First off, I’d like to comment how I hate mosquitoes. No, not hate, LOTHE! I think mosquitoes are a curse from God upon me. Yes, upon me because I am one large mosquito bite right now! Every time I apply OFF® , I’m okay unless I miss a spot. That spot could be as small as a pin point and a mosquito always finds it! Someday, when God takes me home to heaven, the first thing I will ask Him is “Why? Why mosquitoes?!” Okay, I’m done ranting and raving now.

Monday night was a tough one for me. I took Nyquil to help me sleep and to relieve my cold symptoms. It relieved everything but the congestion. I was in and out of sleep all night. So needless to say I was not feeling all that great again in the morning. We packed everything up and drove up the road to Tim Horton’s for breakfast. After spending what we did on a few bagels and coffee, I made a vow never to complain about the cost of things in the states again. The price of everything up here is absolutely absurd! Even gas: take for instance the tank of gas we purchased the other day. It cost $80 to fill the tank (more than we’ve ever spent on a tank before) and the receipt claimed we paid $14.41 in gas taxes. Ugh!

So Ernest did all the driving yet again today. What a wonderful man he is! I was thankful to be able to rest and sleep at times. So during our travels on Tuesday we drove and drove and drove and drove some more. During one stretch of driving, two moose came out of the woods and skipped along the side of the road before darting across in front of us and another vehicle. Luckily all saw them and had nearly stopped before they ran across the road. As we started to go again, we came to a screeching halt as a large grizzly bear darted in front of the car. He looked quite confused when he saw us, not knowing whether to continue pursuing the moose or stop. He continued huffing and puffing across the road until he was out of sight. We came to the conclusion that the moose must have been teasing the bear and they could easily outrun him. The bear seemed to be quite tired of the chase when we saw him. So that was the excitement of the day. And I fulfilled a lifelong desire: to see a moose out in the wild. I can’t say I wish to see another bear though!

We came to the Canadian/US border where we had a whopping one RV in front of us. We got through without any delays. We stayed at Tok River camping grounds. It is a nice place, although not much different from any other campground I’ve been to.

On Wednesday, I was still not feeling all that great, though better than the past two days. Ernest insisted on driving again so I could get some rest. I didn’t argue much with that. As we turned off on the Tok Cutoff (Glenn Highway), the road turned to dirt and there was construction everywhere. We drove for a long time in the construction zone, periodically being escorted by a pilot car. When we finally hit paved road again, there were bumps and heaves everywhere. That’s what permafrost does to the pavement. So I venture to guess that the people who live out here in the middle of nowhere probably work on the construction crews that repair those roads every year. The only other thing worth mentioning about the day was this incredible glacier we saw while driving. It was found in this little community called Glacier View. No kidding! Even the school had a perfect view of this amazing glacier covering this valley. And, Jan will like this, there were two churches in this little community. Haven’t come across many churches on this trip.

Today, Thursday, we camped outside of Palmer at a campground overlooking King Mountain. It was beautiful and private and right on a river. When I woke up this morning, my nose was clear but my cold had gone down to my lungs. So I’ve been coughing up my lungs and stomach and everything else possible. We had a pretty uneventful drive into Anchorage. My first thoughts on Anchorage are “BIG BIG BIG!” Supposedly there are somewhere around 200,000 people residing here. That’s more than twice the size of B’ham. We had fun driving through traffic and ended up at Earthquake Park. We took out the bikes and peddled around the park. We discovered a moose off the trail eating trees and weeds (Ernest got pictures!) and wondering why the heck all these people (tourists) were pointing cameras at it. After all, this is Alaska, home to many a moose! After my lungs couldn’t take the exertion any longer, we headed back to the car. We then proceeded to try to find a hotel along the highway, but came across pretty much NOTHING. Imagine, a large city with no hotels along the highway! We went downtown and found a Best Western (only smoking rooms left), a Red Roof Inn (again, only smoking rooms left), and finally a Days Inn (by now we were so ready to be out of traffic) of which we spent a whopping $150 for the night. Ugh! Our max if $120. But we splurged. We age dinner at a nice diner called County Kitchen which was directly across the street from the hotel. That’s about as far as I could walk, not because of my lack of lung capacity due to the cold, but because my mosquito bite on my foot had been agitated by my sandals worn during our bike ride and the small bump of a bite turned into a blister which popped and was very sore. So what will happen to me next?? Since dinner, we have been relaxing and watching the History Channel and writing our past two day adventures. Is the sun ever going to go down? Probably not until about 1am, and will rise again at 3am. Lovely for us who like to sleep in darkness (but I’m really not complaining… honest, I’m not). So tomorrow we are heading south to possibly see a wildlife reserve and a marine rehab. place. I look forward to sharing with you again! Check out the pictures at the far left link titled “photo album”.