It’s around -20°F outside today so I decided to stay in. Lately, that has been our overnight low. Now it’s become our daytime high. Brrrr. But the time at the computer today helped get some things done.

Let’s backtrack a bit to August when Jackie was here. One of the trips we took was on the paddle wheel boat. It’s a two hour cruise down and back up the river. First you see a bunch of fancy houses alongside the river, then there was a float plane that landed right next to the boat and later took off for us. Then we stopped at Susan Butchers ranch, where her husband gave us a demonstration of how strong the sled dogs were by hooking them up to a 4-wheeler weighing around 600 lbs and having them run a circuit. They were traveling around 20 MPH pulling that weight, without a problem. A little further down the river and a plane with huge tires for landing on soft ground took off & landed on a sand bar. After we turned around and started heading back up the river the boat stopped at a Athabaskan native village reproduction typical of the way river villages were built at the turn of the 20th century. We disembarked and went to demonstrations of native sewing, boat building, lodge construction, dog training, etc. scattered around the grounds. After all that we re-boarded the boat and opposite from where the boat was moored, there was a fish filleting demonstration by an native women before we left. Interesting because of her skill at slicing and dicing that fish to get it ready for the drying racks in under a minute.

The paddle wheel

The Chena River right there at the docks before we left on the cruise...

The crowd waits to board...

Off we go, standing at the bow.

Sister boat. We have now turned around and are heading downstream.

Just cruisin'

A float plane takes off for us.

Then lands. All the while chattering to us via a radio link and amplifier system.

And then another take off.

One of the nice homes along the river.

This is where the boat turns around and heads back upstream.

But first, a tundra plane takes off from a sand bar nearby.

Then it lands and bounces all over for a while.

Then we head back up river and stop, then disembark at the village.

We sit while the native girls explain what furs are used for what garment.

Here's a bark house. This style was only used in the summer villages.

Typical hand made boat of the area.

There was a herd of caribou at the site, this guy was relaxing.

Another example of building styles. Caribou skin tepee.

They had a small garden with giant vegetables.

Trading post.

A typical food cache with some furs hanging from it.

One of the native girls giving us a talk about the fur preparation.

Then we head back to Fairbanks.

The paddle whirling away.

After we get back home.

Now, I know this isn’t a very good picture of Jackie, but on that whole paddle wheel trip, there was so much to see and do that I just did not get around to taking any pictures of her. This is the only one I got.

It’s 10°F outside…so it’s time to show you some pictures of our summer here in Fairbanks.  Every summer there is a raft race down the Chena river through downtown or that starts downtown. Around July 20th. The rules as I remember them were that the rafts had to or were suppose to have a conservation theme.  Since where I live (at the RV park) is so close to the river, I wandered down to the foot bridge and got some pictures of the rafters as they passed under the bridge. Many people naturally threw fruit at the passing rafts trying to splash the rafters. Some of the rafters carried those giant water cannons kids have these days and tried to wet those that threw fruit or those of us on the bridge taking pictures. I spent a couple hours there watching all the creative craft come floating by. I’m not sure any of the rafters really cared whether they won or not because they all seem to be having so much fun and unconcerned about their speed.

The first raft at the bridge...

Note that the weather wasn’t all that great that day even though it was the middle of July. I was wearing a coat as were most of the participants on the rafts. Can’t blame them for that or for some of the wet suits I saw at all since the water never really warms up here in Fairbanks.

Mary & Larry enjoying the race...

Mary works at the campground helping us keep the place clean, Larry has a Phd in education I believe and was working up at UAF.

Group rafting...

Some are not that exciting...

Not exactly the theme but a good effort anyway...

This guy was chugging along on his road bike adapted for the river...

Working hard...

More rafts, note the squirting water...

It does float, just not very fast...

Giving us a squirt...

Rocking Raft Stars...

Great fun. Just wish the weather had been warmer.

It was an exciting night…hanging out in the Big I watching the election returns in what turned out to be the most exciting election in the last 45 years. I confess that I teared up as the projection that Obama would win the presidency flashed up on the screen just after the clock counted down the close of the west coast polls. The electoral count was 333 to 145 or so after California, Washington and Oregon counts were shown. A small cheer arose from the crowd (mostly just me) as it became clear Obama was our new president elect. A couple hours later the count from Alaska came in with McCain cornering 62% of the vote here. Which explains why the people in the bar weren’t all that excited about Obama’s win.

