The photo above was taken in the Anchorage airport when the children arrived.

We fly back to Chevak tomorrow. Elizabeth flew back to Georgia last night. Charlie will leave tonight at 1 am. I'm afraid the kids were anxious to get home. We have so much running around to do when we are here for the Christmas break, I 'm afraid we have worn both of them out. We mailed back over 26 boxes of food and supplies, including a big sled and an exercise machine which we airfreighted out this morning. We will take back two ice chests of meat and several dozen eggs which tom will hand carry on the plane. We've eaten pizza and wings and fajitas and ribs and apples and oranges and chocolate covered cherries. Charlie gave us electric toothbrushes for Christmas, we got him a computer case and got Elizabeth two overcoats and gloves. She got us nothing!

The children flew in together on the 20th and we met them at the airport. They helped us shop and pack groceries and then mail them. Charlie brought his computer so there were two computers going all the time, and Liz helped me learn how to work my iPod. We drove down to Alyeska in Girdwood - which is a winter resort. They had great snow for skiing which I thought the kids would enjoy. However, the interest level was quite low and the price for skiing was pretty high. So we just enjoyed to snow and and the beauty of the place and only stayed two nights. We wanted to get back to Blockbuster and our $42 dollar townhouse at Elmendorf. They had great food at Alyeska at "great" prices - Christmas dinner was special. The ride down to Girdwood and back to Anchorage was just beautiful - like a winter wonderland.

Found out that Charles will not graduate until May. Enough said about that.

Elizabeth and I kept looking up places for her to live and get a real job once she gets her masters work done - which could be as early as August. It is so exciting seeing her grow up and make big decisions!

Here are a few photos from our Christmas:


Tom and the kids in a snowball fight somewhere.





The road from Girdwood to Anchorage was actually pretty clear.


Oodles of these ice things coming off the mountains and rocks along the highway - like water falls frozen in motion...



Tom and Charlie took snowboarding lessons at Alyeska. They had 26 inches of snow at the top of the slopes - very nice, good food, a lovely Christmas, but a little pricey for the Benders.


We went bowling one night at Elmendorf Air Force Base. I love Elmendorf. Tom now has a permanent pass on his truck.


Here's Charlie and Liz under the lighted arbor at Alyeska. Charlie wore his orange knit cap and his long green overcoat the whole time. The locals at Alyeska kept calling him "Flynn". Seems there is a local man there that Charlies resembles both in looks and clothing choice. It got to be quite funny after so many people said "Hey Flynn", "What's up Flynn?"

My little movie is short but sweet.

We are having the strangest weather. This winter is even warmer than last winter - so far. Actually all the snow we had earlier melted completely. We have some frozen water puddles and then we had bare frozen ground. I actually did not mind that because it was certainly easy to walk on and walk quickly on. If it is wet, then there's mud boots and mud to deal with. If is is all snowy and sloshy - then you've got the slipping and sliding and dragging snow inside. I may have a big surprise after we come back from Christmas - but right now - it is rather warm.

Christmas plans have been finalized to a point. Tom and I fly in on the 18th to Anchorage. We will do some food shopping and a couple of medical appointments. Charlie and Liz fly in on the night of the 20th. Hoping they will pack our groceries and mail them for us - hoping. We are just too old to do that stuff - it completely wears us out. Then on the 23rd we drive down to Girdwood where we will spend some holidays at Alyeska Ski Resort - assuming there is enough snow for the kids to ski. If there isn't we will just enjoy the pool and the scenery. Liz flies home on the 28th. We will then buy and freeze our meet and head back to Chevak with Charles in tow on the 30th. He will spend two weeks in Chevak. Not too much impresses Charlie - but I believe life in Chevak will...

I am almost finished with my Big6 class. Whatever possessed me to put in my grant to take a college class is simply beyond me. I can not concentrate on that stuff anymore - I am totally task oriented now in my later years.

The kids are really enjoying the new computers. I am also enjoying all the new equipment and books and DVDs and Playaways and the extended library hours. It is actually a lot of fun.

