Bike trouble and back to Anchorage 16/7/10

Photos

1. A Puffin Bird a real hard case bird

2. Coffee time on the road , a bus pulled up and about 10 Kiwis jumped out and 1 was from Tauranga, then a couple from Texas pulled up and invited us to come stay with them when we get down that way . We have met so many nice people and it is only a few days . Most come up and say "Yole from New Zealand , I want to go there some day, they say it is really beautiful "

3. Pretty typical of the Mountains all the way to Seward , it was pretty cold until we got to Anchorage (about 20c and sunny)

About 150kms from Seward the front left brake locked , lucky for me John Allen (my mechanical tutor ) had show in me how to bleed the brakes , so with great pride I set about fixing it (much to Ruth's amazement ). So now we are back in Anchorage and are taking the bike to a Suzuki shop in the morning (all part of the adventure ) to try and find why it happened .

Anchorage to Seward 15/07/10

First off I must mention that I had a conversation with Joe (the owner) at our last accommodation and he told me that he was amazed to see that the bike was on time as he has never seen this before(and he said he gets a lot of people biking around the America's to varying degree) . He was saying that normally the bike seemed to arrive about 1 to 3 weeks after the people arrived to pick it up (much to the peoples disgust) . So I guess a feather for your hat Wayne for being the first to get a bike into Anchorage on time and lucky for I me I guess .

The Photo is of Seward , if you click on it it should enlarge '

Yesterday we had a great day just wandering around Anchorage , I would say the shopping area was as big as Hamilton . The only incident was when Ruth thought she had lost her Passport and we spent about 2 hours looking for it including ringing the police, but to later find out that she had left it back at our room . We are still having problems sleeping as it is so light at night , I reckon I have only sleep about 4 hrs a nite . Last nite I look out he window at 3 o'clock and the sky was still blue , it is very hard to wind down as it feels like its about midday all day and nite .

Today our first day on the road was very uneventful approx 250km , the road from Anchorage to Seward was mostly a 4 lane highway , but the views were beautiful and reminded us a lot of the South Island , with snow on all the mountains around (just pockets not covered ) .

But can someone please ring Paul Henry and get him over here to sort out all these bloody white maggots in there camper vans ,( well I think they should be called white Hou Hou Bugs over here as they are so big), they just hold up the traffic and are bloody nuisance's .

The weather today has been a bit cold approx 13degs and over cast . We are staying at the Hotel Seward quite nice and a bit pricey for our budget but it was all we could get .

Seward looks over Resurrection Bay and is approx 22kms down a fjords from the sea , it has a population of around 4000 people employed mostly by the Parks and Reserves ,Commercial Fishing and it has the biggest maximum security prison in Alaska . The most unusual fish that is caught is a Halibut which is a giant flounder which can grow up to the size of a car trailer . Also we had a chance to see some Puffin Birds , a real hard case bird and very cute with some most unusual antics ,and also 4 large sea otters messing around just of shore .

Tomorrow we are heading back north to Talkeetna its about 2 hours north of Anchorage, probably around 450km tomorrow.

12/07/2010 Anchorage

We made it after 30 hours of flying , we were shattered and after a good nites sleep we are ready to rumble . On one leg of the trip I sat between two fat arsed lesbians from the US, they were great fun and made that leg quite quick

It was strange last nite to be trying to go to bed with the sun just going down around 11.30pm so out come the sleeping pills and eye masks and all was good for a good sleep , we woke around 8.30am to a little rain and very overcast.

The Photo is where we are staying The Arctic Adventure Hostel a nice little place and only $47us a nite . Joe the owner gave us two huge pieces of Salmon for Dinner and they were yummy, what great start .

So after Brekie we were off to get the bike it was only about 10 mins away at the DHL Storage , so we break into the Crate and there it is , all of it (the crate had not been opened at all ). Next to put it back together and with me rehearsing Righty Tighty Lefty Loosie we attacked it and in all no problems all but one . I was trying to jack the bike up to get the front tyre in when I thought , if I let one of the back tie downs off it will make it a bit easier . Well next thing the bike is falling over with no front wheel, but no problem Ruth through herself at the bike and with Super human strength and she managed to put herself between the bike and the ground thus saving the bike from any damage and very Lucky none to herself as well (what a women ah! I'm such a lucky man ) .Anyway I got a guy to help and we got the bike and Ruth up and we were on our way, riding on the wrong side of the road being the right side of the road (bloody hell raising in town ). So tomorrow we will just have a good look around town and then off to Seward the next day .