The Lilly Pond

I decided to take off a few hours early on Monday so Jan and I could take a drive out the road . After all, it was Mother's Day and we hadn't done anything else to celebrate and since she likes to go on drives, I thought, why not? First I stopped at the gas pump to make sure we weren't stranded miles from civilization. I see on the news that gas is dropping like a rock down south. Hmmmm... $5.052 a gallon here. It actually went up six cents from the last time I bought it. Lovely. Anyway, we went out to the Y in the road. If you turn right you can go out to Freshwater Bay or stop at the old Whitestone logging camp or go to Long Island. The only problem is the road will jar your teeth out, so we opted to go left. The road is graded and not so lumpy- at least until you get to the bear viewing area. The tour buses don't go beyond there. I guess the powers that be figure us tough Alaskans don't need no smooth road to drive on- that's for sissies and tourists. Its the same with the outhouses. They're only open on ship days- otherwise they are locked. Us tough Alaskan's don't need no outhouses; why we can  hold it till our bladders expand like dirigibles, and if we can't, well, wet pants don't bother us at all! It's all the same to me- I'd rather pee in the woods anyway. When I lived on the farm I would just step out the back door and let fly.  We were located on the last lot, deep in the woods with our closest neighbor about 200 yards away, so it was easier to get away with there. Anyway, back to the drive. Fortunately we were going pretty slow. About two miles down the road we had to stop for a bus that was coming our way. These roads are pretty much one lane with turn outs. The guy driving was great and backed up just a bit and we went on our way. About five minutes later we had to deal with another bus. This time there was kind of like a Mexican standoff. I opted to back up a few hundred yards and pull over so the bus could go forward. When I got to where he had been I saw that there was a turn off right behind him, so I was a little peeved. I know the bus driver and the kind of person he is so it didn't do much to endear him to me. I mentioned to John Kveum about the incident and he said that the second driver was doing what he was told. If the bus came off the road just a little bit it would be a major pain to get back on to the road- plus all the passengers would be stranded. Once it was explained to me about the proper etiquette, I felt better about the whole issue. I still don't care for the one driver, but at least I feel better about the fact that he wasn't just being obnoxious. Obviously, if anyone has an opinion that differs from mine, he must be wrong. God forbid that they should somehow offend me in any way; I might be forced to call down fire from heaven and have them confined to outer darkness. Frankly, I wonder about my spiritual condition at times. In any event, we made it out the road about ten or twelve miles without seeing any wild life at all- no bears,deer, possums, skunks or rabbits. Of course there are no possums, skunks or rabbits here, but it would have been nice to see something besides tour busses. On the way back we stopped at the lilly pond that's located off the side of the road. I figured that if I was going to see any bears at all, they would probably wait until I stopped to get a few pictures. It would have been poetic justice for my attitude. As it was though, I got the pictures and made it back to the truck unscathed. I'm starting to wonder though if I shouldn't have taken a closer look at the tourists inside the bus. It did say wildlife tour after all...