February 2, 2021 McGrath

I beat my alarm and woke at 3:45.Being in a different place, in a different time zone, and being up late, I thought could be trouble. I was relieved to have the big suitcase off my mind. And everything went well packing up the few things. I Ubered over to Merrill Field for the flight to McGrath.

The small Alaska Air Transit office was the quintessential Ak Airport. Two other passenger were going home to Nicolai. The man had dislocated his shoulder. The woman had been to the dentist . She said her new tooth did not fit. Just after her appointment, she called the dental office who said to wait until her next appointment in a couple weeks. The receptionist had her ten week old puppy with her. Twice she wisked the pup into her arms exclaiming, “I think she has to poop.”

The plane was a nine seater with a good sized cargo area. Everything except me and my three small bags were going to Nikolai a town of seventy-five people, 190 miles from Anchorage. The pilot said, expect windchill of 55 below zero in McGrath.

We flew over the Alaska range and landed about an hour later in Nikolai. People were lined up with their snow machines pulling sleds behind. All were waiting for the door to open to help unload the cargo.

McGrath thirty miles away, was a 10 minute ride. The pilot wanted to know what I planned to do in McGrath. When I talked about writing, he told me he was a published author. So I’m going to order his book and hope he’s the flying pilot. It’s called Finding Carla the story that changed aviation search and rescue by Ross Nixon.

My new landlord was waiting for me. He gave me a quick tour of town. The cabin is great. Even my order from Full Circle Farms, a CSA in Seattle, had arrived a day early. The surrounding woods draped in snow are gorgeous. Welcome to McGrath.