Alaska P 17

The Meal was good; ribs, salmon, salad, biscuits, corn-on-the-cob, baked beans and a blackberry cobbler. The play was not as well done as the other two we have seen on the tour. The big drawback was the late hour and the need to get up early tomorrow. On the bus ride back to our cabin, I took some landscape photos at 11:00 PM and they were surprisingly good for the time of day.

With nothing scheduled this morning, we didn’t have breakfast until around 7:30. The Continental breakfast was good and consisted of many varieties of fruit, cereal, breads and drinks. The sky was clear and cool. I was eager to get on the road to Mt McKinley. I lead the Olsons into Denali Park and we began a long climb behind a bus to the viewing location about 10 miles from the park entrance. The bus soon stopped to let us by and we soon were on a high plateau with a scattering of trees. Without any warning a scrawny wolf walked out of the brush and onto the road. I avoided it and Joann called the Olsons to alert them. Joan Olson’s camera would turn on in time to capture the sight. A bit further on, Mt. McKinley came into view and we were able to snap it without any others around to spoil the sight.

After ample time in the park, we drove to a gas station and commercial center. We gassed up, bought submarine sandwiches and got permission to eat our lunch on a picnic table in the nearby RV park. We topped that off with ice cream at the nearby parlor, did some other shopping and talked with members of our group and other visitors to the Park. We saw the Model T’s driving down the road. Lee Chase was one of them. On our way back to the cabins, we stopped in where the T-People are staying to talk to Lee.

The last we had seen of Lee, He had a broken car and was going to teat down the rear end to find the problem. Turned out, the drive line was snapped. He was able to find one in Fairbanks, but since his drive train was non-standard, they had to round up a machine shop to get the drive line modified. This was done and he was on his way yesterday afternoon. However, he and his helpers missed going on the sternwheeler boat cruise.

We meet tonight at the Model T lodgings to catch a bus to a dinner-theater It will be late when we get home and we have to get up for a 5:30 breakfast tomorrow! We are going on a bus tour to the Denali park back country. This area is only accessible to guided tours and will last until 7:00 PM.