West to Zuni...

2010-03-08T20:24:00.000-09:00

Charlie graduated from Navy recruit training at Great Lakes Naval Station this past weekend. Tom and I flew up to see his graduation ceremony. It was great and Charlie looked so handsome.

I love this photo of Charlie - he looks so happy.

Charlie enjoyed eating junk food, drinking Diet Coke and talking on the telephone.

Charlie had most of these muscles before training - that is why he was second out of about 85 young men in PT. He is now in Rolla Missouri for the next 9 weeks in training - I believe it is construction engineering.

2010-02-18T20:33:00.002-09:00

We spent the three day weekend in Truth or Consequences, NM. In the 1950’s they changed the name from Hot Springs – something to do with the show. Anyway, when we first arrived I was afraid I had led Tom on an unsuccessful adventure – the whole place was full of trailers – that’s all. Over 60% of the people there are retired and I guess on limited incomes. Our motel was an old one that had been remodeled and the room and bathroom were really big. We drove into town and found the use bookstore I wanted to visit and spent about an hour there – both of us finding good bargains.

Sunday morning we made our way to the county fair grounds to see the Texas Longhorn Steer contest – I think they were going from here to some place in Ft. Worth and only the winners would go. These steers were fantastic and I never knew they had such tempers. At one point the winner (the choclate cow in the photo) was charging one of the other steers and this rancher just stepped right in front of the steer and said “Whoa” and that steer nearly tumbled he stopped so fast. The horns on the steers were fantastic – what I found fascinating is that as they stormed through the gates coming and going, they knew exactly the moment to turn their heads just the right angle so as not to hit their horns on the gates. I was impressed.

Later we drove out to the SpacePort – where Richard Branigan (?) in six months is going to send folks to space from this 2 ½ mile runway. We were really just following these little rocket like graphics on a couple of directional signs – we had no idea how far it was. After about 15 miles after driving out to the middle of nowhere we were at a dead end and had to go right or left – of course we had not seen a sign in miles. We called the owner of the bookstore we visited the night before cause that was the only local number we had (on her book mark) and she said take a right and drive 12 more miles. So we did and that is when we saw Ted Turner’s buffalo ranch. A woman at the fairgrounds had told us to watch for them. There was another animal she told us to watch for, but we had never heard of it before…. Let me tell you they have a lot of work to do on that SpacePort place in the next six months. Tom and I had a nice long chat with the security guard.

When we got back to civilization we went down to the RiverBend Hot Springs and soaked in the springs for two hours. It was around 65 degrees and a breeze was blowing so those hot springs felt just wonderful. We enjoyed talking to the other folks there – it was sort of like a communal bathhouse.

In the late afternoon we decided we wanted to go find this ghost town which was only about 40 miles but we had to go up the mountain and through the pass and we knew we didn’t have time. We did not want to come back though those curvy roads and switchbacks in the dark. We decided to just drive to the pass and then come back. It got colder and curvier as we got higher and higher, more and more snow. By the time we got to the pass it was freezing. We got some great views from Emory Pass at 8220 ft. It was a lovely drive – so strange to be so cold when a couple of hours earlier we were in the hot springs. We saw beautiful horses, eight deer, a baby cow on the side of the road, a longhorn steer on the side of the road, goats, Shetland ponies, and a bobcat! I took this photo of the tree with microwaves stacked in it.

The next morning before heading back we checked out the museum which was wonderful – so much old stuff and hundreds of old pots. My favorite was the beautiful embossed saddles and the photos of all the Hollywood stars who had been at their annual fiesta for the last fifty years.

2010-01-22T10:31:00.002-09:00

Here is our apartment in the Zuni teacherage. It is the nicest housing in the area. We had about five inches of snow lat night following I don't know how many inches of rain. This place is really soaked. It isn't that cold though and I believe much of the snow has melted already. School was called off today so we are taking it easy.

A neighbor's dog attacked Roxie for the second time last night - Roxie was leashed but the black dog was not. He is looking for a big stick to take with him when he walks Roxie now.

We got our first correspondence from Charlie. Seems to be doing okay.

2010-01-17T14:55:00.004-09:00

Here are a few of my students in the library - 6th graders ! You can see some different parts of the library. I have finished the inventory, discarded over a thousand books, and marked over 26,000 books as lost. I deleted those titles from the database this past week. So now, the second part of the year will be dedicated to getting the records straight for the books we actually have on the shelves.

We had a nice Christmas in Georgia. Ended up having to replace gutters on the house since water was gathering underneath it. Georgia has had an emormous amount of rain this fall. We purchased Elizabeth's airplane ticket so we could see her at Christmas, and then all the city and couty taxes were due. So the month of January we are laying low.

On the drive back Tom and I stopped in Hot Springs Village, AR to see his Uncle Dick and his wife Inge. Uncle Dick is 90 years old now. We were so pleased to find both him and Inge in wonderful shape living a a beautiful home on the lake. Inge said that Dick was an inspiration to the other older folks there. He still plays golf about three times a week, drives, does whatever he likes. I'm not quite sure if this was a retirement village or not - but it was certainly a restricted development - just houses in the woods - no signs or businesses, lots of lakes, quiet, and huge. Over 15000 people live in this gated community.

Charlie is now in Great Lakes Naval Station in basic training. We have had only one very brief phone call from him telling us he had arrived and was fine. We miss him a bunch - very quiet here without him. Roxie has slept on Charlie's bed since he left.

2009-11-29T09:54:00.005-09:00

View from a bridge at Zion National Park.

We left Tuesday after school and drove to Flagstaff AZ. The next morning we drove to the Grand Canyon via Williams, AZ. Tom had not been there since he was a child and it had been over 30 years since I was there. We were all certainly impressed – the weather was clear and sunny. We wore layers, which we were constantly taking on and off depending on the sun and shade. Crowds were low. I will post a few photos below. We spent the night there and the next morning tried to get out by nine am, but there is so much to see – it was probably after one before we left the park.

Tom threw Charlie over the side! Not really - there is a ledge underneath Charlie...

This huge elk was eating cactus at our motel. There was a traffic jam with eveyone snapping photos.

On the way to Zion - 89A the scenic route.

Zion Park - you can see a small bus at the bottom of the photo - I took this one.

Weeping Rock - it was surreal.

Charlie fit right into a little mini-cave.

There are two rock climbers in this photo.

There are three of them here and they are carrying sleeping gear.

Charlie took this one and the few below on his high rim trek.

Notice the chain they have to hold onto to get around this curve.

This guy was just standing beside the road - he was posing for people.

I recommend the Magestic View.

Tom and Charlie found a friend!

We left going out the same way we came in - this tunnel is a mile long and has windows for beautiful views. It was a little eerie going through this thing at night.

We started our drive to Zion National Park and saw some beautiful scenery, stopping lots of places to look at pottery and take photos. Now, I had read somewhere that you need to arrive at Zion National Park before dark because of the switchbacks going down in to the canyon. Of course I had forgotten all about that – cause I can’t remember things as well as I once did. So it is around 6pm and dark and we reach the park and I immediately remembered reading to arrive before dark. It was quite dark – and we could see a couple of headlights way, way, way down below us. Stayed at the Majestic View resort for two nights and it was so nice. The next morning was a delight – cause remember it was pitch dark when we got there. Honestly we were overwhelmed with the beauty of the place. We saw people rock climbing on sheer surfaces. Charlie took the high route treks and Tom and I stayed low. Zion was just a fabulous place. The photos cannot do justice to the enormity of those cliffs and rocks.

We took 264 across Arizona to get home on Saturday - saw lots of beautiful scenery - just went on forever.

Charlie and Tom are packing today to drive back to Georgia. I’ll fly back on the 20^th – same day Elizabeth is flying in from Alaska. Even though I have been working this fall I feel like we have been on an extended vacation.

2009-11-14T15:09:00.000-09:00

Today I am posting a couple of photos of a really lovely sunset. Charlie took these photos. I am so busy at school I have hardly any time to update this blog. I have a second Family Night scheduled this week at school and then I have a book fair in two weeks. I had ordered the games for Family Night too late and they are not going to have arrived by Tuesday.

Tom and Charlies are leaving NM early - around the 30th. I will miss them - but it will be nice and quiet here and I get to watch anything I want on television. I just hope I can drive myself to the Albuquerque airport and board that plane by myself - Tom takes care of all that stuff.

We had rain and sleet today in Zuni - it is pretty cold but not freezing.

We have decided to go to Scotland this summer and we are putting a down payment on the trip tomorrow. I went online today and loaded up my Netflix queue with movies made in Scotlant. We are really excited about this trip. We'll take the boat over, train up to Edinburgh and then spend two weeks drivng around with a rental car. I don't know that it could possibly compare to our trip to Australia - but I have high hopes. Two of my favorite actors, Brian Cox and Peter Mullan are from Scotland!

2009-10-29T20:11:00.004-08:00

Tom and I have been really busy on the weekends recently. I work really hard at school during the week – staying late lots – but weekends are for traveling. I’ll start with our snowfall yesterday morning. Charlie took these lovely photos. Some snow is still here – Gallup schools started late today. I have these huge floor to ceiling windows in my library and had lovely winter views all day.

It was already beginning to melt when we woke up.

The second weekend in October we drove to Durango-Silverton steam train, which has been in continuous operation for 125 years. The scenery was fantastic and some of the curves were a bit nerve racking. We only had about two hours in Silverton – we should’ve taken the bus back – but Tom loves those trains.

Grumpy guys at Grumpys!

That is my old Size 5 coat - I look huge!

Scenes like this were at every turn.

We enjoyed eating and shopping – I bought a lovely Navajo pot that reminded me of a vase of my grandmothers. Mother said she always put Nasturtiams in it.

We stayed at a really old timey place that night in Durango – Charlie slept in the loft. Very comfy beds. It was one of those places that was probably pretty popular in the 60’s and 70’s before all the chains moved in.

Look behind us to see the huge - infinite valley just before we got to Mesa Verde.

The next morning we drove over to Mesa Verde National Park. On the way, driving through Colorado – we saw some of the prettiest and happiest cattle I have ever seen. The fields were so green and the cattle were black as could be and spread all over those huge fields. They just looked happy.

Tom at the ruins we visited.

I did not go below - but of course Tom did.

That's old Ann after she climbed back up from the ruins - it was quite a climb, but I did it.

Charlie crawling down to the ruins.

That's Charlie in the middle front.

The drive up the mesa to Mesa Verde was breathtaking. I swear we could see for a thousand miles – huge plains that just went on forever. We kept going up and up and up. The weather was clear and beautiful. We finally got to the top. Tom and I walked down to some ruins we could get to pretty easily. Charlie took the two tours where one has to tread rocks down, through, around, up, and actually climb ladders to get in and out. I never in my life though I would be able to see these cliff dwellings. It is something I’ve wanted to do since I was a child …and there we were. To know how old these places were and how hard life was for the people who lived there was a really odd feeling.

Last week I had my first family reading night at school – so I was really nervous and planning for that all week. We had over 70 people and it went great. I had made a scavenger hunt to learn about all the different activities and areas of the library. The parents seemed to have a wonderful time. So last weekend I was really relieved for the week to be over with. We were going to stay home and relax – but then we figured we could easily get to Monument Valley and back in two days. So I called up and made reservations at Guilding’s? Lodge – what a smart move! The next morning we had to deliver Roxy to the kennel and then stop by Wal mart. We can’t go anywhere without stopping by WalMart first. Charlie was really impressed with Window Rock and the other scenery we had on the way there. We got there after lunch and were just so surprised and pleased. This motel was really special and was backed up to a huge rock – I mean huge – I was a little nervous it might fall forward.

The motel is over to the right.

We could see Monument Valley from our room. We took a much needed nap and then headed out for the 17 mile loop though the valley. We were not disappointed. The road was rough and ready and we got some fabulous views. Now the reason Tom wanted to go to Monument Valley was because his favorite human being, John Wayne, made some movies there: Stagecoach, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and, my favorite John Wayne movie, The Searchers. So we were able to see some of the same scenery from the movie.

These horses were roaming free at the turn in to the Valley.

Nice photo. There were several folks with tripod and big cameras trying to capture the colors - it was almost dusk.

This was John Wayne's cabin or something in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

Charlie and Tom went to the motel theater to see Stagecoach that evening – I worked on school stuff. The next morning we ate breakfast at the restaurant, went to see John Wayne’s cabin (actually a set used in one of his movies there), and visited the gift shop where I bought two pots. We debated about whether we would drive home – or if we wanted to drive north a bit. North won out.

We headed towards Mexican Hat - but looking back we saw absolutely beautiful far off views of Monument Valley. We had to stop like ten times before we got to Mexican Hat. We saw a gravel pile so huge it looked like a lake. Mexican Hat is called Mexican Hat because it has a rock formation shaped like a Mexican hat!

We decided to go be further North to Gooseneck Park – where the San Juan River has eroded some rock and looks more like a snake than a gooseneck. It was special – there was nothing there hardly to keep one from falling over and down – I was a little nervous because the wind was blowing and I just knew one of us would blow over the side. We didn’t.

We decided to keep heading north and intersect with 191 before we headed south. About a couple of miles north of Gooseneck Park, we came to Valley of the Gods – a mini Monument Valley. It was okay but the best was about to come. We could see a huge mesa in front of us – but we could not tell where the road was going. Ended up – it went pretty much up the side of the mesa – switchbacking all the way, skinny gravel road, straight up and straight down on the side. How exciting! I held my breath the whole way, thankful that Charlie was in front and Tom could not see me gripping the seat.

At the top there was a dirt road off to the side and it led to a point. Eager for another great view we took if and drove several miles to the end. Oh my gosh! It was the highlight of the weekend! We ended up at Glen Canyon – there were huge rocks everywhere and we all started climbing on them – the views got better and better. I felt like we were at the Grand Canyon. There were only two other people there - just sitting there looking at the view. It really was fantastic. I’m so glad we kept going.

