The taxidermist where John took his caribou sent him a notice that his caribou would be done this week. We had decided we would drive to Anchorage on Friday when he got off work (he was planning to come home shortly after noon). We would spend the night and then on Saturday, pick up the "bou", do whatever other shopping we needed to do and then come on home.
However, when I called on Friday morning to confirm it was finished, I learned that on Saturdays, they are only open from 1 to 4. Anchorage isn't exactly our favorite place so we decided instead of driving down on Friday, we would just drive down Saturday morning, pick up the "bou" and come on home. Then we discussed it some more and talked about just having them ship it up here. I checked out their website and they wanted $150 just to crate up the caribou antlers and cape so we decided it would definitely be a much more expensive option to have it shipped than to drive down and get it.
We got up at 4:30 and after eating breakfast and getting ready, we left here about 5:30. It had been another wintery week with snow almost every day, then warm up and melting. On Wednesday when I had come back from hanging out with MP, it took me 6 tries and some work throwing down some gravel before I could make it up the driveway. We had had more snow on Friday night so I was not looking forward to a 360 mile (one way) road trip on snowy roads.
About 12 miles out of town as we were heading over one little hilly area where another truck was sitting in the ditch, we started to slide a little. John put the truck in 4 wheel drive and backed down to see if he could pull the truck out of the ditch. They hooked up the chain and he had them out in about 5 minutes, they said they had been stuck for about 3 hours, offered John payment which he refused. He told them to be careful and we all continued on our journey.
Over more hills and snowy roads and another car in the ditch. This person was being assisted by the road crew so we drove on towards Anchorage. I noticed a sign that said 18 miles to Nenana. aaaaaaa - that meant that although it seems like we'd been driving forever we had only gone 30 miles. I really wanted to tell John to turn around and go home but instead I said a lot of silent prayers and we kept going.
We drove by McKinley Village which was still closed - they don't open until the middle of May. We drove by the south viewpoint of Denali (Mt. McKinley) - it was still snow packed and they hadn't even started plowing it out for the influx of summer visitors and tour buses. We drove over snowy mountain roads and curvy roads and by a small herd of caribou - I wanted to stop for a picture but knew that they wouldn't stay where they were so tried to get a picture with my video camera but that didn't work out so well.
About 20 miles or so south of Talkeetna, it started snowing and kind of kept snowing on us the rest of the way into Anchorage but there wasn't any snow pack on the road which was good.
John wanted to go by REI to pick up some gaiters for hunting this fall so I pulled out my i-phone, brought up the map and typed in rei store anchorage, AK. It brought up an address of North Shore Drive which isn't where it was last time we were down there but I was thinking maybe they had moved the store. It took us quite a while to get to the location on my i-phone which turned out not to be where the store was. Another 15 minute drive in a different direction and we were finally at REI.
We got the gaiters, paid for them with his 2012 dividend from stuff he had bought last year and left the store since I am trying really hard to not look around at stuff if it isn't on my list to buy.
When we came out of the store, John said "let's grab a quick sandwich and then we'll go to Knight's." Hmmm - there went my dreams of a nice lunch in downtown Anchorage. And to top it off, he added "we'll just stop at this McDonalds." ai yi yi - McDonald's is not someplace we have ever spent much time at. Oh well, whatever. I ordered a sweet chili grilled chicken wrap which actually was pretty tasty except for the cup of mayo it had on it (well maybe it was just 2 Tablespoons). I would order it again if MP and I go to McDonald's but would tell them to hold the mayo.
We got to the taxidermist shop and since it had been on TV when they were filming all these Alaska shows, I had to take a picture of the entrance.
.jpg)
They had John's caribou hanging right there in the front of the store along with a rhino, elephant and various other animals. Back in the truck and we started the long drive back home.
The rain had stopped, the snow had stopped and the road was nice and dry all the way home.
Since Denali was out in all it's glory, I told John he had to stop at the south view point so I could get a picture. Obviously, it still hadn't been plowed since we went by earlier in the morning and from where you enter that parking lot, you can't see anything. So he drove a little ways down the road and stopped so I could get a picture. Good thing the trees haven't leafed out yet.
And look how high that snow is piled. (it is very sad when we are getting over 17 hours of sunlight that the snow isn't melting)
One more stop for one more picture and then I promised to be satisfied so we could get home. When I told him, "no worries, we'll be home by dark" he replied "well considering the sun doesn't go down until 10:30 I'm sure we will."
Finally we made it back to Nenana.
The tripod is out on the Tanana River waiting for breakup so it can fall into the river and stop the clock. Then whoever is closest to the exact time gets the big money. In the 97 years they have done this, the first 2 weeks of May is the time it has happened the most. On Thursday they had taken some samplings to measure how thick the ice is and it is still 36" at this spot on the river.
This morning, I got up and got ready for church but had to help John hang up Rudolph before leaving:
I think it's only fair that since Sister Sue got to kiss a moose last summer that I got to hug a caribou. Yeah fun - John got a new stuffed animal to hang on the wall. But at least that's done and it sounds like we might hit 50 degrees this week so what more can we possibly ask for.
He's cute. Is he as soft as he looks?
ReplyDelete