Hawaii Update! Minds Explode!

I've looked further into the new Alaska Airlines $159 one-way direct Anchorage-Honolulu flights that start in December and found out ... hold on to your hat ... that it's only $70 more from Kodiak!!!!

Yes! That comes out to $229 one-way, or $458 round-trip, from our rock to theirs!

Hey man, I'm freakin' out!

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The Great Hawaii Exodus

How many more Alaskans do you think are going to be going to Hawaii this winter now that Alaska Airlines has announced direct flights from Anchorage (as well as Seattle)?

Flights start from Anchorage to Honolulu December 9, and will be seasonal through April or so.

From the ADN story online today, something that doesn't make sense:

The flights will leave Anchorage at 3:20 p.m., arriving in Honolulu at 8:40 p.m. Return flights will leave Honolulu at 10:10 p.m. and arrive in Anchorage at 5:30 a.m.

Why does it take 5 hours 20 minutes to fly down there and 7 hours 20 minutes to fly back? Because it's up-hill?

Better act quick if you want the special low introductory fare of $159 each way, because it's only available through Saturday.

And no, it wasn't lost on me that that's a cheaper fare than from Kodiak to Anchorage.

See you on the beach, haole.
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Casa de Stevens del dinero

Interesting story in the Anchorage Daily News Tuesday about how the feds are starting to sniff around the gilded edges of Alaska's beloved Uncle Ted. (photo Marc Lester/ADN)

Seems somehow or another Veco wound up hiring and paying at least one contractor in the remodel job on Ted Stevens' "home" in Girdwood. (WTF, is that T1-11 sheathing the ground floor and garage?)

I say "home" because if he's spent even a tenth of his time there (or in Alaska) I'll eat my hat. Sure, I know it's tough being senator-for-life from the furthest-flung state; blah, blah, blah.

But back to Veco and Ted's half-million-dollar home. I find it interesting that Uncle Ted's name has finally come up in the same sentence as the FBI and federal prosecutors. I wonder if we're getting softened up to expect more ... someday.
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Where the hell are the rogue gypsy cabs when I need one?

I just read in the paper today about how the city of Kodiak is helpless to crack down on the so-called "rogue gypsy" taxi cabs that are giving rides for $3 or $4. Mostly to cannery workers, but also from parts of town to the grocery story and laundry.

What I want to know is why I'm still paying $12 ($15 with tip) for a ride home after a night out on the town? Like on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights this last long weekend?

Hey, gypsy rogue lee, you can find me outside Tony's at various closing times. Look for me, I tip well! I'll be the one who's had too much to drink. Okay, that doesn't narrow it down does it? Just give me a sign, I'll find you.
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First they came for the Tequila, and I said nothing...

Okay, I'm not much for tequila -- except in a nice frosty margarita surrounded by a well-salted rim -- but I can see the writing on the wall.

First they plow under all the agave and do away with tequila.

Then corn will be diverted from fine Kentucky sippin' bourbon.

Then it'll be the amber waves of grain in Canadian turned from rye whiskey to fuel.

I'm not sure what they make Scotch whiskey out of, maybe peat moss or something, but you never know when they'll come for that, too.

We must stop the madness, people! Just say no to ethanol (in cars)!

Ethanol boom may fuel shortage of tequila

Mexican farmers burning agave fields and replanting them with corn

Reuters

Updated: 4:16 p.m. AKT May 29, 2007

MEXICO CITY - Mexican farmers are setting ablaze fields of blue agave, the cactus-like plant used to make the fiery spirit tequila, and resowing the land with corn as soaring U.S. ethanol demand pushes up prices.

The switch to corn will contribute to an expected scarcity of agave in coming years, with officials predicting that farmers will plant between 25 percent and 35 percent less agave this year to turn the land over to corn.

"Those growers are going after what pays best now," said Ismael Vicente Ramirez, head of agriculture at Mexico's Tequila Regulatory Council.

The large, spiky-leaved agave thrives on high, arid land and can take eight years to reach maturity. To remove the plants, growers cut them at their stems and often burn the fields to remove the roots.

