July 4th – Day 13 Alaska Trip - Bonus Edition!

We ate breakfast at the Lighthouse Restaurant that served us that excellent clam chowder last night. Afterwards, we checked out of the historic Haisingland Hotel which was once the Officers Quarters at old Fort Seward and moved to a cheaper ($104 a night) hotel called the Thunderbird Hotel that was situated downtown within easy walking distance of everything. We then moseyed the two blocks to Main Street to view the 4th of July Parade. We found out that we could have even been in the parade had we registered for it sooner – Dang!!! They had a group of Harley Riders come by in the procession – We had to cover our ears their pipes were so loud. Antique cars, kids on bikes, the “Grim Reaper” driving a Massey Harris Tractor, even “Crusty the Clown” was there! We then watched the Pie Eating Contest, Mud Volleyball, and checked out the Arts and Crafts area. Mud Volleyball is very similar to Mud Wrestling, but cleaned up so to speak for family oriented entertainment. If you want to try this sometime at home, I will share with you one of my favorite receipes handed down generation after generation. I call it “Holiday Perversion”. Ingredients: One Dozen well-ripened Females (peeled or unpeeled okay), 4.5 cubic yards of Dirt, and some Water. Directions: Mix Dirt with Water until creamy consistency of Mud. Holding Females by the crown, dip into mixture making sure to evenly coat both sides. Shake off any excess mixture. Place in sun until Sizzlin’ Hot! Bon Appetit!!! Oh, BTW, I won the Pie Eating Contest for my age group! It was a hollow victory, since no other Silverbacks besides me were entered in the 55 and older category. Back at the Hotel, Leroy caught a nap while I rode out Lutak Road that exits town and ends up eight miles north of the harbor at Chilkoot Lake. This time of year is the Salmon Run up river and the State conducts salmon counts through weirs – a gating and counting mechanism that crosses the river. Through keeping an accurate count of Salmon spawning upriver, they can establish fishing limits for the coming year. The salmon also attract a goodly number of Bear and Bald Eagles. Since it was a bit early in the season, I only saw one mature Bald Eagle and I didn’t see any bear fishing the salmon. The daily fish count is posted at the weir and so far they had counted only 304 fish by around 3pm. Yesterday, they counted a total of 1800 passing through the weir. Leroy and I then went on a 1.7 mile Walking Tour about town (not including a couple of wrong turns) that included all the old famous saloons, brothels, churches, museums, and historical homes. The fireworks weren’t getting started until around 11pm, so we had a long wait ahead of us. We heard fireworks around 10:30 but they looked really lame. Leroy should know… He was once the leading retailer of Fireworks in the Houston area. So after sniffing on a bunch of RV’s (Leroy has owned three of ‘em) we went back to the hotel. We called it a night and then around 11:15 the fireworks started again – this time much louder and bigger. Well Shoot…, we were already hunkered down for the evening and didn’t feel like going back out again. I went to sleep listening to fireworks. There is only 4 hours difference now between sunset and sunrise, very eerie!!!