On to Denali

 We got a late start this morning. Rose & I did some laundry and then we all planned our itinerary for the next few days. Up to now, we were trying to reach our goal of the Arctic Circle. Now we will set goals every few days. We headed for Denali and stopped at a place called Skinny Dick’s to eat some lunch. We didn't know that it was an adult bar that served frozen pizza. It had all kinds of rules, if you entered. Needless to say, after a good laugh, we left and had a nice lunch about 20 miles down the road at a restaurant made of huge logs.
On the way back from the Arctic Circle, we heard noise from a squeaky fan in our car. Ray greased it & it seemed to be fine. Today, we heard it again & he could not stop the sound. He replaced the water pump. Of course Ray had a spare. The scenery at Denali is gorgeous. We saw a caribou but he was too far away to photograph. Then we rented a room at the Blueberry Inn, 20 miles south of Denali. The owner had to get our rooms ready & told us where to go to get something to eat. There were two places and the first one was closed. The Cantwell Lodge/Longhorn Bar & Café. It was a local hangout. There was a family there with twins about a year old. When we arrived, the bar tender/middle school teacher told us that the only food that he had was steak sandwiches. Needless to say, we all had steak sandwiches for dinner. It was fun talking to the locals. A mom told me that the school in the area has 23 students, grades K-12. The whole system has 3 schools, with the big school has a little over 200 students. The school in Canton has three teachers and one is a part time principal. This mom is from South Carolina but loves it here in Alaska.  She says that there is a sense of community and that neighbors all watch out for neighbors' kids. We were invited to stay and dance as they having a live band but we left to let the locals have their own fun. Today was a slower day, a little over 100 miles.