A Mosquito Bike

Last night we played cards at Allyson's. At one point I leaned over to scratch my leg and said "Darn, I've got a bite." Allyson said, "Peggie, do you need a bike? You can take that one from my backyard. It works fine. I have a new one. You can use it all summer and store it in our storage container for the winter so you have it here next year." "Well, yes, matter-of-fact (still scratching my bite) I do need a bike. Bill and I were just talking today that maybe I should go over to Sockeye Cycle and see about getting a bike." Allyson says, "You don't need to do that, I'm serious, take the one in my backyard. I have a newer one. And we'll store it for you over the winter."

This morning Bill put air in the tire, oiled the chain, adjusted the seat and I bought a new gel seat cover. Jeff, (we met him and PJ on the ferry) had an extra lock for it. Now I have a bike. It's great!

And all because of a mosquito bite that Allyson heard as "I need a bike". Which was true.

Thank you, Allyson!

When I mentioned to Allyson tonight that I wrote a blog post on the bike, she said she's been trying to give that bike away for two months and anyone who said anything that sounded a bit like they needed a bike received an offer. I'm the happy one that took her up on her offer.

Webster's New Yukon Dictionary

foolish: fu-lish

wisdom: wiz-dum

Ushu Dent Rent-a-Car

Often when I have only horsebackers on a run, I drive back to Carcross to give Ron a hard time at his store while they are on the trail. But the other day I decided to sit at the ranch and read and just enjoy the quiet of the northwoods. The ranch is called Emerald Lake Ranch on a large sign by the road. It is about one mile north of Emerald Lake, so from Skagway it is past the lake.
A car pulls in tentatively and a woman rolls down the window and asks how to get to Emerald Lake. I had seen her turn off the highway, so I knew she had come from Skagway. I said to go back the way she came about a mile. "Oh, so that was it back there?" Uh-huh. The emerald green water, the enormous parking area, and the banks of signs might have been a clue, just in case you couldn't read the map that comes with the car!
I haven't had a chance to read the latest paper to see if the lost and found section includes an Avis car and three tourists who didn't know the only road to take back to Skagway.

I love kids. The horsebackers included a six year-old girl. We got to see two bears off the road on the way up, but on the way back one came right up on the road and walked along the opposite shoulder for a while. The excited six year-old said, "I've never seen a bear so close in my whole life!" I just love that concept in young kids. Her dad had not seen any bears before in his considerably longer whole life. He was pretty excited, too.
And by the way, he (the dad) rode on Carolina, the horse that tossed me on my head last year, and she tossed him on his head, too. Using the same strategy, ie: start to run, then stop on a dime. So I don't feel so bad.

First data

The first controlled experimental data are in:
Consumed one (1) plain cake donut.

red itchy eyes no
stopped up nose no
runny nose no
rash no
swollen abdomen

well, maybe just a little.

Results: too early to tell. Additional data desired.

The Day After "Be a Tourist For The Day"

In case you had a difficult time picking out our apartment from the picture of town in the album, here is a closeup. Notice the fancy "raised" garden. I have broccoli, swiss chard, mint, basil, lettuce, yellow squash, tomato and petunias. The wind has been blowing a bunch so I have a fancy wind screen around the tomato plant. It's a good thing we won't experience much darkness since we don't have a porch light, fancy or otherwise. Look closely, see that guy in the blue shirt back behind the bush?


This is our fancy patio area in the lot next to the apartment. We have a fancy barbeque stand and a fancy patio table. On a sunshine-filled, no-work day we both spent hours out here.

It's a convenient walk-thru so we meet and greet lots of people from our fancy perches.

We have lots of dandelions in the area but so far...no bears here.

Retail space is quite pricey so we see lots of fancy storage buildings...containers...busses...truck beds...whatever works. After finishing my library book I walked over to check out another. The building with the brown roof is the library. Isn't that incredibly convenient? I LOVE IT!! I put a book on reserve a week or so ago. It's available and is going to come up from Juneau...someday. I checked to see if it had arrived. It was NOT one of the five reserve books on the shelf. It will automatically be cancelled if it doesn't arrive by September 1. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Today we received a package via UPS via Wings via telephone call via go pick it up! To receive something from UPS (which requires a street address) one addresses it with the receiver's name, the receiver's telephone number, and the post office's address. The address is a requirement of UPS; they're funny that way. They want more than a zip code. It arrives at the airport and Wings Alaska (our airline) calls the telephone number and tells the person to come and get it. Personnel from Wings will deliver if it's a good address (usually retail space) or they know you but most apartments and homes don't really have addresses so this is the "work around" for seasonal workers.

To install our DSL the phone company wanted to know who used to live in our apartment so they could just "flip a switch" instead of making a house call. After talking with the lady at the gas station/laundromat we were able to give them names of the three previous tenants. Alas, none of them ever had service so they were going to have to make a house call after all. After waiting another week, Bill stopped by to see if they had forgotten about us. No problem, they would turn on the service that day. Yipee! Unfortunately, they forgot about our "situation" and just turned on our service at space 18 at the RV park we stayed at last year. Another call..."where do you live?" "Well, we're in one of Tony's apartments...the end one...next to the vacant lot...before State Street...yeah, the numeral 12 is written above the lock...you know, one of Tony's!" No problem...three guys later...we have DSL.

