Moving from Homer on the Kenai Peninsula, we drove up through Soldotna, Cooper River, and Girdwood on the way back to Anchorage. We saw three mountain goats on the Seward Highway and two otters in Kachemak Bay. After getting settled in, we made a ride into Wasilla to pick up a power connector for the motorhome to car connection and then went on to Palmer to see historic downtown Palmer.
In addition to the visitor center and gift shop, we walked over to their small but very well organized garden area, showcasing some of the flowers that grow in the region It was amazing what a growing season of 100 – 118 days can do in this environment.
Established in 1916, Palmer became the site of one of the most unusual experiments in American history, the Matanuska Valley Colony. President Franklin Roosevelt planned an agricultural colony in the Matanuska Valley and moved over 200 families, mostly from Wisconsin and Minnesota. These hardy farmers were of Scandinavian descent and Roosevelt believed they had a “natural” advantage. Even though the failure rate was high, many of the descendants still live in the valley. Palmer is the only Alaskan community to developed primarily from an agricultural economy. After visiting the town’s visitor center and museum, we drove to the older section of Palmer. We saw many of the original houses, churches and community centers built by the government in the late 1930s.
After visiting Palmer, we took a ride out to Wasilla to see the Iditarod building and grounds. We watched a nicely produced film on the running of the teams and how the race dogs are treated. We walked over to see some of the actual dogs on site and they all stood up and were excited, thinking we were going to let them pull us These dogs actually seem to love to run!
Outside the main building, we saw the monument recognizing Joe Redington as the “Father of the Iditarod”.
Flanking the Redington monument was a monument to the Alaska sled dogs and the “greatest race on Earth”, the Iditarod.
After we left town, headed for Eklutka, Michael called to tell us that Alaska had just had a 7.3 earthquake and Anchorage was on a tsunami alert for a possible 7 foot wave. Anchorage had an historic earthquake in 1964 at 9.2 and holds the record at 1,700′ for a tsunami. Today’s quake was near Kodiak Island and not really a concern Anchorage and the alert was cancelled.
Travelling with the Schinglers 