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Show i ies a sort bee ei anit mT September 1 996 ~ Chuck A Rama The old saying goes, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do, but don’t drink out lead amphoras of wine, everybody knows of its sure death to drink from a lead container.” to what really the . Undaunted we dove in. Much of the food was delicious, once you gave in it became very orgiastic in this rule, we headed of variety. to the obvious caloric excess, Understanding down were Or tke broke town that. something finally west polyunsaturated nature. The lard coated and Swedish put excellent, but the taste wore a bit thin after thirty or so. As Utah on the map: All You Meatballs ALASKA AND Not BUSTED: DANNY’S SUMMER were BY J. DAN HALL, ADVENTURER Alaska is the dream for many an outdoors Can Eat Buffets. These the excellent servers whisked | person. Yet for many people in their twenties it Utahns are fanatics . for your leavings away you seems far away, inaccessible, an impossible trough style feeding. The could not help but bethink adventure dream to be bagged when money is Grand-Daddy of them all is back to Roman times, and try -|more abundant. How do you know if a trip for apparently the Little America to extend yourself in a one Alaska is for you? Is the call of the Great White Sunday Buffet; It is not third Bacchanalian orgy. (the . North calling your name? Is the thought of recommended that you go to > other two thirds would be spending another long, hot, summer fighting the Little America without sex, and alcohol) rush hour on I-15 enough to make you hit the some kind of training in Over all the food was Great White Porcelain Bowl? Want to see place. With that thought in good, and grizzly bears, wolves and the highest mountain mind we present the first in. a in North America? If the answer was yes to all of horrifying...delicious, and an the above, then Alaska is just the place for you. series of buffet reviews: early death wrapped in fried It can be done for very little money, because I Chuck-A-Rama. | batter. I was reminded of the just pulled it off.. We headed to Chuck’s at a old Woody Allen joke about So now you’re hooked, but the bulk in your Jeisurely wou En, ae the two fat women leaving a pwallet is not thick enough to get you there. What’ afternoon, hoping to catch restaurant. “God the food do you do: All it takes is a little fact-finding and them when things were quiet, was awful” says the first, a willingness for adventure. Barring any and maybe their guard would yes, terrible, and the unforeseen air wars between airlines, a roundbe down. First impression is portions were tiny.” trip ticket from Salt Lake International to that a very poor wagon train We were the youngest Anchorage is creeping up over 500 big ones. gave up the ghost in the patrons in the place by four That wasn’t in the budget for me. What I had to lobby. Actually it is a score and more years. Part of barter with was my time, and precious few Western motif; As we are in the forced ritual at Chuck’s is dollars. Here is how I solved my Alaskan travel the west it seemed oddly getting used to moving dilemma. I was able to pick up a ticket on appropriate. The courteous through the buffet line in half Southwest Airlines from Salt Lake to Seattle for staff was way ahead of us, shuffle time. Which was fine under a 100 bucks. From there, I hopped on a and the buffet glistened in its on our third time through the Greyhound bus that stops off in Vancouver, newness. The cornucopia line, but the first time out we British Columbia. I then transferred to a like mounds of food looked were a bit pushy and Greyhound of Canada bus that was bound for as if dinner had been laid out irksome. Whitehorse, followed by a 20 hour endurance only moments before. We As much as I deride this ride to Dawson Creek. Faithful readers of waited at the start shack, restaurant, I and my Autoweek will know this is the starting point of (cashier - a pay first in case compatriot made a hefty dent the famous Alcan Highway. This bus ride will set your not good for it deal) in the old buffet as we you back another $130.22 of those pretty 66 patiently behind Bob Dole’s attacked it time and again. Canadian Grandmother, itching to get at the bounty. Mrs Dole hand counted every one of 599 pennies necessary to get at the grub, while we fidgeted in hunger behind her. In the faux rustic dining room we found nine different stations brimming with food. With little inspection we discovered a second, slightly more subtle motif: Fat. Fried Much currency, thanks to the favorable exchange rate). Chicken, Fried fish, potatoes dripping in butter, Swedish meatballs in a lard filled gravy. The bullets in this old — like Schwarzenegger movies, you know they are bad but you can’t help but being fascinated and heading back for more _ perverse pleasure. Based on _ the advanced age of most of the other patrons, perhaps I was hasty in my opinion of the nutritional value of the food in the larder. Maybe the key to longevity is found in the Buffets of Utah Once dollars (so about off the bus in Dawson $100 Creek, in US. the true adventure begins. In good Even Cowgirls Get |the Blues tradition, I stuck out my thumb and hoped for a quick ride, before the cold winds that sweep across the flat prairie lands of northern Alberta froze me solid. It also helped to carry a cardboard sign stating my destination, with the word thank you tacked on the bottom in the name of politeness. I got a ride in an hour after |watching a steady stream of Winnebagos commandeered by elderly adventurers drive by without so much as a look my dirtbag way. My ride consisted of a rusted-out van driven by two Canadians around twenty years old.. They were heading up to the northern Yukon to harvest Page 9 se ERE RIEEEERETERRERESRIEENENST energetic asane eee Se VACATION , magic mushrooms (Ed note: Just don’t do it) that, according to them, grow plentifully in areas of fire damaged terrain. Their mission was confirmed for me when I asked what all the 2x4s were for that were taking up a considerable amount of space in the back of the van. They proceeded to show me how to build shelves for drying the fungus. They gave me a ride nearly 600 miles to the town of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Along the way we saw 5 black bears,|_ hundreds of square miles of untouched forests that never in my wildest dreams did I know existed in this day and age. When I saw caribou, it was my first indication that I was truly entering _the far north. After spending the solstice in _ Whitehorse and staying up all night watching it —_ never get dark, I had my thumb out once more. I waited all of five minutes before a truck with camper shell stopped to pick me up. This ‘time my traveling mates consisted of two just-graduated-from-high school-in-Minnesota dudes who had, stolen ten twelve packs of Mountain Dew at a 7-11 store somewhere in Saskatchewan.I don’t support theft, but thirst is thirst...So we were pounding Dews as we drove pass the remote and hard core ice field Ranges in Kluane National Park. CanadaOs highest summit is tied up in ice in Kluane -Mt. Logan at 19,850 ft., and you can catch a glimpse of it along the road. It was also here that the Alcans' reputation of being hard on the vehicle is justified. The gravel road was terrible here; potholes and frost heaves were everywhere. ‘From Whitehorse to Fairbanks, Alaska is another 800 miles, give or take a mile. Traveling along the Alcan is an epic journey that any traveler would love to have under their belt. Although itOs long and sometimes rough, the travel time goes by fast as the highway winds through unbelievable wilderness. Once in Alaska, the sky is the limit. Denali (Mt. McKinley) towers above all at 20,320 ft. What you are able to do in Alaska is as varied as the magnificent landscape. I got the job I wanted in Denali National Park after an hour of searching. All in all, after everything was tallied up, my journey up to Alaska set me back less than $300, not including a stuffed animal souvenir (an adorable wolf) for my little sister. So for less than the cost of an airplane ticket, you too can have an international adventure which takes you on a journey through some of the greatest, untouched wilderness left in the world. <r ee |