All Reason Trucks.

As we have travelled through the Yukon and Alaska we have noticed many fine vehicles however the ones that stand out are the trucks! There has been a wide range of ages and states of decay. For some reason they just keep on keeping on! Perhaps salt is not poured onto the roads the way it is in Southern Ontario or the safety standards for road worthy vehicles are not as stringent. These trucks have character! Another key feature is the open box riders. The one pictured has an exceptional view.

Roadside Eagle's Nest

While returning to our mobile cabin from one of our trips to Homer we spotted something very large high in a tree. We could hear a loud screeching. It was an eagle with two quite large chicks! As Jannich walked through the ditch to get a closer shot of them she decided to swoop and circle above us. "Beautiful and graceful".

Short Summer, Beautiful Flowers part 2

Most of these photos were taken in the Homer area. This town is just a short thirty miles south of The Alaskan Angler RV Resort.

Short Summer, Beautiful Flowers part 1

From Fairbanks, through the Denali tourist area, past Anchorage, Soldotna, and Ninilchik, to Homer the flower beds of Alaska are remarkable!
With long days of sunlight, no wilting heat and high amounts of humidity and rain the flowering plants both natural and cultivated are lush. The people of this area must delight in watching them grow as in every nook and cranny, cozy arrangements can be seen. From hanging baskets, large landscaped beds, strawberries growing from lidless teapots to sprouts dangling down the sides of old boots nailed to posts, this part of Alaska is a colourful sight. Fireweed, white daisies, and blue lupines grow wild. They cover the sides of the road and the high banks leading up from the shore. This entry has two parts as there are so many photos to share.

The HOMER SPIT!

Tourists in all kinds of recreational vehicles buzz up and down the 226 miles of highway between Anchorage and Homer. This small town is at sea level to 800 Ft. in elevation. Winter temperatures occasionally fall below zero F. but seldom colder. The Kenai Mountains on the north and east protect Homer while the Cook Inlet provides warming air currents.

Jutting out for nearly 5 miles from the Homer shore is the Homer Spit, a long, narrow bar of gravel.

In 1964, after the earthquake, the Spit sank 4 to 6 Ft. requiring several buildings to be moved to higher ground. The Homer Spit has a deep water harbour that can accommodate 344 Ft. vessels making it accessible to cruise and cargo ships.

Homer calls itself the "Halibut fishing capital of the world".

Kenai Landing Cannery

At the mouth of the Kenai river is an authentic 1920's era salmon cannery which has been renovated as a resort community. There is a mix of arts, history, entertainment and sport fishing combined with lodging and restaurants. This is all accomplished at the waterfront setting without changing the exteriors of the buildings. One can browse through the shops and galleries in a restored 1922 market place, eat fresh Alaskan seafood or watch the fishermen unload the day's catch. We drove down cannery road from a main highway and were pleasantly surprised to find this restored harbour. Unfortunately not many people were visiting and the merchants with whom we spoke were discouraged with the lack of tourists. There are a lot of tourists here in Alaska but this landmark is bypassed. There are restrictions on roadside signs in Alaska so many people are not aware of this interesting side trip. This lack of pervasive signage is a welcome change. We are not looking forward to going to the lower 48 where you are bombarded by signs you can see for miles.

Alaskan Sunsets

The view from our RV contains peaceful expanses of sky line, the tops of several mountains and sometimes beautiful sunsets. This is an unhurried area where people stop to let you walk across the street even if it just looks like you might want to cross. The buildings in the foreground are state road maintenance structures. We noticed that the snow removal equipment was moved in last week.

Going for the big one!

Last week we left the Alaskan Angler RV park at shortly after 4 in the morning ( a rather early start for us) and drove to Seward to connect with our salmon charter at 7 AM. Just a light drizzle was falling as we left the dock with low clouds covering the tops of the mountains. We arrived very quickly at our first fishing hole, learned the technique needed and proceeded to drop a bright neon jiggler with a piece of herring as bait for a depth of up to 100 feet. The line had to be reeled back up quickly as salmon are attracted to a fast moving object. This turned out to be the easy part of the day as it was raining and cold for most of the time. It was not good fishing that day. Among the 7 of us we only caught 11 fish (the limit is 6 per person). Jannich caught a very nice fish and Ruth had 2 big ones on the line but they got off again. This gives new meaning to "YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY".

As we traveled slowly from fishing hole to fishing hole we saw some awesome scenery, 2 sea otters and dozens of puffins. As we fished in the steady rain further and further out in Resurrection Bay towards the Gulf of Alaska small broken off pieces of the glacier and tiny icebergs floated by the boat. The deck hand used a net to scoop up a piece of ice. It was crystal clear. While fishing with the pelting rain with the ice floating by we almost expected sleet to start.

We arrived back at the RV after 8 PM and were chilled to the bone. However it was an experience we would not have missed.

Picturesque Seward

Picturesque Seward is a small community between high mountain ranges on Resurrection Bay.
Resurrection Bay is well known for sport fishing , kayaking and glacier cruises. Coho (silver) salmon, king salmon, halibut and cod are caught in this area.

