I left Providence at 6AM EDT on 24 July, after having gotten 4 hours of sleep on each of the previous 3 nights, as I had much work to finish at CONECO before I could properly leave for vacation. I had to change planes in Cincinatti and Salt Lake City, and got to watch Happy Gilmour on the last leg of the trip. Weather over the West was clear - I think I got some neat pictures of the Great Salt Lake, Mount Rainier, and the Olympic Peninsula from 20,000 feet. I was only able to take one picture of Alaska's southeast coast before the skies clouded up. Little did I realize that this was a harbinger of weather to come.
The plane landed in Anchorage at 2:45 ADT, and I went to REI to buy more camping supplies, and to downtown Anchorage to check out information at the Public Lands Information Center. The woman at the center appeased my fears that I wouldn't be able to get into the Wonder Lake Campground at Denali National Park, and basically told me to have a good time.
My former housemate from college, Cathy, who had lived in Anchorage for a year, gave me a list of things to do and places to see while in Alaska. One of her ideas was that I go to Simon and Seafort's Seafood Restaurant on L Street. Although the name sounded too much like Simon and Schuster, I took her advice. Cathy had said the place was a little fancy, and I was slightly underdressed, having already put on my baseball cap and sweatshirt. I ordered the salmon and salsa, which was excellent, and local Alaskan beer. The view of Turnagain Arm was great... the tide was coming in, and you could see some of the mountains on the other side of the water.
After downing the salmon, and some barely edible cheesecake, I went back to the car, and struck up a conversation with a couple from San Diego who were just ending their vacation. They said that they experienced good weather for the last week, and had had a wonderful time. They even gave me their leftover food. I also met a local Anchorageite (Anchoragean?) who was about to go for a bike ride. After starting to unpack, I readied some clothes for the evening, and drove to the Anchorage Youth Hostel on H Street.
By this time, I was physically and mentally exhausted (it was 7 PM, and I had been up since midnight Alaska time). While checking in, the clerk at the hostel had trouble with the cash register, and I could feel myself falling asleep while standing at the counter. Once he was done wrestling with the equipment, he gave me my receipt and room assignment, and said that although the beds are theoretically pre-assigned to each person, it wouldn't matter which bed I claimed. When I went upstairs to my accomodations, two bunk beds were in the room, and only one of the four beds looked like it had been occupied. I proceeded to take the lower bed in the unoccupied bunk, unpacked my sleeping bag, and fell asleep quickly.
The next thing that I remember was a German-sounding guy waking me up from my deep sleep, telling me that I was in his bed. As far as I can recall, I just stared at him blankly for about a minute, kind of like the moose I saw later in the trip. I wasn't sure whether I was Goldilocks, or a character from Hogan's Heroes. Somehow, he and his friend convinced me to change to the top bed in the other bunk... I really don't know why (or how) I did this; when I'm that groggy, I may as well be dead. As I fell back to sleep, I remember looking at my watch (it was about midnight), and thinking how strange it was that the skies were still bright.
I woke up at 5:30 AM, feeling refreshed. After a quick shower, I loaded up the car, and went south.
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