North to Alaska: Day 31

Welcome! Day 31 & 32 (Sept 8/9) of North to Alaska

Quote: “What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do – especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” – William Least Heat Moon

Today is Day 31 a better day than yesterday. I felt much better today than yesterday, maybe not completely well but ready to move on. We are on our way to Soldotna on the west side of the Kenia Peninsula. The three largest towns in this area are City of Kenia, Soldotna and Homer. City of Kenia is the largest with less than 7500 residents. Over the next two days we will explore each of these. City of Kenia and Soldotna are next to each other about 5 miles apart with Homer down the coast about 70 miles.

Since Soldotna is less than three hours from Anchorage we planned to sleep late. Since I had some trouble getting to sleep last night I slept till nearly 9. Cassie had no problem sleeping and got nearly 12 hours awaking near 10. We headed out just before 11, made a stop at Sam’s for Diet Coke and another case, 48 bottles of water, we have used up 2 cases so far on this trip. The prices in Sam’s looked very similar to the ones in our area. The drink and hot dog combo was 1.50 with no tax same as ours except we pay tax. Sam’s was very busy I think the prices might be one reason why. We then headed south on the Seward Highway until we reach the Sterling Highway then turned west toward Soldotna. Shortly after turning we entered Coopers Landing, this was about 12:30 Cassie decided we should stop for bathroom and a lite lunch. We saw a place called Sunrise Cafe, a gas station, café and night club all rolled into one building. It did not look like much, night club wasn’t open so we entered the café. Cassie used the bathroom while I looked over the menu. She return and said the bathroom was nice the toilet actually flushed. She has been in the back country too long. The food was good, the people friendly, and a very nice place. We are glad we stopped. We arrived at the hotel about 2:30, unloaded what we needed and rested a while. About 4 we decided to drive around City of Kenia and Soldotna. Both of these towns are primarily built for fishing. I was surprised that each town has a McDonalds and other fast food places, we normally only saw theses in and around Anchorage or Fairbanks. Unless you wanted to fish nothing really made an impression on me. We ended the day getting some McDonalds and eating in our room. I did not stay up late and did get a good night sleep.

On Monday we planned to drive down to Homer and see what we could. The motel owned a restaurant next door. Instead of providing breakfast they gave us each a 15 dollar voucher for breakfast next door. On Monday morning we had to pay an extra 1.72, breakfast is not cheap. We ate about 10 and left for Homer about 2 hours away. We stopped a few times for pictures. We went thru Anchor Point on our way to Homer. You say, Anchor Point is important because, well it is North America’s Highway System most western community. There are other communities further west but the highway system will not get you there. On to Homer which is on the Cook Inlet and primarily built for fishing activities. Halibut is the main large fish in this area. We drove to the end of Homer Spit, a long, narrow land mass extending into Cook Inlet. It has many boats docks as well as many shacks for food and gifts. We saw a lot of cars parked but not many people, I assume they were all out on fishing or tour boats. Homer is served by the Alaska Marine Highway (ferry) System. If you want to go to the Kodiak Islands you go through Homer. I got the impression Homer is a busy place in late June, July and early August. But I did not see much I would return to see. We returned to Soldotna around 3 and stopped at a Deli where we each had a build your own sandwich. They were good, of course they were, we built them. We rested the rest of the day, I did not want to do too much, you know still recovering or just being lazy.

We ate from our snack box for supper since we had a very late lunch.

One other note about Sept. 9. 38 years ago today I started in my chosen profession (computers), at the only company at the time that would hire me. Some 35 years later I retired after a very fulfilling career which entailed involvement in all aspects of the business at all levels. That involvement, especially over the last 10 years, allowed us to take this and other trips over the past several years. I am extremely appreciative to all I worked with and for, they allowed me to reach my goals. Sept 9 will always be a special day for me.

This ended day 32. Tomorrow on to Seward.