Bicycles in Skagway

This wasn’t California in June.

It was a sunny day in Skagway, Alaska, and the locals said a sunny day doesn’t come easy here.  In fact, sunny days in Alaska are not common at all.  And to make us tourists feel good, they tell us it is the second day of the year they’ve witnessed sunshine.  As my husband and I did our own self-walking tour of the historic Gold Rush, all I could see were bicycles.  After we snapped street scenes and historic landmarks, I found myself taking photographs of nothing but bicycles.

Why was I doing this?

I have a bicycle at home.  It was inherited from my husband’s grandfather, and it’s in very good condition.  Actually, the bicycle is in great condition.  Its original black paint is still intact.  And with this bicycle, you use the pedals as the brakes.

Now, I’ve seen some expensive bicycles with all the bells and whistles, but a bicycle is a bicycle.  As a child, I kept in decent shape whenever I rode my bicycle through the pear orchard during my summer vacations.

After the pear harvest, the orchard always had rotten pears.  As a creative way to kill myself without really trying, I lined up rotten pears in rows.  Then I got on my bicycle and picked up speed.  As my back tire touched the first row of rotten pears, I slammed on the brakes and skidded as far as the rotten pears could take me.  If I did this stunt correctly, I’d be facing in the opposite direction by the time I was finished.

This happened for several years.  I take credit for this stunt long before Evel Knievel jumped the Snake River Canyon in 1974. 

“You tourists?” asked a young man dressed as a waiter.

“Uh, yeeaaah.”  Let me tell you.  I call myself a tourist, but I don’t like admitting it to a local.

“This is nothing,” he said as he waved his hand towards Downtown Skagway.  “You should take a bicycle ride out of here.  It only takes half an hour by bicycle to see the real Alaska.  In the next town.”

My husband and I waved a thank you as he took off his work apron and continued down the street.

“You’ve gotta be kidding,” said my husband, when he was sure the man could not hear us.

This is why we took cruises.  Could it be because we were lazy slobs?  We only unpacked and packed once, and all the excursions we chose outside the cruise ship were advertised, “EASY”.  We didn’t hike or paddle canoes.  Instead, we waddled into the nearest restaurant.

I take after my father.  I love to travel, but the experience didn’t mean I had to exert extra energy. 

“Why go camping,” he asked, “when you could camping in a hotel?” 

    

So what was the real reason why I took so many photographs of the bicycles in Skagway?

As a lifelong Californian, I had a hard time getting used to the people in Skagway having so much trust.  If you look closely, what are most of these bicycles missing?

Locks.  One or two locks chaining each bicycle to a stationary object would have made me feel right at home.