time when the whales spouted water into the air.

While we were waiting to see if the whales would surface again, the beautiful tufted puffin bird stopped by to visit. I love the orange coloring!

We captured another glimpse of a whale tail above the surface!

Amazingly, the whale then rolled over and showed us his fins!!

This whale scene was breathtaking!

The people on this boat were shocked when the whale came to the surface right next to them!!

This was a final view of the whale. Everyone on the boat concluded that the whale was waving goodbye to us!

We next saw sea lions! This guy was proudly perched high on a rock looking out into the sea.

We were amazed to see so many sea lions!

It was fascinating to watch this awkward and amazing creatures in the wild!

This big guy was unbelievable huge!!

There was a large variation in the size and color of the sea lions.

This big guy seemed to be barking at everyone telling them to not panic that a boat was drifting by. The captain asked everyone to be quiet so we would not frighten them.

The small black sea lions are the babies. The colony is doing very well in Kenai Fjords National Park.

Earthquake!!

/ Ed Armstrong

I was awakened at 11:30 pm by the motorhome being shaken back and forth. I first thought some pranksters were pushing on the motorhome to make it rock. However, no one was outside. I then thought it must be very windy and the force of the wind was making the motorhome rock. After a minute or two, the rocking stopped and I went back to sleep. The next morning I learned that the rocking was not from the wind but a 4.7 magnitude earthquake near Soldotna (Nikiski). I stayed in Soldotna just about 10 days ago!! Seward is only two hours away from Soldotna, so we were close enough to have been impacted by a 4.7 magnitude earthquake. Charlene peacefully slept through the entire episode. I was a little “shaken” by the force of the rocking!