30 - Northen Lights Campground, Glenallen Alaska

Monday 8/8 started with a bang. Kris had a 7:45am flight from Valdez to Anchorage. She was going to pass the day with a massage & facial and then an afternoon snack at Crow’s Nest before her 9:00pm flight back to NJ.

When we arrived at the very busy Valdez airport the lady from the counter inside came out saying “don’t let your rides leave, the flight is cancelled” due to poor visibility and rain. There was an evening flight, but the woman just basically answered “maybe it will, maybe it won’t” go out.

Kris inquired about rental cars. The only rental car company in Valdez went out of business due to COVID. The closest was in Palmer, which is 1 hour outside of Anchorage, so it didn’t make sense.

So, the 4 of us quickly got the RV ready and started the drive to Anchorage. We decided we would drive 2.5 hours to Glenallen, drop the RV at Northern Lights Campground and continue the journey to Anchorage. This would give us a shorter drive to catch up with our friends on Tuesday.

Whenever Kris had cell service, she was looking for alternatives. At one point she found a mail plane that took passengers out of Glenallen, we were already thinking up the stories about the flight that would be told for years to come. Unfortunately, that plane was also grounded. No worries, the mail has to get delivered so there will be a van making the trip that Kris could hitch a ride on (again, the stories) but unfortunately, they couldn’t guarantee she’d get to Anchorage in time for her flight. The folks at the office said, “if you have someone willing to drive you and has a working car, I’d go with them”. She also inquired if Mike wanted to come back and be an Uber driver for them.

So, we continued onto Anchorage in the rain. We were all starved so stopped at Sami’s City Diner for lunch before heading to the airport. We finally got her there and I took pictures of each step to ensure she was getting on the plane. Happy to say she landed in NJ a little early on Tuesday morning. Mike, Abby and myself got back to the RV about 8:00 that evening, it certainly was a long day.