I’m a desert guy. Give me the desert over mold and rot and never having moisture in your surroundings. But I’m in Valdez now. We didn’t plan on being here this long, but a bad defect in a wheel and a so called mechanic created many more days for us here. AND I have to say i wouldn’t  want to live here but I am so glad we got to spend time here we wouldn’t have done if the problems would not have happened. Every day is a new look on this beautiful place. From the ground to the sky to the water to the food to the people, to the everything we have never seen before.  What we as people miss for not taking our time. Go with the flow, that’s us. Love it

Yesterday we arrived in Valdez and will be staying here until I fly to Dallas for the birth of my grandson on July 16. I’m flying out of Valdez on Tuesday evening at 6:00 PM and arriving in Dallas at 1:30 PM on Wednesday. Tom has not yet decided how he will spend the week that I am gone but I expect there will be fishing involved.

Valdez is on Prince William Sound surrounded by glaciers and cascading waterfalls. Our campsite is on the water with views of the southern terminal of the Alaskan Pipeline. It is lovely from every angle but I am trying to imagine Valdez with 300 inches of snow. It’s the snowiest town in the United States.

I have read and have been reading a lot of books about Alaska over the years and they have been all true stories and adventure. Once I start one I’m hooked till I’m done.   One great set of books is about a husband and wife team that canoed and spent winters there including on the Arctic Ocean. There are 5 books by those two plus some done solo.  I am now reading them for the 3rd time.  Linda is reading them and she is incredulous that they had the courage to do what they did. Every book could be a movie. They are both dead now, but one amazing thing is the husband died in Wickenburg Az a few years back which is where we winter and have a house. I had no idea at the time. Anyway I have some game regulations from 1944 when they spent their first year there.     This is a yearly limit.   Bull moose. One each,  caribou 3 each, mountain goats 3 each, grizzly bear no limit, black bear 3 each, ptarmigan and grouse 10 daily,  geese 2 daily,..I don’t know about fish but I’m sure the sky is the limit. And one winter they came close to starving and they were quality hunters. 

Today we went to Kennicott a old copper mine that is now being resurrected. It closed in 1938 and had 700 employees. It was huge. It produced 590,000 tons of copper and 9 million ounces of silver.  The big building is 16 stories tall. The glacier is covered by its own moraine. There is still lots of ice under it and above   Very cool place. There is a hotel and good food. You take a employee driven van 5 miles in and 5 out t for $10 a person. All the pics that look like dunes, there is a glacier under it……the extreme earthy tree hugger type have come here and looked at the moraine dunes and say how horrible that the mining caused all that and it was ugly to look at. But when they found out what it really was, they thought it was beautiful.  Par for the course.  

Today we are camped on the banks of the cold and grey glacial Kennicott River just outside of

McCarthy. The town is featured on Discovery Channel’s “Edge of Alaska” reality show. The 29 full time residents don’t like tourist traffic so we had to park on the opposite side of the river and walk a mile into town. We did walk but there is a shuttle that runs every half hour between the bridge and town. We paid $20 to dry camp along the river near the pedestrian bridge. It is beautiful here at the foot if the Root Glacier. I keep saying that but it’s true. Every place in Alaska is beautiful.

A few camps ago 5 bald eagles, 2 immature and 3 mature, were fighting over some food below us. There were some great flying maneuvers exhibited. Finally this one came up with a piece and parked not far from us and ate. I thank the bird for some good shots. I have one that’s too good to put on.  I want to do something with it and sell it. BTW the water is 200 ft below the eagle. We did a boat trip on the inlet and went past a rock island full of all types of birds. The Eagles are so thick there now the birds are unable to reproduce as the Eagles will attack them and the nest for food. A lot of the birds sit in the water to keep from dying

Places we have been camping are very lush. Abundant flora and fauna. It looks very tropical. And I guess it should with the moisture it gets and so many hours of daylight and sunshine.

Seldovia is a old Russian town 15 miles south of Homer. The only way you can get to it is by boat or plane. It has about 200 people. It took a big hit in the 1964 earthquake when it sunk 4 ft. With a 24 ft tide they had some major work. The best thing is a boardwalk that goes through houses and shops that  border the sea. They have a rv park but you have to put your rv on a special ferry which looks like a pain Most cars there have outdated license and there are no police.  There are 3 restaurants that have to make their money in the summer. Not much in the winter. Very very picturesque in the summer.

We have been spending time on the Homer Spit, hence the Spit Sisters. We went for a cruise today. Saw this gull with nest and chicks on a bouy. A rock in the bay with more birds than ?? A otter looking like a old man watching tv. Cargo containers with cabins built on top , our cruise boat and a RV that should be everyone’s dream.  Don’t ever throw one away.