I love this photo of Charlie - it can't possibly show how grand this place was.

This is my pot I got at Four Corners.

I got this one at Monument Valley. These are Navajo horsehair pots.

We ended up going to Blanding Utah, then catching 191 south from there. It was dark when we got home. It was a wonderful weekend.

2009-10-05T19:16:00.000-08:00

You can barely see the people but there are several hundred out in the middle of that field looking at the Trinity site - where the first atomic bomb was tested in 1945. Tom and I drove there Saturday - he's been wanting to go there since we arrived. It is about 30 miles southeast of Socorro, NM. Here's a couple of photos:

Tom has a whole pound of fudge in his hand - neither of us are supposed to have it - but we did. we made ourselves wait 30 minutes between bites. We also ate at a lovely little restaurant in Magdelena NM on the way to the Very Large Array.

You may remember the Very Large Array from the movie Contact. Again, this was Tom's trip. He went on the tour while I read my book. Hence there are no pictures of Tom - just of the Very Large Array!

We got to watch them change position while we were there.

2009-09-28T20:54:00.002-08:00

I love this photo - can't do it justice this size on the blog. This is just inside Arizona.

This fellow was on our little patio today heading towards Roxie's food. Tom smushed him.

We are traveling every weekend and then I am working my self hard at school during the week. Last weekend we drove up to Four Corners and Shiprock. Ship Rock Peak was fascinating - we drove all the way around it. I believe it is over 1700 feet high just jutting out from the ground - a sacred rock to the Navajo.

Four Corners was nice, not too many folks and I found a really pretty Navajo horsehair pot that I liked and bought. Tom got an arrow to hang over the door for good luck.

Roxie goes with us on these trips - she loves the wildlife. We see loads of sheep, horses, cattle, Roadrunners. Saw some huge long horn steers the other day. Tom has seen coyotes several times - I can't see them fast enough. Still, my favorites are the Prairie Dogs.

This guy didn't even look up at us. Roxie of course was behaving very badly - trying to go through the window.

This past weekend we traveled to Canyon De Chelly National Monument near Chinle Arizona. There were 1000 year old dwellings built into the rock. You can barely see them in the photos - these rock canyons are huge.

Some Navajo still farm in the valley and I hope you can see the fields. We take Roxie everywhere of course - she and Tom cannot bear to be separated. We got out at one of the overlooks and walked down to the edge where there was a wall there to keep you from falling over and Roxie just jumped right up on top of that thing. The drop off on the other side was straight down - way down. Tom barely pulled her back in time. You can believe we held her tight after that.

You can barely see the houses in the cliffs. They were amazing, over 1000 years old.

Spiderwoman peak - she takes bad children to the top. I think I'd like to go.

Right snack dab in the center of this photo are the cliff dwellings.

I thnk if we ever go back to Canyon De Chelly again, we will take the four wheel drive tour at the bottom of the canyon. We would get to see the rock art and the houses up close. There is only so much time...

We also visited the Hubble Trading Post in Granado and dropped by Window Rock - which was out favorite stop of the day. There was a nice memorial to the Navajo Veterans.

I love this photo of Tom and this beautiful tree with the Window Rock in the back.

Yes, I have lost a little weight. The lap band is a wonderful thing.

Hubbel Trading post - very old place. They have $10,000 Navajo blankets in here!

If you look closely you can see Roxie in the truck.

2009-09-13T09:12:00.002-08:00

This photo was taken late in the afternoon – a family was out herding the cattle to another area – by horse and 4-wheeler.

Grass is growing in our yard. It is lovely and hopefully will keep the Roxie mudtracks down to a minimum.

Yesterday we traveled to El Morro, a huge rock formation with a pool of water at it’s base. Used to take 9 or 10 days for the explorers and early settlers to travel from Albuquerque to Gallup and this was a stop because it had this great water. Some early explorers carved inscriptions on the rocks and of course they are still there. We enjoyed reading about the inscriptors!

Later we traveled over to El Malpais with I believe means bad country. Well it was certainly beautiful country. There is a huge valley covered in black lava just huge. There were as many as 30 volcanoes in the area and the lava flowed to the same valley. We took about three hikes (could not have done that before my weight loss) and enjoyed climbing on some high cliffs – you could actually drive right to the top of them. There were also some lava tubes, some collapsed and some not – but we needed a 4-wheel drive vehicle with high clearance to get there. Maybe later.

We felt very alone in El Malpais – saw no more than 10 folks in the entire park. We did pass maybe 20 cars on the road. Seemed to be a really remote area.

I am posting a few photos.

The tall rock formations of El Morro.

El Malpais - on the top of the rocks. I was almost dizzy.

I aksed Tom to hold tight to Roxy - cause it was a long way down.

Here's me and Tom. That is the lava field in the valley behind us.

This is La Ventura Natural Arch - eroded from sandstsone from the era of dinosaurs

2009-09-06T19:13:00.005-08:00

We had a really great thunderstorm and downpour today. The weather has really been so cool and clear the last few weeks - so different from when we arrived.

Yesterday we drove over to the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest - took about 90 minutes to get over there. Tom had never been to the area so he was quite taken with everything, had to stop at every place. We even took one of the hikes, and I could not have done that without my weight loss. I am right at 70 pounds. We drove to Winslow, Arizona afterwards and stopped at the "Standin' on the corner" corner that the Eagles made famous. Then we drove another 20 miles to see a Meteor Crater and it was fabulous. Tom had been there when he and his brother were in their 20's and there was nothing there but a little frame place. They actually climbed all the way down and then back up - which is quite a distance. But they were young...

Here are some photos.

It just goes on forever.

This is Tom's first view of a petrified rock.

There's lot of dinosaus statues around. Roxie thought some were real.

The Wigwam Hotel

I felt like the wind was going to blow me over. It was very strong.

Tom was amazed at the vistitor center. Movies, gift shop, displays, Subway, elevators, well it was

pretty different from when he was there 40 years ago.

2009-09-02T18:08:00.000-08:00

We had a fire drill at school today and the Zuni fire department actually sent a firetruck out to participate in the drill. They always do.

When Tom drives me to school every day, as we turn the corner into the school property Roxie just goes nuts cause she is about to see all the stray dogs that one of our teachers feed each morning and she is also about to see the little prairie dogs.

We have met more and more of our teacher neighbors here. Not too many inbetweens - mainly younger teachers or people with lots of experience like me. Like Chevak, these folks are from all over the US.

Tom is cafefuly tending to our grass - he and Roxie keep it watered and go out to check several times a day to see in any grass is coming up.

2009-08-30T20:28:00.000-08:00

Sunset on the way back to Zuni. The whole sky was pink.

Tom and Roxie wait patiently while I take photos.

We passed by this area - but one weekend we are going to explore it - there are writings and drawings on the rock that are over 700 years old.

While searching for the main gate into Kirkland Air force base we came across two of these rocky snakes. You are only seeing the first third of the snake.

Tom Bender has really been busy sine he arrived. The back yard is now completely clear of the waist high weeeds. He has actually planted some grass seed in the dirt that was left. He has put up all my posters and pictures, put up all the curtains, and got us some groceries - lots of groceries. I believe he thinks he is still in Alaska and buying for four months at a time! We took a little trip to Alberquerque yesterday to get our tv set. I took a couple of photos along the way.

2009-08-23T20:03:00.000-08:00

Finally posting a few photos. The prairie dogs are the best. Looking forward to seeing Roxie's reaction to these little creatures.

Okay, here is the famous mesa or mountain here. At various angles it looks completely different.

Below is the apartment complex where I live - built and maintained by the school. Each builing you see houses two large apartments. They are twice as big as the ones we had in Chevak. And only $417 a month.

Mary - here is some kind of bird house - there are hundreds of bird in this thing. They harvest the feathers, I believe. It is the brown structure. When I get my permit I'll take a better photo. I was taking these out of the truck window today.

And now we come to these precious little creatures - the prairie dogs at my school.

These guys must be big eaters.

These guys stayed still for the longest - like they were frozen.

2009-08-22T17:25:00.003-08:00

I finished inventorying the fiction books today. It takes three times as long to inventory because the bar code might be on the back, it might be on the front, it might be inside the back cover, it might be on the title page and it might not be there at all. I would say at least half of the books so far have those yellowed smelly pages - many are paperbacks or bound paperbacks. i think one of my main goals will be to get lots of new books and many replacements for what we have there now. I discarded about 300 books today.

My reference books are inventoried and all have new bar code labels - on the bottom left of the front cover. I have started replacing the ones on the fiction, but it will take months.

The folks in our apartment complex are having a block party tomorrow afternoon. It is right outside my door so I guess I better go. It will be nice to see who lives here cause frankly I seldom see anyone around here period. I did go over to eat with a fellow teacher at my middle school the other night. Her apartment looked so homey and she has lots of comfy furniture. I think Tom and I are going to live lean this year till we know we are staying - well at least till Christms.

Speaking of Tom - he should be leaving Georiga tomorrow morning in my new used Corolla that I bought from Elizabeth. I just realized I have bought that car twice now - once when it was new and we bought it for her and now when it is used and we have bought it from her.......something is wrong here.

Elizabeth called me like six times today - she was at her library working on Saturday and I was at mine working on Saturday. Like mother like daughter. She found a card catalog in the office and was a little concerned. She is sure the library is automated though. I believe the high school has had major renovations this summer and was only opened for teachers this past Friday, the first day of work.

On Monday I am going to get my photo permit so I can take some photos of the Zuni area. They are very strict about photos.

The kids at school are great.

2009-08-18T20:17:00.003-08:00

My office is finally cleaned out. We had open house tonight. Four of my libary assistants came in with their parents. I was so glad they dropped by.

Tom is flying home as I type this entry. I hope all his connections work and that he gets home safely. Elizabeth is having a great time. I believe she is full of excitement and anticipation. Her new principal is a former principal from Hart County - so she feels like she knows him already.

I am so looking forward to Tom's arrival. I have never missed him so much.

I am going to get some photos but you have to get a permit before you take any photos and I can't get out of school early enough. I think I might leave on time tomorrow, get the permit and then go back to school. I went to Gallup on both Saturday and Sunday this past weekend to pick up stuff we needed for our apartment. The drive is just lovely. I must get some photos soon.

2009-08-13T16:19:00.005-08:00

I am about to finish my third day here and I am about to drop. I have finally cleaned out my office enough so that the custodian can actually vacuum. I don't know how I would have done it without my wonderful student library assistants. They have really been helpful. Next week I start on the library workroom which has hundreds of videos, and the equipment room. I just want everything in place, in order and it is going to be a job. For those of you who are interested in this sort of thing, here are some of the issues:

1. They had changed almost (to the 800's) all of the Dewey Numbers to only three digits so the kids could shelve the books easier. No more 598.2 or 599.97 or 796.35.
2. Only certain sections of the books are in order. I mean the 800's are just on the shelves in any order, and also the 900's.
3. This is the best! There are 39,000+ items in the Alexandria database. There are no more than 10,000 books on the shelves.
4. The librarian got marc records but did not load them. Instead the aide did brief cataloging on the new books. By brief, she entered the title and the bar code.
5. Many of the bar codes on the books and the computer do not match. For example, on the computer a bar code will match one title, but that exact same bar code will be on an entirely different book.
Mary, RoseMary and Elizabeth, you guys will understand my frustration and also the job ahead of me. I want to do an immediate inventory - but we cannot locate the handheld scanner.

There are hundreds of little prairie dogs around the school. They make holes in the ground and just pop up everywhere. Roxie will go nuts.

Tom and Elizabeth are in Alaska. They bought a 2007 Subaru Outback today. I imagine they will drive to Delta Junction tomorrow. I hope Tom comes on back soon. Well, I hope he comes back period...

I have put in a total of 11 work orders for the technology department.

My aide lived in Anchorage for nine years. What a small world.

I love this very small school - except I have bus duty morning and afternoon with the principal. I like her a lot. She is shorter than Elizabeth.

2009-08-11T15:37:00.002-08:00

We arrived in Zuni yesterday and it seems like two weeks ago. Our apartment in "to die for"! Brand new, twice the size of the apartment we had in Chevak. The grounds are landscaped and there is even an automatic sprinkler system. The air conditioner is a little funky. We turn on the pump fist to get some straw wet on the roof, and then five minutes later we turn on the air. It works.

It is so hot here. Hot like in "Larence of Arabia" hot. We are totally exhausted from the heat. My only relief is that it is going to get cooler in about a month. Today a Zuni man asked us to come watch the dancing in the square. Then he told Tom that since we were not Zuni that we would have to go up on the roof to watch. Uhh - it would be too hot for me on the roof and besides that, how are we going to get up there. We decided to wait till a cooler day. The roof....

My library clerk is fabulous. The library is beautiful. The principal took me to every classroom to meet the teachers and kids this morning. We have our checking account, our post office box, our keys and we are set. If only I could get my computer to print.

The track youngsters were running and exercising in the heat afterschool today. I don't know the temp but it is crazy hot here.

Internet might not be much of an option here. The school intranet is severely structured and my favorite sites are all blocked. I haven't tried Netflx yet - but if it is blocked I might start crying. There is internet available in housing but it is expensive and hardly ever works. So, I don't want to put money out for something that isn't usable and available. Then, and here is the worst - I cannot use my laptop to log onto the internet at school. UMPH! MY frustration level has been reached with the technology here.

Our apartment was not furnished so we had to drive to Gallup yesterday - our first day here - to get a new mattress. We then went to Goodwill and found a couch and two chairs and two endtables. Tom went back this morning (the mornings are cool like air conditioning) and picked up a few necessary items from Wal Mart.

