On the road again!

Well, The summer's been great, but it's time to mosey. Yesterday's trip started after lunch, which was later than I'd hoped, but earlier than I expected. The high volume of traffic turned out to be a perfect sendoff from the east-coast. It took forever to cross the Tappan Zee and make it on up to Hwy 84. Rain accented the red tail-lights of the endless stream of cars. While frustrated at the slow start to the trip, I'm thrilled by the thought that -- once I make it past Chicago-- I won't have to deal with traffic any more!
Meanwhile, Harry Potter was playing on the MP3 player. Since the player works through the car audio, every now and again, a radio station would stamp out the story, and the station would have to be changed. It is only then that we realized (over and over) that the radio was on full blast.
We made it through Norbert before reaching the end of consciousness, and pulling over in Sharon, PA.


Today, I'm hoping we'll make it into Minnesota. The day is gorgeous, and I'm ready to get going.

So far, Since leaving Saratoga, I've had at least 4 conversations about being from Alaska, along with 3 (so I could tell) times overhearing people mentioning it after seeing my vehicle.

Food:Breakfast- last of the duck eggs w/bacon. Lunch:Some sandwiches by the Milford PO, then Arby's for dinner. This morning was the food buffet with a side of internet (free wireless, but the computer needed to be plugged into the wall).

Gas: Filled up once in Scranton $3.59/gal

Lodging: Comfort Inn, Sharon PA. midnight.
Next Time: Check out the anthrocite museum and coal mine tour near Scranton, PA.

Travellin'

Ah, the Alaska State Ferry. Gotta say, the marine highway is a great way to move through Canada; It's very much a cruise, and you still get to feel good about not being on a floating hotel with the, and I'm quoting someone here: "Nearlydeads, Newlyweds, and overfeds". Stopping in Juneau, with 3 docked cruiseships, I was forced to laugh at the --politically incorrect, to be sure-- not-entirely-inaccurate description of the population segment. For several bocks, the town was filled with jewelry and fur shops. Where, I have to ask, does Alaska fit in?

Those cruise ships are HUGE, and I prefer to not bring a city with me when I travel. Tent, yes. Quil-lo, yep. and maybe ONE traveling companion -- not 3000.

Anyway, there was no shuffleboard aboard, but they had a decent cafeteria (good breakfast), microwaves for warming your own meal (Thai), and a bar. If you want to camp, you can set up a tent on the deck, though I can't really picture pitching around in a tent; must be a really wierd experience. Also, there plenty of places to sit and watch the world float by. Works for me!

The ferry also stops in Petersburg, which, after a rainy quarter-mile walk past crabbing pots and liqueur store, you find a lovely Norwegian bakery. That's more like the Alaska *I* know and love.

Working in the Kids Park at the Ice Park

From Ice Alaska - Kid's Park 2008

From Ice Alaska - Kid's Park 2008

From Ice Alaska - Kid's Park 2008

At it again! This year, we're helping out at the Kid's park, creating an immersive photo opportunity. "Arctic Research".

The construction is created from 4 blocks of ice, each approximately 2'x4'x6'.

Here's the album with more photos of the construction
http://picasaweb.google.com/celsoborealis/IceAlaskaKidSPark2008

The "Sick Bomb" drops

Wow. The halls are empty. A tumbleweed slowly staggers its way down the hall.
Just last week, AVO had its coordination meeting, where we discuss what we've been doing, and where the organization is heading. This year, it was held in Fairbanks, with people coming up from affiliate organizations in Anchorage, California, Washington, and Virginia. Perfect venue for exchanging both ideas and germs. (Sorry!)

Now, several of us have been out for roughly a week (last count was like 14 down...) . Symptoms? Cough, aches, fevers, more coughs... Thank goodness I've had Harry Potter on CD, 'cause it's been a struggle to even work the computer.

Winter snows

You might think that living in Alaska means that you have to contend with copious amounts of snow.
You're wrong...
and right...

