Author: Steve

Oh No!

We don’t get much news here in the RV wilderness, just the occasional snippet.  (Part of that is due to the lack of connectivity and part of it is it feels so much better when we don’t look.)  But I saw a headline on my telephone that trump is being ridiculed for saying something; for saying something that I might have said!

Please forgive any factual errors in my recounting, but as I heard it there was a security council meeting and the conversation was about hurricanes.  Suddenly trump announced “I’ve got it.  Hurricanes form off the coast of Africa and come across the Atlantic before they hit us, right?  Wait until it forms, then bomb it.  Blow it up, disorganize it, and it will no longer be a hurricane!”  Or something like that.

Now that’s exactly the kind of thing I could say in a meeting.  On a topic of which I know little, I could challenge the knowledgeable people in the room to explain to me why that was a dumb idea.  The surest way to demonstrate that you really know what you’re talking about is to have to explain what you know to someone else, including answering challenging questions.  I can make sure they’re considering all the alternatives, even the dumb ones; and besides, I think it’s funny.

So maybe the president of the United States is supposed to be more knowledgeable or serious than that.  Or maybe it’s only funny if I say it…

Even when we’re not traveling, just sitting and working all day, this is such a great trip and I love this view when I look up from the desk.

Haines, Alaska.

Action stills from town.

I’ve fixed the trip map.  I’ve put a line on it so our route home from Homer to here so far will be crystal clear…

The trip home from Homer

Oh.  And a bear.

A nice healthy young sow I believe.

We weren’t out on a bear tour or anything.  We were just down the road a little in Haines.

She’s got her eye on me.

Here she is at the water’s edge turning over rocks to see what’s to eat underneath.

Grizzly bear at low tide video

Here’s a different bear, wet from head to toe, sitting next to a salmon weir, picking off fish at will.

I was just thinking.

Sitting in the den, mom and dad watching tv, me watching the smoke rise in the still room from the cigarette in the ash tray (cigarettes in the ash trays).  No stray draft of air to disrupt the thin unbroken stream for six inches, maybe ten, until it suddenly disperses in a swirl of curls.  As soon as someone gets up and walks past, or moves around in the room disrupting the air, the pattern is broken, and the smoke is messy until the air settles down again.  As the air stills, I watch the pattern return and the thin unbroken line of smoke reform.

And a glass of scotch.  There is always a glass of scotch on each table next to each recliner, next to each ash tray.  Never an indication of excess, never an inebriated parent, never a problem, just a comfortable glass of scotch at the end of the day.  That’s life in the evening for adults at our house, a glass of scotch, a cigarette, and television in the den with no ventilation.

In the present day, I see the signs in every restaurant.  “Do not drink during pregnancy; it’s bad for your unborn child.”  “Don’t smoke during pregnancy; you’re risking birth defects.”  And it occurs to me that my brothers and I, and our entire generation, are mostly all products of smoking and drinking during pregnancy; what no-one at that time knew might be bad for you.  We are all the product of what you’re now not supposed to do.

We drove the Richardson Highway today.

There is smoke in the air from forest fires; a front came through with wind and blew up the Swan Lake Fire on the peninsula and a few more started, but the scenery is still spectacular.  It’s very big here.

Early fall colors.

Tonight’s windshield.

We’re boondocking next to the Alaska Highway east of Delta Junction.  We could have driven straight to Tok from Glennallen, but we received so many warnings about road conditions on the Tok Cutoff, we chose to drive the extra miles through Delta Junction.  We’d rather drive farther smoother, than shorter rougher.

Valdez to Delta Junction part of the trip map

Good weather all day.  It’s cold and raining tonight.  We’re snug and warm inside.

4,175 miles to Sandpipers.

No internet last night.  None tonight.  A foggy start.

But another day of good weather and great scenery.

We stopped for fuel and supplies in Tok, then continued east crossing the border into Yukon Territory; past Beaver Creek, Snag Junction, and Quill Creek.  Past Burwash Landing and Destruction Bay.  Settled at an overlook on Kluane Lake.  Another boondock.

Delta Junction to Destruction Bay part of the trip map

We’ve kind of made a mess of this map.  With all those pins, it’s probably hard to even pick out where we are on it.

Tonight’s stop.  We had it all to ourselves.

6,104 kilometers (3,802 miles) to Sandpipers.  Our destination isn’t Sandpipers yet though, it’s Haines, AK, our last stop in Alaska this trip.  We started out referring this as our trip of a lifetime; probably our only trip ever to Alaska.  It didn’t take long before we started referring to attractions we skipped, missed, or discovered too late as “On the list for our *next* trip to Alaska.”

Back to Alaska!  We were only out of Alaska for two days and one night, so we didn’t even change our clocks.  From our camp south of Destruction Bay, we headed south to Haines Junction, tanked up, and continued south crossing first into British Columbia, then back across the border into Alaska again!

Valdez to Haines part of the trip map

We’ve run out of scenery superlatives.

And what is this on the mountaintops; that thing called Termination Dust?

3,699 miles to Sandpipers.