Tequila, drunk in shots and cocktails around the world, is named after a town in the western Mexican state of Jalisco.

Production of agave, from the lily family, soared in recent years as farmers cashed in on record prices brought about by a shortage of the plant at the start of the decade.

Despite rapid growth in tequila drinking, especially overseas, the over-supply of agave has driven prices for the plant to rock-bottom levels.

Many growers have started to abandon the crop in favor of corn, whose price has rocketed in line with massive growth in U.S. demand for ethanol after President Bush outlined targets last year to use the corn-based fuel as a gasoline alternative.

Agave supply is also being hit this year by disease in the fields, partly due to farmers caring less for the plants after prices dropped.

"The problem that we are going to see, perhaps by mid-2008, is that a lot of agave is sick," Agriculture Ministry official Arnulfo del Toro said. "That will have to be taken out and production is going to drop a lot."

Copyright 2007 Reuters

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Deadliest Catch: Animal Planet

My entry into a caption contest I found on Fark today.

Tonight on Celebrity Deadliest Animal Planet Catch

"It was only once they had left the Port of Kodiak and were well out at sea that Mr. Ed and Garfield realized they couldn't operate the powerblock because they had no opposable thumbs!"
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She deserves more nachos and ice cream

Check out the story by a Kodiaker who on Sunday during Crab Fest not only rode, but won, the 42-mile bike race from Chiniak into town, and then topped it off by running the 9-mile Pillar Mountain Race, where she was third in her age group. Damn impressive.
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The Word from Oswalt

My operatives at the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly meeting last Thursday relay the numbers in the Assemblyman Reed Oswalt Buzzword Bingo Shots Game:

What it amounts to: 5
Situation: 4
At this time and point: 0
Move on/forward: 0

We'll have an extra bonus assembly meeting this week, rare for a fifth Thursday in a month, but that pesky fiscal year 08 budget waits for no man. Stay tuned.
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Five Grand!

Woo Hoo! We've surpassed the 5,000 visitor mark. We've been doing this for about eight months, which averages out to 625 per, or about 20+ visits a day. Given nobody even knew of this thing for the first month or two, I bet we're doing even better than that. Thanks so much for reading and for leaving comments.

This is post number 341, so that's about 42 a month or almost one-and-a-half a day.
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Fairbanksians hold Fairwell Party for Falwell

Check out the party review from my favorite blog, FieryBlazingHandbasket.

What do you do when a particularly hateful God-bag (not a word I coined, unfortunately) kicks it? If you are in the Goldstream Valley with a bunch of leftie, liberal, libertarianish, free thinking, Bohemian types, you celebrate the reduction in hate-masquerading-as-religion and throw a party to do so.

And there was beer drinking. We are all strong proponents of beer drinking.
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More than meets the eye?

Well, it appears KoKon readers suspect a little more potentially nefarious Veco activity among the Kodiak legislative delegation than is on the surface, and substantially more in regards to Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux than Senator Gary Stevens. All hypothetically, of course....

The new poll is a snapshot of how we're feeling about Sarah Barracuda Palin after almost six months. A recent statewide poll showed something like 86% approval rating overall for the young first-timer.
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Crab Festival 2007

It's been a good Crab Fest 2007, despite the threatening weather. And the torrential rain coming down on the set up days.

I mentioned the Wounded Warriors event at the Elks Club Saturday night. It featured a lingerie auction and raffle, along with appetizers. Here's model Jamie, who beat me out for third in the body transformation competition at the local gym this year. The bustier she's wearing sold for $100.

Off to the midway! Here's a popular favorite: pup-on-a-stick. I like mine rare and still barking. Yum. (okay, it's really "pork.") There are many BBQ places on the midway, so I had to develop a system for picking one, so I just observed which had the most smoke billowing out the back and made a beeline for it.


And how do you catch a crab ratz? With cheese, of course, preferably from the Curds & Co. booth, where they served deep fried cheese curd. Ah... yum? I didn't get to try it, as the proprietors closed for a bit to enter the survival suit race.