I'll bet the brakes ordered for the Jeep a couple weeks ago arrive here soon. Maybe they're already here and someone "forgot" to add a phone number.

We love this place. We really do!

Be a Tourist for the Day

This is an annual event in May during which most businesses have a special to get the summer workers in to familiarize everyone with what is offered. You can't do it all, but you choose from the menu and do what you can. We both had the day off, so...

Sleep 'til 9:00

Put the coffee on...making extra, of course.

I walk to the store to pick up eggs while Peggie starts the bacon frying.

Drink coffee. Shower. Dress. Eat breakfast while browsing blogs. Drink coffee. Post a blog explaining my sacrifice. Drink coffee. Check the list of offerings to confirm our plans.

Noon: exit apartment.

First stop is the Skagway Volunteer Fire Department Car Wash. They close 5th Ave. between State St. and Main St. Entrance is off of Main. Pay, excuse me, donate $10 to the fireman's boot. Drive slowly between pumpers on each side of the street to wet the vehicle, pull forward while 6 or 8 turned-out fireman brush soap on everything, forward again while 6 other firemen continue the scrubbing, then ease slowly between two more pumpers to rinse off the suds. Quick and efficient.

Then to the gas station to top off the tank.

Then to Jewell Gardens for a free tour and a $6 dollar lunch of salmon quiche, salad, and carrot fennel soup. Very good. We bought a season pass so we can go back and visit or sit in the gardens anytime they are open. The formal gardens are extensive and really beautiful.

Then a check at the library for a reserved book and a stop for mail at the PO.

Then out to the helicopter pad for our half price scenic flight. While we are waiting, we chat with fellow passengers and the attendants there. We end up in a group of four on a six passenger aircraft, so we both got window seats.

You can look on a map if you want. We went straight across the harbor up Burro Creek, climbing as we went. There is still a LOT of snow up there.
We went all the way up to the glacier that feeds West Creek and the Taiya River, past many smaller glaciers of the cirque type (see below) and over the ridge, real close to snow covered mountain peaks!!! As we headed back to Skagway we could clearly see the boundary in the inlet where the silt laden rivers encountered the salt water.
Then we circled for an upwind landing and the trip was over about an hour before I wanted it to be. But we got to do it for half price and it was worth full price.
A good way to think of a cirque is as an embryonic glacier. As snow accumulates over long periods of time, it compresses into very dense ice with almost no air in it. When this happens at mountain top level, the ice buildup starts to slide down hill under its own weight. The buildup continues, as during an ice age, and the beginning of the glacier is still at the mountain top while the face of the glacier carves out a valley until it reaches the ocean. When it is flowing down a valley, it is called a valley glacier. When it reaches salt water it is a tidewater glacier, if it doesn't, or if it has retreated back to dry land, it is a terminal glacier. If the main glacier disappears, as at the end of the ice age, but a smaller, higher glacier remains, that is a hanging glacier. The ones that start late in the ice age, and don't get to flowing, or haven't yet started flowing, are the cirque glaciers. North of Skagway are many empty cirques looking like bowls on the sides of the mountains with the ice all gone. Also there are many still filled with glacial ice.

There will be a final exam on this stuff in September.

The Be a Tourist for the Day campaign is kicked off on Thursday night with a Town Show of "The Days of '98 Show." It is a vaudevillian production based on the story of Soapy Smith with lots of singing and campy humor. We never went last year, but did this time, and it was very entertaining.

(Peggie: I'm going to post a "Be a Tourist" photo album with captions. More great pictures, of course.)

In the name of science....

...I will make the sacrifice.
Caribou Crossing, the destination on our 6.5 hour Deluxe Yukon Sightseeing Tour, includes fresh homemade donuts in their lunch. These are the old-fashioned cake type dunk in your coffee kind of donuts. They are about the diameter of a tennis ball and come both plain and cinnamon sugared. If your mouth isn't watering, you won't understand my sacrifice. The first time I went there this year, I had to have just one... or two. Dave, the boss, doesn't get to go there often, so he has asked us (the drivers) to bring him back donuts three times already. I tease him about this because last summer he managed to lose 22 pounds, which he put back on--plus--over the winter. Now most of you know that Peggie and I have been losing weight primarily by not eating carbohydrates. Donuts are full of carbohydrates. Especially the cinnamon sugar variety.
Background: many years ago I found out I have allergy to bermuda grass so I took out my lawn and sold the lawn mower. While in Alaska I can stop taking my Claritin because my allergies are all associated with plants around Tucson.
However, the other day after eating one...or two donuts I became stopped up. I was surprised at the time, but it only occurred to me later, while giving Dave a hard time, that maybe, in addition to the fat producing aspects of wheat, I am allergic. Wheat is a form of grass, after all. Dave suggested that I should conduct an experiment to find out. So I have decided, in the interest of medical science, that I will eat an occasional donut...or two, and observe for allergy symptoms.
If eating an occasional donut...or two causes symptoms I can always take my Claritin again. I will probably have definitive results by the time the season is over. It is a dirty job, but don't worry about me, I don't mind.