July 12

This morning we got up to discover that the initial damage to the rear of the motor home early into Canada was apparently expanded by the frost heave bouncing yesterday to form a crack from the outside into the dresser in the corner of the bedroom that let copious amounts of fine dust in all over its contents and to a lesser extent throughout the motor home. After extensive vacuuming, wiping, dusting and applying a temporary patch of rags and caulk into the crack from underneath we hope it will hold until we can get the damage repaired. After the cleanup and patch job we traveled the Glenn Highway to Palmer. Along the way we saw some beautiful mountain scenery. It was a little disappointing though because haze from some distant fire obscured much of the view of the mountains. We could plainly see Matanuska Glacier at some distance and later the Matanuska River along the highway. This river seemed very brown and muddy. We stopped for pictures at the west end of Long Lake. Another stop was for a short drive up to Ravine and Bonnie Lakes. After gassing up in Palmer we went looking for a camp site on the Hatcher Pass Road north of Palmer and Wasilla. It is very scenic and much of the road follows the Little Susitna River which is glacier fed and has the beautiful milky color of glacier melt. Tomorrow we will finish the loop over Hatcher Pass to Willow, Wasilla and back.