North to Alaska - Artistic Shots - Day 27 (June 12)

Saturday - The sun was out again with few clouds and we noticed several small, black and white bunnies frisking around the camp, plus a mama someone had dropped off last February. Since there was only one shower-toilet combo for the whole park we didn't even try for a rinse-off, but headed for Talkeetna, 80 miles away. Garrett has a sore throat with hoarseness but Sherrila is hanging in quite well, especially since she now has to drive an unfamiliar van in a new place. In the distance we can make out massive, snow-covered mountains (THE MOUNTAIN? - DENALI?). Roadwork required a detour near Willow, slow and bumpy. Later we took advantage of many photo ops, trees, flowers, etc. Took the Talkeetna Spur Road to the woodsy, pleasant (though near the railroad tracks and under the tour-plane flight path) Talkeetna Camper Park. Everyone rode in the van (now named "The Fishbowl") into town to explore the Little Red Schoolhouse Museum, the Old Train Station and a third building dedicated to THE MOUNTAIN. It included a huge relief map, taking up most of one room, showing the various routes to the summit, along with a memorial to those who perished in an attempt to scale it. We ate at a local restaurant, surrounded by young, healthy-looking mountain-climber types (and a Burmese cat which had been subjected to a poodle cut), then drove around trying to pick up a wireless internet signal, to no avail. After a rest back at camp B & G went to take some pictures while M & S did laundry ($2.75 wash, $1.25 dry). Later we checked out our latest artistic endeavors before bedding down. Tomorrow's drive is almost 200 miles over questionable road.