Talkeetna was our goal. Carol, Jim’s mom, was the first of many people who felt we would love it there. They all were right! We pulled in late on a rainy afternoon to this village on the south side of the Alaskan range, launch point for most all of the Denali climbs and, until it’s “discovery” a few years back by Princess tours, just a regular working town. The Talkeetna Roadhouse dates back to 1914... and the general store is not much younger. The main street holds about a dozen stores and eateries including a brewery. The original airstrip is just off Main Street and the community center is the old hanger.

We had heard from Jim’s folks that Todd Basalone, a Pennsylvania native who graduated with Jim’s brother Ralf, had been living in Talkeetna for a while and owned the pizza place. So after finding a quiet side street to camp for the night, we headed over to Mountain High Pizza Pie. Todd was not in, but Kristin, also from PA, was our waitress and made us feel quite welcome. Mountain High serves up a REALLY good pizza, spinach salad and one of the best barley wines I’ve ever enjoyed (Alaskan Brewing Company, on tap here only because they sell so much beer for ABC). We sat outside in the beer garden, visited with Kristin and watched the world go by, which it does very slowly around here now that the tours busses have stopped for the season. She explained tourism is a blessing and a curse here. Yes it does bring in some income, though many of the cruise tours drop people at shops owned by the company and maintain their own hotels in the interior of Alaska as well, so the money doesn’t really get put into the local economy (except for the lower paying service jobs), rather it goes back to the outside parent company. Talkeetna is a bit different because it does have some small, locally owned, craft shops and they have always had some travelers coming through because of the mountain, just not in groups of several hundred at a time. Before tours started coming to town, residents really had a 12 month economy. People worked the jobs they could find or started a business, fixed things for each other, hunted, grew food or gathered what nature provided, but they made it year round on their own. Now it’s more like a 6-month economy where many folks really depend on the tourist dollars and lots of places close down for the winter. All the local folks we talked with while we were there were pretty philosophical about it, but the longer-term residents especially missed just being a quiet little town. Filled with the best pizza we’ve had in a long, long time we headed off to bed, looking forward to seeing Talkeetna in the light of day.

The next morning dawned clear (have we mentioned how that happens to us a lot here?) so we wandered around the corner and down the main street to explore. We made it to the old railroad tracks where Jim was delighted to find they were replacing timbers and so had many old spikes laying around just waiting to be collected. As we were headed into the Roadhouse for breakfast (yup-two meals out in a row! But they make their pancakes with 100 year old sourdough-how could we resist??) a man called out from across the street at the pizza place. It was Todd (Kristin had pointed us out to him). We were glad to finally meet him. He seemed so familiar. We both said later that if we didn’t know better we’d have sworn he was Lou’s lost twin. They look alike, sound alike and have similar mannerisms as well as a great sense of humor! Turns out it was Todd’s birthday and he was headed into Anchorage with a friend to see some music that night, but he invited us to go out and spend some time at his place anyway. “It’s on the most beautiful lake! It’s so peaceful, I’d really like for you to be able to enjoy it. I’ll be back tomorrow anyway and we can hang out then” Well, ok then. We made arrangements to follow him out there a little later and went to eat another yummy Talkeetna meal.

Now sometimes people will tell you that they live in a special place, and you might be able to see why it’s special to them, but let me tell you, Todd’s place was off the hook! About 20 minutes out of town we turned down a small road, to a dirt road to a drive and then out into a clearing in front of a nice looking 2 story wood house. It was, as he had said, on a serene lake surrounded by forest (in gold, red and green) with islands dotting the otherwise glassy surface. High bush cranberries and the last of the year’s wildflowers filled the meadow that bordered his big garage/work shed a little way from the house.

Todd has done an incredible job of retaining the natural flora around the house, while clearing enough space to create wonderful areas for hanging out, including a deck that over looks the lake, a floating pier from which to fish or just hang out and a nice grassy lawn for Frisbee or throwing a ball for the dogs. Yes, four of them! There’s Thea, old and sweet as Sharkey was and about as stiff. Roxie, a cute little Rottweiler who just showed up in his yard one day, Mojo, his big, beautiful black lab and Guido, a kind of rolly-polly pug who seemed to pretty much straddle the canine-human line. Such a fun pack.! Made us miss our Zuma dog even more! Oh yes, there was also Cosmo the kitty, who of course took a special liking to Jim ;-)

I knew seeing the yard that Todd had done a ton of work, but when he took us inside and started talking about the evolution of the house I couldn’t help but think “This man really is from PA! J He’s painted most of the house in what Kristen later called “Steeler’s gold” (with a few complimentary colors) and decorated with really cool local art and Steeler and Penguin paraphernalia .

