Day 26

Beginning?

Since I was camped on the Spit, I had to check out the rest of it and
figured the best way to do that was to simply ride my bike down the path
and see the sights. Since my schedule today was so booked, I
interrupted my leisurely pace with some photos of derelict vessels just
off the path.

This place truly was a bone yard of vessels. Some had large holes in
the decks, others in the keel. All in all, I don't think any of them
would be fit for sailing any time soon, but I did wonder how they moved
them so far from the water. Some questions just can't be answered so
easily as I didn't have a chance to ask anyone. For some reason I am
reminded just now much of a stranger I am to water and sea life.

After looking through a few shops and spending some time on the beach,
which was covered with smooth river rock, it was getting to be about
time for lunch and I started heading back to camp. On the way there was
a shop that had a sign for hoodies and since I still don't have a good
hoodie, I decided I should stop in and see if anything looked worth
purchasing. One of the shirts that made me laugh was: "Homer, a
drinking town with a fishing problem." The guy that ran the shop was a
fisherman by trade, but he enjoyed crabbing the most. We had a chat
about "Deadliest Catch" and he said one of his buddies was on that show,
but he always told his relatives that he was the guy in the orange coat.

Now it was more than time for lunch, and I was still quite a ways from
camp, so I broke down and ate at one of the burger places that happened
to be right next to the hoodie shop. It happened to have good food for
not an unreasonably high price, but still more than I would have liked
to pay, which is zero, but that doesn't happen very often.

That afternoon I made it to the Visitor Center in town, which was closed
when I came into town yesterday, and I have to say that it was one of
the best Visitor Center that I've ever been to. It was half museum,
half discovery center, half theater, and just a very small portion of
the center was sovineers. The museum portion of the center was
dedicated to the marine animal wildlife preserve. It was a little over
bearing on global warming stuff, but it did have good history of the
area from the first Russian explorers to settlements and statehood.

To end the day, I tried to get a hold of Liz again and found myself in a
coffee shop, loitering, and conversing with the locals, who were more
than willing to let me continue loitering. The attitude of the people
here certainly is different from the lower 48 states. I think Jon said
it best when referring to the attitude that his Grandfather had towards
people: "They're all friends I haven't met yet." or something
paraphrased like that.

Back at camp, I had just gotten a fire going when the rain started. I
was sure that it was going to put out my fire, but at this point there
wasn't much I could do to save it. When the rain finally subsided, my
fire did remain lit, but it took quite awhile to get to a warming
condition. Before too long it was time for bed, and the rain started up
again and continued through the night. Not ideal, but my sleeping bag
was quite warm even if I could see my breath in the moist air.

Continue?