"VACATION" 2/8-2/18

Ok, first time in a LONG TIME that the family got to go to Fairbanks with me. Christina and Molly had been out in November, but that was the disastrous one-night trip where we ran out of money (forget the bank card) and had to go to the doctors...Gavin and Macy hadn't been to Fairbanks (or anywhere but Venetie) since OCTOBER!!! Of course, I've been in October, November, January, February (and again this weekend)...anyway, the kids (especially Molly) were having a blast just looking out the windows at all the cars. Poor Gavin was begging us to go to McDonald's (puke) but we refused and had to take him to high-class Chili's. I've never been so happy to do our three-hour Wal-Mart shopping. We got a ton of groceries to ship back...the rest of the week was sadly a bit boring, with the wife and kids stuck at the hotel while I was stuck in in-service; they got to watch me play Jeopardy (Venetie lost) but that was about it. Not that it wasn't nice; cable t.v. and baths for the kids every night is pretty damn luxurious for us now (we got to see Bear Gryllis eat some disgusting things and get the shits). I sent Christina out on an "adventure" to get some medical stuff checked out and started to freak out 3 hours later when she was still gone and the doctor's office had already closed; the cab company was like "uh, haven't picked up any Christina's lately" so I was...a little worried...thank God for cell phones, wish I would have had one. She turned up in the cab 3+ hours after leaving for one doctor's appointment, thankfully. The next day while we were trying to get the kids into the car while the cab driver was chain smoking around us, we heard on the C.B. that one of the cabbies got into a wreck...sounded like Christina's woman cab driver from the day before; thank God she didn't get into even a fender-bender, or she never would have gotten into a car as long as she lived! Oh, I got to experience what it was like to drive on roads that were literally sheets of ice with tiny bits of gravel covering about 10% of the ice; it was slow, slow going. Let's see, what else...Christina locked herself out of the hotel room (and the napping kids in it) and the hotel clerk wasn't going to give her a key to get back in b/c she wasn't on the list and didn't have her license (in the hotel room)...she calmly explained that no problem, but the hotel clerk was going to have to take care of the three kids when they woke up in a few minutes (he sent someone to let her back in and they "checked" her license)...I did NOT have to walk anywhere in the cold, although we almost did b/c we waited 45 minutes for a cab (last time I'll do that!) Oh, the things we get to do living in the Bush...

Flying back was interesting. They had a plane going to Fort Yukon and Arctic Village and then a plane going to Fort Yukon and Venetie...only they didn't specify WHICH Fort Yukon people were going on which plane, so when I got on the plane, there was one less seat than supposed to. A few people suggested I just make Macy a lap baby...uh, hell no, Wrights makes me pay $220 round trip for the 3 year old, so dammit if she's not getting a seat; the "guilty" party turned out to be a guy who was supposed to be on the OTHER Fort Yukon flight and he was pissed b/c no one told him (they called the other flight back). Being the last ones on the plane, we were all spread out, Christina flying shot-gun, the kids behind her, and me in the back with the baby...next to our cook, who was shooting brandy to fend off a combination of a hangover and a fear of flying...she got pretty wasted next to me and then freaked out when we landed, all in all an interesting flight. B/C we had our new "puppy" (60 lb German Shepherd/Husky puppy) in the cage behind us, it took forever to get off the plane, which meant that the natives smuggling in the 12 cans of beer in a duffel bag got busted and the beer unceremoniously poured out into the snow; Gavin kept asking why the snow was yellow while sitting in the truck next to the guilty party :-) Moral is, if you're going to smuggle in booze, make sure its worth it (70 proof or more) and keep it on your person at all times (the wasted cook got away with her bottle)...

If I seem to come away with the Bush experience a little differently that Christina or the kids, its probably b/c they have been out of Venetie 2 or 3 times (but the 3rd doesn't really count) between August 5th and May 17th, while I have spent 2 nights in Fort Yukon (a little bigger), along with 2 in-service weeks and four paid-for 3 night week-ends, and the little November escapade; that's almost a month in Fairbanks! Lucky me :-)