Bow Tie Tour

We pretty much rested today, checked out email and played with the kids. Jason and I engaged in a fun game of bicycle tag with them.  We also purchased ferry tickets leaving from Haines Alaska in two days.

Great hospitality and good food

We also stopped by ye olde Wal-Mart to pick up some things we would need for the ferry ride. Then got a good nights sleep because we had some riding to do. 755 miles worth and the weather forecast wasn’t sunny.

We got up and it was still cloudy but the rain had sort of left us.  As we were packing to leave we learned that the bridge we had crossed the previous day had washed out over night as well as the nearby railroad.  We were also informed that the bridge to the south of us was declared unstable.
As there is only one road we headed out and the police let us cross single file in the middle of the bridge.

Driving by the next town (where we probably would have stopped had we pressed on) we saw the effects of the flooding. The entire town was covered in water with only the road above the water line. It was crazy.

I pulled these pictures off an Alaskan news website.

This is what it looked like riding by (minus the boat)

We kept riding and after much shivering and wetness we rolled into Anchorage to stay with a some friends of Eric’s family.

When we got up it was still drizzling rain and chilly so we got packed up and headed out.

Here we are about to leave.

As soon as we hit the road the rain really started coming down. After about an hour of the freezing downpour I was soaked through my “waterproof” gear. Shivering we rolled into a hotel/restaurant on the side of the road. We poured the water out of our boots and headed inside for some coffee. The coffee tasted so warm and good we decided to eat lunch. The food was so good and it was dry inside we decided to get a room and sleep.

Which we did. Jason cooked up a hearty meal of noodles and beens on his camp-stove, we jumped on the beds and got a good nights sleep.

We slept in until it stopped raining and being the lazy lads that we are decided to take some R&R after our 900 mile ride the day before. So we headed out and ate a nice big American breakfast at Dennys then headed to the theatre to watch “Taledega Nights”

Then we rode south towards Mt. Denali. On the way it started to drizzle. Then it started to rain. Then it started to deluge so we tried to find shelter for the night. The one hotel within many miles was completely full. So we begged and pleaded and they gave us a room that was “under construction”. While we were unloading two brothers from Wisconsin, also on motorcycles, rode in. Being kind hearted we invited them to stay in our, already cramped living quarters.

While I stayed up in the room and got some sleep. Eric and Jason wandered downstairs and spent the evening chatting and hanging out with none other than Sean Penn! The reason the little hotel was full was because Sean Penn was in the middle of filming “Into the Wild”

It comes out on sept 21 so check it out.

I got up early and headed out to get my tire changed. It took some doing because apparently they don’t stock sport bike tires in the middle of the Yukon who would have thought? I eventually found one and we were off. It was a great day and we made good time.

Along the road we saw mamma grizzly and her cub, we stayed out distance and watched as they ripped rotten logs to shreds.

And then there it was. Alaska! As Jason said, “The only state still wild and free” and to back up his statement he proceeded to ride accross the border “Wild and free” wearing only his helmet. It was a sight to behold.

Here we are at the entrance to the last remaining frontier. ALASKA!

The sun was slowly going down but up in Alaska that can take several hours so we decided to push through to Fairbanks.
Stopping of course to see the sights, such as…

as well as the North pole, Santa’s workshop and a Pizza Hut.

The North Pole (home of St. Nick)

We spent the night with Jason in his tent. Incidentally he had lost his first tent the day before we met him which is why he stayed at the Air Force lodge and why he rode ahead to Whitehorse, so he could get another one.

It rained during the night and that was just a foreshadowing of the deluge to come.