Friday, 26 June 2015

June 25 - Anchorage

Well, between the trains, the planes and the late arriving campsite traffic, we woke up this morning feeling like we'd been to the wars. We got up, made coffee and set about dealing with the most pressing issue of the day - we are now 6000+ kms into our trip and our bikes need an oil change. We tried calling the Harley dealership in Anchorage in advance, once we knew when we'd be here, but we were told they couldn't take us. We were a little discouraged because it's sort of an unwritten rule (at least in Canada) that travellers from away are prioritized for oil changes etc. if they're on a big trip. We decided to show up when they opened to see just how rigid they were about their "no".
We got there just before their Service department opened up and as soon as they showed up, we inquired. Nope. No go. So - we bought oil and filters and Lynn decided he'd do our bikes himself at the campsite. Harley DID offer to take our used oil and filters and dispose of them for us so that was good.  We went across the street to Gwenny's - an old restaurant that's been around for a loooooooong time. It's one of the oldest restaurants in Anchorage. The old girl looks a little run down but it's BIG and it's BUSY! The place was just hopping and it was piled full of locals so you know it's a good place. I'm not sure when it was built but most of the building is made of river rock and inside, the decor is decidedly vintage Alaskan - native and outdoorsy artifacts with lots of stuffed dead animals all over the place and old photos on the walls. The food was fantastic and the most reasonably priced we've found in Alaska so far. Gwenny's is a gem and absolutely worth going to. 
From there, we went just down the block to Lake Hood, home of the largest small engine airplane base in the world (they have a busy airstrip there for small planes).  
It's also the largest float plane base in North America.

There are over 2500 small planes on any given day. It's also next to the major commercial airport so you can IMAGINE the air traffic in the area! We rode around the lake where you can get right up close to many of the small planes. The planes themselves use the road to taxi around on and there are signs everywhere reminding vehicle drivers that the planes have the right-away. We followed the road all the way around to the end where the aviation museum is. It's a very nice museum that takes up 4 hangars. A 5th one is used for restoring projects which you can go in if there are volunteers around. They also have an outdoor display of planes and the old air traffic tower which you can go up and view the lake from. They transmit the actual commercial tower feed into this little tower so you can hear the air traffic controllers guiding the commercial flights that are coming and going next door.
While here, we met Blain, who has worked in Alaska and in the Aleutian Islands specifically a lot over the years. While he is technically retired, he is still doing contracts for the government out there. He found out Lynn is a pilot and that we're going down the Aleutians next week and that we had an interest in the history of the Islands, particularly when the Japanese invaded during WWII. He we really excited we were going and he went to the museum gift shop and BOUGHT us copies of two volumes from The Forgotten War book series which he contributed to. Just completely out of the blue. He said they would make good reading on our boat trip down the chain. 
You just never know who you will meet on any given day. We were blown away by his generosity. Later, we were talking to one of the volunteers at the museum and she couldn't say enough about him and what a nice man he is. Apparently, he's donated a lot to the museum over the years... 
From Lake Hood, we headed downtown and caught the one hour trolley tour through the city which is a good little overview of Anchorage.

We headed over to Humpy's - an Anchorage landmark of a restaurant - fantastic seafood and a favorite with the locals. After dinner, we came back to our campsite and I caught up on this blog while Lynn changed the oil in our bikes. Tomorrow - we think we'll head out. We're sure there's lots more to see in Anchorage but we're not feeling much like doing the city thing right now. We'd rather get gone and see a few more spots on the Kenai - Whittier and the big tunnel, Seward and then up to Kenai itself and the surrounding area before we head for Homer and the boat trip down the Aleutians...

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