Talkeetna, Alaska

July 2,  Got up and back into town by 10 am.  We walked around, bought 2 sticky buns and a loaf of bread, at Talkeetna Roadhouse, walked through most of the stores.  Bought some lunch at the Airstream, Spinach Cafe, burrito and spinach bread, all very good.  We had arrived at Mahay’s Jetboat Adventure, for the noon ride, it was ok nothing great, had used, buy one ticket get one free.  Back to trailer by 2:30, sat around for the evening.

Talkeetna, Alaska

July 1,  Pulled out of campground around 10 am, after it rained during the night, water everywhere.  We had driven about 150 miles, stopping at pullouts to be able to see a different view of Denali, and stopped at the Alaska Veteran Memorial, very well done, enjoyed it very much.  Pulled into Talkeetna, staying at the ADF&G concessionaire-operated public boat launch, not too far from downtown.  Drove out to see the Kahiltna Birchworks, where they tap birch trees in April for the sap and make birch syrup.  Birch syrup in Alaska is concentrated from the sap of the birch tree, same way maple syrup is produced, but more difficult.  It takes an average of 110 gallons of birch sap to make 1 gallon of birch syrup.  Birch syrup is versatile, and comes in three runs.  It can be used as a pancake topping or an ingredient, as a sweetener for baking or savory dishes, or a dietary supplement.  We had tried some of their birch ice cream, very good.  We had driven into town, which is very small, with old houses which are used as commercial businesses.  We had sat dinner at a roadside business, Shirley’s burgers, not cheap, $13 for a burger and $12 for fish and chips, not worth the money.  Came back to trailer for the night, sat outside for a while before retiring for the night.

Healy, Alaska

June 29,  Decided to take a ride down to the next town which was 27 miles away, town named Cantwell, there was nothing in the town, so we turned around and drove back, stopping in the town of Denali for lunch at the Salmon Back, I was hungry for fish, but way too expensive, so I got a burger and Ken got pulled pork, huge servings, but all very good.  Retuned back to camp and just sat around and talked and then I was trying to figure out where to stop next, we are here until Monday.

June 30,  Got up and said good-by to our new friends from Wisconsin, they are moving south, we’ll probably see them again somewhere along our travels.  We really didn’t do anything put sit around today, I did study where we are going tomorrow.  Did go fuel the truck late this afternoon before it started raining.  It’s been raining off and on since, into the night.

Denali, Alaska

June 28,  We decided to get up early and be at the bus depot before 7am.  We got our tickets for the 7:15 bus for the Wonder Lake which is an 11 hour bus ride.  We had a great day, seeing quite a few animals and our bus driver was very talkative telling us about the park and finding animals.  We had stopped a few times for breaks, and to have our packed lunches.  We did get to see Denali before the clouds started to roll in, such beautiful scenery.  We had returned back to the bus depot about 6:30.

Nenana, Alaska

June 27,  I forgot to add this before, we stopped in this town before arriving at our next stop in Healy, about 10 miles north of Denali.  We had stopped in the town of Nenana, at the visitors center, the woman explained about the town and where to go to see things.  This town is known for the Nenana Ice Classic, an annual event that awards cash prizes to the lucky winners who guess the exact minute of the ice breakup on the Tanana River.  The contest has been a spring highlight since 1917.  We drove to the cultural center and took a ride on a dog sled with wheels around some buildings, real fun, the guy that owns the dogs is the guy on Life below zero, if any body watches this show, we do.

Fairbanks, Alaska

June 26,  I called yesterday after Ken got back from the garage for tickets to Dredge #8, we got on the 9:30 tour, we left about 8:30 to make sure we got there on time.  Some guy comes walking up to us and says he saw the license plate from Pa, he also is from Pa, from Mount Joy too, his wife is related to Ken, it was Bonnie Denlinger and her husband, they flew up to visit some friends and has a funeral to attend, they will be up here for 2 weeks, who you run into far away from home is amazing.  We then heard about the pipeline running through Alaska, and then boarded a train for a short ride to the dredge.  When we arrived a women spoke about the dredge, how it ran and how much gold it had dug through it’s lifetime.  When we got off the train, we where handed a bag to pan for gold, then we got it weighted and the girl told us it’s about $24 worth, our two bags together.  When we arrived back, we decided to go downtown to the info center, walked around their displays and then back to trailer.  WalMart parking lot is filling up again with trailers.  Another Airstream came in and parked next to us, a couple from Colorado, early 40’s, quite their jobs and are thinking about moving up here, very nice couple, sat and talked for a few hours and watching the smoke from the forest fires, one to the east and one to the west of us.

June 27, We pulled out of WalMart, went to a Sourdough gas station to dump and headed south on Route 3 toward Anchorage.  I had called ahead and made reservations for a campsite in the town of Healy, just north of Anchorage about 10 miles.  We had driven about 125 miles before coming to the campground, when we pulled in and setup, we found the couple that we meant in Chicken parked next to us.  We had driven into Denali to find out information about the buses and the times they run.  That evening we sat and talked until midnight.

Fairbanks, Alaska

June 25, Ken took the truck to the Ford dealer and got the oil changed and tires rotated.  We then decided to drive north to see the pipeline, visited the Gold Daughters shop, where you can go out and pan for gold, we decided not to pan.  Next we drove about an hour to the Chena Hot Springs, not impressed, put we did eat lunch in the dining room, very good food.  We just sat around the rest of the night, about 10 pm a couple from Tok came walking by and stopped to talk, very interesting people, he talked about hunting in the winter, what he would catch and she loved to skin the animals. They finally left around 11pm, they where camping here at WalMart also, they came to get supplies and some furniture, they told us to stop in to see them when we go by Tok again, which you must to leave Alaska.