Saturday, June 22, 2013

DAY Thirty: Up to Tok

Do you believe in providence? That some things in life happen because they were meant to be? Was delayed yesterday getting off the spit in Homer fighting with the wind, then there were so many photo opportunities on the ride north up the Kenai Penisula that I missed the ferry from Whittier to Valdez. So I rode on back to Anchorage and camped the night at the Harley dealership. Next door is MOTOQUEST, the Alaska motorcycle touring offices. After learning of the ride Da'mit and I did from Key West to Deadhorse, Phil Freeman, the owner told me to come by the shop about six the next morning, he would have something for me.

So instead of being on the road early, I slowly packed up camp, loaded Da'mit and was at the shop when the Phil arrived with several others riders. He then proceeded to introduced me to Charly Boorman and his film crew from England. Charly Boorman is well known within the adventure rider community as the co-rider/actor/producer along with Ewan McGregor in both the TV series and movie, "The Long Way Around". where they rode motorcycles around the world. Their second movie "The Long Way Down" was about Charly and Ewan riding from the northern part of England to the southern tip of Africa.

Charly now has a British TV program called Extreme Adventures, meeting and interviewing riders around the world. He was in Alaska looking for adventure riders for his program. Charly admired Da'mit and interviewed me for a future program. He seemed to enjoy tooling Da'mit around the parking lot too.
Before parting, I asked him to autograph Da'mit's nose, he did.....


If I had taken the ferry to Valdez, never would have met Charly or have been interviewed for TV. Providence.... Fate.... Destiny... or happenstance? Life is good.

Motored out of the parking lot with the cameras rolling. Today Da'mit and I rode to Tok, where we will decide to either continue north to Dawson or head east to Destruction Bay, Yukon. It all depends on the weather in the morning..... or on providence.

The rain and clouds lifted long enough to see the Matcanuska Glacier... Does not matter what the weather or the temperature is in the region, around glaciers it is always cold.

Stopped for gas and food at the Eureka Cafe. Halibut and chips, coffee and coconut cream pie.

Don't know what it was about these trees, but they really caught my attention, so had to take a photo.

Spotted this old farm tractor converted for snow removal service. Pretty ingenious.
Food caches were the thing of their day in the far north. Stored dried or smoked food during the winter away from the bears. Like miniature windmills in Texas, there are many mini-food caches seen for sale. Here is what the real thing looks like.
Am in the Eagle Claw motorcycle campgrounds in Tok sleeping in the "Ambulance" tonight.
Hope that's not bad karma or .......
Nite all

 

4 comments:

  1. Hola Jan aqui festejando el cumpleaƱos de Amparito. Jan lo FELICITO!!! Definitivamente usted es mi heroe, que aventura, que viaje y que belleza de fotos, me recuerdan las pinturas del pintor EspaƱol EL Greco. Cuidese mucho, un abrazo grande! Zora

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're going to have to let us know when that episode will air.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Super cool!!! Looking forward to seeing the episode!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow, cameras and Charley, you are famous now. I stayed in that ambulance last summer on an all night downpour ! It was very cozy and dry. Glad Damnit is doing well.

    ReplyDelete