Big City Stock Up

16 miles south of Anchorage, AK – Monday, August 8, 2011

Another cool (50 degree) and rainy morning. Our first stop was in Palmer, AK at the visitors center. We learned that the area was started back in 1935 as the Matanuska Colony.

As part of the “New Deal”, 203 farming families were selected from Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota and tasked with establishing a “farming community” near what is now Palmer, AK.  In exchange for a $3,000 30 year loan they were given a 40 acre tract of land, a house, a barn, a well and an out building. As usual with too much government involvement, things didn’t go smoothly. They dictated that houses and barns be built to dimensions totally unsuited for the needs of the farmers and supplies didn’t make it on time .  Barns were too small to store supplies and produce and houses didn’t have enough room for families.  In spite of all the difficulties, the farmers managed to succeed and Palmer is now an agricultural center of Alaska. It really is an interesting story.

We also toured the beautiful gardens next to the visitors center.

We looked for a place to buy some fresh veggies, but missed the market day and had to resort to Carrs/Safeway.  Then it was on to Anchorage and something we haven’t missed in months……..traffic. Luckily we were going against the major flow.

We needed to get the generator oil changed and have the dash AC checked, so Frank called several places thinking we could get in maybe tomorrow. Wrong, the earliest would be sometime next week. Oh well, we decided to stock up and head down the Kenai Peninsula.

After we spent what seemed like hours at Sam’s Club and Walmart we continued on south.  Anchorage is a very RV unfriendly town and there were very few RV parks to choose from. By law there is no overnight parking allowed at Walmart or any other parking area. It was getting close to dark when we pulled into a turnout near Beluga Point on the Seward Highway.  According to the Milepost Guide it was a “No RV’s Overnight” turnout, but we didn’t see any signs, so we decided to plead ignorant and called it a day.

BG Miles Today	77	BG Total Miles	6222
Eat Out total $	631.17	BG Total Fuel $	3402.58
Entertainment total $	452.52	Total Camping $	935.91
E Miles Today	0	E Total Miles	1969.5
E Total Fuel $	421.22	Day # of Trip	69