Thursday, October 6, 2011

The Crown Jewel (or "Farewell, King Solomon")

On the road again, this time with a travelling companion.  Say hello to Jeanette.  Jeanette's from the New Orleans area, but got her start at Mt. Rushmore.


On our way to Denali, we stopped by Sarah Palin's house, but this is as close as we could get.

Whoops!  That's one of the spirit houses of the Eklutna native village.  Sorry 'bout that.

Then we stayed at a cute little B&B in Talkeetna.  Though they stopped serving breakfast for the season, it was still possible to get hot meat pasties (introduced, of course, by immigrants from Michigan.)

Sadly, the "IGLOO" was no longer taking reservations from anyone but hoboes.

A mountain with an identity crisis: is it Denali or Mt. McKinley?  About 1200 people attempted the summit (20,320 ft.) this season, with a success rate of fifty-three percent.

Jeanette makes friends with some future Iditarod champions.  Actually, they will be used by the park for dog-sled patrol in the winter.  How cool would that be?

 Last item on our Alaskan adventure checklist: ride a hand tram across a roaring gorge.  "No, it's not *hrghnn* that heavy..."


2 comments:

Jeanette Meleen said...

Jon, you are really on top of things! You've got a great blog. I hope you keep it up!

Your travel companion, Jeanette

Ron said...

Hi, Jeanette. Looks like Jon could use some gloves. rc