Barrow

- To Barrow on Wein Air Alaska. We were wondering if the baby's birth certificate was going to say "Born on a Wein B-737 somewhere between Fairbanks and Barrow..."
- Got to ride in the cockpit jumpseat to Barrow. Having done virtually all of my flying in the congested northeast corridor of the US, I was quite impressed with the ATC clearance: "Cleared to cruise, Flight Level 310". (This meant that all airspace between us and the destination airport 100 miles ahead was clear of any instrument traffic, and we were cleared to descend and do any approach.)

Impressions:
- Definitely the most unusual place in the US that we'd ever experienced. Mud everywhere, gravel roads. Snow piled up, even in mid-June. Watched the sun pass through the north sky at midnight for the first time.
- At 2 am, while sleeping in a room with the windows covered in aluminum foil, we heard a gunshot close-by and then "He's dead! He's dead!..." We found out later that a dog was the victim. Although a 'dry' town [in theory...], there was a distinct feel of "the Wild West".
- Most houses were built from container ship packing crate wood. Most 'toilets' consisted of 'honey buckets' that were tossed out the back doors. Mud everywhere.
- A gallon of milk was $7, a small turkey: $38; tap water cost 7 cents per gallon.
- A small dish of ice cream was $1.00, a huge cone was just 50 cents. Why? "It costs money to wash the dish..."
- Walked on the 'beach' along the Arctic Ocean - still ice encrusted.
- The Mexican restaurant "Tacos on the Tundra" with its genuine Mexican tile and lively music was a welcome oasis.
- Later, while reading "Going to Extremes", I nodded my head in agreement the entire time in the chapter about Barrow.
- Otherwise, indescribable. Except: Mud everywhere.

1993-1995

- Numerous trips to Anchorage as First Officer on the MD-11.
- Fell in love with the spectacular scenery on descents and climb outs east of Anchorage over the Chugach mountains and further east over the Prince William Sound and the Wrangell St. Elias National Park & Preserve. The huge glaciers and ice fields seem to extend forever, and will consume any amount of film that you might have.
- Received some float flying recurrency dual out of Lake Hood, taildragger recurrency and dual on mountain / bush / rough field flying while on layovers.
- Early September brings the most spectacular change of color - the birch trees turn a beautiful yellow, combined with the spruce evergreens and snow settling on the higher elevations, there is a wonderful mixture of color. My vote is that mid September is the most picturesque in Anchorage.
- Renting a bicycle and enjoying the numerous city bike trails became a pleasant routine.
- As winter settled in, I found the scenery and multi-pink colors during twilight on the snow-covered mountains just beautiful. Even during the days of longer darkness, the additional brightness from reflections off of the snow made everything cheerier than I'd envisioned.
- Bringing winter hiking gear, I'd enjoy walking several miles a day in the snow. Merrill field with it's innumerable taildraggers was a favorite destination.
- Displays of the Northern Lights lasted for hours on the night flights to and from Anchorage.
- On many occasions they were either overhead or even south of our position. It was pretty neat flying on a northwest heading, seeing them in the distance, then an hour or two later being under them for an hour or two, then seeing them "move" to the south as we flew further north and west, shimmering and slowly changing shapes and colors the entire time. Over northwestern Canada, with no lights of civilization below to obscure the intensity, it was almost a religious experience.

First Light Airplane Trip Planned
Spring, 1995

- We'd planned to take the family from Tennessee to Alaska in our Twin Comanche June of 1995, but a tornado severely damaged it in May, 1995, just weeks before our trip, dashing those plans.
- The four of us took the airlines instead. (Linda says that I pouted most of the way.)
- We flew in a rented C-172 east of Anchorage over the Chugach Mountains, the Eagle and Knik glaciers, enjoying the tremendous views not visible from Anchorage or an airliner's windows.
- The kids having to get out of the pool and get ready for bed "ALREADY Dad?" at 11 PM, (when it appeared like late afternoon) still gets talked about now that the boys are older.
- On July 4th, Tim, at age 13, caught a 43-pound King Salmon (bigger than his little brother!) which decorates our living room wall today.
- We had intended to watch the fireworks display at 2 AM (at darkest twilight), but dad fell asleep without setting an alarm - and has been reminded about that every year since.

2000

- Another visit to Anchorage via the airlines. Rented a C-172 again and flew the Tokositna Glacier up the south side of Mt. McKinley, through the Don Sheldon Amphitheater and Great Gorge and down the Ruth Glacier. A spectacular flight, although the 12,000 foot overcast prevented seeing the upper half of the mountain that day.
- A brief stop at Talkeetna let us mingle with the bustling activity of climbers and wheel-ski plane pilots flying to and from The Mountain.
- The skies cleared the day of the Phillips 26 Glacier Tour - on the most spotless catamaran you'll ever see. Another film-gobbling, words-can't-describe-it experience of pulling right up to aqua-blue glaciers and watching / hearing / feeling them calving into Prince William Sound.

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