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It cannot be Memorial Day next weekend…

The last 5-6 months have been a whirlwind. Starting a new job right before Christmas and having a 15-credit load at college didn’t leave much time for a great deal of downtime, yet looking back I also took three LIFE classes at Eden seminary, flew back up to Alaska to help run tech for Cama-i, moved to a new house, and had two or three weekends in Iowa. Now that college has been finished for a couple of weeks and we’re settled in to our new house, it’s nice to have some time to relax for a little given the upcoming summer plans.

Heading back to Alaska for Cama-i was somewhat weird. Everything was familiar and hadn’t changed, and it was great to catch up with friends again and be a part of running Cama-i. The traveling to and from wasn’t so great, but it was nice to fly Alaska Air all the way from St Louis. And, and having been back in Alaska for literally 5 minutes, I was sat in the bar (of course!) having an Alaskan Amber when Iditarod champion John Baker walked by

Bethany and I moved at the start of the month to a new house still within Maplewood, and we’re pretty much settled in now. The back yard is a little bigger and Kenai seems to like it, and we’re also 5 minutes from the dog park which is great too. Ace seems a lot happier with extra places to explore in this house and a lot more windows to look out of.

Work at SLUH has been going good, again, starting to get settled in, be able to find my way around, and know most of the people working there. It’s a nice place to work, with the atmosphere being pretty laid back and open most of the time. Wednesday evening was nice with the end of year staff which was held on Windows on Washington, a pretty smart banquet area overlooking Washington Avenue in downtown St Louis.

It’s only a month until we get married, and I’m really looking forward to having family around for a little while. We’re also heading back to England for our honeymoon the first week which we’re both really looking forward to. Trying to cram everything in to an 8-9 trip will be pushing it a little to much, but I’m sure it will be great.

So, it’s nearly August, and we’ve been in St Louis for a month. Quite a bit has gone on I guess…

We finished off our time in Bethel and then spent a week traveling around south central Alaska with one of Bethany’s friends, Shannon, who flew up from Phoenix. It was a great way to end our time in Alaska. I’m still working through all the photos, but will get round to them.

After Alaska, we flew down to Bethany’s parents in Iowa and spent three weeks or so in + out getting ready to move to St Louis. We went to the Iowa Conference UCC annual meeting in Grinnel, headed off to meet some of Bethany’s friends in Omaha, Nebraska, then planned our first trip to St Loius for a few days. First, we needed a car, and we got a great deal on a 2001 Ford Taurus SES with only 63k miles on it:

Once in St Louis, we managed to find a really nice two bedroom house for rent in Maplewood, 10-15 mins from downtown, and I got to see the sights of St Louis. The following week we came back down to finalize things and check out some more places, and then moved for real on July 1st. The U-Haul we rented was ridiculous, but worked out really well:

By chance, we had the Alaska detail on the side of our truck It was a good drive down though and we managed to get unpacked okay, and slowly got things we needed.

Job hunting has been slow, and I’ve been setting up to work as a freelance IT consultant which gives me the freedom to work on college classes as I need and not be tied in to working certain shifts. I got to head to Chicago for the first time as one of my projects, and finally sampled Chicago style pizza (it’s all upside down…). It’s working out good though.

A pretty hectic weekend flying out to Seattle for a wedding and re-union of a bunch of Bethany’s peace corps friends rounded off our planned traveling, so we were then able to finally get a puppy

He’s a 10 week old yellow labrador retriever we named Kenai. After waiting so long for a puppy, it’s great to have one around the house now. He’s settling in okay and has his first vet visit tomorrow morning!

Even though I only have three weeks left working at LKSD, I’m determined to make the most of it. There’s a big project building up for the summer with a large scale Open Directory deployment going on district-wide, with 40 or so Xserves that have come in to the department along with three Promise RAID arrays, fibre channel switching and other network gear. I’ve taken the opportunity to put myself up for travel duty to install Xserves at our village sites.

