Manley Ho!

Last weekend I participated in what sounded like the beginnings of a joke, only I couldn't think of the punchline. An engineer, a physicist, a biologist, two dogs, and a kitten drive to Manley to visit a farmer...

So my friend JB of Pioneer Produce is spending spring in Manley, working for Dart Farms. Dart Farms is situated on geothermally active land that never freezes, so for them, planting and growing seasons are well underway. So I thought I'd pile a crew into a car and go see her and have a peaceful, relaxing weekend away from the hustle and bustle of... ahhh... of Ester, yeah. Sometimes I just get tired of hearing a car drive by once every several hours! Geeze!

JB is renting the home of DD, my neighbor's sister, who had grown up in Manley but now lives in Fairbanks while she teaches at the University and works on her PhD. It's somewhat surreal to drive for four hours to the middle of nowhere and see photos of your neighbors' family all over the walls of a home currently inhabited by your friend, who doesn't know them. :) In another turn of small-town coincidences-that-are-not-really-coincidences, M, who was traveling with us, had done her research for her master's degree with DD, and was good friends with her. Alaskan social circles are very small!

Manley looks so different in summer! Here are photos:

The Hilltop Truck Stop, the last gas until Manley, which is about 150 miles away. It serves breakfast all day and, inexplicably, about 14 types of pie at any given time. I often see very strange vehicles there, destined for the oil fields or the mines. For example, this:

There were about 8 of them gassing up when we stopped there!

The drive North was very beautiful:


We could see Minto Flats:


When we arrived, we were tired, but content. We then proceeded to cover every available horizontal surface with food, and fix fantastic sammiches:


While the interspecies interactions commenced:


Cuddle time!


I also worked on my relationship with 'Akepa:


While the dogs were completely unconcerned, which bodes well for M, who'd like to get a dog one day:


Let's run!


Here is a model food cache, in perfect scale, and complete with a sod roof. :)


Now here are some scenes in and around the bustling metropolis of Manley.

The playground, currently of limited usefulness:


The Manley Roadhouse:


The downtown business financial district:


The Store, open for sundries and gas on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays:


The Airport:


And now, you know, I am tired of editing photos... More to come tomorrow! I know all seven of my loyal readers will be waiting with bated breath!