Steve and Judy's Travels!

Haines was to be our last stop in Alaska.  We were going to drive off back through Canada this morning.

Plans change.

Instead of driving all the way back out to Haines Junction then on to Whitehorse, we took a one-hour ferry ride twenty miles to Skagway.  Skagway, our first stop in Alaska and now our last.

Haines and Skagway part of trip

Putting the bus on the ferry was a trip.

It was low tide and a steep ramp, so required blocking underneath the rear wheels while I inched along to keep from scraping the rear end.

Then some tight turns on the car deck, tighter than the bus can make, so “Y” turns.  It’s not that difficult really, just do what the people wearing vests tell you to do.

Tonight’s windshield view over the harbor.

Dinner at the Skagway Fish Company.

Alaskan King Crab stuffed Halibut.

Perfection.

Next up, fifteen hundred miles of road between here and Vancouver, B.C.

I mean Tuesday.

There is a thing here called a tidal grid.  I saw one while we were in Whittier, kind of a wood frame underwater.  I observed it but didn’t recognize what it was.  We spotted another one here in Haines, a wood frame underwater, and the light bulb went on.

Looking down on it from above.

At low tide, it’s completely exposed.

The idea is, you float your boat over the rack at high tide and tie it off to the pilings.

Then as the tide goes out, the boat is in a makeshift dry dock.

You’ve got several hours to work on it before the tide comes back in and floats it again.

Pure practical low-tech.  Brilliant!

The concept works pretty well here in Alaska where there is often a 10 to 12 foot tidal swing every day.  It would be a little harder to implement in South Texas where there is a 1 to 2 foot swing.

There is a thing here called a tidal grid.  I saw one while we were in Whittier, kind of a wood frame underwater.  I observed it but didn’t recognize what it was.  We spotted another one here in Haines, a wood frame underwater, and the light bulb went on.

Looking down on it from above.

At low tide, it’s completely exposed.

The idea is, you float your boat over the rack at high tide and tie it off to the pilings.

Then as the tide goes out, the boat is in a makeshift dry dock.

You’ve got several hours to work on it before the tide comes back in and floats it again.

Pure practical low-tech.  Brilliant!

The concept works pretty well here in Alaska where there is often a 10 to 12 foot tidal swing every day.  It would be a little harder to implement in South Texas where there is a 1 to 2 foot swing.

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.