So, on Monday I flew in + out of Kwethluk, Tuesday I hit up Toksook Bay and flew back to Bethel via Newtok, then Wednesday I flew down to Kwigillingok and then on to Kipnuk where I camped out overnight at the school before coming home on Thursday. After getting things squared in the office through Thursday afternoon and Friday, I then helped figure out next week’s installs So, this Monday I fly to Mekoryuk (where it wouldn’t be awful I got stuck overnight…) and then Tuesday I’m scheduled for Kasigluk to do installs at Akiuk and Akula, before then heading to Atmautluak on Wednesday. Phew!

It was really nice to get back to Nelson Island again and spend the day in Toksook Bay, and then getting down to Kwigillingok and Kipnuk on the coast was great after being out here 4 years and Tunt being fairly close to them. It was quite, quite different to what I expected. It was a lot more desolate than I thought it would be – pretty much every day direction was completely flat and devoid of shrubbery or elevation change. The climate was also totally different. Kwig had 4ft high snowdrifts alongside the boardwalks where they’d plowed the way, and Kipnuk had boardwalks impossible to walk on at times because of the snow! I rode a snowmachine back to the airport on Thursday and really got cold in howling winds, before then driving around in Bethel not two hours later with sunglasses on, window down on the truck, and no snow to be seen at all! I’m quite intrigued as to what Mekoryuk will look like, as Nelson Island was still covered in snow.

So, it’s now the end of April; Saturday ushers in May. The days are rapidly counting down to leaving Bethel on May 30th, and Alaska itself a week later. Hotels, rental car, and day trips are all booked for that, as are our flights. I’m all moved out of my old house, got the deposit back and banked, sold my snowmachine, have sold my truck but am thankfully getting to keep it until we leave, and today have pretty much sold my boat. As of yesterday I’ve mailed out 24 boxes and have a running total at the post office hitting $650 now. I guess it’s a little too late to change my mind!

I’ve got one final paper to write for my GOVT101 class, and finished off my PHIL101 class a few days ago. I’ve got ENGL111 and SOC101 coming up this Summer for 6 weeks, and I’m registered for four classes this Fall at St Louis Community College which I’m really looking forward to. Not quite sure how I’ll handle 12 credit hours whilst (hopefully) working full time, so we’ll see. I’m sure it will be okay, and will at least know to only try 9 for Spring if it’s too much.

I’m definitely loving my iPad which I bought on our way through Anchorage a few weeks ago Combined with the Kindle app, it’s fantastic. I’ve read half a dozen books on it, and it’s great to have Whispersync go between my iPad and iPhone so I can pick up on one device right where I left off. I’m eagerly awaiting Barnes & Noble releasing their dedicated iPad app, and think it’s very smart Amazon and B&N are focusing on still delivering eBooks to the iPad, which is where their primary market should be (selling books).

At the moment, we’re looking at figuring out plans for June. It’s starting to look pretty busy! The plan is to be moved in to St Louis by the start of July

Last week Bethany and I headed up to Fairbanks for a few days. Checking in to our flight on the Wednesday morning, they had a full body 737 so were re-assigning seats to balance it out. Bethany was upgraded to First Class as is an Alaska Air MVP, and I was shuffled to row 9. We asked to try and sit together, but they couldn’t then figure out how to downgrade Bethany again to sit next to me. No worries, so I went to park the truck. Came back in and Bethany had a First Class ticket for me as the check-in staff just upped me too to make it easier I could get used to flying First Class…

Anyways, Fairbanks was a little different than we expected. Was good though once we got used to the layout. Downtown was pretty run down and not much going on, but elsewhere was fine. We headed up to see the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, something I’ve wanted to see for a long time:

Something else we both wanted to see was the Northern Lights. On our way north of Fairbanks, I stopped to watch the Ice Road Truckers make their way home:

A little after midnight, we finally got to see the Aurora:

We were like 40 miles north of Fairbanks and totally on our own. It was pretty awesome! We got a couple of short shows which kept us happy:

On Friday we headed 20 miles or so out of Fairbanks to North Pole, which was quite a surreal place. The street lights were colored like candy canes, trees had lights and decorations on them, streets were named ‘Santa Claus Lane’, etc. No trip there would have been complete with going to Santa Claus House (though Santa himself was on holiday…):

