Day 343. July 15, 2014. Along Cook's Inlet

LOCATION:  Sterling, Alaska, in south central part of state

WEATHER:  Nice. Highs in 60s

Our campground is full  tonight so we have to move.  We walked around the next door state park to see if there are any vacancies, but there aren't.  We drove down the road and found a campground with one vacancy.  When we went to the site, however, it had a camper in it (but no one was there).  So, they put us in another one where someone was coming later in the day.  Not sure what happened, as they did not show up, or the campground owners perhaps sent them elsewhere.  In any case, we are here for 2 days.

We unhooked, and drove along Cook's Inlet.  We drove to an old Russian town nearby (after all, we aren't far from Russia). 

We watched thousands of people catching salmon in their nets.  All the dots are people.....

We passed a Walmart and another superstore that had about 100 campers parked in their lots.  I got a little panicked about finding a place this weekend, since many people from Anchorage will be coming here this weekend to fish.  So, I found a campground online in Homer for three nights.  We still don't have a place for one night, but we can fall back on Walmart.

As we were driving around, a pickup in front of us bounced a rock onto our windshield, and made a big starburst.  Luckily, we were only a few miles from an auto glass place that was able to fix it right away.  (I think the windshield  repair places do a good business in this part of the country).  This is the 3rd windshield incident we have had on this trip.  

Our campground tonight has nice grills around for anyone to use.  George grilled some chicken. I had picked up a Cook's Country magazine and it had some grilling recipes.  Unlike most recipes, this said to cook the meat slowly st first, and then turn up the heat at the end.  It turned out really well.  

As we were cooking, we talked with our neighbors who told us about a great flight-seeing trip they made today.  We are going to try to go tomorrow.

DINNER:  The grilled chicken and mashed potatoes.  I made a salad with radishes, cucumbers and tomatoes.