July 7th
We are up with the working folks today since it’s hit the highway time. But first, a trip to the local Dodge dealer for a lube and a possible diagnosis for the real fuel tank problem. While they work on the truck, I inspect the Hummers on the lot and make phone calls from the customer lounge. The fuel problem is solved by new filters being installed. One for now, and one for the next couple thousand miles. Seems the new tank was not entirely clean when it was installed and a bunch of paint and metal flakes were lying in wait at the bottom to be drawn into the fuel line. the filter at the bottom was so clogged that even air wouldn’t pass through now. It took more time to get the generic part than to get it installed. But it did feel good to get the thing fixed and I would be real happy to not be siphoning fuel any more. We left town around noon with just a stop for fuel topping off. The view from the roadway was pretty attractive on this section of our trip, and there were Mountain Sheep standing on a hillside close to the road. There was so little to stand on for them that they almost looked like they were painted on the rocks behind them. After a truck passed us on the road, a loud unusual noise alerted Elaine and I so we stopped for a brief inspection. Nothing was apparent though and we merged back on to the highway. Shortly, another noise was heard. This time the culprit was spotted. It seems that when we cleaned the trailer, the front canopy never got locked down again. When the wind caught it, it flipped up and bent the frame, breaking the fiberglass in several spots too. I will require a checklist from now on before we actually start driving so we don’t forget things like this. Arriving at the trailer park, we discover that they are not in complete control of the place. There are too many campers and the sites are more than doubled up. We didn’t even have a space to pull into until after another camper reluctantly moved his trailer from its’ cocked position. He didn’t arrive to do this until well after dinner time. In the interim, we drove around town, booked a tour for tomorrow, and did a bit of shopping. When we returned, the other trailer was still not out of the way, so we had dinner in town and came back. This time, the other trailer had been moved over, but there was only on electrical pole with 2 plugs on it and there was already 5 trailers plugged into it. There was not enough room to get another large RV plug on to the add on home style splitter they had on, and there was only 2 twenty amp breakers on it. With all those other campers plugging in their 30 amp cords, putting ours on would have brought us up to around a 180 amp draw if everyone started using appliances at once. In any case, there was no place for me to hook on. The young girl at the office assured me that there would be someone by later to get that solved. By 11:30 at night, that had not happened. When I approached the owner who was just getting there, he was not interested and said there just wouldn’t be electrical hook up there this evening. I walked away saying that I would call the local fire Marshall over and have him look at this electrical nightmare he had going on and the owner started yelling at me. I went to bed on a bad note that night, and wanted out of that space tomorrow.
July 8th
Still interested in getting out of this place, I showered and walked up to the Good Sam park ½ mile up the hill. Turned out that they had space available with full hook ups and good management. We moved immediately and got settled in. Next, we went to town and waited for our boat trip around Resurrection Bay. In the interim, we stopped at a little bay side bakery where we had some strong coffee which I had to use 10 of those little half & half creamers to buffer. Then, we boarded the ship and embarked on our tour. Although I don’t usually enjoy such scheduled package type trips like these, being out on the water made up for it. The captain nosed this large vessel into every interesting cove and nook where wildlife was usually seen, Puffins nesting and eating, Seals resting, Otters eating, and remnants of WWII buildings were some of the highlights. The ship served salmon and chicken lunch, and a desert bar afterwards. It was a 4 hour trip in all. Afterwards we visited some of the local gift shops and spent a few dollars on trinkets for the folks back home.
Before going back to the trailer that evening, we headed up to Exit Glacier for a close up of a real, honest to goodness Alaskan glacier. You drive up to the park which is a few miles from town. Then, you have to hike about ¾ of a mile uphill. The glacier is magnificent both afar and up close. The ice inside is deep and pure. We couldn’t resist cutting cool clear pieces of ice and crunching them like candy. To get the deepest, solid chunks is the key, but you have to get under the overhanging precipices and carefully chip away without causing an avalanche right on your very head. Also, ice cold water can run down your back when you are underneath, since the glaciated ice is in a state of decline during these summer months. Evidence of a more prominent and continual retreat is marked by posts along the road out where the glaciers’ end was positioned in the years 1978, 1951, 1909, 1898, and earlier. There are some miles in between some of these markers now. The river flowing from the melting ice has carved a shallow, rocky, expanse that the road follows now. Back at the trailer, it is now around 9:00 p.m. and as usual, the sun is still hanging around for its’ evening encore.
July 9th
We are not breaking speed records today getting started towards Homer. But once on the road we make pretty decent time. The road down is bumpy for quite awhile, and mostly two lanes. Only one stop for Ray’s fuel and no wildlife was seen on the entire ride. As we neared Homer, we saw strings of Halibut out front of guide shops alongside the road to both boast the fishermen's catch and advertise the guides services. The bay started showing within 10 miles or so, and it is really large and calm. You can see islands out there miles from the town and snow capped mountains ring the area. We settled in the r.v. camp which was fully hooked up and had a pretty spectacular, if not panoramic view of the entire area. We went out to eat at what turned out to be one of the few restaurants in the town. there are a bunch of little deep fried halibut shacks, and there is other fast food and bars. But there are hardly any places to eat that are comparable to Sizzler, or Black Angus. Next, we went to the grocery store and bought a few staples. Getting to sleep was once again pretty hard because it was still light out and we had little hard exercise lately.
July 10th
We slept in until 8:30 am and had brekkie in. Today is the big fish Hunt for Ray and Joey. There was not enough space for me on the boat. While dropping those guys off at Anchor River, we drove on the trail beach-side to check out the primitive camp that fisherman use. While coming back, we got a close up view of a Bald Eagle munching on something that either a fisherman or the ocean had cast out. Seeing this bird up close made me realize just how big they really are. They’re built like bulldogs with wings, being really stout, strong, and as far as birds go, solid looking. The Eagle stared right at us for a minute just before flying off. Several other people spotted it and were running over with their cameras and binoculars, but were disappointed by not being as timely as us. Unfortunately we lacked camera in hand too, as we had come prepared to catch fish.
