BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 04:14 PM

I was surrounded by pearl gray. Far off, flaming bits of the C-130 formed a series of beacons that I followed and which led to land.

Alone, all alone, I climbed from the black sand of the small beach onto the headland. And just in time, for a driving storm came in off the Bering Sea. Hail tore through my parka and attempted to rip it from my body. Huge waves crashed upon the tiny headland, catching me in their spray and their undertow mercilessly trying to drag me back into the clutches of Poseidon.

Somehow, I held on. Somehow, I kept the precious serum with me.

My mukluks were ripped from my feet, mittens from my hands, the moustach from from my face. My skin felt as though I was standing in a sandblast and was soon red raw and bleeding.

I crouched behind a rock, taking such shelter from the storm as I could.

"Oh, I hope the dogs are all right," I thought, with never a thought for my own predicament.

And the snow piled higher and higher against the windward side of my pitifully inadequate shelter.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: gnu
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 01:38 PM

Float planes! Came "close" four times in them. We used to call Labrador Airways "Crash Airways". Much prefer a chopper.

A drunken lad stole a plane in Goose Bay, Labrador. Was going to end it all. Got up and decided against it. They tried to "talk him down" three times. The first two times, he got scared and didn't set down. The third time, he ran out of fuel. Beautiful landing. There is a story published... seems to me it's called, "Thirty Minutes Over Goose Bay" or the like.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 12:38 PM

Like your story, robo. Mind you, I'm glad he is not in my family or in my circle of friends.

I love flying in those little planes, especially the float planes. The wheeled planes grind when they land but the pontoon planes just kind of swooooosh and push against the water. And I like the fact that when they leave the water they raise one side of the plane in order to break free of the skin of the water.

Had I come to Alaska, say, 20 years earlier, I know that I'd have a pilot's license. Probably wouldn't have my own plane but I would definitely have a license to fly.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: robomatic
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 09:24 PM

In the good ol' days John liked to drink after a hard day's work. Sometimes he was the last one left and he got up to mischief. One evening in summer he walked to the small airstrip and found a Cessna he could start. He had been in plenty of Cessnas never actually flown one, but, hey, how card hould it be? So he figured out which control controlled the gas and drove it out to the strip. Controlled the gas all the way to maximum rpm, and hey i kin flieeeeeeee! He practised controlling the wings level as he circled around and around the small camp. Was disappointed that there were no horns to honk nor explosives to drop, and was vaguely aware the most planes need fuel to stay up in the air and he didn't really have any idea of how much fuel was avaialble. So he begtan to practise going down. It's easy, you just pull out that gas thingee and the motor goes slower and the plane goes lower. And - hey, who put that hill there? Anyhow, by dint of alcoholic fearlessness and persistence what Stanley Holloway once characterized as "a little bit o' luck" John was able to roll onto the runway at a high rate of speed, cut the engine power, and roll happily to the severe damage of the aircraft, and the relative harmlessness to himself.

Moral? Moral? Like Hell, there's a moral: Ever after his buds at the camp called him "Hi-Jack"!

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Ebbie
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 07:49 PM

Isn't the Malamute in Fairbanks? Given your skills of navigation, I find it difficult to keep up. *G* Unless you mean the 'Red Dog'?

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 06:57 PM

Well, Ebbie, I remember when a bunch of us boys were whoopin' it up in the Malamute Saloon. Now THAT was a night to remember!

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Ebbie
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 05:39 PM

You ran with a different crowd than I, Rap. LOL In my crowd I'm the heavy drinker- I've been known to have as many as three glasses of wine in one evening!

I know a few like that, though. Even a druggie or two.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 05:32 PM

There is a temperamental difference between whether on balance we are hostile to change, or friendly to it. As we get older most people probably tend to move in the direction of being suspicious of change.

But it doesn't coincide with political differences in any consistant way. Unless we think the world is perfect there are always going to be some things we want to see changed; and unless we think it is totally screwed up, there are always going to be some things we want to porotect from change.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 05:19 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 02:02 PM

Shucks. It looked just like the Juneauites after a hard night.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Ebbie
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 01:20 PM

No, Rap. Wind and water obliterated it eventually. When I came to town in 1988 it was still there, orange and huge. I didn't actually like it, reminded me of Big Brother, so I was just as glad to see it dimming in time. No doubt someone else will get a bright idea again one day.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 09:23 AM

Ebbie, is the eye still above Juneau?

I've been wondering.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: gnu
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 09:10 AM

My apologies Ebbie... I really did mean to come back and answer you, but got tied up... yes, repellant does keep them off.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Ebbie
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 03:27 AM

Do it, Stephen. I am continually amazed at the beauty all around me.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 03:07 AM

Alaska is one of the most amazing places on the planet. I haven't been up there in decades. I'll have to find an excuse to go back sometime soon.

