Coffee.
Alaska and Anchorage in particular loves coffee. There are drive through espresso huts everywhere. It is estimated by the local rag, The Anchorage Daily News, that there is one espresso/ coffee hut for about every 100 residents of the city, and that doesn’t count all the Starbuckses, and wannabe Starbuckses, that appear seemingly overnight at locations where there weren’t even locations before!
Move over McDonalds, here come The Espresso Men!!
Of course, we have not lowered ourselves to go to a drive through coffee place, ……….only because they are all the size of construction toilets, and if I hit one even gently with the coach, it would vanish in a puff of coffee beans and frothy milk!
Today we spent a happy two hours getting the oil changed in the coach, ……24 quarts!!
Then off to the free dump and carwash.
The exciting morning was topped off with a trip to the auto parts store for replacement bulbs.
We hitched up the yellow peril, all sparkly clean, and headed south again.
After only half an hour of driving, down the Seward Highway, along Turnagain Arm, we had to stop, several times, coz the bore was running.
There is an occasional tidal bore, on the incoming tide, and it moves faster than a man can run sometimes, and twice a month the bore is over 6 feet high, and is quite spectacular. We were not so lucky to see a big bore today, but we watched in fascination as the two foot bore rushed headlong up the Arm, sweeping everything aside.
Turnagain Arm is best described as a big river mouth, longer rather than wider, and was named by Captain Cooke. He was looking for the fabled Northwest Passage through Alaska to the Arctic Ocean, or Pacific, or Houston Ship Channel, or somewhere. Anyway, he tried several times to get through, but when he finally realized that his dirty great big ship would not go over snow covered mountains, he supposebly said, “ Oh S…, we’ve got to turn again” And that, dear readers, is where the name came from.
Now, you will all have proof read thus far, and noticed the word supposebly. Our old landlady in Florida, Shelly, bless her heart, used the word, and it has stuck. I propose that it be entered into the English language as a proper word, so y’all can speak like wot I do.
We finally ended up at Trail River campground, which is one we stayed at last week, surrounded by green mountains, a rushing river and eagle sized skeeters. Marlipops reckons she saw a skeeter swoop down and pick up a horse, but I told her not to exaggerate, it was a dog.
Halibut.
For a change, to keep your attention, we are occasionally going to offer a new feature. Today’s new feature is a recipe for halibut.
Go to Alaska, catch some halibut. Have it filleted. Then:
Mix together some mayonnaise, some lemon juice and some herbs of your choice.
Spread it all over the halibut fillets.
Cook on high on the outdoor grille, for twenty minutes, while fighting off the skeeters with gallons of Off.
Fish is cooked when you slide your outdoor stainless steel spatula from Academy under it, and it lifts easily and gently from the skin.
Serve with roast potatoes, onions and brussell sprouts, ( or anything else, really) and a flagon of beer.
Get the other half to do the dishes, coz it takes hours to scrape the cooked fish skin off the platter!!
Today’s wildlife watch was nothing, sorry.
