Penepilogue

Ok, I'm going to copyright that word!

A couple of things I had not thought to record, but found interesting anyway.

When staying at Poyo's Thai Kitchen and Spare Bed Emporium just outside of Talkeetna, Alaska I learned this interesting fact:

In 1997 the town of Talkeetna held its Mayoral election and elected Scrubbs, a cat! Scrubbs has done such a good job she has been re-elected each election cycle since then!

Born in April 1997, she was elected Mayor at the age of three months! Like most politicians, her reign has not been purrrrfect. In August of 2013 she was attacked by a dog and ended up in a hospital in Wasilla. After spending several days under heavy sedation she was moved back to Talkeetna under heavy security, where she lives in her room over the General Store. Or does she? 

Some think that she actually passed away and that Talkeetna is currently looking through the brush for its next Mayor, perhaps a moose - too big for any dog to mess with him/her. I wonder if Sarah Palin could get in to verify Scrubbs existence? I also wonder if Scrubbs has a clear view of Russia from her upstairs office?

Yesterday, during my convoluted route to Wisdom I stopped and took a tour of the historic old mining town of Virginia City, Mt. In touring these small towns I love to hear of connections to historic people or events, and Virginia City has its share. First was the name-sake of the town, Verina Davis, the first and only First Lady of the Confederate States of America. Although a northern, or Union, territory, the town was populated by many southern sympathizers. In 1862 the town was formalized and paperwork sent back east to register the town. A Judge in Connecticut reviewed the papers and decided to authorize the name as "Virginia City", he obviously being a Union loyalist.
Among the towns noteworthy residents were Sara Bickford, the first African-American woman to own a utility company (the Water Company that supplied Virginia City's drinking water) and Martha "Calamity Jane" Canary of western folklore legend. But the one that surprised me, because I did not realize that he was a real personality, was Jeremiah Johnson, of fame in Robert Redford's 1972 movie of the same name. A resident of Virginia City for an indeterminate time, he moved on and became a sheriff of Red Lodge, Mt. (great movie too).

While staying at the Pioneer Mountain Lodge in Wisdom, Mt. I wrote my "Seeking Wisdom" treatise. In it I stated, "Make someone else's life better and you will improve your own". I did not realize it at the time but, apparently, someone else believes this also. 

The following morning I packed up for the final leg of this journey. As I had done most mornings for the previous 38 days, I took my "suitcase" downstairs to tether it to seat 1B in Premium Class. As I reached my bike I noticed a thin streak of white across the seat. My first thought was "bird poop"!

It didn't taste like bird poop though (ok, I made that up). It appeared to be car polish. It was then that I noticed that my bike, which had not been washed in two days and had travelled over 400 miles since, was shining just like the day I bought it. Chrome and paint, glowing in the morning sun. Was it possible to ride over Beartooth Pass and across Yellowstone Park without collecting bugs and dust?

The headlight told the story. It, and the windscreen directly above, were covered with a healthy mixture of dead insects and road sediment, but the chrome around the headlight lens and across the bracing of the windscreen were spotless. I had talked to the proprietor during check-in and he told he had been a biker but had to give it up when his balance began to wobble. Could he have? I don't know. I would never have expected, but if not him, who?