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September 8, 2009, a Tuesday
Homer (Skyline Dr), Alaska, USA
— Our bear viewing flight was cancelled today
We awoke before the alarm because we were once again excited to go bear viewing with Ken and Chris Day of Emerald Air Service. There was almost solid overcast, and occasional rain was predicted. Had my normal breakfast. I cut up a pair of my old camo rain pants to make some long-lens rain covers. I just cut them right in half left/right so that the legs could be slipped over the lens. I had worn some small holes in the seat, and that part of the pants would just drape over the camera body. We didn't have to attend the pre-flight briefing for the bear trip again, so we left at 8:30 in the Jeep.
On our way down the hill from our boondocking spot on Skyline Drive, Chris called J to let us know that the bear viewing trip was cancelled today due to poor weather over at Katmai National Park and Preserve. She apologized for almost forgetting to notify us, and let us know that they had two spots available for their September 11th trip. We turned around at East End road and headed back.
We returned to the RV at 8:40 and I called the Emerald Air Service office and left a voice mail to get on their list for the 11th. I changed out of my thermal tops and bottoms, then checked our calendar. We were already booked for the 11th, so I called Emerald Air Service again and left another voice mail to see if we could go on the 12th. When J had booked a day with the Days on her previous trip, the trip that day was cancelled and she wasn't able to wait for a day when there was availability. Chris suggested that in the future she should book two or three days in order to provide some make-up weather days, and if they went out on the first day or two, the latter bookings could be cancelled at no charge. So this year, we had booked three days, with some time in between to help wait out bad weather if necessary, and we were keen on going for all three days if possible.
I did some computer work then had lunch around 11:45. We turned on the generator for an hour because our solar-electric panels weren't producing much electricity with all of the cloud cover that we've been having. I worked up a blog entry. We left at 1:55 in the Jeep.
We went to McDonald's so J could get some takeaway for lunch. I don't understand her love of fast food. Here we were in a great little town in Alaska where she could go get some "real food," and she wanted to go to McDonald's.
We went to the Petro Express gas station to fill up the Jeep.
We drove out to the Spit and stopped part way along the narrow section to ID some water birds. It looked like common loons and white-winged scoters. We looked for sea otters at Land's End and didn't see any. Then we went to the marina and checked several of the ramps looking for a sea otter, and we didn't see one. It started to rain.
We returned to the RV around 4:00. I showered and did some computer work.
Had dinner at 6:35 of J's Chicken And Wild Rice soup with Texas Toast. We had some fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies for dessert that were baked perfectly! Because we had been having problems with our oven for a while, baking things properly had been difficult.
We turned on the generator for an hour and a half. I processed an image for the blog then worked up a blog entry. I looked into Marmot PreCip jackets because Altrec.com is having a Garage Sale, and that jacket looks like a great replacement for my similar North Face jacket where the waterproof lining is falling apart after years of use. The nice thing about the Marmot jacket is that it comes in tall sizes, so it should fit my long arms better.
On our way down the hill from our boondocking spot on Skyline Drive, Chris called J to let us know that the bear viewing trip was cancelled today due to poor weather over at Katmai National Park and Preserve. She apologized for almost forgetting to notify us, and let us know that they had two spots available for their September 11th trip. We turned around at East End road and headed back.
We returned to the RV at 8:40 and I called the Emerald Air Service office and left a voice mail to get on their list for the 11th. I changed out of my thermal tops and bottoms, then checked our calendar. We were already booked for the 11th, so I called Emerald Air Service again and left another voice mail to see if we could go on the 12th. When J had booked a day with the Days on her previous trip, the trip that day was cancelled and she wasn't able to wait for a day when there was availability. Chris suggested that in the future she should book two or three days in order to provide some make-up weather days, and if they went out on the first day or two, the latter bookings could be cancelled at no charge. So this year, we had booked three days, with some time in between to help wait out bad weather if necessary, and we were keen on going for all three days if possible.
I did some computer work then had lunch around 11:45. We turned on the generator for an hour because our solar-electric panels weren't producing much electricity with all of the cloud cover that we've been having. I worked up a blog entry. We left at 1:55 in the Jeep.
We went to McDonald's so J could get some takeaway for lunch. I don't understand her love of fast food. Here we were in a great little town in Alaska where she could go get some "real food," and she wanted to go to McDonald's.
We went to the Petro Express gas station to fill up the Jeep.
We drove out to the Spit and stopped part way along the narrow section to ID some water birds. It looked like common loons and white-winged scoters. We looked for sea otters at Land's End and didn't see any. Then we went to the marina and checked several of the ramps looking for a sea otter, and we didn't see one. It started to rain.
We returned to the RV around 4:00. I showered and did some computer work.
Had dinner at 6:35 of J's Chicken And Wild Rice soup with Texas Toast. We had some fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies for dessert that were baked perfectly! Because we had been having problems with our oven for a while, baking things properly had been difficult.
We turned on the generator for an hour and a half. I processed an image for the blog then worked up a blog entry. I looked into Marmot PreCip jackets because Altrec.com is having a Garage Sale, and that jacket looks like a great replacement for my similar North Face jacket where the waterproof lining is falling apart after years of use. The nice thing about the Marmot jacket is that it comes in tall sizes, so it should fit my long arms better.