PHASE I WRAP UP

Whew - it feels like it's been a year since I last posted. I'm currently in Thailand enjoying the respite the "rainy season" provides (I can't exactly sight-see if it's pouring out). To give you a bit of where my brain's at before I dive in, the past 10 days have been spent in Los Angeles, Honolulu, Osaka, and Bangkok. Please excuse the post if it's a little scrambled!

I'm not sure what to put for my Phase I Wrap Up, but I feel like there should be one. I welcome any suggestions! How about we start with the facts?

My "plan" as it was conceived.

Adrift in Anchorage

On Saturday, September 8, I arrived in Anchorage - finding myself solo for the first time in over a week. A confused taxi ride (the guy didn't know how to use the map app on his phone and I had no signal!) to my AirBnB and I did my best to settle in. This included a mile walk to the nearest restaurant (Tasty Freez?) for a burger and some ice cream, then picking up a 40 of PBR, then walking back to the AirBnB. I then proceeded to sleep for a long time.

The next day was, well, more of the same. I walked around a nearby lake, but failed miserably to make it a relaxing walk. The places I wanted to eat were closed and a guy tried to tell me how much me walking past him was the best thing that happened to him all day. Head-faking him (where are you headed? Oh, surprise, I'm headed in the opposite direction.), I went and had lunch at the same place I had dinner the night before. Then I walked another mile or so up to a bar (Piper's) where I had a few beers and eventually made friends with a bartender who was ending his last shift at the place. After a couple beers, a couple swapped stories, and a couple shared poems, he offered to drive me back to where I was staying - a welcome development given I wasn't looking forward to the long walk.

Juneau there's going to be a pun.

In 1917 miners in the Treadwell gold mine began undercutting the shaft supports in order to get the last little bits of gold out. This, in combination with an unusually high tide, caused the mine to flood and collapse, leading to the close of the mine. It's believed no one died, though one person went missing - possibly fleeing town to avoid his debts.

This is one of the three or so facts you will hear right after someone in Juneau says hello to you. [They really don't want anyone to have died in this, but I ask you if you have a mine collapse and one guy is "missing" do you assume he died in the mine or that he got out out and simply skipped town to avoid bills? I'm betting on the first. Sorry Juneau, he's dead.]

Dan, again, in brackets.

Getting off the boat at around four in the morning was not one of my highlights for the trip. As a bonus, neither Dan nor I could get a consistent cell signal, meaning we were a bit in the dark as to what to do while we waited for the hostel to open. [It also made it very hard to say call a cab, thankfully the ferry terminal had a local phone with which to call cab companies.]

A note about the hostel - for $12 cash and a chore, one can stay at the only hostel in town. The price opened up some possibilities (else you paid $100/night and had to forego any large expense), but the catch was the hours - the "office" was only open 8-9am and 5-11pm. This meant there was some waiting in Dan and my future. [Juneau has many good aspects but it is not a town that's hopping at 4 a.m.]

We waited a few hours for Donna's, a recommended diner, to open (6am). We took a taxi over there, then I had too much coffee while we waited and waited. After some false starts (oh, bonus, it was Labor Day, so even things that would normally be open were closed), we got another taxi to the hostel. Finally checked in, we were kicked out until they reopened at five. What's open on Labor Day? A mountain was open.

Lounging to Alaska: a Nautical Tale

Dan & I (see: Dan & Simon's Wacky Rally posts) met at the ferry terminal a little before four in the afternoon. It turned out the boat wasn't going to depart until seven, so our first interaction was a debate about what to do until then. We ended up just getting on the boat and figuring it out. [It turns out the boat, which we thought left at 6 PST leaves at 6 Alaska Standard Time, giving us another hour before departure.]

If you didnt guess, Dan will be conntributing in brackets.

As I sit here thinking about how to shape this into a narrative, I keep coming up with "ways I could have done this better." To be clear, I had a delightful time on the boat, but it's hard to make a post out of "I ate and read and looked out the window and played card games" without thinking about how I could have streamlined the process. I'll do my best to give a full account before giving a future traveler advice.

We spent the first night with a light dinner (chowder, probably) [It was indeed clam chowder] and hitting our two drink limit in the dining area. After that, we just wandered around the ship, getting an idea of its public spaces. To wiz wit:

ITINERARY: Canada & Alaska

For my own reference and due to popular demand, this is my planned itinerary for Phase One of my trip around the world (45-60 days). I suspect I'll be editing this post frequently, so feel free to check back.

AUGUST 2018

Aug 4: Fly to Halifax (done! See blog entry)

Aug 5: 13:00 train from Halifax to Montreal

Aug 9: train to Quebec City

Aug 11: train to Ottawa

Aug 12: train to Toronto

Aug 16: 22:00 The Canadian from Toronto to Winnipeg

Aug 20: 10:00 train from Winnipeg to Edmonton

Aug 24: 09:37 train from Edmonton to Vancouver

Aug 27: bus from Vancouver to Seattle
Underground tour? link & link

Aug 31: 18:00 MV Columbia to Juneau, AK (arr. Sept 3)

SEPTEMBER 2018

Bum around Alaska? Juneau? Homer? Sitka? Anchorage?

Sept 14/15: flight to Los Angeles

Buy a ticket to somewhere else (Phase Two)