Weekend at the Roadhouse

Last weekend, Stacy and I joined a big group of our friends in the town of Talkeetna where Butch was showing the Alaska Ocean Film Festival. Working for the Alaska Center for the Environment, Butch has annually put together many short films centered around the impacts of the worlds oceans. Stacy and I had helped him, through several screenings and several pizzas, by providing feedback on his selections. The first of many festival sites, Talkeetna is one of the first. It's close enough that we were able to join for the fun and as always, adventure.
We had reservations along with about 15 others at a place called the Roadhouse. It is a small lodge with only a few rooms and bunks that are rented per night. Talkeetna is a jump off spot for people who fly into Denali(Mt. McKinley) for a climb. During the summer season, the place is always buzzing with excitement. In January, however, not so much. Stacy and I with Jill, Beth, and Drew reserved a cabin that was located away from the Roadhouse itself. We met up with everyone at 6:30 and Butch and Maria were already setting up for the festival. Our group went across the street to eat pizza. We crowded into a few booths and the small pizza joint's numbers immediately quadrupled. We enjoyed a "Grizzly" and the "Margarita" with a few pitchers of Oatmeal Stout, and light hefeweisen, both Alaskan Ales.
After we closed the place, we went back across the street to the Roadhouse for cards and whatever else we could come up with. We gathered for the largest game of 'Swedish Elimination' that had ever been. Before I make my mother nervous, let me explain the game. It is not really known why it is called what it is, but it is a trump game where everyone plays for themselves. Each hand's trump is decided by a card that is flipped after the dealing. You bid based on how many tricks you can take. It is a great game with much drama as each hand is played with one fewer card than the hand before going all the way down to where everyone has just one card. We had the problem of too many people. So it was then decided that if you missed your bid you were eliminated from the game.
After the first hand of this I was eliminated, so with a few others we went into the the den and started a game of Jenga. A balancing game played by off-balanced people, lasted somewhere around 30 levels. Butch and Maria soon joined us from the festival and more fun ensued. I then noticed a guitar in the corner and it all went down hill from there. What started off as warm fire side ditties, turned into marathon blues jams, piano improvs, and Maria Mamma Mia! The resemblance is striking. It was nearing one in the morning and we had blown through the 10 o'clock quiet hour. Since we still did not know where our cabin was, we thought it would be best to get on our way. With a few "down the alley, take a right, it's you're first left after Veterans" directions from Butch. Our group all climbed in Stacy's car and we were off.
Well, we were lost, and after peering into one cabin, we even tried to retrace our steps. We then pulled into what we thought was going to be it, which turned into a bad idea. Not only was it not the cabin, but I had driven the car into a high centered state of stuck. It was cold, snowy, and we were stuck. Then almost all of us had an idea of what we needed to do next, Drew even started walking to try and find the cabin. After a phone call, Butch came to pick us up and took us to where we were supposed to go. We were close, but that only counts when your car isn't trapped in snow. Inside our cabin it was surprisingly warm, and beyond that hard to describe. It was an amazing little two room cabin, Trapper John's cabin, and it could only have been a trapper's cabin. Our exhaustion would not allow us to fully appreciate the uniqueness of it as we all collapsed in our beds.
The morning brought more snow, and last nights events seemed like a bad dream. It was a shame that the night ended the way it did, everything before the car sticking was a blast. Exploring more of the cabin, it was really a fun place, without running water it did come with a heated outhouse. Our walk back to the Roadhouse was almost like a walk of defeat. The only thing that could save me know was the famous cinnamon roll.
Once inside, we were greeted with ooh's and ahh's. After a coffee or three and a quick retelling of the story, things got better and the cinnamon roll was on its way. Our breakfast was really good and after a few more cups of coffee, it was time to try and push Stacy's Volkswagen out. We had all of the man and woman power we needed, but the ruts were too deep and the center was just ice and we kept high-centering the car. We battled for 30 to 40 minutes digging, pushing, pulling, and sometimes laughing. On a last ditch effort we had driven the car into worse than it had been. This was a job for the tow truck. We went back to the Roadhouse to warm up, dry off and re-plan.
Stacy and I had made plans to stay another night and were planning to to do a little cross country skiing. We first had to wait to get the car out. The towing company gave us a two hour estimate so we just hung out in the Roadhouse and played a quick round of Swedish Elimination with Butch and Maria. Soon the towing company called and we caught rides out to meet him. We waved our friends adios, and began to haul out the car. It was almost too easy and the guy was super nice. It all became sort of a joke by the time we were back in the fire warmed Roadhouse.
We were slowly running out of day light for skiing, so we went to did what we could. I quickly tired, and my hands were freezing. We didn't get far but it was good to enjoy the snow with out trying to push a car out of it. We managed some photos, and it was back to warm up. After naps Stacy and I decided to see what Talkeetna was like on a Sunday. Dead. The only few places open were another lodge, and a convenience store. The Roadhouse seems to be the only standard in Talkeetna through the winter months. Our dinner was great. I had Lasagna, Stacy had a Roast Beef Pasty, it was a pot pie pastry filled with garlicky roast beef, Hungarian Beef and Mushroom soup, then came dessert. I had never had a blackberry pie before, our host said that he had just made one. This pie was so good, we had him save us a slice which we could enjoy for breakfast.
We spent the evening lounging by the fire flipping through an old Alaska trivia game missing it's pieces, a pictorial atlas, and in between a few more songs on the guitar, Stacy and I turned it into a real relaxing, peaceful and wonderful evening. The atmosphere of the Roadhouse is one that we hope to share with those of you who can make it up to see us. The service and friendliness of the staff was far beyond that of many expectations.
Monday morning we were slow getting up, and there were only two others that we around for breakfast in the morning. The breakfast pie was just as good as the night before and the biscuits and gravy with reindeer sausage filled us wonderfully. With a few places recommended to us by Trish, our host that morning, we checked out and we on our way.