And for the 25th year in a row, the Lions Club Kodiak Arm Wrestling Championship was held at Tony's Bar. I didn't catch her name, but the woman on the right won the under-145 lbs. women's division. I spoke with her later outside the Tropics and she seemed very nice despite her obvious use of steroids. Just kidding. Turns out she purse seines for a living and built up her super-human strength that way.

Today's Doonesbury

Part one of two recognizing and honoring our brave soldiers who've been killed in our unjust war of terror in Iraq during the past year alone. Click to enlarge -- Blogger's not letting me post it full size.

I saw a great presentation Saturday night at the Elks Club -- it was a fundraiser for Wounded Warriors, and on both videos it showed soldiers saying "You don't have to support the war, but please don't stop supporting the troops." Amen. As we take on caring for those who are coming back without limbs and suffering from post-traumatic stress and mental illness, let's move on to saving the lives of the ones who aren't dead or maimed yet.
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Ultimate F(l)ag Football

Since we've taken to asking rhetorical questions....

Did you make it to the Crab Fest flag football tournament this (Saturday) afternoon? I was there and saw the Coast Guard crush the Daily Mirror 36-6. I guess you can't expect much when you put rescue swimmers against copy editors....

The Clarkston, the Mirror's sports editor, provided the only scoring for the Mirrorenettes, when he returned an interception for a touchdown.

Did anyone notice a certain chief of police with a t-shirt reading "Ultimate Fighting Championships"? One wonders out loud if perhaps the chief participated in the "sport" in Anchorage recently....?
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Fish Slap

Did you happen to catch the Fisherman's Poetry Slam at Tony's Bar (motto: Biggest Navigational Hazzard (sic) in Kodiak) Thursday night as part of crab fest? Lots of great stuff, as usual.

Some of it this year rather politically charged...

... Speaking of which... Who was the certain wordsmith who gave a certain politico a piece of his mind after maybe one lemonade too many?

Word is they made up at the end, but the adult version of "bufu" was uttered in relationship to Veco and what they're doing to Alaskans via the legislature....
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I heard it rained the other day...

Boarded up in the dank cubby I'm forced to slave away in I don't get to see the outside world much. Just the quick trips between the KoKon Bunker and the coal mine.... But word is it was raining like hell Thursday. Sure enough.
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Entering the Fray: Near Island

Given there are all sorts of legitimate points on all sides of the development of Near Island for one use or another (or none), allow me to toss my tarnished two pennies in....

First let me say that I am all for developing Near Island to the fullest extent possible. Let the flaming begin.

Green space: To those who say we need more "green space" in Kodiak, I say you only need to turn around and see about 2 million acres of the stuff -- the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, guaranteed to remain a green space in perpetuity. Why are there two parks on Near Island to begin with? I saw the old Mainstreet Kodiak brochure with condos and apartments and shops and all sorts of valid uses along Dog Bay Road and above it. If you want green space, drive -- hell, walk -- five minutes in any direction and I guarantee you'll find it.

Bridge: I don't think the bridge will need to be widened to accommodate all the new traffic. Please, this is Kodiak, not Soldotna. But some new pavement would be nice. And removing that stupid chain link fence so I can take a decent picture of town would be nice. What? The fence is to keep people from jumping? Well, I guess if they're stupid enough to jump, they're too stupid to cross the two lanes to jump from the side with no fence. There's precious little flat land in town and the Fred Zharoff Memorial Bridge is woefully underused. I say let's build two more bridges to the next islands out to open up some more land for sale.

Folks say a big quake could take the bridge down and anybody and anything over there would be stranded. Well, unless all the boats in town are destroyed too, nobody will be stranded for long. We are a maritime community and there are folks who know how to load a truck onto a boat for the hop across the channel. In fact, that's how people got back and forth before the bridge was built.

Police Station and Jail: The current location just up from The Y is the ideal spot; It' visible, accessible, and convenient for our boys in blue to scramble from to fight crime in every direction. But a temporary facility would have to be built so the current dilapidated ruin could be razed and a new one built there. That'll cost big bucks and will compromise the 911 system during two transitions. Personally, I don't care if they put in on Near Island. The police are on the road patrolling most of the time and take their cruisers home with them at night, so I don't buy the argument that it's an emergency response issue. Honestly, Selief Lane is a better choice than Near Island, but there was a NIMBY outcry from a few vocal neighbors (one said they didn't want that unsavory element in their neighborhood. It's the police, for Christ's sake!) that stopped that.

Post Office: Putting it on Near Island is a bad idea. So many people walk to it now, especially our transient fishermen and cannery workers who live in Aleutian Homes. Smack in the middle of town is the best place for a post office, not a mile round trip (not as the crow flies) from where it is now. I'm pretty sure I smelled some "wink-and-a-nod" dealings between the city and the Postal Service on site selection for this thing a couple years ago, where other potential sites were not given the consideration they deserved in an effort to steer the post office to Near Island.

Native corporation headquarters: Excellent idea.

Boat lift: Where else would you put it?

Ferry terminal: I'd rather see it on the town side, but the Kennicott is too big to fit in the channel safely. Maybe an extension to the spit?

Musical chairs: Police Station/Jail to Near Island, Fire Department to Library site, Library to Post Office site, and Post office to where the Police/Fire stations are now.

Wow, did I just solve all the city's problems? Well, no, that'd be a superhuman feat beyond my mortal abilities. But it's a thought.

But you can bet that with the Police Station/Jail controversy to remain through the summer, the elections this October will be interesting.... Up for your consideration will be Mayor Carolyn Floyd, who cast the tie-breaking vote selecting Near Island as the police/jail site (though rumor has it she may not run for re-election this year); and the curmudgeonly Hell's Angel wannabe, Councilman Dennis McMurray; and an open seat vacated this week by Councilman Dave Woodruff (speedy recover, Dave, we're pullin' for you!).
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Gran letra, señora.

There's been some heated phone calls into the local radio talk show this week about using English as the preferred language in Kodiak, and why can't the 33% of the people here who are immigrants just talk like whitey. It all started with a letter to the editor, and then another last week....

Here's a great response published in Wednesday's Mirror:

Set free hatred and racism
By VICTORIA T. PÉREZ
Regarding Rosabel Baldwin’s letter about “English only,” hate and racism: I can’t believe that people like you, without common sense, can be living here in Kodiak, a beautiful and peaceful city. I hope some day you can find the love of our almighty God. That day you will change your mind and you will be free and happy.

Now I feel sorry for you and for a lot of people who are wrong and negative, like you. Nobody has the right to control anybody. God made us to be free and he made the Earth, the sun, air, water and everything for everybody. I love human beings and I will speak Spanish everywhere and anytime, whether you like it or not.

Mrs. Rosabel Baldwin, God bless you.

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Elephunk

Peter Dunlap Shohl from today's Anchorage Daily News.

This makes me feel sorry for the poor, beat-up, put-upon Alaska republicans. They've fallen and can't get up. :-(
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Or Does Dandy Don mean: "Exxon and BP won't make obsene profits to line my pockets with"?

Reps. Don Young & Stevan Pearce's Statements From Today's Hearing On Democratic Bill ("The Energy Policy Reform and Revitalization Act of 2007" - H.R. 2337) To Reduce U.S. Energy Security & Raise The Cost Of Gasoline & Electricity

"H.R. 2337 is called the 'Energy Policy Reform and Revitalization Act of 2007'. The only thing I see being 'revitalized' by this bill is the economy of Iran and Venezuela, because we're going to have to buy more of our energy from these countries and we will export more of our jobs to China." - Rep. Stevan Pearce

"Mr. Chairman, I'm disappointed in your bill. If this bill became law it would make energy more expensive and less available, and lead to more foreign imports - just the opposite of what we should be doing." - Rep. Don Young

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That's Customer Service!

An ad from GCI at the bottom of page five in today's Mirror:

"Upgrades are on the way: Exciting new products and services are coming."

Cool! Sounds great!

