Really Earned My Wings.................

Sunday, May 16, 2010
This morning Don was to meet Denali Air at 7:00 to take him on a flight to view Mt McKinley, and the sun is shining for the first time since we arrived in Denali. Unfortunately, he was the only person registered, and they required at least one more person to sign up before they would go. They told him to check with them at the top of each hour to see if anybody had signed up. When he told me what was going on, I thought about it for a little while and decided to join him. It could be the highlight of my trip! I'm a little afraid of taking a small airplane (alright --- a LOT afraid of taking a small airplane). But we haven't seen THE mountain yet and the weather today is in our favor, so I decided to try it. Don told me after the flight that Mt McKinley up close is fabulous! I took his word for it, because I had my eyes closed most of time, concentrating on keeping my breakfast in my stomach.



The outfitter was great, and our pilot, R.D, was great, pointing out things we should look for. R.D. told us the winds were over 100 mile per hour at the Mountain, and because of that, we were not able to fly on the south side where 30+ climbers were.


What looks like clouds in the picture below is actually snow blowing off the mountain.


Don told me after we got home that at one point, the airplane got pushed to the right about 50 feet or so. It didn't tip, or dip, it just got pushed and continued flying straight ahead, parallel to where we had been. Again, I just have to take his word for it.
The next three pictures show glaciers coming down the mountain.







As soon as the wheels hit the ground, I put my head in my hands - so thankful to be back on solid ground. And really glad beyond measure that Don was able to go. We were both awarded our "Denali Air" wings, and I'll treasure mine forever because I'll never get another set. Below: YAY, It's over!!!


When we returned to the lodge after our flight, we had already checked out of our room so we hung around the lodge where I relaxed and took a little snooze on one of the couches in the common area. After a couple of hours, we caught a shuttle to the visitors center and spent about an hour before boarding the McKinley Explorer train to Fairbanks.

We arrived in Fairbanks about 8:00 and were transported from the train station to the Westmark Hotel via coach. After checking into our room, we walked across the street to the Iris Saloon and ended up having a beer and getting acquainted with our travel mates, Howard and Judy Zucker from Delaware and Stan and Donna Zucker from NY. Howard and Stan are brothers, and we enjoyed visiting with all of them. Howard definitely has the most flair for telling stories; we all had good laughs listening to him. Really nice people who all seem to be at least 10 years younger than they really are. Tomorrow morning we leave Fairbanks for our destination of Tok, AK.