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Published: July 10th 2012
At The Main Lodge
On the evening of our arrival.The day after our Brooks River excursion, we checked out of our hotel in Anchorage and started driving the 2-1/2 hour drive to the town of Talkeetna. On the way, we would pass through Wasilla, Sarah Palin's home town and saw a lot of pretty scenery once again driving north on the Parks Highway. The weather was pretty good, 60's and cloudy, but no rain.
We arrived at our home for the next 3 days, the Susitna River Lodge, about 2:30 in the afternoon and checked in. It was an opportunity for me to catch up with Howard and Darlene, the owners of the lodge. When I was here 3 years ago, they were very kind and hospitable to me after I dropped and broke my camera the night before my glacier landing flight. (Howard loaned me his camera for the flight, saving the day.) Darlene also directed me to a clinic where I could get my ribs x-rayed after falling out of the airplane on the glacier. They also allowed me to stay a couple extra days to heal. For the whole story, You can check out the post from my first Alaska trip here:
The lodge is a wonderful place. It is in a great location with views of the Alaska mountains and a 1/2 mile or so from the quaint town of Talkeetna. They have several beautiful suites in the main lodge and 4 cozy, private cabins on the property. I highly recommend that if you ever get to Alaska, you put Talkeetna and the Susitna River Lodge on your itinerary. Here's their website:
By the way, Howard has a fleet of snowmachines and guides snowmachine tours of this beautiful place in the winter. Hmmm, I may just have to make a winter trip here!
After all the introductions, catching up and taking some photos at the lodge, we decided to go to town for dinner. The weather was beautiful once again, sunny and 70's. The town was jam packed with tourists due to the nice summer weather and the stop made by the train carrying the cruise boat folks heading for Denali. The train stops here for a couple hours to give the people a chance to get a small taste of Talkeetna. The whole town is only a couple blocks long and as of the last census in 2010 has a population of 876. It is a very old, (by Alaska standards), pioneer town.
Since the town was so crowded, I dropped off Marilyn, Jan and Dan near Nagley's store and started looking for a place to park. After my second circuit of town, I found them already having a beer on the outside deck at the Twisted Creek Restaurant. It's also a microbrewery and Dan has a weakness for microbreweries, always looking for a new beer to try.
We ate dinner there outdoors and the food was excellent. Afterward, we continued our tour of town. Marilyn and Jan checked out all of the many shops while Dan and I made our way to the Fairview Inn in search of a bit more liquid refreshment and in hopes of meeting and talking to a couple local residents. The Fairview is
THE late-night spot in town with live music every night and stays open until 3:30 AM. The town park is next door and many patrons made the trek back and forth between the park and the Fairview.
We were not disappointed. After a couple minutes seated at the bar, a rather long-haired middle aged guy sat down
near us. He started out pounding a couple large rocks glasses full of Jose Cuervo. We struck up a conversation and he turned out to be quite a character with many, many interesting stories, some of which may actually be true. (but not many!) He introduced himself as Carl, clarifying it further to Crazy Carl. (accurate)
I went out for a smoke and when I came back in another bewhiskered middle-aged man was sitting at a table with a pile of papers in front of him. He started talking to me and I sat down. While sipping his beer, he told me that the papers were some evidence that he was waiting to discuss with a lawyer. He showed me a couple of the papers that turned out to be emails from Nigeria stating that he was in line for $6.5 million. All he had to do was deposit $750 in some bank account to receive it. Can you imagine that? What luck to be in a remote Alaska town and be selected to become a millionaire!! I sure do hope the lawyer isn't Crazy Carl!
Marilyn and Jan came a bit later and joined us for a
Our Cabin
Is that a beer on the picnic table? Another shocker! drink before dragging us out of there to head back to the lodge. Back there we sat outside and enjoyed a nice fire discussing the day's events. It was probably around 1:00 AM when we went to bed and still pretty light out.
Tomorrow we fly again.
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