Another Work Trip

Another trip to Red Dog Mine to check up on the equipment that we installed presented quite a different season than the one we left it in. It was now winter, and lucky for my sometimes touristy nature, the Western Artic Caribou herd was migrating through Cape Krusenstern National Monument. This wasn't the ideal situation for our driver, who wanted to get to dinner on time rather than wait for caribou to cross the road, and it probably didn't help that I was taking pictures from the back seat,

but fortunately there was a small gap in the action after only a couple of minutes, so none of us went hungry.

Everything at our field site was quiet and calm. All ships have to be south of Bering Strait before November 1st due to sea ice, so this place really slows down in the winter time.

Just a day or two before we got there, a big storm threw chunks of ice up onto the beach, which made for some pretty trecherous beach combing. Glad I missed that one!

Oh yeah, we did some work too, but soon enough it was time to head back home. On the return flight, we were afforded excellent views of Denali and Mt. Foraker from the west-southwest, which was a new angle for me.

Playing With the Queen of Hearts

Sometimes, there's not a whole lot that goes on in an Alaskan town when the temperatures start to drop, the amount of daylight begins to dwindle, and everyone waits for more snow to fall, so you can imagine my excitement when I read in the newspaper on Friday that Juice Newton was going to be giving a concert in Fairbanks on Monday night. Juice Newton! She is one of my all-time favorites, so I knew I had to go.

Juice was only one of the acts that night. Gary Puckett (yes, of Gary Puckett and the Union Gap) was also playing. It was a fund raiser for the Fraternal Order of Alaska State Troopers. Playing in the local hockey arena, the crowd was a little sparse. Poor advertising? I don't know, but the fact that I didn't find out about it until three days before makes me think...yes. At any rate, showing up ten minutes before the show was plenty of time for my friend Ellen (who was lucky enough to be in town from Delta Junction) and me to find seats in the fifth row. We could have even sat in the second row, but that seemed awfully close.

Juice was great! Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but oh well. Playing acoustic with a couple of fellow band members, Juice had a great sense of humor, could still carry a tune, and just generally rocked the house. Highly entertaining! I even got her autograph between bands:


When Gary Puckett took the stage, I realized why Ellen and I were pretty much the youngest people in the crowd. Let's see...how do I put this. I guess I'll just say that I don't think I really appreciate music from the late 60s and felt that I needed to leave a little early. Maybe I would have liked him more if I was in a lounge in Las Vegas, and he was opening for Wayne Newton or something. Who knows?

First Snow

Well, it isn't the greatest picture, but it proves the title of this entry. It's winter.

Back to Red Dog

We returned to Red Dog Mine to set up our field equipment, which will monitor the waves offshore until the ice moves in. Knowing that it was late September, I was a little nervous about how cold it would be, but it was about the same weather as in Fairbanks. Actually the weather at Red Dog was gorgeous, with clear skies and no wind. We couldn’t have asked for anything better.

Here a picture of me (white hard hat, looking like Cousin It) and Oceana running cable down a trench.


Getting there on a Monday and leaving on Wednesday was just the right amount of time to get all of our work done and do a few extra equipment tests to boot. If only every installation would go so smoothly. No wait, then we might be out of a job, but anyway…


It was nice to work in the sunshine and to have a chance at seeing the green flash at sunset over the Chukchi Sea.


We didn’t see the flash, but our surroundings were certainly beautiful enough to give us plenty of other sights to enjoy.


Some caribou ran across the tundra during our drive back to the airstrip. No pictures of those, but the plane coming to pick us up was a great sight as well. It was only three days, but it’s always nice to return home.

It's All Downhill From Here

I went out to my car this morning, same as every morning, and, same as every cold morning lately, the windshield was covered in a heavy dew. One flick of the windshield wipers. Nothing happened. The dew stayed, and all I heard was a dull scraping sound. Another flick of the windshield wipers, and the exact same scene replayed itself. Could it be?...Was my fear becoming reality?...No...Surely not. However, sure enough. The windshield was covered in frost for the first time this season. Luckily I'm lazy enough that my ice scraper was still in the trunk from last spring. I guess it's time to move it to the back seat. It's all downhill from here.