Yesterday we finally crossed into Alaska.  It was sorta sad to leave behind the bouncy, frost-heaved, 2-lane Alaska Highway for smoother pavement, plentiful gas stations and greater cell coverage as we approached Delta Junction and Fairbanks.  We are catching up on work and email at the Starbucks in the Fred Meyer grocery store in Fairbanks before driving down to Talkeetna this afternoon.  Luna is faring well--despite the mosquitoes constantly attacking her snout--and Collin is managing to get in his required training run every other day, as scheduled.  Wildlife count so far: 5 bears, 5 moose, one caribou, a couple hundred bison, and 10 million flying, biting objects.  Here's our track for the past week. We'll see what the next chapter brings!

How strange it is to be in Whitehorse, Yukon without a bunch of Parkwest pals.  Collin and I had a scrumptious dinner at our favorite restaurant, Giorgio’s (right next to the table we shared with Mike and Ginny in 2010), and reminisced about all the previous times we’ve been here with you all.  Among many other things, we have laughed about:

1) seeing Paul on the street at the crack of dawn talking philosophy with a drunken local
2) Sharon reciting “The Cremation of Sam McGee” live and on-stage
3) rushing some of you out of dinner at Giorgio’s to catch a Parks Canada tour of the SS Klondike
4) Molly getting scolded in the Customs penalty box in a driving rain
5) Stan agreeing to buy drinks at the bar because he sorta lied about the nasty weather he led us through
6) making Marion a get-well-soon video from the bar which, by the way, obviously worked
7) numerous visits to the Yukon Brewery (motto:  Beer worth freezing for!)
8) having cocktails with Graeme Lee until late in the evening, only to find the sun still high overhead when we left the bar
9) sympathizing with Dede and Dave as they sat crammed in an airport office while a dozen or so pilots tried to evaluate the weather
10) realizing we probably would not have had these moments if it weren't for two crazy cyclists in the family!

So tomorrow we launch for points west, meeting our friend and symphony director, Kirk Gustafson, for lunch in Haines Junction (he’s on his way back home to Grand Junction).  We have a reservation in Talkeetna starting on Saturday—we should make it on time!