We were happy to be indoors last night because it was pretty windy all evening. Unfortunately, Mary had to leave early this morning to go to work, but fortunately Brad didn't have to go in until 11! He made us a super yummy breakfast of eggs, bacon, onions, peppers, and cheese all mixed together. It definitely started our day off to a great start! When we first woke up, the sky was grey again, so we were hoping that it wouldn't rain. By the time we got ready to go, that turned right around and we had beautiful sunshine! Brad rode with us for the first 5 or so miles into town on his way to work. Even though it was a short section, it was still nice to have someone else to ride with! We stopped at the outdoors shop that he works at for a little while before saying goodbye (although we will most likely see Brad and Mary again on our way back through to Anchorage). Joe was thirsty for some chocolate milk from the grocery store (that is what Mary and Brad used to get all the time on their tours, kind of like us and our ice cream!), so we stopped there before heading out of town. I surprised Joey with a donut too! Turns out that it was a good idea to stop because after the great breakfast we had, the chocolate milk and the donut, we were full for the rest of today's ride! The terrain was a bit hilly today, mostly big rolling hills, nothing to monstrous. The sun was shining and the traffic was even a little better than yesterday! Although there was no rain, we had a pretty good headwind, but it could have been worse! We stopped at a gas station and Joey had a missed call from tonight's host. She had seen us riding as she was headed into Soldotna to run some errands! I have to mention something about this gas station we stopped at too. It had the weirdest bathroom I think I've ever seen at a gas station. It was a male/female restroom with two main rooms, fit for only one person to go in there at a time really. The first room had a sink and a urinal in it and the second room had two toilets with a little wall in the middle (no doors to make them a real stall). So, Joey and I could both go to the bathroom at the same time if we wanted to... it was SO strange. But anyway, to get away from that, as we continued on, the road got closer to the ocean inlet and we could even see the volcanoes across the water. It was beautiful! So happy that we decided to ride to Homer! As we rode along taking in the views, I couldn't help but smile just simply because we were in Alaska. Just like all of the other wonderful places we have been through, this will soon just be a memory. I find that I get myself in kind of a daze just taking in the area that we are in, it really is incredible. When we got to our host, Elise's house, she was still on the way back from running errands. We snacked on a couple oreos and relaxed on the porch while we waited for her to get there, which only ended up being about 15 minutes after we got there. She had a great area downstairs in her cabin for us, and we could put our bikes inside which is always nice. Elise's daughter, Citori, who is about 1, is super cute. She is just so smiley! We had a little time to Oovoo Joey's family and talk to Andy a little since we found out that he will be leaving for a year tomorrow to China to teach English!! I am so excited for him, but this means that it will be about a year and a half before we get to see him (since we've already been gone almost 6 months). When Elise's husband, Jeff, got home we had a yummy selection of salmon spread and crackers, cucumbers, zucchini, olives, cheese, strawberries and cantaloupe, chocolate covered acia berries. It was so good! We had a lot of fun talking with Elise and Jeff and even learned a little more about the schools in Alaska, or at least in this area, since Jeff is a principal of the K-12 school in Ninilchick. He told us about how people here get a whole bunch of stipends to home school their kids, $25 lap tops along with a lot of other "benefits." The problem lies in the fact that the kids, even though they are required to take the state testing, there is no minimum score for them. Jeff said that they have lost a lot of kids to homeschooling and it is really hurting the number of kids that go to the public school. Not only have the number of kids dropped, but sometimes the kids come back to the public school in worse shape than they left in. Some of the parents who home school make it so the kids are always done by 10am. He also said that kids will go from having a 1.7 gpa to a 4.0 because their parents are the ones giving the grades now, no matter if their child(ren) are doing well or not. It is such a sad situation. We had a great night relaxing, and Joey even got to watch a little of The Daily Show. This has been "a mini-vacation" inside our vacation since we have been able to stay at Warm Showers for a good portion of the way down to Homer and back! It's just so wonderful. Every day that you know you will have a shower and/or a bed to sleep in means the world to us as we are riding. Not to mention a great motivation! We rode 42.26 miles today.
|
|