Tok is the first town you come to, about 80 miles after the border. Shadow downloaded a truckers app on his phone before we left and it’s been a great help for free places to stay. This night was a perfect example. The RV parks are high here because they know you need them, but not us. The truckers app said that you could stay and Fast Eddie’s Restaurant. Sure enough, we went in to eat dinner and ask if we could indeed stay the night. The waitress said that it was no problem and not to block any exits. We took Judy for a walk after dinner and as with most places so far, their are cute little airports everywhere. Strips of flat grass with orange cones marking the end and beginnings.
100 miles down the road was a town called Palmer. It’s more less a suburb of Anchorage nestled in a beautiful valley. The history of the town is pretty cool. Roosevelt’s New Deal transplanted 200 farming families suffering from the Depression era here so the original houses and downtown has a Midwestern feel. The stretch of Alaskan highway from Tok to Palmer was filled with scenic mountain ranges. We passed Mt. Sanford, a dormant volcano, Sheep’s Mountain where we spotted a few alpine Dall Sheep, and of course the Matanuska Glacier in the Chugach Mountains. 18,000 years ago the glacier extended to Palmer. The glacier runoff creates the Matanuska river. After you pass the glacier the road once again becomes winding with a steep drop off down to the river. Long Lake was a unbelievable photo op that we missed because there was no where to stop.
Two nights were spent in Palmer. We hiked around Matanuska Lake and Shadow fished while I kept Judy entertained. The Toad got a much needed bath and we found that the AK Highway did more damage than we thought to him. The roof bike rack had shifted and bounced so hard it left dents. We also stopped into the giant Walmart that services everyone in the area and up to Denali. If we weren’t in Alaska, I would swear we were in a dooms-day store. Full of survival gear, dehydrated foods, and hand guns.
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| See the white squiggly lines? |
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| The home Stretch |
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| The trucker that cracked our windshield |
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| Matanuska Glacier |
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| Sign at Walmart |
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| Fishing on Matanuska Lake |
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