Dunfey Alaska Journey

Sallie and Kima Butters had never paddled in a kayak. We planned to put our kayaks into Beluga Lake to give Sallie and Kima paddling lessons in calm waters. Beluga Lake is used primarily as a Float Plane airport. As we watched one take off, we decided that just maybe we weren’t suppose to be there. Instead, we put our kayaks into the small boat harbor at the end of the Homer split. Sallie and Kima took turns paddling with Milly touring the harbor out to the rougher water and back.

Afterwards, we all went for drafts of beer at Land’s End at the tip of the spit.

Kima prepared a seafood feast of salmon and scallops that evening.

Sallie Dodd Butters and Milly went to high school together at Gill School in Bernardsville, New Jersey. Sallie has lived in Homer for the last 35 years. She came to Alaska as a singer with Hobo Jack for the summer, liked it and stayed.

On Saturday, July 25, we joined with many local Alaskans in celebrating Sallie’s birthday at her home in Homer. Her home is known affectionately as Motley Farm. Sallie has held this party every year to also honor her wedding anniversary. The love of her life, her husband Dayton, died last February. 

We moved our camper into her side yard on Friday morning. We met a lot of Sallie’s neighbors as they stopped over to say hello, share a beer and/or smoke some weed. In  Alaska, personal growing and smoking of marijuana is tolerated.

We helped Sallie, her daughter Kimmy and her son Ezra, get her place ready for the party. Kimmy and Ezra both live in Wasilla. We dined out at Wasabi’s Restaurant with Sallie and Kimmy for great Friday evening seafood.

The party started around 2 pm and lasted all day. There were people in her kitchen when we went to bed at midnight. People dropped in when they could. They usually brought some type of food.

Sallie is quite the character. She raises much of her own vegtables in gardens that surround the house. She also sells eggs from her chickens. Recently, She finally got running water in the house.

She lives what appears to be a simple life, close to the environment with neighbors helping each other. She seems to know just about everyone. She gets involved in local political activity. Recently, she helped lead the fight against Sara Palin and the state’s attempt to facilitate Alaskan city annexation of nearby property. Sallie lives about 7 miles from center of Homer. Her home is not taxed by Homer. She does pay Borough taxes.

Sallie’s house is full of “stuff”. She is a pack rat! She has all kinds of “interesting” stuff packed into every cranny of her home.

After church on Sunday, we went to Sourdough Cafe for an excellent lunch. Fred had eaten an great breakfast there. Then we went to a  HOMER NPR benefit Musical Festival on the lawn. It was fun watching all the locals, young and old, listen and dance to the rock bands which changed every hour. Part of the festival was broadcast on KBBS live. During that part of program, the head of Homer wished Sallie Dodd Butters a Happy Birthday! It was a good day for a change after the last several days of rain but we forgot out camera.

We left Seward on July 22 heading for Homer on Sterling Highway on the Kenai Peninsula. We decided to stop overnight at Fred Myers Super Center in Soldatna. Fred Myers is an Alaskan chain of store similar to Wal-Mart. Fred Myers at some locations also allows RV’s to camp overnight without any fees. We were shocked at the number of RV’s that stayed there overnight. There must have been at least 50. We did spent about $100 shopping there. We went in for Milk!

After setting up at Fred Myers, we toured Soldatna and the city of Kenai nearby. We went to Beluga Outlook at the mouth of the Kenai River on Cook Inlet. We watched the hordes of salmon fishermen wading into the water using dip nets on both sides of the river mouth. Many were staying in tents and RVs on the beach.

We met a local Alaskan who owned a fishing boat. He came to watch the fishing scene below us. He told us that he often came here to see if the salmon were running. If he saw many salmon being caught, he would go down to his boat with his friends to try to catch their allocated amounts of salmon. We noticed that no one was catching anything. He explained to us how the fishing regulations worked and were enforced. It was fascinating. You could see the way his eyes gleamed as he talked to us about fishing that he moved up to the Kenai to fish.

From everything we observed in driving through the Upper Kenai area, this is truly a fisherman’s paradise. 

In the morning, we travelled down the Sterling Highway to Anchor Point pausing to a visit an old Russain Orthodox Church. We stayed in Halibut Campground at Anchor Point right on Cook Inlet. Anchor Point is America’s most westerly highway point. The Campground was right off the ocean. We walked along the beach to a place were tractors were used to launch boats and picked them up.

Our campsite was situated in front of a small marsh surrounded by spruce trees. Two ravens were sitting on the picnic table when we arrived. That night, we heard them walking across our roof. There also was a Bald Eagle perched on top of  a tree watching over us for a lot of the time we were there.

Late that afternnon, we went to Homer to see Sallie Dood Butters, who is a high school friend of Milly’s and her sister Judy Higby. Sallie is quite the Alaskan charachter. She invited us to move our camper into her side yard which we did the next day.