Day 38- To Anchorage

The decision was made to leave Denali a day early and so after breakfast, we packed up and headed off. We had one last look at the Porcupine caribou before we left the park. There were two bedded down in a dry river bed about the same place we saw them the night before. The way south was through some gorgeous scenery, snowy mountains and winding rivers on both sides of the highway. We stopped at several turn outs to get a few more photos of the beautiful Alaskan Mountain range but as we traveled, we couldn’t help but notice our bright sunshine filled day with billowy white clouds was evaporating. Instead, there were thick and ominous looking gray stuff building in the south right where we were headed. In one of the pullouts, I noticed some more fireweed. Now, in the park, the fireweed was about 2 feet tall, a product of the sub alpine environment it is subjected to. The fireweed at this stop was over five feet tall. It was amazingly thick and beautiful. I also noticed all of the Spruce trees in the area were loaded with cones. A ranger in the park mentioned the cones will start dropping in another week or two. Meanwhile, I’m reminded of an old wives’ tale about how high the wasps build their nests or the amount of cones a tree puts out has some bearing on the severity of the upcoming winter. And even though this part of the country is strikingly beautiful during the winter, I’m not cut out for -80 degree weather. I was amazed to find out they only get on average about 70 inches of snow a year. It’s the high winds that make it seem like more because it’s constantly relocating the snow drifts. Our trip towards Anchorage has taken us to Wasilla, home of Sarah Palin and her family. It’s also the home of the Iditarod Official Race Headquarters. They maintain a gift shop, museum and offer sled dog rides on a wheeled vehicle. So we stopped. The modern Iditarod was formed by Joe Richardson Sr. to pay homage to the Serum run of 1925 that saved the children of Nome from Diphtheria. The race pits man and dog against 1,048 miles of Alaskan Wilderness and begins the first Saturday in March. There is a ceremonial start in Anchorage with a restart in Willow the next day. When we pulled into the parking area, I immediately notice the team of 8 dogs all harnessed up to this rubber tired buggy. It looked sort of weird but it carried about 7-8 people. I haven’t a clue how much they were charging for the five minute ride. What I did find out is the guy with the concession is Joe Richardson Jr. The woman with him is a native born Alaskan and she told us there were puppies in the pen over near the log cabin. I’m a sucker for pups and these future Iditarod runners were only 5 weeks old. Man, were they cute. I climbed into the pen with them, thinking they would just go play together and I could get some nice puppy photos. That’s a joke. I got into the pen and all five of them ganged up on me, chewing on my shoes and pant legs. And did I mention they each have a mouthful of super sharp teeth? After wandering around the museum for about a half hour, I grabbed an official race newspaper with the 2011 results for our granddaughter whose favorite driver is Jessie Royer who cam in a very respectable 9th place. Back on the road, it began to ran again. The Chugach Mountain Range is in the distance when we arrive at the Anchorage Wal-Mart. I grabbed my list and the cloth bags ( I’m a big believer in reuse, repurpose or recycle ) and headed into the store to “pay our camper fee” for the night. Unfortunately, when we got back to the camper, we saw the sign that said “No Overnight RV Parking” in very bold print and they even had a security guard roaming the parking pot constantly. Carl had checked the website that lists all the off limit stores to campers and this one was not listed. It’s late, we’re hungry and tired and now we don’t have a place to stay for the night. The plan was refigured to head to a motel for the night, grab a hot bath and sleep in a real bed. The first place we checked had plenty of rooms and they still had plenty when we left because there was NO WAY we were paying $189.00 per night for a bath. I opened the handy Mileposts magazine and found a motel/ RV park in town called Creekwood Inn. We gladly paid the $100.00 for the night and had planned to stay with them the next night in the RV Park. We each grabbed a bag full of clean clothes, supper for the night and toiletry items and headed for the room. Carl had his TV and I had my Wireless. We were all set. And to make it even better, The Red Sox are playing the Seattle Mariners and one of the Anchorage stations is covering the game. The bath felt really good even though I’m a shower kind of gal. The pictures I took today show a progression of beautiful blue skies that change to deep brooding dark gray.