Ray & Kary, we are forever GRATEFUL- Alaska Adventure Part 2

Hey Peppy fam wishing Y’all a very Happy Thanksgiving!!! It’s been a while that I wrote a blog but trust me I so wanted to…… it’s just that my baking adventures and office kept me way too occupied 😉 So let me tell you, this blog post is not a fashion/travel post instead it’s dedicated to Ray & Kary whom we met during our trip to Alaska and they were truly godsend. I’ll explain how and why 🙂

Btw here’s the link to my previous travel blog- Alaska Adventure, Part 1 if you haven’t read that yet! Coming back to this one, it was our second last day in Alaska and we had nothing planned for that day. We thought to relax, chill and drive to Healey where we intended to spend our last day hiking on the glaciers.

It was a beautiful day with the sun shining on us. We packed our bags and got ready to leave from Denali National Park and started driving to this really cool brunch place we had found in the city. The moment we reached there my hubby Akhil, who was driving the car realized there were no car keys!!!! Now you must be wondering how did he even start the car in the first place?? Well, when he sat in and started driving the car was already on since our other friend who was with us had turned on the heater in the car just to keep all of us warm for the drive and then kept the car keys on top of the car lol

Now, these guys dropped us at the brunch place and went back to our hotel to look for the key! After 45 minutes of looking around, finally they found the key on the highway but sadly it was broken! The worst part about all this was we couldn’t turn off the car’s engine or else we wouldn’t have been able to turn on the car again!

So we decided to drive back straight to the airport and exchange the car and then drive to Healy. I wish it was that simple!!! Now we thought to check on Youtube if there was a manual way of turning on the car without any hassle. We found one video and we turned off the car’s engine and turned it back on and to our surprise, it worked! We were pumped up to drive to Healey without going to the airport. We started our drive thinking it’s all going to work in our favor and we will be fine.

Then on our way to Healy, we stopped at Denali Viewpoint North to enjoy the last view of Denali mountains before leaving! And that was our biggest mistake to stop there!!!!!! Our car wouldn’t turn back on and we were stuck in the middle of nowhere with barely any network. We tried all the means to turn it back on but it just wouldn’t. It was 11 am and we barely had anything to eat. We started making calls to the car rental, cops, insurance trying to figure out how could we get out of there with less hassle. In all of this process, our phones were dying, we were getting tired and frustrated about getting stranded in the middle of nowhere! We were also taking help from every person who was stopping there but sadly nobody was able to help us out. In doing all this it was already 1 pm and we were scared, tensed and super frustrated!

Our friends from California who were also in Alaska came to us with some food and water and it helped us to stay calm for a while. Mostly all the families who were stopping there were really kind to us with letting us charge our phones in their car, one of the couples just gave their phone cover charger to us to keep which was a super kind gesture.

Finally, there was no other way other than to get our car towed and go back to the airport! It was 2 pm and the towing company told us that somebody will be there around 5 pm and would take us back to the airport! Then the waiting game started but was hopeful that we will get back to the airport no later than 9 pm.

While we were waiting over there this couple, Ray & Kary with their kids stopped by as others did but there was something different about them. They started talking to us and were sad that we were stuck in the worst situation and wanted to help us out in every possible way. They had a ton of food packed in their trunk and took everything out just for us. We were so happy to see so much food since we were starving lol It looked like a lavish buffet served to us in the woods.

In the meanwhile, Kary’s parents came to the viewpoint in another car and said there was a massive accident wherein 4 people had died on the spot because of which there was a 5-mile long traffic which came to a complete standstill. At 5 pm when we called our towing truck driver to get his eta, we got to know he was stuck in that accident as well! We were completely shattered and had no clue as to how we were going to get out of that mess. Ray & Kary promised us that if the driver doesn’t arrive on time they will camp with us and not leave us alone. We couldn’t believe that somebody who is completely unknown to us, who we had just met a few hours ago is that kind, sweet and helpful! They were truly GODSEND!!!!

At around 6 pm the traffic started to clear out and at 8 pm the towing truck driver arrived and we were dying out of happiness. Our driver was an amazing man himself and was trying his best to get us out of that situation as fast as he could. But we weren’t done here since the truck driver had been standing in the traffic for 4 hours the truck started to run out of gas!!!! He was scared that the truck might stop before we could even make it to the gas station! Our problems weren’t stopping but we had Ray who was going out of his way to help us out! Ray then decided that he will drive behind our towing truck and in case if it runs out of gas he will drive to the gas station and get the gas for us!

I mean you must be wondering in today’s world, Who does that??? To be honest I haven’t met anyone other than Ray & Kary who would have done that for us. This couple is a rockstar and was going beyond their limits to help us out!!!!!

Ray leaving his family behind started driving behind our towing truck but luckily we made it to the gas station without any hassle. And that’s when we bid a warm goodbye to Ray and started driving towards the airport!

We got to the airport at 1.30 and exchanged our car for another one and started driving to Healey and reached our Airbnb at 4 am! Oh Boy, what an adventurous crazy day it was but it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Ray & Kary!!!!!!!

We are beyond thankful to them for being so so generous and amazing to us. We will never forget this crazy experience we had but we are also so happy to have made new and forever friends- Ray & Kary <3

Here’s a picture with Ray, Kary, our towing truck driver, our friends and 2 babies who made us smile while we were there all this time!!

Until next time stay Peppy, stay cool and always be thankful for everything in life 🙂