I slept pretty good last night in the twin bed. At times I was hot and sweating and at other times I was cold and bundling up under the covers. I got up and took some more Tylenol at about 1:30 AM, and that helped. I was also drinking a lot of water to stay hydrated, so that makes for extra trips to the bathroom at night.
I got up about 8:00 AM, I had heard Bryan downstairs making coffee in the machine, and I was ready to get up. I feel about the same as yesterday, no sore throat, and just minimal congestion, with a s dry cough every so often. Ashley was up about 8:45 AM, and both her and Bryan still have coughs every so often also.
The weather was the sunniest it has been since we arrived here in Seward, at least for the morning time. The wind was calm, and it was nice to see the sunshine. It is ironic that the last sunny morning we had was the travel day from Seldovia to Seward, we are timing it just right and using sunny days for travel days, and then seeing a lot of rain after we arrive!!
Stephanie was still sleeping in as I was starting this blog post for today. I am not looking forward to getting all of our luggage downstairs after we get it packed. The bags should be a lot lighter since we have consumed a lot of the food and beverages we still had in them when we arrived here. The steps are just really short in depth, and are hard to go down with luggage, no matter their weight.
Our plan is to leave at about 11:00 AM, the check-out time. The drive will be about 4.5 hours to Talkeetna.
We were all loaded up and ready to leave at about 10:45 AM. We then made an unexpected stop, at least unexpected for Stephanie and me, at the Seward Post Office. Ashley had a bunch if stuff she wanted to ship home, so she took it inside to get a flat rate box and pack it for shipment. She came back to the car to get one other item, a piece of drift wood that she thought would fit in the larger than needed box that the Post Office had available. They were out of the next size smaller box that she really wanted. About 20 minutes later she came out, drift wood still in hand, it would not even fit in the larger box. Apparently this is normal for Ashley and Bryan while travelling, they accumulate stuff and periodically ship it home.
A short distance outside of Anchorage we stopped for some lunch at a small strip store area, it was already 12:45 PM and we were hungry, and did not want to take more time trying to get closer to Anchorage to stop and eat. We went to a pizza shop and bought some pizza slices, which seemed like a good idea at the time. Ashley had something from the Subway, she can’t eat cheese and she did not want to wait for something to be made fresh without cheese at the pizza place. The rest of us just purchased slices of pizza that were already made.
After lunch and pit stops we were once again on the road to Talkeetna. As we approached Anchorage on the Seward Highway, it was low tide in the body of water along the highway called Turnagain Arm, a narrow branch off of Cook Inlet. There is a phenomenon called the Bore Tide that is sometimes visible when the tide is changing. From one of the Alaska informational websites, the bore tide is described as follows:
Tidal bores are a natural phenomenon that occur when an incoming extra high tide meets an extreme minus tide in a large bay with a narrow inlet. This tidal phenomenon is called a ‘bore’ where a large continuous wave is formed by the meeting tides and this rushes into the narrow channel. Tidal bores vary in frequency, height and the distance they travel.
The wall of water that forms can range in size from quite small to large enough to surf.
The incoming bore tide in Alaska can see waves as large as 6 – 10 ft in height that take up to 5 hours to travel the length of Turnagain Arm. This is the most northern bore tide in the world, and possibly the most stunning, as it is surrounded by beautiful mountains with snow-capped peaks.
The largest bore tides usually occur around the spring and fall equinox, when there is a full moon or new moon. These conditions typically create the most extreme tides, which are needed to create large bore tide waves. After extreme minus tides, a large incoming tide will sweep over the mud flats of the inlet, creating a large, continuous waves.
The famous Alaska Bore Tide takes place everyday in Turnagain Arm, a narrow branch off of Cook Inlet. This is the one of the only places in the United States to see a tidal bore wave. These bore tides take place every day, however, the wave size will vary in size and strength. The largest bore tides will occur only a few times each year, but you don’t need to witness a wall of water moving down Turnagain Arm to be impressed by this natural phenomenon.
