Thursday, June 2, 2016

Destination Circle: Day 17

May 30, 2016

Laundry on my mind. I've been procrastinating but also realize this is not all that necessary as I packed too many clothes. But I'll never have such a lovely place to do laundry again and headed to the “Riley Mercantile.” I had checked this out last night and expected early morning on Memorial Day would be a good time, with no waiting. Except it apparently was what others thought also. 

I met a couple from Vermont and a guy from Texas, and we chatted in the way of total strangers who will likely never meet again. The guy looked like Dennis Quaid, not quite as handsome, tall, a few pounds overweight but pleasant. He had a great smile and eyes that twinkled with good will. He was wearing a nondescript blue buttoned polyester shirt with a couple of small old stains and some baggy unremarkable pants. He was helping with this chore for his family of wife and four kids (“ages 4 to 21”) and were traveling in a large RV. They spend the winter in Austin, Texas, and then summer at a lake house in Wisconsin. They always travel together but when I asked further, he said how their trips were “mostly pilgrimages...like to Rome, the Holy Land, Lourdes....” Once he told me that he and his wife had been on “that island” (meaning Mackinaw when I said I lived in Michigan) for a wedding anniversary, the first time away from the kids in 20 years, and “we were sittin' on the porch and I looked at her and said, 'You miss the kids don't you? You wanna go home?'” They both agreed and so he “called the pilot" and they left within the hour. His wife home-schools the kids. They live on an old hunting ranch in Texas. That's all I got...He was not in the least bit pretentious, surely didn't look or act as a person with means, but he must have them. Means...

the Alfred Hitchcock Mew Gulls at Savage Creek in Denali
The couple were in their 60s, and were pulling a “three-season camper” behind a new Subaru station wagon. The wife was an alpha talker, a type A all the way. The first thing I heard from her was how the washing machine's “Start button needs to be pushed hard because it said 25 and I thought it meant another quarter, but it meant 25 minutes, but I had already put my quarter in, so they gave me back 25 cents....” The husband was a gentle soul who tried to help but didn't always get it right according to his wife. He had had major heart surgery last year but is now fit enough so they hiked nine miles yesterday. “She's my coach,” he said nodding to his wife. She told me all about good campgrounds, about campgrounds where they have "little shampoo bottles like motels," campgrounds that have hair dryers. When she asked about what to see in Michigan should they ever vacation there, she got out a little spiral notebook and very earnestly took notes on my random suggestions. She looked at me rather quizzically like I was a curiosity, traveling on my own. She wondered how I get my mail. She told me where to stay in Valdez and that “you have to go there and stay at the Eagle's Nest campground.” She goes to every Visitor Center along the way, because “they are free,” but she also likes museums, and on and on. She and her husband had a few snappish moments between them, and she also admonished the Texas guy when she noticed he put more than a quarter cup of laundry detergent in the little holder. He just smiled and responded by saying how he was noticing her meticulous folding of clean laundry and that precipitated several sentences on why she washes everything inside out and why she folds the way she does, etc., etc. But hey, they are out doing it...enjoying life, delighted they now qualify for the extraordinary good deal of a Golden Age Pass. 

Just outside, at a picnic table, a man was working on a laptop plugged into an external outlet. The adjacent little store had good coffee and three young dudes working. All these kids like Emily must line up for the chance to work in our grand national parks.

Alaskan sled dogs in Denali NP
It was such a glorious day. I missed the shuttle to the sled dog presentation so drove 3.5 miles up the road and lucked out finding a parking place. The park uses Alaskan sled dogs, both to entertain and instruct visitors in the summer but also as working dogs, since there are no motorized vehicles in the park in the winter (or so they say). There were 30 to 40 beautiful dogs, each on a short chain with her/her name on his/her dog house. Most were somnolent until it was time to run them around a track behind a dog sled, when, as the trainers walked towards them, the energy changed dramatically, as in lunging, barking, howling, jumping, straining on their chains. The dogs, of course, have no idea whose turn it will be today so all are eager and hopeful. A fortunate five were chosen, and there was one short run around a small track but it was impressive. They do this show three times a day all summer. Ranger Jake then talked for 30 minutes about the dogs and what they do in Denali. 

I drove up the park road as far as allowed in my car and hiked a very short distance along the Savage River. Mew Gulls are abundant all over southeastern Alaska and they were mobbing a woman on a gravel bar in the river who was running away, hunched over and flailing with her hands about her head. Yesterday, Wendy, our shuttle driver, called them “crabby birds.” She would revert to baby-talk a few times when referring to animal behavior.

Habitat quilt in the Murie Center for Learning and Science in Denali NP 
I stopped by the Murie Science and Learning Center with more exhibits and interactive videos, but the most amazing object was a gigantic quilt done by a group of women in Healy, a town just up the road. It was Denali National Park done in the pixelated squares of a habitat map, at least 20 different zones. And, surrounding the map and acting as a border, were individual squares, representing all of the habitats and done in free form by each of the women who worked on the quilt. It filled the whole wall behind the front desk.

Before I left the park for good, I sat in the parking lot under aspens and had a sandwich. It was weird as it felt exactly like a quintessial Indian summer day in Michigan, so much so that I didn't resist the notion and reveled in the autumn sun and warmth while the leaves fluttered in the breeze. It must be the Alaskan quality of light, the position of the sun and cool temperatures...whatever, it was delightful. Autumn in the Spring. I had also felt this season confusion yesterday while on the bus.

Many tourists are foreigners...northern Europeans, East Indians and Japanese. I saw no African-Americans or Hispanics.

Denali NP very close to the Visitor Center
I forgot to mention that yesterday, we immediately saw a mother moose and calf actually meandering through the Visitor Center parking area. And that I saw a pair of Harlequin ducks in one of the streams we passed. Harlequins rival Wood Ducks in beauty.

Off to Anchorage, 250 miles south, with spectacular views of Denali intermittently along the way. Occasionally, I would see signs of "Road Work from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. and finally (duh...) realized that of course...since it stays light nearly all night.


I knew from experience that I can usually get a good deal at high-end hotels early in the week. I did exactly that and stayed in a Sheraton overlooking the city. It was still twilight at midnight when I finally went to bed.  

south to Anchorage

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