Walking on the O'Connell Bridge

A new place, with much unkown, makes for anxiety in Patrick's world. However, I found that I wasn't as anxious as I thought I was going to be. I kept telling myself that I wasn't in a hurry, and that I could go by a certain place 50 times if I wanted to. Found where to get gas, where my storage place was, and where the campground was located. Life was good.
Except when I got to the campground. Vault toilets, with no running water or electricity is ok for a day, but not for a month. Using the bathroom and then not being able to wash my hands was not going to work. Not to mention touching the door handles where all of the other folks who couldn't wash their hands had touched (props to Nurse Jennifer for saying, um, disgusting, ecoli (or something to that effect)!!!). So, a quick call to the manager of the other place I was going to stay (about 3/4 of a mile away) got me into her campground for my time in Sitka. A bonus is that I can put my kayak in right from the camp, about 100 feet away. Oh yeah!!

I was intrigued by the O'Connell bridge when looking at pictures of Sitka, so I headed there first while driving about. The 1,255-foot John O'Connell Bridge was the United State's first vehicular cable-stayed girder spanned bridge. It has four 100-foot-high steel pylons from which stretch a set of tight cables, each holding a section of the bridge deck in place. The O'Connell Bridge was built in 1971 and links the town of Sitka on Baranof Island to the airport and Coast Guard Station on Japonski Island.
I parked at one end and walked to the center and took the following pictures:

This eagle was about 20 feet away from me as I walked on the bridge.

This looks like a young bald eagle. It was on the rocks at the side of the bridge. He hasn't got a job, couple of kids to support and a mortgage up the wazoo. So he hasn't gone bald yet.

Coming out from under the bridge.

This building is the Pioneer Home. It used to be an Army barracks (Russian, then US Marines), and now is home for old folks.

Sign down on a boat dock.

The one on the rocks landing.

Liked the way the four boats precede the ferry.

Lots of little (and not so little), islands around Sitka.

I could live in one of these homes! Not too many neighbors.

Next up, my first kayaking jaunt.

Peace.