I looked at the tables which were still full of dirty dishes. I looked at the people who were there before us in this Denny’s. I was thinking about how long it might take to get a cup of coffee.

“Yesterday was a big party day,” I said to Chris. “People actually pay attention to the solstice here, you know.”

“All the bars are closed now and all the people came here.

We looked around.

“Let’s get out of here.”

Back to the parking lot, which was more full than when we arrived. “Surely there is another place to eat somewhere. Let’s drive around until we find it. Maybe downtown.”

But there was road construction. And one way streets.

Trying to get downtown, we ended up in Mountain View. I never spent any time in Mountain View when I lived in Anchorage, but it had the identifying markers of ghetto slum. We needed to figure out where we were going and get out of there.

We quickly made our way and where on the highway before we knew it.

“Where are we now?” Chris asked.

“um…Maybe there will be a Denny’s in Eagle River.”