Road Trip

Once or twice a month, we like to drive up to Kenai-Soldotna to do some shopping. The twin cities of the Kenai Peninsula are eighty miles north of us on the Sterling Highway.

Four inches of snow had fallen overnight and snow continued into the morning. We left home about nine-thirty, as it was just beginning to grow light, driving north /in the haze of snow. Traffic was light--most of it going south. One nice thing about the limited number of roads we have in Alaska--the Sterling Highway is the only route from the Kenai Peninsula north to Anchorage, so it is well-tended by the State highway crews. As we travelled back and forth today, we passed several plow-trucks and sand trucks, keeping the route open and well-maintained.

The Sterling Highway, a few miles south of the K-Beach Road turnoff..

Soldotna is located where the highway crosses the Kenai River. It is a utilitarian community focused on servicing road travelers and the tourist industry. Kenai, a dozen miles to the west of Soldotna where the Kenai River empties into Cook Inlet, is the site of a 1791 Russian settlement and is as such one of Alaska's oldest towns.

When we go up for a doctor's visit, we circle through Soldotna--where we patronize several medical specialists--and often shop at the big Fred Meyer store on the north side of town. But today our list took us exclusively to Kenai: Home Depot for sheetrosk mud and a vanity-top, the second hand shop we have dubbed "the Junk Store", the IGA store for their selection of meats and the big Three Bears warehouse store for some supplies not available in Homer.

Fueling up in Anchor Point

Because of our early start, we were back on the road in the early afternoon. The weather started clearing and snow ended about forty miles north of Homer. We stopped in Anchor Point to refuel the Suburban about three this afternoon. We were home and unpacked by four.

Five inches of new snow soften the contours of the landscape at home.


Our backyard view just after five this evening


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