The next day I rode a bike several miles South looking for an Orthodox church, to no avail. I ended up at a church called Chapel by the Sea. It was pretty good, a missionary from Tibet spoke about the Christian coffee shops he and his wife are opening there and then a speaker talked about Scientology. I met a guy there from Oregon and he told me that when I went I need to go to Hillsboro, Stumptown Coffee, and Voodoo donuts. Another guy I met from Kodiak took me to the library afterwards.
My goal at the library was to print up some designs for a tattoo I had in mind and find a tattoo shop nearby. I had the idea of getting a bear paw tattoo for a while, but I wanted it to have a unique flair to it because it is sort of a generic tattoo. I found the flair I wanted from a hat Jake (the guy I camped with at Big Lake) was wearing. He had a hat with a wolf paw on it with an Alaska Native flair. So I printed up that design and a generic bear paw design and took them to Primal Instincts Tattoo parlor. While I waited for my appointment, I bought a homeless Inuit man some food and talked with him. He told me that his father had killed his mother while he was a child, that he was also a former Hell’s Angel member, and had only a few more months to live due to a chronic heart issue. I don’t think these were just ramblings of a crazy hobo because he got pretty emotional. He was also a Christian and so I tried to encourage him and comfort him. After my meal, I went back to Primal Instincts and my artist, Wild Will, drew up a design for me. I really liked it so I sat down with the apprehension of making a fairly permanent decision. Will was a cool guy from Norcal and we talked quite a bit about philosophy, spirituality, and other interesting topics — thankfully it wasn’t the usual tiresome small talk that happens at barber shops and such.
Now, a quick word about the tattoo. To me, this symbolizes 1) wildness/adventure 2) courage/warrior spirit. I didn’t get this because I think I’m a bad ass that embodies these qualities perfectly, as much as I am someone who wants to a life with these qualities, and this is a reminder — it’s also a reminder of my Alaskan adventure and I think it’s cool that I got it at a place called Primal Instincts by a guy named Wild Will. Bears are wild and strong, and I have similar feelings about bears and adventures. I want to see them, but I don’t. I like them, but they scare me.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. The day after I wanted to go to the Alaska Native Heritage Center, but couldn’t find it. So I wandered around the city buying books and talking to homeless people and other strangers instead. I gave this one guy a few bucks outside of a gas station and started talking with him. He was a fairly educated guy who also used to be a contractor, but is an alcoholic living on the streets with his wife, who is an Alaska Native. He told me that his wife, who was on crack 20+ years was now clean and that they had mostly kicked hard liquor, but they were still maintenance drinkers on beer. He took me over to meet his wife and she was the prettiest homeless lady I’ve ever met– she was very nice too. She kept asking me if I was on Valium or something, “why are you so peaceful?” I told her about Jesus as my spiritual high and medicine, and we did get to talk about God a bit. She kept coming back to thinking I was on Valium though. When I had talked about my past use of ecstasy she said, “Oh that’s what wrong with you.” I had to laugh at the irony of a woman who had been on crack for 20+ years saying that I had permafried my brain by using ecstasy once– it didn’t offend me or anything though. The guy went and puked because he said that he got sick when he didn’t drink –substances create a substance dependent homeostasis. They kept apologizing and I said, ” Don’t worry about me, I’m worried about you.” He cracked a Steel Reserve to settle his stomach. They told me of the hardships of homeless life — no place to stay, the cold, babysitting more dysfunctional drunks, relapsing due to being enmeshed in a homeless culture that has lots of alcohol in it. The woman almost cried as she spoke of how she was afraid of the coming winter. I really fell in love with these beautiful, jacked up people so I went back to my hostel, loaded up my pack with rain gear, sleeping bag, and some other miscellaneous stuff and gave it to them — I have both patted myself on the back and kicked myself in the butt for this.
I went back to the hostel and packed my few remaining items into my 20L dry bag to prepare for my flight to Portland in the morning. These were my last moments in Alaska — back where I started at Spenard Hostel in Anchorage. I was ready to leave though, as much as I enjoyed it.
Pilgrim's Map 