Surprisingly, Fairbanks only gets a total of about 12 inches of precipitation per year; much of which seems to come in the form of snow which sticks around for months and months. However, we only get a more or less constant dribble of snow: an inch here, a centimeter there, 3 inches elsewhere. The effect, though, is a long, white winter.

However, we got 10 inches of snow yesterday within 12 hours. Mind you, it's possible that with our dry, perfectly crystalline snow that 10 inches can be represented by only a couple hundred snowflakes... In any case, it's the largest snowfall we've had in years, and the newspapers are making a minor fuss. I'm just glad (and so are the mushers) that there's enough snow for proper skiing and stuff.

I've scraped off my driveway, piling it all in one lump that will either be an 8-foot tall Godzilla, or, if I'm feeling uninspired, an 8-foot tall volcano.

Meanwhile, work starts this weekend on Ice Alaska's Kids Park at the Ice championship grounds. If the weather stays warm (it's unseasonably above zero), carving should be uncharacteristically non perilous.

Let the winter games begin!

The end is near!

Holy-moley . Is it December already? Can't be. (sigh)
This is why I shouldn't bother blogging and exactly why I should. Time gets away so quickly. So quickly, in fact, that this will be a very quick rant.

Just took my Yoga final today ("Final" is a strong word... we just showed up and went through self-paced yoga poses). Tomorrow, I deliver a stunning presentation, then turn in bunches of homework (that I haven't done yet) for a mechanics class, then start writing a paper. But the end *is* in sight. :)


Next term: NO CLASSES (I hope). My research is totally suffering, and I want to make good and graduate like a nice little PhD student.

Sunday Art

Took a real neat glass-blowing class at Expressions in Glass this morning. The link leads off to my online photo album of the event...

2006 Glass Blowing Class

On Pavlof

First day out. Visited BLHA on the North side of this area. Handle was very rusted, so we had to pry it open with an iron pipe. All the guy wires were loose, so I tightened them. Also, we reburied seismometer cable with rocks. The whole while, I took lots of photos of the station and surrounding area.

From there, we tried to get to PN7A, but were thwarted by winds. the collective was at 100% just to stay level. So, we backed off and went to PV6.

At PV6, we replaced a broken solar panel, tightened guy wires, and did general electronic testing. Once again, we had to "break" into the hut, because the handle was so rusted. Along side the hut were a compliment of used (and chomped-on) aircells which we transported out of there. While Ed worked the panels with Tim (the pilot), I replaced the fuse in the powerswitcher and changed the dip-switches to tell the McVCO to do calibrations every 12 hrs instead of 48. Turns out, though, that I forgot to reset the McVCO afterwards, and another visit was required (that, and I needed to replace the spare fuse, rather than change the fuse). Many more photos, and then we were on our way again.

HAG was up in the clouds, so we didn't even get near it. Actually, the weather in general got so bad, that we had to park the helicopter over by the airport, because we couldn't navigate the pass to King Cove. Called the police department to get Guy to come get us.

Getting it all together

Lots of work in the Conex... we removed batteries from the pallate to FP, and are sending off the soaker hose and a bunch of solar panel frames.

The helicopter arrived today... Children came out of the woodworks to watch. Gotta say, I like Tim the pilot -- he's heavy into movie making as well as the mp3 thing. This should be pretty good.

Lots of struggling to get the waypoints, but now I do. Tomorow I'll print the map. Tomorrow, also, we'll hopefully hit up PV1A.

LUNCH: Sandwiches. Dinner: Tacos. Bought ammo & breakfast.

Back into the void

After much fussing about and getting ready (including 3am runs to the grocery store, library, and bank), we set off for Cold Bay.

Flight to Anchorage uneventful. I sat next to a person in the dental profession, but couldn't hold a conversation on 2.5 hrs of sleep. The only thing that sticks out in my mind is that she was sort of rude towards the stewardess, making the comment that her hair looked like it had been stuck in a propeller. (She was right, though) she even took a photo.

In anchorage, I grabbed luggage and re-checked in at pen-air. I've got 3 peices of luggage (I had to pay $50 for the extra)