We leave Anchorage right after breakfast, traveling by motor coach to the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge. The ride is beautiful, our first glimpse of Alaska, although it’s very foggy with a light drizzle. We don’t get to see very far off into the distance, but it’s enough to be wowed.

A little North of Anchorage, we drive through the town of Wasilla, hometown of the former governor Sarah Palin and our tour bus driver, as it turns out. He knows the Palins, very well in fact, but he doesn’t want to talk politics, thank god. Wasilla is a small town that looks like most any other in America as we drive through it, with big box stores and chain restaurants. Where’s the Walmart that holds the record for the most duct tape sold in the world? Why, that would be Wasilla.

The ride takes about 3 hours overall. We see a few small towns and rough little outposts on the way. Living out here year round is obviously tough.

We hop off the bus at the lodge and have a quick lunch before going on our first excursion of the trip, singletrack trail riding on horseback. Sam has never done this. I have never done this. I don’t know about Sam, but I’m a little nervous.

We get a quick lesson at the ranch. Luckily, the horses know more about this than we do, so basically we just need to let them do their thing.

Sam is riding “Dad,” Cindy is riding “Captain,” and I am riding “Cherokee.” Dad is small and rather old. Captain is hard-headed, sometimes refusing to go up the hills. Cherokee likes to nudge other horses in a pestering way, which is good because he is behind Captain. So when Captain stops at the foot of a hill, Cherokee gives him a push on the rump.

Our lead guide is a young guy from Montana, and he’s very comfortable on a horse, riding backwards at one point so he could talk to us face to face. He’s also carrying a pistol. I assume it’s for bears and not unruly tourists, but I don’t ask.

Later, he talks about a small river nearby that has so many Alaskan salmon in it right now that he says you can fish without a pole, just kicking them out of the water. It’s spawning season. Local bear know about this fishing hole too. That explains the pistol.

We stop at a clearing to look out across the valley, and the guides point out a glacier in the distance that we would never have otherwise noticed. It must be quite a vista when the weather is clear.

It starts to rain on us as we make our way back to the stable, happy to have remembered our rain coats and warm clothes. Seems we have a knack for picking cold and wet vacations.

We are having a great time anyway though, seriously.

Back at the lodge, after the rain, we sit outside at one of the fire pits before going to dinner. We don’t know when the sun sets tonight because we haven’t really seen it all day, but we are in bed with the blinds pulled tight well before dark again.

From the TOUR GUIDE

• There are more roads in Chicago than all of Alaska.
• If you divided Alaska into two states, Texas would still be the third largest state in the U.S.
• State law: when driving, airplanes have the right of way. If you see an airplane about to land on the highway, pull over.