Charles and His Food Pantry

Andi met Charlie on the ADV forum. When we got to Anchorage, we realize he is a friend of Barb and Amy - and other ADV riders. What a surprise.

We arrived Charles' house in Homer in the brilliant sunshine, a moose was grazing in front of the front yard, with the snow mountain and ocean in the full view of the lounge, it felt just like at home in Wanaka - except the moose.

Charlie took us down to the Homer spit and showed us around. Most importantly, he told us about his passion - the city food pantry.

                                                  with Charlie at food pantry

The food pantry is similar to the food bank in NZ. They collect donations of food and distribute to the people who have the need. There are a few volunteers working at the food pantry. Charlie picks up food from local grocery shop most days and is also on call 24 -7. They have a system, people who registered in the system pick up their food parsel every Monday afternoon. So on Monday morning, we joined Charlie and his mates sorting out all the food.

There are donuts, muffins, cakes, tin food and also lots of fruit and veges. Although the fruit and veges are not in their best condition - that's why they are donated but they are still very good. In NZ, that would be thrown out but the people in Homer sorted them out, then give to the people in need.

While we were taking the rotting part of the veges out, a lady told me to put them in a seperate box, because "people will pick it up for animals, nothing is going to waste from here." I was wonder how does that work because the US for me is a country people suing for anything and everything. Charlie said they do have permission from govt to do so. What a great thing to do for the community.  I think if our NZ could do the same, first will help lots of people, second will reduce lots of waste.

"Is there any who people abuse this system?" "Of course there is." Charlie said. The food pantry also has limited finance to support people. Charlie went and met a woman while we stayed with him, he came back not very happy. I asked how was the woman, Charlie said:"I told her not to come back to us." The woman who claimed was abused by her partner was driving a brand new rental car, but no money for fuel. Charlie went and paid for the fuel, she also wanted the receipt. Charlie said no and told her to change an affordable car as well.

Most people come to food pantry are genuinly in need of help. Charlie has been working for the food pantry for 3 years, and seeing the number of people coming to the panty is growing - this is his main concern. He believes America is in a bad shape.

Charlie also told us his romance with a Chinese lady he met on the Internet. He even sold all his belongings and moved to China to be with her. Unfortunately the hot weather there and cultural difference curtailed the romance. Charlie had to return to Alaska after a few months in China. Although he didn't make his life in China, they still remain very good friends. I even talked to the lady on Skype in Chinese - Charlie asked me to tell her in Chinese that riding motorcycle is not dangerous!

Andi spent couple of days help Charlie to fix his Honda 1979 Gold Wings so he can go riding with us on Sunday - actually the ride was on Saturday, Charlie messed up the day which he was most embarrassed.

Our stay in Homer had a shorter ending due to leaving on the Saturday rather than the Sunday but we don't mind at all as we met a few more riders and enjoyed the trip to Hope Cafe with them. We were so lucky to be able to stay with Charlie and get to know him and his passion. He made us feel at Home(r) as our own home. We can not thank him enough. All the best for Charlie, we wish you find a good company to share your love and passion.

Western Most Point USA

Greetings all, well today (Tuesday 15th May) was very cool, beautiful day to play with greeted us through the curtains, we are lucky enough to be staying with Charlie at his home in Homer so 5 star.

We set off for a ride to Anchor Point the Western most point you can drive to, we were greeted with breathtaking views and a nice still day.

A total thrashing with the camera and poses galore we recorded our stop at Anchor Point, from there we went up to Nickolaevsk a Russian settlement with a beautiful church.

We headed back to Homer again to record our “been there done that and got the T shirt” in front of the Homer sign .... as ya do!!

Back for a quick lunch then off to See Dean at Full Power then out to Voznesenka however Ellen decided it was time to lay Chiwi down for a rest .. but she did this at a busy intersection much to the interest of other traffic., kids do not try this at home!!!

I went back to rescue the stricken maiden and her lovely stead, my “kiwi made” crash boards have paid their way and the Barkbuster storms have probably saved us a hundy on levers already!

Only two minutes later .... take two, we pull up to Deans shop and bang down she goes again from car park on an angle and some bad estimating, this time Dean had the honours of righting Chiwi back to rubber side down.  

After recomposing our fair maiden again and standing round in the sun having a chat we set off to Barb and Victors cabin then headed out to Voznesenka, at the end of the road is a groovy track down to the sea.

With Charlie on his Wing and Ellen learning her skills the hard way I was the only one to go down, it was worth it and pretty easy but it woulda been a little more than Ellen’s current skill level.  

