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By Carol & Dick Stewart |
| So it is to Homer today. The turn around town; the end of the road;
the most westerly and southern town on the Kenai peninsula. There, we will
investigate the most westerly road on the continuous continent, the halibut
fishing area, the spit where hundred's of RV's are parked to enjoy the
water views of the mountains, and travel to little villages (by small private
ferries) like Halibut Cove and Seldovia. And then there's the Salty Dog
log cabin tavern that sells only beer and no food, but they often have
music and lots of good talk and singing. How about going to a tavern
called Alice's Champagne Chandelier Palace--say what? And we hope to walk
the village of Russian fishermen whose wives hold the fishing permit and
it is passed to the oldest girl--way to go girl. But the bad news is outside
of permit holding, she is absolutely suppressed, wears her hair covered
at all times, works the farm in a dress. But the good news is the dress
is colorful red or green with gold threads. They are absolutely elegant
and truly beautiful. Good clothing for barn work; I don't get it.
Now I haven't mentioned the weather. Well, it's getting light out now, just a little before six. And the clouds are still with us and it mists or rains, and yes the fishermen are at their places. Not so many so early, but they are there. High temp is about 60; low about 55. And only a little sunshine. We have heard that the August rains are early; that June is better. Well, I can vouch that the rains are here. We wear about three layers of shirts and then jeans and big, heavy muck boots. Our hooded rain jackets are our friends. And this morning we have electric hook up's; oh joy, we have heat on the campground's dime. We can see for miles; across the bay are three snow covered volcanoes, and inland, probably 60 miles away are sparsely snow covered mountains. The Kenai is 100 yards wide, and we see the fishing boats stream in and out all day. Sometimes the surf is up and crazy; and a few minutes later, the water is calm like a lakes. Of course wild flowers abound, and the grasses are the richest green ever; when the sun does shine, it is a knock out. And the community has moose; we've seen 4 cows and a calf right here in town along the highway, just munching their hearts out. They see us, but can't be bothered with us; however, we do not get out of the car. They are still respected as wild. It's full daylight now; the beach fires are put out by, you guessed it, the rain. We move today, and we know this is so, because we usually hook up the car in the rain. And yet, like the natives, the rain does not stop us. We just keep going. As I reported Homer is the turn around town. From there it is trace back and east and south. There's still more to see; towns like Valdez, Atlin, Whitehorse, Stewart. They're all part of a continuous loop of see and do. But it is the start back that will still take us nearly a month to get us to Vancouver Island, if we can get the ferry from Prince Rupert. It only runs every few days, and reservations are high right now as we all start to think about leaving. We can wait, and from there we will kill time by going to the Queen Charlotte Islands for a few days with the car and B and B's. We hope to see interesting flora and fauna and some historical spots that are older than written history. Well, that's the plan, and we have enjoyed this restful two days with a mail pouch, home made cookies and much reading. We did pick up a golf tournament from the Palm Springs area on cable TV. We've had our civilization fix. Time to move back to the bush; I've even had a hair cut, but my nails are under my own works. |