Bore Wave
We were just driving along on the Seward Highway next to the water, and Ashley was on the lookout for the bore tide, Stephanie and I did not really know anything about it, it was something that she heard about from being here before.
All of a sudden she was yelling and pulling the Tahoe over very quickly to the shoulder to stop. Sure enough, we could see some surfers in the water in dry suits, with either surf boards and/or paddle boards, and they were waiting on an approaching wave. It happened so quickly, we could only get pictures using our phone cameras from the car windows across the highway, and over the guard rail, but it was interesting to see. The wave was only 2-3 feet high as a guess. It just continued to flow up the narrow area of the body of water.
We continued the drive to Talkeetna, and were going right by Anchorage on the way. Ashley and Bryan wanted to stop for some other purchases in the downtown area, so we made another unexpected (to us) side trip to downtown Anchorage for about 35 minutes, then were back on the road again to Talkeetna.
We did not make any more stops, but there were a few road construction stoppages, adding to the overall trip time. All together, the 4.5 hour drive took six hours. I had hoped for a quick trip so I could rest when we got there since I was not feeling that great, but it was not to be today.
We finally arrived and headed to our cabin, which was right near downtown Talkeetna. I was really needing to use the bathroom, remember the “we thought the pizza was a good idea” from before, well my stomach now said otherwise, and I was glad we were finally here.
The cabin is nice, it is another 1.5 bathroom cabin and the full bath with a tub/shower is downstairs, and all of the bedrooms are upstairs, as well as the half bath. By this time I was really tired, and starting to feel a little chilled from my COVID, which I am still fighting. We all did wear masks in the car for the extended six plus hour drive to try and protect Stephanie, who is still not sick.
I headed upstairs to get into the bed, and thankfully Bryan did most of the suitcase unpacking from the car, I was just not feeling well enough to help. It had been a struggle for me this morning to pack and bring all the luggage downstairs and put it into the Tahoe, it really wore me out.
I needed to take some more Ibuprofen, it was past time, and I guess my fever started to creep up. I bundled up in the bed and got extra blankets and felt better after about an hour.
Nagley’s Store – Home Of The Cat Mayor
The rest of the gang headed to downtown Talkeetna to look in some shops and to go meet the mayor, who is a cat and hangs out in one of the stores. It was really nice weather here, partly cloudy and warmer, about 70 degrees. They were also going to get something to eat. Ashley and Bryan, along with Stephanie, stopped at a pizza place they liked from their trip to Talkeetna before (Oh no, not more pizza today!). Stephanie got a Gyro sandwich and brought it back to the cabin so I could share it with her, but I was just not ready to eat when she first got back, I was enjoying the comfort of my warm bed.
Ashley and Bryan came back a bit later, and they all sat on the front porch watching the “summer snow”, and fighting off the mosquitoes. The summer snow is all of the white furry things blowing off of the cottonwood trees, it literally looks like snow they are so thick, and they accumulate on the ground, sort of like mini tumbleweeds of white fur.
I eventually came down and ate half of the Gyro, by this time I was not cold anymore, and the sandwich hit the spot. It was not the best we have ever had, but it was good, especially when I took off one half of the thick pita bread and folded the other side with the meat on it in half, now there was not too much bread. It just did not have enough meat on it for the thickness of both slices of the pita bread.
I went outside for a couple of minutes to see the summer snow, and kill a few mosquitoes. I did not want to stay out long in all of the sinus clogging cottonwood mess while fighting my other congestion.
Luckily, there is a third bedroom upstairs with a stacked bed, double size on the bottom, and a twin on the top. Stephanie will sleep in there tonight just to be on the safe side for COVID protection, that bedt is just a little too short for me use.
I finished this blog post for today, and we all called it a night about 9:30 PM, Ashley and Bryan are still getting a little tired from finishing their battle with COVID earlier in the week. Based on their progress, I hope tomorrow is a better day for me.
All of the pictures included with today’s post were taken by Stephanie while she was in town this afternoon.