It seemed like everyone we met told us how much we were going to love the “Spit” in Homer. So, when we got to Homer, the first thing we did was drive out to the end of the Spit. It was crowded, windy and the campgrounds were once again more like parking lots. Our friend, Dian Thomas, whom we met in Seward had told us about a campground up by the hospital called “Karen” something. She had told us that space 24 was very isolated and had a great view of the Spit. We had seen the blue hospital signs and we followed them up into the foothills above Homer. With a little bit of searching we found the “Karen Hornaday Campground”. We found space 24 which was once a pull-through and still showed as a pull-through on the campground map, but was now a long back in some distance up a pretty steep driveway. When we got to the space at the top we saw the view Dian had told us about. Thank you, Dian.
Our first full day in Homer we just hunkered down and relaxed. The second day we went to a Wells Fargo bank to get some cash. Laura managed to get plenty of small bills for the iron rangers. While Laura was in the bank DR noticed a fund raising car wash going on in the banks parking lot. The sign said “AK to DC Car wash”. DR noticed another camper van go through the car wash and get a decent car wash. So, when Laura came out of the bank, we drove over and made a $40 donation to their cause and a whole troupe of lively energetic teenagers washed 7,000 miles of road grime off VanGo and did a very good job of getting the bugs off the front.
DR doesn’t watch TV anymore, but one of the last regular shows he did watch was “Alaska: The Last Frontier” which was about the trials and tribulations of a family named the Kilchers living on a homestead. That 600 acre homestead just happened to be on Kachemak Bay just 12 miles up the coast from Homer. The show, of course, made it sound like the homestead was in the middle of nowhere and every act of self sufficiency was dire, when in fact there was a Safeway and hardware store 12 miles down the road. Laura wanted to go look at houses along the coast so we drove the 12 miles out and turned down Kilcher Road. We drove down to the edge of the Kilcher property where the signs started directing us to the parking for the tours of the homestead and so we turned around and went back to our quiet little camp site. On the way out we were pleased to spot a couple of the beautiful looking and sounding sandhill cranes in someones driveway.
Homer was OK, but it was probably our biggest disappointment so far on the trip.
VanGo.blog 
Homer obviously has a great press agent somewhere! Sorry it didn’t live up to the hype.
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It was so fun to see you van in the spot that I told you about. I just got home this week after 2 1/2 month in Alaska. I have dreamed so much about your van and what a great job you did with it. I looked on the internet and saw several of you idea for the van build. Hope to connect with you again.
Dian
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