Annie wanted to go over to the Westmark Hotel to continue the non-partisan celebration that was happening there. I was happy to go with her, Ted, and Wally because she is one of the few other liberals that hangs out at the bar. The hotel provided food and a large screen TV. Occasionally, there would be a cheer about some local or state race so I’d wander over to the group standing in front of the big screen and find out what the excitement was about.

Annie gets some vegis in the food line...

Enjoying the food and fun...

One of the few times I could actually see the big screen.

I agree with that...

Not many of these around in this red state.

Wally making a point...

One of the young Obama fans...

Ted making a point...

Annie getting ready to walk home...or getting ready to mug Wally, not sure.

Everyone enjoying themselves...

Now that a couple days have passed since the election, the amazing response from around the world is making news as people from all walks realize what this election means. We have now garnered bucket loads of good will around the world. Especially since the Obama victory was nearly a landslide in individual votes and was a landslide in electoral college voting. The widely hated Bush Doctrine will soon be a thing of the past, thrown on the scrap heap of incredibly bad ideas.

In other news, I spent a couple three hours on Monday past at the base getting my yearly physical. Nothing looks to bad, minor problem here and there but not much to worry about. I really need to start exercising but it’s difficult here with snow on the ground and not being able to shower regularly. Oh, I didn’t tell you about that did I. See, I don’t have city water, and the well the owner tried to put in last year came up empty and she didn’t try this year. Which means I could have water delivered by a water truck ($60 for 600 gallons, I have a 233 gallon tank) but in order to save money and to get the exercise I do from lugging around 40 lb jugs of water, I opt to carry the water myself in 20 liter jugs. Which means I don’t have a full tank most of the time. Then the pipes from the bathroom to the septic tank don’t have much drop so things get caught and then freeze so I get a back up from time to time. It all conspires to make the bathroom a ’situation’ that I have to deal with far to often and makes me have to take my showers at the campground. It is a hassle but better then having an outhouse…which is what a lot of people here in Fairbanks have to deal with. One of my friends, a bartender at the Big I, also lives in a cabin but she has to deal with going out at -20°F to use her outhouse. No fun.

Anyway, I’m pretty healthy overall but need a serious way to fight my weight right now in order to get my blood pressure down since it’s creeped up a little since I got up here to Fairbanks. That could be the result of the excessive air pollution (lots of wood burning stoves, heaters, & furnaces up here), my lack of exercise, and my diet not having enough vegi’s like I’d like. Much easier in Mexico to get fresh vegi’s. And whenever you go out to eat, the resturants there always bring you a vegi tray before your meal. So I’m thinking of getting some exercise equipment…now if I could only find something free up at the transfer station.

I’m all moved back into the cabin, same one I lived in last winter. The people that had been here this passed summer never paid the rent and did some minor damage but everything is pretty much back in order now. I had to replace all the plastic inside storm windows they ripped out but I am nearly done with that. I now have quadruple paned windows (counting the plastic as panes) throughout the cabin. The jerks also broke a glass window. It was a two paned panel around 3′ by 4′ so it cost the owner $190 for a custom replacement but I’m not all that sympathetic about it since I told the owner repeatedly not to rent to the guy (and his girl friend-they have drug issues).

There is snow on the ground, the temps are running around 10°F every day and in the -15°F range at night. I was able to get a good seal around the front door with a new sill sweep and some caulking so it’s cold and wind resistant now. Hopefully, this will all do a good job of saving heating oil for me. I just found out a couple days ago that last winter I only used a portion of the 200 gallon tank. Moved in mid-Sept. ‘07 and moved out in mid-May ‘08. I think there was still around a quarter tank when I moved. I wasn’t sure until I called the oil company and found that I hadn’t been on the ‘keep filled’ program, and the owner told me that she had not grabbed a fuel bill off the door or anything. There was one time last winter that I’d checked the oil level and the next time I checked it, about a month later, seemed like there was more in the tank. So I thought I was on a keep filled schedule. Must have fooled myself. The owners are paying for the oil so I’m trying to keep my usage down as a courtesy. I’m very pleased that my conservation efforts last year resulted in using just 120 gallons or so. Should be even more efficient this year since I did a better job sealing up the place earlier in the season. Last year I reacted to the cold, this year I anticipated.

