Saturday July 24

I’m killing time.

I really want to take my row pontoon boat down the Kenai River through Kenai National Park, but it keeps on raining………so I’m killing time.

It was “Progress Days” in Soldotna. The town comes alive for a big parade so I figure I’d stick around another day, check it out, and try the float tomorrow.

The parade was actually awesome. If your local business got a shiny new truck this was the time to show it off. I was impressed with the amount of stuff in the parade. It took at least an hour for it to pass me by. I parked my truck right next to the judges viewing stand so I could get the play by play from the announcer. So many great organizations were represented like food pantries, churches, special needs organizations, and a breast cancer float, even Pop Warner football players. There were, of course, a couple of oddities. The queen of the parade was a woman who was crowned because she’d lost the most weight. There was a local chapter of Corvette owners all driving their cars, ….and the weirdest sight of all, there was the state chapter of hot dog owners….hot dog as in the actual dog type. There were hundreds of them. They had to join the parade route somewhere in the middle. They couldn’t keep up because of their little legs.

They had a section in a local park on the banks of the Kenai set up with games and vendors and stuff. There was live music playing. Despite the rain showers it was pretty fun. The lengths they go to allow everyone to fish in the river are incredible. They had wheelchair ramps that zig-zagged back and forth for 100’s of yards giving truly everyone a legit chance to fish…..it was impressive.

Today, July 24, was also the first day that high school football teams are allowed to practice. With the harsh winters here, 3 regular season games are played in August, before school starts and the season ends early.

Hit the local car races at night…..10 bucks to get in. The place was a total dump. I did win a raffle though. The prize was half off a night at a local hotel. Even if it was half off, I still wasn’t paying anything at all to sleep. I tried to give it to the guy next to me but he was in the same boat as me. A little while later this guy and girl came up to me asking if I was trying to give the prize away, and could they have it. They’d driven from afar and were waiting to move into a home that wasn’t quite ready yet. They’d been sleeping in their car the last few nights and were pumped to get the gift certificate……they actually wanted to pay me for it, which I declined.

Ate another pizza and filled up the propane in the camper (been running the heat a lot lately.) Watched Meryl Streep in “It’s Complicated” before bed.

The new fun thing for the local teens to do is to blow thru the Wal-Mart or Fred Meyer’s parking lot at about 3am blasting their horns, waking up everyone sleeping in their campers. One time they even cranked some music and were dancing on the hoods of their cars. Well it happened again tonight….This time the cops showed up and they scattered. Eh whatever, it’s kind of funny….. If I was a teen stuck in central Alaska I’d probably be doing the same thing.