Day 49

Today we were getting an early start, to do a bunch of stuff in Anchorage, which is 180 miles away, so we jumped out of bed……………at 9.00am!!

The salmon and late night photography of last night zonked us, and we had a much needed lie in.

So, off we went, at around 11.00 am, through Soldotna, past a female moose grazing in the pasture, and in to Anchorage, four hours later.

It was refreshing to see that we have not grown accustomed to the scenery, it is still wonderful to behold, even though it was a bit cloudy. Seeing glaciers from afar is still mind blowing.

We had an early dinner/ late lunch at a wonderful establishment called The Moose’s Tooth Brewing Company.

They not only make and serve the most delish and different pizza, they brew their own ale!

I was in heaven.

A smoked salmon pizza was washed down with a Northern Lights amber ale, which was so nice I bought half a gallon!

We stopped for gas and saw a weird truck, with stuffed animals. See pic.

At 8.30pm, we met up with brother Brian who had flowed in from Houston, to annoy us for a week or so.

Now we have to run him around all over the place, doing the touristy thing.

We left the airport at around 9.30, and within 2 hours Brian had seen his first 2 mooses!

Both munching away at the side of the road.

We got back to the campsite at around 1.00 in the morning, after an interesting drive back. A big deal is made in Alaska about driving carefully coz of the moose, and there have been a lot of accidents recently, and some fatalities, with people hitting moose, and after the drive last night, I understand why. These huge, harmless creatures stand innocently at the side of the roads, eating and minding their own business, and they are virtually invisible, so when they decide that the grass is greener in the other side of the street, they stroll across the road, and whammo, one minced moose and one mangled car. Very sad.

Wildlife watch today was the above mentioned mooses.

Day 48

The one problem with 20 hours of sunlight, is that the day gets away from you, especially when your watch has been banished to the darkest drawer in the coach, and before you know it, you are having dinner at 10.30 pm.

We had another fine day, not a sky in the cloud, eagles and seagulls all over the place, doing absolutely not a lot.

The main event of the day was driving 35 miles into the town of Soldotna, to join the library.

They have high speed internet and wifi access there, and as we needed to do some bizniss, bills and other boring stuff, we combined the trip with a beer run.

An Englishman never runs out of beer, and I was down to one bottle, so, we had to go.

In the evening, after a sumptuous dinner of steak, roast potatoes and salad, we met with our campsite neighbors at the communal firepit, where we sat, until the local gillnet fishermen came by with our order of salmon.

We then proceeded to process the fish, your never say die Captain ever game to attempt new and dangerous tasks. Armed with a left handed fillet knife, I proceeded to get some very juicy fillets at my first attempt.

One of our neighbors, Art, declared that he was going to smoke his fish there and then, so we all stood around the barbecue pit, drinking, giving all kinds of conflicting advise as to the best way to cook it.

He ended up sprinkling chili powder on, and covering it with butter, and after 30 minutes we all helped him eat it!! Absolutely yummy!!

By this time the sun had set, it was well after 11pm, and we all suddenly realized that the one problem with 20 hours of sunlight, is that the days get away from you.

Wildlife watch today, eagles, gulls, a bucket full of dead fish, and Max and River, the two campsite mutts, who are always wandering off, nosing in everyone’s coach, and generally getting into mischief. They can usually be found……….in the doghouse.

Day 47

Today was all about doing exactly nothing.

After leisurely reading yesterday’s morning paper over coffee and toast, ( we always read the paper a day behind, the news is always the same and there is no rush to get the paper)

we chatted with fellow RVers at the campsite, and then made our way down to the beach, where the tide was out, way out, as in negative 3.8 ( whatever that means).

There were hundreds of people clamming.

This stretch of beach is famous for its razor shell clams, see daily report # 42, and the tricky little suckers are really hard to get out. First you have to spot the tiniest of depressions in the sand, then using this T shaped tubular thing, the clam gun, you push and twist, and pull, and usually get a tube full of sand first time. Eventually a clam is caught, by which time your back is killing you, and the daily limit is 60, so you get to do this another 59 times, if you want.

