Monday Musings . . . Mark Evans Adventures in Alaska


I had a great weekend with my friend Mark Evans in town after his long motorcycle ride from Texas to Alaska.  He made it all the way up past the Arctic Circle and on to Deadhorse in Prudhoe Bay at the top of the world a feat many people will never experience.  Congratulations Mark, driving a vehicle is tough enough but doing it on a motorcycle is a feat in itself!

We met up on Wednesday and I took him to see Sarah Palin’s house on the lake and drove up about an hour where we enjoyed lunch in “Beautiful Downtown Talkeetna”. We wandered the streets and airport seeing the crazy sights and listening to all the sounds of a busy tourist season.  We drove back to the cabin he was staying in Wasilla where we enjoyed sitting on the porch of a two room cabin built in 1931.  Totally rustic with a gas lamp and outhouse we sat on the porch for hours talking and getting to know one another after communicating on FB for several years. Sipping from bottles of Jack & Crown it was a perfect evening watching the sunset with a great view of Pioneer Peak as our backdrop across a 40 acre hay field.

Thursday we headed into Anchorage where we had his motorcycle serviced at our Honda dealer and ate lunch at The Peanut Farm a local sports bar.  One of the waitress’s, Judy is retiring after 21 years there and leaving Alaska for Arizona in September so it was a bitter-sweet afternoon.  We walked over to Alaska Wild Berry Products to the gift shop and also see the chocolate fountain flowing down over twenty feet, looking like a chocolate brown lava flow down into the pool of chocolate. 

We drove around town to Kincaid Park and Point Woronzof looking for moose and seeing the effects of the 1964 earthquake.  While in downtown we hit 4th & 5th Avenues grabbing a reindeer hotdog for “dinner” and walked the streets looking in the souvenir shops and getting our tickets for the 26 Glacier Cruise the next morning.  

Friday was a busy day grabbing breakfast at Village Inn before heading down to Whittier for a drive through the tunnel, 2.5 miles under Maynard Mountain to the port of Whittier.  We boarded the “Klondike Express” and headed out to see much sea life, birds, and other animals while stopping at the face of several glaciers hoping to see them calving, crashing into the water.  There had been much activity as the smaller chunks were floating all over the place almost solid ½ mile from the glacier’s face.  We saw several drops with many seals & sea otters lying on the ice chunks.  Once we returned to Anchorage we joined Mark’s friend Chuck who used to live in Plano, Texas where both used to enjoy coffee at Starbucks early in the morning.  We headed over to the Millennium Hotel and the Fancy Moose lounge to sit outside for dinner and drinks while watching float planes takeoff and land on Lake Hood.  It was a fairly late night with an early morning wake up to go fishing on Saturday morning.

Mark, Chuck, & I grabbed breakfast early and headed down Turnagain Arm to Girdwood to fish both Glacier Creek and Ingram Creek.  There were few silver salmon but plenty of pink salmon heading up stream to spawn.  All caught many fish and released them since we were not planning to take home for smoking.  We headed back into Anchorage where we cleaned up before heading about an hour away to Big Lake for dinner at The Islander a really neat restaurant and bar on an island.   I called my fried Charlie to pick us up on his boat and take us to the island for dinner where we had a great time.

We arrived back in Anchorage about midnight and Mark was planning to leave around five in the morning to start his trek back to Texas.  I enjoyed the time spent with several mini-adventures over a hurried couple of days.  Mark is heading home now with about 6 to 7 long days of travel to return to Texas before he needs to be back at work.

It was great spending time getting to know each other and meeting new friends for both of us.  I look forward to getting together again to swap stories of the road or trails we’ve taken.

Great adventures lead to many new surprises along the way and this one was no different.

Ice

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