Tomorrow I will drive Tom to Gallup where he will catch the train to Albuqerque - I will learn to spell that. He will then fly to Phoenix to meet Elizabeth and they will fly together up to Anchorage. He will be back in about a week. I'll miss them both.

Maybe I can get some photos loaded tomorrow. I have been swamped with stuff to do.

2009-08-08T18:42:00.002-08:00

It is August 8th and we are spending the night at the Route 66 Motel on Route 66 in Tucumcari NM. We travel to Albequerque tomorrow and then on to Gallup tomorrow afternoon. We will be around an hour from Zuni and will head there Monday morning. I'll check in at the district office for some paperwork and then hopefully we will get into our apartment. Tom leaves Wednesday afternoon.

It has been hot and super windy. The trees in Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle actually lean toward the Northeast because of the wind. I would open the car door and my "literature" would start blowing everywhere and on a couple times the door of the truck would slam shut. It was 98º today.

Our route was - Atlanta, Montgomery, Memphis, Little Rock, Oklahoma City, Amarillo and now to Tucumcari. We are not making and unnecessary stops so I have no photos yet. I expect to get a few tomorrow. Our trip has really been uneventful. There was a major traffice jam in Memphis - two insterstates were intersecting and they were working on both at the same time and it was 5:30pm when we were traveling through. Traffic was at a standstill. I guess it took us over 45 minutes to go about 10 miles.

The transfer trucks on I 40 must number in the millions.

So, I have a little event to write about. Last night at our motel, Tom went out to the car to get toothpaste and another time to get a bag. Well, he was gone a long time both times. I mean a good 20 minutes. I just figured he was fooling around with the truck. Then this morning, he went to get coffee at the motel breakfast. He was gone a long time again - enough time for me to get a second snooze. Now, let me back up here to about four years ago , when I was discussing finances with my brother Mike, I told Mike that if I could keep Tom from drawing cash out of the ATM machine, that I believed we could save some money. I had no idea what he did with the money he drew out. Then Mike said " He may have him a girlfriend somewhere!" I'm lying there in the bed now, remembering that conversation and realizing that once again Tom has left and is simply not returning. I started imagining all the things that could be going on and started to get out of the bed, but then he returned. I told him my concerns and we got a good laugh out of it. Turns out he had been gassing the car, repacking the truck, etc.

We have seen a dead armadillo and a very still huge turtle on the side of the road. We have seen over a million cows.

I'm going to change the photo on my blog - I'll have to take just the right photo.

2009-06-28T10:25:00.002-08:00

It has been a while since we posted. We arrived safely in GA after eight days on the road back from Alaska. The trip was a quick one - stops were kept to a minimum. Our house was topsy turvy - I did manage to get the curio cabinets emptied before the painters got to them. We have stayed with my brother David and daughter Elizabeth several days and then we took a trip up to meet our longtime friends, Terry and Dee, at Amicalola Falls. We got back into the house last week and have been working hard to clean up and rearrange everything since.

Elizabeth is still planning to go to Delta Junction. She has an apartment now and is getting excited and nervous at the same time. Tom is planning on flying up there with her and getting her settled.

Roxie is now trim and lean - the yard is good for her to run around in and get lots of exercise chasing squirrels and birds. She is having a great time off-leash. At least we do not have to worry about someone shooting at her.

This will be my last post for a while. There won't be much to say this summer.

2009-06-02T21:27:00.002-08:00

Tom and Roxie at Radium Hot Springs. The highway was cut out of the mountain behind him. This was a tough mountain to climb and descend. Trucks were having a really hard time. Glad I wasn't driving.

A young man had his friend take his photo while he was on top of this rock. I said "Tom, why don't you hop up there and let me take your photo, too!" And he did!

There are swarms of insects in Canada - they hit the windshield like the birds in "The Birds". There must have been a thousand on our windshield, the view was absolutely obstructed. Every stop we made, the windshield had to be scrubbed.

I have attempted to make Roxie as comfortable as possible. She is on top of two sleeping bags, a wool blanket and a towel - all of which serve to put her at exactly the right height to be near her "man", have a clear view out the front window, and take a comfy snooze without being too far from Tom. We stopped at Pet Land in Prince George and got her a new leash and some chicken snacks.

It took us three entire days plus half this morning to get through Canada. What a long trip! It isn't as much fun when one is just driving - not stopping to enjoy the sights. We got so tired of the bugs and the mountains just seemed to go on and on. I mean they were beautiful but there were so many of them. We were mighty glad to cross the border into Montana this morning. We entered above Eureka and drove through Kalispell and hit Interstate 90 at Missoula. The western part of Montana is just so much more beautiful that the eastern part - at least from what I can remember. These huge rolling hills - and the Flathead Lake was fabulous.

Hope we can make good time the next couple of days. It is all interstate from here.

Elizabeth called and said she had a good possibility of a roommate. That was great news. Housing is quite high in Delta Junction - if you can find it at all. She said the gal she was going to room with was on a road trip this summer on her motorcycle!

Today, there was a beeping sound every ten minutes in the car - coming from the dashboard. As near as we could figure it was near the radio. We got into one of those arguments - Tom insisted there was nothing wrong with the truck and I was insisting that there must be, else why would this beep keep going off every ten minutes. I got the manual out and skimmed that thing from front to back - nothing about a beep. Every time it beeped we would stop talking and look at the dashboard to see if there was a warning light or a message. This went on for about five hours - from Radium Hot Springs to Missoula. We did not figure it out till we parked the truck at the motel, cut it off and were getting out of the vehicle when we heard it again and realized it was the cell phone telling us it had a low battery.

2009-06-01T07:03:00.005-08:00

Spent the night in a pretty nice town - Smithers, British Columbia. Tom and Roxie are getting the truck gassed up - I think it is around $76 to fill the truck. Ouch! Not sure if that is Canadian or US but I think it is by the liter - and cannot remember how a liter compares to a gallon. I just know that the gas is expensive. Tom wants to get out of Canada as soon as possible.

Roxie will not let Tom out of her sight. She is obsessed with him.

Tom and Roxie posing once again. Tom is such a good sport.

Roxie catches up on her sleep in the back seat of the truck.

Huge rushing streams are everywhere. I've never seen so much water.

Below are some of the animals we saw on the Cassiar Highway. We really felt like we were in the wilderness here - not so many folks on the road. Weather was beautiful and the road was paved almost the whole way - contrary to what some people told us. The first hundred miles or so was a little rough - but after that, just fine.
Let's see, we saw a red fox, seven black bears, one moose, three reindeer, and four horses.

We believe these are female caribou (or reindeer).

This moose was certainly a familiar sight.

Tom thinks this is a male caribou (or reindeer).

I've never been so close to a black bear! She was really giving us the eye and I was pretty glad I was in the truck.

These great looking horses were just ambling down the middle of the road.

2009-05-30T22:09:00.002-08:00

We are on our way home on the AlCan Highway. We were hoping to leave Anchorage early Friday morning – but there were too many issues to be settled and things to take care of and stuff we needed to do. So we ended up pulling out at around 3:30 in the afternoon. We did end up driving all the way to Tok at least.

On our second day, we have now passed Whitehorse and are heading to – rather wanting to get to Watson Lake tonight. Roxie is tired of the truck already. We are passing up all sight seeing on this trip – just what sights we can see from the truck.

The weather is just beautiful - sunshine, cool breezes and clear skies. Yukon is a beautiful place. Emerald green water some places and deep dark blue other places. We have passed so many huge lakes, several still covered in a layer of ice.

On the road just inside the Canadian border we saw a little blonde coyote. About 50 feet later we saw an ugly looking large wolf. He may have been after the coyote. Both were practically on the highway.

Tom is letting me help him drive. He drives a couple of hours and then I drive a couple of hours. We’ll see how long it lasts. The only caveat is that I cannot drive slower than 55 miles an hour.

I'll try to post a couple of photos tomorrow. We are leaving the AlCan and heading down the Cassier Highway. It is not entirely paved - but then we have traveled a lot of unpaved road today. We still don't know our route once we hit Prince George.

2009-05-27T14:10:00.004-08:00

That is Tom Bender dancing with the natives at Saxman Village.

This afternoon we are in Vancouver at the airport waiting to get back to Anchorage. I am so impressed with Canada. We came through an inside passage last night - between Vancouver Island and the mainland, I won't be sure till I see a good map. IT was just lovely, so green and so many beautiful snowcapped mountains. Lot of gorgeous homes on the Island - all along the way as we got closer to Vancouver. Also, it gets dark here - really dark. The city of Vancouver is absolutely spotless and beautiful. So many lovely homes with great landscaping all through the city. The airport is huge and the waiting areas are spacious.

Tom and I are now sold on cruising. The first couple of days were tough for me - I am not fond of crowds -but we soon found our own spots and were able to relax. The room service is addictive and free so we really took advantage of that. We liked our little Indonesian steward - he called us Mrs. Annice and Mr. Thomas and came to clean the room twice a day. The water was so beautiful and relaxing - I can't wait to go on another cruise.

I will post a few more photos today. Can't wait to see our Roxie and get started home to Georgia.

Tom enjoys his third beer at the Alaskan Brewery.

Tom Bender at Ship Creek - a really famous landmark in Ketchikan.

2009-05-26T15:09:00.004-08:00

We are leaving Chevak for the last time, never to return. Roxie is in the kennel on the ground beside Tom and is not a happy camper. This particular scene is one I always enjoyed.

Chevak seems so long ago.

We are on the last day of our Southeast Alaska cruise. There were not so many tourists up here this year signing up for these cruises so the prices really went down. I’m not sure we are getting a great deal but I think we are. We have a lovely spacious room with a deck. The food is never ending and the weather has been clear and sunny all week except for our visit to Ketchikan.

Roxie is staying at the kennel in Anchorage – she is pretty happy there. We are already anxious to see her – we are really obsessed with the dog. It’s comical.

Let’s see, the first day was “at sea”. The second day was spent in Sitka. We simply got off the ship and walked around there. The third day we visited Juneau – where Tom and I went to the Glacier gardens. This man had reclaimed an area that was destroyed by a landslide and just landscapes the whole place with rocks, streams, and beautiful plants. We rode to top of the mountain in a small vehicle in which Tom and I were sitting in the front seat and higher up than everyone else – pretty exciting and pretty scary. There was a great view Juneau and the harbor. Our ship actually looked small. Later we went on a tour of the brewing company where they make Alaskan Amber beer. They had free beer and I think Tom had three different ones. He said he was wobbly on the way out. The fourth day we spent in Skagway – on my gosh – nothing but tourist shops. We could’ve stayed on board. We did go to the historical museum which was housed in this old college building. It was nice – there were two dolls there from Chevak made by Ursula Pingayak. That afternoon we took the White Pass –Yukon train and it was worth the whole trip. Tom and I stood out on the platform the whole time in awe and taking photos. It was loads of fun and so beautiful. Lots of snow was at the top of the pass.

Yesterday we landed at Ketchikan. We went to the Saxman Native Village to see dancers (Tom joined them) and some really interesting and old totem poles. Later we saw the Lumberjack Show. I could not enjoy the show for worrying about those young men getting hurt. It was fascinating – swinging axes, climbing tall poles, dueling banjos with the chainsaws, and much more. Tom had a ball and the crowd was really into the show. Great fun.

Tom has been going to sauna and the steam room everyday. He knows every inch of this ship.

I shall post a few photos. Tomorrow evening, we fly back to Anchorage and pick up the dog and the truck and head home. We are not yet sure of the direction once we hit – well we aren’t sure of the route yet. We’ll know what it is once we take it.

We love this cruising. There are people on this ship who cruise a couple of times a year. My time on the internet is charged for on ths ship - so will have to put descriptions under the photos in a couple of days.

Tom in Sitka. He liked this statue of the old prospector.

The bear is not real or Tom would not be smiling.

Tom is on the pool deck on board. He spent a lot of time here because this is where there was 24 hour free ice cream and pizza.

I had Tom pose outside the ship before we boarded.

We each posed with a totem pole. Notice Tom is "Low man on the totem pole!"

2009-05-10T19:38:00.003-08:00

As we came home from school on Friday, it was actually snowing here. I've never seen so much snow. I believe it will still be on the ground next August when school starts again.

Good news. Elizabeth is now certified in the state of Alaska and also has signed a contract with the Delta Greely School District Delta Junction is at the very end of the AlCan Highway - between Tok and Fairbanks. It is on the road system so she will be able to drive out of town if she wants.

Can't wait to get on that plane Saturday.

2009-04-12T18:30:00.008-08:00

This ice cycle is hanging down from our house - it was about six feet long. Kid would come by to get it but Tom would chase them away.

As you can see the snow is covering most of the smaller buildings.

Teacher housing is getting covered up as well. We are thinking that "break up"might not have even occured when we get ready to leave Chevak in May. It is still so very cold here.

2009-03-17T21:39:00.002-08:00

Here's Roxie Bender rolling in the grass at Valdez last summer. She had been on the ferry in the truck for awhile and was really glad to get to the grass. Wind was really blowing too.

2009-03-17T21:27:00.003-08:00

We stopped by a rushing "stream" on the Denali Highway last year. It was loud and and fast.

2009-03-17T21:03:00.004-08:00

These movies are loading - so I am going to load a couple more. This is a short video of McCarthy Alaska back last sumer when we went to see our friend Carmen. McCarthy is at the end of a long dirt road which is a three hour drive at 20 miles an hour. Tom is taking this video. I am actually on the porch of the building but you can't see me.

2009-03-17T20:44:00.002-08:00

Cupi'k Dancing
This video is from Christmas. I have only now gotten to a connection fast enough to load it. These kids are in the third grade.

