Margerie

We’d like to introduce you to Margerie, our RV for our week’s adventure.

We rented her from Great Alaskan Adventures.  The rental process was a touch laborious involving one passive aggressive woman named Mrs. Wacker from Fort Collins, CO who didn’t appreciate her place in the queue, a 1 hr wait (necessitating a soup and sandwich from the café across the lot), a 30 minute RV driving and maintenance instructional video which terrified Lauren, a self declaration of any past driving record mishaps and a walk through inspection of the RV. Once our keys were in hand, Lauren carefully drove out of the driveway (at an angle to avoid rear drag) and we were off!  

Margerie (named after a glacier in Glacier Bay because she was slow, yet got the job done) was an excellent sport on this adventure, at 25 feet and 2017 with only 6800 miles, she disliked potholes, sharp turns, quick stops, going 40 mph (caused a wicked shimmy) and hills at the speed limit.  

After 3 days, Lauren’s driving skills vastly improved and she was found eating while driving and navigating the traffic of Anchorage and narrow traffic cones.  She even showed off with a parallel park (expertly guided in and out by Cindy) in a Homer Spit beachside campsite (view found below), passing a vehicle (forbidden by the instructional video) and a slalom navigation at the gas pump.  Only one curb was overrun and this was 10 minutes prior to drop off!

Cindy’s RV skills also greatly improved which include filling water bottles from the sink, using the bathroom, taking a nap in the back bed, in addition to snack procurement and advanced DJ skills all while the vehicle was in motion.  Cindy was excellent with assisting and maneuvering (even clearing out a fire pit from the desired parking area) and made sure to stand visible from the appropriate side mirror and assume the correct arm motions as instructed by the video. Together as a team there was no stopping us.

Observed during this week were many, many other RVs on the road.  As we were returning from Denali south we found ourselves to be number 15 in an RV convoy of a total of 26 in a single line (with a couple Princess Cruises tour buses).  This can only be summarized best by the song Convoy.

Click the link below to listen to Convoy by C.W. McCall

https://open.spotify.com/track/6dGWq08LXuIw6T2oUeHECh

Other awkward rented RV driving skills were observed as below (note different rental company, perhaps they didn’t require the video??)

**Not actually traveling 55 and liked to straddle the white line on the shoulder; above pic was best case scenario

Blow out

It was a downpour, again Cindy and Lauren were the only passengers on the small Cessna back to Juneau.  Midway through our flight, the pilot side window flew open blasting Cindy with 150 mph winds and rain, surprising the pilot he quickly closed the window and Cindy had a complimentary blow out Cessna style!  We landed a few minutes later and after a brief layover in the Juneau airport headed to Anchorage to start the next phase of the Alaska adventure.

Scroater!!!

We have come to Glacier Bay based on Lauren’s good dating fortune (thanks, OKCupid).  Greg*(names have been changed to protect privacy) loves Alaska and has a great friend Brett*( because he looks like Cindy’s cousin Brett) who is the General Manager of this cool lodge.  (Btw, happy 100 birthday to our National Parks!) Greg used to work with Brett years ago in Denali and while Lauren has only been on a handful of dates with Greg, he provided essential advice for AK travel.  Also, he contacted Brett to show us a good welcome.  Brett encouraged us to take a boat tour deep into Glacier Bay to see some of the most incredible areas of the National Park.  NPS Glacier Bay Boat Tour

On our boat of approximately 60 people, we are led into the remote waters by Miscka (spelling unconfirmed but actual name, feel free to contact Cindy), a super hot captain and Ranger Dan.

Lauren did the boat a favor and spotted 3 Humpback whales mere minutes into the voyage (this was shortly after a false seal not whale alarm).  Our first stop was South Marble Island, a home to sea lions, tufted puffin and pigeon guillemot (resembling black bowling pins according to Ranger Dan).  Also found here are the scoter (long o).  Cindy, new to the birding world, saw this animal and yelled out excitedly “Scroater!!”.  Mmhmm.  This brought immediate laughs from the upper deck with a response of “hey, is this still a “g” rated boat?” 

Non-bird Wildlife spotted (all numbers are approximate):

Humpback whales (10), closest proximity to boat 100 ft

Sea lions (500+) densest fur of any animal 100x more than a house cat (on South Marble Island (covered by glacier in 1845))

Harbor Porpoise (15)

Sea Otter (25)

Mountain Goat (Nanny 1, kid 2) located on Gloomy Knob, elev 1331ft.

Coastal Brown Bear (1 mama, 2 cubs) similar to a Grizzly but bigger as eats better.

Wolf (2, 1 mangy)

Kayakers picked up (2) from Scidmore Bay covered by glacier in 1892

Kayakers not picked up (15 boats)

Cruise ships (6)

A shout out to Junior Ranger Angelo who earned his badge following his wise words spoken during his acceptance speech. “Remember to throw away your trash in the right can and turn off lights so you don’t waste energy and melt the glaciers.”  We’re pretty certain his inspiration was from watching the long goateed deck hand, Scott, sort through the trash literally half of the 8 hour voyage.  Good looking out kid!

Glaciers visited (in order):

Lamplugh (advancing)

Margerie (stable)

Grand Pacific (retreating, also was the original glacier that created the bay over the last 250 years)

Johns Hopkins (retreating) named after the university, most photographed in the world

Gillman, Hoonah and Topeka

Reid (goateed deck hands favorite)

When we visited our pal Margerie (glacier), Cindy experienced a different type of Calving.  This varietal sounds like thunder and gun shots as small (SUV sized) chunks of ice break loose from the mama iceberg and crash into the bay.