We had our Veteran's Day ceremony at school this week. We invited every veteran in the community including those on the school staff and of course, Tom Bender. The children made craft itmes for them and their names were read off for the various services and wars. Out of a community of only about 300 adults, we had a good many veterans. They seemed to end up being the more well known, successful adults in the community - I'm guessing because they have been exposed to another world besides Chevak, AK. The two Veterans in the photo above are actually Elders in the community and they work every day at school in our Cup'ik Heritage classes.

In this photo, you can see our principal, Del Lantz standing there with the glasses - the one not in uniform. Tom is actually on the other side - hidden. That is Roxie, our counselor and a good friend of ours, leaning against the door. The man in uniform on this side of here is the president of the Board of Education, John Atack.

Friday night at about 5pm (and it was already dark) Cyndy and two other girls had to drive to Hooper Bay on their snow machines, spend the night in the school and get up early the next morning to take a Praxis exam. Cyndy and her husband had purchased our snow machine and while her husband goes everywhere on the snow machine, Cyndy had done no more than gotten some insruction from him as to how to start it. So Friday night she takes off in the dark on that snow machine with three others and they drive 20 miles in the dark snowy night to Hooper Bay - now if you miss Hooper Bay you can end up out on the ocean. I was pretty worried about them, but they made it safely - a bit sore but safe. Brave girls. Okay, one of the girls was Cupik and had made the trip many times, but still....remember there are no lights or signs or houses or phones.

Yesterday we cleaned up our apartment, I realized I had brought some material with me to cover the couch in case Roxie chewed on it =-well she fortunately has not chewed on anything. So I took the matieral and made drapes for our living area andthen made some pillows to match. We moved our litte stove over to the window and then for the rest of the day it felt like Christmas.

Ok, have to get to work on my Big6 online class.

Roxy says "Hello"

Everythingis happening at once with my grant. I just finished working with Mitinet to get the marc records cleaned up - and they have now been sent to Alexandria to be added to my new circulation program. Nettrekker came this week and I love it. NewsBank is trying to come in - we are having multiple problems with the ip addresses. Hope they can work that out soon. Then the kids are going nuts with the new macs - all I have on them is Kid Pix. They love it. Here's what these little ones can do - they can import a Photo Booth photo into Kid Pix. They can open iPhoto and import their photos from PhotoBooth and then they can import those photos into Kid Pix. They can also drag photos from PhotoBooth into iMovie and make a little movie - plus slide shows with music in iPhoto. It is amazing - the skills spread from one child to two more to four more!

I had over 40 kids again this past Saturday at the Saturday@yourlibrary program - all they want is the computer. The president of the Board of Education came with his two little ones. I was glad we had a big crowd for him and it was a big crowd.

This little kindergarten child won the gummy bears last week. She was really proud!

The photo of Tom outside our apartment was taken this past Thursday morning. It is really getting cold - I guess I had forgotten how cold it gets here. No looking forward to the winds - which will come...

Below, a middle schooler is using our new 30" mac monitor - it is rather bright!!

It's Snowing! It is getting colder here and we are already into boots and winter gloves. I haved started my Saturday@yourlibrary! I'm open three hours on Saturdays. The kids can come in and do whatever they like on the computer except chat. The chatting gets out of hand pretty quickly. I have also received our bean bags from the Scholastic Book Fair. I ordered - rather cashed in vouchers - for 25 bean bags. The reason I got 25 was that I didn't want the kids fussing over who gets a Bean Bag - so now we have enough for everyone with no fusses. I do not think that teachers are pleased but the kids certainly are. These photos are from my first Saturday@yourlibrary - loads of fun and the kids had a great time surfing and game playing.Our library grant pays me to keep it open. If I continue to have this many kids I'll need some help. This little pre-schooler was fascinated by the twirly things. Wish my photo did her justice.

Here are the moose photos I said I'd post. Notice the kids and dogs - this is high entertainment in Chevak.


The head was later skinned and only the bones left. They are drying and sunning now. The folks saved all the skin/fur for making things.


That is our tech specialist holding up the head of the moose.

