Alaska The End

Tuesday and we are back at the Anchorage airport. We left Homer today after watching the eagle feeding. We stopped at the Post Office on the way out and mailed some excess stuff home. (for the second time) This was to prevent our luggage from being over weight, and make it easier to manage. The trip back was pretty much just a scenic drive. We stopped for lunch at the Naptowne Diner, which was planning to close an hour after we got there. The waitress was less than enthused at our arrival. We ordered simple stuff, and were surprised by sandwiches arriving well made and on sturdy bread. As had become our custom, we sampled this establishment’s chili offering. It tasted pretty good, but needed salt badly, and had a taste Brenda didn’t like. (it also gave Jerry the indigestion later)

We stopped for gas in Soldotna and ran into one of my pet peeves. Jerry put his AMEX card in the pump, and started fueling. The pump cut off at $50 and wouldn’t give any more gas. I can’t believe these gas stations are so stupid they have not figured out if gas is $3.59 (what we paid today) then they need to raise the limits on the credit cards. As it was, that was enough gas for us so we went on. Actually it was their loss cause we would have bought more gas if it had let us.

We completed our trip back to Anchorage along the Turnagain Arm. It was interesting the difference in the view since it was low tide this trip. The tidal difference was incredible. There were huge mud flats, stacked with ice chunks, as far as you could see. When we got to anchorage, we looked up a craft shop we had been told about that resides in the Native American hospital. We found it but unfortunately it closed much earlier in the afternoon. We peeked through the windows, and were sad we were not able to be there when it was open. All the art was certified made by local Native American artists, and was beautiful.

After the craft shop we went to the Alaska Fur Trading Co. but it was also closed. Then we went to the Alaskan Blueberry Candy Co. This establishment has the notoriety of having the largest chocolate fountain in the world. It contains 3500 # of liquid chocolate, and is over 20 feet tall. It was out of service today. We got to see it, but all it did was look dirty. We shopped all over the store, which contained every possible Alaskan souvenir plus candy of all sorts.

After the Blueberry place, we stopped in at the Peanut Factory sports bar and grill. We wanted to kill a little time, check on the progress of the Iditarod, and partake of a few adult beverages. Turns out the Iditarod isn’t going to finish up till about 01:00 this morning. (about the time we’re taking off) We had our adult beverages, and headed out to the airport and returning the car.

As usual I was dreading the whole airport deal but it turned out to be reasonably benign this time. Since we were so early (8:00pm for an 01:00am flight) the Delta folks nicely took our checked baggage and relived us of the burden of keeping up with it. They told us the TSA folks didn’t open security till 10:15, so we sat down across from the Delta check in to wait.

While we were sitting there, I noticed a Mexican (un Native American) woman struggling through the door with a large suitcase. She parked the suitcase inside with a teenage girl to watch it. A little while later here she comes with a rental luggage cart loaded 3 high with HUGE suitcases. She also had a 30-ish woman with her and 2 small children. (oh and all the women were wearing SKIN-TIGHT black jeans.) Between them they had literally a mountain of luggage. I alerted my traveling companions, as this looked to be a developing show. The woman started working with the Delta guy, establishing her flying credentials. Then they started with the luggage. Every bag they put on the scale was overweight. Many of the bags were larger than the women. They sorted all the bags into two piles—those that were really over weight and those that were just heavy. Only two actually were under 50# a nd passed. Then the Delta guy gave them these huge plastic see through bags. They began yanking stuff out of the overweight bags and stuffing it into the plastic bags. They would randomly yank some stuff out and then re-weigh the bags until they passed. (all the while rambling in 300 mph Spanish) Meanwhile the two small children were running wild. They pushed all the parked wheelchairs to various parts of the terminal, climbed on all the furniture, and knocked down some signs. After the giant luggage reorganization had been accomplished, the women sealed and checked the overflow bags full of loose cloths. Then they turned and began moving the entire entourage to the TSA baggage screening area. In the process they almost turned over the overloaded baggage cart knocking down one of the stanchions for the guide rails. We are wondering what the randomly stuffed plastic bags will look like when they arrive at the other end. And we are hoping this circus doesn’t end up sitting all around us on the plane. (they are on our flight)

