Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 23:41:00 -0600
Reply-To: John Rodgers <jh_rodgers@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Rodgers <jh_rodgers@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Subject: To All Alaska Travelers
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For those traveling to Alaska this year in their Westies and Vanagons,
as a longtime Alaskan (one never gets over being an Alaskan if you have
seen two winters or more there - your heart and feet are frozen in
forever!) I just wanted to pass a few words of caution for you during
your visit to the great "Ounahlashka!" (Aleut for "The Great Land")
Be SURE you have plenty of mosquito repellent. DEET works best, and
comes in a squeeze bottle. There are others that come as sprays. If you
are up in early season, be sure you have hats and mosquito netting on
them . Just the volume of insects can drive you crazy at times. They get
in your eyes, nose and ears.
If you get into Anchorage, look up Mountain View Sporting Goods, in
Mountain View, which is in Anchorage, and get some Buhach. This is
powdered pyrethrum flowers ... the pure stuff. You can burn a little of
this in your camper or tent and it will take care of the mosquitoes. I
don't know where else on the face of the planet you can get this stuff,
but it has been around forever and all the REAL Alaskans - the old
timers - swear by it -- and so do I. Just follow the instructions that
come with it.
If you have a small pet, be very careful with it. Owls have a taste for
domestic cat, and one lady lost her toy poodle to an eagle down on the
Homer Spit, at Homer, Alaska. The couple had let it out to pee, and the
eagle figured it was lunch time. Nice meal for the eaglets, but tragic
for the poodle.
Finally, regards viewing the great American Bald Eagles.........if you
are observing eagles and happen to be under the tree in which one lands
......MOVE!!!!! Get away quick.
Eagle biology 101 - Eagles, being birds, , have their digestive tract
and their urinary tract joined in what is called a cloaca. So the fish
dinner they had earlier in the day, and all the by-products from the
kidneys mix together in the cloaca, and the sudden muscular action by
the launch from the perch causes the birds to expel the content of the
cloaca rather forcefully. And the one place you DO NOT want to be is
under the tree when the bird launches from his perch. The eagles
business is no small matter. It's more like a 300 H&H fired through a
gallon bucket of white paint.
Try and run to the upwind side of the tree, if you get my drift
..........and if you don't, you WILL get the eagles drift.!!!
Regards,
John Rodgers
88 GL driver
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