Just before entering the small boat harbor the captain stops the ship so the passengers can observe sea otters playing in the water. They are absolutely the cutest things and fun to watch.

The Prince William Sound Community College in Valdez is on the left. The native carving is unique and worth a photograph. Then it is back to traveling as we head north to link up with the Glenn Highway that goes through Tok and back to Dawson city for the long, long trip back to the lower 48 states.

As everything in Alaska is big we like to tell people that the photograph on the left is "just an Alaskan pothole". But it is just part of the Glenn Highway that is no longer used due to erosion. On the right is the Ice Field Range, part of the Elias Mountain, which has the highest mountain in Canada, i.e. 4,500 meter (14,764 feet).

The scenery is just as specular as it was on the drive up to Alaska. Around dinner time we spot a sign for a boat launch so we take it and find this wonderful free campsite overlooking beautiful lake Marsh Lake. What could be more perfect!

Sam, our tiger cat, has been there and seen that but he still enjoys looking out the RV window all the time. When we are moving he generally lays on the lap of the whoever is sitting on the right side and sleeps. But when we stop he is up and looking, many times he climbs on the dashboard to get a better "look-see". We take the 2nd route down to the lower 48 states, the infamous Cassiar Highway! This is the way to reach Prince Rupert, Queen Charlotte Islands, and Prince George. The route is somewhat shorter but has one BIG DISADVANTAGE, 159 miles of GRAVEL, POTHOLE, NARROW TWO LANE ROAD! At times, over the gravel section, we could only go about 30-35MPH and even then it was bumpy.

While I was driving one stretch, we had to change off driving every hour or so due to the rough conditions, I thought that the steering was strange. We fortunately found a turn off, the only one we had seen so far, and discovered that the right front tire was FLAT!! Changing a tire on an RV is a huge task. But we were prepared as we had purchased a hydraulic jack that made lifting any wheel of the RV easy. So, after changing my clothes, as I would be on the ground a bit, Jeanne and I started the changing process. It was easy to get the RV up and the flat tire off.

Then we discovered that the spare tire's diameter was too big to get on the wheel, i.e. it hit the ground at an angle. So we had to dig out the ground under the wheel about 5" and finally were able to get the wheel on. Fortunately, there was a service station a short distance down the road in the direction we were going and there we were able to get the flat fixed.