TravellingStrom

Sunday – Wasilla, Alaska

Well, I had the most uncomfortable night. It started OK, went to sleep, but I woke up around 2am to go for a leak. After the acrobatics to get out of the trailer I was standing outside minding my own business when I suddenly got attacked by massive leg cramps!!! My right thigh on the inside was totally locked up and I was in extreme pain, when I tried to compensate my left calf muscles went the same way, crikey it hurt and it took about 5 minutes of agony before I could get my legs in a position that did not hurt!!! Needless to say, it was freezing out which was not good, so it took another half an hour of pain and contortions before I was back inside in my sleeping bag, but not sleeping, because every time I relaxed, my legs locked up. I had no idea what caused this, I was not dehydrated, it was a bit cold but not that cold, so the reason escapes me. I eventually conked out a few hours later and of course slept in a bit the next morning. [As an afterward to this, as I am writing this days later, I can say with foresight that when I rode the Denali Highway, in a few days time, while standing on the pegs, I felt the tightness in the exact same places while riding, so this meant it was my riding posture and handlebar setup that is the cause of the strain. This is a relief, not good, but it is something I can maybe change or control, of course I knew nothing of this for the next few days, back to today 🙂 ]

So, after we woke up late, I phoned Dave as we were supposed to meet for breakfast somewhere, he said no worries, come on around to their place at 10.30 and brekky will be served 🙂 So, we headed off after doing some internet stuff and after negotiating the rubber roads around all the corners we arrived at their place.

Dave and Amy Beth had cooked up pancakes(flapjacks I think they are called) with Maple syrup and scrambled eggs and I can say it was great 🙂

After a few hours of chat etc, we left them to their Sunday with the mad hatter dogs and headed back to Roger’s. Thanks for the tucker and the company 🙂

There was a nice little creek near the turnoff, so I stopped and waited for Simon who had missed the corner and because the traffic was so bad, he found it hard to turn around; he eventually took the ATV track 🙂

The rest of the day we spent chatting with Roger while doing some computer stuff. Here is a quick plug for Friar Mike, if you need some bike work done, or VW stuff, drop on by.

Dinner for the evening was going to be Red Salmon BBQ’d, it sounded great and of course it took a bit of preparation, myself and Simon helped by buying the beer 🙂

Just a sidetrack here, we are up north, way up north, so check out the way the satellite dish is pointing, nearly at the ground just to find the satellites on the horizon, it was even worse up in Deadhorse, but I forgot to take pictures up there 🙂

So, later that evening after Dave and Amy Beth and the two dogs turned up, we had some great fish for dinner, beautiful, better than catfish any day 🙂 And of course we washed it all down with some beer 🙂

Roger and Mary Ellen used to run dog sled teams, for about 20 years. They had quite a number of dogs, over 50 at one stage and used to take tourists out for trips. They gave it up when Roger was spending more time as an organiser and not with the dogs, which was the reason for being there. He has also participated in a few Iditarod Races, from Anchorage to Nome by dog sled team, this is a harsh race and claims many ‘did not finish’.

Needless to say we had a great evening chatting and then watching the dogs go ape outside while the garden was raided 🙂 The moose seem to like this vegie patch as well and totally ignore the warning tape, I have no idea why!

It was not such a late night tonight and I dropped off the beer earlier than usual as I did not want to have to get up during the night again and have another cramp attack. I had taken a electrolyte powder this morning in case dehydration was a part of it, these were left over from my attack in Kakadu last year. It did not seem to help during the day, so I am assuming it was not the cause. We were heading of tomorrow, we had checked the weather and there was a break down south so we wanted to go through Anchorage as I needed to pick up mail etc. Roger had warned us about the Seward highway as being a death trap, lots of tourists hold up traffic and the locals get impatient and overtake, which then causes accidents and fatalities. We were still interested in the road as it followed the coast and the scenery is supposed to be spectacular. Anyway, fine weather tomorrow, that means riding weather 🙂 Mind you we also had to be aware of flying(falling) moose apparently, as it happened to the son of his neighbour! Have a read of this

Day 30 miles and 48 km
Trip – 29,737 miles and 47,857 km

Cheers
TravellingStrom

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