Frigid Friday

Friday
January 21, 2005
Day Seven

Departed the Yukon in the early morn to find that we were a liter low on the oil... Guess that's to be expected when you are logging some mad miles though. Travel went smoothly, and the Alaskan border began to look more and more impressive. No sun today... Passed through the Canadian customs, which was miles from the border, then arrived to meet our fate with agent Murdock.... Everything was going well, giving him the answers he wanted to hear... He gave us guff for having skis on the car... Then he inquired about the body bag strapped to the top (my snowboard)... "Oh, you got a snowboard in there?, who's the snowboarder?" He questioned. "That'd be me sir," my reply. "You carrying any of that other mandatory snowboarder material with you?" "Excuse me?" "You know, any of that green leafy material, or white powdery, material." I had to hold back my laughter, didn't want to make a scene at the border, so I gave as serious answer as I could. "Sorry, boys but I just had to ask, have a good time in Alaska..." With that over we made our way to Tok, Alaska which is quite possibly one of the coldest places ever...

So when in Tok... We arrive at a gas station and ask about the hostel... "uh, that lady moved away..." "Really...?" On to the visitor center to confirm our reality of the hostel only being open in the summer, which mind you is not on the website, guess we should have called. No harm done, Tok is a hotel laden arena so we were able to find a sweet place, with satellite T.V. And up here Satellite is TNT, Lifetime, The Weather Channel, Discovery Channel, and AMC or something to that effect. But we're here to sleep not to watch T.V. right? Right. Braved out into the cold to walk to the ONE restaurant for dinner, which served you a side of sausage with your vegetarian dinner… just kidding. Probably equivalent to 6+ blocks of walking. In that time frost nip had developed and my brain just commanded me to get inside... Twas cold... Damn Cold, but that's to be expected, and confirms for all of you that thought, "oh, heck you're crazy, heading to Alaska in the winter, that will be so cold..." As of right now, you get the benefit of the doubt, but I have a feeling the Cook Inlet will prevail and the seasonal temp will have the last laugh. Total miles traveled today: 391

May the wind blow at your back and frost not try to nip off your extremities... Make the best of what's around. Learn something new and share it with someone.

Its your world...Capture it.
Vivas