Memorial Day Weekend is coming, so that means a 3 day weekend and a city full of people eager to “do something” and “go somewhere”.  I mean really GO SOMEWHERE!  Sure, we all have gotten out of town at some point since the snow stopped, and there are a few people that are already doing summer activities like hiking, camping, getting chased by a bear.  But just like the Lower-48ers, Alaskans want to make the most out of the first real holiday weekend of the year.

Now, here’s where you say “Mitch is the exception”.  That’s where you are wrong my friend.  My whole plan was to “go somewhere” for Memorial day.  The problem was:
A) Where
B) How

The How was the real problem.  Bear Feeders may remember I bought an RV last fall, known as the Strugglebus.  The Strugglebus has lived up to it’s name and has yet to turn over to begin the new year.  I just need to take it into the shop to get it started but that requires … well … motivation, work, effort … something.  Now that I am out of time to do that, plan B comes up. Throwing the dog in the car with a tent and driving somewhere.  Which is great, if you aren’t old, out-of-shape, cranky, and has a dog that is a bigger wuss than you.  Which means a hotel, but that’s just being a pansy.  Or I could just take a ferry somewhere, like Valdez, but that means putting the pup in the car for 6 hours to do nothing but wait for daddy to come back and/or poop.

In the mean time, I started to focus on the ‘where’.  Going north out of Anchorage is out, as pretty as that all is, it’s still early season and still cold up around Denali.  Going south out of Anchorage would be interesting, but I can go south whenever I want.  Besides, you Bear Feeders may remember my push to ‘Walk to Valdez’ last year (walking the number of miles consistent with driving there) that turned into walking there only and not actually driving there.  So Valdez was in my head.  Well it turned out my friend Laura was going to Valdez too … so we said “yippie, we are going to Valdez!”

Then the first extended weather report came out.  Well two actually.  One said that it would rain all weekend in Valdez and the highs would be in the mid-40s,  The other, said it won’t rain … because it would be too busy snowing!  So on Monday, we decided … Screw Valdez, we’re Going to Homer!!  Sure it’s a place we can go to on any weekend (Homer is a 4 hour drive, Valdez a 6+ hour drive), but at least they were predicting no rain and warm weather.  Then the weather report came out today for Valdez  — no rain, high in the low 50s, while the road to Homer may get blocked by a wildfire near Soldotna.  Today we decided … Screw Homer, We’re Going to Valdez!!

So here we are … the plan as of right now is that I am making a run for it Friday night to head to Valdez.  Hopefully by the time I get there my friend Laura & her two dogs will have a site she’s stayed at for a day already and hasn’t gotten so sick of it that she decided to make a run for Canada or something.  Auggie and I will show up.  We’ll all piss each other off.  Get drunk.  Then watch the snow fall on our tents.  Sounds like fun!