Perpetual Motion, a year of RV travel: The Russians are coming...

Along the road to Ninilchik you can see a lot of Russian influence. I came across the little town of Kasilof, and decided to stop for lunch. It seemed that everyone in town was in Rocky's but then, Rocky's IS the town. They made a hamburger on lettuce leaves for me, and they thought I was crazy. But it was really delicious! Love the plants on the roof of the entry.

I have no idea what kind of tower this is, or if it ever had a function. First thought was a food store place safe from bears, but a bear could climb up that thing in a flash.

The visitor's center - closed, of course.

As I headed on toward Ninilchik I decided to take a detour to see what the town of Nikolaevsk is all about - another subject of a campground bonfire. So when I reached Anchor Point I took the North Fork Road east for nine miles. There is a Russian cafe that I had heard was an "experience". The town was strangely quiet, with the exception of a few kids dressed in a traditional manner, playing with a basketball in the middle of the street. The boys all wore suspenders and the girls had long flowered dresses. I later learned that you are not allowed to live Nikolaevsk unless you follow the old-fashioned traditions of this sect of the Russian Orthodox church. (Who enforces this rule?) Men are not allowed to trim their beards, and women and girls wear long dresses and head scarves.

The church in the center of the town, and a new one is under construction in an adjacent field.

Alas, the cafe was closed so after I took Koka for a walk I headed out of town. Suddenly the truck in front of me was flagged down by a woman in the traditional dress, and after talking to them she came to my window and explained that she is Nina, the owner of the cafe, and we were to turn around and she would feed us lunch. She was quite insistent so I followed the truck in front of me, and we turned around and went back to the cafe. Nina insisted I have cabbage soup, with no flour in it! Nyet flour! She began to scare me with her insistence. I sat down with the couple in the truck, Maryann and Brian, and we ate as we were told. You don't mess with Nina.

Maryann and Brian from Arizona. They were told to eat the dessert - no arguing with Nina! Nina was a bit upset that I would not eat the dessert, but it was full of wheat, so I said nyet nyet.