It's STILL RAINING!!  We went into Palmer for breakfast.  As we got closer to town, the sky began to peek out from the clouds.  We stopped and photographed the few mountain tops we could see.  The clouds quickly closed in, but it stopped raining for a minute.  We found a place in Palmer for breakfast with reindeer sausage.  

Next we headed for The Musk Ox Farm.  It stopped raining long enough for us for the short tour. The Musk Ox Farm in Matanuska Valley, AK is the only domestic musk ox farm in the world.  The musk ox was hunted into extinction in Alaska and Canada in the 1800's.  They were captured and brought in from Finland and Norway and domesticated for this farm.  The farm combs out the underwool that they shed in the spring.  The wool is spun into thread and sent to the villages where the native women knit beautiful scarves and hats from it in local tribal patterns.  The wool is warmer than sheep's wool and softer than cashmere. The products are beautiful and the proceeds create income for the subsistence lifestyle that many natives here are still practicing.  We spoke to someone at the farm that said that Hatcher Pass Road was closed today due to flooding.  We're glad we changed our plans last night!

We moved on to Talkeetna and it's still raining.  Along the way we saw evidence of flooding, rivers and stream outside their banks, some side roads completely under water and cars pulled off, residents trying to figure out how they are getting home.  We got into the tiny town of Talkeetna and found more flooding.  The river in town is lined with sandbags.  We were calling places to find a room for the night and one hotel clerk told us that the bridge heading to Denali was damaged by flooding and closed.  We can't get to Denali!!  We've decided that Alaska doesn't want us here, so we'll head out tomorrow, after we visit with Barak and Kim tonight.  We found a room at the Latitude 62 Degrees Motel and Restaurant.  After dinner, we got a message from Barak... he's stuck on the other side of the bridge!  We aren't going to see him either!  

This weather stinks!!!  We've got to get out of here... if we can.  We've heard that they may be closing part of the Glenn Highway, the road we got here on, due to flooding and mudslides.  That's the only other road out of this area.  If we find that road closed, we'll have to take a ferry out of Whittier to Valdez and drive north from there.  We'll just have to come back to Alaska another time, this is not a good time to be here.