ALASKA!
1995-1998
Winters weren't that bad. Sometimes even rather mild. The coldest we saw was -40. But it can get that cold in "the lower 48" too. The Eagle River/Anchorage area is in a valley and it keeps the REALLY cold weather from hassling us.
We stayed warm. Had some major car troubles over the winter but they got fixed. We had a moose in our back yard one time. I was coming out the front door in the morning and my neighbor shouted, "Look out for the moose."
Looked around the back and there were two moose just standing out there. Strange place.
Summer's were nice. We got out quite a lot. We went up to Fairbanks. Went to Denali National Park. (It's Mt. McKinley. The indian name is "Denali" and most people up here I notice call it Denali.) VERY cool. BIG park. (Yellowstone's nicer.) But Denali is real good. We saw a grizzly bear, an extremely large bull moose, and lot's of eagles. Sub-arctic, tundra. And we were in a bus. They don't let you drive your car in. You can hike in. You can ride a bicycle in. No cars though.
So...Hmmm....What's going on with us. Well, the kids are growing like weeds. Sunday will be six this June. Sunday's five now but we didn't start her in Kindergarten. It's like this; she's a summer born baby, so she just turned five whereas all the other kids have been five for a while. The other kids will be turning six throughout the year but she'll never catch up to them in age. Now, It had been my opinion that that would just mean she'd mature faster. Y'know, hanging around older kids. Make her ahead of her age. But a guy in Fairbanks, (the guy who owns the bed and breakfast we stayed at.), who's been an elementary school teacher for like 20+ years talked me out of it.
Anyway, we're keeping her out for another year. She's going to her preschool three days a week and Becky's trying her hand at home schooling just to see how it works.
Sunday will start kindergarten next year and she'll be a little ahead. She'll be six and the rest of the kids will catch up with her all through the year. And look at the benefits; she'll get her drivers license before anybody else in her class! Sam will be four in September. The kids are getting tired of it being so cold up here all the time. All they can do is hang around inside all day. But, what with it being so cold on everyone up here, they have lots of in-door play grounds. Usually these are big, Chuckee Cheese places. A few of them have these big hamster farm looking things with miles and miles, (no, not literally), of tunnels for the kids to run through. They're fun. The kids like them.
And the sun's coming up earlier. In the dead of winter in Alaska it's almost always dark out. Or, at least, from my point of view it was. I get to work at 7:30. Get off at 4:30. Dark when I get to work and dark when I leave. It's a drag! But, in the summer, it's the exact opposite. It can be 1:00 AM and the sun's out. That's really nice. When we first got up here we had to go out every day and look for a place to live. I remember lying in bed at 11:00 and Becky saying, "Let's go look at this house." It was nearly midnight! She didn't really realize it though because it was broad daylight out there.
It's like that. You stay up really late and don't even notice until you look at your watch. I friend of mine and I took our daughters out hiking last summer at 10:00 PM. We climbed a huge bluff that looked out on a glacier. VERY windy. VERY cold.
We've got lots of glaciers up here. Portage glacier is nearby and they've got a nice visitors center. We always liked hiking before. When we lived in Washington we used to get out hiking almost every weekend. But they've got bears up here. And I'm talking BIG bears Grizzly bears. And they're not afraid of you or your puny ol' gun.
And either way, I don't have a gun. I'm paranoid of the bears. Sam wouldn't even amount to a bite to one of these bears up here. Did I mention that they're huge? They sell pepper spray in all the stores. Apparently the grizzly bears can't stand the stuff. Big ol' can of pepper spray with a trigger and all that. Shoot'em in the face. (Oh, Lordy. I don't want to get close enough to a bear to shoot him in the face with a spray can.) I read in the paper last year about a guy who thought you're supposed to rub it on yourself like mosquito repellent. He didn't get very far. That stuff'll water your eyes up like tear gas and doesn't feel too good on your skin either. Anyway, that was the big laugh in Alaska last year. This guy rubbing pepper spray on his arms and legs
Speaking of mosquitoes. The mosquitoes up there were pretty bad. Everybody keeps talking like they're so big but the mosquitoes are MUCH bigger in the midwest next to the rivers. It's just that there's so many of them! It's like nothing you've ever seen. Billions of them. Just in your back yard. When you have a good breeze out it's not so bad but if it's calm and you're out in the back yard it's very uncomfortable. And it gets worse as you go out into the tundra hiking or fishing. They'll suck your blood dry. Mosquito netting goes fast.
