S/V Good Morning Vietnam: Made the turn

Hi All,

Our last post was in Hope, Alaska. The population of Hope is 212. During the summer. During winter it’s just shy of 100. Hope has two restaurants and one bar. We decided the bar looked interesting so went in for a beer. Between a gold prospector and a group of kayakers from Scotland, we had a blast. I haven’t posted any pictures from Hope so here are a few.

From Hope we drove to Kenai, spent one night and then drove on to Homer where we visited a longtime friend of Susan’s, Bridget. Bridget has lived in Homer for several years and thoroughly enjoys it. It is absolutely gorgeous, but then so has been most of Alaska. Unfortunately it rained most of the time we were there but we still had a good time. Homer is where we made the turn for home. Other than a little back tracking we’ll generally be heading south or east from here on. Gun Barrel City, Texas to Homer, Alaska, 9,000 miles by the route we took.

The view of Cook Inlet from the Welcome Center as you enter Homer

No color on a cloudy day like this but still pretty dramatic

Duncan wants to go fishing. Just for the halibut.

One of many float planes around Homer

Bridget and Susan the morning we left

From Homer we drove to Seward for the Fourth of July and as luck would have it we were there for the Mount Marathon Race. What a race it is. It starts in town and goes between 3.1 and 3.5 miles, depending on what route you take. Yep, there are multiple routes. The start is at 30 feet above sea level, the turnaround point is 3,022 feet above sea level. This race is not run on a road or street, except for the few blocks at the start and finish that are in town. You get up and down any way you can- on your butt if necessary.

The starting line with the Women's race about to start

Wave one is off!

Wave two is off! Probably about 400 women and 400 men ran the race.

Way up there at the top is the turn around point. The women's record is 36 minutes to the top, 11 minutes back down.

Here's the winner of the women's race. We were about two blocks from the finish line and she went by us at 50 minutes. She blew the rest of the field away. It was several minutes before second place came by.

Notice the bloody knee. This was not uncommon. This is a mountain race. (this was not the winner, this is somewhere between tenth and fifteenth place)

Made us think of the 60's. Nice dress!

The first wave of men are off

And here's the winner, about 46 minutes later.

Gumby runs the race every year and is a perennial favorite.

A Roman chariot driver took a wrong turn somewhere.

Zoom in and learn some interesting facts as well as see how treacherous the course is

From Seward we spent the night outside Anchorage after visiting the Ulu Knife factory and the Ship Creek Fish Hatchery.

Just some of the scenery between Anchorage and Tok.

It just keeps getting better and better

The best I could do for getting a picture of a salmon in Ship Creek. Yes, we were up Ship Creek. Neither one of us had a paddle.

318 females and over a million eggs. Wow.

From Anchorage we went back to Tok for a night. From Tok we took two days to drive to Whitehorse. The trip from Tok to Whitehorse was the part of the Alaska Highway we missed by taking the Top of the World Highway. We can now say we have driven every mile of the Alaska Highway. Cool!