The campground is closed now and I’d hoped that I’d get a renter this year like last year but it didn’t happen this time. So my expenses will be a little higher, unless I can find a new renter. There’s some extra room here around the cabin so last year I rented out a space to a guy I knew from the campground. All he needed was electric to keep warm and he bundled up. Stayed here all winter in a little Airstream type trailer. I earned around $80 per month from him over the electric expenses so I liked the deal. Best of all he hardly bothered me. Kept to himself, seldom knocked on my door and never asked to use the bathroom. I think he use to go over to the nearby bar and use their facilities. Oh, well, he is gone now and no one to replace him as a renter, so far. Perhaps I’ll put an ad in the paper.

Well, back to Jackie’s visit in August. We went out to Chena Hot Springs…around 60 miles East of Fairbanks. The paved road ends right at the springs. It’s fairly built up now after a hundred years of tourists trekking out there, first by horse and on foot, then by horse drawn wagon, then by car and bus, now by car, bus and aircraft. We didn’t see any moose on the trip up there or on the way back. The road goes through marsh country, just the place for moose but I guess they were wandering farther afield when we came by.

Jackie at Hot Springs, getting a wiff of the sulfur.

Here's what she's looking at...

After wandering around for a half hour, we found that the Ice Museum tour was just getting started so we bought our tickets, including an appletini drink, and entered the museum. Thankfully, they provided heavy coats so we weren’t to cold during the tour…

The ice chess set...

Random Ice...

A prize winner from the International Ice Carving competition...

She's kinda cool...

Another shot of the knights...

The bar...

Our bartender...

An ice xmas tree...

Here's one of the rental rooms. They have rented them out in the past but no one has been able to spend the entire night...

The toilet, never used of course...

Another bedroom...

And another...

This is inside a little igloo inside the museum...

Another shot of my best gal...

After our tour of the Ice Museum (I have no idea why they call it a museum, looks like a display to me…) we wandered over to the resturant and had a snack.

The bar...

A shot of the airport used in the dead of winter...

After we got back to Fairbanks, I took Jackie to the local bird watching spot. This area is now protected so the birds can rest and recouperate in peace before their long trip south.

Lots of birds resting on the way south.

More birds!

Well, this is enough for today, I’ll put up more when I get more time. B-t-w, thanks to my readers for hanging in there and coming back repeatedly to visit my not-to-often-updated blog. It’s especially difficult right now as I’m having trouble getting my webmistress to find some time to fix all the 600 broken links I’ve got after she upgraded my site. Soon I hope! Hang in there!

The first morning Jackie was here, we wandered over to Pioneer Park, which is around 600 yards from the campground, walking distance.

Lots of flowers in Fairbanks...

The grounded paddle wheel boat...

The paddle wheel is pretty cool, they built the canal, flooded it, floated the boat here, blocked the canal, and drained it. The boat worked out of Fairbanks for nearly a hundred years, most of those years owned by the federal government…because the government didn’t care that they lost, or made very little money for most of those years. The yearly balance sheets are in the boats museum on board.

Diarama's in the boat...

Later we toured one of the old cabins, this one is unique in that it had a second floor. This is the upstairs bedroom.

Jackie walking past old Fairbanks...

The Indian museum and totem pole...

Then the train came by, this is the original train that carted gold bullion around...More train...

Then we visited the aircraft museum. As you might imagine, all these planes have an Alaskan heritage...

A helicopter from the Viet Nam era...

A famous plane of some kind...

And another...

And another...they're kind of cool when you can read their history.

Continuing on, the next morning Jackie and I went out to Chena Hot Springs. If you don’t remember the last visit I made with my brother last year, it’s a natural hot spring that was discovered in 1908 by a couple of Swedish miners looking for gold. The US survey team had spotted steam coming from the area a few years before and noted it in their writings. The brothers actually found it and developed it for tourists. Go here to see what I mean: http://www.chenahotsprings.com.

We wandered around for a hour and then signed up for the ‘Ice Museum’ tour with Appletini’s, a yummy girly drink in a martini glass made of ice, while sitting at the ice bar, gazing at the ice fireplace and ice chandlier. I’ll show you some pictures soon.

The big day arrived and my friend Jackie flew into town, arriving at 1:30 AM. I get to the airport at 1:40 AM to pick her up and she’s a little loopy. She’s afraid of flying so you can’t blame her. She had a great story of how the stewards had tried to cut her off or get her to stop having fun and be quiet but she blew them off.

