From there we journeyed
to Wasilla for a look at the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry.
This place is great! It houses tractors that were once 
used
for farming in the Matanuska Valley [bet you didn’t know they farm in Alaska].
Machinery that helped to build the Alcan Highway and many pieces of original
ARR equipment.
Rick and Paulette invited us to leave the
camper/truck in their driveway while we explored the Anchorage area, and
even loaned us one of their cars so we could get around a little easier.
It was startling to see the traffic flow in the Wasilla area after dealing
with the single
30-mile highway that traverses the coast
of our island home. All of the modern conveniences can be found in
the Mat-Su Valley. People arriving here from down below would not
miss much of the city lifestyle they are used too. The difference
is the people here. Alaskans are independent thinkers and not much
into social distinctions [except in the political classes]. Elevation
92 is a very nice restaurant in the Anchorage area. People dining
there in evening dress might find themselves sharing a section with a fellow
wearing fishing gear or the clothes of an oil worker. All are given
good service and the same fine meal.
While there in the Anchorage
area, Paulette mentioned that we should go to Fort Richardson and look
in the hallway of the Signal Offices. The U.S. Military had
built and maintained Alaska’s long distance communication from the first 
telegraph
signal that went out over WAMCATS to the White Alice Project that kept
cities and small villages in contact with the rest of the world while the
lower 48 was being supplied by private carriers. On the wall 
where
reprints of old black & white photos some showing the raw conditions
that soldiers had to endure to put up poles in the interior. There
was one that showed a tripod arrangement of poles to keep them from sinking
into the swamps out there [Yes, the frozen land melts in the short summer
months, then some areas become literal swamps. That’s why some of
that glass that you see from the highways remains on the poles decades
later].
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