July 18 - “Into the Park”

I just remembered a brief word of wisdom from our rafting guide Beau.  “Your body doesn’t produce melatonin if it doesn’t get dark like here in Alaska.  So if it doesn’t get dark, you don’t need as much sleep.”  Umm.  Not sure about the science involved there, but it’s a good thing, because I’m sure not getting much sleep.

Yesterday was our big day to ride a bus into Denali National Park.  Order of the day?  Look for wild animals ... aka Moose Hunt.  We had a great guide/bus driver.  Her name was MJ, as in Spiderman’s girlfriend.  She explained many intricacies of the park as we drove around, and when an animal was sighted by anyone one the bus she would slam on the brakes and get her high resolution camera in motion.  The video she shot was immediately transferred to the little TV screens policed at intervals throughout the bus.  Pretty amazing technology.  They even captured the footage and combined it into a DVD available for purchase through their website.  Imagine that.  One thing she explained was the use of hand signals between bus drivers as they passed on the narrow roads.  One guy passed and put one hand to his ear with the palm open and facing us ... moose.  Then he moved the hand palm to word himself across his face ... can’t see it.  So how was that helpful?  Cary leaned over and asked his lovely wife KayLynn what the hand signal would be for a bird up the road.  KayLynn apparently didn’t answer him verbally, but the nonverbal screamed into the very depths of his would.  Think about it.

I decided that the easiest way to do this would be to just list the creatures we were able to isolate.
1.  A brown bear (grizzly - they are the same thing) eating berries.to get fat for his upcoming nap.
2.  Ground squirrels - Lots of these little critters played at the side of the road like ... well, squirrels.
3.  Hare - not everyone saw this guy.  He scampered across the parking lot at one of the rest stops.
4.  Ravens - These birds were quite plentiful.  MJ told us they were funny and smart.  I am not able to make such a designation.  We’ve never met personally.
5.  Gulls - Well, you can’t call them seagulls because we are nowhere near the sea, but flying rats can get by almost anywhere, I guess.
6.  Dall Sheep - No, spell check, it’s not “doll.”  They are named after the guy who discovered them.  Very pretty, solid white creatures.
7.  Caribou - Caribou right next to the road.  Caribou in the river trying to escape mosquitoes.  Caribou up on the mountain.  “Oh, my gosh!  There’s a caribou right in the road in front of the bus.”
8.  Golden eagle - This fellow was in full flight.  Gorgeous.
9.  Ptarmigan - Mommy and her little babies at one spot, then an entire family at another.   MJ had to maneuver the bus carefully because Daddy got separated from the family and was obviously stressed out.  Ptarmigans are the state bird of Alaska.
10.  OK.  Apparently we did see a moose.  Or two.  I had a major crisis of belief.  I had to admit that maybe these creatures actually do exist.  But there was just one thing.  Neither of the ones we saw had antlers.  That leads me to believe moose don’t have antlers.  Someone from the tour group told me that’s because the ones we saw were female.  So all moose are female?  You moose believer have strange tenets.  Several members of the tour group have expressed great concern for me because of my outspoken beliefs about the existence of moose.  I appreciate that.  Just ... show me a moose and i will believe.

Back at the lodge area we had a great supper.  Some place where the building has started sinking into the ground because of the permafrost melting (something about the foundation layer of the soil being perpetually frozen and now its melting.  Global warming stuff).  Instead of panicking, this establishment owned the problem and developed it into part of their charm.  Now you have to walk up steps that sit at a weird angle.  Makes you feel like you are in one of those old carnival fun houses.  I have fried shrimp.  Chris had seafood chowder.  Good stuff.  Pricey, though, as is most stuff up here.  On the way back to the room we just had to stop and shop.  The girls found us all t-shirts that proclaimed us part of the 30% Club.  That means we are part of only 30% of the people who are actually able to see Mt. McKinley.  How can you pass up such a proclamation?  Now, there was a rather disconcerting sight in the store.   It was, as often happens, in the doll section (Yes, spell check. This time I mean doll, not Dall.  I moved over to a shed of Eskimo dolls, only to find one of them staring at me.  It’s eyes never left me as I attempted to escape its gaze.  And what, you may ask, was it about this particular doll that made it so ... doll-ish?  It had only one set of eyelashes.  And that one set was freakishly long.  There should be a law against event displaying such terrifying things.

Finally we settled in for the next round of Hand and Foot (remember the card game from earlier in the week?).  Th girls started out really strong, barely squeaking by with a win or maybe two.  But after Sheri took a rowdy victory lap around the entire hotel lobby, arms above her head, pumping her fists and thoroughly embarrassing her poor husband Wayne, the guys calmly and methodically proceeded to whittle away their lead.  It took a bit of misdirection here and there to destroy their concentration.  It happened like this ...

Sheri provided victory bottles of water for the girls, but not the guys.  As they toasted their success, someone may or may not have surreptitiously squeezed Chris’ bottle, causing a remarkably entertaining volcano to spew upon her face.  However ... Chris responded with catlike reflexes.  She maintained her hold on the bottle and slung it in. My - er - in the direction of the offending party, splattering his clothes with the liquid in a ... less than comfortable spot.  There may or may not have been a camera catching stills of the last part of the encounter.  Suffice it to say that a change of underwear, though considered, was deemed not necessary.

Oh ... the misdirection proved to be imminently successful.  The guys stormed back after the altercation and  brought the night to a tie.  No. More victory laps.  There was, however, a quietly reserved announcement to the patrons at the surrounding tables that although the guys had, indeed, won, they would in no way be gloating.  Humility is, after all, a virtue.  “Win with class” is our motto.

John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down his life for one’s friends.”

Father, thank you for good friends.  It has been fun sharing this adventure with them.  Amen.