Loosing the crew

Tuesday July 10

To my knowledge the plan of attack was to check out of the condo, drive up to Anchorage, where the crew would pick up their 7-birth campervan, while Duane and I did some errands and then we'd meet up and start heading north together. Well....so I thought.

I hopped in the car, then Duane told me we'd see them in Anchorage but they had decided to flag going up north on a roady! WHAT?

Apparently the night before while having some drinks, it was decided among the others that instead of heading up north to Denali NP and then the Arctic circle, they were keen to hang out on the Kenai Peninsula instead. Salmon chasing.

Duane and I headed up to Anchorage anyway and thought perhaps we might change their minds. The plan was to keep in contact by walkie talkie and meet up in the Wallmart carpark, they had seen on their way south from the airport.

So there we were at appr. 3.30pm at the Wallmart carpark with the Walkie Talkie switched on, calling out for the Kiwihookers, over... no response.

So we waited, until 9pm, then went to see Ocean's 13 (good) with the biggest popcorn and icetea I've ever consumed ( you gotta love America)

Next morning: No sign of our Kiwi friends. We had found out that there was another Wallmart in Anchorage but that one was in town, while we were at the bigger store on the route from the airport south.

So we emailed them and got a reply within half an hour from Debz: we're in Seward now, come round.

To cut a long story and several emails short: They really were going to hang out on the Peninsula, while Duane and I really wanted to start heading north to see Denali and do some canoeing/rafting in the Brooks Range, not to mention the summer is short and we've got a long way to go.

So unfortunately we had to come to the decision to go our own ways. A real shame, because we had hardly caught up with eachother and had been looking forward to a fun roadtrip together and some hiking.