We assembled the bikes about 10pm at the airport in company of a stuffed brown bear and a goat.
Last thing was to pump up my rear tire. James did the honers while I was futzing with my luggage and then there was a gun shot like BANG. We were both holding our ears, police came running....the few people left standing around looked horrified. The tube had exploded from my tire. The friendly police man displayed a big grin before we were even able to gather ourselves from the shock. We were thinking: if this happened at the L.A. airport we might have gotten shot right then and there.... But the people here in Alaska are pretty lax! I found the other tube pretty fast and James tried his luck again .....with the same result! Second round of a single gunshot implicating the new tube blew out of the tire again! This time nobody payed attention (now I was thinking: shit, if somebody was REALLY shooting........)
Something wrong with my Gurly's rear rim, an old cheap rim I bought back in Chile in 2014.
Ok, now with much lower pressure we left the tire soft and went on our way to our Warm Shower host.
The sun had just set, the air smelled so good, you just want to drink it......Alaska at last!
Our hosts were first pretty friendly, but after two days something seemed wrong. We had our tent set up in the yard, used the tiny little- cramped full of bicycles- house only for the bathroom and to cook, but it didn't take long and we didn't feel welcome anymore. Beats me -why?! I had communicated early enough that we needed a few days to get ready for the tour, but I guess we overstayed our welcome. The friendliness had expired in two days. I asked for feedback, in case we did something wrong.....we were told the house is too small....hmmmm.
That feeling of not being welcome is just too bothersome to challenge, so, I quickly checked out other Warm Shower hosts in town - especially the ones with a phone number.
Mike and Debbie (who described their home in W.S. as big, cluttered, eight out of 11 of their kids still living at home; occupying every room at this time; but any touring cyclist who is coming through is welcome as long as they can put up with the mess and the noise that comes with the territory of their space and size of their family and since there is no room available there is living room space....possibly a couch to sleep on......oh, and two dogs...) texted me back within 10 minutes. Sounds like a challenge! As requested I called his wife Debbie and her warm voice invited us to come over that very same day. It was pouring rain that day - pretty much all day. It was late, wet, uncomfortable, but we were set to sleep in our semi dry tent and agreed to arrive at our new hosts the following morning. Mike called one more time to make sure we don't want to come over now and Debbie called again later that night, checking if she should just come in their big van to pick us up, bikes, gear and all..where ever we are. "It's raining so hard" she says....No, really, we are OK - see you tomorrow!!
Good riddance, we are out of here. Sadly enough our first W.S. hosts did not communicate well with us. "Max a Million" their cat was much friendlier - his people could learn a thing or two from him!
Off to the next W.S. host adventure. And so it was: Mike and Debbie are the parents of 11 adopted children of all genders, race and age. Their first "badge" were already grown and gone (the way I understood) and now there are 8 more to go, who still live at home. Mike is Superman - no doubt about that and Debbie would be deemed wonder-woman if I had my say!
They had just come back from a two month cycle tour from Banff, Canada to Steam Boat Springs, CO with there 6 oldest children. Full of stories and excitement. Mike is running a tight ship, but these children have some tough stories to overcome in their short lives and seem to be guided with utter kindness and love. With a twinkle in his eye, Mike give orders, listens to complains and seems do be amused about life in general. He cooks for the whole crew, while directing some of the kids, during speaking to somebody at the hospital he is working for - yes, he is a doctor. He is "on call" today at the ER! Mom came home after playing softball with her oldest - full of endorphins and hungry like a kid. She got to sit down and satisfy her appetite. In the morning she mentioned that she believes Mike had been a cook at "Dennis" in his prior life. He cooks for everybody - at least the whole time we were there!
Mike is full of stories ....seems like there isn't a theme he wouldn't be able to talk about. We covered some....
I can't get enough of this family, got to meet every kid, hear some of the stories and the 24 hours we spend with this super family, I got a tease of their life. Thanks to our first failed hosts, we got to meet these fine people! You just never know what is (literally) around the next corner.
