The Kenai Peninsula

We ended up spending an entire week in Anchorage, five days being at repair facilities. And what happened? a broken injector actuator oil pump, six new injectors, and a broken electronic harness which took 15 hours to trace. To put it mildly, we were sure glad to get out of Anchorage and head out to the Kenai Peninsula. You drive south out of Anchorage along the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet. High cliffs on one side of the road, water on the other. Then you go through some lovely mountains, the road lined with lupine and waterfalls. The streams are a really neat blue from the glacial melt. Then we saw the Kenai River – it is this ribbon of AQUA BLUE water, no kidding!

We entered the outskirts of Soldotna near the beginning the salmon fishing season, so we witnessed what is known as “combat” fishing: fisherman side by side in waders in the river in unbelievable numbers. What a sight! Does not look like fun to me. Then we headed further south to Homer, viewing three active volcanos on the horizon across the water, camping on spit stuck out into the inlet, and eating what was probably one of the best seafood dinners on the trip. Unfortunately, upon arriving in Homer, the nasty RV engine light came back on signally more problems. So back we went to Anchorage to the CAT service people. After camping in their parking lot for another 3 days, we headed to Valdez, managing to drive for 30 miles before the light came on again. BACK once more to Anchorage (is this the same song, second verse?). A second pump, and then a third, was installed because the second one was “dead on arrival”.