Tuesday, July 1, 2008

June 30 - To Homer, AK




Cold. Did I mention it’s cold? I mean an “I’m wearing a thermal shirt, long-sleeved T, heated liner, jeans, lined chaps, polar-fleece hood, fur-lined leather gloves, leather jacket, socks-n-boots and I’m STILL cold” cold! I realize part of this may be psychological: we’ve been looking at snow-covered mountains all day. However, MOST of it is undeniably physical. The temp on the bank digi-screen here in Homer just read 49 when we went to dinner and that was without the wind kickin’ in off of the Bay or doing 50 on the bike. I nearly had Jack convinced to beat a fellow patron to death when she walked into the restaurant and left the door open earlier. Of course, Jack thinks I’m being melodramatic (Who? Me?) but he’ll think again when my icy little feet find the small of his back tonight… ;) Just kidding.

Anyway – we’re in Homer, halibut capital of the world! For those of you as geographically challenged as myself, Homer is located at the bottom of one of the peninsular drips off of the south-central edge of mainland Alaska. It’s between the Cook Inlet and Kachemak Bay (Yeah, that meant nothing to me either before I got here…) Check it out on Mapquest if you’re interested enough. It was one helluva long drive from Talkeetna, but worth every minute – especially once the clouds blew out and the sky turned blue. The scenery is the prettiest we’ve seen and we’ve seen some amazingly pretty scenery. The Kenai Mountains are spectacular – the stuff you see in P.R. shots of Alaska. You just can’t get your camera to click fast enough to get in everything you want to take a picture of. Of course, none of the photos ever do the real thing justice (except, possibly, my Uncle Marshall’s. His are awesome!) I will include a slide show of some of the prettiest shots we took. (You’d probably be ready to shoot yourself in the head if I included the 200 or so that we took today alone!)

We went to dinner tonight on “The Homer Spit”, an odd little twist of land that juts out from Homer into the Inlet. It appears to be fairly well covered with fishing charter offices (and the trucks of the people out on those charters), gift shops, and little seafood places, but looks interesting enough to explore tomorrow. The chowder at the place we ate tonight was top-notch and there’s a place called “The Salty Dog” that’s been recommended to us for tomorrow. There are wide strips of beach on both sides of The Spit that are (to my TOTAL shock and disbelief) generously populated with campers – even campers in TENTS. Yes, the view is breathtaking, and yes, the sunsets and sunrises are, I am sure, something you’d never forget. BUT, I would be as frozen as a Mrs. Paul’s fish stick by midnight out there! The beaches are public land and there is no charge to park your camper or tent out there, but there are no electrical hook-ups (hence, no place to plug in an industrial-sized heater) and no shelter from the wind.

No. No, no, no.

Our rig continues to be the center of attention everywhere we go. Everybody wants to take a peek inside – they can’t believe it really has a king-sized bed and a nice-sized sitting area. A guy started talking to Jack about it this morning while I was getting dressed and I was momentarily panicked that they would walk in on me bare-assed. That would have been a tour the guy wouldn’t have forgotten! I personally think we should call the camper manufacturer when we get home and tell them that we’d be happy to retire from our current jobs and travel all over the country this way selling their trailer! (Jack, however, may have a slightly more secure retirement plan in mind.)

Gas is expensive here – about $4.80 a gallon in AK and closer to $6.50 or so in Canada, but we are grateful that the bike is still getting wonderful mileage. We just talked to a guy in a big ol’ motor home getting 7 mpg. I can’t even imagine that! It would cost more than $7,000 in gas alone to drive that thing here from Michigan! Geesh!

We both remain in fairly good shape physically. Jack’s wrists are taking a beating from maneuvering around some of the bad roads and his shins are aching from a little sprint he ran yesterday. My shoulder is still pretty bad (aggravated by that windy stint through Minnesota and North Dakota) but Dr. Feelgood gave me an RX of pain meds before we left which should pull be through until we’re home. As long as we keep being as careful as we have been, we should make it home in one piece (well, two pieces actually, since there are two of us…)

I suppose I’ve rambled on enough for one evening. Please write and let us know how you are. We love the feedback!
XOX
L

2 comments:

mr said...

Hey guys, I typed you a few words last night, but Laura reasures me that I must've entered the wrong password because there was no coment posted.Anyhow, once again It is so cool to read about your daily adventures across the country, and it looks like you're getting a real keen eye for some awesome photos.and don't tell me you're cold ! you're from Michigan ! I got a feeling if you two hit the lottery, we'd be reading about your trip around the world (in 80 days or so).anyhow, take care,love you guys.p.s. we can't wait for this crappy weather to subside, and turn into a real summer for once.later.

Unknown said...

Mike - As always, Jack and I SO appreciate your comments on the blog. It makes it more fun for everyone! You're right about our taking that "around the world" trip. I think that would be right at the top of our list of "to do's" if we won the lotto. We're hoping that you guys manage to chase out the lousy weather before we get home. We're ready for some serious warmth!
xox
L