Homer ~ The End Of Land As We Know IT

Salmon ~ Net Fishing!

The journey is far from over, but here, today, marks our farthest point to the West and South that we can drive without taking a ferry. 7,298 miles from Berlin, NH… what a journey! Today, also marks another saga. I don’t remember if I had mentioned this in previous blogs, but here it is for those who don’t know. Homer, Alaska was named for Homer Pennock. Homer was a “Gold Miner, he brought 50 men here to prospect for “Gold”. A sea Captain (who brought them here) named the area after him. This much is fact and documented in the Pratt Museum here in Homer. Now here is where the story takes a twist. My aunt (deceased) Bertha Pennock Leclerc has told me back in the mid 80’s that she was related to a sea Captain named Pennock who was a pioneer in Homer, Alaska. True or fiction, I’ll never know. I did Google Homer Pennock and connections led to Stratton, VT

Salmon in Hand!

Homer is the “Halibut Fishing Capital of the World” There is the town of Homer and then there is Homer Spit. The spit is a long narrow strip of land that goes a couple of miles into Cook Inlet. On the spit, there are now many shops, restaurants, fishing gear places, tour ticket shacks and finally the Halibut processing plant. There is also several RV campgrounds for those diehard fisherman. It’s windy and cold out there. We selected a secluded spot in the hills by a public playground. There was nobody around except a few young kids playing in the park. Their parents watching and us across in a field.

This morning before heading to Homer we visited Kenai City. There was very nice visitor center with local native artifacts to view. The staff directed us to an Old Russian Orthodox Church. This town was a Russian Fur Traders outpost. Sea Otters were the pelts of choice. The Center had one that was six feet long! We visited the church grounds, the old cemetery was also close by and some of the original buildings with moss chinking between the logs.

The Sign Says It All!

We had also been directed to the overlook at the confluence of the Kenai and Russian Rivers as they enter Cook Inlet. Here was a site to see. Fishermen were wading waist deep circling their nets. They were catching Salmon. The big Salmon run is expected this Sunday. They know this by airplane reports that spot the runs out at sea. A firefighter told us that there has been as much as 200,000 Salmon in these runs.

The ride down to Homer is not too exciting, until you round the corner and see Cook Inlet with Homer Spit jutting out in the inlet. We went to the museum, walked the shops on the Spit and watched many Eagles perched on light poles eating fish leftovers. The Eagles are bigger than those in Valdez, but they lose some respect when you see them eating leftovers.



Can You Imagine Living On Gilligan's Island?
Someone here surely does!

The stop at the local Visitor Center also brought us another surprise. The couple (Keith and Karen) in front of us was asking about campgrounds and I asked “where are you from? “ “Maine” he said. “What part”? “Rangeley”. That’s about an hour from our home town for those of you who don’t know.

That is what we did and saw