To get over North Pole, on Saturday we drove out to Chena Hot Springs, which was just awesome. It’s nestled away in the mountains all by itself, and has geothermal hot springs which feed a couple of pools. The outdoor rock pool was very, very relaxing. Surrounded by snow capped mountains and trees whilst in the warming pool was great, and it was about 45F out, so even lying on the rocks in the sun kept us fairly warm. It was also nice to then wander around the resort and check out all the old and rusty machines and gold panning area and stuff:

For more photos, check this flickr set of Fairbanks

Overall, it was a great few days. Felt weird once we landed in Anchorage and were waiting on our flight back to Bethel. Would be the last time I would be flying out here (assuming I don’t get roped in to helping with Cama’i for Pat’s final year next March). Plus, it matched up that 7 weeks to the day I would be flying back in to Anchorage from Bethel for the last time, and then 8 weeks to the day, I would be leaving Anchorage to the lower 48. I’ve flown to Bethel something like 20 times over the past 5 years, and will be weird leaving. Last night I sold my snowmobile, and have my boat up for sale too. Hopefully that will sell soon. I’ll be mailing off the last few boxes in a couple of weeks when I’m done with my desktop computer and winter clothes and stuff, and then that’s it

Didn’t get as many funny looks of “look at that silly gussack” as I was expecting when moving my boat last night:

I’ve got it parked at Pat’s house and will put it up for sale next week once I’m back from Fairbanks. Seemed weird to be towing it away knowing I’d be selling it. I always looked at life out here as experiencing things whilst I could, and buying a boat was simply a case of being able to buy a boat and use it until I moved. Was a good experience

The last few days have been a wash of events. Having made the decision to leave Bethel (and Alaska) at the of the school year, I’ve been slowly sorting out packing things up to ship out, sell, donate, or simply throw away. After a couple of fun trips to the post office, I’ve amassed twenty boxes and $500 in shipping fees:

Has been weird shipping all my possessions off to Bethany’s parents, but figure they’re pretty trustworthy So long as Jericho doesn’t try to eat my Playstation or something… It’s also been a good excuse to go through things and get rid of things I just don’t use/wear. I donated 4 trash-bags of clothes to the Catholic church along with a couple of big blankets; have some canned and dried foods to donate to the Lions Club; and threw out 8 bags of trash. Some things like a mass of flying magazines were tough to get rid of (though the FAA has just adjusted their stance on medications meaning I’m not totally ruled out now), but overall it’s been good. Means I’m starting out a fresh. And have less things puppies will chew when we’re able to get a place in St Louis where we can have dogs.

So, as of today I’m now all moved out of my old house and living with Bethany for a few weeks until we move. It really doesn’t seem like a year ago I was moving in my old house! Other than the cost of heating, it was a nice house, and all the space and light was great. But, as much as I know I *can* live in these conditions, I don’t *want* or *have* to, so it’s time to move on. I have my desktop computer for editing photos since I have some Iditarod photos left, Cama’i photos, and whatever I end up with from our Fairbanks trip in a few days, but pretty much everything else has been mailed off or gone one way or another. I’m hoping to be able to sell my boat, snowmachine, and truck okay, I’m not stressed about it. I have a lot of money tied up in rental and utility deposits and vehicles, so will be a nice chunk of change by the time we head south.

Alaska Air were running a sale on tickets last week, so we got our plane rides sorted. We leave Bethel on Sunday 30th May and have a week exploring Anchorage, Kenai and Mat-Su Valley with a friend of Bethany’s from Phoenix, then fly to Minneapolis and drive down to Iowa on Sunday 6th June. The plan is to have a house sorted in St Louis and be moved by the 4th of July weekend Exciting times, just a lot going on at the moment what with my college classes too!

