Welcome to Rage City!

The thing is that you can't sleep on an plane. It's not part of the deal. You can just sit and squirm with you face pressed against the little plastic window and maybe you'll at least get to see something. I was staring out of the window into the ocean when I noticed the the islands weren't islands at all. And the ocean from which they arose was an ocean of trees. There's a lot of trees in Alaska.

And that's how we found ourselves in the city of Rage, Anchorage that is. Our bikes are in boxes, our panniers are empty. Our stuff is everywhere. The building and packing commences. It never did get dark between the hours of 2 am and 6 am, but only went from twilight to dawn as we contemplated bike parts and clothing. Starving, we stopped at the soonest breakfast restaurant, the City Diner. We tasted our first reindeer sausage and chatted with the first Anchorageites (Anchoragians?) we met.

We found a hostel that allowed camping, and no sooner had we puffed up our sleeping mats and stuffed them into our bag, we fell into a deep, deep sleep for many hours. Awakening to yet more daylight we headed out to explore Anchorage. A friend of a cousin lives in Anchorage and we had met several years back when she visited Colorado. She called as we were heading into town and even though she was planning a wedding, she bought us a round of beers and excitedly informed us of the attractions to be found in Anchorage. Without a second thought she informed us of the time and date of the wedding, and so it was a date!

We had a couple of days to hang out in Anchorage before the wedding, so we stashed our gear and turned our bikes toward the coastal trail that runs about 10 miles around Anchorage. The day was clear and sunny and the biking was perfect. The trail ended at Kincaid park, where we met our first adventure-friend, Matt.

Conversation began because Matt had the same bike as Rusti - all the way down to the Brooks saddle. He was a firefighter, and his wife and kids had been out of town for a month-long camping trip. He invited us to stay at his house on the outskirts of Anchorage. We took his information and continued our ride, picking up some things at REI before stopping at an "authentic Alaskan restaurant" (meaning more reindeer sausage). Around 8:00 Matt called, asking us where we were, he had picked up dinner. Well, he came and picked us up at the restaurant, stashed our bikes on the back of the car, and took us to his nice, cabiny type house outside of Anchorage. After eating second dinner at 11 o'clock at night and chatting for awhile, we hit the sheets. Little did we know Matt had let us sleep in his bed as he slept on the couch. The next day we were treated to lunch in Girdwood after seeing zero belugas at beluga point (the lack of wildlife will turn into a theme of our trip). We beelined it to the church, only to find out the day was Thursday and the wedding was Friday. So we chilled at Matt's - took a hot tub and watched a documentary. (Note: we missed the wedding anyway - we thought it was at 6, it was at 4. We made the reception and had a grand old time). Overall, THANKS MATT!!! What a great introduction to Alaska!