Staying for Free

What do you do when you are trying to save money and travel the world? Well if you are brave and friendly, try CouchSurfing.com. This site connects people that are willing to let you come into their homes to spend the night with people that have the need for an inexpensive place to stay. Of course there is a certain amount of faith and trust involved but what better way to get to know people around the world. I am currently sitting in a young ladies home in Washington D.C., using her internet and getting ready to go to sleep on a very comfortable air mattress. We prearranged a meeting time at the Metro stop near her home and then dropped my gear off in her studio apartment. She invited me to join her and some friends for dinner, so we hopped back on the Metro and out to VA for dinner. Her friends were as nice as she was and very interesting to spend the evening with. It has been a great experience and I look forward to hosting my first guest next month. A little trust never hurts.

Thanks for reading.

The Right Time?

As most of you know leaving my job 18 months ago, while difficult in a few ways, has worked out the way I had hoped. I have seen more of Alaska then most Alaskans and actually know where the Yukon Territory is. I know which roads in Napa Valley are the best for a bike ride and which winery has the friendliest pours. I've taught 4th graders about the short but important history of California and shown them the wonders San Francisco. I have had the opportunity to spend days, instead of hours with my nieces and get to help my sister adjust to one more in the house. This winter I am spending six weeks in Switzerland with the fabulous W's, definitely something I would not have been able to do while working my old career. I love my new life and look forward to taking the next big jump in my career. Can you hear the however coming?

Two things strike me at this point in time. The first, the safety net is gone and second the economy is playing games with my livlihood. Back when I left Cap Bev, I left on great terms, lets face it, they knew that if I could manage it, I would leave that grey window-less office behind to travel the world. Therefore, no bridges were burned and I knew that if the experiment failed I could probably return in some capacity. That is no longer an option. As of the end of the year Cap Bev will be owned by the giant DBI Distributing and my friends, co-workers and bosses scattered to other businesses and industries throughout Sacramento. I send my best wishes to all at Cap Bev, that they find new jobs without too much heartache or financial strain. As for me, I had already arrived to this point knowing that I would never return but now it is so final.

When I made the big decision to leave stability behind, most were very supportive and understanding immediately. For my dad it took a little longer. Of course, he is one of my biggest supporters now but back then I had to do a little convincing. The instability of the travel industry was his biggest worry, it had just recovered from 9/11 afterall, and what would I do if something like that reoccured. My retort was that I had never been in the lower 50% of anything important in my life why would I start now. In other words, if the travel industry was hit hard again, I should be in a position to keep going. The "recession" may put my theory to the test. I am looking to get farther afield in 2009 but that will entail working for new companies. Will they even be hiring? Will people want to bike or hike for a vacation and stay in beautiful places? I am willing to find out but just in case, I hope am right about the 50% and my new safety net is in place.

Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading.

Yeah, Yeah, So It's Been Two Months

Here are the headlines of the last two months:

• Working in Alaska was a great success. It was amazing seeing such untouched beautiful places and meeting adventurous people.
• I did come home 3 weeks early due to getting an unexpected 9 day break before my final tour. Fortunately, my boss agreed to letting me come home early without consequence.
• My early departure gave me the opportunity to work for the company the put on the huge Oracle convention in SF. The money more then made up for the fact that I stood around on 3rd St. monitoring our loading lanes.
• I am back working at Napa Valley Bike Tours for the fall. It was tough getting back on the bike after not riding for 4 months, but I am almost back to par. Right now the schedule is looking a little thin for October, I am crossing my fingers that people still like wine and riding bikes.
• I will also have the chance to work for a friend that is opening a new adventure tour company in Napa.
  
• In mid October I head back to DC to train for leading a tour for middle schoolers during the Inauguration. I am very excited for this opportunity, though I know it will be one of the craziest experiences I have yet to participate in.
• Everyday I look forward to my 6 week trip to Europe to visit the wonderful W's. I will be spending all of December and half of January in Zurich, experiencing a white Christmas and a real winter.
• Last but not least I will spend much of February with my sister and family helping out before and after the birth of baby #3. I will have plenty of time to spoil the girls and get a jump start getting to know the new member of the family.

I do plan on updating more often now that things have slowed down a bit, including backtracking to talk about my experiences in Alaska.

Thanks for reading.

The State of ...Things

I am headed off on another tour tomorrow after 3 days off here in Anchorage. This time I was lucky enough to spend time with a friend from last years time here, so the time passed almost too quickly. JM is spend her week off of the cruise ship here in Anchorage so we explored the town, took a little adventure and had a pajama day in July. We made our way through Anchorage shopping, getting pedicures, sipping a drink or two and eating a nice dinner. The following day we took the Cruise Train to Seward to to check it out. The trip was beautiful, however we had a delay on the tracks, kids playing, so we arrived 3 hours late. The departing cruise ship had to be held up for the passengers on the train. Yesterday, though we had great intentions, we ended up lazing the day away, going so far as getting Chinese food delivered, so we didn't have to even cook. Today, I was back to work and tomorrow off to Denali again. I am excited about this tour, I am partnered with one of my favorite people up here. A great way to start off the home stretch, I only have 5 tours left. That does mean I am looking towards the fall and working in Napa Valley, throwing a baby shower, seeing all of my nieces and nephews, watching some football and getting geared up for the big trip to Europe.