So we head off to one of my regular bars and have a couple. Ran into John, the Postdoctoral Fellow of the Geophysical Institute and Arctic Region Supercomputing Center at University of Alaka at Fairbanks, and had a nice talk with him. He’s the guy that when I first met him, I got all excited to talk to him about high energy physics and he mistook that as a gay come on. Damn, it’s gotten so bad in this country that you can’t even be interested in science without being accused of some sinister motive. Thanks to the religious right (cults, all of them).

Jackie was soundly drunk by this time and it was funny listening to her try to talk intelligently about anything. Cute & silly. Anyway, we spend an hour there, dodged around a fight going on in the bar, then head back to my RV while I assure her that she had all her luggage…twice.

She took over my bedroom and I got the sofa. Both beds are comfortable so neither of us complained. Next morning, I take her over to my office and show her around. Then we hike over to Pioneer Park and spend a couple hours going to museums and shops.

Some of the 10's of thousands of dollars worth of gold objects at the museum.

Amazing baskets.

A photo of a giant photo of a Hubble Space Telescope photo. The pinwheel galaxy.

Another Hubble photo...The Horsehead Nebula.

Some native carved artwork.

One of the several diaramas.

Interesting sculpture.

That’s our visit to the big ass museum here in Fairbanks. More later.

I went down to the Big I last night and sat at the bar in back with the new, cute, blond, nice rack, bartender. She doesn’t mind talking to me so we spent a couple-three hours getting to know each other. No band last night & no big games on so it was relatively quiet.  Around 1:30AM or so a couple wanders in and sits down close to me, I glance at the guy, get that feeling that comes over me less often then it use to and blurt out, “You look like a football coach to me”. He asks my why I think that, I explain my feelings about it, he laughs and tells me he’s Knute Rockne’s great grandson.  Nailed it. And WOW, interesting guy.

Knute Rockne's Great Grandson...

Anyway we talk about college football awhile, and he shows me his ID, and yes, his name is also Knute Rockne. Meanwhile I explain to the kids near by who Rockne was. His friend had wandered away and I asked how well he did with the ladies with that famous name? He tells me that he’s only slept with 4 women (volunteered the info, I didn’t ask directly) even with the name. Well, we have a good time talking and eventually he asks how I could have possibly guessed his background and I tell him I’m just naturally perceptive. He tells me his friend, who has returned, is too and she proceeds to guess what my sign is. She misses it repeatedly even though I’m helping her narrow it down. A tad bit drunk she was and perceptive she isn’t. Anyway, a few minutes later and she’s pissed at me for no other reason then I showed her up as NOT being perceptive. She moves over right next to me and starts trying to berate me while inventing something to be mad at me for. I quickly talk circles around her and her bogus arguments and with a touch here and a kiss there soon she’s melted a little and I’m holding her hand and she’s kissing me and I see Knute laughing at us and our sillyness. I gave her a last kiss or two and she finally gives up hating me and moves back to Knute. She’s very pretty and he’s a lucky man to have her as a friend except she’s a little wacko, in a fun way. I ran into him again a couple nights ago and he tells me she isn’t his wife like I thought but a friend.

Hmm, just getting interesting.

The weather was kinda coolish with threatened rain, but I sucked it up and headed up to the fairgrounds here in Fairbanks to visit the local farm fair. As I walked up to the ticket booth, I decided to swallow my pride and ask about senior discount. I’m not 65 yet so I didn’t know what the fair staff considered senior. To my surprise the ticket taker just waved me in. I didn’t quite hear him so asked him, ‘how much?’, and he said ‘Nothing’. Not wanting to argue, I got my hand stamp and headed into the fair. So instead of the $8 usually charged seniors, or $12 for youngsters like me, it was free.

First thing I noticed inside was a rock & roll concert by some band who’s name you would recognize but I can’t remember now. Since they sucked, I didn’t hang around there. Then I passed a HUGE sling shot ride. I’ve been on smaller slingers but this one looked like it would shot you 60-70 feet into the air, if not further. Guess the technology is getting better and better.

The bungee throw...or a People Sling.

Walking around the fair...

Hey, there's some fun over there!

Some prize winning artwork.

Ink and oil...

A couple winners...

A few more winners. Now that I think about it, seems everyone was a winner. Nah, not really.

A spectacular hand drawn eagle, pen & ink...

Another winner! What are the odds?

Pen & ink...

A cool one-person helicopter for sale there at the fair...

Just people...

Now there's a ride. Just what I want to do...twirl around in a big contraption until I puke!

