Alaska Land Trip – July 2023

This morning was the best weather morning of the entire trip.  There was not a cloud in the sky, which is a little ironic,  but I will get into that later.  I  tossed and turned all night, getting up several times for the bathroom and to also drink a large glass of water to keep from getting dehydrated from sweating with my fever.  I had slept under several layers, just trying to keep warm, and that was also making me sweat at times.  I kept up with my Tylenol throughout the night, and at one point, I woke up profusely sweating.  I had hoped that that was a sign that maybe my fever had broken, but I was not sure.

At about 8:00 AM, my stomach was growling, and I needed to get something to eat.  I knew we had some pop tarts that we had put into a partially empty Suddenly Salad box for safe keeping inside our luggage during yesterday’s trip here.  Unfortunately, all of the food had been taken downstairs to the kitchen where it belonged, and so I needed to head downstairs if I wanted anything to eat.  I had heard Bryan making coffee earlier, and it was ready, so I had a cup of coffee and a pop tart.  Both were good, I was really hungry.

Bryan went for a walk while I was eating breakfast, probably down to the river to get a good view of Denali.  They had all walked there yesterday and said it was beautiful.  Hopefully, before the clouds set in, I will feel like walking there for some photos.  Right now, I feel a little weak, and groggy, maybe because I had taken a single Nyquil last night to help me sleep.  I was a lot more congested this morning, but it was not keeping me from breathing through my nose, it was more in my sinuses.  Hopefully I can get that loosened up as the day goes on.  

So far, my only view of Talkeetna has been during our brief drive through on the way to the cabin yesterday afternoon.  My main goal for today is to relax to try and get better for the flight home on Saturday.  It is a long flying day, about 14 hours, and I don’t want to be totally miserable.

Now for the ironic part of today in Talkeetna.  During the pre-trip planning, today was supposed to be the day we took a two hour flight out to circle around Denali, and then go and land on a glacier.  We had thought seriously about going for a while in the early planning stages of this trip, then we decided not to make reservations because for a while, we were not sure this trip would happen due to the health of Stephanie’s mom.  We almost made the reservation at the last minute before we left, but the weather forecast had been so poor, we did not.  Now, even if we had made the reservation, we would have had to cancel last minute due to the COVID I have.  I guess it was just not meant to be, but still ironic since the weather was about as clear for flying as it could be.  Another “oh well” for this trip.

I have not seen Stephanie yet this morning, so I do not know how she feels, I hear a lot of coughing from upstairs that I later found out that was Ashley.  I am sure it was a good idea for Stephanie to sleep in the other room last night with me tossing around so much in the bed, from my need for extra covers and then the frequent bathroom trips from all the water I was drinking.  It will be a shame if she comes down with COVID this close to the day we head home, there is no time for any recovery before we leave on Saturday.

Bryan came back from his walk to the river and said Denali was completely clear of clouds.  I am just not sure I have the energy this morning to walk down there to see and photograph it.

Stephanie finally got up about 10:00 AM, and she was still feeling fine, just a slight cough, but that is also pretty typical for her in the morning.  

Ashley and Bryan left in the Tahoe a bit later, we were not sure where they were going, they did not say.  Stephanie got dressed and made us some toasted bagels, which hit the spot even after the pop tart I already ate.  I took my next round of Tylenol and felt a little better.  I decided to try and go see Denali from the river bank, which was only a few blocks walk away form our cabin.  We went upstairs and I got dressed and also got my camera gear together.  I was not sure how close Denali is from here, so I did not know if I needed my regular lens or the zoom lens, so I took both in my backpack, as well as the GoPro.

We headed out, trying to follow the map directions that were provided in our cabin information booklet.  The route we took did not look exactly the same as the overhead map in the booklet, but it was not far and fairly easy to find.  Apparently, so was our tasty skin for the mosquitoes, they were out in force, especially in one area where we walked that was in some tall grass.

We were constantly shooing them away.  It was apparent when we arrived at the Denali viewing area along the river bank, there were lots of people there doing the same thing.  I took some photos.  Denali was not obscured at it’s peak, but there were some low clouds nearer to us that did not allow us to see the entire mountain. 

