MyJourney: Talkeetna

After leaving Denali National Park, I drove down the Parks Highway to Talkeetna, where I had a flight around the mountain scheduled for Monday.

Talkeetna was a surprise. It is a small tourist town; no bank, gas station or grocery store; it is just shops and tents selling handmade goods and food ...

Shirley's Gourmet Handmade Ice Cream - Raspberry Truffle

I was warned that advance reservations needed to be made everywhere during the summer, so I made reservations at a campground near the airport to wait for my flight. The site they assigned me was too short and nothing else was available, so I found a large gravel lot next to the train depot and air field and spent the night there. Unfortunately, Monday dawned cloudy and my flight was cancelled; as was the 10am flight and the 2pm flight. Hopefully, I can get a seat on a good day while I'm here.

I went to breakfast at the Talkeetna Roadhouse, famous for their breakfasts. You sit at long tables, family style. Regardless of how you order your eggs, they only serve scrambled. What they are mostly famous for is their sourdough pancakes. They are the size of the plate; I ordered the daily special, black and blue (blackberries and blueberries). The syrup here is from birch trees instead of maple, so the taste is distinctive. The pancake was good; a little pricey ($19 for the one), but it was the experience ....

I moved the coach down to Willow, about 30 miles, to a campground with full hookups. The next several weeks has me camping without hookups, so I took this opportunity to get some washing done and fill/empty my tanks. I'm still close enough to drive back to Talkeetna if a flight becomes available.

And since it is mid-afternoon, it is raining. Remind anyone of Hawaii? Only this is one cold rain!

One out of every 2 RVs you see (and possibly even higher) are rentals. They are all Class C, but vary in length from 26ft to as long as my coach I think. Now picture .... almost none of these drivers has any experience in living in an RV. They don't know how to dump their tanks, fill their tanks, drive down an incline, or why they just blew that fuse or what to do about it. Amazing.

You hear and read horror stories about driving on the Alaskan roads. Except for the gravel roads I have taken by choice, the paved roads are no worse than some in the lower 48, especially Texas. If you pay attention and don't drive fast, they are no problem.... except for the mud.

I was joking with some locals about how long it would take to get use to the dirt, silt, mud, etc. When the snow and ice melt you have this deep sinking heavy mud. As it dries, it becomes like cement and you can’t get it off anything (including wheel wells ha). Then it is silt and covers every surface and is impossible to wipe off; and then it rains and becomes mud again. Currently my coach and Jeep are so filthy inside and out, it will take a long time to detail them when I get back to the lower 48. Even the inside of the closets and cupboards are covered with the dirt and everything will have to be washed and the cupboards wiped out. Unlike the “dust bowls” I’ve been in in the desert, this dirt has clay(?) in it so you can’t just wipe it off and when you add water, it smears everywhere. I won’t even mention the condition of my bays. Disgusting. This is the first time my bays have been full of dirt. But the trip has been worth it all!

I wish I could get a good picture of the front of my coach. I did my best trying to reduce the insect population while drive down the Parks Highway. I tried scrubbing some of them off the windshield at the gas station, but I wasn't having much success. Hopefully while I'm here I'll have an opportunity to scrub the front of my coach again and get some of the little buggers off.