On the road again…
Our Fairbanks stop, the farthest we were to go north, is behind us. This morning, Ed replaced his “Alaska or Bust!” sign with an “Arkansas or Bust!” sign at our hotel. Jessie, Ed says to tell you “Thank you!” As we indicated on an earlier date, that sign was like a magnet for folks. It was the impetus of countless conversations with locals, other bikers, and travelers in cars and RVs. It will be interesting to see how many folks will come over and start talking to us based on the new sign. Ray Hander, who is one of the nicest guys you'll ever want to meet and who had provided us with a package of homemade smoked salmon jerky yesterday, came by the hotel this morning to send us off (and to make sure Ed didn't try to put a "w" on the end of Arkansas).
Our first planned stop today was to be in the Mt. McKinley area, which is in the Denali National Park. We got a little behind en route to Denali National Park due to a longer than normal/planned break about halfway there. We stopped at a convenience store after traveling about 65 miles. There was a couple from Denmark there who had flown in to Anchorage and rented a car and were making a loop around the state. They also were on their way to Mt. McKinley, and we thought we might see them again, but didn’t. The store’s owner then came out and visited with us for quite awhile.
As we got closer to the park, we could see that it was getting cloudier and thus unlikely we would be able to see much, if any, of Mt. McKinley. When we got near the entrance of the park, the cloud and fog cover was very thick, leaving us with no hope of being able to see much of the highest mountain in the United States. We grabbed a tank of gas and lunch, and then hit the road again, without entering the park.
When stopped for gas at a place about 60 miles north of Anchorage, we saw a young woman who was loaded for bear – literally. We asked her why she had a .44 handgun strapped to her waist; she replied that she was going camping and that she wanted to be prepared if visited by a black bear. She indicated the number of black bears in the area was very high, they were unafraid of humans, and with a hunting license, she could kill up to three bears. Apparently, she was planning to shoot, then ask the bear questions later. The woman’s pierced tongue added to her oddness, though since she was the only one around “packing heat” no one said anything negative to her.
Our next stop was Wasilla, Alaska. Ed especially, and Mark too, felt they had to stop for pictures in the hometown of a young woman who has meant so much to them – a woman that has helped shape and shares so many of their political views.
We made it to Anchorage a little after five o’clock – early enough for us to make it to a BMW shop where Tom could buy another helmet. We’ll just leave it at Tom has had better days. We checked in at our hotel, which turned out to be only a few blocks from the bike shop, and headed to Popeye’s for dinner. As another indication of how different our party is, Ed and Tom apparently had never eaten at a Popeye’s. Conversely, Mark and Carey (especially Carey) have eaten there seventeen thousand times. Love that chicken…
We logged about 370 miles today, pushing our 12-day total over 5,000 miles. We’ll meet for breakfast in the morning and decide where we’re headed tomorrow.