What else is there to do up here?....Oh. Snow mobiling. But nobody calls it "snow mobiling". They call it "snow machining". When we moved into our neighborhood, my new neighbor asked be if I had a snow machine and I thought he meant, like, a snow blower. That's not what he meant and for the longest time I would hear about people loving their snow machines and I thought, "They must really keep their driveways clear."
Anyway. Not long ago. Some friends from church took me out snow machining. They had an extra one and I was all over the mountains for half the day. We stopped at one part and the guy said, "Step off." We were just parked there. Sitting on the snow machines. Looked like solid ground. I stepped off to stand on the snow and sunk up to my hip. We got onto a trail that took us to the top of the mountains that over look Eagle River. Awesome. We were above the clouds and I took some pretty beautiful video footage. We were able to see Mt Mckinely from up there.
For the next two days I was so sore I could hardly walk. Snow machineing uses muscles I didn't know I had. The worse part was going up and down stairs. Painful.
We had one of the nicest days so far today. We took the kids out to the Midnight Sun Park and then there was a "Kids Day" in town so we went to that. Pretty crowded. The kids had a lot of fun though and the weather was really nice.
We've got one year left up here. Next May is the date I have to leave. We're considered overseas up here so they cycle us out. I'm up here on a 3 year tour. Actually, we like it up here. I'd like to stay. But they've already told me there's no way I can stay up here.
There's too many Tech Sergeants.
I think I got myself promoted right out of a job. It's okay. Now that we think about it. We're kinda anxious to leave. It's nice up here all right. But we're so far away from every thing. When we lived in Maine and Washington we always liked jumping in the car and going to a state park on the weekends. We can do that up here but down south there was nothing that could kill and eat you! (Nothing that was so anxious to try anyway.) Another thing is that the scenery gets old after a while. You might think Alaska's full of huge, tall, pine trees. It's not. The "bush" ain't called the "bush" for nothin'. If we got any pine trees they don't grow very tall. Why? Well mostly cause the ground's frozen solid a couple of feet under there. They do have spots where there's trees but certainly nothing like Washington State or Oregon. There's mostly birch trees up here. Billions of them! And bush, bush, bush!
The smell has something missing up here. There's no fresh smell. Like living trees or smells that agriculture makes. It's too cold up here to have farms. (Well, except the Matanusca Valley. But that's not really a very large section of the state.) The mountains are nice. They're very close and I see them right now out my window. But, hey. There's mountains down south. And did I mention that there's nothing that'll try to kill and eat you in the mountains down south? (...don't wanna get killed and eaten...)
So they gave me some paper work to put in for staying but instead I signed it and said, "No I request to leave." So May 24 1998 will be our last day here. I don't know where we're going next. The Air Force has got kind of a strange system now days. You go in and look on the internet where there's openings in your job and you "apply" for that job. If you get the job, you get orders and you show up there. If you don't get the job, they let you know and you go in and apply for another job. (Actually, you make out a list of where you want to put in, first, second, third...) I know of openings in Pheonix. (Luke AFB) I don't know if they'll still be around in May though. I'm sure Dad would like us to be close by. Ogden Utah is another. (Hill AFB) Becky likes that one. And we've heard good things about Ogden.
There's more to it than that. I have sort of a new job. Now that I think back I guess I shouldn't have taken it. It SEVERELY reduced my options of where I can be stationed.
On April 27th 1995, I graduated from the controller school at Tyndall AFB Florida. And I flew back to Tacoma to pack up our stuff and the wife and kids and we headed off for Alaska.
Now, if ever you're going to come to Alaska, (and you never know. You might), I've got one piece of advice, "The Alaska Marine Highway!"
