Homer Bound:
An Account of My Solo Travels to Homer, Alaska in a 1966
VW Westy Named Clara
September/October, 2009
Introduction and Summary
A Brief Synopsis: It’s all Les Stroud’s fault. You know – he’s the badass who created and survived the Survivorman series. Actually, maybe it’s Aaron’s fault, for turning me onto the show in the first place. Regardless of where the blame is placed, the decision to move from Happy Camp, California to Alaska (in general) was made shortly after we saw Mr. Stroud kayaking in the fjords somewhere near Seward. We both found ourselves idly perusing real estate ads online, and within a day or two, we had suddenly decided to make the move, and a short series of Alaskan reconnaissance adventures ensued. For me, that is – Michele had to stay home and take care of the ducks, but that’s another story for a different venue.
I visited and checked out Gustavus, but couldn’t find a place we liked enough to have to figure out how to barge our buses and our tools and all the other crap that makes our lives fun in order to get there, and later, we were considering Talkeetna. Our curiosity extended to the Kenai Peninsula, and after a phone call to the Bay Realty agent Debra Leisek in Homer took place, we became convinced that Homer was the place for us, and in no time, I was there. A series of good luck and interesting adventures took place, and before we knew it, we were in contract for a nice little house and garage up on the ridge, where the brown and black bears, moose, sandhill cranes, bald eagles, coyotes, wolves, porcupine, and some really uppity little squirrels roam.
One great attribute of Homer, at least when compared with many other locales in Alaska, is that one can drive there, and it is exactly that adventure I now relate to you. This mission was intended to transport one of our three vehicles to Homer, ensconce it safely into the garage for the winter, and to take care of any issues that may need to be dealt with for the house, and return to Happy Camp for the duration of the winter because as it turned out, we were unable to make the move happen until springtime.
About this report: I love to write, and I enjoy attempting to "bring it home" to you. Or me, later on. This is easily my most lengthy and vociferous report, and I had fun reliving the experiences as I tried to relay them in words and to impart to you the "vibe" of being there. During some of the last phases of the report, I came up with a way to write as much as I want that leaves the main story more streamlined. I do this by inserting a link to a different page whereupon I expound freely upon the subject at hand. I promise to do this much more in the future, so you can click or not click, depending on your interest, and still get the salient points. Since I used this "non-linear writing" technique very little in the report, I now issue you this:
Disclaimer:
My name is not Gene “Concise” Cornelius. It is with great effort that I refrain from tossing words around like a redneck chucking beer cans out the window along the road. A picture is worth a thousand words, they say, but I cannot vouch for each and every photo I took, except that, viewed in order, they may well replace the thousand (or so) words likely to follow, so, with this in mind, you may go here (Homer Bound GALLERY!) to see what I saw, and skip all this tiresome blather which you probably don’t have time to read anyway! So, enjoy the thousand pictures, and if you ever need a pastime, come back and read my story, which could have been summed up as such: I drove my bus from Northern California to Homer, Alaska and left it there. I saw some neat things on the way, took pictures, and thought about stuff. It was cold sometimes, but not always. In general, it was a really nice trip, with no real problems, and it was a fun thing that I was lucky to be able to do. Can't wait to do it again!
Homer Bound Trip Report: Page One
Note: "Next Page" will be at the bottom of each, but nav links to all are always at the top. Also! Open Gallery links in a new tab or window, as there is no navigation from the galleries back to the text.
Thanks, and enjoy!
Gene Cornelius
mizamook@geemail dot com
(this is also where you direct your complaints ... please leave the FCC out of it!)
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