We got up for work, packed the rig, and said goodbye to Whittier. We left the same way we came in… just going the other way.

It was super windy in Whittier. Here is a hyper lapse of the wind blowing along the mountain while we waited!

We made it through the tunnel to a beautiful view of the mountains on the other side. We kept clinging to this moment as it was cool… sunny… blue skies… we would NOT have this for a few days in the Russian River Campground.

As we made our way to Cooper Landing, we found the smoke from the forest fires.

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A quick note – we were never in any fire danger durring this leg of the trip. Our friends monitored the local radio station and we checked the news feeds to make sure we were safe. The only issue was the smoke – and when it got bad, we locked ourselves inside and sealed up the windows.

We arrived at Cooper Landing and did some laundry. We kept the RV closed up so the smoke did not get in… too much.

While we were doing laundry, we met a couple from Hopkins, MN – a town next to Saint Louis Park. SERIOUSLY! MORE MINNESOTANS!!! Like all Minnesotans, these folks were super nice and we had a fun chat while we all took care of laundry. As they were leaving they realized that they were missing a sock. We joked that if we found it we would drop it off, so they gave us their camp location. Sure enough, we found it with our clothes… and sure enough… we dropped it off for them! Another fun story for all of us!

Along with the smoke came the heat… and huge black flies. There was no breeze to move the smoke or cool us off, so things got a little sweaty. We drove to the Russian River Camp Ground while blasting the AC to cool everything down as much as possible. We got there before check-in time, so we sat in an overflow lot and worked while we waited. Around 2:30pm, we headed back to the gate, got our pass and drove in.

Here is where we finally met up with Sarah’s godparents and family! They had been waiting a month for us, but we weren’t able to get reservations any earlier because of the salmon run – hence the reason we started out going north when we got to Alaska. Short story – everyone was excited to see each other, many hugs were given, and then we drove to our own camp site in the park. That evening they invited us over for salmon dinner so we were able to catch up some more. Sarah’s godfather, John, asked me if I wanted to go fishing with him in the morning. I have never fished in my life – other than catching that nasty catfish in a pond when I was a kid – and had no equipment and no clue – so I said yes! He was kind enough to loan me a pair of waiders, a fishing pole and a cap.

Luckily the fishermen can be early risers, so our wackadoodle schedule fit right in.