This morning was “clean out the refrigerator” morning. We stuffed ourselves on sausage, pancakes and scrambled eggs. I heated up nearly a half jar of maple syrup that we slathered generously over our small stack of cakes. Anything remaining in our RV by the end of the day would have to be donated to anyone who would take it, or thrown away.
We eventually pulled away from our campsite at Teklanika with more than a little bit of remorse to be leaving this special park, and to be finishing the last leg of our amazing journey. We drove the 29 miles out of the park on the lookout for a den of foxes we’d heard of the previous two days. We even drove through Savage River campground to check it out for any “future trips” (yes, we are talking about future trips now) and it was very nice; more wooded than Teklanika.
Eventually we made our way to the Parks Highway and turned our direction toward Anchorage. We enjoyed smiling and waving at the travelers on the Alaskan Railroad as we waited for the train to pass; even the ones in the cruise ship cars. Pretty swanky! They were happy. We were happy.
It was a long day of driving, roughly 200 miles. Once again our long driving day turned out to be a gloomy, dismal day with virtually no great scenery to enjoy due to low lying clouds. We did stop at the Denali State Park where Alaska’s War Memorial is located. It was a lovely site with dedications to all branches of the military and including the Merchant Marines. There’s a cool statue at the entrance of Aleut service men who were so crucial to World War II and the fight in the Aleutian Islands; particularly Attu Island. This was one of the bloodiest battles in the war but relatively unknown to many.
As we neared Anchorage, the landscape got dotted with ugly. While I’m quite sure had it been a sunny day, there would have been those gorgeous vistas all around, what we were able to see was more reminiscent of gravel pits. We wound our way through Wasilla and determined that we would try to score a campsite at Eklutna Lake Campground within the Chugach State Park. The campground has 50 sites as well as some overflow camping and can be reached by a 10-mile, very twisty and steep road that runs right off the highway. 
Once we committed to the road there was a sign at Mile 3 “no turn-arounds”. We got all the way into the camp before discovering that every campsite was filled. We proceeded to the overflow spot and secured a parking space on a steep incline that would serve as our last camping experience in Alaska. After attempting to level our RV for about 15 minutes (we never did get really adept at that) we decided to take our chances sleeping on a slant.
Actually we hadn’t even totally given up on leveling when a small black bear made a mad dash through the campground. It was not prepared to stop and the barking dogs of campers seemed to be causing it some distress. It was fun to see though and I had remarked just today that we had not yet seen a single little black bear.
Shortly after deciding our “slanted fate”, a car pulled up looking for a campsite. Two guys hopped out and realized that although there were two parking spots, since this was “overflow” camping, there was technically only one campsite. I quickly invited them to share our space to which they said, “We have a seven year old with us”. Well, Mr. Bill often remarks how he just can’t stand “chilren”, but I’d seen him have some very hearty conversations with kids on the bus. Kids always seem to gravitate to him; I don’t know if it’s the beard or what, but they do. Anyway, not to worry – kid is welcome. Bill had started making a fire and within moments I had introduced myself to a tiny little fellow named, “Jared”. 
The guys (who looked to be around Bill’s age) said they were both his grandfather. I immediately assumed they meant they were “life partners”. After a while, the grandpa that had a family resemblance to Jared, George; explained that the other grandpa, Peter, was married to George’s ex-wife. Got it? It’s a little tricky. But anyway, George and his wife have guardianship of Jared. George and Peter get along great and since Peter is also very involved in Jared’s life, the three of them share adventures together. I was pretty impressed.
We spent time visiting by the campfire and soon learned that George had also been in Vietnam (as had Bill) and Peter was in the army (Bill too). George is the Federal Co-Chair of the Denali Commission and spends a great deal of time immersed in the native cultures helping to determine the needs of the remote areas. He said he loves his job and I can see why. He gets to journey for days up the river or by whatever means he can to reach these villages and really spend time among the original Alaskans.
We greatly enjoyed the company of these guys and I was truly touched by their commitment to Jared. I invited George into the RV to scavenge anything he’d be willing to take. The thought of throwing away our unused items is just too much for me to bear. By the end of the evening George and I had exchanged business cards. He describes his wife as very easy going and his plan is to see if she’s willing to have us over for dinner tomorrow night before we leave Alaska. We assured him that even if that didn’t work out, the gesture was greatly appreciated and truly meeting these three fellows really has capped off our trip.
We are pretty much packed and ready for RV delivery in the morning. We’ll get up early and depart our campground by 7:00 a.m. just to make sure we have no difficulties. For every hour we are late in delivery, we’ll be charged $60. After dropping off the RV we’ll pick up a car for a ½ day rental since our plane does not leave until 11:30 p.m. Richly blessed. Richly blessed.
