Alaska: Day 13 (17 Jun 09)

When last we saw our two brave adventurers, they were checking into the Anchor Inn in Whittier, Alaska ... a rather scary town populated with weathered fishermen, stoic oilfield roughnecks, and women who'd maybe spent a few too many winters in the cold arctic wind. My first impression of the place: it looked like an easy town in which to get knifed. The room at the Anchor Inn was actually much nicer than either of us thought it would be.

Here's the hotel. It's just about your only choice for staying in town at a reasonable rate. There is no office -- don't bother looking. Go into the bar and talk to the barmaid about a room. She'll toss a key at you without even telling you the cost. If you try to give her a credit card, she'll tell you to take care of everything when you check out.

Strangest thing about Whittier ... something like 90% of the population of Whittier all live in this one building.

Our ferry didn't leave until 2:45 in the afternoon (miss that one and we'd be waiting until 10 pm the following evening!), so the plan was to sleep in and have a lazy morning lying around. Wouldn't you know it, the ONE morning when Danny could sleep in, he was up at 7 am. With him up, there was no way I could sleep in, so I was up too. Every other morning, couldn't seem to get him up and on the road until about 9 or 9:30, but the ONE morning I told him to sleep in ... Grrrrrrr.

Anyway, it was a long wait for the ferry ride, but it kinda completed the theme for this moto adventure: "Alaska by Land, Sea, and Air."

The ferry arrived right on time. Another sloppy photo shot through the pouring rain, looking out the window in the ferry terminal building. The cars are lined up for the ferry. Our bikes are out there somewhere. The ferry folks let us ride on ahead of the vehicles. Probably felt sorry for us because it was raining so hard.


We got the bikes strapped down in the vehicle hold. Once underway, the vehicle hold is locked down and you're not allowed below. No problem. The ferry has everything you need: cafeteria, two lounges, a little theater (really just a big screen TV in the lounge, but they did show a movie), etc. The ride to Valdez was about 6 hours long. We ate a meal, watched a movie, explored the boat, shot lots of photos, and took naps in the comfy lounge chairs.

Fishing boats in Prince William Sound.

The rocky shore is lined with sea lions/seals. Sorry for the crappy photo. Shot in the rain, of course. Seems it was ALWAYS raining on us.

Another fishing boat and a field of icebergs. Funny thing, I saw the ship's captain in the cafeteria getting coffee and joked, "Shouldn't you be looking out for icebergs?" (I was thinking of the movie Titanic, of course.) He didn't realize I was joking and replied, "Oh, I have a little while yet before we get to them." An hour or so later, sure enough, there were the icebergs. The ferry slowed down and manuevered through them.

Took so many photos of icebergs, that it's hard to decide which ones to share. Strange, the fascination we have for great big chucks of ice drifting about in the ocean.

Ice.

Berg.

I thought this one looked like a dragon.

Some of the icebergs had passengers.

More ice.

Coming in to Valdez, I'm pretty sure this is where the pipeline ends there at all those holding tanks. Interesting seeing the end-of-the-line for the pipeline after we'd spent so much time riding beside it, all the way up to Prudhoe Bay where it starts. There's a big tanker getting loaded up. Let's hope it's not another Exxon Valdez, eh?

Old man and the sea...?

One of my favorite photos. Sometimes I get lucky.

When we got to Valdez, it was late, so we decided to go ahead and get a room for the night. The ride out of Valdez is supposed to be pretty spectacular and we didn't want to make it late at night -- also weren't sure where we'd be able to find a place for the night if we left Valdez.

So, zero miles ridden this day, unless you count the distance on and off the boat. LOL.