I owe you this one

I promised an explanation for my earlier comment that as of today (June 9th) I would be homeless.

Here are the details and an update:

Pre-planning- During my P48 trip last summer I had managed to launch completely without reservations. I had not figured where I would be or when I would be there. Heck, I didn't even know what I was going to do once I got there!

Because of the vast remoteness that is Alaska, and because I wanted to spend a little time with Scott and Bev when I made it to Anchorage (Eagle River), Ak, and because they were only going to be in Eagle River until a specific date, I decided to take my bike on the ferry up through the Inner Passages, to Skagway, then ride from there to Anchorage. The only reasonable way to guarantee my passage on the ferry was to make a reservation, as floating on standby is frowned upon, even if you are an amphibian.

After selecting dates for my cruise I decided that 3 days on a ship would be much more enjoyable if I was able to eat and sleep. So I splurged and paid for a cabin, with "splurged" being the operable verb. At the time of reservation there were no single cabins available, so I was placed in a 4 bedroom suite (oh, and charged accordingly)! While caught in the act of splurging I decided that the multi-day trip from Skagway to Anchorage should likewise be designated as a reserved zone, so I made reservations at motels that were spaced approximately 200 miles apart. With this chain of reservations safely uh... reserved, I settled in, counting the days until lift-off.

Last Friday I retired (yeh) and the same day I received a phone call from Alaska Maritime Highways informing me that my ship would be under repair and they were transferring me to another ship. Now I could have refused to get off the original ship, cried and thrown a hissy fit until TSA came to beat me up, drag me off the ship and make a soon-to-be wealthy celebrity out of me. But I chose the passive route - telling them that it was okay, especially in light of the fact that my new ship arrived at the exact same time that my "old", maintenance demanding, fixer-upper was scheduled to have arrived.

After dotting the "T"s and crossing my eyes they gave me a new confirmation number, then quietly, almost covertly, informed me that the new ship, that I was now registered on, had no cabins available! The hissy fit option was back on the table! 

But once again, rather than becoming a celebrity by threatening to sue the airlines, er, cruise lines and making them call all of my patients to reschedule, I agreed. Agreed not only that I had no patients (but lots of patience) but that I would be officially homeless for 69 hours. Check another one off the bucket list!

Last night, between bouts of yelping from my neighbor's dog with IBS, I lay in my motel room thinking of my impending vagrancy, wondering what my route would be from Skagway to Destruction Bay (my next reservation up the line). I went to Google Maps which showed me that, despite what my paper map had shown, Highway 3 does not go to Skagway! it goes to Haines, which sits on the western edge of the Lynn fjord; North America's largest and one of the worlds biggest fjords at 60 miles long and 2,000 feet deep. Haines also sits at the south end of Highway 3. There is no direct (spelled s-h-o-r-t) route, over land, between Haines and Skagway!

"Siri, what is the driving distance from Skagway to Destruction Bay?"

Her voice came back slowly, almost in disbelief. "The distance from Skagway to Distraction Bay is 4,215 miles". Yikes, remember when I said 300 miles a day was pushing it?

Maybe I could ride from Skagway to Haines instead?

"1532 miles".

Now I was wide awake. My reservations were all 200 miles apart, except you can't get there from here!

What if I take a ferry from Skagway to Haines? Although the schedules are confusing I found a ferry that left Skagway a scant two hours after my arrival in that port. That's cutting it close; probably too close.

The rest of the night was spent devising scenarios that would allow me to get to Haines, all the while trying to sleep between yelping sessions by my neighbor's dog.

So I travelled early this morning to the Bellingham Port Terminal. 

The grand entranceway to the Bellingham Terminal

The "Ballroom" ( so called because it holds as many people as Fenway Park) was being prepared for a wedding reception

There I talked the situation over with a very helpful young man who told me to chillax, the same ship stopped at Haines, just prior to proceeding to Skagway! So he changed my reservation to Haines, refunded part of my fare and placed me on a waiting list for a State Room, in case someone gets off earlier in the trip. 

I now sit, nursing a sore typing finger, on the Malispina; no Wi-Fi, no State Room, no idea where I'll sleep tonight, but headed to open seas where I will cross into a time zone which I have never been to before. 

As I waited in the staging area to board the ferry we passed time talking amongst the many bikers who are taking this same ship. They are from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Alaska (the latter returning home to Wrangell Island, where they periodically tire of riding the same fourteen mile road between the extreme points of their tiny island).

Apparently I missed the "Friday is ride your blue motorcycle day".

I will publish this once my pictures transfer from my phone, once I get a Wi-Fi signal, and once I publish my previous post. Life moves slower here in the Alaska Time Zone.