fulltimeusa

Serial Killers on the loose in Alaska–
We have become gleeful serial killers. I woke this morning to the sound of someone banging on the wall of the RV. What was it? Just Jerry trying to kill another mosquito. Yesterday, the area between the screen door and the outside door had at least  a hundred mosquitoes flying around and coming into the motor home. Apparently, the RV door did not close tightly leaving a tiny opening to the outside. Mind you, no water came in during the many, heavy rains; the opening was that small! Somehow, the mosquitoes figured out that there was a wonderful, free blood meal inside and they should just enter through this minute crack. Thus, the start of our killing spree. With joyful shouts of “Got It”, we each killed countless little biters last night as we became possessed by our mission to rid the motor home of pestilence. For hours, the place sounded like a construction zone but we lowered the inside mosquito population dramatically. This morning we woke to only a few mosquito bites and a renewed commitment to finish what we started last night. The killing spree recommenced and now we see only a rare, skittish mosquito flying around in here. Jerry resealed the RV door by applying a thin insulation strip around the perimeter.  So far, no further invasions have occurred since the door sealing and our mass murder spree.
We’ve been told the the mosquito is Alaska’s state bird and we are beginning to believe it.

Medicare–
My mirror tells me I have been old for quite some time, but I will be officially OLD in a few more months. Tried to file for Medicare online. No go. A screen popped up and said I would have to go into the Social Security Office for this. So, this morning we drove to the Social Security Office in Anchorage. When we arrived at the office there were only two seats left. Soon the place was full to overflowing. Mostly, the people in the waiting room were young. Most looked to be in their 20′s, 30′s, and 40′s. Not what I expected. 45 minutes into our wait our number was called. The worker suggested I try to enroll online. When I explained the problem she said I could have an appointment to talk to someone in a week or two. Um, that won’t work. So now I’ll to try to sign in online and see if it works this time. Also, they said they would have someone from Social Security call me at 8:00 in the morning in a week. OK, so I may get a lot older just trying to resolve this.

Anchorage–
A city like every other city in the USA but cleaner, newer, a bit smaller and surrounded by beautiful mountains everywhere you look. The museum here is recommended but the recommendation was lukewarm and it is downtown with all the traffic and parking issues. We have been to quite a few museums in Alaska and have a pretty good feel for the history.  Think we will leave the city after having walked and driven around in it for awhile this morning. Anchorage has lots of traffic, road work, strip malls, big box stores, etc. We arrived in Anchorage at 7:00 am to beat the morning rush. Ha! There was a lot of traffic. Everyone in a hurry. Didn’t see anywhere to park our RV so stopped to ask a couple of police officers where we could park. At first, she sent us about a quarter of a mile away but when they realized we would be walking back to the Social Security office she looked at him and they both shook their heads no and nixed that idea. Apparently, we would have had to walk through a favorite hangout for homeless and they thought they should do some crime prevention and cancelled that plan. Next, they told us about an upscale neighborhood a few blocks away that should have lots of street parking as most of the folks that live there would be off to work. So that is where we ended our search for parking in the city. Plenty of room for the RV on a large, mostly empty, quiet street. We ate breakfast there, read the news on the Internet and then walked the few blocks to the Federal Building. Emptied our pockets into a plastic bin and went through the security screening. They had to “wand” Jerry as his jacket had more metal on it than mine did and the alarms sounded.
Side note–How can anyone be homeless in Alaska? That seems like it would be a climate limited condition!

RV maintenance–
The odometer computer flashed a sign saying it was time for an oil change so we went to a Jiffy Lube. Though they were busy, we were in and out of there in a short time.  We were in the parking lot of one of the two Costco’s in town so got gas at $4.07/gal. reg. with the Costco discount for members. While at Costco gas, I ran into the store to restock our larder. How I managed to spend $387.00 so fast amazed us both but we will eat well for awhile that’s for sure.

Last night in Wasilla we bought propane in an RV park for $4.00/gal.

Boondock–
Boondocked near a coffee shop in Wasilla last night. It had a great wi-fi connection so we made good use of it as our Millenicom signal was weak where we were. Tonight we will boondock somewhere south of Anchorage.

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