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Thursday, May 23, 2013

Day 15, Valdez, AK

May 23  Alas, the trailer does have a flat tire, so got up this morning, ate breakfast, removed the flat and took it to an automotive repair shop.  They said I should come back mid-afternoon and pick it up as they are very busy.

Have been researching Valdez and it has quite the history.  It was a settlement of Native Americans, and then discovered by Russians, and EuroAmericans.  This is the northern-most ice free port in the United States.  This fact was important later in the pipeline development.

In 1964 the Good Friday monster earthquake's epicenter was 45 miles from here.  Not only was the quake devastating to the town, but the soils upon which the town sat were disturbed to a point it was deemed unsafe to occupy.  As a result the town was moved about 2 miles further up the bay to its present location.

Directly across the Port of Valdez (the bay) from the town is the Alyeska Marine Terminal.  This is where oil tankers are filled from the TransAlaska Pipeline after the oil has traveled 800 miles from the  Prudhoe Bay wells.  You do not see the pipeline from about 25 miles north of Valdez on down as it is buried beneath the highway.

The terminal is capable of holding 800 million barrels of oil in large tanks.  The tanks are surrounded by huge concrete walls capable of holding 110% of the filled tanks in the event of a leak.  The terminal then fills the oceangoing tankers to ship the contents to refineries in the lower US states.  I'm hoping a tanker ship comes in so I can get a picture of it.

More later!

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Have returned to the camper for lunch.  Drove out and around the Port of Valdez which took us as close as we could get to the Alyeska Marine Terminal.  The terminal has a security buffer zone surrounding it both on land and the bay.  I believe all boats need to remain a minimum of 1500 feet from the terminal.

We then drove up the highway towards Thompson Pass.  There were some waterfalls along the highway and an old, carved out by hand railroad tunnel.  I'll get pixs posted later.

For got to say that we have had several Chamber of Commerce days in a row with clear to partly cloud skies and NO wind!  The temps have been in the mid-50's with last night only down to about 40º.

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This afternoon we went and parked the pickup on the viewing dock at Valdez.  The weather is really nice (60º), and it was relaxing to just sit and watch the few fishing boats coming and going.  We then went to the Valdez Community College to the Jesse and Maxine Whitney Museum.  The Whitney's came to Alaska in 1947.  They became instrumental in collecting many artifacts and relics from the past history of Alaska.  Many of their collections are now in the museum.  There are many Eskimo and other Native American artifacts along with natural history items.  For the price of admission (free) it was an excellent place to grasp the early history of Alaska.

Then it was time to go retrieve our tire.  The tire had been punctured by a nail and so was the best scenario as a screw puncture or sidewall damage could have rendered the tire useless.  So, if you get a flat or need any mechanical work done on a vehicle here in Valdez, I'd recommend Mark's!  The tire is back on the camper, and we'll be ready for an early morning departure.

We may have to go to the next door hamburger stand for our dinner.  The smells coming off of the grill's exhaust are to tempting to pass up again!

And, I've tried something new with posting on our Google Picassa photos web site- I put up a couple of short videos.  This is a new feature to me on Picassa so thought I'd give it a try.  Let me know what you think.

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Alaska is truly magical!  Peggy and I are waiting for our supper order from the hamburger shack next to our campground when I look out the window.  I see birds flying around...wait...those are bald eagles!  I have my iPhone with me and try to capture them on video but they look like sparrows flying on it.

We take our burgers and fries back to the camper, and the eagles are still flying around- close to the ground and circling much like vultures.  Can't let my burger and fries get cold so I eat.  Out of the camper's windows I still see them flying.  I quickly finish eating, grab my camera, go out to the camper and switch from my peewee lens to my big boy lens (55-250mm zoom with image stabilization.  Same lens I tried to shoot the far away Dall Sheep with.)  Don't laugh, you with your big, looks like you're toting a cannon, lenses!

The eagles are now flying around across the street from our campground.  I point and shoot, point and shoot, point and shoot...click, click, click, click, click, snap, snap, snap.  I aim and shoot repeatedly until I realize I am holding my breath and now am gasping for air.  But holy crap, how often does a flatlander from Omaha, NE, get to see 20+ eagles circling around sometimes what seems like an arm's length away.

And then I see him.  A man is throwing out herring into a parking lot and the eagles are swooping in for the meal!  He says he spends $30 for a bag of herring on the docks and comes out and feeds them.  The eagles will come in to eat from him if they aren't catching enough fish on their own, and he says right now it's in between seasons for fish to move into the Valdez bay so the eagles are more hungry.  

What a spectacle!  I thank him for the show and hustle back to the camper to upload the images to my computer.  As I am doing so, I think of a former colleague of mine, Vince Moragues, whose hobby was photographing eagles.  He was even an award winner at local fairs back home.

Here is a tease of what I shot:

There are more eagles and today's photos in my Picassa site.





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