Then, after having spent three hours, sometimes on your hands and knees, and in big scooped out holes in the sand, covered in mud and fish smelly sand, you get to go and clean them, which can take another four hours, coz they are really fiddley.

So, like all visiting celebrities would do, I caught the grand total of one clam, purely for the photo opportunity, and left the rest in the beach for the real enthusiasts.

Afterwards we had an excellent lunch and some good natured banter with our fellow campers at the beachfront café, known locally as The Beachfront Café, and we then went for a pleasant drive in the countryside, off the beaten track, looking for bears.

We didn’t find any, so we went to church.

There is a tiny Russian Orthodox Church perched on a hill above the little village of

Ninilchik, with some fascinating gravesites. The grass is mowed between the graves, but each site has a tiny white picket fence around, so the weeds and flowers grow wild on the grave itself.

Marlipops added to her collection of local wild flower photographs, and while we were wandering around the church, a cloud literally dropped on us in a matter of minutes, and we went from a magnificent view across Cooke Inlet and the distant mountains, to a fog bank in seconds.

As you drive around some of the back roads, and go into the little “scenic view” pull offs around here, you can discover some unspoilt areas, full of lush vegetation, streams and creeks. One of the major attractions for us here is that there are no snakes to step on, so we can go crashing through the undergrowth without fear of rattlers or coral snakes. Of course, there is always the possibility of a grizzly bear or a mountain lion or a wolf, but at least they are not venomous!

We just chilled for the evening, around the campfire, the highlight of which was six grown men trying to get the top off a cocktail shaker, and finally succeeded using a hammer and screwdriver.

We stayed up until 11pm and watched an absolutely stunning sunset across the Inlet, over Mount Redoubt. For once the sky was clear, and the colors were spectacular.

There were over forty fishing boats of various sizes in view, and when I woke at around 4.30 am, the boats were still there, and I watched the sun rise, at about 90 degrees from where it went down, and all the mountains were cloud free, with the snow sparkling in the dawn sun.

Wildlife watch today was bald eagles (yawn, yawn) and clams.

Day 46

Revelation!!

The coach is white, with pretty black and grey stripes!!

The yellow peril is yellow!!

We left our campsite in Sterling and proceeded in a westerly direction, to the town of Soldotna.

On the way, we washed the coach, and the car, and dust, grime, rocks and crap from 44 days disappeared down the plughole!

This Alaska dust gets everywhere. We had all the vents in the car closed, and still it got places we didn’t know existed.

Afterwards, we went to Fred Meyers parking lot.

This store is famous for being RV friendly, even having water and a dump. RVers can stay here for up to 5 days, free, and then have to disappear for 24 hours, before they can come back for another four free days. Coupled with the Saturday shoppers, the place was a zoo.

So we did our grocery shopping and vamoosed!

We drove the fantastic distance of 45 miles to our new campground, Scenic View, near the little town of Ninilchik, and we have a magnificent view across the Cooke Inlet, to the mountains on the west side, including the active volcano Mount Redoubt. We are parked at the bottom of the hill, with an uninterrupted view of the ocean, the fishermen’s boats and the bald eagles flying by. There are only 27 sites here, with a big communal log fire in the middle where everyone congregates and chews the fat. Wonderful.

We chatted with the owner, and he showed us the rest of his property, adjacent to and up the hill from the campsite. An even better view, if that’s possible, over the Inlet.

While we were sitting at the campfire, chilling, and chatting, fortified by some more fine ale from Kassik’s Brewery, we watched as some bald eagles pirouetted over us, so calm and serene. Absolute heaven.

Then Bob the owner told us that there is only about a 90 day frost free period up here, and when all the tourists have gone it’s pretty bleak!!

Day 45

It was not raining this morning!

We still didn’t get up and rush out!!

And a very happy birthday to Wilda, mother in law extraordinaire!!!

A very leisurely breakfast at our local internet café, Naptowne, was followed by a drive to Kenai, the largest town on the peninsular, although we didn’t know it at the time.

There is an old town area, sort of preserved from the late 1800’s, including the Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church, built in 1895. The priest was there, and he was the star of the day.

We reckon he was actually the original priest from when the church was finished, he was that old, but what a talker!

