The Road to Homer (Wednesday, August 12, 2009) After a great stay in Seward, we departed about 8:45 AM, in no big hurry to get to Homer. We crossed through and over the mountains to reach the other side of the Kenai Peninsula, watching summer disappear almost before our eyes. As we left the coast, the fireweed had bloomed all the way to the top, and we noticed some slight fall colors among the vegetation. The locals say that fall is about 3 weeks early this year. I saw a bald eagle snatch a fish from one of the many lakes along the way. We both caught a glimpse of a cow moose along the roadside; when she saw me point towards her, she immediately headed for the woods. As we drove beside the Russian River watching fly fishers combat fish for salmon, we saw a grizzly bear eating a salmon along the small beach. We were able to park the motorhome, walk up highway across the river from the grizzly, and take photos as it was joined by another grizzly. The first bear was comical trying to keep the gulls away, charging, then backing off, charging, etc. Of course, the gulls would just fly a few feet and come back to the salmon. He swatted at them with his paw a few times also. As we approached Homer, we saw the volcanoes, Mount Redoubt, Mount Iliama, and Mount Augustine; Mount Redoubt either blew or was supposed to blow early this summer. With rain in the imminent forecast, clouds had formed, covering all the mountains. Still closer to Homer, we saw mountains and glaciers fill the landscape across Kachemak Bay.

We arrived early at the RV park, parked the RV, unhooked the Saturn, and headed down to Homer Spit. We were both disappointed after all we had read about it. The view was absolutely wonderful, but RV parking sites were far and few between, and pretty rough around the edges. Of course our park was no real beauty, either!

Day 2 in Homer, AK (Thursday, August 13, 2009) With only one activity planned for the day, we were looking forward to some serious sight-seeing. We joined other caravan members for a visit to the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Wildlife Refuge museum—we sure put a lot of tax dollars into this one—guess it helped to have Ted Stevens as your senior senator. It was a beautiful building, with classrooms and labs, and the displays were well done, but there just wasn’t much to it. I returned to the RV park, and Kay toured the Homer area with some caravan members, eating lunch at the Fish & Chips on the Spit, then touring the Pratt Museum. Mid-afternoon, we drove to Ninilnichik, an old fishing village home to Russian settlers a couple of generations ago where we toured the old Russian Orthodox Church, the quaint cemetery and then drove through the fishing village.

On our return to Homer, we stopped at Anchor Point, driving to the end of the most westward continuous road in North America—pretty impressive until you see the photo. Our next stop was the town of Nikolaevsk, another old town whose citizens were of Russian ancestry. This particular sect of Russians was “old belief” Russians, and we’re not sure what that meant. We did take a photo of their Russian church before reading the sign that we were not to take photos without permission. Upon our return to the motorhome, Kay got her clothes ready for tomorrow’s halibut fishing, and went to bed early because of the upcoming 6 AM departure time.

Day 3 in Homer, AK (Friday, August 14, 2009) It rained the entire day today. Today was role reversal day, with Kay waking early and going halibut fishing with the boys, despite rain all last night and forecast for all day today. I opted to stay behind because of the long boat ride, and the almost certain bout of sea sickness; I did the week’s laundry, uploaded more photos to the Picasa web album, and enjoyed free time. And now, for the rest of the story…

Kay’s Take: Halibut Fishing Story, “This ain’t Fishin’” I joined the ‘boys’ and one other lady at the dock behind the Salty Dog Saloon on Homer Spit. That saloon is a hoot! It’s several small log cabins put together around an old lighthouse. Every surface from the ceiling to the walls is covered in dollar bills that people have signed and left. It’s still a working bar, too! Anyway, I digress. We carry our backpacks, belongings, etc. down the ramp and divide up between two boats. I got on the boat with Don Skinner, Ron & Hazel Riffel, and Don Barker. The other boat had Bob Combs, Richard Raikes, Art Nocks, John Lester and our wagonmaster, Les Potteiger. Before we left everyone agreed to $5 each in the pot for the biggest fish of our group. When I saw our boat, I have to admit I was disappointed. It looked rode hard and put up wet to dry. It was small also. No seats for fishing on the ‘deck’. Standing up against the rail to fish. Also the inside cabin was small, dirty, and falling apart. The ‘head’ (bathroom affectionately called in seaman terms) was pitiful, a tiny closet, and the toilet paper was out and loose and soaked with water. Needless to say, we all just held it in and suffered. Our captain was a young man named Matt whose pants hung so low slung on his hips that his ‘crack and cheeks’ were way too exposed. We all averted out eyes every time he had to climb up the steps to the top of the deck to check on problems. Yes, there were several technical problems with the boat. The first sign was when Matt tried to back the boat up in dock the chain or something kept slipping, finally it did back up but he had it throttled so high we hit the dock with quite a jolt. All of us were wide eyed. We took off and Matt was wanting to take us way out past the point of the Kenai Peninsula were there was a bed of really large halibut. He said the weather was iffy but if we were up for it, that’s what he wanted to do. The guys said yeah and off we went . When we got out of the bay area the chop on the water increased and the further we got towards the end of the peninsula the worse it got. Matt was boring down and we were diving into and out of huge and more huge waves. It was an absolutely bone jarring, spine jamming boat ride and gave me a headache. Finally Matt realized it wasn’t going to get better just worse about the time he saw that we were losing oil pressure. Here we were stopped in these huge waves, rolling about, tilting right and left, and he’s pouring gallons of oil into two big motors. It was about then that I realized, I may have placed myself in a very bad situation. Questionable boat, bad weather, huge waves, and very cold water. Yes, dear friends and kids, I became slightly scared. I must have lost my mind signing up for this fishing thing. Well, after 3 hrs. of travelling , we finally made it part way back to another area with about 10 other boats (trawlers, I’d call them), and began fishing. When we stopped and he started putting out the rods, I realized we would be fishing from this small deck, no seats, no safety belts. Water pouring over the rails, tipping, sliding, tossing with the waves. If I’d been among strangers, I would have just said, ‘no thanks’. But, everyone else climbed up out of the cabin and took a rod so I did too. The rod was heavy and the line also had a 3 lb. weight on it and a dead fish for bait. We were fishing in 240 ft. deep water. Halibut are near the bottom. Sure enough, drop the line, when it hit bottom, crank it a couple of times and wait. Within seconds, there was a heaviness to the line and you started cranking, and cranking. It was like pulling up a corpse that weighed 20+ lbs or more every time. But sometimes it woke up and fought or pulled back down. We were fishing so close that the fish swam in circles fighting and our lines would get tangled up. My arms were so tired and sore after the first fish I couldn’t believe it. I would lift the rod with my left arm and crank as hard as I could with my right and then hold and rest. Lift and crank. Lift and crank. I think I know what a hoist feels like. God, this isn’t fishing; it’s work!! Well, I threw back in probably 6 or 7. The 4th fish I caught was around 30 lbs. the captain thought so we kept it.

