Today we had a free day in Homer, Alaska. By “free day”, I mean we didn’t have anything scheduled. There was however, still a lot to to.
While Braxton slept in (again), Mike and I headed to the laundromat. We went to a place called “Washboard”. Although you can find them on a Google search, I haven’t found a dedicated website for it. It was really clean and all the machines look new so maybe they just don’t have a website yet? Anyway, the machines were the cleanest we have seen, and so are the bathrooms. They have an espresso/snack bar and a deck out back if you want to relax while awaiting your loads to wash/dry. They also have showers which I hear are really clean and they appear to be quite popular.
Right across the street is the Homer’s Farmer’s Market. We headed over while awaiting our laundry to finish. There, we bought some local honey, rhubarb butter, and salmon berry jam. We also couldn’t pass up some cookies from one of the local bakeries. The place was hoppin’ and there’s a wide variety of local vendors with some great locally made and grown products.
After the Farmer’s Market and doing laundry, we headed back to the Airstream to drop off everything and pick up Braxton. We stopped for lunch at a place near the end of the Spit called Johnny’s Corner. They offer really fresh and very tasty poke, pork belly, and tofu bowls. We enjoyed our lunch there. It was the type of meal that was so good, it could easily be a once, twice, three times a week meal.
Our next stop was the Island and Ocean Visitor Center where Braxton could get another stamp for his passport. It’s a nice visitor center and there’s access to trails and the beach from the back of the building. We walked down to the beach and through some amazing flora. We even saw a huge bird, some kind of crane I think, walking on the boardwalk right in front of a guy. Both seemed to be enjoying the pathway. Do you know what kind of bird it is?
If you thought I wouldn’t be mentioning our fridge issues today, you’d be wrong. Because we really need to not have to worry about our food flying out of it while we’re driving, we made a stop at Ace Hardware to try and find a solution. This store quickly became an obsession for Mike. It is by far the best Ace we have ever been in. They literally have everything you could possibly need or want. Check out their website and you’ll see what a mean.
Between the three of us, we found some wing nuts, some plastic shims, and a couple threaded rods. The fridge has two pair of screw holes in a horizontal configuration on the frame in between the fridge and the freezer. One pair is used if you’re fridge is a right open fridge, the other is used if your fridge opens to the left.
The plan was to put the threaded rods in the holes that aren’t being used for the door. Braxton drilled two holes in two plastic shims. Those shims slid on the threaded rods. The plastic shims were just the right size to cover the top of the fridge door and the bottom of the freezer door. Then the wing nuts were put on and voila! The doors are essentially locked closed! At least they seem like they are. We’re pretty confident about this fix but the true test will be when we hit the road in a couple days.
Using the drill during this project drew the attention of our neighbors who were packing up to leave. They (husband and wife) are in the Coast Guard and were getting ready to report for duty on Kodiak Island. They were cleaning out their trailer and gave us all their beer, wine, and whisky that they couldn’t take with them or leave in their trailer. Not only did we thank them for their service, but we also thanked them for their generosity.
For a “free” day, it turned out to be pretty busy. For dinner we cooked the Black Spruce Beer Sausage from Tommy G’s Meat and Sausage that we got when we were in Fairbanks. It was really good! We’ll get more the next time we find ourselves on another sausage mirage hunt in Fairbanks.