Home Again

The next morning we started the last leg of our trip, Tok to Anchorage. Both of us were feeling a bit sad at the trip coming to an end. As stressful as the start was, by this time we had learned to enjoy riding together and didn’t want to return to normal everyday life. The weather was nice and the scenery beautiful. The only downside was the frost heaves and cracked asphalt that made for some treacherous driving.
As we neared Palmer, only a little more than 50 miles from home we ran into our last stretch of road construction. Although we didn’t talk about it then, Bobby and I later agreed that we were both enjoying the delays that gave us a little more time on the road. During the last bit of construction we agreed to take the older, more winding Old Glenn Highway through Palmer toward Anchorage instead of the newer and much faster Glenn Highway. The Old Glenn is full of sweeping curves and beautiful views of the Knik River.
At last, however, we had to get onto the main highway. We thought we had ridden in strong wind before. It only took a few minutes though to realize that these last 30 miles home would be a challenge all their own. I don’t know how fast the wind was blowing, but several times I felt as though the bike would blow out from under me. One more thing to get used to I guess. We pulled into our driveway about 7:00 Monday evening. Before we had stripped off our riding gear, we were planning our next ride for Wednesday afternoon. We are hooked, and we’ll definitely be back for more.