The Ferry to Juneau

It has been a while since I last posted about our trip to Alaska, but that does not mean it is over or that nothing interesting happened along the way.  It's just that life gets in the way and after 23 days on the road and the start of a new school year, I've been busy.

That said, we headed out towards Haines from Tok in the morning.  To get to Haines, we had to drive into Canada (another border crossing with a broken Indian Card) and then board the ferry to Juneau (yet another border crossing).  I had gotten pretty used to going through the borders.  Getting into Canada was no problem, but I was still hesitant approaching the US border guards.

There was no problem at all.  We arrived at the terminal and purchased our tickets.  We had a few hours to kill before the ferry left so we headed into Haines and looked for some affordable fish.  We looked in a few windows and found the standard fish and chips being $20+ dollars.  Grrr!

We drove around town and found a roadside food truck selling the same items for much less.  Score!  There was a store across the street selling beer.  Double score!

We noshed and bought some beer for the campsite we would find that night.  We headed back to the ferry and soon drove onto the ship.

Luther has rode on a ferry before, but BJ had not.  Both did not like the close quarters of all the cars in the underbelly of the boat.  Growly & Whiney were alive and well.

We packed up our items for the 4 1/2 hour trip.  Crosswords, camera, music, guides, etc. and walked around the boat, trying to find the best spot to set up.  We moved a few times, eventually finding ourselves in the bar area.  Ha Ha! you say...   There were no kids, lots of empty seats and uncompleted puzzles on the tables.  Oh yeah, and beer.

We headed out down the waterway.  Each of us took breaks from watching our belongings and took a look at the surroundings of our travels.  Glaciers, mountains, clouds, rainbows and a very peculiar sunset.

We were to arrive around 11 PM, but I had thought there would not be any issue on finding a campsite.  As it got close to our arrival time, I saw what I had not seen in a fortnight, night.

It was dark.  Way dark!

We drove off the boat, a bit tired from the journey and also a tad irritable.  I had no idea where I was going.  The signage coming off the boat was not the best.  We traveled back and forth a few times until we finally found a campsite.  I still don't know wether it was the night filled sky, lack of food or just 5 hours on a boat, but I was grumpy.

We sniped at each other a few times as we set up our camp.  It was damp in Juneau and we were setting up our huge tent in a site too small for it.  Dogs had to pee and poop.  Everything was simply falling apart in the darkness.  Or so it seemed.

We finally went to bed, still sniping.  Tomorrow...better be a better day!