Day 8 - Burn day in Anchorage AK

Eddie and I were exhausted from the nearly countless miles now behind us. The hotel room looked like the victim of an earthquake or a tornado, possibly both. Tiffany was still trying to work out how to pack and get the remaining things taken care of before we took off. I had a list of things I needed from our one week marathon run up to Alaska.

But above all, the laundry was at the top of the list.

We had a full burn day in Anchorage to recharge both our minds and bodies, and to get our Alaska adventure finalized. Tomorrow we will head north towards the Dalton Highway, but today we rest.

After sleeping in a little bit, we head down to the hotel and grab a bite to eat for breakfast:

The hotel room was unreal, I almost couldn't believe all this actually fits onto just three motorcycles:

MotoQuest, where Tiffany was renting her F650GS Twin from, was within walking distance to the hotel. With Tiff packed up with her riding gear, we took a stroll down the street to meet the rental bike.

On her way!

With the bike back at the hotel, we decided to lay low today and let the weather pass through. It was pretty nasty and we saw no signs it would let up any time soon. With the laundry all finished up, I still had some errands I needed to do and some time to kill, so Eddie and I made our way to Alaska Leather to check out the store there. After hanging out there for some time (great place, by the way), we headed back to the hotel to finish organizing our gear and to grab some dinner.

We head out to the Flying Machine Restaurant for one last "fancy meal" before departing, as we know the food we'll be having on the road may leave something to be desired. I had the steak which was quite good, and ordered a beer which is unusual for me normally but felt like the right thing to do for such a trip send-off like this was.

While at dinner, Tiffany realizes that Lzzy Hale and her brother Joe from the band Halestorm have sat down literally right next to us. I don't know how many Halestorm songs Tiff has sung in countless karaoke bars around Atlanta but it's a lot. She freaks. After building up her nerves she couldn't take it anymore, and walks over for a quick hi.

Before heading back to the room we wander through the planes docked nearby:

We finished up some of the plans for the next few days. The good news was the weather was looking like it would hold up for us in Coldfoot and in Deadhorse, which was a big relief since we all knew that Mother Nature would ultimately be the one to dictate how far north we would be able to make it. Tiff finalized the routes and stays for us, which was surely nice for me. I was pretty worn from the last week's worth of planning and riding and it would be good to have someone else control the game plan for the next few days.

The day was nearing a close and I was a little disappointed I had not done as much as I expected to do on the burn day. Aside from uploading the pictures and videos to the laptop I hadn't gotten much for the ride report, and I hadn't even taken any notes over the last couple days. I would have to reconstruct it all at a later time as staying up late wasn't much of an option for me.

We make one last check on the weather, and things look a go for our schedule to get up the Dalton Highway:

With cell phones, cameras, and GoPros all charged up... we head to bed as ready as we'll ever be to conquer Alaska. I ended up working a little longer with dim light on some trip notes... I guess going to bed early is just something that is hard to grasp onto for me while on the road.