View Larger MapWe left the house to get back on the road at about 11:00 after a tearful goodbye. We had such a nice stay; it was so nice to see and spend time with Betty and the family. On our way out of town we filled up at the gas station and added some air to Jennifer’s back tire. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm. At the intersection/rest stop to go to either Anchorage or Seward we stopped for a break, took pictures and each ate a fruit bar.
We stopped again for gas at Girdwood and shared a quart of chocolate milk.At the Girdwood gas station an older local guy on a HD asked Eric if "we rode all the way up from the world" and if we camped the whole way. Eric told him we were from "the world" and that we were hoteling it but had camping gear just in case we couldn't get a room in towns. We talked with him about our trip plans. He wished us luck on our trip to the Arctic.
At the same gas station, a couple driving a camper from B.C. asked where in Idaho we were from, Jennifer explained that we are from CA but we bought her Kawasaki Versys bike in ID because Eric works in Idaho a lot. They then asked where in CA are we were from. They said that they have some family in Southern CA and that apparently there was a 5.0 earthquake in the last couple of days in California. We were surprised to hear about the quake in California.
We rode through Anchorage. It was small, but crowded with traffic from road construction. We saw an Army Fort on the way north outside of town in the middle of a posted moose crossing area. There was a cool multi-whisker strange moose gate in the fort fence by the highway in the middle of a high security fence. How does it let moose through and not people? Someone told us that it actually does only let moose through!
~45 minutes north of Anchorage a guy on a HD pulled up by Jennifer 1x and Eric 1x and told us what he thought that the weather would be(clear all the way to Fairbanks) and to be careful of speed in the next town because the limit was only 45 and the police set-up speed traps. He was wrong on both counts: It rained the next day on the way to Fairbanks and in the next town the lowest Highway speed limit was actually 55. We also never saw any police in that town.
We were hoping that the fancy hotel at Talkeetna was maybe not busy and rates maybe were more reasonable to attract guests. On our way up the road to Talkeetna we saw several cruise line tour buses, which is an indication that the hotel was doing just fine. Sure enough the best rate that we could get was $269/night. Needless to say we did not check in, but rather continued on our way after buying gas. A lady at the gas station who was filling her van said that a M/C looks more fun than her van. We told her "it is for us, but maybe not for some people in the rain". She said that was true and asked if we came from the north (where she came from) through the rain.
At the Denali lookout point we took pictures; it was beautiful. We weren't quite able to see the top of Denali, but the view was amazing nevertheless. 
The weather wasn't too wet and the forecast for tomorrow was rain so Jennifer wanted to continue riding. We came to a long pilot truck road construction area and the line had already started moving, so we were stuck far back behind a slow horse trailer/truck. After a light rain started we finally stopped for the night in Cantwell at the “Denali Manor B&B” that felt like maybe a converted something else. It was the only vacancy in a small railroad town! The attached Cafe was closed so we got hot water and ate 2 freeze-dried camping dinners in the Breakfast/Dining room. One of the dinners was really bad organic spinach putanesca, but the beef stroganoff was good enough that we finished that off. The owner let us use the laundry, so we washed and dried all our dirty clothes after waiting for another guest ( a Railroad worker) to finish his.
The weather wasn't too wet and the forecast for tomorrow was rain so Jennifer wanted to continue riding. We came to a long pilot truck road construction area and the line had already started moving, so we were stuck far back behind a slow horse trailer/truck. After a light rain started we finally stopped for the night in Cantwell at the “Denali Manor B&B” that felt like maybe a converted something else. It was the only vacancy in a small railroad town! The attached Cafe was closed so we got hot water and ate 2 freeze-dried camping dinners in the Breakfast/Dining room. One of the dinners was really bad organic spinach putanesca, but the beef stroganoff was good enough that we finished that off. The owner let us use the laundry, so we washed and dried all our dirty clothes after waiting for another guest ( a Railroad worker) to finish his.
