This was the last road trip in Alaska before the fall season arrived. Cities south of Anchorage included Ninichik, Kenai, and Homer. As I stopped at a Chevron, there were 69,373 miles on the odometer. Then purchased a chili quiche from a Carr's for $8.99, but too bad it couldn't be warm.
I headed on out south of Anchorage towards Homer via Highway 1, the only way to get out of Anchorage. The first stop was the tiny community of Portage about 25 miles south of Anchorage. Down at Portage there were guided bus tours and a tourist information center. Portage is known for the glacier which has melted heavily in the past 50 years, but especially in the past 10 years.
In the past 98 years, the glacier has lost 2.5 miles of ice, which created the lake between the tourist center and the glacier itself. In the lake was a small piece of the glacier.
The visitors centers has some insects on display and a little history of the area. Some beautiful butterflies, including the biggest North American butterfly, were on display. On this wet and rainy day, the visitor's center was packed.
Glaciers in Alaska was big business. The old blue ice mainly attracted tourists.
Driving out of Portage, I was following a Toyota 4Runner from Texas. This was the 4th Texas car I've seen in Alaska. The others being a Saturn, red wagon, and another black Isuzu Rodeo. I'm not the only person crazy enough to drive all the way from Texas.
One day when I return, I'm afraid that small piece of glacier in the lake will be gone. I can say with some credibility Alaska was one of the most beautiful places to drive in North America. This was my third road trip here, so I should know. Most people don't tailgate when driving along the Alaska Highway going south, so drivers can enjoy the view without being hounded.
I made a right turn to soon and headed to Hope Junction instead of Homer. It' was a nice quiet little settlement, whic is part of the Chugach National Forest, with a state park at the end of the road, Porcupine State Park. There were couple of motels there, and one of them was $35/night, which is pretty good. The area just radiated a feeling of "outdoorness", if there's such a word.
The last time I drove Highway 1 to Kenai, I saw a biker pulling his dog with a hitch, which was very cool. Something I would do if I had a dog. When travelling to Kenai, I like to take the dirt road across from the Kenai animal refuge visitor's center. It's a 20-25 miles stretch of dirt road which detours back to Highway 1 further south.
I made an 1.5 hour stop at peaceful peaceful Bottenintnin Lake off the dirt road. No one was there, and no one came during the time.
Kenai was where Bill A., one of the 3 guys I originally lived with in May, relocated to after being fed up living at the little apartment. He was angry about kids stealing his food and the noise from the people partying upstairs. (One of the other roommates was bringing adolescences into the apartment.) I do agree with Bill the building had too many people living in it. The extra rooms were added by our landlord Richard P.- to make more money of course. I wished Bill the best of luck. He left me his inflatable sleeping mattress and toaster.
Back on the main highway, a sign said there has been 290 road kills last winter.
In Sodotna, there was a Chinese restaurant. Wow, this is an out of place area for Asians to be. It's kind of funny in an unknown sort of way, but I expected a Chinese restaurant in the most remote places now.
At 9:15 pm I stopped at the off the village of Ninichik, a Russian heritage town. The reason I stopped here was because I purchased a postcard which pictured the city church and the adjacent cemetery. I kept the postcard because it represented death. (From another perspective, a cemetery could represent peace to the soul.) I've noticed in my travels most churches in small towns were built at the highest point.
Then went over to the Transfiguration of Our Lord church pictured on the postcard. There's a good view of the town from up there. The cemetery adjacent to the church has a sign which reads, "private propery, no trespassing" which was kind of odd because most memorials are open for visitors. The cemetery grass has not been cut for quite a while. A sign posted says no photography is allowed in the small church without permission.
Next to the church cemetery was the American Legion cemetery set up in honor of all veterans of all wars. This cemetery was a little more well kept. On a board, probably local heroes were honored. Six Coopers were listed. There were Russians with English first names listed. What was impressive was the crosses of the graves were simple pieces of wood, nothing fancy. I've never seen anything like that before. When a person dies, how the memory of the person is important, not the fanciness the plaque or tomb.
Next to the cemeteries sat a house. Crazy.
Stopped at Ninichik River Scenic Overlook Park across from the city to take a nice, long dump in the cold night. One reason I like Alasak was because there were clean toilets all over the place. Generally at state parks. The park was more oriented towards RVs since the parking lanes were very long.
After leaving Ninichik, I headed towards Homer again. It was already dark and I decided to drive through Anchor River, a town not to far south of Ninilchik, to see what they offered. To my pleasant surprise, the city had a beach beyond all the camp sites. There was a box for self-registration camping for $5 (or was it parking). When I came down to the beach area, I was afraid to drive along the beach because the Rodeo might get stuck in the sand. Then 2 cars went down and I followed them and ended up seeing people camping.
Many people were camping out in RVs or tents; so I justed parked the Rodeo along the coast and went to bed.
