Alaska Day 6: Nome, 08.21.07 - Teller

We have a car! Our hotel also operated a car rental, but we were told there were none available all week. Kelley pestered the front desk for a car until she was told there was a one we could rent from Tues to Wed. (Good work, Kells!)We decided that on Tuesday, we will take the 144 mile round trip to Teller, AK. This is supposed to be a great day trip for viewing wildlife.


An abandoned gold dredge off the road to Teller.





Gold Run. By the time we arrived here,at about the 30 mile mark, we had seen some moose in the distance and not much else. We felt, if nothing else, that Gold Run Creek would be an appropriate place for a bathroom break.





"Show us some animals, Aunt Kate!" No sooner had one of us made that request, than a big herd of reindeer appeared in the distance. Right in the middle of the road.






Closer and closer.
This is what it looked like as we moved closer to the herd. Click on the photo to enlarge.









U-Turn.This is where the reindeer decided to turn around and give us the back view. Kelley had a telephoto lens on her camera and I used it to take about 17,000 images of reindeer backsides. (You're welcome, Kelley!)











Paris Hilton. This was our view for miles and miles. The deer moved along at a brisk pace, but would not go off the road. Turns out reindeer are like the Paris Hiltons of the animal world: quick to display their nether regions, and really, really stupid.






Group Decision. Finally, the reindeer made a team decision to go left. Then we asked Aunt Kate to show us some more animals. And she obliged.








America's Next Top Muskox Model.This guy was such a poser. We think he was hoping to get a modeling contract. His mate was a little more shy.

The average male muskox weighs 600-800 lbs. Typically, he will spend about three hours a day shampooing, conditioning and blow-drying his hair.




















Teller Girl
I say this out of love, but the town of Teller is a bit of dump. But this little girl, in the door of the grocery store, was cute.









We flat out.
On the way back, we heard a pop. And sure enough, the right back tire had a nasty side slash about four inches long. We were on an empty road in bear country with no car manual and no cell phone coverage, so this was not a good situation. At first, we couldn't figure out how to remove the spare on a Ford Explorer. Then, thankfully, Kelley recalled watching her husband remove a spare from his Explorer a month earlier, and she was able to get the spare out. The next problem was that the jack didn't bring up the car up high enough to put in the spare tire. It was about 6 inches short. So I suggested digging a ditch, an idea sufficiently crazy to work (which it did). Ginger found a nice skinny dirt-sweeping rock. The dirt was easy to move except we kept confronting large rocks in the ground. Finally, the ground was low enough and we were able fit the spare on and be on our way. At the hotel, they told us everyone flats out around Nome. "We have crappy roads here." Yeah, we know that now.













Dinner at Milano's. Later that evening, we struck up a conversation with the three ladies at the table next to us. (I was surprised to learn that all three consider themselves Native Alaskan. Like nearly everyone in the Lower 48, most Alaskans are also a mixture.) Milano's serves Italian food, sushi and the worst garlic bread in the entire world.