February 1, 2021 To Anchorage

At 3:00 AM, I was smashing and wiping ants into the sink. This was a high population ant morning. The murderous act set the day’s stage. Just a bit behind schedule now. 

This day had been at anticipated for months. The last week of October I called the owner of a cabin I wanted to rent in McGrath. We had been communicating for a couple of weeks, and now I reserved it for the months of February and March. He required no means of securing the rental saying he trusted me. That decision followed with three month of preparation.

I needed winter clothing. They are hard to find in Santa Cruz CA. I like to keep my Amazon purchases to a minimum. I won’t get into the politics of that. Also it’s nice to try things on. I relied on Backpacker magazine’s winter gear guide to determine the warmest gear and did shop online at REI. Seems everyone was warming up in cold-weather gear and I waited for weeks for stores to resupply. By mid January I finally received all my orders.

I put much thought and research into the most efficient and cheapest method of getting what I needed to the cabin. I shipped a tub in early January via USPS. My landlord said it could take three weeks to arrive. Almost everything arrives via the “mail run” a flight from Anchorage to McGrath on either Tuesday or Thursday. I paid $150 to ship my 40 pound tub. It arrived in McGarth in three days well ahead of my arrival. I ❤️ the USPS. Despite my affection and admiration for the postal service, I decided it was cheaper to buy a HUGE suitcase for $50 and take other “needed stuff” as checked luggage. I’m good at stuffing a suitcase.

So by the evening prior to departure, I had the Huge suitcase, my typical carry on suitcase, (that I was checking), and my two carry ons, (my laptop bag, stuffed, and a over the shoulder bag stuffed), and an incidental purse I hoped they wouldn’t notice. I had become the traveler I usually roll my eyes at.

Arriving at the airport a bit late, I was unable to hug or kiss Terry because bags were draped from me, plus I was double masked and face shielded. I pushed my roller behemoth and it’s baby sister up to the counter. No lines. No passengers in sight, an agent helped me lift Mr. Behemoth onto the scale. She declared it was over weight before it was actually weighed. She was right. It weighed 67 lbs, only 50 lbs were allowed. The agent suggested that I redistribute the weight to other bags.

I whined, “that’s seventeen lbs!”

She looked at her watch, “You can make it. You’ve got time. It will cost $100 if you don’t. You can go to the scale right there. Open your bags, weigh the items you wish to distribute. You can do it.”

Later I realized how super she was because 15 minutes later the bag weighed 50 lbs. However, distributing the items amounted to haphazardly stuffing my carry ons. This wasn’t compatible with navigating security efficiently. Where was my iPad? I had to find it and put it in the tray. The conveyer belt to the x-ray machine was halted by my throwing things out of my bags. The pandemic was my friend because it wasn’t busy.

By the time I reached the gate, they were boarding. I flew into Seattle and then on to Anchorage. My PPE which included a shield and double masks, was anxiety producing. Oh to breathe unrestricted! Those who have had to work while wearing PPE deserved so much more respect than I gave them.

There was no chance of sleeping, so I  watched a short Canadian documentary about the reverence the Cree have for their Elders’ ways of knowing. It was simple and slow. That atmosphere spoke to me.  

They believe that everything in nature, even a blade of grass, is a living and breathing spirit. Their ancestors were connected to them in these natural settings. The beauty was in the simplicity.  I fell into its spell. 

This may have something to do with it being on a small screen. I get so intimate with the movie when I’m physically close to it. I remembered when I first got Netflix, I watched everything on my laptop. Sitting at the kitchen table, I connected with the fine movies that they sent me. Many of them were foreign and many of them were documentaries. Films I couldn’t have found in Skagway AK where I was teaching in 2002.

On the flight seated less then a foot from my phone’s screen, I was pleased to ponder this simplistic gem and my idea of being closer to the ground. When you live somewhere with layers of removal from stores and roads and conveniences, you have fewer possessions and more time for the simple joys.

On my arrival to the motel in Anchorage, I was proud to successfully wrestle all my heavy bags up to my room. Unlocking my phone, I found a message from Alaska Air Transit my air carrier to McGrath on Tuesday. I called Collette who informed me that I could not bring more than 50 pounds on the plane, a change in policy. My big suitcase alone with 50 pounds. She directed me to call two other air carriers that might help. I called both and got no answer or call back.

I was pretty well panicked. First order of business was to go to GCI to buy a chip to have phone service in McGrath. After asking what I was doing in Alaska, my Uber driver, who was listening to Mozart, btw, told me he had written a book similar to The Jungle, by Sinclair Lewis. I had read it in high school and it bolstered my vegetarian ideas. I’m sorry I didn’t have time to ask if the book was published.

I made it to GCI. I was told to wait in line outside, a fine idea to freeze to death on my first day. When I mentioned my concern, they let me in and I left with a chip for me to install in my phone when I arrived in McGrath. I hoped that would be as easy as he promised.

After much stewing and consulting with my brother and Terry, I decided to try the post office to mail my suitcase. At 10:00 PM I got an Uber to the post office. Success!