That beautiful Walrus in the photo above is presently on the beach at Barrow, Alaska. Our friend Carmen emailed it to us. Many of the walruses are being killed. One walrus had five pups(?) with her and four have been killed. The natives can kill as many as they want. A fellow teacher here told me that it is really easy to kill them when they come up on the beach - much easier than going out in the water - so people go out in droves as soon as they know the walruses are there. The kids get right up out of school and go get their guns. Carmen said the police were out there trying to keep some order. Just makes my heart hurt to have those beautiful animals slaughtered - but this ain't my house.

We've had pretty rainy weather the past few days. I really enjoy the rain in the evening. I love listening to it - it's almost like a waterfall. But during the day I'd like to see a little sunshine.

A barge came into to Hooper's Bay and then a smaller barge brought us a bunch of boxes - I mean literally hundreds of packges -all of the school supplies that had been ordered supposedly came in. I wonder if we can ride that barge out next summer!! Don't think Thomas would go for that.

We have talked the children into coming up for Christmas. I think this year we will try go to Alyeska resort. There's lot of winter activities - it just may cost too much. I need to check out the prices pretty soon. We didn't really talk the children into coming - Tom just told them we were buying tickets and they were coming up, so...

I had my first moose dish the other night. Several of the teachers have gone moose hunting in the last few weeks and shot one. We were fortunate to be at Deanne's house when Steve and Stewart drove back after a weekend of hunting on their 4-wheelers pulling one third of a moose behind them in a cart. Just that third was huge. The other men who had hunted with them got the other two thirds. Stewart cut the head off, and later cleaned it out and has it on top of the connex drying, I guess. He and Steve immediately started skinning and cutting that huge thing up. It is not as easy as it would seem. Took them a few hours and then the rest of the night they and the wives cut and packaged the meat to freeze. Tom and I watched for a good while - and then when I got home all I could see in my dreams that night was huge hunks of red meat with fur on it. Yuk. Steve brought us two pieces the next day and we finally got around to cooking it this past week. I was very excited about having a bit of moose - but all I could think about while I was eating it was that precious moose head that just looked like a huge sweet Roxie head. Deanne had also made some delicious moose jerky she shared with us. Same story - it was good - but all I could see was that sweet moose face which by now been skinned and cleaned and was sunning on top of Stewart's connex.

I thought I had a photo on my computer - I'll try to post one soon.

I do apologize to any one who checked here more than once to see what's going on with the Benders in Chevak. That knee surgery really threw me for a loop. I thought I was in bad shape before the surgery! For a couple of days afterward I was okay. but when we finally arrived in Chevak and of course me being two days late for the opening of school, I worked entirely too hard, walked entirely too much and that resulted in a great deal of pain. I really set myself back on the healing - and that is just what the Dr told me not to do. Tom had to take me to school on the 4-wheeler and then pick me up. Even so - there were a few nights when all I did when I got home was lie on the couch, with the ICE MAN wrapped around my knee, full of Advil - which worked better than the prescription, and be miserable. I got so far behind at school with those beginning of the year activities that I just got really frustrated. I will say that this past week has been the first week that I have really been able to NOT think about my knee. I am able to pretty much walk anywhere without any pain and I am trying to go down steps using both knees. I just feel a little off kilter. Tom is so patient, so helpful, and so caring. I really don't deserve him.

We finished off the lettuce, carrots and potatoes. I have several apples left of which I eat one a day. We're going to have to do a vegetable order from Fred Meyers.

It is really nice being one of the "old timers" this year. I think only seven teachers have been here more than one year. Of course we had that huge turnover last year.

Our friend and neighbor, Carmen, has moved to Barrow, Alaska to teach and we really miss her - so does Roxie.

Tom and I are watching all of the Foyle's War series. Tom likes them cause he likes anything English. I like them cause they put me to sleep. I can count on about 45 minutes into the program to be fast asleep.

I like knowing all the kids this year - great to remember their names. Our high school boys just flew off for their first cross county running competition - so it was exciting to see them off.

I am going to do better about posting!

I have not taken even one photo since we returned!