Stephen Lee

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Jul 05 - 10:30 PM

Don't spray the screen OR yourself -- spray the repellent on the bugs! They won't be able to get near each other, won't reproduce, and will eventually die of loneliness.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: gnu
Date: 10 Jul 05 - 09:56 PM

Yes, I do.

Usually, noone else inside the camp is bothered by them. They come in through the screens one the first floor, where I sleep, and either feed on me or die of delight when the see a 275 Irish laid out like a buffet, snoring. The lads upstairs rarely have any problems with BENSE's.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Jul 05 - 09:24 PM

Yeah, they probably fly in with room to spare o both sides- but just maybe the odor of the screen squares is unpleasant to them? I never have researched whether no-seeums are kept at bay by Cutters, OFF, etc. Do you know?

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: gnu
Date: 10 Jul 05 - 09:08 PM

Like when I spray bug dope on the window screens of my camp because someone said it was a good idea, when I know that the bite-em-no-seeums come in through THE HOLES!!!!! Try to spray a hole... go on... I dare ya!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Jul 05 - 06:20 PM

Your account of your experiences above the river Mythical, robo, reminds me of something I once read about the blackouts in London during the war. It said that any incoming plane wouldn't have needed lights to orient themselves in order to drop bombs- they could just follow the Thames into the centre of the city.

We ought to start a thread on that kind of thing: Actions we take that are of no known use but we do it anyway.

(I remember in that same war when we had blackouts on the American West Coast. We drew the curtains tight and used oil lamps. I remember one time that my mother carried a lit lamp into the other room and the curtains were not drawn.. Scared me to death. I thought the Japanese planes were literally circling above our house looking for a glimmer of light. The lesson I draw from this is that adults don't give children enough information. I was five years old.)

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Ebbie
Date: 09 Jul 05 - 09:04 PM

Don't you remember? Beware the yawning river.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: gnu
Date: 09 Jul 05 - 08:52 PM

Is that when the flare hit your craft, Robo?

And, THEN what happened?

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: robomatic
Date: 09 Jul 05 - 06:09 PM

I was flying low over Tundra and underneath low clouds when the yawning river came up. I crossed the water and kept the riverbank below me. Pretty soon I began to see familiar terrain and it came to me that I had crossed to a channel island and was making circles around it. If I separated from the island to the south, i'd be over more low tundra. If I separated from the island and crossed the river to the north, I'd fly smack into a cliff.

I had to make my choice...

Sometimes doin' nothin' is not an option.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: gnu
Date: 09 Jul 05 - 01:45 PM

Lucky the C-130 didn't have a mini-gun when you let loose the flare. Rapaire would be F'Rappairé.

And...

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Jul 05 - 12:55 PM

The sudden turn to the left threw me off the sled, and the dogs bounded away, hellbent to reach the only tree in the Pribilofs.

When the skidding stopped, I stood up and spit the slush from my face. I was surrounded by a pearl-gray sky merging into the pearl-gray ice, the pearl-gray clouds diffusing the pearl-gray sunlight. Far, far off I could hear the yips of the dogs, but in this pearl-gray Hell I could not tell from which direction they were coming, and the fog was gathering.

Without stars, without sun, without even a tree with moss, I was forced to rely upon my compass, my GPS, and the emergency radio beacon I had in my pack. Soon, I heard overhead the sound of the engines of a Coast Guard rescue C-130. The plane dipped low and waggled its wings to let me know I'd been spotted. To be doubly certain, I fire a flare which, upon striking the plane, caused it to catch fire.

Hopelessly lost except for my balloon-tethered strobe light, the distress beacon, and a roaring fire I'd started with some driftwood, I sat down to Await My Fate.

Fortunately, I still had the serum safely tucked inside my parka to prevent it from freezing.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Jul 05 - 11:04 PM

They lynched a guy in Idaho for being a wild-eyed, bomb-throwing, Conservative Republican.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Ebbie
Date: 08 Jul 05 - 07:48 PM

I read somewhere to beware of the person who appears the same to all of his/her acquaintances- that person is acting.

I have a musician friend in Fairbanks who says that he has always been considered, and considered himself, a political moderate. In Fairbanks, he says, he's considered a bleeding-heart liberal.

Juneau varies. Downtown is famously liberal; not so in the valley, scarcely 10 miles away.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: robomatic
Date: 08 Jul 05 - 07:37 PM

Ebbie, that's mostly true, but Anchorage has a strong MTV wanna be culture. And in the boonies we've got big fat porcupines.

I was in Massachusetts Ebbie, to answer your question. I'm a right wing nutcase in Massachusetts, and back here in 'laska I'm a left wing treehugger. Just color me purple.

By Saint Charles Darwin, leave me be free to evolve in my own way!

Robo

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Ebbie
Date: 08 Jul 05 - 07:12 PM

No skunks in Alaska. And not many skanks. *G*

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: gnu
Date: 08 Jul 05 - 05:22 PM

A skank?

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 08 Jul 05 - 04:52 PM

They treed a skunk?

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: gnu
Date: 08 Jul 05 - 11:56 AM

And, after that, what happened?

