Ferry from Juneau - Ketchikan

Days 44-46

Before leaving Juneau I spent time at the State Museum checking out native art and history.  It dawned on me that all native tribes share a set of equal qualities.  Whether you are a Native in Alaska, the Americas or Africa, most natives were never wasteful, preserved or found use for all of their prey, and had an infatuation with art and spirituality.  As a result they were extraordinarily grateful and appreciative of the world that they lived in.  I wonder how challenged we are in todays world with our smart phones, internet, and TV?  Maybe it helps explain why Americans in general (I know I am caught in it sometimes therefore I can partially generalize) are so wasteful compared to countries whose economies are more needy.  Anyway, the museum was pretty neat.  Natives were incredible, intuitive, and revolutionary; I have always had an obsession with them.

Hand carved from Cedar.

I now write from the Matanuska Ferry, which will take me forty-two hours to Ketchikan stopping at Hoonah, Sitka, Kake, Petersburg, and Wrangell.  Rain kept me from differentiating the towns, but the ride was still memorable.  It is US Coast Guard law that a passenger cannot go to their vehicles while the vessel is moving, which meant that I could not camp in my car.  Instead, I plotted a spot in between a row of seats in the movie room like the other twenty frugal bums next to me.  

I made it my goal not to buy any food from the cafeteria, which left me microwaving ramen, ravioli, and oatmeal, eating smoked black cod that Kent had given me, protein shakes, and an occasional snickers bar.  I made friends with a couple who had just spent a year in Anchorage working for AmeriCorps-the US version of the Peace Corps.  I played gin with Jonathen and Kelly and snuck boxed wine into the cafeteria.  Most of the time on the ferry was spent reading, eating, walking a few times on the loop around the deck, and lots of sleeping.  Luis Bunuel's, My Last Sigh was pretty interesting.  I learned that as much as I like his films, that he was more strange than I thought: in one instance he destroyed a family's X-mas tree and presents because he was disgusted by the perverseness of X-mas in his Surrealist mind.  But there is still something attractive with his hate of fame and popularity that made his movies and his book REAL without the superficial, people pleasing, BS.

My bed for a couple nights.

Petersburg by night

I spent two nights on my ferry pallet and arrived in Ketchikan, the world's Salmon capital of the world in the early morning.  I decided to give Jonathen and Kelly a ride into town, had breakfast at a local joint, where I had my first real meal in two days.  I had two biscuits and gravy, three eggs, four sausage links, and a pancake.  Afterwards, I dropped them off and then met up with Bill in town!  We decided to drop my vehicle at the bed and breakfast spot he booked and we drove all around the island enjoying the last sunny forecasted day of the week.

We were looking for spots to fish and while hiking could not believe that we were hanging out in Ketchikan!  For dinner, we met up with Nick, who looks like he has been doing great, and had a delicious seafood fajita meal, with Halibut, Shrimp, and Scallops.  Bill and I left Nick to work his last day tomorrow while we went home and I unloaded and re-sorted my vehicle.  I cannot tell you how nice it is to see family after so long, let alone being pampered to a B&B place and great food.

Ketchikan

Starfish on a jetty.

Rockfish I caught on a rock pier near dark.