2009-03-17T19:39:00.005-08:00

Welcome to Kodiak! Tom and I are here for a library conference. What a great place to have a library conference. We have enjoyed eating Halibut and visiting a couple of museums and riding around the island seeing some outstanding scenery.

There was an Out Loud Fisher Poets show with real Kodiak fisherman telling stories and singing songs. Really authentic and great entertainment.

You are seeing only a small portion of the boats in the harbor. They were so beautiful in the sunlight.

Dozens of Eagles flying about.

We enjoyed touring the Coast Guard Base. We got to see watch some of the planes and helicopters take off for training.

You may be able to make out U.S. Coast Guard on the boat.

The snow arrived and just piled up - softest, lightest snow I've ever seen.

We went from beautiful, sunny, bright weather to a foggy snowfall - just covered everything.

It was a major trip getting here. We actually went out to the airport four times to catch the bush plane out of Chevak but fog kept the airplane from landing. Well, once around 4pm it did land and we got on - but a pregnant woman needed a seat and Tom and I gave ours up. It was a little funny because there was too much weight for any baggage - it would have gone in on the next flight. But when Tom and I got off and the pregnant gal got on - well instead of a second passenger - they decided to load ALL of the baggage and take it with them. Tom and I were the only ones who saw the humor.

When we finally flew out around 6pm, we arrived in Bethel only to have that flight delayed as well. We actually got into our hotel in Anchorage at 12 midnight. We got only about four hours of sleep before we got our separate flights to Kodiak. The last 15 minutes of my flight was horrendous - I felt like I was on a shaky bullet headed into Kodiak.

The first few days here were great. We saw some great scenery and loved looking at the boats in the harbor. There are lots of Eagles here - we have seen as many as seven at a time. We are now in a small blizzard - well nothing to compare with Chevak - maybe we'll call it a snowfall. Our flights to Anchorage have now been cancelled and we are spending yet another night here. It is a great place to be stranded.

2009-02-21T18:28:00.002-09:00

Tom walks Roxie during the blizzard.

2009-02-21T12:08:00.011-09:00

Our neighbor across the way, Jeff, shovels snow from his front door area.

Roxie is play ing on snow that covers our connexes - they are about 8 feet high.

If folks have a snow machine AND a four wheeler - they have pretty much let the four wheelers get buried in the snow. There's no place to shelter them.

We having a little blizzard today. No planes. Nobody outside. A wedding was postponed. I don't even know how to describe this weather. C-c-c-cold, heavy winds, blowing snow, quasi whiteouts coming and going. If you try to open a window to get a bit fresh air - it might just blow off the hinges. Roxie does her business really fast when she goes out side. Several people were trying to get out for a conference and only one plane was able to fly in yesterday and it had just six seats. So they are stuck here in this awful weather when they thought they would be in Anchorage in a nice hotel for the weekend. A couple of the teachers have only been out about once this year - so this is a trip they don't want to miss.
I'm well now. Tom is so relieved. He is a wonderful caretaker.

2009-02-15T22:21:00.004-09:00

Whew - high winds and blowing snow. I'm posting a few photos.

We have not yet taken down our Christmas lights.

We have several ball teams and the principal out of town (well out of village) and they can't get back in. No mail. No eggs. No powdered sugar. And Roxie does not want to go outside - not to mention Tom. Last weekend we had the big annual HoopFest. Teams from all over Southwest Alaska came in to have a big basketball tournament. I made - let me count - 96 cupcakes and four regular cakes. I have been trying to get back into my cake decorating which I used to do in the 70's. Was it that long ago? Anyway, I am pretty rusty - but got a rather good looking heart cake made for the food sale at HoopFest. Some ball player saw it and special ordered one for her friends birthday. It brought back such great memories of when I took those cake decorating classes in NC and then taught the cake decorating classes in Costa Rica. The teams filled up every classroom in the middle and high school wings and camped out. Chevak ended up winning the championship. This is quite a social event since people get to see friends and spend time with people they know from other villages.

I have been sick for five days now - but keep trudging along to school. It hits me in the evenings - chills and aching bones.

Tomorrow it will be an especially rough trip to school since we have these huge snow drifts - many are up to 12 and 15 feet near the houses. We will certainly be climbing though snow banks tomorrow on the way to school. Tom has it rough cause he has to push and pull me along. Not really, I do pretty well.

2009-02-02T17:43:00.003-09:00

It is ice-cold around here! The last week or so has been interesting to say the least. Lat Saturday morning a friend called to find out about the earthquake in Alaska. We had one that morning just after 9am and I didn't even know it. It was near the Cook Inlet.This past week has been a Volcano watch for part of Alaska across the water from Homer. Terry and Dee and Mary - you guys saw Mt. ReDoubt when we made that stop and looked across at that long line of dormant and sleeping volcanoes. They expect some ash to be falling around Anchorage if it does blow.

My aide is out with a new adopted baby and I am alone for six weeks. It has been quite a while since I shelved and checked out books. Very boring....

2009-01-01T12:50:00.003-09:00

It is a cold, clear, and quiet New Year's Day in Chevak. We had fireworks twice last nice - out on the lake. They were just beautiful - the whole place would light up. The first set of fireworks was around 9pm - a couple of teachers did those, I think mainly so the kids in teacher housing could see before they went to bed. The second set started at midnight. We heard the pop pop pops and went out on the porch to see. I told Tom, "I hear them but I can't see them." Tom laughed and said, "Those aren't fireworks honey, those are gunshots." Seems people all over the village were just shooting guns in the air - and it was obvious that there was at least one automatic weapon shooting rapid fire. Wow! Then the planned lighted fireworks started and people were running around on 4-wheelers and snow machines and I could see little kids with little fireworks going off all over the lake in addition to the Big Show and the gunshots. It was like a bizarre movie scene.

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T18:04:00.006-09:00

The Bender family with the village of Chevak in the background.

Sunset in Chevak.

Our children flew out this morning. Elizabeth called from Anchorage to say how much they liked the Dimond Hotel. I chose it because it is literal in the middle of a huge shopping and entertainment area. Since the truck can no longer travel on the snow and ice safely, they had to go out to the airport on the snow machine pulling a trailer. Charlie sat down in the sled and Liz rode behind Leo on the snow machine. It was pretty cold but they bundled up. I watched the plane take off in the dark (10:45 am) and hoped there was heat on board.

A teacher friend took Charlie out on the snow machine and I think Charlie had a pretty good time. He was able to get away from the village area and really see nothingness for miles and miles. They also went down to the fish camps - which of course are frozen solid right now.

I just hope they had a good time. It was expensive getting them up here and three days is usually about all the togetherness we as a family can take.

Charlie took this one way out in the tundra. I like it.

You can see a couple of the drying racks for the fish. The river of course is frozen.

That is Charlie sitting in the back.

The use this trailer to haul people back and forth and to deliver boxes to folks.

Elizabeth was the lucky one.

2008-12-29T12:59:00.007-09:00

We attended the Eskimo Dancing last night. Finally the weather was good enough so people could get outside. Still it was very cold. Tom first drove over with Liz, and Charlie and I started out walking. I would say the distance is maybe three football fields - however, the temperature was extremely low. One gets cold quickly. So Tom came back to pick up Charlie and then returned to get me - maybe halfway there. It was so cold.

So much attention - the Chevak kids kept coming up wanting to compare our looks with Elizabeth and Charlie - comparing eyes and chins and noses. Everyone wanted to know how old they were and their names. It was a lot of fun introducing them to all the folks. Many were amazed that they spent their Christmas up here. Right now Tom has taken Liz for a trip to the dump and the store and some other places - like a tourist view of the village. Today I am posting a few photos we have taken this week. The first few are of the Eskimo Dancing last night.

The first part of the evening the kids dance by grade level. The males use feathers in their fans and the females use fur.

Drumming is serious business. That is John Pingayak in the center - he is well known throughout Alaska for his knowledge of Cupi'k native culture. The older man on the other side of him is David Boyscout - one of our village elders.

Virgil is a great kid and a great reader!

This child was just too beautiful - her headdress is a real heirloom.

This last photo is interesting - the one girl has on high tech reflective boots while the other has on hand made boots - of seal skin, fur, etc.

Here are the Benders - relaxing.

Charlie took this just outside the village. Pretty lonely looking.

Another view of the tundra.

The way the wind blows the snow makes for some interesting architecture.

2008-12-27T14:26:00.004-09:00

Tom has Charlie shoveling snow so we can get off the porch. I am not sure the kids will ever come up here again. The weather has just been so windy and that makes the cold even colder. It is just too bad to even go outside. Of course we do, we went to school yesterday and they were both certainly impressed with the school facilities and especially all of the computers in the library.

The Eskimo Dancing celebration has been canceled twice now due to the blowing snow and cold temperatures. I do hope it transpires before the children leave - I will be so disappointed if they don't get to witness this event first hand.

This photo shows how working in a small kitchen with three dogs running around can be difficult.

Charlie and Elizabeth are trudging to school during a clearing of weather that lasted about an hour.

Here's Charlie returning later - you can barely see him.

We've been watching lots of movies and playing with the dogs.

2008-12-24T22:42:00.004-09:00

After four separate flights and 24 hours - Charlie and Elizabeth arrived in Chevak. They were almost speechless - but glad to see us. We sat and talked and made pizza and Tom and Charlie watched a movie. Liz and I sat side by side at my desk using our individual computers - had a great time comparing notes about our libaries.

They just missed going with the fisherman teachers to check some nets - arranged time was 2pm and they did not arrive till later. You can't just wait for a plane to arrive around here - you might be waiting hours - so they had to go. However, there is another trip planned for Saturday and I am hoping the kids can go. It will be very cold - we are getting lots and lots of snow.

Charlie looks great with his haircut and shave. Liz is even smaller than she was this summer. Both seem healthy and happy.

Here are a few photos...
The Digital Comets had a great time decorating the gingerbread cookies.

This is Destiny, who has vision issues - but she did a great job with her cookies.

If you look carefully you will be able to count three dogs - not counting ole' Tom.

Here are Liz and Charles when they arrived. Their first words were "I want to go home." and "What are ya'll doing here?" They will both love this place by the end of the week.

Roxie and Blondie are extremely jealous of each other although great friends. Anyway, You can't pet one without the other demanding attention also.

Charlie and Tom took a ride on the 4-wheeler to the grocery store a little later.

2008-12-14T18:53:00.003-09:00

We enjoyed seeing some small trees in Bethel when we were there for weather hold for two nights.

Lots of Ravens in the parking lot at Home Depot - on every mound of snow.

My Digital Comet graduates in their sweatshirts.

We always had refreshments - like tootsie-roll pops!

2008-12-14T12:35:00.002-09:00

We are staying at the WhiteHouse in Bethel Alaska. We flew back to Chevak yesterday afternoon from Bethel but the weather was pretty bad - well foggy, and the power was off in Chevak so there were no lights at the airport to guide the pilot. We flew in a couple of different ways - but in the end flew back to Bethel because we could not land. Very disappointing for several reasons - the first of which is the cost of staying overnight in Bethel. We stayed at the LongHouse once before when we were weathered in. It was okay - well for Bethel it was okay, but it was $179 a night. When we got back to Chevak and I told a friend where we ended up staying, she said, "Oh no, you want to stay at the WhiteHouse. It's cozy, there's a fire and you can make tea. And it is not that much more." So this time we called the WhiteHouse and got a room. Well, it is really, really nice. Cozy, there's a fire and we can make tea. We are also the only ones staying here, so we have this four bedroom, two story bed and breakfast to ourselves. It is a log cabin, beautifully furnished in Alaskan decor. I have never slept in a more luxuriant, warm, cozy bed. A man comes in periodically to poke the fire and the owner came by last night to catch up on life in Chevak - where he was stationed with the BIA in the late 70's. He knows everyone in Chevak. He actually pulled all the logs for this log cabin (two story log house rather) from about 500 miles away and built it himself years ago. The kids grew up and moved away and it was too big for just him - hence the bed and breakfast. We are actually on the river - fishermen must come in season. We have not gotten the bill yet - but I know that if ever I am stranded in Bethel again, this is where I will stay. In fact, this is the kind of place I dream about when I think (dream) that I might like to stay in Alaska. Then I start thinking of the extra work involved in home ownership up here and quickly wake up from my dream. The fire poker has been working outside most of the morning, shoveling snow, moving firewood, and more. Hopefully we will get back to Chevak this afternoon.

We were in Anchorage for my surgery! Making a long story short, I had to have my gall bladder removed. We had flown in to
Anchorage in November to get it done, and about ten minutes before they were to roll me into the surgery, the anetheseist came in and said sorry, no surgery today, that my EKG was definitive for problems. I spent the rest of the week at the Alaska Heart Institute getting tests. Bottom line, I am fine. I have two blood pressure medications now and this past Tuesday got the gall bladder removed. So everything is cool. May I just state that I am taking this blood pressure thing seriously now. The doc told me that if my blood pressure averaged 20 points above normal that I had a 50% higher chance of a heart attack. Ouch!

My Digital Comets had a very successful run. We had about ten Monday afternoon meetings - and there were six kids who attended regularly. I will post photos of them tomorrow I hope - I do not have my camera cable with me to download them. We enjoyed doing a lot of fun projects. The digital storytelling project was a bit over ambitious - so we backed off and explored other projects such as logo designing, stitching together landscape photos, learning all about the operation of the digital camera, some trick photography, making illustrated timelines and learning to use Photoshop Elements. Lots of fun.

Photos coming, promise.

2008-11-19T13:16:00.006-09:00

The kids had lots of fun at the Halloween carnival. I helped with the cake walk and we made $640!

Our book fair was a lot of fun. Tom helped me with the cash box. This is the only book sale a a lot of the kids see till they are teenagers.

The cutey pie won the guestimation for the candy. She is in kindergarten.

