Sam And Saundra's Year Long Adventure - Part 142

Sam and Saundra’s Year Long Adventure – Part 142

Alaska

7/2/09 – 7/7/09 – Glennallen, Alaska – Surrounding Area

 

We are spending six full days and two part days here in Glennallen.  We meet up with Dave and his parents after the Fourth of July Parade in Glennallen.  The parade takes place on the main highway to Anchorage.  They stop the traffic on the highway from 10 am until the parade is over. Sam sets up our chairs on the roadside in front of the Caribou Restaurant.  We are surprised at the number of people that start showing up at the side of the road.  People we have met and talked to at various places, shops, restaurants, we meet again.  All the kids carry empty plastic sacks. 

The parade starts. A red car with some men in it pass us. Then trucks, police cars, fire engines, search and rescue trucks, old military looking trucks, young kids in all sorts of floats/vehicles, horses from 4-H clubs, ATV clubs, the State Champion ice hockey high school team, and more, and more.  It was impressive for such a small town.  The Rose Parade it was not, but if you compare the number of people this area represents with the number that the Rose Festival represents – this is gigantic!  The sacks were for candy.  Anyone can be in the parade, but they are warned to have candy to throw to the kids along the way. They were soooo cute.  Sam and I got a little candy too and the search and rescue guy gave Sam a gizmo that included a thermometer and a compass.  We gave most of the candy to the children around us. Most. The parade was very patriotic. We thoroughly enjoyed it and the people around us.

Parade On Main Highway

We met with Dave and his parents behind the library at the ballpark.  That is where the free salmon dinner is served.  We dawdled and most of the community got there ahead of us.  No problem! They had enough salmon, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, baked beans, French bread, cole slaw, and hot dogs for everyone.  Several hundred people.  Very, very, very good.  I chose the Cajun salmon.  We bought a few raffle tickets and actually were grateful not to win the 1992 pickup, the 2001 ATV or the very young pig.  After we ate a tolerable amount of delicious food, we took a break to talk with Dave and his parents. That is when we found out that Bill, Dave’s dad, was the Grand Marshal of the parade.  He was one of the guys in that little red car.  He was being honored for his years of service to the community, including his active participation as a volunteer paramedic.  This is very important in the sometimes remote and hard to access areas. It was very warm and after watching some of the ATV ‘heavy load pull’ contest and the gunny sack contest, we called it a day.  We were told over and over how wonderful Glennallen is for raising a family.  This day was a reflection of positive family and community ties.

Kids In Parade

We joined Dave and his parents for church on Sunday and enjoyed sharing this time. Dave and his mom, Dorothy, then took us on a tour of Glennallen.  (His dad was called on a medical emergency.)  A lot of the Bible College and most of the private residences cannot be seen from the Glenn Highway. We were impressed.  This appears to be a relatively new town, with the main ‘draw’ being the Bible College.  We went to the overlook of the Copper River, normally a great view of the mountains, but the haze from 60 wildfires throughout the state kept them hidden this day. Because of the many millions of acres of forests that are in well-hidden, long far away wild areas, many of the fires are allowed to burn unmolested unless they endanger something closer to human habitat.

 
We are invited to bear dinner at Bill and Dorothy’s.  Yap! We eat bear. Bill bagged this black bear and Dorothy had the ‘honor’ of cooking it.  Sam and I both agree that the bear roast was a big Yum.  It had no gamey taste whatsoever and was cooked to perfection.  The only other bear I had eaten was Uncle Jim’s bear sausage. He bagged his bears with a bow and converted them into tasty sausage in his own shop. Dorothy graciously shared information about the area, the weather (5 feet of snow during the winter) and anything else we questioned (They try not to go outside when it gets to 51 below). We saw great pictures of both Dave and Robert as kids, including one where they were on a river-crossing pulley contraption that no longer exists. Thank you Dave for letting us connect with you while you were at your parents.  I will thank your parents again when we go back through Glennallen on our way home.