After looking around we headed back for home where Ellen redeemed herself with a great feed of tempurad Hallibut. 

From Anchorage to Homer - 220 miles

After 10 days of intense working, chopping, grinding, soldering, drilling, bashing, scraping and knuckle bashing Chiwi and Hobbit are finally ready to race. (we are STILL married!)

                                                       Chiwi and Hobbits first outing

We learnt a lot about the bikes, everything we had prepared fitted like glove and we established that if we couldn't fix it with a big hammer it was an electrical problem.

We were going to take both bikes to Amy's - an ADV (adventure rider ) who rides Suzuki DR650 invited us a few other guys for a salmon feed on Saturday night (12th May), Andi took them both out on the drive way and got them started. Some how Chiwi took herself out off the stand and fell over, on the way down Chiwi blatantly attacked Hobbit and knocked Hobbit off his perch as well. Ellen rushed over turned both of them off. well, Andi's crash board on the side panniers took the hit and the left rear case took a beating where Chiwi bit him. Anyway, Chiwi seemed not liking the fall and wouldn't start when we picked her up!!. With the time pressure, we had to both jump on Hobbit and went to Amys.

                                                                At Amy's

The dinner party (our first official engagement) was wonderful, we meet some local ADVs as well. Amy cooked up a storm for us, Jack, Paul, Rodger and Katey all gave us some good advice on riding. It was the second time people asked us if we have heated vest, they said we would need them going up to the North. We think we will try what we have now - which is three layers of Icebreaker, see how it goes.

Sunday 13th May, we left Anchorage to Homer, which is 210 miles west of Anchorage. Andi gave Chiwi a blow job (per Amy) to get it started (remember it wouldn't start after falling over the night before, must have been an air lock in the fuel tube and stopped the fuel get into the carb).

                                                Hi we are in snow again - Cheers Andi

We knew it would be cold, so two layers of Icebreaker long Johns and three layers for the upper body. Only just out of city on the highway a bitterly cold wind hit us, then came down with rain. With heated grips on full, our hands still cold. We stopped at a service station, wanted some hot food to warm us up. The hot soup was nothing like the one we imagined, clear water with a few slice of noodles and chicken strips served with crackers! Not stopping here again.

After the luke warm clear water soup, we hit the road again. It's getting colder and colder, the rain turned to snow! We had to keep wiping our visor to be able to see through it. Ellen was thinking:"what the hell is it? Is not the same as what Amy said the night before." She couldn't see through her visor, and kind of lost the sense of balance. She was almost in tears,  just as well Andi found a bypass and we can pull over.

   Ellen was almost in tears

                                                                Even Chiwi was cold

Fortunately, the snow turned to rain again after we came down a bit. The road was getting drier and the Sun almost came out. "It was a lucky, " Ellen thought. However, she spoke too soon. The road turned wet again and this time, came down with hale! Ellen visor was fogged up inside, so she could not see through again. She tried to pull the visor up, then the hale hit her face like cutting knives. So she shut the visor, can't see the road. It was getting really dangerous now. She slowed down, kept the bike up straight, until finally passed the hale zone. "That was a ride in hell, I wasn't prepare for that."she thought.

After about 3 hour riding through wind, rain, snow and hale, it was still 95 miles away from Homer. The sky came to clear, the road was dry and it getting warmer. We were on boarder of thinking heated vest might be on the shopping list for next ride, but also understand we only need them here in Alaska, then carry them around the rest of the trip. Maybe we try 4 layers of Icebreaker on the way back.

                                              Good advertising for Klim gear, Bro

There was no drama for the last leg of our trip, we started to see moo se on the side of the road. GPS took us to Charlie's - another ADV rider. Homer welcomed us with sun shine and beautiful snow mountain and a Moose grazing in front of Charlie's front yard. The four seasons ( cold, very cold, very very cold and freezing ) we had gone through to get here - it worth it.

                                                         We made it to Homer!

                                                  Moose gracing in som one's front yard in town

                                                  Look just like the west coast of NZ

First Day in Alaska

Just a quick note to everyone, we are in Alaska now after 42 hours of no sleep. Entering in USA was smooth and easy and LAX proved to be quite ok. We were picked up by Barb and spent most of the day today getting our bikes registered and we can go to the bike blessing tomorrow in downtown Anchorage. We need to do a big shop tomorrow to get laptop and cameras etc so we can start our blog properly.

Thanks to all for your support and help and catch up soon.