Wednesday, June 23

I know you've all heard the stories about how big the mosquitos are in Alaska - well, it's true. As Duane so perfectly stated the other day, "What the heck! I've shot at pheasants the same size as that mosquito." Truth. They're huge here.

Spent most of this morning finding WiFi (Anchorage is a pain in the butt for that - even Starbucks doesn't have it). Then, on the road again to Denali - 240 miles (4-1/2 hours). Haveto really be careful with gas on this road - can't find it all the time. We go on our bus tour of Denali at 6:45 a.m. tomorrow. It's a 9 to 11 hour tour and then we have to drive back to Anchorage. I sure hope this tour is great - we're going to get back awfully darn late tomorrow night. Good thing it stays light here constantly.

Drove up to our hotel here next to Denali - I went, "Oh, crap, not again." It looked like one of those strip hotels that strippers use for their "tricks." Good news is that it was sparking clean on the inside. Thank goodness.

Don't have a lot of news today. It was basically a travel day just to get somewhere. Like I said, sure hope Denali is all they say it is.

Thanks for checking - thanks for the prayers.

Gayle - BOTB

Now for news from the front....

At Pastor Dave's house, the neighbor reported that she went out to check the mail earlier this week and a black bear sow and three cubs were standing by her mailbox, and this is in the middle of Anchorage. Strange but true!

At the BMW dealer yesterday I also yacked with a professor from St Cloud State (MN) university who does nothing other than ride all summer long. He has a cabin in Homer AK and has ridden up here 3 of the past 5 years. He said that this year the road out of Canada to Alaska was the worst he has ever seen. The dude was a little eccentric, (I mean he IS a Professor!) Last summer he did the USA "4 corner" trip.. He left St Cloud MN, went to Maine, Key West, FL, San Diego and then up to Seattle before heading back to MN. 10000 plus miles, now that dude has an "iron butt"!

More tomorrow!