The plan was to do whitewater rafting, biking, and hiking in Talkeetna, Alaska, last weekend.

My childhood friend (since I was four) asked me to come hang on my three day weekend. She’s the same friend who came out to visit me and tried out kayaking and SUPing and still likes to hang out with me.

So I flew Seattle to Anchorage where she picked me up late Friday night before catching a Saturday morning train to Talkeetna (my… Connections… Got us and her two friends into the dome car!)

Unfortunately by this time my friend’s foot had stiffened up from a dog fight she had been involved in (a pit bull attacking her boyfriend’s dog leading to him pulling the pit bull off and their dog pulling her into a ditch) the evening before.

She couldn’t walk on it far and was in a lot of pain so we ended up taking a $30 cab ride in a sketchy unmarked white van going to Sunshine clinic (with a name like that how can you go wrong) for x-rays and crutches!

So no whitewater rafting, or anything else super adventurous, for us, but at least we were mobile enough to get around the small fun town. Mt. Denali was out (no longer called Mount McKinley), a rare treat. And we played a competitive game of Egyptian ratscrew into the midnight sun.