Alaska State Fair

Today was going to be an easy day of transition, no need to wake early since all we had to do was get to Denali National Park's Creekside Cabins, 230 miles to the north. Having all day to do that, we planned to visit the Alaska State Fair in Palmer along the way. Once we were getting ready to leave the hotel, H & I were having a little chat and we had to stop to laugh hysterically because each time she spoke the boat horn outside drowned her out--at least five times straight. It was as if she was that Aflack duck! We wasted some time heading over to Carr's grocery store for food, Home Depot for an ice chest, and Burger King for A. (I am forbidden to eat BK for reasons most people should adhere to.) It was still raining off and on and the sky was the same gloomy overcast way as we finally drove to the fair around noon. It is 4,365 miles from Palmer to Sussex County, NJ, and short of a few signs and of course the mountains you could barely tell the fairs apart. The AK State Fair has the usual monster veggie display and livestock show, so what set it apart was the food and some aspects of Native Alaskan culture and icons of the Iditarod and dog sledding. I stopped by one of the food shacks for some fantastic fish and chips, which were made from big, fresh chunks of moist delicate Alaskan halibut. That pretty much wrapped up walking the aisles of the fair, so at 2:30 we split. It stopped raining but remained overcast. We had 200 miles to go to reach the Wilderness Access Center by 7 p.m. to pick up our tour tickets for the next day. Within an hour or so we reached a viewpoint that was within site of "The Mountain." We could pick out just the bottom of it before it disappeared into the clouds. As we drove further on however the clouds slowly disappeared and we spotted a rainbow. We were on a high plain of the tundra with mountains all around us and it was one of the most beutiful places I've ever seen. The ground everywhere was bright red and yellow as the small bushes and shrubs shone in full autumn glory. By the time we reached the Wilderness Access Center at the park HQ, the clouds were on their way out and we were fixing for some great weather. We passed our lodging on the way to the WAC and had to backtrack to the cabin; right along the Parks Highway we spotted a lynx lurking in the shadows of the roadside trees and bushes. We didn't know what it was at first and thought it was perhaps a bobcat, a grey fox, or a big housecat. But after seeing a display on the park animals the park's wilderness learning buliding, we realized it was unmistakenly the elusive, rare and endagered lynx. Way out here there is nothing around and our choices for dinner were very limited. Fortunately, located at the Creekside Cabins was the Creekside Cafe. The menu had a lot of fancy dishes on it but I opted to keep it simple and ordered what turned out to be an excellent and scrumptious French dip sandwhich au jus with good French fries. Washed that down with a few Alaskan Ambers. I sat way back in the corner of the restaurant and felt like I was going to boil out of my skin, it was so hot inside. We all got a little tipsy after the day's long drive and perhaps caused a bit of a raucous with our loudness. Eventually we paid up and headed out into the cool night air and got a clear glimpse of the starts for the first time of the trip. Tomorrow was going to be a great day if it remained clear; we were going on the tundra wilderness tour in Denali National Park.