Tuesday, July 22, 2014

KENAI, AK

 

 

The next morning, bright and early, we left for Kanai. Kenai is on the other side of the Peninsula about 80 miles away. The traffic was unbelievable, just like grid-lock on I 70 during skiing season. Carol, not used to city traffic, was about to experience melt down. All the campgrounds we saw had full signs except Wally World and it was packed with RVs. We had no choice but to drive another 27 mi to Captain Cook State Park.


When we arrived we found plenty of camp sites and picked out a couple and settled in. We were right on the coast and had a view of 3 volcanoes across the inlet. All 3 volcanoes had glaciers draining into the sea. Consequently, the water was a thick, dirty gray color rolling in on rock beaches. There is no sign of sea life on the beach, just rocks. Some people do look for and find agates. I tried my luck but came up empty handed.As the day wore on the park filled with fisher folk with their dip nets. These are huge nets used to catch salmon. One fellow said you usually only catch one fish at a time with the net. As he is talking to Carol about the fishing frenzy, I notice that he only has on shorts with his enormous gut hanging over his naked waistline and occasionally flashing his butt crack. We have decided that all of the Alaskans are obese and most of them chew with their mouths open!

FISHING FRENZY

Good news, the water leak in Casita is no longer leaking! The bad news is that I no longer have a working battery to run the water pump. I learned of this when I got up the next morning and turned on the heater that won't work without the battery (it was very cold) and, of course, the lights won't work either. That meant one thing, back to Kenai and Wally World.

I guess this is the only Wally World that doesn't have an auto service dept. I don't know why that should surprise me. It is Sunday so we are now camping in the parking lot. Not so bad as it did provide another form of entertainment. . . A young man camping next to us. He walked up dragging a rolling suitcase and carrying a brand new tent in a bag. He told me he just got fired and didn't even have enough money to fly home. So he set up his tent and crawled in. The next thing we know security pulls up in a truck and tells the kid he has to move his tent off the grass onto the asphalt parking lot. Man, that is a hard place to try to sleep, he only had on a hoodie and no blanket. So he moves the tent. Pretty soon the security truck returns with a kid driving it. Tent man gets in the truck and they chit chat. After awhile tent man gets out of the truck with a sleeping bag under his arm. Carol and I felt better knowing at least he'd be a little warmer on the asphalt with the wind blowing 80 mph.

So much for tent man. The next morning I went to O'Reilly's and bought a new battery and a nice young man put it in for me. That's the good news. The bad news is the water pump is fried so I have to replace it. That will have to wait until I get home.


OLDEST RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH ON PENINSULA
 

I do Hope you enjoy the photos I posted above, they're about all I got out of my trip to Kenai other than a new battery. Carol was so whacked out about the traffic that we decided to blow off the Kenai Peninsula in favor of a glacier cruise in Whitter. We left early the next morning, gotta beat the traffic!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No comments: