Adventures in Alaska

By Ron Slechta
Posted 8/10/22

In an earlier column, I had written about how COVID-19 cut short our visits to the Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre while in Israel in March of 2020 and canceled our first …

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Adventures in Alaska

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In an earlier column, I had written about how COVID-19 cut short our visits to the Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre while in Israel in March of 2020 and canceled our first flight back to the United States.

When Helen and I set out for Alaska on July 19 we were in hopes that COVID-19 would not interrupt our trip.  We expected to finish the land portion of the trip with a pleasant cruise from Alaska to Vancouver, Canada and then home by way of Denver.

As luck would have it, we had more of an adventure than we had bargained for.  No, we did not encounter a bear or antelope, just COVID-19.

Before we could leave Iowa, we were tested twice for COVID-19 and both times we were negative.  So we were okay for the 6-hour airplane ride to Fairbanks and the land portion of our trip.

We enjoyed a week on land experiencing the beautiful Alaskan scenery.   We had a fun trip on Riverboat Discovery III on the Chena River just outside of Fairbanks.  We saw some caribou; some young dogs being trained to pull a sled; and visited a Chena (Athabascan tribe) Indian village where we saw how they lived and how they used hides of fox, bears, minks, antelopes, etc.

That afternoon we had the opportunity to pan for gold at an old Gold Dredge 8 gold mine where we were taught how to pan for gold.  We were successful in getting $16 worth of gold and rode in an open-air replica of Tanana Valley Railroad in Gold Stream Valley at Fox, between Fairbanks and Chatanika. Gold is still being mined in Alaska, only by huge commerce operations that use intense heat to separate the gold from the gravel.

Like every good tourist attraction, both these sites had great gift shops.  We didn’t buy anything there as we thought we would see other good gift shops before we got on board the Grand Princess cruise ship, but that wasn’t the case until we got to the airport.

When we visited the gold camp, we also saw a portion of the 800-mile Trans Alaska pipeline that was above ground to keep from melting permafrost and upsetting the environment. Some 600,000 barrels of crude oil are pumped through the pipeline daily from Prudhoe Bay on the north slope to the seaport of Valdez.   I will write more about the pipeline in another column.

On our third day, we got on the Alaska passenger train.  We were on a double deck rail car with a dome top so we had an excellent view of the Alaskan trees and streams. Then we took shifts to have breakfast down below.  We were in the second shift and had a delicious Alaskan breakfast that also served as our lunch.

The train took us to Denali in the Denali National Park.  The next day we took a school bus up a mountain to above the tree line in Denali Park. Some passengers said they saw a couple antelope, but Helen and I did not see a bear nor an antelope, just a lot of trees and bushes.

The next day we got aboard the bus to Mount McKinley Lodge. Helen and I took it easy that day and were able to get a photo of Mount Denali (McKinley).  We were told we were among the 10% who were able to see the majestic mountain, which at 20,310 ft is the tallest mountain in North America. It was completely snow covered.

There the first members of our group tested positive for COVID and left for Anchorage for 5 days of quarantine before they could go home to Minnesota.  The next day when we got to the DenaliPrincess lodge, 7 more members of our group, including Helen and I, tested positive and were immediately told not to leave our room. Wednesday we were transported to Anchorage along with several others from another tour group who were positive.  At the end of the cruise, two more people tested positive for COVID, and two others had bad colds.

We were taken to Voyager Motel in Anchorage along with about 18 others who were positive or had roommates who were positive. The staff couldn’t get our room temperature warm, so Helen and I were moved to the 12th floor of Captain Cook across the street for the remainder of our 5-day quarantine. It was a much smaller but nicer room with heat and air. We had a good view of the bay inlet and Alaska Mountain range. We were escorted across the street by hotel security, who let us into the room but did not give us a key as we were to stay in our room until Sunday, which we did. Those who stayed in the Voyager had to have the front door of the hotel unlocked so they could leave at the end of their quarantine.

We signed up for room service for three meals a day, not really knowing what to expect. We were disappointed to receive our meals in cardboard boxes along with a bottle of water with each.  We were given a plastic  knife, fork and spoon, along with a little bag of salt & pepper and one napkin. Sometimes the meat was so tough that we would break the plastic knife trying to cut it. The best meals were a breakfast of French toast and bacon and the last day we had pancakes with some syrup, but no butter.

We both lost about six lbs.

The hotel cleaning staff never came to the room.  I cheated a couple of times by holding the door open with one of our suitcases so I could walk the hotel hallway on our floor to get some exercise.

We had the option of staying one more day or taking “the redeye” overnight flight back to Chicago. We boarded the plane about 9 p.m. and flew overnight. It was a long flight, but better than spending another $550 a night for a hotel room.

After we tested positive, no health care personnel checked on us to see if we were okay. They just assumed if we were quarantined for 5 days, we would be safe to travel. We were given a phone number to call if we really got sick.  The cruise line was more concerned about keeping COVID positive people off the ship than they were about their health.

The cruise line said they would give us credit for the cruise we didn’t take so we could take another cruise, but it will not be to Alaska. We met a number of people who had gone on the cruise before doing the land portion of the trip and they were disappointed with the cruise as it was cold and rainy.

We enjoyed the land portion of the trip but we don’t feel we missed a lot by not going on the cruise except that we would have had much more delicious meals on the cruise.