Here are some photos from the train trip to Seward:



















Thanks for reading.

"There are strange things done in the midnight sun..."

That is the first line of the most famous poem, by the Yukon's most famous writer, Robert Service. The poem is "The Cremation of Sam McGee" and it tells the tale of how a stampeder dealt with disposing of his best friend's corpse during the Gold Rush. Robert Service's writing is so descriptive and lyrical that it is hard to believe that he didn't arrive until after the Klondike Gold Rush was over. He is still revered as the voice of the Yukon and much of what he wrote, such as The Spell of the Yukon" stands true today.

However, I used that line for my title to highlight what an odd year we have had up here.

• Tomorrow, we will not take the train from Fairbanks to Denali since part of the route is covered by two feet of water. It has been raining for days up here in an area that is technically a desert. Instead we will board a motor coach. The river that runs through Fairbanks is near capacity and the rain is scheduled to continue. We are all fearing that winter will arrive before summer ever shows itself.
• Other strange happenings along the rail...we departed Anchorage 1.5 hours late one morning due to the dining car for Alaska Railroad breaking down; another day we arrived in Denali from Anchorage an hour late because of a kink in the rail (the southbound train didn't arrive into Anchorage until 11:30, 3.5 hours late, for the same reason).
  
• The cruise ship was 3 hours late arriving into Skagway on Saturday, due to a failed generator that had to be repaired before departing Juneau. The ships are never late.
• We have had one massive outbreak of the Norwalk Virus. Fortunately, I avoided it, though I don't know how, however many tours ended with have the guests they started with due to this terrible stomach virus.
• There is a rumor that the driver guides for the tours into Denali Park may go on strike. That would be disastrous since there is really no other way to go into the park.
  
• There have a been some strange coach accidents, but I think it is bad form to talk about those on the internet.
  
• My Taiwanese guests got stuck in Barrow Alaska for 24 hours.
• Third year Tour Director's have been fired while first years are getting ideal schedules.

I am sure there is more but instead of dwelling on the odd, I will just say that it is still an amazing, beautiful place and I wouldn't trade my time for anything in the would. I leave you with this...

The Spell of the Yukon by: Robert W. Service

I wanted the gold, and I sought it; I scrabbled and mucked like a slave. Was it famine or scurvy-I fought it; I hurled my youth into a grave. I wanted the gold, and I got it- Came out with a fortune last fall- Yet somehow life's not what I thought it, And somehow the gold isn't all. Nol There's the land. (Have you seen it?) It's the cussedest land that I know, From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it To the deep, deathlike valleys below. Some say God was tired when He made it, Some say it's a fine land to shun; Maybe; but there's some as would trade it For no land on earth-and I'm one. You come to get rich (damned good reason); You feel like an exile at first; You hate it like hell for a season, And then you are worse than the worst. It grips you like some kinds of sinning, It twists you from foe to a friend; It seems it's been since the beginning, It seems it will be to the end. I've stood in some mighty-mouthed hollow That's plumb-full of hush to the brim; I've watched the big, husky sun wallow In crimson and gold, and grow dim, Till the moon set the pearly peaks gleaming, And the stars tumbled out, neck and crop, And I've thought that I surely was dreaming, With the peace o' the world piled on top. The summer-no sweeter was ever; T'he sunshiny woods all athrill; The grayling aleap in the river, T'he bighorn asleep on the hill. Tlh strong life that never knows harness; T'he wilds where the caribou call; T'he freshness, the freedom, the faress 0 God! how I'm stuck on it all. The winter! the brightness that blinds you, The white land locked tight as a drum, The cold fear that follows and finds you, Tle silence that bludgeons you dumb. The snows that are older than history, Tle woods where the weird shadows slant; The stillness, the moonlight, the mystery, I've bade 'em good-bye-but I can't. There's a land where the mountains are nameless, And the rivers all run God knows where; There are lives that are erring and aimless, And deaths that just hang by a hair; There are hardships that nobody reckons; There are valleys unpeopled and still, There's a land-oh, it beckons and beckons, And I want to go back-and I will. They're making my money diminish; I'm sick of the taste of champagne. Thank Godl when I'm skinned to a finish I'll pike to the Yukon again. I'll fight-and you bet it's no sham-fight; It's hell!-but I've been there before; And it's better than this by a damsite- So me for the Yukon once more. T'here's gold, and it's haunting and haunting; It's luring me on as of old; Yet it isn't the gold that I'm wanting So much as just finding the gold. It's the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder, It's the forests where silence has lease; It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder, It's the stillness that fills me with peace.

