July 8th

THE DETAILS:

THE WEATHER: same

THE DISTANCE: 0

Nothing new today. We stayed in Soldatna so we could shop at the local Safeway and Gary could spend some time on the engine. He’s baffled by the engine problem of cutting out on us while we were driving last night… which makes me a little uncomfortable. He talked to a few guys in the campground and they gave him some ideas, so hopefully it is fixed. Time will tell! The food prices up here are very high. I hate to even go into a store to buy food. Of course it would be more expensive going out to dinner! Breakfast at one place was advertising their special of 2 eggs, bacon & toast at 6.95 and a Chinese restaurant lunch buffet was $12.00 per person. The price of gas is going up as we move further south on the Kenai Peninsula. We are now paying $3.65 per gallon.

One thing I’m glad about are the lack of mosquitoes. I think because it stays so cool they aren’t a problem. We heard horror stories before we got here about the size and density of them, but it hasn’t been a problem yet.

Gary is fishing the Kenai again tonight. We’ve seen multiple guys from the campground coming up with their buckets full of fish. Hopefully he’ll get in to one. Right outside our door is a wooden staircase that brings you to a boardwalk that banks the Kenai river. People either fish directly from the boardwalk or they step into the water with their waders on and fish just off the boardwalk. At one end of the walkway is a fish cleaning station. They have tables that have hoses attached to them so you can filet the fish, clean up after yourself and then throw the rest to the gulls who wait patiently for their portion. They really cater to the fishermen up here.