Are we tired or what! We’ve mailed over 30 boxes to Chevak. We have two coolers of frozen meat to take with us on the plane tomorrow. I am so tired and Tom is so tired. I just need to get back to school to recuperate from the summer. What will I miss most about Anchorage? Ummm the view of the mountains that changes daily depending on the sun and the clouds. I’ll miss being able to make any kind of medical appointment I need to make. I’ll miss the great eating places – SourDough Mine, and the Moose’s Tooth in particular. I’ll miss Blockbuster and most of all I will miss Elmendorf Air Force Base – the campground, the PX, and the commissary. The whole place is roomy, green, spacious, quiet, and clean. I’ll miss seeing and hearing those F-22’s and F-16’s fly around and sometimes straight up and down. What will I absolutely not miss about Anchorage – traffic, homeless people, and noise.

I’m looking forward to seeing all the stuff I ordered from Scholastic Book Fair for the kids – including 25 bean bags, and ordering all the new materials for our Improving Literacy Through School Libraries grant. I also have been purchasing Alaskan animals, birds and fish this summer – stuffed actually. The students will love them.

It may be a while before I can post again – the first week of school is so crazy. Tom says this is the last year for Chevak – he is not packing any more food. Okay.

Well, I had the knee surgery today. Man, what an experience. Most impressive was the whole set up of the procedure. The doctor was a Dr. McGuire. I had seen him at my original appointment and felt certainly like my knee was in good hands – he seemed sort of “New York” – a little different from most of the other professionals I have seen this summer, with the exception of Dr. Cusack who seemed a little “Miami”. Anyway today all of nurses and so forth were just as nice as possible – not only to me, but to each other. Everyone was just laughing and getting along. And were they busy! It was like an assembly line with several patients lined up getting knee surgery. Unfortunately I suppose the reason things were so efficient was because this was a private medical practice – albeit a big one – but this wasn’t a hospital. These guys are not “in network” although their prices are a bit lower than the “in-network” guidelines. I was on my way home less than four hours after my arrival.

I’m using an IceMan icepack. It consists of a small blue cooler of ice and a long tube which seeds cool air to a large wrap around my knee. It is wonderful and working beautifully so far. I have only had to take one of my pain medications – the second may have some side effects I don’t want to deal with. I can walk at least as good as I could yesterday, so things should be looking up as the meniscus heals. I am suppose to rest for the next five days. And I have rested today…

Now we have to get our groceries packed and shipped. I have a follow-up appointment tomorrow and I will rest then too. On Thursday I hope to go with Tom to the PX to get our four months of groceries purchased – maybe even for the year, so we don’t have to do that at Christmas. Sooo, I will have to use one of those little motorized carts to go up and down the isles. The commissary is a pretty big place. We have always joked about the day one of us would be riding around a store in one of those motor carts and now here I am!

We put our Charlie on the plane tonight at 1am. What a pleasure it has been to have him up here. He is anxious, however, to get home tomorrow because he has a new computer waiting on him. I can understand - but we are sure going to miss his presence. We are at the PX now getting a bite to eat. He slept this afternoon so he could stay away tonight - he is not a fan of flying. What fun we have had with our visitors, Terry and Dee, Mary, and now Charlie. It will be lonely around here without them!

We stop at Kodiak at 3:45am in the morning and get to Homer at 2pm tomorrow afternoon. In hindsight it may have been a good idea to fly back from Dutch Harbor instead of taking the ferry back. I love the ferry but I think Tom and Charlie might be a little bored. Charlie and I are taking turns using the computer - he is listening to music and playing games, I like to listen to music, work on my photos, email, etc. Actually I could stay on this boat for a long time - and this is not even a really nice cruise boat. Tom and I seriously are considering a cruise now - because this ferry rider has been so pleasant. I don't know where to though. Just the water, the mountains, the slight sway of the boat - it is really relaxing. Here are some new photos.

Another view of the moon reflection early this morning. We actually get some darkness here.

Tom and Charlie on the deck of the ferry. Notice how similar they look - no question as to the relationship of these two.

This is a good idea of the visibility fromthe front of the boat during the foggy times.

