Alaska Day 14

Today started early. We didn't start early for any apparent reason, its just three of us are just up. Jerry complains about leaving early, but he is sort of out voted. We were on the road by 6:00 am looking for a place to eat. We found a place about 40 miles down the road. The place was simply a road house with a cafe. The breakfast turned out to be excellent. The strange thing is the prices were not to bad either.

Our plan today was to make the short ride into Fairbanks with a stop at McKinley Park. Which is the same as Denali Park. We arrived at the parks entrance late morning. We stopped and everyone just sort of headed off in a different direction. I have seen a lot of specials about Mt. McKinley so I decided to call my wife. Had a nice conversation while the guys ended up sitting through part of a lame presentation of what to do if you see a bear. I understand there was even a sing a long.

We could not get a good view of Mt. McKinley. There seems to be 60 + fires in Alaska and the haze is terrible. We could hardly see the mountain through the haze. Tried taking some pictures, but they just didn't turn out so well.

After we left the park, we made a brief gas stop and headed into Fairbanks. Once we arrived in Fairbanks we stopped at the motel and noticed it was a real dive. This was the place where some friends of mine stayed at a couple of years ago. I am the one known for staying in low class places, I can't believed they stayed here.

I went to check into the room, but as it turns out the room was not ready yet. Seems they are taking some pictures for advertising. Well at least we know were getting the best room in the house. I did check in, but we were going to go to lunch before going to the room. So we went to lunch at some taco place where Brian met us. Turns out he did have some bad and some good news. Bad news is his GS transmission is toast, the good news is he is buying a new bike. More on that later.

After lunch we went back to the motel, and it turns out the owner was tying to screw me. I do not mean in the good way. The room she gave us is two bedroom suite with only two beds. When I spoke to her the night before I was clear I needed suite with 4 beds. She told me that the suite had a double in one room, a single queen in the second and a pull out couch. Guess what she lied.

I told her that this was not going to work, She then told me that she could not give me a second room for the one price. I told her that if I was going to pay $130.00 a room, then I was going down the road to the Super 8 where they had WiFi. This motel did not have WiFi, we were staying there because of the price. She said she couldn't do that, so I told her to credit my card. Once that was done we drove down to the Super 8, got on line out side in the parking lot using their WiFi and made reservations. We get a better room rate that way. We then walked inside and said we had reservations and checked in.

Brian showed back up and looked like the deal is made for the new bike. It sort of a long story, but the bike he is getting is really going to be for his wife. It just turns out due to circumstances and such, he was getting a pretty good deal, and it works out how he could continue his trip. It has been planned that two of the guys will be meeting their wifes for the last week of the trip. Dick and I will be splitting off from them down in Canada in about a week.

We went for dinner at the lousy Denny's located nextndoor to the motel. What can I say, IT SUCKED!! Enough said.

The game plan for tomorrow is Dick and I will go to Delta Junction, which is located about 100 miles from Fairbanks. Jerry and John are going to hang around and help Brian switch stuff over from the GS to the new bike. Dick and I will secure the rooms for all of us in Delta Junction and they will meet up with us later that night.

We will see how it works out.