I moved to Talkeetna on the suggestion of a friend, who already had property here.
And she said I would love it. She said, "Oh Talkeetna is so bohemian."
"There's musicians and artists, and it's a great little main street."
So I came here that fall, and I did, I loved it, and found a place to live.
Ironically right next door to this place, the Roadhouse.
Long story short, it's 18 years later and I'm still here.
Roadhouses were spaced out a day's trip away on the road.
You would get up in the morning from the roadhouse, get your meal.
Get on the road that day, and then move on out to the next.
After a full day's of travel, then you would end up at another roadhouse.
It also provided a place where travelers could swap stories.
So you could say, "We just came from that area, and this is what we found."
"Do this, don't do that, watch out for that big pothole."
So it was a place where everyone came together,
to just kind of get ready for the next leg of the journey.
"You better move, baby, move!"
I think that Talkeetna has so many unique characters, unique events.
Probably the biggest weekend of the entire Winterfest now is Bachelor Weekend.
Which is the first weekend in December every year.
Bachelors have the Wilderness Woman Contest,
where they have invited all the women of the world to come to Talkeetna,
to show their wilderness skills, and compete for a gold nugget and a big fur hat.
The Roadhouse, we open up at midnight on that night.
I've been doing that for the last 18 years.
It's probably one of the more fun breakfasts that we do.
Everyone is just so appreciative to be eating.
And they'd had so much fun, and they're all dressed up still,
and they come on in, and they're laughing, and talking.
And it doesn't really matter how long the food takes at that point,
because they're not going anywhere.
And it's funny because some people will come back in later,
Sunday morning, and have breakfast again,
and they don't remember having breakfast the first time.
I'm usually cooked on that night, so I cook and my man comes in, he's my sidekick.
And I have a couple people working the floor.
When I'm not cooking, I am, well I do a lot of my own book keeping,
I do pretty much all the hiring, the scheduling.
I mean, what do I not do?
Restaurants are not an easy life.
I feel a huge responsibiility to the community, to keep the place from falling apart.
This is really my career at this point. I didn't go to school for this.
I had to make a lot of choices about how I was going to be living my life.
And I always felt, unless I gave it my all, I wasn't doing right by it.
I don't have kids, I don't have family up here necessarily,
so I've really focused every ounce of what I have to the business.
You just don't close a roadhouse. It really is a heartbeat.
And there's always going to be a door open, and a warm bowl of soup,
if nothing else, for folks. And just being that light in the middle of the night.
No one's making millions of dollars here. But I like to think it's a good place,
where people can be very proud of the work that they do,
and the people that they meet.
Every day you've got an opportunity to touch someone's life.
And give them a moment where they feel like they've experienced
a little bit of magic of what an old roadhouse is all about.