A Journey of a Thousand Miles - Lodging

One of the things you have to figure out on any trip longer than a day is "where are we going to stay?"  Lodging is one of the fun and interesting parts of any trip.  When I travel by myself or in this case with another friend, I am up for keeping it affordable, cheap, spartan, and when I can, free.  It is my minimalist tendencies kicking in again.

Perhaps it comes from the road trip adventures my dad took us on early on in my life.  We usually didn't stay at motel/hotels until we were older.  When we were really small, we would sleep in the back seat of the VW Beetle while dad drove through the night.  The back seat actually folded down into a flat surface big enough for my sister and I to fully stretch out.  Usually a sleeping bag was spread out to cover the itchy wool material that covered the area behind the seat and a blanket to cover us made it down right cozy.  One memorable adventure was when Dad and I took a box van truck from Fairbanks to Haines, Alaska.  It was full of mattresses bound for a youth camp in Southeast Alaska. There was other equipment in there too, like a washer and dryer, but it was all covered up with mattresses in different levels.  We had to pull off on the side of the road somewhere between the two towns for a couple nights and I rolled out my sleeping bag on a little loft of mattresses stacked up high.  It was fun sleeping in the back of that truck.  

Honestly, that little memory kicks in anytime I am traveling light or on my own and I rather delight in the idea of tucking myself away somewhere cozy for the night.  I also like the idea of free lodging.  So, when planning this most recent trip, we planned to take advantage of our many contacts around the road system in Alaska who are connected with a church.  Many churches have little rooms with a bed or a place to roll out a sleeping bag for the night.  I have done that many-a-time in my years in Alaska as a youth pastor on youth choir tours.  I've slept on pews scooted together forming a fairly decent sleeping surface (if you don't mind the high spot in the middle), couches, daycare napping pads, nursery crib mattresses strung together, anything to cushion this aging body from the cold, hard floor.  

In our planning, we would need lodging in the Wasilla area, Denali, Fairbanks and Valdez.  No problem as all of those places have Assembly of God churches with friends as the pastor.

As I wrote the last time, we had invited the wives along on this trip which was not in the original plan.  This requires different thinking when planning the lodging.  Although I am OK with no shower now and then, my wife is not OK with that.  She requires hot water, electricity and coffee with creamer.  We quickly realized that we needed to upgrade our lodging ideas.  Usually that means staying somewhere that is going to cost a little money.  

When you are just a couple, you can sometimes stay with friends.  Lots of people have a "guest room" or at least a room with an extra bed.  But who has two guest rooms?  Not many have the ability to house 4 adults and in my case "full size" adults for the night?  Without going into a long story, we had mutual friends who have a nice house in Eagle River who were going to be gone at the very time we were going to be in their area.  "Would you all like to just stay at our place while we are gone?", Ann the wife offered.  Sure!  

Jack and Ann have a wonderful home, very comfortable and one we have stayed in several times.  They were very generous to allow us to use it when they were not there.   So that took care of our first night.  It was quite nice as usual and I slept very well.  We even were able to park our Harley Davidsons in the garage for the night.  Deluxe accommodations you might say.  The wives were certainly on board for this idea.  Lots of room, hot water, electricity and coffee.  I was feeling a little giddy about being off to a good start.

Our next place we needed to stay was the meeting place for the "Meet in the Middle" biker rally near Denali Park or Cantwell to be a little more accurate.  We had planned to stay at the Grizzly Bear Campground all along for this night.  

Since the rally occurs here each year, it only makes sense to stay right there.  There is an Assembly of God church in the community of Healy which is not very far from this campground, but "when in Rome" as they say.  When I mentioned to my wife we were staying at the Grizzly Bear Campground, she looked very sternly at me and asked, "am I going to have to stay in a sleeping bag?"  I assured her that no, this was not the case.  Even though you could tent camp it if you wanted to, they have nice little rooms with beds, showers and balconies overlooking the Nenana river.  It's quite nice actually.  A night I look forward to.  This did the trick for her and we were back on.  The only trouble with our room was the two double size beds instead of the king size I asked for.  You have to understand that sleeping together on a double size bed is OK when you are first married, I mean you are in love and all of that and we were a lot skinnier then.  You tend to overlook a few things when you are first married.  I generously gave my wife half of the bed even though she is half my size.  I slept diagonally from one corner to the opposite corner and she got the other two corners.  This doesn't fly anymore.  There is also some ridiculous talk about somebody snoring and stealing too much of the covers.  So, we staked out our own beds.  Probably a good thing too, as mine was as hard as a sheet of plywood.  I think I tossed and turned so much that night that I would have tossed my wife out of bed just from the shock waves traveling to the opposite corners of the mattress.

