Every Day is Different!

Bill's day: He drives around the country seeing animals and scenery and talking with interesting people. Sometimes he gets to see something spectacular like this--Windy Arm Lake--Wonderful!

Peggie's Day: She rides her bike to town, opens the quilt shop, and spends time talking with interesting people. Sometimes she gets to see (and eat) something spectacular like this--Lemon-Lavender Cookie--Wonderful!

Got rope?

The day was normal. Except that business was slow for a four ship day. Cloudy, occasional showers, high fifties. We decided to go hunting bear at Dyea in the evening. We kept our ameracays hidden so wildlife wouldn't be shy. Don had a late group of jeepers so he couldn't go. Peggie was tired and had settled in, so Karin and I went. We drove way into the woods and on the way back out a car was stopped on the road, and had a bear sighted. So we got out the binoculars. Our vantage point was about 400 yards away because there was a screen of trees we had to look around. We had been watching for a while when Don called. We had phone service out there, which surprised us both. I tried to take a picture, but the battery for the ameracay was in the charger at the trailer. Silly me. Predictably, just as Don arrived with four of his drivers (they don't have cars to get out and see things)the bear moved into the tree screen. So he decided to drive over to the campground and get a view from the other side. Karin and I stayed where we were to help guide them in. Karin had Don on the phone, we could see his truck a half mile away, and she was giving him directions. The little two track road he was on dropped into the flood plain and the wet spot was softer than it looked...he was stuck. So we headed over there. His crew expressed some worry about getting out, but he said, "We've been doing this since we were teenagers. We're always getting each other unstuck." All we had was some nylon rope. Not the best. But they looped it so it was four strands. I was able to keep my tires dry and he came right out without my tires even spinning. Good thing, too, the skeeters were eating us up. Trouble was, we lost track of the bear and didn't see him again. On the way back his crew got excited about the harbor seals, gulls, and terns, so they still had a good time.
I am doing the Carcross run today. Yesterday and the day before it was snowing on the mountain tops over there, but it is cloudy again today, so we may not see it. I am hoping that the snow pushed the animals lower so we can see them.

Update

Check out the new photos in Bill's Alaska Adventure. A few pictures from both of us. The lynx photo is not too good, but I never expected to see a lynx so I was thrilled just to see it, I barely remembered to grab my camera.
Don's jeeps got to go off-road today, finally. He said the views were amazing from up on the mountain.
Happy Birthday, Alex.

WE'RE TOO EXCITED TO SLEEP!!!!

Okay, you already know we had an unusual, interesting start to the day. Then we did laundry, yada yada yada. Then we went out to Liarsville for the Salmon Bake which Don had arranged (see previous entry for definition) for us. Don had to leave early to attend to some returning tourists, so Karin rode home with us. We decided to head out to Dyea for some wildlife viewing. We decided we were guaranteed good stuff, because we had no cameras. On the way out we got some excellent sightings of bald eagles up close and personal. We went on out to the tidal flats because Karin hadn't been over there before. We stopped to talk to another truck and the driver says, "Did you see the bear?" So he pointed over toward some trees, and, sure enough, there was a GRIZZLY bear. Maybe 50-60 yards away but in some trees. We followed him for a while, even going cross country at one point. Then the trees got thicker and we lost him. But just then we encountered a couple with a toddler and a dog, so we told them about the bear and they headed back to their camp. Getting back to the road from there is kind of round about, but we eventually (10 minutes?) got onto the road, and thinking the bear might have headed toward the river, we looked for him. The road parallels the river at that point, and the area we had been in was about 300 yards away across a grassy area. There he was. Remember I say 'he' since 'she' would probably have cubs right now. He was in the open grass and we could see the people watching him from their camp on the edge of the trees. We stopped to watch him some more. He went into a small creek and was catching fish. He was a good fisherman. We could see him gobbling them down, using his left paw to hold them sometimes. The creek bed is lower than the rest of the plain and we lost sight of him and decided to move on. As we drove away, he came out of the creek running toward the river (closer to us) and stopping to stand up a few times. We decided to turn around and go back to a closer view point. As I was turning around, Roger and Janie drove up. So I told them what was going on. We both pulled up at a good wide spot in the road. Soon there were five vehicles stopped. He kept moving closer and we were hoping he would come fishing in the main river just 100 yards away. Then, and this was so cool, he started to cross the river towards our side. We jumped in the truck and drove to the point where he would have to come out. When he stuck his head over the bank, he saw us and moved a little farther away, but another car was that way so he came up onto the road maybe twenty feet away. We could see the water running off his fur and could see the nervousness in his eyes. He started to climb the near-vertical canyon wall. I moved up a car length and he was right above us. He had to use switch-backs it was so steep. Finally, he disappeared into the woods. Altogether, we must have watched him for an hour and a half counting the time it took us to get back out on the road. It was the best wildlife viewing I think I've ever had. We are never taking cameras again. Karin says we can hide them so that nature doesn't know we have them. That is probably a better plan. But I remember those old commercials about fooling Mother Nature. The best part is that locals say the good grizzly viewing is just beginning. Soon the salmon will return and so will the bears. Don is crying himself to sleep tonight because he missed it. I am writing this so the excitement can wane so I can sleep. And it is working. Good night. Happy Birthday, Becky. The cake was blueberry.

