FLIGHT

There are only two ways to get to Dillingham : By water, or by air. Logically, it follows if you want to get out of Dillingham, you must go out the same way. So here are few pictures of what it looks like to get out of Dillingham by air.

This is the Dillingham Airport. No, really.

This is what it looks like to walk out to the plane. Note the baggage loading on the right.

Preparing to taxi.

Breaking through the clouds and fog.

They always want me to sit on the wing. Not good for pictures,
good if you want a big, strong guy to get you out in an emergency situation.

In winter, this is pretty much all you see while going to Anchorage or coming back.

Ted Stevens Airport in Anchorage. A little bit of an upgrade from Dillingham.

Looking out at the mountains in the background from the main terminal of Ted Stevens Airport in Anchorage.

Fur Rondy

So we are in Anchorage so I can attend the ASTE Conference. We didn't know until we got here it was also the Fur Rondy time as well. Fur Rondy is the Fur Rendezvous, which is kinda-sorta like the Muscatine County Fair, Buckskinner's Reunion and Great River Days all wrapped up in one, 10-day party. 

We happened across the start of the Fur Rondy Dog Sled races while coming back to the hotel after lunch. Just like with our dog sled ride, you had best have something big or heavy or a combination of the the two just to stop these champions once you have them in a harness. Until the start, it looks like they anchor down these dogs with a snowmobile they fasten to the sled, which is fastened to the dogs : 

Oh, how they howl, whine, bark and generally create a cacophony to let you know it's time to run. Run! Right freaking now!

Keep in mind that if the dogs want to, they can still MOVE the snowmobile, just not without exerting a great deal of effort. So yeah... basically, you have to drop a boat anchor that would sink an aircraft carrier to keep them from running away.

Winter Greyhounds. I swear that's what they remind me of. They may not be actual Greyhounds, but they have all the grace, and about a billion times the strength, stamina, and motivation of any Greyhound. In short, when it's time for them to run - get the hell out of the way!

Mush!

So this is what it looks like to be in the cargo area of a dog sled : 

Simply put, when the dogs are fresh, frisky and wanting to show off for you there is nothing on this Earth - I mean nothing - that accelerates with as much G-force as that dog sled. It'll snap your neck, man. You go from 0 - 20 in about 0.2 seconds.

We also learned these dogs are unique in mushing world, in they do not fear to blaze their own trail. According to our musher, the dogs that run the Iditarod WILL NOT leave the trail. You cannot force them off it. These dogs, on the other hand, are more than ready, willing and able to leave the beaten path and merrily drag you across God's creation on command.

There is nothing they love more than being commanded to do exactly that.

Lacking any other practical means, one literally has to throw the anchor overboard to bring these eager canines to a permanent halt. When they want to run, they want to run and brook little interference from you on the subject. While their stamina may be long, their patience is short in equal measure. They will accept brief respites to rest, but their collective minds are of but one thought : run.

When choosing which 10 will be the lucky few to go running, every dog puts on his or her best show and pleads to be let loose. Pick me! I can run! Let me show you how I can run, Master! I will run like the wind today, and twice as fast tomorrow! Oh, the cacophony.

Once harnessed, you discover the enthusiasm was not a charade. If the musher does not set anchor he will soon be short one sled, and one team. Muscles tense. Sinews tighten. Anticipation builds until... until... RAPTURE! Master wants us to run!

10 hearts... 10 minds... but one thought... RUN!

First Blizzard

So a real, true blizzard hit us on Monday. This is Friday evening and we are still digging out. Here's a few examples :

It's the first time I have seen a "no parking because of falling snow" sign, but as you can see from the snow almost reaching the sign, they aren't kidding. When it falls, it's not going to be a light dusting. It could be up to a ton of snow falling at once. There's no way to predict how much will fall.

Remember earlier when I said I had never seen it rain for days on end until I hit here? Well, it doesn't rain a whole lot at a time, but it rains and rains and rains in a gentle fashion. Truly, it's like a soft, drenching fog. Well, add in freezing temperatures, and 50-80 MPH winds, and suddenly it's like walking in a snow tornado.

There isn't a lot of snow falling in any one hour, but when you talk about a week's worth of hours you are suddenly talking about metric crap-tons of snow. See that third picture down? That's a shot from our apartment windowand the snow nearly makes it to the bottom of the window... which is about six feet off the ground. That's a lot of snow.

Let us know if you would like to have some, and we will see if we can ship it down your way.

RUN FOR YOUR LIVES !

Here is what certain members of my family (who shall remain nameless for the time being) think our bathroom looks like : 

And here is the reality : 

Of course, these could possibly be the same people who thought we were caught up in the BIG EARTHQUAKE that was, in reality, hundreds of miles away. At one in the morning (our time). While we were asleep. That caused a SIX INCH tsunami over in Kenai.

So if you want to know if we actually got hit, use the Alaska Earthquake Information Center. But keep this in mind : 

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming, already in progress ... 

Calling It

No, there are no pictures of the dog-sled ride posted yet. No, we can't post any.

The great ride through the tundra was called on account of... rain. It was almost 40 degrees for a high temperature here in Dillingham today. I see that presently the temp is 10 degrees in Muscatine.

Not that I would rub it in or anything. Nope. Uh uh. Not me. No sirree, Bob! Negatory. Nein.

So the great ride has tentatively been rescheduled to Monday. That is :

IF the temperature takes a nose-dive, and

IF we get more snow, and

IF the rain stops melting the snow we have.

Now I know how disappointing it must be to play for the Chicago Cubs. ;-)

Kicking and Streaming

So...

My mission for the coming New Year is to drag the Queen kicking and streaming (no, that's not misspelled, it's called a P-U-N ;-) into the 21st Century. To that end, and many thanks to certain elves in Muscatine, I gifted the Queen one of these :

That, gentle reader, is a 21st Century miracle. Not only does it play good, ol' fashioned Vinyl discs, it plays CDs to boot! Replete with AM/FM radio and an input jack for playing your Apple iPod, it's a regular sonic Tour de Force. Did any of that impress the Queen? Not a chance. What did jingle her bells? Well, if you gander down the right side of the case, right next to the remote control, you will see a slot. A slot that plays something from the ancient past we used to call "cassette tapes".

Bingo! The Queen approved. Here I was throwing the Queen a lifeline to the 20th century (insert chorus from Handel's Messiah here)! Saints be praised!

(insert sound of record needle being dragged across the record here - if you are under 40, go ask your parents what that sounded like)

I know, gentle reader. You are sitting there having a conniption that all of that is 20th Century technology. Yes, you are right. But now is where I spring the trap, oh impatient one.

See, on the front are two slots that aren't 20th Century-mindset kosher. One belongs to a memory card, the other is a USB slot. What are they for, pray thee tell? Well, they are for taking the analog and converting to digital.

SNAP!

Trap sprung.

I have now removed all barriers stopping the Queen moving forward into the 21st Century. She can now convert ALL - and I mean ALL - her big, bulky ANALOG cassette tapes (ha!) to teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy DIGITAL ones and zeroes and cram them all in the Queen's iPod Nano. Now she is forced to relate to 21st Century technology, and we can reclaim a dump truck load a lot of space.

Sometimes the Lord takes pity on fools and technical geniuses named Buster. ;-)