Dear Diary,
Up early, road habits. The wind has slowed. There is thick fog obscuring the mountain peaks. A small fuel tanker is sitting just off our shore area loading fuel to be delivered to villages along the Gulf. It's taking at least 24 hours to do. There is a small refinery at the end of the Arm for refining for this purpose. The Alaska Ferry has docked and left. This is one of the new catamarans in the fleet, The Chenega, it takes vehicles. It runs from Cordova, Valdez to Whittier. Pat and Brenna took it 2 years ago, it passes the Columbia Glacier and must dodge ice bergs in that area. The ferry dock here is nice with fun outdoor art. The city pier is very nice. Our campground sits on the corner of the Valdez Arm and the small boat harbor. The views from our RV can see it all. There is a constant parade of small boats, a tour boat and coast guard and fishing fleet. And then we can see the ocean going vessels and the ferries come and go as well. There is a cannery here. Chuck watches one of the commercial fleet unload their catch. He thinks it's salmon, he didn't get that close. The eagles will be showing up for the cleaning. There is a city working dock on the far end of the Arm. Valdez is on the Valdez Arm off the Prince William Sound. The area teems with wildlife, fishing and activity. This is the area where the Exxon Valdez hit a reef in the early 80's. We lived in Anchorage and remember the devastation of the all the crude oil that polluted and destroyed coastline and killed wildlife. It has been a long haul to overcome the effects in these cold waters. This is also a big earthquake area. The Good Friday earthquake in 1964 epicenter was near Valdez. It wiped out the old town. Earthquakes mean tsunami so there are evacuation signs all around town. Basically, run for the hills! We laugh at one of the signs, two stick figures running uphill from the wave, the one at the top of the hill is the girl, the boy is still climbing. Valdez, spoken with a long e, population is around 4500 and is the dead end for the Richardson Highway. Annual snowfall is around 25 feet and lots of rain. This is the terminus for the Alaska Pipeline which comes out of the mountains across the Arm into multiple holding tanks. We have watched the big tankers come in to be filled. There are none there today. The Valdez Summit to Sound Marathon went well with lots of cheering, we watched the kayakers come right by our RV. Apparently, they had to eliminate the skiing part of the 4 leg marathon. Conditions were too dangerous on the mountain. The campground is clean and quiet with all hook-ups. Beautiful showers and laundry facilities. We are a short walk into the hubbub that is the town so we stay very quiet except for water activity. The campground has a heavily forested tent grounds attached. You would need it with tents because of the wind. There is a party going on in the town with the end of the marathon. Chuck catches up with two different RV's from the Ak Fleet. We get the report that one of our RV's was in a bad accident yesterday around Teslin, YT. Apparently, they were not injured but the RV's driver mirror and whole side was peeled back with impact of a passing semi. A tow truck was taking the RV to Anchorage. We count our lucky stars that we have not had a similar fate. The roads are difficult to just plain bad and having semis share the space is tricky. Chuck tries his hand at fishing from the dock but no luck. Pat has had a run in with a flu involving headache, achy and GI. Not sure of the water we get. It's all supposed to be potable but we really don't know how reliable. One of those traveler risks. The wind is picking up a bit and slowly the peaks that ring the Arm and town are revealed. It's about 60 degrees without wind. It's overcast but the low fog is gone for now. Pat ventures out with Chuck for a walk. We start over at the marathon celebration on the city pier area. They have a band and a special event for the participants and their families. A sea otter is in the water eating shellfish on his tummy. Locals say they didn't get their usual snowfall this year, we see less leftover snow than we did last year when we came later. And tourism is down again as last year. We think it's a bit early to predict that but it makes sense given the econ. There are a lot of camping spots open but the weather forecast for this area over the weekend wasn't very good. We stroll over to the boat harbor and watch the charter catch come in. There is a halibut derby going on right now. We see 138 and 118 pounders hanging on display. But yesterday a 153.5 pounder was caught, the largest so far. We watch them fillet so close to the bone that it just leaves the skeleton and the even cut out the precious cheeks! It is wet, cold and slippery work with very sharp knives. Some of the workers wear a metal mesh glove on their non dominant hand to protect it from the fillet knife. The fish entrails and bone are put in a special bin in the water that gets hauled out to sea. Not good for the harbor environment and it draws sea lions etc, and they become nuisance. We stroll to the Best Western which has one of the best indoor views of the area. They just opened yesterday and we stop for hydration. Things are pretty quiet there. We try to go to the Halibut House, fast food diner with great fish, but they are out of halibut! As we walk back we see 2 Ak State Troopers in unmarked cars with cars pulled over. And then they quickly pull 2 more over. We know it's Memorial weekend and that brings traffic issues. We hear later that locals are complaining about the Trooper crack-down on traffic. Sounds like there is going to be an uprising at some point. We decide to try the Totem Inn. It always looks like such a dive from the outside. What a pleasant surprise. It's all Alaskana-log cabin theme. Huge gift shop. Some very well done native art for sale. But would need to have good info on the pieces before buying. And some reasonably priced Alaska theme gifts. We decide to eat there. It's an ambitious menu with some very exotic type cuisine. We stay with fish, red salmon and halibut. The meals are good, not the best we've had, the service is very friendly. They've been here a long time. Their private collection of Alaska native pieces are worth going in to see. Some of the best quality and uniqueness of any we've seen. They have a bar/lounge which we step in to see and find there is a side deck for outdoor dining and it's very pleasant. We walk the long way back to the RV around 8PM and it's 56 degrees with breeze. Very pleasant. There is sun out in Prince William Sound. The tide is coming in and the peaks that surround the Arm are cleared. We can't believe our luck. The weather report said rain and we've not had a drop. The lights come on across the water at the Ak Pipeline Terminal, it looks like another city over there. The Aurora, another Ak Ferry, is docked at the terminal offloading and collecting. There is pink sunset light showing on the peaks. No description or picture is adequate. Chuck starts a campfire and we sit looking at the boat harbor, a harbor seal pokes his head out of the water. The parade of boats is ongoing but less. The temperature is dropping and Pat still doesn't feel 100% so into the RV to finish the blog and get in the warm bed. Note to self, we stopped at Mike's Palace and find it to be more pleasant inside than looks on the outside. The menu looks good too. Try some time? The gift shops are far and few between on the harbor side street. Maybe it's too early. Nighty night. Miles traveled: 0 time Traveled: 0
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