"As we upgrade our system, you may experience cable TV or Internet interruptions last 5 to 30 minutes each ..."

Well, that's reasonable; we have to expect that sort of thing when there are upgrades, especially if they schedule them in the middle of the night....

"... Monday through Friday between 6am and 6 pm."

Great.
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Now I'm Scared

I just finished reading "Collapse" by Jared Diamond. It's a book about how societies throughout history have, well, collapsed. His summary explains his premise:

This book employs the comparative method to understand societal collapses to which environmental problems contribute. My previous book (Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies), had applied the comparative method to the opposite problem: the differing rates of buildup of human societies on different continents over the last 13,000 years. In the present book focusing on collapses rather than buildups, I compare many past and present societies that differed with respect to environmental fragility, relations with neighbors, political institutions, and other "input" variables postulated to influence a society's stability. The "output" variables that I examine are collapse or survival, and form of the collapse if collapse does occur. By relating output variables to input variables, I aim to tease out the influence of possible input variables on collapses.

One chilling passage is after he talks about the collapse of societies on Easter Island, the Anasazi and the Vikings on Greenland and says, "Don't think it could happen today?" and points out the genocidal collapse of Rwanda.

He points out that if all the third world countries in world were able to live the lifestyle of first world countries, there wouldn't be enough resources to sustain us all.

Think about it: There's five Chinese for every American. If they ate, bought goods and used oil and coal at the rate Americans do, we're all screwed.

But what's the answer....? Diamond is more optimistic at the end of the book than he maybe should be, but check it out.
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Check it out: My Favorite Blogs

I just added a new Alaska blog to the list of links to the right: It's Nome, Home, the blog of KNOM Radio reporter Jesse Zink. He describes his blog "... as both an extension of my professional life and completely unrelated to what goes on at the station." He mostly talks about statewide politics and policy and has some very insightful things to say.

Also listed:

• Wonkette, the D.C. Blog. The funniest look at what's happening back in our nation's capital.
• Alaska Ear, produced by the Anchorage Daily News' Sheila Toomey for a long time. Good, funny statewide gossip, but often gets cluttered with dull bits about functionaries known only to the Ear in the Anchorage legal culture.
• Insurgent 49, a lefty progressive online newspaper for Alaska.
• The two local "news" outlets.
• Fiery Blazing Handbasket, done by two very witty and hardy Fairbanksians, Cabin Dweller and FlictheBic. "Politicking, cooking, drinking, attempting to keep an old Soob running, the water-challenged existence, and more."
• Another Kodiaker blogger, this one a liberal federale, who posts a lot of great pictures and tells some great stories.
• Tribal Fires, home of Billy Muldoon. A former Anchorage Daily News reporter's statewide view from his single-wide in Spenard.
• And the Alaska Blogs listing, where you'll find most of these and more.

Check them all out and you'll be better educated and have a good laugh more often than not.
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Today's Doonesbury

Huh. Zipper's not the most distracted student at Walden.

What a Day that Was....

Well, the big Bon Voyage party for Andy and Tammy was a smashing success tonight at Tony's!

So successful, the cops were waiting for anyone who dared swerve out of the packed AC parking lot (Andy says at least one person was stopped, but perhaps not arrested).

Above is Andy introducing his long-time cohort Coyote, who's about to sing a Dylan song while playing the Nimbus 3000. He was good. Seriously, somebody needs to get him a recording contract.

And below is a shot of hot little Melanie accepting a tip for her fine waitressing service. It may look like only a dollar, but it was given to her by Pizza Chris, who's Canadian, so it's really worth $1.10.

I'm pretty sure I can say a good time was had by all -- except maybe those two jackasses who put on a contest to eat two pounds of 5-hour-old macaroni salad. Jock of the Rock host Nick Sandin beat out some fat bastard in the test to eat the two-pounds of congealed pasta goodness, and won $50. But word is he went out into the alley to purge twice afterwards.

Wow, being drunk is fun, isn't it, kids?
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Party at Tony's Tonight!

