NORTH TO ALASKA 2025 - DAY 39 - WASILLA WALMART AND SAFELITE FOR A ROCK CHIP!

It was dreary and damp when we woke up at Glacier View Campground at Matenuska. 

We could see the glacier right from the parking lot but we weren't about to go hiking in this damp icky weather to go to walk on it. But it was really interesting to see it right from the rec area. I had always thought we would have to hike miles and miles to go see a glacier, our go on an airplane excursion to see one!

This time of year, I'm never sure if I'm just seeing a lot of snow that hasn't melted yet, or if I'm seeing an actual glacier. Lol

So I started reading some of the storyboards that were surrounding the parking area. It was very interesting, but then it started raining some more so I had to hop back in the motorhome,  enjoying the warmth with Steve and Nick and the rest of my coffee.

We started heading further west on the Glenn Highway. The mountains were unfolding in front of us even though the hills were misty and full of wispy clouds.

There's a beauty even to a rainy day when you are in the mountains...

Now this next thing was crazy ---- remember, we had driven all the way out to McCarthy and back. 120 miles on rough rugged gravel roads. We have driven through a lot of really rough gravel patches all the way up here through Canada and into Alaska. Not a single problem! 

So here we are, cruising along on smooth black-topped pavement. And what happens? A car coming the other way was pulling a trailer. Somehow it kicked up a rock and hit us right in the windshield! 

Yep, a rock chip!!!  Aarrrggghhh! (Pleated window shade unfolded behind so you can see it)

It's important to get a rock chip repaired right away so it doesn't spread any further.  We do have two rock chip repair kits with us. But with the damp icky weather we really didn't want to do a repair that would trap the moisture within the windshield. 

Our American Family Insurance has partnered with Safelite windshield repair and has a program all set up in place. All we needed to do was make one phone call and it was all taken care of. All chips are repaired for free. We can have a service vehicle come out to meet us or we can stop at any Safelite facility. There happened to be one just 30 miles down the road in Wasilla. They made an appointment for us for the next morning at 11:00 a.m. How nice is that? 

Also, if we opted to have the entire windshield replaced, it would only cost us a $500 deductible. They would take care of the rest. But since it was just a chip, we chose to get it repaired quickly and hope it doesn't spread any further. 

We drove on the next 30 miles to Wasilla. It happened that the Safelite location was conveniently situated across the street from the Walmart! So we could overnight in the Walmart lot and just buzz over in the morning for our Safelite appointment. How nice is that? 

We got settled in our parking spot along one edge, with a couple other RVs. We were able to extend our slide out into the trees. 

We went inside to ask permission, and purchase a few things. We noticed this was a very clean, well-stocked Walmart. 

We had a nice grassy area beyond the trees to bring Nicholas to run around and burn off some of his energy. 

Yes, he sure does have a lot of energy. Being cooped up in a small motorhome on a rainy icky day, he really needed to get rid of some of his "zoomies". 

I made a very delicious scrumptious roasted chicken! 

Actually it came right out of the deli in Walmart. So we enjoyed an easy meal and had leftovers to pick off the carcass to save for a future chicken stir fry. So we get two meals out of one of their rotisserie chickens for $6.99. quite the bargain. 

This location was pretty quiet, it wasn't near any major interstates, so we were on the quiet side of the parking lot. 

We got a good sleep and the next morning we stocked up what we needed inside of the motorhome. It was nice to grab some of our familiar favorite items. The prices were just about the same as in the lower 48s. 

About 10:00 a.m. we headed over to the parking lot at Safelite. We thought we would see, just in case, if they could take us early. Yes they could!

They said to pull right up into their handicapped parking spot and a technician will be out in a moment.

He wheeled out his cart of supplies. It was going to be very easy for him to do the repair right out in front of their building, and not have to make a service call.

He used a special piece of equipment to extract any moisture out of the crack. Then he filled it with a special resin while he had a dome over the windshield taped into place. That was to prevent any UV rays from affecting the resin while it cured.

Once he had a good seal, he set it on a timer and was able to completely finish up the job in about 10 minutes. Then he cleaned the surface and scraped away any excess.

Steve enjoyed chatting with him, and found out he's a young father with small children. He talked about doing camping and enjoying the outdoors. 

Even though American Family paid for our repair in full, Steve left him a nice little tip. Every little bit helps and when you have friendly customer service, it's always appreciated.

From there, we had looked up a Great Clips location in Wasilla. Steve has been looking increasingly shaggy and needed to clean up his act.

Here is the "before":

And here is the "after". He sure cleans up pretty good with a little lick, spit, and polish. Ya think?

Okay, by now we've had enough of the big city... Traffic and noise and people all over. After spending so many weeks in such remote quiet wilderness areas, it was a barrage to our senses to be in the middle of chain stores and traffic lights and noise, noise, noise.  

On our way north out of Wasilla, we literally saw children swimming. Yes, the ice probably just went off this pond last week. And these hardy Alaskan children were swimming! 

We headed straight north on the Parks Highway. We were heading out to go see Denali! 

There's a state campground called K'esugi Ken, but we weren't able to find a campsite there.  There were a lot of empty campsites, and they all had reserved signs on them. But people just never show up. That's a shame, because people like us would gladly take them. I would say approximately half the campground was empty and it was pretty late in the day. Other people have said the same thing. It gets reserved up and then people never come and change their plans. Instead of canceling, they just let it run out and forfeit their money. 

In Wisconsin State Parks, if you don't come on the first night, your forfeit your money. But the park is allowed to rent out your campsite for the rest of your reservation period. Not so in Alaska. 

So we did the next best thing. Along the Parks Highway there are two viewpoints for Denali. They are paved pull out areas with large parking lots and restrooms. You are allowed to park there in your RV overnight by paying a $20 fee at the solar powered kiosk provided. Actually, you can stay up to 15 days! 

I know it's just a parking lot, with access to restrooms and dumpsters. They furnish picnic tables and a fire ring. There are no hookups and no dump station etc. But it was a spot to park for the night, and get relaxed and unwind after our busy day in the city. 

They say only 30% of visitors to Denali ever get to see the top of the mountain. We were part of the unlucky 70%. We walked over to the viewpoint and we could not see Denali. Although it was somewhat sunny and partly cloudy on the way up with beautiful blue skies and puffy white clouds, Denali was shrouded in darkness. It is said that Denali makes its own weather because it's so high. So we could not see it at this point. But that was okay, we would try again.

Here's the  YouTube that goes along with today's blog post: 

64 Miles travel today 

4,203 Miles traveled so far