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 eh 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're outta 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.  The locals have said this is the wettest summer they've seen in twenty years. It's been raining in Talkeetna for a week and a half straight.  For a state much larger than Texas, Alaska has very few roads, main thoroughfares to a different part of the state. And there are LOTS of streams and rivers. I looked on a map to see which bridge may be out and there are dozens of stream crossings between Talkeetna and Denali. From what we've seen with the local flooding, any of them could cause problems.

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