40 - July 2, 2018, Seward, Alaska

We made it to Seward just barely in time to find a spot to park for a few days.

This waterfront town of about 2600 is inundated with as many as 40K people for the 4th of July. They host an annual race up Mt. Marathon and back. This race is televised and attracts thousands of spectators every year. Here's a YouTube video:

We left Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, probably by 6:30am. We had a quick stop at Tim Horton's (we LOVE Tim Horton's!) and we were on our way for a long day of driving. Google said 13 hours, but we always add a few hours since we have to stop so much for gas and we usually like a long-ish stop for lunch.

After coffee at Tim Horton's, we're back on the road.

I think these are female elk and kids? not sure

Parts of the road are gravel and passing trucks can really kick up windshield cracking stones. We are so glad of our new shocks and air bags AND new tires. This was a rough road all around.

We met this guy and his friend. They drove all the way up from Brasil! They were headed to Prudhoe Bay, at the very northern part of Alaska. Then they were flying back and shipping their bikes back.

This wild flower was all along the highway, I believe it is Fireweed.
Beautiful.

This is interesting about why the roads are so bad and the geologic history of the area.

This poor guy gave his life to the cause.

And we crossed back into the US, no issues.

Some of the best Pad Thai here, who knew?

We arrived in Palmer, AK, an hour or so east of Anchorage prob at around 10pm. Yes, it's still very light out at 10pm.

Tons of Cottonwood trees. It was "snowing" their fluff

Filling (water, gas, propane) & emptying (sewage). Getting ready to head for Seward.

Who says Alaska is cold? We were having beautiful weather.

UH OH! failure! The bumper is being ripped off the RV. The weight of the 2 spare tires AND being bumped and jostled so much on the ALCAN highway... The pictures aren't great at showing it. We found a machine/welding shop in Palmer, AK. They couldn't do anything til next week. We wanted to be in Seward ASAP to be able to find a spot to park. So we took the spare tires off the bumper and put them inside the RV for the 3 hour drive to Seward. We're stopping back at the welding shop in Palmer on our way back. They were very nice and said they could fix it, but they were slammed before the July 4 holiday.

Onward to Seward.

Parked for 3 days in Seward. Just glad to have found a spot. The city-owned campground was completely full. They allow overnight parking in this lot close by.