Day 13, Fairbanks to Anchorage 07/23/2010

As we were getting ready to leave Fairbanks this morning, I decided to have the Tahoe washed. It was very dirty after a 5,000 mile road trip. So I went to a car wash and paid $16.00 for the deluxe car wash. Then we hit the road. After about 45 minutes we hit a road construction zone that lasted 10 miles. 10 miles of muddy, dusty, dirty road. So much for my deluxe wash. It was clean for a little while.

As for the journey south, the drive was along the skyline of the mountains. They were not snow covered, but more like driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway. There were several turn offs for photo ops. It was a 6 hour drive. We drove by the Denali National Park and Mt. McKinley. Mt McKinley is 20390' high. We did not see it because of the cloud cover. We continued on to Talkeetna, a small village that time forgot. It served as the inspiration for the T.V. series based in Alaska, Dawson Creek. We had a lunch of halibut and salmon there. Very good. I'll post a picture of our restaurant. Fine dining at its best.

There were numerous signs on the roadside alerting the motoring public that moose were ahead, bears were ahead, deer were ahead. All sorts of animals were ahead. Please be careful. All we saw today were 2 big black dogs and a rabbit.

We checked into the Hilton in Anchorage and are getting ready for tomorrow. The real adventure begins. Into the heart of grizzly country. Standing by with the bear spray.

If we have Internet service from our luxury cabin, located on an isolated lake, I will post the blog and let you know how everything went.

Until tomorrow (maybe) Jerry