A chance meeting

Friday, July 13, 2007

GLENNALLEN, ALASKA — We’re back again at Northern Nights RV campground, and our timing is perfect; free dessert is served on Mondays and Fridays only and we hit it coming and going on those exact days. Last Monday we enjoyed peach cobbler and today it was blueberry! Before they serve the dessert they ask everyone to say their name and a bit about their travels or their hometown or how many grandchildren they have (yeah, there are a lot of grey-haired folks doing Alaska!).
The first lady jumped up and said her name and her husband’s name and told us he was her third husband. "The first one died from eating poison mushrooms," she said, "and my second husband died of a crushed skull." Amid the chorus of sympathetic "oh"s, she quipped, "he wouldn’t eat the mushrooms!" We were off to a good start. Tonight’s group included a crew of cyclists; I cannot imagine cycling up through the Thompson Pass from Valdez — it was an endless, continuous incline for about seven miles.
The weather was clearer today, so we got to see some mountains we missed on the way in to Valdez. There were still some clouds hiding the peaks of some of them, but the Mileposts guide told us about a turnout with a scenic view where signs would give us the names of each peak in the St. Elias-Wrangell mountain range, so I suggested that we pull over to take in the amazing view. I was able to gaze at it continually, but Val had to watch the road, so it would be an opportunity for him to really take it in.
We no sooner pulled in to the turnout when we spotted our Swiss friends, Georgette and Farid, whom we had last seen in Pancake Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, five weeks ago! It was a delightful surprise! They had decided to enjoy the same view at the same time, and, as Georgette said, we couldn’t have planned it better if we had booked an appointment. So we chatted for a whole hour, catching up on one another’s travels and adventures. They too were returning from Valdez; they had dry-camped at the Old Town site, where Valdez was located before the earthquake. We had driven in there yesterday, so we might have met up with them there — but then our chance meeting wouldn’t have happened on Friday the 13th, so it had to wait for a lucky day.
Georgette told us they had picked a nice spot by the water in Valdez to park their camper van, but as the afternoon progressed she noticed the edge of the water was getting closer and realized the tide was coming in. Farid didn’t think they needed to do anything, but on Georgette’s insistence they moved further inland. Good move; she said the water would have engulfed their van completely if they had stayed put!
Well, we never did read the names of all the mountain peaks at that turnout, but we had a very nice visit with our young friends, and are planning to connect once again for dinner in Anchorage, where we are both headed.
On the way back to Glennallen we took a side trip into Copper Center, a small settlement that harked back to gold rush days, with log cabins and an old roadhouse, and a little log cabin museum. The front steps of the museum were made of concrete with old pickaxes embedded in it as reinforcement, because they were so easy to find in the area! Copper and gold mining were among the activities of the earlier inhabitants, but today’s main source of income is taking folks out salmon fishing on the Klutina and Copper Rivers. At our dessert fest tonight, we once again heard the spiel about the wilderness river adventure that we could enjoy not far from here, but our sights are set for different horizons tomorrow.