Alaska

Billy Bob in his blog mentioned Alaska the other day.... anyone even mentioning "Alaska" gets me thinking! I'd like to go, it would have to be an early summer trip just for the weather...

Alaska has been in my head since I was a kid, my Dad once told me of his dream to get a boat and go up the inland passage. He was with Standard oil & had been there on the tankers.

A grey Mason county Washington not a summer day

In the Coast Guard my first station was at a Light Station (light house) on an island in Puget Sound,  there was a ferry that ran to Seattle from one end & Tacoma at the other.
One day a guy drove down to the Light Station in a VW bug with a long kayak tied on top of his car, he went past the parking area and on down to the beach, I went down to see why.
He said that he and a couple of buddies had rented the kayak mold from REI and built themselves kayaks. He had his almost done (he said he still had to fill the ends with resin) but he really wanted to try it out, they were going to paddle up the inland passage.
He put it in the water & went zipping all over the place...

My first hitch in the Coast Guard was ending, I was divorced & stationed in Sacramento Calif,  I was wondering if I should reenlist.
For awhile I thought about packing my 'stuff' in a back pack, writing "Alaska" on a piece of cardboard and heading down to an I-5 northbound entrance & sticking my thumb out...
I re-upped & stayed for another 17 years.

In the summer of '96 a bunch of folk from the internet VW group got together and did a drive up to the Arctic circle, close enough to Alaska for me! I was stationed in Michigan as I read about the planning & the trip.

Right around the turn of the century I was (out of the CG and) working at a front end shop in Bemidji Minnesota, it was late spring I think when a guy pulled in driving an Isuzu Trooper and wanted to get the brakes checked. He had his stuff in the back and was on his way to Alaska.
As he drove by the thought of getting his car checked out came to his so he stopped. A good thing, his front wheel bearing needed help and he was on his way in a few hours. Sometimes I wonder what happened to him....

Fairbanks Alaska from here

The Coast Guard & Alaska! The CG has been in Alaska for a long time & In my time in the CG I heard a lot of Alaska stories. I never went there, just heard the stories. Sitting around on duty nights listening to search & rescue stories in Alaska, bar stories from Alaska & hunting/fishing stories from Alaska.
Alaska has been been in the background of my life about forever.

Key West for those who are not at all into talking about Alaska this winter

Alaska won't be this summer as I have other things to do, maybe 2016?