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Talkeetna & Wasilla - UPDATED

Maybe our good fortune for September 2 was presaged by this rainbow at our campground, the night before.



Having such a good start the next day (seeing Denali, and being able to see it throughout the day), seemed to set the weather in order - it has now been clear for two days. This is a view about 50 miles from Denali, on the way to Talkeetna, and you can still see it on the horizon.













Talkeetna is a town that has become the summer destination point for the Princess Cruise Lines (via train), still it has retained a "small town" feel (mostly unpaved, main street is three blocks long). It offers great fishing, and aerial visits to many of the great sights within flight range.

            However, we were there to visit Mayor Stubbs, the house cat at the West Rib Pub and Grill, who was elected Mayor through write-in vote in the last election. Alas, he was out patrolling his district, as seemed to be his afternoon habit.

                                                                                                        But we did eat lunch there, a site of some infamy, as it was featured on the TV program "Man vs Food," when host Adam tried to eat "Seward's Folly," and failed: 2 punds of caribou burger, ham, cheese, onions abnd vegetables - totalling 5 pounds.

We ambled down the road, and I bought some birch syrup, an Alaskan specialty.











From there we headed to 1140 West Parks Highway in Wasilla (the property has frontage on Lake Lucille). However, Todd and Sarah Palin did not seem eager to have visitors, as the driveway was peppered with "No Trespassing" signs and security cameras. 











So, I induced Marshall, my willing cohort in all these photo shenanigans, to pose for a lasting memory of the town. 
 

 Postscript

On the front page of the Monday, September 6, issue of the Anchorage Daily News is an article by Mike Dunham, “Classic Alaska book author revisits the extremes.” 


http://www.adn.com/2010/09/05/1441001/palins-author-neighbor-is-moving.html

It is about, and features excerpts from an interview Dunham did with Joe McGinniss, who has been in Wasilla researching his next book (a kind of follow-up of sorts to his last book about Alaska, “Going to Extremes" [1990]). McGinniss was about to leave, after living next door to the Palins since May. “The rental is a medium-large two story dwelling with a detached single car garage. The driveway is posted “no trespassing” (sic) and guarded by a yellow chain barrier......Taking photos of the Palin property or the fence was also not allowed.”






 

Oops





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