Talkeetna!

Lou and I just landed at the Village strip in Talkeetna. We flew in from Gulkana where we fueled up. Mike has split off temporarily to fly up to Fairbanks to watch the finish of a famous powerboat race called theYukon 1000. He’ll catch up with us later today. I have a lot of updating to do from the last couple of days’ flights, including a spectacular mountaintop landing. We will spend some “down time” this afternoon, getting a shower, doing some laundry and charging up our phones.

Right now, we are at the Denali Brewing Company waiting to visit with Don Lee. Don is a friend who I met a few years ago when he visited in Burnet and needed a checkout in one of the rental airplanes. He owns Alaska Floats and Skis which is a flight training company specializing in advanced training. Don has been flying in Alaska since the 70’s and is very well known as a great teacher and aviator. I plan to do some float flying with him next week during Judy’s visit. Don let us crash in his cabin for the night and helped Mike and Lou get their oil changed on the aircraft. Once again, the folks we meet have been wonderfully kind and helpful. Visiting with the business owners, waitresses and pilots has been a real treat. Lou and I had a long chat with Tricia Costello who owns the Roadhouse in town. She has been the proprietress for seventeen years and does an impressive job of managing the near chaos of providing a variety of services to tourists, travelers and climbers. We watch a European team packing and weighing all of their food and gear in preparation for an attempt on Denali. Trisha is a bit worried for them because it is late in the climbing season and the warm temperatures increases the avalanche danger. Alaska roadhouses are a tradition in Alaska and I enjoy hearing her story.

We turn in as tomorrow we will split up for a day to let us each take care of some chores.