Today was a very different day for all of us. Other than to ride over to the bike shop, to lunch and dinner, and to move over to a different hotel, we weren’t on the motorcycles. We were first in line this morning when the Harley-Davidson shop opened its doors. (From the outside and inside of the place, you could tell they primarily sold and serviced Harley-Davidson motorcycles; however, they did sell and service other makes/brands, including BMWs and Hondas.) The place didn’t open until nine, but we were there by about 8:20. Others soon joined us and there was quite a line before the place opened. Oil changes all around for us plus a couple other minor repairs and we were able to pick up the last bike about 1:00 p.m.
In a sad example of how we’ve still got far to go as a country, we witnessed some bike discrimination today. When Ed and Carey picked up their bikes, they were pleasantly surprised that their bikes had been washed. However, the owners of the BMWs weren’t so lucky. Those two bikes were just as dirty as they were when they got dropped off (maybe even dirtier). Mark and Tom are wondering how much longer must this go on. Can’t we all just get along?!? (Mark has already called the ACLU and plans to stop in and see the Governor when we get to Juneau to get the ball rolling on getting this kind of disparate activity stopped as soon as possible. If everything works out right, at some point the president will apologize to all BMW owners and there will be some type of reparations.)
The hotel where we spent last night didn’t have rooms available for tonight, so we had to move to another hotel across town. On the way to the other hotel, we stopped at a nice, large grocery store and ate in the deli area. After checking in at the second hotel and getting squared away in our rooms, we parted ways. One of us went to the University of Alaska Museum of the North and the rest went to another location to relax. We’re not going to mention any names, but you can view the pictures to determine who went where. (Go ahead and look; we’ll wait for you.)
Okay, glad to have you back. Alright, to be perfectly honest nobody actually went to “that” other location. That location was right across the street from the hotel we stayed at last night, and as a testament to how tired we were when we got back from dinner, we didn’t even jokingly (or seriously) talk about walking over there.
We did split up for the afternoon though. Ed and Tom went to Ray Hander’s “off the grid” house out in the country for another visit, Mark stayed at the hotel and caught up on some work, and Carey actually did go to the museum. (If he didn’t, we don’t know where he would have found that bear.)
Ray Hander is originally from Arkansas and is Ed’s son’s best friend. Ray, a biological engineer who has done research on brown bears and fishes, has been living in Alaska for about 20 years. Ray’s wife also has a pretty cool job, as she does research on golden eagles. Ray met us last night at the hotel and went to dinner with us. It was very good to visit with him, get to know a little bit about what he does for a living, and get his take on ecological and political issues. One thing he mentioned that is a hard for a Southerner to grasp is that they have “cold” days here. Most of us that work or have kids in school are familiar with snow days, but this area’s weather is a little different. If it’s colder than 40 below, workers get to go in two hours late. If it’s colder than 50 below, workers can stay home. Ray seems like a pretty smart guy, but how in the heck can you live in a place where the temperature often dips to less than 50 below. Brrrrrrrrrrrr…..
After talking to his dad earlier in the day, Carey thought it would be a good idea to go to the museum and see if he could find that bear. As it turns out, in the 1950s, Carey’s dad was temporarily stationed at the army base in Anchorage. He was a military police and on one occasion had to ride the train to Fairbanks. While in Fairbanks, he visited the museum and saw the bear. There are/were other things at the museum, but the size of that bear leaves quite an impression on you. The bear was killed and donated to the museum in 1950 and stands 8’ 9” tall and weighed 1,250 pounds. The museum has gone through several additions and upgrades through the years, but that bear has remained the first thing you see as you enter the largest exhibit room.
For those who are keeping track, we logged about 20 miles today. We’re headed to Mt. McKinley in the morning and hopefully the smoke from numerous forest fires and the cloud cover will cooperate so we can get a good view of the mountain. If not, we’ll be heading on down to the Anchorage area and might try to make it to the coast.