Backtracking...

July 4 - 6, 2014

Friday dawned a

beautiful day to celebrate America's birthday.  And, who could ask for a prettier place than Homer, Alaska.  Especially, when you can celebrate with

great friends.

The owners of the campground grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken.  Everyone brought a dish to share.  And, as usual, a campground cookout turned into a feast.

  It was a great afternoon that even included everyone winning

a door prize from the campground gift shop.

We soaked up a beautiful day filled with warm sunshine, but soon realized that we had also soaked up our wonderful week in Homer, and it was drawing to a close.  And, I have to say, while there have been days, I was ready to move on, this was not one of them.

And, sadly on Saturday morning, we

 

put Homer in our rearview mirror and started backtracking Alaska.

After a stop in Ninilchik to ship some more fish to Texas, we headed on to Soldotna.  The guys thought they might get in an afternoon of fishing, but, the river was too high and too fast, and, the fish were not biting.

  So, as in the past, we made a 15 minute decision and headed out to work our way back toward Anchorage.

By early evening, we reached the

Girdwood area just out of Whittier and camped in the same pull out where we stayed a few weeks ago...great spot and no reservations needed!

This morning, we woke to the pitter patter of rain drops on the roof.  But, by the time, we reached the

Turnagain Arm, there was a little ray of sun shining on the mountain.  However, it didn't last long, and by the time we reached Sam's Club in Anchorage, the rain had set in.

Decision time again.  Rich and Mary decided to stay on in Anchorage for a couple of days while Bob, Molly, Mark and I decided to do a little more backtracking.  So, in the

rain, we backtracked on to Talkeenta, a town we bypassed earlier in our journey...because of the rain!

Well, this time, we are on an adventure mission, and, we aren't letting the rain stop us.  We arrived in Talkeenta around noon, found a great place to boondock at a closed up business.  We made a phone call or two and headed to

town.

  We had time to

shop,

check out

a menu for a dinner plan, and

find that Mark Nemeth was in town too!

Soon, it was time for our adventure with

Talkeetna Air and our flight to see Mt. McKinley and land on a glacier.  We were just about ready to board our flight, when the weather seemed to take a turn and all flights were cancelled for the rest of the day...bummer!

Tomorrow is not looking much better, so we rescheduled for Tuesday morning.  So, with no flight today, we decided it was time to backtrack to town and be bummed out over dinner.  And, a mighty fine plan that was.  We ate at the West Rib Pub and Cafe, a place that has been featured on

Food Network's, Man v Food, and the home of the 5 pound burger.

Although, we didn't indulge in this monster burger, we were all quite stuffed when we finished our meal.

  So a little walk around town to smell

the flowers and a drive to the

float plane harbor to watch the planes returning from their tours was a nice way to finish our day.

Now, snuggled into our rigs for the evening and listening once again to the rain on the roof, we are hoping for better weather tomorrow.  Perhaps some more backtracking, or maybe a new adventure will be the agenda.  While hopefully, Tuesday will bring us clearing weather and maybe sunshine, so we can take our flight to McKinley...our whole reason for backtracking to Talkeetna!