Non stop for about 20 minutes, and then he asked if we had any questions, after he had told us the history of the church and his own life history, and how priests are ordained, and what happens if they are widowed or get divorced, and on and on, ………until I asked him if there were any women priests. “NO WOMEN”, he almost yelled at us, “God was a man, no women of importance in the bible”, and so on. Marlipops and I looked at each other, at the couple with us in the church, and decided to get out of there pronto, he was building up such a head of steam!!

The town of Kenai spans the Kenai River, and today was the last day of the King Salmon fishing season, so there were hundreds of fisherists, lining both banks of the mouth of the river, with their tents all pitched and their rods and nets and other fish catching necessities, waiting for the tide to roll in, hoping to catch lottsa fish. We were on an overlook park thingy, watching from above, and for the two hours we were there, not a fish was seen.

We met and chatted to a very nice couple, Grayson and Pauline, from Michigan, fellow RV ers, and exchanged tales from RV nightmares.

It was wonderful and relieving to find out that other people have similar plans, problems and solutions to ours, and also very pleasant to exchange tips of the trips with them.

The rest of Kenai is pretty standard USA anywhere, so we wandered out of town to another micro brewery, offering free stuff.

Kassik’s Brew Stop is fantastic.

A small sample of six different ales, a very knowledgeable owner, and an exceptionally clean place, all lent themselves to a pleasant half hour supping.

All six ales were good, the best being Roughneck Stout. Very much like a traditional English mild.

This brewery has only been open for a year, and was started after the owner’s wife bought him a home brew kit a few years ago for Christmas. He quit his well paying job at the local refinery, she quit her job locally and they are going well.

So, we had to help the local economy by purchasing three different ales, for home consumption later. We then wandered north on the coast road, past the big oil refinery, which has been here since they discovered oil in 1957, and which produces about 15,000 barrels per day.

We followed directions from one of our guide books, and went to the beach, which has room for about 3 cars, and is all pebbles, and had a fabulous view of the oil rigs in Cooke Inlet with the mountains and volcanoes as a backdrop.

We then trogged off again to a state park further up the road, which was deserted, and had bear warning signs posted all around. So what did we do?

Went into the woods, singing and talking and yelling “Go Bear”( see previous reports) in loud, deep voices.

And, once again, we got about a hundred yards, looked at each other, and did another runner back to the car!!

The weather up here is interesting. One minute we have the AC on, the next we need the heater on. Weird. The advice is to dress in layers, and I’ve found the best sort of pants to wear are light weight Columbia pants, with the zips around the thigh, so I can convert them into shorts instantly, together with a T shirt and waterproof windbreaker thing with a hood.

Of course, Wimpypops wears 500 layers, with scarves and all sorts of unmentionables!!

Wildlife watch today was pathetic, just a noisy squirrel at the campsite.

Day 44

Another rainy day, but that does not deter your intrepid twosome!!

We drove 80 plus miles down to the end of The Kenai, as far south as you can drive in Alaska on normal roads, without getting on a ferry or a plane. Or swimming.

The town of Homer sits on the end of the peninsular, and then a huge Spit of land sticks out like a giant fishhook into Kachemak Bay, which is the southern end of The Cooke Inlet, where it meets the Gulf of Alaska.

On the way, for miles, the fields and roadsides are awash with purple Lupines and Indian Paint Brush, full of bees and other assorted flying creatures. Very pretty.

The village on the end of the Spit has been originally named Homer Spit.

As you drive over the causeway road thing to the Spit, there is a lake called Beluga Lake, why, is a mystery coz it is landlocked, and a beluga whale would have trouble getting into it unless it was a flying whale, or if there was a whaleway, ( terrible pun) and there were dozens of float planes coming and going. Busy, busy, busy.

There are millions of RVs camped all along both sides of The Spit, whose main touristy attractions are halibut fishing, ocean kayaking and sightseeing tours of the glaciers.

We wandered into the only original building still remaining from when the town was founded in 18 something, now converted to a pub called the Old Salty Dawg.

Very quaint, the walls covered with dollar bills pinned there by customers, who have written their own comments on the money in black marker pen.

