Redwood Forests

These are the forests of my childhood, where tall redwoods reach high into the heavens providing a canopy for the greenery below. Light filters through the trees in streaks and the fog gives the area a mysterious feel.

Rocks carpeted with moss make perfectly soft seats for resting, and old fallen logs lay on the ground decaying. Their wood takes on a spongy feel, and with time it becomes a rich soil for new life.

As I walk through these forests, I am taken back to my childhood. I find hiding places among the trees and think of what a great fort I could make.

Under the trees it is cool and refreshing. But I feel a distinct warmth. These trees comfort me. I feel as though I am with family. Nature embraces me, and I am at home.

Bigfoot on Our Trail

Adolfo and I crossed through Bigfoot, TX numerous times as we traveled down to Mexico. We knew the creature has been seen across the country and in other parts of the world. What we didn't realize was that we would be meeting up with him repeatedly on our trip. Perhaps he is following us.

The first encounter on the trip was in Canada where we came across Sasquatch Crossing. There the great beast was running a cafe, gift shop, and RV Park. We drove right past.

Bigfoot did not appear in Alaska. Perhaps it was too cold up there for him. So it wasn't until we returned to the Lower 48 that we encountered him again. In fact, he was there greeting us just as we crossed the border into Sumas, Washington.

We didn't meet up with him in the North Cascades or in Olympic National Park, but when we got to the Washington coast, there he was again, surfing with his son.

Now that we are in Oregon, we drove into our spot in a nice RV Park and looked over at the RV beside us. Yikes, Bigfoot again.

Their Teachers

“Ms. Thomas’ got to be gay,” a teenage girl states with conviction, “She never talks about a boyfriend or husband.”

“Yea, and she doesn’t have any kids,” a second teen agrees.

“You know, my brother had her four years ago and she used Miss,” a third continues. “She went from Miss to Ms., not Mrs.”

“What do you think about Ms. Ayers?” one of the teens continues, changing the subject slightly since there was no longer any doubt about Ms. Thomas’s sexual preference.

“She’s sooo married to Bill Nye.”

“The Science Guy?” The girls all laugh.

I lay on the beach listening to this conversation, thinking, It sure would be nice to be across the lake. But, the warm sun felt so good as it bathed my body.

Finally, after listening to the point where my IQ seemed to be dropping, I suggested to Adolfo that it was time to move on.

As Adolfo and I walked to the truck, I thought to myself, These are the kids I used to write for.

Perhaps I’ll pick a career that doesn’t involve teens next time.

Diesel Berries, Part II

I give up. It seems Adolfo was right to be weary of the blackberries. He called them diesel berries, and sure enough those sweet berries gave us gas. Lots of gas.

And, well, yes. He was right that the berries are poisonous. My loud blasts and Adolfo's silent bombs are quite lethal.

Diesel Berries

"Your tongue will turn blue, shrivel up, and fall off," Adolfo warns.

"Right. These haven't even been sprayed with pesticides," I respond.

"Well, those blackberries are on the side of the road. They're diesel-berries," he laughs.

"Yea, right. I'll risk the diesel fumes," I respond as I throw another blackberry in my mouth.

Thus started our discussion of the wild berries growing like weeds along campgrounds and roadsides. I've been amazed by these wonderful berries since I first spotted them in Hyder. Now I carry around a Tupperware container to collect them. The difficulty is getting Adolfo to stop so I can pick them. Does he really believe the berries are poisonous?

After I ate my first berry, Adolfo watched me carefully to be sure that I didn't get sick. When I made a cobbler with the berries, he refused to eat any for several days. I couldn't believe it. Adolfo never refuses cobbler. Again, he was testing my body's response. When I didn't kill over, he ate the cobbler. After all, the berries were washed and cooked. Perhaps all the poison was cooked out.

So, I decided I'd make jam because the berries are free and you can't just leave them there to rot on the vine.

"Your insides will mildew and you'll wither away," Adolfo continues as I start working on another berry vine.

Whatever, These berries are going over my ice cream! I think as I pull off some nice ripe ones. Yumm!

Totem Poles

During our trip through Alaska and British Columbia, we have seen many totem poles and other first nations art. Adolfo and I love to stop and admire these wonderful works. So, here are some of my photos.

The totem is the “Coat of Arms” for the first nations people of the north west. Totem poles are carved from and painted with bold colors. Each carving tells a story, some true, some mythical. Many provide information about the carver's identity or a clan's identity.

(First Photo: Gitanyow, British Columbia; Second Photo: Alaska Indian Arts, Haines, Alaska)


Each carving has a meaning and serves a purpose:


Crest poles give ancestral information about families.

(Gitanyow, British Columbia)

History poles tell a clan's history.

(Port Chilkoot, Haines, Alaska)

Legend poles tell stories of legend or folklore.

(Gitanyow, British Columbia)

Memorial poles commemorate individuals.

(Gitanyow, British Columbia)

Animals on the totem poles represent aspects of nature:



The eagle is reign of the air.

(Tlingit Heritage Centre, Teslin, Yukon)

The whale is lord of the sea.

(Haines Fire Department, Haines, Alaska)

The wolf is the genius of the land.

(Alaska Native Arts, Haines, Alaska)

(Tlingit Heritage Centre, Teslin, Yukon)




The frog is the liaison between land and sea.

(Alaska Indian Arts, Haines, Alaska)

Arctic Odd

Alas, we have left the last Alaskan town and are headed down to Washington. So, I guess it's time to do a post on the roadside oddities of Alaska.

