I'm not sure what I was expecting, but as soon as we hit the AK side, the scenery was gorgeous! No more the blasted, withering landscape of the Yukon. There were huge trees (Cottonwood, I believe) that looked healthy, lots of lush undergrowth, and that fresh ocean smell. I was very impressed!
Haines itself is quite teeny but pretty cool. There are a few bars, restaurants and hotels (we almost stayed at the Thunderbird...yeah, next to a transfer station, no thanks!) Luckily the looming and ancient hotel Halsingland has lots of empty rooms, so we got our choice! It was bizarre but so worth it.
It was also Mardi Gras night, which was awesome-tastic! Fun times were had by all. I even bought a bottle of 'Dr.Bronner's 16-uses miracle soap from the hippie store. We had salmon po'boys, fantastic thai (so hot I was sweating/crying) at the Chilkat restaurant/bakery and it was all good...until...
Our tire went flat before dinner! Bummer. We did what any people wanting to have fun would do, abandoned the car, had dinner and went drinking. We walked back to the car the next day and spent ALLL freaking day dealing with it, in a series if misadvetures.
Can't get the tire off? Walk to service station, buy a big tire iron. Walk back to car.
Jump on one side of tire iron, other person heaves other. Tire comes off gradually & reluctantly.
Drive car to service station on spare. Have tire fixed, go to lunch driving on spare.
Pick up tire, remove spare to put tire back on. Car, imperceptably on a hill, lurches forward and falls off tire jack. Axel grinds in gravel.
Struggle for awhile, car lurches threateningly every time. Give up, put spare back on, drive to school parking lot. Take spare off, finally put tire back on and get the hell out--it's 2pm by this time. We still had a 4+hr drive.
ARGHHHH.
Well, I still liked Haines. And I still liked having a long weekend, even if I did get stung by an angry wasp on the last day and my wrist/arm ached and had shooting pains up and down all night. Still aches. Ahhh...
Good thing you did not have the flat tire on the Haines Summit as there are no extra tire irons up there!
ReplyDeleteI had to buy two tires in Haines Junction for a car hauler trailer I had borrowed to take a truck to Anchorage a couple of years ago. I am glad it didn't happen a little further down the road!!