Stewart, Hyder, and Insomnia

It turns out that they filmed part of the movie Insomnia in the area where I've been stranded. Here's a link for Stewart, BC, and Hyder, Alaska.

Now, Insomnia may not mean too much to you, but it's actually the movie that brought me to Alaska.

A few years ago -- 2003 I think -- my wife and I were planning a trip to Colorado in late July or August to get away from the insane heat of Louisville, KY. But right at that time some wildfires started popping up in Colorado, and if I remember right they were going to be too close to our vacation for comfort.

Just by chance, or maybe fate, we rented Insomnia. If you haven't seen it, right away it begins with a scene of a place flying over a huge, blue glacier field, and at that moment I think we knew where we were going. The rest of the movie just enforced that idea.

Getting back to Stewart and Hyder, if you go to maps.google.com and type in Hyder, AK, you'll see that I've accidentally stumbled into the Canadian side of the Misty Fiords National Monument in southeast Alaska. Wow, a man doesn't get much luckier than that.

The hotel and liquor store actually has nice, clean rooms, so that makes me feel even more comfortable being here. Nothing fancy, but it's very clean. And there are a couple of small restauarants that look like fun too. I'm going to see if I can get the room for an extra night so I can explore everything around here.