Alaskans love to display diseased tree trunks around their homes.

Here, store owners have become so enamored by the diseased trees that their entire store is dedicated to the tree knots--The Knotty Shop.

In hopes that a large toy company would move in and boost the economy of one northern Alaska town, the town took the name North Pole. No toy companies took the hint, but the town has stretched the concept about as far as possible. Street lamps are all shaped as candy canes, buildings are painted in Christmas colors, and Santa has a permanent store and statue. Adolfo sped through this cutesy town so fast that I couldn't get a good photo.

What do you do with an old airplane? In Fairbanks you make it part of your greenhouse business.
I wonder if all the planes crashing into buildings in recent years inspired this business.

Who knew that the sourdough starter my mother had in the fridge could be used as fuel. We could have been rich!
I wonder if sourdough fuel works in diesel engines.

This sign sits at the entrance to the Alaska Pipeline Visitor Center near Fairbanks.
I assume this is to welcome the Canadian visitors.

Sod roofs are popular in Alaska. This one covers the pit toilets at Denali National Park. Perhaps the park has found a way to fertilize the grass with human waste.
I'd hate to be the ranger with the job of mowing the roof.

Some Alaskans prefer igloos to sod-roof homes. Of course, the igloos must be made in a way that will keep them from melting is summer.

The owners of this dog in Anchorage were afraid that the dog might get too much sun. After all, it must have been at least 65 degrees the day we found this dog walking in the park.

Restaurant owners in Seward have a really good sense of their customer's priorities: "Cheap Beer. Lousy Food."

Why build a permanent building for your restaurant when the tourists come only in summer? This restaurant in Seward is built from several school buses.
In Winter, disassemble and drive south.

Looks like some Hippies from California must have moved into Soldotna. Considering the Californians to be Commies, the community must have left the Funny River area to these Kaliforniaskys.

Those city-slickers who can't seem to catch a fish in Homer can at least take a photo next to a prize catch.

In the Salty Dawg Saloon in Homer you can pay by withdrawing from the ATM or by picking bills from the wall. Your pick.

I couldn't get a cup of coffee inside this Homer coffee shop, but there are plenty of cups on the outside.

This friendly Airstream, Beatrice, greeted us as we drove down the Kenai Peninsula.

Even more popular than skiing, snowmobiling, and dogsledding in Alaska is target shooting, especially if it is shooting road signs.
(I stole this photo from a news site, but we passed several that read: No discharging of firearms within 1/4 mile of road. The sign was shot to Hell)

In hot or cold weather, The Valdez Ice Cream Lady will take care of your needs. She sells ice cream on warm days and Espresso on cold days.
She'll wear the ice cream glasses for no extra cost.

When your town just isn't getting enough tourist traffic, find something, anything to make into a museum. In Haines its the Hammer Museum. In Stewart its a Toaster Museum.

Buildings can be made with just about anything.
Even in 1899 the men of Skagway built this building with driftwood.

And you thought Alaskans wore long underwear to keep warm...

Privy sounds like a misnomer for this outdoor toilet in Skagway.

We’ve Been Hyderized!!

On the way down through Canada, we happened across twin mining twins. On one side of the Portland Canal is Stewart, British Columbia. On the other side is Hyder, Alaska.

Stewart is a small town of more than 600 residents. It is tiny, but it has schools, a hospital, an airport, a ferry terminal, a fire hall that also houses a museum, a customs station, several hotels, two RV parks, several restaurants, several grocery stores, and plenty of small shops. Interestingly, the hospital is large and looks new, but there are no doctors.

Hyder is a tiny town of 65 residents. It’s main street is about the cutist, and most authentic I’ve ever seen. It has a general store, a post office, a restaurant run out of an old school bus, a church, and a number of small shops. The tourist items sold in the small shops appeared to be homemade—arts and crafts from people in the community, stickers and postcards printed on home printers. Most shops sold a little bit of everything—some for tourists, but mostly items needed to live in a small community.

Hyder is mostly a ghost town. The area was a large mining area years ago, but when the value of silver, gold, and copper slipped below the cost of mining, the mines were closed. The mines were left in ruins and the town went with it. Some new residents arrived in the 1960s as draft resisters. Today people are coming in as tourists during the summer.

The school recently closed because a community must have at least 10 children for the government to pay a teacher. It seemed reasonable to me that these children would bus across the border to Stewart. Unfortunately, the Canadian government doesn’t allow it. So families in the area must home school. The same was true of the hospital. If people in Hyder needed a hospital, most have to be flown by helicopter to other American cities such as Juneau or Seattle.

The area is amazing in its beauty. Like Homer, Haines, and Valdez, Stewart and Hyder are surrounded by gorgeous glacial mountains with water falling from every crevice. Hyder is famous for its bears. The U.S. Parks Service has built a platform where people can stand and watch bears when they come down to fish on spawning salmon. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any bears while we were there.

Twenty miles from Hyder is Salmon Glacier. This glacier was the largest and most beautiful we had seen in all of Alaska. It swept down the mountain and through the valley.

Beside the glacier is Summit Lake. We didn’t see the lake because it had collapsed a few weeks before. We were told that the lake collapses every year leaving a bunch of ice sitting in water. We hiked down to this area and we able to walk among the ice.

Adolfo and I planned to be in the area overnight. Instead, we stayed four days exploring the towns and the mountains. Again, we fell in love with the area, and neither one of us wanted to leave.