We made it to Anchorage! Wow what a trip it has been so far! Yesterday we met some amazing people at Fast Eddies in Tok. Don and Barbara from Alabama have been on their 1300 GT BMW for over three months and 12,000 miles! I thought we'd been a long ways! Meanwhile we met, and ate breakfast with, Bill, a 77 year old Canadian riding his 1200 GS to Fairbanks....alone! Talk about a man! On our way to Anchorage we stopped to take pictures at an overlook when a couple more two-wheelers pulled up. "Crazy German" emblazoned the windshield in dust of the front bike, an 1150 GS, and the rear, a Honda African Twin was covered with several small German flags. The two adventurers were traveling from Prudhoe Bay to Argentina! What a trip! Once I find their blog I will post it here so you can keep track of these two "Crazy Germans". They had a quote which stood out to me as the only way to live, "Risk it all!". Everybody we've met has been telling us to "Ride safe!", well these guys told us the complete opposite! They broke the rules.....and it was motivating! Prudhoe to Argentina, one of these days!

We encountered blasting on the road to Anchorage and had long, sweaty delays that let us meet even more great folks! Waiting for the road to be cleared I dismantled and took off my helmet and gloves to cool off. Before we knew it, 5-10 people had gotten out of their cars to come talk to us about our trip. Finally moving on we encountered a few more miles of dusty dirt roads (we've hit at least 60 total) where transfer trucks going in the opposite direction have a nasty habit of turning clear skies into mere feet of frontal visibility. It's a bit nerve wracking barely being able to see your front tire, much less the car in front of you.

Anchorage (being the big city that it is) is equipped with four-lane interstates and an international airport, (not to mention some great restaurants!). We scrambled to find our "it's near the airport" Howard Johnson Motel, only to discover that it was anything but near the airport. Finally tracking it down we picked up mom at the airport, and have used today to get the bikes checked out, pick up the rental car (mom+gear+bad roads=not good), eat excessive amounts of great food (halibut, elk, reindeer, etc.), and see Anchorage. Tomorrow we go fishing in Whittier, and after that it's North to Fairbanks and beyond!


Risk it all!

Zack