ATVs in AK

We still cannot quite get on Alaska time. We woke up before 6 a.m. here and just could not go back to sleep. We needed to do laundry. Faithful blog readers will know that I am a little crazy about having clean clothes. Airplanes gross me out and I always want to sanitize my clothing from such travels. In addition, we'd hiked yesterday and gotten pretty dusty and sweaty. We tried to do laundry last evening in town and were shut down by this place called The Roadhouse. This place is THE breakfast joint in town and also has laundry facilities available, but only during some really weird hours. They turned us away and we thought we'd be stuck with dirty laundry forever. We weren't. We came to the fancy lodge in Talkeetna this morning and did laundry at 6 a.m., you know, like normal folks would. ;)

The view from the fancy lodge didn't stink!

I was so excited to have the laundry done that I thought today was going to be my day. We enjoyed breakfast back at our B&B (sans the annoying lady from Georgia and her dentist husband). I was wrong about it being my day. JACKSON SAT ON MY FAVORITE SUNGLASSES THAT I HAVE EVER OWNED IN ALL OF MY NEARLY THIRTY YEARS ON THE FACE OF THIS PLANET. The side just snapped right off. No worries. I didn't just have Lasik this winter. My eyes don't need protection from the sun. They do not need protection from the elements. They're just $4,000 eyes. NO BIG DEAL.

Except it was a huge deal to me and we shall be replacing them in Anchorage tomorrow.

RIP favorite sunnies

Yesterday we'd read about an ATV tour out of Talkeetna that sounded...interesting. Jackson called and got us on the books for 10 this morning. We got there and found that an older gentleman, Dennis, and his dog, Chena, were waiting to lead us on a tour of the area.

We listened to Dennis drone, go into greater detail than we could ever hope for or imagine, talk about the history of the area. He had stories from 1910 through the present. YEP. YEP.

Dennis and Chena

One neat thing was that Chena rode on the back of Dennis' ATV the entire time. He was such a good dog and I really enjoyed him.

ATVing in the rain in a rain suit. Cute, no? :/

If you can read faces you see mine is saying, "what did we get ourselves into, Jackson?"


The tracks we rode along

We finally left town and headed for his "homestead" about 7-9 miles from town for an afternoon of dining, shooting and panning for gold. Can you say, "Alaska?!"

The river is apparently cold and will kill you in minutes.

I HAVE AN IDEA LET'S CROSS OVER IT ON A NARROW PATH ON AN ATV!
THAT SOUNDS SUPER SAFE AND SANE!!!!!!

The pond and stream at the "homestead"

Behold: the homestead

Dennis, for all of his long-windedness, was an excellent marksmen
and attempted to show Jackson how to shoot
 

 Let it be known that ever since we shot in the SPORTING GOODS STORE WITH FAKE GUNS in North Dakota, Jackson has talked mad crap about my shooting skills. Read on, dear friends, to see how that turned out for him.

 

 

 

Also worth noting, I was a better camerawoman than he was. I caught his entire shot. He drops the camera as I shoot.

Nailed it!!!!!!

MISSED IT COMPLETELY. COMPLETELY MISSED IT.
DID NOT EVEN HIT THE PAPER.
A COMPLETE MISS.
MISSED.
M-I-S-S-I-T- MISS IT, MISS IT, WHOOPIE!

Disclosure: we sat at Dennis' table to shoot a gun designed to kill elephants. We'd met Dennis a good two hours prior and we're about 3,000 miles from anyone who would notice that we were missing. Dennis didn't have us sign a waiver. Dennis acted like he did not know what insurance was when I asked him about the price of it up here. None of these things seemed like a big deal at the time. It occurred to us as we drove away that this was all a bit...odd. Hey, we lived to tell!

Bonding with Chena

Chena going for a swim

Jackson getting his "Parker Schnabel" on

Still "Schnabel'ing" while Chena tried to get a game going

I was able to fake interest in gold panning for a few minutes. Then I got tired of pretending to care and started to play fetch with Chena. She was as obsessed with chasing sticks as MacKenzie is with playing ball.

 

 Jackson finally gave up the hunt for gold and we got to go back to town.

One last view of the "homestead"

We rode back to town WAY faster than we came out prompting Dennis to tell me that I was: ballsy, gutsy and would make a great FBI agent. Yep. Chew on that. I cannot figure it out.

Completely safe, Mom. Don't worry. Jackson would NEVER*
lead me into a danger zone.
*If never meant always that'd be true.

We came back from the tour and just wanted to shower. The mosquitos up here are like nothing you've ever seen and we were covered in spray that smelled awful. We got back to our cabin only to find that the shower would not get warm and then stopped turning off all together. We called the B&B owner and he had to turn off water to the whole cabin. He moved us up to the Chalet (a real bummer!) into a suite and then knocked on the door to tell us that he'd comped BOTH NIGHTS of our stay for the troubles. You guys, WE ARE NOW MAKING MONEY ON THIS TRIP. That's not 100% true, but still. Who gets $700 in free flights and $500 in free hotels?! The Petefishes. That's who. Maybe today was my day after all. We lived through our Dennis visit and got a free hotel stay! Winning!

A little restaurant in town, Wildflower Café, came highly recommended so we dined there this evening. The Executive Chef for President Bush (#41) is the chef at this restaurant and it shows. The chowder was amazing. Amazing. The crabcakes were really, really awesome. The halibut and fries were incredible. The cheesecake (hey! dinner was so good that we had to try dessert) was impressive, too. It was one of the best meals we've had...EVER. We even got our B&B owner a gift certificate since he did give us so much money back. (Anyone else proud of my cheapo husband for thinking to give back to someone who gave to us?! This is a HUGE step.)

The best seafood chowder ever made.

I think we're finally starting to get the hang of this Alaskan time now. It is almost 10 p.m. here and we are getting tired. I just couldn't go another night without bragging about my shot compared to Jackson's. It is the little things in life that he'll never stop hearing about...EVER. :)