Historically Seward was an important transportation hub for Alaska's mining, exploration, fishing and trapping industries. The Iditarod Trail was surveyed in 1920 as a mail route between Seward and Nome. The 938 mile long trail-now a National Historic Trail-is probably best known for The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race that is run each March between Anchorage and Nome, but the trail starts in Seward.
The city was named for the US Secretary of State William H. Seward, who was instrumental in arranging the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867.


Resurrection Bay, a year-round ice free harbour, made Seward an important harbour and fishing port as well as a strategic military post during WW ll. This bay was named in 1791 by a Russian fur trader and explorer who found unexpected shelter here from a storm and named the bay Resurrection because it was the Russian Sunday of Resurrection (Easter).

We visited Seward to go on a silver salmon charter.




Friends of Israel.

A Tale of Six Boys.

This is a letter I just received from a friend of ours whose son went to Iraq in the beginning of 2006. Her name is Marilyn Fry. Please read the article and reflect upon the need to continue to fight for our freedom!

Sent: Friday, August 11, 2006 11:02 AM
Subject: Fw: Six Boys

"A Tale of Six Boys"

Each year I am hired to go to Washington, DC, with the eighth grade class
from Clinton, WI where I grew up, to videotape their trip. I greatly enjoy
visiting our nation's capitol, and each year I take some special
memories back with me. This fall's trip was especially memorable.

On the last night of our trip, we stopped at the Iwo Jima
memorial.This memorial is the largest bronze statue in the world and
depicts one of the most famous photographs in history -- that of the six
brave soldiers raising the American Flag at the top of a rocky hill on the
island of Iwo Jima, Japan, during WW II.

Over one hundred students and chaperones piled off the buses and
headed towards the memorial. I noticed a solitary figure at the base
of the statue, and as I got closer he asked, "Where are you guys from?"
I told him that we were from Wisconsin. "Hey, I'm a cheese head,
too! Come gather around, Cheese heads, and I will tell you a story."

(James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, DC, to speak at
the memorial the following day. He was there that night to say good
night to his dad, who has since passed away. He was just about to leave when
he saw the buses pull up. I videotaped him as he spoke to us, and
received his permission to share what he said from my videotape. It is one
thing to tour the incredible monuments filled with history in Washington, D.C., but it is quite another to get the kind of insight we received that night.)

When all had gathered around, he reverently began to speak. (Here are his
words that night.)

"My name is James Bradley and I'm from Antigo, Wisconsin. My dad is on that
statue, and I just wrote a book called "Flags of Our Fathers". It is the
story of the six boys you see behind me.

"Six boys raised the flag.The first guy putting the pole in the
ground is Harlon Block. Harlon was an all-state football player. He
enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the senior members of his
football team. They were off to play another type of game. A game called
"War. "But it didn't turn out to be a game.

Harlon, at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands. I
don't say that to gross you out, I say that because there are generals
who stand in front of this statue and talk about the glory of war. You
guys need to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were 17, 18, and 19
years old.(He pointed to the statue) "You see this next guy? That's Rene Gagnon from NewHampshire. If you took Rene's helmet off at the moment this photo was
taken and looked in the webbing of that helmet, you would find a photograph... a
photograph of his girlfriend. Rene put that in there for protection because
he was scared. He was 18 years old. Boys won the battle of Iwo Jima.
Boys.Not old men.

"The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was Sergeant
Mike Strank. Mike is my hero. He was the hero of all these guys. They
called him the "old man" because he was so old. He was already 24. When
Mike would motivate his boys in training camp, he didn't say, 'Let's go
kill some Japanese' or 'Let's die for our country.' He knew he was talking
to little boys. Instead he would say, 'You do what I say, and I'll
get you home to your mothers.'

"The last guy on this side of the statue is Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from
Arizona. Ira Hayes walked off Iwo Jima. He went into the White House with
my dad. President Truman told him, 'You're a hero.' He told reporters, 'How
can I feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit the island with me and
only 27 of us walked off alive?' So you take your class at school, 250 of
you spending a year together having fun, doing everything together.Then
all 250 of you hit the beach, but only 27 of our classmates walk off alive.
That was Ira Hayes. He had images of horror in his mind. Ira Hayes
died dead drunk, face down at the age of 32, ten years after this picture
was taken.

"The next guy, going around the statue, is Franklin Sousley from
Hilltop, Kentucky. A fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. His best friend, who
is now 70, told me, 'Yeah, you know, we took two cows up on the porch
of the Hilltop General Store. Then we strung wire across the stairs
so the cows couldn't get down. Then we fed them Epsom salts. Yes, he
was a fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age
of 19. When the telegram came to tell his mother that he was dead, it
went to the Hilltop General Store. A barefoot boy ran that telegram
up to his mother's farm. The neighbors could hear her scream all
night and into the morning. The neighbors lived a quarter of a mileaway.