I like this photo of the church because it appears that they simply dug out the side of the mountain to make room for it.

Another sunrise photo...

We spent the day in Dutch Harbor - a beautiful little town and it was a sunny day - something they very seldom have here. Tom rented a car and we drove in to see a lovely Russian Orthodox church, the World War II memorial, and ate lunch at the Grand Aleutian Hotel. I loved their gift shop and bought stuffed animals - cod, salmon, wolverine, swan, etc. I will have quite a collection of Alaskan stuffed animals when I return to Chevak. Gots lots of nice photos. We are now on the way back and approaching Akutan - a very tiny village. I shall post some photos today.


This Russian Orthodox Church is hundreds of years old. They are restoring the "icons" for $10,000 to $40,000 each


Looking at the right hand side of the photo - there is a big container of freshly caught fist. They are being sucked up in yellow vacuum cleaner hose and transported over to the sorting box. Quite an operation and they had quite an attentive audience.


Tom got up at dawn this morning and took this beautiful photo of sunrise.


This beautiful mountain is actually still an active volcano.

Tom got his name drawn in a lottery to go on a natural history tour of Cold Bay. He got some very nice photos and I am sharing two of them below. Charlie walked in with a friend and got the whale head photo. We land in Dutch Harbor tomorrow. Lovely scenery all around - and some whales.


Charlie poses with a whale head.


Tom took this photo of a chocolate orchid on the island of Cold Bay.


Tom also took this very nice photo of a ground squirrel, also on the island of Cold Bay.

Saw these beautiful mountains near Sand Point today. The scenery just doesn't stop - it's will be green and close up, then snowcapped in the distance and then jagged rocky mountains - all mixed in together.

Well, it has been a wonderful day. Best part first: Chevak has been awarded a $268,000 library grant (Improving Literacy through School Libraries) for this school year and guess who wrote it! Ann Bender, that’s who! We are going to get $30,000 for books, $40,000 for audiovisual materials, $40,000 for computers and presentation equipment, $10,000 for additional shelving, and thousands more for other stuff. What fun it will be to administer this grant and spend this money.

The sun has been out all day and the weather just beautiful. Most of the crowd has left the ferry so there is now lots of space everywhere and it is not so crowded. We are left with mainly older folks though and a couple of families. We are enjoyed beautiful scenery all day long and of course at 9:30 tonight it is still broad daylight. We saw several whales - rather their tales - earlier today. I am just going to post a few photos today.


One of the many unusual mountains along the coast.



That's me on a sunny warm day.



This small village was called Chiknik, I'll have to check on that spelling. You must be a fisherman to live here.




A photo of the infamous trash can from the first night.



Charlie and Ann computing and movie watching and listening to music.



This is a typical example of how people just settle in on the solarium deck.



Charles is sleeping in our wonderful cabin. These beds were so comfortable after the floor from the night before.



Charlie does not like getting his photo made, but he will smile on occasion.



They call this Castle Rock.



This was on the first day when the wind and fog and rain were blowing around fast and furious. You couldn't see 20 feet off the boat.



Thomas in the blowing wind and rain.





I meant to post this photo of Charlie about to go kayaking but forgot all about it. Tom road in back. They had a wonderful time. I have some rafting photos also - from the Six Mile Creek - level V at one point. I need a scanner to copy the photo though. I believe it was the perfect "manly" trip for them. They are not so impressed with my Aleutian Island ferry cruise. Not enough to do. If I had 40 hours in the day, I still couldn't run out of stuff to get done.

Charlie told us at dinner tonight that while I was in the women’s restroom with the seasick folks, he was in the men’s for almost an hour. At one point he was lying face down on the floor. An Asian man came in and said, “Friend, are you okay?” Charlie didn’t move his head but did raise his arm and gave him a thumbs up. Then the Asian man proceeded to the stall to be seasick himself. What a day! Tom and I had been so worried about me we were pretty much ignorant of the fact that Charlie was also in distress. But all’s well now - we got our cabin at 4pm, drug up our luggage to a secluded area on the 2nd floor and fell into our respective beds and slept soundly for two hours. I had been worried that neither Tom nor Charlie would ever forgive me for bringing them on this trip – but a good rest and a cheeseburger in the dining hall have made each of us feel a lot better. I think we are going to be okay. We are watching movies and reading tonight in the privacy of our climate controlled room, We saw our two buddies we had been talking with a lot, two single men, and they were really kidding us about our “condo” since they are still sleeping down there in the “whatever” room. We have seen some really interesting scenery – but it is really rainy and foggy and cold. Hopefully we will have some sun tomorrow. I do feel like we are very far away from the familiar.

