Valdez, AK: Day Two

​After a restful night, that I apparently really needed, I walked Jo Jo, as I do every morning, and half asleep trying to be extra alert, since well, there are bears around everywhere. Or loose dogs. There were very few people walking around in this surprisingly quiet campsite. I’m getting to really like it, especially since I have an electric plug-in site to run my furnace. When suddenly I loudly heard my name called. “Sylvia, is that you?” “I slowly turned around, hesitated, and said, yes, and I was shocked.” “She asked, with the Sylver Gypsy and Jo Jo?” I couldn’t believe my ears. Who would know me here? Well T. C. and the red Travato was camped kitty corner from my site, and I had been looking it over the day before wondering who was in there, and certainly waiting on the opportunity to meet the owner, and now I have. She’s a full time solo traveler, and been on the road for almost 3 years. She is heading to Mexico later this year, and she does participate in the Facebook TOAW site, which is how she learned that I was here in Valdez. After a fun, brief meet, she stopped one more time before heading out to offer me some head and flu remedies. I gladly excepted it, and I’ve been using them feeling a slight improvement at times though struggling through my fatigue. So I took a very slow day today in town, walking the harbor, and the Overlook Trail, which was strenuous enough for me, up several stairs, in my condition. Actually, there wasn’t much of an overlook since it’s quite overgrown and it was a mosquito haven, which kept me moving quickly. Then a brief stop at the Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery, where apparently it’s not spawning season, and I didn’t see a single fish but plenty of seagulls. I headed back to camp to lay low and continue to read my book. It was actually quite warm today, so I stayed inside the Sylver Gypsy with all the windows open and the ceiling fan was running. I had to make sure that the screens were tight, as the mosquitoes wanted a piece of me. So far that’s the only drawback, is these damn bloody vampire mosquitoes, or mozzies, as they refer to them here.

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