Wednesday, July 28, 2010

My Beard is gone!

Sitting at the Haines public library here in AK. They close at 9pm and give you one hour on the Internet. That is a pretty sweet deal when your traveling. And the fact that they are open so late is cool as well. http://seakfair.org/index.php Tomorrow is the start of the state fair here in Haines. That's why I have extended my trip here. It has also been nice to be off the saddle for a bit. Still been biking, but not 70 miles a day average. To get to town it's 7 miles each way. I'm really staying out in the "boonies." But then again AK is the boonies.

The house I'm staying at is tuff to leave. So nice to be there and chilling out. Been chopping and stacking wood for the past four days. Literally all I've been doing. Great upper body workout after doing so much on the legs. First day about wore me out. Then the consecutive days just got more and more fun. I've never chopped so much wood in my hole life. I remember telling my GF last year that I could just chop wood for a living. Well I got to see first hand how that would feel. Not sure it would pay the bills, but it will definitely make for a warm winter.

Learning quite a bit on how to live off the land up here. Been out to eat only a few times in Ak and the food is edible and the service is worse. Learning to cook and make do for myself. At the house I'm staying at we have a chef actually. She is staying in the yurt on the property. So we've done some cooking and then she just cooks and leaves food around. Then another couple showed up with their two kids yesterday. The wife stayed with Stephanie 18 years ago and is now traveling with her family in there VW Eurovan. They have 2 fantastic kids that are running me ragged. They are 5 & 7. Gotta love the energy that kids bring. She is also a really good cook, after this heading home to eat some pesto.

Really has been a great learning experience coming here to AK. Also have had a blast doing all these fun activities I've been up to. Cooking, chopping wood, helping build some bookcases, demolition and who knows what's next. Did go for an afternoon swim yesterday too. In the cove that the property sits on. It was hot for AK. Robin, the father of the two children needed help to get the Sea Kayak up the beach so it was perfect timing. It was cold but refreshing. After chopping wood for hours it was needed.

I made a deal with myself back in St. Louis. Was not going to shave til I jumped into the Pacific Ocean, fully submerged. I think going swimming in AK counts. But now I really like my beard and it's fits up here really well. Last night I had a few nightmares. Dreamt that when I woke up somebody had shaved my beard. Guess I'm growing attached to it. Then I dreamt I was back in NYC going to school and working again. Dreamt that I flew home to NY from AK. Was really upset that I didn't get to bike down the coast. Glad it was just a nightmare.

Should meet up with my buddy Casey in a few weeks and we're going to bike down the coast of Washington and Oregon together. Maybe as far as San Fran. We'll have to see how the timing goes. He may actually meet me up in Vancouver.

The highlight of my day was getting to skype with Ryla. They are five hours ahead of us here in AK. She was a bit tired. Can't wait to see her soon.

Also looking forward to spending some time at the state fair this weekend. Looks like they have some funky bands coming from all over the place to play. This town is pretty eclectic as well. So it could just be a fun place to people watch and eat some good fair food. Thanks for reading along.

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