Well, except for a couple of signs along the road, you would never know that you are in Hope. It's like a dense forest so you can't see much. We did find the street that the school is on (address was not correct so we drove by it the first time). We were able to get turned around and made it to the school.
NOW---
According to the school map we had, our parking space was to be behind the school. When we walked back there, it was all grass, no drive to get back there. The maintenance man at the Seward school thought our parking area would be by the generator shed. So we looked there. Yes, there is an electrical outlet - 20 amp - and a water hookup, but you need a key to open it up and hook up!! And, if the power were to go off, there is no way to reset the circuit breaker. No one at the school so we called the two contacts that we had - one was an invalid number and no answer at the other one.
We called the head of the program in Soldotna - she is on vacation. We talked with her boss - he knows nothing. So we said we want to go back to the Middle School in Kenai if no one is there. He didn't have a problem with that so we left the school. But by now we were hungry so we drove a little further into town (??), found a restaurant (in some trees!), had good hamburger ($12!!) and a BLT ($8).
We decided to see what else the town might have to offer so we drove a little further and came to a sign that says "Road ends ahead, no turnarounds." Here we are - going past the sign and not knowing what's up ahead! Anyway, we do get to the end of the road, and there is a small turnout so we do get turned around (after a few "go forward, go back, go forward, go back - if you get the picture!!).
We made it back to Kenai and are in our old spot in back of the school.
We decided to stay here because we have the fishing trip coming up on the 5th.
Our next stop, when we leave here, will be Valdez, but to go there now and have to come back here would be too much driving. As with most AK towns, there is only one road in and one road out. And we would have to leave the Kenai Peninsula and go all the way back to Anchorage to get on the road to Valdez.
The Benson's, who were also at the Seward School with us, are here too, at an elementary school. So we have been getting together again. Last night we toured a brewery called Kassiks, sampled some beer, bought a growler (half gallon) of beer, and later, went to the Oilers game. We were actually comfortable at the game until about the 8th inning and then we put on our heavier coats!!
Not much in the way of pictures this time - sorry.
We did see on the news last night that Sterling Highway (see map) is closed (at least overnight) due to two separate accidents and three people were killed. This is prime dip-netting time for salmon so the highway was extremely busy.
On Thursday of this week we did stop at a fishing spot along the Kenai River about 8 PM (where the salmon are running now) and watched the fisherman for awhile. If you are a resident of AK, you can dipnet your fish. The Kenai River season is only from July 10th to July 31st. Some people have a net with a 5 ft. hoop and a long pole (10-12 ft). Basically, they push their net in the water and wade in up to their waist and wait for the fish to swim in.
The limit is 25 fish for the permit holder and 10 for each additional household member.
Rules for dipnetting and for fishing (for salmon) are very complicated. They say that you should have a guide to fish because they will know the rules.
A new size limit was recently enacted for halibut. You can still only catch two fish, but, now, one of them has to be at least 37 inches long. The fishing guides are very upset about this because it will be more difficult. Take a look at this picture of the fish we caught on our half-day cruise:
I don't think any are big enough.
Fortunately, our next trip will be an all-day trip so we should be catching 20+ pounders and they should be long enough. And, we will be out there longer and have more opportunity to catch the bigger ones.
Enough for now...
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