Nonnie’s Diner
Travels in our Outdoors RV
-
Family Campout 2025
In 2024 we had our first family campout at Salt Creek and decided to regroup again this year on the weekend after Memorial Day. While we were in Alaska last summer I saw some really interesting looking group campsites, so focused on finding one of those for family this year. Cedar + Fern is a…
-
Cascade Loop
What was planned to be an out and back on Highway 20 in the North Cascades has turned into a complete loop around the North Cascade Mountains. After our ORV rendezvous we heard from our friends that they couldn’t join us for the planned camping we had reserved in the same area, so we did…
-
Outdoors RV Rendezvous
We follow the ORV Pacific NW facebook groups to learn about our trailers and maybe if we’re lucky we’ll find some kindred spirits to share camping adventures with. They have several rendezvous every year somewhere between Arizona and Washington. When they announced a rendezvos in the North Cascades in May, we took the chance and…
-
Spring Warm Up, Wine Country Style
Every spring we take Nonnie’s Diner south to get out of the cold and rain and into somewhere warm and sunny. It’s depressing to see the national weater map and face another dreary day of 50 degrees and rain. But it’s pretty easy to get far enough south quickly to enjoy some sun. Year one…
-
Repair Time
There were so many opportunities last summer to damage our trailer. Some of the roads we traveled were just pure crap, to put it nicely. The 200+ miles of frost heaves coming into Tok from Yukon Territory were bad, really bad. But nothing holds a candle to the 120 miles of pure garbage driving out…
-
Alaska By The Numbers
We were out 88 days, sleeping in Nonnie’s Diner 80 nights and in Wood River Camp 7 nights. Of those places, 17 times we were there for just for one night. We tried not to move every day, in order to have enough time to explore where we landed. Oftentimes two days was enough to…
-
The Trip Home
It was a seven day drive south through Canada, and looked just like this out the windshield of the truck the entire way. Mile after mile of beautiful colors and mountains. The roads were nearly empty now, we were far behind the mass of RVs that we had traveled north with. The fall colors were…
-
Bear Spray and A Beer
When I flew out of camp Debs chose to stay in with Chris. They had another flight coming in with hunters, so she would fly out then. There was some discussion with the pilot about where I was going that I didn’t quite follow. It was the busiest day of the year for Wright Air,…
-
Wood River – The Crown Jewel On A Beautiful Summer
It’s the Crown Jewel, or it’s the Icing On A Most Delicious Cake. Pick your superlative and it applies to our stop at Wood River. This was to be our furthest spot north, and the end of the trip before we turn south and head back home. What is Wood River? It’s a long story…
-
The Denali 30% Club
Every year over 600,000 people come to Denali, hoping to get a look at “The Great One”. On average, 400,000 of them go home without seeing the mountain peak. As I mentioned previously, the incoming weather systems cause clouds to pile up around the mountain, leaving it covered about 60% of the time. Yesterday we…
-
Before Denali
When I was planning this trip I was following along the blog of friends who were here last year. They stayed at a beautiful state park just south of Denali, where good views of the mountain can be seen. When you’re up in Denali National Park it’s hard to see the summit, especially now that…
-
Palmer Lakes or Bust
We were back in Cooper Landing on our way north off of the Kenai Peninsula, heading towards Denali NP. When we had been in Hope previously we had discovered the hike at Palmer Lakes but didn’t have time for it. We also said if we had another beautiful sunny day on the way back north…
-
Halibut Denied
Jon and Lynn are back from Bainbridge and we’re on the road with our traveling companions once again. We met them back in Seward, now we’re in Homer, then tomorrow we go back up to Cooper Landing for a couple days on the way to Denali NP. We had a few nice days in Seward,…
-
Northern Kenai = More Hikes and More Bike Rides
Our camp spot in Cooper Landing was at the Princess Lodge on the Kenai River. There was a trail down to the river where we walked after dinner and enjoyed some viewing platforms. There was a bend in the river where we could see the fish swimming upstream to spawn. By this point they were…
-
Pivot, Then Pivot Again
Rob and I travel great together. We like to have a plan, but just because we have one doesn’t mean we’re tied to it. That’s exactly what happened last week. We call it a pivot, and now we’ve done it twice in one week. While Alaska is literally ginormous, with 665K square miles, the drivable…