"The next guy, as we continue to go around the statue, is my dad,
John Bradley from Antigo, Wisconsin, where I was raised. My dad lived
until 1994, but he would never give interviews. When Walter
Cronkite's producers, or the New York Times would call, we were trained as
little kids to say, 'No, I'm sorry, sir, my dad's not here. He is in
Canada fishing. No, there is no phone there, sir. No, we don't know when
he is coming back.' My dad never fished or even went to Canada Usually, he
was sitting there right at the table eating his Campbell's soup. But we
had to tell the press that he was out fishing. He didn't want to talk to
the press.

"You see, my dad didn't see himself as a hero. Everyone thinks
these guys are heroes, 'cause they are in a photo and on a monument. My dad knew better. He was a medic. John Bradley from Wisconsin was a caregiver. In
Iwo Jima he probably held over 200 boys as they died. And when boys died in Iwo Jima, they writhed and screamed in pain. "When I was a little boy, my third grade teacher told me that my dad was a hero.. When I went home and told my dad that, he looked at me and said, 'I want you always to remember that the heroes
of Iwo Jima are the guys who did not come back. Did NOT come back.'

"So that's the story about six nice young boys. Three died on Iwo
Jima, and three came back as national heroes. Overall, 7,000 boys died on Iwo Jima in the worst battle in the history of the Marine Corps. My voice is giving out, so I will end here. Thank you for your time."

Suddenly, the monument wasn't just a big old piece of metal with a
flag sticking out of the top. It came to life before our eyes with
the heartfelt words of a son who did indeed have a father who was a
hero. Maybe not a hero for the reasons most people would believe, but ahero
nonetheless.

Let us never forget from the Revolutionary War to the current War
on Terrorism and all the wars in between that sacrifice was made for
our freedom. Remember to pray praises for this great country of ours
and also pray for those still in murderous unrest around the world. STOP and thank God for being alive and being free at someone else's sacrifice.

REMINDER:
Everyday that you can wake up free, it's going to be a great day. Great story - worth your time.

Please pass it along.

News Junkie Withdrawal!

After packing up our satellite dish when we left Edmonton mid June we had no idea that we would not be assembling it again! During our two weeks of traveling we had no access to television programs and other than feeling that we were in another world we did not miss the endless rehashing and analyzing of the current events.

This is amazing as Ruth has been a news addict for most of her life. She switched back and forth through several channels every evening and watched documentaries, history programmes and daily analysis.....as if her job depended on it. She seemed to need to hear from Bill O'Reilly, Anderson Cooper, H&C, Nancy Grace and Greta VanSustern every day. This was in addition to a wide range of local Canadian programmes.
June 30, when we arrived in the Alaskan Angler RV Park we discovered that we could not set up our dish because it could not be placed high enough as a temporary structure. Placing it on the ground would not allow it to receive from the satellite in the southern sky.

Mid July we cancelled the satellite service!!!


We watch 4 local channels using the antennae on the roof. Even the weather reporting is very localized with us only getting snippets of news from the LOWER 48 and nothing from Canada. The war between Lebanon and Israel had been in progress for 2 weeks before we realized the seriousness of this engagement and this was only because we moved to a new site where we could get Fox news on the RV park cable.



Friends of Israel.

Nina part 2:

Nina only has seating for 8 in her cafe. The cafe and gift store are called SAMOVAR:

Click on the link for a full description of the menu. We had everything and it was delicious!

Russian cafe.

During our visit to Nikolaevsk we saw the sign CAFE painted on a rock and Ruth said "lets have a cup of coffee before heading home to our RV". COFFEE!

We had no idea what kind of an experience we were about to have. If we thought that the Crab Shack on Tybee Island Georgia was eclectic then this place was way over the top. As we looked for a place to sit in the closed in porch, Nina, the owner yelled at us through an open window to come in here. When we entered the second room a sight met our eyes that only pictures can describe. There were gift items everywhere: nesting dolls, barrettes, broaches, books, cotton scarves, lacquered boxes, wooden spoons, bowls, beads and vases in all price ranges. There were racks and racks of clothes to dress up in for photographs and then there was Nina herself.
It was almost as if we had stepped into another country.

Russian Old Believer's Village

The Russian Old Believer's village of Nikolaevsk is 9 miles east off the Sterling highway which connects Homer at the southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula to Anchorage in the north. This isolated community is one of several on the Kenai peninsula where these traditional Russian Orthodox people live. Nearly all of these people speak both Russian and English with the woman and girls wearing scarves and ankle length dresses. Note the attention to detail in the construction in the church and the colourful painting of a tree outside the cafe. Other than these two colourful spots the rest of the village has the appearance of abandonment and desolation.

Drift boat fishing, what an experience

• August 2nd 2006.
• Wake up at 4:50 A.M
  
• On river Kasilof at 6 A.m.
• Pole fishing using roe for bait.
• Captain Bob guides us to his favourite fishing holes on the fast flowing river.
• Ice blue from glacial run off.
  
• Two moose cross the river behind the boat.
• Fish limit 2 per person.
• Excursion lasts more than 6 hours.
• Fish till everyone has his limit.
• Wind and rain and cold weather for the duration.
• Pictured is Ruth's catch, 2 silver salmon. The moose crossing and the boat being taken out of the water.
• A delicious salmon dinner was enjoyed in our cabin. Many pieces were vacuum-packed for later enjoyment.