Day 3- A Flock of Moosen

Today we drove from Anchorage to Fairbanks and saw all the things in between. The ultimate goal of the day was to see a moose in the wild, but we'll get to that. We started out the day packing things up at our first hotel (which was an AWESOME place to stay, by the way) and heading out.

I planned to stop a lot along the way. I had posted on reddit (a great site for anyone who doesn't know it) how we were going to be doing the drive, and asked for advice. Alaskans answered, and gave some great detailed advice.

Our first stop was a Reindeer Farm in Palmer. It was about an hour drive from the hotel. I would say it was out in the middle of nowhere- but here, just about everything is 'out in the middle of nowhere'. The only way to distinguish is where you can get one cell phone bar, and where your phone goes into power saving mode because it hasn't had a signal in so long. The boys loved the reindeer farm. Filed in the 'today I learned' category: The only difference between caribou and reindeer are that reindeer are domesticated. Otherwise, they are the exact same animal. This is me now feeling even worse about that reindeer sausage I ate yesterday. We got to feed the elk long grass. They were really docile sweet animals, they weren't aggressive at all. Which was good considering Hayden and his refusal to understand the difference between long grass, and grass about as long as his fingers. Luckily, he left with all ten.

One of the coolest parts of the day for me was feeding and petting the Moose they had there. Keyna and Denali are the resident Moose, and they were also really friendly. Then we got to head out to feed the reindeer. It was like feeding the goats at the zoo, except way cooler because we were feeding REINDEER in ALASKA! The lady there knew all their names. Asa asked her who her favorite one was, and she said there was one in particular, Mary, who she had to bottle feed last year, and now when she comes out to see her she'll lay down in her lap and fall asleep.
After we were done in the pen with the reindeer, we had to scrape our shoes off on these grates they had, to dispose of any grossness you might have stepped in.

When we left the reindeer farm we headed for the Iditarod Headquarters in Wassilla. Just an fyi, I couldn't see Russia from there. We did get to see, pet and hold little puppies there, and the Iditarod trophy. Plus, we got to go dog sledding. The dogs were really anxious to run, and they were really fast.

For lunch we went to Talkeetna and took on a Man vs. Food Challenge. (Not actually a challenge, but he did go there). We had the Sewards Folly. Here's the discription from wikipedia: a 4 1/2-pound double-stacked burger made with Caribou meat (in the form of two 1-lb. patties) and topped with American and Swiss cheese, 12 slices of bacon, a pound of ham, "FatAss Sauce" (made with mayonnaise, horseradish, bacon, and balsamic vinaigrette), caramelized onions, lettuce and tomatoes, and served inside toasted sourdough bread. The burger is held together with a small Alaskan flag and served with a pound of fries. Yes, it was as absolutly massive and ridiculous as it seems. But, oh was it delicious. Even splitting it between the three of us (Calib, Asa, and me) in the battle of Man vs Food... Food won. But we were famous for a bit, everyone wanted to take a picture of the burger. We had like 5 tables get up to come see it and take a picture. Overall, Talkeetna was a cute little town, much more like I expected Alaska to be like. There wasn't any chain's or anything commercialized. It was cute, and quaint, and tiny. It was like Northern Exposure or something.

After Talkeetnea, we decided we had better get a move on, because we hadn't made it very far on our trip, and we had left Anchorage 6 and a half hours ago. We drove and drove, really hoping to see a Moose. We kept our eyes peeled, I offered $2 to anyone who spotted a Moose.

Here's how our conversations went:

Me: Is that a Moose?!?
Asa: No, it's a person.

Calib: Is that a Moose?!?!?
Asa: No, that's a log

Me: Is that a Moose?!??
Asa: No, that's an empty barrel

Peyton: Is that a flock of Moosen?
Hayden: Peyton, you know were not allowed to joke about seeing moose.

At least the scenery on the drive was amazing. There are mountains everywhere, big gorgeous green mountains. We stopped at a few overlooks to take pictures, and I took a lot from the car. The farther we drove the more frustrated I got that I hadn't seen a Moose. Everyone we talked to in Anchorage was like 'Oh, you'll see Moose, of course you will. I see them all the time'. The guy who took me to pick up the rental car was talking about how he saw a Mom and a baby Moose out by the airport just yesterday. Another girl talked about how she saw one downtown. DOWNTOWN! How hard could it possibly be to see a Moose?

Eventually we stopped at this really pretty picture spot. A nice lady with some dogs stopped to take our picture for us. We asked her about seeing Moose. She looked at us confused. We said we had been looking in valleys and out by rivers, streams, and ponds. She continued to look at us weird. So we said 'where do you usually see them?' She says 'On the side of the road'. *Sigh* So everyone see's Moose all the time, and we couldn't find one. They're like pushing shopping carts at walmart, and I can't track one down. She was shocked we hadn't seen one yet, and said we probably would.

So we keep driving and then..

Me: "Whats that?!? IT'S A MOOSE! IT'S A MOOSE!'

Asa: slams on breaks

First of all, my eagle eye vision, who I'll admit, failed me a few times today (with the barrel and the lady on the side of the road), had not completely let me down.

I was in such shock, it took me a second to grab my camera, but as I was doing so, Asa slowed down the car. This frightened the Moose and he began to cross the road right in front of our car! But then, a car flew up behind us, passing us, and narowally missing the Moose, sending him running faster into the forrest. I snapped a picture as fast as I could. But, I wasn't fast enough, he was gone. This is the picture. I'm not deleting it because I know a Moose should have been in that picture.

Asa was convinced he could still get a picture, so he got out of the car and crossed the road, but the moose was no where to be found. Plus, at his point the boys were terrified a bear or something was going to come eat Asa, so he got back in the car. And now I wonder. Am I going to be the new Rudy Sattler? This whole moose obsession started when he saw a moose, and couldn't get a picture. Now look at me. I'm posting blurry pictures of a road, and a car who swerved out in front of us. Here's hoping that isn't the last Alaskan Moose I see.

All in all, it took us about 11 hours to get to the hotel here in Fairbanks. Clint, Jess and Mom got here earlier this afternoon and were all settled in when we got here. I met Cort, Holly, Gwen and Garrett at the airport when I returned our rental car (my airport count is now up to three). Cort's rubbing all our noses in the fact that he's now his 50 states, and were all at 49. He even had a shirt printed, that nerd.

Here's a recap of todays events:

Moose sightings (wild): 1
Moose pictures (wild): None

Next Stop: Downtown Fairbanks, and back to Denali national park. Where, of course, we hope to see a (wild) moose.