On our second trip to Anchorage last week, I took this photo of our runway as we took off.

The streets of Anchorage are covered with snow already lots of accidents, cars going too fast and sliding.

Here's a photo of Chevak as we landed. The school is the blue/red building to the left. The village is behind it and to the right. Teacher housing is to the left. Very white out here now.

2008-10-27T19:41:00.003-08:00

Snowcapped mountains in the background in Anchorage. We were there for medical apointments and a workshop last week. The weather was just beautiful the whole time.

Here's Tom in the post office. You can hardly see him at the desk shipping boxes of groceries back to Chevak. There was a long line waiting on him!

Looking down from the plane over the ice covered tundra - just miles and miles of flat ice covered lands. It is not completely frozen yet - you can still see some streams - but it will be soon - be all white.

This is a good shot from inside the plane. Tom is sitting directly in front of me and I am in the back seat. I believe this was a seven passenger plane. This was one of the most secure flights I have had - the pilot was still being trained or observed so he had to do everything correctly. Smoothest landing we have ever had.

At the airport - this is a typical scene - a truck from the school to pick up teachers, and the 4-wheeler with trailer to pick up packages for the mail and stores. There were other 4-wheelers picking up passengers - this will change to snow machines pretty soon.

The children are having a wonderful time on the lake - it is mainly ice right now - so great for skating. You can't tell from this photo - but there must have been 20 kids on the other side of the lake near the village skating.

We have had another tragedy this school year. A little 9 year old girl was killed in an awful accident. Her father was cleaning his gun and it accidentally went off. Everyone has been in a sad, dejected mood. This is the second student we have lost this year. These children become used to death around them at much too young of an age.

2008-10-04T11:08:00.002-08:00

We've had our first snow of the year. The temperature has really dropped and I have pulled my blue coat out. The first year we were here - there was no snow until November. Second year, the snow came halfway through the month of October - lots of it. Then it all melted. That process repeated at least twice before it finally stuck in December. We'll see what happens this year.

We finally got our counselor and second math teacher - both from Kentucky. What a southern accent they both have!

Our book fair boxes are here - 40 of them - all stacked in my little workroom. Book Fairs are so much fun - but so much inconvenience at the same time. There won't be a lot of buying, but it is fun to see the kids look at the books.

My Digital Comets club starts Monday. We go for 10 weeks, two hours a meeting. We are going to start with basic digital camera skills, learning all about the possibilities of the camera. We will also be leaning how to get them into the computer. We'll learn how to scan a photo and manipulate it. We will learn how to manage our photos on the computer also. We'll probably go with iPhoto. At the same time we will be learning to use Photoshop Elements - a program that does lots of stuff with photos. I am doing this with 9-11 year olds - so this is a big job for them. I think if I keep it very simple - we will be successful. The ultimate project will be digital story telling - using iMovie and maybe GarageBand. I have my work cut out for me. If it doesn't seem to be working out - we will just change the direction of the class. It is really about having fun with the computer and using it as tool.

I got a little grant from the Alaska Association of School Libraries to go into Anchorage on the 18th to hear Gary Hartzell speak. That means they pay my way in and provide a hotel - I'm so happy. Right now, airfare from Chevak to Bethel to Anchorage and back is just over $900!

My library is beautiful. I have the best computers and the fastest network (I have my own server) in the school. The bean bags have been a real blessing - the older kids just love them, seldom sitting a table to read, always preferring a quiet corner on a bean bag..or two.

We are having a Create A Creature contest for October. The winners will get to choose from a selection of jewelry I purchased from my aunts estate sale. It is wild and crazy jewelry - big and colorful and elaborate stuff. The kids should have fun picking it out for their moms or girlfriends. Our friend Jeanne came over to watch the "Sarah Palin Show" (debate) the other night. Afterwards I got all the jewelry out and we had the best time trying it own. We were rolling with laughter. It was quite a show for Tom. We all have gotten pretty rustic out here in the tundra and the idea of putting on earrings or a necklace is, well, pretty foreign to us now.

2008-09-06T16:55:00.006-08:00

Today I am posting some photos of fish camp from this past summer. Fish camp is held for the first several weeks of summer - after school is out and teachers have left. However, this past summer Jeanne stayed in Chevak for most for most of the summer. She actually went out to the fish camp - down river from Chevak and stayed for a couple of days. She is the one who took the photos.

Notice the woman is using an ulu - a knife that is very popular with the Alaskan Natives. Lots of tourists buy these knives to take home as suveniers.

Of course the children have to help out and they start at a very early age. Actually these are the lucky kids who get to learn these things early.

The fish is dried and they eat it all winter long. One of these sheds of fish would belong to only one family. They actually dot the banks of the river for quite a ways.

This young man - a ninth grader this year - is holding the head of a seal he killed. They use every last bit of the seal - nothing is discarded. They even use the seal skin to make dolls. That is actually a sealskin tacked to the shed behind him - I don't know if it is the one he killed - or someone else killed. Looks too big, I think to be his.

Digging for clams.

2008-09-05T17:08:00.007-08:00

Senior Trip - Chevak Style
Actually it is Sea Week. the 10th-12th graders get to go out the river each fall for a week of learning about subsistence survival with some of our teachers and experienced folks from the community. A couple of the teachers who went shared some of their photos with me just for my blog. Maybe if I am here next year, I might take some personal leave days and go with them. It is pretty tough out there - but everyone seems to just love the experience. For many of out students this is the first time for many of the activities they participate in during the week.

Here the kids are leaving on the boats. Over half of the 10-12th graders went for the four days.

The girls are making Fried Bread - similar to tunnel cakes but no powdered sugar.

This man is the very well known John Pingayak from Chevak. He is our cultural heritage teacher here at the school and is has an honorary doctorate from Univ of Alaska. He is well known throughout the State of Alaska for his cultural heritage activities.

John is teaching the kids to make - well I forget the Cup'ik word (manuq) - but the things they fish with - remember a foot long stick, with a long string, some nails or a spark ply for a weight and some bait. It works beautifully. I haven't seen a fishing rod in Chevak since I arrived.

Felicia - one of my best customers in the library, is munaqing - fishing. She has to get around in a wheel chair - but that did not stop her from going to Sea Week and having a great time. She did everything anybody else did.

Our friend Jeanne with her fish she caught with the manuq!

The high school girls are defeathering some birds the kids have shot. They will cook and eat them later.

This young lady is pretty proud of her work!

The seal hunt begins. The boats are synchronized - surround the seals and criss crossing each other - always someone in front with the gun.

I believe there were six to eight boats on the water. Jeanne said it was a magnificent experience - not often these kids get to go. The gas is quite expensive here and money is tight.

Jack taking aim at a seal - he is one of my good library customers also.

Here someone is harpooning the seal after it has been shot.

Bringing in the seal. Notice the whiskers. That is good.

Isn't it beautiful?

Lawrence and Jack both shot the seal at the same time - so they had to share it.

The man is giving the seal a drink of water - that has been in his mouth. Oh, I'll never get this straight - but the seals like fresh water and when they get hunted they get out into the salt water. So when the seal is caught - the catcher gives the seal a drink of fresh water - or rather gives the seal's spirit a drink of fresh water. That way the bladder, which is - let me stop , I'll never get it straight. It is a sign of respect for the seal's spirit.

2008-09-05T15:19:00.002-08:00

Time is flying by. I cannot believe it is already the 5th of September. We have been approved for open hours in the library two nights a week and on Saturdays. I guess we were a pretty big hit last year and this past summer. Another grant is going to pay since the library grant is over. There was a bit of money left so I purchased digital cameras (Nikon CoolPix - RED!) and video projectors for every classroom in the school. Pretty nice. I could have bought $15,000 more worth of books, but frankly I no place to put them. We are slap out of space in here. I had to move 16 chairs upstairs along with a reading table for the little ones. We may be able to enlarge the library in a couple of years and I will need those items again. Jeanne, one of our high school teachers just gave me some of her photos from Sea Week with the high school kids. I'll have to post a few. She also went to the fish camp this past summer so I will post a few of those also.

Tom and Carmen and I are entering the lottery to go see the bears at McNeil River next summer. Chances are slim we will get the time period we want but we will certainly try.

2008-08-23T15:16:00.002-08:00

The time is really flying by. I have had one of the best weeks at Chevak and one of the worst the past few days. Best because, well the third year is great anywhere. All my issues have been worked out regarding the schedule, rules, furniture and book arrangement, programming - well thing just fall into place. I know every child's name now - and the high schoolers deal with me better since they see all the neat stuff I have in the library now. They are following the rules much better. We received our new chairs for the computers - black, comfortable, beautiful chairs that swivel. The children are loving them - unfortunately they are not allowed to adjust them and this is a real disappointment for them, since the chairs are like multi-positional. It is just that if every child who came in a sat down adjusted the chair to fit him or her - well the chairs would be worn out in a year. It just has to be this way.

The weather here has been just fabulous - I can hardly tell I am in Chevak. The sun has been shining almost every single day. It is wonderful - cause we know what's coming. It is berry picking season here. Whole families go out and pick salmon berries, blue berries, and black berries and more I don't know about. They pick gallon after gallon. It is a big celebration - keeping count of how many buckets and every one has their special place on the tundra to pick their favorite berries. Everyone is so excited about the berries - kind of like football season starting in Georgia.

It has been a very sad week for the whole community - a student of ours was in Anchorage last weekend and was hit by a truck in the middle of the night. She was crossing a main highway with dark cloths on and the driver did not see her. Such as sweet, quiet girl - everyone liked her so much. She used to come in to the library every single day with her best friend and get hand sanitizer and hand lotion. I keep that stuff in her for the kids and they love it - dropping in a couple of times a day to get some - also telling me what kinds they want me to get, etc. Jenilee will be sorely missed by all of us - so sad that she was so young (16) and the special tragedy of the accident. So the year has been off to a rather sad start. Remember there's less than 100 kids in the high school.

2008-08-08T10:46:00.002-08:00

We made it back to Chevak with Roxie in tow. Each time I get on one of those bush planes I end up saying a prayer that if God will just let us land safely I will figure out another way to get to and from Chevak - although there is none - but when I am on those tiny planes I keep thinking that maybe I could just wade my way in and out. The flight this time was particularly scary. We encountered lots of turbulence as we took off and gained altitude. I honestly thought we were going to be blown out of the sky. Once we got above the clouds things calmed down a bit. Then when we got near Chevak and descended - oh my gosh. The pilot was so young and so small. He was biting his nails and the airplane felt like a pendulum in the sky. Usually the Native people think nothing of the ride - but this time even they were making comments and "Ohhing and Ahhing". I was gripping the window ledge thinking how glad I was that I was by the exit and I was reviewing the directions for opening the door in an emergency. We pulled in to land at Chevak faster than ever and completely sideways it seemed to get to the wind and then as we sidewayscame to the landing strip - I truly believed we were going to run off the side into the tundra. That guy never slowed down even as he made a 360 turn to go back to the airport building. Then there was no one to meet us and we had to wait about a half hour for someone to show up - we could stand in the wind and freeze, or we could stand behind the building away from the wind - but be eaten up by mosquitos. I was glad to get home finally.

Our friend Cyndy had actually cleaned up our apartment - I mean she had made the beds and put out fresh towels, pulled back the curtains, and DEFROSTED our freezer. Her parents had used our apt for a month for their visit to Chevak and then some friends of hers - biologists (bird studiers) had spent a couple of nights there - so I guess she felt like she needed to make sure everything was clean. It was. Cleaner than we keep it!

Lots of new teachers coming in. Most are new to Alaska - several couples and lots of kids. They are full of questions - but remarkably comfortable in this new environment. We were supposed to have three days of inservice with Apple Computer next week - but that won't happen - some issues in planning. So it looks like we will have four full days of work days - something unheard of. I think I'll work on my library handbook and hopefully update my web page.

Every new teacher who comes in to the library goes "Wow!" "This is beautiful!" "What a gorgeous library." "Look at these great computers." I may never leave here. I have been over a couple of times while Cyndy was still having Open Library this summer. The kids are so wonderful - computering, coloring, gaming, reading, listening to music, drawing. They love this place and I believe they will always remember this past year of extended hours in the library - a very popular place(due to my grant!). Cyndy was averaging 65 students each open day this summer.

2008-07-29T21:19:00.004-08:00

We by-passed Hatcher Pass yesterday because, well, it was raining and the clouds were only about 20 feet above the ground. We enjoyed our drive back but we were really tired and worn out. When we got back to Anchorage we took Roxie to the kennel since she is not allowed in the North Star Inn on Elmendorf. Also, since she likes it there so much. It will be easier to shop and pack without her around demanding out attention. We pay $28.50 at Elmendorf and the cheapest decent motel around is around $150 a night. Also, we can wash clothes free here, they have free wifi, and a wonderful Expresso machine downstairs with free coffee. We packed up the trailer today and took it to storage. Tomorrow we will start purchasing and packing our groceries for the next four months. It will be stressful and tiring. August 2, we fly back to Chevak. We have lots of air miles, so was able to get our tickets to Bethel for $2.50 each plus some bonus miles - first time I've done that. The sun was beautiful and bright all day today - everyone was in a great mood everywhere we went.

2008-07-27T11:59:00.000-08:00

I can hardly keep track of what day it is. Tom assures me it is Sunday. We left Delta Junction this morning around 9:15 after getting coffee at the Buffalo Diner. Everything is “Buffalo” there, the Buffalo Laundry, the Buffalo Auto Parts, the Buffalo Quick Stop. We had only 50 miles to get to the turnoff at Paxon and with all of our photo stops and viewing stops it took us till 11:15. The most interesting thing about this small 50 mile strip of highway was that it was the most perfect stretch we have seen in Alaska. High, snowcapped mountains, close up foliage covered mountains, acres upon acres of Birch trees, miles and miles of water – literally streams and creeks everywhere, and best of all – the pipeline kept reappearing at every turn – sometimes very close.
We saw moose, rabbits, prairie dogs (we think) and a big porcupine. Hardly anybody else was on the road – maybe we encountered 10 vehicles. There was no litered iron stuff from mines, no deserted shacks, no substandard houses – in fact we saw one lodge, a pipeline pump station, and several summer houses by the lake, and just a couple of RV places during that stretch. Truly a beautiful drive.