Of course, we are upstanding citizens, and would never dream of defacing property of the treasury, with comments such as “Marlipops and The Captain”, and “Come On You Wolves”. Never. Nor would we search for a glass full of thumb tacks to pin the dollar bills to the wall. Not us.

Unfortunately, it is with great sadness that I have to report that the locally brewed ale on offer was pretty horrible, served in plastic bottles which were not allowed to leave the bar, as they were recycled. The beer tasted as though it had been recycled as well, through a few halibut. It was bad.

Also, the ban on smoking in public places has either not reached this far south, or is just ignored, so the atmosphere was, well, smokey!

Anyway, we left the pub and wandered across the street, to Boardwalk Fish and Chips, in Cannery Row.

The halibut was served on a skewer, fried in a very light batter, and was absolute heaven. It was far better than that reported from Haines a few weeks ago.

The chips were pretty good too, and vinegar was on the table without being requested. Very civilized!

We then walked around a bit, checking out the various offers on fishing trips and sea kayaking, and I have to commend one of the young ladies behind the counter at Mako’s Sea Taxi.

As usual, I was the comedian to Marlipop’s straight talking, and when I asked about alligators on the glacier wildlife cruise, this young girl, without a second’s pause, came back at me with “Of course, sir. We have the white alligators, the Northern species. They are white, to hide in the snow, and their claws work real well on the glaciers.” She then proceeded to explain that the kayaks all have some kind of skirt, but I would look good in a pastel shade, not the standard black. She was very good, almost a match for me, and so refreshing compared to the usual “like, like, like” which is how kids today talk, like.

On our way back to Homer from the Spit, Marlipop’s research had uncovered the fact that Homer Brewery was open to tours, so we thought we would give them a chance to redeem themselves, and paid them a visit.

The brewery, shop, sampling area and register are all in one room. The tour consisted of “Which 3 of our 10 ales would you care to sample?”

So, forewarned being forearmed, or something like that, I tried 3 that were not on sale in the pub earlier.

The brewery redeemed itself.

The samples were very generous, and after the 3, I was feeling no pain!

It would have been rude not to buy some beer, and so I purchased half a gallon of fine ale, for $ 10.00, plus a fee for the designer flagon. Considering the price of beer here in Alaska, and the fact that these people only have a short season in which to fleece the tourists, it was not a bad deal. Only problem is I had a headache when I woke up, hence the reason this travelog is being written a day later than normal.

Homer is an artsy type of town, and some sights were pretty neat, particularly the blue RV, see pix.

Also, the tracked ATV pic is for Geoff, who probably needs one in Florida!

We were very tired, so on the way back, pulled off the road to have a snooze. We were woken by a woman knocking on the window, who had seen our license plate from Florida, and wanted to chit chat coz she was from Florida. Who cares???? Go away, we are tired!!! But we are very polite, so we weren’t rude, but we wanted to be!!

Wildlife watch today was lots of bald eagles, again, and tons of dead halibut.

Day 43

Today was fun.

We started at the internet café, where they have a wonderful sign which reads:

“Unattended children will be given an espresso and a free puppy.”

Off we went, through the drizzle to the delightful town of Seward, on the east side of the Kenai Peninsula, or as the locals call it, The Kenai. See how good we are at picking up languages?

On the way, we spotted one of the classic Alaska wildlife pix, the moose in the pool. And this time we were able to spend a lot of time just sitting and watching her munching away, not a care in the world.

We had a look at some of the campsites we may stay at next week, all dotted along the side of Lake Kenai, or as the locals call it, Lake Kenai.

Seward is a much better town than Valdez, has a much more dramatic fjord guarding it, and a glacier perched almost right on top of it.

The rain was still doing its drizzly thing, so we wandered the shops, all with different outsides, and all with the same “made in anywhere except Alaska” crap for the cruise ship visitors inside.

If all the stuff is made in Japan, and China, why do they bother visiting, when they can go to their local Wally Mart and buy the same stuff?

Anyway, it finally stopped raining, and the mountains peeked from behind their shrouds of clouds and just stunned us with their diversity of color and range of textures. The differing hues and shapes make you want to reach out and stroke them, they look so soft and inviting.