Thanks for reading.

Life on the Road

Sorry to have gone missing. This season has proven wonderfully busy and full of new adventures. However, that has limited not only my time but access to the internet. As an example, I am currently in Dawson City, at the end of a 70 hour week watching it rain from my room that does not have internet access. To use the internet I have to go to the lobby of the hotel, far too accessible to my guests. I am on my fifth tour of the season with a total of 7 days off so far and following this tour I will pick up my next one before I even deliver my current tour members to the cruise ship

While this tour is wonderful, my last one was definitely a challenge. I picked the tour up at the ship in Skagway and in 7 days we traveled all the way to Anchorage. The group was all Taiwanese, most didn’t speak English so they had their own interpreter/tour guide. In theory this should have been very easy for me, I didn’t have to talk much, just convey the logistical information to the interpreter. The big challenge came when, as a group, they flew to Barrow on the Arctic Ocean for the day. Their flight hoe was canceled and at first there weren’t any rooms for the group for the night. With rooms worked out eventually, we found out that they wouldn’t be flying out until 5pm, arriving back in Fairbanks at about 8:30. The plan was then to ride on a coach down to Denali to spend the night and then take the train onto Anchorage then next day. Well that flight out of Barrow was delayed, so they missed the connection back to Fairbanks and didn’t arrive until 1 am. Yes, we still took the coach down to Denali, arriving at 3:45 am. The stress on the interpreter was huge and unfortunately she took it out on me. However, by the end, she apologized and we fondly said good bye to each other. Quite the adventure.

Things are moving fast. As usual my non work thoughts are focused on my winter vacation plans. I will be off to Zurich to visit the W’s for a month or so. While there the plan is to visit various other spots, the first draft list has Paris, Strasbourg, Mallorca and Prague on it. Stay tuned for more details.

Thanks for reading.

The Yukon River

The Yukon River is one of the largest rivers in North America. It begins it's journey a mere 15 miles from the Lynn Canal, which is a fjord off of the Pacific Ocean, and ends 2300 miles later emptying into the Bering Sea. The river drains an area of Canada and Alaska the size of Texas. Even from it's very beginning as it leaves Tagish Lake it is an impressive river. It played a major part in the Klondike Stampede of 1898 and remains a vital method of transportation for much of the unreachable territory of Alaska.

In 1898 as the gold seekers arrived in Skagway and Dyea, they faced the Chilkoot or White Pass trails which, if they made it over, left them at Lake Bennett near the headwaters of the Yukon River. There were then two choices, walk or mush out across the frozen lakes and down the river or wait for break up, which that year didn't occur until mid-May. Those that waited for break up then faced the task of building a boat. Most of the gold seekers had no experience building a boat much less surviving an Alaskan winter. But build them they did and when the ice broke up in May, nearly 7000 boats set sail heading down the Yukon River. The river was dangerous due to rapids which these novice captains had not idea how to traverse. Miles Canyon was the first, just south of Whitehorse the second spot was called Five Finger Rapids near the town of Carmacks. These two spots took many lives and tons of supplies to their depths. Today both spots are tame due to intervention by humans. Miles Canyon is subdued by a damn just beyond it that provides power to the Whitehorse area. Five Fingers now only has three fingersdue to the removal of one of the islands.
The Yukon River is glacially fed so it is not a clear, see to the bottom, body of water. It appears muddy all of the time though it varies depending on the amount of recently deposited silt that is suspended in it. Sometimes it has a beautiful blue green color, as the silt begins settling on the bottom, most of the time though it is the color of a mud puddle. Near Dawson City, it has had little new glacial silt added and it begins to look clear again. Dawson City was the ultimate goal of the men of '98. In '96 gold had been discovered just up the tributaries of the Klondike River, whose confluence with the Yukon happens in Dawson City. After Dawson City, the river slows and takes on the meandering quality the most high volume rivers maintain. It is out here to the west of Dawson City and throughout Alaska, that the Yukon continues to be a major source of transportation. During the winter it is a highway for dog mushers and snow machines but more importantly during the summer it is a freight thoroughfare. Most of the area traversed by the Yukon in Alaska has no roadway access, therefore cities such as Fort Yukon, which I visited last summer depend on planes and the river during the summer for goods. Most items come in by plane however large items like ATV's and snow machines will be transported up river shortly after break up from the port at St. Michael on the Bering Sea. The salmon also use the Yukon on their highway during the spawn. The Yukon is the largest example of the influence and importance rivers have throughout and area of the world where building a highway just isn't profitable nor logistically feasible.

Thanks for reading.