So we are going to catch a bite to eat, and get on the plane in about an hour. Hopefully we’ll be able to sleep our way to Salt Lake City. Amazingly the circus didn’t end at the baggage check in. It appeared to be our night for weird airplane stuff. We got up to the TSA security area, and they were closed. A sign proclaimed they would reopen at 10:15 pm. At 10:22, the doors opened and the crazy Mexican entourage headed into security. Amazingly, they didn’t have great problems. We also had a surprisingly pleasant trip through the TSA Gestapo. I attributed it to the fact we were in the first 10 groups through and they were still fresh and in a good mood. After security, we hustled down to our gate to secure a seat. Delta still goes out of the old part of the Anchorage airport, and seating in the waiting areas is limited. Also, the only sustenance available was from a snack shop se rving only cinibonns and hotdogs. We partook of the offered fare, and settled in to wait for our flight.

In a while we heard this screaming baby. Unfortunately the only seats left were beside us. This nice old black man came and sat down with this poor terrified baby screaming at the top of its lungs. The only remedy he seemed to know was beating the kid on its back vigorously. Vickie ever the mama offered advice, suggesting the baby was hungry. The reply was grandmamma fed it twice before we left. So the girls worked very hard to restrain themselves and not get involved. Not so for some poor unfortunate woman up by the ticket counter. The last we saw as we were preparing to board was this poor woman rocking the banshee and the old black man frantically dialing the cell phone for advice. Apparently (based on the quiet on the flight) they didn’t let him on the plane. Obviously something was up with this whole picture. The poor old black fellow seemed obviously not to know anything a bout infants and was traveling alone with one. I can only hope everything worked out for the best.

We boarded the plane and got settled on what was once again a slap full flight. I think the days of having a seat beside you empty are gone forever. With some chemical inducement, Vickie drifted off to dreamland before we even took off. I was very relaxed, but never managed to sleep except for a few snatches. We arrived in Salt Lake City, and had about time enough to walk from one plane to the other. (probably due to the extensive de-icing we had to undergo in Anchorage) I was able to grab a little food from a shop while Vickie negotiated our place in line. After 5+ hrs on the Anchorage plane, it was great to finally sit down on the plane from Salt Lake City to Atlanta. (Yeah right) Luckily Vickie went right back to sleep after eating what I had brought her. I struggled and squirmed my way through another flight. Apparently I had chosen two of the seats on the plane with 2-3 inc hes of LESS knee room due to the onboard defibulator being behind us. Luckily everyone was sleeping, and I got up and wandered around a little. I was able to stand in the back with the aircrew for a while and restore the circulation to my legs. Boy do I hate flying, but then at least it is only measured in hours and not days or weeks.

We arrived home in Raleigh, (via Atlanta where the whole world was passing through) and ransomed our car from the long-term lot. What a sweet deal for them---we’ll let you leave your car here and you pay us money. Occasionally we’ll repaint the lines on the parking lot. (but don’t complain or we’ll raise the rates) We loaded our luggage and headed for home. All in all it had been an astounding trip. I have vowed I’m going back in the wintertime and make the drive up the old pipeline haul road to the North Slope. I want to see Barrow and Prudhoe Bay in the winter. We are so very blessed to have the resources to see the interesting things we see. I now have a very different perspective on Alaska—Seward’s folly—we bought it from the Russians for less than it takes to run the Iraq war for an hour. (it is 52% as big as the continental Unite d States, AND has most of the oil left in the US) Let me recommend—summer or winter our most northern state is an undiscovered country, the last unspoiled wilderness in the US. Go and see it. (or better yet—don’t go—leave it alone) What a truly enlightening adventure this has been. Until the next time.

Wes

Alaska #10

Sunday morning and here we sit on the train getting ready to leave Fairbanks. I don’t understand exactly what is going on. We were told to be at the RR station between 7:00 and 7:30 am. Train was supposed to leave at 8:00. We got up early, had breakfast, and after our cab driver couldn’t find the train station, got there about 7:20. Currently it’s 8:34 and we’re still sitting in the station. It might have something to do with the change to daylight savings time last night. I saw a couple of official looking guys arrive at the station a little bit ago in a big rush. Saw them later putting on railroad looking uniforms. I’d be willing to bet they forgot to change their clocks. 8:37 and we’ve just departed; our scheduled arrival in Anchorage is 7:40 tonight. We secured a map of the route at the train station. They just called our rows of the car to go to the dining car for breakfast. I already ate at the motel, so I am passing on that. I ’ll have my first dining experience on the train at lunch. A little way out of town, the cruise director came on and said we were stopping to pick up some folks who forgot about daylight savings time. Apparently they got them in cars and raced the train out to a crossing somewhere. We are currently sitting in the middle of nowhere and a snow covered road.

