Lilly Pads

Lilly pads along the Glenn Highway

This picture was taken on the Denali Hwy trip, along the Glenn Highway near Glennallen. This was my first over night trip on the KLR and I was soaking in all the scenery. I actually rode past this lake/pond and turned around to get a closer look.


Lilly pads for just about as far as you could see with the blue sky and the mountains in the background. Although you can't see it in the picture there was a slight breeze and the surface of the water was sparkling like diamonds.

While I was sitting there something was breaking the surface of the water. Could have been a fish, or otter, but something made me think it was a turtle. Just to the right there was a small cabin with a canoe at the ready.

I would ride past this same spot several times as the summer went by, but it never did look the same.

Denali Hwy Highwaymen, err... Women

There were four of them, I think the other two are down the road looking at rocks or something

So there I was...
Happy that it hadn't rained on me for the second half of the Denali Hwy but kind of bummed that the gravel would soon end. Then, out of nowhere, a white Cadillac Escalade blew past me bouncing a stone off my visor. I thought, "What a bunch of Jerks!!!" but didn't let it get to me because I was having such a nice ride.

About two hills later I saw the Escalade parked on the side of the road with four people standing next to it. I don't believe in Karma, but I thought it was interesting when I saw the flat rear tire. They flagged me down and the first thing I said was, "Your not Highwaymen are you?".

They either didn't hear me or didn't care because I never got an answer, but they did tell me about their tire and asked if I could help.

First off let me say that these Cadillacs are pretty fancy. I put the spare on for them, and the hardest part of the operation was trying to figure out how to get the tire to drop out from underneath the rear of the vehicle. Oh, and finding the jack isn't that easy either.

Turns out there is a place for the key that opens a tiny door on the rear bumper. Then, you slide a rod down the hole until it rests in a socket of some sort and turn it. This will drop the spare.

They were all friends, from college I believe, who decided to meet in Anchorage for a trip to Alaska. One of their late husbands was in the Air Force so they were staying on base and had taken a day to find a campground that was once owned by someone they knew back home.

The spare wasn't completely inflated but it was good enough to get them the 15 miles to the gas station. I suggested they take it easy and I'd follow them in. It was a good plan, but I decided 60mph was about as fast as I wanted to go. They literally left me in their dust.

It wasn't a bad way to end a nice 100 mile stretch of gravel.

I don't think I've added Denali Hwy pictures to my Smug Mug :D yet. Maybe I'll do that this weekend. Check there soon to see the rest.

http://brd.smugmug.com

Thanks for reading.