Living the Dream with Joyce: July 29th to August 2nd. 2017

Drove through (once again) beautiful mountain vistas to Rob's ex-marine friend Telford and his wife, Skyla, in their beautiful country house in Kasilof, near Soldotna. Good times on their back porch, drinking beer and watching the sun set - not that it gets dark, exactly, but sort of dusk-y! I got to plug in to the house hydro, which was amazing - got to watch my DVDs, finally!
With Kasilof as our base, we drove to Kenai, did a short hike down the beach, saw the sights, then back to Telford's house. An evening walk along the beach gave us closeup encounters with a mama moose and her two little ones! Driving in Alaska is not really a question of watching the road ahead; it's watching the road ahead AND watching the sides of the road for wildlife!
The next day, we drove to Homer - lovely town - onto the Homer Spit, then up the mountain road to get a birdseye view of the Spit. Visited a little market in Homer before heading back to Telford's. Rob's disaster happened in Soldotna: he and the gang were heading for the little local airport to do a day long tour of the vicinity by float plane and boat, when the truck motor broke down! By a real stroke of luck, they were within a block of the Chrysler dealer, so they managed to get that far and leave the truck for diagnosis! The dealer guys drove them to the airport and I picked them up in the evening in my rig. Have to say, it felt pretty awesome to be rescuing Rob - it's usually the other way around! The dealer informed Rob that his motor would have to be replaced, thus setting in a motion at least two weeks of paperwork and discussion amongst the dealer, Chrysler head office (not sure where, but east in the lower 48 somewhere), and Rob. The motor is still under warranty, but Rob had to get together all his oil change and maintenance records in order to prove that the breakdown wasn't his fault!