Tuesday July 11, Bird Creek , AK at Turnagain Gallery and Gifts

I'm not sure if the chain saw artist has ADHD, or if you must have several projects in progress, at various stages of completion, in order to interest a buyer in placing a custom order. Quite frankly, this jumble interested me today, on Day 19 of my solo Alaskan road trip, as I'm feeling rather low. Changing weather with a tendency towards rain isn't really something I wanted this summer. All the Alaska tourism materials I've seen talk of things to do on clear days as if that's the norm here. They're lying. I suspect that people who love Alaska the most come from torridly humid places on the East coast, or from ferocious deserts like Arizona. I feel let down. The mountains and glaciers are great when you can see them, but they're clouded in as much as viewable day after day. It didn't help that I turned back from my planned drive around Turnagain Arm to Hope today for a leisurely breakfast when the "check engine" light came on in my car. Given the lack of services around here I turned around and drove back into Anchorage. I found a Honda dealership and a mechanic there plugged in a diagnostic tool to interpret the warning. Seems that there may (or may not) be a vacuum leak which isn't immediately dangerous and would involve hours of disassembling the engine to even find it. I've decided to keep driving for now on the Kenai peninsula and get it worked on in Anchorage if it worsens. Yeah, right, exactly the sort of ambiguous situation you want to deal with thousands of miles from home. It's been difficult today balancing the negative self talk with attempts to stay positive. Simply a bear. So I'm heading into Girdwood to buy a shower and I hope to sleep the grumpiness off. I trust the inconsiderate arsehole RV owner who ran his bleeping generator all last night in Bird Creek CG has moved on. I keep looking for what makes Alaska different from Washington State. The truth is, not enough to fill 6 weeks of traveling. I hope to do some sea kayaking in the next few days, then I'm weighing the options of driving back or waiting on a cancellation on the Alaska Marine Highway.