We stopped a number of scenic rest areas, but once again, although the views were magnificent, photos do not do them justice.

On the way back to Monaco, (that is the name of our coach) we saw a lot of fisherists standing in the fast flowing river doing what they do best.

Yes, you guessed, staring at two big black bears who were strolling up and down the river bank, annoying the seagulls and looking for fish scraps. By the looks on the fishermen’s faces, I bet it wasn’t only the bears who crapped in the woods tonight!!!

Marlipops sez my T shirt addiction is creeping back coz I bought three today. I think the ring I bought for her today, to match the necklace I bought for her in England four years ago should hush her……a bit!!

Wildlife watch today was all the above mentioned, plus a loon.

Day 42

Before I start, a joke, courtesy of my good mate Dick Gatley.

Man goes into a doctor and says “ I’ve got a fear of lapels”

Doctor says “ You’ve got cholera”

Weather horrible, stayed in the coach until lunchtime watching Michelle Pfeiffer do her thing in “I Am Sam”. Oh and a guy named Penn or something. Then weather got better and we went out.

After finding an internet café, we wandered off to the next place we are going to stay at, Scenic View RV Park, in a little place called Ninilchik.

On the way we passed through the biggish town of Soldotna, and the twenty miles or so either side of this town were probably the worst in terms of scenery, and general scuzziness since our travels began ( except for Salt Lake City)

However, we soon realized that all the locals are intertwined in some way with the fishing industry, which up here at this time of year is tied hand in hand with tourism. There are, as reported recently, lots of creeks and streams, but we also saw first hand today some of the work done for the off shore fishing type people.

We spent a long time talking to the owner of Scenic View, and very informative he was too. As well as tasting the freshly cooked, well still cooking actually, smoked salmon, he was preparing, we found out that he and his wife go clamming, for razor clams, during certain times of the month. They use a thing called a clam gun, which acts on the suction cup principle, sucking the little suckers out of the sand!!

He then told us all about a place to go, so we went.

It is called Deep Creek, and is where all the fishing charters leave to go offshore. What is really interesting is the way the boats get into the water. Big old John Deere earthmovers, rusty as hell, hitch up the boat trailers and run down the pebble beach straight into the waves. The boats rev up, slam into reverse and off they go. Brilliant! Though I don’t know how long the earthmovers last in all that salt water. On the return journey, the boats radio the men in the earthmovers, and their trailer is waiting in the sea, the boats come steaming in, virtually flat out until the last second, straight on to the trailers, up the beach, and bingo, dry fishermen!

Then, the fun begins.

Afterwards the fish are processed, and we are talking real fish here, not some half pound tiddler from your back yard pool.

One guy we spoke to told us his grandson had landed a small 160 pound halibut! That’s bigger than me!! Well, nearly.

The salmon are monsters as well, 3, 4 and sometimes 5 feet long.

After processing and the tourists having departed with their fillets, there remains some remains, which have to be disposed of. The processors take all the offal, bones and everything half a mile up the beach, and supposedly throw it all back into the sea at low tide. Of course, this usually does not happen at low tide so there are tons of stinking rotting fish guts and entrails and other gory stuff on the beach.

Not for long.

Down come literally thousands of seagulls, as well as hundreds of bald eagles, both mature and adolescent, who gorge themselves, leaving only the bones and heads,. We only saw a couple of dozen eagles, but apparently when the processors are in full swing, there are lots.

The bald eagle pix attached show an adult and a juvenile. It takes three years or so to mature, changing color, even the beaks. Fascinating, and they are very big, 3 feet tall with a wingspan over 6 feet.

Wildlife watch today was the above mentioned fish heads, seagulls, eagles and really sad, a dead moose.

And because they are used to humans being on the beach, they are not as skittish as others. This is actually very bad for the eagles, coz they should always be wary of us. I would be wary of me if I was a eagle!!

Anyway, a very interesting experience, and a smelly one!!

Day 41

After leaving the comforts of Home Depot parking lot, we proceeded to the Seward Highway, and some fascinating scenery. The road hugs the edge of the Cooke Inlet, named after that famous English explorer, Captain Cooke, (who would have made Admiral, but he was murdered by some Hawaiians.)

