A fun example of the cultural mixing here was the jig contest. Now, I’ve always thought of the jig, danced to a fast fiddle, as an Anglo-Saxon tradition: Irish, Scottish, French, but here it’s a local tradition, with most of the dancers of First Nations descent, with plenty of mixed and white faces giving it a go. Oh, by the way, the really really excellent fiddler seemed to be from the orient. Go figure.
t becomes almost difficult to sleep as we near the Yukon, the days are so long, the nights so short. We close all the blinds in Turtle, and it still is late before we can sleep. Light usually wakes me at 3:30am, but I’m a good sleeper, and Claire’s warmth makes it easy to wait for full sun to warm us through the windshield sometime around 6:30. At that 3:30 awakening, I open the blinds and curtain between our living area and the cab to welcome the sun. A warm house makes it easier to get out of bed at a reasonable hour.
This was taken after 10pm through the window of Turtle at a boondock on the Alaska Highway, or as the Canadians have signed it, the Great Northern. I prefer Great Northern; more romantic than the Alaska Highway.
Long days of slantlong light, and the landscape rolling off to infinity, makes for a magical sense of otherness, of strange timelessness. We love the road, and this one is special.
We boondocked with this van in the Bellingham Wal*Mart. It was festooned with sculptures of eagles. An older couple (like 80’s) were not shy about being noticed! Car after car drove up, rolled down their windows, and took a photo with cameras or phones. One woman left her car running in the middle of the busy lane and made a slow walk-around video.
There must be a lot of people considering doing the Precipice Trail in Acadia National Park again this summer. From our New Bohemians.net stat numbers it is the most popular outdoor “hike” in America. We loved it. It’s easy as long as you don’t have a fear of heights. Go for it! While you are at it, check our our links (left) for adventures of a couple who found Precipice Trail very easy: across the Silk Road, Around Australia, In Search of Shangri-la etc., all by tandem bicycle, 40,000 miles worth.
I skied to a nearby ridge with friends the first February following the eruption. We snow camped with fantastic views of the still actively growing central plug. It glowed in the dark, and the splintered trees surrounding us stood out in stark gray strangeness to the white snow. During the first night we all felt an earthquake, but nobody mentioned it until late the next morning; never speak the name of Evil. It was just too scary an idea that there might be a new big eruption while we were exposed. There were constant belches of steam and ash from the crater. We were reluctant to leave. I never went back. I wanted to remember her that way, and a ski trip was an excellent way to say goodbye.
This is the second covered bridge we have found in Oregon on back road bike rides. It is in Polk county in the foothills of the Coast Range. We have had difficulty riding in Oregon this May; the weather is atrocious, and completely unpredictable. No, make that too predictable, rain likely but just enough sun breaks to make you wish you’d gone for a ride; but it’s hard to start a ride in the rain. I guess you have just go anyway in Oregon, and hope for the best.