Denali In The Distance

Denali is really far away, so I did not think the photos would be that great of a photo opportunity.  Not like actually being close to on on the mountain like we have done in Switzerland, those were great photos.  I looked it up later and Denali peak is 59 miles from here in Talkeetna.

We did take some selfies and GoPro videos.  The river was almost as spectacular as the far off peak itself, the current in the river was really flowing fast.

Us, The River and Denali

We had not planned to stay long and that was the main reason we had not used bug spray, so we headed back.  I was glad that we had done it so I would not be wondering about it, but again, Denali was far away, and the photos underwhelming.  At lest we can say we saw it.

Ashley and Bryan came back a little later, they had apparently gone to the Post Office to mail some more items back home, and then had stopped at a few stores in town.

Stephanie and the “Mayor”

I needed a shower, and Stephanie wanted to go look at some stores in Talkeetna.  Ashley and Bryan were going to take some chairs and go sit by the river looking at Denali, they were definitely going to need to use bug spray for that activity.

Stephanie left to go and wander through the small town.  She was able to go to the Nagley’s Store the home the cat that is the mayor.  She was able to get pictures of the cat and also a selfie with her and the “mayor”. 

Bunnies!

Nearby, she also found a small tent canopy that was set up to display some live bunnies, and she held a few really small bunnies that were all wrapped up in blankets.

Stephanie was also near the train station, well really more like a siding stop, and took a picture of the train that visits here everyday and stops for a few hours to allow people to shop and eat in Talkeetna.

The Train

Later in the afternoon, I tried to call American Airlines to try and get our baggage fee situation from our flight to Anchorage straightened out, as well as out flight leaving on Saturday since they are on different booking numbers.  These flights were purchased as one-way flights at the time, it was not any more expensive, and we had tried to see if the rates would go down for the return flight, but they never did.

After going through a long menu of items, I finally got through to get a representative, and of course, they were all busy, and it was going to be a 29-39 minute wait.  I opted for the callback option amd worked on this post while waiting.

I received a callback about 45 minutes later, and told the representative what my issue was.  At first, she was not helpful, I apparently needed my ticket number now since the flight was already completed, and the confirmation number was not enough to locate the flights.  We did have them, but they were in Stephanie’s purse, and she was out in town looking through stores.  After a bit, the representative was able to find my ticket number, but not the information about the bag fees.  Long story short, she was of no help on that first flight with the bag fee, I would need to either try to submit a refund request online or call back in with the baggage fee receipt information.

I did have her check for out return flight to try and avoid this same problem, and she did not see any issues with that flight and us getting the free bags, that reservation had not changed any, and so it was still tied to the AAdvantage credit card purchase.  She did say that because the first flight had been reticketed several times due to flight schedule changes, apparently the tie to the original purchase with the credit card had been lost.

Part of the Town

Stephanie returned from her walking around town, and I told her that I felt good enough to at least walk over to see the town.  I did not want to stay out long, but I did want to at least see what Talkeetna had to offer.  

We headed out and walked the few blocks to the town from our cabin.  The town layout was a little different, there is a main street, but the shops and restaurants are not all together along the street, there are gaps between the buildings and shops, so it does not look like a typical small town main street.  There were quite a few people walking around the area, a lot of people drive in for the day, and there is the train that arrives at least once, if not more often to bring people here, possibly from Anchorage, but we are not sure.  A lot of people come in on the train.  There is also an airport right beside the main street and there is always a steady stream of small airplanes arriving and departing.  This is also where the planes depart and arrive for going on the flights around Denali.

The “Snow” From The Cottonwood Trees

The cottonwood tree “snow” was really heavy today, and it was covering the ground everywhere, and constantly falling.  It was hard not to sometimes breathe in a fluffy ball while you were walking.  You could see people swatting at the floating puffy balls as they walked.  It was almost as aggravating as the mosquitoes when they were out.

We walked up and down the street, Stephanie stopped at one vendor under a tent canopy, she had seen some sandals there earlier and was trying to decide if she wanted to purchase them.  I stayed outside the area since I did not want to put on my mask, I was outside and not around anyone.  Unfortunately the sandals she really wanted were not available in her size, there was s similar pair, but it was not what she wanted, so despite the hard sales pitch from the lady running the store, she did not make a purchase.

