Last night was interesting with all the families and their
kids spread all over the ship. It was hard to find a place to set and relax
without kids running around or the smell of dirty diapers. This is just
something you have to accept since this is the primary transportation for a lot
of people in the state and it is expensive to take a family of 4 or 5 anywhere
in Alaska. Several of the public areas looked like a camp ground with sleeping
bags and people laying around. This is not a cruise ship so don’t expect it to
be if you decide to take your vehicle on the ferry.
We have had a good time talking to the other 5 motorcycle
riders going to Whittier with us. We spent a couple of hours in the bar last
night giving one of the novice riders a hard time about what to expect riding
through the tunnel at Whittier. He is about 55-60 and rode street bikes but he
bought a BIG Triumph 3 cylinder 1200 cc adventure bike for this trip. His first
time on this kind of bike. He is riding with a husband/wife team both on their
own BMW adventure bikes. They are very experienced. All three of them are
camping on their trip so their bikes are loaded down. I thought the Triumph was
going to be dropped while he was trying to get it in the staging queue at
Bellingham. It will be interesting to watch him as we get back on the road at
Whittier.
Sunset is 9:22 pm and sunrise around 4:30 am. Lots of
daylight and the further north we go the more we have. We were surrounded by a
pack, herd, group (whatever they are called) of small whales just before sunset
last night. They were about 15’ long and several times surfaced and blew their
spout. One of the other passengers said he saw a large humpback feeding with
its mouth wide open as it surfaced. I missed that.
We are approaching Juneau and will spend several hours
on/off loading people and vehicles. I hope some of these folks are getting off
but I expect we will be crowded the rest of the way to Whittier. The ferry port
is not in the main part of the town. The info from the Purser is that you have
to walk 30 minutes to get to the bus to ride another 30 minutes to the center
of town. The same thing to return. That is 2 hours of the 4 to 5 hours we will
be in port. I really don’t have a desire to make that trip to see the town so
will probably just get off and walk around whatever is close to the ferry dock.
It is obvious that the prime docks are reserved for the cruise ships. They dock
close to town center for easy access to the tourist traps. We are seeing more
and more of them. There were 6 large cruise ships in dock or leaving/arriving
in Ketchikan. I expect to see the same as we arrive at Juneau in about an hour.
We just saw another whale surface and blow heading the
opposite direction of the ferry. Yesterday as we pulled into Ketchikan a bald
eagle flew right by the deck we were standing not more than 20 feet from the
ferry.
Weather is overcast with the ceiling maybe 500 feet since
the trees along the shore on the hills are in the clouds. Temperature is cool
but not cold and no rain; so far. I will write more later today.
11:30 local
Jim and I plus three of the other bikers shared a taxi to
downtown Juneau. On the way we took a side trip to the Mendenhall Glacier which
is about 10 miles out of town. Really worth the cost to make this side trip
because it was beautiful. Took lots of pictures and will post then following
this blog update. We had breakfast at the Capital Hotel then walked the
streets. Three cruise ships arrived about that time and filled the town with
thousands of tourists. We did beat the crowd to the glacier and had it to ourselves.
Ferry leaves in about an hour and we have been told that the weather is
improving and we should have a good crossing of the open section to our next
two destinations. The only thing I bought was Alaska stickers for my saddle
bags. Pictures in following posts.
No comments:
Post a Comment