Motorcycle Michael and the Time Bandit

P-Rock - Doing a Double Pirate on you

Day 16 - The Run to Homer, AK






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Well I have to say that while Homer and the surrounding area is incredibly beautiful, it did not match the trip to Seward. In part this is because today ended up being very hazy and cold, whereas yesterday was warm and sunny. However, as usual in Alaska, today did not disappoint in the slightest.

Blackie and I took our time getting ready this morning and departed at around 9am or so for Homer - a trip of about 170 miles one way. It was probably a good thing that we procrastinated, because the trip was cold, Cold, COLD. Did I mention that it was COLD? Even though the temperature hovered between the low 60s and the high 50s, the lack of sun and wind created a chilly motorcycle environment to be sure. We rolled into Homer around 12:30 and headed for the Homer Spit. It is a spit of land that juts out into the bay at least a mile off the end of the Kenai peninsula - and that is where all of the shops and other action is.

Homer is at the southwest corner of the Kenai peninsula, and overlooks a series of high peaks across the bay, many of them volcanic. This includes the recently misbehaving Mount Redoubt, which was blowing it's top earlier this year. Unfortunately for us today, she was quiet. The mountains also contain several glaciers, including one huge one - of course I can't recall it's name right now... maybe this should be a follower participation exercise???

The Homer Spit is an active seaport and center to the Halibut fishing capital of the world. After seeing it firsthand, I have no doubt this is true. I think there were more fishing charter operations with offices there than I have ever seen. It was pretty incredible. The fishing is so good, that we saw a number of people surf-fishing and catching small halibut.

One very interesting thing was that there was a Time Bandit shop there. For any of you followers that watch The Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel, you will be very familiar with the Hillstrand brothers (Jonathan and Andy) and their antics aboard the Time Bandit crabbing in the Bering Sea. It turns out that the Hillstrands hail from Homer, and thus opened their shop on the Homer Spit. Blackie and I went in to peruse the swag and I mentioned to the woman that was running the shop that it sure looked like they were cashing in on the TV show fame... She instantly replied "When you want to ride the big wave, you might as well grab the big board" ... Well said.

On our way back to the beemerpotamuses we were stopped by a character from Texas named Michael. Now when I said the other day that everything is bigger in Alaska, I am now including the characters. Michael told us that he flew to Alaska on a whim the other day and was just bombing around for a few days before he went back to his commune in Texas. He said that he was once stranded in Allentown when his BMW motorcycle broke down, and Hermy's was able to repair it on Monday. Because he saw Blackie's Hermy's license plate frame, it was reason to stop us and tell us all about his "trips to Guatemala". He gave us his (home made) business card which listed a wide variety of unconventional lifestyle activities. It was all very humorous.

The ride back was uneventful, except for again getting a little cold. I did have a quite large bald eagle fly right in front of me about 10 miles out of Seward, but did not have a camera ready for a shot. It was an awesome sight though.

Blackie was a good boy when we returned and went out for a jog, while yours truly parked on the bed to update this blog.

Next up, the Seward story following Blackie's post on today.

P-Rock - Hanging bait