Day Twenty-Six - Glennallen, AK

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Today was a rest and recover day before we pack up and head to Tok tomorrow. No plan meant I could be lazy and stay in bed until Mike became annoying with his pestering for me to get up.

Later in the morning we went grocery shopping. We were out of ice cream and that just couldn't be allowed to happen. Oh, and we needed some other things like bread and bananas. We made our way up and down the aisles gathering the items on our list: bread, bananas, granola, yogurt and ice cream. We pulled up to the ice cream cooler to make our selection and my eyes bulged and my jaw dropped when I saw the price for a half gallon carton. Tillamook and Dryers were both $12.39. For a half gallon! Holy cow!! There was another brand, Stone Ridge from Rhode Island, that was only $9.09. Still more than double what we'd pay at home for the good stuff - Tillamook. We got to the checkout line, put our items on the conveyor belt, and waited to hear the damage. $34 for a loaf of bread, 3 bananas, 2 single serve cups of yogurt, a package of granola, a half gallon of milk and a half gallon of off-brand ice cream. We should have listened to Hoss and gone to the nearest Three Bears Market. Even if it was all the way back in Anchorage, we would have saved money. He warned us the owner of this store raised their prices every year, but it was close and we didn't know how far we'd have to drive to find another option.

The boys went fishing (not catching) about 1:00. They were back about an hour later. The river was too low and the "deep" spots weren't deep enough to encourage fish to hang out and wait for a couple old guys to fling fake flies onto the surface of the creek. They didn't get any bites from the fish, but they got plenty from the bugs; or maybe just irritated. Mike said the area was thick with mosquitoes.

About 2:30 we had a brief rain shower. I hoped it wouldn't wash off the road dust.

Mike and I finally decided to let the dining room light out of timeout. We moved the table out of the way and used it as a staging area for the parts and tools. The first step was to secure the bracket that holds the fixture to the ceiling. The hard part about that was trying to figure out how to get the lock washers and nuts onto the small bolts we bought. The reason for the difficulty was because of the lack of space to maneuver in the ceiling cavity. There was only about an inch of space which didn't make it easy to get fingers, tools and hardware where it needed to be. I'd get the bolt through the bracket and ceiling okay, but when I'd try to get the washer on the bolt I'd have issues. I couldn't get two fingers up there to hold the washer, there was no way I could get my thumb and index finger in there. At one point I lost track of the washer up in the ceiling. I thought I could feel it, but when I couldn't feel it any longer I was afraid I had nudged it out of reach under the styrofoam insulation. One time the little washer fell on the floor. That was fun trying to find an itty bitty washer hiding somewhere among the carpet fibers. I found it and the one I thought I'd lost in the recesses of the ceiling, too! A lightbulb finally went on above my head and it wasn't the one I was trying to reattach. We had a roll of double-sided tape. I could use a bit of that on the tip of my finger to hold the washer long enough to get it over the end of the bolt. It took several tries to get the washer in just the right spot on the tape so it could be easily unstuck once it was in place. It never really got easy to get any of the washers or nuts unstuck; it was a struggle each and every time. I finally got the bolts in, washers on and nuts finger-tight(ish). To get the nuts tight enough to not work loose on the road we needed to get a wrench up in there. The closed end of the four-inch-long wrench was actually bent at the perfect angle to get over the end of the bolt and onto the nut. I held the wrench in place while Mike tightened the bolt. A few twists of the screwdriver and we were onto the next one. All three nuts and bolts tightened and the bracket was solidly affixed to the ceiling. Now to reconnect the light itself. Wire nuts to the rescue! We joined the wires easily and quickly and tucked them up inside the ceilling and bracket cavities. Things were progressing much quicker now, probably because we had lots of room to work. The last step was to mount the light fixture onto the bracket. I forgot that one of the screws had to be partially screwed in first. There's a slot on the light fixture that the first screw slides into THEN you line up the other two screw holes and attach the last two screws. I tried to do it in the reverse order. Didn't work so easily. Or at all. Mike turned the power back one and VOILA! We have light again! Yay! Having the light over the table makes it so much nicer to sit there to eat or work on the blog.

