Hyder is a strange little town cute, quirky, and quaint.  This includes the food.  Everyone speaks highly of the Bus, we missed this last year.  Our first night in town we drive over to get some fresh seafood.  Headed over to see if she was opened not until 4pm so went to explore Stewart with passports in hand. 

Fun fact here Hyder is in the US no border crossing Stewart is in Canada border crossing.  We decided to stay in Hyder so we didn’t have to keep crossing the border numerous times a day.  There’s a little bakery in Stewart that has a sausage breakfast roll that was like the ones we had in Amsterdam, so we picked some up for breakfast and had to get a sweet of course.  We were then able to hook up to the internet check mail and phone messages, because Stewart is the only place with cell service on 37a or 37.

We head back to the bus about 5pm already a crowd, that’s cool I can talk with people.  Order our food wait an hour get it delivered best grilled halibut ever well worth the wait. https://cutterlight.com/2012/01/21/the-bus-in-hyder-the-best-fish-chips-anywhere/ 

I learned during the wait that Bella Coola will be an awesome drive and the drive done to Vancouver will be curvy but the road is completely paved.  The other thing is bears do still come into town proof from the shattered door window of the bus. 

More to come about the week in Hyder

One in a millon.  Picture this miss social butterfly who thinks anyone from Wisconsin is someone I might know or at least a Packer fan. (So I have to talk to them).  

Let me set the stage. After doing our twofer drive day get into Hyder Alaska https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyder,_Alaska one day early, do dinner at the bus, (story to follow) strike out at bear viewing, head back to Camp Run-a-Muck.  I go to pay the camp fee see a truck from Wisconsin must go talk. 

I ask basic question where you from, answer a small town west of Green Bay Waupaca. I start asking if the foundry is still operating, if the Sears Catalog Store is still down town.  They ask if I had lived there I answer yes 1976 till about 1980.  We talk about people we know, agree that Wisconsin has the best cheese curds and fish frys.  To make a long story short, she was the nurse who took care of me when I had my tonsils out and her husband worked as a counselor at the high school and remembered my brother Dave (AKA froggy) when he was part of the track team head shaving.  

Crazy and amazing the people you meet in a random place on a trip or vacation.  This lends a whole new meaning to small world.

What’s a twofer you ask? Doing two days of driving into one we will do anything to get out of boondocking.  We did spend one night along side the river on the Casier.  So we did not give it up completely.  The road was in good condition surprised though at the amount of truck traffic.  

We left Whitehorse in the Yukon on the morning of the third, the stop we were going to make was just to close so we drove on.  The second stop, which would have been where we would of stayed the second night we got there to early.  So we drove on.  After seeing semi wild horse at a brake check area we decided at the bottom of the hill near the rest area by the edge of Eddintenajon Lake we would stop.  On the way down the hill we saw a grizzly bear couldn’t get a picture because he was quicker then me. 

 Last year we saw no animals on the road which is why a twofer was perfect for this road.    Our stop left  us with only 180 miles to travel on the 4th. We also were able to pull in to Camp Run-a-Muck early by a whole day.  I needed a bear fix by now SO PERFECT a place for it also.

Sitting along a pull out on the Richardson Highway we pull in and are greeted by a few bunnies after the day we had it was cool to watch them come back out to lick the ground.  I asked Roy if we should spend the night here he said lets move on.  So on we went, which was cool because a little farther down the road we saw a glimpse of a cow moose with her twin babies.  That is now off  my wildlife bucket list.  I am still looking for an Orca.  My last shot this trip will be Seattle.

Driving up the Richardson we not only got to see the animals we were following the pipeline and getting close to some glaciers.  This was a good decision to not camp on the Denali Highway but drive until Roy got tired.  Stopped for a late dinner in Delta Junction then headed down the 2 until we got tired saw another cow moose with a calf no pictures because they were too quick for me.  So after the flat it still turned out to be a good day.

have an eye under my patch.  I know I’m going backwards but it’s ok rough last week.  Saturday morning we left Anchorage and I’ve been tired and the eye was bugging me a little it’s all good.

No animals on the way up to Talkeetna, but it was an easy highway drive.  When we got to the same place we stayed last year I realized we were smaller last year and fit well in the space, this year the space was smaller because our camper grew up.  So we get in our space drop the trailer and go shopping.  I even bought Roy an homemade ice cream shake.  After checking out the stores we headed to the overlook outside of town to take pictures of Denali.

Back down the hill for dinner and a question I had no good answer to. I do know kids say the darnest things it mortified his mother.  The kid who was probably 8 years old getting ice cream and looked me right in my eye and asked ‘Do you have an eye under there?’ What do you say to that I showed him my eye and the mother made him thank me for showing him. I so wanted to have a fake eyeball and have it pop out at him.

Its all good a full day with the patch and the eye is better for now, but I think I still need a fake plastic eyeball in my pocket if I ever get asked that again.  

