June 15, 2018

On the Hunt for Critters

We’re on the move today.  We have been without a vehicle for our first few days in Anchorage as we explored the center of the city.  As city folks ourselves, we are pretty good at walking a few miles in an urban area, so this fits our normal lifestyle.  We pick up a car today for the rest of our trip as we spend next week south and the following week north. 

After breakfast we Uber out to the airport for our car.  We use Mary’s phone for the Uber this time and it works just as it should.  We still haven’t figured out what is wrong with John’s.  The driver is a good guy, retired military and has been an Alaskan since the 80’s.  We have rented the car through Costco and the fellow at the counter is really impressed with our rate.  Cars are painfully expensive here—usually well over $100 per day on a longer-term rental.  Ours is about $72 which is still too expensive but better.

Our destination for this day trip is the Mat-Su Valley and its anchor cities of Palmer and Wasilla. This is farm country about 50 miles north of Anchorage with wind whipping up through the Cook Inlet and funneled through this valley between mountains.  In the 30’s a bunch of Minnesotans and Wisconsinites were enticed with an offer of free land and transportation to settle this area and start growing food crops.  As our trip consultant Marc said, where do you think Sarah Palin got her accent.  She was a realtor and mayor of Wasilla before moving to the Governorship and beyond.  The folks from our part of the world were apparently unfazed by the climate.

Our first stop is the Info center in Palmer.  There is a Kentucky woman (Neil Diamond song) tending the counter and she gives us a few pointers about sites to visit.  She is not big on Wasilla because they apparently are the chief rival of Palmer.  Huh!  There is a little market underway outside the visitor center but most of the vendors have shut down because they couldn’t keep their tents anchored with the high winds.  There is weather coming in for the next few days and we feel the beginning of it.

Just east of the city there is a Musk Ox farm that is dedicated to the preservation of these big furry creatures.  We take a half-hour tour and get the dope on why these things live in the uninhabitable tundra and why they seem to enjoy bashing their massive heads into things.  Our guide, Delta, is a pre-med student and a direct descendent of one of the original settlers.  She is going full circle as her next move will be med school in Minnesota.

We go back into town and see what’s left of the market.  It isn’t raining yet but will soon.  It is Subway for lunch today.  There is a line at the counter, so this must be the place in town for lunch. Our next recommended stop is a rescue farm south of town where they have misfit reindeer, moose, yaks and every other sort of abandoned creature.  As we arrive there is a steady rain, lots of wind and the temps have dropped into the low 50’s and since this is a walk-about tour we decide to leave it for another day. As a consolation prize there is an adolescent moose grazing along the highway and we stop for a few pictures.  He was a very accommodating model.

On to Wasilla. The attraction in town is the Iditarod Information Center.  The Iditarod Sled Dog Race is about 1100 miles long from Anchorage to Nome and passes through Wasilla along the way.  We have been told that there is always a musher and team on-site as well as a lot of race memorabilia.  Well, the host at the center tells us that he has been there a few years, and this is the first summer day he remembers that there hasn’t been a sled team present.  What else are we missing?  He tells us that Tom Brady and the lovely Giselle were there about 4 hours ago.  And it’s raining.  Not our most successful day of travel.  We do watch the movie about the race, the dogs and the process in a darkened room where we both get a refreshing 3-minute nap.

After a short drive around Wasilla and the neighboring lakes (no Sarah visible--are Tom and Giselle staying with her?) we head back south to Anchorage and our hotel.  It’s after 4:00 when we get back for a quick rest before our manager’s happy hour. We sip a wine and discuss walking a few blocks to Humpy’s for a burger and a beer.  It is a steady heavy rain now, and a couple at another table are ordering a pizza to eat in.  Hmmm.  Why wouldn’t we do that?  So we do.  Again, for those folks who accuse us of writing a food blog, our meals today were a weak hotel buffet, a tuna sub from Subway and a delivery pizza from Capri.  The pizza was good though and we have some left.

Interesting fact:  Tom and Giselle do the same things we do, and they missed the sled dog team too.