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Well, Kat, Mia + I made it to Anchorage. This morning I got up to an e-mail from Nikki saying mam + dad’s flight out of Manchester was delayed by four hours after having to change a tyre on the plane, but checking the Vancouver airport site it’s due to arrive in the next few minutes so isn’t going to be too late a night for them. It’s only a three hour flight tomorrow up to Anchorage for them anyways.

Kat + I were ready by 9a.m for our bush flight which finally got us out the village around 12.30p.m… No problems in terms of time getting across to the Alaska Air desk and getting Mia checked in (who made a ton of friends, as usual!), but then the inbound flight was delayed. They still had us checked through security into the tiny waiting area (for want of a better way of describing ‘a room’), and then onto the plane right away, only to then find we needed a nose tyre changing We didn’t have the luxury of getting off the plane though, so had sit for an hour and a half without any air con going. Mia probably had the best of it as the flight attendants told me they’d left the cargo doors open so she was nice + cool!

Anyways, they came round and gave us all free water whilst we were waiting, then after we got in the air and started their in-flight service they announced they’d provide a free alcoholic beverage (usually about $5) to any passenger that wanted one as an offering for the delay. Well, having not had a beer in a year, and someone offering me one for free (is there anything sweeter than something you get for nothing?!), how could I say no:

Very nice, and everyone was in pretty good moods anyway despite the delays! Alaska Air really are the nicest airline I’ve come across in terms of customer service, and it says a lot they offered free water whilst waiting, then another free beverage in the air. Whether those passengers with connecting flights were quite as taken by it as I was, I don’t know. Getting into Anchorage, luggage + Mia were there pretty much as soon as we got down to the baggage claim, and we walked her through to the rental car pickup with her making even more friends along the way Quite happily now lying down on the floor in the hotel making her way through a chewy treat and thinking life’s just great!

So, despite the very long day to only get a little over 400 miles, glad we’re here. Get to see mam + dad tomorrow, got a free beer, and have Domino’s on the way Always got added to the rental car agreement without charge for under-age driver as Kat went down as primary and spouses go for nowt. Good day for free stuff I guess. It’s a Chrysler PT Cruiser, a very smart car to drive, and hopefully all our luggage will get in when we head down to Kenai and up to Denali!

Kat + I are starting to get ready to head to Anchorage in the morning. Mam + dad are already in Manchester, spending the night there ready to fly out to Vancouver tomorrow, then up to Anchorage on Tuesday. The weather decided to head back to rain today, though the bush flights are still wandering in + out so we should be okay tomorrow. Mia knows something is up as bags are being moved around and things getting packed up - hopefully she won’t be stuck in her kennel too much hanging around at airports.

Getting excited to see my parents again, and we should have a great trip regardless of the weather. It’s the kind of trip I wanted to do 4-5 years ago when I first thought of heading to Alaska for a holiday, so can’t wait to get out on the railroad, Kenai glacier cruise, and bus ride through Denali Should have internet whilst we’re away, so will try to get some photos posted along the way too.

Got all the travel + hotel vouchers in the mail today for our vacation at the end of July. Pretty cool. Now on the hunt for a new digital camera after mine went belly up back in March. Also got some more food through from Span Alaska (ordered 2 1/2 weeks ago, and maybe half of it has arrived…) - some genius decided that even though I’d ordered the large plastic containers of Prego pasta sauce, they’d ship a dozen smaller glass jars (think glass jars bouncing from Seattle to way the hell out here on dubious bush planes at the best of times…) and then to make sure they caused as much damage as possible, would stick 4 huge 8lb 10oz bottles (plastic this time at least) of salsa sauce on top. Thankfully only one of the glass jars broke, but makes you wonder why they can charge an extra $160 for priority shipping on frozen food that still hasn’t arrived when shipping is meant to be included in the price of their food to begin with, and then 3% extra for shipping insurance when they then balls up packaging food and know fine well it’s not worth the customer (dis)service hell of trying to claim on what does get damaged.

Another of my “if I had a bunch of money I’d start a competing business as they’re clearly realising they have a monopoly so their customers have no alternative but put up with it” moments

The end of last week a couple of barges came in bringing some freight for various projects around the village, along with filling up the main fuel tanks at the gas station. I’d managed to avoid going that way after whispers of it hitting $8/gallon before the barge came in, but Mia + I took a walk along there today and found it had risen from $5/gallon to $6.65/gallon. Not quite $8, but still a big jump Over a 10 gallon tank, that’s an extra $16.50 compared to last winter, or 3 gallons worth of fuel, which isn’t too nice when a snowmobile struggles to get 15mpg anyway. Maybe folk won’t ride round the village 20 times a day to the store or post office when it hits their wallet like they usually do. Still better than back in England anyway!

There doesn’t seem to be as many people going away to fish camp this year compared to the last couple of years, rather they just are going to head out a few days in the main salmon run later this month, then again around the end of July. Not sure whether that’s down to gas prices, or if the locals think it’s just not worth the effort of spending weeks away from the village at camp when they can head out in force for a few days and put all their energy into hauling in fish during the main run.

Cris got a house sorted yesterday in Fallon, an hour or so east of Carson City, so they were unloading their U-Haul and moving in today. Sure she’s pretty happy to finally be there and into her new home! Job hunting will be next, and Kat heads back on Monday, coming straight through Anchorage into the village on Tuesday morning rather than spending however many hundreds of dollars on a hotel and rental car when we’ll back in Anchorage at the end of July anyway. Sure Mia will be happy to have her back a few days earlier too

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…

Don’t think my snowmobile is going anywhere in a hurry until November/December time now

Amazing how quickly things warmed up, as once a good amount of standing water started forming on the lakes, the snowmobiles continuing to ride through it just melted more of the snow. The ice isn’t breaking yet, but probably won’t be long. A lot of tundra is poking through, and most people have switched to traveling around on 4-wheelers now. Photo doesn’t quite capture it, but other than the small patch of snow in the middle, the rest is 6-10 inches of water:

Needless to say, Mia ain’t too happy as when she does try plowing through the remaining snow she sinks even more than normal! Isn’t convinced about the big puddles of water on the boardwalks either, just isn’t sure what to make of it since it’s been so long since she’s got her feet wet I was out clearing the boardwalk around the house of snow + ice yesterday and everyone was walking around in t-shirts - probably wasn’t even touching 45F, but after -45F windchills through winter, the first bit of sunshine and warm weather sends every giddy!

But, my parents have decided to come up to Anchorage during the summer They were thinking of meeting us somewhere in California like last year, but figured since we’ll be moving there next summer, why not meet up in Anchorage whilst they have the chance to get to Alaska. Kat + I were wanting to do stuff around there anyways such as the train ride down to Seward and a glacier cruise or the bus ride through Denali National Park, so is the perfect excuse for us to go and do it! They’re going to start working out some dates and flights up to here, whilst Kat + I figure out where to go. Part of the experience of a holiday in Alaska is the travel up here, so hopefully Nikki can work some magic on comfortable flights with a night or two layover along the way. I wouldn’t try 26 hours straight through from England again, and certainly didn’t recommend it to my parents!

Least it gives us all something really cool to look forward to around the end of July, just hope the weather is good. We were pretty lucky last year when we were around Anchorage apart from the Portage glacier cruise, and it made such a difference to when you’re rained in and you can’t really see the mountains. Mia gets a holiday too - she enjoyed the dog hotel last year just after we got her from the shelter, so hopefully she won’t kick up too much of a fuss this time!