Alaska, Day 2

Rainy Day

Purple Fireweeds dot the highway

Glenn Hwy

Photos are here.

It was still raining on the second day. Outside of the rear window, the mountain looked so green in the rain. Laura, the owner of the B&B, had left early for her work at the hatchery. We helped ourselves to some breakfast in the kitchen and also met other guests. There was a young couple who seemed to be very quiet and left the breakfast table early. Then there was this old couple who chatted with us for a long time. They were from Ohio, retired, and had been in Alaska for a while. They lived in Beijing and Shanghai for two years, in 1998 and 1999. The husband worked for a British ice cream company (that I haven’t heard of). They loved China. Then came the two ladies from Fairbanks. They came to visit a friend and went fishing the day before. They caught about 18 salmons.

Before I went to breakfast, I turned on my laptop, and found that there was wireless Internet. I chatted with HB and HQ and also blogged one entry. Troubadour said that I should waste no more time online, for we had 500 miles to drive that day. I hurried up and we were off by 9am.

It was rainy and foggy and misty as we drove out of town. The mountains still did not reveal their true identities to us. We stopped as we approached Thompson Pass, and I took this picture



Pippin Lake looked completely different from the day before. Compare these two pictures:

Aug. 18, 2006

Aug. 17, 2006

In Glennallen, we headed directly to the only Radioshack, because we had been really fed up with the few music CDs I had packed for the trip. We need a cable that could connect my mp3 player to the car stereo. I found a dabbing cable that looked right, but I wasn’t sure. I asked for help. Alaskans surprised me again. The guy who worked in the store first tried to find me a cheaper version of the gold cable; then he torn open the package and handed me the cable, and said, “you go to your car and try it out.” I was totally shocked by the trust he bestowed on me. And luckily it was the right thing, so I didn’t have to feel guilty about making him torn the package open.

We saw the only moose during our whole trip on this day. He was right next to the road, munching on leaves, in the rain. He was very close to Palmer.

We went to a MacDonald’s in this town, because I craved for a milkshake. I also convinced Troubadour to get a French fry to share, too. As we were waiting for our orders, we heard someone say, “你们从哪里来？(Where are you from?)” That totally surprised us. In this remote town of 4,500 people, out of nowhere! It was a young American guy. Lesson learned: never say bad things if you don’t want people to hear.

It rained harder after we turned north on to Parks Hwy. Wasilla seemed to be a large town, with its center stretched on the highway for miles, causing traffic delays. The rain just wouldn’t stop. It was down pouring (like Boston’s Nor’easter) for the three hours we were on Parks Hwy. Though it was raining hard, I could still maintain 60 mph. We passed numerous creeks and rivers. On each one there would be a sign. I laughed at this one creek for its name, Troublesome Creek (at Milepost 137.4). What a silly name. Only if I knew that one day later, it was going to wash out the highway bridge and cut off Parks Hwy.

Of course, with the limited visibility, we couldn’t see the Alaskan Range. No Mt. McKinley today.