Alarm set for 8am - we are all set to be out of the house by 9am so we can see the sun rise over Mt McKinley...........Like all good plans in the making they need to be flexible. So we were out of the house by 10am. It took about 20 mins to defrost the car windscreens to allow visibility. Plugged in the GPS, Elona behind the steering wheel, me in the navigators seat (armed with the camera and the mantra "stay to the right"). We took off hesitantly following the GPS directions (in miles - makes judging turning distances difficult if you don't have a clue what 0.3 of a mile is equivalent to in metres), we took the first left hand turn out of our street successfully - yah. Looking at the GPS advising that we had another left turn coming up in 0.3 of a mile onto Seward Highway. Looking up at the road ahead, in my due diligence as navigator advise Elona not to turn as the street name was Gamble.......Then we hear the sort of pleasant voice of the Miss GPS informing us that she now needed to recalculate the trip. This was were the pact was made - TRUST MISS GPS at all times (in Anchorage at least). It was something we would become familiar with over the next couples of days, many streets in Anchorage had two names and sometimes if you are lucky both names are written on the street sign.
Elona Typing
All fun - still dark and names of streets a problem - but my main issue was trying to get away from my door...let me explain: I'm driving on the left hand side of the car on the right hand side of the road therefore by rights I should maintain the car a little distance from the left hand line on the side of the road ...are you picturing this... I know difficult but I kept scaring Megs by forgetting she and the rest of the car were on my right and I'd hear the occasional timid "Getting a little close here" obviously not wanting to offend - she could have screamed in fright I probably would have for the amount of times I think I did to her!!! Eventual my brain kicked in and a pleasant 2 and half hours drive with gorgeous scenery - I did finally see wild moose (3 in fact) just off the side of the road which did get a scream of excitement from me and much disappointment from Megs who missed it and we were unable to stop where we were - Megs did the good photographer thing from this point on and took many nice scenery shots - actually the best thing is it gave Megs an opportunity to work out my camera: this was a gift from my Ma before I left and I didn't really have that much time but Megs my techno savvy chum has worked out some really nifty things - yeah!
On to Talkeetna - we passed what we found out later by a local artist, the "Oh My God!" viewing area - which is Oh My God beautiful and gives the best views of Mt McKinley and the two other minor mountains whose names have left me for the moment but just outstanding. Talkeetna was cold...very cold. We did a walk through town - quite a small town with it's main tourist attraction being the Susitna river access and walking trails. Many of the little stores were closed due to it still really being the Alaskan holiday quiet period but there were a few little nik nak shops and of course we stopped into a lovely place for lunch - I might add this was after we made a quick exit from a little bit dubious Fairview Inn that had some nice decor (bear attached to the ceiling!! -serious and all the other stuffed things) but what sent us out was a couple of the men in there who looked at us like we were intruding in their space - so with this and the menu being microwavable cooking we looked elsewhere. And as I said we found a lovely place where we both are keeping with the 'Give it a try' code and I had Chilli Reindeer and Black Bean Mix and Megs had Reindeer sausage gravy with biscuits. Reindeer is great - sorry Mandel!! I don't know what's with me I don't mind the whole hunting, stuffing, mounting, wearing or eating thing in Alaska - it just seems to make sense :) I very much enjoyed lunch but as we have been finding the whole trip so far; the food portions are very generous and it is difficult to get through sometimes no matter how much you are enjoying it.
Another walk around when Meg's began to have some major cold pain in her feet which put us into the closest and probably best nik nak store in Talkeetna: We spent about 45 minutes in this store - some wonderful Inuit items and some great modern stuff as well - again a place you could spend hundreds but we needed to be careful - I just keep reminding myself I'm coming back for Iditarod 2012 - save and buy up big then. Meg's decided that it was definitely time for a new pair of boots - hers - though good and got her through wintertime in Italy have not been sufficient enough to cope with the consistent colder temperatures here. My boots I purchased pre trip through the internet - they are Baffin Polar Boots - seriously...I have a cold fingers and toes issue so I went for the negative 40 boots - they work a charm but even my toes were a little cold but Meg's was in pain.
Due to the whole thawing out thing with Meg's toes - this is also not exactly pain free - I drove back to the unit. A nice drive with constant reminders of our back country trip as we travel the same main road.
Home - tired but proud that we made it home - no close calls in the car and we were safe n sound. Dinner time and some major washing as we knew we wouldn't have time the next day as we were off to Girdwood for the day and then flying out the following morning.
Check out the pics for Talkeetna in the pages to your right.
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