About 5:45 I heard a single distant thunder rumble accompanied by more sprinkles. A little later Dave, Mike and I were outside between our two trailers talking about going to the Roadhouse here in the park for dinner when it started hailing. The hail was at least the size of peas. Peas are gross, by the way, but hail is cool! It wasn't as soft as peas, though. I got hit on the head a couple of times while taking pictures and videos. Hail bounced off everything like hundreds of ping pong balls being dropped on Captain Kangaroo. We don't get hail that size at home. The hail let up and the rain increased. Water poured like waterfalls from the awnings and gutters. We weren't going anywhere anytime soon.

At long last the rain let up enough for us to walk over to the restaurant. The menu was very limited: pizza or chili. They also had a selection of hot sauces to add a little kick to the chili should you so desire. Dave desired. There were four house sauces and what Andy, the owner, referred to as the "table of pain," a collection of hot sauces from all over. He asked Dave if he wanted to take "the hot sauce challenge." Dave's always on the lookout for a new hot sauce so of course he accepted the challenge. Andy brought over a plate with four saltine crackers and, one by one, shook a few drops of one of the house sauces onto the middle of a cracker. The first, Moose Kick, was made with jalapeno peppers. This was followed by the next cracker with a small puddle of Wolf Bite Hot Sauce made with garlic chipoltle peppers. Frost Bitten featured Carolina Reapers and was the hottest of the four. He made it through all four, but said the heat of the third sauce, Bear A** Burn made with ghost peppers, detracted from the flavor and kick of the fourth. He ordered a bowl of the chili and after a couple bites to taste the true flavor, added a dash or three of sauce number three. Mike and I just shared a pizza.

Halfway through our meal another couple came in and sat down at a nearby table. By their accents I could tell they were from England. Andy's wife, Karen, brought out a plate of crackers and the four house sauces and went through the same spiel her husband had earlier. The husband was the one to taste the sauces and warned Karen that he had no taste buds. Karen obviously didn't believe him. She sounded incredulous when he had no reaction to the first two. She played up the third sauce, he popped it in his mouth and shrugged. The fourth and final sample cracker brought a slight change in his reaction. He said he could taste it ... a little. Karen was beside herself. It was actually a little fun to watch. The couple ordered their food and we began to chat with them about everything from Ukraine to Brexit to cars. They were both happy to be out of the EU and expressed how nice it was to be back to gallons and miles and away from liters and kilometers. He was also fascinated by the American automotive industry and that American consumers were okay with driving vehicles that got "such low mileage." He went on about how if he had a car that got less than 50 miles per gallon it would be unacceptable. After several minutes of Mike, Dave and this gentleman discussing engines and pros and cons of gas/petrol and diesel, I pointed out to them that part of the reason their cars got better mileage is because their "gallon" is bigger than our "gallon." Their imperial gallon is about 20% more than our US gallon. Bigger gallon means more fuel. More fuel means farther distance. Farther distance means better mileage. Or so it would appear. I don't think he thought it accounted for the entirety of the difference in fuel economy (or seeming lack thereof). He was also astounded at the size of the engine required to pull our fifth wheels. Both of our trucks have 7.3 liter engines. The Englishman told us that smaller trucks in England would be able to tow our rigs just fine because they have more gears. I didn't even pretend to understand everything they were discussing, but I think I did understand his point (although I couldn't explain it to you). Later on Mike told me a truck with a smaller engine and a lower gear ratio could pull the trailer, but it would be going so slow it would take forever to get anywhere. It was a fascinating conversation with the two of them as we bounced from one topic to another, from serious to superficial.

At the end of our meal Andy came over and asked if we wanted any dessert. All three of us declined and we continued our conversation. When the British couple finished their meal they ordered the adult ice cream dessert. Out came a small tray with four shot glasses. Each glass contained a shot of a different flavored whiskey paired with a dollop of a complementary flavor of ice cream. It looked yummy so I looked at Dave and asked if he wanted to share one with me. He agreed that it looked good so we ordered it. Andy brought it out, but didn't tell us which glass held which flavor combination. There was peanut butter, pecan, apple pie and caramel. We were able to figure out which was which ... I think.

We continued chatting with the other couple with Andy jumping in on occasion as he cleaned up. We could have probably kept the conversation going another hour or more, but it was already past closing so we all got up from our tables, thanked Andy for the dinner and conversation and said our goodbyes.

Tomorrow isn't a far drive, but it will still take much longer than what Google is telling us. We'll talk again soon.

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