Alaska - Day 7 - Exhaustion

7/9/14

Homer, Alaska

I was half tempted to just write “No entry tonight” and close, but that would be establishing a dangerous precedent and surely spell the beginning of the end of this Travelogue.  It is now exactly a week (to the minute), since we took off from Kennedy to begin our journey, and I am spent.  I am physically, emotionally, and mentally drained.  I have no idea how I survived 18 day of this in Europe last summer, doing much more intense routes each day, and getting all of the proposals done.  I suppose that I should get Matt something very nice from Anchorage.  Today was a relaxing day by our standards, though most people would have considered it a very full travel day.  I was exhausted by the end, though I suppose it was just the result of the six days before this one, not just from today.  The pain in my foot was better when I woke up, but I had no energy.  Sokol would later suggest that we just get the stamp at the VC and spare my foot any possible damage, but I told him that would not work.  In order for it to be official, I needed to smoke a whole Cuban while hiking in the NP.  He tried to come up with alternative suggestions, but I was having none of it.  I would use the umbrella from the hotel as a cane and make it work.  We took our time getting ready, not being on any type of schedule, just wanting to get on the road before the rain started, which was forecast for noon.  I had an overpriced breakfast, which consisted of a delicious crab omelet and reindeer sausage.  We got to the VC a little after 10 AM, which was perfect timing to be off the trail by noon.  It started to rain as soon as we walked out of the VC.  Fortunately, today I was wearing longs and sneakers, due both to my supply of clean clothes and my foot.  We stopped for jerky on the way from the VC to the Nature Center by the trail, and it was really good jerky.  It was overpriced, but it won’t go to waste.

Just add a beautiful elven princess and the Nazgul.

Even in the rain, the trail was not too bad, and the views were nice.  My official cigar for the NP was an Hoyo de Monterrey, while Sokol had a Villiger.  The fjord reminded me of the scene from Lord of the Rings where Arwen is taunting the Nazgul to cross the river so that her father’s spells can destroy their mounts and immobilize them.  I suppose that the mountains of New Zealand are not much different than those here in Alaska.  I like fjords, and, when I do my Scandinavia tour next summer, Alaska might lose its spot as number one.  We did not take official Us at the park since a) there were too many people around, and b) we didn’t have it in us.  We then stopped for lunch back in town, getting fried rockfish and grilled salmon, splitting it once again, as we watched the second half of the World Cup.  With no score after full time, we decided not to stick around.  We checked out the gift shops, and the only thing I found that was mildly interesting was a t-shirt in re: how bad Alaskan weather is, which seemed fitting.

A perfect place to sit for espresso and a cigar.

After lunch, I lit up an Arturo Fuente while Sokol had an H. Upmann (non Cuban).  My foot was starting to feel better, but I knew that I had to put some wait on it every hour or so, so we made a few stops along the ride for espresso and pictures, and I had a Davidoff for the second half of the ride.  We were at our hotel in Homer before 6 PM, once again not using the GPS.  Unlike our previous rooms, this is a suite, so we actually have separate bedrooms for a change.  It will be the most time we’ve spent apart since we landed in Seattle.  I did a load of laundry in the tub as I uploaded my photos, and then I proceeded to write this short entry, which I will now close.