We had a great time getting to know each other hanging out that morning and as a bonus got to meet his friend Jamie (from Phili!), but eventually they had to get on the road. Todd left us with a beautiful fillet of red salmon and instructions to get into the kayak or the canoe and get out onto the lake. He directed us to one particular island where he has a campsite and a couple good fishing holes and off they went for the evening. Well, you didn’t have to tell Jim twice to grab a rod after he got bit by the fishing bug back in Valdez. The next thing I knew he was down on the dock with a cigar, his pole (and Todd’s) “just to see what was out there”. I had a wonderful time sitting in the quiet beauty reading. After a bit we decided to adventure off in one of the boats and managed to find not only the camping island but three or four others as well.

I cannot adequately describe the experience of paddling along with nothing but crystal clear water and trees surrounding us. Todd had given us such an amazing gift, just by his spontaneous generosity, opening up his home to people whom, despite one being from his hometown, were really strangers to him. We hope someday to be able to return the favor!

After our paddling, we got down to fixing dinner. Just as it was finished cooking, Kristen and her boyfriend Zack pulled up. They are living with Todd for a couple weeks while finishing up some work on their own place down the road. We had a great night hanging out with them and swapping stories. It was another wonderful experience of connecting with people you felt like you had known for years.

In the morning we got to hang out a bit with Todd again when he got back, but we had a mission to get Jim’s bike repaired and with a name of someone, who might know someone who could do that, we said our good byes. We have found this is an interesting and consistent feature in Alaskan towns. There may not be a bike shop, for example, for hundreds of miles. Indeed that was the situation here. But somewhere in town there was likely to be a person possessing skills and enough of a bone yard to help out the local biking population as needed. The trick was finding them. In this case, Todd and Jamie agreed that Danielle, local pilot and avid biker would be the go to person. Since she owned only a bike (and a plane) but no car she either could fix bikes or knew that someone who could. And Wahoo!... She did! Ralf Hoeppner of We-Cycle. He lived out of town on the way to Anchorage. Jim gave him a call and he said that we could stop by later and he’d see what he could do. Beauty. But before town, we left we really had to have one more meal at Mountain High (and a shared barley wine since we wouldn’t be getting to Juneau and the brewer). Well, we thought the pizza was good, but the calzone… I could go on & on! Let’s just say it was an extremely tasty lunch AND dinner the next night, for both of us. Thanks Todd! Oh yeah, I meant to mention how he got his start in the pizza business: selling homemade calzones in the lot after Dead shows. He’s a mighty good cook and did well enough to keep himself comfortably on tour for quite a while. His retired VW bus still sits behind the beer garden. J

On the way out to Ralf’s we turned down a dirt drive with a “Fresh Vegetables” sign that I’d been eyeing since we first pulled into town. We’ve been missing the homegrown food that is usually so much a part of our lives this time of year and have not let a farm stand go by unvisited. The road wandered down to the river where it opened up to a lovely old house surrounded by gardens, greenhouses and some random out-buildings . A fit looking gentleman in his late 60’s greeted us, though there was no “stand” in site. Turns out Ed’s idea of sharing his bounty is to walk you around the many plots of veggies and flowers to see what’s ready to be harvested. If you are interested in taking it home, he’ll pick it for you right then. It was a delight to wander the property discovering beds of this and that, all thriving, while talking with a man who moved to Talkeetna in the early 70’s. In the end we had a HUGE bag of beautiful food, which fed us for the next week and heads full of stories and philosophy that will continue to nurture us for a long time to come.

When we arrived we found a sign on Ralf’s door that read: “This is a home business. If we are home, we are open for business. 24-hours a day, 7-days a week, (unless it’s a nice day and we are out riding)”. And riding is what this couple is all about. They have bikes with FAT tires built for riding in snow, bikes with frames designed to carry some serious weight for touring, hauling kayaks or whatever the situation requires (moose meat? it is Alaska) and bikes for just blazing away the miles from one place to the next. Ralf knew what was up and fixed the problem with Jim’s bike in less time than it took for me to untangle mine from the straps that held it to the rack. Since we were there, I asked him to look at my very poorly functioning derailleur, which he did and was most frustrated that he couldn’t get it to work 100%. Oh well. It worked well enough and now, thanks to Ralf, we could actually ride our bikes! J But, once again, it was the experience of just hanging out in his garage, decked out as a high end bike shop, talking about riding in Alaska, the people who come through and the life that Ralf and Tracy have built here, that left us feeling so grateful and inspired. Everywhere we have ever traveled, we have met great people, but there is something about the folks in the far North that shines so brightly. They are capable, creative and kind. It’s really a winning combination.