- Phillip

Taxi
by Phillip May

When you yell taxi, where do you expect to be? New York, or maybe Chicago. Would you expect to be in Homer, Alaska? I don’t think so, but on the Homer spit, you sort of have to yell taxi when you want to get across the ocean. The kind of taxi you are calling for is a water taxi. Todd Roepke runs one of these services called Water Taxi on the Homer spit. Todd is a man with a beard and a short haircut. He looked a little intimidating with a bear in his hand and his teeth a little crooked, although he is really a nice guy. He books the charters for his company even though he’s never been on any of the charters. “Here we do charters across the bay, and we also do bear viewing tours. I’ve never been out on any of the charters, but I have heard great things about them, especially the bear viewing,” Todd said,
Todd was born in New York and came to Alaska with his friends. “I was born in New York and some of my friends came up and l followed them up the second time, that was twenty-two years ago. I really loved it a lot,” he said. Todd does not live in Alaska in the winter but he still enjoys the scenery. “Alaska is just different than the lower forty-eight, I like the longer summers and just having sun all day. I camped up in the mountains across the bay once and it was just beautiful,” Todd said. He likes to watch the wildlife in the terrain. “I see a lot of the usual stud, moose, bears, all that,” Todd said.
His family lives in New York and he lives there during the winter and works another job. Todd’s wife was born in Alaska and sometimes comes up with him to enjoy the beauty of her old home, When Todd gets occasional time off he goes out in the bay with his friends and fishes for salmon, When Todd is in Alaska he lives in a camper on his property in Homer.
Todd has been in Alaska for over twenty-two years, and he still does not get tired of the beauty that the state has to offer. He loves to see the wildlife and animals that he can see. Not only from where he camps in the mountains, but also from where he works he has a great view of the beach and all the wildlife that lives on it. Todd wishes to someday go out on one of his charters and not just be stuck behind a desk. There is a lot of wildlife out in the open water to see, and you have not seen all of Alaska’s beauty until you get out on the open water and see her true beauty.