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Kat got out of the village okay yesterday after some dodgy weather left her feeling nervous about the bush planes arriving (even more nervous than usual about figuring out the odds of the bush planes picking you up when they’re meant to…), and got into Fargo around lunchtime after flying via Denver from Anchorage. She called earlier to complain she was covered in cat hair from Max – guess Mia isn’t too bad after all, who, by the way, moped around her kennel from 6p.m last night until 10a.m this morning as she knew Kat had gone! Seems a little better today after being bribed with a walk and then a treat or two. Kat will be away until the middle of June helping Cris move across to Carson City, before flying back through Anchorage. Just me + Mia for the next 3 weeks

With Kat addicted to Facebook and such like, her half sister, Cheri` had found her again after loosing touch for a number years with Kat moving around. Kat was pretty excited about it as they’d never really got to know in touch much whilst younger, but Cheri` had a baby last year and they’re hoping to meet up whilst Kat’s in the lower. They live in Oregon (would have been canny to know last summer whilst traveling through there!), so are planning on meeting up half way between Tahoe and Salem (I think). That make me quarter uncle in law…?

We got a bunch of stuff booked for our trip with my parents at the end of July now. Yesterday we went ahead through Alaska Travel to book a train ride down to Seward along with two nights hotel by the harbour and full day glacier cruise with a ranger talk and grilled salmon lunch, along with 3 nights in a log cabin in Denali, a full day bus tour of the national park, and then a tour of the Sundog kennels in Talkeetna to check over some of Iditarod huskies and take a ride with them. That’s pretty much our main trips all confirmed now, as the few days around Anchorage will mainly be heading to the heritage museum, taking a tour of the city, going to the zoo and Earthquake Park, etc. We booked our flights a week ago too, so we’re all starting to get excited about it.

Back in the village, it’s weird seeing boats moving around on the river – all the ice has gone and people are starting to get ready to go fishing. I filled the 4-wheeler up with gas after dropping Kat off at the airport and a boat pulled up to get fuel too which caught me off guard! Hoping to start sweet talking people into taking me out fishing once the weather picks up (still miserable + drizzling). But, with the guys moving away trying to offload the last of their gear rather than simply throw it out, I got a dartboard off Nick with two sets of darts for $10. Good fun, as have my darts from England with me too – used to spend hours playing darts down the Travs. Just need to convince Kat to let me open a bar up here

Kat + I got have got our flights booked up for heading into the Anchorage at the end of July for a couple of weeks with my parents Pretty cool, just need to get a couple of git big needles sent out to stick into Mia to get her sorted too. Now we’re working out where we’re going and what we’re doing to look at getting hotels booked and tickets booked for a glacier cruise and Denali bus ride.

School is all finished up here now, so Kat is enjoying a bit of relaxation before flying down to Minnesota next Tuesday. Will be helping Cris move out to Carson City and then flies up to Anchorage around the middle of June for a few days before heading back to Tunt. Some of the other teachers are already starting to head out the village, and the three moving away completely are hurrying around to get sorted by June 1st when they have to be out the houses. Think they’re all grouping together to charter a Cessna 208 Grand Caravan to get them into Bethel as there’ll be two dogs amongst all the luggage so is probably easier!

I’ve had a few days work clearing wood from around the school after boardwalks have been ripped up and oil tanks removed over the past year, and will have a couple of day next week building some new boardwalk sections. All the materials for hooking up the other four housing units to the water and sewer lines are on order, so hopefully they’ll arrive soon now that the rivers have broken and the barges should be able to sail in the next week or so. That would give me plenty of work to do over the summer to stop me getting bored and bring some money in.

Made it back to Tunt from Anchorage with only a 5 hour wait hanging around in Bethel at Hageland… Pretty tired as was a lot of darting around from store to store getting things together or mailing back, but at least the weather was good, and I managed to get an intro pilot lesson with Take Flight out of Merrill Field too which was good and cleared up a lot of things in my mind:

I got to the aviation museum on Lake Hood, munched away on Subways, Pizza Hut, Wendys, Taco Bell and McDonalds (along with some very nice salmon, prawns + halibut at one of Damond’s friend’s birthdays), and spent more time shopping than is good for a bloke really!

Being able to hang out with Damond in Anchorage, and make the use of one of his cars (a great big Suburban – way bigger than anything else I’ve driven before, and certainly not *quite* as economical as the Prius last summer given gas is at $4/gallon now), was cool, and overall it was a good trip. The snow has pretty much gone in Tunt now and the river broke a day or two ago, although the Kuskokwim itself hasn’t started flowing yet, but with the joy of Walmart I bought two big cans of bug spray so I’m prepared for being out here this summer!

Having fun with the waiting game of ‘will my bush plane turn up?’, but the weather isn’t too bad so should be okay. In Anchorage until Friday lunchtime, and already got my shopping lists from Kat She’s just mad I get to eat takeaway for every meal, even though someone is going away herself in two weeks time…

But, Lake Hood opened up on Friday which will be fun to see the float planes moving around again, and I’m also planning on getting my pilot medical done along with a couple of intro flying lessons, all being well. No idea when I’ll have internet as I’m staying at a friend’s house, so might be Friday lunchtime back at Anchorage airport before I can get any photos online or get my e-mail.

Seriously, we are! Well, our names are anyway

NASA is launching a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter towards the end of the year, and they’re including a microchip in it containing a bunch of names submitted to them by the end of June. Not wanting to miss an opportunity to get our names out there, such as being on the Honda F1 car last season, Kat + I added our names. Simply enter your name on the LRO submission form and you’re set.

Maybe I’ll end up flying over the acre of moon I bought a few years ago…

Well, the warm weather at the start of last week was just a teaser. It cooled down again the middle of the week and froze over, and then the last couple of days there’s been some gentle blowing snow most of the time covering the ice. The tundra is still very bare + exposed so it’s kinda a mixed look outside, and still staying down around 15F (-10C) with windchill. Haven’t been out on the snowmobile anyway as the tundra is all exposed around the houses, and don’t really have anywhere to go on it with the weather swinging around!

A few more locals have been getting boats ready though – one of them by the river had a big pile of broken ice next to it which looked like someone had lost control of their sled after being ice chipping, but then the inside of the boat was thick with ice and it’s owner had been breaking it out! I’ve seen a couple getting towed along the river too, again, probably to get out seal hunting along the coast:

Isn’t quite as gruesome as some of the photos recently published out of Canada though, honest.

On the plus side (segue from clubbing seals…?!), GTA IV arrived through the mail this afternoon – about time, as I pre-ordered it last summer, even though it’s final release date wasn’t until this past Tuesday Pretty cool though, so can’t wait to get to stuck into it later on this evening

I’m also heading into Anchorage on May 12th for a few days, partly just to get out the village for a bit! I’m meeting up with a friend who lives there, and hoping to get an introductory flying lesson (TSA approval required for anything more) and pilot medical done whilst I’m there. Slowly moving forward I guess. Should be good, and Damond used to work in Denali National Park and has lived around the Anchorage area all his life, so I can pick his brains for when we head out at the end of July when my parents fly over Can get some shopping done and mail stuff back to keep us going over the summer as well – think I’ll have one box just of mosquito repellant!