We set off early Sunday morning from Talkeetna, we saw a moose with one baby before we turned onto Denali Highway the first 3 miles were paved then gravel for the next 111 miles the paved the final 21.  We expected to see alot of animals nothing lol.  We did not expect to see alot of traffic we did and that was a good thing.

The scenery on the drive was interesting seeing how the glaciers cut through hard rock and left trails of sediment behind called eskers which at one point you drive on.  We also got to climb the second highest road pass in Alaska MacLaren summit at  4,086 feet.  Atigan Pass on the Dalton is the highest. This was after we were rescued, more on that later. http://www.alaska.org/guide/denali-highway

The road was rough not to bad lots of shaking and dust.  We saw an old couple in an RV at the beginning of the road for us Cantwell (technically its the end)  I think the views are better going from Paxson to Cantwell.  I think they might of turned around because they didn’t pass us as we were sitting on the side of the road.

We ended up on the side of the road mile marker 77 which would have been only 58 miles from Cantwell.  Drive over some rough rocks going past a cool look-out, pop goes a tire creeping down a small hill found a wide spot in the road pulled over, shook our heads.  I look up and see some black clouds and ask them to stay away.  It was one of our trailer tires.

We get out the jack, then take off one of the two spare tires.  We had an older couple stop and ask if we needed help we said no it’s only a tire.  We tried to get one of the lug nuts out and it would not budge ugh.  A younger guy blew by us no stopping, that’s cool.

Along comes another RV and out piles three guys two look like wrestlers one was older, all speaking a foreign language, but the plate was US Govt.  At this point I’m confused and thinking at least people know where we were and to start looking in 48 hours. (Funny what a mind thinks).  Then a jeep pulls up with even more people in it.  It turns out that the girl is in the Army Reserve  and her fiance is Russian, the dad is visiting from Russia and the other son is visiting from Sweden they were having a family reunion.  

So they start unloading the big guns a bumper jack, some pipes, tire irons.  Later some wrenches and screw drivers were added to the mix.  Little factoid I am stronger then two Russians and Roy my weight was able to crush a lug nut. (OK it was a hollow lug nut).  They were able to get all but one off after a good amount of elbow grease.  The last nut was a tough one to crack.  I bent it and they hand to use a screw driver and other stuff to remove it.

After two hours the tire was changed and that black cloud had gone even though during the process there was rumbles of thunder in the distance.  The guys spoke well enough english the father not so much.  The two younger girls enjoyed the stop over because we stopped right near wild blackberry and blueberry bushes.  (I didn’t pick any too irratated).  

It is nice to see that people will still stop and help out and this extends world wide.  It was also nice to see the I got your back in action, because that’s what battles do.

These Russians seamed eager to show off their muscles and I am glad they had some.  I now know how to change a tire so the next one is all me.

Last night was a blast!  The title will become clear further down the story.  We stayed in bed and slept late (migraine/sinus headache) oh well.  After we got up headed to the free shower very clean and great water.  We grabbed lunch and bummed around Anchorage until dinner with Tundra Tim, Klondike Kate, Karma, her husband all cachers and pinball sharks.

Dinner was awesome we got there a tad early so I could start laundry (thanks Tim and Kate).  Noshing on some great salmon dish and catching up then dinner and more chatting.  The games began after dinner.  Last year when we were here Tim had a pinball machine that he was restoring, task completed.  

You know when you are a kid and you think you are hots*it at something, then you don’t do it forever you lose that skill.  Lesson to self don’t brag before you play.  I would start out good but let’s say I know what the basement looks like.  We had a blast breaking in this pinball machine, Tim was smiling like a proud papa.  He even fixed it a couple of times when we would get the ball stuck.

Tomorrow it’s off to Talkeetna, then the Denali Highway.

I got yelled at by a chipmunk. OK, I thought it was a baby squirrel.  MY BAD!  In my defense I only saw the tail, it was tiny but squirrel colored.  I said what a cute baby squirrel, it came back to the road and showed me its stripe.  He wouldn’t stop chattering until I said ok cute chipmunk.

Speaking of animals yesterday I saw a bunny and Roy saw nothing.  We did explore the base staying at JBER (Joint Base Elmdorf – Richardson) Army Air Force combined base.  The base is HUGE you can also tell the difference between both sides.  

We stopped by the DFAC (dining facility) and the only thing I could think about when I almost cut across the grass was something Sgt Brown said.  Here’s the back story.  We were in school at Ft Sam and decided to cut through the grass we could have gotten away with it.  Except, my battle yells (HI SGT BROWN) and waves.  You guessed it busted so for the rest of the time allotted for lunch we had to shout every time someone came out of the DFAC keep off the grass.  Needless to say we didn’t get caught again. (You thought I was going to say we didn’t do it again).  Funny what memories come up.  I will let you know I stayed off the grass yesterday.

Today we are meeting some fellow cachers for dinner.