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Published: July 25th 2012
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First part of the day was simply getting the car ready for road travel and some other preparedness. At the moment, I could probably last a week or two if the car broke down in the wilderness given the snacks and water. And no, the snacks are not all chocolate - nuts, raisins, peanut butter, etc. The staples of road travel.
On the way to Target, I saw a sign for a place offering helicopter instruction. Mmm, that could be really interesting. Unfortunately I doubt it could be done in one day and on second thought, me in charge of flying a helicopter is actually a pretty scary thought!! Guess that might be one experience I'll pass in consideration of the safety of others.
I had a bit of time to spare this afternoon so I started with a trip through downtown. Quite nice though I made a few turns that virtually ended up at the waterfront. It's definitely an area crying out for further exploration one of the other times I'm in Anchorage during the trip. I found where the office of Alaska.org should be for the trip's end. If you are coming to Alaska anytime soon or
just want to dream about doing so, I HIGHLY recommend you take some significant time at the alaska.org website. There is a TON of information, recommendations, and options provided complete with contact information. It was key to the development of my itinerary and though not looking forward to the end of the trip, it will bring a visit to alaska.org where I'll be able to share the stories from the journey that they had a gigantic role in helping me create. It's not a commercial - it's a reality. alaska.org has been the most comprehensive and diverse Alaskan travel information I've seen and deserve a lot of my thanks in that planning.
I had a little time to spare in the afternoon so I found Earthquake Park. Fifteen minute walk turns into 45 minutes because of all the historical information provided and the thoughts it provokes. For you trivia folks, here's some questions and no peeking at the picture captions for answers until you have given your educated guess 😉
• What year was Anchorage and Southcentral Alaska devastated by an earthquake?
• What's the difference between the Richter and Mercalli methods to define an earthquake? (I didn't even
know there was anything beside the Richter)
• What was more devastating than the Earthquake itself?
• What Alaskan Harbor was bombed by Japan in 1942?
• What is the name of the world's largest Seaplane Base? (Hint: It's located in Anchorage Alaska!)
Answers are given throughout the pictures or their captions. It was a great park and having seen Anchorage today, you'd hardly believe it had happened.
Lake Hood was close by so I had to take time to drive through that area. That is actually the answer to the last question above - world's largest Seaplane Base. To give the visual - for Wisconsinites - picture up north all the cottages surrounding lakes. Then picture instead of cottages and cars parked by the cottages, there are simple storage structures with seaplanes parked next to them. That's Lake Hood and the waterfront and surrounding area is crowded with seaplanes. The planes have the right of way no matter what! There are areas warning of it and that you can see where planes actually drive across the highway! I promise I'll go back another day to take some pictures to share so you can visualize it better. I ran
out of memory on the camera and didn't have the case holding the other memory card with me. Ít's really unique. Imagine flying your plane to work each day, having to worry about where to park it?!!
That was about it other than getting road warrior ready. I even found the radio station equivalent to K-Love so I am good to go! I'll be headed for Sutton, AK tomorrow afternoon - Manatuska Lodge. I'm anticipating they'll have Internet access but if not, don't anybody start worrying if I don't post tomorrow night. It's only two hours from Anchorage. I'll be fine 😊
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Peggy
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Trip
I feel like I am with you. Keep it coming.