The Long Way North

 Day 25

 

Woke up this morning and it was raining. We were going to go flying in a bush plane with my buddy Kyle however mother nature had a different idea. Well Kyle had to scratch that and I don’t blame him. We would have been able to see or view anything as the clouds with the rain were on the ground.

We are heading to Seward today and that is a beautiful ride. Well, the rain and fog made it seriously tough to plow forward on the bikes. We took cover at a small town called Moose Pass. Pulled the bikes under someone’s barn with a cover. We figured if they told us to leave we would but let’s take the chance. Fog lifted a little bit here and the one restaurant had homemade pie. So, it was pie and coffee for breakfast. It was fantastic as were hungry, cold and wet. We never were confronted for parking where we did, awesome. With the food void in our bellies, we pegged up and throttled back in route to Seward.

 Massive rain as we could not even see the mountains and we were riding right along them.We pulled into Seward and again found shelter. We walked around a little, but the rain convinced us that we needed to keep moving.

We will back track our route in route towards Anchorage.  

When we stayed at Lulu’s four days ago a lady there told us to check out Hope, Alaska north of Seward. When we saw the junction for it we took it. She said the road to it was beautiful with some nice glaciers. Well guess what, massive rain and fog. Couldn’t see any of it.

We pulled into the one restaurant/bar. Man, the food here was out of this world. We ate like kings, and they were fantastic people.

 We headed out and plan to go through the Whitter tunnel to Whitter. Massive rain!

Again, the rain and fog make it very serious to see the road and traffic. We pull up to the tunnel and must wait. They stage the vehicles as this tunnel is one way. Motorcycles are in the pack of the pack. A railroad line goes through it and we must stay between the tracks. If you wander and your front wheel goes into a track you and your bike will go down. No big deal right except this tunnel is two miles long.

As we are waiting, we take refuge at the restrooms as there is cover in front of it. I am telling Boyd and pointing out some glaciers, but we can hardly see them.

Really there is a big glacier behind Boyd.

Look I am pointing at it.

We are given the thumbs up to head out. We get through with no issues. 

When we come out the fog and rain are worse on this side. We couldn’t see anything, so we turned around and wait our turn to back out. Now we must sit and wait in the massive rain. Have I mentioned it’s raining?

We have about an hour to go to get to Anchorage and we are faced with massive rain.

We get there and gas up. We take shelter under the canopy of the gas station and start the hunt on our phones for a room and camping is out of the picture. Did I mention the massive rain?

Boyd finds a place for $89. I said let’s go. We get there and it is called Mush Inn. WOW!!!

We pulled under their front check in cover and wondered if it is going to cave in on us. This place is a dump in the worst part of Anchorage. Cars are sitting all over the parking lot broken down. One car is parked on a slight incline with two big rocks wedged behind the back wheels. Well hell we are not staying here!!!

We sat under their cover and started the search again. Did I mention the massive rain going on?

Everything in this town is outrageous in price. Anything from $280 to $400 a night. Some of them I called were booked up. I finally found the Econo Inn, two beds for $140. Let’s go. We get there and it is in the middle of downtown Anchorage. How bad can that be?

Well, I think it a rent by the hour place. Junkies and deadbeats everywhere. I get us checked in and pay cash as I can see my credit card fraud going to happen if I lay a card down. I give him two $100 bills and he gives me back three $20’s. He is behind a bullet proof window!

As we are unpacking our bikes a junkie comes over and asks for a lighter. We swat him off like a mosquito.

We get into the room and the smoke alarm is chirping. I go tell the dude up front. He makes an attempt to fix it. Well, that’s a bust. So, he is going to give us a different room. I went with him to his jail cell. He says “I have one, but the heaters don’t work."

I said “Just give me my money back and I will go somewhere else!”

He says that they do not give refunds.

Well that’s it with junkies all over the place I pulled out the three $20’s he gave me as change at check in. Set them on the counter under his glass window and said “Well tonight you are going to give a refund and it’s going to happen Right Now! Give me back the two bills and here’s your 20’s.”

Well, he did and was pissed off.

 I go up and tell Boyd, we are out of here.

We are packing the bikes back up as I call Lulu. She is about 40 miles away and it is now 8:15pm.She didn’t answer so I left her a message and told her who we were. She immediately calls me back and tells me she has our tent waiting. We headed out in the, did I mention massive rain.

Man, what a blessing it was to see Lulu again. We felt like we came home as she welcomed us with open arms.

We spread out all our wet gear and turned the heater up to high. Yes a great heater in the tent. Now for some shut eye.

How can you not love this?

Let’s see what tomorrow brings.