American Adventure

Alaska (2)

A thank you to my new friend Jason Hemphill and the crew of Applebee's on Debarr Rd, Anchorage, AK

A very special thank you to my friend Denise in Anchorage.

And to my friends (Leisure Suit) Larry Snider and Brad at KWHL 106.5 FM, Alaska's Rock in Anchorage

Starting on September 01, 2002, 8:14:40 PM

Now I've been seeing these things all along my trip and finally got a few shots of this one. The Magpie, as I've been told, is quite a rude bird.

After my stay in Anchorage at Kinko's I rumbled down the road on towards the Kenai Peninsula. The Kenai Peninsula is to the south of Anchorage down highway "1". I was told that the scenery was very impressive and not to be missed.

The first thing I saw was when I stopped at a rest area just outside of the city. There was a display of this odd-looking old machine called a rotary plow. The rotary plow would travel on down the railroad tracks with the huge 9 foot circular rotor blades and clear the snow from the tracks along the path through the Kenai mountains.

In the distance I could see several storm clouds out beyond the mud flats of the Turnagain Arm bay area. Off to the south I could see some of the mountains of the Kenai Peninsula.

As I drove along the highway the scenery presented itself with more and more beauty that I just couldn't resist. Having taken over 5,000 pictures so far I just can't seem to resist any change of catching that perfect view.

I appear to have so many people visiting my web site that I feel that I must continue to share my experiences with you all.

On towards the Kenai Peninsula I ran into a very thick rain storm. The wind picked up and the temperature dropped and then I saw the rain clouds. I stopped just before reaching the summit lake and decided to turn around and head back towards Anchorage.

Coming back along the same highway looked a little different. I often times don't take the opportunity to look over my shoulder and see some of the scenery behind me that I am missing along the way.

Stopping a few more times to catch a glimpse of the mountains reflected in the lake and then catch this swan gracefully swimming in the distance. With my zoom I could just catch this image although not quite a clearly as I had hoped.

Heading back towards Anchorage I had previously passed the exit onto the Portage Glacier road and to the Portage Lake. There I found some amazing views of several glaciers all within a very small area.

The water in some of these lakes was just an amazing light aqua blue color from the silt of the glaciers.

Then I saw Portage Lake where several glaciers fed the water below all the mountains. There in the water was quite a few ice bergs floating around. I went down to the water to get a feel and found that it was quite frigid. As a matter of fact the whole area was a considerable amount colder than that of just a few miles down the road.

It was here that I realized that I had to head south to a warmer climate.

When I see extremely large blocks of ice floating in the lakes, its a definite sign for me to leave.

Heading back north towards Anchorage I could see part of the storm that I had bypassed as it was creeping from out of the mountain pass and heading across the bay towards the highway that I was to be traveling on. I kept a quick pace trying to get on ahead of the rain, as I eventually bypassed the storm again and made it through. Looking out across the water, about a mile to the rain, made me feel quite good that I had escaped this one. A slight chuckle came over me as I whizzed past the clouds. As if they were some kind of evil entity or beast chasing me around the country, I felt as if I had won this time. Score one for the Galixy.

As I look behind me occasionally, to make sure that they were still back there, drifting away into the distance, and into the dark of night, I think to myself, "Until next time my friends. Until next time."