We walked to the end of the street.  This is the same location where we saw the view of Denali this morning.  If course, by this late in the day, clouds had formed and you could not see much of the peak at all, so we were glad we had come here earlier and had a better view.

Another Store In Talkeetna

We headed back in the other direction, Stephanie wanted to get some small boxes of wine for us to have when we get to the hotel tomorrow in Anchorage, and to have enough time for them to get cold in our refrigerator before we leave here.  I waited outside again.  

I was starting to get a little tired, so we headed back toward the cabin, stopping at two different restaurants to take pictures of their menu’s so we could see what we might want to order later as “take out” for dinner.

When we got back to the cabin, we talked a bit with the lady across the street.  We had talked to her and her husband a little before we headed out, mainly because their two large Germán Shepherds that had come out to greet us.  The dogs came out again when we were walking by this time.  The couple is constructing a small cabin across the street, and were out working on it today.  They apparently have other properties in town including a B&B.  They were making this cabin look like a hangar because they are both pilots.  We asked about the cottonwood “snow” and she said this was the worst she had seen here in 30 years.

Ashley and Bryan were out on the front porch relaxing when we returned.  I headed inside to relax and get out of all of the cottonwood pollen, I think it was making me more congested.  Stephanie stayed outside and chatted with them while I went inside to see if I could get anything on the TV.

There is not any network or cable type of channels available, everything was through streaming on the wi-fi.  I selected Amazon and found what I though was a movie that seemed interesting called “The Expanse”.  It ended up being a series, and I started watching it from season 1.  I watched several episodes.

It was getting late and we all needed to eat.  Stephanie and I decided to spit a blackened cod sandwich and an order of nachos from one of the restaurants we had taken menu photos of earlier in the day.  Ashley and Bryan were heading out to go to the pizza place in town to eat.

Stephanie headed out to order our food.  She sent me back a text with a picture of a glass of beer she had ordered to drink while the food was being cooked, it was her “delivery fee” .  She actually had another smaller beer, they had over poured that beer when they were making some beer flites, so they just gave her the remainder.  It was a different beer from the first, and not quite as good, but it was also free.

She headed back with the food and we sat at the table to eat.  We cut the sandwich in half.  She had also gotten some sweet potato fries, and they were some of the best either if us had ever had.  They were long like fries, but wider and sort of flat, but also had ridges on their flat sides.  They were very crisp and not soggy like sweet potato fries can get.

The sandwich was very good, and the blackened seasoning was quite spicy, as well as the tartar sauce, which was more like a spicy mayonnaise.  The nachos were good, and the salsa was also spicy.  The nachos were “veggie” with some type of meat substitute, which I found out about after we were done eating them.  They were not bad, but they were a little hard to eat.  We did drink a beer with our dinner,  some we had brought here from Between Beaches.

Feeding Mosquitoes On The Front Porch

After dinner, we put on some bug spray and headed out to the front porch.  We also lit our mosquito coils.  The mosquitoes were pretty thick, and they are large, but did not seem to be very aggressive.  We did not spray ourselves completely with repellant, only our exposed skin.  They did not seem that interested in trying to bite through clothing.  They were more of an annoyance flying around than anything,  the thought of them biting was worse than their bite.

We had some wine while we were relaxing, the last of one of our Bota Boxes we had purchased in Anchorage.  I was starting to feel a little better this afternoon and evening, not completely well, but not constantly cold.

Ashley and Bryan returned from their dinner and we all sat around on the porch for a while before I headed inside, I was getting more congested, probably from all of the “snow”.  They sat outside for a while before we started our round of showers in the single tub shower in the cabin.

I started watching my show again on Amazon TV and watched one more episode.  Stephanie sat outside on the porch by herself for a while before coming in, it was getting late and the mosquitoes were getting worse as evening set in.

By 10:00 PM, we were all ready to call it a night, well still early evening here in Alaska.  I was feeling better this evening, but we still erred on the side of caution for Stephanie and minimized her exposure to me by having her sleep in the separate room again tonight.  We were thankful we even had the spare room as a choice.

Tomorrow we will be leaving Talkeetna to head back to Anchorage for our last night in Alaska before flying home on Saturday.