Now this was the early morning of all early mornings ... so far. Oh, I was awake and up already. My Galveston-timed body saw to that. Well, that and the text from home where it was already 7 a.m. Oops. Someone forgot about the time difference. But Cary got a call from the front desk letting him know that THE mountain was visible. He shot a text to each member of our group. I got dressed hurriedly. Chris jumped in the shower with a cry over her shoulder, “Grab the camera and go start taking pictures.” Wow. Entrusted with the real camera. I went on, fiddling with the camera operations the whole way (I had no idea how to do more than turn the thing on. Did you know that you have to focus that zoom lens thing in two different places? Once I got that down the rest was pretty easy). The view of Mt. McKinley (or Denali, depending on to whom you are speaking) was nothing short of spectacular. Beautiful, clear morning. Snow on the peak. Clouds wisping around the tip. And the surrounding mountains only added to its grandeur, providing a backdrop for the massive thing of beauty reaching for the sky. OK. Enough of the flower lips already. When Chris arrived I turned over the reins of the camera to her, and she doubled - nay, tripled - the number of pictures I had already taken. Should you ever need a photo of Mt. McKinley, Chris just might be able to hook you up.
Now Sheri, on the other hand ...
Poor Sheri. She’s not exactly a morning person. The Cary notification burst into the serene bubble of her early-morning, final seconds of sleep-age. Bravely she donned her baseball cap and stumbled out to join us on the viewing deck. So the Spray Family Christmas card poses with Majestic Mt. McKinley in the background? Well ... there’s always photoshop. She just couldn’t get both eyes open at the same time. Kind of a Popeye look. Now to her credit ... after a brief interlude from the photo session - and a cup of coffee - Sheri returned to enjoy breakfast looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and somewhat coffee-d up. Nice to have you back, Sheri. As Wayne explained, “There’s a big difference between B.C. and A.M. (Before Coffee and After Makeup).
As mentioned, we met up with The Group, sans Jim and Jeanne, for breakfast. We had Wesley the Singing Waiter. Some song about a rocket man pouring rocket fuel into our coffee cups. Interesting fellow. He really enjoyed pouring coffee. Made it into a real experience. I got flapjacks (again, that’s Alaskan for pancakes), one egg (must have been from an ostrich. It filled my whole plate), and some of Chris’ Reindeer sausage. While we waited for our food KayLynn took some time to read through the blog from the day before - the one in which she was so ... prominent. She tried to post a rebuttal, but the site didn’t honor it. Umm. Shame on you, KayLynn. Actually, she finally had her say over on FaceBook. In spite of what she, though, and in further spite of the fact that she posted it twice, I don’t think she really hates me all that much. After all, as she duly noted ... she WAS warned.
After breakfast Chris and I visited the gift shop and then sat by the fireplace in the lodge, watching people watch the mountain. I may or may not have taken a brief nap. That cannot be verified at this time. And so we ended out stay at this particular lodge with ... Chris taking more pictures of that mountain.
Bus driver wisdom: “Treat the bathroom on the coach like you are at the opera. Stay seated through the entire performance.” He also pointed out a site of local interest. Wal Mike’s. Looked like the old bird collected a bunch of stuff from abandoned cabins and is selling them at his store. Oh, and he made sure to point out when we crossed “the largest no dam river in America.” Careful there ...
I decided to get an early jump on things for the train ride this time. When the drink order guy came around, I didn’t hesitate. He described a drink that sounded great. Cinnamon, hot chocolate, coffee, peppermint, whipped cream, drizzled chocolate and some other stuff. By that time I was mesmerized by the array of ingredients and stopped paying attention. Oh, and it came in a cool souvenir mug that you got to keep. I jumped all over that one. He had even made up a cute name for it, no doubt because of all the chocolate - Brown Bear. Once he moved on by Chris leaned over and asked me if I knew what all was in the drink. I recited the list above of all the scrumptious, chocolate-y flavors. She countered, “What about the rest?” I replied, totally innocently “What rest?” She explained that there was something called schnapps and something called Irish cream something or other. It took this poor, sheltered, totally naive youngster a while, but it finally dawned on me what she meant. Oooooooh. You mean this is an alcoholic drink? Yep. I quickly - and of course sheepishly - changed my order to hot tea. Still got the mug, though. However ... it came to my attention later that none other than the Master of Threes, KayLynn herself, had courageously ordered said chocolate peppermint alcohol-laden delight. Now she SAID the one she ordered was something called “virgin.” Apparently that means no alcohol. She and Cary sure made quick work of it, though. Just sayin ...
We finally arrived in Denali National Park with just enough time to change clothes and race to the bus for our river rafting excursion. Except once again (two mights in a row) we only had one suitcase. And of course it was NOT the one with our clothes in it. I called the front desk and they assured me they would search for it. We layered on some dirty clothes and hurried to the bus. Sadly that meant we didn’t have time to order a lunch for the excursion today. Snacks for lunch. WooHoo.
The river rafting adventure was well worth the effort. The views were amazing. The water was cold. Good ol’ Wayne promised the guide a tip only if he kept us dry. Guess what happened in the next two seconds? Our guide Beau finagled the ship around so that every body in the raft was drenched before we were out of sight of the landing area. Thanks Wayne. Chris was concerned. She had read that the river had only one to two category rapids. Beau didn’t even mention any of those. He started informing us at the threes and fours. WooHoo. Chris (and KayLynn, I might add), held on for dear life - one hand grasping the raft and the other digging into my arm. There were one or two - or three - or four - or maybe more instances of tiny bits of water dripping onto us (read here, “rushes of icy liquid, exploding into our faces”). By and large, though, Beau was a fabulous rafter and river guide. We made it successfully to end of the run and were picked up by the guy named Mudflap for our return trip to the lodge, freezing and a little damp, but certainly with a feeling of accomplishment.
A quick restaurant trip for some supper (It was again 10:30 at night and still light out), and then on to a hot shower and warm bed. Big day in the park today. Where to eat some breakfast?
Micah 6:8 says, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Father thank you for the awesome river adventure, both for the thrills and for the safety. Amen.
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