Girdwood Day

Day 34  Monday July 18, 2016         Chugach National Park, Williwaw Campground, site 51, 2^nd day

0 towing miles

Today is to be a get things done day.  Like laundry.  So we took it easy.  No hurry to rush anywhere.  Sat out by campfire with our coffee.  Had a simple breakfast.

These fire pits are the best ones I've ever seen.  There is a grate

on the bottom that folds up, to put the wood on.  The outside

has holes so you can see the fire.  This is a national forest campground. 

I hope they all do this.  The Yukon and Alaska state fire rings are horrible. 

Got another post ready to publish if we ever find a signal.  Marsha tore down the bed and gathered up all the laundry while I did that.

Drove 9 miles west along the Seward Highway to the little town of Girdwood.  What a cutesy, fancy, little town with artsy stuff, bistros, health food restaurants, art galleries.  I regret we didn’t take a whole lot of pictures there.  We didn’t think of it at the time.

The laundromat was housed in a long building with a covered porch along the length.  There were steps leading up to the porch.  The laundromat had double, fancy, wood doors for the entrance.  Inside was a boom box playing the local Girdwood radio station, KEUL, 89.9 FM.  It played everything.  Heavy metal, punk, rap, and quiet coffee house, poetry kind of music, all mixed together. 

Nearly all the locals were millennials.  Almost all were heavily tattooed on their arms, men and women.  Most of the women wore long dresses.   It was the current version of a hippie town.  Everyone was friendly.

I was able to post the blog I put together this morning because we got a data cell connection.

After the laundry we found a small little bar/grill kind of place called the Silvertip Grill.  It was full of locals (see description above) and a couple tables of retired baby boomers like us.  The menu looked great and Marsha had a Reuben and I had a Philly Cheese steak.  (Alaska must know how to make one).  Marsha’s Reuben was tough and lacked thousand island.  My Philly cheese steak was excellent except they used an Italian olive oil flavored hoagie bun which did not match for a cheese steak sandwich.  It still was an interesting place.

We sat in the truck in a shady location and I signed on to the bank account and paid a few bills that had come in.  Bought some gas and ice at the local Tosoro and we headed back to the campground.

  

Williwaw NFCG, site 51.  Ugly color for the picnic table.

A view of the Portage Glacier driving into the campground.

Took a shower in the Oliver when we got back.

Marsha reassembled the bed linen, not an easy task on a king size bed with no aisle around the outside.

It was a sunny day and I put out the solar panel for the first time this trip. 

It clouded over when I took this picture.

Then we set up the screen-house to sit outside.  First time the whole trip.  Not because of mosquitos.  Because of little non-biting house fly looking things that swarm all around you.  Very annoying.  The bug spray is ineffective because they don’t land on you, just fly around.

Might as well talk about mosquitos.  We were told mosquitos in Alaska were horrible.  State bird.  Need head nets.  Bug dope don’t work.  I even got pictures of mosquito statues at Delta Junction.

We have not found them to be that bad.  Deep Woods Off has always been my goto for bugs and it is working very well here.  Even anti-bug Marsha has not had issues.  The worse place we’ve experienced mosquitos was Tolsona Wilderness Campground.  We still sat outside because Deep Woods Off kept them from landing on us and biting us.  I’ve seen worse on the U.P.