The day was cloudless. And soon after we were driving out of town, we soon realized the greatness through our rear window, Denali. 20,300 feet in the air stood this huge mountain with a few others standing like huge white castles against the pure blue sky.
We made it to our ski spot at nearby Fish Lake. The car read zero degrees. With no wind, we knew to try and stay in the sun when ever possible. When the blood got running and we found a good skiing path it was very fun. We saw a few dogsled mushers and I even got to show off my skiing skills for Stacy.(video) The sky stayed blue the entire way home and the sun was the brightest that it could have ever been. It made the snow capped mountains pop out against the blue sky backdrop.
The weekend in Talkeetna was a wonderful chain of events and we were lucky enough to share them with our friends. The memorable moments in our lives begin with those around us. In our case, it was the friends we had around a trapped car.

Day 10: Home Sweet Home!

as remembered by Stacy

One experiences different emotions upon awaking, realizing the end of one journey is approaching while the beginning of a new journey is about to come. After 9 days of driving we were excited for this to be our last, as we felt all our savings were being left at the gas station, and as pulling the U-Haul had become Jonathan’s all-time least-favorite thing to do. However, the trip had been fun! Full of memories of spectacular scenery we had never seen before, inside jokes on the two-way radios, learning the most efficient way to set up a tent, and most simply this had been the first time in a long time that Jonathan and I had been able to spend this much time together. Sure, it still involved driving several hours, but at least we were going the same direction at the same time, unlike the hours spent driving between Minnesota and Lincoln, or North Platte and Lincoln. Bittersweet that our trip was about to end, we quickly realized that we would be arriving into our new state, our new apartment, and our new jobs.

From Tok, there weren’t a whole lot of ways we could go, so getting lost didn’t seem to be an option. There are 4 main highways in Alaska and a few others, but they are normally not open year round. We just had to stay on Alaska Hwy 1, the Glenn Hwy, for the final 323 miles until we arrived in Anchorage. Fall was in full swing, as the majority of the leaves had changed colors and bright oranges could be seen everywhere!

Lucky for us the straightforward direction allowed for us to gawk and gaze at the scenery this part of Alaska had to offer. It is here where the Chugach, Wrangell and St. Elias mountain ranges converge. The largest National Park in the U.S., Wrangell St. Elias National Park is the size of six Yellowstones and holds 9 of the 16 highest peaks in the U.S. Mt. Blackburn at an impressive 16,390 ft is the snowcapped peak in the pictures on the left. Mt Sanford at 16,237 ft. and Mt. Drum at 12,010 ft are surrounded by clouds in the pictures on the right.

Mt. Blackburn

Mt. Sanford & Mt. Drum

As we approached a construction site, we changed the channel of our two-way radios for the last time, now at channel 5. We did so because the construction crew happened to be using the same channel we were. This confused the sign holder as she signaled our cars to stop while Jonathan and I were talking to each other. It was our longest wait at a construction site, approximately 15 minutes, which is definitely not bad considering some traffic has to wait well over 3 hours for Alaska road construction. The wait would be longer tomorrow, the woman informed us, as dynamite was going to be detonated to cut into a mountain for highway improvements. We continued on and as the mileage signs to Anchorage appeared, the scenery became more familiar, and King Mountain came into view (picture on left). We were nearing the area where we had visited our friends’ cabin near Chickaloon just one month ago. The cabin is located in the mountains of the Mat-Su Valley, where lies the infamous Matanuska Glacier and the Susitna River (hence the name of the Valley). We knew that we had only 1 ½ hours to go! We were eager to continue on the winding highway, and the time seemed to go by faster as we passed through familiar towns and crossed over familiar bridges. At last we had arrived! We drove into our neighborhood to find even more construction! The road in front of our driveway had been torn up, and a new blacktop was being laid. Extremely hungry, we decided to drop off the U-Haul and find some food! We grabbed carry-out and enjoyed our first meal in our new place…Moose’s Tooth Pizza and Alaskan Amber and Summer Ale. I honestly don’t think we could have made a better decision! After our appetites had been sated, we began unpacking the U-Haul. Not surprisingly, it took us less than half the time to unpack the trailer as it had to pack it, and we could not have been more happy to have it empty and ready to return to the U-Haul store. After 4044 miles, the trek to Alaska was now complete. What Alaska now has in store for us, we are anxious to discover….

Home Sweet Home!