While Joey and Ray fished, Elaine, Sara and I went to town and hunted for souvenirs and did some laundry. A house fire erupted nearby and was burned nearly to the framework before the fire dept. got there. The local mall was really tiny, having only a handful of shops to look through, but we did manage to find a few goodies at the combination True Value/ Hallmark store, and a bath and body shop.
When the time came, I drove out and picked up Joey and Ray. The guide's house was about 15 or more miles from Homer, and when I got there, they were already filleting the catch. Joey caught 2, and Ray 3. As the guide cut through fish skin and guts, thick swarms of mosquitoes hovered all around the table. The guide sprayed repellent haphazardly in the air as if it were OK to season the fish with it too. Joey’s first fishing trip was replayed in a condensed version by the guide, Joey, and Ray. Ray got seasick for a bit and Joey followed, although to a lesser degree, later on. The fish were biting as quickly as the bait got close to the bottom, which was estimated to be 150 feet or more. Everyone in the boat smoked cigarettes with the exception of Ray, Joey, and an 11 year old girl. Hardly any of the snacks we packed got consumed. Mostly everybody was busy fishing or catching. After loading up the bounty, we headed back to camp with a plastic bag full of Halibut. On the trip out, we saw first a cow moose; then, another cow with 2 very young calves. When we reached the trailer, dinner was being served and the sun finally came out and stayed out for the remainder of the evening. After dinner we watched some television and went to bed.
July 11th
We slept in until 8:30 this morning and then had a pretty decent home breakfast. Then we started packing the trailer up for the trip up to Soldotna. This is only a 70 mile or so trip up a 2 lane coastal highway and it goes pretty quickly. The new campsite is RiverQuest RV park located in Soldotna, and right on the river. The place is pretty clean and has water and electric hookup. There are multiple small boat launches here and one can see why after a brief walk around the camp. There are small boats in nearly every campsite. This is a fisherman's camp for sure. Some of the trailers are more permanently located here right on the riverbank. There is a small lagoon on the end of the site that is ringed with small boats for both personal and charter use in front of well kept trailers with wooden decks and in one case, a well manicured front lawn about the size of an unrolled sleeping bag. The river running by has an extremely treacherous looking current, and by Alaska standards, is also fairly deep. The water in the lagoon has a deep shade to it. One thing I have noted in relation to Alaska’s waterways is that the water is almost never clear. Even when shallow. There is so much loose mineral and the rivers and streams are spread out across so much territory that the water never gets a chance to pool up and filter out. Rather, it is always picking up new travelers on its’ trip down stream.
This campground has little else to do besides fishing, so we hit the town for some shopping for lack of better entertainment. Mostly we found the same old tired gift shops, but I did buy some cigars and some matches. We visited the grocery store and then went back to camp.
July 12th
Since there was little to do last night and we got to bed early, getting up at 6:30 was hard to avoid. A trip to Kenai was all we could come up with for amusement. All of us packed into the truck and drove to Captain Cook recreation area. On the way there, we stopped at the little town of Kenai and looked out over the ocean from a viewpoint bluff. The wind was blowing a little and there was little to see there with the exception of a few natives trying to net Salmon as they entered the river. So we headed towards Captain Cook. When we got there we found a pretty plain beach that was extremely muddy when the tide was all the way out. We didn’t spend much time there and drove back to town for some video rental and a stop at the post office. Next, we tried our luck at fishing off the pier at the campsite. This river is one fast moving body of water. Dropping a line in sees your rig taken about 1/8 mile downstream before you can get the bail set and get control of the lure. Lure is a bit of an overstatement too, since you are only in hopes of snagging these fish. They are not the least bit interested in food while they are headed upstream. Your best shot at catching them lies in the very nature of these fish's natural instinct to open and close their mouths all the time. After losing a few rigs and getting no “bites”, We lose patience immediately and head off to the trailer for videos and dinner. Before retiring for the evening, I was compelled to hit the river one last time with the pole and lure. I didn’t have any luck, however I did get a chance to smoke a decent cigar and watch what passes for a sunset in this latitude.
July 13th
I was nudged out of bed early today and had to have 3 or more cups of home made coffee to get myself up to speed. We hit the road by 9:00 a.m. with a stop at the video store to drop off the rental movies, and one at the post office. The road today doesn’t provide us with any animal sightings but the scenery is quite dramatic after we left Anchorage. The road was 2 lanes and hilly, while following the rivers. We saw the Matanuska Glacier and some open country all around. The glacier was showing signs of retreat even from the distance we saw it You could see where the old ice was and had cut the rocks for several acres. When we got to the campsite, we were instantly attacked by swarms of mosquitoes. Once again, we tried our luck with the fishing poles in the stream right behind the trailer. After having no bites, we abandoned that and walked through the campsite. Here we were treated to a real Alaskan mosquito welcome. They were constantly biting, landing, buzzing, and hovering. If you stood still, it was like an invitation for them to feast. Here we all were dressed for a summer evening too, with tank tops and shorts. If these mosquitoes were ever brought to trial for their attack upon us, I could see them mustering up a defense of, “well your honor, just look at the scanty clothes they were wearing. They’re just askin’ for it”. We decided to run back to the trailer for cover. On the way, we pulled 2 or 3 foot plants and used them like animals do with their tails, swishing them as we gained speed with each bite or landing. I went through 2 plants in less than 1/8 of a mile. For the remainder of the evening, We watched a little t.v. and did some catching up on the books.
Continued soon