>North to Alaska – 24
>
>July 13, 2007
>
>Is it night yet? Last night it actually was almost dark! Maybe tonight 
>we’ll actually see darkness for the first time in a while….such is life 
>in the far north. We’ll certainly see if it’s dark because we are 
>scheduled as a standby for a ferry from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy, 
Vancouver Island.
>We need to be there by 5:15 am..OUCH! If we do get on the boat we are 
>looking forward to a 15 hour ride south on the inside passage. We’ll 
>let you know tomorrow what happens.
>
>Today we started as usual by about 8am. We left Hyder, Ak., and almost 
>forgot to get fuel. It was a good thing we turned around to get fuel 
>because the next station turned out to be 140 miles away. When we got 
>there we were told that there were strong storms in Prince Rupert. 
>Before we left we suited up. 10 miles down the road we unsuited. It was 
>too hot! As it turned out we actually rode around the storms and we had 
no rain.
>
>As we were leaving Stewart we noticed an RV at the side of the road. 
>They were watching a small black bear feeding along the road, right 
>next to their rig. They were even outside their rig! Actually since we 
>stopped we weren’t much safer. It was Friday the 13th actually and 
>motorcyclists tend to be a bit more vulnerable when stopped near a 
>protective mother. We didn’t stay long and we never did see the mother. 
>Maybe next time we’ll watch from a little longer distance. We saw two 
>more bears, including one that ran across the road right in front of 
>me, and a coyote. I was also attacked by two kamikaze birds. One was 
>successful but won’t attack anybody else and the other missed. This is 
>probably the end of our wildlife reports; we’re getting back into 
civilization and we probably smell bad.
>
>Our ride today was 300 miles. It was through more gorgeous country. It 
>is always wonderful riding through and around the mountains in Canada. 
>We do have one complaint though…BUGS, mosquitoes actually. For the last 
>couple of days every time we stopped we were swarmed. We needed to keep 
>our riding gear and helmets on to protect ourselves. It is really hard 
>to imagine what it is like but it is not nice.
>
>Last night we had King Crab Legs for dinner, one pound apiece. We each 
>got two legs, claws actually that were huge. They were also right off 
>the boat and delicious. Tonight we had Halibut Cheeks. What is a cheek? 
>First, halibut are big fish, 50 to 300+ lbs.The cheek is the small 
>round piece of meat that is on the gill flap. They were also fresh and 
>delicious! Life is tough on the road.
>