Ari Lives Large On First Visit To Talkeetna

Talkeetna was the first town I visited when I came to Alaska 19 years ago. It seemed like the right place to take Ari on his first Alaskan road trip. We drove up late Friday night, arriving at 1am. By early Saturday, the trouble had started.

I was awakened at 9am by a phone call from the FAA. Ari had somehow managed to slip out of his crib, crawl down to the airport, climb into the cockpit of Talkeetna Aero’s Cherokee, and radio tower for clearance to take off. Unlike Ari, the FAA wasn’t just born two months ago. Upon hearing his cooing voice over the radio, they suspected something was amiss. They sped down to the tarmac and fortunately found Ari unable to reach the controls—otherwise he would have been wheels up, and it would have been real trouble.

We got Ari back to the hotel and had the most amazing view of Mt. McKinley from the front lawn of the Talkeetna Alaska Lodge. Then we headed into town to see an old friend, Jim Okonek. Ari may not have appreciated that he was meeting an Alaska legend. Jim’s been flying professionally for over half a century, built K2 Aviation during the 80’s and 90’s, and was incredibly helpful to me when I was starting Alaska Channel. I think Jim is the most interesting storyteller in Alaska.

After lunch, we headed down to the river. On the way, Ari met his first horse ever. I’ve got countless photos of myself wading glacial rivers, but this was a first for carrying a baby in a car seat. Within minutes, Ari had somehow slipped away. We looked all over for him. An hour later, we found him crashed out on a log, dead asleep from drinking JD and smoking Cohibas.

We couldn’t get Ari to wake up no matter what we tried. Then I had a brilliant idea: let’s dip Ari’s feet in the icy river water! I took off his socks and just put the very base of his cute little feet into the river. Did it work? Was he happy? You be the judge: here’s the before and after.

Well, our weekend done, it was time to head home to Anchorage. But Ari begged us not to just pile in the car and drive away like boring tourists. He had heard the story of how Roman and I had paraded through town ten years ago with skis, paddles, and boats on our backpacks after completing a 100-mile wilderness trek that ended in Talkeetna. And he, too, wanted to parade down Main Street in style. I was totally against the idea, but Yael sided with Ari, so what could I do? Of course, I relented, and here are the three of us, parading down Main Street Talkeetna.

Here's the complete album from our weekend in Talkeetna, including pictures of Ari with LesLee Solberg, Geri Denkewalter, and Iditarod musher Jerry Sousa.

Comments

[Tish Wiley]

To Ari,
You are one cool kid, would you like to play with us? We like adenture and think that it's important to train for our expeditions too. We are a little bit older than you, but your growing so fast you'll be toddling around soon just in time for summer.

Can't wait to meet you, Maeve and Milo Wiley