With Anchorage behind us, and Fairbanks far beyond the horizon of our plans, all nightlife was behind us. 24 hour cafes were not part of the landscape for at least 300 miles.
Eagle River was not a city. They were not going to have a place to eat at 4 in the morning. This came back to me as we hit the middle of the town, which consisted of a McDonald’s and a grocery store. I looked at it, and remembered that this was it.
How strange, to remember this place as ‘cool’ and yet now to realize it was a very nothing kind of town. And I mean nothing in the sense of big city nothing. It was FULL of woods and mountains. But not very much man-made civilizing strokes.
But, people don’t come to Alaska for all the civilization.
“There isn’t going to be a Denny’s here,” I told Chris.
“What do we do now?”
Indeed. If we wanted to sit and eat breakfast, we would have to turn around and go back to Anchorage. That magnetic pull back to Anchorage and a hotel room and bed –who cared the cost now–was strong. But I knew it was against the rules of manhood to backtrack.
Things we knew:
- there is nothing for us in Eagle River
- We were tired
- we were hungry
- Wasilla had our hotel reservation for the night
“Wasilla won’t have a Denny’s either,” I said. “All I know for sure is they have a McDonald’s. It’s the one I used to work at.”
But, we didn’t know, what time did the McDonald’s open? If it opened at 5, we could have a breakfast of sorts before too long. If it opened at 6, that would be less good.
It was raining again.
I had been planning that we’d be able to go visit Thunderbird Falls and Eklutna on the way to Wasilla. But all I wanted was some rest.
It was 4 am.
“Go back to the Glenn Highway,” I told Chris. Let’s hope McDonald’s opened at 5.
