This is What Happens When You Live with No Reservations

As we prepared to leave Fairbanks, a weather system was coming in that was bringing with it some extreme winds, including 70+ MPH winds through a pass along our route. Knowing that this was a recipe for disaster, we opted to stay put for a few extra days to let it pass. That was all it took for us to completely flip our plans around.

We found out about the (free) Arctic Thunder Open House air show in Anchorage that runs every two years, and that the Blue Angels would be there for the first time in a decade, as well as the F-35 and F-22, two aircraft that we wanted to see in action. We decided to delay our plans to head for Valdez and, instead, go to back to Anchorage for the weekend first.

We stopped overnight at Denali View North Recreation Area, a $20/night dry camping spot we visited on our way up, then continued back to the base in hopes of snagging a first come, first serve spot. We opted to try the JBER FamCamp with partial hook ups on the Air Force side for two reasons, closer to the airshow to see from our site and to make navigating the base easier while it was open to civilians for the air show. We lucked out and found a spot ($30/night)!

Once set up, we took to figuring out all the details. Luckily, we were less than a mile from the commissary, the place where the shuttle bus would transport people from since driving to the show was not an option. We also found out that Military ID card holders could attend the Friday practice show and could drive over.

We went over Friday and enjoyed the afternoon part of the show, then went back Saturday to try all the food vendors, hopefully grab a t-shirt (which we didn’t since they were sold out of our size) and for BJ to grab some more photos. We stayed until closing and opted to walk the three miles back to camp instead of waiting an hour for the bus. It was a beautiful day, so we played music and talked–both to each other about plans for the next leg and to others that were walking–and made it back to camp, seeing some people just arriving that we had seen in line ahead of us.

What we didn’t expect while we were there was to run into some friends we had met on Instagram, (shoutout to @explore2gthr for reaching out to let us know they were there and saw our rig) and that we would have a bear visit our campsite!

With the ATOH in our memory banks and photo album, it’s time to head towards Valdez.

We’ll see you next week with stories of glaciers, wildlife and another beautiful place in Alaska.

Check out our RESOURCES
Join the BOM Squad bonus content & monthly support over on Patreon
Our Travel Planner an easy to carry resource for all your RV needs
Free Printables Page helpful tools and resources for travel and organization
Our Savings Page referral links to savings with brands we love (our links get us referral credit)
Our Travel Map links to blogs for places to see and stay
The Essential Guide to RV Life to prepare, live and transition through RV life (digital & printed)
Amazon Store Amazon products we use or have tested for life, RVing, homeschool and travel
Teachers Pay Teachers Store Store with lessons for learning, in or out of a traditional classroom
About Us Our Story, our WHY, and where to find us

Thanks for being here, we’ll see you out there!