Train travel is much less structured than the airlines. There was no security, and you can check up to 4 bags per person. The only nod they give to security is you have to show a picture ID to get your boarding pass stamped. The Alaska rail cars are clean and in pretty good repair. The seats are comfortable and recline nicely. They are not appointed, as I would expect for this day in age however. There is no table that drops down from the seat in front, and there is no power outlet where you might plug in a laptop. (I’m on battery) I always envisioned writing on the train sitting at a table looking out the window. This is sort of like that but I’ve got a laptop on my laptop. We are in the coach section of the train, and according to Jerry, there is an upgraded section when the train runs in the summer that has domed vista cars and much plusher sea ts on a second level. It costs about $100 more. They don’t offer this service in the winter.

I’m going to hook up my GPS antenna and see if I can get it to pick up from the train. Got the GPS going and it is very interesting to follow our path and see the speed and elevation changes. Too bad there is no place to plug in, the battery is going to expire long before the trip finishes. (actually found a power outlet in the rear of the car, so will be able to recharge periodically) The scenery is pretty, but in these coach cars, a lot of the time all you can see is trees. Sometimes the trees thin and you can see the mountains in the distance. Walking around on the train is quite a challenge. It reminds me of the one cruise ship I was on when it was very rough. Moving between the cars is especially exciting. You can see the rails below and hear the wheels at work. At the back of our car, they have the tops of the two-piece doors open. I almost lost my hat when I went back the re. If you hold onto your hat you can look out and see the train ahead or behind. But boy is it cold with a 50 mph wind in your face.

We came through the village of Nenana where they hold the Nenana Ice Classic. They build a wooden tripod on the ice in the river, and people all over Alaska bet on when it will move downstream to the auto bridge. This means the ice is moving out of the river in the spring. It costs $2.50 to bet, and last year a few folks split a $350,000 pot. I think I’ll find a place in Anchorage for Vickie to bet. As we continue south, the scenery is unbelievable. We passed Glitter Gulch near Denali National Park. Glitter Gulch is where all the big hotels are for visitors to Denali. All of the cruise lines have big hotels there. It has a Quizno’s and 2 traffic lights now. Jerry said in the summer it is wall-to-wall tourists. Also in the summer Rt. 3, which runs along the railroad, is wall-to-wall RVs. We were not able to see Mt.McKinley (called by the natives Denali) as clouds obscured it. We were able to see many other mountains, however, and this has to be one of the prettiest places in the US during the winter.

I have decided we’re going to live in Alaska in the winter and our place in Mexico during spring and fall. The rest of the year we’ll just freeload with our kids. (when we’re not traveling) I don’t believe you can take this train ride and not fall in love with Alaska. The white mountains contrasting with the blue sky and green trees are a continuous panorama passing the train car window. Alaska is writer’s heaven. I have not even finished yesterday’s episode about our aurora borealis adventure the night before last. Seems like I just can’t get it all down.

We just took a break to the dining car for dunch (a late lunch combined with an early dinner). Vickie had a Caesar salad, Brenda had the Healey Miner’s lunch, (a pretty good burger) Jerry and I had the Engineers Special. The Engineer’s special was pot roast slow cooked on top of the diesel engine all the way from Fairbanks served with brown gravy and some steamed vegetables. We all shared a berry delight for desert. Vickie and Brenda both got cool bottles of water that say Alaska Railroad on them and are in special commerative bottles. The food was very good, and eating it with the winter Alaskan scenery going by was beyond great. We retired back to our seats after dunch with the possibility of a nap for all lulled to sleep by the rhythm of the train.

After some napping, sightseeing and wandering around, we are approaching Anchorage. The track coming in to Anchorage must be newly rebuilt. It varied quite a bit from what was on my GPS (sharp curves and jogs gone) and we attained the highest speed of the trip here, 62 mph. When we arrived in Anchorage, we reclaimed our luggage and relocated to the Fairfield Inn for the night. We are off to Seward in the morning.

