Alaska Day 38-39

Thursday June 22, 2006 Seward AK Log 0 Miles

We had a tour of downtown Seward, including Hotel Seward with some incredible stuffed wildlife. Can you believe Chinese for lunch? We searched in vein for an Eagle River Knife www.eagleriverknife.com but none of the shops had any knowledge of them.

Wilma was disappointed in the weather for the first time, as it just didn’t seem like a fun thing to take the Ididaride (get it?) www.ididaride.com with the rain setting in again. She had been excited about going, as it is a dog sled ride by Mitch Seavey, who is a former champion of Iditarod race who lives in Seward. Another day.

Friday June 23, 2006 Seward AK to Anchorage AK Log 126 Miles

From Seward we turned north again headed for Anchorage in search of Eagle River knives, ULU knives, Wal-mart, Sams and other excitement. It was a thrill to see the wonderful bike path alongside the highway near Turn Again Arm, and we longed to get off the schedule that we are not on, and ride while viewing the snow-capped mountains in the distance.

We visited the ULU knife factory and were given an orientation of the history of the knives and how they are still made right there on both sides of the gift shop. Automated, yet much hand work goes into them. Some of the more expensive ones have jade handles, which, I suppose, makes them work better. We did not get one of those. It has been 38 days since we left Texas, and today Herb bought HOT SAUCE -- at the Ulu Factory -- Screaming Santa from North Pole, AK -- two bottles: one to use and one to display!

Wandering around, we near the Elmendorf Air Force Base and find a salmon hatchery. They had a salmon viewing area along by some falls on the river. Although it was early to see many going up the falls, we did see a few trying to swim upstream near the banks of the stream.

We saw in Milepost that there is a Saturday/Sunday market in Anchorage where we may find that special knife for Meryl, and chose an RV park near it, so we could walk and take Jake to the 300 booths it featured. We clearly saw on the map that there was a railroad track by it, but that is where our intelligence left us. After parking and setting up for the evening, we were visited by the first train, which had a loud whistle. Neighbors said the last train of the day runs at 11:45 P, and no more until morning. Fair enough. However, 3:30 A is actually morning.......... We slept well.

Our Pictures of the two days are here.

Walldog, Willie and Jake