We turned onto the Denali Hwy at 11:15. I had spoken to a fellow traveler at a Viewing turnout and he said he and his wife made it in three hours. I wouldn’t have asked if they had made the trip except that their car was a mess – completely covered with dust. So, I figured with my constant “Tom, it would make me happy if you would just slow down.”, that Tom and I might make it in say, four hours. The end result was 135 miles in just over five hours.

The first 21 miles was paved – sort of. The rest of the road was dirt – packed hard dirt with gravel in it, some areas in pretty good shape and some others with potholes. We stopped every few miles to get photos. It was beautiful – just beautiful – even in the fine mist that we had most of the day. I cannot imagine what it must look like in full sun.
I tried to get Tom to think about camping there – what fun it would be. But he decided against it. Probably because he has to do all of the work. I can do the work – he just does it faster and better and his way – so I relent.
We decided to stay overnight at the Backwoods Lodge in Cantwell - we stayed here in August 2006 on our way in and really liked it. They like dogs here too.

Tomorrow we head back to Anchorage – via the Hatcher Pass. Another dirt and gravel road. Just hope we are not pushing our luck with the truck. She has sure been a trooper so far. I hope for sun.

2008-07-25T16:33:00.003-08:00

We are staying in the Midnight Sun Hotel and it is pretty rustic. Our room has decor from maybe the 60's. Since we no longer plan ahead for places to stay - when we got here yesterday there was some issue over what place was pet friendly AND had a room available. The girls at the visitor center made some phone calls for us. The Midnight sun had some $79 specials - since we needed two nights we got the $79 special pet friendly room the first night and the $109 pet friendly regular room the second night. The $79 room is twice as large and the bathroom huge. The $109 pet friendly room is tiny and you have to climb up into the bathroom. Go figure.

We have been a few places today. Saw an actress portraying a 1890's photographer earl today in the Palace Grand Hotel. Afterwards we toured this lovely restored home of the commissioner from 1912-1916 - Oh I would love to have a house just like it - but not in the Yukon!

Later we went out to Dredge #4. Tom said on the way in yesterday that was the one thing he wanted to do. Then unfortunately this morning I said, "Well maybe I'll just sit in the truck with Roxie while you go on the tour." Then he said, I don't want to go without you. Let's just don't go." And I said, "Okay we'll go." And he said. "No I don't want to go." Well I'm sure someone out there can relate to how these little arguments can escalate. We were silent during breakfast - only starting to talk again when we were back in the truck with Roxie - she always soothes our rough edges.

Anyhow - we went out there - 30 minute drive to the Dredge and it was absolutely fantastic. I was absolutely amazed. And I climbed up and down those three stories with Tom. My legs will feel it tomorrow - but the thing was just amazing. We both mentioned when we got back to the truck that all we could think about was the poor guys who worked on the vessel and the owners getting all the money!

We also drove up to the Dome - this lookout way above the city - way above the city. We could see for miles and miles each way and the city seemed miniature.

We came back by the Jack London Center - saw a recreated cabin built from some of the original logs of his cabin. Very nice. We were the only ones there so naturally had a great time talking to the curator. Lots of photos and letters.

We are on our way back to the hotel - to our new tiny pet friendly regular price room - for a little nap. Tonight we go to the Robert Service (famous poet here) and here his poetry read.Tom is standing in front of his actual cabin where he lived for a few years in Dawson City.

We also went to Gerties to see a little show and do some gambling. Tom stopped after he lost $10.00. I got a sneak shot of a man who had over $2500 in chips playing poker.

It is very warm here - rainy too - but the weather seems to clear up at the appropriate times for us. We have really been fortunate. This photo shows Dawson at 12 midnight!

Tthe Top of the World Highway was just that - at the Top of the World. My photos cannot possibly do it justice.

2008-07-23T19:44:00.004-08:00

Got to Tok (rhymes with spoke) this afternoon around 4 and we are staying at the Golden Bear Motel. So much for the tent!

The trip up was beautiful – I have posted a couple of photos below. In the one with Tom, you can see the pipeline in the distance.

In this one you can see the tunnel at the beginning of the McCarthy Road – which we traversed successfully today – no flat tires.

Tomorrow we head out early, passing through Chicken on the way to Dawson. Outside of Chicken, we will travel over a road called the Top of the World Highway. Hope we make it….

2008-07-23T19:12:00.013-08:00

I’m sitting at Carmen’s kitchen table with her mother while she hooks a rug “on the go”. Carmen has just come in from a full day working on her house. I just can’t believe this beautiful three story home is being built by just a couple of people.

Our drive in yesterday from Valdez took most of the day. Of course we stop at every opportunity. One of our first stops out yesterday was to check out the oil tanker getting filled up across the bay at Valdez. In the photo – if I get it posted – you can barely see the tanker across the bay. It is huge but looks so small in the photo. In fact - as I look at this photo on the blog - well once aI make the photo small enough and with fewer pixels, the tankers, and oil tanks across the bay almost become invisible. Too bad - cause it was really a huge operation.

On the way out from Valdez, and we did hate to leave, we drove by Bridal Veil Falls Took Tom’s photo and he looked like a little mini-person.

Then we started going up the mountain and drove up and up and up for miles it seemed. Close to the top we saw all these ice chunks up and down the mountain – finally coming to one that was just by the side of the road. I made Tom pull over and I hopped out of the truck. I said, “Come on, we’re going to check this one out.” We carefully traversed the rocks and gravel and got to the ice chunk to touch it and take photos. Roxie hopped right up on top of it and started dancing around – it was like she was back in Chevak, I guess.

At the very top – we came to Worthington Glacier – a tremendous glacier and people were actually climbing the thing. In the photo – you can barely see them right in the center. I made what I thought was a big blue arrow pointing towards the climbers - but now I can hardly see the arrow. It is right in the center pointing left towards the four climbers. It was pretty cold and raining and we didn’t stay too long.

The long trek down the mountain was ahead - however, like the trip up, the trip down seemed to go for miles also. So, there were only a couple of places we had to brake carefully. We reached Chitina about 1:00, got gas - $32.38 for 6.3 gallons – around $5.30 a gallon and had a little picnic. Our trek on the road began and it was as beautiful as ever.

I kept making Tom slow down. I think that if Tom outlives me, that the one thing he will not miss about me and in fact be relieved that he does not have to deal with anymore is my constant “It would make me happy if you just slowed down a little.” Arrived without incident in at John and Carmen’s house at about 4:30. Carmen was still out at the construction site so we promptly drove out there to surprise her and of course see the progress on her home. She and her brother are now putting up the sheetrock – it really looks like a house now.

We enjoyed supper and talk and went to our cabin around 9:00. I lay down for just a moment, I was so tired. Did not wake up until 3 am when I changed into pajamas and went back to sleep.

This morning, we slept late. Around 11:00 we drove to the footbridge, parked out truck and walked over the Kennecott River to catch the van into McCarthy. There is not much there. Lovely however, and quiet and secluded. We toured the little museum and I decided that soon I want to make a museum room with all of my old things . We took the van again over to the Kennecott Lodge and the restored (a couple of buildings out of over a dozen) mine buildings. Ate lunch at the lodge there. I had clam/shrimp chowder and halibut cakes, Tom had chicken wraps. The soup was the chunkiest, best ever clam chowder. I talked the waitress into making us four servings for takeout – I don’t think they usually do that. She put it in coffee cups for us and put it in a paper bag which we had to carry up right all the way home.

Let me tell you that clam chowder was a hit at supper tonight. It was a very nice day even if it was sort of rainy and cold. As always, the people you meet just make the trip. Our driver was from New Zealand – the same area where Doc and Emma live (our former supt), the parking lot attendant was one of the many people who stopped to help us on the McCarthy road last year when we had our flat tire. We met a group of four trekkers who were teachers and it was the most fun talking about our jobs and where we had all taught. We met a guy at the lodge whose career had been a contract snow remover on the streets in Minnesota. Lot of young backpackers – well, oodles of serious backpackers – from all over the world – all friendly, all young, all tanned and rustic looking. I had just a tad of remorse that I had not done that sort of thing when I was in my twenties – but just for minute or two…

We enjoyed seeing our good friend Carmen again. Tomorrow we are off to Tok and then to Dawson City.

2008-07-21T08:22:00.010-08:00

We’ve had the best day ever here in Vadez! This morning we slept late – well I did. Tom walked the dog and had breakfast. We went over to the Old Valdez museum – all about Valdez when it was in a different location on the bay and then got destroyed by the 64 earthquake. The entire city was not destroyed but much of it was and the place it was in has since been sinking – 1 inch a year. So over a period of two years they moved the entire town and rebuilt in another location. Kinda like Chevak – except Chevak’s problem was flooding. The museum was really interesting - many old photos of the town and lots of letters, descriptions of the earthquake, etc. The director let us take photos with a huge blunderbuss.

Next, we drove down to this salmon hatchery – but the salmon had not come in yet. There was a bet on when they would be coming in – too late for us to see. We traveled on out to the location of Old Valdez – a perfectly flat place, many areas fenced off since parts of building were still there, part of the dock was there and many mosquitos.Very quiet and eerie. I believe about 33 people from Valdez were killed during the earthquake. Tom was very interested in the location and enjoyed exploring – I was a little concerned that we might not get back to the main road with out a blowout.

We headed out to the glacier viewing area beyond the airport and had a real surprise. It took us a while to get there but we were rewarded with huge floating pieces of the glacier – or iceburgs - lots of them. I had been worried about the road to Old Valdez – but that road was noting compared to this one – full of potholes and gravel.
There weren’t too many people out there either – very quiet.

Back in Valdez we went to a park and had ham&cheese sandwiches, potato chips and cookies for lunch. So nice – the weather was wonderful. Sort of sunny – but not quite. Sort of cloudy but not quite.

In the afternoon we went to the main museum in town and it was just fascinating.That is a very rare fish mounted in the photo - one of a kind.
Lots of great displays and artifacts - we both looked and looked and read and read. Those were some pretty brave and hardy folks who came to Alaska back when. I was feeling bad for those gold miners while looking at all this stuff and started reading some comments one of them had made. One man went on about the long boat journey they had just finished and then about buying supplies Valdez to go on up to the gold fields and he and four other men were sleeping in one tent and they were so tired and exhausted and were leaving to go north to the gold fields the next morning and they just were so excited they couldn’t sleep and ended up talking half the night. He wrote that they were like school kids on a camp trip having so much fun and loving every minute.

We headed out of town again to the other side of the bay. We were told to get there at about 4:05 because that was high tide. As we drove up this long bay – we could actually see the salmon jumping up our in the water. There were oodles of folks fishing and everybody was catching them! We parked and sat on a bench to observe the action - this man with three sons came down, threw their poles in and started reeling them in. Most they put back – there was some kind of bet as to who would catch the biggest fish. We really enjoyed the excitement! We made one more stop on the way back at a salmon hatchery – well actually we drove right by it. I saw a sea lion, and Tom saw a waterfall - so we had to run around and go back to that spot. We parked and noticed several folks down at the hatcherie and realized immediately that there were literally thousands of pink salmons there - feeding I guess. I don’t really know. Anyway the two sea lions were catching them and then fighting with the sea gulls over the spoils. It was wild – a sea of activity – folks taking photographs and ooing and ahhing – I loved it. What luck we turned back! In the photo the sea lion has a fish in his mouth and the gulls are tring to get it from him and the salmon are going nuts. That whole black are to the front is full of salmon flapping about.

We are beat but are looking forward to the trip to McCarthy tomorrow. We’ll leave early and hope to get to McCarthy by the middle of the afternoon. This last 60 miles of the journey is where we had that flat tire last year. Tom had the dealer remove the tire from the hoist and we have it in the back of the truck. We have to get that thing fixed. Anyway – at least we will be able to get to the tire this year. He promises that the spare is a good tire….

We have figured out that our hotel must have been a place that just had rooms for sleeping and a common bath area down the hall. The bathrooms have been added on recently. I believe I would have enlarged the rooms at the same time.

What a wonderful day! I love Valdez.

2008-07-19T17:51:00.003-08:00

This morning we got up at 8 am and by 10:30 we had dressed, packed, shopped at the commissary for snacks, returned movies to Blockbuster, filled up the truck ($70), and picked up Roxie at the kennel. Our $28 room at the North Star Inn on Elmendorf did not allow doggies. The Inn was just fine – but the free laundry room was the best – huge floor to ceiling windows looking out at the cloud covered mountains. It stopped raining in Anchorage about 4 pm yesterday. I was getting a little bit of a rain phobia. In Chevak we always wish for a good rain since all we get is fog and drizzle. Now here in Anchorage it has just been rain, rain, rain, rain…I wished for only one clear day and we’ve got it TODAY for our ferry ride to Valdez!!

We were the first car in the line for the tunnel. It used to be only for trains but now the cars and the trains take turns. Roxie was a tad apprehensive. Since we were in the front we could lower the windows and actually breathe the cool air inside.

Our ferry was the fast one – going from Whittier to Valdez in less than three hours. We saw an otter and two whales. Tom saw several birds he liked. The ferry was the MV Chenega and it was a fine and dandy ferry – way nicer than out ferry last year we took to the Aleutian Islands. In fact the bathroom stall on this ferry is as large or larger than our cabin was on the ferry last year. Maybe that ferry was for people who lived in the area and this one is more for tourists – indeed, we have heard many languages being spoken on board. Roxie had to stay in the truck downstairs. She was not pleased.