Later---this morning I heard from dad. The biopsy reports are pretty much what we expected. The mass they removed was cancerous and the cancer has spread to his liver. About 15% of the liver is currently involved, and they give him the same year or so prognosis. He feels good, and is back to eating. He will be going home soon, and Dr. says he can probably resume a normal life for as long as he can. We’ll take it day by day and see what happens. More later.

Wes

Alaska #3

Iditarod ceremonial beginning day was today. After all the excitement getting my dad back into the hospital before dawn Alaska time, we ate breakfast and prepared to head out for the start. They surprised us this morning. Instead of the crock-pot full of oatmeal, they broke out the ubiquitous waffle machine. In fact at this establishment, they trusted you to make your own waffle. We walked in to find a fellow scraping waffle crumbs out of the machine. Apparently he didn’t see the lubricating spray provided. After his total waffle failure, the attendant came out with a brush and cleaned up the ragged mess. I then proceeded to utilize my waffle expertise (honed by many days on the road) and bang out waffles for both Jerry and me. I filled the cups slightly above the fill line knowing that this particular brand of waffle maker required a slightly fuller charge to produce perfection . When mine came out slightly deficient, I went back and touched up Jerry’s to properly charge the machine. Waffle perfection was achieved, and we snarfed down the all carb all the time breakfast in preparation for the day’s festivities. We went back to the room, and donned our cold weather garb preparing for the day. Jerry and Brenda perfected a new method of getting dressed. It’s called open the window when it’s 20 outside. Finally we all got going, and headed up to the starting line. Jerry and Brenda had made it up there ahead of us, and Jerry fearing I couldn’t make the hike was headed back to get the car and drive me. As it turned out the motel had a shuttle that ran as long as anyone wanted to go that dropped us off right near the starting line. Jerry needed more clothes anyway, and so we hopped the shuttle and were back up there in no time. It was pretty d_mn cold this morning with a wind blowing as well. It was amazing to see all the snow they trucked in for the event. Wher e the streets were bare yesterday was a couple miles of snow 4-6 inches deep today when we got there. The route to the starting line took us past many of the teams getting their dogs ready. It is a very interesting sport. Not only do you have to get yourself ready, but also you have to handle the logistics of getting at least 12 dogs ready and fed and everything else to make it all happen. We trekked up to the starting line and secured spots where we thought we could see what went on. For a moment I thought I was at a NASCAR race as a lady butchered The National Anthem but as bad as it was she really belted it out and it felt great. They had all the politicians making speeches and about 10 folks cut the ceremonial ribbon to open the 36^th Iditarod. Then the real fun started. They would bring up each team and then count them down to start. The dogs would be so excited they would be all jumping and hopping. One of them on the team would begin to bark and sing, and the other s would all join in. They were some of the prettiest happiest dogs I have ever seen. They seemed like they were just happy to be in harness and getting ready to run. When they were turned loose, they would fly down the street to big cheers from the crowd. Today, they only ran 10 miles to the outskirts of town. There they would stop and be trucked to Willow, AK. which is 2-3 hrs to the North. Reason for this is there really isn’t enough continuous snow pack this far south to allow proper mushing. The teams start one every 2 minutes, and we watched them until it was approaching lunchtime. We decided to go back to the Alaska Salmon Chowder House for lunch. We got there before the real rush and got a table right away. Today Vickie had a big bowl of clam chowder, Brenda had a big bowl of chili, Jerry had a small bowl of Manhattan style Halibut chowder and a sockeye salad sandwich, and I had authentic style chicken ramen noodles. (complete with tofu strips—my sister would be so proud). I t all was great, and restoked the system to maintain body heat. Thinking of heat, we did find that the little warmer packs that Vickie had found us prior to the trip came in really handy for our feet. Our pack boots did the job really well, but the warmer packs made the difference between being very comfortable and slightly uncomfortable in the foot department. After lunch we went back and continued watching the start. We were able to see our new acquaintance from yesterday start, and hung on to see all 96 entries pass the starting line. With the start complete, we headed back down the hill to the motel, but along the way I spotted something that advertised a movie all about the Iditarod. Turns out Brenda had met the lady who ran this venue, and promised her we’d come and check it out. It was an odd sort of adult playground, with computer games that are kind of hard to describe. But you know me, I’ll try. They had a fishing chair complete with pole, and you tried to reel in a 65-po und salmon. The game pulled like you really had a big fish on the line. Somehow it recorded a score of how you did catching the fish. Was a lot of fun. Then they had a hot air balloon ride over Prince William Sound simulation. You stood in a real balloon basket with a TV screen for the bottom. It was very beautiful and realistic. Also, there was a real life dog sled with a computer simulation projected on a screen in front of you and you felt like you were really riding a dog sled. Finally they had a 30-minute movie all about the history and workings of the Iditarod. We were fortunate to have a woman in our small movie audience that had participated in the race several times. She talked with us and gave us a real feeling of how it all worked. She said that the dogs were like athletes, and as a musher, you were like their coach. She went on, you were dealing with 12 minds, and what you had to do was get them to work as a team. At times you had to be a Vet, physiologist, mother, chee rleader, whatever it took. Also, you had to keep their spirits up to want to run. She talked about how they loved to run and unless they got older and infirm, you really couldn’t take it away from them. From watching the movie, the hardships for the mushers are unbelievable. They have to single handedly mush (drive) the sled all day, then after they stop, they have to get the dogs bedded down, inspected for injuries, and fed (again alone) then take care of themselves. They also have to camp under very primitive conditions in the cold. The physical toil plus sleep deprivation takes it’s toll on the participants. It takes a very hardy soul to even complete an Iditarod let alone win one. One girl told me the dogs burn 10,000 calories a day. I said even I could loose weight with that kind of energy expenditure. All in all this event is truly a unique symbiosis between man and dog that goes far beyond just a competitive sport. I can’t believe how much I enjoyed just being here to see an d try to understand what goes on. Tomorrow we are going to drive up to Willow to see the actual full on for real start of the race. I’m really looking forward to that. Tonight we are headed out to the Sourdough Mining Co. restaurant for dinner. Jerry and Brenda had found this place when they were here in the summer. In the meantime we’re unlaxing a little and doing our own things. My sister just called and dad has been admitted to Forsythe Medical Center in Winston-Salem. Things are looking up for dad. He has a better group of Dr’s. and they are not looking at his condition with cancer blinders on. He was comfortable last night, and sounded much better on the phone. On the way to dinner tonight, made an interesting observation. If the roads in Greensboro or Martinsville were like they are here, the city would be closed until the spring thaw. According to the motel shuttle bus driver they had a 40-degree thaw followed by teens. What it di d was coat everything in a sheet of ice similar to a frozen lake. Sidewalks, parking lots, side roads, you name it. Driving is quite a treat unless you are on one of the main highways. We had a nice dinner—food was good—portions were way to large as usual. I had a smoked brisket sandwich that was way tasty. Jerry and Vickie had baby backs, and Brenda had a smoked pork sandwich. Specialty of the house was corn fritters with honey butter. They were excellent. Back to the motel, and up this morning to head for the Willow start of the actual dog race. More later.

Wes

Alaska #2

We woke up this morning around 07:30 local time (12:30 pm EST) after finally crashing about 01:30 am. (at that point we had been up almost 24 hrs.) We went down to partake of the continental breakfast here at the Laughing Moose Comfort Inn. I have named it that because of the giant moose head hanging in the entranceway that appears to be laughing. Exactly why he is laughing when he is dead and stuffed is a mystery. Oh, and also in the front hall are a huge wolf pelt, a black bear that looks like it’s been run over by a steam roller complete with it’s tongue hanging out, and a giant stuffed brown bear. The top of the bear reaches all the way to the floor level of the second floor balcony. During breakfast we recognized the picture in the Alaska paper of a famous musher running in the Iditarod sitting at the table next to us. His name was Ken Anderson and he was very nice. This morning we put Miss Vickie on the job of negotiating a new accommodation contract. She managed to get us a discount rate for our remaing stay, and comp for the room we shared last night. They quickly had a room ready for us and we moved right across the hall and landed. We have a room now overlooking the famous Ship Creek. I think this is the one in the old saying “Up Ship Creek without a paddle”. We’re getting our collective acts together and will be heading out to explore Anchorage soon. We donned all our cold weather gear and realized we needed to be outside soon. It’s a new thing—I’m dying from the heat and I need to get out where it’s cold. We went across the street to the snow sculpture competition. It was very interesting. They took a parking lot and piled it full of snow about 8 feet deep. After it had settled down and hardened, they came back with front-end loaders and sculpted out walls and raw blocks for the competition. The blocks for the competition were about 10 feet by 10 feet by 8 feet of rock solid snow. Each team somehow chiseled out their vision. The results were quite interesting. After the snow sculpture we walked over to the Ulu Knife Factory, which is right beside our motel. We saw how they made the knives, did some shopping, boarded the Fur Rondy trolley, and headed up to the city. The trolley let us off in front of the Alaska Salmon Chowder House, which came highly recommended by our trolley driver. It was lunchtime so we decided to check out the food at the Alaska Salmon Chowder House. It was great. Among us we had the special times 3 and a bowl of chili. The special was a half a salmon salad sandwich and a bowl of the chowder of your choice. Jerry and I had the Halibut chowder and Vickie had classic clam chowder. Brenda had a bowl of chili. All of the chowder was killer good, and the chili was fine. The sandwiches were on nice crusty rolls with crisp lettuce and the salmon salad (like chicken salad) was very good. After lunch we watched the TV trucks setting up and set off exploring downt own Anchorage. I guess I never knew, but a huge earthquake largely destroyed Anchorage back in the 60’s. Also we found out the tourist business here is very seasonal. Other than now (Iditarod) winter is pretty slow with tourists. Well they have plenty of souvenir shops, right on the main streets. We visited several shops and while walking along the street heard a dog barking. We looked up and saw a sled dog standing on the roof 2 stories above us surveying the crowd, We then headed off and hiked a few blocks (via the adult beverage store) to the only official Iditarod souvenir shop. Jerry and I found the Iditarod store and got some “stuff”. We had split up earlier, and we met back up with the girls. Jerry and I decided to head back to the motel, and the girls went on to the mall that contained the Iditarod store. I was having a little trouble walking, so we decided to take the trolley back. We saw it down the street, and Jerry took off at a fast clip trying to catch it. He caught u p to it only to find it idling with no driver. A short indigenous woman with one tooth smoking a cigarette was standing next to the bus. Jerry asked her if she was the driver, and it seemed like she said yes. We figured she was on a break and sort of hung around. Upon further conversation with this lady, it seemed she was somewhat (or a whole what) tipsy. Jerry and I started wondering if we really wanted to get on the trolley with her as the driver. Just about the time we were really getting nervous, here came the real driver out of a nearby store. Seems this old Native American woman had taken the liberty of Bs’ing us for her own entertainment. Well we got on the trolley with the real driver, and set out on another adventure. Seems we had to ride the whole trolley route with him to get back to the motel. He proceeded to tell us his and Anchorage’s life story. Now well educated, Jerry and I were dropped off back at the motel. I noticed some activity at the far end of the parking lo t (right next to the giant mountain of snow) that seemed to involve sleds. We wandered down and found another of the Iditarod mushers complete with competition sled and dogs. The dogs were happily resting in straw nests inside a large white trailer, and the sled was being inspected on the trailer ramp. We had a nice discussion with the musher, and learned a lot about how the Iditarod works. Her name was Anne Capistrant, and she’s wearing bib number 88. (of 97 mushers in the race) We needed some munchies and liquid refreshments, so we got directions from the desk clerk and set off for the grocery store. We ended up at Carr’s Safeway, which was a large well-stocked store. Seems Safeway here has a curious arrangement. They can’t sell adult beverages in the grocery store, so they just build a little store on to the end of the grocery store and sell them there. It even takes Safeway customer rewards cards, which we just happened to have thanks to a very friendly checkout lady at the Saf eway grocery store part. Even while traveling, we saved over $15.00 with our Safeway card. Of interest along the way back from the grocery store was something called Falafel King, which appeared to be some kind of fast food establishment. (upon further research, it is some kind of mid-eastern sandwich of fried chickpea balls in pita bread. Says McDonalds even has one in Egypt called McFalafel). We got back to the motel, and found that in our absence the fire alarm had gone off somehow caused buy the person of questionable legality vacuuming in the hall. Seems like it must be a routine problem as he assured all the heads poking out of the doors “no problem, no problem”. (oh and he called Vickie sir, she couldn’t believe he thought she was a guy) We settled down for the evening, and dinner became what we rounded up at the grocery store interspersed with adult beverages and hearty laughter at the day’s events. Miss Vickie came up with a good one; she looked outside to see if it had “s nown”, guess that is southern for snowed. Since our clocks are all on Eastern Time, which is 4 hrs later, we soon headed off to bed. I awakened at my usual 07:00 only to find here the clock read 03:00. I got up to write, and ended up working with the Dr’s. by cell phone to get my dad back in the hospital. He is not doing well again, and his GI track is not cooperating. My sister scanned and emailed me all his test reports, and now I am really confused. The biopsy was not inconclusive it was NEGATIVE???? The only test that indicates cancer is a blood test that has to be confirmed by a biopsy. So we’ve gone full circle, and we’re back where we started 2 weeks ago. Well we’ll just have to see how it goes as he reenters the hospital. Look for us today on the TV at the Iditarod start. More later.

Wes

Alaska #1

Well here we sit at the Raleigh Airport, waiting for our first flight in a series of 3 today to get to Anchorage. First we go to Atlanta, then Salt Lake City then Anchorage. We will arrive in Anchorage @ 12:04 am. tomorrow. Part of this is due to the 4 hr time difference and a 3.5 hr layover in Salt Lake City. We plan to make use of the Delta Crown room in Salt Lake, as we have recently gotten new AMEX Platinum cards that give us access to the lounges on their partner airlines. This will make our long layover much easier to bear. After the whirlwind of the last 2 weeks, it seems strange to be heading out. For those who have not gotten a note from me in the last couple weeks, my dad was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer last week, and we have been trying to deal with the ramifications of that. He has been given about a year to live. We have been planning this trip for almost a year, and he definitely wanted us to go. I made him promise not to die before I got back. He always enjoys the travel stories I write, so I’m going to see Alaska for him. We are packed pretty heavy for this trip. We all brought pack boots (winter boots with felt liners), wool socks, special wicking long underwear, hiking boots, down coats, down vests, gloves, mittens, face masks, etc. etc.etc. We are expecting cold weather in Anchorage, and very cold weather in Fairbanks. Our planned itinerary has us staying in Anchorage till Monday, and then we fly to Fairbanks. While in Anchorage we plan to participate in the start of the Iditarod dog sled race. Also while we are in Anchorage the Fur Rhondy is going on, which is an outdoor festival of all manner of events. Well it’s boarding time so more later.

Well we are now in Utah pleasantly ensconced in the Delta Crown Club. They have free drinks and a nice little snaky buffet. The flight into Salt Lake is amazing; the snow-covered mountains are as high as the plane is flying. The flight however was 100% full and like 4 hrs in a cattle truck. We only have 5 hrs left to fly to get to Anchorage and that plane is 100% full. Looks like time to sleep a few hrs. This Crown Club is really nice. All kinds of overstuffed furniture, nooks to work in, and all manner of places to just sit and decompress. Access to these clubs definitely improves the quality of travel. Well time is approaching and we’re headed back to the gate for 5 more hours of delightful air travel. As expected the plane was 100% full, and I once again felt like I was riding in a cattle truck with movies. We got a little snack of cheese and crackers, and the customary plastic cup of drink. One thing interesting, they have increased the size of the little cups of drink they give you, reason unknown. We arrived in Anchorage sometime after midnight, claimed our luggage, and headed out for the rental car. Anchorage airport is interesting in that they built a nice new terminal, but ONLY Alaska Air gets to use the new terminal—all others use the old one. We had to ride a shuttle bus to get to the rental car desks. The shuttle bus driver dropped us off and said you can either go down these stairs here or the stairs back there. (us with copious amounts of luggage) We headed down stairs to be greeted by ice floes on the sidewalk that would have Greensboro personal injury lawyers setting up booths. We got our Chevy Trailblazer from Alamo, which appeared to be one of the last ones left in the parking lot. The car was covered by about an eighth of an inch of dirt. We headed out following some relatively uncomplicated directions, and found our Comfort Inn on the banks of the Ship Creek. The location is great in that it is 1 block down the street from the Iditarod ceremonial start. We prepared to check in at the Comfort Inn and oops they only had 1 room. (they were however very apologetic) We only made the reservations 6 months ago, and checked on them a couple of days ago. But we all are good friends, had our jammies, and the room had 2 queens, we were exhausted, and so we said we’d work it out tomorrow and crashed. (only to be awakened 45 minutes later by a wrong number) With all our stuff the room looked like a tourist had exploded in it by morning. More later.

Wes