Alaska Adventure Day 2, Anchorage to Healy 320 miles

Random things:
We crossed Montana Creek today. Funny how they name stuff after places far away.
Sled dogs eat 10,000 calories a day when they are working.
Usually 16 dogs pull a sled. With 70 entrants, that's over a thousand pooches at the Iditarod start.
Frost heave occurs when the ground thaws at different rates, because part is in the sun. It mkaes for a roller coaster of a highway.
I continue to deny my geezerhood, but the three of us rode quite a bit with our turn signals on today.
Kawasaki KLR 650s work great.

We stopped at the McKinley Lodge, where we met Jean, the proprieter. Her mother was Mary Carey, who decided to move from Texas to Alaska. She bought a station wagon, in the 60s, and drove up, then boated the rest of the way as there was no road. She found an awesome spot with a viewpoint of McKinley and decided to Homestead it. She got 150 acres and had to clear 40 to grow soybeans.
She ordered the materials for a house and had it shipped from Seattle. It took nine months to get to her, but the boat sunk just before arriving. She ordered (and paid) again and waited another nine months, spending her first Alaskan winter in a tent.
Mary nagged the governor for a road to her place. It became a seven month protracted battle, Mary using the power of the pen, using her writing skills and challenged him in the newspapers, to move him. The goverrnor's first response was, "We already have two roads, why do we need three?"
Mary got her road, and it is now the Parks Highway, the main thoroughfare from Anchorage to Prudhoe Bay.  The state legislature wanted to change the name to Mary Carey Highway, so she went to Juneau to appeal to the lawmakers. You see, she could tell she had the finest view of Mount McKinley in Alaska, and knew the Feds would exercise Eminent Domain and run her and her bar/motel/restaurant business out. So she asked them to draw a circle around her place and make it a state park, for free, rather than spend millions changing the name. Voila, done. Smart gal.
We rode and toured all day, finishing at nine p.m. In broad daylight, cold and weary. But a great day riding.
Tomorrow, Denali National Park.