The scenery is just overwhelming – huge snow capped mountains all along both sides – glaciers everywhere we look.

Later after supper:

We pulled off the ferry in our truck and drove right into town – well there’s not much of a town – the houses are on one side of town and the tourist stuff in on the other by the water. Lots and lots of boats were docked, well literally hundreds. We enjoyed walking among them looking at all the different types and their names. There was a little folks fishing contest going on and I got a couple of shots of the girls. They were pretty proud of their fish! We watched some of the folks who had caught fish bring theirs in to be filleted (sp?) and got a few photos there.

We ate at the Totem Inn – I had Halibut and Tom had chicken steak – we are by the ocean and Tom has chicken steak! No rooms at the Best Western ( we have ceased planning ahead of time) so we are in a place called Keystone Hotel. The room is tiny – we have to be very careful with all our stuff so we don’t trip and bump. The bathroom is nice though. I just hope we don’t have any problems with the mosquitos. In the morning we are going to check out the museums.

2008-07-17T19:01:00.002-08:00

It is still raining. Rained all last night. The ground is soaked. I feel like I am in a jungle rain forest. I hope it just gets a bit clear tomorrow. We are going to pack up our trailer and store it on post while we are on our road trip. We both have appointments tomorrow with the dermatologist and are hoping that goes well. Then we will pack for our trip and leave early the next morning for Whittier. I'm looking forward to the ferry ride. Roxie unfortunately will have to remain inside the truck during the two hour voyage. Oh, A moose came galloping though the campground today and Roxie just about went through the window.

I've never seen so much rain.

2008-07-15T18:29:00.003-08:00

Tom has left me at the PX so I can surf the net. He gets bored very quickly when I start surfing. I talked him into going back to our trailer for a nap. Speaking of the trailer, we paid $45 a month to store that thing last year in town. We found a place on post yesterday where we can store it for $10 a month. I had Tom sign up then and there for the whole year. $10 a month!! I'm trying to talk him into storing the truck there two. Problem is we are so far from the airport here - it would be a $40 charge to get a taxi out here - I'm still looking at options there.

We have been passing the time eating at different restaurants. There was a list of recommended places in the paper earlier this month and I cut it out. Let's see, we ate at McGinleys' Pub this evening in downtown Anchorage. I had Fried potato cakes with ham - like a sandwich. Tom had - um - don't remember -something to do with roast beef and potatoes. Had a delicious orange spiced chicken at the Panda across from Sears. We also ate at the Arctic Roadhouse last week - a little place famous for their delicious hamburgers. Yesterday we ate at La Mex, day before at Sorrentos - best lasagna I've ever had. Had great hamburgers for lunch one day at O'Malley's Pub. It has been fun eating out - but we have to stop - well, when we get to the end of the list....

Roxie lost a lot of weight at the kennel - we are trying our hardest to not feed her anything except dog food and we are doing really well.

We had maybe 10 minutes of sunshine yesterday!!!! It was beautiful.

We are planning a little road trip - We will drive to Whittier on Saturday, and then take the ferry to Valdez. I really wanted to go all the way to Cordova and then ferry back to Valdez - but we just don't have enough time and it is expensive. We will stay two nights in Valdez and get up early on the third day to travel to McCarthy. We'll stay in McCarthy two nights and then travel north to Tok. Remember that 60 mile dirt road from McCarthy to Chitina takes 3 hours at least. So, hoping we get to Tok. The next day we head to Dawson, Yukon Canada. (Assuming our passports arrive from GA before we leave.) We will be there for two days - splurging on a hotel since we will have been tenting the first part of the trip. (It costs over $90 for a tank of gas for the truck.) After Dawson, we head to Paxson where we will go straight west to Cantwell. It is a dirt road and I hope we have no problems. I'm thinking this trip will take 10 days. We are taking Roxie so it should be fun. We had mailed our air mattresses to ourselves from GA - and now want to find a automatic pump to blow them up. I'm not looking forward to this tenting - but we tented most of the way up two years ago and had loads of fun - so surely I can get back into the swing of things. I think I am a little more aware of the wildlife issues now - yikes! In fact a bear turned over our empty ice chest in the Elmendorf camping area this past week. I wanted to get a photo of the paw prints - but Tom washed it off too quickly. One guy had food in his ice chest and lost it all! He was in big trouble. You aren't supposed to keep any food outside cause the bears are attracted to it.

I finished watching the entire series of OZ. I am now watching The Shield from the beginning season. There's no difference in the behavior of the characters and the plots on these two shows - one just happens to be a prison and the other happens to be a police station. At least the language is not as bad on The Sheild. we are trying to rent only 99¢ movies this summer.

I'm ramlbing.

2008-07-09T11:56:00.004-08:00

We are at the McKinley Princess Lodge for a couple of days. We are supposed to have a wonderful view of the South Face of Denali. However, all we can see are clouds. In fact, we've been to Denali Park about four times now, five for Tom, and we still haven't had a really good sighting of the mountain. A couple of times we saw it briefly through the clouds last year but I'm thinking this just isn't something that is going to be. We are however enjoying this lodge - so nice and spread out. All of the young folks working here must be flown in from other countries - lots of other countries. Nice kids.

On the train coming up we had one of these Dome cars. For years I have wanted to travel in one of these special train cars and it ended up being pretty nice. Tom and I were lucky to have a table all to ourselves.

We took Roxie to the kennel to stay while we were traveling this week. Now, remember that we had felt really bad leaving her there for a whole month while we were in Georgia. She did seem glad to see us when we returned. However, we were really feeling bad about taking her back so soon - even if it was only for a few nights. We drove up the driveway to the kennel, Roxie got a whiff and went nuts. She flew into the front seat on top of Tom and about crawled out the window to get to the door. We were a little surprised. But the worst was when we got inside - her pulling us with all her might. She was so glad to see the boarding woman - just gave all of her attention to that woman - not even looking at us again - her tail wagging like mad. Tom was actually a little despondent in the car afterwards - saying that we were too old to have a young dog like Roxie. What can I say - we have to make life more exciting for her. I suspect it is all the dog socialization she gets there. They get exercized three hours a day in a big place with other dogs so I suspect that is what Roxie remembered. I'm sure other dogs are much more fun for her than me and Tom.

I see a break in the clouds - have to go.

2008-07-07T12:03:00.005-08:00

Here's our Roxy romping through the Daisies on base. It has been raining for several days. Tomorrow we get on one of those Dome rail cars and travel up to Talkeetna. The hotel supposedly has a great view of the South Face of Denali. Hope we get a clear day. It will be nice to stay in a hotel for a couple of days.

2008-07-04T15:21:00.006-08:00

That's Charlie and Liz above with Tom.

We are now back in Anchorage (Elmendorf – camping) after a month in Georgia. We really needed to go home and check on our house – pulling back ivy from the brick and cutting back shrubs, cleaning the accumulated dust out of the house, getting rid of many unneeded possessions, etc. Most important was the new $6000 heat pump we had installed. We also got new ducts and all that stuff. So the first 11 days we were home in GA we had no air – none. We had some huge fans going and that helped – but one day the temp was 102 degrees. It was unreal. We had to go over to my brother’s house to spend the night twice and several times to cool off. When they finished that heat pump installation and turned that air on at 4:30 pm the house cooled immediately and we had the best nights sleep ever.

Roxy stayed in the kennel here in Anchorage for the month. Was she glad to see us! She’s really slimmed down, stopped jumping on us and hasn’t gotten back her habitual begging moans yet. Why do other people have success training our dog and keeping her fit – but yet all we do is make her boss!

It was so wonderful seeing our family and friends. We spent three days up in Amicolola Falls in a lovely mountain cottage with my college roommate and her husband. Terry and Dee had visited us in Alaska last summer. We had such fun talking about our children and retirement and school libraries. Also had a great time seeing my friend from Decatur, Mary, who visited us last summer in Alaska. Lots going on with Mary – she was on her way to Maine to spend a week at a remote place on the coast bird watching. She had received a grant that paid her expenses. Mary is the one who got Tom interested in birds.

We also got down to Columbus to see my dad’s sister, Lucile. We saw my Aunt Janie in Anderson SC and Tom and Charlie made it down to Augusta to see his bother and sister.

Honestly we are glad to be back. I think we will head back to Chevak around the 1st of August to get a few things done in the library before school starts. I’m very excited about the new year and the 1:1 Apple Computer program. Every child in grades 3 – 12 will receive a computer!

2008-04-27T11:02:00.003-08:00

Wow, has April been busy! Taxes, Career Day, Student of the Month display, National School Library Month activities, and the annual inventory. I am in the middle of inventory now using my new Alexandria program - the easiest to use library software in the entire world and I am also using my new wireless scanner. LIVE scanning and no downloading! It is truly remarkable. My tech specialist wants to use my program to track school assets he likes it so well. He wouldn't touch that Follett!

The photo at the top was taken on April 22nd. It was 10 degrees and snowing. Tom is ready for some warm weather, a movie theater, and a real grocery store. Me, I could stay out here all summer if it weren't for the mosquitos.

The library is just really blossoming. We have over 18,000 items - up from 10,000 when I arrived. Folks love the bean bags - all sorts of activities take place in here cause it is so comfy amd appealing. We are averaging 40 to 50 kids every time at Extended Hours. They play board games, computer games, draw and color, listen to music, and sometimes they get a book and read! Lots of different activities take place on our 20 iMacs and 20 iBooks - iMovie, surfing, college applications and scholarships, tax preparation for the adults, Kid Pix, Print Shop, World Book, downloading and sharing photos with friends, emailing, there is no end...I remember when I first arrived and couldn't figure out a way to give them free time - supervised and some control at the same time. And now, we have 13 hours a week after school. I have a "List" of kids who can't come in any more because of going to inappropriate sites and chatting. They got several warnings, but did not believe I would really put them on the "List". They will get another chance in late May to start participating again with the summer hours and may cooperate better. I have Apple Remote Desktop which enables me to see (right at my desktop) what every single child is doing on the computer. It is wonderful. Okay, back to my inventory.

2008-03-26T18:07:00.005-08:00

This past weekend a teacher friend of ours went MuskOx hunting with some men from Chevak. There are laws determining who can hunt and when you can hunt. So this was quite an opportunity for Stewart. The 12 year old boy that went with them was on his first hunt. I'm not sure but I believe tickets are involved and each person gets just one. The photos show the herd in the way off distance, and then a few up close of the MuskOxen they actually killed. The hide of the animal with the fur is worth about three grand.

2008-03-23T16:38:00.002-08:00

Well, supposedly these are Sundogs - which means we are going to have some pretty bad weather. We'll see. It has been so cold but oh so clear the past few days. The faculty had a pot luck dinner for Easter celebration on Saturday night and then the kids had an Easter Egg hunt in the library. Pretty nice. I felt bad that the kids did not have Easter Egg baskets and such - but you know, they didn't miss a beat and had a wonderful time.

2008-03-21T15:30:00.006-08:00

Not much is going on - except trudging through snow everywhere. The maintenance man, Leo, was clearing snow so we could at least walk to school and the front loader (which is a huge piece of equipment - the tire's diameter is at least 5 feet) got stuck and the axel is broken and it is right inside the 15 foot wide pathway to the housing, barely enough room left for a snow machine to get through. This is too much. We might be crawling over it before long.
The photos I am posting today are of the Head Start Kids. They come to the library once a week for story hour and it takes them twice as long to get ready and come over hear as it does for the storytime. Then they have to do it all over again going back. Photo #1 the kids are loading up and they are trying to crawl out of the sled -one little fella is making it out. Photo #2 - about to take off. Photo #3 they are taking off back to their Head Start building. They are so darling. We have to surround them with chairs and pillows during story time or else they run off like little puppies.

2008-03-04T22:55:00.019-09:00

We’ve been visiting our friend Carmen in Barrow Alaska the last several days and are planning on heading back to Chevak tonight. I am mainly posting some photos because anything I say cannot do this place and experience justice.

For the first time the weather was clear enough and not too cold in Chevak so that I was actually able to take some photos while we waited for the plane to arrive. That yellow boxlike thing is what Tom had to ride in to the airport, while I was fortunate enough to actually ride the snow machine. That’s our plane in the background – one of the larger ones we have landing here. I guess it carries around a dozen people. The flight to Bethel was uneventful, thank goodness. We then flew to Anchorage, from there to Fairbanks, spent time shopping and mailing supplies back to Chevak and attending a library conference. We stayed at the Princess Lodge – very nice. Mary and Charlie, if you are reading this, I of course have lost your phone number and could not remember the last name! We will be back to Fairbanks – it is such a beautiful place.

We enjoyed tooling around Ft. Wainright – I loved the commissary and PX – smaller than Elmendorf and therefore quicker shopping. Stayed at the Princess Lodge in Fairbanks. We ordered out one night and then ate in the bar the next night – best hamburger I’ve had in years. I’ve posted a photo of a street at Wainright – as you can see it is quite cold and snow is really blowing. Sometimes the snow was blowing so fast and furious that we could not see the road – but it blows away quickly.

We enjoyed seeing the ice carvings around town and at the park and got a few photos. When we got out at the park we realized how cold it was and that we were not going to stay very long. We went fast forward through the whole thing snapping photos and shivering. I enjoyed it though – the ice carvings were beautiful. Here I am in a large igloo carving. Here is an amateur ice carver getting a start on a block of ice. If you look you can see the model of the end product in the bottom right of the photo – looks like a Madonna statue.

Here’s Tom with a wolf outside the Princess lodge.

Okay to Barrow we go…. Carmen is our friend from Chevak, our next door neighbor in teacher housing, our Dancing With the Stars co-watcher, and our tea drinking buddy. We visited her and her husband in McCarthy this past summer and were anxious to see her and Barrow! The photo of the car is interesting – Carmen’s friend took us on a tour of Barrow in that vehicle. People don’t even cut their motors off when they go shopping because the motor will freeze. You can see his plug-in hanging down from the front of the car – vehicles have be plugged up to a heater or they stop starting. Also notice the windsheild – the rocks in the summer pop up from the road and hit the car windows – a large percentage of cars have broken windshields. I have posted photos of us at various photo op spots in Barrow.

The large flat place behind me in the photo is of course the Arctic Ocean.

This is the football field with the snack bar sheds at the back.

That is Carmen in front of her school – the schools are all real showplaces – huge facilities with indoor playgrounds, imported tiles from Italy, etc.

Tom and I went shopping at the AC Store – quite a treat – they have snowmobiles and four wheelers in the aisles among the food items.

Here are two photos of me and Tom standing at – or close to Point Barrow. You can only go so far, the road stops and we were in a car. Carmen loaned me her sealskin hat.

And, a snowy owl!

2008-02-23T18:31:00.002-09:00

Tom and I just finished making a pineapple upside down cake. He does not like it when I am in the kitchen doing anything. He considers the kitchen his now. So making the cake together was stressful and I have retreated to my little office room! We rearranged the furniture in the living area this morning and that was stressful too.

We are taking care of Libby (black lab) till Jeanne gets back from her trip. Then we are taking care of three other dogs just for the weekend their owners get back. It has been especially cold the last few days - just biting cold air - so Tom is walking all these dogs in this weather.

My friend from Decatur, Mary, and I are doing a Flat Stanley Read Across America project. Her students send their Flat Stanley up to Chevak and we send ours down to DeKalb County. Flat Stanley is a book about a little fellow who gets flattened by a bulletin board and as a result can do such things as slide under doors and get mailed to California. Hence we mail Stanley to different places in the project the students get involved by writing journal entries about his adventures with them and then mailing him back to his original locations. Mary has a blog where the students will post the journal entries. So if you are interested, check it ouy during the month of March. The address is http://flatstanley2008.blogspot.com/

Last week Tom's friend, Gary - who bought our snow machine from us last fall, asked Tom to ride over to Hooper Bay with him. They've been talking about this for a while. So last Saturday was the big day. It took them a while to get going - everything has to be checked, clothing, gas, etc. I was just a little anxious until another teacher decided to go with them. Stewart has made that trip many times and as soon as I heard he was going too, I was not as worried - well maybe about the cold hitting Tom as they drove. It is really cold here - and if you are on a snow machine for an hour traveling with the wind hitting one part of your face, or leg - where something is not as protected as it should be - well you're in for some trouble. They finally took off and a fleeting thought came into my head - if they got lost in the snow and disappeared - well would the insurance company consider that an accident and would I get double insurance. The thought left my head as soon as it came. I felt really bad. When they returned almost an hour a half later (not near enough time to get to Hooper Bay and back) they had wild tale to tell. Seems as soon as they got a little far on the way to Hooper Bay - the clouds, fog, snow, whatever it is out there, closed in on them - almost blizzard conditions. Tom said him and Gary rolled over twice. They kept going and it became close to a whiteout - not a true one because they could still see about ten to fifteen feet - but beyond that no vision. They came to the realization that they were driving in circles and decided to head back to Chevak. Now they had the GPS's but the way they got home was heading in the direction of the wind cause the wind was blowing towards Chevak. They took off with Stewart in front leading and he promptly disappeared from sight. Tom and Gary couldn't see him or hear him. Tom said he had just one anxious moment - but Gary, bless his heart, reminds me of my Uncle Henry, and he just kept going not worrying about a thing, fully assuring Tom that they were heading in the right direction. Stewart of course got back to Chevak, realized the old guys were not behind him and started back out to find them. They met just outside of the village! I was hoping that would be the end of it, but Tom ad Gary took off by themselves the next day, great weather and they had a great time shopping and touring around Hooper Bay. Tom got me some packs of Diet Coke that were on sale there and most of them made the trip back intact. He also picked up lettuce and carrots - lots cheaper than in Chevak.

2008-02-10T13:14:00.000-09:00

Parker's first graders celebrated the Chinese New Year be getting rid of all of the bad spirits in the school. They spent a long time in the library and went to all the corners and storage rooms banging their noise makers and having a a great time.

The Book Fair Blizzard was a real success. We scheduled it around pay day!

We had a Tall Tale night where the seniors came in dressed up to tell the kids tall tales they had written themselves. The children were enthralled - we might do this again.

Weekends at the library!

It is now Sunday afternoon and Tom and I are at school. Sunday afternoon is my favorite time to work - I get so much done cause everyone is at home taking it easy.

We had Hoops Fest this week - Eighteen teams came in by snow machine or airplane from surrounding communities and played basketball for four day days - ending up with a dance last night from 8 until midnight where I was one of the chaperones. Chevak girls and boys won the tournament. Basketball is really high on the agenda at this school. Well, I won't even go there. All the teams spent their nights in the classrooms - lots of disruption, teachers unable to get their work done, we called off school Friday and had an in-service day instead. The kids were on the computers in the library from the time they got here on Wednesday until Friday around 6pm when I just had to lock the door. Every one is just worn out. See, the teachers needed to volunteer to make food for the coaches room, monitor crowd control, the tickets, etc. And there are not that many of us... The dance was fun though - it was great seeing all the kids relaxed and having fun and meeting kids from other communities. That music though - ugh!!!

2008-01-19T19:18:00.001-09:00

We had a big storm last night, several inches of snow and 35 mile per hour winds. The winds continued today but the temperature went up, so what snow didn't melt, got blown completely away by the wind. Winds are still going strong. Hope you like the video!

2008-01-07T16:11:00.000-09:00

Didn't remember if I put the moose in the last post or not. This one was like six feet from our car in downtown Anchorage.

Our Chevk new year was pretty low key. We did end up watching fireworks from our front porch with some of our neighbors.

We actually have the biggest porch and the best view of the lake from our house. Don't know how we lucked up there.

That is Elizabeth on the escalators at the Anchorage airport - notice her new hairstyle and color.

Roxy is hoping Tom won't notice when she steals a bite!

2007-12-29T21:36:00.000-09:00

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?"

2007-12-10T16:06:00.000-09:00

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.

2007-11-18T10:38:00.000-09:00

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.

2007-10-28T20:29:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-10-20T11:22:00.000-08:00

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!!

2007-10-14T11:40:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-09-30T13:30:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-09-29T17:39:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-09-21T16:46:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-08-13T19:40:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-08-07T19:40:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-08-04T19:26:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-07-30T14:17:00.000-08:00

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...

2007-07-28T20:15:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-07-27T19:21:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-07-26T21:35:00.001-08:00

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.

2007-07-25T20:27:00.001-08:00

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.

2007-07-25T10:10:00.001-08:00

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.

2007-07-24T23:12:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-07-19T18:16:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-07-18T18:14:00.000-08:00

It all seems so long ago – but yesterday morning we left for McCarthy. We loved the drive on the Glenn Highway and it took us, with all of our photo stops, about five hours to get to to Glennallyn. Such scenery! It was just beautiful. Charlie said he had scenery overload. I had read this great article about the Brown Bear RoadHouse, how great the food was and how special all the hundreds of photos of brown bears were that were hanging on the wall. So we stopped to eat. We walked in and no one was in sight. We just sat down to wait and soon a waitress came out. Tom said, “Hello, how are you.” That waitress just threw the menus down on our table and walked away with a sour face. We laughed a minute or two and then got up and left the Brown Bear RoadHouse and the sour faced waitress. We then went to the Caribou Diner to get some Panther Pizza. Walked in to be seated – told the boy we wanted pizza and he just waved us to the back room where a man was making a pizza. The pizza maker didn’t even look up at us just kept working. Tom finally asked if we could get a pizza. He said “What do you want?” There’s no menu on the wall, no prices, no sign anything. We did eventually end up getting a good pizza – but these people don’t like customers too much.

It gets worse. We stopped at Copper River Inn - but they wanted $159.00 plus 25.00 for the dog. We thought that was a little high. We drove on back out to the highway and saw the Princess Lodge up on the hill. Tom wouldn’t stop there because it costs $179. We drove on down about 20 miles and came to Kenny Lake Inn. There were full but called ahead to the next B & B and we drove to those about 10 miles down the road. We paid and went to our cabin – no water, and two twin beds. Tom got mad and went up to get a different room. They only had one with four bunks and still no water and the shower house closed at 10. Well, it took almost 45 minutes to get the charge removed from the card. It was getting to be around 7pm now and we were tired from driving all day. We kept on driving and finally got to Chitina. Miraculously my phone had worked outside town and I was able to reserve the last room she had in the hotel. $179.00 and no pets. The hotel was an old one that had been restored - or rather was in the process of being restored. It was pretty but the rooms were about as big as a closet. They gave Charlie a blow up mattress and once we had that down there was no standing room. It was hot, the shower was mini and the bed was pretty hard. Charlie spent the evening by the lake reading. Tom spent most of the night checking on Roxy since she had been relegated to the truck for the night. I just took my shower and fell in bed. What an evening!

Early this morning we got on the road to McCarthy to visit Carmen. Sixty miles on a bumpy gravel road – it took us three and a half hours since we had to stop for photo ops and lunch along the was. One out of ten cars get a flat tire. We were so glad to finally get here to see Carmen. They have quite an operation here: his planes and airstrip, a tire repair shop, a bread and breakfast with several cabins, and lots of other stuff. They are building their retirement home on some nearby land and we took a tour of that. Great views of the mountains and glaciers and the house is 5000 sq ft. It is truly grand and they are building it stick by stick themselves. There’s a beautiful barn with skylights - well some of the roof panels are clear so it is just like skylights. Thee barn was bigger than our house. We also got to see Katie’s Place – a parcel of land with a small cabin that Carmen bought from Katie. Carmen then moved the small cabin to a better location on the lot and proceded to redesign and double the size the cabin – it is now a lovely little vacation home by a flowing stream.

Supper at Carmen’s house was no less interesting. Her mom and her brother were there and a woman from France with her son. It was fun to hear her heavy French accent. Supper was lively with everyone talking at once. Turns out the French lady works for a restaurant in Paris three days a week getting in 38 hours. The name of the place is Le Relais de Venise and their specialty is “Son Entrecote” I think that means sirloin steak. So they serve this steak with French Fries and a sauce over the meat. That is all that is on the menu – you get it rare, medium or well done and you have to eat fast cause there’s always a line of folks waiting. The manager goes to great extremes to get the customers seated, served and out so that new customers can come in. This restaurant serves about 700 meals a day, they only have seven waitresses and this girl had been there for twelve years. There’s a similar restaurant in London and Barcelona and instead of giving the recipe for the sauce to those two places – the secret sauce is shipped in by truck or plane. A food writer for the newspaper once published the secret recipe in Paris – but listed all the wrong ingredients and when people tried to make the sauce it turned out awful. So interesting and she was so excited about it all – I never knew waitressing could be such fun.

2007-07-16T18:00:00.000-08:00

Charlie’s plane arrived in Anchorage on time and he saw us before we saw him. His hair is really long and he has facial hair, so he should fit right in up here in Alaska. Of course his baggage had been lost and we had to go report it. No matter. We went promptly went over to the SourDough Mining Company to eat – but there was a huge crowd. We then drove over to Friday’s, but there was a line out the door. We ended up eating at IHop – which was the same restaurant we chose when Elizabeth came to visit.

Their impressions of Alaska will be so different. Liz came in mid winter. It was freezing cold, mounds of snow everywhere, and dark all day. Charlie comes in mid summer, the sun is shining warmly and it is light all the time.

We hit the sack early cause everyone was tired. Charlie used some of Tom’s clothes. In the middle of the night they called to say the luggage had arrived. We picked it up the next morning early and then drove over to Gwennies to eat breakfast. He loved the place and had to try the reindeer sausage. We boxed up the leftover sausage and potatoes to eat for breakfast the next day. Our trip for the day was to visit the MuskOx farm in Palmer and then take a drive up to Hatcher Pass. Charlie loved every minute of it. He especially loved the mountains. I start to take them for granted so it is nice to have fresh faces see them with us. The MuskOx were friendly enough to eat fireweed and dandelions out of the guide’s hands. This particular farm collects the wool from these animals and sends it out to Native Alaskans to knit caps and such and then they sell it. It is actually a nonprofit organization. We then drove up to the Hatcher Pass to see an old gold mining operation that is being reconstructed. Tom and Charlie walked all over it but I took it easy in the visitor’s center. My knee hurts pretty much all the time but it really hurts when I do a lot of walking and we had done a lot of walking at the Muskox Farm. The visitor center was actually the foreman’s home and it had been completely recreated to the original state – very nice. We drove the truck on up to the very top of Hatcher Pass and I just can’t describe how beautiful it was. I think it was so special because we had our Charlie with us and he was having such a good time and was so impressed with the scenery. He said he wanted to live here more than once. (Remember it is summer!)

We made a special effort to get to the SourDough Mining Company to eat supper because Tom and I like the food. I got Clam Chowder soup and clam cakes, Tom got ribs and Charlie got the King Crab. Well we finished before he did and were waiting around for him to finish this huge plateful of crab legs. It was just taking too long – so Tom and I peeled the legs and put the crab meat on a plate for Charlie. It was like a race. We both peeled as fast as we could and all Charlie had to do was eat the meat. We laughed so hard! But at least he finished all those crab legs in a reasonable length of time. Afterwards we walked across the street to show Charlie the World’s Largest Chocolate Fall (like in waterfall). He was impressed.