Anyway, this drive is great. The railroad is just down to the right, between the road and the shore, and the train goes even slower than me, must be piloted by Corporal Cautious!

The tide was out, and there are warnings against going on the wide mud flats at low tide, coz it turns to quicksand, and can suck you down in a flash!!

So, we didn’t go on the mud flats.

At the right time, Beluga whales can be seen coming in with the tide, but we was there at the wrong time.

We got to the campsite that had been booked for over a month, only to find that our allocated space was taken, and was not going to be available. It was actually the best of the lot, so we were miffed. The owner offered to let us have another space, then move when the occupants of our space decided to leave, but by that time we had agreed that the campsite was pretty crap, on the only stretch of 4 lane highway south of Anchorage, so we told them we would be back after we drove around for a while.

We went up the road for about 2 miles, and, Marlipops came up trumps yet again. We are settled into Real Alaskan Cabins and RV Park. We are backed into a delightful space, with full hook ups, totally surrounded by trees. With the wind rustling the leaves, it is 100% peaceful. And, the price here is cheaper than the other site.

So, we went back to the first place and told them where to stick their campsite!

You have to realize that this area is full of rivers and creeks, and the salmon are just starting to run for the spawning season, so July is the busiest month down here, and we were lucky to get this place, Actually, it was all down to the smooth charm of Marlipops.

The weather was pretty terrible when we got up this morning, we couldn’t see a single mountain, but as we drove south, the skies gradually cleared, giving us views of the V and U shaped valleys between the mountains, and all the glaciers.

Note. When you look at the pix, do not confuse the train with the yellow peril. The train is the one with Alaska written on the side.

Captain Cautious had a haircut, courtesy of Marlipops, but the beard remains untouched.

Wildlife watch today was bald Eagles ( boring!), Dall sheep, so high up the mountainside, with his rear end hanging so far over the edge it was a wonder he didn’t fall off, magpies, seagulls and a ground squirrel.

Day 40

Today is Sunday, and a shopping, taking care of business day. We did the grocery/Wal Mart/Sam’s Club thing, found out that Anchorage McDonalds does a McKinley Burger

( after the mountain, which is round the corner somewhere) and generally did boring things all morning.

In the p.m. we went to downtown, for the tourist walk. Anchorage is a typical big city, and unfortunately doesn’t have anything note worthy to brag about. It is the surrounding mountains and scenery which make this place great, not a bunch of boring buildings, so there wasn’t a lot to see.

There was a neat flea market, with most of the stalls selling “made in Alaska” stuff, with one stall selling dolls with the “made in China” labels badly scraped off!

In the downtown touristy part, they have a lot of “theme” salmon, by local artists, which are statues of decorated salmon, similar to the Houston Cow Parade, only not as big. The best one was the salmomopoly, see pic.

We wandered down to the Ulu factory.

What is a Ulu?, I hear you ask.

A Ulu is an Alaskan knife, with a funny shaped handle and blade and is sold with a fancy board made from spruce. The Ulu is supposedly used to cut food, but looks very awkward to use, and we didn’t buy one.

However, if any of our readers want one, let us know. All donations to the Marlipops/Captain Cautious fund will be gratefully accepted!

We then went to the local salmon viewing area, and watched lots of humungous red King Salmon milling about, under a bridge. There were no obstacles in their way to prevent them from going upstream, they were just circling under the bridge.

Not nearly as many as in Valdez a few days ago, and the place itself was on the industrial side of the city, so we didn’t stay long, coz it was a bit skuzzy.

We have finally found out the reason for the long lines at Dairy Queen.

This place has only been open for 18 days, and is the first DQ in Anchorage for 16 years, and for some reason the locals and the imported people love it. We stood in line for 15 minutes to place an order, then had to wait another 20 minutes to get the order.

We spoke with the owner, who told us that on the weekend they opened, the line of cars for the drive through was blocking traffic on the roads around, and had to be moved!!

Wildlife watch today was a 50 pound seagull, as big as a dog, chasing all his rivals away.