TUESDAY IN TALKEETNA

Hi everyone. We are here in beautiful downtown TALKEETNA; the jumping off place for hikers and mountain climbers who are headed for Mt. McKinley (otherwise known as Dinali). And believe it or not, there are 19 people who have finished climbing Dinali already, and 176 rugged folks are on the mountain as I write this blog; 1200 are registered to climb this year.

It is fun here in Talkeetna, stopping in the little shops before the season begins, no crowds, and the whole town is an internet hot spot (unlike where we are camped right now). So, here begins the pictures that have been stored up over the last few days. We are sitting here in the little restaurant built in 1921, haveing a caribou burger and moose chili and caribou nachos. (Sarah Palin would be proud of us with the moose chili)

This is just a little building that we saw somewhere on the Alaskan Hwy. For my "view from the road" segment, it amused me to see the power mower on a sod roof. Good of sense of humor.

Later I will relate about our air boat ride. (of course this is out of order) This is a view from the Deshka river where we were on the boat. No wild flowers up here yet.

These fishermen are fishing on the Susitna River. The thing about this view, is that it is from the river where we will be camp hosts. Right up that path is the campground. So, this is the view you may not see often.

Our toaster in the camper....but, the unusual thing here is that it is not smoke that is fogging the picture. My camera lense was fogging up because of the cold! Chris was of course, making his breakfast specialty: egg McMuffins.

This was the snow storm we were driving through between Delta Junction to Glenn Allen. Delta Junction was where we turned off of the Alaska Hwy.

When we camped at a pull-off on the Glenallen Road, this was the view that welcomed us in the morning: the Matanuska Mountain Range. Not a bad view, right?

Moose crossing the road. NOT in a hurry. He has nothing to fear.

Just another view of the mountains....just....Could never get bored of this breath-taking view. God loved us so much that He gave us this beauty to enjoy. Thank You.

This view is from the Parks Hwy returning from Anchorage yesterday. Bummer, I was just returning from seeing a dentist. YUK! But I was very fortunate to get in to see one. (Lost a filling)

Isn't this a beautiful boquet of flowers? Anni gave me an envelope to open on Mother's Day...from little Charolette. And this was a nice little boquet from CJ that can be folded up and put away....and pulled out to decorate any time! I received these beautiful texts wishing Happy Mother's day from the kids. Loved every one; so very special when we are at a distance. Thank you all again. Love ya bunches.

Upon entering Alaska, we were able to camp at Deadman's Lake. Our very favorite campground. We stayed there going to AK and returning from AK last time. Now we're keeping up our record. See....the ice is not off yet.

Ooops. The picture from the Dashka River....it belongs here. This is where we took the airboat ride.

This is the airboat; Karen and John. Chris has known Karen for about 43 years and I have for about 41 years. Her, now deceased, husband, Kurt was an electrician and bow hunter par excellance, was our best man. We even moved out to Colorado and lived next to them for a couple of years. They came up here to Alaska during the time that the Alaskan Pipeline was being built....and never left.

This is John, piloting his airboat. Looks like he's flying a plane, right? As a matter of fact, he has been a pilot for most of his life (as are many people in AK because that is the way to get around). This air boat is driven with a stick like a plane, so he is right at home. And it goes about that fast, too. Almost tipped me over when he took off. It sails in about 6 inches of water and can go over snow, gravel, most anything.

Hanging on!

Chris & Karen, waiting for John to walk back down the hill from parking the truck and the boat trailer.

Exciteable dog....With the huge nose (!) she about jumped out of her skin when the boat took off....but then quickly chilled out.

The co-pilot. Went 60 miles on the Daeshka River; went actually went up about 150 feet or so up the river. Ever think of that? Rivers have to flow down hill to flow at all! Chris got the information from his new Garman. So, sailing up river means that you are actually going UP HILL.

Loading the boat.

Here we are plugged in at the Alaska Parks Dept. maintenance garage. From here we drove to Talkeetna today. We will be returning to this awesome little place.
Hope we can get the wifi ironed out at the maintenance garage. Having a little problem there, and that is my big place to connect for most of the summer. So will be working on it.
Until we connect again.....