Goat Lake Hydroelectric Project...et al

We did, indeed, arise early on our day off to go see water being turned into electricity. Even though the water must fall about 2000 ft before slamming into a bucket wheel, no water is harmed in the making of electricity. The electricity is very clean and green, but looks just like electricity generated by burning coal. Except you can't see it in those wires it flows through. We also did not see the water in the pipe, but we believe it is in there. I think the whole thing is like a religion. You just have to believe.
It all seems very amateurish. There are parts and procedures that they just cobbled together and it works. The generator we saw is one of three hydros in operation here. They also have diesel back-ups. The water is siphoned out of the lake, but there is a pump if the siphon is ever broken. The pump is electric so the electricity to operate it would have to come from one of the other three sources if the siphon were broken. I never thought about a generating plant needing outside electricity. It's weird. We did not get to walk across the pipe to the other side of the river because it was raining so the pipe was slippery. There are handrails, but they wouldn't stop you from falling into the river if you slipped. We can come back on a sunny day to do that. Roger, Janie, Peggie, Don and I went. Karin had to work. Our guide was Stan Selmer who is the boss of AP&T and descended from a goldrush family. In Skagway, that is equivalent to a Mayflower family in Boston.
We also learned that the canyon is littered with artifacts from the gold rush, things people abandoned, a telegragh line, sections of road, and other stuff, but it is illegal to disturb any of it because it is all in the national park.
The Thomas brothers, Don and Bill, are now known far and wide, though we rarely appear together. The office staff at AP&T, Stan, everyone at the bakery, everyone at the RV park, the staff at the visitor center at Carcross, Ron and his mom at the general store, the people we both work with, and people on our tours know us singly or together by name. That is kind of fun.
Back to electricity, sort of. I had lunch yesterday with an engineer who owned the company that made all the solar panels for NASA during the unmanned phase of the moon missions. I learned that the sunlight in space is so different that a panel in space won't work on earth, and vice versa. Also, that solar power is very good for unmanned, long-term missions where a little power is needed for a long time, but not good for manned missions where a lot of power is needed for a short time. This guy had been head-hunted by Werner Von Braun, himself, and they became good friends. It was neat to talk with someone who was in on the ground floor of the space program.
Wednesday, which is July 1st, they expect to have the railroad repaired, almost a month earlier than projected. Hopefully, we will be able to arrange a ride soon. And by arrange, I mean go for free. It helps to know people.
But not in every case. The power plant is about a quarter mile past U.S. customs, but still miles inside Alaska. On our way back, Stan informed the agent where we had been. So what does he ask? "Are you bringing anything back into the country?" Hellooo, we haven't been out of the country. And besides that, you bureaucrat, you see every one of us on a regular basis because of our jobs. If not for a few others who work there, I'd swear that you have to remove your personality in order to fit into the uniform. Really, would national security be endangered if you just waved and said, "Have a nice day!"

Happy Birthday, Becky!

Hey internet friends, today is Becky's birthday. It's a good thing because I've been celebrating her birthday since June 18th and I'm kind of exhausted.

Happy Birthday dear friend. Today I'm going to eat cake in your honor.

The Bear At The Man Cave

As you know, we are staying in an RV park for our duration in Skagway. We've never taken pictures to show you but trust me, it is another interesting thing. Many of the trailers are here year-round (unoccupied for 7 months) and are rented out to college students and other young adults during their summer employment. The trailers may or may not have running water, they may or may not have gas or working stoves, they may or may not have windows or doors but plywood and padlocks "work" so... These trailers are a sight to see but many of the kids feel lucky to have them as there are also many tents. I'm glad I'm not living in a tent for five months. One of the trailers about 30-40 feet from us has a sign on the outside naming it "The Man Cave". Some of the guys drive pedi-cabs through town so we see them quite a bit. When the guys first moved in, they opened the door (I think it does have a door) and tossed everything outside so they could "clean" and arrange it the way they wanted it to be. Their trailer seems to be one that doesn't have any cooking facilities and they build a fire (out of pallets) most nights to cook dinner. Well, last night while they were cooking an uninvited guest called a BEAR showed up. The three guys were so surprised they all stood up and must have appeared large enough that the bear decided to saunter off and cross the railroad tracks and head up the mountain. The railroad track is about 70 feet away. We heard loud noises last night, kind of like gun shots but not really, and wondered what was going on. Well, Bill talks with everyone in town (and he used to be kind of quiet and shy, can you believe it?) and that's how we found out about the story of "The Bear At The Man Cave". The shots are bear sparks or something like that and are designed to scare the bear off. After that, the police cruiser drove through the RV park--not looking for parties and drugs--just bears!!

Tonight we attended a party about 4 RV's away to celebrate Jake's high school graduation. He's spending the summer with Robert and Lynn (his aunt & uncle) and working at Liarsville. He plays cards with us on some Friday nights and is a lot of fun. Another young man from Bulgaria came to the party and taught me some new swear words so I'd say it was a successful evening.

Tomorrow we're getting up early and going on a tour of the hydro-electric plant that supplies the power for Skagway. Stan, the man, is taking us on tour so expect a post on our experience. Some of our new "friends" think we're kind of weird to be excited about that but that's TWTWS...

And, next week is the big 4th of July celebration. We'll have fireworks on Friday, July 3rd because the fireworks "people" go to Haines and do fireworks on July 4th. That's just another little thing that's TWTWS...And, there is a parade on July 4th with the theme of "Happy Birthday Alaska" since we're celebrating 50 years of statehood (me too since I was born here, ya know). Cool, eh?