From Homer i went south to Juneau, visiting my Dawson friends.
I arrived in Juneau by ferry from Haines and much to my suprise Andy was waiting for me at the dock. With his ural. Especially for this event he put on an orange shirt, orange is the royal dutch color. Very thoughtful. All that effort to make me feel at home ;-) .
We had diner at his house, waiting for Dave to be home, so i met his wife's parents and son. Nice family. I washed the bike to make myself useful.
In the evening we went to Dave's place, my home for a few days. I learned to know his family.
Friendly and nice people and i felt welcome. Nice. I could use Dave's garage to work on the bike and clean my gear. After six weeks, i can assure you, it is neccessary ;-)
The next day i spend with shopping and sightseeing Juneau. Juneau is the cappital of Alaska. There are no roads to it. Cruise ships are docking right in downtown Juneau. 1000's of tourists a day come spending their time and money here. A bit ackward. Another peculiarity: although this city has only 90 miles of paved road, Juneau has the highest number of motorcycles per capita in the US....
On the ferry i met Cynthia and her mom. They were great people. I asked them to have dinner with me while in Juneau and we went to a stir fry restaurant. Afterwards we saw a very interesting movie about a Iranian girl growing up in the time of the shah and rising of the Islamic politics, 'Persepolis'. A must see for everyone interested in history. We took the same ferry back to Skagway. The ladies were good company on the way back.
The following day Dave, Andy and i drove around Juneau. Funny that there is even a skiing resort 30 min drive from downtown. I forgot to put my memory card in my fotocamara, so no pictures ;-(
I learned a trick called 'stopdrilling'. If you have a crack, like in my front fender, you drill a small hole at both ends of it. the result is that the crack stays as it is. Apparently widely used in the Juneau airport maintenance dept. because Dave, as airport manager, was quite skilled in it ;-)
Next day was leavingday and the ferry to Skagway left in the afternoon. Instead of taking the ferry through the rest of the inside passage (i leave that for my retirement) i decided to ride the cassiar highway, which is very scenic, to prince rupert to take another ferry to Port Hardy, Vancouver island. Andy, again, came over to say goodbye. Thanks buddy!
The short time i spend in Juneau with my Dawson friends was very nice, it feels good to be welcomed in one's house like the way they did. I did hurt a bit to leave so soon.
Thank you guys!