It seems like the Cama’i festival came and went in a blur! We started out by getting together on Wednesday evening for dinner at Tim’s house and then the show set-up started on Thursday evening until 1a.m or so, but then Friday night’s opening show came round and the dancing started and suddenly it was midnight on Sunday and we had everything packed away! It was great fun though, it was nice having experienced it all last year so I kinda knew what was going on with sound + lights, and we extended it to run up to 4 video cameras which really made things fun. Plus, Marty came back again from last year so we all kinda knew each other and could cause trouble without too much hassle!

I made sure I got to photograph some of the dancers though, one of the advantages I guess is seeing which groups are really cool when they first perform so I could get down by the stage to photograph them later on in the weekend These are some from the first batch I processed last night, starting out with the amazing Mary Ann Sundown of Scammon Bay:

Well dressed dancers from Marshall, including the elder sitting at the front (of which I have some more close-ups to come):

I checked out St Mary’s a couple of times as they were quite lively. This is an overview of how we had the stage, lights and video projectors set up:

And bear in mind, this is a pretty big high-school gym where a district-wide basketball tournament was held a couple of weeks ago!

Tomodachi Diako Taiko Drummers were really impressive, a group of Japanese immersion students out of Anchorage:

One of their leaders was very friendly as we hooked up a wireless mic for him, and his flute playing was awesome:

And here’s one of Marty starting to look a little tired by 8pm on Sunday evening:

Overall, it was a great festival, and as with last year, I really enjoyed being part of the sound + light crew and being able to help put on such an awesome show. Pat is retiring next summer and leaving Bethel, so Cama’i 2011 will be his last show after doing it for 25 or so years. He’s already trying to convince me to fly back up for it!

I finished processing photographs from the Saturday ceremonial start of the Iditarod out of Anchorage. I’ve got hundreds from the Saturday and Sunday – to view a selection uploaded so far, check this Iditarod 2010 set on flickr.

Here’s Mitch Seavey, two-time K300 champion taking a corner weaving through University Lake:

With the trail fairly narrow, mushers often ended up close together and with no way of passing. Here, Dallas Seavey, son of Mitch, pulled over to let Sonny Lindner pass. As the teams aren’t racing, I guess Dallas was just wanting to enjoy himself and take his time:

Aliy Zirkle, along with her trailing-sled rider also enjoying herself:

Rookie Dan Kaduce:

A good looking and happy team of Tom Thurston:

I’ll finish off processing the photographs from Sunday’s official restart in Willow over the next few days. To check out more of what’s online so far, head over to this Iditarod 2010 set on flickr

I’ve slowly been making a start on the Iditarod photos from Saturday + Sunday. There’s a whole bunch in this flickr set with more to come. I just love the character in the dogs, such as this guy:

As they can’t sweat, their tongues swell up to allow them to cool, which is quite safe.

You then had this guy who just wanted to keep running, not stop on the trail for a minute or so whilst the musher untangled some lines:

Peter Kaiser of Bethel was running his first Iditarod, with his father, Ron, riding the second sled:

Mike Williams Jr of Aniak is also running his first Iditarod this year. Both are currently doing well in the middle of the pack.

Up in Willow, we got to mill around the teams as they were setting up thanks to the press passes we had, which got some great candid shots of the puppies like this one after sneaking a little snack from a way-ward food tub lid:

Some mushers were more stressed out than others as they got ready for the start of the ‘real’ racing, such as Martin Buser, barely able to contain himself:

And once everything was underway, great to see all the mushers and teams make their way across Willow Lake to begin the journey, such as DeeDee Jonrowe:

I’ve processed and uploaded around 50 or so photos now, with hundreds more to go. I’ll slowly be uploading them as I go, again, check this flickr set for more now and over time. Any stand out ones I’ll also post here. I’m really going to miss photographing sled dogs. I guess that’s why I did so much with the Kuskokwim 300, Bogus Creek 150, Akiak Dash, Holiday Classic, and now Iditarod the last couple of months. I just love being around the dogs! I had been hoping to get up for the Akiak 150 this weekend, but there’s a little too much going on at work to have taken more time off so soon after the Iditarod. Hopefully I’ll be able to get another local sled dog race around Bethel before the end of winter.