Tuesday July 20

Today was an up and down day. You are not going to believe the things that happened today.
This morning I was armed with the latest local salmon lures, Fox Spoons with red insert, and we headed for Allison Point. I selected a spot to fish, climbed down the rocks to a place I could stand and started to fish. About 40 yards below me two guys and a girl were fishing also. I heard splashing as they started to catch fish. I could see fish swirling in front of me. There was a lot of green lettuce type weeds and the spoon would pick it up so it was irritating. I was using a 6 1/7 foot medium action spinning rod spooled with Spiderwire. I had a few hits that I missed and lost one fish that was on for a second. Then I caught two fairly quickly. I would estimate their weight around 6-7 pounds each. One was a little longer and fatter than the other. They pulled good and it was a blast. Deatra took some pictures I will post later. I missed a few other fish before the tide dropped out so I finished with two but thankful for the experience. I am thinking I might have to try again in the morning before we leave Valdez.

I came back in the camper and we decided to walk down to the fish weir for another look. O went out ahead of me and I was trying to make sure he didn't get in the road so I was right on him. He was on a lease. At any rate I got off balance and stepped half on and half off a step. I had a hold on the camper door and sort of rolled around and back into the door as my feet landed on the pavement. When I did the entire door,including the screen door, ripped off of the camper. There I stood with the camper door only attached by the pneumatic door opener at the top. I was in shock to say the least. I had noticed a few days ago that their were about 4 or 5 rivet heads in the step down area where you go out the door. I saw they had come from where the door hinges were riveted to the camper. I figured the beating from the rough roads had broken a few and since we were not driving any more long stretches it would be okay. Wrong! What to do now?????? I put the door back in place and locked the dead bolt lock which would hold one side in. Since I didn't think WD-40 would help it must be a job for Duck tape. So I used Duck tape to hold the door front on the camper so I could get back to the campground to make repairs.
You have to understand how the door is made. The door and screen door, which is inside the main door, share three hinges. On each of those three hinges are two brackets which were attached to the camper body by three pop rivets each. That is a total of 18 pop rivets to hold the screen and main door to the camper body. Luckily there was no damage to either door. In case you didn't understand these two come off as a unit. After looking at it I figured I could drill out the old rivets and put in new rivets. I had brought my rivet gun and part of my tool kit is a drill and bits. The hardware store here is really a good well stocked store. I went over and bought two sizes of rivets.
When I started to take the door off the guy in the next camper came running over and wanted to help. Turns out he was a retired carpenter and knew a lot about doors and was handy with tools. The battery on my drill was dead but he had an electric one. I punched some of the old rivets out and drilled out the rest. John held the door up for me to put in a couple of rivets to see how it was going to work. It looked fine so he would hold the door up until I got two rivets in each set of hinges. It all lined up and the door shut so I put the remaining hinges in. The screen was "sprung" a little but John took care of that with a little banging. All seems to be well. I will keep a close watch on it for a few days. All of this would have been covered under my extended warranties but what are you going to do in Valdez, Alaska? The nearest RV dealer is over 200 miles away. A couple of hours work, a little help from a nice gentleman from Nevada and we are back in business.
We grilled some steaks and had supper. All was looking up again. Then Deatra dropped a gallon of sweet tea in the floor. The lid came off of the pitcher and tea went everywhere. The camper must not be perfectly level because it ran toward the front down both sides of the carpeted runners we have. After we got that up I took the runners out and draped them over the picnic table and washed them with the hose. No damage just one of the things that happen from time to time. Well, I have stayed up to midnight again so I am going to bed. I'll post this in the morning. Living life on the edge in Alaska.
Tomorrow we will head toward Tok again. Although we still have places we want to visit and things we want to see along the way, this will signal the start of our return trip home. On that sad note I close.