Tues, June 24, 2008

Hi, It's Phyllis tonight.
It has been a long day. We never seem to get up and going very early. Our day started with breakfast at Mc Donald's. First time on this trip that we have eaten there. We visited the musk ox farm, where we had a walking tour . We got a few pictures, but most of the animals were far enough way that they were hard to photograph. We did learn that while most people think they are related to the ox or buffalo, they actually are in the line of goats. Of course they date back to the days of the pre-historic animals, and have been saved from extinsion. As we traveled on we did a short loop around some farm ground. We headed for Glenallen to find a long area of road construction with a pilot car. It appeared that they are blasting and litterly tearing apart the mountain.
We saw the Mantuska Glacier, which was not far off the road, but did not drive down to pay the owner of the land a fee to walk up . When we finally got to Glenallen, we had another 117 miles to Valdez. It was probably one of the prettiest drives we have been on so far. There are mountains all around us, some green and other covered with snow. Driving thru Thompson Pass, we saw the Worthington Glacier, Bridal Veil Falls, and Horsetail Falls. These were the major ones, but there is water coming down the mountains everywhere. We decided that if we don't find much to do tomorrow in Valdez, the drive to get here was worth every minute. It rained on us today, which it does about everyday, but never lasts very long. The temperature is in the 50's and 60's. Before we left Palmer we visited the Family Christian Center. The ladies from Linda's missionary group sends money to this church for some missionaries from this church. The pastor, prayed for us as we left, and prayed for us to see animals on our way, but his prayers didn't work any better than ours. Tomorrow we will head north and travel the same highway we did today. This is not unusual in Alaska, as there is only one road in and out of a lot of places. Ila will put on some pictures from today, so hope you enjoy them as well as our adventures.