Tomorrow is the big day! - My Cali to Alaska adventure begins ...

[stephenwc]

Wow. What a trip.

Your photos managed to convey a feeling of incredible isolation - so much so that I
ended up feeling oddly lonely and hoping my settee doesn't break down.

Vicarious angst... how weird is that eh?

I bet you were wishing for a diversion just to relieve the monotony?

Oooops, spoke too soon - a traffic jam!




Glad you made it safely to Tok.

Stephen

[Medellin]

Yes, I thought you were leaving from Cali, Colombia which is located in South America. I live in Medellin, Colombia just north of Cali. (south America) We have many people traveling south through Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama. They then ship their moto from Panama to Colombia, continuing their trip South American. Sorry for the confusion. (Colombia is the correct country spelling...Columbia is in the U.S.)

[needles]

Originally Posted by FD929

For those (2 ) of you following along,

Make that 3 (unless I was in the original two ). Incredible trip and pics Ben.

Dan

[FD929]

Originally Posted by stevewc

Wow. What a trip.

Your photos managed to convey a feeling of incredible isolation - so much so that I
ended up feeling oddly lonely and hoping my settee doesn't break down.

Vicarious angst... how weird is that eh?

I bet you were wishing for a diversion just to relieve the monotony?

Oooops, spoke too soon - a traffic jam!
Attachment 91981



Glad you made it safely to Tok.

Stephen

Haha it's funny you should use that pic. I don't know if the caption shows online or not, but that was actually my third time running into that guy. We had breakfast at the diner across from each other and shot the sh!t for a while. He is a school counselor from Anchorage and was just returning from Haines after purchasing the Harley that was (gasp ) in the back of the truck.

There was also a picture of an overload blue S-10 with California plates that I also came up to about 3 times.

Originally Posted by Medellin

Yes, I thought you were leaving from Cali, Colombia which is located in South America. I live in Medellin, Colombia just north of Cali. (south America) We have many people traveling south through Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama. They then ship their moto from Panama to Colombia, continuing their trip South American. Sorry for the confusion. (Colombia is the correct country spelling...Columbia is in the U.S.)

Ah, sorry Leo, I assumed it was a spam post. My apologies.

Mark, I shaved today while my windshield was being replaced.

Got some more pics up there everybody! I think the first Alaska folder has been the most beautiful of them all. I know I keep saying that, but the view just seems to be getting better and better!

I am now in Kenai, 83 miles away from Homer and close to the end of my Al-Can adventure. To be honest, I was expecting worse, but if the weather had been worse, I wouldn't have been able to enjoy such incredible views. I've never seen anything so beautiful in my life and these one handed pictures from a moving vehicle just can't fully convey what an incredible experience it has been.

So there you have it! I think most of my photography is done unless this last stretch between Kenai and Homer is something pretty spectacular. I'll start writing up my wrap-up in the next couple days. I managed to make it from Sacramento, Ca to Homer, Ak in 7 days with no delays. Even having to get my windshield replaced only set me back an hour which I easily spend catching up online in a day.

[pashnit]

Good for you Ben, get to share in your excitement of traveling to a new place.

Alaska is definitely a very picturesque place, one of things you have to cross of your list. You're mentioning several of things I recall when tooling around that neck of the woods. It was interesting to ride down to Seward and feel as though I'd ridden to the end of the world. No more paved roads & closer to china than I'd ever been.

[akfxdl]

Welcome Ben...
Glad the weather held up for you. I wish I would have read this post sooner, could have warned you not to replace the windshield until the summer. Lots of rocls between now and June, heck for that matter don't even bother unless totally shattered, it will happen again soon. I am on my 2nd windshield in my truck and the second one in my Honda Element, need thirds but can't bring myself to do it.
How did you like the trip to Homer, and how was the ferry ride?

[FD929]

Awesome! I got into Homer on Monday and spent the day riding around the beach on the quad, well, when the tide was out. Camped out there again and got on the ferry last night. I was a little worried that I wasn't going to get on because my reservation was for Saturday. I left plenty of room for any unseens that may have come up. I woke up this morning, got some coffee, then watched Kodiak slowly come into view! A LOT bigger than I expected. Kinda reminds me of a smaller Astoria. The people are incredible. So helpful, generous, and welcoming. I'm "home" now, at least temporarily while I look for house. I've spent the day uploading the truck, having lunch with my roommate, a couple of the guys from the station one's little boy, then went and toured the fire station. Beautiful! They just did a 2.5 million renovation. This is the nicest station I have ever been too, let alone worked at. Words just can't describe what I'm feeling. It seems that all the years I've invested, I can now feel have paid off.

All I can say is that this has been one hell of a trip with an even better happy ending. I've uploaded most of the rest of the pics. I still need to upload the station photos. I forgot my camera so they currently reside on my phone and I need to figure out how to get them off of there.



Oh, about the windshield. I did hear that too and I might regret it, but with summer coming and being on an island, I thought it would be much more expensive to replace it then. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20. I might go shopping for insurance with a windshield clause in it.

[stephenwc]

Glad it's all looking promising Ben,

Everyone deserves good things in life and it looks like some are coming your way

Those pictures have got me wondering.

This one just begs the question: What's a Salty Dawg?


I saw your photo of a ship called 'Time Bandit'. Is that the same one that's on 'Deadliest Catch' run by Andy and Johnathon Hillstrand?

Anyway - have fun house hunting. Are there any spare?

Stephen

[FD929]

I think a salty dawg is an old crotchity fisherman.

Yep, that's the same Time Bandit. The local handout says it moors in Homer even though it's out of Juneau.

Not a lot of rentals ... thankfully I have a place to stay until I find one though.

[redzdvl]

Good on ya man!

sounds like your gonna be happy where you're at & that is probably one of the most important things in a job/life IMO ... I'm still lookin' but may be onto something ...


so far the pics are spectacular - love the mountain shots ~ but not so much with the snow

I think even the 'moderate' snow we get here in VA ruined that part for me ~ not like when I lived in CA ... when I wanted to see snow, I could drive to it... now it comes to me.

gotta catch up on the rest of the pics now ...