After a somewhat restless night, we enjoyed a long, hot shower which I felt helped me justify some of my $170 for the night.  I think Mr. Grizzly Bear does pretty well with his little campground.  We checked out and headed to our next destination, Fairbanks.

Now I was a little nervous about where we were staying in the "golden heart city".  Originally, I was planning to ask the pastor of Fairbanks First Assembly if we could sack out on sleeping bags somewhere in the church.  Knowing I had to upgrade my plan with my wife along, I went to the next best place: Priceline.  I carefully read the descriptions of the many hotels and disregarded all of them and chose the cheapest place listed, a Best Western for $99.  I thought, if the Grizzly Bear had beds like a buck board wagon, what is a $99 Best Western going to have?

As it turns out, this was the most wonderful hotel of the whole trip!  We got to the "golden heart city" a little early for checking in but I wanted to unload our stuff from our friends car and let them go on to stay with their son, his wife and baby granddaughter.  So, first I had to find this place.  There are two Best Western hotels in Fairbanks.  One is right on the main drag and you can spot it easily right away.  Our Best Western is a little more difficult to find.  I had to head down Peger Road, cross the Chena River (on a bridge, I just rode over it) and turn right on an industrial road that headed to the rail yard of the Alaska Rail Road.  It didn't look promising.  Then, a little sign pointed down a very winding and fairly long street with no other businesses, houses or other buildings around, just woods and nothing to see.  I rode down this street thinking, "I hope this place doesn't stink."  I finally arrived to a quite nice place, rather newish looking.  There were almost no cars at all in the parking spaces and I assumed the place might be fairly vacant.  

I parked my Harley and walked in.  Nice so far, clean and the pool even looks inviting.  I went to the counter and "AJ" a young and fairly small lady of what seemed to me Indian (as in India) descent was there to greet me.  I said, "I know I am a little early to check in, but is there any way I can do so?"  Her fingers clicked and clacked across her computer keyboard for a few seconds and then her face brightened and said pleasantly, "yes, we have a room available."  Music to my ears!  I said thank you as she handed me the little key cards to our room and I went up to the third floor and down the hall to the room assigned to me.  I opened the door and peered into the darkness.  What?  This room is big!  I flip on a light.  It is a suite!  Sweet, I say!  The bed?  King.  Soft.  Perfect.  My wife is going to think I am a genius.  I scored a hotel suite on Priceline for $99 bucks.  I am a genius.

Needless to say, it was a wonderful night of sleep.  We had lots of room for all our stuff and it was very comfortable, even the couch was comfortable.  We took our time in the morning and used our fair share of hot water in the shower.  The other cool thing is that the Best Western hotels offer a "free" breakfast.  It actually isn't bad.  We and 5,000 of our best friends (the place was not deserted after all) ate our fill of scrambled eggs and little sausages and JoLynn had a waffle. The coffee wasn't actually coffee, it was Nescafe which I hadn't had for over a year since we were in Israel.  It was kind of a memory trigger of that wonderful trip.

I was feeling a little better about our next destination, Valdez, since I had booked a room there for Greg and I to stay in and split the cost.  The plan was that the ladies would stay in Fairbanks an extra day and return home via the route we arrived.  Greg and I were going to push on to Valdez, about 385 miles away for the next night.  I Pricelined this room as well but the choice wasn't too hard as there were only two hotels to choose from and the review on one complained about the running diesel engine of the 18 wheeler that idled all night just outside their window and the noise from the harbor was just as bad.  The other choice, the Best Western also offered that free breakfast...visions of little sausages were dancing in my head.

It was a long haul from the "golden heart city" to Valdez the next day.  By the time we arrived, our backsides had about all the saddle time they were going to allow us.  We were beat and I was hoping the room was another surprise suite.  No such luck.  It did have two double beds for which I was grateful for this time as I didn't think Greg would go for the opposite corner scheme.  The beds were passable for two weary road warriors.  I conked out after a hot shower.  I think I could have even slept on the buck board bed with an 18 wheeler idling outside our window that night and been OK.  

Yes, lodging is a great part of the adventure.  As it was, it was partly a great trip as we didn't have to sleep on the floor of a church as we would have originally planned which would have necessitated carrying even more stuff like foam pads and sleeping bags.  Staying in a hotel helps keep things light and less complicated although at a little more cost.  I hate to admit it to myself, but even being a minimalist at heart and my training, I kind of like the hotel thing.  At the end of the day this pudgy body likes to rest well and that more and more sounds like a bed worth paying for.