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Ebbie
Date: 08 Jul 05 - 11:53 AM

-oh, no LOL

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Jul 05 - 09:09 AM

Well, from there we got away, our spirits never failin', and mushed slush across Norton Sound. Nome was in sight! We could see the steeples of the churches, the skyscrapers of the skyline growing closer with every step. Soon, soon, our journey of mercy would be over!

With my shouts of joy ringing in their ears, the ice crunching beneath our runners, the dogs turned left toward the only tree in the Pribilofs.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 08 Jul 05 - 07:48 AM

101!

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 08 Jul 05 - 03:50 AM

Morning Terry.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 Jul 05 - 10:30 PM

Thanks, robo. Incidentally, where have you been? Outside Alaska or just out of Anchorage? If you ever come to Juneau, PLEASE pm me. I'm not hard to find.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: robomatic
Date: 07 Jul 05 - 09:10 PM

just returned to anchortown meself. Been months! Sleep pattern shattered by all the lightness around. Geese on the lake. The neighbor keeps throwing fireworks in the back yard to warn them off his back lawn...
Construction everywhere. Half hotels goin' up next to each other.

Espresso joints even more populated than I recall, and it's all pretty tasty.

Ebbie if you need a place indoors lemme know. Place is a pit but I've vacuumed most of the vole droppings out of the foyer.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jul 05 - 05:50 PM

Canada is full of nice people, all six of them.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: gnu
Date: 07 Jul 05 - 05:47 PM

Got to be nice people in Hinton, otherwise there would be no Peace there.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Jul 05 - 05:34 PM

Canada a blank space? -- I think not!

Rapaire, Have you looked at a map of the USA? Not only is Canada not there, often Alaska is tilted to fit across parts of BC and Alberta.

I've been to Hinton. Very nice place. Very nice person.
... erm.. I meant "people".

@¿@
rags

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 Jul 05 - 04:08 PM

I am full of admiration. For the first time I really understand what heroic feet it was.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jul 05 - 03:11 PM

Valdez was going to be the next stop, but we skipped it for St. Paul.

The island, not the other one.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 Jul 05 - 01:30 PM

Oh, no! I just glimpsed your map. Prudhoe Bay is almost in sight.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 Jul 05 - 01:20 PM

Rapaire, please consult your map. I am getting seriously concerned about your precious cargo. It is date specific, you know.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jul 05 - 01:02 PM

Which reminds me of the serum I was taking to Nome! I had almost forgotten about, drowsing before the fire in the shoddy soddy in Eagle, but I jumped to my feet and out the door in a trice. Then I came back in, got dressed, put on my mukluks, overshoes, pants, parka, burka, gloves, mittens, shirt, tie, suspenders, braces, belt, truss, hat, earmuffs, and the serum and was out the door shouting, "Away! Mush, you wimpies! Mush, I say! Git the lead out er yer catfood!"

And away we flew over the snow, over the hummocks and tussocks, through the tiaga, over the hills, like cosairs we flew, with a sledfull of serum and St. Nichol...well, we were on our way again with the Serum For Nome.

Through the outskirts of Bethel, through the suburbs of Dead Horse we mushed, the freezing rain lashing against the dogs and turning the front of my body into a sheet of ice. Through Homer, through Ketchikan, over the bridge in Unalaska, stopping only for strudel und specksuppe in Dutch Harbor, and we pulled into Dillingham just as the sun was setting.

Nome was in the distance, and the suffering of the Nomish...Nomers...Nomites...people who lived their was soon to be relieved.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Alaska Mike
Date: 07 Jul 05 - 12:50 PM

There are strange things done,
In the midnight sun,
By the men who moil for gold.........

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 Jul 05 - 12:50 PM

Good link to Talkeetna, Rap. Talkeetna was my favorite town in my recent trip to the vicinity. Stained wood siding, rather than paint, on the houses so they kind of glow, wide streets, interesting Roadhouse, lots of trees, 3 hours from Denali National Park, 3 hours from Anchorage, 24-hour daylight, not as many mosquitoes as I ran into in other places, three rivers...

Incidentally, the Fairview Inn mentioned in the link is not open at this point. Something to do with a lawsuit, I was told.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: gnu
Date: 07 Jul 05 - 12:05 PM

Does Bill have a dog? LH?

MacKenzie King??? Statesman??? Nutbar. He talked to his dog. Oh, I know, everyone talks to their dog. But, this one talked back... about federal policy.

Subject: RE: BS: Waaaaay UP! To Alaska....
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jul 05 - 09:06 AM

Canada is not a blank space! Canada is a vibrant, wonderful country full of beavers, snow, mosquitoes, walleye, and it's run by Sgt. Preston and his dog, Yukon King. There are many great cities in Canada, cities like Haines Junction, Hinton, and Cambridge Bay, places where literally dozens of Canadians live and work. Canada has produced great statesmen like MacKenzie King, great actors like William Shatner. Canada a blank space? -- I think not!