We just landed and swapped passengers at Port Lions. Their school has 42 students so I guess there is no library job available. We will land in the city of Kodiak in about two hours. Tom and Charlie plan to disembark and possibly rent a car a drive around a bit. Maybe they will go to the Coast Guard station and visit the commissary to buy some sodas. They might decide to just walk around on land for a while. It is 10:33 right now and Charlie has only opened his eyes twice - once to drink a coke for breakfast and once to ask where we were. He is not pleased about the arrangements.

So, let me describe the arrangements. This ship has about four areas for passengers, one place is the cabins, of which we will have one at 2pm this afternoon - thank heavens. The second area is the dining area -very nice. And the third is the solarium - a place where sleeping bags and tents are set up on the top floor. The fourth place is where most everyone is - the whatever - a lot of seats and a few booths with tables. Last night there were people sleeping in the seats, under the tables, in the booths, around on the floor and in the walkways. It was dark so you could hardly see anyone - but you could sure hear the snoring and body movements. I was working on my computer till late last night when Tom came to get me to get some sleep. I went over to the seats with him and tried to go to sleep sitting up. No way. The boat was really rocking we had some rough weather last night. Then people started throwing up. You couldn't see them, but you could hear them. Finally I had mentally and emotionally convinced myself that I was going to do the same. It was stuffy so I talked Tom into going outside with me where it was very fresh - but cold and wet and windy. We kept going back and forth till finally we went up to the solarium where we could sit but still get fresh air. Finally I got sick enought to throw up - several times. I'm in a dark place, with people sleeping all over the place and I'm hung over the trash can. Tom was wonderful. He held on to me and helped me and stood there while I sat in the only chair available by the trash can. We were up there till probably 3 am by the trash can. I had him go down and get the one sleeping bag we had brought, spread it out right by the trash can and went to sleep on it. Usually I can't do that - sleep on the floor - especially without pillows. But last night I lay down flat on that sleeping bag with Tom and both of us went fast to sleep - sound sleeping for about and hour and half. When we woke up it was getting light already. We went back down to the seats and got settled - I never want to go through that again.

Charlie had been sleeping soundly on the floor on his sleeping bag till Tom got it away from him in the middle of the night - so he is not in a very good mood.

Eveything will be better in about three hours when our berth opens up. There are four beds in there, a table, sink, and privacy. We are going over rough weather again now. A wildlife film about Alaska is showing so it is quieter. Some people are still sleeping, some have food out on the tables snacking, others are computing or movie watching, some are just talking in dirrerent languages. It is sort of stuffy. I'm just glad I chose to get that berth - seven days of this crowd......

Oh before we left last night Tom ordered a pizza from Starvin Marvins Pizza. They said 45 minutes - so Tom is outside the terminal waiting. I had a conversation going with another passenger inside the terminal who told me that they had seen a pizza man in the Salty Dog trying to sell or give away some pizzas. About 10 minutes later Tom came in and said he had called Starvin Marvins back and was told the pizza guy had been fired that he had decided to go drinking at Starvin Marvins. We gave up on the pizza.

We have seen otters and thousands of birds. Lots of Puffins. Weather is foggy, cold, and rainy.
I may post again later this evening - after Kodiak. Maybe Charlie will be awake by then.

It is late Tuesday. We are on the ferry after a long, long day. I woke up all clogged. Puffy eyes, stuffy nose, sore throat, and sneezing. I knew there was no doctor on the ferry and I knew I had to get fixed before I left on this seven-day voyage. That took almost the entire morning counting the time we had to wait for the prescription at Walmart. Dr. Reeves gave me predisone so it would knock the allergies out by the time I got on the ferry at 10 pm. He is so thoughtful and we both really like him because he actually listens. I mean he took into consideration that I had to get to feeling better in the next 12 hours – and gave me the necessary medicine to do just that. I’m also on Allegra again.

