Travel Blog

Sue:

Payne location udpate: Rawlins, Wyoming (watching the Steelers game since it's a nice evening game).

Before we get into Sitka, a funny thing happened on the way to Kansas. We pulled into a Flying J in Evanston, Wyoming, to fuel up. We usually use the non-commercial-truck pumps if they're accessible enough, and this one wasn't too bad. So we drove all the away around the pumps, driving past the store itself, and into a far deisel pump on the end. I made sure Phil pulled up enough to be out of everyone's way, and we got out to commence fueling. Phil had just swiped his card when we heard a tremedous CRUNCH! I said, "What the hell was that?!?" while Phil went around the RV. Here, an SUV full of teenaged stoners had backed into our back end. Luckily, the only damage to our rig was one tail light on the scooter trailer (not the RV tail light, thank goodness). The SUV wasn't so lucky. I went back to see what was going on, but once I saw that only an already broken light was our only casualty, I went back to pumping the fuel, but Phil had to endure many a "Woah, dude. Sorry, dude. I'm sorry, dude." And the whole thing was witnessed by a Flying J employee out for his smoke break who came over and helpfully chimed, "Yeah, you guys really sneak up on people with that thing, don't ya?" Har har. We didn't make a fuss, though, since the light was already broken and their car was a mess (they won't be driving any time soon), and hopefully they learned not to back up into huge, stationary objects, especially not while under herbal influences.

As for our time in Sitka, as we were docking, Phil and I spent our time looking at jellyfish. I never really thought about jellyfish in Alaska, but there they were.

Then we spent the rest of the time walking the dogs around the Starrigaven Recreation Area. It was really close to where the ferry dock was, and it was easier to do that than figure out how to walk the dogs, put them back on the ferry and then catch a ride for the 7 miles into town. I was kinda bummed about missing the town proper, though, because I wanted to see the Russian architecture, but I guess I can always do that online.

Our docked ferry:

The hike was really nice, and the weather was cooperative. The dogs enjoyed themselves since it was a 2-hour walk for them. Heck, that was more exercise than they'd gotten in Skagway!

Neato tree:

And we got all the way to the end of the trail, and then saw the sign about the mother bear and baby bears in the area. Nice. But we didn't have any troubles, thank goodness, because I just heard about a hunter who had his arm bitten by a bear in Sitka. Sheesh.

That's about it for Sitka. I'll end this post with some final pictures of the day, and we'll talk about Ketchikan tomorrow.

Tagish River:

Pretty field:

Old Sitka with our ferry in the background: