Don't eat the yellow snow...

 With it looking like rain I decided to put the National park on hold and drive to Fairbanks, the road gets a bit more scruffy and quite a roller coaster in places and you keep getting. uzzed by 18 wheel trucks full of cargo heading North .

I know it. must get boring with a couple of hours daylight and temperatures of minus 40 farenheit so the townspeople of Nenana have their own ways of making entertainment.... in March they hold a week long festival which includes competitions such as egg toss, homemade bread, banana eating , moose call. you get the idea..... the highlight of this is the dragging out and mounting on the ice of the "tripod" a 4 legged wooden structure which sits on the frozen river with people placing bets as to the date and time the ice will melt and the tripod will fall....... the prize is the pot of money which was over £200,000 this year. it's not an instant thing.. sometimes it takes weeks but I guess there isn't that much else to do in the winter in these parts!

driving North

Pipeline
what happens when you find oil hundreds of miles from anywhere? you pipe it 800 miles to the nearest port. obviously,
The pipeline took 2 years to build including the sub zero winters... can you imagine a pipeline from Devizes to John O Groats in 2 years flat? no, thought not. more like 20 years at home.

Ice

60 miles up a road to nowhere is an ice sculpture "museum"  in a freezer room with an ice bar where you can drink out of martini glasses made out of ice.

it's hard to photograph ice in a room lit by led lighting, especially when there are loads of people breathing in there but I had a go with the new camera.

I think they might be running out of names for roads up here!

 imagine living up this one......

Perhaps it has something to do with this.......

nice cup of tea

It’s not meant to be an all singing, all dancing camera, just a cheapish replacement for my poor Panasonic. I tried it out on Target’s car park.

It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles on it, I can’t control much by myself, none of the features I use AND it’s about 5 times the size... I hate big cameras, I don’t get lens envy!  Nor do I get hotel envy as you can probably tell by the way I slept in the SUV last night.

Anyone who knew Dennis will find this scene familiar, Dennis never went very far without a flask or a stove and saucepan. To make a “nice cup of tea”
The paraffin stove he used to boil his water must have dated from pre WW2 days, it was a terrifying thing that leaked and smelled and had to come into the house to cook on when there was a power cut.... which, growing up in the 60s and 70s was a great many occasions with no power.
I do have to confess that at one scenic rest stop I pulled out the stove and made a “nice cup of coffee” .... so there you are...I am Dennis’’s daughter after all!!

The mountains get bigger out the window so I must be approaching the park!

See I told you there weren't many roads in Alaska !

East or West?

Just as the Christian missionaries went East to convert the native peoples of the world, the Russian Orthodox church was also doing the same thing..... voyaging East to convert the native peoples.... East of Russia was Alaska, East of them or West of us, depending on where you start from.
 That’s the reason that in the middle of rural Alaska there is a strong following of the Russian Orthodox tradition, so strong that in the tiny town of Eklutna,they still have a full time priest.  the native Alaska people simply merged their traditions with the churches in the same way that Christians found themselves merged with native British traditions.... except we don’t have spirit houses.
 The sprit houses are put over the grave 40 days after burial and are a place for the spirits to live and be visited by relatives, no doubt modern spirits have modern houses

Stop by mirror lake –do I need to explain why it’s called mirror lake???

This thing in the distance I was watching that looks like low hanging  loud turns out to be a big mountain , Mt McKinley, when you get closer to it!

Talkeetna
Talkeetna is famous for 2 things, the number of shops, think Hungerford without the antiques, and..... Mayor Stubbs. Mayor Stubbs doesn’t wear robes or a  chain of office as befits his status, mainly  because he’s a cat
I was lucky enough to meet the Mayor in person and although frail and elderly he had a couple of words for me and accepted a stroke or two before curling up to snooze at the back of Nagleys Store in the centre of town.

Cabin
It said cabin on Expedia but when I arrived it was one of those cases of understatement... more like a house than a cabin reply, still it’s an extra night of comfort with a nice view of the lake .

Sadly the camera has broken again and no amount of tapping the lens seems to bring it back to life, I am going to drive back 60 miles to Wasilla to see if I can get a reasonably priced new one, shame because I hadn’t finished researching for a new one just yet.

No room at the inn

... Eventually I got the hire car and headed for the hotel which wasn't far from the airport, for a state that I covers so much landmass most of Anchorage is only a small area.
Anchorage isn't even  the state capital of Alaska, that's  place called Juneau which is squished in a strip of Alaska that runs next to Canada.
  The car, well it's a bit small for sleeping in but I will survive, nearly a case of have to as when I turned up at the hotel at 7am to check in for the previous night, they had sold my room to someone else, apparently because I didn't check in by 6pm. Since I paid in full to expedia not them they decided to earn themselves  a double rent for the room overnight.
 Small strop needed, I told them "You're not my parents, I don't have to be in for 6pm" but apparently it's company policy.... funny that it's not  company policy at the same hotel brand in Mt Laurel...... room reinstated, long shower and off to find something pretty to look at to get in the holiday mood.

OK it's a little hazy in the morning sun..
     
     which brings me to my next point
Most of the people I told where I was going were suppressed that I was going to such a cold place. Well, Alaska has summers the same as  most other places, it's just that the summers are short and have long hours of daylight... jumbo vegetable conditions... who knew?. OK it doesn't reach the 40C of Phoenix but theres no denying that  it gets to a respectable summer climate.

myth busted!! that's 24C

The temperature rising, I headed off to visit the other airport in anchorage. Not that there's much wrong with the main one, it's large and bright and calm, kind of the "if Carlsberg made airports" of international travel.
  The other airport is the seaplane Base and general aviation hub, lots of small planes needed to get to places out in the wilds that have no roads so there are plenty of small aircraft to go round..

Lake Hood Seaplane Base.....

time for a sleep
cxx

Is there a doctor on board

Nuts

Now a 4 hour layover in Phoenix is just enough time to get fed up with the heat... 104 degree heat, that's 40C it's the sort of no relief heat that gets right inside you. It's true that it's a dryer heat but in my experience that only means you can stand another 10C before you go nuts.

   I have to confess I did a very childish thing. The TSA security at American airports can be an officious bunch to put it mildly, they have this knack of annoying you by their very existence. shouting, making up rules on the spot, more shouting "shoes off,no liquids, documents must be in your hand" that sort of thing.

Anyway a few years ago they introduced a machine that scans your clothes off, you stand in it and someone views the image to check you are "safe" to proceed. The machine must have been having an off day because I was sent back round for a second scan.... which is when the heat finally made me flip..... there was a problem with the images of my shoulder and "front" faced with a second pat down I removed my t shirt. The north Americans are a prudish nation and it seemed to come as a bit of a shock to them, there was a brief discussion about whether to give me the second pat down being as they had seen the evidence so I was given a cursory pat and let go on my way. Don't try this at home is my advice I could easily have seen the inside of a phoenix police cell but I did feel a little better for ithe.

oh yes the flight. about half an hour out of Phoenix an elderly lady was having problems breathing so a call was put out for a doctor it made me chuckle a bit because Vlad the cat used to have a BA card in the name of Dr Vladimir Walker. The crew are never alone up there with a medical problem, there is a service they. all who make all the treatment and other decisions, after an hour or so of to and fro ing the lady wasn't getting any better and a diversion to Seattle was decided upon.
 I was quite surprised that the lady and her family were left in the care of the medical services, the plane refuelled, the oxygen restocked, the pilot managed to acquire himself a coffee and a guide dog  was allowed off  for a pee, all within an hour or so and we all buckled back in for  4 more hours flying which  left us arriving in Anchorage at 3.15 . it was midday UK time so I wasn't in as  bad shape as some .
 With 3 hours to wait for the car hire to open again, I selected a spot between 2 sculptures and dug the sleeping bag out to hunker down.

Zoom error
My camera is not a happy gadget at the moment hopefully I can sort it out when I get a moments peace.

Triumph and disaster

The triumph, I managed to get to Dublin and back without being significantly worse for wear ... or significantly worse for gin
The disaster I managed to leave my handbag on the plane!
  Mindful of the experiences of others I have heard about I was a bit sceptical that I would get it back but the nice lady at the assistance desk managed to sort it within the hour and I calmed down again .. not least because my tobacco was in my handbag.

So the trip so far hasn't been anything remarkable,

big queue to take off at Heathrow

Meal any of my students would be ashamed of...

Gin. More food

Clouds

Ooh and a sightseeing tour of London

The further you go the stranger it gets

  The time is upon me for another trip and my ramblings thereupon..........
General busy ness and the controlled assessment for the GCSE class left me spending the half term in sunny Wiltshire so I havent  been far since Easter, no not even a little trip, the farthest I have been from home is Hatfield to collect the detritis of a year in a student house for Al.

Last year was a bit of a trial getting to Alaska but I am determined to repeat the experience, Alaska that is not the travel disruption.
 I have come on leaps and bounds since the first solo Trip to Hawaii, I was struggling on a daily basis, like giving up everything you were ever addicted to in one moment and having to live the rest of your life without them. Without Dunc in my case.
 I cope, I toddle on, I go on with life, some of the last year of his life seems to be decades ago and some of it seems yesterday - working full time has helped but it doesnt stop me craning my neck as I approach the drive at the house to see if he is home.

The trip

One would have supposed that the experience of US Airways getting to Alaska last year would have been enough to plagarise Sir Steve Redgrave ie "If anyone sees me near a US airways plane, you have my permission to shoot me" but no, I am back for a bit more punishment , a lovely lady from BA helped me price it so at least this year, someone is to blame and with US Airways being more integrated into Oneworld there might be more joined up baggage handling and passenger handling.

 Starting the trip in Dublin this time to make sure that it ticketed on a BA plane, I've popped FAI Fairbanks on there so you can see where I am going, I'm not flying to FAI on some prop that is Dash by name but not by nature, I am driving but it gives you an idea anyway.

Damp
Quite a lot of rural Alaska is "Damp"
I know quite a lot of rural Wiltshire is damp as well but not in the same sense.
We have come across "Dry" counties and towns in our travels before, some of the best Bourbon distilleries in Kentucky are situated in dry counties, Alcohol restrictions that is, Dry counties dont sell alcohol and there are strict rules about drinking what you have brought into the area. Some of them have never relaxed their laws since the prohibition era and some have strongly religious governance who dont allow it.
 Damp is another thing entirely, in the north of Alaska, native peoples and workers can be affected by the effects of drinking alcohol, in damp areas you can bring alcohol in but not buy it , several native communities have voted to go completely dry and have had a stunning reduction in alcohol related crime.
 If the sun sets in November and only rises 67 days later in January, one would hazard a guess that alcohol consumption would assist the passing of the long darkness but too much it turns out, native peoples were so affected by drinking that it was banned altogether.

........Perhaps thats why "moonshiners" is such a popular TV show. I brought a jar of something highly alcoholic back for Al last year and neither he nor Jordan have summoned up the courage to drink it!

You have to admit the Alaskans are a hardy lot, look at the reaction to a 5.0 earthquake yesterday...