Bringing Maddie Home September 17 and 18th

It was finally time for Maddie to come home after working in Alaska for the summer. We were just as excited for her to come home as she was. Our flight did not leave until 5 in the evening so Cindy and I both worked the day. The day was very smokey as the winds had shifted and all the smoke from fires in Idaho and Washington filled the air so that you could not even see Ben Lomand. Shannon and the kids went with us to the airport so she could drive the car back home since we would not need it. We arrived and went right to the gate since all we had was carry on bags. There would be little room in the car on the way home for anything else. The plane first went to Phoenix where we had a lay over for a few hours.

We left for the 6 hour flight to Anchorage a little behind schedule as they had to readjust the luggage in the plane to balance it out. We got into Anchorage at around 1 a.m. Tuesday morning. Maddie was at the airport to greet us and take us to the hotel we stayed out that night. 

We got up in the morning and went and had breakfast in the downtown mall and then did some shopping in the morning at some of the unique stores near the hotel. The clouds hung low and when we were ready to leave it started to drizzle. It was in the mid 80's the day before in Ogden and it was now in the high 40's in Alaska.  We filled up the car with gas which was $3.89 a gallon in Anchorage. As we left Anchorage the rain picked up and some wind joined it. We thought we would not see the mountains at all but there would be breaks here and there so you could see the mountains.

The road after leaving Parker is a two lane road up a canyon. We noticed the leaves were turning yellow and with the mist on the mountains and the evergreens it made a pretty scene. Finally as we got to the top of the canyon the rain stopped and the clouds broke up.

We stopped and looked at the Matanuska Glacier. With all the snow gone from around it this time of year it is very pronounced from when I saw it last. You could even see all the dark areas that was also the glacier topped with rocks that it was carrying. Along the side of the road people spelled their names with rocks. This seemed to be a common practice.

We made it to Glennallen which is 180 miles from Anchorage. We stopped and got some food at the grocery store and then went over to the Freeze for a shake.  While we were getting our shake a couple of local kids that Maddie worked with came in the store and were so excited to see Maddie. They had heard that she had already left and were excited that she was still there.

From there we went to the Lodge to look around where Maddie had worked and lived. Everything was now put away for the winter but we got to see what it looked like. She had spent four months of the summer working in this building. We looked out the big window at Mt. Drum.

After that we went down to Copper Center to the bed and breakfast we were going to stay at. It was owned by the parents of one of the other kids (Micah) who worked at the lodge for the summer. They gave us a great deal of only half price and we actually stayed in a trailer which was their home for many years until they built the log cabin they now live in and which is the "sawinglogzz" bed and breakfast. They had a skinned moose hanging from the porch which they had got in the morning from hunting. This is Alaska.







We then drove to Valdez to see the beautiful sites and to have dinner.The golden yellows of the Aspen tress were now brilliant contrasted against the pines. This would be the scene for over 1000 miles and the next three days.

 As we got closer to the mountain pass the rain started again. We stopped at Worthington Glacier. It was cool weather by now but it was amazing to see the glacier and the blue ice that is exposed by the crevasses.

 We stopped on the downhill side of the pass and took a picture. Where there had been several feet of snow in May it was now a bare area.

Waterfalls were at every turn in the canyon.

We made it to Valdez, had dinner and then went over to a stream outlet to the bay and watched salmon as they swam up the stream. Maddie had said she saw a bear there doing easy fishing the week before but we had no such luck in seeing a bear this day. We returned to Copper Center for the night after traveling 433 miles that day.