Day 75-76 
   
   7/11/01-7/12/01
   Mile 5228
   Seward, AK
   
   I continue to be impressed with the bike trails in Alaska, sometimes
   in obscure places.  I rode one many miles today that was entirely in a
   remote location, a long way between towns.  In actuality it was part
   of the old roadbed of the Seward Highway, converted to bike trail after
   the main road was straightened and redone.
   
   In the rain, I wheeled into Seward, which a travel brochure had touted
   as "one of the most beautiful cities anywhere", but I couldn't get
   quite so worked up about it.  It was nice, to be sure, and would have
   probably been a lot nicer had it not been for the continuous rain the
   entire time I was there.
   
   I've taken to getting bits of extra food and handing it out at
   whatever hostel I happen to stay in.  Today at a grocery store I saw a half
   gallon of ice cream on sale at a cheaper price than a single cone at a
   stand, so I got it.  At the hostel I asked if anybody wanted some;
   this is ostensibly the dumbest question I have asked on my entire trip.
   Seven backpackers can reduce a carton of ice cream to scraps in mere
   seconds.
   
   The Alaska Sealife Center in Seward is a worthwhile place to visit.
   Watch sea lions play; touch live anemones, starfish, and other
   sealife with your bare hands; see seabirds dive and swim in the glass tanks
   two stories tall.  It would seem that the Common Murre is a master of
   three dimensions - in addition to flying anywhere it wants as a bird, it can
   dive to a mind-boggling 600 feet, far beyond human capability.  How it
   developed the ability to go to such extreme depths and still be a
   competent flyer is a genetic mystery. Some species have all the luck.
   
   Question of the day
   -------------------
   Q. OK, so you have a bizarre fix for loneliness, but do you ever get
   bored on your travels?
   
   A. Yes, and in fact I am bored at this very moment while waiting for
   the ferry.  Mostly I am bored with having ordinary, double-helix
   shaped DNA; it's been done to death, ever since the paramecium.  It would be
   much more trendy to have DNA based on, say, a quadruple oblate
   metatoroidal coplanar octahedral transverse decapole with Mobius-strip
   crosslinks (to the untrained eye this looks more like a pile).  I have 
   several methods lined out to accomplish this; if they all fail, my last
   resort is to jump into a Cuisinart and hope for the best.

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