We left Seward on the 42nd day of our Fantasy Caravan for the 167-mile destination of Mountain View RV park in Palmer, Alaska. The only planned stop we expected were for one scavenger hunt photo and for fuel somewhere along the way. The roads were good, except for a few miles of construction once we got to Palmer. The unexpected surprise while traveling along the Turnagain Arm heading towards Anchorage was seeing several beluga whales near the exit for the Portage Glacier. We were lucky that we were in an area with a wide shoulder so that we could get over to take a picture. There are not very many shoulders on this road, with only a few pull off spots. The belugas only surfaced quickly as they continued to follow the tide line up the Arm, while they hunted for food. Randy was lucky to get a couple of pictures. We did not see any other belugas as we continued our journey up the Arm to Anchorage.
We noticed the Alaska State Fair was being held in Palmer but we would miss it by a day. I was surprised we stayed 2 nights in Palmer but it was a beautiful location with gorgeous views of Matanuska peak. The RV website says you can see moose roaming the property but we never saw anything but the goats in the farm next door. They were very friendly and would normally come to the fence so could scratch their head while I was walking Ty. Randy did see some wildlife and spectacular scenery along Hatcher Pass Road in nearby Willow. On his way back to the campground, he was able to spot a moose along one of the riverbanks. Smoke from nearby wildfires continued to plague us, but the fires were a long way off so we were not in any danger. By the second day most of the smoke had cleared at the campground so we could enjoy a great meal outside, prepared by our Caravan leaders. I got to play the card game, golf, until darkness made us head back to our RVs.
