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Day 15

Today was the day I would leave Anchorage. I had eaten salmon, seen a moose up close, sampled Alaskan beer, seen whales and porpoises, and disproved the Northen Lights, so now it was time to make the final onceover of the truck and start the longest portion of the road-3000 miles back to California.

It turned out that Dana, who had gone out with us the night before, was having a birthday brunch today. I still had a load of laundry and some packing to do, so Herb drew me a map and he and Lori proceeded on to Dana's house about 11AM. I returned the house key to them before they left, and finished my packing. Once the truck was all ready to go, I made one final check and then punched the garage door button and rushed under the descending edge before it closed, Indiana Jones-style. The door settled on concrete with a heavy terminal thud. That was it, there would be no going back.

I followed Herb's map over to Dana's house, passing a seaplane airport on the way. When I arrived, Herb walked out to ask if I had any trouble finding the place, and led me out to the back yard to meet about 8 people eating around a picnic table. Dana and Lori were there, as well as Dana's brother, Kyle. Then I went into the house and upstairs to the kitchen and met some more people, including Dana's mother, and Dan, who I had met at Herb & Lori's house a couple of days before.
There was a humongous spread of all sorts of breakfast foods, like fruit, french toast (2 kinds), homefries (3 kinds), bagels, breakfast casserole, juice, and champagne. I went back down and listened to some talk about moose chasing people and a hiker who saw a black bear. The bear climbed a tree. The hiker decided that he should play dead. Only problem-black bears eat dead things, and the bear came down to eat the hiker. He only got bitten, though. I don't think the hiker died.

I couldn't stay long because I needed to make time on the road, so I wished Dana a happy birthday, and hopped in the truck. Before I left town I filled up with gas and got someone at the service station to rinse out my air filter in a solvent tank. Afterwards I refilled it with transmission fluid.
I drove for several hours, seeing mostly sights that I had already seen on the way to Anchorage. I stopped around 8PM at a roadhouse that seemed to be an inn/pizza house. It was a log cabin and inside were tables made out of oddly shaped tree trunks, so certain people at the table had more tablespace to eat on than others. I picked one with an extra large lobe at my side so I could peruse my maps as I ate. Looking at the menu, they only offered large pizzas, no mediums or smalls, so it seemed I was destined to eat pizza for the next couple of days. I ordered a pizza with Canadian bacon, mushrooms, and reindeer sausage, to go.

As I waited, I tried to plan the quickest route back. At one point along the Alaska highway, a road called the Cassiar highway splits off, but eventually meets up again near Vancouver. I've heard that it's shorter and slower traveling, which sounds perfect to me, since I can't travel that fast anyway. That's the route I will take in a couple of days.

I watched some children jumping on a trampoline behind the restaurant through an open door. At last the pizza arrived, and I ate all but three pieces while still at the roadhouse. I was careful to note anything special about the reindeer sausage, but it just tasted like pork to me.

I put the rest of the pizza in the cooler and headed further down the road. I considered stopping in Glenallen, but something inside wanted me to just keep on going, so I only stopped at a convenience store to fill my old M.I.T. coffeehouse "Don't Be a DisBozo" mug. Unfortunately, they were out of coffee, but had lots of groceries, so I bought some food for the next few days and also spotted a Mountain Dew "Big Slam" in the frigerator. Something named "Big Slam" should probably keep me awake, I thought, so I bought it, too.

I put the food in the cooler and headed on along until a little after 1:30AM, when I began to get tired. I stopped in a roadside pullover and slept in the cab of the truck, which wasn't easy. I spotted some rather large tracks in the mud alongside the truck, but in the dusk I couldn't identify them, and it didn't help me sleep any better.

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