Tuesday 7 July 2009

Things that stink

Well, I'm back from my trip. I didn't go to fish camp for a single very good motor related reason. I did go fishing in other places, but zero fish were caught. In the process, I went to must about the whole road system, and did some thing I'm not inclined to document in my blog.

It was a heck of a crazy time.

Apparently I wasn't the only one having a crazy time. What's all this noise about Palin resigning? Frankly, "I don't want to be a lame duck" is the lamest excuse I've heard since Ted Haggard announced he had prayed his way to being completely heterosexual in just over a week. Someone (and I forget who) compared Sarah Palin to a bad girlfriend (no, not that type!) where at first they seem great, but over time you realize the date is actually pretty unhinged. I think that's a pretty good metaphore.

I like Sean Parnell. I hope he doesn't do the same thing to me. Sadly, there's no going back to pretending like Alaska is part of Canada to Europeans. That time is gone.

Right now, there are a number of wild fires going in the interior, and the smoke has been killer. Denail park is shrouded in haze, some places thick enough that you couldn't see more than a mile ahead of you. I came up the Parks highway from Cantwell's direction, we only used the A/C in bursts because the sickly yellow smoke burned your eyes and made your lungs want to claw their way out of your chest. Addationally, the roads were thick with RV, all driven by out of state idiots who
  1. Don't know how to drive on our roads.
  2. Don't know how to drive an RV.
  3. Don't know the rule that if you hold up more than 3 cars on our highway, you have to pull over and let them pass.

Really, I forgot how much I hate tourists.

The smoke got especially bad halfway between Nenana and Fairbanks. The sky was a sick yellow, and from Nenana to West Fairbanks there was really light ash fall. At first I thought it was the occasional fluries, but it's been dang hot recently. The sun came out when I stopped to re-fuel at Skinny Dick's Halfway House, but it was so smoggy that you could look directly at it with no problems. I snapped a quick picture:
I look forward to this blowing over, so the sky clears up. The smoke makes breathing tricky, and the medicine I've taken for it makes me loopy.

3 comments:

Alaskan Dave Down Under said...

Ugh! Tourons... never liked the RV's during the summer.

Did Skinny Dick's rename???? Used to be Skinny Dick's Halfway Inn. And is the crusty little skinny old guy (Dick) still the owner and behind the counter?

I've been hearing others talk about the smoke, sounds like a busy fire season this year for you guys.

gpc said...

I'm just sorry about it all. I have been a tourist, but I have (1) never driven on your roads (I had a local driver) and (2) have never driven an RV. Can I still come back to visit some day?

TwoYaks said...

@Dave: Halfway inn, house, something like that. It's just Skinny Dicks to me. Their website (they have a website!!) says its Halfway Inn. I think everything is same-same since you've been about.

@GPC:as much as I whinge about tourists in RVs, most tourists I've met aren't bad people. I think its just in AK's culture to complain about things that pay the bills - such as the fed gov't, tourists, and commercial fishing. ;)


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