Hey, it's getting close to the time when Andy (Kodiak's Ben Franklin) and Tammy (Kodiak's Betsy Ross?) will be turning over the keys to the new owners of Tony's Bar (Motto: Biggest Navigation Hazzard (sic) in Kodiak).

In honor of this milestone, the proprietors and regulars are having a party tonight (Saturday, May 19). Festivities start at 6 p.m., so be there or be square.

And no, there are no truth to the rumors that Tony's is closing tomorrow. That's just the ignorant blathering of a certain sometimes-resident busybody who, Andy and Tammy have declared is, and I quote, "... full of shit." So if you see this certain tall brunette with the initials K.H., who is not altogether unattractive, tell her the same.

Meow!

Don't forget to stop in at Tony's for the Fisherman's Poetry Slam and Arm-wrestling Tournament during Crab Fest next week.
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It's all just a blur....

Here's another shot from the holiday trip up the AlCan, with the F250 Super Duty squeezing the 28' Koffler into yet another gas station. This might have been Chetwynd, B.C. ... maybe....

As you can see, gas is $1.12 Canadian per litre. Which would, with the anemic $1:$1.10 exchange rate and the metric-to-American volume conversion, equal about $4.10 per gallon. "Esso," by the way, is Exxon here in the states. We, or rather my buddy the boat owner, spent about $3,000 in gas with the anemic mileage we were making, which is about a dollar a mile. Yikes. Those first class plane tickets don't sound so bad in comparison....

Check out the cool eagle-salmon-plane sculpture. Sweet.
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Okay, It was a trick question

Where did Ishmael go? I'm sure it was the topic of the month here in Kodiak -- among the bored and listless, anyway.

I do admit it was a trick question; I went to all of the places listed in the last poll, including Guantanamo, and boy, is my ass sore. Oh no he didn't! Just kidding. Nothing like gay muslim prison humor to ensure I'm next target of al Kayda (I misspell it so Homeland Security doesn't web track me.).

So here are the results of the poll. I guess in a way I could say you were all stumped, since no one said Canada, which is where I spent most of my holiday.

Check out the new poll, which is full of timely political goodness.

Buy pictures of your kids

Have you noticed the ads in the Kodiak Daily Mirror selling photos taken by their staff? They have some good photographers, Derek Clarkston, particularly, and despite publishing most of the work in black and white, have some striking photos.

They use a lot of photos of high school sports action (as in today's paper) in their ads. It makes me wonder if they offer a discount to the parents of those kids if they order a shot. Seems only fair since the Mirror made money off them by publishing them in the first place.

Which brings me to photographers who get exclusive deals with schools to take photos at events (I'm thinking of the volleyball tournament here this winter) and turn around and sell instant inkjet prints at the venue. Are the parents of the students signing away the rights to their children's likeness when they send in permission slips at the beginning of the season? Are they getting a cut of the profits? How much is the school/district/Alaska Student Athletic Association making? What about pervs who want shots of the girls and boys even though they're of no relation to them?

Lots of questions....

The Oswalt Numbers

A marathon Kodiak Island Borough Assembly Thursday night, so Assemblyman Reed Oswalt may have uttered his catchphrases more often than I know because of my frequent, Nyquil-induced naps....

But, here's what passes for an official count in the Assemblyman Reed Oswalt Buzzword Bingo Shots Game:

What it amounts to: 6
Situation: 9
Move on/forward/ahead: 1

Kind of a disappointingly sober night for anyone playing at home, but he did lay down the S-bomb three times in two seconds at one point, which is awful impressive.
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Painless, and a little Pleasant

Is it just me, or did the just-ended legislative session not suck?

The governor didn't try to shove crap down out throats (eew);

The Senate's bi-partisan majority worked well;

The usual House shenanigans didn't materialize;

No endless series of special sessions (though one might be called for the fall to fix the Murkowski/Veco Petroleum Production Tax mess);

And there were indictments!

Who could ask for anything more?
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I can't resist....

Okay, one more political snipe tonight...

In the Kenai Peninsula Clarion today Sen. Tom Wagoner said he was "sickened and surprised" at the Veco corruption and bribery scandal sweeping the legislature and state.

