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MUTHUH's ALASKA JOURNAL

Day 01

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OK...so a little rain on the way to the airport isn't a really bad sign, is it? With a good friend and neighbor giving us a ride to the airport, the back of their Expedition loaded with suitcases and carry-on's, we make our way to the airport for the couple-hour flight to Dallas-Ft.Worth. That leg went just fine. A quick train ride from one terminal to the other - a short wait, and we're loaded onto the next plane for the much longer leg to Anchorage. With the skys out west slowly blackening, we're packed shoulder-to-shoulder on the six-seat-wide 757, pushed back from the gate, rolled about 200 yards and stopped....and waited...soon after the engines shut down, the captain came on the intercom, cleared his throat twice and announced that Air Traffic Control has shut down all west and north-bound flights due to the storms in those directions, and that we might ought to get comfortable (yeah, right!) as it may take some time.

By the time they finally re-opened the airport for those of us sitting on the ground waiting, there were 35 flights ahead of us...at 5 minute intervals.....as the captain said over the intercom, "you do the math!" Well....we weren't happy campers...a potential 3 hour wait just to get off the ground to start an 8 hour flight! Of course American Airlines recognized a serious problem with a couple hundred already-tired passengers and offered us all free headphones to watch some movies instead of the typical $5 fee.... sheeeesh!

Well, I think they either opened a couple other runways or lessened the interval period because we only spent an hour and a half on the ground. Thats the beginning of our trip...not a great start, and the next 8 hours in-flight were tedious as hell, but it began getting unusual even before we landed, as by the time we got to Anchorage, we were over two hours late, arriving at 11:30pm...with the sun still 20 degrees up over the horizon. Hoping the car rental agency would have realized the late flight problem, I hustled through the terminal to find the Payless car rental airport desk staffed with two cute native ladies in their prim blue blazers, eager to take my credit card and hustle me into a midnight blue Mini-van...things are looking up!

Leaving my wife and kids at the baggage carousel, I get a ride to the remote lot to pick up the Van, drive it around to the pick-up level of the airport, find that all the bags arrived in one piece, all fit in the back of the van and I pulled out my new Father's Day gift (a little early but much appreciated!) - a new Garmin GPSIII+ (Global Positioning System hand-held position locator). Velcro'd to the dash of the rental van, satelites acquired in 30 seconds and the location, heading and distance to the motel already laid in and plotted in advance....working perfectly and pointing us to our first night's sleep in Alaska...in near bright sunshine.

No pictures from todays leg of the trip...but I did put up a title graphic that I took the next day on our approach to Mount McKinley...still 80 miles away!...see ya tomorrow!


 

 
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Muthuh@Muthuh.com