"What's that?" It's the ferry system that goes from Bremerton WA to Alaska. Regrettably though, it does not take you all the way to Anchorage AK. The ferry will take you as far as Haines AK which is the northern most stop in the pan handle of Alaska. (And has a pretty great view.) From there it's a 700 mile drive to Anchorage, through the Yukon and down through the mountains of eastern Alaska.
We searched around for what seemed like forever, for a place to live. Rent up here is so expensive. We found out it was cheaper up here to buy a house than to rent. So we bought a townhouse with a garage and big back yard. We live in a little town called Eagle River about 15 miles from Anchorage. Very nice town. It's the suburbs so everybody likes there lawns and they're militant about their property values. I like it alot out here. I can get on the highway and I'm at work in 20 minutes. Very acceptable.
I bought a second car for $500.00. It looks terrible but it runs great. And half the guys in our church are mechanics so I've never really had any problems. Nothing that lasted very long anyway. Well, both the cars froze for a while last winter. THAT was a problem. But every thing worked out.
Our church is called "The Church In The Wildwood" and back in 1957 when it was founded in a Quonset hut it really was in the woods. Today it's behind Blockbuster Video in down town Eagle River.
A usual Sunday service at CITW involves dancing about in a daze while handling deadly poisonous snakes.
Our church is "small, but quality." There's about thirty of us that go there. Most are between 25 and 35 and have little kids Sunday and Sam's age. And we all know each other and baby-sit for each other and have dinner at each others houses. Small churches are the way to go.
I work on Wednesday nights with AWANA, (which is like a Christian scouts thing. You memorize Bible verses and go to church so many times to get badges and things). I have 3-4 grade boys and Becky has K-1 grade girls.
Sometimes I get to play the guitar. (The music director for the church isn't really a "guitar" kinda guy but I've been working with him and I think he's come far.) He finally confided to me that he's not really used to a guitar and doesn't know how to sing along with one. But he said I could play in church from time to time. And I have.
Also, right now we don't have a pastor. Our last pastor got another offer at a church in Maine so he took it. That was back in Janurary. There was no hard feelings or anything but now we have no pastor. So on Sunday mornings we just sit there for an hour and look at each other. No, really. We've been having the elders take turns each Sunday and do the sermon. It hasn't been that bad. We're still functioning. Still having services. But we've got no pastor and nobody, as of yet, wants to move up here to be our pastor. We are independant so we've got no denomination to go to for a replacement. We have gotten a list of prospects from "Independant, Fundementalist, Churches Of America". ...or some outfit with a name like that...We did have one guy that said he was interested. He was from Michigan. But then he found out that the "AK" on the address meant ALASKA and not ARKANSAS and he changed his mind. So...Here we are.
On April 27th 1995, I graduated from the controller school at Tyndall AFB Florida. I shook the dust off my feet and flew back to Tacoma to pack up our stuff and the wife and kids and off we set for Alaska.
Now, if ever you're going to move to Alaska I've got one peice of advice, "The Alaska Marine Highway!"
"What's that?" You ask.
It's the ferry system that goes from Bremerton WA to Alaska. Regrettably though, it does not take you all the way to Anchorage AK. The ferry will take you as far as Haines AK which is the northern most stop in the pan handle of Alaska. (And has a view that'll stop your heart.) From there it's a 700 mile drive to Anchorage, through the Yukon and down through the mountains of eastern Alaska.
Our Church In Alaska!
Our church is called "The Church In The Wildwood" and back in 1957 when it was founded in a quansit hut it really was in the woods. Today it's behind Blockbuster Video in down town Eagle River.
A usual Sunday service at CITW involves dancing about in a daze while handling deadly poisonous snakes.
Our church is what Bernie used to call, "small, but quality." There's about thirty of us that go there. Most are between 25 and 35 and have little kids Sunday and Sams age. And we all know each other and babysit for each other and have dinner at each others houses. Small churches are the way to go.
I work on Wednesday nights with AWANA. I have 3-4 grade boys and Becky has K-1 grade girls.
Becky and I are doing a "Precept" course at the church. We're doing, "Lord, Is It Soup?" We're doing "James"
(Sorry, I'm in a mood today.)
Sometimes I get to play the guitar. (The music director for the church isn't really a "guitar" kinda guy but I've been working with him and I think he's come far.)