Excuse me?

Raise your hand if any of this shit comes as a surprise to you.

If you were the one person in Alaska (besides the other legislators) who raised your hand, all I have to say is: Pay Closer Attention!

These are just the penny-ante losers they caught. I would bet a couple of the last two governors were well taken care of through "campaign donations" by everybody and their uncle who were getting reimbursed by Bill Allen or British Petroleum. Do you think Uncle Ted is immune? Word on the street is the federales are going to give him the option to save face and resign rather than get taken down hard.

Sarah Palin is looking better and better to me every day.
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Back to politics, if just for a moment

The pastor Jerry Falwell died today. Went home to Jesus, as he might say.

I'm of mixed emotions.... On one hand, I'm glad the bastard is gone and not causing trouble for America any more.

On the other hand, I feel bad for being glad anybody is dead. Is this what they mean by liberal guilt?

On the other hand, let's hope Pat Robertson can go home to Jesus soon, too. Oh, and Jerry Pervert Prevo, too.

Down at Tony's tonight (motto: Biggest Hazzard (sic) to Navigation in Kodiak), one witty wag said he hopes Falwell went to heaven, but wound up in gay Muslim heaven by accident. That sounds like a great plot for a sitcom.
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Road Trip Part Deux

Here's the reason for the road trip, a 28' Koffler w/dual 150 Yamahas that needed to be trailered up from Eugene to Kenai. Yes, it's bigger than the freakin' huge F250 Super Duty twin cab w/extended bed. And just as heavy, at 8,000 pounds. This is at the Desert Inn at Cache Creek on day two of the drive. Nice little place in the Canadian high desert. Yes, I said high desert. Yeah, I didn't know they had any either.

Somewhere in the upper reaches of British Columbia we started to see the wild bison. You always hear about people seeing bison on the AlCan, but until this point all we saw were domesticated stock, which doesn't count. Word of advice: Don't try cow tipping a bison. Trust me; It only frustrates you and annoys the bison.

Wild animal count: A hundred bison, one black bear, two moose, a couple reindeer, a handful of whitetail deer, an eagle, a couple hawks and two owls. Oh, and some kind of marmot-like thing that may have been a very well fed mutant giant squirrel. We also saw several metric tonnes of bison patties. I swear, if these guys ever wanted to cause trouble and poo in the same spot on the road, there'd be no getting past it.
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Two Weeks Gone, Two Days Back

Well, been back on the glorious rock for two days and haven't a) felt like blogging; or b) had time to. So let's start slowly:


Brookings-Harbor, Oregon, where the adventure began. Five miles from the California border, Brookings, to the right of the river, is an incorporated city, Harbor is its unincorporated Siamese Twin, as in joined at the hip. Beautiful area, giant redwoods just a few miles away, the tackle shop has a bar in it and my friends' yard has three lemon trees that produce fruit year-round. Who knew places like that existed? Downside: You can't buy the most modest house in the area for less than $300,000. The new development in the foreground go for significantly more than that.

More later.
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Today's Doonesbury

Six-thousand tanker trucks of beer. I like that....

Kodiak's Wild Cheerleader

Check out Rachael Turner, an 18 year old cheerleader for Alaska's professional arena football team, the Wild. I heard on the radio she was born in Kodiak and lived here as a preschooler, before moving to Anchorage and graduating from Dimond High School last year. Turns out she's also the cover model on the Wild Cheerleader's Swimsuit Calendar.

Arrest them all!

Well, I'm the last to hear the news about nearly everything. While I was away seeking the NW Passage, it seems every republican in AK was indicted for something!
:)
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Home!

AlCan is great! What a trip. In Kenai now. Haines Junction to Glenallen was brutal with frost heaves. Bleh. More later.
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British Columbia

3 days to get across BC... Nice folks those Canucks.
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Today's Doonesbury

I see blinking lights, too. Far too often, actually... How much NyQuil is too much?

Gas on the road

In Oregon you cant pump your own gas. 3.35 a gal.
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