Day Twelve - Transit to Palmer, AK

5:15am is generally a pleasant time of the morning for me if I get to bed at a decent hour the night before. This morning? Not so pleasant! But after yesterday, I definitely needed to get a shower and freshen up for the next leg of our journey. We got to the airport in time to catch our flight (we shared the shuttle this morning with a MA couple who were flying out to CA to ride their bikes down the Pacific Coast Highway, so we got all our bags and guitars AND their bikes in the shuttle this time... crazy!). Today we flew three hours to Minneapolis, had an hour there to grab a quick bite to eat, and then flew another 5.5 hours to Anchorage, Alaska. Pretty boring flights, really - no movies, no food... but thankfully I was able to get some sleep. We arrived in Anchorage at 2:30pm Alaska Standard Time (Alaska is the only state to have three different timezones, I believe) and were picked up by our hosts for the weekend, Jamie and Erik.

We were famished by the time we arrived, so they took us to a local Anchorage pizzeria called Moose's Tooth. If you are EVER in Anchorage, you have to stop here. The food was fantastic - we all had the Avalanche pizza - and they brew their own rootbeer (as well as various other alcoholic versions that I did not partake off). I guess the owners recently purchased a local theater and are serving Mooses Tooth pizza and beverages at the theater - a great idea!

After lunch we drove an hour north to Palmer where we spent the night. Here are a few pictures from the drive:

On the way we grilled Jamie on Alaska and some of the interesting tidbits she share with us were:

• it only takes 4 hours to fly to Hawaii from Anchorage... Los Angeles is at least a 7 hour flight.
• Hawaiian Airlines has their headquarters in Anchorage (go figure).
• 236 moose have been hit THIS YEAR on one very short stretch of highway between Anchorage and Palmer (we saw a live one on the drive, actually!).
• the Anchorage airport actually has specific water runways built for pontoon planes.

I'm sure we'll learn much more about Alaska in the coming days, but right now it's bed time. I've fought hard to stay up this long - it's 9:00pm and I'm wiped... but here's hoping that this strategy will let me sleep through the whole night.

Hours sleep: 10
Next destination: Victory, AK

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Comments

[Kathryn]

i've also enjoyed the tour blogging, Jeremy! I don't think i could be as adaptable as you guys are!! time zones, missing people you love, luggage issues, sleep deprivation, different water, food -- how do you do it?

[Bill]

Jeremy

Thanks so much for faithfully keeping your blog up to date. It was great watching your trip unfold. It gave us a sense of what you go through as you traversed the world! Otherwise I would have no idea of the tricky scheduling you have to deal with! We pray for you daily.