We decided to stay in Kenai at the Elks Lodge #2425 after two nights at Kenai RV Park ($40 for full hookups and Wifi v $15 for electric and wifi sort of) no comparison once we got the laundry done and the coach washed and vacuumed. As usual nice folk at the lodge, if only they would ban smoking so we could spend some time with them.
We were a half a block walk from the parade route. We went out about 30 minutes ahead not knowing what to expect. The parade marshal passed us about 10 minutes after the announced start and the street was thronged with people (always wanted to use “thronged”) and kids with plastic bags(?). Every other float or group was throwing candy into the crowd. Two hours later the last participant, a police car came by and the road reopened. The participants ranged from high school bands to a seniors group called the Golden Girls who danced the length of the route. There were 30 Harley Davidsons in a group and it seems every race car from the local track was towed through the town as well. The big oil companies, Tesoro and Conoco-Phillips had large floats and a half a dozen candidates for Kenai Borough Mayor participated. There were fire companies from Kenai, Nikiski and the municipal airport, oh and Soldotna too. I will post a bunch of pictures for you to browse, but not here, not now.
Afterwards we returned to the coach for lunch to avoid the good stuff with long lines at the fair. We toured the fair and along the way saw another section of Kenai we had missed in our previous wanderings. We determined to return to the wildlife viewing areas we had stopped at before because so many people reported seeing Sandhill Cranes and Caribou that we wanted to try one more time. We had better luck this time and saw 6 Sandhill Cranes way in the distance and a group of 5 Caribou, one was a calf, also pretty far off. But we saw them!
To return to Sunday. We drove out the Kenai Spur to its end at Captain Cook State Recreation Area and drifted back towards Kenai. As Carol drove I was reading The Milepost as usual and came across this quote “SY 26.8 . . . Drive to road end (0.8 mile) for a good view of Nikishka Bay and oil platforms in cook Inlet; Arness Dock, built on a base of WWII Liberty Ships (still visible);” The first thing a noted town is Nikihiki, they can’t spell anything the same twice in this state. Next we turned down the road to explore and got some pictures of the old hulls. I have lost the entire day’s shooting on my camera through stupidity (thought I had transferred them and reformatted the card – oops – 3 different recovery programs have said “nothing found” and there is nothing worth $70)