He helped me reel it part of the way. Really the smaller fish were harder because they fought more and longer. I took a break and ate a sandwich and drank a whole bottle of water. I also stripped down and removed a layer of clothes. I had worked up quite a sweat. Did I mention that it had also begun raining during our journey out? Lovely weather. After my break, I probably pulled in 4 or 5 more halibut and threw them back. The captain wanted all of us to break at least 25 lbs. But my arms were so tired when I pulled in my last fish, I said I’ll keep him. I quit, I’m tired. I went into the cabin. Also the husband of the other lady had become deathly seasick.

He was managing okay as long as we were traveling, but when we stopped and that boat started rocking as much as it was, he turned green and upchucked the rest of the time. Next Don and Hazel got their two and gave up from exhaustion. The other Don probably caught another 15 or more and kept throwing them back. He really wanted a big one, but he finally settled on a 25 lber. Our boat had a diaphram leak and was leaking oil; so captain decided we would head back. We were all exhausted. I had caught the largest fish on our boat. It was about 4:30 when we got into dock. Everyone else was disappointed that our captain wasn’t going to hang all of our fish behind the Salty Dog Saloon and we’d take pictures there before they processed our ‘meat’/fish. I could have cared less. I was bone tired and everything/and all of us smelled like fish! Ugh! Our captain said our company we chartered with didn’t pay extra to do that, so he filleted our fish right there on the dock and handed us our bag of filets. I headed straight down to the fish processing hut and had mine weighed – 20 lbs of filleted halibut, vacuum packed and frozen. Then I went home to the rig, showered and washed my hair, and we washed everything including the backpack to get the fish smell out. I guess I’m glad I went halibut fishing this one time, but never again! My arms and legs are still sore today. Oh, yes, I had the largest fish in both boats so I won the fish pool for our group. The men were fairly good sports about it. LOL Our freezer in the rig is now full of halibut. I donated 3 lbs. to a fish fry the caravan men are cooking tonight. That’s my ‘fish story’ but I don’t consider that real fishin!!

Our Recommendations for Homer, AK Homer is surrounded by Cook Inlet, Kachemak Bay, and beyond those, mountains and glaciers. Unfortunately for us, we were never able to completely see all the beauty because of clouds and rain. Other than fishing, and Homer has outstanding halibut fishing, we did not find much to do here. We would return, just to enjoy the scenery, but would only stay a day or two.

Campground Oceanview RV Park was typical of most RV parks in which we have stayed in Alaska—gravel sites and lots of dust. The sites were on a hill side overlooking Cook Inlet, but we were sandwiched between two big rigs so all we saw were motorhomes. The 30-amp electricity was marginal. Water and sewer were OK, and we received all major networks via cable, though NBC was barely visible. Free wi-fi did not work at our site, but was available in the crowded laundry. One-hour complimentary wi-fi was available at our site, but was so slow it took almost 15 minutes to download our bank statement. Neither of us used the showers or restrooms. The laundry was $2 per load washing, and $2 per load drying, and was adequate, though quite limited in size.

Driving Statistics
Beginning Mileage: 14,112.5
Beginning Time: 1:00 PM Alaska DST
Ending Mileage: 14,274.0
Ending Time: 4:00 PM Alaska DST
TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 161.5
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE: 4,882.5