Alaska 17. Road Warriors July 26

Rained most of the night. Raining this morning. So we backtracked (*gasp*) back to Valdez for breakfast out at The Fat Mermaid (delicious), ran some errands, posted a blog, called Dave’s dad to wish him Happy 92 years (he was out golfing). 

We don’t really know what to do, frankly. So I also downloaded a Lonely Planet book on Alaska so we could consult it when we don’t have cell service, which is most of the time. You’d think we’d have done this BEFORE heading off on a cross-country trip, but alas, no. We don’t do it that way. 

We are hoping to escape the rain by heading inland. Our trip odometer is hovering right below FIVE THOUSAND miles! (And when I start to think that’s an actual accomplishment, I only have to think of that poor biker on his way to Argentina. And I feel rather silly.)

We decided to try to hit Denali during what looks to be the only couple days for the next week that shows some clear-ish skies. I don’t know what percentage of the time Denali is in the clouds, but it is more often than not, from everything I am hearing and reading.

It rained steady all day on our drive and the temps didn’t go above 50. Dave made some comment about tonight being a night he “wouldn’t mind finding a hotel,” so when I saw a tiny ad in The Milepost for some cute cabins at the Denali Highway junction in Paxton, I pulled up their website and showed it to Dave. We didn’t even call. We just pulled in and they had room.

Interesting situation. Because the owner has been battling cancer for the past year, and has to fly down to Seattle for treatments, he didn’t take any bookings for the summer since he doesn’t really know when he will be round. I can imagine that this place would usually be booked solid, as it’s very nice and well run. Not that I’ve really looked around much, but from what I’ve OBSERVED since being here, there aren’t many (maybe ANY) very high end places to stay.

For example, if you had walked into The Fat Mermaid in Valdez, based on its appearance (basic dive bar) you would expect to pay *maybe* $8 for an omelette. Not the $19.99 that we actually paid. But the food was delicious. Really good. And reading later in the books about Valdez, it’s suppose to be this epicenter for cosmopolitan dining… We didn’t see one “nice” restaurant. I guess it’s one of those “you can’t just a book by its cover” situations? Everything is ramshackle. But I guess that doesn’t mean it isn’t really good.

Anyway, based on that preamble, these cabins were high end for Alaska. They’d still be nice in the lower 48, but they are top-of-the-line here. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We turned the heat up, sat on the couch and read, opened a bottle of wine…

Eventually I faced the rain and went out to make dinner in the camper (grilled ham and cheese on jalapeño bread with cauliflower), and slept in a delightfully comfy bed looking out at a beautiful view. 

What is noteworthy is that neither Dave and I have gotten sick of the camper yet. It’s amazingly efficient and comfortable. I really don’t feel like I’m missing much from the comforts of home. The only time we feel a little crazy is during these long spells of rain, since by going into the camper you are essentially sitting on a bed. You can’t stand up. And that gets old. We do have a nice awning room we can put out and I think we will have to start thinking about doing that for the rest of our time here. It’s a bit of a pain, though. So moving every night makes us go, “Eh… let’s not.” Not to mention you need room to the side of the camper, which we often don’t have. 

Since I don’t have much else to show for our efforts today, I’ll show you the camper. It has an extremely comfortable memory foam queen size mattress that I have topped with a cute, cheap fleece blanket from Costco and a boring, expensive down Rumpl comforter. We also each have hand sewn fleece blankies that a dear friend made for Morgan and Charlie probably 25 years ago now. I neglected to give them their blankets when they moved away because… well… I like them too much. Maybe someday they will get them back — but only if they promise to take care of them. I’m probably outing myself by writing this and I’m going to hear from them wanting their rightful property…

I “make the bed” every morning and it brings me great joy every time I open the camper door to see it neat and tidy in there. 

We each have a cabinet for our clothes. As is always the case camping, we tend to wear the same thing over and over and over though. So even this tiny cabinet is turning out to be “over packed.”

The center cabinet holds things like sunscreen, fuses, toiletries, cribbage board… I’m really not utilizing the space all the much, oddly. I thought we’d be packed tight in the camper, but we really aren’t. *

Behind our heads is a large storage space for the (unused) YOGA MAT, outside rugs (which we also haven’t been using – which is strange because I used the rug for the pop up all the time). But actually, now that I think about it, it does make sense. Because we WALKED in the pop-up. We never set “foot” in the pod, so we really don’t need a rug. Huh. Never thought about that until now! *

In the back of the pod is the kitchen. I keep my spices and oils as well as cookware in the back. All the groceries are in the car. When we go for shorter trips, I usually have most of the groceries in the back, but because of bears and wanting to keep all the food together for efficiency, we have it in bins in the car. It’s working well. *

So, if we can figure this rain situation out, we’ll be golden!

*It is late, I don’t have the picks uploaded and I need to post this while I have service. Let me know if you are interested in seeing more GEAR or if I should skip that!