North To Alaska

I did a bad job of linking the photo albums… So i’ll try and do better here…

This is the link to the albums – includes some family shots and such, the first trip, etc…

http://www.the1buba.com/photo/

Now, I don’t have any pics for day one of this trip yet (will get some from my mom later) but they are here (just click on the day you want to see):

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5 will be up tonight or tomorrow.

Well, after 3400 plus miles, 5 days, 4 nights, and approximately 60 hours in the saddle we have made it home.

We got here about 7:15 and after saying hi to the landlady, started unloading. We have the beds set up, the truck is empty and the trailer is about 1/4 empty. The rest will be unloaded first thing in the morning. First thing after sleeping in and then taking time to enjoy my first cup of coffee in Santa’s town.

The drive was good today. The roads were the worst that we have seen due to the harsh winters and short summers for repairs. In the line of animals, we saw a dead bear on the side of the road early this morning – i’m guessing about 400 lbs. He left a mark in someone’s grill work. We also saw a couple of bull moose, a fox, and a bald eagle. The only thing we got a picture of (that I remember) was the eagle. Pictures (and links) will be posted tomorrow sometime if everything goes as planned.

One of the highlights of the day was hearing the US Customs agent tell us “Welcome to Alaska.”

Plan for tomorrow is to unload the rest of the trailer, go wash it and return it. Then a little sight seeing for Denise and Anthony. Then over to pic up my car, and possibly say hi to the great folks that allowed me to stay in their office for almost 2 months. (I felt a little like Steve Martin in “the jerk” – I kept looking for the new phone book.) Then we will be getting groceries and heading back to the place. The goal is for church on Sunday morning and then going comatose in the afternoon.

Well, I’m beat, and I’m probably forgetting something, so stay tuned over the next couple of days while Denise and Anthony add their .02 worth – you’ll probably get the whole picture that way.

Thanks for all the prayers, well wishes, emails, texts, and phone calls. To our family and friends – we love you and miss you very much.

Santa. New adress is North Pole.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Reindeer meat.

nothing official, but the phones were going crazy today…

First, IT called my bosses boss and wanted a reference. He gave me a great one.

Then the big boss came in and talked to me about applying for a emergency management spot that would report to him… Told him I didn’t’ think I was qualified… He said think about it anyway, so I applied for that today. I hadn’t talked to him except in passing before… today he was VERY friendly and said anything I want him to do, like go talk to IT, he would do it for me. I was thinking of taking him up on it, but now I’m going to talk to him tomorrow about this management job – it would be cool and would pay quite a bit better.

Then I got a call when I got home about another job I applied for… They had one opening, now they have two, and I’m in the top three for those two spots.

So, that’s the update for today.

Been gone 6 weeks and 3 days. Last couple of weeks weren’t the easiest. Last week was gout. This week got sick and stayed home from work on Wednesday. Spent the day sleeping. Weekends suck – they move like molasses in winter.

Weather has been a few days of rain followed by a couple of beautiful days, repeat. It’s been great to get the smoke out of the air and contain the fires. Mornings have been brisk, a few have been in the upper 20s.

Have apps in for 5 jobs at the hospital, four are currently being reviewed, one hasn’t been looked at yet. Three are IT spots, but the Desktop Support spot would probably be the best of them. Hoping for an interview next week, but things move SLOW here. They didn’t start reviewing the apps on the Desktop spot for 17+ days.

That’s about it for now.

Moose season starts 9/1, but Caribou is running. Some hunts have already been shut down due to the limit being met in that particular area. This guy got his, I count 4 or 5 racks in the back of the truck.

One interesting thing here has been the feel of the weather. I’ve been out in the light rain when it was in the 50s and it didn’t bother me at all. But tonight is different. The temperature has settled down to around 50 and I’m freezing! Looks like I won’t be alone the weather forcast is for freezing temps in the “low-lying rural areas”, thats us.

The story here is that no matter when they schedule the fair, it will rain. So, the fair started last Friday, and so did the rain. It’s been on/off, mostly off, but it sure helped clear out all the smoke. Since the fair HAS started, I’m going to try and go some new friends and thier family. Six kids from 6 months to 11 years should be fun to watch. Even if they are good kids.

Had the oppurtunity to visit with some folks that know the hunting and fishing up here. We’ll alk hunting in this post. Moose are the big ticket item. As a non-resident (for the next year), the costs for a moose hunt look like this:

Hunting License: $85
Moose Tag: $400
Guide: ~ $500-1000

Still not bad considering a moose will leave you with > 400# of REAL good meat.

However, next year, as a resident, my costs will be :
Hunting License: $25 (Hunting & fishing $48, Hunting, Fishing & Trapping $62)
No tag required. However, a browne bear/grizzly tag is $25.
No guide required…

So the prices will be a WHOLE lot better next year and it gives me time to find a good hunting partner to take Anthony and me along…

A couple of pics…

Hauling a canoe to a moose camp:

Moose:

The fires are bad up here. I understand that you don’t see much on the news about it… So far, ~500 fires have burnt ~2.5 million acres. Canada is complaining because they have had < 200k acres burn. I’m assuming it’s the French Canadians that are complaining.

Rain season has started (if I understand correctly). Rained all night and all day, though not hard. Definitely helped clean the air a bit, but the smoke is still thick. They actually closed all flights in/out of Fairbanks Int Airport today.

Work is good. A bit too easy, but good.

Will start looking for a place to live this weekend…

That’s all for now.

The air has been pretty bad around here for the last couple of weeks due to a lot of forest fires. This past week they even shut down little league and other things due to the poor quality of air. The following is the latest…

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

I thought it was getting dark a little earlier, but wasn’t sure… You can see by the chart below we are loosing 6 minutes and 57 seconds of daylight each day. When I first got here sunset was around 12:30 and sunrise was around 3:30, but it never got dark. Now I’m starting to see a LITTLE darkness!

Rising and setting times for the Sun
Length of day Solar noon
Date Sunrise Sunset This day Difference Time Altitude Distance
(106 km)
Aug 2, 2009 4:55 AM 10:56 PM 18h 01m 02s − 6m 57s 1:57 PM 42.7° 151.792
Aug 3, 2009 4:59 AM 10:53 PM 17h 54m 05s − 6m 57s 1:57 PM 42.5° 151.771
Aug 4, 2009 5:02 AM 10:49 PM 17h 47m 07s − 6m 57s 1:57 PM 42.2° 151.750
Aug 5, 2009 5:05 AM 10:46 PM 17h 40m 10s − 6m 57s 1:57 PM 41.9° 151.728
Aug 6, 2009 5:09 AM 10:42 PM 17h 33m 13s − 6m 57s 1:57 PM 41.6° 151.706
Aug 7, 2009 5:12 AM 10:38 PM 17h 26m 16s − 6m 56s 1:57 PM 41.4° 151.684
Aug 8, 2009 5:16 AM 10:35 PM 17h 19m 20s − 6m 56s 1:56 PM 41.1° 151.661

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