Okay, the ferry is huge. When cars and transfer trucks drive on they go down on an elelvator so that means that the vessel is worthy of high seas. At least that is what this guy told me that has taken this voyage the last 14 years. He won’t do it again because the prices have gone up so. He says it makes more sense to take one of the cruise ships.

I am sitting at a nice little booth table. We have our big bags over by our seats which are like recliners on the airplane but bigger. We actually won’t get our cabin until tomorrow night after all the folks disembark at Kodiak. Then we get our cabin with windows and four beds. We have so much luggage and one suitcase just of food. Tom says never again – that suitcase was too heavy. We brought canned chunky soup and tuna for lunch every day. We brought muffins for breakfast and we brought our coffee maker with cremora and splenda and our own special mugs and lots of tea bags. Then we brought cheese, crackers, cookies, candy, chips, and that’s why Tom, after lugging that huge bag on board, said “Never again!”

I just bought a week’s worth of internet for $36.00. There are no refunds so hope I will be lucky once we are out to sea to get a connection every once and a while. Okay, Charlie is now going to share his YouTube favorites with me. Hope we don’t start laughing too loud.

It’s late Thursday night and I am watching a French movie titled Bob Le Flambeur. We drove into Elmendorf about 10:30. It has been a pretty long day but let me tell you about yesterday first and then we’ll get to the mess today. We ate breakfast with Carmen and her family. Then Tom and Charlie went to get the Kennecutt Mine Tour. The plan was to come back and pick me up for lunch. I didn’t go on the tour because, well, my knee that I have not tended to was hurting. Tom and Charlie had to go park the truck, then walk across a bridge into McCarthy, then catch a tram up to the mine. I didn’t see them again until 2 in the afternoon and they were dead tired from all the climbing up and down those restored mine buildings. We had lunch in the gazebo that Carmen and John had built and then we all went and took a nap. I had spent the morning going through all my photographs on my computer and getting rid of duplicates. The three of us slept for two solid hours. We ate supper again with Carmen. Then afterwards, John took Charlie and Tom up separately in his airplane – the one he built. I will just insert here that John and Carmen have pretty much built everything on their property – barns, tire repair shop, cabin, houses, gazebos, fences, paths, airplane hangers, root cellar, and more. I was a little overwhelmed – it would take me and Tom a year to build a gazebo and we would probably never finish it! Anyway – the small plane ride was a first for Charlie and I think he was pretty nervous getting in and taking off. He said once they were up in the air, everything was great – they flew over Hidden Lake, some glaciers, the mine, and much more. They were in the air a good 45 minutes. Then it was Tom’s turn - same trip but the landing was a little “bumpy.” Tom had a great time – he loves that stuff and took loads of photos. When they flew over Carmen’s retirement home, John opened the door and leaned out and took the photo. Really. He’s a great pilot and don’t forget he built the plane.

After a wonderful breakfast this morning we left Carmen and family and headed back out on the dirt and gravel road to Chitina. Charlie drove us out. At about the 50 mile mark, only ten miles from Chitina, I said, “Charlie you are doing great. I believe you are going to beat Dad’s time by almost half an hour.” About a minute later Tom said, “Pull over, the front right tire is flat.” Okay, I spoke too soon and jinxed everything. It was all my fault. But it was just a flat and we had a good spare.