Frying Bob's

Then I wandered into the stinky barns and visited with the prize chickens and geese and cows and pigs and all. These folks left the doors closed too long so the barns were nice and warm, but stinky’er then I’d like. Anyway, a good time was had by me, and after a not-so-good raindeer burger for dinner and some shopping, I headed home. Just a note, I was looking for something for Jackie, my friend that was coming up in a week to visit and I wandered into a tent where the owners were both artists and live 15 miles north of the Arctic circle. I thought that was cool so looked at some of her bead work. I settled on a beaded wolf barrette. The price was $60 and I thought that was high, but she said it took her 10 hours to make so I didn’t object to much. And she threw in a pair of hand made earrings free. Later on, I found much nicer beadwork on the paddle wheel trip Jackie and I took which only cost $28 so yes, I got ripped. Damn. But it’s the thought that counts I suppose.

Aug. 4, 2008

Sorry, folks, I haven’t written allot lately. No excuses. Didn’t feel like it.

The weather the last month has been kinda cool and cloudy. I’ve been able to wear my shorts maybe 5 times since early July. Now it’s August 4th and I’ve been wearing a long sleeve shirt everyday for two weeks. We have had so much rain that in the last week the rivers finally over topped their banks a little and we’ve had flooding of just a few inches shy of the famous 1967 flood. But the lessons of that time caused the city to protect itself so the damage is minor compared to ‘67.

During this quiet time, I did do some stuff. Mostly though, I just came to work each day and then went home to watch TV every evening. So much so that my favorite bar changed a bunch while I was gone so only a few people who’s company I enjoyed were still there when I started going back.

Jen the barmaid came back in May but I didn’t see her working back at the Big I until late July, that’s how seldom I was going in there. I was surprised to see her again and we had fun catching up. She had been gone from early last winter and when she left, she told me that she was going to work in Juneau as a page or something at the Alaskan house of reps. Anyway, she also visited Argentina and several other places. She traveled alone for months and I have lots of admiration for her taking that trip. Something I would do for sure, but not with a backpack…too much work. So, here’s her blog address. Go check it out. Jen’s Blog.

Here’s a picture of Jen the day I rediscovered her working at the Big I, very happy to see her:

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In which we enjoy Third Eye Blind in concert!

Stacy had a couple tickets to the 3EB concert yesterday and invited me to go along with her. No problem with that except I was her 2nd choice of escort. The venue was at a bar with a large chunk of land around it. They had a fenced off ‘dry’ area and a ‘wet’ area so kids could come to the concert.

As we left our car, there were two guys standing on either side of one of the parking lot entrance roads holding large signs. As I passed them I called out, “Hey, guys, what’s up with the signs”? They whipped them around and they were these large Jesus freak signs. So the guys yell at me to take a brochure, to which I replied, “I’m not into medieval myths guys, don’t you realize it’s the 21st century?”. That made them more aggressive and they keep yelling at me and trying to get me to take a damn brochure…which I repeatedly refused. There were around 10-12 of those guys running around bothering people. To bad they are so misguided.

As we entered, EVERYONE was frisked. Couldn’t sneak in a damn thing even if we’d wanted to.

Anyway, I got several phone pictures, it’s like you’re there yourself! Enjoy.

Here’s Stacy all settled in and looking cute:

This shot is of the ‘dry’ area. Just showing you how many people were there:

The stage is over there under that half-pipe:

That’s the name of the venue there on that building…thought I’d give them some exposure:

More of those people on the hill:

See that white building/truck over there, that’s where the beer is…I’m in line, each time we got a beer it took 30 minutes of standing in line:

See that blond? While I was glancing her way, this guy, looked military & 20-25, came up behind her and grabbed her butt. I figured it was a friend or something based on her reaction so no big deal…but then this other guy about the same age came by, spotted her, came up behind, and slid a plastic zip tie into her crotch then pulled it back. Now that was different. She spins around, sees who it is and they talk amicably awhile. I figured that she might be an exotic dancer with that sort of stuff going on with her. Not the kind of familiarity you normally see at a concert or anywhere in public for that matter. Not that I’m a prude or anything, it’s just that I spent so damn much time in line that I got bored so I noticed the goings on with her. She wasn’t bad to look at either:

Here’s a couple close shots of the band:

After the concert was over, Stacy and I went on down to the Big I and got soundly drunk…danced up a storm and staggered home around 3AM (I had sobered up and was doing quite well, so I drove).

The band at the Big I, they played every song Stacy and I requested: