Parade Day and Bears at Work
Trip Start
Jun 18, 2010
1
41
61
Trip End
Ongoing
Valdez, Alaska
Sunday, August 8, 2010
More RAIN !
Grocery day.
A Small Town Parade.
Refinery drive redo.
Making preparations to get underway.
Wordy Version:
The sunny Saturday we had bucked the rainy day trend we had been having but that one day in a row was all the weather would allow. The rains came rolling in during the night and along with it our old friend, Mr. Foghorn. I've about had it with this rain, fog, coastal cities and fog horns! Ok, I got that out of my system; let’s put our happy hat back on.
Since we still had the rental car until 5:00 PM, we decided to take care of the grocery resupply. The largest grocery in Valdez is the Eagle Grocery; when you get inside, you find out this is just a Safeway store cloaked in a local name. While we found the store fairly well stocked with the Safeway brand items, the prices were off the hook. We intended to only pick up a few items like milk, paper towels bread and such, but $120 later with only three plastic sacks of necessities, we were in sticker shock. So, a word to those thinking about Valdez as a stop, be advised to stock up on your food and gas (regular was $3.87/gal) before heading to this port city. We returned to the RV and stashed our gold plated groceries then posted a guard so that nobody would steal our saltines.
While we were having lunch, the rains really messed up; they quit! This worked out because it was getting close to parade time. We were just a couple of blocks away from main street Valdez where the parade was going to be, but we decided to take the car and explore a bit more before returning for the parade. South of town, we found the hiking trailheads for the East and West Morrison Creek trail which looked and sounded like an interesting hike if we would have just had the time. Returning to the town, we picked a good viewing spot for the parade which wound up being right in front of the judging stand.
Unlike most small town parades, this one started right on time and had all the usual entries; there were the political biggies, the fire and emergency trucks, the various business floats (the best was the pink Miss Piggy Ice Cream Truck) and of course the crazy Shriners in their silly little go-fast cars.
One thing we noticed right away that sadly has been eliminated from parades back home was every float threw candy for the kids; this was particularly fun to watch for us because of these two little four and five year old sisters who were dressed in their bonnets and matching dresses. They were obviously enjoying themselves but always seemed so solemn and determined; nevertheless, they would hold on to their hats and take off after every candy toss filling up their pockets several times over.
After the parade, we decided to make a second drive-by on the bears at the fish hatchery. On Saturday, we had discovered that the bears were showing up for salmon sushi when it was high tide. The fish would come in on the high tide so they could make it further into the streams and clear the fish ladders to spawn.
The bears had this high tide feast scheduled just like they had the finest timepiece available strapped to their leg. Once again, we were not disappointed and we watched the young bear fishing follies all over again until it became time to return the car.
I dropped Karen off at the RV, loaded my bike back in the trunk and drove to the airport. Just as I was getting ready for my five mile return ride, here came the rain; not to worry, I suited up in my rain gear and rode back to the campground. By this time, the weather had settled in and was here to stay; I proceeded to reassemble the rack, bikes and cover (in the rain) so I would have a jump start on departure in the morning.
When we came to Valdez, we knew that in addition to what we wanted to spend, we had a couple of extra days to kill before officially turning our rig south for the beginning of our return trip to the lower 48. With no better plan, we might as well spend them in Valdez. We both agreed that we enjoyed Valdez, but for us, there just wasn’t that much to do that required seven days. Looking back, I think that four or five days would be about right.
It’s On The Road Again tomorrow.
