I came home from Alaska, got a few things in order, bought my silver destroyer a snazzy new camper and headed north. It seems like ages ago. It was not. I don't know how I could cram so much into such a short period of time..... I've been perfecting that for years I guess.
Once in northern Canada, when the invitation to drive even further north and close to Alaska popped up I most certainly jumped at the chance, you know I've been *missing* Alaska. So we packed up the camper and drove northbound straight into winter. This cold snowy season has descended here just like in King Salmon....snow is everywhere and I am lock her down into four wheel drive even on the highway.
Naturally we stop and fish a bit...
The cold blows bitterly and spews snow. We are dancing around the river in a black and white movie.
Marginal success sprinkles over us....
With a stroke of genius, someone tells us about Hyder, Alaska and how it is customary to go the bar in Hyder and get "Hyderized". We decide it is fully necessary to get Hyderized. We excitedly chatter about bacon cheeseburgers, tap beer, did someone say "karaoke?"...the anticipation surges as our mouths water for beer and burgers and a warm stinky bar.
Busting down the road we pass bear glacier...
In the dark:
and make it into town:
Obviously we have sipped a bit on the ole...
It is necessary.
Walking into this one horse town pulls us straight into the days of Miss Kitty and Marshall Dillon. I am sure we would not be welcomed by those two tonight.
We straggle over to the Glacier Inn to see only a light on. If you have ever seen someone utterly devastated, it is nothing compared to crushing the dreams of five steelhead fishermen that have chattered incessantly for hours of burgers and beers and hopes of being hyderized...the energy is enough to devastate a normal person for life. Frantically I am searching for a way in. I spy a tiny tiny little bell and a small handwritten note:
"Ring bell for Service".
Of course I ring the bell.
And suddenly a darling older lady is running through the bar towards the door!
A blanket of doom lifts from the crowd as she opens the door and asks if she can help us.
I nervously tell her,
"We want to get Hyderized."
The split second felt like eternity until she stirred the pot with her arm and said,
"I can do that" and opened the door to our demise.
As we step inside, time warps around us. The walls are papered in money. Canadian and American, ones, fives, tens, twentys....some looking so ancient if you pulled on them the whole wall would come down. Tattered aged and brown with hand written notes and names. This Inn had obviously brought cheer to many a traveler.
As we saddled up to the bar, the sweet older lady was racking up glasses on the counter. I wasn't sure if she was going to stop and my stomach dropped at the thought of having to take several shots of liquor from a mystery liquor bottle wrapped in paper....she handed us each a small glass of water (for chasing or throwing up in) and a shot glass of mystery liquor #1. Everything burned.
And we all started laughing, we have been hyderized!!!!
How one and a half hours can feel like a whole evening is undoubtedly due to being "Hyderized", two hundred and fifty dollars later, and a few bills that ended up on the wall with our names....
Needless to say, the sweet lady's daughter drove us across the border, past the laughing guards and to our hotel....the rest is campfire talk.
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