Days 2 and 3

Day 2 - Started out early.  Due to my lack of adjustment to the time zone, I woke up at 5:17am.  That is 9:17am back home but here the sun didn't come up for about another hour.  I was able to do my quiet time and do some reading on my book.  I edited a little on what was already written but nothing significant as far as new progress yet.  When I turned on my TV to get some news, I was thrilled to see that ESPN was carrying the Ohio State v. Akron game.  It was the first of many firsts for me on this trip but I have never watched football at 8:00am before.  I was also happy to see that the Buckeyes put to rest some of my fears for the team this year.  They beat a team they were supposed to beat for sure but they did so with some authority.  I was impressed with some of the new players.  I truly wish them the best.  Jesse Elmore came near the end of the game and we left for the Kenai Peninsula.  The mountains of Alaska are truly remarkable and the scenes on the drive south were outstanding.  It was an overcast day and the clouds hung in the mountains making photography difficult.  I plan to make that drive again on another day and I hope for some better opporunities.  Jesse and I stopped in a little town called Soldotna for some supplies and then to his dad's house for a boat.  The Bill Elmore house is a veritable paradise for boys.  He and his wife Teresa raised four boys in Alaska teaching them to hunt and fish like a local.  His house is home to numerous vehicles, snow mobiles, ATV's, and campers.  The decor of the home is 'hunting lodge' like.  I loved it but know that Teresa Elmore must be one remarkable woman. Jesse and I got the boat and took it a ramp on the Kenai river.  The lower Kenai is broad with pines and birch lining both banks of the river.  The water was greenish and swift.  The water was ice cold.  It flows from moutain rains and glacier run off so you can imagine it would be.  We were fishing for silver salmon as they are called here in Alaska.  They are known as coho salmon in other places.  The rig we used was a large weight with an 18 inch leader trailing from it.  The leader had a chartreuse spinner that could slide up and down between the hook and the weight.  The large hook was tipped with an egg sac which was a bright yellow thin mesh square packed with fish eggs (very stinky!), gathered at the top and then impaled on the hook.  The hook had a loop of line that could be drawn tight around the sac to hold it firmly to the hook.  The rig was cast from the rear of the anchored boat and left to spin in the current.  Ideally, fish swimming upstream would smell the eggs and be drawn to the brightly colored bait.  We had some nibbles and strikes but caught nothing.  We only saw one boat catch a couple of fish.  I would have loved to known what they were using but could not see.  I was able to photograph some eagles, both Bald and Golden, feeding along the stream.  We also saw some caribou in a marshy area near where we put the boat in and I took pictures of them as well.  We spent the night at Bill and Teresa's house.  Dinner was great and the hospitality was terrific!

Day 3 - Sunday began as all of my Sundays begin with church services.  We attended services at the Soldotna Church of Christ.  You never know what you are going to find in small town Churches of Christ.  They can be close loving healthy congregations full of passion for growth both spiritual and numerical but it can also be a bastion of sectarian mire bound up in ferreting out anyone who disagrees with them.  Refreshingly, Soldonta was much more like the former.  They had a loving spirit and a heart for people.  The minister there, Tony Cloud, is an African American minister working with a nearly all white congregation.  Not an arrangement I have ever seen though I am sure it exists in other places.  Tony seems to do a great job of preaching and teaching and spreading God's love.   For lunch after church we had moose!  It was awesome.  I have never eaten moose before.  The lean meat was dark and only slightly gamey but with great flavor and tender throughout.  Jesse drove me back to Girdwood after lunch but we do have plans to return to Kenai next Saturday.  We hope to go to Homer and go fishing for Halibut on a boat his uncle owns.  Pray for good weather so we can make that happen.