Tom and Charlie got out. I remained in the truck. After a while I realized it was taking entirely too long to get the spare out. I hopped out and saw the situation and quickly got back in the truck. That spare wasn’t coming out. Tom said the turning bar was stripped. Several people stopped but Tom said everything was fine. So they went on. After about 45 minutes of fooling around I suggested that Charlie hitch a ride into town and call AAA and if that didn’t work, to call Carmen – cause that family is pretty much prepared for any situation that might arise in the Alaska wilderness. I gave Charlie some cash, my calling card, my AAA card and Carmen’s phone numbers. He hitched a ride with the next car that came by. Happened to be a couple on their honeymoon from New Hampshire and he had to talk to them the whole way in. Remember you can only go about 20-25 miles an hour on this road and sometimes you have to creep, so it takes a while to drive ten miles. Back at the truck, you can imagine the situation. Dee had told me when she was here that sometimes it was best just to be quiet. So I just be’d quiet. It was hot but a cool breeze was blowing. I helped Tom put covers on the two side windows to block the sun and we left a crack for the wind to blow through. It ended up being pretty comfortable in the truck – except for the insects that kept coming in. We sat in silence. I got out a DVD to watch on my computer to keep my mind off the tire and to avoid any conversation about it with Tom. Several people stopped, Tom told everyone our son had gone into town to get help. We figured three hours till Charlie would get back – an hour in, an hour to get help, and an hour back. One man told us about Boone – the tire fixer in Chitina. I just hoped that Charlie would choose to find this guy – that someone would tell him to go there and that Charlie would get this guy to come out. I didn’t care what it cost. At about three that afternoon – 3 1/2 hours after the flat – I had fallen asleep in the back seat. A man pulled up and this guy would not leave. He kept wanting to try different things to get the tire down, and also hook up this thing to try to get air in the front tire - so we could at least get to Chitina. He wasn’t going to leave us there. Then he found out we were friends with Carmen and John and he was bound and determined to help then. I was listening to all this half asleep and finally raised up to help Tom with the conversation. The man was startled, “There’s a human in there!” (He had only seen Roxie in the truck.) We had a great time talking to him. Another local, a friend of his stopped by. After he left, our friend told us he was the son of Mudhole Smith – a quite famous Alaskan Bush pilot. I’ll have to look him up online. Then here comes a huge truck carrying a long load of gravel with a tremendous cloud of dust behind him. The man said “Better roll up those windows – he’s on the clock and ain’t gonna slow down.” I’m racing to raise the windows and that truck slows to a fast halt. Charlie hops out of the passenger side. Then the driver hops out to check things out. He couldn’t get the turning rod to work either. Charlie had, in Chitina, contacted Carmen and her brother Joe was on his way. When they heard this, both of these guys seem to realize we were in good hands. So the gravel man pulled out. Charlie had actually spoken with the Boone tire place in Chitina. Mr. Boone had quoted him $75 plus $3.75 per mile which added up to around $112. Charlie thought that was way too expensive so passed on his help. I couldn’t believe it - I would have paid twice that. Our friendly helper said there was nothing more that he could do and knew Joe would be there soon. So he left. Inside of three minutes, Joe pulls up, hops out, picks up the rod, examines both ends, sticks it in and lowers the tire. By the time we discovered he had lowered and removed the tire, Joe was jacking up the front and had pulled off the flat. Then we went up there to help, but he didn’t need any help. That tire was changed in a flash. Tom let down the jack and the tire was flat – not enough air in it. No problem – Joe went and got an air machine and pumped up the tire in a few seconds. Before we knew it Joe was heading back to his truck. Tom tried to pay – but no way. And here’s the kicker. He followed us all the way to Chitina in his truck to make sure we got there. We had spent four midday hours on a hot dusty road in the middle of nowhere with no phone service - but at least we will know which end of the rod to insert to lower the spare when we have our next flat, Charlie has learned that $112 is not too much to pay to get a tire fixed on the McCarthy Road, we spoke to the son of a famous bush pilot, I watched a great movie, Tom read Harry Potter for the first time, and we found out how helpful and determined the local residents are who live on the McCarthy Road. We drove all the way to Anchorage, stopping for supper in Glennallen, and arriving home at our pop-up at 10 pm. It was like we were the only people on the road till we got to Palmer. Took about three minutes to get into bed. Roxy was glad to get out of that car. Pictures coming...

Charlie and Tom will go to Hope to river raft Saturday and on to Seward for kayaking on Sunday. I’m remaining here with Roxy. We leave on our ferry trip to the Aleutians on Monday night.